Measurement relaxation with low power mode

Abstract

Example embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to measurement relaxation A method includes receiving, from a second apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; determining a target relaxation factor based at least on the configuration of relaxation factor; and performing the measurement based on the target relaxation factor, based on a determination that the first apparatus is in a lower power wake up signal, LP-WUS, mode.

Description

MEASUREMENT RELAXATION WITH LOW POWER MODECROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application claims priority from, and the benefit of, US Provisional Application No. 63 / 718393, filed November 8, 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 measurement relaxation with low power mode.BACKGROUND

[0003] Communication systems such as fifth generation (5G) systems are designed and developed targeting for both mobile telephony and vertical use cases. Besides latency, reliability, and availability, user equipment (UE) energy efficiency is also a concerning aspect for the communication systems. Currently, devices such as UE may need to be recharged per week or day, depending on individual’s usage time. In general, devices consume tens of milliwatts in radio resource control (RRC) idle / inactive state and hundreds of milliwatts in RRC connected state. Designs to prolong battery life is a necessity for improving energy efficiency as well as for better user experience.

[0004] Energy efficiency is even more critical for UEs without a continuous energy source, e.g., UEs using small rechargeable and single coin cell batteries. Among vertical use cases, sensors and actuators are deployed extensively for monitoring, measuring, charging, etc. Generally, their batteries are not rechargeable and expected to last at least few years. Currently, UEs need to periodically wake up once per discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle, which dominates the power consumption in periods with no signaling or data traffic. If UEs are able to wake up only when they are addressed, e.g., by paging, power consumption could be dramatically reduced. This can be achieved by using a wake-up signal to trigger or wake-up a main radio of the UE. A separate receiver of the UE may have the ability to monitor wake-up signal with ultra-low power consumption. Main radio works for downlink reception as well as uplink transmission. Main radio is also responsible for cell (re)selection evaluation to ensure e.g., that the UE is camping on the best cell. Main radio can be set to different power state, such as a sleep mode.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 to: receive, from a second apparatus,a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; determine a target relaxation factor based at least on the configuration of relaxation factor; and perform the measurement based on the target relaxation factor, based on a determination that the first apparatus is in a lower power wake up signal, LP-WUS, mode.

[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 to: transmit, to a first apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; and receive, from the first apparatus, a measurement report indicating a measurement result of the measurement.

[0007] In a third 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 to: receive, from a second apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; receive, from the second apparatus, an indication regarding an activation or deactivation of the configuration of relaxation factor; and perform the measurement based on the indication, based on a determination that the first apparatus is in a lower power wake up signal, LP- WUS, mode.

[0008] In a fourth 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 to: transmit, to a first apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; and transmit, to the second apparatus, an indication regarding an activation or deactivation of the configuration of relaxation factor.

[0009] In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: receiving, at a first apparatus and from a second apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; determining a target relaxation factor based at least on the configuration of relaxation factor; and performing the measurement based on the target relaxation factor, based on a determination that the first apparatus is in a lower power wake up signal, LP-WUS, mode.

[0010] In a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: transmitting, at second apparatus and to a first apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; and receiving, from the first apparatus, a measurement report indicating a measurement result of the measurement.

[0011] In a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: receiving, at a first apparatus and from a second apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; receiving, from the second apparatus, an indication regarding an activation or deactivation of the configuration of relaxation factor; and performing the measurement based on the indication, based on a determination that the first apparatus is in a lower power wake up signal, LP-WUS, mode.

[0012] In an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: transmitting, at a second apparatus and to a first apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; and transmitting, to the second apparatus, an indication regarding an activation or deactivation of the configuration of relaxation factor.

[0013] In a ninth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a second apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; means for determining a target relaxation factor based at least on the configuration of relaxation factor; and means for performing the measurement based on the target relaxation factor, based on a determination that the first apparatus is in a lower power wake up signal, LP-WUS, mode.

[0014] In a tenth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; and means for receiving, from the first apparatus, a measurement report indicating a measurement result of the measurement.

[0015] In an eleventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a second apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; means for receiving, from the second apparatus, an indication regarding an activation or deactivation of the configuration of relaxation factor; and means for performing the measurement based on the indication, based on a determination that the first apparatus is in a lower power wake up signal, LP-WUS, mode.

[0016] In a twelfth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; and means for transmitting, to the second apparatus, an indication regarding an activation or deactivation of the configuration of relaxation factor.

[0017] In a thirteenth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium comprises instructions stored thereon for causing anapparatus to perform at least the method according to any of the fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth aspect.

[0018] 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

[0019] Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, where:

[0020] FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

[0021] FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B illustrates example block diagrams of a first apparatus with a main radio and a wake-up receiver, respectively;

[0022] FIG. 3 illustrates an example signaling flow of measurement relaxation for low power mode according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0023] FIG. 4 illustrates another example signaling flow of measurement relaxation for low power mode according to some other example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0024] FIG. 5 illustrates another example signaling flow of measurement relaxation for low power mode according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0025] FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0026] FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0027] FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0028] FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0029] FIG. 10 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0030] FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0031] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0032] Principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some exampleembodiments. 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.

[0033] 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.

[0034] 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.

[0035] 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.

[0036] 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.

[0037] 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.

[0038] 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.

[0039] 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.

[0040] 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.

[0041] 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.

[0042] 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 devicemay 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.

[0043] 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.

[0044] 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 exampleembodiments of the present disclosure are equally applicable to other resources in other domains.

[0045] As used herein, the term “LP-SS” refers to a low-power synchronization signal, which is designed to operate with low power consumption, making it suitable for low-power or energy- constrained devices. The LP-SS allows devices to evaluate the serving cell, maintain timing accuracy and network synchronization without significantly draining power resources, enabling efficient operation in environments where preserving battery life is critical.

[0046] As used herein, the term “LP-WUS” refers to a low-power wake-up signal. LP-WUS is especially used in a scenario where devices are often in deep sleep modes to conserve energy. By using LP-WUS, these devices can remain in low-power states until they need to perform specific tasks, reducing the need for constant active operation and thereby extending battery life or optimizing energy harvesting resources.

[0047] As used herein, the term “SSB” refers to a synchronization signal block, which includes essential synchronization and broadcast signals for user equipment (UE). The SSB enables devices to establish initial network connections by providing information such as cell identity, timing, and physical layer parameters.

[0048] 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 terminal device 110 and a network device 120, can communicate with each other. In the example of FIG. 1 , the terminal device 110 may be a UE and the network device 120 may be a base station serving the UE. The serving area of the network device 120 may be called a cell 102.

[0049] 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 102, and one or more additional cells may be deployed in the communication environment 100. It is noted that although illustrated as a network device, the network device 120 may be another device than a network device. Although illustrated as a terminal device, the terminal device 110 may be another device than a terminal device.

[0050] In the following, for the purpose of illustration, some example embodiments are described with the terminal device 110 operating as a UE and the network device 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.

[0051] In some example embodiments, a transmission direction from the network device 120 to theterminal device 110 is referred to as a downlink (DL), while a transmission direction from the terminal device 110 to the network device 120 is referred to as an uplink (UL). In DL, the network device 120 is a transmitting (TX) device (or a transmitter) and the terminal device 110 is a receiving (RX) device (or a receiver). In UL, the terminal device 110 is a TX device (or a transmitter) and the network device 120 is a RX device (or a receiver).

[0052] 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.

