METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONFIGURATION OF LAYER-1 OR LAYER-2 TRIGGERED MOBILITY CANDIDATE INFORMATION IN MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION (S)
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The present disclosure is part of a non-provisional application claiming the priority benefit of U.S. Patent Application No. 63/485,274, filed 16 February 2023, the content of which herein being incorporated by reference in its entirety.
TECHNICAL FIELD
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The present disclosure is generally related to mobile communications and, more particularly, to configuration of layer-1 (L1) or layer-2 (L2) triggered mobility (LTM) candidate information in mobile communications.
BACKGROUND
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Unless otherwise indicated herein, approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims listed below and are not admitted as prior art by inclusion in this section.
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In mobile communications, handover refers a process of transferring an ongoing communication session of a user equipment (UE) from one cell to another in connected state, such that seamless connectivity and continuity of service for the user can be ensured, especially when the user is on the move. In 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) until Release 17, a cell switch (or called a serving cell change) is triggered by layer-3 (L3) measurements and performed by radio resource control (RRC) signaling. This L3-based mobility involves reconfiguration of upper layers (e.g., RRC layer and/or packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer) and resetting of lower layers (e.g., medium access control (MAC) layer and/or physical (PHY) layer) , which inevitably leads to long latency, large signaling overhead, and long interruption time.
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To reduce the latency, signaling overhead, and interruption time during handover, Release 18 has introduced a lower-layer-based mobility (or called LTM) which aims to enable a cell switch via L1/L2 signaling. However, as LTM is a newly introduced feature, many details of LTM are not yet defined, and the legacy designs of the L3-based mobility may not be applicable for LTM. For example, in conditional handover (CHO) , the candidate configuration is delivered via a signaling message and is provided as part of the raw data of the signaling message in a container field. The raw data in the container field is parsed only when a candidate cell is selected, and only then, the UE can extract and use the candidate configuration. That is, the UE cannot obtain and use the candidate configuration before a cell switch is triggered.
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As such, how to design configuration of candidate information for LTM has become an important issue. Therefore, there is a need to provide proper schemes to address this issue.
SUMMARY
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The following summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be limiting in any way. That is, the following summary is provided to introduce concepts, highlights, benefits and advantages of the novel and non-obvious techniques described herein. Select implementations are further described below in the detailed description. Thus, the following summary is not intended to identify essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended for use in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
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An objective of the present disclosure is to propose solutions or schemes that address the aforementioned issue pertaining to configuration of LTM candidate information in mobile communications.
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In one aspect, a method may involve an apparatus receiving an RRC message from a network node of a wireless network, wherein the RRC message comprises one or more LTM candidate configurations in addition to a container field comprising raw data of the RRC message. The method may also involve the apparatus performing operations on one or more LTM candidate cells based on the one or more LTM candidate configurations before an LTM cell switch procedure is triggered.
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In one aspect, an apparatus may comprise a transceiver which, during operation, wirelessly communicates with a network node of a wireless network. The receiver apparatus may also comprise a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver. The processor, during operation, may perform operations comprising receiving, via the transceiver, an RRC message from the network node, wherein the RRC message comprises one or more LTM candidate configurations in addition to a container field comprising raw data of the RRC message. The processor may also perform operations comprising performing, via the transceiver, operations on one or more LTM candidate cells based on the one or more LTM candidate configurations before an LTM cell switch procedure is triggered.
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It is noteworthy that, although description provided herein may be in the context of certain radio access technologies (RATs) , networks and network topologies such as Long-Term Evolution (LTE) , LTE-Advanced, LTE-Advanced Pro, 5G, New Radio (NR) , Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) , Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) , beyond 5G (B5G) , and 6th Generation (6G) , the proposed concepts, schemes and any variation (s) /derivative (s) thereof may be implemented in, for and by other types of radio access
technologies, networks and network topologies. Thus, the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the examples described herein.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
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The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of the present disclosure. The drawings illustrate implementations of the disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. It is appreciable that the drawings are not necessarily in scale as some components may be shown to be out of proportion than the size in actual implementation in order to clearly illustrate the concept of the present disclosure.
