Indicating re-application of on-demand reference signal configuration

Abstract

A method and wireless device related to re-application of an on-demand reference signal configuration is provided. The method includes receiving one or more configurations related to an on-demand reference signal transmission for a serving cell, receiving first information related to a status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell, applying a first configuration among the one or more configurations based on the first information, receiving second information related to the status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell, and determining whether to maintain the first configuration or apply a second configuration based on the second information.

Description

INDICATING RE-APPLICATION OF ON-DEMAND REFERENCE SIGNAL CONFIGURATION

[0001] The present disclosure relates to re-application of an on-demand reference signal configuration.

[0002] 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR) targets a single technical framework addressing all usage scenarios, requirements and deployment scenarios including enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine-type-communications (mMTC), ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC), etc. The NR shall be inherently forward compatible. Further, the NR should be able to use any spectrum band ranging at least up to 100 GHz that may be made available for wireless communications even in a more distant future.

[0003] 6G is the successor to 5G cellular technology. 6G networks will be able to use higher frequencies than 5G networks and provide substantially higher capacity and much lower latency. The 6G technology market is expected to facilitate large improvements in the areas of imaging, presence technology and location awareness. Working in conjunction with Artificial Intelligence (AI), the 6G computational infrastructure will be able to identify the best place for computing to occur. This includes decisions about data storage, processing and sharing.

[0004] In wireless communication systems, synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) are used by a User Equipment (UE) to perform measurements for purposes such as cell discovery, beam management, and mobility support. In addition to always-on SSBs that are periodically transmitted, some systems support on-demand SSB (OD-SSB) transmission, in which SSBs are transmitted only when the network activates them. This mechanism allows the network to reduce unnecessary transmissions while enabling the UE to perform measurements for specific cells when needed, thereby improving overall resource efficiency and reducing power consumption.

[0005] In certain configurations, a UE may receive one or more OD-SSB configurations in advance. These configurations may include parameters related to OD-SSB transmission such as periodicity, transmission offset, and positions of SSBs within a burst. When the network intends to activate or deactivate OD-SSB transmission for one or more Secondary Cells (SCells), the network may transmit a MAC Control Element (MAC CE) indicating activation or deactivation of OD-SSB transmission. The MAC CE may include an indicator pointing to a specific OD-SSB configuration that the UE should apply when performing measurements on the associated SCell. In some cases, the OD-SSB configuration may further indicate that OD-SSB bursts are transmitted a predetermined number of times, for example N bursts, after which the UE may stop performing measurements on the OD-SSB.

[0006] However, the OD-SSB activation / deactivation MAC CE may simultaneously control OD-SSB activation for multiple SCells configured for the UE. In such scenarios, even if OD-SSB transmission for a particular SCell is already activated, the network may still transmit another MAC CE indicating activation of OD-SSB transmission for the same SCell. When the UE receives such a MAC CE, the UE may reapply the indicated OD-SSB configuration and restart counting the number of OD-SSB bursts associated with the configuration.

[0007] As a result, the UE may continue performing OD-SSB measurements longer than originally intended, and the network may transmit more OD-SSB bursts than initially planned. This behavior may lead to unnecessary OD-SSB transmissions and inefficient use of radio resources, thereby increasing network energy consumption. Therefore, there exists a need for mechanisms that enable more efficient control of OD-SSB activation and measurement behavior, particularly in scenarios where multiple SCells are managed simultaneously, so as to prevent redundant OD-SSB transmissions and improve overall network efficiency.

[0008] Therefore, there may be a need for a mechanism that allows a UE to appropriately handle an OD-SSB configuration when receiving an activation / deactivation MAC CE related to OD-SSB transmission. In particular, when the UE receives an OD-SSB activation / deactivation MAC CE, the UE may maintain the OD-SSB configuration indicated by a previously received OD-SSB activation / deactivation MAC CE according to the instruction included in the received MAC CE. Such a mechanism may enable the UE to consistently apply the OD-SSB configuration without unnecessary reconfiguration, thereby preventing ambiguity in OD-SSB configuration handling and reducing unnecessary signaling and processing.

[0009] In an aspect, a method performed by a wireless device is provided. The method comprises receiving one or more configurations related to an on-demand reference signal transmission for a serving cell. The method comprises receiving first information related to a status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell. The method comprises applying a first configuration among the one or more configurations based on the first information. The method comprises receiving second information related to the status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell. The method comprises determining whether to maintain the first configuration or apply a second configuration based on the second information.

[0010]

[0011] The present disclosure may have various advantageous effects.

[0012] For example, the UE may avoid performing unnecessary measurements on on-demand synchronization signal blocks (OD-SSBs). In conventional approaches, when an OD-SSB activation / deactivation MAC Control Element (MAC CE) is received for a Secondary Cell (SCell) whose OD-SSB transmission is already activated, the UE may reapply the indicated configuration and restart the counting of OD-SSB bursts. As a result, the UE may continue performing OD-SSB measurements longer than originally intended. By preventing such redundant measurement behavior, the present disclosure may allow the UE to perform OD-SSB measurements only for the intended duration, thereby improving measurement efficiency and reducing unnecessary processing operations at the UE.

[0013] For example, the network may configure and control the number of OD-SSB burst transmissions as originally intended. In conventional mechanisms, repeated activation indications may cause the UE to restart burst counting, which may lead the network to transmit additional OD-SSB bursts beyond the originally configured number. By avoiding such unintended restart of burst counting, the present disclosure may allow the network to maintain precise control over the number of OD-SSB bursts transmitted for each SCell, thereby ensuring that the configured transmission behavior is properly followed.

[0014] For example, by preventing unnecessary OD-SSB measurements and redundant OD-SSB burst transmissions, the present disclosure may improve overall system efficiency. Reducing unnecessary OD-SSB transmissions may decrease network energy consumption and improve radio resource utilization, while avoiding redundant UE measurements may reduce UE processing load and power consumption. As a result, the proposed mechanism may contribute to more efficient operation of both the UE and the network in scenarios where OD-SSB transmission is dynamically controlled.

[0015] Advantageous effects which can be obtained through specific embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to the advantageous effects listed above. For example, there may be various additional technical effects that a person having ordinary skill in the related art can understand and / or derive from the present disclosure. Accordingly, the specific effects of the present disclosure are not limited to those explicitly described herein, but may include various effects that may be understood or derived from the technical features of the present disclosure.

[0016] FIG. 1 shows an example of a communication system to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0017] FIG. 2 shows an example of wireless devices to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0018] FIG. 3 shows an example of a UE to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0019] FIGS. 4 and 5 show an example of protocol stacks in a 3GPP based wireless communication system to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0020] FIG. 6 shows a frame structure in a 3GPP based wireless communication system to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0021] FIG. 7 shows a data flow example in the 3GPP NR system to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0022] FIG. 8 shows an example of a method performed by a wireless device to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0023] FIG. 9 shows an example of a method performed by a base station to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0024] FIG. 10 shows an example of a MAC CE format for indicating an OD-SSB transmission status to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0025] FIG. 11 shows an example of MAC CE format including 1-bit indicator to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0026] FIGS.12 to 15 show examples of MAC CE format related to a reserved value of OD-SSB configuration field to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0027] The following techniques, apparatuses, and systems may be applied to a variety of wireless multiple access systems. Examples of the multiple access systems include a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, a Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) system, a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) system, an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) system, a Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) system, and a Multi Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (MC-FDMA) system. CDMA may be embodied through radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) or CDMA2000. TDMA may be embodied through radio technology such as Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), or Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE). OFDMA may be embodied through radio technology such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, or Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA). UTRA is a part of a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is a part of Evolved UMTS (E-UMTS) using E-UTRA. 3GPP LTE employs OFDMA in Downlink (DL) and SC-FDMA in Uplink (UL). Evolution of 3GPP LTE includes LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), LTE-A Pro, and / or 5G New Radio (NR).

[0028] For convenience of description, implementations of the present disclosure are mainly described in regards to a 3GPP based wireless communication system. However, the technical features of the present disclosure are not limited thereto. For example, although the following detailed description is given based on a mobile communication system corresponding to a 3GPP based wireless communication system, aspects of the present disclosure that are not limited to 3GPP based wireless communication system are applicable to other mobile communication systems.

[0029] For terms and technologies which are not specifically described among the terms of and technologies employed in the present disclosure, the wireless communication standard documents published before the present disclosure may be referenced.

[0030] In the present disclosure, "A or B" may mean "only A", "only B", or "both A and B". In other words, "A or B" in the present disclosure may be interpreted as "A and / or B". For example, "A, B or C" in the present disclosure may mean "only A", "only B", "only C", or "any combination of A, B and C".

[0031] In the present disclosure, slash ( / ) or comma (,) may mean "and / or". For example, "A / B" may mean "A and / or B". Accordingly, "A / B" may mean "only A", "only B", or "both A and B". For example, "A, B, C" may mean "A, B or C".

[0032] In the present disclosure, "at least one of A and B" may mean "only A", "only B" or "both A and B". In addition, the expression "at least one of A or B" or "at least one of A and / or B" in the present disclosure may be interpreted as same as "at least one of A and B".

[0033] In addition, in the present disclosure, "at least one of A, B and C" may mean "only A", "only B", "only C", or "any combination of A, B and C". In addition, "at least one of A, B or C" or "at least one of A, B and / or C" may mean "at least one of A, B and C".

