EP3868148A1

EP3868148A1 - Dynamic radio frequency switching in new radio for radio resource management in radio resource control idle state

Info

Publication number: EP3868148A1
Application number: EP19872567.3A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Zhibin Yu; Rui Huang; Yang Tang; Jie Cui
Original assignee: Intel Corp
Current assignee: Intel Corp
Priority date: 2018-10-18
Filing date: 2019-10-16
Publication date: 2021-08-25
Also published as: EP3868148A4; WO2020081719A1

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure describe methods, apparatuses, storage media, and systems for configuring and implementing radio resource management (RRM) measurements for monitoring neighboring cells based on synchronization signal block (SSB) timing groups. Various embodiments describe how to determine a set of SSB timing groups and how to generate a receiver switching pattern based on the set of SSB timing groups and/or RRM scanning measurements. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Description

DYNAMIC RADIO FREQUENCY SWITCHING IN NEW RADIO FOR RADIO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN RADIO RESOURCE CONTROL IDLE STATE

Cross Reference to Related Application

The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/747,572, filed October 18, 2018, entitled“Methods of Dynamic Radio Frequency Switching for Inter-frequency RRM Measurements in RRC IDLE State,” the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Field

Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to the technical field of wireless communications.

Background

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in the present disclosure and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

In Fifth Generation (5G) new radio (NR), inter-frequency and/or intra-frequency radio resource management (RRM) measurements are required for a user equipment (UE) to monitor qualities of neighboring cells. Such a monitoring may be used for a handover in a radio resource control (RRC) CONNECTED state and/or cell reselection in an RRC-IDLE state. In 5GNR, RRM measurements of a target neighboring cell may be based on measurements with respect to one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) associated with the target neighboring cell. In the RRC-IDLE state, one discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle may include a plurality of SSB bursts, which may include one to 64 SSBs in one SSB burst. Thus, it may not be power efficient to require the UE to perform RRM measurements based on the SSB burst as in convention RRM measurements while monitoring neighboring cells in the RRC-IDLE state.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Embodiments will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitate this description, like reference numerals designate like structural elements. Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings. Figure 1 schematically illustrates an example of a network comprising a user equipment (UE) and an access node (AN) in a wireless network, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 2 illustrates example components of a device in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 3A illustrates an example radio frequency front end (RFFE) incorporating a millimeter Wave (mmWave) RFFE and one or more sub-millimeter wave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) in accordance with some embodiments. Figure 3B illustrates an alternative RFFE in accordance with some embodiments.

Figure 4A illustrates an example of RRM measurements in a DRX cycle in the RRC IDLE state based on SSB bursts, according to various embodiments. Figure 4B illustrates an example of RRM measurements in a DRX cycle in the RRC IDLE state based on SSB groups, according to various embodiments.

Figure 5A illustrates an operation flow/algorithmic structure to facilitate a process of receiver switching pattern determination and implementation in the RRC-IDLE state by a UE, in accordance with various embodiments. Figure 5B illustrates an operation flow/algorithmic structure to facilitate the process of receiver switching pattern determination and implementation in the RRC-IDLE state by an AN, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 6 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 7 illustrates hardware resources in accordance with various embodiments.

Detailed Description

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

Various operations may be described as multiple discrete actions or operations in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the claimed subject matter. However, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations may not be performed in the order of presentation. Operations described may be performed in a different order than the described embodiment. Various additional operations may be performed and/or described operations may be omitted in additional embodiments. For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrases“A or B” and“A and/or B” mean (A), (B), or (A and B). For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrases“A, B, or C” and“A, B, and/or C” mean (A), (B), (C), (A and B), (A and C), (B and C), or (A, B, and C).

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

The terms“coupled,”“electronically coupled,”“communicatively coupled,”

“connected,”“electronically connected,”“communicatively connected,” along with derivatives thereof are used herein. The term“coupled” and/or“connected” may mean two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with one another, may mean that two or more elements indirectly contact each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and/or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are said to be coupled with each other. The term“directly coupled” and/or“directly connected” may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with one another. The term“electronically coupled” and/or“electronically connected” may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with one another by a means of circuitry including through one or more vias, traces, wires, wire-bonds, or other interconnect connections, through a wireless communication channel or link, and/or the like.

As used herein, the term“circuitry” may refer to, be part of, or include any combination of integrated circuits (for example, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc.), discrete circuits, combinational logic circuits, system on a chip (SOC), system in a package (SiP), that provides the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware modules to provide the described functions. In some embodiments, circuitry may include logic, at least partially operable in hardware.

Conventionally in the RRC IDLE state, a UE needs to perform RRM measurements to monitor signal qualities from one or more cells at one or more inter-frequency layers and/or an intra-frequency layer based on SSB burst, which means the entire SSB burst is to be measured and the receiver is to be powered on for the entire duration of the SSB burst. Since there may be more than one inter-frequency layer, more receiver power-on time may result if the UE is to monitor more than one inter-frequency layer in a DRX cycle. This may not be power- efficient for UE operations, especially in the RRC IDLE state.

Embodiments described herein may include, for example, apparatuses, methods, and storage media for configuring and implementing RRM measurements for monitoring neighboring cells based on SSB timing groups. A receiver switching pattern may be determined by the UE to effectively measure the SSBs at one or more inter-frequency layers and/or an intra- frequency layer in a DRX cycle. Thus, the UE may operate more power-efficiently in the RRC IDLE state.

