Radio network node, user equipment, and methods performed therein for beam evaluation in a wireless communications network

Abstract

According to embodiments herein a method performed by a radio network node (12) may be provided for handling communication of a UE (10) in a wireless communications network (1). The radio network node obtains a capability indication indicating a capability of the UE (10) for simultaneous beam scanning and data reception. The radio network node configures the UE to evaluate one or more reception beams based on one or more data transmissions to one or more UEs served by the radio network node (12); and schedules a data transmission wherein data is transmitted to the one or more UEs.

Description

[0001] RADIO NETWORK NODE, USER EQUIPMENT, AND METHODS PERFORMED THEREIN

[0002] TECHNICAL FIELD

[0003] Embodiments herein relate to a radio network node, a user equipment (UE) and methods performed therein regarding wireless communication. Furthermore, a computer program product and a computer-readable storage medium are also provided herein. In particular, embodiments herein relate to handling communication, such as handling beam management, in a wireless communications network.

[0004] BACKGROUND

[0005] In a typical wireless communications network, UEs, also known as wireless communication devices, mobile stations, stations (STA) and / or wireless devices, communicate via a Radio Access Network (RAN) with one or more core networks (CN). The RAN covers a geographical area which is divided into service areas or cells, with each service area or cell being served by a radio network node such as an access node, e.g., a Wi-Fi access point or a Radio Base Station (RBS), which in some networks may also be called, for example, a NodeB, a gNodeB, or an eNodeB. The service area or cell is a geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the radio network node. The radio network node operates on radio frequencies to communicate over an air interface with the UEs within range of the radio network node. The radio network node communicates over a downlink (DL) to the UE and the UE communicates over an uplink (UL) to the radio network node.

[0006] A Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation (3G) telecommunication network, which evolved from the second generation (2G) Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). The UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) is essentially a RAN using Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) and / or High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) for communication with user equipment. In a forum known as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), telecommunications suppliers propose and agree upon standards for present and future generation networks and investigate, e.g., enhanced data rate and radio capacity. In some RANs, e.g. as in UMTS, several radio network nodes may be connected, e.g., by landlines or microwave, to a controller node, such as a Radio Network Controller (RNC) or a Base StationController (BSC), which supervises and coordinates various activities of the plural radio network nodes connected thereto. The RNCs are typically connected to one or more core networks.

[0007] Specifications for the Evolved Packet System (EPS) have been completed within the 3GPP and coming 3GPP releases, such as New Radio (NR), are worked on. The EPS comprises the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), also known as the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) radio access network, and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), also known as System Architecture Evolution (SAE) core network. E-UTRAN / LTE is a 3GPP radio access technology wherein the radio network nodes are directly connected to the EPC core network. As such, the RAN of an EPS has an essentially “flat” architecture comprising radio network nodes connected directly to one or more core networks.

[0008] With the emerging 5G technologies such as NR, the use of very many transmit-and receive-antenna elements may be of great interest as it makes it possible to utilize beamforming, such as transmit-side and receive-side beamforming. Transmit-side beamforming means that the transmitter can amplify the transmitted signals in a selected direction or directions, while suppressing the transmitted signals in other directions.

[0009] Similarly, on the receive-side, a receiver can amplify signals from a selected direction or directions, while suppressing unwanted signals from other directions.

[0010] To support the high quality-of-service requirements in 5G and beyond, wireless communication relies on various technologies such as multiple input multiple output (MIMO), beamforming and network densification. Also, high bands, e.g., Frequency range two (FR2), have been well adapted for 5G NR which provide large spectrum resources. Also, the interest in theFR3 band is increasing rapidly, and it is foreseen that sooner or later sub-THz bands, around 100-300 GHz, will be used for communications. Particularly, sub-THz is thought as a possible 6G feature by some companies and academia.

[0011] Multi-antenna techniques can significantly increase the data rates and reliability of a wireless communication system. The performance is particularly improved if both the transmitter and the receiver are equipped with multiple antennas, which results in a MIMO communication channel. Such systems and / or related techniques are commonly referred to as MIMO.

[0012] With the success of MIMO, it is expected that multi-antenna technologies will evolve in beyond-5G systems, either in a centralized or a distributed way. In a centralized case, the access points (APs) / UEs will be equipped with an even larger number of antennas. A distributed MIMO (D-MIMO) system, on the other hand, is a system withmultiple geographically distributed antenna panels, possibly with respective radio and processing units, where such panels jointly coordinate aspects of their transmissions (and receptions) in order to serve one or more UEs. One type of D-MIMO deployments is in terms of coordinating macro gNBs, as considered in 3GPP release (Rel)18 MIMO Working Item. Another type of D-MIMO deployments, widely considered as candidate 6G D-MIMO deployment, is dense localized deployments where several small-sized low-powered panels / nodes are densely deployed in a specific part of the cell requiring a capacity / reliability enhancement, e.g., in crowded parts of the macro cell area such as public squares or stadiums.

[0013] In the context of macro deployments, the D-MIMO panels and respective radio and processing units, are termed transmission and reception points (TRP). In the context of dense localized deployments, the D-MIMO panels, and respective radio and processing units, are termed access points (APs). The term “network node” may be used to cover all these types of nodes.

[0014] While equipping the network nodes by, e.g., higher number of antennas / processing capabilities improves the network performance, a large performance improvement is expected by using more advanced UEs. For this reason, multiple improvements have been specified or suggested for specification recently. For instance, • Equipping the UE with more antenna elements enables the UE to, in the DL, receive more physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) layers, provide additional beamforming gain, via spatial combining, and / or perform interference mitigation. For this reason, support for receiving up to 8 PDSCH layers per UE was introduced in NR Rel-15, sounding reference signal (SRS) antenna switching enhancements to support reciprocity-based DL precoding for UE with 6Rx or 8Rx chains, and up to 4Tx chains, was introduced in NR Rel-17. Furthermore, even though UEs typically have more reception (Rx) chains than transmission (Tx) chains, support for 8Tx UL transmission was introduced in NR Rel-18 for high-end UEs, e.g., an advanced customer-premise equipment (CPE) device for fixed wireless access (FWA) deployments.

[0015] • During MIMO scoping discussions in 3GPP for earlier releases of NR, multiple companies had proposed introducing support for a “Virtual UE”, i.e., where multiple devices belonging to one user are combined to a single virtual UE.

[0016] • Also, during the planning discussions for Rel-19, it has been suggested to support low-complexity 6Rx and 8Rx UEs, where the Rx chains are divided into receiveantenna port groups (RAPGs) and each RAPG is equipped with its own processing units and can receive a separate codeword.

[0017] Following this trend, it is quite probable that, as we move towards 6G, even more advanced UEs will be developed and specified in the standardization. Depending on the considered level of enhancement, such advanced UEs may be used in, e.g., cars, CPEs or mobile phones. This is particularly due to, e.g., the increase of interest on UE initiated processes, e.g., UE initiated beam measurement and report as to be specified in 3GPP Rel-19, and implementation of distributed artificial intelligence (Al) and / or machine learning (ML) in wireless networks which require enhancements on current UEs.

[0018] One possible enhancement for the UE architecture to be used in high bands can be seen in Fig. 1a. The described structure is proposed as a candidate UE beamforming architecture for sub-THz UEs, as described in FNP activity 358 - Transceiver Architectures for sub-THz report. Online:

[0019] https: / / erilink.ericsson.se / eridoc / erl / objectl d / 09004cffd333a90c?docno=GFTL-24:000586Uen&action=current&format=ppt12. The beamforming architecture is based on an antenna lens, which collimates the RF propagation and thus provides beamforming gain. For beamforming in a certain direction, only one antenna with associated power amplifier (PA) is used. The described architecture substitutes the phased array, where typically a large number of antennas and associated PAs are active at the same time. Proposed architecture consumes substantially less power than the phased array, e.g., one order of magnitude less power.

[0020] For the specific use of lens-based architecture as shown in Fig. 1a, the UE has a lens, a main receiver, an energy detector and a control unit which controls the operation between the main receiver and energy detector. The UE can have one main beam, and the main receiver receives the signals by switching to one of the antennas, associated with the main beam. Additionally, the energy detector can be connected to currently unused antennas, possibly in a cyclical (round-robin) fashion. This implies that the UE can switch through and evaluate other candidate beams at the same time as the reception in the main beam is ongoing. This also implies that the UE can perform beam scanning on the data signals. Particularly, the idle ports at the Rx lens (not receiving data) can be used to find a better beam than currently used one. Here, the idle ports (candidate beams) are scanned continuously and when, e.g., the received power of a candidate beam is higher than the power received by the current beam, the main Rx switches to the candidate beam. In such an architecture, which is of interest in high bands such as FR2 and sub-THz, the channel measurement is done on data signal, and there is no need for dedicated DL reference signal (RS) for determining the UE Rx beams.

[0021] In high frequency range (e.g., FR2), multiple RF beams may be used to transmit and receive signals at a gNB and a UE. For each DL beam from a gNB, there is typically an associated best UE Rx beam for receiving the signals sent from such gNB DL beam. The gNB DL beam and the associated UE Rx beam form a beam pair. Suitable beam pairs can be identified through a so-called beam management procedure in NR.

[0022] A DL beam may be identified by an associated DL reference signal (RS) transmitted in the beam, either periodically, semi-persistently, or aperiodically. The DL RS can be a Synchronization Signal (SS) and Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) block, also referred to as SSB, or a Channel State Information RS (CSI-RS). By measuring, e.g., all the DL CSI-RSs, the UE can determine and report to the gNB the best DL beam to use for DL transmissions. The gNB can then transmit a burst of DL-RS in the reported best DL beam to let the UE evaluate candidate UE RX beams.

