Monitoring of OD-SIB1 transmission
Patent Information
- Application Number
- PCT/CN2025/085494
- Authority / Receiving Office
- WO · WO
- Patent Type
- Applications
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2025-03-27
- Publication Date
- 2026-10-01
Smart Images
Figure CN2025085494_01102026_PF_FP_ABST
Abstract
Description
MONITORING OF OD-SIB1 TRANSMISSIONFIELD
[0001] Example embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of communication, and in particular, to devices, methods, apparatuses, and computer readable mediums associated with transmission of the On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) and monitoring of transmission of the OD-SIB1.BACKGROUND
[0002] A communication network can be seen as a facility that enables communications between two or more communication devices, or provides communication devices access to a data network. A mobile or wireless communication network is one example of a communication network.
[0003] Such communication networks operate in accordance with standards, such as those promulgated by 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) or ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) . Examples of such standards include the so-called 5G (5th Generation) standard or other standards promulgated by 3GPP.SUMMARY
[0004] In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution for monitoring of OD-SIB1 transmission, for example, indicating whether OD-SIB1 of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission, and monitoring transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the indicated SSB beam (s) .
[0005] In a first aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device comprises at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the terminal device at least to: obtain configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission; transmit an OD-SIB1 request to the cell to request the transmission of the OD-SIB1; determine, based on the configuration information, whether to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam; and based on determining to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam, monitor transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam and the at least one SSB beam.
[0006] In a second aspect, there is provided a network device. The network device comprises at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the network device at least to: transmit, to a terminal device, configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0007] In a third aspect, there is provided a method. The method comprises: obtaining configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission; transmitting, to the network device, an OD-SIB1 request to the cell to request the transmission of the OD-SIB1; determining, based on the configuration information, whether to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam; and based on determining to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam, monitoring transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam and the at least one SSB beam.
[0008] In a fourth aspect, there is provided a method. The method comprises: transmitting, to a terminal device, configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0009] In a fifth aspect, there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus comprises: means for obtaining configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission; means for transmitting, to the network device, an OD-SIB1 request to the cell to request the transmission of the OD-SIB1; means for determining, based on the configuration information, whether to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam; and means for monitoring, based on determining to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam, transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam and the at least one SSB beam.
[0010] In a sixth aspect, there is provided an apparatus. The apparatus comprises: means for transmitting, to a terminal device, configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0011] In a seventh aspect, there is provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising program instructions. The program instructions, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to: obtain configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission; transmit, to the network device, an OD-SIB1 request to the cell to request the transmission of the OD-SIB1; determine, based on the configuration information, whether to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam; and based on determining to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam, monitor transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam and the at least one SSB beam.
[0012] In an eighth aspect, there is provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising program instructions. The program instructions, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to: transmit, to a terminal device, configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0013] In a ninth aspect, there is provided a computer program comprising instructions, which, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus at least to: obtain configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission; transmit, to the network device, an OD-SIB1 request to the cell to request the transmission of the OD-SIB1; determine, based on the configuration information, whether to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam; and based on determining to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam, monitor transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam and the at least one SSB beam.
[0014] In a tenth aspect, there is provided a computer program comprising instructions, which, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus at least to: transmit, to a terminal device, configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0015] In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device comprises receiving circuitry configured to obtain configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission; transmitting circuitry configured to transmit, to the network device, an OD-SIB1 request to the cell to request the transmission of the OD-SIB1; determining circuitry configured to determine, based on the configuration information, whether to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam; and monitoring circuitry configured to monitor, based on determining to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam, transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam and the at least one SSB beam.
[0016] In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a network device. The network device comprises transmitting circuitry configured to transmit, to a terminal device, configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0017] It is to be understood that the summary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0018] Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
[0019] FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network in which some embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;
[0020] Fig. 2 illustrates an example signaling chart illustrating an example process in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;
[0021] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a process flow in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;
[0022] FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of an example method implemented at a terminal device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;
[0023] FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of an example method implemented at a network device in accordance with some other embodiments of the present disclosure;
[0024] FIG. 6 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing some example embodiments of the present disclosure; and
[0025] FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a computer-readable medium in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure.
[0026] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar elements.DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0027] Principles of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.
[0028] In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.
[0029] References in the present disclosure to “one embodiment, ” “an embodiment, ” “an example embodiment, ” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.
[0030] It shall be understood that although the terms “first” and “second” etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and / or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.
[0031] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a” , “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” , “comprising” , “has” , “having” , “includes” and / or “including” , when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and / or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and / or combinations thereof. As used herein, “at least one of the following: <a list of two or more elements>” and “at least one of <a list of two or more elements>” and similar wording, where the list of two or more elements are joined by “and” or “or” , mean at least any one of the elements, or at least any two or more of the elements, or at least all the elements.
[0032] As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following: (a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and / or digital circuitry) and (b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable) : (i) a combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuit (s) with software / firmware and (ii) any portions of hardware processor (s) with software (including digital signal processor (s) ) , software, and memory (ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and (c) hardware circuit (s) and or processor (s) , such as a microprocessor (s) or a portion of a microprocessor (s) , that requires software (for example, firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.
[0033] This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and / or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.
