CN111034307B

CN111034307B - Improvements in or relating to paging in new radios

Info

Publication number: CN111034307B
Application number: CN201880055955.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 卡罗琳·加科特; 埃夫斯塔希奥斯·卡塔纳罗斯; 本尼·阿苏里; 罗恩·罗伊; 奥利维尔·马克; 米卡尔·贝尔吉
Original assignee: JRD Communication Shenzhen Ltd
Current assignee: JRD Communication Shenzhen Ltd
Priority date: 2017-09-11
Filing date: 2018-09-10
Publication date: 2024-01-26
Anticipated expiration: 2038-09-10
Also published as: GB201714552D0; GB2566316A; WO2019047958A1; CN111034307A

Abstract

A method of providing paging related transmissions to UEs operating in a wireless system operating in at least a beam scanning mode, the method comprising: the paging related transmission is sent to the UE on a related transmission beam.

Description

Improvements in or relating to paging in new radios

Technical Field

The present application relates to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to apparatus and methods for operating wireless communication systems, and particularly but not exclusively to improvements in or relating to paging in New Radios (NRs).

Background

Wireless communication systems, such as third generation (3G) mobile telephone standards and technologies, are well known. The 3G standard and technology was developed by the third generation partnership project (3GPP,Third Generation Partnership Project). Third generation wireless communications were developed to support macrocell mobile telephone communications. Communication systems and networks are evolving towards broadband mobile systems.

The third generation partnership project has developed a so-called long term evolution (LTE, long Term Evolution) system, i.e. an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN, evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunication System Territorial Radio Access Network), in which one or more macro cells are supported by a base station eNodeB or eNB (evolved NodeB). Recently, LTE has evolved further towards so-called 5G or NR (New Radio) systems, where one or more macro cells are supported by a base station gN.

An aspect of NR calls for providing a paging design with functionality similar to that currently provided by LTE. This means that the beam scanning overhead (beam sweeping overhead) for paging in NR needs to be considered.

The present application uses the following symbols, PI for indicating a paging indication (Paging Indication) transmitted on an NR physical dedicated control channel (Physical Dedicated Control Channel, PDCCH); the PM indicates a Paging Message (Paging Message) transmitted on the NR physical downlink shared channel (Physical Downlink Shared Channel, PDSCH).

Paging in LTE is designed as follows:

UEs in IDLE mode (IDLE mode) wake up periodically and monitor the PDCCH during the Paging Period (PO) of the Paging Frame (PF) in order to detect the presence of PM.

The PO is a subframe that can carry PDCCH addressing PM.

The PF is a radio frame that may contain one or more POs.

The PO and PF are derived from the UE-ID and Network (NW) configuration (discontinuous reception (DRX, discontinuous receiving) period and the parameter nB, i.e., the number of paging occasions per DRX period).

-the UE in idle mode wakes up every {32, 64, 128, 256} radio frame.

From NW point of view, different UEs may be distributed in different POs and PFs.

Figure 1 shows one example of a paging configuration in LTE.

PDCCH scrambled by paging radio network temporary identity (Paging Radio Network Temporary Identity, P-RNTI) in Common synchronization signaling (Common-Synchronization signaling, SS) for scheduling PM.

All enbs in the tracking area send the same PM.

Since the paging requirements of the NR should be similar, the NR should support similar paging functions as in LTE. However, in the case of NR multi-beam operation, for UEs using different Tx beams (i.e., using beam scanning operation), it would be necessary to transmit PM multiple times. This is because the gNB does not know where the UE is exactly in the network, and the gNB does not know the UE's best transmit (Tx) beam. This will result in:

increase UE power consumption.

-if the UE in idle or inactive state does not know the paging downlink control information (Downlink Control Information, DCI) resource location, which is the UE transmitting on the appropriate Tx beam, the UE will need to stay awake and perform DCI blind detection during beam scanning transmission of paging DCI, which consumes power.

Increase paging transmission overhead.

PM transmission overhead will increase since beam scanning transmissions, i.e. PM transmissions, on certain beams will not reach the target UE.

Fig. 2 and 3 show two examples of PM transmissions for multi-beam based operation, respectively, with the PM transmissions in the two examples being beam scanned over contiguous and non-contiguous resources, respectively.

Based on the parameters given in the following table, a comparison between LTE paging capacity requirements and millimeter wave (mmW) paging capacity requirements is resolved.