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FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting an example scenario of signaling procedure for LTM under schemes in accordance with the present disclosure.
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FIG. 2 is a diagram depicting an example scenario of configuration of LTM candidate information under a first proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.
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FIG. 3 is a diagram depicting an example scenario of configuration of LTM candidate information under a second proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.
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FIG. 4 is a diagram depicting an example scenario of configuration options of LTM candidate information under the second proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.
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FIG. 5 is a diagram depicting an example scenario of configuration of LTM candidate information under schemes in accordance with the present disclosure.
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FIG. 6 is a diagram depicting an example scenario of RRC structure format of common lists used to provide L1 measurement configuration in accordance with FIG. 5.
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FIG. 7 is a diagram depicting an example scenario of RRC structure format of separate lists used to provide transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state configurations in accordance with FIG. 5.
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FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an example communication system in accordance with an implementation of the present disclosure.
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FIG. 9 is a flowchart of an example process in accordance with an implementation of the present disclosure.
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED IMPLEMENTATIONS
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Detailed embodiments and implementations of the claimed subject matters are disclosed herein. However, it shall be understood that the disclosed embodiments and implementations are merely illustrative of the claimed subject matters which may be embodied in various forms. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and
should not be construed as limited to the exemplary embodiments and implementations set forth herein. Rather, these exemplary embodiments and implementations are provided so that description of the present disclosure is thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art. In the description below, details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presented embodiments and implementations.
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Overview
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Implementations in accordance with the present disclosure relate to various techniques, methods, schemes and/or solutions pertaining to configuration of LTM candidate information in mobile communications. According to the present disclosure, a number of possible solutions may be implemented separately or jointly. That is, although these possible solutions may be described below separately, two or more of these possible solutions may be implemented in one combination or another.
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FIG. 1 illustrates an example scenario 100 of signaling procedure for LTM under schemes in accordance with the present disclosure. Scenario 100 involve a UE 110 and a base station (BS) (e.g., a next-generation NB (gNB) or a transmission and reception point (TRP) ) 120 which may be part of a wireless network (e.g., a 5G NR network, a 5GB network, or a 6G network) . As shown in FIG. 1, the signaling procedure for LTM is performed when the UE is in the RRC_CONNECTED state. At 101, the UE 110 transmits a MeasurementReport message to the BS 120. Upon receiving the MeasurementReport message, the BS 120 decides to use LTM and initiates LTM candidate preparation. At 102, the BS 120 transmits an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE 110, which includes the configuration of one or multiple LTM candidate cells. At 103, the UE 110 stores the configuration of LTM candidate cell (s) and transmits a RRCReconfigurationComplete message to the BS 120. At 104a/104b, the UE 110 may perform downlink (DL) and/or uplink (UL) synchronization and timing advance (TA) acquisition with candidate cell (s) before receiving the LTM cell switch command. At 105, the UE 110 performs L1 measurements on the configured LTM candidate cell (s) , and transmits lower-layer measurement reports to the BS 120. Upon receiving the lower-layer measurement reports, the BS 120 decides to execute LTM cell switch to a target cell. At 106, The BS 120 transmits a MAC control element (MAC-CE) triggering LTM cell switch. In response to the triggering of LTM cell switch, the UE 110 switches to the configuration of the LTM candidate target cell. At 107, the UE 110 performs a random access procedure towards the target cell, if TA is not available. At 108, the UE 110 indicates successful completion of the LTM cell switch towards the target cell.
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In view of the above, to support Rel-18 LTM, a UE may need to utilize some information about candidate cells before a cell switch. For example, the UE may need the
information of at least one of: (i) an L1 measurement configuration of LTM candidate cell (s) , and (ii) TCI state configurations corresponding to LTM candidate cell (s) . The information of LTM candidate cells may be provided in LTM candidate configurations which are received outside the container field including raw data of an RRC message (e.g., RRC Reconfiguration message) . Accordingly, the UE may be able to access the related candidate cell information before a cell switch (i.e., when the UE is still served by the source cell) .
