CN109804592B

CN109804592B - Apparatus and computer readable medium for configuration of radio resource management measurements

Info

Publication number: CN109804592B
Application number: CN201780062149.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 姚丽娟; 李大远; 阳·唐; 韩承希; 黄睿; 许允亨; 权焕准; 崔杰; 郑京仁; 阿列克谢·达维多夫
Original assignee: Apple Inc
Current assignee: Apple Inc
Priority date: 2016-11-14
Filing date: 2017-11-13
Publication date: 2021-10-15
Anticipated expiration: 2037-11-13
Also published as: CN109804592A; WO2018089879A1

Abstract

Apparatuses, systems, and methods associated with configuration of Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements are described herein. An apparatus of a next generation nodeb (gnb) may include processing circuitry to determine resources for transmission of beamforming reference signals for a network implementing beamforming and generate a signal indicative of the resources. The apparatus may also include encoding circuitry, coupled with the processing circuitry, to encode the signal for transmission to a User Equipment (UE) that is to perform radio resource management measurements with the beamforming reference signal. Other embodiments may be disclosed and/or described herein.

Description

Apparatus and computer readable medium for configuration of radio resource management measurements

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. provisional application No. 62/421,864, filed 2016, 11, 14, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of wireless networks. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to configuration of radio resource management measurements in wireless networks implementing beamforming.

Background

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, material described in this section is not prior art to the claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

As wireless networks continue to evolve, additional transmission and reception points have been introduced into the network to support more and more user equipment and to increase the coverage area. As the user equipment moves within the network, the user equipment may encounter multiple available transmission and reception points connected to it, but may be limited to connecting to a single transmission and reception point at a time. Thus, it has become a concern to address determining which transmission and reception points will provide a benefit to the user equipment in terms of connectivity and when a handover procedure should be initiated to transfer the connectivity of the user equipment between the transmission and reception points. Moreover, advances in wireless networks, such as beamforming techniques, have introduced additional considerations in this determination.

Drawings

The embodiments will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitate this description, like reference numerals designate like structural elements. Embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 illustrates a portion of an example network arrangement, in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 2 illustrates a representation of an example signaling arrangement representation in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example process to be performed by a network, in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 4 illustrates a first portion of an example process to be performed by a user device, in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 5 illustrates a second portion of an example process to be performed by the user device of fig. 4, in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 6 illustrates an example representation of a configuration signal, in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 7 illustrates another example representation of a configuration signal, in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 8 illustrates an example architecture of a system of networks, in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 9 illustrates another example architecture of a system of networks, in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 10 illustrates example components of an electronic device, in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 11 illustrates example interfaces of a baseband circuit, in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 12 illustrates an example control plane protocol stack, in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 13 illustrates an example user plane protocol stack, in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 14 illustrates a block diagram of example components, in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 15 illustrates an example computer-readable non-transitory storage medium in accordance with various embodiments.

Detailed Description

Apparatuses, methods, and storage media associated with a wireless network are disclosed herein. In an embodiment, an apparatus of a transmit and receive point may include processing circuitry to determine resources for transmission of beamforming reference signals for a network implementing beamforming and generate a signal indicative of the resources. The apparatus may also include encoding circuitry, coupled with the processing circuitry, to encode the signal for transmission to a User Equipment (UE) that is to perform radio resource management measurements with the beamforming reference signal (beamformed reference signal).

In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof wherein like numerals designate like parts throughout, and in which is shown by way of illustration embodiments which may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural or logical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the embodiments is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Aspects of the disclosure are disclosed in the specification. Alternative embodiments of the disclosure and equivalents thereof may be devised without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. It should be noted that like elements disclosed below are indicated by like reference numerals in the drawings.

Various operations may be described as multiple discrete actions or operations in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the claimed subject matter. However, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations may be performed out of the order presented. The operations described may be performed in a different order than the described embodiments. Various additional operations may be performed in additional embodiments and/or described operations may be omitted.

For the purposes of this disclosure, the phrase "a and/or B" means (a), (B), or (a and B). For the purposes of this disclosure, the phrase "A, B and/or C" means (A), (B), (C), (A and B), (A and C), (B and C), or (A, B and C).

The description may use the phrases "in an embodiment" or "in embodiments," which may each refer to one or more of the same or different embodiments. Furthermore, the terms "comprising," "including," "having," and the like, as used in connection with embodiments of the present disclosure, are synonymous.

As used herein, the term "circuitry" may refer to, be part of, or include the following: an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic Circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic Circuit, and/or other suitable components that provide the described functionality.

Although embodiments described herein refer to the use of synchronization signals, such as primary and/or secondary synchronization signals, it is to be understood that other embodiments may use other synchronization signals, which may be referred to generally as xSS.

As used herein, the term "cell" may refer to a New Radio (NR) cell. NR cells may be bound to the same identifier carried by a NR-Synchronization Signal (SS).

A User Equipment (UE) may be an NR UE described throughout this disclosure, which may operate in an IDLE (IDLE) mode, which refers to a UE state similar to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) IDLE state. The definition of idle mode may be defined by radio access network group 2(RAN 2).

The network described herein may be an NR network that may support cell-level mobility based on Downlink (DL) cell-level measurements in idle mode UEs (e.g., Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of each cell).

The following DL signals may be used for idle mode Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements: synchronization signals (e.g., Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS), NR-Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS)); a Reference Signal (RS) for demodulating a broadcast channel; an RS for mobility (which may have a cell identifier associated with this RS and/or this RS may be for multiple beams and/or single beam); and/or any combination of the foregoing. Other signals may not be excluded.

For idle mode RRM measurements, Quasi-parity (QCL) may be defined for DL signals. Further, the NR cell may be defined only for the "idle mode", or for both the idle mode and the CONNECTED (CONNECTED) mode.

The UE described herein may operate in a connected mode UE state, which may be similar to an LTE connected state. The definition of LTE connected mode may be decided by the RAN 2.

Layer 3(L3) mobility may be based on DL measurements in connected mode UEs. At least non-UE specific DL signals may be used for connected mode RRM measurements. UE specific DL signals may be used for this.

The following DL signals may be used for connected mode RRM measurements: cell-related RSs (e.g., NR-PSS, NR-SSS) carrying cell Identifiers (IDs); RS for mobility (which may be associated with beam ID and/or cell ID); an RS for demodulating a broadcast channel; a combination of cell-related RSs carrying cell IDs and RSs for mobility. The use of other signals may not be excluded.

At least one of cell level and beam level measurements (qualtity) may be supported for RRM reporting. RRM measurement quantities such as RSRP, Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) may be defined. The following options may be utilized for RRM measurement quantities to be reported for L3 mobility: cell-wise derived (e.g., as a function of multi-beam measurements if multiple beams); obtaining according to wave beams; some combination thereof. Other options may not be excluded. Other UE states may be introduced (if introduced by RAN 2).

The UE described herein may operate in an RRC _ INACTIVE state. The UE and at least the next generation nodeb (gnb) may maintain Application Server (AS) context information in an RRC _ INACTIVE state. In the RRC _ INACTIVE state, the number of radio network identifiers may be limited. In the RRC _ INACTIVE state, the UE location may be known at the level of a Radio Access Network (RAN) based area, which may be a single cell or more than one cell. The area may be determined by the network.

DL-based mobility in RRC _ CONNECTED mode (optimized for data transmission, at least for network-controlled mobility) may include mobility with RRC intervention (involvent), involving beams and defined relationships with NR cells. The UE may measure at least one or more individual beams and the gNB may have a mechanism to consider these beams to perform a Handover (HO). This may at least trigger inter-gNB handover and optimize HO ping-pong effect (ping-pong) and/or HO failure. The UE may report individual and/or combined quality of multiple beams. For RRM measurements in active mobility, the UE may be able to distinguish between beams from its serving cell and beams from non-serving cells. The UE may be able to determine whether the beam is from its serving cell. The serving/non-serving cell may be referred to as a "serving/non-serving beam set". The UE may be notified via dedicated signaling or may be implicitly detected by the UE based on some broadcast signal. The cells in connection may be related to cells in idle. The cell quality may be derived based on measurements from individual beams.

In connected mode, intra-cell mobility may be handled by mobility without Radio Resource Control (RRC) intervention. There may be situations where RRC intervention is indeed required. The UE may be able to identify the beam. A beam may be identified as defined by radio access network group 1(RAN 1).

In idle mode, the UE may perform cell selection and reselection to NR cells. The cell quality may be derived based on the measurements.

For RRC driven Uplink (UL) based connected mode mobility, the following may be implemented. For connected active state mobility, DL-based handover may be supported, and UL-based mobility may or may not be supported. For connected inactive states, DL-based reselection may be supported and UL-based mobility may or may not be supported. The benefits of UL-based mobility can be realized compared to DL-based mobility.

There may be two possibilities for the signal design for RRM: re-using a legacy channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) for RRM; new RSs are designed for RRM.

On top of the RS design, the signal may be fixed periodic or dynamically configured by the network. With flexible design in the physical layer, configuration in higher layers can become very complex. Embodiments herein may relate to how different combinations of higher layer configurations are implemented.

Fig. 1 illustrates a portion of an example network arrangement 1000, in accordance with various embodiments. The network arrangement 1000 may provide connectivity to a network, such as the network associated with fig. 8 and/or 9. In some embodiments, the network may be a New Radio (NR) network and/or a fifth generation network. Network arrangement 1000 may include one or more cells, transmission and reception points, or a combination thereof, that implement beamforming. The beamforming may be high frequency.

In the illustrated embodiment, the network arrangement 1000 includes a first cell 1002 and a second cell 1004. The first cell 1002 may be associated with a first NodeB 1006, which may be a NodeB, an evolved NodeB (enodeb), a next generation NodeB (gdnodeb), or some combination thereof. The first NodeB 1006 may provide connectivity of one or more elements within the first cell 1002 to the network. These elements may include one or more Transmission and Reception Points (TRPs), one or more User Equipments (UEs), or some combination thereof. In particular, the first NodeB 1006 may provide connectivity between these elements and a core network, such as the core network XS20 (fig. 8).

A first set of TRPs 1010 may be located within first cell 1002. The first set of TRPs 1010 may provide connectivity between the first NodeB 1006 and UEs located within the first cell 1002. The first set of TRPs 1010 may include an antenna for relay communication, a NodeB (e.g., NodeB, eNodeB, and/or gdnodeb), or some combination thereof.

Each TRP within the first set of TRPs 1010 may transmit a signal to the UE via broadcast and/or beamforming. These signals may be generated by the first NodeB 1006, and each TRP may relay the signals to the UE. In the illustrated embodiment, the TRP is shown to transmit signals via beamforming, as shown via beam 1012. These signals may include, but are not limited to, reference signals, which may include channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), synchronization signals (e.g., Primary Synchronization Signals (PSS) and/or Secondary Synchronization Signals (SSS)), Beam Reference Signals (BRS), Measurement Reference Signals (MRS), and/or other reference signals. In particular, the signal may be a beamforming reference signal. The signal may be sent periodically, in response to a trigger (e.g., receipt of a signal from the UE), or some combination of these. For example, the signal may be transmitted when the System Frame Number (SFN) modulo the period is equal to the time indicated by the time information 606 (fig. 6). As another example, if the time indicated by the time information 606 is equal to 1, a signal is transmitted when SFN modulo period (SFN modulo periodicity) is equal to 1. In some embodiments, the time may be indicated by a timing index included in the time information 606.

