User equipment, base station, and method performed thereby in a wireless communication system

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a 5G or 6G communication system for supporting a higher data transmission rate. The present disclosure relates to an user equipment, a base station, and methods performed by the same. According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, comprising: receiving configuration information related to a wake-up signal, the configuration information includes first configuration information related to a wake-up signal occasion and second configuration information related to a monitoring occasion (MO) for the wake-up signal, the wake-up signal occasion includes multiple MOs; determining a wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE based on information related to a wake-up delay supported by the UE; determining, based on the determined wake-up signal subgroup set and the second configuration information, time domain location of MOs for monitoring the wake-up signal; monitoring the wake-up signal based on the determined time domain location of MOs.

Description

USER EQUIPMENT, BASE STATION, AND METHOD PERFORMED THEREBY IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

[0001] The present application relates to the field of communications, and more particularly, to configuration and / or monitoring related to a wake-up signal.

[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 relates to method and apparatus for configuration and / or monitoring related to a wake-up signal in a wireless communication system.

[0009] According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided a communication method in a wireless communication system.

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

[0011] FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of various wireless networks according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0012] FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of wireless transmit and receive paths according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0013] FIG. 2B is a schematic diagram of wireless transmit and receive paths according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0014] FIG. 3A is a block diagram of the constituent structure of a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0015] FIG. 3B is a block diagram of a constituent structure of a base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0016] FIG. 4 illustrates an example flowchart of a method performed by a user equipment (UE) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0017] FIG. 5 illustrates an example of corresponding relationship between wake-up signal subgroup sets and wake-up signal occasions;

[0018] FIG. 6 illustrates another example of corresponding relationship between wake-up signal subgroup sets and wake-up signal occasions;

[0019] FIG. 7 illustrates a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment (UE) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0020] FIG. 8 illustrates a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0021] FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a terminal or user equipment (UE) according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

[0022] FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) according to an embodiment of the disclosure; and

[0023] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a network entity according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0024] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, comprising:

[0025] receiving configuration information related to a wake-up signal, the configuration information includes first configuration information related to a wake-up signal occasion and second configuration information related to a monitoring occasion (MO) for the wake-up signal, the wake-up signal occasion includes multiple MOs;

[0026] determining a wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE based on information related to a wake-up delay supported by the UE;

[0027] determining, based on the determined wake-up signal subgroup set and the second configuration information, time domain location of MOs for monitoring the wake-up signal;

[0028] monitoring the wake-up signal based on the determined time domain location of MOs.

[0029] In an implementation, the determining a wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE based on information related to a wake-up delay supported by the UE, comprises:

[0030] determining an index of the wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE, according to first corresponding relationship between indexes of wake-up signal subgroup sets and wake-up delays.

[0031] In an implementation, the wake-up delays in the first corresponding relationship are respectively associated with different wake-up signal subgroup sets in decreasing order from large to small or increasing order from small to large.

[0032] In an implementation, if the UE does not report a wake-up delay, the wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE is a wake-up signal subgroup set corresponding to a largest wake-up delay in an intersection between wake-up delays related to the wake-up signal occasion configured by the first configuration information and / or wake-up delays related to the MO configured by the second configuration information that are determined based on the first corresponding relationship and wake-up delays supported by the UE.

[0033] In an implementation, the method further comprising: reporting a wake-up delay supported by the UE through capability information,

[0034] wherein, if the wake-up delay reported by the UE is different from both the wake-up delay related to the wake-up signal occasion configured by the first configuration information and / or the wake-up delay related to the MO configured by the second configuration information, then the wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE is a wake-up signal subgroup set corresponding to a largest wake-up delay among an intersection between a wake-up delay related to the wake-up signal occasion configured by the first configuration information and / or a wake-up delay related to the MO configured by the second configuration information that are determined based on the first corresponding relationship and wake-up delays supported by the UE; or

[0035] if the wake-up delay reported by the UE is the same as at least one of the wake-up delay related to the wake-up signal occasion configured by the first configuration information and / or the wake-up delay related to the MO configured by the second configuration information, then the wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE is a wake-up signal subgroup set corresponding to the wake-up delay reported by the UE that is determined based on the first corresponding relationship.

[0036] In an implementation, if neither the wake-up delay related to the wake-up signal occasion configured by the first configuration information nor the wake-up delay related to the MO configured by the second configuration information includes a wake-up delay supported by the UE, the UE does not monitor a wake-up signal.

[0037] In an implementation, the determining time domain location of MOs for monitoring a wake-up signal based on the determined wake-up signal subgroup set and the second configuration information, comprises:

[0038] determine an MO set corresponding to the wake-up signal subgroup set, based on second corresponding relationship between indexes of wake-up signal subgroup sets and MO sets;

[0039] determining time domain location of the MO set based on the second configuration information;

[0040] wherein, each MO set includes K * N consecutive MOs, N is a number of beams for transmitting the wake-up signal, and K is a number of wake-up signals corresponding to each wake-up signal subgroup set transmitted on each beam for beam sweeping, or

[0041] the i-th MO set includes the i-th group of K consecutive MOs in each beam direction for beam sweeping, where i takes a value from 1 to X, and X is a number of wake-up signal subgroup sets.

[0042] In an implementation, each wake-up signal subgroup set comprises M wake-up signal subgroup subsets,

[0043] wherein, the determining time domain location of MOs for monitoring the wake-up signal based on the determined wake-up signal subgroup set and the second configuration information, comprises:

[0044] determining an MO set corresponding to the wake-up signal subgroup set, based on third corresponding relationship between indexes of wake-up signal subgroup subsets and MO sets;

[0045] determining time domain location of the MO set based on the second configuration information;

[0046] wherein, each MO set respectively includes K * N consecutive MOs, N is a number of beams for transmitting the wake-up signal, and K is a number of wake-up signals transmitted on each beam corresponding to each wake-up signal subgroup subset, or

[0047] the i-th MO set includes the i-th group of consecutive MOs in each beam direction, where i takes a value from 1 to M * X, and X is the number of wake-up signal subgroup sets.

[0048] In an implementation, the method further comprising: determining a subgroup subset associated with the UE in the determined wake-up signal subgroup set based on identity information of the UE,

[0049] determine a subgroup index associated with the UE in the determined subgroup subset based on the identity information of the UE and a number of information bits corresponding to a wake-up signal,

[0050] monitoring a wake-up signal based on the subgroup index.

[0051] In an implementation, the method further includes: if the detected wake-up signal includes information related to the subgroup index associated with the UE, the UE monitors paging messages,

[0052] if the detected wake-up signal does not include information related to the subgroup index associated with the UE, the UE monitors the next wake-up signal occasion according to the first configuration information.

[0053] In an implementation, there is a same interval between MO sets corresponding to adjacent wake-up signal subgroup sets, the interval being the same as an interval between adjacent MOs in each MO set, or

[0054] there are different intervals between MO sets corresponding to adjacent wake-up signal subgroup sets, the intervals are different from an interval between adjacent MOs in each MO set.

[0055] In an implementation, the method further comprising:

[0056] in a first case, stopping monitoring or not expecting to monitor a wake-up signal,

[0057] wherein the first condition comprises at least one of:

[0058] in an RRC inactive state or idle state, the UE is performing a small data transmission (SDT) or transmitting a random access channel (RACH);

[0059] in an RRC inactive state or idle state, the UE is performing a small data transmission (SDT) or transmitting a random access channel (RACH), and a condition for wake-up signal monitoring is satisfied;

[0060] the UE expects to transmit a RACH-related signal;

[0061] the UE expects to perform SDT.

[0062] In an implementation, the method further comprising at least one of:

[0063] transmitting a RACH-related signal;

[0064] performing the SDT;

[0065] not expecting to monitor a PO.

[0066] In an implementation, the method further comprising, after transmitting the RACH-related signal and / or performing SDT, performing at least one of:

[0067] expecting to continue monitoring a wake-up signal;

[0068] stop monitoring a PO;

[0069] if measurements at MR and / or LR of the UE satisfy a condition for wake-up signal monitoring, the UE expects to start or continue wake-up signal monitoring;

[0070] if the SDT schedules a DL SDT, the UE expects to continue wake-up signal monitoring after receiving the DL SDT;

[0071] if the SDT schedules a DL SDT, after receiving the DL SDT, the UE expects to start or continue wake-up signal monitoring if measurements at the MR and / or LR of the UE satisfy a condition for wake-up signal monitoring;

[0072] if the SDT schedules a DL SDT, after receiving the DL SDT, starting a timer, if the DL SDT is not received before the timer ends, the UE expects to start or continue wake-up signal monitoring, if the DL SDT is received before the timer ends, the UE resets the timer.

[0073] In an implementation, if the UE expects to transmit a RACH-related signal when monitoring a wake-up signal, the UE monitors the wake-up signal, wherein the RACH-related signal does not include information related to RRC connection request or the RACH-related signal includes information related to RRC resume request; and / or

[0074] if the UE expects to perform SDT while monitoring a wake-up signal, the UE is expected to monitor the wake-up signal.

[0075] In an implementation, if a wake-up signal is not detected by the UE within a first duration, the UE stops monitoring the wake-up signal and reports a wake-up delay supported by the UE.

[0076] In an implementation, if the wake-up delay reported by the UE is different from any of wake-up delays corresponding to configured wake-up signal subgroup sets, the UE stops monitoring the wake-up signal and re-reports a wake-up delay supported by the UE.