Figure 1 schematically illustrates an example wireless network 100 (hereinafter “network 100”) in accordance with various embodiments herein. The network 100 may include a UE 105 in wireless communication with an AN 110. The UE 105 may be configured to connect, for example, to be communicatively coupled, with the AN 110. In this example, the connection 112 is illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols such as a 5GNR protocol operating at mmWave and sub-6GHz, a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, a code-division multiple access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, and the like.

The UE 105 is illustrated as a smartphone (for example, a handheld touchscreen mobile computing device connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also comprise any mobile or non-mobile computing devices, such as a Personal Data Assistant (PDA), pager, laptop computer, desktop computer, wireless handset, customer premises equipment (CPE), fixed wireless access (FWA) device, vehicle mounted UE or any computing device including a wireless communications interface. In some embodiments, the UE 105 can comprise an Internet of Things (IoT) UE, which can comprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. An IoT UE can utilize technologies such as narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type communications (MTC) for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An NB-IoT/MTC network describes interconnecting NB-IoT/MTC UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The NB-IoT/MTC UEs may execute background applications (for example, keep-alive message, status updates, location related services, etc.).

The AN 110 can enable or terminate the connection 112. The AN 110 can be referred to as a base station (BS), NodeB, evolved-NodeB (eNB), next-generation eNB (ng-eNB), next- generation NodeB (gNB or ng-gNB), NG-RAN node, cell, serving cell, neighbor cell, primary cell (PCell), seconary cell (SCell), primary SCell (PSCell) ,and so forth, and can comprise ground stations (for example, terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area. The AN 110 can be the first point of contact for the UE 105. In some embodiments, the AN 110 can fulfill various logical functions including, but not limited to, radio resource control (c), radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from the AN 110 to the UE 105, while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the smallest quantity of resources that currently can be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.

The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) may carry user data and higher- layer signaling to the UE 105. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may carry information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It may also inform the UE 105 about the transport format, resource allocation, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE 105 within a cell) may be performed at the AN 110 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UE 105. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on the PDCCH used for (for example, assigned to) the UE 105.

The PDCCH may use control channel elements (CCEs) to convey the control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets, which may then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as resource element groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of the downlink control information (DCI) and the channel condition.

Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for control channel information that are an extension of the above-described concepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The ePDCCH may be transmitted using one or more enhanced control channel elements (ECCEs). Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

As shown in Figure 1, the UE 105 may include millimeter wave communication circuitry grouped according to functions. The circuitry shown here is for illustrative purposes and the UE 105 may include other circuitry shown in Figures 3A and 3B. The UE 105 may include protocol processing circuitry 115, which may implement one or more layer operations related to medium access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), radio resource control (RRC) and non-access stratum (NAS). The protocol processing circuitry 115 may include one or more processing cores (not shown) to execute instructions and one or more memory structures (not shown) to store program and data information.

The UE 105 may further include digital baseband circuitry 125, which may implement physical layer (PHY) functions including one or more of HARQ functions, scrambling and/or descrambling, coding and/or decoding, layer mapping and/or de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol and/or bit metric determination, multi-antenna port pre-coding and/or decoding, which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency or spatial coding, reference signal generation and/or detection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generation and/or detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

The UE 105 may further include transmit circuitry 135, receive circuitry 145, radio frequency (RF) circuitry 155, and RF front end (RFFE) 165, which may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 175.

In some embodiments, RF circuitry 155 may include multiple parallel RF chains or branches for one or more of transmit or receive functions; each chain or branch may be coupled with one antenna panel 175.

In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 115 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuitry 125 (or simply,“baseband circuitry 125”), transmit circuitry 135, receive circuitry 145, radio frequency circuitry 155, RFFE 165, and one or more antenna panels 175.

A UE reception may be established by and via the one or more antenna panels 175, RFFE 165, RF circuitry 155, receive circuitry 145, digital baseband circuitry 125, and protocol processing circuitry 115. The one or more antenna panels 175 may receive a transmission from the AN 110 by receive-beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas/antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels 175. Further details regarding the UE 105 architecture are illustrated in Figures 2, 3A/3B, and 6. The transmission from the AN 110 may be transmit-beamformed by antennas of the AN 110. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 125 may contain both the transmit circuitry 135 and the receive circuitry 145. In other embodiments, the baseband circuitry 125 may be implemented in separate chips or modules, for example, one chip including the transmit circuitry 135 and another chip including the receive circuitry 145.

Similar to the UE 105, the AN 110 may include mmWave/sub-mmWave communication circuitry grouped according to functions. The AN 110 may include protocol processing circuitry 120, digital baseband circuitry 130 (or simply,“baseband circuitry 130”), transmit circuitry 140, receive circuitry 150, RF circuitry 160, RFFE 170, and one or more antenna panels 180.

A cell transmission may be established by and via the protocol processing circuitry 120, digital baseband circuitry 130, transmit circuitry 140, RF circuitry 160, RFFE 170, and one or more antenna panels 180. The one or more antenna panels 180 may transmit a signal by forming a transmit beam. Figure 3 further illustrates details regarding the RFFE 170 and antenna panel 180.

The AN 110 may generate and transmit a message to include a measurement gap configuration according to various embodiments herein. The UE 105 may decode the message transmitted by the AN 100 to determine a starting point of the configured measurement gap, according to various embodiments herein.

