Node in a wireless communication system and method performed by the same

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a 5G communication system or a 6G communication system for supporting higher data rates beyond a 4G communication system such as long term evolution (LTE). The present disclosure provides a node in a wireless communication system and methods performed by the same. A method performed by a first node in a wireless communication system, including: transmitting a first message related to a resource status update to a second node, the first message including at least one of the following information related to a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell of the first node: usage status of radio resources, available radio resources, number of served UEs, list of served UEs, information of beams in a cell; receiving a second message from the second node; and receiving a third message from the second node, the third message including information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node, information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node.

Description

NODE IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD PERFORMED BY THE SAME

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a technical field of wireless communication, and more specifically, to a node in a wireless communication system and methods performed by the same.

[0002] Considering the development of wireless communication from generation to generation, the technologies have been developed mainly for services targeting humans, such as voice calls, multimedia services, and data services. Following the commercialization of 5G (5th generation) communication systems, it is expected that the number of connected devices will exponentially grow. Increasingly, these will be connected to communication networks. Examples of connected things may include vehicles, robots, drones, home appliances, displays, smart sensors connected to various infrastructures, construction machines, and factory equipment. Mobile devices are expected to evolve in various form-factors, such as augmented reality glasses, virtual reality headsets, and hologram devices. In order to provide various services by connecting hundreds of billions of devices and things in the 6G (6th generation) era, there have been ongoing efforts to develop improved 6G communication systems. For these reasons, 6G communication systems are referred to as beyond-5G systems.

[0003] 6G communication systems, which are expected to be commercialized around 2030, will have a peak data rate of tera (1,000 giga)-level bit per second (bps) and a radio latency less than 100μsec, and thus will be 50 times as fast as 5G communication systems and have the 1 / 10 radio latency thereof.

[0004] In order to accomplish such a high data rate and an ultra-low latency, it has been considered to implement 6G communication systems in a terahertz (THz) band (for example, 95 gigahertz (GHz) to 3THz bands). It is expected that, due to severer path loss and atmospheric absorption in the terahertz bands than those in mmWave bands introduced in 5G, technologies capable of securing the signal transmission distance (that is, coverage) will become more crucial. It is necessary to develop, as major technologies for securing the coverage, Radio Frequency (RF) elements, antennas, novel waveforms having a better coverage than Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), beamforming and massive Multiple-input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Full Dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas, and multiantenna transmission technologies such as large-scale antennas. In addition, there has been ongoing discussion on new technologies for improving the coverage of terahertz-band signals, such as metamaterial-based lenses and antennas, Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM), and Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS).

[0005] Moreover, in order to improve the spectral efficiency and the overall network performances, the following technologies have been developed for 6G communication systems: a full-duplex technology for enabling an uplink transmission and a downlink transmission to simultaneously use the same frequency resource at the same time; a network technology for utilizing satellites, High-Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS), and the like in an integrated manner; an improved network structure for supporting mobile base stations and the like and enabling network operation optimization and automation and the like; a dynamic spectrum sharing technology via collision avoidance based on a prediction of spectrum usage; an use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in wireless communication for improvement of overall network operation by utilizing AI from a designing phase for developing 6G and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions; and a next-generation distributed computing technology for overcoming the limit of UE computing ability through reachable super-high-performance communication and computing resources (such as Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), clouds, and the like) over the network. In addition, through designing new protocols to be used in 6G communication systems, developing mechanisms for implementing a hardware-based security environment and safe use of data, and developing technologies for maintaining privacy, attempts to strengthen the connectivity between devices, optimize the network, promote softwarization of network entities, and increase the openness of wireless communications are continuing.

[0006] It is expected that research and development of 6G communication systems in hyper-connectivity, including person to machine (P2M) as well as machine to machine (M2M), will allow the next hyper-connected experience. Particularly, it is expected that services such as truly immersive eXtended Reality (XR), high-fidelity mobile hologram, and digital replica could be provided through 6G communication systems. In addition, services such as remote surgery for security and reliability enhancement, industrial automation, and emergency response will be provided through the 6G communication system such that the technologies could be applied in various fields such as industry, medical care, automobiles, and home appliances.

[0007] The present disclosure relates to node in a wireless communication system and method performed by the same.

[0008] According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided a communication method in a wireless communication system.

[0009] Aspects of the present disclosure provide efficient communication methods in a wireless communication system.

[0010] The above and other aspects, features and advantages of certain embodiments of the present disclosure will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0011] FIG. 1 is an exemplary system architecture of System Architecture Evolution (SAE);

[0012] FIG. 2 is an exemplary system architecture according to various embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0013] FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of the architecture of a self-optimization network according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0014] FIG. 4 shows an example process for network energy saving optimization according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0015] FIG. 5 shows an example process of Mobility Robustness Optimization (MRO) according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0016] FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of a method performed by a first node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0017] FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of a method performed by a second node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0018] FIG. 8 shows a schematic diagram of a node according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0019] FIG. 9 shows a schematic diagram of a user equipment (UE) according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0020] FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a terminal or user equipment (UE) according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

[0021] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) according to an embodiment of the disclosure; and

[0022] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a network entity according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0023] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method performed by a first node in a wireless communication system, including: transmitting a first message related to a resource status update to a second node, the first message including at least one of the following information related to a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell of the first node: usage status of radio resources, available radio resources, number of served UEs, list of served UEs, information of beams in a cell; receiving a second message from the second node, the second message including first information related to one or more cells, wherein the first information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more cells, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more cells, activated / deactivated beams of the one or more cells, number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the one or more cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells; and receiving a third message from the second node, the third message including information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node, information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node.

[0024] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the first information further includes at least one of: number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells.

[0025] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the second message further includes second information related to one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), wherein the second information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more SSBs, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more SSBs.

[0026] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of: activation conditions of the cell and / or beam, activation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells corresponding to loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam when activated, the amount of loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, the number of UEs that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, and activation time of the cell and / or beam; and wherein the information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of: deactivation conditions of the cell and / or beam, deactivation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells which can share loads of the cell and / or beam when the cell and / or beam is deactivated, deactivation time of the cell and / or beam.

[0027] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: transmitting a fourth message to the second node, the fourth message including at least one of: type of handover failure, Radio Link Failure (RLF) report, Secondary Cell Group (SCG) failure report, mobility related policy information, Successful Handover Report (SHR), configuration information for SHR, Successful Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) report (SPR), configuration information for SPR.

[0028] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: receiving a fifth message from the second node, the fifth message including at least one of an updated handover policy, an updated mobility policy, an updated Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) change policy, wherein the fifth message is determined based on the fourth message.

[0029] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the first node is a base station, and the second node is a mirrored network function node.

[0030] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method performed by a second node in a wireless communication system, including: receiving a first message related to a resource status update from a first node, the first message including at least one of the following information related to a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell of the first node: usage status of radio resources, available radio resources, number of served UEs, list of served UEs, information of beams in a cell; transmitting a second message to the first node, the second message including first information related to one or more cells, wherein the first information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more cells, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more cells, activated / deactivated beams of the one or more cells, number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the one or more cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells; and transmitting a third message to the first node, the third message including information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node, information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node.

[0031] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the first information further includes at least one of: number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells.

[0032] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the second message further includes second information related to one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), wherein the second information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more SSBs, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more SSBs.

[0033] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of: activation conditions of the cell and / or beam, activation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells corresponding to loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam when activated, the amount of loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, the number of UEs that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, and activation time of the cell and / or beam; and wherein the information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of: deactivation conditions of the cell and / or beam, deactivation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells which can share loads of the cell and / or beam when the cell and / or beam is deactivated, deactivation time of the cell and / or beam.

[0034] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: receiving a fourth message from the first node, the fourth message including at least one of: type of handover failure, Radio Link Failure (RLF) report, Secondary Cell Group (SCG) failure report, mobility related policy information, Successful Handover Report (SHR), configuration information for SHR, Successful Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) report (SPR), configuration information for SPR.

[0035] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, further includes: transmitting a fifth message to the first node, the fifth message including at least one of an updated handover policy, an updated mobility policy, an updated Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) change policy, wherein the fifth message is determined based on the fourth message.

[0036] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the first node is a base station, and the second node is a mirrored network function node.

[0037] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a node device in a wireless communication system, including: a transceiver configured to transmit and receive signals; and a processor coupled to the transceiver and configured to perform methods performed by any node (e.g., a first node, a second node, etc.) in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0038] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, including: a transceiver configured to transmit and receive signals; and a processor coupled to the transceiver and configured to perform methods performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0039] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-readable instructions which, when executed by a processor, perform methods performed by any node and / or a user equipment in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0040] The methods provided by the node and / or user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system can effectively support network energy saving optimization and / or mobility robustness optimization and improve network performance by exchanging information related to network energy saving and / or mobility robustness between nodes and / or user equipment (UE).

[0041] Hereinafter, embodiments of the disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0042] In describing the embodiments, while numerous details are set forth for the purpose of illustration, it is understood that some aspects of the disclosure may be practiced with less than all of these details. Numerous variations and alternatives to the details provided herein are possible and are considered within the scope of the disclosure. In some instances, descriptions related to technical contents well-known in the art may be omitted so as to not obscure an understanding of the disclosure, and such omitted descriptions are understood to be within the scope of the disclosure.

[0043] For the same reason, in the accompanying drawings, some elements may be exaggerated, omitted, or schematically illustrated. Further, the size of each element does not completely reflect the actual size. In the drawings, identical or corresponding elements are provided with identical reference numerals or different reference numerals.

[0044] The advantages and features of the disclosure and ways to achieve them will be apparent by making reference to embodiments as described herein in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, the disclosure is not limited to the embodiments set forth herein, but may be implemented in various different forms. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparent from the disclosure. The following embodiments are merely examples to aid in an understanding of the disclosure and should not be construed to narrow the scope or spirit of the subject matter described herein in any way, but on the contrary, the disclosure covers all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof. Throughout the specification, the same or like reference numerals designate the same or like elements. Furthermore, terms which will be described herein are terms defined in consideration of the functions in the disclosure, and may be different according to users, intentions of the operators, or customs. Therefore, the definitions of the terms should be made based on the contents throughout the specification.

[0045] Herein, it will be understood that each block of flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations, may be performed based on computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded collectively onto at least one processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which perform through any one of, or in any combination of, the at least one processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for performing the functions specified in the flowchart block(s). These computer program instructions may also be stored in a non-transitory computer usable or computer-readable memory that may direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer usable or computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that perform the function specified in the flowchart block(s). The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a computer executed process such that the instructions that perform on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus provide steps for executing the functions specified in the flowchart block(s).

[0046] Further, each block may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which includes one or more executable instructions for executing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of the order. For example, two blocks(or functions) shown in succession may in fact be performed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be performed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved.

