Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W36/00—Hand-off or reselection arrangements
  • H04W36/34—Reselection control
  • H04W36/36—Reselection control by user or terminal equipment
  • H04W36/362—Conditional handover
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W36/00—Hand-off or reselection arrangements
  • H04W36/0005—Control or signalling for completing the hand-off
  • H04W36/0055—Transmission or use of information for re-establishing the radio link
  • H04W36/0069—Transmission or use of information for re-establishing the radio link in case of dual connectivity, e.g. decoupled uplink/downlink

Definitions

• Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to the technical field of wireless communications.
• Conditional handovers are being developed with respect to Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR) mobility enhancements.
• 3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project
• NR New Radio
• a conditional handover a user equipment (UE) is preconfigured with handover execution conditions. Once the execution conditions are fulfilled, the UE will immediately trigger handover by trying to access the target cell. This is in contrast to legacy handovers in which the UE would send a measurement report to a serving access node and wait for a legacy handover command.
• FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an example of network in accordance with various embodiments.
• FIG. 2 illustrates the network in accordance with additional embodiments.
• FIG. 3 illustrates an operation flow/ algorithmic structure in accordance with various embodiments.
• Figure 4 illustrates an operation flow/algorithmic structure in accordance with various embodiments.
• FIG. 5 illustrates an example device in accordance with various embodiments.
• FIG. 6 illustrates hardware resources in accordance with various embodiments.
• phrases“A or B” and“A and/or B” mean (A), (B), or (A and B).
• 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).
• FIG 1 schematically illustrates an example wireless network 100 (hereinafter“network 100”) in accordance with various embodiments herein.
• the network 100 may include a (UE)
• a handover may refer to the UE 105 changing from a primary serving cell (Pcell) provided by a serving AN, for example, AN 110, to a PCell provided by another AN.
• An SCG change may pertain to a dual connectivity embodiment that includes both a PCell provided by a master AN (for example, a master evolved nodeB (MeNB)), and a primary secondary cell (PScell) provided by a secondary AN (for example, a secondary evolved nodeB (SeNB)).
• the SCG change may refer to the UE 105 changing the PScell to another PSCell.
• the network 100 may be a network compatible with 3GPP New Radio (NR) or long Term Evolution (LTE) Technical Specifications (TSs).
• the UE 105 may be configured to connect, for example, to be communicatively coupled, with the AN 110 via connection 112.
• the connection 112 is illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols such as an LTE protocol, 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.
• GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
• CDMA code-division multiple access
• PTT Push-to-Talk
• 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.
• PDA Personal Data Assistant
• CPE customer premises equipment
• FWA fixed wireless access
• vehicle mounted UE vehicle mounted UE or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.
• 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.
• IoT Internet of Things
• 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 NodeB (gNB or ng- gNB), NG-RAN node, cell, serving cell, neighbor cell, and so forth, and can comprise ground stations (for example, terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area.
• BS base station
• eNB evolved-NodeB
• gNB or ng- gNB Next-Generation NodeB
• NG-RAN node cell, serving cell, neighbor cell, and so forth
• ground stations for example, terrestrial access points
• satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area.
• the AN 110 can be the first point of contact for the UE 105.
• the AN 110 can fulfill various logical functions including, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.
• RNC radio network controller
• the UE 105 may include protocol processing circuitry 115, which may implement one or more of 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 operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 115 may be referred to as higher-layer signaling operations, as they occur higher than a physical (PHY) layer of the communication protocol.
• 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 the PHY functions including one or more of hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) 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 PHY functions may be referred to as lower-layer 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.
• transmit circuitry 135, receive circuitry 145, radio frequency (RF) circuitry 155, and RF front end (RFFE) 165 may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 175.
• circuitry may refer to, is part of, or includes hardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable System on Chip (SoC)), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to provide the described functionality.
• FPD field-programmable device
• FPGA field-programmable gate array
• PLD programmable logic device
• CPLD complex PLD
• HPLD high-capacity PLD
• SoC programmable System on Chip
• DSPs digital signal processors
• the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality.
• the term“circuitry” may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the program code used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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,
• 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.
