WO2020030853A1

WO2020030853A1 - Supported ue capability set indication

Info

Publication number: WO2020030853A1
Application number: PCT/FI2019/050577
Authority: WO
Inventors: Tero Henttonen; Antti Toskala; Amaanat ALI; Matthew Baker
Original assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
Priority date: 2018-08-08
Filing date: 2019-08-07
Publication date: 2020-02-13

Abstract

According to a first embodiment, a method for signaling radio transmission and/or reception capabilities of a user equipment may include selecting, by the user equipment, at least one capability of the user equipment. The method may further include transmitting, by the user equipment, an indication of parameters of the selected at least one capability of the user equipment to a network entity.

Description

SUPPORTED UE CAPABILITY SET INDICATION

FIELD

[0001] Certain embodiments may relate to wireless communication systems. For example, some embodiments may relate to network capability sets.

BACKGROUND

[0002] With the wide variety of user equipment that can potentially connect to a communications network, the number of combinations of available capabilities of user equipment has increased. User equipment may also support various frequencies and different features, while user subscriptions may change permitted functionalities of the user equipment. User equipment radio capabilities may be defined to indicate the functions user equipment may perform when connected to the network.

[0003] User equipment may inform its radio capabilities to the network after a connection has been established with a network entity. However, one of the challenges with this increase in user equipment capabilities has been the increase in the amount of data which is required to inform network entities of user equipment capabilities. Despite a significant portion of user equipment belonging to a few popular models, capabilities may still vary between manufacturers, creating challenges in managing user equipment capabilities and requiring steps to ensure that information regarding user equipment capabilities does not impact network performance. Thus, it is desirable to communicate complex but accurate indications of user equipment capabilities without impairing network performance. SUMMARY

[0004] According to a first embodiment, a method for signaling radio transmission and/or reception capabilities of a user equipment may include selecting, by the user equipment, at least one capability of the user equipment. The method may further include transmitting, by the user equipment, an indication of parameters of the selected at least one capability of the user equipment to a network entity. [0005] In a variant, the selected at least one capability forms a subset of the complete set of capabilities of the user equipment.

[0006] In a variant, the transmission of the indication of the parameters is performed during the setup of a connection with a network.

[0007] In a variant, the selected subset of capabilities is a preferred subset of capabilities of the user equipment.

[0008] In a variant, selecting the preferred capabilities may include identifying, by the user equipment, at least one currently configured band and/or band combination, and selecting the capabilities of the device that are appropriate for said band and/or band combination.

[0009] In a variant, selecting the preferred capabilities may include identifying, by the user equipment, at least one band and/or combination of bands configured to provide at least one preconfigured threshold and/or the best performance in terms of at least one quality metric.

[0010] In a further variant, the at least one quality metric includes MIMO setting, supported data rate, simultaneous operation capability, block error rate, quality of service, reference signal receive power, reference signal receive quality, throughput, signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio, path loss, channel rank, signal power, noise rise.

[0011] In a further variant, the at least one quality metric is a MIMO setting, wherein the MIMO setting is a number of supported MIMO layers.

[0012] In a variant, the selecting further comprises selecting at least one capability of the user equipment based upon historical usage of one or more capabilities of the user equipment.

[0013] In a further variant, the historical usage is configured to provide adaptive learning capabilities.

[0014] In a variant, the at least one indication of the at least selected capability is transmitted as part of a RRC measurement report in response to a request for measurements of a set of bands/frequencies.

[0015] In a variant, the selecting is based upon at least one of a use case and/or a roaming condition. [0016] In a variant, in response to the transmitting, the method further comprises receiving, by the user equipment, at least one request for at least one additional capability of the user equipment from the network entity.

[0017] In a variant, the at least one request for at least one additional capability is received by the user equipment after connection setup.

[0018] In a variant, prior to the transmitting, the method further comprises receiving, by the user equipment, at least one request for at least one capability of the user equipment from the network entity.

[0019] In a variant, the received at least one request is an indication indicating request for transmitting the preferred capabilities.