[0053] As discussed above, energy efficiency is very critical for UEs without a continuous energy source, e.g., UEs using small rechargeable and single coin cell batteries. In some mechanisms, a wake-up signal (WUS) (also called low power WUS, LP-WUS) may be applied to trigger (e.g. wakeup) a main radio (MR) of a device. A separate receiver such as a low-power (LP) wake-up receiver (WUR) of the device may have the ability to monitor wake-up signals with ultra-low power consumption. Main radio works for downlink reception including e.g., synchronization signal block (SSB)Zsystem information / paging / data / control signaling transmission and reception as well as for uplink transmission including e.g., data and control signaling transmission. Main radio is also responsible for cell (re)selection evaluation to ensure e.g. that the UE is camping on the best cell. Main radio may be set in different power state. For example, the main radio may be turned off or set to (deep) sleep unless it is turned on.

[0054] In some solutions, it studies item on low-power Wake-up Signal (WUS) and Receiver (WUR) for NR. The study evaluated the usage of an additional low-power wake-up receiver (LP-WUR or shortly, LR) at the UE to reduce the 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 the reception by the LP-WUR of a newly defined wake-up signal (WUS). 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 a UE receives the WUS, the WURreceiver can trigger the wake-up of the ordinary NR MR transceiver and communication can start. Thus, the ultra-low power receiver wakes up the main radio, otherwise, the main radio can be OFF or kept in a deep sleep mode. The assumption is 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.

[0055] In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 includes a main radio and a wakeup receiver such as a LP-WUR (LR). FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B respectively illustrate example block diagrams of the terminal device 110 with a main radio 210 (for example, a NR transceiver) and an LP- WUR 220 (also referred to as a LP-WUS receiver). The LP-WUR 220 may monitor WUS(s) 230 from the network device 120.

[0056] In some embodiments, the LP-WUR 220 may be operated in an always ‘on’ manner with very low power consumption. For example, the LP-WUR 220 may monitor the WUS 230 during an idle / inactive mode and a connected mode. The LP-WUR 220 may consume significantly less power compared to the main radio 210, by applying a simple WUS 230 and the use of dedicated hardware for its monitoring. For example, the LP-WUR 220 may be only able to or configured to receive the WUS 230. As shown in FIG. 2A, the WUS 230 is off, the main radio 210 of terminal device 110 is in an off or deep sleep mode.

[0057] I n some example embodiments, the network device 120 such as a network device may trigger the terminal device 110 to wake-up when needed in an event-driven manner, by transmitting a certain WUS 230 to the terminal device 110. The WUS 230 may be monitored by the LP-WUR 220, for example, an ultra-low power receiver. As shown in FIG. 2B, in response to receiving the WUS(s) 230, the LP-WUR 220 may trigger the wake-up of the ordinary NR transceiver and communication / normal operation may start. For example, the LP-WUR 220 such as the ultra-low power receiver wakes up the main radio 210. The main radio 210 thus may be switched into an on state or a no sleep mode. Otherwise, the main radio 210 may be turned off or kept in a sleep mode, such as a deep sleep mode or an ultra-deep sleep mode.

[0058] As used herein, the turned off state, the turned-on state, sleep mode, a specific sleep mode among a plurality of different sleep modes, or no sleep mode of the main radio 210 may be referred to as a power state of the main radio 210. As used herein, the term “no sleep mode” may refer to a power state or mode in which the main radio 210 of the terminal device 110 performs a channel monitoring and a channel measurement. The “no sleep mode” may also be referred to as a “normal mode” or “turned-on state.” The channel monitoring may refer to physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring, physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) monitoring or any other suitable monitoring. Examples of the channel measurement may include but not limited to a radio resourcemanagement (RRM) measurement, a radio link monitoring (RLM) measurement, a beam failure detection (BFD) measurement, a channel state information (CSI) measurement, a beam management (BM) measurement, idle-mode measurement, and / or the like.

[0059] The main radio 210 power consumption depends on the configured length of wake-up periods, e.g., paging cycle. To meet the battery life requirements above, long eDRX cycle may be used, resulting in high latency, which is not suitable for such services with requirements of both long battery life and low latency. For example, in fire detection and extinguishment use case, fire shutters shall be closed and fire sprinklers shall be turned on by the actuators within 1 to 2 seconds from the time the fire is detected by sensors, long eDRX cycle cannot meet the delay requirements. eDRX is apparently not suitable for latency-critical use cases.

[0060] It is to be understood that although the main radio 210 and the LP-WUR 220 are shown as separate components in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, in some example embodiments, the LP-WUS 220 may be implemented as part of the main radio 210. That is, the corresponding part in the main radio 210 will be operated in an always ‘on’ manner with very low power consumption, while remaining part of the main radio 210 will be turned on and turned off for different scenarios.

[0061] As used herein, when describing “using low power mode or LP-WUS” or “first apparatus in low power mode or LP-WUS mode” or “during LP-WUS operation”, the following cases may be considered. A first case relates to MR offloading to LR. That is, the terminal device 110 is offloading MR measurements to LR due to LP-WUS being used or configured. The measurements may be serving cell measurements or neighboring cell measurements. LR measurements are either Primary synchronization signal (PSS) or Secondary synchronization signal (SSS) based LP-WUS specific reference signal, such as LP-SS based. The offloading of MR may be full or partial. A second case relates to MR serving and / or neighboring cell relaxation. That is, the first apparatus 110 is relaxing MR and / or LR measurements due to thresholds being met where such operation is allowed for the first apparatus 110. MR relaxation may mean that the measurements are more sparse than when in regular operation. A third case relates to LP-WUS monitoring. In this case, LR (or some implementations, some part of MR), is monitoring specific LP-WUS reference signal that wakes up the terminal device 110. The terminal device 110 is or has entered LP-WUS monitoring and LP-WUS monitoring is active. The assumption in this case is that the terminal device 110 also supports LP-WUS monitoring capability.

[0062] In order to achieve the UE power saving gain by LP-WUS / WUR, the RRM measurement on serving cell and neighboring cell via MR is relaxed or may be stopped when UE is using LP-WUS or MR is in ultra-deep sleep.

[0063] Further, a study was initiated to properly define and specify a WUS to support the operation of UEs with LP-WUR was approved with the following objectives. One of the objectives is to specifyan LP-WUS design commonly applicable to both I DLE / INACTIVE modes and CONNECTED modes. In this case, on-off keying (OOK) (OOK-1 and / or OOK-4) based LP-WUS with overlaid OFDM sequence(s) over OOK symbol is to be specified. As for I DLE / I NACTIVE operation, the LP-WUS design ensures that the same information is delivered irrespective of LP-WUR type. In addition, the OFDM sequence may carry information. Furthermore, at least duty-cycled monitoring of LP-WUS may be supported.

[0064] The objectives for I DLE / INACTIVE modes include specifying procedure and configuration of LP-WUS indicating paging monitoring triggered by LP-WUS, which includes at least configuration, sub-grouping and entry / exit condition for LP-WUS monitoring. Furthermore, the objectives include specifying LP-SS with periodicity with Yms for LP-WUR, for synchronization and / or RRM for serving cell. In this case, LP-SS is based on OOK-1 and / or OOK-4 waveform with or without overlaid OFDM sequences. Further down selection between with and without overlaid OFDM sequences needs to be studied. It is noted that for LP-WUR that may receive conventional primary synchronization signal (PSS) / secondary synchronization signal (SSS), the conventional PSS / SSS may be used for synchronization and RRM instead of LP-SS. In addition, Y will be decided later. 320ms is the start point. Moreover, the objectives include specifying further RRM relaxation of UE MR for both serving and neighboring cell measurements, and UE serving cell RRM measurement offloaded from MR to LP-WUR, which includes the necessary conditions.

