Apparatus and method for supporting multi-TRP in a wireless communication system

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a 5G or 6G communication system for supporting a higher data transmission rate. Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, and relate to the technical field of communications. The method comprises: receiving at least one of first configuration information or second configuration information, wherein the first configuration information comprises first information related to a timing advance of each of at least two timing advance groups (TAGs), the second configuration information comprises second information related to synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) of at least one of a serving cell or a neighboring cell; and in case that the UE performs measurements, skipping at least one of reception of a first downlink signal or transmission of a first uplink signal on first time domain resources, wherein the first time domain resources are determined based on at least one of the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs or the second information, thereby providing an enhanced measurement method for achieving efficient communication of the whole communication system.

Description

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR SUPPORTING MULTI-TRP IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

[0001] The present disclosure relates to the technical field of communications, and in particular, to a user equipment (UE), a base station, and methods performed by the same. The present disclosure relates to apparatus and method for supporting multi-TRP in a wireless communication system.

[0002] 5G mobile communication technologies define broad frequency bands such that high transmission rates and new services are possible, and can be implemented not only in “Sub 6GHz” bands such as 3.5GHz, but also in “Above 6GHz” bands referred to as mmWave including 28GHz and 39GHz. In addition, it has been considered to implement 6G mobile communication technologies (referred to as Beyond 5G systems) in terahertz (THz) bands (for example, 95GHz to 3THz bands) in order to accomplish transmission rates fifty times faster than 5G mobile communication technologies and ultra-low latencies one-tenth of 5G mobile communication technologies.

[0003] At the beginning of the development of 5G mobile communication technologies, in order to support services and to satisfy performance requirements in connection with enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB), Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), and massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC), there has been ongoing standardization regarding beamforming and massive MIMO for mitigating radio-wave path loss and increasing radio-wave transmission distances in mmWave, supporting numerologies (for example, operating multiple subcarrier spacings) for efficiently utilizing mmWave resources and dynamic operation of slot formats, initial access technologies for supporting multi-beam transmission and broadbands, definition and operation of BWP (BandWidth Part), new channel coding methods such as a LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) code for large amount of data transmission and a polar code for highly reliable transmission of control information, L2 pre-processing, and network slicing for providing a dedicated network specialized to a specific service.

[0004] Currently, there are ongoing discussions regarding improvement and performance enhancement of initial 5G mobile communication technologies in view of services to be supported by 5G mobile communication technologies, and there has been physical layer standardization regarding technologies such as V2X (Vehicle-to-everything) for aiding driving determination by autonomous vehicles based on information regarding positions and states of vehicles transmitted by the vehicles and for enhancing user convenience, NR-U (New Radio Unlicensed) aimed at system operations conforming to various regulation-related requirements in unlicensed bands, NR UE Power Saving, Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) which is UE-satellite direct communication for providing coverage in an area in which communication with terrestrial networks is unavailable, and positioning.

[0005] Moreover, there has been ongoing standardization in air interface architecture / protocol regarding technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) for supporting new services through interworking and convergence with other industries, IAB (Integrated Access and Backhaul) for providing a node for network service area expansion by supporting a wireless backhaul link and an access link in an integrated manner, mobility enhancement including conditional handover and DAPS (Dual Active Protocol Stack) handover, and two-step random access for simplifying random access procedures (2-step RACH for NR). There also has been ongoing standardization in system architecture / service regarding a 5G baseline architecture (for example, service based architecture or service based interface) for combining Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technologies, and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) for receiving services based on UE positions.

[0006] As 5G mobile communication systems are commercialized, connected devices that have been exponentially increasing will be connected to communication networks, and it is accordingly expected that enhanced functions and performances of 5G mobile communication systems and integrated operations of connected devices will be necessary. To this end, new research is scheduled in connection with eXtended Reality (XR) for efficiently supporting AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality), MR (Mixed Reality) and the like, 5G performance improvement and complexity reduction by utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), AI service support, metaverse service support, and drone communication.

[0007] Furthermore, such development of 5G mobile communication systems will serve as a basis for developing not only new waveforms for providing coverage in terahertz bands of 6G mobile communication technologies, multi-antenna transmission technologies such as Full Dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas and large-scale antennas, metamaterial-based lenses and antennas for improving coverage of terahertz band signals, high-dimensional space multiplexing technology using OAM (Orbital Angular Momentum), and RIS (Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface), but also full-duplex technology for increasing frequency efficiency of 6G mobile communication technologies and improving system networks, AI-based communication technology for implementing system optimization by utilizing satellites and AI (Artificial Intelligence) from the design stage and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions, and next-generation distributed computing technology for implementing services at levels of complexity exceeding the limit of UE operation capability by utilizing ultra-high-performance communication and computing resources.

[0008] The present disclosure provides method and apparatus for supporting multi-TRP in wireless communication system.

[0009] According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided method and apparatus for supporting multi-TRP in wireless communication system.

[0010] Aspects of the present disclosure provide efficient communication methods in a wireless communication system.

[0011] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0012] Text and drawings are provided as examples only to assist in understanding the present disclosure. They should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Although certain embodiments and examples have been provided, based on the disclosure herein, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes may be made to the illustrated embodiments and examples without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0013] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to various embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0014] FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate example wireless transmission and reception paths according to the present disclosure;

[0015] FIG. 3A illustrates an example user equipment according to the present disclosure;

[0016] FIG. 3B illustrates an example base station according to the present disclosure;

[0017] FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic flowchart of a method performed by a UE in a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0018] FIG. 5 illustrates a schematic flowchart of a method performed by a base station in a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0019] FIG. 6 illustrates a schematic diagram of an application scenario of a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0020] FIG. 7 illustrates a schematic diagram of another application scenario of a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0021] FIG. 8 illustrates a schematic diagram of another application scenario of a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

[0022] FIG. 9 illustrates a schematic structure diagram of a user device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0023] FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a terminal or user equipment (UE) according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0024] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0025] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a network entity according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0026] In order to meet the increasing demand for wireless data communication services since the deployment of 4G communication systems, efforts have been made to develop improved 5G or pre-5G communication systems. Therefore, 5G or pre-5G communication systems are also called “Beyond 4G networks” or “Post-LTE systems”.

[0027] In order to achieve a higher data rate, 5G communication systems are implemented in higher frequency (millimeter, mmWave) bands, e.g., 60 GHz bands. In order to reduce propagation loss of radio waves and increase a transmission distance, technologies such as beamforming, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), full-dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna, analog beamforming and large-scale antenna are discussed in 5G communication systems.

[0028] In addition, in 5G communication systems, developments of system network improvement are underway based on advanced small cell, cloud radio access network (RAN), ultra-dense network, device-to-device (D2D) communication, wireless backhaul, mobile network, cooperative communication, coordinated multi-points (CoMP), reception-end interference cancellation, etc.

[0029] In 5G systems, hybrid FSK and QAM modulation (FQAM) and sliding window superposition coding (SWSC) as advanced coding modulation (ACM), and filter bank multicarrier (FBMC), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) as advanced access technologies have been developed.

[0030] The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the various embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.

[0031] The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of various embodiments of the present disclosure is provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

[0032] It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “a component surface” includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.

[0033] The term “include” or “may include” refers to the existence of a corresponding disclosed function, operation or component which can be used in various embodiments of the present disclosure and does not limit one or more additional functions, operations, or components. The terms such as “include” and / or “have” may be construed to denote a certain characteristic, number, step, operation, constituent element, component or a combination thereof, but may not be construed to exclude the existence of or a possibility of addition of one or more other characteristics, numbers, steps, operations, constituent elements, components or combinations thereof.

[0034] The term “or” used in various embodiments of the present disclosure includes any or all of combinations of listed words. For example, the expression “A or B” may include A, may include B, or may include both A and B.

[0035] Unless defined differently, all terms used herein, which include technical terminologies or scientific terminologies, have the same meaning as that understood by a person skilled in the art to which the present disclosure belongs. Such terms as those defined in a generally used dictionary are to be interpreted to have the meanings equal to the contextual meanings in the relevant field of art, and are not to be interpreted to have ideal or excessively formal meanings unless clearly defined in the present disclosure.

[0036] The various embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to various communication systems, such as: global system for mobile communications (GSM) system, code division multiple access (CDMA) system, broadband code division multiple access (WCDMA) system, general packet radio service (GPRS), long term evolution (LTE) system Frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, time division duplex (TDD) systems, universal mobile telecommunications systems (UMTS), global interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication systems, fifth generation (5G) systems or new radio (NR), etc. In addition, the various embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to future oriented communication technologies.

[0037] Hereinafter, embodiments of the disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0038] In describing the embodiments, descriptions related to technical contents well-known in the art and not associated directly with the disclosure will be omitted. Such an omission of unnecessary descriptions is intended to prevent obscuring of the main idea of the disclosure and more clearly transfer the main idea.

[0039] For the same reason, in the accompanying drawings, some elements may be exaggerated, omitted, or schematically illustrated. Further, the size of each element does not completely reflect the actual size. In the drawings, identical or corresponding elements are provided with identical reference numerals or different reference numerals.

[0040] The advantages and features of the disclosure and ways to achieve them will be apparent by making reference to embodiments as described below in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, the disclosure is not limited to the embodiments set forth below, but may be implemented in various different forms. The following embodiments are provided only to completely disclose the disclosure and inform those skilled in the art of the scope of the disclosure, and the disclosure is defined only by the scope of the appended claims. Throughout the specification, the same or like reference numerals designate the same or like elements. Furthermore, in describing the disclosure, a detailed description of known functions or constitution incorporated herein will be omitted in the case that it is determined that the description may make the subject matter of the disclosure unnecessarily unclear. The terms which will be described below are terms defined in consideration of the functions in the disclosure, and may be different according to users, intentions of the operators, or customs. Therefore, the definitions of the terms should be made based on the contents throughout the specification.

[0041] Herein, it will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations, may be performed based on computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded collectively onto at least one processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which perform through any one of, or in any combination of, the at least one processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for performing the functions specified in the flowchart block(s). These computer program instructions may also be stored in a non-transitory computer usable or computer-readable memory that may direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer usable or computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that perform the function specified in the flowchart block(s). The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a computer executed process such that the instructions that perform on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus provide steps for executing the functions specified in the flowchart block(s).

[0042] Further, each block may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which includes one or more executable instructions for executing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of the order. For example, two blocks(or functions) shown in succession may in fact be performed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be performed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved.

[0043] As used in embodiments of the disclosure, a “~unit” may refer to a software element or a hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), which performs a predetermined function. However, the term including the word “~unit” does not always have a meaning limited to software or hardware. The “~unit” may be constructed either to be stored in an addressable storage medium or to execute one or more processors. Therefore, the “~unit” includes, for example, software elements, object-oriented software elements, components such as class elements and task elements, processes, functions, properties, procedures, sub-routines, segments of a program code, drivers, firmware, micro-codes, circuits, data, database, data structures, tables, arrays, and parameters. The components and functions provided by the “~unit” may be either combined into a smaller number of components and a “~unit,” or divided into additional components and a “~unit.” Moreover, the components and “~units” may be implemented to reproduce one or more central processing units (CPUs) within a device or a security multimedia card. Further, in the embodiments, the “~unit” may include one or more processors.

[0044] It should be appreciated that the blocks in each flowchart and combinations of the flowcharts may be performed by one or more computer programs which include instructions. The entirety of the one or more computer programs may be stored in a single memory device or the one or more computer programs may be divided with different portions stored in different multiple memory devices.

[0045] Any of the functions or operations described herein can be processed by one processor or a combination of processors. The one processor or the combination of processors is circuitry performing processing and includes circuitry like an application processor (AP, e.g. a CPU), a communication processor (CP, e.g., a modem), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a neural processing unit (NPU) (e.g., an artificial intelligence (AI) chip), a Wi-Fi chip, a Bluetooth® chip, a global positioning system (GPS) chip, a near field communication (NFC) chip, connectivity chips, a sensor controller, a touch controller, a finger-print sensor controller, a display driver integrated circuit (IC), an audio CODEC chip, a universal serial bus (USB) controller, a camera controller, an image processing IC, a microprocessor unit (MPU), a system on chip (SoC), an IC, or the like.

[0046] It will be appreciated that various embodiments of the disclosure according to the claims and description in the specification can be realized in the form of hardware, software or a combination of hardware and software.

[0047] Any such software may be stored in non-transitory computer readable storage media. The non-transitory computer readable storage media store one or more computer programs (software modules), the one or more computer programs include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to perform a method of the disclosure.

[0048] Any such software may be stored in the form of volatile or non-volatile storage such as, for example, a storage device like read only memory (ROM), whether erasable or rewritable or not, or in the form of memory such as, for example, random access memory (RAM), memory chips, device or integrated circuits or on an optically or magnetically readable medium such as, for example, a compact disk (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), magnetic disk or magnetic tape or the like. It will be appreciated that the storage devices and storage media are various embodiments of non-transitory machine-readable storage that are suitable for storing a computer program or computer programs comprising instructions that, when executed, implement various embodiments of the disclosure. Accordingly, various embodiments of the present disclosure may provide a program comprising code for implementing apparatus or a method as claimed in any one of the claims of this specification and a non-transitory machine-readable storage storing such a program.

[0049] Hereinafter, the determination of priority between A and B in the present disclosure may refer to various actions such as selecting the one having a higher priority based on a predefined priority rule and performing an operation corresponding thereto, or omitting or dropping an operation corresponding to the one having a lower priority.

[0050] Hereinafter, "A or B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0051] In addition, "at least one of A, B, and C" as described in the present disclosure may be understood to include A, or B, or C, or any combination of A, B, and C.

[0052] In addition, "at least one of A, B, or C" as described in the present disclosure may be understood to include A, or B, or C, or any combination of A, B, and C.

[0053] Furthermore, "A / B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0054] Furthermore, "A, B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0055] Furthermore, "A and B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0056] Furthermore, “if condition A and condition B are satisfied,” as described in the present disclosure, may not be limited to a case where both condition A and condition B are satisfied, but may be understood to include a case where either condition A or condition B is individually satisfied, both condition A and condition B are satisfied, or one or more additional conditions are satisfied in combination.