[0020] In a variant, the at least one selected capability is transmitted according to one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks.

[0021] In a further variant, the one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks are generated according to a tuple.

[0022] In a further variant, fragmentation of the one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks is configured according to at least one Hamming distance.

[0023] According to a second embodiment, a method may include receiving, by a network entity, a request for connection setup from a user equipment. The method may further include transmitting, by the network entity, at least one request for capabilities of the user equipment to the user equipment. The method may further include receiving, by the network entity, at least one indication of at least one capability of the user equipment from the user equipment.

[0024] In a variant, the method may further include transmitting, by the network entity, at least one request for one or more additional capabilities of the user equipment to the user equipment.

[0025] In a variant, the method may further include receiving, by the network entity, at least one indication of one or more additional capabilities of the user equipment from the user equipment.

[0026] In a variant, the at least one selected capability is received according to one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks. [0027] In a further variant, the one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks are generated according to a tuple.

[0028] In a further variant, fragmentation of the one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks is configured according to at least one Hamming distance.

[0029] In a variant, the at least one indication of the at least selected capability is received as part of a RRC measurement report in response to a request for measurements of a set of bands/frequencies.

[0030] According to a third embodiment and a fourth embodiment, an apparatus can perform the method according to the first embodiment and the second embodiment, respectively, and any of their variants.

[0031] According to a fifth embodiment and sixth embodiment, an apparatus can include means for performing the method according to the first embodiment and the second embodiment, respectively, and any of their variants.

[0032] According to a seventh embodiment and an eighth embodiment, a computer program product may encode instructions for performing a process including a method according to the first embodiment and the second embodiment, respectively, and any of their variants.

[0033] According to a ninth embodiment and a tenth embodiment, a non-transitory computer-readable medium may encode instructions that, when executed in hardware, perform a process including a method according to the first embodiment and the second embodiment, respectively, and any of their variants.

[0034] According to an eleventh embodiment and a twelfth embodiment, a computer program code may include instructions for performing a method according to the first embodiment and the second embodiment, respectively, and any of their variants.

[0035] According to a thirteenth embodiment and a fourteenth embodiment, an apparatus may include circuitry configured to perform a process including a method according to the first embodiment and the second embodiment, respectively, and any of their variants.

[0036] According to a fifteenth embodiment and a sixteenth embodiment, an apparatus can include at least one processor and at least one memory and computer program code. The at least one memory and the computer program code can be configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform a method according to the first embodiment and the second embodiment, respectively, and any of their variants.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0037] For proper understanding of this disclosure, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

[0038] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of vertical capability building blocks according to certain embodiments.

[0039] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of vertical and horizontal capability building blocks according to certain embodiments.

[0040] FIG. 3 illustrates a signaling diagram according to certain embodiments.

[0041] FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a method performed by user equipment according to certain embodiments.

[0042] FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a method performed by a network entity according to certain embodiments.

[0043] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a system according to certain embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0044] Certain embodiments described herein may help to optimize capability reporting by user equipment. The example embodiments described herein may have various benefits and/or advantages. For example, some embodiments may reduce the size of user equipment capability reporting by providing compressed user equipment capabilities to network entities. For example, user equipment may report indications of sets of user equipment capabilities, rather than the user equipment capabilities themselves. User equipment may also report particular band combinations that are preferred by the user equipment, which may be further refined by network entities based upon network conditions. Certain embodiments are, therefore, directed to improvements in computer-related technology, specifically, by conserving network resources and reducing power consumption of network entities and/or user equipment located within the network.

[0045] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a signalling diagram between user equipment (UE) and a network entity (NE) according to some embodiments. UE 330 may be similar to UE 610 in FIG. 6. In addition, NE 340 may be similar to NE 620 in FIG. 6. Although only a single UE and NE are illustrated, a communications network may contain one or more of each of these entities.