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Specifically, an LTM candidate configuration refers to a configuration associated with an LTM candidate cell, wherein the LTM candidate configuration may be a complete LTM candidate configuration or a delta (difference) configuration with respect to an LTM reference configuration. An LTM reference configuration refers to a configuration provided by the network to the UE, which is common, within the same cell group, to all the configured non-complete LTM candidate configurations, and it is used by the UE to generate a complete LTM candidate configuration by applying an LTM candidate configuration on top of an LTM reference configuration. For example, the LTM reference configuration may be provided as part of the raw data included in a container field of an RRC message, and may be extracted from the raw data and used upon a cell switch.
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Under a first proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure, the required LTM candidate cell information may be contained in common list (s) . For example, there may be a list of TCI states of all configured LTM candidate cells, and/or a list of reference signals of all configured LTM candidate cells. Additionally, or optionally, the common list (s) may be included in the LTM reference configuration, assuming that the LTM reference configuration almost does not change for a UE in a small area. An index may be assigned to each configured LTM candidate cell, including current serving cell and LTM candidate cells. For example, ‘serving cell’ may point to one of the indices, which needs not to be 0, and upon cell switch, ‘serving cell’ may point to another index. The index of the same cell may be kept even if the UE performs LTM cell switch, and the RRC reconfiguration message may modify the index or release a candidate cell. Each element in a list is associated with a cell index, such that the UE may know which cell the RS is from. Before LTM cell switch, the elements associated with non-serving cell index are for the UE to perform necessary operations for the LTM candidate cell. For example, UE may read the CSI-SSB-ResourceSet of non-serving cells to perform L1 measurements on candidate cell’s synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) , or the UE may read the list of TCI states of non-serving cells to determine the TCI states of which candidate cells to include into the UE’s active TCI state list. Upon LTM cell switch, the LTM reference configuration is applied first, and then the LTM candidate configuration is applied. This implies that the LTM candidate configuration may further modify the new ‘serving cell’ part of the list. For example, the TCI common list may include the
TCI states that are quasi co-located (QCLed) with the SSB of different cells, and the TCI states that are QCLed with CSI-RS are configured using a list in LTM delta configuration for each LTM candidate cell.
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FIG. 2 illustrates an example scenario 200 of configuration of LTM candidate information under the first proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Scenario 200 involves a UE being configured with the TCI states of 3 nearby cells in a common list, and the cell index for each TCI state ID is also provided. Part (A) of FIG. 2 shows that the serving cell changes as the UE moves among these 3 cells, while Part (B) of FIG. 2 shows that, in the common list, the TCI state corresponding to the current serving cell at different times changes as the UE moves among these 3 cells. At a first time (denoted as t1) , the indicated TCI state is TCI state #2, with Cell#1 as the serving cell. At a second time (denoted as t2) , the indicated TCI state is TCI state #5, and the serving cell switches to Cell#2, while Cell#1 is still a candidate and its TCI states are kept in the list. At a third time (denoted as t3) , the indicated TCI state is TCI state #10, and the serving cell switches to Cell#3, while Cell#1 and Cell#2 are still candidates and their TCI states are kept in the list.
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Under a second proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure, the required LTM candidate cell information may be be contained in lists separated in each LTM candidate configuration. The UE may read the LTM candidate configurations upon reception, to obtain the lists. Before cell switch, these separate lists may be used by the UE to perform necessary operations for the LTM candidate cells. For example, the UE may read the list of CSI-SSB-ResourceSet of each candidate to perform L1 measurements on candidate cell’s SSBs, or the UE may read the list of TCI states of each candidate to include the candidate cell’s TCI states into the UE’s active TCI state list. These separate lists may be contained in original RRC configuration structure for candidate (e.g., in CellGroupConfig) . Alternatively, these separate lists may be contained outside candidate RRCReconfiguration (i.e., the raw data format (e.g., an octet string) of the RRCReconfiguration message stored in a container field) , and there may be another list (with the same name) inside the RRC configuration structure for the UE to use after LTM cell switch.
