Wireless device, network node, and methods performed thereby, for handling carrier aggregation

Abstract

A method, performed by a wireless device (130) operating in a wireless communications network (100), for handling carrier aggregation. The wireless device (130) sends (301), to a network node (110) operating in the wireless communications network (100), one or more indications. The one or more indications indicate information of one or more past instances wherein the wireless device (130) was in connected mode.

Description

[0001] WIRELESS DEVICE, NETWORK NODE, AND METHODS PERFORMED THEREBY, FOR

[0002] HANDLING CARRIER AGGREGATION

[0003] TECHNICAL FIELD

[0004] The present disclosure relates generally to a wireless device and methods performed thereby for handling carrier aggregation. The present disclosure also generally relates to a network node and methods performed thereby for handling carrier aggregation.

[0005] BACKGROUND

[0006] Wireless devices within a wireless communications network may be e.g., User Equipments (UEs), stations (STAs), mobile terminals, wireless terminals, terminals, and / or Mobile Stations (MS). Wireless devices are enabled to communicate wirelessly in a cellular communications network or wireless communication network, sometimes also referred to as a cellular radio system, cellular system, or cellular network. The communication may be performed e.g., between two wireless devices, between a wireless device and a regular telephone and / or between a wireless device and a server via a Radio Access Network (RAN) and possibly one or more core networks, comprised within the wireless communications network. Wireless devices may further be referred to as mobile telephones, cellular telephones, laptops, or tablets with wireless capability, just to mention some further examples. The wireless devices in the present context may be, for example, portable, pocket-storable, hand-held, computer-comprised, or vehicle-mounted mobile devices, enabled to communicate voice and / or data, via the RAN, with another entity, such as another terminal or a server.

[0007] The wireless communications network covers a geographical area which may be divided into cell areas, each cell area being served by a network node, which may be an access node such as a radio network node, radio node or a base station (BS), e.g., a Radio Base Station (RBS), which sometimes may be referred to as e.g., gNB, evolved Node B (“eNB”), “eNodeB”, “NodeB”, “B node”, Transmission Point (TP), or BTS (Base Transceiver Station), depending on the technology and terminology used. The base stations (BSs) may be of different classes such as e.g., Wide Area Base Stations, Medium Range Base Stations, Local Area Base Stations, Home Base Stations, pico base stations, etc... , based on transmission power and thereby also cell size. A cell may be understood to be the geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the base station or radio node at a base station site, or radio node site, respectively. One base station, situated on the base station site, may serve one or several cells. Further, each base station may support one or several communication technologies. The base stations communicate over the air interface operating on radio frequencies with the terminals within range of the base stations. Wireless communication systems in 3GPP

[0008] In 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE), base stations, which may be referred to as eNodeBs or even eNBs, may be directly connected to one or more core networks. In the context of this disclosure, the expression Downlink (DL) may be used for the transmission path from the base station to the wireless device. The expression Uplink (UL) may be used for the transmission path in the opposite direction i.e. , from the wireless device to the base station.

[0009] As a non-limiting example, a simplified wireless communication system may be considered such as that illustrated in Figure 1. The simplified wireless communication system depicted in Figure 1 comprises a UE 12, which communicates with one or multiple access nodes 13-14, which in turn may be connected to a network node 16. The access nodes 13-14 may be understood to be a part of a radio access network 10.

[0010] For wireless communication systems pursuant to 3GPP Evolved Packet System (EPS), also referred to as Long Term Evolution (LTE) or Fourth Generation (4G), standard specifications, such as specified in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 36.300 and related specifications, the access nodes 13-14 may be understood to typically correspond to an Evolved NodeB (eNB) and the network node 16 may be understood to typically correspond to either a Mobility Management Entity (MME) and / or a Serving Gateway (SGW). The eNB may be understood to be part of the radio access network 10, which in this case is the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), while the MME and SGW may be understood to be both part of the Evolved Packet Core network (EPC). The eNBs may be inter-connected via the X2 interface, and connected to EPC via the S1 interface, more specifically via S1-C to the MME and S1-U to the SGW.

[0011] For wireless communication systems pursuant to a 3GPP 5G System (5GS), also referred to as New Radio (NR) or 5G, standard specifications, such as specified in 3GPP TS 38.300 and related specifications, on the other hand, the access nodes 13-14 may typically correspond to a 5G NodeB (gNB) and the network node 16 may typically correspond to either an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) and / or a User Plane Function (UPF). The gNB may be understood to be part of the radio access network 10, which in this case is the Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN), while the AMF and UPF may be understood to be both part of the 5G Core Network (5GC). The gNBs may be understood to be inter-connected via the Xn interface, and connected to 5GC via the NG interface, more specifically via NG-C to the AMF and NG-U to the UPF.

[0012] To support fast mobility between NR and LTE and avoid change of core network (CN), LTE eNBs may also be connected to the 5G-CN via NG interface - User plane / NG interface - Control plane (NG-U / NG-C) and support the Xn interface. An eNB connected to 5GC may be called a next generation eNB (ng-eNB) and may be understood to be considered part of the NG- RAN. LTE connected to 5GC will not be discussed further in this document; however, it may be noted that most of the solutions / features described for LTE and NR in this document may be understood to also apply to LTE connected to 5GC. In this document, when the term LTE is used without further specification, it may be understood to refer to LTE-EPC.

[0013] Measurements

[0014] For various procedures in cellular networks, the UE may need to report measurements that the UE may perform on radio resources. For example, measurements on different channels, cells, etc. These measurements may be reported to the network, and the network may use the reported values to manage the UE, for example to perform mobility of the UE so that the UE may be handed over from a first radio resource, e.g., a first cell, to a second radio resource, e.g., a second cell.

[0015] In LTE and NR, the Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurement framework may be understood to be in general similar. In both of these frameworks, the UE may be configured with measurement events which may dictate when, based on which criteria, the UE may trigger sending a measurement report to the network. An example measurement event may be event A4, which may become fulfilled when a neighbor, that is, non-serving, cell may become better than a configured threshold. Another event may be event A5, which may become fulfilled when the Primary Cell (Pcell), or Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) becomes worse than threshold 1 and a neighbor cell becomes better than threshold 2.

[0016] In both LTE and NR, the events which may be used by the network may be understood to be specified in the 3GPP specifications, meaning that they may be understood to be to some degree hardcoded.

[0017] Performance of measurements may be understood to increase the latency of processes in a network that may rely on them.

[0018] SUMMARY

[0019] Certain aspects of the present disclosure and their embodiments address one or more of the challenges identified with the existing methods and provide solutions to these challenges or other challenges.

[0020] According to a first aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a method, performed by a wireless device. The wireless device operates in a wireless communications network. The method may be understood to be for handling carrier aggregation. The wireless device sends, to a network node operating in the wireless communications network, one or more indications. The one or more indications indicate information of one or more past instances wherein the wireless device was in connected mode.

[0021] According to a second aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a method, performed by the network node. The network node operates in the wireless communications network. The method may be understood to be for handling carrier aggregation. The network node obtains the one or more indications indicating the information of one or more past instances wherein the wireless device operating in the wireless communications network was in connected mode.

[0022] According to a third aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by the wireless device, configured to perform the method. The wireless device may be understood to be configured to handle carrier aggregation. The wireless device is configured to operate in the wireless communications network. The wireless device is configured to send to the network node configured to operate in the wireless communications network, the one or more indications. The one or more indications are configured to indicate the information of the one or more past instances wherein the wireless device was in connected mode.

[0023] According to a fourth aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by the network node, configured to perform the method. The network node may be understood to be configured to handle carrier aggregation. The network node is configured to operate in the wireless communications network. The network node is configured to obtain the one or more indications configured to indicate the information of the one or more past instances wherein the wireless device configured to operate in the wireless communications network was in connected mode.

[0024] By sending the one or more indications to the network node, the wireless device may enable the network node to then determine a set of cells for the wireless device to use to perform CA after a transition of the wireless device to connected mode from an idle or inactive state based on the one or more indications. This may be enabled to be performed, e.g., immediately after the state transition may be performed from RRC Idle / lnactive to RRC Connected, since the one or more indications indicating the information of the one or more past instances wherein the wireless device was in connected mode may enable the wireless device to refrain from having to perform additional measurements than those already performed in the one or more past instances, e.g., the last instances, and then having to send the additional measurements to the network node. Accordingly, by sending the one or more indications, the wireless device may enable a faster setting up of better CA cells, which may in turn result in higher throughput at the wireless device.

[0025] By obtaining the one or more indications, e.g., from the wireless device, the network node may be enabled to then determine the set of cells for the wireless device to use to perform CA after the transition of the wireless device to connected mode from the idle or inactive state, e.g., immediately after the state transition may be performed from RRC Idle / lnactive to RRC Connected, based on the one or more indications. This may be understood to be since the one or more indications indicating the information of the one or more past instances wherein the wireless device was in connected mode may enable the network node to refrain from having to wait for the wireless device to perform additional measurements than those already performed in the one or more past instances, e.g., the last instances, and then having to wait to receive the additional measurements from the wireless device. Accordingly, by obtaining the one or more indications, the network node may enable a faster setting up of better CA cells, which may in turn result in higher throughput at the wireless device.

[0026] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0027] Examples of embodiments herein are described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, according to the following description.

[0028] Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a simplified wireless communication system, according to existing methods.

[0029] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram depicting an example of a wireless communications network, according to embodiments herein.

[0030] Figure 3 is a flowchart depicting a method in a wireless device, according to embodiments herein.

[0031] Figure 4 is a flowchart depicting a method in a network node, according to embodiments herein.

[0032] Figure 5 is a signalling depicting a method in a wireless communications network, according to embodiments herein.

[0033] Figure 6 is a graphic representation illustrating simulation based outcomes on the importance of different features that may be used in predicting future Ml MO performance.

[0034] Figure 7 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an embodiments of a wireless device, according to embodiments herein.

[0035] Figure 8 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an embodiments of a network node, according to embodiments herein.

[0036] DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0037] As part of the development of embodiments herein, one or more challenges with the existing technology will first be identified and discussed.

