Beam management

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to beam management In an aspect, a terminal device determines that an event for triggering a beam reporting occurs. In the case that a timer is running at occurrence of the event, the terminal device determines whether a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event. A previous beam report was transmitted to a network device at occurrence of the previous event. If the status is not changed with respect to the previous status, the terminal device skips the beam reporting. If the status is changed with respect to the previous status, the terminal device initiates the beam reporting to the network device. In this way, the overhead for beam reporting may be reduced.

Description

BEAM MANAGEMENTCROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application claims priority to, and the benefit of, India Provisional Application No. 202441060523, August 9, 2024, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.FIELD

[0002] Various example embodiments relate to the field of telecommunication and in particular, to a terminal device, a network device, methods, apparatuses and a computer readable medium for beam management.BACKGROUND

[0003] A communication network can be seen as a facility that enables communications between two or more communication devices, or provides communication devices access to a data network. A mobile or wireless communication network is one example of a communication network.

[0004] Such communication networks operate in accordance with standards, such as those promulgated by 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) or ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). Examples of such standards include the so-called 5G (5th Generation) standard or other standards promulgated by 3GPP.SUMMARY

[0005] In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution for beam management.

[0006] In a first aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device comprises at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions. When executed by the at least one processor, the instructions cause the terminal device at least to: determine that an event for triggering a beam reporting occurs; and in the case that a timer is running at occurrence of the event, determine whether a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event, wherein a previous beam report was transmitted to a network device at occurrence of the previous event; based on determining that the status is not changed with respect to the previous status, skip the beam reporting; and based on determining that the status is changed with respect to the previous status, initiate the beam reporting to the network device.

[0007] In a second aspect, there is provided a network device. The network device comprises at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions. When executed by the at least one processor, the instructions cause the network device at least to: receive, from a terminal device, an indication of a beam reporting initiated by the terminal device; determine occurrence of an event triggering the beam reporting; and in the case that a timer is running when the indication of the beam reporting is received, determine thata status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event, wherein a previous beam report was received from the terminal device at occurrence of the previous event.

[0008] In a third aspect, there is provided a method performed by a terminal device. The method comprises: determining that an event for triggering a beam reporting occurs; and in the case that a timer is running at occurrence of the event, determining whether a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event, wherein a previous beam report was transmitted to a network device at occurrence of the previous event; based on determining that the status is not changed with respect to the previous status, skipping the beam reporting; and based on determining that the status is changed with respect to the previous status, initiating the beam reporting to the network device.

[0009] In a fourth aspect, there is provided a method performed by a network device. The method comprises: receiving, from a terminal device, an indication of a beam reporting initiated by the terminal device; determining occurrence of an event triggering the beam reporting; and in the case that a timer is running when the indication of the beam reporting is received, determining that a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event, wherein a previous beam report was received from the terminal device at occurrence of the previous event.

[0010] In a fifth aspect, there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus comprises means for determining that an event for triggering a beam reporting occurs; means for determining whether a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event, in the case that a timer is running at occurrence of the event, wherein a previous beam report was transmitted to a network device at occurrence of the previous event; means for skipping the beam reporting based on determining that the status is not changed with respect to the previous status; and means for initiating the beam reporting to the network device based on determining that the status is changed with respect to the previous status.

[0011] In a sixth aspect, there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a terminal device, an indication of a beam reporting initiated by the terminal device; means for determining occurrence of an event triggering the beam reporting; and means for determining that a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event in the case that a timer is running when the indication of the beam reporting is received, wherein a previous beam report was received from the terminal device at occurrence of the previous event.

[0012] In a seventh aspect, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to any one of the above third to fourth aspects.

[0013] In an eighth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising program instructions for performing at least the method according to any one of the above third to fourth aspects.

[0014] In a ninth aspect, there is provided a computer program comprising instructions, which, whenexecuted by an apparatus, cause the apparatus at least to perform at least the method according to any one of the above third to fourth aspects.

[0015] In a tenth aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device comprises: determining circuitry configured to determine that an event for triggering a beam reporting occurs; determining circuitry configured to determine whether a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event, in the case that a timer is running at occurrence of the event, wherein a previous beam report was transmitted to a network device at occurrence of the previous event; skipping circuitry configured to skip the beam reporting based on determining that the status is not changed with respect to the previous status; and initiating circuitry configured to initiate the beam reporting to the network device based on determining that the status is changed with respect to the previous status.

[0016] In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a network device. The network device comprises: receiving circuitry configured to receive, from a terminal device, an indication of a beam reporting initiated by the terminal device; determining circuitry configured to determine occurrence of an event triggering the beam reporting; and determining circuitry configured to determine that a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event in the case that a timer is running when the indication of the beam reporting is received, wherein a previous beam report was received from the terminal device at occurrence of the previous event.

[0017] It is to be understood that the summary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0019] Fig. 1A illustrates an example communication system in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

[0020] Fig. 1 B illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a scenario of beam quality monitoring by the UE;

[0021] Fig. 1 C illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a beam management procedure;

[0022] Fig. 1 D illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating consecutive UE-initiated beam management (UEIBM) reports in related solutions;

[0023] Fig. 2 illustrates an example signaling chart of an example process according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0024] Fig. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a flow of the UE behavior according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0025] Fig. 4A illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a first example of UEIBM reports based on aprohibit timer according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0026] Fig. 4B illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a second example of UEIBM reports based on a prohibit timer according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0027] Fig. 4C illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a third example of UEIBM reports based on a prohibit timer according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0028] Figs. 5A and 5B illustrate schematic diagrams illustrating different scenarios of a prohibit timer prediction according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0029] Fig. 6 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a method implemented at a terminal device according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0030] Fig. 7 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a method implemented at a network device according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0031] Fig. 8 illustrates a simplified block diagram of an apparatus that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0032] Fig. 9 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0033] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] Principles of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

[0035] In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

[0036] References in the present disclosure to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

[0037] It shall be understood that although the terms “first” and “second” etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are onlyused to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and / or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.

[0038] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “has”, “having”, “includes” and / or “including”, when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and / or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and / or combinations thereof. As used herein, “at least one of the following: ” and “at least one of ” and similar wording, where the list of two or more elements are joined by “and” or “or”, mean at least any one of the elements, or at least any two or more of the elements, or at least all the elements.

[0039] As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following:(a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and / or digital circuitry) and(b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable):(i) a combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuit(s) with software / firmware and(ii) any portions of hardware processor(s) with software (including digital signal processor(s)), software, and memory(ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and(c) hardware circuit(s) and or processor(s), such as a microprocessor(s) or a portion of a microprocessor(s), that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

[0040] This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and / or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

[0041] As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Narrow Band Internet of Things(NB-loT) and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the first generation (1 G), the second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G), the fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G), the future sixth generation (6G) communication protocols, and / or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.

[0042] As used herein, the term “network device” refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP), for example, a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), a NR NB (also referred to as a gNB), a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), a radio header (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology.

[0043] The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. By way of example rather than limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE), a Subscriber Station (SS), a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS), or an Access Terminal (AT). The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, a tablet, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, vehiclemounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE), an Internet of Things (loT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery), an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and / or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and / or an automated processing chain contexts), a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, and the like. In the following description, the terms “terminal device”, “communication device”, “terminal”, “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

[0044] Principles and embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Reference is first made to Fig. 1A, which illustrates an example communication system 100 in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. The system 100 includes a terminal device 110 and a network device 120. The terminal device 110 is capable of connecting and communicating in an UL or DL with the network device 120 as long as the terminal device110 is located within the corresponding cells of the network device 120. In communication systems, an UL refers to a link in a direction from a terminal device 110 to a network device 120, and a DL refers to a link in a direction from the network device 120 to the terminal device 110. The network device 120 may transmit scheduling information scheduling an uplink transmission to the terminal device 110, and the terminal device 110 may transmit a uplink transmission or a plurality of repetitions of the uplink transmission to the network device 120.

[0045] Communications in the communication system 100 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol(s), comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1 G), the second generation (2G), the third generation (3G), the fourth generation (4G), the fifth generation (5G) and the sixth generation (6G) and on the like, wireless local network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and / or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), Time Division Duplex (TDD), Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM), Discrete Fourier Transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) and / or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.

[0046] It is to be understood that the numbers of devices (i.e., the terminal device 110 and the network device 120) and their connection relationships and types shown in Fig. 1A are only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitation. For example, the communication system 100 may include any suitable numbers of devices adapted for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, while Fig. 1A depicts the terminal device 110 as a mobile phone, the terminal device 110 may be any type of user equipment.

[0047] Some embodiments may relate to beam management, and in particular UE-initiated beam management related procedures. From Release-15 of 3GPP 5G NR, the beam management has been specified in three procedures controlled by network: Procedure#! (P1), Procedure#2 (P2) and Procedure#3 (P3), as described in 3GPP TS 38.214 Section 5.1.5 (TCI and QCL framework) and Section 5.1.6 (CSI-RS reception procedures) and illustrated in Fig. 1 C. Furthermore, P1 , P2 and P3 were specified according to 3GPP Release-15 study item (SI) of 5G NR TR 38.802. The following beam management procedures are supported within one or multiple TRPs of the serving cell.

