Low power wake-up signal

Abstract

Example embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) A method comprises receiving, at a first apparatus and from a second apparatus, an LP-WUS configuration; receiving, from the second apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement; and performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and the EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration. In this way, a mechanism of interworking of the LP-WUS and EMR is defined. As such, when the UE is configured with both the LP-WUS and EMR, certain behaviors would be performed such that potential contradiction between the LP-WUS and EMR would be avoided.

Description

LOW POWER WAKE-UP SIGNALCROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application claims priority from, and the benefit of, US Provisional Application No. 63 / 702757, October 3, 2024, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.FIELD

[0002] Various example embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication and in particular, to methods, devices, apparatuses and computer readable storage medium for a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS).BACKGROUND

[0003] A communication network may serve as a facility that enables communication between two or more communication devices or provides communication devices access to a data network. A mobile or wireless communication network is one example of a communication network. A communication device may be provided with a service by an application server.

[0004] The communication network may operate in accordance with standards such as those provided by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) or European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Examples of standards provided by 3GPP are the so-called 3GPP standards for cellular technology generations, such as 3GPP standards for 4G technology, 5G technology, 6G technology etc.SUMMARY

[0005] In a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus at least to: receive, from a second apparatus, a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) configuration; receive, from the second apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement; and perform one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and the EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration.

[0006] In a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus at least to: transmit, to a first apparatus, a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) configuration; transmit, to the first apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement; and transmit, to the first apparatus, an indication of performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associatedwith the LP-WUS configuration and the EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration with the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement being refrained from performing at the same time.

[0007] In a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: receiving, from a second apparatus, a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) configuration; receiving, from the second apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement; and performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and the EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration.

[0008] In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: transmitting, to a first apparatus, a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) configuration; transmitting, to the first apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement; and transmitting, to the first apparatus, an indication of performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and the EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration with the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement being refrained from performing at the same time.

[0009] In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a second apparatus, a low power wake-up signal (LP- WUS) configuration; means for receiving, from the second apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement; and means for performing one of an LP- WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and the EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration.

[0010] In a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) configuration; means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement; and means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, an indication of performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP- WUS configuration and the EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration with the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement being refrained from performing at the same time.

[0011] In a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium comprises instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to the third aspect.

[0012] In an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium comprises instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to the fourth aspect.

[0013] It is to be understood that the Summary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014] Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, where:

[0015] FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

[0016] FIG. 2 illustrates a signaling chart for example interworking of the LP-WUS and EMR according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0017] FIG. 3 illustrates a signaling chart for an example process of performing an LP-WUS procedure or EMR measurement according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0018] FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0019] FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0020] FIG. 6 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0021] FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0022] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0023] Principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the disclosure. Embodiments described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

[0024] 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.

[0025] References in the present disclosure to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature,structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

[0026] It shall be understood that although the terms “first,” “second,”..., etc. in front of noun(s) and the like 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 and they do not limit the order of the noun(s). For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and / or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.

[0027] As used herein, “at least one of the following: ” and “at least one of ” and similar wording, where the list of two or more elements are joined by “and” or “or”, mean at least any one of the elements, or at least any two or more of the elements, or at least all the elements.

[0028] As used herein, unless stated explicitly, performing a step “in response to A” does not indicate that the step is performed immediately after “A” occurs and one or more intervening steps may be included.

[0029] 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.

[0030] As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following:(a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and / or digital circuitry) and(b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable):(i) a combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuit(s) with software / firmware and(ii) any portions of hardware processor(s) with software (including digital signal processor(s)), software, and memory(ies) that work together to cause an apparatus,such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and(c) hardware circuit(s) and or processor(s), such as a microprocessor(s) or a portion of a microprocessor(s), that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

[0031] This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and / or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

[0032] As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE- A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-loT) and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the first generation (1 G), the second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G), the fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G), 5.5G, the sixth generation (6G) communication protocols, and / or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.

[0033] As used herein, the term “network device” refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP), for example, a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), an NR NB (also referred to as a gNB), a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), a radio header (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, an Integrated Access and Backhaul (I AB) node, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) or non-ground network device such as a satellite network device, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite and a geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellite, an aircraft network device, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology. In some example embodiments, radio access network (RAN) split architecture comprises a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) at an IAB donor node. An IAB node comprises a Mobile Terminal (IAB-MT) part that behaves like a UE toward the parent node,and a DU part of an IAB node behaves like a base station toward the next-hop IAB node.

[0034] The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. By way of example rather than limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE), a Subscriber Station (SS), a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS), or an Access Terminal (AT). The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, a tablet, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, vehicle-mounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE), an Internet of Things (loT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery), an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and / or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and / or an automated processing chain contexts), a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, and the like. The terminal device may also correspond to a Mobile Termination (MT) part of an IAB node (e.g., a relay node). In the following description, the terms “terminal device”, “communication device”, “terminal”, “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

[0035] A core network function as described herein may be implemented as a core network entity that includes a combination of hardware processing circuit and software and / or firmware comprising machine-readable instructions, or software comprising machine-readable instructions that are executable by at least one processor of hardware processing circuit of an apparatus. A hardware processing circuit includes at least one processor and at least one memory storing machine-readable instructions that are executable by the at least one processor of the hardware processing circuit. A processor includes any or some combination of an accelerator, a microprocessor, a core of a multicore microprocessor, a microcontroller, a programmable integrated circuit, a programmable gate array, a digital signal processor, a central processing unit, a graphic processing unit, a tensor processing unit. Memory includes any or some combination of volatile or non-volatile memory (e.g., a flash memory, cache, a random-access memory (RAM), and / or a read-only memory (ROM)). The memory stores the machine-readable instructions of the software and / or firmware for execution by the at least one processor of the hardware processing circuit. The machine-readable instructions are executable by the at least one processor of the hardware processing circuit cause the hardware processing circuit to perform the actions or operations of the methods described herein. For example, the session management function described herein may be implemented as a session management entity and the session management policy control function described herein may be implemented as a sessionmanagement policy control entity, respectively.