The second cell 1004 may be associated with a second NodeB1008, which second NodeB1008 may be a NodeB, an evolved NodeB (enodeb), a next generation NodeB (gdnodeb), or some combination thereof. The second NodeB1008 may provide connectivity of one or more elements within the second cell 1004 to the network. These elements may include one or more Transmit and Receive Points (TRPs), one or more UEs, or some combination thereof. In particular, the second NodeB1008 may provide connectivity between these elements and a core network, such as the core network XS20 (fig. 8).

A second set of TRPs 1014 may be located within second cell 1004. A second set of TRPs 1014 may provide connectivity between the second NodeB1008 and UEs located within the second cell 1004. The second set of TRPs 1014 may include an antenna for relay communication, a NodeB (e.g., NodeB, eNodeB, and/or gdnodeb), or some combination thereof.

Each TRP within the second set of TRPs 1014 may transmit a signal to the UE via broadcast and/or beamforming. These signals may be generated by the second NodeB1008, and each TRP may relay the signals to the UE. In the illustrated embodiment, a first TRP within the second set of TRPs 1014 broadcasts a signal (as shown by broadcast 1016) and other TRPs within the second set of TRPs 1014 beam-form the signal (as shown by beam 1018). The signals may include, but are not limited to, reference signals, which may include CSI-RS, synchronization signals (e.g., PSS and/or SSS), BRS, MRS, and/or other reference signals. In particular, the signal may be a beamforming reference signal. The signal may be sent periodically, in response to a trigger (e.g., receipt of a signal from the UE), or some combination of these. For example, the signal may be transmitted when the SFN modulo the period is equal to the time indicated by time information 606 (fig. 6). As another example, if the time indicated by the time information 606 is equal to 1, the signal is transmitted when the SFN modulo the period is equal to 1. In some embodiments, the time may be indicated by a timing index included in the time information 606.

A first UE 1020 and a second UE 1022 are illustrated within the network arrangement 1000. The first UE 1020 and the second UE 1022 may include one or more of the features of the UE XS01 (fig. 8) and/or the UE XS02 (fig. 8). The first NodeB 1006 and/or the second NodeB1008 may provide connectivity for the first UE 1020 and/or the second UE 1022 to the network.

The first UE 1020 is illustrated as moving from a first location 1020a within the first cell 1002 to a second location 1020b within the second cell 1004. As first UE 1020 moves from first location 1020a to second location 1020b, connectivity to the network may transition from being provided by one of the TRPs within first set of TRPs 1010 of first cell 1002 to being provided by one of the TRPs within second set of TRPs 1014 of second cell 1004. The transition may be achieved via a Handover (HO) procedure. It is to be understood that the HO procedure may be any HO procedure known to those of ordinary skill in the art for HO by a UE moving between cells of a network.

The network (which may include the core network, the first NodeB 1006, and/or the second NodeB 1008) and/or the first UE 1020 may determine which TRPs within the first cell 1002 and/or the second cell 1004 are to provide connectivity to the first UE 1020 based on measurements of signals transmitted by the TRPs. For example, the first UE 1020 may perform measurements on signals received from the TRP, and the HO procedure may be initiated by the network based on the results of the measurements. For example, the HO procedure may be initiated based on: the measurements performed by the first UE 1020 indicate that another TRP, different from the current TRP providing connectivity to the first UE 1020, will provide better connectivity to the first UE 1020. In some embodiments, the first UE 1020 may generate and send a measurement report to the network (via the TRP, the first NodeB 1006, the second NodeB1008, or some combination thereof) based on measurements of the signal performed by the first UE 1020. The network may initiate a HO procedure based on the measurement report. In particular, the core network or some component thereof may initiate the HO procedure.

The first UE 1020 may perform measurements on beamforming reference signals (which may include CSI-RS, synchronization signals (e.g., PSS and/or SSS), BRS, MRS, or other reference signals, or some combination thereof) received from each TRP. The measurements may include Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements, which may include received power measurements, received quality measurements, or some combination thereof. In embodiments where the first UE 1020 generates the measurement report, the measurement report may include the results of RRM measurements for each signal received by the first UE 1020. The signal may also include an identifier of the TRP the signal was transmitted, a cell associated with the signal, a NodeB associated with the signal (e.g., first NodeB 1006 and/or second NodeB 1008), or some combination thereof. The measurement report may include an indication of the TRP, cell, and/or NodeB associated with each measurement in the measurement report.

In the illustrated embodiment, a first TRP 1024 within first cell 1002 may provide connectivity to first UE 1020 when first UE 1020 is located at first location 1020 a. As the first UE 1020 moves to the second location 1020b, the network and/or the first UE 1020 may decide, based on measurements performed by the first UE 1020, that the second TRP 1026 located within the second cell 1004 may provide better connectivity to the first UE 1020 than the first TRP 1024. The network and/or the first UE 1020 may initiate a HO procedure based on a determination that the second TRP 1026 may provide better connectivity than the first TRP 1024. For example, the core network of the network may initiate the HO procedure. After the HO procedure is completed, the second TRP 1026 may provide connectivity to the first UE 1020.

The second UE 1022 is illustrated as moving from a first location 1022a within the second cell 1004 to a second location 1022b within the second cell 1004. As second UE 1022 moves from first location 1022a to second location 1022b, connectivity to the network may transition from being provided by one of the TRPs within the second set of TRPs 1014 of second cell 1004 to being provided by another TRP within the second set of TRPs 1014 of second cell 1004. The transition may be achieved via a HO procedure. It is to be understood that the HO procedure may be any HO procedure known to those of ordinary skill in the art for a UE moving between TRPs of cells within a network to HO. The management of connectivity when a UE transitions between TRPs within a cell may be referred to as beam management.

The network (which may include the core network, the first NodeB 1006, and/or the second NodeB 1008) and/or the second UE 1022 may determine which TRPs within the first cell 1002 and/or the second cell 1004 are to provide connectivity to the second UE 1022 based on measurements of signals transmitted by the TRPs. For example, the second UE 1022 may perform measurements on signals received from the TRP, and the HO procedure may be initiated based on the results of the measurements. For example, the HO procedure may be initiated based on: the measurements performed by the second UE 1022 indicate that another TRP different from the current TRP providing connectivity to the second UE 1022 will provide better connectivity to the second UE 1022. In some embodiments, the second UE 1022 may generate a measurement report based on measurements of signals performed by the second UE 1022 and send the measurement report to the network (via the TRP, the first NodeB 1006, the second NodeB1008, or some combination thereof). The network may initiate a HO procedure based on the measurement report. In particular, the core network or some component thereof may initiate the HO procedure.

The second UE 1022 may perform measurements on beamforming reference signals (which may include CSI-RS, synchronization signals (e.g., PSS and/or SSS), BRS, MRS, or other reference signals, or some combination thereof) received from each TRP. The measurements may include RRM measurements, which may include received power measurements, received quality measurements, or some combination thereof. In embodiments where the second UE 1022 generates a measurement report, the measurement report may include the results of RRM measurements for each signal received by the second UE 1022. The signal may also include an identifier of the TRP the signal was transmitted, a cell associated with the signal, a NodeB associated with the signal (e.g., first NodeB 1006 and/or second NodeB 1008), or some combination thereof. The measurement report may include an indication of the TRP, cell, and/or NodeB associated with each measurement in the measurement report.

In the illustrated embodiment, a third TRP 1028 within second cell 1004 may provide connectivity to second UE 1022 when second UE 1022 is located at first location 1022 a. As second UE 1022 moves to second location 1022b, the network and/or second UE 1022 may determine, based on measurements performed by second UE 1022, that second TRP 1026, located within second cell 1004, may provide better connectivity to second UE 1022 than third TRP 1028. The network and/or second UE 1022 may initiate a HO procedure based on a determination that the second TRP 1026 may provide better connectivity than the third TRP 1028. For example, the core network of the network may initiate the HO procedure. After the HO procedure is completed, the second TRP 1026 may provide connectivity to the second UE 1022.

Fig. 2 illustrates a representation of an example signaling arrangement representation 200, in accordance with various embodiments. Representation 200 may represent resources for transmitting signals via a beam, such as beam 1012 (fig. 1) and/or beam 1018 (fig. 1), and/or a broadcast, such as broadcast 1016 (fig. 1). In particular, each square in representation 200 may represent a resource for transmission of a signal. Each resource may correspond to a frequency at which a signal transmitted on the resource is to be transmitted and a time at which the signal is to be transmitted. For simplicity, the description of representation 200 may refer only to signals transmitted via beams (referred to as "beams") and specifically to first and second beams, which may be beamforming reference signals. However, it is to be understood that additional beams and/or broadcasts may be transmitted on the resources in the illustrated embodiment and/or in other embodiments. Further, the description of representation 200 refers to resources on which no beam is transmitted. However, it is to be understood that resources not used for beamforming reference signals described herein may be used for transmitting other signals than beamforming reference signals.

The white squares may indicate resources on which beams are not transmitted, and the gray squares may indicate resources on which beams are transmitted. Each gray square may represent a single beam being transmitted on that resource. Representation 200 may be a representation of a signaling arrangement for a single cell within a network, such as first cell 1002 (fig. 1) and/or second cell 1004 (fig. 1).

In the illustrated embodiment, multiple beams may be transmitted simultaneously, with each beam being transmitted at a different frequency. For example, a first beam may be transmitted on a first resource 202 corresponding to a first frequency and a first time, and a second beam may be transmitted on the first time and a second resource 204 corresponding to a second frequency different from the first frequency. The first beam may be transmitted by a TRP within a cell and the second beam may be transmitted by a TRP within the same cell, wherein the TRP transmitting the second beam may be the same TRP or a different TRP from the TRP transmitting the first beam. Other beams within the cell may be transmitted at the same time and on different frequencies than the first beam and the second beam.

Additionally, in the illustrated embodiment, the beams may be transmitted periodically. For example, a first beam may be transmitted on a first resource 202 corresponding to a first frequency and a first time, and may be transmitted again on a third resource 206 corresponding to the first frequency and a second time, the second time being different from the first time. Additionally, the first beam may be transmitted again on a fourth resource 208 corresponding to the first frequency and a third time, the third time being different from both the first time and the second time. The period between the first time, the second time, and the third time may be indicated by cycle 210.

In some embodiments, the beams may be transmitted when the SFN modulo the period is equal to the time indicated by time information 606 (fig. 6). As another example, if the time indicated by the time information 606 is equal to 1, the signal is transmitted when the SFN modulo the period is equal to 1. In some embodiments, the time may be indicated by a timing index included in the time information 606.

The illustrated embodiment where beams are transmitted at the same time may be referred to as a synchronized cell arrangement. In other embodiments, the beams may be transmitted at different times, which may be referred to as non-synchronized cell placement. For example, in a non-synchronized cell arrangement, the first beam may be transmitted at a different time than the second beam. Additionally, in some embodiments, different beams may be transmitted at the same frequency at different times. For example, a first beam may be transmitted on a resource corresponding to a certain frequency and time, and a second beam may be transmitted on another resource corresponding to the same frequency and different time.

Moreover, in other embodiments, the beams may be transmitted dynamically (e.g., in response to a trigger) rather than periodically. For example, a NodeB (e.g., NodeB, eNB, and/or gNB) may cause one or more of the TRPs to transmit a beam in response to receiving signals from one or more of the UEs. In some embodiments, the NodeB may cause the TRP to transmit a beam in response to receiving a request from the UE to transmit the beam to be measured. The UE may send the request in response to the UE detecting that a previously received configuration for performing measurements on signals is no longer valid. The UE may send the request via a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission that may be distinguished from other PRACH transmissions occurring during an initial access or cell reselection procedure.