[0038] Most UEs may be understood to support carrier aggregation (CA) and the operators may use this feature to enhance UE throughput and to reduce packet delay, e.g., via packet duplication. Setting up the correct candidates for CA is a non-trivial task. A network deployment may comprise multiple frequencies and each of those frequencies may have different beamforming capabilities on the network side. A UE may support only a subset of those frequencies and also the MIMO capabilities of the UE may be dependent on the combination of the frequencies that may be configured for the UE. Thus, achieving a higher throughput is desired, then an evaluation amongst the frequency and MIMO capabilities supported by the UE at the given location may have to be performed. This may be understood to require multiple measurements and understanding of how mobile the UE is etc.

[0039] Considering most of the data sessions may be of small bursts having small number of bursts, it may be understood to be beneficial to set up CA at a very early stage of a data session, e.g., as soon as the UE may come to Radio Resource Control (RRC) connected state. This may be understood to be since, if the CA is setup very early, then the network may be enabled to use the Secondary Cells (SCells) for sending even the small bursts related traffic sessions, which may then enable to offload the Pcell, which may otherwise have a larger load. However, this may be very difficult due to the measurement reporting procedures involved in setting up the CA configuration, which may be understood to require time in order to be performed. Thus, it may be understood to be necessary to find ways to aid the procedure for setting up good candidates for CA at the time of transitioning from RRC Idle / lnactive to RRC connected state.

[0040] Embodiments herein may be understood to address the problems identified with the existing methods and may be understood to relate to measurements and methods for enhancing carrier aggregation candidate selection. Particularly, embodiments herein may be understood to relate to enhancing an inactive UE context with information aiding in cell set selection.

[0041] The present disclosure may relate to two methods to address the problem mentioned previously, the first being a wireless device based method and the second being a network based method.

[0042] According to embodiments herein, either the wireless device or the network may keep track of one or more of the following information: time since a last instance of being in RRC Connected mode, mean Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) rank per configured CA carrier in the past instances of being in RRC Connected mode, MIMO rank variance per configured CA carrier in the past instances of being in RRC Connected mode, mean number of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the past instances of being in RRC Connected mode, variance in number of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the past instances of being in RRC Connected mode, etc...

[0043] In the UE based method, examples of embodiments herein may include additional information in a report and / or message sent by the wireless device to a network node.

[0044] In the network based method, examples of embodiments herein may include additional information in the wireless device context stored by a network node.

[0045] The above-mentioned methods may be used for the selection of the carrier aggregation candidates while sending the RRCReconfiguration message to a wireless device, especially the first RRCReconfiguration message that may be sent to a wireless device after the wireless device may have performed the state transition from RRC Idle / lnactive to RRC Connected. Some of the embodiments contemplated will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which examples are shown. In this section, the embodiments herein will be illustrated in more detail by a number of exemplary embodiments. Other embodiments, however, are contained within the scope of the subject matter disclosed herein. The disclosed subject matter should not be construed as limited to only the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art. It should be noted that the exemplary embodiments herein are not mutually exclusive. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments.

[0046] Figure 2 depicts two non-limiting examples, in panel a) and panel b), respectively, of a wireless network or wireless communications network 100, sometimes also referred to as a wireless communications system, cellular radio system, or cellular network, in which embodiments herein may be implemented. The wireless communications network 100 may be a 5G system, 5G network, or Next Gen System. In other examples, the wireless communications network 100 may be a newer system, e.g., a Sixth Generation (6G) system, with similar functionality. Yet in other examples, the wireless communications network 100 may additionally or alternatively, support other technologies such as, for example, Long-Term Evolution (LTE), e.g., LTE for Machines (LTE-M), LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), LTE Time division duplex (TDD), LTE Half-Duplex Frequency Division Duplex (HD-FDD), LTE operating in an unlicensed band, such as LTE Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA), enhanced eLAA (eLAA), further enhanced LAA (feLAA) and / or MulteFire. Yet in other examples, the wireless communications network 100 may further support other technologies such as, for example Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) TDD, Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) network, GSM / Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) Radio Access Network (GERAN) network, Ultra-Mobile Broadband (UMB), EDGE network, network comprising any combination of Radio Access Technologies (RATs) such as e.g. Multi-Standard Radio (MSR) base stations, multi-RAT base stations etc., any 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) cellular network, WiFi networks, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), or any cellular network or system. The wireless communications network 100 may support Machine Type Communication (MTC), enhanced MTC (eMTC), Internet of Things (loT) and / or NarrowBand Internet of Things (NB-loT). Thus, although terminology from 5G / NR and LTE may be used in this disclosure to exemplify embodiments herein, this should not be seen as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein to only the aforementioned system. The wireless communications network 100 may comprise a plurality of network nodes, whereof a network node 110, which may also be referred to as a first network node 110 is depicted in the non-limiting example of Figure 2. In some examples, such as that depicted in panel b) of Figure 1, the wireless communications network 100 may comprise a second network node 112 and a third network node 113. Any of the network node 110 and the second network node 112 may be a radio network node. That is, a transmission point such as a radio base station, for example a gNB, or any other network node with similar features capable of serving a user equipment, such as a wireless device, in the wireless communications network 100. In some examples, any of the network node 110 and the second network node 112 may be a distributed node, and may partially perform its functions in collaboration with a virtual node 114 in a cloud 115, as depicted for the network node 110 in the non-limiting example of panel b) in Figure 1. Any of the network node 110 and the second network node 112 may be directly connected to one or more core networks, e.g., to one or more network nodes, such as the third network node 113, in the one or more core networks.

[0047] Any of the network node 110 and the second network node 112, in some examples, may be, or comprise, a central unit (CU), e.g., a CU control plane (CLI-CP).

[0048] In some examples, the wireless communications network 100 may include an access network, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network, which may include one or more core network nodes, such as the third network node 113. The access network may include one or more access network nodes, such as any of the network node 110, the second network node 112 and the virtual node 114, e.g., which may be generally referred to as network nodes, or any other similar 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access nodes or non-3GPP access points. Moreover, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, a network node may not necessarily be limited to an implementation in which a radio portion and a baseband portion are supplied and integrated by a single vendor. Thus, it may be understood that network nodes may include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the wireless communications network 100 may include one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node may be understood to be a node in the wireless communications network 100 that may support an ORAN specification, e.g., a specification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization, and may operate alone or together with other nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any node in the wireless communications network 100, including one or more network nodes and / or core network nodes.

[0049] Examples of an ORAN network node may include an open radio unit (0-Rll), an open distributed unit (0-Dll), an open central unit (O-CU), including an O-CU control plane (O-CU- CP) or an O-CU user plane (O-CU-UP), a RAN intelligent controller, near-real time or non-real time, hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time control application, e.g., xApp, or a non-real time control application, e.g., rApp, or any combination thereof, the adjective “open” designating support of an ORAN specification. Any of the network node 110, the second network node 112, the third network node 113 and the virtual node 114 may support a specification by, for example, supporting an interface defined by the ORAN specification, such as an A1, F1, W1, E1 , E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaul management plane interface. Moreover, an ORAN access node may be a logical node in a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualization environment, in which one or more network functions may be virtualized. For example, the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platform orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an 0-2 interface defined by the O-RAN Alliance or comparable technologies.

[0050] The wireless communications network 100 may cover a geographical area, which in some embodiments may be divided into cell areas or service areas, wherein each cell area or service area may be served by a radio network node, although, one radio network node may serve one or several cells. The network node 110 may serve a plurality of cells. The plurality of cells served by the network node 110 may comprise a set of cells 120. This corresponds to the non-limiting example depicted in Figure 2. In other examples, however, one or more of the cells comprised in the set of cells 120 may be served by another network node. In some examples, any of the network node 110 and the second network node 112 may serve receiving nodes with one or more beams. In the non-limiting example of Figure 2, the network node 110 serves one or more beams 121 , 122, 123, depicted in Figure 1 as a first beam 121, a second beam 122, and a third beam 123. It may be understood that this is for illustration purposes and non-limiting. The network node 110 may serve more or fewer beams than those depicted in Figure 2. Instead of, or additionally to, beams, any of the network node 110 and the second network node 112 may serve one or more cells. Any of the first beam 121, the second beam 122, and the third beam 123 may be associated to cells on different frequencies and the coverage of each of these cells may differ due to the propagation limitation and / or beamforming capability limitation etc. The respective area of radio coverage of each of the first beam 121, the second beam 122, and the third beam 123 may correspond to a respective cell. In other examples, more than one beam may correspond to a cell. In the non-limiting example of Figure 2, the set of cells 120 comprises the first beam 121 and the second beam 122. It may be understood that this is for illustration purposes and non-limiting. In other examples, additional and / or other cells may be comprised in the set of cells 120. Similarly, in other examples, the set of cells 120 may comprise cells that are not beams.

[0051] Any of the network node 110 and the second network node 112 may be of different classes, such as, e.g., macro base station, home base station or pico base station, based on transmission power and thereby also cell size. Any of the network node 110, the second network node 112, the third network node 113 and the virtual node 114 may support one or several communication technologies, and its name may depend on the technology and terminology used.

[0052] In some examples, the network node 110 may be a core network node, such as, for example an MME or an SGW, e.g., in 4G, or an AMF or a UPF in 5G.

[0053] A plurality of wireless devices may be located in the wireless communication network 100, whereof a wireless device 130, is depicted in the non-limiting example of Figure 2. The wireless device 130 comprised in the wireless communications network 100 may be a wireless communication device such as a User Equipment (UE), e.g., 5G UE or nUE, which may also be known as e.g., mobile terminal, wireless terminal and / or mobile station, a mobile telephone, cellular telephone, or laptop with wireless capability, just to mention some further examples. The wireless device 130 may be, for example, portable, pocket-storable, hand-held, computer- comprised, or a vehicle-mounted mobile device, enabled to communicate voice and / or data, via the RAN, with another entity, such as a server, a laptop, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), or a tablet, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) device, goggles, a sensor, loT device, NB-loT device, device equipped with a wireless interface, such as a printer or a file storage device, modem, or any other radio network unit capable of communicating over a radio link in a communications system. The wireless device 130 comprised in the wireless communications network 100 may be enabled to communicate wirelessly in the wireless communications network 100. The communication may be performed e.g., via a RAN, and possibly the one or more core networks, which may be comprised within the wireless communications network 100.

