WO2021066706A1 - Mapping between ephemeris data and cell ids for non-terrestrial networks - Google Patents

Abstract

An exemplary embodiment provides a method, performed by a wireless device, for linking ephemeris information to a node or cell in a non-terrestrial network, NTN. The method comprises obtaining (610) an index to ephemeris data for a satellite; and obtaining (620) at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier associated with the obtained index to ephemeris data. The index to ephemeris data comprises an index to a sub-plane of an orbital plane divided into sub-planes. Other embodiments include a method in a network node, wireless devices, network nodes, and computer program products.

Description

MAPPING BETWEEN EPHEMERIS DATA AND CELL IDs FOR NONTERRESTRIAL NETWORKS

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present application relates generally to the field of wireless communication networks, and more specifically to improvements to communications between a satellite and a wireless device in radio access networks (RANs) adapted to a non-terrestrial network (NTN) scenario.

BACKGROUND

Long Term Evolution (LTE) is an umbrella term for so-called fourth-generation (4G) radio access technologies developed within the Third-Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP) and initially standardized in Releases 8 and 9, also known as Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN). Releases 8 and 9 and subseuqent releases of the 3GPP standards for LTE may be referred to as “LTE Rel-8,” “LTE Rel-9,” etc.

LTE is targeted at various licensed frequency bands and is accompanied by improvements to non-radio aspects commonly referred to as System Architecture Evolution (SAE), which includes the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network in addition to the LTE radio access network (RAN). LTE continues to evolve through subsequent releases that are developed according to standards-setting processes with 3 GPP and its working groups (WGs), including the Radio Access Network (RAN) WG, and sub-working groups ( e.g ., RANI, RAN2, etc ).

For example, LTE Release 10 (Rel-10) supports bandwidths larger than 20 MHz.

One important requirement on Rel-10 is backwards compatibility with LTE Release-8. This includes spectrum compatibility. Accordingly, a wideband LTE Rel-10 carrier (e.g., wider than 20 MHz) should appear as a number of carriers to an LTE Rel-8 (“legacy”) terminal. Each such carrier can be referred to as a Component Carrier (CC). For an efficient use of a wide carrier also for legacy terminals, legacy terminals can be scheduled in all parts of the wideband LTE Rel-10 carrier.

One exemplary way to achieve this is by means of Carrier Aggregation (CA), whereby a Rel-10 terminal can receive multiple CCs, each preferably having the same structure as a Rel-8 carrier. Similarly, one of the enhancements in LTE Rel-11 is an enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel (ePDCCH), which has the goals of increasing capacity and improving spatial reuse of control channel resources, improving inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC), and supporting antenna beamforming and/or transmit diversity for control channel.

In Release 13, 3GPP developed specifications for narrowband Internet of Things (NB- IoT) and LTE Machine-Type Communications (LTE-M or LTE-MTC). These new radio access technologies provide connectivity to services and applications requiring reliable indoor coverage and high capacity in combination with low system complexity and optimized device power consumption. To support reliable coverage in the most extreme situations, both NB-IoT and LTE-M UEs can perform link adaptation on all physical channels using subframe bundling and repetitions. This applies to the Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and MTC PDCCH and Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) in the downlink (DL), and to the Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), Narrowband Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), and LTE-M Physical Uplink Control Channel in the uplink (UL).

An overall exemplary architecture of a network comprising LTE and SAE is shown in Figure 1. E-UTRAN 100 comprises one or more evolved Node B’s (eNB), such as eNBs 105, 110, and 115, and one or more user equipment (UE), such as UE 120. As used within 3 GPP specifications, “user equipment” (or “UE”) can refer to any wireless communication device ( e.g ., smartphone or computing device) that is capable of communicating with 3GPP- standard-compliant network equipment, including E-UTRAN and earlier-generation RANs (e.g., UTRAN/“3G” and/or GERAN/”2G”) as well as later-generation RANs in some cases.

As specified by 3GPP, E-UTRAN 100 is responsible for all radio-related functions in the network, including radio bearer control, radio admission control, radio mobility control, scheduling, and dynamic allocation of resources to UEs in uplink (UL) and downlink (DL), as well as security of the communications with the UE. These functions reside in the eNBs, such as eNBs 105, 110, and 115, which communicate with each other via an XI interface.

The eNBs also are responsible for the E-UTRAN interface to EPC 130, specifically the SI interface to the Mobility Management Entity (MME) and the Serving Gateway (SGW), shown collectively as MME/S-GWs 134 and 138 in Figure 1.

In general, the MME/S-GW handles both the overall control of the UE and data flow between UEs (such as UE 120) and the rest of the EPC. More specifically, the MME processes the signaling (e.g., control plane, CP) protocols between UEs and EPC 130, which are known as the Non-Access Stratum (NAS) protocols. The S-GW handles all Internet Protocol (IP) data packets (e.g., user plane, UP) between UEs and EPC 130, and serves as the local mobility anchor for the data bearers when a UE moves between eNBs, such as eNBs 105, 110, and 115.

EPC 130 can also include a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 131, which manages user- and subscriber-related information. HSS 131 can also provide support functions in mobility management, call and session setup, user authentication and access authorization. The functions of HSS 131 can be related to the functions of legacy Home Location Register (HLR) and Authentication Centre (AuC) functions or operations.

In some embodiments, HSS 131 can communicate with a user data repository (UDR) - labelled EPC-UDR 135 in Figure 1 - via a Ud interface. The EPC-UDR 135 can store user credentials after they have been encrypted by AuC algorithms. These algorithms are not standardized (i.e., vendor-specific), such that encrypted credentials stored in EPC- UDR 135 are inaccessible by any other vendor than the vendor of HSS 131.

Figure 2A shows a high-level block diagram of an exemplary LTE architecture in terms of its constituent entities - UE, E-UTRAN, and EPC - and high-level functional division into the Access Stratum (AS) and the Non-Access Stratum (NAS). Figure 2A also illustrates two particular interface points, namely Uu (UE/E-UTRAN Radio Interface) and SI (E-UTRAN/EPC interface), each using a specific set of protocols, i.e., Radio Protocols and SI Protocols. Each of the two protocols can be further segmented into user plane (UP) and control plane (CP) protocol functionality. Over the Uu interface between UE and E-UTRAN, the UP carries user information ( e.g ., data packets) while the CP carries control information.

Figure 2B illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary CP protocol stack on the Uu interface comprising Physical (PHY), Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), and Radio Resource Control (RRC) layers. The PHY layer is concerned with how and what characteristics are used to transfer data over transport channels on the LTE radio interface. The MAC layer provides data transfer services on logical channels, maps logical channels to PHY transport channels, and reallocates PHY resources to support these services. The RLC layer provides error detection and/or correction, concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly, reordering of data transferred to or from the upper layers. The PHY, MAC, and RLC layers perform identical functions for both the UP and the CP. The PDCP layer provides ciphering/deciphering and integrity protection for UP and CP, as well as other UP functions such as header compression.

In general, the RRC layer (shown in Figure 2B) controls communications between a UE and an eNB at the radio interface, as well as the mobility of a UE crossing cells and/or eNBs. RRC is the highest CP layer in the AS, and also transfers NAS messages from above RRC. Such NAS messages are used to control communications between a UE and the EPC.

Figure 2C shows a block diagram of an exemplary LTE radio interface protocol architecture from the perspective of the PHY. The interfaces between the various layers are provided by Service Access Points (SAPs), indicated by the ovals in Figure 2C. The PHY interfaces with MAC and RRC layers described above. The MAC provides different logical channels to the RLC layer (also described above), characterized by the type of information transferred, whereas the PHY provides a transport channel to the MAC, characterized by how the information is transferred over the radio interface. In providing this transport service, the PHY performs various functions including error detection and correction; rate-matching and mapping of the coded transport channel onto physical channels; power weighting, modulation, and demodulation of physical channels; transmit diversity, beamforming, and multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna processing; and sending radio measurements to higher layers (e.g., RRC).

In general, a physical channel corresponds to a set of resource elements (REs) carrying information that originates from higher layers. Downlink (i.e., eNB to UE) physical channels provided by the LTE PHY include Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), Physical Multicast Channel (PMCH), Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), Relay Physical Downlink Control Channel (R-PDCCH), Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH), and Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH). In addition, the LTE PHY DL includes various reference signals, synchronization signals, and discovery signals.

PDSCH is the main physical channel used for unicast DL data transmission, as well as for transmission of RAR (random access response), certain system information blocks, and paging information. PBCH carries the basic system information required by the UE to access the network. PDCCH is used for transmitting DL control information (DCI), mainly scheduling decisions, required for reception of PDSCH, and for UL scheduling grants enabling transmission on PUSCH.

Uplink (i.e., UE to eNB) physical channels provided by the LTE PHY include Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), and Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH). In addition, the LTE PHY UL includes various reference signals including demodulation reference signals (DM-RS), which are transmitted to aid the eNB in the reception of an associated PUCCH or PUSCH; and sounding reference signals (SRS), which are not associated with any UL channel. PUSCH is the UL counterpart to the PDSCH. PUCCH is used by UEs to transmit UL control information, including hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgements, channel state information reports, etc. PRACH is used for random access preamble transmission.

The multiple access scheme for the LTE PHY is based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) with a cyclic prefix (CP) in the downlink, and on Single- Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) with a cyclic prefix in the uplink. To support transmission in paired and unpaired spectrum, the LTE PHY supports both Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) (including both full- and half-duplex operation) and Time Division Duplexing (TDD). Figure 3 shows an exemplary radio frame structure (“type 1”) used for LTE FDD downlink (DL) operation. The DL radio frame has a fixed duration of 10 ms and consists of 20 slots, labeled 0 through 19, each with a fixed duration of 0.5 ms. A 1-ms subframe comprises two consecutive slots where subframe / consists of slots 2/ and 2/ + 1. Each exemplary FDD DL slot consists of N^DL _symb OFDM symbols, each of which is comprised of N_sc OFDM subcarriers. Exemplary values of N^DL _symb can be 7 (with a normal CP) or 6 (with an extended-length CP) for subcarrier bandwidth of 15 kHz. The value of N_sc is configurable based upon the available channel bandwidth. Since persons of ordinary skill in the art are familiar with the principles of OFDM, further details are omitted in this description.

As shown in Figure 3, a combination of a particular subcarrier in a particular symbol is known as a resource element (RE). Each RE is used to transmit a particular number of bits, depending on the type of modulation and/or bit-mapping constellation used for that RE. For example, some REs may carry two bits using QPSK modulation, while other REs may carry four or six bits using 16- or 64-QAM, respectively.

The radio resources of the LTE PHY are also defined in terms of physical resource blocks (PRBs). A PRB spans N^RB _SC sub-carriers over the duration of a slot (i.e., N^DL _symb symbols), where Nⁱ _seis typically either 12 (with a 15-kHz sub-carrier bandwidth) or 24 (7.5- kHz bandwidth). A PRB spanning the same N^RB _SC subcarriers during an entire subframe (i.e., 2N^DLsymb symbols) is known as a PRB pair. Accordingly, the resources available in a subframe of the LTE PHY DL comprise N^DLRB PRB pairs, each of which comprises 2N^DLsymb· N^RBsc REs. For a normal CP and 15-KHz sub-carrier bandwidth, a PRB pair comprises 168 REs.

One exemplary characteristic of PRBs is that consecutively numbered PRBs ( e.g ., PRBi and PRBi_+i) comprise consecutive blocks of subcarriers. For example, with a normal CP and 15-KHz sub-carrier bandwidth, PRBo comprises sub-carrier 0 through 11 while PRBi comprises sub-carriers 12 through 23. The LTE PHY resource also can be defined in terms of virtual resource blocks (VRBs), which are the same size as PRBs but may be of either a localized or a distributed type. Localized VRBs can be mapped directly to PRBs such that VRB »_VRB corresponds to PRB «_PRB = »_VRB . On the other hand, distributed VRBs may be mapped to non-consecutive PRBs according to various rules, as described in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 36.213 or otherwise known to persons of ordinary skill in the art.

