Availability requirement report of reference signal for carrier aggregation operation

Abstract

Example embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to availability requirement report of reference signal (RS) for carrier aggregation (CA) operation A method comprises generating an availability requirement report of a RS on a plurality of carriers associated with a CA; and transmitting the availability requirement report to a second apparatus.

Description

AVAILABILITY REQUIREMENT REPORT OF REFERENCE SIGNAL FOR CARRIER AGGREGATION OPERATIONCROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application claims priority from, and the benefit of, India Patent Application No.202541030166, filed March 28, 2025, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.FIELD

[0002] Various example embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication and in particular, to methods, devices, apparatuses and computer readable storage medium for availability requirement report of reference signal (RS) for carrier aggregation (CA) operation.BACKGROUND

[0003] CA is a technology that integrates wireless channel resources within or between frequency bands to improve user data transmission rates and reduce latency. When considering a CA operation in a switched mode, network needs to configure switching pattern such that reference signals are available in both carriers.SUMMARY

[0004] In a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus to: generate an availability requirement report of a RS on a plurality of carriers associated with a CA; and transmit the availability requirement report to a second apparatus.

[0005] In a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus to: receive, from a first apparatus, an availability requirement report of a RS on a plurality of carriers associated with a CA; determine a cell switching configuration based on the availability requirement report.

[0006] In a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: generating an availability requirement report of a RS on a plurality of carriers associated with a CA; and transmitting the availability requirement report to a second apparatus.

[0007] In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: receiving, from a first apparatus, an availability requirement report of a RS on a pluralityof carriers associated with a CA; determining a cell switching configuration based on the availability requirement report.

[0008] In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises means for generating an availability requirement report of a RS on a plurality of carriers associated with a CA; and means for transmitting the availability requirement report to a second apparatus.

[0009] In a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a first apparatus, an availability requirement report of a RS on a plurality of carriers associated with a CA; means for determining a cell switching configuration based on the availability requirement report.

[0010] In a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium comprises instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to the third aspect.

[0011] In an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium comprises instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to the fourth aspect.

[0012] 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

[0013] Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, where:

[0014] FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

[0015] FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of propagation of mid-band spectrum and low-band spectrum;

[0016] FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate a schematic diagram of cases for the frequency-division duplex-supplementary downlink (FDD-SDL) low band (LB)-LB switching operation;10017] FIG. 4 illustrates a signaling chart for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0018] FIG. 5 illustrates a signaling chart for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0019] FIG. 6 illustrates a signaling chart for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0020] FIG. 7 illustrates a signaling chart for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0021] FIG. 8 illustrates a signaling chart for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0022] FIG. 9 illustrates a signaling chart for communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0023] FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0024] FIG. 11 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0025] FIG. 12 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0026] FIG. 13 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0027] FIG. 14 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0028] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] Principle 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. Embodiments described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

[0030] 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.

[0031] 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.

[0032] It shall be understood that although the terms “first,” “second,”..., etc. in front of noun(s) and the like 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 and they do not limit the order of the noun(s). 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.

[0033] As used herein, “at least one of the following: ” and “at least one of ” 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.

[0034] As used herein, unless stated explicitly, performing a step “in response to A” does not indicate that the step is performed immediately after “A” occurs and one or more intervening steps may be included.

[0035] 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.

[0036] 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 (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

[0037] 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 ahardware 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.

[0038] As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as New Radio (NR), 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-loT) and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the first generation (1G), the second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G), the fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G), 5.5G, the sixth generation (6G) 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.

[0039] As used herein, the term “network device” refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP), for example, a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), an NR NB (also referred to as a gNB), a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), a radio header (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, an Integrated Access and Backhaul (I AB) node, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) or non-ground network device such as a satellite network device, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite and a geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellite, an aircraft network device, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology. In some example embodiments, radio access network (RAN) split architecture comprises a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) at an IAB donor node. An IAB node comprises a Mobile Terminal (IAB-MT) part that behaves like a UE toward the parent node, and a DU part of an IAB node behaves like a base station toward the next-hop IAB node.

[0040] 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), 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), portablecomputers, 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 (loT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD), a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery), an industrial device and applications (e.g., 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. The terminal device may also correspond to a Mobile Termination (MT) part of an IAB node (e.g., a relay node). In the following description, the terms “terminal device”, “communication device”, “terminal”, “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

[0041] As used herein, the term “resource,” “transmission resource,” “resource block,” “physical resource block” (PRB), “uplink resource,” or “downlink resource” may refer to any resource for performing a communication, for example, a communication between a terminal device and a network device, such as a resource in time domain, a resource in frequency domain, a resource in space domain, a resource in code domain, or any other combination of the time, frequency, space and / or code domain resource enabling a communication, and the like. In the following, unless explicitly stated, a resource in both frequency domain and time domain will be used as an example of a transmission resource for describing some example embodiments of the present disclosure. It is noted that example embodiments of the present disclosure are equally applicable to other resources in other domains.

[0042] Example embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network 100 in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication network 100 may comprise a first apparatus 110 which may also be, for example, referred to as a terminal device or a UE.

[0043] The communication network 100 may further comprise a second apparatus 120, which may be, for example, considered as being a network device or being included in a network device. In some example embodiments, the network device may be discussed as a BS, a gNB, or an eNB.

[0044] A serving area provided by the second apparatus 120 is called a cell. The second apparatus 120 may provide one or more cells serving the first apparatus. For example, the first apparatus 110 may communicate with the second apparatus 120 within the cell 104. In some scenarios, the cell 104 may be considered as a cell that is serving the first apparatus 110.

[0045] In the following, for the purpose of illustration, some example embodiments are described with the first apparatus 110 operating as a terminal device and the second apparatus 120 operating as a network device. However, in some example embodiments, operations described in connectionwith a terminal device may be implemented at a network device or other device, and operations described in connection with a network device may be implemented at a terminal device or other device.

[0046] In some example embodiments, if the first apparatus 110 is a terminal device and second apparatus 120 is a network device, a link from the second apparatus 120 to first apparatus 110 is referred to as a downlink (DL), while a link from the first apparatus 110 to second apparatus 120 is referred to as an UL. In DL, the second apparatus 120 is a transmitting (TX) apparatus (or a transmitter) and the first apparatus 110 is a receiving (RX) apparatus (or a receiver). In UL, the first apparatus 110 is a TX apparatus (or a transmitter) and the second apparatus 120 is an RX apparatus (or a receiver).

