EP3811703A1 - Configuration of non-time-multiplexed paging occasions - Google Patents

Configuration of non-time-multiplexed paging occasions

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Publication number
EP3811703A1
EP3811703A1 EP19732618.4A EP19732618A EP3811703A1 EP 3811703 A1 EP3811703 A1 EP 3811703A1 EP 19732618 A EP19732618 A EP 19732618A EP 3811703 A1 EP3811703 A1 EP 3811703A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
paging
time domain
network
domain multiplexed
wireless
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP19732618.4A
Other languages
German (de)
French (fr)
Inventor
Johan Rune
Claes-Göran PERSSON
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Original Assignee
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB filed Critical Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Publication of EP3811703A1 publication Critical patent/EP3811703A1/en
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W48/00—Access restriction; Network selection; Access point selection
    • H04W48/08—Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery
    • H04W48/12—Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery using downlink control channel
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W68/00—User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
    • H04W68/005—Transmission of information for alerting of incoming communication
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W76/00—Connection management
    • H04W76/20—Manipulation of established connections
    • H04W76/28—Discontinuous transmission [DTX]; Discontinuous reception [DRX]

Definitions

  • the present disclosure generally relates to wireless communications and related wireless devices and network nodes, and specifically relates to paging.
  • An important property of the coming 5G (NR) system is the usage of high carrier frequencies, e.g. in the range 6-100 GHz.
  • the atmospheric, penetration and diffraction/attenuation properties can be much worse than for lower frequency spectrum.
  • the receiver antenna aperture as a metric describing the effective receiver antenna area that collects the electromagnetic energy from an incoming electromagnetic wave, is inversely proportional to the frequency.
  • the link budget would be worse for the same link distance even in a free space scenario if omnidirectional receive and transmit antennas are used.
  • Other means for improving the link budget include repetition of the transmissions (e.g. to allow wide beam or omnidirectional transmission) or use of Single Frequency Network tran mi sion from multiple TRPs in the same or different cells.
  • location/direction e.g. a cell
  • beam sweeping i.e.
  • NR which correspond to the PSS, SSS and PBCH (which carries the MIB) in LTE (sometimes referred to as NR-PSS, NR-SSS and NR-PBCH in NR), are put together in an entity/structure denoted SS Block (SSB) or, with other terminology, SS/PBCH block (the term SS Block is typically used in RAN2 while RAN 1 usually uses the term SS/PBCH block.
  • SS Block, SSB and SS/PBCH block are synonymous (although SSB is really an abbreviation of SS Block).
  • the PSS+SSS enables a UE to synchronize with the cell and also carries information from which the Physical Cell Identity (PCI) can be derived.
  • the PBCH part of the SSB carries a part of the system information denoted MIB (Master Information Block) or NR-MIB.
  • MIB Master Information Block
  • NR-MIB NR-MIB.
  • MIB Master Information Block
  • SS Blocks will be transmitted periodically using beam sweeping. Multiple such beamformed SS Block transmissions are grouped into a SS Burst and one or more SS Bursts constitute a SS Burst Set, where the SS Burst Set constitutes a full beam sweep of SS Block transmissions.
  • SI system information
  • MSI system information
  • OSI System Information Block type 1
  • SIB1 SIB1 is also referred to as Remaining Minimum System Information (RMSI)
  • RMSI Remaining Minimum System Information
  • SIB1/RMSI is periodically broadcast using a PDCCH/PDSCH-like channel structure, i.e.
  • the MIB contains information that allows a UE to find and decode RMSI/SIB1. More specifically, configuration parameters for the PDCCH utilized for the RMSI/SIB1 are provided in the MIB, possibly complemented by parameters derived from the PCI. If this configuration information is absent in the MIB, then a default configuration specified in 3GPP TS 38.213 is used. A further 3GPP agreement for release 15 concerning RMSI transmission is that the RMSI/SIB1 transmissions should be spatially Quasi Co-Located (QCL) with the SS Block transmissions. A consequence of the QCL property is that the PSS/SSS transmission can be relied on for accurate synchronization to be used when receiving the PDCCH/PDSCH carrying the RMSI/SIB1.
  • Paging and OSI are also transmitted using the PDCCH+PDSCH principle with PDSCH DL scheduling allocation on the PDCCH and Paging message or SI message on the PDSCH.
  • paging information may optionally be conveyed in the paging DCI on the PDCCH, thus skipping the Paging message on the PDSCH.
  • release 15 this has been agreed to be used when paging is used for notification of ETWS, CMAS or SI update.
  • it is possible that other paging cases may utilize this PDCCH only transmission mechanism.
  • the configuration information for the PDCCH used for paging and the PDCCH used for OSI transmission is included in the RMSI/SIB1.
  • the same CORESET is used as for RMSI/SIB1.
  • the search space i.e. the time windows and time repetition pattern
  • the OSI search space is indicated in the searchSpaceOtherSystemlnformation parameter (which corresponds to the OSI-SearchSpace parameter in 3GPP TS 38.213).
  • the configuration information for the PDCCH for paging is absent in the RMSI/SIB1 (i.e. if the pagingSearchSpace parameter is not present in the RMSI/SIB1), then the monitoring
  • windows/monitoring occasions for the PDCCH are the same as those configured for RMSI/SIB1.
  • the pagingSearchSpace parameter contains a SearchSpaceld, which points out a set of parameters which constitute a PDCCH search space configuration. This complexity is henceforth overlooked herein and the term paging-SearchSpace is henceforth used to refer to the set of parameters that configure the PDCCH search space for paging.
  • Paging is an essential function in a mobile telecommunications system. It is used to let the network contact a UE while in RRC IDLE or RRC INACTIVE state, primarily in order to transmit downlink data to the UE, once the UE has responded to the page. Paging can also be used to inform UEs of updates of the system information in a cell. It can also be used for informing UEs of an ongoing public warning, such as ETWS or CMAS.
  • a method of operating a wireless terminal includes receiving system information from a network node over a wireless interface, the system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration, determining, based on the paging occasion configuration, that paging occasions within a paging frame may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame, identifying a paging occasion allocated to the wireless terminal within one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame, and searching over the wireless interface for a paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
  • the paging occasions in different ones of the non-time domain multiplexed layers may be aligned in the time domain.
  • the non-time domain multiplexed layers may be separated by frequency, and wherein the system information may include a first set of control resources and a second set of control resources, and the method may further include selecting the first set of control resources or the second set of control resources based on the paging information, and searching for the paging indicator using a frequency resource associated with the selected first or second set of control resources.
  • the system information may include a paging-SearchSpace parameter that defines a paging indicator search space.
  • Determining that paging occasions may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame may include detecting a plurality of control resource sets, CORESETs, within the system information.
  • the plurality of CORESETs may define non-overlapping sets of time-frequency resources in which paging indicators may be transmitted.
  • Searching for the paging indicator may include searching for the paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within one of the CORESETs associated with one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
  • Determining that paging occasions may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame may include determining that a plurality of paging Radio Network Temporary Identifiers, P-RNTIs, have been configured.
  • Each of the plurality of P-RNTIs may correspond to a respective one of the non time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
  • Searching for the paging indicator may include searching for the paging indicator during the identified paging occasion using a P-RNTI associated with one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
  • Determining that paging occasions may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame may include receiving an alternate P-RNTI in the system information.
  • the method may further include determining a number of configured non-time domain multiplexed layers based on a number of control resource sets, CORESETs, or paging Radio Network Temporary Identifiers, P-RNTIs, that may be included within the system information.
  • a number of configured non-time domain multiplexed layers may be explicitly signaled in the system information.
  • Identifying the paging occasion allocated to the wireless terminal may include determining a configured number of paging occasions, Ns, within the paging frame, calculating an index, i s, based on an identification number associated with the wireless terminal, and identifying the paging occasion based on the configured number of paging occasions in the paging frame and the index.
  • the index, i s may be calculated according to the formula:
  • i_s floor(UE_ID/N) mod Ns
  • UE ID is the identification number associated with the wireless terminal and N is the number of paging frames in discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle configured for the wireless terminal.
  • a wireless terminal includes a transceiver configured to provide wireless network communication with a wireless communication network, and a processor coupled with the transceiver.
  • the processor is configured to provide wireless network communication through the transceiver, and the processor is configured to perform operations of determining, based on the paging occasion configuration, that paging occasions within a paging frame may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame, identifying a paging occasion allocated to the wireless terminal within one of the non time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame, and searching over the wireless interface for a paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
  • a wireless terminal is adapted to perform operations of determining, based on the paging occasion configuration, that paging occasions within a paging frame may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame, identifying a paging occasion allocated to the wireless terminal within one of the non time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame, and searching over the wireless interface for a paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
  • a method of operating a network node includes generating system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration, wherein paging occasions defined by the paging information may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame, transmitting the system
  • Paging occasions in different ones of the non-time domain multiplexed layers may be aligned in the time domain.
  • the non-time domain multiplexed layers may be separated by frequency, and wherein the system information may include a first set of control resources and a second set of control resources, wherein the first and second sets of control resources may be non-overlapping.
  • the system information may include a paging-SearchSpace parameter that defines a paging indicator search space.
  • the system information may include a plurality of control resource sets
  • the plurality of CORESETs may define non-overlapping sets of time-frequency resources in which paging indicators may be transmitted.
  • the method may further include configuring the wireless terminal with a plurality of paging Radio Network Temporary Identifiers, P-RNTIs.
  • Each of the plurality of P-RNTIs may correspond to a respective one of the non time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
  • Configuring the wireless terminal with a plurality of P-RNTIs may include transmitting an alternate P-RNTI to the wireless terminal in the system information.
  • the method may further include allocating all paging occasions in a first layer before allocating paging occasions in a second layer.
  • Each of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame may have a first number of paging occasions allocated except for a last one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers, which has the first number or less than the first number of paging occasions allocated.
  • a network node of a wireless communication network includes a transceiver configured to provide wireless network communication with a wireless terminal, and a processor coupled with the transceiver.
  • the processor is configured to provide wireless network communications through the transceiver, and the processor is configured to perform operations of generating system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration, wherein paging occasions defined by the paging information may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame, transmitting the system information to a wireless terminal over a wireless interface, and transmitting a paging indicator over the wireless interface during one of the defined paging occasions within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
  • a network node of a radio access network is adapted to perform operations of generating system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration, wherein paging occasions defined by the paging information may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame, transmitting the system information to a wireless terminal over a wireless interface, and transmitting a paging indicator over the wireless interface during one of the defined paging occasions within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
  • FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate multiplexing of paging occasions in a paging frame
  • FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating a network node configured according to some embodiments.
  • FIG. 3B illustrates various functional modules that may be stored in a memory of a network node configured according to some embodiments
  • FIG. 4A is a block diagram illustrating a wireless terminal configured according to some embodiments.
  • FIG. 4B illustrates various functional modules that may be stored in a memory of a wireless terminal configured according to some embodiments
  • FIG. 5 is a flowchart of operations of a wireless terminal according to some embodiments.
  • FIG. 6 is a flowchart of operations of a network node according to some embodiments;
  • FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a wireless network in accordance with some embodiments.
  • FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments
  • FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a virtualization environment in accordance with some embodiments.
  • FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a telecommunication network connected via an intermediate network to a host computer in accordance with some embodiments
  • FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a host computer communicating via a base station with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some
  • FIG. 12 is a block diagram of methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;
  • FIG. 13 is a block diagram of methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;
  • FIG. 14 is a block diagram of methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments.
  • FIG. 15 is a block diagram of methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments.
  • a UE in RRC IDLE state camps on a cell, and, while camping, monitors the paging channel associated with that cell.
  • the UE is configured to monitor repeatedly occurring paging occasions ("POs") and may reside in a DRX sleep mode in between the paging occasions.
  • POs repeatedly occurring paging occasions
  • the paging is indicated on the PDCCH in the form of a DL scheduling allocation addressed to the P-RNTI (which is shared by all UEs). This DL scheduling allocation indicates the DL transmission resources on the PDSCH where the actual paging message is transmitted.
  • a UE in RRC IDLE state which receives a DL scheduling allocation addressed to the P-RNTI at one of the UE’s paging occasions, receives and reads the paging message from the allocated DL transmission resources to find out whether the paging message is intended for the UE.
  • the UE(s) that is(are) subject to the paging is(are) indicated in the paging message through one or more UE paging identifiers (S-TMSI or IMSI), wherein each UE paging identifier is included in a paging record.
  • S-TMSI or IMSI UE paging identifiers
  • Up to 16 UEs may be addressed, i.e. there may be up to 16 paging records in one paging message.
  • RRC INACTIVE a new state is introduced, denoted RRC INACTIVE state, for which paging is also relevant.
  • the purpose of introducing the RRC INACTIVE state in addition to the RRC IDLE state is to introduce a low-energy state with reduced signalling overhead over the radio and network interfaces and improved UE access latency as well as UE energy consumption when the UE moves from an energy saving state to a state designed for transmission and reception of user data (i.e. RRC CONNECTED state).
  • RRC CONNECTED state a state designed for transmission and reception of user data
  • the UE’s RAN context is maintained in the anchor gNB and the RAN- CN connection is maintained between the anchor gNB and the core network.
  • the context information is kept active in the UE and in the anchor gNB which enables the UE to resume the RRC connection when it is paged from the RAN or has UL data or signalling to send.
  • the UE can move around in a RAN Notification Area (RNA) without informing the network of its whereabouts, but as soon as it leaves its configured RNA, it informs the network.
  • RNA RAN Notification Area
  • paging can thus be used for a UE in either RRC IDLE state or RRC INACTIVE state.
  • RRC IDLE state the paging is initiated by the CN, while paging of a UE in RRC_INACTIVE state is initiated by the RAN (the anchor gNB).
  • a UE in RRC INACTIVE state may be prepared to receive paging initiated by either the RAN or the CN.
  • paging of a UE in RRC_INACTIVE state is initiated by the RAN, but in cases of state mismatch between the UE and the CN, the CN may initiate paging of a UE that considers itself to be in RRC INACTIVE state.
  • the UE ID used in the Paging message is the 5G-S-TMSI in NR (replacing the S-TMSI that is used in LTE).
  • the IMSI is used only in rare error cases where the 5G-S-TMSI is not available.
  • the UE ID used in the Paging message is the I-RNTI (which is assigned by the anchor gNB).
  • the same Paging message is used over the radio interface for both CN initiated and RAN initiated paging, so the type of UE ID is what informs the UE of whether the CN or the RAN initiated the page. The UE needs to know this since it is expected to act differently depending on which entity that initiated the page.
  • the UE In response to CN initiated paging (excluding ETWS/CMAS/SI update notification) the UE is expected to contact the network (through random access) and request establishment of a new RRC connection (including a NAS Service Request message). In response to RAN initiated paging (excluding ETWS/CMAS/SI update notification) the UE is expected to contact the network (through random access) and request to resume an existing (suspended) RRC
  • LTE Long Term Evolution
  • NR NR-term evolution
  • paging has to be transmitted using beamforming transmission on high carrier frequencies, e.g. multi-GHz frequencies, especially on really high frequencies, such as frequencies above 20 GHz and hence beam sweeping has to be used to cover an entire cell with the page.
  • high carrier frequencies e.g. multi-GHz frequencies
  • beam sweeping has to be used to cover an entire cell with the page.
  • a paging occasion (PO) in NR can consist of multiple timeslots to accommodate all the paging
  • a paging occasion is thus a regularly recurring time window during which paging may be transmitted.
  • Different UEs can be allocated to different POs and a UE is expected to monitor the paging channel (i.e. the PDCCH configured for paging) during its allocated PO.
  • a radio frame that contains one or more PO(s) is denoted Paging Frame (PF).
  • the time interval between two POs for a certain UE is governed by a paging DRX cycle (henceforth referred to as“DRX cycle”), i.e. there is one PO allocated to the UE during each DRX cycle (the UE is aware of all POs, but“selects” one based on its UE ID).
  • DRX cycle a paging DRX cycle
  • the DRX cycle a UE uses is the shortest of the default DRX cycle (also referred to as the default paging cycle), which is announced in the system information (then denoted defaultPagingCycle), or a UE specific DRX cycle negotiated with the CN.
  • a UE For regular UEs (i.e. UEs which are not configured with any type of extended DRX (eDRX) cycle), the shortest of the default DRX cycle and the UE specific DRX cycle (if available) is used.
  • eDRX extended DRX
  • a UE can also be configured with a DRX cycle to be used in RRC INACTIVE state. This DRX cycle is assigned to the UE when the UE is moved to RRC INACTIVE state.
  • a UE calculates a PF and determines which out of possibly multiple (1, 2 or 4 in LTE) PO(s) in the PF it should monitor based on its UE ID.
  • IMSI mod 1024 is used for this calculation and this has also been agreed for NR.
  • the agreement for NR will be changed and the IMSI will be replaced by the 5G-S-TMSI in this formula.
  • the PFs for a UE are the radio frames with System Frame Numbers (SFN) satisfying the following equation:
  • N min(T, nB) (I.e., N is the number of PFs in a DRX cycle.)
  • nB 4T, 2T, T, T/2, T/4, T/8, T/16, T/32, T/64, T/128, T/256 (the number of POs in a
  • nB values T/64, T/128 and T/256 were added in release 15 of LTE. It has been suggested to restrict the nB values to 4T, 2T, T, T/2, T/4, T/8 and T/16 in NR release 15, but the value range for nB is not specified for NR release 15 yet.
  • This formula may be reused in NR, possibly with some modification.
  • One proposed modification is to introduce an offset for shifting of PFs, which would result in the following slightly modified formula for PF calculation (with the definitions of T, N, nB and UE ID unchanged):
  • the PO(s) is/are configured/allocated based on a table in FTE, where the UE ID determines which of the PO(s) a UE should monitor.
  • the subframe, which constitutes a UE’s PO within a PF is determined by reference to Table 1, in which:
  • Ns max(l, nB/T) (I.e., Ns is the number of POs in a PF.)
  • i s floor(UE_ID/N) mod Ns (i s is an index pointing out a certain UE’s PO within a
  • i s is an index that points out which of the PO(s) in a PF a UE should use, wherein the PO(s) are indexed (i.e. i s has the range) from 0 to Ns - 1.
  • the table determines the allocation of PO(s) to subframe(s) within a PF.
  • LTE While LTE always has the same structure, NR has different structures, because it comprises different so-called numerologies (which essentially can be translated to different subcarrier spacings (SCSs) and consequent differences in the time domain, e.g. the length of an OFDM symbol).
  • SCSs subcarrier spacings
  • the Ll radio interface time domain structure consists of symbols, subframes and radio frames, where a 1 ms subframe consists of 14 symbols (12 if extended cyclic prefix is used) and 10 subframes form a 10 ms radio frame.
  • the concepts of subframes and radio frames are reused in the sense that they represent the same time periods, i.e. 1 ms and 10 ms respectively, but their internal structures vary depending on the numerology.
  • the additional term“slot” is introduced in NR, which is a time domain structure that always contains 14 symbols, irrespective of the symbol length.
  • the number of slots and symbols comprised in a subframe and a radio frame vary with the numerology, but the number of symbols in a slot remains consistent.
  • the numerologies and parameters are chosen such that a subframe always contains an integer number of slots (i.e. no partial slots).
  • the transmission resources in terms of slots and hence OFDM symbols
  • numerologies i.e. subcarrier spacings, SCSs
  • the duration required for a PO in NR is variable and depends the number of beams needed in a possible beam sweep for the PDCCH for paging in combination with the SCS and consequent symbol length. For these reasons, the table-based PO configuration mechanism of LTE has been replaced by a mechanism based on the paging-SearchSpace in NR.
  • the Ns and i s parameters are retained, but they no longer point out subframes in a paging frame, but rather sets of PDCCH monitoring occasions (constituting PDCCH beam sweeps) in a PF.
  • two main cases are distinguished: the so-called default case and the non default case. This refers to whether there is an explicit paging-SearchSpace parameter structure configured through the system information. If no such paging-SearchSpace parameter structure is included in the system information (i.e. if there is no pagingSearchSpace parameter in the RMSI/SIB1), a default allocation of the PO(s) within a PF is used.
  • the PDCCH monitoring occasions corresponding to the PO(s) within a PF are determined according to a default association in relation to the SSB transmissions and these PDCCH monitoring occasions are then the same as for the RMSI as defined in section 13 in 3GPP TS 38.213.
  • Ns can be equal to 1 or 2.
  • the parameter names Monitoring-periodicity-PDCCH-slot, Monitoring-offset- PDCCH-slot and Monitoring-symbols-PDCCH-within-slot are used in 3GPP TS 38.213.
  • the Monitoring-periodicity-PDCCH-slot and Monitoring-offset-PDCCH-slot are merged into a single corresponding parameter structure called
  • monitoringSlotPeriodicityAndOffset and the parameter corresponding to the Monitoring- symbols-PDCCH-within-slot parameter is called monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot.
  • the CORESET indicates the DL transmission resources a UE should monitor during a PDCCH monitoring occasion. More specifically, a CORESET indicates a set of PRBs in the frequency domain and 1-4 consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain.
  • the length of a PDCCH monitoring occasion is thus defined by the length (number of OFDM symbols) of the CORESET. For instance, if the length of the CORESET is 3 symbols and the Monitoring- symbols-PDCCH-within-slot parameter (which is a bitmap) indicates that 6 consecutive symbols (or two groups of three consecutive symbols with one or more symbols between the groups) should be monitored, then these 6 symbols constitute 2 PDCCH monitoring occasions.
  • the proposal in R2-1807689 is that each paging beam transmission matches one PDCCH monitoring occasion, as defined by the paging-SearchSpace and that, assuming Nbeams beams, the first Nbeams PDCCH monitoring occasions in the PF constitute the first PO in the PF, the subsequent Nbeams PDCCH monitoring occasions in the PF constitute the second PO in the PF, etc.
  • the proposal in R2-1807689 has to some extent been captured in the likely to be agreed text related to paging in the current draft of 3GPP TS 38.304 for 3GPP release 15. However, there is still room for modifications and additions.
  • the default case in which the PDCCH monitoring occasions for POs are the same as for the RMSI) has associated problems in that it may be too rigid and may not provide enough paging capacity for demanding scenarios (i.e. it is not on par with LTE). Any problem with the default case can however be overcome by using explicit configuration, i.e. the non-default case.
