Serving cell measurement configurations

Abstract

A user equipment (UE) is configured for operation in a New Radio (NR) network. The UE comprises front-end circuitry coupled to one or more antennas and processing circuitry coupled to the front-end circuitry. The processing circuitry is to decode network signaling that configures measurement operations for one or more serving cells, including at least one deactivated secondary cell, and that indicates synchronization signal block parameters. The processing circuitry is to monitor for synchronization signal occasions associated with a serving cell during a measurement interval determined based on the network signaling. The processing circuitry performs radio resource management measurements for the serving cell based on monitored synchronization signal occasions and allocates measurement resources according to a carrier-specific scaling factor that biases measurement processing among serving cells. The processing circuitry encodes a measurement report for transmission to a base station, based on radio resource management measurements.

Description

AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1SERVING CELL MEASUREMENT CONFIGURATIONSPRIORITY CLAIM

[0001] This application claims the benefit of priority to the following applications:

[0002] United States Provisional Application No. 63 / 755,792, filed February 7, 2025, and entitled “METHOD FOR ENHANCED CARRIER SPECIFIC SCALING FACTOR”; and

[0003] United States Provisional Application No. 63 / 755,809, filed February 7, 2025, and entitled “SERVING CELL MEASUREMENTS.”

[0004] Each of the above-listed applications is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND

[0005] Mobile communications have evolved significantly from early voice systems to today’s highly sophisticated integrated communication platform. With the growing number of devices communicating with various network devices, the use of 3 GPP LTE systems has increased. The penetration of mobile devices (user equipments or UEs) in modern society has continued to drive demand for a wide variety of networked devices in many disparate environments. Fifth-generation (5G) wireless systems are forthcoming and are expected to enable even greater speed, connectivity, and usability. Nextgeneration 5G networks (or NR networks) and beyond (e.g., 6G networks) are expected to increase throughput, coverage, and robustness, while reducing latency and operational and capital expenditures. 5G NR (and beyond) networks will continue to evolve based on 3 GPP LTE- Advanced, with additional potential new radio access technologies (RATs) to enrich people’s lives with seamless wireless connectivity, delivering fast, rich content and services.

[0006] Further enhancements to the operation of LTE and NR systems in both licensed and unlicensed spectrum are expected in future releases of 5G and beyond communication systems. Such enhanced operations can includeAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1techniques for configuring enhanced carrier-specific scaling factor (CSSF) and serving cell measurements.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0007] In the figures, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numerals may describe similar components in different views. Like numerals having different letter suffixes may represent different instances of similar components. The figures illustrate, generally, by way of example, but not by way of limitation, various aspects discussed in the present document.

[0008] FIG. 1 A illustrates the architecture of a network, in accordance with some aspects.

[0009] FIG. IB and FIG. 1C illustrate a non-roaming 5G system architecture, in accordance with some aspects.

[0010] FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 4, and FIG. 5 illustrate various systems, architectures, devices, and components that may implement aspects of disclosed embodiments.

[0011] FIG. 6 illustrates an example artificial intelligence (Al)-assisted communication architecture for communication between a UE and a RAN, in accordance with some aspects.

[0012] FIG. 7 illustrates an example RAN split architecture, in accordance with some aspects.

[0013] FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of a communication device such as an evolved Node-B (eNB), a new generation Node-B (gNB) (or another RAN node), an NCR, an access point (AP), a wireless station (STA), a mobile station (MS), or user equipment (UE), in accordance with some aspects.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014] The following detailed description provides illustrative examples and embodiments of the present technological development, which pertains to advancements in serving cell measurement configurations and enhanced carrierspecific scaling factors within the context of 5G and beyond wireless communication systems. This technological development is generally directed toward improving radio resource management (RRM) and measurement techniques in next-generation networks, including 5GNew Radio (NR) and future 6G systems. These improvements address challenges related to efficient measurement reporting, carrier aggregation, and on-demand synchronizationAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1signal block (SSB) configurations, thereby enhancing system mobility performance and network efficiency.

[0015] The examples and embodiments described herein are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the described subject matter. Certain well-known elements, protocols, and processes may be omitted or simplified for clarity, as they are readily understood by those skilled in the art. Furthermore, various modifications, rearrangements, or substitutions of components and steps may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the described subject matter, as defined by the appended claims. The described subject matter encompasses all such variations and equivalents that fall within the intended scope.

[0016] As used herein, the term “On-demand synchronization signal block (OD-SSB)” indicates a Synchronization Signal Block that is transmitted on-demand by the network for energy savings, activated when needed for measurements or synchronization.

[0017] As used herein, the term “always-on synchronization signal block (SSB)” indicates a Synchronization Signal Block that is continuously and periodically transmitted by the network.

[0018] As used herein, the term “deactivated secondary cell (SCell)” indicates a Secondary Cell that is not activated, where the UE does not monitor PDCCH but may perform measurements if configured, with deactivation triggered by a command or timer expiry.

[0019] As used herein, the term “primary cell (PCell)” indicates the cell operating on the primary frequency in which the UE performs initial connection establishment or re-establishment, or the primary cell in a master cell group.

[0020] As used herein, the term “carrier aggregation (CA)” indicates the aggregation of two or more component carriers to support wider transmission bandwidths, allowing a UE to simultaneously receive or transmit on multiple CCs.

[0021] As used herein, the term “standalone (SA) mode” indicates a mode of operation where the UE is connected to the 5G core network via NR RAN without the involvement of E-UTRA or EPC.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0022] As used herein, the term “frequency range 1 (FR1)” indicates the frequency range designation for bands from 410 MHz to 7125 MHz.

[0023] As used herein, the term “frequency range 2 (FR2)” indicates the frequency range designation for bands from 24250 MHz to 52600 MHz.

[0024] As used herein, the term “user equipment (UE) searcher” indicates a processing resource in the UE used for searching and measuring reference signals such as SSB or CSI-RS in parallel, supporting the monitoring of multiple layers.

[0025] As used herein, the term “measurement gap” indicates configured periods during which the UE interrupts reception from the serving cell to perform measurements on other frequencies or RATs.

[0026] As used herein, the term “outside-gap measurement” indicates measurements conducted by the UE without requiring measurement gaps, typically for intra-frequency or supported inter-frequency scenarios where SMTC does not overlap with gaps.

[0027] As used herein, the term “fast measurement window” indicates a defined time window during which the UE prioritizes and performs measurements on OD-SSB to produce a single rapid report before ceasing measurements.

[0028] As used herein, the term “measurement sharing factor” indicates a factor used in the calculation of CSSF to determine how measurement resources are shared among different measurement objects or types.

[0029] As used herein, the term “carrier-specific scaling factor (CSSF)” indicates a scaling factor applied to measurement periods and delays to account for the number of carriers and measurement objects configured for the UE.

[0030] As used herein, the term “Layer 3 (L3) measurements” indicates measurements performed at Layer 3, involving filtering of Layer 1 measurements for purposes such as mobility and radio resource management.

[0031] As used herein, the term “synchronization signal block (SSB) periodicity” indicates the repetition interval at which the SSB is transmitted by the network, configurable as 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, or 160 ms.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0032] As used herein, the term “measurement cycle” indicates the periodic interval over which the UE performs measurements, often aligned with the DRX cycle or SMTC periodicity.

[0033] As used herein, the term “measurement object” indicates a configuration provided by the network specifying the frequency, cells, and reference signals (e.g., SSB, CSI-RS) on which the UE shall perform measurements.

[0034] As used herein, the term “primary component carrier (PCC)” indicates the component carrier associated with the Primary Cell (PCell), on which the UE performs initial access and carries primary control signaling.

[0035] As used herein, the term “primary secondary component carrier (PSCC)” indicates the component carrier associated with the Primary SCG Cell (PSCell) in dual connectivity scenarios.

[0036] As used herein, the term “secondary component carrier (SCC)” indicates a component carrier associated with a Secondary Cell (SCell), providing additional bandwidth in carrier aggregation.

[0037] As used herein, the term “retuning between OD-SSB frequencies” indicates the process by which the UE adjusts its radio frequency tuning to switch between different frequencies for measuring OD-SSB, with RF retuning times specified.

[0038] As used herein, the term “network indication (per-UE RRC indication)” indicates a signaling mechanism via RRC where the network provides specific indications or configurations to individual UEs.

[0039] As used herein, the term “OD-SSB activation” indicates the process of enabling the transmission of on-demand SSB by the network when required.

[0040] As used herein, the term “OD-SSB deactivation” indicates the process of disabling the transmission of on-demand SSB by the network when it is no longer needed.

[0041] As used herein, the term “equal sharing scheme” indicates a scheme for sharing measurement gaps or resources equally among different measurement objects or types.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0042] As used herein, the term “ratio-based sharing scheme” indicates a scheme for sharing measurement gaps or resources based on a predefined ratio, often configured by the network.

[0043] As used herein, the term “intra-band carrier” indicates component carriers that are within the same frequency band.

[0044] As used herein, the term “NSSC_SSB” indicates the number of simultaneous SSB-based measurements the UE can perform on serving cells.

[0045] As used herein, the term “NSSC CSIRS” indicates the number of simultaneous CSI-RS-based measurements the UE can perform on serving cells.

[0046] As used herein, the term “NSSC_CCA_RSSI / CO” indicates the number of simultaneous measurements for clear channel assessment RS SI or channel occupancy on serving cells.

[0047] As used herein, the term “NSSC ODSSB” indicates the number of simultaneous OD-SSB-based measurements the UE can perform on serving cells.

[0048] As used herein, the term “variables Y and Z in CSSF formula” indicates parameters used in the carrier-specific scaling factor formula to adjust measurement delays based on configuration.

[0049] As used herein, the term “legacy deactivated SCell measurements” indicates measurements performed on deactivated Secondary Cells using traditional always-on SSB or standard procedures without OD-SSB enhancements.

[0050] As used herein, the term “reporting delay” indicates the time between an event occurrence or measurement completion and the transmission of the measurement report by the UE.

[0051] As used herein, the term “fallback to legacy measurements” indicates reverting to traditional measurement procedures when enhanced or on-demand methods are not applicable or fail.

[0052] As used herein, the term “UE baseband resources for RRM measurement” indicates the processing capabilities and resources in the UE's baseband used for performing radio resource management measurements, such as parallel searchers or measurement slots.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0053] FIG. 1 A - FIG. 8 illustrate various systems, devices, and components that may implement aspects of disclosed embodiments in different communication systems, such as LTE (EUTRA) and 5G-NR (and beyond) networks. UEs, base stations (such as gNBs), and / or other nodes (e.g., satellites or other computing nodes) discussed herein can be configured to perform the disclosed techniques.

[0054] FIG. 1 A illustrates the architecture of a network in accordance with some aspects. The communication network 140A is illustrated as including user equipment (UE) 101 and UE 102. The UE 101 and UE 102 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks) but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), pagers, laptop computers, desktop computers, wireless handsets, drones, or any other computing device including a wired and / or wireless communications interface. UE 101 and UE 102 can be collectively referred to herein as UE 101, and UE 101 can be used to perform one or more of the techniques disclosed herein.

[0055] Any of the radio links described herein (e.g., as used in the communication network 140 A or any other illustrated network) may operate according to any exemplary radio communication technology and / or standard.

[0056] LTE and LTE-Advanced are standards for high-speed wireless data communications for UEs, such as mobile telephones. In LTE-Advanced and various wireless systems, carrier aggregation is a technology that allows multiple carrier signals operating on different frequencies to be used to carry communications for a single UE, thereby increasing the bandwidth available to a single device. In some aspects, carrier aggregation may be used where one or more component carriers operate on unlicensed frequencies.

[0057] Aspects described herein can be used in the context of any spectrum management scheme, including, for example, dedicated licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, (licensed) shared spectrum (such as Licensed Shared Access (LSA) in 2.3-2.4 GHz, 3.4-3.6 GHz, 3.6-3.8 GHz, and further frequencies and Spectrum Access System (SAS) in 3.55-3.7 GHz and further frequencies).AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0058] Aspects described herein can also be applied to different Single Carrier or OFDM flavors (CP-OFDM, DFT-S-OFDM, SC-FDMA, SC-OFDM, filter bank-based multicarrier (FBMC), OFDMA, etc.) and, in particular, 3GPP NR (New Radio) by allocating the OFDM carrier data bit vectors to the corresponding symbol resources.

[0059] In some aspects, any of the UE 101 and UE 102 can include an Internet-of-Things (loT) UE or a Cellular loT (CIoT) UE, which can include a network access layer designed for low-power loT applications utilizing shortlived UE connections. In some aspects, any of the UE 101 and UE 102 can include a narrowband (NB) loT UE (e.g., an enhanced NB-IoT (eNB-IoT) UE and a Further Enhanced (FeNB-IoT) UE). An loT UE can utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type communications (MTC) for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity -Based Service (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, or loT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An loT network includes interconnecting loT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure) with short-lived connections. The loT UEs may execute background applications (e.g., keepalive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the loT network.

[0060] In some aspects, any of the UE 101 and UE 102 can include enhanced MTC (eMTC) UEs or further enhanced MTC (FeMTC) UEs.

[0061] The UE 101 and UE 102 may be configured to connect, e.g., communicatively coupled, with a radio access network (RAN) 110. The RAN 110 may be, for example, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), a NextGen RAN (NG RAN), or some other type of RAN. The UE 101 and UE 102 utilize connections 103 and 104, respectively, each of which includes a physical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below); in this example, the connections 103 and 104 are illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols, such as a Global System for Mobile CommunicationsAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1(GSM) protocol, a code-division multiple access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3 GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a fifth-generation (5G) protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, and the like.

[0062] In an aspect, the UE 101 and UE 102 may further directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 105. The ProSe interface 105 may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink interface comprising one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), and a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH).

[0063] The UE 102 is shown to be configured to access an access point (AP) 106 via connection 107. The connection 107 can include a local wireless connection, such as, for example, a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, according to which the AP 106 can include a wireless fidelity (WiFi) router. In this example, the AP 106 is shown to be connected to the Internet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below).

[0064] The RAN 110 can include one or more access nodes that enable connections 103 and 104. These access nodes (ANs) can be referred to as base stations (BSs), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), Next Generation NodeBs (gNBs), RAN network nodes, and the like, and can include ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). In some aspects, communication nodes 111 and 112 can be transmission / reception points (TRPs). In instances when the communication nodes 111 and 112 are NodeBs (e.g., eNBs or gNBs), one or more TRPs can function within the communication cell of the NodeBs. The RAN 110 may include one or more RAN nodes for providing macrocells, e.g., macro RAN nodes, and one or more RAN nodes for providing femtocells or picocells (e.g., cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells), e.g., low power (LP) RAN node or an unlicensed spectrum-based secondary RAN node.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0065] Any of the communication nodes 111 and 112 can terminate the air interface protocol and can be the first point of contact for UE 101 and UE 102. In some aspects, any of the communication nodes 111 and 112 can fulfill various logical functions for the RAN 110, including, but not limited to, the radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink, and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling, and mobility management. In an example, any of the communication nodes 111 and / or 112 can be a new generation Node-B (gNB), an evolved node-B (eNB), or another type of RAN node.

[0066] The RAN 110 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) 120 via an SI interface 113. In aspects, the CN 120 may be an evolved packet core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network, or some other type of CN (e.g., as illustrated in FIGS. 1B-1C). In this aspect, the SI interface 113 is split into two parts: the Sl-U interface 114, which carries user traffic data between the communication nodes 111 and 112 and the serving gateway (S-GW) 122, and the SI -mobility management entity (MME) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between the communication nodes 111 and 112 and MMEs 121.

[0067] In this aspect, the CN 120 comprises the MMEs 121, the S-GW 122, the Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) 123, and a home subscriber server (HSS) 124. The MMEs 121 may be similar in function to the control plane of legacy Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Nodes (SGSN). The MMEs 121 may manage mobility aspects in access, such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. The HSS 124 may comprise a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities' handling of communication sessions. The CN 120 may comprise one or several HSSs 124, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, the capacity of the equipment, the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 124 can provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc.

[0068] The S-GW 122 may terminate the SI interface 113 towards the RAN 110 and route data packets between the RAN 110 and the CN 120. In addition,AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1the S-GW 122 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and may also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities of the S-GW 122 may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0069] The P-GW 123 may terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN. The P-GW 123 may route data packets between the EPC network (e.g., CN 120) and external networks, such as a network including the application server 184 (alternatively referred to as application function (AF)) via an Internet Protocol (IP) interface 125. The P-GW 123 can also communicate data to external networks 131 A, including the Internet, the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network, and other networks. Generally, the application server 184 may be an element offering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Services (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). In this aspect, the P-GW 123 is shown to be communicatively coupled to an application server 184 via an IP interface 125. The application server 184 can also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UE 101 and UE 102 via the CN 120.

[0070] The P-GW 123 may further be a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) 126 is the policy and charging control element of the CN 120. In a non-roaming scenario, in some aspects, there may be a single PCRF in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with a UE's Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with a local breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with a UE's IP-CAN session: a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within an HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF 126 may be communicatively coupled to the application server 184 via the P-GW 123.

[0071] In some aspects, the communication network 140 A can be an loT network or a 5G network, including a 5G new radio network using communications in the licensed (5GNR) and the unlicensed (5GNR-U) spectrum. One of the current enablers of loT is the narrowband loT (NB-IoT).AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0072] An NG system architecture can include the RAN 110 and a 5G core network (e.g., CN 120). RAN 110 in an NG system can be referred to as NG-RAN. The RAN 110 can include a plurality of nodes, such as gNBs and NG-eNBs. The CN 120 (also referred to as a 5G core network or 5GC) can include an access and mobility function (AMF) and / or a user plane function (UPF). The AMF and the UPF can be communicatively coupled to the gNBs and the NG-eNBs via NG interfaces. More specifically, in some aspects, the gNBs and the NG-eNBs can be connected to the AMF by NG-C interfaces and the UPF by NG-U interfaces. The gNBs and the NG-eNBs can be coupled to each other via Xn interfaces.

[0073] In some aspects, the NG system architecture can use reference points between various nodes as provided by 3 GPP Technical Specification (TS) 23.501 (e.g., V15.4.0, 2018-12). In some aspects, each of the gNBs and the NG-eNBs can be implemented as a base station, a mobile edge server, a small cell, a home eNB, a RAN network node, and so forth. In some aspects, a gNB can be a master node (MN), and an NG-eNB can be a secondary node (SN) in a 5G architecture. In some aspects, the master / primary node may operate in a licensed band, and the secondary node may operate in an unlicensed band.

[0074] FIG. IB illustrates a non-roaming 5G system architecture in accordance with some aspects. Referring to FIG. IB, there is illustrated a 5G system architecture 140B in a reference point representation. More specifically, UE 102 can be in communication with RAN 110 as well as one or more other 5G core (5GC) network entities. The 5G system architecture 140B includes a plurality of network functions (NFs), such as access and mobility management function (AMF) 132, location management function (LMF) 133, session management function (SMF) 136, policy control function (PCF) 148, application function (AF) 150, user plane function (UPF) 134, network slice selection function (NSSF) 142, authentication server function (AUSF) 144, and unified data management (UDM) / home subscriber server (HSS) 146. The UPF 134 can provide a connection to a data network (DN) 152, which can include, for example, operator services, Internet access, or third-party services. The AMF 132 can be used to manage access control and mobility, and can also include network slice selection functionality. The SMF 136 can be configured to set up and manage various sessions in accordance with network policy. The UPF 134AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1can be deployed in one or more configurations according to the desired service type. The PCF 148 can be configured to provide a policy framework using network slicing, mobility management, and roaming (similar to PCRF in a 4G communication system). The UDM can be configured to store subscriber profiles and data (similar to an HSS in a 4G communication system).

[0075] The LMF 133 may be used in connection with 5G positioning functionalities. In some aspects, LMF 133 receives measurements and assistance information from the RAN 110 and the mobile device (e.g., UE 101) via the AMF 132 over the NLs interface to compute the position of the UE 101. In some aspects, NR positioning protocol A (NRPPa) may be used to carry the positioning information between NG-RAN and LMF 133 over a next-generation control plane interface (NG-C). In some aspects, LMF 133 configures the UE using the LTE positioning protocol (LPP) via AMF 132. The RAN 110 configures the UE 101 using radio resource control (RRC) protocol over LTE-Uu and NR-Uu interfaces.

[0076] In some aspects, the 5G system architecture 140B configures different reference signals to enable positioning measurements. Example reference signals that may be used for positioning measurements include the positioning reference signal (NR PRS) in the downlink and the sounding reference signal (SRS) for positioning in the uplink. The downlink positioning reference signal (PRS) is a reference signal configured to support downlink-based positioning methods.

[0077] In some aspects, the 5G system architecture 140B includes an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) 168B as well as a plurality of IP multimedia core network subsystem entities, such as call session control functions (CSCFs). More specifically, the IMS 168B includes a CSCF, which can act as a proxy CSCF (P-CSCF) 162B, a serving CSCF (S-CSCF) 164B, an emergency CSCF (E-CSCF) (not illustrated in FIG. IB), or an interrogating CSCF (I-CSCF) 166B. The P-CSCF 162B can be configured to be the first contact point for the UE 102 within the IMS 168B. The S-CSCF 164B can be configured to handle the session states in the network, and the E-CSCF can be configured to handle certain aspects of emergency sessions, such as routing an emergency request to the correct emergency center or PSAP. The LCSCF 166B can be configured toAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1function as the contact point within an operator's network for all IMS connections destined to a subscriber of that network operator or a roaming subscriber currently located within that network operator's service area. In some aspects, the I-CSCF 166B can be connected to another IP multimedia network 170, e.g., an IMS operated by a different network operator.

[0078] In some aspects, the UDM / HSS 146 can be coupled to an application server (AS) 160B, which can include a telephony application server (TAS) or another AS. The AS 160B can be coupled to the IMS 168B via the S-CSCF 164B or the I-CSCF 166B.

[0079] A reference point representation shows that interaction can exist between corresponding NF services. For example, FIG. IB illustrates the following reference points: N1 (between the UE 102 and the AMF 132), N2 (between the RAN 110 and the AMF 132), N3 (between the RAN 110 and the UPF 134), N4 (between the SMF 136 and the UPF 134), N5 (between the PCF 148 and the AF 150, not shown), N6 (between the UPF 134 and the DN 152), N7 (between the SMF 136 and the PCF 148, not shown), N8 (between the UDM / HSS 146 and the AMF 132, not shown), N9 (between two UPFs, not shown), N10 (between the UDM / HSS 146 and the SMF 136, not shown), Nil (between the AMF 132 and the SMF 136, not shown), N12 (between the AUSF 144 and the AMF 132, not shown), N13 (between the AUSF 144 and the UDM / HSS 146, not shown), N14 (between two AMFs, not shown), N15 (between the PCF 148 and the AMF 132 in case of a non-roaming scenario, or between the PCF 148 and a visited network and AMF 132 in case of a roaming scenario, not shown), N16 (between two SMFs, not shown), and N22 (between AMF 132 and NSSF 142, not shown). Other reference point representations not shown in FIG. IB can also be used.

[0080] FIG. 1C illustrates a 5G system architecture 140C and a service-based representation. In addition to the network entities illustrated in FIG. IB, the 5G system architecture 140C can also include a network exposure function (NEF) 154 and a network repository function (NRF) 156. In some aspects, 5G system architectures can be service-based, and interaction between network functions can be represented by corresponding point-to-point reference points Ni or as service-based interfaces.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0081] In some aspects, as illustrated in FIG. 1C, service-based representations can be used to represent network functions within the control plane that enable other authorized network functions to access their services. In this regard, 5G system architecture 140C can include the following servicebased interfaces: Namf 158H (a service-based interface exhibited by the AMF 132), Nsmf 1581 (a service-based interface exhibited by the SMF 136), Nnef 158B (a service-based interface exhibited by the NEF 154), Npcf 158D (a service-based interface exhibited by the PCF 148), a Nudm 158E (a servicebased interface exhibited by the UDM / HSS 146), Naf 158F (a service-based interface exhibited by the AF 150), Nnrf 158C (a service-based interface exhibited by the NRF 156), Nnssf 158A (a service-based interface exhibited by the NSSF 142), Nausf 158G (a service-based interface exhibited by the AUSF 144). Other service-based interfaces (e.g., Nudr, N5g-eir, and Nudsf) not shown in FIG. 1C can also be used.

[0082] FIG. 2 depicts an example network architecture 200. The network architecture 200 may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G / NR systems and can implement the disclosed techniques (e.g., the disclosed techniques can be configured / implemented by one or more devices operating within the network architecture 200). However, the example embodiments are not limited in this regard, and the described examples may apply to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3 GPP systems or the like.

[0083] The network architecture 200 includes a UE 202, which is any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN 204 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 202 is communicatively coupled with the RAN 204 by a Uu interface, which may be applicable to both LTE and NR systems. Examples of the UE 202 include, but are not limited to, a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable device (e.g., smart watch, fitness tracker, smart glasses, smart clothing / fabrics, head-mounted displays, smart shoes, and / or the like), desktop computer, workstation, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment system, in-car entertainment system, instrument cluster, head-up display (HUD) device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electronic / engine control unit, electronic / engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller,AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, machine-to-machine (M2M), device-to-device (D2D), machine-type communication (MTC) device, Internet of Things (loT) device, smart appliance, flying drone or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), terrestrial drone or autonomous vehicle, robot, electronic signage, single-board computer (SBC) (e.g., Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Intel Edison, and the like), plug computers, and / or any type of computing device such as any of those discussed herein.

[0084] Additionally or alternatively, the UE 202 can be a reduced capability (RedCap) UE, which is a UE with reduced capabilities as specified in clause 4.2.21.1 in 3GPP TS 38.306 vl7.4.0 (2023-03-30) (“[TS38306]”).

[0085] The network architecture 200 may include a set of UEs 202 coupled directly with one another via a D2D, ProSe, PC5, and / or SL interface, and / or any other suitable interface such as any of those discussed herein. These UEs 202 may be M2M / D2D / MTC / IoT devices and / or vehicular systems that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, and the like. The UE 202 may perform blind decoding attempts of SL channel s / links according to the various examples herein.

[0086] In some examples, the UE 202 may additionally communicate with an AP 206 via an over-the-air (OTA) connection. The AP 206 manages a WLAN connection, which may serve to offload some / or all network traffic from the RAN 204. The connection between the UE 202 and the AP 206 may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol. Additionally, the UE 202, RAN 204, and AP 206 may utilize cellular- WLAN aggregation / integration (e.g., LWA / LWIP). Cellular- WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 202 being configured by the RAN 204 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

[0087] The RAN 204 includes one or more access network nodes (ANs) 208. The ANs 208 terminate air interface(s) for the UE 202 by providing access to stratum protocols, including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and PHY / L1 protocols. In this manner, the AN 208 enables data / voice connectivity between CN 220 and the UE 202. The ANs 208 may be a macrocell base station or a low-power base station for providing femtocells, picocells, or other like cells having smallerAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells, or some combination thereof. In these implementations, an AN 208 can be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, and the like.

