EP4233419A1

EP4233419A1 - Resource allocation for new radio multicast-broadcast service

Info

Publication number: EP4233419A1
Application number: EP21884030.4A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Debdeep CHATTERJEE; Alexei Vladimirovich Davydov; Yingyang Li; Avik SENGUPTA; Gang Xiong
Original assignee: Intel Corp
Current assignee: Intel Corp
Priority date: 2020-10-23
Filing date: 2021-10-22
Publication date: 2023-08-30
Also published as: WO2022087482A1; WO2022087482A8; EP4233419A4

Abstract

The apparatus of New Radio (NR) evolved Node B (gNB), a system, a method and a machine-readable medium. The method includes encoding, and sending for transmission to a user equipment (UE), a multicast and broadcast services (MBS) configuration message to configure a MBS frequency region to the UE, the MBS frequency region including a search space for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); encoding, and sending for transmission to a group of UEs including the UE, the PDCCH, the PDCCH including a group-common downlink control information (DCI) having a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) to schedule a group-common physical downlink shared channel ( PDSCH) including MBS data to the UE or to schedule a Single cell Multicast Control Channel (MCCH) change notification to the UE; and encoding, and sending for transmission to the group of UEs, the PDSCH or the MCCH change notification.

Description

RESOURCE ALLOCATION FOR NEW RADIO MULTICAST-BROADCAST SERVICE

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This Application claims the benefit of, and priority from, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/105,100, entitled "RESOURCE ALLOCATION FOR NR MULTICAST-BROADCAST SERVICE (MBS)" and filed October 23, 2020; and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.

63/230,648, entitled "RESOURCE ALLOCATION FOR NR MULTICAST-BROADCAST SERVICE (MBS)" and filed August 6, 2021.

FIELD

[0002] Various embodiments generally may relate to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to the field of communication in a cellular network compliant with one of more Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specifications.

BACKGROUND

[0003] The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR) Release 17 specifications (Rel-17) work related to support of broadcast and multicast services within a single cell, mainly targeting groupcast operations for the purpose of critical communications and commercial use cases such as popular video/application downloads.

[0004] The Rel-17 work item description (WID) at RP-193248, "New Work Item on NR Support of Multicast and Broadcast Services," Huawei, RAN#86, Sitges, Spain, December 2019 document, has the following objectives with respect to physical layer (PHY) enhancements to support multicast and broadcast transmissions in NR: specifying RAN basic functions for broadcast/multicast for user equipments (UEs) in radio resource control (RRC) connected (RRC_CONNECTED) state for radio access network (RAN) 1 (RANI), RAN2 and RAN3. The latter includes specifying a group scheduling mechanism to allow UEs to receive Broadcast/Multicast service [RANI, RAN2], This objective includes specifying necessary enhancements that are required to enable simultaneous operation with unicast reception. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0005] In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numerals may describe similar components in different views. Like numerals having different letter suffixes may represent different instances of similar components. The drawings illustrate generally, by way of example, but not by way of limitation, various embodiments discussed in the present document. [0006] Fig. 1 illustrates a signaling diagram showing user equipment (UE) active bandwidth parts for multiple UEs, and a multicast-broadcast resource allocation to the UEs according to an embodiment.

[0007] Fig. 2 illustrates a wireless network in accordance with various embodiments.

[0008] Fig. 3 illustrates a User Equipment (UE) and a Radio Access Node (RAN) in wireless communication according to various embodiments.

[0009] Fig. 4 illustrates components according to some example embodiments, the components able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

[0010] Fig. 5 illustrates a flow chart for a process according to a first embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0011] The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail. For the purposes of the present document, the phrases "A or B" and "A/B" mean (A), (B), or (A and B). [0012] Various embodiments herein relate to The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) New Radio (NR) Release 17 specifications (Rel-17) work related to support of broadcast and multicast services within a single cell, mainly targeting groupcast operations for the purpose of critical communications and commercial use cases such as popular video/application downloads. [0013] The Rel-17 work item description (WID) at RP-193248, "New Work Item on NR Support of Multicast and Broadcast Services," Huawei, RAN#86, Sitges, Spain, December 2019 document, has the following objectives with respect to physical layer (PHY) enhancements to support multicast and broadcast transmissions in NR: specifying RAN basic functions for broadcast/multicast for user equipments (UEs) in radio resource control (RRC) connected (RRC_CONNECTED) state for radio access network (RAN) 1 (RANI), RAN2 and RAN3. The latter includes specifying a group scheduling mechanism to allow UEs to receive Broadcast/Multicast service [RANI, RAN2], This objective includes specifying necessary enhancements that are required to enable simultaneous operation with unicast reception.

[0014] Some embodiments provide solutions to enable group scheduling for multicast and broadcast downlink transmission in NR for RRC_CONNECTED as well as RRCJDLE/INACTIVE mode UEs.

[0015] Some embodiments provide a system and method to configure a common frequency resource for NR MBS transmission including data and control channel configurations. The solutions provided are applicable for RRC_CONNECTED as well as RRCJDLE/INACTIVE UEs.

[0016] The new work item on NR Support of Multicast and Broadcast Services (MBS) has an objective of providing support of broadcast and multicast services within a single NR cell mainly targeting groupcast operations for the purpose of critical communications and commercial use cases such as popular video/application downloads.

[0017] NR has defined the concept of bandwidth parts (BWP) according to which a UE can be configured with up to 4 downlink (DL) BWPs, and where only one BWP can be active at a time. For NR MBS, a group of UEs are expected to simultaneously receive the same physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and corresponding physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission. The above can be implemented by transmitting the scheduling downlink control information (DCI) in a group common PDCCH monitored in a common search space (CSS) and scrambled with a group common radio network temporary identifier (RNTI). The same group common RNTI also scrambles the PDSCH. The frequency and time domain resource on which the group of UEs receive the MBS transmission needs to be defined and configured to the UEs.

[0018] In one embodiment, a common MBS frequency region is especially configured to the UEs for receiving a group common PDSCH carrying the MBS data , where the configuration of the MBS frequency region/space includes at least a configuration of frequency resources including subcarrier spacing (SCS), cyclic prefix (CP), starting physical resource block (PRB) index via an offset to the common resource block (CRB) #0, and a number of PRBs on the CRB grid. In an example, the starting PRB index and number of PRBs (up to a maximum of 275 RBs) may be jointly indicated, and in a manner, similar to the RRC configuration message locationAndBandwidth for BWP configuration, that is, by providing a pseudocode or value that indicates, jointly, the PRB index and number of PRBs. In another variant, the SCS and CP for the MBS frequency region is not explicitly configured but is determined to be the same as that for a UE's active DL BWP. In an example of the embodiment, the MBS frequency region configuration is provided to a UE via system Information Block (SIB) signaling, especially where the UE is in RRCJDLE/INACTIVE mode.

[0019] In another embodiment, the MBS frequency region for RRC_CONNECTED UEs may be configured via dedicated UE-specific RRC signaling wherein the frequency region configuration includes a subcarrier spacing, location and bandwidth e.g., a starting PRB and number of PRBs, and optionally an extended CP indication.

[0020] In another embodiment, for the case of RRCJDLE/INACTIVE UEs, if the MBS frequency resource is not part of the initial BWP where control resource set (CORESET) 0 is configured, the MBS frequency resource of the MBS frequency region can be configured through system information block (SIB) along with a dedicated MBS CORESET in which the UEs can monitor the group-common PDCCH within a CSS. CORESET 0 corresponds to a resource in which the common control signaling is monitored b a UE in RRCJDLE/INACTIVE status.

[0021] In one embodiment, the MBS frequency region may reuse the BWP configuration framework, which may include, in addition to a indication of frequency resources (including the SCS, location and bandwidth), PDSCH configuration and PDCCH configuration, the PDCCH including at least one CORESET and an associated search space set that may follow Type 3 CSS or a CSS of a new Type.

[0022] In a further embodiment, the MBS frequency region may also configure the CORESET associated with a CSS on which the UE monitors a group-common DCI format with cyclic redundancy check (CRC) that may be scrambled by one of: a group RNTI (G-RNTI), SC-RNTI (Single Cell (point-to-multipoint)-RNTI), or SC-N-RNTI (Single Cell (point-to-multipoint) Notification-RNTI), and which schedules a group common PDSCH or provides direct indication for SC-MCCH (Single cell-Multicast Control Channel) change notification. The UE expects the scrambling of the CRC based on its MBS frequency region configuration as described above.

[0023] In another embodiment, the CORESET containing the scheduling DCI can be associated with a CSS or USS and may be configured in a frequency region within a UE's active DL BWP or another DL BWP but outside the MBS frequency region.

[0024] In one embodiment, for RRC_CONNECTED UEs, the frequency region for receiving the MBS transmission may be contained within the active BWP of the UE such that BWP switching is not required for the UE to receive the MBS transmission. In an example, as shown in the signaling diagram 100 of Fig. 1, the frequency region can be the intersection of the active BWP of all the RRC_CONNECTED UEs in the group of UEs receiving the multicast PDSCH transmission. In this latter example, it is assumed that the active BWP of the grouped UEs has the same subcarrier spacing (SCS).

[0025] In an embodiment, DCI format l_0 may be used, with CRC scrambled with a G-RNTI or SC-RNTI to schedule group common PDSCH for MBS, and with CRC scrambled with a SC-N-RNTI to provide Multicast Control Channel (MCCH) change notification.

[0026] In another example, either of DCI format l_0, DCI format 1_1, or DCI format 1_2, with CRC scrambled with a G-RNTI or SC-RNTI, may be used to schedule group common PDSCH for MBS. Further, a UE in RRCJNACTIVE/IDLE mode may be configured to monitor only for DCI format l_0 for MBS-related DL control reception, and DCI formats 1_1 or 1_2, with CRC scrambled with G- RNTI, SC-RNTI, or SC-N-RNTI, may be used only for UEs in RRC_CONNECTED mode.

[0027] In one embodiment, when DCI format l_0/l_l/l_2 is scrambled by G-/G-CS/SC-

/SC-N-RNTI, the "identifier for DCI formats" field is not required and is assumed to be reserved. (Any of these RNTI's can be associated with the MBS. Based on which RNTI it descrambles with, it knows how the PDSCH will be scheduled). In case when hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback is configured to be OFF either by RRC or dynamic DCI based indication, some, or all of the following fields in DCI format l_0 are assumed to be reserved: primary rate interface (PRI), PDSCH- to-HARQ timing indicator, transmit power control TPC command for scheduled PUCCH, HARQ process number, New data indicator, redundancy version.