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FIG. 3 illustrates an example scenario 300 of configuration of LTM candidate information under the second proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Scenario 300 involves a UE being configured with the TCI states of 3 nearby cells in 3 separate lists. Part (A) of FIG. 3 shows that the serving cell changes as the UE moves among these 3 cells, while Part (B) of FIG. 3 shows that, in the separate lists, the TCI state corresponding to the current serving cell at different times changes as the UE moves among these 3 cells. At a first time (denoted as t1) , the indicated TCI state is TCI state #2 of Cell#1. At a second time (denoted as t2) ,
the indicated TCI state is TCI state #1 of Cell#2, while Cell#1 is still a candidate and its TCI state list is kept. At a third time (denoted as t3) , the indicated TCI state is TCI state #2 of Cell#3, while Cell#1 and Cell#2 are still candidates and their TCI state lists are kept.
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FIG. 4 illustrates an example scenario 400 of configuration options of LTM candidate information under the second proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Scenario 400 depicts two options to provide LTM candidate information. Part (A) of FIG. 4 shows option 1 in which the configuration of LTM candidate information is provided by one list in candidate RRCReconfiguration, while part (B) of FIG. 4 shows option 2 in which the configuration of LTM candidate information is provided by one list inside and another list outside candidate RRCReconfiguration. Specifically, in option 1, the UE may need to parse the candidate RRCReconfiguration upon reception (not just store it) , so as to extract the lists. When the UE is served by the source cell, the lists for candidates are used for necessary operations on candidates, e.g., TCI state activation (for DL/UL synchronization) , and/or L1 measurements. Once a candidate is selected as target, its configurations are applied and the lists are used for serving cell operations. In option 2, the UE may simply store candidate RRCReconfiguration upon reception. When the UE is served by the source cell, the lists outside candidate RRCReconfiguration are used for necessary operations on candidates, e.g., TCI state activation (for DL/UL synchronization) , and/or L1 measurements. Once a candidate is selected as target, its configurations are applied and the lists inside candidate RRCReconfiguration are used for serving cell operations.
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FIG. 5 illustrates an example scenario 500 of configuration of LTM candidate information under schemes in accordance with the present disclosure. Scenario 500 depicts a combination of both the first scheme and the second scheme to provide LTM candidate information. Specifically, common lists (denoted as ‘ltm-csi-SSB-ResourceList’a nd ‘ltm-CandidateId-list’ ) are used to provide the L1 measurement configuration for all LTM candidate cells, while separate lists (denoted as ‘TCI-State’ ) are used to provide TCI state configurations, each of which corresponds to a respective LTM candidate cell. FIG. 6 illustrates an example scenario 600 of RRC structure format of the common lists used to provide the L1 measurement configuration in accordance with FIG. 5. In scenario 600, the field of ‘ltm-CandidateIdList’ indicates the LTM candidate cell IDs related to the SSBs in ‘ltm-CSI-SSB-ResourceList’ , and this list has the same number of entries as ‘ltm-CSI-SSB-ResourceList’ . The field of ‘ltm-CSI-SSB-ResourceList’ is used to indicate on SS/PBCH block resources from one or more LTM candidate cells. FIG. 7 illustrates an example scenario 700 of RRC structure format of the separate lists used to provide the TCI state configurations in accordance with FIG. 5. In scenario 700, the field of ‘ltm-DL-OrJointTCI-StateToAddModList’ indicates a list of TCI states to add and/or modify. The field of ‘ltm-DL-OrJointTCI-StateToReleaseList’ indicates a list of TCI states to remove. The
field of ‘ltm-UL-TCI-ToAddModList’ indicates a list of uplink TCI states to add and/or modify. The field of ‘ltm-UL-TCI-ToReleaseList’ indicates a list of uplink TCI states to remove. The field of ‘ltm-UE-MeasuredTA-ID’ indicates whether the UE should perform UE-based TA measurements when an LTM cell switch procedure is executed towards an LTM candidate.