[0034] Also, parentheses used in the present disclosure may mean "for example". In detail, when it is shown as "control information (PDCCH)", "PDCCH" may be proposed as an example of "control information". In other words, "control information" in the present disclosure is not limited to "PDCCH", and "PDCCH" may be proposed as an example of "control information". In addition, even when shown as "control information (i.e., PDCCH)", "PDCCH" may be proposed as an example of "control information".

[0035] Technical features that are separately described in one drawing in the present disclosure may be implemented separately or simultaneously.

[0036] Although not limited thereto, various descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts of the present disclosure disclosed herein can be applied to various fields requiring wireless communication and / or connection (e.g., 5G) between devices.

[0037] Hereinafter, the present disclosure will be described in more detail with reference to drawings. The same reference numerals in the following drawings and / or descriptions may refer to the same and / or corresponding hardware blocks, software blocks, and / or functional blocks unless otherwise indicated.

[0038] FIG. 1 shows an example of a communication system to which implementations of the present disclosure is applied.

[0039] The 5G usage scenarios shown in FIG. 1 are only exemplary, and the technical features of the present disclosure can be applied to other 5G usage scenarios which are not shown in FIG. 1.

[0040] Three main requirement categories for 5G include (1) a category of enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), (2) a category of massive machine type communication (mMTC), and (3) a category of ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC).

[0041] Referring to FIG. 1, the communication system 1 includes wireless devices 100a to 100f, base stations (BSs) 200, and a network 300. Although FIG. 1 illustrates a 5G network as an example of the network of the communication system 1, the implementations of the present disclosure are not limited to the 5G system, and can be applied to the future communication system beyond the 5G system.

[0042] The BSs 200 and the network 300 may be implemented as wireless devices and a specific wireless device may operate as a BS / network node with respect to other wireless devices.

[0043] The wireless devices 100a to 100f represent devices performing communication using radio access technology (RAT) (e.g., 5G new RAT (NR)) or LTE) and may be referred to as communication / radio / 5G devices. The wireless devices 100a to 100f may include, without being limited to, a robot 100a, vehicles 100b-1 and 100b-2, an extended reality (XR) device 100c, a hand-held device 100d, a home appliance 100e, an IoT device 100f, and an artificial intelligence (AI) device / server 400. For example, the vehicles may include a vehicle having a wireless communication function, an autonomous driving vehicle, and a vehicle capable of performing communication between vehicles. The vehicles may include an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) (e.g., a drone). The XR device may include an AR / VR / Mixed Reality (MR) device and may be implemented in the form of a head-mounted device (HMD), a head-up display (HUD) mounted in a vehicle, a television, a smartphone, a computer, a wearable device, a home appliance device, a digital signage, a vehicle, a robot, etc. The hand-held device may include a smartphone, a smartpad, a wearable device (e.g., a smartwatch or a smartglasses), and a computer (e.g., a notebook). The home appliance may include a TV, a refrigerator, and a washing machine. The IoT device may include a sensor and a smartmeter.

[0044] In the present disclosure, the wireless devices 100a to 100f may be called user equipments (UEs). A UE may include, for example, a cellular phone, a smartphone, a laptop computer, a digital broadcast terminal, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable multimedia player (PMP), a navigation system, a slate personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, an ultrabook, a vehicle, a vehicle having an autonomous traveling function, a connected car, an UAV, an AI module, a robot, an AR device, a VR device, an MR device, a hologram device, a public safety device, an MTC device, an IoT device, a medical device, a FinTech device (or a financial device), a security device, a weather / environment device, a device related to a 5G service, or a device related to a fourth industrial revolution field.

[0045] The wireless devices 100a to 100f may be connected to the network 300 via the BSs 200. An AI technology may be applied to the wireless devices 100a to 100f and the wireless devices 100a to 100f may be connected to the AI server 400 via the network 300. The network 300 may be configured using a 3G network, a 4G (e.g., LTE) network, a 5G (e.g., NR) network, and a beyond-5G network. Although the wireless devices 100a to 100f may communicate with each other through the BSs 200 / network 300, the wireless devices 100a to 100f may perform direct communication (e.g., sidelink communication) with each other without passing through the BSs 200 / network 300. For example, the vehicles 100b-1 and 100b-2 may perform direct communication (e.g., vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) / vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication). The IoT device (e.g., a sensor) may perform direct communication with other IoT devices (e.g., sensors) or other wireless devices 100a to 100f.

[0046] Wireless communication / connections 150a, 150b and 150c may be established between the wireless devices 100a to 100f and / or between wireless device 100a to 100f and BS 200 and / or between BSs 200. Herein, the wireless communication / connections may be established through various RATs (e.g., 5G NR) such as uplink / downlink communication 150a, sidelink communication (or device-to-device (D2D) communication) 150b, inter-base station communication 150c (e.g., relay, integrated access and backhaul (IAB)), etc. The wireless devices 100a to 100f and the BSs 200 / the wireless devices 100a to 100f may transmit / receive radio signals to / from each other through the wireless communication / connections 150a, 150b and 150c. For example, the wireless communication / connections 150a, 150b and 150c may transmit / receive signals through various physical channels. To this end, at least a part of various configuration information configuring processes, various signal processing processes (e.g., channel encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and resource mapping / de-mapping), and resource allocating processes, for transmitting / receiving radio signals, may be performed based on the various proposals of the present disclosure.

[0047] NR supports multiples numerologies (and / or multiple Sub-Carrier Spacings (SCS)) to support various 5G services. For example, if SCS is 15 kHz, wide area can be supported in traditional cellular bands, and if SCS is 30 kHz / 60 kHz, dense-urban, lower latency, and wider carrier bandwidth can be supported. If SCS is 60 kHz or higher, bandwidths greater than 24.25 GHz can be supported to overcome phase noise.

[0048] The NR frequency band may be defined as two types of frequency range, i.e., Frequency Range 1 (FR1) and Frequency Range 2 (FR2). The numerical value of the frequency range may be changed. For example, the frequency ranges of the two types (FR1 and FR2) may be as shown in Table 1 below. For ease of explanation, in the frequency ranges used in the NR system, FR1 may mean "sub 6 GHz range", FR2 may mean "above 6 GHz range," and may be referred to as millimeter Wave (mmW).

[0049] Frequency Range designationCorresponding frequency rangeSubcarrier SpacingFR1450MHz - 6000MHz15, 30, 60kHzFR224250MHz - 52600MHz60, 120, 240kHz

[0050] As mentioned above, the numerical value of the frequency range of the NR system may be changed. For example, FR1 may include a frequency band of 410MHz to 7125MHz as shown in Table 2 below. That is, FR1 may include a frequency band of 6GHz (or 5850, 5900, 5925 MHz, etc.) or more. For example, a frequency band of 6 GHz (or 5850, 5900, 5925 MHz, etc.) or more included in FR1 may include an unlicensed band. Unlicensed bands may be used for a variety of purposes, for example for communication for vehicles (e.g., autonomous driving).

[0051] Frequency Range designationCorresponding frequency rangeSubcarrier SpacingFR1410MHz - 7125MHz15, 30, 60kHzFR224250MHz - 52600MHz60, 120, 240kHz

[0052] Here, the radio communication technologies implemented in the wireless devices in the present disclosure may include narrowband internet-of-things (NB-IoT) technology for low-power communication as well as LTE, NR and 6G. For example, NB-IoT technology may be an example of low power wide area network (LPWAN) technology, may be implemented in specifications such as LTE Cat NB1 and / or LTE Cat NB2, and may not be limited to the above-mentioned names. Additionally and / or alternatively, the radio communication technologies implemented in the wireless devices in the present disclosure may communicate based on LTE-M technology. For example, LTE-M technology may be an example of LPWAN technology and be called by various names such as enhanced machine type communication (eMTC). For example, LTE-M technology may be implemented in at least one of the various specifications, such as 1) LTE Cat 0, 2) LTE Cat M1, 3) LTE Cat M2, 4) LTE non-bandwidth limited (non-BL), 5) LTE-MTC, 6) LTE Machine Type Communication, and / or 7) LTE M, and may not be limited to the above-mentioned names. Additionally and / or alternatively, the radio communication technologies implemented in the wireless devices in the present disclosure may include at least one of ZigBee, Bluetooth, and / or LPWAN which take into account low-power communication, and may not be limited to the above-mentioned names. For example, ZigBee technology may generate personal area networks (PANs) associated with small / low-power digital communication based on various specifications such as IEEE 802.15.4 and may be called various names.

[0053] FIG. 2 shows an example of wireless devices to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0054] In FIG. 2, The first wireless device 100 and / or the second wireless device 200 may be implemented in various forms according to use cases / services. For example, {the first wireless device 100 and the second wireless device 200} may correspond to at least one of {the wireless device 100a to 100f and the BS 200}, {the wireless device 100a to 100f and the wireless device 100a to 100f} and / or {the BS 200 and the BS 200} of FIG. 1. The first wireless device 100 and / or the second wireless device 200 may be configured by various elements, devices / parts, and / or modules.

[0055] The first wireless device 100 may include at least one transceiver, such as a transceiver 106, at least one processing chip, such as a processing chip 101, and / or one or more antennas 108.

[0056] The processing chip 101 may include at least one processor, such a processor 102, and at least one memory, such as a memory 104. Additional and / or alternatively, the memory 104 may be placed outside of the processing chip 101.