• the transmission from the AN 110 may be transmit-beamformed by antennas of the AN 110.
• the baseband circuitry 125 may contain both the transmit circuitry 135 and the receive circuitry 145.
• 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.
• 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 transmission components of the UE 105 may apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam emitted by the antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels 180.
• the AN 110 may provide configuration information via one or more configuration signals in the downlink.
• the configuration signals may be a combination of higher- and lower- layer signals that occur at different frequencies or events.
• the configuration information may configure the various reference signals to be received or transmitted by the UE 105.
• FIG. 2 illustrates the network 100 with additional network components in accordance with some embodiments.
• the AN 110 may provide a serving cell 212 through which the UE is communicatively coupled with the AN 110.
• the serving cell 212 may be a Pcell, which may or may not be associated with a master cell group, or a Pscell of a secondary serving group.
• the network 100 may further include a number of other serving cells in the vicinity of AN 110.
• the network 100 may include an AN 216 having an associated serving cell 220; and AN 224 having an associated serving cell 228; and AN 232 having an associated serving cell 236.
• serving cells 220, 228, and 236 may be Pcells or PScells.
• the ANs may provide the serving cells in a manner compatible with 3GPP LTE Technical Specifications (TSs) or NR TSs.
• TSs 3GPP LTE Technical Specifications
• NR TSs 3GPP LTE Technical Specifications
• a serving cell that is based on LTE TSs may be referred to as an LTE cell
• a serving cell that is based on NR TSs may be referred to as an NR cell.
• the network 100 may know a location of neighbor cells that surround a particular cell, for example cell 212.
• the network 100 via the AN 110, for example, may configure the UE 105 with a measurement configuration that includes measurement objects corresponding to a list of the neighbor cells that are to be measured.
• the list of neighbor cells may include cell 228 and cell 236.
• the network 100 may also know the position and direction of travel of the UE 105. This may be based on the AN 110 using UE positioning techniques such as reference signal time difference (RSTD), enhanced cell identity (E-CID), fingerprint, etc.
• the AN 110 may use this information to identify one or more candidate cells, which may not be part of the neighbor list, to which the UE 105 may connect.
• the AN 110 may then send a conditional command to the UE 105 to facilitate a subsequent connection with the candidate cell.
• a candidate cell as used herein, may be a cell that is configured as a target cell in a conditional command.
• the conditional command may be a conditional handover (CHO) or a conditional SCG change command.
• the AN 110 may determine that the UE 105 is traveling in a direction of cell 220, which may not be part of the neighbor list. Therefore, the AN 110 may determine that the cell 220 is a candidate cell to which the UE 105 may connect. The AN 110 may then send a conditional command to the UE 105 with configuration information about the cell 220.
• the configuration information included in the conditional command may include information that the UE 105 may use to measure reference signals transmitted by the AN 216 to determine reference signal quality metrics, for example, reference signal receive power (RSRP), reference signal receive quality (RSRQ), signal-to-noise-plus interference (SINR), etc.
• the conditional command may further include handover/SCG change conditions (for example, threshold values) that may correspond to one or more of the metrics. If the UE 105 determines that the metrics satisfy the handover/SCG change conditions, the UE 105 may initiate handover/SCG change by performing one or more handover/SCG change operations.
• These operations may include, but are not limited to, sending a physical random access channel (PRACH) preamble to the AN 216 to directly execute the HO or SCG change.
• PRACH physical random access channel
• This is in contrast to the neighbor cell measurements in which the UE 105, upon detecting the metrics satisfy certain threshold conditions, may transmit indications of the metrics (or indication of the metrics satisfying the threshold conditions) to the AN 110, which may then determine whether or not to proceed with the handover.
• PRACH physical random access channel
• the UE 105 may be likely that the UE 105 is moving toward the candidate cells and the HO or Scell change will occur sooner or later.
• embodiments of the present disclosure provide that the UE 105 is to keep trying to search for/monitor all the candidate cells of conditional commands, even if they are not included in the list of neighbor cells
• the UE 105 may be configured to meet conditions described in the measurement procedures of section 9 of 3GPP TS 38.133 vl5.3.0 (2018-10-03) with respect to inter-frequency measurements or intra-frequency measurements. These conditions may relate to cell identification, radio resource management (RRM) measurement, scheduling applicability, measurement reporting, number of cells and number of synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), etc.