[0023] Although not explicitly stated in the NR specification, beam management has been divided into three procedures, schematically illustrated in Fig. 1b.

[0024] P-1 : Purpose is to find a coarse direction for the UE using wide gNB TX beam covering the whole angular sector.

[0025] P-2: Purpose is to refine the gNB TX beam by doing a new beam search around the coarse direction found in P1.

[0026] P-3: Used for UEs that have analog beamforming to let them find a suitable UE RX beam.

[0027] P-1 is expected to utilize beams with rather large beamwidths and where the beam RSs are transmitted periodically and are shared between all UEs of the cell. Typically, RSs are used for P-1 are periodic CSI-RSs or SSBs. The UE then reports the N best beams to the gNB and, e.g., their corresponding RSRP values.

[0028] P-2 is expected to use aperiodic CSI-RS transmitted in narrow beams around the coarse direction found in P-1.

[0029] P-3 is expected to use aperiodic CSI-RSs repeatedly transmitted in one narrow gNB beam.

[0030] Fig. 1c illustrates one example of one set of narrow beams and one set of wide beams associated with different DL RSs. The wide beams could be used in a first periodic gNB TX beam management procedure (P-1) to find a coarse direction of the UE and the narrow beams can be used in a second gNB TX beam management procedure (P-2) inorder to find a narrow gNB TX beam that could be used for data transmission. The typical way to select beams for the P-2 procedure is to determine which of the wide beams that was best with regards to reference signal received power (RSRP) and the select the narrow beams that are confined within the angular coverage area of that wide beam, for example assume that wide beam WB1 was the best wide beam, then the beams for the P-2 procedure would be the narrow beams NB1-NB8.

[0031] SSB is a broadcast signal in NR that helps with for example providing initial synchronization, basic system information used for initial access and mobility measurements. The structure of SSB can be found in Fig. 1d. As can be seen, the SSB consists of one Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS), one Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS) and a Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH). An PSS and SSS part of the SSB is transmitted over 127 sub-carriers, where the sub-carrier spacing could be 15 / 30 kHz for below 6 GHz and 120 / 240 kHz for above 6 GHz.

[0032] For low frequencies, it is expected that each cell transmits one SSB that covers the whole cell while for higher frequencies several beamformed SSB is expected to be needed to attain coverage over the whole cell, see example in Fig. 1e. The max number of SSB per cell are: below 3 GHz=4, 3-6 GHz=8, above 6 GHz=64. The SSBs are transmitted in a SSB transmission burst which could last up to 5ms. The periodicity of the SSB burst is configurable with the following options: 5,10, 20,40,80,160 ms.

[0033] One alternative way to adjust the UE RX beam, instead of using CSI-RS for the P3 sweep, is to let the UE evaluate different UE RX beams during the periodic SSB transmissions. Since each SSB consists of four orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, a maximum of four UE RX beams can be evaluated during each SSB burst transmission. One benefit of using SSB instead of CSI-RS is that no extra overhead of CSI-RS transmission is needed. A chipset can determine UE RX beam based on SSB.

[0034] One drawback, however, with determining the UE RX beam based on SSB transmission is that an SSB only has one port (while CSI-RS can be transmitted with two ports), and hence only is transmitted over one single polarization, in each unique direction, which means that the UE most likely only will evaluate suitable UE RX beams for one polarization. In case the RSRP differs significantly for different polarizations there is a risk that a sub-optimal UE RX beam is chosen by the UE. Moreover, using SSB to let the UE determine its UE RX beam has been shown to be too slow, resulting in degraded performance for moving UEs.SUMMARY

[0035] As part of developing embodiments herein one or more problems have been identified. To maintain a suitable UE beam per UE in high frequency bands (FR2 and above), frequent UE specific UE beam sweep procedures, e.g., P3 as described herein, need to be performed by the network (base station), which creates a significant amount of downlink reference signal overhead.

[0036] An object herein is to provide a mechanism to handle beam management in an efficient manner in the wireless communications network.

[0037] According to an aspect the object is achieved, according to embodiments herein, by providing a method performed by a UE for handling communication, e.g., control signaling, in a wireless communications network. The UE transmits a capability indication indicating a capability of the UE for simultaneous beam scanning and data reception; receives a configuration indication indicating the UE to determine one or more reception beams based on one or more data transmissions to one or more UEs served by the radio network node. The UE evaluates one or more reception beams using the configuration indication.

[0038] According to another aspect the object is achieved, according to embodiments herein, by providing a method performed by a radio network node for handling communication of a UE in a wireless communications network. The radio network node obtains a capability indication indicating a capability of a UE for simultaneous beam scanning and data reception. The radio network node configures the UE to evaluate one or more reception beams based on one or more data transmissions to one or more UEs served by the radio network node and schedules a data transmission wherein data is transmitted to the one or more UEs. As an example, the radio network node may receive a report about the UE’s capabilities and may configure the UE to determine the appropriate DL Rx beam based on the data transmission to the one or more UE. The radio network node may then schedule data transmission to one or more UEs where the data is transmitted to the one or more UEs.

[0039] According to still another aspect the object is achieved, according to embodiments herein, by providing a radio network node, and a UE configured to perform the methods herein, respectively.

[0040] It is furthermore provided herein a computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the methods herein, as performed by the radio network node, and the UE, respectively. It is additionally provided herein a computer-readable storagemedium, having stored thereon a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the methods herein, as performed by the radio network node, and the UE, respectively.

[0041] Embodiments herein introduce different kinds of signaling between the UE and the radio network node such that:

[0042] • The radio network node may be made aware that the UE can evaluate candidate UE beams on received data and / or received other signals not intended for a UE beam sweep procedure

[0043] o This may be done by introducing new UE capability signaling transmitted from the UE to the radio network node

[0044] • The radio network node may indicate to the UE if certain data / signals transmitted to the UE or another UE can be used by the UE to evaluate candidate UE beams o This is done by introducing new signaling from the radio network node to the UE to indicate the time / frequency resources the UE can use for evaluating candidate beams

[0045] • The UE may indicate if it has evaluated all or a subset of the candidate beams to the network based on received data and / or received other signals not intended for a UE beam sweep procedure

[0046] o This may be done by introducing new signaling from the UE to the network to indicate e.g. how many candidate beams is left to evaluate, or if the UE has evaluated all or a part of the candidate beams etc Embodiments herein enable the network to exploit the properties of advanced UEs to perform simultaneous reception and beam scanning on data. This reduces the overhead and the latency of beam management procedure. Also, the proposed scheme, which is of interest in high bands such as FR2 and sub-THz bands, reduces the UE energy consumption compared to the cases where separate DL RSs are used to determine the UE Rx beams. Finally, with the proposed scheme, the throughput of the UE increases because the UE does not need to wait for dedicated DL RSs to find and switch to the best beam.

[0047] If a certain amount of resources are allocated per UE, then a UE by implementing embodiments herein, will need less resources for beam sweeping procedures and therefore the UE can be scheduled with more resources used for data. Hence, UEs that implement embodiments herein may get higher user throughput, which will then incline UEs to implement this kind of solutions. Thus, embodiments hereinprovide a mechanism to handle beam management in an efficient manner in the wireless communications network.

[0048] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0049] Embodiments will now be described in more detail in relation to the enclosed drawings, in which:

[0050] Fig. 1a shows an example of possible enhanced UE architecture;

[0051] Fig. 1b schematically illustrates a beam management;

[0052] Fig. 1c illustrates one example of one set of narrow beams and one set of wide beams; Fig. 1d schematically illustrates a structure of SSB;

[0053] Fig. 1e schematically illustrates SSBs transmissions according to prior art;

[0054] Fig. 2 is a schematic overview depicting a wireless communications network according to embodiments herein;

[0055] Fig. 3 shows a combined signaling scheme and flow chart according to some embodiments herein;

[0056] Fig. 4 is a schematic flowchart depicting a method performed by a radio network node according to embodiments herein;

[0057] Fig. 5 is a schematic flowchart depicting a method performed by a UE according to embodiments herein; Fig. 6 shows a flowchart of an exemplified scheme from the radio network node;

[0058] Fig. 7 is a block diagram depicting a first access point according to embodiments herein; Fig. 8 is a block diagram depicting a second access point according to embodiments herein;

[0059] Fig. 9 shows an example of a communication system QQ100 in accordance with some embodiments;

[0060] Fig. 10 shows a communication system QQ200 in accordance with some embodiments; Fig. 11 shows a UE QQ300 in accordance with some embodiments;

[0061] Fig. 12 is a block diagram of a network node QQ400 in accordance with various aspects described herein; and

[0062] Fig. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment QQ500 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized.

[0063] DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0064] Embodiments herein relate to wireless communications networks in general. Fig. 2 is a schematic overview depicting a wireless communications network 1. The wireless communications network 1 comprises one or more RANs and one or more CNs. The wireless communications network 1 may use one or a number of different technologies. Embodiments herein relate to recent technology trends that are of particular interest in aNR context, however, embodiments are also applicable in existing wireless communications systems such as e.g. LTE or WCDMA, and developments thereof.

[0065] In the wireless communications network 1, a UE 10, exemplified herein as a wireless device such as a mobile station, a non-access point (non-AP) station (STA), a STA and / or a wireless terminal, is comprised communicating via, e.g., one or more Access Networks (AN), e.g. RAN, to one or more CN. It should be understood by the skilled in the art that “UE” is a non-limiting term which means any terminal, wireless communications terminal, user equipment, NarrowBand Internet of Things (NB-loT) device, Machine Type Communication (MTC) device, Device to Device (D2D) terminal, or node e.g. smart phone, laptop, mobile phone, sensor, relay, mobile tablets or even a small base station capable of communicating using radio communication with a radio network node within an area served by the radio network node.