[0046] In step 301, UE 330 may transmit at least one connection setup request to NE

340. Upon receipt, NE 230 may associate data from at least one system information block (SIB) with information that UE 330 has provided in the at least one connection setup request. In step 303, NE 340 may transmit at least one request for capabilities of

UE 330 to UE 330. In some embodiments, the request for capabilities of UE 330 may be in a format similar to as follows:

RRC Setup ::= SEQUENCE {

rrc-Transactionldentifier RRC-Transactionldentifier,

criticalExtensions CHOICE {

cl CHOICE {

rrcSetup RRCSetup-IEs,

spare7 NULL,

spare6 NULL, spare5 NULL, spare4 NULL,

spare3 NULL, spare2 NULL, spare 1 NULL c }r,iticalExtensionsLuture SEQUENCE {}

}

RRCSetup-IEs ::= SEQUENCE {

radioBearerConfig RadioBearerConfig,

masterCellGroup OCTET STRING (CONTAINING CellGroupConfig), lateNonCriticalExtension OCTET STRING OPTIONAL,

nonCriticalExtension RRCSetup-IEs-vl6xy OPTIONAL

}

[0047] In some embodiments, the request for UE capabilities may comprise a single-bit request, instmcting UE 330 to respond based on additional information, such as according to a SIB broadcast and/or fixed mles in a specification. For example, such as single-bit request may be in a format similar to as follows: RRCSetup-IEs-vl6xy ::= SEQUENCE {

requestShortCapabilities ENUMERATED {true} OPTIONAL,

nonCriticalExtension SEQUENCE {} OPTIONAL

}

[0048] In some embodiments, the request may comprise several bits that NE 340 may use to request specific capability content from UE 330. For example, each bit in the following message may specify specific capability content:

RRCSetup-IEs-v 16xy ::= SEQUENCE {

requestShortCapabilities BIT STRING (SIZE (L.maxUECaapbilitySets)) OPTIONAL,

nonCriticalExtension SEQUENCE {} OPTIONAL

}

[0049] In step 305, UE 330 may identify at least one band and/or combination of bands configured to provide a preconfigured threshold of at least one quality metric. In step 307, UE 330 may identify at least one currently configured band and/or band combination of the user equipment. In some embodiments, band combinations identified in steps 305 and/or 307 may be associated with band combinations that NE 340 has specifically requested to be measured.

[0050] In step 309, UE 330 may select at least one capability of UE 330. In some embodiments, UE 330 may use adaptive capabilities, such as machine learning and/or deep learning, to select capabilities based upon frequency of their use and/or indicate capabilities that have been previously used via a compression mechanism, rather than indicating a full set of capabilities. For example, UE 330 may recommend a configuration of capabilities to NE 340, while leaving NE 340 the option to implement the specific capabilities. In another example, UE 330 may store at least one tracking area ID and/or physical ID of associated network cells, such as NE 340, where a particular configuration has been requested by the network, and/or indicate these particular configurations upon connecting to NE 340 or other network devices.

[0051] In step 31 1, UE 330 may transmit at least one indication of the at least one selected capability of UE 330 to NE 340. In some embodiments, the at least one indication of the at least selected capability may be transmitted as part of a RRC measurement report in response to a request for measurements of a set of bands/frequencies, where NE 340 has the associated capabilities and/or may determine an optimal configuration. Additionally or alternatively, UE 330 may indicate at least one capability that has been previously utilized with NE 340, and/or may be reused by NE 340 if NE 340 is in possession of the at least one capability. In various embodiments, the at least one indication may indicate whether UE 330 supports band combinations indicated in a SIB broadcast from NE 340 or other network entity. In some embodiments, the at least one indication of the at least one selected capability may comprise compressed capabilities. For example, the at least one indication of the at least one selected capability may be described as follows:

