WO2022039654A1 - Switching between two or more paging mechanisms - Google Patents

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed herein that enable switching between two or more paging mechanisms, e.g., a coverage enhancement (CE) level based paging mechanism and a non-CE level based paging mechanism. In one embodiment, a method performed by a wireless communication device comprises obtaining, from a network node, information about paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms. The method further comprises determining one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for a current paging occasion (PO), tuning to a paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO, and performing paging monitoring on the paging carrier in accordance with the paging configurations for the paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO.

Description

SWITCHING BETWEEN TWO OR MORE PAGING MECHANISMS

Related Applications

This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application serial number 63/067,605, filed August 19, 2020, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to paging in a cellular communications system.

Background

For Narrowband Internet of things (NB-IoT), different coverage extension levels have been defined to cope with different radio conditions. There are typically three Coverage Enhancement (CE) levels, CE level 0 to CE level 2. CE level 0 corresponds to normal coverage, and CE level 2 corresponds to the worst case, where the coverage is assumed to be very poor. The main impact of the different CE levels is that messages have to be repeated several times especially for the CE level 2. Further, for Machine Type Communication (MTC), CE modes have been defined (CE Mode A, CE Mode B), with the possibility to have several CE levels in each CE mode.

At the Radio Access Network (RAN) plenary meeting #86, a new Work Item (WI) entitled "Rel-17 enhancements for NB-IoT and LTE-MTC" was agreed (see RP-193264, WID: Rel-17 enhancements for NB-IoT and LTE-MTC, RAN #86, Sitges, Spain, December 9^th - 12^th, 2019). One of its objectives consists in specifying the introduction of NB-IoT carrier selection based on the coverage level as stated in the following excerpt from the Work Item Description (WID):

• Introduce support for NB-IoT carrier selection based on the coverage level, and associated carrier specific configuration (e.g. maximum repetitions UL/DL, DRX configurations, etc.). [NB-IoT] [RAN2, RAN3J.

In Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 13, random access and paging can be only in the anchor carrier. In 3GPP Release 14, multi-Physical Resource Block (PRB) operation is enhanced such that User Equipments (UEs) can perform both random access and monitoring of paging on non-anchor carriers. This provides a capacity increase both for random access and paging, considering the small MTC payloads would otherwise easily become a capacity bottleneck on the anchor carrier. Non-anchor carrier configurations are provided in a new System Information Block (SIB), SIB22-NB, since the non-anchor carrier configurations must be known to UEs in Radio Resource Control (RRC) Idle mode. The maximum number of paging and Random Access Channel (RACH) carriers is maxNonAnchorCarriers-NB-rl4 + 1, which at least currently equals to 16.

For paging as specified in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 36.304 (see, e.g., V16.1.0), the paging related parameters and static parameters such as UE_ID are used for selecting a paging carrier. However, the network may assign different weights for different paging carriers to steer the paging load across the paging carriers.

If Paging Radio Network Temporary Identifier (P-RNTI) is monitored on Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH) and the UE supports paging on a non-anchor carrier and if paging configuration for the non-anchor carrier is provided in system information, then the paging carrier is determined by the paging carrier with smallest index n (0 < n < Nn-1) fulfilling the following equation: floor(UE_ID/(N*Ns)) mod W < W(0) + W(l) + ... + W(n) where the parameters are identified as below:

• T: Discontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle of the UE. o Except for NB-IoT : If a UE specific extended DRX value of 512 radio frames is configured by upper layers according to chapter 7.3 of TS 36.304 V16.0.0, T =512. Otherwise, T is determined by the shortest of the UE specific DRX value, if allocated by upper layers, and a default DRX value broadcast in system information. If UE specific DRX is not configured by upper layers, the default value is applied. UE specific DRX is not applicable for NB-IoT. In RRC_INACTIVE state, if extended DRX is not configured by upper layers as defined in chapter 7.3 of TS 36.304 V16.0.0, T is determined by the shortest of the Radio Access Network (RAN) paging cycle, the UE specific paging cycle, and the default paging cycle, if allocated by upper layers. Otherwise, in RRC_INACTIVE state when extended DRX is configured by upper layers, T is determined by the shortest of the RAN paging cycle, the UE specific paging cycle, if allocated by upper layers and the default paging cycle during the Paging Time Window (PTW) as defined in 7.3, and by the RAN paging cycle outside the PTW. o For NB-IoT: If UE specific DRX value is allocated by upper layers and minimum UE specific DRX value is broadcast in system information, T = min (default DRX value, max (UE specific DRX value, minimum UE specific DRX value broadcast in system information)). If UE specific DRX is not configured by upper layers or if the minimum UE specific DRX value is not broadcast in system information, the default DRX value is applied.

• nB: 4T, 2T, T, T/2, T/4, T/8, T/16, T/32, T/64, T/128, and T/256, and for NB-IoT also T/512, and T/1024.

• N: min(T,nB)

• Ns: max(l,nB/T)

• Nn: number of paging narrowbands (for P-RNTI monitored on MTC Physical Downlink Control Channel (MPDCCH)) or paging carriers (for P-RNTI monitored on NPDCCH) determined as follows: o If UE supports Group Wake Up Signal (GWUS) and gwus-Config is present in system information:

■ this is the number of paging narrowbands (paging carriers) that are configured with GWUS. o else:

■ this is the number of paging narrowbands (paging carriers) provided in system information.

• W(i): Weight for NB-IoT paging carrier i

• W: Total weight of all NB-IoT paging carriers, i.e. W = W(0) + W(l) + ... + W(Nn-l). If GWUS is configured, Total weight of all NB-IoT paging carriers configured with GWUS.

Summary

Systems and methods are disclosed herein that enable switching between two or more paging mechanisms, e.g., a coverage enhancement (CE) level based paging mechanism and a non-CE level based paging mechanism. In one embodiment, a method performed by a wireless communication device comprises obtaining, from a network node, information about paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms. The method further comprises determining one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for a current paging occasion (PO), tuning to a paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO, and performing paging monitoring on the paging carrier in accordance with the paging configurations for the paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO. In this manner, paging delay can be reduced and wireless communication device power consumption can be reduced during paging for wireless communication devices that are in good coverage.

In one embodiment, the two or more paging mechanisms comprise a CE level based paging mechanism and a non-CE level based paging mechanism. In one embodiment, the information about the paging configurations comprises information about CE-level based paging configurations for a first set of paging carriers and information about non-CE level-based paging configurations for a second set paging carriers. In one embodiment, the information about the CE-level based paging configurations for the first set of paging carriers comprises information comprised in a System Information Block (SIB), wherein the information comprised in the SIB comprises an information element that specifies one or more coverage levels used for each of the first set of paging carriers. In one embodiment, the first and second sets of paging carriers are disjoint sets of carriers. In one embodiment, the first set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers. In one embodiment, the paging carrier is a paging carrier with a smallest index n that fulfills the following equation: floor(UE_ID/(N*Ns)) mod Wrl7 < Wrl7 (0) + Wrl7 (1) + ... + Wrl7 (n) where:

UE_ID is an identity of the wireless communication device (112),

N is min(T,nB), where nB is configured to be one of the following values: 4T, 2T, T, T/2, T/4, T/8, T/16, T/32, T/64, T/128, and T/256, T/512, and T/1024,

Ns is max(l,nB/T),

Wrl7(i) is a weight for paging carrier i in the first set of paging carriers which is configured with a CE level of the wireless communication device (112), and

Wrl7 is a total weight of all paging carriers in the first set of paging carriers which are configured with the CE level of the wireless communication device (112), i.e. Wrl7= Wrl7 (0) + Wrl7 (1) + ... + Wrl7 (Nn-1). In one embodiment, determining the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO based on timer information. In one embodiment, the timer information defines an alternating series of first time periods having a first time duration that are associated to the CE level based paging mechanism and a second time periods having a second time duration that are associated to the non-CE level based paging mechanism, and determining the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO based on the timer information comprises determining the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO such that the one of the two or more paging mechanism is: the CE level based paging mechanism if the current PO falls within one of the first time periods and the non-CE level based paging mechanism i if the current PO falls within one of the second time periods.

In one embodiment, the current PO is one of a plurality of POs in a paging transmission window for enhanced DRX (eDRX) and the plurality of POs in the paging transmission window are divided into at least two groups of POs comprising a first group of POs associated to the CE level based paging mechanism and a second group of POs associated to the non-CE level based paging mechanism. The step of determining the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO such that the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO is: the CE level based paging mechanism if the current PO is one of the first group of POs and the non-CE level based paging mechanism if the current PO is one of the second group of POs.

In one embodiment, the two or more paging mechanisms comprise a first CE level based paging mechanism for a first CE level or a first set of CE levels and a second CE level based paging mechanism for a second CE level or a second set of CE levels. In one embodiment, the information about the paging configurations comprises information about CE-level based paging configurations for a first set of paging carriers for the first CE level or the first set of CE levels and information about CE level-based paging configurations for a second set paging carriers for the second CE level or the second set of CE levels. In one embodiment, the information about the CE-level based paging configurations for the first and second sets of paging carriers comprises information comprised in a SIB, wherein the information comprised in the SIB comprises an information element that specifies one or more coverage levels used for each paging carrier in the first and second sets of paging carriers. In one embodiment, the first and second sets of paging carriers are disjoint sets of carriers. In one embodiment, the first set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers and/or the second set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers.

In one embodiment, determining the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO based on timer information. In one embodiment, the timer information defines a first time duration of each of a first set time periods associated to the first CE level based paging mechanism for the first CE level or the first set of CE levels and a second time duration of each of a second set of time periods associated to the second CE level based paging mechanism for the second CE level or the second set of CE levels, and determining the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO based on the timer information comprises determining the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO such that the one of the two or more paging mechanism is: the first CE level based paging mechanism if the current PO falls within one of the first set of time periods and the second CE level based paging mechanism if the current PO falls within one of the second set of time periods.

In one embodiment, the current PO is one of a plurality of POs in a paging transmission window for eDRX and the plurality of POs in the paging transmission window are divided into at least two groups of POs comprising a first group of POs associated to the first CE level based paging mechanism and a second group of POs associated to the second CE level based paging mechanism. Further, the step of determining the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO such that the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO is: the first CE level based paging mechanism if the current PO is one of the first group of POs and the second CE level based paging mechanism if the current PO is one of the second group of POs.

In one embodiment, the timer information comprises a timer value and defines the first time duration. In one embodiment, the timer information further comprises a coefficient value that, together with the timer value, defines the second time duration.