[0048] P1 : is used to enable UE measurement on different TRP Tx beams to support selection of TRP Tx beams / UE Rx beam(s). For beamforming at a TRP, the procedure typically includes an intra / inter-TRP Tx beam sweep from a set of different beams. For beamforming at UE, the procedure typically includes a UE Rx beam sweep from a set of different beams. The UE may scan its antennas / panels sequentially for each synchronization signal (SS) burst and average over e.g. three samples.

[0049] P2: is used to enable UE measurement on different TRP Tx beams to possibly change i nter / i ntra- TRP Tx beam(s). From a possibly smaller set of beams for beam refinement than in P1. It should be note that P2 may be a special case of P1 . P2 may use narrower CSI beams compared to SSB beams.

[0050] P3: is used to enable UE measurement on the same TRP Tx beam to change UE Rx beam in the case UE uses beamforming (e.g. mmW arrays on UEs for FR2 operation). P3 may use aperiodic CSI-RS with ‘repetition’ flag ‘on’ which means that the same beam is repeated from network side to enable UE to refine its Rx beam.

[0051] Release-15 to Release-18 has specified periodic, semi-persistent and aperiodic CSI reporting. In 3GPP TS 38.214, CSI-ResourceConfig specifies what type of reference signal (nzp-CSI-RS-SSB, csi-IM- Resource) is to be transmitted. CSI-ResourceConfig also configures the types of the transmission (periodic, aperiodic, semipersistent). The parameter reportConfigType indicates the scheduling method of the report. It can be periodic, aperiodic and semi-persistent

[0052] Release-17 has introduced the “unified” TCI framework, meaning that TCI states providing quasicolocation (QCL) assumptions for the reception of DL signals and channels can also be used to provide spatial sources for the transmission of UL signals and channels to determine UL TX spatial filter. Furthermore, the unified TCI framework defines the concept of indicated TCI state. That means that one or multiple (in case of multi-TRP for instance) of the configured TCI states is / are indicated TCI state(s) at a time. The indicated TCI state can be joint DL and UL TCI state or separate DL and separate UL TCI states. Release-17 introduced the unified TCI framework for s-TRP, with one indicated joint DL and UL TCI state at a time OR one indicated DL and one indicate UL TCI state at a time for the UE. Release-18 then extended the unified TCI framework for m-TRP, with two indicated joint TCI states at a time OR two indicated DL and two indicated UL TCI states at a time for the UE.

[0053] In the scope of Release-19, some use cases where UE could benefit from initiating the beam management (UEIBM) reporting are being identified (e.g., to facilitate beam switch). The UE-initiated TCI- state / beam reporting feature refers to the case where the UE may be configured with at least one event / condition, and then the UE may start TCI -state beam reporting if this at least one event / condition occurs or is satisfied.

[0054] In the context of which event(s) may trigger a UEIBM report, i.e., the triggering event(s), the following has been proposed:

[0055] Event-2, where the quality of at least one new beam, such as L1-RSRP, becomes a “thresholc value” better than the current beam, has been proposed as an event that can trigger a UEIBM report. For example, the network may configure the UE with a certain threshold, for example 6 dB, and when the UE measures a new beam to have a L1-RSRP which is 6 dB better than the L1-RSRP of the current beam, then a UEIBM report is triggered. Besides Event-2, some other events are currently under discussion, like Event- 1 , Event-7a and Event-7b.

[0056] In the context of what to report, i.e. , the UL signal content of the UEIBM report with Event-2 with L1-RSRP as quality metric, the following has been proposed:

[0057] Option-3 has up to now been proposed, where the UE reports N beams, for example the top beams, with N>1 configured by the network via RRC, and at least one of those N beams satisfies Event-2. Note that some other options are still under discussion, in particular Option 1, where the network configures the maximum number of beams Nmax that can be reported by the UE, and then the UE reports N< Nmax beams.

[0058] In the context of how these reports are sent back by the UE to the network, i.e., UEIBM report procedures, the following has been proposed:

[0059] Two procedures for actually sending back the report have been proposed: Mode A, where the second UL channel for the UEIBM report is dynamically scheduled by the gNB; and Mode B, where the second UL channel for the UEIBM report is pre-configured by the gNB.

[0060] In Mode A, the following steps are implemented: (1) the UE transmits in a first PUCCH channel an UL indication to request to the gNB resources in a second UL channel to carry the UEIBM report; (2) the gNB indicates via DCI to the UE a resource in a second UL channel to carry the UEIBM report; (3) the UE transmits the UEIBM report on the second UL channel. In Mode B, the following steps are implemented: (1) the UEtransmits in a first PUCCH channel an UL indication to notify to the gNB that a UEIBM report will be transmitted in a second UL channel; (2) UE transmits the UEIBM report on the second UL channel. Mode A is the baseline and is going to be supported by all UEs capable of UEIBM. Mode B is optional and may be supported only by some UEs.

[0061] In the context of how to determine the triggering event, i.e. , filtering and windowing, the following has been proposed for Event-2:

[0062] The proposal above regarding filtering and windowing introduces the possibility to configure a time window by the network for the UE, such that the UE-initiated report (either with Mode A or Mode B) is triggered only when at least M Event-2 instances take place within such configured time window. Such enhancement allows avoiding ping-pong effects, i.e., it makes sure that when a new beam is reported to be a threshold value better than the current beam, such condition is rather robust, and not caused by a small scale fading fluctuation of the channel.

[0063] Fig. 1 B illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a scenario of beam quality monitoring by the UE. The beam quality monitoring may involve the terminal device 110 and the network device 120 in FIG. 1A. The terminal device 110 may be implemented as a UE and the network device 120 may be implemented as a gNB. The UE may monitor the beam quality of the current beam and a set of candidate beams and initiate the UEIBM reporting based on the beam quality of the current beam and the set of candidate beams. For example, the UE configured with Event-2 with 3 dB threshold and a prohibit timer with 2 dB hysteresis is served on TCI#1 as current beam and monitors TCI#2 as a candidate new beam.

[0064] In related solutions, when the UE transmits a UEIBM report to the gNB triggered by an event, e.g., Event-2, in case the gNB does not do any beam switching after the UEIBM report sent by the UE, it may happen that the event / beam quality status triggering the same UEIBM report may persist over a period of time (the same Event-2, i.e., for same new beam(s) and for same beam quality status, e.g., same RSRP value(s) of the new beam(s) and of the current beam, keep repeating over time). In the related solutions (even considering the enhancement where multiple Event-2 instances within a time window need to take place to trigger a UEIBM report), this causes the transmission of multiple consecutive UEIBM reports withthe same content, i.e., same top-N beams with similar RSRP values, which bring no additional information to the network and just cause additional overheads.

[0065] Fig. 1 D illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating consecutive UE-initiated beam management (UEIBM) reports in the scenario in Fig. 1 B in related solutions. In the scenario in Fig. 1 B, the UE configured with Event-2 with 3 dB threshold and a prohibit timer with 2 dB hysteresis is served on TCI#1 as current beam and monitors TCI#2 as candidate new beam. When Event-2 is initially triggered, for example if the RSRP of the new beam is -85 dBm and the RSRP of the current beam is -90 dBm, the UE transmits a UEIBM report. Assuming the gNB does not perform any beam switching based on the UEIBM report, Event-2 is triggered in three more occasions, but on every occasion with the same RSRP values (-85 dBm for the candidate new beam and -90 dBm for the current beam). In related solutions, as shown in Fig. 1 D, on all the four occasions where Event-2 is triggered, the UE transmits the UEIBM reports with the same content, which bring no additional information to the network and just cause additional overheads.

[0066] Some example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to beam management. Especially, a method for UEIBM procedures with a prohibit timer is proposed to allow the UE to skip beam reporting for the same event status within the prohibit timer. When an event for triggering a beam reporting occurs, the UE may determine whether a timer is running at occurrence of the event. If a timer is running at occurrence of the event, the UE may determine whether a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event. A previous beam report was transmitted to a network device at occurrence of the previous event. If the status associated with the event is not changed with respect to the previous status associated with a previous event, the UE skips the beam reporting. If the status associated with the event is changed with respect to the previous status associated with a previous event, the UE initiates the beam reporting to the network device. In this way, the overhead for beam reporting may be reduced and the communication latency may be decreased.

[0067] Fig. 2 illustrates an example signaling chart illustrating an example process 200 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the example 200 will be described with reference to Fig. 1A, and the process 200 may involve the terminal device 110 and the network device 120 as shown in Fig. 1A. It would be appreciated that although the process 200 has been described in the communication system 100 of Fig. 1A, this process may be likewise applied to other communication scenarios.