[0028] Additionally, when not configured for HARQ-ACK feedback for DCI format 1_1, one or more of: the downlink assignment index (DAI) field, One-shot HARQ-ACK request, PDSCH group index, New feedback indicator, Number of requested PDSCH group(s) are assumed to be either reserved or of size 0 bits.

[0029] In a further example, the enabli ng/disa bling of HARQ-ACK feedback in response to PDSCH scheduled by PDCCH with CRC scrambled with one of: G-/G-SC-/SC-/SC-N-RNTI may be configured to a UE separately for DCI formats l_0, 1_1, and 1_2 (the latter being the case if supported for MBS-related scheduling).

[0030] In an embodiment, the bit-fields in DCI format l_0, DCI format 1_1, or DCI format 1_2 are re-interpreted when the CRC scrambled with G-RNTI, SC-RNTI, or SC-N-RNTI, compared to when the DCI format is received with CRC scrambled with C-RNTI (or other RNTIs currently defined in the Rel-15 and Rel-16 NR specifications). Further, the bit-fields in the DCI format may be differently interpreted when the DCI format is received with CRC scrambled with G-RNTI, SC-RNTI, and SC-N-RNTI respectively. In particular, the DCI format may include at least group common PDSCH assignment-related fields when the CRC is scrambled with G-RNTI or SC-RNTI, and may only indicate information on MCCH change notification indication without any PDSCH scheduling information when the CRC is scrambled with SC-N-RNTI. Further, in another example, if HARQ-ACK feedback disabled for RRCJNACTIVE/IDLE UEs but enabled for RRC_CONNECTED UEs, then for a DCI format scheduling for MBS group PDSCH, the HARQ-ACK feedback-related bit-fields may be ignored by the RRCJNACTIVE/IDLE UEs but are expected to be utilized by RRC_CONNECTED UEs. [0031] In another embodiment, the size of the DCI format l_0, scrambled with G-RNTI, SC- RNTI, or SC-N-RNTI, is interpreted by the UE based on the configured MBS frequency resource. In general, a UE's active DL BWP may be of a different size as compared to the size of the MBS frequency region. This can lead to multiple DCI format sizes for DCI format l_0 for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED mode due to differences in sizes of bit-fields like Frequency Domain Resource Allocation (FDRA), and some MIMO-related features, etc. that depend on size of the scheduled BWP size. Thus, the UE may interpret the size of the DCI format l_0 scrambled with G-RNTI, SC- RNTI, or SC-N-RNTI based on the known size of the MBS frequency region.

[0032] In an embodiment, the DCI format used for MBS scheduling/notification (e.g., with CRC scrambled with G-RNTI, SC-RNTI, or SC-N-RNTI) is counted towards the DCI size budget of "3+1", where there can be a maximum of three unique DCI format sizes for DCI formats with CRC scrambled with C-RNTI and maximum of one unique DCI format size for other group-common DCI formats, such that the DCI format with CRC scrambled with G-/SC-/SC-N-RNTI is counted towards the budget of three sizes or towards the budget of four sizes with the total DCI format size budget increased to "4+1".

[0033] In another example, the DCI format with CRC scrambled with G-/SC-/SC-N-RNTI is counted towards the budget of three sizes only if the UE is configured to provide HARQ-ACK feedback in response to a group common PDSCH, and alternatively, either counted towards the size budget for group common DCI formats that may still be one or increased to two.

[0034] In an embodiment, for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED state and when configured to receive DCI format l_O for MBS scheduling/notification, DCI format size alignment procedures may be performed if the DCI format size budget is exceeded to ensure that the DCI format size budget is satisfied. The above may be implemented when DCI format l_0 is scrambled, e.g., with C-RNTI, etc. for scheduling DCI due to different sizes of DCI format l_0 based on MBS frequency region and based on: (1) CORESET #0 when configured, (2) the initial DL BWP (if CORESET #0 is not configured for the cell), or (3) the active DL BWP.

[0035] In the case of the above, the UE expects DCI sizes to be aligned by the gNB. The gNB is to encode the DCI to have a size based on a target DCI size. The UE is to compensate for the size alignment by the gNB by resizing the DCI based on the gNB's size alignment, in order to be able to properly decode the DCI whose size has been aligned by the gNB.

[0036] Various examples for DCI format size alignment can be envisioned according to some embodiments, as listed below. [0037] In one embodiment, for DCI size alignment, the size of DCI format l_0 with CRC scrambled with G-/SC-/SC-N-RNTI may be determined based on the size of CORESET #0 or the initial DL BWP (if CORESET #0 is not configured in the cell).

[0038] In another embodiment, for DCI size alignment, the size of DCI format l_0 with CRC not scrambled with G-/G-CS-/SC-/SC-N-RNTI, received in a UE-specific search space (USS) may be determined based on the size of MBS frequency region, while the size of DCI format l_0 with CRC not scrambled with G-/SC-/SC-N-RNTI, received in a CSS is determined by CORESET #0 or initial DL BWP (if CORESET #0 is not configured in the cell).

[0039] In another embodiment, for DCI size alignment, if the size of DCI format l_0 with CRC scrambled with G-/G-CS-/SC-/SC-N-RNTI based on the MBS frequency region is smaller than the size of DCI format l_0 based on CORESET #0 (or initial DL BWP), padding bits are added by a New Radio (NR) evolved Node B (gNB) until the size is same as the DCI format size based on CORESET #0 (or initial DL BWP).

[0040] In another embodiment, for DCI size alignment, if the size of DCI format l_0 with CRC scrambled with G-/G-CS-/SC-/SC-N-RNTI based on the MBS frequency region is smaller than the size of DCI format l_0 based on active DL BWP but larger than the size of DCI format l_0 based on CORESET #0 (or initial DL BWP), padding bits are added by the gNB until the size is same as the DCI format size based on active DL BWP.

[0041] In another embodiment, for DCI size alignment, if the size of DCI format l_0 with CRC scrambled with G-/G-CS-/SC-/SC-N-RNTI based on the MBS frequency region is smaller than the size of DCI format l_0 based on an active DL BWP but larger than the size of DCI format l_0 based on CORESET #0 (or initial DL BWP), the DCI format size is aligned with the size of DCI format l_0 based on CORESETWO (or initial DL BWP). In one option, to achieve this size alignment, the frequency domain frequency allocation (FDRA) field of DCI l_0 with CRC scrambled with G-/G-CS- /SC-/SC-N-RNTI is truncated such that it is the same as the FDRA size corresponding to CORESET #0 (or the initial DL BWP) by removing the first few most significant bits (MSBs).

[0042] The UE interprets the truncated FDRA for Type 1 resource allocation based on the method specified in TS 38.214 V16.1.0 (2020-03). For FDRA Type 0, the UE interprets the truncated FDRA directly, which implies that some PRBs in the MBS frequency region of the truncated FDRA may not be scheduling under DCI size alignment for FDRA Type 0.

[0043] In another embodiment, the UE is configured to align the DCI size with either the 3 scheduling DCI sizes or with 1 group common or other non-scheduling DCI size. In the case when size of DCI format l_0 with CRC scrambled with G-/G-CS-/SC-/SC-N-RNTI based on the MBS frequency region is smaller than the size of DCI format l_0 based on active DL BWP of a UE in the MBS group but larger than the size of DCI format l_0 based on CORESET #0 (or initial DL BWP), the DCI format size is aligned with the size with a value which is configured to the UE by the network. In one option, this value can be such that the DCI size aligns to the MBS frequency region. In another embodiment, the configured size for DCI alignment can be larger than the size of the DCI l_0 scrambled with G-/G-CS-/SC-/SC-N-RNTI based on the MBS frequency region. In these cases, the unicast DCI l_0 may also align to the configured DCI size value by truncating the FDRA field. This can be applicable either when the UE is configured to align DCI size with one of the three scheduling DCIs or one other non-scheduling DCI corresponding to the "3+1" DCI size budget.

[0044] In one embodiment, when DCI format 1_1 has CRC scrambled by G-/G-CS-/SC-/SC- N-RNTI, the fields which are dependent on the active DL BWP may be dimensioned instead based on the configured MBS common frequency region using the MBS PDSCH-Config and PDCCH-Config RRC configuration messages

[0045] In a further example, when DCI format 1_1 is scrambled by G-/G-CS-/SC-/SC-N-RNTI, a UE may be configured to align the size of DCI format 1_1 to a configured value.

[0046] In another embodiment, a UE may be configured, separately for DCI formats l_0 and 1_1 (and 1_2 if supported for MBS-related scheduling), based on whether the resulting DCI format size is aligned to either of: (1) the MBS frequency region size and related PDSCH-Config and PDCCH-Config, or (2) active DL BWP, or (3) CORESET #0 or initial DL BWP (when CORESET #0 is not configured for the serving cell.

[0047] In a further embodiment, a UE may be configured on whether the DCI format l_0 or 1_1 or 1_2 (the latter, if supported for MBS) with CRC scrambled with G-/G-CS-/SC-/SC-N-RNTI may be counted towards the number of DCI format sizes scrambled with C-RNTI (e.g., towards the three sizes in the "3+1" rule), or may be counted towards the number of DCI size for group common PDCCH (e.g., towards the solitary size in the "3+1" rule), or may be counted towards either. In another example, at least when configured with HARQ-ACK feedback for PDSCH scheduled by DCI format with CRC scrambled with G-/G-CS-/SC-/SC-N-RNTI, the corresponding DCI format size may be counted towards the number of DCI sizes scrambled with C-RNTL

[0048] In one embodiment, a number of repetitions for PDSCH transmission for MBS may be configured by higher layers via minimum system information (MSI), remaining minimum system information (RMSI), other system information (OSI) or dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling or indicated in the DCI or a combination thereof.

[0049] In one option, when DCI format l_0 or a new DCI format with CRC scrambled with a G-RNTI or SC-RNTI is used to schedule PDSCH for MBS, a number of repetitions for PDSCH transmission for MBS may be configured by higher layers via RMSI (SI Bl), other system information (OSI) or RRC signaling.

[0050] In another embodiment, when DCI format l_0 with CRC scrambled with a G-RNTI or SC-RNTI is used to schedule PDSCH for MBS, a number of repetitions for PDSCH transmission for MBS may be configured as a part of time domain resource allocation TDRA in the RRC message pdsch-TimeDomainAllocationList. If not configured, a number of repetitions may be included in the Default PDSCH time domain resource allocation as defined in the Tables 5.1.2.1.1-2, 5.1.2.1.1-3, 5.1.2.1.1-4 and 5.1.2.1.1-5 in TS38.214 V16.1.0 (2020-03).