[0065] The objectives for CONNECTED modes include specifying procedures to allow UE MR PDCCH monitoring triggered by LP-WUS which includes activation and deactivation procedure of LP- WUS monitoring, for example, for potential TU adjustment. It is noted that in CONNECTED mode, UE MR ultra-deep sleep is not considered, and UE RRM / radio link monitoring (RLM) / beam failure detection (BFD) / channel state information (CSI) measurements are performed by MR. In addition, a target coverage of LP-WUS and LP-SS may be the coverage of PUSCH for messages, and the optimization of LP-WUS signal design for I DLE / INACTIVE mode is prioritized over the optimization for connected mode.

[0066] Furthermore, the objectives for CONNECTED modes include specifying the necessary core requirement(s) to support the feature, which is to be further refined. For example, the objectives include specifying UE low-power wake-up receiver requirements, at least reference sensitivity power level (REFSENS), adjacent channel selectivity (ACS) and adjacent channel selectivity for uplink subchannels (ASCS) requirements with consideration of possible new methodology to assess the low- power wake-up receiver performance. Guard resource blocks (RBs) are defined for ACS and ASCS cases. Testability of above requirements is also studied. Considering impacts of different architecture and impairments, requirements that enable all types of reasonable implementation are set. In addition, the objectives include studying and if necessary specifying or supporting by declaration, thecorresponding BS requirements, e.g., dynamic range for LP-WUS / LP-SS. Moreover, necessary RRM requirements also need to be specified.

[0067] Additionally, MR RRM relaxation for serving cell is proposed. For example, in some cases, relaxation / scaling factor may be used for MR serving / neighboring cell relaxation to scale the measurement results, in other words, the relaxation factor can be called a scaling factor and it allows UE to measure less and save power. For instance, the relaxation factor may act as a multiplier (when > 1 ) for the measurement occasions for the UE. Relaxation factors may be within the range from 8 to 16 as the starting point for the relaxation factor, or the relaxation factor be selected from 1 to N where N is an integer. In some cases, the relaxation factor may be configured to be infinite, or maximum value range of the numerical field (e.g. FFFF in hexadecimal format). If the relaxation factor is configured to be infinite, the UE, for instance, would not be required to perform any measurements or the number of measurements would be left up to UE implementation. Alternatively, the relaxation factor may be equal to 8 as the starting point. In some cases, the relaxation factor may be larger than or equal to 16. In some other cases, at least the scaling factor may be larger than that of legacy Rel-16 UE power saving. For MR neighboring cell measurement relaxation, the existing relaxed requirements can be used as baseline. For MR serving cell measurement relaxation, a scaling factor can be introduced. Further, it is still under discussion whether to use same scaling factor as neighboring cell measurement. In some cases, it further discusses scaling factor for MR RRM relaxation for serving and / or neighboring cell after scenario and detailed criterion for measurement relaxation have been clarified. Alternatively, the existing relaxation for scaling factor can be the starting point for MR RRM relaxation. Alternatively, the legacy intra- / inter-frequency and inter-RAT neighboring cell measurement requirements can be the baseline and RAN4 can study the relaxed scaling factor. Multiple values can be considered depending on conditions.

[0068] In the last RAN4 meeting, relaxation factor was intensively discussed for serving and neighboring cell measurements while UE is operating in LP-WUS mode. In the current discussion it is not clear whether the same relaxation factor applies for both serving and neighboring cell measurements, and whether the relaxation factor is same regardless of the conditions where the UE is in. Currently LP-WUS is having multiple scenarios with various thresholds and conditions to consider. Therefore, it is challenging to have a single value that provides a good performance across scenarios. Thus, new solutions on how to relax UE measurements while maintaining measurement performance in different scenarios are needed.

[0069] In accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a solution for measurement relaxation. In particular, example embodiments of the present disclosure propose that the relaxation factor is configurable by the network, independently or together with the LP-WUS configuration. In this way, a proper relaxation factor can be configured, thereby savingresources while ensuring measurement accuracy.

[0070] Example embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0071] FIG. 3 illustrates an example signaling flow 300 of measurement relaxation for low power mode according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the signaling flow 300 will be described with reference to FIG. 1 , for example, by using the terminal device 110 and the second device 120.

[0072] The network device 120 transmits (3010) a configuration of relaxation factor to the terminal device 110. That is, the terminal device 110 receives (3010) the configuration of relaxation factor from the network device 120. The configuration of relaxation factor is used for a measurement on a serving cell (i.e., the cell 102) and / or a neighboring cell. In this way, the network may apply a correct / proper relaxation factor in relation to other parameters, such as DRX cycle and LP-WUS entry / exit conditions / thresholds.

[0073] Ins some example embodiments, the configuration of relaxation factor may be transmitted via dedicated signaling. For example, the configuration of relaxation factor may be transmitted in a RRC message. Alternatively, or in addition, the configuration of relaxation factor may be transmitted in a broadcast manner. For example, the configuration of the relaxation factor may be transmitted in system information (such as, system information block (SIB)).

[0074] The terminal device 110 determines (3020) a target relaxation factor based at least one the configuration of relaxation factor. In some example embodiments, the configuration of the relaxation factor may include a plurality of relaxation factors. For example, if the terminal device 110 supports a variable relaxation factor capability, the configuration of relaxation factor includes more than one relaxation factor.

[0075] In some example embodiments, the target relaxation factor may be determined (3020) based on the configuration of relaxation factor and a radio condition of the terminal device 110. For example, the configuration of relaxation factor includes a first relaxation factor and a first threshold corresponding to the first relaxation factor. In this case, the terminal device 110 may determine whether its radio condition exceeds the first threshold. If the radio condition exceeds or is equal to the first threshold, the first relaxation factor may be determined (3020) as the target relaxation factor. The radio condition may indicate one of: reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal receiving quality (RSRQ). For example, the configuration of relaxation factor includes the relaxation factor being 8 and its threshold being Z dB. In this case, if the radio condition is X dB and is larger than Z dB, the relaxation factor is 8.

[0076] In some example embodiments, if the terminal device 110 is in very good radio conditions, the relaxation factor is higher than when the terminal device 110 is in good conditions. For example,the configuration of relaxation factor may further include a second relaxation factor that is larger than the first relaxation factor and a second threshold corresponding to the second relaxation factor. In this case, if the radio condition exceeds or is equal to the first threshold, the terminal device 110 may determine whether the radio condition exceeds the second threshold. If the radio condition of the terminal device 110 exceeds or is equal to the second threshold, the terminal device 110 determined (3020) the second relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor. Alternatively, if the radio condition of the first apparatus is below the second threshold, the terminal device 110 determined (3020) the first relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor. By way of example, the configuration of relaxation factor includes the relaxation factor being 16 and its threshold being Y dB. In this case, if the radio condition is X dB and is larger than Y dB, the relaxation factor is 16. Alternatively, if the radio condition is X dB and is smaller than Y dB, the relaxation factor may still be 8.

[0077] In some other example embodiments, the target relaxation factor may be determined (3020) based on the configuration of relaxation factor and a mobility condition of the terminal device 110. For example, the mobility condition may indicate a movement speed of the terminal device 110. It is noted that the mobility condition may include any suitable parameters that can indicate the mobility of the terminal device. In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine whether it fulfills low-mobility criteria. In this case, the terminal device 110 may determine the target relaxation factor based on the configuration of relaxation factor and the determination of whether the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria.