• RRM radio resource management
• the UE 105 may be expected to monitor both candidate cells configured by the conditional commands and neighbor cells configured by a measurement configurations, the hardware/software resources available at the UE 105 may be limited. For example, the UE 105 may only be able to monitor up to a limited number of cells/carriers depending on its measurement capability. Thus, various embodiments also describe options to address these situations.
• 3GPP TS 38.133, Section 9 defines UE measurement capabilities that are expected of UEs, for example, a minimum number of cells and SSBs that a UE may be expected to monitor.
• the UE 105 may be expected to be capable of monitoring at least seven NR inter- frequency carriers and, in frequency range 1 (sub 6 gigahertz), for each intra-frequency layer, the UE 105 may be expected to be capable of monitoring at least eight cells. This may be limited by complexity or power consumption of the UE 105.
• the UE 105 may be expected to monitor the candidate target cells indicated in the conditional command as well as neighbor cells indicated in a measurement configuration. This may result in a total number of cells that the UE is expected to monitor exceeding the actual measurement capabilities of the UE 105. For example, consider that there are seven inter-frequency NR carriers being monitored by the UE 105 according to measurement objects configured before a conditional command and then the UE 105 is configured with a conditional command requesting the UE 105 monitor another inter-frequency target cell, which is on a different frequency layer other than the seven inter-frequency carriers. This may make the total inter-frequency carriers to be monitored eight, which may be over the actual measurement capabilities of the UE 105, based on consideration of the complexity and power consumption of the UE 105.
• the network 100 may reconfigure all the inter-frequency measurements or the UE 105 may be allowed to autonomously drop some measurements.
• the network reconfiguration may be supported by existing RRC reconfiguration signaling. However, this would increase the payload of the RRC reconfiguration and decrease efficiency. Allowing the UE 105 to autonomously drop some measurements, on the other hand, may not have such a negative effect on the network efficiency. This may be especially true if the carriers indicated in the conditional command are provided with a relatively higher priority to prevent their being dropped. Other carriers, for example, carriers in a reduced performance group, may be provided with a relatively lower priority and may be dropped with little to no decrease in system efficiencies.
• embodiments may provide that after the UE 105 is configured with a conditional command, for example, a CHO or conditional SCG change, if the total number of cells/carriers/SSBs exceeds the UE measurement capability requirements, the UE 105 may be allowed to drop some of the measurements that are included in a measurement configuration before the conditional command is received.
• a conditional command for example, a CHO or conditional SCG change
• the UE 105 may need to monitor additional target cells/carriers indicated in a conditional command. This may have an impact on existing measurement behavior that is configured before the conditional command is received.
• the UE 105 may smartly decide, for example, on which measurement gap and SSB-based measurement timing configuration (SMTC) window to measure which target cell. This may be limited by UE implementation. For instance, on each measurement gap duration, the UE 105 may only be able to monitor one frequency layer (this may be the case if the UE 105 has a baseline design and will not use an additional spare radio frequency (RF) chain to do measurements on multiple carriers simultaneously).
• SMTC measurement timing configuration
• the cell identification delay and measurement period for each frequency carrier may be scaled by associated scaling factors like Nfreq, carrier-specific scaling factor (CSSF), etc. These factors may be consistent with factors specified in 3GPP TS 38.133, section 9, or updates thereto. All of these scaling factors may be updated by taking into account the cells/carriers indicated in the conditional command. For example, with respect to an NR standalone (SA) operation mode (in which a UE is configured with at least one PCell), TS 38.133 defines a scaling factor Nfreq. SA, NR as a number of NR inter- frequency carriers being monitored as configured by PCell. Note that the“configure” here means the measurement configuration of, for example, the list of neighbor cells.
• SA NR standalone
• NR as a number of NR inter- frequency carriers being monitored as configured by PCell.
• the“configure” here means the measurement configuration of, for example, the list of neighbor cells.