In one embodiment, the timer value and/or the coefficient are a function of an expected CE level of the wireless communication device.

In one embodiment, the information is comprised in system information.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises providing, to a network node, capability information that indicates that the wireless communication device supports CE-level based paging.

In one embodiment, determining the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining that a CE-level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO if the wireless communication device is in a same cell where the wireless communication device established a last connection of the wireless communication device and otherwise determining that a non-CE level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO.

In one embodiment, determining the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining that a CE-level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO if the wireless communication device is in a different cell from a cell where the wireless communication device established a last connection of the wireless communication device and otherwise determining that a non- CE level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO.

Corresponding embodiments of a wireless communication device are also disclosed. In one embodiment, a wireless communication device is adapted to obtain, from a network node, information about paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms. The wireless communication device is further adapted to determine one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for a current PO, tune to a paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO, and perform paging monitoring on the paging carrier in accordance with the paging configurations for the paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO.

In one embodiment, a wireless communication device comprises one or more transmitters, one or more receivers, and processing circuitry associated with the one or more transmitters and the one or more receivers. The processing circuitry is configured to cause the wireless communication device to obtain, from a network node, information about paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms. The processing circuitry is further configured to cause the wireless communication device to determine one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for a current PO, tune to a paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO, and perform paging monitoring on the paging carrier in accordance with the paging configurations for the paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO.

Embodiments of a method performed by a network node are also disclosed. In one embodiment, a method performed by a network node comprises providing, to a wireless communication device, information about paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms.

In one embodiment, the two or more paging mechanisms comprise a CE level based paging mechanism and a non-CE level based paging mechanism. In one embodiment, the information about the paging configurations comprises information about CE-level based paging configurations for a first set of paging carriers and information about non-CE level-based paging configurations for a second set paging carriers. In one embodiment, the first and second sets of paging carriers are disjoint sets of carriers. In one embodiment, the first set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers.

In one embodiment, the two or more paging mechanisms comprise a first CE level based paging mechanism for a first CE level or a first set of CE levels and a second CE level based paging mechanism for a second CE level or a second set of CE levels. In one embodiment, the information about the paging configurations comprises information about CE-level based paging configurations for a first set of paging carriers for the first CE level or the first set of CE levels and information about CE level-based paging configurations for a second set paging carriers for the second CE level or the second set of CE levels. In one embodiment, the first and second sets of paging carriers are disjoint sets of carriers. In one embodiment, the first set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers and/or the second set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers.

Corresponding embodiments of a network node are also disclosed. In one embodiment, a network node is adapted to provide, to a wireless communication device, information about paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms. In one embodiment, a network node comprises processing circuitry configured to cause the network node to provide, to a wireless communication device, information about paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming a part of this specification illustrate several aspects of the disclosure, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.

Figure 1 illustrates one example of a cellular communications system in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

Figure 2 illustrates one example method for wireless communication devices to alternately monitor paging between Coverage Enhancement (CE) level based paging mechanism and non-CE level based paging mechanism in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure;

Figure 3 illustrates one example of a method for wireless communication devices to alternately perform paging on non-anchor carriers based on multiple CE levels in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure;

Figure 4 illustrates one example of Paging Occasions (POs) in a Paging Transmission Window (PTW) divided into PO groups, where one group is for CE level based paging and another group is for non-CE level based paging in accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure;

Figure 5 is a flow chart that illustrates an example embodiment of a method performed by a wireless communication device in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figure 6 is a flow chart that illustrates an example embodiment of a method performed by a network node (e.g., a base station) in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figure 7 is a flow chart that illustrates an example embodiment of a method performed by a core network node in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figure 8 is a flow chart that illustrates another example embodiment of a method performed by a wireless communication device in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; Figures 9, 10, and 11 are schematic block diagrams of example embodiments of a network node;

Figures 12 and 13 are schematic block diagrams of example embodiments of a wireless communication device;

Figure 14 illustrates an example embodiment of a communication system in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

Figure 15 illustrates example embodiments of the host computer, base station, and UE of Figure 14;

Figures 16, 17, 18, and 19 are flow charts that illustrate example embodiments of methods implemented in a communication system such as that of Figure 14.

Detailed Description

The embodiments set forth below represent information to enable those skilled in the art to practice the embodiments and illustrate the best mode of practicing the embodiments. Upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the disclosure and will recognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressed herein. It should be understood that these concepts and applications fall within the scope of the disclosure.

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.

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.

Radio Node: As used herein, a "radio node" is either a radio access node or a wireless communication device.

Radio Access Node: As used herein, a "radio access node" or "radio network node" or "radio access network node" is 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 Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Fifth Generation (5G) NR network or an enhanced or evolved Node B (eNB) in a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (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), a relay node, a network node that implements part of the functionality of a base station (e.g., a network node that implements a gNB Central Unit (gNB-CU) or a network node that implements a gNB Distributed Unit (gNB-DU)) or a network node that implements part of the functionality of some other type of radio access node.

Core Network Node: As used herein, a "core network node" is any type of node in a core network or any node that implements a core network function. 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), a Home Subscriber Server (HSS), or the like. Some other examples of a core network node include a node implementing an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), a User Plane Function (UPF), a Session Management Function (SMF), an Authentication Server Function (AUSF), a Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF), a Network Exposure Function (NEF), a Network Function (NF) Repository Function (NRF), a Policy Control Function (PCF), a Unified Data Management (UDM), or the like.

Communication Device: As used herein, a "communication device" is any type of device that has access to an access network. Some examples of a communication device include, but are not limited to: mobile phone, smart phone, sensor device, meter, vehicle, household appliance, medical appliance, media player, camera, or any type of consumer electronic, for instance, but not limited to, a television, radio, lighting arrangement, tablet computer, laptop, or Personal Computer (PC). The communication device may be a portable, hand-held, computer-comprised, or vehiclemounted mobile device, enabled to communicate voice and/or data via a wireless or wireline connection.

Wireless Communication Device: One type of communication device is a wireless communication device, which may be any type of wireless device that has access to (i.e., is served by) a wireless network (e.g., a cellular network). Some examples of a wireless communication device include, but are not limited to: a User Equipment device (UE) in a 3GPP network, a Machine Type Communication (MTC) device, and an Internet of Things (loT) device. Such wireless communication devices may be, or may be integrated into, a mobile phone, smart phone, sensor device, meter, vehicle, household appliance, medical appliance, media player, camera, or any type of consumer electronic, for instance, but not limited to, a television, radio, lighting arrangement, tablet computer, laptop, or PC. The wireless communication device may be a portable, hand-held, computer-comprised, or vehicle-mounted mobile device, enabled to communicate voice and/or data via a wireless connection.

Network Node: As used herein, a "network node" is any node that is either part of the RAN or the core network of a cellular communications network/system.

Note that the description given herein focuses on a 3GPP cellular communications system and, as such, 3GPP terminology or terminology similar to 3GPP terminology is oftentimes used. However, the concepts disclosed herein are not limited to a 3GPP system.

Note that, in the description herein, reference may be made to the term "cell"; however, particularly with respect to 5G NR concepts, beams may be used instead of cells and, as such, it is important to note that the concepts described herein are equally applicable to both cells and beams.

There currently exist certain challenge(s). 3GPP Release 14 allows Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) UE monitoring of paging on a non-anchor carrier, but the non-anchor paging carrier will be used for all NB-IoT UEs in all three Coverage Enhancement (CE) levels. If paging Rmax (i.e., the maximum number of repetitions for paging) for Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPDCCH) is very large, the UEs in good coverage may experience large delays due to UEs in deep coverage, as UEs in good coverage need to wait for a large number of paging NPDCCH repetitions before decoding the paging Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH).

Moreover, in order to avoid paging occasion overlap, paging parameters in SIB22-NB need to be set properly. Since the paging carrier is used for all NB-IoT UEs in all three CE levels, Rmax for this paging carrier is usually large in order to cover UEs in deep coverage, which means that there is usually a large timing difference between Paging Occasions (POs). Thus, this further introduces paging delays for UEs in good coverage.

In order to configure paging based upon CE level, the network should be prepared to identify where the UE is located, in order to avoid paging escalation. In addition, since selection based upon CE level would be based upon dynamic attribute (e.g., varying radio condition), the network may not fully be aware of which CE level and carrier the UE is actually using. Further, the UE could either be listening to a carrier configured using a static attribute or it could be listening to a carrier configured using a dynamic attribute.

One possibility to enable CE level based paging configuration is for UE to inform the network if the UE has changed its CE level or selected a new carrier; however, this may cause excessive signaling.

Thus, there is a need for systems and methods, such as certain rules and mechanisms, that enable paging to be done efficiently to meet both static and dynamic based criteria.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure and their embodiments may provide solutions to the aforementioned or other challenges. Embodiments of the solutions disclosed herein provide mechanisms to improve the flexibility to configure paging resource based on enhanced coverage levels (i.e., CE levels) for carriers. In preferred embodiments, these carriers are NB-IoT carriers.

Using the current/legacy paging mechanism, paging is provided only by means of static parameters such as UE Identity (ID) and preconfigured/known paging parameters. However, in embodiments of the solutions disclosed herein, the network (i.e., a network node such as, e.g., a base station) may configure paging with regards to dynamic attributes such as, e.g., based upon one or more parameters related to current radio conditions (e.g., Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) such as current RSRP at the UE), which corresponds to a certain CE level.

Note that the legacy paging mechanism is also referred to herein as static or non-CE-level-based paging. The new paging mechanism described herein is referred to herein as dynamic or CE-level-based paging.

Embodiments of the present disclosure avoid unnecessary signaling such as, e.g., signaling from the UE to update its CE Level. Instead, in some embodiments, a timerbased mechanism is used by the UE to learn which PO corresponds to which paging carrier.

Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s).

• Paging delay is reduced and UE power consumption during paging is reduced for UEs in good coverage.

• Specific paging carrier configuration is helpful for capacity.

• No requirement of a core network entity (e.g., MME) to trace UE coverage level changes.