Figure 2 illustrates example components of a device 200 in accordance with some embodiments. In contrast to Figure 1, Figure 2 illustrates example components of the UE 105 or the AN 110 from a receiving and/or transmitting function point of view, and it may not include all of the components described in Figure 1. In some embodiments, the device 200 may include application circuitry 202, baseband circuitry 204, RF circuitry 206, RFFE circuitry 208, and a plurality of antennas 210 together at least as shown. The baseband circuitry 204 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the baseband circuitry 125 in some embodiments. The plurality of antennas 210 may constitute one or more antenna panels for beamforming. The components of the illustrated device 200 may be included in a UE or an AN. In some embodiments, the device 200 may include fewer elements (for example, a cell may not utilize the application circuitry 202, and instead include a processor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC). In some embodiments, the device 200 may include additional elements such as, for example, a memory /storage, display, camera, sensor, or input/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (for example, said circuitry may be separately included in more than one device for Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementations).

The application circuitry 202 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 202 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (for example, graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled with or may include

memory /storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory /storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device 200. In some

embodiments, processors of application circuitry 202 may process IP data packets received from an EPC.

The baseband circuitry 204 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 204 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the baseband circuitry 125 and the baseband circuitry 130 in some embodiments. The baseband circuitry 204 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 206 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206. Baseband circuitry 204 may interface with the application circuitry 202 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 206. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 204A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 204B, a fifth generation (5G) and/or NR baseband processor 204C, or other baseband processor(s) 204D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (for example, second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 204 (for example, one or more of baseband processors 204 A-D) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 206. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 204 A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 204G and executed via a central processing unit (CPU) 204E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments,

modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 204F. The audio DSP(s) 204F may include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, in a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board in some embodiments. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 204 and the application circuitry 202 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a SOC.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 204 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 206 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include one or more switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 206 may include receiver circuitry 206A, which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the RFFE circuitry 208 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 204. RF circuitry 206 may also include transmitter circuitry 206B, which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 204 and provide RF output signals to the RFFE circuitry 208 for

transmission.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 204 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 206.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio integrated circuit (IC) circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the

embodiments is not limited in this respect.

RFFE circuitry 208 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF beams received from one or more antennas 210. The RF beams may be transmit beams formed and transmitted by the AN 110 while operating in mmWave or sub- mmWave frequency rang. The RFFE circuitry 208 coupled with the one or more antennas 210 may receive the transmit beams and proceed them to the RF circuitry 206 for further processing. RFFE circuitry 208 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 206 for transmission by one or more of the antennas 210, with or without beamforming. In various embodiments, the amplification through transmit or receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 206, solely in the RFFE circuitry 208, or in both the RF circuitry 206 and the RFFE circuitry 208.

In some embodiments, the RFFE circuitry 208 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The RFFE circuitry 208 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the RFFE circuitry 208 may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify received RF beams and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (for example, to the RF circuitry 206). The transmit signal path of the RFFE circuitry 208 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (for example, provided by RF circuitry 206), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for beamforming and subsequent transmission (for example, by one or more of the one or more antennas 210).

Processors of the application circuitry 202 and processors of the baseband circuitry 204 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuitry 204, alone or in combination, may be used to execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the application circuitry 202 may utilize data (for example, packet data) received from these layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (for example, transmission communication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a radio resource control (RRC) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 may comprise a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE/AN, described in further detail below.

Figure 3A illustrates an embodiment of a radio frequency front end 300 incorporating an mmWave RFFE 305 and one or more sub-6GHz radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) 310. The mmWave RFFE 305 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the RFFE 165, RFFE 170, and/or the RFFE circuitry 208 in some embodiments. The mmWave RFFE 305 may be used for the UE 105 while operating in FR2 or mmWave; the RFICs 310 may be used for the UE 105 while operating in FR1, sub-6GHz, or LTE bands. In this embodiment, the one or more RFICs 310 may be physically separated from the mmWave RFFE 305. RFICs 310 may include connection to one or more antennas 320. The RFFE 305 may be coupled with multiple antennas 315, which may constitute one or more antenna panels.

Figure 3B illustrates an alternate embodiment of an RFFE 325. In this aspect both millimeter wave and sub-6GHz radio functions may be implemented in the same physical RFFE 330. The RFFE 330 may incorporate both millimeter wave antennas 335 and sub-6GHz antennas 340. The RFFE 330 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the RFFE 165, RFFE 170, and/or the RFFE circuitry 208 in some embodiments.

Figures 3A and 3B illustrate embodiments of various RFFE architectures for either the UE 105 or the AN 110.

Figure 4A illustrates an example of RRM measurements in a DRX cycle in the RRC IDLE state based on SSB bursts, according to various embodiments. The bottom line represents an intra-frequency layer fo 405 and the top line represents an inter-frequency layer fi 410. In this example illustration, all of the neighboring cells may have the same burst pattern as the serving cell of the UE 105 and they may be time-synchronized with the serving cell. The DRX cycle may include a first SSB burst 1 415A and a second SSB burst 2 415B, wherein the DRX cycle has a length of 320 ms, which may be a minimal DRX cycle length, and each of the SSB bursts 1 and 2 415A/B has a repetition period (RP) of 160 ms in this example. In each of the SSB bursts, there may be four SSBs (SSBl_fo, SSB2_fo, SSB3_fo, and SSB4_fo) at intra- frequency layer fo 405 and four SSBs (SSBl_fi, SSB2_fi, SSB3_fi, and SSB4_fi) at inter- frequency layer // 410. In the RRC IDLE state, the UE 105 may be required to monitor at least at one inter-frequency and the intra-frequency, which means the UE 105 may switch on its receiver or RF receiver to receive the SSBs transmitted at those frequencies to perform RRM measurements. Since the RRM measurements are to be based on SSB bursts, the UE 105 may switch the receiver on at the inter-frequency layer fi 410 for a duration of the first SSB burst 1 415A, and a duration of the second SSB burst 2 415B. Those two receiver power-on periods are illustrated as RX_ON_fl and RX-0N_f2 in Figure 4A. Thus, the SSBl_fi, SSB2_fi, SSB3_fi, and SSB4_fi corresponding to the SSB burst 1 415A and the SSBl_fo, SSB2_fo, SSB3_fo, and SSB4_fo corresponding to the SSB burst 2 415B may be measured by the UE 105 during the DRX cycle, which are illustrated by the gray-colored SSB blocks in Figure 4A. The RRM measurements may include, but are not limited to, reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal to noise and interference ratio (SINR), and received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurements with respect to SSBs and/or channel state information reference signal (CSI RS).