[0077] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, the UE comprising an MR and an LR, the method comprising:

[0078] if signal quality of a serving cell measured by the MR is not less than a first threshold value, and signal quality of the serving cell measured by the LR is not greater than a second threshold value, where the first threshold value and the second threshold value are related to a condition for wake-up signal monitoring, perform at least one of:

[0079] the UE does not expect to monitor a wake-up signal, the UE monitors PEI and / or monitors a PO;

[0080] the UE performs RRM measurement of the serving cell at the LR based on LP-SS and / or SSB, until measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy a condition for wake-up signal monitoring, then the UE starts wake-up signal monitoring, and stops monitoring a PO before receiving a wake-up signal;

[0081] the MR performs relaxed RRM measurement or does not perform RRM measurement;

[0082] the UE does not perform RRM measurement of the serving cell at the LR based on LP-SS and / or SSB;

[0083] the UE starts the LR and / or performs RRM measurement of the serving cell at the LR based on LP-SS and / or SSB after a preconfigured or predefined second duration, until the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy a condition for wake-up signal monitoring, the UE starts wake-up signal monitoring, and stops monitoring a PO before receiving a wake-up signal.

[0084] In an implementation, during the second duration, the MR performs relaxed RRM measurement.

[0085] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, the UE comprising an MR and an LR, the method comprising at least one of:

[0086] if a condition for RRM measurement offloading is satisfied, or after the UE starts wake-up signal monitoring, the UE does not transmit periodic SRS signals and / or the UE does not measure DL PRS;

[0087] if the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy a condition for wake-up signal monitoring and the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy a condition for RRM measurement offloading, the UE monitors a wake-up signal and performs RRM measurement of the serving cell at the LR based on LP-SS and / or SSB, the MR enters an ultra-deep sleep state;

[0088] if the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy a condition for wake-up signal monitoring, the measurements at the MR and / or LR do not satisfy a condition for RRM measurement offloading, if the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy a condition for enabling relaxed RRM measurement by the MR, the UE monitors a wake-up signal, the UE performs relaxed RRM measurements of the serving cell and / or neighbor cells at the MR, and / or the UE performs RRM measurement of the serving cell at the LR based on LP-SS and / or SSB, and / or the MR does not enter an ultra-deep sleep state;

[0089] if the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy a condition for wake-up signal monitoring, the measurements at the MR and / or LR do not satisfy the condition for RRM measurement offloading, and the measurements at the MR and / or LR do not satisfy the condition for enabling relaxed RRM measurement by the MR, the UE monitors the wake-up signal, the UE does not perform RRM measurement of the serving cell at the LR based on LP-SS and / or SSB, and / or the UE performs RRM measurements of the serving cell and neighbor cells at the MR based on SSB, and the MR does not enter the ultra-deep sleep state.

[0090] In an implementation, the condition for wake-up signal monitoring includes at least one of:

[0091] RSRP of the serving cell measured by the MR based on SSB is greater than or equal to a threshold value 1 configured through SIB,

[0092] RSRQ of the serving cell measured by the MR based on SSB is greater than or equal to a threshold value 2 configured through SIB,

[0093] RSRP of the serving cell measured by the LR based on the LP-SS is greater than or equal to a threshold value 3 configured through SIB,

[0094] RSRQ of the serving cell measured by the LR based on the LP-SS is greater than or equal to a threshold value 4 configured through SIB,

[0095] RSRP of the serving cell measured by the LR based on SSB is greater than or equal to a threshold value 5 configured through SIB,

[0096] RSRQ of the serving cell measured by the LR based on SSB is greater than or equal to a threshold value 6 configured through SIB.

[0097] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a network device in a communication system, comprising:

[0098] transmitting configuration information related to a wake-up signal, the configuration information comprising first configuration information related to a wake-up signal occasion and second configuration information related to a monitoring occasion (MO) of the wake-up signal, the wake-up signal occasion comprising multiple MOs;

[0099] transmit the wake-up signal on multiple MOs associated with the wake-up signal occasion based on the configuration information,

[0100] wherein, the multiple MOs correspond to multiple wake-up signal subgroup sets, and time domain location of an MO set corresponding to each subgroup set is related to a wake-up delay.

[0101] In an implementation, there is first corresponding relationship between indexes of wake-up signal subgroup sets and wake-up delays.

[0102] In an implementation, the wake-up delays in the first corresponding relationship are respectively associated with different wake-up signal subgroup sets in decreasing order from large to small or increasing order from small to large.

[0103] In an implementation, the method further comprising: receiving a wake-up delay supported by the UE reported by the UE through capability information.

[0104] In an implementation, there is second corresponding relationship between indexes of wake-up signal subgroup sets and MO sets;

[0105] time domain location of the MO set is related to the second configuration information;

[0106] wherein, each MO set respectively includes K * N consecutive MOs, N is a number of beams for transmitting the wake-up signal, and K is a number of wake-up signals transmitted on each beam corresponding to each wake-up signal subgroup subset, or

[0107] the i-th MO set includes the i-th group of consecutive MOs in each beam direction, where i takes a value from 1 to M * X, and X is the number of wake-up signal subgroup sets.

[0108] In an implementation, each wake-up signal subgroup set comprises M wake-up signal subgroup subsets,

[0109] wherein, there is third corresponding relationship between wake-up signal subgroup subset indexes and MO sets;

[0110] time domain location of the MO set is related to the second configuration information;

[0111] wherein, each MO set respectively includes K * N consecutive MOs, N is a number of beams for transmitting the wake-up signal, and K is a number of wake-up signals transmitted on each beam corresponding to each wake-up signal subgroup subset, or

[0112] the i-th MO set includes the i-th group of consecutive MOs in each beam direction, where i takes a value from 1 to M * X, and X is the number of wake-up signal subgroup sets.

[0113] In an implementation, there is a same interval between MO sets corresponding to adjacent wake-up signal subgroup sets, the interval being the same as an interval between adjacent MOs in each MO set, or

[0114] there are different intervals between MO sets corresponding to adjacent wake-up signal subgroup sets, the intervals are different from an interval between adjacent MOs in each MO set.

[0115] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, comprising:

[0116] a transceiver configured to transmit and / or receive signals;

[0117] a controller configured to control the UE to perform a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0118] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a network device in a communication system, comprising:

[0119] a transceiver configured to transmit and / or receive signals;

[0120] a controller configured to control the network device to perform a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0121] Through the embodiments of the present disclosure, the UE can reduce the paging delay from receiving the wake-up signal to monitoring the paging message.

[0122] Hereinafter, embodiments of the disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0123] 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.

[0124] 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.

[0125] 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.

[0126] 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).

[0127] 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.

[0128] 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.

[0129] 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.

[0130] 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.

[0131] 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.

[0132] 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.

[0133] 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.

[0134] 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.

[0135] 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.

[0136] 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.

[0137] 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.

[0138] 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.

[0139] 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.

[0140] 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.

[0141] 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.

[0142] 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.

[0143] 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.

[0144] 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.

[0145] 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.

[0146] 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.

[0147] 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.

[0148] 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.

[0149] 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.

[0150] 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.

[0151] 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.

[0152] 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.

[0153] 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.

[0154] 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.

[0155] 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.

[0156] 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.

[0157] 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.

[0158] 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.

[0159] 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

[0160] 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."

[0161] 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.

[0162] 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.

[0163] 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.

[0164] Hereinafter, the operational principle of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0165] 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".

[0166] 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.

[0167] 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.

[0168] 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.

[0169] 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.

[0170] 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.

[0171] 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.

[0172] 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.

[0173] 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.

[0174] 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.

[0175] 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 wireless (NR) systems, etc. In addition, the various embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to future oriented communication technologies.

[0176] 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.

[0177] 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.

[0178] 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).

[0179] 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.

[0180] 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.

[0181] 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.

[0182] 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.

[0183] 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.

[0184] 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.

[0185] 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.

[0186] 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.

[0187] 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.

[0188] 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.

[0189] 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.)

[0190] 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.

[0191] 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.

[0192] 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.

[0193] 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).

[0194] 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.

[0195] 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.

[0196] 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 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.

[0197] 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).

[0198] 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.

[0199] 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.

[0200] 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.

[0201] 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.

[0202] 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.

[0203] 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.

[0204] 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.

[0205] 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.

[0206] 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.

[0207] 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.

[0208] 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).

[0209] The time domain unit (also called time unit) in the present application may be: an OFDM symbol, an OFDM symbol group (consisting of multiple OFDM symbols), a slot, a slot group (consisting of multiple slots), a subframe, a subframe group (consisting of multiple subframes), a system frame, a system frame group (consisting of multiple system frames); may also be in absolute time units, such as 1 millisecond, 1 second, etc.; the time unit may also be a combination of multiple granularities, such as N1 slots plus N2 OFDM symbols. It may also be a time length of one OOK chip.

[0210] The frequency domain unit (also called frequency unit) in the present application may be: a subcarrier, a subcarrier group (consisting of multiple subcarriers), a resource block (resource block, RB), which may also be called a physical resource block (physical resource block, PRB), a resource block group (consisting of multiple RBs), a bandwidth part (BWP), a bandwidth part group (consisting of multiple BWPs), a band / carrier, a band group / carrier group; may also be in absolute frequency domain units, such as 1 Hz, 1 kHz, etc.; the frequency domain unit may also be a combination of multiple granularities, such as M1 PRBs plus M2 subcarriers.

[0211] The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0212] The text and drawings are provided as examples only to aid the reader in understanding the present disclosure. They are not intended, nor should they be construed, to limit the scope of the disclosure in any way. Although certain embodiments and examples have been provided, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art, based upon this disclosure, that changes may be made to the embodiments and examples shown without departing from the scope of the disclosure.

[0213] The transmission link of the wireless communication system mainly includes: the downlink communication link from a 5G New Radio (NR) gNB to a user equipment (UE), the uplink communication link from a UE to the network, and the sidelink communication link from a UE to a UE.