[0078] In some example embodiments, if the terminal device 110 fulfills the low-mobility criteria, the terminal device 110 determines (3020) a third relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor. For example, if the terminal device 110 has fulfilled the low-mobility criteria, the target relaxation factor is M. Alternatively, if the terminal device 110 fulfills low-mobility criteria and the terminal device 110 is not at cell edge, the terminal device 110 may determine (3020) a fourth relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor. The fourth relaxation factor may be larger than the third relaxation factor. For example, if the terminal device 110 has fulfilled low-mobility and not in a cell edge, the target relaxation factor is M + Q. In some other example embodiments, if the terminal device 110 fulfills low-mobility criteria but is not at cell edge and the terminal device 110 fulfills a time condition, the terminal device 110 may determine (3020) a fifth relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor. The fifth relaxation factor is larger than the fourth relaxation factor. The time condition may be that the terminal device 110 has been in RRCJDLE mode for longer than time_period seconds. For example, if the terminal device 110 has fulfilled low-mobility and not at cell edge, and the terminal device 110 has fulfilled a time condition, the target the relaxation factor may be set to M + Z + P. M, Q and P may be integers or decimal values.

[0079] In some other example embodiments, the target relaxation factor may be determined (3020)based on the configuration of relaxation factor and a DRX configuration of the terminal device 110. For example, the terminal device 110 may determine (3020) the target relaxation factor based on the configuration of relaxation factor and a DRX cycle length configured to the terminal device 110. In some example embodiments, if the DRX cycle is 320ms, the target relaxation factor may be set to 16. In addition, if the terminal device 110 is supporting longer eDRX cycles, the target relaxation factor may be 4, as most of the power saving comes from the DRX rather than relaxation.

[0080] Alternatively, the terminal device 110 may determine (3020) the target relaxation factor based on a condition associated with the LP-WUS being fulfilled. In other words, the relaxation factor may be configured per condition. For example, the condition may include one or more of the following: a LP-WUS monitoring condition, a LP-WUS or LP-WUR relaxation condition, a LP-WUS or LP-WUR full offloading condition, a LP-WUR reference signal, or a LP-WUR receiver type. The LP-WUS receiver type may refer to a capability of the terminal device 110. For example, if the LP-WUS monitoring condition is fulfilled, the target relaxation factor is “a”. Alternatively, if the LP-WUS relaxation condition is fulfilled, the target relaxation factor is “b”. As another example, if the LP-WUS full offloading condition is fulfilled, the target relaxation factor is “c”. As a further example, if all of the above conditions are fulfilled, the target relaxation factor is “d”. As a yet example, if any of the above conditions is not fulfilled then no relaxation factor is used.

[0081] When the network configures the relaxation factor, the UE may store the relaxation factor to be used. For example, if MR serving or neighbouring cell measurements are configured with relaxation factor, the UE shall store the relaxation factor. When MR is turned off, and woken up, the MR shall read the configured relaxation configuration and apply it for the future relaxation, according to LP- WUS mode.

[0082] In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine, based on a first condition, a range of relaxation factor from a set of ranges of relaxation factor in the configuration of relaxation factor. The terminal device 110 may then determine (3020) the target relaxation factor from the range of relaxation factor, based on a second condition. The first condition and the second condition may be any suitable conditions, such as, radio condition, mobility condition, DRX configuration and the like. For example, whether or not the terminal device 110 is in low mobility state, is used to select the relaxation factor range, and then based on LR metric (exceeding or not a threshold), the target relaxation factor is selected (3020).

[0083] In some example embodiments, the target relaxation factor is an integer. For example, the target relaxation factor may be in a value range from 1 to N with one step increment, where N is an integer number. Alternatively, the target relaxation factor may be in a value range 2M, where M is an integer number, such as, 1 , 2, 3, 4.

[0084] Alternatively, the target relaxation factor is in decimal value. For example, the targetrelaxation factor may be 1.5, 2.1 or 2.4. Alternatively, the target relaxation factor may be with 0.1 step size.

[0085] In some other example embodiments, the target relaxation factor is in boolean value. For example, the Boolean value may be true or false. In this case, when it is “true”, the terminal device 110 activates a configured or specified relaxation factor. Alternatively, when it is “true”, the terminal device is using the target relaxation factor.

[0086] The terminal device 110 performs (3030) the measurement based on the relaxation factor, if the terminal device 110 is in a LP-WUS mode. For example, the terminal device 110 may perform the measurement based on reference signals from the serving cell and / or neighboring cell, such as, SSB or LP-SS. In some example embodiments, if the target relaxation factor is 8, the terminal device 110 may perform the measurement every 8 reference signals. In this way, it can avoid overly tight or overly relaxed measurements.

[0087] The terminal device 110 may transmit (3040) a measurement report to the network device 120. That is, the network device 120 may receive (3040) the measurement report from the terminal device 110. For example, the measurement report indicates measured RSRP of reference signals.

[0088] FIG. 4 illustrates an example signaling flow 400 of measurement relaxation for low power mode according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the signaling flow 400 will be described with reference to FIG. 1 , for example, by using the terminal device 110 and the network device 120.

[0089] The network device 120 transmits (4010) a configuration of relaxation factor to the terminal device 110. That is, the terminal device 110 receives (4010) the configuration of relaxation factor from the network device 120. The configuration of relaxation factor is used for a measurement on a serving cell (i.e., the cell 102) and / or a neighboring cell. In this way, the network may apply a correct / proper relaxation factor in relation to other parameters, such as DRX cycle and LP-WUS entry / exit conditions / thresholds.

[0090] Ins some example embodiments, the configuration of relaxation factor may be transmitted via dedicated signaling. For example, the configuration of relaxation factor may be transmitted in a RRC message. Alternatively, or in addition, the configuration of relaxation factor may be transmitted in a broadcast manner. For example, the configuration of the relaxation factor may be transmitted in system information (such as, system information block (SIB)). In some example embodiments, the configuration of the relaxation factor may include a plurality of relaxation factors. For example, if the terminal device 110 supports a variable relaxation factor capability, the configuration of relaxation factor includes more than one relaxation factor.

[0091] The network device 120 transmits (4015) an indication regarding an activation or deactivation of the configuration or relaxation factor to the terminal device 110. That is, the terminal device 110receives (4015) the indication from the network device 120. In some example embodiments, the indication may be transmitted in a RRC message. Alternatively, the indication may be transmitted in a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE). In some other example embodiments, the indication may be transmitted downlink control information (DCI).

[0092] In some example embodiments, if the indication indicates the deactivation of the configuration of relaxation factor, the terminal device 110 performs (4030) the measurement without relaxation factor. Alternatively, if the indication indicates the activation of the configuration of relaxation factor, the terminal device 110 determines (4020) a target relaxation factor based at least one the configuration of relaxation factor. In this case, the terminal device 110 performs (4030) the measurement based on the target relaxation factor.

[0093] In some example embodiments, the target relaxation factor may be determined (4020) based on the configuration of relaxation factor and a radio condition of the terminal device 110. For example, the configuration of relaxation factor includes a first relaxation factor and a first threshold corresponding to the first relaxation factor. In this case, the terminal device 110 may determine whether its radio condition exceeds the first threshold. If the radio condition exceeds or is equal to the first threshold, the first relaxation factor may be determined (4020) as the target relaxation factor. The radio condition may indicate one of: reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal receiving quality (RSRQ). For example, the configuration of relaxation factor includes the relaxation factor being 8 and its threshold being Z dB. In this case, if the radio condition is X dB and is larger than Z dB, the relaxation factor is 8.

