UE-initiated beam reporting in drx

Abstract

In an embodiment, a User Equipment (UE) (1100) and a method performed by the UE (1100) for controlling Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) monitoring after a UE initiated (UEI) beam report (802) is transmitted by the UE (1100) is provided. The method includes transmitting (612) to a network node (1200) the UEI beam report (802), and then initiating (622) continuous monitoring of the PDCCH for a duration of time after transmitting the UEI beam report (802). In an embodiment, the continuous monitoring is initiated immediately following the transmission of the UEI beam report (802) to the network node (1200).

Description

P112095W001 1UE-INITIATED BEAM REPORTING IN DRXRELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 699,422, filed September 26, 2024, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present disclosure relates to a method performed by a user equipment (UE), and a UE, for controlling Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) monitoring after a UE initiated (UEI) beam report in a wireless communication system.BACKGROUND

[0003] New Radio (NR) uses Cyclic Prefix (CP) Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) in both downlink (i.e. from a network node, gNB, or base station, to a user equipment - UE) and uplink (i.e. from UE to gNB). Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) spread OFDM is also supported in the uplink. In the time domain, NR downlink and uplink are organized into equally sized subframes of 1ms each. A subframe is further divided into multiple slots of equal duration. The slot length depends on subcarrier spacing. For subcarrier spacing of A = 15kHz, there is only one slot per subframe, and each slot consists of 14 OFDM symbols.

[0004] Different subcarrier spacing values are supported in NR. The supported subcarrier spacing values (also referred to as different numerologies) are given by A = (15 x Z^kHz where E 0,1, 2, 3, 4 . A = 15kHz is the basic subcarrier spacing. The slot duration for a given subcarrier spacing i

[0005] In the frequency domain, a bandwidth part (BWP) is divided into resource blocks (RBs), each corresponding to 12 contiguous subcarriers. The RBs are numbered starting with 0 from one end of the system bandwidth. One OFDM subcarrier during one OFDM symbol interval forms one resource element (RE).

[0006] Downlink and uplink transmissions can be dynamically scheduled, i.e., in each slot the gNB transmits scheduling information (or downlink control information (DCI)) via PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel). Actual UE data are carried on PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) in the Downlink and on PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel) in the uplink. Various DCI formats are defined in NR for DL and UL scheduling, e.g., DCI format 1 0, DCI format 1 1, and DCI format 1 2 for DL scheduling, and DCI format 0-0, DCI format 0 1, and DCI format 0 2 for UL scheduling.P112095W001 2

[0007] In NR, two antenna ports are said to be Quasi Co-located (QCL) if certain large scale channel parameters associated to one of the two antenna ports can be inferred from the other antenna port. The supported QCL types in NR include:• 'QCL-TypeA': {Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread}• 'QCL-TypeB': {Doppler shift, Doppler spread}• 'QCL-TypeC: {Doppler shift, average delay}• 'QCL-TypeD': {Spatial Rx parameter}

[0008] In NR, an antenna port is defined by a reference signal (RS). Therefore, if two RSs are QCL with certain QCL typeD, a receive spatial filter or beam used for receiving one of the RSs, referred to as target RS, can be used also for receiving the other RS, referred to as source RS. The source RS can be a NZP CSLRS (Non-zero Power Channel State Information Reference Signal) or a SSB (Synchronization Signals and Physical Broadcast Channel block). The target RS can be a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) for PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) or PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel), or a CSLRS.

[0009] QCL relation between two RSs is indicated by a TCI (transmission configuration indication) state. A TCI comprises up to two QCL types and for each QCL type, a source RS. For beam management, there are always two QCL types and one of them is a QCL type-D.

[0010] In NR, a spatial beam (or simply beam) is defined by a reference signal (RS) transmitted via the beam. The RS can be a CSLRS or an SSB. Beam management is about determining proper beams for downlink (DL) transmission from the gNB to a UE and uplink (UL) transmission from the UE to the gNB. In the DL, the UE needs to know the gNB transmission beam in order to use a proper receive beam to receive DL data. With beam correspondence, the UE can determine a UL transmit beam based on a DL receive beam for UL data transmission. Information about a DL beam used for data transmission to the UE is indicated via a TCI state comprising a RS for QCL typeD. For example, if a TCI state with a source RS for QCL typeD is indicated to UE for a PDSCH, it is assumed that a receive beam (or spatial filter) previously used for receiving the source RS can be used by the UE to receive the PDSCH.

[0011] For beam management purposes, a list of TCI states can be configured for a UE in a higher layer parameter PDSCH-Config via RRC (Radio Resource Control) signaling (see 3gpp TS 38.331 section 6.3.2 for details). Up to 8 TCI states from the list can be activated with a MAC (medium Access Control) CE (control element).

[0012] In NR Rel-17, a unified beam indication framework was introduced to simplify beam management, in which a common beam applicable to multiple downlink channels and signals suchP112095W001 3 as PDCCH and PDSCH may be indicated to a UE via a unified TCI state. The common beam framework is also referred to as a unified TCI state framework.

[0013] The new framework can be RRC configured in one out two modes of operation, i.e., “Joint DL / UL TCI” or “Separate DL / UL TCI”. For “Joint DL / UL TCI”, one Joint TCI state is used for both DL and UL (uplink) signals / channels. For “Separate DL / UL TCI”, one DL-only TCI state is used for DL channel s / signals and one UL-only TCI state is used for UL signals / channels. A TCI state configured under the newly introduced Rel-17 framework will henceforth be referred to as a unified TCI state.

[0014] A unified TCI state for DL or joint DL and UL comprises an identifier of two QCL source RSs, where the first RS is a QCL source RS for one of {typeA, typeB, typeC} QCL types, while the second RS is a QCL source RS for QCL typeD. The second RS is used to indicate a spatial beam or filter associated with the unified TCI state.

[0015] A unified TCI state can be updated with one of two alternatives:• Two-stage: RRC signaling is used to configure a list of unified TCI states in higher layer parameter PDSCH-config, and a MAC-CE is used to activate one unified TCI state in the list of unified TCI states.• Three-stage: RRC signaling is used to configure a list of unified TCI states in PDSCH- config, a MAC-CE is used to activate up to 8 unified TCI states in the list, and a 3 -bit TCI state bitfield in DCI (Downlink Control Information) formats 1 1 or 1 2 is used to indicate one of the activate unified TCI states.

[0016] The one activated or indicated unified TCI state is used in subsequent DL transmissions until a new unified TCI state is activated or indicated.

[0017] In NR terminology, the activation of a TCI state is the same as activation of an associated beam. When a TCI state is activated, the corresponding SSB or CSLRS with QCL typeD will be tracked by the UE in term of the associated time, frequency and spatial direction (or beam) so that the UE would know how to receive channel s / signals transmitted in an associated beam. Therefore, the activated beams can be dynamically switched and indicated by DCI. To switch to a non-activated beam, the beam has to be activated first, which may take a longer time since the UE needs to wait for the next available RS associated to the beam to synchronize to it.

[0018] Discontinuous Reception (DRX) methods denote the methods that allow the mobile device (alt. User Equipment, UE) to turn off its receiver for battery preservation purposes. DRX is an important function in order to increase the performance and standby times of small handsets.P112095W001 4

[0019] NR and LTE support efficient DRX in RRC CONNECTED (in addition to RRC IDLE and RRC INACTIVE). Depending on UE the UE activity, the UE can successively go down into deeper sleep modes. TS 36.321 and 38.300 illustrate a DRX cycle as follows, where the time between “On Duration” offers an opportunity for the UE to turn off its receiver, as illustrated in Figure 1.