RRCSetupComplete ::= SEQUENCE {

rrc-Transactionldentifier RRC-Transactionldentifier,

criticalExtensions CHOICE {

cl CHOICE {

rrcSetupComplete RRCSetupComplete-IEs,

spare3 NULL, spare2 NULL, spare 1 NULL

},

criticalExtensionsFuture SEQUENCE {}

}

RRCSetupComplete-IEs ::= SEQUENCE {

selectedPLMN-Identity INTEGER (L.maxNrofPLMN),

registeredAMF RegisteredAMF OPTIONAL,

guami-Type ENUMERATED {native, mapped} OPTIONAL, s-nssai-list SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxNrofS-NSSAI)) OF S-NSSAI OPTIONAL,

dedicatedlnfoNAS DedicatedlnfoNAS,

ng-5g-s-tmsi-bits CHOICE {

ng-5g-s-tmsi NG-5G-S-TMSI,

ng-5g-s-tmsi-part BIT STRING (SIZE (8)) } OPTIONAL,

lateNonCriticalExtension OCTET STRING OPTIONAL,

nonCriticalExtension RRCSetupComplete-IEs-vl6xy OPTIONAL

}

RRCSetupComplete-IEs-vl 6xy ::= SEQUENCE {

compressedCapabilities-rl6 CompressedCapabilities-rl6 OPTIONAL, nonCriticalExtension SEQUENCE {} OPTIONAL

}

RegisteredAMF : SEQUENCE {

plmn-Identity PLMN-Identity OPTIONAL,

amf-Setld AMF-SetID,

amf-Pointer AMF-Pointer,

amf-Region AMF-RegionID

}

[0052] In some embodiments, UE 330 may group certain selected capabilities together. For example, heavy baseband processing may be required for MIMO, interference cancellation, and/or other similar features, which may place restrictions on certain capabilities being grouped together. UE 330 may indicate these groups as positive or negative restrictions, such as 4x4 MIMO and CoMP may not be used together, or 4x4 MIMO and CSI-RS feedback at 100 MHz may or must be used together.

[0053] In certain embodiments, UE 330 may indicate the at least one selected capabilities in a plurality of separate messages, where a first message to NE 340 may indicate primary capabilities required to configure the user plane radio connection and begin a user plane data flow. As an example, primary capabilities may include parameters required to operate on the particular carrier, such as which Ll features are supported, supported bandwidths, and/or modulations. Subsequent messages may then indicate secondary capabilities, for example, those capabilities with low time criticality for enabling user data flow on a single frequency band and/or related to other band combinations. As an example, secondary capabilities may include additional MIMO modes that would be provided either via the UE ID from the network, and/or following specific requests for information from a network entity, such as NE 340, to UE 330, such as capability grouping. This may enable faster connection setup, and/or may provide a quick response time for data transmission and/or reception requirements from UE 330 to NE 340.

[0054] In some embodiments, UE 330 may indicate at least one reduced roaming capability set when in a roaming network, such as when the frequency of a roaming network is different from the frequency of a home network. For example, a large number of capabilities UE 330 has associated with a home network could be used to indicate the capabilities of the home network by referring to the home network, rather than the capabilities themselves. Furthermore, in a roaming network, only a basic set of parameters may be indicated, while other information, such as band combinations, could be indicated only upon request.

[0055] In some embodiments, the at least one indication transmitted in step 311 may comprise at least one set of minimum capabilities of UE 330 that indicates to NE 340 about minimum capabilities supported by UE 330. For example, at least one set of minimum capabilities may be applicable to all UE which must satisfy network operator requirements and whose content may be specified in 3GPP. Such minimum capabilities may be defined in each 3GPP release such that a baseline UE implementation builds upon each subsequent release, and that a particular UE may indicate that it supports a certain set of capabilities, as defined in 3GPP. For example, a 3GPP release may define that UE must support downlink bandwidth of lOOMHz, uplink bandwidth of 40MHz, and subcarrier spacing (SCS) of l5/30/60kHz. The 3GPP release could further define that UE must support 4x4 MIMO in downlink and 2x2 MIMO in uplink, along with particular layer-2 parameters.