[0057] Furthermore, throughout this disclosure, ordinal terms such as "first," "second," "third," etc., (and similar qualifiers) are used merely to distinguish between different instances, occurrences, configurations, messages, stages, or aspects of elements, operations, or information as described herein. Unless the context clearly dictates otherwise, the use of such ordinal terms does not itself require that the elements, operations, or information distinguished by these terms be structurally different, numerically distinct, or substantively dissimilar. For example, a "first signal" and a "second signal" may refer to instances of the same signal transmitted at different times or containing the same core information despite minor variations, or they may refer to signals with different content or characteristics, depending on the specific context. Similarly, a "first value" and a "second value" may represent the same magnitude but measured or applied in different circumstances, or they may represent different magnitudes. The interpretation should be guided by the specific technical context, function, and relationship described in the relevant portion of the specification and claims.

[0058] Furthermore, the terms “first ~”, “second ~”, etc., as described in the present disclosure with respect to various elements (e.g., information, objects, operation, sequences, or the like), should not limit those elements. These terms may only be intended to distinguish one element from another, and may not be intended to indicate a specific order. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element.

[0059] Furthermore, even if “first ~” and “second ~” are described in the present disclosure, it may be understood that element(s) referred to by “first ~” and “second ~” may be the same or different. For example, in case of element(s) being information, first information and second information may both be same information and, in some cases, are separate and different information.

[0060] In addition, the terms “if ~” and “in case that ~” as used in the disclosure or claims may be interpreted to include the meanings of “when (or upon) ~,” “in response to ~,” “based on ~,” or “according to ~,” and may be used interchangeably with these expressions. In addition, expressions other than those exemplified herein may also be used, as long as they have substantially the same meaning and do not impair the technical features of the present disclosure.

[0061] For example, the physical layer signaling may be referred to as Layer 1 (L1) signaling and may include downlink control information (DCI). In addition, the higher layer signaling may include a medium access control (MAC) control message, a radio resource control (RRC) signaling message, a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling message, or an application layer message. The RRC signaling message may be referred to as L3 (layer 3) signaling. It should be noted, however, that the higher layer signaling is not limited to the aforementioned examples.

[0062] In addition, the term "not perform" as used in the present disclosure or claims may, in context, be understood to mean that the corresponding step is omitted or skipped. Such a term may be replaced with other terms having the same or substantially equivalent meaning.

[0063] In addition, "transmitting a message including A and B" as described in the present disclosure, may be understood as encompassing both (i) transmitting A and B in a single message, and (ii) transmitting A and B separately via multiple messages (e.g., transmitting a first message including A and a second message including B). This interpretation may also apply to messages that include two or more items (e.g., A, B, C), transmitted either together or separately.

[0064] In addition, "transmitting a message including A and transmitting a message including B" may also be interpreted as transmitting a message including A and B in a single message.

[0065] In the specific embodiments of the present disclosure described below, terms or components included in the disclosure may be expressed in singular or plural form depending on the specific embodiments presented. However, such singular or plural expressions are selected appropriately for convenience of description, and the present disclosure is not limited to a singular or plural number of components. A component expressed in the plural form may be implemented as a single component, and a component expressed in the singular form may be implemented as multiple components.

[0066] The drawings or flowcharts described below illustrate exemplary methods that may be implemented according to the principles of the present disclosure, and various modifications may be made to the methods illustrated in the flowcharts of the present disclosure. For example, although illustrated as a series of steps, various steps in each drawing or flowchart may overlap, occur in parallel, occur in a different order, or be repeated. In other examples, any step may be omitted or replaced with another step.

[0067] The methods and apparatuses proposed in the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to each embodiment individually, but may also be applied in combination of all or some of the embodiments proposed in the disclosure. Therefore, the embodiments of the present disclosure may be modified and applied without significantly departing from the scope of the present disclosure, as would be understood by those skilled in the art.

[0068] In this case, even if certain wordings are described differently across embodiments, they may be used interchangeably or in substitution or in combination if their underlying concepts are equivalent. For example, for the same or equivalent concept, even if one embodiment uses the expression "A" and another embodiment uses the expression "B", such expressions may be understood interchangeably, in substitution, or in combination.

[0069] The terms used in the following description to refer to access nodes, network entities, messages, interfaces between network entities, various types of identification information, and the like, are provided merely for the convenience of explanation by way of example. Therefore, the present disclosure is not limited to the terms described below, and other terms having equivalent technical meanings may also be used. Such terms may also be interchangeable with terms defined in any 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) technical specifications (TS) where appropriate.

[0070] Hereinafter, a base station is an entity that allocates resources to terminals, and may be at least one of a gNode B, an eNode B, a Node B, a base station (BS), a wireless access unit, a BS controller, or a node on a network.

[0071] Furthermore, the base station of the present disclosure may include a split architecture comprising a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU). In this structure, the CU is configured to process the higher layers of the control and user planes, while the DU is configured to process lower-layer radio resource functions. The embodiments of the present disclosure may be equally applicable to 5G base station architectures in which such CU and DU functional splits are implemented.

[0072] A terminal may include a UE, a mobile station (MS), a cellular phone, a smartphone, a computer, or a multimedia system capable of performing communication functions.

[0073] In the disclosure, a downlink (DL) refers to a radio link through which a BS transmits a signal to a UE, and an uplink (UL) refers to a radio link through which a UE transmits a signal to a BS.

[0074] Furthermore, hereinafter, 5th generation (5G) mobile communication technologies (e.g., 5G new radio (NR)), 6th generation (6G) mobile communication technologies may be described by way of example, but the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems having similar technical backgrounds or channel types. For example, newly evolved mobile communication systems developed after 5G and 6G may be included. Furthermore, based on determinations by those skilled in the art, the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems (e.g., Wi-Fi systems) through some modifications without significantly departing from the scope of the present disclosure

[0075] In the following description, the terms physical channel and signal may be used interchangeably with data or control signal. For example, the term physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) refers to a physical channel through which data is transmitted, but the term PDSCH may also be used to refer to the data itself. That is, in the present disclosure, the expression "transmit a physical channel" may be interpreted as being equivalent to the expression "transmit data or a signal via a physical channel."

[0076] Hereinafter, in the context of the present disclosure, higher layer signaling may refer to signaling corresponding to at least one or any combination of the following: master information block (MIB), system information block (SIB) or SIB M (M = 1, 2, ...), radio resource control (RRC), or medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling message, or an application layer message. The RRC signaling message may be referred to as L3 (layer 3) signaling.

[0077] In addition, L1 signaling may refer to signaling corresponding to at least one or any combination of signaling techniques using the at least one or any combination of the following physical layer channels or signaling: physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), downlink control information (DCI), user equipment (UE)-specific DCI, group-common DCI, common DCI, scheduling DCI (e.g., DCI used for scheduling downlink or uplink data), non-scheduling DCI (e.g., DCI not used for scheduling downlink or uplink data) physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or uplink control information (UCI). The L1 signaling message may be referred to as a physical layer signaling.

[0078] Hereinafter, the expression that information is configured by the BS, as used in the present disclosure or claims, may, in context, be understood to mean that the terminal receives the corresponding information from the BS via a physical layer signaling or a higher layer signaling. Such an expression may be replaced with other terms having the same or substantially equivalent meaning.

[0079] Hereinafter, the operational principle of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0080] The present disclosure provides a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the user equipment, and a computer-readable storage medium, which can solve the problems of inaccurate measurement and poor flexibility of the UE in a network where m-TRPs exist. The described technical solutions are as follows.

[0081] In a first aspect, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, including:

[0082] receiving first configuration information and / or second configuration information, wherein the first configuration information includes first information related to a timing advance of each of at least two timing advance groups (TAGs), wherein the second configuration information includes second information related to synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) of a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell; and

[0083] not receiving a first downlink signal and / or transmitting a first uplink signal on first time domain resources, when the UE performs measurements,

[0084] wherein the first time domain resources are determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information.

[0085] In some other implementations, the first time domain resources include a second time-domain resource in which the UE performs the measurements, as well as N time units before and / or after the second time-domain resource,

[0086] wherein N is determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information.

[0087] In some other implementations, the first information includes and / or corresponding to each TAG of a plurality of TAGs, wherein denotes a timing advance configured in a timing advance command, and denotes a common timing advance for transmitting uplink signals in the corresponding TAG.

[0088] In some other implementations, the method further includes:

[0089] transmitting a second uplink signal at a first point in time, wherein the first point in time is determined based on a downlink reference point, and the downlink reference point is determined based on a second downlink signal,

[0090] wherein the second downlink signal is determined based on at least one of:

[0091] the SSB of the serving cell; or

[0092] an SSB of a cell of a first physical cell identity (PCI).

[0093] In some other implementations, the second downlink signal includes at least one of:

[0094] the SSB of the serving cell of the UE;

[0095] the SSB of the cell of the first PCI;

[0096] a downlink signal associated with a first transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (TCI-State) in a TCI-State list, the first TCI-State being quasi co-located with the SSB of the serving cell of the UE; or

[0097] a downlink signal associated with a second TCI-State in the TCI-State list, the second TCI-State being quasi co-located with the SSB of the cell of the first PCI.

[0098] In some other implementations, N is further determined based on a first capability of the UE, wherein the first capability of the UE includes at least one of:

[0099] a capability of the UE to support the at least two TAGs of an intra-cell m-TRP;

[0100] a capability of the UE to support the at least two TAGs of an inter-cell m-TRP; or

[0101] a capability of the UE to support Layer 1 measurement under the condition of a time difference between transmit timings of the at least two TAGs is greater than cyclic prefix (CP).

[0102] In some other implementations, when the UE supports the first capability, N is determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information; or

[0103] when the UE does not support the first capability, N is a fixed value.

[0104] In some other implementations, N is determined based on any one of:

[0105] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between first timing advances of a plurality of TAGs and a time unit length;

[0106] a ratio between a maximum value of the first timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length;

[0107] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between the first timing advances and second timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length,

[0108] a first parameter and a second parameter, wherein the first parameter is determined based on any one of:

[0109] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between first timing advances of a plurality of TAGs and a time unit length;

[0110] a ratio between a maximum value of the first timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length;

[0111] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between the first timing advances and second timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length,

[0112] the second parameter is determined based on a ratio between a receiving timing difference of the SSB of the serving cell and the SSB of the cell of the first PCI included in the second information and the time unit length,

[0113] wherein the first timing advances are determined based on and / or included in the first information,

[0114] wherein the second timing advances are determined based on and / or of a TAG for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell.

[0115] In a second aspect, there is provided a method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system, including:

[0116] transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), first configuration information and / or second configuration information, wherein the first configuration information includes first information related to a timing advance of each of at least two timing advance groups (TAGs), wherein the second configuration information includes second information related to synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) of a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell; and

[0117] not receiving a first downlink signal and / or transmitting a first uplink signal on first time domain resources,

[0118] wherein the first time domain resources are determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information.

[0119] In some other implementations, the first time domain resources include a second time-domain resource in which the UE performs the measurements, as well as N time units before and / or after the second time-domain resource,

[0120] Wherein N is determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information.

[0121] In some other implementations, the first information includes and / or corresponding to each TAG of a plurality of TAGs, wherein denotes a timing advance configured in a timing advance command, and denotes a common timing advance for transmitting uplink signals in the corresponding TAG.

[0122] In some other implementations, the method further includes:

[0123] receiving a second uplink signal transmitted by the UE at a first point in time, wherein the first point in time is determined based on a downlink reference point, and the downlink reference point is determined based on a second downlink signal,

[0124] wherein the second downlink signal is determined based on at least one of:

[0125] the SSB of the serving cell; or

[0126] an SSB of a cell of a first physical cell identity (PCI).

[0127] In some other implementations, the second downlink signal includes at least one of:

[0128] the SSB of the serving cell of the UE;

[0129] the SSB of the cell of the first PCI;

[0130] a downlink signal associated with a first transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (TCI-State) in a TCI-State list, the first TCI-State being quasi co-located with the SSB of the serving cell of the UE; or

[0131] a downlink signal associated with a second TCI-State in the TCI-State list, the second TCI-State being quasi co-located with the SSB of the cell of the first PCI.

[0132] In some other implementations, N is further determined based on a first capability of the UE, wherein the first capability of the UE includes at least one of:

[0133] a capability of the UE to support the at least two TAGs of an intra-cell m-TRP;

[0134] a capability of the UE to support the at least two TAGs of an inter-cell m-TRP; or

[0135] a capability of the UE to support Layer 1 measurement under the condition of a time difference between transmit timings of the at least two TAGs is greater than cyclic prefix (CP).

[0136] In some other implementations, when the UE supports the first capability, N is determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information; or

[0137] when the UE does not support the first capability, N is a fixed value.

[0138] In some other implementations, N is determined based on any one of:

[0139] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between first timing advances of a plurality of TAGs and a time unit length;

[0140] a ratio between a maximum value of the first timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length;

[0141] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between the first timing advances and second timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length,

[0142] a first parameter and a second parameter, wherein the first parameter is determined based on any one of:

[0143] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between first timing advances of a plurality of TAGs and a time unit length;

[0144] a ratio between a maximum value of the first timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length;

[0145] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between the first timing advances and second timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length,

[0146] the second parameter is determined based on a ratio between a receiving timing difference of the SSB of the serving cell and the SSB of the cell of the first PCI included in the second information and the time unit length,

[0147] wherein the first timing advances are determined based on and / or included in the first information,

[0148] wherein the second timing advances are determined based on and / or of a TAG for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell.

[0149] In a third aspect, there is provided a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, including: a transceiver, and at least one processor coupled with the transceiver, wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform the method of the first aspect of the present disclosure.

[0150] In a fourth aspect, there is provided a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, including: a transceiver, and at least one processor coupled with the transceiver, wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform the method of the second aspect of the present disclosure.

[0151] In a fifth aspect, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored therein, that when executed by a processor, performs the method of the first aspect or the second aspect of the present disclosure.

[0152] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the wireless network 100 shown in FIG. 1 is for illustration only. Other embodiments of the wireless network 100 can be used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0153] The wireless network 100 includes a gNodeB (gNB) 101, a gNB 102, and a gNB 103. gNB 101 communicates with gNB 102 and gNB 103. gNB 101 also communicates with at least one Internet Protocol (IP) network 130, such as the Internet, a private IP network, or other data networks.

[0154] Depending on a type of the network, other well-known terms such as “base station” or “access point” can be used instead of “gNodeB” or “gNB”. For convenience, the terms “gNodeB” and “gNB” are used in this patent document to refer to network infrastructure components that provide wireless access for remote terminals. And, depending on the type of the network, other well-known terms such as “mobile station”, “user station”, “remote terminal”, “wireless terminal” or “user apparatus” can be used instead of “user equipment” or “UE”. For convenience, the terms “user equipment” and “UE” are used in this patent document to refer to remote wireless devices that wirelessly access the gNB, no matter whether the UE is a mobile device (such as a mobile phone or a smart phone) or a fixed device (such as a desktop computer or a vending machine).