[0047] It is to be understood that the number of devices and their connections shown in FIG. 1 are only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitation. The communication environment 100 may include any suitable number of devices configured to implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. Although not shown, it would be appreciated that one or more additional devices may be located in the cell 104, and one or more additional cells may be deployed in the communication environment 100. It is noted that although illustrated as a network device, the second apparatus 120 may be another device than a network device. Although illustrated as a terminal device, the first apparatus 110 may be another device than a terminal device.

[0048] In the following, for the purpose of illustration, some example embodiments are described with the first apparatus 110 operating as a UE and the second apparatus 120 operating as a base station. However, in some example embodiments, operations described in connection with a terminal device may be implemented at a network device or other device, and operations described in connection with a network device may be implemented at a terminal device or other device.

[0049] Communications in the communication environment 100 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol(s), comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols, 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), 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.

[0050] Reference is now made to FIG. 2, which illustrates a schematic diagram of propagation of mid-band spectrum and low-band spectrum. For example, the frequency range of low-band may bebelow 1 GHz and the frequency range of mid-band spectrum may be above 1 GHz up to 3GHz, or up to 6GHz, or up to 10GHz or higher.

[0051] As shown in FIG. 2, the mid-band spectrum is useful closer to sites, however the low-band spectrum propagates farther making it more useful further away from the sites. Low-band carries significant traffic volumes in urban (indoor) and rural areas causing low-band congestion that majorly degrades customer experience.

[0052] Low-Low band CA (LBCA) would be one way to solve the above problem, however, equipment and device OEMs have challenges supporting such a solution and its implementation. Using supplementary downlink (SDL) bands, most of the poor coverage areas can be reached and supported by low-band, however, the absence of a mid-band with an UL renders the solution less useful.

[0053] Reference is now made to FIGS. 3A and 3B, a solution that enables SDL utilization via a version of LBCA with minimal impact to the devices’ implementation is provided. In this solution, the UE may switch configuration between two states of the RF front-end that are defined as case 1 and case 2. In other words, the LBCA is operating in a switched mode (LBCA-sw)

[0054] As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, in the case 1, 1 Tx or 2 Rx are on FDD carrier 1 and 0 Tx or 0 Rx are on SDL carrier 2. In the case 2, 2 Rx are on SDL carrier 2 and 0 Tx or 0 Rx are on FDD carrier 2. In the two cases, device may support inter-carrier scheduling, i.e., the UE may monitor FDD DL PDCCH DCI, which has both FDD and SDL scheduling. In addition, the device may switch back to the duplexer of the FDD carrier after SDL scheduled reception interval is finished.

[0055] As mentioned above, when considering a carrier aggregation operation in a switched mode, the network needs to configure switching pattern such that reference signals are available in both carriers. However, optimizing a switching pattern for high availability of synchronization signal block (SSB) or channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) on both carriers may not lead to the most efficient switching patterns in terms of throughput. It is desirable to provide the network necessary information for configuring the switching pattern. Therefore, how can the network obtain information regarding the real need of how often reference signals have to be made available in two or more different carriers operating in switched mode has become an important problem.

[0056] In accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a solution for availability requirement report of reference signal for carrier aggregation operation. In this solution, a first apparatus such as a terminal device generates an availability requirement report of a RS on a plurality of carriers associated with a CA. Then, the first apparatus transmits the availability requirement report to a second apparatus such as a network device. In this manner, the terminal device may report to the network device how often it requires reference signals from each carrier of the CA operation or of the CA operating in switched mode.

[0057] Example embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0058] Reference is now made to FIG. 4, which shows a signaling chart 400 of communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 4, the signaling chart 400 involves a first apparatus 110 and a second apparatus 120. For the purpose of discussion, reference is made to FIG. 1 to describe the signaling chart 400.

[0059] For example, in a scenario defined for LBCA-sw, the first apparatus 110 cannot operate with 2 low band carriers or cannot operate simultaneously, and a switching pattern may be configured by the second apparatus 120 indicating when the first apparatus 110 communicates with the PCell (FDD carrier) or the SCell (SDL carrier).

[0060] In some other example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may be configured to operate with multiple carriers for which the first apparatus 110 cannot operate simultaneously. In that case, the second apparatus 120 configures the first apparatus 110 with a switching pattern including N carriers, which may include reference signals for measurements on each of the carriers.

[0061] In the scenario of FIG. 4, The first apparatus 110 may determine (402), for a carrier switching operation of a plurality of carriers associated with a CA, required availability of a RS on the plurality of carriers. In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers may refer to at least one primary cell (PCell) of the first apparatus 110 and at least one secondary cell (SCell) of the first apparatus 110. In an example, the plurality of carriers are on low bands.

[0062] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may determine, for the required availability of a RS on the plurality of carriers, e.g., how often it requires reference signals from each carrier operating in switched mode based on at least one of the following: the respective reference signal received power (RSRP) or signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the serving cells, or how well it can estimate the reference signal received power (RSRP) of one cell based on the RSRP from the other cell, or how many samples it requires for making RSRP measurements, or UE time DL tracking capability for ensuring it can keep accurate UL transmit timing. More details of required availability determination will be further described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9.

[0063] Upon determining the required availability of the RS on the plurality of carriers (402), the first apparatus 110 may generate (404) an availability requirement report based on the required availability. In some example embodiments, the availability requirement report may indicate a minimum required availability of the RS on the plurality of carriers includes, e.g., a maximum time duration between two consecutive occasions of the reference signal. In this situation, if the plurality of carriers includes a PCell of the first apparatus 110 and a SCell of the first apparatus 110, the first apparatus 110 may need one SSB on the switched PCell with DL and UL at every 160 ms, and one SSB on a SDL SCell at every 320 ms.

[0064] The availability requirement report may indicate a minimum required availability of the RS on the plurality of carriers includes, e.g., a ratio of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers, or a percentage of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers.

[0065] In this situation, if the plurality of carriers includes a PCell of the first apparatus 110 and a SCell of the first apparatus 110, the the first apparatus 110 may need 10% of the SSBs on the switched PCell with DL and UL, and 6% of the SSBs on a SDL SCell.

[0066] Then, the first apparatus 110 may transmit (406) the availability requirement report to the second apparatus 120. As an example, the first apparatus 110 may transmit the availability requirement report to the second apparatus 120 via user equipment (UE) capability information. As another example, the first apparatus 110 may transmit the availability requirement report to the second apparatus 120 in a carrier switching report via a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration complete message. As a further example, the first apparatus 110 may transmit the availability requirement report to the second apparatus 120 in a carrier switching report via UE assistance information (UAI). More details of a transmission of availability requirement report will be further described with reference to FIGS. 5-7.

