Method and apparatus for optimizing UE operation under s&f NTN operation mode

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide method and apparatus for optimizing UE operation under S&F NTN operation mode A method (300) performed by a satellite based network node of a non-terrestrial network (NTN). The method (300) may comprise transmitting (302), to a wireless communication device served by a satellite footprint or spot beam comprised in the NTN, an indication indicating that no further data should be expected in the downlink from the satellite and the UE can suspend some of its ongoing procedures (e.g., paging).

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OPTIMIZING UE OPERATION UNDER S&F NTN OPERATION MODETECHNICAL FIELDThe non-limiting and exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the technical field of communications, and specifically to methods and apparatuses for optimizing user equipment (UE) operation under store and forward mode (S&F) Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) operation mode.BACKGROUNDThis section introduces aspects that may facilitate a better understanding of the disclosure. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.Starting in Release 15, 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) began studying support for NTN. Normative work was introduced in Release 17 which comprised a radio frequency processing function (transceiver) on a satellite platform interconnected with a terrestrial base station, also known as transparent architecture, where the NTN payload is passed transparently, no unpacking. In Release 19, regenerative architecture may be supported, where part or all of the next generation NodeB (gNodeB or gNB) can be in the satellite.SUMMARYThis summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.In the S&F architecture, the lack of concurrent service and feeder link operation makes that user data is temporarily stored in a satellite before being forwarded to the UE. It can be assumed that a satellite may have a limited buffering capability. In addition, user data can be stored in the buffer for an extended period of time which depends on the deployment characteristics, e.g., the number of ground stations. Moreover, once the user data buffer is empty in the satellite, this is, the Radio Access Node has delivered all the buffered user data to all UEs in the cell(s) or tracking area(s), a UE connected or camping in such a cell can expect not to receive any more downlink user data, at least, until the next incoming satellite.According to existing technology, a UE connected or camping in a cell needs to perform a series of procedures such as paging, or cell reselection based on the premise of concurrentconnection between service and feeder link. These procedures may be suboptimal when the serving satellite operates in S&F mode and there is no further data to be transmitted in the downlink, which could lead to unnecessary energy consumption. One example is using certain pre-agreed time occasions to listen to paging messages which are no longer useful once the user data buffer is depleted in a satellite.To overcome or mitigate at least one of above mentioned problems or other problems, the embodiments of the present disclosure propose an improved solution for optimizing UE operation under S&F NTN operation mode.In a first aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a satellite based network node of a non-terrestrial network (NTN). The method may comprise transmitting, to a wireless communication device served by a satellite footprint or spot beam comprised in the NTN, an indication indicating that no further data should be expected in the downlink from the satellite and the UE can suspend some of its ongoing procedures (e.g., paging).In a second aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a wireless communication device served by a satellite footprint or spot beam comprised in a non-terrestrial network (NTN). The method may comprise receiving, from a satellite based network node of the NTN, an indication indicating that no further data should be expected in the downlink from the satellite and the UE can suspend some of its ongoing procedures (e.g., paging).In a third aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a satellite based network node of a nonterrestrial network. The satellite based network node may comprise a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. Said memory contains instructions executable by said processor. Said satellite based network node is operative to transmit, to a wireless communication device served by a satellite footprint or spot beam comprised in the NTN, an indication indicating that no further data should be expected in the downlink from the satellite and the UE can suspend some of its ongoing procedures (e.g., paging).In a fourth aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a wireless communication device served by a satellite footprint or spot beam comprised in a non-terrestrial network. The wireless communication device may comprise a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. Said memory contains instructions executable by said processor. Said wireless communication device is operative to receive, from a satellite based network node of the NTN, an indication indicating that no further data should be expected in the downlink from the satellite and the UE can suspend some of its ongoing procedures (e.g., paging).In a fifth aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform any of the methods according to any one of the first or second aspect.In a sixth aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform any of the methods according to any one of the first or second aspect.Embodiments herein may provide many advantages, of which a non-exhaustive list of examples follows. In some embodiments herein, the main benefits are in the areas of power saving and operational efficiency. In some embodiments herein, when a UE receives the indication that no further data should be expected in the downlink from a satellite operating in S&F, it can suspend some of its ongoing procedures (e.g., paging) and / or activate an energy saving mechanism (e.g., PSM), and / or temporarily change the cell reselection priorities to favor cells with concurrent connection. The embodiments herein are not limited to the features and advantages mentioned above. A person skilled in the art will recognize additional features and advantages upon reading the following detailed description.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe above and other aspects, features, and benefits of various embodiments of the present disclosure will become more fully apparent, by way of example, from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals or letters are used to designate like or equivalent elements. The drawings are illustrated for facilitating better understanding of the embodiments of the disclosure and not necessarily drawn to scale, in which:FIG.l shows an example architecture of a satellite network with bent pipe transponders;FIG.2a shows an example of store and forward operation for an NTN payload;FIG.2b shows an example of NTN Architecture Types;FIGs.3a, 3b, 3c, 3d, 3e, 4, 5, 6, 7a and 7b show flowcharts of methods according to embodiments of the present disclosure;FIG.8 is a block diagram showing an apparatus suitable for practicing some embodiments of the disclosure;FIG.9 shows an example of a communication system in accordance with some embodiments;FIG. 10 shows a UE in accordance with some embodiments;FIG.11 shows a network node in accordance with some embodiments; andFIG.12 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized.DETAILED DESCRIPTIONThe embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that these embodiments are discussed only for the purpose of enabling those skilled persons in the art to better understand and thus implement the present disclosure, rather than suggesting any limitations on the scope of the present disclosure. Reference throughout this specification to features, advantages, or similar language does not imply that all of the features and advantages that may be realized with the present disclosure should be or are in any single embodiment of the disclosure. Rather, language referring to the features and advantages is understood to mean that a specific feature, advantage, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics of the disclosure may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize that the disclosure may be practiced without one or more of the specific features or advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additional features and advantages may be recognized in certain embodiments that may not be present in all embodiments of the disclosure.As used herein, the term “network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards such as new radio (NR), long term evolution (LTE), LTE- Advanced, wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), high-speed packet access (HSPA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Address (TDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA), Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) and other wireless networks. A CDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), etc. UTRA includes WCDMA and other variants of CDMA. A TDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). An OFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA (E- UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDMA, Ad-hoc network, wireless sensor network, etc. In the following description, the terms “network” and “system” can be used interchangeably. Furthermore, the communications between two devices in the network may be performed according to any suitable communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the communication protocols as defined by a standard organization such as 3GPP. For example, the communication protocols may comprise the first generation (1G), 2G, 3G, 4G, 4.5G, 5G, 6G communication protocols, and / or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future.The term “network device” or “network node” or “network function” refers to any suitable function which can be implemented in a network entity (physical or virtual) of a communicationnetwork. For example, the network function can be implemented either as a network element on a dedicated hardware, as a software instance running on a dedicated hardware, or as a virtualized function instantiated on an appropriate platform, e.g. on a cloud infrastructure. For example, the 5G system (5GS) may comprise a plurality of NFs such as Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Charging Function(CHF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Service Function (AUSF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Policy Control Function (PCF), Application Function (AF), Network Exposure Function (NEF), User plane Function (UPF) and Network Repository Function (NRF), radio access network (RAN), service communication proxy (SCP), network data analytics function (NWDAF), network slice selection function (NSSF), network slice-Specific Authentication and Authorization Function (NSSAAF), an Ambient Internet of Things Function (AIOTF), Unified Data Repository (UDR), etc. In other embodiments, the network function may comprise different types of NFs for example depending on a specific network. For example, the 4G system (such as Long Term Evolution (LTE)) may include Mobile Management Entity (MME), home subscriber server (HSS), PCRF (Policy and Charging Rules Function), PGW (Packet Data Network Gateway), PGW control plane (PGW-C), PGW user plane (PGW-U) Serving gateway (SGW), application server (AS), SGW control plane (SGW-C), SGW user plane (SGW-U), E-UTRAN Node B (eNB), etc. In other embodiments, the network function may comprise different types of NFs for example depending on a specific network.The network device may be an access network device with accessing function in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses to the network and receives services therefrom. The access network device may include a base station (BS), an access point (AP), a multi-cell / multicast coordination entity (MCE), a controller or any other suitable device in a wireless communication network. The BS may be, for example, a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), a next generation NodeB (gNodeB or gNB), a remote radio unit (RRU), a radio header (RH), an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, Wireless Access Backhaul (WAB) node, and so forth.Yet further examples of the access network device comprise multi-standard radio (MSR) radio equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, positioning nodes and / or the like. More generally, however, the network node may represent any suitable device (or group of devices) capable, configured, arranged, and / or operable to enable and / or provide a terminal device access to a wireless communication networkor to provide some service to a terminal device that has accessed to the wireless communication network.The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that can access a communication network and receive services therefrom. By way of example and not limitation, the terminal device refers to a mobile terminal, user equipment (UE), or other suitable devices. The UE may be, for example, a Subscriber Station (SS), a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS), zero-energy (ZE) loT (ZE-IoT) devices, Passive-IoT device, Ambient power-enabled loT, or Ambient loT devices, or an Access Terminal (AT). The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a portable computer, an image capture terminal device such as a digital camera, a gaming terminal device, a music storage and a playback appliance, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, a voice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a tablet, a wearable device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable computer, a desktop computer, a wearable terminal device, a vehiclemounted wireless terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobile station, a laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), a laptop-mounted equipment (LME), a USB dongle, a smart device, a wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE) and the like. In the following description, the terms “terminal device”, “terminal”, “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably. As one example, a terminal device may represent a UE configured for communication in accordance with one or more communication standards promulgated by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), such as 3GPP LTE standard or NR standard. As used herein, a “user equipment” or “UE” may not necessarily have a “user” in the sense of a human user who owns and / or operates the relevant device. In some embodiments, a terminal device may be configured to transmit and / or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a terminal device may be designed to transmit information to a network on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the communication network. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but that may not initially be associated with a specific human user.As yet another example, in an loT scenario, a terminal device may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and / or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and / or measurements to another terminal device and / or network equipment. The terminal device may in this case be a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as a machine-type communication (MTC) device. As one particular example, the terminal device may be a UE implementing the 3GPP narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) standard. Particular examples of such machines or devices are sensors, metering devices such as power meters, industrial machinery, or home or personal appliances, for example refrigerators, televisions, personal wearables such as watches etc. In other scenarios, a terminal device mayrepresent a vehicle or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and / or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.References in the specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.It shall be understood that although the terms “first” and “second” etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and / or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed terms.As used herein unless expressly stated to the contrary, the phrase “at least one of A and B” or “at least one of A or B” should be understood to mean any of the following “only A, only B, or both A and B.” The phrase “A and / or B” should be understood to mean any of the following “only A, only B, or both A and B”.As used herein unless expressly stated to the contrary, the phrase “a plurality of’ followed by a conjunctive list of enumerated items (e.g, “A and B”, “A, B, and C”) is intended to mean “multiple items, with each item selected from the list consisting of’ the enumerated items. For example, “a plurality of A and B” is intended to mean any of the following: more than one A; more than one B; or at least one A and at least one B.The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “has”, “having”, “includes” and / or “including”, when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and / or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and / or combinations thereof.It is noted that these terms as used in this document are used only for ease of description and differentiation among nodes, devices or networks etc. With the development of the technology, other terms with the similar / same meanings may also be used.In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.In 3GPP, 5G system (5GS) is a new generation’s radio access technology intended to serve use cases such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC), narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) and Massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC). 