[0056] In some embodiments, UE 330 may transmit the at least one selected capability using horizontal and vertical capability building blocks, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. For example, UE 330 may generate horizontal capability parts, wherein each part comprises an arrange of capability parameters which provide a horizontal level of differentiation in performance, such as varying levels of MIMO performance, as shown in FIG. 1. Each level of MIMO performance may be differentiated by a parameter indicating a first Hamming distance, which could control the fragmentation between such horizontal building blocks. Furthermore, UE 330 could prioritize certain parameters whose variation produces the required Hamming distance and/or update the horizontal part list. Upon creating a horizontal capability building block, UE 330 may then generate corresponding vertical capability parts, as illustrated in FIG. 2, which may be differentiated by a parameter indicating a second Hamming distance, such as peak data rate, latency, reliability, or other similar parameters

[0057] In certain embodiments, a tuple may serve as a filter that UE 330 uses when generating horizontal and/or vertical capability building blocks. For example, NE 340 may control filters and/or provide said filters to various UE, such as UE 330, to use as a template for downlink (DL) and uplink (UP) functions. A filter may be associated with DL/UL bandwidth (BW), carrier aggregation (CA) BW class DL/UL, DL/UL SCS, MIMO layers, and/or modulation, and/or a set of constraints to be applied, such as throughput spread and/or latency. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, VI and V2 may be associated with eMBB and differentiated by throughput granularity, but could also be associated with URLLC and/or mMTC.

[0058] In various embodiments, UE 330 may transmit an indication of bandwidth class associated with a maximum level of CA UE 330 can support according to identified band combinations when utilizing NE 340. Furthermore, UE may also indicate a number of band combinations that may be used to determine all capabilities of UE 330. In addition, UE 330 may also indicate prioritized band combinations that may provide optimal network performance, such as a maximum data rate supported by UE 330.

[0059] In some embodiments, NE 340 may utilize prioritized band combinations received from UE 330, and further prioritize the band combinations when analyzing the band combinations with other factors, such as UE measurements, UE temperature levels, and historical data indicating any band combinations that provide optimal performance of UE 330.

[0060] In step 313, NE 340 may transmit at least one UE reconfiguration and/or request for at least one additional capability to UE 330. For example, the network may be configured to request more detailed capability information beyond the minimum capabilities in order to enable finer tuning of the connection. Alternatively or additionally, while the minimum set of capabilities may be provided by UE 330, additional parameters may be available in the ID information of NE 340.

[0061] In some embodiments, UE 330 may transmit one or more band combinations which have been previously used in the same network. For example, UE 330 may choose to provide 5 (or up to 5) last used band combinations in the particular network, which allows the band combinations to be activated rapidly as they may be the most likely named combinations to be used. Further band combinations may be obtained either by NE 340 sending a request to the UE or, alternatively, by NE 340 sending request towards core to get more information of the UE capabilities.

[0062] In some embodiments, UE 330 may transmit in the first phase only the capabilities related to operating on a single frequency (which UE is connecting to) and leave all band combination (and other band capabilities) to a later phase in signaling between UE 330 and NE340. This allows to enable data flow quickly with the network on a single frequency, which may be also sufficient if the amount of data to be transmitted is limited and thus carrier/band aggregation may not be necessary at all)

[0063] In step 315, UE 330 may transmit at least one indication of the at least one additional selected capability of UE 330 during the setup procedure to NE 340.

[0064] FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a method performed by a user equipment, for example, user equipment 610 in FIG. 6. In step 401, the method may include transmitting, by a user equipment, at least one connection setup request to a network entity. In step 403, the method may include identifying, by the user equipment, at least one band and/or combination of bands configured to provide at least one preconfigured threshold of at least one quality metric. In step 405, the method may include identifying, by the user equipment, at least one currently configured band and/or band combination of the user equipment. In step 407, the method may include selecting, by the user equipment, at least one capability of the user equipment.

[0065] In step 409, the method may include transmitting, by the user equipment, an indication of parameters of the selected at least one capability of the user equipment to a network entity. In step 41 1, the method may include receiving, by the user equipment, at least one UE reconfiguration and/or request for at least one additional capability of the user equipment from the network entity. In step 413, the method may include transmitting, by the user equipment, at least one indication of at least one additional selected capability of the user equipment during the setup procedure.