[0067] Reference is now made to FIG. 5, which shows a signaling chart 500 of communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 5, the signaling chart 500 involves a first apparatus 110 and a second apparatus 120. For the purpose of discussion, reference is made to FIG. 1 to describe the signaling chart 500.

[0068] As shown in FIG. 5, the first apparatus 110 may be commanded (502) by the second apparatus 120 to report its UE capabilities with “UECapabilityEnquiry”. Then the first apparatus 110 may evaluate (504), for a carrier switching operation of a plurality of carriers associated with a CA, required availability of a RS on the plurality of carriers. For example, if the plurality of carriers includes a PCell of the first apparatus 110 and a SCell of the first apparatus 110, the first apparatus 110 may evaluate the required PCell and SCell RS availability.

[0069] In some examples, the required PCell and SCell RS availability may be parameters configured at production time, depending on carrier spacing, actual band combinations, carriers being in same band group or not, and / or usage of same antenna or not, etc.

[0070] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may transmit (506) the availability requirement report to the second apparatus via UE capability information. As an option, the availability requirement report may include a list of required availability of the RS for the plurality of carriers of at least one band combination associated with the CA. For example, if the plurality of carriers includes a PCell of the first apparatus 110 and a SCell, the first apparatus 110 may report the “UECapabilityl nformation” including the required PCell and SCell RS availability.

[0071] Then, the first apparatus 110 may receive (508), from the second apparatus 120, a cell switching configuration determined based on the availability requirement report. The second apparatus 120 may use the “UECapabilityl nformation” in order to optimize the carrier switching pattern.

[0072] Reference is now made to FIG. 6, which shows a signaling chart 600 of communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 6, the signaling chart 600 involves a first apparatus 110 and a second apparatus 120. For the purpose of discussion, reference is made to FIG. 1 to describe the signaling chart 600.

[0073] In the scenario of FIG. 6, the first apparatus 110 may receive (602), from the second apparatus 120, an RRC reconfiguration message containing a configuration for a carrier switching report. In some example embodiments, the carrier switching report may include required availability of the RS for the plurality of carriers, or a carrier associated with a serving cell of the first apparatus to be used in switched carrier mode. For example, the carrier switching report may include the required availability of the RS for configured serving carriers in the plurality of carriers.

[0074] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may receive, from the second apparatus 120, a configuration of at least one band combination associated with the CA for the carrier switching report. As an example, the carrier switching report may include the required availability of the RS for the at least one band combination associated with the CA configured by the second apparatus 120.

[0075] As an option, the configuration for the carrier switching report may contain a simple flag indicating that carrier switching report is expected in an RRC reconfiguration complete message, i.e., “RRCReconfigurationComplete”. In that case the list of configured carriers for carrier aggregation are used by the UE for the reporting.

[0076] As another option, the second apparatus 120 may include the target configuration that is expected to be used with carrier aggregation switching, e.g. the band combination.

[0077] Then the first apparatus 110 may evaluate (604), for a carrier switching operation of a plurality of carriers associated with a CA, required availability of a RS on the plurality of carriers. For example, if the plurality of carriers includes a PCell of the first apparatus 110 and a SCell of the first apparatus 110, the first apparatus 110 may evaluate the required PCell and SCell RS availability.

[0078] In a case where the configuration for the carrier switching report contains simple flag indicating that carrier switching report is expected in the RRC reconfiguration complete message, i.e., “RRCReconfigurationComplete”, the first apparatus 110 may use the information of the configured carriers to be used with carrier switching to determine how many samples each carrier needs, and how often they need to be measured. As an example, the first apparatus 110 may use the previous measurements of the configured carriers to make this evaluation.

[0079] In a case where the configuration for the carrier switching report contains the targetconfiguration that is expected to be used with carrier aggregation switching, the first apparatus 110 may use previous measurements of the carriers in the target configuration.

[0080] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may transmit (606) the availability requirement report to the second apparatus 120 in a carrier switching report via an RRC reconfiguration complete message, i.e., “RRCReconfigurationComplete”. The availability requirement report may contain the maximum time distance between consecutive SSBs / SSB measurement timing configurations (SMTCs) that each component channel (CC) requires for a valid measurement and the ratio of SSBs / SMTC that needs to be available for measurement.

[0081] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may receive (608), from the second apparatus 120, a cell switching configuration determined based on the availability requirement report.

[0082] In a case where the carrier switching is already configured, the second apparatus 120 may adapt the switching pattern considering the information provided. In a case where the carrier switching is not yet configured, the second apparatus 120 may configure the carrier switching considering the information provided.

[0083] Reference is now made to FIG. 7, which shows a signaling chart 700 of communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 7, the signaling chart 700 involves a first apparatus 110 and a second apparatus 120. For the purpose of discussion, reference is made to FIG. 1 to describe the signaling chart 700.

[0084] In the scenario of FIG. 7, the first apparatus 110 may receive (702), from the second apparatus 120, an RRC reconfiguration message containing a configuration for a carrier switching report. In some example embodiments, the configuration for the carrier switching report may include a timer (715) associated with a prohibiting time for UAI transmission, which is used to avoid very frequent UAI reports.

[0085] In some example embodiments, the carrier switching report may include required availability of the RS for the plurality of carriers, or a carrier associated with a serving cell of the first apparatus to be used in switched carrier mode. For example, the carrier switching report may include the required availability of the RS for configured serving carriers in the plurality of carriers.

[0086] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may receive, from the second apparatus 120, a configuration of at least one band combination associated with the CA for the carrier switching report. As an example, the carrier switching report may include the required availability of the RS for the at least one band combination associated with the CA configured by the second apparatus 120.

[0087] As an option, the configuration for the carrier switching report may contain a simple flag indicating that carrier switching reporting is expected in an UE assistance information message. In that case the configured carriers for carrier aggregation are used by the UE for the reporting.

[0088] As another option, the target configuration that is expected to be used with carrier aggregation switching is configured by the second apparatus 120, e.g. the band combination or a list of band combinations.

[0089] Then the first apparatus 110 may evaluate (704), for a carrier switching operation of a plurality of carriers associated with a CA, required availability of a RS on the plurality of carriers.