[0036] As used herein, the term “resource,” “transmission resource,” “resource block,” “physical resource block” (PRB), “uplink resource,” or “downlink resource” may refer to any resource for performing a communication, for example, a communication between a terminal device and a network device, such as a resource in time domain, a resource in frequency domain, a resource in space domain, a resource in code domain, or any other combination of the time, frequency, space and / or code domain resource enabling a communication, and the like. In the following, unless explicitly stated, a resource in both frequency domain and time domain will be used as an example of a transmission resource for describing some example embodiments of the present disclosure. It is noted that example embodiments of the present disclosure are equally applicable to other resources in other domains.

[0037] With development of communication technologies, a low-power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) and receiver (LP-WUR or LR for short) for NR has been defined to reduce overall UE power consumption. The defining principle behind this scheme is that the main radio / receiver (MR) of the UE can be put into a sleep mode (or even powered off) for power saving when not being needed for any processing (e.g., traffic / measurements) and then be easily woken up as and when required by the network upon reception by the LP-WUR of the wake-up signal (WUS).

[0038] Basically, the network triggers the UE to wake up exactly when needed in an event-driven manner, by transmitting a special WUS to the UE, which is monitored by the dedicated low-power WUS receiver (LP-WUR) at the UE. When the UE receives the WUS, the WUR receiver can trigger the wake-up of the ordinary NR MR transceiver and receive paging and communication can start. Thus, the ultra-low power receiver wakes up the main radio, otherwise, the main radio can be fully or partially OFF or kept in a deep sleep mode and operation may be fully or partially relaxed. The assumption may be that the low-power wake-up receiver can be operated in an always ‘on’ manner with very low power consumption. In fact, it is expected that it will consume significantly less power compared to the NR transceiver, by designing a simple (WUS) signal and the use of dedicated hardware for its monitoring, which is only able to receive the WUS. In some cases the low power radio may be implemented as low-power part of the MR.

[0039] The MR power consumption depends on the configured length of wake-up periods, e.g., a paging cycle. To meet the battery life requirements above, a long extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) cycle may be used, resulting in high latency, which is not suitable for services with requirements of both long battery life and low latency. For example, in fire detection and extinguishment use cases, fire shutters shall be closed and fire sprinklers shall be turned on by actuators within 1 to 2 seconds from the time the fire is detected by sensors. The long eDRX cycle cannot meet the delay requirements, thus the eDRX is apparently not suitable for latency-critical use cases.

[0040] The Release-18 study item for “Study on low-power wake up signal and receiver for NR” includes investigations of the followings: the low-power wake-up signal and receiver, including power saving benefit, coverage, system overhead impact, network energy impact and other related aspects; the receiver architecture for low-power wake-up receiver and provide analysis for power consumption, noise figure and etc.; L1 design and procedure changes needed to support the low-power wake-up signal and evaluations for the link performances; and higher layer protocol changes needed to support the low-power wake-up signals Related RAN1 / 2 / 3 / 4 impacts.

[0041] In order to achieve the UE power saving gain by LP-WUS / WUR, the radio resource management (RRM) measurement on a serving cell and a neighboring cell via the MR is relaxed or may be stopped when the UE is using LP-WUS or the MR is in ultra-deep sleep.

[0042] For Release-19, work item RP-240801 which defines and specifies a WUS (studied in Release-18) to support the operation of UEs with LP-WUR was approved with certain objectives. The objectives comprise, for I DLE / I NACTI VE modes, specifying a procedure and configuration of LP-WUS indicating paging monitoring triggered by LP-WUS, including at least configuration, sub-grouping and entry / exit condition for LP-WUS monitoring (RAN2, RAN1 , RAN3, RAN4); and specifying further RRM relaxation of UE MR for both serving and neighbor cell measurements, and UE serving cell RRM measurement offloaded from the MR to the LP-WUR.

[0043] On the other hand, early measurement reporting (EMR) has been specified in 3GPP TS 38.300. In this scheme, the network may request the UE to measure NR and / or evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) carriers in an RRCJDLE or RRCJNACTIVE mode via system information or via a dedicated measurement configuration in RRCRelease.

[0044] If the UE is configured to perform measurements of NR and / or E-UTRA carriers while in the RRCJDLE or RRCJNACTIVE mode, it may provide an indication of availability of corresponding measurement results to the gNB in the RRCSetupComplete message. The network may request the UE to report those measurements after security activation. The request for the measurements can be sent by the network immediately after transmitting a security mode command (i.e. before reception of a security mode complete message from the UE).

[0045] If the UE is configured to perform measurements of NR and / or E-UTRA carriers while in the RRCJNACTIVE mode, the gNB can request the UE to provide corresponding measurement results in an RRCResume message and then the UE can include available measurement results in an RRCResumeComplete message. Alternatively, the UE may provide an indication of the availability of the measurement results to the gNB in an RRCResumeComplete message and the gNB can then request the UE to provide these measurement results.