However, the term “PRB” shall be used in this disclosure to refer to both physical and virtual resource blocks. Moreover, the term “PRB” will be used henceforth to refer to a resource block for the duration of a subframe, i.e., a PRB pair, unless otherwise specified.

An exemplary LTE FDD UL radio frame can be configured in a similar manner as the exemplary FDD DL radio frame shown in Figure 3. Using terminology consistent with the above DL description, each UL slot consists of INF _ymb OFDM symbols, each of which is comprised of N_sc OFDM subcarriers.

The LTE PHY maps various DL and UL physical channels to the resources discussed above. For example, the PHICH carries HARQ feedback ( e.g ., ACK/NAK) for UL transmissions by the UEs. Similarly, PDCCH carries scheduling assignments, channel quality feedback (e.g., CSI) for the UL channel, and other control information. Likewise, a PUCCH carries uplink control information such as scheduling requests, CSI for the downlink channel, HARQ feedback for eNB DL transmissions, and other control information. Both PDCCH and PUCCH can be transmitted on aggregations of one or several consecutive control channel elements (CCEs), and a CCE is mapped to the physical resource based on resource element groups (REGs), each of which is comprised of a plurality of REs. For example, a CCE can comprise nine (9) REGs, each of which can comprise four (4) REs.

As briefly mentioned above, the LTE RRC layer (shown in Figures 2B-C) controls communications between a UE and an eNB at the radio interface, as well as the mobility of a UE between cells in the E-UTRAN. After the UE is powered on, it will be in the RRC IDLE state until the RRC connection is established, at which time it will transition to RRC_CQNNECTED state (where data transfer can occur). After a connection is released, the UE returns to RRC IDLE. In RRC IDLE state, the UE’s radio is active on a discontinuous reception (DRX) schedule configured by upper layers. During DRX active periods, an RRC IDLE UE receives system information (SI) broadcast by a serving cell, performs measurements of neighbor ceils to support cell reselection, and monitors a paging channel on PDCCH for pages from the EPC via eNB. An RRC__IDLE UE is known in the EPC and has an assigned IP address, but is not known to the serving eNB (e.g., there is no stored context). In Rel-13, a mechanism was introduced for the UE to be placed by the network in a suspended state that can be viewed as a “substate” of RRC IDLE.

In 3GPP, a study item on a new radio interface for 5G has been completed and the 5G system (5GS) was first specified in Rel-15. While LTE was primarily designed for user- to-user communications, 5G (also referred to as “NR”) networks are envisioned to support both high single-user data rates (e.g., 1 Gb/s) and large-scale, machine-to-machine communication involving short, bursty transmissions from many different devices that share the frequency bandwidth. The 5G radio standards (also referred to as “New Radio” or “NR”) are currently targeting a wide range of data services including eMBB (enhanced Mobile Broad Band), URLLC (Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication), and mMTC (massive Machine-Type Communications).

These services can have different requirements and objectives. For example, URLLC is intended to provide a data service with extremely strict error and latency requirements, e.g, error probabilities as low as 10^-5 or lower and 1 ms end-to-end latency or lower. For eMBB, the requirements on latency and error probability can be less stringent whereas the required supported peak rate and/or spectral efficiency can be higher. Additionally, mMTC (which can be seen as an extension of Rel-13 MTC) is intended to provide scalable and efficient connectivity for a massive number of devices sending very short packets.

In addition, NR is targeted to support deployment in lower-frequency spectrum, similar to LTE, and also in very-high-frequency spectrum (referred to as “millimeter wave” or “mmW”). Similar to LTE, NR uses OFDM in the downlink. Each NR radio frame is 10 ms in duration and is composed of 10 subframes having equal durations of 1 ms each. Each subframe consists of one or more slots, and each slot consists of 14 (for normal cyclic prefix) or 12 (for extended cyclic prefix) time-domain symbols. The protocol layers used in NR are very similar to those in LTE, described above, although various enhancements have been introduced to support the new services envisioned for NR/5G.

In Rel-15, 3GPP also started preparing NR for operation in a Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN). The work was performed within the study item “NR to support Non-Terrestrial Networks” and resulted in publication of3GPP TR 38.811 (vl5.1.0). The work to prepare NR for operation in an NTN network continued in Rel-16 under the study item “Solutions for NR to support Non-Terrestrial Network”. In parallel the interest to adapt LTE for operation in NTN is growing. Consequently, 3GPP is considering introducing support for NTN in both LTE and NR in Rel-17. Even so, current LTE and NR technologies were developed for terrestrial cellular networks, and adapting them to NTN can create various issues, problems, and/or drawbacks for operation of networks and UEs.

SUMMARY

Exemplary embodiments disclosed herein address these problems, issues, and/or drawbacks of existing solutions by linking certain information relating to one or more NTNs to one or more cell identifiers or node identifiers, thereby facilitating quicker initial acquisition of an NTN.

Disclosed embodiments include an exemplary method for linking ephemeris information to a node or cell in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), which can be implemented, for example, in a UE (e.g., wireless device). This exemplary method includes the step of obtaining an index to ephemeris data for a satellite, and further includes the step of obtaining at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier associated with the obtained index to ephemeris data. The index to ephemeris data for the satellite may be an index to a sub-plane of an orbital plane divided into sub-planes, thus allowing the wireless device to search for an NTN cell from a portion of the sky defined by that sub-plane of the orbital plane.

These steps, i.e., obtaining the index to ephemeris data and obtaining the cell identifier or node identifier, may be performed using a single message or single information block, in some embodiments. Alternatively, these steps may involve separate messages or separate information blocks. In some embodiments, for example, the index to ephemeris data is obtained in broadcasted system information that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier. In other embodiments, the index to ephemeris data is obtained in a message that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

In some embodiments, this message may include a measurement object that associates the index to ephemeris data with the at least one cell identifier or the at least one node identifier. This message may alternatively be a handover message that associates the index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for handover of the wireless device. As another example, the message may be a Radio Resource Control (RRC) release message that associates the one or more parameters or the index to a cell identifier for a target cell for redirection of the wireless device.

The message or the system information may be received from a satellite node, or from a terrestrial radio access network node, in various embodiments or instances. The ephemeris data may include a complete set of parameters characterizing a satellite ephemeris, or a partial set, or an index to an ephemeris. In some embodiments, the index to ephemeris data for a satellite may comprise an index to a sub-plane of an orbital plane divided into sub planes.

Other embodiments disclosed include another exemplary method for linking ephemeris information to a node or cell in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), which can be implemented, for example, in a network node (e.g., satellite, gateway, base station, etc.).

This exemplary method includes the step of providing, to a wireless device, an index to ephemeris data for a satellite, as well as the step of providing, to the wireless device, at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier associated with the index to ephemeris data. Once again, the index to ephemeris data for the satellite may be an index to a sub-plane of an orbital plane divided into sub-planes

Again, these steps may be performed using a single message or single information block. Alternatively, these steps may involve separate messages or separate information blocks. In some embodiments, for example, the index to ephemeris data is provided in broadcasted system information that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier. In others, the index to ephemeris data is provided in a message that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

Once more, in some embodiments, this message may include a measurement object that associates the index to ephemeris data with the at least one cell identifier or the at least one node identifier. This message may alternatively be a handover message that associates the index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for handover of the wireless device. As another example, the message may be a Radio Resource Control (RRC) release message that associates the index to a cell identifier for a target cell for redirection of the wireless device.

The message or the system information may be provided by a satellite node, or by a terrestrial radio access network node, in various embodiments or instances. .

Other exemplary embodiments include NTN nodes (e.g., satellites, gateways, base stations, or components thereof) and user equipment (UEs, e.g., wireless devices) configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods and/or procedures described herein. Other exemplary embodiments include non-transitory, computer-readable media storing program instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, configure such NTN nodes or UEs to perform operations corresponding to any of the exemplary methods and/or procedures described herein. These and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent upon reading the following Detailed Description in view of the Drawings briefly described below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is a high-level block diagram of an exemplary architecture of the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN) and Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network, as standardized by 3 GPP.

Figure 2A is a high-level block diagram of an exemplary E-UTRAN architecture in terms of its constituent components, protocols, and interfaces.

Figure 2B is a block diagram of exemplary protocol layers of the control-plane portion of the radio (Uu) interface between a user equipment (UE) and the E-UTRAN.

Figure 2C is a block diagram of an exemplary LTE radio interface protocol architecture from the perspective of the PHY layer.

Figure 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary downlink (DL) LTE radio frame structures used for frequency division duplexing (FDD) operation.

Figures 4 and 5 illustrate an exemplary configuration of a satellite radio access network (RAN), also referred to as a non-terrestrial network (NTN).

Figure 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method and/or procedure performed by a user equipment (UE), according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method and/or procedure performed by a network node, according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 8 is a block diagram of an exemplary wireless network configurable according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 9 is a block diagram of an exemplary user equipment (UE) configurable according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 10 is a block diagram of illustrating a virtualization environment that can facilitate virtualization of various functions implemented according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figures 11-12 are block diagrams of exemplary communication systems configurable according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Figure 13-16 are flow diagrams illustrating various exemplary methods and/or procedures implemented in a communication system, according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Generally, all terms used herein are to be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the relevant technical field, unless a different meaning is clearly given and/or is implied from the context in which it is used. All references to a/an/the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc. are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of the element, apparatus, component, means, step, etc ., unless explicitly stated otherwise. The steps of any methods disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless a step is explicitly described as following or preceding another step and/or where it is implicit that a step must follow or precede another step. Any feature of any of the embodiments disclosed herein may be applied to any other embodiment, wherever appropriate. Likewise, any advantage of any of the embodiments may apply to any other embodiments, and vice versa. Other objectives, features, and advantages of the enclosed embodiments will be apparent from the following description.

Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Other embodiments, however, are contained within the scope of the subject matter disclosed herein, the disclosed subject matter should not be construed as limited to only the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art. Furthermore, the following terms are used throughout the description given below:

• Radio Access Node: As used herein, a “radio access node” (or “radio network node”) can be any node in a radio access network (RAN) of a cellular communications network that operates to wirelessly transmit and/or receive signals. Some examples of a radio access node include, but are not limited to, a base station ( e.g ., a New Radio (NR) base station (gNB) in a 3GPP Fifth Generation (5G) NR network or an enhanced or evolved Node B (eNB) in a 3 GPP LTE network), a high- power or macro base station, a low-power base station (e.g., a micro base station, a pico base station, a home eNB, or the like), an integrated access backhaul (LAB) node, a relay node, and a non-terrestrial access node (e.g., satellite or gateway).

• Core Network Node: As used herein, a “core network node” is any type of node in a core network. Some examples of a core network node include, e.g, a Mobility Management Entity (MME), a Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW), a Service Capability Exposure Function (SCEF), or the like.

• Wireless Device: As used herein, a “wireless device” (or “WD” for short) is any type of device that has access to (i.e., is served by) a cellular communications network by communicate wirelessly with network nodes and/or other wireless devices. Unless otherwise noted, the term “wireless device” is used interchangeably herein with “user equipment” (or “UE” for short). Some examples of a wireless device include, but are not limited to, a UE in a 3GPP network and a Machine Type Communication (MTC) device. Communicating wirelessly can involve transmitting and/or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying information through air.

• Network Node: As used herein, a “network node” is any node that is either part of the radio access network or the core network of a cellular communications network. Functionally, a network node is equipment capable, configured, arranged, and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a wireless device and/or with other network nodes or equipment in the cellular communications network, to enable and/or provide wireless access to the wireless device, and/or to perform other functions ( e.g ., administration) in the cellular communications network.