Figure 1 illustrates one example of a cellular communications system 100 in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. In the embodiments described herein, the cellular communications system 100 is a 5G system (5GS) including a Next Generation RAN (NG-RAN) and a 5G Core (5GC) or an Evolved Packet System (EPS) including an Evolved Universal Terrestrial RAN (E-UTRAN) and an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). In this example, the RAN includes base stations 102-1 and 102-2, which in the 5GS include NR base stations (gNBs) and optionally next generation eNBs (ng-eNBs) (e.g., LTE RAN nodes connected to the 5GC) and in the EPS include eNBs, controlling corresponding (macro) cells 104-1 and 104-2. The base stations 102- 1 and 102-2 are generally referred to herein collectively as base stations 102 and individually as base station 102. Likewise, the (macro) cells 104-1 and 104-2 are generally referred to herein collectively as (macro) cells 104 and individually as (macro) cell 104. The RAN may also include a number of low power nodes 106-1 through 106-4 controlling corresponding small cells 108-1 through 108-4. The low power nodes 106-1 through 106-4 can be small base stations (such as pico or femto base stations) or Remote Radio Heads (RRHs), or the like. Notably, while not illustrated, one or more of the small cells 108-1 through 108-4 may alternatively be provided by the base stations 102. The low power nodes 106-1 through 106-4 are generally referred to herein collectively as low power nodes 106 and individually as low power node 106. Likewise, the small cells 108-1 through 108-4 are generally referred to herein collectively as small cells 108 and individually as small cell 108. The cellular communications system 100 also includes a core network 110, which in the 5G System (5GS) is referred to as the 5GC and in the EPS is referred to as the EPC. The base stations 102 (and optionally the low power nodes 106) are connected to the core network 110.

The base stations 102 and the low power nodes 106 provide service to wireless communication devices 112-1 through 112-5 in the corresponding cells 104 and 108. The wireless communication devices 112-1 through 112-5 are generally referred to herein collectively as wireless communication devices 112 and individually as wireless communication device 112. In the following description, the wireless communication devices 112 are oftentimes UEs and therefore sometimes referred to as UEs 112, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

As will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the core network 110 includes a number of core network nodes 114 that implement a number of core network entities. In an embodiment in which the core network 110 is an EPC, the core network nodes 114 include nodes such as, for example, MME(s), P-GW(s), S-GW(s), etc. In an embodiment in which the core network 110 is a 5GC, the core network nodes 114 are network nodes that implement core NFs such as, e.g., AMF(s), SMF(s), PCF(s), UPF(s), etc. An NF may be implemented either as a network element on a dedicated hardware, as a software instance running on a dedicated hardware, or as a virtualized function instantiated on an appropriate platform, e.g., a cloud infrastructure.

In subsections 1 to 3 below, embodiments of the solutions disclosed herein are elaborated upon and illustrated focusing on supporting a CE level-based paging mechanism.

1 Discontinuous Reception for Paging

One Paging Frame (PF) is one radio frame, which may contain one or multiple PO(s). When Discontinuous Reception (DRX) is used, the UE 112 needs only to monitor one PO per DRX cycle.

PF and PO are determined by the following formulas using the DRX parameters provided in system information: • PF is given by following equation:

SFN mod T= (T div N)*(UE_ID mod N), where: o SFN is the system frame number, o T is the DRX cycle of the UE 112, o N: min(T,nB), where nB: 4T, 2T, T, T/2, T/4, T/8, T/16, T/32, T/64, T/128, and T/256, and for NB-IoT also T/512, and T/1024, and o UE_ID is the UE ID of the UE 112.

• Index i_s pointing to PO from subframe pattern defined in 3GPP TS 36.304 will be derived from following calculation: i_s = floor(UE_ID/N) mod Ns where: o Ns: max(l,nB/T).

To support CE-level-based non-anchor paging carrier configuration, the calculation of NB-IoT paging carrier needs to be updated, compared to what is described in the Background section above. One alternative to update the paging carrier calculation is showed here:

• If the Paging Radio Network Temporary Identifier (P-RNTI) is monitored on NPDCCH and the UE 112 supports paging on non-anchor carrier based on CE level, and if CE level based paging configuration for non-anchor carriers is provided in system information, then the paging carrier is determined by the paging carrier with smallest index n (0 < n < NnR17-l) fulfilling the following equation: floor(UE_ID/(N*Ns)) mod Wrl7 < Wrl7 (0) + Wrl7 (1) + ... + Wrl7 (n)

The following parameters are used for the calculation, some of which have already explained in the Introduction section above:

• NnR17: number of NB-IoT paging carriers for the CE level of the paging NB- loT UE determined as follows: o If UE supports Group Wake Up Signal (GWUS) and gwus-Config is present in system information: ■ this is the number of paging narrowbands (paging carriers) that are configured with GWUS. o else:

■ this is the number of paging narrowbands (paging carriers) provided in system information.

• Wrl7 (i): Weight for NB-IoT paging carrier i which is configured with the CE level of the paging NB-IoT UE.

• Wrl7: Total weight of all NB-IoT paging carriers which are configured with the CE level of the paging NB-IoT UE, i.e. Wrl7= Wrl7 (0) + Wrl7 (1) + ... + Wrl7 (Nn-1). If GWUS is configured, Total weight of all NB-IoT paging carriers for the CE level of the paging NB-IoT UE configured with GWUS.

2 System Information Block Configuration

In one embodiment, in order to configure a non-anchor carrier(s) with paging based on CE level, new Information Elements (IES) are introduced in system information, e.g., in SystemInformationBlockType22-NB {s^, e.g., 3GPP TS 36.331 V 16.1.1).

• In one embodiment, non-anchor carrier specific paging parameters are configured for the CE level based paging carrier.

• In one embodiment, a non-anchor paging carrier is specified for certain CE level(s). The paging carrier can be flexibly configured for one certain CE level or several CE levels.

One alternative to introduce the IEs is illustrated with bolded and underlined text below. The IE SystemInformationBlockType22-NBzQ\\jdk(\s radio resource configuration for paging and random access procedure on non-anchor carriers.

SystemlnformationBlockType22-NB information element

- ASN1 START

SystemlnformationBlockType22-NB-r14 ::= SEQUENCE { dl-Configl_ist-r14 DL-ConfigCommonList-NB-r14OPTIONAL, -- Need OR ul-Configl_ist-r14 UL-ConfigCommonList-NB-r14OPTIONAL, -- Need OR p ag i n g Weig htAnchor-r14 PagingWeight-NB-r14 OPTIONAL, -- Cond pcch- config nprach-ProbabilityAnchorl_ist-r14 NPRACH-ProbabilityAnchorList-NB-r14OPTIONAL, -- Cond nprach-config lateNonCriticalExtension OCTET STRING OPTIONAL,

[[ mixedOperationModeConfig-r15 SEQUENCE { dl-ConfigListMixed-r15 DL-ConfigCommonList-NB-r14OPTIONAL, -- Cond dl-

ConfigList ul-ConfigListMixed-r15 UL-ConfigCommonList-NB-r14OPTIONAL, -- Cond ul-

ConfigList pagingDistribution-r15 ENUMERATED {true} OPTIONAL, - Need OR nprach-Distribution-r15 ENUMERATED {true} OPTIONAL - Need OR

} OPTIONAL, - Need OR ul-ConfigList-r15 UL-ConfigCommonListTDD-NB-r15 OPTIONAL - Cond TDD

]L

_ [[

DL-ConfigCommonList-NB-r14 ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (1 .. maxNonAnchorCarriers-NB-r14)) OF

DL-ConfigCommon-NB-r14

DL-ConfiqCommonList-NB-r17 ::= _ SEQUENCE (SIZE (1 „ maxNonAnchorCarriers-NB-r14)) OF

_ DL-ConfiqCommon-NB-r17

UL-ConfigCommonList-NB-r14 ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (1 .. maxNonAnchorCarriers-NB-r14)) OF

UL-ConfigCommon-NB-r14

UL-ConfigCommonListTDD-NB-r15 ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (1.. maxNonAnchorCarriers-NB-r14)) OF

UL-ConfigCommonTDD-NB-r15

DL-ConfigCommon-NB-r14 ::= SEQUENCE { dl-CarrierConfig-r14 DL-CarrierConfigCommon-NB-r14, pcch-Config-r14 PCCH-Config-NB-r14 OPTIONAL, - Need OR

[[ wus-Config-r15 WUS-ConfigPerCarrier-NB-r15 OPTIONAL - Cond

WUS

]],

[[ gwus-Config-r16 CHOICE { useWUS-r16 NULL, expl icit-r16 WUS-ConfigPerCarrier-NB-r15

} OPTIONAL - Cond GWUS

H

DL-ConfiqCommon-NB-r17 ::= _ SEQUENCE { dl-CarrierConfiq-r17 _ DL-CarrierConfiqCommon-NB-r14, pcch-confiqNonAnchor-r17 PCCH-confiqNonAnchor-r17 OPTIONAL ■■ Need OR ■■■< [[ wus-Confiq-r15 _ WUS-ConfiqPerCarrier-NB-r15 OPTIONAL - Cond

WUS _ IL [[ qwus-Confiq-r16 _ CHOICE { _ useWUS-r16 _ NULL,

_ explicit-r16 _ WUS-ConfiqPerCarrier-NB-r15

} _ OPTIONAL - Cond GWUS

_ Il

1

PCCH-confiqNonAnchor-r17::= SEQUENCE { pcch-confiq-NB-r17 PCCH-Confiq-NB-r14 OPTIONAL ■■ Need OR pcch-CELevel-r17 _ ENUMERATED {ceO, cel ce2, ceOcel, ce1ce2, ce0ce2, ce0ce1ce2}

OPTIONAL ■■ Need OR

PCCH-Config-NB-r14 ::= SEQUENCE { npdcch-NumRepetitionPaging-r14 ENUMERATED { r1, r2, r4, r8, r16, r32, r64, r128, r256, r512, r1024, r2048, spare4, spare3, spare2, sparel} OPTIONAL, -- Need OP pagingWeight-r14 PagingWeight-NB-r14DEFAULT w1 ,

}

PagingWeight-NB-r14 ::= ENUMERATED {w1 , w2, w3, w4, w5, w6, w7, w8, w9, w10, w11 , w12, w13, wl 4, w15, w16}

UL-ConfigCommon-NB-r14 ::= SEQUENCE { ul-CarrierFreq-r 14 CarrierFreq- N B-r 13, nprach-ParametersList-r14 NPRACH-ParametersList-NB-r14 OPTIONAL, - Need OR

[[ nprach-ParametersListEDT-r15 NPRACH-ParametersList-NB-r14 OPTIONAL - Cond EDT U

}

UL-ConfigCommonTDD-NB-r15 ::= SEQUENCE { tdd-U L-D L-Alig nmentOffset-r15 TDD-UL-DL-AlignmentOffset-NB-r15, nprach-ParametersListTDD-r15 NPRACH-ParametersListTDD-NB-r15 OPTIONAL, - Need

OR

}

NPRACH-ProbabilityAnchorList-NB-r14 ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (1.. maxNPRACH-Resources-NB-r13)) OF N P RACH-Probabil ItyAnchor-N B-r14

NPRACH-ProbabilityAnchor-NB-r14 ::= SEQUENCE { nprach-ProbabilityAnchor-r14 ENUMERATED { zero, oneSixteenth, oneFifteenth, oneFourteenth, oneThirteenth, oneTwelfth, oneEleventh, oneTenth, oneNinth, oneEighth, oneSeventh, oneSixth, oneFifth, oneFourth, oneThird, oneHalf} OPTIONAL - Need OP }

- ASN1ST0P

In the above IE, pcch-CELevel specifies enhanced coverage level for the paging carrier. Value ceO means enhanced coverage level 0, ceOcel means the paging carrier is used for both enhanced coverage level 0 and enhanced coverage level 1, ce0celce2 means the paging carrier is used for all three enhanced coverage level 0, 1 and 2.