[0155] gNB 102 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for a first plurality of User Equipments (UEs) within a coverage area 120 of gNB 102. The first plurality of UEs include a UE 111, which may be located in a Small Business (SB); a UE 112, which may be located in an enterprise (E); a UE 113, which may be located in a WiFi Hotspot (HS); a UE 114, which may be located in a first residence (R); a UE 115, which may be located in a second residence (R); a UE 116, which may be a mobile device (M), such as a cellular phone, a wireless laptop computer, a wireless PDA, etc. GNB 103 provides wireless broadband access to network 130 for a second plurality of UEs within a coverage area 125 of gNB 103. The second plurality of UEs include a UE 115 and a UE 116. In some embodiments, one or more of gNBs 101-103 can communicate with each other and with UEs 111-116 using 5G, Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-A, WiMAX or other advanced wireless communication technologies.

[0156] The dashed lines show approximate ranges of the coverage areas 120 and 125, and the ranges are shown as approximate circles merely for illustration and explanation purposes. It should be clearly understood that the coverage areas associated with the gNBs, such as the coverage areas 120 and 125, may have other shapes, including irregular shapes, depending on configurations of the gNBs and changes in the radio environment associated with natural obstacles and man-made obstacles.

[0157] As will be described in more detail below, one or more of gNB 101, gNB 102, and gNB 103 include a 2D antenna array as described in embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, one or more of gNB 101, gNB 102, and gNB 103 support codebook designs and structures for systems with 2D antenna arrays.

[0158] Although FIG. 1 illustrates an example of the wireless network 100, various changes can be made to FIG. 1. The wireless network 100 can include any number of gNBs and any number of UEs in any suitable arrangement, for example. Furthermore, gNB 101 can directly communicate with any number of UEs and provide wireless broadband access to the network 130 for those UEs. Similarly, each gNB 102-103 can directly communicate with the network 130 and provide direct wireless broadband access to the network 130 for the UEs. In addition, gNB 101, 102 and / or 103 can provide access to other or additional external networks, such as external telephone networks or other types of data networks.

[0159] FIGs. 2A and 2B illustrate example wireless transmission and reception paths according to the present disclosure. In the following description, the transmission path 200 can be described as being implemented in a gNB, such as gNB 102, and the reception path 250 can be described as being implemented in a UE, such as UE 116. However, it should be understood that the reception path 250 can be implemented in a gNB and the transmission path 200 can be implemented in a UE. In some embodiments, the reception path 250 is configured to support codebook designs and structures for systems with 2D antenna arrays as described in embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0160] The transmission path 200 includes a channel coding and modulation block 205, a Serial-to-Parallel (S-to-P) block 210, a size N Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) block 215, a Parallel-to-Serial (P-to-S) block 220, a cyclic prefix addition block 225, and an up-converter (UC) 230. The reception path 250 includes a down-converter (DC) 255, a cyclic prefix removal block 260, a Serial-to-Parallel (S-to-P) block 265, a size N Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) block 270, a Parallel-to-Serial (P-to-S) block 275, and a channel decoding and demodulation block 280.

[0161] In the transmission path 200, the channel coding and modulation block 205 receives a set of information bits, applies coding (such as Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) coding), and modulates the input bits (such as using Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) or Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)) to generate a sequence of frequency-domain modulated symbols. The Serial-to-Parallel (S-to-P) block 210 converts (such as demultiplexes) serial modulated symbols into parallel data to generate N parallel symbol streams, where N is a size of the IFFT / FFT used in gNB 102 and UE 116. The size N IFFT block 215 performs IFFT operations on the N parallel symbol streams to generate a time-domain output signal. The Parallel-to-Serial block 220 converts (such as multiplexes) parallel time-domain output symbols from the Size N IFFT block 215 to generate a serial time-domain signal. The cyclic prefix addition block 225 inserts a cyclic prefix into the time-domain signal. The up-converter 230 modulates (such as up-converts) the output of the cyclic prefix addition block 225 to an RF frequency for transmission via a wireless channel. The signal can also be filtered at a baseband before switching to the RF frequency.

[0162] The RF signal transmitted from gNB 102 arrives at UE 116 after passing through the wireless channel, and operations in reverse to those at gNB 102 are performed at UE 116. The down-converter 255 down-converts the received signal to a baseband frequency, and the cyclic prefix removal block 260 removes the cyclic prefix to generate a serial time-domain baseband signal. The Serial-to-Parallel block 265 converts the time-domain baseband signal into a parallel time-domain signal. The Size N FFT block 270 performs an FFT algorithm to generate N parallel frequency-domain signals. The Parallel-to-Serial block 275 converts the parallel frequency-domain signal into a sequence of modulated data symbols. The channel decoding and demodulation block 280 demodulates and decodes the modulated symbols to recover the original input data stream.

[0163] Each of gNBs 101-103 may implement a transmission path 200 similar to that for transmitting to UEs 111-116 in the downlink, and may implement a reception path 250 similar to that for receiving from UEs 111-116 in the uplink. Similarly, each of UEs 111-116 may implement a transmission path 200 for transmitting to gNBs 101-103 in the uplink, and may implement a reception path 250 for receiving from gNBs 101-103 in the downlink.

[0164] Each of the components in FIGs. 2A and 2B can be implemented using only hardware, or using a combination of hardware and software / firmware. As a specific example, at least some of the components in FIGs. 2A and 2B may be implemented in software, while other components may be implemented in configurable hardware or a combination of software and configurable hardware. For example, the FFT block 270 and IFFT block 215 may be implemented as configurable software algorithms, in which the value of the size N may be modified according to the implementation.

[0165] Furthermore, although described as using FFT and IFFT, this is only illustrative and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the present disclosure. Other types of transforms can be used, such as Discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) functions. It should be understood that for DFT and IDFT functions, the value of variable N may be any integer (such as 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), while for FFT and IFFT functions, the value of variable N may be any integer which is a power of 2 (such as 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.).

[0166] Although FIGs. 2A and 2B illustrate examples of wireless transmission and reception paths, various changes may be made to FIGs. 2A and 2B. For example, various components in FIGs. 2A and 2B can be combined, further subdivided or omitted, and additional components can be added according to specific requirements. Furthermore, FIGs. 2A and 2B are intended to illustrate examples of types of transmission and reception paths that can be used in a wireless network. Any other suitable architecture can be used to support wireless communication in a wireless network.

[0167] FIG. 3A illustrates an example UE 116 according to the present disclosure. The embodiment of UE 116 shown in FIG. 3A is for illustration only, and UEs 111-115 of FIG. 1 can have the same or similar configuration. However, a UE has various configurations, and FIG. 3A does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any specific implementation of the UE.

[0168] UE 116 includes an antenna 301, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 302, a transmission (TX) processing circuit 303, a microphone 304, and a reception (RX) processing circuit 305. UE 116 also includes a speaker 306, a controller / processor 307, an input / output (I / O) interface 308, an input device(s) 309, a display 310, and a memory 311. The memory 311 includes an operating system (OS) 312 and one or more applications 313.

[0169] The RF transceiver 302 receives an incoming RF signal transmitted by a gNB of the wireless network 100 from the antenna 301. The RF transceiver 302 down-converts the incoming RF signal to generate an intermediate frequency (IF) or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is transmitted to the RX processing circuit 305, where the RX processing circuit 305 generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signal. The RX processing circuit 305 transmits the processed baseband signal to speaker 306 (such as for voice data) or to controller / processor 307 for further processing (such as for web browsing data).

[0170] The TX processing circuit 303 receives analog or digital voice data from microphone 304 or other outgoing baseband data (such as network data, email or interactive video game data) from controller / processor 307. The TX processing circuit 303 encodes, multiplexes, and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IF signal. The RF transceiver 302 receives the outgoing processed baseband or IF signal from the TX processing circuit 303 and up-converts the baseband or IF signal into an RF signal transmitted via the antenna 301.

[0171] The controller / processor 307 can include one or more processors or other processing devices and execute an OS 312 stored in the memory 311 in order to control the overall operation of UE 116. For example, the controller / processor 307 can control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of backward channel signals through the RF transceiver 302, the RX processing circuit 305 and the TX processing circuit 303 according to well-known principles. In some embodiments, the controller / processor 307 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

[0172] The controller / processor 307 is also capable of executing other processes and programs residing in the memory 311, such as operations for channel quality measurement and reporting for systems with 2D antenna arrays as described in embodiments of the present disclosure. The controller / processor 307 can move data into or out of the memory 311 as required by an execution process. In some embodiments, the controller / processor 307 is configured to execute the application 313 based on the OS 312 or in response to signals received from the gNB or the operator. The controller / processor 307 is also coupled to an I / O interface IF 308, where the I / O interface 308 provides UE 116 with the ability to connect to other devices such as laptop computers and handheld computers. I / O interface 308 is a communication path between these accessories and the controller / processor 307.

[0173] The controller / processor 307 is also coupled to the input device(s) 309 and the display 310. An operator of UE 116 can input data into UE 116 using the input device(s) 309. The display 310 may be a liquid crystal display or other display capable of presenting text and / or at least limited graphics (such as from a website). The memory 311 is coupled to the controller / processor 307. A part of the memory 311 can include a random access memory (RAM), while another part of the memory 311 can include a flash memory or other read-only memory (ROM).

[0174] Although FIG. 3A illustrates an example of UE 116, various changes can be made to FIG. 3A. For example, various components in FIG. 3A can be combined, further subdivided or omitted, and additional components can be added according to specific requirements. As a specific example, the controller / processor 307 can be divided into a plurality of processors, such as one or more central processing units (CPUs) and one or more graphics processing units (GPUs). Furthermore, although FIG. 3A illustrates that the UE 116 is configured as a mobile phone or a smart phone, UEs can be configured to operate as other types of mobile or fixed devices.

[0175] FIG. 3B illustrates an example gNB 102 according to the present disclosure. The embodiment of gNB 102 shown in FIG. 3B is for illustration only, and other gNBs of FIG. 1 can have the same or similar configuration. However, a gNB has various configurations, and FIG. 3B does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any specific implementation of a gNB. It should be noted that gNB 101 and gNB 103 can include the same or similar structures as gNB 102.

[0176] As shown in FIG. 3B, gNB 102 includes a plurality of antennas 370a-370n, a plurality of RF transceivers 372a-372n, a transmission (TX) processing circuit 374, and a reception (RX) processing circuit 376. In certain embodiments, one or more of the plurality of antennas 370a-370n include a 2D antenna array. gNB 102 also includes a controller / processor 378, a memory 380, and a backhaul or network interface 382.

[0177] RF transceivers 372a-372n receive an incoming RF signal from antennas 370a-370n, such as a signal transmitted by UEs or other gNBs. RF transceivers 372a-372n down-convert the incoming RF signal to generate an IF or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is transmitted to the RX processing circuit 376, where the RX processing circuit 376 generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signal. RX processing circuit 376 transmits the processed baseband signal to controller / processor 378 for further processing.

[0178] The TX processing circuit 374 receives analog or digital data (such as voice data, network data, email or interactive video game data) from the controller / processor 378. TX processing circuit 374 encodes, multiplexes and / or digitizes outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IF signal. RF transceivers 372a-372n receive the outgoing processed baseband or IF signal from TX processing circuit 374 and up-convert the baseband or IF signal into an RF signal transmitted via antennas 370a-370n.

[0179] The controller / processor 378 can include one or more processors or other processing devices that control the overall operation of gNB 102. For example, the controller / processor 378 can control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of backward channel signals through the RF transceivers 372a-372n, the RX processing circuit 376 and the TX processing circuit 374 according to well-known principles. The controller / processor 378 can also support additional functions, such as higher-level wireless communication functions. For example, the controller / processor 378 can perform a Blind Interference Sensing (BIS) process such as that performed through a BIS algorithm, and decode a received signal from which an interference signal is subtracted. A controller / processor 378 may support any of a variety of other functions in gNB 102. In some embodiments, the controller / processor 378 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

[0180] The controller / processor 378 is also capable of executing programs and other processes residing in the memory 380, such as a basic OS. The controller / processor 378 can also support channel quality measurement and reporting for systems with 2D antenna arrays as described in embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the controller / processor 378 supports communication between entities such as web RTCs. The controller / processor 378 can move data into or out of the memory 380 as required by an execution process.

[0181] The controller / processor 378 is also coupled to the backhaul or network interface 382. The backhaul or network interface 382 allows gNB 102 to communicate with other devices or systems through a backhaul connection or through a network. The backhaul or network interface 382 can support communication over any suitable wired or wireless connection(s). For example, when gNB 102 is implemented as a part of a cellular communication system, such as a cellular communication system supporting 5G or new radio access technology or NR, LTE or LTE-A, the backhaul or network interface 382 can allow gNB 102 to communicate with other gNBs through wired or wireless backhaul connections. When gNB 102 is implemented as an access point, the backhaul or network interface 382 can allow gNB 102 to communicate with a larger network, such as the Internet, through a wired or wireless local area network or through a wired or wireless connection. The backhaul or network interface 382 includes any suitable structure that supports communication through a wired or wireless connection, such as an Ethernet or an RF transceiver.

[0182] The memory 380 is coupled to the controller / processor 378. A part of the memory 380 can include an RAM, while another part of the memory 380 can include a flash memory or other ROMs. In certain embodiments, a plurality of instructions, such as the BIS algorithm, are stored in the memory. The plurality of instructions are configured to cause the controller / processor 378 to execute the BIS process and decode the received signal after subtracting at least one interference signal determined by the BIS algorithm.

[0183] As will be described in more detail below, the transmission and reception paths of gNB 102 (implemented using RF transceivers 372a-372n, TX processing circuit 374 and / or RX processing circuit 376) support aggregated communication with FDD cells and TDD cells.

[0184] Although FIG. 3B illustrates an example of gNB 102, various changes may be made to FIG. 3B. For example, gNB 102 can include any number of each component shown in FIG. 3A. As a specific example, the access point can include many backhaul or network interfaces 382, and the controller / processor 378 can support routing functions to route data between different network addresses. As another specific example, although shown as including a single instance of the TX processing circuit 374 and a single instance of the RX processing circuit 376, gNB 102 can include multiple instances of each (such as one for each RF transceiver).

[0185] With the development of 5G systems, in order to provide users with better communication services, multiple enhancement technologies, such as multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) or carrier aggregation (CA) applied to a multiple transmission and reception point (multi-TRP, or m-TRP), are introduced, to further improve the efficiency of communication between a user equipment (UE) and a base station, and to improve the communication rate or communication reliability.