DL paging overhead may be calculated using the following equation 1:

in LTE, each SS pulse set includes only one SS block. However, in mmW, each SS pulse set may have up to 64 SS blocks.

On the other hand, LTE has a 20MHz bandwidth, whereas the component carrier of mmW may have a 100MHz bandwidth. In addition, the spectrum efficiency at the edge of the LTE cell is 0.1bps/Hz. Simulation results indicate that the cell edge of NR may reach 0.225bps/Hz.

Based on these data, the DL paging overhead for LTE and mmW is shown in fig. 4. The maximum paging rate of LTE is 6400 UEs per second, consuming approximately 13% of the DL capacity. In mmW networks, the DL capacity requirement for the same paging rate is much higher, reaching 73% of DL capacity for 64 SS blocks. This is 5-6 times higher than the corresponding DL capacity requirement for paging in LTE networks.

Various proposals have been made to address the problems associated with paging and the overhead used thereby. None of the proposals proposed so far have provided an effective and practical solution. There is therefore a need to address the problems associated with paging in NR.

It is an object of the present application to seek to address at least some of the problems highlighted in this field.

Disclosure of Invention

This application presents a simplified summary of some concepts in a simplified form as a more detailed description of a specific embodiment. This application is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a method of providing paging related transmissions to a UE operating in a wireless system operating in at least a beam scanning mode, the method comprising: the paging related transmission is sent to the UE on a related transmission beam.

Preferably, the paging related transmission is converged to at least one of a paging indication, a paging message, and a combination of both.

Preferably, the paging-related transmission is transmitted by at least one of paging indication, higher layer configuration, beam alignment procedure, and based on a pre-used transmission beam.

Preferably, the paging indicates a schedule to communicate paging messages.

Preferably, the schedule includes at least one of time and frequency.

Preferably, the signaling of the related transmission beam may be 2×log ₂ At least one of a start index and an end index of the L-bit wrap around and a bitmap of L bits, where L is the number of beams.

Preferably, if the UE is in an inactive state or an idle state, the UE is directed to a specific beam of a specific cell for paging.

Preferably, one or more UEs are in a static or semi-static position.

Preferably, if the UE transitions from a connected state to an idle state or an inactive state, the UE configured by the network to monitor paging messages on the alignment beam saves the last alignment beam for paging monitoring and the UE becomes beam aligned.

Preferably, if the UE is beam aligned, the paging indication includes resource allocation of paging message, and the UE beam is aligned on the same beam indicated by the paging indication, the UE acquires the paging message, otherwise the UE ignores the paging indication.

Preferably, the UE is considered beam misalignment if the UE is no longer monitoring the aligned beam during idle or inactive state.

Preferably, if the UE is beam misalignment, the paging indication does not include resource allocation of paging message, and the UE is still in coverage of a cell where the beam alignment is performed last time, the UE ignores the paging indication, otherwise the UE seeks other methods for acquiring paging.

Preferably, the other method comprises at least one of a random access procedure and an acknowledgement with a special signal.

Preferably, if the UE is in idle mode, the core network provides the UE with the last alignment beam through the interface.

Preferably, the interface includes at least one of an NG interface and an Xn interface.

Preferably, the relevant beam for paging message transmission is derived by the gNB and the UE from the last beam indicated by the gNB and acknowledged by the UE in the PHY channel.

Preferably, the PHY channel is any one of PDSCH and PUCCH.

Preferably, the last relevant beam is listed and recorded by the base station and the UE.

Preferably, the number of last relevant beams is sent to the UE through a higher layer configuration.

Preferably, a UE that acquires the paging indication and recognizes that the paging message may be related thereto but that it cannot receive the paging message may connect to the base station to retrieve the paging message.

Preferably, the paging message is transmitted on at least one of a single beam or multiple beams, rather than on all beams.

Preferably, the local beam scanning occurs between the nearest correlation beam to the next second nearest correlation beam.

Preferably, the paging indication is transmitted on at least one of a single cell or a plurality of cells in the tracking area.

Preferably, the paging indication does not include a resource allocation of a paging message.

The UE uses the paging indication to determine whether the paging message is related thereto.

Preferably, in the case of beam scanning, the resource allocation on the beam that did not send the paging message may be null.

Preferably, when the paging indication is an omni-directional transmission, the resource allocation includes a beam identification for the paging message transmission.

Preferably, the paging related transmission includes a paging indication and a paging message.