[0214] In wireless communication systems, such as in the current wireless communication system, in order to reduce energy consumption at the terminal side, a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) mechanism is introduced. In the RRC inactive state (inactive) and / or idle state (idle), the DRX cycle is equal to the paging cycle, the UE monitors a paging occasion (PO) in each DRX cycle, and keeps in the sleep state and does not need to monitor the PDCCH at most of the time in each DRX cycle except the paging occasion. When the UE monitors the PDCCH scrambled by P-RNTI in the corresponding PO, the UE continues to read the paged terminal identifier in the paging message. If the read terminal identifier is the same as its own identifier, the UE further reads the paging message, otherwise discards the paging message. In the above process, in order to further reduce the energy consumption of the UE, a paging early indication (PEI) signal is introduced to indicate whether the UE needs to monitor the corresponding PO. If PEI is configured through system information, the UE monitors the PEI occasion once every DRX cycle. The UE shall wake up at associated PO to monitor the PO if the UE detects the PEI indication and the PEI indicates the UE to monitor an associated PO; otherwise, the UE does not need to wake up to monitor a PO.

[0215] In some use cases with stricter requirements of low energy consumption on a UE (such as an Internet of Things device and / or a wearable device), in order to further extend the battery life of the UE, the wireless communication system may use a wake-up signal with lower power consumption (for example, a new low power wake up signal (LPWUS)) to wake up the UE. Therefore, there is a need for improvements in the procedure for configuration and / or monitoring of wake-up signals (e.g., LPWUSs).

[0216] In the following description, for convenience of description, LPWUS is used as an example of the wake-up signal. It should be understood that this is only exemplary, and the wake-up signal involved in the embodiments of the present disclosure may also have other names, or the wake-up signal may also include other types of wake-up signals.

[0217] Exemplarily, in the present invention, a method and device for configuration and monitoring of the low-power wake-up signal will be introduced. In an embodiment of the present invention, the application of the method according to the present disclosure in at least one of the following aspects will be presented: a method for determining a subgroup set, time domain location for LPWUS monitoring, a method for determining a subgroup index in an associated subgroup set, an enabling condition and an exiting condition for LPWUS monitoring, and UE behavior when enabling conditions for RRM measurement offloading (e.g. offloading to the receiving module of the wake-up signal) and LPWUS monitoring are different. As mentioned above, in the embodiments of the present disclosure, a wake-up signal is used for exemplary introduction, where the wake-up signal includes but is not limited to the LPWUS signal, and the introduced method may also be used for the configuration and transmission of other signals.

[0218] The receiver of the UE contains two modules, one is the main radio (MR), used to receive the normal signal / channel transmitted by the base station, the other is the low power wake up signal receiver (LPWUR), used to receive the wake-up signal transmitted by the base station. The dedicated module is used to receive the wake-up signal because the LPWUS is waveform further modulated based on amplitude shift keying (ASK) on the basis of using the existing waveform based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) in the NR system. The LPWUR may monitor the wake-up signal with extremely low power. Once the UE monitors the wake-up signal, the LPWUR may trigger the MR to transition from the dormant period to the active period to monitor the PEI and / or PO. Alternatively, on-off keying (OOK) modulation is a special case of amplitude shift keying (ASK) modulation. LPWUR includes two different types of receivers: an OOK-based receiver and an OFDM-based receiver, the OOK-based receiver performs synchronization and RRM measurement based on LP-SS and the OFDM-based receiver performs synchronization and RRM measurement based on SSB.

[0219] FIG. 4 illustrates an example flowchart of a method performed by a user equipment (UE) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. According to the method in FIG. 4, wake-up signal grouping and resource for monitoring (e.g., monitoring occasions (MOs) of the wake-up signal) may be determined depending on the UE capability.

[0220] As illustrated in FIG. 4, the method includes steps 401-404:

[0221] Step 401: receive configuration information related to a wake-up signal for waking up the UE, wherein the configuration information includes configuration information of wake-up signal occasions and wake-up signal monitoring occasions associated with receiving a wake-up signal;

[0222] Step 402: determine the wake-up signal subgroup set index associated with the UE based on the UE capability related to the wake-up delay supported by the UE;

[0223] Step 403: based on the determined subgroup set index, determine the LP-WUS subgroup subset index and / or subgroup index of the UE in the subgroup set, based on the association between the subgroup index and the MO resource and the configuration information, determine the time domain location for monitoring LP-WUS;

[0224] Step 404: monitor the wake-up signal based on the determined time domain location of the wake-up signal monitoring occasions. If the codepoint in the wake-up signal indication detected includes a UE subgroup index, the UE is waked up to monitor the paging message. If the codepoint in the wake-up signal indication detected does not include a UE subgroup index, the UE monitors the LP-WUS according to the configured LP-WUS cycle. Optionally, the method may also include step 401-1: the UE reports the supported wake-up delay through UE capability.

[0225] It should be understood that in this disclosure, for convenience of description, the description of the wake-up signal subgroup set is adopted, but this name is only exemplary, and other names may also be used, such as wake-up signal group set, LP-WUS group set, LP-WUS subgroup set, LP-WUS set, wake-up signal set, etc.

[0226] The technical solution of the present disclosure will be described in more detail below in conjunction with exemplary embodiments.

[0227] In an aspect, a method for determining the LPWUS subgroup set and the time domain location for monitoring will be presented.

[0228] In an embodiment, the UE reports the supported wake-up delay through the UE capability. Optionally, the wake-up delay may be one or more wake-up delays selected from X candidate values, and the wake-up delay is the minimum time interval from reception of the wake-up signal to start of PDCCH monitoring by the MR, wherein, X may be preconfigured or predefined, and X is an integer greater than 1. For example, X may be equal to 2. Such operation is to support two wake-up delays for waking up the MR to monitor the PDCCH when the UE is in the ultra-deep sleep state and the deep sleep state. Optionally, the two wake-up delays may be 400ms and 20ms, respectively. For another example, X may be equal to 3. Such operation is to support two UE capabilities of waking up the MR to monitor the PDCCH when the UE is in the ultra-deep sleep state and different wake-up delays of waking up the MR to monitor the PDCCH when the UE is in the ultra-deep sleep state and the deep sleep state. Optionally, the three wake-up delays may be 800ms, 400ms and 20ms, respectively.

[0229] In an embodiment, a wake-up signal occasion (for example, LPWUS Occasion, LO) may be associated with one or more paging occasions (POs), and all UEs corresponding to the one or more POs associated with the LO are a UE group. In order to reduce the paging delay of UEs in a deep sleep state (for example, the wake-up delay is 20ms) in the UE group, UEs in the UE group may be further subgrouped to group the UEs with the same wake-up delay into the same subgroup set. The total number of wake-up signal subgroup sets may be equal to the number of candidate values of wake-up delays.

[0230] In an embodiment, the UE obtains the configuration information for the LO and the configuration information for the wake-up signal monitoring occasions (MOs) through a system information block (SIB) message, where each LO may include multiple wake-up signal MOs. The UE may monitor the wake-up signal in K * N consecutive MOs or K * N non-consecutive MOs, where K is the number of MOs where the same and / or different wake-up signal information bit(s) in the same beam direction is / are transmitted, N is the number of beams of wake-up signals that establish a quasi-co-location (QCL) relationship with SSB or LP-SS. Wherein, K and N are predefined or preconfigured values, and K and N are integers greater than or equal to 1. The configuration information for the LO includes at least one of the following parameters: the minimum time interval from the end location or start location of the LO to the start of one or more POs associated with the LO, wherein the start of multiple POs is the start of the first PO of the multiple POs; the duration of the LO, optionally, which may be the maximum duration of the LO. If the UE receives the wake-up signal after the maximum duration of the LO, the UE does not expect to monitor the associated one or more POs. The configuration information for the wake-up signal MOs includes at least one of the following parameters: the interval between the first wake-up signal MO and the start of the LO, the interval between two adjacent wake-up signal MOs, the duration of a wake-up signal MO, and the interval between the first wake-up signal MO in each wake-up signal subgroup set and the start or end location of the LO, the number or length of MOs associated with each wake-up signal subgroup set.

[0231] The configuration information for the LO further includes at least one of the following parameters:

[0232] a first offset from the start location of the LO to the start of the radio frame in which one or multiple POs associated with the LO are located, wherein the start of the radio frame in which the multiple POs are located is the start of the radio frame in which the first one of the multiple POs is located. The first offset is the number of radio frames;

[0233] In an embodiment, if the UE reports one supported wake-up delay, the UE determines the index of the associated wake-up signal subgroup set based on the reported one wake-up delay. Optionally, according to the predefined or preconfigured corresponding relationship between wake-up delays and wake-up signal subgroup set indexes, for example, according to the definition in Table 1, the UE may determine the index of the wake-up signal subgroup set based on the reported UE capability of one wake-up delay. According to the predefined or preconfigured corresponding relationship between wake-up delays and wake-up signal subgroup set indexes, the method for the UE to determine the associated wake-up signal subgroup set may also include a combination of one or more of the following:

[0234] ○ If the UE does not report a supported wake-up delay, the UE determines the index of the associated wake-up signal subgroup set based on the maximum value among the candidate values of more than one supported wake-up delay.

[0235] ○ If the UE does not report a supported wake-up delay, and the network does not configure a wake-up signal subgroup set associated with one or more UE capabilities supported by the UE, the UE does not monitor the wake-up signal. If the UE does not receive a wake-up signal within a predefined or preconfigured duration, the UE wakes up to monitor PEI or periodically monitor a PO, and re-reports the UE capability.