[0066] The wireless communications network 1 comprises a radio network node 12 providing radio coverage over a geographical area, a first service area 11 or first cell of a first Radio Access Technology (RAT), such as 6G, NR, LTE, or similar. The radio network node 12 may be a transmission and reception point such as an access node, an access controller, a base station, e.g. a radio base station such as a gNodeB (gNB), an evolved Node B (eNB, eNode B), a NodeB, a base transceiver station, a radio remote unit, an Access Point Base Station, a base station router, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access point or an Access Point Station (AP STA), a transmission arrangement of a radio base station, a stand-alone access point or any other network unit or node capable of communicating with a wireless device within the area served by the radio network node depending e.g. on the first radio access technology and terminology used. The radio network node may be referred to as a serving radio network node wherein the service area may be referred to as a serving cell such as a primary cell (PCell) and / or a primary secondary cell (PSCell), and the serving network node communicates with the UE in form of DL transmissions to the UE and UL transmissions from the UE.

[0067] It should be noted that a service area may be denoted as cell, beam, beam group or similar to define an area of radio coverage.

[0068] It is herein provided signaling methods for supporting simultaneous data reception and beam scanning on data signals, such as the signaling and required standardization aspects of the problem. Here, receiving reports from the UE 10 about its capabilities for simultaneous UE beam scanning and data reception, the radio network node 12 may indicate the UE when / how it can use the energy detector to sweep beams on data transmitted to other UE(s). Also, the UE 10 may report in reception reports to the networkabout the results of the beam sweeping on the data signals, for instance, whether it has found better Rx beams and / or if it needs / does not need further beam management procedure. Accordingly, the radio network node 12 may further adapt the beam measurement process based on the reception reports received from the UE 10. In this way, the proposed scheme enables the UE 10 to use the data signals to determine the proper UE Rx beams. In this way, embodiments herein provide a different coordination signaling between the network and the UE 10, such that the radio network node 12 may exploit the UE’s capabilities / reports to reduce the beam management overhead and latency.

[0069] Some embodiments herein discuss sub-terra Hz frequencies; however, the embodiments are applicable to other (lower and / or higher) frequencies as well. For example, simple power measuring components may be used to measure power for different UE Rx beams based on data transmission also at mmWave frequencies, or, e.g., at new frequency bands between 15-24 GHz where analog beamforming is expected to be used at UEs, and introducing standardization signaling to support such UE implementations would facilitate the performance.

[0070] Fig. 3 shows a combined signaling scheme and flow chart according to some embodiments herein.

[0071] Action 301. The radio network node 12 may transmit DL RSs as configured.

[0072] Action 302. The radio network node 12 may receive one or more measurement reports from one or more UE.

[0073] Action 303. The UE 10 transmits to the radio network node 12, a capability indication indicating a capability of the UE for simultaneous beam scanning and data reception. This transmission may be performed before or after 301.

[0074] Action 304. The radio network node 12 configures the UE to determine one or more reception beams based on one or more data transmissions to one or more UEs served by the radio network node 12. The radio network node 12 may inform the UE 10 about radio resources where the UE can perform measurements on the data signals.

[0075] Action 305. The radio network node 12 schedules a data transmission wherein data is transmitted to the one or more UEs. The data transmission may be to the UE 10 or to another different UE. As an example, for sending the data signal to one or more UEs the radio network node 12 may use one or more Tx beams which it has found to be appropriate for communication with the UE 10 and / or other UEs.Action 306. The radio network node 12 may thus transmit the data accordingly. The radio network node 12 may send the data signal to one or more UEs by using the Tx beam which it has found to be appropriate for communication with UE 10.

[0076] Action 307. The UE 10 may measure signal strength or quality of the data transmission over one or more reception beams.

[0077] Action 308. The UE 10 selects one or more reception beams using the configuration indication. For example, the UE may select reception beams based on an evaluation of received data signals, such as the measurements.

[0078] Action 309. The UE 10 may transmit a reception report to the radio network node 12 comprising information associated with the selected one or more reception beams. The reception report may comprise information, e.g., together with measurement indications. For instance, the UE 10 may indicate how many beams the UE 10 has checked, if the Rx beam has been found by using the data signals or DL-RSs, etc. Herein below are examples of what can be included in the reception report. The UE 10 will typically report e.g. How many UE beams, or which subset of beams, the UE 10 has evaluated, or how many it has left to evaluate. Please note that a UE Rx beam sweep procedures is an internal UE procedure and the UE do not report any measurement results to the network associate with a beam UE beam selection method, and the network do not determine which UE beam the UE should use. The UE 10 may report measurement result in association with a UE beam sweep procedure, is, e.g., CSI such as reference signal received power (RSRP), Signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), channel quality indicator (CQI), related to the UE Rx beam that the UE has selected after or in association with a UE beam sweep procedure.

[0079] Action 310. The radio network node 12 may perform a beam decision relating to a beam management process based on information associated with data transmissions and / or the received reception report. For instance, the radio network node 12 may cancel at least a part of the DL-RS based beam management procedure with the UE. In another example, the radio network node 12 may schedule data transmission to the UE 10 based on the received information and / or reception report.

[0080] The method actions performed by the radio network node 12 for handling communication in the wireless communications network 1 according to embodiments will now be described with reference to a flowchart depicted in Fig. 4. The actions do not have to be taken in the order stated below but may be taken in any suitable order. Dashed boxes indicate optional features.Action 401. The radio network node 12 may transmit DL RSs as configured. Action 402. The radio network node 12 may receive one or more measurement reports from one or more UE.

[0081] Action 403. The radio network node 12 may understand DL Tx beams to be used for communication with the one or more UEs. Understanding the DL Tx beams to be used for communication with the one or more UEs may be based on the transmission of one or multiple DL RS(s) and receiving measurement reports from the one or more UEs (the legacy P1-P2 beam manage management procedure or new procedures defined in 6G). Thus, the radio network node 12 may select DL Tx beams to be used.

[0082] Action 404. The radio network node 12 obtains the capability indication indicating the capability of the UE 10 for simultaneous beam scanning and data reception. This capability indication may be received in a capability report from the UE itself, another radio network node, an operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) node, an operations and management (O&M) node, or similar.

[0083] Action 405. The radio network node 12 configures the UE to evaluate one or more reception beams based on one or more data transmissions to one or more UEs served by the radio network node 12. The radio network node 12 may transmit a configuration indication comprising configuration data for configuring the UE. The configuration data may comprise one or more of:

[0084] a- An indication to activate the energy detector of the UE for a set of time resources,

[0085] b- The time resources to perform beam scanning on the data,

[0086] c- The frequency resources for the beam scanning on the data,

[0087] d- The (maximum) number of UE Rx beams which can be scanned by the UE during the data transmission to the one or more UEs,

[0088] e- Whether UE should perform a beam switch based on the measurement without the need for a measurement report, or beam switch and report about the beam switch, or only a measurement report containing measurement values for different DL Rx beams

[0089] The configuration indication may be based on

[0090] Previous reception reports received from the UE,

[0091] - The UE capabilities reported,

[0092] - The data transmission scheduling to the one or more UEs,

[0093] Semi-persistent, periodic and / or dynamic beam measurements based on DL RSs.Action 406. The radio network node 12 may inform the UE about radio resources where the UE 10 can perform measurements on the data signals. This may be a part of the configuration data in action 405.

[0094] Action 407. The radio network node 12 schedules the data transmission wherein data is transmitted to the one or more UEs. This may be based on action 403. The data may be transmitted to the one or more UEs on the same network node’s DL Tx beam.

[0095] Action 408. The radio network node 12 may receive the reception report from the UE comprising information regarding reception beams at the UE. The reception report may comprise an indication of a number and / or a subset of the UE’s DL Rx beams which have been evaluated in a recent time window. The time window may be defined as time / frequency resources in which the NW sends the data signals and / or DL-RSs, and the UE performs measurements.

[0096] Action 409. The radio network node 12 may perform the beam decision relating to the beam management process based on information associated with data transmissions and / or the received reception report. For example, when the radio network node 12 receives the information in the reception report, it can for instance decide to cancel part or all of the next beam management procedure, e.g., the next P3, because it knows that the UE 10 has either found a good Rx beam or has check n out of N of the Rx beams so it only needs to check the remaining ones. Another possible action may be to schedule data transmission to the UE based on the information in the reception report. For instance, if the UE reports the RSRP, SINR, etc. related to the selected UE Rx beam, the transmission parameters (rate, etc.) of one or beams may be adapted.

[0097] The radio network node 12 may cancel a DL RS-based beam management procedure with the UE based on one or more of

[0098] - The amount of the DL data which has been scheduled to the UE in a recent time window,

[0099] - The amount of the DL data which has been scheduled to other UEs in a recent time window on the same DL Tx beam as in the DL Tx beam associated with the UE,

[0100] - The reception report received

[0101] Information about the maximum number of time domain symbols the UE needs during a certain time window to evaluate all its RX beams.

[0102] The method actions performed by the UE 10 for handling communication in the wireless communications network 1 according to embodiments will now be described withreference to a flowchart depicted in Fig. 5. The actions do not have to be taken in the order stated below but may be taken in any suitable order. Dashed boxes indicate optional features.

[0103] Action 501. The UE 10 may receive DL RSs and perform measurements in the received DL RSs.

[0104] Action 502. The UE 10 may transmit measurement report to the radio network node indicating the measurements of the respective DL RS.