[0054] The wireless device 130 may be configured to communicate within the wireless communications network 100 with any of the network node 110 and the second network node 112, over a respective link, e.g., a radio link, via any of the one or more beams 121 , 122, 123 or one or more cells. The network node 110 may be configured to communicate within the wireless communications network 100 with the second network node 112, over a first link 141 , e.g., a wired link or a radio link. The network node 110 may be configured to communicate within the wireless communications network 100 with the third network node 113, over a second link 142, e.g., a wired link or a radio link. The network node 110 may be configured to communicate within the wireless communications network 100 with the virtual node 114, over a third link 143, e.g., a wired link or a radio link.

[0055] Generally, all terms used herein are to be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the relevant technical field, unless a different meaning is clearly given and / or is implied from the context in which it is used. All references to a / an / the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc. are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. The steps of any methods disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless a step is explicitly described as following or preceding another step and / or where it is implicit that a step must follow or precede another step. Any feature of any of the embodiments disclosed herein may be applied to any other embodiment, wherever appropriate. Likewise, any advantage of any of the embodiments may apply to any other embodiments, and vice versa. Other objectives, features and advantages of the enclosed embodiments will be apparent from the following description.

[0056] In general, the usage of “first”, “second”, “third”, “fourth”, “fifth” and / or “sixth” herein may be understood to be an arbitrary way to denote different elements or entities, and may be understood to not confer a cumulative or chronological character to the nouns they modify, unless otherwise noted, based on context.

[0057] Several embodiments are comprised herein. It should be noted that the examples herein are not mutually exclusive. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments.

[0058] Embodiments of a method, performed by the wireless device 130 will now be described with reference to the flowchart depicted in Figure 3. The wireless device 130 operates in the wireless communications network 100. The method may be understood to be for handling carrier aggregation. The method may be understood to be computer-implemented.

[0059] In some examples, the wireless communications network 100 may support NR.

[0060] Several embodiments are comprised herein. In some embodiments all the actions may be performed. In some embodiments, one or more actions may be performed. It should be noted that the examples herein may be not mutually exclusive. One or more embodiments may be combined, where applicable. All possible combinations are not described to simplify the description. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments. A non-limiting example of the method performed by the wireless device 130 is depicted in Figure 3. Some actions may be performed in a different order than that shown in Figure 3. In Figure 3, optional actions are represented with dashed lines.

[0061] Action 301

[0062] In this Action 301, the wireless device 130 sends, to the network node 110 operating in the wireless communications network 100, one or more indications. The one or more indications indicate information of one or more past instances wherein the wireless device 130 was in connected mode. The network node 110 may be understood to be a radio network node, or a core network node, serving the wireless device 130.

[0063] Indicating the information may be understood as providing the information, implicitly or explicitly, and directly or indirectly, e.g., by providing other information that may enable to obtain, e.g., derive, the information.

[0064] An instance may be understood as an occasion in time associated to the wireless device 130 or an occasion associated to the status of a connectivity status of the wireless device 130, e.g., an instance wherein the wireless device 130 was in connected mode may be understood as an occasion of the wireless device 130 being in RRC Connected State.

[0065] In some examples, a ’’past” instance may be understood as a previous instance, e.g., wherein the wireless device 130 was in connected mode

[0066] In some examples, “past” instances may comprise all the previous instances, e.g., wherein the wireless device 130 was connected mode.

[0067] In some examples, “past” instances may comprise one or more previous consecutive instances, e.g., wherein the wireless device 130 was in connected mode.

[0068] The one or more past instances may be, e.g., one or more last instances, that is one or more immediately previous instances, e.g., the one or more consecutive immediately previous instances. The last instance may be understood to refer to the immediately previous instance with respect to a particular time.

[0069] Information of the one or more past instances may be understood as information pertaining to, relating to or about, the one or more past instances.

[0070] The one or more indications may be one or more measurements.

[0071] The wireless device 130 may send the one or more indications to the network node 110 by including them in a report and / or message sent by the wireless device 130 to the network node 110.

[0072] In one example, the wireless device 130 may include the one or more indications in a Mobility History Information Information Element (IE), which may be reported to the network node 110 using UElnformationRequest / UEInformationResponse messages.

[0073] In another example, the wireless device 130 may include the one or more indications in RRCResumeRequest and / or RRCSetupRequest messages.

[0074] In another example, the wireless device 130 may include the one or more indications in RRCResumeComplete and / or RRCSetupComplete messages.

[0075] The one or more indications may comprise one or more of the following indications.

[0076] In some embodiments, the one or more indications may comprise a first indication of a time since a last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode,

[0077] In some embodiments, the first indication may indicate a first measurement of one of the following three options. According to a first option, the first measurement may be of a first period of time between a first time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Connected mode to RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state, and a second time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode.

[0078] When this first measurement is large, then, after receiving the first indication, the network, e.g., the network node 110, or another network node to which the network node 110 may have forwarded the first indication, may interpret that any CA / Dual Connectivity (DC) configuration that the wireless device 130 may have had in the previous RRC Connected mode operation may be less relevant for the current RRC Connected mode operation. Thus, in an example implementation of CA configuration, the network node 110 may be enabled to use a weighing factor on whether to reuse the previous RRC Connected mode CA configuration. The weighing factor may be inversely proportional to the first period of time, that is, the time since the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode, as mentioned above. According to a second option, the first measurement may be of a second period of time between a third time the wireless device 130 sent a last Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) Service Data Unit (SDU) belonging to a first Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session to upper layers and the second time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode. Upper layers may be understood herein as layers that may be understood to be further up in relation to the PDCP layer.

[0079] When this first measurement is large, then the network, e.g., the network node 110, or another network node to which the network node 110 may have forwarded the first indication, may interpret that any CA / DC configuration that the wireless device 130 may have had in the previous RRC Connected mode operation may be less relevant for the current RRC Connected mode operation. Thus, in an example implementation of CA configuration, the network node 110 may be enabled to use a weighing factor on whether to reuse the previous RRC Connected mode CA configuration. The weighing factor may be inversely proportional to the second period of time, that is the time since the last instance of being in RRC Connected mode as mentioned above.

[0080] According to a third option, the first measurement may be of a third period of time between a fourth time the wireless device 130 received a last PDCP SDU belonging to the first PDU session to the upper layers and the second time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode.

[0081] When this measurement is large, then the network, e.g., the network node 110, or another network node to which the network node 110 may have forwarded the first indication, after receiving the one or more indications, may interpret that any CA / DC configuration that the wireless device 130 may have had in the previous RRC Connected mode operation may be less relevant for the current RRC Connected mode operation. Thus, in an example implementation of CA configuration, the network node 110 may be enabled to use a weighing factor on whether to reuse the previous RRC Connected mode CA configuration. The weighing factor may be inversely proportional to the time since the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode, as mentioned above.

[0082] In some embodiments, the first indication may be represented as a value.

[0083] In some examples, the first measurement may be represented as an actual value in milliseconds, seconds, minutes and / or hours.

[0084] In some embodiments, the first indication may be represented using a class of a plurality of classes. In some examples, the first measurement may be represented using multiple classes. For example, the time since the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be represented using a ‘low / medium / high’ class. The class- ow’ may be used to represent the time since the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode that may be lower than a first threshold, e.g., Thresholdiow. The class-'high’ may be used to represent the time since last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode that may be higher than a second threshold, e.g., another threshold such as for example, Thresholdhigh.

[0085] In some embodiments, the one or more indications may comprise a second indication of an average Ml MO rank per configured CA carrier in one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in the RRC connected mode.

[0086] An average may be understood herein as a mean.

[0087] The second indication may be a measurement, e.g., a second measurement. In one example, this second measurement may be the mean Ml MO rank that the wireless device 130 may have reported per configured carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. Here, the mean MIMO rank may be computed as the average of all the reported rank indicator values for a given carrier frequency in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode.

[0088] According an option, the second indication may be represented as the value, normalized based on the duration of each of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in the RRC Connected mode. That is, the second measurement may be further normalized based on the duration of each of the instances the wireless device 130 was in the RRC Connected mode.

[0089] In some embodiments, the second indication may be indicated with respect to a first number, e.g., ‘X’, of last units of time of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. In an example, this second measurement may be the mean Ml MO rank that the wireless device 130 may have reported per configured carrier in the last ‘X’ ms of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. Here, the mean MIMO rank may be computed as the average of all the reported rank indicator values for a given carrier frequency in the last X ms of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode.

[0090] In the above examples, the past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the measurement definition.

[0091] According to a second option, the second indication may be indicated with respect to only the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. That is, only the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered.

[0092] According to a third option, the second indication may be indicated with respect to a second number, e.g., ‘N’, of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. In some examples, up to past ‘N’ instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the second measurement computation.

[0093] In the above examples, the past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the second measurement definition.

[0094] According to a fourth option, the second indication may be indicated with respect to a third number, e.g., ‘Y’, of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode wherein the wireless device 130 had an amount of data transmitted exceeding a threshold. In some examples, only those past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the measurement computation wherein the wireless device 130 may have had at least W MB of data transmitted and / or received. The advantage of considering only those instances wherein the wireless device 130 may have had at least W MB of data transmitted / received may be understood to be that the network node that may have been serving the wireless device 130 during those instances, e.g., the network node 110, may have had enough time to find optimal MIMO configurations and may thus represent a good indicator for the past channel quality.

[0095] According to a fifth option, the second indication may be indicated with respect to a fourth number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode in a fourth period of time passed since a current time. That is, in some examples, only those past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered which may be within the past ‘Z’ ms of the current time. The advantage of considering only those instances which may be within the past Z ms of the current time may be that those instances may be understood to represent the latest MIMO configurations and thus represent a good indicator for the latest channel quality.