5G includes the New Radio (NR) access stratum interface and the 5G Core Network (5GC). The NR physical and higher layers are reusing parts of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) specification, and to that add needed components when motivated by new use cases. There have been a lot of discussions in 3GPP in the last few years on how to specify technologies to cover / address use cases for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and / or Internet of Things (loT). In Release 13 enhancements to support Machine-Type Communications (MTC) were specified introducing new UE categories Ml (Cat-Mi) and NB1 (Cat-NBl) to support reduced maximum bandwidth of up to 6 physical resource blocks (PRBs) in eMTC work item and narrowband carrier in NB-IoT work item specifying a new radio interface, respectively.There are multiple differences between “legacy” LTE and the procedures and channels defined for eMTC or NB-IoT. Some important differences include a new physical downlink control channel, i.e., MTC physical downlink control channel (MPDCCH) used in eMTC and Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH) used in NB-IoT.3GPP Release 12 initiated the work on eMTC, also often referred to as LTE-M, and specified the first low-complexity UE category 0 (Cat-0). Cat-0 supports a reduced peak data rate of 1 Mbps, single antenna and half duplex frequency division duplex (HD FDD) operation.In Release 13 the work accelerated with the introduction of the Cat-Mi UE category. It supports a further reduced complexity, and coverage enhanced (CE) operation. The additional cost reduction came from a reduced transmission and reception bandwidth of 1.08 MHz, equivalent to six 180 kHz physical resource blocks (PRBs). The introduction of a lower UE power class of 20 dBm, in addition to the 23 dBm power class, further facilitates a lower UE complexity.Because of the reduction in bandwidth, a new narrowband physical downlink control channel, the MTC physical downlink control channel (MPDCCH), was introduced as a substitute for the wideband legacy physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and the Enhanced PDCCH (EPDCCH). The Cat-Mi UEs monitor MPDCCH in a narrowband (NB), which is defined by 6 adjacent PRBs. eMTC supports a maximum coupling loss (MCL) that is 20 dB larger than the normal MCL of LTE. This is achieved mainly through time repetition and a relaxed acquisition time of the physical channels and signals. The primary and secondary synchronization signals (PrimarySynchronization Signal (PSS) and Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS)) are fully reused from LTE and extended coverage is achieved by means of increased acquisition time.For the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), the MPDCCH, the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and the data channels, that is, the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), the desired coverage enhancement is achieved through so-called time repetition of a transmission block.In LTE Releases 14 and 15, eMTC was further enhanced to support a more diversified set of applications and services. A new UE category Cat-M2 was e.g., specified. The performance of eMTC Release 15 meets the IMT-2020 5G requirements for the massive loT use case.The work in 3GPP on eMTC was continued in Release 16 and is further evolved also in Release 17 and Release 18.At the 3GPP RAN#70 meeting, a new Release 13 work item named Narrowband loT (NB- loT) was approved. The objective of the new loT related work items approved for release 13 was to specify a radio access for cellular internet of things (loT) that addresses improved indoor coverage, support for massive number of low throughput devices, not sensitive to delay, ultra-low device cost, low device energy consumption and (optimized) network architecture.NB-IoT can be described as a narrowband version of LTE. Similar to eMTC, NB-IoT makes use of increased acquisition times and time repetitions to extend the system coverage. The repetitions can be seen as a third level of retransmissions added at the physical layer as a complement to those at Medium Access Control (MAC) Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) and Radio Link Control (RLC) automatic repeat request (ARQ). A NB-IoT downlink carrier is defined by 12 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) sub-carriers, each of 15 kHz, giving a total baseband bandwidth of 180 kHz. When multiple carriers are configured, several 180 kHz carriers can be used, e.g., for increasing the system capacity, inter-cell interference coordination, load balancing, etc. This design gives NB-IoT a high deployment flexibility:NB-IoT supports 3 different deployment scenarios or mode of operations:1. ‘Stand-alone operation’ utilizing for example the spectrum currently being used by Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) Radio Access Network (GERAN) systems as a replacement of one or more GSM carriers. In principle it operates on any carrier frequency which is neither within the carrier of another system nor within the guard band of another system’s operating carrier. The other system can be another NB-IoT operation or any other Radio Access Technology (RAT) e.g. LTE.2. ‘Guard band operation’ utilizing the unused resource blocks within an LTE carrier’s guard-band. The term guard band may also interchangeably called as guard bandwidth (BW). Asan example in case of LTE BW of 20 MHz (i.e. BW1= 20 MHz or 100 RBs), the guard band operation of NB-IoT can place anywhere outside the central 18 MHz but within 20 MHz LTE BW.3. ‘In-band operation’ utilizing resource blocks within a normal LTE carrier. The in-band operation may also interchangeably be called in-bandwidth operation. More generally the operation of one RAT within the BW of another RAT is also called as in-band operation. As an example in a LTE BW of 50 RBs (i.e. Bwl= 10 MHz or 50 RBs), NB-IoT operation over one resource block (RB) within the 50 RBs is called in-band operation.Non-terrestrial Networks (NTN)To benefit from the strong mobile ecosystem and economy of scale, the satellite network based on the terrestrial wireless access technologies including LTE and NR for satellite networks, is being specified in the 3GPP standard.In 3GPP Release 15, the first release of the 5G system (5GS) was specified. This is a new generation’s radio access technology intended to serve use cases such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC) and massive machine type communication (mMTC). 5G includes the New Radio (NR) access stratum interface and the 5G Core Network (5GC). The NR physical and higher layers are reusing parts of the LTE specification, and additional components are introduced when motivated by the new use cases.In Release 15 3GPP also started the work to prepare NR for operation in a Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN). The work was performed within the study item “NR to support Non-Terrestrial Networks” and resulted in TR 38.811 (3GPP TR 38.811 V15.4.0, Study on New Radio (NR) to support non-terrestrial networks).In Release 16 the work to prepare NR for operation in an NTN network continues with the study item “Solutions for NR to support Non-Terrestrial Network” ( 3GPP TR 38.821 V16.2.0, Solutions for NR to support non-terrestrial networks). In parallel the interest to adapt LTE for operation in NTN is growing. As a consequence, 3GPP introduced support for NTN in both LTE ( 3GPP TR 36.763 V17.0.0, Study on Narrow-Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT)Zenhanced Machine Type Communication (eMTC) support for Non-Terrestrial Networks) and NR (see for example 3GPP TSG RAN Meeting #96, RP-221806, Revised WID on loT NTN enhancements) in Release 17. After the basic functionality was established, NTN enhancements continued in Release 18 for both LTE (see for example 3GPP TSG RAN meeting #95-e, RP-220208, Solutions for NR to support non-terrestrial networks (NTN)) and NR (see for example 3GPP TSG RAN Meeting #98-e, RP -223534, Revised WID: NR NTN (NonTerrestrial Networks) enhancements).Satellite CommunicationsTerminology and componentsA satellite radio access network usually includes the following components:• A satellite that refers to a space-borne platform.• An earth-based gateway that connects the satellite to a base station or a core network, depending on the choice of architecture.• Feeder link that refers to the link between a gateway and a satellite• Access link that refers to the link between a satellite and a UE.A satellite network or satellite based mobile network may also be called as non-terrestrial network (NTN). On the other hand, mobile network with base stations on the group may also be called as terrestrial network (TN) or non-NTN network. A satellite within NTN may be called as NTN node, NTN satellite or simply a satellite.Depending on the orbit altitude, a satellite may be categorized as low earth orbit (LEO), medium earth orbit (MEO), or geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite.• LEO: typical heights ranging from 250 - 1,500 km, with orbital periods ranging from 90 - 120 minutes.• MEO: typical heights ranging from 5,000 - 25,000 km, with orbital periods ranging from 3 - 15 hours.• GEO: height at about 35,786 km, with an orbital period of 24 hours.The significant orbit height means that satellite systems are characterized by a path loss that is significantly higher than what is expected in terrestrial networks. To overcome the pathloss it is often required that the access and feeder links are operated in line-of-sight conditions, and that the UE is equipped with an antenna offering high beam directivity.ArchitectureTwo basic architectures can be distinguished for satellite communication networks, depending on the functionality of the satellites in the system:• Transparent payload (also referred to as bent pipe architecture). The satellite forwards the received signal between the terminal and the network equipment on the ground with only amplification and a shift from uplink frequency to downlink frequency. When applied to general 3GPP architecture and terminology, the transparent payload architecture means that the gNB is located on the ground and the satellite forwards signals / data between the gNB and the UE• Regenerative payload. The satellite includes on-board processing to demodulate and decode the received signal and regenerate the signal before sending it back to the earth. When applied to general 3 GPP architecture and terminology, the regenerative pay load architecture means that the gNB is located in the satellite.In the work item for NR NTN and loT NTN in 3GPP Release 17 and Release 18 [3, 4, 5, 6], only the transparent payload architecture is considered. FIG.1 shows an example architecture of a satellite network with bent pipe transponders (i. e. , the transparent payload architecture).FIG.l shows an example architecture of a satellite network with bent pipe transponders. The gNB may be integrated in the gateway or connected to the gateway via a terrestrial connection (wire, optic fiber, wireless link). A satellite radio access network may usually include the following components:A satellite that refers to a space-home platform,An earth-based gateway (GW) that connects the satellite to a base station or a core network, depending on the choice of architecture,A feeder link that refers to the link between a gateway and a satellite,An access link, or service link, that refers to the link between a satellite and a UE.NTN specific challengesPropagation delay is an important aspect of satellite communications that is different from the delay expected in a terrestrial mobile system. For a bent pipe satellite network, the round-trip delay may, depending on the orbit height, range from tens of ms in the case of LEO satellites to several hundreds of ms for GEO satellites. As a comparison, the round-trip delays in terrestrial cellular networks are typically below 1 ms.The distance between the UE and a satellite can vary significantly, depending on the position of the satellite and thus the elevation angle e seen by the UE. Assuming circular orbits, the minimum distance is realized when the satellite is directly above the UE (e = 90°), and the maximum distance when the satellite is at the smallest possible elevation angle. The propagation delay may also be highly variable due to the high velocity of the LEO and MEO satellites and change in the order of 10 - 100 ps every second, depending on the orbit altitude and satellite velocity.Doppler shiftIn a LEO NTN, the satellites are moving with a very high velocity. This leads to a Doppler shift of the carrier frequency on the service link of up to 24 ppm for a LEO satellite at 600 km altitude. The Doppler shift is also time variant due to the satellite motion over the sky. The Doppler shift may vary with up to 0.27 ppm / s for a LEO 600 km satellite. The Doppler shift will impact, i.e., increase or decrease, the frequency received on the service link compared to the transmitted frequency. For GEO NTN the satellites may move in an orbit inclined relative to the plane of the equator. The inclination introduces a periodic movement of the satellite relative earth which introduces a predictable, and daily periodically repeating Doppler shift of the carrier frequency as exemplified in the below figure.Discontinuous coverageDiscontinuous coverage refers to the situation where the visibility of a satellite or group of satellites, commonly Low Earth Orbit (LEO), from a certain ground point is limited in time leading to periods without any satellite network coverage. The rapid movement of Non-Geo Synchronous Orbit (NGSO) (Non-Geostationary Orbit) satellites around Earth is the cause of this time limitation and its length depends on the characteristics of the satellite constellation (e.g., structure, total number of satellites, number of orbital planes, or satellites per plane) and UE (e.g., minimum elevation angle, or local radio conditions). Hence, the use of partial, sparse, or incomplete constellations where the number of satellites is not enough to provide continuous coverage in a region will result in satellite network coverage gaps. This might be a usual case in early loT NTN deployments due to the relaxed delay requirements and traffic profiles typical of loT applications.During Release 17, a UE centric solution to evaluate coverage gaps was standardized in 3GPP for loT NTN. The assistance information sent to the UE includes satellite mean ephemeris in Two- Line Element (TLE) format, satellite identifier (ID) and coverage information. Additionally, in quasi-Earth fixed cell deployments, the network may provide the absolute start serving time (T- service-start) instead of the satellite’s ephemeris. This information is used by the UE to estimate when the same or next satellite will be visible from its current location so that it can enter in a deep sleep state in between the satellite passes when there is no available coverage.Deployment considerationsIn a LEO or MEO communication system, a large number of satellites deployed over a range of orbits are required to provide continuous coverage across the full globe. Launching a mega satellite constellation is both an expensive and time-consuming procedure. It is therefore expected that all LEO and MEO satellite constellations for some time will only provide partial earthcoverage. In case of some constellations dedicated to massive loT services with relaxed latency requirements, it may not even be necessary to support full earth-coverage. It may be sufficient to provide occasional or periodic coverage according to the orbital period of the constellation.Release 19 NTN enhancementsThe standardization of NTN technologies continues in 3GPP with another two work items [7, 8] for NR and LTE, respectively. The justification for these enhancements is the necessities of the commercial deployments that are ongoing at the moment of writing. Based on real deployment or deployment plans, further evolution of NR and loT NTN is required.Among the objectives included in the loT NTN Release 19 WID, this invention is related to the following:• Support of Store&Forward (S&F) satellite operation with full eNB as regenerative payload, therefore:Define the necessary enhancements into E-UTRAN (network & UE) to support S&F operation for delay -tolerant services [RAN3, RAN2, RAN4]At least specify necessary enhancements e.g. related to SI protocol, especially to address the feeder link switch over as needed [RAN3]Note: Strive to minimise UE impact.Note: Coordination with SA2 (Rel-19 SA2 led Sat- Arch ph3 SI) is needed on the detail requirements (e.g., traffic type, or Quality of Service (QoS) parameters for S&F), network architecture (e.g., whether consider (partial) core network on satellite) etc.; further coordination with CT1 might be requiredStore and forward architectureFIG.2a shows an example of store and forward operation for an NTN payload.The store and forward architecture for NTN involves the use of network nodes as satellites or high-altitude platforms (HAPS) to relay communication signals between terrestrial user equipment (UE) and the core network. This architecture is designed to extend the coverage and capacity of traditional terrestrial networks, particularly in remote or underserved areas.The store and forward mechanism allows the NTN to temporarily store incoming data before transmitting it to the next hop in the network, which could be another relay node (e.g., thanks to inter-satellite links) or the core network itself. This enables the NTN to overcome the inherent latency and intermittent connectivity associated with non-terrestrial communication links.The store and forward architecture is particularly useful in scenarios where the NTN is used to provide connectivity in areas with limited terrestrial infrastructure, such as remote rural or maritime environments. This mechanism, the NTN can efficiently manage the transmission of data between UEs and the core network, even in challenging communication conditions, i.e., areas where satellites cannot be connected to ground stations. From a