[0236] ○ If the UE does not report a supported wake-up delay, and the network configures a wake-up signal subgroup set associated with one or more UE capabilities supported by the UE, the UE determines the subgroup set index as the index of the wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the largest wake-up delay in the intersection of the wake-up signal subgroup sets associated with one or more wake-up delays supported by the UE and the wake-up signal subgroup sets associated with one or more wake-up delays and configured by the network.

[0237] ○ If the UE reports a supported wake-up delay, but the network does not configure a wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE capability reported by the UE, the UE determines the subgroup set index as the index of the wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the largest wake-up delay in the intersection of the wake-up signal subgroup sets associated with one or more wake-up delays supported by the UE and the wake-up signal subgroup sets associated with one or more wake-up delays and configured by the network.

[0238] In an embodiment, the UE determines the start location of the LO according to the start of the first paging frame in which the first one of one or more POs associated with the LO is located and the first offset, and determines the end location of the wake-up signal LO or the wake-up signal MO expected to be monitored according to the start location of the associated PO of the UE and a wake-up delay reported by the UE, and / or the UE does not expect to monitor the wake-up signal MO after the start location of the associated PO of the UE and (or plus) a time unit determined by the minimum wake-up delay UE reported , and / or the UE monitors the PO.

[0239] Table 1 corresponding relationship between wake-up delays and wake-up signal subgroup set indexes

[0240]

[0241] In an embodiment, more than one wake-up signal subgroup set may be associated with one LO, and the UE may establish or obtain the association relationship between the wake-up signal subgroup set and the wake-up signal transmission resource to determine the time domain resource location for monitoring the wake-up signal. For example, according to the order of the wake-up delays corresponding to the wake-up signal subgroup sets, the association relationship includes the first group of consecutive K * N wake-up signal MOs in the LO being associated with the wake-up signal subgroup set 1, and the second group of consecutive K * N wake-up signal MOs being associated with wake-up signal subgroup set 2, and so on, as illustrated in FIG. 5. In this way, the user with a larger wake-up delay is associated with the wake-up signal MOs earlier in the LO, and the user with a smaller wake-up delay is associated with the MOs closer to the associated PO in the LO, reducing the paging delay of the user with a small wake-up delay. For example, assuming that there are 2 wake-up signal subgroup sets, the network may configure the time interval from the end location of the LO to the start location of one or more POs by an implementation algorithm as max(T1-T2, T3), where T1 represents the first time interval from the end location of the wake-up signal MOs corresponding to the wake-up signal subgroup set 1 associated with the larger wake-up delay to the start location of the one or more POs, the first time interval includes or is equal to the wake-up delay associated with the wake-up signal subgroup set 1, T2 represents the second time interval from the end location of the wake-up signal MOs corresponding to the wake-up signal subgroup set 1 associated with the larger wake-up delay to the end location of the LO, the second time interval includes or is equal to the duration of multiple consecutive MOs associated with the wake-up signal subgroup set 2 associated with the smaller wake-up delay, and T3 represents the wake-up delay associated with the wake-up signal subgroup set 2 associated with the smaller wake-up delay.

[0242] In another embodiment, more than one wake-up signal subgroup set may be associated with different LOs. For example, one wake-up signal subgroup set corresponds to one LO, and the UE may establish or obtain the association relationship between the wake-up signal subgroup set and wake-up signal transmission resource (such as LOs), to determine the time domain resource location for monitoring the wake-up signal. For example, according to the order of the wake-up delays corresponding to the wake-up signal subgroup sets, the association relationship includes the first LO being associated wake-up signal subgroup set 1, the second LO being associated wake-up signal subgroup set 2, and so on. This method allows a user with a larger wake-up delay to be associated with the earlier LO, and a user with a smaller wake-up delay to be associated with the LO closer to the start of the PO, reducing the paging delay of the users with a small wake-up delay.

[0243] In an alternative solution, the association relationship between the wake-up signal subgroup set and the wake-up signal transmission resource includes that a wake-up signal subgroup set may be associated with non-consecutive MOs in the LO, for each of the N beam directions in the LO, the first group of K consecutive MOs are associated with the wake-up signal subgroup set 1, the second group of K consecutive MOs are associated with the wake-up signal subgroup set 2, and so on, as illustrated in FIG. 6. Such operation may prevent the UE from monitoring subsequent MOs on other beams after receiving the wake-up signal on one of the beams, saving the UE's energy consumption in monitoring the wake-up signal.

[0244] In an alternative solution, in order to reduce the problem that information bits corresponding to a wake-up signal cannot carry information related to wake-up corresponding to all subgroups due to the excessive number of associated subgroups in a subgroup set, a wake-up signal subgroup set may be further divided into multiple subgroup subsets, each subgroup subset corresponds to a wake-up signal. UEs of a subgroup subset monitor the wake-up signal on associated resource. If the subgroup index indicated by the wake-up signal is the same as the subgroup index of the UE, the UE is waked up to monitor a PO; if the subgroup index indicated by the wake-up signal is different from the subgroup index of the UE, the UE continues to monitor the wake-up signal according to the configured LO cycle. The association relationship among the wake-up signal subgroup set, the wake-up signal subgroup subset and the wake-up signal transmission resource includes the first group of consecutive K * N wake-up signal MOs in the LO being associated with the wake-up signal subgroup subset 1 in the wake-up signal subgroup set 1, the second group of consecutive K * N wake-up signal MOs being associated with wake-up signal subgroup subset 2 in the wake-up signal subgroup set 1, and so on; the first group of consecutive K * N wake-up signal MOs after the M * K * N MOs associated with wake-up signal subgroup set 1 in LO being associated with wake-up signal subgroup subset 1 in wake-up signal subgroup set 2, and the second group of consecutive K * N wake-up signal MOs after the M * K * N MOs associated with wake-up signal subgroup set 1 being associated with wake-up signal subgroup subset 2 in wake-up signal subgroup set 2, and so on. Wherein, M is the number of wake-up signal subgroup subsets in a wake-up signal subgroup set. Alternatively, the association relationship between the wake-up signal subgroup subset and the MO may also be similar to that illustrated in FIG. 6. For example, the first group of consecutive K MOs in each of the N beam directions in the LO are associated with the first group of wake-up signal subgroup subsets, and the second group of consecutive K MOs are associated with the second group of wake-up signal subgroup subsets, and so on; the first set of consecutive K wake-up signal MOs after the M * K MOs associated with wake-up signal subgroup set 1 in each of the N beam directions in the LO are associated with the first group of wake-up signal subgroup subsets in the wake-up signal subgroup set 2, the second group of consecutive K wake-up signal MOs after the M * K MOs associated with wake-up signal subgroup set 1 are associated with the second group of wake-up signal subgroup subsets in wake-up signal subgroup set 2, and so on.

[0245] In an embodiment, MOs corresponding to two adjacent groups of wake-up signal subgroup sets in one LO are consecutive. For example, in one LO, the intervals between any two adjacent wake-up signal MOs are equal. The UE may determine the start location of the first MO in the LO based on the configured start point of the LO and the interval between the first wake-up signal MO and the start point of the LO, and determine the time domain location of subsequent MOs according to the start location of the first MO and the duration of the wake-up signal MO, as well as the interval between two adjacent wake-up signal MOs. Such operation may reduce the paging delay of a user to a certain extent while improving resource utilization efficiency.

[0246] In an implementation, the start point of the LO is the start point of the radio frame where the LO is located, and the UE determines the start location of the slot where the first MO is located according to the configured start point of the LO and the interval between the configured first wake-up signal MO and the start point of the LO, wherein the interval between the configured first wake-up signal MO and the start point of the LO is the number of slots. In an LO, the start location of the subsequent or next wake-up signal MO is determined based on the start location or end location of the previous wake-up signal MO and a configured interval between adjacent wake-up signal MOs. Optionally, the configured interval between adjacent wake-up signal MOs is the number of slots or OFDM symbols, the start location of the wake-up signal MO is the start location of a slot or an OFDM symbol, and the duration of the wake-up signal MO is the number of slots or OFDM symbols. The UE may determine valid / available OFDM symbols for wake-up signal based on configured other signals and / or channels, wherein the other signals and / or channels include but are not limited to SSB, Coreset / Type-0 CSS, TDD DL / UL Configuration, and cell-specific reference signal CRS, and the other signals and / or channels are configured by SIB1. For example, in each wake-up signal MO, in frequency domain resources, if the physical resource block where the wake-up signal is located or the physical resource block used for wake-up signal transmission overlaps or collides with other signals and / or channels (in frequency domain resources), the OFDM symbol corresponding to the physical resource block where the wake-up signal is located or the physical resource block used for wake-up signal transmission cannot be used for wake-up signal transmission or is not a valid / available wake-up signal resource, wherein the physical resource block contains a guard gap. In frequency domain resources, if the physical resource block where the wake-up signal is located or the physical resource block used for wake-up signal transmission does not overlap or collide with other signals and / or channels (in frequency domain resources), and in time domain resources, if the OFDM symbol where the wake-up signal is located or the OFDM symbol used for wake-up signal transmission does not overlap or collide with other signals and / or channels (in time domain resources), the UE determines that the OFDM symbol where the wake-up signal is located or the OFDM symbol used for wake-up signal transmission is valid / available OFDM symbol for wake-up signal. Such operation enables the UE to determine the start location of the first wake-up signal monitoring occasion only by the configured start point of the LO at the slot level and the configured interval between the first wake-up signal MO and the start point of LO, and it is no longer necessary to specify the OFDM symbol of the start of the wake-up signal. The OFDM symbol where the wake-up signal is located or the OFDM symbol used for wake-up signal transmission in each MO is a valid / available wake-up signal OFDM symbol, and the start OFDM symbol of the wake-up signal in each MO is the first valid / available OFDM symbol for wake-up signal in each MO. Such operation can reduce the signaling overhead. Optionally, the number of valid / available OFDM symbols for wake-up signal in each MO is the same, and such operation is applicable to the case where the configured interval between adjacent wake-up signal MOs is the number of OFDM symbols, and / or the start location of the wake-up signal MO is the start location of an OFDM symbol, and / or the configured duration of a wake-up signal MO is the number of OFDM symbols. Alternatively, the number of valid / available OFDM symbols for wake-up signal in each MO is different, and such operation is applicable to the case where the configured interval between adjacent wake-up signal MOs is the number of slots, and / or the start location of the wake-up signal MO is the start location of a slot, and / or the configured duration of a wake-up signal MO is the number of slots.