[0034] As used herein, the term “network” , “communication network” or “data network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as long term evolution (LTE) , LTE-advanced (LTE-A) , wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) , high-speed packet access (HSPA) , narrow band Internet of things (NB-IoT) , wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device / element in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the future fifth generation (5G) , IEEE 802.11 communication protocols, and / or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.
[0035] As used herein, the term “network device” refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device receives services (e.g., positioning services) therefrom. The network device may refer to a core network device or access network device, such as base station (BS) or an access point (AP) or a transmission and reception point (TRP) , for example, a node B (NodeB or NB) , an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a NR NB (also referred to as a gNB) , a remote radio unit (RRU) , a radio header (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a WiFi device, a relay, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology. In the following description, the terms “network device” , “AP device” , “AP” and “access point” may be used interchangeably.
[0036] The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. By way of example rather than limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE) , a Subscriber Station (SS) , a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS) , a station (STA) or station device, or an Access Terminal (AT) . The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, a tablet, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) , portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, vehicle-mounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE) , laptop-mounted equipment (LME) , USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE) , an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD) , a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (for example, remote surgery) , an industrial device and applications (for example, a robot and / or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and / or an automated processing chain contexts) , a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, and the like. In the following description, the terms “station” , “station device” , “STA” , “terminal device” , “communication device” , “terminal” , “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.
[0037] It has been agreed that network energy saving (NES) enhancement is one of the expected enhancements to be supported. For the purpose of facilitating NES enhancement, it is necessary to deliberate on the On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) for UEs in idle or inactive modes.
[0038] Procedures and signaling method (s) for Case 2 have been specified. In Case 2, a UE may obtain an uplink wake-up signal (UL WUS) configuration (also referred as OD-SIB1 request configuration) from an anchor cell (hereinafter may also be referred to as Cell A) . The UE may transmit a UL WUS to a NES cell, and receive OD-SIB1 from the NES cell. The UL WUS may be based on Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) .
[0039] The Cell A may be a cell that periodically transmits at least its own SIB1, and the NES cell may be a cell that transmits SIB1 in response to the UL WUS from a UE. Furthermore, inter next generation radio access network (NG-RAN) node signalling at least for the configuration of UL WUS has been specified, in which a modification of SSB may not be discussed. The consensus reached is to mitigate the impact on the UE and to minimize the impact to support OD-SIB1.
[0040] Practically, the capacity cell can be referred as NES cell operating with OD-SIB1 mode will not periodically broadcast the SIB1. Instead, the SIB1 of the cell will be provided on-demand, i.e., based on the UE in Radio Resource Control (RRC) idle or RRC inactive requesting its transmission. As discussed above, the UE may trigger the transmission by sending a WUS, which could e.g., be a Physical Random-Access Channel (PRACH) i.e., a preamble. This requires that the UE is configured with resources and information to transmit the WUS. It is to be understood the NES cell is not limited to the capacity cell.
[0041] The mapping relation between preamble of OD-SIB1 signal and SSB beams merits attention. In particular, the mapping rule between ra-PreambleStartIndex for OD-SIB1 and SSB may follow the mapping rule between ra-PreambleStartIndex for on-demand System information (OSI) request and SSB.
[0042] If N SSBs are associated with a Random Access Channel (RACH) occasion, where N>=1, for the i-th SSB (i=0, …, N-1) , the preamble with preamble index=ra-PreambleStartIndex+i is used for system information (SI) request; for N<1, the preamble with preamble index = ra-PreambleStartIndex is used for SI request.
[0043] Moreover, regarding configuration of resource occasion (RO) for OD-SIB1 signal transmission, it has been agreed that both shared RO and separated RO are supported for OD-SIB1 operation, and it depends on the gNB implementation on which one of them to be applied in reality.
[0044] In particular, for OD-SIB1 in idle / inactive mode related to dedicated PRACH resource usage, the dedicated WUS resource shares the same PRACH resource pool with the PRACH resource for other usages, or the dedicated WUS resource uses an independent RACH resource pool with PRACH resource. It is up to the gNB to configure whether RACH occasions for UL WUS are shared or separated from the RACH occasions for other usages.
[0045] In addition, it has been agreed that UE can assume that the OD-SIB1 is only transmitted in the SSB beam associated with the PRACH transmission, meaning that the OD-SIB1 is not transmitted by the gNB in all the SSB beams for the sake of network energy saving. The SSB beam associated with the PRACH transmission may be determined based on the mapping relation between preamble of OD-SIB1 signal and SSB beams. Evaluations showed that energy saving may be achieved by sending SIB1 in a subset of SSB beams instead of all SSB beams.
[0046] The UE assumes that, in the OD-SIB1 window, PDCCH for an OD-SIB1 message may be transmitted in PDCCH monitoring occasions that correspond to at least the SSB associated with the PRACH for UL WUS, if this is indicated via UL WUS configuration. There are still aspects that require enhancement. For example, one is whether the UE expects PDCCH on PDCCH monitoring occasions corresponding to SSB other than the one mentioned above, and another is whether the gNB can indicate, in UL WUS configuration, the SSB that the UE can expect PDCCH transmission on. UE may provide assistance information via preamble (PRACH resource) to indicate if the UE is expecting to monitor OD-SIB1 on more than one beams other than the one associated to the WUS it transmitted for requesting OD-SIB1.