During the DRX cycle, the UE receiver may be switched off during an interval between the SSB bursts, shown as RX OFF 420, which may be the only time that the UE receiver does not need to be turned on. Thus, in the example that Figure 4A illustrates, the UE receiver has to be turned on substantially during the DRX cycle, which may be not power- efficient in the RRC IDLE state. However, the UE 105 may be able to measure all the SSBs at different frequencies at least once and determine corresponding signal strengths of the measured SSBs, based on the burst-based RRM measurements.

Figure 4B illustrates an example of RRM measurements in a DRX cycle in the RRC IDLE state based on SSB groups, according to various embodiments. The bottom line represents an intra-frequency layer fo 425 and the top line represents an inter-frequency layer fi 430. In this example illustration, all of the neighboring cells may have the same burst pattern as the serving cell of the UE 105 and they may be time-synchronized with the serving cell. The DRX cycle may include a first SSB burst 1 435A and a second SSB burst 2 435B, wherein the DRX cycle has a length of 320 ms, which may be a minimal DRX cycle length, and each of the SSB bursts 1 and 2 435 A/B has a repetition period (RP) of 160 ms in this example. In each of the SSB bursts, there may be four SSB groups (SSB group 1, SSB group 2, SSB group 3, and SSB group 4) at both intra-frequency layer fo 425 and inter-frequency layer fi 430. The SSB groups may be referred to as SSB timing groups that group all the SSBs into one SSB group if those SSBs are aligned on a time scale when arriving at the UE 105. Note that the alignment of the SSBs may not be exact and it may allow a degree of tolerance. For example, there may be one or more SSBs that arrive at the UE receiver at or around a time to, which is not shown in Figure 4B. All those SSBs may be grouped as an SSB group 1. All those grouped SSBs may have the same or different carrier frequencies. Thus, those SSBs may be at the intra-frequency layer fo 425 or the inter-frequency layer fi 430, or some other inter-frequency layer(s) that is not shown in Figure 4B.

In embodiments, the UE 105 may only need to measure the strongest SSB(s) in power within an SSB burst. Thus, the UE 105 may determine one or more strongest SSBs at a frequency layer with respect to received power level according to RRM measurements within an SSB burst. Such measurements may be performed based on SSB bursts as illustrated with respect to Figure 4A. This means the UE 105 may perform RRM measurements based on SSB bursts as illustrated in Figure 4A over one or more SSB bursts in a first DRX, to determine one or more SSBs that need to be measured and monitored in later DRX cycles. Note that all the SSB bursts in a DRX may share the same SSB pattern, since the same SSB burst may repeat itself within one DRX. Further, the DRX cycle may also repeat itself so that the DRX cycles may have the same transmitting patterns to the UE 105. As long as the propagation conditions are not changed significantly, the DRX cycles may have the same SSB timing pattern in terms of receiving power and SSB timing perspectives to the UE 105.

Since the UE 105 may only need to measure the strongest SSB(s) once in any given DRX cycle in the RRC IDLE state, a receiver switching pattern may be determined based on the SSBs that need to be measured (e.g., the strongest SSBs). In the example illustrated by Figure 4B, SSB group 1 and SSB group 3 may have the strongest time-synchronized SSBs at inter- frequency layer fi, and SSB group 2 may have the strongest time-synchronized SSBs at inter- frequency layer // and intra-frequency layer fo. In accordance, a receiver switching pattern 440 may be determined. According to the receiver switching pattern 440, the UE 105 may switch on its receiver to receive and measure SSB group 1 and SSB group 3 at the inter-frequency layer fi during the first SSB burst 1 435A, and SSB group 2 at the inter-frequency layer fi during the first SSB burst 2 435B. The UE 105 may switch on its receiver to receive and measure SSB group 2 at the intra-frequency layer fo during the first SSB burst 1 435A. The UE 105 may switch off the receiver for the rest of time within the DRX to save power, as shown by“RX- OFF” in Figure 4B. In this example, there are no sufficiently strong SSBs in SSB group 4. Thus, none of the SSB group 4 may be measured. In Figure 4B, the SSB groups that are to be measured are colored in gray.

In embodiments, the UE 105 may determine one or more SSBs with corresponding frequency layers to measure based on a scan of measurements of SSBs within an SSB burst, according to burst-based measurements as illustrated with respect to Figure 4A. Such a scan of measurements may be performed in one or more subsets of one or more DRX cycles. For example, if the UE 105 is to monitor one inter-frequency layer for neighboring cells, the UE 105 may only perform the scan measurement in one SSB burst to acquire SSB power levels and/or qualities. The UE 105 may then determine an SSB timing group based on the determined one or more SSBs that need to be measured in the RRC IDLE state. In embodiments, the UE 105 may determine the receiver switching pattern based on an SSB timing group pattern after detecting/determining to measure one or more SSBs or SSB groups at specific frequency layers, instead of an SSB burst pattern.