• TS 38.133 goes on to describe how various measurement parameters are based on this number. Taking conditional handover into account, this definition may be updated to, for example, the number of NR inter-frequency carriers being monitored as configured by PCell, via RRM measurement configuration or conditional command.
• embodiments may provide that the UE 105 may determine that measurement related scaling factors, upon which measurement delay and cell identification delay may be determined, may be updated by taking into account the cells/carriers that are indicated in the conditional command, for example, CHO or conditional SCG change command.
• Some embodiments include use of a new timer to control validation of a conditional command. This timer may be used to avoid an unnecessary waste of power due to a change of mobility state.
• the timer which may be referred to as a T3xy timer, may be added to the following list of timers, based on list in TS 38.331, section 7.1, as shown.
• the T3xy timer may be started upon reception of an RRC reconfiguration message that indicates a conditional command, for example, a CHO or conditional SCG change.
• the T3xy timer may be stopped upon conditions indicated in the RRC reconfiguration message indicating conditional command are met.
• the UE 105 may discard the conditional command.
• the above timer and corresponding behavior of the UE 105 is simply one example. There may be other descriptions that indicate the timer will start at a reception of a conditional command; stop at a time that all conditions are met; and, upon expiration, serve as basis for UE to discard conditional command.
• Figure 3 illustrates an operational flow/algorithmic structure 300 based on some embodiments.
• the operational flow/algorithmic structure 300 may be implemented by the UE 105 or components thereof including, for example, digital baseband circuitry 125.
• the operational flow/algorithmic structure 300 may include, at 304, receiving a conditional command.
• the conditional command may be an RRC signal (for example, RRC reconfiguration message) that includes configuration information with respect to a candidate cell.
• the conditional command may include one or more conditions, which may serve as conditions precedent for an associated command (for example, a handover command or SCG change command).
• the operational flow/algorithmic structure 300 may further include, at 304, starting a timer.
• the timer may be a T3xy timer as described above.
• the timer may be started with a value that is preconfigured at the UE 105 or, alternatively, may be
• conditional handover may also include a value for the timer.
• the operational flow/algorithmic structure 300 may further include, at 312, determining whether the conditions included in the conditional command are met. This determination may include performing inter-frequency or intra-frequency measurements on candidate
• the threshold may be preconfigured at the UE 105 or, alternatively, may be communicated to the UE 105 by an access node.
• the conditional handover may include one or more of the threshold values.
• the operational flow/algorithmic structure 300 may further include, at 316, determining whether the timer is expired.
• the operational flow/algorithmic structure 300 may revert to determining whether the conditions are met at 312.
• the operational flow/algorithmic structure 300 may further include, at 320, discarding the conditional command. After a certain period of time, the chances of the conditions being fulfilled may drop significantly. This may happen, for example, if the UE 105 stops moving. Thus, in this instance there is no longer a higher probability of the handover/SCG change occurring with respect to the candidate cell. Therefore, the UE may cease to perform the measurements associated with the conditional command. In some embodiments, the UE 105 may continue to perform measurements of the neighbor cells based on the measurement objects in the measurement configuration.
• the operational flow/algorithmic structure 300 may further include, at 324, stopping the timer and executing the conditional command. For example, if the inter-frequency or intra-frequency measurements performed by the UE 105 meet the threshold values (for example, the conditions precedent are satisfied) the associated command may be executed.
• the command may include a handover command or an SCG change command. The UE 105 may then proceed to perform the handover/SCG change operations.
• Figure 4 illustrates an operational flow/algorithmic structure 400 based on some embodiments.
• the operational flow/algorithmic structure 400 may be implemented by the UE 105 or components thereof including, for example, digital baseband circuitry 125.
• the operational flow/algorithmic structure 400 may include, at 404, receiving a conditional command with respect to a target.
• the conditional command may be received through RRC signaling.
• the conditional command may include conditions and a conditional handover command or a conditional SCG change command.
• the target may include a target cell, a target carrier, or a target SSB.
• the target may not be associated with a measurement object of a previously-received measurement configuration.
• the target may not be part of a configured neighbor list.
• the operational flow/algorithmic structure 400 may further include, at 408, monitoring the target to determine if the conditions are satisfied.