[0096] In some embodiments, the second indication may be represented as a value. In some examples, this second measurement may be represented as an actual value in decimal values or rounded integer values of the reported MIMO rank values and in some other examples, this second measurement may be represented using multiple classes. In some embodiments, the second indication may be represented using a class of a plurality of classes. For example, the second measurement may be represented using ‘low / medium / high’ class. The class-low’ may be used to represent the mean MIMO rank reported per carrier frequency that may be lower than a threshold, e.g., the first threshold such as Thresholdiow. The class- ‘high’ may be used to represent the mean MIMO rank reported per carrier frequency that may be higher than a threshold, e.g., the second threshold such as Thresholdhigh.

[0097] When the second measurement is large for a given carrier frequency, then the network node 110 may interpret that any CA / DC configuration for that carrier in the previous RRC Connected mode operation may be more relevant for the current RRC Connected mode operation. Thus, in an example implementation of CA configuration, the network node 110 may be enabled to use a weighing factor on whether to reuse the previous RRC Connected mode CA configuration. The weighing factor may be directly proportional to the mean MIMO rank measurement as mentioned above. In some embodiments, the one or more indications may comprise a third indication of a MIMO rank variance per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode,

[0098] The third indication may be a measurement, e.g., a third measurement. In one example, this third measurement may be the variance in the MIMO rank that the wireless device 130 may have reported per configured carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. Here, the variance in the MIMO rank may be computed over all the reported rank indicator values for a given carrier frequency in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode.

[0099] The third indication may be represented as a value, e.g., an actual value in decimal values or rounded integer values of the variance for the reported MIMO rank values.

[0100] According an option, the third indication may be represented as the value, normalized based on the duration of each of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in the RRC Connected mode. That is, the third measurement may be further normalized based on the duration of each of the instances the wireless device 130 was in the RRC Connected mode.

[0101] In some embodiments, the third indication may be indicated with respect to the first number, e.g., ‘X’, of last units of time of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode.

[0102] In one example, this third measurement may be the variance in the MIMO rank that the wireless device 130 may have reported per configured carrier in the last X ms of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. Here, the variance in the MIMO rank may be computed over all the reported rank indicator values for a given carrier frequency in the last X ms of the past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode.

[0103] In the above examples, the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the measurement definition. According to an option, the third indication may be indicated with respect to only the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. According to another option, the third indication may be indicated with respect to the second number, e.g., ‘N’, of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. In some examples, only the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered and in some other examples, up to past ‘N’ instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the measurement computation.

[0104] In the above examples, the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the measurement definition. According to another option, the third indication may be indicated with respect to the third number, e.g., ‘Y’, of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode wherein the wireless device 130 had the amount of data transmitted exceeding the threshold. In some examples, only those past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the measurement computation wherein the wireless device 130 had at least W MB of data transmitted / received. The advantage of considering only those instances wherein the wireless device 130 had at least W MB of data transmitted / received may be understood to be that those instances may have had enough time to find optimal MIMO configurations and may thus represent a good indicator for the past channel quality.

[0105] In the above examples, the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the measurement definition. According to an option, the third indication may be indicated with respect to the fourth number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode in the fourth period of time passed since the current time. In some examples, only those past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered which may be within the past ‘Z’ ms of the current time. The advantage of considering only those instances which may be within the past Z ms of the current time may be understood to be that those instances may represent the latest MIMO configurations and thus represent a good indicator of the latest channel quality.

[0106] In some embodiments, the third indication may be represented using a class of the plurality of classes. In some examples, the third measurement may be represented as an actual value in decimal values or rounded integer values of the variance for the reported MIMO rank values and in some other examples, this measurement may be represented using multiple classes. For example, it may be represented using ‘low / medium / high’ class. The class-low’ may be used to represent the variance in the MIMO rank reported per carrier frequency that may be lower than a threshold, e.g., the first threshold, such as Thresholdiow. The class-'high’ may be used to represent the variance in the MIMO rank reported per carrier frequency that may be higher than a threshold, e.g., the second threshold such as Thresholdhigh.

[0107] When this measurement is large for a given carrier frequency, then the network node 110 may interpret that any CA / DC configuration for that carrier in the previous RRC Connected mode operation may be less relevant for the current RRC Connected mode operation due to the possible large fluctuations in the reported MIMO ranks. Thus, in an example implementation of CA configuration, the network node 110 may use a weighing factor on whether to reuse the previous RRC Connected mode CA configuration wherein the weighing factor may be inversely proportional to the variance in the MIMO rank measurement as mentioned above.

[0108] In some embodiments, the one or more indications may comprise a fourth indication of a number, that is, a fifth number, of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode. The fifth number may be a mean number of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode

[0109] The fourth indication may be a measurement, e.g., a fourth measurement. In one example, this fourth measurement may be the mean number of configured MIMO layers per configured carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. Here, the mean number of MIMO layers may be computed as the average of all the configured number of MIMO layers for a given carrier frequency in the second number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. This fourth measurement may be further normalized based on the duration of each of the one or more instances the wireless device 130 was in the RRC Connected mode.

[0110] In some embodiments, the fourth indication may be indicated with respect to the first number, e.g., ‘X’, of last units of time of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. In another example, this fourth measurement may be the mean number of MIMO layers per configured carrier in the last X ms of the past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. Here, the mean number of MIMO layers may be computed as the average of all the configured number of MIMO layers for a given carrier frequency in the last X ms of the past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. In the above examples, the past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the measurement definition. According to an option, the fourth indication may be indicated with respect to only the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. According to another option, the fourth indication may be indicated with respect to the second number, e.g., ‘N’, of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. In some examples, only the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered and in some other examples, up to the past ‘N’ instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the measurement computation.

[0111] In the above examples, the past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the measurement definition. According to an option, the fourth indication may be indicated with respect to the third number, e.g., ‘Y’, of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode wherein the wireless device 130 had the amount of data transmitted exceeding the threshold. In some examples, only those past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered wherein the wireless device 130 may have had at least W MB of data transmitted / received may be considered in the measurement computation. The advantage of considering only those instances wherein the wireless device 130 may have had at least W MB of data transmitted / received may be that those instances may have had enough time to find optimal MIMO configurations and thus represent a good indicator for the past channel quality.

[0112] In the above examples, the past instances of being in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the measurement definition. According to another option, the fourth indication may be indicated with respect to the fourth number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode in the fourth period of time passed since the current time. In some examples, only those past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered which may be within the past ‘Z’ ms of the current time. The advantage of considering only those instances which may be within the past Z ms of the current time may be that those instances may represent the latest MIMO configurations and thus represent a good indicator for the latest channel quality.

[0113] According to an option, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be based on an UL or a DL MIMO configuration of the wireless device 130. In some examples, the fourth measurement may be performed based on DL MIMO configurations and in some other example the fourth measurement may be performed based on the UL MIMO configurations, and in yet other example the fourth measurement may be performed based on both UL and DL MIMO configurations. The fourth indication may be represented as a value, e.g., represented as an actual value in decimal values or rounded integer values of the configured number of MIMO layers.

[0114] In some embodiments, the fourth indication may be represented using a class of the plurality of classes. In some other examples, the fourth measurement may be represented using multiple classes. For example, it may be represented using ‘low / medium / high’ class. The class-low’ may be used to represent the mean number of configured MIMO layers per carrier frequency that is lower than a threshold, e.g., the first threshold, such as Thresholdiow. The class-'high’ may be used to represent the mean number of configured MIMO layers per carrier frequency that may be higher than a threshold, e.g., the second threshold, such as Thresholdhigh.

[0115] When this example results in ‘high’ class being mostly used for a given carrier frequency, then the network node 110 may interpret that any CA / DC configuration for that carrier in the previous RRC Connected mode operation may be more relevant for the current RRC Connected mode operation. Thus, in an example implementation of CA configuration, the network node 110 may then be enabled to use a weighing factor on whether to reuse the previous RRC Connected mode CA configuration wherein the weighing factor may be directly proportional to the mean number of configured MIMO layers measurement as mentioned above.

[0116] In some embodiments, the one or more indications may comprise a fifth indication of a variance in the first number of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode.

[0117] The fifth indication may be a measurement, e.g., a fifth measurement. In one example, this fifth measurement may be the variance in the number of configured MIMO layers per configured carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. Here, the variance in the number of configured MIMO layers may be computed over all the configured number of MIMO layers for a given carrier frequency in the past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode.

[0118] The fifth indication may be represented as a value, e.g., an actual value in decimal values or rounded integer values of the variance for the configured number of MIMO layers.

[0119] According an option, the fifth indication may be represented as the value, normalized based on the duration of each of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in the RRC Connected mode. That is, this fifth measurement may be further normalized based on the duration of each of the instances the wireless device 130 was in the RRC Connected mode.

[0120] In some embodiments, the fifth indication may be indicated with respect to the first number, e.g., ‘X’, of last units of time of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. In one example, the fifth measurement may be the variance in the number of configured MIMO layers per configured carrier in the last X ms of the past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. Here, the variance in the number of configured MIMO layers may be computed over all the configured number of MIMO layers for a given carrier frequency in the last X ms of the past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode.

[0121] In one example, the fifth measurement may be a number of times the configured number of MIMO layers changed in comparison with the previously configured number of MIMO layers on a given carrier. The fifth measurement may then computed be for a fixed time duration and used as a representation of the variance in the configured number of MIMO layers on that carrier. In some sub- examples, this may be represented using positive and negative values indicating whether the changes were in terms of increase in the number of configured MIMO layers or in terms of decrease in the number of configured MIMO layers respectively.

[0122] In the above examples, the past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the measurement definition. According to an option, the fifth indication may be indicated with respect to only the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. According to another option, the third indication may be indicated with respect to the second number, e.g., ‘N’, of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode. In some examples, only the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered and in some other examples, up to past ‘N’ instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the measurement computation.

[0123] In the above examples, the past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the measurement definition. According to a fourth option, the fifth indication may be indicated with respect to the third number, e.g., ‘Y’, of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode wherein the wireless device 130 had the amount of data transmitted exceeding the threshold. In some examples, only those past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered wherein the wireless device 130 may have had at least W MB of data transmitted / received may be considered in the measurement computation. The advantage of considering only those instances wherein the wireless device 130 may have had at least W MB of data transmitted / received may be that those instances may have had enough time to find optimal MIMO configurations and thus represent a good indicator for the past channel quality.