As described in connection with fig. 1, UEs, such as first UE 1020 (fig. 1) and second UE 1022 (fig. 1), may measure signals transmitted by TRPs, such as first set of TRPs 1010 (fig. 1) and second set of TRPs 1014 (fig. 1). As shown in fig. 2, it can be appreciated that a signal (depicted as a beam in fig. 2) can be transmitted by a TRP within a cell at a particular frequency and at a particular time. It will then be appreciated that the UE will need to monitor the signal at that particular frequency and at a particular time to perform measurements on the signal. In order for the UE to monitor for signals at the particular frequency and at the particular time, the UE may be configured to monitor for signals as further described in connection with fig. 3-7.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example process 300 to be performed by a network, in accordance with various embodiments. The network may include one or more of the features of the network described in connection with network arrangement 1000 and/or may be implemented by the network described in connection with network arrangement 1000. In particular, the network may include a core network (e.g., core network XS20 (fig. 8)), one or more nodebs (e.g., first NodeB 1006 (fig. 1) and/or second NodeB1008 (fig. 1)), one or more TRPs (e.g., first set of TRPs 1010 (fig. 1) and/or second set of TRPs 1014 (fig. 1)), or some combination thereof. In addition, one or more components of the network may perform these processes, or portions thereof.

In stage 302, the network may determine resources for transmitting beamforming reference signals. In some embodiments, the core network and/or the NodeB may determine the resources used to transmit the beamforming reference signals. For example, referring to fig. 2, the network may determine a first resource 202 (fig. 2). Additionally, in some embodiments, the network may define resources for transmitting the beamforming reference signal based on determining which resources are available for transmission of the beamforming reference signal and defining one of the available resources as the resource for transmitting the beamforming reference signal.

In some embodiments, the network may determine resources for transmitting beamforming reference signals for all beams (e.g., beam 1012 (fig. 1) and/or beam 1018 (fig. 1)) transmitted by the TRP, within the cell, within the network, or some combination thereof in stage 302. The resources used for the transmission of each beamforming reference signal may be different from the resources used for the transmission of other beamforming reference signals.

Additionally, in some embodiments, the network may determine a periodicity associated with the beamforming reference signal. In particular, the beamforming reference signal may be transmitted periodically, wherein the determined resource may be used for one transmission of the beamforming reference signal. Other resources occurring at times associated with the periodicity of the beamforming reference signal may be used for subsequent transmissions of the beamforming reference signal. In some embodiments, the network may also determine a measurement gap offset associated with the beamformed reference signal.

In stage 304, the network may generate a signal to indicate resources for transmission of the beamforming reference signal. The signal may include one or more of the features of the configuration signal described in connection with fig. 6 and 7. In some embodiments, the signal may also indicate resources for the transmission of beamforming reference signals for all beams transmitted by the TRP, within a cell, within a network, or some combination thereof.

Additionally, in stage 304, the network may encode the signal for transmission to the UE. For example, encoding circuitry (described in connection with fig. 10) may encode the signal for transmission.

In stage 306, the network may generate a map based on the signal. In particular, the mapping may indicate a relationship between information included in the signal generated in stage 304 and one or more characteristics of the network architecture. For example, in embodiments where the signal includes a time and frequency associated with the beamforming reference signal and a process identifier, the mapping may indicate that the process identifier, a combination of time and frequency, is associated with a beam, a beam identifier, a cell, or some combination thereof. In some embodiments, the time may be indicated by a timing index, where the time index may uniquely identify a beam, a beam identifier, a cell, or some combination thereof. Additionally, in some embodiments, there may be multiple timing indices, where each timing index uniquely identifies each beam within a cell. In some embodiments, stage 306 may be omitted and the network may not generate a mapping.

In phase 308, the network may identify a PRACH transmission received from the UE that includes a request to transmit a beamforming reference signal for measurement by the UE. In some embodiments, stage 308 may be performed before stage 302, stage 304, stage 306, or some combination thereof. In some embodiments, stage 302, stage 304, stage 306, stage 312, or some combination thereof, may be performed in response to the network identifying the PRACH transmission. Additionally, in some embodiments, stage 308 may be omitted.

In stage 310, the network may identify a cell-level measurement report received from the UE. The cell-level measurement report may include results of cell-level measurements performed by the UE. The network may dynamically assign when cell level measurements are to be reported to the network. In some embodiments, stage 310 may be performed before stage 302, stage 304, stage 306, or some combination thereof. In some embodiments, stage 302, stage 304, stage 306, stage 312, or some combination thereof, may be performed in response to the network identifying a cell-level measurement report. Additionally, in some embodiments, stage 310 may be omitted.

In stage 312, the network may send a signal to the UE. For example, the core network and/or NodeB may send signals to the UE via the NodeB and/or TRP. The signal may be sent via higher layers of the network. In some embodiments, the network may send a signal to the UE in response to identifying the PRACH transmission and/or the cell-level measurement report. For example, PRACH transmission and/or cell-level measurement reporting may trigger the network to transmit a signal. Thus, in these embodiments, the transmission of signals may be dynamic rather than periodic.

In stage 314, the network may send the mapping to the UE. For example, the core network and/or NodeB may send signals to the UE via the NodeB and/or TRP. The mapping may be sent via higher layers of the network. In some embodiments, the mapping may be sent via a dedicated signal or broadcast to the UEs. In some embodiments, stage 314 may be omitted. For example, stage 314 may be omitted in embodiments that omit stage 306.

In stage 316, the network may transmit beamforming reference signals. The beamforming reference signal may be transmitted on the determined resources. For example, the core network and/or the NodeB may transmit the beamformed signals via the NodeB and/or the TRP.

Fig. 4 illustrates a first portion of an example process 400 to be performed by a UE, in accordance with various embodiments. The UE may include and/or be implemented by one or more features of the first UE 1020 (fig. 1), the second UE 1022 (fig. 1), the UE XS01 (fig. 8), and/or the UE XS02 (fig. 8). In some embodiments, the first part of the process 400 may be omitted and the process may begin at the second part shown in fig. 5.

In phase 402, the UE may generate a PRACH transmission including a request to transmit a beamforming reference signal to be measured by the UE. The UE may generate a PRACH transmission based on its determination that the current configuration of the UE for beamforming reference signal measurements is no longer valid. In addition, the UE may determine that it is still within transmission range of a cell of the network.

Additionally, in phase 402, the UE may encode the PRACH transmission for transmission to the network. For example, encoding circuitry (described in connection with fig. 10) may encode the PRACH transmission for transmission.

In phase 404, the UE may send a PRACH transmission to the network. For example, the UE may send the PRACH transmission via the NodeB and/or the TRP (e.g., the TRPs of the first set of TRPs 1010 (fig. 1) and/or the second set of TRPs 1014 (fig. 1)) to the core network (e.g., the core network XS20 (fig. 8)) and/or the NodeB (e.g., the first NodeB 1006 (fig. 1) and/or the second NodeB1008 (fig. 1)). In some embodiments, stages 402 and 404 may be omitted.

In phase 406, the UE may perform cell level RRM measurements. For example, the UE may perform received power measurements, received quality measurements, or some combination thereof, on one or more reference signals associated with one or more cells, such as first cell 1002 (fig. 1) and/or second cell 1004 (fig. 1). In some embodiments, the UE may perform cell-level RRM measurements on synchronization signals (e.g., PSS and/or SSS). In some embodiments, PSS and/or SSS may be used for cell-level RRM measurements while the UE is in an idle state. The network may configure cell level measurements. In addition, the UE may perform cell-level measurements periodically.

In phase 408, the UE may initiate a countdown of a time-to-trigger (TTT) counter. The countdown of the TTT counter may be initiated in response to the UE performing the cell-level RRM measurements. The TTT counter may initiate counting from a value that may be predetermined, determined by the UE, notified by the network, or some combination of these.

In stage 410, the UE may generate a cell-level measurement report. The cell-level measurement report may include the results of the cell-level RRM measurements performed in stage 406. Additionally, in stage 410, the UE may encode the cell-level measurement report for sending to the network. For example, the encoding circuitry (described in connection with fig. 10) may encode the cell-level measurement report for transmission.

In stage 412, the UE may send a cell-level measurement report to the network. For example, cell level measurements may be sent to the core network and/or NodeB via NodeB and/or TRP. In some embodiments, the cell-level measurement report may be sent in response to expiration of the TTT counter initiated in stage 408. Additionally, in some embodiments, cell-level measurement reports may be sent to other UEs in addition to, or instead of, being sent to the network. In other embodiments, the cell-level measurement report may not be sent. In some embodiments, stage 410 and stage 412 may be omitted. In some other embodiments, stages 406, 408, 410, and 412 may be omitted.

The page crossing connector 414 may indicate that the first part of the process 400 shown in fig. 4 continues to the page crossing connector 414 of the second part of the process 400 shown in fig. 5.

Fig. 5 illustrates a second portion of an example process 400 to be performed by the UE of fig. 4, in accordance with various embodiments. In some embodiments, the second part of the process 400 may be initiated in response to completion of the first part of the process 400. In other embodiments, one or more stages of the second portion may be performed before and/or concurrently with one or more stages of the first portion. Additionally, in embodiments where the first portion of the process 400 is omitted, the second portion of the process 400 may be initiated independently of the first portion and/or periodically.

In stage 416, the UE may identify an indication of resources in a signal received from the network. In particular, the UE may identify an indication of resources in the signal transmitted by the network in stage 312 (fig. 3). The resources may be associated with beamforming reference signals to be transmitted by the network. In some embodiments where the signal indicates more than one resource, the UE may identify an indication of all or some portion of the resources indicated by the signal. Each resource may be associated with an individual beamforming reference signal to be transmitted by the network, the resource having a one-to-one ratio with the beamforming reference signal.

In stage 418, the UE may identify the mapping received from the network. In particular, the UE may identify the mapping sent by the network in stage 314 (fig. 3). In some embodiments, stage 418 may be omitted. In particular, in embodiments where stage 314 is omitted, stage 418 may also be omitted.

In stage 420, the UE may perform RRM measurements on at least one beamforming reference signal associated with the one or more resources identified in stage 416. In particular, the UE may monitor the identified one or more resources for one or more beamforming reference signals, respectively. The beamformed reference signals may include CSI-RS, synchronization signals (e.g., PSS and/or SSS), BRS, MRS, and/or other reference signals. The UE may not monitor resources not identified for beamforming reference signals, which may result in power saving operation of the UE. The RRM measurements may include received power measurements, received quality measurements, or some combination of these. In some embodiments, the UE may perform RRM measurements in response to expiration of the TTT counter initiated in stage 408. The RRM measurement may be a beam level measurement and the network may configure the beam level measurement. For example, in some embodiments, the UE may perform RRM measurements on the CSI-RSs in response to expiration of a TTT counter initiated in phase 408 in response to cell-level RRM measurements performed in phase 406 performed on synchronization signals (e.g., PSS and/or SSS). In some embodiments, the synchronization signals may be new radio synchronization signals (NR-SS), such as NR-PSS and/or NR-SSS.

In stage 422, the UE may generate a measurement report. The measurement report may include one or more results of the RRM measurements performed in stage 420. Additionally, in stage 422, the UE may encode the measurement report for sending to the network. For example, the encoding circuitry (described in connection with fig. 10) may encode the measurement report for transmission.

In stage 424, the UE may send a measurement report to the network. For example, the UE may send the measurement report to the core network and/or the NodeB via the NodeB and/or the TRP. The network may determine whether to initiate and/or perform HO operations for the UE based on the measurement reports. Additionally, in some embodiments, cell-level measurement reports may be sent to other UEs in addition to, or instead of, being sent to the network.