• the monitoring may include performing inter-frequency measurements or intra-frequency measurements with respect to the target.
• the conditions may be satisfied when the measurements are greater than threshold values available to a UE.
• the UE may drop one or more other measurements requested to be performed on other cells/carriers/SSBs.
• the dropped measurements may correspond to lower- priority targets, for example, neighbor cells configured in the measurement configuration.
• Dropping measurements may refer to refraining from performing a configured measurement.
• a UE may refrain from a measurement of at least one measurement object of a measurement configuration based on measuring the target of a conditional command.
• the operational flow/algorithmic structure 400 may further include, at 412, triggering a handover or SCG change based on satisfaction of the conditions.
• the triggering of the handover or SCG change may correspond to executing the conditional command by, for example, performing one or more HO or SCG change operations. These operations may include sending a physical random access channel (PRACH) preamble for a HO or SCG change to an AN that is associated with the target.
• PRACH physical random access channel
• FIG. 5 illustrates a device 500 that includes baseband circuitry 510 and radio front end modules (RFEM) 515 in accordance with various embodiments.
• the device 500 may correspond to a UE (for example, UE 105) or to an access node (for example AN 110).
• the RFEMs 515 may include radio frequency (RF) circuitry 506, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 508, antenna array 511 coupled together at least as shown.
• RF radio frequency
• FEM front-end module
• the baseband circuitry 510 which may correspond to digital baseband circuitry 125, includes circuitry and/or control logic configured to carry out various radio/network protocol and radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 506.
• the radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc.
• modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 510 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality.
• FFT Fast-Fourier Transform
• encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 510 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.
• the baseband circuitry 510 is configured to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 506 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 506.
• the baseband circuitry 510 is configured to interface with application circuitry for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 506.
• the aforementioned circuitry and/or control logic of the baseband circuitry 510 may include one or more single or multi-core processors.
• the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor 504A, a 4G/LTE baseband processor 504B, a 5G/NR baseband processor 504C, or some other baseband processor(s) 504D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., sixth generation (6G), etc.).
• some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 504A- D may be included in modules stored in the memory 504G and executed via a central processing unit (CPU) 504E.
• some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 504A-D may be provided as hardware accelerators (e.g., FPGAs, ASICs, etc.) loaded with the appropriate bit streams or logic blocks stored in respective memory cells.
• hardware accelerators e.g., FPGAs, ASICs, etc.
• the memory 504G may store program code of a real-time OS (RTOS), which when executed by the CPU 504E (or other baseband processor), is to cause the CPU 504E (or other baseband processor) to manage resources of the baseband circuitry 510, schedule tasks, etc.
• RTOS may include Operating System Embedded (OSE)TM provided by Enea®, Nucleus RTOSTM provided by Mentor Graphics®, Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Mentor Graphics®, ThreadXTM provided by Express Logic®, FreeRTOS, REX OS provided by Qualcomm®, OKL4 provided by Open Kernel (OK) Labs®, or any other suitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein.
• the baseband circuitry 510 includes one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 504F.
• the audio DSP(s) 504F include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments.
• each of the processors 504A-504E include respective memory interfaces to send/receive data to/from the memory 504G.
• the baseband circuitry 510 may further include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to the baseband circuitry 510; an application circuitry interface to send/receive data to/from the application circuitry; an RF circuitry interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 506 of Figure 5; a wireless hardware connectivity interface to send/receive data to/from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g., Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth®/ Bluetooth® Low Energy components, Wi-Fi® components, and/or the like); and a power management interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from a power management integrated circuit.
• NFC Near Field Communication
• Wi-Fi® components Wi-Fi® components
• baseband circuitry 510 comprises one or more digital baseband systems, which are coupled with one another via an interconnect subsystem and to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interface subsystem.
• the digital baseband subsystems may also be coupled to a digital baseband interface and a mixed-signal baseband subsystem via another interconnect subsystem.
• Each of the interconnect subsystems may include a bus system, point-to-point connections, network-on-chip (NOC) structures, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology, such as those discussed herein.
• the audio subsystem may include DSP circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, speech processing accelerator circuitry, data converter circuitry such as analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter circuitry, analog circuitry including one or more of amplifiers and filters, and/or other like components.