[0047] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution for monitoring of OD-SIB1 transmission, for example, indicating whether OD-SIB1 of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one SSB beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission, and monitoring transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the indicated SSB beam (s) .
[0048] For illustrative purposes, principles and example embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to FIG. 1 to FIG. 7. However, it is to be noted that these embodiments are given to enable the skilled in the art to understand inventive concepts of the present disclosure and implement the solution as proposed herein, and not intended to limit scope of the present application in any way.
[0049] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an application scenario 100 in which some example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. The application scenario 100, which is a part of a communication network, includes terminal devices and network devices.
[0050] In the descriptions of the example embodiments of the present disclosure, the network environment 100 may also be referred to as a communication system 100 (for example, a portion of a communication network) . For illustrative purposes only, various aspects of example embodiments will be described in the context of one or more terminal devices and network devices that communicate with one another. It should be appreciated, however, that the description herein may be applicable to other types of apparatus or other similar apparatuses that are referenced using other terminology.
[0051] The communication system 100 may comprise a terminal device 110 (hereinafter may also be referred to as UE 110) . The communication network 100 may further comprise a network device 120 (hereinafter may also be referred to as gNB 120) . The network device 120 may manage a cell 101. The terminal device 110 and the network device 120 may communicate data and control information to each other in the coverage of the cell 101. A link from the network device 120 to the terminal device 110 is referred to as a downlink (DL) , while a link from the terminal device 110 to the network device 120 is referred to as an uplink (UL) .
[0052] Communications in the communication system 100 may be implemented according to any proper wireless or wired communication protocol (s) , comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols and core network communication protocols of the fourth generation (4G) and the fifth generation (5G) and the like, wireless local network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and / or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) , Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) , Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) , Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) , Time Division Duplex (TDD) , Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) , Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM) , Discrete Fourier Transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) and / or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.
[0053] It is to be understood that the number of devices and their connection relationships and types shown in FIG. 1 are for illustrative purposes without suggesting any limitation. The communication system 100 may comprise any suitable number of devices adapted for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. That is, although only one terminal device (i.e., terminal device 110) and one network device (i.e., the network device 120) are shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of terminal devices and a plurality of network devices are also available for the embodiments of the present disclosure.
[0054] By way of example without limitation, there may be more than one network device in the communication system 100. Different network devices among the plurality of network devices in the communication system 100 may result in different cells. For example, the cell corresponding to one of the network devices may operate as a Cell A, which periodically transmits at least its own SIB1, and the cell corresponding to another of the network devices may operate as a NES cell, which transmits SIB1 in response to the UL WUS from a UE.
[0055] In the example, the UE may obtain a WUS resource configuration from the Cell A. For the WUS configuration, the Cell A and the NES cell may interact with each other. The UE may send a WUS for SIB1 request to the NES cell. The UL WUS may comprise RACH / Msg1. The UE may monitor or receive a Random Access Response (RAR) response from the NAS cell that receives the WUS. The UE may receive OD-SIB1 from the NES cell. It is to be understood that the communication system 100 may include a greater or lesser number of network devices and terminal devices, and the number and types of cells included are also not limited.
[0056] FIG. 2 illustrates an example signaling chart illustrating an example process 200 of monitoring of transmission of the OD-SIB1 in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For ease of understanding, the example process 200 will be described with reference to FIG. 1. It would be appreciated that although the example process 200 has been described referring to the application scenario 100 of FIG. 1, this example process 200 may be likewise applied to other similar communication scenarios.
[0057] The terminal device 110 obtains (203) configuration information (202) indicating whether OD-SIB1 of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one SSB beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission. The configuration information (202) is transmitted (201) by the network device 120. In addition or alternatively, the configuration information (202) may be obtained through various means. For example, it can be pre-configured in the terminal device 110.
[0058] The terminal device 110 transmits (204) an OD-SIB1 request (205) to the cell to request the transmission of the OD-SIB1. The OD-SIB1 request signal may be a preamble (e.g., PRACH preamble) or other types of signals or channels. Thus, the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission may be a SSB beam associated with preamble transmission. The network device 120 receives (206) the OD-SIB1 request (205) .
[0059] The terminal device 110 determines (207) , based on the configuration information, whether to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam. Based on determining to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam, the terminal device 110 monitors (208) transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission and at least a further SSB beam. Furthermore, based on determining to receive the OD-SIB1 not in the at least one SSB beam, the terminal device 110 may monitor transmission in the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission. More details on how to determine whether the OD-SIB1 of the cell is to be transmitted in the at least one SSB beam other than the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission are described in further detail below.
[0060] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a process flow 300 in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The process flow 300 may involve two cell (i.e., a Cell A 31 and a NES cell 33) and a UE 32. It is understood that the process flow 300 can be considered as a more specific example of the example process 200 in Fig. 2. Thus, the UE 302 of Fig. 3 may represent for example the terminal device 110 of Fig. 2, and the NES cell 33 of Fig. 3 may represent for example the network device 120 of Fig. 2, or a cell managed by the network device 120 of Fig. 2. It is to be understood that embodiments of the present disclosure may be applicable to other terminal device / network device arrangements (e.g., various of quantities or types of terminal devices / network devices) .