[0057] The processor 102 may control the memory 104 and / or the transceiver 106 and may be adapted to implement the descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts described in the present disclosure. For example, the processor 102 may process information within the memory 104 to generate first information / signals and then transmit radio signals including the first information / signals through the transceiver 106. The processor 102 may receive radio signals including second information / signals through the transceiver 106 and then store information obtained by processing the second information / signals in the memory 104.

[0058] The memory 104 may be operably connectable to the processor 102. The memory 104 may store various types of information and / or instructions. The memory 104 may store a firmware and / or a software code 105 which implements codes, commands, and / or a set of commands that, when executed by the processor 102, perform the descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts disclosed in the present disclosure. For example, the firmware and / or the software code 105 may implement instructions that, when executed by the processor 102, perform the descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts disclosed in the present disclosure. For example, the firmware and / or the software code 105 may control the processor 102 to perform one or more protocols. For example, the firmware and / or the software code 105 may control the processor 102 to perform one or more layers of the radio interface protocol.

[0059] Herein, the processor 102 and the memory 104 may be a part of a communication modem / circuit / chip designed to implement RAT (e.g., LTE or NR). The transceiver 106 may be connected to the processor 102 and transmit and / or receive radio signals through one or more antennas 108. Each of the transceiver 106 may include a transmitter and / or a receiver. The transceiver 106 may be interchangeably used with Radio Frequency (RF) unit(s). In the present disclosure, the first wireless device 100 may represent a communication modem / circuit / chip.

[0060] The second wireless device 200 may include at least one transceiver, such as a transceiver 206, at least one processing chip, such as a processing chip 201, and / or one or more antennas 208.

[0061] The processing chip 201 may include at least one processor, such a processor 202, and at least one memory, such as a memory 204. Additional and / or alternatively, the memory 204 may be placed outside of the processing chip 201.

[0062] The processor 202 may control the memory 204 and / or the transceiver 206 and may be adapted to implement the descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts described in the present disclosure. For example, the processor 202 may process information within the memory 204 to generate third information / signals and then transmit radio signals including the third information / signals through the transceiver 206. The processor 202 may receive radio signals including fourth information / signals through the transceiver 106 and then store information obtained by processing the fourth information / signals in the memory 204.

[0063] The memory 204 may be operably connectable to the processor 202. The memory 204 may store various types of information and / or instructions. The memory 204 may store a firmware and / or a software code 205 which implements codes, commands, and / or a set of commands that, when executed by the processor 202, perform the descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts disclosed in the present disclosure. For example, the firmware and / or the software code 205 may implement instructions that, when executed by the processor 202, perform the descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts disclosed in the present disclosure. For example, the firmware and / or the software code 205 may control the processor 202 to perform one or more protocols. For example, the firmware and / or the software code 205 may control the processor 202 to perform one or more layers of the radio interface protocol.

[0064] Herein, the processor 202 and the memory 204 may be a part of a communication modem / circuit / chip designed to implement RAT (e.g., LTE or NR). The transceiver 206 may be connected to the processor 202 and transmit and / or receive radio signals through one or more antennas 208. Each of the transceiver 206 may include a transmitter and / or a receiver. The transceiver 206 may be interchangeably used with RF unit. In the present disclosure, the second wireless device 200 may represent a communication modem / circuit / chip.

[0065] Hereinafter, hardware elements of the wireless devices 100 and 200 will be described more specifically. One or more protocol layers may be implemented by, without being limited to, one or more processors 102 and 202. For example, the one or more processors 102 and 202 may implement one or more layers (e.g., functional layers such as Physical (PHY) layer, Media Access Control (MAC) layer, Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer, and Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) layer). The one or more processors 102 and 202 may generate one or more Protocol Data Units (PDUs), one or more Service Data Unit (SDUs), messages, control information, data, or information according to the descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts disclosed in the present disclosure. The one or more processors 102 and 202 may generate signals (e.g., baseband signals) including PDUs, SDUs, messages, control information, data, or information according to the descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts disclosed in the present disclosure and provide the generated signals to the one or more transceivers 106 and 206. The one or more processors 102 and 202 may receive the signals (e.g., baseband signals) from the one or more transceivers 106 and 206 and acquire the PDUs, SDUs, messages, control information, data, or information according to the descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts disclosed in the present disclosure.

[0066] The one or more processors 102 and 202 may be referred to as controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, or microcomputers. The one or more processors 102 and 202 may be implemented by hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof. As an example, one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), one or more Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), one or more Digital Signal Processing Devices (DSPDs), one or more Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), or one or more Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) may be included in the one or more processors 102 and 202. For example, the one or more processors 102 and 202 may be configured by a set of a communication control processor, an Application Processor (AP), an Electronic Control Unit (ECU), a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Graphic Processing Unit (GPU), and a memory control processor.

[0067] The one or more memories 104 and 204 may be connected to the one or more processors 102 and 202 and store various types of data, signals, messages, information, programs, code, instructions, and / or commands. The one or more memories 104 and 204 may be configured by Random Access Memory (RAM), Dynamic RAM (DRAM), Read-Only Memory (ROM), electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), flash memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, hard drive, register, cash memory, computer-readable storage medium, and / or combinations thereof. The one or more memories 104 and 204 may be located at the interior and / or exterior of the one or more processors 102 and 202. The one or more memories 104 and 204 may be connected to the one or more processors 102 and 202 through various technologies such as wired or wireless connection.

[0068] The one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may transmit user data, control information, and / or radio signals / channels, mentioned in the descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts disclosed in the present disclosure, to one or more other devices. The one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may receive user data, control information, and / or radio signals / channels, mentioned in the descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts disclosed in the present disclosure, from one or more other devices. For example, the one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may be connected to the one or more processors 102 and 202 and transmit and receive radio signals. For example, the one or more processors 102 and 202 may perform control so that the one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may transmit user data, control information, or radio signals to one or more other devices. The one or more processors 102 and 202 may perform control so that the one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may receive user data, control information, or radio signals from one or more other devices.

[0069] The one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may be connected to the one or more antennas 108 and 208. Additionally and / or alternatively, the one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may include one or more antennas 108 and 208. The one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may be adapted to transmit and receive user data, control information, and / or radio signals / channels, mentioned in the descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts disclosed in the present disclosure, through the one or more antennas 108 and 208. In the present disclosure, the one or more antennas 108 and 208 may be a plurality of physical antennas or a plurality of logical antennas (e.g., antenna ports).

[0070] The one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may convert received user data, control information, radio signals / channels, etc., from RF band signals into baseband signals in order to process received user data, control information, radio signals / channels, etc., using the one or more processors 102 and 202. The one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may convert the user data, control information, radio signals / channels, etc., processed using the one or more processors 102 and 202 from the base band signals into the RF band signals. To this end, the one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may include (analog) oscillators and / or filters. For example, the one or more transceivers 106 and 206 can up-convert OFDM baseband signals to OFDM signals by their (analog) oscillators and / or filters under the control of the one or more processors 102 and 202 and transmit the up-converted OFDM signals at the carrier frequency. The one or more transceivers 106 and 206 may receive OFDM signals at a carrier frequency and down-convert the OFDM signals into OFDM baseband signals by their (analog) oscillators and / or filters under the control of the one or more processors 102 and 202.

[0071] Although not shown in FIG. 2, the wireless devices 100 and 200 may further include additional components. The additional components 140 may be variously configured according to types of the wireless devices 100 and 200. For example, the additional components 140 may include at least one of a power unit / battery, an Input / Output (I / O) device (e.g., audio I / O port, video I / O port), a driving device, and a computing device. The additional components 140 may be coupled to the one or more processors 102 and 202 via various technologies, such as a wired or wireless connection.

[0072] In the implementations of the present disclosure, a UE may operate as a transmitting device in UL and as a receiving device in DL. In the implementations of the present disclosure, a BS may operate as a receiving device in UL and as a transmitting device in DL. Hereinafter, for convenience of description, it is mainly assumed that the first wireless device 100 acts as the UE, and the second wireless device 200 acts as the BS. For example, the processor(s) 102 connected to, mounted on or launched in the first wireless device 100 may be adapted to perform the UE behavior according to an implementation of the present disclosure or control the transceiver(s) 106 to perform the UE behavior according to an implementation of the present disclosure. The processor(s) 202 connected to, mounted on or launched in the second wireless device 200 may be adapted to perform the BS behavior according to an implementation of the present disclosure or control the transceiver(s) 206 to perform the BS behavior according to an implementation of the present disclosure.

[0073] In the present disclosure, a BS is also referred to as a node B (NB), an eNode B (eNB), or a gNB.

[0074] FIG. 3 shows an example of a UE to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0075] Referring to FIG. 3, a UE 100 may correspond to the first wireless device 100 of FIG. 2.

[0076] A UE 100 includes a processor 102, a memory 104, a transceiver 106, one or more antennas 108, a power management module 141, a battery 142, a display 143, a keypad 144, a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card 145, a speaker 146, and a microphone 147.

[0077] The processor 102 may be adapted to implement the descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts disclosed in the present disclosure. The processor 102 may be adapted to control one or more other components of the UE 100 to implement the descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts disclosed in the present disclosure. Layers of the radio interface protocol may be implemented in the processor 102. The processor 102 may include ASIC, other chipset, logic circuit and / or data processing device. The processor 102 may be an application processor. The processor 102 may include at least one of DSP, CPU, GPU, a modem (modulator and demodulator). An example of the processor 102 may be found in SNAPDRAGONTMseries of processors made by QUALCOMM®, EXYNOSTMseries of processors made by SAMSUNG®, A series of processors made by APPLE®, HELIOTMseries of processors made by MEDIATEK®, ATOMTMseries of processors made by INTEL® or a corresponding next generation processor.