[0068] As shown in Fig. 2, the terminal device 110 determines (202) that an event for triggering a beam reporting occurs and determines (204) whether a timer is running at occurrence of the event. If a timer is running at occurrence of the event, the terminal device 110 then determines (206) whether a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event. A previous beam report was transmitted to a network device 120 at occurrence of the previous event. If the status is not changed with respect to the previous status, the terminal device 110 skips (208) the beamreporting. If the status is changed with respect to the previous status, the terminal device 110 initiates the beam reporting to the network device 120. For example, the terminal device 110 transmits (210) an indication 212 of a beam reporting to the network device 120. The network device 120 receives (214) the indication 212 of the beam reporting initiated by the terminal device 110, and thereby determines (216) occurrence of an event triggering the beam reporting. The network device 120 determines (218) whether a timer is running when the indication 212 of the beam reporting is received. If a timer is running when the indication 212 of the beam reporting is received, the network device 120 determines (220) that a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event. The network device 120 received a previous beam report from the terminal device 110 at occurrence of the previous event. In this way, a timer is introduced for a UE configured with UEIBM. The timer may be referred to as “prohibit timer” or other terminologies. The prohibit timer starts when a UEIBM report is sent by the UE, such that the UE is not allowed to send a UEIBM report before the prohibit timer has expired when the status of an event (e.g., Event-2, Event-1 , Event-7a, Event-7b, etc.) that triggered the last sent UEIBM report has not changed.

[0069] As used herein, the term “event status” may refer to a beam quality level of beams at occurrence of the event or when a condition for beam reporting is fulfilled. The terms “event status” “status” “beam status” “condition status” and other terms referring to the same or similar meaning may be used interchangeably. It should be understood that the event for triggering a beam reporting is not limited to Event-2, Event-1 , Event-7a, Event-7b as mentioned above. Other events are also possible.

[0070] In some embodiments, the status and the previous status may be associated with a current beam. The current beam is a same beam in the event and the previous event. In other words, there may be no beam switching after the previous beam report was transmitted to the network device 120 and the current beam is not changed. Both the status and the previous status are associated with the same current beam. Alternatively or additionally, the status and the previous status may be associated with a first beam associated with occurrence of the previous event. For example, the occurrence of the previous event may be triggered by the first beam. In a specific example, the beam quality of the first beam was a threshold better than the beam quality of the current beam at that time, triggering the occurrence of the previous event. The terminal device 110 may keep monitoring the beam quality of the first beam and determine the status associated with the first beam. Alternatively or additionally, the current event status and the previous event status may be associated with a second beam different from the current beam and the first beam. In some examples, the occurrence of the current event may be triggered by a second beam which is a different beam from the current beam and the first beam which triggered the occurrence of the previous event. In some further examples, the second beam may be one of the top-N best beams for beam reporting in the current event. In some other examples, the second beam may be one of the top-N best beams for beam reporting in the previous event. The terminal device 110 may determine whether to initiate a beam reporting during the timerbased on a comparison of a current event status and a previous event status associated with a previous beam report.

[0071] In some embodiments, information of the second beam may be included in the previous beam report. For example, the previous beam report may contain information of top-N best beams including the first beam which triggered the occurrence of the previous event and a second beam irrelevant to the occurrence of the previous event.

[0072] In some embodiments, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status if a measured beam quality of the current beam in the event is out of a first hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the current beam in the previous event. The current beam in the event is a same beam as the current beam in the previous event. That is, there may be no beam switching after the previous beam report was transmitted to the network device 120 and the current beam is not changed. In other words, the first hysteresis may be compared with a beam quality change of the current beam from the previous event to the current event so as to determine an event status change. The first hysteresis may be zero or defines a range with respect to the reference (e.g., the corresponding beam quality in the previous event). The first hysteresis may be predefined or may be configured by the network device 120.

[0073] Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status if a measured beam quality of the first beam in the event is out of a second hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the first beam in the previous event. In other words, the second hysteresis may be compared with a beam quality change of the beam, which triggered the occurrence of the previous event, from the previous event to the current event so as to determine an event status change. The second hysteresis may be zero or defines a range with respect to the reference (e.g., the corresponding beam quality in the previous event). The second hysteresis may be predefined or may be configured by the network device 120.

[0074] Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status if a measured beam quality of the second beam in the event is out of a third hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the second beam in the previous event. In other words, the third hysteresis may be compared with a beam quality change of other configured beams from the previous event to the current event so as to determine an event status change. These configured beams may be different from the current beam and the beam which triggered the occurrence of the previous event. The third hysteresis may be zero or defines a range with respect to the reference (e.g., the corresponding beam quality in the previous event). The third hysteresis may be predefined or may be configured by the network device120. In some examples, the occurrence of the current event may be triggered by a second beam which is a different beam from the current beam and the first beam which triggered the occurrence of the previous event. In some further examples, the second beam may be one of the top-N best beams for beam reporting in the current event. In some other examples, the second beam may be one of the top-N best beams for beam reporting in the previous event.

[0075] Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status if a difference between a measured beam quality of the first beam and a measured beam quality of the current beam in the event is out of a fourth hysteresis with respect to a difference between a measured beam quality of the first beam and a measured beam quality of the current beam in the previous event. In other words, the fourth hysteresis may be compared with a change of the beam quality difference between the current beam and the beam, which triggered the occurrence of the previous event, from the previous event to the current event so as to determine an event status change. The fourth hysteresis may be zero or defines a range with respect to the reference (e.g., the corresponding beam quality in the previous event). The fourth hysteresis may be predefined or may be configured by the network device 120.

[0076] Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status if the second beam is associated with occurrence of the event. In other words, the terminal device may determine an event status change if the candidate beam(s) triggering the occurrence of the event changes. For example, if a candidate beam which triggers the occurrence of the event did not trigger the occurrence of the previous event, then the terminal device may determine an event status change and initiate a beam reporting even if the prohibit timer is running. The beam quality of this candidate beam may be reported or may be not reported in the previous beam report.

[0077] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine at least one of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis based on a hysteresis configuration received from the network device 120. Alternatively, the terminal device 110 may determine at least one of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis based on a predefinition. In some embodiments, at least two of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis may be used. The hysteresis values may be equal or may be different.

[0078] In a more specific example, the event status may relate to L1-RSRP (or L1-SINR or other metric) of all current and new beams, and the event status is assumed to have not changed if the L1-RSRP (or L1- SINR or other metric) of all such beams are within a hysteresis of the L1-RSRP (or L1-SINR or other metric) that triggered the last sent UEIBM report. For example assuming the event status relates to L1-RSRP, and if the last UEIBM report was sent with RSRP of -90 dBm for the current beam (e.g., TCI#1) and RSRP of -80 dBm for a candidate new beam (e.g., TCI#2) and the hysteresis is 3 dB, then the event status is assumed tohave not changed if the RSRP of the current beam stays within [-93,-87] dBm and the RSRP of the new beam stays within [-83,-77] dBm. In some implementations, a specific hysteresis may be defined for the current beam, e.g., 3 dB, and a different hysteresis may be defined for the candidate new beam(s), e.g., 6 dB. In this embodiment, a single measurement in which the new beam is a threshold value, e.g., 3 dB, better than the current beam immediately causes the occurrence of the event for triggering UEIBM reporting. Whether the UEIBM reporting is actually triggered depends on whether there is a prohibit timer running and a comparison with a previous report if a prohibit timer is running.

[0079] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine an occurrence of the event if the number of event instances for a same beam within a time window of the event is greater than or equal to a threshold number. In some embodiments, the threshold number may be configured by the network device 120. Alternatively, the threshold number may be predefined. For example, the terminal device 110 may determine an event instance for a beam if beam quality of a beam becomes a threshold value better than the current beam and determine an occurrence of the event if there are no less than three event instances for the same beam within a time window. The time window may be a time duration with a configured or predefined time length or may be configured as a fixed time domain location.

[0080] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine a characterized beam quality of a beam in the event. In some implementations, the terminal device 110 may determine an event status change based on the characterized beam quality of the beam in the current event and the reported beam quality of the same beam in the previous event. Alternatively, the terminal device 110 may determine a characterized beam quality of the beam in the previous event and may determine an event status change based on the characterized beam qualities of the same beam in the current event and in the previous event. The beam may be the current beam in the event, the first beam triggering the previous event, or the second beam different from the current event and the first event. In some examples, the second beam may trigger the occurrence of the current event. In some further examples, the second beam may be one of the top-N best beams for beam reporting in the current event. In some other examples, the second beam may be one of the top-N best beams for beam reporting in the previous event.

[0081] There may be various manners for characterizing a beam quality in an event. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine a characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the event. Similarly, the terminal device 110 may determine a characterized beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event. The number of time instances in the current event and the number of time instances in the previous event may be the same or different and should both exceed the threshold number.

[0082] In some implementations, the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the event may be an average beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event. Similarly, the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in theprevious event may be an average beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event.

[0083] In some implementations, the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the event may be a best beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event. Similarly, the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event may be a best beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event.

[0084] In some implementations, the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the event may be a worst beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event. Similarly, the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event may be a worst beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event.

[0085] Alternatively, the characterized beam quality of a beam in an event may be determined based on all measurements of the same beam in the time window of the event. For example, the characterized beam quality of a beam in the event may be an average beam quality of the beam over all measurements in the event. Similarly, the characterized beam quality of a beam in the previous event may be an average beam quality of the beam over all measurements in the previous event.

[0086] In some embodiments, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status if a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a first hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the previous event. Alternatively, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status if a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a first hysteresis with respect to a reported beam quality of the current beam in the previous event.

[0087] Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status if a characterized beam quality of the first beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a second hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the first beam over at least one event instance in the previous event. Alternatively, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status if a characterized beam quality of the first beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a second hysteresis with respect to a reported beam quality of the first beam in the previous event.