Fig. 6 illustrates an example representation 600 of a configuration signal, in accordance with various embodiments. In particular, the configuration signal may be a signal generated by the network in stage 304 (fig. 3) and transmitted in stage 312 (fig. 3) in some embodiments. In addition, the configuration signal may be received by the UE and the UE may identify the indication of resources in the configuration signal, as described in stage 416 (fig. 5). Representation 600 may illustrate information included in a configuration signal that may indicate a resource. In addition, the information included in the configuration signal may be associated with a beamforming reference signal to be transmitted on the resource.

The configuration signal may include a process identifier 602, as shown in representation 600. The process identifier 602 may be a cell identifier in some embodiments. In particular, the cell identifier may identify a cell within the network (e.g., first cell 1002 (fig. 1) and/or second cell 1004 (fig. 1)). In other embodiments, the process identifier 602 may be an identifier uniquely associated with a TRP, such as a TRP of the first set of TRPs 1010 (fig. 1) and/or the second set of TRPs 1014 (fig. 1). When the UE identifies an indication of a resource in stage 416 (fig. 5), the UE may utilize the process identifier 602 to determine a cell or TRP associated with a beamforming reference signal to be transmitted on the resource.

The configuration signal may include frequency information 604, as shown in representation 600. The frequency information 604 may provide the frequency of the resource. In particular, the frequency information 604 may provide the frequency at which the beamforming reference signal is to be transmitted on the resource.

The configuration signal may include time information 606, as shown in representation 600. Time information 606 may provide the time of the resource. In particular, the time information 606 may provide the time at which the beamforming reference signal will be transmitted on the resource. In some embodiments, time information 606 may include a time index indicating the time of the resource. The UE may utilize the frequency information 604 and the time information 606 to determine the particular resources on which to transmit the beamforming reference signal. For example, the UE may monitor the beamforming reference signal on the resource by monitoring the beamforming reference signal transmitted at the frequency provided by the frequency information 604 and at the time provided by the time information 606.

In some embodiments where there are multiple beams to be transmitted within a cell, such as beam 1012 (fig. 1) and/or beam 1018 (fig. 1), one of the frequency information 604 and time information 606, as well as the process identifier 602, may maintain a value for each beam, while the other of the frequency information 604 and time information 606 may be incremented and/or set equal to the beam identifier associated with that beam. For example, a beam having a beam identifier equal to 1 within a cell having a cell identifier equal to 1 may have a process identifier 602 equal to 1, frequency information 604 indicating 1, and time information 606 indicating 1. A beam within the same cell having a beam identifier equal to 2 may have a process identifier 602 equal to 1, frequency information 604 indicating 1, and time information 606 indicating 2.

The configuration signal may also include period information 608, as shown in representation 600. The period information 608 may provide the time between transmissions of the beamformed reference signals. The UE may utilize the periodicity information 608 to determine subsequent resources on which to transmit the beamforming reference signal. For example, the UE may determine resources for a first transmission of the beamforming reference signal based on the frequency information 604 and the time information 606, and may determine resources for a subsequent transmission of the beamforming reference signal by determining: the resource has a frequency of the resource for the first transmission and occurs a time after the resource for the first transmission. In some embodiments, the period information 608 may be omitted.

In some embodiments, process identifier 602, frequency information 604, and time information 606 may be used to uniquely identify a beam identifier associated with a beam, such as beam 1012 (fig. 1) and/or beam 1018 (fig. 1), which may carry beamforming reference signals. In these embodiments, the network may generate a mapping (described in stage 306 (fig. 3)) between the beam identifier and the associated process identifier 602, frequency information 604, and time information 606 that indicates the relationship between these elements.

Fig. 7 illustrates another example representation 700 of a configuration signal, in accordance with various embodiments. In particular, the configuration signal may be a signal generated by the network in stage 304 (fig. 3) and transmitted in stage 312 (fig. 3) in some embodiments. Additionally, the configuration signal may be received by the UE, and the UE may identify the indication of resources in the configuration signal, as described in stage 416 (fig. 5). Representation 700 may illustrate information included in a configuration signal that may indicate a resource. In addition, the information included in the configuration signal may be associated with a beamforming reference signal to be transmitted on the resource.

The configuration signal may include measurement gap offset information 702 associated with the beamformed reference signal, as shown in representation 700. Additionally, the configuration signal may include periodicity information 704 associated with the beamforming reference signal, as shown in representation 700. The UE may determine resources on which to transmit the beamforming reference signal based on the measurement gap offset information 702 and the periodicity information 704.

FIG. 8 illustrates the architecture of a system XS00 of a network, in accordance with some embodiments. System XS00 is shown to include User Equipment (UE) XS01 and UE XS 02. The UEs XS01 and XS02 are shown as smart phones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a Personal Data Assistant (PDA), pager, laptop, desktop, wireless handset, or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface.

In some embodiments, any of UE XS01 and XS02 may include Internet of Things (IoT) UEs, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. IoT UEs may utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type communications (MTC) to exchange data with MTC servers or devices via Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communications, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC data exchange may be a machine initiated data exchange. IoT network descriptions utilize short-term connections to interconnect IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the internet infrastructure). The IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connection of the IoT network.

UEs XS01 and XS02 may be configured to connect with (e.g., communicatively couple with) Radio Access Network (RAN) XS10 — RAN XS10 may be, for example, an evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), a next generation RAN (NextGen RAN, NG RAN), or some other type of RAN. The UEs XS01 and XS02 utilize connections XS03 and XS04, respectively, each of which includes a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in more detail below); in this example, connections XS03 and XS04 are shown as air interfaces to enable communicative coupling, and may conform to Cellular communication protocols, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocols, code-division multiple access (CDMA) network protocols, Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocols, Cellular (PTT over Cellular, POC) protocols, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocols, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocols, fifth generation (5G) protocols, New Radio (New Radio, NR) protocols, and so forth.

In this embodiment, the UEs XS01 and XS02 may also exchange communication data directly via the ProSe interface XS 05. The ProSe interface XS05 may alternatively be referred to as a Sidelink interface comprising one or more logical channels, including, but not limited to, a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), and a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH).

The UE XS02 is shown as being configured to access an Access Point (AP) XS06 via a connection XS 07. Connection XS07 may comprise a logical wireless connection, such as a connection conforming to any IEEE 802.11 protocol, where AP XS06 would comprise wireless fidelity

A router. In this example, the AP XS06 is shown as being connected to the internet, not to the core network of the wireless system (described in more detail below).

The RAN XS10 may include one or more access nodes that enable connections XS03 and XS 04. These Access Nodes (ANs) may be referred to as Base Stations (BSs), nodebs, evolved nodebs (enbs), next generation nodebs (gnbs), RAN nodes, etc., and may include ground stations (e.g., ground access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a certain geographic area (e.g., a cell). The RAN XS10 may include one or more RAN nodes, such as a macro RAN node XS11, for providing macro cells, and one or more RAN nodes, such as a Low Power (LP) RAN node XS12, for providing femto cells or pico cells (e.g., cells with smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacities, or higher bandwidths compared to macro cells).

Any of the RAN nodes XS11 and XS12 may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first contact point for UEs XS01 and XS 02. In some embodiments, any of RAN nodes XS11 and XS12 may perform various logical functions for RAN XS10, including, but not limited to, Radio Network Controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

According to some embodiments, UEs XS01 and XS02 may be configured to communicate with each other or with any of RAN nodes XS11 and XS12 using Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals over a multicarrier communication channel according to various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communications) or Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may include a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, the downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes XS11 and XS12 to the UEs XS01 and XS02, while uplink transmissions may utilize similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. This time-frequency plane representation is a common practice of OFDM systems and as such is intuitive for radio resource allocation. Each column and first row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid comprises several resource blocks, which describe the mapping of a particular physical channel to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum number of resources that can currently be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels carried with such resource blocks.

A Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) may carry user data and higher layer signaling to UEs XS01 and XS 02. A Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) may carry information about a transport format and resource allocation related to a PDSCH channel, and the like. It may also inform the UEs XS01 and XS02 about transport format, resource allocation and H-ARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request) information related to the uplink shared channel. In general, downlink scheduling (allocating control and shared channel resource blocks to UE XS02 within a cell) may be performed at any of RAN nodes XS11 and XS12 based on channel quality information fed back from any of UE XS01 and XS 02. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on PDCCH for (e.g., assigned to) each of UEs XS01 and XS 02.

The PDCCH may use a Control Channel Element (CCE) to carry control information. The PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets before being mapped to resource elements, which may then be transposed with a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements called Resource Element Groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. Depending on the size of Downlink Control Information (DCI) and channel conditions, the PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more CCEs. There may be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE, with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level L ═ 1, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above-described concept. For example, some embodiments may utilize an Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more Enhanced Control Channel Elements (ECCEs). Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements called Enhanced Resource Element Groups (EREGs). ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some cases.

The RAN XS10 is shown communicatively coupled to a Core Network (CN) XS20 via an S1 interface XS 13. In embodiments, CN XS20 may be an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network, a next generation Packet Core (NPC) network, or some other type of CN. In this embodiment, the S1 interface XS13 is split into two parts: an S1-U interface XS14 that carries traffic data between RAN nodes XS11 and XS12 and a serving gateway (S-GW) XS 22; and S1 Mobility Management Entity (MME) interface XS15, which is the signaling interface between RAN nodes XS11 and XS12 and MME XS 21.

In this embodiment, CN XS20 includes MME XS21, S-GW XS22, Packet Data Network (PDN) gateway (P-GW) XS23, and Home Subscriber Server (HSS) XS 24. The MME XS21 may be similar in function to the control plane of a legacy Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN). The MME XS21 may manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. HSS XS24 may include a database for network users, including subscription related information to support the handling of communication sessions by network entities. The CN XS20 may comprise one or several HSS XS24, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, the capacity of the device, the organization of the network, etc. For example, HSS XS24 may provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location compliance, and so on.

The S-GW XS22 may terminate the S1 interface XS13 towards the RAN XS10 and route data packets between the RAN XS10 and the CN XS 20. Furthermore, the S-GW XS22 may be a local mobility anchor for inter-RAN node handovers and may also provide anchoring for inter-3 GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement.

The P-GW XS23 may terminate the SGi interface towards the PDN. The P-GW XS23 may route data packets between the EPC network XS20 and an external network, e.g. a network comprising an application server XS30 (alternatively referred to as Application Function (AF)), via an Internet Protocol (IP) interface XS 25. In general, the application servers XS30 may be elements that provide applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Service (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). In this embodiment, the P-GW XS23 is shown communicatively coupled to the application server XS30 via an IP communications interface XS 25. The application server XS30 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UEs XS01 and XS02 via the CN XS 20.

The P-GW XS23 may also be a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) XS26 is a Policy and Charging control element of CN XS 20. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF in a Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with an Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session of the UE. In a roaming scenario with local breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with the IP-CAN session of the UE: a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within the HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). PCRF XS26 may be communicatively coupled to application server XS30 via P-GW XS 23. The application server XS30 may signal the PCRF XS26 to indicate the new Service flow and select the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) and charging parameters. PCRF XS26 may provision this rule into a policy and charging enforcement function (PCRF) (not shown) using an appropriate Traffic Flow Template (TFT) and QoS Class Identifier (QCI), which starts the QoS and charging specified by application server XS 30.

Fig. 9 illustrates an architecture of a system XR00 of a network, in accordance with some embodiments. System XR00 is shown to include UE XR01, which may be the same as or similar to UE XS01 and XS02 described previously; a RAN node XR11, which may be the same as or similar to the previously described RAN nodes XS11 and XS 12; user Plane Function (UPF) XR 02; a Data Network (DN) XR03, which may be, for example, a carrier service, internet access, or 3 rd party service; and a 5G Core Network (5G Core Network, 5GC or CN) XR 20.