[0020] When DRX is configured, the UE does not have to continuously monitor PDCCH. The DRX operation is characterized by the following• on-duration: duration that the UE waits for, after waking up, to receive PDCCHs. If the UE successfully decodes a PDCCH, the UE stays awake and starts the inactivity timer;• inactivity-timer: duration that the UE waits to successfully decode a PDCCH, from the last successful decoding of a PDCCH, failing which it can go back to sleep. The UE shall restart the inactivity timer following a single successful decoding of a PDCCH for a first transmission only (i.e. not for retransmissions);• retransmission-timer: duration until a retransmission can be expected;• cycle: specifies the periodic repetition of the on-duration followed by a possible period of inactivity;• active-time: total duration that the UE monitors PDCCH. This includes the "on-duration" of the DRX cycle, the time UE is performing continuous reception while the inactivity timer has not expired, and the time when the UE is performing continuous reception while waiting for a retransmission opportunity.

[0021] The NR specifications currently support two configurable DRX periods: a shortDRX- Cycle and a longDRX-Cycle, c.f. TS 38.321. The network controls the DRX operation in MAC using a number of configurable parameters sent by RRC signaling messages. The network may also trigger when the MAC entity for a certain cell group UE enters DRX by transmitting a DRX Command MAC Control Element, CE, or a Long DRX Command MAC CE to the UE on the DL- SCH transport channel in a cell of the corresponding cell group, as specified in 3GPP TS 36.321 and TS 38.321. Transition from short DRX to long DRX is controlled by a timer in the UE as well as by the network by transmitting a Long DRX Command MAC CE to the UE. During data inactivity, the DRX cycle may then be stepwise increased, i.e. from short to long, thereby improving the battery preservation.

[0022] The feature Search Space Set Group Switching was introduced In Rel-16 NR and further enhanced in Rel-17 NR to enable dynamic switching between different groups of search space sets in PDCCH to improve resource efficiency and reduce latency for search space management. To enhance the flexibility of PDCCH scheduling, in Rel-16 NR, a UE can beP112095W001 5 configured with multiple search space sets (referred to search space set groups, SSSGs) according to different QoS or service types. The switching between the different search space set groups (SSSGs) is controlled dynamically via the PDCCH monitoring adaptation field in DCI formats 0_l / 0_2 / 0_3 / l_l / l_2 / l_3, or by RRC reconfiguration. To further reduce UE power consumption in PDCCH monitoring, Rel-17 NR has introduced enhanced PDCCH monitoring including PDCCH skipping and Search Space Switch Timer. The Rel-17 enhancements apply to Type 3 PDCCH CSS set or UE-specific search space (USS). Basically, the NW can indicate a UE to skip PDCCH monitoring during a certain time period, or switch to a specific search space set group and skip PDCCH monitoring for other search space set groups, via DCI formats 0_l / 0_2 / 0_3 / l_l / l_2 / l_3, see an example in Figure 2. When the search space switch timer is expired, the UE is required to switch to the search space set group with the lowest group ID.

[0023] If the PDCCH monitoring adaptation field has 1 bit:• a “0” value for the bit indicates start of PDCCH monitoring according to search space sets with group index 0 and stop of PDCCH monitoring according to search spaces sets with other group indexes, if any• a “1” value for the bit indicates start of PDCCH monitoring according to search space sets with group index 1 and stop of PDCCH monitoring according to search space sets with other group indexes, if any, and the UE sets the timer value to the one provided by searchSpaceSwitchTimer-r 17 , if provided

[0024] If a PDCCH monitoring adaption field has 2 bits:• A “00” value for the bit indicates start of PDCCH monitoring according to search space sets with group index 0 and stop of PDCCH monitoring according to search space sets with other group indexes, if any• A “01” value for the bit indicates start of PDCCH monitoring according to search space sets with group index 1 and stop of PDCCH monitoring according to search space sets with other group indexes, if any, and the UE sets the timer value to the one provided by searchSpaceSwitchTimer-r 17 , if provided• A “10” value for the bit indicates start of PDCCH monitoring according to search space sets with group index 2 and stop of PDCCH monitoring according to search space sets with other group indexes, if any, and the UE sets the timer value to the one provided by searchSpaceSwitchTimer-r 17 , if provided• A “11” value is reserved

[0025] A UE can be configured with three groups indices corresponding to search space switch groups (SSSGs) for PDCCH monitoring on an active DL BWP of a serving cell.P112095W001 6

[0026] Similarly, NW can also use DCI format 0 1 / 0 2 / 0 3, or a DCI format 1_1 / 1_2 / 1_3 to indicate UE about PDCCH monitoring skipping, see an example in Figure 3.

[0027] If the PDCCH monitoring adaptation field has 1 bit:• a “0” value for the bit indicates no skipping in PDCCH monitoring.• a “ 1” value for the bit indicates skipping PDCCH monitoring for a duration provided by the first value in the set of durations

[0028] If a PDCCH monitoring adaption field has 2 bits:• A “00” value for the bits indicates no skipping in PDCCH monitoring• A “01” value for the bits indicates skipping PDCCH monitoring for a duration provided by the first value in the set of durations• A “10” value for the bits indicates skipping PDCCH monitoring for a duration provided by the second value in the set of durations• A “11” value for the bits indicates skipping PDCCH monitoring for a duration provided by the third value in the set of duration, if any; otherwise, if the set of durations includes two values, a use of “11” value is reserved

[0029] The PDCCH-Config Information element provided below shows the higher layer(RRC) configuration of SearchSpaceSwitchConfig in IE PDCCH-Config.PDCCH-Config information element- ASN1 START- TAG-PDCCH-CONFIG-STARTPDCCH-Config ::= SEQUENCE { controlResourceSetToAddModList SEQUENCE(SIZE (1..3)) OF ControlResourceSet OPTIONAL,- Need N controlResourceSetToReleaseList SEQUENCE(SIZE (1..3)) OF ControlResourceSetld OPTIONAL,- Need N searchSpacesToAddModList SEQUENCE(SIZE (1..10)) OF SearchSpace OPTIONAL, - - Need N searchSpacesToReleaseList SEQUENCE(SIZE (1..10)) OF SearchSpaceld OPTIONAL, - Need N downlinkPreemption SetupRelease { DownlinkPreemption } OPTIONAL, - NeedM tpc-PUSCH SetupRelease { PUSCH-TPC-CommandConfig } OPTIONAL, - NeedM tpc-PUCCH SetupRelease { PUCCH-TPC-CommandConfig } OPTIONAL, -Need M tpc-SRS SetupRelease { SRS-TPC-CommandConfig} OPTIONAL, - Need MP112095W001 7[[ controlResourceSetToAddModListSizeExt-vl610 SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..2)) OF ControlResourceSet OPTIONAL, - Need N controlResourceSetToReleaseListSizeExt-rl6 SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..5)) OF ControlResourceSetId-rl6 OPTIONAL, - Need N searchSpacesToAddModListExt-rl6 SEQUENCE(SIZE (1..1O)) OF SearchSpaceExt-rl6 OPTIONAL,- Need N uplinkCancellation-r!6 SetupRelease { UplinkCancellation-rl6 } OPTIONAL, - Need M monitoringCapability Config-rl6 ENUMERATED { rl5monitoringcapability,rl6monitoringcapability }OPTIONAL, - Need M searchSpaceSwitchConfig-rl6 SearchSpaceSwitchConfig-rl6 OPTIONAL - NeedR]],[[ searchSpacesToAddModListExt-vl700 SEQUENCE(SIZE (L.10)) OF SearchSpaceExt-vl700OPTIONAL, - Need N monitoringCapabilityConfig-vl710 ENUMERATED { rl7monitoringcapability } OPTIONAL,— Need M searchSpaceSwitchConfig-rl7 SearchSpaceSwitchConfig-rl7 OPTIONAL, - NeedR pdcch-SkippingDurationList-rl7 SEQUENCE(SIZE (1..3)) OF SCS-SpecificDuration-rl7 OPTIONAL- Need R]],[[ pdcch-MonitoringResumptionAfterNack-rl8 ENUMERATED {true} OPTIONAL, —Need R searchSpacesToAddModListExt-vl800 SEQUENCE(SIZE (L.10)) OF SearchSpaceExt-vl800OPTIONAL - Need N]]}SearchSpaceSwitchConfig-rl6 ::= SEQUENCE { cellGroupsForSwitchList-rl6 SEQUENCE(SIZE (1..4)) OF CellGroupForSwitch-rl6 OPTIONAL,- Need R searchSpaceSwitchDelay-rl6 INTEGER (10..52) OPTIONAL - Need RSearchSpaceSwitchConfig-rl7 ::= SEQUENCE { searchSpace SwitchT imer-r 17 SCS-SpecificDuration-rl7 OPTIONAL, - Need R searchSpaceSwitchDelay-rl7 INTEGER (10..52) OPTIONAL - Need RP112095W001 8CellGroupForSwitch-rl6 ::= SEQUENCE(SIZE (1..16)) OF ServCelllndexSCS-SpecificDuration-rl7 ::= INTEGER (1..166)- TAG-PDCCH-CONFIG-STOP- ASN1STOP