[0088] Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status if a characterized beam quality of the second beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a third hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the second beam over at least one event instance in the previous event. Alternatively, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status if a characterized beam quality of the second beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a third hysteresis with respect to a reported beam quality of the second beam in the previous event.

[0089] Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status if a difference between a characterized beam quality of the first beam and a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a fourth hysteresis with respect to a difference between a characterized beam quality of the first beam and a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the previous event. Alternatively, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status if a difference between a characterized beam quality of the first beam and a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a fourth hysteresis with respect to a difference between a reported beam quality of the first beam and a reported beam quality of the current beam in the previous event.

[0090] Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status if the second beam is associated with occurrence of the event. Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status if the number of event instances in the event is different from the number of event instances in the previous event.

[0091] In a more specific example, the terminal device 110 may be configured with an event configuration for UEIBM reporting such that the terminal device 110 determines an occurrence of an event if the number of event instances for the same candidate new beam is greater than or equal to a configurable number M within a time window. For example, assuming L1 -RSRP with Event-2 and 3 dB threshold, this time window may last 100 ms, M may be 3 (these numbers fit for example SSB periodicity of 20 ms where we can have 5 measurements in 100 ms), and therefore the terminal device 110 determines an occurrence of an event for UEIBM reporting if Event-2 instance is triggered at least three times within the 100 ms, i.e., if the new beam RSRP is at least 3 dB better than the current beam RSRP in at least three RSRP measurements of both anew beam and the current beam.

[0092] The prohibit timer may last longer than the time window. In this way, there may be multiple time windows within a prohibited timer. In an example where a time window lasts 100 ms, the prohibited timer may last 200 ms or 500 ms or 1 ,000 ms.

[0093] After transmitting a UEIBM report, the prohibited timer starts, and the UE is not allowed to transmit a UEIBM report for a time window within the prohibited timer when a function (or characterization) of the status of the Event (e.g., Event-2) that triggered the last sent UEIBM report has not changed. The function of the event status may relate to L1-RSRP (or L1-SINR or other metric) of the current and candidate new beams for all event instances within the time window of the event.

[0094] In a first option, the function of the event status may be “the average L1-RSRP (or average L1- SINR or average of other metric) across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams”. Then, the function of the event status is assumed to have not changed if the average RSRPs across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams within the current time window (within the prohibited timer) has not changed. In one example, the function of the event status is assumed to have not changed if the average RSRPs across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams within the current time window (within the prohibited timer) are within a hysteresis with respect to the average RSRPs across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams within the time window that triggered the last UEIBM report transmission. In another example, the function of the event status is assumed to have not changed if the average RSRPs across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams within the current time window (within the prohibited timer) are within a hysteresis with respect to the RSRPs of the current and candidate new beams included in the last UEIBM report (if the RSRPs of the current and candidate new beams are included in the last UEIBM report).

[0095] In an example where a time window lasts 100 ms and M=3, assuming that Event-2 is triggered exactly three times within the current time window, the terminal device may first compute the average RSRP of the current and the new beams respectively over the three measurement instances within the current time window. Then, the terminal device may compare such average RSRPs of the current and the new beams against the average RSRPs of the current and the new beams over the (at least) three measurement instances within the time window that triggered the last UEIBM report, respectively. Alternatively, the terminal device may compare such average RSRPs of the current and the new beams against the RSRPs of the current and the new beams included in the last UEIBM report, respectively.

[0096] In a second option, the function of the event status may be “the maximum L1-RSRP across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams”, instead of “the average L1-RSRP across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams” of the first option. Then, the function of the event status is assumed to have not changed if the maximum RSRPs across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams within the current time window (within the prohibited timer) has not changed. In oneexample, the function of the event status is assumed to have not changed if the maximum RSRPs across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams within the current time window (within the prohibited timer) are within a hysteresis with respect to the maximum RSRPs across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams within the time window that triggered the last UEIBM report transmission. In another example, the function of the event status is assumed to have not changed if the maximum RSRPs across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams within the current time window (within the prohibited timer) are within a hysteresis with respect to the RSRPs of the current and candidate new beams included in the last UEIBM report (if the RSRPs of the current and candidate new beams are included in the last UEIBM report).

[0097] In a third option, the function of the event status may be “the minimum L1-RSRP across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams”, instead of “the average L1-RSRP across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams” of the first option. Then, the function of the event status is assumed to have not changed if the minimum RSRPs across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams within the current time window (within the prohibited timer) has not changed. In one example, the function of the event status is assumed to have not changed if the minimum RSRPs across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams within the current time window (within the prohibited timer) are within a hysteresis with respect to the minimum RSRPs across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams within the time window that triggered the last UEIBM report transmission. In another example, the function of the event status is assumed to have not changed if the minimum RSRPs across all event instances of the current and candidate new beams within the current time window (within the prohibited timer) are within a hysteresis with respect to the RSRPs of the current and candidate new beams included in the last UEIBM report (if the RSRPs of the current and candidate new beams are included in the last UEIBM report).

[0098] In a fourth option, the function of the event status may be “the number of event instances within the time window”. The function of the event status is assumed to have not changed if the number of event instances within the current time window (within the prohibit timer) is the same of the number of event instances within the time window that triggered the last UEIBM report transmission.

[0099] In some embodiments, the event status only relates to beam quality (e.g., L1-RSRP or L1-SINR or other metric) the current and candidate new beams triggering the event occurrence. In other words, only the current and candidate new beams triggering the event or the previous event are involved. Alternatively, the event status relates to beam quality (e.g., L1-RSRP or L1-SINR or other metric) of all beams that were part of the last sent UEIBM report, and the event status are assumed to have not changed if the beam quality (e.g., L1-RSRP or L1-SINR or other metric) of all such beams are within a hysteresis of the beam quality (e.g., L1-RSRP or L1 -SI NR or other metric) that were included in the last sent UEIBM report. For example, other beams besides candidate new beams triggering the event occurrence and the current beams may bepart of the UEIBM report. The event status may relate to the beam quality of all beams that are actually part of the UEIBM report. It should be understood that the function of the event status may also related to beam quality (e.g., L1-RSRP or L1-SINR or other metric) of all beams that were part of the last sent UEIBM report.

[0100] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine at least one of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis based on a hysteresis configuration received from the network device 120. Alternatively, the terminal device 110 may determine at least one of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis based on a predefinition. In some embodiments, at least two of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis may be used. The hysteresis values may be equal or may be different.

[0101] In some embodiments, if the timer is running at the occurrence of the event and the terminal device 110 determines to skip the beam reporting, the terminal device 110 may continue the timer. In some embodiments, if no timer is running at the occurrence of the event, the terminal device 110 may initiate the beam reporting to the network device 120, transmit a beam report to the network device 120, and start a timer.

[0102] In some embodiments, if the timer is running at the occurrence of the event and the terminal device 110 determines to initiate the beam reporting, the terminal device 110 may transmit a beam report to the network device 120 and restart the timer. In other words, every time the terminal device 110 transmits a beam report to the network device 120, the terminal device 110 may restart the timer.

[0103] Alternatively, if the timer is running at the occurrence of the event and the terminal device 110 determines to initiate the beam reporting, the terminal device 110 may transmit a beam report to the network device 120 and continue the timer.

[0104] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine the timer based on a timer configuration received from the network device 120. Alternatively, the terminal device 110 may determine the timer based on a predefinition. In some examples, the prohibit timer and as well related parameters (e.g., the hysteresis) may be defined as a required UE behavior, i.e. , they are fixed to predefined values and are not dynamically configured or changed. Alternatively, the terminal device 110 may determine the timer based on beam measurements by the terminal device 110. In some examples, the prohibit timer and as well related parameters (e.g., the hysteresis) may be configured by the network device, for example via RRC or MAC-CE.

[0105] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine the timer based on beam measurements by the terminal device 110 and transmit information of the timer to the network device 120. For example, the prohibit timer may be determined by the UE based on its measurements and may be included as part of the UEIBM report.

[0106] In some embodiments, when determining the timer based on the beam measurements, the terminaldevice 110 may perform the beam measurements on at least one beam at a plurality of time instances prior to occurrence of the event. The at least one beam may include at least one of the following: a current beam, or one or more beams different from the current beam. If the terminal device 110 determines to initiate the beam reporting to the network device 120, the terminal device 110 may estimate corresponding future beam qualities of the at least one beam at one or more future time instances based on the beam measurements. The terminal device 110 may determine the timer at least based on the estimation. For example, if an event triggering a beam reporting occurs and the terminal device 110 determines to initiate the beam reporting to the network device 120, the terminal device 110 may estimate the corresponding future beam qualities of the current beam at future time instances based on the beam measurements. The terminal device 110 may determine the timer at least based on a comparison of the beam quality change of the current beam and the first hysteresis. Alternatively or additionally, the terminal device 110 may estimate the corresponding future beam qualities of the candidate beam triggering the current event at future time instances based on the beam measurements. The terminal device 110 may determine the timer at least based on a comparison of the beam quality change of the candidate beam triggering the current event and the second hysteresis. Alternatively or additionally, the terminal device 110 may estimate the top-N best beams at future time instances based on the beam measurements. The terminal device 110 may determine the timer at least based on a comparison of the beam quality change of one of the top-N best beam and the third hysteresis. Alternatively or additionally, the terminal device 110 may estimate the corresponding future beam qualities of the candidate beam triggering the current event and the current beam at future time instances based on the beam measurements. The terminal device 110 may determine the timer at least based on a comparison of the beam quality of the candidate beam and the current beam. In some embodiments, a maximum duration of the timer may be predefined or configured.