[0094] In some example embodiments, if the terminal device 110 is in very good radio conditions, the relaxation factor is higher than when the terminal device 110 is in good conditions. For example, the configuration of relaxation factor may further include a second relaxation factor that is larger than the first relaxation factor and a second threshold corresponding to the second relaxation factor. In this case, if the radio condition exceeds or is equal to the first threshold, the terminal device 110 may determine whether the radio condition exceeds the second threshold. If the radio condition of the terminal device 110 exceeds or is equal to the second threshold, the terminal device 110 determined (4020) the second relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor. Alternatively, if the radio condition of the first apparatus is below the second threshold, the terminal device 110 determined (4020) the first relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor. By way of example, the configuration of relaxation factor includes the relaxation factor being 16 and its threshold being Y dB. In this case, if the radio condition is X dB and is larger than Y dB, the relaxation factor is 16. Alternatively, if the radio condition is X dB and is smaller than Y dB, the relaxation factor may still be 8.

[0095] In some other example embodiments, the target relaxation factor may be determined (4020) based on the configuration of relaxation factor and a mobility condition of the terminal device 110. Forexample, the mobility condition may indicate a movement speed of the terminal device 110. It is noted that the mobility condition may include any suitable parameters that can indicate the mobility of the terminal device. In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine whether it fulfills low-mobility criteria. In this case, the terminal device 110 may determine the target relaxation factor based on the configuration of relaxation factor and the determination of whether the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria.

[0096] In some example embodiments, if the terminal device 110 fulfills the low-mobility criteria, the terminal device 110 determines (4020) a third relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor. For example, if the terminal device 110 has fulfilled the low-mobility criteria, the target relaxation factor is M. Alternatively, if the terminal device 110 fulfills low-mobility criteria and the terminal device 110 is not at cell edge, the terminal device 110 may determine (4020) a fourth relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor. The fourth relaxation factor may be larger than the third relaxation factor. For example, if the terminal device 110 has fulfilled low-mobility and not in a cell edge, the target relaxation factor is M + Q. In some other example embodiments, if the terminal device 110 fulfills low-mobility criteria but is not at cell edge and the terminal device 110 fulfills a time condition, the terminal device 110 may determine (4020) a fifth relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor. The fifth relaxation factor is larger than the fourth relaxation factor. The time condition may be that the terminal device 110 has been in RRCJDLE mode for longer than time_period seconds. For example, if the terminal device 110 has fulfilled low-mobility and not at cell edge, and the terminal device 110 has fulfilled a time condition, the target the relaxation factor may be set to M + Z + P. M, Q and P may be integers or decimal values.

[0097] In some other example embodiments, the target relaxation factor may be determined (4020) based on the configuration of relaxation factor and a DRX configuration of the terminal device 110. For example, the terminal device 110 may determine (4020) the target relaxation factor based on the configuration of relaxation factor and a DRX cycle length configured to the terminal device 110. In some example embodiments, if the DRX cycle is 320ms, the target relaxation factor may be set to 16. In addition, if the terminal device 110 is supporting longer eDRX cycles, the target relaxation factor may be 4, as most of the power saving comes from the DRX rather than relaxation.

[0098] Alternatively, the terminal device 110 may determine (4020) the target relaxation factor based on a condition associated with the LP-WUS being fulfilled. In other words, the relaxation factor may be configured per condition. For example, the condition may include one or more of the following: a LP-WUS monitoring condition, a LP-WUS or LP-WUR relaxation condition, a LP-WUS or LP-WUR full offloading condition, a LP-WUR reference signal, or a LP-WUR receiver type. The LP-WUS receiver type may refer to a capability of the terminal device 110. For example, if the LP-WUS monitoring condition is fulfilled, the target relaxation factor is “a”. Alternatively, if the LP-WUS relaxation conditionis fulfilled, the target relaxation factor is “b”. As another example, if the LP-WUS full offloading condition is fulfilled, the target relaxation factor is “c”. As a further example, if all of the above conditions are fulfilled, the target relaxation factor is “d”. As a yet example, if any of the above conditions is not fulfilled then no relaxation factor is used.

[0099] In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 may determine, based on a first condition, a range of relaxation factor from a set of ranges of relaxation factor in the configuration of relaxation factor. The terminal device 110 may then determine (4020) the target relaxation factor from the range of relaxation factor, based on a second condition. The first condition and the second condition may be any suitable conditions, such as, radio condition, mobility condition, DRX configuration and the like. For example, whether or not the terminal device 110 is in low mobility state, is used to select the relaxation factor range, and then based on LR metric (exceeding or not a threshold), the target relaxation factor is selected (4020).

[0100] In some other example embodiments, the indication may include an updated configuration of relaxation factor. For example, the indication of activation or deactivation may overwrite existing relaxation factor. In this case, the terminal device 110 may determine (4020) an updated target relaxation factor based at least on the updated configuration of relaxation factor. The terminal device 110 may then perform (4030) the measurement based on the updated target relaxation factor.

[0101] In some example embodiments, the target relaxation factor is an integer. For example, the target relaxation factor may be in a value range from 1 to N with one step increment, where N is an integer number. Alternatively, the target relaxation factor may be in a value range 2M, where M is an integer number, such as, 1 , 2, 3, 4.

[0102] Alternatively, the target relaxation factor is in decimal value. For example, the target relaxation factor may be 1.5, 2.1 or 2.4. Alternatively, the target relaxation factor may be with 0.1 step size.

[0103] In some other example embodiments, the target relaxation factor is in boolean value. For example, the Boolean value may be true or false. In this case, when it is “true”, the terminal device 110 activates a configured or specified relaxation factor. Alternatively, when it is “true”, the terminal device is using the target relaxation factor.

[0104] In some example embodiments, the terminal device 110 may perform (4030) the measurement based on reference signals from the serving cell and / or neighboring cell, such as, SSB or LP-SS. In some example embodiments, if the target relaxation factor is 8, the terminal device 110 may perform the measurement every 8 reference signals. In this way, it can avoid overly tight or overly relaxed measurements.

[0105] The terminal device 110 may transmit (4040) a measurement report to the network device 120. That is, the network device 120 may receive (4040) the measurement report from the terminaldevice 110. For example, the measurement report indicates measured RSRP of reference signals.

[0106] According to example embodiments described with reference to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, when the terminal device is configured with LP-WUS relaxation configuration, and when the terminal device enters LP-WUS mode, the terminal device applies network configured relaxation factor to serving and / or neighboring cell measurements. The terminal device modifies its measurement behavior according to the LP-WUS relaxation configuration. In this way, the network may apply a proper relaxation factor in relation to other parameters, such as DRX cycle and LP-WUS entering / existing conditions. Thus, the network is able to avoid overly tight or overly relaxed measurements. For instance, in some cases the network may decide to configure the terminal device with relaxation factor 2 while in other cases the network may configure relaxation factor 64 to terminal device when the UE is static (or whatever relaxation factors).

[0107] FIG. 5 illustrates an example signaling flow 500 of measurement for low power mode according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the signaling flow 500 will be described with reference to FIG. 1 , for example, by using the terminal device 110, a serving cell 502 (such as the cell 102) and a neighboring cell 501 (such as a SCell) of the network device 120. In the following description, it is assumed that the terminal device 110 may include a main radio and a wake-up receiver, such as the main radio 210 and the LP-WUR 220 in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B.

[0108] The network device 120 may transmit (5005) a RRC connection release message to the terminal device 110. In some example embodiments, the RRC connection release message includes the configuration of relaxation factor. After receiving (5005) the RRC connection release message, the terminal device 110 is released to the RRCJDLE mode.

[0109] The network device 120 may transmit (5010) system information to the terminal device 110. After receiving (5010) the system information, the terminal device 110 reads SIB configuration. In some example embodiments, the system information may include the configuration of relaxation factor.