[0030] The higher layer parameters SearchSpaceSwitchTimer (controlling the time duration a UE switches from search space group X to search space group 0), and pdcch-skippingDurationList (providing one or more values to derive the skipping duration) can be configured with the following values (in units of slots):• SCS=15kHz: { 1, 2, 3, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100} slots, 26 values• SCS=30kHz: { 1, 2, 3, ..., 40,60,80,100,120, 160, 200} slots, 46 values• SCS=60kHz: { 1, 2, 3, ..., 80, 120, 160, 200, 240, 320, 400} slots, 86 values• SCS=120kHz: { 1, 2, 3,... , 160, 240, 320, 400, 480, 640, 800} slots, 166 values• SCS=480kHz: {4, 8, 12,..., 640, 960,1280,1600,1920,2560,3200} slots, 166 values• SCS=960kHz: {8,16, 24,. .. ,1280, 1920, 3200, 3840, 5120, 6400} slots, 166 values

[0031] The signal quality of a DL beam can be measured and reported by a UE based on a corresponding downlink RS, i.e., an SSB or a NZP CSI-RS, associated to the DL beam. The signal quality can be one of Ll-RSRP (layer one (LI) reference signal received power), Ll- SINR (signal to interference and noise ratio), or Ll-RSRQ (RS received quality). Such reports on Ll-RSRP or Ll-SINR are referred to as beam reports. Beam reports are configured via Channel State Information (CSI) report configuration in NR.

[0032] In NR, a UE can be configured by the network (or gNB) with one or more CSI report configurations. Each CSI report configuration is used to configure a CSI report. A CSI report can be either periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic. CSI reports from the UE can be used to assist the network to perform beam management operations, such as determining a proper beam for transmitting data and / or control channels to the UE. In this case, CSI report is also referred to as beam report.

[0033] A CSI report configuration is signaled in an information element (IE) CSI- ReportConfig in an RRC message. The IE CSI-ReportConfig is defined in TS 38.331, vl 8.0.0, clause 6.3, and is copied below. It comprises a CSI report identifier (ID), a CSI resource configuration ID for channel measurement, a serving cell index for a serving cell over which the CSI resources are to be measured, a CSI report type, i.e., whether it is periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic, a report quantity indicating what to be reported, and others. For beam managementP112095W001 9 purposes, the report quantity can be Ll-RSRP, Ll-SINR, CRI (CSI-RS resource indicator), and SSBRI (SSB Resource Indicator). See also TS 38.214, vl8.1.0, clause 5.2 for more details.

[0034] A CSI resource configuration comprises a list of RS resource sets to be measured, such as NZP CSI-RS resource sets and / or SSB resource sets for a given serving cell. Notice that the UE may measure CSI resources of a first serving cell and report in another serving cell.

[0035] Periodic or semi -persistent beam reports can be carried on PUCCH (physical Uplink Control Channel), and aperiodic beam reports are carried on PUSCH as part of UCI (Uplink Control Information).CSI-ReportConfig Information Element- ASN1 START- TAG-CSI-REPORTCONFIG-STARTCSI-ReportConfig ::= SEQUENCE { reportConfigld CSI-ReportConfigld, carrier ServCelllndex OPTIONAL, - Need S resourcesForChannelMeasurement CSI-ResourceConfigld, csi-IM-ResourcesForinterference CSI-ResourceConfigld OPTIONAL, - Need R nzp-CSI-RS-ResourcesForlnterference CSI-ResourceConfigld OPTIONAL, - Need R reportConfigType CHOICE { periodic SEQUENCE { reportSlotConfig CSI-ReportPeriodicityAndOffset, pucch-CSI-ResourceList SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxNrofBWPs)) OF PUCCH-CSI-Resource semiPersistentOnPU CCH SEQUENCE { reportSlotConfig CSI-ReportPeriodicityAndOffset, pucch-CSI-ResourceList SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxNrofBWPs)) OF PUCCH-CSI-Resource semiPersistentOnPUSCH SEQUENCE { reportSlotConfig ENUMERATED {s!5, sllO, sl20, sl40, sl80, s!160, sl320}, reportSlotOffsetList SEQUENCE (SIZE (L. maxNrofUL-Allocations)) OF INTEGER(0..32), pOalpha PO-PUSCH-AlphaSetld aperiodic SEQUENCE { reportSlotOffsetList SEQUENCE (SIZE (L. maxNrofUL-Allocations)) OF INTEGER(0..32) reportQuantity CHOICE { none NULL,P112095W001 10 cri-RI-PMI-CQI NULL, cri-RI-il NULL, cri-RI-il-CQI SEQUENCE { pdsch-BundleSizeForCSI ENUMERATED {n2, n4} OPTIONAL -Need S cri-RI-CQI NULL, cri-RSRP NULL, ssb-Index-RSRP NULL, cri-RI-LI-PMI-CQI NULL groupBasedBeamReporting CHOICE { enabled NULL, disabled SEQUENCE { nrofReportedRS ENUMERATED {nl, n2, n3, n4} OPTIONAL - NeedS csi-ReportMode-r!7 ENUMERATED {model, mode2} OPTIONAL, -Need R numberOfSingleTRP-CSI-Model-rl7 ENUMERATED {n0, nl, n2} OPTIONAL,- Need R}- TAG-CSI-REPORTCONFIG-STOP- ASN1STOP

[0036] As shown above, the field reportConfigType within CSI-ReportConfig indicates to the UE the UL channel to transmit the report and the time domain behavior for reporting the CSI measurements, which may also be called beam reporting in case it includes measurements used for beam management. The configuration indicates whether the report is periodic, aperiodic or semi -persistent, and associated configurations such as periodicity.

[0037] For aperiodic CSI reporting, a UE is also configured with a list of aperiodic CSI trigger states, each associated to one or more CSI report configurations. If multiple RS (NZP CSI-RS or SSB) resource sets are configured in a CSI resource configuration in an associated CSI report configuration, one set is selected in the corresponding trigger state.

[0038] An aperiodic CSI report is triggered when the CSI request field in DCI indicating an aperiodic trigger state is associated to the corresponding aperiodic CSI report configuration.P112095W001 11

[0039] Semi-persistent CSI reporting on PUCCH is triggered by MAC CE (see SP CSI reporting on PUCCH Activation / Deactivation MAC CE in TS 38.321), and semi -persistent CSI reporting on PUSCH is triggered by the CSI request field in DCI format 0 1 / 0 2 / 0 3

[0040] In legacy, the CSVbeam reporting is always NW-initiated. The NW explicitly requests a certain report from the UE, by including a pointer to a certain CSI-ReportConfig in DCI.