[0046] In Release-16, an EMR capable UE is required to perform measurements in the RRCJDLE mode until T331 timer expires. The EMR capable UE will maintain cells detectable from theRRC_CONNECTED mode until the T331 timer expires. After the T331 timer expires, it is up to UE implementation whether it maintains the cells detectable for early measurement reporting purposes. Based on a UE information indication and network information request, the UE reports the early measurement results after security is activated. After the UE has moved from the RRCJDLE mode to RRC_CONNECTED mode, the network sends a measurement configuration to the UE indicating what the UE shall measure and how to report the measurements. The measurement configuration is provided using dedicated signaling, i.e., an RRCReconfiguration or RRCResume message. With the measurement configuration, the network configures the UE to perform NR and / or inter-radio access technology (RAT) measurements and tells the UE how to report the measurement results based on synchronization signal (SS)Zphysical broadcast channel (PBCH) blocks and / or channel state information - reference signal (CSI-RS) resources. Full definition can be found in TS 38.331 , section 5.5.

[0047] Note that, Release-18 is supporting both EMR and non-EMR UEs. The release 18 implements two capabilities for EMR. For EMR UEs, EMR is a pre-requisite, and a UE supporting this feature shall also indicate support of idlelnactiveNR-MeasReport-r16 or idlelnactiveEUTRA- MeasReport-r16. For non-EMR UEs, EMR is not a prerequisite. In other words, EMR is not a prerequisite of Release-18 but maybe a Release-18 feature. EMR measurements are considered to include rel-16 EMR, and cell reselection measurements which are performed in idle-mode measurements. In rel-18 these measurements are configured with idlelnactiveNR-MeasReport-r16 or idlelnactiveEUTRA-MeasReport-r16, or by measReselectionCarrierListNR-r18. Generally, measurements that fulfill corresponding idle-mode accuracy requirements (for instance in TS 38.133 sections 10.1.2B, 10.1.3B, 10.1.4B, 10.1.5B, 10.1.7B, 10.1.8B, 10.1.9B, 10.1.10B) are considered to be idle-mode measurements.

[0048] In the last RAN Plenary, it is further clarified that FR2 will be supported with LP-WUS. For FR2 the EMR framework is especially useful because of long measurement delays during and after the idle mode.

[0049] However, when both the LP-WUS and EMR are configured, currently there is no mechanism of interworking of these features. That is, it has not been specified how these features may work together. Currently, the LP-WUS is focusing on UE power saving, while the Release-16 and Release- 18 EMR framework is focused on preparing the UE for fast data transmissions via a secondary cell (SCell) or providing neighboring cell measurements as early as possible to the network.

[0050] One example challenge for configuring both the LP-WUS and EMR is that the EMR configuration may be received in an RRCRelease message while a SIB configuration of LP-WUS may be provided in the release. When the UE reads the SIB configuration and applies the LP-WUS, the EMR may be started already. This may cause various problems because UE behaviors in this caseare unspecified. For example, the LP-WUS configuration may indicate offloading some or all measurements from the MR to LR, such that there may be no measurement report to provide to the network because the LR may not be able to perform neighbor cell measurements. In some case even all MR measurements may be omitted when the LP-WUS is used, such that the EMR feature is suppressed.

[0051] In accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a solution for the LP-WUS, especially for interworking of the LP-WUS and EMR. In this solution, a first apparatus receives, from a second apparatus, an LP-WUS configuration. The first apparatus further receives, from the second apparatus, an EMR configuration associated with an EMR measurement. The first apparatus performs one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and the EMR measurement.

[0052] In this way, a mechanism of interworking of the LP-WUS and EMR is defined. As such, when the UE is configured with both the LP-WUS and EMR, certain behaviors would be performed such that potential contradiction between the LP-WUS and EMR would be avoided.

[0053] Example embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0054] FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment 100 in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. In the communication environment 100, a plurality of communication devices, including a first apparatus110, a second apparatus 120 and a third apparatus 122. In the example of FIG. 1 , the first apparatus 110 may be or comprised in a terminal device, e.g., a UE. The second apparatus 120 may be or comprised in a network device serving the first apparatus 110. The third apparatus 130 may be or comprised in a different network device serving the first apparatus 110.

[0055] The first apparatus 110, the second apparatus 120 and the third apparatus 122 may be configured in dual connectivity (DC) or carrier aggregation (CA). This allows concurrently using radio resources across two or more carriers. The (component) carriers may correspond to cells, such as a primary cell 130 (PCell) and a secondary cell 132 (SCell). The primary cell 130 may be used for initial access between the UE and the network. The primary cell 130 or the secondary cell 132 may be configured as a serving cell for the first apparatus 110.

[0056] It is to be understood that the number of devices and their connections shown in FIG. 1 are only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitation. The communication environment 100 may include any suitable number of devices configured to implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. Although not shown, it would be appreciated that one or more additional devices may be located in the cell 130 or 132, and one or more additional cells may be deployed in the communication environment 100. It is noted that although illustrated as a base station, the secondapparatus 120 may be or comprised in another network device. Although illustrated as a UE, the first apparatus 110 may be or comprised in another terminal device.

[0057] In the following, for the purpose of illustration, some example embodiments are described with the first apparatus 110 operating as a UE and the second apparatus 120 operating as a base station. However, in some example embodiments, operations described in connection with a terminal device may be implemented at a network device or other device, and operations described in connection with a network device may be implemented at a terminal device or other device.

[0058] Communications in the communication environment 100 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol(s), comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols, wireless local network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and / or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), Time Division Duplex (TDD), Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM), Discrete Fourier Transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) and / or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.

[0059] Reference is made to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 illustrates a signaling chart 200 for example interworking of the LP-WUS and EMR according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purposes of discussion, the signaling chart 200 will be discussed with reference to FIG. 1 , for example, by using the first apparatus 110 and the second apparatus 120.

[0060] As illustrated in FIG. 2, the first apparatus 110 receives from the second apparatus 120, an LP-WUS configuration 2020. In some embodiments, the LP-WUS configuration may indicate an LP- WUS procedure such as: offloading of measurement from a MR to a LR, monitoring of an LP-WUS signal, or relaxation / stop of a MR measurement or a LR measurement due to the LP-WUS configuration.