[0105] Action 503. The UE 10 transmits the capability indication indicating the capability of the UE for simultaneous beam scanning and data reception. The capability indication may indicate one or more of the following:

[0106] - The UE’s capability for simultaneous UE beam scanning and data reception, - The UE’s capability for channel measurement based on data signals,

[0107] - The total number of Rx beams supported by the UE,

[0108] - The total number of RX beams per UE panel

[0109] - The number of ports at the UE,

[0110] Information about the UE’s architecture (the presence of energy detector, lens, etc. and / or their properties),

[0111] Information about the range of the signals which can be detected by the UE, Information about the switching delays to switch between different ports, Information about the number of time domain symbols the UE needs during a certain time window to evaluate all its RX beams, alternatively, time needed for evaluation of a single beam.

[0112] Action 504. The UE 10 receives the configuration indication indicating the UE to determine one or more reception beams based on one or more data transmissions to one or more UEs served by the radio network node (12

[0113] Action 505. The UE 10 may receive information about radio resources where the UE 10 can perform measurements on data signals of the data transmission to one or more UEs. This may be part of the configuration indication.

[0114] Action 506. The UE 10 evaluates one or more reception beams using the configuration indication. The UE may select the one or more reception beams by evaluating measured beams. The UE 10 may evaluate some of the reception beams but not select them because they are poor.

[0115] Action 507. The UE 10 may transmit the reception report to the radio network node 12 comprising information associated with the evaluated one or more reception beams. The reception report may comprise the indication of the number and / or the subsetof the UE’s DL Rx beams which have been evaluated in a recent time window. As an example, in the report, along with indicating the number and / or subset of the UE’s DL Rx beams which have been checked, the UE 10 may transmit more information. For instance, the UE 10 may send the RSRP, SI NR, etc. associated with the selected beam. Thus, the reception report may comprise a measurement result in association with a UE beam sweep procedure, is e.g. CSI, such as RSRP, SINR, CQI, related to the UE Rx beam that the UE has selected after or in association with a UE beam sweep procedure. Additionally, or alternatively, the UE may transmit a flag indication indicating whether the selected beam has been determined based on scanning beams on data transmissions or beam measurement on DL RSs. The reception report may comprise one or more of the following:

[0116] - An indication whether the UE has found a new DL Rx beam,

[0117] - An indication of the new DL Rx beam of the UE,

[0118] - An indication of the measurement value of the new DL Rx beam of the UE (RSRP, SINR, SNR, received power, etc.)

[0119] - The number of UE’s DL Rx beams which have been checked by the UE (implicit request for the configuration),

[0120] - The number of UE’s DL Rx beams which have not been checked by the UE (implicit request for the configuration),

[0121] - An indication whether the new beam has been determined based on scanning beams on data transmissions or beam measurement on DL RSs, possibly together with information about time / frequency resources for data transmission that was used for the measurement corresponding to the new beam, - A request to initiate the beam measurement procedure to determine the appropriate UE DL Rx beam (explicit request for the configuration),

[0122] Before going into details, the following points are interesting to note:

[0123] • In the following, the terms, e.g., “DL-RS”, “SSB”, etc. may be used interchangeably. This is particularly because in 6G new DL RSs may be introduced.

[0124] • In the following, the terminologies “current beam,” “main beam” and “serving beam” may be used interchangeably. Also, the terminologies “new beam” and “candidate beam” may be used interchangeably.• The beam or reception report herein refers to any kind of information that UE reports to the radio network node 12 about the beam measurement results. In 6G, other terms may be used for beam / reception report.

[0125] • We may interchangeably use the words “report setting” or “report configuration” herein. However, it might be called something else in 6G. When we say report setting / report configuration, we generally mean a configuration that can be used to indicate CSI reporting information / configuration to the UE.

[0126] Please note that the background mainly discusses sub-terra Hz frequencies. However, embodiments herein may be applicable to other (lower and / or higher) frequencies. For example, simple power measuring components can be used to measure power for different UE Rx beams based on data transmission also at mmWave frequencies, or, e.g., at new frequency bands between 15-24 GHz where analog beamforming is expected to be used at UEs, and introducing standardization

[0127] As explained above, although not explicitly specified in NR, beam management is based on a three-step procedure where first the wide and narrow DL Tx beams of the gNB are found and then in the third step the UE’s proper DL Rx beam is determined, see Fig. 1b. However, finding the UE’s appropriate DL Rx beam may result in high overhead / latency specially in FR2 and sub-THz bands because, depending on the UE’s capabilities, it may take a long time to sweep through different UE beams and find the appropriate UE’s DL Rx beam. Such a problem exists in both cases whether the UE uses the CSI-RSs and P3 sweep procedure or the periodic SSB transmissions to find the appropriate DL Rx beam. In such cases, it is beneficial to reduce the beam management overhead by reusing the data signals for the determination of the UE’s appropriate DL Rx beam. This is especially possible with advanced UEs foreseen in 6G where the UE 10 may have, e.g., a lens, a main receiver, an energy detector and a control unit which controls the operation between the main receiver and energy detector, and the UE 10 may perform beam scanning on the data signals. Another advanced UE architecture with similar capabilities would comprise a UE antenna panel which is split into two parts, one of which is performing the DL reception and the other performing scanning of alternative Rx beams. This is the motivation for embodiments herein in which methods are developed for simultaneous data reception and beam scanning on data signals.Fig. 6 shows a flowchart of an exemplified scheme from the radio network node perspective where the optional steps are represented by dashed-line box. Note that not all actions of Fig. 6 are necessary. Also, the order of optional actions may change.

[0128] Embodiments herein suggest efficient methods for determining one or more UE’s DL Rx beams. Particularly, exemplified are signaling and required standardization aspects and methods for configuring the UE 10 to perform beam measurement during the data transmission to one or more UEs. Embodiments herein comprise one or more of the following:

[0129] • The radio network node 12 informs the UE 10 about the appropriate time / frequency resources where the UE can perform measurements on the data signals,

[0130] • The UE 10 sends reception reports to the radio network node 12 based on, e.g., measurements on data signals,

[0131] • The radio network node 12 may cancel all or part of a typical DL RS-based beam measurement procedure based on the received report.

[0132] Note that, with the proposed scheme, the data transmission may be to the UE 10 itself and / or one or more other UEs where they are served on the same radio network node’s DL Tx beam, or potentially another DL Tx beam that points in a similar direction as the DL Tx beams serving the UE 10.

[0133] In one embodiment, prior to configuring the UE 10, the radio network node 12, e.g., the gNB, may receive a report about the UE’s capabilities, see e.g., action 404 in Fig.

[0134] 4 and action 60 in Fig. 6. This report, which may be received from the UE 10 itself, other nodes, OAM, etc. via uplink control information (UCI), medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) or radio resource control (RRC) signaling, may comprise information regarding one or more of the following:

[0135] The UE’s capability for simultaneous UE beam scanning and data reception,

[0136] The UE’s capability for channel measurement based on data signals, The total number of Rx beams supported by the UE,

[0137] The total number of RX beams per UE panel

[0138] The number of ports at the UE,

[0139] Information about the UE’s architecture (the presence of energy detector, lens, etc. and / or their properties),Information about the range of the signals which can be detected by the UE,

[0140] Information about the switching delays to switch between different ports, and / or

[0141] Information about the number of time domain symbols the UE needs during a certain time window to evaluate all its RX beams.

[0142] In addition, prior to configuring the UE 10 for the determination of the DL Rx beam, the radio network node 12 may understand the radio network node’s DL Tx beams to be used for communication with one or more UEs. This corresponds to action 403 in Fig. 4 and action 70 of Fig. 6. Here, the radio network node’s DL Tx beams may be wide, semi-wide or narrow. Also, the radio network node’s understanding the DL Tx beams to be used for communication with the one or more UEs may be based on the transmission of one or multiple DL RS(s) and receiving measurement reports from the one or more UEs, i.e., the legacy P1-P2 beam manage management procedure explained in Fig. 1b, or, new procedures defined in 6G.

[0143] Prior to configuring the UE 10 for the determination of the DL Rx beam, in action 405 or optional action 80 of Fig. 6, the radio network node 12 may receive a measurement report from the UE 10, where the report comprises one or more of the following:

[0144] - An indication of the current DL Rx beam of the UE;

[0145] - An indication of the measurement value associated with the current DL Rx beam of the UE;

[0146] - An indication whether the current beam has been determined based on scanning beams on data transmissions or beam measurement on DL RSs, including the data signal resources, such as time and / or frequency, that were used to perform the measurement underlying the determining of the current beam;

[0147] The number and / or the subset of the UE’s DL Rx beams which have been evaluated in a recent time window;

[0148] - An indication whether the subset of the UE’s DL Rx beams have been evaluated based on the DL data receptions in the recent time window or based on measurements on DL RSs; and / or

[0149] - An indication of the number and / or the subset of UE’s DL Rx beams which need to be evaluated,Note that the indication of the number and / or the subset of the UE’s DL Rx beams which have been evaluated in a recent time window and the indication whether they have been based on measurement of data signals or DL RSs do not need to be necessarily in the reception report. Alternatively, in an optional action 90 of Fig. 6, the UE 10 may signal these in pre-configured UL resources, or the UE 10 may initiate a way to report this information to the network in a UE-initiated report, or the network can trigger the UE 10 to report this information, without any related measurements.

[0150] The measurement value may be based on RSRP, reference signal received quality (RSRQ), SINR, signal to noise ratio (SNR), received power, etc. where the metric for the measurement value may be selected depending on whether the measurement has been based on DL RSs or data. Also, there are different ways to determine the time window where:

[0151] It may be configured by the radio network node 12,

[0152] It may be understood by the UE 10 based on a pre-defined rule, e.g., specified in standardization, or

[0153] It may be selected by the UE 10 and indicated to the radio network node 12 in the measurement report.