[0247] In another alternative solution, the UE may also determine valid / available OFDM symbols for wake-up signal based on the time domain pattern indication configured by the network and / or the configured other signals and / or channels. Wherein the duration of the time domain pattern is equal to the maximum periodicity of all of the configured other signals and / or channels and / or other unicast signals and / or channels. The time domain pattern may be a bitmap of bits, and each bit of the bitmap corresponds to whether the associated OFDM symbol is occupied or not. Such operation can indicate the resources occupied by signals and / or channels of other users or resources occupied by other unicast signals and / or channels through the time domain pattern, the UE determines unoccupied OFDM symbols through the configured time domain pattern, and determines valid / available OFDM symbols for wake-up signal based on the configured other signals and / or channels.

[0248] In another alternative solution, the MOs corresponding to two adjacent group of wake-up signal subgroup sets in one LO may be non-consecutive. For example, in one LO, the time interval from the end location of the last MO associated with each wake-up signal subgroup set to the start location of the associated one or more POs is greater than or equal to the wake-up delay associated with the wake-up signal subgroup set, and the locations of other MOs associated with each wake-up signal subgroup set may be consecutive or non- consecutive. The MOs associated with individual wake-up signal subgroup sets may be interleaved with each other (for example, among the MOs corresponding to a certain subgroup set, some MOs are earlier than some of the MOs corresponding to another subgroup set, while another some MOs are later than another some of MOs for the other subgroup set), or may also have a unified order (for example, MOs corresponding to a certain subgroup set are all earlier than the MOs corresponding to another subgroup set). The time interval from the end location of the LO to the start location of the associated one or more POs is greater than or equal to the minimum wake-up delay reported by the UE, such operation may further reduce the paging delay for a user supporting a shorter wake-up delay.

[0249] In an embodiment, the UE determines the subgroup index in the associated subgroup set through the UE index (or called UE identity (UE ID)). For example, the subgroup index in the associated subgroup set of the UE is equal to floor (UE_ID / (N * Ns)) mod U, where N is the number of PFs in a DRX cycle, Ns is the number of POs in a PF, and U is the number of wake-up signal subgroups in a subgroup set, where U is a preconfigured or predefined integer, and U is greater than or equal to 1.

[0250] In an alternative solution, the UE determines the index of the associated wake-up signal subgroup subset in the associated wake-up signal subgroup set through the UE index (or may also be called UE identity (UE ID)). For example, the index of the associated subgroup subset in the subgroup set associated with the UE is equal to floor (UE_ID / (N * Ns * U)) mod P, where P is a preconfigured or predefined integer, and P is greater than or equal to 1. Optionally, P is equal to the upper bound of the value for the number of associated wake-up signal subgroups in a wake-up signal subgroup set divided by V, V is 2 to the power of the maximum length of information bits supported by a wake-up signal. For example, the maximum length of information bits supported by a wake-up signal is k bits, then V = 2k, P = ceil (G / V), where G is the number of associated wake-up signal subgroups in a wake-up signal subgroup set. The UE determines the index of the wake-up signal subgroup in the associated wake-up signal subgroup subset through the UE index. For example, the index of the subgroup in the subgroup subset associated with the UE is equal to floor (UE_ID / (N * Ns * U * X)) mod Q, where Q is the number of wake-up signal subgroups in a subgroup subset, where Q is a preconfigured or predefined integer, and Q is greater than or equal to 1. Optionally, Q is equal to V.

[0251] In an embodiment, if the interval between the end time unit of one or more LOs and the start time unit of the associated PO is not less than the wake-up delay supported or reported by the UE, the UE monitors one or more LOs associated with one or more offsets, the one or more offsets are from the end location of the LOs to the start location of the associated PO. The UE determines the end time unit of the associated one or more LOs through the configured one or more offsets and the start time unit of the PO. The one or more offsets are not less than the supported or reported wake-up delay.

[0252] In an alternative solution, if the interval between the end time unit of the LO and the start time unit of the associated PO is less than the wake-up delay supported or reported by the UE, the UE monitors the PEI and / or periodically monitors the PO, and / or exits the procedure of wake-up signal monitoring.

[0253] In an alternative solution, the UE monitoring one or more LOs associated with one or more offsets may comprise the UE monitoring all LOs that are greater than or not less than the wake-up delay supported or reported by the UE, and / or until a UE-specific wake-up signal is received, and / or according to whichever is earlier. The UE-specific wake-up signal includes a wake-up signal carrying the index of the subgroup to which the UE belong or a wake-up signal for all subgroups associated with wake-up.

[0254] In an alternative solution, the UE monitoring one or more LOs associated with one or more offsets may comprise the UE monitoring the LO associated with the maximum offset configured by the network, if the UE detects a wake-up signal and the wake-up signal indicates the subgroup to which the UE belongs to wake up, the UE does not expect to monitor subsequent LOs associated with the PO (the associated PO of the UE). If the UE does not detect a wake-up signal or the wake-up signal does not indicate the subgroup to which the UE belongs to wake up, and if the second largest offset configured by the network is greater than or not less than the wake-up delay supported or reported by the UE, the UE monitors the LO associated with the second largest offset configured by the network, if the UE detects a wake-up signal and the wake-up signal indicates the subgroup to which the UE belongs to wake up, the UE does not expect to monitor subsequent LOs associated with the PO (the associated PO of the UE), and so on, optionally, until the offset associated with the LO is less than the wake-up delay supported or reported by the UE.

[0255] In an alternative solution, if the interval between the end time unit of each LO and the start time unit of the associated PO is less than the wake-up delay supported or reported by the UE, the UE monitors all configured LOs. When the UE detects a wake-up signal and the wake-up signal indicates the subgroup to which the UE belongs to wake up, the UE monitors the first PO that satisfies the wake-up delay reported or supported by the UE. Optionally, the interval between the end time unit of the LO and the start time unit of the associated PO being less than the wake-up delay supported or reported by the UE includes the interval between the end time unit of any of the LOs configured by the network or all LOs configured by the network and the start time unit of the associated PO being less than the wake-up delay supported or reported by the UE.

[0256] In an embodiment, the UE obtains the number of subgroups SN per PO and / or the number of POs LPON1 associated with each LO, or the number of POs LPON2 associated with an LO group through RRC configuration. Alternatively, the association relationship between LOs and POs is determined through the configured number of subgroups per PO. For example, the UE determines that the number of POs LPON1 associated with each LO is (maxSN / SN), or the UE determines that the number of POs associated with an LO group LPON2 is floor((LON*maxSN) / SN), where LON is the number of LOs in an LO group configured by the base station, LON is a pre-configured or predefined parameter value, and LON is greater than or equal to 1. Optionally, if LON is not configured, LON=1 applies as the default one. The value POI of the PO index associated with an LO group is ((UE_ID mod N)*Ns+i_s) mod LPON2. The subgroup index inassociated with the LO is 0 < in< SN, the UE determines that the associated wake-up signal subgroup index is (POI*SN+in)mod maxSN), the UE determines that the LO index in an LO group is floor((POI*SN+in) / maxSN), and the UE monitors the wake-up signal on the resource corresponding to the associated LO index in the LO group. If the wake-up signal is monitored by the UE and the value of the information bit carried by the wake-up signal is equal to the associated wake-up signal subgroup index or the information bit carried by the wake-up signal indicates to wake-up all subgroups associated with the LO, the UE monitors the PO and / or does not expect to monitor the wake-up signal. Where, the index of the PO is i_ s = floor (UE_ID / N) mod Ns, UE_ID is the index of the UE calculated according to TMSI, N is the number of paging frames in a DRX cycle, Ns is the number of paging occasions in a paging frame, and in= floor (UE_ID / (N * Ns)) mod SN+(SN-SNU), SNU is the number of subgroups grouped based on UE_ID in a PO, SNU is a pre-configured parameter value, and maxSN is a predefined or pre-configured value, such as 32.

[0257] In an implementation, if the number of subgroups SN per PO is less than or equal to maxSN / q, where q is an integer greater than 1, one LO may be associated with LPON=floor(maxSN / SN) consecutive POs in one DRX cycle. For example, when q=2, one LO may be associated with two consecutive POs in a DRX cycle. Compared with one LO associated with one PO, for example, compared with using two LOs to indicate the number of 32 subgroups for two POs, this operation can use one LO to indicate the number of 32 subgroups for two POs, thus reducing the resource overhead of LOs. The wake-up signal subgroup index is in, and 0 < in<SN, and the UE determines that the associated wake-up signal subgroup index is (((UE_ID mod N)*Ns+i_s) mod LPON）*SN+in）mod maxSN).

[0258] In an implementation, the UE obtains the number of POs LPON2 associated with an LO group or the number of LOs LON in an LO group and / or the number of subgroups SN per PO through RRC configuration. If LON is not configured and LPON2 is configured, an LO group may include cell((SN* LPON2) / maxSN) number of LOs, where cell is for rounding up. If LPON2 is not configured and LON is configured, the number of subgroups for LPON2 POs should satisfy that SN*LPON2 is greater than maxSN and SN*LPON2 is less than maxSN*LO, and LPON2= floor((LON*maxSN) / SN). For example, if the number of POs associated with an LO group is 3 and / or SN is 20, an LO group may include 2 LOs. When the number of 60 subgroups for 3 POs is greater than 32 and less than 64, an LO group may be associated with 1.6 consecutive POs in a DRX cycle. Compared with one LO associated with one PO, for example, compared with using 3 LOs to indicate the number of 60 subgroups for 3 POs, this operation can use two LOs to indicate the number of 60 subgroups for 3 POs, thus reducing the resource overhead of LOs.