[0088] One example implementation is a “CU / DU split” architecture where the ANs 208 are embodied as a gNB-Central Unit (CU) that is communicatively coupled with one or more gNB -Distributed Units (DUs), where each DU may be communicatively coupled with one or more Radio Units (RUs) (also referred to as RRHs, RRUs, or the like) (see e.g., [TS38401]). In some implementations, the one or more RUs may be individual RSUs. In some implementations, the CU / DU split may include an ng-eNB-CU and one or more ng-eNB-DUs instead of, or in addition to, the gNB-CU and gNB-DUs, respectively. The ANs 208 employed as the CU may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of, for example, a virtual network including a virtual Base Band Unit (BBU) or BBU pool, cloud RAN (CRAN), Radio Equipment Controller (REC), Radio Cloud Center (RCC), centralized RAN (C-RAN), virtualized RAN (vRAN), and / or the like (although these terms may refer to different implementation concepts). Any other type of architecture, arrangements, and / or configurations can be used.

[0089] The set of ANs may be coupled with one another via an X2 interface (if the RAN 204 is an LTE RAN or Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) 210) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 204 is an NG-RAN 214). The X2 / Xn interfaces, which may be separated into control / user plane interfaces in some examples, may allow the ANs to communicate information related to handovers, data / context transfers, mobility, load management, interference coordination, and the like.

[0090] The ANs of the RAN 204 may each manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, and the like to provide the UE 202 with an air interface for network access. The UE 202 may be simultaneously connected with a set of cells provided by the same or different ANs 208 of the RAN 204. For example, the UE 202 and RAN 204 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 202 to connect with a set of component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or Scell. In dual connectivity scenarios, a first AN 208 may be a masterAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1node that provides an MCG, and a second AN 208 may be a secondary node that provides an SCG. The first / second ANs 208 may be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-eNB, and the like.

[0091] The RAN 204 may provide the air interface over a licensed spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum. To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may use LAA, eLAA, and / or feLAA mechanisms based on CA technology with PCells / Scells. Prior to accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may perform medium / carrier-sensing operations based on, for example, a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0092] Additionally or alternatively, individual UEs 202 provide radio information to one or more ANs 208 and / or one or more edge compute nodes (e.g., edge servers / hosts and the like). The radio information may be in the form of one or more measurement reports and may include, for example, signal strength measurements, signal quality measurements, and / or the like. Each measurement report is tagged with a timestamp and the location of the measurement (e.g., the UE’s 202 current location). As examples, the measurements collected by the UEs 202 and / or included in the measurement reports may include one or more of the following: bandwidth (BW), network or cell load, latency jitter, round trip time (RTT), number of interrupts, out-of-order delivery of data packets, transmission power, bit error rate, bit error ratio (BER), Block Error Rate (BLER), packet error ratio (PER), packet loss rate, packet reception rate (PRR), data rate, peak data rate, end-to-end (e2e) delay, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-noise and interference ratio (SINR), signal-plus-noise-plus-distortion to noise-plus-distortion (SINAD) ratio, carrier-to-interference plus noise ratio (CINR), Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN), energy per bit to noise power density ratio (Eb / NO), energy per chip to interference power density ratio (Ec / 10), energy per chip to noise power density ratio (Ec / NO), peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), reference signal received power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Path Power (RSRPP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), received signal strength indicator (RS SI), received channel power indicator (RCPI), received signal to noise indicator (RSNI), Received Signal Code Power (RSCP), reference signal carrier phase (RSCP), reference signal carrier phase difference (RSCPD), carrier phase positioning (CPP), Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD), SidelinkAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1Synchronization Signal Block (S-SSB) measurements including SSB RP (Received (linear) average power of the resource elements that carry NR SSB signals and channels, measured at the UE antenna connector or radiated interface boundary) and / or the like, Relative Time Difference (RTD), receiver (Rx) time delay, Rx Timing Error, transmitter (Tx) time delay, Tx Timing Error, NR E-CID, Observed Time Difference Of Arrival (OTDOA), average noise plus interference (ANPI), GNSS timing of cell frames for UE positioning for E-UTRAN or 5G / NR (e.g., a timing between an AP or RAN node reference time and a GNSS-specific reference time for a given GNSS), GNSS code measurements (e.g., the GNSS code phase (integer and fractional parts) of the spreading code of the ith GNSS satellite signal), GNSS carrier phase measurements (e.g., the number of carrier-phase cycles (integer and fractional parts) of the ith GNSS satellite signal, measured since locking onto the signal; also called Accumulated Delta Range (ADR)), channel interference measurements, thermal noise power measurements, received interference power measurements, power histogram measurements, channel load measurements, STA statistics, and / or other like measurements. The RSRP, RSSI, and / or RSRQ measurements may include RSRP, RSSI, and / or RSRQ measurements of cellspecific reference signals, channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), and / or synchronization signals (SS) or SS blocks for 3GPP networks (e.g., LTE or 5G / NR), and RSRP, RSSI, RSRQ, RCPI, RSNI, and / or ANPI measurements of various beacon, Fast Initial Link Setup (FILS) discovery frames, or probe response frames for WLAN / WiFi (e.g., [IEEE80211]) networks. Other measurements may be additionally or alternatively used, such as those discussed in 3GPP TS 36.214 vl7.0.0 (2022-03-31) (“[TS36214]”), 3GPP TS 38.215 V17.3.0 (2023-03-30) (“[TS38215]”), 3GPP TS 38.314 vl7.2.0 (2023-01-13) (“[TS38314]”), IEEE Standard for Information Technology- Telecommunications and Information Exchange between Systems - Local and Metropolitan Area Networks— Specific Requirements - Part 11 : Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications, IEEE Std 802.11-2020, pp.1-4379 (26 Feb. 2021) (“[IEEE80211]”), and / or the like. Additionally or alternatively, any of the measurements above (or a combination of measurements) may be collected by one or more ANs 208 and provided to the edge compute node(s).AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0093] Additionally or alternatively, the measurements can include one or more of the following measurements: measurements related to Data Radio Bearer (DRB) (e.g., number of DRBs attempted to set up, number of DRBs successfully set up, number of released active DRBs, in-session activity time for DRB, number of DRBs attempted to be resumed, number of DRBs successfully resumed, and the like); measurements related to Radio Resource Control (RRC) (e.g., mean number of RRC connections, maximum number of RRC connections, mean number of stored inactive RRC connections, maximum number of stored inactive RRC connections, number of attempted, successful, and / or failed RRC connection establishments, and the like); measurements related to UE Context (UECNTX); measurements related to Radio Resource Utilization (RRU) (e.g., DL total PRB usage, UL total PRB usage, distribution of DL total PRB usage, distribution of UL total PRB usage, DL PRB used for data traffic, UL PRB used for data traffic, DL total available PRBs, UL total available PRBs, and the like); measurements related to Registration Management (RM); measurements related to Session Management (SM) (e.g., number of PDU sessions requested to set up; number of PDU sessions successfully set up; number of PDU sessions failed to set up, and the like); measurements related to GTP Management (GTP); measurements related to IP Management (IP); measurements related to Policy Association (PA); measurements related to Mobility Management (MM) (e.g., for inter-RAT, intra-RAT, and / or Intra / Inter-frequency handovers and / or conditional handovers: number of requested, successful, and / or failed handover preparations; number of requested, successful, and / or failed handover resource allocations; number of requested, successful, and / or failed handover executions; mean and / or maximum time of requested handover executions; number of successful and / or failed handover executions per beam pair, and the like); measurements related to Virtualized Resource(s) (VR); measurements related to Carrier (CARR); measurements related to QoS Flows (QF) (e.g., number of released active QoS flows, number of QoS flows attempted to release, in-session activity time for QoS flow, in-session activity time for a UE 202, number of QoS flows attempted to set up, number of QoS flows successfully established, number of QoS flows failed to set up, number of initial QoS flows attempted to set up, number of initial QoS flows successfully established, number of initial QoS flows failed to set up, number of QoS flowsAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1attempted to modify, number of QoS flows successfully modified, number of QoS flows failed to modify, and the like); measurements related to Application Triggering (AT); measurements related to Short Message Service (SMS); measurements related to Power, Energy and Environment (PEE); measurements related to NF service (NFS); measurements related to Packet Flow Description (PFD); measurements related to Random Access Channel (RACH); measurements related to Measurement Report (MR); measurements related to Layer 1 Measurement (L1M); measurements related to Network Slice Selection (NSS); measurements related to Paging (PAG); measurements related to Non-IP Data Delivery (NIDD); measurements related to external parameter provisioning (EPP); measurements related to traffic influence (TI); measurements related to Connection Establishment (CE); measurements related to Service Parameter Provisioning (SPP); measurements related to Background Data Transfer Policy (BDTP); measurements related to Data Management (DM); and / or any other performance measurements such as those discussed in 3GPP TS 28.552 vl7.3.1 (2021-06-24) (“[TS28552]”), 3GPP TS 32.425 vl7.1.0 (2021-06-24) (“[TS32425]”), and / or the like.

[0094] The radio information may be reported in response to a trigger event and / or on a periodic basis. Additionally or alternatively, individual UEs 202 report radio information either at a low periodicity or a high periodicity depending on a data transfer that is to take place and / or other information about the data transfer. Additionally or alternatively, the edge compute node(s) may request the measurements from the ANs 208 at low or high periodicity, or the ANs 208 may provide the measurements to the edge compute node(s) at low or high periodicity. Additionally or alternatively, the edge compute node(s) may obtain other relevant data from other edge compute node(s), core network functions (NFs), application functions (AFs), and / or other UEs 202 such as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), with the measurement reports or separately from the measurement reports.

[0095] Additionally or alternatively, in cases where there is a discrepancy in the observation data from one or more UEs, one or more RAN nodes, and / or core network NFs (e.g., missing reports, erroneous data, and the like), simple imputations may be performed to supplement the obtained observation data, such as, for example, substituting values from previous reports and / or historicalAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1data, applying an extrapolation filter, and / or the like. Additionally or alternatively, acceptable bounds for the observation data may be predetermined or configured. For example, CQI and MCS measurements may be configured to only be within ranges defined by suitable 3GPP standards. In cases where a reported data value does not make sense (e.g., it exceeds acceptable range or bounds), such values may be dropped for the current learning / training episode or epoch. For example, during packet delivery, delay bounds may be defined or configured, and packets determined to have been received after the delay bound may be dropped.

[0096] The UE 202 can also perform reference signal (RS) measurement and reporting procedures to provide the network with information about the quality of one or more wireless channels and / or the communication media in general, and this information can be used to optimize various aspects of the communication system. As examples, the measurement and reporting procedures performed by the UE 202 can include those discussed in 3GPP TS 38.211 V17.4.0 (2023-01-04) (“[TS38211]”), 3GPP TS 38.212 vl7.4.0 (2023-01-04) (“[TS38212]”), 3GPP TS 38.213 vl7.4.0 (2023-01-04) (“[TS38213]”), 3GPP TS 38.214 vl7.4.0 (2023-01-04) (“[TS38214]”), [TS38215], 3GPP TS 38.101-1 V18.0.0 (2023-01-12) (“[TS38.101-1]”), 3GPP TS 38.104 vl8.0.0 (2023-01-10) (“[TS38104]”), 3GPP TS 38.133 vl8.0.0 (2023-01-12) (“[TS38133]”), [TS38331], and / or the like. The physical signals and / or Rscan include demodulation reference signals (DM-RS), phase-tracking reference signals (PT-RS), positioning reference signal (PRS), channel-state information reference signal (CSI-RS), synchronization signal block (SSB), primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and sounding reference signal (SRS).

[0097] In any of the examples discussed herein, any suitable data collection and / or measurement mechanism(s) may be used to collect the observation data. For example, data marking (e.g., sequence numbering and the like), packet tracing, signal measurement, data sampling, and / or timestamping techniques may be used to determine any of the aforementioned metrics / observations. The collection of data may be based on the occurrence of events that trigger the collection of the data. Additionally or alternatively, data collection may take place at the initiation or termination of an event. The data collection can beAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1continuous, discontinuous, and / or have start and stop times. The data collection techniques / mechanisms may be specific to an HW configuration / implementation or non-HW-specific or may be based on various software parameters (e.g., OS type and version, and the like). Various configurations may be used to define any of the aforementioned data collection parameters. Such configurations may be defined by suitable specifications / standards, such as 3GPP (e.g., [SA6Edge]), ETSI (e.g., [MEC]), O-RAN (e.g., [O-RAN]), Intel® Smart Edge Open (formerly OpenNESS) (e.g., [ISEO]), IETF (e.g., MAMS [RFC8743]), lEEE / WiFi (e.g., [IEEE80211], [WiMAX], [IEEE16090], and the like), and / or any other like standards such as those discussed herein.

[0098] In V2X scenarios, the UE 202 or AN 208 may be or act as a roadside unit (RSU), which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable AN or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a “UE-type RSU”; an eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU”; a gNB may be referred to as a “gNB-type RSU”; and the like. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located on a roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry to store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, and media, as well as applications / software to sense and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low-latency communications required for high-speed events, such as crash avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like.Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular / WLAN communications services. The components of the RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or a backhaul network. Furthermore, one or more V2X RATs may be employed, which allow V2X nodes to communicate directly with one another, with infrastructure equipment (e.g., AN 208), and / or other devices / nodes. In some implementations, at least two distinct V2X RATs may be used, including WLAN V2X (W-V2X) RATs based on IEEE V2X technologies (e.g., DSRC for the U.S. and ITS-G5 for Europe) and cellular V2X (C-V2X) RATs based on 3GPP V2X technologies (e.g., LTE V2X, 5G / NR V2X,AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1and beyond). In one example, the C-V2X RAT may utilize a C-V2X air interface, and the WLAN V2X RAT may utilize a W-V2X air interface.

[0099] The W-V2X RATs include, for example, IEEE Guide for Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) Architecture, IEEE Standards Association, IEEE 1609.0-2019 (10 Apr. 2019) (“[IEEE16090]”), V2X Communications Message Set Dictionary, SAE IntT (23 Jul. 2020) (“[J2735_202007]”), Intelligent Transport Systems in the 5 GHz frequency band (ITS-G5), the [IEEE8021 Ip] (which is the layer 1 (LI) and layer 2 (L2) part of WAVE, DSRC, and ITS-G5), and / or IEEE Standard for Air Interface for Broadband Wireless Access Systems, IEEE Std 802.16-2017, pp.1-2726 (02 Mar. 2018) (“[WiMAX]”). The term “DSRC” refers to vehicular communications in the 5.9 GHz frequency band that is generally used in the United States, while “ITS-G5” refers to vehicular communications in the 5.9 GHz frequency band in Europe. Since any number of different RATs are applicable (including [IEEE8021 Ip] RATs) that may be used in any geographic or political region, the terms “DSRC” (used, among other regions, in the U.S.) and “ITS-G5” (used, among other regions, in Europe) may be used interchangeably throughout this disclosure. The access layer for the ITS-G5 interface is outlined in ETSI EN 302663 VI.3.1 (2020-01) (hereinafter “[EN302663]”) and describes the access layer of the ITS-S reference architecture. The ITS-G5 access layer comprises [IEEE80211] (which now incorporates [IEEE8021 Ip]), as well as features for Decentralized Congestion Control (DCC) methods discussed in ETSI TS 102687 VI.2.1 (2018-04) (“[TS102687]”). The access layer for 3GPP LTE-V2X based interface(s) is outlined in, inter alia, ETSI EN 303 613 VI.1.1 (2020-01), 3GPP TS 23.285 V16.2.0 (2019-12); and 3GPP 5G / NR-V2X is outlined in, inter alia, 3GPP TR 23.786 V16.1.0 (2019-06) and 3GPP TS 23.287 vl8.0.0 (2023-03-31) (“[TS23287]”).

[0100] In examples where the RAN 204 is an E-UTRAN 210 with one or more eNBs 212, the E-UTRAN 210 provides an LTE air interface (Uu) with the parameters and characteristics at least as discussed in 3GPP TS 36.300 vl7.2.0 (2022-09-30) (“[TS36300]”). In examples where the RAN 204 is a next generation (NG)-RAN 214 with a set of gNBs 216. Each gNB 216 connects with 5G-enabled UEs 202 using a 5G-NR air interface (also referred to as the UuAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1interface), with parameters and characteristics as discussed in [TS38300], among many other 3GPP standards. Where the NG-RAN 214 includes a set of ng-eNBs 218, the one or more ng-eNBs 218 connect with a UE 202 via the 5G Uu and / or LTE Uu interface. The gNBs 216 and the ng-eNBs 218 connect with the 5GC 240 through respective NG interfaces, which include an N2 interface, an N3 interface, and / or other interfaces. The gNB 216 and the ng-eNB 218 are connected over an Xn interface. Additionally, individual gNBs 216 are connected via respective Xn interfaces, and individual ng-eNBs 218 are connected via respective Xn interfaces. In some examples, the NG interface may be split into two parts: an NG user plane (NG-U) interface, which carries traffic data between the nodes of the NG-RAN 214 and a UPF 248 (e.g., N3 interface), and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between the nodes of the NG-RAN 214 and an AMF 244 (e.g., N2 interface).

[0101] The NG-RAN 214 may provide a 5G-NR air interface (which may also be referred to as a Uu interface) with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM, and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polar, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller codes for control and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH / PDCCH DMRS, similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use a CRS but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation, PTRS for phase tracking for PDSCH, and tracking reference signal for time tracking. The 5G-NR air interface may operate on FR1 bands that include bands from 410 MHz to 7125 MHz or FR2 bands that include bands from 24.25 GHz to 71 GHz. The 5G-NR air interface may include an SSB, which is an area of a downlink resource grid that includes PSS / SSS / PBCH.

[0102] The 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWP can be used to adapt the SCS dynamically. For example, the UE 202 can be configured with multiple BWPs, with each BWP configuration having a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 202, the SCS of the transmission is changed as well. Another use case example of BWP is related to power saving. In particular, multiple BWPs can be configured for the UE 202 with different amounts of frequency resources (e.g., PRBs) to support data transmission under different traffic loading scenarios. A BWPAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1containing a smaller number of PRBs can be used for data transmission with a small traffic load while allowing power saving at the UE 202 and, in some cases, at the gNB 216. A BWP containing a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic load.

[0103] In some implementations, individual gNBs 216 can include a gNB-CU and a set of gNB-DUs. Additionally or alternatively, gNBs 216 can include one or more RUs. In these implementations, the gNB-CU may be connected to each gNB-DU via respective Fl interfaces. In the case of network sharing with multiple cell ID broadcasts, each cell identity associated with a subset of PLMNs corresponds to a gNB-DU, and the gNB-CU is connected to share the same physical layer of cell resources. For resiliency, a gNB-DU may be connected to multiple gNB-CUs by appropriate implementation. Additionally, a gNB-CU can be separated into gNB-CU control plane (gNB-CU-CP) and gNB-CU user plane (gNB-CU-UP) functions. The gNB-CU-CP is connected to a gNB-DU through an Fl control plane interface (Fl-C), the gNB-CU-UP is connected to the gNB-DU through an Fl user plane interface (Fl-U), and the gNB-CU-UP is connected to the gNB-CU-CP through an El interface. In some implementations, one gNB-DU is connected to only one gNB-CU-CP, and one gNB-CU-UP is connected to only one gNB-CU-CP. For resiliency, a gNB-DU and / or a gNB-CU-UP may be connected to multiple gNB-CU-CPs by the appropriate implementation. One gNB-DU can be connected to multiple gNB-CU-UPs under the control of the same gNB-CU-CP, and one gNB-CU-UP can be connected to multiple DUs under the control of the same gNB-CU-CP. Data forwarding between gNB-CU-UPs during intra-gNB-CU-CP handover within a gNB may be supported by Xn-U.

[0104] Similarly, individual ng-eNBs 218 can include an ng-eNB-CU and a set of ng-eNB-DUs. In these implementations, the ng-eNB-CU and each ng-eNB-DU are connected via respective W 1 interfaces. An ng-eNB can include an ng-eNB-CU-CP, one or more ng-eNB-CU-UP(s), and one or more ng-eNB-DU(s). An ng-eNB-CU-CP and an ng-eNB-CU-UP are connected via the El interface. An ng-eNB-DU is connected to an ng-eNB-CU-CP via the Wl-C interface and to an ng-eNB-CU-UP via the Wl-U interface. The general principle described herein with respect to gNB aspects also applies to ng-eNBAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1aspects and corresponding El and W1 interfaces if not explicitly specified otherwise.

[0105] The node hosting the user plane part of the PDCP protocol layer (e.g., gNB-CU, gNB-CU-UP, and for EN-DC, MeNB, or SgNB, depending on the bearer split) performs user inactivity monitoring. Further, it informs its inactivity or (re)activation to the node having a control plane connection towards the core network (e.g., over El, X2, or the like). The node hosting the RLC protocol layer (e.g., gNB-DU) may perform user inactivity monitoring and further inform its inactivity or (re)activation to the node hosting the control plane (e.g., gNB-CU or gNB-CU-CP).

[0106] In these implementations, the NG-RAN 214 is layered into a Radio Network Layer (RNL) and a Transport Network Layer (TNL). The NG-RAN 214 architecture (e.g., the NG-RAN logical nodes and interfaces between them) is part of the RNL. For each NG-RAN interface (e.g., NG, Xn, Fl, and the like), the related TNL protocol and the functionality are specified, for example, in [TS 38.401], The TNL provides services for user plane transport and / or signaling transport. In NG-Flex configurations, each NG-RAN node is connected to all AMFs, 244 of which are AMF sets within an AMF region, supporting at least one slice, also supported by the NG-RAN node. The AMF Set and the AMF Region are defined in [TS 23.501],

[0107] The RAN 204 is communicatively coupled to CN 220, which includes network elements and / or network functions (NFs) to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers / subscribers (e.g., UE 202). The components of the CN 220 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes. In some examples, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 220 onto physical compute / storage resources in servers, switches, and the like. A logical instantiation of the CN 220 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 220 may be referred to as a network subslice.

[0108] The CN 220 may be an LTE CN 220 (also referred to as an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) 222). The EPC 222 may include MME 224, SGW 226, SGSN 228, HSS 230, PGW 232, and PCRF 234 coupled with one another overAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. The NFs in the EPC 222 are briefly introduced as follows.

[0109] The MME 224 implements mobility management functions to track the current location of the UE 202 to facilitate paging, bearer activation / deactivation, handovers, gateway selection, authentication, and the like. The SGW 226 terminates an SI interface toward the RAN 210 and routes data packets between the RAN 210 and the EPC 222. The SGW 226 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and may also provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement. The SGSN 228 tracks the location of the UE 202 and performs security functions and access control. The SGSN 228 also performs inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 224; MME 224 selection for handovers; and the like. The S3 reference point between the MME 224 and the SGSN 228 enables user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in idle / active states. The HSS 230 includes a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions. The HSS 230 can provide support for routing / roaming, authentication, authorization, naming / addressing resolution, location dependencies, and the like. An S6a reference point between the HSS 230 and the MME 224 may enable the transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating / authorizing user access to the EPC 222. The PGW 232 may terminate an SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 236 that may include an application (app) / content server 238. The PGW 232 routes data packets between the EPC 222 and the data network 236. The PGW 232 is communicatively coupled with the SGW 226 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 232 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (e.g., PCEF). Additionally, the SGi reference point may communicatively couple the PGW 232 with the same or different data network 236. The PGW 232 may be communicatively coupled with a PCRF 234 via a Gx reference point. The PCRF 234 is the policy and charging control element of the EPC 222. The PCRF 234 is communicatively coupled to the app / content server 238 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for serviceAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1flows. The PCRF 234 also provisions associated rules into a PCEF (via Gx reference point) with appropriate TFT and QCI.

[0110] The CN 220 may be a 5GC 240, including an AUSF 242, AMF 244, SMF 246, UPF 248, NSSF 250, NEF 252, NRF 254, PCF 256, UDM 258, and AF 260 coupled with one another over various interfaces as shown. The NFs in the 5GC 240 are briefly introduced as follows.

[0111] The AUSF 242 stores data for UE 202 authentication and handles authentication-related functionality. The AUSF 242 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types.

[0112] The AMF 244 allows other functions of the 5GC 240 to communicate with the UE 202 and the RAN 204, and to subscribe to notifications about mobility events for the UE 202. The AMF 244 is also responsible for registration management (e.g., UE 202 registration), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 244 provides transport for SM messages between the UE 202 and the SMF 246 and acts as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. The AMF 244 also provides transport for SMS messages between the UE 202 and an SMSF. The AMF 244 interacts with the AUSF 242 and the UE 202 to perform various security-anchor and context-management functions. Furthermore, the AMF 244 is a termination point for a RAN-CP interface, which includes the N2 reference point between the RAN 204 and the AMF 244. The AMF 244 is also a termination point of NAS (Nl) signaling and performs NAS ciphering and integrity protection.

[0113] AMF 244 also supports NAS signaling with the UE 202 over an N3IWF interface. The N3IWF provides access to untrusted entities. N3IWF may be a termination point for the N2 interface between the RAN 204 and the AMF 244 for the control plane, and may be a termination point for the N3 reference point between the RAN 214 and the UPF 248 for the user plane. As such, the AMF 244 handles N2 signaling from the SMF 246 and the AMF 244 for PDU sessions and quality of service, encapsulates / de-encapsulates packets for IPSec and N3 tunneling, marks N3 user-plane packets in the uplink, and enforces quality of service corresponding to N3 packet marking taking intoAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1account quality of service requirements associated with such marking received over N2. N3IWF may also relay UL and DL control-plane NAS signaling between the UE 202 and AMF 244 via an N1 reference point between the UE 202 and the AMF 244, and relay uplink and downlink user-plane packets between the UE 202 and UPF 248. The N3IWF also provides mechanisms for IPsec tunnel establishment with the UE 202. The AMF 244 may exhibit a Namf service-based interface and may be a termination point for an N14 reference point between two AMFs 244 and an N17 reference point between the AMF 244 and a 5G-EIR (not shown by FIG. 2).

[0114] The SMF 246 is responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment, tunnel management between UPF 248 and AN 208); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF 248 to route traffic to the proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement, charging, and quality of service; lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN-specific SM information, sent via AMF 244 over N2 to AN 208; and determining SSC mode of a session. SM refers to the management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or “session” refers to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 202 and the DN 236. The SMF 246 may also include the following functionalities to support edge computing enhancements (see, e.g., [TS23548]): selection of EASDF 261 and provision of its address to the UE as the DNS server for the PDU session; usage of EASDF 261 services as defined in [TS23548]; and for supporting the application layer architecture defined in [TS23558], provision and updates of ECS address configuration information to the UE. Discovery and selection procedures for EASDFs 261 are discussed in [TS23501] § 6.3.23.

[0115] The UPF 248 acts as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to data network 236, and a branching point to support multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF 248 also performs packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, enforces user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercepts packets (UP collection), performs traffic usage reporting, performs quality of service handling for a user plane (e.g.,AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1packet filtering, gating, UL / DL rate enforcement), performs uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF-to-QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and performs downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 248 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network.

[0116] The NSSF 250 selects a set of network slice instances serving the UE 202. The NSSF 250 also determines allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed. The NSSF 250 also determines an AMF set to be used to serve the UE 202 or a list of candidate AMFs 244 based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 254. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 202 may be triggered by the AMF 244 with which the UE 202 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 250; this may lead to a change of AMF 244. The NSSF 250 interacts with the AMF 244 via an N22 reference point and may communicate with another NSSF in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown).

[0117] The NEF 252 securely exposes services and capabilities provided by 3 GPP NFs for third-party, internal exposure / re-exposure, AFs 260, edge computing, or fog computing systems (e.g., edge compute node, and the like). In such examples, the NEF 252 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AFs. NEF 252 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 260 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 252 may translate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF 252 may also receive information from other NFs based on the capabilities of other NFs that are exposed. This information may be stored at the NEF 252 as structured data or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF 252 to other NFs and AFs or used for other purposes, such as analytics.