[0090] In a case where the configuration for the carrier switching report contains simple flag indicating that carrier switching reporting is expected, the first apparatus 110 may use the information of the configured carriers to be used with carrier switching to determine how many samples each carrier needs, and how often they need to be measured. As an example, the first apparatus 110 may use the previous measurements of the configured carriers to make this evaluation.

[0091] In a case where the configuration for the carrier switching report contains the target configuration that is expected to be used with carrier aggregation switching, the first apparatus 110 may use previous measurements of the carriers in the target configuration.

[0092] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may transmit (706) the availability requirement report to the second apparatus in a carrier switching report via UAL The availability requirement report may contain at least one of the maximum time distance between consecutive SSBs / SMTCs that each CC requires for a valid measurement or the ratio of SSBs / SMTC that need to be available for measurement.

[0093] As described above, the first apparatus 110 may be configured with the UAI timer, i.e., the timer associated with a prohibiting time for UAI transmission, which limits how often the first apparatus 110 may send new UAI messages. For example, upon transmitting the availability requirement report, this timer may start running.

[0094] Then the first apparatus 110 may receive (708), from the second apparatus 120, a cell switching configuration determined based on the availability requirement report.

[0095] In a case where the carrier switching is already configured, the second apparatus 120 may adapt the switching pattern considering the information provided. In a case where the carrier switching is not yet configured, the second apparatus 120 may configure the carrier switching considering the information provided.

[0096] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may evaluate (710) again how often the RS is needed in each of the configured carriers for carrier switching operation. If the required RS availability has changed since the last UAI report, and the prohibiting time associated with the UAI timer (715) is expired, the first apparatus 110 may send (712) a new report with the updated information (e.g., indicating updated required RS availability) to the second apparatus 120 via the UAI.

[0097] Then the first apparatus 110 may receive (714), from the second apparatus 120, a cell switching configuration determined based on the availability requirement report. In some exampleembodiments, the second apparatus 120 may reconfigure the carrier switching pattern based on the report.

[0098] As described above, different signaling / mechanisms for transmissions of availability requirement report have been described with reference to FIGS. 5-7. Hereinafter, more details of the required availability determination will be further described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9.

[0099] Reference is now made to FIG. 8, which shows a signaling chart 800 of communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 8, the signaling chart 800 involves a first apparatus 110 and a second apparatus 120. For the purpose of discussion, reference is made to FIG. 1 to describe the signaling chart 800.

[0100] For example, the process shown in FIG. 8 may be used in combination with a case where availability requirement report is transmitted via RRC reconfiguration complete message or the UAL

[0101] As shown in FIG. 8, the first apparatus 110 may receive (802-812) the RS from the plurality of carriers. For example, the number of the plurality of carriers is 3, i.e., CC1 (PCell) 104 (e.g., the cell 104 serving the first apparatus 110 shown in FIG. 1 ), CC2 (SCell) 106 and CC3 (SCell) 108. It would be understood that, more or less carriers may be considered in other scenarios.

[0102] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may receive the RS before a reception of the RRC reconfiguration message (action 602 in FIG. 6) or during the evaluation of required availability (action 604 in FIG. 6). In some other example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may receive the RS before a reception of the RRC reconfiguration message (action 702 in FIG.7) and required availability evaluation (action 704 in FIG. 7).

[0103] Then the first apparatus 110 may evaluate (814-818) at least one of measured RSRP or SNR associated with the RS on the plurality of carriers for the switching operation, and determine the required availability of respective RS based on measurements of the RS on the plurality of carriers.

[0104] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may obtain the mapping for a lookup-table for mapping values of the RSRP or the SNR to the required RS availabilities and determine the required availability based on the mapping and the respective RSRPs or the respective SNRs.

[0105] In some other example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may determine two or more levels for the required RS availabilities based on the one or more thresholds associated with the RSRP or SNR.

[0106] Upon determining the required availability of the RS, the first apparatus 110 may report (820) the carrier switching information to the second apparatus 120. In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may report the carrier switching information via the RRC reconfiguration complete message or via the UAI, which may be associated with action 606 in FIG. 6 and action 706 and 712 in FIG. 7. It is to be understood that the carrier switching report or the carrier switching information may be related to the generated availability requirement report.

[0107] Reference is now made to FIG. 9, which shows a signaling chart 900 of communication according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 9, the signaling chart 900 involves a first apparatus 110 and a second apparatus 120. For the purpose of discussion, reference is made to FIG. 1 to describe the signaling chart 900.

[0108] For example, the process shown in FIG. 9 may be used in combination with a case where availability requirement report is transmitted via RRC reconfiguration complete message or the UAL

[0109] As shown in FIG. 9, the first apparatus 110 may receive (902-912) the RS from the plurality of carriers, i.e., CC1 (PCell) 104 (e.g., the cell 104 serving the first apparatus 110 shown in FIG. 1), CC2 (SCell) 106 and CC3 (SCell) 108.

[0110] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may receive the RS before a reception of the RRC reconfiguration message (action 602 in FIG. 6) or during the evaluation of required availability (action 604 in FIG. 6). In some other example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may receive the RS before a reception of the RRC reconfiguration message (action 702 in FIG.7) and required availability evaluation (action 704 and 710 in FIG. 7).

[0111] Then the first apparatus 110 may evaluate (914) a relationship associated with the plurality of carriers based on measurements of the RS on the plurality of carriers and determine the required availability based on the relationship.

[0112] In some example embodiments, if the relationship indicates that a correlation between a first carrier in the plurality of carriers and a second carrier in the plurality of carriers is stronger than a first pre-determined level, the first apparatus 110 may determine that the required availability is lower than a second pre-determined level. For example, if high correlation between CC1 and CC2 is identified, the first apparatus 110 may indicate that CC2 does not need to have as many RSs, since the information of CC2 can be inferred by the measurements in CC1.

[0113] In some other example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may estimate a RSRP or SNR of a second carrier in the plurality of carriers based on a further RSRP or SNR of a first carrier in the plurality of carriers by using a machine learning model. If an error of estimating the second carrier based on the first carrier is below a threshold, determine that the required availability is lower than a pre-determined level. For example, if the error of estimating CC2 based on CC1 is below a threshold, the first apparatus 110 may report that the required availability for RS from CC2 is small.

[0114] Upon determining the required availability of the RS, the first apparatus 110 may report (916) the carrier switching information to the second apparatus 120. In some example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may report the carrier switching information via the RRC reconfiguration complete message or via the UAI, which may be associated with action 606 in FIG. 6 and action 712 in FIG. 7. It is to be understood that the carrier switching report or the carrier switching information may be related to the generated availability requirement report.