In embodiments, if an SSB timing group has time colliding SSBs from different frequency layers, e.g., the SSB group 2 in Figure 4B, the UE 105 may determine to measure the SSBs at different frequency layer in a time-multiplexed fashion. For example, Figure 4B illustrates that the UE receiver may switch on at intra-frequency layer fo in the first SSB burst 1 435A to measure the SSB group 2 at intra-frequency layer fo, and switch on at inter-frequency layer fi to measure the SSB group 2 in the second SSB burst 2 435B.

In embodiments, if an SSB group contains SSBs at the frequency layer, e.g., the SSB group 1 or 3 in Figure 4B, the UE 105 may determine to measure the SSB group at that frequency layer once in a DRX cycle and switch the receiver off for the other SSB bursts in the same DRX cycle.

In embodiments, the UE 105 may determine to switch the receiver off during a time- gap of adjacent SSB timing groups. Figure 4B illustrates such an RX-OFF 445 between the SSB group 2 and SSB group 3.

By comparing the RX-ON time in Figures 4A and 4B, it can be concluded that the UE 105 may be more power efficient when monitoring/measuring the SSBs from neighboring cells based on the SSB timing groups. Note that a DRX may have more than two SSB bursts and/or more than one inter-frequency layer may be monitored by the UE 105.

In embodiments, the UE 105 may determine to switch the receiver off for an SSB timing group that does not include any pre-selected and/or determined SSBs to be measured. In the example of Figure 4B, the UE 105 may determine the receiver switching pattern that is not to measure SSB group 4 in the entire DRX cycle, since the SSB group 4 does not include any SSBs that are to be measured at any frequency layer.

In embodiments, the UE 105 may determine or pre-select the strongest SSB(s) per cell by scanning the measurements of all SSBs within an SSB burst at one frequency layer. If the UE 105 is to monitor neighboring cells at more than one frequency layer, the UE 105 may perform scanning measurements with additional SSB burst(s). Such one or more SSB busts may be in one or more sub-sets of a DRX cycle. In a scanning measurement, the UE 105 may perform one or more RRM measurements in a down-sampled sub-set of the DRX cycle and to determine one or more SSBs that needs to be measured. Such a determination may be based on the power level strength of the SSBs, signal quality of the SSBs, and/or other adequate indicators. Further, the UE may perform the scanning measurements in one or more DRX cycles. In embodiments, the UE 105 may perform the scanning measurements based on an activating rate of SSB scanning measurements. The activating rate may indicate how often the UE may perform the scanning measurements based on a number of DRX cycles, a time interval, or like conditions. The activating rate may be determined based on UE mobility, channel condition, and/or other adequate indicators. For example, the activating rate may be determined based on UE speed sensor results, Doppler shift or spread estimations, and/or other results or measurements. The AN 110 may configure the UE 105 or transmit one or more configurations to the UE with the activating rate configuration. Table 1 shows an example of configuring the activating rate based on UE mobility.

Table 1. Activating rate of SSB scanning measurements

Figure 5A illustrates an operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 to facilitate a process of receiver switching pattern determination and implementation in the RRC IDLE state by the UE 105, in accordance with various embodiments as illustrated with respect to Figures 4A and 4B. The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may be performed by the UE 105 or circuitry thereof.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include, at 510, decoding one or more neighboring cell SSB burst configurations. The UE 105 may receive and/or obtain the one or more neighboring cell SSB burst configurations via system information block type 1 (SIB1) or other system signaling. Each neighboring cell SSB burst configuration may indicate one or more SSB bursts transmitted with the neighboring cell at one or more frequency layers.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include, at 520, performing one or more SSB scanning measurements. The SSB scanning measurements may be performed at per frequency layer and/or per neighboring cell. The SSB scanning measurements may be performed based on SSB bursts, according to the decoded one or more neighboring cell SSB burst configurations. The SSB scanning measurements may be performed based on a configured activating rate of SSB scanning measurements. Further details in this regard are described with respect to Figures 4A/4B.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include, at 530, pre-selecting or determining one or more SSBs to be monitored and/or measured. The pre-selection or determination may be based on one or more criteria, such as the strongest power level of the SSBs, the best signal quality of the SSBs, and other fit indicators. The pre-selection or determination may be performed per frequency layer and/or per neighboring cell.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include, at 540, determining a set of SSB timing groups based on time-co-located SSBs that are pre-selected. The time-co-located SSBs may be determined based on the decoded one or more SSB burst configurations coupled with the reception of the SSBs by the UE 105. The time-co-located SSBs may refer to the SSBs that are timely aligned while received by the UE 105. The UE 105 may determine a set of SSB timing groups and each of the SSB timing groups may include information regarding whether each SSB timing group needs to be measured at a frequency layer.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include, at 550, generating a receiver switching pattern based on the determined set of SSB timing groups. The switching pattern may be used to configure the UE 105 to switch on and off one or more receivers of the UE 105. The one or more receivers may include one or more RF portions and one or more baseband portions, with respect to descriptions regarding Figures 1 and/or 2. The one or more receivers may further include one or more intermediate frequency (IF) sections for receivers operating in FR2 ranges.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include, at 560, switching on or off the receiver for RRM measurements based on the receiver switching pattern. The receiver switching pattern may be applied to one or more DRX cycles.