3 CE Level based Paging

To achieve the benefit of CE level based paging on a non-anchor carrier, the base station 102 (e.g., eNB or gNB) should strictly follow CE level changes of the UE 112 (e.g., a NB-IoT UE) and perform paging based on the up-to-date CE level of the UE 112. However, UE movement, environment changing, and some other factors may cause CE level changes. If every time a CE level change happens the UE 112 is required to report to the CE level change to the network (e.g., to a core network entity such as the MME), this will increase both signaling load and UE power consumption. Therefore, requiring the UE 112 to report its CE level changes to the network should be avoided.

Methods to adopt CE level based paging are introduced in the subsections below.

3.1 Alternate Usage of CE Level based Paging and Non-CE Level based Paging

In 3GPP TS 36.413 (see, e.g., V16.2.0), the assistance data for CE capable UEs Cell Identifier and Coverage Enhancement Leve/ \s included in the UE CONTEXT RELEASE COMPLETE message and UE CONTEXT SUSPEND REQUEST message. When Cell Identifier and Coverage Enhancement Leve/\s included, the MME, if supported, stores it and uses it for subsequent paging.

As a NB-IoT UE is mostly stationary, the reported Cell Identifier and Coverage Enhancement Level can be used initially to calculate the non-anchor paging carrier based on IE Coverage Enhancement Level. Further, a UE specific timer periodicTimer can be configured at both the UE side and the network side (e.g., at the MME). In one embodiment, the UE specific timer periodicTimer and, optionally, a coefficient can be used together for UEs (e.g., NB-IoT UEs) to alternate between the CE level based paging mechanism and non-CE level based paging mechanism for monitoring paging. In one embodiment, the non-CE level based paging mechanism is the non-anchor paging mechanism before Rel-17 where non-anchor paging is not based on CE level.

One example method for UEs (e.g., NB-IoT UEs) to alternately monitor paging between CE level based paging mechanism and non-CE level based paging mechanism is illustrated in Figure 2. In Figure 2, based on IE Coverage Enhancement Level in Cell Identifier and Coverage Enhancement Level, the UE 112 first starts CE level based paging monitoring for a duration of periodicTimer on a certain non-anchor paging carrier(s) configured for the CE level Coverage Enhancement Level. In other words, for one or more POs that occur while the periodicTimer \s running, the UE 112 monitors for paging on the certain non-anchor paging carrier(s) configured for the CE level Coverage Enhancement Level. When periodicTimer expires, the UE 112 starts non-CE level based paging monitoring for a duration of coeff * periodicTimer. In other words, for one or more POs that occur during the duration of time coeff * periodicTimer after periodicTimer expired, the UE 112 monitors for paging on the carrier(s) configured for non-CE level based paging monitoring. The process of alternate usage of CE level based and non-CE level based paging is repeated. The configuration parameter periodicTimer and coe/^can be set (e.g., by a network node such as, e.g., the base station) considering UE's foreseen possibility of CE level changes. To gain the benefit of CE level based paging, for UEs in good coverage and UEs that are mostly stationary, coe/^can be set to a relatively small value. While for UEs in deep coverage or UEs that are on the move, coe/^can be set to a relatively large value.

The process of Figure 2 gives a balance of UE power consumption and paging delays with no UE report of CE level tracking.

3.2 Alternate Usage of Paging based on Different CE Levels

When no UE Coverage Enhancement Level can be referred in the network (e.g., in the MME), another solution is to alternately perform paging on non-anchor carriers based on multiple CE levels (e.g., all three different CE levels in current 3GPP specifications), as showed in Figure 3. In the example of Figure 3, as the network (e.g., MME) has no information of UE's exact CE level, the UE 112 first starts CE level based paging monitoring for a duration of periodicTimer ow a paging carrier configured for CE level 0. When periodicTimer expires, the UE 112 starts CE level based paging monitoring for a duration of coeff_l * periodicTimer on a paging carrier configured for CE level 1. After that, the UE 112 starts CE level based paging monitoring for a duration of coeff_2 * periodicTimer on a paging carrier configured for CE level 2. The process of alternate usage of paging based on three different CE levels can be repeated. The configuration parameter periodicTimer, coeff_l and coeff_2 can be set considering UE's foreseen possibility of CE levels.

3.3 CE Level based Paging for eDRX

If the UE 112 (e.g., a NB-IoT UE) is configured by an upper layer with extended DRX (eDRX), the two methods in sections 3.1 and 3.2 above can be further updated to adapt to the eDRX case.

To adapt eDRX with the method described in section 3.1, the POs in a Paging Transmission Window (PTW) can be divided into PO groups, where one group is for CE level based paging and the other group is for non-CE level based paging, see the example of Figure 4. In one embodiment, the division of POs is configured on some predefined ratio, which can be set considering, e.g., the UE's foreseen possibility of CE level changes.

Similarly, to adapt eDRX with the method described in section 3.2, the POs in a PTW can be divided into three PO groups, where the first group is for CE level 0 based paging, the second group is for CE level 1 based paging, and the last group is for CE level 2 based paging. The division of POs can be configured on some predefined ratio(s), which can be set considering UE's foreseen possibility of CE levels.

As in 3GPP TS 36.331, numPOs\s defined as Number of consecutive Paging Occasions (PO) mapped to one WUS, applicable to UEs configured to use extended DRX, see 3GPP TS 36.304. Value nl corresponds to 1 PO, value n2 corresponds to 2 POs and so on.

As shown below, the numPOsc r be extended to value for example 8. It is possible also to use the existing value 4 as shown above. The IE WUS-Config is used to specify the WUS configuration. For the UEs supporting WUS, E-UTRAN uses WUS to indicate that the UE shall attempt to receive paging in that cell, see TS 36.304.

WUS-Config information element

- ASN1 START

WUS-Config-r15 ::= SEQUENCE { maxDurationFactor-r15 ENUMERATED {one32th, one16th, one8th, one4th}, numP0s-r15 ENUMERATED {n1, n2, n4, n8} DEFAULT n1 , freql_ocation-r15 ENUMERATED {nO, n2, n4, sparel }, timeOffsetDRX-r15 ENUMERATED {ms40, ms80, ms160, ms240}, timeOffset-eDRX-Short-r15 ENUMERATED {ms40, ms80, ms160, ms240}, timeOffset-eDRX-Long-r15 ENUMERATED {ms1000, ms2000} OPTIONAL - Need

OP

}

WUS-Config-v1560 : SEQUENCE { powerBoost-r15 ENUMERATED {dBO, dB1 dot8, dB3, dB4dot8}

WUS-Config-v1610 ::= SEQUENCE { numDRX-CyclesRelaxed-r16 ENUMERATED {n1 , n2, n4, n8}

- ASN1 STOP

In one embodiment, the network associates one WUS with one paging mechanism, where all the POs mapped to this WUS will be used for CE-based or non-CE based paging. Further, in one embodiment, the network indicates the ratio of CE-based paging for one WUS. For this, in one embodiment, a new parameter "ratio" is introduced. • Number of CE-based paging POs in one WUS: CE based POs= ceil (numPOs * ratio); where ratio <= 1 && ratio >= 0

• Number of non-CE based paging POs in one WUS: non-CE based POs= numPOs - CE based POs

The network can fix the first instance of POs mechanism whether it is CE-based or non-CE based. Further, the network may indicate whether the first instance of POs would be CE-based or non-CE based. This can be provided prior by System Info Broadcast.

Further Classification Rules

In one embodiment, when the page is for single UE which is Rel-17 based, the network (e.g., MME) notifies the UE capability to the base station (e.g., eNB) and informs the base station to use the new paging mechanism.

In one embodiment, when the page is for multiple UEs which is mix of legacy and new CE based supporting UEs, the network (e.g., MME) provides the list in two different groups. The base station (e.g., eNB) would thus page the UEs separately (For example in 1^st PTW only for legacy UEs and in the next PTW only the UEs supporting the new capability.

3.4 CE Level-based Paging based on Mobility Estimation

In this embodiment, a UE 112 monitors a paging carrier based on its CE level (in addition to using the legacy parameters such as UE-ID as specified) if it happens to be in the same cell where it established an RRC connection successfully last time. This is mainly based on the assumption that a CE is stationary if it happens to be in the same cell although there is still a possibility that channel conditions may change due to other factors such as weather, external obstruction, etc. Otherwise, i.e., if the UE 112 happens to be in a different cell than where it established an RRC connection successfully last time, the UE 112 monitors a paging carrier based on legacy (existing) configuration. This would require such information, i.e., last cell where the UE 112 established a successful RRC connection, to be provided by that base station 102 (e.g., eNB or gNB) to the core network (CN) as part of the existing paging container optionally along with capability indication, so that core network (e.g., MME/AMF) can forward to an eNB/gNB along with the paging request. The proposal is to use the mechanism we have introduced for WUS, i.e., if the UE 112 happens to be in the same cell where it established an RRC connection successfully last time, it monitors WUS for paging; otherwise, if it has camped in a different cell, it monitors the PO since the eNB will not use WUS to page the UE 112. In short, if the UE 112 happens to be in the same cell where it established an RRC connection successfully last time, it monitors paging via a carrier configured for its CE level; otherwise, if it has camped in a different cell, it monitors paging using via a carrier configured using the existing mechanism. The assumption is that the UE 112 is more likely to be stationary, and thus have the same CE level provided by the eNB in the paging container, if it happens to be in the same cell where it established an RRC connection successfully last time.