[0110] The serving cell 102 and cell 501 may transmit (5015, 5020) reference signals to the terminal device 110. The terminal device 110 may perform measurements on the reference signals. The reference signals may include one or more of: LP-SS, PSS or SSS.

[0111] The terminal device 110 may enter (5025) a LP-WUS mode. For example, if LP-WUS entry conditions are fulfilled, the terminal device 110 may enter (5025) the LP-WUS mode.

[0112] The terminal device 110 may apply (5030) the configuration of relaxation factor. The serving cell 102 and cell 501 may transmit (5035, 5040) reference signals to the terminal device 110. The terminal device 110 may perform relaxation measurements on the reference signals based on a relaxation factor obtained from the configuration of relaxation factor. The terminal device 110 may perform an MR relaxation or MR measurement. In an example, the terminal device 110 may enter MRrelaxation. In another example, the terminal device 110 may perform the MR measurement offloading to LR and / or LP-WUS.

[0113] The terminal device 110 may monitor an LP-WUS. For example, the terminal device 110 starts monitoring LP-WUS.

[0114] The network device 120 may transmit (5045) a LP-WUS. After receiving (5045) the LP-WUS, the terminal device 110 may determine (5050) whether the LP-WUS is for the terminal device 110. For example, the terminal device 110 may check if the LP-WUS is addressing the terminal device 110 in question. The terminal device 110 may stop the relaxation configuration following at this point or after the terminal device 110 has verified that the LP-WUS wakes the terminal device 110 up. The terminal device 110 may stop (5055) relaxation configuration following and goes back to legacy monitoring behavior. The terminal device 110 may then be in RRC_CONNECTED mode.

[0115] FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of an example method 600 implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, the first apparatus may be at the terminal device 110 in FIG. 1 .

[0116] At block 610, the first apparatus, from a second apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell.

[0117] At block 620, the first apparatus determines a target relaxation factor based at least on the configuration of relaxation factor.

[0118] At block 630, the first apparatus performs the measurement based on the target relaxation factor, based on a determination that the first apparatus is in a lower power wake up signal, LP-WUS, mode.

[0119] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: determining whether a radio condition of the first apparatus exceeds the first threshold; and based on a determination that the radio condition of the first apparatus exceeds or is equal to the first threshold, determining the first relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor.

[0120] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: based on a determination that the radio condition of the first apparatus exceeds or is equal to the first threshold, determining whether the radio condition of the first apparatus exceeds the second threshold; and based on a determination that the radio condition of the first apparatus exceeds or is equal to the second threshold, determining the second relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor; or based on a determination that the radio condition of the first apparatus is below the second threshold, determining the first relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor.

[0121] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: determining whether the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria; and determining the target relaxation factor based on the configuration of relaxation factor and the determination of whether the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria.

[0122] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: based on a determination that the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria, determining a third relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor.

[0123] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: based on a determination that the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria and the first apparatus is not at cell edge, determining a fourth relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor, the fourth relaxation factor being larger than the third relaxation factor.

[0124] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: based on a determination that the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria, thing first apparatus is not at cell edge and the first apparatus fulfills a time condition, determine a fifth relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor, the fifth relaxation factor being larger than the fourth relaxation factor.

[0125] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: determining the target relaxation factor based on a discontinuous reception configuration of the first apparatus.

[0126] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: determining the target relaxation factor based on a condition associated with the LP-WUS being fulfilled.

[0127] In some example embodiments, the condition comprises at least one of: a LP-WUS monitoring condition, a LP-WUS or LP-WUR relaxation condition, a LP-WUS or LP-WUR full offloading condition, or a LP-WUR reference signal, or a LP-WUR receiver type.

[0128] In some example embodiments, based on a determination that the first apparatus supports a variable relaxation factor capability, the configuration of relaxation factor comprises a plurality of relaxation factors.

[0129] In some example embodiments, the method 600 further comprises: determining, based on a first condition, a range of relaxation factor from a set of ranges of relaxation factor comprised in the configuration of relaxation factor; and determining, based on a second condition, the target relaxation factor from the range of relaxation factor.

[0130] In some example embodiments, the relaxation factor is an integer, or wherein the relaxation factor is in decimal value, or wherein the relaxation factor is in boolean value.

[0131] In some example embodiments, the configuration of relaxation factor is received via a radio resource control signaling or a broadcast signaling.

[0132] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device and the second apparatus is a network device.

[0133] FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of an example method 700 implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, the second apparatus may be at the network device 120 in FIG. 1.

[0134] At block 710, the second apparatus transmits, to a first apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell.

[0135] At block 720, the second apparatus receives, from the first apparatus, a measurement report indicating a measurement result of the measurement.

[0136] In some example embodiments, the configuration of relaxation factor comprises a first relaxation factor and a first threshold corresponding to the first relaxation factor.

[0137] In some example embodiments, the configuration of relaxation factor comprises a second relaxation factor that is larger than the first relaxation factor and a second threshold corresponding to the second relaxation factor.

[0138] In some example embodiments, based on a determination that the first apparatus supports a variable relaxation factor capability, the configuration of relaxation factor comprises a plurality of relaxation factors.

[0139] In some example embodiments, the relaxation factor is an integer, or wherein the relaxation factor is in decimal value, or wherein the relaxation factor is in boolean value.

[0140] In some example embodiments, the configuration of relaxation factor is transmitted via a radio resource control signaling or a broadcast signaling.

[0141] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device and the second apparatus is a network device.

[0142] FIG. 8 shows a flowchart of an example method 800 implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, the first apparatus may be at the terminal device 110 in FIG. 1 .

[0143] At block 810, the first apparatus receives, from a second apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell.

[0144] At block 820, the first apparatus receives, from the second apparatus, an indication regarding an activation or deactivation of the configuration of relaxation factor.

[0145] At block 830, the first apparatus performs the measurement based on the indication, based on a determination that the first apparatus is in a lower power wake up signal, LP-WUS, mode.

[0146] In some example embodiments, the method 800 further includes based on a determination that the indication indicates the deactivation of the configuration of relaxation factor, performing the measurement without relaxation factor.

[0147] In some example embodiments, the method 800 further includes based on a determination that the indication indicates the activation of the configuration of relaxation factor, determining a target relaxation factor based at least on the configuration of relaxation factor; and performing the measurement based on the target relaxation factor.

[0148] In some example embodiments, the method 800 further includes determining whether thefirst apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria; and determining the target relaxation factor based on the configuration of relaxation factor and the determination of whether the first apparatus fulfills low- mobility criteria.

[0149] In some example embodiments, the method 800 further includes based on a determination that the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria, determining a candidate relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor.

[0150] In some example embodiments, the method 800 further includes based on a determination that the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria and the first apparatus is not at cell edge, determining another candidate relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor, the other candidate relaxation factor being larger than the candidate relaxation factor.

[0151] In some example embodiments, the method 800 further includes based on a determination that the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria, thing first apparatus is not at cell edge and the first apparatus fulfills a time condition, determine a further candidate relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor, the further candidate relaxation factor being larger than the other candidate relaxation factor.

[0152] In some example embodiments, the method 800 further includes determining the target relaxation factor based on a discontinuous reception configuration of the first apparatus.

[0153] In some example embodiments, the method 800 further includes determining the target relaxation factor based on a condition associated with the LP-WUS being fulfilled.

[0154] In some example embodiments, the condition comprises at least one of: a LP-WUS monitoring condition, a LP-WUS or LP-WUR relaxation condition, or a LP-WUS or LP-WUR full offloading condition a LP-WUR reference signal, or a LP-WUR receiver type.