[0078] The memory 104 is operatively coupled with the processor 102 and stores a variety of information to operate the processor 102. The memory 104 may include ROM, RAM, flash memory, memory card, storage medium and / or other storage device. When the embodiments are implemented in software, the techniques described herein can be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, etc.) that perform the descriptions, functions, procedures, suggestions, methods and / or operational flowcharts disclosed in the present disclosure. The modules can be stored in the memory 104 and executed by the processor 102. The memory 104 can be implemented within the processor 102 or external to the processor 102 in which case those can be communicatively coupled to the processor 102 via various means as is known in the art.

[0079] The transceiver 106 is operatively coupled with the processor 102, and transmits and / or receives a radio signal. The transceiver 106 includes a transmitter and a receiver. The transceiver 106 may include baseband circuitry to process radio frequency signals. The transceiver 106 controls the one or more antennas 108 to transmit and / or receive a radio signal.

[0080] The power management module 141 manages power for the processor 102 and / or the transceiver 106. The battery 142 supplies power to the power management module 141.

[0081] The display 143 outputs results processed by the processor 102. The keypad 144 receives inputs to be used by the processor 102. The keypad 144 may be shown on the display 143.

[0082] The SIM card 145 is an　integrated circuit　that is intended to　securely store the　International Mobile Subscriber Identity　(IMSI) number and its related　key, which are used to identify and authenticate subscribers on　mobile telephony　devices (such as　mobile phones　and　computers). It is also possible to store contact information on many SIM cards.

[0083] The speaker 146 outputs sound-related results processed by the processor 102. The microphone 147 receives sound-related inputs to be used by the processor 102.

[0084] FIGS. 4 and 5 show an example of protocol stacks in a 3GPP based wireless communication system to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0085] In particular, FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a radio interface user plane protocol stack between a UE and a BS and FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a radio interface control plane protocol stack between a UE and a BS. The control plane refers to a path through which control messages used to manage call by a UE and a network are transported. The user plane refers to a path through which data generated in an application layer, for example, voice data or Internet packet data are transported. Referring to FIG. 4, the user plane protocol stack may be divided into Layer 1 (i.e., a PHY layer) and Layer 2. Referring to FIG. 5, the control plane protocol stack may be divided into Layer 1 (i.e., a PHY layer), Layer 2, Layer 3 (e.g., an RRC layer), and a Non-Access Stratum (NAS) layer. Layer 1, Layer 2 and Layer 3 are referred to as an Access Stratum (AS).

[0086] In the 3GPP LTE system, the Layer 2 is split into the following sublayers: MAC, RLC, and PDCP. In the 3GPP NR system, the Layer 2 is split into the following sublayers: MAC, RLC, PDCP and SDAP. The PHY layer offers to the MAC sublayer transport channels, the MAC sublayer offers to the RLC sublayer logical channels, the RLC sublayer offers to the PDCP sublayer RLC channels, the PDCP sublayer offers to the SDAP sublayer radio bearers. The SDAP sublayer offers to 5G core network Quality of Service (QoS) flows.

[0087] In the 3GPP NR system, the main services and functions of the MAC sublayer include: mapping between logical channels and transport channels; multiplexing / de-multiplexing of MAC SDUs belonging to one or different logical channels into / from Transport Blocks (TB) delivered to / from the physical layer on transport channels; scheduling information reporting; error correction through Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) (one HARQ entity per cell in case of Carrier Aggregation (CA)); priority handling between UEs by means of dynamic scheduling; priority handling between logical channels of one UE by means of logical channel prioritization; padding. A single MAC entity may support multiple numerologies, transmission timings and cells. Mapping restrictions in logical channel prioritization control which numerology(ies), cell(s), and transmission timing(s) a logical channel can use.

[0088] Different kinds of data transfer services are offered by MAC. To accommodate different kinds of data transfer services, multiple types of logical channels are defined, i.e., each supporting transfer of a particular type of information. Each logical channel type is defined by what type of information is transferred. Logical channels are classified into two groups: control channels and traffic channels. Control channels are used for the transfer of control plane information only, and traffic channels are used for the transfer of user plane information only. Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH) is a downlink logical channel for broadcasting system control information, Paging Control Channel (PCCH) is a downlink logical channel that transfers paging information, system information change notifications and indications of ongoing Public Warning Service (PWS) broadcasts, Common Control Channel (CCCH) is a logical channel for transmitting control information between UEs and network and used for UEs having no RRC connection with the network, and Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH) is a point-to-point bi-directional logical channel that transmits dedicated control information between a UE and the network and used by UEs having an RRC connection. Dedicated Traffic Channel (DTCH) is a point-to-point logical channel, dedicated to one UE, for the transfer of user information. A DTCH can exist in both uplink and downlink. In downlink, the following connections between logical channels and transport channels exist: BCCH can be mapped to Broadcast Channel (BCH); BCCH can be mapped to Downlink Shared Channel (DL-SCH); PCCH can be mapped to Paging Channel (PCH); CCCH can be mapped to DL-SCH; DCCH can be mapped to DL-SCH; and DTCH can be mapped to DL-SCH. In uplink, the following connections between logical channels and transport channels exist: CCCH can be mapped to Uplink Shared Channel (UL-SCH); DCCH can be mapped to UL-SCH; and DTCH can be mapped to UL-SCH.

[0089] The RLC sublayer supports three transmission modes: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). The RLC configuration is per logical channel with no dependency on numerologies and / or transmission durations. In the 3GPP NR system, the main services and functions of the RLC sublayer depend on the transmission mode and include: transfer of upper layer PDUs; sequence numbering independent of the one in PDCP (UM and AM); error correction through ARQ (AM only); segmentation (AM and UM) and re-segmentation (AM only) of RLC SDUs; reassembly of SDU (AM and UM); duplicate detection (AM only); RLC SDU discard (AM and UM); RLC re-establishment; protocol error detection (AM only).

[0090] In the 3GPP NR system, the main services and functions of the PDCP sublayer for the user plane include: sequence numbering; header compression and decompression using Robust Header Compression (ROHC); transfer of user data; reordering and duplicate detection; in-order delivery; PDCP PDU routing (in case of split bearers); retransmission of PDCP SDUs; ciphering, deciphering and integrity protection; PDCP SDU discard; PDCP re-establishment and data recovery for RLC AM; PDCP status reporting for RLC AM; duplication of PDCP PDUs and duplicate discard indication to lower layers. The main services and functions of the PDCP sublayer for the control plane include: sequence numbering; ciphering, deciphering and integrity protection; transfer of control plane data; reordering and duplicate detection; in-order delivery; duplication of PDCP PDUs and duplicate discard indication to lower layers.

[0091] In the 3GPP NR system, the main services and functions of SDAP include: mapping between a QoS flow and a data radio bearer; marking QoS Flow ID (QFI) in both DL and UL packets. A single protocol entity of SDAP is configured for each individual PDU session.

[0092] In the 3GPP NR system, the main services and functions of the RRC sublayer include: broadcast of system information related to AS and NAS; paging initiated by 5G Core network (5GC) or Next-Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN); establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the UE and NG-RAN; security functions including key management; establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of Signaling Radio Bearers (SRBs) and Data Radio Bearers (DRBs); mobility functions (including: handover and context transfer, UE cell selection and reselection and control of cell selection and reselection, inter-RAT mobility); QoS management functions; UE measurement reporting and control of the reporting; detection of and recovery from radio link failure; NAS message transfer to / from NAS from / to UE.

[0093] FIG. 6 shows a frame structure in a 3GPP based wireless communication system to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0094] The frame structure shown in FIG. 6 is purely exemplary and the number of subframes, the number of slots, and / or the number of symbols in a frame may be variously changed. In the 3GPP based wireless communication system, OFDM numerologies (e.g., SCS, Transmission Time Interval (TTI) duration) may be differently configured between a plurality of cells aggregated for one UE. For example, if a UE is configured with different SCSs for cells aggregated for the cell, an (absolute time) duration of a time resource (e.g., a subframe, a slot, or a TTI) including the same number of symbols may be different among the aggregated cells. Herein, symbols may include OFDM symbols (or Cyclic Prefix (CP)-OFDM symbols), SC-FDMA symbols (or Discrete Fourier Transform-spread-OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) symbols).

[0095] Referring to FIG. 6, downlink and uplink transmissions are organized into frames. Each frame has Tf= 10ms duration. Each frame is divided into two half-frames, where each of the half-frames has 5ms duration. Each half-frame consists of 5 subframes, where the duration Tsfper subframe is 1ms. Each subframe is divided into slots and the number of slots in a subframe depends on a subcarrier spacing. Each slot includes 14 or 12 OFDM symbols based on a CP. In a normal CP, each slot includes 14 OFDM symbols and, in an extended CP, each slot includes 12 OFDM symbols. The numerology is based on exponentially scalable subcarrier spacing △f = 2u*15 kHz.

[0096] Table 3 shows the number of OFDM symbols per slot Nslotsymb, the number of slots per frame Nframe,uslot, and the number of slots per subframe Nsubframe,uslotfor the normal CP, according to the subcarrier spacing Δf= 2u*15 kHz.