[0186] When multiple TRPs and multiple carriers communicate jointly with the UE, in conventional technologies, the collaboration of multiple stations and the communications between the multiple stations and the UE need to be limited to apply under certain specific conditions. For example, MIMO m-TRP transmission of single-downlink control information (S-DCI) needs to be limited to apply only if the following condition is met: a receiving timing difference (RTD) on the UE side is less than a length of a cyclic prefix (CP) in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system.

[0187] In a communication system, the length of the CP is closely related to a numerology and a subcarrier spacing (SCS). For example, when SCS=15kHz, the CP length is about 4.7μs, when SCS=30kHz, the CP length is about 2.3μs, when SCS=60kHz, the CP length is about 1.2μs, when SCS=120kHz, the CP length is about 0.57μs, and when SCS=240kHz, the CP length is about 0.29μs. This then makes network deployment of the m-TRP technology applicable only when a radius of the cell is very small, which poses higher challenges to both the network deployment and the scheduling, and how to make the m-TRP MIMO technology more widely used in actual deployment is a problem to be solved.

[0188] In the communication system of the m-TRP and the UE, each TRP is also the base station gNB or a part of the base station gNB. In the communication system, the measurement of a user equipment (UE) is an important process in the communication between the base station and the UE. In the communication system of the m-TRP and the UE, the UE reports a measurement result based on radio resource management (RRM) or layer1 (L1) measurements of the UE, and the gNB may perform a corresponding communication method and step based on the measurement result or in accordance with the rules. When the UE performs the RRM measurement or the L1 measurement, it calculates the measurement result on the configured measurement resources, for example, it calculates corresponding reference signal receiving power (RSRP) or signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). In the calculation of time-domain signals, if the corresponding time unit is not selected accurately, all signals of the whole time unit will be counted in the measurement, which makes the result inaccurate, i.e., the UE reports an inaccurate result to the base station, and the result can not actually reflect the quality condition between the base station and the UE, which makes next scheduling of the base station not optimal. Therefore, how to measure and report the result more accurately is a problem to be solved urgently.

[0189] Herein, there is proposed an m-TRP / cell / carrier component network deployment, in which the UEs in the communication system perform different uplink transmission mechanisms and different L1 measurement mechanisms according to configured messages and the UE’s capability, which can support a wider range of applications in actual deployment, e.g., network deployment with a larger coverage at each station, and more flexible deployment and scheduling of the base station, e.g., support for intra-cell m-TRP and UE communication, support for inter-cell m-TRP and UE communication, support for downlink communication & measurement and uplink communication of certain N1 stations and the UE, with N1 being a positive integer greater than 1, and also support for certain N2 stations to receive only uplink communication from the UE, with N2 being a positive integer greater than 1, where the N2 stations may also be referred to hereinafter as UL-only TRPs. In the case of guaranteeing the accuracy of measurement when performing the RRM measurement or the L1 measurement, cells with a larger cell radius can be supported, and the reliability of uplink transmissions is increased by multiple UL-only TRPs, thereby increasing the uplink coverage and communication reliability. The deployment and scheduling of the base station is enhanced, and the efficiency of communication between the network or the base station and the UE is improved.

[0190] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0191] Text and drawings are provided as examples only to assist the reader in understanding the present disclosure. They are not intended to and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Although certain embodiments and examples have been provided, based on the disclosure herein, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes may be made to the illustrated embodiments and examples without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0192] FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic flowchart of a method performed by a UE in a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The method may include:

[0193] step S11: receiving, by a UE, first configuration information and / or second configuration information; and

[0194] step S12: not receiving a first downlink signal and / or transmitting a first uplink signal on first time domain resources, when the UE performs measurements. The UE may perform measurements by skipping at least one of reception of a first downlink signal or transmission of a first uplink signal on first time domain resources.

[0195] wherein the first time domain resources are determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information. Optionally, the first time domain resources include a second time-domain resource in which the UE performs the measurements, as well as N time units before and / or after the second time-domain resource. Wherein N is determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information.

[0196] In some embodiments, the first configuration information includes first information related to a timing advance of each of at least two timing advance groups (TAGs). Optionally, the first information includes and / or corresponding to each TAG of a plurality of TAGs, wherein denotes a timing advance configured in a timing advance command, and denotes a common timing advance for transmitting uplink signals in the corresponding TAG.

[0197] In some embodiments, the second configuration information includes second information related to synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) of a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell.

[0198] In some embodiments, the method may further include:

[0199] transmitting a second uplink signal at a first point in time, wherein the first point in time is determined based on a downlink reference point, and the downlink reference point is determined based on a second downlink signal.

[0200] Optionally, the second downlink signal is determined based on at least one of:

[0201] the SSB of the serving cell; or

[0202] an SSB of a cell of a first physical cell identity (PCI).

[0203] In some embodiments, the second downlink signal includes at least one of:

[0204] the SSB of the serving cell of the UE;

[0205] the SSB of the cell of the first PCI;

[0206] a downlink signal associated with a first transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (TCI-State) in a TCI-State list, the first TCI-State being quasi co-located with the SSB of the serving cell of the UE; or

[0207] a downlink signal associated with a second TCI-State in the TCI-State list, the second TCI-State being quasi co-located with the SSB of the cell of the first PCI.

[0208] In some embodiments, N is further determined based on a first capability of the UE, wherein the first capability of the UE includes at least one of:

[0209] a capability of the UE to support the at least two TAGs of an intra-cell m-TRP;

[0210] a capability of the UE to support the at least two TAGs of an inter-cell m-TRP; or

[0211] a capability of the UE to support Layer 1 measurement under the condition of a time difference between transmit timings of the at least two TAGs is greater than cyclic prefix (CP).

[0212] In some embodiments, when the UE supports the first capability, N is determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information; or

[0213] when the UE does not support the first capability, N is a fixed value.

[0214] In some embodiments, N is determined based on any one of:

[0215] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between first timing advances of a plurality of TAGs and a time unit length;

[0216] a ratio between a maximum value of the first timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length;

[0217] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between the first timing advances and second timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length;

[0218] a first parameter and a second parameter, wherein the first parameter is determined based on any one of:

[0219] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between first timing advances of a plurality of TAGs and a time unit length;

[0220] a ratio between a maximum value of the first timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length;

[0221] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between the first timing advances and second timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length,

[0222] the second parameter is determined based on a ratio between a receiving timing difference of the SSB of the serving cell and the SSB of the cell of the first PCI included in the second information and the time unit length,

[0223] wherein the first timing advances are determined based on and / or included in the first information,

[0224] wherein the second timing advances are determined based on and / or of a TAG for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell.

[0225] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the time unit may include at least one of an OFDM symbol, a slot, a subframe, a frame, a half-frame, a mini-slot, etc., but is not limited thereto.

[0226] FIG. 5 illustrates a schematic flowchart of a method performed by a base station in a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The method may include:

[0227] step S21: transmitting, to a UE by the base station, first configuration information and / or second configuration information; and

[0228] step S22: not receiving, by the base station, a first downlink signal and / or transmit a first uplink signal on first time domain resources. The base station may perform measurements by skipping at least one of reception of a first downlink signal or transmission of a first uplink signal on first time domain resources.

[0229] wherein the first time domain resources are determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information. Optionally, the first time unit include a second time-domain resource in which the UE performs the measurements, as well as N time units before and / or after the second time-domain resource. Wherein N is determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information.

[0230] In some embodiments, the first configuration information includes first information related to a timing advance of each of at least two timing advance groups (TAGs). Optionally, the first information includes and / or corresponding to each TAG of a plurality of TAGs, wherein denotes a timing advance configured in a timing advance command, and denotes a common timing advance for transmitting uplink signals in the corresponding TAG.

[0231] In some embodiments, the second configuration information includes second information related to synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) of a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell.

[0232] In some embodiments, the method may further include:

[0233] receiving, by the base station, a second uplink signal transmitted by the UE at a first point in time, wherein the first point in time is determined based on a downlink reference point, and the downlink reference point is determined based on a second downlink signal.

[0234] Optionally, the second downlink signal is determined based on at least one of:

[0235] the SSB of the serving cell; or

[0236] an SSB of a cell of a first physical cell identity (PCI).

[0237] In some embodiments, the second downlink signal includes at least one of:

[0238] the SSB of the serving cell of the UE;

[0239] the SSB of the cell of the first PCI;

[0240] a downlink signal associated with a first transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (TCI-State) in a TCI-State list, the first TCI-State being quasi co-located with the SSB of the serving cell of the UE; or

[0241] a downlink signal associated with a second TCI-State in the TCI-State list, the second TCI-State being quasi co-located with the SSB of the cell of the first PCI.

[0242] In some embodiments, N is further determined based on a first capability of the UE, wherein the first capability of the UE includes at least one of:

[0243] a capability of the UE to support the at least two TAGs of an intra-cell m-TRP;

[0244] a capability of the UE to support the at least two TAGs of an inter-cell m-TRP; or

[0245] a capability of the UE to support that a time difference between transmit timings of the at least two TAGs is greater than a layer1 (L1) measurement under a cyclic prefix (CP) condition.

[0246] In some embodiments, when the UE supports the first capability, N is determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information; or

[0247] when the UE does not support the first capability, N is a fixed value.

[0248] In some embodiments, N is determined based on any one of:

[0249] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between first timing advances of a plurality of TAGs and a time unit length;

[0250] a ratio between a maximum value of the first timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length;

[0251] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between the first timing advances and second timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length;

[0252] a first parameter and a second parameter, wherein the first parameter is determined based on any one of:

[0253] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between first timing advances of a plurality of TAGs and a time unit length;

[0254] a ratio between a maximum value of the first timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length;

[0255] a ratio between a maximum value of differences between the first timing advances and second timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length;

[0256] the second parameter is determined based on a ratio between a receiving timing difference of the SSB of the serving cell and the SSB of the cell of the first PCI included in the second information and the time unit length,

[0257] wherein the first timing advances are determined based on and / or included in the first information,

[0258] wherein the second timing advances are determined based on and / or of a TAG for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell.

[0259] In the communication system, there is provided a method and apparatus for detection / measurement / communication of an m-TRP, the method includes:

[0260] reporting, by a UE in an RRC connected state (RRC_CONNECTED), at least one of first information, second information, third information, or fourth information. The first information indicates a capability of the UE to support a plurality of TAGs of an intra-cell m-TRP and / or a capability of the UE to support a plurality of TAGs of an inter-cell m-TRP. The capability of the UE to support the plurality of TAGs of the intra-cell m-TRP and the capability of the UE to support the plurality of TAGs of the inter-cell m-TRP may be in a same piece of information, or may also be two separate pieces of information. The second information indicates a capability of the UE to support the L1 measurement when the RTD is greater than a CP condition. The third information indicates a capability of the UE to support the L1 measurement when a time difference between transmit timings of the plurality of TAGs is greater than the CP condition. The fourth information indicates a capability of the UE to simultaneously receiving beams of different directions or that the UE supports simultaneous activation of N3 antenna panels (where N3 is greater than or equal to 2), of which receiving beams of not less than one are different in direction from receiving beams of other antenna panels.

[0261] In some embodiments, for example and without restriction, at least one of the first information, the second information, the third information, or the fourth information may be carried in UEcapabilityInformation, or may also be carried in newly defined information.

[0262] In some embodiments, at least the UE's capability in at least one of the first information, the second information, the third information, or the fourth information may correspond to the first capability of the UE as described above.

[0263] The UE receives a fifth information (which may correspond to the second configuration information as described above) transmitted by the base station and configured to that UE, indicating configuration information of the m-TRP, which is categorized into the following different configurations.

[0264] Configuration 1:

[0265] The fifth information includes at least one of:

[0266] - single synchronization signal block (SSB);

[0267] - a control resource set (CORESET), wherein, at the beginning of RRC connection, CORESET0 is a special CORESET used for the parsing of a system information block1 (SIB1); or

[0268] - a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) which is quasi co-located (QCL-ed) with an associated SSB configuration resource.

[0269] A sixth information is base station configuration information, which is transmitted to the UE by the base station. The sixth information includes a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (TCI-State) list configured for the UE, e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList.

[0270] If the UE received the fifth information and the sixth information described above, and the fifth information indicates that the UE is configured in an intra-cell single-downlink control information (S-DCI) mode, when the UE is transmitting uplink frames (or uplink signals), transmission time points need to be based on reception reference points of downlink frames (or downlink signals) received by the UE. The physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point. Where Tc = 1 / (480*1000*4096) seconds.

[0271] At the time of transmitting the initial PRACH, is the configuration information transmitted by the base station to the UE, or if not configured, then a default value is used. The downlink reference point is the first detection path (in time) of the downlink reference signal of the reference cell, wherein the down reference signal can be an SSB or a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g. dl-OrJointTCI-StateList).

[0272] When a PRACH signal transmitted by the UE is received by the m-TRP on the base station side, the PRACH signal is detected by the m-TRP to estimate the path loss of the UE to each TRP and is used to configure seventh information and / or eighth information The seventh information and / or the eighth information are transmitted to the UE by the base station. The UE receives configurations of a plurality of timing advance groups (TAGs), e.g. configurations of TAG1 and TAG2. For the plurality of TAGs, the seventh information and / or the eighth information contains multiple configuration information tables. For example, denotes of the first TAG (e.g., TAG1), denotes of the second TAG (e.g., TAG2), denotes of the third TAG (e.g. TAG3), and so on. denotes of the first TAG, denotes of the second TAG, denotes of the third TAG, and so on.

[0273] It is noted that the plurality involved herein should be understood as at least two, i.e., two and more.

[0274] It is also noted that the seventh information and / or the eighth information involved herein may correspond to the first information included in the first configuration information as described above.

[0275] For the TAG1, the PUSCH / PUCCH / SRS transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point. For the TAG2, the PUSCH / PUCCH / SRS transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point, and so on. The downlink reference point is the first detection path (in time) of the downlink reference signal of the reference cell, wherein the down reference signal can be an SSB or a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g. dl-OrJointTCI-StateList).

[0276] When the UE receives the seventh information and / or the eighth information the UE performs the first measurement. The first measurement includes, but is not limited to, at least one of: a layer1 (L1)-RSRP measurement, a L1-signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement, a radio link monitor (RLM) measurement, a beam failure detection (BFD) measurement, or a candidate beam detection (CBD) measurement. When the UE performs the first measurement, scheduling restrictions are determined by the seventh information and / or the eighth information and the third information.