[0051] In one embodiment, a new DCI format other than l_0/l_l/l_2 might be used for scheduling NR MBS. In another variant of this embodiment, an existing DCI format, such as l_0, can be differently interpreted by the UE when used for scheduling MBS traffic e.g., when it is monitored in a CSS and scrambled with the G-RNTI

[0052] In one embodiment, DL semi persistent scheduling (SPS) can be used for scheduling NR MBS traffic, wherein the activation is done via group common DCI scrambled with G-RNTI when the HARQ ID field is set to all 0's and the redundancy version (RV) field is set to 00 for the transport block (TB) being scheduled. PUCCH resource for carrying HARQ-ACK feedback of SPS PDSCH for MBS may be configured by higher layers via RMSI (SI Bl), OSI or RRC signaling. In one option, for RRCJDLE/INACTIVE UEs, PUCCH resource for carrying HARQ-ACK feedback of SPS PDSCH for MBS may be configured by RMSI. [0053] The SPS release can be performed through the same DCI format as the activation DCI with the HARQ ID set to all 0's, MCS and FDRA field set to all Is and RV set to 0. For the SPS release DCI, the UEs can send HARQ feedback through UE-specific PUCCH resource configured to RRC_CONNECTED UEs via dedicated RRC signaling. Alternately, RRC_CONNECTED UEs can also be configured with a common shared PUCCH resource wherein they only transmit a NACK and nothing if the DCI is received properly. For RRCJDLE/INACTIVE mode UEs, the NACK only feedback can be transmitted via a cell-specific PUCCH resource, which is configured by RMSL In one option, shared PUCCH resource can be configured via 4 bit RMSI index and the PRI field in the DCI along with the starting CCE index of the PDCCH carrying the scheduling DCI.

[0054] Systems and Implementations

[0055] Figs. 2-3 illustrate various systems, devices, and components that may implement aspects of disclosed embodiments described above and below in relation to Fig. 5.

[0056] Fig. 2 illustrates a network 200 in accordance with various embodiments. The network 200 may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G/NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems, or the like.

[0057] The network 200 may include a UE 202, which may include any mobile or non- mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN 204 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 202 may be communicatively coupled with the RAN 204 by a Uu interface. The UE 202 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment, in-car entertainment device, instrument cluster, head-up display device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electronic/engine control unit, electronic/engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, loT device, etc.

[0058] In some embodiments, the network 200 may include a plurality of UEs coupled directly with one another via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M/D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc.

[0059] In some embodiments, the UE 202 may additionally communicate with an AP 206 via an over-the-air connection. The AP 206 may manage a WLAN connection, which may serve to offload some/all network traffic from the RAN 204. The connection between the UE 202 and the AP 206 may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 206 could be a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router. In some embodiments, the UE 202, RAN 204, and AP 206 may utilize cellular-WLAN aggregation (for example, LWA/LWIP). Cellular-WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 202 being configured by the RAN 204 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

[0060] The RAN 204 may include one or more access nodes, for example, AN 208. AN 208 may terminate air-interface protocols for the UE 202 by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and LI protocols. In this manner, the AN 208 may enable data/voice connectivity between CN 220 and the UE 202. In some embodiments, the AN 208 may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of, for example, a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool. The AN 208 be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN 208 may be a macrocell base station or a low power base station for providing femtocells, picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.

[0061] In embodiments in which the RAN 204 includes a plurality of ANs, they may be coupled with one another via an X2 interface (if the RAN 204 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 204 is a 5G RAN). The X2/Xn interfaces, which may be separated into control/user plane interfaces in some embodiments, may allow the ANs to communicate information related to handovers, data/context transfers, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc. [0062] The ANs of the RAN 204 may each manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc. to provide the UE 202 with an air interface for network access. The UE 202 may be simultaneously connected with a plurality of cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 204. For example, the UE 202 and RAN 204 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 202 to connect with a plurality of component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or Scell. In dual connectivity scenarios, a first AN may be a master node that provides an MCG and a second AN may be secondary node that provides an SCG. The first/second ANs may be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-eNB, etc.

[0063] The RAN 204 may provide the air interface over a licensed spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum. To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may use LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms based on CA technology with PCel Is/Scel Is. Prior to accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may perform medium/carrier-sensing operations based on, for example, a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0064] In V2X scenarios the UE 202 or AN 208 may be or act as a RSU, which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable AN or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by: a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU"; an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU"; a gNB may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU"; and the like. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located on a roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry to store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well as applications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as crash avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular/WLAN communications services. The components of the RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or a backhaul network.

[0065] In some embodiments, the RAN 204 may be an LTE RAN 210 with eNBs, for example, eNB 212. The LTE RAN 210 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: SCS of 15 kHz; CP-OFDM waveform for DL and SC-FDMA waveform for UL; turbo codes for data and TBCC for control; etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation; and CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation/detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operating on sub-6 GHz bands.

[0066] In some embodiments, the RAN 204 may be an NG-RAN 214 with gNBs, for example, gNB 216, or ng-eNBs, for example, ng-eNB 218. The gNB 216 may connect with 5G- enabled UEs using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 216 may connect with a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB 218 may also connect with the 5G core through an NG interface, but may connect with a UE via an LTE air interface. The gNB 216 and the ng-eNB 218 may connect with each other over an Xn interface.

[0067] In some embodiments, the NG interface may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface, which carries traffic data between the nodes of the NG-RAN 214 and a UPF 248 (e.g., N3 interface), and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between the nodes of the NG-RAN214 and an AMF 244 (e.g., N2 interface).

[0068] The NG-RAN 214 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polar, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller codes for control and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use a CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; PTRS for phase tracking for PDSCH; and tracking reference signal for time tracking. The 5G-NR air interface may operating on FR1 bands that include sub-6 GHz bands or FR2 bands that include bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The 5G-NR air interface may include an SSB that is an area of a downlink resource grid that includes PSS/SSS/PBCH.

[0069] In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWP can be used for dynamic adaptation of the SCS. For example, the UE 202 can be configured with multiple BWPs where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 202, the SCS of the transmission is changed as well. Another use case example of BWP is related to power saving. In particular, multiple BWPs can be configured for the UE 202 with different amount of frequency resources (for example, PRBs) to support data transmission under different traffic loading scenarios. A BWP containing a smaller number of PRBs can be used for data transmission with small traffic load while allowing power saving at the UE 202 and in some cases at the gNB 216. A BWP containing a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic load.

[0070] The RAN 204 is communicatively coupled to CN 220 that includes network elements to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (for example, users of UE 202). The components of the CN 220 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 220 onto physical compute/storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 220 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 220 may be referred to as a network sub-slice.

[0071] In some embodiments, the CN 220 may be an LTE CN 222, which may also be referred to as an EPC. The LTE CN 222 may include MME 224, SGW 226, SGSN 228, HSS 230, PGW 232, and PCRF 234 coupled with one another over interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. Functions of the elements of the LTE CN 222 may be briefly introduced as follows.

[0072] The MME 224 may implement mobility management functions to track a current location of the UE 202 to facilitate paging, bearer activation/deactivation, handovers, gateway selection, authentication, etc.

[0073] The SGW 226 may terminate an SI interface toward the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 222. The SGW 226 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0074] The SGSN 228 may track a location of the UE 202 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 228 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 224; MME selection for handovers; etc. The S3 reference point between the MME 224 and the SGSN 228 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in idle/active states. [0075] The HSS 230 may include a database for network users, including subscription- related information to support the network entities' handling of communication sessions. The HSS 230 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 230 and the MME 224 may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user access to the LTE CN 220.

[0076] The PGW 232 may terminate an SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 236 that may include an application/content server 238. The PGW 232 may route data packets between the LTE CN 222 and the data network 236. The PGW 232 may be coupled with the SGW 226 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 232 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (for example, PCEF). Additionally, the SGi reference point between the PGW 232 and the data network YX 36 may be an operator external public, a private PDN, or an intra-operator packet data network, for example, for provision of IMS services. The PGW 232 may be coupled with a PCRF 234 via a Gx reference point. [0077] The PCRF 234 is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 222. The PCRF 234 may be communicatively coupled to the app/content server 238 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for service flows. The PCRF 232 may provision associated rules into a PCEF (via Gx reference point) with appropriate TFT and QCL

[0078] In some embodiments, the CN 220 may be a 5GC 240. The 5GC 240 may include an AUSF 242, AMF 244, SMF 246, UPF 248, NSSF 250, NEF 252, NRF 254, PCF 256, UDM 258, and AF 260 coupled with one another over interfaces (or "reference points") as shown. Functions of the elements of the 5GC 240 may be briefly introduced as follows.

[0079] The AUSF 242 may store data for authentication of UE 202 and handle authentication-related functionality. The AUSF 242 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 240 over reference points as shown, the AUSF 242 may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface. [0080] The AMF 244 may allow other functions of the 5GC 240 to communicate with the UE 202 and the RAN 204 and to subscribe to notifications about mobility events with respect to the UE 202. The AMF 244 may be responsible for registration management (for example, for registering UE 202), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 244 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 202 and the SMF 246, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 244 may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE 202 and an SMSF. AMF 244 may interact with the AUSF 242 and the UE 202 to perform various security anchor and context management functions. Furthermore, AMF 244 may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the RAN 204 and the AMF 244; and the AMF 244 may be a termination point of NAS (N 1) signaling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. AMF 244 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 202 over an N3 IWF interface.

[0081] The SMF 246 may be responsible for SM (for example, session establishment, tunnel management between UPF 248 and AN 208); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF 248 to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement, charging, and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN specific SM information, sent via AMF 244 over N2 to AN 208; and determining SSC mode of a session. SM may refer to management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or "session" may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 202 and the data network 236.

[0082] The UPF 248 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to data network 236, and a branching point to support multi-homed PDU session. The UPF 248 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for a user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF-to-QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 248 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network. [0083] The NSSF 250 may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE 202. The NSSF 250 may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed. The NSSF 250 may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE 202, or a list of candidate AMFs based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 254. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 202 may be triggered by the AMF 244 with which the UE 202 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 250, which may lead to a change of AMF. The NSSF 250 may interact with the AMF 244 via an N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). Additionally, the NSSF 250 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.

[0084] The NEF 252 may securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third party, internal exposure/re-exposure, AFs (e.g., AF 260), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF 252 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AFs. NEF 252 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 260 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 252 may translate between an AF-Service-ldentifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF 252 may also receive information from other NFs based on exposed capabilities of other NFs. This information may be stored at the NEF 252 as structured data, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF 252 to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF 252 may exhibit an Nnef servicebased interface.