[0097] uNslotsymbNframe,uslotNsubframe,uslot01410111420221440431480841416016

[0098] Table 4 shows the number of OFDM symbols per slot Nslotsymb, the number of slots per frame Nframe,uslot, and the number of slots per subframe Nsubframe,uslotfor the extended CP, according to the subcarrier spacing △f = 2u*15 kHz.

[0099] uNslotsymbNframe,uslotNsubframe,uslot212404

[0100] A slot includes plural symbols (e.g., 14 or 12 symbols) in the time domain. For each numerology (e.g., subcarrier spacing) and carrier, a resource grid of Nsize,ugrid,x*NRBscsubcarriers and Nsubframe,usymbOFDM symbols is defined, starting at Common Resource Block (CRB) Nstart,ugridindicated by higher-layer signaling (e.g., RRC signaling), where Nsize,ugrid,xis the number of Resource Blocks (RBs) in the resource grid and the subscript x is DL for downlink and UL for uplink. NRBscis the number of subcarriers per RB. In the 3GPP based wireless communication system, NRBscis 12 generally. There is one resource grid for a given antenna port p, subcarrier spacing configuration u, and transmission direction (DL or UL). The carrier bandwidth Nsize,ugridfor subcarrier spacing configuration u is given by the higher-layer parameter (e.g., RRC parameter). Each element in the resource grid for the antenna port p and the subcarrier spacing configuration u is referred to as a Resource Element (RE) and one complex symbol may be mapped to each RE. Each RE in the resource grid is uniquely identified by an index k in the frequency domain and an index l representing a symbol location relative to a reference point in the time domain. In the 3GPP based wireless communication system, an RB is defined by 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain.In the 3GPP NR system, RBs are classified into CRBs and Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs). CRBs are numbered from 0 and upwards in the frequency domain for subcarrier spacing configuration u. The center of subcarrier 0 of CRB 0 for subcarrier spacing configuration u coincides with 'point A' which serves as a common reference point for resource block grids. In the 3GPP NR system, PRBs are defined within a BandWidth Part (BWP) and numbered from 0 to NsizeBWP,i-1, where i is the number of the bandwidth part. The relation between the physical resource block nPRBin the bandwidth part i and the common resource block nCRBis as follows: nPRB= nCRB+ NsizeBWP,i, where NsizeBWP,iis the common resource block where bandwidth part starts relative to CRB 0. The BWP includes a plurality of consecutive RBs. A carrier may include a maximum of N (e.g., 5) BWPs. A UE may be configured with one or more BWPs on a given component carrier. Only one BWP among BWPs configured to the UE can active at a time. The active BWP defines the UE's operating bandwidth within the cell's operating bandwidth. In the present disclosure, the term "cell" may refer to a geographic area to which one or more nodes provide a communication system, or refer to radio resources. A "cell" as a geographic area may be understood as coverage within which a node can provide service using a carrier and a "cell" as radio resources (e.g., time-frequency resources) is associated with bandwidth which is a frequency range configured by the carrier. The "cell" associated with the radio resources is defined by a combination of downlink resources and uplink resources, for example, a combination of a DL Component Carrier (CC) and a UL CC. The cell may be configured by downlink resources only, or may be configured by downlink resources and uplink resources. Since DL coverage, which is a range within which the node is capable of transmitting a valid signal, and UL coverage, which is a range within which the node is capable of receiving the valid signal from the UE, depends upon a carrier carrying the signal, the coverage of the node may be associated with coverage of the "cell" of radio resources used by the node. Accordingly, the term "cell" may be used to represent service coverage of the node sometimes, radio resources at other times, or a range that signals using the radio resources can reach with valid strength at other times.

[0101] In CA, two or more CCs are aggregated. A UE may simultaneously receive or transmit on one or multiple CCs depending on its capabilities. CA is supported for both contiguous and non-contiguous CCs. When CA is configured, the UE only has one RRC connection with the network. At RRC connection establishment / re-establishment / handover, one serving cell provides the NAS mobility information, and at RRC connection re-establishment / handover, one serving cell provides the security input. The cell is referred to as the Primary Cell (PCell). The PCell is a cell, operating on the primary frequency, in which the UE either performs the initial connection establishment procedure or initiates the connection re-establishment procedure. Depending on UE capabilities, Secondary Cells (SCells) can be configured to form together with the PCell a set of serving cells. An SCell is a cell providing additional radio resources on top of Special Cell (SpCell). The configured set of serving cells for a UE therefore always consists of one PCell and one or more SCells. For Dual Connectivity (DC) operation, the term SpCell refers to the PCell of the Master Cell Group (MCG) or the Primary SCell (PSCell) of the Secondary Cell Group (SCG). An SpCell supports Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmission and contention-based random access, and is always activated. The MCG is a group of serving cells associated with a master node, comprised of the SpCell (PCell) and optionally one or more SCells. The SCG is the subset of serving cells associated with a secondary node, comprised of the PSCell and zero or more SCells, for a UE configured with DC. For a UE in RRC_CONNECTED not configured with CA / DC, there is only one serving cell comprised of the PCell. For a UE in RRC_CONNECTED configured with CA / DC, the term "serving cells" is used to denote the set of cells comprised of the SpCell(s) and all SCells. In DC, two MAC entities are configured in a UE: one for the MCG and one for the SCG.

[0102] FIG. 7 shows a data flow example in the 3GPP NR system to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0103] Referring to FIG. 7, "RB" denotes a radio bearer, and "H" denotes a header. Radio bearers are categorized into two groups: DRBs for user plane data and SRBs for control plane data. The MAC PDU is transmitted / received using radio resources through the PHY layer to / from an external device. The MAC PDU arrives to the PHY layer in the form of a transport block.

[0104] In the PHY layer, the uplink transport channels UL-SCH and Random Access Channel (RACH) are mapped to their physical channels Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) and Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), respectively, and the downlink transport channels DL-SCH, BCH and PCH are mapped to Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) and PDSCH, respectively. In the PHY layer, Uplink Control Information (UCI) is mapped to PUCCH, and Downlink Control Information (DCI) is mapped to Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH). A MAC PDU related to UL-SCH is transmitted by a UE via a PUSCH based on an UL grant, and a MAC PDU related to DL-SCH is transmitted by a BS via a PDSCH based on a DL assignment.

[0105] Hereinafter, technical features related to enhancements of network energy savings for NR (On-demand SSB) are described.

[0106] Network energy saving is of great importance for environmental sustainability, to reduce environmental impact (greenhouse gas emissions), and for operational cost savings. As 5G is becoming pervasive across industries and geographical areas, handling more advanced services and applications requiring very high data rates (e.g. XR), networks are being denser, use more antennas, larger bandwidths and more frequency bands. The environmental impact of 5G needs to stay under control, and novel solutions to improve network energy savings need to be developed.

[0107] Most of the energy consumption comes from the radio access network and in particular from the Active Antenna Unit (AAU), with data centres and fibre transport accounting for a smaller share. The power consumption of a radio access can be split into two parts: the dynamic part which is only consumed when data transmission / reception is ongoing, and the static part which is consumed all the time to maintain the necessary operation of the radio access devices, even when the data transmission / reception is not on-going.

[0108] The studied techniques are classified into time, frequency, spatial and power domains. The techniques in time and frequency domains mainly aim to reduce the power consumption for dynamic part by trying to shutdown more symbols on one or more carriers to achieve BS micro sleep, and even the static power part by enlarging the interval between the contiguous active transmission / reception occasions to achieve BS light / deep sleep.

[0109] Hereinafter, technical features related to Synchronization signal and PBCH block are described. Section 5.2.4 of 3GPP TS 38.300 V18.5.0 may be referred.

[0110] The Synchronization Signal and PBCH block (SSB) consists of primary and secondary synchronization signals (PSS, SSS), each occupying 1 symbol and 127 subcarriers, and PBCH spanning across 3 OFDM symbols and 240 subcarriers, but on one symbol leaving an unused part in the middle for SSS. For the 3 MHz channel bandwidth, the PBCH is further equally punctured from both edges to span 144 subcarriers. The possible time locations of SSBs within a half-frame are determined by sub-carrier spacing and the periodicity of the half-frames where SSBs are transmitted is configured by the network. During a half-frame, different SSBs may be transmitted in different spatial directions (i.e. using different beams, spanning the coverage area of a cell).

[0111] Within the frequency span of a carrier, multiple SSBs can be transmitted. The PCIs of SSBs transmitted in different frequency locations do not have to be unique, i.e. different SSBs in the frequency domain can have different PCIs. However, when an SSB is associated with an RMSI, the SSB is referred to as a Cell-Defining SSB (CD-SSB). A PCell is always associated to a CD-SSB located on the synchronization raster.

[0112] When an SSB is not associated with an RMSI, the SSB is referred to as a non-Cell Defining SSB (NCD-SSB), which can be used to perform RLM, BFD, and RRM measurements and measurements for RA resource selection inside the active DL BWP when the active BWP does not contain the CD-SSB. A UE may be configured with multiple SSBs provided that each BWP is configured with at most one SSB (CD-SSB or NCD-SSB).

[0113] Among various solutions for energy saving, the on-demand SSB (OD-SSB) SCell functionality supports on-demand SSB-based SCell operations for UEs in RRC_CONNECTED configured with carrier aggregation (CA), applicable to both intra-band and inter-band CA configurations. On-demand SSB transmissions facilitated through serving cell indications enable UEs to perform at least SCell activation, and are supported for FR1 and FR2 in non-shared spectrum. This solution is supported in the following scenarios:

[0114] - The SCell is configured to a UE but before the UE receives SCell activation command

[0115] - When UE receives SCell activation command

[0116] The following signals can be used to indicate the activation / deactivation state of OD-SSB configuration:

[0117] - RRC based OD-SSB transmission indication

[0118] - MAC-CE for OD-SSB transmission indication

[0119] For example, the network may activate and deactivate the configured on-demand SSB by sending the On-demand SSB Activation / Deactivation MAC CE.

