WO2023132768A1

WO2023132768A1 - Method and apparatuses for managing multicarrier operation when a second cell group is deactivated

Info

Publication number: WO2023132768A1
Application number: PCT/SE2022/051242
Authority: WO
Inventors: Zhanxian WANG; Muhammad Ali Kazmi; Zhixun Tang; Santhan THANGARASA; Pontus Wallentin; Stefan Wager; Jens Bergqvist
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ)
Priority date: 2022-01-10
Filing date: 2022-12-27
Publication date: 2023-07-13

Abstract

One example of a method according to an embodiment of the invention comprises a method performed by a UE that is configured with a first and a second cell group for managing multicarrier, MC, operation in a network. The method comprises determining (702) the presence of a radio link problem on a first radio link procedure (RLP) that is associated with the second cell group, when the second cell group is in a deactivated state. The method further comprises altering (704) the performance of one or more RLPs based on the determination of the presence of the radio link problem.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUSES FOR MANAGING MULTICARRIER OPERATION WHEN A SECOND CELL GROUP IS DEACTIVATED

BACKGROUND

Multicarrier (MC) operation is a concept whereby a User Equipment (UE) may operate using multiple carriers (which may also be referred to as cells) that a network has available. With a greater number of carriers, more spectrum can be used by the UE and hence higher throughput of data can be achieved. Examples of MC operations are carrier aggregation (CA), dual connectivity (DC), multi -connectivity (MuC), and so on. The carrier frequency may also be referred to as component carrier (CC), frequency layer, serving carrier, frequency channel and so on.

During Carrier Aggregation (CA) a UE typically has one Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection with a network. Further, at RRC connection establishment/re- establishment/handover, one serving cell provides the Non-Access Stratum (NAS) mobility information, and at RRC connection re-establishment/handover, one serving cell provides the security input. This cell may be referred to as the Primary Cell (PCell). In addition, depending on UE capabilities, Secondary Cells (SCells) can be configured to form together with the PCell a set of serving cells. Therefore, when CA is configured for the UE, the set of serving cells used by the UE consists of one PCell and one or more SCells.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing CA. As illustrated in Fig. 1, a UE that has a CA configuration is configured with one Primary Cell (PCell) and one or more Secondary Cells (SCells), where the CA configuration corresponds to the presence of at least one SCell. The PCell and the SCells are then part of a Cell Group, which may be referred to as the Master Cell Group (MCG). The reconfiguration, addition and removal of SCells can be performed by RRC. At intra-Radio Access Technology (RAT) handover, RRC can also add, remove, or reconfigure SCells for usage with the target PCell. When adding a new SCell, dedicated RRC signalling may be used for sending all required system information of the SCell i.e. while in connected mode, UEs need not acquire broadcasted system information directly from the SCells.

In multi -connectivity the UE is configured with at least 2 cell groups (CGs) and can be configured with any number of CGs. Dual connectivity (DC) is special case of multiconnectivity. In DC, the UE is connected in a Master Cell Group (MCG), controlled by the Master Node (MN), and in a Secondary Cell Group (SCG) controlled by a Secondary Node (SN). MultiRadio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) is a special variant of DC, where the cell groups can represent different RAT.

DC or MR-DC comprises a master cell group (MCG) which may contain a PCell and a secondary cell group (SCG), which contains at least a Primary SCell (PSCell). Each of MCG and SCG may further contain one or more SCells. The cells in MCG and SCG may belong to the same RAT (e.g. all cells are New Radio, NR, in both MCG and SCG like in NR-DC) or they may belong to different RATs (e.g. Long Term Evolution, LTE, cells in MCG and NR cells in SCG like in E-UTRAN (Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity, EN-DC, or NR cells in MCG and LTE cells in SCG like in NR-E-UTRAN Dual Connectivity, NE-DC).

Further, in MR-DC, when dual connectivity is configured for the UE, within each of the two cell groups, MCG and SCG, carrier aggregation may be used as well. In this case, within the Master Cell Group, MCG, controlled by the master node (MN), the UE may use one PCell and one or more SCell(s). Further, within the Secondary Cell Group (SCG) controlled by the secondary node (SN), the UE may use one Primary SCell (PSCell, also known as the primary SCG cell in NR) and one or more SCell(s). This combined case is illustrated schematically in Fig. 2. In NR, the primary cell of a master or secondary cell group is sometimes also referred to as the Special Cell (SpCell). Hence, the SpCell in the MCG is the PCell and the SpCell in the SCG is the PSCell.

To improve network energy efficiency and UE battery life for UEs in MR-DC, it is desirable to provide efficient Secondary Cell Group (SCG) and/or SCell activation/deactivation; this may be especially important for MR-DC configurations with NR SCG, as in some cases NR UE power consumption may be 3 to 4 times higher than LTE.

The 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has already specified the concept of a deactivated SCell for LTE and NR. Fig. 3 illustrates schematically how, for NR, a given SCell may be in either a "Deactivated SCell" state or an "Activated SCell" state. The configured SCell(s) may be activated and deactivated by transmitting the SCell Activation/Deactivation Medium Access Control Control Element (MAC CE) from the network to the UE. The SCell may also be deactivated upon expiry of a timer configured per SCell, known as the sCellDeactivationTimer. As a third option, the SCell state may be configured by RRC signalling. The 3GPP has also specified the concepts of dormant SCell (in LTE) and dormancy like behavior of an SCell (for NR). In LTE, when an SCell is in dormant state, like in the deactivated state, the UE does not need to monitor the corresponding Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) or Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) and cannot transmit in the corresponding uplink. However, differently from deactivated state, the UE is required to perform and report Channel Quality information (CQI) measurements. Typically, a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) SCell (SCell configured with PUCCH) cannot be in dormant state.

In NR, as also illustrated in Fig. 3, dormancy like behaviour for SCells is realized using the concept of dormant bandwidth parts (BWPs). One dormant BWP, which is one of the dedicated BWPs configured by the network via RRC signaling, can be configured for an SCell. If the active BWP of the activated SCell is a dormant BWP, the UE stops monitoring PDCCH on the SCell but continues performing CSI measurements, Automatic Gain Control (AGC) and beam management, if configured. A Downlink Control Indicator (DCI) may be used to control entering/leaving the dormant BWP for one or more SCell(s) or one or more SCell group(s), and it is sent to the special cell (sPCell) of the cell group that the SCell belongs to (i.e. PCell in case the SCell belongs to the MCG and PSCell if the SCell belongs to the SCG). The SpCell (i.e. PCell of PSCell) and PUCCH SCell typically cannot be configured with a dormant BWP.

Typically, only SCells can be put in dormant state (in LTE) or operate in dormancy like behavior (NR). Also, only SCells can be put into the deactivated state in both LTE and NR. Thus, if the UE is configured with MR-DC, it may not be possible to fully benefit from the power saving options of dormant state or dormancy like behavior as the PSCell cannot be configured with that feature. Instead, the SCG may be released (for power savings) and added (when traffic demands or requires) on a need basis. However, traffic is likely to be bursty, and adding and releasing the SCG involves a significant amount of RRC signaling and inter-node messaging between the MN and the SN, which may cause considerable delays.

Radio Link Procedures (RLPs) comprise procedures for monitoring radio links, detecting issues, recovering from issues/failures, and so on. RLPs may comprise one or more of a Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) procedure, a Radio Link Recovery (RLR) procedure, a Beam Failure Detection (BFD) procedure, and a Beam Failure Recovery (BFR) procedure. Further examples of RLP include Transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state switching procedures. The term RLP may be used to refer to one or more procedures (or sub-procedures). Examples of RLP are discussed in greater detail below.

RLM evaluation in NR may be performed based on up to 8 RLM reference signal (RLM-RS) resources configured by the network separately for RLM on each sPCell e.g. for PCell and for RLM on PSCell.

A Synchronization Signal/Physical Broadcast Channel (SS/PBCH) block may further comprise channel s/signals (e.g., Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS), Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS), Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) for Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), Channel Status Information - Reference Signal (CSLRS), and so on) periodically for use by a UE to synchronize with the network and to acquire channel information. Such channel s/signals are transmitted at the same transmission burst called discovery reference signals (DRS). DRS may be transmitted by the base station periodically with certain periodicity e.g. 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, 160 ms etc. Each Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) or SS/PBCH Block Measurement Timing Configuration (SMTC) occasion, which occurs periodically contains one or more SSB/PBCH signals. SMTC contains, for example, SS/PBCH blocks (or SSB), CSLRS, PDSCH for transmitting SIBl. The UE is configured with information about SSB on cells of a carrier and called as S SB-based measurement timing configuration (SMTC), which comprises SMTC periodicity, SMTC occasion length in time or duration, SMTC time offset wrt reference time (e.g. serving cell’s System Frame Number, SFN).

The UE is configured with one or more RLM-RS resources for each of which the UE shall estimate the downlink radio link quality (which may be, for example, Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR), Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), and so on), and compare it to the thresholds Qout and Qin (derived based on a hypothetical PDCCH Bit/Block Error Rate, BLER) for the purpose of monitoring downlink radio link quality of the cell. More specifically, the UE shall be able to evaluate whether the downlink radio link quality on the configured RLM-RS resource estimated over the last OOS evaluation period (TEvaluate out) becomes worse than the threshold Qout within TEvaluate out evaluation period, and the UE shall be able to evaluate whether the downlink radio link quality on the configured RLM-RS resource estimated over the last IS evaluation period (TEvaluate in) becomes better than the threshold Qin within TEvaluate in evaluation period. In frequency range #2 (FR2) (mmwave e.g. for frequencies between 24 GHz and 71 GHz), the RLM evaluation period may additionally apply Rx beam sweeping factor, N, where it is assumed UE tries to receive RLM-RS with different Rx beam configuration to measure the RLM-RS. N may be, for example, 8. This means OOS and IS evaluation periods in FR2 are N times longer than the corresponding OOS and IS evaluation periods in frequency range #1 (FR1) (e.g. frequencies between 400 MHz and 7 GHz).

Link recover procedures (LR) may also be referred to as beam management (BM) procedures. It is a procedure to maintain the beam connection for transmission and reception. The LR broadly comprises one or more of beam related procedures e.g. beam establishment, beam failure recovery, and beam indication (or beam reporting).

Beam establishment is a procedure where UE selects the best (typically strongest) beam when it connects to the network. In order to identify the beam, the base station (gNB) transmits different SS/PBCH block and/or CSLRS per beam. The beam establishment is usually performed at the same time UE performs the initial cell search. At the initial cell search, UE searches for the strongest SS/PBCH block and identifies its location in time domain, because it corresponds to the beam ID. After UE has found the beam, UE tries to connect to the network using this beam. While UE connects to the network, UE measure the downlink link quality of connecting beam. If the link quality level below a threshold, the UE may trigger the beam failure and start the beam recovery procedure.

Beam failure recovery is a procedure when UE updates the beam in the same cell when the current beam becomes weak due to the channel condition changes, such as UE location change or rotation. Beam indication is a procedure where UE reports the beam condition (e.g., received signal power on the beam) to the network as CSI reporting. The LR procedure may be applicable to, for example:

PCell in SA, NR-DC, or NE-DC operation mode,

- PSCell in NR-DC and EN-DC operation mode, or

SCell in carrier aggregation.

Beam recovery is a procedure to recover beam connection when the beam UE is monitoring becomes weak. UE measures the channel quality of the periodic SS/PBCH block and/or CSLRS resources (qO) in a serving cell. If the measured quality is below the threshold Qout LR, corresponding to hypothetical PDCCH BLER of 10%, UE physical layer indicates beam failure to the MAC layer. This event may be referred to as a beam failure detection (BFD). In FR2, the BFD evaluation period additionally applies Rx beam sweeping factor, N, where it is assumed that the UE tries to receive RLM-RS with different Rx beam configuration to measure the BFD-RS. An example of N is 8. This means BFD evaluation period in FR2 is N times longer than the BFD evaluation period in FR1.

After BFD, UE searches for candidate beams from the configured CSI-RS and/or SS/PBCH block resources for candidate beam detection (ql) in the serving cell. UE determines one of the beams in ql whose Ll-RSRP exceeds the threshold rsrp-Threshold which is signaled from the network. This procedure may be referred to as candidate beam detection (CBD).

After determining the new beam in PCell/PSCell, the UE may report the selected beam with the random access procedure, where UE transmits random access preamble on the PRACH corresponding to the SS/PBCH block and/or CSI-RS resource. After determining the new beam in SCell, the UE may report the selected beam with the Beam failure recovery (BFR) message in a MAC CE.