[0047] As used in embodiments of the disclosure, a “~unit / module” may refer to a software element or a hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), which performs a predetermined function. However, the term including the word “~unit / module” does not always have a meaning limited to software or hardware. The “~unit / module” may be constructed either to be stored in an addressable storage medium or to execute one or more processors. Therefore, the “~unit / module” includes, for example, software elements, object-oriented software elements, components such as class elements and task elements, processes, functions, properties, procedures, sub-routines, segments of a program code, drivers, firmware, micro-codes, circuits, data, database, data structures, tables, arrays, and parameters. The components and functions provided by the “~unit / module” may be either combined into a smaller number of components and a “~unit / module,” or divided into additional components and a “~unit / module.” Moreover, the components and “~units / modules” may be implemented to reproduce one or more central processing units (CPUs) within a device or a security multimedia card. Further, in the embodiments, the “~unit / module” may include one or more processors.

[0048] The entirety of the one or more computer programs may be stored in a single memory device or the one or more computer programs may be divided with different portions stored in different multiple memory devices.

[0049] Any of the functions or operations described herein can be processed by one processor or a combination of processors. The one processor or the combination of processors is circuitry performing processing and includes circuitry like an application processor (AP, e.g. a CPU), a communication processor (CP, e.g., a modem), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a neural processing unit (NPU) (e.g., an artificial intelligence (AI) chip), a Wi-Fi chip, a Bluetooth® chip, a global positioning system (GPS) chip, a near field communication (NFC) chip, connectivity chips, a sensor controller, a touch controller, a finger-print sensor controller, a display driver integrated circuit (IC), an audio CODEC chip, a universal serial bus (USB) controller, a camera controller, an image processing IC, microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, FPGA, ASIC, a microprocessor unit (MPU), a system on chip (SoC), an IC, or the like. The one processor or the combination of processors executes instructions that can be stored in a memory, such as the operating system, in order to control the overall operation of the device. Also, the one processor or the combination of processors is also capable of executing other processes and programs resident in the memory, such as processes for the disclosure.

[0050] It will be appreciated that various embodiments of the disclosure according to the claims and description in the specification can be realized in the form of hardware, software or a combination of hardware and software.

[0051] Any such software may be stored in non-transitory computer readable storage media. The non-transitory computer readable storage media store one or more computer programs (software modules), the one or more computer programs include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to perform a method of the disclosure. Additionally, or alternatively, such software may be a computer program [product] comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to perform a method of the disclosure.

[0052] Any such software may be stored in the form of volatile or non-volatile storage such as, for example, a storage device like read only memory (ROM), whether erasable or rewritable or not, or in the form of memory such as, for example, random access memory (RAM), memory chips, device or integrated circuits or on an optically or magnetically readable medium such as, for example, a compact disk (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), magnetic disk or magnetic tape or the like. It will be appreciated that the storage devices and storage media are various embodiments of non-transitory machine-readable storage that are suitable for storing a computer program or computer programs comprising instructions that, when executed, implement various embodiments of the disclosure. Accordingly, various embodiments of the present disclosure may provide a program comprising code for implementing apparatus or a method as claimed in any one of the claims of this specification and a non-transitory machine-readable storage storing such a program.

[0053] Hereinafter, the determination of priority between A and B in the present disclosure may refer to various actions such as selecting the one having a higher priority based on a predefined priority rule and performing an operation corresponding thereto, or omitting or dropping an operation corresponding to the one having a lower priority.

[0054] Hereinafter, "A or B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0055] In addition, "at least one of A, B, and C" as described in the present disclosure may be understood to include A, or B, or C, or any combination of A, B, and C.

[0056] In addition, "at least one of A, B, or C" as described in the present disclosure may be understood to include A, or B, or C, or any combination of A, B, and C.

[0057] Furthermore, "A / B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0058] Furthermore, "A, B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0059] Furthermore, "A and B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0060] Furthermore, “if condition A and condition B are satisfied,” as described in the present disclosure, may not be limited to a case where both condition A and condition B are satisfied, but may be understood to include a case where either condition A or condition B is individually satisfied, both condition A and condition B are satisfied, or one or more additional conditions are satisfied in combination.

[0061] Furthermore, throughout this disclosure, ordinal terms such as "first," "second," "third," etc., (and similar qualifiers) are used merely to distinguish between different instances, occurrences, configurations, messages, stages, elements or aspects of elements, operations, or information as described herein. Unless the context clearly dictates otherwise, the use of such ordinal terms does not itself require that the elements, operations, or information distinguished by these terms be structurally different, numerically distinct, or substantively dissimilar. For example, a "first signal" and a "second signal" may refer to instances of the same signal transmitted at different times or containing the same core information despite minor variations, or they may refer to signals with different content or characteristics, depending on the specific context. Similarly, a "first value" and a "second value" may represent the same magnitude but measured or applied in different circumstances, or they may represent different magnitudes. The interpretation should be guided by the specific technical context, function, and relationship described in the relevant portion of the specification and claims.

[0062] Furthermore, the terms “first ~”, “second ~”, etc., as described in the present disclosure with respect to various elements (e.g., information, objects, operation, sequences, or the like), should not limit those elements. These terms may only be intended to distinguish one element from another, and may not be intended to indicate a specific order. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element.

[0063] Furthermore, even if “first ~” and “second ~” are described in the present disclosure, it may be understood that element(s) referred to by “first ~” and “second ~” may be the same or different. For example, in case of element(s) being information, first information and second information may both be same information and, in some cases, are separate and different information.

[0064] In addition, the terms “if ~” and “in case that ~” as used in the disclosure or claims may be interpreted to include the meanings of “when (or upon) ~,” “in response to ~,” “based on ~,” or “according to ~,” and may be used interchangeably with these expressions. In addition, expressions other than those exemplified herein may also be used, as long as they have substantially the same meaning and do not impair the technical features of the present disclosure. If a method step (e.g. transmit a signal) is performed according to the disclosure of the application in connection with one of the above terms (such as “in case that ~” or the like), it may be interpreted to include the meanings (disclosure) of a prior determination that a feature has a specific state “~” (e.g. a bit length is above X), and then perform the method step in response to said determination.

[0065] For example, the physical layer signaling may be referred to as Layer 1 (L1) signaling and may include downlink control information (DCI). In addition, the higher layer signaling may include a medium access control (MAC) control message, a radio resource control (RRC) signaling message, a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling message, or an application layer message. The RRC signaling message may be referred to as L3 (layer 3) signaling. It should be noted, however, that the higher layer signaling is not limited to the aforementioned examples.

[0066] In addition, the term "not perform" as used in the present disclosure or claims may, in context, be understood to mean that the corresponding step is omitted or skipped. Such a term may be replaced with other terms having the same or substantially equivalent meaning.

[0067] In addition, "transmitting a message including A and B" as described in the present disclosure, may be understood as encompassing both (i) transmitting A and B in a single message, and (ii) transmitting A and B separately via multiple messages (e.g., transmitting a first message including A and a second message including B). This interpretation may also apply to messages that include two or more items (e.g., A, B, C), transmitted either together or separately.

[0068] In addition, "transmitting a message including A and transmitting a message including B" may also be interpreted as transmitting a message including A and B in a single message.

[0069] In the embodiments of the present disclosure described herein, terms or components included in the disclosure may be expressed in singular or plural form depending on the specific embodiments presented. However, such singular or plural expressions are selected appropriately for convenience of description, and the present disclosure is not limited to a singular or plural number of components. A component expressed in the plural form may be implemented as a single component, and a component expressed in the singular form may be implemented as multiple components.

[0070] The drawings or flowcharts described herein illustrate example methods that may be implemented according to the principles of the present disclosure, and various modifications may be made to the methods illustrated in the flowcharts of the present disclosure. For example, although illustrated as a series of steps, various steps in each drawing or flowchart may overlap, occur in parallel, occur in a different order, or be repeated. In other examples, any step may be omitted or replaced with another step.

[0071] The process of the flowchart may be performed by a device. One or more of the steps of the flowchart can be implemented by one or more processors / computer programs executing instructions to perform the noted functions.

[0072] The methods and apparatuses proposed in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be disclosed in connection with drawings disclosing flowcharts to illustrate example methods that may be implemented according to the principles of the present disclosure. Such flowcharts may contain different branches and / or sub-branches. It is understood that the principles of the present disclosure do not only contain the combination of all branches / sub-branches disclosed in the embodiment, but the present disclosure also contains at least one isolated branch / isolated sub-branch, in particular to a single branch / single sub-branch.

[0073] The methods and apparatuses proposed in the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to each embodiment individually, but may also be applied in combination of all or some of the embodiments proposed in the disclosure. Therefore, the embodiments of the present disclosure may be modified and applied without significantly departing from the scope of the present disclosure, as would be understood by those skilled in the art.

[0074] In this case, even if certain wordings are described differently across embodiments, they may be used interchangeably or in substitution or in combination if their underlying concepts are equivalent. For example, for the same or equivalent concept, even if one embodiment uses the expression "A" and another embodiment uses the expression "B", such expressions may be understood interchangeably, in substitution, or in combination.

[0075] The terms used in the following description to refer to access nodes, network entities, messages, interfaces between network entities, various types of identification information, and the like, are provided merely for the convenience of explanation by way of example. Therefore, the present disclosure is not limited to the terms describedherein, and other terms having equivalent technical meanings may also be used. Such terms may also be interchangeable with terms defined in any 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) technical specifications (TS) or similar technical specifications, e.g., from the European telecommunications standards institute (ETSI), where appropriate.

[0076] Hereinafter, a base station (BS) is an entity that allocates resources to terminals, and may be at least one of a gNode B, an eNode B, a Node B, a wireless access unit, a BS controller, or a node on a network.

[0077] Furthermore, the base station of the present disclosure may include a split architecture comprising a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU). In this structure, the CU is configured to process the higher layers of the control and user planes, while the DU is configured to process lower-layer radio resource functions. The embodiments of the present disclosure may be equally applicable to 5th generation (5G) base station architectures in which such CU and DU functional splits are implemented.

[0078] A terminal may include a user equipment (UE), a mobile station (MS), a cellular phone, a smartphone, a computer, a tablet, a wearable device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, or any other device / system capable of performing communication functions.

[0079] In the disclosure, a downlink (DL) refers to a radio link through which a BS transmits a signal to a terminal, and an uplink (UL) refers to a radio link through which a terminal transmits a signal to a BS.

[0080] Furthermore, hereinafter, 5G mobile communication technologies (e.g., 5G new radio (NR)), 6th generation (6G) mobile communication technologies may be described by way of example, but the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems having similar technical backgrounds or channel types. For example, newly evolved mobile communication systems developed after 5G and 6G may be included. Furthermore, based on determinations by those skilled in the art, the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems (e.g., Wi-Fi systems) through some modifications without significantly departing from the scope of the present disclosure

[0081] In the following description, the terms physical channel and signal may be used interchangeably with data or control signal. For example, the term physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) refers to a physical channel through which data is transmitted, but the term PDSCH may also be used to refer to the data itself. That is, in the present disclosure, the expression "transmit a physical channel" may be interpreted as being equivalent to the expression "transmit data or a signal via a physical channel."