Note that the description given herein focuses on a 3 GPP cellular communications system and, accordingly, 3GPP terminology or terminology similar to 3GPP terminology is used throughout this document. However, the concepts disclosed herein are not limited to a 3GPP system. Other wireless systems, including without limitation Wide Band Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), may also benefit from the concepts, principles, and/or embodiments described herein.

In addition, functions and/or operations described herein as being performed by a wireless device or a network node may be distributed over a plurality of wireless devices and/or network nodes. Furthermore, although the term “cell” is used herein, it should be understood that beams may be used instead of cells, e.g., in a 5GNR system, and concepts described herein apply equally to both cells and beams. In addition, although the embodiments of the present disclosure are described in terms of 3GPP non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) that utilize LTE and/or NR technologies, such embodiments are equally applicable to any wireless network dominated by line of sight conditions, including terrestrial networks.

As briefly mentioned above, current LTE and NR technologies were developed for terrestrial cellular networks and adapting them to NTNs can create various issues, problems, and/or drawbacks for operation of networks and UEs. These issues are discussed in more detail below.

Figure 4 shows a high-level view of an exemplary satellite radio access network (RAN), which is also referred to as a non-terrestrial network (NTN). The exemplary satellite RAN shown in Figure 4 includes a space-borne platform, such as a satellite, and an earth gateway that connects the satellite to a base station. The radio link between the gateway and the satellite is referred to as a “feeder link,” while the radio link between the satellite and a particular device (or UE) is referred to as an “access link.”

Depending on the orbit altitude, a satellite may be categorized as low earth orbit (LEO), medium earth orbit (MEO), or geostationary earth orbit (GEO). LEO satellites typically have orbital heights between 250 - 1,500 km and orbital periods between 90 - 120 minutes. MEO satellites typically have orbital heights between 5,000 - 25,000 km and orbital periods between 3 - 15 hours. GEO satellites have a height of approximately 35,786 km and an orbital period of 24 hours. In general, the orbital period is proportional to the orbital height.

Due to these significant orbit heights, satellite systems generally have path losses that are significantly higher than experienced in terrestrial networks. To overcome the high pathloss, the access and feeder links may need to be operated in line of sight (LOS) conditions. Thus, the NTN radio channels for the access and feeder links may therefore be dominated by a LOS component with few reflective (or non-LOS) components. One consequence is that signal received on the earth will have generally the same polarization as the signal transmitted by the satellite, which is typically circularly polarized. Accordingly, it is possible to achieve orthogonality between two signals transmitted by a satellite by choosing orthogonal polarizations, e.g., right hand circular polarization (RHCP) and left hand circular polarization (LHCP). This is generally not possible in terrestrial networks, where non-LOS components having different polarizations (e.g., due to various reflections) dominate the received signal.

A communication satellite typically generates several beams over a given area. The footprint of a beam (also referred to as “spotbeam”) is usually an elliptic shape, which has been traditionally considered as a cell. A spotbeam may move over the earth surface with the satellite movement or may be earth-fixed with some beam pointing mechanism used by the satellite to compensate for its motion. The size of a spotbeam depends on the system design and may range from tens of kilometers to a few thousands of kilometers. Figure 4 shows an example satellite network with bent-pipe transponders on the satellite. The term “bent-pipe transponder” simply indicates that the satellite acts as a relay between the wireless device and the gateway/base station on the ground.

Relative to beams observed in a terrestrial network, the NTN beams (e.g., spotbeams 1-4 in Figure 4) can be very wide and extend beyond the area defined by a served cell. Therefore, beams covering adjacent cells will overlap and cause significant levels of intercell interference. To overcome this interference, different cells (e.g., different spotbeams) can be configured with different carrier frequencies and polarization modes. Figure 5 shows an exemplary polarization arrangement for the spotbeams shown in Figure 4. Note that the terms “spotbeam” and “cell” may be used interchangeably herein, with reference to cells provided by satellite beams.

In NR and LTE, when a UE is powered on, it performs an initial search over its supported frequency bands for a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) and a cell in the PLMN to camp on, e.g., in RRC IDLE mode. In terrestrial cellular networks, this “initial acquisition” procedure is relatively well-bounded in time due to the fixed locations and relatively small sizes of cells.

On the other hand, during initial acquisition in an NTN, a UE may need to search for a satellite over the entire sky from horizon to horizon. Moreover, satellites at lower orbital heights (e.g., LEOs and MEOs) are moving relative to the earth’s surface, causing various Doppler shifts to the respective signals as received by UEs on earth. Furthermore, satellite signals experience significant path loss before reaching UEs on earth. Thus, UEs may need to use highly directive antenna beams (e.g., with maximum gain in a very narrow beamwidth, i.e., the “main lobe”) for initial acquisition of satellite signals.

Because such beamwidths correspond to only a fraction of the overall sky (e.g., azimuth and elevation ranges), the UE will usually need to perform sequential searches for a satellite, with each search covering a range of azimuth and elevation corresponding to the UE’s beamwidth. The rapid movement of LEO and MEO satellite can also complicate this initial search for a satellite. In addition, the properties of the antennas used by the satellite and the UE can also affect the initial acquisition.

For example, in an NTN, there may be UEs with different antenna types. Some UEs may be equipped with linearly polarized antennas, while some other UEs may be equipped with circularly polarized antennas. On the other hand, satellite transmitters typically use circular polarization. However, a UE (such as the device shown in Figure 4) that is not aware that a particular satellite (or cell/spotbeam) is associated with a specific polarization mode will not adapt its receiver accordingly. If there is a mismatch in polarization between the UE’s receiver and the satellite transmitter, the UE will experience downlink signal loss and performance degradation. This may prevent a UE from acquiring an otherwise-suitable cell.

Consequently, the time required for an initial search to find an NTN and a cell in the NTN to camp on can be very long and can consume a significant portion of the UE’s stored energy (e.g., in a battery), which can be unacceptable for users. Likewise, searching for an additional NTN cell, e.g., in preparation for handover, can be equally lengthy, if the UE has no predetermined information regarding where to focus the search. While the network typically provides information to a served UE on where to find neighboring cells in frequency, without information on where the NTN UE needs to point its antenna, the UE again must scan the whole sky.

These issues can be mitigated by providing the UE with ephemeris data for one or more satellites, as well as providing a mapping between cells and corresponding ephemeris data. Ephemeris data for a given satellite consists of at least five parameters describing the shape and position in space of the satellite orbit. It also comes with a timestamp, which is the time when the other parameters describing the orbit ellipse were obtained. The position of the satellite at any given time in the near future can be predicted from this data using orbital mechanics. This ephemeris data corresponds to a somewhat simplified model of the satellite’s orbit, however. This means that the accuracy of this prediction will degrade as one projects further and further into the future. The validity time of a certain set of parameters depends on many factors like the type and altitude of the orbit, but also the desired accuracy, and ranges from the scale of a few days to a few years.

Disclosed herein, therefore, are techniques for providing an NTN UE with a mapping between ephemeris data and network elements, e.g., cell identifiers or network node identifiers. The ephemeris data might be pre-programmed in the uSIM or obtained in another way and stored in the UE’s memory. It might describe individual satellites, or only orbital planes common to a number of satellites. A key advantage of these techniques is that they enable an NTN UE to know where to point its antenna to find a particular cell.

A UE may be pre-programmed or otherwise provided with NTN-related information required to reduce the time needed for initial acquisition of the NTN (e.g., a 3GPP PLMN utilizing LTE and/or NR radio access technologies) and a cell within the NTN. In some embodiments, the UE can be pre-programmed by including such NTN-related information in local memory, such as the UE’s uSIM (which can be provisioned by a network operator) or another non-volatile memory included in the EE. In such embodiments, upon initiating a search during initial acquisition (e.g., at power-up), the UE fetches the pre-programmed information from the uSIM (or other local non-volatile memory) and uses it for limiting the spatial range and/or frequency range of a search for one or more network nodes (e.g., satellites) and/or cells of an NTN.

In some embodiments, a UE can also be pre-programmed with information defining the type of network it is allowed to access. The permitted network access type may be categorized as one, or both, of ‘Terrestrial network’ and ‘Non-terrestrial network’. If NTN access is permitted, then the NTN-related information can also include the type of NTN that the UE is allowed to access, e.g., LEO, MEO, and/or GEO. In other embodiments, pre programmed limitations on NTN type can be provided as maximum or minimum satellite altitude, signal time-of-flight, and/or signal round-trip time.

In some embodiments a UE can be pre-programmed with NTN-related information that includes satellite constellations of one or more NTNs (e.g., providing 3GPP services over NR or LTE). For each constellation, the information can include ephemeris data (e.g., describing satellite location and/or movement), one or more frequency ranges, and/or one or more polarization modes. In some embodiments, the ephemeris can be provided in Two-Line Element (TLE) format that encodes a list of orbital elements of an Earth-orbiting object in two 70-column lines.

Based on the ephemeris data and optionally other information such as UE location, the UE could determine one or more antenna pointing angles to search for signals from one or more satellites. The determined antenna pointing angles can cover a subset of azimuth angles 0-360 degrees, and/or a subset of elevation angles 0-90 degrees. The number of antenna pointing angles can depend on the desired azimuth/elevation ranges and beamwidth of the antenna(s) the UE will use for the search.

In some embodiments, the ephemeris data may describe only the orbital planes of the constellation and their orientation in space (e.g., relative to the earth’s equator and prime meridian). In such embodiments, the UE can also determine its current location and, based on this location and the orbital planes, determine an arc (e.g., from a first azimuth/elevation to a second azimuth/elevation) over which a satellite signal likely to be found. The UE can then perform initial acquisition by pointing its directional beam at successive locations along the determined arc. In some embodiments, the ephemeris can also include information about the positions of individual satellites of an NTN constellation (e.g., relative to earth-centered earth-fixed, or ECEF, coordinates). This can include fixed positions of GEO satellites as well as positions versus time for MEO and LEO satellites. In such embodiments, the UE can also determine its current location and, based on this location and the satellite position(s), determine an azimuth/elevation at which a satellite signal likely to be found. The UE can then perform initial acquisition by pointing its directional beam at the determined azimuth/elevation.

In some embodiments involving a fixed-location UE, the UE can be pre-programmed with a subset of candidate antenna pointing angles (i.e., azimuth/elevation) based on the known fixed location to which NTN service is provided. The subset of candidate antenna pointing angles may be provided as fixed angles (e.g., for GEO NTN) or angles as a function of time (e.g., for LEO/MEO NTN).

As mentioned above, a UE can be pre-programmed with one or more frequency ranges associated with an NTN. In general, each NTN will have one or more operating frequency bands determined by the particular license(s) held by the operator. In the case of LEO and MEO NTN, certain operators may have licenses to different frequency bands in different countries and/or regions, such that their satellites must adapt their frequency band based on the country and/or region over which they are currently operating. In some embodiments, the UE can be pre-programmed with multiple frequency ranges used by an NTN, along with location information associated with each frequency range (e.g., band X is used in area Y). In other embodiments, the UE can be pre-programmed with a single frequency range used by an NTN, e.g., in all locations or in a single location, such as for GEO operation.

As mentioned above, a UE can be pre-programmed with one or more polarization modes associated with an NTN. This can include one or more transmit polarization modes and one or more receive polarization modes, which can be the same as or different from the transmit polarization modes. Exemplary polarization modes can include linear (e.g., horizontal, vertical) and/or circular (e.g., RHCP, LHCP) polarization. During initial search for a particular satellite, the UE can adapt its receiver polarization mode according to the pre programmed transmit polarization mode associated with that particular satellite, thereby improving the UE’s link budget and likelihood of acquiring the particular satellite (e.g., a cell served by the particular satellite in the UE’s current location).