Preferably, one or more UEs are in a static or semi-static position.

Preferably, if the UE transitions from the connected state to the idle state or the inactive state, the UE configured by the network to monitor one or more paging-related transmissions on the alignment beam for paging monitoring maintains the last alignment beam for paging monitoring.

Preferably, if the UE is in idle mode, the core network provides the UE with the last alignment beam through an interface.

Preferably, the interface comprises at least one NG interface, and Xn is the interface.

Preferably, the or each associated beam of the paging indication and paging message transmission is configured in accordance with at least one of the number of last aligned beams and last aligned beams.

Preferably, the transmission is on the last used beam.

Preferably, the relevant beam of paging indication and paging message transmission is derived by the gNB and the UE from the last beam of gNB indication and UE acknowledgement.

Preferably, the last relevant transmission beam is listed and recorded by the base station and the UE.

Preferably, the number of last relevant beams is sent to the UE via a higher layer configuration.

Preferably, the paging indication and the paging message are transmitted on at least one of a single beam or multiple beams, rather than on all beams.

Preferably, the paging indication is derived from one or more of: omni-directional transmission with repeated transmission, wide beam transmission with repeated transmission, narrow beam scanning, and system frame number transmission.

Preferably, the repeated transmission may be in either the time domain or the frequency domain, or in a combination of both.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a base station capable of performing the method according to the first aspect of the present application.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a user equipment capable of performing the method of the first aspect of the present application.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer readable instructions adapted to be loaded by a processor to perform the method of the first aspect of the present application.

The non-transitory computer readable storage medium may include at least one of a hard disk, a compact disk Read Only Memory (CD-ROM, compact Disc Read Only Memory), an optical Memory, a magnetic Memory, a Read Only Memory (ROM), a programmable Read Only Memory (PROM, programmable Read Only Memory), an erasable programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM, erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), an electrically erasable programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM, electrically erasable programmable Read Only Memory), and a Flash Memory (Flash Memory).

Drawings

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. Elements in the figures have been simplified and are not necessarily drawn to scale. Reference numerals have been included in the various figures to facilitate understanding.

Fig. 1 is a simplified diagram of a paging configuration in LTE provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a simplified diagram of a reasonable paging transmission design based on multi-beam operation provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a simplified diagram of a reasonable paging transmission design for beam scanning over discontinuous resources provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a graph comparing paging overhead between LTE and MMW networks provided by embodiments of the present application.

Detailed Description

The embodiments described herein are intended to be merely some, but not all embodiments of the present application. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments herein without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the present application.

The present application relates to wireless communication systems with paging mechanisms. The paging procedure with beam scanning operation provides enhanced coverage (enhanced coverage) for remote UEs or for remote UEs when the carrier frequency is higher and the transmitted signal decays more rapidly with distance (e.g., in mmW).

The present application also provides a method of reducing signaling overhead of a paging procedure in a wireless system that utilizes beam scanning through a partial to complete tracking procedure. In addition, minimum paging delay and UE power consumption are reduced by partial tracking (partial tracking), and paging reliability is maintained by defining fallback to full tracking (full tracking).

In general, the present application reduces beam scanning overhead for paging transmissions through a partial to complete tracking process using only PM or using PI and PM related transmission beams. Minimum paging delay and UE power consumption are reduced by local tracking and paging reliability is maintained by defining a fallback to full tracking. In this application, both PI and PM may be referred to as paging-related transmissions.

Two local tracking methods are discussed below.

In the first approach, PI is transmitted in all spatial directions, while PM is transmitted only on the relevant beams, which are provided to the UE by an indication within PI or according to a higher layer configuration and/or beam alignment procedure or according to the last used beam in the PHY. Thus, a UE acquiring PI can identify that PM may be associated with it, but cannot receive it, in which case the UE connects to the gNB (e.g., through Random Access (RA). Thus, for potentially relevant PM, the UE receives PM and connects if necessary, or does not receive PM but connects.

In the second approach, both PI and PM are transmitted on the associated beams, which are provided to the UE by higher layer configuration and/or beam alignment procedures or the last used beam in the PHY. If the UE does not respond to the gNB accordingly (i.e., if paging, then the connection), the paging procedure will fall back to the former method or to the remaining part of the tracking (PI and PM transmitted on other beams) or any other solution to provide complete tracking.

These two methods will be described in detail below.