[0061] The process flow 300 illustrates how to indicate whether OD-SIB1 of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one SSB beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission, and monitoring transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the indicated SSB beam (s) . The process flow 300 is described by taking the preamble (e.g., PRACH preamble) as an illustrative example of OD-SIB1 request. It is to be understood that other types of signals or channels may also be applicable in the process flow 300.
[0062] At 301, the UE 32 obtains configuration information indicating whether OD-SIB1 of a cell (e.g., the NES cell 33) is to be transmitted in at least one SSB beam other than an SSB beam associated with preamble transmission. The UE 32 receives UL WUS configuration (i.e., OD-SIB1 request configuration) for indicating this, e.g. from Cell A. Based on the UL WUS configuration, the UE 32 may determine if it needs to receive the OD-SIB1 also in the SSB beams (indicated in the UL WUS configuration) other than the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission. The indication may be an implicit indication indicating if the OD-SIB1 is also transmitted in the SSB beams other than the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission.
[0063] The network (NW) gNB (e.g., the Cell A 31) may indicate that the OD-SIB1 is also transmitted in the SSB beams other than the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission. In some embodiments, the Cell A 31 may exchange such configuration information with the NES cell 33, for example, from the NES cell 33 to the Cell A 31.
[0064] The NW may indicate that the OD-SIB1 is also transmitted in neighboring beams of the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission. It may benefit for improving the UE reception of OD-SIB1, especially for the case that SSB beam is narrow, and the UE is located at the beam-edge between two SSB beams, and for the case that the UE moves quickly, etc.
[0065] The indication can be carried via UL WUS configuration, e.g., from Cell A. The indication included in the UL WUS configuration may be a parameter of “N” (also referred to as the first parameter) indicates in which beams the UE 32 is to receive the OD-SIB1. Parameter “N” can be introduced to tell the UE 32, which neighboring SSBs are also transmitted with the OD-SIB1.
[0066] At 302, the UE 32 transmits an OD-SIB1 request to the NES cell 33, where the OD-SIB1 request may be a PRACH preamble. Furthermore, at 303, the UE 32 determines whether to receive the OD-SIB1 in at least one SSB beam other than the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission, based on the first parameter included in the configuration information.
[0067] Using the SSB index “M” (also referred to as the second parameter) associated with the preamble transmission as the reference, the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission may be indicated by the SSB index “M” . The SSB beams with index range of [M-N, M+N] will have the OD-SIB1 transmission by NW.
[0068] For example, it may be assumed that the SSB#5 (i.e., M=5) is associated with the preamble transmission. In one example, in the case that N=1, the NW gNB (e.g., the NES Cell 33) may also transmit the OD-SIB1 in neighboring two SSB beams, i.e., SSB#4 and SSB#6. That is, NW of OD-SIB1 transmission is in SSB beams from Index of SSB#5 plus 1 to minus 1. In another example, in the case that N=2, the NW gNB (e.g., the NES Cell 33) may also transmit the OD-SIB1 in neighboring four SSB beams, i.e., SSB#3, SSB#4 and SSB#6, SSB#7. That is, NW of OD-SIB1 transmission is in all SSB beams from Index of SSB#5 plus 2 to minus 2.
[0069] In some embodiments, the determination of the lower limit and the upper limit of the index range may be based on a manner of wrap around. For example, it may be assumed that there are 7 transmitted SSB beams by the cell (e.g., the NES Cell 33) and the SSB#2 (i.e., M=2) is associated with the preamble transmission. If N=2, in addition to SSB#1, SSB#3, and SSB#4, NW of OD-SIB1 transmission is in SSB#7 (i.e., SSB#1 as the start is coupled with SSB#7 as the end) .
[0070] The NW (e.g., the Cell A 31) may indicate the transmission of OD-SIB1 in all the SSB beams, if the value of N equals to the number of transmitted SSB beams by gNB (e.g., the NES Cell 33) . The NW may indicate the transmission of OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission when the value of N=0. The parameter of “N” may be optionally, the absence of “N” indicates that the transmission of OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission.
[0071] The number of the neighboring SSB beams for receiving the OD-SIB1 may be predefined, e.g., by a predetermined integer value. If the value of N equals to the number of transmitted SSB beams by the NES Cell 33, the UE 32 may determine to receive the OD-SIB1 in all the SSB beams. if the value of N=0, the UE 32 may determine to receive the OD-SIB1 only in the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission. Furthermore, if the UL WUS configuration does not include the indication, the UE 32 may only receive the OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission. It is to be understood that the UE is further able to determine the neighboring SSB beams for receiving the OD-SIB1 based on its own implementation.
[0072] At 304, the NES cell 33 may transmit a RAR response to the UE 32. The UE 32 may monitor or receive the RAR response from the NAS cell that receives the WUS. Furthermore, at 305, the UE 32 may determine whether to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam other than the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission, based on the first parameter indicated by the RAR response. For the first parameter, the indication by the RAR response may prioritize the indication by the configuration information (i.e., the UL WUS configuration) .
[0073] In some embodiments, the indication that OD-SIB1 is transmitted by one SSB beam or a plurality of SSB beams configured by UL WUS configuration, may be provided by RAR message. For example, the RAR PDCCH may provide this information or the RAR message itself can contains this information.