business perspective, this architecture improves ground segment affordability by enabling operation with fewer groundstations and a more robust operation of the satellite under intermittent feeder link operation. This is specifically well-suited for delay tolerant loT applications that do not require continuous connectivity.FIG.2b shows an example of NTN Architecture Types.Although the Transparent Architecture is the one most used in deployments today, the semitransparent architecture, where the RU is on-board the satellite, shows some promise of providing improved network scalability and performance. An eNB (or gNB) refers to the satellite telecom functions of the SAN which can vary depending on the regenerative deployment architecture. Examples of an satellite telecom function may include at least one of an Advanced Aerial / Antenna Services (AAS), a radio unit (RU), a distributed unit (DU), a central unit (CU). For example, forthe semi-transparent RU-on-board, the satellite telecom function may include an AAS and a RU. For the regenerative: DU-on-board, the satellite telecom function may include an AAS, a RU, and a DU. For the regenerative: gNB-on-board, the satellite telecom function may include an AAS, a RU, a DU and a CU. The potential for different SAN configurations rather than a complete eNB being referred to as the entity performing the main steps. Any of the regenerative architectures could apply and then the invention may be implemented in one or more of CU, DU, RU or AASAlthough the subject matter described herein may be implemented in any appropriate type of system using any suitable components, the embodiments disclosed herein are described in relation to a communication system complied with the exemplary system architecture illustrated in FIG.2a and 2b. For simplicity, the system architecture of FIGs.2a and 2b only depicts some exemplary elements. In practice, a communication system may further include any additional elements suitable to support communication between terminal devices or between a wireless device and another communication device, such as a landline telephone, a service provider, or any other network node or terminal device. The communication system may provide communication and various types of services to one or more terminal devices to facilitate the terminal devices’ access to and / or use of the services provided by, or via, the communication system.The message names in the procedures / methods of the embodiments are descriptive. It is assumed that the names may be updated e.g. with corresponding Service Based Interface (SBI) based names where applicable during the normative phase.The term Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) may, depending on the context, refer to either or both of NR NTN and loT NTN, and sometimes the term is used to refer to only loT NTN.The embodiments outlined below are described mainly in terms of LTE based NTNs, but they are equally applicable in an NTN based on e.g. NR technology.The term “network” is used in the solution description to refer to a network node, which typically may be a gNB (e.g. in a NR based NTN) or an eNB (e.g. in an LTE based NTN, such as an loT NTN), but which may also be a base station or an access point in another type of network based on communication via satellites or HAPS, or any other network node (in a network involving satellites or HAPS) with the ability to directly or indirectly communicate with a UE.The terms information element (IE), parameter, field parameter, and field may be used interchangeably in this document.Parameters / IEs / fields used in ASN.l code as well as in procedural text in the 3GPP RRC specification for 5G / NR, i.e., 3GPP TS 38.331 version 18.0.0, are often named with a suffix indicating the number of the release of the 3GPP standard the parameter / IE / field was introduced in (e.g. the suffix “-r!7” for a parameter / IE / field introduced in release 17 of the 3GPP standard). Parameters / IEs / fields following this naming convention are typically referred to both with andwithout the suffix, where the name including the suffix is used in the ASN. 1 code (and thus defines the formal name from the ASN. l compiler’s perspective), while the name without the suffix is used in running text, e.g. in field descriptions and procedural text. Relevant examples in the context of this document include the parameters / IEs / fields tl-Threshold-rl7 / tl -Threshold and t- Service-rl7 / t-Service. In this document, both name variants may occur for various parameters / IEs / fields.There are two main deployment principles for NTN: quasi-Earth-fixed cells and Earthmoving cells. These deployment principles are also referred to by other names. The quasi-Earth- fixed cells deployment principle is also referred to as quasi-Earth-fixed beams. The Earth-moving cells deployment principle is also referred to as Earth-moving beams, or shorter, moving cells or and moving beams.That a satellite operates in store and forward mode (or non-store and forward mode) strictly speaking means that the satellite payload (i.e., in this context the communications related equipment placed in the satellite) operates in store and forward mode (or non-store and forward mode). In this document, that a satellite operates in store and forward mode (or non-store and forward mode), and that a satellite payload operates in store and forward mode (or non-store and forward mode) are considered to be equivalent concepts. Note that the payload may consist of an eNB and various Evolved Packet Core (EPC) nodes or part(s) of EPC node(s) (e.g. a partial MME in the split MME architecture option).A satellite or NTN payload operating in store and forward mode is associated hereon with the lack of end-to-end connectivity. A limitation with this association is that it only indicates the current satellite's mode of operation in the NTN Radio Access Network (RAN), while makes no guarantees that the other end of a communication is available without store and forward at that end. Depending on the scenario, store and forward may still be applied to the communication in another part of the network on the path to the remote endpoint, e.g. in another satellite payload or in a network node with intermittent connectivity to a satellite payload.Assumptions:The solution may be based on the architectures concluded by 3GPP SA2 study.The UE knows when the cell is in S&F mode and when it is not.The UE knows when a downlink (DL) message (e.g., response to an Attach Request message) may come (for the split MME architecture). However, messages may come at other times without the UE knowing (e.g., DL data).The UE may know the schedule of the next cell that will cover the UE’s location (this has not been agreed in 3GPP yet).NGSO satellites are the ones within scope. We can expect a change of cell every 5-10 minutes.FIGs.3a, 3b, 3c, 3d and 3e show flowcharts of methods according to embodiments of the present disclosure, which may be performed by an apparatus implemented in or at or as a satellite based network node of an NTN or communicatively coupled to the the satellite based network node of an NTN. As such, the apparatus may provide means or modules or circuits for accomplishing various parts of the methods as well as means or modules or circuits for accomplishing other processes in conjunction with other components. For some parts which have been described in an embodiment, the description thereof is omitted in other embodiment for brevity.FIG.3a shows a flowchart of a method 300 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.At block 302, the satellite based network node transmitting, to a wireless communication device served by a satellite footprint or spot beam comprised in the NTN, an indication indicating that no further data should be expected in the downlink from the satellite and the UE can suspend some of its ongoing procedures (e.g., paging).In some examples the indication further indicates at least one of: more downlink (DL) user data should not be expected during a present satellite service time; a DL buffer is empty; the wireless communication device should not expect any more downlink data from the satellite; the satellite’s buffer for DL data to the wireless communication device is empty; the wireless communication device should not expect any more DL data until the satellite regains a feeder link while still serving the wireless communication device’s location; the wireless communication device should not expect any more DL data until a time or for a duration, or a downlink user data storage buffer has been depleted.The satellite based network node may be any suitable satellite based network node. In an embodiment, the satellite based network node may comprise at least one of an access node (e.g. RAN node or base station as defined in various 3GPP specifications), or a core network node (e.g. core network node (such as MME, AMF) as defined in various 3GPP specifications).The network node may be deployed in any suitable network. In an embodiment, the network node may be deployed in Evolved Packet System (EPS), a 5GS or a 6G system (6GS) as defined by 3GPP. The network node may be any suitable network device or network node or network function. For example, the network node may comprise at least one of radio access network function or core network function.In an embodiment, the network node may comprise a radio access network node. For example, the network node may be same as or similar to the radio access network node (such as NG-RAN node, eNB, gNB, Satellite Access Node, or part thereof) as described in various 3GPP specifications such as 3GPP TS 23.501 V19.0.0, 3GPP TS 23.682 V19.0.0, etc.In an embodiment, the network node may comprise a core network node. For example, the network node may be same as or similar to the core network node (such as MME, AMF, or any other CN node) as described in various 3GPP specifications such as 3GPP TS 23.501 V19.0.0 and 3GPP TS 23.682 V19.0.0.The wireless communication device may be any suitable terminal device such as the above mentioned terminal device e.g. UE, loT device. In the following description, the terms “wireless communication device” and “UE” can be used interchangeably. In an embodiment, the wireless communication device may be configured with at least one of discontinuous reception, extended discontinuous reception, or power saving mode.The indication may be indicated in any suitable message such as existing message or new message. In an embodiment, the message may comprise at least one of a signaling message, or a service message. In an embodiment, if there are two or more indications, these indications can be indicated in the same message or different messages. For example, indication 1 and indication 2may be indicated in the same message or different messages.In an embodiment, the indication may be associated with a cell or a wireless communication device or a satellite or a combination of a satellite and a cell. For example, if the indication is associated with a cell or a satellite or a combination of a satellite and a cell, the indication may be applied for the wireless communication devices served by the cell or the satellite or the combination of the satellite and the cell. If the indication is associated with a wireless communication device, the indication may be applied for the wireless communication device.The indication may be an implicit or explicit indication. For implicit indication, the indication may be implicitly indicated in various ways and the wireless communication device may obtain the indication indirectly. For explicit indication, the indication may be explicitly indicated and the wireless communication device may obtain the indication directly.The indication may be indicated in any suitable form such as bit, flag, indication, information element, etc.For example, a radio access node, e.g. an eNB / SAN or part thereof, may provide a UE with an explicit indication that more downlink user data should not be expected during the present satellite service time, i.e., at least until the next incoming satellite starts serving the area.Once the satellite’s payload network entity downlink data buffer is depleted from downlink user data, a UE may not expect to receive any mobile-terminated data service until the presence of a feeder link allows new downlink data to be transferred from a ground station to the satellite to be buffered (unless the service link to the data’s destination UE is available). The UE may take advantage of this knowledge of an empty buffer for downlink data to enter a new or existing energy-saving mode, e.g. Power Saving Mode (PSM). Other options are that a network node (e.g.,eNB) may activate discontinuous reception (DRX) or extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) for the UE, suspend some of its ongoing procedures (e.g., paging), determine how to perform neighbor cell measurements, determine how to perform cell reselection, etc.In a variation, the UE action upon receiving this information may depend upon the status of its HARQ buffer. The UE may continue to receive in the DL until all the DL data in the HARQ buffer is correctly received and may then go into energy-saving mode (e.g., PSM or DRX or eDRX). Alternatively, when there is no more MAC PDUs in the HARQ buffer, the UE may immediately, upon receiving this information, enter PSM or DRX or eDRX when receiving the indication.One option is that the satellite pay load or network entity in the satellite pay load, e.g., an eNB / SAN or part thereof or an MME, may signal to the UE that the DL buffer is empty and / or that the UE should not expect any more DL data from this satellite. Thus, the UE cannot receive any DL data until either the same or another satellite (re-)gains feeder link connectivity and serves (again) the UE’s location so as to forward new DL data (if any) to the UE. Note that the same satellite may partially revisit a geographical location after completing one or more lap(s) around the Earth.Another case, or option, is that the satellite payload or network entity in the satellite payload, e.g. an eNB or an MME, may signal that the satellite’s buffer for DL data to the UE is empty and / or that the UE should not expect any more DL data until the satellite regains a feeder link while still serving the UE’s location (e.g. while the satellite is still serving the UE’s current quasi- Earth-fixed cell). In contrast to the previous scenario, the satellite may regain feeder link connectivity during the time it covers a certain geographic location.To support both these cases / options, the notification the satellite payload, or the satellite payload entity (e.g. an eNB / SAN or part thereof or an MME), sends to the UE could indicate that the satellite’s buffer for DL data to the UE is empty and / or that the UE should not expect any more DL data until time T (as one option) or for a duration D (as another option), where T e.g. could be a UTC timestamp and D e.g. could be expressed in seconds or another time unit. The T or the ending of duration D may be the time instant for the UE’s serving satellite to regain the feeder link if this happens while the satellite is still serving the UE’s cell.In another scenario, where the UE’s current serving satellite will not regain its feeder link until it has stopped serving the UE’s cell, T or the end of duration D can be the time when the next satellite (which in most cases will be another satellite but which in extreme discontinuous coverage scenarios may be the same satellite returning to serve the same cell) starts to serve the UE’s cell. In one example, the time instant equals to the threshold of the wait timer managed by MME which indicates to the UE the time it should wait before re-attempting the Attach / TAUprocedure in the current or another satellite of the same PLMN. In a different alternative, the satellite payload entity may send a binary notification to indicate the status that the downlink user data storage buffer has been depleted.In an embodiment, the indication may be transmitted implicitly or explicitly e.g. in at least one of: system information broadcast; a short message; dedicated radio resource control message; a paging message; Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE); Non- Access-Stratum information element; extended Non- Access-Stratum information element, or message indicating an early data transmission or preconfigured uplink resource based procedure is completed.In contrast to other procedures, for transmission using Early Data Transmission (EDT) or Preconfigured Uplink Resource (PUR), an explicit indication on the downlink delivery / buffering status may be not needed. The UE can implicitly understand that there is no more DL data when the EDT / PUR based procedure is completed and may execute the procedure for energy-saving actions as described above. More specifically, the UE regards that there is no more DL data when the satellite has no feeder link connection, e.g., it is in S&F mode, and:In case of control plane-based EDT, receives RRCEarlyDataComplete message potentially with DL data concatenated in.In case of user plane-based EDT, receives RRCConnectionRelease message potentially with DL data concatenated in.In case of control plane-based PUR transmission, receives a layer 1 acknowledgement optionally containing a Timing Advance Command, a MAC CE such as Timing Advance Command or an RRCEarlyDataComplete message potentially with DL data concatenated in.In case of user plane-based PUR transmission, receives an RRCConnectionRelease message potentially with DL data concatenated in.For example, an indication of such a type as described above may be associated with the cell or the satellite or the combination of the satellite and the cell and may take at least one of several forms:System information broadcast. A new bit may be introduced to indicate that all UEs in the cell should not expect any further downlink user data during the remaining satellite service time in the geographical location. This indication can be provided in an existing System Information Block (SIB) (e.g., SIB31) or