[0124] In the above examples, the past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered in the measurement definition. According to a fifth option, the fifth indication may be indicated with respect to the fourth number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode in the fourth period of time passed since the current time. In some examples, only those past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode may be considered which may be within the past ‘Z’ ms of the current time. The advantage of considering only those instances which may be within the past Z ms of the current time may be that those instances may represent the latest Ml MO configurations and thus represent a good indicator for the latest channel quality.

[0125] According to an option, the fifth indication may be based on the UL or the DL MIMO configuration of the wireless device 130. In some examples, the fifth measurement may be performed based on DL MIMO configurations and in some other example the said measurement may be performed based on the UL MIMO configurations and in yet other example the fifth measurement may be performed based on both UL and DL MIMO configurations.

[0126] In some examples, the fifth measurement may be represented as the actual value in decimal values or rounded integer values of the variance for the configured number of MIMO layers. In some embodiments, the fifth indication may be represented using a class of the plurality of classes. In some other examples, the fifth measurement may be represented using multiple classes. For example, it may be represented using ‘low / medium / high’ class. The class- ow’ may be used to represent the variance in the number of configured MIMO layers per carrier frequency that may be lower than the threshold, e.g., the first threshold, such as Thresholdiow. The class-'high’ may be used to represent the variance in the number of configured MIMO layers reported per carrier frequency that may be higher than a threshold, e.g., the second threshold, such as Thresholdhigh.

[0127] When the fifth measurement may be large for a given carrier frequency, then the network 110 may interpret that any CA / DC configuration for that carrier in the previous RRC Connected mode operation may be less relevant for the current RRC Connected mode operation due to the possible large fluctuations in the configured number of MIMO layers. Thus, in an example implementation of CA configuration, the network node 110 may use a weighing factor on whether to reuse the previous RRC Connected mode CA configuration wherein the weighing factor may be inversely proportional to the variance in the configured number of MIMO layer measurement as mentioned above.

[0128] Thus, according to the foregoing, in some embodiments, any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be indicated with respect to one of the following five options. According to a first option, any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be indicated with respect to the first number of the last units of time of the past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode.

[0129] According to a second option, any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be indicated with respect to only the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode.

[0130] According to a third option, any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be indicated with respect to the second number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode.

[0131] According to a fourth option, any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be indicated with respect to the third number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode wherein the wireless device 130 had the amount of data transmitted exceeding the threshold.

[0132] According to a fifth option, any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be indicated with respect to the fourth number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode in a fourth period of time passed since the current time.

[0133] Also, according to the foregoing, in some embodiments, any of the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be one of the following options.

[0134] According to a first option, any of the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be represented as a value.

[0135] According to a second option, any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be represented using a class of the plurality of classes.

[0136] According to a third option, any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be represented as the value, normalized based on the duration of each of the past instances the wireless device 130 was in the RRC Connected mode.

[0137] According to a fourth option, any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be based on an UL or a DL MIMO configuration of the wireless device 130.

[0138] By sending the one or more indications to the network node 110, the wireless device 130 may enable the network node 110 to then determine a set of cells for the wireless device 130 to use to perform CA after a transition of the wireless device 130 to connected mode from an idle or inactive state based on the one or more indications. This may be enabled to be performed, e.g., immediately after the state transition may be performed from RRC Idle / lnactive to RRC Connected, since the one or more indications indicating the information of the one or more past instances wherein the wireless device 130 was in connected mode may enable the wireless device 130 to refrain from having to perform additional measurements than those already performed in the one or more past instances, e.g., the last instances, and then having to send the additional measurements to the network node 110. Accordingly, by sending the one or more indications, the wireless device 130 may enable a faster setting up of better CA cells, which may in turn result in higher throughput at the wireless device 130.

[0139] Action 302

[0140] In this Action 302, wireless device 130 may receive, after the transition of the wireless device 130 to connected mode from the idle or inactive state, a sixth indication from the network node 110. The sixth indication may indicate the set of cells 120 for the wireless device 130 to use to perform CA. The received sixth indication may be based on the sent one or more indications.

[0141] By receiving the sixth indication, the wireless device 130 may be configured by the network 110 with a better set of CA cells immediately after the state transition may be performed from RRC Idle / lnactive to RRC Connected. The cells in the set of cells 120 may be understood to be better, than those that may be configured with existing methods, in terms, e.g., of achievable throughput of such cells for the wireless device 130. This may be understood to be since the set of cells 120 may have been determined based on the one or more indications indicating the information of the one or more past instances wherein the wireless device 130 was in connected mode, which may enable the wireless device 130 to refrain from having to perform additional measurements and then having to send the additional measurements to the network node 110. Accordingly, the wireless device 130 may enable a faster setting up of better CA cells, which may in turn result in higher throughput at the wireless device 130.

[0142] Embodiments of a method, performed by the network node 110 will now be described with reference to the flowchart depicted in Figure 4. The method may be understood to be for handling carrier aggregation. The network node 110 operates in the wireless communications network 100. The method may be understood to be computer-implemented.

[0143] In some examples, the wireless communications network 100 may support at least one of: NR and NB-loT.

[0144] Several embodiments are comprised herein. It should be noted that the examples herein may be not mutually exclusive. One or more embodiments may be combined, where applicable. All possible combinations are not described to simplify the description. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments. A non-limiting example of the method performed by the network node 110 is depicted in Figure 4. The detailed description of some of the following corresponds to the same references provided above, in relation to the actions described for the wireless device 130, and will thus not be repeated here. For example, the connected mode may be RRC connected mode.

[0145] Action 401

[0146] In this Action 401, the network node 110 obtains the one or more indications indicating the information of the one or more past instances wherein the wireless device 130 operating in the wireless communications network 100 was in connected mode.

[0147] The one or more past instances may be, e.g., one or more last instances.

[0148] The one or more indications may comprise one or more of: the first indication of the time since the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode, the second indication of the average MIMO rank per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in the RRC connected mode, the third indication of the MIMO rank variance per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode, the fourth indication of the number of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode, and the fifth indication of the variance in the number of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode.

[0149] In some embodiments, the first indication may indicate the first measurement of the one of: a) the first period of time between the first time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Connected mode to RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state, and the second time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode, b) the second period of time between the third time the wireless device 130 sent the last PDCP SDU belonging to the first PDU session to upper layers and the second time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode, and c) the third period of time between the fourth time the wireless device 130 received the last PDCP SDU belonging to the first PDU session to the upper layers and the second time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode.

[0150] In some embodiments, any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be indicated with respect to one of: a) the first number of last units of time of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode, b) only the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode, c) the second number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode, d) the third number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode wherein the wireless device 130 had the amount of data transmitted exceeding the threshold, and e) the fourth number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode in the fourth period of time passed since the current time. In some embodiments, any of the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be one of: represented as the value, represented using the class of the plurality of classes, represented as the value, normalized based on the duration of each of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in the RRC Connected mode, and based on the UL or the DL MIMO configuration of the wireless device 130.

[0151] In the network based method, embodiments herein may enable to include one or more of the measurements mentioned in the description of Figure 3 in the UE context stored at the network side when the wireless device 130 may be in RRC Inactive or RRC Idle mode. When the wireless device 130 may be in the RRC Inactive state, then the RAN node, e.g., the network node 110, as described in the next Action 402, or the second network node 112, may store the UE context and may include the said measurements in the UE context. Similarly, when the wireless device 130 is in the RRC Idle mode, then the third network node 113, e.g., CN node, may store the UE context and may include the said measurements in the UE context.

[0152] The measurements may be exchanged between different next nodes. For example, the third network node 113, e.g., the CN node, may include the said measurements in a message sent to the RAN node, e.g., any of the network node 110 and the second network node 112, any of which may be e.g., Central Unit Control Plane (CU-CP), at the time of setting up the connection. In another example, one RAN node, e.g., any of the network node 110 and the second network node 112, any of which may be e.g., CU-CP node, may include the said measurements in a message sent to another RAN node, e.g., any other of the network node 110 and the second network node 112, any of which may be e.g., another CU-CP, at the time of handover and / or RRC context fetch requests. In another example, one RAN node, e.g., any of the network node 110 and the second network node 112, any of which may be e.g., CU-CP, node may include the said measurements in a message sent to another RAN node, e.g., any other of the network node 110 and the second network node 112, any of which may be e.g., Distributed Unit (DU), upon receiving the RRC Resume Request or the RRC Setup Request messages.

[0153] In some embodiments, the obtaining 401 of the one or more indications may be by one of: a) calculating the one or more indications by the network node 110, and b) receiving the one or more indications from one of: i) the wireless device 130, ii) the second network node 112, wherein the second network node 112 may be a radio network node, and iii) the third network node 113, wherein the third network node 113 may be a core network node. Action 402

[0154] In this Action 402, the network node 110 may store the obtained one or more indications in a context of the wireless device 130. Action 403

[0155] In this Action 403, the network node 110 may determine, based on the obtained one or more indications, the set of cells 120 for the wireless device 130 to use to perform CA.

[0156] Determining may be understood as calculating, deriving, estimating or similar.

[0157] In some embodiments, the determining in Action 403 of the set of cells 120 may comprise the network node 110 applying a weighing factor inversely proportional to the time indicated by the first indication.

[0158] According to a first option, as explained earlier, when the first measurement is large, then the network node 110 may interpret that any CA / Dual Connectivity (DC) configuration that the wireless device 130 may have had in the previous RRC Connected mode operation may be less relevant for the current RRC Connected mode operation. Thus, in an example implementation of CA configuration, the network node 110 may use a weighing factor on whether to reuse the previous RRC Connected mode CA configuration. The weighing factor may be inversely proportional to the first period of time, that is, the time since the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode as mentioned above.

[0159] According to a second option, as explained earlier, when the first measurement is large, then the network node 110 may interpret that any CA / DC configuration that the wireless device 130 may have had in the previous RRC Connected mode operation may be less relevant for the current RRC Connected mode operation. Thus, in an example implementation of CA configuration, the network node 110 may use a weighing factor on whether to reuse the previous RRC Connected mode CA configuration. The weighing factor may be inversely proportional to the second period of time, that is, the time since the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode as mentioned above.