[0085] The NRF 254 may support service discovery functions, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide the information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 254 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms "instantiate," "instantiation," and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and an "instance" may refer to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 254 may exhibit the Nnrf service-based interface.

[0086] The PCF 256 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF 256 may also implement a front end to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM 258. In addition to communicating with functions over reference points as shown, the PCF 256 exhibit an Npcf service-based interface.

[0087] The UDM 258 may handle subscription-related information to support the network entities' handling of communication sessions, and may store subscription data of UE 202. For example, subscription data may be communicated via an N8 reference point between the UDM 258 and the AMF 244. The UDM 258 may include two parts, an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 258 and the PCF 256, and/or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFDs for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 202) for the NEF 252. The Nudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 258, PCF 256, and NEF 252 to access a particular set of the stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notification of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, location management, subscription management and so on. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification handling, access authorization, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs over reference points as shown, the UDM 258 may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface.

[0088] The AF 260 may provide application influence on traffic routing, provide access to NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.

[0089] In some embodiments, the 5GC 240 may enable edge computing by selecting operator/3rd party services to be geographically close to a point that the UE 202 is attached to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge-computing implementations, the 5GC 240 may select a UPF 248 close to the UE 202 and execute traffic steering from the UPF 248 to data network 236 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 260. In this way, the AF 260 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 260 is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF 260 to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 260 may exhibit an Naf service-based interface.

[0090] The data network 236 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third party services that may be provided by one or more servers including, for example, application/content server 238.

[0091] Fig. 3 schematically illustrates a wireless network 300 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 300 may include a UE 302 in wireless communication with an AN 304. The UE 302 and AN 304 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, like- named components described elsewhere herein.

[0092] The UE 302 may be communicatively coupled with the AN 304 via connection 306. The connection 306 is illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols such as an LTE protocol or a 5G NR protocol operating at mmWave or sub-6GHz frequencies.

[0093] The UE 302 may include a host platform 308 coupled with a modem platform 310. The host platform 308 may include application processing circuitry 312, which may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 314 of the modem platform 310. The application processing circuitry 312 may run various applications for the UE 302 that source/sink application data. The application processing circuitry 312 may further implement one or more layer operations to transmit/receive application data to/from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (for example UDP) and Internet (for example, IP) operations

[0094] The protocol processing circuitry 314 may implement one or more of layer operations to facilitate transmission or reception of data over the connection 306. The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 314 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC and NAS operations.

[0095] The modem platform 310 may further include digital baseband circuitry 316 that may implement one or more layer operations that are "below" layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 314 in a network protocol stack. These operations may include, for example, PHY operations including one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling/descrambling, encoding/decoding, layer mapping/de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol/bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding/decoding, which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency or spatial coding, reference signal generation/detection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generation/detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

[0096] The modem platform 310 may further include transmit circuitry 318, receive circuitry 320, RF circuitry 322, and RF front end (RFFE) 324, which may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 326. Briefly, the transmit circuitry 318 may include a digital-to-analog converter, mixer, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc.; the receive circuitry 320 may include an analog-to-digital converter, mixer, IF components, etc.; the RF circuitry 322 may include a low-noise amplifier, a power amplifier, power tracking components, etc.; RFFE 324 may include filters (for example, surface/bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (for example, phase-array antenna components), etc. The selection and arrangement of the components of the transmit circuitry 318, receive circuitry 320, RF circuitry 322, RFFE 324, and antenna panels 326 (referred generically as "transmit/receive components") may be specific to details of a specific implementation such as, for example, whether communication is TDM or FDM, in mmWave or sub-6 gHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit/receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit/receive chains, may be disposed in the same or different chips/modules, etc.

[0097] In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 314 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmit/receive components.

[0098] A UE reception may be established by and via the antenna panels 326, RFFE 324, RF circuitry 322, receive circuitry 320, digital baseband circuitry 316, and protocol processing circuitry 314. In some embodiments, the antenna panels 326 may receive a transmission from the AN 304 by receive-beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas/antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels 326.

[0099] A UE transmission may be established by and via the protocol processing circuitry 314, digital baseband circuitry 316, transmit circuitry 318, RF circuitry 322, RFFE 324, and antenna panels 326. In some embodiments, the transmit components of the UE 304 may apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam emitted by the antenna elements of the antenna panels 326.

[00100] Similar to the UE 302, the AN 304 may include a host platform 328 coupled with a modem platform 330. The host platform 328 may include application processing circuitry 332 coupled with protocol processing circuitry 334 of the modem platform 330. The modem platform may further include digital baseband circuitry 336, transmit circuitry 338, receive circuitry 340, RF circuitry 342, RFFE circuitry 344, and antenna panels 346. The components of the AN 304 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with like-named components of the UE 302. In addition to performing data transmission/reception as described above, the components of the AN 308 may perform various logical functions that include, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

[00101] Fig. 4 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. Specifically, Fig. 4 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 400 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 410, one or more memory/storage devices 420, and one or more communication resources 430, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 440 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 402 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 400.

[00102] The processors 410 may include, for example, a processor 412 and a processor 414. The processors 410 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. [00103] The memory/storage devices 420 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 420 may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-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.

[00104] The communication resources 430 may include interconnection or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 404 or one or more databases 406 or other network elements via a network 408. For example, the communication resources 430 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

[00105] Instructions 450 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 410 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 450 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 410 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), the memory/storage devices 420, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 450 may be transferred to the hardware resources 400 from any combination of the peripheral devices 404 or the databases 406. Accordingly, the memory of processors 410, the memory/storage devices 420, the peripheral devices 404, and the databases 406 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[00106] For one or more embodiments, 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. For example, 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. For another example, 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.

[00107] For one or more embodiments, 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. For example, 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. For another example, 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.

[00108] Fig. 5 shows a process 500 according to an embodiment. At operation 502, the process includes encoding, and sending for transmission to a user equipment (UE), a multicast and broadcast services (MBS) configuration message to configure a MBS frequency region to the UE, the MBS frequency region including a search space for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). At operation 504, the process includes encoding, and sending for transmission to a group of UEs including the UE, the PDCCH, the PDCCH including a group-common downlink control information (DCI) having a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) to schedule a group-common physical downlink shared channel ( PDSCH) including MBS data to the UE or to schedule a Single cell Multicast Control Channel (MCCH) change notification to the UE. At operation 506, the process includes encoding, and sending for transmission to the group of UEs, the PDSCH or the MCCH change notification.

[00109] Examples

[00110] Additional examples of the presently described embodiments include the following, non-limiting implementations. Each of the following non-limiting examples may stand on its own or may be combined in any permutation or combination with any one or more of the other examples provided below or throughout the present disclosure.

[00111] Example 1 includes an apparatus of a New Radio (NR) evolved Node B (gNB), the apparatus including a memory, and one or more processors coupled to the memory, the memory storing instructions, and the one or more processors to implement the instructions to: encode, and send for transmission to a user equipment (U E), a multicast and broadcast services (MBS) configuration message to configure a MBS frequency region to the UE, the MBS frequency region including a search space for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); encode, and send for transmission to a group of UEs including the UE, the PDCCH, the PDCCH including a group-common downlink control information (DCI) having a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) to schedule a group-common physical downlink shared channel ( PDSCH) including MBS data to the UE or to schedule a Single cell Multicast Control Channel (MCCH) change notification to the UE; and encode, and send for transmission to the group of UEs, the PDSCH or the MCCH change notification.

[00112] Example 2 includes the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the MBS configuration message corresponds to a radio resource control message and the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode.

[00113] Example 3 includes the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the MBS configuration message includes frequency information for the MBS frequency region including subcarrier spacing (SCS), cyclic prefix (CP), starting physical resource block (PRB) index, and number of PRBs. [00114] Example 4 includes the subject matter of Example 3, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and wherein the MSB configuration message is to jointly indicate the PRB index and the number of PRBs.

[00115] Example 5 includes the subject matter of Example 3, wherein the MSB configuration message further includes a control resource set (CORESET) and an associated search space for the PDCCH.

[00116] Example 6 includes the subject matter of Example 5, wherein the search space is associated with a common search space (CSS) of Type 3.

[00117] Example 7 includes the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and the MBS frequency region is contained within active bandwidth parts (BWP) of respective UEs of the group of UEs.

[00118] Example 8 includes the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the RNTI includes one of a group RNTI (G-RNTI), Single Cell point-to-multipoint (SC) RNTI (SC-RNTI), or Single Cell point- to-multipoint Notification (SC-N-RNTI). [00119] Example 9 includes the subject matter of Example 8, wherein the RNTI includes a G- RNTI to schedule the group-common PDSCH for MBS, and a SC-N-RNTI to schedule the MCCH change notification.

[00120] Example 10 includes the subject matter of Example 1, wherein encoding the PDCCH includes counting a size of the DCI against a DCI size budget of 3 in a DCI size budget scheme of 3 + 1.

[00121] Example 11 includes the subject matter of Example 10, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and wherein the one or more processors are to further encode the DCI by implementing an alignment of a size of the DCI based on the DCI size budget of 3.

[00122] Example 12 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 1-11, where the DCI corresponds to a DCI format l_0 or DCI format 1_1.

[00123] Example 13 includes the subject matter of Example 11, the one or more processors to implement the alignment based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0 if CORESET 0 was configured, or based on an initial downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) configured to the UE if CORESET 0 was not configured, or based on an active BWP of the UE.

[00124] Example 14 includes the subject matter of Example 11, the one or more processors to implement the alignment by, in response to a determination that a size of the DCI with CRC scrambled with the RNTI based on the MBS frequency region is smaller than a size of the DCI based on an active downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) of the UE but larger than a size of the DCI based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0 or on an initial DL BWP of the UE, aligning a size of the DCI based on CORESET 0 or on the initial DL BWP.

[00125] Example 15 includes the subject matter of Example 11, the one or more processors to implement the alignment by, in response to a determination that a size of the DCI with CRC scrambled with the RNTI based on the MBS frequency region is smaller than a size of the DCI based on an active downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) of the UE but larger than a size of the DCI based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0 or on an initial DL BWP of the UE, aligning a size of the DCI based on a value configured to the UE to align the size of the DCI to the MBS frequency region. [00126] Example 16 includes the subject matter of Example 1, the one or more processors to further encode and send for transmission to the UE a radio resource control (RRC) message pdsch-TimeDomainAllocationList to configure a plurality of repetitions for the PDSCH as part of time domain resource allocation to the UE.