[0107] Eventually, the prohibit timer allows optimizing / reducing the number of UEIBM reports from a terminal device, making sure that reports with very similar information are avoided. This is especially helpful if the number of resources for the UEIBM reports are scarce, for example in case of high load in a cell, i.e., a high number of UEs in that cell.

[0108] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may receive an indication of disabling the timer from the network device 120. For example, when the prohibit timer is configured and / or is running at the terminal device 110, the network device 120 may signal the terminal device 110 to stop the prohibit timer. This may be beneficial for example when the load in a cell is varying. In a more specific example, when the load at a later point in time reduces, e.g., with the UE being the only left UE in that cell, resources for UEIBM reports are not scarce anymore, and the network may signal the UE to stop using the prohibit timer, to allow the network to be aware of small variations of the beams.

[0109] Fig. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a flow 300 of the UE behavior according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The flow 300 may be a more specific example of the process 200of Fig. 2 from the perspective view of the terminal device 110. The terminal device 110 may be called as UE for short.

[0110] As shown in Fig. 3, at 302, first, the UE may be configured with UEIBM by the network device. The configuration for the UEIBM may include an indication of events triggering the UEIBM reporting, e.g., Event-2 with 3 dB threshold. Additionally, the configuration for the UEIBM may include a prohibit timer, e.g., with 2 dB hysteresis. Step 302 may be optional. For example, at least one of the event, the duration of the prohibit timer or the hysteresis may be predefined.

[0111] After an initial access, at 304, the UE is served on at least one indicated TCI state, that is monitored as a current beam. Besides that, the UE may monitor a set of candidate new beams. I n some embodiments, the set of candidate new beams may be configured by the network device.

[0112] At 306, Event-2 may be triggered, for example because the RSRP of at least a candidate new beam is 3 dB better than the RSRP of the current beam. If Event-2 is first triggered, there is no Prohibit Timer running and the UE may transmit a UEIBM report and starts a Prohibit Timer. The UE then keeps monitoring the current beam and the candidate new beams.

[0113] Every time an Event-2 is further triggered, the UE first checks (308) if a Prohibit Timer is already running. If the Prohibit Timer is not running, the UE transmits (312) a UEIBM report and starts (314) a Prohibit Timer. If the Prohibit Timer is running, then the UE checks (310) the RSRP of the current and candidate new beam(s) triggering Event-2: only if at least one RSRP value has changed beyond the hysteresis (2 dB) with respect to the RSRP value that last triggered a UEIBM report transmission, then the UE transmits (312) a UEIBM report and starts (314) a Prohibit timer.

[0114] Fig. 4A illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a first example of UEIBM reports based on a prohibit timer according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In the example in Fig. 4A, a UE configured with Event-2 with 3 dB threshold and a prohibit timer with 2 dB hysteresis is served on TCI#1 as current beam and monitors TCI#2 as a candidate new beam. When Event-2 is initially triggered, for example if the RSRP of the new beam is -85 dBm and the RSRP of the current beam is -90 dBm, the UE transmits a UEIBM report. When transmitting the UEIBM report, the UE starts the prohibit timer as well. Assuming the gNB does not perform any beam switching based on the UEIBM report, Event-2 is triggered in three more occasions in the example in Fig. 4A, but on every occasion with the same RSRP values (-85 dBm for the candidate new beam and -90 dBm for the current beam). The UE skips the transmission of the UEIBM report in the first two occasions because the prohibit timer has not expired yet, and transmits the UEIBM report only in the third occasion after the prohibit timer has finally expired. When transmitting the UEIBM report in the third occasion, the UE may start the prohibit timer again.

[0115] The consecutive UEIBM reports in related solutions is also shown in Fig. 4A as the baseline, in which on all the four occasions where Event-2 is triggered, the UE transmits the UEIBM reports. As compared with the baseline, in the first example in Fig. 4A, a next UEIBM report is sent after the prohibittimer has expired as the status of Event-2 has not changed, thus allowing saving 50% of the UEIBM report transmissions, and avoiding additional signaling overhead.

[0116] Fig. 4B illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a second example of UEIBM reports based on a prohibit timer according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In the example in Fig. 4B, a UE configured with Event-2 with 3 dB threshold and a prohibit timer with 2 dB hysteresis is served on TCI#1 as current beam and monitors TCI#2 as a candidate new beam. When Event-2 is initially triggered, for example if the RSRP of the new beam is -85 dBm and the RSRP of the current beam is -90 dBm, the UE transmits a UEIBM report. When transmitting the UEIBM report, the UE starts the prohibit timer as well. Assuming the gNB does not perform any beam switching based on the UEIBM report, Event-2 is triggered in three more occasions. All these three more occasions are before the prohibit timer has expired. On the first two occasions, Event-2 is triggered with the same RSRP values (-85 dBm for the candidate new beam and -90 dBm for the current beam), whereas on the third occasion, Event-2 is triggered with very different RSRP values (in particular the RSRP of the candidate new beam has improved to -75 dBm). The UE skips the transmission of the UEIBM report in the first two occasions, but transmits the UEIBM report in the third occasion although the prohibit timer has not yet expired. When transmitting the UEIBM report in the third occasion, the UE may restart the prohibit timer.

[0117] The consecutive UEIBM reports in related solutions is also shown in Fig. 4B as the baseline, in which on all the four occasions where Event-2 is triggered, the UE transmits the UEIBM reports. As compared with the baseline, in the second example in Fig. 4B, a next UEIBM report is sent before the prohibit timer has expired as the status of Event-2 has changed because the RSRP of the new beam has changed (from -85 to -75 dBm) exceeding the hysteresis (2 dB), thus allowing saving 50% of the UEIBM report transmissions but still allowing the gNB to know the relevant variations of the RSRP of the current and candidate new beams.

[0118] Fig. 4C illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a second example of UEIBM reports based on a prohibit timer according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In the example in Fig. 4C, a UE configured with Event-2 with 3 dB threshold and a prohibit timer with 2 dB hysteresis is served on TCI#1 as current beam and monitors TCI#2 and TCI#3 as candidate new beams. When Event-2 is initially triggered, for example if the RSRP of TCI#2 is -85 dBm and the RSRP of TCI#1 is -90 dBm, the UE transmits a UEIBM report. When transmitting the UEIBM report, the UE starts the prohibit timer as well. Assuming the gNB does not perform any beam switching based on the UEIBM report, Event-2 is triggered in three more occasions. All these three more occasions are before the prohibit timer has expired. On the first two occasions, Event- 2 is triggered with the same RSRP values, whereas on the third occasion, Event-2 is triggered with very different RSRP values (in particular the RSRP of TCI#3 has improved to -84 dBm, triggering Event-2). The UE skips the transmission of the UEIBM report in the first two occasions, but transmits the UEIBM report in the third occasion although the prohibit timer has not yet expired. When transmitting the UEIBM report in thethird occasion, the UE may restart the prohibit timer.

[0119] The consecutive UEIBM reports in related solutions is also shown in Fig. 4C as the baseline, in which on all the four occasions where Event-2 is triggered, the UE transmits the UEIBM reports. As compared with the baseline, in the second example in Fig. 4C, a next UEIBM report is sent before the prohibit timer has expired as the status of Event-2 has changed because a different new beam (TCI#3) has triggered Event-2, thus allowing saving 50% of the UEIBM report transmissions but still allowing the gNB to know the relevant variations of the RSRP of the current and candidate new beams.

[0120] In some embodiments, the UE configured with UEIBM may inform the network device in the UEIBM report about the prohibit timer. Taking Event-2 as the example event for triggering UEIBM reporting. If the Event-2 is configured, the UE measures a quality metric, e.g., RSRP, related to both the current beam and the candidate new beam(s). As used herein, RSRP0,t and RSRPn.t may represent the RSRP measured by the UE at time t for the current beam and for the candidate new beam, respectively. In one option, the RSRP values could be absolute values. Alternatively, the RSRP values could be differential values.

[0121] When the Event-2 is triggered at time T, the UE predicts, based on the beam measurements already performed, the time evolution of the RSRPs of both the current beam and the candidate new beam(s). For example, the UE uses the previous measurements RSRPc.i , RSRP0,2, . . ., RSRPC.T, and RSRPn.i , RSRPn,2, . . ., RSRPn , as inputs to predict RSRPC,T+I, RSRP0,T+2,..., and RSRPn +i, RSRPn +2,... at future time instances T+1 , T+2, . . . . In a simple implementation, such prediction can be based on a linear interpolation. In more advanced implementations, other prediction schemes may be used, e.g., polynomial or spline interpolations, or even AI / ML algorithms.

[0122] Based on the predicted RSRPs, the UE may determine the prohibit timer W, i.e., the expected prohibit timer, after which the quality metric of either the current or the new beam changes above a certain hysteresis. The UE may transmit the timer value W to the network device within the UEIBM report. Considering that the timer W will be quantized in the UEIBM report with few bits, there may be a maximum value of the timer WMAX that the UE can indicate. If the determined value of the timer W is above such maximum value, the UE may simply indicate the maximum value in the UEIBM report.