[0118] The NRF 254 supports service discovery functions, receives NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provides information on the discovered NF instances to the requesting NF instances. NRF 254 also maintains information on available NF instances and their supported services. The NRF 254 also supports service discovery functions, wherein the NRF 254 receives an NF Discovery Request from an NF instance or an SCP (not shown)AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1and provides information about the discovered NF instances to the NF instance or SCP.

[0119] The PCF 256 provides policy rules to control plane functions and enforce them, and it may also support a unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF 256 may also implement a front end to access subscription information relevant to policy decisions from a unified data repository (UDR) within the UDM 258. In addition to communicating with functions via reference points, as shown, the PCF 256 also provides an Npcf service-based interface.

[0120] The UDM 258 handles subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions and stores UE 202's subscription data. For example, subscription data may be communicated via an N8 reference point between the UDM 258 and the AMF 244. The UDM 258 may include two parts: an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 258 and the PCF 256, and / or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFDs for application detection and application request information for multiple UEs 202) for the NEF 252. The Nudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR to allow the UDM 258, PCF 256, and NEF 252 to access a particular set of stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notification of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM 258 may include a UDM-FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, location management, subscription management, and so on. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification handling, access authorization, registration / mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs over reference points, as shown, the UDM 258 may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface.

[0121] Edge Application Server Discovery Function (EASDF) 261 exhibits a Neasdf service-based interface and is connected to the SMF 246 via an N88 interface. One or multiple EASDF instances may be deployed within a PLMN, and interactions between 5GC NF(s) and the EASDF 261 take place within aAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1PLMN. The EASDF 261 includes one or more of the following functionalities: registering to NRF 254 for EASDF 261 discovery and selection; handling the DNS messages according to the instruction from the SMF 246; and / or terminating DNS security if used. Handling the DNS messages according to the instruction from the SMF 246 includes one or more of the following functionalities: receiving DNS message handling rules and / or BaselineDNSPattem from the SMF 246; exchanging DNS messages from / with the UE 202; forwarding DNS messages to C-DNS or L-DNS for DNS query; adding EDNS client subnet (ECS) option into DNS query for an FQDN; reporting to the SMF 246 the information related to the received DNS messages; and / or buffering / discarding DNS messages from the UE 202 or DNS Server. The EASDF has direct user plane connectivity (e.g., without any NAT) with the PSA UPF over N6 for the transmission of DNS signaling exchanged with the UE. The deployment of a NAT between EASDF 261 and PSA UPF 248 may or may not be supported. Additional aspects of the EASDF 261 are discussed in [TS23548],

[0122] AF 260 provides application influence on traffic routing, provides access to NEF 252, and interacts with the policy framework for policy control. The AF 260 may influence UPF 248 (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 260 is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF 260 to interact directly with relevant NFs. In some implementations, the AF 260 is used for edge computing implementations.

[0123] The 5GC 240 may enable edge computing by selecting operator / 3rd party services to be geographically close to the point where the UE 202 is attached to the network. This may reduce latency and network load. In edge computing implementations, the 5GC 240 may select a UPF 248 close to the UE 202 and execute traffic steering from the UPF 248 to DN 236 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 260, which allows the AF 260 to influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing.

[0124] The data network (DN) 236 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third-party services provided by one or more servers, including, for example, app / content server 238. The DN 236 may be an externalAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1public operator, a private PDN, or an intra-operator packet data network, for example, for the provision of IMS services. In this example, the app / content server 238 can be coupled to an IMS via an S-CSCF or the I-CSCF. In some implementations, the DN 236 may represent one or more local area DNs (LADNs), which are DNs 236 (or DN names (DNNs)) that are accessible by a UE 202 in one or more specific areas. Outside these specific areas, the UE 202 cannot access the LADN / DN 236.

[0125] Additionally, or alternatively, the DN 236 may be an edge DN 236, which is a (local) DN that supports the architecture for enabling edge applications. In these examples, the app / content server 238 may represent the physical hardware systems / devices providing app server functionality and / or the application software resident in the cloud or at an edge compute node that performs server function(s). In some examples, the app / content server 238 provides an edge hosting environment that provides the support required for the Edge Application Server's execution.

[0126] In some examples, the 5GS can use one or more edge compute nodes to provide an interface and offload processing of wireless communication traffic. In these examples, the edge compute nodes may be included in or co-located with one or more RANs 210, 214. For example, the edge compute nodes can provide a connection between the RAN 214 and UPF 248 in the 5GC 240. The edge compute nodes can use one or more NFV instances instantiated on virtualization infrastructure within the edge compute nodes to process wireless connections to and from the RAN 214 and UPF 248.

[0127] In some implementations, the edge compute nodes provide a distributed computing environment for application and service hosting and also provide storage and processing resources so that data and / or content can be processed in close proximity to subscribers (e.g., users of UEs 202) for faster response times. The edge compute nodes also support multitenancy run-time and hosting environment s) for applications, including virtual appliance applications that may be delivered as packaged virtual machine (VM) images, middleware applications, and infrastructure services, content delivery services including content caching, mobile big data analytics, and computational offloading, among others. Computational offloading involves offloadingAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1computational tasks, workloads, applications, and / or services to the edge compute nodes from the UEs 202, CN 220, DN 236, and / or server(s) 238, or vice versa. For example, a device application or client application operating in a UE 202 may offload application tasks or workloads to one or more edge compute nodes. In another example, an edge compute node may offload application tasks or workloads to a set of UEs 202 (e.g., for distributed machine learning computation and / or the like).

[0128] The edge compute nodes may include or be part of an edge system that employs one or more edge computing technologies (ECTs) (also referred to as an “edge computing framework” or the like). The edge compute nodes may also be referred to as “edge hosts” or “edge servers.” The edge system includes a collection of edge servers and edge management systems (not shown) necessary to run edge computing applications within an operator network or a subset of an operator network. Edge servers are physical computer systems that may include an edge platform and / or virtualization infrastructure and provide compute, storage, and network resources to edge computing applications. Each of the edge servers is disposed at an edge of a corresponding access network and is arranged to provide computing resources and / or various services (e.g., computational task and / or workload offloading, cloud-computing capabilities, IT services, and other like resources and / or services as discussed herein) in relatively close proximity to UEs 202. The VI of the edge compute nodes provide virtualized environments and virtualized resources for the edge hosts, and the edge computing applications may run as VMs and / or application containers on top of the VI.

[0129] In one example implementation, the ECT is and / or operates according tothe MEC framework, as discussed in ET SI GRMEC 001 v3.1.1 (2022-01), ETSI GS MEC 003 v3.1.1 (2022-03), ETSI GS MEC 009 v3.1.1 (2021-06), ETSI GS MEC 010-1 vl.1.1 (2017-10), ETSI GS MEC 010-2 v2.2.1 (2022-02), ETSI GS MEC 011 v2.2.1 (2020-12), ETSI GS MEC 012 V2.2.1 (2022-02), ETSI GS MEC 013 V2.2.1 (2022-01), ETSI GS MEC 014 v2.1.1 (2021-03), ETSI GS MEC 015 v2.1.1 (2020-06), ETSI GS MEC 016 v2.2.1 (2020-04), ETSI GS MEC 021 v2.2.1 (2022-02), ETSI GRMEC 024 v2.1.1 (2019-11), ETSI GS MEC 028 V2.2.1 (2021-07), ETSI GS MEC 029 v2.2.1 (2022-01), ETSI MEC GS 030 v2.1.1 (2020-04), ETSI GRMEC 031 v2.1.1 (2020-10), U.S.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1Provisional App. No. 63 / 003,834 filed April 1, 2020 (“[US’834]”), and Int’l App. No. PCT / US2020 / 066969 filed on December 23, 2020 (“[PCT’696]”) (collectively referred to herein as “[MEC]”), the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. This example implementation (and / or in any other example implementation discussed herein) may also include NFV and / or other like virtualization technologies such as those discussed in ETSI GRNFV 001 VI.3.1 (2021-03), ETSI GS NFV 002 VI.2.1 (2014-12), ETSI GRNFV 003 VI.6.1 (2021-03), ETSI GS NFV 006 V2.1.1 (2021-01), ETSI GS NFV-INF 001 VI.1.1 (2015-01), ETSI GS NFV-INF 003 VI. 1.1 (2014-12), ETSI GS NFV-INF 004 VI.1.1 (2015-01), ETSI GS NFV-MAN 001 vl.1.1 (2014-12), and / or Israel et al., OSM Release FIVE Technical Overview, ETSI Open Source MANO, OSM White Paper, 1st ed. (Jan. 2019), https: / / osm.etsi.org / images / OSM-Whitepaper-TechContent-ReleaseFIVE-FINAL.pdf (collectively referred to as “[ETSINFV]”), the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. Other virtualization technologies and / or service orchestration and automation platforms may be used, such as those discussed in E2E Network Slicing Architecture, GSMA, Official Doc. NG.127, vl.O (03 Jun. 2021), https: / / www.gsma.eom / newsroom / wp-content / uploads / / NG.127-vl.0-2.pdf, Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) documentation, Release Istanbul, v9.0.1 (17 Feb. 2022), https: / / docs.onap.org / en / latest / index.html (“[ONAP]”), 3GPP Service Based Management Architecture (SBMA) as discussed in 3GPP TS 28.533 V17.1.0 (2021-12-23) (“[TS28533]”), the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

[0130] In another example implementation, the ECT is and / or operates according to the 0-RAN framework. Typically, front-end and back-end device vendors and carriers have worked closely to ensure compatibility. The flip side of such a working model is that it becomes quite difficult to plug and play with other devices, and this can hamper innovation. To combat this and to promote openness and interoperability at every level, several key players interested in the wireless domain (e.g., carriers, device manufacturers, academic institutions, and / or the like) formed the Open RAN Alliance (“0-RAN”) in 2018. The O-RAN network architecture is a building block for designing virtualized RAN on programmable hardware with radio access control powered by AI / ML. VariousAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1aspects of the O-RAN architecture are described in O-RAN Architecture Description v07.00, O-RAN Alliance WG1 (Oct. 2022) (“ [O-RAN. WG1.0-RAN-Architecture-Description]”); O-RAN Operations and Maintenance Architecture Specification v04.00, O-RAN Alliance WG1 (Feb. 2021) (“[O-RAN.WG1.0AM- Architecture]”); O-RAN Operations and Maintenance Interface Specification v04.00, O-RAN Alliance WG1 (Feb. 2021) (“[O-RAN.WGl.Ol-Interface.O]”); O-RAN Information Model and Data Models Specification vO 1.00, O-RAN Alliance WG1 (Feb. 2021); O-RAN Working Group 1 Slicing Architecture v08.00 (Oct. 2022); O-RAN Working Group 2 (Non-RT RIC and Al interface WG) Al interface: Application Protocol v03.02 (Jul. 2021); O-RAN Working Group 1 Use Cases Detailed Specification v09.00 (Oct. 2022) (“ [O-RAN. WG1.Use-Cases]”); O-RAN Working Group 2 (Non-RT RIC and Al interface WG) Al interface: General Aspects and Principles v03.00 (Oct. 2022) (“[O-RAN.WG2.A1GAP]”); O-RAN Working Group 2 (Non-RT RIC and Al interface WG) Al interface: Type Definitions v04.00 (Oct. 2021); O-RAN Working Group 2 (Non-RT RIC and Al interface WG) Al interface: Transport Protocol v02.00 (Oct. 2022); O-RAN Working Group 2 AI / ML workflow description and requirements v01.03, O-RAN Alliance WG2 (Oct.2021) (“[O-RAN.WG2.AIML]”); O-RAN Working Group 2 (Non-RT RIC and Al interface WG) Non-RT RIC Architecture v02.01 (Oct. 2022); O-RAN Working Group 2 Non-RT RIC: Functional Architecture vOl.Ol, O-RAN Alliance WG2 (Jun. 2021); O-RAN Working Group 2 (Non-RT RIC and Al interface WG): R1 interface: General Aspects and Principles v03.00, O-RAN Alliance WG2 (Oct. 2022); O-RAN Working Group 3 Near-Real-time RAN Intelligent Controller Architecture & E2 General Aspects and Principles v02.02 (Jul. 2022) (“[O-RAN. WG3.E2GAP]”); O-RAN Working Group 3 Near-Realtime Intelligent Controller E2 Service Model (E2SM) v02.01 (Mar. 2022) (“[O-RAN.WG3.E2SM]”); O-RAN Working Group 3 Near-Real-time Intelligent Controller E2 Service Model (E2SM), Cell Configuration and Control vOl.OO (Oct. 2022) (“[O-RAN.WG3.E2SM-CCC]”); O-RAN Working Group 3 Near-Real-time Intelligent Controller E2 Service Model (E2SM) KPM v02.03 (Oct.2022) (“[O-RAN.WG3.E2SM-KPM]”); O-RAN Working Group 3 Near-Realtime Intelligent Controller E2 Service Model (E2SM) RAN Function Network Interface (NI) vOl.OO (Feb. 2020) (“[ORAN-WG3.E2SM-NI]”); O-RANAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1Working Group 3 Near-Real-time Intelligent Controller E2 Service Model (E2SM) RAN Control v01.03 (Oct. 2022) (“[O-RAN.WG3.E2SM-RC]”); O-RAN Working Group 3, Near-Real-time Intelligent Controller, E2 Application Protocol (E2AP) v02.03 (Oct. 2022) (“[O-RAN.WG3.E2AP]”); O-RAN Working Group 3 (Near-Real-time RAN Intelligent Controller and E2 Interface Working Group): Near-RT RIC Architecture v03.00 (Oct. 2022) (“[O-RAN.WG3.RICARCH]”); O-RAN Working Group 4 (Open Fronthaul Interfaces WG) Control, User and Synchronization Plane Specification v09.00 (Jul. 2022) (“[O-RAN-WG4.CUS.0]”); O-RAN Fronthaul Working Group 4 Cooperative Transport Interface Transport Control Plane Specification v02.00, O-RAN Alliance WG4 (Jun. 2021); O-RAN Fronthaul Working Group 4 Cooperative Transport Interface Transport Management Plane Specification v02.00 (Jun. 2021); O-RAN Fronthaul Working Group 4 (Open Fronthaul Interfaces WG): Management Plane Specification v09.00 (Jul. 2022) (“[O-RAN.WG4.MP.0]”); O-RAN Alliance Working Group 5 01 Interface specification for O-CU-UP and O-CU-CP v04.00 (Oct. 2022); O-RAN Alliance Working Group 5 01 Interface specification for 0-DU v05.00 (Oct. 2022); O-RAN Open Fl / Wl / El / X2 / Xn Interfaces Working Group Transport Specification vOl.OO, O-RAN Alliance WG5 (Apr. 2020); O-RAN Working Group 6 (Cloudification and Orchestration) Cloud Architecture and Deployment Scenarios for O-RAN Virtualized RAN v04.00 (Oct. 2022) (“[O-RAN.WG6.CADS]”); O-RAN Cloud Platform Reference Designs v02.00, O-RAN Alliance WG6 (Feb. 2021); O-RAN Working Group 602 Interface General Aspects and Principles v02.00 (Oct. 2022); O-RAN Working Group 6 (Cloudification and Orchestration Work Group); O-RAN Acceleration Abstraction Layer General Aspects and Principles v04.00 (Oct. 2022); O-RAN Working Group 6: O-Cloud Notification API Specification for Event Consumers v03.00 (“[O-RAN.WG6.O-Cloud Notification API]”); O-RAN White Box Hardware Working Group Hardware Reference Design Specification for Indoor Pico Cell with Fronthaul Split Option 6 v02.00, O-RAN Alliance WG7 (Oct. 2021) (“[O-RAN. WG7.IPC-HRD-Opt6]”); O-RAN WG7 Hardware Reference Design Specification for Indoor Picocell (FR1) with Split Architecture Option 7-2 v03.00, O-RAN Alliance WG7 (Oct. 2021) (“[O-RAN.WG7.IPC-HRD-Opt7-2]”); O-RAN WG7 Hardware Reference Design Specification for Indoor Picocell (FR1) with SplitAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1Architecture Option 8 v03.00 (Oct. 2021) (“[O-RAN.WG7.IPC-HRD-Opt8]”); 0-RAN White Box Hardware Working Group Hardware Reference Design Specification for Outdoor Micro Cell with Split Architecture Option 7.2 v03.00, O-RAN Alliance WG7 (Oct. 2022) (“[O-RAN. WG7.OMC-HRD-Opt7-2]”); O-RAN White Box Hardware Working Group Hardware Reference Design Specification for Outdoor Macro Cell with Split Architecture Option 7.2 v03.00, O-RAN Alliance WG7 (Jul. 2022) (“[O-RAN. WG7.0MAC-HRD]”); O-RAN Open X-haul Transport Working Group Management interfaces for Transport Network Elements v04.00, O-RAN Alliance WG9 (Jul. 2022); O-RAN Open X-haul Transport Working Group Synchronization Architecture and Solution Specification v02.00, O-RAN Alliance WG9 (Mar. 2022); O-RAN Open Xhaul Transport WG9 WDM-based Fronthaul Transport v2.0, O-RAN Alliance WG9 (Mar. 2022); O-RAN Open Transport Working Group 9 Xhaul Packet Switched Architectures and Solutions v03.00, O-RAN Alliance WG9 (Jul. 2022) (“[O-RAN.WG9.XPSAAS]”); O-RAN Operations and Maintenance Architecture v07.00, O-RAN Alliance WG10 (Jul. 2022) (“[0-RAN.WG10.0AM-Architecture]”); O-RAN Operations and Maintenance Interface Specification v07.00, O-RAN Alliance WG10 (Jul. 2022); O-RAN Operations and Maintenance Interface Specification v08.00, O-RAN Alliance WG10 (Oct. 2022) (“[O-RAN.WGlO.Ol-Interface.O]”); O-RAN: Towards an Open and Smart RAN, O-RAN Alliance, White Paper (Oct. 2018); and U.S. App. No. 17 / 484,743 filed on 24 Sep. 2021 (collectively referred to as “[O-RAN]”), the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

[0131] In another example implementation, the ECT is and / or operates according to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) System Aspects Working Group 6 (SA6) Architecture for enabling Edge Applications (referred to as “3 GPP edge computing”) as discussed in 3 GPP TS 23.558 vl8.1.0 (2022-12-23) (“[TS23558]”), 3GPP TS 23.501 vl8.0.0 (2022-12-21) (“[TS23501]”), 3GPP TS 23.548 vl7.4.0 (2022-09-22) (“[TS23548]”), 3GPP TR 23.700-98 V18.0.0 (2022-12-23) (“[TR23700-98]”), 3GPP TS 23.222 vl8.0.0 (2022-12-23) (“[TS23222]”), TS 33.122 vl8.0.0 (2022-12-16) (“[TS33122]”), and 3GPP TS 29.222 V17.1.0 (2021-06-25) (“[TS29222]”), 3GPP TS 23.502 vl8.0.0 (2022-12-21) (“[TS23502]”), 3GPP TS 29.522 vl8.0.0 (2022-12-16) (“[TS29522]”), 3GPP TS 29.122 vl8.0.0 (2022-12-16) (“[TS29122]”), 3GPP TS 23.682 vl7.3.0AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1(2022-06-15) (“[TS23682]”), 3GPP TS 23.434 vl8.3.0 (2022-12- 23) (“[TS23434]”), and 3GPP TS 23.401 vl8.0.0 (2022-12-21) (collectively referred to as “[SA6Edge]”), the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

[0132] In another example implementation, the ECT is and / or operates according to the Intel® Smart Edge Open framework (formerly known as OpenNESS) as discussed in Intel® Smart Edge Open Developer Guide, version 21.09 (30 Sep. 2021), available at: https: / / smart-edge-open.github.io / (“[ISEO]”), the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

[0133] In another example implementation, the ECT operates according to the Multi-Access Management Services (MAMS) framework as discussed in Kanugovi et al., Multi-Access Management Services (MAMS), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Request for Comments (RFC) 8743 (Mar. 2020) (“[RFC8743]”), Ford et al., TCP Extensions for Multipath Operation with Multiple Addresses, IETF RFC 8684, (Mar. 2020), De Coninck et al., Multipath Extensions for QUIC (MP-QUIC), IETF draft-deconinck-quic-multipath-07, IETA, QUIC Working Group (03 -May-2021), Zhu, et al., User-Plane Protocols for Multiple Access Management Service, IETF draft-zhu-intarea-mams-user-protocol-09, IETA, INTAREA (04-Mar-2020), and Zhu et al., Generic MultiAccess (GMA) Convergence Encapsulation Protocols, IETF RFC 9188 (Feb. 2022) (collectively referred to as “[MAMS]”), the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

[0134] It should be understood that the aforementioned edge computing frameworks / ECTs and services deployment examples are only illustrative examples of ECTs and that the present disclosure may be applicable to many other or additional edge computing / networking technologies in various combinations and layouts of devices located at the edge of a network, including the various edge computing networks / sy stems described herein. Further, the techniques disclosed herein may relate to other loT edge network systems and configurations, and other intermediate processing entities and architectures may also be applicable to the present disclosure. Examples of such edge computing / networking technologies include [MEC]; [0-RAN]; [ISEO];AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1[SA6Edge]; Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) (also referred to as “Content Distribution Networks” or the like); Mobility Service Provider (MSP) edge computing and / or Mobility as a Service (MaaS) provider systems (e.g., used in AECC architectures); Nebula edge-cloud systems; Fog computing systems; Cloudlet edge-cloud systems; Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) systems; Central Office Re-architected as a Datacenter (CORD), mobile CORD (M-CORD), and / or Converged Multi-Access and Core (COMAC) systems; and / or the like. Further, the techniques disclosed herein may relate to other loT edge network systems and configurations, and other intermediate processing entities and architectures may also be used for purposes of the present disclosure.

[0135] The interfaces of the 5GC 240 include reference points and servicebased interfaces. The reference points include N1 (between the UE 202 and the AMF 244), N2 (between RAN 214 and AMF 244), N3 (between RAN 214 and UPF 248), N4 (between the SMF 246 and UPF 248), N5 (between PCF 256 and AF 260), N6 (between UPF 248 and DN 236), N7 (between SMF 246 and PCF 256), N8 (between UDM 258 and AMF 244), N9 (between two UPFs 248), N10 (between the UDM 258 and the SMF 246), Nil (between the AMF 244 and the SMF 246), N12 (between AUSF 242 and AMF 244), N13 (between AUSF 242 and UDM 258), N14 (between two AMFs 244; not shown), N15 (between PCF 256 and AMF 244 in case of a non-roaming scenario, or between the PCF 256 in a visited network and AMF 244 in case of a roaming scenario), N16 (between two SMFs 246; not shown), and N22 (between AMF 244 and NSSF 250). Other reference point representations not shown in Figure 2 can also be used. The service-based representation of Figure 2 represents NFs within the control plane that enable other authorized NFs to access their services. The service-based interfaces (SBIs) include Namf (SBI exhibited by AMF 244), Nsmf (SBI exhibited by SMF 246), Nnef (SBI exhibited by NEF 252), Npcf (SBI exhibited by PCF 256), Nudm (SBI exhibited by the UDM 258), Naf (SBI exhibited by AF 260), Nnrf (SBI exhibited by NRF 254), Nnssf (SBI exhibited by NSSF 250), Nausf (SBI exhibited by AUSF 242). Other service-based interfaces (e.g., Nudr, N5g-eir, and Nudsf) not shown in FIG. 2 can also be used. In some examples, the NEF 252 can provide an interface to edge compute nodes, which can be used to process wireless connections with the RAN 214.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0136] In some implementations, the network architecture 200 may include an SMSF, which is responsible for SMS subscription checking and verification and relaying SM messages to / from the UE 202 to / from other entities, such as an SMS-GMSC / IWMSC / SMS-router. The SMS may also interact with AMF 244 and UDM 258 for a notification procedure that the UE 202 is available for SMS transfer (e.g., setting a UE not reachable flag and notifying UDM 258 when UE 202 is available for SMS).

[0137] The 5GS may also include an SCP (or individual instances of the SCP) that supports indirect communication (see, e.g., 3GPP TS 23.501 section 7.1.1); delegated discovery (see, e.g., 3GPP TS 23.501 section 7.1.1); message forwarding and routing to destination NF / NF service(s), communication security (e.g., authorization of the NF Service Consumer to access the NF Service Producer API) (see, e.g., 3GPP TS 33.501), load balancing, monitoring, overload control, and the like; and discovery and selection functionality for UDM(s) 258, AUSF(s) 242, UDR(s), PCF(s) 256 with access to subscription data stored in the UDR based on UE's SUPI, SUCI, or GPSI (see e.g., [TS23501] § 6.3). Load balancing, monitoring, and overload control functionality provided by the SCP may be implementation-specific. The SCP may be deployed in a distributed manner. More than one SCP can be present in the communication path between various NF Services. The SCP, although not an NF instance, can also be deployed in a distributed, redundant, and scalable manner.

[0138] FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a wireless network 300 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 300 may include a UE 302 in wireless communication with an AN 304. The UE 302 and AN 304 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, like-named components described elsewhere herein.

[0139] The UE 302 may be communicatively coupled with the AN 304 via connection 306. Connection 306 is illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols such as an LTE protocol or a 5G NR protocol operating at FR2 (mmWave) orFRl (sub-7 GHz) frequencies.

[0140] The UE 302 may include a host platform 308 coupled with a modem platform 310. The host platform 308 may include application processingAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1circuitry 312, which may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 314 of the modem platform 310. The application processing circuitry 312 may run various applications for the UE 302 that source / sink application data. The application processing circuitry 312 may further implement one or more layer operations to transmit / receive application data to / from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (for example, UDP) and Internet (for example, IP) operations.

[0141] The protocol processing circuitry 314 may implement one or more layer operations to facilitate the transmission or reception of data over connection 306. The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 314 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC, and NAS operations.

[0142] The modem platform 310 may further include digital baseband circuitry 316 that may implement one or more layer operations that are "below" the layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 314 in a network protocol stack. These operations may include, for example, PHY operations including one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling / descrambling, encoding / decoding, layer mapping / de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol / bit metric determination, multiantenna port precoding / decoding, which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency, or spatial coding, reference signal generation / detection, preamble sequence generation and / or decoding, synchronization sequence generation / detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

[0143] The modem platform 310 may further include transmit circuitry 318, receive circuitry 320, RF circuitry 322, and RF front end (RFFE) 324, which may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 326. Briefly, the transmit circuitry 318 may include a digital -to-analog converter, mixer, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc.; the receive circuitry 320 may include an analog-to-digital converter, mixer, IF components, etc.; the RF circuitry 322 may include a low-noise amplifier, a power amplifier, power tracking components, etc.; RFFE 324 may include filters (for example, surface / bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (for example, phase-AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1array antenna components), etc. The selection and arrangement of the components of the transmit circuitry 318, receive circuitry 320, RF circuitry 322, RFFE 324, and one or more antenna panels 326 (referred to generically as “transmit / receive components”) may be specific to details of a specific implementation, such as, for example, whether the communication is TDM or FDM, in FR2 (mmWave) or FR1 (sub-7 GHz) frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit / receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit / receive chains, may be disposed of in the same or different chips / modules, etc.

[0144] In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 314 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmit / receive components.

[0145] A UE reception may be established by and via the one or more antenna panels 326, RFFE 324, RF circuitry 322, receive circuitry 320, digital baseband circuitry 316, and protocol processing circuitry 314. In some embodiments, the one or more antenna panels 326 may receive a transmission from the AN 304 by receive-beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas / antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels 326.