CN XR20 may include Authentication Server Function (AUSF) XR 22; core Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) XR 21; session Management Function (SMF) XR 24; network Exposure Function (NEF) XR 23; policy Control Function (PCF) XR 26; network Function (NF) warehouse Function (NRF) XR 25; unified Data Management (UDM) XR 27; and an Application Function (AF) XR 28. CN XR20 may also include other elements not shown, such as Structured Data Storage network functions (SDSFs), Unstructured Data Storage network functions (UDSFs), and so forth.

The UPF XR02 may serve as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, as a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session point interconnected to the DN XR03, and as a branch point to support multi-homed PDU sessions. UPF XR02 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, user plane portion enforcing policy rules, lawful intercepted packets (UP collection), traffic usage reporting, QoS processing for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), uplink traffic verification (e.g., Service Data Flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in uplink and downlink, and downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF XR02 may include an uplink classifier to support routing of traffic flows to a data network. DN XR03 may represent various network operator services, internet access, or third party services. DN XR03 may include or be similar to application server XS30 previously described.

The AUSF XR22 may store data for authentication of the UE XR01 and process authentication related functions. The AUSF XR22 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types.

The AMF XR21 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., for registering UE XR01, etc.), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF related events, as well as access authentication and authorization. The AMF XR21 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE XR01 and/or the RAN node XR11 and the SMF XR24, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. The AMF XR21 may also provide transport for Short Message Service (SMS) messages between the UE XR01 and an SMS function (SMSF) (not shown in fig. 9). The AMF XR21 may act as a Security Anchor Function (SEA), which may include interaction with AUSF XR22 and UE XR01, receipt of an intermediate key established as a result of the UE XR01 authentication process. In the case of using Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) -based authentication, the AMF XR21 may retrieve security materials from AUSF XR 22. AMF XR21 may also include a Security Context Management (SCM) function that receives a key from the SEA, which is used by it to derive an access network-specific key. Further, the AMF XR21 may be a termination point of the RAN CP interface (N2 reference point), a termination point of NAS (N1) signaling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection.

The AMF XR21 may also support NAS signaling with UE XR01 over an N3 interworking-function (IWF) interface. An N3IWF may be used to provide access to untrusted entities. The N33IWF may be the termination point of the N2 and N3 interfaces for the control plane and user plane, respectively, and thus may process N2 signaling from SMF and AMF for PDU sessions and QoS, tunnel encapsulated/decapsulated packets for IPSec and N3, label N3 user plane packets in the uplink, and implement QoS corresponding to N3 packet labels while taking into account the QoS requirements associated with such labels received over N2. The N3IWF may also relay uplink and downlink control plane NAS (N1) signaling between the UE XR01 and AMF XR21, and uplink and downlink user plane packets between the UE XR01 and UPF XR 02. The N3IWF also provides a mechanism for IPsec tunnel establishment with UE XR 01.

SMF XR24 may be responsible for session management (e.g., session establishment, modification, and release, including tunnel maintenance between UPF and AN nodes); UE IP address assignment and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of the UP function; configuring traffic steering at the UPF to route traffic to an appropriate destination; termination towards an interface of a policy control function; a policy enforcement and QoS control part; lawful interception (for SM events and interface to the LI system); termination of the SM part of the NAS message; a downlink data notification; initiator of AN specific SM message sent to AN through N2 via AMF; the SSC pattern for the session is determined. SMF XR24 may include the following roaming functions: processing local enforcement to apply a QoS Service Level Agreement (SLA) (VPLMN); a charging data collection and charging interface (VPLMN); lawful interception (in VPLMN, for SM events and interface to LI system); support for interaction with an external DN for signaling for PDU session authorization/authentication by the external DN.

NEF XR23 may provide a means for securely exposing services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions, internal exposure/re-exposure, application functions (e.g., AF XR28), edge computing or fog computing systems, and the like for third parties. In such embodiments, NEF XR23 may authenticate, authorize, and/or throttle AF. NEF XR23 may also translate information exchanged with AF XR28 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, NEF XR23 may translate between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. NEF XR23 may also receive information from other Network Functions (NFs) based on exposed capabilities of the other network functions. This information may be stored as structured data at NEF XR23, or at data store NF using a standardized interface. The stored information may then be re-exposed to other NFs and AFs by NEF XR23, and/or used for other purposes, such as parsing.

NRF XR25 may support a service discovery function, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information of discovered NF instances to NF instances. NRF XR25 also maintains information on available NF instances and the services it supports.

PCF XR26 may provide policy rules to the control plane function(s) to enforce them, and may also support a unified policy framework to constrain network behavior. The PCF XR26 may also implement a Front End (FE) to access subscription information related to policy decisions in a User Data Repository (UDR) of UDM XR 27.

The UDM XR27 may process subscription-related information to support processing of communication sessions by network entities and may store subscription data for the UE XR 01. The UDM XR27 may include two parts, an application FE and a User Data Repository (UDR). The UDM XR27 may include a UDM FE that is responsible for certificate handling, location management, subscription management, and the like. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing; user identification processing; access authorization; registration/mobility management; and subscription management. The UDR may interact with PCF XR 26. UDM XR27 may also support SMS management, where the SMS-FE implements similar application logic as previously described.

The AF XR28 may provide application impact on traffic routing, access to Network Capability Exposure (NCE), and interaction with the policy framework for policy control. NCE may be a mechanism that allows 5GC and AF XR28 to provide information to each other via NEF XR23 that may be used in edge computing implementations. In such an implementation, the attachment access point, which may be close to the UE XR01, hosts network operator and third party services to enable efficient service delivery with reduced end-to-end latency and load on the transport network. For edge calculation implementations, the 5GC may select a UPF XR02 close to the UE XR01 and perform traffic steering from the UPF XR02 to the DN XR03 via the N6 interface. This may be based on UE subscription data, UE location and information provided by the AF XR 28. As such, AF XR28 may affect UPF (re) selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, the network operator may allow the AF XR28 to interact directly with the relevant NFs when the AF XR28 is considered a trusted entity.

As previously described, CN XR20 may include SMSF, which may be responsible for SMS subscription checking and verification, and relaying SM messages from UE XR01 to/from other entities to UE XR01, such as SMS Gateway Mobile Switching Center (GMSC)/interworking mobile services switching center (IWMSC)/SMS router. SMS may also interact with AMF XR21 and UDM XR27 to conduct notification procedures regarding UE XR01 as available for SMS delivery (e.g., set UE unreachable flag and notify UDM XR27 when UE XR01 is available for SMS).

The system XR00 may include the following service-based interfaces: namf: a service-based interface exposed by the AMF; nsmf: a service-based interface exposed by the SMF; nnef: a service-based interface exposed by the NEF; npcf: a service-based interface exposed by the PCF; nudm: a service-based interface exposed by the UDM; naf: a service-based interface exposed by the AF; nnrf: a service-based interface exposed by the NRF; and Nausf: service-based interface exposed by AUSF.

The system XR00 may include the following reference points: n1: a reference point between the UE and the AMF; n2: (R) a reference point between AN and AMF; n3: (R) a reference point between AN and UPF; n4: a reference point between SMF and UPF; and N6: reference point between the UPF and the data network. There may be more other reference points and/or service-based interfaces between NF services in the NF, however, these interfaces and reference points have been omitted for clarity. For example, the N5 reference point may be between the PCF and the AF; the N7 reference point may be between the PCF and the SMF; the N11 reference point may be between AMF and SMF; and so on. In some embodiments, the CN XR20 may include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between an MME (e.g., MME XS21) and AMF XR21 to enable interworking between CN XR20 and CN XS 20.

Although not shown in fig. 9, the system XR00 may include multiple RAN nodes XR11, where an Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes XR11 (e.g., gNB, etc.) connected to the 5GC XR20, between a RAN node XR11 (e.g., gNB) and an eNB (e.g., RAN node XS11 of fig. 8) connected to the 5GC XR20, and/or between two enbs connected to the 5GC XR 20.

In some implementations, the Xn interface can include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide for non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support/provide data forwarding and flow control functionality. Xn-C may provide management and error handling functions, managing the functionality of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for UE XR01 in CONNECTED mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) includes functionality to manage UE mobility for CONNECTED mode between one or more RAN nodes XR 11. Mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node XR11 to the new (target) serving RAN node XR 11; and control of user-plane tunnels between the old (source) serving RAN node XR11 to the new (target) serving RAN node XR 11.

The Protocol stack of the Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a general packet radio service tunneling Protocol user (GTP-U) layer on a Universal Datagram Protocol (UDP) and/or IP layer(s) for carrying user plane PDUs. The Xn-C Protocol stack may include an Application layer signaling Protocol (referred to as Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer built on a Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) layer. The SCTP layer can be above the IP layer. The SCTP layer provides guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transmission is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and/or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same as or similar to the user plane and/or control plane protocol stack(s) shown and described herein.

The embodiments described herein may be implemented into a system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software. FIG. 10 illustrates example components of the electronic device 100 for one embodiment. In embodiments, the electronic device 100 may be a User Equipment (UE), an evolved nodeb (eNB), and/or some other electronic device, may implement a UE, an eNB, and/or some other electronic device, may be incorporated into a UE, an eNB, and/or some other electronic device, or may otherwise be part of a UE, an eNB, and/or some other electronic device. In some embodiments, electronic device 100 may include application circuitry 102, baseband circuitry 104, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 106, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 108, and one or more antennas 110 coupled together at least as shown. In embodiments in which the electronic device 100 is implemented in or by an eNB, the electronic device 100 may also include network interface circuitry (not shown) for communicating over a wired interface (e.g., an X2 interface, an S1 interface, etc.).

The application circuitry 102 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 102 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors 102 a. The processor(s) 102a may include any combination of general-purpose processors and special-purpose processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processor 102a can be coupled with and/or can include a computer-readable medium 102b (also referred to as a "CRM 102b," "memory 102b," "storage 102b," or "memory/storage 102 b"), and can be configured to execute instructions stored in the CRM 102b to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the system.