[0041] In NR Rel-19, UE initiated beam reporting will be supported in which a UE keeps monitoring the quality of a set of DL beams and sends a beam report only when certain condition is met. The followings have been agreed in 3gpp RANI meetings:• On triggering conditions or events, at least Event-2 is supported for triggering a UE- initiated beam report: o Event-2: Quality of at least one new beam becomes a threshold value better than the current beam, where the quality is at least LI -RSRP.• On beam report transmission procedure for UE-initiated / event-driven beam reporting, following modes are supported:• Mode A (dynamically scheduling UCI by gNB):• Step 1 : UE transmits a first PUCCH (one-bit / multi-bit) to request a resource for a second UL channel to carry beam report.• Step 2: UE detects the DCI format to indicate a resource for a second UL channel to carry beam report.• Step 3 : Beam report is transmitted in second UL channel.• Mode B (UCI in pre-configured resource(s) for second UL channel):• Step 1 : UE transmits a first PUCCH (one-bit / multi-bit) notifying a second UL channel to carry beam report.• Step 2: UE transmits the beam report in the second UL channel.• The notification in Step 1 is in a separate reporting instance from the beam report in Step 2.

[0042] Examples of signaling in Mode A and Mode B are illustrated in Figure 4 and 5 respectively. In both cases, after transmission of the UE initiated (UEI) beam report, UE may expect a beam indication from the NW to for example activate / deactivate, or update indicated or activated TCI state(s), or switch the serving beam.SUMMARY

[0043] In an embodiment, a method performed by a User Equipment (UE) to control Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) monitoring after a UE initiated (UEI) beam reportP112095W001 12 can include transmitting, to a network node, the UEI beam report and initiating continuous monitoring of the PDCCH for a duration of time after transmitting the UEI beam report.

[0044] In an embodiment, the initiating the continuous monitoring of the PDCCH immediately follows after transmitting to the network node the UEI beam report.

[0045] In an embodiment, the method further includes performing one or more of exiting a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) mode; exiting a PDCCH skipping mode; or resetting Search Space Set Group (SSSG) Switching.

[0046] In an embodiment, the UE exits the PDCCH skipping mode for a serving cell associated with the UEI beam report.

[0047] In an embodiment, the UE exits the PDCCH skipping mode for a certain set of configured event types.

[0048] In an embodiment, the UE exits the PDCCH skipping mode for a defined period of time that is predefined or is configured by the network node.

[0049] In an embodiment, the method also includes re-entering PDCCH skipping mode after the defined period of time.

[0050] In an embodiment, the transmitting the UEI beam report is in response to an occurrence of a triggering event.

[0051] In an embodiment, the triggering event is associated with one or more of a first uplink, UL, channel and / or a second UL channel.

[0052] In an embodiment, the UEI beam report is transmitted via the second UL channel.

[0053] In an embodiment, the method also includes receiving a first configuration of a firstPhysical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) associated with the first UL channel, receiving a second configuration of the second UL channel, receiving a third configuration of the UEI beam reporting comprising one or more conditions and information associated with at least one of the first UL channel or the second UL channel, transmitting, to the network node, an indication in the first UL channel that a condition of the one or more conditions has been met, and receiving, from the network node, a UL grant associated with the second UL channel to transmit the UEI beam report.

[0054] In an embodiment, the first configuration comprises, a periodicity, a slot offset, and a PUCCH resource index indicating a PUCCH resource for the first PUCCH.

[0055] In an embodiment, the second UL channel is one of a PUCCH, Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) or a Configured Grant PUSCH (CG-PUSCH).

[0056] In an embodiment, the third configuration is a Channel State Information (CSI) report configuration.P112095W001 13

[0057] In an embodiment, the UEI beam report is transmitted as uplink control information (UCI) in one of a PUCCH resource, a PUSCH resource, or a CG-PUSCH resource configured by the CSI report configuration.

[0058] In an embodiment, the monitoring the PDCCH comprises monitoring the PDCCH continuously for a duration of a timer after transmitting the UEI beam report.

[0059] In an embodiment, the method further includes re-entering DRX mode after expiration of the timer.

[0060] In an embodiment, the timer is associated with the DRX mode.

[0061] In an embodiment, the timer is associated with the UEI beam report.

[0062] In an embodiment, the timer is associated with all DRX groups.

[0063] In an embodiment, the timer is associated with a DRX group associated with a serving cell associated with the UEI beam report.

[0064] In an embodiment, the timer is initiated at the transmission of the UEI beam report.

[0065] In an embodiment, the timer is initiated in response to receiving the UL grant associated with the second UL channel.

[0066] In an embodiment, a UE for controlling PDCCH monitoring after a UEI beam report, where the UE includes processing circuitry configured to transmit to a network node the UEI beam report and initiate continuous monitoring of the PDCCH for a duration of time after transmitting the UEI beam report. The processing circuitry can also be configured to perform any of the embodiments of the methods described above.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0067] The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming a part of this specification illustrate several aspects of the disclosure, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.

[0068] Figure 1 shows an example of Discontinuous Reception (DRX) operation in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0069] Figure 2 shows an example of Search Space Set Group (SSSG) switching in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0070] Figure 3 shows an example of Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) skipping in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0071] Figure 4 shows an example of mode A User Equipment (UE) initiated (UEI) beam reporting in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;P112095W001 14

[0072] Figure 5 shows an example of mode B UEI beam reporting in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0073] Figure 6 shows a flowchart of a method for controlling PDCCH monitoring after a UEI beam report in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0074] Figure 7 shows an example of a UE extending a period in which the UE continuously monitors PDCCH in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0075] Figure 8 shows an example of a UE exiting PDCCH skipping mode in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0076] Figure 9 shows an example of a UE resetting SSSG switching in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0077] Figure 10 shows an example of a communication system in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0078] Figure 11 shows a User Equipment device (UE) in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0079] Figure 12 shows a network node in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0080] Figure 13 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0081] The embodiments set forth below represent information to enable those skilled in the art to practice the embodiments and illustrate the best mode of practicing the embodiments. Upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the disclosure and will recognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressed herein. It should be understood that these concepts and applications fall within the scope of the disclosure.

[0082] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art.

[0083] There currently exist certain challenge(s). The User Equipment (UE) transmits a UE- initiated (UEI) beam report when the channel changes. The network (NW) uses the report to send a beam indication to the UE. Since channel conditions may be deteriorating, it is important that the NW can send the beam indication as fast as possible after receiving the beam report. However,P112095W001 15 if the UE is in Discontinuous Reception (DRX), the UE is only monitoring the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) during the active time, which may be a small fraction of the total time. This may lead to a significant delay between the time when the UE sends the beam report, and the time when the NW can send a beam indication in response to the beam report.

[0084] Certain aspects of the disclosure and their embodiments may provide solutions to these or other challenges. When the UE has transmitted the beam report, the UE starts to continuously monitor the PDCCH. The method can include transmitting to a network node the UEI beam report, and then perform one or more of exiting a DRX mode, exiting a PDCCH skipping mode, or resetting Search Space Set Group (SSSG) switching, and then initiating monitoring of the PDCCH. The UE transmitting the UEI beam report can be in response to a triggering event associated with a first uplink channel in which the UE is monitoring or a second uplink channel. The UEI beam report can also be transmitted via the second uplink channel.

[0085] Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s). One of the advantages is that the latency between the beam report transmission and beam indication reception is reduced for a UE in DRX. The same advantage applies for a UE configured with search space switching.

[0086] Figure 6 shows a flowchart of a method for controlling PDCCH monitoring after a UEI beam report in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. It is to be appreciated that dashed lines in Figure 6 can represent acts or steps of the method that are optional.

[0087] In an embodiment, the flowchart in Figure 6 can be associated with mode A and / or mode B UEI beam reporting and can comprise one or more of the following steps.