[0120] The MAC entity shall:

[0121] 1> if the MAC entity receives an On-demand SSB Activation / Deactivation MAC CE:

[0122] 2> indicate to upper layers the information regarding the On-demand SSB Activation / Deactivation MAC CE;

[0123] 2> indicate to lower layers the information regarding the On-demand SSB Activation / Deactivation MAC CE.

[0124] For example, Table 5 shows an example of an OD-SSB configuration. The information element (IE) OD-SSB-Config is used to configure the OD-SSB activated by od-ssb-ActivationStatus or by the On-demand SSB Activation / Deactivation MAC CE.

[0125] OD-SSB-Config-r19 ::= SEQUENCE {od-SSB-ConfigId-r19 OD-SSB-ConfigId-r19,od-SSB-SFN-Offset-r19 INTEGER (0..15) OPTIONAL, -- Need Sod-SSB-HalfFrameIndex-r19 ENUMERATED {zero, one} OPTIONAL, -- Need Sod-SSB-ActivationStatus-r19 ENUMERATED {activated} OPTIONAL, -- Need Sod-SSB-Periodicity-r19 ENUMERATED { ms5, ms10, ms20, ms40, ms80, ms160, spare2, spare1 },od-SSB-PositionsInBurst-r19 CHOICE {shortBitmap BIT STRING (SIZE (4)),mediumBitmap BIT STRING (SIZE (8)),longBitmap BIT STRING (SIZE (64))} OPTIONAL, -- Cond ODssbAOssbod-SSB-NrofBursts-r19 ENUMERATED {n5, n10, n15, n20, n25, n30, n40, n50, n75, n100, n150, n200} OPTIONAL, -- Cond MACCE...}OD-SSB-ConfigId-r19 ::= INTEGER (0.. maxNrofOD-SSB-1-r19)

[0126] In Table 5:- od-SSB-ActivationStatus indicates the activation status of this OD-SSB pattern upon configuration. Only one OD-SSB pattern can be activated at one point of time.

[0127] - od-SSB-HalfFrameIndex indicates whether OD-SSB is in the first half or the second half of the frame. If the field is absent, the UE applies the value zero.

[0128] - od-SSB-NrofBursts indicates the number of OD-SSB bursts to be transmitted after OD-SSB is activated. Network only configures this field when od-SSB-ActivationStatus is absent.

[0129] - od-SSB-Periodicity is the SSB periodicity in ms.

[0130] - od-SSB-PositionsInBurst indicates the time domain positions of the transmitted SS-blocks for OD-SSB in a half frame with SS / PBCH blocks. If absent, UE applies the value ssb-PositionsInBurst provided in ServingCellConfigCommon.

[0131] - od-SSB-SFN-Offset indicates SFN offset, where SFN refers to the SFN of this serving cell. The network configures this field according to the field od-SSB-Periodicity such that the indicated system frame does not exceed the OD-SSB periodicity. If the field is absent, the UE applies the value 0.

[0132] The network may indicate start or termination of on-demand synchronization signal block (OD-SSB) transmission of one or more secondary cells (SCells) via a single MAC control element (MAC CE). The MAC CE may include one or more octets, wherein each field of an octet corresponds to a respective SCell. For example, a field value of '1' may indicate that the corresponding SCell transmits OD-SSB, while a field value of '0' may indicate that the corresponding SCell does not transmit OD-SSB. In addition to the octets, an additional octet may be included for a corresponding SCell transmitting OD-SSB. The additional octet may include information such as an index of an RRC configuration (e.g., OD-SSB configuration described in Table 5) related to the OD-SSB and a transmission periodicity of the OD-SSB.

[0133] There may be two alternatives to indicate activation or termination of OD-SSB transmission.

[0134] In a first alternative (Alt-1), the network may explicitly indicate deactivation of OD-SSB transmission via a MAC CE.

[0135] In a second alternative (Alt-2), the network may implicitly indicate deactivation of OD-SSB transmission. In the second alternative, when the network indicates activation of OD-SSB transmission, the network may also indicate an index of an RRC configuration including a parameter indicating a number N of OD-SSB bursts to be transmitted after the indication. Without receiving an explicit deactivation MAC CE, the UE may determine that the OD-SSB transmission is deactivated after number N of OD-SSB bursts are transmitted.

[0136] In the second alternative, there may be an ambiguity of the UE behavior when applying an OD-SSB configuration, for example, the parameter indicating the number N of OD-SSB bursts to be transmitted, while a previously activated OD-SSB bursts transmission is ongoing.

[0137] For example, it may be assumed that a first SCell (SCell#1) has already started transmitting OD-SSB bursts. The SCell#1 has transmitted M number of OD-SSB bursts less than indicated number N (i.e., M<N). While the transmission of OD-SSB bursts for SCell#1 is ongoing, the network may transmit a MAC CE indicating activation or termination of OD-SSB transmission for another SCell (SCell#2). As the SCell#1 is transmitting OD-SSB bursts, the network may set corresponding octet field as 1 for SCell#1. Accordingly, the network may set the corresponding additional octet for SCell#1. If the additional octet indicates identical OD-SSB configuration with the previous MAC CE, the possible network intention may be twofold.

[0138] For example, according to a first interpretation (Intention-1), the SCell#1 may transmit the remaining number (N-M) of OD-SSB bursts from the time of indication and terminate the transmission.

[0139] For example, according to a second interpretation (Intention-2), the SCell#1 may transmit number N OD-SSB bursts from the time of indication and terminate the transmission.

[0140] Because interpretations of network intention are twofold, the UE may misunderstand the network intention. If the UE misunderstands the intention of the network, there may be an unnecessary power consumption for the network or the UE.

[0141] For example, if the UE assumes Intention-1 while the network intends Intention-2, it may be waste of the UE power to perform measurement on OD-SSB because the network may not transmit OD-SSB.

[0142] For example, if the UE assumes Intention-2 while the network intends Intention-1, it may be waste of the network power to transmit OD-SSB because the UE may not measure the OD-SSB.

[0143] The following drawings are created to explain specific embodiments of the present disclosure. The names of the specific devices or the names of the specific signals / messages / fields shown in the drawings are provided by way of example, and thus the technical features of the present disclosure are not limited to the specific names used in the following drawings.

[0144] An embodiment of the present disclosure related to a specific drawing described below may be combined with various embodiments of the present disclosure related to other drawings, and some descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods and / or operations of the embodiment may be omitted.

[0145] FIG. 8 shows an example of a method performed by a wireless device to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0146] In step S801, the method comprises receiving one or more configurations related to an on-demand reference signal transmission for a serving cell.

[0147] In step S802, the method comprises receiving first information related to a status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell.

[0148] In step S803, the method comprises applying a first configuration among the one or more configurations based on the first information.

[0149] In step S804, the method comprises receiving second information related to the status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell.

[0150] In step S805, the method comprises determining whether to maintain the first configuration or apply a second configuration based on the second information.

[0151] In some implementations, the one or more configurations related to an on-demand reference signal transmission may include information related to at least one of: (i) a frequency of a reference signal, (ii) reference signal positions within a reference signal burst, (iii) a periodicity of the reference signal, (iv) a sub-carrier spacing of the reference signal, (v) a physical cell ID of the reference signal, (vi) a system frame number (SFN) offset and a half frame index of the reference signal, (vii) a downlink transmit power of the reference signal, (viii) number of on-demand reference signal bursts to be transmitted after on-demand reference signal is indicated.

[0152] In some implementations, based on determining to apply the second configuration, an on-demand reference signal for the serving cell will be received N times. N may be a number of on-demand reference signal bursts to be transmitted.

[0153] In some implementations, based on determining to maintain the first configuration, an on-demand reference signal for the serving cell will be received N-M times. N is a number of on-demand reference signal bursts to be transmitted. M is a number of on-demand reference signal bursts which already has been transmitted.

[0154] In some implementations, the second information may include third information related to whether to maintain the first configuration or apply the second configuration.

[0155] In some implementations, the third information may be a one-bit reserved field

[0156] In some implementations, it may be determined to apply the second configuration based on a value of the one-bit reserved field being set to 0. it may be determined to maintain the first configuration based on a value of the one-bit reserved field being set to 1.

[0157] In some implementations, it may be determined to apply the second configuration based on a value of the one-bit reserved field being set to 1. it may be determined to maintain the first configuration based on a value of the one-bit reserved field being set to 0.

[0158] In some implementations, it may be determined to apply the second configuration based on the third information being a reserved value. it may be determined to maintain the first configuration based on the third information not being the reserved value.

[0159] In some implementations, the reserved value may be defined for at least one of: (i) a field for an index of the one or more configurations, (ii) a field for a number of on-demand reference signal bursts, or (iii) a field for a periodicity of an on-demand reference signal.

[0160] In some implementations, the first configuration and the second configuration may be a common configuration.

[0161] In some implementations, the first information may include an index of the first configuration.

[0162] In some implementations, the second information may include an index of at least one of the first configuration or the second configuration.