The baseband circuitry 104 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Baseband circuitry 104 may include one or more baseband processors and/or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of RF circuitry 106 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of RF circuitry 106. Baseband circuitry 104 may interface with application circuitry 102 to generate and process baseband signals and to control operation of RF circuitry 106. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 104 may include a second generation (2G) baseband processor 104a, a third generation (3G) baseband processor 104b, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 104c, and/or other baseband processor(s) 104d for other existing generations, generations in development, or generations to be developed in the future (e.g., fifth generation (5G), 6G, etc.). The baseband circuitry 104 (e.g., one or more of the baseband processors 104 a-d) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 106. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency offset, and the like. In some embodiments, the modulation/demodulation circuitry of baseband circuitry 104 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding circuitry of baseband circuitry 104 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, viterbi, and/or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. The encoding/decoding circuitry may encode and/or decode signals for transmission between components described herein. For example, the encoding/decoding circuitry may encode the signal generated in stage 304 (fig. 3) for transmission to the UE. Additionally, the encoding/decoding circuitry may encode the measurement report generated in stage 422 (fig. 5) for transmission to the network. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functions are not limited to these examples, and other suitable functions may be included in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 104 may include elements of a protocol stack, such as elements of an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) protocol, including, for example, Physical (PHY), Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), and/or Radio Resource Control (RRC) elements. A Central Processing Unit (CPU) 104e of the baseband circuitry 104 may be configured to run elements of a protocol stack for signaling of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP and/or RRC layers. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry may include one or more audio Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) 104 f. The audio DSP(s) 104f may include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. The baseband circuitry 104 may also include a computer-readable medium 104g (also referred to as "CRM 104g," "memory 104g," "storage 104g," or "CRM 104 g"). The CRM 104g may be used to load and store data and/or instructions for operations performed by the processor of the baseband circuitry 104. The CRM 104g of one embodiment may comprise any combination of suitable volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. The CRM 104g may include any combination of various levels of memory/storage, including but not limited to read-only memory (ROM) with embedded software instructions (e.g., firmware), random access memory (e.g., Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM)), cache, buffer, and so forth). The CRM 104g may be shared among various processors or dedicated to a particular processor. The components of baseband circuitry 104 may be combined as appropriate in a single chip, in a single chipset, or in some embodiments disposed on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of baseband circuitry 104 and application circuitry 102 may be implemented together, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 104 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, embodiments in which baseband circuitry 104 may support radio communications with E-UTRAN and/or other Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) in which baseband circuitry 104 is configured to support more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

The RF circuitry 106 may enable communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 106 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, and the like to facilitate communication with a wireless network. RF circuitry 106 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from FEM circuitry 108 and provide baseband signals to baseband circuitry 104. RF circuitry 106 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by baseband circuitry 104 and provide RF output signals to FEM circuitry 108 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 106 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the RF circuitry 106 may include mixer circuitry 106a, amplifier circuitry 106b, and filter circuitry 106 c. The transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 106 may include a filter circuit 106c and a mixer circuit 106 a. The RF circuitry 106 may also include synthesizer circuitry 106d for synthesizing frequencies for use by the mixer circuitry 106a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 106a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuitry 108 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 106 d. The amplifier circuit 106b may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal and the filter circuit 106c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 104 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal, although this is not a necessary requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 106a of the receive signal path may comprise a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 106a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert the input baseband signal based on the synthesis frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 106d to generate the RF output signal for the FEM circuitry 108. The baseband signal may be provided by the baseband circuitry 104 and may be filtered by the filter circuitry 106 c. Filter circuit 106c may include a Low Pass Filter (LPF), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 106a of the transmit signal path may comprise two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and/or up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 106a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 106a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and/or direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 106a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuitry 106 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 104 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 106.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio Integrated Circuit (IC) circuit may be provided to process signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 106d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N/N +1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, the synthesizer circuit 106d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase locked loop with a frequency divider. The synthesizer circuit 106d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuit 106a of the RF circuit 106 based on the frequency input and the divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 106d may be a fractional-N/N +1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO), although this is not a necessary requirement. The divider control input may be provided by either baseband circuitry 104 or application circuitry 102, depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on the channel indicated by application circuitry 102.

The synthesizer circuit 106d of the RF circuit 106 may include a frequency divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a Dual Module Divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a Digital Phase Accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide an input signal by N or N +1 (e.g., based on a carry) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, a DLL may include a set of cascaded tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to decompose the VCO period into Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. Thus, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 106d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with a quadrature generator and frequency divider circuit to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency having multiple different phases from one another. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 106 may include an IQ/polar converter.

FEM circuitry 108 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 110, amplify the received signals, and provide amplified versions of the received signals to RF circuitry 106 for further processing. FEM circuitry 108 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals provided by RF circuitry 106 for transmission by one or more of one or more antennas 110. In some embodiments, FEM circuitry 108 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. FEM circuitry 108 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of FEM circuitry 108 may include a low-noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified receive RF signal as an output (e.g., to RF circuitry 106). The transmit signal path of FEM circuitry 108 may include a Power Amplifier (PA) to amplify an input RF signal (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 106) and one or more filters to generate the RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 110).

In some embodiments, electronic device 100 may include additional elements such as a display, a camera, one or more sensors, and/or interface circuitry (e.g., an input/output (I/O) interface or bus) (not shown). In embodiments where the electronic device is implemented in or by an eNB, the electronic device 100 may include network interface circuitry. The network interface circuitry may be one or more computer hardware components that connect the electronic device 100 to one or more network elements, such as one or more servers within a core network or one or more other enbs, via a wired connection. To this end, the network Interface circuitry may include one or more special purpose processors and/or Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to communicate using one or more network communication protocols, such as X2 Application Protocol (AP), S1AP, Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP), ethernet, Point-to-Point (PPP), Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), and/or any other suitable network communication Protocol.

In some embodiments, electronic device 100 of fig. 10 may be configured to perform one or more of the processes, techniques, and/or methods described herein, or a portion thereof.

Fig. 11 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry, in accordance with some embodiments. As described above, the baseband circuitry 104 of FIG. 10 may include processors 104a-104e and memory 104g utilized by the processors. Each of the processors 104a-104e may include a memory interface, XU04A-XU04E, respectively, to send/receive data to/from the memory 104 g.

Baseband circuitry 104 may also include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitry/devices, such as memory interface XU12 (e.g., to send/receive data to/from memory external to baseband circuitry 104)Interface(s) of the application circuit interface XU14 (e.g., cancer sending/receiving data to/from the application circuit 102 of fig. 10), RF circuit interface XU16 (e.g., interface sending/receiving data to/from the RF circuit 106 of fig. 10), wireless hardware connectivity interface XU18 (e.g., to/from Near Field Communication (NFC) components, NFC components, etc.)

Component (e.g. low energy consumption)

)、

Interfaces for components and other communications components to send/receive data) and a power management interface XU20 (e.g., an interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from a power management circuit).

Figure 12 is an illustration of a control plane protocol stack according to some embodiments. In this embodiment, the control plane XV00 is shown as a communication protocol stack between UE XS01 (or UE XS02), RAN node XS11 (or RAN node XS12) and MME XS 21.

The PHY layer XV01 may send or receive information over one or more air interfaces for use by the MAC layer XV 02. The PHY layer XV01 may also perform link adaptive or Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and handover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers (e.g., the RRC layer XV 05). PHY layer XV01 may also perform error detection on transport channels, Forward Error Correction (FEC) encoding/decoding of transport channels, modulation/demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto physical channels, and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna processing.

The MAC layer XV02 may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC Service Data Units (SDUs) from one or more logical channels onto Transport Blocks (TBs) for delivery to the PHY via the transport channels, demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from Transport Blocks (TBs) delivered from the PHY via the transport channels onto one or more logical channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs onto the TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction by hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), and logical channel prioritization.

The RLC layer XV03 may operate in a variety of operating modes, including: transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). The RLC layer XV03 may perform transmission of upper layer Protocol Data Units (PDUs), error correction by automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transmission, and concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transmission. The RLC layer XV03 may also perform re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transfer, reordering RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transfer, detecting duplicate data for UM and AM data transfer, discarding RLC SDUs for UM and AM data, detecting protocol errors for AM data transfer, and performing RLC re-establishment.

The PDCP layer XV04 may perform header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP Sequence Number (SN), perform in-order delivery of upper layer PDUs at lower layer re-establishment, eliminate duplication of lower layer SDUs at lower layer re-establishment for radio bearers mapped onto the RLC AM, cipher and decipher control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data, timer-based dropping of control data, and perform security operations (e.g., ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.).

The main services and functions of the RRC layer XV05 may include broadcasting of System Information (e.g., included in a Master Information Block (MIB) or a System Information Block (SIB) related to a non-access stratum (NAS)), broadcasting of System Information related to an Access Stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance and release of RRC connections between the UE and the E-UTRAN (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of point-to-point radio bearers, security functions including key management, inter-Radio Access Technology (RAT) mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. The MIB and SIBs may include one or more Information Elements (IEs), each of which may include an individual data field or data structure.

The UE XS01 and RAN node XS11 may utilize a Uu interface (e.g., LTE-Uu interface) to exchange control plane data via a protocol stack including PHY layer XV01, MAC layer XV02, RLC layer XV03, PDCP layer XV04, and RRC layer XV 05.

The non-access stratum (NAS) protocol XV06 forms the highest level of control plane between UE XS01 and MME XS 21. The NAS protocol XV06 supports mobility and session management procedures for UE XS01 to establish and maintain IP connectivity between UE XS01 and P-GW XS 23.

The S1 application protocol (S1-AP) layer XV15 may support the functionality of the S1 interface and include Elementary Procedures (EP). The EP is the unit of interaction between the RAN node XS11 and CN XS 20. The S1-AP layer services may include two groups: UE-associated services and non-UE-associated services. These services perform functions including, but not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) Management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transfer.

The Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP/IP layer) XV14 can ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node XS11 and the MME XS21 based in part on the IP protocol supported by the IP layer XV 13. The L2 layer XV12 and the L1 layer XV11 may refer to communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) used by the RAN node and MME to exchange information.

The RAN nodes XS11 and MME XS21 may utilize the S1-MME interface to exchange control plane data via a protocol stack including L1 layer XV11, L2 layer XV12, IP layer XV13, SCTP layer XV14, and S1-AP layer XV 15.

Figure 13 is an illustration of a user plane protocol stack according to some embodiments. In this embodiment, the user plane XW00 is shown as a communication protocol stack between UE XS01 (or UE XS02), RAN node XS11 (or RAN node XS12), S-GW XS22, and P-GW XS 23. The user plane XW00 may utilize at least some of the same protocol layers as the control plane XV 00. For example, the UE XS01 and the RAN node XS11 may utilize a Uu interface (e.g., LTE-Uu interface) to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including PHY layer XV01, MAC layer XV02, RLC layer XV03, PDCP layer XV 04.

A General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol for the user plane (GTP-U) layer XW04 may be used to carry user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. The user data transmitted may be packets in any one of the formats, e.g., IPv4, IPv6, or PPP. The UDP and IP security (UDP/IP) layer XW03 may provide a checksum for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication on selected data streams. The RAN nodes XS11 and S-GW XS22 may utilize the S1-U interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack including an L1 layer XV11, an L2 layer XV12, a UDP/IP layer XW03, and a GTP-U layer XW 04. The S-GW XS22 and the P-GW XS23 may utilize the S5/S8a interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack that includes an L1 layer XV11, an L2 layer XV12, a UDP/IP layer XW03, and a GTP-U layer XW 04. As described above for fig. 12, the NAS protocol supports mobility and session management procedures for UE XS01 to establish and maintain IP connectivity between UE XS01 and P-GW XS 23.

Fig. 14 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some example embodiments. In particular, FIG. 14 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources XZ00, hardware resources XZ00 including one or more processors (or processor cores) XZ10, one or more memory/storage devices XZ20, and one or more communication resources XZ30, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus XZ 40. For embodiments utilizing node virtualization (e.g., NFV), a hypervisor (hypervisor) XZ02 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/subslices utilizing hardware resources XZ 00.

The processor XZ10 (e.g., a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) processor, a Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC) processor, a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) (e.g., a baseband processor), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination of these) may include, for example, the processor XZ12 and the processor XZ 14.

The memory/storage device XZ20 may comprise main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination of these. The memory/storage XZ20 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid state storage, and the like.

The communication resources XZ30 may include interconnect or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices XZ04 or one or more databases XZ06 via a network XZ 08. For example, communication resource XZ30 may include a wired communication component (e.g., for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), a cellular communication component, an NFC component, a wireless communication component, a transceiver, a wireless communication component, a transceiver, a and a transceiver, a transceiver,

Component (e.g. low energy consumption)

)，

Components and other communication components.