[0088] Step 602: Receiving, by a UE 1100 from a network node 1200, a first configuration of a first Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) on a first uplink (UL) channel;

[0089] Step 604: Receiving by the UE 1100 a second configuration of a second UL channel;

[0090] Step 606: Receiving by the UE 1100 a third configuration of UE initiated beam reporting comprising one or more conditions and information of the first PUCCH and / or the second UL channel;

[0091] Step 608: Transmitting by the UE 1100 an indication in the first PUCCH when the one or more conditions are met,

[0092] Step 610: Receiving by the UE 1100 an UL grant to transmit a corresponding UE initiated beam report in the second UL channel.

[0093] Step 612: Transmitting by the UE 1100 a corresponding UE initiated beam report in the second UL channel.P112095W001 16

[0094] At step 614, the method can include performing, by the UE 1100, one or more of exiting (616) a Discontinuous Reception mode, exiting (618) a PDCCH skipping mode, or resetting (620) Search Space Set Group (SSSG) Switching.

[0095] Then, at 622, the method includes initiating monitoring, by the UE 1100, of the PDCCH.

[0096] In Step 602, the first PUCCH is a scheduling request (SR) and the first configuration comprises SR index or ID, a periodicity, a slot offset, and a PUCCH resource index indicating a PUCCH resource for the SR.

[0097] In Step 604, the second UL channel can be PUCCH, Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), or Configured Grant (CG)-PUSCH.

[0098] In Step 606, the third configuration is a Channel State Information (CSI) report configuration. The one or more conditions can be associated to an event such as Event-2. The information of the first PUCCH can be a SR index. The information of the second UL channel can be a PUCCH resource index, a PUSCH resource configuration, or a CG-PUSCH index.

[0099] In case of multiple CSI report configurations configured, each with a CSI report configuration index, for UE initiated beam reporting, the first PUCCH and the second UL channel can be the same or different for the multiple CSI report configurations.

[0100] In Step 612, the UE initiated beam report is transmitted as UCI in one of the PUCCH resources, the PUSCH resource and the CG-PUSCH configured in the CSI report configuration.

[0101] Based on its configuration, the UE evaluates one or more events. If an event is fulfilled, the UE initiates the transmission of a beam report. When the event is triggered, the UE may utilize a UE power saving mechanism, such as DRX or search space switching, which both increase the PDCCH monitoring interval.

[0102] In a set of embodiments, the UE modifies its PDCCH monitoring behavior after it transmitted the beam report over the second UL channel. For example, the UE may start to continuously monitor PDCCH.

[0103] In an embodiment, for a UE that monitors PDCCH discontinuously according to its DRX configuration, after the UE transmits the CSI report as shown in Figure 7, the UE continuously monitors the PDCCH for a period of time that is extended. Since the UE is continuously monitoring the PDCCH, the NW may send a beam indication to the UE in any of these resources.

[0104] In a related embodiment, the CSI report is a beam report, i.e., a report that contains Ll-RSRP or Ll-SINR measurements of the DL reference signal(s).P112095W001 17

[0105] In some embodiments, the UE continuously monitors the PDCCH for a limited period of time after transmitting the UEI beam report. For example, the UE may start a timer when it transmits the CSI report, and while the timer is running, the UE continuously monitors PDCCH. When the timer expires, the UE monitors the PDCCH discontinuously, according to its DRX configuration. In some embodiments, the timer is the drx-InactivityTimer, which is part of the legacy DRX configuration. In other words, the drx-InactivityTimer is reused for this purpose. In other embodiments, the timer is a new timer, e.g., a drx-ReportlnactivityTimer. By using a new timer, it becomes possible to configure a different value compared to the drx-InactivityTimer.

[0106] In some embodiments, the CSI report is an aperiodic CSI report, i.e., its transmission is triggered by a DCI transmitted in a PDCCH. In some cases, DCI format 0 1, DCI format 0 2 or DCI format 0 3 may be used to trigger the transmission of the aperiodic CSI report. In this case, the timer may be started when the UE receives the DCI that triggers the transmission of the report.

[0107] In some embodiments, the UE starts the DRX inactivity timer, e.g., drx- InactivityTimer or drx-ReportlnactivityTimer for all configured DRX groups. In some embodiments, the UE starts the DRX inactivity timer, e.g., drx-InactivityTimer or drx- ReportlnactivityTimer only for some of the DRX groups, e.g., the DRX group of the serving cell where the beam report was transmitted. Once either the drx-InactivityTimer or drx- ReportlnactivityTimer expire, at step 624, the UE can re-enter DRX mode.

[0108] In some embodiments, the UE applies the modified DRX behavior for all configured CSI reports, e.g., for any report configured by the RRC IE CSI-ReportConfig. In other embodiments, the UE applies the modified DRX behavior for a subset of the configured CSI reports.

[0109] In a preferred embodiment, the UE applies the modified DRX behavior only for event- driven or UE-initiated beam reports. In this case, the UE could start the timer, e.g., drx- InactivityTimer or drx-ReportlnactivityTimer at the transmission of the second UL channel. Alternatively, the UE may start the timer, e.g., drx-InactivityTimer or drx-ReportlnactivityTimer at the transmission of the first UL channel. In some embodiments, where the UE receives an UL grant for the transmission of the beam report in the second UL channel in response to the transmission of the first UL channel, the UE may start the timer, e.g., drx-InactivityTimer or drx- ReportlnactivityTimer, at the reception of said UL grant.

[0110] In other embodiments, the UE applies the modified DRX behavior for an explicitly configured subset of the configured CSI reports. For example, the modified DRX behavior may be applied to all CSI report configurations where a certain field is configured. For example, a field skipDrx could be included in the CSI-ReportConfig, and when the field skipDrx is configured, theP112095W001 18UE would start the drx-InactivityTimer in association with transmitting the report. Alternatively, a field drx-ReportlnactivityTimer could be included in the CSI-ReportConfig. The field drx- ReportlnactivityTimer would include the configurable values of the DRX report inactivity timer. This is exemplified in the exemplary portion of the CSI-ReportConfig below, where the underlined portions represent potential new portions of the information element:CSI-ReportConfig Information Element[OHl][[ drx-ReportlnactivityTimer _ ENUMERATED {_ msO, msE ms2, ms3, ms4, ms5, ms6, ms8, mslO, ms20, ms30, ms40, ms50, ms60, ms80,_ mslOO, ms200, ms300, ms500, ms750, msl280, msl920, ms2560, spared spare8,_ spare?, spared, spare5, spared, spare3, spare2, sparel },]]}- TAG-CSI-REPORTCONFIG-STOP

[0112] In an embodiment, if a UE is provided a set of durations by pdcch- skippingDurationList for PDCCH CSS set or USS for PDCCH monitoring on an active DL bandwidth part (BWP) of a serving cell, and the PDCCH skipping duration is activated by a DCI carrying PDCCH monitoring indication, after the UE transmitted a UEI beam report on a second UL channel, the UE exits the PDCCH monitoring skipping duration and starts to monitor PDCCH regularly.

[0113] Figure 8 depicts an example of the embodiment on PDCCH Skipping that the UE exits the activated PDCCH skipping mode after it sends a UEI beam report 802 and starts to monitor PDCCH since the NW may send a beam indication based on the received UEI beam report 802.

[0114] In some embodiments, the UE only exits the PDCCH monitoring skipping duration for the serving cell after the UEI beam report was transmitted.

[0115] In some embodiments, the UE only exits the PDCCH monitoring skipping duration only for a certain set of configured event types.P112095W001 19

[0116] In some embodiments, the timing UE exits PDCCH Skipping mode is configurable by the NW, or alternatively, the timing is pre-defined in a specification. In a detailed embodiment, it could be a time offset (in unit of symbols or slots etc.) from the timing instance UE sends the UEI beam report to UE exits the PDCCH Skipping mode.

[0117] In an embodiment, after expiration of a predefined or configured period of time, the UE can re-enter PDCCH skipping mode.