  • some embodiments described herein provide a method whereby POs are configured in a manner that not only utilizes the time domain for multiplexing.
  • the frequency dimension can be utilized (i.e. frequency-multiplexing) or POs coinciding in time can be separated through different P-RNTIs.
  • Frequency-multiplexed POs or POs separated through different P-RNTIs are said to belong to different PO layers.
  • the embodiments described herein may enable paging occasions to be evenly distributed in a paging frame, thus potentially avoiding undesirable load peaks.
  • the proposed solution also provides a simple mechanism to smoothly extend the paging occasion
  • configuration/allocation algorithm to configure paging occasions that are multiplexed within the same paging frame using other means than time-multiplexing (also known as time division multiplexing), thereby enabling that the paging capacity of LTE can maintained even in the challenging multi-beam scenarios of NR.
  • the embodiments described herein may be combined with an approach in which a "First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter" is used, which, for each PO in a PF, is used to point out a PDCCH monitoring occasion, out of the potential PDCCH monitoring occasions indicated by the regular paging-SearchSpace parameters, which is the first PDCCH monitoring occasion in the PO.
  • This is a way to augment the paging-SearchSpace parameters to enable configuration of groups, or“bursts” of PDCCH monitoring occasions with gaps in between within a PF.
  • the First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter may optionally be utilized also in the solution elaborated herein.
  • Time -multiplexing is also known as time division multiplexing, i.e. multiplexing in the time domain.
  • NTM Non-Time-Multiplexing
  • the multiple CORESETs would be configured in the system information. Frequency- multiplexing is also known as frequency division multiplexing. Although disjoint CORESETs are preferable, the CORESETs could also be overlapping, but then the network (i.e. the gNB’s scheduler) has to coordinate the PDCCH paging transmissions in the different CORESETs when they occur in parallel, since both transmissions cannot use the same overlapping transmission resource. Such coordination restricts the scheduler’s possibilities to fully utilize the transmission resources of the CORESET.
  • P-RNTI a new, additional P-RNTI.
  • All the P-RNTIs could be specified (hardcoded in the standard) or all the P-RNTIs could be configured in the system information or it could be a mix of both methods.
  • the first P-RNTI could be specified (hardcoded in the standard) and could e.g. be the already specified“regular” P-RNTI (with hexadecimal value FFFE), while additional P-RNTI(s) could be configured through the system information.
  • a PF contains 4 POs
  • two first time-multiplexed POs can be configured with the same first CORESET (forming a first layer of POs)
  • two other time- multiplexed UEs can be configured with a second CORESET, which does not overlap with the first CORESET (forming a second layer of POs).
  • the PF would then contain two pairs of frequency-multiplexed POs, where the pairs are separated through time-multiplexing.
  • Time-multiplexed POs with the same CORESET are said to belong to the same layer, i.e. the PO layer is defined by the CORESET. This is illustrated in FIG. 1.
  • the principle is the same when separate P-RNTIs are used as the NTM method. That is, again using an example with 4 POs in a PF, the 4 POs can be configured as two time- multiplexed pairs of POs, where both POs in a pair are configured with the same CORESET and time window and the same regular paging-SearchSpace parameters (and the same First-PDCCH- monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter if the solution is combined with the mechanism used in the "First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter" solution described above), but would monitor the PDCCH for DCI messages with the CRC scrambled with different P-RNTIs (one for each PO layer). Time -multiplexed POs with the same P-RNTI are said to belong to the same layer, i.e. the PO layer is defined by the P-RNTI.
  • a UE can thus determine how many layers of POs that are configured, and combined with the configured number of POs in a PF, the UE can determine how many POs that are allocated to each layer.
  • the UE can also determine the number of POs on each layer based on the number of values configured for the First-PDCCH-monitoring-oceasion-of-RO parameter. Since NTM:ed POs use the same time domain configuration, the number of First-PDCCH-monitoring- occasion-of-PO values only have to match the number of POs that are time -multiplexed on a single layer. These values are then reused for the PO(s) on the second layer (and on higher layers in case even more than two layers are used).
  • layers are ordered in the same order as the corresponding CORESET or P-RNTI is configured/specified.
  • the first configured CORESET (for paging) corresponds to the first layer of POs
  • the second configured CORESET (for paging) corresponds to the second layer of POs, etc.
  • the first layer is first filled up, i.e., if the solution is combined with the mechanism used in the "First-PDCCH- monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter" solution described above, POs are allocated to all time- multiplexed positions, as indicated by the First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-RO parameter values. If there are less then Ns values in the First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-RO parameter, the PO allocation continuous on the second layer. This principle can continue to more layers - theoretically a number of layers equal to Ns - but in practice it may be unlikely that more than two layers are used.
  • Ns max(l, nB/T)
  • T and nB Ns can only have the values 1, 2 and 4.
  • the PO layering method does not depend on this parameter but may also well be used without it (i.e. the PO layering method can be used when POs are distributed in a PF, or when POs are lumped back to back in a PF, as proposed in R2- 1807689).
  • a rule stating that all layers shall have the same number of POs except the last (i.e. highest-numbered) layer would be used to make the PO allocation to different layers unambiguous.
  • the last (highest-numbered) layer may have the same number of POs as the other layer(s) or fewer.
  • M ceiling(Ns/Nlay)
  • the PO layering method as described herein is quite flexible, but all possible configurations may not be equally probable or attractive.
  • a single PO layer is used for up to 2 POs per PF (i.e. for Ns ⁇ 2). That is, time -multiplexing of POs suffices as long as there are no more than 2 POs per PF.
  • Layer separation i.e.
  • NTM:ing could be achieved through either frequency-multiplexing, i.e. using different CORESETs for the two layers or using separate P-RNTIs (i.e. one P-RNTI for each of the two PO layers).
  • frequency-multiplexing i.e. using different CORESETs for the two layers or using separate P-RNTIs (i.e. one P-RNTI for each of the two PO layers).
  • P-RNTIs i.e. one P-RNTI for each of the two PO layers.
  • Reasons for choosing to do so may be e.g. that not even 2 POs can fit time-multiplexed in a PF, when Paging PDSCH transmissions are scheduled in between the PDCCH transmissions.
  • Small carrier bandwidth or a small bandwidth part (BWP) in which the paging transmissions are contained (forcing them to spread more in the time domain) may contribute to this circumstance in combination with a subcarrier spacing and number of beams that result in long duration of full beam sweeps.
  • NTM:ing of POs maybe frequency-multiplexed POs in particular, is an attractive concept in high carrier frequency bands. High carrier frequencies are typically associated with large bandwidths, analog DL TX beamforming and many narrow beams to cover a cell area, and TDD operation. All these properties provide a good match with NTM:ed, especially frequency-multiplexed POs. The large bandwidth provides lots of room in the frequency domain for frequency-multiplexing of both PDCCH and PDSCH transmissions.
  • analog DL TX beamforming means that DL transmission can only be transmitted in one direction at a time
  • the DL transmission resources that are frequency-multiplexed with a paging transmission are typically wasted, unless the gNB opportunistically can schedule another pending DL transmission at the same time and in the same direction as the page.
  • this resource waste amounts to a great overhead.
  • Frequency-multiplexing of POs makes more efficient use of the transmission resources during the PDCCH beam sweep (taking care of two POs/paging transmissions with a single beam sweep) and thus reduces the overhead.
  • confining the POs, and thus paging transmissions, to a shorter time interval by NTM:ing POs makes more time available for TDD UL operation, thus increasing the scheduler’s flexibility.
  • Some embodiments configure POs in layers within a PF, such that other dimensions than time are utilized for multiplexing of POs. POs separated through pure time- multiplexing belong to the same layer, while different layers are separated by either frequency- multiplexing or separation through different P-RNTIs.
  • the first layer is filled up with time-multiplexed POs before the second layer is“populated”. The number of layer and the number of POs per layer is implicitly signaled through the presence of layer-related parameters.
  • FIG. 3 A is a block diagram illustrating elements of a node 20 (also referred to as a network node, base station, eNB, eNodeB, etc.) of a wireless communication network (also referred to as a Radio Access Network RAN) configured to provide cellular communication according to embodiments of inventive concepts.
  • the network node may include a transceiver circuit 301 (also referred to as a transceiver) including a transmitter and a receiver configured to provide uplink and downlink radio communications with wireless devices.
  • the network node may include a network interface circuit 307 (also referred to as a network interface) configured to provide communications with other nodes (e.g., with other base stations and/or core network nodes) of the RAN.
  • the network node may also include a processor circuit 303 (also referred to as a processor) coupled to the transceiver circuit, and a memory circuit 305 (also referred to as memory) coupled to the processor circuit.
  • the memory circuit 305 may include computer readable program code that when executed by the processor circuit 303 causes the processor circuit to perform operations according to embodiments disclosed herein.
  • processor circuit 303 may be defined to include memory so that a separate memory circuit is not required.
  • operations of the network node may be performed by processor 303, network interface 307, and/or transceiver 301.
  • processor 303 may control transceiver 301 to transmit downlink communications through transceiver 301 over a radio interface to one or more wireless terminals and/or to receive uplink communications through transceiver 301 from one or more wireless terminals over a radio interface.
  • processor 303 may control network interface 307 to transmit communications through network interface 307 to one or more other network nodes and/or to receive communications through network interface from one or more other network nodes.
  • FIG. 3B is a block diagram illustrating functional modules of a network node 20 according to some embodiments. These modules may be stored in memory 305, and may provide instructions so that when instructions of a module are executed by processor 303, processor 303 performs respective operations (e.g., operations discussed herein with respect to Example Embodiments). As shown in FIG. 3B, the functional modules may include a receiving module 320, a paging configuration module 322 and a transmitting module 326.
  • the receiving module 320 controls reception of signals using the transceiver 301.
  • the paging configuration module 322 performs operations relating to establishing a paging configuration.
  • the receiving module 320 controls reception of signals using the transceiver 301.
  • the paging configuration module 322 performs operations relating to establishing a paging configuration.
  • transmitting module 326 controls transmission of signals using the transceiver 301.
  • FIG. 4A is a block diagram illustrating elements of a wireless terminal 10 (also referred to as a wireless terminal, a wireless communication device, a wireless communication terminal, user equipment, UE, a user equipment node/terminal/device, etc.) configured to provide wireless communication according to embodiments of inventive concepts.
  • wireless terminal 10 may include a transceiver circuit 401 (also referred to as a transceiver) including a transmitter and a receiver configured to provide uplink and downlink radio communications with a base station eNB of a wireless communication network (also referred to as a radio access network RAN).
  • a transceiver circuit 401 also referred to as a transceiver
  • base station eNB of a wireless communication network
  • RAN radio access network
  • Wireless terminal 10 may also include a processor circuit 403 (also referred to as a processor) coupled to the transceiver circuit, and a memory circuit 405 (also referred to as memory) coupled to the processor circuit.
  • the memory circuit 405 may include computer readable program code that when executed by the processor circuit 4003 causes the processor circuit to perform operations according to embodiments disclosed herein. According to other embodiments, processor circuit 403 may be defined to include memory so that a separate memory circuit is not required.
  • Wireless terminal 10 may also include an interface (such as a user interface) coupled with processor 403, and/or wireless terminal 10 may be an IoT and/or MTC device.
  • operations of wireless terminal 10 may be performed by processor 403 and/or transceiver 401.
  • processor 403 may control transceiver 401 to transmit uplink communications through transceiver 401 over a radio interface to a base station eNB of a wireless communication network and/or to receive downlink communications through transceiver 401 from a base station eNB of the wireless communication network over a radio interface.
  • FIG. 4B is a block diagram illustrating functional modules of a wireless terminal 10 according to some embodiments. These modules may be stored in memory 405, and may provide instructions so that when instructions of a module are executed by processor 403, processor 403 performs respective operations (e.g., operations discussed herein with respect to Example Embodiments). As shown in FIG. 4B, the functional modules may include a receiving module 420, a paging configuration module 422 and a transmitting module 426.
  • the receiving module 420 controls reception of signals using the transceiver 401.
  • the paging configuration module 422 performs operations relating to paging functions, such as determining what paging occasions to monitor for a paging indicator.
  • the transmitting module 426 controls transmission of signals using the transceiver 401.
  • modules may be stored in wireless terminal memory 405 of FIG. 4A, and these modules may provide instructions so that when the instructions of a module are executed by wireless device processor 403, processor 403 performs respective operations of the flow chart of FIG. 5.
  • a method of operating a wireless device 10 includes receiving system information from a network node over a wireless interface, the system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration (block 502).
  • the wireless device 10 determines, based on the paging occasion configuration, that paging occasions within a paging frame are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame (block 504).
  • the wireless device identifies a paging occasion allocated to the wireless device within one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame (block 506), and searches over the wireless interface for a paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame (block 508).
  • modules may be stored in base station memory 305 of FIG. 3A, and these modules may provide instructions so that when the instructions of a module are executed by processor 303, processor 303 performs respective operations of the flow chart of FIG. 6.
  • a method of operating a network node (20) includes generating system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration, wherein paging occasions defined by the paging information are arranged in non time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame (block 602), transmitting the system information to a wireless device over a wireless interface (block 604), and transmitting a paging indicator over the wireless interface during one of the defined paging occasions within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame (block 606).
  • Embodiment 1 A method of operating a wireless device (10), comprising: receiving system information from a network node over a wireless interface, the system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration;
  • paging occasion configuration determining, based on the paging occasion configuration, that paging occasions within a paging frame are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame; identifying a paging occasion allocated to the wireless device within one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame; and searching over the wireless interface for a paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
  • Embodiment 2 The method of Embodiment 1, wherein paging occasions in different ones of the non-time domain multiplexed layers are aligned in the time domain.
  • Embodiment 3 The method of Embodiment 1, wherein the non-time domain multiplexed layers are separated by frequency, and wherein the system information comprises a first set of control resources and a second set of control resources, the method further comprising:
  • Embodiment 4 The method of Embodiment 1, wherein the system information comprises a paging-SearchSpace parameter that defines a paging indicator search space.
  • Embodiment 5 The method of Embodiment 1, wherein determining that paging occasions are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame comprises detecting a plurality of control resource sets, CORESETs, within the system information.
  • Embodiment 6 The method of Embodiment 5, wherein the plurality of
  • CORESETs define non-overlapping sets of time-frequency resources in which paging indicators may be transmitted.
  • Embodiment 7 The method of Embodiment 6, wherein searching for the paging indicator comprises searching for the paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within one of the CORESETs associated with one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
  • Embodiment 8 The method of Embodiment 1, wherein determining that paging occasions are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame comprises determining that a plurality of paging Radio Network Temporary Identifiers, P- RNTIs, have been configured.
  • Embodiment 9. The method of Embodiment 8, wherein each of the plurality of P-RNTIs corresponds to a respective one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
  • Embodiment 10 The method of Embodiment 9, wherein searching for the paging indicator comprises searching for the paging indicator during the identified paging occasion using a P-RNTI associated with one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
  • Embodiment 11 The method of Embodiment 8, wherein determining that paging occasions are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame comprises receiving an alternate P-RNTI in the system information.
  • Embodiment 12 The method of Embodiment 1, further comprising:
  • Embodiment 13 The method of Embodiment 1 , wherein a number of configured non-time domain multiplexed layers is explicitly signaled in the system information.
  • Embodiment 14 The method of Embodiment 1, wherein identifying the paging occasion allocated to the wireless device comprises:
  • Embodiment 15 The method of Embodiment 14, wherein calculating the index, i s, comprises calculating the index, i s according to the formula:
  • i_s floor(UE_ID/N) mod Ns
  • UE ID is the identification number associated with the wireless device and N is the number of paging frames in discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle configured for the wireless device.
  • a first wireless device comprising: a transceiver (401) configured to provide wireless network communication with a wireless communication network; and
  • a processor (403) coupled with the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to provide wireless network communication through the transceiver, and wherein the processor is configured to perform operations according to any of Embodiments 1 to 15.
  • Embodiment 17 A wireless device (10) wherein the wireless terminal is adapted to perform according to any of Embodiments 1 to 15.
  • Embodiment 18 A method of operating a network node (20), the network node comprising:
  • system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration, wherein paging occasions defined by the paging information are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame;
  • Embodiment 19 The method of Embodiment 18, wherein paging occasions in different ones of the non-time domain multiplexed layers are aligned in the time domain.
  • Embodiment 20 The method of Embodiment 18, wherein the non-time domain multiplexed layers are separated by frequency, and wherein the system information comprises a first set of control resources and a second set of control resources, wherein the first and second sets of control resources are non-overlapping.
  • Embodiment 21 The method of Embodiment 18, wherein the system information comprises a paging-SearchSpace parameter that defines a paging indicator search space.
  • Embodiment 22 The method of Embodiment 1, wherein the system information comprises a plurality of control resource sets, CORESETs.
  • Embodiment 23 The method of Embodiment 22, wherein the plurality of CORESETs define non-overlapping sets of time-frequency resources in which paging indicators may be transmitted.
  • Embodiment 24 The method of Embodiment 18, further comprising configuring the wireless device with a plurality of paging Radio Network Temporary Identifiers, P-RNTIs.
  • Embodiment 25 The method of Embodiment 24, wherein each of the plurality of P-RNTIs corresponds to a respective one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
  • Embodiment 26 The method of Embodiment 24, wherein configuring the wireless device with a plurality of P-RNTIs comprises transmitting an alternate P-RNTI to the wireless device in the system information.
  • Embodiment 27 The method of Embodiment 18, further comprising:
  • Embodiment 27 The method of Embodiment 18, wherein each of the non time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame have a first number of paging occasions allocated except for a last one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers, which has the first number or less than the first number of paging occasions allocated.
  • a network node (20) of a wireless communication network comprising:
  • a transceiver (301) configured to provide wireless network communication with a wireless terminal
  • a processor (303) coupled with the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to provide wireless network communications through the transceiver, and wherein the processor is configured to perform operations according to any of Embodiments 18-26.
  • Embodiment 28 A network node (20) of a radio access network, wherein the base station is adapted to perform according to any of Embodiments 18-26.
  • 5G-S-TMSI The temporary identifier used in NR as a replacement of the S-TMSI in LTE.
  • gNB The term for a radio base station in NR (corresponding to eNB in
  • responsive or variants thereof to another element, it can be directly connected, coupled, or responsive to the other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly connected”, “directly coupled”, “directly responsive”, or variants thereof to another element, there are no intervening elements present.
  • Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.
  • “coupled”, “connected”, “responsive”, or variants thereof as used herein may include wirelessly coupled, connected, or responsive.
  • the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Well-known functions or constructions may not be described in detail for brevity and/or clarity.
  • Example embodiments are described herein with reference to block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations of computer-implemented methods, apparatus (systems and/or devices) and/or computer program products. It is understood that a block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, can be implemented by computer program instructions that are performed by one or more computer circuits.
  • These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor circuit of a general purpose computer circuit, special purpose computer circuit, and/or other programmable data processing circuit to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer and/or other programmable data processing apparatus, transform and control transistors, values stored in memory locations, and other hardware components within such circuitry to implement the functions/acts specified in the block diagrams and/or flowchart block or blocks, and thereby create means (functionality) and/or structure for implementing the functions/acts specified in the block diagrams and/or flowchart block(s).
  • FIG. 7 A wireless network in accordance with some embodiments.
  • a wireless network such as the example wireless network illustrated in FIG. 7.
  • the wireless network of FIG. 7 only depicts network QQ106, network nodes QQ160 and QQl60b, and WDs QQ110, QQ1 lOb, and QQ1 lOc (also referred to as mobile terminals).
  • a wireless network may further include any additional elements suitable to support communication between wireless devices or between a wireless device and another communication device, such as a landline telephone, a service provider, or any other network node or end device.
  • network node QQ160 and wireless device (WD) QQ110 are depicted with additional detail.
  • the wireless network may provide communication and other types of services to one or more wireless devices to facilitate the wireless devices’ access to and/or use of the services provided by, or via, the wireless network.
  • the wireless network may comprise and/or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, and/or radio network or other similar type of system.
  • the wireless network may be configured to operate according to specific standards or other types of predefined rules or procedures.
  • embodiments of the wireless network may implement communication standards, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and/or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G standards;
  • GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
  • UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
  • LTE Long Term Evolution
  • WLAN wireless local area network
  • WiMax Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
  • Network QQ106 may comprise one or more backhaul networks, core networks, IP networks, public switched telephone networks (PSTNs), packet data networks, optical networks, wide-area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), wired networks, wireless networks, metropolitan area networks, and other networks to enable communication between devices.
  • PSTNs public switched telephone networks
  • WANs wide-area networks
  • LANs local area networks
  • WLANs wireless local area networks
  • wired networks wireless networks, metropolitan area networks, and other networks to enable communication between devices.
  • Network node QQ 160 and WD QQ 110 comprise various components described in more detail below. These components work together in order to provide network node and/or wireless device functionality, such as providing wireless connections in a wireless network.
  • the wireless network may comprise any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, base stations, controllers, wireless devices, relay stations, and/or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signals whether via wired or wireless connections.
  • network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a wireless device and/or with other network nodes or equipment in the wireless network to enable and/or provide wireless access to the wireless device and/or to perform other functions (e.g., administration) in the wireless network.
  • network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)).
  • APs access points
  • BSs base stations
  • eNBs evolved Node Bs
  • gNBs NR NodeBs
  • Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and may then also be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations.
  • a base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay.
  • a network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units and/or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio.
  • RRUs remote radio units
  • RRHs Remote Radio Heads
  • Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio.
  • Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).
  • DAS distributed antenna system
  • network nodes include multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell/multicast coordination entities (MCEs), core network nodes (e.g., MSCs, MMEs), O&M nodes, OSS nodes, SON nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., E-SMLCs), and/or MDTs.
  • MSR multi-standard radio
  • RNCs radio network controllers
  • BSCs base station controllers
  • BTSs base transceiver stations
  • transmission points transmission nodes
  • MCEs multi-cell/multicast coordination entities
  • core network nodes e.g., MSCs, MMEs
  • O&M nodes e.g., OSS nodes, SON nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., E-SMLCs), and/or MDTs.
  • network nodes may represent any suitable device (or group of devices) capable, configured, arranged, and/or operable to enable and/or provide a wireless device with access to the wireless network or to provide some service to a wireless device that has accessed the wireless network.