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Illustrative Implementations
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FIG. 8 illustrates an example communication system 800 having an example communication apparatus 810 and an example network apparatus 820 in accordance with an implementation of the present disclosure. Each of communication apparatus 810 and network apparatus 820 may perform various functions to implement schemes, techniques, processes and methods described herein pertaining to configuration of LTM candidate information in mobile communications, including scenarios/schemes described above as well as process 900 described below.
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Communication apparatus 810 may be a part of an electronic apparatus, which may be a UE such as a portable or mobile apparatus, a wearable apparatus, a wireless communication apparatus or a computing apparatus. For instance, communication apparatus 810 may be implemented in a smartphone, a smartwatch, a personal digital assistant, a digital camera, or a computing equipment such as a tablet computer, a laptop computer or a notebook computer. Communication apparatus 810 may also be a part of a machine type apparatus, which may be an IoT, NB-IoT, or IIoT apparatus such as an immobile or a stationary apparatus, a home apparatus, a wire communication apparatus or a computing apparatus. For instance, communication apparatus 810 may be implemented in a smart thermostat, a smart fridge, a smart door lock, a wireless speaker or a home control center. Alternatively, communication apparatus 810 may be implemented in the form of one or more integrated-circuit (IC) chips such as, for example and without limitation, one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, one or more reduced-instruction set computing (RISC) processors, or one or more complex-instruction-set-computing (CISC) processors. Communication apparatus 810 may include at least some of those components shown in FIG. 8 such as a processor 812, for example. Communication apparatus 810 may further include one or more other components not pertinent to the proposed scheme of the present disclosure (e.g., internal power supply, display device and/or user interface device) , and, thus, such component (s) of communication apparatus 810 are neither shown in FIG. 8 nor described below in the interest of simplicity and brevity.
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Network apparatus 820 may be a part of an electronic apparatus, which may be a network node such as a BS, a small cell, a router or a gateway. For instance, network apparatus 820 may be implemented in a gNB in a 5G, B5G, 6G, IoT, NB-IoT or IIoT network. Alternatively, network apparatus 820 may be implemented in the form of one or more IC chips such as, for
example and without limitation, one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, or one or more RISC or CISC processors. Network apparatus 820 may include at least some of those components shown in FIG. 8 such as a processor 822, for example. Network apparatus 820 may further include one or more other components not pertinent to the proposed scheme of the present disclosure (e.g., internal power supply, display device and/or user interface device) , and, thus, such component (s) of network apparatus 820 are neither shown in FIG. 8 nor described below in the interest of simplicity and brevity.
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In one aspect, each of processor 812 and processor 822 may be implemented in the form of one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, or one or more CISC processors. That is, even though a singular term “a processor” is used herein to refer to processor 812 and processor 822, each of processor 812 and processor 822 may include multiple processors in some implementations and a single processor in other implementations in accordance with the present disclosure. In another aspect, each of processor 812 and processor 822 may be implemented in the form of hardware (and, optionally, firmware) with electronic components including, for example and without limitation, one or more transistors, one or more diodes, one or more capacitors, one or more resistors, one or more inductors, one or more memristors and/or one or more varactors that are configured and arranged to achieve specific purposes in accordance with the present disclosure. In other words, in at least some implementations, each of processor 812 and processor 822 is a special-purpose machine specifically designed, arranged and configured to perform specific tasks including configuration of LTM candidate information in a UE (e.g., as represented by communication apparatus 810) and a BS (e.g., as represented by network apparatus 820) in accordance with various implementations of the present disclosure.
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In some implementations, communication apparatus 810 may also include a transceiver 816 coupled to processor 812 and capable of wirelessly transmitting and receiving control and data signals. In some implementations, transceiver 816 may be capable of wirelessly communicating with different types of BSs of different RATs. In some implementations, transceiver 816 may be equipped with a plurality of antenna ports (not shown) such as, for example, four antenna ports. That is, transceiver 816 may be equipped with multiple transmit antennas and multiple receive antennas for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communications. In some implementations, network apparatus 820 may also include a transceiver 826 coupled to processor 822 and capable of wirelessly transmitting and receiving control and data signals. In some implementations, transceiver 826 may be capable of wirelessly communicating with different types of UEs of different RATs. In some implementations, transceiver 826 may be equipped with a plurality of antenna ports (not shown) such as, for example, four antenna ports. That is, transceiver 826 may be equipped with multiple transmit antennas and multiple receive
antennas for MIMO wireless communications. Accordingly, communication apparatus 810 and network apparatus 820 may wirelessly communicate with each other via transceiver 816 and transceiver 826, respectively.