[0082] Hereinafter, in the context of the present disclosure, higher layer signaling may refer to signaling corresponding to at least one or any combination of the following: master information block (MIB), system information block (SIB) or SIB M (M = 1, 2, ...), RRC, or MAC control element (CE), or a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling message, or an application layer message. The RRC signaling message may be referred to as Layer 3 (L3) signaling.

[0083] In addition, L1 signaling may refer to signaling corresponding to at least one or any combination of signaling techniques using the at least one or any combination of the following physical layer channels or signaling: physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), DCI, UE-specific DCI, group-common DCI, common DCI, scheduling DCI (e.g., DCI used for scheduling downlink or uplink data), non-scheduling DCI (e.g., DCI not used for scheduling downlink or uplink data) physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or uplink control information (UCI). The L1 signaling message may be referred to as a physical layer signaling.

[0084] Hereinafter, the expression that information is configured by the BS, as used in the present disclosure or claims, may, in context, be understood to mean that the terminal receives the corresponding information from the BS via a physical layer signaling or a higher layer signaling. Such an expression may be replaced with other terms having the same or substantially equivalent meaning.

[0085] Hereinafter, the operational principle of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0086] In order to meet an increasing demand for wireless data communication services since a deployment of 4G communication system, efforts have been made to develop an improved 5G or pre-5G communication system. Therefore, the 5G or pre-5G communication system is also called “beyond 4G network” or “post LTE system”.

[0087] Wireless communication is one of the most successful innovations in modern history. Recently, a number of subscribers of wireless communication services has exceeded 5 billion, and it continues growing rapidly. With the increasing popularity of smart phones and other mobile data devices (such as tablet computers, notebook computers, netbooks, e-book readers and machine-type devices) in consumers and enterprises, a demand for wireless data services is growing rapidly. In order to meet rapid growth of mobile data services and support new applications and deployments, it is very important to improve efficiency and coverage of wireless interfaces.

[0088] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure clearer, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of the embodiments of the present disclosure. Obviously, the described embodiments are some, but not all, of the embodiments of the present disclosure. Based on the described embodiments of the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without creative efforts fall within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

[0089] Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document. The term “couple” and derivatives thereof refer to any direct or indirect communication between two or more elements, whether or not those elements are in physical contact with one another. The terms “transmit,” “receive,” and “communicate” and derivatives thereof encompass both direct and indirect communication. The terms “include” and “comprise” and derivatives thereof mean inclusion without limitation. The term “or” is inclusive, meaning and / or. The phrase “associated with” and derivatives thereof means to include, be included within, connect to, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, have a relationship to or with, or the like. The term “controller” means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least one operation. Such a controller may be implemented in hardware, or in a combination of hardware and software and / or firmware. The functionality associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely. The phrase “at least one of” when used with a list of items, means that different combinations of one or more of the listed items may be used, and only one item in the list may be needed. For example, “at least one of: A, B, and C” includes any of the following combinations: A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, and A and B and C. For example, “at least one of: A, B, or C” includes any of the following combinations: A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, and A and B and C.

[0090] Moreover, various functions described below can be implemented or supported by one or more computer programs, each of which is formed from computer-readable program codes and embodied in a computer-readable medium. The terms “application” and “program” refer to one or more computer programs, software components, sets of instructions, process, functions, objects, classes, instances, related data, or a portion thereof adapted for implementation in a suitable computer-readable program code. The phrase “computer-readable program code” includes any type of computer code, including source code, object code, and executable code. The phrase “computer-readable medium” includes any type of medium capable of being accessed by a computer, such as Read-Only Memory (ROM), Random Access Memory (RAM), hard disk drive, a compact disc (CD), digital video disc (DVD), or any other type of memory. A “non-transitory” computer-readable medium excludes wired, wireless, optical, or other communication links that transport transitory electrical or other signals. A non-transitory computer-readable medium includes media where data can be permanently stored and media where data can be stored and later overwritten, such as a rewritable optical disc or an erasable memory device.

[0091] The terminology used herein to describe embodiments of the disclosure is not intended to limit and / or define the scope of the disclosure. For example, unless otherwise defined, technical terms or scientific terms used in the present disclosure shall have their ordinary meanings understood by those of ordinary skill in the art to which this application belongs.

[0092] It should be understood that “first,” “second,” and similar words used in the present disclosure do not denote any order, quantity, or importance, but are merely used to distinguish between different components. Unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the singular forms “a,” “an,” “the,” and similar words do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one.

[0093] As used herein, any reference to “one example” or “an example,” “one embodiment,” or “an embodiment” means that a particular element, feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. The appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an example” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

[0094] As used herein, “a portion of” something means at least some of that thing, and thus may mean less than all of that thing or all of that thing. Thus, “a portion of” a thing includes the entire thing as a special case, i.e., the entire thing is an example of a portion of the thing.

[0095] It will be further understood that the terms “include” or “contain” and similar words mean that the elements or items appearing before the word encompass the elements or items listed after the word and their equivalents, but do not exclude other elements or items. Words such as “connect to” or “connect with” are not limited to physical or mechanical connections, but may include electrical connections, whether direct or indirect. “Up”, “down”, “left”, “right”, etc. are only used to express relative positional relationships. When the absolute position of the described object changes, the relative positional relationship may also change accordingly.

[0096] The various embodiments discussed below to describe the principles of the present disclosure in this patent document are by way of illustration only and should not be construed in any way to limit the scope of the disclosure. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged wireless communication system. For example, although the following detailed description of embodiments of the present disclosure will be directed to LTE and 5G communication systems, those skilled in the art may understand that the main points of the present disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems having similar technical backgrounds and channel formats with slight modification without substantially departing from the scope of the present disclosure. The technical solutions of the embodiments of this application can be applied to various communication systems. For example, the communication systems can include global system for mobile communications (GSM) systems, code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) systems, general packet radio service (GPRS), long term evolution (LTE) systems, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, LTE time division duplex (TDD), universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, 5th generation (5G) system or new radio (NR), etc. In addition, the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application can be applied to future-oriented communication technologies. In addition, the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application can be applied to future-oriented communication technologies.

[0097] The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the various embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.

[0098] The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of various embodiments of the present disclosure is provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

[0099] It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “a component surface” includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.

[0100] The term “include” or “may include” refers to the existence of a corresponding disclosed function, operation or component which can be used in various embodiments of the present disclosure and does not limit one or more additional functions, operations, or components. The terms such as “include” and / or “have” may be construed to denote a certain characteristic, number, step, operation, constituent element, component or a combination thereof, but may not be construed to exclude the existence of or a possibility of addition of one or more other characteristics, numbers, steps, operations, constituent elements, components or combinations thereof.

[0101] The term “or” used in various embodiments of the present disclosure includes any or all of combinations of listed words. For example, the expression “A or B” may include A, may include B, or may include both A and B.

[0102] Unless defined differently, all terms used herein, which include technical terminologies or scientific terminologies, have the same meaning as that understood by a person skilled in the art to which the present disclosure belongs. Such terms as those defined in a generally used dictionary are to be interpreted to have the meanings equal to the contextual meanings in the relevant field of art, and are not to be interpreted to have ideal or excessively formal meanings unless clearly defined in the present disclosure.

[0103] Figures discussed below and various embodiments for describing the principles of the present disclosure in this patent document are only for illustration and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the present disclosure can be implemented in any suitably arranged system or device.

[0104] FIG. 1 is an exemplary system architecture 100 of system architecture evolution (SAE). User equipment (UE) 101 is a terminal device for receiving data. An evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) 102 is a radio access network, which includes a macro base station (eNodeB / NodeB) that provides UE with interfaces to access the radio network. A mobility management entity (MME) 103 is responsible for managing mobility context, session context and security information of the UE. A serving gateway (SGW) 104 mainly provides functions of user plane, and the MME 103 and the SGW 104 may be in the same physical entity. A packet data network gateway (PGW) 105 is responsible for functions of charging, lawful interception, etc., and may be in the same physical entity as the SGW 104. A policy and charging rules function entity (PCRF) 106 provides Quality of Service (QoS) policies and charging criteria. A general packet radio service support node (SGSN) 108 is a network node device that provides routing for data transmission in a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS). A home subscriber server (HSS)109 is a home subsystem of the UE, and is responsible for protecting user information including a current location of the user equipment, an address of a serving node, user security information, and packet data context of the user equipment, etc.

[0105] FIG. 2 is an exemplary system architecture 200 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. Other embodiments of the system architecture 200 can be used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0106] User equipment (UE) 201 is a terminal device for receiving data. A next generation radio access network (NG-RAN) 202 is a radio access network, which includes a base station (a gNB or an eNB connected to 5G core network 5GC, and the eNB connected to the 5GC is also called ng-gNB) that provides UE with interfaces to access the radio network. An access control and mobility management function entity (AMF) 203 is responsible for managing mobility context and security information of the UE. A user plane function entity (UPF) 204 mainly provides functions of user plane. A session management function entity SMF 205 is responsible for session management. A data network (DN) 206 includes, for example, services of operators, access of Internet and service of third parties.

[0107] As wireless communications evolve from generation to generation, the technologies have been developed mainly for services targeting humans, such as voice calls, multimedia services, and data services. Following the commercialization of 5th-generation (5G) communication systems, it is expected that the number of connected devices will exponentially grow. Increasingly, these will be connected to communication networks. Examples of connected things may include vehicles, robots, drones, home appliances, displays, smart sensors connected to various infrastructures, construction machines, and factory equipment. Mobile devices are expected to evolve in various form-factors, such as augmented reality glasses, virtual reality headsets, and hologram devices. In order to provide various services by connecting hundreds of billions of devices and things in the 6th-generation (6G) era, there have been ongoing efforts to develop improved 6G communication systems.

[0108] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0109] The text and drawings are provided as examples only to help understand the present disclosure. They should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Although certain embodiments and examples have been provided, based on the disclosure herein, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that changes can be made to the illustrated embodiments and examples without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0110] In the following description, NR, LTE, etc., are only examples of different radio access technologies (RATs), and the RATs according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be any other RAT. In the following description, NG-RAN, gNB, AMF, SMF, etc., are only examples of different nodes, and the nodes according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be any other node, which is not limited herein.

[0111] In the present disclosure, clock and timer may be used interchangeably.

[0112] In the present disclosure, user equipment, UE, user, terminal, etc. may be used interchangeably.

[0113] In the existing process of self-optimization information collection and problem detection, there is no specific solution on how to perform self-optimization, and the effect of self-optimization has not been verified. According to the methods of the present disclosure, a mirrored network function entity may be used to implement self-optimization, pre-verify the effect of the self-optimization, and then the pre-verified self-optimization policy may be applied to the actual network, thereby ensuring the effect of the self-optimization and the performance of the network.