[0115] In some other example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may determine the number of samples associated with the RS required for a specific measurement accuracy. As an example, if the number is less than a threshold value, the first apparatus 110 may determine that the required availability is lower than a pre-determined level. This process of determination may be performed during required availability evaluation (action 504 in FIG. 5, action 604 in FIG. 6, and action 704 and 710 in FIG. 7).

[0116] In some other example embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may determine a time period within which a transmit timing of a specific accuracy is kept after synchronizing with a DL reference signal and determine the required availability based on a length of the time period. As an example, if the length of the time period is larger than a threshold value, the first apparatus 110 may determine that the required availability is lower than a pre-determined level. This process of determination may be performed during required availability evaluation (action 504 in FIG. 5, action 604 in FIG. 6, and action 704 and 710 in FIG. 7).

[0117] FIG. 10 shows a flowchart of an example method 1000 implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 1000 will be described from the perspective of the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1.

[0118] At block 1010, the first apparatus 110 generates an availability requirement report of a RS on a plurality of carriers associated with a CA.

[0119] At block 1020, the first apparatus 110 transmits the availability requirement report to a second apparatus.

[0120] In some example embodiments, the availability requirement report indicates a minimum required availability of the RS on the plurality of carriers comprises at least one of the following: a maximum time duration between two consecutive occasions of the reference signal, or a ratio of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers, or a percentage of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers.

[0121] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers refers to at least one primary cell (PCell) of the first apparatus and at least one secondary cell (SCell) of the first apparatus.

[0122] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers are on low bands.

[0123] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers associated with the CA operate in a switching mode.

[0124] In some example embodiments, the method 1000 further comprises: transmitting the availability requirement report to the second apparatus via user equipment (UE) capability information.

[0125] In some example embodiments, the availability requirement report comprises a list of required availability of the RS for the plurality of carriers of at least one band combination associated with the CA.

[0126] In some example embodiments, the method 1000 further comprises: receiving, from the second apparatus, a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message containing a configuration for a carrier switching report; and transmitting the availability requirement report to the second apparatus in a carrier switching report via an RRC reconfiguration complete message.

[0127] In some example embodiments, the method 1000 further comprises: transmitting the availability requirement report to the second apparatus in a carrier switching report via UE assistance information (UAI).

[0128] In some example embodiments, the carrier switching report comprises required availability of the RS for the plurality of carriers, or a carrier associated with a serving cell of the first apparatus to be used in switched carrier mode.

[0129] In some example embodiments, the carrier switching report comprises the required availability of the RS for configured serving carriers in the plurality of carriers.

[0130] In some example embodiments, the method 1000 further comprises: receiving, from the second apparatus a configuration of at least one band combination associated with the CA for the carrier switching report.

[0131] In some example embodiments, the carrier switching report comprises the required availability of the RS for the at least one band combination associated with the CA configured by the second apparatus.

[0132] In some example embodiments, the method 1000 further comprises: obtaining a configuration of a UAI timer; and transmitting the availability requirement report to the second apparatus via the UAI based on a prohibited time associated with the UAI timer.

[0133] In some example embodiments, the method 1000 further comprises: receiving the RS from the plurality of carriers; and generating the availability requirement report based on measurements of RS on the plurality of carriers.

[0134] In some example embodiments, the method 1000 further comprises: receiving the RS from the plurality of carriers; and determining a relationship associated with the plurality of carriers based on measurements of RS on the plurality of carriers; and generating the availability requirement report based on the relationship.

[0135] In some example embodiments, the method 1000 further comprises: determining the number of samples associated with the RS required for a specific measurement accuracy; and generating the availability requirement report based on the number.

[0136] In some example embodiments, the method 1000 further comprises: determining a time period within which a transmit timing of a specific accuracy is kept after synchronizing with a DL reference signal; and generating the availability requirement report based on a length of the time period.

[0137] In some example embodiments, the method 1000 further comprises: receiving, from the second apparatus, a cell switching configuration determined based on the availability requirement report.

[0138] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises a terminal device and the second apparatus comprises a network device.

[0139] FIG. 11 shows a flowchart of an example method 1100 implemented at a second apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 1100 will be described from the perspective of the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1.

[0140] At block 1110, the second apparatus 120 receives, from a first apparatus, an availability requirement report of a RS on a plurality of carriers associated with a CA.

[0141] At block 1120, the second apparatus 120 determines a cell switching configuration based on the availability requirement report.

[0142] In some example embodiments, the availability requirement report indicates a minimum required availability of the RS on the plurality of carriers comprises at least one of the following: a maximum time duration between two consecutive occasions of the reference signal, or a ratio of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers, or a percentage of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers.

[0143] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers refers to at least one primary cell (PCell) of the first apparatus and at least one secondary cell (SCell) of the first apparatus.

[0144] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers is on low bands.

[0145] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers associated with the CA operates in a switching mode.

[0146] In some example embodiments, the method 1100 further comprises: receiving the availability requirement report via user equipment (UE) capability information.

[0147] In some example embodiments, the method 1100 further comprises: transmitting, to the first apparatus, a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message containing a configuration for a carrier switching report; and receiving the availability requirement report in a carrier switching report via a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message.

[0148] In some example embodiments, the method 1100 further comprises: receiving the availability requirement report to the second apparatus in a carrier switching report via UE assistance information (UAI).

[0149] In some example embodiments, the carrier switching report comprises required availability of the RS in the plurality of carriers, or a carrier associated with a serving cell of the first apparatus to be used in switched carrier mode.

[0150] In some example embodiments, the method 1100 further comprises: transmitting, to the first apparatus, a cell switching configuration determined based on the availability requirement report.

[0151] FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of an example method 1200 implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 1200 will be described from the perspective of the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1.

[0152] At block 1210, the first apparatus 110 determines, for a plurality of carriers associated with a CA, required availability of a RS on the plurality of carriers.

[0153] At block 1220, the first apparatus 110 generates an availability requirement report based on the required availability.

[0154] In some example embodiments, the availability requirement report indicates a minimum required availability of the RS on the plurality of carriers comprises at least one of the following: a maximum time duration between two consecutive occasions of the reference signal, or a ratio of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers, or a percentage of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers.

[0155] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers refers to at least one primary cell (PCell) of the first apparatus and at least one secondary cell (SCell) of the first apparatus.