[0123] Figs. 5A and 5B illustrate schematic diagrams illustrating different scenarios of a prohibit timer prediction according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In the example scenarios in Figs. 5A and 5B, the UE measures degrading RSRP for both the current beam (shown as full stars in Figs. 5A and 5B) and one candidate new beam (shown as full circles in Figs. 5A and 5B). When Event-2 is triggered (at time T=4 in the example in Figs. 5A and 5B), the UE applies linear interpolation to predict the future time evolution of the RSRP values for both the current beam (shown as hollow stars in Figs. 5A and 5B) and one candidate new beam (shown as hollow circles in Figs. 5A and 5B), to eventually predict the Prohibit Timer W to be reported to the network device.

[0124] In the example in Fig. 5A, based on the prediction, the status of Event-2 changes at time T=6, e.g.,the change of the RSRP of the current beam exceeds a hysteresis at time T=6, or e.g., the change of the difference between the RSRP of the current beam and the RSRP of the candidate new beam exceeds a hysteresis at time T=6. Thus, the Prohibit Timer W may be indicated as the time length from T=4 to T=6.

[0125] In the example in Fig. 5B, based on the prediction, the status of Event-2 does not change until time T=7. The maximum value for the prohibit timer WMAX is no smaller than the time length from T=4 to T=7, then the Prohibit Timer W may be indicated as the maximum value WMAX.

[0126] Fig. 6 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a method 600 implemented at a terminal device according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 600 will be described from the perspective of the terminal device 110 as shown in Fig. 1A.

[0127] As shown in Fig. 6, at block 610, the terminal device 110 determines whether an event for triggering a beam reporting occurs. If yes at block 610, the method 600 proceeds to block 620. At block 620, the terminal device 110 determines whether a timer is running at occurrence of the event. If yes at block 620, the method 600 proceeds to block 630. At block 630, the terminal device 110 determines whether a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event. A previous beam report was transmitted to a network device at occurrence of the previous event. If no at block 630, the method 600 proceeds to block 640. At block 640, the terminal device 110 skips the beam reporting. If yes at block 630, the method 600 proceeds to block 650. At block 650, the terminal device 110 initiates the beam reporting to the network device.

[0128] In some embodiments, the status and the previous status are associated with at least one of the following: a current beam, wherein the current beam is a same beam in the event and the previous event; a first beam associated with occurrence of the previous event; or a second beam different from the current beam and the first beam.

[0129] In some embodiments, information of the second beam is comprised in the previous beam report.

[0130] In some embodiments, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a measured beam quality of the current beam in the event is out of a first hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the current beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a measured beam quality of the first beam in the event is out of a second hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the first beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a measured beam quality of the second beam in the event is out of a third hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the second beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, whendetermining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a difference between a measured beam quality of the first beam and a measured beam quality of the current beam in the event is out of a fourth hysteresis with respect to a difference between a measured beam quality of the first beam and a measured beam quality of the current beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that the second beam is associated with occurrence of the event.

[0131] In some embodiments, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a first hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the current beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a characterized beam quality of the first beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a second hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the first beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the first beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a characterized beam quality of the second beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a third hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the second beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the second beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a difference between a characterized beam quality of the first beam and a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a fourth hysteresis with respect to a difference between a characterized beam quality of the first beam and a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a difference between a reported beam quality of the first beam and a reported beam quality of the current beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that the second beam is associated with occurrence of the event. Alternatively or additionally, when determining whether the status is changed withrespect to the previous event status, the terminal device 110 may determine that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that the number of event instances in the event is different from the number of event instances in the previous event.

[0132] In some embodiments, the event is determined to occur in the case that the number of event instances for a same beam within a time window of the event is greater than or equal to a threshold number.

[0133] In some embodiments, the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the event is an average beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event. Alternatively or additionally, the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the event is a best beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event. Alternatively or additionally, the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the event is a worst beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event. In some embodiments, the beam is one of the following: the current beam, the first beam, or the second beam.

[0134] In some embodiments, the characterized beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event is an average beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, the characterized beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event is a best beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, the characterized beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event is a worst beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event. In some embodiments, the beam is one of the following: the current beam, the first beam, or the second beam.

[0135] In some embodiments, at least two of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis are equal.

[0136] In some embodiments, at least two of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis are different.

[0137] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine at least one of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis based on a hysteresis configuration received from the network device.

[0138] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine at least one of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis based on a predefinition.

[0139] In some embodiments, in the case that the timer is running at the occurrence of the event and in the case of skipping the beam reporting, the terminal device 110 may continue the timer.

[0140] In some embodiments, in the case that the timer is running at the occurrence of the event and in the case of initiating the beam reporting, the terminal device 110 may transmit a beam report to the network device, and continue the timer.

[0141] In some embodiments, in the case that the timer is running at the occurrence of the event and inthe case of initiating the beam reporting, the terminal device 110 may transmit a beam report to the network device, and restart the timer.

[0142] In some embodiments, in the case that no timer is running at the occurrence of the event, the terminal device 110 may initiate the beam reporting to the network device, transmit a beam report to the network device, and start a timer.

[0143] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine the timer based on a timer configuration received from the network device. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine the timer based on a predefinition. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine the timer based on beam measurements by the terminal device 110.

[0144] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine the timer based on beam measurements by the terminal device 110; and transmit, to the network device, information of the timer.

[0145] In some embodiments, when determining the timer based on the beam measurements, the terminal device 110 may perform the beam measurements on at least one beam at a plurality of time instances prior to occurrence of the event. The at least one beam may include at least one of the following: a current beam, or one or more beams different from the current beam. In the case of determining to initiate the beam reporting to the network device, the terminal device 110 may estimate corresponding future beam qualities of the at least one beam at one or more future time instances based on the beam measurements. The terminal device 110 may determine the timer at least based on the estimation.

[0146] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may receive, from the network device, an indication of disabling the timer.

[0147] With the method 600, the overhead for beam reporting may be reduced and the communication latency may be decreased.

[0148] Fig. 7 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a method 700 implemented at a network device according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 700 will be described from the perspective of the network device 120 as shown in Fig. 1A.

[0149] As shown in Fig. 7, at block 710, the network device 120 receives, from a terminal device, an indication of a beam reporting initiated by the terminal device. At block 720, the network device 120 determines occurrence of an event triggering the beam reporting. At block 730, the network device 120 determines whether a timer is running when the indication of the beam reporting is received. If yes at 730, the network device 120 determines that a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event. A previous beam report was received from the terminal device at occurrence of the previous event.

[0150] In some embodiments, the status and the previous status are associated with at least one of the following: a current beam, wherein the current beam is a same beam in the event and the previous event; a first beam associated with occurrence of the previous event; or a second beam different from the currentbeam and the first beam.

[0151] In some embodiments, information of the second beam is comprised in the previous beam report.

[0152] In some embodiments, the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a measured beam quality of the current beam in the event is out of a first hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the current beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a measured beam quality of the first beam in the event is out of a second hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the first beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a measured beam quality of the second beam in the event is out of a third hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the second beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a difference between a measured beam quality of the first beam and a measured beam quality of the current beam in the event is out of a fourth hysteresis with respect to a difference between a measured beam quality of the first beam and a measured beam quality of the current beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that the second beam is associated with occurrence of the event.

[0153] In some embodiments, the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a first hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the current beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a characterized beam quality of the first beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a second hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the first beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the first beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a characterized beam quality of the second beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a third hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the second beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the second beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that a difference between a characterized beam quality of the first beam and a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a fourth hysteresis with respect to a difference between a characterized beam quality of the first beam and a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a difference between a reported beam quality of the first beam and a reported beam quality of the current beam in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, the status is changed with respect to the previous eventstatus in the case that the second beam is associated with occurrence of the event. Alternatively or additionally, the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case that the number of event instances in the event is different from the number of event instances in the previous event.

[0154] In some embodiments, occurrence of the event may include that the number of event instances for a same beam within a time window of the event is greater than or equal to a threshold number.

[0155] In some embodiments, the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the event is an average beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event. Alternatively or additionally, the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the event is a best beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event. Alternatively or additionally, the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the event is a worst beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event. In some embodiments, the beam is one of the following: the current beam, the first beam, or the second beam.

[0156] In some embodiments, the characterized beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event is an average beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, the characterized beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event is a best beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event. Alternatively or additionally, the characterized beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event is a worst beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event. In some embodiments, the beam is one of the following: the current beam, the first beam, or the second beam.

[0157] In some embodiments, at least two of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis are equal.

[0158] In some embodiments, at least two of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis are different.

[0159] In some embodiments, the network device 120 may determine at least one of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis based on a predefinition. Alternatively, the network device 120 may transmit, to the terminal device, a hysteresis configuration for at least one of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis.

[0160] In some embodiments, in the case that the timer is running when the indication of the beam reporting is received, the network device 120 may receive a beam report from the terminal device and continue the timer.

[0161] In some embodiments, in the case that the timer is running when the indication of the beam reporting is received, the network device 120 may receive a beam report from the terminal device and restart the timer.

[0162] In some embodiments, in the case that no timer is running when the indication of the beam reportingis received, the network device 120 may receive a beam report from the terminal device and start a timer.