Figure 5B illustrates an operation flow/algorithmic structure 505 to facilitate the process of receiver switching pattern determination and implementation in the RRC-IDLE state by the AN 110, in accordance with various embodiments as illustrated with respect to Figures 4A and 4B. The AN 110 may be an eNB in an NR related network, operating in an EN-DC mode, NR CA mode, NR-NR DC mode, or other NR standalone mode. The operation flow/algorithmic structure 505 may be performed by the AN 110 or circuitry thereof.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 505 may include, at 515, generating one or more SSBs corresponding to one or more neighboring cells. The one or more SSBs may be operating at an intra-frequency layer of the serving cell of the UE or an inter-frequency layer of the serving cell of the UE.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 505 may further include, at 525, transmitting the one or more SSBs.

In embodiments, the AN 110 may further transmit one or more SSB burst configurations with respect to one or more neighboring cells to the UE. The one or more SSB burst configurations may indicate the transmissions of the one or more SSBs corresponding to one or more neighboring cells. Figure 6 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with some embodiments. As discussed above, the baseband circuitry 204 of Figure 2 may comprise processors 204A-204E and a memory 204G utilized by said processors. The processors 204A- 204E of the UE 105 may perform some or all of the operation flow/algorithmic structure 500, in accordance with various embodiments with respect to the networks 400 and 405. The processors 204A-204E of the AN 110 may perform some or all of the operation flow/algorithmic structure 505, in accordance with various embodiments with respect to the networks 400 and 405. Each of the processors 204A-204E may include a memory interface, 604A-604E, respectively, to send/receive data to/from the memory 204G. The processors 204A-204E of the UE 105 may be used to process the SFTD measurement; the processors 204A-204E of the AN 110 may be used to generate the SFTD measurement configuration.

The baseband circuitry 204 may further include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memory interface 612 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to the baseband circuitry 204), an application circuitry interface 614 (for example, an interface to send/receive data to/from the application circuitry 202 of Figure 2), an RF circuitry interface 616 (for example, an interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 206 of Figure 2), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 618 (for example, an interface to send/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (for example, Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components), and a power management interface 620 (for example, an interface to send/receive power or control signals).

Figure 7 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (for example, a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, Figure 7 shows a diagrammatic

representation of hardware resources 700 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 710, one or more memory /storage devices 720, and one or more communication resources 730, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 740. For embodiments where node virtualization (for example, network function virtualization (NFV)) is utilized, a hypervisor 702 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 700.

The processors 710 (for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 712 and a processor 714.

The memory /storage devices 720 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory /storage devices 720 may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random-access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

The communication resources 730 may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 704 or one or more databases 706 via a network 708. For example, the communication resources 730 may include wired communication components (for example, for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® components (for example, Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

Instructions 750 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 710 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, e.g., the operation flows 500 and 505. For example, in an embodiment in which the hardware resources 700 are implemented into the UE 105, the instructions 750 may cause the UE to perform some or all of the operation

flow/algorithmic structure 500. In other embodiments, the hardware resources 700 may be implemented into the AN 110. The instructions 750 may cause the AN 110 to perform some or all of the operation flow/algorithmic structure 505. The instructions 750 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 710 (for example, within the processor’s cache memory), the memory /storage devices 720, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 750 may be transferred to the hardware resources 700 from any combination of the peripheral devices 704 or the databases 706. Accordingly, the memory of processors 710, the memory /storage devices 720, the peripheral devices 704, and the databases 706 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

Some non-limiting examples are as follows. The following examples pertain to further embodiments, and specifics in the examples may be used anywhere in one or more embodiments discussed previously. Any of the following examples may be combined with any other example or any embodiment discussed herein.

Example 1 may include a method comprising: determining, based on one or more selected synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), a set of SSB timing groups corresponding to an SSB burst in a discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle; generating, based on the set of SSB timing groups, a receiver switching pattern that indicates whether to switch on a receiver of the UE at one or more frequency layers with respect to individual SSB timing groups of the set of SSB timing groups in a radio resource control idle (RRC IDLE) state; and switching, based on the receiver switching pattern, the receiver on or off at individual frequency layers of the one or more frequency layers with respect to the individual SSB timing groups for one or more radio resource management (RRM) measurements in the RRC IDLE state.

Example 2 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the one or more frequency layers are to be monitored and/or measured by RRM measurements by a user equipment (UE).

Example 3 may include the method of examples 1-2 and/or some other examples herein, wherein determining the set of SSB timing groups is to perform, upon reception of one or more SSB burst configurations, SSB scanning measurements at the one or more frequency layers with respect to one or more SSB bursts; select one or more SSBs that are to be measured at one or more respective frequency layers for neighboring cell monitoring in the RRC IDLE state, based on the SSB scanning measurements; and determine one or more SSB timing groups based on the selected one or more SSBs and their corresponding timing information.

Example 4 may include the method of example 3 and/or some other example herein, wherein selecting the one or more SSBs is to UE to select the one or more SSBs, based at least on one of reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal to noise and interference ratio (SINR), and received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurement results in the SSB scanning measurements.

Example 5 may include the method of example 3 and/or some other examples herein, wherein performing the SSB scanning measurements is to perform the SSB scanning measurements based on an activating rate of SSB scanning measurements that indicates a rate of performing the SSB scanning measurements with respect to time or a number of DRX cycles.

Example 6 may include the method of example 5 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising determining the activating rate based on a UE mobility.

Example 7 may include the method of example 6 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the UE mobility is determined based on one or more UE speed sensor measurements, Doppler shift/spread estimation measurements, or a combination of both.

Example 8 may include the method of examples 1-7 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the one or more frequency layers include an intra-frequency layer and one or more inter-frequency layers with respect to a serving cell of the UE. Example 9 may include the method of examples 1-7 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the receiver switching pattern is to indicate whether to switch the receiver of the UE on at one frequency layer of the one or more frequency layers with respect to a respective SSB timing group of the set of SSB timing groups during one SSB burst in the DRX cycle.