In FR2, the CBD evaluation period additionally applies Rx beam sweeping factor, N, where it is assumed that the UE tries to receive CBD-RS with different Rx beam configuration to measure the CBD-RS. An example of N is 8. N is the scaling factor depending on the configured cells as same ad CBD evaluation in FR1. This means CBD evaluation period in FR2 is N times longer than the CBD evaluation period in FR1.

Ll-RSRP reporting is a part of the CSI reporting procedure; a UE may report the received power of the configured number of beams. The network may use the information to determine which beam is to be used to transmit data (PDCCH/PDSCH). Ll-RSRP reporting may be configured as periodic, aperiodic, or semi-persistent. For the periodic reporting, the UE may transmit Ll-RSRP on PUCCH according to the periodicity configured by the network. For the aperiodic Ll-RSRP reporting, the UE may transmit Ll-RSRP on PUSCH after the UE receives CSI request in DCI. For the semi-persistent Ll-RSRP reporting, the UE may transmit Ll-RSRP reporting on PUSCH or PUCCH according to the periodicity specified by the higher layer. For the semi-persistent reporting the UE may stop Ll-RSRP reporting after the configured number of report transmissions. The reporting period is given by TReport.

In FR2, the Ll-RSRP measurement period additionally applies Rx beam sweeping factor, N, where it is assumed that the UE tries to receive SSB with different Rx beam configuration to measure the SSB. An example of N is 8. This means Ll-RSRP measurement period in FR2 is N times longer than the Ll-RSRP measurement in FR1. Similar to Ll-RSRP reporting, Ll-SINR reporting is also a part of the CSI reporting procedure; the UE may report the ratio of received power of the channel measurement resources (CMR) and received power of the interference measurement resource (IMR). 3GPP assumes CMR is SSB or CSI-RS, and IMR is Non-zero-power CSI-RS (NZP-CSI-RS) or zero-power CSI- RS (ZP-CSI-RS).

In FR2, the Ll-SINR measurement period additionally applies Rx beam sweeping factor, N, where it is assumed that the UE tries to receive SSB and IMR with different Rx beam configuration to measure the SSB and IMR. An example of N is 8. This means Ll-SINR measurement period in FR2 is N times longer than the Ll-SINR measurement in FR1.

Both Ll-RSRP and Ll-SINR reporting may be part of beam indication or beam reporting.

Several signals may be transmitted from the same base station antenna from different antenna ports. These signals may have the same large-scale properties, for instance in terms of Doppler shift/spread, average delay spread, or average delay, when measured at the receiver. Where the signals have at least some of the same large-scale properties, the antenna ports may then be said to be quasi co-located (QCL). Information about what assumptions can be made regarding QCL is signaled to the UE from the network. In NR, four types of QCL relations between a transmitted source RS and transmitted target RS were defined, wherein Type D refers to Spatial Rx parameter.

QCL type D was introduced to facilitate beam management procedures with analog beamforming and is known as spatial QCL. QCL type D is helpful for a UE that uses analog beamforming to receive signals, since the UE needs to adjust its RX beam in some direction prior to receiving a certain signal. If the UE knows that the signal is spatially QCL with some other signal it has received earlier, then it can safely use the same RX beam to receive the signal. Note that for beam management, the discussion mostly revolves around QCL Type D, but it is typically also necessary to convey a Type A QCL relation for the RSs to the UE, so that it can estimate all the relevant large-scale parameters. It may therefore be said that two signals are transmitted in the same direction or via the same downlink beams when these are QCL Type D. Hence, the network may give this relation between a channel to be decoded (e.g. PDCCH/PDSCH) and a signal that is known to be transmitted in a given direction that may be used as reference by the UE, like a CSI-RS, SSB, etc.

In addition to the concept of QCL source we have the concept of a TCI state. Each of the M states in the list of TCI states may be interpreted as a list of M possible beams transmitted in the downlink from the network and/or a list of M possible TRPs used by the network to communicate with the UE. The M TCI states may also be interpreted as a combination of one or multiple beams transmitted from one or multiple TRPs.

To introduce dynamics in beam selection/switching, the UE may be configured through RRC signaling with M TCI states (for example, during connection setup, resume, reconfiguration, handovers, and so on), where M is e.g. up to 128 in frequency range 2 (FR2) for the purpose of PDSCH reception and up to 8 in FR1, depending on UE capability.

In terms of RRC signaling, TCI states may be configured as part of the so-called CellGroupConfig, which is a Distributed Unit (DU) configuration (that is, decided by the baseband unit) in a CU-DU split architecture, and conveyed to the UE via for example an RRCResume (for example, during transition from Inactive to Connected) or RRCReconfiguration (for example, during handovers, intra-cell reconfigurations or transitions from Idle to Connected). The TCI states configurations are signaled as part of the PDSCH configuration, which is configured per each Downlink (DL) Bandwidth Part (BWP) of an SpCell (that is, a PCell or a PSCell), where an SpCell can be comprised of one or multiple DL BWPs. In terms of signaling this is structured as depicted schematically in Fig. 4 (e.g. for the initial DL BWP case).

When the UE has been configured with a CellGroupConfig (for example, in RRCResume, during transition from Inactive to Connected, or in a handover), and spCellConfig with PDSCH and PDCCH configurations per BWP having possible TCI states associated to different transmission downlink beams where these channels need to be detected (or in other words, how the UE should consider its Rx beam to decode these channels), the UE needs to know when the network is transmitting in the time domain. That is, all these TCI states that are configured are not considered to be used/monitored all the time. Hence, a signaling efficient activation/deactivation procedure is defined in NR, such that the concept of TCI state is associated to PDCCH.

The network can activate via MAC CE (MAC protocol layer Control Element) one TCI state for PDCCH (that is, provide a TCI for PDCCH) and up to eight active TCI states for PDSCH. The number of active TCI states the UE support is a UE capability, but the maximum is 8. A UE in RRC CONNECTED monitors PDCCH, but in multi-beam scenarios it needs to know which direction/beam it is going to monitor PDCCH. Network indicates which direction/beam via MAC CE. As the UE moves within a cell, in order to enable the network to efficiently indicate which beam the UE shall monitor (beam switching, or TCI state update), the UE may also be configured to perform LI measurements and report them to the network as shown in a signaling diagram in Fig. 5. PDCCH monitoring typically consumes significant power for a UE operation in RRC CONNECTED. Even more power is consumed if the UE shall expect MAC CE(s) to be processed as a result of LI reports of SSB/CSLRS measurements (e.g. LI RSRP).

Active TCI indicate, for each of the channels, timing reference which the UE shall assume for the downlink reception. The timing reference is defined with respect to a certain downlink reference signal (RS). Examples of RS that may be used are SSB, CSLRS, DM-RS, PRS, and so on. The timing reference may be with respect to an SSB index associated with a particular transmit beam, or with respect to CSLRS resource configured by the network node and provided (i.e. transmitted) to the UE, for example.

There currently exist certain challenge(s). The use of the deactivation of the SCG leads to the following two contradictory requirements:

The deactivated SCG should enable the UE to save its power, for example, by reducing/minimizing its operations within the SCG, including beam management measurements and reports, relax certain measurement requirements when it is possible.

At the same time, while the SCG is deactivated, the UE should be ready to resume the SCG without undue delay, as well as maintaining certain measurement procedures (for example, RLM BFD) to maintain mobility and ensure that the serving cell is stable.

Fast PDCCH monitoring in existing RRC CONNECTED states may be supported via beam management procedures. Hence, to enable fast resume of a deactivated SCG, the UE may continue to keep the same (legacy) beam management operations as currently defined for RRC CONNECTED with the SCG in deactivated mode of operation. However, these procedures consume power as the UE would have to perform LI measurements, report LI measurements over uplink channels of the SCG (PUCCH, PUSCH), process MAC CEs, and so on. Procedures also require the Secondary Node (SN) associated to the deactivated SCG to keep monitoring its UL channels (for example, PUCCH). At the same time, stopping beam management operations during deactivation of the SCG may lead to loss of the beam. The beam recovery required upon activation of the SCG would take time to resume (so activation of the SCG may be slowed).

Fig. 6 is a diagram indicating connections between some example radio link procedures. SUMMARY

Certain aspects of the disclosure and their embodiments may provide solutions to these or other challenges.

In some embodiments, a UE may predict with certain behavior and procedure when the radio link procedure (RLP) criteria is met, which may allow the trade-off between power saving as well as the mobility and RRM produces to be maintained.

Embodiments are applicable to a scenario in which a UE configured with a multi -connectivity comprising of at least two cell groups (e.g. a first cell group, CGI, and a second cell group, CG2, e.g. MCG and SCG respectively) and is further configured or can be configured with at least one deactivated cell group (CG) e.g. CG2.

According to some embodiments there is provided a method performed by a UE that is configured with a first cell group and a second cell group for managing MC operation in a network. The method comprises: determining the presence of a radio link problem on a first radio link procedure, RLP, that is associated with the second cell group, when the second cell group is in a deactivated state; and altering the performance of one or more RLPs based on the determination of the presence of the radio link problem. Although one or both of the first cell group and second cell group may comprise a single cell, typically one or both of the first cell group and second cell group comprises a plurality of cells.

Other embodiments provide UEs implementing the above method.

Examples of the RLPs include those discussed previously, such as link recovery procedures, radio link monitoring procedures, and so on. Examples of the radio link problem are beam failure detection, radio link failure, certain number of out of sync detections, certain number of CCA failures, and so on.

The UE configured in multi -connectivity (e.g. MR-DC) upon detecting a radio link problem (e.g. radio link failure) on a serving cell (e.g. PSCell) of a cell group, such as a second cell group, e.g. SCG, which is deactivated, may stop or not perform one or more radio link procedures (e.g. RLM, RRC re-establishment etc) on the serving cell. The UE may further resume the one or more radio link procedures based on one or more criteria e.g. upon receiving the new TCI state for the serving cell.

Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s). Embodiments may enable the tradeoff between power saving and mobility performance by allowing UE to perform LI measurements over a longer time period or even not to perform unnecessary LI measurements during deactivated cell group status. At the same time embodiments may enable an increased level of readiness for beam management as well as radio link monitoring and re-establishment of a serving cell, such as the PSCell, during cell group deactivation.

UE may predict with certain behavior and procedure when the RLP criteria is being met which maintain the trade-off between power saving as well as the mobility and RRM produces.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the embodiments of the present disclosure, and to show how it may be put into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example only, to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing CA;

Fig. 2 is an illustration of dual connectivity combined with carrier aggregation in MR-DC;

Fig. 3 is an illustration of dormancy like behavior for SCells in NR;

Fig. 4 is a diagram of TCI state configuration(s);

Fig. 5 is a signaling diagram showing TCI state activation via MAC CE;

Fig. 6 is a diagram indicating connections between some example radio link procedures;

Fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a UE method in accordance with some embodiments;

Fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a NN method in accordance with some embodiments;

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of an example system in accordance with embodiments;

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram that illustrates the main steps performed by a UE in an example in accordance with embodiments;

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram that illustrates the main steps performed by a NN in an example in accordance with embodiments;

Fig. 12 shows an example of a communication system 1200 in accordance with some embodiments;

Fig. 13 shows a UE 1300 in accordance with some embodiments;

Fig. 14 shows a network node 1400 in accordance with some embodiments; Fig. 15 is a block diagram of a host 1500, which may be an embodiment of the host 1216 of Fig. 12, in accordance with various aspects described herein;

Fig. 16 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1600 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized; and

Fig. 17 shows a communication diagram of a host 1702 communicating via a network node 1704 with a UE 1706 over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art.

Fig. 7 depicts a method in accordance with particular embodiments. The method in Fig. 7 is for managing MC operation and may be performed by a UE or wireless device (e.g. the UE 1212 or UE 1300 as described later with reference to Figs. 12 and 13 respectively). The UE is configured with a first cell group and a second cell group for managing multicarrier operation in a network. The method begins at step 702 with the determination of the presence of a radio link problem on a first radio link procedure (RLP) that is associated with the second cell group, when the second cell group is in a deactivated state. The method continues with step 704 with the alteration of the performance of one or more RLPs based on the determination of the presence of the radio link problem.

In some examples of the method of Figure 7, the UE detects at least one radio link problem on at least one radio link procedure (RLP) associated with a serving cell belonging to a cell group (CG) (e.g. CG2), which is deactivated, and performs one or more radio operations based on the detected radio link problem. Examples of the radio operations are: not performing the RLP anymore, performing the RLP over longer time period compared to a reference time period, performing RLP more sparsely in time compared to a reference RLP periodicity, performing RLP more frequently than a reference periodicity, resuming the RLP previously stopped when one or more conditions are met, resuming the performance of the RLP upon fulfilling one or more criteria (e.g. obtaining new active TCI state) and so on. Fig. 8 depicts a method in accordance with particular embodiments. The method in Fig. 8 is for managing MC operation and may be performed by a network node (e.g. the network node 1210 or network node 1400 as described later with reference to Figs. 12 and 14 respectively). The method begins at step 804 with receiving first information and/or second information. For example, step 804 may comprise : receiving first information about a radio link problem from a UE and/or receiving second information about operational tasks the UE has performed or intends to perform from the UE.