[0163] In some embodiments, the network device 120 may transmit, to the terminal device, a timer configuration for the timer. Alternatively, the network device 120 may determine the timer based on a predefinition. Alternatively, the network device 120 may receive, from the terminal device, information of the timer.

[0164] In some embodiments, the network device 120 may transmit, to the terminal device, an indication of disabling the timer.

[0165] With the method 700, the overhead for beam reporting may be reduced and the communication latency may be decreased.

[0166] In some embodiments, an apparatus capable of performing any of the method 600 (for example, the terminal device 110) may comprise means for performing the respective steps of the method 600. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module.

[0167] In some embodiments, the apparatus comprises: means for determining that an event for triggering a beam reporting occurs; means for in the case that a timer is running at occurrence of the event, determining whether a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event, wherein a previous beam report was transmitted to a network device at occurrence of the previous event; means for based on determining that the status is not changed with respect to the previous status, skipping the beam reporting; and means for based on determining that the status is changed with respect to the previous status, initiating the beam reporting to the network device.

[0168] In some embodiments, the status and the previous status are associated with at least one of the following: a current beam, wherein the current beam is a same beam in the event and the previous event; a first beam associated with occurrence of the previous event; or a second beam different from the current beam and the first beam.

[0169] In some embodiments, information of the second beam is comprised in the previous beam report.

[0170] In some embodiments, means for determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status comprises: means for determining that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case of at least one of the following: a measured beam quality of the current beam in the event is out of a first hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the current beam in the previous event; a measured beam quality of the first beam in the event is out of a second hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the first beam in the previous event; a measured beam quality of the second beam in the event is out of a third hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the second beam in the previous event; a difference between a measured beam quality of the first beam and a measured beam quality of the current beam in the event is out of a fourth hysteresis with respect to a difference between a measured beam quality of the first beam and a measured beam quality of the current beam in the previousevent; or the second beam is associated with occurrence of the event.

[0171] In some embodiments, means for determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status comprises: means for determining that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case of at least one of the following: a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a first hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the current beam in the previous event; a characterized beam quality of the first beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a second hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the first beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the first beam in the previous event; a characterized beam quality of the second beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a third hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the second beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the second beam in the previous event; a difference between a characterized beam quality of the first beam and a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a fourth hysteresis with respect to a difference between a characterized beam quality of the first beam and a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a difference between a reported beam quality of the current beam and a reported beam quality of the current beam in the previous event; the second beam is associated with occurrence of the event; or the number of event instances in the event is different from the number of event instances in the previous event.

[0172] In some embodiments, the event is determined to occur in the case that the number of event instances for a same beam within a time window of the event is greater than or equal to a threshold number.

[0173] In some embodiments, the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the event is one of the following: an average beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event; a best beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event; or a worst beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event. The characterized beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event is one of the following: an average beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event; a best beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event; or a worst beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event. The beam is one of the following: the current beam, the first beam, or the second beam.

[0174] In some embodiments, at least two of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis are equal. Alternatively, at least two of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis are different.

[0175] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for determining at least one of thefirst hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis based on one of the following: a hysteresis configuration received from the network device; or a predefinition.

[0176] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for in the case that the timer is running at the occurrence of the event, in the case of skipping the beam reporting, continue the timer; and means for in the case of initiating the beam reporting, transmitting a beam report to the network device, and means for continuing the timer or means for restarting the timer.

[0177] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for in the case that no timer is running at the occurrence of the event, initiating the beam reporting to the network device; means for transmitting a beam report to the network device, and means for starting a timer.

[0178] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for determining the timer based on one of the following: a timer configuration received from the network device; a predefinition; or beam measurements by the terminal device.

[0179] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for determining the timer based on beam measurements by the terminal device; and means for transmitting, to the network device, information of the timer.

[0180] In some embodiments, means for determining the timer based on the beam measurements comprises: means for at a plurality of time instances prior to occurrence of the event, performing the beam measurements on at least one beam, wherein the at least one beam comprises at least one of the following: a current beam, or one or more beams different from the current beam; means for in the case of determining to initiate the beam reporting to the network device, estimating corresponding future beam qualities of the at least one beam at one or more future time instances based on the beam measurements; and means for determining the timer at least based on the estimation.

[0181] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the network device, an indication of disabling the timer.

[0182] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for performing other steps in some embodiments of the method 600. In some embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the performance of the apparatus.

[0183] In some embodiments, an apparatus capable of performing any of the method 700 (for example, the network device 120) may comprise means for performing the respective steps of the method 700. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module.

[0184] In some embodiments, the apparatus comprises: means for receiving, from a terminal device, an indication of a beam reporting initiated by the terminal device; means for determining occurrence of an event triggering the beam reporting; and means for in the case that a timer is running when the indication of thebeam reporting is received, determining that a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event, wherein a previous beam report was received from the terminal device at occurrence of the previous event.

[0185] In some embodiments, the status and the previous status are associated with at least one of the following: a current beam, wherein the current beam is a same beam in the event and the previous event; a first beam associated with occurrence of the previous event; or a second beam different from the current beam and the first beam.

[0186] In some embodiments, information of the second beam is comprised in the previous beam report.

[0187] In some embodiments, the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case of at least one of the following: a measured beam quality of the current beam in the event is out of a first hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the current beam in the previous event; a measured beam quality of the first beam in the event is out of a second hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the first beam in the previous event; a measured beam quality of the second beam in the event is out of a third hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the second beam in the previous event; a difference between a measured beam quality of the first beam and a measured beam quality of the current beam in the event is out of a fourth hysteresis with respect to a difference between a measured beam quality of the first beam and a measured beam quality of the current beam in the previous event; or the second beam is associated with occurrence of the event.

[0188] In some embodiments, the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case of at least one of the following: a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a first hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the current beam in the previous event; a characterized beam quality of the first beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a second hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the first beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the first beam in the previous event; a characterized beam quality of the second beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a third hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the second beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the second beam in the previous event; a difference between a characterized beam quality of the first beam and a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a fourth hysteresis with respect to a difference between a characterized beam quality of the first beam and a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a difference between a reported beam quality of the first beam and a reported beam quality of the current beam in the previous event; the second beam is associated with occurrence of the event; or the number of event instances in the event is different from the number of event instances in the previous event.

[0189] In some embodiments, occurrence of the event comprises that the number of event instances for a same beam within a time window of the event is greater than or equal to a threshold number.

[0190] In some embodiments, the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the event is one of the following: an average beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event; a best beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event; or a worst beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event. The characterized beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event is one of the following: an average beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event; a best beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event; or a worst beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event. The beam is one of the following: the current beam, the first beam, or the second beam.

[0191] In some embodiments, at least two of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis are equal. Alternatively, at least two of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis are different.

[0192] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for determining at least one of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis based on a predefinition.

[0193] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the terminal device, a hysteresis configuration for at least one of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis.

[0194] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for in the case that the timer is running when the indication of the beam reporting is received, receiving a beam report from the terminal device; and means for continuing the timer or means for restarting the timer.

[0195] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for in the case that no timer is running when the indication of the beam reporting is received, receiving a beam report from the terminal device; and means for starting a timer.

[0196] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the terminal device, a timer configuration for the timer.

[0197] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for determining the timer based on a predefinition.

[0198] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the terminal device, information of the timer.

[0199] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the terminal device, an indication of disabling the timer.

[0200] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for performing other steps in some embodiments of the method 700. In some embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor andat least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the performance of the apparatus.

[0201] Fig. 8 is a simplified block diagram of a device 800 that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 800 may be provided to implement the communication device, for example the terminal device 110, or the network device 120 as shown in Fig. 1A. As shown, the device 800 includes one or more processors 810, one or more memories 820 coupled to the processor 810, and one or more communication modules 840 coupled to the processor 810.

[0202] The communication module 840 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 840 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements.

[0203] The processor 810 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may include one or more of the following: general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 800 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

[0204] The memory 820 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of the non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 824, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM), a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD), a digital video disk (DVD), and other magnetic storage and / or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random access memory (RAM) 822 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

[0205] A computer program 830 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 810. The program 830 may be stored in the ROM 820. The processor 810 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 830 into the RAM 820.

[0206] The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 830 so that the device 800 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to Figs. 2 to 7. The embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

[0207] In some embodiments, the program 830 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 800 (such as in the memory 820) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 800. The device 800 may load the program 830 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 822 for execution. The computer readable medium may include any types of tangible non-volatile storage, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like. Fig. 9 shows an example of the computer readable medium 900 in form of CD or DVD. The computer readable medium has the program 830 stored thereon.

[0208] Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. While various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representations, it is to be understood that the block, apparatus, system, technique or method described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

[0209] The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computerexecutable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor, to carry out and of the methods, 600 or 700 as described above with reference to Figs. 6-7. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

[0210] Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes may be provided to a processor or controller of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program codes, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions / operations specified in the flowcharts and / or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

[0211] In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program codes or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable the device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of the carrier include a signal, computer readable medium, and the like.

[0212] The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. The term “non- transitory,” as used herein, is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e., tangible, not a signal) as opposed to a limitation on data storage persistency (e.g., RAM vs. ROM).

[0213] Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination.