[0114] The present disclosure proposes new methods and devices for network self-optimization. According to the self-optimization method and architecture of the embodiments of the present disclosure, optimization (or self-optimization) can be pre-verified before being actually applied to the network, and is actually applied to the network only after being verified (for example, the verification passes or the performance is verified to meet specific performance requirements, etc.), thereby effectively ensuring the effect of the optimization, improving the performance of the system, saving the energy of the system, improving the performance of the handover, and improving the efficiency of self-optimization.

[0115] FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of the architecture of a self-optimization network according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0116] As shown in FIG. 3, the self-optimization network according to embodiments of the present disclosure may include a mirrored network function entity 301, a training entity 302, a wireless communication entity 303 and a data center 304.

[0117] The mirrored network function entity 301 may include self-optimization functions, and may also include some functions of the radio access network, such as some functions of a base station. The mirrored network function entity 301 may utilize the data of an actual communication system (e.g., wireless communication system 303) to make a self-optimization policy and verify the performance of the policy. When the performance is verified (e.g., the performance can meet certain requirements), the decision may be transmitted to the actual wireless communication system 303. The self-optimization function may include an energy saving function, a load balancing function, a mobility robustness self-optimization function, and / or a random access channel (RACH) optimization function, etc., but is not limited thereto.

[0118] In the present disclosure, the mirrored network function entity may also be referred to as a mapped self-optimization function entity or a virtual self-optimization function entity or a mirrored Radio Access Network (RAN) function entity or a digital twin entity. The mirrored network function entity may also include a self-optimization function entity, and / or a mirrored Radio Access Network (RAN) function entity, etc. The mirrored network function entity may also be located on the same logical node or physical node with the wireless communication entity (such as a base station).

[0119] More generally, one or more of the mirrored network function entity 301, training entity 302, wireless communication entity 303 and data center 304 may be located on the same logical node or physical node, or may be located on different logical nodes or physical nodes, which is not limited herein.

[0120] In the present disclosure, entity, node, node device may be equivalent concepts.

[0121] The mirrored network function entity 301 may obtain a policy or model for self-optimization from the training entity 302. The model may be an artificial intelligence (AI) model or a machine learning (ML) model. The mirrored network function entity 301 may input data after preliminary verification to the training entity 302 for training or retraining.

[0122] When the mirrored network function entity 301 makes a self-optimization policy, the mirrored network function entity 301 may refer to history data obtained from the data center 304, refer to resource information and / or other collected data transmitted by the wireless communication system 303, and use the policy or model obtained from the training entity 302 to make a self-optimization policy. In addition, the mirrored network function entity 301 may also apply the self-optimization policy to the mirrored radio access network function entity in the mirrored network function entity 301 and check the performance of the mirrored radio access network function entity after implementing the self-optimization policy. If it is checked that the performance is improved and / or meets predetermined performance metrics, the mirrored network function entity 301 may further transmit relevant information of the self-optimization policy to the wireless communication entity 303.

[0123] In the present disclosure, the wireless communication entity 303 may be a base station of an access network, such as an eNB, gNB, etc. In a split architecture, the wireless communication entity 303 may be a central unit-control plane (CU-CP) of the base station, a central unit-user plane (CU-UP) of the base station, or a distributed unit (DU) of the base station, etc. The wireless communication entity 303 may also be an access and mobility management (AMF) entity of the core network, a session management function (SMF) entity of the core network, etc.

[0124] In the present disclosure, the data center 304 may also be any other node or entity capable of storing history data of a wireless communication network.

[0125] In the following embodiments, the wireless communication entity 303 is described with a base station as an example. The node storing history data is described with the data center 304 as an example.

[0126] The self-optimization process will be described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. In the present disclosure, self-optimization may also be referred to as self-organizing self-optimization or self-configuring self-optimization.

[0127] In mobile communication networks, larger bandwidth and stronger processing ability bring about the rise of absolute power consumption. As the frequency is higher, the coverage of the cell becomes smaller, so the number of base station entities that need to be deployed is larger. In order to reduce energy consumption, reduce operating costs, and reduce impact to the environment, network energy saving is required in mobile communication networks.

[0128] When the capacity required by the network is low, some base station entities may enter a dormant mode. For example, a base station used to provide capacity improvement may enter a dormant mode. The base station entering a dormant mode needs to notify the base station where the cell used to provide basic coverage is located of the state of the dormant mode of the base station. In this mechanism, whether a cell enters a dormant mode is mainly determined based on the loads of the cell itself, and the impact on the whole network are not considered. When the capacity required by the network increases, the base station where the cell used to provide basic coverage is located needs to wake up the dormant base station in time to share the loads. How to wake up the correct or appropriate base station is related to whether load sharing can be effectively performed and energy consumption of the whole network can be reduced. Through the methods of the present disclosure, based on the performance of the whole network, impact of dormancy or wake-up on the performance of the whole network can be verified in advance, thereby reducing the energy consumption of the network, improving the performance of the network, better serving users, and avoiding user access failures. A specific example process is shown in FIG. 4.

[0129] FIG. 4 shows an example process for network energy saving optimization according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0130] Step 401: the base station (which may also be referred to as a first node in the present disclosure) may transmit a resource status update message to the mirrored network function entity (which may also be referred to as a second node in the present disclosure).

[0131] The resource status update message may include one or more of the following information:

[0132] - information of a serving cell. The information of a serving cell may include one or more of the following information related to one or more serving cells: a unique identifier of the cell, usage status of radio resources of the cell, available radio resources in the cell, the number of UEs served by the cell, and / or information of beams in the cell. In addition to the number of UEs served by the cell, the information of the serving cell may further include list information of served UEs. The list information of served UEs may include identifiers of one or more UEs served by the serving cell, and / or location information of the one or more UEs. The information of beams in the cell may include at least one of the following information of one or more beams in the cell: beam identifier, available resources of the beam, and / or used resources of the beam.

[0133] - information of a neighboring cell. The information of a neighboring cell may include one or more of the following information related to one or more neighboring cells: a unique identifier of the cell, usage status of radio resources of the cell, available radio resources in the cell, the number of UEs served by the cell, and / or information of beams in the cell. In addition to the number of UEs served by the cell, the information of the neighboring cell may further include list information of served UEs. The list information of served UEs may include identifiers of one or more UEs served by the neighboring cell, and / or location information of the one or more UEs. The information of beams in the cell may include at least one of the following information of one or more beams in the cell: beam identifier, available resources of the beam, and / or used resources of the beam.

[0134] There are at least three methods proposed in the present disclosure to achieve network energy saving optimization. Step 402 shows method one, step 403 shows method two, and method three is a combination of semi-static and dynamic methods, which may be performed by a combination of step 402 and step 403. The three methods will be described in detail below.

[0135] Step 402: the mirrored network function entity may transmit an energy saving command message to the base station.

[0136] In a method as shown in step 402 (i.e., method one), the energy saving command is made by the mirrored network function entity. The base station may perform activation or deactivation (e.g., dormancy) of a cell according to the information in the received message. For example, the base station may activate part or all of the resources according to the information in the received message, and / or activate the transmission and / or reception of part or all of the air interfaces.

[0137] The energy saving command message may include at least one of the following information:

[0138] - cell list information. The cell list information may include information of a group of cells (e.g., one or more cells). Information of each cell may include one or more of a cell identifier, status indication information, reason for activation or deactivation, information of beams for activation, and / or information of beams for deactivation. The status indication information may include activation indication information related to activation of a cell (or one or more beams therein), or deactivation indication information related to deactivation of a cell (or one or more beams therein). In the present disclosure, activation may also be referred to as switching on or waking up, and deactivation may also be referred to as switching off or dormancy / sleeping. The information of beams for activation may include beam identifiers of the beams to be activated and / or the reason / cause for activation. The information of beams for deactivation may include beam identifiers of the beams to be deactivated and / or the reason / cause for deactivation. In the present disclosure, the identifier of a cell may include at least one of the following: a Cell Global Identifier (CGI) or a Physical Cell Identifier (PCI) and frequency information. If the status indication information of a cell is deactivation, the information of the cell may further include information of one or more candidate neighboring cells that can be used to offload the UEs on the cell. The information of a candidate neighboring cell may include one or more of the following information of the corresponding candidate neighboring cell: cell identifier, available resource status of the cell, and / or load status of the cell. If the status indication information of the cell is activation, the information of the cell may further include the number of UEs to be handed over to the cell or the resources to be used, and the base station may perform corresponding activation and / or deactivation processing according to the number of UEs to be handed over to the cell or the resources to be used.

[0139] - synchronization signal block SSB (beam) list information. The SSB list information may include information of one or more SSBs. The information of each SSB may include the cell identifier of the corresponding SSB, the SSB sequence number, the status indication information of the SSB, and / or the reason for activation or deactivation. The status indication information of the SSB may include activation indication information related to activation of the SSB, or deactivation indication information related to deactivation of the SSB. In the present disclosure, activation may also be referred to as switching on or waking up, and deactivation may also be referred to as switching off or dormancy / sleeping. If the status indication information of the SSB is deactivation, the information of the SSB may further include information of one or more candidate neighboring cells that can be used to offload the UEs. The information of a candidate neighboring cell may include one or more of the following information of the corresponding candidate neighboring cell: cell identifier, available resource status of the cell, and / or load status of the cell. If the SSB status indication information is activation, the information of the SSB may further include the number of UEs to be handed over to the SSB or the resources to be used, and the base station may perform corresponding activation and / or deactivation processing according to the number of UEs to be handed over to the SSB or the resources to be used.

[0140] The base station may perform corresponding operations according to the received energy saving command. In addition, the base station may also transmit a response message to the mirrored network function entity. The response message may include list information of cells that performed the corresponding operations and / or list information of SSBs that performed the corresponding operations.

[0141] If the base station finds that it is not suitable to perform the corresponding operations, the base station may also transmit list information of cells that failed to perform the corresponding operations to the mirrored network function entity. The list information may include the cell identifiers of the cells that failed to perform the corresponding operations and / or the reason for the failure.

[0142] In addition, the base station may transmit a failure message to the mirrored network function entity. For example, if all cells and / or SSBs involved in the energy saving command cannot perform corresponding operations, the base station may transmit a failure message to the mirrored network function entity.

[0143] Step 403: the mirrored network function entity may transmit an energy saving policy to the base station.

[0144] In the method described in step 403 (i.e., method two), the mirrored network function entity may make an energy saving policy and transmit the energy saving policy to the base station. The base station may perform corresponding energy saving operations according to the received energy saving policy. The energy saving policy may be a respective energy saving policy provided for a base station and / or for a cell under the base station and / or for a beam of a cell under the base station.