• baseband circuitry 510 may include protocol processing circuitry with one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (e.g., the radio front end modules 515).
• the baseband circuitry 510 includes individual processing device(s) to operate one or more wireless communication protocols (e.g., a“multi-protocol baseband processor” or“protocol processing circuitry”) and individual processing device(s) to implement PHY layer functions.
• the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radio control functions.
• the protocol processing circuitry operates or implements various protocol layers/entities of one or more wireless communication protocols.
• the protocol processing circuitry may operate LTE protocol entities and/or 5G/NR protocol entities when the baseband circuitry 510 and/or RF circuitry 506 are part of mmWave communication circuitry or some other suitable cellular communication circuitry.
• the protocol processing circuitry would operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions.
• the protocol processing circuitry may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols when the baseband circuitry 510 and/or RF circuitry 506 are part of a Wi-Fi communication system.
• the protocol processing circuitry would operate Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control (LLC) functions.
• the protocol processing circuitry may include one or more memory structures (e.g., 504G) to store program code and data for operating the protocol functions, as well as one or more processing cores to execute the program code and perform various operations using the data.
• the baseband circuitry 510 may also support radio communications for more than one wireless protocol.
• the various hardware elements of the baseband circuitry 510 discussed herein may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged IC soldered to a main circuit board or a multi-chip module containing two or more ICs.
• the components of the baseband circuitry 510 may be suitably combined in a single chip or chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board.
• some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 510 and RF circuitry 506 may be implemented together such as, for example, a system on a chip (SoC) or System-in- Package (SiP).
• SoC system on a chip
• SiP System-in- Package
• the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 510 may be implemented as a separate SoC that is communicatively coupled with and RF circuitry 506 (or multiple instances of RF circuitry 506).
• some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 510 and the application circuitry may be implemented together as individual SoCs mounted to a same circuit board (e.g., a“multi-chip package”).
• the baseband circuitry 510 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies.
• the baseband circuitry 510 may support communication with an E-UTRAN or other WMAN, a WLAN, a WPAN.
• Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 510 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.
• RF circuitry 506 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium.
• the RF circuitry 506 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network.
• RF circuitry 506 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 508 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 510.
• RF circuitry 506 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 510 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 508 for transmission.
• the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 506 may include mixer circuitry 506a, amplifier circuitry 506b and filter circuitry 506c.
• the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 506 may include filter circuitry 506c and mixer circuitry 506a.
• RF circuitry 506 may also include synthesizer circuitry 506d for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 506a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path.
• the mixer circuitry 506a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 508 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 506d.
• the amplifier circuitry XT 106b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 506c may be a low- pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals.
• Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry 510 for further processing.
• the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement.
• mixer circuitry 506a of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.
• the mixer circuitry 506a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 506d to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 508.
• the baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 510 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 506c.
• the mixer circuitry 506a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 506a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively.
• the mixer circuitry 506a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 506a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection).
• the mixer circuitry 506a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 506a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively.
• the mixer circuitry 506a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 506a of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.
• 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.
• the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals.
• the RF circuitry 506 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 510 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 506.
• ADC analog-to-digital converter
• DAC digital-to-analog converter
• a separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.
• the synthesizer circuitry 506d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+l synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable.
• synthesizer circuitry 506d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.
• the synthesizer circuitry 506d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 506a of the RF circuitry 506 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 506d may be a fractional N/N+l synthesizer.
• frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement.
• VCO voltage controlled oscillator
• Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 510 or the application circuitry depending on the desired output frequency.
• a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the application circuitry.
• Synthesizer circuitry 506d of the RF circuitry 506 may include a divider, a delay -locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator.
• the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DP A).
• the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+l (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio.
• the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop.
• the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line.
• Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line.
• synthesizer circuitry 506d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other.
• the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO).
• the RF circuitry 506 may include an IQ/polar converter.
• FEM circuitry 508 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from antenna array 511, amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 506 for further processing.
• FEM circuitry 508 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 506 for transmission by one or more of antenna elements of antenna array 511.