[00127] Example 17 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 13-16, wherein the DCI corresponds to a DCI format l_0.

[00128] Example 18 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 1-17, further including communications resources coupled to the one or more processors to communicate with the UE.

[00129] Example 19 includes an apparatus of a New Radio (NR) user equipment (UE), the apparatus including a memory, and one or more processors coupled to the memory, the memory storing instructions, and the one or more processors to implement the instructions to: decode a multicast and broadcast services (MBS) configuration message from a NR evolved Node B (gNB) to configure a MBS frequency region to the UE, the MBS frequency region including a search space for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); decode the PDCCH transmitted by the gNB to a group of UEs including the UE, the PDCCH including a group-common downlink control information (DCI) having a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) to schedule, at the UE, a group-common physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) including MBS data, or to schedule, at the UE, a Single cell Multicast Control Channel (MCCH) change notification; and decode the PDSCH or the MCCH change notification.

[00130] Example 20 includes the subject matter of Example 19, wherein the MBS configuration message corresponds to a radio resource control message and the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode.

[00131] Example 21 includes the subject matter of Example 19, wherein the MBS configuration message includes frequency information for the MBS frequency region including subcarrier spacing (SCS), cyclic prefix (CP), starting physical resource block (PRB) index, and number of PRBs. [00132] Example 22 includes the subject matter of Example 21, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and wherein the MSB configuration message is to jointly indicate the PRB index and the number of PRBs.

[00133] Example 23 includes the subject matter of Example 21, wherein the MSB configuration message further includes a control resource set (CORESET) and an associated search space for the PDCCH.

[00134] Example 24 includes the subject matter of Example 23, wherein the search space is associated with a common search space (CSS) of Type 3.

[00135] Example 25 includes the subject matter of Example 19, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and the MBS frequency region is contained within active bandwidth parts (BWP) of respective UEs of the group of UEs.

[00136] Example 26 includes the subject matter of Example 19, wherein the RNTI includes one of a group RNTI (G-RNTI), Single Cell point-to-multipoint (SC) RNTI (SC-RNTI), or Single Cell point-to-multipoint Notification (SC-N-RNTI).

[00137] Example 27 includes the subject matter of Example 26, wherein the RNTI includes a G-RNTI to schedule the group-common PDSCH for MBS, and a SC-N-RNTI to schedule the MCCH change notification.

[00138] Example 28 includes the subject matter of Example 27, wherein decoding the PDCCH includes counting the DCI against a DCI size budget of 3 in a DCI size budget scheme of 3 + 1.

[00139] Example 29 includes the subject matter of Example 26, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and wherein decoding the PDCCH includes decoding the DCI depending on an alignment of a size of the DCI based on the DCI size budget of 3.

[00140] Example 30 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 19-29, where the DCI corresponds to a DCI format l_0 or DCI format 1_1.

[00141] Example 31 includes the subject matter of Example 29, wherein decoding the PDCCH includes decoding the DCI depending on an alignment of a size of the DCI based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0 if CORESET 0 was configured, or based on an initial downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) configured to the UE if CORESET 0 was not configured, or based on an active BWP of the UE.

[00142] Example 32 includes the subject matter of Example 29, wherein decoding the PDCCH includes decoding the DCI depending on an alignment of a size of the DCI based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0 or on an initial downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) of the UE, the alignment in response to a determination that a size of the DCI with CRC scrambled with the RNTI based on the MBS frequency region is smaller than a size of the DCI based on an active DL BWP of the UE but larger than a size of the DCI based on CORESET 0 or on the initial DL BWP. [00143] Example 33 includes the subject matter of Example 29, wherein decoding the PDCCH includes decoding the DCI depending on an alignment of a size of the DCI based on a value configured to the UE to align the size of the DCI to the MBS frequency region, the alignment in response to a determination that a size of the DCI with CRC scrambled with the RNTI based on the MBS frequency region is smaller than a size of the DCI based on an active downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) of the UE but larger than a size of the DCI based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0 or on an initial DL BWP of the UE.

[00144] Example 34 includes the subject matter of Example 19, the one or more processors to further decode a radio resource control (RRC) message pdsch-TimeDomainAllocationList from the gNB, the RRC message to configure a plurality of repetitions for the PDSCH as part of time domain resource allocation to the UE.

[00145] Example 35 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 31-34, wherein the DCI corresponds to a DCI format l_0.

[00146] Example 36 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 19-35, further including communications resources coupled to the one or more processors to communicate with the gNB.

[00147] Example 37 includes a method to be performed at a New Radio (NR) evolved Node B (gNB), including: encoding, and sending for transmission to a user equipment (UE), a multicast and broadcast services (MBS) configuration message to configure a MBS frequency region to the UE, the MBS frequency region including a search space for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); encoding, and sending for transmission to a group of UEs including the UE, the PDCCH, the PDCCH including a group-common downlink control information (DCI) having a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) to schedule a group-common physical downlink shared channel ( PDSCH) including MBS data to the UE or to schedule a Single cell Multicast Control Channel (MCCH) change notification to the UE; and encoding, and sending for transmission to the group of UEs, the PDSCH or the MCCH change notification.

[00148] Example 38 includes the subject matter of Example 37, wherein the MBS configuration message corresponds to a radio resource control message and the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode.

[00149] Example 39 includes the subject matter of Example 37, wherein the MBS configuration message includes frequency information for the MBS frequency region including subcarrier spacing (SCS), cyclic prefix (CP), starting physical resource block (PRB) index, and number of PRBs.

[00150] Example 40 includes the subject matter of Example 39, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and wherein the MSB configuration message is to jointly indicate the PRB index and the number of PRBs.

[00151] Example 41 includes the subject matter of Example 39, wherein the MSB configuration message further includes a control resource set (CORESET) and an associated search space for the PDCCH.

[00152] Example 42 includes the subject matter of Example 41, wherein the search space is associated with a common search space (CSS) of Type 3.

[00153] Example 43 includes the subject matter of Example 37, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and the MBS frequency region is contained within active bandwidth parts (BWP) of respective UEs of the group of UEs.

[00154] Example 44 includes the subject matter of Example 37, wherein the RNTI includes one of a group RNTI (G-RNTI), Single Cell point-to-multipoint (SC) RNTI (SC-RNTI), or Single Cell point-to-multipoint Notification (SC-N-RNTI). [00155] Example 45 includes the subject matter of Example 44, wherein the RNTI includes a G-RNTI to schedule the group-common PDSCH for MBS, and a SC-N-RNTI to schedule the MCCH change notification.

[00156] Example 46 includes the subject matter of Example 45, wherein encoding the PDCCH includes counting a size of the DCI against a DCI size budget of 3 in a DCI size budget scheme of 3 + 1.

[00157] Example 47 includes the subject matter of Example 46, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and wherein the method further includes encoding the DCI by implementing an alignment of a size of the DCI based on the DCI size budget of 3.

[00158] Example 48 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 37-47, where the DCI corresponds to a DCI format l_0 or DCI format 1_1.

[00159] Example 49 includes the subject matter of Example 47, the method further including implementing the alignment based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0 if CORESET 0 was configured, or based on an initial downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) configured to the UE if CORESET 0 was not configured, or based on an active BWP of the UE.

[00160] Example 50 includes the subject matter of Example 47, the method further including implementing the alignment by, in response to a determination that a size of the DCI with CRC scrambled with the RNTI based on the MBS frequency region is smaller than a size of the DCI based on an active downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) of the UE but larger than a size of the DCI based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0 or on an initial DL BWP of the UE, aligning a size of the DCI based on CORESET 0 or on the initial DL BWP.

[00161] Example 51 includes the subject matter of Example 47, the method further including implementing the alignment by, in response to a determination that a size of the DCI with CRC scrambled with the RNTI based on the MBS frequency region is smaller than a size of the DCI based on an active downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) of the UE but larger than a size of the DCI based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0 or on an initial DL BWP of the UE, aligning a size of the DCI based on a value configured to the UE to align the size of the DCI to the MBS frequency region. [00162] Example 52 includes the subject matter of Example 37, the method further including encoding and send for transmission to the UE a radio resource control (RRC) message pdsch-TimeDomainAllocationList to configure a plurality of repetitions for the PDSCH as part of time domain resource allocation to the UE.

[00163] Example 53 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 49-52, wherein the DCI corresponds to a DCI format l_0.

[00164] Example 54 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 37-53, further including communicating wirelessly with the UE.

[00165] Example 55 includes a method to be performed at a New Radio (NR) user equipment (UE), the method including: decoding a multicast and broadcast services (MBS) configuration message from a NR evolved Node B (gNB) to configure a MBS frequency region to the UE, the MBS frequency region including a search space for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); decoding the PDCCH transmitted by the gNB to a group of UEs including the UE, the PDCCH including a group-common downlink control information (DCI) having a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) to schedule, at the UE, a group-common physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) including MBS data, or to schedule, at the UE, a Single cell Multicast Control Channel (MCCH) change notification; and decoding the PDSCH or the MCCH change notification.

[00166] Example 56 includes the subject matter of Example 55, wherein the MBS configuration message corresponds to a radio resource control message and the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode.

[00167] Example 57 includes the subject matter of Example 55, wherein the MBS configuration message includes frequency information for the MBS frequency region including subcarrier spacing (SCS), cyclic prefix (CP), starting physical resource block (PRB) index, and number of PRBs.

[00168] Example 58 includes the subject matter of Example 57, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and wherein the MSB configuration message is to jointly indicate the PRB index and the number of PRBs. [00169] Example 59 includes the subject matter of Example 57, wherein the MSB configuration message further includes a control resource set (CORESET) and an associated search space for the PDCCH.

[00170] Example 60 includes the subject matter of Example 59, wherein the search space is associated with a common search space (CSS) of Type 3.

[00171] Example 61 includes the subject matter of Example 55, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and the MBS frequency region is contained within active bandwidth parts (BWP) of respective UEs of the group of UEs.

[00172] Example 62 includes the subject matter of Example 55, wherein the RNTI includes one of a group RNTI (G-RNTI), Single Cell point-to-multipoint (SC) RNTI (SC-RNTI), or Single Cell point-to-multipoint Notification (SC-N-RNTI).

[00173] Example 63 includes the subject matter of Example 62, wherein the RNTI includes a G-RNTI to schedule the group-common PDSCH for MBS, and a SC-N-RNTI to schedule the MCCH change notification.