In some embodiments, the UE can update some or all of the pre-programmed NTN- related information based on information from a network node. For example, this updated information can be provided by a base station (e.g., gNB) associated with the satellite providing the cell that the UE acquired (e.g., using the pre-programmed information).

As noted above, the UE can also be provided with a mapping between ephemeris data and network elements, which might be referred to with cell identifiers (e.g., physical cell identifiers, or PCIs) or node identifiers, such as a base station identifier.

In a first embodiment, the ephemeris data given to the UE includes a mapping to network elements. This means, that for every object described in the ephemeris data, a list of applicable network elements is included, for which this particular ephemeris data is valid. An object described in the ephemeris data can either be a satellite, or an orbital plane shared by a number of satellites. The network element may be a gNB, part of a gNB (control unit (CU) or distributed unit (DU) or a combination), or cell. The network element may also be referred to as an ID, gNB ID, cell ID, physical cell ID (PCI), or any other existing network ID , e.g., as defined in 3GPP TS 38.331 and/or 3GPP TS 36.331. In the discussion that follows, a network element may simply be referred to as a cell. An example for such a mapping would be Ephemeris data x describing orbital plane y is applicable for cells kl, k2, ... k7.

It should be noted that the orbital plane shared by a number of satellites can be seen in a hierarchical manner. That is, take first all satellites in the sky, define N orbital planes. Then further divide each N:th plane into M subplanes. In that way the new orbital information can be given with respect to information the UE already has. For example, the UE might know the orbital plane and receive new information about a subplane within that plane. Thus, the term “ephemeris data” as used herein might refer to a complete set of parameters, such as the six parameters discussed above, or a partial set or one or more updates to a previous set of parameters.

An ASN.1 example of this info reads as follows (the whole information element (IE) would be new addition to 3GPP TS 38.331 or 3GPP TS 36.331):

- begin IE description -

Ephemerislnfo

The IE Ephemerislnfo used to link ephemeris for an orbital plane to a physical cell ID.

Ephemerislnfo information element

- ASN1 START

- TAG-MEASOBJECTID-START Ephemerislnfo ::= SEQUENCE { cell PhysCellld, ephemerObject EphemerPlane

}

EmphemerPlane ::= ENUMERATED! pi anel, plane2, plane3, spare}

- TAG-MEASOBJECTID-STOP

- ASN1STOP

end IE description

In another embodiment, the ephemeris data includes an index for every object, e.g., Ephemeris data x describes orbital plane y and has index n. This index can then later be referenced, e.g., Cell kl can be found on the orbital plane with index n. The use of the index instead of the full ephemeris data significantly reduces the amount of data needed in a given message, since ephemeris data consists of at least six parameters. This indexing may be given, e.g., by using a subplane index if the plane index is already known. Or, if ephemeris information is needed to be given for a list of cells that share the same plane or subplane, the orbital information needs to be given only once.

The mapping to cells (or other network elements) is provided to the UE together with the ephemeris data: It can be transmitted to the UE via NAS signaling, it can be obtained by reading broadcasted System Information, or it can be pre-programmed in a file in the uSIM, or it can be given by UE dedicated RRC configuration.

Using the above defined mapping in signaling from network to UE

In one example embodiment, the network configures a UE to perform measurements. In this embodiment, the network informs the UE about ephemeris data related to cells to be measured by referring to an object in the ephemeris data. For example, in a measurement object (MO) concerning frequency N, the UE is given a list of PCIs together with a satellite ID, or together with an orbital plane ID.

An example implementation of the MO ASN.l is given below. Highlighted is the suggested addition to existing specifications, using the Ephemerislnfo IE described above: begin IE description

MeasObj ectNR : := SEQUENCE { ssbFrequency ARFCN-ValueNR OPTIONAL,

— Cond SSBorAssociatedSSB ssbSubcarrierSpacing SubcarrierSpacing

OPTIONAL, - Cond SSBorAssociatedSSB smtcl SSB-MTC OPTIONAL, -

Cond SSBorAssociatedSSB smtc2 SSB-MTC2 OPTIONAL, -

Cond IntraFreqConnected refFreqCSI-RS ARFCN-ValueNR

OPTIONAL, - Cond CSI-RS referenceSignalConfig ReferenceSignalConfig, absThreshSS-BlocksConsolidation ThresholdNR OPTIONAL, — Need R absThreshCSI-RS-Consolidation ThresholdNR OPTIONAL, — Need R nrofSS-BlocksTo Average INTEGER (2 maxNrofSS-BlocksTo Average)

OPTIONAL, — Need R nrofCSI-RS-ResourcesToAverage INTEGER (2..maxNrofCSI-RS- ResourcesToAverage) OPTIONAL, — Need R quantityConfiglndex INTEGER ( 1..maxNrofQuantityConfig), offsetMO Q-OffsetRangeList, cellsToRemoveList PCI-List OPTIONAL, — Need N cell sTo AddModLi st Cell sTo AddModLi st OPTIONAL, — Need N blackCellsToRemoveList PCI-RangelndexList

OPTIONAL, — Need N blackCellsToAddModList SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..maxNrofPCI-Ranges)) OF

PCI-RangeElement OPTIONAL, — Need N whiteCellsToRemoveList PCI-RangelndexList

OPTIONAL, — Need N whiteCellsToAddModList SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..maxNrofPCI-Ranges)) OF

PCI-RangeElement OPTIONAL, — Need N

. .. ,

[[ freqB andlndi catorNR-v 1530 FreqB andlndi catorNR

OPTIONAL, — Need R measCycleSCell-vl530 ENUMERATED (sfl60, sf256, sf320, sf512, sf640, sfl 024, sf 1280} OPTIONAL - Need R

]]

[[ ephemerisMeasInfo SEQUENCE (SIZE

(1... maxNrofEphemerisInfo)) OF Ephemerislnfo OPTIONAL —

Need R

]]

}

- _encj IE description -

In another example embodiment, the network informs the UE in a handover command about ephemeris data by giving the IE Ephemerislnfo concerning the target cell in the handover (HO) command. It may additionally include further updated info on the target cell ephemeris data.

In another example embodiment, the network informs the UE in an RRCRelease message about ephemeris data of cells that are prioritized or where the UE is redirected to. This is done by giving the IE Ephemerislnfo concerning the target cells in the RRCRelease message. It may additionally include further updated info on the target cell ephemeris data.

In another example embodiment, the network informs the UE in system information about ephemeris data of other cells or other carriers (if ephemeris data is common to cells on a carrier) by giving the IE Ephemerislnfo concerning the cell or frequency in system information.

Using the techniques described herein, a UE can use the ephemeris data and the ephemeris data quantization into planes/ sub-planes, if used, to quickly find a particular NTN cell. For instance, assume the UE knows information about orbital planes, or orbital subplans. Then, the UE may search for the first NTN cell from the portion of the sky defined by the orbital plane or sub-plane. After detecting the Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) and Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS) or the Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) of a cell broadcasted by a satellite, UE may be able to read the initial system information of that cell. Ideally, before attempting to access the cell, UE knows the round- trip time (RTT) well enough to be able to do random access. For this, it may be that the initial system information needs to contain further ephemeris information on the exact location of the cell (or satellite broadcasting the cell). This information can be given with respect to the orbital plane that UE has information about. For example, UE may be given an index to a sub-plane if initial information was orbital plane. Or, the UE may be given an exact orbit of a particular cell, which is expressed assuming it is within the known orbital plane or sub -plane.

These embodiments described above can be further illustrated with reference to Figures 6 and 7, which depict exemplary methods and/or procedures performed by a UE and a network node, respectively. In other words, various features of the operations described below, with reference to Figures 6 and 7, correspond to various embodiments described above.

More specifically, Figure 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method and/or procedure for linking ephemeris information to a node or cell in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

The exemplary method and/or procedure shown in Figure 6 can be implemented, for example, in a UE (e.g., wireless device) such as described in relation to other figures herein. The exemplary method and/or procedure shown in Figure 6 can also be used cooperatively with other exemplary methods and/or procedures described herein (e.g., Figure 7) to provide various benefits, advantages, and/or solutions described herein. Although Figure 6 shows specific blocks in a particular order, the operations of the exemplary method and/or procedure can be performed in a different order than shown and can be combined and/or divided into blocks having different functionality than shown. Optional operations are indicated by dashed lines. The method illustrated in Figure 6 includes the step of obtaining ephemeris data for a satellite, as shown at block 610. Alternatively, this step may comprise obtaining an index to ephemeris data for a satellite. In some embodiments, this index to ephemeris data for a satellite may comprise an index to a sub-plane of an orbital plane divided into sub-planes.

The method further includes the step of obtaining at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier associated with the obtained ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data, as shown at block 620.

It should be appreciated that these steps may be performed at the same step, e.g., using a single message or single information block. Alternatively, these steps may involve separate messages or separate information blocks. In some embodiments, for example, the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data is obtained in broadcasted system information that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier. In other embodiments, the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data is obtained in a message that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

In some embodiments, this message may include a measurement object that associates the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data with the at least one cell identifier or the at least one node identifier. This message may alternatively be a handover message that associates the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for handover of the wireless device. As another example, the message may be a Radio Resource Control (RRC) release message that associates the one or more parameters or the index to a cell identifier for a target cell for redirection of the wireless device.

The message or the system information may be received from a satellite node, or from a terrestrial radio access network node, in various embodiments or instances. As discussed above, the ephemeris data may include a complete set of parameters characterizing a satellite ephemeris, or a partial set, or an index to an ephemeris.

Figure 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for linking ephemeris information to a node or cell in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), according to various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. The exemplary method and/or procedure shown in Figure 7 can be implemented, for example, in a network node (e.g., satellite, gateway, base station, etc.) described in relation to other figures herein. The exemplary method and/or procedure shown in Figure 7 can also be used cooperatively with other exemplary methods and/or procedure described herein (e.g., Figure 6) to provide various benefits, advantages, and/or solutions described herein. Although Figure 7 shows specific blocks in a particular order, the operations of the exemplary method and/or procedure can be performed in a different order than shown and can be combined and/or divided into blocks having different functionality than shown. Optional blocks or operations are indicated by dashed lines.

The method illustrated in Figure 7 includes the step of providing, to a wireless device, ephemeris data for a satellite, as shown at block 710. Alternatively, this step may comprise providing, to the wireless device, an index to ephemeris data for a satellite. In some embodiments, this index to ephemeris data for a satellite may comprise an index to a sub plane of an orbital plane divided into sub-planes.

The illustrated method further includes the step of providing, to the wireless device, at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier associated with the obtained ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data to one or more parameters, as shown at block 720.

Again, it should be appreciated that these steps may be performed at the same step, e.g., using a single message or single information block. Alternatively, these steps may involve separate messages or separate information blocks. In some embodiments, for example, the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data is provided in broadcasted system information that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

In others, the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data is provided in a message that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

Once more, in some embodiments, this message may include a measurement object that associates the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data with the at least one cell identifier or the at least one node identifier. This message may alternatively be a handover message that associates the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for handover of the wireless device. As another example, the message may be a Radio Resource Control (RRC) release message that associates the one or more parameters or the index to a cell identifier for a target cell for redirection of the wireless device.

The message or the system information may be provided by a satellite node, or by a terrestrial radio access network node, in various embodiments or instances. As discussed above, the ephemeris data may include a complete set of parameters characterizing a satellite ephemeris, or a partial set, or an index to an ephemeris.