[0160] According to a third option, as explained earlier, when the first measurement is large, then the network node 110 interpret that any CA / DC configuration that the wireless device 130 may have had in the previous RRC Connected mode operation may be less relevant for the current RRC Connected mode operation. Thus, in an example implementation of CA configuration, the network node 110 may use a weighing factor on whether to reuse the previous RRC Connected mode CA configuration. The weighing factor may be inversely proportional to the time since the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode as mentioned above. Action 404

[0161] In this Action 404, the network node 110 may send, after a transition of the wireless device 130 to connected mode from an idle or inactive state, the sixth indication to the wireless device 130. The sixth indication may indicate the determined set of cells 120 for the wireless device 130 to use to perform CA.

[0162] Figure 5 is a combined signalling scheme and flowchart according to some embodiments herein. In Action 301 , the wireless device 130 sends, to the network node 110 operating in the wireless communications network 100, the one or more indications. The one or more indications indicate the information of one or more past instances wherein the wireless device 130 was in connected mode. In Action 401, the network node 110 obtains the one or more indications indicating the information of the one or more past instances wherein the wireless device 130 operating in the wireless communications network 100 was in connected mode. In Action 402, the network node 110 may store the obtained one or more indications in a context of the wireless device 130. In Action 403, the network node 110 may determine, based on the obtained one or more indications, the set of cells 120 for the wireless device 130 to use to perform CA. In Action 404, the network node 110 may send, after the transition of the wireless device 130 to connected mode from an idle or inactive state, the sixth indication to the wireless device 130. The sixth indication may indicate the determined set of cells 120 for the wireless device 130 to use to perform CA. In Action 302, wireless device 130 may receive, after the transition of the wireless device 130 to connected mode from the idle or inactive state, the sixth indication from the network node 110. The sixth indication may indicate the set of cells 120 for the wireless device 130 to use to perform CA. The received sixth indication may be based on the sent one or more indications.

[0163] Figure 6 is a graphic representation illustrating simulation based outcomes on the importance of different features that may be used in predicting the future Ml MO performance, particularly, the features described in relation to Figure 3 and Figure 4. Particularly, some of the features described in relation to Figure 3 and Figure 4, such as last session ranks and inter-session time, were checked for their importance using Machine Learning (ML) methods, particularly, using the random forest ML method. Other features such as Timing Advance (TA), serving cell, Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI), Pcell Reference Signals Received Power (RSRP), intra-site handover, recent handover, recent intra-site handover and mobility history were also checked. The serving cell may be understood to refer to either a locally unique identifier of the cell, e.g., the Physical Cell Identifier (PCI) or a Cell Global Identity (CGI), a globally unique identifier of the cell that may be currently serving a UE. The pre-coding matrix indicator (PMI) may be understood to refer to the PMI used by a network node to transmit data towards the UE in the serving cell. The intra-site handover may be understood to refer to a number of handovers between the cells belonging to the cells deployed at a same site. The recent-intra site handover, may be understood as a classifier that may indicate whether the last handover / reselection the UE may have performed may be an intra-site handover or not in e.g., the past ’X’ seconds. The recent handover may be understood as a classifier that may indicate whether the UE may have performed a handover / reselection in e.g., the past ’X’ seconds. The mobility history may be understood as a statistic of up to 16 cells wherein these 16 cells may be the ones that the UE may have used as PCell or for camping. The statistic may be understood to also include the time of stay in each of those 16 cells. The feature importance was measured with a mean decrease in impurity. A metric related to impurity may be importance, which may be used to measure feature importance in random forest models. The importance of a feature may be understood as the average decrease in impurity when splitting by that feature. A feature which correlates strongly with the class labels may thus have a high importance, since when splitting by that feature, the impurity may usually decrease by a large amount.. The feature importance were of radio frequency (RF) for the data set that was used in creating this feature importance table, which data set is referred to herein as D / weas.The measurements were performed in a carrier with a frequency (fc) of 3500 MHz, and during a Prediction horizon (th of 10 seconds. Based on the results, along with the mobility history, which may be understood to represent the past serving cells and the time of stay in these cells, the ranks of the last session may be deemed to be of the highest importance in predicting the future Ml MO ranks and may be understood to thus motivate either its storage in the UE context or to be reported to the network 110 by the wireless device 130.

[0164] Certain embodiments disclosed herein may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s), which may be summarized as follows. Embodiments herein, may be understood to enable that the network 110 may configure a better set of CA cells to the wireless device 130 immediately after a state transition may be performed from RRC Idle / lnactive to RRC Connected.

[0165] Figure 7 depicts an example of the arrangement that the wireless device 130 may comprise to perform the method actions described above in relation to Figure 3. The wireless device 130 may be configured to handle carrier aggregation. The wireless device 130 may be configured to operate in the wireless communications network 100.

[0166] In some examples, the wireless communications network 100 may be configured to support at least one of: NR and NB-loT.

[0167] Several embodiments are comprised herein. It should be noted that the examples herein are not mutually exclusive. One or more embodiments may be combined, where applicable. All possible combinations are not described to simplify the description. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments. The detailed description of some of the following corresponds to the same references provided above, in relation to the actions described for the wireless device 130 and will thus not be repeated here. For example, the connected mode may be configured to be RRC connected mode.

[0168] The wireless device 130 is configured to send, to the network node 110 configured to operate in the wireless communications network 100, the one or more indications configured to indicate the information of the one or more past instances wherein the wireless device 130 was in connected mode.

[0169] In some embodiments, the one or more indications may be configured to comprise one or more of: a) the first indication of the time since the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode, b) the second indication of the average MIMO rank per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in the RRC connected mode, c) the third indication of the MIMO rank variance per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode, d) the fourth indication of the number of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode, and e) the fifth indication of the variance in the number of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode.

[0170] In some embodiments, the first indication may be configured to indicate the first measurement of one of: i) the first period of time between the first time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Connected mode to RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state, and the second time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode, ii) the second period of time between the third time the wireless device 130 sent the last PDCP SDU belonging to the first PDU session to the upper layers and the second time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode, and iii) the third period of time between the fourth time the wireless device 130 received the last PDCP SDU belonging to the first PDU session to the upper layers and the second time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode.

[0171] In some embodiments, any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be configured to be indicated with respect to one of: a) the first number of last units of time of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode, b) only the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode, c) the second number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode, d) the third number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode wherein the wireless device 130 had the amount of data transmitted exceeding the threshold, and e) the fourth number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode in the fourth period of time passed since the current time.

[0172] In some embodiments, any of the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be configured to be one of: represented as the value, represented using the class of the plurality of classes, represented as the value, normalized based on the duration of each of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in the RRC Connected mode, and based on the UL or the DL Ml MO configuration of the wireless device 130.

[0173] In some embodiments, the wireless device 130 may be further configured to receive after the transition of the wireless device 130 to connected mode from the idle or inactive state, the sixth indication from the network node 110. The sixth indication may be configured to indicate the set of cells 120 for the wireless device 130 to use to perform CA. The sixth indication configured to be received may be based on the one or more indications configured to be sent.

[0174] The embodiments herein in the wireless device 130 may be implemented through one or more processors, such as a processing circuitry 701 in the wireless device 130 depicted in Figure 7, together with computer program code for performing the functions and actions of the embodiments herein. A processor, as used herein, may be understood to be a hardware component. The program code mentioned above may also be provided as a computer program product, for instance in the form of a data carrier carrying computer program code for performing the embodiments herein when being loaded into the wireless device 130. One such carrier may be in the form of a CD ROM disc. It is however feasible with other data carriers such as a memory stick. The computer program code may furthermore be provided as pure program code on a server and downloaded to the wireless device 130.

[0175] The processing circuitry 701 may be configured to, or operable to, perform the method actions according to Figure 3.

[0176] The wireless device 130 may further comprise a memory 702 comprising one or more memory units. The memory 702 is arranged to be used to store obtained information, store data, configurations, schedulings, and applications etc. to perform the methods herein when being executed in the wireless device 130.

[0177] In some embodiments, the wireless device 130 may receive information from, e.g., the network node 110, the second network node 112, the third network node 113, the virtual node 114, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100, through a receiving port 703. In some embodiments, the receiving port 703 may be, for example, connected to one or more antennas in the wireless device 130. Since the receiving port 703 may be in communication with the processing circuitry 701, the receiving port 703 may then send the received information to the processing circuitry 701. The receiving port 703 may also be configured to receive other information.

[0178] The processing circuitry 701 in the wireless device 130 may be further configured to transmit or send information to e.g., the network node 110, the second network node 112, the third network node 113, the virtual node 114, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100, through a sending port 704, which may be in communication with the processing circuitry 701, and the memory 702.

[0179] Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the processing circuitry 701 described above may comprise a combination of analog and digital modules, and / or one or more processors configured with software and / or firmware, e.g., stored in memory, that, when executed by the one or more processors such as the processing circuitry 701 , perform as described above. One or more of these processors, as well as the other digital hardware, may be included in a single Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or several processors and various digital hardware may be distributed among several separate components, whether individually packaged or assembled into a System-on-a-Chip (SoC).

[0180] The wireless device 130 may be configured to perform any of the Actions described in relation to Figure 3, e.g., by means of the processing circuitry 701 within the wireless device 130, configured to perform any of such actions.

[0181] Also, in some embodiments, different units comprised within the wireless device 130 may be configured to perform the different actions described above, implemented as one or more applications running on one or more processors such as the processing circuitry 701.