  • network node QQ 160 includes processing circuitry QQ 170, device readable medium QQ180, interface QQ190, auxiliary equipment QQ184, power source QQ186, power circuitry QQ187, and antenna QQ162.
  • network node QQ160 illustrated in the example wireless network of FIG. 7 may represent a device that includes the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise network nodes with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that a network node comprises any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein.
  • network node QQ160 may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component (e.g., device readable medium QQ180 may comprise multiple separate hard drives as well as multiple RAM modules).
  • network node QQ 160 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components.
  • network node QQ160 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components)
  • one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes.
  • a single RNC may control multiple NodeB’s.
  • each unique NodeB and RNC pair may in some instances be considered a single separate network node.
  • network node QQ160 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs).
  • RATs radio access technologies
  • some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate device readable medium QQ180 for the different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., the same antenna QQ162 may be shared by the RATs).
  • Network node QQ160 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node QQ160, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node QQ160.
  • Processing circuitry QQ170 is configured to perform any determining, calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations) described herein as being provided by a network node. These operations performed by processing circuitry QQ170 may include processing information obtained by processing circuitry QQ170 by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.
  • processing information obtained by processing circuitry QQ170 by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.
  • Processing circuitry QQ 170 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node QQ160 components, such as device readable medium QQ180, network node QQ160 functionality.
  • processing circuitry QQ170 may execute instructions stored in device readable medium QQ180 or in memory within processing circuitry QQ170. Such functionality may include providing any of the various wireless features, functions, or benefits discussed herein.
  • processing circuitry QQ170 may include a system on a chip (SOC).
  • SOC system on a chip
  • processing circuitry QQ170 may include one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry QQ172 and baseband processing circuitry QQ174.
  • radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry QQ172 and baseband processing circuitry QQ174 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units.
  • part or all of RF transceiver circuitry QQ172 and baseband processing circuitry QQ174 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.
  • processing circuitry QQ170 executing instructions stored on device readable medium QQ180 or memory within processing circuitry QQ170.
  • some or all of the functionality may be provided by processing circuitry QQ170 without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device readable medium, such as in a hard- wired manner.
  • processing circuitry QQ170 can be configured to perform the described functionality.
  • the benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to processing circuitry QQ170 alone or to other components of network node QQ160, but are enjoyed by network node QQ160 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless network generally.
  • Device readable medium QQ180 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid- state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device readable and/or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by processing circuitry QQ170.
  • volatile or non-volatile computer readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid- state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any
  • Device readable medium QQ180 may store any suitable instructions, data or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executed by processing circuitry QQ170 and, utilized by network node QQ160.
  • Device readable medium QQ180 may be used to store any calculations made by processing circuitry QQ170 and/or any data received via interface QQ190.
  • processing circuitry QQ170 and device readable medium QQ180 may be considered to be integrated.
  • Interface QQ 190 is used in the wired or wireless communication of signalling and/or data between network node QQ160, network QQ106, and/or WDs QQ110. As illustrated, interface QQ190 comprises port(s)/terminal(s) QQ194 to send and receive data, for example to and from network QQ106 over a wired connection. Interface QQ190 also includes radio front end circuitry QQ192 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, antenna QQ162. Radio front end circuitry QQ192 comprises filters QQ198 and amplifiers QQ196. Radio front end circuitry QQ192 may be connected to antenna QQ162 and processing circuitry QQ170. Radio front end circuitry may be configured to condition signals
  • Radio front end circuitry QQ192 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. Radio front end circuitry QQ192 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters QQ198 and/or amplifiers QQ196. The radio signal may then be transmitted via antenna QQ162. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna QQ162 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by radio front end circuitry QQ192. The digital data may be passed to processing circuitry QQ170. In other embodiments, the interface may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.
  • network node QQ160 may not include separate radio front end circuitry QQ192, instead, processing circuitry QQ170 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected to antenna QQ162 without separate radio front end circuitry QQ192.
  • processing circuitry QQ170 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected to antenna QQ162 without separate radio front end circuitry QQ192.
  • all or some of RF transceiver circuitry QQ172 may be considered a part of interface QQ190.
  • interface QQ190 may include one or more ports or terminals QQ194, radio front end circuitry QQ192, and RF transceiver circuitry QQ172, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and interface QQ190 may communicate with baseband processing circuitry QQ174, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).
  • Antenna QQ162 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals. Antenna QQ162 may be coupled to radio front end circuitry QQ190 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly. In some embodiments, antenna QQ162 may comprise one or more omni-directional, sector or panel antennas operable to transmit/receive radio signals between, for example, 2 GHz and 66 GHz.
  • An omni-directional antenna may be used to transmit/receive radio signals in any direction
  • a sector antenna may be used to transmit/receive radio signals from devices within a particular area
  • a panel antenna may be a line of sight antenna used to transmit/receive radio signals in a relatively straight line.
  • the use of more than one antenna may be referred to as MIMO.
  • antenna QQ162 may be separate from network node QQ160 and may be connectable to network node QQ160 through an interface or port.
  • Antenna QQ 162, interface QQ 190, and/or processing circuitry QQ 170 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be received from a wireless device, another network node and/or any other network equipment. Similarly, antenna QQ162, interface QQ190, and/or processing circuitry QQ170 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be transmitted to a wireless device, another network node and/or any other network equipment.
  • Power circuitry QQ 187 may comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry and is configured to supply the components of network node QQ160 with power for performing the functionality described herein. Power circuitry QQ187 may receive power from power source QQ186. Power source QQ186 and/or power circuitry QQ187 may be configured to provide power to the various components of network node QQ160 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). Power source QQ186 may either be included in, or external to, power circuitry QQ187 and/or network node QQ160.
  • network node QQ160 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry QQ187.
  • power source QQ186 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry QQ187. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.
  • Other types of power sources such as photovoltaic devices, may also be used.
  • network node QQ160 may include additional components beyond those shown in FIG. 7 that may be responsible for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and/or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein.
  • network node QQ160 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into network node QQ160 and to allow output of information from network node QQ160. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for network node QQ160.
  • wireless device refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and/or other wireless devices.
  • the term WD may be used interchangeably herein with user equipment (UE).
  • Communicating wirelessly may involve transmitting and/or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying information through air.
  • a WD may be configured to transmit and/or receive information without direct human interaction.
  • a WD may be designed to transmit information to a network on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the network.
  • Examples of a WD include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a cell phone, a voice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a desktop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless cameras, a gaming console or device, a music storage device, a playback appliance, a wearable terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobile station, a tablet, a laptop, a laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), a laptop-mounted equipment (LME), a smart device, a wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE) a vehicle-mounted wireless terminal device, etc.
  • VoIP voice over IP
  • PDA personal digital assistant
  • PDA personal digital assistant
  • a wireless cameras a gaming console or device
  • a music storage device a playback appliance
  • a wearable terminal device a wireless endpoint
  • a mobile station a tablet, a laptop, a laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), a laptop-mounted equipment (L
  • a WD may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and may in this case be referred to as a D2D communication device.
  • D2D device-to-device
  • V2V vehicle-to-vehicle
  • V2I vehicle-to-infrastructure
  • V2X vehicle-to-everything
  • a WD may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and/or measurements to another WD and/or a network node.
  • the WD may in this case be a machine -to-machine (M2M) device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device.
  • M2M machine -to-machine
  • the WD may be a UE implementing the 3 GPP narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) standard.
  • NB-IoT narrow band internet of things
  • a WD may represent a vehicle or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.
  • a WD as described above may represent the endpoint of a wireless connection, in which case the device may be referred to as a wireless terminal.
  • a WD as described above may be mobile, in which case it may also be referred to as a mobile device or a mobile terminal.
  • wireless device QQ 110 includes antenna QQ 111, interface
  • WD QQ110 may include multiple sets of one or more of the illustrated components for different wireless technologies supported by WD QQ110, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, WiMAX, or Bluetooth wireless technologies, just to mention a few. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chips or set of chips as other components within WD QQ110.
  • Antenna QQ111 may include one or more antennas or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals, and is connected to interface QQ114.
  • antenna QQ111 may be separate from WD QQ110 and be connectable to WD QQ110 through an interface or port.
  • Antenna QQ111, interface QQ114, and/or processing circuitry QQ120 may be configured to perform any receiving or transmitting operations described herein as being performed by a WD. Any information, data and/or signals may be received from a network node and/or another WD.
  • radio front end circuitry and/or antenna QQ111 may be considered an interface.
  • interface QQ114 comprises radio front end circuitry QQ112 and antenna QQ111.
  • Radio front end circuitry QQ112 comprise one or more filters QQ118 and amplifiers QQ116.
  • Radio front end circuitry QQ114 is connected to antenna QQ111 and processing circuitry QQ120, and is configured to condition signals communicated between antenna QQ111 and processing circuitry QQ120.
  • Radio front end circuitry QQ112 may be coupled to or a part of antenna QQ111.
  • WD QQ110 may not include separate radio front end circuitry QQ112; rather, processing circuitry QQ120 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected to antenna QQ111.
  • Radio front end circuitry QQ112 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. Radio front end circuitry QQ112 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters QQ118 and/or amplifiers QQ116. The radio signal may then be transmitted via antenna QQ111. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna QQ111 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by radio front end circuitry QQ112. The digital data may be passed to processing circuitry QQ120.
  • the interface may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.
  • Processing circuitry QQ120 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software, and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other WD QQ110 components, such as device readable medium QQ130, WD QQ110 functionality. Such functionality may include providing any of the various wireless features or benefits discussed herein.
  • processing circuitry QQ120 may execute instructions stored in device readable medium QQ130 or in memory within processing circuitry QQ120 to provide the functionality disclosed herein.
  • processing circuitry QQ120 includes one or more of RF transceiver circuitry QQ122, baseband processing circuitry QQ124, and application processing circuitry QQ126.
  • the processing circuitry may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.
  • processing circuitry QQ120 of WD QQ110 may comprise a SOC.
  • RF transceiver circuitry QQ122, baseband processing circuitry QQ124, and application processing circuitry QQ126 may be on separate chips or sets of chips.
  • part or all of baseband processing circuitry QQ124 and application processing circuitry QQ126 may be combined into one chip or set of chips, and RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 may be on a separate chip or set of chips.
  • part or all of RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 and baseband processing circuitry QQ124 may be on the same chip or set of chips, and application processing circuitry QQ126 may be on a separate chip or set of chips.
  • part or all of RF transceiver circuitry QQ122, baseband processing circuitry QQ124, and application processing circuitry QQ126 may be combined in the same chip or set of chips.
  • RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 may be a part of interface QQ114.
  • RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 may condition RF signals for processing circuitry QQ120.
  • processing circuitry QQ120 executing instructions stored on device readable medium QQ130, which in certain embodiments may be a computer-readable storage medium.
  • some or all of the functionality may be provided by processing circuitry QQ120 without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device readable storage medium, such as in a hard- wired manner.
  • processing circuitry QQ120 can be configured to perform the described functionality.
  • the benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to processing circuitry QQ120 alone or to other components of WD QQ110, but are enjoyed by WD QQ110 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless network generally.
  • Processing circuitry QQ120 may be configured to perform any of
  • processing circuitry QQ120 may include processing information obtained by processing circuitry QQ120 by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored by WD QQ110, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.
  • Device readable medium QQ130 may be operable to store a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executed by processing circuitry QQ120.
  • Device readable medium QQ130 may include computer memory (e.g., Random Access Memory (RAM) or Read Only Memory (ROM)), mass storage media (e.g., a hard disk), removable storage media (e.g., a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device readable and/or computer executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by processing circuitry QQ120.
  • RAM Random Access Memory
  • ROM Read Only Memory
  • mass storage media e.g., a hard disk
  • removable storage media e.g., a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)
  • processing circuitry QQ120 and device readable medium QQ130 may be considered to be integrated.
  • User interface equipment QQ132 may provide components that allow for a human user to interact with WD QQ110. Such interaction may be of many forms, such as visual, audial, tactile, etc.
  • User interface equipment QQ132 may be operable to produce output to the user and to allow the user to provide input to WD QQ110. The type of interaction may vary depending on the type of user interface equipment QQ132 installed in WD QQ110.
  • WD QQ110 is a smart phone
  • the interaction may be via a touch screen
  • WD QQ110 is a smart meter
  • the interaction may be through a screen that provides usage (e.g., the number of gallons used) or a speaker that provides an audible alert (e.g., if smoke is detected).
  • User interface equipment QQ132 may include input interfaces, devices and circuits, and output interfaces, devices and circuits. User interface equipment QQ132 is configured to allow input of information into WD QQ110, and is connected to processing circuitry QQ120 to allow processing circuitry QQ120 to process the input information.
  • User interface equipment QQ132 may include, for example, a microphone, a proximity or other sensor, keys/buttons, a touch display, one or more cameras, a USB port, or other input circuitry. User interface equipment QQ132 is also configured to allow output of information from WD QQ110, and to allow processing circuitry QQ120 to output information from WD QQ110. User interface equipment QQ132 may include, for example, a speaker, a display, vibrating circuitry, a USB port, a headphone interface, or other output circuitry. Using one or more input and output interfaces, devices, and circuits, of user interface equipment QQ132, WD QQ110 may communicate with end users and/or the wireless network, and allow them to benefit from the functionality described herein.
  • Auxiliary equipment QQ134 is operable to provide more specific functionality which may not be generally performed by WDs. This may comprise specialized sensors for doing measurements for various purposes, interfaces for additional types of communication such as wired communications etc. The inclusion and type of components of auxiliary equipment QQ134 may vary depending on the embodiment and/or scenario.
  • Power source QQ136 may, in some embodiments, be in the form of a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic devices or power cells, may also be used.
  • WD QQ110 may further comprise power circuitry QQ137 for delivering power from power source QQ136 to the various parts of WD QQ110 which need power from power source QQ136 to carry out any functionality described or indicated herein.
  • Power circuitry QQ137 may in certain embodiments comprise power management circuitry.
  • Power circuitry QQ137 may additionally or alternatively be operable to receive power from an external power source; in which case WD QQ110 may be connectable to the external power source (such as an electricity outlet) via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Power circuitry QQ137 may also in certain embodiments be operable to deliver power from an external power source to power source QQ136. This may be, for example, for the charging of power source QQ136. Power circuitry QQ137 may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from power source QQ136 to make the power suitable for the respective components of WD QQ110 to which power is supplied.
  • FIG. 8 User Equipment in accordance with some embodiments
  • FIG. 8 illustrates one embodiment of a UE in accordance with various aspects described herein.
  • a user equipment or UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and/or operates the relevant device.
  • a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller).
  • a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).
  • UE QQ2200 may be any UE identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a NB-IoT UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and/or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.
  • UE QQ200 is one example of a WD configured for communication in accordance with one or more communication standards promulgated by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP), such as 3GPP’s GSM, UMTS, LTE, and/or 5G standards.
  • 3 GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project
  • 3 GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project
  • the term WD and UE may be used interchangeable. Accordingly, although FIG. 8 is a UE, the components discussed herein are equally applicable to a WD, and vice-versa.
  • UE QQ200 includes processing circuitry QQ201 that is operatively coupled to input/output interface QQ205, radio frequency (RF) interface QQ209, network connection interface QQ211, memory QQ215 including random access memory (RAM) QQ217, read-only memory (ROM) QQ219, and storage medium QQ221 or the like,
  • RF radio frequency
  • Storage medium QQ221 includes operating system QQ223, application program QQ225, and data QQ227. In other embodiments, storage medium QQ221 may include other similar types of information. Certain UEs may utilize all of the components shown in FIG. 8, or only a subset of the components. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.
  • processing circuitry QQ201 may be configured to process computer instructions and data.
  • Processing circuitry QQ201 may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute machine instructions stored as machine- readable computer programs in the memory, such as one or more hardware -implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, FPGA, ASIC, etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored program, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or Digital Signal Processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above.
  • the processing circuitry QQ201 may include two central processing units (CPUs). Data may be information in a form suitable for use by a computer.
  • input/output interface QQ205 may be configured to provide a communication interface to an input device, output device, or input and output device.
  • UE QQ200 may be configured to use an output device via input/output interface QQ205.
  • An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device.
  • a USB port may be used to provide input to and output from UE QQ200.
  • the output device may be a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof.
  • UE QQ200 may be configured to use an input device via input/output interface QQ205 to allow a user to capture information into UE QQ200.
  • the input device may include a touch-sensitive or presence- sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like.
  • the presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user.
  • a sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, another like sensor, or any combination thereof.
  • the input device may be an accelerometer, a magnetometer, a digital camera, a microphone, and an optical sensor.
  • RF interface QQ209 may be configured to provide a communication interface to RF components such as a transmitter, a receiver, and an antenna.
  • Network connection interface QQ211 may be configured to provide a communication interface to network QQ243a.
  • Network QQ243a may encompass wired and/or wireless networks such as a local-area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN), a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network, another like network or any combination thereof.
  • network QQ243a may comprise a Wi-Fi network.
  • Network connection interface QQ211 may be configured to include a receiver and a transmitter interface used to communicate with one or more other devices over a communication network according to one or more communication protocols, such as Ethernet, TCP/IP, SONET, ATM, or the like.
  • Network connection interface QQ211 may implement receiver and transmitter functionality appropriate to the communication network links (e.g., optical, electrical, and the like).
  • the transmitter and receiver functions may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively may be implemented separately.
  • RAM QQ217 may be configured to interface via bus QQ202 to processing circuitry QQ201 to provide storage or caching of data or computer instructions during the execution of software programs such as the operating system, application programs, and device drivers.
  • ROM QQ219 may be configured to provide computer instructions or data to processing circuitry QQ201.
  • ROM QQ219 may be configured to store invariant low-level system code or data for basic system functions such as basic input and output (I/O), startup, or reception of keystrokes from a keyboard that are stored in a non-volatile memory.
  • Storage medium QQ221 may be configured to include memory such as RAM, ROM, programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, floppy disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, or flash drives.
  • storage medium QQ221 may be configured to include operating system QQ223, application program QQ225 such as a web browser application, a widget or gadget engine or another application, and data file QQ227.
  • Storage medium QQ221 may store, for use by UE QQ200, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.
  • Storage medium QQ221 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), floppy disk drive, flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high- density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as a subscriber identity module or a removable user identity (SIM/RUIM) module, other memory, or any combination thereof.
  • RAID redundant array of independent disks
  • HD-DVD high- density digital versatile disc
  • HDDS holographic digital data storage
  • DIMM external mini-dual in-line memory module
  • SDRAM synchronous dynamic random access memory
  • SDRAM synchronous dynamic random access memory
  • smartcard memory such as a subscriber identity module or a removable user identity (
  • Storage medium QQ221 may allow UE QQ200 to access computer-executable instructions, application programs or the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off load data, or to upload data.
  • An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied in storage medium QQ221, which may comprise a device readable medium.
  • processing circuitry QQ201 may be configured to communicate with network QQ243b using communication subsystem QQ231.
  • Network QQ243a and network QQ243b may be the same network or networks or different network or networks.
  • Communication subsystem QQ231 may be configured to include one or more transceivers used to communicate with network QQ243b.
  • communication subsystem QQ231 may be configured to include one or more transceivers used to communicate with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication such as another WD, UE, or base station of a radio access network (RAN) according to one or more communication protocols, such as IEEE 802.QQ2, CDMA, WCDMA, GSM, LTE, UTRAN, WiMax, or the like.
  • Each transceiver may include transmitter QQ233 and/or receiver QQ235 to implement transmitter or receiver functionality, respectively, appropriate to the RAN links (e.g., frequency allocations and the like). Further, transmitter QQ233 and receiver QQ235 of each transceiver may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively may be implemented separately.
  • communication subsystem QQ231 may include data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof.
  • communication subsystem QQ231 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, Bluetooth communication, and GPS communication.
  • Network QQ243b may encompass wired and/or wireless networks such as a local-area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN), a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network, another like network or any combination thereof.
  • network QQ243b may be a cellular network, a Wi-Fi network, and/or a near- field network.
  • Power source QQ213 may be configured to provide alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) power to components of UE QQ200.
  • the features, benefits and/or functions described herein may be implemented in one of the components of UE QQ200 or partitioned across multiple components of UE QQ200. Further, the features, benefits, and/or functions described herein may be implemented in any combination of hardware, software or firmware.
  • communication subsystem QQ231 may be configured to include any of the components described herein.
  • processing circuitry QQ201 may be configured to communicate with any of such components over bus QQ202.
  • any of such components may be represented by program instructions stored in memory that when executed by processing circuitry QQ201 perform the corresponding functions described herein.
  • the functionality of any of such components may be partitioned between processing circuitry QQ201 and communication subsystem QQ231.
  • the non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and the computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.
  • FIG. 9 Virtualization environment in accordance with some embodiments.
  • FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment QQ300 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized.
  • virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources.
  • virtualization can be applied to a node (e.g., a virtualized base station or a virtualized radio access node) or to a device (e.g., a UE, a wireless device or any other type of communication device) or components thereof and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components (e.g., via one or more applications, components, functions, virtual machines or containers executing on one or more physical processing nodes in one or more networks).
  • a node e.g., a virtualized base station or a virtualized radio access node
  • a device e.g., a UE, a wireless device or any other type of communication device
  • some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines implemented in one or more virtual environments QQ300 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes QQ330. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node is not a radio access node or does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node), then the network node may be entirely virtualized.
  • the functions may be implemented by one or more applications QQ320
  • Applications QQ320 are run in virtualization environment QQ300 which provides hardware QQ330 comprising processing circuitry QQ360 and memory QQ390.
  • Memory QQ390 contains instructions QQ395 executable by processing circuitry QQ360 whereby application QQ320 is operative to provide one or more of the features, benefits, and/or functions disclosed herein.
  • Virtualization environment QQ300 comprises general-purpose or special- purpose network hardware devices QQ330 comprising a set of one or more processors or processing circuitry QQ360, which may be commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processors, dedicated Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), or any other type of processing circuitry including digital or analog hardware components or special purpose processors.
  • processors or processing circuitry QQ360 which may be commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processors, dedicated Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), or any other type of processing circuitry including digital or analog hardware components or special purpose processors.
  • Each hardware device may comprise memory QQ390-1 which may be non-persistent memory for temporarily storing instructions QQ395 or software executed by processing circuitry QQ360.
  • Each hardware device may comprise one or more network interface controllers (NICs) QQ370, also known as network interface cards, which include physical network interface QQ380.