Example 10 may include the method of example 9 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the receiver switching pattern is to indicate to switch off the receiver of the UE at the one frequency layer during other SSB bursts in the DRX cycle, if the receiver switching pattern is to indicate to switch the receiver of the UE on at the one frequency layer during the SSB burst in the DRX cycle.

Example 11 may include the method of examples 1-7 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the receiver switching pattern is to indicate to switch off the receiver of the UE between two adjacent SSB timing groups of the set of the SSB timing groups.

Example 12 may include the method of examples 1-7 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the receiver switching pattern is to indicate to switch on the receiver of the UE at a first frequency layer of the one or more frequency layers with respect to an SSB group of the set of SSB timing groups during a first SSB burst in the DRX cycle and switch on the receiver of the UE at a second frequency layer of the one or more frequency layers with respect to the SSB group of the set of SSB timing groups during a second SSB burst in the DRX cycle.

Example 13 may include the method of examples 1-7 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the receiver switching pattern is to indicate to switch off the receiver of the UE with respect to an SSB timing group of the set of the SSB timing groups, if the SSB timing group does not include any of the pre-selected SSBs.

Example 14 may include the method of examples 1-7 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising decoding, upon reception of the one or more SSB burst

configurations, the one or more SSB burst configurations with respect to monitoring neighboring cell SSBs.

Example 15 may include a method comprising: performing, upon reception of one or more SSB burst configurations, an SSB scanning measurement at one or more frequency layers with respect to one or more SSB bursts in a first DRX cycle; determining, based on the SSB scanning measurement, a set of SSB timing groups for a second DRX cycle; generating, based on the set of SSB timing groups, an receiver switching pattern that indicates whether to switch on an receiver of the UE at one or more frequency layers with respect to individual SSB timing groups of the set of SSB timing groups; and switching on or off the receiver at individual frequency layers of the one or more frequency layers with respect to the individual SSB timing groups for one or more RRM measurements in an RRC IDLE state during the second DRX cycle.

Example 16 may include the method of example 15 and/or some other examples herein, wherein determining the set of SSB timing groups for the second DRX cycle is to select, based on the SSB scanning measurement, one or more SSBs for RRM measurements in the second DRX cycle; determine the set of SSB timing groups based on the selected one or more SSBs and their timing information.

Example 17 may include the method of example 16 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the timing information is to indicate a transmission time in an SSB burst and/or a arriving time of the SSB at a UE, and the selection is based on SSB power strength, SSB signal quality, or a combination thereof.

Example 18 may include the method of examples 15-17 and/or some other examples herein, wherein performing the one or more RRM measurements is to measure with respect to the individual SSB timing groups at one of the one or more frequency layers only once during the second DRX cycle, based on the receiver switching pattern.

Example 19 may include the method of examples 15-17 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the SSB scanning measurement is a first SSB scanning measurement, and the method is to further comprise determining to perform a second SSB scanning measurement in a third DRX cycle, based on an activating rate of SSB scanning measurements.

Example 20 may include the method of examples 1-19 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the method is performed by the UE or a portion thereof.

Example 21 may include a method comprising: generating, based on one or more SSB burst configurations, one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) with respect to one or more neighboring cells; and transmitting the one or more SSBs.

Example 22 may include the method of example 21 and/or some other examples herein, wherein transmitting the one or more SSBs is to transmit the one or more SSBs at one or more frequency layers.

Example 23 may include the method of example 22 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the one or more frequency layers include one intra-frequency layer and one or more inter-frequency layers with respect to a serving cell of a user equipment (UE).

Example 24 may include the method of examples 21-23 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising generating the one or more SSB burst configurations; and transmitting the one or more SSB burst configurations.

Example 25 may include the method of example 24 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the one or more SSB burst configurations correspond to one or more neighboring cells. Example 26 may include the method of examples 21-25 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the method is performed by the AN or a portion thereof.

Example 27 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of the method described in or related to any of examples 1-26, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 28 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of the method described in or related to any of examples 1-26, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 29 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/or circuitry to perform one or more elements of the method described in or related to any of examples 1-26, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 30 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-26, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 31 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-26, or portions thereof.

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

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

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

The description herein of illustrated implementations, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. While specific implementations and examples are described herein for illustrative purposes, a variety of alternate or equivalent embodiments or implementations calculated to achieve the same purposes may be made in light of the above detailed description, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize.

Claims

Claims What is claimed is:

1. One or more computer-readable media (CRM) comprising instructions to, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to:

determine, based on one or more selected synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), a set of SSB timing groups corresponding to an SSB burst in a discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle;

generate, based on the set of SSB timing groups, a receiver switching patern that indicates whether to switch on a receiver of the UE at one or more frequency layers with respect to individual SSB timing groups of the set of SSB timing groups in a radio resource control idle (RRC IDLE) state; and

switch, based on the receiver switching patern, on or off the receiver at individual frequency layers of the one or more frequency layers with respect to the individual SSB timing groups for one or more radio resource management (RRM) measurements in the RRC IDLE state.

2. The one or more CRM of claim 1, wherein one or more frequency layers are to be monitored and/or measured by RRM measurements by a user equipment (UE).

3. The one or more CRM of claim 1, wherein to determine the set of SSB timing groups, the instructions are to cause the UE to:

perform, upon reception of one or more SSB burst configurations, SSB scanning measurements at the one or more frequency layers with respect to one or more SSB bursts;

select one or more SSBs that are to be measured at one or more respective frequency layers for neighboring cell monitoring in the RRC IDLE state, based on the SSB scanning measurements; and

determine one or more SSB timing groups based on the selected one or more SSBs and their corresponding timing information.