[0154] In action 100 of Fig. 6, the radio network node 12 configures the UE 10 to determine the appropriate DL Rx beam based on the data transmission to the one or more UEs. Here, the configuration may include information regarding one or more of the following:

[0155] - An indication to activate the energy detector of the UE 10 for a set of time resources,

[0156] The time resources to perform beam scanning on the data, The frequency resources for the beam scanning on the data, The (maximum) number of UE Rx beams which can be scanned by the UE during the data transmission to the one or more UEs, and / or Report actions for the UE, such as reporting whether a beam switch occurred and whether the measurement values are to be reported

[0157] The time resources may be indicated by a starting point, the duration, the ending point, the periodicity, and / or similar, and based on, e.g., symbols, slots, period of time, and / or similar.

[0158] The configuration may be periodic, semi-persistent and / or dynamic based on RRC, MAC CE or DCI signaling. Moreover, in one embodiment, the configuration mayinclude a report configuration where the report configuration may comprise information about the UL resources for the report and / or the content of the report.

[0159] The configuration for determination of the appropriate DL Rx beam based on the data signals may be determined based on one or more of

[0160] The previous measurement reports received from the UE 10 received in action 80 of Fig. 6 or the indications received in action 90 of Fig. 6;

[0161] The UE capabilities reported in action 60 of Fig. 6;

[0162] The data transmission scheduling to the one or more UEs; and / or The semi-persistent, periodic and / or dynamic beam measurements based on DL RSs.

[0163] Prior to transmission of the configuration to the UE 10, the radio network node 12 may receive an explicit or implicit request from the UE 10 for the configuration. Here, the request may be received either in pre-granted UL resources or the UE 10 may first request for associated UL resources.

[0164] Upon transmission of the configurations to the UE 10, in action 110 of Figure 6, the network node schedules data transmission to the one or more UEs where the data is transmitted to the one or more UEs on the same network node’s DL Tx beam understood in action 70 of Fig.6. Accordingly, the UE 10 starts measurements on the configured time and / or frequency resources and informs the radio network node 12 about the measurements. Particularly, in action 120 of Fig. 6, the radio network node 12 may receive a reception (measurement) report from the UE, where the reception report comprises one or more of:

[0165] - An indication whether the UE 10 has found a DL Rx beam;

[0166] - An indication of the found DL Rx beam of the UE 10, such as beam ID; - An indication of the measurement value of the new DL Rx beam of the UE 10, such as RSRP, SI NR, SNR, received power, etc..

[0167] The number of UE’s DL Rx beams which have been checked by the UE 10, for example, implicit request for the configuration;

[0168] The number of UE’s DL Rx beams which have not been checked by the UE 10, e.g., implicit request for the configuration;

[0169] - An indication whether a beam has been determined based on scanning beams on data transmissions or beam measurement on DL RSs, possibly together with information about time / frequency resources for datatransmission that was used for the measurement corresponding to the new beam; and / or

[0170] - A request to initiate the beam measurement procedure to determine the appropriate UE DL Rx beam, e.g., explicit request for the configuration),

[0171] For the measurement values, either an absolute value of the measurement value or its relative value with respect to a reference value may be indicated where, for instance, the reference value may be based on the measurements of the UE’s previous DL Rx beam.

[0172] Finally, upon receiving the reception report from the UE, in action 130 of Fig. 6, the radio network node 12 may cancel all or a part of the DL RS-based beam management procedure with the UE 10, to reduce the beam management overhead. Here, canceling all or part of the DL RS-based beam management procedure with the UE 410 may be based on one or more of:

[0173] The amount of the DL data which has been scheduled to the UE 10 in a recent time window;

[0174] The amount of the DL data which has been scheduled to other UEs in a recent time window on the same DL Tx beam as in the DL Tx beam associated with the UE;

[0175] The measurement report received in action 120 of Fig. 6; and / or Information about the maximum number of time domain symbols the UE 10 needs during a certain time window to evaluate all its RX beams, received in action 60 of Fig. 6.

[0176] Embodiments herein make it possible for the UE 10 to use the data signals to determine the proper UE’s DL Rx beams. This reduces not only the beam management overhead but also reduces the latency for beam measurement report. Also, compared to the cases where separate DL RSs are used to determine the UE Rx beams, the UE energy consumption is improved and the end-to-end throughput is increased, because the UE 10 does not need to wait for dedicated DL RSs to find and switch to the best beam.

[0177] Some embodiments herein relate to a method in the radio network node 12 to perform beam management with the UE, the method comprising configuring the UE 10 to perform beam measurement during the data transmission to one or more UEs.

[0178] The beam management may comprise determining the appropriate DL Rx beam(s) at the UE.The data transmission may be to the UE itself and / or one or more other UEs.

[0179] Prior to configuring, the radio network node 12 receives a report about the UE’s capabilities, where the report including information about one or more of:

[0180] The UE’s capability for simultaneous UE beam scanning and data reception;

[0181] The UE’s capability for channel measurement based on data signals; The total number of Rx beams supported by the UE;

[0182] The total number of RX beams per UE panel;

[0183] The number of ports at the UE;

[0184] Information about the UE’s architecture, e.g., the presence of energy detector, lens, etc. and / or their properties;

[0185] Information about the range of the signals which can be detected by the UE 10;

[0186] Information about the switching delays to switch between different ports; and / or

[0187] Information about the number of time domain symbols the UE needs during a certain time window to evaluate all its RX beams, alternatively, time needed for evaluation of a single beam.

[0188] The capability report may be received from the UE itself, other nodes, OAM, etc. The capability report may be received via RRC, MAC CE, UCI, etc. signaling.

[0189] The radio network node 12 may understand the network node’s DL Tx beams to be used for communication with the one or more UEs.

[0190] The network node’s DL Tx beams may be wide, semi-wide or narrow.

[0191] The network node understands the DL Tx beams to be used for communication with the one or more UEs may be based on the transmission of one or multiple DL RS(s) and receiving measurement reports from the one or more UEs, the legacy P1-P2 beam manage management procedure or new procedures defined in 6G.

[0192] The one or multiple DL RSs may be associated with each DL Tx beam of the network node.

[0193] The DL RS(s) may be SSB, CSI-RS, new DL RSs defined in 6G, etc.

[0194] Prior to configuring the radio network node 12 receives a measurement report from the UE 10, the report may comprise:

[0195] - An indication of the current DL Rx beam of the UE 10;- An indication of the measurement value associated with the current DL Rx beam of the UE 10;

[0196] - An indication whether the current beam has been determined based on scanning beams on data transmissions or beam measurement on DL RSs, possibly including an indication of which particular data signal timefrequency resources were used to perform the measurement that the beam switch was based on;

[0197] The number and / or the subset of the UE’s DL Rx beams which have been evaluated in a recent time window;

[0198] - An indication whether the subset of the UE’s DL Rx beams have been evaluated based on the DL data receptions in the recent time window or based on measurements on DL RSs; and / or

[0199] - An indication of the number and / or the subset of UE’s DL Rx beams which need to be evaluated,

[0200] The measurement value may be RSRP, RSRQ, SINR, SNR, received power, etc. The metric for the measurement value may be selected depending on whether the measurement has been based on DL RSs or data.

[0201] The time window may,

[0202] be configured by the network node;

[0203] be understood based on pre-defined rule, e.g., specified in standardization; be selected by the UE 10 and indicated to the radio network node 12 in the measurement report.

[0204] Upon configuring the UE 10, the radio network node 12 may schedule data transmission to the one or more UEs based on the understanding above.

[0205] the data may be transmitted to the one or more UEs on the same network node’s DL Tx beam.

[0206] The configuration may include information about one or more of:

[0207] - An indication to activate the energy detector of the UE 10 for a set of time resources;

[0208] The time resources to perform beam scanning on the data;

[0209] The frequency resources for the beam scanning on the data;

[0210] The (maximum) number of UE Rx beams which can be scanned by the UE during the data transmission to the one or more UEs;Whether UE 10 should perform a beam switch based on the measurement without the need for a measurement report, or beam switch and report about the beam switch, or only a measurement report containing measurement values for different DL Rx beams.

[0211] The time resources may be indicated by the starting point, the duration, the ending point, the periodicity, etc.

[0212] The time resources may be indicated based on symbols, slots, a period of time, etc. The configuration may be periodic, semi-persistent or dynamic.

[0213] The configuration may include a report configuration.

[0214] The report configuration may include information about the UL resources for the report and / or the content of the report.

[0215] The configuring of the UE may be based on RRC, MAC CE or DCI signaling.

[0216] The configuring of the UE may be determined based on one or more of

[0217] The previous measurement reports received from the UE 10, The UE capabilities reported,

[0218] The data transmission scheduling to the one or more UEs, The semi-persistent, periodic and / or dynamic beam measurements based on DL RSs.

[0219] Prior to configuring where the radio network node receives an explicit or implicit request from the UE for the configuration.

[0220] Upon configuring, the radio network node 12 receives a measurement report from the UE, where the report comprises one or more of

[0221] - An indication whether the UE has found a DL Rx beam,

[0222] - An indication of the found DL Rx beam of the UE,

[0223] - An indication of the measurement value of the new DL Rx beam of the UE (RSRP, SI NR, SNR, received power, etc.)

[0224] o an absolute value of the measurement value or its relative value with respect to a reference value being indicated.

[0225] o The reference value being based on the measurements of the UE’s previous DL Rx beam.

[0226] The number of UE’s DL Rx beams which have been checked by the UE (implicit request for the configuration),

[0227] The number of UE’s DL Rx beams which have not been checked by the UE (implicit request for the configuration),- An indication whether the new beam has been determined based on scanning beams on data transmissions or beam measurement on DL RSs, possibly together with information about time / frequency resources for data transmission that was used for the measurement corresponding to the new beam,

[0228] - A request to initiate the beam measurement procedure to determine the appropriate UE DL Rx beam (explicit request for the configuration),

[0229] Upon configuring the network node may cancel (part of) the DL RS-based beam management procedure with the UE 10.