[00174] Example 64 includes the subject matter of Example 55, wherein decoding the PDCCH includes counting the DCI against a DCI size budget of 3 in a DCI size budget scheme of 3 + 1.

[00175] Example 65 includes the subject matter of Example 62, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and wherein decoding the PDCCH includes decoding the DCI depending on an alignment of a size of the DCI based on the DCI size budget of 3.

[00176] Example 66 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 55-65, where the DCI corresponds to a DCI format l_0 or DCI format 1_1.

[00177] Example 67 includes the subject matter of Example 65, wherein decoding the PDCCH includes decoding the DCI depending on an alignment of a size of the DCI based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0 if CORESET 0 was configured, or based on an initial downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) configured to the UE if CORESET 0 was not configured, or based on an active BWP of the UE.

[00178] Example 68 includes the subject matter of Example 65, wherein decoding the PDCCH includes decoding the DCI depending on an alignment of a size of the DCI based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0 or on an initial downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) of the UE, the alignment in response to a determination that a size of the DCI with CRC scrambled with the RNTI based on the MBS frequency region is smaller than a size of the DCI based on an active DL BWP of the UE but larger than a size of the DCI based on CORESET 0 or on the initial DL BWP. [00179] Example 69 includes the subject matter of Example 65, wherein decoding the PDCCH includes decoding the DCI depending on an alignment of a size of the DCI based on a value configured to the UE to align the size of the DCI to the MBS frequency region, the alignment in response to a determination that a size of the DCI with CRC scrambled with the RNTI based on the MBS frequency region is smaller than a size of the DCI based on an active downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) of the UE but larger than a size of the DCI based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0 or on an initial DL BWP of the UE.

[00180] Example 70 includes the subject matter of Example 55, further including decoding a radio resource control (RRC) message pdsch-TimeDomainAllocationList from the gNB, the RRC message to configure a plurality of repetitions for the PDSCH as part of time domain resource allocation to the UE.

[00181] Example 71 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 67-70, wherein the DCI corresponds to a DCI format l_0.

[00182] Example 72 includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 55-71, further including communicating wirelessly with the gNB.

[00183] Example 73 includes a machine readable medium including code, which, when executed, is to cause a machine to perform Example X includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 37-72.

[00184] Example 74 includes an apparatus including means to perform Example X includes the subject matter of any one of Examples 37-72.

[00185] Example Z01 includes an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of Examples 37-72, or any other method or process described herein.

[00186] Example Z02 includes 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 described in or related to any of Examples 37-72, or any other method or process described herein.

[00187] Example Z03 includes an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of Examples 37-72, or any other method or process described herein.

[00188] Example Z04 includes a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of Examples 37-72, or portions or parts thereof.

[00189] Example Z05 includes 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 37-72, or portions thereof.

[00190] Example Z06 includes a signal as described in or related to any of Examples 37-72, or portions or parts thereof.

[00191] Example Z07 includes a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of Examples 37-72, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[00192] Example Z08 includes a signal encoded with data as described in or related to any of Examples 37-72, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[00193] Example Z09 includes a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of Examples 37-72, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[00194] Example Z10 includes an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors is to cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of Examples 37-72, or portions thereof.

[00195] Example Zll includes a computer program comprising instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element is to cause the processing element to carry out the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of Examples 37-72, or portions thereof. [00196] Example Z12 includes a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[00197] Example Z13 includes a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[00198] Example Z14 includes a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[00199] Example Z15 includes a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[00200] An example implementation is an edge computing system, including respective edge processing devices and nodes to invoke or perform the operations of Examples 37-72, or other subject matter described herein.

[00201] Another example implementation is a client endpoint node, operable to invoke or perform the operations of Examples 37-72, or other subject matter described herein.

[00202] Another example implementation is an aggregation node, network hub node, gateway node, or core data processing node, within or coupled to an edge computing system, operable to invoke or perform the operations of Examples 37-72, or other subject matter described herein.

[00203] Another example implementation is an access point, base station, road-side unit, street-side unit, or on-premise unit, within or coupled to an edge computing system, operable to invoke or perform the operations of Examples 37-72, or other subject matter described herein.

[00204] Another example implementation is an edge provisioning node, service orchestration node, application orchestration node, or multi-tenant management node, within or coupled to an edge computing system, operable to invoke or perform the operations of Examples 37-72, or other subject matter described herein.

[00205] Another example implementation is an edge node operating an edge provisioning service, application or service orchestration service, virtual machine deployment, container deployment, function deployment, and compute management, within or coupled to an edge computing system, operable to invoke or perform the operations of Examples 37-72, or other subject matter described herein. [00206] Another example implementation is an edge computing system operable as an edge mesh, as an edge mesh with side car loading, or with mesh-to-mesh communications, operable to invoke or perform the operations of Examples 37-72, or other subject matter described herein.

[00207] Another example implementation is an edge computing system including aspects of network functions, acceleration functions, acceleration hardware, storage hardware, or computation hardware resources, operable to invoke or perform the use cases discussed herein, with use of Examples 37-72, or other subject matter described herein.

[00208] Another example implementation is an edge computing system adapted for supporting client mobility, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-everything (V2X), or vehicle-to- infrastructure (V2I) scenarios, and optionally operating according to ETSI MEC specifications, operable to invoke or perform the use cases discussed herein, with use of Examples 37-72, or other subject matter described herein.

[00209] Another example implementation is an edge computing system adapted for mobile wireless communications, including configurations according to an 3GPP 4G/LTE or 5G network capabilities, operable to invoke or perform the use cases discussed herein, with use of Examples 37-72, or other subject matter described herein.

[00210] Another example implementation is a computing system adapted for network communications, including configurations according to an O-RAN capabilities, operable to invoke or perform the use cases discussed herein, with use of Examples 37-72, or other subject matter described herein.

[00211] Any of the above-described examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples), unless explicitly stated otherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

[00212] Terminology

[00213] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms "a," "an" and "the" are intended to include plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising," when used in this specification, specific the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operation, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. [00214] For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrase "A and/or B" means (A), (B), or (A and B). For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrase "A, B, and/or C" means (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 some 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.

[00215] The terms "coupled," "communicatively coupled," along with derivatives thereof are used herein. The term "coupled" 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" may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with one another. The term "communicatively coupled" may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with one another by a means of communication including through a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wireless communication channel or ink, and/or the like.

[00216] The term "circuitry" as used herein refers 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 SoC), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, 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.

[00217] The term "processor circuitry" as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data. Processing circuitry may include one or more processing cores to execute instructions and one or more memory structures to store program and data information. The term "processor circuitry" may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes. Processing circuitry may include more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, or the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and/or deep learning (DL) accelerators. The terms "application circuitry" and/or "baseband circuitry" may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, "processor circuitry."

[00218] The term "memory" and/or "memory circuitry" as used herein refers to one or more hardware devices for storing data, including RAM, MRAM, PRAM, DRAM, and/or SDRAM, core memory, ROM, magnetic disk storage mediums, optical storage mediums, flash memory devices or other machine readable mediums for storing data. The term "computer-readable medium" may include, but is not limited to, memory, portable or fixed storage devices, optical storage devices, and various other mediums capable of storing, containing or carrying instructions or data.

[00219] The term "interface circuitry" as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuitry" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, I/O interfaces, peripheral component interfaces, network interface cards, and/or the like. [00220] The term "user equipment" or "UE" as used herein refers to a device with radio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communications network. The term "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.

[00221] The term "network element" as used herein refers to physical or virtualized equipment and/or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and/or the like.

[00222] The term "computer system" as used herein refers to any type interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or components thereof. Additionally, the term "computer system" and/or "system" may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled with one another. Furthermore, the term "computer system" and/or "system" may refer to multiple computer devices and/or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled with one another and configured to share computing and/or networking resources.

[00223] The term "appliance," "computer appliance," or the like, as used herein refers to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g., software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide a specific computing resource. A "virtual appliance" is a virtual machine image to be implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or otherwise is dedicated to provide a specific computing resource. The term "element" refers to a unit that is indivisible at a given level of abstraction and has a clearly defined boundary, wherein an element may be any type of entity including, for example, one or more devices, systems, controllers, network elements, modules, etc., or combinations thereof. The term "device" refers to a physical entity embedded inside, or attached to, another physical entity in its vicinity, with capabilities to convey digital information from or to that physical entity. The term "entity" refers to a distinct component of an architecture or device, or information transferred as a payload. The term "controller" refers to an element or entity that has the capability to affect a physical entity, such as by changing its state or causing the physical entity to move.

[00224] The term "cloud computing" or "cloud" refers to a paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable computing resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand and without active management by users. Cloud computing provides cloud computing services (or cloud services), which are one or more capabilities offered via cloud computing that are invoked using a defined interface (e.g., an API or the like). The term "computing resource" or simply "resource" refers to any physical or virtual component, or usage of such components, of limited availability within a computer system or network. Examples of computing resources include usage/access to, for a period of time, servers, processor(s), storage equipment, memory devices, memory areas, networks, electrical power, input/output (peripheral) devices, mechanical devices, network connections (e.g., channels/links, ports, network sockets, etc.), operating systems, virtual machines (VMs), software/applications, computer files, and/or the like. A "hardware resource" may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by physical hardware element(s). A "virtualized resource" may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. The term "network resource" or "communication resource" may refer to resources that are accessible by computer devices/systems via a communications network. The term "system resources" may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services, and may include computing and/or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services, accessible through a server where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable. As used herein, the term "cloud service provider" (or CSP) indicates an organization which operates typically large-scale "cloud" resources comprised of centralized, regional, and edge data centers (e.g., as used in the context of the public cloud). In other examples, a CSP may also be referred to as a Cloud Service Operator (CSO). References to "cloud computing" generally refer to computing resources and services offered by a CSP or a CSO, at remote locations with at least some increased latency, distance, or constraints relative to edge computing.

[00225] As used herein, the term "data center" refers to a purpose-designed structure that is intended to house multiple high-performance compute and data storage nodes such that a large amount of compute, data storage and network resources are present at a single location. This often entails specialized rack and enclosure systems, suitable heating, cooling, ventilation, security, fire suppression, and power delivery systems. The term may also refer to a compute and data storage node in some contexts. A data center may vary in scale between a centralized or cloud data center (e.g., largest), regional data center, and edge data center (e.g., smallest).