[0214] Although the present disclosure has been described in languages specific to structural features and / or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A terminal device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the terminal device at least to: determine that an event for triggering a beam reporting occurs; and in the case that a timer is running at occurrence of the event, determine whether a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event, wherein a previous beam report was transmitted to a network device at occurrence of the previous event; based on determining that the status is not changed with respect to the previous status, skip the beam reporting; and based on determining that the status is changed with respect to the previous status, initiate the beam reporting to the network device.

2. The terminal device of claim 1 , wherein the status and the previous status are associated with at least one of the following: a current beam, wherein the current beam is a same beam in the event and the previous event; a first beam associated with occurrence of the previous event; or a second beam different from the current beam and the first beam.

3. The terminal device of claim 2, wherein information of the second beam is comprised in the previous beam report.

4. The terminal device of claim 2 or 3, wherein determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status comprises: determining that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case of at least one of the following: a measured beam quality of the current beam in the event is out of a first hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the current beam in the previous event; a measured beam quality of the first beam in the event is out of a second hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the first beam in the previous event; a measured beam quality of the second beam in the event is out of a third hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the second beam in the previous event; a difference between a measured beam quality of the first beam and a measured beam qualityof the current beam in the event is out of a fourth hysteresis with respect to a difference between a measured beam quality of the first beam and a measured beam quality of the current beam in the previous event; or the second beam is associated with occurrence of the event.

5. The terminal device of claim 2 or 3, wherein determining whether the status is changed with respect to the previous event status comprises: determining that the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case of at least one of the following: a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a first hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the current beam in the previous event; a characterized beam quality of the first beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a second hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the first beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the first beam in the previous event; a characterized beam quality of the second beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a third hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the second beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the second beam in the previous event; a difference between a characterized beam quality of the first beam and a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a fourth hysteresis with respect to a difference between a characterized beam quality of the first beam and a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a difference between a reported beam quality of the first beam and a reported beam quality of the current beam in the previous event; the second beam is associated with occurrence of the event; or the number of event instances in the event is different from the number of event instances in the previous event.

6. The terminal device of claim 5, wherein the event is determined to occur in the case that the number of event instances for a same beam within a time window of the event is greater than or equal to a threshold number.

7. The terminal device of claim 5 or 6, wherein the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the event is one of the following: an average beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event; a best beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event; or a worst beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event, wherein the characterized beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event is one of the following: an average beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event; a best beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event; or a worst beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event, wherein the beam is one of the following: the current beam, the first beam, or the second beam.

8. The terminal device of any of claims 4-7, wherein at least two of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis are equal; or wherein at least two of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis are different.

9. The terminal device of any of claims 4-8, wherein the terminal device is further caused to: determine at least one of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis based on one of the following: a hysteresis configuration received from the network device; or a predefinition.

10. The terminal device of any of claims 1 -9, wherein the terminal device is further caused to: in the case that the timer is running at the occurrence of the event, in the case of skipping the beam reporting, continue the timer; or in the case of initiating the beam reporting, transmit a beam report to the network device, and continue the timer or restart the timer.11 . The terminal device of any of claims 1 -10, wherein the terminal device is further caused to: in the case that no timer is running at the occurrence of the event, initiate the beam reporting to the network device;transmit a beam report to the network device, and start a timer.

12. The terminal device of any of claims 1-11 , wherein the terminal device is further caused to: determine the timer based on one of the following: a timer configuration received from the network device; a predefinition; or beam measurements by the terminal device.

13. The terminal device of any of claims 1-11 , wherein the terminal device is further caused to: determine the timer based on beam measurements by the terminal device; and transmit, to the network device, information of the timer.

14. The terminal device of claim 12 or 13, wherein determining the timer based on the beam measurements comprises: at a plurality of time instances prior to occurrence of the event, perform the beam measurements on at least one beam, wherein the at least one beam comprises at least one of the following: a current beam, or one or more beams different from the current beam; in the case of determining to initiate the beam reporting to the network device, estimate corresponding future beam qualities of the at least one beam at one or more future time instances based on the beam measurements; and determine the timer at least based on the estimation.

15. The terminal device of any of claims 1 -14, wherein the terminal device is further caused to: receive, from the network device, an indication of disabling the timer.

16. A network device comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the network device at least to: receive, from a terminal device, an indication of a beam reporting initiated by the terminal device; determine occurrence of an event triggering the beam reporting; and in the case that a timer is running when the indication of the beam reporting is received, determine that a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous statusassociated with a previous event, wherein a previous beam report was received from the terminal device at occurrence of the previous event.

17. The network device of claim 16, wherein the status and the previous status are associated with at least one of the following: a current beam, wherein the current beam is a same beam in the event and the previous event; a first beam associated with occurrence of the previous event; or a second beam different from the current beam and the first beam.

18. The network device of claim 17, wherein information of the second beam is comprised in the previous beam report.

19. The network device of claim 17 or 18, wherein the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case of at least one of the following: a measured beam quality of the current beam in the event is out of a first hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the current beam in the previous event; a measured beam quality of the first beam in the event is out of a second hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the first beam in the previous event; a measured beam quality of the second beam in the event is out of a third hysteresis with respect to a measured beam quality of the second beam in the previous event; a difference between a measured beam quality of the first beam and a measured beam quality of the current beam in the event is out of a fourth hysteresis with respect to a difference between a measured beam quality of the first beam and a measured beam quality of the current beam in the previous event; or the second beam is associated with occurrence of the event.

20. The network device of claim 17 or 18, wherein the status is changed with respect to the previous event status in the case of at least one of the following: a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a first hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the current beam in the previous event; a characterized beam quality of the first beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a second hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the first beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the first beam in the previous event;a characterized beam quality of the second beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a third hysteresis with respect to a characterized beam quality of the second beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a reported beam quality of the second beam in the previous event; a difference between a characterized beam quality of the first beam and a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the event is out of a fourth hysteresis with respect to a difference between a characterized beam quality of the first beam and a characterized beam quality of the current beam over at least one event instance in the previous event or with respect to a difference between a reported beam quality of the first beam and a reported beam quality of the current beam in the previous event; the second beam is associated with occurrence of the event; or the number of event instances in the event is different from the number of event instances in the previous event.21 . The network device of claim 20, wherein occurrence of the event comprises that the number of event instances for a same beam within a time window of the event is greater than or equal to a threshold number.

22. The network device of claim 20 or 21, wherein the characterized beam quality of a beam over the at least one event instance in the event is one of the following: an average beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event; a best beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event; or a worst beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the event, wherein the characterized beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event is one of the following: an average beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event; a best beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event; or a worst beam quality of the beam over the at least one event instance in the previous event, wherein the beam is one of the following: the current beam, the first beam, or the second beam.

23. The network device of any of claims 19-22, wherein at least two of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis are equal; or wherein at least two of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourthhysteresis are different.

24. The network device of any of claims 19-23, wherein the network device is further caused to perform one of the following: determine at least one of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis based on a predefinition; or transmit, to the terminal device, a hysteresis configuration for at least one of the first hysteresis, the second hysteresis, the third hysteresis or the fourth hysteresis.

25. The network device of any of claims 16-24, wherein the network device is further caused to: in the case that the timer is running when the indication of the beam reporting is received, receive a beam report from the terminal device; and continue the timer or restart the timer.

26. The network device of any of claims 16-25, wherein the network device is further caused to: in the case that no timer is running when the indication of the beam reporting is received, receive a beam report from the terminal device; and start a timer.

27. The network device of any of claims 16-26, wherein the network device is further caused to perform one of the following: transmit, to the terminal device, a timer configuration for the timer; determine the timer based on a predefinition; or receive, from the terminal device, information of the timer.

28. The network device of any of claims 16-27, wherein the network device is further caused to: transmit, to the terminal device, an indication of disabling the timer29. A method performed by a terminal device, comprising: determining that an event for triggering a beam reporting occurs; and in the case that a timer is running at occurrence of the event, determining whether a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event, wherein a previous beam report was transmitted to a network device at occurrence of the previous event; based on determining that the status is not changed with respect to the previous status,skipping the beam reporting; and based on determining that the status is changed with respect to the previous status, initiating the beam reporting to the network device.

30. A method performed by a network device, comprising: receiving, from a terminal device, an indication of a beam reporting initiated by the terminal device; determining occurrence of an event triggering the beam reporting; and in the case that a timer is running when the indication of the beam reporting is received, determining that a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event, wherein a previous beam report was received from the terminal device at occurrence of the previous event.31 . An apparatus comprising: means for determining that an event for triggering a beam reporting occurs; means for determining whether a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event, in the case that a timer is running at occurrence of the event, wherein a previous beam report was transmitted to a network device at occurrence of the previous event; means for skipping the beam reporting based on determining that the status is not changed with respect to the previous status; and means for initiating the beam reporting to the network device based on determining that the status is changed with respect to the previous status.

32. An apparatus comprising: means for receiving, from a terminal device, an indication of a beam reporting initiated by the terminal device; means for determining occurrence of an event triggering the beam reporting; and means for determining that a status associated with the event is changed with respect to a previous status associated with a previous event in the case that a timer is running when the indication of the beam reporting is received, wherein a previous beam report was received from the terminal device at occurrence of the previous event.

33. A computer readable medium comprising program instructions that, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least one of the methods of claims 29-30.

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