In some examples of the method of Figure 8, the network node obtains information about at least one radio link problem on one or more RLPs detected by the UE on serving cell(s) in CG2 and/or information about one or more radio operations being performed or expected to be performed by the UE based on the detection of the radio link problem(s) and uses the obtained information for performing one or more operations. Examples of the radio operations are: release the UE with one or more serving cells in CG2, configuring the UE with one or more new serving cells in CG2, configuring the UE with one or more parameters and/or procedures (e.g. new active TCI state) on one or more serving cells in CG2, and so on.

The term node is used to refer to a network node or a UE. Examples of network nodes are NodeB, base station (BS), multi-standard radio (MSR) radio node such as MSR BS, eNodeB, gNodeB. MeNB, SeNB, integrated access backhaul (IAB) node, network controller, radio network controller (RNC), base station controller (BSC), relay, donor node controlling relay, base transceiver station (BTS), Central Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Distributed Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Baseband Unit, Centralized Baseband, C-RAN, access point (AP), transmission points, transmission nodes, RRU, RRH, nodes in distributed antenna system (DAS), core network node (e.g. MSC, MME etc), O&M, OSS, SON, positioning node (e.g. E-SMLC), and so on.

Another example of a node is user equipment (UE), which is a non-limiting term and refers to any type of wireless device communicating with a network node and/or with another UE in a cellular or mobile communication system. Examples of UE are target device, device to device (D2D) UE, vehicular to vehicular (V2V), machine type UE, MTC UE or UE capable of machine to machine (M2M) communication, PDA, Tablet, mobile terminals, smart phone, laptop embedded equipment (LEE), laptop mounted equipment (LME), LT SB dongles, and so on.

In some embodiments, generic terminology, “radio network node” or simply “network node (NW node)”, is used. It can be any kind of network node which may comprise base station, radio base station, base transceiver station, base station controller, network controller, evolved Node B (eNB), Node B, gNodeB (gNB), relay node, access point, radio access point, Remote Radio Unit (RRU) Remote Radio Head (RRH), Central Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Distributed Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Baseband Unit, Centralized Baseband, C-RAN, access point (AP), and so on.

The term radio access technology, or RAT, may refer to any RAT e.g. UTRA, E-UTRA, narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT), WiFi, Bluetooth, next generation RAT, New Radio (NR), 4G, 5G, etc. Any of the equipment denoted by the terms: node, network node or radio network node may be capable of supporting a single or multiple RATs.

Methods in accordance with embodiments may be applicable for any type of radio link procedure (RLP) performed by a UE configured with one or more serving cells. The term RLP used herein may refer to any procedure performed by the UE on radio signals operating between UE and a cell e.g. between UE and SpCell, between UE and SCell etc. RLPs may differ based on their functionality or purpose. RLPs may additionally or alternatively differ based on the type of reference signal used by the RLP e.g. SSB, CSLRS etc. Examples of reference signal are PSS, SSS, CSLRS, DMRS, signals in SSB, CRS, PRS, SRS and so on.

The RLPs are performed on a reference signal (RS) transmitted by a serving cell. Examples of the RLPs are link recovery (LR) procedure, radio link monitoring (RLM) procedure, and so on. Examples of LR procedures or components of LR procedure are beam failure detection (BFD), beam failure recovery (BFR), candidate beam detection (CBD), Ll-RSRP or LL SINR measurement, and so on. Examples of the RLM procedures or components of RLM procedure are out of sync detection, in-sync detection, radio link failure etc. The term LR may also be called as beam management (BM).

A DL RS (e.g. SSB, CS-RS) may also be called as a DL beam, spatial filter, spatial domain transmission filter, main lobe of the radiation pattern of antenna array etc. The RS or beams may be addressed or configured by an identifier, which may indicate the location of the beam in time in beam pattern e.g. beam index such as SSB index indicate SSB beam location in the pre-defined SSB format/pattem. By way of example, the term beam used herein may refer to RS such as SSB, CSLRS, and so on. The term physical channel used herein may be exchanged with other ‘channels’, which contains higher layer information e.g. logical channel, transport channel, and so on. Examples of physical channels are MIB, PSBCH, PSCCH, PSSCH, PBCH, PDCCH, PDSCH, PUSCH, PUCCH, and so on.

The term clear channel assessment (CCA) used herein may correspond to any type of carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) procedure or mechanism which is performed by the device on a carrier before deciding to transmit signals on that carrier. The term carrier may also be interchangeably referred to using carrier frequency, frequency layer, a channel, a radio channel, a radio frequency channel, and so on. The CCA may also interchangeably be referred to as CSMA scheme, channel assessment scheme, listen-before-talk (LBT), shared channel access mechanism or scheme, shared spectrum channel access mechanism or scheme, and so on. The frequency band of a carrier subject to CCA may also be called as unlicensed band or spectrum, shared spectrum channel access band, band for operation with shared spectrum channel access, and so on. The CCA based operation is more generally called contention-based operation. The transmission of signals on a carrier subjected to CCA is also called contention-based transmission. The contention-based operation is typically used for transmission on carriers of unlicensed frequency band. However, the mechanism may also be applied for operating on carriers belonging to licensed band for example to reduce interference. The transmission of signals on a carrier which is not subjected to CCA is also called contention free transmission. LBT or CCA procedure can be performed by UE prior to UL transmission and/or by a network node (such as a base station) prior to DL transmission. Therefore, CCA may also be called as DL CCA (that is, performed by the BS before DL transmission), UL CCA (that is, performed by the UE before UL transmission), and so on.

The carrier frequency subject to CCA may refer to a scenario where the UE is configured to operate a signal between the UE and wherein the operation of the signal is subject to CCA. The term “operation of the signal being subject to CCA” may refer to a scenario in which the device before transmitting a signal in a cell (for example, serving cells of CGI, CG2 and so on) may apply CCA procedure to decide whether the channel is idle or busy, that is, transmit signal if the channel is idle otherwise it defers the transmission. The receiving device (for example, UE) may further determine whether the signal was transmitted or not by the transmitting device (for example, base station). For example, the UE may determine based on one or more of the following principles:

Autonomous determination by the UE: The UE can determine that CCA has failed in the downlink (that is, in the base station transmitting the signal) if the UE is unable to receive a signal or if the signal is unavailable at the UE or the UE determines that the signal is not present or it cannot be detected by the UE. For example, the UE may correlate the signal with pre-defined sequences e.g. correlating the SSB expected to be received in certain time-frequency resources with one or more candidate SSBs. If the output or result of the correlation is below certain threshold (T) then the UE assumes that the signal (for example, SSB) was not transmitted by the base station due to DL CCA failure. Otherwise, if the output or result of the correlation is equal to above T then the UE assumes that the signal (SSB) was transmitted by the base station, that is, DL CCA was successful.

- Explicit indication from another node: In some embodiments the network node (e.g. base station such as PCell in CGI) may transmit the results or outcome of the CCA failures detected in the BS (for example, serving cell of CG2) to the UE. By way of example, the BS may transmit the outcome or results of the DL CCA in the BS in the last Z1 number of time resources or signals in terms of bitmap to the UE. Each bit may indicate whether the DL CCA was failure or successful. For example, 0 and 1 in bit map may indicate that DL CCA was failure and successful respective respectively. The term time resource used herein may correspond to any type of physical resource or radio resource expressed in terms of length of time. Examples of time resources include symbol, time slot, subframe, radio frame, Transmission Time Interval (TTI), interleaving time, SFN cycle, hyper SFN cycle etc. The term TTI may correspond to any time period over which a physical channel can be encoded and optionally interleaved for transmission. The physical channel may be decoded by the receiver over the same time period over which it was encoded. The TTI may also interchangeably called as short TTI (sTTI), transmission time, slot, sub-slot, mini-slot, mini-subframe, and so on.

The terms suspended SCG, SCG in power saving mode, or deactivated SCG are used interchangeably. The term suspended SCG may also be called as deactivated SCG or inactive SCG, or dormant SCG. The terms resumed SCG, SCG in normal operating mode and SCG in non-power saving mode are used interchangeably. The terms resumed SCG may also be called as activated SCG or active SCG. The operation of the SCG operating in resumed or active mode may also be called as normal SCG operation or legacy SCG operation. Examples of operations are UE signal reception/transmission procedures, for example, RLM measurements, reception of signals, transmission of signals, and so on. Embodiments may be described with reference to examples in which the second cell group (sometimes also referred to as CG2) is a Secondary Cell Group (SCG) for a UE configured with Dual Connectivity (which may be MR-DC). In that case, when measurements on the SCG or measurements associated with the SCG are referred to as being performed, that may correspond to performing measurements on a cell of the SCG for example, PSCell. Correspondingly, embodiments may be described with reference to examples in which the first cell group (sometimes also referred to as CGI) is a Master Cell Group (MCG) for a UE configured with Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC). However, embodiments may be equally applicable where the first cell group is a Secondary Cell Group (SCG) for a UE configured with Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC).

Embodiments may be described with reference to terms like SCG and PSCell, as one of the cells associated with the SCG. That can be for example a PSCell as defined in NR specifications (such as TS 38.331, as cited), defined as a Special Cell (SpCell) of the SCG, or a Primary SCG Cell (PSCell), as follows:

Secondary Cell Group: For a UE configured with dual connectivity, the subset of serving cells comprising of the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells (SCells). Special Cell: For Dual Connectivity operation the term Special Cell refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG, otherwise the term Special Cell refers to the PCell.

- Primary SCG Cell (PSCell): For dual connectivity operation, the SCG cell in which the UE performs random access when performing the Reconfiguration with Sync procedure.

For the sake of brevity, embodiments may be described with reference to examples in which the second cell group is a Secondary Cell Group (SCG) that can be suspended, for a UE configured with Dual Connectivity (e.g. MR-DC). However, embodiments may be equally applicable for the case where the second cell group is a Master Cell Group (MCG) for a UE configured with Dual Connectivity (e.g. MR-DC), wherein the MCG could be suspended, while the SCG is operating in normal mode.

Embodiments comprise methods performed by UEs configured with multi -connectivity (for example, dual connectivity (DC), Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) (that is, being configured with a first cell group (such as a Master Cell Group - MCG) and a second cell group (such as a Secondary Cell Group - SCG)). In accordance with some embodiments, a UE may perform the following: - Determine or detect at least one radio link problem on at least a first radio link procedure (RLP11) associated with or configured on at least a first serving cell (C21) configured in a second cell group (CG2), which is deactivated.

- Perform and/or alter the performance of one or more radio operations based on the detection of the problem on at least RLP11.

Methods that may be performed by UEs in some embodiments are described in greater detail below with examples.

The UE may be configured to perform one or more RLPs on one or more serving cells configured within or belonged to CG2. In one example the UE is configured to perform RLPs by a serving cell of CG2, for example, by SpCell such as by PSCell in SCG. In another example the UE is configured to perform the RLPs by a serving cell of another CG (such as a first CG (CGI)), for example, by SpCell such as by PCell in MCG. In another example the UE is configured to perform some of the RLPs by one or more serving cells of CG2 and some of the RLPs by one or more serving cells of another CG, for example, CGI. The configuration of the RLPs may be performed by the UE upon receiving one or more messages from the network e.g. via RRC, MAC-CE or DCI, and so on.

The UE may be further configured to perform the one or more configured RLPs on the one or more serving cells of CG2 even when CG2 is deactivated. CG2 may be deactivated based on a rule (for example, upon expiry of a timer), or based on receiving a message from a network node (for example, from SpCell such as Pcell). In the latter case the deactivation of CG2 (for example, SCG) may be performed by the UE upon receiving one or more messages from the network: via RRC, MAC-CE or DCI, and so on. Performing the REP may require the UE to receive, transmit, monitor, measure on signals (for example, RS) of the serving cell on theh the REP is configured.

According to step 702 of Figure 7, the UE while performing the one or more configured RLPs (e.g. RLP11) may determine, detect or identify one or more radio link problems with the one or more configured RLPs on at least one serving cell (e.g. C21) of CG2. The determination, detection or identification of one or more radio link problems may be made, in some embodiments, when at least one or more of the following criteria is met:

1. Upon one or more Out of Sync (OOS) detections, for example: a) Upon detecting an OOS detection; b) Upon detecting N1 consecutive number of OOS detection (where N1 is a positive integer greater than 1, e.g. N1 = 4); c) Upon detecting N2 number of OOS detection over certain time period (T11), where N2 can be consecutive or non-consecutive OOS detection e.g. Ti l = 1 second (where N2 is a positive integer greater than 1, e.g. N2 = 4, and Ti l is a time period in seconds).