[0145] The energy saving policy may include information related to dormancy or deactivation of cells and / or beams. For example, the energy saving policy may include at least one of the following: conditions for dormancy or deactivation of a cell, information of neighboring cells that can share loads when the cell and / or beam enters a dormant mode, conditions for dormancy or deactivation of a beam, information of beams that can be dormant, the number of beams that can be dormant, conditions under which the base station deactivates partial or all resources of a cell (i.e., conditions for deactivation of partial or all resources of a cell), time during which a cell and / or beam can be deactivated (i.e., a duration in which a deactivated state can be maintained, or a deactivation time). The time during which a cell and / or beam can be deactivated may be an absolute time or a relative time. The information of a neighboring cell that can share loads may include at least one of the following: the cell identifier of the neighboring cell, the amount of loads that the neighboring cell can share, the number of users that the neighboring cell can share, and information of beams in the neighboring cell, etc. The information of a beam in the neighboring cell may include at least one of the following: the identifier of the beam, the amount of loads that the beam can share, the number of users that the beam can share, etc. The conditions for dormancy or deactivation of a cell may include, for example, that a dormant mode may be performed or entered when the loads is below a certain threshold. The conditions for dormancy or deactivation of a beam may include, for example, that a dormant mode may be performed or entered when the loads is below a certain threshold.

[0146] The energy saving policy may also include information related to wake-up or activation of cells and / or beams. For example, the energy saving policy may further include at least one of the following: conditions for wake-up or activation of a cell and / or beam, conditions under which the base station can activate partial or all resources of a cell (i.e., conditions for activation of partial or all resources of a cell), information about neighboring cells corresponding to loads that can be shared when the cell and / or beam wakes up or is activated, the amount of loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, the number of users that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, the time during which the cell and / or beam need to be activated, etc. The time required for activation (i.e., a duration during which an activated state needs to be maintained, or an activation time) may be an absolute time or a relative time.

[0147] The energy saving policy may be a standardized policy or may carry private policy information.

[0148] In some implementations, after the base station receives the energy saving policy, when a cell dormancy or deactivation condition is met, the base station may decide to deactivate all or part of the resources of the cell. If there are still UEs to be served by the cell, the base station may hand over these UEs to neighboring cells according to or with reference to the policy information in the energy saving policy. For example, the base station may hand over these UEs to neighboring cells that can share the loads.

[0149] In some implementations, after the base station receives the energy saving policy, when a cell wake-up or activation condition is met, the base station may decide to activate all or part of the resources of the cell and accept UEs handed over from neighboring cells.

[0150] Similarly, the base station may perform activation and / or deactivation of beams according to the received energy saving policy, which will not be described again here.

[0151] The method three for achieving network energy saving optimization proposed in the present disclosure is a combination of semi-static and dynamic methods, which may be performed by a combination of step 402 and step 403.

[0152] In method three, the mirrored network function entity may transmit the energy saving policy to the base station (e.g., through step 403). The base station may refer to the received energy saving policy to make energy saving related decisions or operations, such as deactivating a certain cell and / or beam. At the same time, in some cases (e.g., there is some UE temporary accessing), the mirrored network function entity may transmit an energy saving command to the base station (e.g., through step 402) according to an inference result, in order for the base station to activate resources (e.g., partial or all resources) of one or more cells, and / or to activate resources (e.g., partial or all resources) of one or more beams.

[0153] Method three may also be that the switching off or dormancy or deactivation of a cell or beam may be performed by transmitting an energy saving policy in step 403, and the switching on or waking up or activation of the cell or beam may be performed by transmitting an energy saving command in step 402. Alternatively, method three may also be that the switching off or dormancy or deactivation of a cell or beam may be performed by transmitting an energy saving command in step 402, and the switching on or waking up or activation of the cell or beam may be performed by transmitting an energy saving policy in step 403.

[0154] Method three can ensure that the base station performs energy saving control in real time, let the base station know the overall energy saving policy, and have flexibility in deciding how to perform energy saving. At the same time, this method can also deal with some special situations in a timely manner (for example, there is some UE temporary accessing, etc.) to avoid the occurrence of user access failures.

[0155] It should be noted that if it is a split architecture, the base station in the above examples may also be replaced by a CU-CP, or a CU-UP, or a DU, etc.

[0156] Existing mobility robustness optimization processes can only collect failure information and detect possible reasons of a failure, but how to perform optimization is implemented through specific implementations. In specific implementations, due to the sensitivity of the triggering of a handover, inappropriate adjustments may cause new problems, and it is also agnostic whether adjusted parameters can actually improve handover performance and the overall performance of the system.

[0157] In the present disclosure, the effect of an adjustment policy or optimization policy can be simulated in advance through a mirrored network function entity, and the adjustment policy or optimization policy after verification may be transmitted to the base station, and the base station then applies it in the actual network, thereby ensuring the effect of the optimization and improving the overall performance of mobility. A specific example process is shown in FIG. 5.

[0158] FIG. 5 shows an example process of Mobility Robustness Optimization (MRO) according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0159] Step 501: the mirrored network function entity may obtain necessary information from the radio access system (for example, a base station). The necessary information may be obtained from multiple base stations. Based on the necessary information, the mirrored network function entity may decide whether and how to adjust a mobility related configuration. Here, the mobility related configuration may include one or more of the following: a policy or setting for triggering a handover, a configuration for primary secondary cell (PSCell) change, a configuration of mobility of a UE in an idle mode, etc.

[0160] The base station may transmit information to the mirrored network function entity. The information transmitted by the base station may include one or more of the following: mobility related information, resource related information, information of the latest mobility policy of the cell, information of the latest PSCell change policy, information of a Radio Link Failure (RLF) report, information of PSCell change.

[0161] The information transmitted by the base station may further include one or more of the following:

[0162] - source cell identifier, and / or target cell identifier. If a handover is performed for a UE, the source cell identifier and the target cell identifier may refer to the cell identifier of the cell where the UE is located before and after the handover respectively. The cell identifier may include a Cell Global Identifier (CGI) or a Physical Cell Identifier (PCI) and frequency information.

[0163] - source PSCell identifier, and / or target PSCell identifier. If the UE changes the PSCell, the source PSCell identifier and the target PSCell identifier may refer to the cell identifier (such as a Cell Global Identifier (CGI) or a Physical Cell Identifier (PCI) and frequency information) of the PSCell where the UE is located before and after the PSCell change, respectively.

[0164] - type of a handover failure. The type of a handover failure may be determined by the base station based on the reporting of the UE, the UE context saved by the base station, etc. Types of a handover failure may include too-late handover, too-early handover, handover to a wrong cell, etc. For the change of the PSCell, the types of failures may include too-late PSCell change, too-early PSCell change, handover to a wrong PSCell, etc.

[0165] - RLF report. The RLF report may be transmitted by the UE to the base station. The RLF report may include at least one of the following: UE's measurement result (for example, reference information received power (RSRP) / reference information received quality (RSRQ), etc.) of a neighboring cell and / or serving cell when a RLF or handover failure occurs, the cell identifier (such as a Cell Global Identifier (CGI) or a Physical Cell Identifier (PCI)) of a cell where the UE is located before handover to the cell where a RLF or handover failure occurs, the cell identifier of the cell where a RLF or handover failure occurs, a time difference between the time when the RLF or handover failure occurs and the time when the RRC connection re-establishment is successful or the RRC connection establishment is successful, etc.

[0166] - Secondary Cell Group (SCG) failure information. The SCG failure information may be transmitted by the UE to the base station. The SCG failure information may include an SCG failure report, and the SCG failure report may include at least one of the following: the type a of failure, UE's measurement result of a neighboring cell and / or serving cell when the SCG failure occurs, location information of the UE when the SCG failure occurs, the identifier of the PSCell cell before the SCG failure occurs, the frequency of the PSCell cell before the SCG failure occurs, the identifier of the PSCell cell when the SCG failure occurs, the frequency of the PSCell when the SCG failure occurs, the time of the SCG failure, etc. Here, the type of a failure may include at least one of the following: timer T310 expires, random access failure, RLC retransmission reaches the maximum number of times, SCG reconfiguration failure, etc.

[0167] - latest mobility related policy information, which may include one or more of the following: handover policy, mobility policy of the UE, and / or PSCell change policy. The mobility policy of the UE may be a mobility policy of the UE saved by the base station. The base station may perform handover for a UE in a connected mode, control cell selection or reselection of a UE in an idle mode, and / or perform PSCell change for a UE according to corresponding mobility policies. The handover policy may include one or more of parameters related to a handover, trigger (conditions and / or events) for a handover, thresholds for a handover, algorithms for a handover, and the like. The handover policy may be used to optimize the handover process of the user terminal (UE) between different base stations or frequencies. For example, in a 5G network, a handover policy may be configured based on characteristics such as coverage, capacity, interference level, and signal quality of the frequencies. Specifically, the handover policy may include handover based on neighboring cell information, handover based on UE measurement reports, and / or handover based on time and UE location information, etc. For example, for handover based on UE measurement reports, the base station may perform configuration for the UE measurement report (for example, the reporting conditions and / or events of a UE measurement report). When a reporting condition is met, the UE may transmit the measurement report to the base station, and the base station may decide when to start a handover process based on the UE's measurement report. When performing configuration for the UE measurement report, the base station may configure a set of parameters related to the handover policy, setting values corresponding to these parameters, thresholds corresponding to these parameters, etc. These parameters, setting values, thresholds, etc. may be considered as a handover policy. For example, the A3 event, which is one of the events for measurement reporting, means that when the signal quality of a neighboring cell is better than the signal quality of the serving cell by a certain offset, the base station hands over the UE to the neighboring cell. In this case, there are several parameters that may affect the handover decision, such as the quality offset of the neighboring cell and the current serving cell, the hysteresis value, the time to trigger the handover, and other parameters. These parameters may all be considered as information included in a handover policy. The handover policies may include intra-frequency handover policies, inter-frequency handover policies, handover policies between different radio access technologies, etc. The PSCell change policy is similar to the handover policy. For example, a PSCell change policy may include one or more of a set of parameters related to PSCell change, trigger (conditions and / or events) for PSCell change, thresholds for PSCell change, algorithms for PSCell change, and the like. The base station may maintain one or more of a set of parameters related to PSCell change, trigger (conditions and / or events) for PSCell change, thresholds for PSCell change, algorithms for PSCell change, and the like. Taking the A3 event above as an example, the A3 event may also be set for PSCell change, i.e. the base station may configure a neighboring cell as the new serving PSCell when the signal quality of the neighboring cell is better than the signal quality of the serving PSCell by a certain offset.

[0168] - Successful Handover Report (SHR). SHR is a report related to a successful handover. The SHR may be used to detect an optimisable space for a successful handover. The UE may collect a SHR according to the configuration of the base station and report the SHR to the base station. The base station may use the SHR to analyze whether a handover configuration needs to be adjusted. The SHR may include at least one of the following: identifier of a source cell, measurement results at the source cell, identifier of a target cell, measurement results at the target cell, measurement results of neighboring cells, location information of the UE, SHR reason / cause, configuration information for random access, etc. Herein, the SHR cause may include information about which clock or timer triggered the SHR report. For example, the SHR cause may include T304 trigger, T310 trigger, etc.