[0074] If the RAR transmission (e.g., RAR PDCCH or RAR message) can indicate whether or not the transmission of OD-SIB1 is in the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission and whether the transmission of OD-SIB1 is in at least one SSB beam other than the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission. The UE 32 may determine based on the information / indication carried in the RAR PDCCH or the RAR message whether it needs to receive the OD-SIB1 other than the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission. If the RAR contains the indication, the UE 32 may ignore the indication in the UL WUS configuration. For example, the value of the parameter N indicated by the RAR PDCCH or the RAR message may override the value of the parameter N indicated by the UL WUS configuration.
[0075] In some embodiments, the NW (e.g., the Cell A 31) may signal the UE 32 with a bitmap based on ssb-PositionsInBurst, e.g., ssb-Sib1PositionsInBurst that indicates the SSB with OD-SIB1. Such bitmap received by the UE 32 may comprise a first bit value (e.g., 1) to indicate a SSB beam to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1 and a second bit value (e.g., 0) to indicate a SSB beam not to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1. By way of example without limitation, the bitmap may have a size of 4 as a short bitmap, a size of 8 as a medium bitmap, or a size of 64 as a long bitmap.
[0076] In addition, the RAR Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) may indicate if SIB1 is transmitted by one SSB beam or a plurality of SSB beams. When the UE 32 receives the RAR PDCCH, it knows that the MCS is used for RAR. Based on the WUS configuration, the UE 32 may determines the SSB index that it is expecting to receive OD-SIB1. For example, the UE 32 may determine an index set including at least one index corresponding to one or more SSB beams to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1, based on the WUS configuration, where the WUS configuration may indicate a mapping relation between a MCS and at least one index included in the index set.
[0077] In particular, WUS configuration can provide a map between the MCS and SSB index. For example, MCS 0 may corresponds to SSB index 1 and SSB index 2, where SSB#1 and SSB#2 will be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1, MCS 1 may corresponds to SSB index 1, MCS 2 may corresponds to SSB index 2 and MCS 3 may corresponds to SSB index 1, SSB index 2 and SSB index 3.
[0078] At 306, the NES cell 33 may transmit the OD-SIB1 to the UE 32 in the determined SSB beams, e.g., the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission or this SSB beam along with its neighboring SSB beams. Furthermore, the UE 32 monitors the OD-SIB1 transmission in the SSB beam associated with the preamble transmission or also in the neighboring beams as indicated. For example, monitoring of OD-SIB1 transmission may comprise monitoring of Type-0 PDCCH and reception of OD-SIB1 transmission.
[0079] FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 400 implemented at a terminal device in accordance with some other embodiments of the present disclosure. It is to be understood that the method 400 may include additional blocks not shown and / or may omit some blocks as shown, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard. For ease of understanding, the method 400 will be described from the perspective of the terminal device 110 with reference to FIG. 1.
[0080] At block 410, the terminal device 110 obtains configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission. At block 420, the terminal device 110 transmit an OD-SIB1 request to the cell to request the transmission of the OD-SIB1. At block 430, the terminal device 110 determines, based on the configuration information, whether to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam. At block 440, the terminal device 110 monitors, based on determining to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam, transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam and the at least one SSB beam.
[0081] In some embodiments, the configuration information may comprise a first parameter indicating a number of the at least one SSB beam for transmission of the OD-SIB1, and the at least one SSB beam may be neighboring beams of the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0082] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may be further caused to determine whether the first parameter is equal to a number of transmitted SSB beams by the cell, and to determine, based on determining that the first parameter is equal to the number of the transmitted SSB beams, that the OD-SIB1 is to be transmitted in all the SSB beams in the cell.
[0083] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may be further caused to determine whether the first parameter is equal to zero, and to determine, based on determining that the first parameter is equal to zero, that the OD-SIB1 is to be transmitted in the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0084] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may be caused to determine to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam by determining that the first parameter is a predetermined integer value other than the number of the transmitted SSB beams and zero.
[0085] In some embodiments, the configuration information may not comprise a first parameter indicating the at least one SSB beam for transmission of the OD-SIB1, and the terminal device 110 may be further caused to determine whether the first parameter is absent in the configuration information, and to determine, based on determining that the first parameter is absent in the configuration information, that the OD-SIB1 is to be transmitted in the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0086] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may be further caused to receive a Random Access Response (RAR) message from the cell, the first parameter may be indicated by RAR Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) or the RAR message, and a value of the first parameter indicated by the RAR PDCCH or the RAR message may override a value of the first parameter indicated by the configuration information.
[0087] In some embodiments, the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission may be indicated by a second parameter, and the SSB beams with an index range may be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1, a lower limit of the index range may be determined by subtracting the first parameter from the second parameter, and an upper limit of the index range may be determined by adding the first parameter to the second parameter.
[0088] In some embodiments, the determination of the lower limit and the upper limit of the index range may be based on a manner of wrap around.
[0089] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may be further caused to receive a bitmap in which a first bit value indicates a SSB beam to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1 and a second bit value indicates a SSB beam not to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1.
[0090] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may be further caused to receive a RAR PDCCH from the cell, and to determine, based on the configuration information, an index set comprising at least one index corresponding to one or more SSB beams to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1, the configuration information may indicate a mapping relation between a Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) and the index set.
[0091] In view of the above, some embodiments of the disclosure a solution for monitoring of OD-SIB1 transmission to enable indication of whether OD-SIB1 of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one SSB beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission, and monitoring of transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the indicated SSB beam (s) .