  • NICs network interface controllers
  • Each hardware device may also include non-transitory, persistent, machine-readable storage media QQ390-2 having stored therein software QQ395 and/or instructions executable by processing circuitry QQ360.
  • Software QQ395 may include any type of software including software for instantiating one or more virtualization layers QQ350 (also referred to as hypervisors), software to execute virtual machines QQ340 as well as software allowing it to execute functions, features and/or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein.
  • Virtual machines QQ340 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer QQ350 or hypervisor. Different embodiments of the instance of virtual appliance QQ320 may be implemented on one or more of virtual machines QQ340, and the implementations may be made in different ways.
  • processing circuitry QQ360 executes software QQ395 to instantiate the hypervisor or virtualization layer QQ350, which may sometimes be referred to as a virtual machine monitor (VMM).
  • Virtualization layer QQ350 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to virtual machine QQ340.
  • hardware QQ330 may be a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware QQ330 may comprise antenna QQ3225 and may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware QQ330 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such as in a data center or customer premise equipment (CPE)) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration (MANO) QQ3100, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications QQ320.
  • CPE customer premise equipment
  • NFV network function virtualization
  • NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.
  • virtual machine QQ340 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non- virtualized machine.
  • Each of virtual machines QQ340, and that part of hardware QQ330 that executes that virtual machine be it hardware dedicated to that virtual machine and/or hardware shared by that virtual machine with others of the virtual machines QQ340, forms a separate virtual network elements (VNE).
  • VNE virtual network elements
  • VNF Virtual Network Function
  • one or more radio units QQ3200 that each include one or more transmitters QQ3220 and one or more receivers QQ3210 may be coupled to one or more antennas QQ3225.
  • Radio units QQ3200 may communicate directly with hardware nodes QQ330 via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station.
  • control system QQ3230 which may alternatively be used for communication between the hardware nodes QQ330 and radio units QQ3200.
  • FIG. 10 Telecommunication network connected via an intermediate network to a host computer in accordance with some embodiments.
  • a communication system includes telecommunication network QQ410, such as a 3GPP-type cellular network, which comprises access network QQ411, such as a radio access network, and core network QQ414.
  • Access network QQ411 comprises a plurality of base stations QQ4l2a, QQ4l2b, QQ4l2c, such as NBs, eNBs, gNBs or other types of wireless access points, each defining a corresponding coverage area QQ4l3a, QQ4l3b, QQ4l3c.
  • Each base station QQ4l2a, QQ4l2b, QQ4l2c is connectable to core network QQ414 over a wired or wireless connection QQ415.
  • a first UE QQ491 located in coverage area QQ4l3c is configured to wirelessly connect to, or be paged by, the corresponding base station QQ4l2c.
  • a second UE QQ492 in coverage area QQ4l3a is wirelessly connectable to the corresponding base station QQ4l2a. While a plurality of UEs QQ491, QQ492 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 QQ412. [0218] T elecommunication network QQ410 is itself connected to host computer
  • QQ430 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.
  • Host computer QQ430 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 QQ421 and QQ422 between telecommunication network QQ410 and host computer QQ430 may extend directly from core network QQ414 to host computer QQ430 or may go via an optional intermediate network QQ420.
  • Intermediate network QQ420 may be one of, or a combination of more than one of, a public, private or hosted network; intermediate network QQ420, if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular, intermediate network QQ420 may comprise two or more sub-networks (not shown).
  • the communication system of FIG. 10 as a whole enables connectivity between the connected UEs QQ491, QQ492 and host computer QQ430.
  • the connectivity may be described as an over-the-top (OTT) connection QQ450.
  • Host computer QQ430 and the connected UEs QQ491, QQ492 are configured to communicate data and/or signaling via OTT connection QQ450, using access network QQ411, core network QQ414, any intermediate network QQ420 and possible further infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries.
  • OTT connection QQ450 may be transparent in the sense that the participating communication devices through which OTT connection QQ450 passes are unaware of routing of uplink and downlink communications.
  • base station QQ412 may not or need not be informed about the past routing of an incoming downlink communication with data originating from host computer QQ430 to be forwarded (e.g., handed over) to a connected UE QQ491.
  • base station QQ412 need not be aware of the future routing of an outgoing uplink communication originating from the UE QQ491 towards the host computer QQ430.
  • FIG. 11 Host computer communicating via a base station with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments.
  • host computer QQ510 comprises hardware QQ515 including communication interface QQ516 configured to set up and maintain a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of communication system QQ500.
  • Host computer QQ510 further comprises processing circuitry QQ518, which may have storage and/or processing capabilities.
  • processing circuitry QQ518 may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions.
  • Host computer QQ510 further comprises software QQ511, which is stored in or accessible by host computer QQ510 and executable by processing circuitry QQ518.
  • Software QQ511 includes host application QQ512.
  • Host application QQ512 may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as UE QQ530 connecting via OTT connection QQ550 terminating at UE QQ530 and host computer QQ510. In providing the service to the remote user, host application QQ512 may provide user data which is transmitted using OTT connection QQ550.
  • Communication system QQ500 further includes base station QQ520 provided in a telecommunication system and comprising hardware QQ525 enabling it to communicate with host computer QQ510 and with UE QQ530.
  • Hardware QQ525 may include communication interface QQ526 for setting up and maintaining a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of communication system QQ500, as well as radio interface QQ527 for setting up and maintaining at least wireless connection QQ570 with UE QQ530 located in a coverage area (not shown in FIG. 11) served by base station QQ520.
  • Communication interface QQ526 may be configured to facilitate connection QQ560 to host computer QQ510.
  • Connection QQ560 may be direct or it may pass through a core network (not shown in FIG.
  • hardware QQ525 of base station QQ520 further includes processing circuitry QQ528, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions.
  • Base station QQ520 further has software QQ521 stored internally or accessible via an external connection.
  • Communication system QQ500 further includes UE QQ530 already referred to. Its hardware QQ535 may include radio interface QQ537 configured to set up and maintain wireless connection QQ570 with a base station serving a coverage area in which UE QQ530 is currently located. Hardware QQ535 of UE QQ530 further includes processing circuitry QQ538, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, application- specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. UE QQ530 further comprises software QQ531, which is stored in or accessible by UE QQ530 and executable by processing circuitry QQ538. Software QQ531 includes client application QQ532.
  • Client application QQ532 may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE QQ530, with the support of host computer QQ510.
  • an executing host application QQ512 may communicate with the executing client application QQ532 via OTT connection QQ550 terminating at UE QQ530 and host computer QQ510.
  • client application QQ532 may receive request data from host application QQ512 and provide user data in response to the request data.
  • OTT connection QQ550 may transfer both the request data and the user data.
  • Client application QQ532 may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides.
  • host computer QQ510, base station QQ520 and UE QQ530 illustrated in FIG. 11 may be similar or identical to host computer QQ430, one of base stations QQ4l2a, QQ4l2b, QQ4l2c and one of UEs QQ491, QQ492 of FIG. 10, respectively.
  • the inner workings of these entities may be as shown in FIG. 11 and independently, the surrounding network topology may be that of FIG. 10.
  • OTT connection QQ550 has been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between host computer QQ510 and UE QQ530 via base station QQ520, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices.
  • Network infrastructure may determine the routing, which it may be configured to hide from UE QQ530 or from the service provider operating host computer QQ510, or both. While OTT connection QQ550 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).
  • Wireless connection QQ570 between UE QQ530 and base station QQ520 is in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure.
  • One or more of the various embodiments may improve the performance of OTT services provided to UE QQ530 using OTT connection QQ550, in which wireless connection QQ570 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve the deblock filtering for video processing and thereby provide benefits such as improved video encoding and/or decoding.
  • 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.
  • the measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring OTT connection QQ550 may be implemented in software QQ511 and hardware QQ515 of host computer QQ510 or in software QQ531 and hardware QQ535 of UE QQ530, or both.
  • sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with communication devices through which OTT connection QQ550 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 software QQ511, QQ531 may compute or estimate the monitored quantities.
  • the reconfiguring of OTT connection QQ550 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not affect base station QQ520, and it may be unknown or imperceptible to base station QQ520. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art.
  • measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling facilitating host computer QQ5lO’s measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like.
  • the measurements may be implemented in that software QQ511 and QQ531 causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using OTT connection QQ550 while it monitors propagation times, errors etc.
  • FIG. 12 Methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments.
  • FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a
  • the communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 10 and 11. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 12 will be included in this section.
  • the host computer provides user data.
  • substep QQ611 (which may be optional) of step QQ610, the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application.
  • the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE.
  • 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.
  • the UE executes a client application associated with the host application executed by the host computer.
  • FIG. 13 Methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments.
  • FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a
  • the communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which may be those described with reference to FIGs. 10 and 11. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 13 will be included in this section.
  • the host computer provides user data.
  • the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application.
  • 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.
  • step QQ730 (which may be optional), the UE receives the user data carried in the transmission.
  • FIG. 14 Methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments.
  • FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a
  • the communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which may be those described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG.
  • step QQ810 the UE receives input data provided by the host computer. Additionally or alternatively, in step QQ820, the UE provides user data. In substep QQ821 (which may be optional) of step QQ820, the UE provides the user data by executing a client application. In substep QQ811 (which may be optional) of step QQ810, 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.
  • the UE initiates, in substep QQ830 (which may be optional), transmission of the user data to the host computer.
  • step QQ840 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.
  • FIG. 15 Methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments.
  • FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a
  • the communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 10 and 11. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 15 will be included in this section.
  • the base station receives user data from the UE.
  • the base station initiates transmission of the received user data to the host computer.
  • 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 processors (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.
  • the processing circuitry may be used to cause the respective functional unit to perform corresponding functions according one or more
  • the term unit may have conventional meaning in the field of electronics, electrical devices and/or electronic devices and may include, for example, electrical and/or electronic circuitry, devices, modules, processors, memories, logic solid state and/or discrete devices, computer programs or instructions for carrying out respective tasks, procedures, computations, outputs, and/or displaying functions, and so on, as such as those that are described herein.

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Abstract

A method of operating a wireless terminal includes receiving system information from a network node over a wireless interface, the system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration, determining, based on the paging occasion configuration, that paging occasions within a paging frame may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame, identifying a paging occasion allocated to the wireless terminal within one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame, and searching over the wireless interface for a paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.

Description

CONFIGURATION OF NON-TIME-MULTIPLEXED PAGING OCCASIONS
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present disclosure generally relates to wireless communications and related wireless devices and network nodes, and specifically relates to paging.
BACKGROUND
[0002] An important property of the coming 5G (NR) system, is the usage of high carrier frequencies, e.g. in the range 6-100 GHz. For such high frequency spectrum, the atmospheric, penetration and diffraction/attenuation properties can be much worse than for lower frequency spectrum. In addition, the receiver antenna aperture, as a metric describing the effective receiver antenna area that collects the electromagnetic energy from an incoming electromagnetic wave, is inversely proportional to the frequency. Thus, the link budget would be worse for the same link distance even in a free space scenario if omnidirectional receive and transmit antennas are used. This motivates the usage of beamforming to compensate for the loss of link budget in high frequency spectrum. This may be particularly important when communicating with UEs with poor receivers, e.g. low cost/low complexity UEs. Other means for improving the link budget include repetition of the transmissions (e.g. to allow wide beam or omnidirectional transmission) or use of Single Frequency Network tran mi sion from multiple TRPs in the same or different cells.
[0003] Due to the above described properties, in the high frequency bands, many downlink signals, such as synchronization signals, system information, and paging signals, which need to cover a certain area (i.e. not just targeting a single UE with known
location/direction), e.g. a cell, are expected to be transmitted using beam sweeping, i.e.
transmitting the signal in one beam at a time, sequentially changing the direction and coverage area of the beam until the entire intended coverage area, e.g. the cell, has been covered by the transmission.
[0004] The signals in NR which correspond to the PSS, SSS and PBCH (which carries the MIB) in LTE (sometimes referred to as NR-PSS, NR-SSS and NR-PBCH in NR), are put together in an entity/structure denoted SS Block (SSB) or, with other terminology, SS/PBCH block (the term SS Block is typically used in RAN2 while RAN 1 usually uses the term SS/PBCH block. Hence, the terms SS Block, SSB and SS/PBCH block are synonymous (although SSB is really an abbreviation of SS Block). The PSS+SSS enables a UE to synchronize with the cell and also carries information from which the Physical Cell Identity (PCI) can be derived. The PBCH part of the SSB carries a part of the system information denoted MIB (Master Information Block) or NR-MIB. In high frequencies, SS Blocks will be transmitted periodically using beam sweeping. Multiple such beamformed SS Block transmissions are grouped into a SS Burst and one or more SS Bursts constitute a SS Burst Set, where the SS Burst Set constitutes a full beam sweep of SS Block transmissions.
[0005] In NR, the system information (SI) is divided into the two main parts“Minimum SI” (MSI) and“Other SI” (OSI). The MSI is always periodically broadcast, whereas the OSI may be periodically broadcast or may be available on-demand (and different parts of the OSI may be treated differently). The MSI consists of the MIB and System Information Block type 1 (SIB1), where SIB1 is also referred to as Remaining Minimum System Information (RMSI) (the term SIB1 is typically used by RAN2 while RAN1 usually uses the term RMSI). SIB1/RMSI is periodically broadcast using a PDCCH/PDSCH-like channel structure, i.e. with a scheduling allocation transmitted on the PDCCH (or NR-PDCCH), allocating transmission resources on the PDSCH (or NR-PDSCH), where the actual RMSI is transmitted. The MIB contains information that allows a UE to find and decode RMSI/SIB1. More specifically, configuration parameters for the PDCCH utilized for the RMSI/SIB1 are provided in the MIB, possibly complemented by parameters derived from the PCI. If this configuration information is absent in the MIB, then a default configuration specified in 3GPP TS 38.213 is used. A further 3GPP agreement for release 15 concerning RMSI transmission is that the RMSI/SIB1 transmissions should be spatially Quasi Co-Located (QCL) with the SS Block transmissions. A consequence of the QCL property is that the PSS/SSS transmission can be relied on for accurate synchronization to be used when receiving the PDCCH/PDSCH carrying the RMSI/SIB1.
[0006] Paging and OSI are also transmitted using the PDCCH+PDSCH principle with PDSCH DL scheduling allocation on the PDCCH and Paging message or SI message on the PDSCH. An exception to this is that paging information may optionally be conveyed in the paging DCI on the PDCCH, thus skipping the Paging message on the PDSCH. For release 15, this has been agreed to be used when paging is used for notification of ETWS, CMAS or SI update. For future releases, it is possible that other paging cases may utilize this PDCCH only transmission mechanism. The configuration information for the PDCCH used for paging and the PDCCH used for OSI transmission is included in the RMSI/SIB1. For both paging and OSI, the same CORESET is used as for RMSI/SIB1. In the RMSI/SIB1 (as specified in 3GPP TS 38.331), the search space (i.e. the time windows and time repetition pattern) for paging is indicated in the pagingSearchSpace parameter (which corresponds to the paging-SearchSpace parameter in 3GPP TS 38.213) while the OSI search space is indicated in the searchSpaceOtherSystemlnformation parameter (which corresponds to the OSI-SearchSpace parameter in 3GPP TS 38.213). If the configuration information for the PDCCH for paging is absent in the RMSI/SIB1 (i.e. if the pagingSearchSpace parameter is not present in the RMSI/SIB1), then the monitoring
windows/monitoring occasions for the PDCCH (i.e. essentially the search space) are the same as those configured for RMSI/SIB1.
[0007] The pagingSearchSpace parameter contains a SearchSpaceld, which points out a set of parameters which constitute a PDCCH search space configuration. This complexity is henceforth overlooked herein and the term paging-SearchSpace is henceforth used to refer to the set of parameters that configure the PDCCH search space for paging.
[0008] Paging is an essential function in a mobile telecommunications system. It is used to let the network contact a UE while in RRC IDLE or RRC INACTIVE state, primarily in order to transmit downlink data to the UE, once the UE has responded to the page. Paging can also be used to inform UEs of updates of the system information in a cell. It can also be used for informing UEs of an ongoing public warning, such as ETWS or CMAS.
SUMMARY
[0009] A method of operating a wireless terminal according to some embodiments includes receiving system information from a network node over a wireless interface, the system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration, determining, based on the paging occasion configuration, that paging occasions within a paging frame may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame, identifying a paging occasion allocated to the wireless terminal within one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame, and searching over the wireless interface for a paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame. [0010] The paging occasions in different ones of the non-time domain multiplexed layers may be aligned in the time domain.
[0011] The non-time domain multiplexed layers may be separated by frequency, and wherein the system information may include a first set of control resources and a second set of control resources, and the method may further include selecting the first set of control resources or the second set of control resources based on the paging information, and searching for the paging indicator using a frequency resource associated with the selected first or second set of control resources.
[0012] The system information may include a paging-SearchSpace parameter that defines a paging indicator search space.
[0013] Determining that paging occasions may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame may include detecting a plurality of control resource sets, CORESETs, within the system information.
[0014] The plurality of CORESETs may define non-overlapping sets of time-frequency resources in which paging indicators may be transmitted.
[0015] Searching for the paging indicator may include searching for the paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within one of the CORESETs associated with one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
[0016] Determining that paging occasions may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame may include determining that a plurality of paging Radio Network Temporary Identifiers, P-RNTIs, have been configured.
[0017] Each of the plurality of P-RNTIs may correspond to a respective one of the non time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
[0018] Searching for the paging indicator may include searching for the paging indicator during the identified paging occasion using a P-RNTI associated with one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
[0019] Determining that paging occasions may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame may include receiving an alternate P-RNTI in the system information.
[0020] The method may further include determining a number of configured non-time domain multiplexed layers based on a number of control resource sets, CORESETs, or paging Radio Network Temporary Identifiers, P-RNTIs, that may be included within the system information.
[0021] A number of configured non-time domain multiplexed layers may be explicitly signaled in the system information.
[0022] Identifying the paging occasion allocated to the wireless terminal may include determining a configured number of paging occasions, Ns, within the paging frame, calculating an index, i s, based on an identification number associated with the wireless terminal, and identifying the paging occasion based on the configured number of paging occasions in the paging frame and the index.
[0023] The index, i s, may be calculated according to the formula:
[0024] i_s = floor(UE_ID/N) mod Ns
[0025] where UE ID is the identification number associated with the wireless terminal and N is the number of paging frames in discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle configured for the wireless terminal.
[0026] A wireless terminal according to some embodiments includes a transceiver configured to provide wireless network communication with a wireless communication network, and a processor coupled with the transceiver. The processor is configured to provide wireless network communication through the transceiver, and the processor is configured to perform operations of determining, based on the paging occasion configuration, that paging occasions within a paging frame may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame, identifying a paging occasion allocated to the wireless terminal within one of the non time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame, and searching over the wireless interface for a paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
[0027] A wireless terminal according to some embodiments is adapted to perform operations of determining, based on the paging occasion configuration, that paging occasions within a paging frame may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame, identifying a paging occasion allocated to the wireless terminal within one of the non time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame, and searching over the wireless interface for a paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame. [0028] A method of operating a network node according to some embodiments includes generating system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration, wherein paging occasions defined by the paging information may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame, transmitting the system
information to a wireless terminal over a wireless interface, and transmitting a paging indicator over the wireless interface during one of the defined paging occasions within the one of the non time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
[0029] Paging occasions in different ones of the non-time domain multiplexed layers may be aligned in the time domain.
[0030] The non-time domain multiplexed layers may be separated by frequency, and wherein the system information may include a first set of control resources and a second set of control resources, wherein the first and second sets of control resources may be non-overlapping.
[0031] The system information may include a paging-SearchSpace parameter that defines a paging indicator search space.
[0032] The system information may include a plurality of control resource sets,
CORESETs.
[0033] The plurality of CORESETs may define non-overlapping sets of time-frequency resources in which paging indicators may be transmitted.
[0034] The method may further include configuring the wireless terminal with a plurality of paging Radio Network Temporary Identifiers, P-RNTIs.
[0035] Each of the plurality of P-RNTIs may correspond to a respective one of the non time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
[0036] Configuring the wireless terminal with a plurality of P-RNTIs may include transmitting an alternate P-RNTI to the wireless terminal in the system information.
[0037] The method may further include allocating all paging occasions in a first layer before allocating paging occasions in a second layer.
[0038] Each of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame may have a first number of paging occasions allocated except for a last one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers, which has the first number or less than the first number of paging occasions allocated. [0039] A network node of a wireless communication network according to some embodiments includes a transceiver configured to provide wireless network communication with a wireless terminal, and a processor coupled with the transceiver. The processor is configured to provide wireless network communications through the transceiver, and the processor is configured to perform operations of generating system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration, wherein paging occasions defined by the paging information may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame, transmitting the system information to a wireless terminal over a wireless interface, and transmitting a paging indicator over the wireless interface during one of the defined paging occasions within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
[0040] A network node of a radio access network according to some embodiments is adapted to perform operations of generating system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration, wherein paging occasions defined by the paging information may be arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame, transmitting the system information to a wireless terminal over a wireless interface, and transmitting a paging indicator over the wireless interface during one of the defined paging occasions within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0041] FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate multiplexing of paging occasions in a paging frame;
[0042] FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating a network node configured according to some embodiments;
[0043] FIG. 3B illustrates various functional modules that may be stored in a memory of a network node configured according to some embodiments;
[0044] FIG. 4A is a block diagram illustrating a wireless terminal configured according to some embodiments;
[0045] FIG. 4B illustrates various functional modules that may be stored in a memory of a wireless terminal configured according to some embodiments;
[0046] FIG. 5 is a flowchart of operations of a wireless terminal according to some embodiments; [0047] FIG. 6 is a flowchart of operations of a network node according to some embodiments;
[0048] FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a wireless network in accordance with some embodiments;
[0049] FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments
[0050] FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a virtualization environment in accordance with some embodiments;
[0051] FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a telecommunication network connected via an intermediate network to a host computer in accordance with some embodiments;
[0052] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a host computer communicating via a base station with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some
embodiments;
[0053] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;
[0054] FIG. 13 is a block diagram of methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;
[0055] FIG. 14 is a block diagram of methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments; and
[0056] FIG. 15 is a block diagram of methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments.
DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
[0057] Inventive concepts will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which examples of embodiments of inventive concepts are shown. Inventive concepts may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of present inventive concepts to those skilled in the art. It should also be noted that these embodiments are not mutually exclusive. Components from one embodiment may be tacitly assumed to be present/used in another embodiment.
[0058] The following description presents various embodiments of the disclosed subject matter. These embodiments are presented as teaching examples and are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosed subject matter. For example, certain details of the described embodiments may be modified, omitted, or expanded upon without departing from the scope of the described subject matter.
[0059] In LTE, a UE in RRC IDLE state camps on a cell, and, while camping, monitors the paging channel associated with that cell. The UE is configured to monitor repeatedly occurring paging occasions ("POs") and may reside in a DRX sleep mode in between the paging occasions. When the UE is paged at such a paging occasion, the paging is indicated on the PDCCH in the form of a DL scheduling allocation addressed to the P-RNTI (which is shared by all UEs). This DL scheduling allocation indicates the DL transmission resources on the PDSCH where the actual paging message is transmitted. A UE in RRC IDLE state, which receives a DL scheduling allocation addressed to the P-RNTI at one of the UE’s paging occasions, receives and reads the paging message from the allocated DL transmission resources to find out whether the paging message is intended for the UE. The UE(s) that is(are) subject to the paging is(are) indicated in the paging message through one or more UE paging identifiers (S-TMSI or IMSI), wherein each UE paging identifier is included in a paging record. Up to 16 UEs may be addressed, i.e. there may be up to 16 paging records in one paging message.
[0060] Most of these paging principles and mechanisms are reused in NR. However, in NR a new state is introduced, denoted RRC INACTIVE state, for which paging is also relevant. The purpose of introducing the RRC INACTIVE state in addition to the RRC IDLE state is to introduce a low-energy state with reduced signalling overhead over the radio and network interfaces and improved UE access latency as well as UE energy consumption when the UE moves from an energy saving state to a state designed for transmission and reception of user data (i.e. RRC CONNECTED state). In this state, the core network still regards the UE as connected and thus the RAN-CN connection is kept active, while the RRC connection between the gNB and the UE is released. The UE’s RAN context is maintained in the anchor gNB and the RAN- CN connection is maintained between the anchor gNB and the core network. In order to reduce radio interface signalling at connection establishment, the context information is kept active in the UE and in the anchor gNB which enables the UE to resume the RRC connection when it is paged from the RAN or has UL data or signalling to send. In this state, the UE can move around in a RAN Notification Area (RNA) without informing the network of its whereabouts, but as soon as it leaves its configured RNA, it informs the network. In NR, paging can thus be used for a UE in either RRC IDLE state or RRC INACTIVE state. In RRC IDLE state, the paging is initiated by the CN, while paging of a UE in RRC_INACTIVE state is initiated by the RAN (the anchor gNB). A UE in RRC INACTIVE state may be prepared to receive paging initiated by either the RAN or the CN. Normally, paging of a UE in RRC_INACTIVE state is initiated by the RAN, but in cases of state mismatch between the UE and the CN, the CN may initiate paging of a UE that considers itself to be in RRC INACTIVE state.
[0061] For CN initiated paging, the UE ID used in the Paging message is the 5G-S-TMSI in NR (replacing the S-TMSI that is used in LTE). The IMSI is used only in rare error cases where the 5G-S-TMSI is not available. For RAN initiated paging, the UE ID used in the Paging message is the I-RNTI (which is assigned by the anchor gNB). The same Paging message is used over the radio interface for both CN initiated and RAN initiated paging, so the type of UE ID is what informs the UE of whether the CN or the RAN initiated the page. The UE needs to know this since it is expected to act differently depending on which entity that initiated the page. In response to CN initiated paging (excluding ETWS/CMAS/SI update notification) the UE is expected to contact the network (through random access) and request establishment of a new RRC connection (including a NAS Service Request message). In response to RAN initiated paging (excluding ETWS/CMAS/SI update notification) the UE is expected to contact the network (through random access) and request to resume an existing (suspended) RRC
connection. Another possible difference between LTE and NR is that the maximum number of UE IDs that may be included in a Paging message may be increased from 16 in LTE to a greater number, e.g. 32, in NR. However, as indicated, at this point there is no agreement in 3GPP to increase the maximum number of UE IDs in the Paging message.
[0062] As mentioned above, in NR, paging has to be transmitted using beamforming transmission on high carrier frequencies, e.g. multi-GHz frequencies, especially on really high frequencies, such as frequencies above 20 GHz and hence beam sweeping has to be used to cover an entire cell with the page. To support beam sweeping of paging transmissions, a paging occasion (PO) in NR can consist of multiple timeslots to accommodate all the paging
transmissions of the beam sweep. This is configured in the system information.
[0063] A paging occasion is thus a regularly recurring time window during which paging may be transmitted. Different UEs can be allocated to different POs and a UE is expected to monitor the paging channel (i.e. the PDCCH configured for paging) during its allocated PO. A radio frame that contains one or more PO(s) is denoted Paging Frame (PF).
[0064] In both LTE and NR, the time interval between two POs for a certain UE is governed by a paging DRX cycle (henceforth referred to as“DRX cycle”), i.e. there is one PO allocated to the UE during each DRX cycle (the UE is aware of all POs, but“selects” one based on its UE ID). Unless the UE is configured with an extended DRX (eDRX) cycle, the DRX cycle a UE uses is the shortest of the default DRX cycle (also referred to as the default paging cycle), which is announced in the system information (then denoted defaultPagingCycle), or a UE specific DRX cycle negotiated with the CN. For regular UEs (i.e. UEs which are not configured with any type of extended DRX (eDRX) cycle), the shortest of the default DRX cycle and the UE specific DRX cycle (if available) is used. In NR, a UE can also be configured with a DRX cycle to be used in RRC INACTIVE state. This DRX cycle is assigned to the UE when the UE is moved to RRC INACTIVE state.
[0065] Within the DRX cycle, a UE calculates a PF and determines which out of possibly multiple (1, 2 or 4 in LTE) PO(s) in the PF it should monitor based on its UE ID. In LTE, IMSI mod 1024 is used for this calculation and this has also been agreed for NR. However, due to security/privacy issues related to the use of the IMSI for this purpose, it is likely that the agreement for NR will be changed and the IMSI will be replaced by the 5G-S-TMSI in this formula.
[0066] In LTE the PFs for a UE are the radio frames with System Frame Numbers (SFN) satisfying the following equation:
SFN mod T = (T div N) * (UE_ID mod N) where:
T : DRX cycle (default or UE specific)
N: min(T, nB) (I.e., N is the number of PFs in a DRX cycle.) nB: 4T, 2T, T, T/2, T/4, T/8, T/16, T/32, T/64, T/128, T/256 (the number of POs in a
DRX cycle)
UE ID: IMSI mod 1024
[0067] The nB values T/64, T/128 and T/256 were added in release 15 of LTE. It has been suggested to restrict the nB values to 4T, 2T, T, T/2, T/4, T/8 and T/16 in NR release 15, but the value range for nB is not specified for NR release 15 yet.
[0068] This formula may be reused in NR, possibly with some modification. One proposed modification is to introduce an offset for shifting of PFs, which would result in the following slightly modified formula for PF calculation (with the definitions of T, N, nB and UE ID unchanged):
(SFN + PF offset) mod T = (T div N)*(UE_ID mod N)
[0069] Within a PF, the PO(s) is/are configured/allocated based on a table in FTE, where the UE ID determines which of the PO(s) a UE should monitor. In detail, the subframe, which constitutes a UE’s PO within a PF is determined by reference to Table 1, in which:
Ns: max(l, nB/T) (I.e., Ns is the number of POs in a PF.) i s: floor(UE_ID/N) mod Ns (i s is an index pointing out a certain UE’s PO within a
PF.)
Table 1 - PO Identification
[0070] As can be understood from the above algorithm and table, i s is an index that points out which of the PO(s) in a PF a UE should use, wherein the PO(s) are indexed (i.e. i s has the range) from 0 to Ns - 1. The table determines the allocation of PO(s) to subframe(s) within a PF. [0071] The above is thus the LTE algorithm for configuration of POs in a PF, which is also the baseline for NR, but as will be explained further below, this algorithm is not fully suitable for NR and will not be reused in its entirety in NR.
[0072] In the context of the embodiments described herein, it is also relevant to describe a difference in the time domain structure of Ll of the radio interface between LTE and NR.
While LTE always has the same structure, NR has different structures, because it comprises different so-called numerologies (which essentially can be translated to different subcarrier spacings (SCSs) and consequent differences in the time domain, e.g. the length of an OFDM symbol). In LTE, the Ll radio interface time domain structure consists of symbols, subframes and radio frames, where a 1 ms subframe consists of 14 symbols (12 if extended cyclic prefix is used) and 10 subframes form a 10 ms radio frame. In NR, the concepts of subframes and radio frames are reused in the sense that they represent the same time periods, i.e. 1 ms and 10 ms respectively, but their internal structures vary depending on the numerology. For this reason, the additional term“slot” is introduced in NR, which is a time domain structure that always contains 14 symbols, irrespective of the symbol length. Hence, the number of slots and symbols comprised in a subframe and a radio frame vary with the numerology, but the number of symbols in a slot remains consistent. The numerologies and parameters are chosen such that a subframe always contains an integer number of slots (i.e. no partial slots).
[0073] Returning to the PO allocation, the table-based configuration/allocation used in LTE cannot be readily reused in NR. In LTE it was simple to map a PO to a subframe and this could easily be done through the table specified for this purpose. However, in NR a PO cannot simply be mapped to a subframe. In terms of transmission resources, a subframe is an
unambiguous concept in LTE (with the only variation being normal or extended cyclic prefix). In NR, on the other hand, the transmission resources (in terms of slots and hence OFDM symbols) vary with different numerologies (i.e. subcarrier spacings, SCSs). In addition, the duration required for a PO in NR is variable and depends the number of beams needed in a possible beam sweep for the PDCCH for paging in combination with the SCS and consequent symbol length. For these reasons, the table-based PO configuration mechanism of LTE has been replaced by a mechanism based on the paging-SearchSpace in NR. The Ns and i s parameters are retained, but they no longer point out subframes in a paging frame, but rather sets of PDCCH monitoring occasions (constituting PDCCH beam sweeps) in a PF. [0074] In NR, two main cases are distinguished: the so-called default case and the non default case. This refers to whether there is an explicit paging-SearchSpace parameter structure configured through the system information. If no such paging-SearchSpace parameter structure is included in the system information (i.e. if there is no pagingSearchSpace parameter in the RMSI/SIB1), a default allocation of the PO(s) within a PF is used. That is, in the default case, the PDCCH monitoring occasions corresponding to the PO(s) within a PF are determined according to a default association in relation to the SSB transmissions and these PDCCH monitoring occasions are then the same as for the RMSI as defined in section 13 in 3GPP TS 38.213. For the default case there can be 1 or 2 PO(s) in a PF (i.e. Ns can be equal to 1 or 2). If there are 2 POs in the PF, there is one PO in the first half frame (corresponding to i s = 0) and one PO in the second half frame (corresponding to i s = 1).
[0075] For the non-default case (i.e. with the paging-SearchSpace explicitly configured and the pagingSearchSpace parameter included in the RMSI/SIB1) a different approach is suggested in R2- 1807689. In [1] it is proposed (the essence of which is adopted in the text currently proposed for TS 38.304) to utilize the paging-SearchSpace parameter structure (i.e. the parameters pointed out by the SearchSpaceld of the pagingSearchSpace parameter) to define POs within a PF. The paging-SearchSpace configures a time domain pattern for so-called PDCCH monitoring occasions, at which a UE should monitor the PDCCH for paging transmissions (i.e. a DCI with a CRC scrambled with the P-RNTI) in the Control Resource Set (CORESET) configured for paging. The paging-SearchSpace contains the following parameters that define the time domain pattern for the PDCCH monitoring occasions:
Monitoring-periodicity-PDCCH-slot
Monitoring-offset-PDCCH-slot
Monitoring-symbols-PDCCH-within-slot
[0076] The parameter names Monitoring-periodicity-PDCCH-slot, Monitoring-offset- PDCCH-slot and Monitoring-symbols-PDCCH-within-slot are used in 3GPP TS 38.213. In 3GPP TS 38.331, the Monitoring-periodicity-PDCCH-slot and Monitoring-offset-PDCCH-slot are merged into a single corresponding parameter structure called
monitoringSlotPeriodicityAndOffset and the parameter corresponding to the Monitoring- symbols-PDCCH-within-slot parameter is called monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot. These parameters have the following ASN.l specifications in 3GPP TS 38.331 :
Table 2 - 3 GPP TS 38.331
[0077] The CORESET indicates the DL transmission resources a UE should monitor during a PDCCH monitoring occasion. More specifically, a CORESET indicates a set of PRBs in the frequency domain and 1-4 consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain. The length of a PDCCH monitoring occasion is thus defined by the length (number of OFDM symbols) of the CORESET. For instance, if the length of the CORESET is 3 symbols and the Monitoring- symbols-PDCCH-within-slot parameter (which is a bitmap) indicates that 6 consecutive symbols (or two groups of three consecutive symbols with one or more symbols between the groups) should be monitored, then these 6 symbols constitute 2 PDCCH monitoring occasions.
[0078] The proposal in R2-1807689 is that each paging beam transmission matches one PDCCH monitoring occasion, as defined by the paging-SearchSpace and that, assuming Nbeams beams, the first Nbeams PDCCH monitoring occasions in the PF constitute the first PO in the PF, the subsequent Nbeams PDCCH monitoring occasions in the PF constitute the second PO in the PF, etc. [0079] The proposal in R2-1807689 has to some extent been captured in the likely to be agreed text related to paging in the current draft of 3GPP TS 38.304 for 3GPP release 15. However, there is still room for modifications and additions.
[0080] The following is a copy of the current (expected to be agreed) text in section 7.1 “Discontinuous Reception for Paging” in 3GPP TS 38.304:
_
Table 3 - 3 GPP TS 38.304
[0081] The default case in which the PDCCH monitoring occasions for POs are the same as for the RMSI) has associated problems in that it may be too rigid and may not provide enough paging capacity for demanding scenarios (i.e. it is not on par with LTE). Any problem with the default case can however be overcome by using explicit configuration, i.e. the non-default case.
[0082] The alternative proposal for PO allocation within a PF as elaborated in R2- 1807689 also suffers from problems. One problem is that all the desired POs cannot always be fit in a radio frame, depending on the SCS, the number of beams used for covering the cell and how densely the PDCCH beams for paging can be transmitted. If no countermeasures are taken, this will result in lower paging capacity in NR than in FTE.
[0083] It has been suggested to compensate the reduced paging capacity caused by fewer POs by increasing the number of UEs that can be paged in the same PO, i.e. increasing the number of UE IDs that can be included in a Paging message. However, this approach would lead to an increased number of“false” page detections, i.e. cases where a page monitoring UE detects a page indication on the PDCCH, i.e. a DCI message with a CRC scrambled with the P-RNTI, and goes on to decode the Paging message on the PDSCH, only to find that it is not being paged (i.e. its UE ID is not included in the Paging message). This will have negative impact on the UE’s energy consumption in RRC IDLE and RRC INACTIVE state.
[0084] To overcome the above described paging capacity problem associated with the non-default case and the proposal in R2- 1807689, some embodiments described herein provide a method whereby POs are configured in a manner that not only utilizes the time domain for multiplexing. In addition, the frequency dimension can be utilized (i.e. frequency-multiplexing) or POs coinciding in time can be separated through different P-RNTIs. Frequency-multiplexed POs or POs separated through different P-RNTIs are said to belong to different PO layers. When the POs are allocated within a PF, the first layer is filled up first before POs are allocated to the next layer. The number of layer and the number of POs per layer is implicitly signaled through the presence of layer-related parameters.
[0085] The embodiments described herein may enable paging occasions to be evenly distributed in a paging frame, thus potentially avoiding undesirable load peaks. The proposed solution also provides a simple mechanism to smoothly extend the paging occasion
configuration/allocation algorithm to configure paging occasions that are multiplexed within the same paging frame using other means than time-multiplexing (also known as time division multiplexing), thereby enabling that the paging capacity of LTE can maintained even in the challenging multi-beam scenarios of NR.
[0086] The embodiments described herein may be combined with an approach in which a "First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter" is used, which, for each PO in a PF, is used to point out a PDCCH monitoring occasion, out of the potential PDCCH monitoring occasions indicated by the regular paging-SearchSpace parameters, which is the first PDCCH monitoring occasion in the PO. This is a way to augment the paging-SearchSpace parameters to enable configuration of groups, or“bursts” of PDCCH monitoring occasions with gaps in between within a PF. Although the present solution in principle is independent of the one described above, the First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter may optionally be utilized also in the solution elaborated herein.
[0087] As mentioned above, all desired POs cannot always fit in a single PF. This depends on how long time duration that is required for each PO, which in turn depends on the number of beams used for paging, the SCS (and the resulting number of slots and OFDM symbols in a radio frame), how many OFDM symbols that are used for each PDCCH
transmission and how densely the PDCCH transmissions are configured (which in turn may depend on whether and how PDSCH transmissions with Paging messages are time-multiplexed between the PDCCH transmissions and how many OFDM symbols that are (or have to be) configured for each such PDSCH transmission. Time -multiplexing is also known as time division multiplexing, i.e. multiplexing in the time domain.
[0088] If up to 4 POs cannot be fit in a paging frame, the maximum paging capacity of FTE will be decreased in NR. A possible countermeasure could be to increase the number of UEs that can be paged in the same PO, i.e. increase the number of UE IDs that can be included in a Paging message. However, this approach would lead to an increased number of“false” page detections, i.e. cases where a page monitoring UE detects a page indication on the PDCCH, i.e. a DCI message with a CRC scrambled with the P-RNTI, and goes on to decode the Paging message on the PDSCH, only to find that it is not being paged (i.e. its UE ID is not included in the Paging message). This will have negative impact on the UE’s energy consumption in RRC IDLE and RRC INACTIVE state.
[0089] Another approach is therefore needed when time -multiplexing of all desired POs is not possible in a single PF. In this document, there are two such approaches elaborated, referred to with the common term Non-Time-Multiplexing (NTM). The two NTM methods are:
[0090] Frequency-multiplexing of POs using disjoint CORESETs (but the same search space parameters, i.e., the same regular paging-SearchSpace parameters (and the same First- PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter if the solution is combined with the mechanism used in the "First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter" solution described above).
The multiple CORESETs would be configured in the system information. Frequency- multiplexing is also known as frequency division multiplexing. Although disjoint CORESETs are preferable, the CORESETs could also be overlapping, but then the network (i.e. the gNB’s scheduler) has to coordinate the PDCCH paging transmissions in the different CORESETs when they occur in parallel, since both transmissions cannot use the same overlapping transmission resource. Such coordination restricts the scheduler’s possibilities to fully utilize the transmission resources of the CORESET.
[0091] Distinguishing“POs” through different P-RNTIs. The CORESET and search space are the same for both“POs” (and also the First-PDCCH-monitoring-oeeasion-of-PO parameter if the solution is combined with the mechanism used in the "First-PDCCH- monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter" solution described above), but UEs allocated to one of the NTM:ed POs monitor the PDCCH for DCI messages scrambled with one P-RNTI (e.g. the current,“regular” P-RNTI), while UEs allocated to the other (of assumedly two) NTM:ed POs monitor the PDCCH for DCI messages scrambled with another P-RNTI (e.g. a new, additional P-RNTI). Note that the term“paging occasion” here is used herein in a generalized fashion, since the time windows and DL transmission resources the UEs monitor are the same for UEs monitoring separate NTM:ed POs. All the P-RNTIs could be specified (hardcoded in the standard) or all the P-RNTIs could be configured in the system information or it could be a mix of both methods. As an example of mixing methods, the first P-RNTI could be specified (hardcoded in the standard) and could e.g. be the already specified“regular” P-RNTI (with hexadecimal value FFFE), while additional P-RNTI(s) could be configured through the system information.
[0092] To facilitate the further description of the solution(s), the notion of“layers” of POs is introduced. POs separated using time -multiplexing belong to a first layer and other POs which are NTM:ed with the POs on the first layer are said to belong to a second layer, as illustrated in FIG. 1. Note that the POs on the second layer are separated through time- multiplexing in the same way as the POs on the first layer. For instance, using frequency- multiplexing as the NTM method, if a PF contains 4 POs, two first time-multiplexed POs can be configured with the same first CORESET (forming a first layer of POs), while two other time- multiplexed UEs can be configured with a second CORESET, which does not overlap with the first CORESET (forming a second layer of POs). The PF would then contain two pairs of frequency-multiplexed POs, where the pairs are separated through time-multiplexing. UEs allocated to two frequency-multiplexed POs would thus use the same monitoring time window and the same regular paging-SearchSpace parameters (and the same First-PDCCH-monitoring- occasion-of-PO parameter if the solution is combined with the mechanism used in the "First- PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter" solution described above), but would monitor different frequency resources, i.e. different DL transmission resources in the frequency domain. Time-multiplexed POs with the same CORESET are said to belong to the same layer, i.e. the PO layer is defined by the CORESET. This is illustrated in FIG. 1.
[0093] The principle is the same when separate P-RNTIs are used as the NTM method. That is, again using an example with 4 POs in a PF, the 4 POs can be configured as two time- multiplexed pairs of POs, where both POs in a pair are configured with the same CORESET and time window and the same regular paging-SearchSpace parameters (and the same First-PDCCH- monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter if the solution is combined with the mechanism used in the "First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter" solution described above), but would monitor the PDCCH for DCI messages with the CRC scrambled with different P-RNTIs (one for each PO layer). Time -multiplexed POs with the same P-RNTI are said to belong to the same layer, i.e. the PO layer is defined by the P-RNTI.
[0094] When all the desired POs to be included in a PF cannot fit into the same layer - i.e. when time-multiplexing is not enough - then two layers have to be used to accommodate the POs. However, an operator could choose to configure POs on different layers, even if one layer would have been enough, e.g. to make more efficient use of the DL transmission resources when analog DL TX beamforming is used or to facilitate TDD operation. This would be a matter of operator preferences. There may thus be a means to indicate to a UE if and how POs are allocated to different PO layers in cases where there are more than one PO per PF.