[0182] Thus, the methods according to the embodiments described herein for the wireless device 130 may be respectively implemented by means of a computer program 705 product, comprising instructions, i.e., software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processing circuitry 701, cause the at least one processing circuitry 701 to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the wireless device 130. The computer program 705 product may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 706. The computer- readable storage medium 706, having stored thereon the computer program 705, may comprise instructions which, when executed on at least one processing circuitry 701, cause the at least one processing circuitry 701 to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the wireless device 130. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium 706 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as a CD ROM disc, or a memory stick. In other embodiments, the computer program 705 product may be stored on a carrier containing the computer program 705 just described, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or the computer-readable storage medium 706, as described above. The wireless device 130 may comprise a communication interface configured to facilitate communications between the wireless device 130 and other network nodes or devices, e.g., the network node 110, the second network node 112, the third network node 113, the virtual node 114, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100. The interface may, for example, include a transceiver configured to transmit and receive radio signals over an air interface in accordance with a suitable standard.

[0183] In other embodiments, the wireless device 130 may also comprise a radio circuitry 707, which may comprise e.g., the receiving port 703 and the sending port 704. The radio circuitry 707 may be configured to set up and maintain at least a wireless connection with the network node 110, the second network node 112, the third network node 113, the virtual node 114, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100. Circuitry may be understood herein as a hardware component.

[0184] Hence, embodiments herein also relate to the wireless device 130 comprising the processing circuitry 701 and the memory 702, said memory 702 containing instructions executable by said processing circuitry 701 , whereby the wireless device 130 is operative to perform the actions described herein in relation to the wireless device 130, e.g., in Figure 3.

[0185] Figure 8 depicts an example of the arrangement that the network node 110 may comprise to perform the method actions described above in relation to Figure 4. The network node 110 may be understood to be configured to handle carrier aggregation. The network node 110 may be configured to operate in the wireless communications network 100.

[0186] In some examples, the wireless communications network 100 may be configured to support at least one of: NR and NB-loT.

[0187] Several embodiments are comprised herein. It should be noted that the examples herein are not mutually exclusive. One or more embodiments may be combined, where applicable. All possible combinations are not described to simplify the description. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present in another embodiment and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art how those components may be used in the other exemplary embodiments. The detailed description of some of the following corresponds to the same references provided above, in relation to the actions described for the network node 110 and will thus not be repeated here. For example, the connected mode may be configured to be RRC connected mode.

[0188] The network node 110 is configured to obtain the one or more indications configured to indicate the information of one or more past instances wherein the wireless device 130 configured to operate in the wireless communications network 100 was in connected mode.

[0189] In some embodiments, the one or more indications may be configured to comprise one or more of: a) the first indication of the time since the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode, b) the second indication of the average MIMO rank per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in the RRC connected mode, c) the third indication of the MIMO rank variance per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode, d) the fourth indication of the number of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode, and e) the fifth indication of the variance in the number of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC connected mode.

[0190] In some embodiments, the first indication may be configured to indicate the first measurement of one of: i) the first period of time between the first time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Connected mode to RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state, and the second time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode, ii) the second period of time between the third time the wireless device 130 sent the last PDCP SDU belonging to the first PDU session to the upper layers and the second time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode, and iii) the third period of time between the fourth time the wireless device 130 received the last PDCP SDU belonging to the first PDU session to the upper layers and the second time the wireless device 130 transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode.

[0191] In some embodiments, any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be configured to be indicated with respect to one of: a) the first number of last units of time of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode, b) only the last instance the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode, c) the second number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode, d) the third number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode wherein the wireless device 130 had the amount of data transmitted exceeding the threshold, and e) the fourth number of past instances the wireless device 130 was in RRC Connected mode in the fourth period of time passed since the current time.

[0192] In some embodiments, any of the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication may be configured to be one of: represented as the value, represented using the class of the plurality of classes, represented as the value, normalized based on the duration of each of the one or more past instances the wireless device 130 was in the RRC Connected mode, and based on the UL or the DL MIMO configuration of the wireless device 130.

[0193] In some embodiments, the network node 110 may be further configured to determine, based on the one or more indications configured to be obtained, the set of cells 120 for the wireless device 130 to use to perform CA. In some embodiments, the network node 110 may be further configured to send, after the transition of the wireless device 130 to connected mode from the idle or inactive state, the sixth indication to the wireless device 130. The sixth indication may be configured to indicate the set of cells 120, configured to be determined, for the wireless device 130 to use to perform CA.

[0194] In some embodiments, the determining of the set of cells 120 may be configured to comprise the network node 110 applying the weighing factor inversely proportional to the time indicated by the first indication.

[0195] In some embodiments, the network node 110 may be further configured to store the one or more indications configured to be obtained in the context of the wireless device 130.

[0196] In some embodiments, the network node 110 may be further configured to the obtaining of the one or more indications may be configured to be by one of: a) calculating the one or more indications by the network node 110, and b) receiving the one or more indications from one of: i) the wireless device 130, ii) the second network node 112, wherein the second network node 112 may be configured to be a radio network node, and c) the third network node 113, wherein the third network node 113 imay be s configured to be a core network node.

[0197] The embodiments herein in the network node 110 may be implemented through one or more processors, such as a processing circuitry 801 in the network node 110 depicted in Figure 8, together with computer program code for performing the functions and actions of the embodiments herein. A processor, as used herein, may be understood to be a hardware component. The program code mentioned above may also be provided as a computer program product, for instance in the form of a data carrier carrying computer program code for performing the embodiments herein when being loaded into the network node 110. One such carrier may be in the form of a CD ROM disc. It is however feasible with other data carriers such as a memory stick. The computer program code may furthermore be provided as pure program code on a server and downloaded to the network node 110.

[0198] The processing circuitry 801 may be configured to, or operable to, perform the method actions according to Figure 4.

[0199] The network node 110 may further comprise a memory 802 comprising one or more memory units. The memory 802 is arranged to be used to store obtained information, store data, configurations, schedulings, and applications etc. to perform the methods herein when being executed in the network node 110.

[0200] In some embodiments, the network node 110 may receive information from, e.g., the wireless device 130, the second network node 112, the third network node 113, the virtual node 114, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100, through a receiving port 803. In some embodiments, the receiving port 803 may be, for example, connected to one or more antennas in network node 110. Since the receiving port 803 may be in communication with the processing circuitry 801 , the receiving port 803 may then send the received information to the processing circuitry 801. The receiving port 803 may also be configured to receive other information.

[0201] The processing circuitry 801 in the network node 110 may be further configured to transmit or send information to e.g., the wireless device 130, the second network node 112, the third network node 113, the virtual node 114, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100, through a sending port 804, which may be in communication with the processing circuitry 801 , and the memory 802.

[0202] Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the processing circuitry 801 described above may comprise a combination of analog and digital modules, and / or one or more processors configured with software and / or firmware, e.g., stored in memory, that, when executed by the one or more processors such as the processing circuitry 801 , perform as described above. One or more of these processors, as well as the other digital hardware, may be included in a single Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or several processors and various digital hardware may be distributed among several separate components, whether individually packaged or assembled into a System-on-a-Chip (SoC).

[0203] The network node 110 may be configured to perform any of the Actions described in relation to Figure 4, e.g., by means of the processing circuitry 801 within the network node 110, configured to perform any of such actions.

[0204] Also, in some embodiments, different units comprised within the network node 110 may be configured to perform the different actions described above, implemented as one or more applications running on one or more processors such as the processing circuitry 801.

[0205] Thus, the methods according to the embodiments described herein for the network node 110 may be respectively implemented by means of a computer program 805 product, comprising instructions, i.e., software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processing circuitry 801 , cause the at least one processing circuitry 801 to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the network node 110. The computer program 805 product may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 806. The computer- readable storage medium 806, having stored thereon the computer program 805, may comprise instructions which, when executed on at least one processing circuitry 801 , cause the at least one processing circuitry 801 to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the network node 110. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium 806 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as a CD ROM disc, or a memory stick. In other embodiments, the computer program 805 product may be stored on a carrier containing the computer program 805 just described, wherein the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, or the computer-readable storage medium 806, as described above.

[0206] The network node 110 may comprise a communication interface configured to facilitate communications between the network node 110 and other network nodes or devices, e.g., the wireless device 130, the second network node 112, the third network node 113, the virtual node 114, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100. The interface may, for example, include a transceiver configured to transmit and receive radio signals over an air interface in accordance with a suitable standard.

[0207] In other embodiments, the network node 110 may also comprise a radio circuitry 807, which may comprise e.g., the receiving port 803 and the sending port 804. The radio circuitry 807 may be configured to set up and maintain at least a wireless connection with the wireless device 130, the second network node 112, the third network node 113, the virtual node 114, or another network node, device or structure in the wireless communications network 100. Circuitry may be understood herein as a hardware component.

[0208] Hence, embodiments herein also relate to the network node 110 comprising the processing circuitry 801 and the memory 802, said memory 802 containing instructions executable by said processing circuitry 801, whereby the network node 110 is operative to perform the actions described herein in relation to the network node 110, e.g., in Figure 4.

[0209] Generally, all terms used herein are to be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the relevant technical field, unless a different meaning is clearly given and / or is implied from the context in which it is used. All references to a / an / the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc. are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. The steps of any methods disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless a step is explicitly described as following or preceding another step and / or where it is implicit that a step must follow or precede another step. Any feature of any of the embodiments disclosed herein may be applied to any other embodiment, wherever appropriate. Likewise, any advantage of any of the embodiments may apply to any other embodiments, and vice versa. Other objectives, features and advantages of the enclosed embodiments will be apparent from the following description.

[0210] As used herein, the expression “at least one of:” followed by a list of alternatives separated by commas, and wherein the last alternative is preceded by the “and” term, may be understood to mean that only one of the list of alternatives may apply, more than one of the list of alternatives may apply or all of the list of alternatives may apply. This expression may be understood to be equivalent to the expression “at least one of:” followed by a list of alternatives separated by commas, and wherein the last alternative is preceded by the “or” term.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method performed by a wireless device (130), the method being for handling carrier aggregation, the wireless device (130) operating in a wireless communications network (100), and the method comprising:- sending (301), to a network node (110) operating in the wireless communications network (100), one or more indications indicating information of one or more past instances wherein the wireless device (130) was in connected mode.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more indications comprise one or more of:- a first indication of a time since a last instance the wireless device (130) was in Radio Resource Control, RRC, connected mode,- a second indication of an average Multiple Input Multiple Output, MIMO, rank per configured Carrier Aggregation, CA, carrier in one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in the RRC connected mode,- a third indication of a MIMO rank variance per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC connected mode,- a fourth indication of a number of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC connected mode, and- a fifth indication of a variance in the number of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC connected mode.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the first indication indicates a first measurement of one of:- a first period of time between a first time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Connected mode to RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state, and a second time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode,- a second period of time between a third time the wireless device (130) sent a last Packet Data Convergence Protocol, PDCP, Service Data Unit, SDU, belonging to a first Protocol Data Unit, PDU, session to upper layers and the second time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode, and- a third period of time between a fourth time the wireless device (130) received a last PDCP SDU belonging to the first PDU session to the upper layers and the second time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode.