[0061] In some examples, in an LP-WUS procedure, the UE may offload MR measurements to LR. The LR measurements are either primary synchronization signal (PSS) and / or secondary synchronization signal (SSS) based or low power-synchronization signal (LP-SS) based. One example is that the UE offloads the MR measurements when an offloading criterion is fulfilled. The offloading may comprise serving cell and / or neighboring cell measurement offloading. The offloading of measurements from the MR to LR measurements may be full or partial. As an example, the UE may offload the measurement from the MR to the LR for a portion of or all of carriers for the UE.

[0062] In some examples, in an LP-WUS procedure, the UE supporting LP-WUS monitoring capability is performing LP-WUS monitoring or has entered an LP-WUS monitoring mode, or the LP-WUS monitoring is active. This monitoring of the LP-WUS may be independent from the offloading, or it may be performed together with MR measurement offloading. For example, the UE may not monitor / support monitoring of LP-WUS but can still use the LR for offloading.

[0063] In some examples, in an LP-WUS procedure, the UE may relax or even stop MR measurements due to the LP-WUS configuration. Alternatively or in addition, in an LP-WUS procedure, the UE may relax LR measurements due to the LP-WUS configuration.

[0064] Note that, in this specification, the term “an LP-WUS procedure” may refer to any one or more of the above actions. In contrast, if the first apparatus 110 does not perform an LP-WUS procedure, the first apparatus 110 does not perform any of the above actions. Moreover, the LP-WUS configuration 2020 may comprise one or more of a LP-WUS wake up signal configuration, MR relaxation conditions, MR thresholds associated with relaxation and offloading, LP-WUS entry exit conditions, a LP-SS measurement configuration, or a PSS / SSS Measurement configuration for MR and / or LR. In some embodiments, the LP-WUS configuration 2020 may refer to one or more configurations associated with the LP-WUS. For instance, LR measurements may be indicated in another configuration object than the LP-WUS wake up part.

[0065] In some embodiments, the LP-WUS configuration associated with / indicating the LP-WUS procedure may be received in ASN.1 configuration message, such as a radio resource control (RRC) connection release message or a system information block (SIB) configuration.

[0066] With continued reference to FIG. 2, the first apparatus 110 further receives from the second apparatus 120, an EMR configuration 2040 associated with an EMR measurement. The EMR configuration 2040 may indicate performing the EMR measurement in the RRCJDLE / INACTIVE mode. The EMR measurement may refer to idle / inactive measurements, i.e., a measurement in an RRC idle mode and / or a measurement in an RRC inactive mode. With the EMR configuration 2040, the UE can be assigned to measure indicated inter-frequency carriers while in idle / inactive mode, and then report the results back to network when starting connection. The EMR configuration 2040 may further indicate how to report the measurements.

[0067] In some embodiments, the EMR configuration 2040 may be received in a RRC connection release message or a system information block (SIB) configuration. Alternatively, the EMR configuration 2040 may be received in an ASN.1 message transmitted towards UE, such as RRCReconfiguration or RRCResume message.

[0068] Although the EMR configuration 2040 and the LP-WUS configuration 2020 are illustrated as received in different messages, the EMR configuration 2040 and the LP-WUS configuration 2020 may be received in a same message, for example, a RRC connection release message or a SIB configuration. Further, depending on the signaling, the EMR configuration 2040 may be received before, after, or at the same time with the LP-WUS configuration 2020.

[0069] Upon receiving one or both of the LP-WUS configuration 2020 and the EMR configuration 2040, the first apparatus 110 decides to perform 2060 one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and an EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration. The first apparatus 110 may further refrain from performing the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement being refrained from performing at the same time when performing the one of the LP- WUS procedure and the EMR measurement.

[0070] In some embodiments, when the first apparatus 110 receives the LP-WUS configuration 2020, it decides to perform the associated LP-WUS procedure and refrain from performing any EMR measurement before it actually receives an EMR configuration. Similarly, in some embodiments, when the first apparatus 110 receives the EMR configuration 2040, it decides to perform the associated EMR measurement and refrain from performing any LP-WUS procedure before it actually receives an LP-WUS configuration.

[0071] In some embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may decide / determine to perform which procedure and refrain from performing which procedure based on its current behavior or state. In other words, the first apparatus 110 may determine to perform one of the LP-WUS procedure or the EMR measurement and refrain from performing the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement based on the current behavior of the first apparatus 110.

[0072] In some examples, the first apparatus 110 may determine to perform the LP-WUS procedure and refrain from performing the EMR measurement based on the first apparatus having received or read the LP-WUS configuration. In other words, once the LP-WUS configuration is received, the first apparatus 110 may determine to refrain from any EMR measurement.

[0073] Alternatively, when determining that the LP-WUS procedure has started, the first apparatus 110 determines to perform the LP-WUS procedure and refrain from performing the EMR measurement. In other words, when determining that the LP-WUS procedure has actually started, rather than only receiving the LP-WUS configuration, the first apparatus 110 may make such determination.

[0074] Alternatively, the first apparatus 110 may determine to perform the LP-WUS procedure and refrain from performing the EMR measurement based on the first apparatus being currently performing the LP-WUS procedure when receiving or reading the EMR configuration. In this case, the first apparatus 110 may make the decision when receiving or reading the EMR configuration. For example, if the first apparatus 110 is monitoring the LP-WUS when receiving the EMR configuration, it may determine to not perform the EMR measurement associated with the received EMR configuration.