[0163] In some implementations, the first information and the second information may be received via media access control (MAC) control elements.

[0164] Furthermore, the wireless device may be implemented by the first wireless device 100 shown in FIG. 2, and / or the UE 100 shown in FIG. 3.

[0165] More specifically, the wireless device comprises at least one processor, and at least one memory operably connectable to the at least one processor and storing instructions. Operations performed based on the instructions being executed by the at least one processor are as follows.

[0166] The wireless device receives one or more configurations related to an on-demand reference signal transmission for a serving cell.

[0167] The wireless device receives first information related to a status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell.

[0168] The wireless device applies a first configuration among the one or more configurations based on the first information.

[0169] The wireless device receives second information related to the status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell.

[0170] The wireless device determines whether to maintain the first configuration or apply a second configuration based on the second information.

[0171] In some implementations, the one or more configurations related to an on-demand reference signal transmission may include information related to at least one of: (i) a frequency of a reference signal, (ii) reference signal positions within a reference signal burst, (iii) a periodicity of the reference signal, (iv) a sub-carrier spacing of the reference signal, (v) a physical cell ID of the reference signal, (vi) a system frame number (SFN) offset and a half frame index of the reference signal, (vii) a downlink transmit power of the reference signal, (viii) number of on-demand reference signal bursts to be transmitted after on-demand reference signal is indicated.

[0172] In some implementations, based on determining to apply the second configuration, an on-demand reference signal for the serving cell will be received N times. N may be a number of on-demand reference signal bursts to be transmitted.

[0173] In some implementations, based on determining to maintain the first configuration, an on-demand reference signal for the serving cell will be received N-M times. N is a number of on-demand reference signal bursts to be transmitted. M is a number of on-demand reference signal bursts which already has been transmitted.

[0174] In some implementations, the second information may include third information related to whether to maintain the first configuration or apply the second configuration.

[0175] In some implementations, the third information may be a one-bit reserved field

[0176] In some implementations, it may be determined to apply the second configuration based on a value of the one-bit reserved field being set to 0. it may be determined to maintain the first configuration based on a value of the one-bit reserved field being set to 1.

[0177] In some implementations, it may be determined to apply the second configuration based on a value of the one-bit reserved field being set to 1. it may be determined to maintain the first configuration based on a value of the one-bit reserved field being set to 0.

[0178] In some implementations, it may be determined to apply the second configuration based on the third information being a reserved value. it may be determined to maintain the first configuration based on the third information not being the reserved value.

[0179] In some implementations, the reserved value may be defined for at least one of: (i) a field for an index of the one or more configurations, (ii) a field for a number of on-demand reference signal bursts, or (iii) a field for a periodicity of an on-demand reference signal.

[0180] In some implementations, the first configuration and the second configuration may be a common configuration.

[0181] In some implementations, the first information may include an index of the first configuration.

[0182] In some implementations, the second information may include an index of at least one of the first configuration or the second configuration.

[0183] In some implementations, the first information and the second information may be received via media access control (MAC) control elements.

[0184] Furthermore, the method described above in FIG. 8 may be performed by control of a processing apparatus. The processing apparatus may be implemented by the processor 102 included in the first wireless device 100 shown in FIG. 2 and / or the processor 102 included in the UE 100 shown in FIG. 3.

[0185] More specifically, the processing apparatus comprises at least one processor that is integrated with a wireless device, and at least one memory comprising processor-executable instructions stored thereon that are configured to cause the at least one processor to perform the method described in FIG. 8.

[0186] Furthermore, the method described above in FIG. 8 may be performed by a software code 105 stored in the memory 104 included in the first wireless device 100 shown in FIG. 2.

[0187] The technical features of the present disclosure may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. For example, a method performed by a wireless device in a wireless communication may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. For example, a software may reside in RAM, flash memory, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other storage medium.

[0188] Some example of storage medium may be coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. For other example, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components.

[0189] The computer-readable medium may include a tangible and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.

[0190] For example, non-transitory computer-readable media may include RAM such as Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), ROM, Non-Volatile RAM (NVRAM), EEPROM, flash memory, magnetic or optical data storage media, or any other medium that can be used to store instructions or data structures. Non-transitory computer-readable media may also include combinations of the above.

[0191] In addition, the method described herein may be realized at least in part by a computer-readable communication medium that carries or communicates code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed, read, and / or executed by a computer.

[0192] More specifically, a non-transitory Computer-Readable Medium (CRM) stores instructions that, based on being executed by at least one processor, perform the method described in FIG. 8.

[0193] FIG. 9 shows an example of a method performed by a base station to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0194] In step S901, the method comprises transmitting, by a base station to a wireless device, one or more configurations related to an on-demand reference signal transmission for a serving cell.

[0195] In step S902, the method comprises transmitting, to a wireless device, first information related to a status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell. a first configuration among the one or more configurations is applied based on the first information.

[0196] In step S903, the method comprises transmitting, to a wireless device, second information related to the status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell. it is determined whether to maintain the first configuration or apply a second configuration based on the second information.

[0197] Furthermore, the base station may be implemented by the second wireless device 200 shown in FIG. 2.

[0198] More specifically, the base station comprises at least one processor, and at least one memory operably connectable to the at least one processor and storing instructions. Operations performed based on the instructions being executed by the at least one processor are as follows.

[0199] The base station transmits to a wireless device one or more configurations related to an on-demand reference signal transmission for a serving cell.

[0200] The base station transmits to the wireless device first information related to a status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell. a first configuration among the one or more configurations is applied based on the first information.

[0201] The base station transmits to the wireless device second information related to the status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell. it is determined whether to maintain the first configuration or apply a second configuration based on the second information.

[0202] Hereinafter, various aspects for determining whether to maintain the first configuration or apply a second configuration are described according to implementations of the present disclosure.

[0203] Implementation 1

[0204] Two different configurations on SSB transmission pattern may be indicated by a first indicator and a second indicator, respectively.

[0205] The first indicator indicating a first configuration on SSB transmission pattern may corresponds to the first information described with reference to FIG. 8 and / or FIG. 9. The second indicator indicating with a second configuration on SSB transmission pattern may corresponds to the second information described with reference to FIG. 8 and / or FIG. 9. Based on the second indicator (or the second information), the UE may determine whether to maintain the first configuration or apply a second configuration.

[0206] The expected UE behavior may be

[0207] Step1) Receiving a first indicator indicating a first configuration on SSB transmission pattern.

[0208] Step2) Applying the first configuration on SSB transmission pattern.

[0209] Step3) Receiving a second indicator indicating with a second configuration on SSB transmission pattern.

[0210] Step4) Checking whether the second indicator indicates to apply the second configuration or not.

[0211] Step5) Applying the second configuration when the second indicator indicates to apply the second configuration.

[0212] Step6) Maintaining the SSB transmission pattern applied in Step2) when the second indicator does not indicate to apply the second configuration.

[0213] Implementation 2

[0214] A configuration on SSB transmission pattern may be indicated by a first indicator and a second indicator.

[0215] The first indicator indicating a first configuration on an SSB transmission pattern may correspond to the first information described with reference to FIG. 8 and / or FIG. 9. Likewise, the second indicator indicating whether the first configuration on the SSB transmission pattern is to be re-applied may correspond to the second information described with reference to FIG. 8 and / or FIG. 9. Based on the second indicator (or the second information), the UE may determine whether to re-apply the first configuration or maintain the first configuration.

[0216] The expected UE behavior may be

[0217] Step1) Receiving a first indicator indicating a first configuration on SSB transmission pattern.

[0218] Step2) Applying the first configuration on SSB transmission pattern.

[0219] Step3) Receiving a second indicator indicating the first configuration on SSB transmission pattern.

[0220] Step4) Re-applying the first configuration on SSB transmission pattern when the second indicator indicates to re-apply the first configuration on SSB transmission pattern.

[0221] Step5) Maintaining the first SSB transmission pattern applied in Step2) when the second indicator does not indicate to re-apply the first configuration on SSB transmission pattern.

[0222] Configuration on SSB transmission pattern may comprise at least one of following parameters:

[0223] (1) Frequency of the SSB;

[0224] (2) SSB positions within the SSB burst;

[0225] (3) Periodicity of SSB;

[0226] (4) Sub-carrier spacing of SSB;

[0227] (5) Physical cell ID of SSB;

[0228] (6) SFN offset and half frame index of SSB;

[0229] (7) Downlink transmit power of SSB; and

[0230] (8) Number N of on-demand SSB bursts to be transmitted after on-demand SSB is indicated.

[0231] FIG. 10 shows an example of a MAC CE format for indicating an OD-SSB transmission status to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied. The left side of FIG. 10 shows a short format, and the right side of the FIG. 10 shows a long format.

[0232] The network may transmit MAC CE to indicate status of OD-SSB transmission for one or more SCells. For the SCell transmitting OD-SSB, the network may append additional octet indicating or containing corresponding OD-SSB configuration. K may be the number of SCells transmitting OD-SSB.

[0233] The left part of FIG. 10 shows an example of a short format for the MAC CE, and the right part of FIG. 10 shows an example of a long format for the MAC CE.

[0234] The additional octet may indicate an index of configuration on SSB transmission pattern.

[0235] The network may contain a re-apply indicator into the MAC CE. Based on the re-apply indicator, the UE may determine whether to re-apply the OD-SSB configuration indicated by the MAC CE or not. The examples of re-apply indicator and corresponding UE behavior are listed below:

[0236] Example 1) Value 1 for reserved bit

[0237] FIG. 11 shows an example of MAC CE format including 1-bit indicator to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0238] The network may contain 1-bit indicator, e.g., A, into the MAC CE.