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In some implementations, communication apparatus 810 may further include a memory 814 coupled to processor 812 and capable of being accessed by processor 812 and storing data therein. In some implementations, network apparatus 820 may further include a memory 824 coupled to processor 822 and capable of being accessed by processor 822 and storing data therein. Each of memory 814 and memory 824 may include a type of random-access memory (RAM) such as dynamic RAM (DRAM) , static RAM (SRAM) , thyristor RAM (T-RAM) and/or zero-capacitor RAM (Z-RAM) . Alternatively, or additionally, each of memory 814 and memory 824 may include a type of read-only memory (ROM) such as mask ROM, programmable ROM (PROM) , erasable programmable ROM (EPROM) and/or electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM) . Alternatively, or additionally, each of memory 814 and memory 824 may include a type of non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM) such as flash memory, solid-state memory, ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM) , magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) and/or phase-change memory.
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Each of communication apparatus 810 and network apparatus 820 may be a communication entity capable of communicating with each other using various proposed schemes in accordance with the present disclosure. For illustrative purposes and without limitation, a description of operations, functionalities, and capabilities of communication apparatus 810, implemented in or as a UE (e.g., the UE 110) , and network apparatus 820, implemented in or as a BS (e.g., the BS 120) , is provided below.
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According to certain proposed schemes of the present disclosure, processor 812 of communication apparatus 810 may receive, via transceiver 816, an RRC message from network apparatus 820. Specifically, the RRC message may include one or more LTM candidate configurations in addition to a container field including raw data of the RRC message. Then, processor 812 may perform, via transceiver 816, operations on one or more LTM candidate cells based on the one or more LTM candidate configurations before an LTM cell switch procedure is triggered.
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In some implementations, the one or more LTM candidate configurations may include: (i) an L1 measurement configuration of the one or more LTM candidate cells; and (ii) one or more TCI state configurations corresponding to the one or more LTM candidate cells.
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In some implementations, the L1 measurement configuration may include a common list for all the one or more LTM candidate cells, which indicates RS resources from the one or more LTM candidate cells.
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In some implementations, the RS resources may include SSB or channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) resources.
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In some implementations, each of the one or more TCI state configurations may include a TCI state list for a respective one of the one or more LTM candidate cells.
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In some implementations, the performing of the operations on the one or more LTM candidate cells may include: (i) performing L1 measurements on the one or more LTM candidate cells based on the L1 measurement configuration; and/or (ii) performing a TCI state activation based on the one or more TCI state configurations.
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In some implementations, the TCI state activation may include activating one or more TCI states that are quasi QCLed with RSs of the LTM candidate cells based on the one or more TCI state configurations.
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In some implementations, upon the LTM cell switch procedure, the one or more LTM candidate configurations may be applied on top of a reference configuration for LTM. That is, a combined configuration that combines the one or more LTM candidate configurations and the reference configuration for LTM may be applied during the LTM cell switch procedure.
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In some implementations, processor 812 may also store the container field upon reception of the RRC message, and apply another LTM candidate configuration (s) extracted from the container field during the LTM cell switch procedure. That is, the another LTM candidate configuration (s) in the container field is a complete configuration and is applied directly during the LTM cell switch procedure.
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In some implementations, the RRC message may include an RRC Reconfiguration message.