[0277] For example, the UE is not expected to transmit at least one of an uplink control channel, an uplink data channel, or a channel sounding signal, and receive a downlink signal on symbols corresponding to the SSB or CSI-RS configured to perform the first measurement, or on N4 OFDM symbols before and / or after that symbol. Where N4 is determined by the seventh information and / or the eighth information and the third information.

[0278] Configuration 2:

[0279] The fifth information includes at least one of:

[0280] - multiple synchronization signal blocks (SSBs);

[0281] - a control resource set (CORESET), wherein, at the beginning of RRC connection, CORESET0 is a special CORESET used for the parsing of a system information block1 (SIB1); and

[0282] -a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) which is quasi co-located (QCL) with an associated SSB configuration resource.

[0283] A sixth information is base station configuration information, which is transmitted to the UE by the base station. The sixth information includes a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (TCI-State) list configured for the UE, e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList.

[0284] If the UE received the fifth information and the sixth information described above, and the fifth information indicates that the UE is configured in an intra-cell single-downlink control information (S-DCI) mode, when the UE is transmitting uplink frames (or uplink signals), transmission time points need to refer to reference time points of downlink frames (or downlink signals) received by the UE. The physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point. Where Tc = 1 / (480*1000*4096) seconds.

[0285] At the time of transmitting the initial PRACH, is the configuration information transmitted by the base station to the UE, or if not configured, then a default value is used. The downlink reference point is the first detection path (in time) of the downlink reference signal of the reference cell, wherein the down reference signal can be determined by:

[0286] dividing multiple SSBs into a plurality of groups based on indexes, e.g., X groups, from the first group to the second group, up to the Xth group. In certain embodiments, the SSBs are indexed by a total of L, starting from 0, with one group per L / X. For example, if the SSBs are divided into 2 groups, 0~ (L / 2)-1 is one group and L / 2~ L-1 is another group, or odd-numbered SSBs is in one group and even-numbered SSBs is in one group.

[0287] The downlink signals are determined by a plurality of different groups, and the plurality of groups are determined by a plurality of SSB groups or downlink signals quasi co-located with the SSBs. The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 1 or to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2 or to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 2. Thus, the downlink signal is determined in at least one of the following ways.

[0288] - The downlink signal is determined by two different SSB groups. The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 1, and the downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2.

[0289] - The downlink signal is determined by a TCI-Statein the TCI-State list which is associated to the SSB group. The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 2.

[0290] - The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2 or to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 2.

[0291] - The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2.

[0292] When a PRACH signal transmitted by the UE is received by the m-TRP on the base station side, the PRACH signal is detected by the m-TRP to estimate the path loss of the UE to the TRP and is used to configure seventh information and / or eighth information The seventh information and / or the eighth information are transmitted to the UE by the base station. The UE receives configurations of a plurality of timing advance groups (TAGs), e.g. configurations of TAG1 and TAG2. For the plurality of TAGs, the seventh information and / or the eighth information contains multiple configuration information tables. For example, denotes of the first TAG, denotes of the second TAG, denotes of the third TAG, and so on. denotes of the first TAG, denotes of the second TAG, denotes of the third TAG, and so on.

[0293] For the TAG1, the PUSCH / PUCCH / SRS transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point. For the TAG2, the PUSCH / PUCCH / SRS transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point, and so on. The downlink reference point is the first detection path (in time) of the downlink reference signal of the reference cell, the down reference signal can be determined by:

[0294] dividing multiple SSBs into a plurality of groups based on indexes, e.g., X groups, from the first group to the second group, up to the Xth group. In certain embodiments, the SSBs are indexed by a total of L, starting from 0, with one group per L / X. For example, if the SSBs are divided into 2 groups, 0~ (L / 2)-1 is one group and L / 2~ L-1 is another group, or odd-numbered SSBs is in one group and even-numbered SSBs is in one group.

[0295] The downlink signals are determined by a plurality of different groups, and the plurality of groups are determined by a plurality of SSB groups or downlink signals quasi co-located with the SSBs. The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 1 or to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2 or to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 2. Thus, the downlink signal is determined in at least one of the following ways.

[0296] - The downlink signal is determined by two different SSB groups. The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 1, and the downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2.

[0297] - The downlink signal is determined by a TCI-State in the TCI-State list which is associated to the SSB group. The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 2.

[0298] - The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2 or to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 2.

[0299] - The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2.

[0300] When the UE receives the seventh information and / or the eighth information the UE performs the first measurement. The first measurement includes, but is not limited to, at least one of: a layer1 (L1)-RSRP measurement, a L1-signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement, a radio link monitor (RLM) measurement, a beam failure detection (BFD) measurement, or a candidate beam detection (CBD) measurement. When the UE performs the first measurement, scheduling restrictions are determined by the UE and the configuration information. In some embodiments, the scheduling restrictions are determined based on at least one of:

[0301] the seventh information

[0302] the eighth information

[0303] the second information;

[0304] the third information; and

[0305] the fourth information.

[0306] For example, the UE is not expected to transmit at least one of an uplink control channel, an uplink data channel, or a channel sounding signal, and receive a downlink signal on symbols corresponding to the SSB or CSI-RS configured to perform the first measurement, or on N5 OFDM symbols before and / or after that symbol, where N5 is determined by the UE and the configuration information. In some embodiments, N5 is determined based on at least one of:

[0307] the seventh information

[0308] the eighth information

[0309] the second information;

[0310] the third information; and

[0311] the fourth information.

[0312] Configuration 3:

[0313] The fifth information includes at least one of:

[0314] - a synchronization signal block (SSB) of a serving cell and an SSB of a neighboring cell, wherein the neighboring cell may also be a special neighboring cell, such as an additional PCI cell configured within the serving cell;

[0315] - a control resource set (CORESET), wherein, at the beginning of RRC connection, CORESET0 is a special CORESET used for the parsing of a system information block1 (SIB1); and

[0316] - a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) which is quasi co-located (QCL) with an associated SSB configuration resource.

[0317] A sixth information is base station configuration information, which is transmitted to the UE by the base station. The sixth information includes a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (TCI-State) list configured for the UE, e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList.

[0318] After the UE received the fifth information and the sixth information described above, the fifth information indicates that the UE is configured as an inter-cell beam management (ICBM) mode. Then, when the UE is transmitting uplink frames (or uplink signals), transmission time points need to refer to reception time points of downlink frames (or downlink signals) received by the UE. The physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point. Where Tc = 1 / (480*1000*4096) seconds.

[0319] At the time of transmitting the initial PRACH, is the configuration information transmitted by the base station to the UE, or if not configured, then a default value is used. The downlink reference point corresponds to the first detection path (in time) of the downlink reference signal of the reference cell, wherein the down reference signal can be determined by:

[0320] 1. determining that the downlink signal includes the SSB of the serving cell and an additional PCI cell SSB;

[0321] 2. determining that the downlink signal includes: a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSB of the serving cell; and a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g. dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the additional PCI cell SSB.

[0322] When a PRACH signal transmitted by the UE is received by the m-TRP on the base station side, the PRACH signal is detected by the m-TRP to estimate the path loss of the UE to each TRP and is used to configure seventh information and / or eighth information The seventh information and / or the eighth information are transmitted to the UE by the base station. The UE receives configurations of a plurality of timing advance groups (TAGs), e.g. configurations of TAG1 and TAG2. For the plurality of TAGs, the seventh information and / or the eighth information contains multiple configuration information tables. For example, denotes of the first TAG, denotes of the second TAG, denotes of the third TAG, and so on. denotes of the first TAG, denotes of the second TAG, denotes of the third TAG, and so on.

[0323] For the TAG1, the PUSCH / PUCCH / SRS transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point. For the TAG2, the PUSCH / PUCCH / SRS transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point, and so on. The downlink reference point is consistent with the above description.

[0324] When the UE receives the seventh information and / or the eighth information the UE performs the first measurement. The first measurement includes, but is not limited to, at least one of: a layer1 (L1)-RSRP measurement, a L1-signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement, a radio link monitor (RLM) measurement, a beam failure detection (BFD) measurement, or a candidate beam detection (CBD) measurement. When the UE performs the first measurement, scheduling restrictions are determined by the UE and the configuration information. In some embodiments, the scheduling restrictions are determined based on at least one of:

[0325] the seventh information

[0326] the eighth information

[0327] the second information;

[0328] the third information; and

[0329] the fourth information.

[0330] For example, the UE is not expected to transmit at least one of an uplink control channel, an uplink data channel, or a channel sounding signal, and receive a downlink signal on symbols corresponding to the SSB or CSI-RS configured to perform the first measurement, or on N6 OFDM symbols before and / or after that symbol. Where N6 is determined by the UE and the configuration information. In some embodiments, N6 is determined based on at least one of:

[0331] the seventh information

[0332] the eighth information

[0333] the second information;

[0334] the third information; and

[0335] the fourth information.

[0336] In the scheme implemented by the present disclosure, at least one of the first information, the second information, the third information, or the fourth information is reported by the UE in an RRC connected state (RRC_CONNECTED). The first information indicates a capability of the UE to support a plurality of TAGs of an intra-cell m-TRP. The third information indicates a capability of the UE to support the L1 measurement when a time difference between transmit timings of the plurality of TAGs is greater than the CP condition.

[0337] The UE receives a fifth information transmitted by the base station and configured to that UE, indicating configuration information of the m-TRP.

[0338] A scheme of different application scenarios of the embodiments of the present application is described in detail below in conjunction with FIGS. 6-8, respectively.

[0339] Embodiment 1:

[0340] The fifth information includes at least one of:

[0341] - single synchronization signal block (SSB);

[0342] - a control resource set (CORESET), wherein, at the beginning of RRC connection, CORESET0 is a special CORESET used for the parsing of a system information block1 (SIB1); and

[0343] - a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) which is quasi co-located (QCL) with an associated SSB configuration resource.

[0344] A sixth information is base station configuration information, which is transmitted to the UE by the base station. The sixth information includes a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (TCI-State) list configured for the UE, e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList.

[0345] In the embodiment, the UE is configured in an intra-cell m-TRP mode, as shown in FIG. 6. The UE receives from certain TRP downlink signals, which include the fifth information and the sixth information. The remaining TRPs transmit only uplink signals, wherein the uplink signals may be configured to be transmitted by the plurality of TAGs, e.g. TAG1 and TAG2.

[0346] If the UE received the fifth information and the sixth information described above, and the fifth information indicates that the UE is configured in an intra-cell single-downlink control information (S-DCI) mode, when the UE is transmitting uplink frames (or uplink signals), transmission time points need to refer to reference time points of downlink frames (or downlink signals) received by the UE. The physical random access channel ( PRACH) (which may correspond to the second uplink signal as described above) transmission timing of the UE takes place (which may correspond to the first point in time as described above) before the downlink reference point. Where Tc = 1 / (480*1000*4096) seconds.

[0347] At the time of transmitting the initial PRACH, is the configuration information transmitted by the base station to the UE, or if not configured, then a default value is used. The downlink reference point is the first detection path (in time) of the downlink reference signal of the reference cell, wherein the down reference signal can be an SSB or a downlink signal (which may correspond to the second downlink signal as described above) associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g. dl-OrJointTCI-StateList).

[0348] When a PRACH signal transmitted by the UE is received by the m-TRP on the base station side, the PRACH signal is detected by the m-TRP to estimate the path loss of the UE to each TRP and is used to configure seventh information and / or eighth information The seventh information and / or the eighth information are transmitted to the UE by the base station. The UE receives configurations of a plurality of timing advance groups (TAGs), e.g. configurations of TAG1 and TAG2. For the plurality of TAGs, the seventh information and / or the eighth information contains multiple configuration information tables. For example, denotes of the first TAG, denotes of the second TAG, denotes of the third TAG, and so on. denotes of the first TAG, denotes of the second TAG, denotes of the third TAG, and so on.

[0349] For the TAG1, the PUSCH / PUCCH / SRS transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point. For the TAG2, the PUSCH / PUCCH / SRS transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point, and so on. The downlink reference point is the first detection path (in time) of the downlink reference signal of the reference cell, wherein the down reference signal can be an SSB or a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g. dl-OrJointTCI-StateList).

[0350] When the UE receives the seventh information and / or the eighth information the UE performs the first measurement. The first measurement includes, but is not limited to, at least one of: a layer1 (L1)-RSRP measurement, a L1-signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement, a radio link monitor (RLM) measurement, a beam failure detection (BFD) measurement, or a candidate beam detection (CBD) measurement. When the UE performs the first measurement, scheduling restrictions are determined by the seventh information and / or the eighth information and the third information.

[0351] When the UE performs measurements of L1-RSRP or L1-SINR or RLM or BFD, the scheduling restrictions are determined based on the seventh information and / or the eighth information and the third information, for example:

[0352] - in the frequency range 1 (FR1), if the SCS of configured L1 measurement resources is the same as the SCS of the PDSCH / PDCCH, there is no scheduling restrictions.

[0353] - If the SCS of configured L1 measurement resources is different from the SCS of the PDSCH / PDCCH:

[0354] -- if the UE supports simultaneousRxDataSSB-DiffNumerology, there is no scheduling restrictions; or

[0355] -- if the UE does not support simultaneousRxDataSSB-DiffNumerology, the UE is not expected to transmit the PUCCH / PUSCH / SRS (which may correspond to the first uplink signal as described above) on SSB or CSI-RS symbols (configured as L1-RSRP or RLM, BFD, or L1-SINR), and N7 symbols before or after those symbols or receive the PDCCH / PDSCH / CSI-RS for tracking / CSI-RS for CQI (which may correspond to the first downlink signal as described above). If the third information indicates that the UE does not have the capability, N7=1. If the third information indicates that the UE has the capability, the value of N7 is determined based on a time-domain relative relation of the seventh information and / or the eighth information of the plurality of TAGs.

[0356] In some optional embodiments, N7 is determined by one of the following ways:

[0357] - N7=ceil (maximum value of time differences between the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0358] - N7=ceil (maximum value among of the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0359] - N7=ceil (maximum value of time differences between the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0360] - N7=ceil (maximum value of time differences of the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length). Where denotes of a timing advance group for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell. denotes of a timing advance group for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell.