[0118] In another embodiment, if a UE is provided searchSpaceGroupIdList or searchSpaceGroupIdList-rl7 for a search space set, and switched to a SSSG-X with reduced PDCCH monitoring, as soon as a UEI beam report has been transmitted on a second UL channel, the UE stops the SeachSpaceSwitchTimer and switches back to monitor PDCCH regularly for the SSSG with the lowest group ID.

[0119] Figure 9 depicts an example of an embodiment related to Search Space Set Group Switching that the UE is configured with an SSSG-0 with regular PDCCH monitoring and an SSSG-1 with reduced PDCCH monitoring. After UE sends a UEI beam report 802, it is expected that UE switches back the SSSG-0 and starts to monitor PDCCH regularly since the NW may send a beam indication based on the received UEI beam report 802.

[0120] In some embodiments, the NW will send PDCCH carrying beam indication DCI within the search space set group with the lowest group ID.

[0121] In some embodiments, the NW will send PDCCH carrying beam indication DCI always in search space set group 0 and hence after sending a UEI beam report UE will switch to monitor PDCCH in the search space set group 0.

[0122] In some embodiments, the UE only stops and / or resets the searchSpaceSwitchTimer for the serving cell immediately after the UEI beam report was transmitted.

[0123] In some embodiments, the UE only stops and resets the searchSpaceSwitchTimer for a certain set of event types. In one example that UE is configured with multiple events (Event-1, Event-2, Event-7), the UE is required to switch to SSSG-0 only when Event-1 or Event-2 are met but is not required to switch to SSSG-0 if Event-7 is met.

[0124] In some embodiments, the timing UE switches from SSSG-X to SSSG-0 (after sending the UEI beam report) is configurable by NW, or alternatively, the timing is pre-defined according to a specification. In a detailed embodiment, it could be an offset (in unit of symbols or slots etc.) from the timing instance UE sends the UEI beam report and UE switches to SSSG-0.

[0125] Figure 10 shows an example of a communication system 1000 in accordance with some embodiments.P112095W001 20

[0126] In the example, the communication system 1000 includes a telecommunication network 1002 that includes an access network 1004, such as a Radio Access Network (RAN), and a core network 1006, which includes one or more core network nodes 1008. The access network 1004 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 1010A and 1010B (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 1010), or any other similar Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access nodes or non-3GPP Access Points (APs). Moreover, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, a network node is not necessarily limited to an implementation in which a radio portion and a baseband portion are supplied and integrated by a single vendor. Thus, it will be understood that network nodes include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the telecommunication network 1002 includes one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a node in the telecommunication network 1002 that supports an ORAN specification (e.g., a specification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization) and may operate alone or together with other nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any node in the telecommunication network 1002, including one or more network nodes 1010 and / or core network nodes 1008.

[0127] Examples of an ORAN network node include an Open Radio Unit (O-RU), an Open Distributed Unit (O-DU), an Open Central Unit (O-CU), including an O-CU Control Plane (O- CU-CP) or an O-CU User Plane (O-CU-UP), a RAN intelligent controller (near-real time or non- real time) hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time control application (e.g., xApp) or a non-real time control application (e.g., rApp), or any combination thereof (the adjective “open” designating support of an ORAN specification). The network node may support a specification by, for example, supporting an interface defined by the ORAN specification, such as an Al, Fl, Wl, El, E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaul management plane interface. Moreover, an ORAN access node may be a logical node in a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualization environment (described further below) in which one or more network functions are virtualized. For example, the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platform orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface defined by the O-RAN Alliance or comparable technologies. The network nodes 1010 facilitate direct or indirect connection of User Equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 1012A, 1012B, 1012C, and 1012D (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 1012) to the core network 1006 over one or more wireless connections.P112095W001 21

[0128] Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and / or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and / or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system 1000 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and / or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and / or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communication system 1000 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.

[0129] The UEs 1012 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 1010 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 1010 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 1012 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 1002 to enable and / or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and / or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunication network 1002.

[0130] In the depicted example, the core network 1006 connects the network nodes 1010 to one or more hosts, such as host 1016. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network 1006 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 1008) that are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, network nodes, and / or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 1008. Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-Concealing Function (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and / or a User Plane Function (UPF).

[0131] The host 1016 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 1004 and / or the telecommunication network 1002, and may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The host 1016 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more services. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio / video content, data collection services such as retrieving andP112095W001 22 compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.

[0132] As a whole, the communication system 1000 of Figure 10 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system 1000 may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or other suitable Second, Third, Fourth, or Fifth Generation (2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G) standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., Sixth Generation (6G)); Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi); and / or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi, and / or any Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox.

[0133] In some examples, the telecommunication network 1002 is a cellular network that implements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunication network 1002 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 1002. For example, the telecommunication network 1002 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and / or massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) / massive Internet of Things (loT) services to yet further UEs.

[0134] In some examples, the UEs 1012 are configured to transmit and / or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 1004 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 1004. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi -Radio Access Technology (RAT) or multi-standard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of WiFi, New Radio (NR), and LTE, i.e. being configured for Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC), such as Evolved UMTS Terrestrial RAN (E-UTRAN) NR - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

[0135] In the example, a hub 1014 communicates with the access network 1004 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 1012C and / or 1012D) and network nodes (e.g., network node 1010B). In some examples, the hub 1014 may be a controller, router,P112095W001 23 content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 1014 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 1006 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 1014 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes 1010, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 1014. As another example, the hub 1014 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 1014 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a Virtual Reality (VR) headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 1014 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 1014 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 1014 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.

[0136] The hub 1014 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 1010B. The hub 1014 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub 1014 and UEs (e.g., UE 1012C and / or 1012D), and between the hub 1014 and the core network 1006. In other examples, the hub 1014 is connected to the core network 1006 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 1014 may be configured to connect to a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) service provider over the access network 1004 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 1010 while still connected via the hub 1014 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 1014 may be a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to / from the UEs from / to the network node 1010B. In other embodiments, the hub 1014 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and the network node 1010B, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.

[0137] Figure 11 shows a UE 1100 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, a UE refers to a device capable, configured, arranged, and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and / or other UEs. Examples of a UE include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), wireless camera, gaming console or device, music storage device, playback appliance, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint,P112095W001 24 mobile station, tablet, laptop, Laptop Embedded Equipment (LEE), Laptop Mounted Equipment (LME), smart device, wireless Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), vehicle, vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded / integrated wireless device, etc. Other examples include any UE identified by the 3 GPP, including a Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) UE, a Machine Type Communication (MTC) UE, and / or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.

[0138] A UE may support Device-to-Device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3 GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), Vehi cl e-to- Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I), or Vehicle- to-Everything (V2X). In other examples, a UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and / or operates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).

[0139] The UE 1100 includes processing circuitry 1102 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1104 to an input / output interface 1106, a power source 1108, memory 1110, a communication interface 1112, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in Figure 11. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

[0140] The processing circuitry 1102 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 1110. The processing circuitry 1102 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or Digital Signal Processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 1102 may include multiple Central Processing Units (CPUs).

[0141] In the example, the input / output interface 1106 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and / or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor,P112095W001 25 a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into the UE 1100. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.

[0142] In some embodiments, the power source 1108 is structured as a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used. The power source 1108 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 1108 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 1100 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 1108. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source 1108 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 1100 to which power is supplied.

[0143] The memory 1110 may be or be configured to include memory such as Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), Programmable ROM (PROM), Erasable PROM (EPROM), Electrically EPROM (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 1110 includes one or more application programs 1114, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 1116. The memory 1110 may store, for use by the UE 1100, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0144] The memory 1110 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, High Density Digital Versatile Disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, Holographic Digital Data Storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini Dual In-line Memory Module (DIMM), Synchronous Dynamic RAM (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as a tamper resistant module in the form of a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) includingP112095W001 26 one or more Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs), such as a Universal SIM (USIM) and / or Internet Protocol Multimedia Services Identity Module (ISIM), other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as a ‘SIM card.’ The memory 1110 may allow the UE 1100 to access instructions, application programs, and the like stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system, may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 1110, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

[0145] The processing circuitry 1102 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 1112. The communication interface 1112 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 1122. The communication interface 1112 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 1118 and / or a receiver 1120 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 1118 and receiver 1120 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., the antenna 1122) and may share circuit components, software, or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0146] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 1112 may include cellular communication, WiFi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short- range communications such as Bluetooth, NFC, location-based communication such as the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. Communications may be implemented according to one or more communication protocols and / or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, NR, UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, Transmission Control Protocol / Intemet Protocol (TCP / IP), Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Quick User Datagram Protocol Internet Connection (QUIC), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0147] Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 1112, via a wireless connection to a network node. Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE. The output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports theP112095W001 27 sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected, an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).