Although the subject matter described herein can be implemented in any appropriate type of system using any suitable components, the embodiments disclosed herein are described in relation to a wireless network, such as the example wireless network illustrated in Figure 8. For simplicity, the wireless network of Figure 8 only depicts network 806, network nodes 860 and 860b, and WDs 810, 810b, and 810c. In practice, a wireless network can further include any additional elements suitable to support communication between wireless devices or between a wireless device and another communication device, such as a landline telephone, a service provider, or any other network node or end device. Of the illustrated components, network node 860 and wireless device (WD) 810 are depicted with additional detail. The wireless network can provide communication and other types of services to one or more wireless devices to facilitate the wireless devices’ access to and/or use of the services provided by, or via, the wireless network.

The wireless network can comprise and/or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, and/or radio network or other similar type of system. In some embodiments, the wireless network can be configured to operate according to specific standards or other types of predefined rules or procedures. Thus, particular embodiments of the wireless network can implement communication standards, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and/or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G standards; wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the IEEE 802.11 standards; and/or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave and/or ZigBee standards.

Network 806 can comprise one or more backhaul networks, core networks, IP networks, public switched telephone networks (PSTNs), packet data networks, optical networks, wide-area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), wired networks, wireless networks, metropolitan area networks, and other networks to enable communication between devices.

Network node 860 and WD 810 comprise various components described in more detail below. These components work together to provide network node and/or wireless device functionality, such as providing wireless connections in a wireless network. In various embodiments, the wireless network can comprise any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, base stations, controllers, wireless devices, relay stations, and/or any other components or systems that can facilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signals whether via wired or wireless connections.

Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) ( e.g ., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)). Base stations can be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and can then also be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station can be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node can also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units and/or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station can also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).

Further examples of network nodes include multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell/multicast coordination entities (MCEs), core network nodes ( e.g ., MSCs, MMEs), O&M nodes, OSS nodes, SON nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., E-SMLCs), and/or MDTs. As another example, a network node can be a virtual network node as described in more detail below. More generally, however, network nodes can represent any suitable device (or group of devices) capable, configured, arranged, and/or operable to enable and/or provide a wireless device with access to the wireless network or to provide some service to a wireless device that has accessed the wireless network.

In Figure 8, network node 860 includes processing circuitry 870, device-readable medium 880, interface 890, auxiliary equipment 884, power source 886, power circuitry 887, and antenna 862. Although network node 860 illustrated in the example wireless network of Figure 8 can represent a device that includes the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments can comprise network nodes with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that a network node comprises any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods and/or procedures disclosed herein. Moreover, while the components of network node 860 are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, a network node can comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component (e.g, device-readable medium 880 can comprise multiple separate hard drives as well as multiple RAM modules).

Similarly, network node 860 can be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g, a NodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which can each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which network node 860 comprises multiple separate components (e.g, BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components can be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC can control multiple NodeB’ s. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, can in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, network node 860 can be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components can be duplicated ( e.g ., separate device-readable medium 880 for the different RATs) and some components can be reused (e.g., the same antenna 862 can be shared by the RATs). Network node 860 can also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 860, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies can be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 860.

Processing circuitry 870 can be configured to perform any determining, calculating, or similar operations (e.g, certain obtaining operations) described herein as being provided by a network node. These operations performed by processing circuitry 870 can include processing information obtained by processing circuitry 870 by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.

Processing circuitry 870 can comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 860 components, such as device-readable medium 880, network node 860 functionality. For example, processing circuitry 870 can execute instructions stored in device-readable medium 880 or in memory within processing circuitry 870. Such functionality can include providing any of the various wireless features, functions, or benefits discussed herein. In some embodiments, processing circuitry 870 can include a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, processing circuitry 870 can include one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 872 and baseband processing circuitry 874. In some embodiments, radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 872 and baseband processing circuitry 874 can be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 872 and baseband processing circuitry 874 can be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein as being provided by a network node, base station, eNB or other such network device can be performed by processing circuitry 870 executing instructions stored on device-readable medium 880 or memory within processing circuitry 870. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality can be provided by processing circuitry 870 without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a device- readable storage medium or not, processing circuitry 870 can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to processing circuitry 870 alone or to other components of network node 860, but are enjoyed by network node 860 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless network generally.

Device-readable medium 880 can comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and/or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that can be used by processing circuitry 870. Device-readable medium 880 can store any suitable instructions, data or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executed by processing circuitry 870 and, utilized by network node 860. Device-readable medium 880 can be used to store any calculations made by processing circuitry 870 and/or any data received via interface 890. In some embodiments, processing circuitry 870 and device-readable medium 880 can be considered to be integrated.

Interface 890 is used in the wired or wireless communication of signalling and/or data between network node 860, network 806, and/or WDs 810. As illustrated, interface 890 comprises port(s)/terminal(s) 894 to send and receive data, for example to and from network 806 over a wired connection. Interface 890 also includes radio front end circuitry 892 that can be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, antenna 862. Radio front end circuitry 892 comprises filters 898 and amplifiers 896. Radio front end circuitry 892 can be connected to antenna 862 and processing circuitry 870. Radio front end circuitry can be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 862 and processing circuitry 870. Radio front end circuitry 892 can receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. Radio front end circuitry 892 can convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 898 and/or amplifiers 896. The radio signal can then be transmitted via antenna 862. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna 862 can collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by radio front end circuitry 892. The digital data can be passed to processing circuitry 870. In other embodiments, the interface can comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.

In certain alternative embodiments, network node 860 may not include separate radio front end circuitry 892, instead, processing circuitry 870 can comprise radio front end circuitry and can be connected to antenna 862 without separate radio front end circuitry 892. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of RF transceiver circuitry 872 can be considered a part of interface 890. In still other embodiments, interface 890 can include one or more ports or terminals 894, radio front end circuitry 892, and RF transceiver circuitry 872, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and interface 890 can communicate with baseband processing circuitry 874, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

Antenna 862 can include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals. Antenna 862 can be coupled to radio front end circuitry 890 and can be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly. In some embodiments, antenna 862 can comprise one or more omni-directional, sector or panel antennas operable to transmit/receive radio signals between, for example, 2 GHz and 66 GHz. An omni-directional antenna can be used to transmit/receive radio signals in any direction, a sector antenna can be used to transmit/receive radio signals from devices within a particular area, and a panel antenna can be a line of sight antenna used to transmit/receive radio signals in a relatively straight line. In some instances, the use of more than one antenna can be referred to as MIMO. In certain embodiments, antenna 862 can be separate from network node 860 and can be connectable to network node 860 through an interface or port.

Antenna 862, interface 890, and/or processing circuitry 870 can be configured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data and/or signals can be received from a wireless device, another network node and/or any other network equipment.

Similarly, antenna 862, interface 890, and/or processing circuitry 870 can be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data and/or signals can be transmitted to a wireless device, another network node and/or any other network equipment.

Power circuitry 887 can comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry and can be configured to supply the components of network node 860 with power for performing the functionality described herein. Power circuitry 887 can receive power from power source 886. Power source 886 and/or power circuitry 887 can be configured to provide power to the various components of network node 860 in a form suitable for the respective components ( e.g ., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). Power source 886 can either be included in, or external to, power circuitry 887 and/or network node 860. For example, network node 860 can be connectable to an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry 887. As a further example, power source 886 can comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry 887. The battery can provide backup power should the external power source fail. Other types of power sources, such as photovoltaic devices, can also be used.

Alternative embodiments of network node 860 can include additional components beyond those shown in Figure 8 that can be responsible for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and/or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, network node 860 can include user interface equipment to allow and/or facilitate input of information into network node 860 and to allow and/or facilitate output of information from network node 860. This can allow and/or facilitate a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for network node 860.

In some embodiments, a wireless device (WD, e.g. WD 810) can be configured to communicate wirelessly with network nodes (e.g., 860) and/or other wireless devices (e.g., 810b,c). Communicating wirelessly can involve transmitting and/or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying information through air. In some embodiments, a WD can be configured to transmit and/or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a WD can be designed to transmit information to a network on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the network. Examples of a WD include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a cell phone, a voice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a desktop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless cameras, a gaming console or device, a music storage device, a playback appliance, a wearable terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobile station, a tablet, a laptop, a laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), a laptop-mounted equipment (LME), a smart device, a wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE) a vehicle- mounted wireless terminal device, etc.

A WD can support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3 GPP standard for sidelink communication, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and can in this case be referred to as a D2D communication device. As yet another specific example, in an Internet of Things (IoT) scenario, a WD can represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and/or measurements to another WD and/or a network node. The WD can in this case be a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, which can in a 3 GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the WD can be a UE implementing the 3 GPP narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) standard. Particular examples of such machines or devices are sensors, metering devices such as power meters, industrial machinery, or home or personal appliances (e.g. refrigerators, televisions, etc.) personal wearables (e.g, watches, fitness trackers, etc.).

In other scenarios, a WD can represent a vehicle or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation. A WD as described above can represent the endpoint of a wireless connection, in which case the device can be referred to as a wireless terminal. Furthermore, a WD as described above can be mobile, in which case it can also be referred to as a mobile device or a mobile terminal.

As illustrated, wireless device 810 includes antenna 811, interface 814, processing circuitry 820, device-readable medium 830, user interface equipment 832, auxiliary equipment 834, power source 836 and power circuitry 837. WD 810 can include multiple sets of one or more of the illustrated components for different wireless technologies supported by WD 810, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, WiMAX, or Bluetooth wireless technologies, just to mention a few. These wireless technologies can be integrated into the same or different chips or set of chips as other components within WD 810. Antenna 811 can include one or more antennas or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals, and is connected to interface 814. In certain alternative embodiments, antenna 811 can be separate from WD 810 and be connectable to WD 810 through an interface or port. Antenna 811, interface 814, and/or processing circuitry 820 can be configured to perform any receiving or transmitting operations described herein as being performed by a WD. Any information, data and/or signals can be received from a network node and/or another WD. In some embodiments, radio front end circuitry and/or antenna 811 can be considered an interface.

As illustrated, interface 814 comprises radio front end circuitry 812 and antenna 811. Radio front end circuitry 812 comprise one or more filters 818 and amplifiers 816. Radio front end circuitry 814 is connected to antenna 811 and processing circuitry 820 and can be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 811 and processing circuitry 820. Radio front end circuitry 812 can be coupled to or a part of antenna 811. In some embodiments, WD 810 may not include separate radio front end circuitry 812; rather, processing circuitry 820 can comprise radio front end circuitry and can be connected to antenna 811. Similarly, in some embodiments, some or all of RF transceiver circuitry 822 can be considered a part of interface 814. Radio front end circuitry 812 can receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. Radio front end circuitry 812 can convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 818 and/or amplifiers 816. The radio signal can then be transmitted via antenna 811. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna 811 can collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by radio front end circuitry 812. The digital data can be passed to processing circuitry 820. In other embodiments, the interface can comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.

Processing circuitry 820 can comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software, and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other WD 810 components, such as device-readable medium 830, WD 810 functionality. Such functionality can include providing any of the various wireless features or benefits discussed herein. For example, processing circuitry 820 can execute instructions stored in device-readable medium 830 or in memory within processing circuitry 820 to provide the functionality disclosed herein. As illustrated, processing circuitry 820 includes one or more of RF transceiver circuitry 822, baseband processing circuitry 824, and application processing circuitry 826. In other embodiments, the processing circuitry can comprise different components and/or different combinations of components. In certain embodiments processing circuitry 820 of WD 810 can comprise a SOC. In some embodiments, RF transceiver circuitry 822, baseband processing circuitry 824, and application processing circuitry 826 can be on separate chips or sets of chips. In alternative embodiments, part or all of baseband processing circuitry 824 and application processing circuitry 826 can be combined into one chip or set of chips, and RF transceiver circuitry 822 can be on a separate chip or set of chips. In still alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 822 and baseband processing circuitry 824 can be on the same chip or set of chips, and application processing circuitry 826 can be on a separate chip or set of chips. In yet other alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 822, baseband processing circuitry 824, and application processing circuitry 826 can be combined in the same chip or set of chips. In some embodiments, RF transceiver circuitry 822 can be a part of interface 814. RF transceiver circuitry 822 can condition RF signals for processing circuitry 820.