[0146] A UE transmission may be established by and via the protocol processing circuitry 314, digital baseband circuitry 316, transmit circuitry 318, RF circuitry 322, RFFE 324, and one or more antenna panels 326. In some embodiments, the transmit components of the UE 302 may apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam emitted by the antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels 326.

[0147] Similar to the UE 302, the AN 304 may include a host platform 328 coupled with a modem platform 330. The host platform 328 may include application processing circuitry 332 coupled with protocol processing circuitry 334 of the modem platform 330. The modem platform may further include digital baseband circuitry 336, transmit circuitry 338, receive circuitry 340, RF circuitry 342, RFFE circuitry 344, and antenna panels 346. The components of the AN 304 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the like-named components of the UE 302. In addition to performing data transmission / reception as described above, the components of the AN 304 mayAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1perform various logical functions that include, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

[0148] FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 4 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 400, including one or more processors (or processor cores) 410, one or more memory / storage devices 420, and one or more communication resources 430, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 440 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 402 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices / sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 400.

[0149] The one or more processors 410 may include, for example, a processor 412 and a processor 414. The one or more processors 410 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0150] The memory / storage devices 420 may include a main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage devices 420 may include but are not limited to, any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semivolatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0151] The one or more communication resources 430 may include interconnection or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 404 or one or more databases 406 or other network elements via a network 408. For example, the one or more communication resources 430 may include wired communicationAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi components, and other communication components.

[0152] Instructions 450 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least one of the one or more processors 410 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Instructions 450 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the one or more processors 410 (e.g., within the processor’s cache memory), the memory / storage devices 420, or any suitable combination thereof.Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 450 may be transferred to the hardware resources 400 from any combination of one or more peripheral devices 404 or one or more databases 406. Accordingly, the memory of one or more processors 410, the memory / storage devices 420, one or more peripheral devices 404, and one or more databases 406 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0153] FIG. 5 illustrates another example network architecture 500. The network architecture 500 may operate in a manner consistent with 3 GPP technical specifications or technical reports for 6G systems. In some examples, the network architecture 500 may operate concurrently with network architecture 200. For example, in some examples, network architecture 500 may share one or more frequency or bandwidth resources with network architecture 200. As one specific example, a UE (e.g., UE 502) may be configured to operate in both network architecture 500 and network architecture 200. Such a configuration may be based on a UE including circuitry configured for communication with the frequency and bandwidth resources of both network architectures 200 and 500. In general, several elements of network architecture 500 may share one or more characteristics with elements of network architecture 200. For the sake of brevity and clarity, such elements may not be repeated in the description of network architecture 500.

[0154] The network architecture 500 may include a UE 502, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN 508 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 502 may be similar to, for example, UE 202. The UE 502 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone,AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1tablet computer, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment, in-car entertainment device, instrument cluster, a head-up display device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electronic / engine control unit, electronic / engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, loT device, etc.

[0155] Although not explicitly shown in FIG. 5, in some examples, the network architecture 500 may include a set of UEs coupled directly with one another via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M / D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc. Similarly, although not explicitly shown in FIG. 5, the UE 502 may be communicatively coupled with an AP, such as AP 206, as described with respect to FIG. 2. Additionally, although not explicitly shown in FIG. 5, in some examples, the RAN 508 may include one or more ANs, such as AN 208, as described with respect to FIG. 2. The RAN 508 and / or the AN of the RAN 508 may be referred to as a base station (BS), a RAN node, or using some other term or name.

[0156] The UE 502 and the RAN 508 may be configured to communicate via an air interface that may be referred to as a sixth-generation (6G) air interface. The 6G air interface may include one or more features, such as communication in terahertz (THz) or sub-THz bandwidth, or joint communication and sensing. As used herein, the term “joint communication and sensing” may refer to a system that allows for wireless communication as well as radar-based sensing via various types of multiplexing. As used herein, THz or sub-THz bandwidths may refer to communication in the 80 GHz and above frequency ranges. Such frequency ranges may additionally, or alternatively, be referred to as “millimeter wave” or “mmWave” frequency ranges.

[0157] The RAN 508 may allow for communication between the UE 502 and a 6G core network (CN) 510. Specifically, the RAN 508 may facilitate the transmission and reception of data between the UE 502 and the 6G CN 510. The 6G CN 510 may include various functions, such as NSSF 550, NEF 552, NRFAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1554, PCF 556, UDM 558, AF 560, SMF 546, and AUSF 542. The 6G CN 510 may additionally include UPF 548 and DN 539, as shown in FIG. 5.

[0158] Additionally, the RAN 508 may include various additional functions that are in addition to, or alternative to, the functions of a legacy cellular network, such as a 4G or 5G network. Two such functions may include a Compute Control Function (Comp CF) 524 and a Compute Service Function (Comp SF) 536. The Comp CF 524 and the Comp SF 536 may be parts or functions of the Computing Service Plane. Comp CF 524 may be a control plane function that provides functionalities such as management of the Comp SF 536, computing task context generation and management (e.g., create, read, modify, delete), interaction with the underlying computing infrastructure for computing resource management, etc. Comp SF 536 may be a user plane function that serves as the gateway to interface computing service users (such as UE 502) and computing nodes behind a Comp SF instance. Some functionalities of the Comp SF 536 may include parsing computing service data received from users to compute tasks executable by computing nodes, holding service mesh ingress gateway or service API gateway, service and charging policies enforcement, performance monitoring, and telemetry collection. In some examples, a Comp SF 536 instance may serve as the user plane gateway for a cluster of computing nodes. A Comp CF 524 instance may control one or more Comp SF 536 instances.

[0159] Two other such functions may include a Communication Control Function (Comm CF) 528 and a Communication Service Function (Comm SF) 538, which may be parts of the Communication Service Plane. The Comm CF 528 may be the control plane function for managing the Comm SF 538, communication session creation / configuration / rel easing, and managing communication session context. The Comm SF 538 may be a user plane function for data transport. Comm CF 528 and Comm SF 538 may be considered as upgrades of SMF 246 and UPF 248, which were described with respect to a 5G system in FIG. 2. The upgrades provided by the Comm CF 528 and the Comm SF 538 may enable service-aware transport. For legacy (e.g., 4G or 5G) data transport, SMF 246 and UPF 248 may still be used.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0160] Two other such functions may include a Data Control Function (Data CF) 522 and a Data Service Function (Data SF) 532, which may be parts of the Data Service Plane. Data CF 522 may be a control plane function and provides functionalities such as Data SF 532 management, Data service creation / configuration / releasing, Data service context management, etc. Data SF 532 may be a user plane function and serve as the gateway between data service users (such as UE 502 and the various functions of the 6G CN 510) and data service endpoints behind the gateway. Specific functionalities may include parsing data service user data and forwarding it to corresponding data service endpoints, generating charging data, and reporting data service status.

[0161] Another such function may be the Service Orchestration and Chaining Function (SOCF) 520, which may discover, orchestrate, and chain up communication / computing / data services provided by functions in the network. Upon receiving service requests from users, SOCF 520 may interact with one or more of Comp CF 524, Comm CF 528, and Data CF 522 to identify Comp SF 536, Comm SF 538, and Data SF 532 instances, configure service resources, and generate the service chain, which could contain multiple Comp SF 536, Comm SF 538, and Data SF 532 instances and their associated computing endpoints. Workload processing and data movement may then be conducted within the generated service chain. The SOCF 520 may also be responsible for maintaining, updating, and releasing a created service chain.

[0162] Another such function may be the service registration function (SRF) 514, which may act as a registry for system services provided in the user plane, such as services provided by service endpoints behind Comp SF 536 and Data SF 532 gateways and services provided by the UE 502. The SRF 514 may be considered a counterpart of NRF 254, which may act as the registry for network functions.

[0163] Other such functions may include an evolved service communication proxy (eSCP) and a service infrastructure control function (SICF) 526, which may provide service communication infrastructure for control plane services and user plane services. The eSCP may be related to the service communication proxy (SCP) of 5G, with the addition of user plane service communication proxy capabilities. The eSCP is therefore expressed in two parts: eCSP-C 512 andAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1eSCP-U 534, for control plane service communication proxy and user plane service communication proxy, respectively. The SICF 526 may control and configure eCSP instances in terms of service traffic routing policies, access rules, load balancing configurations, performance monitoring, etc.

[0164] Another such function is the AMF 544. The AMF 544 may be similar to 244 but with additional functionality. Specifically, the AMF 544 may include potential functional repartition, such as moving the message forwarding functionality from the AMF 544 to the RAN 508.

[0165] Another such function is the service orchestration exposure function (SOEF) 518. The SOEF may be configured to expose service orchestration and chaining services to external users, such as applications.

[0166] The UE 502 may include an additional function that is referred to as a computing client service function (comp CSF) 504. The comp CSF 504 may have both the control plane functionalities and user plane functionalities and may interact with corresponding network-side functions, such as SOCF 520, Comp CF 524, Comp SF 536, Data CF 522, and / or Data SF 532, for service discovery, request / response, compute task workload exchange, etc. The comp CSF 504 may also work with network-side functions to decide whether a computing task should be run on the UE 502, the RAN 508, and / or an element of the 6G CN 510.

[0167] The UE 502 and / or the comp CSF 504 may include a service mesh proxy 506. The service mesh proxy 506 may act as a proxy for service-to-service communication in the user plane. Capabilities of the service mesh proxy 506 may include one or more of addressing, security, load balancing, and / or the like.

[0168] FIG. 6 depicts an example artificial intelligence (Al)-assisted communication architecture for communication between a UE 605 and a RAN 610. More specifically, as described in further detail below, AEmachine learning (ML) models may be used or leveraged to facilitate over-the-air communication between UE 605 and RAN 610.

[0169] In this example, the UE 605 and the RAN 610 operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP technical specifications and / or technical reports for 6G systems. In some examples, the wireless cellular communication between theAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1UE 605 and the RAN 610 may be part of or operate concurrently with network architectures 500, 200, and / or some other network described herein.

[0170] The UE 605 may be similar to and share one or more features with UE 202, UE 302, UE 502, UE 702, hardware resources 400, and / or some other UE or device(s), such as any of those described herein. The UE 605 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment, in-car entertainment device, instrument cluster, a head-up display device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electronic / engine control unit, electronic / engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, loT device, etc. The RAN 610 may be similar to, and share one or more features with, RAN 214, RAN 508, and / or some other RAN described herein.

[0171] As may be seen in FIG. 6, the Al-related elements of UE 605 may be similar to the Al-related elements of RAN 610. For the sake of discussion herein, a description of the various elements will be provided from the point of view of the UE 605. However, it will be understood that such discussion or description will apply to equally named / numbered elements of RAN 610 unless explicitly stated otherwise.

[0172] As previously noted, the UE 605 may include various elements or functions that are related to AI / ML. Such elements may be implemented as hardware, software, firmware, and / or some combination thereof. For example, one or more of the elements may be implemented as part of the same hardware (e.g., a chip or a multi-processor chip), software (e.g., a computing program), or firmware as another element.

[0173] One such element may be a data repository 615. The data repository 615 may be responsible for data collection and storage. Specifically, the data repository 615 may collect and store RAN configuration parameters, measurement data, performance key performance indicators (KPIs), model performance metrics, etc., for model training, update, and inference. More generally, collected data is stored in the repository. Stored data can beAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1discovered and extracted by other elements from the data repository 615. For example, as may be seen, the inference data selection / filtering element 650 may retrieve data from the data repository 615. In various examples, the UE 605 may be configured to discover and request data from the data repository 615 in the RAN and vice versa. More generally, the data repository 615 of the UE 605 may be communicatively coupled with the data repository 615 of the RAN 610 so that the respective data repositories of the UE and the RAN may share collected data.

[0174] Another such element may be a training data selection / filtering functional block 620. The training data selection / filter functional block 620 may be configured to generate training, validation, and testing datasets for model training. Training data may be extracted from the data repository 615. Data may be selected / filtered based on the specific AI / ML model to be trained. Data may optionally be transformed / augmented / pre-processed (e.g., normalized) before being loaded into datasets. The training data selection / filter functional block 620 may label data in datasets for supervised learning. The produced datasets may then be fed into the model training functional block 625.

[0175] As noted above, another such element may be the model training functional block 625. This functional block may be responsible for training and updating (re-training) AI / ML models. The selected model may be trained using the fed-in datasets (including training, validation, and testing) from the training data selection / filtering functional block. The model training functional block 625 may produce trained and tested AI / ML models that are ready for deployment. The produced, trained, and tested models can be stored in a model repository 635.

[0176] The model repository 635 may be responsible for the storage and exposure of AI / ML models (both trained and untrained). Trained / updated model(s) may be stored in the model repository 635. Model and model parameters may be discovered and requested by other functional blocks (e.g., the training data selection / filter functional block 620 and / or the model training functional block 625). In some examples, the UE 605 may discover and request AI / ML models from the model repository 635 of the RAN 610. Similarly, the RAN 610 may be able to discover and / or request AI / ML models from the modelAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1repository 635 of the UE 605. In some examples, the RAN 610 may configure models and / or model parameters in the model repository 635 of the UE 605.

[0177] Another such element may be a model management functional block 640. The model management functional block 640 may be responsible for the management of the AI / ML model produced by the model training functional block 625. Such management functions may include the deployment of a trained model, monitoring model performance, etc. In model deployment, the model management functional block 640 may allocate and schedule hardware and / or software resources for inference based on received trained and tested models. As used herein, “inference” refers to the process of using trained AI / ML model(s) to generate data analytics, actions, policies, etc., based on input inference data. In performance monitoring, based on wireless performance KPIs and model performance metrics, the model management functional block 640 may decide to terminate the running model, start model re-training, select another model, etc. For example, the model management functional block 640 of the RAN 610 may be able to configure model management policies in the UE 605, as shown.

[0178] Another such element may be an inference data selection / filtering element 650. The inference data selection / filtering element 650 may be responsible for generating datasets for model inference at the inference functional block 645, as described below. Specifically, inference data may be extracted from the data repository 615. The inference data selection / filtering element 650 may select and / or filter the data based on the deployed AI / ML model. Data may be transformed / augmented / pre-processed following the same transformation / augmentation / pre-processing as those in training data selection / filtering as described with respect to functional block 620. The produced inference dataset may be fed into the inference functional block 645.

[0179] Another such element may be the inference functional block 645. The inference functional block 645 may be responsible for executing inference as described above. Specifically, the inference functional block 645 may consume the inference dataset provided by the inference data selection / filtering element 650 and generate one or more outcomes. Such outcomes may include dataAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1analytics, actions, policies, etc. The outcome(s) may be provided to the performance measurement functional block 630.

[0180] The performance measurement functional block 630 may be configured to measure model performance metrics (e.g., accuracy, model bias, run-time latency, etc.) of deployed and executing models based on the inference outcome(s) for monitoring purposes. Model performance data may be stored in the data repository 615.

[0181] FIG. 7 depicts example RAN split architecture aspects. FIG. 7 shows an example network deployment including an example next generation fronthaul (NGF) deployment 700a where a UE 702 is connected to an RU 730 (also referred to as a “remote radio unit 730”, “a remote radio head 730”, or “RRH 730”) via an air interface, the RU 730 is connected to a Digital Unit (DU) 731 via a NGF interface (NGFI)-I, the DU 731 is connected to a Central Unit (CU) 732 via an NGFI-II, and the CU 732 is connected to a core network (CN) 742 via a backhaul interface. In 3GPP NG-RAN implementations (see, e.g., [TS38401]), the DU 731 may be a distributed unit (for purposes of the present disclosure, the term “DU” may refer to a digital unit and / or a distributed unit unless the context dictates otherwise). UEs 702 may be the same or similar to UEs 202 and / or any other UE or user / client device discussed herein.

[0182] In some implementations, the NGF deployment 700a may be arranged in a distributed RAN (D-RAN) architecture where the CU 732, DU 731, and RU 730 reside at a cell site, and the CN 742 is located at a centralized site.Alternatively, the NGF deployment 700a may be arranged in a centralized RAN (C-RAN) architecture with centralized processing of one or more baseband units (BBUs) at the centralized site. In C-RAN architectures, the radio components are split into discrete components, which can be located in different locations. In one example C-RAN implementation, only the RU 730 is disposed at the cell site, and the DU 731, the CU 732, and the CN 742 are centralized or disposed at a central location. In another example C-RAN implementation, the RU 730 and the DU 731 are located at the cell site, and the CU 732 and the CN 742 are at the centralized site. In another example of C-RAN implementation, only the RU 730 is disposed at the cell site, the DU 731 and the CU 732 are located at a RAN hub site, and the CN 742 is at the centralized site.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0183] The CU 732 is a central controller that can serve or otherwise connect to one or multiple DUs 731 and / or multiple RUs 730. The CU 732 is a network (logical) node hosting higher / upper layers of a network protocol functional split. For example, in the 3GPP NG-RAN and / or 0-RAN architectures, a CU 732 hosts the radio resource control (RRC), Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP), and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layers of a nextgeneration NodeB (gNB), or hosts the RRC and PDCP protocol layers when included in or operating as an E-UTRA-NR gNB (en-gNB). The SDAP sublayer performs mapping between quality of service flows and data radio bearers (DRBs) and marking quality of service flow IDs (QFI) in both DL and UL packets. The PDCP sublayer performs transfer of user plane or control plane data; maintains PDCP sequence numbers (SNs); header compression and decompression using the Robust Header Compression (ROHC) and / or Ethernet Header Compression (EHC) protocols; ciphering and deciphering; integrity protection and integrity verification; provides timer-based SDU discard; routing for split bearers; duplication and duplicate discarding; reordering and in-order delivery; and / or out-of-order delivery. In various implementations, a CU 732 terminates respective Fl interfaces connected with corresponding DUs 731 (see, e.g., [TS38401]).

[0184] A CU 732 may include a CU-control plane (CP) entity (referred to herein as “CU-CP 732”) and a CU-user plane (UP) entity (referred to herein as “CU-UP 732”). The CU-CP 732 is a logical node hosting the RRC layer and the control plane part of the PDCP protocol layer of the CU 732 (e.g., a gNB-CU for an en-gNB or a gNB). The CU-CP terminates an El interface connected with the CU-UP, andthe Fl-C interface is connected with a DU 731. The CU-UP 732 is a logical node hosting the user plane part of the PDCP protocol layer (e.g., for a gNB-CU 732 of an en-gNB), and the user plane part of the PDCP protocol layer and the SDAP protocol layer (e.g., for the gNB-CU 732 of a gNB). The CU-UP 732 terminates the El interface connected with the CU-CP 732 and the F 1 -U interface connected with a DU 731.

[0185] The DU 731 controls radio resources, such as time and frequency bands, locally in real time and allocates resources to one or more UEs. The DUs 731 are network (logical) nodes hosting middle and / or lower layers of the network protocol functional split. For example, in the 3GPP NG-RAN and / or O-AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1RAN architectures, a DU 731 hosts the radio link control (RLC) medium access control (MAC), and high-physical (PHY) layers of the gNB or en-gNB, and its operation is at least partly controlled by the CU 732. The RLC sublayer operates in one or more of the Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). The RLC sublayer performs transfer of upperlayer PDUs; sequence numbering independent of the one in PDCP (UM and AM); error correction through ARQ (AM only); segmentation (AM and UM) and re-segmentation (AM only) of RLC SDUs; reassembly of SDUs (AM and UM); duplicate detection (AM only); RLC SDU discard (AM and UM); RLC reestablishment; and / or protocol error detection (AM only). The MAC sublayer performs mapping between logical channels and transport channels; multiplexing / demultiplexing of MAC SDUs belonging to one or different logical channels into / from transport blocks (TB) delivered to / from the physical layer on transport channels; scheduling information reporting; error correction through HARQ (one HARQ entity per cell in case of CA); priority handling between UEs by means of dynamic scheduling; priority handling between logical channels of one UE by means of logical channel prioritization; priority handling between overlapping resources of one UE; and / or padding. In some implementations, a DU 731 can host a Backhaul Adaptation Protocol (BAP) layer (see e.g., 3GPP TS 38.340 V16.5.0 (2021-07-07)) and / or an Fl application protocol (F1AP) (see e.g., 3GPP TS 38.470 V16.5.0 (2021-07-01)), such as when the DU 731 is operating as an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node. One DU 731 supports one or multiple cells, and one cell is supported by only one DU 731. A DU 731 terminates the Fl interface connected with a CU 732.Additionally or alternatively, the DU 731 may be connected to one or more RRHs / RUs 730.

[0186] The RU 730 is a transmission / reception point (TRP) or other physical node that handles radio frequency (RF) processing functions. The RU 730 is a network (logical) node hosting lower layers based on a lower-layer functional split. For example, in 3GPP NG-RAN and / or 0-RAN architectures, the RU 730 hosts low-PHY layer functions and RF processing of the radio interface based on a lower-layer functional split. The RU 730 may be similar to 3GPP’s transmission / reception point (TRP) or RRH, but specifically includes the Low-PHY layer. Examples of low-PHY functions include fast FourierAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1transform (FFT), inverse FFT (IFFT), physical random access channel (PRACH) extraction, and the like.

[0187] Each of the CUs 732, DUs 731, and RUs 730 is connected through respective links, which may be any suitable wireless and / or wired links (e.g., fiber, copper, and the like). In some implementations, various combinations of the CU 732, DU 731, and RU 730 may correspond to one or more of the ANs 208 of FIG. 2. Additional aspects of CUs 732, DUs 731, and RUs 730 are discussed in [0-RAN], [TS38401], [TS38410], and [TS38300], the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

[0188] In some implementations, a fronthaul gateway function (FHGW) may be disposed between the DU 731 and the RU / RRU 730 (not shown by FIG. 7), where the interface between the DU 731 and the FHGW is an Open Fronthaul (e.g., Option 7-2x) interface, the interface between the FHGW function and the RU / RRU 730 is an Open Fronthaul (e.g., Option 7-2x) interface or any other suitable interface (e.g., option 7, option 8, or the like) including those that do not support Open Fronthaul (e.g., Option 7-2x). The FHGW may be packaged with one or more other functions (e.g., Ethernet switching and / or the like) in a physical device or appliance. In some implementations, a RAN controller may be communicatively coupled with the CU 732 and / or the DU 731.

[0189] NGFI (also referred to as “xHaul” or the like) is a two-level fronthaul architecture that separates the traditional RRU 730 to BBU connectivity in the C-RAN architecture into two levels, namely levels I and II. Level I connects the RU 730 via the NGFI-I to the DU 731, and level II connects the DU 731 via the NGFI-II to the CU 732, as shown by deployment 700a in FIG. 7. The NGFI-I and NGFI-II connections may be wired connections or wireless connections, which may utilize any suitable RAT such as any of those discussed herein. The purpose of the two-level architecture is to distribute (split) the RAN node protocol functions between CU 732 and DU 731 such that latencies are relaxed, giving more deployment flexibility. In general, the NGFI-I interfaces with the lower layers of the function split, which have stringent delay and data rate requirements. In contrast, NGFI-II interfaces with higher layers of the function split relative to the layers of the NGFI-I, relaxing the requirements for the fronthaul link. Examples of the NGFI fronthaul interfaces and functional splitAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1architectures include O-RAN 7.2x fronthaul (see e.g., [0-RAN.WG9.XPSAAS] and [O-RAN-WG4.CUS.0]), Enhanced Common Radio Interface (CPRI) based C-RAN fronthaul (see e.g., Common Public Radio Interface: eCPRI Interface Specification, eCPRI Specification v2.0 (2019-05-10), Common Public Radio Interface: Requirements for the eCPRI Transport Network, eCPRI Transport Network vl.2 (2018-06-25), and [O-RAN-WG4.CUS.0]), Radio over Ethernet (RoE) based C-RAN fronthaul (see, e.g., IEEE Standard for Radio over Ethernet Encapsulations and Mappings, IEEE Standards Association, IEEE 1914.3-2018 (05 Oct. 2018) (“[IEEE1914.3]”)), and / or the like. Additional aspects ofNGFI are also discussed in [O-RAN.WG9.XPSAAS], [O-RAN-WG4.CUS.0], IEEE Standard for Packet-based Fronthaul Transport Networks, IEEE Standards Association, IEEE 1914.1-2019 (21 Apr. 2020) (“[IEEE1914.1]”), [IEEE1914.3], and Nasrallah et al., Ultra-Low Latency (ULL) Networks: A Comprehensive Survey Covering the IEEE TSN Standard and Related ULL Research, arXiv:1803.07673vl [cs.NI] (20 Mar. 2018) (“[Nasrallah]”), the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

[0190] In one example, the deployment 700a may implement a low-level split (LLS) (also referred to as a “Lower Layer Functional Split 7-2x” or “Split Option 7-2x”) that runs between the RU 730 (e.g., an O-RU in O-RAN architectures) and the DU 731 (e.g., an O-DU in O-RAN architectures) (see, e.g., [O-RAN.WG7.IPC-HRD-Opt7-2], [O-RAN. WG7.OMAC-HRD], [O-RAN.WG7.OMC-HRD-Opt7-2], [O-RAN.WG7.OMC-HRD-Opt7-2]). In this example implementation, the NGFLI is the Open Fronthaul interface described in the O-RAN Open Fronthaul Specification (see, e.g., [O-RAN-WG4.CUS.0]). Other LLS options may be used, such as the relevant interfaces described in other standards or specifications such as, for example, the 3 GPP NG-RAN functional split (see e.g., [TS38401] and 3GPP TR 38.801 vl4.0.0 (2017-04-03)), the Small Cell Forum for Split Option 6 (see e.g., 5G small cell architecture and product definitions: Configurations and Specifications for companies deploying small cells 2020-2025, Small Cell Forum, document 238.10.01 (05 Jul. 2020) (“[SCF238]”), 5GNRFR1 Reference Design: The case for a common, modular architecture for 5GNRFR1 small cell distributed radio units, Small Cell Forum, document 251.10.01 (15 Dec. 2021) (“[SCF251]”), and [O-RAN.WG7.IPC-HRD-Opt6], the contents of each of which is herebyAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1incorporated by reference in its entirety, and / or in O-RAN white-box hardware Split Option 8 (e.g., [O-RAN. WG7.IPC-HRD-Opt8]).

[0191] Additionally or alternatively, the CUs 732, DUs 731, and / or RUs 730 may be IAB nodes. IAB enables wireless relaying in an NG-RAN where a relaying node (referred to as an “lAB-node”) supports access and backhauling via 3GPP 5G / new radio (NR) links / interfaces. The terminating node of NR backhauling on the network side is referred to as an “IAB-donor,” which represents a RAN node (e.g., a gNB) with additional functionality to support IAB. Backhauling can occur via a single or multiple hops. All IAB nodes that are connected to an IAB-donor via one or multiple hops form a directed acyclic graph (DAG) topology with the IAB-donor as its root. The IAB-donor performs centralized resource, topology, and route management for the IAB topology. The IAB architecture is shown and described in [TS38300],

[0192] Although the NGF deployment 700a shows the CU 732, DU 731, RRH 730, and CN 742 as separate entities, in other implementations, some or all of these network nodes can be bundled, combined, or otherwise integrated into a single device or element, including collapsing some internal interfaces (e.g., Fl-C, Fl-U, El, E2, and the like). At least the following implementations are possible: (i) integrating the CU 732 and the DU 731 (e.g., a CU-DU), which is connected to the RRH 730 via the NGFI-I; (ii) integrating the DU 731 and the RRH 730 (e.g., a DU-RRH), which is connected to the CU 732 via NGFI-II; (iii) integrating a RAN controller and the CU 732, which is connected to the DU 731 via NGFI-II; (iv) integrating the CU 732, the DU 731, and the RRH 730, which is connected to the CN 742 via backhaul interface; and (v) integrating the network controller (or intelligent controller), the CU 732, the DU 731, and the RRH 730. Any of the aforementioned example implementations involving the CU 732 may also include integrating the CU-CP and CU-UP.