[0092] FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 500 implemented at a network device in accordance with some other embodiments of the present disclosure. It is to be understood that the method 500 may include additional blocks not shown and / or may omit some blocks as shown, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard. For ease of understanding, the method 500 will be described from the perspective of the network device 120 with reference to FIG. 1.
[0093] At block 510, the network device 120 transmits, to a terminal device, configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0094] In some embodiments, the configuration information may comprise a first parameter indicating a number of the at least one SSB beam for transmission of the OD-SIB1, and the at least one SSB beam may be neighboring beams of the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0095] In some embodiments, the first parameter may be equal to the number of the transmitted SSB beams by the network device, and the OD-SIB1 may be determined to be transmitted in all the SSB beams in the cell.
[0096] In some embodiments, the first parameter may be equal to zero, and the OD-SIB1 may be determined to be transmitted in the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0097] In some embodiments, the network device 120 may be further caused to determine to transmit the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam by determining that the first parameter is a predetermined integer value other than the number of the transmitted SSB beams and zero.
[0098] In some embodiments, the configuration information may not comprise a first parameter indicating the at least one SSB beam for transmission of the OD-SIB1, and the OD-SIB1 may be determined to be transmitted in the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0099] In some embodiments, the network device 120 may be further caused to transmit a Random Access Response (RAR) message to the terminal device, the first parameter may be indicated by RAR Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) or the RAR message, and a value of the first parameter indicated by the RAR PDCCH or the RAR message may override a value of the first parameter indicated by the configuration information.
[0100] In some embodiments, the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission may be indicated by a second parameter, the SSB beams with an index range may be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1, a lower limit of the index range may be determined by subtracting the first parameter from the second parameter, and an upper limit of the index range may be determined by adding the first parameter to the second parameter.
[0101] In some embodiments, the determination of the lower limit and the upper limit of the index range may be based on a manner of wrap around.
[0102] In some embodiments, the network device 120 may be further caused to transmit a bitmap in which a first bit value indicates a SSB beam to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1 and a second bit value indicates a SSB beam not to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1.
[0103] In some embodiments, the network device 120 may be further caused to transmit a RAR PDCCH to the terminal device, the OD-SIB1 may be determined to be transmitted in one or more SSB beams with an index set comprising at least one index corresponding to the one or more SSB beams, and the configuration information may indicate a mapping relation between a Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) and the index set.
[0104] In some embodiments, an apparatus capable of performing the method 400 (for example, the terminal device 110 may comprise means for performing the respective steps of the method 400. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module.
[0105] In some embodiments, the apparatus comprises: means for obtaining configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission; means for transmitting an OD-SIB1 request to the cell to request the transmission of the OD-SIB1; means for determining, based on the configuration information, whether to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam; and means for monitoring, based on determining to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam, transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam and the at least one SSB beam.
[0106] In some embodiments, the configuration information may comprise a first parameter indicating a number of the at least one SSB beam for transmission of the OD-SIB1, and the at least one SSB beam may be neighboring beams of the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0107] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further comprise: means for determining whether the first parameter is equal to a number of transmitted SSB beams by the cell; and means for determining, based on determining that the first parameter is equal to the number of the transmitted SSB beams, that the OD-SIB1 is to be transmitted in all the SSB beams in the cell.
[0108] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further comprise: means for determining whether the first parameter is equal to zero; and means for determining, based on determining that the first parameter is equal to zero, that the OD-SIB1 is to be transmitted in the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0109] In some embodiments, the means for determining to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam may comprise means for determining that the first parameter is a predetermined integer value other than the number of the transmitted SSB beams and zero.
[0110] In some embodiments, the configuration information may not comprise a first parameter indicating the at least one SSB beam for transmission of the OD-SIB1, and the apparatus may further comprise: means for determining whether the first parameter is absent in the configuration information; and means for determining, based on determining that the first parameter is absent in the configuration information, that the OD-SIB1 is to be transmitted in the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0111] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further comprise means for receiving a Random Access Response (RAR) message from the cell, the first parameter may be indicated by RAR Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) or the RAR message, and a value of the first parameter indicated by the RAR PDCCH or the RAR message may override a value of the first parameter indicated by the configuration information.
[0112] In some embodiments, the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission may be indicated by a second parameter, and the SSB beams with an index range may be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1, a lower limit of the index range may be determined by subtracting the first parameter from the second parameter, and an upper limit of the index range may be determined by adding the first parameter to the second parameter.
[0113] In some embodiments, the determination of the lower limit and the upper limit of the index range may be based on a manner of wrap around.
[0114] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further comprise means for receiving a bitmap in which a first bit value indicates a SSB beam to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1 and a second bit value indicates a SSB beam not to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1.
[0115] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further comprise: means for receiving a RAR PDCCH from the cell; and means for determining, based on the configuration information, an index set comprising at least one index corresponding to one or more SSB beams to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1, wherein the configuration information indicates a mapping relation between a Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) and the index set.
[0116] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for performing other steps in some embodiments of the method 400. In some embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the performance of the apparatus.
[0117] In some embodiments, an apparatus capable of performing the method 500 (for example, the network device 120) may comprise means for performing the respective steps of the method 500. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module.