a new one.Short message (Downlink Control Information (DCI) format l_0). A new bit may be introduced, i.e., using one of the reserved values, to indicate that the UE should not expect any further downlink user data during the present satellite service time. In an alternative, an existing bit (e.g., stopP agingMonitoring) may be re-used and its field description may be extended to cover this use-case. This new indication in the short message can be used associated with time T (as oneoption) or for a duration D (as another option), where T e.g. could be a UTC timestamp and D e.g. could be expressed in seconds or another time unit as mentioned above. In another alternative, time T or duration D can be provided in an existing SIB or a new one, yet the change applies immediately when indicated in the short message, i.e., no need to wait until the next modification period.Dedicated RRC message. A new bit may be introduced (e.g., in the RRCConnectionRelease message) to indicate that the UE in the specific cell where it was connected should not expect any further downlink user data during the present satellite service time. In another alternative, a new parameter is introduced, e.g., in the RRCConnectionRelease message, to indicate time T (as one option) or for a duration D (as another option), where T e.g. could be a UTC timestamp and D e.g. could be expressed in seconds or another time unit. In that case, the provision of this new parameter would indicate that the UE in the specific cell where it was connected should not expect any further downlink user data until time T or for a duration D implicitly.Paging. In one example, the indication by paging may be implicit. The UE may assume no further downlink user data if no paging is provided in a time period after the satellite entered S&F mode, e.g. when one or two paging occasions have occurred for the UE after the satellite entered S&F mode. In another example, a new parameter may be introduced in paging information, e.g, PagingCause indicates indicate that the UE should not expect any further downlink user data during the present satellite service time. Yet in another alternative, new parameter may be introduced in the paging message which would indicate that the UE in the specific cell where it was connected should not expect any further downlink user data until time T or for a duration D.MAC CE: A new MAC CE could be specified to indicate to a UE in RRC_CONNECTED state that there is no more DL data to deliver to the UE, where this e.g. could be explicitly or implicitly valid as long as the satellite remains in S&F mode, until the satellite stops serving the cell (e.g. until t-Service), until the next satellite serves the cell area, until the next time the UE is covered by a satellite which is not in S&F mode, until time T, until the end of duration D, or any other option described above.NAS IE. A new Information element in the NAS protocol could be specified to indicate to the UE that there is no more DL data to deliver to the UE, where this e.g. could be explicitly or implicitly valid as long as the satellite remains in S&F mode, until the satellite stops serving the cell, until the next satellite serves the cell area, until the next time the UE is covered by a satellite which is not in S&F mode, until time T, until the end of duration D, or any other option described above.NAS IE extended. As an extension to the above indication of last DL data delivery, the MME could also provide an indication with any of the earlier DL data PDUs for how many DL data PDUs remain.The indication may be transmitted to the wireless communication device at any suitable time. In an embodiment, the indication may be transmitted to the wireless communication device: when the satellite starts providing an NTN service to a location, before or immediately after the satellite enters a store and forward mode, as soon as downlink data pending for the wireless communication device when the satellite is in a store and forward mode, once the satellite’s downlink buffer is empty, when a message containing a last downlink data packet, or when a message having an indication of zero remaining data packet.For example, time of the indication in case the indication is sent by access node e.g. eNB / SAN or part thereof may be at least one of the following. Depending on the information present in the radio access node about the status of the buffer and the pending downlink user data, the timing of the indication can be twofold:Early indication: as soon as the coverage starts, e.g., a certain satellite starts providing NTN service to a location (which may be known to the UE via the parameter by t-serviceStart), or before or immediately after the satellite enters S&F mode, a UE-specific indication is sent to those UEs which do not have any pending downlink user in the buffer.Tailored indication timing: As soon as the DL data pending for a UE when the satellite is in S&F mode, the indication is sent to the specific UE. This may be as soon as the satellite enters S&F mode (which may coincide with the time the satellite start serving the cell area), or later if there is pending data for the UE when the satellite enters S&F mode.Late indication: once the satellite’s downlink buffer is empty, the indication can be provided to all UEs in the cell, provided there is no more downlink user data to be delivered. This status is valid during the remaining service time of the satellite (indicated by t-service), or until the satellite exits S&F mode if this happens before t-Service, or until a time in accordance with any of the options described aboveTime of the indication in case the indication is sent by core network node e.g. MME may be one of the following:Piggybacked on the last DL data. The MME may add an indication in the DOWNLINK GENERIC NAS TRANSPORT message that contains the last downlink data message.As another option, each DOWNLINK GENERIC NAS TRANSPORT message may contain a counter, indicating how many additional downlink data packets remain after this. The last downlink data message would then have an indication of zero remaining data packets.In an embodiment, the satellite based network node may be operating in a store and forward mode. During store and forward operation, a satellite or NTN payload (e.g. MME or eNB / SAN or part thereof) does not have access to end-to-end connectivity, i.e. either the feeder link (to a ground station) or the service link (to the UE) or both is (are) unavailable (physically or logically). In the context of this invention disclosure, the store and forward case of interest may be when the service link is present, but the feeder link is not, neither via a ground station nor via another satellite (intersatellite link).In an embodiment, the time and / or an end of the duration may comprise a time instant for the wireless communication device’s serving satellite to regain a feeder link if this happens while the satellite is still serving the wireless communication device’s cell.In an embodiment, the time and / or an end of the duration may comprise a time when a next satellite starts to serve the wireless communication device’s cell.In an embodiment, the time and / or an end of the duration may equal to a threshold of a wait timer managed by a core network node which indicates to the wireless communication device a time it should wait before re-attempting an attach procedure or a tracking area update procedure in a current or another satellite of a same network.FIG.3b shows a flowchart of a method 310 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.At block 312, the satellite based network node may determine the indication (e.g. associated with a cell or a satellite, or a wireless communication device or a combination of a satellite and a cell). The satellite based network node may determine the indication in various ways and the present disclosure has no limit on it. For example, the satellite based network node may receive the indication from another network node (e.g. core network node). The satellite based network node may determine the indication based on information e.g. from another network node, e.g. a message indicating an early data transmission or preconfigured uplink resource based procedure is completed, buffer status (e.g. empty) (e.g. associated with a cell or a satellite, or a wireless communication device or a combination of a satellite and a cell), an empty indication from a buffer function(e.g. associated with a cell or a satellite, or a wireless communication device or a combination of a satellite and a cell), the last downlink data packet(e.g. associated with a cell or a satellite, or a wireless communication device or a combination of a satellite and a cell), zero remaining datapacket(e.g. associated with a cell or a satellite, or a wireless communication device or a combination of a satellite and a cell), etc.FIG.3c shows a flowchart of a method 320 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.At block 322, the satellite based network node may receive, from a buffer function, information indicating that there is no more downlink data stored (e.g. associated with a cell or a satellite, or a combination of a satellite and a cell) or there is no more downlink data stored for the wireless communication device.At block 324, the satellite based network node may determine the indication based on the information.FIG.3d shows a flowchart of a method 330 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.In this embodiment, the satellite based network node may comprise a satellite based core network node (e.g. MME, AMF) of the NTN.At block 332, optionally, the satellite based network node may transmit the indication to a satellite based access node of the NTN to inform the satellite based access node to transmit the indication to the wireless communication device.At block 334, optionally, the satellite based network node may transmit the indication to the wireless communication device via a Non- Access-Stratum protocol.In an embodiment, the indication may be transmitted to the satellite based access node of the NTN using at least one of an application protocol message or an end marker of tunneling protocol for user plane message.In an embodiment, the indication may be transmitted to the wireless communication device using a message comprising a last downlink packet, or a message comprising a counter indicating zero remaining data packet.Inter-node signalingA different solution is proposed depending on the chosen architecture:Full core network (e.g. Evolved Packet Core (EPC)) on-boardA network node (e.g., MME) may send the indication to the radio access node (e.g., eNB / SAN or part thereof) after the on-board buffer function notifies that there is no more downlink data stored. The interaction between the buffer (or proxy function) and the network node lies outside of 3GPP scope and is subject to implementation solutions. In one example, a network node (e.g., MME) is informed when there is no more downlink data for a specific UE (e.g. International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)). Then, the network node (e.g., MME) can inform the radio access node (e.g., eNB) to relay the information to the specific UE, or directly inform the UE via the NAS protocol.As one alternative, for the embodiments where the eNB informs the UE about the DL data status, the MME can inform the eNB using an SI Application Protocol (S1AP) message, e.g. the UE CONTEXT MODIFICATION REQUEST SA1P message, the UE CONTEXT MODIFICATION RELEASE S1AP message or a new (not currently specified) S1AP message. For the embodiments where the MME informs the UE via the NAS protocol, such information may not be needed in S1AP messages.As another alternative, if the DL data is conveyed via a Serving Gateway (SGW) and a GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) tunnel to the eNB, the eNB can be informed using an End Marker GTP- U message, or as another option, using anew GPRS Tunnelling Protocol for User Plane (GTP-U) message, e.g. denoted as “Temporary End Marker” (which could be used if more DL data can be anticipated in that GTP tunnel once the satellite exits S&F mode, i.e. when a feeder link is again established).Split MME architectureA network node (e.g., MME) may send the indication to the radio access node (e.g., eNB / SAN or part thereof) in case of communication via NAS (Data over NAS (DoNAS), SMS). The abovedescribed possible options for sending the indication using an S1AP message are applicable in the split MME architecture case too. Similar to full EPC case, for the embodiments where the MME informs the UE via the NAS protocol, such information is not needed in S1AP messages.FIG.3e shows a flowchart of a method 340 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.At block 342, optionally, when the satellite based network node comprises a satellite based access node of the NTN, the satellite based network node may receive the indication from a satellite based core network node of the NTN.At block 344, optionally, after transmitting the indication, the satellite based network node may stop paging the wireless communication device.For example, once there is no more downlink data stored, the satellite based network node stop paging the UE, optionally until it receives a Tracking Area Update (TAU) Request message from the UE.At block 346, optionally, the satellite based network node may transmit, to the wireless communication device, a message for activating discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception or energy-saving mode.For example, once there is no more downlink data stored, the satellite based network node may transmit, to the wireless communication device, a message for activating discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception or energy-saving mode.For example, it may provide enhancements to RRC IDLE / RRC INACTIVE procedures. In one embodiment, a UE configured with DRX or eDRX and operating within the Active Time (e.g., running the onDuration Timer or the Inactivity Timer), upon receiving the indication, it may stop the Active Time period (e.g., declare the timers as expired) and immediately enter its configured DRX inactive state. In a variant, after receiving the indication, the UE may continue in its DRX inactive mode until there is a satellite switch in the cell, i.e., a new satellite starts serving the area, which is indicated in System Information broadcast (i.e., by the parameter t-service). In other words, the UE does not need suspend its DRX cycle during the assigned paging window nor listen to its predefined paging occasions.In another embodiment, a UE configured with PSM and running the Active Timer (e.g. T3324 of 3GPP TS 24.008 V19.0.0), upon receiving the indication, it may stop the Active Timer (e.g., declared it as expired) and immediately enter its configured PSM (inactive) cycle, governed by the timer (e.g. T3412 of 3GPP TS 24.008 V19.0.0). Meanwhile, the CN (e.g., the MME) (on board) will regard the UE as unreachable once it informs the radio access node (e.g., eNB) that there is no more downlink data stored and stop paging the UE, optionally until it receives a TAU Request message from the UE.At block 348, optionally, if the wireless communication device determines to switch to another cell after receiving the indication, before cell reselection, the satellite based network node may receive, from the wireless communication device, a message informing the satellite based network node of moving out of the wireless communication device.For exampe, if a UE determines to switch to another cell after receiving the indication, before cell reselection, the UE may inform the satellite payload (e.g., an eNB / SAN or part thereof) of moving out of the UE by UL transmission, e.g., Preconfigured Uplink Resource (PUR). The satellite may in turn inform the CN after the feeder link is regained for serving Minimization of Drive Test (MDT) feature or other features.FIGs.4, 5, 6, 7a and 7b show flowcharts of methods according to embodiments of the present disclosure, which may be performed by an apparatus implemented in or at or as a wireless communication device or communicatively coupled to the wireless communication device. As such, the apparatus may provide means or modules or circuits for accomplishing various parts of the methods as well as means or modules or circuits for accomplishing other processes in conjunction with other components. For some parts which have been described in an embodiment, the description thereof is omitted in other embodiment for brevity.In an embodiment, the wireless communication device may be served by a satellite footprint or spot beam comprised in an NTN.FIG.4 shows a flowchart of a method 400 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.At block 402, the wireless communication device may receive, from a satellite based network node of the NTN, an indication indicating that no further data should be expected in the downlink from the satellite and the UE can suspend some of its ongoing procedures (e.g., paging).In some examples the indication further indicates at least one of: more downlink, DL, user data should not be expected during a present satellite service time; a DL buffer is empty; the wireless communication device should not expect any more downlink data from the satellite; the satellite’s buffer for DL data to the wireless communication device is empty; the wireless communication device should not expect any more DL data until the satellite regains a feeder link while still serving the wireless communication device’s location; the wireless communication device should not expect any more DL data until a time or for a duration, or downlink user data storage buffer has been depleted.After receiving the indication, the wireless communication device may perform any suitable operation, such as entering or deciding when to enter discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception or energy-saving mode, performing or deciding how to perform cell reselection, when or deciding how to perform neighbor cell measurements, etc.