[0193] FIG. 7 also shows an example RAN disaggregation deployment 700b (also referred to as “disaggregated RAN 700b”) where the UE 702 is connected to the RRH 730, and the RRH 730 is communicatively coupled with one or more of the RAN functions (RANFs) 1-N (where N is a number). The RANFs 1-N are disaggregated and distributed geographically across several component segments and network nodes. In some implementations, each RANF 1-N is aAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1software (SW) element operated by a physical compute node, and the RRH 730 includes radiofrequency (RF) circuitry (e.g., an RF propagation module for a particular RAT and / or the like). In this example, the RANF 1 is operated on a physical compute node that is co-located with the RRH 730, and the other RANFs are disposed at locations further away from the RRH 730. Additionally, in this example, CN 742 is also disaggregated into CN NFs 1-x (where x is a number) in the same or similar manner as the RANFs 1-N. However, in other implementations, the CN 742 is not disaggregated.

[0194] Network disaggregation (or disaggregated networking) involves the separation of networking equipment into functional components and allowing each component to be individually deployed. This may encompass the separation of SW elements (e.g., NFs) from specific HW elements and / or using APIs to enable software-defined network (SDN) and / or NF virtualization (NFV). RAN disaggregation involves network disaggregation and virtualization of various RANFs (e.g., RANFs 1-N in FIG. 7). The RANFs 1-N can be placed in different physical sites in various topologies in an RAN deployment based on the use case. This enables RANF distribution and deployment across different geographic areas, allowing a breakout of RANFs to support various use cases (e.g., low-latency use cases) as well as flexible RAN implementations.Disaggregation provides a common or uniform RAN platform that can assume a distinct profile depending on its deployment location. This enables fewer fixed-function devices and a lower total cost of ownership compared to existing RAN architectures. Example RAN disaggregation frameworks are provided by Telecom Infra Project (TIP) OpenRAN, Cisco Open vRAN, [O-RAN], Open Optical & Packet Transport (OOPT), Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexer (RO ADM), and / or the like.

[0195] In a first example implementation, the RANFs 1-N disaggregate RAN HW and SW with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) HW and open interfaces (e.g., NGFI-I and NGFI-II and the like). In this example implementation, each RANF 1-N may be a virtual BBU or vRAN controller operating on COTS compute infrastructure with HW acceleration for BBU / vRANFs.

[0196] In a second example implementation, the RANFs 1-N disaggregate layers of one or more RAT protocol stacks. As an example of thisAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1implementation, RANF 1 is a DU 731 operating on the first COTS compute infrastructure with HW acceleration for BBU / vRANFs, and RANF 2 is a virtual CU 732 operating on the second COTS compute infrastructure.

[0197] In a third example implementation, the RANFs 1-N disaggregate control plane and user plane functions. As an example of this implementation, the RANF l is a DU 731 operating on COTS compute infrastructure with HW acceleration for BBU / vRANFs, RANF 2 is a virtual CU-CP 732 operating on COTS compute infrastructure, and a third RANF (e.g., RANF 3 (not shown by FIG. 7)) is a virtual CU-UP 732 operating on the same or different COTS compute infrastructure as the virtual CU-CP 732. Additionally or alternatively, in this implementation, one or more CN NFs 1-x may be CN-UP functions, and one or more other CN NFs 1-x may be CN-CP functions.

[0198] In a fourth example implementation, the RANFs 1-N disaggregate layers of an [IEEE802] RAT. As an example of this implementation, the RRH 730 implements a WiFi PHY layer, RANF 1 implements a WiFi MAC sublayer, RANF 1 implements a WiFi logical link control (LLC) sublayer, RANF 2 implements one or more WiFi upper layer protocols (e.g., network layer, transport layer, session layer, presentation layer, and / or application layer), and so forth.

[0199] In a fifth example implementation, the RANFs 1-N disaggregate different O-RAN RANFs, including E2SMs. As an example of this implementation, RANF 1 implements the near-RT RIC, RANF 2 implements the E2SM-KPM, RANF 3 implements the E2SM-CCC, RANF 4 implements the E2SM RAN control, RANF 5 implements the E2SM-NI, RANF 6 implements functions for providing Al services, and so forth.

[0200] In any of the implementations discussed herein, the lower layers of the RAN protocol stack can be characterized by real-time (RT) functions and relatively complex signal processing algorithms, and the higher layers of the RAN protocol stack can be characterized by non-RT functions. In these implementations, the RT functions and signal processing algorithms can be implemented in DUs 731 and / or RRHs 730, either using purpose-built network elements or COTS hardware augmented with purpose-built hardwareaccelerators.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0201] FIG. 7 also shows various functional split options 700c for both DL and UL directions. The traditional RAN is an integrated network architecture based on a distributed RAN (D-RAN) model, where D-RAN integrates all RANFs into a few network elements. As previously alluded to, the disaggregated RAN architecture offers flexible function split options to overcome the various drawbacks of the D-RAN model. The disaggregated RAN breaks down the integrated network system into several functional components that can then be individually relocated as needed without hindering their ability to work together to provide holistic network services. The split options 700c are mostly split between the CU 732 and the DU 731, but can also include a split among the CU 732, DU 731, and RU 730. For each option 700c, protocol entities on the left side of the figure are included in the RANF implementing the CU 732, and the protocol entities on the right side of the figure are included in the RANF implementing the DU 731. For example, the Option 2 function split includes splitting non-RT processing (e.g., RRC and PDCP layers) from RT processing (e.g., RLC, MAC, and PHY layers), where the RANF implementing the CU 732 performs network functions of the RRC and PDCP layers, and the RANF implementing the DU 731 performs the baseband processing functions of the RLC (including high-RLC and low-RLC), MAC (including high-MAC and low-MAC), and PHY layers. In some implementations, the PHY layer is further split between the DU 731 and the RU 730, where the RANF implementing the DU 731 performs the high-PHY layer functions, and the RU 730 handles the low-PHY layer functions. In some implementations, the Low-PHY entity may be operated by the RU 730 regardless of the selected functional split option. Under the Option 2 split, the RANF implementing the CU 732 can connect to multiple DUs 731 (e.g., the CU 732 is centralized), which allows RRC and PDCP anchor change to be eliminated during a handover across DUs 731 and allows the centralized CU 732 to pool resources across several DUs 731. In this way, the Option 2 function split can improve resource efficiency. The specific function split option used may vary depending on service requirements and network deployment scenarios, and may be implementation-specific. It should also be noted that in some implementations, all of the function split options can be selected where each protocol stack entity is operated by a respective RANF (e.g., a first RANF operates the RRC layer, a second RANF operates the PDCPAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1layer, a third RANF operates the high-RLC layer, and so forth until an eighth RANF operates the low-PHY layer). Other split options are possible, such as those discussed in [O-RAN.WG7.IPC-HRD-Opt6], [0-RAN.WG7.IPC-HRD-Opt7-2], [O-RAN.WG7.IPC-HRD-Opt8], [0-RAN.WG7.0MAC-HRD], and [O-RAN.WG7.OMC-HRD-Opt7-2].

[0202] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components outlined in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and / or methods as discussed herein (including the examples listed in the examples sections below). For example, baseband circuitry associated with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, satellite, network element, etc., as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures, may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section.

[0203] The term “application” may refer to a complete, deployable package or environment that performs a specific function in an operational environment. The term “ AI / ML application,” or a similar term, may refer to an application that incorporates artificial intelligence (Al) and / or machine learning (ML) models, along with application-level descriptions. In some embodiments, an AI / ML application may be used to configure or implement one or more of the disclosed aspects.

[0204] The term “machine learning” or “ML” refers to the use of computer systems implementing algorithms and / or statistical models to perform a specific task(s) without using explicit instructions but instead relying on patterns and inferences. ML algorithms build or estimate mathematical models (referred to as “ML models” or the like) based on sample data (referred to as “training data,” “model training information,” or the like) to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to perform such tasks. Generally, an ML algorithm is a computer program that learns from experience regarding a specific task and a corresponding performance measure. An ML model, on the other hand, may be any object or data structure created after an ML algorithm is trained on one or more training datasets. After training, an ML model may beAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1used to make predictions on new datasets. Although the term “ML algorithm” refers to concepts different from the term “ML model,” these terms, as discussed herein, may be used interchangeably for the present disclosure.

[0205] The term “machine learning model,” “ML model,” or the like may also refer to ML methods and concepts used by an ML-assisted solution. An “ML-assisted solution” is a solution that addresses a specific use case using ML algorithms during operation. ML models include supervised learning (e.g., linear regression, k-nearest neighbor (KNN), decision tree algorithms, support machine vectors, Bayesian algorithm, ensemble algorithms, etc.), unsupervised learning (e.g., K-means clustering, principal component analysis (PCA), etc.), reinforcement learning (e.g., Q-learning, multi-armed bandit learning, deep RL, etc.), neural networks, and the like. Depending on the implementation, a specific ML model may comprise many sub-models, and the model may train all of them simultaneously. Separately trained ML models can also be chained together in an ML pipeline during inference. An “ML pipeline” is a set of functionalities, functions, or functional entities specific to an ML-assisted solution; an ML pipeline may include one or several data sources in a data pipeline, a model training pipeline, a model evaluation pipeline, and an actor. The “actor” is an entity that hosts an ML-assisted solution that uses the ML model's inference output. The term “ML training host” refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts the model training. The term “ML inference host” refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts the model during inference (including both model execution and any online learning, if applicable). The ML host informs the actor of the ML algorithm's output, and the actor decides on an action (an “action” is performed by an actor as a result of the ML-assisted solution's output). The term “model inference information” refers to information used as an input to the ML model for determining inference(s); the data used to train an ML model and the data used to determine inferences may overlap, however, “training data” and “inference data” refer to different concepts.

[0206] The present disclosure defines or otherwise provides configurations, such as configurations associated with an enhanced carrier-specific scaling factor (CSSF) and serving cell measurements. The following discussion may beAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1applicable to any type of communication device (including UEs or base stations), such as the devices discussed in connection with FIGS. 1 A-8.

[0207] The problem addressed by the present disclosure lies in the inefficiencies and limitations associated with serving cell measurements and carrier-specific scaling factors (CSSF) in advanced wireless communication systems, particularly in 5GNew Radio (NR) networks and beyond.Conventional approaches to radio resource management (RRM) and measurement configurations often rely on continuous synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) and static measurement patterns, which can lead to excessive power consumption, increased latency, and suboptimal system mobility performance. These methods fail to adequately address scenarios involving deactivated secondary cells (SCells) in carrier aggregation (CA) configurations, where user equipment (UE) must perform measurements efficiently without compromising network performance. Additionally, existing solutions do not provide sufficient flexibility for prioritizing on-demand SSB (OD-SSB) measurements or optimizing measurement cycles across multiple carriers within a frequency band, particularly in high-frequency (FR2) operations.

[0208] The described concepts enhance traditional methods by providing a dynamic, efficient framework for serving cell measurements and CSSF adjustments. The approach uses OD-SSB transmissions (e.g., activated only when necessary) to significantly reduce network energy consumption while maintaining robust RRM performance. By emphasizing OD-S SB-based measurements over legacy continuously active SSB measurements during fast measurement windows, the approach enables rapid, accurate reporting for deactivated SCells.

[0209] A measurement-sharing factor is introduced to allocate UE processing resources effectively among OD-SSB SCells and other SCell carriers, enabling optimized performance during periods requiring precise measurements.Additionally, the approach incorporates mechanisms for the UE to measure only one carrier frequency within a band, with results extrapolated to other intra-band carriers, thereby reducing measurement delays and improving system mobility. The use of additional searchers for gapless measurements further accelerates reporting and enhances the system's overall efficiency.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0210] The solution employs specialized algorithms and system architecture enhancements to achieve these improvements. For example, the CSSF formula is dynamically adjusted to prioritize OD-SSB measurements, incorporating parameters such as the number of OD-SSB-configured SCells and configurable sharing proportions. Fast measurement windows are defined to enable the UE to perform rapid, one-time measurements on OD-SSB before reverting to legacy measurement requirements. The described approach also introduces flexible UE behavior for selecting target carriers, prioritizing primary component carriers (PCC) and primary secondary component carriers (PSCC) based on network configurations or UE implementation. These advancements collectively address the limitations of prior approaches, providing a scalable and energy-efficient framework for serving cell measurements in next-generation wireless networks.

[0211] The disclosed techniques provide a solution for optimizing serving cell measurements and CSSF in NR networks, particularly in scenarios involving deactivated SCells under CA configurations. The solution introduces a framework for utilizing on-demand synchronization signal blocks (OD-SSBs) to enhance measurement efficiency and reduce network energy consumption. The processing circuitry of the user equipment (UE) is configured to prioritize OD-SSB-based measurements over legacy continuously active SSB measurements during specific operational windows, such as fast measurement windows.

[0212] The solution involves several steps and configurations. When OD-SSB is activated, the UE allocates its measurement resources specifically to OD-SSB, ensuring that deactivated SCells are measured efficiently. The CSSF is dynamically adjusted to focus on OD-SSB measurements, incorporating parameters such as the number of OD-SSB-configured SCells and configurable sharing proportions. The fast measurement window is defined to enable the UE to perform rapid, one-time measurements on OD-SSB before reverting to legacy measurement requirements. During this window, the UE halts measurements on SCells without activated OD-SSB, thereby improving resource allocation.

[0213] Implementing the solution may use specific configurations and signaling mechanisms. The activation and deactivation of OD-SSB are controlled through a combination of Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling and Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC-CE) updates. TheAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1RRCReconfiguration message includes information elements (IES) such as od-ssb-nrofBurst, ssb-PositionsInBurst, and od-ssb-Config, which define the parameters for OD-SSB transmission. The UE monitors the SSB Measurement Timing Configuration (SMTC) windows configured for OD-SSB occasions and uses searcher resources to detect and measure OD-SSB signals. Detection is based on the correlation between the primary synchronization signal (PSS) and the secondary synchronization signal (SSS), with timing tolerances specified to ensure reliable detection.

[0214] The solution is supported by principles of efficient resource management and dynamic signal prioritization. By focusing on OD-SSB during fast measurement windows, the solution reduces measurement delays and improves system mobility performance. The use of additional searchers for gapless measurements further accelerates reporting and enhances overall efficiency. The CSSF formula accounts for the number of OD-SSB-configured SCells, ensuring measurement resources are allocated effectively.

[0215] The solution addresses several technical challenges, including the inefficiencies of legacy continuous SSB measurements and the need for rapid reporting in high-frequency operations. These challenges are addressed by introducing dynamic activation of OD-SSB, flexible resource-sharing schemes, and fast measurement windows. The expected outcomes include reduced network energy consumption, improved measurement accuracy, and enhanced mobility performance. For example, the solution enables the UE to generate a single rapid report during the fast measurement window, providing actionable data for network decisions.

[0216] An illustrative example involves a scenario where the UE is configured with multiple SCells, some of which are equipped with OD-SSB. During the fast measurement window, the UE measures only SCells with activated OD-SSB, using a CSSF value that prioritizes these measurements. The results are reported to the network, which can then make informed decisions about cell activation or mobility management. This approach ensures efficient use of measurement resources while maintaining high system performance.

[0217] In the context of radio resource management for new radio systems, a measurement gap is a predefined interval during which the device temporarilyAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1halts its normal data reception and transmission on the current serving frequencies to evaluate alternative frequencies or access technologies. This interruption allows the device to tune its radio components away from active connections without causing conflicts, ensuring accurate assessments for tasks such as mobility support or cell addition. The terminology aligns with established standards where such gaps are essential for inter-frequency or intersystem checks, particularly when the device's hardware cannot handle simultaneous operations across disparate bands.

[0218] The setup for these gaps is handled through dedicated signaling from the network to the device, typically embedded in reconfiguration commands that specify the gap's parameters. These include an offset value to determine the starting point relative to the system timing, a length that dictates how long the interruption lasts (options range from very short spans like one and a half milliseconds to longer ones around six milliseconds), and a repetition rate that sets how often the gap recurs, such as every twenty, forty, eighty, or one hundred sixty milliseconds. The network can tailor these on a per-device or per-frequency-group basis, with patterns shared across groups for efficiency, and the device must apply them upon confirmation, adjusting its behavior to minimize impact on throughput while meeting evaluation timelines.

[0219] Conversely, outside-gap evaluations describe the process where the device performs necessary signal checks without relying on these scheduled interruptions, leveraging its internal capabilities to multitask between serving and target frequencies. This mode is feasible when the timing windows for target signal occasions do not clash with any configured gaps, the device has signaled support for such operations through capability indicators, and the received signal quality from the serving path exceeds a certain level to allow brief diversions without loss. In this context, it specifically applies to scenarios like intra-band assessments or when hardware permits concurrent reception chains, enabling faster reporting delays scaled by factors accounting for the number of paths involved, but it imposes restrictions on scheduling around the symbols used for target signals to avoid data corruption. This approach enhances performance in dense carrier environments by reducing reliance on gaps, though it falls back to gap-based methods if conditions degrade or capabilities are insufficient.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0220] The base station configures measurement gaps and synchronization signal measurement timing configuration windows to avoid overlap by selecting repetition periods and offsets that place OD-SSB occasions outside gap durations. The network signaling uses values consistent with defined gap lengths and periodicities and indicates the SMTC window aligned to OD-SSB scheduling, enabling the device to perform outside-gap measurements without interruption.

[0221] On-demand synchronization signal blocks (SSBs, collectively referred to herein as “OD-SSBs”) may be transmitted only when needed. Network indications and signaling may trigger the on-demand SSB transmission. When the on-demand SSB is activated, the user equipment (UE) may use it as a target for radio resource management (RRM) measurements. Regarding RRM measurements on the deactivated secondary cell (SCell) under network-configured carrier aggregation (CA), the UE can measure the on-demand SSB when activated, according to the specified measurement pattern and behavior.

[0222] The disclosed configurations relate to the measurement requirements and UE behavior when the UE is configured with OD-SSB and deactivated SCell measurements, and when the UE is capable of OD-SSB measurements on the deactivated SCell measurements under the CA framework.

[0223] The following configurations relate to deactivated SCell measurements based on OD-SSB.

[0224] The disclosed techniques may be used to specify correct UE behaviors and deactivated SCell measurements requirements based on the OD-SSB to guarantee fair performance enhancement compared to legacy systems.

[0225] One principle for measurements between PCell and SCell is that the UE has separate searchers dedicated to either the PCell or the SCell, so measurements are not shared between the PCell and the SCell. The outside gap CSSF of the intra-frequency without gap deactivated SCell measurements is the number of configured SCells.

[0226] The disclosed techniques may include deactivated SCell measurements based on OD-SSB, and when there is no always-on SSB on the target SCell, the UE can allocate all of its SCell measurement resources on the OD-SSB when transmitted.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0227] In the context of 3 GPP Release 19 Network Energy Savings (NES) enhancements, on-demand Synchronization Signal Block (OD-SSB) represents a key feature to reduce network energy consumption by transmitting SSB only when necessary, particularly for measurements on deactivated Secondary Cells (SCells) in carrier aggregation (CA) configurations. The OD-SSB is activated on demand for UE measurements, aligning with Rel-19 objectives to optimize power usage while maintaining RRM performance. This concept builds on existing SSB transmission mechanisms in TS 38.213, where SSB periodicity is configurable, but introduces dynamic activation to avoid always-on transmissions.

[0228] The activation and deactivation of OD-SSB can be signaled through a combination of RRC and MAC Control Element (MAC-CE) mechanisms, allowing flexible control by the network. RRC signaling is used for initial configuration and indication of the activation / deactivation state, while MAC-CE provides dynamic updates similar to SCell activation / deactivation. This dual approach enables the gNB-DU to decide the state per SCell and convey it to the gNB-CU for inclusion in RRC messages. The primary RRC message involved is the RRCReconfiguration message, which includes the ServingCellConfig IE to configure OD-SSB parameters for the SCell. Specific IES within RRCReconfiguration include:

[0229] - od-ssb-nrofBurst: This IE specifies the number of bursts for OD-SSB transmission, allowing the network to configure the density of OD-SSB occasions upon activation.

[0230] - ssb-PositionsInBurst: Extended for OD-SSB to indicate time domain positions of transmitted SS-blocks in a half-frame, as referenced in TS 38.213 Clause 4.1. For OD-SSB, this IE defines the positions within the activation window.

[0231] - od-ssb-Config: A dedicated IE for OD-SSB configuration, including periodicity, offset, and duration, integrated into the MeasObjectNR or ServingCellConfigCommonSIB IEs.

[0232] The processing circuitry transmits a wake-up signal to request activation of OD-SSB occasions for a deactivated secondary cell when measurement operations are required. The wake-up signal is sent in accordanceAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1with a configuration provided by network signaling and causes the base station to enable OD-SSB transmission for a serving cell. The processing circuitry monitors for confirmation of activation and starts the fast measurement window upon activation.

[0233] The network may use RRC signaling to set the initial activation / deactivation state during SCell set up or reconfiguration. For dynamic changes, a MAC-CE, analogous to the SCell Activation / Deactivation MAC CE defined in TS 38.321 (Clause 6.1.3.10), is used to toggle the OD-SSB state. This MAC-CE can simultaneously update the OD-SSB configuration, such as periodicity or burst number, ensuring low latency for state changes.

[0234] UE triggering conditions for OD-SSB activation include scenarios where the UE requires SCell measurements for fast activation or mobility. The UE can trigger OD-SSB transmission by sending an uplink Wake-Up Signal (WUS), as specified in Rel-19 NES enhancements. This WUS is a low-power signal transmitted by the UE to indicate the need for OD-SSB, typically when the SCell is deactivated and measurements are required for reporting or handover preparation. Other triggers include network-side events, such as SCell activation signaling (via MAC-CE), cell on / off indications via backhaul (Xn interface), or load-based decisions at the gNB. In SA mode, the UE assumes OD-SSB activation upon entering a fast measurement window, configured via the measConfig IE in RRCReconfiguration. The UE stops OD-SSB-based measurements upon completion of a single rapid report or when the fast measurement window expires, falling back to legacy measurements if always-on SSB is available.

[0235] UE-side detection of OD-SSB involves monitoring configured SMTC (SSB Measurement Timing Configuration) windows for OD-SSB occasions. The UE uses its searcher resources (e.g., as defined in TS 38.133, Clause 4.2.2) to detect OD-SSB, with support for up to NSSC ODSSB simultaneous measurements. Detection can be based on PSS / SSS correlation, with the UE considering OD-SSB as “activated” when SS-RSRP exceeds a threshold configured in the measObjectNR IE. Timing tolerances for detection are specified in TS 38.133 Clause 9.1.5, with additional processing time for OD-SSB in deactivated SCells, typically adding 1-2 slots (depending on SCS) to theAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1legacy SSB detection time to account for the on-demand nature and potential retuning. The UE may achieve detection within the OD-SSB transmission duration, which is required to be longer than the deactivated SCell measurement period to ensure reliable sampling.

[0236] The processing circuitry declares an OD-SSB occasion detected when a synchronization signal received power exceeds a threshold indicated by network signaling in a measurement object for NR. The threshold is provided as a value associated with the OD-SSB configuration and is applied to samples taken within the synchronization signal measurement timing configuration window. The detection uses correlation between a primary synchronization signal and a secondary synchronization signal and applies the threshold to the derived power metric for the detected SS / PBCH block.

[0237] Expected network-to-UE signaling latencies for starting / stopping OD-SSB-based measurements are tied to SCell activation delays in TS 38.133, Clause 8.3.2. For OD-SSB activation via MAC-CE, the latency is T activation = T_RRC_process + I MAC + T_OD-SSB_detect, where T_RRC_process is 10 ms, I MAC is 3 ms, and T_OD-SSB_detect is the time to the next OD-SSB occasion (up to the SMTC periodicity, e.g., 20 ms). Total latency for starting measurements is typically 20-40 ms for FR1 and 10-20 ms for FR2, including CSSF scaling for multiple carriers. Stopping latency is shorter, occurring immediately after the UE completes the first L3-filtered report (as per TS 38.215), with a maximum of one measurement cycle (aligned with OD-SSB periodicity during the fast window). If no report is generated within the window, the UE ceases measurements until reactivation, with fallback to always-on SSB adding no extra latency.

[0238] The processing circuitry starts OD-SSB-based measurements after an activation latency equal to a sum of a radio resource control processing time, a medium access control update time, and a detection time for an OD-SSB occasion. The processing circuitry stops OD-SSB-based measurements after deactivation signaling and completion of a first layer-3 filtered report within one OD-SSB cycle. The activation and deactivation latencies follow ranges configured for FR1 and FR2 in accordance with synchronization signal periodicities and scheduling.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0239] These mechanisms ensure efficient OD-SSB usage, with UE behavior prioritizing OD-SSB over legacy measurements when configured. The network configures the fast measurement window via RRC, bounded by the OD-SSB activation duration, to enable a single report before cessation in cases without always-on SSB.

[0240] This case prioritizes UE-deactivated SCell measurements based on OD-SSB over other SCell measurements when OD-SSB is configured and activated.

[0241] This means that when OD-SSB is configured and activated, the CSSF outside-gap value is adjusted to prioritize OD-SSB measurements over others. For example, for FR1 only CA in standalone (SA) mode measurements in Table 9.1.5.1.2-1 (of 3GPP TS 38.133), CSSF equals NSSC_SSB + Y + Z + 2 x Nssc CSIRS + Nssc CCA RSSI / CO, which should equal Nssc ODSSB, which is the number of SCell that has activated OD-SSB being measured by the UE. If this is the case, the UE may not be allowed to measure any SCell that does not have an activated OD-SSB during the fast measurement windows. There is an impact on legacy measurement requirements, as measurement reports are delayed because measurements are not carried out during fast measurement windows.

[0242] The carrier-specific scaling factor serves as a multiplier to adjust the timing requirements for measurements conducted on serving cells without the use of measurement gaps, particularly in standalone operation. This factor is outlined in a tabular format within the radio resource management requirements specification, specifically in the section addressing general measurement guidelines. The table categorizes various operational setups and assigns scaling values accordingly for primary and secondary component carriers across different frequency ranges.

[0243] In setups without carrier aggregation, the scaling factor is uniformly set to unity for the primary carrier regardless of the frequency range. For configurations involving only lower frequency range aggregation, the factor remains one for the primary carrier but equals the count of serving frequencies in that range for secondary carriers. Similarly, for higher frequency range aggregation alone, the primary carrier factor is one, while secondary carriers use the number of serving frequencies in the higher range. In mixed frequency rangeAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1aggregations, the scaling for the primary carrier depends on its range — unity if in the lower range, or the sum of serving frequencies across both ranges if in the higher range — while secondary carriers in each range use their respective frequency counts. Additional notes clarify that the factor applies to synchronization signal-based evaluations outside gaps, with sharing mechanisms potentially influencing the value when certain conditions overlap, and specific adjustments for reference signal configurations or unlicensed operations.