In an alternative embodiment, a UE 112 monitors a paging carrier based on its CE level (in addition to using the legacy parameters such as UE-ID) if it happens to be in a different cell where it established an RRC connection successfully last time. Otherwise, the UE 112 monitors paging carrier based on legacy (existing) configuration. This is motivated assuming that mobile UEs happen to be in rather good coverage so that paging carriers may only be configured for good CE levels. This would also require such information, i.e., last cell where the UE 112 established a successful RRC connection, to be provided by that eNB to the CN in the existing paging container optionally along with capability indication, so that MME/AMF can forward to an eNB along with the paging request.

3.5 Example Operation of UE, Base Station, and Core Network Entity

As discussed above, embodiments of the solutions disclosed herein provide mechanisms to improve the flexibility to configure paging resource based on enhanced coverage levels (i.e., CE levels) for carriers. In preferred embodiments, these carriers are NB-IoT carriers.

Using the current/legacy paging mechanism, paging is provided only by means of static parameters such as UE ID and preconfigured/known paging parameters. However, in embodiments of the solutions disclosed herein, the network (i.e., a network node such as, e.g., a base station or core network entity) may configure paging with regards to dynamic attributes such as, e.g., based upon one or more parameters related to current radio conditions (e.g., Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) such as current RSRP at the UE), which corresponds to a certain CE level.

Figure 5 illustrates an example embodiment of a method performed by a UE 112 (e.g., a NB-IoT UE) in accordance with at least some aspects of the present disclosure. Optional steps are represented in Figure 5 by dashed lines/boxes. The steps of the process are as follows:

Step 500 (Optional): The UE 112 provides capability information to a network node (e.g., a base station 102 or a core network node), where the capability information includes information that indicates that the UE 112 supports CE level based paging.

Step 502: The UE 112 obtains information from a network node (e.g., a base station 102) regarding paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms. The two or more paging mechanisms are, in one embodiment, a CE-level paging mechanism and a non-CE level paging mechanism. In another embodiment, the two or more paging mechanisms are two or more CE level based paging mechanisms for different CE levels or different sets of CE levels. Thus, the paging configurations include either:

• CE-level based paging configurations for a first set of paging carriers (which may include one or more non-anchor carriers) and static or non-CE levelbased paging configurations (e.g., one or more legacy paging configurations) for a second set paging carriers, where the first and second sets of paging carriers are disjoint sets of carriers (see, e.g., section 3.1); or

• first CE-level based paging configurations for a first set of paging carriers (which may include one or more non-anchor carriers) for a first CE level or a first set of CE levels and additional CE-level based paging configurations for one or more additional sets of paging carriers (which may include non-anchor carrier(s)) for one or more additional CE levels or one or more additional sets of CE levels, where the different sets of paging carriers are disjoint sets of paging carriers (see, e.g., section 3.2).

As discussed above, this information is, in one embodiment, obtained from system information broadcasted by a base station 102.

For the embodiments of section 3.1 above, the obtained information includes both information about CE-level based paging configurations and information about non-CE level based paging configurations (e.g., legacy paging configuration(s)). As discussed above, the information about the CE-level based paging configurations includes information that defines, for each of a first set of paging carriers (which may include a non-anchor carrier(s)), a CE level-based paging configuration for that paging carrier (e.g., one or more carrier specific paging parameters for CE level-based paging, one or more CE levels or one or more sets of CE levels for which the paging carrier can be used, etc.). The information about non-CE level based paging configurations includes, for each of a second set of paging carriers, a non-CE level based paging configuration for that paging carrier (e.g., one or more non-CE level based paging parameters, e.g., as in the legacy paging configuration).

For the embodiments of section 3.2, the obtained information includes information about CE level based paging configurations for multiple CE levels or multiple sets of CE levels. For example, the obtained information may include information about CE level based paging configurations for a first set of carriers for a first CE level (e.g., CE level 0), information about CE level based paging configurations for a second set of carriers for a second CE level (e.g., CE level 1), and information about CE level based paging configurations for a third set of carriers for a third CE level (e.g., CE level 2).

Step 504: The UE 112 determines which of the two or more paging mechanisms to use for a current paging occasion (PO). In one embodiment, the UE 112 obtains timer information from a network node (e.g., a base station) and follows the timer information to understand which of the two or more paging mechanism to use for the current PO (step 504A).

More specifically, in the embodiments of section 3.1, the timer information includes a value for the periodicTimerd’x optionally the coefficient coeff , and the UE 112 uses this timer information to alternate between monitoring for paging using the CE level based paging mechanism and monitoring for paging using the non-CE level based paging mechanism. In other words, if the current PO occurs while the periodicTimer \s running, then the CE level based paging mechanism is used. Thus, one of the first set of paging carriers is selected (e.g., see discussion above in section 1 regarding details of how the paging carrier is selected) and paging monitoring is performed (in step 506 below) in accordance with the respective CE-level based paging configuration for the selected paging carrier. Conversely, if the current PO occurs after periodicTimerXas expired (and thus during the period of time coeff*periodicTimer^Q o. the periodicTimer\s restarted), then the non-CE level paging mechanism is used. Thus, one of the second set of paging carriers is selected (e.g., using the legacy paging carrier selection mechanism described above), and the UE 112 performs paging monitoring during the PO (in step 506 below) using the non-CE level based paging configuration of the selected paging carrier.

In the embodiments of section 3.2, the timer information includes the timer periodicTimerd’x the coefficients coeff_l and coeff_2. The UE 112 determines whether the current PO falls within a period of time corresponding to CE level 0, CE level 1, or CE level 2. The UE 112 then selects a paging carrier from the set of paging carriers configured for the CE level corresponding to the timer period during which the current PO occurs, and then performs paging monitoring using the CE level based paging configuration for the selected carrier.

In other embodiments, the embodiments of section 3.3 or 5.4 3.4 may be used. As discussed above, Section 3.3 describes embodiments in which the methods of sections 3.1 and 3.2 are adapted to the eDRX case.

Step 506: The UE 112 tunes to a (selected) paging carrier configured for the paging mechanism determined in step 504 for the current PO and performs paging monitoring in accordance with the respective paging configuration.

Step 508: Steps 504 and 506 are repeated for multiple POs. In this manner, the UE switches between paging carriers using the different paging mechanisms.

Figure 6 illustrates an example embodiment of a method performed by a network node (e.g., a base station such as, e.g., an eNB or gNB) in accordance with at least some aspects of the present disclosure. Optional steps are represented by dashed lines/boxes. The steps of the process are as follows:

Step 600 (Optional): The network node provides, to the UE 112, an indication that the network node supports dynamic paging (e.g., supports CE level-based paging).

Step 602: The network node determines which of two or more paging mechanisms is to be used. As discussed above, the two or more paging mechanisms are, in one embodiment, a CE-level paging mechanism and a non-CE level paging mechanism. In another embodiment, the two or more paging mechanisms are two or more CE level based paging mechanisms for different CE levels or different sets of CE levels.

Step 604: The network node informs the UE of paging configuration(s) via system information. In one embodiment, the network node provides, in system information, a paging configuration for the determined paging mechanism to be used. In another embodiment, the network node provides, in system information, paging configurations for the two or more paging mechanisms, as described above.

Figure 7 illustrates an example embodiment of a method performed by a core network node 114 in accordance with at least some aspects of the present disclosure. Optional steps are represented by dashed lines/boxes. The steps of the process are as follows:

Step 700: The core network node obtains UE capability information for one or more UEs, where the UE capability information includes information that indicates whether the UE supports dynamic paging (e.g., CE level-based paging).

Step 702: The core network node configures a timer per UE to govern which paging mechanism is to be used for the UEs to listen for paging. In other words, for each UE, the core network entity configures a timer that governs, for each PO for the UE, which paging mechanism is to be used.

Figure 8 illustrates another example embodiment of a method performed by a UE 112 (e.g., a NB-IoT UE) in accordance with at least some aspects of the present disclosure. Optional steps are represented in Figure 8 by dashed lines/boxes. The steps of the process are as follows:

Step 800 (Optional): The UE 112 provides capability information to a network node (e.g., a base station 102 or a core network node), where the capability information includes information that indicates that the UE 112 supports CE level based paging.

Step 802: The UE 112 obtains information from a network node (e.g., base station 102 or core network node 114) regarding both legacy paging configurations (static) and new paging configurations (e.g., dynamic, e.g., CE level based, paging configurations), as described above.

Step 804: The UE 112 obtains timer information from a network node (e.g., a core network node 114) and follows the timer information to determine whether a current PO is being provided using the static paging configurations or the new paging configurations, as described above.

Step 806: The UE 112 tunes to a paging carrier based upon the timer which governs whether the current PO is being provided using the static paging configurations or the new paging configurations. The UE 112 performs paging monitoring during the current PO on the paging carrier.

Step 808: The UE 112 switches between different paging carriers to monitor for paging in different POs. In other words, the UE 112 repeats steps 704 and 706 for one or more additional POs. As a result, the UE 112 switches between monitoring paging using the legacy paging mechanism and monitoring for paging using the new CE level based paging mechanism.

4 Additional Description

Figure 9 is a schematic block diagram of a network node 900 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Optional features are represented by dashed boxes. The network node 900 may be, for example, a base station 102 or 106, a network node that implements all or part of the functionality of the base station 102 described herein, or a core network node 114. As illustrated, the network node 900 includes a control system 902 that includes one or more processors 904 (e.g., Central Processing Units (CPUs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), and/or the like), memory 906, and a network interface 908. The one or more processors 904 are also referred to herein as processing circuitry. In addition, if the network node 900 is a radio access node such as a base station 102, the network node 900 may include one or more radio units 910 that each includes one or more transmitters 912 and one or more receivers 914 coupled to one or more antennas 916. The radio units 910 may be referred to or be part of radio interface circuitry. In some embodiments, the radio unit(s) 910 is external to the control system 902 and connected to the control system 902 via, e.g., a wired connection (e.g., an optical cable). However, in some other embodiments, the radio unit(s) 910 and potentially the antenna(s) 916 are integrated together with the control system 902. The one or more processors 904 operate to provide one or more functions of the network node 900 as described herein (e.g., one or more functions of a base station 102, eNB, core network node 114, MME, AMF, or the like, as described herein). In some embodiments, the function(s) are implemented in software that is stored, e.g., in the memory 906 and executed by the one or more processors 904.