[0169] - Successful Handover Report (SHR) configuration information. The SHR configuration information may be information configured by the base station about the conditions under which the UE reports a SHR. The SHR configuration information may include threshold information for one or more timers. For example, when the one or more timers at the UE end meet corresponding thresholds, the UE may save the information of the successful handover in a SHR, and then report the SHR to the base station according to the request of the base station. The above threshold information may include threshold information for T304, T310, and / or T312, etc. Herein, the T304 threshold may be set to a value such as P40, P60, etc., and may be used to indicate a threshold of a percentage ratio of an elapsed value (e.g., elapsed time) of the T304 timer from the UE's initiation of a handover to the time when the handover is successful and a configured value (e.g., configured duration) of the T304 timer. For example, the configured value of the T304 timer may be configured by the base station to the UE. The value P40 may correspond to 40%, the value P60 may correspond to 60%, and so on. A similar configuration applies to T310, T312 or any other timer, and will not be described again here.

[0170] - Successful PSCell Report (SPR). SPR is a report related to a successful primary Secondary Cell Group (SCG) change. The SPR may include at least one of the following: identifier of a source PSCell, frequency of a source PSCell, measurements of a source PSCell, identifier of a target PSCell, frequency of a target PSCell, measurements of a target PSCell, measurements of neighboring cells, SPR reason / cause, UE location information, configuration information for random access, etc. Herein, the SPR cause may include information about which clock or timer configuration triggerred the SPR report. For example, the SPR cause may include T304 trigger, T310 trigger, etc.

[0171] - SPR configuration information. The SPR configuration information may be configured by the base station about the conditions under which the UE reports a SPR (or relevant information on a successful PSCell change). The SPR configuration information may include threshold information for one or more timers. For example, when the one or more timers at the UE meet corresponding thresholds, the UE may save the information of the successful PSCell change in a SPR, and then report the SPR to the base station according to the request of the base station. The above threshold information may include threshold information for T304, T310, and / or T312, etc. Herein, the T304 threshold may be set to a value such as P40, P60, etc., and may be used to indicate a threshold of a percentage ratio of an elapsed value (e.g., elapsed time) of the T304 timer from the UE's initiation of a PSCell change to the time when the PSCell change is successful and a configured value (e.g., configured duration) of the T304 timer. For example, the configured value of the T304 timer may be configured by the base station to the UE. The value P40 may correspond to 40%, the value P60 may correspond to 60%, and so on. A similar configuration applies to T310, T312 or any other timer, and will not be described again here.

[0172] Step 502: after receiving the information transmitted from the base station, the mirrored network function entity may generate, formulate or update mobility related policies or settings. If an updated policy and / or setting meets performance requirements, for example, can solve the original handover problem and / or do not cause new problems, the mirrored network function entity may perform step 503.

[0173] The mirrored network function entity may collect information of one or more base stations from the one or more base stations, and the mirrored network function entity may decide whether mobility related settings need to be adjusted. The mobility related settings may include one or more of the following: handover policy, trigger conditions for a handover, PSCell change policy, trigger conditions for a PSCell change, etc., and if adjustments are required, how the specific mobility related settings are adjusted. The mirrored network function entity may pre-validate the adjusted mobility related settings and may further optimize the mobility related settings based on a result of the pre-validation. If the updated mobility related settings can meet performance requirements, for example, can solve the original handover problem and / or do not cause new problems, the mirrored network function entity may transmit the updated mobility related settings to the base station.

[0174] Step 503: the mirrored network function entity transmits a mobility setting change message to the base station.

[0175] The mobility setting change message may include updated mobility related setup parameters or policies, which may be generated in step 502.

[0176] The mobility setting change message may include one or more of the following information:

[0177] - updated handover policy. As described in step 501, the updated handover policy may include updated one or more of parameters related to a handover, trigger (conditions and / or events) for a handover, thresholds for a handover, algorithms for a handover, and the like, which will not be repeated here.

[0178] - updated PSCell change policy. As described in step 501, the updated PSCell change policy may include updated one or more of a set of parameters related to PSCell change, trigger (conditions and / or events) for PSCell change, thresholds for PSCell change, algorithms for PSCell change, and the like, which will not be repeated here.

[0179] The base station may save the information received in step 503. The base station may perform mobility management on the UE according to the saved new policy. Here, the mobility management may include one or more of handover control, PSCell change control, and / or control of cell selection or reselection of a UE in an idle mode, etc.

[0180] It should be noted that if it is a split architecture, the base station in the above examples may also be replaced by a CU-CP, or a CU-UP, or a DU, etc.

[0181] This disclosure takes energy saving and mobility robustness self-optimization as an example, and the architectures and methods of the present disclosure may also be applied to other application scenarios, such as mobile load balancing, random access optimization, etc.

[0182] Next, FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of a method 600 performed by a first node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0183] As shown in FIG. 6, a method 600 performed by a first node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure may include: in step S601, transmitting a first message related to a resource status update to a second node, the first message including at least one of the following information related to a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell of the first node: usage status of radio resources, available radio resources, number of served UEs, list of served UEs, information of beams in a cell; in step S602, receiving a second message from the second node, the second message including first information related to one or more cells, wherein the first information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more cells, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more cells, activated / deactivated beams of the one or more cells, number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the one or more cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells; and in step S603, receiving a third message from the second node, the third message including information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node, information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node.

[0184] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the first information further includes at least one of: number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells.

[0185] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the second message further includes second information related to one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), wherein the second information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more SSBs, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more SSBs.

[0186] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of: activation conditions of the cell and / or beam, activation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells corresponding to loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam when activated, the amount of loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, the number of UEs that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, and activation time of the cell and / or beam; and wherein the information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of: deactivation conditions of the cell and / or beam, deactivation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells which can share loads of the cell and / or beam when the cell and / or beam is deactivated, deactivation time of the cell and / or beam.

[0187] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: transmitting a fourth message to the second node, the fourth message including at least one of: type of handover failure, Radio Link Failure (RLF) report, Secondary Cell Group (SCG) failure report, mobility related policy information, Successful Handover Report (SHR), configuration information for SHR, Successful Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) report (SPR), configuration information for SPR.

[0188] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: receiving a fifth message from the second node, the fifth message including at least one of an updated handover policy, an updated mobility policy, an updated Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) change policy, wherein the fifth message is determined based on the fourth message.

[0189] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the first node is a base station, and the second node is a mirrored network function node.

[0190] Next, FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of a method 700 performed by a second node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0191] As shown in FIG. 7, a method 700 performed by a second node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure may include: in step S701, receiving a first message related to a resource status update from a first node, the first message including at least one of the following information related to a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell of the first node: usage status of radio resources, available radio resources, number of served UEs, list of served UEs, information of beams in a cell; in step S702, transmitting a second message to the first node, the second message including first information related to one or more cells, wherein the first information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more cells, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more cells, activated / deactivated beams of the one or more cells, number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the one or more cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells; and in step S703, transmitting a third message to the first node, the third message including information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node, information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node.

[0192] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the first information further includes at least one of: number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells.

[0193] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the second message further includes second information related to one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), wherein the second information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more SSBs, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more SSBs.

[0194] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of: activation conditions of the cell and / or beam, activation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells corresponding to loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam when activated, the amount of loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, the number of UEs that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, and activation time of the cell and / or beam; and wherein the information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of: deactivation conditions of the cell and / or beam, deactivation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells which can share loads of the cell and / or beam when the cell and / or beam is deactivated, deactivation time of the cell and / or beam.

[0195] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: receiving a fourth message from the first node, the fourth message including at least one of: type of handover failure, Radio Link Failure (RLF) report, Secondary Cell Group (SCG) failure report, mobility related policy information, Successful Handover Report (SHR), configuration information for SHR, Successful Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) report (SPR), configuration information for SPR.

[0196] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, further includes: transmitting a fifth message to the first node, the fifth message including at least one of an updated handover policy, an updated mobility policy, an updated Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) change policy, wherein the fifth message is determined based on the fourth message.

[0197] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the first node is a base station, and the second node is a mirrored network function node.

[0198] It should be understood that methods 600, 700, etc. according to embodiments of the present disclosure may also include any steps described in conjunction with various examples, aspects, drawings, etc. of the present disclosure.

[0199] Next, FIG. 8 shows a schematic diagram of a node 800 according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0200] As shown in FIG. 8, a node (or node device) 800 according to embodiments of the present disclosure may include a transceiver 810 and a processor 820. The transceiver 810 may be configured to transmit and receive signals. The processor 820 may be coupled to the transceiver 810 and may be configured to (e.g., control transceiver 810 to) perform methods according to embodiments of the present disclosure as performed by any node (e.g., first node, second node, etc.).

[0201] FIG. 9 shows a schematic diagram of a user equipment (UE) 900 according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0202] As shown in FIG. 9, a user equipment (UE) 900 according to embodiments of the present disclosure may include a transceiver 910 and a processor 920. The transceiver 910 may be configured to transmit and receive signals. The processor 920 may be coupled to the transceiver 910 and may be configured to (e.g., control transceiver 910 to) perform methods performed by a user equipment (UE) according to embodiments of the present disclosure. A user equipment (UE) according to embodiments of the present disclosure may include any UE that transmits and receives signals or interacts with a node according to embodiments of the present disclosure, and the methods performed by a user equipment (UE) according to embodiments of the present disclosure may include any method performed by these UE. In the present disclosure, a processor may also be referred to as a controller.

[0203] FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a terminal or user equipment (UE) 1000 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0204] The terminal is an electronic device capable of wireless communication and having various form factors, examples of the terminal may include a UE, a mobile station (MS), a cellular phone, a smartphone, a computer, a tablet, a wearable device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, or any other device / system capable of performing wireless communication with a base station (BS) and / or another terminal through a wireless channel.

[0205] Referring to FIG. 10, the UE 1000 may include at least one transceiver (hereinafter, referred to as simply “transceiver”) 1001, at least one processor (hereinafter, referred to as simply “processor”) 1002, and at least one memory (hereinafter, referred to as simply “memory”) 1003. According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the transceiver 1001, the processor 1002, and the memory 1003 of the UE 1000 may operate. However, components of the UE 1000 are not limited to the example components illustrated in FIG. 10. In another embodiment, the UE 1000 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in some embodiments, any combination of the transceiver 1001, the processor 1002, or the memory 1003 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0206] The transceiver 1001 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the UE 1000 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. For example, the transceiver 1001 may enable the UE 1000 to transmit or receive a signal to or from a BS through cellular communication, or to transmit or receive a signal to or from another UE through cellular communication. For example, the transceiver 1001 may support at least one of various cellular communication technologies including 3rd generation (3G), 4th generation (4G), long term evolution (LTE), 5th generation (5G) NR, 6th generation (6G), and various cellular wireless communication technologies supported by the transceiver (1001) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications.