In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein as being performed by a WD can be provided by processing circuitry 820 executing instructions stored on device-readable medium 830, which in certain embodiments can be a computer-readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality can be provided by processing circuitry 820 without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a device-readable storage medium or not, processing circuitry 820 can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to processing circuitry 820 alone or to other components of WD 810, but are enjoyed by WD 810 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless network generally.

Processing circuitry 820 can be configured to perform any determining, calculating, or similar operations ( e.g ., certain obtaining operations) described herein as being performed by a WD. These operations, as performed by processing circuitry 820, can include processing information obtained by processing circuitry 820 by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored by WD 810, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.

Device-readable medium 830 can be operable to store a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executed by processing circuitry 820. Device-readable medium 830 can include computer memory ( e.g ., Random Access Memory (RAM) or Read Only Memory (ROM)), mass storage media (e.g., a hard disk), removable storage media (e.g, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non volatile, non-transitory device-readable and/or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that can be used by processing circuitry 820. In some embodiments, processing circuitry 820 and device-readable medium 830 can be considered to be integrated.

User interface equipment 832 can include components that allow and/or facilitate a human user to interact with WD 810. Such interaction can be of many forms, such as visual, audial, tactile, etc. User interface equipment 832 can be operable to produce output to the user and to allow and/or facilitate the user to provide input to WD 810. The type of interaction can vary depending on the type of user interface equipment 832 installed in WD 810. For example, if WD 810 is a smart phone, the interaction can be via a touch screen; if WD 810 is a smart meter, the interaction can be through a screen that provides usage (e.g, the number of gallons used) or a speaker that provides an audible alert (e.g, if smoke is detected). User interface equipment 832 can include input interfaces, devices and circuits, and output interfaces, devices and circuits. User interface equipment 832 can be configured to allow and/or facilitate input of information into WD 810, and is connected to processing circuitry 820 to allow and/or facilitate processing circuitry 820 to process the input information. User interface equipment 832 can include, for example, a microphone, a proximity or other sensor, keys/buttons, a touch display, one or more cameras, a USB port, or other input circuitry. User interface equipment 832 is also configured to allow and/or facilitate output of information from WD 810, and to allow and/or facilitate processing circuitry 820 to output information from WD 810. User interface equipment 832 can include, for example, a speaker, a display, vibrating circuitry, a USB port, a headphone interface, or other output circuitry. Using one or more input and output interfaces, devices, and circuits, of user interface equipment 832, WD 810 can communicate with end users and/or the wireless network, and allow and/or facilitate them to benefit from the functionality described herein. Auxiliary equipment 834 is operable to provide more specific functionality which may not be generally performed by WDs. This can comprise specialized sensors for doing measurements for various purposes, interfaces for additional types of communication such as wired communications etc. The inclusion and type of components of auxiliary equipment 834 can vary depending on the embodiment and/or scenario.

Power source 836 can, in some embodiments, be in the form of a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source ( e.g ., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic devices or power cells, can also be used. WD 810 can further comprise power circuitry 837 for delivering power from power source 836 to the various parts of WD 810 which need power from power source 836 to carry out any functionality described or indicated herein. Power circuitry 837 can in certain embodiments comprise power management circuitry. Power circuitry 837 can additionally or alternatively be operable to receive power from an external power source; in which case WD 810 can be connectable to the external power source (such as an electricity outlet) via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Power circuitry 837 can also in certain embodiments be operable to deliver power from an external power source to power source 836. This can be, for example, for the charging of power source 836. Power circuitry 837 can perform any converting or other modification to the power from power source 836 to make it suitable for supply to the respective components of WD 810.

Figure 9 illustrates one embodiment of a UE in accordance with various aspects described herein. As used herein, a user equipment or UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and/or operates the relevant device. Instead, a UE can represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE can represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which can be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter). UE 900 can be any UE identified by the 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a NB-IoT UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and/or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE. UE 900, as illustrated in Figure 9, is one example of a WD configured for communication in accordance with one or more communication standards promulgated by the 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), such as 3GPP’s GSM, UMTS, LTE, and/or 5G standards. As mentioned previously, the term WD and UE can be used interchangeable. Accordingly, although Figure 9 is a UE, the components discussed herein are equally applicable to a WD, and vice-versa. In Figure 9, UE 900 includes processing circuitry 901 that is operatively coupled to input/output interface 905, radio frequency (RF) interface 909, network connection interface 911, memory 915 including random access memory (RAM) 917, read-only memory (ROM) 919, and storage medium 921 or the like, communication subsystem 931, power source 933, and/or any other component, or any combination thereof. Storage medium 921 includes operating system 923, application program 925, and data 927. In other embodiments, storage medium 921 can include other similar types of information. Certain UEs can utilize all of the components shown in Figure 9, or only a subset of the components. The level of integration between the components can vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs can contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

In Figure 9, processing circuitry 901 can be configured to process computer instructions and data. Processing circuitry 901 can be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute machine instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory, such as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, FPGA, ASIC, etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored program, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or Digital Signal Processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 901 can include two central processing units (CPUs). Data can be information in a form suitable for use by a computer.

In the depicted embodiment, input/output interface 905 can be configured to provide a communication interface to an input device, output device, or input and output device. UE 900 can be configured to use an output device via input/output interface 905. An output device can use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a USB port can be used to provide input to and output from UE 900. The output device can be a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. UE 900 can be configured to use an input device via input/output interface 905 to allow and/or facilitate a user to capture information into UE 900. The input device can include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display can include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor can be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, another like sensor, or any combination thereof. For example, the input device can be an accelerometer, a magnetometer, a digital camera, a microphone, and an optical sensor.

In Figure 9, RF interface 909 can be configured to provide a communication interface to RF components such as a transmitter, a receiver, and an antenna. Network connection interface 911 can be configured to provide a communication interface to network 943a. Network 943a can encompass wired and/or wireless networks such as a local-area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN), a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network, another like network or any combination thereof. For example, network 943a can comprise a Wi-Fi network. Network connection interface 911 can be configured to include a receiver and a transmitter interface used to communicate with one or more other devices over a communication network according to one or more communication protocols, such as Ethernet, TCP/IP, SONET, ATM, or the like. Network connection interface 911 can implement receiver and transmitter functionality appropriate to the communication network links (e.g., optical, electrical, and the like). The transmitter and receiver functions can share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively can be implemented separately.

RAM 917 can be configured to interface via bus 902 to processing circuitry 901 to provide storage or caching of data or computer instructions during the execution of software programs such as the operating system, application programs, and device drivers. ROM 919 can be configured to provide computer instructions or data to processing circuitry 901. For example, ROM 919 can be configured to store invariant low-level system code or data for basic system functions such as basic input and output (I/O), startup, or reception of keystrokes from a keyboard that are stored in a non-volatile memory. Storage medium 921 can be configured to include memory such as RAM, ROM, programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, floppy disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, or flash drives. In one example, storage medium 921 can be configured to include operating system 923, application program 925 such as a web browser application, a widget or gadget engine or another application, and data file 927. Storage medium 921 can store, for use by UE 900, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

Storage medium 921 can be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), floppy disk drive, flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as a subscriber identity module or a removable user identity (SIM/RUIM) module, other memory, or any combination thereof. Storage medium 921 can allow and/or facilitate UE 900 to access computer-executable instructions, application programs or the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system can be tangibly embodied in storage medium 921, which can comprise a device-readable medium.

In Figure 9, processing circuitry 901 can be configured to communicate with network 943b using communication subsystem 931. Network 943a and network 943b can be the same network or networks or different network or networks. Communication subsystem 931 can be configured to include one or more transceivers used to communicate with network 943b. For example, communication subsystem 931 can be configured to include one or more transceivers used to communicate with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication such as another WD, UE, or base station of a radio access network (RAN) according to one or more communication protocols, such as IEEE 902.9, CDMA, WCDMA, GSM, LTE, UTRAN, WiMax, or the like. Each transceiver can include transmitter 933 and/or receiver 935 to implement transmitter or receiver functionality, respectively, appropriate to the RAN links (e.g., frequency allocations and the like). Further, transmitter 933 and receiver 935 of each transceiver can share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively can be implemented separately.

In the illustrated embodiment, the communication functions of communication subsystem 931 can include data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. For example, communication subsystem 931 can include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, Bluetooth communication, and GPS communication. Network 943b can encompass wired and/or wireless networks such as a local-area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN), a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network, another like network or any combination thereof. For example, network 943b can be a cellular network, a Wi-Fi network, and/or a near-field network. Power source 913 can be configured to provide alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) power to components of UE 900.

The features, benefits and/or functions described herein can be implemented in one of the components of UE 900 or partitioned across multiple components of UE 900. Further, the features, benefits, and/or functions described herein can be implemented in any combination of hardware, software or firmware. In one example, communication subsystem 931 can be configured to include any of the components described herein. Further, processing circuitry 901 can be configured to communicate with any of such components over bus 902. In another example, any of such components can be represented by program instructions stored in memory that when executed by processing circuitry 901 perform the corresponding functions described herein. In another example, the functionality of any of such components can be partitioned between processing circuitry 901 and communication subsystem 931. In another example, the non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components can be implemented in software or firmware and the computationally intensive functions can be implemented in hardware.

Figure 10 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1000 in which functions implemented by some embodiments can be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which can include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to a node (e.g., a virtualized base station, a virtualized radio access node, virtualized core network node) or to a device (e.g., a UE, a wireless device or any other type of communication device) or components thereof and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components (e.g., via one or more applications, components, functions, virtual machines or containers executing on one or more physical processing nodes in one or more networks).

In some embodiments, some or all of the functions described herein can be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines implemented in one or more virtual environments 1000 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes 1030. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node is not a radio access node or does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node), then the network node can be entirely virtualized.

The functions can be implemented by one or more applications 1020 (which can alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) operative to implement some of the features, functions, and/or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein. Applications 1020 are run in virtualization environment 1000 which provides hardware 1030 comprising processing circuitry 1060 and memory 1090. Memory 1090 contains instructions 1095 executable by processing circuitry 1060 whereby application 1020 is operative to provide one or more of the features, benefits, and/or functions disclosed herein.

Virtualization environment 1000, comprises general-purpose or special-purpose network hardware devices 1030 comprising a set of one or more processors or processing circuitry 1060, which can be commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processors, dedicated Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), or any other type of processing circuitry including digital or analog hardware components or special purpose processors. Each hardware device can comprise memory 1090-1 which can be non-persistent memory for temporarily storing instructions 1095 or software executed by processing circuitry 1060. Each hardware device can comprise one or more network interface controllers (NICs) 1070, also known as network interface cards, which include physical network interface 1080. Each hardware device can also include non-transitory, persistent, machine-readable storage media 1090-2 having stored therein software 1095 and/or instructions executable by processing circuitry 1060. Software 1095 can include any type of software including software for instantiating one or more virtualization layers 1050 (also referred to as hypervisors), software to execute virtual machines 1040 as well as software allowing it to execute functions, features and/or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein.

Virtual machines 1040, comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and can be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1050 or hypervisor. Different embodiments of the instance of virtual appliance 1020 can be implemented on one or more of virtual machines 1040, and the implementations can be made in different ways.

During operation, processing circuitry 1060 executes software 1095 to instantiate the hypervisor or virtualization layer 1050, which can sometimes be referred to as a virtual machine monitor (VMM). Virtualization layer 1050 can present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to virtual machine 1040.