[0155] In some example embodiments, the method 800 further includes determining, based on a first condition, a range of relaxation factor from a set of ranges of relaxation factor comprised in the configuration of relaxation factor; and determining, based on a second condition, the target relaxation factor from the range of relaxation factor.

[0156] In some example embodiments, the method 800 further includes based on a determination that the indication comprises an updated configuration of relaxation factor, determining an updated target relaxation factor based at least on the updated configuration of relaxation factor; and performing the measurement based on the updated target relaxation factor.

[0157] In some example embodiments, the relaxation factor is an integer, or wherein the relaxation factor is in decimal value, or wherein the relaxation factor is in boolean value.

[0158] In some example embodiments, the indication is received in one of the followings: a radio resource control message, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or downlink control information.

[0159] In some example embodiments, the configuration of relaxation factor is received via a radio resource control signaling or a broadcast signaling.

[0160] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device and the second apparatus is a network device.

[0161] FIG. 9 shows a flowchart of an example method 900 implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, the second apparatus may be at the network device 120 in FIG. 1.

[0162] At block 910, the second apparatus transmits, to a first apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell.

[0163] At block 920, the second apparatus transmits, to the second apparatus, an indication regarding an activation or deactivation of the configuration of relaxation factor.

[0164] In some example embodiments, the indication comprises an updated configuration of relaxation factor.

[0165] In some example embodiments, the relaxation factor is an integer, or wherein the relaxation factor is in decimal value, or wherein the relaxation factor is in boolean value.

[0166] In some example embodiments, the indication is transmitted in one of the followings: a radio resource control message, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or downlink control information.

[0167] In some example embodiments, the configuration of relaxation factor is transmitted via a radio resource control signaling or a broadcast signaling.

[0168] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device and the second apparatus is a network device.

[0169] In some example embodiments, a first apparatus capable of performing any of the method 600 (for example, the terminal device 110 in FIG. 1 ) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 600. 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 terminal device 110 in FIG. 1 .

[0170] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a second apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; means for determining a target relaxation factor based at least on the configuration of relaxation factor; and means for performing the measurement based on the target relaxation factor, based on a determination that the first apparatus is in a lower power wake up signal, LP-WUS, mode.

[0171] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining whether a radio condition of the first apparatus exceeds the first threshold; and means for based on adetermination that the radio condition of the first apparatus exceeds or is equal to the first threshold, determining the first relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor.

[0172] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for based on a determination that the radio condition of the first apparatus exceeds or is equal to the first threshold, determining whether the radio condition of the first apparatus exceeds the second threshold; and means for based on a determination that the radio condition of the first apparatus exceeds or is equal to the second threshold, determining the second relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor; or means for based on a determination that the radio condition of the first apparatus is below the second threshold, determining the first relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor.

[0173] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining whether the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria; and means for determining the target relaxation factor based on the configuration of relaxation factor and the determination of whether the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria.

[0174] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for based on a determination that the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria, determining a third relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor.

[0175] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for based on a determination that the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria and the first apparatus is not at cell edge, determining a fourth relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor, the fourth relaxation factor being larger than the third relaxation factor.

[0176] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for based on a determination that the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria, thing first apparatus is not at cell edge and the first apparatus fulfills a time condition, determine a fifth relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor, the fifth relaxation factor being larger than the fourth relaxation factor.

[0177] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining the target relaxation factor based on a discontinuous reception configuration of the first apparatus.

[0178] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining the target relaxation factor based on a condition associated with the LP-WUS being fulfilled.

[0179] In some example embodiments, the condition comprises at least one of: a LP-WUS monitoring condition, a LP-WUS or LP-WUR relaxation condition, a LP-WUS or LP-WUR full offloading condition, or a LP-WUR reference signal, or a LP-WUR receiver type.

[0180] In some example embodiments, based on a determination that the first apparatus supports a variable relaxation factor capability, the configuration of relaxation factor comprises a plurality of relaxation factors.

[0181] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining,based on a first condition, a range of relaxation factor from a set of ranges of relaxation factor comprised in the configuration of relaxation factor; and means for determining, based on a second condition, the target relaxation factor from the range of relaxation factor.

[0182] In some example embodiments, the relaxation factor is an integer, or wherein the relaxation factor is in decimal value, or wherein the relaxation factor is in boolean value.

[0183] In some example embodiments, the configuration of relaxation factor is received via a radio resource control signaling or a broadcast signaling.

[0184] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device and the second apparatus is a network device.

[0185] In some example embodiments, a second apparatus capable of performing any of the method 700 (for example, the network device 120 in FIG. 1) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 700. 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 network device 120 in FIG. 1 .

[0186] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; and means for receiving, from the first apparatus, a measurement report indicating a measurement result of the measurement.

[0187] In some example embodiments, the configuration of relaxation factor comprises a first relaxation factor and a first threshold corresponding to the first relaxation factor.

[0188] In some example embodiments, the configuration of relaxation factor comprises a second relaxation factor that is larger than the first relaxation factor and a second threshold corresponding to the second relaxation factor.

[0189] In some example embodiments, based on a determination that the first apparatus supports a variable relaxation factor capability, the configuration of relaxation factor comprises a plurality of relaxation factors.

[0190] In some example embodiments, the relaxation factor is an integer, or wherein the relaxation factor is in decimal value, or wherein the relaxation factor is in boolean value.

[0191] In some example embodiments, the configuration of relaxation factor is transmitted via a radio resource control signaling or a broadcast signaling.

[0192] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device and the second apparatus is a network device.

[0193] In some example embodiments, a first apparatus capable of performing any of the method 800 (for example, the terminal device 110 in FIG. 1 ) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 800. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, themeans may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The first apparatus may be implemented as or included in the terminal device 110 in FIG. 1 .

[0194] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a second apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; means for receiving, from the second apparatus, an indication regarding an activation or deactivation of the configuration of relaxation factor; and means for performing the measurement based on the indication, based on a determination that the first apparatus is in a lower power wake up signal, LP-WUS, mode.

[0195] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises: means for based on a determination that the indication indicates the deactivation of the configuration of relaxation factor, performing the measurement without relaxation factor.

[0196] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises: means for based on a determination that the indication indicates the activation of the configuration of relaxation factor, determining a target relaxation factor based at least on the configuration of relaxation factor; and means for performing the measurement based on the target relaxation factor.

[0197] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises: means for determining whether the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria; and means for determining the target relaxation factor based on the configuration of relaxation factor and the determination of whether the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria.

[0198] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises: means for based on a determination that the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria, determining a candidate relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor.

[0199] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises: means for based on a determination that the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria and the first apparatus is not at cell edge, determining another candidate relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor, the other candidate relaxation factor being larger than the candidate relaxation factor.

[0200] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises: means for based on a determination that the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria, thing first apparatus is not at cell edge and the first apparatus fulfills a time condition, determine a further candidate relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor, the further candidate relaxation factor being larger than the other candidate relaxation factor.

[0201] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises: means for determining the target relaxation factor based on a discontinuous reception configuration of the first apparatus.

[0202] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises: means for determining the target relaxation factor based on a condition associated with the LP-WUS being fulfilled.

[0203] In some example embodiments, the condition comprises at least one of: a LP-WUS monitoring condition, a LP-WUS or LP-WUR relaxation condition, or a LP-WUS or LP-WUR full offloading condition a LP-WUR reference signal, or a LP-WUR receiver type.

[0204] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises: means for determining, based on a first condition, a range of relaxation factor from a set of ranges of relaxation factor comprised in the configuration of relaxation factor; and means for determining, based on a second condition, the target relaxation factor from the range of relaxation factor.