[0095] One way of doing this is through the presence of optional parameters. As described above, the regular paging-SearchSpace parameters are reused (i.e. they are the same) for POs NTM:ed on different layers. However, for each layer there has to be a separate
CORESET (in case the NTM method is frequency-multiplexing) or a separate P-RNTI (in case the NTM method is separation through the P-RNTI). Hence, if two layers are used, there may be two CORESETs or two P-RNTIs configured for paging. From the number of configured paging CORESETs or P-RNTIs, e.g. in the system information, a UE can thus determine how many layers of POs that are configured, and combined with the configured number of POs in a PF, the UE can determine how many POs that are allocated to each layer. If the solution is combined with the mechanism used in the "First-PDCCH-monitoring-oceasion-of-RO parameter" solution described above, the UE can also determine the number of POs on each layer based on the number of values configured for the First-PDCCH-monitoring-oceasion-of-RO parameter. Since NTM:ed POs use the same time domain configuration, the number of First-PDCCH-monitoring- occasion-of-PO values only have to match the number of POs that are time -multiplexed on a single layer. These values are then reused for the PO(s) on the second layer (and on higher layers in case even more than two layers are used). Details of how the UE determines the number of POs per PO layer with and without the use of the First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter are elaborated further below. An alternative to this somewhat implicit indication of number of layers could be to have an explicit system information parameter indicating the number of PO layers.
[0096] The Ns and i s parameters can thus be reused from the LTE algorithm, but the table of PO-to-subframe mappings have to be replaced by another rule for allocation of the POs within the PF. If Ns = 1, there is obviously only one layer of PO, since there is only a single PO per PF. If Ns = 2, the operator can choose to allocate both POs to the same layer or two different layers. If a single layer is chosen, then only one CORESET (in case the NTM method is frequency-multiplexing) or only one P-RNTI (in case the NTM method is separation through different P-RNTIs) is configured for paging. The P-RNTI will then preferably be the one already specified as the P-RNTI (i.e. the hexadecimal value FFFE). If the operator chooses to allocate the two POs NTM:ed on two different layers, two CORESETs or two P-RNTIs will be configured. When a UE concludes that Ns = 2, it calculates i s to check whether it is equal to 0 or 1. If i s = 0, the UE monitors the first PO on the first layer. That is, if there is only one layer, the UE monitors the first of the two time -multiplexed POs and if there are two layers, the UE monitors the PO on the first layer, which corresponds to the first configured CORESET (in case the NTM method is frequency-multiplexing) or the first configured/specified P-RNTI (in case the NTM method is separation through different P-RNTIs). If i s = 1, the UE monitors the second PO, i.e. the second of the two time-multiplexed POs in case a single layer is used or, in case two layers are used, the PO on the second layer, i.e. the layer which corresponds to the second configured CORESET or the second configured/specified P-RNTI.
[0097] In general, layers are ordered in the same order as the corresponding CORESET or P-RNTI is configured/specified. I.e., in case the NTM method is frequency-multiplexing, the first configured CORESET (for paging) corresponds to the first layer of POs, the second configured CORESET (for paging) corresponds to the second layer of POs, etc.
[0098] When a number of POs equal to Ns are allocated in a PF, the first layer is first filled up, i.e., if the solution is combined with the mechanism used in the "First-PDCCH- monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter" solution described above, POs are allocated to all time- multiplexed positions, as indicated by the First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-RO parameter values. If there are less then Ns values in the First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-RO parameter, the PO allocation continuous on the second layer. This principle can continue to more layers - theoretically a number of layers equal to Ns - but in practice it may be unlikely that more than two layers are used.
[0099] With the current formula for calculation of Ns, i.e. Ns = max(l, nB/T), and with the current possible values of T and nB, Ns can only have the values 1, 2 and 4. However, if future changes of the formula or the parameter values would result in other Ns values, e.g. 3 or 5, these could be accommodated by the same principle. If, for instance Ns = 3 and there are two PO layers with two time-multiplexed positions on each layer, then the first two POs would be allocated to the time-multiplexed positions on the first layer and the third PO would be allocated to the first time-multiplexed position on the second layer (i.e. the third PO would be NTM:ed with the first PO). The second time-multiplexed position on the second layer would be unused. This is illustrated in FIG. 2, which is a modification of FIG. 1. Even with unchanged formula and Ns values it would be possible to configure different number of POs on the two layers. For instance, if Ns = 4, the network could configure three time-multiplexed PO positions and allocate the three first POs on the first layer and the fourth (and last) PO on the first position on the second layer.
[0100] FIG. 2 is an illustration of a hypothetical case where Ns = 3 and two PO layers are configured using frequency-multiplexing as the NTM method and, if the solution is combined with the mechanism used in the "First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-PO
parameter" solution described above, there are two First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter values. Since the regular paging-SearchSpace parameters (and the First-PDCCH- monitoring-occasion-of-PO parameter values in case the solution is combined with the mechanisms used in the "First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-RO parameter" solution described above) are reused on each PO layer, there could be said to be two time-multiplexed “PO positions” on each layer. POs are allocated to both the PO positions on the first layer but only to the first PO position the second layer, while the second PO position on the second layer remains unused.
[0101] Although the method using layering of POs so far has been described using frequent references to the First-PDCCH-monitoring-occasion-of-RO parameter, the PO layering method does not depend on this parameter but may also well be used without it (i.e. the PO layering method can be used when POs are distributed in a PF, or when POs are lumped back to back in a PF, as proposed in R2- 1807689). A rule stating that all layers shall have the same number of POs except the last (i.e. highest-numbered) layer would be used to make the PO allocation to different layers unambiguous. The last (highest-numbered) layer may have the same number of POs as the other layer(s) or fewer. A consequence of this rule is that the number of POs on each layer other than the highest-numbered layer is equal to M = ceiling(Ns/Nlay)
(where M is the number of POs per PO layer other than the highest-numbered layer, Nlay is the number of PO layers and“ceiling” refers to the mathematical ceiling(x) function meaning the least integer greater than or equal to x (where ceiling(x) also can be written as [x])). When all layers but the highest-numbered layer have been allocated M PO(s) each, the remaining PO(s) is/are allocated to the highest-numbered layer. That is, the highest-numbered layer will have Mhigh = Ns - (M x (Nlay - 1)) POs, where 1 < Mhigh < M.
[0102] An alternative to the above described rule for PO distribution to PO layers is that the network explicitly configures how the POs are allocated to the different PO layers. Then other combinations could appear, such as three layers with 2 POs on the first layer, 1 PO on the second layer and 1 PO on the third layer. The number of POs for each layer could then be indicated in the system information (and the sum of the POs on all layers together should be equal to Ns).
[0103] The PO layering method as described herein is quite flexible, but all possible configurations may not be equally probable or attractive. In one preferred embodiment, a single PO layer is used for up to 2 POs per PF (i.e. for Ns < 2). That is, time -multiplexing of POs suffices as long as there are no more than 2 POs per PF. With this embodiment, a second PO layer would not be configured unless Ns > 2. Assuming that the Ns values are restricted to 1, 2 and 4, as is currently the case, a second layer of POs would be configured only when Ns = 4 and then there would be 2 POs per layer. No more than two layers of POs would ever be configured with this embodiment as long as Ns cannot be greater than 4. Layer separation (i.e. NTM:ing) could be achieved through either frequency-multiplexing, i.e. using different CORESETs for the two layers or using separate P-RNTIs (i.e. one P-RNTI for each of the two PO layers). Note that using a single PO layer (i.e. only time-multiplexing) for more than 2 POs (e.g. 4 POs) in a PF should also be allowed, e.g. when the combination of the SCS and the number of beams used for paging allows POs to have short time duration, so that more than 2 POs can fit time-multiplexed in a PF.
[0104] In another embodiment, a second layer of POs may be configured even when there are only 2 POs in a PF (i.e. when Ns = 2). Reasons for choosing to do so may be e.g. that not even 2 POs can fit time-multiplexed in a PF, when Paging PDSCH transmissions are scheduled in between the PDCCH transmissions. Small carrier bandwidth or a small bandwidth part (BWP) in which the paging transmissions are contained (forcing them to spread more in the time domain) may contribute to this circumstance in combination with a subcarrier spacing and number of beams that result in long duration of full beam sweeps. Another reason for NTM:ing POs on two layers when Ns = 2 could be to leave more room for TDD uplink periods (e.g. TDD uplink half frames, subframes, slots or OFDM symbols). [0105] In general, NTM:ing of POs, maybe frequency-multiplexed POs in particular, is an attractive concept in high carrier frequency bands. High carrier frequencies are typically associated with large bandwidths, analog DL TX beamforming and many narrow beams to cover a cell area, and TDD operation. All these properties provide a good match with NTM:ed, especially frequency-multiplexed POs. The large bandwidth provides lots of room in the frequency domain for frequency-multiplexing of both PDCCH and PDSCH transmissions. Since analog DL TX beamforming means that DL transmission can only be transmitted in one direction at a time, the DL transmission resources that are frequency-multiplexed with a paging transmission are typically wasted, unless the gNB opportunistically can schedule another pending DL transmission at the same time and in the same direction as the page. And since many beams are used in high carrier frequencies, this resource waste amounts to a great overhead. Frequency-multiplexing of POs makes more efficient use of the transmission resources during the PDCCH beam sweep (taking care of two POs/paging transmissions with a single beam sweep) and thus reduces the overhead. Finally, confining the POs, and thus paging transmissions, to a shorter time interval by NTM:ing POs makes more time available for TDD UL operation, thus increasing the scheduler’s flexibility.
[0106] Some embodiments configure POs in layers within a PF, such that other dimensions than time are utilized for multiplexing of POs. POs separated through pure time- multiplexing belong to the same layer, while different layers are separated by either frequency- multiplexing or separation through different P-RNTIs. When POs are allocated/configured in a PF, the first layer is filled up with time-multiplexed POs before the second layer is“populated”. The number of layer and the number of POs per layer is implicitly signaled through the presence of layer-related parameters.
[0107] FIG. 3 A is a block diagram illustrating elements of a node 20 (also referred to as a network node, base station, eNB, eNodeB, etc.) of a wireless communication network (also referred to as a Radio Access Network RAN) configured to provide cellular communication according to embodiments of inventive concepts. As shown, the network node may include a transceiver circuit 301 (also referred to as a transceiver) including a transmitter and a receiver configured to provide uplink and downlink radio communications with wireless devices. The network node may include a network interface circuit 307 (also referred to as a network interface) configured to provide communications with other nodes (e.g., with other base stations and/or core network nodes) of the RAN. The network node may also include a processor circuit 303 (also referred to as a processor) coupled to the transceiver circuit, and a memory circuit 305 (also referred to as memory) coupled to the processor circuit. The memory circuit 305 may include computer readable program code that when executed by the processor circuit 303 causes the processor circuit to perform operations according to embodiments disclosed herein.
According to other embodiments, processor circuit 303 may be defined to include memory so that a separate memory circuit is not required.
[0108] As discussed herein, operations of the network node may be performed by processor 303, network interface 307, and/or transceiver 301. For example, processor 303 may control transceiver 301 to transmit downlink communications through transceiver 301 over a radio interface to one or more wireless terminals and/or to receive uplink communications through transceiver 301 from one or more wireless terminals over a radio interface. Similarly, processor 303 may control network interface 307 to transmit communications through network interface 307 to one or more other network nodes and/or to receive communications through network interface from one or more other network nodes.
[0109] FIG. 3B is a block diagram illustrating functional modules of a network node 20 according to some embodiments. These modules may be stored in memory 305, and may provide instructions so that when instructions of a module are executed by processor 303, processor 303 performs respective operations (e.g., operations discussed herein with respect to Example Embodiments). As shown in FIG. 3B, the functional modules may include a receiving module 320, a paging configuration module 322 and a transmitting module 326. The receiving module 320 controls reception of signals using the transceiver 301. The paging configuration module 322 performs operations relating to establishing a paging configuration. The
transmitting module 326 controls transmission of signals using the transceiver 301.
[0110] FIG. 4A is a block diagram illustrating elements of a wireless terminal 10 (also referred to as a wireless terminal, a wireless communication device, a wireless communication terminal, user equipment, UE, a user equipment node/terminal/device, etc.) configured to provide wireless communication according to embodiments of inventive concepts. As shown, wireless terminal 10 may include a transceiver circuit 401 (also referred to as a transceiver) including a transmitter and a receiver configured to provide uplink and downlink radio communications with a base station eNB of a wireless communication network (also referred to as a radio access network RAN). Wireless terminal 10 may also include a processor circuit 403 (also referred to as a processor) coupled to the transceiver circuit, and a memory circuit 405 (also referred to as memory) coupled to the processor circuit. The memory circuit 405 may include computer readable program code that when executed by the processor circuit 4003 causes the processor circuit to perform operations according to embodiments disclosed herein. According to other embodiments, processor circuit 403 may be defined to include memory so that a separate memory circuit is not required. Wireless terminal 10 may also include an interface (such as a user interface) coupled with processor 403, and/or wireless terminal 10 may be an IoT and/or MTC device.
[0111] As discussed herein, operations of wireless terminal 10 may be performed by processor 403 and/or transceiver 401. For example, processor 403 may control transceiver 401 to transmit uplink communications through transceiver 401 over a radio interface to a base station eNB of a wireless communication network and/or to receive downlink communications through transceiver 401 from a base station eNB of the wireless communication network over a radio interface.
[0112] FIG. 4B is a block diagram illustrating functional modules of a wireless terminal 10 according to some embodiments. These modules may be stored in memory 405, and may provide instructions so that when instructions of a module are executed by processor 403, processor 403 performs respective operations (e.g., operations discussed herein with respect to Example Embodiments). As shown in FIG. 4B, the functional modules may include a receiving module 420, a paging configuration module 422 and a transmitting module 426. The receiving module 420 controls reception of signals using the transceiver 401. The paging configuration module 422 performs operations relating to paging functions, such as determining what paging occasions to monitor for a paging indicator. The transmitting module 426 controls transmission of signals using the transceiver 401.
[0113] Operations of a wireless device 10 will now be discussed with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 5 according to some embodiments of inventive concepts. For example, modules may be stored in wireless terminal memory 405 of FIG. 4A, and these modules may provide instructions so that when the instructions of a module are executed by wireless device processor 403, processor 403 performs respective operations of the flow chart of FIG. 5. [0114] Referring to FIG. 5, a method of operating a wireless device 10 includes receiving system information from a network node over a wireless interface, the system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration (block 502). The wireless device 10 then determines, based on the paging occasion configuration, that paging occasions within a paging frame are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame (block 504). When the wireless device has determined that paging occasions within a paging frame are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame, the wireless device identifies a paging occasion allocated to the wireless device within one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame (block 506), and searches over the wireless interface for a paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame (block 508).
[0115] Operations of a network node 20 will now be discussed with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 6. For example, modules may be stored in base station memory 305 of FIG. 3A, and these modules may provide instructions so that when the instructions of a module are executed by processor 303, processor 303 performs respective operations of the flow chart of FIG. 6.
[0116] Referring to FIG. 6, a method of operating a network node (20) includes generating system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration, wherein paging occasions defined by the paging information are arranged in non time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame (block 602), transmitting the system information to a wireless device over a wireless interface (block 604), and transmitting a paging indicator over the wireless interface during one of the defined paging occasions within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame (block 606).
[0117] Example embodiments of inventive concepts are set forth below.
[0118] Embodiment 1. A method of operating a wireless device (10), comprising: receiving system information from a network node over a wireless interface, the system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration;
determining, based on the paging occasion configuration, that paging occasions within a paging frame are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame; identifying a paging occasion allocated to the wireless device within one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame; and searching over the wireless interface for a paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
[0119] Embodiment 2. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein paging occasions in different ones of the non-time domain multiplexed layers are aligned in the time domain.
[0120] Embodiment 3. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein the non-time domain multiplexed layers are separated by frequency, and wherein the system information comprises a first set of control resources and a second set of control resources, the method further comprising:
selecting the first set of control resources or the second set of control resources based on the paging information; and
searching for the paging indicator using a frequency resource associated with the selected first or second set of control resources.
[0121] Embodiment 4. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein the system information comprises a paging-SearchSpace parameter that defines a paging indicator search space.
[0122] Embodiment 5. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein determining that paging occasions are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame comprises detecting a plurality of control resource sets, CORESETs, within the system information.
[0123] Embodiment 6. The method of Embodiment 5, wherein the plurality of
CORESETs define non-overlapping sets of time-frequency resources in which paging indicators may be transmitted.
[0124] Embodiment 7. The method of Embodiment 6, wherein searching for the paging indicator comprises searching for the paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within one of the CORESETs associated with one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
[0125] Embodiment 8. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein determining that paging occasions are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame comprises determining that a plurality of paging Radio Network Temporary Identifiers, P- RNTIs, have been configured. [0126] Embodiment 9. The method of Embodiment 8, wherein each of the plurality of P-RNTIs corresponds to a respective one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
[0127] Embodiment 10. The method of Embodiment 9, wherein searching for the paging indicator comprises searching for the paging indicator during the identified paging occasion using a P-RNTI associated with one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
[0128] Embodiment 11. The method of Embodiment 8, wherein determining that paging occasions are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame comprises receiving an alternate P-RNTI in the system information.
[0129] Embodiment 12. The method of Embodiment 1, further comprising:
[0130] determining a number of configured non-time domain multiplexed layers based on a number of control resource sets, CORESETs, or paging Radio Network Temporary Identifiers, P-RNTIs, that are included within the system information.
[0131] Embodiment 13. The method of Embodiment 1 , wherein a number of configured non-time domain multiplexed layers is explicitly signaled in the system information.
[0132] Embodiment 14. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein identifying the paging occasion allocated to the wireless device comprises:
determining a configured number of paging occasions, Ns, within the paging frame; calculating an index, i s, based on an identification number associated with the wireless device; and
identifying the paging occasion based on the configured number of paging occasions in the paging frame and the index.
[0133] Embodiment 15. The method of Embodiment 14, wherein calculating the index, i s, comprises calculating the index, i s according to the formula:
i_s = floor(UE_ID/N) mod Ns
where UE ID is the identification number associated with the wireless device and N is the number of paging frames in discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle configured for the wireless device.
[0134] Embodiment 16. A first wireless device (10) comprising: a transceiver (401) configured to provide wireless network communication with a wireless communication network; and
a processor (403) coupled with the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to provide wireless network communication through the transceiver, and wherein the processor is configured to perform operations according to any of Embodiments 1 to 15.
[0135] Embodiment 17. A wireless device (10) wherein the wireless terminal is adapted to perform according to any of Embodiments 1 to 15.
[0136] Embodiment 18. A method of operating a network node (20), the network node comprising:
generating system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration, wherein paging occasions defined by the paging information are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame;
transmitting the system information to a wireless device over a wireless interface; and transmitting a paging indicator over the wireless interface during one of the defined paging occasions within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
[0137] Embodiment 19. The method of Embodiment 18, wherein paging occasions in different ones of the non-time domain multiplexed layers are aligned in the time domain.
[0138] Embodiment 20. The method of Embodiment 18, wherein the non-time domain multiplexed layers are separated by frequency, and wherein the system information comprises a first set of control resources and a second set of control resources, wherein the first and second sets of control resources are non-overlapping.
[0139] Embodiment 21. The method of Embodiment 18, wherein the system information comprises a paging-SearchSpace parameter that defines a paging indicator search space.
[0140] Embodiment 22. The method of Embodiment 1, wherein the system information comprises a plurality of control resource sets, CORESETs.
[0141] Embodiment 23. The method of Embodiment 22, wherein the plurality of CORESETs define non-overlapping sets of time-frequency resources in which paging indicators may be transmitted. [0142] Embodiment 24. The method of Embodiment 18, further comprising configuring the wireless device with a plurality of paging Radio Network Temporary Identifiers, P-RNTIs.
[0143] Embodiment 25. The method of Embodiment 24, wherein each of the plurality of P-RNTIs corresponds to a respective one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
[0144] Embodiment 26. The method of Embodiment 24, wherein configuring the wireless device with a plurality of P-RNTIs comprises transmitting an alternate P-RNTI to the wireless device in the system information.
[0145] Embodiment 27. The method of Embodiment 18, further comprising:
[0146] allocating all paging occasions in a first layer before allocating paging occasions in a second layer.
[0147] Embodiment 27. The method of Embodiment 18, wherein each of the non time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame have a first number of paging occasions allocated except for a last one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers, which has the first number or less than the first number of paging occasions allocated.
[0148] Embodiment 27. A network node (20) of a wireless communication network, the base station comprising:
a transceiver (301) configured to provide wireless network communication with a wireless terminal; and
a processor (303) coupled with the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to provide wireless network communications through the transceiver, and wherein the processor is configured to perform operations according to any of Embodiments 18-26.
[0149] Embodiment 28. A network node (20) of a radio access network, wherein the base station is adapted to perform according to any of Embodiments 18-26.
[0150] Explanations for abbreviations from the above disclosure are provided below.
Abbreviation Explanation
3 GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project 5G 5th Generation
5G-S-TMSI The temporary identifier used in NR as a replacement of the S-TMSI in LTE.
ASN.l Abstract Syntax Notation One
BWP Bandwidth Part
CMAS Commercial Mobile Alert System
CN Core Network
CORESET Control Resource Set
CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check
DCI Downlink Control Information
div Notation indicating integer division.
DL Downlink
DRX Discontinuous Reception
cDRX Extended DRX
eNB Evolved NodeB
ETWS Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System
GHz gigaherz
gNB The term for a radio base station in NR (corresponding to eNB in
LTE).
ID Identity /Identifier
IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity
IvD Invention disclosure
LTE Long Term Evolution
MIB Master Information Block
mod modulo
ms millisecond
MSI Minimum System Information
NAS Non-Access Stratum
NR New Radio (The term used for the 5G radio interface and radio
access network in the technical reports and standard specifications 3GPP are working on.) NTM Non-Time-Multiplexing / Non-Time-Multiplex
OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex
OSI Other System Information
PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel
PCI Physical Cell Identity
PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel
PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel
PF Paging Frame
PO Paging Occasion
P-RNTI Paging RNTI
PSS Primary Synchronization Signal
QCL Quasi Co-Located
RAN Random Access Network
RMSI Remaining Minimum System Information
RNA RAN Notification Area
RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier
RRC Radio Resource Control
SCS Subcarrier Spacing
SFN System Frame Number
SI System Information
SIB System Information Block
SS Synchronization Signal
SSB SS Block
sss Secondary Synchronization Signal
S-TMSI S-Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity
TDD Time Division Duplex
TRP Transmission/Reception Point
TS Technical Specification
TSG Technical Specification Group
TX T ransmission/T ransmit/T ransmitter
UE User Equipment UL Uplink
WG Working Group
Citations for references from the above disclosure are provided below.