[0361] - In the frequency range 2 (FR2),

[0362] -- if the configured resources for the L1 measurement are based on a CSI-RS, when the CSI-RS is quasi co-located with the activated TCI-State of the PDSCH / PDCCH and the CSI-RS resource is configured as repetitions, there is no scheduling restrictions,

[0363] -- otherwise the UE is not expected to transmit the PUCCH / PUSCH / SRS on SSB or CSI-RS symbols (configured as L1-RSRP or RLM, BFD, or L1-SINR), and N8 symbols before or after those symbols or receive the PDCCH / PDSCH / CSI-RS for tracking / CSI-RS for CQI. If the third information indicates that the UE does not have the capability, N8=1. If the third information indicates that the UE has the capability, the value of N8 is determined based on a time-domain relative relation of the seventh information and / or the eighth information of the plurality of TAGs.

[0364] -- This includes one of the following ways:

[0365] -- N8=ceil (maximum value of time differences between the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0366] -- N8=ceil (maximum value among of the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0367] -- N8=ceil (maximum value of time differences between the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0368] -- N8=ceil (maximum value of - time differences of the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length). Where denotes of a timing advance group for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell. denotes of a timing advance group for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell.

[0369] The simultaneousRxDataSSB-DiffNumerology indicates that the UE has the capability to simultaneously receive SSBs and data of different numerologies.

[0370] In the scheme of the embodiment, the UE may support communication of multiple TRPs in the same cell under a larger cell radius deployment. Further, it may also support using more UL-only TRPs to achieve enhanced uplink coverage and the reliability of uplink communication in the case of one DL-only TRP in the same cell. Meanwhile, in the network deployment, the accuracy and reliability of measurements can also be improved by reducing other interference signals within a downlink measurement time unit, which helps the base station to do a more suitable scheduling afterwards. This enables the UE to work better in more flexible base station deployment and scheduling, and improves the efficiency of communication between the network and the UE.

[0371] Embodiment 2:

[0372] The fifth information includes at least one of:

[0373] - multiple synchronization signal blocks (SSBs);

[0374] - a control resource set (CORESET), wherein, at the beginning of RRC connection, CORESET0 is a special CORESET used for the parsing of a system information block1 (SIB1); or

[0375] - a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) which is quasi co-located (QCL) with an associated SSB configuration resource.

[0376] A sixth information is base station configuration information, which is transmitted to the UE by the base station. The sixth information includes a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (TCI-State) list configured for the UE, e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList.

[0377] If the UE received the fifth information and the sixth information described above, and the fifth information indicates that the UE is configured in an intra-cell single-downlink control information (S-DCI) mode, when the UE is transmitting uplink frames (or uplink signals), transmission time points need to refer to reference time points of downlink frames (or downlink signals) received by the UE. The physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point. Where Tc = 1 / (480*1000*4096) seconds.

[0378] In the embodiment, the UE is configured in an intra-cell m-TRP mode, as shown in FIG. 7. The UE receives from two TRPs downlink signals, which include the fifth information and the sixth information. The remaining TRPs transmit only uplink signals, wherein the uplink signals may be configured to be transmitted by the plurality of TAGs, e.g. TAG1 and TAG2.

[0379] At the time of transmitting the initial PRACH, is the configuration information transmitted by the base station to the UE, or if not configured, then a default value is used. The downlink reference point is the first detection path (in time) of the downlink reference signal of the reference cell, wherein the down reference signal can be determined by:

[0380] dividing multiple SSBs into a plurality of groups based on indexes, e.g., X groups, from the first group to the second group, up to the Xth group. In certain embodiments, the SSBs are indexed by a total of L, starting from 0, with one group per L / X. For example, if the SSBs are divided into 2 groups, 0~ (L / 2)-1 is one group and L / 2~ L-1 is another group, or odd-numbered SSBs is in one group and even-numbered SSBs is in one group.

[0381] The downlink signals are determined by a plurality of different groups, and the plurality of groups are determined by a plurality of SSB groups or downlink signals quasi co-located with the SSBs. The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 1 or to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2 or to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 2. Thus, the downlink signal is determined in at least one of the following ways.

[0382] - The downlink signal is determined by two different SSB groups. The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 1, and the downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2.

[0383] - The downlink signal is determined by a TCI-State in the TCI-State list which is associated to the SSB group. The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 2.

[0384] - The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2 or to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 2.

[0385] - The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2.

[0386] When a PRACH signal transmitted by the UE is received by the m-TRP on the base station side, the PRACH signal is detected by the m-TRP to estimate the path loss of the UE to the TRP and is used to configure seventh information and / or eighth information The seventh information and / or the eighth information are transmitted to the UE by the base station. The UE receives configurations of a plurality of timing advance groups (TAGs), e.g. configurations of TAG1 and TAG2. For the plurality of TAGs, the seventh information and / or the eighth information contains multiple configuration information tables. For example, denotes of the first TAG, denotes of the second TAG, denotes of the third TAG, and so on. denotes of the first TAG, denotes of the second TAG, denotes of the third TAG, and so on.

[0387] For the TAG1, the PUSCH / PUCCH / SRS transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point. For the TAG2, the PUSCH / PUCCH / SRS transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point, and so on. The downlink reference point is the first detection path (in time) of the downlink reference signal of the reference cell, which can be determined by:

[0388] dividing multiple SSBs into a plurality of groups based on indexes, e.g., X groups, from the first group to the second group, up to the Xth group. In certain embodiments, the SSBs are indexed by a total of L, starting from 0, with one group per L / X. For example, if the SSBs are divided into 2 groups, 0~ (L / 2)-1 is one group and L / 2~ L-1 is another group, or odd-numbered SSBs is in one group and even-numbered SSBs is in one group.

[0389] The downlink signals are determined by a plurality of different groups, and the plurality of groups are determined by a plurality of SSB groups or downlink signals quasi co-located with the SSBs. The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 1 or to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2 or to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 2. Thus, the downlink signal is determined in at least one of the following ways.

[0390] - The downlink signal is determined by two different SSB groups. The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 1, and the downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2.

[0391] - The downlink signal is determined by a TCI-State in the TCI-State list which is associated to the SSB group. The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 2.

[0392] - The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2 or to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 2.

[0393] The downlink signal corresponding to the first TAG group corresponds to a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSBs in the SSB group 1. The downlink signal corresponding to the second TAG group corresponds to SSBs belonging to the SSB group 2.

[0394] When the UE receives the seventh information and / or the eighth information the UE performs the first measurement. The first measurement includes, but is not limited to, at least one of: a layer1 (L1)-RSRP measurement, a L1-signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement, a radio link monitor (RLM) measurement, a beam failure detection (BFD) measurement, or a candidate beam detection (CBD) measurement. When the UE performs the first measurement, scheduling restrictions are determined by the UE and the configuration information and include at least one of:

[0395] the seventh information

[0396] the eighth information

[0397] the second information;

[0398] the third information; and

[0399] the fourth information.

[0400] For example, when the UE performs measurements of L1-RSRP or L1-SINR or RLM or BFD:

[0401] - in the frequency range 1 (FR1), if the SCS of configured L1 measurement resources is the same as the SCS of the PDSCH / PDCCH, there is no scheduling restrictions.

[0402] - If the SCS of configured L1 measurement resources is different from the SCS of the PDSCH / PDCCH:

[0403] -- if the UE supports simultaneousRxDataSSB-DiffNumerology, there is no scheduling restrictions; or

[0404] -- if the UE does not support simultaneousRxDataSSB-DiffNumerology, the UE is not expected to transmit the PUCCH / PUSCH / SRS on SSB or CSI-RS symbols (configured as L1-RSRP or RLM, BFD, or L1-SINR), and N9 symbols before or after those symbols or receive the PDCCH / PDSCH / CSI-RS for tracking / CSI-RS for CQI. If the third information indicates that the UE does not have the capability, Y1=1. If the third information indicates that the UE has the capability, the value of Y1 is determined based on a time-domain relative relation of the seventh information and / or the eighth information of the plurality of TAGs.

[0405] In some optional embodiments, Y1 is determined by one of the following ways:

[0406] - Y1=ceil (maximum value of time differences between the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0407] - Y1=ceil (maximum value among of the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0408] - Y1=ceil (maximum value of time differences between the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0409] - Y1=ceil (maximum value of - time differences of the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length). Where denotes of a timing advance group for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell. denotes of a timing advance group for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell.

[0410] If the second information indicates that the UE does not have the capability, Y2 = 1. If the second information indicates that the UE has the capability, Y2 = ceil (RTD / OFDM symbol length), with the RTD being the measured receiving timing difference. N9 = operator (Y1, Y2), where the operator can be a function that takes the maximum value, or a function that takes the minimum value, or a function that takes one therein.

[0411] - In the frequency range 2 (FR2),

[0412] -- if the configured resources for the L1 measurement are based on a CSI-RS, when the CSI-RS is quasi co-located with the activated TCI-State of the PDSCH / PDCCH and the CSI-RS resource is configured as repetitions, there is no scheduling restrictions;

[0413] otherwise the UE is not expected to transmit the PUCCH / PUSCH / SRS on SSB or CSI-RS symbols (configured as L1-RSRP or RLM, BFD, or L1-SINR), and N10 symbols before or after those symbols or receive the PDCCH / PDSCH / CSI-RS for tracking / CSI-RS for CQI. If the third information indicates that the UE does not have the capability, Y1=1. If the third information indicates that the UE has the capability, the value of Y1 is determined based on a time-domain relative relation of the seventh information and / or the eighth information of the plurality of TAGs.

[0414] In some optional embodiments, Y1 is determined by one of the following ways:

[0415] - Y1=ceil (maximum value of time differences between the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0416] - Y1=ceil (maximum value among of the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0417] - Y1=ceil (maximum value of time differences between the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0418] - Y1=ceil (maximum value of - time differences of the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length). Where denotes of a timing advance group for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell. denotes of a timing advance group for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell.

[0419] If the second information indicates that the UE does not have the capability, Y2 = 1. If the second information indicates that the UE has the capability, Y2 = ceil (RTD / OFDM symbol length), with the RTD being the measured receiving timing difference. N10 = operator (Y1, Y2), where the operator can be a function that takes the maximum value, or a function that takes the minimum value, or a function that takes one therein.

[0420] The simultaneousRxDataSSB-DiffNumerology indicates that the UE has the capability to simultaneously receive SSBs and data of different numerologies.

[0421] In the scheme of the embodiment, the UE may support communication of multiple TRPs in the same cell under a larger cell radius deployment. Further, it may also support using more UL-only TRPs to achieve enhanced uplink coverage and the reliability of uplink communication in the case of more DL-only TRP in the same cell. Meanwhile, in the network deployment, the accuracy and reliability of measurements can also be improved by reducing other interference signals within a downlink measurement time unit, which helps the base station to do a more suitable scheduling afterwards. This enables the UE to work better in more flexible base station deployment and scheduling, and improves the efficiency of communication between the network and the UE.

[0422] Embodiment 3:

[0423] The fifth information includes at least one of:

[0424] - a synchronization signal block (SSB) of a serving cell and an SSB of an additional PCI cell;

[0425] - a control resource set (CORESET), wherein, at the beginning of RRC connection, CORESET0 is a special CORESET used for the parsing of a system information block1 (SIB1); or

[0426] - a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) which is quasi co-located (QCL) with an associated SSB configuration resource.

[0427] A sixth information is base station configuration information, which is transmitted to the UE by the base station. The sixth information includes a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (TCI-State) list configured for the UE, e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList.

[0428] After the UE received the fifth information and the sixth information described above, the fifth information indicates that the UE is configured as an inter-cell beam management (ICBM) mode. Then, when the UE is transmitting uplink frames (or uplink signals), transmission time points need to refer to reception time points of downlink frames (or downlink signals) received by the UE. The physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point. Where Tc = 1 / (480*1000*4096) seconds.

[0429] In the embodiment, the UE is configured as an inter-cell m-TRP mode, as shown in FIG. 8. The UE receives from TRPs of two different cells downlink signals, which include the fifth information and the sixth information. The remaining TRPs transmit only uplink signals, wherein the uplink signals may be configured to be transmitted by the plurality of TAGs, e.g. TAG1 and TAG2.

[0430] At the time of transmitting the initial PRACH, is the configuration information transmitted by the base station to the UE, or if not configured, then a default value is used. The downlink reference point is the first detection path (in time) of the downlink reference signal of the reference cell, wherein the down reference signal can be determined by:

[0431] 3. determining that the downlink signal includes the SSB of the serving cell and an additional PCI cell SSB.

[0432] 4. determining that the downlink signal includes: a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g., dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the SSB of the serving cell; and a downlink signal associated with any of TCI-States in the TCI-State list (e.g. dl-OrJointTCI-StateList), which is quasi co-located with the additional PCI cell SSB.

[0433] When a PRACH signal transmitted by the UE is received by the m-TRP on the base station side, the PRACH signal is detected by the m-TRP to estimate the path loss of the UE to each TRP and is used to configure seventh information and / or eighth information The seventh information and / or the eighth information are transmitted to the UE by the base station. The UE receives configurations of a plurality of timing advance groups (TAGs), e.g. configurations of TAG1 and TAG2. For the plurality of TAGs, the seventh information and / or the eighth information contains multiple configuration information tables. For example, denotes of the first TAG, denotes of the second TAG, denotes of the third TAG, and so on. denotes of the first TAG, denotes of the second TAG, denotes of the third TAG, and so on.

[0434] For the TAG1, the PUSCH / PUCCH / SRS transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point. For the TAG2, the PUSCH / PUCCH / SRS transmission timing of the UE takes place before the downlink reference point, and so on. The downlink reference point is consistent with the above description.

[0435] When the UE receives the seventh information and / or the eighth information the UE performs the first measurement. The first measurement includes, but is not limited to, at least one of: a layer1 (L1)-RSRP measurement, a L1-signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) measurement, a radio link monitor (RLM) measurement, a beam failure detection (BFD) measurement, or a candidate beam detection (CBD) measurement. When the UE performs the first measurement, scheduling restrictions are determined by the UE and the configuration information and include at least one of:

[0436] the seventh information

[0437] the eighth information

[0438] the second information;

[0439] the third information; and

[0440] the fourth information.

[0441] For example, when the UE performs measurements of L1-RSRP or L1-SINR or RLM or BFD:

[0442] - in the frequency range 1 (FR1), if the SCS of configured L1 measurement resources is the same as the SCS of the PDSCH / PDCCH, there is no scheduling restrictions.