[0205] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises: means for based on a determination that the indication comprises an updated configuration of relaxation factor, determining an updated target relaxation factor based at least on the updated configuration of relaxation factor; and means for performing the measurement based on the updated target relaxation factor.

[0206] In some example embodiments, the relaxation factor is an integer, or wherein the relaxation factor is in decimal value, or wherein the relaxation factor is in boolean value.

[0207] In some example embodiments, the indication is received in one of the followings: a radio resource control message, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or downlink control information.

[0208] In some example embodiments, the configuration of relaxation factor is received via a radio resource control signaling or a broadcast signaling.

[0209] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device and the second apparatus is a network device.

[0210] In some example embodiments, a second apparatus capable of performing any of the method 900 (for example, the network device 120 in FIG. 1) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 900. 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 network device 120 in FIG. 1.

[0211] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a first apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; and means for transmitting, to the second apparatus, an indication regarding an activation or deactivation of the configuration of relaxation factor.

[0212] In some example embodiments, the indication comprises an updated configuration of relaxation factor.

[0213] In some example embodiments, the relaxation factor is an integer, or wherein the relaxation factor is in decimal value, or wherein the relaxation factor is in boolean value.

[0214] In some example embodiments, the indication is transmitted in one of the followings: a radio resource control message, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or downlink controlinformation.

[0215] In some example embodiments, the configuration of relaxation factor is transmitted via a radio resource control signaling or a broadcast signaling.

[0216] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a terminal device and the second apparatus is a network device.

[0217] FIG. 10 is a simplified block diagram of a device 1000 that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 1000 may be provided to implement a communication device, for example, the terminal device 110 or the network device 120 as shown in FIG. 1. As shown, the device 1000 includes one or more processors 1010, one or more memories 1020 coupled to the processor 1010, and one or more communication modules 1040 coupled to the processor 1010.

[0218] The communication module 1040 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 1040 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 1040 may include at least one antenna.

[0219] The processor 1010 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 1000 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.

[0220] The memory 1020 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) 1024, 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) 1022 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

[0221] A computer program 1030 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 1010. The instructions of the program 1030 may include instructions for performing operations / acts of some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The program 1030 may be stored in the memory, e.g., the ROM 1024. The processor 1010 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 1030 into the RAM 1022.

[0222] The example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of theprogram 1030 so that the device 1000 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to FIG. 2 to FIG. 9. The example embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

[0223] In some example embodiments, the program 1030 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 1000 (such as in the memory 1020) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 1000. The device 1000 may load the program 1030 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 1022 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).

[0224] FIG. 11 shows an example of the computer readable medium 1100 which may be in form of CD, DVD or other optical storage disk. The computer readable medium 1100 has the program 1030 stored thereon.

[0225] 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 of embodiments 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.

[0226] 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.

[0227] 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 aprocessor 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.

[0228] 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.

[0229] 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 combination of the foregoing.

[0230] Although operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the 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. 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 sub-combination.

[0231] 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 to: receive, from a second apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; determine a target relaxation factor based at least on the configuration of relaxation factor; and perform the measurement based on the target relaxation factor, based on a determination that the first apparatus is in a lower power wake up signal, LP-WUS, mode.

2. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the configuration of relaxation factor comprises a first relaxation factor and a first threshold corresponding to the first relaxation factor, and wherein the first apparatus is caused to: determine whether a radio condition of the first apparatus exceeds the first threshold; and based on a determination that the radio condition of the first apparatus exceeds or is equal to the first threshold, determine the first relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor.

3. The first apparatus of claim 2, wherein the configuration of relaxation factor comprises a second relaxation factor that is larger than the first relaxation factor and a second threshold corresponding to the second relaxation factor, and wherein the first apparatus is caused to: based on a determination that the radio condition of the first apparatus exceeds or is equal to the first threshold, determine whether the radio condition of the first apparatus exceeds the second threshold; and based on a determination that the radio condition of the first apparatus exceeds or is equal to the second threshold, determine the second relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor; or based on a determination that the radio condition of the first apparatus is below the second threshold, determine the first relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor.

4. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first apparatus is caused to: determine whether the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria; and determine the target relaxation factor based on the configuration of relaxation factor and the determination of whether the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria.

5. The first apparatus of claim 4, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:based on a determination that the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria, determine a third relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor.

6. The first apparatus of claim 5, wherein the first apparatus is caused to: based on a determination that the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria and the first apparatus is not at cell edge, determine a fourth relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor, the fourth relaxation factor being larger than the third relaxation factor.

7. The first apparatus of claim 6, wherein the first apparatus is caused to: based on a determination that the first apparatus fulfills low-mobility criteria, the first apparatus is not at cell edge and the first apparatus fulfills a time condition, determine a fifth relaxation factor as the target relaxation factor, the fifth relaxation factor being larger than the fourth relaxation factor.

8. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first apparatus is caused to: determine the target relaxation factor based on a discontinuous reception configuration of the first apparatus.

9. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first apparatus is caused to: determine the target relaxation factor based on a condition associated with the LP-WUS being fulfilled.

10. The first apparatus of claim 9, wherein the condition comprises at least one of: a LP-WUS monitoring condition, a LP-WUS or LP-WUR relaxation condition, a LP-WUS or LP-WUR full offloading condition, a LP-WUR reference signal, or a LP-WUR receiver type.11 . The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein based on a determination that the first apparatus supports a variable relaxation factor capability, the configuration of relaxation factor comprises a plurality of relaxation factors.

12. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first apparatus is caused to: determine, based on a first condition, a range of relaxation factor from a set of ranges of relaxation factor comprised in the configuration of relaxation factor; anddetermine, based on a second condition, the target relaxation factor from the range of relaxation factor.

13. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the target relaxation factor is an integer, or wherein the target relaxation factor is in decimal value, or wherein the target relaxation factor is in boolean value.

14. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the configuration of relaxation factor is received via a radio resource control signaling or a broadcast signaling.

15. The first apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first apparatus is a terminal device and the second apparatus is a network device.

16. 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 to: transmit, to a first apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; and receive, from the first apparatus, a measurement report indicating a measurement result of the measurement.

17. The second apparatus of claim 16, wherein the configuration of relaxation factor comprises a first relaxation factor and a first threshold corresponding to the first relaxation factor.

18. The second apparatus of claim 17, wherein the configuration of relaxation factor comprises a second relaxation factor that is larger than the first relaxation factor and a second threshold corresponding to the second relaxation factor.

19. The second apparatus of claim 16, wherein based on a determination that the first apparatus supports a variable relaxation factor capability, the configuration of relaxation factor comprises a plurality of relaxation factors.

20. The second apparatus of claim 16, wherein the relaxation factor is an integer, or wherein the relaxation factor is in decimal value, orwherein the relaxation factor is in boolean value.21 . The second apparatus of claim 16, wherein the configuration of relaxation factor is transmitted via a radio resource control signaling or a broadcast signaling.

22. The second apparatus of claim 16, wherein the first apparatus is a terminal device and the second apparatus is a network device.

23. A method comprising: receiving, at a first apparatus and from a second apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; determining a target relaxation factor based at least on the configuration of relaxation factor; and performing the measurement based on the target relaxation factor, based on a determination that the first apparatus is in a lower power wake up signal, LP-WUS, mode.

24. A method comprising: transmitting, at a second apparatus and to a first apparatus, a configuration of relaxation factor that is used for a measurement on at least one of: a serving cell or a neighboring cell; and receiving, from the first apparatus, a measurement report indicating a measurement result of the measurement.

25. A computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus at least to perform the method of claim 23 or 24.

Images