[00226] As used herein, the term "edge computing" refers to the implementation, coordination, and use of computing and resources at locations closer to the "edge" or collection of "edges" of a network. Deploying computing resources at the network's edge may reduce application and network latency, reduce network backhaul traffic and associated energy consumption, improve service capabilities, improve compliance with security or data privacy requirements (especially as compared to conventional cloud computing), and improve total cost of ownership). As used herein, the term "edge compute node" refers to a real-world, logical, or virtualized implementation of a compute-capable element in the form of a device, gateway, bridge, system or subsystem, component, whether operating in a server, client, endpoint, or peer mode, and whether located at an "edge" of an network or at a connected location further within the network. References to a "node" used herein are generally interchangeable with a "device", "component", and "sub-system"; however, references to an "edge computing system" or "edge computing network" generally refer to a distributed architecture, organization, or collection of multiple nodes and devices, and which is organized to accomplish or offer some aspect of services or resources in an edge computing setting.

[00227] Additionally or alternatively, the term "Edge Computing" refers to a concept that enables operator and 3rd party services to be hosted close to the UE's access point of attachment, to achieve an efficient service delivery through the reduced end-to-end latency and load on the transport network. As used herein, the term "Edge Computing Service Provider" refers to a mobile network operator or a 3rd party service provider offering Edge Computing service. As used herein, the term "Edge Data Network" refers to a local Data Network (DN) that supports the architecture for enabling edge applications. As used herein, the term "Edge Hosting Environment" refers to an environment providing support required for Edge Application Server's execution. As used herein, the term "Application Server" refers to application software resident in the cloud performing the server function.

[00228] The term "Internet of Things" or "loT" refers to a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines capable of transferring data with little or no human interaction, and may involve technologies such as real-time analytics, machine learning and/or Al, embedded systems, wireless sensor networks, control systems, automation (e.g., smart-home, smart building and/or smart city technologies), and the like. loT devices are usually low-power devices without heavy compute or storage capabilities. "Edge loT devices" may be any kind of loT devices deployed at a network's edge.

[00229] As used herein, the term "cluster" refers to a set or grouping of entities as part of an edge computing system (or systems), in the form of physical entities (e.g., different computing systems, networks or network groups), logical entities (e.g., applications, functions, security constructs, containers), and the like. In some locations, a "cluster" is also referred to as a "group" or a "domain". The membership of cluster may be modified or affected based on conditions or functions, including from dynamic or property-based membership, from network or system management scenarios, or from various example techniques discussed below which may add, modify, or remove an entity in a cluster. Clusters may also include or be associated with multiple layers, levels, or properties, including variations in security features and results based on such layers, levels, or properties.

[00230] The term "application" may refer to a complete and deployable package, environment to achieve a certain function in an operational environment. The term "AI/ML application" or the like may be an application that contains some AI/ML models and applicationlevel descriptions. The term "machine learning" or "ML" refers to the use of computer systems implementing algorithms and/or statistical models to perform specific task(s) without using explicit instructions, but instead relying on patterns and inferences. ML algorithms build or estimate mathematical model(s) (referred to as "ML models" or the like) based on sample data (referred to as "training data," "model training information," or the like) in order to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to perform such tasks. Generally, an ML algorithm is a computer program that learns from experience with respect to some task and some performance measure, and an ML model may be any object or data structure created after an ML algorithm is trained with one or more training datasets. After training, an ML model may be used to make predictions on new datasets. Although the term "ML algorithm" refers to different concepts than the term "ML model," these terms as discussed herein may be used interchangeably for the purposes of the present disclosure.

[00231] The term "machine learning model," "ML model," or the like may also refer to ML methods and concepts used by an ML-assisted solution. An "ML-assisted solution" is a solution that addresses a specific use case using ML algorithms during operation. ML models include supervised learning (e.g., linear regression, k-nearest neighbor (KNN), decision tree algorithms, support machine vectors, Bayesian algorithm, ensemble algorithms, etc.) unsupervised learning (e.g., K-means clustering, principle component analysis (PCA), etc.), reinforcement learning (e.g., Q-learning, multi-armed bandit learning, deep RL, etc.), neural networks, and the like. Depending on the implementation a specific ML model could have many sub-models as components and the ML model may train all sub-models together. Separately trained ML models can also be chained together in an ML pipeline during inference. An "ML pipeline" is a set of functionalities, functions, or functional entities specific for an ML-assisted solution; an ML pipeline may include one or several data sources in a data pipeline, a model training pipeline, a model evaluation pipeline, and an actor. The "actor" is an entity that hosts an ML assisted solution using the output of the ML model inference). The term "ML training host" refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts the training of the model. The term "ML inference host" refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts model during inference mode (which includes both the model execution as well as any online learning if applicable). The ML-host informs the actor about the output of the ML algorithm, and the actor takes a decision for an action (an "action" is performed by an actor as a result of the output of an ML assisted solution). The term "model inference information" refers to information used as an input to the ML model for determining inference(s); the data used to train an ML model and the data used to determine inferences may overlap, however, "training data" and "inference data" refer to different concepts.

[00232] The terms "instantiate," "instantiation," and the like as used herein refers to the creation of an instance. An "instance" also refers to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. The term "information element" refers to a structural element containing one or more fields. The term "field" refers to individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains content. As used herein, a "database object", "data structure", or the like may refer to any representation of information that is in the form of an object, attribute-value pair (AVP), key-value pair (KVP), tuple, etc., and may include variables, data structures, functions, methods, classes, database records, database fields, database entities, associations between data and/or database entities (also referred to as a "relation"), blocks and links between blocks in block chain implementations, and/or the like.

[00233] An "information object," as used herein, refers to a collection of structured data and/or any representation of information, and may include, for example electronic documents (or "documents"), database objects, data structures, files, audio data, video data, raw data, archive files, application packages, and/or any other like representation of information. The terms "electronic document" or "document," may refer to a data structure, computer file, or resource used to record data, and includes various file types and/or data formats such as word processing documents, spreadsheets, slide presentations, multimedia items, webpage and/or source code documents, and/or the like. As examples, the information objects may include markup and/or source code documents such as HTML, XML, JSON, Apex®, CSS, JSP, MessagePack™, Apache® Thrift™, ASN.l, Google® Protocol Buffers (protobuf), or some other document(s)/format(s) such as those discussed herein. An information object may have both a logical and a physical structure. Physically, an information object comprises one or more units called entities. An entity is a unit of storage that contains content and is identified by a name. An entity may refer to other entities to cause their inclusion in the information object. An information object begins in a document entity, which is also referred to as a root element (or "root"). Logically, an information object comprises one or more declarations, elements, comments, character references, and processing instructions, all of which are indicated in the information object (e.g., using markup). [00234] The term "data item" as used herein refers to an atomic state of a particular object with at least one specific property at a certain point in time. Such an object is usually identified by an object name or object identifier, and properties of such an object are usually defined as database objects (e.g., fields, records, etc.), object instances, or data elements (e.g., mark-up language elements/tags, etc.). Additionally or alternatively, the term "data item" as used herein may refer to data elements and/or content items, although these terms may refer to difference concepts. The term "data element" or "element" as used herein refers to a unit that is indivisible at a given level of abstraction and has a clearly defined boundary. A data element is a logical component of an information object (e.g., electronic document) that may begin with a start tag (e.g., "<element>") and end with a matching end tag (e.g., "</element>"), or only has an empty element tag (e.g., "<element />"). Any characters between the start tag and end tag, if any, are the element's content (referred to herein as "content items" or the like).

[00235] The content of an entity may include one or more content items, each of which has an associated datatype representation. A content item may include, for example, attribute values, character values, URIs, qualified names (qnames), parameters, and the like. A qname is a fully qualified name of an element, attribute, or identifier in an information object. A qname associates a URI of a namespace with a local name of an element, attribute, or identifier in that namespace. To make this association, the qname assigns a prefix to the local name that corresponds to its namespace. The qname comprises a URI of the namespace, the prefix, and the local name. Namespaces are used to provide uniquely named elements and attributes in information objects. Content items may include text content (e.g., "<element>content item</element>"), attributes (e.g., "<element attribute="attributeValue">"), and other elements referred to as "child elements" (e.g., "<elementlxelement2>content item</element2x/elementl>"). An "attribute" may refer to a markup construct including a name-value pair that exists within a start tag or empty element tag. Attributes contain data related to its element and/or control the element's behavior.

[00236] The term "channel" as used herein refers to any transmission medium, either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or a data stream. The term "channel" may be synonymous with and/or equivalent to "communications channel," "data communications channel," "transmission channel," "data transmission channel," "access channel," "data access channel," "link," "data link," "carrier," "radiofrequency carrier," and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or medium through which data is communicated. Additionally, the term "link" as used herein refers to a connection between two devices through a RAT for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information. As used herein, the term "radio technology" refers to technology for wireless transmission and/or reception of electromagnetic radiation for information transfer. The term "radio access technology" or "RAT" refers to the technology used for the underlying physical connection to a radio based communication network. As used herein, the term "communication protocol" (either wired or wireless) refers to a set of standardized rules or instructions implemented by a communication device and/or system to communicate with other devices and/or systems, including instructions for packetizing/depacketizing data, modulating/demodulating signals, implementation of protocols stacks, and/or the like.

[00237] As used herein, the term "radio technology" refers to technology for wireless transmission and/or reception of electromagnetic radiation for information transfer. The term "radio access technology" or "RAT" refers to the technology used for the underlying physical connection to a radio based communication network. As used herein, the term "communication protocol" (either wired or wireless) refers to a set of standardized rules or instructions implemented by a communication device and/or system to communicate with other devices and/or systems, including instructions for packetizing/depacketizing data, modulating/demodulating signals, implementation of protocols stacks, and/or the like. Examples of wireless communications protocols may be used in various embodiments include a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) radio communication technology, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) radio communication technology, an Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) radio communication technology, and/or a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) radio communication technology including, for example, 3GPP Fifth Generation (5G) or New Radio (NR), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Freedom of Multimedia Access (FOMA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE Advanced), LTE Extra, LTE-A Pro, cdmaOne (2G), Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA 2000), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Mobitex, Circuit Switched Data (CSD), High-Speed CSD (HSCSD), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDM), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), HSPA Plus (HSPA+), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD- CDMA), Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), LTE LAA, MuLTEfire, UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only (EV-DO), Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), Digital AMPS (D-AMPS), Total Access Communication System/Extended Total Access Communication System (TACS/ETACS), Push-to-talk (PTT), Mobile Telephone System (MTS), Improved Mobile Telephone System (IMTS), Advanced Mobile Telephone System (AMTS), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), DataTAC, Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN), Personal Digital Cellular (PDC), Personal Handy-phone System (PHS), Wideband Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (WiDEN), iBurst, Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), also referred to as also referred to as 3GPP Generic Access Network, or GAN standard), Bluetooth®, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), IEEE 802.15.4 based protocols (e.g., IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6L0WPAN), WirelessHART, MiWi, Thread, 802.11a, etc.) WiFi-direct, ANT/ANT+, ZigBee, Z-Wave, 3GPP device-to-device (D2D) or Proximity Services (ProSe), Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), Low-Power Wide-Area-Network (LPWAN), Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRA) or LoRaWAN™ developed by Semtech and the LoRa Alliance, Sigfox, Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) standard, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), mmWave standards in general (e.g., wireless systems operating at 10-300 GHz and above such as WiGig, IEEE 802. Had, IEEE 802.11ay, etc.), V2X communication technologies (including 3GPP C-V2X), Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) communication systems such as Intelligent-Transport-Systems (ITS) including the European ITS-G5, ITS-G5B, ITS-G5C, etc. In addition to the standards listed above, any number of satellite uplink technologies may be used for purposes of the present disclosure including, for example, radios compliant with standards issued by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), or the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), among others. The examples provided herein are thus understood as being applicable to various other communication technologies, both existing and not yet formulated.