[0156] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers are on low bands.

[0157] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers associated with the CA operate in a switching mode.

[0158] In some example embodiments, the method 1200 further comprises: receiving the RS from the plurality of carriers; determining at least one of respective RS, at least one of received power (RSRP) or respective signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) associated with the RS received on the plurality of carriers based on measurements of the RS on the plurality of carriers.

[0159] In some example embodiments, the method 1200 further comprises: obtaining the mapping for a look-up-table for mapping values of the RSRP or the SNR to the required RS availabilities; and determining the required availability based on the mapping and the respective RSRPs or the respective SNRs.

[0160] In some example embodiments, the method 1200 further comprises: determining two or more levels for the required RS availabilities based on the one or more thresholds associated with the RSRP or SNR.

[0161] In some example embodiments, the method 1200 further comprises: receiving the RS from the plurality of carriers; determining a relationship associated with the plurality of carriers based on measurements of the RS on the plurality of carriers; and determining the required availability based on the relationship.

[0162] In some example embodiments, the method 1200 further comprises: in accordance with adetermination that the relationship indicates that a correlation between a first carrier in the plurality of carriers and a second carrier in the plurality of carriers is stronger than a first pre-determined level, determining that the required availability is lower than a second pre-determined level.

[0163] In some example embodiments, the method 1200 further comprises: estimating a RSRP or SNR of a second carrier in the plurality of carriers based on a further RSRP or SNR of a first carrier in the plurality of carriers by using a machine learning model; and in accordance with a determination that an error of estimating the second carrier based on the first carrier is below a threshold, determining that the required availability is lower than a pre-determined level.

[0164] In some example embodiments, the method 1200 further comprises: determining the number of samples associated with the RS required for a specific measurement accuracy; and determining the required availability based on the number.

[0165] In some example embodiments, the method 1200 further comprises: in accordance with a determination that the number is less than a threshold value, determining that the required availability is lower than a pre-determined level.

[0166] In some example embodiments, the method 1200 further comprises: determining a time period within which a transmit timing of a specific accuracy is kept after synchronizing with a DL reference signal; and determining the required availability based on a length of the time period.

[0167] In some example embodiments, the method 1200 further comprises: in accordance with a determination that the length of the time period is larger than a threshold value, determining that the required availability is lower than a pre-determined level.

[0168] In some example embodiments, the availability requirement report comprises a list of required availability of the RS for the plurality of carriers of at least one band combination associated with the CA.

[0169] In some example embodiments, the availability requirement report is indicated in a carrier switching report comprising required availability of the RS for the plurality of carriers.

[0170] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a user equipment (UE) or is comprised in a UE, and the second apparatus is a network device.

[0171] In some example embodiments, a first apparatus capable of performing any of the method 1000 (for example, the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 1000. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The first apparatus may be implemented as or included in the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1.

[0172] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for generating an availability requirement report of a RS on a plurality of carriers associated with a CA; and means for transmitting the availability requirement report to a second apparatus.

[0173] In some example embodiments, the availability requirement report indicates a minimum required availability of the RS on the plurality of carriers comprises at least one of the following: a maximum time duration between two consecutive occasions of the reference signal, or a ratio of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers, or a percentage of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers.

[0174] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers refers to at least one primary cell (PCell) of the first apparatus and at least one secondary cell (SCell) of the first apparatus.

[0175] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers are on low bands.

[0176] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers associated with the CA operate in a switching mode.

[0177] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting the availability requirement report to the second apparatus via user equipment (UE) capability information.

[0178] In some example embodiments, the availability requirement report comprises a list of required availability of the RS for the plurality of carriers of at least one band combination associated with the CA.

[0179] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the second apparatus, a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message containing a configuration for a carrier switching report; and means for transmitting the availability requirement report to the second apparatus in a carrier switching report via an RRC reconfiguration complete message.

[0180] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting the availability requirement report to the second apparatus in a carrier switching report via UE assistance information (UAI).

[0181] In some example embodiments, the carrier switching report comprises required availability of the RS for the plurality of carriers, or a carrier associated with a serving cell of the first apparatus to be used in switched carrier mode.

[0182] In some example embodiments, the carrier switching report comprises the required availability of the RS for configured serving carriers in the plurality of carriers.

[0183] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the second apparatus, a configuration of at least one band combination associated with the CA for the carrier switching report.

[0184] In some example embodiments, the carrier switching report comprises the required availability of the RS for the at least one band combination associated with the CA configured by the second apparatus.

[0185] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for obtaining a configuration of a UAI timer; and means for transmitting the availability requirement report to the second apparatus via the UAI based on a prohibited time associated with the UAI timer.

[0186] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for receiving the RS from the plurality of carriers; and means for generating the availability requirement report based on measurements of RS on the plurality of carriers.

[0187] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for receiving the RS from the plurality of carriers; and means for determining a relationship associated with the plurality of carriers based on measurements of RS on the plurality of carriers; and means for generating the availability requirement report based on the relationship.

[0188] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining the number of samples associated with the RS required for a specific measurement accuracy; and means for generating the availability requirement report based on the number.

[0189] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining a time period within which a transmit timing of a specific accuracy is kept after synchronizing with a DL reference signal; and means for generating the availability requirement report based on a length of the time period.

[0190] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the second apparatus, a cell switching configuration determined based on the availability requirement report.

[0191] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises a terminal device and the second apparatus comprises a network device.

[0192] In some example embodiments, a second apparatus capable of performing any of the method 1100 (for example, the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 1100. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The second apparatus may be implemented as or included in the second apparatus 120 in FIG. 1.

[0193] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a first apparatus, an availability requirement report of a RS on a plurality of carriers associated with a CA; means for determining a cell switching configuration based on the availability requirement report.

[0194] In some example embodiments, the availability requirement report indicates a minimum required availability of the RS on the plurality of carriers comprises at least one of the following: a maximum time duration between two consecutive occasions of the reference signal, or a ratio of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers, or a percentage of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers.

[0195] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers refers to at least one primary cell (PCell) of the first apparatus and at least one secondary cell (SCell) of the first apparatus.

[0196] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers is on low bands.

[0197] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers associated with the CA operates in a switching mode.

[0198] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for receiving the availability requirement report via user equipment (UE) capability information.

[0199] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message containing a configuration for a carrier switching report; and means for receiving the availability requirement report in a carrier switching report via a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message.