[0244] The expression discussed herein for the scaling factor extends the standard approach to incorporate on-demand reference signal handling: CSSF = NSSC SSB + Y + Z + 2 x NSSC CSIRS + NSSC CCA RSSI / CO. Here, NSSC_SSB represents the count of serving cells set up for layer-three evaluations using standard periodic synchronization signals. Y denotes an adjustable component that biases resource distribution toward on-demand signal cells, calculated as the product of a configurable sharing proportion (ranging from 0.25 to 0.75 in 0.25 steps, default 0.5) and the number of such cells during rapid evaluation periods. Z is a supplementary tuning element that accounts for implementation-specific overheads like frequency retuning or cycle alignment in on-demand scenarios, often set to zero unless additional complexity arises, or computed as the ceiling of the difference between total on-demand cells and those already covered by Y. NSSC CSIRS indicates the number of serving cells configured for channel state reference signal-based layer-three assessments, weighted by a factor of two to reflect higher processing demands.NSSC_CCA_RSSI / CO stands for the count of serving cells needing assessments for signal strength indicators or occupancy in shared spectrum environments.

[0245] The carrier-specific scaling factor is computed according to NR radio resource management requirements and extends a baseline outside-gap multiplier with auxiliary terms for OD-SSB prioritization. The factor equals a sum of counts for serving cell synchronization signal block measurements, twice the count of channel state information reference signal measurements, and clearchannel assessment or channel occupancy measurements. An auxiliary term Y denotes a measurement sharing proportion applied to serving cells configured with OD-SSB, and an auxiliary term Z accounts for retuning overhead or cycle alignment under OD-SSB activation. When OD-SSB prioritization is active during the fast measurement window, non-OD-SSB terms are set to minimalAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1contributions and the factor reduces to a value equivalent to the number of OD-SSB configured serving cells measured.

[0246] In the context of prioritizing on-demand signal measurements, the computation emphasizes those cells by minimizing contributions from other terms. Specifically, when prioritization is active during brief focused periods, non-on-demand terms (NSSC_SSB, NSSC_CSIRS, NSSC_CCA_RSSI / CO) are effectively reduced to minimal values or zero through resource reallocation, causing the expression to simplify to the equivalent of the count of on-demand configured cells, denoted as NSSC ODSSB, which is derived from Y + Z.

[0247] For example, consider a setup with four secondary cells: two with standard periodic signals (NSSC_SSB = 2), one with channel state signals (NSSC CSIRS = 1), and one requiring occupancy checks(NSSC CCA RSSI / CO = 1), but no on-demand signals initially. Without prioritization, Y = 0 and Z = 0, yielding CSSF = 2 + 0 + 0 + 2 x 1 + 1 = 5, extending measurement timelines by a factor of five to accommodate all types.

[0248] When two cells are reconfigured for on-demand signals with prioritization enabled and a sharing proportion of 0.5, then NSSC ODSSB = 2, Y = 0.5 x 2 = 1, Z = 1 (to cover retuning overhead), while standard terms drop to NSSC SSB = 1 (one remaining), NSSC_CSIRS = 0, NSSC_CCA_RSSI / CO = 0 due to resource bias. The CSSF initially computes as l + l + l + 2 x 0 + 0 = 3, but under full prioritization, it collapses to NSSC ODSSB = 2 (Y + Z = 2), shortening delays and enabling rapid reporting for the prioritized cells.

[0249] In another instance, with three on-demand cells and a sharing proportion of 0.75 during a fast period, Y = 0.75 3 ~ 2.25 (rounded to 2 per granularity), Z = 1 for alignment, and other terms zeroed out via prioritization. The formula gives CSSF = 0 + 2 + l + 0 + 0 = 3, effectively matching NSSC ODSSB = 3, allowing quicker single reports before reverting to broader evaluations.

[0250] When sharing between activated OD-SSB and always-on SSB measurements across different SCell carriers is allowed, it may not be fair to require equal sharing among all carriers during fast measurement windows for OD-SSB. One way is to define a ratio to make better use of the fastAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1measurement windows for OD-SSB while still allowing the UE to have a decent measurement report for other SCell-s that are not with OD-SSB.

[0251] In some aspects, a measurement sharing factor among OD-SSB SCell and other SCell carriers in the CSSF is used for SCell measurements.

[0252] When multiple activated OD-SSBs are available for the UE to measure, we can also consider sharing schemes among carriers, though equal sharing seems to be the best trade-off between performance and complexity. The network can, in this way, determine how to configure the UE to achieve optimal systematic mobility performance on the SCells.

[0253] Another consideration is that when the activated OD-SSBs are not overlapped in the time domain, the sharing scheme can be enhanced to allow the UE to retune between activated OD-SSB frequencies to produce faster measurement reports. This, on the other hand, imposes on the network the need to consider a scattered time-domain allocation of OD-SSB across different SCell carriers.

[0254] When several on-demand synchronization signals are enabled simultaneously across different secondary cells, the device adjusts its radio settings to switch between them efficiently, ensuring accurate signal capture without excessive power consumption or delays in reporting. This adjustment process is crucial in setups that use combined carriers, as it enables the device to evaluate multiple signals without compromising overall system performance.

[0255] The base station schedules OD-SSB occasions across serving cells to avoid overlapping time positions and to support device retuning between different OD-SSB frequencies. The network signaling indicates the order of occasions when multiple OD-SSB configurations are present, and the processing circuitry follows the indicated order during the fast measurement window. When no ordering is indicated, the processing circuitry measures OD-SSB occasions on carriers associated with primary and secondary component carriers before other carriers.

[0256] The time required for the device to realign its radio-frequency components when switching between these signals depends on the operating band. In lower-frequency bands, this alignment typically takes about 6 tenths of a millisecond, while in higher-frequency bands it is shorter, around 3 tenths of aAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1millisecond, to support quicker beam adjustments and reduced propagation variations. These durations include the necessary stabilization period for the receiver to lock onto the new signal without errors.

[0257] To safeguard against interference during these shifts, brief protective periods are incorporated around the signal occasions, lasting a few symbols (e.g., one or two) depending on the subcarrier configuration. These periods prevent overlapping processing that could distort evaluations, allowing the device to complete one signal assessment before starting another.

[0258] The processing circuitry applies guard symbols around OD-SSB occasions to prevent overlap with adjacent data or measurement processing, and enforces at least one symbol in higher subcarrier-spacing configurations and up to two symbols in lower subcarrier-spacing configurations. The processing circuitry halts collection during guard symbols and resumes sampling at the start of the OD-SSB resource elements in the configured occasion.

[0259] The sequence in which the device handles multiple enabled signals is guided by network directives, such as the order specified in the evaluation setups or through dedicated control messages. If no explicit order is given, the device may default to a scheme that prioritizes signals on primary or secondary carriers, based on factors such as expected quality or activation urgency, to optimize overall reporting speed.

[0260] Measures to avoid degrading the assessments include suspending evaluations during the alignment phase, ensuring no data is collected in corrupted slots, and limiting the number of simultaneous switches to match the device's processing limits. For instance, if signals are on closely spaced frequencies within the same band, minimal disruption occurs, but wider separations trigger full alignment with corresponding pauses.

[0261] Underlying expectations for the device's radio components include the ability to manage independent signal paths for higher bands and to support up to four reception branches in advanced setups, while the processing core is expected to parallelize up to eight signal layers without overload. These capabilities enable smooth transitions even with multiple active signals, provided standard hardware supports rapid frequency hopping and beam control.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0262] The following disclosure relates to configurations associated with fast measurement windows.

[0263] In some aspects, a UE uses a fast measurement window that starts from the activation of OD-SSB for quick measurement reporting based on OD-SSB. The idea is to let the UE report at least once quickly, during the fast measurement window.

[0264] After the fast measurement and report, the UE can measure the target SCell in accordance with legacy measurement requirements, even when there is no always-on SSB. However, since it is not guaranteed that the OD-SSB is always activated for the UE, specifying measurements after the fast window before the OD-SSB is reactivated by network signalling may be omitted. At least after the OD-SSB deactivation, the UE is no longer required to measure the target SCell.

[0265] After the fast measurement window, the UE may not be required to measure on the target SCell under Case #1 until the following OD-SSB activation command.

[0266] The end point of the fast measurement window can be specified from the UE perspective. For example, the end point can be when the UE has finished the first reporting to the network based on the deactivated SCell measurement results using OD-SSB during the fast measurement window.

[0267] The fast measurement window refers to a restricted timeframe during which the device concentrates its processing efforts on capturing and evaluating signals from on-demand synchronization blocks to generate a swift assessment of cell conditions, particularly for secondary cells that are not currently active. This approach allows for efficient resource use by limiting the duration of intensive signal monitoring, thereby supporting quicker network decisions on cell activation while conserving power on both the device and network sides.

[0268] The initiation of this window is prompted by the arrival of a signal from the network that enables the on-demand synchronization blocks, such as a control message delivered through medium access layer commands or resource reconfiguration signaling. Alternatively, the device itself can initiate the process by sending a low-energy alert signal to request the activation, which the network then confirms to start the window. This trigger ensures that measurements beginAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1promptly when needed, such as when preparing a secondary cell for use in combined carrier operations.

[0269] The upper limit on the window's length is determined by the configured timing setup for synchronization signal assessments, typically ranging from a brief interval, such as 5 milliseconds, to a longer one, such as 160 milliseconds, depending on the frequency band and network setup. In practice, for rapid evaluations, the duration is often kept shorter, around twenty to forty milliseconds, to align with the repetition rate of the synchronization signals and enable a single complete cycle of detection and processing without unnecessary extension.

[0270] The fast measurement window starts upon receipt of an indication that enables OD-SSB occasions and lasts for a duration aligned to the OD-SSB periodicity value. The window length is configured to cover at least one OD-SSB cycle and not exceed a configured upper bound consistent with synchronization signal periodicities between 5 ms and 160 ms. The processing circuitry applies a timer for window expiration and terminates the window upon transmission of a first measurement report or the timer's expiry. The processing circuitry collects a minimal number of samples within the window to support higher-layer filtering before report encoding.

[0271] To ensure reliable results, the device must gather a baseline number of signal samples, generally at least two or three, spaced according to the signal's repetition interval, which allows for basic filtering at the higher protocol layer to smooth out variations and produce one consolidated evaluation outcome. This minimal sampling supports the generation of a single, actionable summary rather than ongoing reports.

[0272] The format for conveying the results follows the standard structure for measurement feedback, transmitted through resource control messaging and including metrics such as signal power levels, quality indicators, and interference ratios derived from the synchronization blocks, formatted in a dedicated report message that the network can use to decide on further actions, such as cell enabling.

[0273] The window concludes precisely upon the device's confirmation that the initial evaluation summary has been successfully sent to the network, orAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1alternatively, if a predefined expiration period elapses without completing the report, to prevent indefinite waiting. In cases where both on-demand and continuous signals are available, the end may also trigger a switch back to standard evaluation methods.

[0274] Associated timing mechanisms include a brief delay for processing the activation cue, often around ten milliseconds for protocol handling, plus a few more for signal decoding, with allowances for variations of one or two time slots to account for differences in subcarrier configurations or frequency ranges. Detection must occur within the signal's availability period, with built-in margins to handle potential misalignments, ensuring the overall process stays within twenty to sixty milliseconds from trigger to completion in typical scenarios.

[0275] During the brief periods dedicated to rapid assessments, the device compiles and transmits a concise summary of signal conditions derived from the on-demand reference signals, focusing on essential indicators to facilitate quick network actions like activating additional cells. This summary emphasizes metrics that reflect the cell's immediate usability, ensuring the network receives actionable data without unnecessary detail that could delay processing.

[0276] The processing circuitry encodes a measurement report during the fast measurement window that includes synchronization signal-based power and quality metrics and a beam identifier for the measured SS / PBCH block. The processing circuitry applies a minimal filtering coefficient at a higher protocol layer to produce a single consolidated outcome from samples collected during the window. The processing circuitry sends the report in a dedicated measurement container indicated by network signaling at the end of the fast window.

[0277] Key indicators include the average power level received from the synchronization references, which quantifies signal strength for coverage evaluation; the quality ratio, which accounts for interference relative to the desired signal; and a combined measure that incorporates both noise and interference for a holistic link assessment. Additionally, identifiers for individual transmission directions or beams (e.g., numerical labels forAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1synchronization instances) are incorporated to pinpoint optimal paths in multibeam environments, aiding precise beam selection or refinement.

[0278] The structure for this summary follows the established protocol for conveying evaluation outcomes via control signaling, encapsulated in a dedicated message type that links back to the triggering configuration identifier. This message aggregates results for the serving setup, including per-cell breakdowns if multiple are assessed, and optionally neighboring details if relevant to the rapid context, all formatted in a hierarchical information structure to allow efficient parsing by the network.

[0279] To promote swift conveyance, the data undergoes a streamlined averaging process at a higher protocol level, applying a basic smoothing coefficient (often a default value such as unity for minimal alteration) to balance accuracy with speed, using only a couple of raw samples from the physical layer. This reduces computational overhead and report size, avoiding complex compression but ensuring the payload fits within uplink opportunities shortly after the assessment interval. Event-based initiation, such as thresholds for signal changes or completion of the focused period, further accelerates delivery by triggering transmission only when the single required outcome is ready, aligning with standard response timelines scaled for urgency in combined carrier scenarios.

[0280] The following disclosure concerns cases in which always-on SSB is transmitted.

[0281] Case #2 includes instances when the always-on SSB is transmitted, while Case #1 includes instances when there is no always-on SSB transmission.

[0282] The difference between deactivated SCell measurements for Case #2 and Case #1 can be significant because, after the fast measurements, the UE in Case #2 falls back to legacy measurements based on the always-on SSB on the same target SCell, while the UE in Case #1 is not required to measure on anything on the SCell.

[0283] In some aspects, the UE falls back to legacy deactivated SCell measurements after the fast measurement window under Case #2.

[0284] In some aspects, during the fast measurement window, the UE follows the same requirements as in Case #1. The same CSSF can apply between CaseAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1#1 and Case# 2, deactivated SCell measurements in the fast measurement windows. This facilitates a unified UE baseband implementation by enabling rapid measurements on the target-deactivated SCell.

[0285] When both on-demand and continuous synchronization signals are configured for a secondary cell, the device aligns its evaluation timing to ensure efficient signal capture, particularly when their repetition rates vary or their transmission positions do not match. This alignment supports consistent device behavior across different operational cases, allowing the network to optimize energy use while maintaining reliable cell assessments.

[0286] If the repetition interval of the on-demand signal is shorter than that of the continuous signal, the device prioritizes the more frequent on-demand timing during the limited rapid assessment period to gather sufficient samples quickly. Any potential overlaps in transmission occasions are avoided through network planning that ensures non-overlapping time slots, reducing interference and simplifying device processing. In contrast, if the intervals are the same, the device can seamlessly use either signal without additional adjustments, treating them as complementary resources for the evaluation.

[0287] When the signals operate on the same transmission frequency, no radio tuning adjustments are needed, enabling the device to switch between them instantaneously within the same reception chain. However, if they are on separate frequencies, even within the same band, the device must account for brief tuning delays, typically a fraction of a millisecond for higher frequency ranges or up to a full millisecond for lower ones, to realign its receiver. These delays are factored into the overall timing requirements, ensuring they do not exceed specified limits for cell activation or reporting.

[0288] For scenarios where continuous signals coexist with on-demand ones, the device strictly follows the on-demand timing rules during the initial rapid phase to accelerate the first assessment, then transitions to the continuous signal's schedule afterward for ongoing monitoring. This switch occurs automatically at the end of the rapid phase, with the device allocating its processing units accordingly to avoid dropping essential evaluations.

[0289] For example, consider a secondary cell where both signals share the same frequency, but the on-demand one repeats every 20 milliseconds, while theAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1continuous one repeats every 40 milliseconds. The device would measure using the twenty -millisecond cycle initially for quick results, ignoring potential continuous occasions that do not align, and then shift to the forty-millisecond cycle post-reporting, with no tuning overhead since the frequencies match.

[0290] In a different case, if the on-demand signal is on a slightly offset frequency within the same band (e.g., to avoid interference), the device incorporates a short retuning pause of about half a millisecond each time it switches, extending the effective cycle slightly but still prioritizing the on-demand interval during the rapid phase. For instance, with on-demand at ten milliseconds and continuous at twenty milliseconds on separate frequencies, the device might complete its first report in under fifty milliseconds total, including retunes, before reverting to the longer continuous cycle for sustained operation.

[0291] For Case #2, during the fast measurement window, the UE can follow the same requirements as in Case #1.

[0292] Considering that during the fast measurement window, the UE follows the measurement cycle of OD-SSB periodicity configurations. When the OD-SSB and the always-on SSB have the same frequency, there is no conflict for the UE to perform measurements based on the OD-SSB measurement cycle.

[0293] The processing circuitry prioritizes OD-SSB occasions during the fast measurement window when OD-SSB periodicity differs from the periodicity of an always-on synchronization signal block, and transitions to the always-on schedule after the window ends. When OD-SSB and always-on SSB are on the same frequency, the processing circuitry performs measurements according to the OD-SSB cycle without additional retuning. When OD-SSB and always-on SSB are on different frequencies, the processing circuitry inserts retuning intervals and guard symbols between occasions and aligns measurement sampling to configured cycles.

[0294] In some aspects, the same measurement cycle applies in the fast measurement window for both Case #1 and Case #2 UE-deactivated SCell measurements.

[0295] In configurations where on-demand synchronization signals are used alongside traditional periodic ones, the device temporarily shifts its focus during brief, rapid assessment periods to prioritize on-demand evaluations, potentiallyAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1leading to a short-term suspension or postponement of routine assessments on other cells. This reallocation ensures that limited processing capacity is directed toward generating a prompt single outcome for the prioritized cells, while still upholding overall system reliability by resuming standard operations afterward.

[0296] Specifically, obligations for conventional evaluations, such as those based on ongoing synchronization signals for primary or non-prioritized secondary cells, are suspended during these focused intervals to avoid resource conflicts. The device may defer sampling or filtering for these legacy tasks until the rapid phase concludes, preventing overlap that could degrade performance or increase power draw. This deferral is managed through adjusted allocation factors that bias toward the on-demand activities, effectively pausing legacy processes without permanent loss, as the device catches up post-window within extended timelines permitted by the setup.

[0297] The processing circuitry defers legacy measurements during the fast measurement window and resumes legacy operations after fast-window termination. The processing circuitry ensures that deferred legacy reporting occurs within extended timelines permitted by the configuration and integrates deferred data into subsequent reports to maintain compliance with reporting requirements.

[0298] The influence on the timelines for conveying results is generally minimal but noticeable, with conventional report deliveries potentially extended by a small multiple (e.g., up to twice the base period) due to the temporary resource shift. For instance, if a standard evaluation cycle is forty milliseconds, the rapid interval might add a 10-20 millisecond offset to legacy reporting, ensuring the quick on-demand summary is transmitted first while still meeting broader delay bounds. This adjustment maintains fairness across cell types, with the overall impact scaled by the number of configured carriers and the configured sharing proportions.

[0299] Adherence to established protocols for initiating reports remains intact, with the device continuing to respond to standard stimuli such as signal strength thresholds crossing predefined levels, quality drops below acceptable limits, or periodic intervals as configured by the network. These triggers, covering events such as improved neighbor cell detection or serving cellAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1degradation, apply uniformly, but their evaluation during the rapid phase incorporates prioritized on-demand data where relevant, ensuring that reports reflect the most current and urgent information without violating accuracy standards such as minimum sample counts or filtering coefficients. Postwindow, any deferred legacy data is integrated into subsequent reports to restore full compliance.

[0300] The disclosed techniques can include the following example configurations:

[0301] (a) In some aspects, UE-deactivated SCell measurements based on OD-SSB are prioritized over other measurements on the SCells, when OD-SSB is configured and activated.

[0302] (b) In some aspects, the prioritization is controlled by a measurement sharing factor among OD-SSB SCell and other SCell carriers in the CSSF for SCell measurements.

[0303] (c) In some aspects, after the fast measurement window where the UE measures one-time on the OD-SSB quickly, the UE is not required to measure on the target SCell under Case #1, until the next OD-SSB activation command.

[0304] (d) In some aspects, the end point of the fast measurement window is specified from the UE perspective. It is when the UE has finished the first reporting to the network based on the deactivated SCell measurement results using OD-SSB during the fast measurement window.

[0305] (e) In some aspects, the UE falls back to legacy deactivated SCell measurements after the fast measurement window under Case #2.

[0306] (f) In some aspects, for Case #2, where always-on SSB is transmitted along with on-demand SSB, during the fast measurement window, the UE follows the same requirements as in Case #1.

[0307] (g) In some aspects, the same measurement cycle applies in the fast measurement window for both Case #1 (no always-on SSB) and Case #2 UE-deactivated SCell measurements.

[0308] The measurement-sharing factor is a configurable parameter within the carrier-specific scaling factor framework that allocates UE processing resources across different types of secondary cells during measurement operations. This factor, referred to as the measurement sharing factor for on-AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1demand synchronization signals (MSF ODSSB), determines the division of available measurement capabilities, such as parallel processing units or timing slots, between cells configured with on-demand synchronization blocks and those without, ensuring a balance that favors quicker assessments for the former while still supporting essential evaluations for the latter.

[0309] The measurement-sharing factor is applied to allocate a proportion of processing resources to OD-SSB-configured serving cells relative to other serving cells during the fast measurement window. The factor is configured via network signaling as a value between 0.25 and 0.75, with a default of 0.50, and determines the number of parallel OD-SSB measurements relative to legacy measurements in the same interval. The processing circuitry computes the effective sharing by multiplying the factor by the count of OD-SSB configured serving cells and uses this value to bias the scheduling of measurement tasks.

[0310] The allowed range for MSF ODSSB spans from 0.25 to 0.75, representing proportions of resource allocation. The granularity is set to increments of 0.25, allowing values such as 0.25, 0.50, or 0.75 to provide flexible yet discrete adjustments without excessive implementation complexity. The default value is 0.50, which promotes an even distribution of resources unless the network specifies otherwise to address specific performance needs.

[0311] For example, when MSF ODSSB is configured to 0.75 during a brief period focused on rapid measurements, approximately three-quarters of the UE's available processing elements, such as those dedicated to signal detection and quality assessment, are directed toward cells using on-demand signals, enabling accelerated single-report generation for up to three such cells in parallel. The remaining quarter can support minimal ongoing checks for up to one standard cell, thus optimizing speed without neglecting overall system awareness. In another scenario with MSF ODSSB at 0.25, only a quarter of resources might be assigned to on-demand cells, perhaps for two of them, leaving three-quarters for more extensive handling of four or more conventional cells, which could be suitable when the network prioritizes broader coverage over immediate responsiveness in high-density carrier setups. This redistribution influences the overall scaling of measurement timelines, potentially reducing delays forAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1prioritized cells by a factor inversely related to the sharing proportion while extending them slightly for others to maintain equilibrium.

[0312] In some cases, the UE measures only one carrier frequency within a band and skips measurements of all other carriers within the same band. This method improves system mobility performance by reducing the total time required for UE measurements while maintaining reasonable knowledge of the cell quality within the target band for the network. The disclosed techniques include methods for the UE to measure only one carrier within a single band when configured by the network, and to specify the UE behaviors for choosing which carrier to measure.

[0313] In some aspects, the network configures the UE with a target carrier, the primary component carrier (PCC) carrier frequency, the PSCC, or the secondary component carrier (SCC) with a synchronization signal block (SSB) included in the measurement object configurations from the network.

[0314] The following configurations can be used for measuring one serving component carrier (CC) per band.

[0315] One of the motivations to have this general enhancement for all FR2-1 UE CSSF outside gap is that the intra-band carriers in FR2 share the most similar characteristics as targets to SSB-based L3 measurements.

[0316] For FR2 measurements, there is no need to scale the measurement delay by the number of carriers within the same band for each serving SCC. The UE measures on one carrier of a band in FR2 and all other carriers in the band are considered as known and measured. The measurement results can be shared among all the intra-band carriers. In some aspects, there are preconditions for this enhancement to apply to the existing requirements for FR2-1 SSB-based L3 measurement delay.

[0317] The processing circuitry applies single-carrier-per-band measurement sharing in FR2 when component carriers are within the same band, share synchronized timing configurations, and exhibit comparable beamforming and propagation conditions. The processing circuitry does not apply sharing when component carriers occupy widely separated subbands or operate under shared spectrum conditions that require independent channel occupancy assessments. The processing circuitry validates sharing by confirming configurationAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1consistency for synchronization signals and by verifying that measured power and quality metrics remain within a tolerance across intra-band carriers.

[0318] The disclosed techniques can be used to define the rules and principles for measurement when the UE supports single-carrier measurement within a single band and the network allows it.

[0319] In some aspects, the UE may need only to measure on one of the carriers among all that are configured as CA from the network to the UE in a single band in FR2.

[0320] In some aspects, the UE chooses the carrier that it measures among all carriers in the same band.

[0321] In high-frequency operations, where signals span millimeter-wave bands, the device can optimize its evaluation by assessing just one transmission path per frequency group and applying those findings to all paths within that group. This efficiency stems from the close operational similarities among paths within the same group, allowing reduced processing load while still providing reliable insights into signal conditions for network decisions such as mobility or resource allocation.

[0322] This approach is suitable when the paths are grouped within the same higher-frequency category, such as those designated for bands above 24 GHz, and operate under consistent setups, such as synchronized timing or shared reference configurations. It holds particularly for combined path operations, where additional paths supplement the main one, whether they are adjacent or spaced closely enough to exhibit comparable signal behavior.

[0323] Validity depends on certain assumptions about the environment and radio setup. For instance, signal travel is often modeled as straightforward with minimal scattering or fading, using simple delay profiles to simulate real-world variations at low speeds. Radio aspects include steady power distribution across the operational width, with signal-to-interference levels at least a few decibels above noise for detectability, and device sensitivity aligned to baseline performance standards for those bands. Beam shaping is assumed to be uniform across the paths, with shared directional properties or equivalent antenna arrangements to ensure consistent reception quality. These presumptionsAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1support the idea that evaluations on one path accurately reflect those on other paths, given minimal differences in signal loss or environmental interactions.

[0324] However, this sharing does not apply when paths diverge significantly, such as when they occupy widely separated portions of the band, leading to distinct loss profiles or interference patterns. Other exclusions include mismatched timing structures without device support, operations in shared-spectrum environments requiring separate occupancy checks, or setups with varying beam needs that prevent the uniform application of results.

[0325] The processing circuitry does not apply single-carrier-per-band measurement sharing in FR2 when component carriers operate under shared spectrum conditions that require separate channel occupancy or clear channel assessment measurements. In such configurations, the processing circuitry performs measurements on each carrier independently according to the configured requirements.

[0326] To confirm adherence, the outcomes must satisfy performance benchmarks like maintaining evaluation precision within a few decibels for power and quality metrics, achieving high success in repeated trials (at least nine out of ten), and completing tasks within scaled time limits that account for factors like repetition rates or relaxation modes for stable conditions. These checks ensure the shared approach does not compromise reliability, verified through standardized procedures that test detection, assessment, and reporting under controlled signal scenarios.

[0327] In some cases, the UE prioritizes the PCC over all others, and otherwise chooses the PSCC.

[0328] In some cases, when there is no PCC or PSCC in the target band, the UE chooses an SCC whose target SSB is configured in a Measurement Object for the UE. Otherwise, it may be up to the UE’s implementation, and the network may not be clear about which one the UE chooses.