[0207] According to an embodiment, the UE 1000 may include a plurality of transceivers. For example, in the case of supporting evolved-universal terrestrial radio access-new radio (E-UTRA-NR) dual connectivity (EN-DC), the UE 1000 may include a first transceiver supporting the 4G LTE wireless communication and a second transceiver supporting the 5G NR wireless communication. According to another embodiment, in the case of supporting NR-dual connectivity (NR-DC), the UE 1000 may include a plurality of transceivers supporting the 5G NR wireless communication. According to still another embodiment, in the case of supporting near field wireless communication, the UE 1000 may separately include a transceiver supporting at least one standard in the group of wireless communication protocol standards as defined in the protocol standards for Bluetooth®, wireless local area network (WLAN) network (including institute of electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE) 802.11-2016 standard or its amendments, e.g., 802.11ah, 802.11ad, 802.11ay, 802.11ax, 802.11az, 802.11ba, and 802.11be, without being limited thereto).

[0208] According to an embodiment, the transceiver 1001 may include various circuit structures used to transmit or receive signals to or from a BS through a wireless channel. The signals may include control information and data. For example, the transceiver 1001 may include a radio frequency (RF) transmitter for up-converting and amplifying the frequency of a transmitted signal and an RF receiver for low-noise-amplifying a received signal and down-converting the frequency thereof. The transceiver 1001 may output a signal received through a wireless channel to the processor 1002 and may transmit, through a wireless channel, a signal output from the processor 1002.

[0209] The processor 1002 may control general operations of the UE 1000 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1002 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processing operations. The processor 1002 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1003, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1002 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme.

[0210] The processor 1002 may be electrically, operatively, and / or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 1001 to control the transceiver 1001.

[0211] The processor 1002 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. For example, the processor 1002 may include a communication processor (CP) configured to control communication operations and an application processor (AP) configured to control execution of an upper layer (for example, an application layer). In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1002 may be included in one chip (or IC) and the other part of the processor 1002 may be included in another chip (or IC). Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the transceiver 1001 or the memory 1003.

[0212] The processor 1002 may perform or control or cause an operation of the UE 1000 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1002 may control operations of the UE 1000 for processing a downlink signal received from a BS or generating and transmitting an uplink signal to a BS. To this end, the processor 1002 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1003, so as to control other components of the UE 1000 to enable execution of various operations.

[0213] The memory 1003 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1003 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0214] The memory 1003 may be electrically, operatively, and / or communicatively coupled to the processor 1002 and may be accessed by the processor 1002.

[0215] The memory 1003 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1002. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1002 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1003, the processor 1002 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0216] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the UE 1000 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 1003 by at least one processor (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions.

[0217] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) 1100 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0218] The BS 1100 may perform wireless communication with at least one user equipment (UE) located within the area of the BS 1100 through a wireless channel. The BS 1100 may perform communication with a node or an entity of a network through wired or wireless communication.

[0219] Referring to FIG. 11, the BS 1100 may include at least one transceiver (hereinafter, referred to as simply “transceiver”) 1101, at least one processor (hereinafter, referred to as simply “processor”) 1102, and at least one memory (hereinafter, referred to as simply “memory”) 1103. According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the transceiver 1101, the processor 1102, and the memory 1103 of the BS 1100 may operate. However, components of the BS 1100 are not limited to the example components illustrated in FIG. 11. In another embodiment, the BS 1100 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in some embodiments, any combination of the transceiver 1101, the processor 1102, or the memory 1103 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0220] The transceiver 1101 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the BS 1100 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. For example, the transceiver 1101 may enable the BS 1100 to transmit or receive a signal to or from the UE X00 through cellular communication, or to transmit or receive a signal to or from another network entity through wireless communication. For example, the transceiver 1101 may support various cellular communication technologies including 3rd generation (3G), 4th generation (4G), long term evolution (LTE), 5th generation (5G) NR, 6th generation (6G), and various cellular wireless communication technologies supported by the transceiver (1101) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications. According to an embodiment, the transceiver 1101 may include various circuit structures used to transmit or receive signals to or from a UE through a wireless channel. The signals may include control information and data. For example, the transceiver 1101 may include a radio frequency (RF) transmitter for up-converting and amplifying the frequency of a transmitted signal and an RF receiver for low-noise-amplifying a received signal and down-converting the frequency thereof. The transceiver 1101 may output a signal received through a wireless channel to the processor 1102 and may transmit, through a wireless channel, a signal output from the processor 1102.

[0221] Meanwhile, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the BS 1100 may perform communication with a node or an entity of a network through wired or wireless communication. For example, the BS 1100 may perform wired or wireless communication with an adjacent BS, or a node or an entity of a core network through a backhaul network. Although not illustrated in FIG. 11, when the BS 1100 performs wired communication, the BS 1100 may further include a separate network interface for wired communication in addition to the transceiver 1101. The network interface may be referred to as network interface circuitry or communication interface circuitry.

[0222] The processor 1102 may control general operations of the BS 1100 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1102 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processing operations. The processor 1102 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1103, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1102 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme.

[0223] The processor 1102 may be electrically, operatively, and / or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 1101 to control the transceiver 1101.

[0224] The processor 1102 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1102 may be included in one chip (or IC) and the other part of the processor 1102 may be included in another chip (or IC). Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the transceiver 1101 or the memory 1103.

[0225] The processor 1102 may perform or control or cause an operation of the BS 1100 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1102 may control operations of the BS 1100 for generating and transmitting a downlink signal to a UE or processing an uplink signal received from a UE. Otherwise, the BS 1100 may transmit or receive a signal to or from a neighboring BS, transfer a signal received from a UE to an upper node of the network, or transmit a signal transferred from an upper node of the network to a UE. To this end, the processor 1102 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1103, so as to control other components of the BS 1100 to enable execution of various operations.

[0226] The memory 1103 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1103 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0227] The memory 1103 may be electrically, operatively, and / or communicatively coupled to the processor 1102 and may be accessed by the processor 1102.

[0228] The memory 1103 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1102. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1102 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1103, the processor 1102 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0229] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the BS 1100 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 1103 by at least one processor (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions.

[0230] The UE or the base station may perform various communication procedures related to the control plane or the user plane by cooperating with one or more network entities based on wireless communication. For example, the UE may communicate with a network entity (for example, an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), a Session Management Function (SMF), rtc.) via the base station, or the base station may perform at least one communication procedure by directly transmitting and receiving signals to / from, or relaying signals between, the network entities.

[0231] The structure of the above-described network entity will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

[0232] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a network entity 1200 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0233] The network entity 1200 may include an entity (apparatus, device, or server, etc.) that performs one or more network functions (NFs) or a part of a network function constituting a core network (e.g., a 5th generation (5G) core (5GC)) in a communication system. In this case, multiple NFs may be implemented within a single network entity, or a single NF may be distributed and implemented across a plurality of network entities. In addition, when an NF is implemented within the network entity, the NF may be implemented in the form of software, and in such a case, a program for operating the NF may be stored in memory of the network entity 1200.

[0234] A single NF may be implemented by one or more instances, which may be deployed on the same network entity or distributed across multiple network entities to operate. The instance may be a software unit that logically executes a specific network function, and may be implemented in a form that is decoupled from physical hardware resources. Further, one or more NFs may be implemented in the form of one network slice to operate to satisfy specifications required by a particular service.

[0235] The NF may include at least one of an access and mobility management function (AMF), a session management function (SMF), a local session management function (L-SMF), a user plane function (UPF), a local user plane function (L-UPF), a policy control function (PCF), a unified data management (UDM), a unified data repository (UDR), a network exposure function (NEF), a network repository function (NRF), an application function (AF), a network slice selection function (NSSF), a network data analytics function (NWDAF), a network slice admission control function (NSACF), an authentication server function (AUSF), or a data network (DN), etc.

[0236] Referring to FIG. 12, the network entity 1200 may include at least one network interface 1201, at least one processor 1202 (hereinafter, “processor”), and at least one memory 1203 (hereinafter, “memory”). As described above, a NF may be implemented in the form of a physical device such as the network entity 1200, or may be virtualized and executed in the form of an instance. When implemented as an instance, the NF need not necessarily include physical components as illustrated in FIG. 12. In such a case, the instance may be logically represented as comprising one or more logical functional elements.

[0237] According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the network interface 1201, the processor 1202, and the memory 1203 of the network entity 1200 may operate. However, components of the network entity 1200 are not limited to the example components illustrated in FIG. 12. In another embodiment, the network entity 1200 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in an embodiment, the network interface 1201, the processor 1202, or the memory 1203 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0238] The network interface 1201 is a collective term for a transmitter part of the network entity 1200 and a receiver part of the network entity 1200, and may be a communication circuit for transmitting or receiving a signal to or from a user equipment (UE), a base station (BS), or another network entity. Here, the communication circuit may include both a communication circuit for wireless communication and a communication circuit for a wired communication. For example, the network interface 1201 may include a circuit, logic, hardware, etc., configured to exchange a control plane message or a user plane message with a UE, a BS, or other core network entities through wireless communication or wired communication. The network interface 1201 may operate using various protocols (e.g., non-access stratum (NAS) protocol). The network interface 1201 may also be referred to, for convenience of description or depending on implementation, as communication circuitry, network interface circuitry, or a communication interface circuitry.

[0239] The processor 1202 may control general operations of the network entity 1200 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1202 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processing operations. The processor 1202 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1203, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1202 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme. Further, it should be noted that, according to another embodiment, in a case where NF is implemented in the form of an instance, the network function may be not necessarily configured by physical hardware.

[0240] According to an embodiment, the processor 1202 may be electrically, operatively, and / or communicatively coupled to the network interface 1201 to control the network interface 1201.

[0241] The processor 1202 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1202 may be included in one chip (or IC) and the other part of the processor 1202 may be included in another chip (or IC). Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the network interface 1201 or the memory 1203.

[0242] The processor 1202 may perform or control or cause an operation of the network entity 1200 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1202 may control operations of the network entity 1200 for exchanging a control plane message or a user plane message with a UE, a BS, or other core network entities through wireless or wired communication, using various protocols (e.g., NAS protocol). To this end, the processor 1202 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1203, so as to control other components of the network entity 1200 to enable execution of various operations.

[0243] The memory 1203 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1203 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0244] The memory 1203 may be electrically, operatively, and / or communicatively coupled to the processor 1202 and may be accessed by the processor 1202.

[0245] The memory 1203 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1202. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1202 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1203, the processor 1202 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0246] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the network entity 1200 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 1203 by at least one processor (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions.

[0247] In one embodiment, a method performed by a first node in a wireless communication system, comprises transmitting a first message related to a resource status update to a second node, the first message including at least one of the following information related to a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell of the first node: usage status of radio resources, available radio resources, number of served UEs, list of served UEs, information of beams in a cell; receiving a second message from the second node, the second message including first information related to one or more cells, wherein the first information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more cells, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more cells, activated / deactivated beams of the one or more cells, number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the one or more cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells; and receiving a third message from the second node, the third message including information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node, information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node.