[0118] In some example embodiments, the apparatus comprises: means for transmitting, to a terminal device, configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0119] In some embodiments, the configuration information may comprise a first parameter indicating a number of the at least one SSB beam for transmission of the OD-SIB1, and the at least one SSB beam may be neighboring beams of the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0120] In some embodiments, the first parameter may be equal to the number of the transmitted SSB beams by the network device, and the OD-SIB1 may be determined to be transmitted in all the SSB beams in the cell.
[0121] In some embodiments, the first parameter may be equal to zero, and the OD-SIB1 may be determined to be transmitted in the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0122] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further comprise means for determining to transmit the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam by determining that the first parameter is a predetermined integer value other than the number of the transmitted SSB beams and zero.
[0123] In some embodiments, the configuration information may not comprise a first parameter indicating the at least one SSB beam for transmission of the OD-SIB1, and the OD-SIB1 may be determined to be transmitted in the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.
[0124] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further comprise means for transmitting a Random Access Response (RAR) message to the terminal device, the first parameter may be indicated by RAR Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) or the RAR message, and a value of the first parameter indicated by the RAR PDCCH or the RAR message may override a value of the first parameter indicated by the configuration information.
[0125] In some embodiments, the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission may be indicated by a second parameter, the SSB beams with an index range may be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1, a lower limit of the index range may be determined by subtracting the first parameter from the second parameter, and an upper limit of the index range may be determined by adding the first parameter to the second parameter.
[0126] In some embodiments, the determination of the lower limit and the upper limit of the index range may be based on a manner of wrap around.
[0127] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further comprise means for transmitting a bitmap in which a first bit value indicates a SSB beam to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1 and a second bit value indicates a SSB beam not to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1.
[0128] In some embodiments, the apparatus may further comprise means for transmitting a RAR PDCCH to the terminal device, the OD-SIB1 may be determined to be transmitted in one or more SSB beams with an index set comprising at least one index corresponding to the one or more SSB beams, and the configuration information may indicate a mapping relation between a Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) and the index set.
[0129] In some embodiments, the apparatus further comprises means for performing other steps in some embodiments of the method 500. In some embodiments, the means comprises at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the performance of the apparatus.
[0130] FIG. 6 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a device 600 that is suitable for implementing some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 600 may be provided to implement a communication device, for example, the terminal device 110 or the network device 120 as shown in FIG. 1. As shown, the device 600 includes one or more processors 610, one or more memories 620 coupled to the processor 610, and one or more communication modules 640 coupled to the processor 610.
[0131] The communication module 640 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 640 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements.
[0132] The processor 610 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may include one or more of the following: general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 600 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.
[0133] The memory 620 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of the non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 624, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM) , a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD) , a digital video disk (DVD) , and other magnetic storage and / or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random access memory (RAM) 622 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.
[0134] A computer program 630 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 610. The program 630 may be stored in the ROM 624. The processor 610 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 630 into the RAM 622.
[0135] The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 630 so that the device 600 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. The embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.
[0136] In some example embodiments, the program 630 may be tangibly contained in a computer-readable medium which may be included in the device 600 (such as in the memory 620) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 600. The device 600 may load the program 630 from the computer-readable medium to the RAM 622 for execution. The computer-readable medium may include any types of tangible non-volatile storage, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like.
[0137] FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a computer-readable medium 700 in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The computer-readable medium 700 has the program 630 stored thereon. It is noted that although the computer-readable medium 700 is depicted in form of CD or DVD in FIG. 7, the computer-readable medium 700 may be in any other form suitable for carry or hold the program 630.
[0138] Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. While various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representations, it is to be understood that the block, apparatus, system, technique or method described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.
[0139] The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor, to carry out the method 400 or 500 as described above with reference to FIG. 4 or 5. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.
[0140] Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes may be provided to a processor or controller of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program codes, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions / operations specified in the flowcharts and / or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.
[0141] In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program codes or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable the device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of the carrier include a signal, computer-readable medium, and the like.
[0142] The computer-readable medium may be a computer-readable signal medium or a computer-readable storage medium. A computer-readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer-readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM) , a read-only memory (ROM) , an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) , an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) , an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. The term “non-transitory, ” as used herein, is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e., tangible, not a signal) as opposed to a limitation on data storage persistency (e.g., RAM vs. ROM) .
[0143] Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.
[0144] Although the present disclosure has been described in languages specific to structural features and / or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.