2. Upon fulfilling one or more following conditions related to a radio link failure (RLF), for example: a) Upon starting an RLF timer (e.g. T310) e.g. T310 may start upon detecting N3 consecutive OOS indication from the UE physical layer, where N3 is a positive integer. This may also be called as the triggering of the radio link failure; b) Upon the RLF timer, which is running, exceeding certain threshold e.g. T12 seconds; c) Upon an expiry of RLF timer (e.g. T310). This may also be called as the occurrence or detection of the radio link failure;

3. Upon determination of beam failure, for example: a) When the UE detects a beam failure on one or more configured beams; b) When the UE detects N4 number of consecutive beam failures on one or more configured beams, where N4 is a positive integer greater than 1; c) When the UE detects N5 number of beam failures on one or more configured beams over certain time period, T13. The N5 number of detected beam failures may be consecutive or non-consecutive. N5 is a positive integer greater than 1 and T13 is a time period in seconds.

4. Upon problem with candidate beam detection, for example: a) When the UE is unable to detect any candidate beam after detecting a beam failure on one or more configured beams; b) When the UE is unable to detect at least N6 of candidate beams after detecting a beam failure on one or more configured beams or since a reference time, where N6 is a positive integer greater than 1 ; c) When the UE is unable to detect at least N7 number of candidate beams during certain time period, T14 e.g. starting from the time the UE has detected a beam failure on one or more configured beams. The N7 number of detected beam failures may be consecutive or non-consecutive. N7 is a positive integer greater than 1 and T14 is a time period in seconds.

5. Upon triggering an early Qout event (e.g. event El) at the UE resulting from a measured radio link quality (RLQ). Event El may be triggered, for example, when the RLQ is slightly higher than the RLQ triggering the out-of-sync detection. Event El may be triggered before the actual OOS detection. Examples of RLQ are SNR, SINR, RSRQ, RSRP, and so on. Upon CCA failure determination, which may be, for example: a) When certain consecutive number of DL CCA failures detected in a serving cell (C21) exceed certain threshold (Hl) wherein Hl is a positive integer greater than 1; b) When certain number of DL CCA failures detected in a serving cell (C21) during certain time period (T15) exceed certain threshold (H2). The detected DL CCA failures may be consecutive or non-consecutive. This may also be called as consistent CCA failures. H2 is a positive integer greater than 1 and T15 is a time period in seconds. Upon triggering of cell or connection change, for example: a) Upon autonomously changing or reconfiguring a cell or connection e.g. upon triggering RRC re-establishment; b) upon starting a timer related to a cell change procedure e.g. RRC re-establishment timer T16; c) Upon expiry of a timer related to a cell change procedure e.g. RRC re-establishment timer T17; Upon serving cell’s quality satisfying one or more criteria, for example: a) Upon serving cell’s received signal level (Sr) (e.g. RSRP, path loss, RSRQ, SINR etc.) falling below certain threshold. Examples of Sr are measurements such as signal strength (SS), signal quality (SQ), and so on. Examples of SS are path loss, RSRP, SS- RSRP, and so on. Examples of SQ are RSRQ, SS-RSRQ, SNR, SINR, and so on; b) Upon serving cell’s received signal level (Sr) (e.g. RSRP, path loss, RSRQ, SINR etc.) falling and staying below a certain threshold over certain time period e.g. T18 seconds where T18 is a time period in seconds; c) Upon serving cell’s received signal level (Sr) (e.g. RSRP, path loss, RSRQ, SINR etc.) falling and staying below a certain threshold for a certain ratio or percentage of time over a time period, for example T19 seconds over T20 seconds or Xl% of T20 seconds (where T19 and T20 are time periods in seconds, and XI is a number between 0 and 100); d) Upon a large enough drop in serving cell’s received signal level (Sr) (for example RSRP, path loss, RSRQ, SINR, and so on) compared to strongest serving cell equivalent received signal level (Sr) (for example, RSRQ, SINR, and so on) after UE’s connection to cell; e) Upon a large enough drop in serving cell’s received signal level (Sr) (for example RSRP, path loss, RSRQ, SINR, and so on) compared to strongest serving cell’s equivalent received signal level (Sr) (for example RSRP, path loss, RSRQ, SINR and so on) after UE’s connection to cell and below a certain percentage for at least a certain time period, e.g. T21 seconds (where T21 is a time period in seconds); f) When the UE is not able to successfully receive the control channel (for example, PDCCH) from the serving cell. g) When the UE is not able to successfully receive the control channel (for example, PDCCH) from the serving cell over a certain time period e.g. T22 seconds.

According to step 704 of Figure 7 the UE may alter the performance of one or more RLPs based on the determination of the presence of the radio link problem. For example, the UE upon detecting one or more radio link problems on the one or more RLPs, may perform or alter the performance of one or more RLPs based on one or more rules, which may be pre-defined or configured by RRC. This may enable the UE to, for example, save its battery power, avoid incorrect evaluation of a RLP, reduce delay in reverting CG2 to activated state when CG2 is deactivated, and so on. In some embodiments, the one or more radio operations may be related to the same RLP (e.g. RLP11) for which the radio link problem is detected by the UE. In some embodiments, the one or more radio operations may be related to another RLP (e.g. RLP 12) for which the radio link problem may or may not have been detected by the UE. Examples of rules based on one or more of which the UE may alter the performance of one or more radio link procedures (radio operations) are:

1. In one example of the rule, the UE may stop performing one or more RLPs according to one or more of the following principles: a) In some embodiments, the UE stops performing the RLP for which the UE has detected the radio link problem. For example, upon radio link failure (RLF) detection the UE may stop performing radio link monitoring (RLM) procedure. In another example, upon beam failure detection (BFD) the UE may stop performing one or more link recovery (LR) procedures; b) In some embodiments, the UE stops performing at least one RLP (e.g. RLP 12) for which the UE has not detected any radio link problem (that is, the UE stops performing at least one RLP other than the RLP for which a radio link problem has been detected). The UE may also stop performing the RLP (e.g. RLP11) for which the UE has detected at least one radio link problem. For example, upon RLF detection the UE may stop performing RLM procedure (e.g. RLP11) as well as one or more LR procedures e.g. BFD (e.g. RLP12). In another example, upon detection of the CCA failures (e.g. consecutive DL CCA failures exceeding threshold, DL CCA failures exceeding threshold over certain time period etc) on a serving cell (e.g. C21), the UE may stop performing one or more RLPs being performed or configured on that serving cell (e.g. C21). For example, the UE may stop performing RLM and/or LR procedures on C21. c) In some embodiments, whether the UE stops performing at least one RLP (e.g. RLP12 and so on) for which the UE has not detected any radio link problem depends on the type of the RLP for which the problem is not detected and/or the type of the RLP for which the problem is detected. For example, upon RLF detection the UE may stop performing RLM procedure (e.g. RLP11) as well as one or more LR procedures e.g. BFD (e.g. RLP12). But, upon detecting a beam failure and/or when unable to detect a candidate beam (e.g. RLP11), the UE may stop performing the one or more LR procedures (e.g. BFD, CBD etc) but it may continue performing the RLP (e.g. RLP12). d) In some embodiments, the UE stopping performing or executing of the one or more RLPs may further comprise discarding at least one active state for one or more channel receptions. Examples of channels are control channel (e.g. PDCCH), data channel (e.g. PDSCH) etc. The active state may define a timing reference (Tr), which the UE uses for the downlink reception of the channel. Tr may be defined with respect to certain RS e.g. SSB, CSLRS etc. An example of the active state for one or more channel receptions is an active TCI state. Therefore, the UE may discard or abandon at least one active TCI state. In one specific example the UE discards at least one active state for a reference serving cell (C2r) in CG2. C2r may be pre-defined based on one or more rules or configured by the network node. In one example of the rule, C2r is the serving cell controlling or managing CG2 e.g. PSCell. In another example of the rule, C2r is the serving cell on which the UE has detected the radio link problem. In another example of the rule, C2r is any serving cell configured with the active state. In another example of the rule, C2r is the serving cell operating on a carrier subject to CCA. e) In some embodiments, the UE stops performing the one or more RLPs for which the UE has detected the radio link problem according to any of the above rules but only partially or selectively. For example, the UE may stop performing only some of the components or aspects of the RLP. In one specific example, upon detecting the RLF, the UE may still evaluate the radio link quality to detect out of sync or in-sync. But even after RLF is detected the UE does not perform the RRC re-establishment to another cell. f) In some embodiments, the UE stops performing the one or more RLPs for which the UE has detected the radio link problem according to any of the above rules, at or after time instance, T12; where T12 = Tp + dtw: and Tp is the time instance at or by which the radio link problem is detected by the UE and dtw is waiting time, which can be predefined or configured by the network node. During the dtw the UE continues performing the one or more RLPs. g) In some embodiments, the UE stops performing the one or more RLPs on at least a reference serving cell (C2r). The UE obtains information about C2r based on the same mechanism (including the rules) as described in Rule # 1 (d). In another example of the rule, the UE may start performing one or more RLPs with adapted configuration according to one or more of the following principles: a) In some embodiments, the UE upon detecting one or more problems on the one or more RLPs, continues performing the one or more RLPs but using one or more adapted configuration parameters. The REP, based on the adapted configuration parameters, is performed over a measurement time (Tar) which is different than a reference measurement time (Tmr) for the same RLP. In one example Tmr is the measurement time of the RLP before the radio link problem is detected by the UE. In one example Tar > Tmr e.g. Tar = K2*Tmr; where K2 >1. In another example Tar < Tmr e.g. Tar = K3*Tmr; where 0<K3<l. Examples of configuration parameters are: measurement sampling rate (e.g. number of samples per unit time), DRX cycle, measurement cycle (e.g. UE obtains one measurement sample per measurement cycle) etc. Examples of measurement time for the RLP are measurement period, evaluation period, OOS/IS evaluation period, BFD evaluation period, CBF evaluation period etc. b) In some embodiments, the UE starts performing one or more RLPs based on different, adapted, configuration parameters. For instance, UE may use a longer timer value for T310, or a larger value for N310 compared to the corresponding values before radio link problems were detected. In another example of the rule, the UE may start performing one or more RLPs on another serving cell according to one or more of the following principles: a) In some embodiments, the UE upon detecting one or more problems on the one or more RLPs configured on a first serving cell (e.g. C21), starts performing one or more RLPs on another, a second serving cell (e.g. C22) of CG2. The UE may further stop performing the one or more RLPs on C21. The second serving cell (e.g. C22) can be pre-defined or configured by the network or selected by UE based on some pre-defined rules. For example, UE will select the second serving cell(C22) based on the strongest received signal level (Sr) (e.g. RSRP, path loss, RSRQ, SINR etc.). Examples of Sr are measurements such as signal strength (SS), signal quality (SQ) etc. Examples of SS are path loss, RSRP, SS-RSRP etc. Examples of SQ are RSRQ, SS-RSRQ, SNR, SINR etc. b) In some embodiments, the UE starts performing the same type of one or more RLPs on C22 for which the problem has been detected by the UE on C21. For example, if the UE detects beam failure on C21 (e.g. PSCell) then the UE stops performing the one or more LR procedures (e.g. BFD) on C21, and starts performing the one or more LR procedures (e.g. BFD) on C22. c) In some embodiments the UE starts performing the one or more RLPs on C22 of CG2 upon detecting the problem on the one or more RLPs on C21 provided that one or more criteria are met: i. the UE is configured with resources for performing the RLP on C22 upon detecting the problem on the one or more RLPs on C21. Examples of resources are information about the serving cell (e.g. C22), RS configuration (e g. RLM RS, BFD RS, CBD RS etc) associated with the one or more RLPs etc. ii. the RS configuration (RSI 1) configured for an RLP (e.g. RLP11) in C21 for which problem is detected is related by a mapping or function to the RS configuration (RS12) for an RLP (e.g. RLP12) to be started by the UE in C22. In one example, the RS 11 and RS 12 should be the same. In another example, the periodicity of RSI 1 (Trsl l) and RS12 (Trsl2) should be the same. In another example, the Trs21 = Kl*Trsl 1. In one example, Kl=2 and in another example, Kl=l/2. iii. the UE is configured with resources (e.g. RS configuration) for performing the RLP on C22 upon detecting the problem on the one or more RLPs on C21. iv. the carrier frequencies (F21 and F22) of the at least two cells (e.g. C21 and C22 respectively) are related to each other by one or more rules or conditions e.g. F21 and F22 are in the same frequency band, the magnitude of the difference (DF) between F21 and F22 is below certain threshold etc. In another example of the rule, the UE may not perform one or more procedures upon detection of one or more radio link problems. This may be realized according to one or more of the following principles: a) In some embodiments, upon detection of the RLF, the UE does not perform any action which leads to change of the serving cell. For example, the UE does not perform the RRC connection re-establishment to another cell even if the RLF has occurred on a serving cell e.g. on PSCell of the SCG. In another example, the UE does not perform the cell selection to the selected PLMN even if the UE has met one or more conditions to perform the cell selection to the selected PLMN. Examples of the conditions are CCA failures exceeding certain threshold on a serving cell, upon detecting consistent CCA failures on serving cell etc. b) In some embodiments, upon detection of the beam failure, the UE does not perform any action which leads to the recovery of the failed or lost beam. For example, the UE does not perform the beam failure recovery even if the beam failure has been detected by the UE occurred on a serving cell e.g. on PSCell of the SCG. In another example of the rule, the UE may resume performing the one or more RLPs (which were stopped as in Rule #1 above or being performed with adapted configuration as in Rule #2 above) provided one or more of the following criteria are met: a) In some embodiments, the UE resumes performing the one or more RLPs (which were previously stopped) upon obtaining information about new active state for one or more channel receptions. An example of the active state for one or more channel receptions is an active TCI state. In one example the UE may obtain the new active state by receiving information from a network node e.g. in a RRC reconfiguration message or MAC CE received via a serving cell in CGI such as PCell. In another example the UE may obtain the new active state based on pre-defined rule e.g. predefined or configured reference TCI state to be used by the UE as active TCI state upon stopping at least one REP. b) In some embodiments, the UE resumes performing the one or more RLPs using reference configuration parameters (which are being performed using adapted configurations as in Rule #2) upon obtaining information about new active state for one or more channel receptions. An example of the active state for one or more channel receptions is also an active TCI state. In one example the reference configuration parameters are those used by the UE before the UE detecting the radio link problem for the one or more RLPs. In another example the reference configuration parameters are pre-defined or configured by the network for using them for the one or more RLPs upon obtaining the new active state. The UE obtains the information about new active state using the same principles as described in Rule # 5 (a) above. c) In some embodiments, the UE resumes performing the one or more RLPs (which were previously stopped) or resumes performing the one or more RLPs using the reference configuration parameters (which are performed with adapted configuration parameters) after certain duration (dtr). Where (dtr) occurs after time instance, Tp. dtr which may also be expressed as a timer can be pre-defined or configured by a network node. Tp is the time instance at or by which the radio link problem is detected by the UE. If the UE further detects radio link problem after, Tp+dtr, then the UE may again apply one or more Rules #1, 2, 3 or 4.