Figure 10 is a schematic block diagram that illustrates a virtualized embodiment of the network node 900 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As used herein, a "virtualized" network node is an implementation of the network node 900 in which at least a portion of the functionality of the network node 900 is implemented as a virtual component(s) (e.g., via a virtual machine(s) executing on a physical processing node(s) in a network(s)). As illustrated, in this example, the network node 900 may include the control system 902 and/or the one or more radio units 910, as described above. The control system 902 may be connected to the radio unit(s) 910 via, for example, an optical cable or the like. The network node 900 includes one or more processing nodes 1000 coupled to or included as part of a network(s) 1002. If present, the control system 902 or the radio unit(s) are connected to the processing node(s) 1000 via the network 1002. Each processing node 1000 includes one or more processors 1004 (e.g., CPUs, ASICs, FPGAs, and/or the like), memory 1006, and a network interface 1008.

In this example, functions 1010 of the network node 900 described herein (e.g., one or more functions of a base station 102, eNB, core network node 114, MME, AMF, or the like, as described herein) are implemented at the one or more processing nodes 1000 or distributed across the one or more processing nodes 1000 and the control system 902 and/or the radio unit(s) 910 in any desired manner. In some particular embodiments, some or all of the functions 1010 of the network node 900 described herein are implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines implemented in a virtual environ ment(s) hosted by the processing node(s) 1000. As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, additional signaling or communication between the processing node(s) 1000 and the control system 902 is used in order to carry out at least some of the desired functions 1010. Notably, in some embodiments, the control system 902 may not be included, in which case the radio unit(s) 910 communicate directly with the processing node(s) 1000 via an appropriate network interface(s).

In some embodiments, a computer program including instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to carry out the functionality of the network node 900 or a node (e.g., a processing node 1000) implementing one or more of the functions 1010 of the network node 900 in a virtual environment according to any of the embodiments described herein is provided. In some embodiments, a carrier comprising the aforementioned computer program product is provided. The carrier is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, a radio signal, or a computer readable storage medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer readable medium such as memory).

Figure 11 is a schematic block diagram of the network node 900 according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure. The network node 900 includes one or more modules 1100, each of which is implemented in software. The module(s) 1100 provide the functionality of the network node 900 described herein. This discussion is equally applicable to the processing node 1000 of Figure 10 where the modules 1100 may be implemented at one of the processing nodes 1000 or distributed across multiple processing nodes 1000 and/or distributed across the processing node(s) 1000 and the control system 902.

Figure 12 is a schematic block diagram of a wireless communication device 1200 (e.g., the UE 112 such as a NB-IoT UE) according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated, the wireless communication device 1200 includes one or more processors 1202 (e.g., CPUs, ASICs, FPGAs, and/or the like), memory 1204, and one or more transceivers 1206 each including one or more transmitters 1208 and one or more receivers 1210 coupled to one or more antennas 1212. The transceiver(s) 1206 includes radio-front end circuitry connected to the antenna(s) 1212 that is configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna(s) 1212 and the processor(s) 1202, as will be appreciated by on of ordinary skill in the art. The processors 1202 are also referred to herein as processing circuitry. The transceivers 1206 are also referred to herein as radio circuitry. In some embodiments, the functionality of the wireless communication device 1200 described above (e.g., one or more functions of the UE 112, UE, or NB-IoT UE as described herein) may be fully or partially implemented in software that is, e.g., stored in the memory 1204 and executed by the processor(s) 1202. Note that the wireless communication device 1200 may include additional components not illustrated in Figure 12 such as, e.g., one or more user interface components (e.g., an input/output interface including a display, buttons, a touch screen, a microphone, a speaker(s), and/or the like and/or any other components for allowing input of information into the wireless communication device 1200 and/or allowing output of information from the wireless communication device 1200), a power supply (e.g., a battery and associated power circuitry), etc.

In some embodiments, a computer program including instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to carry out the functionality of the wireless communication device 1200 according to any of the embodiments described herein (e.g., one or more functions of the UE 112, UE, or NB- loT UE as described herein) is provided. In some embodiments, a carrier comprising the aforementioned computer program product is provided. The carrier is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, a radio signal, or a computer readable storage medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer readable medium such as memory).

Figure 13 is a schematic block diagram of the wireless communication device 1200 according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure. The wireless communication device 1200 includes one or more modules 1300, each of which is implemented in software. The module(s) 1300 provide the functionality of the wireless communication device 1200 described herein (e.g., one or more functions of the UE 112, UE, or NB-IoT UE as described herein).

With reference to Figure 14, in accordance with an embodiment, a communication system includes a telecommunication network 1400, such as a 3GPP- type cellular network, which comprises an access network 1402, such as a RAN, and a core network 1404. The access network 1402 comprises a plurality of base stations 1406A, 1406B, 1406C, such as Node Bs, eNBs, gNBs, or other types of wireless Access Points (APs), each defining a corresponding coverage area 1408A, 1408B, 1408C. Each base station 1406A, 1406B, 1406C is connectable to the core network 1404 over a wired or wireless connection 1410. A first UE 1412 located in coverage area 1408C is configured to wirelessly connect to, or be paged by, the corresponding base station 1406C. A second UE 1414 in coverage area 1408A is wirelessly connectable to the corresponding base station 1406A. While a plurality of UEs 1412, 1414 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 corresponding base station 1406.

The telecommunication network 1400 is itself connected to a host computer 1416, which may 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. The host computer 1416 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider, or may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. Connections 1418 and 1420 between the telecommunication network 1400 and the host computer 1416 may extend directly from the core network 1404 to the host computer 1416 or may go via an optional intermediate network 1422. The intermediate network 1422 may be one of, or a combination of more than one of, a public, private, or hosted network; the intermediate network 1422, if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular, the intermediate network 1422 may comprise two or more sub-networks (not shown).

The communication system of Figure 14 as a whole enables connectivity between the connected UEs 1412, 1414 and the host computer 1416. The connectivity may be described as an Over-the-Top (OTT) connection 1424. The host computer 1416 and the connected UEs 1412, 1414 are configured to communicate data and/or signaling via the OTT connection 1424, using the access network 1402, the core network 1404, any intermediate network 1422, and possible further infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries. The OTT connection 1424 may be transparent in the sense that the participating communication devices through which the OTT connection 1424 passes are unaware of routing of uplink and downlink communications. For example, the base station 1406 may not or need not be informed about the past routing of an incoming downlink communication with data originating from the host computer 1416 to be forwarded (e.g., handed over) to a connected UE 1412. Similarly, the base station 1406 need not be aware of the future routing of an outgoing uplink communication originating from the UE 1412 towards the host computer 1416.

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 15. In a communication system 1500, a host computer 1502 comprises hardware 1504 including a communication interface 1506 configured to set up and maintain a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of the communication system 1500. The host computer 1502 further comprises processing circuitry 1508, which may have storage and/or processing capabilities. In particular, the processing circuitry 1508 may comprise one or more programmable processors, ASICs, FPGAs, or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The host computer 1502 further comprises software 1510, which is stored in or accessible by the host computer 1502 and executable by the processing circuitry 1508. The software 1510 includes a host application 1512. The host application 1512 may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as a UE 1514 connecting via an OTT connection 1516 terminating at the UE 1514 and the host computer 1502. In providing the service to the remote user, the host application 1512 may provide user data which is transmitted using the OTT connection 1516.

The communication system 1500 further includes a base station 1518 provided in a telecommunication system and comprising hardware 1520 enabling it to communicate with the host computer 1502 and with the UE 1514. The hardware 1520 may include a communication interface 1522 for setting up and maintaining a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of the communication system 1500, as well as a radio interface 1524 for setting up and maintaining at least a wireless connection 1526 with the UE 1514 located in a coverage area (not shown in Figure 15) served by the base station 1518. The communication interface 1522 may be configured to facilitate a connection 1528 to the host computer 1502. The connection 1528 may be direct or it may pass through a core network (not shown in Figure 15) of the telecommunication system and/or through one or more intermediate networks outside the telecommunication system. In the embodiment shown, the hardware 1520 of the base station 1518 further includes processing circuitry 1530, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, ASICs, FPGAs, or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The base station 1518 further has software 1532 stored internally or accessible via an external connection.

The communication system 1500 further includes the UE 1514 already referred to. The UE's 1514 hardware 1534 may include a radio interface 1536 configured to set up and maintain a wireless connection 1526 with a base station serving a coverage area in which the UE 1514 is currently located. The hardware 1534 of the UE 1514 further includes processing circuitry 1538, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, ASICs, FPGAs, or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The UE 1514 further comprises software 1540, which is stored in or accessible by the UE 1514 and executable by the processing circuitry 1538. The software 1540 includes a client application 1542. The client application 1542 may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via the UE 1514, with the support of the host computer 1502. In the host computer 1502, the executing host application 1512 may communicate with the executing client application 1542 via the OTT connection 1516 terminating at the UE 1514 and the host computer 1502. In providing the service to the user, the client application 1542 may receive request data from the host application 1512 and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 1516 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The client application 1542 may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides.

It is noted that the host computer 1502, the base station 1518, and the UE 1514 illustrated in Figure 15 may be similar or identical to the host computer 1416, one of the base stations 1406A, 1406B, 1406C, and one of the UEs 1412, 1414 of Figure 14, respectively. This is to say, the inner workings of these entities may be as shown in Figure 15 and independently, the surrounding network topology may be that of Figure 14.

In Figure 15, the OTT connection 1516 has been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host computer 1502 and the UE 1514 via the base station 1518 without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices. The network infrastructure may determine the routing, which may be configured to hide from the UE 1514 or from the service provider operating the host computer 1502, or both. While the OTT connection 1516 is active, the network infrastructure may further take decisions by which it dynamically changes the routing (e.g., on the basis of load balancing consideration or reconfiguration of the network).

The wireless connection 1526 between the UE 1514 and the base station 1518 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 the UE 1514 using the OTT connection 1516, in which the wireless connection 1526 forms the last segment.

A measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency, and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve. There may further be an optional network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 1516 between the host computer 1502 and the UE 1514, in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 1516 may be implemented in the software 1510 and the hardware 1504 of the host computer 1502 or in the software 1540 and the hardware 1534 of the UE 1514, or both. In some embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with communication devices through which the OTT connection 1516 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which the software 1510, 1540 may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of the OTT connection 1516 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing, etc.; the reconfiguring need not affect the base station 1518, and it may be unknown or imperceptible to the base station 1518. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling facilitating the host computer 1502's measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency, and the like. The measurements may be implemented in that the software 1510 and 1540 causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or 'dummy' messages, using the OTT connection 1516 while it monitors propagation times, errors, etc.

Figure 16 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 14 and 15. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 16 will be included in this section. In step 1600, the host computer provides user data. In sub-step 1602 (which may be optional) of step 1600, the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In step 1604, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. In step 1606 (which may 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 1608 (which may also be optional), the UE executes a client application associated with the host application executed by the host computer.