[0075] Alternatively, the first apparatus 110 may determine to perform the LP-WUS procedure and refrain from performing the EMR measurement based on an LP-WUS monitoring condition being fulfilled. Alternatively or in addition, the first apparatus 110 may determine to perform the LP-WUS procedure and refrain from performing the EMR measurement based on an LP-WUS measurementrelaxation condition being fulfilled. For example, when the LP-WUS RRM measurement relaxation condition is fulfilled, the first apparatus 110 may make such determination. In this cases, conditions are considered when the first apparatus 110 decides whether to refrain from performing any EMR measurement.

[0076] Based on the decision to perform the LP-WUS procedure and refrain from performing any EMR measurement, the first apparatus 110 performs the LP-WUS procedure associated with the received LP-WUS configuration. For example, the first apparatus 110 may perform the LP-WUS procedure for offloading a RRM measurement from the MR to the LR, LP-WUS monitoring, relaxation of MR measurements and / or LR measurements, and so on, as discussed above.

[0077] In some embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may offload the measurement from the MR to the LR for a portion of or all of carriers for the first apparatus 110. For example, only serving cell measurements are offloaded to the LR. In some embodiments, when the LP-WUS is configured and EMR is configured simultaneously, the first apparatus 110 may relax and only monitor one or more EMR carriers. Note that, in some examples, the first apparatus 110 may perform an LP-WUS procedure for one carrier or on a set of carriers while performing an EMR measurement for another carrier or a set of carriers, thus for each carrier, or a set of carriers only one of the LP-WUS procedure or EMR measurement is performed.

[0078] In some embodiments, when deciding to perform the LP-WUS procedure and refrain from performing any EMR measurement, the first apparatus 110 may further refrain from indicating availability of the EMR measurement to the second apparatus 120. Thus the second apparatus 120 may be informed.

[0079] In other embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may decide to perform the EMR measurement and refrain from performing the LP-WUS procedure. Similarly, the first apparatus 110 may make the decision based on its current behavior.

[0080] In some embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may determine to perform the EMR measurement and refrain from performing the LP-WUS procedure based on the first apparatus 110 having received or read the EMR configuration. Alternatively or additionally, the first apparatus 110 may make such determination based on the EMR measurement having started. Alternatively or additionally, the first apparatus 110 may make such determination based on the first apparatus 110 being currently performing the EMR measurement when receiving or reading the LP-WUS configuration.

[0081] In some examples, the first apparatus 110 may determine to perform the EMR measurement and refrain from performing the LP-WUS procedure based on a determination that the first apparatus is monitoring an LP-WUS and an LP-WUS measurement relaxation condition is not fulfilled. For example, RRM measurement relaxation condition comprises at least no serving and / or neighbor cellmeasurements and / or relaxed serving and / or neighbor cell measurements. In other words, when there is no serving and / or neighbor cell measurement or there is no relaxed serving and / or neighbor cell measurement, the RRM measurement relaxation condition may be fulfilled.

[0082] In some embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may receive from the second apparatus 120, an indication of performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and an EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration with the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement being refrained from performing at the same time. In other words, the first apparatus 110 may make such decisions based on an indication. In some embodiments, the indication may indicate performing only one of the LP-WUS procedure or the EMR measurement, but does not indicate which one to choose. Alternatively, the indication may indicate how to choose the one to perform, or even indicate the exact one to perform. In these cases, the network may not configure both EMR and LP-WUS for the same UE simultaneously. The indication may be transmitted via any suitable signaling. In some examples, the indication may be indicated in the LP-WUS configuration or EMR configuration.

[0083] Reference is now made to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 illustrates a signaling chart 300 for an example process of performing an LP-WUS procedure or EMR measurement according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The signaling chart 300 may be deemed as a detailed example of the signaling chart 200. In FIG. 3, a UE 310, a serving cell 320 and a Scell_1 330 are involved in the process. The UE 310 may be an example of the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1 , the serving cell 320 may be an example of the cell 130 in FIG. 1 , and the SCell_1 330 may be an example of the cell 132 in FIG. 1.

[0084] As illustrated in FIG. 3, the UE 310 is in the RRC_CONNECTED mode at first. Then, at Step 1 , the serving cell 320 transmits an RRC Connection Release message to the UE 310. The RRC Connection Release message includes an EMR configuration, also referred to as IDLE mode configuration. Optionally, the RRC Connection Release message may further include an LP-WUS configuration. Upon receiving the RRC Connection Release message, the UE 310 transitions to / enters the RRCJDLE or RRCJNACTIVE mode.

[0085] At Step 2, the serving cell 320 may further transmit system information to the UE 310. The system information may include an LP-WUS configuration. Alternatively or in addition, the system information may include an EMR configuration.

[0086] At Step 3, the UE 310 receives an LP-WUS, and the LP-WUS may trigger paging following the LP-WUS configuration regardless of whether LP-WUS monitoring is performed.

[0087] At Step 4, the UE 310 may check if the LP-WUS is addressing itself. If so, the UE 310 may wake up and perform connection setup with the cell 320. The UE 310 then transitions to the RRC_CONNECTED mode and may perform possible CA setup with the serving cell 320.

[0088] In some examples, if the RRC Connection Release message includes the LP-WUS configuration and the EMR configuration, the UE 310 may start LP-WUS monitoring but does not perform EMR measurements in the RRCJDLE / INACTIVE mode, as illustrated in Option 1. The UE 310 may perform an LP-WUS procedure based on the LP-WUS configuration. For example, as illustrated in FIG.3, the UE 310 may perform measurements offloaded from the MR to the LR based on the low power-synchronization signal (LP-SS). In some examples, both serving and neighbor cell measurements may be offloaded from the MR to the LR. Further, after the UE 310 determines that the received LP-WUS is addressing itself, the UE 310 may wake up and perform connection setup with the cell 320. The UE 310 then transitions to the RRC_CONNECTED mode and performs possible CA setup with the serving cell 320. In this case, the UE 310 does not indicate that EMR measurements are available because the UE 310 decides to perform the LP-WUS procedure, e.g., monitoring the LP- WUS and, rather than perform the EMR measurements.