[00238] The term "access network" refers to any network, using any combination of radio technologies, RATs, and/or communication protocols, used to connect user devices and service providers. In the context of WLANs, an "access network" is an IEEE 802 local area network (LAN) or metropolitan area network (MAN) between terminals and access routers connecting to provider services. The term "access router" refers to router that terminates a medium access control (MAC) service from terminals and forwards user traffic to information servers according to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

[00239] The term "SMTC" refers to an SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration. The term "SSB" refers to a synchronization signal/Physical Broadcast Channel (SS/PBCH) block, which includes a Primary Syncrhonization Signal (PSS), a Secondary Syncrhonization Signal (SSS), and a PBCH. The term "a "Primary Cell" refers to the MCG cell, operating on the primary frequency, in which the UE either performs the initial connection establishment procedure or initiates the connection re-establishment procedure. The term "Primary SCG Cell" refers to the SCG cell in which the UE performs random access when performing the Reconfiguration with Sync procedure for DC operation. The term "Secondary Cell" refers to a cell providing additional radio resources on top of a Special Cell for a UE configured with CA. The term "Secondary Cell Group" refers to the subset of serving cells comprising the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured with DC. The term "Serving Cell" refers to the primary cell for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED not configured with CA/DC there is only one serving cell comprising of the primary cell. The term "serving cell" or "serving cells" refers to the set of cells comprising the Special Cell(s) and all secondary cells for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED configured with CA. The term "Special Cell" refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term "Special Cell" refers to the Peel I .

[00240] Furthermore, any of the disclosed embodiments and example implementations can be embodied in the form of various types of hardware, software, firmware, middleware, or combinations thereof, including in the form of control logic, and using such hardware or software in a modular or integrated manner. Additionally, any of the software components or functions described herein can be implemented as software, program code, script, instructions, etc., operable to be executed by processor circuitry. These components, functions, programs, etc., can be developed using any suitable computer language such as, for example, Python, PyTorch, NumPy, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Scala, Smalltalk, Java™, C++, C#, "C", Kotlin, Swift, Rust, Go (or "Golang"), EMCAScript, JavaScript, Typescript, Jscript, ActionScript, Server-Side JavaScript (SSJS), PHP, Pearl, Lua, Torch/Lua with Just-In Time compiler (LuaJIT), Accelerated Mobile Pages Script (AMPscript), VBScript, JavaServer Pages (JSP), Active Server Pages (ASP), Node.js, ASP.NET, JAMscript, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), extensible HTML (XHTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), XML User Interface Language (XUL), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), RESTful API Modeling Language (RAML), wiki markup or Wikitext, Wireless Markup Language (WML), Java Script Object Notion (JSON), Apache® MessagePack™, Cascading Stylesheets (CSS), extensible stylesheet language (XSL), Mustache template language, Handlebars template language, Guide Template Language (GTL), Apache® Thrift, Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.l), Google® Protocol Buffers (protobuf), Bitcoin Script, EVM® bytecode, Solidity™, Vyper (Python derived), Bamboo, Lisp Like Language (LLL), Simplicity provided by Blockstream™, Rholang, Michelson, Counterfactual, Plasma, Plutus, Sophia, Salesforce® Apex®, and/or any other programming language or development tools including proprietary programming languages and/or development tools. The software code can be stored as a computer- or processor-executable instructions or commands on a physical non-transitory computer-readable medium. Examples of suitable media include RAM, ROM, magnetic media such as a hard-drive or a floppy disk, or an optical medium such as a compact disk (CD) or DVD (digital versatile disk), flash memory, and the like, or any combination of such storage or transmission devices.

[00241] The foregoing description provides illustration and description of various example embodiments, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments. Where specific details are set forth in order to describe example embodiments of the disclosure, it should be apparent to one skilled in the art that the disclosure can be practiced without, or with variation of, these specific details. It should be understood, however, that there is no intent to limit the concepts of the present disclosure to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives consistent with the present disclosure and the appended claims

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus of a New Radio (NR) evolved Node B (gNB), the apparatus including a memory, and one or more processors coupled to the memory, the memory storing instructions, and the one or more processors to implement the instructions to: encode, and send for transmission to a user equipment (UE), a multicast and broadcast services (MBS) configuration message to configure a MBS frequency region to the UE, the MBS frequency region including a search space for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); encode, and send for transmission to a group of UEs including the UE, the PDCCH, the PDCCH including a group-common downlink control information (DCI) having a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) to schedule a group- common physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) including MBS data to the UE or to schedule a Single cell Multicast Control Channel (MCCH) change notification to the UE; and encode, and send for transmission to the group of UEs, the PDSCH or the MCCH change notification.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the MBS configuration message corresponds to a radio resource control message and the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the MBS configuration message includes frequency information for the MBS frequency region including subcarrier spacing (SCS), cyclic prefix (CP), starting physical resource block (PRB) index, and number of PRBs.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and wherein the MSB configuration message is to jointly indicate the PRB index and the number of PRBs.

5. The apparatus of any one of claims 3-4, wherein the MSB configuration message further includes a control resource set (CORESET) and an associated search space for the PDCCH.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and the MBS frequency region is contained within active bandwidth parts (BWP) of respective UEs of the group of UEs.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the RNTI includes one of a group RNTI (G-RNTI), Single Cell point-to-multipoint (SC) RNTI (SC-RNTI), or Single Cell point-to-multipoint Notification (SC-N- RNTI).

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the RNTI includes a G-RNTI to schedule the group- common PDSCH for MBS, and a SC-N-RNTI to schedule the MCCH change notification.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein encoding the PDCCH includes counting a size of the DCI against a DCI size budget of 3 in a DCI size budget scheme of 3 + 1, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and wherein the one or more processors are to further encode the DCI by implementing an alignment of a size of the DCI based on the DCI size budget of 3.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, the one or more processors to implement the alignment based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0 if CORESET 0 was configured, or based on an initial downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) configured to the UE if CORESET 0 was not configured, or based on an active BWP of the UE.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, the one or more processors to implement the alignment by, in response to a determination that a size of the DCI with CRC scrambled with the RNTI based on the MBS frequency region is smaller than a size of the DCI based on an active downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) of the UE but larger than a size of the DCI based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0 or on an initial DL BWP of the UE, aligning a size of the DCI based on CORESET 0, on the initial DL BWP, or on a value configured to the UE to align the size of the DCI to the MBS frequency region.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, the one or more processors to further encode and send for transmission to the UE a radio resource control (RRC) message pdsch-TimeDomainAllocationList to configure a plurality of repetitions for the PDSCH as part of time domain resource allocation to the UE.

13. The apparatus of any one of claims 1-4 and 6-12, further including communications resources coupled to the one or more processors to communicate with the UE.

14. A method to be performed at a New Radio (NR) user equipment (UE), the method including: decoding a multicast and broadcast services (MBS) configuration message from a NR evolved Node B (gNB) to configure a MBS frequency region to the UE, the MBS frequency region including a search space for a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); decoding the PDCCH transmitted by the gNB to a group of UEs including the UE, the PDCCH including a group-common downlink control information (DCI) having a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) to schedule, at the UE, a group- common physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) including MBS data, or to schedule, at the UE, a Single cell Multicast Control Channel (MCCH) change notification; and decoding the PDSCH or the MCCH change notification.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the MBS configuration message corresponds to a radio resource control message and the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the MBS configuration message includes frequency information for the MBS frequency region including subcarrier spacing (SCS), cyclic prefix (CP), starting physical resource block (PRB) index, and number of PRBs, wherein the MSB configuration message is to jointly indicate the PRB index and the number of PRBs, and wherein the MSB configuration message further includes a control resource set (CORESET) and an associated search space for the PDCCH.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and the MBS frequency region is contained within active bandwidth parts (BWP) of respective UEs of the group of UEs.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the RNTI includes one of a group RNTI (G-RNTI), Single Cell point-to-multipoint (SC) RNTI (SC-RNTI), or Single Cell point-to-multipoint Notification (SC-N- RNTI).

19. The method of claim 14, wherein decoding the PDCCH includes counting the DCI against a DCI size budget of 3 in a DCI size budget scheme of 3 + 1.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED mode, and wherein decoding the PDCCH includes decoding the DCI depending on an alignment of a size of the DCI based on the DCI size budget of 3.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein decoding the PDCCH includes decoding the DCI depending on an alignment of a size of the DCI based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0 if CORESET 0 was configured, based on an initial downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) configured to the UE if CORESET 0 was not configured, or based on an active BWP of the UE.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein decoding the PDCCH includes decoding the DCI depending on an alignment of a size of the DCI based on a control resource set (CORESET) 0, based on an initial downlink (DL) bandwidth part (BWP) of the UE, or based on a value configured to the UE to align the size of the DCI to the MBS frequency region, the alignment in response to a determination that a size of the DCI with CRC scrambled with the RNTI based on the MBS frequency region is smaller than a size of the DCI based on an active DL BWP of the UE but larger than a size of the DCI based on CORESET 0 or on the initial DL BWP.

23. The method of claim 14, further including decoding a radio resource control (RRC) message pdsch-TimeDomainAllocationList from the gNB, the RRC message to configure a plurality of repetitions for the PDSCH as part of time domain resource allocation to the UE.

24. A machine readable medium including code, which, when executed, is to cause a machine to perform the method of any one of claims 14-23.

25. An apparatus including means to perform the method of any one of claims 14-23.