The instructions XZ50 may include software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any one of the processors XZ10 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instruction XZ50 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors XZ10 (e.g., within a cache memory of the processor), within the memory/storage XZ20, or any suitable combination of these. Further, any portion of the instructions XZ50 may be transferred to the hardware resources XZ00 from any combination of the peripheral XZ04 or the database XZ 06. Thus, the memory of processor XZ10, memory/storage device XZ20, peripheral XZ04, and database XZ06 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the present disclosure may be embodied as a method or computer program product. Thus, the present disclosure, in addition to being implemented in hardware as previously described, may take the form of: an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects may be referred to generally as a "circuit," module, "or" system. Furthermore, the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product embodied in any tangible or non-transitory expression medium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium. FIG. 15 illustrates an example computer-readable non-transitory storage medium that may be suitable for storing instructions that cause an apparatus, in response to execution of the instructions by the apparatus, to implement selected aspects of the present disclosure. As shown, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium 1502 may include a number of programming instructions 1504. The programming instructions 1504 may be configured to enable a device, such as a NodeB (e.g., first NodeB 1006 (fig. 1) and/or second NodeB1008 (fig. 1)), a TRP (e.g., a TRP of the first set of TRPs 1010 (fig. 1) and/or second set of TRPs 1014 (fig. 1)), a UE (e.g., first UE 1020 (fig. 1) and/or second UE 1022 (fig. 1)), and/or a core network (e.g., core network XS20 (fig. 8)) in response to execution of the programming instructions. In an alternative embodiment, the programming instructions 1504 may instead be disposed on a plurality of computer-readable non-transitory storage media 1502. In other embodiments, the programming instructions 1504 may be disposed on a computer-readable transitory storage medium 1502, such as a signal.

Any combination of one or more computer-usable or computer-readable media may be utilized. The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a transmission media such as those supporting the Internet or an intranet, or a magnetic storage device. Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory. In the context of this document, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The computer-usable medium may include a propagated data signal with the computer-usable program code embodied therewith, either in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Computer usable program code may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C + + or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet service provider).

The present disclosure is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the disclosure. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable medium that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

Example 1 may include an apparatus of a next generation nodeb (gnb), comprising: processing circuitry to determine resources for transmission of beamforming reference signals for a network implementing beamforming and to generate a signal indicative of the resources; and encoding circuitry, coupled with the processing circuitry, to encode the signal for transmission to a User Equipment (UE) that is to perform radio resource management measurements with the beamforming reference signal.

Example 2 may include the apparatus of example 1, wherein the signal includes a process identifier, frequency information associated with the resource, and time information associated with the resource.

Example 3 may include the apparatus of example 2, wherein the process identifier is a cell identifier.

Example 4 may include the apparatus of example 2, wherein the process identifier is an identifier uniquely associated with a transmitting and receiving point.

Example 5 may include the apparatus of example 2, wherein the signal further includes a periodicity associated with the beamforming reference signal.

Example 6 may include the apparatus of example 2, wherein the process identifier, the frequency information, and the time information uniquely identify a beam identifier, and wherein the processing circuitry is further to generate a mapping between a cell identifier and the beam identifier, and wherein the encoding circuitry is further to encode the mapping for transmission to the UE.

Example 7 may include the apparatus of example 2, wherein the time information includes an indication of a timing index.

Example 8 may include the apparatus of example 1, wherein the signal includes a measurement gap offset and a period associated with the beamforming reference signal.

Example 9 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 1-8, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a channel state information reference signal.

Example 10 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 1-8, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a synchronization signal.

Example 11 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 1-8, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a beam reference signal or a measurement reference signal.

Example 12 may include the apparatus of any of examples 1-8, wherein the processing circuitry is further to identify a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission received from the UE, and wherein the signal is transmitted to the UE in response to the identification of the PRACH transmission.

Example 13 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 1-8, wherein the beamforming reference signal is associated with a beam level measurement, wherein the processing circuitry is further to identify a cell level measurement report received from the UE, and wherein the signal is transmitted in response to identification of the cell level measurement report.

Example 14 may include one or more computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a next generation nodeb (gNB), cause the gNB to: determining resources for transmission of a beamforming reference signal, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a channel state information reference signal, a synchronization signal, a beamforming reference signal, or a measurement reference signal; generating a signal indicative of the resource; and encoding the signal for transmission to a User Equipment (UE) that performs radio resource management measurements with the beamforming reference signal.

Example 15 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example 14, wherein the signal includes frequency information, time information, and a process identifier associated with the resource.

Example 16 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example 15, wherein the process identifier is a cell identifier.

Example 17 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example 15, wherein the process identifier is an identifier uniquely associated with the transmission and reception point.

Example 18 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example 15, wherein the signal further includes a periodicity associated with the beamforming reference signal.

Example 19 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example 15, wherein the process identifier, the frequency information, and the time information uniquely identify a beam identifier, and wherein the instructions, in response to execution by the gNB, further cause the gNB to generate and encode a mapping between a cell identifier and the beam identifier for transmission to the UE.

Example 20 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example 15, wherein the time information comprises an indication of a timing index.

Example 21 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example 13, wherein the signal includes a measurement gap offset and a periodicity associated with the resource.

Example 22 may include the one or more computer-readable media of any of examples 13-21, wherein the instructions, in response to execution by the gNB, further cause the gNB to identify a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission received from the UE, and wherein the signal is transmitted to the UE in response to the identification of the PRACH transmission.

Example 23 may include the one or more computer-readable media of any of examples 13-21, wherein the beamforming reference signal is associated with a beam level measurement, wherein the instructions, in response to execution by the gNB, further cause the gNB to identify a cell level measurement report received from the UE, and wherein the signal is transmitted in response to identification of the cell level measurement report.

Example 24 may include a method for configuring Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements in a network implementing beamforming, comprising: determining, via a next generation NodeB (gNB), resources for transmission of beamforming reference signals for a network implementing beamforming, generating, via the gNB, signals indicative of the resources, and encoding, via the gNB, the signals for transmission to User Equipments (UEs) performing RRM measurements with the beamforming reference signals.

Example 25 may include the method of example 24, wherein the signal includes frequency information, time information, and a process identifier associated with the resource.

Example 26 may include the method of example 25, wherein the procedure identifier is a cell identifier.

Example 27 may include the method of example 25, wherein the procedure identifier is an identifier uniquely associated with a transmitting and receiving point.

Example 28 may include the method of example 25, wherein the signal further includes a periodicity associated with the resource.

Example 29 may include the method of example 25, wherein the process identifier, the frequency, and the time information uniquely identify a beam identifier, and wherein the method further comprises generating a mapping between a cell identifier and the beam identifier via the gNB and encoding the mapping for transmission to the UE via the gNB.

Example 30 may include the method of example 25, wherein the time information includes an indication of a timing index.

Example 31 may include the method of example 22, wherein the signal includes a measurement gap offset and a periodicity associated with the resource.

Example 32 may include the method of any one of examples 22-31, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a channel state information reference signal.

Example 33 may include the method of any one of examples 22-31, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a synchronization signal.

Example 34 may include the method of any one of examples 22-31, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a beam reference signal or a measurement reference signal.

Example 35 may include the method of any of examples 22-31, further comprising identifying, via the gNB, a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission received from the UE, and wherein the signal is transmitted to the UE in response to the identifying of the PRACH transmission.

Example 36 may include the method of any one of examples 22-31, wherein the beamforming reference signal is associated with beam level measurements, wherein the method further comprises identifying, via the gNB, a cell level measurement report received from the UE, and wherein the signal is transmitted in response to identifying the cell level measurement report.

Example 37 may include an apparatus of a next generation nodeb (gnb), comprising: the apparatus generally includes means for determining resources for transmission of beamforming reference signals for a network implementing beamforming and generating a signal indicative of the resources, and means for encoding the signal for transmission to a User Equipment (UE) performing RRM measurements using the beamforming reference signals.

Example 38 may include the apparatus of example 37, wherein the signal includes frequency information, time information, and a process identifier associated with the resource.

Example 39 may include the apparatus of example 38, wherein the process identifier is a cell identifier.

Example 40 may include the apparatus of example 38, wherein the process identifier is an identifier uniquely associated with a transmitting and receiving point.

Example 41 may include the apparatus of example 38, wherein the signal further includes a periodicity associated with the resource.

Example 42 may include the apparatus of example 38, wherein the process identifier, the frequency, and the time information uniquely identify a beam identifier, and wherein the apparatus further comprises means for generating a mapping between a cell identifier and the beam identifier and means for encoding the mapping for transmission to the UE.

Example 43 may include the apparatus of example 38, wherein the time information includes an indication of a timing index.

Example 44 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 37-43, wherein the signal includes a measurement gap offset and a period associated with the resource.

Example 45 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 37-43, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a channel state information reference signal.

Example 46 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 37-43, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a synchronization signal.

Example 47 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 37-43, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a beam reference signal or a measurement reference signal.

Example 48 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 37-43, further comprising means for identifying a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission received from the UE, and wherein the signal is transmitted to the UE in response to the identifying the PRACH transmission.

Example 49 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 37-43, wherein the beamforming reference signal is associated with beam level measurements, wherein the apparatus further comprises means for identifying, via the gNB, a cell level measurement report received from the UE, and wherein the signal is transmitted in response to identification of the cell level measurement report.

Example 50 may include an apparatus for a user equipment comprising processing circuitry to: identifying an indication of resources in a signal received from a next generation nodeb (gnb), the resources to be used for transmission of beamforming reference signals; and performing Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements using the beamforming reference signals on the resources.

Example 51 may include the apparatus of example 50, wherein the processing circuitry is further to generate a measurement report based on the RRM measurements, and wherein the apparatus further includes encoding circuitry, coupled with the processing circuitry, to encode the measurement report for transmission to the gNB.

Example 52 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 50 or 51, wherein the indication comprises frequency information, time information, and a process identifier associated with the resource.

Example 53 may include the apparatus of example 52, wherein the process identifier is a cell identifier.

Example 54 may include the apparatus of example 52, wherein the process identifier is an identifier uniquely associated with a transmitting and receiving point.

Example 55 may include the apparatus of example 52, wherein the indication further includes a period associated with the resource.

Example 56 may include the apparatus of example 52, wherein the process identifier, the frequency information, and the time information uniquely identify a beam identifier, wherein the processing circuitry is further to identify a mapping received from the gNB, and wherein the mapping indicates a relationship between the beam identifier and a cell identifier.

Example 57 may include the apparatus of example 52, wherein the time information includes an indication of a timing index.

Example 58 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 50 or 51, wherein the indication comprises a measurement gap offset and a periodicity associated with the resource.

Example 59 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 50 or 51, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a channel state information reference signal.

Example 60 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 50 or 51, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a synchronization signal.

Example 61 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 50 or 51, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a beam reference signal or a measurement reference signal.

Example 62 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 50 or 51, wherein the processing circuitry is further to generate a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission, wherein the apparatus further includes encoding circuitry coupled to the processing circuitry to encode the PRACH transmission for transmission to the ginb, and wherein the ginb is to transmit the signal with the indication of the resource in response to receiving the PRACH transmission.

Example 63 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 50 or 51, wherein the RRM measurements are beam level RRM measurements, and wherein the processing circuitry is further to perform cell level RRM measurements and generate cell level measurement reports based on the cell level RRM measurements, and the apparatus further includes encoding circuitry, coupled to the processing circuitry, to encode the cell level measurement reports for transmission to the gNB, wherein the gNB transmits the signal with the indication of the resources in response to receiving the cell level RRM measurements.

Example 64 may include the apparatus of example 63, wherein the processing circuitry is further to initiate a countdown of a trigger time in response to the performance of the cell-level RRM measurements, wherein the cell-level measurement report is to be sent to the gNB upon expiration of the trigger time.

Example 65 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 50 or 51, wherein the RRM measurements are beam level RRM measurements, and wherein the processing circuitry is further to perform cell level RRM measurements and initiate a countdown of a trigger time in response to the performance of the cell level RRM measurements, wherein the beam level RRM measurements are to be performed upon expiration of the trigger time.