[0089] In some other examples, if the RRC Connection Release message does not include the LP- WUS configuration but includes the EMR configuration, and the system information includes the LP- WUS configuration, after the UE 310 transitions to the RRCJDLE / INACTIVE mode, the UE 310 decides to perform EMR measurements in the RRCJDLE / INACTIVE mode but not start LP-WUS monitoring, as illustrated in Option 2. For example, the UE 310 may perform synchronization signal block (SSB)-based EMR measurements, e.g., primary synchronization signal (PSS) and / or secondary synchronization signal (SSS) based measurements. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the UE 310 may perform EMR measurements for both carriers, i.e., the cell 320 and the Scell_1 330. In this case where the UE performed the EMR measurements, after the UE 310 transitions to the RRC_CONNECTED mode, the UE 310 may transmit an EMR measurement report to the cell 320. The cell 320 may perform the possible CA setup with the UE 310 based on the EMR measurement report. The EMR reporting may be transmitted based on, for example, a UElnformationRequest / Response mechanism based on EMR specification.

[0090] As illustrated in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the solutions provided according to embodiments of the present disclosure can define behaviors when the UE is configured with both the LP-WUS and EMR, so as avoid any potential contradiction. It is worth noting that the examples are illustrative, and implementation in standardized specifications may be described in a different way. The provided solutions may reflect in in either EMR related parts or LP-WUS / R specific sections of the standardized specification. Some examples are shown below.

[0091] As an example, in current 3GPP TS 38.331 , it is defined in section 5.7.8.1 a that, in the measurement configuration for idle / inactive measurements, the UE initiates this procedure while T331 is running and SDT procedure is not ongoing and one of the conditions is met. According to the provided solutions, this definition may be changed to that the UE initiates this procedure while T331is running and SDT procedure is not ongoing and the UE is not monitoring LP-WUS and / or the UE is not relaxing RRM measurements and one of the conditions is met.

[0092] As another example, in current 3GPP TS 38.331 , it is defined in section 5.7.8.1 b that, in the measurement configuration for idle / inactive reselection measurements, the UE initiates this procedure while SDT procedure is not ongoing and one of the following conditions is met. According to the provided solutions, this definition may be changed to that the UE initiates this procedure while SDT procedure is not ongoing and the UE is not monitoring LP-WUS and / or the UE is not relaxing RRM measurements and one of the conditions is met.

[0093] As another example, in current 3GPP TS 38.331 , it is defined in section 5.7.8.2a that, for idle / inactive reselection measurements, while in RRCJDLE or RRCJNACTIVE, and T331 is running and SDT procedure is not ongoing, the UE shall perform the measurements. According to the provided solutions, this definition may be changed to that while in RRCJDLE or RRCJNACTIVE, and T331 is running and SDT procedure is not ongoing and the UE is not monitoring LP-WUS and / or the UE is not relaxing RRM measurements, the UE shall perform the measurements.

[0094] FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of an example method 400 implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 400 will be described from the perspective of the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1.

[0095] At block 410, the first apparatus 110 receives from a second apparatus, a low power wakeup signal (LP-WUS) configuration.

[0096] At block 420, the first apparatus 110 receives, from the second apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement.

[0097] At block 430, the first apparatus 110 performs one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and an EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration.

[0098] In some example embodiments, the method 400 further comprises: refraining from performing the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement at the same time when performing the one of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement.

[0099] In some example embodiments, the method 400 further comprises: determining to refrain from performing the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement based on a current behavior of the first apparatus.

[0100] In some example embodiments, the method 400 further comprises: determining to refrain from performing the EMR measurement based on at least one of: the first apparatus being currently performing the LP-WUS procedure when receiving or reading the EMR configuration, the LP-WUS procedure having started, the first apparatus having received or read the LP-WUS configuration, an LP-WUS monitoring condition being fulfilled, or an LP-WUS measurement relaxation condition being fulfilled.

[0101] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is further caused to refrain from indicating availability of the EMR measurement to the second apparatus.

[0102] In some example embodiments, the method 400 further comprises: performing the LP-WUS procedure for offloading a RRM measurement from a main radio (MR) to a low-power radio (LR).

[0103] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is caused to offload the measurement from the MR to the LR for a portion of or all of carriers for the first apparatus.

[0104] In some example embodiments, the method 400 further comprises: determining to refrain from performing the LP-WUS procedure based on at least one of: the first apparatus being currently performing the EMR measurement when receiving or reading the LP-WUS configuration, the EMR measurement having started, or the first apparatus having received or read the EMR configuration.

[0105] In some example embodiments, the method 400 further comprises: determining to perform the EMR measurement based on a determination that the first apparatus is monitoring an LP-WUS and an LP-WUS measurement relaxation condition is not fulfilled.

[0106] In some example embodiments, the method 400 further comprises: receiving, from the second apparatus, an indication of performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP- WUS configuration and an EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration with the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement being refrained from performing at the same time.

[0107] In some example embodiments, the method 400 further comprises: receiving, from the second apparatus, the LP-WUS configuration in a radio resource control (RRC) connection release message or a system information block (SIB) configuration.

[0108] In some example embodiments, the method 400 further comprises: receiving, from the second apparatus, the EMR configuration in a RRC connection release message or a system information block (SIB) configuration.

[0109] In some example embodiments, the LP-WUS procedure comprises at least one of: offloading of measurement from a MR to a LR, monitoring of an LP-WUS signal, or relaxation of a MR measurement or a LR measurement due to the LP-WUS configuration.

[0110] In some example embodiments, the EMR measurement comprises at least one of a measurement in an RRC idle mode or a measurement in an RRC inactive mode.