[0148] As another example, a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, the UE may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.

[0149] A UE, when in the form of an loT device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, city wearable technology, extended industrial application, and healthcare. Non-limiting examples of such an loT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a television, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door / window sensor, a flood / moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a head-mounted display for Augmented Reality (AR) or VR, a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, an industrial robot, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and any kind of medical device, like a heart rate monitor or a remote controlled surgical robot. A UE in the form of an loT device comprises circuitry and / or software in dependence of the intended application of the loT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the UE 1100 shown in Figure 11.

[0150] As yet another specific example, in an loT scenario, a UE may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and / or measurements and transmits the results of such monitoring and / or measurements to another UE and / or a network node. The UE may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the UE may implement the 3 GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, a UE may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship, an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and / or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.P112095W001 28

[0151] In practice, any number of UEs may be used together with respect to a single use case. For example, a first UE might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second UE that is a remote controller operating the drone. When the user makes changes from the remote controller, the first UE may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g., by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed. The first and / or the second UE can also include more than one of the functionalities described above. For example, a UE might comprise the sensor and the actuator and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.

[0152] Figure 12 shows a network node 1200 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and / or with other network nodes or equipment in a telecommunication network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, APs (e.g., radio APs), Base Stations (BSs) (e.g., radio BSs, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs), NR Node Bs (gNBs)), and 0-RAN nodes or components of an 0-RAN node (e.g., 0-RU, 0-DU, O-CU).

[0153] Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units, distributed units (e.g., in an 0-RAN access node), and / or Remote Radio Units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such RRUs may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a Distributed Antenna System (DAS).

[0154] Other examples of network nodes include multiple Transmission Point (multi-TRP) 5G access nodes, Multi -Standard Radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as Radio Network Controllers (RNCs) or BS Controllers (BSCs), Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, Multi-Cell / Multicast Coordination Entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and / or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).

[0155] The network node 1200 includes processing circuitry 1202, memory 1204, a communication interface 1206, and a power source 1208. The network node 1200 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and an RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their ownP112095W001 29 respective components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 1200 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 1200 may be configured to support multiple RATs. In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 1204 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 1210 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 1200 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1200, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within the network node 1200.

[0156] The processing circuitry 1202 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, CPU, DSP, ASIC, FPGA, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software, and / or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 1200 components, such as the memory 1204, to provide network node 1200 functionality.

[0157] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1202 includes a System on a Chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1202 includes one or more of Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1212 and baseband processing circuitry 1214. In some embodiments, the RF transceiver circuitry 1212 and the baseband processing circuitry 1214 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of the RF transceiver circuitry 1212 and the baseband processing circuitry 1214 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0158] The memory 1204 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer- readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, RAM, ROM, mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD), or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and / or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device- readable, and / or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and / or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 1202. The memory 1204 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and / or other instructions capable of beingP112095W001 30 executed by the processing circuitry 1202 and utilized by the network node 1200. The memory 1204 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 1202 and / or any data received via the communication interface 1206. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1202 and the memory 1204 are integrated.

[0159] The communication interface 1206 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and / or data between a network node, access network, and / or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface 1206 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) 1216 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 1206 also includes radio front-end circuitry 1218 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 1210. The radio front-end circuitry 1218 comprises filters 1220 and amplifiers 1222. The radio front-end circuitry 1218 may be connected to the antenna 1210 and the processing circuitry 1202. The radio front-end circuitry 1218 may be configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna 1210 and the processing circuitry 1202. The radio front-end circuitry 1218 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuitry 1218 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of the filters 1220 and / or the amplifiers 1222. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 1210. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 1210 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 1218. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 1202. In other embodiments, the communication interface 1206 may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0160] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 1200 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 1218; instead, the processing circuitry 1202 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 1210. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 1212 is part of the communication interface 1206. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 1206 includes the one or more ports or terminals 1216, the radio front-end circuitry 1218, and the RF transceiver circuitry 1212 as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 1206 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 1214, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0161] The antenna 1210 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna 1210 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 1218 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 1210 is separate from the network node 1200 and connectable to the network node 1200 through an interface or port.P112095W001 31

[0162] The antenna 1210, the communication interface 1206, and / or the processing circuitry 1202 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and / or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node 1200. Any information, data, and / or signals may be received from a UE, another network node, and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 1210, the communication interface 1206, and / or the processing circuitry 1202 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node 1200. Any information, data, and / or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node, and / or any other network equipment.

[0163] The power source 1208 provides power to the various components of the network node 1200 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 1208 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 1200 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 1200 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid or an electricity outlet) via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 1208. As a further example, the power source 1208 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.

[0164] Embodiments of the network node 1200 may include additional components beyond those shown in Figure 12 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 1200 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 1200 and to allow output of information from the network node 1200. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 1200. In some embodiments providing a core network node, such as core network node 108 of FIG. 10, some components, such as the radio front-end circuitry 1218 and the RF transceiver circuitry 1212 may be omitted.

[0165] Figure 13 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1300 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices, and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates toP112095W001 32 an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more Virtual Machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtualization environments 1300 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, a UE, a core network node, or a host. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized. In some embodiments, the virtualization environment 1300 includes components defined by the O-RAN Alliance, such as an O-Cloud environment orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface. Virtualization may facilitate distributed implementations of a network node, a UE, a core network node, or a host.

[0166] Applications 1302 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment 1300 to implement some of the features, functions, and / or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0167] Hardware 1304 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and / or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and / or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, an input / output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 1306 (also referred to as hypervisors or Virtual Machine Monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 1308A and 1308B (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 1308), and / or perform any of the functions, features, and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 1306 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 1308.

[0168] The VMs 1308 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking, or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1306. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 1302 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 1308, and the implementations may be made in different ways. Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as Network Function Virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers and customer premise equipment.

[0169] In the context of NFV, a VM 1308 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine.P112095W001 33Each of the VMs 1308, and that part of the hardware 1304 that executes that VM, be it hardware dedicated to that VM and / or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more VMs 1308 on top of the hardware 1304 and corresponds to the application 1302.

[0170] The hardware 1304 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. The hardware 1304 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, the hardware 1304 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g., such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 1310, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of the applications 1302. In some embodiments, the hardware 1304 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station. In some embodiments, some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system 1312 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

[0171] Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes) may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and / or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions, and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining, or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and / or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination. Moreover, while components are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components. For example, a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and / or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface. In another example, non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may beP112095W001 34 implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

[0172] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and / or by end users and a wireless network generally.

[0173] Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modifications to the embodiments of the present disclosure. All such improvements and modifications are considered within the scope of the concepts disclosed herein.

[0174] Some of the references referred to herein include

[0175] RP -234007, New WID: NR MIMO Phase 5, Dec. 2023.

[0176] Chair notes, 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #116-bis, Changsha, Hunan Province, China, April 15th - 19th, 2024

[0177] Chair notes, 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #117, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka, Japan, May 20th - 24th, 2024

[0178] R1 -2405638, Moderator Summary #4 on UE-initiated / event-driven beam management, RAN1#117, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka, Japan, May 20th - 24th, 2024

[0179] Some of the embodiments described herein include

[0180] Embodiment 1 : A method performed by a user equipment, UE, (1100) to control Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH, monitoring after a UE initiated, UEI, beam report (802), the method comprising: transmitting (612), to a network node (1200), the UEI beam report (802); performing (614) one or more of: exiting (616) a Discontinuous Reception, DRX, mode; exiting (618) a PDCCH skipping mode; or resetting (620) Search Space Set Group, SSSG, Switching; and initiating (622) monitoring of the PDCCH.