Claims
1.A terminal device comprising:at least one processor; andat least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the terminal device at least to:obtain configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission;transmit an OD-SIB1 request to the cell to request the transmission of the OD-SIB1;determine, based on the configuration information, whether to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam; andbased on determining to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam, monitor transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam and the at least one SSB beam.2.The terminal device of claim 1, wherein the configuration information comprises a first parameter indicating a number of the at least one SSB beam for transmission of the OD-SIB1, and wherein the at least one SSB beam is neighboring beams of the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.3.The terminal device of claim 2, the terminal device is further caused to:determine whether the first parameter is equal to a number of transmitted SSB beams by the cell; andbased on determining that the first parameter is equal to the number of the transmitted SSB beams, determine that the OD-SIB1 is to be transmitted in all the SSB beams in the cell.4.The terminal device of claim 2 or 3, the terminal device is further caused to:determine whether the first parameter is equal to zero; andbased on determining that the first parameter is equal to zero, determine that the OD-SIB1 is to be transmitted in the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.5.The terminal device any of claims 2-4, wherein the terminal device is caused to determine to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam by:determining that the first parameter is a predetermined integer value other than the number of the transmitted SSB beams and zero.6.The terminal device of claim 1, wherein the configuration information does not comprise a first parameter indicating the at least one SSB beam for transmission of the OD-SIB1, and the terminal device is further caused to:determine whether the first parameter is absent in the configuration information; andbased on determining that the first parameter is absent in the configuration information, determine that the OD-SIB1 is to be transmitted in the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.7.The terminal device of any of claims 2-6, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:receive a Random Access Response (RAR) message from the cell, wherein the first parameter is indicated by RAR Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) or the RAR message, and a value of the first parameter indicated by the RAR PDCCH or the RAR message overrides a value of the first parameter indicated by the configuration information.8.The terminal device of any of claims 2-7, wherein the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission is indicated by a second parameter, andwherein the SSB beams with an index range are to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1, a lower limit of the index range is determined by subtracting the first parameter from the second parameter, and an upper limit of the index range is determined by adding the first parameter to the second parameter.9.The terminal device of claim 8, wherein the determination of the lower limit and the upper limit of the index range is based on a manner of wrap around.10.The terminal device of claim 1, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:receive a bitmap in which a first bit value indicates a SSB beam to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1 and a second bit value indicates a SSB beam not to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1.11.The terminal device of claim 1, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:receive a RAR PDCCH from the cell; anddetermine, based on the configuration information, an index set comprising at least one index corresponding to one or more SSB beams to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1, wherein the configuration information indicates a mapping relation between a Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) and the index set.12.A network device comprising:at least one processor; andat least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the network device at least to:transmit, to a terminal device, configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission.13.The network device of claim 12, wherein the configuration information comprises a first parameter indicating a number of the at least one SSB beam for transmission of the OD-SIB1, and wherein the at least one SSB beam is neighboring beams of the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.14.The network device of claim 13, wherein the first parameter is equal to the number of the transmitted SSB beams by the network device, and wherein the OD-SIB1 is determined to be transmitted in all the SSB beams in the cell.15.The network device of claim 13 or 14, wherein the first parameter is equal to zero, and wherein the OD-SIB1 is determined to be transmitted in the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.16.The network device of any of claims 13-15, wherein the network device is further caused to:determine to transmit the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam by determining that the first parameter is a predetermined integer value other than the number of the transmitted SSB beams and zero.17.The network device of claim 12, wherein the configuration information does not comprise a first parameter indicating the at least one SSB beam for transmission of the OD-SIB1, and wherein the OD-SIB1 is determined to be transmitted in the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission.18.The network device of any of claims 13-17, wherein the network device is further caused to:transmit a Random Access Response (RAR) message to the terminal device, wherein the first parameter is indicated by RAR Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) or the RAR message, and a value of the first parameter indicated by the RAR PDCCH or the RAR message overrides a value of the first parameter indicated by the configuration information.19.The network device of any of claims 13-18, wherein the SSB beam associated with the OD-SIB1 request transmission is indicated by a second parameter, andwherein the SSB beams with an index range are to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1, a lower limit of the index range is determined by subtracting the first parameter from the second parameter, and an upper limit of the index range is determined by adding the first parameter to the second parameter.20.The network device of claim 19, wherein the determination of the lower limit and the upper limit of the index range is based on a manner of wrap around.21.The network device of claim 12, wherein the network device is further caused to:transmit a bitmap in which a first bit value indicates a SSB beam to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1 and a second bit value indicates a SSB beam not to be used for the transmission of the OD-SIB1.22.The network device of claim 12, wherein the network device is further caused to:transmit a RAR PDCCH to the terminal device,wherein the OD-SIB1 is determined to be transmitted in one or more SSB beams with an index set comprising at least one index corresponding to the one or more SSB beams, and wherein the configuration information indicates a mapping relation between a Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) and the index set.23.A method comprising:obtaining configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission;transmitting, to the network device, an OD-SIB1 request to the cell to request the transmission of the OD-SIB1;determining, based on the configuration information, whether to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam; andbased on determining to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam, monitoring transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam and the at least one SSB beam.24.A method comprising:transmitting, to a terminal device, configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission.25.An apparatus comprising:means for obtaining configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission;means for transmitting, to the network device, an OD-SIB1 request to the cell to request the transmission of the OD-SIB1;means for determining, based on the configuration information, whether to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam; andmeans for monitoring, based on determining to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam, transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam and the at least one SSB beam.26.An apparatus comprising:means for transmitting, to a terminal device, configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission.27.A computer readable medium comprising program instructions that, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least:obtaining configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission;transmitting, to the network device, an OD-SIB1 request to the cell to request the transmission of the OD-SIB1;determining, based on the configuration information, whether to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam; andbased on determining to receive the OD-SIB1 in the at least one SSB beam, monitoring transmission of the OD-SIB1 in the SSB beam and the at least one SSB beam.28.A computer readable medium comprising program instructions that, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform at least:transmitting, to a terminal device, configuration information indicating whether On-Demand System Information Block 1 (OD-SIB1) of a cell is to be transmitted in at least one Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) beam other than an SSB beam associated with OD-SIB1 request transmission.