[0259] In another aspect, a condition for wake-up signal monitoring and a condition to exit monitoring or fallback mechanisms will be presented.

[0260] In an embodiment, in an RRC inactive and / or idle state, the UE does not expect to monitor a wake-up signal or does not start wake-up signal monitoring if SDT (Small Data transmission) or RACH procedure is ongoing.

[0261] In an embodiment, in an RRC inactive and / or idle state, if SDT or RACH procedure is ongoing, the UE does not expect to monitor a wake-up signal or does not start wake-up signal monitoring, even if satisfying the condition for wake-up signal monitoring. The satisfying the condition for wake-up signal monitoring includes, the reference signal received power (RSRP) of the serving cell measured by the MR based on SSB is greater than or equal to a threshold value 1 configured through SIB, and / or the reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of the serving cell measured by the MR based on SSB is greater than or equal to a threshold value 2 configured through SIB, and / or the RSRP of the serving cell measured by the LR based on LP-SS is greater than or equal to a threshold value 3 configured through SIB, and / or the RSRQ of the serving cell measured by the LR based on LP-SS is greater than or equal to a threshold value 4 configured through SIB, and / or the RSRP of the serving cell measured by the LR based on SSB is greater than or equal to a threshold value 5 configured through SIB, and / or the RSRQ of the serving cell measured by the LR based on SSB is greater than or equal to a threshold value 6 configured through SIB.

[0262] In an embodiment, if the UE expects to transmit a RACH-related signal when monitoring a wake-up signal, where the RACH-related signal may be message 1 or message A, the UE does not expect to monitor a wake-up signal or stops monitoring a wake-up signal, and the UE expects to transmit a RACH-related signal. The UE determines that the resource for transmitting the RACH-related signal is the nearest RO resource after satisfying the minimum wake-up delay. Optionally, the RACH is for establishing an RRC connection.

[0263] In an alternative solution, if the UE expects to transmit a RACH-related signal and / or SDT when monitoring the wake-up signal, the UE does not expect to monitor the wake-up signal or stops monitoring the wake-up signal or suspends monitoring the wake-up signal, the UE expects to transmit the RACH-related signal and / or SDT, and / or the UE does not expect to monitor a PO. Optionally, the RACH is not for establishing an RRC connection or the RACH is for updating the parameter configuration information in the SIB. Optionally, the UE determines that the resource for transmitting SDT is the nearest CG-PUSCH resource after satisfying the minimum wake-up delay, if the SDT is CG-SDT. Optionally, the UE determines that the resource for transmitting the RACH-related signal and / or the SDT resource are the nearest RO resource after satisfying the minimum wake-up delay, if the SDT is RA-SDT. Wherein, transmitting SDT may also be called performing SDT. Such operation is in consideration that, the RACH-related signal and / or SDT are more important, but since the UE does not receive the wake-up signal, only transmitting the RACH-related signal and / or SDT and not monitoring the PO after the MR wakes up may save the power consumption of monitoring PDCCH. The UE behavior of the UE after transmission of the RACH-related signal and / or SDT may include a combination of one or more of the following:

[0264] -the UE expects to continue wakeup signal monitoring;

[0265] -the UE stops monitoring a PO;

[0266] -if the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy the condition for wake-up signal monitoring, the UE expects to start or continue wake-up signal monitoring;

[0267] -if the SDT schedules a DL SDT, after receiving the DL SDT by the UE, the UE expects to continue wake-up signal monitoring;

[0268] -if the SDT schedules a DL SDT, after receiving the DL SDT by the UE, if the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy the condition for wake-up signal monitoring, the UE expects to start or continue wake-up signal monitoring;

[0269] -if the SDT schedules a DL SDT, the UE starts a timer after receiving the DL SDT. If no DL SDT is received before the timer ends, the UE expects to start or continue wake-up signal monitoring; if a DL SDT is received before the timer ends, the UE restarts or resets the timer; after the timer expires, the UE expects to start or continue wake-up signal monitoring. Optionally, after the timer expires, if the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy the condition for wake-up signal monitoring, the UE expects to start or continue wake-up signal monitoring. A length of the timer is predefined or preconfigured.

[0270] In an alternative solution, if the UE expects to transmit a RACH-related signal and / or SDT when monitoring a wake-up signal, the UE is expected to monitor the wake-up signal, and the UE delays transmitting the RACH-related signal and / or SDT. Optionally, the RACH is not for establishing an RRC connection or the RACH is for updating the parameter configuration information in the SIB. After receiving the wake-up signal, the UE monitors the PO after satisfying the wake-up delay, and the UE transmits the RACH-related signal and / or performs SDT transmission. Such operation may reduce the power consumption caused by the UE turning on the MR to transmit an uplink signal when monitoring the wake-up signal.

[0271] In an embodiment, if the UE does not receive a wake-up signal within a predefined or preconfigured duration, the UE stops monitoring the wake-up signal, the UE monitors PEI and / or monitors a PO, and re-reports the UE capability. If measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy the condition for wake-up signal monitoring, the UE starts wake-up signal monitoring. In this case, the network regroups based on the wake-up delay re-reported by the UE, and the UE determines the associated subgroup set and subgroup and / or subgroup subset based on the re-reported wake-up delay. Such operation is suitable for the case where the network thinks that the UE does not exist and therefore does not indicate to wake up the subgroup to which the UE belongs due to an error in receiving the UE capability by the network.

[0272] In an alternative solution, if the wake-up signal MOs corresponding to the subgroup set index associated with the UE capability for the wake-up delay reported by the UE are not configured, the UE determines the subgroup set index as the index of the wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the largest wake-up delay in the intersection of wake-up signal subgroup sets associated with one or more wake-up delays supported by the UE and wake-up signal subgroup sets associated one or more wake-up delays configured by the network. Such operation is suitable for a scenario where the UE and the network have inconsistent understanding on wake-up signal subgroup sets due to an error in reception of UE capability by the network.

[0273] In an alternative solution, if the wake-up signal MOs corresponding to the subgroup set index associated with the UE capability for wake-up delay reported by the UE are not configured, and the intersection of the wake-up signal subgroup sets associated with one or more wake-up delays supported by the UE and the wake-up signal subgroup sets associated with one or more wake-up delays configured by the network is an empty set, the UE stops monitoring a wake-up signal, the UE monitors PEI and / or monitors a PO, and re-reports the UE capability. If measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy the condition for wake-up signal monitoring, the UE starts wake-up signal monitoring. In this case, the network regroups based on the wake-up delay re-reported by the UE, and the UE determines the associated subgroup set and subgroups and / or subgroup subset based on the re-reported wake-up delay. Such operation is suitable for the case where the UE cannot turn on the MR to monitor the PO within the configured wake-up delay.

[0274] In an embodiment, one LO is associated with PO(s) within one DRX cycle, e.g., the periodicities of the LO and the DRX are the same. Considering that the size of a paging message of the UE may exceed the size of a data packet, and the paging message may be divided into multiple data packets or data fragments for transmission, when the UE receives a wake-up signal and / or the wake-up signal triggers the paging monitoring, the UE monitors POs within Y consecutive DRX cycles, does not expect to monitor the LOs associated with the POs within the Y DRX cycles, and / or does not expect to start wake-up signal monitoring. Optionally, the not expecting to start the wake-up signal monitoring may be not expecting to start the monitoring of the wake-up signal within the duration of Y consecutive DRX cycles.

[0275] In yet another aspect, the UE behavior when only a part of multiple conditions for wake-up signal monitoring is satisfied, and / or the UE behavior when the conditions for wake-up signal monitoring and RRM measurement are different will be introduced.

[0276] In an embodiment, if the RSRP and / or RSRQ of the serving cell measured by the MR are greater than threshold values respectively configured through the SIB, and the RSRP and / or RSRQ of the serving cell measured by the LR are less than threshold values respectively configured through the SIB, the UE Behavior may include a combination of one or more of the following:

[0277] -the UE does not expect to monitor a wake-up signal, the UE still monitors PEI and / or monitors a PO;

[0278] -the UE may perform RRM measurement of the serving cell at the LR based on LP-SS and / or SSB until the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy the condition for wake-up signal monitoring, the UE then starts wake-up signal monitoring, and stops monitoring a PO before receiving a wake-up signal indicating wake-up;

[0279] -the MR may perform relaxed RRM measurement or not perform RRM measurement. Such operation is to reduce the power consumption of turning on LR and MR simultaneously;

[0280] -the UE does not perform RRM measurement of the serving cell at the LR based on LP-SS and / or SSB. The UE starts the LR and / or performs RRM measurement of the serving cell at the LR based on LP-SS and / or SSB after a preconfigured or predefined duration, until the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy the condition for wake-up signal monitoring, the UE starts wake-up signal monitoring, and stops monitoring a PO before receiving wake-up signal indication. Optionally, during the duration, the MR may perform relaxed RRM measurement. Such operation is to reduce the frequency of measurement at the MR when the measurement at the MR satisfies the condition for wake-up signal monitoring, which in turn may reduce the power consumption of the UE.