As shown in Figure 10, hardware 1030 can be a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 1030 can comprise antenna 10225 and can implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1030 can be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g., such as in a data center or customer premise equipment (CPE)) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration (MANO) 1090, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 1020.

Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV can be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.

In the context of NFV, virtual machine 1040 can be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of virtual machines 1040, and that part of hardware 1030 that executes that virtual machine, be it hardware dedicated to that virtual machine and/or hardware shared by that virtual machine with others of the virtual machines 1040, forms a separate virtual network elements (VNE).

In the context of NFV, Virtual Network Function (VNF) is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more virtual machines 1040 on top of hardware networking infrastructure 1030, and can correspond to application 1020 in Figure 10.

In some embodiments, one or more radio units 10200 that each include one or more transmitters 10220 and one or more receivers 10210 can be coupled to one or more antennas 10225. Radio units 10200 can communicate directly with hardware nodes 1030 via one or more appropriate network interfaces and can be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station.

In some embodiments, some signaling can be affected with the use of control system 10230 which can alternatively be used for communication between the hardware nodes 1030 and radio units 10200.

With reference to FIGURE 11, in accordance with an embodiment, a communication system includes telecommunication network 1110, such as a 3 GPP -type cellular network, which comprises access network 1111, such as a radio access network, and core network 1114. Access network 1111 comprises a plurality of base stations 1112a, 1112b, 1112c, such as NBs, eNBs, gNBs or other types of wireless access points, each defining a corresponding coverage area 1113a, 1113b, 1113c. Each base station 1112a, 1112b, 1112c is connectable to core network 1114 over a wired or wireless connection 1115. A first UE 1191 located in coverage area 1113c can be configured to wirelessly connect to, or be paged by, the corresponding base station 1112c. A second UE 1192 in coverage area 1113a is wirelessly connectable to the corresponding base station 1112a. While a plurality of UEs 1191, 1192 are illustrated in this example, the disclosed embodiments are equally applicable to a situation where a sole UE is in the coverage area or where a sole UE is connecting to the

Telecommunication network 1110 is itself connected to host computer 1130, which can be embodied in the hardware and/or software of a standalone server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server or as processing resources in a server farm. Host computer 1130 can be under the ownership or control of a service provider, or can be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. Connections 1121 and 1122 between telecommunication network 1110 and host computer 1130 can extend directly from core network 1114 to host computer 1130 or can go via an optional intermediate network 1120. Intermediate network 1120 can be one of, or a combination of more than one of, a public, private or hosted network; intermediate network 1120, if any, can be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular, intermediate network 1120 can comprise two or more sub-networks (not shown).

The communication system of Figure 11 as a whole enables connectivity between the connected UEs 1191, 1192 and host computer 1130. The connectivity can be described as an over-the-top (OTT) connection 1150. Host computer 1130 and the connected UEs 1191,

1192 are configured to communicate data and/or signaling via OTT connection 1150, using access network 1111, core network 1114, any intermediate network 1120 and possible further infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries. OTT connection 1150 can be transparent in the sense that the participating communication devices through which OTT connection 1150 passes are unaware of routing of uplink and downlink communications. For example, base station 1112 may not or need not be informed about the past routing of an incoming downlink communication with data originating from host computer 1130 to be forwarded ( e.g ., handed over) to a connected UE 1191. Similarly, base station 1112 need not be aware of the future routing of an outgoing uplink communication originating from the UE 1191 towards the host computer 1130.

Example implementations, in accordance with an embodiment, of the UE, base station and host computer discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to Figure 12. In communication system 1200, host computer 1210 comprises hardware 1215 including communication interface 1216 configured to set up and maintain a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of communication system 1200. Host computer 1210 further comprises processing circuitry 1218, which can have storage and/or processing capabilities. In particular, processing circuitry 1218 can comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. Host computer 1210 further comprises software 1211, which is stored in or accessible by host computer 1210 and executable by processing circuitry 1218. Software 1211 includes host application 1212. Host application 1212 can be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as UE 1230 connecting via OTT connection 1250 terminating at UE 1230 and host computer 1210. In providing the service to the remote user, host application 1212 can provide user data which is transmitted using OTT connection 1250.

Communication system 1200 can also include base station 1220 provided in a telecommunication system and comprising hardware 1225 enabling it to communicate with host computer 1210 and with UE 1230. Hardware 1225 can include communication interface

1226 for setting up and maintaining a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of communication system 1200, as well as radio interface

1227 for setting up and maintaining at least wireless connection 1270 with UE 1230 located in a coverage area (not shown in Figure 12) served by base station 1220. Communication interface 1226 can be configured to facilitate connection 1260 to host computer 1210. Connection 1260 can be direct or it can pass through a core network (not shown in Figure 12) of the telecommunication system and/or through one or more intermediate networks outside the telecommunication system. In the embodiment shown, hardware 1225 of base station 1220 can also include processing circuitry 1228, which can comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. Base station 1220 further has software 1221 stored internally or accessible via an external connection.

Communication system 1200 can also include UE 1230 already referred to. Its hardware 1235 can include radio interface 1237 configured to set up and maintain wireless connection 1270 with a base station serving a coverage area in which UE 1230 is currently located. Hardware 1235 of UE 1230 can also include processing circuitry 1238, which can comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. UE 1230 further comprises software 1231, which is stored in or accessible by UE 1230 and executable by processing circuitry 1238. Software 1231 includes client application 1232. Client application 1232 can be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE 1230, with the support of host computer 1210. In host computer 1210, an executing host application 1212 can communicate with the executing client application 1232 via OTT connection 1250 terminating at UE 1230 and host computer 1210. In providing the service to the user, client application 1232 can receive request data from host application 1212 and provide user data in response to the request data. OTT connection 1250 can transfer both the request data and the user data. Client application 1232 can interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides.

Host computer 1210, base station 1220 and UE 1230 illustrated in Figure 12 can be similar or identical to host computer 1130, one of base stations 1112a, 1112b, 1112c and one of UEs 1191, 1192 of Figure 11, respectively. This is to say, the inner workings of these entities can be as shown in Figure 12 and independently, the surrounding network topology can be that of Figure 11.

In Figure 12, OTT connection 1250 has been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between host computer 1210 and UE 1230 via base station 1220, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices. Network infrastructure can determine the routing, which it can be configured to hide from UE 1230 or from the service provider operating host computer 1210, or both. While OTT connection 1250 is active, the network infrastructure can further take decisions by which it dynamically changes the routing ( e.g ., on the basis of load balancing consideration or reconfiguration of the network).

Wireless connection 1270 between UE 1230 and base station 1220 is in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to UE 1230 using OTT connection 1250, in which wireless connection 1270 forms the last segment.

More precisely, the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein can improve flexibility for the network to monitor end-to-end quality-of-service (QoS) of data flows, including their corresponding radio bearers, associated with data sessions between a user equipment (UE) and another entity, such as an OTT data application or service external to the 5G network. These and other advantages can facilitate more timely design, implementation, and deployment of 5G/NR solutions. Furthermore, such embodiments can facilitate flexible and timely control of data session QoS, which can lead to improvements in capacitiy, throughput, latency, etc. that are envisioned by 5G/NR and important for the growth of OTT services.

A measurement procedure can be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency and other network operational aspects on which the one or more embodiments improve. There can further be an optional network functionality for reconfiguring OTT connection 1250 between host computer 1210 and UE 1230, in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring OTT connection 1250 can be implemented in software 1211 and hardware 1215 of host computer 1210 or in software 1231 and hardware 1235 of UE 1230, or both. In embodiments, sensors (not shown) can be deployed in or in association with communication devices through which OTT connection 1250 passes; the sensors can participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which software 1211, 1231 can compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of OTT connection 1250 can include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not affect base station 1220, and it can be unknown or imperceptible to base station 1220. Such procedures and functionalities can be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements can involve proprietary UE signaling facilitating host computer 1210’s measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like. The measurements can be implemented in that software 1211, 1231 causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using OTT connection 1250 while it monitors propagation times, errors etc.

Figure 13 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method and/or procedure implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which, in some exemplary embodiments, can be those described with reference to Figures 11 and 12. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 13 will be included in this section. In step 1310, the host computer provides user data. In substep 1311 (which can be optional) of step 1310, the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In step 1320, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. In step 1330 (which can be optional), the base station transmits to the UE the user data which was carried in the transmission that the host computer initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 1340 (which can also be optional), the UE executes a client application associated with the host application executed by the host computer.

Figure 14 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method and/or procedure implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which can be those described with reference to Figures 11 and 12. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 14 will be included in this section. In step 1410 of the method, the host computer provides user data. In an optional substep (not shown) the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In step 1420, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. The transmission can pass via the base station, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 1430 (which can be optional), the UE receives the user data carried in the transmission.

Figure 15 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method and/or procedure implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which can be those described with reference to Figures 11 and 12. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 15 will be included in this section. In step 1510 (which can be optional), the UE receives input data provided by the host computer. Additionally or alternatively, in step 1520, the UE provides user data. In substep 1521 (which can be optional) of step 1520, the UE provides the user data by executing a client application. In substep 1511 (which can be optional) of step 1510, the UE executes a client application which provides the user data in reaction to the received input data provided by the host computer. In providing the user data, the executed client application can further consider user input received from the user. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE initiates, in substep 1530 (which can be optional), transmission of the user data to the host computer. In step 1540 of the method, the host computer receives the user data transmitted from the UE, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure.

Figure 16 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method and/or procedure implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which can be those described with reference to Figures 11 and 12. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 16 will be included in this section. In step 1610 (which can be optional), in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, the base station receives user data from the UE. In step 1620 (which can be optional), the base station initiates transmission of the received user data to the host computer. In step 1630 (which can be optional), the host computer receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the base station.

Example embodiments of the methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media described herein include, but are not limited to, the following enumerated examples: 1. A method, performed by a wireless device, for linking ephemeris information to a node or cell in a non-terrestrial network, NTN, the method comprising: obtaining ephemeris data for a satellite or an index to ephemeris data for a satellite; and obtaining at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier associated with the obtained ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data.

2. The method of example embodiment 1, wherein the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data is obtained in broadcasted system information that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

3. The method of example embodiment 1, wherein the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data is obtained in a message that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

4. The method of example embodiment 3, wherein the message includes a measurement object that associates the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data with the at least one cell identifier or the at least one node identifier.

5. The method of example embodiment 3, wherein the message is a handover message that associates the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for handover of the wireless device.

6. The method of example embodiment 3, wherein the message is a Radio Resource Configuration, RRC, release message that associates the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for redirection of the wireless device.

7. The method of any of example embodiments 3-6, wherein the message is received from a terrestrial radio access network node.

8. The method of any of example embodiments 1-7, wherein the ephemeris data for the satellite or the index to ephemeris data for a satellite comprises an index to a sub-plane of an orbital plane divided into sub-planes. 9. A method, performed by a network node, for linking ephemeris information to a node or cell in a non-terrestrial network, NTN, the method comprising: providing, to a wireless device, ephemeris data for a satellite or an index to ephemeris data for a satellite; and providing, to the wireless device, at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier associated with the obtained ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data to one or more parameters.

10. The method of example embodiment 9, wherein the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data is provided in broadcasted system information that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

11. The method of example embodiment 9, wherein the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data are provided in a message that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

12. The method of example embodiment 11, wherein the message includes a measurement object that associates the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data with the at least one cell identifier or the at least one node identifier.

13. The method of example embodiment 11, wherein the message is a handover message that associates the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for handover of the wireless device.

14. The method of example embodiment 11, wherein the message is a Radio Resource Configuration, RRC, release message that associates the ephemeris data or index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for redirection of the wireless device.