[0443] - If the SCS of configured L1 measurement resources is different from the SCS of the PDSCH / PDCCH:

[0444] -- if the UE supports simultaneousRxDataSSB-DiffNumerology, there is no scheduling restrictions; or

[0445] --- if the UE does not support simultaneousRxDataSSB-DiffNumerology, the UE is not expected to transmit the PUCCH / PUSCH / SRS on SSB or CSI-RS symbols (configured as L1-RSRP or RLM, BFD, or L1-SINR), and N11 symbols before or after those symbols or receive the PDCCH / PDSCH / CSI-RS for tracking / CSI-RS for CQI. If the third information indicates that the UE does not have the capability, Y1=1. If the third information indicates that the UE has the capability, the value of Y1 is determined based on a time-domain relative relation of the seventh information and / or the eighth information of the plurality of TAGs.

[0446] In some optional embodiments, Y1 is determined by one of the following ways:

[0447] - Y1=ceil (maximum value of time differences between the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0448] - Y1=ceil (maximum value among of the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0449] - Y1=ceil (maximum value of time differences between the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0450] - Y1=ceil (maximum value of - time differences of the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length). Where denotes of a timing advance group for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell. denotes of a timing advance group for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell. If the second information indicates that the UE does not have the capability, Y2 = 1. If the second information indicates that the UE has the capability, Y2 = ceil (RTD / OFDM symbol length), with the RTD being the measured receiving timing difference between the serving cell and the additional PCI cell. N11 = operator (Y1, Y2), where the operator can be a function that takes the maximum value, or a function that takes the minimum value, or a function that takes one therein.

[0451] - In the frequency range 2 (FR2),

[0452] -- if the configured resources for the L1 measurement are based on a CSI-RS, when the CSI-RS is quasi co-located with the activated TCI-State of the PDSCH / PDCCH and the CSI-RS resource is configured as repetitions, there is no scheduling restriction;

[0453] otherwise the UE is not expected to transmit the PUCCH / PUSCH / SRS on SSB or CSI-RS symbols (configured as L1-RSRP or RLM, BFD, or L1-SINR), and N12 symbols before or after those symbols or receive the PDCCH / PDSCH / CSI-RS for tracking / CSI-RS for CQI. If the third information indicates that the UE does not have the capability, Y1=1. If the third information indicates that the UE has the capability, the value of Y1 is determined based on a time-domain relative relation of the seventh information and / or the eighth information of the plurality of TAGs.

[0454] In some optional embodiments, Y1 is determined by one of the following ways:

[0455] - Y1=ceil (maximum value of time differences between the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0456] - Y1=ceil (maximum value among of the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0457] - Y1=ceil (maximum value of time differences between the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length);

[0458] - Y1=ceil (maximum value of

[0459] - time differences of the plurality of TAGs / OFDM symbol length). Where denotes of a timing advance group for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell. denotes of a timing advance group for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell.

[0460] If the second information indicates that the UE does not have the capability, Y2 = 1. If the second information indicates that the UE has the capability, Y2 = ceil (RTD / OFDM symbol length), with the RTD being the measured receiving timing difference between the serving cell and the additional PCI cell. N12 = operator (Y1, Y2), where the operator can be a function that takes the maximum value, or a function that takes the minimum value, or a function that takes one therein.

[0461] The simultaneousRxDataSSB-DiffNumerology indicates that the UE has the capability to simultaneously receive SSBs and data of different numerologies.

[0462] In the scheme of the embodiment, the UE may support communication of multiple TRPs in multiple cells under a larger cell radius deployment. Further, it may also support using more UL-only TRPs to achieve enhanced uplink coverage and the reliability of uplink communication in the case of more DL-only TRP in multiple cells. Meanwhile, in the network deployment, the accuracy and reliability of measurements can also be improved by reducing other interference signals within a downlink measurement time unit, which helps the base station to do a more suitable scheduling afterwards. This enables the UE to work better in more flexible base station deployment and scheduling, and improves the efficiency of communication between the network and the UE.

[0463] Embodiments of the present application also provide an electronic device including a processor, optionally further including a transceiver and / or a memory coupled to the processor, the processor being configured to perform the steps of the method provided in any optional embodiment of the present application.

[0464] FIG. 9 shows a schematic structure diagram of an electronic device to which the solution of the embodiment of the present disclosure is applied. As shown in FIG. 9, the electronic device 4000 shown in FIG. 9 may include a processor 4001 and a memory 4003. The processor 4001 is connected to the memory 4003, for example, through a bus 4002. Optionally, the electronic device 4000 may further include a transceiver 4004 that can be used for data exchange, for example, transmission and reception of data, between the electronic device and other electronic device. It should be noted that, in practical applications, the number of transceiver 4004 is not limited to one, and the structure of the electronic device 4000 does not constitute any restrictions to the embodiments of the present disclosure. Optionally, the electronic device may be a first network node, a second network node or a third network node.

[0465] The processor 4001 may be a central processing unit (CPU), a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. It may implement or execute various exemplary logical blocks, modules and circuits described in connection with the present disclosure. The processor 4001 may also be a combination for realizing computing functions, for example, a combination of one or more microprocessors, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, etc.

[0466] The bus 4002 may include a path to transfer information between the components described above. The bus 4002 may be a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus, or an extended industry standard architecture (EISA) bus, etc. The bus 4002 may be an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of presentation, the bus is represented by only one thick line in FIG. 9. However, it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of buses.

[0467] The memory 4003 may be, but not limited to, read only memories (ROMs) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, random access memories (RAMs) or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and instructions, may be electrically erasable programmable read only memories (EEPROMs), compact disc read only memories (CD-ROMs) or other optical disk storages, optical disc storages (including compact discs, laser discs, discs, digital versatile discs, blue-ray discs, etc.), magnetic storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other media that can carry or store desired program codes in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by computers.

[0468] The memory 4003 is used to store computer program for executing the solutions of the present disclosure, and is controlled by the processor 4001. The processor 4001 is used to execute the computer program stored in the memory 4003 to implement the solution provided in any method embodiment described above.

[0469] FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a terminal or user equipment (UE) 1000 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0470] The terminal is an electronic device capable of wireless communication, may include a User Equipment (UE), a portable phone, a smartphone, a tablet, an Internet of things (IoT) device, etc., having various form factors, and may perform wireless communication with a base station (BS) through a wireless channel.

[0471] Referring to FIG. 10, the UE 1000 may include at least one transceiver (hereinafter, referred to as simply “transceiver”) 1001, at least one processor (hereinafter, referred to as simply “processor”) 1002, and at least one memory (hereinafter, referred to as simply “memory”) 1003. According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the transceiver 1001, the processor 1002, and the memory 1003 of the UE 1000 may operate. However, components of the UE 1000 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 10. In another embodiment, the UE 1000 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in some embodiments, any combination of the transceiver 1001, the processor 1002, or the memory 1003 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0472] The transceiver 1001 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the UE 1000 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. For example, the transceiver 1001 may enable the UE 1000 to transmit or receive a signal to or from a BS through cellular communication, or to transmit or receive a signal to or from another UE through cellular communication. For example, the transceiver 1001 may support at least one of various cellular communication technologies including 3rd generation (3G), 4th generation (4G), long term evolution (LTE), 5th generation (5G) NR, 6th generation (6G), and various cellular wireless communication technologies supported by the transceiver (1001) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications.

[0473] According to an embodiment, the UE 1000 may include a plurality of transceivers. For example, in the case of supporting evolved-universal terrestrial radio access-new radio (E-UTRA-NR) sual connectivity (EN-DC), the UE 1000 may include a first transceiver supporting the 4G LTE wireless communication and a second transceiver supporting the 5G NR wireless communication. According to another embodiment, in the case of supporting NR-dual connectivity (NR-DC), the UE 1000 may include a plurality of transceivers supporting the 5G NR wireless communication. According to still another embodiment, in the case of supporting near field wireless communication, the UE 1000 may separately include a transceiver supporting at least one standard in the group of wireless communication protocol standards as defined in the protocol standards for Bluetooth®, wireless local area network (WLAN) network (including institute of electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE) 802.11-2016 standard or its amendments, e.g., 802.11ah, 802.11ad, 802.11ay, 802.11ax, 802.11az, 802.11ba, and 802.11be, without being limited thereto).

[0474] According to an embodiment, the transceiver 1001 may include various circuit structures used to transmit or receive signals to or from a BS through a wireless channel. The signals may include control information and data. For example, the transceiver 1001 may include a radio frequency (RF) transmitter for up-converting and amplifying the frequency of a transmitted signal and an RF receiver for low-noise-amplifying a received signal and down-converting the frequency thereof. The transceiver 1001 may output a signal received through a wireless channel to the processor 1002 and may transmit, through a wireless channel, a signal output from the processor 1002.

[0475] The processor 1002 may control general operations of the UE 1000 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1002 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The processor 1002 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1003, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1002 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme.

[0476] The processor 1002 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 1001 to control the transceiver 1001.

[0477] The processor 1002 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. For example, the processor 1002 may include a communication processor (CP) configured to control communication operations and an application processor (AP) configured to control execution of an upper layer (for example, an application layer) . In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1002 may be included in one chip and the other part of the processor 1002 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the transceiver 1001 or the memory 1003.

[0478] The processor 1002 may perform or control or cause an operation of the UE 1000 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1002 may control operations of the UE 1000 for processing a downlink signal received from a BS or generating and transmitting an uplink signal to a BS. To this end, the processor 1002 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1003, so as to control other components of the UE 1000 to enable execution of various operations.

[0479] The memory 1003 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1003 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0480] The memory 1003 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 1002 and may be accessed by the processor 1002.

[0481] The memory 1003 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1002. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1002 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1003, the processor 1002 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0482] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the UE 1000 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 1003 by at least one processor (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions.

[0483] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) 1100 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0484] The BS 1100 may perform wireless communication with at least one user equipment (UE) located within the area of the BS 1100 through a wireless channel.

[0485] Referring to FIG. 11, the BS 1100 may include at least one transceiver (hereinafter, referred to as simply “transceiver”) 1101, at least one processor (hereinafter, referred to as simply “processor”) 1102, and at least one memory (hereinafter, referred to as simply “memory”) 1103. According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the transceiver 1101, the processor 1102, and the memory 1103 of the BS 1100 may operate. However, components of the BS 1100 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 11. In another embodiment, the BS 1100 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in some embodiments, any combination of the transceiver 1101, the processor 1102, or the memory 1103 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0486] The transceiver 1101 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the BS 1100 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. For example, the transceiver 1101 may enable the BS 1100 to transmit or receive a signal to or from the UE X00 through cellular communication, or to transmit or receive a signal to or from another network entity through wireless communication. For example, the transceiver 1101 may support various cellular communication technologies including 3rd generation (3G), 4th generation (4G), long term evolution (LTE), 5th generation (5G) NR, 6th generation (6G), and various cellular wireless communication technologies supported by the transceiver (1101) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications.. According to an embodiment, the transceiver 1101 may include various circuit structures used to transmit or receive signals to or from a UE through a wireless channel. The signals may include control information and data. For example, the transceiver 1101 may include a radio frequency (RF) transmitter for up-converting and amplifying the frequency of a transmitted signal and an RF receiver for low-noise-amplifying a received signal and down-converting the frequency thereof. The transceiver 1101 may output a signal received through a wireless channel to the processor 1102 and may transmit, through a wireless channel, a signal output from the processor 1102.

[0487] Meanwhile, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the BS 1100 may perform communication with a node or an entity of a network through wired or wireless communication. For example, the BS 1100 may perform wired or wireless communication with an adjacent BS, or a node or an entity of a core network through a backhaul network. Although not illustrated in FIG. 11, when the BS 1100 performs wired communication, the BS 1100 may further include a separate network interface for wired communication in addition to the transceiver 1101. The network interface may be referred to as network interface circuitry or communication interface circuitry.

[0488] The processor 1102 may control general operations of the BS 1100 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1102 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The processor 1102 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1103, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1102 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme.

[0489] The processor 1102 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 1101 to control the transceiver 1101.

[0490] The processor 1102 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1102 may be included in one chip and the other part of the processor 1102 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the transceiver 1101 or the memory 1103.

[0491] The processor 1102 may perform or control or cause an operation of the BS 1100 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1102 may control operations of the BS 1100 for generating and transmitting a downlink signal to a UE or processing an uplink signal received from a UE. Otherwise, the BS 1100 may transmit or receive a signal to or from a neighboring BS, transfer a signal received from a UE to an upper node of the network, or transmit a signal transferred from an upper node of the network to a UE. To this end, the processor 1102 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1103, so as to control other components of the BS 1100 to enable execution of various operations.

[0492] The memory 1103 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1103 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0493] The memory 1103 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 1102 and may be accessed by the processor 1102.

[0494] The memory 1103 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1102. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1102 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1103, the processor 1102 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0495] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the BS 1100 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 1103 by at least one processor (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions.

[0496] The UE or the base station may perform various communication procedures related to the control plane or the user plane by cooperating with one or more network entities based on wireless communication. For example, the UE may communicate with network entity such as an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) or a Session Management Function (SMF) via the base station, or the base station may perform at least one communication procedure by directly transmitting and receiving signals to / from, or relaying signals between, the network entities.

[0497] The structure of the above-described network entity will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

[0498] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a network entity 1200 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0499] The network entity 1200 may include an entity (apparatus, device, or server, etc.) that performs one or more network functions (NFs) or a part of a network function constituting a core network (e.g., a 5th generation (5G) core (5GC)) in a communication system. In this case, multiple NFs may be implemented within a single network entity, or a single NF may be distributed and implemented across a plurality of network entities. In addition, when an NF is implemented within the network entity, the NF may be implemented in the form of software, and in such a case, a program for operating the NF may be stored in memory of the network entity 1200.

[0500] A single NF may be implemented by one or more instances, which may be deployed on the same network entity or distributed across multiple network entities to operate. The instance may be a software unit that logically executes a specific network function, and may be implemented in a form that is decoupled from physical hardware resources. Further, one or more NFs may be implemented in the form of one network slice to operate to satisfy specifications required by a particular service.

[0501] The NF may include at least one of an access and mobility management function (AMF), a session management function (SMF), a local session management function (L-SMF), a user plane function (UPF), a local user plane function (L-UPF), a policy control function (PCF), a unified data management (UDM), a unified data repository (UDR), a network exposure function (NEF), a network repository function (NRF), an application function (AF), a network slice selection function (NSSF), a network data analytics function (NWDAF), a network slice admission control function (NSACF), an authentication server function (AUSF), or a data network (DN).

[0502] Referring to FIG. 12, the network entity 1200 may include at least one network interface 1201, at least one processor 1202 (hereinafter, “processor”), and at least one memory 1203 (hereinafter, “memory”). As described above, a NF may be implemented in the form of a physical device such as the network entity 1200, or may be virtualized and executed in the form of an instance. When implemented as an instance, the NF need not necessarily include physical components as illustrated in FIG. 12. In such a case, the instance may be logically represented as comprising one or more logical functional elements.