[0281] In an embodiment, if the condition for RRM measurement offloading is satisfied, or after the UE starts wake-up signal monitoring, the UE does not transmit periodic SRS signals and the UE does not measure DL PRS. Such operation is to reduce the additional power loss caused by the MR in the ultra-deep sleep state being woken up to transmit periodic reference signals or perform DL PRS measurements.

[0282] In an embodiment, if the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy the condition for wake-up signal monitoring and the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy the condition for RRM measurement offloading, the UE monitors the wake-up signal and performs RRM measurement of the serving cell at the LR based on LP-SS and / or SSB, and the MR enters the ultra-deep sleep state. If the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy the condition for wake-up signal monitoring, the measurements at the MR and / or LR do not satisfy the condition for RRM measurement offloading, if the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy the condition for enabling relaxed RRM measurement by the MR, the UE monitors the wake-up signal, the UE performs relaxed RRM measurement of the serving cell and / or neighboring cells at the MR, and / or the UE performs RRM measurement of the serving cell at the LR based on LP-SS and / or SSB, and / or the MR does not enter ultra-deep sleep state. Such operation may utilize the RRM measurement performed at the LR to assist the RRM measurement at the MR, so the MR may perform relaxed RRM measurement, which may further reduce the power consumption caused by the MR performing RRM measurement. If the measurements at the MR and / or LR satisfy the condition for wake-up signal monitoring, the measurements at the MR and / or LR do not satisfy the condition for RRM measurement offloading, and the measurements at the MR and / or LR do not satisfy the condition for enabling relaxed RRM measurement by the MR, the UE monitors LP-WUS, the UE does not perform RRM measurement of the serving cell at the LR based on LP-SS and / or SSB, and / or the UE performs RRM measurement of the serving cell and neighboring cells at the MR based on SSB, and the MR does not enter the ultra-deep sleep state.

[0283] FIG. 7 illustrates a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment 700 according to at least an embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 7, the user equipment 700 includes a transceiver 701 and a controller 702. The transceiver 701 is configured to transmit data or signals and to receive data or signals. The controller 702 is coupled with the transceiver 701 and configured to perform control such that the user equipment 700 performs a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In an implementation, the user equipment 700 may also include a memory (not illustrated) on which computer-executable instructions are stored. When the instructions are executed by the controller 702, the user equipment 700 may perform at least one method corresponding to the above-mentioned embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0284] FIG. 8 illustrates a schematic structural diagram of a base station 800 according to at least an embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 8, the base station 800 includes a transceiver 801 and a controller 802. The transceiver 801 is configured to transmit data or signals and to receive data or signals. The controller 802 is coupled with the transceiver 801 and configured to perform control such that the base station 800 performs a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In an implementation, the base station 800 may also include a memory (not illustrated), on which computer-executable instructions are stored. When the instructions are executed by the controller 802, the base station 800 may execute at least one method corresponding to the above embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0285] FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a terminal or user equipment (UE) 900 according to an embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 9 corresponds to the example of the terminal or UE of FIG. 3A.

[0286] 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.

[0287] Referring to FIG. 9, the UE 900 may include at least one transceiver (hereinafter, referred to as simply “transceiver”) 901, at least one processor (hereinafter, referred to as simply “processor”) 902, and at least one memory (hereinafter, referred to as simply “memory”) 903. According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the transceiver 901, the processor 902, and the memory 903 of the UE 900 may operate. However, components of the UE 900 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 9. In another embodiment, the UE 900 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 901, the processor 902, or the memory 903 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0288] The transceiver 901 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the UE 900 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. For example, the transceiver 901 may enable the UE 900 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 901 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 (901) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications.

[0289] According to an embodiment, the UE 900 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 900 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 900 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 900 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).

[0290] According to an embodiment, the transceiver 901 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 901 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 901 may output a signal received through a wireless channel to the processor 902 and may transmit, through a wireless channel, a signal output from the processor 902.

[0291] The processor 902 may control general operations of the UE 900 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 902 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The processor 902 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 903, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 902 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.

[0292] The processor 902 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 901 to control the transceiver 901.

[0293] The processor 902 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 902 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 902 may be included in one chip and the other part of the processor 902 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the transceiver 901 or the memory 903.

[0294] The processor 902 may perform or control or cause an operation of the UE 900 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 902 may control operations of the UE 900 for processing a downlink signal received from a BS or generating and transmitting an uplink signal to a BS. To this end, the processor 902 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 903, so as to control other components of the UE 900 to enable execution of various operations.

[0295] The memory 903 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 903 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.

[0296] The memory 903 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 902 and may be accessed by the processor 902.

[0297] The memory 903 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 902. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 902 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 903, the processor 902 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0298] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the UE 900 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 903 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.

[0299] FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) 1000 according to an embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 10 corresponds to the example of the RAN node of FIG. 3B.

[0300] The BS 1000 may perform wireless communication with at least one user equipment (UE) located within the area of the BS 1000 through a wireless channel.

[0301] Referring to FIG. 10, the BS 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 BS 1000 may operate. However, components of the BS 1000 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 10. In another embodiment, the BS 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.

[0302] The transceiver 1001 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the BS 1000 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. For example, the transceiver 1001 may enable the BS 1000 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 1001 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 (1001) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications. According to an embodiment, the transceiver 1001 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 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.

[0303] Meanwhile, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the BS 1000 may perform communication with a node or an entity of a network through wired or wireless communication. For example, the BS 1000 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. 10, when the BS 1000 performs wired communication, the BS 1000 may further include a separate network interface for wired communication in addition to the transceiver 1001. The network interface may be referred to as network interface circuitry or communication interface circuitry.

[0304] The processor 1002 may control general operations of the BS 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.

[0305] The processor 1002 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 1001 to control the transceiver 1001.

[0306] 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. 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.

[0307] The processor 1002 may perform or control or cause an operation of the BS 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 BS 1000 for generating and transmitting a downlink signal to a UE or processing an uplink signal received from a UE. Otherwise, the BS 1000 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 1002 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1003, so as to control other components of the BS 1000 to enable execution of various operations.

[0308] 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.

[0309] The memory 1003 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 1002 and may be accessed by the processor 1002.

[0310] 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.

[0311] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the BS 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.

[0312] 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.

[0313] The structure of the above-described network entity will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

[0314] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a network entity 1100 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0315] The network entity 1100 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 1100.

[0316] 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.

[0317] 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).

[0318] Referring to FIG. 11, the network entity 1100 may include at least one network interface 1101, at least one processor 1102 (hereinafter, “processor”), and at least one memory 1103 (hereinafter, “memory”). As described above, a NF may be implemented in the form of a physical device such as the network entity 1100, 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. 11. In such a case, the instance may be logically represented as comprising one or more logical functional elements.

[0319] According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the network interface 1101, the processor 1102, and the memory 1103 of the network entity 1100 may operate. However, components of the network entity 1100 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 11. In another embodiment, the network entity 1100 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 1101, the processor 1102, or the memory 1103 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0320] The network interface 1101 is a collective term for a transmitter part of the network entity 1100 and a receiver part of the network entity 1100, 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 1101 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 1101 may operate using various protocols (e.g., non-access stratum (NAS) protocol). The network interface 1101 may also be referred to, for convenience of description or depending on implementation, as communication circuitry, network interface circuitry, or a communication interface circuitry.

[0321] The processor 1102 may control general operations of the network entity 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. 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.

[0322] According to an embodiment, the processor 1102 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the network interface 1101 to control the network interface 1101.

[0323] 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 network interface 1101 or the memory 1103.

[0324] The processor 1102 may perform or control or cause an operation of the network entity 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 network entity 1100 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 1102 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1103, so as to control other components of the network entity 1100 to enable execution of various operations.

[0325] 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.

[0326] The memory 1103 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 1102 and may be accessed by the processor 1102.

[0327] 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.

[0328] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the network entity 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.

[0329] In one embodiment, a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system is provided. The method comprises: receiving configuration information related to a wake-up signal, the configuration information includes first configuration information related to a wake-up signal occasion and second configuration information related to a monitoring occasion (MO) for the wake-up signal, the wake-up signal occasion includes multiple MOs; determining a wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE based on information related to a wake-up delay supported by the UE; determining, based on the determined wake-up signal subgroup set and the second configuration information, time domain location of MOs for monitoring the wake-up signal; monitoring the wake-up signal based on the determined time domain location of MOs.

[0330] In another embodiment, the determining a wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE based on information related to a wake-up delay supported by the UE, comprises: determining an index of the wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE, according to first corresponding relationship between indexes of wake-up signal subgroup sets and wake-up delays.

[0331] In another embodiment, the wake-up delays in the first corresponding relationship are respectively associated with different wake-up signal subgroup sets in decreasing order from large to small or increasing order from small to large.

[0332] In another embodiment, if the UE does not report a wake-up delay, the wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE is a wake-up signal subgroup set corresponding to a largest wake-up delay in an intersection between wake-up delays related to the wake-up signal occasion configured by the first configuration information and / or wake-up delays related to the MO configured by the second configuration information that are determined based on the first corresponding relationship and wake-up delays supported by the UE.

[0333] In another embodiment, the method further comprises: reporting a wake-up delay supported by the UE through capability information, wherein, if the wake-up delay reported by the UE is different from both the wake-up delay related to the wake-up signal occasion configured by the first configuration information and / or the wake-up delay related to the MO configured by the second configuration information, then the wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE is a wake-up signal subgroup set corresponding to a largest wake-up delay among an intersection between a wake-up delay related to the wake-up signal occasion configured by the first configuration information and / or a wake-up delay related to the MO configured by the second configuration information that are determined based on the first corresponding relationship and wake-up delays supported by the UE; or if the wake-up delay reported by the UE is the same as at least one of the wake-up delay related to the wake-up signal occasion configured by the first configuration information and / or the wake-up delay related to the MO configured by the second configuration information, then the wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE is a wake-up signal subgroup set corresponding to the wake-up delay reported by the UE that is determined based on the first corresponding relationship.