15. The method of any of example embodiments 9-14, wherein the ephemeris data for the satellite or the index to ephemeris data for a satellite comprises an index to a sub-plane of an orbital plane divided into sub-planes.

16. The method of any of example embodiments 9-15, wherein the network node is a terrestrial radio access network node. 17. A user equipment (UE) configured to operate in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), the UE comprising: radio interface circuitry configured to communicate with a network node via at least one cell; and processing circuitry operably coupled to the radio interface circuitry, whereby the processing circuitry and the radio interface circuitry are configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods of claims 1-8.

18. A user equipment (UE) configured to operate in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), the UE being further arranged to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods of claims 1-8.

19. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry of a user equipment (UE), configure the UE to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods of claims 1-8.

20. A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry of a user equipment (UE), configure the UE to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods of claims 1-8.

21. A network node configured to serve at least one cell in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), the network node comprising: radio interface circuitry configured to communicate with user equipment (UEs) via the at least one cell; and processing circuitry operably coupled to the radio interface circuitry, whereby the processing circuitry and the radio interface circuitry are configured to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods of claims 9-16.

22. A network node configured to serve at least one cell in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), the network node being further arranged to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods of claims 9-16. 23. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry of a network node in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), configure the network node to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods of claims 9-16.

24. A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry of a network node in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), configure the network node to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods of claims 9-16.

The exemplary embodiments described herein provide techniques for pre-configuring a UE for operation in a 3 GPP non-terrestrial network (NTN). Such embodiments reduce the time needed for initial acquisition of an NTN (e.g., PLMN) and a cell within the NTN. This can provide various benefits and/or advantages, including reducing UE energy consumption (or, equivalently, increasing UE operational time on one battery charge) and improving user access to services provided by an NTN. When used in UEs and/or network nodes, exemplary embodiments described herein can enable UEs to access network resources and OTT services more consistently and without interruption. This improves the availability and/or performance of these services as experienced by OTT service providers and end- users, including more consistent data throughout and fewer delays without excessive UE power consumption or other reductions in user experience.

The foregoing merely illustrates the principles of the disclosure. Various modifications and alterations to the described embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the teachings herein. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise numerous systems, arrangements, and procedures that, although not explicitly shown or described herein, embody the principles of the disclosure and can be thus within the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Various exemplary embodiments can be used together with one another, as well as interchangeably therewith, as should be understood by those having ordinary skill in the art.

The term unit, as used herein, can have conventional meaning in the field of electronics, electrical devices and/or electronic devices and can include, for example, electrical and/or electronic circuitry, devices, modules, processors, memories, logic solid state and/or discrete devices, computer programs or instructions for carrying out respective tasks, procedures, computations, outputs, and/or displaying functions, and so on, as such as those that are described herein.

Any appropriate steps, methods, features, functions, or benefits disclosed herein may be performed through one or more functional units or modules of one or more virtual apparatuses. Each virtual apparatus may comprise a number of these functional units. These functional units may be implemented via processing circuitry, which may include one or more microprocessor or microcontrollers, as well as other digital hardware, which may include Digital Signal Processor (DSPs), special-purpose digital logic, and the like. The processing circuitry may be configured to execute program code stored in memory, which may include one or several types of memory such as Read Only Memory (ROM), Random Access Memory (RAM), cache memory, flash memory devices, optical storage devices, etc. Program code stored in memory includes program instructions for executing one or more telecommunications and/or data communications protocols as well as instructions for carrying out one or more of the techniques described herein. In some implementations, the processing circuitry may be used to cause the respective functional unit to perform corresponding functions according one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

As described herein, device and/or apparatus can be represented by a semiconductor chip, a chipset, or a (hardware) module comprising such chip or chipset; this, however, does not exclude the possibility that a functionality of a device or apparatus, instead of being hardware implemented, be implemented as a software module such as a computer program or a computer program product comprising executable software code portions for execution or being run on a processor. Furthermore, functionality of a device or apparatus can be implemented by any combination of hardware and software. A device or apparatus can also be regarded as an assembly of multiple devices and/or apparatuses, whether functionally in cooperation with or independently of each other. Moreover, devices and apparatuses can be implemented in a distributed fashion throughout a system, so long as the functionality of the device or apparatus is preserved. Such and similar principles are considered as known to a skilled person.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. It will be further understood that terms used herein should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of this specification and the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. In addition, certain terms used in the present disclosure, including the specification, drawings and exemplary embodiments thereof, can be used synonymously in certain instances, including, but not limited to, e.g ., data and information. It should be understood that, while these words and/or other words that can be synonymous to one another, can be used synonymously herein, that there can be instances when such words can be intended to not be used synonymously. Further, to the extent that the prior art knowledge has not been explicitly incorporated by reference herein above, it is explicitly incorporated herein in its entirety. All publications referenced are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Glossary of some abbreviations used above:

3 GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project

5GS 5G system

BS Base Station CU Control Unit DU Distributed Unit eMBB enhanced mobile broadband EPC Evolved Packet Core GEO Geostationary Earth Orbit gNB NR base station GW Gateway HO Handover IE Information Element

LEO Low Earth Orbit LTE Long Term Evolution LTE-M LTE for Machine-Type Communications MAC Medium Access Control MBB Mobile broadband MEO Medium Earth Orbit mMTC massive machine type communications MO Measurement Object NAS Non-Access Stratum NB-IoT Narrowband Internet of Things NGSO Non-Geostationary Orbit NR New Radio

NTN Non-Terrestrial Network PCI physical cell ID PLMN Public Land Mobile Network PSS Primary Synchronization Signal RRC Radio Resource Control RTT Round Trip Time SI System Information

SSB Synchronization Signal Block SSS Secondary Synchronization Signal UE User Equipment

URLLC ultra-reliable and low latency communication uSIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module

Claims

1. A method, performed by a wireless device, for linking ephemeris information to a node or cell in a non-terrestrial network, NTN, the method comprising: obtaining (610) an index to ephemeris data for a satellite; and obtaining (620) at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier associated with the obtained index to ephemeris data, wherein the index to ephemeris data for a satellite comprises an index to a sub plane of an orbital plane divided into sub-planes

2. The method of Claim 1, wherein the index to ephemeris data is obtained in broadcasted system information that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

3. The method of Claim 1, wherein the index to ephemeris data is obtained in a message that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

4. The method of Claim 3, wherein the message includes a measurement object that associates the index to ephemeris data with the at least one cell identifier or the at least one node identifier.

5. The method of Claim 3, wherein the message is a handover message that associates the index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for handover of the wireless device.

6. The method of Claim 3, wherein the message is a Radio Resource Control, RRC, release message that associates the index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for redirection of the wireless device.

7. The method of any of Claims 3-6, wherein the message is received from a terrestrial radio access network node.

8. The method of any of claims 1-7, further comprising: searching for a non-terrestrial network, NTN, cell from a portion of the sky defined by the sub-plane of the orbital plane.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: detecting a synchronization signal of the cell; and reading initial system information of the cell.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising: determining, based on the sub-plane of the orbital plane, a round trip time for use in random access to the NTN cell.

11. A method, performed by a network node, for linking ephemeris information to a node or cell in a non-terrestrial network, NTN, the method comprising: providing (710), to a wireless device, an index to ephemeris data for a satellite; and providing (720), to the wireless device, at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier associated with the index to ephemeris data, wherein the index to ephemeris data for a satellite comprises an index to a sub-plane of an orbital plane divided into sub-planes.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the index to ephemeris data is provided in broadcasted system information that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the index to ephemeris data is provided in a message that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the message includes a measurement object that associates the index to ephemeris data with the at least one cell identifier or the at least one node identifier.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the message is a handover message that associates the index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for handover of the wireless device.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the message is a Radio Resource Control, RRC, release message that associates the index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for redirection of the wireless device.

17. The method of any of claims 11-16, wherein the network node is a terrestrial radio access network node.

18. A wireless device (900) configured to operate in a non-terrestrial network, NTN, the wireless device comprising: radio interface circuitry (909) configured to communicate with a network node via at least one cell; and processing circuitry (901) operably coupled to the radio interface circuitry, whereby the processing circuitry (901) and the radio interface circuitry (909) are configured to: obtain an index to ephemeris data for a satellite; and obtain at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier associated with the obtained index to ephemeris data, wherein the index to ephemeris data for a satellite comprises an index to a sub-plane of an orbital plane divided into sub-planes

19. The wireless device (900) of claim 18, wherein the index to ephemeris data is obtained in broadcasted system information that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

20. The wireless device (900) of claim 18, wherein the index to ephemeris data is obtained in a message that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

21. The wireless device (900) of claim 20, wherein the message includes a measurement object that associates the index to ephemeris data with the at least one cell identifier or the at least one node identifier.

22. The wireless device (900) of claim 20, wherein the message is a handover message that associates the index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for handover of the wireless device (900).

23. The wireless device (900) of claim 20, wherein the message is a Radio Resource Control, RRC, release message that associates the index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for redirection of the wireless device (900).

24. The wireless device (900) of any of claims 20-23, wherein the message is received from a terrestrial radio access network node.

25. The wireless device (900) of any of claims 18-24, wherein the processing circuitry (901) and the radio interface circuitry (909) are configured to: search for a non-terrestrial network, NTN, cell from a portion of the sky defined by the sub-plane of the orbital plane.

26. The wireless device (900) of claim 25, wherein the processing circuitry (901) and the radio interface circuitry (909) are configured to: detect a synchronization signal of the cell; and read initial system information of the cell.

27. The wireless device (900) of claim 25, wherein the processing circuitry (901) and the radio interface circuitry (909) are configured to: determine, based on the sub-plane of the orbital plane, a round trip time for use in random access to the NTN cell.

28. A wireless device (900) adapted to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods of claims 1-10.

29. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium (921) storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry of a wireless device, configure the wireless device to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods of claims 1-10.

30. A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry of a wireless device, configure the wireless device to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods of claims 1-10.

31. A network node (860) configured to serve at least one cell in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), the network node (860) comprising: radio interface circuitry (890) configured to communicate with wireless devices via the at least one cell; and processing circuitry (870) operably coupled to the radio interface circuitry (890), whereby the processing circuitry (870) and the radio interface circuitry (890) are configured to: provide, to a wireless device, an index to ephemeris data for a satellite; and provide, to the wireless device, at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier associated with the index to ephemeris data, wherein the index to ephemeris data for a satellite comprises an index to a sub-plane of an orbital plane divided into sub-planes.

32. The network node (860) of claim 31, wherein the index to ephemeris data is provided in broadcasted system information that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

33. The network node (860) of claim 31, wherein the index to ephemeris data is provided in a message that also comprises the at least one cell identifier or at least one node identifier.

34. The network node (860) of claim 33, wherein the message includes a measurement object that associates the index to ephemeris data with the at least one cell identifier or the at least one node identifier.

35. The network node (860) of claim 33, wherein the message is a handover message that associates the index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for handover of the wireless device.

36. The network node (860) of claim 33, wherein the message is a Radio Resource Control, RRC, release message that associates the index to ephemeris data to a cell identifier for a target cell for redirection of the wireless device.

37. The network node (860) of any of claims 31-36, wherein the network node (860) is a terrestrial radio access network node.

38. A network node (860) configured to serve at least one cell in a non-terrestrial network, NTN, the network node (860) being further arranged to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods of claims 11-17.

39. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium (880) storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry (870) of a network node (860) in a non-terrestrial network, NTN, configure the network node (860) to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods of claims 11-17.

40. A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry of a network node (860) in a non-terrestrial network, NTN, configure the network node (860) to perform operations corresponding to any of the methods of claims 11-17.