The local to complete tracking of the present application is optimized for fixed location wireless devices (e.g., client devices (customer premises equipment, CPE)) and low mobility UEs, but can be applied to all UEs. The gNB may collect statistics to characterize the mobility of the UE or decide, based on the application type or UE assistance information, whether to operate in a suggested mode or in an unreduced paging overhead mode, which means to transmit PI and PM on all beams or to use another paging method.

Advantages of the present application include reduced beam scanning overhead, reduced UE power consumption, and reduced minimum latency for paging transmissions. In addition, as described below, the present application does not require additional connections before PM after PI to reduce PM overhead. The present application may also work with other proposals. This allows the gNB the freedom to decide which optimization is appropriate for which application.

It should be noted that the first deployment of 5G technology is expected to include not only fixed location applications, but also most applications, and therefore optimization considering the application characteristics would be very useful.

Embodiments of the present application will now be described in detail.

Two partial to complete tracking methods are now proposed to reduce the beam scanning overhead of paging transmissions.

Based on the first approach, in a paging request from a Core Network (CN), the gNB broadcasts/multicasts (broad/group-cast) PI according to one or more different delivery mechanisms:

(1) An omni-directional transmission with repeated transmissions,

(2) Wide beam (e.g. sector) transmissions with (fewer) repeated transmissions,

(3) Scanning narrow beams (e.g., for SS block transmissions)

(4) Transmission of system frame numbers (System Frame Numbering, SFN) comprising multiple cells or multiple transmission reception points (Transmission Reception Points, TRP) serving the same cell. All relevant UEs (e.g., according to allocated POs) that reside on the PI-transmitting cell should be able to receive the system frame number.

The repeated transmission may occur in the time domain or in the frequency domain (e.g., by a higher aggregation level of the PDCCH) or in a combination of both. Since the exact start of the retransmission may be lost at the UE end, it is recommended that PI conveys the scheduled time/frequency of PM (resource allocation). If the PO defines the exact starting point for the repeat transmission, then no resource scheduling time may be needed. A closer UE (closer to the paging gNB) will be able to recognize that the PM may be related to it faster, but may not be able to receive the PM because it does not require all repeated indications. Thus, if PM is transmitted before the end of the repeated PI transmission, at least these UEs may reduce power consumption and latency. The PM may be sent after the last PI repetition or after the first PI transmission and before the last PI repetition. In the latter case, i.e., if the PM is transmitted after the first PI transmission and before the last PI repetition, the UE acquiring the PI may buffer radio samples (radio samples) containing the PM transmission and then decode the PM according to the decoded PI. This will allow a UE in a good wireless environment to acquire PI and PM with a shorter delay than normal.

The PI may signal the relevant beam transmitting the PM or may determine the relevant beam according to a higher layer configuration and/or beam alignment procedure (e.g., last aligned beam and/or number of last aligned beams) or according to the last used beam in the PHY.

Indication of the relevant beam for PM transmission in PI:

the indication of the associated beam may be the start of a wrap-aroundIndex (index) and 2 log of end index ₂ L bits, where L is the number of beams, may also be a bit map of L bits. For the former, one beam index requires 6 bits for 64 beams, and thus 12 bits in total. For example, beams #0 to #63 will indicate all beams, beams #3 to #5 will indicate three beams starting from beam #3, and beams #5 to #3 will indicate all beams except beam # 4. For the latter, a 64 bit bitmap for the 64 beams.

If 16 UEs are paged based on the content of 16 temporary mobile subscriber identities (Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity, TMSI), the PM size may be, for example, about 90 bytes (720 bits). This means that the additional signaling of the relevant beam for PM transmission on PI for reducing the PM number of the beam is negligible compared to the reduced PM transmission overhead.

An important concept of this scheme is not to select the beam on which the PM will transmit (e.g., the last associated transmit beam), but how to send the beam position to the PI, and the PM transmission in that beam does not increase the overhead.

For related beams based on higher layer configuration and/or beam alignment procedures and used for PM transmission:

for a UE in an inactive state or in an idle state, which may be limited to a UE for static or semi-static location applications, the UE is directed to a particular beam of a particular cell for paging (e.g., through dedicated signaling or with a function of ue_id).

From the radio resource control active state (Radio Resource Control Connected, rrc_connected) to the radio resource control IDLE state (rrc_idle) or the radio resource control INACTIVE state (rrc_inactive), the UE configured by the NW to monitor the PM on the aligned beam holds the last aligned beam for paging monitoring and should be considered as "beam aligned". During rrc_idle or rrc_active, an aligned beam should be considered "beam-misaligned" if the UE can no longer monitor it. During the PO, the UE should monitor PI (all UEs).