[0240] In an embodiment, the indication may be associated with a cell or a satellite or a combination of a satellite and a cell.In an embodiment, the satellite based network node may be operating in a store and forward mode.In an embodiment, the time and / or an end of the duration may comprise a time instant for the wireless communication device’s serving satellite to regain a feeder link if this happens while the satellite is still serving the wireless communication device’s cell.In an embodiment, the time and / or an end of the duration may comprise a time when a next satellite starts to serve the wireless communication device’s cell.In an embodiment, the time and / or an end of the duration may equal to a threshold of a wait timer managed by a core network node which indicates to the wireless communication device a time it should wait before re-attempting an attach procedure or a tracking area update procedure in a current or another satellite of a same network.In an embodiment, the indication may be received implicitly or explicitly in at least one of: system information broadcast; a short message; a dedicated radio resource control message; a paging message; Medium Access Control, MAC, Control Element, CE; Non-Access-Stratum information element; extended Non- Access-Stratum information element, or a message indicating an early data transmission or preconfigured uplink resource based procedure is completed.In an embodiment, the wireless communication device may be configured with at least one of discontinuous reception, extended discontinuous reception, or power saving mode.In an embodiment, the satellite based network node may comprise at least one of an access node, or a core network node.In an embodiment, the indication may be received from the satellite based network node: when the satellite starts providing an NTN service to a location; before or immediately after the satellite enters a store and forward mode; as soon as downlink data pending for the wireless communication device when the satellite is in a store and forward mode; once the satellite’s downlink buffer is empty; when a message containing a last downlink data packet, or when a message having an indication of zero remaining data packet.FIG.5 shows a flowchart of a method 500 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.At block 502, when the satellite based network node comprises a satellite based core network node of the NTN, the wireless communication device may receive the indication from the satellite based network node of the NTN via a Non- Access-Stratum protocol.In an embodiment, the indication may be received from the satellite based network node of the NTN using a message comprising a last downlink packet, or a message comprising a counter indicating zero remaining data packet.FIG.6 shows a flowchart of a method 600 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.At block 602, the wireless communication device may receive, from the satellite based network node of the NTN, a message for activating discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception or energy-saving mode.At block 604, the wireless communication device may activate discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception or energy-saving mode.FIG.7a shows a flowchart of a method 700 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.At block 702, optionally, if all DL data in a HARQ buffer is correctly received or if there is no more MAC protocol data units in the HARQ buffer, the wireless communication device may activate discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception or energy-saving mode based on the indication.At block 704, optionally, if the wireless communication device is configured with discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception and operating within an active time, upon receiving the indication, the wireless communication device may stop an active time periodand immediately enter an inactive state of discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception.At block 706, optionally, if the wireless communication device is configured with discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception and operating within an active time, upon receiving the indication, the wireless communication device may continue in discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception inactive mode until there is a satellite switch in a cell.At block 708, optionally, if the wireless communication device is configured with power saving mode and running an active timer, upon receiving the indication, the wireless communication device may stop the active timer and immediately enter power saving mode inactive cycle.FIG.7b shows a flowchart of a method 710 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.At block 712, optionally, the wireless communication device may perform cell reselection considering whether a serving satellite supports store and forward mode and / or the store and forward mode is enabled, and / or whether a neighbor satellite supports store and forward mode and / or the store and forward mode is enabled.In one embodiment, a UE in RRC IDLE state, upon receiving the indication (wherein the UE may receive this indication while in RRC IDLE state or may have received it in RRC CONNECTED state and then been released to RRC IDLE state), which indicates there’s not (more) data to be received or transmitted in S&F mode, shall / may evaluate and apply S&F- based R criteria replacing legacy / normal R criteria for cell reselection. Otherwise, the UE remains on the serving cell until downlink or uplink transmission is complete, at which point it follows the procedure outlined in the embodiment.The legacy / normal R criteria are presented in the below.The cell-ranking criterion Rs for serving cell and Rnfor neighbouring cells is defined by:Rn—Qmeas,n -Qoffset - Qoffsettemp where:The cells shall be ranked according to the R criteria specified above by deriving Qmeas,n and Qmeas.s and calculating the R values using averaged RSRP results. The UE shall perform cell reselection to the highest ranked cell.On the contrary, an example of the S&F based R criteria may be represented in the below.The cell-ranking criterion Rs for the serving cell and Rn for neighbouring cells is defined by:Wherein, an introduced parameter QoffsetsnF in Rs and Rn, represents the bias for ranking the serving cell which enters S&F mode. The value of QoffsetsnF may be provided by a cell specific common signaling, e.g., broadcasted by SIB, which can be included in an existing SIB, e.g., SIB1 or SIB2 by extension.Alternatively, an introduced value offsetSnF concerning S&F mode, is used for the parameter Qoffsettemp. The value offsetSnF, e.g. in the form of a value assigned to Qoffsettemp, may be provided by a cell specific common signaling, e.g., broadcasted by SIB, which can be included in an existing SIB, e.g., SIB1 or SIB2 by extension.In one option, the QoffsetsnF and offsetSnF are applied to Rs provided the serving satellite supports S&F mode and S&F mode is enabled and the neighbor satellite doesn’t support S&F mode or S&F mode is disabled.In another option, the QoffsetsnF and / or offsetSnF are applied to Rn provided the neighbor satellite supports S&F mode and S&F mode is enabled and the serving satellite doesn’t support S&F mode or S&F mode is disabled.In another option, the QoffsetsnF and / or offsetSnF are applied to Rs and Rn provided the serving satellite and the neighbor satellite support S&F mode and S&F mode are enabled. In one example, QoffsetsnF and / or offsetSnF for Rs and Rn are same. In another example, QoffsetsnF and / or offsetSnF for Rs and Rn are different. In another example, QoffsetsnF and / or offsetSnF for Rs and Rn both equals to zero, i.e., legacy criteria are applied.At block 714, optionally, the wireless communication device may perform neighbor cell measurements by ignoring a condition related to a serving satellite stopping serving the wireless communication device.In an embodiment, a UE, upon receiving the indication, may perform intra-frequency, interfrequency or inter-RAT measurements, regardless of the distance between UE and the serving cell reference location or whether the serving cell fulfils Srxlev > SintraSearchP and Squal > SintraSearchQ, or Srxlev > SnonintraSearchP and Squal > SnonintraSearchQ, before the t-Service (i.e. before the serving cell disappears because the current serving satellite stops serving the cell area) if applicable. Theparamters of Srxlev, SlntraSearchP,Squal ,SlntraSearchQ , SnonlntraSearchP, SnonlntraSearchQ QXQ described 111 3GPP TS 36.304 V18.2.0.In another embodiment, a UE, upon receiving the indication, shall perform measurements on inter-frequency or inter-RAT frequencies of higher priority, regardless of the distance between the UE and the serving cell reference location or whether the serving cell fulfils Srxlev > SintraSearchP and Squal > SintraSearchQ, before the t-Service if applicable.At block 716, optionally, the wireless communication device may perform measurements on inter-frequency or inter Radio Access Technology frequencies of higher priority by ignoring a condition related to a serving satellite stopping serving the wireless communication device.At block 718, optionally, if the wireless communication device determines to switch to another cell after receiving the indication, before cell reselection, the wireless communication device may transmit a message informing the satellite based network node of moving out of the wireless communication device.The disclosure introduces a new type of indication to make the UE aware that no further data should be expected on the downlink when the network node (e.g., eNB / SAN or part thereof) is operating in S&F mode, i.e., without concurrent connection in service and feeder link. The indication can be of different types such as a binary, a time duration or an absolute time. It can be provided via AS and NAS means. This status is valid until the same or a different satellite have gained access to a ground station and serve the geographical area again, so that they may have obtained new downlink data. Thus, this period without downlink user data transmission may start upon the new indication and commonly end when the serving satellite stops covering the geographical area (time often denoted with t-Service provided in SIB 19). Several mechanisms to provide this indication in broadcast a dedicated manner are detailed. Upon receiving this indication, the UE may decide to enter into an energy saving mode, or temporarily change the priorities for cell reselection.The disclosure introduces a new type of indication to make the UE aware that no further data should be expected on the downlink when the network node (e.g., eNB / SAN or part thereof) is operating in S&F mode. Several mechanisms to provide this indication (in different forms) in broadcast a dedicated manner are detailed. Upon receiving this indication, the UE may decide to enter into an energy saving mode, or temporarily change the priorities for cell reselection.Embodiments herein may provide many advantages, of which a non-exhaustive list of examples follows. In some embodiments herein, the main benefits are in the areas of power saving and operational efficiency. In some embodiments herein, when a UE receives the indication that no further data should be expected in the downlink from a satellite operating in S&F, it can suspend some of its ongoing procedures (e.g., paging) and / or activate an energy saving mechanism(e.g., PSM), and / or temporarily change the cell reselection priorities to favor cells with concurrent connection. The embodiments herein are not limited to the features and advantages mentioned above. A person skilled in the art will recognize additional features and advantages upon reading the following detailed description.FIG.8 is a block diagram showing an apparatus suitable for practicing some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the satellite based network node, or wireless communication device described above may be implemented as or through the apparatus 800.The apparatus 800 comprises at least one processor 821, such as a digital processor (DP), and at least one memory (MEM) 822 coupled to the processor 821. The apparatus 800 may comprise a transmitter TX and receiver RX 823 coupled to the processor 821. The MEM 822 stores a program (PROG) 824. The PROG 824 may include instructions that, when executed on the associated processor 821, enable the apparatus 800 to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure. A combination of the at least one processor 821 and the at least one MEM 822 may form processing means 825 adapted to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure.Various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by computer program executable by one or more of the processor 821, software, firmware, hardware or in a combination thereof.The MEM 822 may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memories and removable memories, as non-limiting examples.The processor 821 may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multi core processor architecture, as nonlimiting examples.In an embodiment where the apparatus is implemented as or at the satellite based network node, the memory 822 contains instructions executable by the processor 821, whereby the satellite based network node operates according to any of the methods performed by the satellite based network node as described above.In an embodiment where the apparatus is implemented as or at the wireless communication device, the memory 822 contains instructions executable by the processor 821, whereby the wireless communication device operates according to any of the methods performed by the wireless communication device as described above.With function units, the satellite based network node, the first terminal device or the wireless communication device may not need a fixed processor or memory, any computing resource and storage resource may be arranged from the first terminal device or the wireless communication device in the communication system. The introduction of virtualization technology and network computing technology may improve the usage efficiency of the network resources and the flexibility of the network.Further, the exemplary overall commutation system including the terminal device (e.g. wireless communication device) and the network node (e.g. satellite based network node) will be introduced as below.FIG.9 shows an example of a communication system 9100 in accordance with some embodiments.In the example, the communication system 9100 includes a telecommunication network 9102 that includes an access network 9104, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 9106, which includes one or more core network nodes 9108. The access network 9104 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 9110a and 9110b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 9110), or any other similar 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access nodes or non-3GPP access points. Moreover, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, a network node is not necessarily limited to an implementation in which a radio portion and a baseband portion are supplied and integrated by a single vendor. Thus, it will be understood that network nodes include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the telecommunication network 9102 includes one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a node in the telecommunication network 9102 that supports an ORAN specification (e.g., a specification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization) and may operate alone or together with other nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any node in the telecommunication network 9102, including one or more network nodes 9110 and / or core network nodes 9108.Examples of an ORAN network node include an open radio unit (O-RU), an open distributed unit (O-DU), an open central unit (O-CU), including an O-CU control plane (O-CU-CP) or an O- CU user plane (O-CU-UP), a RAN intelligent controller (near-real time or non-real time) hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time control application (e.g., xApp) or a non- real time control application (e.g., rApp), or any combination thereof (the adjective “open” designating support of an ORAN specification). The network node may support a specification by, for example, supporting an interface defined by the ORAN specification, such as an Al, Fl, Wl, El, E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaulmanagement plane interface. Moreover, an ORAN access node may be a logical node in a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualization environment (described further below) in which one or more network functions are virtualized. For example, the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platform orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an 0-2 interface defined by the 0-RAN Alliance or comparable technologies. The network nodes 9110 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 9112a, 9112b, 9112c, and 9112d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 9112) to the core network 9106 over one or more wireless connections.In some embodiments, the telecommunication network includes a non-terrestrial network, NTN. Unless otherwise described herein, embodiments applicable for NTN may be implanted according to the following clauses. An NTN is telecommunication network where the radio access payload is conveyed via satellite to a ground station. E-UTRAN supports radio access over nonterrestrial networks for BL UEs, UEs in enhanced coverage and NB-IoT UEs. Support for nonterrestrial networks encompasses platforms that provide radio access through Geosynchronous orbits (GSO), Non-Geosynchronous Orbit (NGSO), which includes Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) and Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) or High Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS). Another example of a Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) provides non-terrestrial NR access to the UE by means of an NTN payload and an NTN Gateway, a service link between the NTN payload and a UE, and a feeder link between the NTN Gateway and the NTN payload exists. An access network may include an NTN access network such as the 3GPP Satellite Access Node (SAN) which comprises Non-NTN infrastructure base station functions (e.g. eNB / gNB) a terrestrial Gateway which provides the interface to the feeder link to an NTN payload RF node. In some embodiments a network node comprises a SAN, wherein the location of base station functions for a network node (described above for the general terrestrial access) vary between residing in the terrestrial access network node part of the SAN and the NTN Payload RF node functions depending on the supported architecture. One example of NTN architecture is called bent pipe or transparent architecture where the radio frequency processing function (transceiver) on a satellite platform is interconnected with a terrestrial base station, also known as transparent architecture, and the NTN payload is passed transparently, no unpacking. Another example of NTN architecture is called regenerative architecture, where part or all of the eNB / gNB can be in the satellite.In some examples a SAN includes an open radio unit (O-RU), an open distributed unit (O- DU), an open central unit (O-CU), including an O-CU control plane (O-CU-CP) or an O-CU user plane (O-CU-UP), a RAN intelligent controller (near-real time or non-real time) hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time control application (e.g., xApp) or a non-real timecontrol application (e.g., rApp), or any combination thereof (the adjective “open” designating support of an ORAN specification).Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and / or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and / or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system 9100 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and / or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and / or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communication system 9100 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.The UEs 9112 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 9110 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 9110 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 9112 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 9102 to enable and / or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and / or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunication network 9102.In the depicted example, the core network 9106 connects the network nodes 9110 to one or more host computing systems, such as host 9116. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network 9106 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 9108) that are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, network nodes, and / or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 9108. Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and / or a User Plane Function (UPF).The host 9116 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 9104 and / or the telecommunication network 9102. The host 9116 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio / video content, data collection services such asretrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.As a whole, the communication system 9100 of FIG.9 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi); and / or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi, and / or any low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox.In some examples, the telecommunication network 9102 is a cellular network that implements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network 9102 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 9102. For example, the telecommunications network 9102 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and / or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) / Massive loT services to yet further UEs.In some examples, the UEs 9112 are configured to transmit and / or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 9104 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 9104. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi -RAT or multi-standard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configured for multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).In the example, the hub 9114 communicates with the access network 9104 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 9112c and / or 9112d) and network nodes (e.g., network node 9110b). In some examples, the hub 9114 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 9114 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 9106 forthe UEs. As another example, the hub 9114 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes 9110, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 9114. As another example, the hub 9114 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 9114 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR device, display, loudspeaker, or other media delivery device, the hub 9114 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 9114 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 9114 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.The hub 9114 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 9110b. The hub 9114 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub 9114 and UEs (e.g., UE 9112c and / or 9112d), and between the hub 9114 and the core network 9106. In other examples, the hub 9114 is connected to the core network 9106 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 9114 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 9104 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 9110 while still connected via the hub 9114 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 9114 may be a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to / from the UEs from / to the network node 9110b. In other embodiments, the hub 9114 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node 9110b, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.FIG.10 shows a UE 1000 in accordance with some embodiments. The UE 1000 presents additional details of some embodiments of the UE 9112 of FIG.9. As used herein, a UE refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and / or other UEs. Examples of a UE include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless cameras, gaming console or device, music storage / playback device, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), an Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR) device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), vehicle, vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded / integrated wireless device, etc. Other examples include any UE identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a narrow band internetof things (NB-IoT) UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and / or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.A UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or vehicle-to-everything (V2X). In other examples, a UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and / or operates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).The UE 1000 includes processing circuitry 1002 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1004 to an input / output interface 1006, a power source 1008, a memory 1010, a communication interface 1012, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in FIG.10. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.The processing circuitry 1002 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 1010. The processing circuitry 1002 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field- programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 1002 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).In the example, the input / output interface 1006 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and / or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into the UE 1000. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, anaccelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.In some embodiments, the power source 1008 is structured as a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used. The power source 1008 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 1008 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 1000 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 1008. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source 1008 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 1000 to which power is supplied.The memory 1010 may be or be configured to include memory such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 1010 includes one or more application programs 1014, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 1016. The memory 1010 may store, for use by the UE 1000, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.The memory 1010 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and / or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card.’ The memory 1010 may allow the UE 1000 to access instructions, application programs and the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 1010, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.The processing circuitry 1002 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 1012. The communication interface 1012 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 1022. The communication interface 1012 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 1018 and / or a receiver 1020 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 1018 and receiver 1020 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna 1022) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 1012 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. Communications may be implemented in according to one or more communication protocols and / or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol / intemet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 1012, via a wireless connection to a network node. Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE. The output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).As another example, a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, the UE may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.A UE, when in the form of an Internet of Things (loT) device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, city wearable technology, extended industrial application and healthcare. Non-limiting examples of such an loT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door / window sensor, a flood / moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, an industrial robot, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and any kind of medical device, like a heart rate monitor or a remote controlled surgical robot. A UE in the form of an loT device comprises circuitry and / or software in dependence of the intended application of the loT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the UE 1000 shown in FIG. 10.As yet another specific example, in an loT scenario, a UE may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and / or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and / or measurements to another UE and / or a network node. The UE may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the UE may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, a UE may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and / or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.In practice, any number of UEs may be used together with respect to a single use case. For example, a first UE might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second UE that is a remote controller operating the drone. When the user makes changes from the remote controller, the first UE may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g. by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed. The first and / or the second UE can also include more than one of the functionalities described above. For example, a UE might comprise the sensor and the actuator, and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.FIG. 11 shows a network node 1100 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and / or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunication network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, accesspoints (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)), O-RAN nodes or components of an O-RAN node (e.g., O-RU, O-DU, O-CU), components of a satellite access network (SAN) (e.g, terrestrial base station, gateway, NTN payload RF function).Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units, distributed units (e.g., in an O-RAN access node) and / or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).Other examples of network nodes include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5G access nodes, multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell / multicast coordination entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and / or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).The network node 1100 includes a processing circuitry 1102, a memory 1104, a communication interface 1106, and a power source 1108. The network node 1100 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 1100 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 1100 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 1104 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 1110 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 1100 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1100, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) orBluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 1100.The processing circuitry 1102 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and / or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 1100 components, such as the memory 1104, to provide network node 1100 functionality.In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1102 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1102 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1112 and baseband processing circuitry 1114. In some embodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1112 and the baseband processing circuitry 1114 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1112 and baseband processing circuitry 1114 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.The memory 1104 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer-readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and / or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and / or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and / or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 1102. The memory 1104 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and / or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 1102 and utilized by the network node 1100. The memory 1104 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 1102 and / or any data received via the communication interface 1106. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1102 and memory 1104 is integrated.The communication interface 1106 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and / or data between a network node, access network, and / or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface 1106 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) 1116 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 1106 also includes radio front-end circuitry 1118 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 1110. Radio front-end circuitry 1118 comprises filters 1120 and amplifiers 1122. The radio front-end circuitry 1118 may be connected to an antenna 1110 and processing circuitry1102. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1110 and processing circuitry 1102. The radio front-end circuitry 1118 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio frontend circuitry 1118 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1120 and / or amplifiers 1122. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 1110. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 1110 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 1118. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 1102. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 1100 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 1118, instead, the processing circuitry 1102 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 1110. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 1112 is part of the communication interface 1106. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 1106 includes one or more ports or terminals 1116, the radio frontend circuitry 1118, and the RF transceiver circuitry 1112, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 1106 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 1114, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).The antenna 1110 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna 1110 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 1118 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 1110 is separate from the network node 1100 and connectable to the network node 1100 through an interface or port.The antenna 1110, communication interface 1106, and / or the processing circuitry 1102 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and / or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 1110, the communication interface 1106, and / or the processing circuitry 1102 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and / or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment.The power source 1108 provides power to the various components of network node 1100 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 1108 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 1100 with power forperforming the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 1100 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 1108. As a further example, the power source 1108 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.Embodiments of the network node 1100 may include additional components beyond those shown in FIG. 11 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 1100 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 1100 and to allow output of information from the network node 1100. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 1100. In some embodiments providing a core network node, such as core network node 9108 of FIG. 9, some components, such as the radio front-end circuitry 1118 and the RF transceiver circuitry 1112 may be omitted.FIG.12 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1200 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 1200 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, UE, core network node, or host. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized. In some embodiments, the virtualization environment 1200 includes components defined by the O-RAN Alliance, such as an O-Cloud environment orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an O-2 interface. Virtualization may facilitate distributed implementations of a network node, UE, core network node, or host.Applications 1202 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualizationenvironment Q400 to implement some of the features, functions, and / or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.Hardware 1204 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and / or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and / or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input / output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 1206 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 1208a and 1208b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 1208), and / or perform any of the functions, features and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 1206 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 1208.The VMs 1208 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1206. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 1202 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 1208, and the implementations may be made in different ways. Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.In the context of NFV, a VM 1208 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of the VMs 1208, and that part of hardware 1204 that executes that VM, be it hardware dedicated to that VM and / or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more VMs 1208 on top of the hardware 1204 and corresponds to the application 1202.Hardware 1204 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 1204 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1204 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 1210, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 1202. In some embodiments, hardware 1204 is coupled to one or more radio units that each includes one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual nodewith radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station. In some embodiments, some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system 1212 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.Although the devices described herein may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and / or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and / or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination. Moreover, while components are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components. For example, a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and / or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface. In another example, non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and / or by end users and a wireless network generally.The term unit or module may have conventional meaning in the field of electronics, electrical devices and / or electronic devices and may include, for example, electrical and / or electronic circuitry, devices, modules, processors, memories, logic solid state and / or discrete devices,computer programs or instructions for carrying out respective tasks, procedures, computations, outputs, and / or displaying functions, and so on, as such as those that are described herein.According to an aspect of the disclosure it is provided a computer program product being tangibly stored on a computer readable storage medium and including instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out any of the methods as described above.According to an aspect of the disclosure it is provided a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out any of the methods as described above.In addition, the present disclosure may also provide a carrier containing the computer program as mentioned above, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or computer readable storage medium. The computer readable storage medium can be, for example, an optical compact disk or an electronic memory device like a RAM (random access memory), a ROM (read only memory), Flash memory, magnetic tape, CD-ROM, DVD, Blue-ray disc and the like.The techniques described herein may be implemented by various means so that an apparatus implementing one or more functions of a corresponding apparatus described with an embodiment comprises not only prior art means, but also means for implementing the one or more functions of the corresponding apparatus described with the embodiment and it may comprise separate means for each separate function, or means that may be configured to perform two or more functions. For example, these techniques may be implemented in hardware (one or more apparatuses), firmware (one or more apparatuses), software (one or more modules), or combinations thereof. For a firmware or software, implementation may be made through modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein.Exemplary embodiments herein have been described above with reference to block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods and apparatuses. It will be understood that each block of the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, respectively, can be implemented by various means including computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks.Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order,or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the subject matter described herein, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.While this specification contains many specific implementation details, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of any implementation or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments of particular implementations. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a sub-combination or variation of a sub-combination.It will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that, as the technology advances, the inventive concept can be implemented in various ways. The above described embodiments are given for describing rather than limiting the disclosure, and it is to be understood that modifications and variations may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as those skilled in the art readily understand. Such modifications and variations are considered to be within the scope of the disclosure and the appended claims. The protection scope of the disclosure is defined by the accompanying claims.The abbreviations given in 3GPP TR 21.905 V18.0.0 may apply. An abbreviation defined in the present document may take precedence over the definition of the same abbreviation, if any, in 3GPP TR 21.905 V18.0.0.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A method (300) performed by a satellite based network node of a non-terrestrial network, NTN, the method comprising: transmitting (302), to a wireless communication device served by a satellite footprint or spot beam comprised in the NTN, an indication indicating that no further data should be expected in the downlink from the satellite and the UE can suspend some of its ongoing procedures (e.g., paging).