Figure 17 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 14 and 15. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 17 will be included in this section. In step 1700 of the method, the host computer provides user data. In an optional sub-step (not shown) the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In step 1702, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. The transmission may pass via the base station, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 1704 (which may be optional), the UE receives the user data carried in the transmission.

Figure 18 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 14 and 15. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 18 will be included in this section. In step 1800 (which may be optional), the UE receives input data provided by the host computer. Additionally or alternatively, in step 1802, the UE provides user data. In sub-step 1804 (which may be optional) of step 1800, the UE provides the user data by executing a client application. In sub-step 1806 (which may be optional) of step 1802, 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 may further consider user input received from the user. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE initiates, in sub-step 1808 (which may be optional), transmission of the user data to the host computer. In step 1810 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 19 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station, and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 14 and 15. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 19 will be included in this section. In step 1900 (which may 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 1902 (which may be optional), the base station initiates transmission of the received user data to the host computer. In step 1904 (which may be optional), the host computer receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the base station.

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.

While processes in the figures may show a particular order of operations performed by certain embodiments of the present disclosure, it should be understood that such order is exemplary (e.g., alternative embodiments may perform the operations in a different order, combine certain operations, overlap certain operations, etc.).

Some example embodiments of the present disclosure are as follows:

Group A Embodiments

Embodiment 1: A method performed by a User Equipment, UE, (112), the method comprising: obtaining (502), from a network node, information about paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms; determining (504) one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for a current paging occasion, PO; and tuning (506) to a paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO; and performing (506) paging monitoring on the paging carrier in accordance with the paging configurations for the paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO.

Embodiment 2: The method of embodiment 1 wherein the two or more paging mechanisms comprise a coverage enhancement, CE, level based paging mechanism and a non-CE level based paging mechanism.

Embodiment 3: The method of embodiment 2 wherein the information about the paging configurations comprises: information about CE-level based paging configurations for a first set of paging carriers; and information about non-CE levelbased paging configurations for a second set paging carriers.

Embodiment 4: The method of embodiment 3 wherein the first and second sets of paging carriers are disjoint sets of carriers.

Embodiment 5: The method of embodiment 3 or 4 wherein the first set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers.

Embodiment 6: The method of any of embodiments 2 to 5 wherein determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO based on timer information.

Embodiment 7: The method of embodiment 6 wherein the timer information defines a first period of time associated to the CE level based paging mechanism and a second period of time associated to the non-CE level based paging mechanism, and determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO based on timer information comprises: determining that the CE level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO if the current PO falls within the first time period; and determining that the non-CE level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO if the current PO falls within the second time period.

Embodiment 8: The method of any of embodiments 2 to 5 wherein: the current PO is one of a plurality of POs in a paging transmission window for eDRX; the plurality of POs in the paging transmission window are divided into at least two groups of POs comprising a first group of POs associated to the CE level based paging mechanism and a second group of POs associated to the non-CE level based paging mechanism; and determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining that the CE level based paging mechanism is to be used if the current PO is one of the first group of POs and determining that the non-CE level based paging mechanism is to be used if the current PO is one of the second group of POs.

Embodiment 9: The method of embodiment 1 wherein the two or more paging mechanisms comprise: a first coverage enhancement, CE, level based paging mechanism for a first CE level or a first set of CE levels; and a second CE level based paging mechanism for a second CE level or a second set of CE levels. Embodiment 10: The method of embodiment 9 wherein the information about the paging configurations comprises: information about CE-level based paging configurations for a first set of paging carriers for the first CE level or the first set of CE levels; and information about CE level-based paging configurations for a second set paging carriers for the second CE level or the second set of CE levels.

Embodiment 11: The method of embodiment 10 wherein the first and second sets of paging carriers are disjoint sets of carriers.

Embodiment 12: The method of embodiment 10 or 11 wherein the first set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers and/or the second set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers.

Embodiment 13: The method of any of embodiments 9 to 12 wherein determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO based on timer information.

Embodiment 14: The method of embodiment 13 wherein the timer information defines a first period of time associated to the first CE level based paging mechanism for the first CE level or the first set of CE levels and a second period of time associated to the second CE level based paging mechanism for the second CE level or the second set of CE levels, and determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO based on timer information comprises: determining that the first CE level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO if the current PO falls within the first time period; and determining that the second CE level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO if the current PO falls within the second time period.

Embodiment 15: The method of any of embodiments 9 to 12 wherein: the current PO is one of a plurality of POs in a paging transmission window for eDRX; the plurality of POs in the paging transmission window are divided into at least two groups of POs comprising a first group of POs associated to the first CE level based paging mechanism and a second group of POs associated to the second CE level based paging mechanism; and determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining that the first CE level based paging mechanism is to be used if the current PO is one of the first group of POs and determining that the second CE level based paging mechanism is to be used if the current PO is one of the second group of POs.

Embodiment 16: The method of embodiment 6, 7, 13, or 14 wherein the timer information comprises a timer value and defines a duration of the first time period.

Embodiment 17: The method of embodiment 16 wherein the timer information further comprises a coefficient value that, together with the timer value, defines a duration of the second timer period.

Embodiment 18: The method of embodiment 16 or 17 wherein the timer value and/or the coefficient are a function of an expected CE level of the UE (112).

Embodiment 19: The method of any of embodiments 1 to 18 wherein obtaining (502) the information comprise obtaining system information that comprises the information.

Embodiment 20: The method of any of embodiments 1 to 19 further comprising providing (500), to a network node, capability information that indicates that the UE (112) supports CE-level based paging.

Embodiment 21: The method of embodiment 1 wherein determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining that a CE-level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO if the UE (112) is in a same cell where the UE (112) established a last connection of the UE (112) and otherwise determining that a non-CE level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO.

Embodiment 22: The method of embodiment 1 wherein determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining that a CE-level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO if the UE (112) is in a different cell from a cell where the UE (112) established a last connection of the UE (112) and otherwise determining that a non-CE level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO.

Embodiment 23: The method of any of the previous embodiments, further comprising: providing user data; and forwarding the user data to a host computer via the transmission to the base station. Group B Embodiments

Embodiment 24: A method performed by a network node, comprising: providing, to a UE (112), information about paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms.

Embodiment 25: The method of embodiment 24 wherein the two or more paging mechanisms comprise a coverage enhancement, CE, level based paging mechanism and a non-CE level based paging mechanism.

Embodiment 26: The method of embodiment 25 wherein the information about the paging configurations comprises: information about CE-level based paging configurations for a first set of paging carriers; and information about non-CE levelbased paging configurations for a second set paging carriers.

Embodiment 27: The method of embodiment 26 wherein the first and second sets of paging carriers are disjoint sets of carriers.

Embodiment 28: The method of embodiment 25 or 26 wherein the first set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers.

Embodiment 29: The method of embodiment 24 wherein the two or more paging mechanisms comprise: a first coverage enhancement, CE, level based paging mechanism for a first CE level or a first set of CE levels; and a second CE level based paging mechanism for a second CE level or a second set of CE levels.

Embodiment 30: The method of embodiment 29 wherein the information about the paging configurations comprises: information about CE-level based paging configurations for a first set of paging carriers for the first CE level or the first set of CE levels; and information about CE level-based paging configurations for a second set paging carriers for the second CE level or the second set of CE levels.

Embodiment 31: The method of embodiment 30 wherein the first and second sets of paging carriers are disjoint sets of carriers.

Embodiment 32: The method of embodiment 30 or 31 wherein the first set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers and/or the second set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers.

Embodiment 33: The method of any of the previous embodiments, further comprising: obtaining user data; and forwarding the user data to a host computer or a wireless device. Group C Embodiments

Embodiment 34: A wireless device comprising: processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments; and power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the wireless device.

Embodiment 35: A base station comprising: processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments; and power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the base station.

Embodiment 36: A User Equipment, UE, comprising: an antenna configured to send and receive wireless signals; radio front-end circuitry connected to the antenna and to processing circuitry, and configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna and the processing circuitry; the processing circuitry being configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments; an input interface connected to the processing circuitry and configured to allow input of information into the UE to be processed by the processing circuitry; an output interface connected to the processing circuitry and configured to output information from the UE that has been processed by the processing circuitry; and a battery connected to the processing circuitry and configured to supply power to the UE.

Embodiment 37: A communication system including a host computer comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and a communication interface configured to forward the user data to a cellular network for transmission to a User Equipment, UE; wherein the cellular network comprises a base station having a radio interface and processing circuitry, the base station's processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments.

Embodiment 38: The communication system of the previous embodiment further including the base station.

Embodiment 39: The communication system of the previous 2 embodiments, further including the UE, wherein the UE is configured to communicate with the base station.

Embodiment 40: The communication system of the previous 3 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data; and the UE comprises processing circuitry configured to execute a client application associated with the host application. Embodiment 41: A method implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station, and a User Equipment, UE, the method comprising: at the host computer, providing user data; and at the host computer, initiating a transmission carrying the user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the base station, wherein the base station performs any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments.

Embodiment 42: The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising, at the base station, transmitting the user data.

Embodiment 43: The method of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein the user data is provided at the host computer by executing a host application, the method further comprising, at the UE, executing a client application associated with the host application.

Embodiment 44: A User Equipment, UE, configured to communicate with a base station, the UE comprising a radio interface and processing circuitry configured to perform the method of the previous 3 embodiments.

Embodiment 45: A communication system including a host computer comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and a communication interface configured to forward user data to a cellular network for transmission to a User Equipment, UE; wherein the UE comprises a radio interface and processing circuitry, the UE's components configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments.

Embodiment 46: The communication system of the previous embodiment, wherein the cellular network further includes a base station configured to communicate with the UE.

Embodiment 47: The communication system of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data; and the UE's processing circuitry is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application.

Embodiment 48: A method implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station, and a User Equipment, UE, the method comprising: at the host computer, providing user data; and at the host computer, initiating a transmission carrying the user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the base station, wherein the UE performs any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments. Embodiment 49: The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising at the UE, receiving the user data from the base station.

Embodiment 50: A communication system including a host computer comprising: communication interface configured to receive user data originating from a transmission from a User Equipment, UE, to a base station; wherein the UE comprises a radio interface and processing circuitry, the UE's processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments.

Embodiment 51: The communication system of the previous embodiment, further including the UE.

Embodiment 52: The communication system of the previous 2 embodiments, further including the base station, wherein the base station comprises a radio interface configured to communicate with the UE and a communication interface configured to forward to the host computer the user data carried by a transmission from the UE to the base station.