If the UE is "beam aligned" and if the PI includes a resource allocation of PM, the UE beam is aligned to the same beam indicated by the PI, the UE will acquire the PM message. Otherwise, the UE will ignore PI.

If the UE is "beam-misaligned" and the PI does not include the resource allocation of PM, the UE is still within the coverage of the same cell where the last "beam-aligned" was located, the UE will ignore the PI. Otherwise, the UE will fall back to another method of acquiring paging (e.g., perform RA or reply with a specific signal).

The following may occur. For a UE in rrc_idle mode, the CN provides the UE with the last aligned beam over the NG/Xn interface. The gNB and NG-eNB are connected to the 5GC via an NG interface. The gNB and the ng-eNB are interconnected to each other by an Xn interface. The source gNB provides the final alignment beam of the UE to the target gNB through the Xn interface.

The associated beam of PM transmissions may be configured based on the last aligned beam and the number of last aligned beams.

For the relevant beam based on the last used beam in PHY and for PM transmission:

the relevant beam for PM transmission is implicitly derived by the gNB and the UE from the last beam in the PHY channel (e.g., through PDSCH and PUCCH) that the gNB indicates and the UE acknowledges.

Finally, the relevant beams are listed and recorded by both gNB and UE. The number of last associated beams may be signaled to the UE (e.g., via higher layer configuration).

The UE may connect to the gNB (e.g., perform an RA procedure), which obtains the PI and determines that the PM may be related to it but not received.

For this approach, PM is transmitted on only a single beam or a few beams, but not on all beams. The order of local beam scanning may be from the nearest to the next second nearest alignment beam/correlation beam. Other arrangements are possible.

The PI may be sent in a single cell in the tracking area or in multiple cells (possibly from different gnbs). The PI may not include a resource allocation of the PM (e.g., PI sent by the gNB to the UE that does not include the associated beam, the UE indicating paging). The UE may use the indication to determine whether the PM is related thereto (e.g., UE behavior in the beam alignment procedure described above). If PI is scanned by a beam, on a beam where no PM is transmitted, the resource allocation may be null, if PI is transmitted omnidirectionally, the resource allocation may include a beam index for the PM transmission.

According to a second approach, in a paging request from the Core Network (CN), the gNB will broadcast/multicast PI and PM transmissions on the relevant beams. If there is no reply from the UE side (i.e., the UE is not connected), the gNB will fall back to the first method or the rest of the tracking (on beams not included in the local tracking of the second method to have a full tracking) or any other solution.

The relevant beams for PI and PM transmission may be determined according to a higher layer configuration and/or beam alignment procedure, or according to a beam last used in a physical layer (PHY).

For related beams based on higher layer configuration and/or beam alignment procedures and for PI and PM transmissions:

The UE configured by the NW to monitor PI and PM on the aligned beam will save the last aligned beam for page monitoring, transitioning from rrc_connected to rrc_idle or rrc_inactive. During the PO, the UE will monitor the PI (all UEs).

The following may occur. For a UE in rrc_idle mode, the CN provides the UE with the last aligned beam over the NG/Xn interface. The source gNB provides the final alignment beam of the UE to the target gNB through the Xn interface.

The associated beams of PI and PM transmissions may be configured based on the last aligned beam and the number of last aligned beams.

For the relevant beams based on the last used beam in PHY and for PI and PM transmission:

the relevant beams for PI and PM transmissions are implicitly derived by the gNB and the UE from the last beam in the PHY channels (e.g., through PDSCH and PUCCH) indicated by the gNB and acknowledged by the UE.

For the second approach, PI and PM are transmitted on only a single beam or a few beams, but not on all beams. The order of local beam scanning may be from the nearest to the next second nearest alignment beam/correlation beam. Other arrangements are possible.

As a result, paging overhead due to beamforming in NR can be reduced for both methods.

For both methods, the NW may or may not configure the UE to use the proposed paging method, e.g. by dedicated signaling when the UE is connected to the RAN, or by system information broadcast signaling. The NW may also configure a fallback method, e.g. reconnecting to the NW by RA or using other methods as described above.