[0200] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for receiving the availability requirement report to the second apparatus in a carrier switching report via UE assistance information (UAI).

[0201] In some example embodiments, the carrier switching report comprises required availability of the RS in the plurality of carriers, or a carrier associated with a serving cell of the first apparatus to be used in switched carrier mode.

[0202] In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, a cell switching configuration determined based on the availability requirement report.

[0203] In some example embodiments, a first apparatus capable of performing any of the method 1200 (for example, the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 1200. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The first apparatus may be implemented as or included in the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1.

[0204] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for determining, for a plurality of carriers associated with a CA, required availability of a RS on the plurality of carriers; and means for generating an availability requirement report based on the required availability.

[0205] In some example embodiments, the availability requirement report indicates a minimum required availability of the RS on the plurality of carriers comprises at least one of the following: a maximum time duration between two consecutive occasions of the reference signal, or a ratio of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers, or a percentage of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers.

[0206] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers refers to at least one primary cell (PCell) of the first apparatus and at least one secondary cell (SCell) of the first apparatus.

[0207] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers are on low bands.

[0208] In some example embodiments, the plurality of carriers associated with the CA operate in a switching mode.

[0209] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for receiving the RS from the plurality of carriers; means for determining at least one of respective RS, at least one of received power (RSRP) or respective signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) associated with the RS received on the plurality of carriers based on measurements of the RS on the plurality of carriers.

[0210] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for obtaining the mapping for a look-up-table for mapping values of the RSRP or the SNR to the required RS availabilities; and means for determining the required availability based on the mapping and the respective RSRPs or the respective SNRs.

[0211] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining two or more levels for the required RS availabilities based on the one or more thresholds associated with the RSRP or SNR.

[0212] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for receiving the RS from the plurality of carriers; means for determining a relationship associated with the plurality of carriers based on measurements of the RS on the plurality of carriers; and means for determining the required availability based on the relationship.

[0213] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for in accordance with a determination that the relationship indicates that a correlation between a first carrier in the plurality of carriers and a second carrier in the plurality of carriers is stronger than a first predetermined level, determining that the required availability is lower than a second pre-determined level.

[0214] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for estimating a RSRP or SNR of a second carrier in the plurality of carriers based on a further RSRP or SNR of a first carrier in the plurality of carriers by using a machine learning model; and means for in accordance with a determination that an error of estimating the second carrier based on the first carrier is below a threshold, determining that the required availability is lower than a pre-determined level.

[0215] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining the number of samples associated with the RS required for a specific measurement accuracy; and means for determining the required availability based on the number.

[0216] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for in accordance with a determination that the number is less than a threshold value, determining that the required availability is lower than a pre-determined level.

[0217] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining a time period within which a transmit timing of a specific accuracy is kept after synchronizing with aDL reference signal; and means for determining the required availability based on a length of the time period.

[0218] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for in accordance with a determination that the length of the time period is larger than a threshold value, determining that the required availability is lower than a pre-determined level.

[0219] In some example embodiments, the availability requirement report comprises a list of required availability of the RS for the plurality of carriers of at least one band combination associated with the CA.

[0220] In some example embodiments, the availability requirement report is indicated in a carrier switching report comprising required availability of the RS for the plurality of carriers.

[0221] In some example embodiments, the first apparatus is a user equipment (UE) or is comprised in a UE, and the second apparatus is a network device.

[0222] FIG. 13 is a simplified block diagram of a device 1300 that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 1300 may be provided to implement a communication device, for example, the first apparatus 110 or the second apparatus 120 as shown in FIG. 1. As shown, the device 1300 includes one or more processors 1310, one or more memories 1320 coupled to the processor 1310, and one or more communication modules 1340 coupled to the processor 1310.

[0223] The communication module 1340 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 1340 has one or more communication interfaces to facilitate communication with one or more other modules or devices. The communication interfaces may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements. In some example embodiments, the communication module 1340 may include at least one antenna.

[0224] The processor 1310 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 1300 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.

[0225] The memory 1320 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) 1324, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM), a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD), a digital video disk (DVD), an optical disk, a laser disk, and other magnetic storage and / or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random-access memory (RAM) 1322 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-downduration.

[0226] A computer program 1330 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 1310. The instructions of the program 1330 may include instructions for performing operations / acts of some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The program 1330 may be stored in the memory, e.g., the ROM 1324. The processor 1310 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 1330 into the RAM 1322.

[0227] The example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 1330 so that the device 1300 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to FIG. 4 to FIG. 12. The example embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

[0228] In some example embodiments, the program 1330 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 1300 (such as in the memory 1320) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 1300. The device 1300 may load the program 1330 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 1322 for execution. In some example embodiments, the computer readable medium may include any types of non-transitory storage medium, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like. 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).

[0229] FIG. 14 shows an example of the computer readable medium 1400 which may be in form of CD, DVD or other optical storage disk. The computer readable medium 1400 has the program 1330 stored thereon.

[0230] 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, and other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. Although 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.

[0231] Some example embodiments of the present disclosure also provide at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a computer readable medium, such as a non-transitory computer readable medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target physical or virtual processor, to carry out any of the methods as described above. Generally, program modules includeroutines, 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. Machineexecutable 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.

[0232] Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. The program code 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 code, 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.

[0233] In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program code 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.

[0234] 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.

[0235] Further, although 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, although 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. Unless explicitly stated, certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, unless explicitly stated, various features that are described in the context of a singleembodiment may also be implemented in a plurality of embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination.

[0236] 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 or any of the below embodiments.

[0237] Embodiment 21. A second apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus to: receive, from a first apparatus, an availability requirement report of a reference signal (RS) on a plurality of carriers associated with a carrier aggregation (CA); determine a cell switching configuration based on the availability requirement report.

[0238] Embodiment 22. The second apparatus of embodiment 21, wherein the availability requirement report indicates a minimum required availability of the RS on the plurality of carriers comprises at least one of the following: a maximum time duration between two consecutive occasions of the reference signal, or a ratio of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers, or a percentage of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers.

[0239] Embodiment 23. The second apparatus of embodiment 21 or 22, wherein the plurality of carriers refers to at least one primary cell (PCell) of the first apparatus and at least one secondary cell (SCell) of the first apparatus.

[0240] Embodiment 24. The second apparatus of any of embodiments 22-23, wherein the plurality of carriers is on low bands.

[0241] Embodiment 25. The second apparatus of any of embodiments 22-24, wherein the plurality of carriers associated with the CA operates in a switching mode.