[0503] According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the network interface 1201, the processor 1202, and the memory 1203 of the network entity 1200 may operate. However, components of the network entity 1200 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 12. In another embodiment, the network entity 1200 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in an embodiment, the network interface 1201, the processor 1202, or the memory 1203 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0504] The network interface 1201 is a collective term for a transmitter part of the network entity 1200 and a receiver part of the network entity 1200, and may be a communication circuit for transmitting or receiving a signal to or from a user equipment (UE), a base station (BS), or another network entity. Here, the communication circuit may include both a communication circuit for wireless communication and a communication circuit for a wired communication. For example, the network interface 1201 may include a circuit, logic, hardware, etc., configured to exchange a control plane message or a user plane message with a UE, a BS, or other core network entities through wireless communication or wired communication. The network interface 1201 may operate using various protocols (e.g., non-access stratum (NAS) protocol). The network interface 1201 may also be referred to, for convenience of description or depending on implementation, as communication circuitry, network interface circuitry, or a communication interface circuitry.

[0505] The processor 1202 may control general operations of the network entity 1200 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1202 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The processor 1202 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1203, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1202 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme. Further, it should be noted that, according to another embodiment, in a case where NF is implemented in the form of an instance, the network function may be not necessarily configured by physical hardware.

[0506] According to an embodiment, the processor 1202 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the network interface 1201 to control the network interface 1201.

[0507] The processor 1202 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1202 may be included in one chip and the other part of the processor 1202 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the network interface 1201 or the memory 1203.

[0508] The processor 1202 may perform or control or cause an operation of the network entity 1200 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1202 may control operations of the network entity 1200 for exchanging a control plane message or a user plane message with a UE, a BS, or other core network entities through wireless or wired communication, using various protocols (e.g., NAS protocol). To this end, the processor 1202 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1203, so as to control other components of the network entity 1200 to enable execution of various operations.

[0509] The memory 1203 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1203 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0510] The memory 1203 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 1202 and may be accessed by the processor 1202.

[0511] The memory 1203 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1202. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1202 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1203, the processor 1202 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0512] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the network entity 1200 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 1203 by at least one processor (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions.

[0513] In one embodiment, the method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system is provided. the method comprising: receiving first configuration information and / or second configuration information, wherein the first configuration information comprises first information related to a timing advance of each of at least two timing advance groups (TAGs), the second configuration information comprises second information related to synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) of a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell; and not receiving a first downlink signal and / or transmitting a first uplink signal on first time domain resources, when the UE performs measurements, wherein the first time domain resources are determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information.

[0514] In another embodiment, the method is provided. wherein the first time domain resources comprise a second time-domain resource in which the UE performs the measurements, as well as N time units before and / or after the second time-domain resource, wherein N is determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information.

[0515] In another embodiment, the method is provided. wherein the first information comprises N_TA and / or N_(TA_offset) corresponding to each TAG of a plurality of TAGs, wherein N_TA denotes a timing advance configured in a timing advance command, and N_(TA_offset) denotes a common timing advance for transmitting uplink signals in the corresponding TAG.

[0516] In another embodiment, the method is provided. the method further comprising: transmitting a second uplink signal at a first point in time, wherein the first point in time is determined based on a downlink reference point, and the downlink reference point is determined based on a second downlink signal, wherein the second downlink signal is determined based on at least one of: the SSB of the serving cell; or an SSB of a cell of a first physical cell identity (PCI).

[0517] In another embodiment, the method is provided. wherein the second downlink signal comprises at least one of: the SSB of the serving cell of the UE; the SSB of the cell of the first PCI; a downlink signal associated with a first transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (TCI-State) in a TCI-State list, the first TCI-State being quasi co-located with the SSB of the serving cell of the UE; or a downlink signal associated with a second TCI-State in the TCI-State list, the second TCI-State being quasi co-located with the SSB of the cell of the first PCI.

[0518] In another embodiment, the method is provided. wherein N is further determined based on a first capability of the UE, wherein the first capability of the UE comprises at least one of: a capability of the UE to support the at least two TAGs of an intra-cell m-TRP; a capability of the UE to support the at least two TAGs of an inter-cell m-TRP; or a capability of the UE to support that a time difference between transmit timings of the at least two TAGs is greater than a layer1 (L1) measurement under a cyclic prefix (CP) condition.

[0519] In another embodiment, the method is provided. wherein, when the UE supports the first capability, N is determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information; or when the UE does not support the first capability, N is a fixed value.

[0520] In another embodiment, the method is provided. wherein N is determined based on any one of: a ratio between a maximum value of differences between first timing advances of a plurality of TAGs and a time unit length; a ratio between a maximum value of the first timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length; a ratio between a maximum value of differences between the first timing advances and second timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length, a first parameter and a second parameter, wherein the first parameter is determined based on any one of: a ratio between a maximum value of differences between first timing advances of a plurality of TAGs and a time unit length; a ratio between a maximum value of the first timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length; a ratio between a maximum value of differences between the first timing advances and second timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length, the second parameter is determined based on a ratio between a receiving timing difference of the SSB of the serving cell and the SSB of the cell of the first PCI included in the second information and the time unit length, wherein the first timing advances are determined based on N_TA and / or N_(TA_offset) included in the first information, wherein the second timing advances are determined based on N_TA and / or N_(TA_offset) of a TAG for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell.

[0521] In one embodiment, a method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system is provided. the method comprising: transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), first configuration information and / or second configuration information, wherein the first configuration information comprises first information related to a timing advance of each of at least two timing advance groups (TAGs), the second configuration information comprises second information related to synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) of a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell; and not receiving a first downlink signal and / or transmitting a first uplink signal on first time domain resources, wherein the first time domain resources are determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information.

[0522] In another embodiment, the method is provided. wherein the first time domain resources comprise a second time-domain resource in which the UE performs measurements, as well as N time units before and / or after the second time-domain resource, wherein N is determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information.

[0523] In another embodiment, the method is provided. wherein the first information comprises N_TA and / or N_(TA_offset) corresponding to each TAG of a plurality of TAGs, wherein N_TA denotes a timing advance configured in a timing advance command, and N_(TA_offset) denotes a common timing advance for transmitting uplink signals in the corresponding TAG.

[0524] In another embodiment, the method is provided. the method further comprising: receiving a second uplink signal transmitted by the UE at a first point in time, wherein the first point in time is determined based on a downlink reference point, and the downlink reference point is determined based on a second downlink signal, wherein the second downlink signal is determined based on at least one of: the SSB of the serving cell; or an SSB of a cell of a first physical cell identity (PCI).

[0525] In one embodiment, a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system is provided. the UE comprising: a transceiver, and at least one processor coupled with the transceiver. wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform the method of any one of above method.

[0526] In one embodiment, a base station in a wireless communication system is provided. the base station comprising: a transceiver, and at least one processor coupled with the transceiver. wherein the at least one processor is configured to perform the method of any one of above method.

[0527] In one embodiment, a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored therein is provided. the computer readable storage medium is executed by a processor, performs the method of any one of above method.

[0528] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored on the computer-readable storage medium, the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the steps and corresponding contents of the foregoing method embodiments.

[0529] Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a computer program product including a computer program, the computer program when executed by a processor realizing the steps and corresponding contents of the preceding method embodiments.

[0530] The terms “first”, “second”, “third”, “fourth”, “1”, “2”, etc. (if present) in the specification and claims of this disclosure and the accompanying drawings above are used to distinguish similar objects and need not be used to describe a particular order or sequence. It should be understood that the data so used is interchangeable where appropriate so that embodiments of the present disclosure described herein can be implemented in an order other than that illustrated or described in the text.

[0531] It should be understood that while the flow diagrams of embodiments of the present disclosure indicate the individual operational steps by arrows, the order in which these steps are performed is not limited to the order indicated by the arrows. Unless explicitly stated herein, in some implementation scenarios of embodiments of the present disclosure, the implementation steps in the respective flowcharts may be performed in other orders as desired. In addition, some, or all of the steps in each flowchart may include multiple sub-steps or multiple phases based on the actual implementation scenario. Some or all of these sub-steps or stages can be executed at the same moment, and each of these sub-steps or stages can also be executed at different moments separately. The order of execution of these sub-steps or stages can be flexibly configured according to requirements in different scenarios of execution time, and the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited thereto.

[0532] The above text and accompanying drawings are provided as examples only to assist the reader in understanding the present disclosure. They are not intended and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Although some embodiments are provided, it is apparent for those skilled in the art to adopt other similar implementation means based on the technical idea of the present disclosure without departing from the technical concept of the solution of the present disclosure. Other similar implementation means based on the technical idea of the present application are adopted, and likewise belong to the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application.

[0533] Meanwhile, although specific embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail, various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the present disclosure should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined by the claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims

1.A method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, comprising:receiving at least one of first configuration information or second configuration information, wherein the first configuration information comprises first information related to a timing advance of each of at least two timing advance groups (TAGs), the second configuration information comprises second information related to synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) of at least one of a serving cell or a neighboring cell; andin case that the UE performs measurements, skipping at least one of reception of a first downlink signal or transmission of a first uplink signal on first time domain resources,wherein the first time domain resources are determined based on at least one of the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs or the second information.2.The method of claim 1, wherein,the first time domain resources comprise a second time-domain resource in which the UE performs the measurements, as well as N time units before and / or after the second time-domain resource,wherein N is determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information.3.The method of claim 1, wherein the first information comprises at least one of or corresponding to each TAG of a plurality of TAGs, wherein denotes a timing advance configured in a timing advance command, and denotes a common timing advance for transmitting uplink signals in the corresponding TAG.4.The method of claim 1, further comprising:transmitting a second uplink signal at a first point in time, wherein the first point in time is determined based on a downlink reference point, and the downlink reference point is determined based on a second downlink signal,wherein the second downlink signal is determined based on at least one of:the SSB of the serving cell; oran SSB of a cell of a first physical cell identity (PCI).5.The method of claim 4, wherein the second downlink signal comprises at least one of:the SSB of the serving cell of the UE;the SSB of the cell of the first PCI;a downlink signal associated with a first transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (TCI-State) in a TCI-State list, the first TCI-State being quasi co-located with the SSB of the serving cell of the UE; ora downlink signal associated with a second TCI-State in the TCI-State list, the second TCI-State being quasi co-located with the SSB of the cell of the first PCI.6.The method of any one of claims 1, wherein N is further determined based on a first capability of the UE, wherein the first capability of the UE comprises at least one of:a capability of the UE to support the at least two TAGs of an intra-cell m-TRP;a capability of the UE to support the at least two TAGs of an inter-cell m-TRP; ora capability of the UE to support that a time difference between transmit timings of the at least two TAGs is greater than a layer1 (L1) measurement under a cyclic prefix (CP) condition.7.The method of claim 6, wherein,when the UE supports the first capability, N is determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information; orwhen the UE does not support the first capability, N is a fixed value.8.The method of claim 2, wherein N is determined based on any one of:a ratio between a maximum value of differences between first timing advances of a plurality of TAGs and a time unit length;a ratio between a maximum value of the first timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length;a ratio between a maximum value of differences between the first timing advances and second timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length,a first parameter and a second parameter, wherein the first parameter is determined based on any one of:a ratio between a maximum value of differences between first timing advances of a plurality of TAGs and a time unit length;a ratio between a maximum value of the first timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length;a ratio between a maximum value of differences between the first timing advances and second timing advances of the plurality of TAGs and the time unit length,the second parameter is determined based on a ratio between a receiving timing difference of the SSB of the serving cell and the SSB of the cell of the first PCI included in the second information and the time unit length,wherein the first timing advances are determined based onand / orincluded in the first information,wherein the second timing advances are determined based onand / orof a TAG for which downlink signals exist in the current serving cell.9.A method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system, comprising:transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), at least one of first configuration information or second configuration information, wherein the first configuration information comprises first information related to a timing advance of each of at least two timing advance groups (TAGs), the second configuration information comprises second information related to synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) of at least one of a serving cell or a neighboring cell; andskipping at least one of reception of a first downlink signal or transmission of a first uplink signal on first time domain resources,wherein the first time domain resources are determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information.10.The method of claim 9, wherein the first time domain resources comprise a second time-domain resource in which the UE performs measurements, as well as N time units before and / or after the second time-domain resource,wherein N is determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information.11.The method of claim 9, wherein the first information comprises at least one of or corresponding to each TAG of a plurality of TAGs, wherein denotes a timing advance configured in a timing advance command, and denotes a common timing advance for transmitting uplink signals in the corresponding TAG.12.The method of claim 9, further comprising:receiving a second uplink signal transmitted by the UE at a first point in time, wherein the first point in time is determined based on a downlink reference point, and the downlink reference point is determined based on a second downlink signal,wherein the second downlink signal is determined based on at least one of:the SSB of the serving cell; oran SSB of a cell of a first physical cell identity (PCI).13.A user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, comprising: a transceiver, and at least one processor coupled with the transceiver, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:receive at least one of first configuration information or second configuration information, wherein the first configuration information comprises first information related to a timing advance of each of at least two timing advance groups (TAGs), the second configuration information comprises second information related to synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) of at least one of a serving cell or a neighboring cell; andin case that the UE performs measurements, skip at least one of reception of a first downlink signal or transmission of a first uplink signal on first time domain resources,wherein the first time domain resources are determined based on at least one of the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs or the second information.14.A base station in a wireless communication system, comprising: a transceiver, and at least one processor coupled with the transceiver, wherein the at least one processor is configured to :transmit, to a user equipment (UE), at least one of first configuration information or second configuration information, wherein the first configuration information comprises first information related to a timing advance of each of at least two timing advance groups (TAGs), the second configuration information comprises second information related to synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) of at least one of a serving cell or a neighboring cell; andskip at least one of reception of a first downlink signal or transmission of a first uplink signal on first time domain resources,wherein the first time domain resources are determined based on the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs and / or the second information.15.A computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored therein, that when executed by a processor, wherein the processor is configured to:receive at least one of first configuration information or second configuration information, wherein the first configuration information comprises first information related to a timing advance of each of at least two timing advance groups (TAGs), the second configuration information comprises second information related to synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) of at least one of a serving cell or a neighboring cell; andin case that the UE performs measurements, skip at least one of reception of a first downlink signal or transmission of a first uplink signal on first time domain resources,wherein the first time domain resources are determined based on at least one of the first information corresponding to each of the TAGs or the second information.

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