The first method and the second method are compared with the synchronized conventional beam sweep in NR as shown in the following table for reference. Theoretically, the same coverage can be achieved by omni-directional repeated transmission and narrow beam scanning transmission. A wide beam scan with less repeated transmissions is in between. For example, when the number of omni-directional repeated transmissions R is equal to the number of non-repeated beams L (where L is equal to the number of possible candidate SS block positions, l=4 or 8 or 64, depending on the frequency range).

	First method	Second method	NR reference
				Indicating relevant ROs	R	1	L
Message-related RO	1	1	L
				Back-off cost without reception	RA	First method	Without any means for
MCL flexibility	Is that	Whether or not	Whether or not
				Minimum paging delay	Medium and medium	Shortest distance	Longest length

The RO indicates resource overhead.

As can be seen from the table, the second approach reduces PI overhead and both approaches reduce PM overhead. The cost of reducing overhead may be to support rollback procedures to full tracking. The minimum coupling loss (Minimum Coupling Loss, MCL) can be more flexible if PI is transmitted in a repetitive manner (because the number of repetitions of the network and scheduling optimizations can be adjusted). Both approaches reduce minimum paging delay.

For the second approach, in the example given in fig. 4, a reduction of overhead from 73% to 1.14% can be achieved according to equation 1 (in the best case, only one of the last correlated beams has no back-off). For the first approach, the evaluation is more complex because the single TX overhead depends on more parameters than the PM. These parameters include DL control information (DL-Control Information, DCI)/PI length and PDCCH aggregation level, DL Shared Channel (SCH)/PM length and coding rate. However, in LTE, the PM length is much larger than the PI length, so the PI part can be ignored, which concludes that the overhead of the first approach may be slightly larger than that of the second approach.

The present application may be combined with other aspects. For example, the scheme of the present application may be combined with a scheme that proposes lossy compression and SS block beam scanning-related PI. This will work well and bring about some advantages.

Accordingly, the present application solves the problem of beam scanning overhead for paging transmissions and can be easily implemented with existing schemes. It should be appreciated that low mobility UEs and fixed location applications will benefit most from the present application, but the present application is equally applicable to all UEs. In a standard implementation, the present solution may be implemented as the only solution, or may be implemented with other solutions. In the latter case, the application may select which solution to use by the gNB based on the application characteristics of the UE, e.g. based on historical mobility and paging rate, on application type, or on assistance information from the UE.

The presented aspects relate to any paging or related activity in any type of wireless network.

Although not specifically illustrated any device or means forming part of a network may include at least one processor, memory unit and communication interface, wherein the processor, memory unit and communication interface are configured to perform the methods of any aspect of the present application. Further options will be described below.

The signal processing functions in the embodiments of the present application, and in particular, the signal processing capabilities of the gNB and the UE, may be implemented by computing systems or architecture known to those skilled in the art. The computing system may be a desktop, laptop or notebook computer, hand-held computing device (PDA, cell phone, palmtop, etc.), mainframe, server, client, or any other type of special or general purpose computing device as may be satisfied by or otherwise employed in a given application or environment. The computing system may include one or more processors that may execute a general-purpose or special-purpose processing engine, such as a microprocessor, single-chip microcomputer or other control module.

The computing system may also include a main memory, such as random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM) or other dynamic memory, for storing information and instructions to be executed by the processor. The main memory may also be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during execution of instructions by the processor. The computing system may also include a Read Only Memory (ROM) or other static storage device for storing static information and instructions for execution by the processor.

The computing system may also include an information storage system including, for example, a media drive and a removable storage interface. The media drive may include a drive or other mechanism that supports fixed or removable storage media, such as a hard disk drive, floppy disk drive, magnetic tape drive, optical disk drive, compact disk drive (CD) or Digital Video Drive (DVD) read-write drive (R or RW), or other fixed or removable media drive. Storage media may include, for example, hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic tape, optical disk, CD, DVD, or other fixed or removable medium that is read by and written to by media drives. The storage medium may include a computer-readable storage medium storing specific computer software or data.

In alternative embodiments, the information storage system may include other similar components for allowing computer programs or other instructions or data to be loaded into the computing system. These components may include, for example, removable storage units and interfaces such as program cartridge and cartridge interfaces, removable memory (such as flash memory or other removable memory modules) and memory slots, and other removable storage units and interfaces that allow software and data to be transferred from the removable storage unit to the computing system.