[0066] FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a method performed by a network entity, for example, network entity 620 in FIG. 6. In step 501, the method may include receiving, by a network entity, at least one connection setup request from a user equipment. In step 503, the method may include transmitting, by the network entity, at least one request for capabilities of the user equipment to the user equipment. In step 505, the method may include receiving, by the network entity, at least one indication of one or more selected preferred capabilities of the user equipment. In step 507, the method may include transmitting, by the network entity, at least one request for one or more additional capabilities of the user equipment to the user equipment. In step 509, the method may include receiving, by the network entity, at least one indication of one or more additional capabilities of the user equipment from the user equipment.

[0067] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a system according to certain embodiments. In one embodiment, a system may include multiple devices, such as, for example, user equipment 610 and network entity 620. UE 610 may include one or more of a mobile device, such as a mobile phone, smart phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), tablet, or portable media player, digital camera, pocket video camera, video game console, navigation unit, such as a global positioning system (GPS) device, desktop or laptop computer, single-location device, such as a sensor or smart meter, or any combination thereof.

[0068] Network entity 620 may be one or more of a base station, such as an evolved node B (eNB) or next generation node B (gNB), a next generation radio access network (NG RAN), a serving gateway, a server, and/or any other access node or combination thereof.

[0069] One or more of these devices may include at least one processor, respectively indicated as 61 1 and 621. At least one memory may be provided in one or more of devices indicated at 612 and 622. The memory may be fixed or removable. The memory may include computer program instmctions or computer code contained therein. Processors 61 1 and 621 and memory 612 and 622 or a subset thereof, may be configured to provide means corresponding to the various blocks of FIGS. 1-5. Although not shown, the devices may also include positioning hardware, such as global positioning system (GPS) or micro electrical mechanical system (MEMS) hardware, which may be used to determine a location of the device. Other sensors are also permitted and may be included to determine location, elevation, orientation, and so forth, such as barometers, compasses, and the like.

[0070] As shown in FIG. 6, transceivers 613 and 623 may be provided, and one or more devices may also include at least one antenna, respectively illustrated as 614 and 624. The device may have many antennas, such as an array of antennas configured for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communications, or multiple antennas for multiple radio access technologies. Other configurations of these devices, for example, may be provided.

[0071] Transceivers 613 and 623 may be a transmitter, a receiver, or both a transmitter and a receiver, or a unit or device that may be configured both for transmission and reception.

[0072] Processors 61 1 and 621 may be embodied by any computational or data processing device, such as a central processing unit (CPU), application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or comparable device. The processors may be implemented as a single controller, or a plurality of controllers or processors.

[0073] Memory 612 and 622 may independently be any suitable storage device, such as a non-transitory computer-readable medium. A hard disk drive (HDD), random access memory (RAM), flash memory, or other suitable memory may be used. The memories may be combined on a single integrated circuit as the processor, or may be separate from the one or more processors. Furthermore, the computer program instmctions stored in the memory and which may be processed by the processors may be any suitable form of computer program code, for example, a compiled or interpreted computer program written in any suitable programming language. Memory may be removable or non-removable.

[0074] The memory and the computer program instructions may be configured, with the processor for the particular device, to cause a hardware apparatus such as user equipment to perform any of the processes described below (see, for example, FIGS. 1-5). Therefore, in certain embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable medium may be encoded with computer instructions that, when executed in hardware, perform a process such as one of the processes described herein. Alternatively, certain embodiments may be performed entirely in hardware

[0075] In certain embodiments, an apparatus may include circuitry configured to perform any of the processes or functions illustrated in FIGS. 1-5. For example, circuitry may be hardware-only circuit implementations, such as analog and/or digital circuitry. In another example, circuitry may be a combination of hardware circuits and software, such as a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuit(s) with software or firmware, and/or any portions of hardware processor(s) with software (including digital signal processor(s)), software, and at least one memory that work together to cause an apparatus to perform various processes or functions. In yet another example, circuitry may be hardware circuit(s) and or processor(s), such as a microprocessor(s) or a portion of a microprocessor(s), that include software, such as firmware for operation. Software in circuitry may not be present when it is not needed for the operation of the hardware.