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the indication further comprises indicating at least one of: more downlink, DL, user data should not be expected during a present satellite service time, a DL buffer is empty, the wireless communication device should not expect any more downlink data from the satellite, the satellite’s buffer for DL data to the wireless communication device is empty, the wireless communication device should not expect any more DL data until the satellite regains a feeder link while still serving the wireless communication device’s location, the wireless communication device should not expect any more DL data until a time or for a duration, or a downlink user data storage buffer has been depleted.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the indication is associated with a cell or a satellite or a combination of a satellite and a cell, and / or the satellite based network node is operating in a store and forward mode, and / or the time and / or an end of the duration comprises a time instant for the wireless communication device’s serving satellite to regain a feeder link if this happens while the satellite is still serving the wireless communication device’s cell, and / or the time and / or an end of the duration comprises a time when a next satellite starts to serve the wireless communication device’s cell, and / or the time and / or an end of the duration equals to a threshold of a wait timer managed by a core network node which indicates to the wireless communication device a time it should wait before re-attempting an attach procedure or a tracking area update procedure in a current or another satellite of a same network.

4. The method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the indication is transmitted implicitly or explicitly in at least one of: system information broadcast, a short message, a dedicated radio resource control message, a paging message,Medium Access Control, MAC, Control Element, CE,Non- Access-Stratum information element, extended Non- Access-Stratum information element, or a message indicating an early data transmission or preconfigured uplink resource based procedure is completed.