[0111] FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of an example method 500 implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 500 will be described from the perspective of the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1.

[0112] At block 510, the second apparatus 120 transmits, to a first apparatus, a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) configuration.

[0113] At block 520, the second apparatus 120 transmits, to the first apparatus, an earlymeasurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement.

[0114] At block 530, the second apparatus 120 transmits, to the first apparatus, an indication of performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and an EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration with the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement being refrained from performing at the same time.

[0115] In some example embodiments, the method 500 further comprises: transmitting, to the first apparatus, the LP-WUS configuration in a radio resource control (RRC) connection release message or a system information block (SIB) configuration.

[0116] In some example embodiments, the method 500 further comprises: transmitting, to the first apparatus, the EMR configuration in a RRC connection release message or a system information block (SIB) configuration.

[0117] In some example embodiments, the LP-WUS procedure comprises at least one of: offloading of measurement from a MR to a LR, monitoring of an LP-WUS signal, or relaxation of a MR measurement or a LR measurement due to the LP-WUS configuration.

[0118] In some example embodiments, the EMR measurement comprises at least one of a measurement in an RRC idle mode or a measurement in an RRC inactive mode.

[0119] In some example embodiments, a first apparatus capable of performing any of the method 400 (for example, the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1 ) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 400. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The first apparatus may be implemented as or included in the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1 .

[0120] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a second apparatus, a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) configuration; means for receiving, from the second apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement; and means for performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and an EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration.

[0121] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises means for refraining from performing the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement at the same time when performing the one of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement.

[0122] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining to refrain from performing the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement based on a current behavior of the first apparatus.

[0123] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining to refrain from performing the EMR measurement based on at least one of: means for the first apparatus being currently performing the LP-WUS procedure when receiving or reading the EMRconfiguration, means for the LP-WUS procedure having started, means for the first apparatus having received or read the LP-WUS configuration, means for an LP-WUS monitoring condition being fulfilled, or means for an LP-WUS measurement relaxation condition being fulfilled.

[0124] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus may further comprise means for refraining from indicating availability of the EMR measurement to the second apparatus.

[0125] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for performing the LP-WUS procedure for offloading a RRM measurement from a main radio (MR) to a low-power radio (LR).

[0126] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus may further comprise means for offloading the measurement from the MR to the LR for a portion of or all of carriers for the first apparatus.

[0127] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining to refrain from performing the LP-WUS procedure based on at least one of: means for the first apparatus being currently performing the EMR measurement when receiving or reading the LP-WUS configuration, means for the EMR measurement having started, or means for the first apparatus having received or read the EMR configuration.

[0128] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining to perform the EMR measurement based on a determination that the first apparatus is monitoring an LP-WUS and an LP-WUS measurement relaxation condition is not fulfilled.

[0129] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the second apparatus, an indication of performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and an EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration with the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement being refrained from performing at the same time.

[0130] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the second apparatus, the LP-WUS configuration in a radio resource control (RRC) connection release message or a system information block (SIB) configuration.

[0131] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the second apparatus, the EMR configuration in a RRC connection release message or a system information block (SIB) configuration.

[0132] In some example embodiments, the LP-WUS procedure comprises at least one of: offloading of measurement from a MR to a LR, monitoring of an LP-WUS signal, or relaxation of a MR measurement or a LR measurement due to the LP-WUS configuration.

[0133] In some example embodiments, the EMR measurement comprises at least one of a measurement in an RRC idle mode or a measurement in an RRC inactive mode.

[0134]

[0135] In some example embodiments, a second apparatus capable of performing any of the method 500 (for example, the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1 ) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 500. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The second apparatus may be implemented as or included in the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1.

[0136] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) configuration; means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement; and means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, an indication of performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and an EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration with the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement being refrained from performing at the same time.

[0137] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, the LP-WUS configuration in a radio resource control (RRC) connection release message or a system information block (SIB) configuration.

[0138] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, the EMR configuration in a RRC connection release message or a system information block (SIB) configuration.

[0139] In some example embodiments, the LP-WUS procedure comprises at least one of: offloading of measurement from a MR to a LR, monitoring of an LP-WUS signal, or relaxation of a MR measurement or a LR measurement due to the LP-WUS configuration.

[0140] FIG. 6 is a simplified block diagram of a device 600 that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 600 may be provided to implement a communication device, for example, the first apparatus 110 or the second apparatus 120 as shown in FIG. 1. As shown, the device 600 includes one or more processors 610, one or more memories 620 coupled to the processor 610, and one or more communication modules 640 coupled to the processor 610.

[0141] The communication module 640 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 640 has one or more communication interfaces to facilitate communication with one or more other modules or devices. The communication interfaces may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements. In some example embodiments, the communication module 640 may include at least one antenna.

[0142] The processor 610 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may include one or more of the following: general purpose computers, special purpose computers,microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 600 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

[0143] The memory 620 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of the non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 624, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM), a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD), a digital video disk (DVD), an optical disk, a laser disk, and other magnetic storage and / or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random-access memory (RAM) 622 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

[0144] A computer program 630 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 610. The instructions of the program 630 may include instructions for performing operations / acts of some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The program 630 may be stored in the memory, e.g., the ROM 624. The processor 610 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 630 into the RAM 622.

[0145] The example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 630 so that the device 600 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to FIG. 2 to FIG.5. The example embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

[0146] In some example embodiments, the program 630 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 600 (such as in the memory 620) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 600. The device 600 may load the program 630 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 622 for execution. In some example embodiments, the computer readable medium may include any types of non-transitory storage medium, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like. The term “non-transitory,” as used herein, is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e. , tangible, not a signal) as opposed to a limitation on data storage persistency (e.g., RAM vs. ROM).