Example 66 may include one or more computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon, wherein the instructions, in response to execution by a User Equipment (UE), cause the UE to: identifying an indication of resources in a signal received via RF circuitry from a next generation NodeB (gNB), the resources to be used for transmission of a beamforming reference signal, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a channel state information reference signal, a synchronization signal, a beamforming reference signal, or a measurement reference signal; and performing Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements using the beamforming reference signals on the resources.

Example 67 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example 66, wherein the instructions, in response to execution by the UE, further cause the UE to generate a measurement report based on the RRM measurements and encode the measurement report for transmission to the gNB.

Example 68 may include the one or more computer-readable media of any of examples 66 or 67, wherein the indication includes frequency information, time information, and a process identifier associated with the resource.

Example 69 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example 68, wherein the process identifier is a cell identifier.

Example 70 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example 68, wherein the process identifier is an identifier uniquely associated with the transmission and reception point.

Example 71 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example 68, wherein the indication further includes a period associated with the resource.

Example 72 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example 68, wherein the process identifier, the frequency information, and the time information uniquely identify a beam identifier, wherein the instructions, in response to execution by the UE, further cause the UE to identify a mapping received from the gNB, and wherein the mapping indicates a relationship between the beam identifier and a cell identifier.

Example 73 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example 68, wherein the time information includes an indication of a timing index.

Example 74 may include the one or more computer-readable media of any of examples 66 or 67, wherein the indication comprises a measurement gap offset and a periodicity associated with the resource.

Example 75 may include the one or more computer-readable media of any of examples 66 or 67, wherein the instructions, in response to execution by the UE, further cause the UE to generate a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission and encode the PRACH transmission for transmission to the gNB, wherein the gNB transmits the signal with the indication of the resource in response to receiving the PRACH transmission.

Example 76 may include the one or more computer-readable media of any one of examples 66 or 67, wherein the RRM measurements are beam level RRM measurements, and wherein the instructions, in response to being executed by the UE, further cause the UE to perform cell level RRM measurements, generate a cell level measurement report based on the cell level RRM measurements, and encode the cell level measurement report for transmission to the gNB, wherein the gNB transmits the signal with the indication of the resources in response to receiving the cell level RRM measurements.

Example 77 may include the one or more computer-readable media of example 76, wherein the instructions, in response to execution by the UE, further cause the UE to initiate a countdown of a trigger time in response to the performance of the cell-level RRM measurements, wherein the cell-level measurement report is transmitted to the gNB upon expiration of the trigger time.

Example 78 may include the one or more computer-readable media of any one of examples 66 or 67, wherein the RRM measurements are beam level RRM measurements, and wherein the instructions, in response to being executed by the UE, further cause the UE to perform cell level RRM measurements and initiate a countdown of a trigger time in response to the performance of the cell level RRM measurements, wherein the beam level RRM measurements are to be performed upon expiration of the trigger time.

Example 79 may include a method for performing Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements in a network implementing beamforming, comprising: identifying, via a User Equipment (UE), an indication of resources in a signal received from a next generation NodeB (gNB), the resources to be used for transmission of beamforming reference signals; and performing the RRM measurements with the beamforming reference signals on the resources via the UE.

Example 80 may include the method of example 79, further comprising generating, via the UE, a measurement report based on the RRM measurements, and encoding, via the UE, the measurement report for transmission to the gNB.

Example 81 may include the method of any one of examples 79 or 80, wherein the indication includes frequency information, time information, and a process identifier associated with the resource.

Example 82 may include the method of example 81, wherein the procedure identifier is a cell identifier.

Example 83 may include the method of example 81, wherein the procedure identifier is an identifier uniquely associated with a transmitting and receiving point.

Example 84 may include the method of example 81, wherein the indication further includes a period associated with the resource.

Example 85 may include the method of example 81, wherein the process identifier, the frequency information, and the time information uniquely identify a beam identifier, wherein the method further comprises identifying, via the UE, a mapping received from the gNB via RF circuitry, and wherein the mapping indicates a relationship between the beam identifier and a cell identifier.

Example 86 may include the method of example 81, wherein the time information includes an indication of a timing index.

Example 87 may include the method of any one of examples 79 or 80, wherein the indication includes a measurement gap offset and a periodicity associated with the resource.

Example 88 may include the method of any one of examples 79 or 80, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a channel state information reference signal.

Example 89 may include the method of any one of examples 79 or 80, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a synchronization signal.

Example 90 may include the method of any one of examples 79 or 80, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a beam reference signal or a measurement reference signal.

Example 91 may include the method of any one of examples 79 or 80, further comprising generating, via the UE, a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission and encoding, via the UE, the PRACH transmission for transmission to the gNB, wherein the gNB transmits the signal with the indication of the resource in response to receiving the PRACH transmission.

Example 92 may include the method of any one of examples 79 or 80, wherein the RRM measurements are beam level RRM measurements, and wherein the method further comprises performing, via the UE, cell level RRM measurements, generating, via the UE, a cell level measurement report based on the cell level RRM measurements, and encoding, via the UE, the cell level measurement report for transmission to the gNB, wherein the gNB transmits the signal with the indication of the resources in response to receiving the cell level RRM measurements.

Example 93 may include the apparatus of example 92, further comprising initiating, via the UE, a countdown of a trigger time in response to the performance of the cell-level RRM measurements, wherein the cell-level measurement report is to be transmitted upon expiration of the trigger time.

Example 94 may include the method of any one of examples 79 or 80, wherein the RRM measurement is a beam level RRM measurement, and wherein the method further comprises performing, via the UE, a cell level RRM measurement and initiating, via the UE, a countdown of a trigger time in response to the performance of the cell level RRM measurement, wherein the beam level RRM measurement is to be performed upon expiration of the trigger time.

Example 95 may include an apparatus for a user equipment, comprising: means for identifying an indication of resources in a signal received from a next generation NodeB (gNB), the resources to be used for transmission of beamforming reference signals; and means for performing Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements using the beamforming reference signals on the resources.

Example 96 may include the apparatus of example 95, further comprising means for generating a measurement report based on the RRM measurements, and means for encoding the measurement report for transmission to the gNB.

Example 97 may include the apparatus of any of examples 95 or 96, wherein the indication comprises frequency information, time information, and a process identifier associated with the resource.

Example 98 may include the apparatus of example 97, wherein the process identifier is a cell identifier.

Example 99 may include the apparatus of example 97, wherein the process identifier is an identifier uniquely associated with a transmitting and receiving point.

Example 100 may include the apparatus of example 97, wherein the indication further includes a periodicity associated with the resource.

Example 101 may include the apparatus of example 97, wherein the process identifier, the frequency information, and the time information uniquely identify a beam identifier, wherein the apparatus further comprises means for identifying a mapping received from the gNB, and wherein the mapping indicates a relationship between the beam identifier and a cell identifier.

Example 102 may include the apparatus of example 97, wherein the time information comprises an indication of a timing index.

Example 103 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 95 or 96, wherein the indication comprises a measurement gap offset and a periodicity associated with the resource.

Example 104 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 95 or 96, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a channel state information reference signal.

Example 105 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 95 or 96, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a synchronization signal.

Example 106 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 95 or 96, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a beam reference signal or a measurement reference signal.

Example 107 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 95 or 96, further comprising means for generating a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission and means for encoding the PRACH transmission for transmission to the gNB, wherein the gNB transmits the signal with the indication of the resources in response to receiving the PRACH transmission.

Example 108 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 95 or 96, wherein the RRM measurements are beam level RRM measurements, and wherein the apparatus further comprises means for performing cell level RRM measurements, means for generating a cell level measurement report based on the cell level RRM measurements, and means for encoding the cell level measurement report for transmission to the gNB, wherein the gNB transmits the signal with the indication of the resources in response to receiving the cell level RRM measurements.

Example 109 may include the apparatus of example 108, further comprising means for initiating, via the UE, a countdown of a trigger time in response to the performance of the cell-level RRM measurements, wherein the cell-level measurement report is to be transmitted upon expiration of the trigger time.

Example 110 may include the apparatus of any one of examples 95 or 96, wherein the RRM measurements are beam level RRM measurements, and wherein the apparatus further comprises means for performing cell level RRM measurements and means for initiating a countdown of a trigger time in response to the performance of the cell level RRM measurements, wherein the beam level RRM measurements are to be performed upon expiration of the trigger time.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the disclosed embodiments of the disclosed apparatus and associated methods without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, it is intended that the present disclosure cover the modifications and variations of the embodiments disclosed above provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. An apparatus of a base station, comprising:

processing circuitry to generate configuration information to indicate frequency resources corresponding to beamforming reference signals of a cell; and

encoding circuitry, coupled with the processing circuitry, to encode the configuration information for transmission to a user equipment, UE, that is to perform measurements on the beamforming reference signals,

wherein the base station is configured to transmit the configuration information in response to at least one of:

identification of physical random access channel, PRACH, transmissions from the UE, or

Identification of a cell-level measurement report from the UE.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the configuration information is further for indicating a periodicity corresponding to measurements of the beamforming reference signal.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the configuration information is further for indicating an offset corresponding to measurements of the beamforming reference signal.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, in which the periodicity is indicated by a System Frame Number (SFN).

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further to determine frequency resources corresponding to the beamforming reference signal of the cell.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the frequency resources are to indicate a carrier frequency of the beamforming reference signal.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the configuration information is further for indicating a timing index corresponding to the beamforming reference signal.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the configuration information is further for indicating a periodicity and a measurement gap offset associated with the beamforming reference signal.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a channel state information reference signal or a synchronization signal.

10. One or more computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon, wherein the instructions, in response to execution by a base station, cause the base station to:

generating configuration information to indicate time resources corresponding to beamforming reference signals of a cell; and

encoding the configuration information for transmission to a user equipment, UE, that is to perform measurements on the beamforming reference signals,

wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the base station to:

transmitting the configuration information in response to at least one of:

Identification of a cell-level measurement report from the UE.

11. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the base station to determine time resources corresponding to the beamforming reference signal of the cell.

12. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the configuration information is further to indicate a periodicity of transmission of the beamforming reference signal.

13. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the configuration information is further to indicate an offset corresponding to the measurement of the beamforming reference signal.

14. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the configuration information is further to indicate frequency resources corresponding to the beamforming reference signal of the cell.

15. An apparatus for a user equipment, comprising:

a processing circuit to:

identifying configuration information when the configuration information is received from a base station, wherein the configuration information is used for indicating frequency resources corresponding to beam forming reference signals of a cell; and

performing measurements on the beamforming reference signal based on the decoded configuration information,

wherein the apparatus is configured to send at least one of:

physical random access channel PRACH, or

The reporting of the cell-level measurements is done,

and wherein the configuration information is sent by the base station in response to at least one of:

identification of the PRACH transmission, or

Identification of the cell-level measurement report.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the measurement is a Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurement.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the configuration information is further for indicating time resources corresponding to the beamforming reference signal of the cell.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the configuration information comprises an offset and a periodicity corresponding to the beamforming reference signal of the cell.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the beamforming reference signal is a channel state information reference signal.

20. An apparatus for a user equipment, comprising:

means for transmitting, to a base station, at least one of:

physical random access channel PRACH, or

The reporting of the cell-level measurements is done,

means for decoding configuration information upon receiving the configuration information from a base station, wherein the configuration information is used to indicate time resources corresponding to beamforming reference signals of a cell; and

means for performing Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements on the beamforming reference signals according to the decoded configuration information,

wherein the configuration information is sent by the base station in response to at least one of:

identification of the PRACH transmission, or

Identification of the cell-level measurement report.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the configuration information comprises an offset and a periodicity corresponding to the beamforming reference signal of the cell.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the configuration information is further for indicating frequency resources corresponding to the beamforming reference signal of the cell.