• the amplification through the transmit or receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 506, solely in the FEM circuitry 508, or in both the RF circuitry 506 and the FEM circuitry 508.
• the FEM circuitry 508 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation.
• the FEM circuitry 508 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path.
• the receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 508 may include an LNA to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 506).
• the transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 508 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry XT 106), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 511.
• PA power amplifier
• the antenna array 511 comprises one or more antenna elements, each of which is configured convert electrical signals into radio waves to travel through the air and to convert received radio waves into electrical signals.
• digital baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 510 is converted into analog RF signals (e.g., modulated waveform) that will be amplified and transmitted via the antenna elements of the antenna array 511 including one or more antenna elements (not shown).
• the antenna elements may be omnidirectional, direction, or a combination thereof.
• the antenna elements may be formed in a multitude of arranges as are known and/or discussed herein.
• the antenna array 511 may comprise microstrip antennas or printed antennas that are fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards.
• the antenna array 511 may be formed in as a patch of metal foil (e.g., a patch antenna) in a variety of shapes, and may be coupled with the RF circuitry 506 and/or FEM circuitry 508 using metal transmission lines or the like.
• Figure 6 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.
• Figure 6 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 600 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 610, one or more memory /storage devices 620, and one or more communication resources 630, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 640.
• node virtualization e.g., NFV
• a hypervisor 602 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 600.
• the processors 610 may include, for example, a processor 612 and a processor 614.
• the processor(s) 610 may be, 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 DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.
• CPU central processing unit
• RISC reduced instruction set computing
• CISC complex instruction set computing
• GPU graphics processing unit
• DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.
• the memory /storage devices 620 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof.
• the memory /storage devices 620 may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile or nonvolatile 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.
• DRAM dynamic random access memory
• SRAM static random access memory
• EPROM erasable programmable read-only memory
• EEPROM electrically erasable programmable read-only memory
• Flash memory solid-state storage, etc.
• the communication resources 630 may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 604 or one or more databases 606 via a network 608.
• the communication resources 630 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components..
• Instructions 650 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 610 to perform any one or more of the methodologies of mapping PT-RS onto resource elements discussed herein.
• the instructions 650 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 610 (e.g., within the processor’s cache memory), the memory /storage devices 620, or any suitable combination thereof.
• any portion of the instructions 650 may be transferred to the hardware resources 600 from any combination of the peripheral devices 604 or the databases 606. Accordingly, the memory of processors 610, the memory /storage devices 620, the peripheral devices 604, and the databases 606 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.
• At least one of the components set forth in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth in the example section below.
• the baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below.
• circuitry associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section.
• Example 1 may include a method of operating a UE, the method comprising: receiving, from an access node, a conditional command with respect to a target, wherein the conditional command includes conditions and a handover command or a serving cell group (SCG) change command; monitoring the target to determine the conditions within the conditional command are satisfied; and triggering a handover or SCG change based on said determination that the conditions within the conditional command are satisfied.
• SCG serving cell group
• Example 2 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the target comprises a target cell, a target carrier, or a target synchronization signal block.
• Example 3 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein to monitor the target, the UE is to: perform intra-frequency measurements or inter-frequency measurements.
• Example 4 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the method further comprises: receiving, from the access node, a list of neighbor cells to measure, wherein the list of neighbor cells does not include the target.
• Example 5 may include the method of example 4 or some other example herein, wherein the list of neighbor cells in addition to the target result in a total number of cells, carriers, or synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) to measure that is greater than a measurement capability of the UE and the instructions, when executed, further cause the UE to: refrain from measuring one or more neighbor cells of the list of neighbor cells based on the total number being greater than the measurement capability.
• SSBs synchronization signal blocks
• Example 6 may include the method of example 5 or some other example herein, wherein the UE is to autonomously refrain from measuring the one or more neighbor cells.
• Example 7 may include the method of example 5 or some other example herein, wherein the one or more neighbor cells are associated with a reduced performance group.
• Example 8 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the method further comprises: determining a measurement scaling factor for a cell identification delay or measurement period based on the target; determining the cell identification delay or the measurement period based on the measurement scaling factor; and performing a cell identification or measurement within a time period based on the cell identification delay or the measurement period.