4. The one or more CRM of claim 3, wherein to select the one or more SSBs, the instructions are to cause to UE to select the one or more SSBs, based at least on one of reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal to noise and interference ratio (SINR), and received signal strength indicator (RSSI) measurement results in the SSB scanning measurements.

5. The one or more CRM of claim 3, wherein to perform the SSB scanning measurements, the instructions are to cause the UE to perform the SSB scanning measurements based on an activating rate of SSB scanning measurements that indicates a rate of performing the SSB scanning measurements with respect to time or a number of DRX cycles.

6. The one or more CRM of claim 5, wherein, upon execution, the instructions are further to cause the UE to determine the activating rate based on a UE mobility.

7. The one or more CRM of claim 6, wherein the UE mobility is determined based on one or more UE speed sensor measurements, Doppler shift/spread estimation measurements, or a combination of both.

8. The one or more CRM of any one of claims 1-7, wherein the one or more frequency layers include an intra-frequency layer and one or more inter-frequency layers with respect to a serving cell of the UE.

9. The one or more CRM of any one of claims 1-7, wherein the receiver switching pattern is to indicate whether to switch the receiver of the UE on at one frequency layer of the one or more frequency layers with respect to a respective SSB timing group of the set of SSB timing groups during one SSB burst in the DRX cycle.

10. The one or more CRM of claim 9, wherein the receiver switching pattern is to indicate to switch off the receiver of the UE at the one frequency layer during other SSB bursts in the DRX cycle, if the receiver switching pattern is to indicate to switch the receiver of the UE on at the one frequency layer during the SSB burst in the DRX cycle.

11. The one or more CRM of any one of claims 1-7, wherein the receiver switching pattern is to indicate to switch off the receiver of the UE between two adjacent SSB timing groups of the set of the SSB timing groups.

12. The one or more CRM of any one of claims 1-7, wherein the receiver switching pattern is to indicate to switch on the receiver of the UE at a first frequency layer of the one or more frequency layers with respect to an SSB group of the set of SSB timing groups during a first SSB burst in the DRX cycle and switch on the receiver of the UE at a second frequency layer of the one or more frequency layers with respect to the SSB group of the set of SSB timing groups during a second SSB burst in the DRX cycle.

13. The one or more CRM of any one of claims 1-7, wherein the receiver switching pattern is to indicate to switch off the receiver of the UE with respect to an SSB timing group of tlie set of the SSB timing groups, if die SSB timing group does not include any of die preselected SSBs.

14. The one or more CRM of any of claims 1-7, wherein, upon execution, die instructions are further to cause the UE to decode, upon reception of the one or more SSB burst configurations, the one or more SSB burst configurations with respect to monitoring neighboring cell SSBs.

15. One or more computer-readable media (CRM) comprising instructions to, upon execution of die instructions by one or more processors of an access node (AN), cause the AN to:

generate, based on one or more SSB burst configurations, one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) with respect to one or more neighboring cells; and

transmit the one or more SSBs.

16. The one or more CRM of claim 15, wherein, upon execution, the instructions are further to cause the AN to:

generate die one or more SSB burst configurations; and

transmit die one or more SSB burst configurations.

17. The one or more CRM of claim 15, wherein to transmit the one or more SSBs, the instructions are to cause the AN to transmit the one or more SSBs at one or more frequency layers.

18. The one or more CRM of claim 15, wherein the one or more frequency layers include one infra-frequency layer and one or more inter-frequency layers with respect to a serving cell of a user equipment (UE).

19. An apparatus of a user equipment (UE), comprising:

interface circuitry to perform, upon reception of one or more synchronization signal block (SSB) burst configurations, an SSB scanning measurement at one or more frequency layers with respect to one or more SSB bursts in a tils t discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle; and

processing circuitry coupled with the interface circuitry, the processing circuitry to:

determine, based on the SSB scanning measurement, a set of SSB timing groups for a second DRX cycle,

generate, based on the set of SSB timing groups, a receiver switching pattern that indicates whether to switch on a receiver of the UE at one or more frequency layers with respect to individual SSB timing groups of the set of SSB timing groups, and

switch on or off the receiver at individual frequency layers of the one or more frequency layers with respect to the individual SSB timing groups for one or more radio resource management (RRM) measurements in a radio resource control_idle (RRC_IDLE) state during the second DRX cycle.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the interface circuitry⁷ is further to perform one or more RRM measurements with respect to the individual SSB timing groups at one or more frequency layers during the second DRX cycle, based on the receiver switching pattern.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein to perform the one or more RRM

measurements, the interface circuitry is to measure with respect to the individual SSB timing groups at one of the one or more frequency layers only once during the second DRX cycle, based on the receiver switching pattern.

22. The apparatus of any one of claims 19-21, wherein the SSB scanning measurement is a first SSB scanning measurement, and the processing circuitry is further to determine to configure the interface circuitry to perform a second SSB scanning measurement in a third DRX cycle, based on an activating rate of SSB scanning measurements.

23. An apparatus of an access node (AN), comprising:

means for generating one or more synchronization signal block (SSB) burst configurations with respect to one or more neighboring cell;

means for transmitting the one or more SSB burst configurations; means for generating one or more SSBs based on the one or more SSB burst configurations; and

means for transmitting the one or more SSBs.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the one or more SSBs are to operate at one or more frequency layers.