[0181] Embodiment 2: The method of embodiment 1 wherein the transmitting the UEI beam report (802) is in response to an occurrence of a triggering event.

[0182] Embodiment 3: The method of embodiment 2, wherein the triggering event isP112095W001 35 associated with one or more of a first uplink, UL, channel or a second UL channel.

[0183] Embodiment 4: The method of embodiment 3, wherein the UEI beam report (802) is transmitted via the second UL channel.

[0184] Embodiment 5: The method of any of embodiments 1 to 4, further comprising: receiving (602) a first configuration of a first Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH, associated with the first UL channel; receiving (604) a second configuration of the second UL channel; receiving (606) a third configuration of the UEI beam reporting comprising one or more conditions and information associated with at least one of the first UL channel or the second UL channel; transmitting (608), to the network node (1200), an indication in the first UL channel that a condition of the one or more conditions has been met; and receiving (610), from the network node (1200), a UL grant associated with the second UL channel to transmit the UEI beam report (802).

[0185] Embodiment 6: The method of embodiment 5, wherein the first PUCCH is a scheduling request, SR, and the first configuration comprises an SR index or identification, a periodicity, a slot offset, and a PUCCH resource index indicating a PUCCH resource for the SR.

[0186] Embodiment 7: The method of any of embodiments 3 to 5, wherein the second UL channel is one of a PUCCH, Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH, or a Configured Grant, CG-PUSCH.

[0187] Embodiment 8: The method of any of embodiments 5 to 7, wherein the third configuration is a Channel State Information, CSI, report configuration.

[0188] Embodiment 9: The method of embodiment 8, wherein the UEI beam report (802) is transmitted as uplink control information, UCI, in one of a PUCCH resource, a PUSCH resource, or a CG-PUSCH resource configured by the CSI report configuration.

[0189] Embodiment 10: The method of any of embodiments 1 to 9, wherein the monitoring the PDCCH comprises monitoring the PDCCH continuously for a duration of a timer after transmitting the UEI beam report (802).

[0190] Embodiment 11 : The method of embodiment 10, further comprising: re-entering (624)DRX mode after expiration of the timer.

[0191] Embodiment 12: The method of any of embodiments 10 to 11, wherein the timer is associated with the DRX mode.

[0192] Embodiment 13: The method of any of embodiments 10 to 11, wherein the timer is associated with the UEI beam report (802).

[0193] Embodiment 14: The method of any of embodiments 10 to 13, wherein the timer is associated with all DRX groups.P112095W001 36

[0194] Embodiment 15: The method of any of embodiments 10 to 13, wherein the timer is associated with a DRX group associated with a serving cell associated with the UEI beam report (802).

[0195] Embodiment 16: The method of any of embodiments 10 to 15, wherein the timer is initiated at the transmission of the UEI beam report (802).

[0196] Embodiment 17: The method of any of embodiments 10 to 15, wherein the timer is initiated in response to receiving the UL grant associated with the second UL channel.

[0197] Embodiment 18: The method of any of embodiments 1 to 17, wherein the UE (1100) exits the PDCCH skipping mode for a serving cell associated with the UEI beam report (802).

[0198] Embodiment 19: The method of any of embodiments 1 to 17, wherein the UE (1100) exits the PDCCH skipping mode for a certain set of configured event types.

[0199] Embodiment 20: The method of any of embodiments 1 to 17, wherein the UE (1100) exits the PDCCH skipping mode for a defined period of time that is predefined or is configured by the network node (1200).

[0200] Embodiment 21 : The method of embodiment 20, further comprising: re-entering (626) PDCCH skipping mode after the defined period of time.

[0201] Embodiment 22: A user equipment, UE, (1100) for controlling Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH, monitoring after a UE initiated, UEI, beam report (802), the UE (1100) comprising processing circuitry configured to perform any of embodiments 1 to 21.

Claims

P112095W001 37CLAIMS1. A method performed by a user equipment, UE, (1100) to control Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH, monitoring after a UE initiated, UEI, beam report (802), the method comprising: transmitting (612), to a network node (1200), the UEI beam report (802); and initiating (622) continuous monitoring of the PDCCH for a duration of time after transmitting the UEI beam report (802).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the initiating the continuous monitoring of the PDCCH immediately follows after transmitting to the network node the UEI beam report (802).

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: performing (614) one or more of: exiting (616) a Discontinuous Reception, DRX, mode; exiting (618) a PDCCH skipping mode; or resetting (620) Search Space Set Group, SSSG, Switching.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the UE (1100) exits the PDCCH skipping mode for a serving cell associated with the UEI beam report (802).

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the UE (1100) exits the PDCCH skipping mode for a certain set of configured event types.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the UE (1100) exits the PDCCH skipping mode for a defined period of time that is predefined or is configured by the network node (1200).

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: re-entering (626) PDCCH skipping mode after the defined period of time.

8. The method of any of claims 1 to 7, wherein the transmitting the UEI beam report (802) is in response to an occurrence of a triggering event.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the triggering event is associated with one or more of a first uplink, UL, channel and / or a second UL channel.P112095W001 3810. The method of claim 9, wherein the UEI beam report (802) is transmitted via the second UL channel.

11. The method of any of claims 1 to 10, further comprising: receiving (602) a first configuration of a first Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH, associated with the first UL channel; receiving (604) a second configuration of the second UL channel; receiving (606) a third configuration of the UEI beam reporting comprising one or more conditions and information associated with at least one of the first UL channel or the second UL channel; transmitting (608), to the network node (1200), an indication in the first UL channel that a condition of the one or more conditions has been met; and receiving (610), from the network node (1200), a UL grant associated with the second UL channel to transmit the UEI beam report (802).

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first configuration comprises, a periodicity, a slot offset, and a PUCCH resource index indicating a PUCCH resource for the first PUCCH.

13. The method of any of claims 11 to 12, wherein the second UL channel is one of a PUCCH, Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH, or a Configured Grant, CG-PUSCH.

14. The method of any of claims 11 to 13, wherein the third configuration is a Channel State Information, CSI, report configuration.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the UEI beam report (802) is transmitted as uplink control information, UCI, in one of a PUCCH resource, a PUSCH resource, or a CG-PUSCH resource configured by the CSI report configuration.

16. The method of any of claims 1 to 15, wherein the monitoring the PDCCH comprises monitoring the PDCCH continuously for a duration of a timer after transmitting the UEI beam report (802).

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:P112095W001 39 re-entering (624) DRX mode after expiration of the timer.

18. The method of any of claims 16 to 17, wherein the timer is associated with the DRX mode.

19. The method of any of claims 16 to 17, wherein the timer is associated with the UEI beam report (802).

20. The method of any of claims 16 to 17, wherein the timer is associated with all DRX groups.

21. The method of any of claims 16 to 17, wherein the timer is associated with a DRX group associated with a serving cell associated with the UEI beam report (802).

22. The method of any of claims 16 to 17, wherein the timer is initiated at the transmission of the UEI beam report (802).

23. The method of any of claims 16 to 22, wherein the timer is initiated in response to receiving the UL grant associated with the second UL channel.

24. A user equipment, UE, (1100) for controlling Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH, monitoring after a UE initiated, UEI, beam report (802), the UE (1100) comprising processing circuitry configured to: transmit (612), to a network node (1200), the UEI beam report (802); and initiate (622) continuous monitoring of the PDCCH for a duration of time after transmitting the UEI beam report (802).

25. The UE (1100) of claim 24, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform any of claims 2 to 23.

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