• Example 9 may include the method of example 8 or some other example herein, wherein the UE is to determine the measurement scaling factor based on a total number of inter- frequency carriers to be monitored as configured by a primary serving cell via a radio resource management measurement configuration and the conditional command.
• Example 10 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the method further comprises: determining a timer value; and determining a time period in which the conditional command is valid based on the timer value.
• Example 11 may include a method of operating a UE, the method comprising: storing one or more measurement objects corresponding to one or more neighbor cells in a memory of the UE; identifying a conditional command with respect to a target, wherein the conditional command includes conditions and is a conditional handover command or a conditional serving cell group (SCG) change command; measuring the target to determine whether the conditions within the conditional command are satisfied; and refraining from a measurement corresponding to at least one measurement object of the one or more measurement objects based on measurement of the target.
• SCG conditional serving cell group
• Example 12 may include the method of example 11 or some other example herein, further comprising: performing a handover operation or SCG change operation based on determination that the conditions within the conditional command are satisfied.
• Example 13 may include the method of example 11 or some other example herein, wherein the target comprises a target cell, a target carrier, or a target synchronization signal block.
• Example 14 may include the method of example 11 or some other example herein, wherein the target is in a first frequency and a serving cell with which the apparatus is connected is in a second frequency, the first frequency being the same as or different from the second frequency.
• Example 15 may include the method of example 11 or some other example herein, further comprising: decoding a measurement configuration from a message received from an access node to obtain the one or more measurement objects; and storing the one or more measurement objects in the memory.
• Example 16 may include the method of example 15 or some other example herein, further comprising: determining the one or more measurement objects in addition to one or more targets received in one or more conditional commands, including the conditional command, result in a total number of cells, carriers, or synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) to measure that is greater than a measurement capability of the apparatus; and refraining from the measurement based on said determination.
• determining the one or more measurement objects in addition to one or more targets received in one or more conditional commands, including the conditional command, result in a total number of cells, carriers, or synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) to measure that is greater than a measurement capability of the apparatus synchronization signal blocks
• Example 17 may include a method of operating a UE, the method comprising receiving, from an access node, a conditional handover command or a conditional SCG change command with respect to a target cell/carrier; scaling measurement delay or cell identification delay based on the conditional handover command or the conditional SCG change command; monitoring the target cell/carrier, based on the scaled measurement delay or cell identification delay, to determine if conditions within the conditional handover command or the conditional SCG change command are satisfied; and triggering handover or SCG change if the conditions are satisfied.
• Example 18 may include the method of example 17 or some other example herein, wherein said triggering comprises triggering handover or SCG change without receiving a handover or SCG change command subsequent to the conditional handover command or the conditional SCG change command.
• Example 19 may include the method of example 17 or some other example herein, wherein said triggering comprises triggering handover or SCG change without sending measurement report of the target cell/carrier to the access node.
• Example 20 may include the method of example 17 or some other example herein, further comprising: receiving one or more measurement objects respectively corresponding to one or more neighbor cells, scaling measurement delay or cell identification delay based further on the one or more measurement objects.
• Example 21 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 a method or CRM described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or any other method or process described herein.
• Example 22 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method or CRM described in or related to any of examples 1- 20, or any other method or process described herein.
• Example 23 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof.
• Example 24 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 1-20, or portions thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.
• the one or more computer-readable media may be one transitory or non- transitory computer-readable media.
• Example 25 includes at least one transitory or non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising data, wherein the data is to create, manufacture, or otherwise produce instructions, wherein execution of the instructions is to cause a computing device or computing system to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.
• Example 26 includes a signal as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.
• Example 27 includes a signal in a wireless network as shown and described in the present disclosure, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.
• Example 28 includes a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described in the present disclosure.
• Example 29 includes a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described in the present disclosure.
• Example 30 includes a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described in the present disclosure.
• Example 31 includes a packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.
• PDU protocol data unit

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• 2019
  • 2019-12-20 EP EP19899249.7A patent/EP3900435A4/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2019-12-20 WO PCT/US2019/067828 patent/WO2020132427A1/en unknown

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