[0329] In some cases, when the network indicates to the UE within a FR2 band that the UE must measure on the indicated carrier, the UE follows the network indication (the indication can be a per-UE RRC indication).

[0330] In setups where the device evaluates a single transmission path per frequency group to streamline processing, especially at higher frequencies, aAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1structured priority order guides the selection of which path to assess, with results then shared across similar paths within the group. This order ensures efficient selection while handling various configurations, including those with combined primary and supplementary paths or dual network connections.

[0331] The selection process follows a stepwise logic: first, the system checks for the main transmission path linked to the primary operational cell within the group. If present, this path is chosen due to its central role in core signaling and connection management. If absent, such as in scenarios where the primary cell operates outside the group, the next check is for the supplementary main path associated with a secondary primary cell, typically relevant in dual setups where multiple network nodes are involved. Should neither of these be available in the group, the device falls back to selecting a supplementary path from the remaining options, prioritizing those equipped with standard reference signals for reliable evaluation.

[0332] The processing circuitry selects a single component carrier within a band for measurement by applying a hierarchy that prefers a primary component carrier, then a primary secondary component carrier, and then a secondary component carrier configured in a measurement object. When multiple secondary component carriers are eligible in the target band, the processing circuitry selects the carrier with the highest synchronization signal received power measured during a recent synchronization signal measurement timing configuration interval. When a reconfiguration changes the carrier set or roles, the processing circuitry reevaluates the selection and updates the measured carrier accordingly.

[0333] When multiple candidates exist at the supplementary level, resolution relies on secondary criteria to avoid ambiguity. For instance, the path with the highest received signal strength (e.g., as measured by power indicators from reference signals) takes precedence, as it likely offers the most representative quality for the group. Alternatively, the network may provide ranked preferences through configuration parameters, such as an ordered list in setup messages, allowing explicit guidance based on operational needs, such as load balancing or interference avoidance.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0334] Under changes to the combined path arrangement, such as adding or removing supplementary paths via control reconfiguration signals, the device dynamically reassesses the selection. This update occurs upon successful application of the new setup, ensuring the chosen path reflects the current configuration without interrupting ongoing evaluations unless explicitly required. For example, if a reconfiguration introduces a main path into a previously supplementary-only group, the hierarchy immediately elevates it to priority, potentially shifting shared results to this new reference for improved accuracy. In edge situations, such as when all candidates lack reference signals or a path is suddenly deactivated, the device may defer evaluations or report unavailability to the network, prompting further instructions to maintain connectivity.

[0335] In some aspects, the network provides guidance to the device on which specific transmission path to evaluate within a frequency group, particularly in higher frequency operations, where sharing results across paths reduces effort. This guidance is delivered through dedicated signaling tailored to each device, overriding any self-determined choices to ensure alignment with network preferences, such as load distribution or signal optimization.

[0336] The processing circuitry decodes a per-UE radio resource control indication that specifies a component carrier to measure and transmits an acknowledgment of successful application. When the indication references an invalid or unavailable carrier, the processing circuitry refrains from applying the change and sends an error notification to the base station. The processing circuitry maintains the existing measured carrier until a valid indication is received.

[0337] In some aspects, the key configuration parameter is embedded in the measurement setup structure, such as a field specifying the preferred path identifier within the evaluation object for new radio frequencies. This field, often an absolute frequency reference or carrier index, is included in the serving cell setup or measurement object details, allowing the network to designate one path per group for focused assessments.

[0338] The exchange typically occurs during reconfiguration processes: the network initiates by sending a reconfiguration command containing the updatedAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1measurement or serving cell parameters, along with the path selection details. The device processes this, applies the new setup, and responds with a completion acknowledgment to confirm successful integration. This flow ensures the device begins using the indicated path for evaluations in subsequent cycles.

[0339] The meaning of this guidance is to direct the device to prioritize assessments on the specified path, with results then extrapolated to other similar paths in the group based on assumed consistency in conditions. It applies especially when multiple paths are available, providing a clear choice to avoid ambiguity or suboptimal device decisions.

[0340] In cases of issues, such as receiving an invalid path reference or conflicting configurations, the device initiates a failure recovery sequence, potentially reverting to a default state or notifying the network through a dedicated failure report to prompt correction. Acknowledgment is handled via the standard completion response, with timers ensuring timely feedback (typically within a few tens of milliseconds) to prevent prolonged misalignment.

[0341] This network-directed choice takes priority over any independent device logic, such as default hierarchies based on path types or signal strength. If the guidance is present, the device must adhere to it, falling back to autonomous methods only if explicitly allowed or if the parameter is absent, maintaining network control over resource utilization.

[0342] The following configurations relate to configuring an additional searcher for CSSF outside the gap.

[0343] Another direction of enhancements to CSSF outside the gap within the scope of this item is to allow UE to have three searchers assumption. This means that the UE with three searchers supports three parallel measurements, which facilitates much faster measurements in general and benefits system mobility performance. Different from single CC measurements, this assumption applies to both FR1 and FR2 measurements.

[0344] In some cases, when the measurement gap is not configured for the UE, the UE uses an additional searcher on measurements without a gap to speed up measurement reporting for any interested carrier in the system.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0345] In some aspects, the additional searcher enhancements can be defined so that the UE can measure the outside measurement gap on a target carrier, either via network indication or UE selection.

[0346] In the radio resource management framework for higher-frequency operations, the device incorporates an additional processing unit dedicated to signal detection and evaluation, enabling simultaneous multiple assessments without interrupting ongoing communications. This unit operates as part of the device's internal signal-handling chain, enabling expedited checks of serving paths in combined-carrier setups.

[0347] The structure of this supplementary unit mirrors the primary units, using dedicated digital processing paths for tasks such as correlating synchronization patterns or estimating channel conditions, along with temporary storage areas to hold captured signal data during analysis. These paths enable parallel operation across distinct frequency layers or reference types, with storage mechanisms sized to handle bursts of samples from brief signal events, ensuring no loss during high-load periods.

[0348] The processing circuitry implements an additional searcher resource as a dedicated baseband pipeline with input buffering and correlation units for synchronization signal processing. The pipeline operates in parallel with legacy searchers and uses separate control and memory partitions to isolate operation and prevent interference across measurements. The processing circuitry activates the additional searcher when the device is configured for measurements without a gap and schedules measurements on target carriers according to the current configuration.

[0349] The system supports concurrent use of up to three such units for evaluations conducted without scheduled interruptions, distributing the workload across primary and secondary paths in both lower- and higher-frequency domains. This limit balances performance gains with hardware complexity, preventing overload in resource-constrained devices.

[0350] This extra unit operates independently of the standard pair of detection resources, which handle routine intra-frequency and basic interfrequency tasks, allowing dedicated allocation to advanced scenarios such as rapid on-demand signal checks or shared intra-group assessments. Isolation isAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1achieved through separate control logic and memory partitions, minimizing interference and enabling selective activation based on configuration.

[0351] Activation of this resource is feasible in environments without configured pauses for inter-frequency shifts, particularly when the device signals capability for gapless operations and the network opts for accelerated reporting on target paths. It applies broadly to standalone or dual-connection modes, but is restricted in cases involving unlicensed spectrum checks or when powersaving modes limit parallel processing. Conversely, it remains unavailable if interruption periods are mandated for frequency hopping, or in legacy setups lacking the necessary device support, reverting then to sequential handling with the base ones to maintain basic functionality.

[0352] In some respects, the UE follows measurement behaviors defined by legacy measurement and report configurations, with legacy searcher assumptions. In some aspects, the UE PCC / PSCC / SCC measurements are not enhanced, and the existing requirements remain unchanged.

[0353] In some aspects, the UE is required to use the additional searcher (an extra set of baseband resources for RRM measurement) according to the network configuration, which is dedicated to the additional searcher feature.

[0354] In some aspects, the target of the UE measurement using the additional searcher is either determined by the network indication or by the UE’s choice.

[0355] In higher-frequency setups without scheduled assessment interruptions, the additional processing unit enhances the device's capacity to evaluate multiple transmission paths simultaneously, typically up to three when combined with the standard units. This unit focuses on accelerating checks for specific paths, allowing the device to distribute tasks across available resources while adhering to configured timelines and capabilities.

[0356] The choice of which paths or evaluation targets to process in tandem is drawn from the list of configured assessment items, where each item corresponds to a frequency or cell group that requires signal quality checks. The device organizes these targets into a processing lineup based on their setup order or implicit urgency, such as favoring those tied to primary operations or with tighter reporting needs. If the number of targets exceeds the parallel handlingAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1limit (e.g., more than three), the excess are held in a temporary buffer and cycled through sequentially in subsequent slots, ensuring all receive attention within scaled periods that account for the overall load.

[0357] The processing circuitry assigns measurement targets to the additional searcher according to a queue ordered by configuration time and serving cell role and applies a fairness policy that rotates targets across cycles. The processing circuitry preempts lower-priority targets when a high-urgency target arises and reschedules displaced targets to the next available cycle to ensure eventual assessment. The processing circuitry adjusts scheduling weights using the measurement sharing factor when OD-SSB occasions are present.

[0358] To promote balanced resource use across different paths, the system applies adjustment multipliers that extend timelines proportionally for busier configurations, effectively allocating equal or ratio-based shares of processing opportunities. For instance, in a setup with multiple paths in the same frequency group, the multipliers might distribute cycles evenly, preventing any single path from monopolizing the units and allowing minimal progress on all, even if it means slightly longer overall delays for less critical ones.

[0359] In situations requiring immediate attention, such as when a high-urgency target (e.g., a core cell monitoring target or a rapid handover preparation target) arises, it can override lower-priority targets by displacing them from the current processing slot. This override follows guidelines that prioritize based on signal type or mobility state, with displaced targets rescheduled to the next available cycle to avoid permanent neglect and maintain system stability without excessive disruption.

[0360] Guidance from the network can reshape this organization by defining dedicated setup parameters, such as flags that enable gapless operations or adjust relaxation criteria for specific paths. These signals, delivered via reconfiguration commands, can elevate specific targets in the lineup or enforce stricter sharing ratios, overriding the device's default logic to align with network goals like energy efficiency or load management. For example, if the network specifies a preference for inter-path evaluations without pauses, the device adapts by dedicating the extra unit exclusively to inter-path evaluations, potentially delaying intra-path tasks until they complete.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0361] In some aspects, the CSSF outside gap definition for the additional searcher measurement requirements is 1 when there is only one target carrier, while it is N when there are N carriers configured / decided by the UE among the targets.

[0362] In operations where evaluations occur without scheduled interruptions for frequency shifts, the scaling factor for each transmission path is redefined to leverage an additional processing resource, enabling more efficient handling of multiple paths. This redefinition ties the factor directly to the number of paths being assessed, reflecting the enhanced parallelism provided by the supplementary unit, which supports up to three concurrent tasks in both lower-and higher-frequency domains.

[0363] When focusing on a single path, the factor simplifies to unity, meaning no extension to the base evaluation timeline, as the resources are fully dedicated to that one assessment without division. For multiple paths, denoted as a quantity greater than one up to the supported limit, the factor equals that quantity, proportionally lengthening the timeline to accommodate sequential or shared processing beyond the parallel capacity.

[0364] For instance, in a setup assessing one inter-path target without pauses, the factor of 1 results in a baseline delay of, say, 20 milliseconds for synchronization-based checks in a standard cycle. If expanding to two targets, the factor becomes 2, doubling the delay to 40 milliseconds to ensure both receive adequate attention, assuming the extra unit handles them in tandem with some overhead. For three targets, the factor reaches 3, tripling the base to 60 milliseconds, maximizing parallelism without further extension unless exceeding the limit, at which point additional scaling applies.

[0365] This definition interacts with the resource distribution proportion by incorporating it into the effective count of paths; for example, a proportion favoring certain signal types might reduce the perceived number for non-favored paths, lowering the factor during biased periods. In brief, focused assessment intervals further refine the factor by prioritizing rapid outcomes, potentially capping it at a lower value aligned with the interval's duration and the unit's speed, ensuring a single result is produced swiftly before resuming broaderAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1scaling. This maintains compatibility with standard reporting bounds while optimizing for quick activations in combined path environments.

[0366] The disclosed techniques can include the following example configurations:

[0367] (a) In some aspects, the UE may need only to measure on one of the carriers among all that are configured as CA from the network to the UE in a single band in FR2.

[0368] (b) In some aspects, the UE chooses the PCC with priority over all others, and the UE then chooses PSCC otherwise. When there is no PCC or PSCC in the target band, the UE chooses an SCC whose target SSB is configured in the UE's Measurement Object. Otherwise, it is up to the UE's implementation, and the network may not be clear about which one the UE chooses.

[0369] (c) In some aspects, when the network indicates to the UE within a FR2 band that the UE is required to measure on the indicated carrier, the UE follows the network indication (the indication from the network can be a per-UE RRC indication).

[0370] (d) In some aspects, the UE is required to use the additional searcher (an extra set of baseband resources for RRM measurement) according to the network configuration, which is dedicated to the additional searcher feature.

[0371] (e) In some aspects, the target of the UE measurement using the additional searcher is either according to the network indication or to the UE’s choice.

[0372] FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of a communication device such as an evolved Node-B (eNB), a new generation Node-B (gNB) (or another RAN node such as a base station), a network-controlled repeater (NCR), an access point (AP), a wireless station (STA), a mobile station (MS), or user equipment (UE), in accordance with some aspects and to perform one or more of the techniques disclosed herein. In alternative aspects, the communication device 800 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other communication devices.

[0373] Circuitry (e.g., processing circuitry) is a collection of circuits implemented in tangible components of the device 800, including hardware (e.g.,AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1simple circuits, gates, logic). Circuitry membership may be flexible over time. Circuitries include members that may, alone or in combination, perform specified operations when operating. For example, the circuitry hardware may be immutably designed to carry out a specific operation (e.g., hardwired). For example, the hardware of the circuitry may include variably connected physical components (e.g., execution units, transistors, simple circuits, etc.), including a machine-readable medium physically modified (e.g., magnetically, electrically, moveable placement of invariant massed particles, etc.) to encode instructions of the specific operation.

[0374] In connecting the physical components, the underlying electrical properties of a hardware constituent are changed, for example, from an insulator to a conductor or vice versa. The instructions enable embedded hardware (e.g., execution units or a loading mechanism) to create members of the circuitry in hardware via variable connections, thereby carrying out portions of the specific operation during operation. Accordingly, in an example, the machine-readable medium elements are part of the circuitry or are communicatively coupled to the other components of the circuitry when the device is operating. For example, any of the physical components may be used in more than one member of more than one circuitry. For example, under operation, execution units may be used in the first circuit of a first circuitry at one point in time and reused by a second circuit in the first circuitry or by a third circuit in a second circuitry at a different time. Additional examples of these components with respect to the device 800 follow.

[0375] In some aspects, the device 800 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other devices. In a networked deployment, the communication device 800 may operate in the capacity of a server communication device, a client communication device, or both in serverclient network environments. For example, the communication device 800 may act as a peer communication device in a peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environment. The communication device 800 may be a UE, eNB, PC, tablet PC, STB, PDA, mobile telephone, smartphone, a web appliance, network router, a switch or bridge, or any communication device capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that communication device. Further, while only a single communication device isAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1illustrated, the term “communication device” shall also be taken to include any collection of communication devices that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, such as cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), and other computer cluster configurations.

[0376] Examples, as described herein, may include or may operate on logic or several components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules are tangible entities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operations and may be configured or arranged in a particular manner. In an example, circuits may be arranged (e.g., internally or with respect to external entities such as other circuits) in a specified manner as a module. In an example, the whole or part of one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone, client, or server computer system) or one or more hardware processors may be configured by firmware or software (e.g., instructions, an application portion, or an application) as a module that operates to perform specified operations. In an example, the software may reside on a communication device-readable medium. In an example, the software, when executed by the underlying hardware of the module, causes the hardware to perform the specified operations.

[0377] Accordingly, the term “module” is understood to encompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that is physically constructed, specifically configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily (e.g., transitorily) configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a specified manner or to perform part or all of any operation described herein. Considering examples in which modules are temporarily configured, each of the modules does not need to be instantiated at any one moment in time. For example, where the modules comprise a general-purpose hardware processor configured using the software, the general-purpose hardware processor may be configured as different modules at different times. The software may accordingly configure a hardware processor, for example, to constitute a particular module at one instance of time and to constitute a different module at a different instance of time.

[0378] The communication device (e.g., UE) 800 may include a hardware processor 802 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memoryAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1804, a static memory 806, and a storage device 816 (e.g., hard drive, tape drive, flash storage, or other block or storage devices), some or all of which may communicate with each other via an interlink 808 (e.g., a bus).

[0379] The communication device 800 may further include a display device 810, an input device 812 (e.g., a keyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device 814 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, the display device 810, input device 812, and UI navigation device 814 may be a touchscreen display. The communication device 800 may additionally include a signal generation device 818 (e.g., a speaker), a network interface device 820, and one or more sensors 821, such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, compass, accelerometer, or another sensor. The communication device 800 may include an output controller 828, such as a serial (e.g., universal serial bus (USB)), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g., infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), etc.) connection to communicate or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., a printer, card reader, etc.).

[0380] The storage device 816 may include a device-readable medium 822, on which one or more sets of data structures or instructions 824 (e.g., software) are stored, embodying or utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. In some aspects, registers of the hardware processor 802, the main memory 804, the static memory 806, and / or the storage device 816 may be, or include (entirely or at least partially), the device-readable medium 822, on which are stored the one or more sets of data structures or instructions 824, embodying or utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. In an example, one or any combination of the hardware processor 802, the main memory 804, the static memory 806, or the storage device 816 may constitute the device-readable medium 822.

[0381] As used herein, the term “device-readable medium” is interchangeable with “computer-readable medium” or “machine-readable medium.” While the device-readable medium 822 is illustrated as a single medium, the term “communication device-readable medium” may include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database and / or associated caches and servers) configured to store the instructions 824. The term “communication device-readable medium” is inclusive of the terms “machine-AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1readable medium” or “computer-readable medium” and may include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions (e.g., instructions 824) for execution by the communication device 800 and that causes the communication device 800 to perform any one or more of the techniques of the present disclosure, or that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying data structures used by or associated with such instructions. Non-limiting communication device-readable medium examples may include solid-state memories and optical and magnetic media. Specific examples of communication device-readable media may include non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; Random Access Memory (RAM); and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. In some examples, communication device-readable media may include non-transitory communication device-readable media. In some examples, communication device-readable media may include communication device-readable media that are not transitory propagating signals.

[0382] Instructions 824 may further be transmitted or received over a communications network 826 using a transmission medium via the network interface device 820, utilizing any one of several transfer protocols. In an example, the network interface device 820 may include one or more physical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or phonejacks) or one or more antennas to connect to the communications network 826. In an example, the network interface device 820 may include a plurality of antennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one of the single-input-multiple-output (SIMO), multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO), or multiple-input-single-output (MISO) techniques. In some examples, the network interface device 820 may wirelessly communicate using multiple-user MIMO techniques.

[0383] The term “transmission medium” shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the communication device 800, and includes digital or analog communications signals or another intangible medium to facilitateAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1communication of such software. In this regard, a transmission medium in the context of this disclosure is a device-readable medium.

[0384] The terms “machine-readable medium,” “computer-readable medium,” and “device-readable medium” mean the same thing and may be used interchangeably in this disclosure. The terms are defined to include both machine-storage media and transmission media. Thus, the terms include both storage devices / media and carrier waves / modulated data signals.

[0385] For handling evaluations based on synchronization signals that are activated only when needed, the device is expected to possess certain radio and processing attributes to align with the expected speed and precision of these tasks. These attributes ensure the device can swiftly adjust its reception settings, reliably detect intermittent signals, and process them without exceeding allowable delays or error margins, particularly in higher-frequency operations or combined-carrier environments where quick cell readiness is crucial.

[0386] A primary expectation is rapid adjustment of radio settings when switching between signal occasions on different frequencies, with the device capable of completing this shift in under half a millisecond for lower-frequency bands and even quicker (e.g., around a fifth of a millisecond) for higher-frequency bands, to minimize interruptions during activation phases. This speed supports seamless transitions without compromising ongoing connections, assuming the hardware includes agile frequency synthesizers and filters that stabilize promptly after changes.

[0387] The processing circuitry and front-end support retuning between adjacent frequencies in the lower frequency range within approximately 0.6 milliseconds and within approximately 0.3 milliseconds in the higher frequency range. The device maintains at least two independent reception paths in the lower frequency range and up to four reception branches in the higher frequency range to support parallel synchronization signal capture. The baseband searchers operate at a sensitivity sufficient to declare detection for synchronization signals at levels near a configured threshold within the synchronization signal measurement timing configuration window.

[0388] The device can also maintain multiple independent reception paths, at a minimum two for basic diversity at lower frequencies and up to four at higherAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1frequencies for advanced beam handling, allowing simultaneous capture from various directions or paths. This enables parallel signal processing, essential for quick assessments during limited availability windows, with the paths isolated to prevent cross-interference and equipped with sufficient gain control to adapt to varying signal strengths.

[0389] Signal detection thresholds are set so the device can reliably identify and measure these intermittent references even at low power levels, typically around negative 94 dB relative to a milliwatt or better, depending on the operational band and noise conditions. This sensitivity ensures high-probability acquisition (e.g., over 90%) in environments with moderate interference, leveraging correlation techniques in the processing core to extract timing and quality metrics from brief bursts.

[0390] On the processing side, the baseband must support dedicated units for signal searching, capable of handling up to eight layers concurrently without overload, including buffering for raw samples and filtering at higher layers to produce accurate power and quality reports within one or two cycles. These capabilities assume integrated digital front-ends with low-latency pipelines, enabling the device to meet activation timelines of ten to twenty milliseconds total, including detection and reporting, while maintaining error rates below one percent for critical metrics.

[0391] Overall, these minimal traits (e.g., quick tuning, dual or quad reception paths, high detection thresholds, and robust parallel processing) form the foundation for efficiently handling demand-based signals, ensuring compliance with scaled timelines and accuracy bounds across diverse network setups.

[0392] Described implementations of the subject matter can include one or more features, alone or in combination, as illustrated below by way of examples.

[0393] Example 1 is an apparatus for a user equipment (UE) configured for operation in a New Radio (NR) network, the apparatus comprising: processing circuitry, wherein the processing circuitry is to: decode network signaling that configures measurement operations for one or more serving cells, including at least one deactivated secondary cell (SCell), and that indicates synchronization signal block (SSB) parameters; monitor for synchronization signal occasionsAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1associated with a serving cell during a measurement interval determined based on the network signaling; perform radio resource management measurements for the serving cell based on the monitored synchronization signal occasions; allocate measurement resources according to a carrier-specific scaling factor that biases measurement processing among serving cells; and encode a measurement report for transmission to a base station, the measurement report based on the radio resource management measurements; and memory coupled to the processing circuitry and configured to store the network signaling.

[0394] In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1 includes functionalities such as, wherein the synchronization signal block parameters comprise on-demand synchronization signal block (OD-SSB) configuration parameters for a serving cell.

[0395] In Example 3, the subject matter of Example 2 includes functionalities such as, wherein the processing circuitry is to: establish a fast measurement window responsive to an activation of the OD-SSB and to terminate the fast measurement window upon transmission of a first measurement report or upon expiry of a timer.

[0396] In Example 4, the subject matter of Example 3 includes functionalities such as, wherein during the fast measurement window, the processing circuitry is to: suspend radio resource management measurements on serving cells that do not have an activated OD-SSB.

[0397] In Example 5, the subject matter of Examples 1-4 includes functionalities such as, wherein the at least one deactivated secondary cell does not transmit an always-on synchronization signal block and, after transmission of the measurement report, the processing circuitry refrains from further measurements on the at least one deactivated secondary cell until a subsequent activation indication is decoded.

[0398] In Example 6, the subject matter of Examples 3-5 includes functionalities such as, wherein the serving cell further transmits an always-on synchronization signal block and, after termination of the fast measurement window, the processing circuitry performs subsequent measurements according to requirements for always-on synchronization signal blocks.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0399] In Example 7, the subject matter of Examples 2-6 includes functionalities such as, wherein the measurement interval is aligned to a synchronization signal measurement timing configuration (SMTC) periodicity for the OD-SSB.

[0400] In Example 8, the subject matter of Examples 2-7 includes functionalities such as, wherein the network signaling comprises a radio resource control reconfiguration message including information elements that indicate an OD-SSB number of bursts, OD-SSB positions within a burst, and an OD-SSB configuration.

[0401] In Example 9, the subject matter of Examples 2-8 includes functionalities such as, wherein the network signaling further comprises a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) that toggles an activation state of the OD-SSB.

[0402] In Example 10, the subject matter of Examples 3-9 includes functionalities such as, wherein the carrier-specific scaling factor includes a measurement sharing factor that biases allocation of measurement resources toward serving cells that are configured for OD-SSB.

[0403] In Example 11, the subject matter of Example 10 includes functionalities such as, wherein the measurement sharing factor has a configurable value between 0.25 and 0.75 in increments of 0.25 and has a default value of 0.50.

[0404] In Example 12, the subject matter of Examples 10-11 includes functionalities such as, wherein during the fast measurement window, the carrier-specific scaling factor reduces to a value proportional to a number of serving cells that are configured with activated OD-SSB.

[0405] In Example 13, the subject matter of Examples 1-12 includes functionalities such as, wherein monitoring for the synchronization signal occasions includes correlating a primary synchronization signal and a secondary synchronization signal within an SMTC window.

[0406] In Example 14, the subject matter of Example 13 includes functionalities such as, wherein the processing circuitry is to: account for retuning time between frequencies; and apply guard symbols around OD-SSB occasions, including retuning durations of approximately 0.6 milliseconds in aAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1lower frequency range and approximately 0.3 milliseconds in a higher frequency range.

[0407] In Example 15, the subject matter of Examples 1-14 includes functionalities such as, wherein the measurement report includes at least one of a reference signal received power value, a reference signal received quality value, a received signal strength indicator value, or a beam identifier associated with a measured synchronization signal block.

[0408] In Example 16, the subject matter of Examples 1-15 includes functionalities such as, wherein for measurements in a higher frequency range, the processing circuitry selects a single component carrier within a band for measurement and applies results of the measurement across other component carriers within the same band.

[0409] In Example 17, the subject matter of Example 16 includes functionalities such as, wherein the processing circuitry is to: select the single component carrier according to a hierarchy that prioritizes a primary component carrier, then a primary secondary component carrier, and then a secondary component carrier for which a synchronization signal block is configured in a measurement object.

[0410] In Example 18, the subject matter of Examples 16-17 includes functionalities such as, wherein the network signaling includes a per-UE radio resource control indication that identifies a specific component carrier within the band to be measured by the processing circuitry.

[0411] In Example 19, the subject matter of Examples 1-18 includes functionalities such as, wherein the processing circuitry is to: utilize an additional searcher resource to perform gapless measurements in parallel with up to two other searcher resources.

[0412] In Example 20, the subject matter of Example 19 includes functionalities such as, wherein when the processing circuitry performs measurements on N target carriers without a configured measurement gap, the carrier-specific scaling factor outside the gap equals N, and when the processing circuitry performs measurements on a single target carrier, the carrier-specific scaling factor equals one.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0413] In Example 21, the subject matter of Examples 19-20 includes functionalities such as, wherein the processing circuitry is to: enable the additional searcher resource only when a measurement gap is not configured in the network signaling.