[0230] Canceling (part of) the DL RS-based beam management procedure with the UE may be based on one or more of:

[0231] The amount of the DL data which has been scheduled to the UE in a recent time window;

[0232] The amount of the DL data which has been scheduled to other UEs in a recent time window on the same DL Tx beam as in the DL Tx beam associated with the UE;

[0233] The measurement report received above; and

[0234] Information about the maximum number of time domain symbols the UE needs during a certain time window to evaluate all its RX beams, received.

[0235] Fig. 7 is a block diagram depicting the radio network node 12 for handling communication in the wireless communications network 1 according to embodiments herein.

[0236] The radio network node 12 may comprise processing circuitry 701, e.g. one or more processors, configured to perform the methods herein.

[0237] The radio network node 12 and / or the processing circuitry 701 is configured to obtain the capability indication indicating the capability the UE 10 for simultaneous beam scanning and data reception.

[0238] The radio network node 12 and / or the processing circuitry 701 is configured to configure the UE 10 to evaluate the one or more reception beams based on the one or more data transmissions to one or more UEs served by the radio network node 12.

[0239] The radio network node 12 and / or the processing circuitry 701 is configured to schedule the data transmission wherein data is transmitted to the one or more UEs.The radio network node 12 and / or the processing circuitry 701 may be configured to receive the reception report from the UE 10 comprising information regarding reception beams at the UE 10.

[0240] The radio network node 12 and / or the processing circuitry 701 may be configured to perform the beam decision relating to the beam management process based on the information associated with data transmissions and / or the received reception report.

[0241] The reception report may comprise the indication of a number and / or a subset of the UE’s DL Rx beams which have been evaluated in the recent time window.

[0242] The radio network node 12 and / or the processing circuitry 701 may be configured to inform the UE about radio resources where the UE can perform measurements on the data signals.

[0243] The radio network node 12 may comprise a memory 705. The memory 705 comprises one or more units to be used to store data on, such as data packets, TX beams, time window, reports, measurements, events and applications to perform the methods disclosed herein when being executed, and similar. Furthermore, the radio network node 12 may comprise a communication interface 706 such as comprising a transmitter, a receiver, a transceiver and / or one or more antennas.

[0244] The methods according to the embodiments described herein for the radio network node 12 are respectively implemented by means of e.g. a computer program product 707 or a computer program, comprising instructions, i.e. , software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the radio network node 12. The computer program product 707 may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 708, e g., a disc, a universal serial bus (USB) stick or similar. The computer-readable storage medium 708, having stored thereon the computer program product, may comprise the instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the radio network node 12. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium may be a transitory or a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. Thus, embodiments herein may disclose the radio network node 12 for handling communication of the UE in a communication network, wherein the radio network node 12 comprises processing circuitry and a memory, said memory comprising instructions executable by said processing circuitry whereby said radio network node 12 is operative to perform any of the methods herein.Fig. 8 is a block diagram depicting the UE 10 for handling communication in the wireless communications network 1 according to embodiments herein.

[0245] The UE 10 may comprise processing circuitry 801, e.g. one or more processors, configured to perform the methods herein.

[0246] The UE 10 and / or the processing circuitry 801 is configured to transmit the capability indication indicating the capability of the UE 10 for simultaneous beam scanning and data reception.

[0247] The UE 10 and / or the processing circuitry 801 is configured to receive the configuration indication indicating the UE 10 to determine one or more reception beams based on one or more data transmissions to one or more UEs served by the radio network node 12.

[0248] The UE 10 and / or the processing circuitry 801 is configured to evaluate the one or more reception beams using the configuration indication.

[0249] The UE 10 and / or the processing circuitry 801 may be configured to transmit the reception report to the radio network node 12 comprising information associated with the evaluated one or more reception beams.

[0250] The reception report may comprise the indication of the number and / or a subset of the UE’s DL Rx beams which have been evaluated in the recent time window.

[0251] The UE 10 and / or the processing circuitry 801 may be configured to receive information about radio resources where the UE 10 can perform measurements on data signals of the data transmission to one or more UEs.

[0252] The UE 10 may comprise a memory 805. The memory 805 comprises one or more units to be used to store data on, such as data packets, TX beams, reports, downlink reception beams, time window, reports, measurements, events and applications to perform the methods disclosed herein when being executed, and similar. Furthermore, the UE 10 may comprise a communication interface 806 such as comprising a transmitter, a receiver, a transceiver and / or one or more antennas.

[0253] The methods according to the embodiments described herein for the UE 10 are respectively implemented by means of e.g. a computer program product 807 or a computer program, comprising instructions, i.e. , software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the UE 10. The computer program product 807 may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 808, e.g., a disc, a USB stick or similar. The computer-readable storage medium 808, having stored thereon the computer program product, may comprise the instructions which, when executed on atleast one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the UE 10. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium may be a transitory or a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. Thus, embodiments herein may disclose the UE for handling communication of the UE in a communication network, wherein the UE comprises processing circuitry and a memory, said memory comprising instructions executable by said processing circuitry whereby said UE is operative to perform any of the methods herein.

[0254] As will be readily understood by those familiar with communications design, that functions means or modules may be implemented using digital logic and / or one or more microcontrollers, microprocessors, or other digital hardware. In some embodiments, several or all of the various functions may be implemented together, such as in a single application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or in two or more separate devices with appropriate hardware and / or software interfaces between them. Several of the functions may be implemented on a processor shared with other functional components of a radio network node, for example.

[0255] Alternatively, several of the functional elements of the processing means discussed may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware, while others are provided with hardware for executing software, in association with the appropriate software or firmware. Thus, the term “processor” or “controller” as used herein does not exclusively refer to hardware capable of executing software and may implicitly include, without limitation, digital signal processor (DSP) hardware, read-only memory (ROM) for storing software, random-access memory for storing software and / or program or application data, and non-volatile memory. Other hardware, conventional and / or custom, may also be included. Designers of communications receivers will appreciate the cost, performance, and maintenance trade-offs inherent in these design choices.

[0256] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. Thebenefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and / or by end users and a wireless network generally.

[0257] Figure 9 shows an example of a communication system QQ100 in accordance with some embodiments.

[0258] In the example, the communication system QQ100 includes a telecommunications network QQ102 that includes an access network QQ104, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network QQ106, which includes one or more core network nodes QQ108. The access network QQ104 includes one or more access network nodes or base stations of various types, access network nodes QQ110A and QQ110B are depicted (which may be collectively referred to as network nodes QQ110), or any other similar 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) access nodes or non-3GPP access points (APs). Some embodiments of the access network QQ104 may include more than one access network technology. The network nodes QQ110 of access network QQ104 facilitate direct or indirect connection of wireless devices, also referred to as user equipments (UEs), such as by connecting UEs QQ112A, QQ112B, QQ112C, and QQ112D (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs QQ112) to the core network QQ106 over one or more wireless connections.

[0259] Moreover, a network node is not necessarily limited to an implementation in which a radio portion and a baseband portion are supplied and integrated by a single vendor. Thus, it will be understood that network nodes include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the telecommunications network QQ102 includes one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a network node in the telecommunications network QQ102 that supports an ORAN specification (e.g., a specification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization) and may operate alone or together with other network nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any network node in the telecommunications network QQ102, including one or more access network nodes QQ110 and / or core network nodes QQ108.

[0260] Examples of an ORAN network node include an open radio unit (O-RU), an open distributed unit (O-DU), an open central unit (O-CU), including an O-CU control plane (O-CU-CP) or an O-CU user plane (O-CU-UP), a RAN intelligent controller (near-real time or non-real time) hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time control application (e.g., xApp) or a non-real time control application (e.g., rApp), or any combination thereof (the adjective “open” designating support of an ORAN specification).An ORAN network node 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 network node may be a logical node in a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualization environment (described further below) in which one or more network functions are virtualized. For example, the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platform orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an 0-2 interface defined by the O-RAN Alliance or comparable technologies.

[0261] The network nodes QQ110 facilitate direct or indirect connection of one or more UEs QQ112 to the core network QQ106 over one or more wireless connections. Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and / or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and / or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system QQ100 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and / or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and / or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communication system QQ100 may include and / or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and / or other similar type of system.

[0262] The UEs QQ112 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes QQ110 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes QQ108, QQ110 are arranged, capable, configured, and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly (e.g., via other devices of telecommunications network QQ102) with the UEs QQ112 and / or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunications network QQ102 to enable and / or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and / or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunications network QQ102. More specifically, UEs QQ112 may send messages, data, and / or other signals to network nodes QQ108, QQ110 or other elements of the telecommunications network QQ102 by transmitting such signals to the relevant device directly without the signals passing through any intervening devices or by transmitting such signals to the relevant device indirectly through an intervening device (or multiple intervening devices) that then transmit the signal to the relevant device. Similarly, networknodes QQ108, QQ110 may send messages, data, and other signals to UEs QQ1122, other network nodes QQ108, QQ110, and other devices in telecommunications network QQ102 directly or indirectly. As one specific example, a core network node 108 may transmit a particular message to a UE QQ112 by transmitting the message to an access network node QQ110 that will then transmit the message to the intended UE QQ112. Similarly, a core network node 108 may receive a particular message from a UE QQ112 by receiving the message from an access network node QQ110 that itself received the message from the UE QQ112.

[0263] In the depicted example, the core network QQ106 connects elements of the access network QQ104 (e.g., one or more of the network nodes QQ110) to one or more host computing systems, such as host QQ116. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network QQ106 includes one or more core network nodes (e.g., core network node QQ108) of various types, one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes QQ108. Network nodes QQ108 are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, access network nodes, and / or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node QQ108. Example core network nodes provide functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and / or a User Plane Function (UPF).