Reference [1]: R2-1807689“Reference Frame & PO Determination: Non
Default Association”, contribution by Samsung to 3 GPP TSG- RAN WG2 meeting #102 in Busan, South Korea, May 21 - May 25, 2018
Reference [2]: U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/688,319, filed June 21, 2018
(Docket No. P75177 US1)
Reference [3]: 3 GPP TS 38.331
Reference [4]: 3 GPP TS 38.213
Reference [5]: 3 GPP TS 38.304
[0151] In the above-description of various embodiments of present inventive concepts, it is to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of present inventive concepts. Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which present inventive concepts belong. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of this specification and the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
[0152] When an element is referred to as being "connected", "coupled",
"responsive", or variants thereof to another element, it can be directly connected, coupled, or responsive to the other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being "directly connected", "directly coupled", "directly responsive", or variants thereof to another element, there are no intervening elements present. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. Furthermore, "coupled", "connected", "responsive", or variants thereof as used herein may include wirelessly coupled, connected, or responsive. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Well-known functions or constructions may not be described in detail for brevity and/or clarity. The term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. [0153] It will be understood that although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements/operations, these elements/operations should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element/operation from another element/operation. Thus a first element/operation in some embodiments could be termed a second element/operation in other embodiments without departing from the teachings of present inventive concepts. The same reference numerals or the same reference designators denote the same or similar elements throughout the specification.
[0154] As used herein, the terms "comprise", "comprising", "comprises",
"include", "including", "includes", "have", "has", "having", or variants thereof are open-ended, and include one or more stated features, integers, elements, steps, components or functions but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, elements, steps, components, functions or groups thereof. Furthermore, as used herein, the common abbreviation "e.g.", which derives from the Latin phrase "exempli gratia," may be used to introduce or specify a general example or examples of a previously mentioned item, and is not intended to be limiting of such item. The common abbreviation "i.e.", which derives from the Latin phrase "id est," may be used to specify a particular item from a more general recitation.
[0155] Example embodiments are described herein with reference to block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations of computer-implemented methods, apparatus (systems and/or devices) and/or computer program products. It is understood that a block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, can be implemented by computer program instructions that are performed by one or more computer circuits. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor circuit of a general purpose computer circuit, special purpose computer circuit, and/or other programmable data processing circuit to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer and/or other programmable data processing apparatus, transform and control transistors, values stored in memory locations, and other hardware components within such circuitry to implement the functions/acts specified in the block diagrams and/or flowchart block or blocks, and thereby create means (functionality) and/or structure for implementing the functions/acts specified in the block diagrams and/or flowchart block(s). [0156] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a tangible computer-readable medium that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer- readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instructions which implement the functions/acts specified in the block diagrams and/or flowchart block or blocks. Accordingly, embodiments of present inventive concepts may be embodied in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) that runs on a processor such as a digital signal processor, which may collectively be referred to as "circuitry," "a module" or variants thereof.
[0157] It should also be noted that in some alternate implementations, the functions/acts noted in the blocks may occur out of the order noted in the flowcharts. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the
functionality/acts involved. Moreover, the functionality of a given block of the flowcharts and/or block diagrams may be separated into multiple blocks and/or the functionality of two or more blocks of the flowcharts and/or block diagrams may be at least partially integrated.
Finally, other blocks may be added/inserted between the blocks that are illustrated, and/or blocks/operations may be omitted without departing from the scope of inventive concepts. Moreover, although some of the diagrams include arrows on communication paths to show a primary direction of communication, it is to be understood that communication may occur in the opposite direction to the depicted arrows.
[0158] Many variations and modifications can be made to the embodiments without substantially departing from the principles of the present inventive concepts. All such variations and modifications are intended to be included herein within the scope of present inventive concepts. Accordingly, the above disclosed subject matter is to be considered illustrative, and not restrictive, and the examples of embodiments are intended to cover all such modifications, enhancements, and other embodiments, which fall within the spirit and scope of present inventive concepts. Thus, to the maximum extent allowed by law, the scope of present inventive concepts are to be determined by the broadest permissible interpretation of the present disclosure including the examples of embodiments and their equivalents, and shall not be restricted or limited by the foregoing detailed description. [0159] Additional explanation is provided below.
[0160] 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.
[0161] 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.
[0162] FIG. 7: A wireless network in accordance with some embodiments.
[0163] Although the subject matter described herein may be implemented in any appropriate type of system using any suitable components, the embodiments disclosed herein are described in relation to a wireless network, such as the example wireless network illustrated in FIG. 7. For simplicity, the wireless network of FIG. 7 only depicts network QQ106, network nodes QQ160 and QQl60b, and WDs QQ110, QQ1 lOb, and QQ1 lOc (also referred to as mobile terminals). In practice, a wireless network may further include any additional elements suitable to support communication between wireless devices or between a wireless device and another communication device, such as a landline telephone, a service provider, or any other network node or end device. Of the illustrated components, network node QQ160 and wireless device (WD) QQ110 are depicted with additional detail. The wireless network may provide communication and other types of services to one or more wireless devices to facilitate the wireless devices’ access to and/or use of the services provided by, or via, the wireless network.
[0164] The wireless network may comprise and/or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, and/or radio network or other similar type of system. In some embodiments, the wireless network may be configured to operate according to specific standards or other types of predefined rules or procedures. Thus, particular
embodiments of the wireless network may implement communication standards, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and/or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G standards;
wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the IEEE 802.11 standards; and/or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave and/or ZigBee standards.
[0165] Network QQ106 may comprise one or more backhaul networks, core networks, IP networks, public switched telephone networks (PSTNs), packet data networks, optical networks, wide-area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), wired networks, wireless networks, metropolitan area networks, and other networks to enable communication between devices.
[0166] Network node QQ 160 and WD QQ 110 comprise various components described in more detail below. These components work together in order to provide network node and/or wireless device functionality, such as providing wireless connections in a wireless network. In different embodiments, the wireless network may comprise any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, base stations, controllers, wireless devices, relay stations, and/or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signals whether via wired or wireless connections.
[0167] As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a wireless device and/or with other network nodes or equipment in the wireless network to enable and/or provide wireless access to the wireless device and/or to perform other functions (e.g., administration) in the wireless network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)). Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and may then also be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units and/or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS). Yet further examples of network nodes include multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell/multicast coordination entities (MCEs), core network nodes (e.g., MSCs, MMEs), O&M nodes, OSS nodes, SON nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., E-SMLCs), and/or MDTs. As another example, a network node may be a virtual network node as described in more detail below. More generally, however, network nodes may represent any suitable device (or group of devices) capable, configured, arranged, and/or operable to enable and/or provide a wireless device with access to the wireless network or to provide some service to a wireless device that has accessed the wireless network.
[0168] In FIG. 7, network node QQ 160 includes processing circuitry QQ 170, device readable medium QQ180, interface QQ190, auxiliary equipment QQ184, power source QQ186, power circuitry QQ187, and antenna QQ162. Although network node QQ160 illustrated in the example wireless network of FIG. 7 may represent a device that includes the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise network nodes with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that a network node comprises any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Moreover, while the components of network node QQ160 are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, a network node may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component (e.g., device readable medium QQ180 may comprise multiple separate hard drives as well as multiple RAM modules).
[0169] Similarly, network node QQ 160 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which network node QQ160 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeB’s. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, network node QQ160 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate device readable medium QQ180 for the different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., the same antenna QQ162 may be shared by the RATs).
Network node QQ160 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node QQ160, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node QQ160.
[0170] Processing circuitry QQ170 is configured to perform any determining, calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations) described herein as being provided by a network node. These operations performed by processing circuitry QQ170 may include processing information obtained by processing circuitry QQ170 by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.
[0171] Processing circuitry QQ 170 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node QQ160 components, such as device readable medium QQ180, network node QQ160 functionality. For example, processing circuitry QQ170 may execute instructions stored in device readable medium QQ180 or in memory within processing circuitry QQ170. Such functionality may include providing any of the various wireless features, functions, or benefits discussed herein. In some embodiments, processing circuitry QQ170 may include a system on a chip (SOC).
[0172] In some embodiments, processing circuitry QQ170 may include one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry QQ172 and baseband processing circuitry QQ174. In some embodiments, radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry QQ172 and baseband processing circuitry QQ174 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry QQ172 and baseband processing circuitry QQ174 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.
[0173] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein as being provided by a network node, base station, eNB or other such network device may be performed by processing circuitry QQ170 executing instructions stored on device readable medium QQ180 or memory within processing circuitry QQ170. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by processing circuitry QQ170 without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device readable medium, such as in a hard- wired manner. In any of those embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a device readable storage medium or not, processing circuitry QQ170 can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to processing circuitry QQ170 alone or to other components of network node QQ160, but are enjoyed by network node QQ160 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless network generally.
[0174] Device readable medium QQ180 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid- state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device readable and/or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by processing circuitry QQ170. Device readable medium QQ180 may store any suitable instructions, data or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executed by processing circuitry QQ170 and, utilized by network node QQ160. Device readable medium QQ180 may be used to store any calculations made by processing circuitry QQ170 and/or any data received via interface QQ190. In some embodiments, processing circuitry QQ170 and device readable medium QQ180 may be considered to be integrated.
[0175] Interface QQ 190 is used in the wired or wireless communication of signalling and/or data between network node QQ160, network QQ106, and/or WDs QQ110. As illustrated, interface QQ190 comprises port(s)/terminal(s) QQ194 to send and receive data, for example to and from network QQ106 over a wired connection. Interface QQ190 also includes radio front end circuitry QQ192 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, antenna QQ162. Radio front end circuitry QQ192 comprises filters QQ198 and amplifiers QQ196. Radio front end circuitry QQ192 may be connected to antenna QQ162 and processing circuitry QQ170. Radio front end circuitry may be configured to condition signals
communicated between antenna QQ162 and processing circuitry QQ170. Radio front end circuitry QQ192 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. Radio front end circuitry QQ192 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters QQ198 and/or amplifiers QQ196. The radio signal may then be transmitted via antenna QQ162. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna QQ162 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by radio front end circuitry QQ192. The digital data may be passed to processing circuitry QQ170. In other embodiments, the interface may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.
[0176] In certain alternative embodiments, network node QQ160 may not include separate radio front end circuitry QQ192, instead, processing circuitry QQ170 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected to antenna QQ162 without separate radio front end circuitry QQ192. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of RF transceiver circuitry QQ172 may be considered a part of interface QQ190. In still other embodiments, interface QQ190 may include one or more ports or terminals QQ194, radio front end circuitry QQ192, and RF transceiver circuitry QQ172, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and interface QQ190 may communicate with baseband processing circuitry QQ174, which is part of a digital unit (not shown). [0177] Antenna QQ162 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals. Antenna QQ162 may be coupled to radio front end circuitry QQ190 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly. In some embodiments, antenna QQ162 may comprise one or more omni-directional, sector or panel antennas operable to transmit/receive radio signals between, for example, 2 GHz and 66 GHz. An omni-directional antenna may be used to transmit/receive radio signals in any direction, a sector antenna may be used to transmit/receive radio signals from devices within a particular area, and a panel antenna may be a line of sight antenna used to transmit/receive radio signals in a relatively straight line. In some instances, the use of more than one antenna may be referred to as MIMO. In certain embodiments, antenna QQ162 may be separate from network node QQ160 and may be connectable to network node QQ160 through an interface or port.
[0178] Antenna QQ 162, interface QQ 190, and/or processing circuitry QQ 170 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be received from a wireless device, another network node and/or any other network equipment. Similarly, antenna QQ162, interface QQ190, and/or processing circuitry QQ170 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by a network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be transmitted to a wireless device, another network node and/or any other network equipment.
[0179] Power circuitry QQ 187 may comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry and is configured to supply the components of network node QQ160 with power for performing the functionality described herein. Power circuitry QQ187 may receive power from power source QQ186. Power source QQ186 and/or power circuitry QQ187 may be configured to provide power to the various components of network node QQ160 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). Power source QQ186 may either be included in, or external to, power circuitry QQ187 and/or network node QQ160. For example, network node QQ160 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry QQ187. As a further example, power source QQ186 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry QQ187. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail. Other types of power sources, such as photovoltaic devices, may also be used.
[0180] Alternative embodiments of network node QQ160 may include additional components beyond those shown in FIG. 7 that may be responsible for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and/or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, network node QQ160 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into network node QQ160 and to allow output of information from network node QQ160. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for network node QQ160.
[0181] As used herein, wireless device (WD) refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and/or other wireless devices. Unless otherwise noted, the term WD may be used interchangeably herein with user equipment (UE). Communicating wirelessly may involve transmitting and/or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying information through air. In some embodiments, a WD may be configured to transmit and/or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a WD may be designed to transmit information to a network on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the network. Examples of a WD include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a cell phone, a voice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a desktop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless cameras, a gaming console or device, a music storage device, a playback appliance, a wearable terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobile station, a tablet, a laptop, a laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), a laptop-mounted equipment (LME), a smart device, a wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE) a vehicle-mounted wireless terminal device, etc. A WD may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and may in this case be referred to as a D2D communication device. As yet another specific example, in an Internet of Things (IoT) scenario, a WD may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and/or measurements to another WD and/or a network node. The WD may in this case be a machine -to-machine (M2M) device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the WD may be a UE implementing the 3 GPP narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) standard.
Particular examples of such machines or devices are sensors, metering devices such as power meters, industrial machinery, or home or personal appliances (e.g. refrigerators, televisions, etc.) personal wearables (e.g., watches, fitness trackers, etc.). In other scenarios, a WD may represent a vehicle or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation. A WD as described above may represent the endpoint of a wireless connection, in which case the device may be referred to as a wireless terminal. Furthermore, a WD as described above may be mobile, in which case it may also be referred to as a mobile device or a mobile terminal.
[0182] As illustrated, wireless device QQ 110 includes antenna QQ 111, interface
QQ114, processing circuitry QQ120, device readable medium QQ130, user interface equipment QQ132, auxiliary equipment QQ134, power source QQ136 and power circuitry QQ137. WD QQ110 may include multiple sets of one or more of the illustrated components for different wireless technologies supported by WD QQ110, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, WiMAX, or Bluetooth wireless technologies, just to mention a few. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chips or set of chips as other components within WD QQ110.
[0183] Antenna QQ111 may include one or more antennas or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals, and is connected to interface QQ114. In certain alternative embodiments, antenna QQ111 may be separate from WD QQ110 and be connectable to WD QQ110 through an interface or port. Antenna QQ111, interface QQ114, and/or processing circuitry QQ120 may be configured to perform any receiving or transmitting operations described herein as being performed by a WD. Any information, data and/or signals may be received from a network node and/or another WD. In some embodiments, radio front end circuitry and/or antenna QQ111 may be considered an interface.
[0184] As illustrated, interface QQ114 comprises radio front end circuitry QQ112 and antenna QQ111. Radio front end circuitry QQ112 comprise one or more filters QQ118 and amplifiers QQ116. Radio front end circuitry QQ114 is connected to antenna QQ111 and processing circuitry QQ120, and is configured to condition signals communicated between antenna QQ111 and processing circuitry QQ120. Radio front end circuitry QQ112 may be coupled to or a part of antenna QQ111. In some embodiments, WD QQ110 may not include separate radio front end circuitry QQ112; rather, processing circuitry QQ120 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected to antenna QQ111. Similarly, in some embodiments, some or all of RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 may be considered a part of interface QQ114. Radio front end circuitry QQ112 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection. Radio front end circuitry QQ112 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters QQ118 and/or amplifiers QQ116. The radio signal may then be transmitted via antenna QQ111. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna QQ111 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by radio front end circuitry QQ112. The digital data may be passed to processing circuitry QQ120. In other embodiments, the interface may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.
[0185] Processing circuitry QQ120 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software, and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other WD QQ110 components, such as device readable medium QQ130, WD QQ110 functionality. Such functionality may include providing any of the various wireless features or benefits discussed herein. For example, processing circuitry QQ120 may execute instructions stored in device readable medium QQ130 or in memory within processing circuitry QQ120 to provide the functionality disclosed herein.
[0186] As illustrated, processing circuitry QQ120 includes one or more of RF transceiver circuitry QQ122, baseband processing circuitry QQ124, and application processing circuitry QQ126. In other embodiments, the processing circuitry may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components. In certain embodiments processing circuitry QQ120 of WD QQ110 may comprise a SOC. In some embodiments, RF transceiver circuitry QQ122, baseband processing circuitry QQ124, and application processing circuitry QQ126 may be on separate chips or sets of chips. In alternative embodiments, part or all of baseband processing circuitry QQ124 and application processing circuitry QQ126 may be combined into one chip or set of chips, and RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 may be on a separate chip or set of chips. In still alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 and baseband processing circuitry QQ124 may be on the same chip or set of chips, and application processing circuitry QQ126 may be on a separate chip or set of chips. In yet other alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry QQ122, baseband processing circuitry QQ124, and application processing circuitry QQ126 may be combined in the same chip or set of chips. In some embodiments, RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 may be a part of interface QQ114. RF transceiver circuitry QQ122 may condition RF signals for processing circuitry QQ120.
[0187] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein as being performed by a WD may be provided by processing circuitry QQ120 executing instructions stored on device readable medium QQ130, which in certain embodiments may be a computer-readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by processing circuitry QQ120 without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device readable storage medium, such as in a hard- wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a device readable storage medium or not, processing circuitry QQ120 can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to processing circuitry QQ120 alone or to other components of WD QQ110, but are enjoyed by WD QQ110 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless network generally.
[0188] Processing circuitry QQ120 may be configured to perform any
determining, calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations) described herein as being performed by a WD. These operations, as performed by processing circuitry QQ120, may include processing information obtained by processing circuitry QQ120 by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored by WD QQ110, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination.
[0189] Device readable medium QQ130 may be operable to store a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executed by processing circuitry QQ120. Device readable medium QQ130 may include computer memory (e.g., Random Access Memory (RAM) or Read Only Memory (ROM)), mass storage media (e.g., a hard disk), removable storage media (e.g., a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device readable and/or computer executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by processing circuitry QQ120. In some embodiments, processing circuitry QQ120 and device readable medium QQ130 may be considered to be integrated. User interface equipment QQ132 may provide components that allow for a human user to interact with WD QQ110. Such interaction may be of many forms, such as visual, audial, tactile, etc. User interface equipment QQ132 may be operable to produce output to the user and to allow the user to provide input to WD QQ110. The type of interaction may vary depending on the type of user interface equipment QQ132 installed in WD QQ110.
For example, if WD QQ110 is a smart phone, the interaction may be via a touch screen; if WD QQ110 is a smart meter, the interaction may be through a screen that provides usage (e.g., the number of gallons used) or a speaker that provides an audible alert (e.g., if smoke is detected). User interface equipment QQ132 may include input interfaces, devices and circuits, and output interfaces, devices and circuits. User interface equipment QQ132 is configured to allow input of information into WD QQ110, and is connected to processing circuitry QQ120 to allow processing circuitry QQ120 to process the input information. User interface equipment QQ132 may include, for example, a microphone, a proximity or other sensor, keys/buttons, a touch display, one or more cameras, a USB port, or other input circuitry. User interface equipment QQ132 is also configured to allow output of information from WD QQ110, and to allow processing circuitry QQ120 to output information from WD QQ110. User interface equipment QQ132 may include, for example, a speaker, a display, vibrating circuitry, a USB port, a headphone interface, or other output circuitry. Using one or more input and output interfaces, devices, and circuits, of user interface equipment QQ132, WD QQ110 may communicate with end users and/or the wireless network, and allow them to benefit from the functionality described herein.
[0190] Auxiliary equipment QQ134 is operable to provide more specific functionality which may not be generally performed by WDs. This may comprise specialized sensors for doing measurements for various purposes, interfaces for additional types of communication such as wired communications etc. The inclusion and type of components of auxiliary equipment QQ134 may vary depending on the embodiment and/or scenario.
[0191] Power source QQ136 may, in some embodiments, be in the form of a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic devices or power cells, may also be used. WD QQ110 may further comprise power circuitry QQ137 for delivering power from power source QQ136 to the various parts of WD QQ110 which need power from power source QQ136 to carry out any functionality described or indicated herein. Power circuitry QQ137 may in certain embodiments comprise power management circuitry. Power circuitry QQ137 may additionally or alternatively be operable to receive power from an external power source; in which case WD QQ110 may be connectable to the external power source (such as an electricity outlet) via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Power circuitry QQ137 may also in certain embodiments be operable to deliver power from an external power source to power source QQ136. This may be, for example, for the charging of power source QQ136. Power circuitry QQ137 may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from power source QQ136 to make the power suitable for the respective components of WD QQ110 to which power is supplied.
[0192] FIG. 8: User Equipment in accordance with some embodiments
[0193] FIG. 8 illustrates one embodiment of a UE in accordance with various aspects described herein. As used herein, a user equipment or UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and/or operates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter). UE QQ2200 may be any UE identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a NB-IoT UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and/or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE. UE QQ200, as illustrated in FIG. 8, is one example of a WD configured for communication in accordance with one or more communication standards promulgated by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP), such as 3GPP’s GSM, UMTS, LTE, and/or 5G standards. As mentioned previously, the term WD and UE may be used interchangeable. Accordingly, although FIG. 8 is a UE, the components discussed herein are equally applicable to a WD, and vice-versa.
[0194] In FIG. 8, UE QQ200 includes processing circuitry QQ201 that is operatively coupled to input/output interface QQ205, radio frequency (RF) interface QQ209, network connection interface QQ211, memory QQ215 including random access memory (RAM) QQ217, read-only memory (ROM) QQ219, and storage medium QQ221 or the like,
communication subsystem QQ231, power source QQ233, and/or any other component, or any combination thereof. Storage medium QQ221 includes operating system QQ223, application program QQ225, and data QQ227. In other embodiments, storage medium QQ221 may include other similar types of information. Certain UEs may utilize all of the components shown in FIG. 8, or only a subset of the components. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.