6. In another example of the rule, the UE re-establishes the connection with the network, for example by performing the RRC connection re-establishment procedure.

7. In another example of the rule, the UE transmits a first set of information about one or more problems detected by the UE on the one or more RLPs on serving cells of CG2 to a network node, such as a first network node, e.g. the Master Node, MN, or a second network node, e.g. the Secondary Node, SN. The UE may transmit the first set of information to the network node upon receiving a request from the network node or whenever the UE has detected the one or more radio link problems (in addition to performing one or more of the other rules set out above, or other alterations to the REP performance). In one example the network node may be the one managing or controlling the operation of one or more cells in CGI e.g. MCG. In another example the network node may be the one managing or controlling the operation of one or more cells in CG2 e.g. SCG. In yet another example the network node may be the one managing or controlling the operation of one or more cells in CGI and one or more cells in CG2 e.g. MCG and SCG. The first set of information may comprise any of the radio link problems described in section 6.2.1.1, such as OOS detection, RLF condition, beam failure detection, candidate beam detection, Qout event, CCA failure, cell or connection change, serving cell’s quality falling below certain threshold. In one example, the UE may inform the NW node about the one or more detected radio link problems upon re-establishing the connection, e.g. after RRC re-establishment, after detecting a candidate beam. In one example, this first set of information is included in an RRC message, such as an SCGFailur eInformation message or an UEAssistancelnformation message, or a MAC Control Element, MAC CE, transmitted by the UE, to the network node. In one example, the RRC message or MAC CE is transmitted to the first network node via the MCG. In another example, the RRC message or MAC CE is transmitted to the second network node via the MCG, encapsulated within a RRC message or MAC CE sent to the first network node. In yet another example, if the UE performed an RRC connection re-establishment due to the one or more detected radio link problems, it may include the first set of information into a message transmitted during the RRC connection reestablishment procedure, such as an RRCReestablishmentRequest message, or an RRCRestablishmentComplete message, or a message transmitted after the RRC connection re-establishment procedure, such as an UEAssistancelnformation message. In one example, the network has configured in which message the UE transmits the first set of information. In another example, the network has configured which subset of the first set of information the UE is to transmit, or whether to transmit a first set of information.

8. In another example of the rule, the UE transmits a second set of information about one or more operational tasks (as described in Rules # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6) to a network node, such as a first network node, e.g. the Master Node, MN, or a second network node, e.g. the Secondary Node, SN. The UE may transmit the second set of information to the network node upon receiving a request from the network node or whenever the UE has performed or expected to perform or going to perform the one or more operational tasks (in addition to performing one or more of the other rules set out above, or other alterations to the RLP performance). In one example the network node may be the one managing or controlling the operation of one or more cells in CGI e.g. MCG. In another example the network node may be the one managing or controlling the operation of one or more cells in CG2 e.g. SCG. In yet another example the network node may be the one managing or controlling the operation of one or more cells in CGI and one or more cells in CG2 e.g. MCG and SCG. The second set of information may comprise any of the radio operational tasks described in section 6.2.1.2. In one example, this second set of information is included in an RRC message, such as an SCGFailur eInformation message or an UEAssistancelnformation message, or a MAC Control Element, MAC CE, transmitted by the UE, to the network node. In another example, if the UE performed an RRC connection re-establishment as an operational task, it may include the second set of information into a message transmitted during the RRC connection re-establishment procedure, such as an RRCReestablishmentRequest message, or an RRCRestablishmentComplete message, or a message transmitted after the RRC connection re-establishment procedure, such as an UEAssistancelnformation message. In one example, the network has configured in which message the UE transmits the second set of information. In another example, the network has configured which subset of the second set of information the UE is to transmit, or whether to transmit a second set of information. In some embodiments, the UE may meet a set of requirements during the transition phase, i.e. when switching between a state where the adapted or modified RLPs are performed (as described in the examples above) and a state when the radio link problems are no longer detected.

In one example, the UE while performing the adapted or modified RLPs (as described above), upon detecting that radio link problems are no longer detected, UE immediately resumes performing RLP following the legacy principles and requirements if the legacy requirements are more stringent than the adapted RLP requirements. Examples of stringent requirements are requirements which have shorter evaluation period than a reference evaluation period, RLP performed more frequently than a reference RLP periodicity, etc. Otherwise, the UE resumes the RLP operating following the legacy requirements after a certain time, TOO, which can be predefined or configured.

In another example, the UE while performing the RLP following the legacy requirements, upon detecting radio link problems, the UE starts performing the adapted or modified RLP as described in the examples above after certain time, T01, which can be predefined or configured. In some embodiments, the examples of adapted RLP as described in the above rules may further depend on the UE mobility and signal quality of the UE with respect to the cell on which RLP is performed. In one example, if UE is determined to be operating under limited mobility conditions (e.g. stationary UE or UE speed below a certain threshold, or doppler below a certain threshold), then UE may not apply or delay applying the adapted RLPs as described above or only apply a subset of the adapted RLPs. This way power consumption can be further improved. Otherwise, the UE may apply the adapted RLPs as described in the above rules.

In another examples, if the RLP is detected by the UE but the UE is still operating under good serving cell conditions (e.g. SINR above a certain threshold), then the UE may apply or delay applying the adapted RLPs as described above or only apply a subset of the adapted RLPs. This way power consumption can be further improved. Otherwise, the UE may apply the adapted RLPs as described in the above rules.

In yet another example, if RLP is detected while the UE is operating under low mobility conditions and good serving cell quality with respect to the cell on which RLP is performed, then the UE may apply or delay applying the adapted RLPs as described above or only apply a subset of the adapted RLPs. This way power consumption can be further improved. Otherwise, the UE may apply the adapted RLPs as described in the above rules. In some embodiments, the UE receives an updated configuration from a network node, such as a first network node, e.g. Master Node, MN, or a second network node, such as a Secondary Node, SN. In one example, this configuration is included in an RRC message, e.g. an RRCReconfiguration message, received, by the UE, from the network node. In one example, the configuration is received after the UE has transmitted a first or second set of information to a network node, and in one example as a response to the transmitted first or second set of information. The received configuration may comprise one or more of the following:

Configuring the UE with one or more parameters to assist the UE to perform one or more operational tasks. Examples of the parameters and the related UE operational tasks as the same as described in section 6.2.1.2. In one specific example the network node may configure the UE with a new active TCI state for receiving one or more channels on a serving cell in CG2 e.g. PDCCH and/or PDSCH in PSCell in SCG.

Configuring/adding one or more new serving cells for the UE in CG2. For example, the network node may configure one or more new serving cell on which the UE is not expected to detect one or more problems or is not expected to detect certain type of problems e.g. RLF, CCA failures, BFD, active TCI state invalid etc.

Deconfiguring/releasing/removing one or more existing serving cells for the UE in CG2. For example, the network node may deconfigure the one or more serving cell on which the UE has detected one or more problems or certain type of problems e.g. RLF, CCA failures, BFD, active TCI state has become invalid etc.

Reconfigure one or more existing serving cells for the UE in CG2. For example, the network node may reconfigure a second serving cell as a new SpCell (e.g. PScell) in CG2. The second serving cell can be configured by the network or suggested by UE based on some pre-defined rules described above.

Adapting the activation of CG2. In one example, the network node may activate the CG2 upon obtaining any of the two sets of the information. This may allow the UE to obtain or improve the synchronization of the serving cells in CG2. In another example, the network node may delay or postpone the activation of the CG2 for certain time period upon obtaining any of the two sets of the information.

Adapting the DRX configuration of the UE. For example, the NW may configure a shorter DRX cycle if a radio link problems has been reported this may allow the UE to detect potential connection failure earlier and prepare for cell change. Embodiments comprise methods performed by network nodes (for example, base stations), such as a first network node, e.g. Master Node, MN, or a second network node, such as a Secondary Node, SN, supporting or managing a UE configured with multi -connectivity (for example, dual connectivity (DC), Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) (that is, being configured with a first cell group (for example, Master Cell Group - MCG) and a second cell group (for example, Secondary Cell Group - SCG)). In some embodiments the network node manages or controls the operation of the cells in CGI e.g. MCG. In other embodiments the network node manages or controls the operation of the cells in CG2 e.g. SCG. In still further embodiments, the network node manages or controls the operation of the cells in both CGI and CG2. Network nodes in accordance with embodiments may perform some or all of the following: obtain a first and/or second set of information; and use the obtained information for performing one or more operational tasks.

Where the network node obtains a first set of information and/or a second set of information: In some embodiments, the network node obtains a first set of information, which is related to the one or more radio link problems detected by the UE on one or more RLPs on serving cell(s) of CG2. The first set of information may comprise any of the radio link problems described in section 6.2.1.1. In one example, this first set of information is included in an RRC message, such as an SCGFailur eInformation message, or a MAC Control Element, MAC CE, received, from the UE, by the network node.

In some embodiments, the network node obtains a second set of information, which is related to the one or more radio operational tasks performed by the UE upon detecting on one or more radio link problems related to the RLPs on serving cell(s) of CG2. The second set of information may comprise any of the radio operational tasks described in section 6.2.1.2. In one example, this second set of information is included in an RRC message, such as an SCGFailur eInformation message, or a MAC Control Element, MAC CE, received, from the UE, by the network node.

Where the network node uses the obtained first set of information and/or the second set of information for performing one or more operational tasks:

In some embodiments the NN configures the UE with one or more parameters to assist the UE to perform one or more operational tasks. Examples of the parameters and the related UE operational tasks as the same as described above. In an example the network node may configure the UE with a new active TCI state for receiving one or more channels on a serving cell in CG2 e.g. PDCCH and/or PDSCH in PSCell in SCG.

In some embodiments the NN configures/adds one or more new serving cells for the UE in CG2. For example, the network node may configure one or more new serving cell on which the UE is not expected to detect one or more problems or is not expected to detect certain type of problems e.g. RLF, CCA failures, BFD, active TCI state invalid etc.