[0264] The host QQ116 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network QQ104 and / or the telecommunications network QQ102. The host QQ116 may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The host QQ116 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio / video content, data collection services such as retrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.As a whole, the communication system QQ100 of Figure 9 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system QQ100 may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and / or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi); and / or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Wi-Max), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, Li-Fi, and / or any low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox. Moreover, the communication system QQ100 may be configured to support multiple different standards, protocols, or other rule sets, with individual components supporting all of the relevant rule sets or with different components or sub-systems within the communication system QQ100 supporting different standards, protocols, or rule sets.

[0265] As one example, in certain embodiments, access network QQ104 may contain some access network nodes QQ110 that support 3GPP radio access technologies (RAT), such as LTE or NR, while other access network nodes QQ110 support (or the same access network nodes QQ110 additionally support) non-3GPP RATs, such as Wi-Fi or a proprietary RAT. As another example, telecommunications network QQ102 may support multiple generations of related communication standards (e.g., 4G and 5G 3GPP communication standards) and, as a result, may include an access network 104 and / or a core network 106 that supports multiple different standard generations or may include multiple access networks 104 and / or multiple core networks 106 with individual networks 104, 106 supporting different standard generations.

[0266] Telecommunications network QQ102 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunications network QQ102. For example, the telecommunications network QQ102 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and / or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) / Massive loT services to yet further UEs.

[0267] In some examples, one or more of the UEs QQ112 are configured to transmit and / or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may bedesigned to transmit information to the access network QQ104 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network QQ104. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single-or multi-RAT or multi-standard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configured for multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

[0268] In the example, the hub QQ114 communicates with the access network QQ104 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE QQ112C and / or QQ112D) and network nodes (e.g., network node QQ110B). In some examples, the hub QQ114 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub QQ114 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network QQ106 for the UEs. As another example, the hub QQ114 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes QQ110, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub QQ114.

[0269] As another example, the hub QQ114 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub QQ114 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub QQ114 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub QQ114 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and / or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub QQ114 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.

[0270] The hub QQ114 may have a constant / persistent or intermittent connection to the network node QQ110B. The hub QQ114 may also allow for a different communication scheme and / or schedule between the hub QQ114 and UEs (e.g., UE QQ112C and / or QQ112D), and between the hub QQ114 and the core network QQ106. In other examples, the hub QQ114 is connected to the core network QQ106 and / or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub QQ114 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network QQ104 and / or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the networknodes QQ110 while still connected via the hub QQ114 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub QQ114 may be a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to / from the UEs from / to the network node QQ110B. In other embodiments, the hub QQ114 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node QQ110B, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and / or end point for certain data channels.

[0271] Figure 10 is another example of a communication system QQ200 according to some embodiments. As used herein, the communication system QQ200 includes multiple access points (APs) QQ210 (with four exemplary APs QQ210A, QQ210B, QQ210C, and QQ210D being depicted) and multiple wireless devices, referred to in the context of communication system QQ200 as stations (STAs) QQ212 (referred to individually as STA QQ212A, STA QQ212B, STA QQ212C, STA QQ212D, and STA QQ212E). STA QQ212A is served by AP QQ210A in a first basic service set (BSS) QQ220A. STA QQ210B and STA QQ210C are served by AP QQ210B in a second BSS, BSS QQ220B. STA QQ212D is served by AP QQ210C in a third BSS, BSS QQ220C. STA QQ212E is served by AP QQ210D in a fourth BSS, BSS QQ220D. Stations QQ212 may be non-AP STAs and correspond to various kinds of wireless devices, for example, user terminals, such as mobile or stationary computing devices like smartphones, laptop computers, desktop computers, tablet computers, gaming devices, head-mounted displays (HMDs) for Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), or the like. Further, stations QQ212 could, for example, correspond to other kinds of equipment like smart home devices, printers, multimedia devices, data storage devices, or the like.

[0272] Each of STAs QQ212 may connect through a radio link to one of APs QQ210. For example, depending on location or channel conditions experienced by a given STA QQ212, the STA may select an appropriate AP and BSS for establishing the radio link. The radio link may be based on one or more orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) carriers from a frequency spectrum that is shared on the basis of a contentionbased mechanism, e.g., an unlicensed or license exempt band like 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band, the 5 GHz band, the 6 GHz band, or the 60 GHz band.

[0273] Each AP QQ210 may provide data connectivity to STAs QQ212 connected to a particular AP QQ210. As illustrated, APs QQ210 may be connected to a data network QQ230. In this way, APs QQ210 may also provide data connectivity between STAs QQ212 and other entities, e.g., to one or more servers, service providers, data sources, data sinks, user terminals, or the like. Accordingly, the radio link established between agiven STA QQ212 and its serving AP QQ210 may be used for providing various kinds of services to STA QQ212, e.g., a voice service, a multimedia service, or other data service. Such services may be based on applications that are executed on STA QQ212 and / or on a device linked to STA QQ212. By way of example, Figure 10 illustrates an application service platform QQ232 provided in data network QQ230. The application(s) executed on STA QQ212 and / or on one or more other devices linked to STA QQ212 may use the radio link for data communication with one or more other STA QQ212 and / or the application service platform QQ232, thereby enabling utilization of the corresponding service(s) at STA QQ212.

[0274] Figure 11 shows a wireless device QQ300, which may be configured to operate in communication system QQ100 of Figure 9 or in communication system QQ200 of Figure 10. The wireless device QQ300 may be alternatively referred to as a UE QQ300, like a UE QQ112 within the context of communication system QQ100, or as a station (STA) QQ300 or as a non-access-point station (non-AP STA) QQ300, like a STA QQ212 within the context of the communication system QQ200, in accordance with respective embodiments. As used herein, a wireless device refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and / or other wireless devices. Examples of a wireless device include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless cameras, gaming console or device, music storage device, playback appliance, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptopmounted equipment (LME), smart device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), vehicle, vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded / integrated wireless device, and wireless terminal. Other examples include any type of UE identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a narrow band internet of things (NB-loT) UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and / or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.

[0275] A wireless device QQ300 may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or vehicle-to-everything (V2X). In other examples, wireless device QQ300 may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and / or operates the relevant device. Instead, wireless device QQ300 may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively,wireless device QQ300 may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).

[0276] In particular embodiments, wireless device QQ300 includes processing circuitry QQ302 that is operatively coupled via a bus QQ304 to an input / output interface QQ306, a power source QQ308, a memory QQ310, a communication interface QQ312, and / or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain embodiments of wireless device QQ300 may include all or a subset of the components shown in Figure 11. The level of integration between the components may vary from one embodiment of wireless device QQ300 to another. In general, in a particular embodiment of wireless device QQ300, processing circuitry QQ302, input / output interface QQ306, power source QQ308, memory QQ310, and communication interface QQ312 may, in whole or in part, represent or include physical components common to or shared by one or more of the other elements of wireless device QQ300. Further, certain embodiments of wireless devices QQ300 may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

[0277] The processing circuitry QQ302 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory QQ310. The processing circuitry QQ302 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry QQ302 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).

[0278] In the example, the input / output interface QQ306 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and / or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into wireless device QQ300. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive displaymay include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.

[0279] In some embodiments, the power source QQ308 is structured as a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used to supply power to circuitry or to charge an associated battery. The power source QQ308 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source QQ308 itself, and / or an external power source, to the various parts of wireless device QQ300 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Power source QQ308 may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to make accessible power suitable for the respective components of the wireless device QQ300 to which power is supplied.

[0280] The memory QQ310 may be or be configured to include memory such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory QQ310 includes one or more programs QQ314, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data QQ316. The memory QQ310 may store, for use by wireless device QQ300, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0281] The memory QQ310 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and / or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUlCC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card.’ The memory QQ310 may allowwireless device QQ300 to access instructions, programs and the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory QQ310, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

[0282] The processing circuitry QQ302 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network via or using the communication interface QQ312. The communication interface QQ312 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna QQ322. The communication interface QQ312 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another wireless device or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter QQ318 and / or a receiver QQ320 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter QQ318 and receiver QQ320 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna QQ322) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0283] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface QQ312 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication (e.g., according to an IEEE 802.11 family standard), LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof.

[0284] Communications may be implemented according to one or more communication protocols and / or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol / internet protocol (TCP / IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0285] In particular embodiments, wireless device QQ300 may provide an output of data captured via a sensor, through its communication interface QQ312, via a wireless connection to a network node, and / or in any appropriate manner. Data captured by sensors of a wireless device QQ300 can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another wireless device QQ300. In particular embodiments, such output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature),random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).

[0286] As another example, wireless device QQ300 comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, wireless device QQ300 may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.

[0287] Wireless device QQ300, when in the form of an Internet of Things (loT) device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, wearable technology, extended industrial application and healthcare. Non-limiting examples of such an loT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door / window sensor, a flood / moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, an industrial robot, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and any kind of medical device, like a heart rate monitor or a remote controlled surgical robot. In particular embodiments, wireless device QQ300 represents an loT device that comprises circuitry and / or software in dependence of the intended application of the loT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the example embodiment of wireless device QQ300 shown in Figure 11.

[0288] As yet another specific example, in an loT scenario, wireless device QQ300 may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and / or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and / or measurements to another wireless device and / or a network node. Wireless device QQ300 may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, wireless device QQ300 may implement the 3GPP NB-loT standard. In other scenarios, wireless device QQ300 may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck,a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and / or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.