[0334] In another embodiment, if neither the wake-up delay related to the wake-up signal occasion configured by the first configuration information nor the wake-up delay related to the MO configured by the second configuration information includes a wake-up delay supported by the UE, the UE does not monitor a wake-up signal.

[0335] In another embodiment, the determining time domain location of MOs for monitoring a wake-up signal based on the determined wake-up signal subgroup set and the second configuration information, comprises: determine an MO set corresponding to the wake-up signal subgroup set, based on second corresponding relationship between indexes of wake-up signal subgroup sets and MO sets; determining time domain location of the MO set based on the second configuration information; wherein, each MO set includes K * N consecutive MOs, N is a number of beams for transmitting the wake-up signal, and K is a number of wake-up signals corresponding to each wake-up signal subgroup set transmitted on each beam for beam sweeping, or the i-th MO set includes the i-th group of K consecutive MOs in each beam direction for beam sweeping, where i takes a value from 1 to X, and X is a number of wake-up signal subgroup sets.

[0336] In another embodiment, each wake-up signal subgroup set comprises M wake-up signal subgroup subsets, wherein, the determining time domain location of MOs for monitoring the wake-up signal based on the determined wake-up signal subgroup set and the second configuration information, comprises: determining an MO set corresponding to the wake-up signal subgroup set, based on third corresponding relationship between indexes of wake-up signal subgroup subsets and MO sets; determining time domain location of the MO set based on the second configuration information; wherein, each MO set respectively includes K * N consecutive MOs, N is a number of beams for transmitting the wake-up signal, and K is a number of wake-up signals transmitted on each beam corresponding to each wake-up signal subgroup subset, or the i-th MO set includes the i-th group of consecutive MOs in each beam direction, where i takes a value from 1 to M * X, and X is the number of wake-up signal subgroup sets.

[0337] In another embodiment, the method further comprises: determining a subgroup subset associated with the UE in the determined wake-up signal subgroup set based on identity information of the UE, determine a subgroup index associated with the UE in the determined subgroup subset based on the identity information of the UE and a number of information bits corresponding to a wake-up signal, monitoring a wake-up signal based on the subgroup index.

[0338] In another embodiment, there is a same interval between MO sets corresponding to adjacent wake-up signal subgroup sets, the interval being the same as an interval between adjacent MOs in each MO set, or there are different intervals between MO sets corresponding to adjacent wake-up signal subgroup sets, the intervals are different from an interval between adjacent MOs in each MO set.

[0339] In another embodiment, the method further comprises: in a first case, stopping monitoring or not expecting to monitor a wake-up signal, wherein the first condition comprises at least one of: in an RRC inactive state or idle state, the UE is performing a small data transmission (SDT) or transmitting a random access channel (RACH); in an RRC inactive state or idle state, the UE is performing a small data transmission (SDT) or transmitting a random access channel (RACH), and a condition for wake-up signal monitoring is satisfied; the UE expects to transmit a RACH-related signal; the UE expects to perform SDT.

[0340] In another embodiment, the method further comprises at least one of: transmitting a RACH-related signal; performing the SDT; not expecting to monitor a PO.

[0341] In another embodiment, the method further comprises, after transmitting the RACH-related signal and / or performing SDT, performing at least one of: expecting to continue monitoring a wake-up signal; stop monitoring a PO; if measurements at MR and / or LR of the UE satisfy a condition for wake-up signal monitoring, the UE expects to start or continue wake-up signal monitoring; if the SDT schedules a DL SDT, the UE expects to continue wake-up signal monitoring after receiving the DL SDT; if the SDT schedules a DL SDT, after receiving the DL SDT, the UE expects to start or continue wake-up signal monitoring if measurements at the MR and / or LR of the UE satisfy a condition for wake-up signal monitoring; if the SDT schedules a DL SDT, after receiving the DL SDT, starting a timer, if the DL SDT is not received before the timer ends, the UE expects to start or continue wake-up signal monitoring, if the DL SDT is received before the timer ends, the UE resets the timer.

[0342] In another embodiment, if the UE expects to transmit a RACH-related signal when monitoring a wake-up signal, the UE monitors the wake-up signal, wherein the RACH-related signal does not include information related to RRC connection request or the RACH-related signal includes information related to RRC resume request; and / or if the UE expects to perform SDT while monitoring a wake-up signal, the UE is expected to monitor the wake-up signal.

[0343] In another embodiment, a method performed by a network device in a communication system is provide. The method comprises: transmitting configuration information related to a wake-up signal, the configuration information comprising first configuration information related to a wake-up signal occasion and second configuration information related to a monitoring occasion (MO) of the wake-up signal, the wake-up signal occasion comprising multiple MOs; transmit the wake-up signal on multiple MOs associated with the wake-up signal occasion based on the configuration information, wherein, the multiple MOs correspond to multiple wake-up signal subgroup sets, and time domain location of an MO set corresponding to each subgroup set is related to a wake-up delay.

[0344] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention includes reference to devices for performing one or more of the operations described herein. These devices may be specially designed and manufactured for the required purposes, or they may comprise known devices found in general purpose computers. These devices have computer programs stored therein that are selectively activated or reconfigured. Such a computer program may be stored in a device (e.g., computer) readable medium including, but not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, hard disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magneto-optical disks, ROM (Read-Only Memory, Read-Only Memory), RAM (Random Access Memory), EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), flash memory, magnetic card or optical card. That is, a readable medium includes any medium that stores or transmits information in a form readable by a device (e.g., a computer).

[0345] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that each block of the structural diagrams and / or block diagrams and / or flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the structural diagrams and / or block diagrams and / or flow diagrams, may be implemented by computer program instructions. Those skilled in the art may understand that these computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing method for implementation, so that the scheme specified in the structural diagrams and / or block diagrams and / or flow diagrams disclosed in the present invention may be executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing method.

[0346] Those skilled in the art may understand that the steps, measures, and solutions in the various operations, methods, and processes that have been discussed in the present invention may be alternated, changed, combined, or deleted. Furthermore, other steps, measures, and solutions in the various operations, methods, and processes that have been discussed in the present invention may also be alternated, changed, rearranged, decomposed, combined, or deleted. Furthermore, the steps, measures, and solutions in the various operations, methods, and processes disclosed in the present invention in the prior art may also be alternated, changed, rearranged, decomposed, combined, or deleted.

[0347] The above are only some embodiments of the present invention. It should be noted that those of ordinary skill in the art may also make several improvements and modifications without departing from the principles of the present invention. These improvements and modifications are also It should be regarded as the protection scope of the present invention.

[0348] 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

A method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, comprising:receiving configuration information related to a wake-up signal, the configuration information includes information related to a monitoring occasion (MO) for the wake-up signal;determining an index of a wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE based on the configuration information and an identifier of the UE;determining, based on the determined index of the wake-up signal subgroup set, time domain location of MOs for monitoring the wake-up signal; andmonitoring the wake-up signal based on the determined time domain location of MOs for monitoring the wake-up signal.The method according to claim 1, wherein the information related to the MO for the wake-up signal includes information regarding a number of paging frames(PFs) and information regarding a number of paging occasions(POs) in a paging frame.The method according to claim 2, wherein the information related to the MO for the wake-up signal further includes information regarding a number of wake-up signal subgroups in the wake-up signal subgroup set.The method according to claim 1, further comprises:determining time domain location of MOs for monitoring a paging message; andmonitoring the paging message based on the determined time domain location of MOs for monitoring the paging message.The method according to claim 4, wherein the time domain location of MOs for monitoring the paging message is determined based on the index of the wake-up signal subgroup set and the identifier of the UE.The method according to claim 1, wherein the wake-up signal based on the determined time domain location of MOs for monitoring the wake-up signal is performed in case that a predetermined condition is satisfied based on a measurement result of a serving cell.The method according to claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:performing a relaxed RRM(radio resource management) measurement of the serving cell and / or neighboring cells on a main radio (MR).The method according to claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:performing a serving cell measurement offloading to low-power radio(LR).A user equipment (UE) comprising:at least one transceiver;at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver; andat least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the UE to:receive configuration information related to a wake-up signal, the configuration information includes information related to a monitoring occasion (MO) for the wake-up signal,determine an index of a wake-up signal subgroup set associated with the UE based on the configuration information and an identifier of the UE,determine, based on the determined index of the wake-up signal subgroup set, time domain location of MOs for monitoring the wake-up signal,monitor the wake-up signal based on the determined time domain location of MOs for monitoring the wake-up signal.The UE according to claim 9, wherein the information related to the MO for the wake-up signal includes information regarding a number of paging frames (PFs) and information regarding a number of paging occasions (POs) in a paging frame.The UE according to claim 10, wherein the information related to the MO for the wake-up signal further includes information regarding a number of wake-up signal subgroups in the wake-up signal subgroup set.The UE according to claim 9, wherein the instructions further cause the UE to:determine time domain location of MOs for monitoring a paging message,monitor the paging message based on the determined time domain location of MOs for monitoring the paging message.The UE according to claim 12, wherein the time domain location of MOs for monitoring the paging message is determined based on the index of the wake-up signal subgroup set and the identifier of the UE.The UE according to claim 9, wherein the wake-up signal based on the determined time domain location of MOs for monitoring the wake-up signal is performed in case that a predetermined condition is satisfied based on a measurement result of a serving cell.The UE according to claim 14, wherein the instructions further cause the UE to:perform a relaxed RRM(radio resource management) measurement of the serving cell and / or neighboring cells on a main radio (MR), orperforming a serving cell measurement offloading to low-power radio(LR).

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