[0195] In FIG. 8, processing circuitry QQ201 may be configured to process computer instructions and data. Processing circuitry QQ201 may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute machine instructions stored as machine- readable computer programs in the memory, such as one or more hardware -implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, FPGA, ASIC, etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored program, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or Digital Signal Processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry QQ201 may include two central processing units (CPUs). Data may be information in a form suitable for use by a computer.
[0196] In the depicted embodiment, input/output interface QQ205 may be configured to provide a communication interface to an input device, output device, or input and output device. UE QQ200 may be configured to use an output device via input/output interface QQ205. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a USB port may be used to provide input to and output from UE QQ200. The output device may be a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. UE QQ200 may be configured to use an input device via input/output interface QQ205 to allow a user to capture information into UE QQ200. The input device may include a touch-sensitive or presence- sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, another like sensor, or any combination thereof. For example, the input device may be an accelerometer, a magnetometer, a digital camera, a microphone, and an optical sensor.
[0197] In FIG. 8, RF interface QQ209 may be configured to provide a communication interface to RF components such as a transmitter, a receiver, and an antenna. Network connection interface QQ211 may be configured to provide a communication interface to network QQ243a. Network QQ243a may encompass wired and/or wireless networks such as a local-area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN), a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network, another like network or any combination thereof. For example, network QQ243a may comprise a Wi-Fi network. Network connection interface QQ211 may be configured to include a receiver and a transmitter interface used to communicate with one or more other devices over a communication network according to one or more communication protocols, such as Ethernet, TCP/IP, SONET, ATM, or the like. Network connection interface QQ211 may implement receiver and transmitter functionality appropriate to the communication network links (e.g., optical, electrical, and the like). The transmitter and receiver functions may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively may be implemented separately.
[0198] RAM QQ217 may be configured to interface via bus QQ202 to processing circuitry QQ201 to provide storage or caching of data or computer instructions during the execution of software programs such as the operating system, application programs, and device drivers. ROM QQ219 may be configured to provide computer instructions or data to processing circuitry QQ201. For example, ROM QQ219 may be configured to store invariant low-level system code or data for basic system functions such as basic input and output (I/O), startup, or reception of keystrokes from a keyboard that are stored in a non-volatile memory. Storage medium QQ221 may be configured to include memory such as RAM, ROM, programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, floppy disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, or flash drives. In one example, storage medium QQ221 may be configured to include operating system QQ223, application program QQ225 such as a web browser application, a widget or gadget engine or another application, and data file QQ227. Storage medium QQ221 may store, for use by UE QQ200, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.
[0199] Storage medium QQ221 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), floppy disk drive, flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high- density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as a subscriber identity module or a removable user identity (SIM/RUIM) module, other memory, or any combination thereof.
Storage medium QQ221 may allow UE QQ200 to access computer-executable instructions, application programs or the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied in storage medium QQ221, which may comprise a device readable medium.
[0200] In FIG. 8, processing circuitry QQ201 may be configured to communicate with network QQ243b using communication subsystem QQ231. Network QQ243a and network QQ243b may be the same network or networks or different network or networks.
Communication subsystem QQ231 may be configured to include one or more transceivers used to communicate with network QQ243b. For example, communication subsystem QQ231 may be configured to include one or more transceivers used to communicate with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication such as another WD, UE, or base station of a radio access network (RAN) according to one or more communication protocols, such as IEEE 802.QQ2, CDMA, WCDMA, GSM, LTE, UTRAN, WiMax, or the like. Each transceiver may include transmitter QQ233 and/or receiver QQ235 to implement transmitter or receiver functionality, respectively, appropriate to the RAN links (e.g., frequency allocations and the like). Further, transmitter QQ233 and receiver QQ235 of each transceiver may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively may be implemented separately.
[0201] In the illustrated embodiment, the communication functions of
communication subsystem QQ231 may include data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. For example, communication subsystem QQ231 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, Bluetooth communication, and GPS communication. Network QQ243b may encompass wired and/or wireless networks such as a local-area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN), a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network, another like network or any combination thereof. For example, network QQ243b may be a cellular network, a Wi-Fi network, and/or a near- field network. Power source QQ213 may be configured to provide alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) power to components of UE QQ200.
[0202] The features, benefits and/or functions described herein may be implemented in one of the components of UE QQ200 or partitioned across multiple components of UE QQ200. Further, the features, benefits, and/or functions described herein may be implemented in any combination of hardware, software or firmware. In one example, communication subsystem QQ231 may be configured to include any of the components described herein. Further, processing circuitry QQ201 may be configured to communicate with any of such components over bus QQ202. In another example, any of such components may be represented by program instructions stored in memory that when executed by processing circuitry QQ201 perform the corresponding functions described herein. In another example, the functionality of any of such components may be partitioned between processing circuitry QQ201 and communication subsystem QQ231. In another example, the non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and the computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.
[0203] FIG. 9 : Virtualization environment in accordance with some
embodiments [0204] FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment QQ300 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to a node (e.g., a virtualized base station or a virtualized radio access node) or to a device (e.g., a UE, a wireless device or any other type of communication device) or components thereof and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components (e.g., via one or more applications, components, functions, virtual machines or containers executing on one or more physical processing nodes in one or more networks).
[0205] In some embodiments, some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines implemented in one or more virtual environments QQ300 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes QQ330. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node is not a radio access node or does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node), then the network node may be entirely virtualized.
[0206] The functions may be implemented by one or more applications QQ320
(which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) operative to implement some of the features, functions, and/or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein. Applications QQ320 are run in virtualization environment QQ300 which provides hardware QQ330 comprising processing circuitry QQ360 and memory QQ390. Memory QQ390 contains instructions QQ395 executable by processing circuitry QQ360 whereby application QQ320 is operative to provide one or more of the features, benefits, and/or functions disclosed herein.
[0207] Virtualization environment QQ300, comprises general-purpose or special- purpose network hardware devices QQ330 comprising a set of one or more processors or processing circuitry QQ360, which may be commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processors, dedicated Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), or any other type of processing circuitry including digital or analog hardware components or special purpose processors. Each hardware device may comprise memory QQ390-1 which may be non-persistent memory for temporarily storing instructions QQ395 or software executed by processing circuitry QQ360. Each hardware device may comprise one or more network interface controllers (NICs) QQ370, also known as network interface cards, which include physical network interface QQ380. Each hardware device may also include non-transitory, persistent, machine-readable storage media QQ390-2 having stored therein software QQ395 and/or instructions executable by processing circuitry QQ360. Software QQ395 may include any type of software including software for instantiating one or more virtualization layers QQ350 (also referred to as hypervisors), software to execute virtual machines QQ340 as well as software allowing it to execute functions, features and/or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein.
[0208] Virtual machines QQ340, comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer QQ350 or hypervisor. Different embodiments of the instance of virtual appliance QQ320 may be implemented on one or more of virtual machines QQ340, and the implementations may be made in different ways.
[0209] During operation, processing circuitry QQ360 executes software QQ395 to instantiate the hypervisor or virtualization layer QQ350, which may sometimes be referred to as a virtual machine monitor (VMM). Virtualization layer QQ350 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to virtual machine QQ340.
[0210] As shown in FIG. 9, hardware QQ330 may be a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware QQ330 may comprise antenna QQ3225 and may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware QQ330 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such as in a data center or customer premise equipment (CPE)) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration (MANO) QQ3100, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications QQ320.
[0211] Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.
[0212] In the context of NFV, virtual machine QQ340 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non- virtualized machine. Each of virtual machines QQ340, and that part of hardware QQ330 that executes that virtual machine, be it hardware dedicated to that virtual machine and/or hardware shared by that virtual machine with others of the virtual machines QQ340, forms a separate virtual network elements (VNE).
[0213] Still in the context of NFV, Virtual Network Function (VNF) is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more virtual machines QQ340 on top of hardware networking infrastructure QQ330 and corresponds to application QQ320 in FIG. 9.
[0214] In some embodiments, one or more radio units QQ3200 that each include one or more transmitters QQ3220 and one or more receivers QQ3210 may be coupled to one or more antennas QQ3225. Radio units QQ3200 may communicate directly with hardware nodes QQ330 via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station.
[0215] In some embodiments, some signalling can be effected with the use of control system QQ3230 which may alternatively be used for communication between the hardware nodes QQ330 and radio units QQ3200.
[0216] FIG. 10: Telecommunication network connected via an intermediate network to a host computer in accordance with some embodiments.
[0217] With reference to FIG. 10, in accordance with an embodiment, a communication system includes telecommunication network QQ410, such as a 3GPP-type cellular network, which comprises access network QQ411, such as a radio access network, and core network QQ414. Access network QQ411 comprises a plurality of base stations QQ4l2a, QQ4l2b, QQ4l2c, such as NBs, eNBs, gNBs or other types of wireless access points, each defining a corresponding coverage area QQ4l3a, QQ4l3b, QQ4l3c. Each base station QQ4l2a, QQ4l2b, QQ4l2c is connectable to core network QQ414 over a wired or wireless connection QQ415. A first UE QQ491 located in coverage area QQ4l3c is configured to wirelessly connect to, or be paged by, the corresponding base station QQ4l2c. A second UE QQ492 in coverage area QQ4l3a is wirelessly connectable to the corresponding base station QQ4l2a. While a plurality of UEs QQ491, QQ492 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 QQ412. [0218] T elecommunication network QQ410 is itself connected to host computer
QQ430, 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. Host computer QQ430 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 QQ421 and QQ422 between telecommunication network QQ410 and host computer QQ430 may extend directly from core network QQ414 to host computer QQ430 or may go via an optional intermediate network QQ420. Intermediate network QQ420 may be one of, or a combination of more than one of, a public, private or hosted network; intermediate network QQ420, if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular, intermediate network QQ420 may comprise two or more sub-networks (not shown).
[0219] The communication system of FIG. 10 as a whole enables connectivity between the connected UEs QQ491, QQ492 and host computer QQ430. The connectivity may be described as an over-the-top (OTT) connection QQ450. Host computer QQ430 and the connected UEs QQ491, QQ492 are configured to communicate data and/or signaling via OTT connection QQ450, using access network QQ411, core network QQ414, any intermediate network QQ420 and possible further infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries. OTT connection QQ450 may be transparent in the sense that the participating communication devices through which OTT connection QQ450 passes are unaware of routing of uplink and downlink communications. For example, base station QQ412 may not or need not be informed about the past routing of an incoming downlink communication with data originating from host computer QQ430 to be forwarded (e.g., handed over) to a connected UE QQ491. Similarly, base station QQ412 need not be aware of the future routing of an outgoing uplink communication originating from the UE QQ491 towards the host computer QQ430.
[0220] FIG. 11: Host computer communicating via a base station with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments.
[0221] 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 FIG. 11. In communication system QQ500, host computer QQ510 comprises hardware QQ515 including communication interface QQ516 configured to set up and maintain a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of communication system QQ500. Host computer QQ510 further comprises processing circuitry QQ518, which may have storage and/or processing capabilities. In particular, processing circuitry QQ518 may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. Host computer QQ510 further comprises software QQ511, which is stored in or accessible by host computer QQ510 and executable by processing circuitry QQ518. Software QQ511 includes host application QQ512. Host application QQ512 may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as UE QQ530 connecting via OTT connection QQ550 terminating at UE QQ530 and host computer QQ510. In providing the service to the remote user, host application QQ512 may provide user data which is transmitted using OTT connection QQ550.
[0222] Communication system QQ500 further includes base station QQ520 provided in a telecommunication system and comprising hardware QQ525 enabling it to communicate with host computer QQ510 and with UE QQ530. Hardware QQ525 may include communication interface QQ526 for setting up and maintaining a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of communication system QQ500, as well as radio interface QQ527 for setting up and maintaining at least wireless connection QQ570 with UE QQ530 located in a coverage area (not shown in FIG. 11) served by base station QQ520. Communication interface QQ526 may be configured to facilitate connection QQ560 to host computer QQ510. Connection QQ560 may be direct or it may pass through a core network (not shown in FIG. 11) of the telecommunication system and/or through one or more intermediate networks outside the telecommunication system. In the embodiment shown, hardware QQ525 of base station QQ520 further includes processing circuitry QQ528, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. Base station QQ520 further has software QQ521 stored internally or accessible via an external connection.
[0223] Communication system QQ500 further includes UE QQ530 already referred to. Its hardware QQ535 may include radio interface QQ537 configured to set up and maintain wireless connection QQ570 with a base station serving a coverage area in which UE QQ530 is currently located. Hardware QQ535 of UE QQ530 further includes processing circuitry QQ538, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, application- specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. UE QQ530 further comprises software QQ531, which is stored in or accessible by UE QQ530 and executable by processing circuitry QQ538. Software QQ531 includes client application QQ532. Client application QQ532 may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE QQ530, with the support of host computer QQ510. In host computer QQ510, an executing host application QQ512 may communicate with the executing client application QQ532 via OTT connection QQ550 terminating at UE QQ530 and host computer QQ510. In providing the service to the user, client application QQ532 may receive request data from host application QQ512 and provide user data in response to the request data. OTT connection QQ550 may transfer both the request data and the user data.
Client application QQ532 may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides.
[0224] It is noted that host computer QQ510, base station QQ520 and UE QQ530 illustrated in FIG. 11 may be similar or identical to host computer QQ430, one of base stations QQ4l2a, QQ4l2b, QQ4l2c and one of UEs QQ491, QQ492 of FIG. 10, respectively. This is to say, the inner workings of these entities may be as shown in FIG. 11 and independently, the surrounding network topology may be that of FIG. 10.
[0225] In FIG. 11, OTT connection QQ550 has been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between host computer QQ510 and UE QQ530 via base station QQ520, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices. Network infrastructure may determine the routing, which it may be configured to hide from UE QQ530 or from the service provider operating host computer QQ510, or both. While OTT connection QQ550 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).
[0226] Wireless connection QQ570 between UE QQ530 and base station QQ520 is in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure.
One or more of the various embodiments may improve the performance of OTT services provided to UE QQ530 using OTT connection QQ550, in which wireless connection QQ570 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve the deblock filtering for video processing and thereby provide benefits such as improved video encoding and/or decoding. [0227] 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 OTT connection QQ550 between host computer QQ510 and UE QQ530, in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring OTT connection QQ550 may be implemented in software QQ511 and hardware QQ515 of host computer QQ510 or in software QQ531 and hardware QQ535 of UE QQ530, or both. In embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with communication devices through which OTT connection QQ550 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 software QQ511, QQ531 may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of OTT connection QQ550 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not affect base station QQ520, and it may be unknown or imperceptible to base station QQ520. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling facilitating host computer QQ5lO’s measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like. The measurements may be implemented in that software QQ511 and QQ531 causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using OTT connection QQ550 while it monitors propagation times, errors etc.
[0228] FIG. 12: Methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments.
[0229] FIG. 12 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 10 and 11. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 12 will be included in this section. In step QQ610, the host computer provides user data. In substep QQ611 (which may be optional) of step QQ610, the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In step QQ620, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. In step QQ630 (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 QQ640 (which may also be optional), the UE executes a client application associated with the host application executed by the host computer.
[0230] FIG. 13: Methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments.
[0231] FIG. 13 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 FIGs. 10 and 11. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 13 will be included in this section. In step QQ710 of the method, the host computer provides user data. In an optional substep (not shown) the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In step QQ720, 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 QQ730 (which may be optional), the UE receives the user data carried in the transmission.
[0232] FIG. 14: Methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments.
[0233] FIG. 14 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 FIGS. 10 and 11. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG.
14 will be included in this section. In step QQ810 (which may be optional), the UE receives input data provided by the host computer. Additionally or alternatively, in step QQ820, the UE provides user data. In substep QQ821 (which may be optional) of step QQ820, the UE provides the user data by executing a client application. In substep QQ811 (which may be optional) of step QQ810, 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 substep QQ830 (which may be optional), transmission of the user data to the host computer. In step QQ840 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.
[0234] FIG. 15: Methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments.
[0235] FIG. 15 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 10 and 11. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 15 will be included in this section. In step QQ910 (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 QQ920 (which may be optional), the base station initiates transmission of the received user data to the host computer. In step QQ930 (which may be optional), the host computer receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the base station.
[0236] 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 processors (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. [0237] The term unit may have conventional meaning in the field of electronics, electrical devices and/or electronic devices and may include, for example, electrical and/or electronic circuitry, devices, modules, processors, memories, logic solid state and/or discrete devices, computer programs or instructions for carrying out respective tasks, procedures, computations, outputs, and/or displaying functions, and so on, as such as those that are described herein.

Claims

What is claimed is:
1. A method of operating a wireless terminal (10), comprising:
receiving (502) system information from a network node, the system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration;
determining (504), based on the paging occasion configuration, that paging occasions within a paging frame are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame;
identifying (506) a paging occasion allocated to the wireless terminal within one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame; and
searching (508) for a paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
2. The method of Claim 1, wherein paging occasions in different ones of the non time domain multiplexed layers are aligned in the time domain.
3. The method of Claim 1 or 2, wherein the non-time domain multiplexed layers are separated by frequency, and wherein the system information comprises a first set of control resources and a second set of control resources, the method further comprising:
selecting the first set of control resources or the second set of control resources based on the paging information; and
searching for the paging indicator using a frequency resource associated with the selected first or second set of control resources.
4. The method of any of Claims 1 -3, wherein the system information comprises a paging-SearchSpace parameter that defines a paging indicator search space.
5. The method of any of Claims 1-4, wherein determining that paging occasions are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame comprises detecting a plurality of control resource sets, CORESETs, within the system information.
6. The method of any of Claims 1- 5, wherein the plurality of CORESETs define non- overlapping sets of time-frequency resources in which paging indicators may be transmitted.
7. The method of Claim 6, wherein searching for the paging indicator comprises searching for the paging indicator during the identified paging occasion within one of the CORESETs associated with one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
8. The method of Claim 1, wherein determining that paging occasions are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame comprises determining that a plurality of paging Radio Network Temporary Identifiers, P-RNTIs, have been configured.
9. The method of Claim 8, wherein each of the plurality of P-RNTIs corresponds to a respective one of the non- time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
10. The method of Claim 9, wherein searching for the paging indicator comprises searching for the paging indicator during the identified paging occasion using a P-RNTI associated with one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
11. The method of Claim 8, wherein determining that paging occasions are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame comprises receiving an alternate P-RNTI in the system information.
12. The method of Claim 1, further comprising:
determining a number of configured non-time domain multiplexed layers based on a number of control resource sets, CORESETs, or paging Radio Network Temporary Tdentifiers, P-RNTIs, that are included within the system information.
13. The method of Claim 1, wherein a number of configured non-time domain multiplexed layers is explicitly signaled in the system information.
14. The method of Claim 1, wherein identifying the paging occasion allocated to the wireless terminal comprises:
determining a configured number of paging occasions, Ns, within the paging frame;
calculating an index, i_s, based on an identification number associated with the wireless terminal; and
identifying the paging occasion based on the configured number of paging occasions in the paging frame and the index.
15. The method of Claim 14, wherein calculating the index, i_s, comprises calculating the index, i_s according to the formula:
i_s = floor(UE_ID/N) mod Ns
where UE_ID is the identification number associated with the wireless terminal and N is the number of paging frames in discontinuous reception, DRX, cycle configured for the wireless terminal.
16. A wireless terminal (10) comprising:
a transceiver (401) configured to provide wireless network communication with a wireless communication network; and
a processor (403) coupled with the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to provide wireless network communication through the transceiver, and wherein the processor is configured to perform operations according to any of Claims 1 to 15.
17. A wireless terminal (10) wherein the wireless terminal is adapted to perform the steps of any of Claims 1 to 15.
18. A method of operating a network node (20), comprising:
generating (602) system information comprising paging information that specifies a paging occasion configuration, wherein paging occasions defined by the paging information are arranged in non-time domain multiplexed layers within the paging frame;
transmitting (604) the system information to a wireless terminal; and transmitting (606) a paging indicator during one of the defined paging occasions within the one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
19. The method of Claim 18, wherein paging occasions in different ones of the non time domain multiplexed layers are aligned in the time domain.
20. The method of Claim 18 or 19, wherein the non-time domain multiplexed layers are separated by frequency, and wherein the system information comprises a first set of control resources and a second set of control resources, wherein the first and second sets of control resources are non- overlapping.
21. The method of any Claims 18-20, wherein the system information comprises a paging-SearchSpace parameter that defines a paging indicator search space.
22. The method of any of Claims 18-21, wherein the system information comprises a plurality of control resource sets, CORESETs.
23. The method of Claim 22, wherein the plurality of CORESETs define non overlapping sets of time-frequency resources in which paging indicators may be transmitted.
24. The method of Claim 18, further comprising configuring the wireless terminal with a plurality of paging Radio Network Temporary Identifiers, P-RNTIs.
25. The method of Claim 24, wherein each of the plurality of P-RNTIs corresponds to a respective one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame.
26. The method of Claim 24, wherein configuring the wireless terminal with a plurality of P-RNTIs comprises transmitting an alternate P-RNTI to the wireless terminal in the system information.
27. The method of Claim 18, further comprising: allocating all paging occasions in a first layer before allocating paging occasions in a second layer.
28. The method of Claim 18, wherein each of the non-time domain multiplexed layers of the paging frame have a first number of paging occasions allocated except for a last one of the non-time domain multiplexed layers, which has the first number or less than the first number of paging occasions allocated.
29. A network node (20) of a wireless communication network, the network node comprising:
a transceiver (301) configured to provide wireless network communication with a wireless terminal; and
a processor (303) coupled with the transceiver, wherein the processor is configured to provide wireless network communications through the transceiver, and wherein the processor is configured to perform operations according to any of Claims 18-26.
30. A network node (20) of a radio access network, wherein the network node is adapted to perform the steps of any of Claims 18-26.
EP19732618.4A 2018-06-21 2019-06-19 Configuration of non-time-multiplexed paging occasions Withdrawn EP3811703A1 (en)

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US11696254B2 (en) 2018-08-09 2023-07-04 Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ) Multiplexing PDCCH paging occasion and SS burst
US20220124672A1 (en) * 2020-10-20 2022-04-21 Qualcomm Incorporated Page indication for idle or inactive state user equipment (ue)
WO2022134070A1 (en) * 2020-12-25 2022-06-30 Oppo广东移动通信有限公司 Wireless communication method, terminal device and network device

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