In some embodiments the NN deconfigures/releases/removes one or more existing serving cells for the UE in CG2. For example, the network node may deconfigure the one or more serving cell on which the UE has detected one or more problems or certain type of problems e.g. RLF, CCA failures, BFD, active TCI state has become invalid etc.

In some embodiments the NN reconfigures one or more existing serving cells for the UE in CG2. For example, the network node may reconfigure a second serving cell as a new SpCell(e.g. PScell) in CG2. The second serving cell can be configured by the network or suggested by UE based on some pre-defined rules such as those discussed above.

In some embodiments the NN adapts the activation of CG2. In one example, the network node may activate the CG2 upon obtaining any of the two sets of the information. This may allow the UE to obtain or improve the synchronization of the serving cells in CG2. In another example, the network node may delay or postpone the activation of the CG2 for certain time period upon obtaining any of the two sets of the information.

In some embodiments the NN adapts the DRX configuration of the UE. For example, the NW may configure a shorter DRX cycle if a radio link problems has been reported this may allow the UE to detect potential connection failure earlier and prepare for cell change.

Upon performing one or more operational tasks, the network node may transmit, to the UE, a message, such as an RRC message, e.g. an RRCRe configuration message. In one example, the RRCReconfiguration message generated by the SN is transmitted to the UE via the MCG, encapsulated within another RRCReconfiguration message generated by the MN. In another example, upon performing one or more operational tasks, the network node transmits, to the UE, a MAC Control Element (MAC CE). Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of an example system in accordance with embodiments. In the example shown in Fig. 9, the UE 901 is a wireless terminal, such as a cellular smartphone, which may be configured for multi-radio dual connectivity, MR-DC.

The UE 901 is connected via a first cell group 902 to a first network node 906 over a radio interface 904. When configured in MR-DC, the UE 901 is also connected via a second cell group 903 to a second network node 907 over a radio interface 905.

The first network node 906, sometimes known as a Master Node, MN, controls the first cell group 902, sometimes known as the Master Cell Group, MCG. The first cell group 902 is configured with a main cell, such as a Primary Cell, PCell, and optionally multiple additional cells, such as secondary cells, SCells, in a carrier aggregation, CA, configuration.

The second network node 907, sometimes known as a Secondary Node, SN, controls the second cell group 903, sometimes also known as the Secondary Cell Group, SCG. The second cell group 903 is configured with a main cell, such as a Primary SCG Cell, PSCell, and optionally multiple additional cells, such as secondary cells, SCells, in a CA configuration.

The first network node 906 is connected with the second network node 907 over an interface 908.

Fig. 10 illustrates the main steps performed by the UE in an example in accordance with embodiments. In the Fig. 10 example, the UE is configured with multi-connectivity, e.g. dual connectivity (DC) or Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC), and is configured with a first cell group (e.g. Master Cell Group - MCG), controlled by a first network node, e.g. a Master Node, MN, and a second cell group (e.g. Secondary Cell Group - SCG) controlled by a second network node, e.g. a Secondary Node, SN.

With reference to Fig. 10, the steps are as follows:

Step 1010. The UE receives, from a network node, such as the first network node, e.g. a Master Node, MN, or the second network node, e.g. a Secondary Node, SN, an indication for the second cell group to enter a deactivated mode of operation. This indication may for example be sent in a signalling message, e.g. an RRC message, such as RRCReconfiguration, or in a MAC Control Element, MAC CE. In one example, this indication is the field scg-State, included in an RRCReconfiguration message, set to the value "deactivated".

Step 1020. The UE performs radio link procedures (RLPs), such as Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) or Link Recovery (LR), according to the configured resources, such as reference signal resources and/or block resources, provided by a network node, e.g. in the previous step.

Step 1030. The UE determines whether a radio link problem has been detected with the one or more configured RLPs on at least one serving cell, in the second cell group, according to certain criteria. For example, upon one or more OOS detections, upon detection a radio link failure (RLF) condition, upon beam failure detection, upon problem with candidate beam detection upon detection of CCA failures, upon triggering of cell or connection change or upon serving cell’s quality falling below certain threshold. If there is no radio link problem, the UE goes back to the previous step.

Step 1040. If at least one radio link problem has been detected, the UE performs an operational task based on one or more rules. For example, stopping one or more RLPs, starting one or more RLPs, starting to perform one or more RLPs on another serving cell, resuming one or more RLPs previously stopped or re-establishing the connection with the network, such as performing the RRC connection re-establishment procedure.

Step 1050. Optionally, in an example of an operational task, the UE, transmits, to a network node, such as the first network node, e.g. a Master Node, MN, or the second network node, e.g. a Secondary Node, SN, a first set of information about the one or more detected radio link problems or a second set of information about the one or more operational tasks the UE has performed or expected to perform or is going to perform. In one example, this first or second set of information is included in an RRC message, such as an SCGFailurelnformation message or an UEAssistancelnformation message, or a MAC Control Element, MAC CE, transmitted by the UE, to the network node.

Step 1060. Optionally, the UE may receive, from a network node, such as a first network node, e.g. Master Node, MN, or a second network node, such as a Secondary Node, SN, an updated configuration, such as parameters to assist in performing an operational task or to perform a cell reconfiguration. In one example, this configuration is included in an RRC message, e.g. an RRCReconfiguration message, received, by the UE, from the network node. In another example, the UE may receive updated TCI state information within an RRC message, e.g. an RRCReconfiguration message, or a MAC Control Element, MAC CE.

Step 1070. Optionally, the UE may perform an operational task based on the received configuration. For example, activate new TCI states to receive one or more channels or signals in a serving cell in the second cell group.

Fig. 11 illustrates the main steps performed by a network node, such as the first network node, e.g. a Master Node, MN, or the second network node, e.g. a Secondary Node, SN, in an example in accordance with embodiments. In this example, the UE is configured with multiconnectivity, e.g. dual connectivity (DC) or Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC), and is configured with a first cell group (e.g. Master Cell Group - MCG), controlled by a first network node, e.g. a Master Node, MN, and a second cell group (e.g. Secondary Cell Group - SCG) controlled by a second network node, e.g. a Secondary Node, SN.

With reference to Fig. 11, the steps are as follows:

Step 1110. The network node transmits, to the UE, an indication for the second cell group to enter a deactivated mode of operation. This indication may for example be sent in a signalling message, e.g. an RRC message, such as RRCReconfiguration, or in a MAC Control Element, MAC CE. In one example, this indication is the field scg-State, included in an RRCReconfiguration message, set to the value "deactivated".

Step 1120. The network node receives, from the UE, a message including a first set of information about one or more detected radio link problems or a second set of information operational tasks the UE has performed or expected to perform or is going to perform. In one example, this first or second set of information is included in an RRC message, such as an SCGFailurelnformation message or an UEAssistancelnformation message, or a MAC Control Element, MAC CE, transmitted by the UE, to the network node.

Step 1130. The network node transmits an updated configuration to the UE, such as such as parameters to assist in performing an operational task or to perform a cell reconfiguration. In one example the network node uses the received first or second set of information to determine the updated configuration. In one example, the network transmits to the UE an updated TCI state information within an RRC message, e.g. an RRCReconfiguration message, or a MAC Control Element, MAC CE.

The following text shows a modified portion of 3GPP TS 38.331 vl6.7.0 (as cited above), which has been modified in accordance with an example. In this example, the RRC message SCGFailurelnformation is enhanced with additional failure types caused by radio link problem detected for a deactivated SCG and also a field is added to indicate an operational task performed by the UE upon a radio link problem detected for a deactivated SCG.

The SCGFailurelnformation message is used to provide information regarding NR SCG failures detected by the UE.

Signalling radio bearer: SRB 1

RLC-SAP: AM

Logical channel: DCCH

Direction: UE to Network

SCGFailurelnformation message

SCGFailurelnformation field descriptions measResultFreqList

The field contains available results of measurements on NR frequencies the UE is configured to measure by measConfig. measResultSCG-Failure

The field contains the MeasResultSCG-Failure IE which includes available results of measurements on NR frequencies the UE is configured to measure by the NR SCG RRC Reconfiguration message. rlpProblemPeactivatedSCG

When the SCG is deactivated, this field contains information about detected radio link problem and action the UE has performed, is expected to perform or is going to perform.

Fig. 12 shows an example of a communication system 1200 in accordance with some embodiments.

In the example, the communication system 1200 includes a telecommunication network 1202 that includes an access network 1204, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 1206, which includes one or more core network nodes 1208. The access network 1204 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 1210a and 1210b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 1210), or any other similar 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP) access node or non-3GPP access point. The network nodes 1210 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 1212a, 1212b, 1212c, and 1212d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 1212) to the core network 1206 over one or more wireless connections.

Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and/or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system 1200 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and/or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communication system 1200 may include and/or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and/or other similar type of system.

The UEs 1212 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 1210 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 1210 are arranged, capable, configured, and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 1212 and/or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 1202 to enable and/or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and/or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunication network 1202. In the depicted example, the core network 1206 connects the network nodes 1210 to one or more hosts, such as host 1216. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network 1206 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 1208) that are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, network nodes, and/or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 1208. Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and/or a User Plane Function (UPF).

The host 1216 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 1204 and/or the telecommunication network 1202, and may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The host 1216 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more services. Examples of such applications include the provision of live and/or pre-recorded audio/video content, data collection services, for example, retrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.

As a whole, the communication system 1200 of Fig. 12 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and/or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi); and/or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi, and/or any low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox. In some examples, the telecommunication network 1202 is a cellular network that implements 3 GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network 1202 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 1202. For example, the telecommunications network 1202 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and/or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC)/Massive loT services to yet further UEs.

In some examples, the UEs 1212 are configured to transmit and/or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 1204 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 1204. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi -RAT or multi-standard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configured for multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

In the example illustrated in Fig. 12, the hub 1214 communicates with the access network 1204 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 1212c and/or 1212d) and network nodes (e.g., network node 1210b). In some examples, the hub 1214 may be a controller, router, a content source and analytics node, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 1214 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 1206 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 1214 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes 1210, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 1214. As another example, the hub 1214 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 1214 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 1214 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 1214 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and/or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 1214 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular in if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices. The hub 1214 may have a constant/persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 1210b. The hub 1214 may also allow for a different communication scheme and/or schedule between the hub 1214 and UEs (e.g., UE 1212c and/or 1212d), and between the hub 1214 and the core network 1206. In other examples, the hub 1214 is connected to the core network 1206 and/or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 1214 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 1204 and/or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 1210 while still connected via the hub 1214 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 1214 may be a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to/from the UEs from/to the network node 1210b. In other embodiments, the hub 1214 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node 1210b, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and/or end point for certain data channels.

Fig. 13 shows a UE 1300 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, a UE refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and/or other UEs. Examples of a UE include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless camera, gaming console or device, music storage device, playback appliance, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), smart device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded/integrated wireless device, etc. Other examples include any UE identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP), including a narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and/or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.

A UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or vehicle-to-everything (V2X). In other examples, a UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and/or operates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).

The UE 1300 includes processing circuitry 1302 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1304 to an input/output interface 1306, a power source 1308, a memory 1310, a communication interface 1312, and/or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in Fig. 13. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

The processing circuitry 1302 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 1310. The processing circuitry 1302 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 1302 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs). The processing circuitry 1302 may be operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other UE 1300 components, such as the memory 1310, UE 1300 functionality. For example, the processing circuitry 1302 may be configured to cause the UE 1302 to perform the methods as described with reference to Fig. 7.

In the example, the input/output interface 1306 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and/or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into the UE 1300. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presencesensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device. In some embodiments, the power source 1308 is structured as a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used. The power source 1308 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 1308 itself, and/or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 1300 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 1308. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source 1308 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 1300 to which power is supplied.

The memory 1310 may be or be configured to include memory such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 1310 includes one or more application programs 1314, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 1316. The memory 1310 may store, for use by the UE 1300, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems. The memory 1310 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and/or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘ SIM card.’ The memory 1310 may allow the UE 1300 to access instructions, application programs and the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 1310, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

The processing circuitry 1302 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 1312. The communication interface 1312 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 1322. The communication interface 1312 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 1318 and/or a receiver 1320 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 1318 and receiver 1320 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna 1322) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

In some embodiments, communication functions of the communication interface 1312 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. Communications may be implemented in according to one or more communication protocols and/or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol/intemet protocol (TCP/IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 1312, via a wireless connection to a network node. Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE. The output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).

As another example, a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, the UE may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or controls a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input. A UE, when in the form of an Internet of Things (loT) device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, city wearable technology, extended industrial application and healthcare. Non-limiting examples of such an loT device are devices which are or which are embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door/window sensor, a flood/moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a head-mounted display for Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, an industrial robot, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and any kind of medical device, like a heart rate monitor or a remote controlled surgical robot. A UE in the form of an loT device comprises circuitry and/or software in dependence on the intended application of the loT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the UE 1300 shown in Fig. 13.