[0248] In another embodiment, the first information further includes at least one of: number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells.

[0249] In another embodiment, the second message further includes second information related to one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), wherein the second information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more SSBs, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more SSBs.

[0250] In another embodiment, the information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of: activation conditions of the cell and / or beam, activation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells corresponding to loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam when activated, the amount of loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, the number of UEs that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, and activation time of the cell and / or beam; and wherein the information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of: deactivation conditions of the cell and / or beam, deactivation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells which can share loads of the cell and / or beam when the cell and / or beam is deactivated, deactivation time of the cell and / or beam.

[0251] In another embodiment, the method further comprises transmitting a fourth message to the second node, the fourth message including at least one of: type of handover failure, Radio Link Failure (RLF) report, Secondary Cell Group (SCG) failure report, mobility related policy information, Successful Handover Report (SHR), configuration information for SHR, Successful Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) report (SPR), configuration information for SPR.

[0252] In another embodiment,

[0253] In another embodiment, the method further comprises receiving a fifth message from the second node, the fifth message including at least one of an updated handover policy, an updated mobility policy, an updated Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) change policy, wherein the fifth message is determined based on the fourth message.

[0254] In another embodiment, the first node is a base station, and the second node is a mirrored network function node.

[0255] In one embodiment, a method performed by a second node in a wireless communication system, comprises receiving a first message related to a resource status update from a first node, the first message including at least one of the following information related to a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell of the first node: usage status of radio resources, available radio resources, number of served UEs, list of served UEs, information of beams in a cell; transmitting a second message to the first node, the second message including first information related to one or more cells, wherein the first information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more cells, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more cells, activated / deactivated beams of the one or more cells, number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the one or more cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells; and transmitting a third message to the first node, the third message including information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node, information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node.

[0256] In another embodiment, the first information further includes at least one of: number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells.

[0257] In another embodiment, the second message further includes second information related to one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), wherein the second information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more SSBs, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more SSBs.

[0258] In another embodiment, the information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of: activation conditions of the cell and / or beam, activation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells corresponding to loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam when activated, the amount of loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, the number of UEs that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, and activation time of the cell and / or beam; and wherein the information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of: deactivation conditions of the cell and / or beam, deactivation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells which can share loads of the cell and / or beam when the cell and / or beam is deactivated, deactivation time of the cell and / or beam.

[0259] In another embodiment, the method further comprises receiving a fourth message from the first node, the fourth message including at least one of: type of handover failure, Radio Link Failure (RLF) report, Secondary Cell Group (SCG) failure report, mobility related policy information, Successful Handover Report (SHR), configuration information for SHR, Successful Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) report (SPR), configuration information for SPR.

[0260] In another embodiment, the method further comprises transmitting a fifth message to the first node, the fifth message including at least one of an updated handover policy, an updated mobility policy, an updated Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) change policy, wherein the fifth message is determined based on the fourth message.

[0261] In another embodiment, the first node is a base station, and the second node is a mirrored network function node.

[0262] In another embodiment, a node device in a wireless communication system comprises a transceiver configured to transmit and receive signals; and a controller coupled to the transceiver and configured to perform the method of any of above.

[0263] In another embodiment, A computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions stored thereon, the instructions being used to implement the method of any of above when executed by a processor.

[0264] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the above illustrative embodiments are described herein and are not intended to be limiting. It should be understood that any two or more of the embodiments disclosed herein may be combined in any manner. Additionally, other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made, without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject matter presented herein. It will be readily understood that the aspects of the present disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated in the drawings, can be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, and designed in a wide variety of different configurations, all of which are contemplated herein.

[0265] Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and steps described herein may be implemented as hardware, software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such design decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

[0266] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described herein may be implemented or performed with a general-purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0267] The steps of a method or algorithm described herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in a RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, removable disk, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

[0268] In one or more exemplary designs, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.

[0269] The above descriptions are only exemplary embodiments of the present application and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present application, which is determined by the appended claims.

[0270] It should be understood that depending on the application scenario, the various examples, aspects, methods, steps, processes, etc. described herein may be implemented separately or in combination in any manner, which are not limited herein. In the present disclosure, to make the description more concise, generally, description performed in a specific step in an example or embodiment is not repeated again in the corresponding step in another example or embodiment. However, it should be understood that description performed in a specific step in an example or embodiment may apply to the corresponding step of any other example.

[0271] Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-readable instructions which, when executed by a processor, implement any method according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0272] Various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented as computer-readable codes embodied on a computer-readable recording medium from a specific perspective. A computer-readable recording medium is any data storage device that can store data readable by a computer system. Examples of computer-readable recording media may include read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage device, carrier wave (e.g., data transmission via the Internet), etc. Computer-readable recording media can be distributed by computer systems connected via a network, and thus computer-readable codes can be stored and executed in a distributed manner. Furthermore, functional programs, codes and code segments for implementing various embodiments of the present disclosure can be easily explained by those skilled in the art to which the embodiments of the present disclosure are applied.

[0273] It will be understood that the embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in the form of hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. The software may be stored as program instructions or computer-readable codes executable on a processor on a non-transitory computer-readable medium. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable recording media include magnetic storage media (such as ROM, floppy disk, hard disk, etc.) and optical recording media (such as CD-ROM, digital video disk (DVD), etc.). Non-transitory computer-readable recording media may also be distributed on computer systems coupled to a network, so that computer-readable codes are stored and executed in a distributed manner. The medium can be read by a computer, stored in a memory, and executed by a processor. Various embodiments may be implemented by a computer or a portable terminal including a controller and a memory, and the memory may be an example of a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium suitable for storing program (s) with instructions for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The present disclosure may be realized by a program with code for concretely implementing the apparatus and method described in the claims, which is stored in a machine (or computer)-readable storage medium. The program may be electronically carried on any medium, such as a communication signal transmitted via a wired or wireless connection, and the present disclosure suitably includes its equivalents.

[0274] What has been described above is only the specific implementation of the present disclosure, but the scope of protection of the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Anyone who is familiar with this technical field may make various changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the present disclosure, and these changes or substitutions should be covered within the scope of protection of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present disclosure should be based on the scope of protection of the claims.

[0275] Meanwhile, although specific embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail, various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the present disclosure should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined by the claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims

1.A method performed by a first node in a wireless communication system, comprising:transmitting a first message related to a resource status update to a second node, the first message including at least one of the following information related to a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell of the first node: usage status of radio resources, available radio resources, number of served UEs, list of served UEs, information of beams in a cell;receiving a second message from the second node, the second message including first information related to one or more cells, wherein the first information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more cells, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more cells, activated / deactivated beams of the one or more cells, number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the one or more cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells; andreceiving a third message from the second node, the third message including information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node, information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node.2.The method of claim 1,wherein the first information further includes at least one of: number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells.3.The method of claim 1, wherein the second message further includes second information related to one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), wherein the second information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more SSBs, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more SSBs.4.The method of claim 1,wherein the information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of:activation conditions of the cell and / or beam, activation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells corresponding to loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam when activated, the amount of loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, the number of UEs that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, and activation time of the cell and / or beam; andwherein the information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of:deactivation conditions of the cell and / or beam, deactivation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells which can share loads of the cell and / or beam when the cell and / or beam is deactivated, deactivation time of the cell and / or beam.5.The method of claim 1, further comprising:transmitting a fourth message to the second node, the fourth message including at least one of: type of handover failure, Radio Link Failure (RLF) report, Secondary Cell Group (SCG) failure report, mobility related policy information, Successful Handover Report (SHR), configuration information for SHR, Successful Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) report (SPR), configuration information for SPR.6.The method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving a fifth message from the second node, the fifth message including at least one of an updated handover policy, an updated mobility policy, an updated Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) change policy,wherein the fifth message is determined based on the fourth message.7.The method of claim 1, whereinthe first node is a base station, and the second node is a mirrored network function node.8.A method performed by a second node in a wireless communication system, comprising:receiving a first message related to a resource status update from a first node, the first message including at least one of the following information related to a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell of the first node: usage status of radio resources, available radio resources, number of served UEs, list of served UEs, information of beams in a cell;transmitting a second message to the first node, the second message including first information related to one or more cells, wherein the first information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more cells, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more cells, activated / deactivated beams of the one or more cells, number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the one or more cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells; andtransmitting a third message to the first node, the third message including information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node, information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node.9.The method of claim 8,wherein the first information further includes at least one of: number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells.10.The method of claim 8, wherein the second message further includes second information related to one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), wherein the second information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more SSBs, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more SSBs.11.The method of claim 8,wherein the information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of:activation conditions of the cell and / or beam, activation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells corresponding to loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam when activated, the amount of loads that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, the number of UEs that can be shared by the cell and / or beam, and activation time of the cell and / or beam; andwherein the information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node includes at least one of:deactivation conditions of the cell and / or beam, deactivation conditions of partial or all resources of the cell and / or beam, information about neighboring cells which can share loads of the cell and / or beam when the cell and / or beam is deactivated, deactivation time of the cell and / or beam.12.The method of claim 8, further comprising:receiving a fourth message from the first node, the fourth message including at least one of: type of handover failure, Radio Link Failure (RLF) report, Secondary Cell Group (SCG) failure report, mobility related policy information, Successful Handover Report (SHR), configuration information for SHR, Successful Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) report (SPR), configuration information for SPR.13.The method of claim 8, further comprising:transmitting a fifth message to the first node, the fifth message including at least one of an updated handover policy, an updated mobility policy, an updated Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) change policy,wherein the fifth message is determined based on the fourth message.14.A first node in a wireless communication system, comprising:at least one transceiver;at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver; andat least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the first node to:transmit a first message related to a resource status update to a second node, the first message including at least one of the following information related to a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell of the first node: usage status of radio resources, available radio resources, number of served UEs, list of served UEs, information of beams in a cell,receive a second message from the second node, the second message including first information related to one or more cells, wherein the first information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more cells, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more cells, activated / deactivated beams of the one or more cells, number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the one or more cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells, andreceive a third message from the second node, the third message including information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node, information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node.15.A second node in a wireless communication system, comprising:at least one transceiver;at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver; andat least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the second node to:receive a first message related to a resource status update from a first node, the first message including at least one of the following information related to a serving cell and / or a neighboring cell of the first node: usage status of radio resources, available radio resources, number of served UEs, list of served UEs, information of beams in a cell,transmit a second message to the first node, the second message including first information related to one or more cells, wherein the first information includes at least one of: activation / deactivation indication information of the one or more cells, reasons for activation / deactivation of the one or more cells, activated / deactivated beams of the one or more cells, number of UEs to be handed over to the one or more cells, resources to be used on the one or more cells, information related to candidate neighboring cells capable of offloading UEs of the one or more cells, andtransmit a third message to the first node, the third message including information related to activation of a cell and / or beam of the first node, information related to deactivation of a cell and / or beam of the first node.

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