[0414] In Example 22, the subject matter of Examples 19-21 includes functionalities such as, wherein targets for parallel measurements are selected based on one of a network indication included in the network signaling or a local selection policy executed by the processing circuitry.

[0415] In Example 23, the subject matter of Examples 3-22 includes functionalities such as, wherein when the periodicity of the OD-SSB differs from an always-on synchronization signal block periodicity for the serving cell, the processing circuitry prioritizes OD-SSB occasions during the fast measurement window and transitions to a schedule of the always-on synchronization signal block after the fast measurement window terminates.

[0416] In Example 24, the subject matter of Examples 2-23 includes functionalities such as, wherein when the OD-SSB and an always-on synchronization signal block are transmitted on different frequencies within a band, the processing circuitry performs retuning between the frequencies and applies guard intervals around measurement occasions to avoid overlap.

[0417] In Example 25, the subject matter of Examples 1-24 includes functionalities such as, wherein the processing circuitry is to: perform measurements outside of a configured measurement gap when a synchronization signal measurement timing configuration window does not overlap with the measurement gap.

[0418] In Example 26, the subject matter of Examples 1-25 includes functionalities such as, wherein the network signaling includes a measurement object that identifies a frequency, a set of cells, and a type of reference signal for which measurements are to be performed by the processing circuitry.

[0419] In Example 27, the subject matter of Examples 1-26 includes functionalities such as, wherein allocating measurement resources according to the carrier-specific scaling factor comprises computing the carrier-specific scaling factor from counts of synchronization signal block-based measurements,AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1channel state information reference signal-based measurements, and clearchannel assessment or channel occupancy measurements.

[0420] In Example 28, the subject matter of Example 27 includes functionalities such as, wherein the carrier-specific scaling factor includes terms corresponding to a number of serving cells configured for synchronization signal block measurements, a number of serving cells configured for channel state information reference signal measurements, a number of serving cells configured for clear-channel assessment or channel occupancy measurements, and auxiliary terms that account for OD-SSB prioritization.

[0421] In Example 29, the subject matter of Examples 1-28 includes functionalities such as, wherein the user equipment operates in a standalone mode and performs carrier aggregation in a lower frequency range according to the network signaling.

[0422] Example 30 is a computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE), the instructions to configure the UE for operation in a New Radio (NR) network, and to cause the UE to perform operations comprising: decode network signaling that configures measurement operations for one or more serving cells, including at least one deactivated secondary cell (SCell), and that indicates synchronization signal block (SSB) parameters; monitor for synchronization signal occasions associated with a serving cell during a measurement interval determined based on the network signaling; perform radio resource management measurements for the serving cell based on the monitored synchronization signal occasions; allocate measurement resources according to a carrier-specific scaling factor that biases measurement processing among serving cells; and encode and transmit a measurement report to a base station, the measurement report based on the radio resource management measurements; and store data associated with the network signaling.

[0423] In Example 31, the subject matter of Example 30 includes functionalities such as, wherein the SSB parameters comprise on-demand synchronization signal block (OD-SSB) configuration parameters for a serving cell.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0424] In Example 32, the subject matter of Example 31 includes functionalities such as, wherein the instructions further cause the UE to establish a fast measurement window responsive to an activation of the OD-SSB and to terminate the fast measurement window upon transmission of a first measurement report or upon expiry of a timer.

[0425] In Example 33, the subject matter of Example 32 includes functionalities such as, wherein the instructions further cause the UE, during the fast measurement window, to suspend radio resource management measurements on serving cells that do not have an activated OD-SSB.

[0426] In Example 34, the subject matter of Examples 30-33 includes functionalities such as, wherein the at least one deactivated secondary cell does not transmit an always-on synchronization signal block and, after transmission of the measurement report, the instructions cause the UE to refrain from further measurements on the at least one deactivated secondary cell until a subsequent activation indication is decoded.

[0427] In Example 35, the subject matter of Examples 32-34 includes functionalities such as, wherein the serving cell further transmits an always-on synchronization signal block and, after termination of the fast measurement window, the instructions cause the UE to perform subsequent measurements according to requirements for always-on synchronization signal blocks.

[0428] In Example 36, the subject matter of Examples 31-35 includes functionalities such as, wherein the measurement interval is aligned to a synchronization signal measurement timing configuration (SMTC) periodicity for the OD-SSB.

[0429] In Example 37, the subject matter of Examples 31-36 includes functionalities such as, wherein the network signaling comprises a radio resource control reconfiguration message including information elements that indicate an OD-SSB number of bursts, OD-SSB positions within a burst, and an OD-SSB configuration.

[0430] In Example 38, the subject matter of Examples 31-37 includes functionalities such as, wherein the network signaling further comprises a medium access control control element that toggles an activation state of the OD-SSB.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0431] In Example 39, the subject matter of Examples 32-38 includes functionalities such as, wherein allocating measurement resources according to the carrier-specific scaling factor comprises using a measurement sharing factor that biases allocation of measurement resources toward serving cells that are configured for OD-SSB.

[0432] In Example 40, the subject matter of Example 39 includes functionalities such as, wherein the measurement sharing factor has a configurable value between 0.25 and 0.75 in increments of 0.25 and has a default value of 0.50.

[0433] In Example 41, the subject matter of Examples 39-40 includes functionalities such as, wherein during the fast measurement window, the carrier-specific scaling factor reduces to a value proportional to a number of serving cells that are configured with activated OD-SSB.

[0434] In Example 42, the subject matter of Examples 30-41 includes functionalities such as, wherein monitoring for the synchronization signal occasions includes correlating a primary synchronization signal and a secondary synchronization signal within an SMTC window.

[0435] In Example 43, the subject matter of Example 42 includes functionalities such as, wherein the instructions further cause the UE to account for retuning time between frequencies and to apply guard symbols around OD-SSB occasions, including retuning durations of approximately 0.6 milliseconds in a lower frequency range and approximately 0.3 milliseconds in a higher frequency range.

[0436] In Example 44, the subject matter of Examples 30-43 includes functionalities such as, wherein the measurement report includes at least one of a reference signal received power value, a reference signal received quality value, a received signal strength indicator value, or a beam identifier associated with a measured synchronization signal block.

[0437] In Example 45, the subject matter of Examples 30-44 includes functionalities such as, wherein for measurements in a higher frequency range, the instructions cause the UE to select a single component carrier within a band for measurement and to apply results of the measurement across other component carriers within the same band.IllAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0438] In Example 46, the subject matter of Example 45 includes functionalities such as, wherein the instructions cause the UE to select the single component carrier according to a hierarchy that prioritizes a primary component carrier, then a primary secondary component carrier, and then a secondary component carrier for which a synchronization signal block is configured in a measurement object.

[0439] In Example 47, the subject matter of Examples 45-46 includes functionalities such as wherein the network signaling includes a per-UE radio resource control indication that identifies a specific component carrier within the band to be measured by the UE.

[0440] In Example 48, the subject matter of Examples 30-47 includes functionalities such as wherein the instructions cause the UE to utilize an additional searcher resource to perform gapless measurements in parallel with up to two other searcher resources.

[0441] In Example 49, the subject matter of Example 48 includes functionalities such as wherein when the UE performs measurements on N target carriers without a configured measurement gap, the carrier-specific scaling factor outside the gap equals N, and when the UE performs measurements on a single target carrier, the carrier-specific scaling factor equals one.

[0442] In Example 50, the subject matter of Examples 48-49 includes functionalities such as wherein the instructions cause the UE to enable the additional searcher resource only when a measurement gap is not configured in the network signaling.

[0443] In Example 51, the subject matter of Examples 48-50 includes functionalities such as wherein targets for parallel measurements are selected based on one of a network indication included in the network signaling or a local selection policy executed by the UE.

[0444] In Example 52, the subject matter of Examples 32-51 includes functionalities such as wherein when the periodicity of the OD-SSB differs from an always-on synchronization signal block periodicity for the serving cell, the instructions cause the UE to prioritize OD-SSB occasions during the fast measurement window and to transition to a schedule of the always-on synchronization signal block after the fast measurement window terminates.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0445] In Example 53, the subject matter of Examples 31-52 includes functionalities such as wherein when the OD-SSB and an always-on synchronization signal block are transmitted on different frequencies within a band, the instructions cause the UE to perform retuning between the frequencies and to apply guard intervals around measurement occasions to avoid overlap.

[0446] In Example 54, the subject matter of Examples 30-53 includes functionalities such as wherein the instructions cause the UE to perform measurements outside of a configured measurement gap when a synchronization signal measurement timing configuration window does not overlap with the measurement gap.

[0447] In Example 55, the subject matter of Examples 30-54 includes functionalities such as wherein the network signaling includes a measurement object that identifies a frequency, a set of cells, and a type of reference signal for which measurements are to be performed by the UE.

[0448] In Example 56, the subject matter of Examples 30-55 includes functionalities such as wherein allocating measurement resources according to the carrier-specific scaling factor comprises computing the carrier-specific scaling factor from counts of synchronization signal block-based measurements, channel state information reference signal-based measurements, and clearchannel assessment or channel occupancy measurements.

[0449] In Example 57, the subject matter of Example 56 includes functionalities such as wherein the carrier-specific scaling factor includes terms corresponding to a number of serving cells configured for synchronization signal block measurements, a number of serving cells configured for channel state information reference signal measurements, a number of serving cells configured for clear-channel assessment or channel occupancy measurements, and auxiliary terms that account for OD-SSB prioritization.

[0450] In Example 58, the subject matter of Examples 30-57 includes functionalities such as wherein the UE operates in a standalone mode and performs carrier aggregation in a lower frequency range according to the network signaling.

[0451] Example 59 is a user equipment (UE) configured for operation in a New Radio (NR) network, the UE comprising: a front-end circuitry coupled toAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1one or more antennas; and processing circuitry coupled to the front-end circuitry, wherein to configure the UE for operation in the NR network, the processing circuitry is to: decode network signaling that configures measurement operations for one or more serving cells, including at least one deactivated secondary cell (SCell), and that indicates synchronization signal block (SSB) parameters; monitor for synchronization signal occasions associated with a serving cell during a measurement interval determined based on the network signaling; perform radio resource management measurements for the serving cell based on the monitored synchronization signal occasions; allocate measurement resources according to a carrier-specific scaling factor that biases measurement processing among serving cells; and encode a measurement report for transmission to a base station, the measurement report based on the radio resource management measurements; and store the network signaling in a memory coupled to the processing circuitry.

[0452] In Example 60, the subject matter of Example 59 includes functionalities such as, wherein the synchronization signal block parameters comprise on-demand synchronization signal block (OD-SSB) configuration parameters for a serving cell.

[0453] In Example 61, the subject matter of Example 60 includes functionalities such as, wherein the processing circuitry is to establish a fast measurement window responsive to an activation of the OD-SSB and to terminate the fast measurement window upon transmission of a first measurement report or upon expiry of a timer.

[0454] In Example 62, the subject matter of Example 61 includes functionalities such as, wherein during the fast measurement window the processing circuitry suspends radio resource management measurements on serving cells that do not have an activated OD-SSB.

[0455] In Example 63, the subject matter of Examples 59-62 includes functionalities such as, wherein the at least one deactivated secondary cell does not transmit an always-on synchronization signal block and, after transmission of the measurement report, the processing circuitry refrains from further measurements on the at least one deactivated secondary cell until a subsequent activation indication is decoded.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0456] In Example 64, the subject matter of Examples 61-63 includes functionalities such as, wherein the serving cell further transmits an always-on synchronization signal block and, after termination of the fast measurement window, the processing circuitry performs subsequent measurements according to requirements for always-on synchronization signal blocks.

[0457] In Example 65, the subject matter of Examples 60-64 includes functionalities such as, wherein the measurement interval is aligned to a synchronization signal measurement timing configuration (SMTC) periodicity for the OD-SSB.

[0458] In Example 66, the subject matter of Examples 60-65 includes functionalities such as, wherein the network signaling comprises a radio resource control reconfiguration message including information elements that indicate an OD-SSB number of bursts, OD-SSB positions within a burst, and an OD-SSB configuration.

[0459] In Example 67, the subject matter of Examples 60-66 includes functionalities such as, wherein the network signaling further comprises a medium access control control element that toggles an activation state of the OD-SSB.

[0460] In Example 68, the subject matter of Examples 61-67 includes functionalities such as, wherein the carrier-specific scaling factor includes a measurement sharing factor that biases allocation of measurement resources toward serving cells that are configured for OD-SSB.

[0461] In Example 69, the subject matter of Example 68 includes functionalities such as, wherein the measurement sharing factor has a configurable value between 0.25 and 0.75 in increments of 0.25 and has a default value of 0.50.

[0462] In Example 70, the subject matter of Examples 68-69 includes functionalities such as, wherein during the fast measurement window the carrierspecific scaling factor reduces to a value proportional to a number of serving cells that are configured with activated OD-SSB.

[0463] In Example 71, the subject matter of Examples 59-70 includes functionalities such as, wherein monitoring for the synchronization signalAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1occasions includes correlating a primary synchronization signal and a secondary synchronization signal within an SMTC window.

[0464] In Example 72, the subject matter of Example 71 includes functionalities such as, wherein the processing circuitry is to: account for retuning time between frequencies; and apply guard symbols around OD-SSB occasions, including retuning durations of approximately 0.6 milliseconds in a lower frequency range and approximately 0.3 milliseconds in a higher frequency range.

[0465] In Example 73, the subject matter of Examples 59-72 includes functionalities such as wherein the measurement report includes at least one of a reference signal received power value, a reference signal received quality value, a received signal strength indicator value, or a beam identifier associated with a measured synchronization signal block.

[0466] In Example 74, the subject matter of Examples 59-73 includes functionalities such as wherein for measurements in a higher frequency range the processing circuitry selects a single component carrier within a band for measurement and applies results of the measurement across other component carriers within the same band.

[0467] In Example 75, the subject matter of Example 74 includes functionalities such as wherein the processing circuitry selects the single component carrier according to a hierarchy that prioritizes a primary component carrier, then a primary secondary component carrier, and then a secondary component carrier for which a synchronization signal block is configured in a measurement object.

[0468] In Example 76, the subject matter of Examples 74-75 includes functionalities such as wherein the network signaling includes a per-UE radio resource control indication that identifies a specific component carrier within the band to be measured by the processing circuitry.

[0469] In Example 77, the subject matter of Examples 59-76 includes functionalities such as wherein the processing circuitry utilizes an additional searcher resource to perform gapless measurements in parallel with up to two other searcher resources.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0470] In Example 78, the subject matter of Example 77 includes functionalities such as wherein when the processing circuitry performs a measurements on N target carriers without a configured measurement gap, the carrier-specific scaling factor outside the gap equals N, and when the processing circuitry performs measurement on a single target carrier, the carrier-specific scaling factor equals one.

[0471] In Example 79, the subject matter of Examples 77-78 includes functionalities such as wherein the processing circuitry enables the additional searcher resource only when a measurement gap is not configured in the network signaling.

[0472] In Example 80, the subject matter of Examples 77-79 includes functionalities such as wherein targets for parallel measurements are selected based on one of a network indication included in the network signaling or a local selection policy executed by the processing circuitry.

[0473] In Example 81, the subject matter of Examples 61-80 includes functionalities such as wherein when the periodicity of the OD-SSB differs from an always-on synchronization signal block periodicity for the serving cell, the processing circuitry prioritizes OD-SSB occasions during the fast measurement window and transitions to a schedule of the always-on synchronization signal block after the fast measurement window terminates.

[0474] In Example 82, the subject matter of Examples 60-81 includes functionalities such as wherein when the OD-SSB and an always-on synchronization signal block are transmitted on different frequencies within a band, the processing circuitry performs retuning between the frequencies and applies guard intervals around measurement occasions to avoid overlap.

[0475] In Example 83, the subject matter of Examples 59-82 includes functionalities such as wherein the processing circuitry performs measurements outside of a configured measurement gap when a synchronization signal measurement timing configuration window does not overlap with the measurement gap.

[0476] In Example 84, the subject matter of Examples 59-83 includes functionalities such as wherein the network signaling includes a measurementAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1object that identifies a frequency, a set of cells, and a type of reference signal for which measurements are to be performed by the processing circuitry.

[0477] In Example 85, the subject matter of Examples 59-84 includes functionalities such as wherein allocating measurement resources according to the carrier-specific scaling factor comprises computing the carrier-specific scaling factor from counts of synchronization signal block-based measurements, channel state information reference signal-based measurements, and clearchannel assessment or channel occupancy measurements.

[0478] In Example 86, the subject matter of Example 85 includes functionalities such as wherein the carrier-specific scaling factor includes terms corresponding to a number of serving cells configured for synchronization signal block measurements, a number of serving cells configured for channel state information reference signal measurements, a number of serving cells configured for clear-channel assessment or channel occupancy measurements, and auxiliary terms that account for OD-SSB prioritization.

[0479] In Example 87, the subject matter of Examples 59-86 includes functionalities such as, wherein the UE operates in a standalone mode and performs carrier aggregation in a lower frequency range according to the network signaling.

[0480] Example 88 is an apparatus for a base station configured for operation in a New Radio (NR) network, the apparatus comprising: processing circuitry, wherein the processing circuitry is to: encode and transmit network signaling to a user equipment (UE) that configures measurement operations for one or more serving cells, including at least one deactivated secondary cell (SCell), and that indicates synchronization signal block (SSB) parameters; schedule and transmit synchronization signal occasions associated with a serving cell during a measurement interval determined from the network signaling; receive a measurement report from the UE based on radio resource management measurements performed by the UE; and encode, in the network signaling, parameters of a carrier-specific scaling factor to bias measurement processing among serving cells by the UE; and memory coupled to the processing circuitry and configured to store the measurement report.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0481] In Example 89, the subject matter of Example 88 includes functionalities such as, wherein the SSB parameters comprise on-demand synchronization signal block (OD-SSB) configuration parameters for a serving cell.

[0482] In Example 90, the subject matter of Example 89 includes functionalities such as, wherein the processing circuitry is to activate OD-SSB occasions for the serving cell to trigger a fast measurement window at the UE and to signal termination conditions that end the fast measurement window upon receipt of a first measurement report or expiry of a timer.

[0483] In Example 91, the subject matter of Example 90 includes functionalities such as, wherein during the fast measurement window the processing circuitry signals the UE to suspend radio resource management measurements on serving cells that do not have an activated OD-SSB.

[0484] In Example 92, the subject matter of Examples 88-91 includes functionalities such as, wherein the at least one deactivated secondary cell does not transmit an always-on synchronization signal block and, after receipt of the measurement report, the processing circuitry refrains from further OD-SSB activations for the at least one deactivated secondary cell until a subsequent activation indication is generated.

[0485] In Example 93, the subject matter of Examples 90-92 includes functionalities such as, wherein the serving cell further transmits an always-on synchronization signal block and, after termination of the fast measurement window, the processing circuitry signals subsequent measurement requirements corresponding to always-on synchronization signal blocks.

[0486] In Example 94, the subject matter of Examples 89-93 includes functionalities such as, wherein the processing circuitry signals a synchronization signal measurement timing configuration (SMTC) periodicity for the OD-SSB and schedules OD-SSB occasions aligned to the SMTC periodicity.

[0487] In Example 95, the subject matter of Examples 89-94 includes functionalities such as, wherein the network signaling comprises a radio resource control reconfiguration message including information elements that indicate anAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1OD-SSB number of bursts, OD-SSB positions within a burst, and an OD-SSB configuration.

[0488] In Example 96, the subject matter of Examples 89-95 includes functionalities such as, wherein the network signaling further comprises a medium access control control element that toggles an activation state of the OD-SSB.

[0489] In Example 97, the subject matter of Examples 90-96 includes functionalities such as, wherein the parameters of the carrier-specific scaling factor signaled by the base station include a measurement sharing factor that biases allocation of measurement resources toward serving cells that are configured for OD-SSB.

[0490] In Example 98, the subject matter of Example 97 includes functionalities such as, wherein the measurement sharing factor has a configurable value between 0.25 and 0.75 in increments of 0.25 and has a default value of 0.50.

[0491] In Example 99, the subject matter of Examples 97-98 includes functionalities such as, wherein during the fast measurement window the processing circuitry signals parameters that cause the UE to reduce the carrierspecific scaling factor to a value proportional to a number of serving cells that are configured with activated OD-SSB.

[0492] In Example 100, the subject matter of Examples 88-99 includes functionalities such as, wherein scheduling of the synchronization signal occasions includes transmission of a primary synchronization signal and a secondary synchronization signal within an SMTC window.

[0493] In Example 101, the subject matter of Example 100 includes functionalities such as, wherein the processing circuitry schedules OD-SSB and always-on SSB occasions across different frequencies and applies nonoverlapping guard intervals around OD-SSB occasions to accommodate UE retuning durations of approximately 0.6 milliseconds in a lower frequency range and approximately 0.3 milliseconds in a higher frequency range.

[0494] In Example 102, the subject matter of Examples 88-101 includes functionalities such as, wherein the measurement report received from the UE includes at least one of a reference signal received power value, a referenceAG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1signal received quality value, a received signal strength indicator value, or a beam identifier associated with a measured synchronization signal block.

[0495] In Example 103, the subject matter of Examples 88-102 includes functionalities such as, wherein for measurements in a higher frequency range, the processing circuitry includes in the network signaling a per-UE indication that identifies a single component carrier within a band to be measured by the UE and accepts application of results across other component carriers within the same band.

[0496] In Example 104, the subject matter of Example 103 includes functionalities such as, wherein the processing circuitry signals a selection hierarchy that prioritizes a primary component carrier, then a primary secondary component carrier, and then a secondary component carrier for which a synchronization signal block is configured in a measurement object.

[0497] In Example 105, the subject matter of Examples 88-104 includes functionalities such as, wherein the processing circuitry configures measurement gaps and SMTC windows in the network signaling to avoid overlap, and signals a measurement object that identifies a frequency, a set of cells, and a type of reference signal for which measurements are to be performed by the UE.

[0498] Example 106 is at least one machine-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to perform operations to implement any of Examples 1-105.

[0499] Example 107 is an apparatus comprising means to implement any of Examples 1-105.

[0500] Example 108 is a system to implement any of Examples 1-105.

[0501] Example 109 is a method to implement any of Examples 1-105.

[0502] Example 110 is at least one machine-readable storage including machine-readable instructions, which when executed, cause a computer to implement a method or a process as claimed in any of Examples 1-105.

[0503] Example 111 is a computer program comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out one or more operations according to at least one of Examples 1-105.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1

[0504] Example 112 is an apparatus comprising means to perform a method or a process as recited by at least one of Examples 1-105.

[0505] Example 113 is a computer storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of a communication device, the instructions to cause the communication device to perform a method or a process as recited by at least one of Examples 1-105.

[0506] Although an aspect has been described concerning specific exemplary aspects, it will be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to these aspects without departing from the broader scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. This Detailed Description, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of various aspects is defined only by the appended claims, along with the full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

Claims

AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for a user equipment (UE) configured for operation in a New Radio (NR) network, the apparatus comprising:processing circuitry, wherein the processing circuitry is to:decode network signaling that configures measurement operations for one or more serving cells, including at least one deactivated secondary cell (SCell), and that indicates synchronization signal block (SSB) parameters;monitor for synchronization signal occasions associated with a serving cell during a measurement interval determined based on the network signaling; perform radio resource management measurements for the serving cell based on the monitored synchronization signal occasions;allocate measurement resources according to a carrier-specific scaling factor that biases measurement processing among serving cells; andencode a measurement report for transmission to a base station, the measurement report based on the radio resource management measurements; andmemory coupled to the processing circuitry and configured to store the network signaling.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the synchronization signal block parameters comprise on-demand synchronization signal block (OD-SSB) configuration parameters for a serving cell.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is to:AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1establish a fast measurement window responsive to an activation of the OD-SSB and to terminate the fast measurement window upon transmission of a first measurement report or upon expiry of a timer.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein during the fast measurement window, the processing circuitry is to:suspend radio resource management measurements on serving cells that do not have an activated OD-SSB.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one deactivated secondary cell does not transmit an always-on synchronization signal block and, after transmission of the measurement report, the processing circuitry refrains from further measurements on the at least one deactivated secondary cell until a subsequent activation indication is decoded.

6. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the serving cell further transmits an always-on synchronization signal block and, after termination of the fast measurement window, the processing circuitry performs subsequent measurements according to requirements for always-on synchronization signal blocks.

7. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the measurement interval is aligned to a synchronization signal measurement timing configuration (SMTC) periodicity for the OD-SSB.

8. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the network signaling comprises a radio resource control reconfiguration message including information elements that indicate an OD-SSB number of bursts, OD-SSB positions within a burst, and an OD-SSB configuration.AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO19. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the network signaling further comprises a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) that toggles an activation state of the OD-SSB.

10. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the carrier-specific scaling factor includes a measurement sharing factor that biases allocation of measurement resources toward serving cells that are configured for OD-SSB.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the measurement sharing factor has a configurable value between 0.25 and 0.75 in increments of 0.25 and has a default value of 0.50, and wherein during the fast measurement window, the carrier-specific scaling factor reduces to a value proportional to a number of serving cells that are configured with activated OD-SSB.

12. The apparatus of any of claims 1-11, further comprising:transceiver circuitry coupled to the processing circuitry; andone or more antennas coupled to the transceiver circuitry.

13. A computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE), the instructions to configure the UE for operation in a New Radio (NR) network, and to cause the UE to perform operations comprising:decode network signaling that configures measurement operations for one or more serving cells, including at least one deactivated secondary cell (SCell), and that indicates synchronization signal block (SSB) parameters;monitor for synchronization signal occasions associated with a serving cell during a measurement interval determined based on the network signaling;perform radio resource management measurements for the serving cell based on the monitored synchronization signal occasions;AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1allocate measurement resources according to a carrier-specific scaling factor that biases measurement processing among serving cells; andencode and transmit a measurement report to a base station, the measurement report based on the radio resource management measurements; and store data associated with the network signaling.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the SSB parameters comprise on-demand synchronization signal block (OD-SSB) configuration parameters for a serving cell.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions further cause the UE to establish a fast measurement window responsive to an activation of the OD-SSB and to terminate the fast measurement window upon transmission of a first measurement report or upon expiry of a timer.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the UE, during the fast measurement window, to suspend radio resource management measurements on serving cells that do not have an activated OD-SSB.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the at least one deactivated secondary cell does not transmit an always-on synchronization signal block and, after transmission of the measurement report, the instructions cause the UE to refrain from further measurements on the at least one deactivated secondary cell until a subsequent activation indication is decoded.

18. An apparatus for a base station configured for operation in a New Radio (NR) network, the apparatus comprising:AG8853-PCT 1884.R67WO1processing circuitry, wherein the processing circuitry is to:encode and transmit network signaling to a user equipment (UE) that configures measurement operations for one or more serving cells, including at least one deactivated secondary cell (SCell), and that indicates synchronization signal block (SSB) parameters;schedule and transmit synchronization signal occasions associated with a serving cell during a measurement interval determined from the network signaling;receive a measurement report from the UE based on radio resource management measurements performed by the UE; andencode, in the network signaling, parameters of a carrierspecific scaling factor to bias measurement processing among serving cells by the UE; andmemory coupled to the processing circuitry and configured to store the measurement report.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the SSB parameters comprise on-demand synchronization signal block (OD-SSB) configuration parameters for a serving cell.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the processing circuitry is to activate OD-SSB occasions for the serving cell to trigger a fast measurement window at the UE and to signal termination conditions that end the fast measurement window upon receipt of a first measurement report or expiry of a timer.

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