[0239] (1) Implementation 1

[0240] 1) For example, if the network sets A as 0, the UE may not re-apply the OD-SSB configuration indicated by the MAC CE.

[0241] 2) For example, if the network sets A as 1, the UE may re-apply the OD-SSB configuration indicated by the MAC CE.

[0242] (2) Implementation 2

[0243] 1) For example, if the network sets A as 1, the UE may not re-apply the OD-SSB configuration indicated by the MAC CE.

[0244] 2) For example, if the network sets A as 0, the UE may re-apply the OD-SSB configuration indicated by the MAC CE.

[0245] The field for OD-SSB configuration may comprise of one or more of the following parameters: RRC configuration index for OD-SSB and number N of OD-SSB bursts to be transmitted.

[0246] Example 2) Reserved value of OD-SSB configuration field

[0247] The network may reserve the value of OD-SSB configuration field.

[0248] For example, if the network sets the value of OD-SSB configuration field as a value other than reserved value, the UE may re-apply the OD-SSB configuration indicated by the MAC CE.

[0249] For example, if the network sets the value of OD-SSB configuration field as a reserved value, the UE may not re-apply the OD-SSB configuration indicated by the MAC CE.

[0250] The reserved value may be defined for a certain field listed below:

[0251] (1) The value of field for RRC configuration index may be reserved.

[0252] (2) The value of field for number N of OD-SSB bursts may be reserved.

[0253] (3) The value of field for periodicity may be reserved.

[0254] FIGS.12 to 15 show examples of MAC CE format related to a reserved value of OD-SSB configuration field to which implementations of the present disclosure are applied.

[0255] In FIG. 12, the MAC CE format includes the fields for an index of RRC configuration for OD-SSB. A reserved value of field for RRC configuration index may indicate not applying the OD-SSB configuration indicated by the MAC CE.

[0256] In FIG. 13, the MAC CE format includes the fields for an index of RRC configuration for OD-SSB and the fields for number N of OD-SSB bursts to be transmitted. A reserved value of the field for RRC configuration index and / or the field for number N of OD-SSB bursts to be transmitted may indicate not applying the OD-SSB configuration indicated by the MAC CE.

[0257] In FIG. 14, the MAC CE format includes the fields for an index of RRC configuration for OD-SSB and the fields for periodicity. A reserved value of the field for RRC configuration index and / or the field for periodicity may indicate not applying the OD-SSB configuration indicated by the MAC CE.

[0258] In FIG. 15, the MAC CE format includes the fields for an index of RRC configuration for OD-SSB, the fields for number N of OD-SSB bursts to be transmitted, and the fields for periodicity. A reserved value of the field for RRC configuration index or the field for number N of OD-SSB bursts to be transmitted or the field for periodicity may indicate not applying the OD-SSB configuration indicated by the MAC CE.

[0259] The present disclosure may have various advantageous effects.

[0260] For example, the UE may avoid performing unnecessary measurements on on-demand synchronization signal blocks (OD-SSBs). In conventional approaches, when an OD-SSB activation / deactivation MAC Control Element (MAC CE) is received for a Secondary Cell (SCell) whose OD-SSB transmission is already activated, the UE may reapply the indicated configuration and restart the counting of OD-SSB bursts. As a result, the UE may continue performing OD-SSB measurements longer than originally intended. By preventing such redundant measurement behaviour, the present disclosure may allow the UE to perform OD-SSB measurements only for the intended duration, thereby improving measurement efficiency and reducing unnecessary processing operations at the UE.

[0261] For example, the network may configure and control the number of OD-SSB burst transmissions as originally intended. In conventional mechanisms, repeated activation indications may cause the UE to restart burst counting, which may lead the network to transmit additional OD-SSB bursts beyond the originally configured number. By avoiding such unintended restart of burst counting, the present disclosure may allow the network to maintain precise control over the number of OD-SSB bursts transmitted for each SCell, thereby ensuring that the configured transmission behaviour is properly followed.

[0262] For example, by preventing unnecessary OD-SSB measurements and redundant OD-SSB burst transmissions, the present disclosure may improve overall system efficiency. Reducing unnecessary OD-SSB transmissions may decrease network energy consumption and improve radio resource utilization, while avoiding redundant UE measurements may reduce UE processing load and power consumption. As a result, the proposed mechanism may contribute to more efficient operation of both the UE and the network in scenarios where OD-SSB transmission is dynamically controlled.

[0263] Advantageous effects which can be obtained through specific embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to the advantageous effects listed above. For example, there may be a variety of technical effects that a person having ordinary skill in the related art can understand and / or derive from the present disclosure. Accordingly, the specific effects of the present disclosure are not limited to those explicitly described herein, but may include various effects that may be understood or derived from the technical features of the present disclosure.

[0264] Claims in the present disclosure can be combined in a various way. For instance, technical features in method claims of the present disclosure can be combined to be implemented or performed in an apparatus, and technical features in apparatus claims can be combined to be implemented or performed in a method. Further, technical features in method claim(s) and apparatus claim(s) can be combined to be implemented or performed in an apparatus. Further, technical features in method claim(s) and apparatus claim(s) can be combined to be implemented or performed in a method. Other implementations are within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1.A method comprising:receiving, by a wireless device, one or more configurations related to an on-demand reference signal transmission for a serving cell;receiving, by the wireless device, first information related to a status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell;applying, by the wireless device, a first configuration among the one or more configurations based on the first information;receiving, by the wireless device, second information related to the status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell; anddetermining, by the wireless device, whether to maintain the first configuration or apply a second configuration based on the second information.2.The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more configurations related to an on-demand reference signal transmission include information related to at least one of:(i) a frequency of a reference signal, (ii) reference signal positions within a reference signal burst, (iii) a periodicity of the reference signal, (iv) a sub-carrier spacing of the reference signal, (v) a physical cell ID of the reference signal, (vi) a system frame number (SFN) offset and a half frame index of the reference signal, (vii) a downlink transmit power of the reference signal, (viii) number of on-demand reference signal bursts to be transmitted after on-demand reference signal is indicated.3.The method of claim 1, wherein, based on determining to apply the second configuration, an on-demand reference signal for the serving cell will be received N times, andwherein N is a number of on-demand reference signal bursts to be transmitted.4.The method of claim 1, wherein, based on determining to maintain the first configuration, an on-demand reference signal for the serving cell will be received N-M times,wherein N is a number of on-demand reference signal bursts to be transmitted, andwherein M is a number of on-demand reference signal bursts which already has been transmitted.5.The method of claim 1, wherein the second information includes third information related to whether to maintain the first configuration or apply the second configuration.6.The method of claim 5, wherein the third information is a one-bit reserved field.7.The method of claim 6,wherein it is determined to apply the second configuration based on a value of the one-bit reserved field being set to 0, andwherein it is determined to maintain the first configuration based on a value of the one-bit reserved field being set to 1.8.The method of claim 6,wherein it is determined to apply the second configuration based on a value of the one-bit reserved field being set to 1, andwherein it is determined to maintain the first configuration based on a value of the one-bit reserved field being set to 0.9.The method of claim 5,wherein it is determined to apply the second configuration based on the third information being a reserved value, andwherein it is determined to maintain the first configuration based on the third information not being the reserved value.10.The method of claim 9, wherein the reserved value is defined for at least one of:(i) a field for an index of the one or more configurations,(ii) a field for a number of on-demand reference signal bursts, or(iii) a field for a periodicity of an on-demand reference signal.11.The method of claim 1, wherein the first configuration and the second configuration are a common configuration.12.The method of claim 1, wherein the first information includes an index of the first configuration.13.The method of claim 1, wherein the second information includes an index of at least one of the first configuration or the second configuration.14.The method of claim 1, wherein the first information and the second information are received via media access control (MAC) control elements.15.A wireless device comprising:at least one processor; andat least one memory operably connectable to the at least one processor and storing instructions that, based on being executed by the at least one processor, perform operations comprising:receiving one or more configurations related to an on-demand reference signal transmission for a serving cell;receiving first information related to a status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell;applying a first configuration among the one or more configurations based on the first information;receiving second information related to the status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell; anddetermining whether to maintain the first configuration or apply a second configuration based on the second information.16.A non-transitory Computer Readable Medium (CRM) storing instructions that, based on being executed by at least one processor, perform the method of any claims 1 to 16.17.A method comprising:transmitting, by a base station to a wireless device, one or more configurations related to an on-demand reference signal transmission for a serving cell;transmitting, by the base station to the wireless device, first information related to a status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell,wherein a first configuration among the one or more configurations is applied based on the first information; andtransmitting, by the base station to the wireless device, second information related to the status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell, andwherein it is determined whether to maintain the first configuration or apply a second configuration based on the second information.18.A base station comprising:at least one processor; andat least one memory operably connectable to the at least one processor and storing instructions that, based on being executed by the at least one processor, perform operations comprising:transmitting, to a wireless device, one or more configurations related to an on-demand reference signal transmission for a serving cell;transmitting, to the wireless device, first information related to a status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell,wherein a first configuration among the one or more configurations is applied based on the first information; andtransmitting, to the wireless device, second information related to the status of the on-demand reference signal transmission for the serving cell, andwherein it is determined whether to maintain the first configuration or apply a second configuration based on the second information.

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