5. The method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein when the satellite based network node comprises a satellite based access node of the NTN, the method further comprises: receiving (342) the indication from a satellite based core network node of the NTN.

6. The method according to any of claims 1-5, wherein the indication is transmitted to the wireless communication device: when the satellite starts providing an NTN service to a location, before or immediately after the satellite enters a store and forward mode, as soon as downlink data pending for the wireless communication device when the satellite is in a store and forward mode, once the satellite’s downlink buffer is empty, when a message containing a last downlink data packet, or when a message having an indication of zero remaining data packet.

7. The method according to any of claims 1-6, further comprising: after transmitting the indication, stopping (344) paging the wireless communication device; and / or transmitting (346), to the wireless communication device, a message for activating discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception or energy-saving mode; and / or if the wireless communication device determines to switch to another cell after receiving the indication, before cell reselection, receiving (348), from the wireless communication device, a message informing the satellite based network node of moving out of the wireless communication device.

8. A method (400) performed by a wireless communication device served by a satellite footprint or spot beam comprised in a non-terrestrial network, NTN, the method comprising: receiving (402), from a satellite based network node of the NTN, an indication indicating that no further data should be expected in the downlink from the satellite and the UE can suspend some of its ongoing procedures (e.g., paging).

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the indication indicates at least one of: more downlink, DL, user data should not be expected during a present satellite service time, a DL buffer is empty, the wireless communication device should not expect any more downlink data from the satellite, the satellite’s buffer for DL data to the wireless communication device is empty, the wireless communication device should not expect any more DL data until the satellite regains a feeder link while still serving the wireless communication device’s location, the wireless communication device should not expect any more DL data until a time or for a duration, or a downlink user data storage buffer has been depleted.

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the indication is associated with a cell or a satellite or a combination of a satellite and a cell, and / or the satellite based network node is operating in a store and forward mode, and / or the time and / or an end of the duration comprises a time instant for the wireless communication device’s serving satellite to regain a feeder link if this happens while the satellite is still serving the wireless communication device’s cell, and / or the time and / or an end of the duration comprises a time when a next satellite starts to serve the wireless communication device’s cell, and / or the time and / or an end of the duration equals to a threshold of a wait timer managed by a core network node which indicates to the wireless communication device a time it should wait before re-attempting an attach procedure or a tracking area update procedure in a current or another satellite of a same network.

11. The method according to any of claims 8 to 10, wherein the indication is received implicitly or explicitly in at least one of:system information broadcast, a short message, a dedicated radio resource control message, a paging message,Medium Access Control, MAC, Control Element, CE,Non- Access-Stratum information element, extended Non- Access-Stratum information element, or a message indicating an early data transmission or preconfigured uplink resource based procedure is completed.

12. The method according to any of claims 8-11, further comprising: receiving (602), from the satellite based network node of the NTN, a message for activating discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception or energy-saving mode; and activating (604) discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception or energysaving mode.

13. The method according to any of claims 8-12, further comprising at least one of: if all DL data in a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, buffer is correctly received or if there is no more MAC protocol data units in the HARQ buffer, activating (702) discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception or energy-saving mode based on the indication; if the wireless communication device is configured with discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception and operating within an active time, upon receiving the indication, stopping (704) an active time period and immediately entering an inactive state of discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception; if the wireless communication device is configured with discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception and operating within an active time, upon receiving the indication, continuing (706) in discontinuous reception or extended discontinuous reception inactive mode until there is a satellite switch in a cell; or if the wireless communication device is configured with power saving mode and running an active timer, upon receiving the indication, stopping (708) the active timer and immediately entering power saving mode inactive cycle.

14. The method according to any of claims 8-13, further comprising at least one of: performing (712) cell reselection considering whether a serving satellite supports store and forward mode and / or the store and forward mode is enabled and whether a neighbor satellitesupports store and forward mode and / or the store and forward mode is enabled; performing (714) neighbor cell measurements by ignoring a condition related to a serving satellite stopping serving the wireless communication device; performing (716) measurements on inter-frequency or inter Radio Access Technology frequencies of higher priority by ignoring a condition related to a serving satellite stopping serving the wireless communication device; or if the wireless communication device determines to switch to another cell after receiving the indication, before cell reselection, transmitting (718) a message informing the satellite based network node of moving out of the wireless communication device.

15. A satellite based network node (800) of a non-terrestrial network, NTN, comprising: a processor (821); and a memory (822) coupled to the processor (821), said memory (822) containing instructions executable by said processor (821), whereby said satellite based network node (800) is operative to: transmit, to a wireless communication device served by a satellite footprint or spot beam comprised in the NTN, an indication indicating that no further data should be expected in the downlink from the satellite and the UE can suspend some of its ongoing procedures (e.g., paging).

16. The satellite based network node according to claim 15, wherein the satellite based network node is further operative to perform the method of any one of claims 2 to 7.

17. A wireless communication device (800) served by a satellite footprint or spot beam comprised in a non-terrestrial network, NTN, comprising: a processor (821); and a memory (822) coupled to the processor (821), said memory (822) containing instructions executable by said processor (821), whereby said wireless communication device (800) is operative to: receive, from a satellite based network node of the NTN, an indication indicating that no further data should be expected in the downlink from the satellite and the UE can suspend some of its ongoing procedures (e.g., paging).

18. The wireless communication device according to claim 17, wherein the wireless communication device is further operative to perform the method of any one of claims 9 to 14.

19. A computer program product comprising instructions or a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which when the instructions are executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14.

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