[0242] Embodiment 26. The second apparatus of any of embodiments 22-25, wherein the second apparatus is caused to: receive the availability requirement report via user equipment (UE) capability information.

[0243] Embodiment 27. The second apparatus of any of embodiments 22-25, wherein the second apparatus is caused to: transmit, to the first apparatus, a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message containing a configuration for a carrier switching report; and receive the availability requirement report in a carrier switching report via a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message.

[0244] Embodiment 28. The second apparatus of any of embodiments 22-25, wherein the second apparatus is caused to: receive the availability requirement report to the second apparatus in a carrier switching report via UE assistance information (UAI).

[0245] Embodiment 29. The second apparatus of embodiment 27 or 28, wherein the carrier switching report comprises required availability of the RS in the plurality of carriers, or a carrier associated with a serving cell of the first apparatus to be used in switched carrier mode.

[0246] Embodiment 30. The second apparatus of any of embodiments of 22-29, wherein the second apparatus is caused to: transmit, to the first apparatus, a cell switching configuration determined based on the availability requirement report.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A first apparatus comprising:at least one processor; andat least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus to:generate an availability requirement report of a reference signal (RS) on a plurality of carriers associated with a carrier aggregation (CA); andtransmit the availability requirement report to a second apparatus.

2. The first apparatus of claim 1, wherein the availability requirement report indicates a minimum required availability of the RS on the plurality of carriers comprises at least one of the following:a maximum time duration between two consecutive occasions of the reference signal, or a ratio of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers, ora percentage of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers.

3. The first apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the plurality of carriers refers to at least one primary cell (PCell) of the first apparatus and at least one secondary cell (SCell) of the first apparatus.

4. The first apparatus of any of claims 1-3, wherein the plurality of carriers are on low bands.

5. The first apparatus of any of claims 1-4, wherein the plurality of carriers associated with the CA operate in a switching mode.

6. The first apparatus of any of claims 1-5, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:transmit the availability requirement report to the second apparatus via user equipment (UE) capability information.

7. The first apparatus of claim 6, wherein the availability requirement report comprises a list of required availability of the RS for the plurality of carriers of at least one band combination associated with the CA.

8. The first apparatus of any of claims 1-5, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:receive, from the second apparatus, a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message containing a configuration for a carrier switching report; andtransmit the availability requirement report to the second apparatus in a carrier switching report via an RRC reconfiguration complete message.

9. The first apparatus of any of claims 1-5, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:transmit the availability requirement report to the second apparatus in a carrier switching report via UE assistance information (UAI).

10. The first apparatus of claim 8 or 9, wherein the carrier switching report comprises required availability of the RS for the plurality of carriers, or a carrier associated with a serving cell of the first apparatus to be used in switched carrier mode.

11. The first apparatus of claim 10, wherein the carrier switching report comprises the required availability of the RS for configured serving carriers in the plurality of carriers.

12. The first apparatus of claim 10, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:receive, from the second apparatus a configuration of at least one band combination associated with the CA for the carrier switching report.

13. The first apparatus of claim 12, wherein the carrier switching report comprises the required availability of the RS for the at least one band combination associated with the CA configured by the second apparatus.

14. The first apparatus of claim 9, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:obtain a configuration of a UAI timer; andtransmit the availability requirement report to the second apparatus via the UAI based on a prohibited time associated with the UAI timer.

15. The first apparatus of any of claims 1 -14, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:receive the RS from the plurality of carriers; andgenerate the availability requirement report based on measurements of RS on the plurality of carriers.

16. The first apparatus of any of claims 1 -14, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:receive the RS from the plurality of carriers; anddetermine a relationship associated with the plurality of carriers based on measurements of RS on the plurality of carriers; andgenerate the availability requirement report based on the relationship.

17. The first apparatus of claim 16, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:determine the number of samples associated with the RS required for a specific measurement accuracy; andgenerate the availability requirement report based on the number.

18. The first apparatus of any of claims 1 -14, wherein the first apparatus is caused to: determine a time period within which a transmit timing of a specific accuracy is kept after synchronizing with a DL reference signal; andgenerate the availability requirement report based on a length of the time period.

19. The first apparatus of any of claims 1 -18, wherein the first apparatus is caused to: receive, from the second apparatus, a cell switching configuration determined based on the availability requirement report.

20. The first apparatus of any of claims 1-19, wherein the first apparatus comprises a terminal device and the second apparatus comprises a network device.

21. A second apparatus comprising:at least one processor; andat least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second apparatus to:receive, from a first apparatus, an availability requirement report of a reference signal (RS) on a plurality of carriers associated with a carrier aggregation (CA);determine a cell switching configuration based on the availability requirement report.

22. The second apparatus of claim 21, wherein the availability requirement report indicates a minimum required availability of the RS on the plurality of carriers comprises at least one of the following:a maximum time duration between two consecutive occasions of the reference signal, or a ratio of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers, ora percentage of RS occasions which need to be available for the plurality of carriers.

23. The second apparatus of claim 21 or 22, wherein the plurality of carriers refers to at least one primary cell (PCell) of the first apparatus and at least one secondary cell (SCell) of the first apparatus.

24. The second apparatus of any of claims 22-23, wherein the plurality of carriers is on low bands.

25. The second apparatus of any of claims 22-24, wherein the plurality of carriers associated with the CA operates in a switching mode.

26. The second apparatus of any of claims 22-25, wherein the second apparatus is caused to: receive the availability requirement report via user equipment (UE) capability information.

27. The second apparatus of any of claims 22-25, wherein the second apparatus is caused to: transmit, to the first apparatus, a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message containing a configuration for a carrier switching report; andreceive the availability requirement report in a carrier switching report via a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message.

28. The second apparatus of any of claims 22-25, wherein the second apparatus is caused to: receive the availability requirement report to the second apparatus in a carrier switching report via UE assistance information (UAI).

29. The second apparatus of claim 27 or 28, wherein the carrier switching report comprises required availability of the RS in the plurality of carriers, or a carrier associated with a serving cell of the first apparatus to be used in switched carrier mode.

30. The second apparatus of any of claims of 22-29, wherein the second apparatus is caused to: transmit, to the first apparatus, a cell switching configuration determined based on the availability requirement report.

31. A method comprising:generating, by a first apparatus, an availability requirement report of a reference signal (RS) on a plurality of carriers associated with a carrier aggregation (CA); andtransmitting, from the first apparatus, the availability requirement report to a second apparatus.

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