Embodiment 53: The communication system of the previous 3 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application; and the UE's processing circuitry is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application, thereby providing the user data.

Embodiment 54: The communication system of the previous 4 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing request data; and the UE's processing circuitry is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application, thereby providing the user data in response to the request data.

Embodiment 55: A method implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station, and a User Equipment, UE, the method comprising: at the host computer, receiving user data transmitted to the base station from the UE, wherein the UE performs any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments.

Embodiment 56: The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising, at the UE, providing the user data to the base station.

Embodiment 57: The method of the previous 2 embodiments, further comprising: at the UE, executing a client application, thereby providing the user data to be transmitted; and at the host computer, executing a host application associated with the client application. Embodiment 58: The method of the previous 3 embodiments, further comprising: at the UE, executing a client application; and at the UE, receiving input data to the client application, the input data being provided at the host computer by executing a host application associated with the client application; wherein the user data to be transmitted is provided by the client application in response to the input data.

Embodiment 59: A communication system including a host computer comprising a communication interface configured to receive user data originating from a transmission from a User Equipment, UE, to a base station, wherein the base station comprises a radio interface and processing circuitry, the base station's processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments.

Embodiment 60: The communication system of the previous embodiment further including the base station.

Embodiment 61: The communication system of the previous 2 embodiments, further including the UE, wherein the UE is configured to communicate with the base station.

Embodiment 62: The communication system of the previous 3 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute a host application; and the UE is configured to execute a client application associated with the host application, thereby providing the user data to be received by the host computer.

Embodiment 63: A method implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station, and a User Equipment, UE, the method comprising: at the host computer, receiving, from the base station, user data originating from a transmission which the base station has received from the UE, wherein the UE performs any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments.

Embodiment 64: The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising at the base station, receiving the user data from the UE.

Embodiment 65: The method of the previous 2 embodiments, further comprising at the base station, initiating a transmission of the received user data to the host computer. Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modifications to the embodiments of the present disclosure. All such improvements and modifications are considered within the scope of the concepts disclosed herein.

Claims

49 Claims

1. A method performed by a wireless communication device (112), the method comprising: obtaining (502), from a network node, information about paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms; determining (504) one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for a current paging occasion, PO; tuning (506) to a paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO; and performing (506) paging monitoring on the paging carrier in accordance with the paging configurations for the paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the two or more paging mechanisms comprise a coverage enhancement, CE, level based paging mechanism and a non-CE level based paging mechanism.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the information about the paging configurations comprises: information about CE-level based paging configurations for a first set of paging carriers; and information about non-CE level-based paging configurations for a second set paging carriers.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the information about the CE-level based paging configurations for the first set of paging carriers comprises information comprised in a System Information Block, SIB, wherein the information comprised in the SIB comprises an information element that specifies one or more coverage levels used for each of the first set of paging carriers.

5. The method of claim 3 or 4 wherein the first and second sets of paging carriers are disjoint sets of carriers. 50

6. The method of any of claims 3 to 5 wherein the first set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the paging carrier is a paging carrier with a smallest index n that fulfills the following equation: floor(UE_ID/(N*Ns)) mod Wrl7 < Wrl7 (0) + Wrl7 (1) + ... + Wrl7 (n) where:

UE_ID is an identity of the wireless communication device (112),

N is min(T,nB), where nB is configured to be one of the following values: 4T, 2T, T, T/2, T/4, T/8, T/16, T/32, T/64, T/128, and T/256, T/512, and T/1024,

Ns is max(l,nB/T),

Wrl7(i) is a weight for paging carrier i in the first set of paging carriers which is configured with a CE level of the wireless communication device (112), and

Wrl7 is a total weight of all paging carriers in the first set of paging carriers which are configured with the CE level of the wireless communication device (112), i.e. Wrl7= Wrl7 (0) + Wrl7 (1) + ... + Wrl7 (Nn-1).

8. The method of any of claims 2 to 7 wherein determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO based on timer information.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the timer information defines an alternating series of first time periods having a first time duration that are associated to the CE level based paging mechanism and a second time periods having a second time duration that are associated to the non-CE level based paging mechanism, and determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO based on the timer information comprises determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO such that the one of the two or more paging mechanism is: the CE level based paging mechanism if the current PO falls within one of the first time periods; and 51 the non-CE level based paging mechanism i if the current PO falls within one of the second time periods.

10. The method of any of claims 2 to 7 wherein: the current PO is one of a plurality of POs in a paging transmission window for enhanced DRX, eDRX; the plurality of POs in the paging transmission window are divided into at least two groups of POs comprising a first group of POs associated to the CE level based paging mechanism and a second group of POs associated to the non-CE level based paging mechanism; and determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO such that the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO is: the CE level based paging mechanism if the current PO is one of the first group of POs; and the non-CE level based paging mechanism if the current PO is one of the second group of POs.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the two or more paging mechanisms comprise: a first coverage enhancement, CE, level based paging mechanism for a first CE level or a first set of CE levels; and a second CE level based paging mechanism for a second CE level or a second set of CE levels.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the information about the paging configurations comprises: information about CE-level based paging configurations for a first set of paging carriers for the first CE level or the first set of CE levels; and information about CE level-based paging configurations for a second set paging carriers for the second CE level or the second set of CE levels. 52

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the information about the CE-level based paging configurations for the first and second sets of paging carriers comprises information comprised in a System Information Block, SIB, wherein the information comprised in the SIB comprises an information element that specifies one or more coverage levels used for each paging carrier in the first and second sets of paging carriers.

14. The method of claim 12 or 13 wherein the first and second sets of paging carriers are disjoint sets of carriers.

15. The method of any of claims 12 to 14 wherein the first set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers and/or the second set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers.

16. The method of any of claims 11 to 15 wherein determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO based on timer information.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the timer information defines a first time duration of each of a first set time periods associated to the first CE level based paging mechanism for the first CE level or the first set of CE levels and a second time duration of each of a second set of time periods associated to the second CE level based paging mechanism for the second CE level or the second set of CE levels, and determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO based on the timer information comprises determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO such that the one of the two or more paging mechanism is: the first CE level based paging mechanism if the current PO falls within one of the first set of time periods; and the second CE level based paging mechanism if the current PO falls within one of the second set of time periods.

18. The method of any of claims 11 to 15 wherein: the current PO is one of a plurality of POs in a paging transmission window for enhanced DRX, eDRX; the plurality of POs in the paging transmission window are divided into at least two groups of POs comprising a first group of POs associated to the first CE level based paging mechanism and a second group of POs associated to the second CE level based paging mechanism; and determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO such that the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO is: the first CE level based paging mechanism if the current PO is one of the first group of POs; and the second CE level based paging mechanism if the current PO is one of the second group of POs.

19. The method of claim 8, 9, 16, or 17 wherein the timer information comprises a timer value and defines the first time duration.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the timer information further comprises a coefficient value that, together with the timer value, defines the second time duration.

21. The method of claim 19 or 20 wherein the timer value and/or the coefficient are a function of an expected CE level of the wireless communication device (112).

22. The method of any of claims 1 to 21 wherein the information is comprised in system information.

23. The method of any of claims 1 to 22 further comprising providing (500), to a network node, capability information that indicates that the wireless communication device (112) supports CE-level based paging.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining that a CE-level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO if the wireless communication device (112) is in a same cell where the wireless communication device (112) established a last connection of the wireless communication device (112) and otherwise determining that a non-CE level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein determining (504) the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO comprises determining that a CE-level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO if the wireless communication device (112) is in a different cell from a cell where the wireless communication device (112) established a last connection of the wireless communication device (112) and otherwise determining that a non-CE level based paging mechanism is to be used for the current PO.

26. A wireless communication device (112) adapted to: obtain (502), from a network node, information about paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms; determine (504) one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for a current paging occasion, PO; tune (506) to a paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO; and perform (506) paging monitoring on the paging carrier in accordance with the paging configurations for the paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO.

27. The wireless communication device (112) of claim 26 wherein the wireless communication device (112) is further adapted to perform the method of any of claims 2 to 25.

28. A wireless communication device (112; 1200) comprising: one or more transmitters (1208); one or more receivers (1210); and 55 processing circuitry (1202) associated with the one or more transmitters (1208) and the one or more receivers (1210), the processing circuitry (1202) configured to cause the wireless communication device (112; 1200) to: obtain (502), from a network node, information about paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms; determine (504) one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for a current paging occasion, PO; tune (506) to a paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO; and perform (506) paging monitoring on the paging carrier in accordance with the paging configurations for the paging carrier for the one of the two or more paging mechanisms to be used for the current PO.

29. The wireless communication device (112; 1200) of claim 28 wherein the processing circuitry (1202) is further configured to cause the wireless communication device (112; 1200) to perform the method of any of claims 2 to 25.

30. A method performed by a network node, comprising: providing, to a wireless communication device (112), information about paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein the two or more paging mechanisms comprise a coverage enhancement, CE, level based paging mechanism and a non-CE level based paging mechanism.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein the information about the paging configurations comprises: information about CE-level based paging configurations for a first set of paging carriers; and information about non-CE level-based paging configurations for a second set paging carriers. 56

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the first and second sets of paging carriers are disjoint sets of carriers.

34. The method of claim 31 or 32 wherein the first set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers.

35. The method of claim 30 wherein the two or more paging mechanisms comprise: a first coverage enhancement, CE, level based paging mechanism for a first CE level or a first set of CE levels; and a second CE level based paging mechanism for a second CE level or a second set of CE levels.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein the information about the paging configurations comprises: information about CE-level based paging configurations for a first set of paging carriers for the first CE level or the first set of CE levels; and information about CE level-based paging configurations for a second set paging carriers for the second CE level or the second set of CE levels.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein the first and second sets of paging carriers are disjoint sets of carriers.

38. The method of claim 36 or 37 wherein the first set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers and/or the second set of paging carriers comprise one or more non-anchor carriers.

39. A network node adapted to: provide, to a wireless communication device (112), information about paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms.

40. The network node of claim 39 wherein the network node is further adapted to perform the method of any of claims 31 to 38. 57

41. A network node (900) comprising: processing circuitry (904; 1004) configured to cause the network node (900) to provide, to a wireless communication device (112), information about paging configurations for two or more paging mechanisms.

42. The network node of claim 41 wherein the processing circuitry (904; 1004) is further configured to cause the network node (900) to perform the method of any of claims 31 to 38.