[0147] FIG. 7 shows an example of the computer readable medium 700 which may be in form of CD, DVD or other optical storage disk. The computer readable medium 700 has the program 630 stored thereon.

[0148] Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, and other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. Although various aspects ofembodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representations, it is to be understood that the block, apparatus, system, technique or method described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

[0149] Some example embodiments of the present disclosure also provide at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a computer readable medium, such as a non-transitory computer readable medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target physical or virtual processor, to carry out any of the methods as described above. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machineexecutable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

[0150] Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. The program code may be provided to a processor or controller of a general-purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program code, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions / operations specified in the flowcharts and / or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

[0151] In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program code or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable the device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of the carrier include a signal, computer readable medium, and the like.

[0152] The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random-access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combinationof the foregoing.

[0153] Further, although 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, although several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Unless explicitly stated, certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, unless explicitly stated, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in a plurality of embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination.

[0154] Although the present disclosure has been described in languages specific to structural features and / or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:1 . A first apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus at least to: receive, from a second apparatus, a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) configuration; receive, from the second apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement; and perform one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and the EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration2. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first apparatus is further caused to: refrain from performing the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement at the same time when performing the one of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement.

3. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first apparatus is further caused to: determine to refrain from performing the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement based on a current behavior of the first apparatus.

4. The first apparatus of claim 3, wherein the first apparatus is caused to: determine to refrain from performing the EMR measurement based on at least one of: the first apparatus being currently performing the LP-WUS procedure when receiving or reading the EMR configuration, the LP-WUS procedure having started, the first apparatus having received or read the LP-WUS configuration, an LP-WUS monitoring condition being fulfilled, or an LP-WUS measurement relaxation condition being fulfilled.

5. The first apparatus of claim 3 or 4, wherein the first apparatus is further caused to refrain from indicating availability of the EMR measurement to the second apparatus.

6. The first apparatus of any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:perform the LP-WUS procedure for offloading a RRM measurement from a main radio (MR) to a low-power radio (LR).

7. The first apparatus of claim 6, wherein the first apparatus is caused to offload the measurement from the MR to the LR for a portion of or all of carriers for the first apparatus.

8. The first apparatus of claim 3, wherein the first apparatus is caused to: determine to refrain from performing the LP-WUS procedure based on at least one of: the first apparatus being currently performing the EMR measurement when receiving or reading the LP-WUS configuration, the EMR measurement having started, or the first apparatus having received or read the EMR configuration.

9. The first apparatus of claim 8, wherein the first apparatus is further caused to: determine to perform the EMR measurement based on a determination that the first apparatus is monitoring an LP-WUS and an LP-WUS measurement relaxation condition is not fulfilled.

10. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first apparatus is further caused to: receive, from the second apparatus, an indication of performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and an EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration with the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement being refrained from performing at the same time.11 . The first apparatus of any of claims 1 to 10, wherein the first apparatus is caused to: receive, from the second apparatus, the LP-WUS configuration in a radio resource control(RRC) connection release message or a system information block (SIB) configuration.

12. The first apparatus of any of claims 1 to 11 , wherein the first apparatus is caused to: receive, from the second apparatus, the EMR configuration in a RRC connection release message or a system information block (SIB) configuration.

13. The first apparatus of any of claims 1 to 12, wherein the LP-WUS procedure comprises at least one of: offloading of measurement from a MR to a LR, monitoring of an LP-WUS signal, orrelaxation of a MR measurement or a LR measurement due to the LP-WUS configuration.

14. The first apparatus of any of claims 1 to 13, wherein the EMR measurement comprises at least one of a measurement in an RRC idle mode or a measurement in an RRC inactive mode.

15. A second apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus at least to: transmit, to a first apparatus, a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) configuration; transmit, to the first apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement; and transmit, to the first apparatus, an indication of performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and the EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration with the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement being refrained from performing at the same time.

16. The second apparatus of claim 15, wherein the second apparatus is caused to: transmit, to the first apparatus, the LP-WUS configuration in a radio resource control (RRC) connection release message or a system information block (SIB) configuration.

17. The second apparatus of any of claims 15 to 16, wherein the second apparatus is caused to: transmit, to the first apparatus, the EMR configuration in a RRC connection release message or a system information block (SIB) configuration.

18. The second apparatus of any of claims 15 to 17, wherein the LP-WUS procedure comprises at least one of: offloading of measurement from a MR to a LR, monitoring of an LP-WUS signal, or relaxation of a MR measurement or a LR measurement due to the LP-WUS configuration.

19. The second apparatus of any of claims 15 to 18, wherein the EMR measurement comprises at least one of a measurement in an RRC idle mode or a measurement in an RRC inactive mode.

20. A method comprising: receiving, at a first apparatus and from a second apparatus, a low power wake-up signal (LP- WUS) configuration; receiving, from the second apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement; and performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and the EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration.

21. A method comprising: transmitting, from a second apparatus and to a first apparatus, a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) configuration; transmitting, to the first apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement; and transmitting, to the first apparatus, an indication of performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and the EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration with the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement being refrained from performing at the same time.

22. A first apparatus comprising: means for receiving, from a second apparatus, a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) configuration; means for receiving, from the second apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement; and means for performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and the EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration.

23. A second apparatus comprising: means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) configuration; means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, an early measurement reporting (EMR) configuration associated with an EMR measurement; and means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, an indication of performing one of an LP-WUS procedure associated with the LP-WUS configuration and the EMR measurement associated with the EMR configuration with the other of the LP-WUS procedure and the EMR measurement being refrained from performing at the same time.

24. A computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus at least to perform the method of claim 20 or the method of claim 21 .

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