[0289] In practice, any number of wireless devices QQ300 may be used together with respect to a single use case. For example, a first wireless device QQ300 might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second wireless device QQ300 that is a remote controller operating the drone. When a user makes changes from the remote controller, the first wireless device QQ300 may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g. by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed. The first and / or the second wireless device QQ300 can also include more than one of the functionalities described above. For example, wireless device QQ300 might comprise the sensor and the actuator, and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.

[0290] Figure 12 shows a network node QQ400 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and / or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and / or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunications network. In accordance with respective embodiments, network node QQ400 may be configured to operate in communication system QQ100 of Figure 9, like network nodes QQ108 or QQ110, or in communication system QQ200 of Figure 10, like an AP QQ210 or a station QQ212. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)), O-RAN nodes or components of an O-RAN node (e.g., 0-Rll, 0-Dll, O-CU).

[0291] Network nodes QQ400 may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. Network node QQ400 may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. Network nodes QQ400 may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units, distributed units (e.g., in an O-RAN access node) and / or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).Other examples of network nodes QQ400 include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5G access nodes, multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell / multicast coordination entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and / or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).

[0292] In particular embodiments, network node QQ400 includes a processing circuitry QQ402, a memory QQ404, a communication interface QQ406, and a power source QQ408. In general, in a particular embodiment of network node QQ400, processing circuitry QQ402, memory QQ404, communication interface QQ406, and power source QQ408 may, in whole or in part, represent or include physical components common to or shared by one or more of the other elements of network node QQ400.

[0293] The network node QQ400 may be composed of multiple distinct network entities (e.g., a NodeB entity and a RNC entity, or a BTS entity and a BSC entity, etc.), which may each have or utilize their own respective physical components. In certain scenarios in which the network node QQ400 comprises multiple such entities (e.g., BTS and BSC), one or more of the separate entities may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node QQ400 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memories QQ404 or portions of memory QQ404 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna QQ410 may be shared by different RATs). The network node QQ400 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node QQ400, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, Wi-Fi (e.g., according to an IEEE 802.11 family standard), Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node QQ400.

[0294] The processing circuitry QQ402 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or anyother suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and / or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other components, such as the memory QQ404, to provide network node QQ400 functionality.

[0295] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry QQ402 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry QQ402 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry QQ412 and baseband processing circuitry QQ414. In some embodiments, the RF transceiver circuitry QQ412 and the baseband processing circuitry QQ414 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry QQ412 and baseband processing circuitry QQ414 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0296] The memory QQ404 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer-readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and / or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and / or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and / or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry QQ402. The memory QQ404 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and / or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry QQ402 and utilized by the network node QQ400. The memory QQ404 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry QQ402 and / or any data received via the communication interface QQ406. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry QQ402 and memory QQ404 is integrated.

[0297] The communication interface QQ406 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and / or data with UEs, other network nodes, and / or any other network equipment. In the illustrated embodiment, communication interface QQ406 comprises port(s) / terminal(s) QQ416 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. In particular embodiments, network node QQ300 may be capable of wireless communication and communication interface QQ406 may also include radio front-end circuitry QQ418 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, an antenna QQ410. Particular embodiments of radio front-end circuitry QQ418 include filter(s) QQ420 and amplifier(s) QQ422. The radio front-end circuitry QQ418 may beconnected to an antenna QQ410 and processing circuitry QQ402. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna QQ410 and processing circuitry QQ402. The radio front-end circuitry QQ418 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuitry QQ418 may convert the digital data into a radio signal(s) having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters QQ420 and / or amplifiers QQ422. The radio signal(s) may then be transmitted via the antenna QQ410. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna QQ410 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry QQ418. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry QQ402. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and / or different combinations of components.

[0298] In certain alternative embodiments, network node QQ400 may be capable of wireless communication but does not include separate radio front-end circuitry QQ418, instead, the processing circuitry QQ402 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna QQ410. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry QQ412 is part of the communication interface QQ406. In still other embodiments, the communication interface QQ406 includes one or more ports or terminals QQ416, the radio front-end circuitry QQ418, and the RF transceiver circuitry QQ412, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface QQ406 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry QQ414, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0299] The antenna QQ410 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and / or receive wireless signals. The antenna QQ410 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry QQ418 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and / or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna QQ410 is separate from the network node QQ400 and connectable to the network node QQ400 through one or more interfaces or ports.

[0300] The antenna QQ410, communication interface QQ406, and / or the processing circuitry QQ402 may be configured to perform some or all of the receiving operations and / or obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node QQ400. Any information, data and / or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna QQ410, the communication interface QQ406, and / or the processing circuitry QQ402 may be configured to perform some or all of the transmitting or sending operations described herein as being performed by the network node QQ400. Any information, data and / orsignals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node and / or any other network equipment.

[0301] The power source QQ408 provides power to the various components of network node QQ400 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source QQ408 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node QQ400 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node QQ400 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source QQ408. As a further example, the power source QQ408 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail. Embodiments of the network node QQ400 may include additional components beyond those shown in Figure 12 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and / or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node QQ400 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node QQ400 and to allow output of information from the network node QQ400. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node QQ400.

[0302] Figure 13 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment QQ500 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments QQ500 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as an access network node, UE, core network node, or host. Further, in embodiments in which a virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized. In some embodiments, the virtualization environment QQ500 includes components defined by the O-RAN Alliance, such as an O-Cloudenvironment orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an 0-2 interface.

[0303] Applications QQ502 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment Q400 to implement some of the features, functions, and / or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0304] Hardware QQ504 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and / or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and / or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input / output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers QQ506 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VM QQ508A and VM QQ508B (which may be collectively referred to as VMs QQ508), and / or perform any of the functions, features and / or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer QQ506 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to one or more of the VMs QQ508.

[0305] The VMs QQ508 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by virtualization layer QQ506. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance QQ502 may be implemented on one or more of VMs QQ508, and the implementations may be made in different ways.

[0306] Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.

[0307] In the context of NFV, each of the VMs QQ508 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, nonvirtualized machine. Each of the VMs QQ508, and that part of hardware QQ504 that executes that VM, be it hardware dedicated to that VM and / or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more of the VMs QQ508 on top of the hardware QQ504 and corresponds to an application QQ502.

[0308] Hardware QQ504 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware QQ504 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware QQ504 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware(e.g. such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration QQ510, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications QQ502. In some embodiments, hardware QQ504 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station. In some embodiments, some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system QQ512 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units. Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes, hosts) may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and / or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and / or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination. Moreover, while components are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components. For example, a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and / or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface. In another example, non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware. It will be appreciated that the foregoing description and the accompanying drawings represent nonlimiting examples of the methods and apparatus taught herein. As such, the apparatus and techniques taught herein are not limited by the foregoing description and accompanying drawings. Instead, the embodiments herein are limited only by the following claims and their legal equivalents.

[0309]

[0310]

Claims

CLAIMS1. A method performed by a radio network node (12) for handling communication in a wireless communications network (1), the method comprising: obtaining (404) a capability indication indicating a capability of a user equipment, UE, (10) for simultaneous beam scanning and data reception; configuring (405) the UE to evaluate one or more reception beams based on one or more data transmissions to one or more UEs served by the radio network node (12); andscheduling (407) a data transmission wherein data is transmitted to the one or more UEs.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprisingreceiving (408) a reception report from the UE comprising information regarding reception beams at the UE.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising- performing (409) a beam decision relating to a beam management process based on information associated with data transmissions and / or the received reception report.

4. The method according to any of the claims 2-3, wherein the reception report comprises an indication of a number and / or a subset of the UE’s downlink, DL, reception, Rx, beams which have been evaluated in a recent time window.

5. The method according to any of the claims 1-4, further comprising informing (406) the UE about radio resources where the UE can perform measurements on the data signals.

6. A method performed by a UE (10) for handling communication in a wireless communications network (1), the method comprising:transmitting (503) a capability indication indicating a capability of the UE for simultaneous beam scanning and data reception;receiving (504) a configuration indication indicating the UE to determine one or more reception beams based on one or more data transmissions to one or more UEs served by the radio network node (12); andevaluating (506) one or more reception beams using the configuration indication.

7. The method according to claim 6, comprisingtransmitting (507) a reception report to the radio network node (12) comprising information associated with the evaluated one or more reception beams.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the reception report comprises an indication of a number and / or a subset of the UE’s downlink, DL, reception, Rx, beams which have been evaluated in a recent time window.

9. The method according to any of the claims 6-8, further comprising receiving (505) information about radio resources where the UE can perform measurements on data signals of the data transmission to one or more UEs.

10. A radio network node (12) for handling communication in a wireless communications network (1), wherein the radio network node is configured to:obtain a capability indication indicating a capability of a user equipment, UE, (10) for simultaneous beam scanning and data reception;configure the UE to evaluate one or more reception beams based on one or more data transmissions to one or more UEs served by the radio network node (12); andschedule a data transmission wherein data is transmitted to the one or more UEs.

11. The radio network node (12) according to claim 10, wherein the radio network node is configured to perform the method according to any of the claims 2-5.

12. A user equipment, UE, (10), for handling communication in a wireless communications network (1), wherein the UE (10) is configured to:transmit a capability indication indicating a capability of the UE for simultaneous beam scanning and data reception;receive a configuration indication indicating the UE to determine one or more reception beams based on one or more data transmissions to one or more UEs served by the radio network node (12); andevaluate one or more reception beams using the configuration indication.

13. The UE according to claim 12, wherein the UE (10) configured to perform the method according to any of the claims 7-9.

14. A computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method according to any of the claims 1-9, as performed by the radio network node and the UE, respectively.

15. A computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method according to any of the claims 1-9, as performed by the radio network node and the UE, respectively.

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