[0076] The features, structures, or characteristics of certain embodiments described throughout this specification may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. For example, the usage of the phrases“certain embodiments,”“some embodiments,” “other embodiments,” or other similar language, throughout this specification refers to the fact that a particular feature, stmcture, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearance of the phrases“in certain embodiments,”“in some embodiments,”“in other embodiments,” or other similar language, throughout this specification does not necessarily refer to the same group of embodiments, and the described features, structures, or characteristics maybe combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

[0077] One having ordinary skill in the art will readily understand that certain embodiments discussed above may be practiced with steps in a different order, and/or with hardware elements in configurations which are different than those which are disclosed. Therefore, it would be apparent to those of skill in the art that certain modifications, variations, and alternative constructions would be apparent, while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention. In order to determine the metes and bounds of the invention, therefore, reference should be made to the appended claims.

[0078] Partial Glossary

[0079] 3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project

[0080] 4G 4th Generation Mobile Network

[0081] 5G 5th Generation Mobile Network

| [00008822]| A AMMTF Access and Mobility Function

[0083] CA Carrier Aggregation

[0084] CC Component Carrier

[0085] DC Dual Connectivity

[0086] DL Downlink

1 [00008877]1 eNJNBB evolved Node-B

[0088] gNB 5G Node-B

[0089] EN-DC E-UTRA NR Dual Connectivity

[0090] E-UTRA Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

Terrestrial Radio Access

[0091] LTE Long Term Evolution

[0092] MCG Master Cell Group

[0093] MME Mobility Management Entity

[0094] MSG Message

[0095] NG-RAN NG Radio Access Network

[0096] NR New Radio [0097] NW Network

[0098] PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol

[0099] QoS Quality of Service

[0100] RAN Radio Access Network

[0101] RRC Radio Resource Control

[0102] RRM Radio Resource Management

[0103] SCG Secondary Cell Group

[0104] SCS Subcarrier Spacing

[0105] SS-RSRP Synchronization Signal Reference Signal Received Power [0106] SS-RSRQ Synchronization Signal Reference Signal Received Quality [0107] UE User Equipment

[0108] UL Uplink

[0109] UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

Claims

1. A method for signaling radio transmission and/or reception capabilities of a user equipment, comprising:

selecting, by the user equipment, at least one capability of the user equipment; and

transmitting, by the user equipment, an indication of parameters of the selected at least one capability of the user equipment to a network entity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected at least one capability forms a subset of the complete set of capabilities of the user equipment.

3. The method of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the transmission of the indication of the parameters is performed during the setup of a connection with a network.

4. The method of claims 1 - 3, wherein the selected subset of capabilities is a preferred subset of capabilities of the user equipment.

5. The method of claims 1 - 4, wherein selecting the preferred capabilities comprises:

identifying, by the user equipment, at least one currently configured band and/or band combination; and

selecting the capabilities of the device that are appropriate for said band and/or band combination.

6. The method of claims 1 - 5, wherein selecting the preferred capabilities comprises identifying, by the user equipment, at least one band and/or combination of bands configured to provide at least one preconfigured threshold and/or the best performance in terms of at least one quality metric.

7. The method of claims 1 - 6, wherein the selecting comprises selecting at least one capability of the user equipment based upon historical usage of one or more capabilities of the user equipment.

8. The method of claims 1 - 7, wherein the selecting is based upon at least one of a use case and/or a roaming condition.

9. The method of claims 1 - 8, wherein the at least one selected capability is transmitted according to one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks are generated according to a tuple.

11. The method of claims 9 or 10, wherein fragmentation of the one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks is configured according to at least one Hamming distance.