4. The method according to any of claims 2-3, wherein any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication are indicated with respect to one of:- a first number of last units of time of the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode,- only the last instance the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode,- a second number of past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode,- a third number of past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode wherein the wireless device (130) had an amount of data transmitted exceeding a threshold, and- a fourth number of past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode in a fourth period of time passed since a current time.

5. The method according to any of claims 2-4, wherein any of the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication are one of:- represented as a value,- represented using a class of a plurality of classes,- represented as the value, normalized based on a duration of each of the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in the RRC Connected mode, and- based on an UL or a DL MIMO configuration of the wireless device (130).

6. The method according to any of claims 1-5, wherein the method further comprises:- receiving (302), after a transition of the wireless device (130) to connected mode from an idle or inactive state, a sixth indication from the network node (110), the sixth indication indicating a set of cells (120) for the wireless device (130) to use to perform CA, wherein the received sixth indication is based on the sent one or more indications.

7. A method performed by a network node (110), the method being for handling carrier aggregation, the network node (110) operating in a wireless communications network (100), and the method comprising:- obtaining (401) one or more indications indicating information of one or more past instances wherein a wireless device (130) operating in the wireless communications network (100) was in connected mode.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the one or more indications comprise one or more of:- a first indication of a time since a last instance the wireless device (130) was in Radio Resource Control, RRC, connected mode,- a second indication of an average Multiple Input Multiple Output, MIMO, rank per configured Carrier Aggregation, CA, carrier in one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in the RRC connected mode,- a third indication of a MIMO rank variance per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC connected mode,- a fourth indication of a number of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC connected mode, and- a fifth indication of a variance in the number of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC connected mode.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the first indication indicates a first measurement of one of :- a first period of time between a first time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Connected mode to RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state, and a second time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode,- a second period of time between a third time the wireless device (130) sent a last Packet Data Convergence Protocol, PDCP, Service Data Unit, SDU, belonging to a first Protocol Data Unit, PDU, session to upper layers and the second time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode, and- a third period of time between a fourth time the wireless device (130) received a last PDCP SDU belonging to the first PDU session to the upper layers and thesecond time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode.

10. The method according to any of claims 8-9, wherein any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication are indicated with respect to one of:- a first number of last units of time of the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode,- only the last instance the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode,- a second number of past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode,- a third number of past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode wherein the wireless device (130) had an amount of data transmitted exceeding a threshold, and- a fourth number of past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode in a fourth period of time passed since a current time.

11. The method according to any of claims 8-10, wherein any of the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication are one of:- represented as a value,- represented using a class of a plurality of classes,- represented as the value, normalized based on a duration of each of the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in the RRC Connected mode, and- based on an UL or a DL MIMO configuration of the wireless device (130).

12. The method according to any of claims 7-11 wherein the method further comprises:- determining (403), based on the obtained one or more indications, a set of cells (120) for the wireless device (130) to use to perform CA, and- sending (404), after a transition of the wireless device (130) to connected mode from an idle or inactive state, a sixth indication to the wireless device (130), the sixth indication indicating the determined set of cells (120) for the wireless device (130) to use to perform CA.

13. The method according to claim 12 and claim 8, wherein the determining (403) of the set of cells (120) comprises the network node (110) applying a weighing factor inversely proportional to the time indicated by the first indication.

14. The method according to any of claims 7-13 wherein the method further comprises:- storing (402) the obtained one or more indications in a context of the wireless device (130).

15. The method according to any of claims 7-14, wherein the obtaining (401) of the one or more indications is by one of:- calculating the one or more indications by the network node (110), and- receiving the one or more indications from one of: i. the wireless device (130), ii. a second network node (112), wherein the second network node (112) is a radio network node, and iii. a third network node (113), wherein the third network node (113) is a core network node.

16. A wireless device (130), for handling carrier aggregation, the wireless device (130) being configured to operate in a wireless communications network (100), and the wireless device (130) being further configured to:- send, to a network node (110) configured to operate in the wireless communications network (100), one or more indications configured to indicate information of one or more past instances wherein the wireless device (130) was in connected mode.

17. The wireless device (130) according to claim 16, wherein the one or more indications are configured to comprise one or more of:- a first indication of a time since a last instance the wireless device (130) was in Radio Resource Control, RRC, connected mode,- a second indication of an average Multiple Input Multiple Output, MIMO, rank per configured Carrier Aggregation, CA, carrier in one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in the RRC connected mode,- a third indication of a MIMO rank variance per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC connected mode,- a fourth indication of a number of configured Ml MO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC connected mode, and- a fifth indication of a variance in the number of configured Ml MO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC connected mode.

18. The wireless device (130) according to claim 17, wherein the first indication is configured to indicate a first measurement of one of:- a first period of time between a first time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Connected mode to RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state, and a second time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode,- a second period of time between a third time the wireless device (130) sent a last Packet Data Convergence Protocol, PDCP, Service Data Unit, SDU, belonging to a first Protocol Data Unit, PDU, session to upper layers and the second time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode, and- a third period of time between a fourth time the wireless device (130) received a last PDCP SDU belonging to the first PDU session to the upper layers and the second time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode.

19. The wireless device (130) according to any of claims 17-18, wherein any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication are configured to be indicated with respect to one of:- a first number of last units of time of the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode,- only the last instance the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode,- a second number of past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode,- a third number of past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode wherein the wireless device (130) had an amount of data transmitted exceeding a threshold, and- a fourth number of past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode in a fourth period of time passed since a current time.

20. The wireless device (130) according to any of claims 17-19, wherein any of the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication are configured to be one of:- represented as a value,- represented using a class of a plurality of classes,- represented as the value, normalized based on a duration of each of the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in the RRC Connected mode, and- based on an UL or a DL MIMO configuration of the wireless device (130).

21. The wireless device (130) according to any of claims 16-20, wherein the wireless device (130) is further configured to:- receive, after a transition of the wireless device (130) to connected mode from an idle or inactive state, a sixth indication from the network node (110), the sixth indication being configured to indicate a set of cells (120) for the wireless device (130) to use to perform CA, wherein the sixth indication configured to be received is based on the one or more indications configured to be sent.

22. A network node (110), for handling carrier aggregation, the network node (110) being configured to operate in a wireless communications network (100), and the network node (110) being further configured to:- obtain one or more indications configured to indicate information of one or more past instances wherein a wireless device (130) configured to operate in the wireless communications network (100) was in connected mode.

23. The network node (110) according to claim 22, wherein the one or more indications are configured to comprise one or more of:- a first indication of a time since a last instance the wireless device (130) was in Radio Resource Control, RRC, connected mode,- a second indication of an average Multiple Input Multiple Output, MIMO, rank per configured Carrier Aggregation, CA, carrier in one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in the RRC connected mode,- a third indication of a MIMO rank variance per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC connected mode,- a fourth indication of a number of configured MIMO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC connected mode, anda fifth indication of a variance in the number of configured Ml MO layers per configured CA carrier in the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC connected mode.

24. The network node (110) according to claim 23, wherein the first indication is configured to indicate a first measurement of one of :- a first period of time between a first time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Connected mode to RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state, and a second time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode,- a second period of time between a third time the wireless device (130) sent a last Packet Data Convergence Protocol, PDCP, Service Data Unit, SDU, belonging to a first Protocol Data Unit, PDU, session to upper layers and the second time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode, and- a third period of time between a fourth time the wireless device (130) received a last PDCP SDU belonging to the first PDU session to the upper layers and the second time the wireless device (130) transitioned from RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state to RRC Connected mode.

25. The network node (110) according to any of claims 23-24, wherein any of the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication are configured to be indicated with respect to one of:- a first number of last units of time of the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode,- only the last instance the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode,- a second number of past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode,- a third number of past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode wherein the wireless device (130) had an amount of data transmitted exceeding a threshold, and- a fourth number of past instances the wireless device (130) was in RRC Connected mode in a fourth period of time passed since a current time.

26. The network node (110) according to any of claims 23-25, wherein any of the first indication, the second indication, the third indication, the fourth indication and the fifth indication are configured to be one of:- represented as a value,- represented using a class of a plurality of classes,- represented as the value, normalized based on a duration of each of the one or more past instances the wireless device (130) was in the RRC Connected mode, and- based on an UL or a DL MIMO configuration of the wireless device (130).

27. The network node (110) according to any of claims 16-26 wherein the network node (110) is further configured to:- determine, based on the one or more indications configured to be obtained, a set of cells (120) for the wireless device (130) to use to perform CA, and- send, after a transition of the wireless device (130) to connected mode from an idle or inactive state, a sixth indication to the wireless device (130), the sixth indication being configured to indicate the set of cells (120), configured to be determined, for the wireless device (130) to use to perform CA.

28. The network node (110) according to claim 21 and claim 27, wherein the determining of the set of cells (120) is configured to comprise the network node (110) applying a weighing factor inversely proportional to the time indicated by the first indication.

29. The network node (110) according to any of claims 16-28 wherein the network node (110) is further configured to:- store the one or more indications configured to be obtained in a context of the wireless device (130).

30. The network node (110) according to any of claims 16-29, wherein the obtaining of the one or more indications is configured to be by one of:- calculating the one or more indications by the network node (110), and- receiving the one or more indications from one of: i. the wireless device (130), ii. a second network node (112), wherein the second network node (112) is configured to be a radio network node, and iii. a third network node (113), wherein the third network node (113) is configured to be a core network node.

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