The computing system may also include a communication interface. The communication interface may be used to allow software and data to be transferred between the computing system and an external device. For example, the communication interface can include a modem, a network interface (such as an Ethernet or other network card), a communication port (such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port), a PCMCIA slot and card, etc. Software and data transferred via the communications interface are in the form of signals which may be electronic, electromagnetic, optical or other signals capable of being received by the communications interface medium.

In this application, the terms "computer program product," "computer-readable medium," and the like are generally used to refer to tangible media, such as memory, storage devices, or storage units. These and other forms of computer-readable media may store one or more instructions for use by a processor, including a computer system, to cause the processor to perform specified operations. These instructions, which are typically referred to as "computer program code" (which may be grouped in the form of computer programs or other groupings), when executed, enable the computer system to perform functions of embodiments of the present application. It is noted that the code may direct a processor to perform specified operations, or may be compiled to perform specified operations and/or combined with other software, hardware, and/or firmware elements (e.g., libraries that perform standard functions).

The non-computer readable medium may include at least one of the group consisting of: hard disk, compact disk Read Only (CD-ROM, compact Disc Read Only Memory), optical storage, magnetic storage, read Only Memory (ROM), programmable Read Only Memory (PROM, programmable Read Only Memory), erasable programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM, erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), electrically erasable programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM, electrically erasable programmable Read Only Memory), and Flash Memory (Flash Memory).

In an embodiment implemented by software, the software may be stored in a computer readable medium and loaded into a computing system using, for example, a removable storage drive. A control module (e.g., software instructions or executable computer program code) executed by a processor in a computer system causes the processor to perform the functions as described herein.

Further, the present application may be applied in any circuit in a network element for performing signal processing functions. For example, it is further contemplated that a semiconductor manufacturer may employ innovative concepts in the design of a stand-alone device, which may be a microcontroller (DSP) of a digital signal processor, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), and/or any other subsystem element.

For clarity of description, the above description describes embodiments of the present application with reference to single processing logic. However, the present application may equally implement the signal processing function by a plurality of different functional units and processors. Thus, references to specific functional units are only to be seen as references to suitable means for providing the described functionality rather than indicative of a strict logical, physical structure, or organization.

Aspects of the present application may be implemented in any suitable form including hardware, software, firmware or any combination of these. The present application may optionally be implemented at least in part as computer software, as computer software components such as FPGA devices running on one or more data processors and/or digital signal processors or configurable modules. Thus, the elements and components of an embodiment of the disclosure may be physically, functionally and logically implemented in any suitable way. Indeed the functionality may be implemented in a single unit, in a plurality of units or as part of other functional units.

Although the present application has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, the preferred embodiments are not intended to limit the application, but rather the scope of the application is defined by the claims. Furthermore, although a description of features associated with a particular embodiment may occur, those skilled in the art may obtain a variety of features of the described embodiment in light of the instant application. In the claims, the term "comprising" does not exclude the presence of other elements or steps.

Further, although individually listed, a plurality of means, elements or method steps may be implemented by e.g. a single unit or processor. Furthermore, although different features may be included in different claims, these may possibly be advantageously combined, and the inclusion in different claims does not imply that a combination of features is not feasible and/or advantageous. Likewise, the inclusion of a feature in one set of claims does not imply a limitation to this set of claims but rather indicates that the feature is equally applicable to other classes of claims where appropriate.

Further, the ordering of features in the claims does not imply that the features must be performed in a specific order, and in particular the order of individual steps in a method claim does not imply that the steps must be performed in this order. Rather, the steps may be performed in any suitable order. In addition, singular references do not exclude a plurality. Thus, the singular references of "a", "an", "the" and "second" do not exclude a plurality.

Although the present application has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, the preferred embodiments are not intended to limit the application, but rather the scope of the application is defined by the claims. Furthermore, although a description of features associated with a particular embodiment may occur, those skilled in the art may obtain a variety of features of the described embodiment in light of the instant application. In the claims, the term "comprising" or "including" does not exclude the presence of other elements.

Claims

1. A method of providing paging related transmissions to a user equipment, UE, operating in a wireless system operating in at least a beam scanning mode, the method comprising:

transmitting the paging related transmission to the UE on a related transmission beam; if the UE is in an inactive state or an idle state, the UE is directed to a specific beam of a specific cell for paging.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the paging-related transmissions are fused to at least one of a paging indication, a paging message, and a combination thereof.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the paging-related transmission is sent by at least one of paging indication, higher layer configuration, beam alignment procedure and based on a pre-used transmission beam.

4. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that the paging indication conveys scheduling of paging messages.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the schedule comprises at least one of time and frequency.

6. The method of claim 4 or 5, wherein the signaling of the associated transmission beam is 2 x log of the start index and the end index of the wrapping around ₂ L bits and a bit map of L bits, where L is the number of beams.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein if the UE transitions from a connected state to an idle state or an inactive state, the UE configured by the network to monitor paging messages on the aligned beam saves the last aligned beam for paging monitoring and the UE becomes beam aligned.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein if the UE is beam aligned, the paging indication comprises a resource allocation of a paging message, and the UE beam is aligned on the same beam as indicated by the paging indication, the UE obtains the paging message, otherwise the UE ignores the paging indication.

9. The method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the UE is considered beam misalignment if the UE is no longer monitoring the aligned beam during idle or inactive state.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the paging indication does not include a resource allocation of a paging message if the UE is beam-misaligned and the UE is still within the coverage area of the cell in which the beam alignment was last time, the UE ignores the paging indication, otherwise the UE seeks other methods of acquiring a page.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the other methods include at least one of a random access procedure and an acknowledgement with a specific signal.

12. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that if the UE is in idle mode, the core network provides the UE with the last alignment beam via the interface.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the interface comprises at least one of an NG interface and an Xn interface.

14. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that the relevant beam for the transmission of the paging message is derived by the base station and the UE from the last beam indicated by said base station and acknowledged by the UE in the PHY channel.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the PHY channel is any one of PDSCH and PUCCH.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein a last associated beam is listed and recorded by the base station and the UE.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the number of last associated beams is transmitted to the UE via a higher layer configuration.

18. A method according to claim 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16 or 17, characterized by obtaining a paging indication and identifying that a UE to which a paging message relates but which cannot receive the paging message is connected to a base station for retrieving the paging message.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the paging message is transmitted on at least one of a single beam or multiple beams, rather than on all beams.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the local beam sweep occurs between a nearest correlation beam to a next second nearest correlation beam.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the paging indication is transmitted on at least one of a single cell or a plurality of cells in a tracking area.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the paging indication does not include a resource allocation of a paging message.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the UE uses the paging indication to determine whether the paging message is related thereto.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein in the case of beam scanning, the resource allocation on the beam that did not transmit the paging message is null.

25. The method of claim 18, wherein when the paging indication is an omni-directional transmission, the resource allocation comprises a beam identification for the transmission of the paging message.

26. The method of claim 1, 2, 4 or 5, wherein the paging-related transmissions comprise a paging indication and a paging message.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein if the UE transitions from a connected state to an idle state or an inactive state, the UE configured by the network to monitor one or more paging-related transmissions on the alignment beam for page monitoring saves the last alignment beam for page monitoring.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein if the UE is in idle mode, the core network provides a last aligned beam to the UE over an interface.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the interface comprises at least one NG interface and Xn is the interface.

30. A method according to claim 26, wherein the or each associated beam of the paging indication and paging message transmissions is configured in accordance with at least one of the last aligned beam and the number of last aligned beams.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the transmission is on a last used beam.

32. The method of claim 26, wherein the associated beam of paging indications and paging message transmissions is derived by the base station and the UE from the last beam indicated by the base station and acknowledged by the UE.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein a last associated transmission beam is listed and recorded by the base station and the UE.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the number of last associated beams is sent to the UE via a higher layer configuration.

35. The method of any of claims 32 to 34, wherein the paging indication and the paging message are transmitted on at least one of a single beam or multiple beams, rather than on all beams.

36. The method of any one of claims 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19 to 25 or any one of claims 27 to 34, wherein the paging indication is derived from one or more of: omni-directional transmission with repeated transmission, wide beam transmission with repeated transmission, narrow beam scanning, and system frame number transmission.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the repeated transmission occurs in either the time domain or the frequency domain, and in a combination of both.

38. The method according to any of claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19 to 25, 27 to 34 or 37, characterized in that the radio access network is a new radio network/5G network.

39. A user equipment, UE, comprising a processor, a memory unit and a communication interface, characterized in that the processor, the memory unit and the communication interface are adapted to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 38.

40. A base station comprising a processor, a memory unit and a communication interface, characterized in that the processor, the memory unit and the communication interface are adapted to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 38.

41. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the storage medium stores computer readable instructions adapted to be loaded by a processor to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 38.