12. A method comprising:

receiving, by a network entity, a request for connection setup from a user equipment;

transmitting, by the network entity, at least one request for capabilities of the user equipment to the user equipment; and

receiving, by the network entity, at least one indication of at least one capability of the user equipment from the user equipment.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising transmitting, by the network entity, at least one request for one or more additional capabilities of the user equipment to the user equipment.

14. The method of claims 12 or 13, further comprising receiving, by the network entity, at least one indication of one or more additional capabilities of the user equipment from the user equipment.

15. The method of claims 12 - 14, wherein the at least one selected capability is received according to one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks are generated according to a tuple.

17. The method of claim 15 or claim 16, wherein fragmentation of the one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks is configured according to at least one Hamming distance.

18. The method of claims 12 - 16, wherein the at least one indication of the at least selected capability is received as part of a RRC measurement report in response to a request for measurements of a set of bands/frequencies.

19. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program codes;

the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to

select at least one capability of the apparatus; and

transmit an indication of parameters of the selected at least one capability of the apparatus to a network entity.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the selected at least one capability forms a subset of the complete set of capabilities of the apparatus.

21. The apparatus of claim 19 or claim 20, wherein the selected subset of capabilities is a preferred subset of capabilities of the user apparatus.

22. The apparatus of claims 19 - 22, wherein selecting the preferred capabilities comprises:

identifying, by the apparatus, at least one currently configured band and/or band combination; and

selecting the capabilities of the apparatus that are appropriate for said band and/or band combination.

23. The apparatus of claims 19 - 22, wherein the selecting comprises selecting at least one capability of the apparatus based upon historical usage of one or more capabilities of the apparatus.

24. The apparatus of claims 19 - 23, wherein the selecting is based upon at least one of a use case and/or a roaming condition.

25. The apparatus of claims 19 - 24, wherein the at least one selected capability is transmitted according to one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks are generated according to a tuple.

27. The apparatus of claims 25 or 26, wherein fragmentation of the one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks is configured according to at least one Hamming distance.

28. An apparatus, comprising

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program codes; the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to

receive a request for connection setup from a user equipment;

transmit, at least one request for capabilities of the user equipment to the user equipment; and

receive, at least one indication of at least one capability of the user equipment from the user equipment.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the apparatus is further configured to transmit at least one request for one or more additional capabilities of the user equipment to the user equipment.

30. The apparatus of claims 28 or 29, wherein the apparatus is further configured to receive at least one indication of one or more additional capabilities of the user equipment from the user equipment.

31. The apparatus of claims 28 - 30, wherein the at least one selected capability is received according to one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks are generated according to a tuple.

33. The apparatus of claim 31 or claim 32, wherein fragmentation of the one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks is configured according to at least one Hamming distance.

34. An apparatus comprising

means for selecting, by the apparatus, at least one capability of the apparatus; and

means for transmitting, by the apparatus, an indication of parameters of the selected at least one capability of the apparatus to a network entity.

35. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the selected at least one capability forms a subset of the complete set of capabilities of the apparatus.

36. The apparatus of claim 34 or claim 35, wherein the selected subset of capabilities is a preferred subset of capabilities of the apparatus.

37. The apparatus of claims 34 - 36, wherein selecting the preferred capabilities comprises:

38. The apparatus of claims 34 - 37, wherein the selecting comprises selecting at least one capability of the apparatus based upon historical usage of one or more capabilities of the apparatus.

39. The apparatus of claims 34 - 38, wherein the selecting is based upon at least one of a use case and/or a roaming condition.

40. The apparatus of claims 34 - 39, wherein the at least one selected capability is transmitted according to one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks.

41. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks are generated according to a tuple.

42. The apparatus of claims 40 or 41, wherein fragmentation of the one or more horizontal and vertical capability building blocks is configured according to at least one Hamming distance.

43. An apparatus comprising means for performing the method according to claims 12 - 18.

44. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed in hardware, perform a process including a method according to claims 1 - 18.

45. A computer program product comprising instructions for performing a process including a method according to claims 1 - 18.