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Illustrative Processes
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FIG. 9 illustrates an example process 900 in accordance with an implementation of the present disclosure. Process 900 may be an example implementation of above scenarios/schemes, whether partially or completely, with respect to configuration of LTM candidate information in mobile communications. Process 900 may represent an aspect of implementation of features of communication apparatus 810. Process 900 may include one or more operations, actions, or functions as illustrated by one or more of blocks 910 and 920. Although illustrated as discrete blocks, various blocks of process 900 may be divided into additional blocks, combined into fewer blocks, or eliminated, depending on the desired implementation. Moreover, the blocks of process 900 may be executed in the order shown in FIG. 9 or, alternatively, in a different order. Process 900 may be implemented by communication apparatus 810 or any suitable UE. Solely for illustrative purposes and without limitation, process
900 is described below in the context of communication apparatus 810 as a UE and network apparatus 820 as a BS. Process 900 may begin at block 910.
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At 910, process 900 may involve processor 812 of communication apparatus 810 receiving, via transceiver 816, an RRC message from network apparatus 820. Specifically, the RRC message may include one or more LTM candidate configurations in addition to a container field including raw data of the RRC message. Process 900 may proceed from 910 to 920.
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At 920, process 900 may involve processor 812 performing, via transceiver 816, operations on one or more LTM candidate cells based on the one or more LTM candidate configurations before an LTM cell switch procedure is triggered.
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In some implementations, the one or more LTM candidate configurations may include: (i) an L1 measurement configuration of the one or more LTM candidate cells; and (ii) one or more TCI state configurations corresponding to the one or more LTM candidate cells.
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In some implementations, the L1 measurement configuration may include a common list for all the one or more LTM candidate cells, which indicates RS resources from the one or more LTM candidate cells.
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In some implementations, the RS resources may include SSB or CSI-RS resources.
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In some implementations, each of the one or more TCI state configurations may include a TCI state list for a respective one of the one or more LTM candidate cells.
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In some implementations, the performing of the operations on the one or more LTM candidate cells may include: (i) performing L1 measurements on the one or more LTM candidate cells based on the L1 measurement configuration; and/or (ii) performing a TCI state activation based on the one or more TCI state configurations.
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In some implementations, the TCI state activation may include activating one or more TCI states that are quasi QCLed with RSs of the LTM candidate cells based on the one or more TCI state configurations.
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In some implementations, upon the LTM cell switch procedure, the one or more LTM candidate configurations may be applied on top of a reference configuration for LTM. That is, a combined configuration that combines the one or more LTM candidate configurations and the reference configuration for LTM may be applied during the LTM cell switch procedure.
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In some implementations, process 400 may further involve processor 812 storing the container field upon reception of the RRC message, and applying another LTM candidate configuration (s) extracted from the container field during the LTM cell switch procedure. That is, the another LTM candidate configuration (s) in the container field is a complete configuration and is applied directly during the LTM cell switch procedure.
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In some implementations, the RRC message may include an RRC Reconfiguration message.
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Additional Notes
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The herein-described subject matter sometimes illustrates different components contained within, or connected with, different other components. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures are merely examples, and that in fact many other architectures can be implemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality is effectively "associated" such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve a particular functionality can be seen as "associated with" each other such that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components. Likewise, any two components so associated can also be viewed as being "operably connected" , or "operably coupled" , to each other to achieve the desired functionality, and any two components capable of being so associated can also be viewed as being "operably couplable" , to each other to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of operably couplable include but are not limited to physically mateable and/or physically interacting components and/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interacting components and/or logically interacting and/or logically interactable components.
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Further, with respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. The various singular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.
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Moreover, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims, e.g., bodies of the appended claims, are generally intended as “open” terms, e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to, ” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least, ” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to, ” etc. It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases "at least one" and "one or more" to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles "a" or "an" limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to implementations containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases "one or more" or "at least one" and indefinite articles such as "a" or "an, " e.g., “a” and/or “an” should be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more; ” the
same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should be interpreted to mean at least the recited number, e.g., the bare recitation of "two recitations, " without other modifiers, means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations. Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc. ” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention, e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc. In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc. ” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention, e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc. It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B. ”
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From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that various implementations of the present disclosure have been described herein for purposes of illustration, and that various modifications may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the various implementations disclosed herein are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.