As yet another specific example, in an loT scenario, a UE may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and/or measurements to another UE and/or a network node. The UE may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the UE may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, a UE may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.

In practice, any number of UEs may be used together with respect to a single use case. For example, a first UE might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second UE that is a remote controller operating the drone. When the user makes changes from the remote controller, the first UE may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g. by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed. The first and/or the second UE can also include more than one of the functionalities described above. For example, a UE might comprise the sensor and the actuator, and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators. Fig. 14 shows a network node 1400 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and/or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunication network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)).

Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units and/or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).

Other examples of network nodes include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5G access nodes, multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi-cell/multicast coordination entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and/or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).

The network node 1400 includes processing circuitry 1402, a memory 1404, a communication interface 1406, and a power source 1408, and/or any other component, or any combination thereof. The network node 1400 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 1400 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 1400 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 1404 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 1410 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 1400 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1400, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 1400.

The processing circuitry 1402 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, applicationspecific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 1400 components, such as the memory 1404, network node 1400 functionality. For example, the processing circuitry 1402 may be configured to cause the network node to perform the methods as described with reference to Fig. 8.

In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1402 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1402 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1412 and baseband processing circuitry 1414. In some embodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1412 and the baseband processing circuitry 1414 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1412 and baseband processing circuitry 1414 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

The memory 1404 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer-readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and/or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 1402. The memory 1404 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and/or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 1402 and utilized by the network node 1400. The memory 1404 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 1402 and/or any data received via the communication interface 1406. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1402 and memory 1404 is integrated.

The communication interface 1406 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and/or data between a network node, access network, and/or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface 1406 comprises port(s)/terminal(s) 1416 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 1406 also includes radio front-end circuitry 1418 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 1410. Radio front-end circuitry 1418 comprises filters 1420 and amplifiers 1422. The radio front-end circuitry 1418 may be connected to an antenna 1410 and processing circuitry 1402. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1410 and processing circuitry 1402. The radio front-end circuitry 1418 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuitry 1418 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1420 and/or amplifiers 1422. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 1410. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 1410 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 1418. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 1402. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.

In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 1400 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 1418, instead, the processing circuitry 1402 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 1410. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 1412 is part of the communication interface 1406. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 1406 includes one or more ports or terminals 1416, the radio front-end circuitry 1418, and the RF transceiver circuitry 1412, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 1406 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 1414, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

The antenna 1410 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals. The antenna 1410 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 1418 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 1410 is separate from the network node 1400 and connectable to the network node 1400 through an interface or port.

The antenna 1410, communication interface 1406, and/or the processing circuitry 1402 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and/or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 1410, the communication interface 1406, and/or the processing circuitry 1402 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node and/or any other network equipment.

The power source 1408 provides power to the various components of network node 1400 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 1408 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 1400 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 1400 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 1408. As a further example, the power source 1408 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.

Embodiments of the network node 1400 may include additional components beyond those shown in Fig. 14 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and/or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 1400 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 1400 and to allow output of information from the network node 1400. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 1400.

Fig. 15 is a block diagram of a host 1500, which may be an embodiment of the host 1216 of Fig. 12, in accordance with various aspects described herein. As used herein, the host 1500 may be or comprise various combinations hardware and/or software, including a standalone server, a blade server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server, a virtual machine, container, or processing resources in a server farm. The host 1500 may provide one or more services to one or more UEs.

The host 1500 includes processing circuitry 1502 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1504 to an input/output interface 1506, a network interface 1508, a power source 1510, and a memory 1512. Other components may be included in other embodiments. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the devices of previous figures, such as Figs. 13 and 14, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of host 1500.

The memory 1512 may include one or more computer programs including one or more host application programs 1514 and data 1516, which may include user data, e.g., data generated by a UE for the host 1500 or data generated by the host 1500 for a UE. Embodiments of the host 1500 may utilize only a subset or all of the components shown. The host application programs 1514 may be implemented in a container-based architecture and may provide support for video codecs (e.g., Versatile Video Coding (VVC), High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), Advanced Video Coding (AVC), MPEG, VP9) and audio codecs (e.g., FLAC, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), MPEG, G.711), including transcoding for multiple different classes, types, or implementations of UEs (e.g., handsets, desktop computers, wearable display systems, headsup display systems). The host application programs 1514 may also provide for user authentication and licensing checks and may periodically report health, routes, and content availability to a central node, such as a device in or on the edge of a core network. Accordingly, the host 1500 may select and/or indicate a different host for over-the-top services for a UE. The host application programs 1514 may support various protocols, such as the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol, Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH), etc.

Fig. 16 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1600 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 1600 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, UE, core network node, or host. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized.

Applications 1602 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment Q400 to implement some of the features, functions, and/or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein. Hardware 1604 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and/or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and/or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input/output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 1606 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 1608a and 1608b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 1608), and/or perform any of the functions, features and/or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 1606 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 1608.

The VMs 1608 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1606. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 1602 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 1608, and the implementations may be made in different ways. Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.

In the context of NFV, a VM 1608 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of the VMs 1608, and that part of hardware 1604 that executes that VM, be it hardware dedicated to that VM and/or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more VMs 1608 on top of the hardware 1604 and corresponds to the application 1602.

Hardware 1604 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 1604 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 1604 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 1610, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 1602. In some embodiments, hardware 1604 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station. In some embodiments, some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system 1612 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

Fig. 17 shows a communication diagram of a host 1702 communicating via a network node 1704 with a UE 1706 over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments. Example implementations, in accordance with various embodiments, of the UE (such as a UE 1212a of Fig. 12 and/or UE 1300 of Fig. 13), network node (such as network node 1210a of Fig. 12 and/or network node 1400 of Fig. 14), and host (such as host 1216 of Fig. 12 and/or host 1500 of Fig. 15) discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to Fig. 17.

Like host 1500, embodiments of host 1702 include hardware, such as a communication interface, processing circuitry, and memory. The host 1702 also includes software, which is stored in or accessible by the host 1702 and executable by the processing circuitry. The software includes a host application that may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as the UE 1706 connecting via an over-the-top (OTT) connection 1750 extending between the UE 1706 and host 1702. In providing the service to the remote user, a host application may provide user data which is transmitted using the OTT connection 1750.

The network node 1704 includes hardware enabling it to communicate with the host 1702 and UE 1706. The connection 1760 may be direct or pass through a core network (like core network 1206 of Fig. 12) and/or one or more other intermediate networks, such as one or more public, private, or hosted networks. For example, an intermediate network may be a backbone network or the Internet.

The UE 1706 includes hardware and software, which is stored in or accessible by UE 1706 and executable by the UE’s processing circuitry. The software includes a client application, such as a web browser or operator-specific “app” that may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE 1706 with the support of the host 1702. In the host 1702, an executing host application may communicate with the executing client application via the OTT connection 1750 terminating at the UE 1706 and host 1702. In providing the service to the user, the UE's client application may receive request data from the host's host application and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 1750 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The UE's client application may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides to the host application through the OTT connection 1750.

The OTT connection 1750 may extend via a connection 1760 between the host 1702 and the network node 1704 and via a wireless connection 1770 between the network node 1704 and the UE 1706 to provide the connection between the host 1702 and the UE 1706. The connection 1760 and wireless connection 1770, over which the OTT connection 1750 may be provided, have been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host 1702 and the UE 1706 via the network node 1704, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices.

As an example of transmitting data via the OTT connection 1750, in step 1708, the host 1702 provides user data, which may be performed by executing a host application. In some embodiments, the user data is associated with a particular human user interacting with the UE 1706. In other embodiments, the user data is associated with a UE 1706 that shares data with the host 1702 without explicit human interaction. In step 1710, the host 1702 initiates a transmission carrying the user data towards the UE 1706. The host 1702 may initiate the transmission responsive to a request transmitted by the UE 1706. The request may be caused by human interaction with the UE 1706 or by operation of the client application executing on the UE 1706. The transmission may pass via the network node 1704, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. Accordingly, in step 1712, the network node 1704 transmits to the UE 1706 the user data that was carried in the transmission that the host 1702 initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 1714, the UE 1706 receives the user data carried in the transmission, which may be performed by a client application executed on the UE 1706 associated with the host application executed by the host 1702.

In some examples, the UE 1706 executes a client application which provides user data to the host 1702. The user data may be provided in reaction or response to the data received from the host 1702. Accordingly, in step 1716, the UE 1706 may provide user data, which may be performed by executing the client application. In providing the user data, the client application may further consider user input received from the user via an input/output interface of the UE 1706. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE 1706 initiates, in step 1718, transmission of the user data towards the host 1702 via the network node 1704. In step 1720, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, the network node 1704 receives user data from the UE 1706 and initiates transmission of the received user data towards the host 1702. In step 1722, the host 1702 receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the UE 1706.

One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE 1706 using the OTT connection 1750, in which the wireless connection 1770 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve the power consumption of the UE and thereby provide benefits such as extended UE battery lifetime without compromising mobility performance.

In an example scenario, factory status information may be collected and analyzed by the host 1702. As another example, the host 1702 may process audio and video data which may have been retrieved from a UE for use in creating maps. As another example, the host 1702 may collect and analyze real-time data to assist in controlling vehicle congestion (e.g., controlling traffic lights). As another example, the host 1702 may store surveillance video uploaded by a UE. As another example, the host 1702 may store or control access to media content such as video, audio, VR or AR which it can broadcast, multicast or unicast to UEs. As other examples, the host 1702 may be used for energy pricing, remote control of non-time critical electrical load to balance power generation needs, location services, presentation services (such as compiling diagrams etc. from data collected from remote devices), or any other function of collecting, retrieving, storing, analyzing and/or transmitting data.

In some examples, a measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve. There may further be an optional network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 1750 between the host 1702 and UE 1706, in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection may be implemented in software and hardware of the host 1702 and/or UE 1706. In some embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with other devices through which the OTT connection 1750 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which software may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of the OTT connection 1750 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not directly alter the operation of the network node 1704. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling that facilitates measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like, by the host 1702. The measurements may be implemented in that software causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection 1750 while monitoring propagation times, errors, etc.

Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes, hosts) may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination. Moreover, while components are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components. For example, a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and/or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface. In another example, non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device- readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and/or by end users and a wireless network generally.

Some example embodiments:

Group A Embodiments

1. A method performed by a user equipment, UE, that is configured with a first cell group and a second cell group for managing multicarrier, MC, operation in a network, the method comprising: determining the presence of a radio link problem on a first radio link procedure, RLP, that is associated with the second cell group, when the second cell group is in a deactivated state; and altering the performance of one or more RLPs based on the determination of the presence of the radio link problem. The method of embodiment 1, wherein the UE is configured to use Carrier Aggregation, CA, and the second cell group comprises at least one Secondary Cell, SCell. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein: the UE is configured to use Dual Connectivity, DC; one of the first cell group and second cell group is a Master Cell Group, MCG; and the other of the first cell group and second cell group is a Secondary Cell Group, SCG. The method of embodiment 3, wherein: the DC is Multi-Radio DC, MR-DC; the first cell group uses a first Radio Access Technology, RAT; and the second cell group uses a second RAT that is different to the first RAT. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the first RLP comprises one or more of: a Radio Link Monitoring, RLM, procedure; a Radio Link Recovery, RLR, procedure; a Beam Failure Detection, BFD, procedure; and a Beam Failure Recovery, BFR, procedure. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the presence of the radio link problem is determined based on out of sync, OOS, detections. The method of embodiment 6, wherein the radio link problem is determined to be present when: an OOS detection occurs; or N1 consecutive OOS detections occur, wherein N1 is a positive integer greater than 1; or

N2 OOS detections occur within a time period Ti l, wherein N2 is a positive integer greater than 1 and T11 is a time period in seconds. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the presence of a radio link problem is determined based on conditions related to Radio Link Failure, RLF. The method of embodiment 8, wherein the radio link problem is determined to be present when: a RLF timer is started; or a running RLF timer exceeds a threshold time value; or a RLF timer expires. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the presence of the radio link problem is determined based on beam failure determination. The method of embodiment 10, wherein beam failure is determined when: a beam failure is detected on one or more configured beams; or

N4 consecutive beam failures are detected on one or more configured beams, wherein N4 is a positive integer greater than 1; or

N5 beam failures are detected within a time period T13 on one or more configured beams, wherein N5 is a positive integer greater than 1 and T13 is a time period in seconds. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the presence of the radio link problem is determined based on a candidate beam detection problem. The method of embodiment 12, wherein the candidate beam detection problem is determined to be present when: no candidate beams are detected following the detection of a beam failure on one or more configured beams; or fewer than N6 candidate beams are detected following the detection of a beam failure on one or more configured beams, wherein N6 is a positive integer greater than 1; or fewer than N7 candidate beams are detected during a time period T14 following the detection of a beam failure on one or more configured beams, wherein N7 is a positive integer greater than 1 and T14 is a time period in seconds.

14. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the presence of the radio link problem is determined based on the triggering of a Qout event at the UE resulting from a measured radio link quality.

15. The method of embodiment 14, wherein the measured radio link quality is: a signal to noise ratio, SNR; or a signal to interference plus noise ratio, SINR; or a reference signal received quality, RSRQ; or a reference signal received power, RSRP.

16. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the presence of the radio link problem is determined based on Clear Channel Assessment, CCA, failure determination.

17. The method of embodiment 16, wherein CCA failure is determined when: a Downlink CCA, DL CCA, failure is detected in a serving cell; or

Hl consecutive DL CCA failures are detected in a serving cell, wherein Hl is a positive integer greater than 1 ; or

H2 DL CCA failures are detected in a serving cell within a time period T15, wherein H2 is a positive integer greater than 1 and T15 is a time period in seconds.

18. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the presence of the radio link problem is determined based on cell or connection change triggering.

19. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein cell or connection change triggering is determined to have occurred when: the UE autonomously changes or reconfigures a cell or connection; or a timer related to cell change procedures is started; or a timer related to cell change procedures expires.

20. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the presence of the radio link problem is determined based on a serving cell quality satisfying one or more criteria.

21. The method of embodiment 20, wherein: the serving cell quality is a received signal level, Sr, and the one or more criteria comprise that Sr falls below a received signal threshold; or the serving cell quality is a received signal level, Sr, and the one or more criteria comprise that Sr remains below a received signal threshold for at least a time period T18, where T18 is a time period in seconds; or the serving cell quality is a received signal level, Sr, and the one or more criteria comprise that Sr falls below a received signal threshold for at least a ratio or percentage of time over a time period T20, where T20 is a time period in seconds; or the serving cell quality is a received signal level, Sr, and the one or more criteria comprise that Sr drops below a certain percentage of an equivalent received signal level from a strongest serving cell; or the serving cell quality is a received signal level, Sr, and the one or more criteria comprise that Sr drops below a certain percentage of an equivalent received signal level from a strongest serving cell, and remains below the certain percentage for at least a time period T21, where T21 is a time period in seconds; or the serving cell quality is reception of a control channel, and the one or more criteria comprise that the serving cell fails to receive the control channel; or the serving cell quality is reception of a control channel, and the one or more criteria comprise that the serving cell fails to receive the control channel for at least a time period T22, where T22 is a time period in seconds.

22. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the altering of the performance of one or more RLPs comprises stopping performing one or more RLPs.

23. The method of embodiment 22, wherein the RLPs the UE stops performing comprise the first RLP and/or a second RLP for which no radio link problem presence has been determined. 24. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the altering of the performance of one or more RLPs comprises partially or selectively stopping performing one or more RLPs, and/or discarding at least one active state for one or more channel receptions.

25. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the altering of the performance of one or more RLPs comprises adapting the configuration of one or more RLPs, and performing the reconfigured RLPs.

26. The method of embodiment 25, wherein the reconfigured RLPs comprise the first RLP and/or a third RLP that was previously not being performed.

27. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the altering of the performance of one or more RLPs comprises performing one or more RLPs on a serving cell not associated with the radio link problem.

28. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the altering of the performance of one or more RLPs comprises not performing one or more RLPs that, but for the determination that a radio link problem is present, would have been performed.

29. The method of any of embodiments 22 to 26, wherein the altering of the performance of one or more RLPs further comprises resuming performing the RLPs when one or more resumption criteria are satisfied.

30. The method of embodiment 29, wherein the resumption criteria are based on information about new active states for one or more channel receptions being received by the UE, and/or on certain durations expiring.

31. The method of any preceding embodiment, wherein the altering of the performance of one or more RLPs comprises reestablishing a connection between the UE and the network.

32. The method of any preceding embodiment, further comprising: transmitting first information about the radio link problem to one or more network nodes, and/or transmitting second information about operational tasks the UE has performed or intends to perform to one or more network nodes. 33. The method of embodiment 32, wherein the one or more network nodes comprise a Master Node, MN, and/or a Secondary Node, SN.

34. The method of any of embodiments 32 and 33, further comprising: receiving updated configuration information from the one or more network nodes.

35. The method of any of the previous embodiments, further comprising: providing user data; and forwarding the user data to a host via the transmission to the network.

Group B Embodiments

36. A method performed by a network node for managing multicarrier, MC, operation in a network, the method comprising: receiving first information about a radio link problem from a user equipment, UE, and/or receiving second information about operational tasks the UE has performed or intends to perform from the UE.

37. The method of embodiment 36, further comprising transmitting, to the UE, updated configuration information.

38. The method of any of embodiments 36 and 37, further comprising: configuring one or more new serving cells for the UE, and/or deconfiguring or reconfiguring one or more existing serving cells for the UE.

39. The method of any of embodiments 36 to 38 further comprising transmitting, to the UE, an indication that a second cell group serving the UE is to enter a deactivated state.

40. The method of any of embodiments 36 to 39, wherein the network node is a Master Node, MN, or wherein the network node is a Secondary Node, SN.

41. The method of any of embodiments 36 to 40, further comprising: obtaining user data; and forwarding the user data to a host or a user equipment.

Group C Embodiments

42. A user equipment, UE, that is configured with a first cell group and a second cell group for managing multicarrier, MC, operation in a network, comprising: processing circuitry configured to cause the user equipment to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments; and power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the processing circuitry.

43. A network node for managing multicarrier, MC, operation in a network, the network node comprising: processing circuitry configured to cause the network node to perform any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments; power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the processing circuitry.

44. A user equipment, UE, that is configured with a first cell group and a second cell group for managing multicarrier, MC, operation in a network, the UE comprising: an antenna configured to send and receive wireless signals; radio front-end circuitry connected to the antenna and to processing circuitry, and configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna and the processing circuitry; the processing circuitry being configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments; an input interface connected to the processing circuitry and configured to allow input of information into the UE to be processed by the processing circuitry; an output interface connected to the processing circuitry and configured to output information from the UE that has been processed by the processing circuitry; and a battery connected to the processing circuitry and configured to supply power to the UE.

45. A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data to a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE), wherein the UE comprises a communication interface and processing circuitry, the communication interface and processing circuitry of the UE being configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments to receive the user data from the host.

46. The host of the previous embodiment, wherein the cellular network further includes a network node configured to communicate with the UE to transmit the user data to the UE from the host.

47. The host of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data; and the host application is configured to interact with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.

48. A method implemented by a host operating in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: providing user data for the UE; and initiating a transmission carrying the user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the network node, wherein the UE performs any of the operations of any of the Group A embodiments to receive the user data from the host.

49. The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising: at the host, executing a host application associated with a client application executing on the UE to receive the user data from the UE.

50. The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising: at the host, transmitting input data to the client application executing on the UE, the input data being provided by executing the host application, wherein the user data is provided by the client application in response to the input data from the host application.

51. A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data to a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE), wherein the UE comprises a communication interface and processing circuitry, the communication interface and processing circuitry of the UE being configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments to transmit the user data to the host.

52. The host of the previous embodiment, wherein the cellular network further includes a network node configured to communicate with the UE to transmit the user data from the UE to the host.

53. The host of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data; and the host application is configured to interact with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.

54. A method implemented by a host configured to operate in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: at the host, receiving user data transmitted to the host via the network node by the UE, wherein the UE performs any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments to transmit the user data to the host.

55. The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising: at the host, executing a host application associated with a client application executing on the UE to receive the user data from the UE.

56. The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising: at the host, transmitting input data to the client application executing on the UE, the input data being provided by executing the host application, wherein the user data is provided by the client application in response to the input data from the host application. 57. A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data to a network node in a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE), the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform any of the operations of any of the Group B embodiments to transmit the user data from the host to the UE.

58. The host of the previous embodiment, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application that provides the user data; and the UE comprises processing circuitry configured to execute a client application associated with the host application to receive the transmission of user data from the host.

59. A method implemented in a host configured to operate in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: providing user data for the UE; and initiating a transmission carrying the user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the network node, wherein the network node performs any of the operations of any of the Group B embodiments to transmit the user data from the host to the UE.

60. The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising, at the network node, transmitting the user data provided by the host for the UE.

61. The method of any of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein the user data is provided at the host by executing a host application that interacts with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.

62. A communication system configured to provide an over-the-top service, the communication system comprising: a host comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data for a user equipment (UE), the user data being associated with the over-the-top service; and a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data toward a cellular network node for transmission to the UE, the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform any of the operations of any of the Group B embodiments to transmit the user data from the host to the UE.

63. The communication system of the previous embodiment, further comprising: the network node; and/or the user equipment.

64. A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising: processing circuitry configured to initiate receipt of user data; and a network interface configured to receive the user data from a network node in a cellular network, the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform any of the operations of any of the Group B embodiments to receive the user data from a user equipment (UE) for the host.

65. The host of the previous embodiment, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data; and the host application is configured to interact with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.

66. The host of the any of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein the initiating receipt of the user data comprises requesting the user data.

67. A method implemented by a host configured to operate in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: at the host, initiating receipt of user data from the UE, the user data originating from a transmission which the network node has received from the UE, wherein the network node performs any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments to receive the user data from the UE for the host.

68. The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising at the network node, transmitting the received user data to the host.

At least some of the following abbreviations may be used in this disclosure. If there is an inconsistency between abbreviations, preference should be given to how it is used above. If listed multiple times below, the first listing should be preferred over any subsequent listing(s).

UE User Equipment (Wireless device in 3GPP systems)

NR New Radio

LTE Long Term Evolution gNB Base station in NR eNB Base station in LTE

RRC Radio Resource Control

PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol

RLC Radio Link Control

MAC Medium Access Control

RAN Radio Access Network

SIB System Information Block

DRX Discontinuous Reception

SSB Synchronization Signal Block

MuC Multi-Carrier operation

CA Carrier Aggregation

DC Dual Connectivity

CC Component carrier

PCC Primary CC

SCC Secondary CC

PSCC Primary Secondary CC

CG Cell Group

MCG Master CG

SCG Secondary CG

RAT Radio Access Technology CE Control Element

SCell Secondary Cell

PCell Primary Cell

PSCell Primary Secondary Cell

PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel

PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel

PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel

PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel

NPDSCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel NPUSCH Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared Channel NPDCCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel NPUCCH Narrowband Physical Uplink Control Channel NPBCH Narrowband Physical Broadcast Channel sPDSCH Short Physical Downlink Shared Channel sPUSCH Short Physical Uplink Shared Channel sPDCCH Short Physical Downlink Control Channel sPUCCH Short Physical Uplink Control Channel

TTI Transmission Time Intevall

SFN System Frame Number

PRS Positioning Reference Signal

CSI-RS Channel Status Information - Reference Signal

AGC Automatic Gain Control

MTTD maximum transmission timing difference

TAG Timing Advance Group

TA Timing Advance

BM Beam Management

IBM independent beam management

CBM Common beam management

CP Cyclic Prefix

SCS Sub-Carrier Spacing

BW Bandwidth

BWP Bandwidth Part

FDD Frequency Division Duplexing TDD Time Division Duplexing

HD Half-Duplex

FD Full-Duplex

SQ Signal Quality

SNR Signal to Noise Ratio

CBD Cndidate Beam Detection

BFD Beam Failure Detection

LR Link Recovery

RLF Radio Link Failure

RLP Radio Link Procedure

00 S Out of Sync

CCA Clear Channel Assessment

RA Random Access

SON Self-Organizing Network

SMTC SS/PBCH Block Measurement Timing Configuration

CGI Cell Global Identifier

SINR Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio

LI Layer 1

MDT Minimization of Driving Tests

PCI Physical Cell Identifier

SI System Information

RX Receive

TX Transmit

RC Reference Cell

RCG Reference Cell Group

RS Reference Signal

BS Base Station

MSR Multi -Standard Radio

MeNB/MgNB Master eNB/gNB

SeNB/SgNB Secondary eNB/gNB

BSC Base Station Controller

IAB Integrated Access and Backhaul

BTS Base Transceiver Station

AP Access Point DAS Distributed Antenna System

MME Mobility Management Entity

O&M Operation and Maintenance

OSS Operations support systems

E-SMLC Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centre

D2D Device to Device

DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal

UCI Uplink Control Information

HARQ Hybrid Automatic Request

ACK Acknowledgement

NACK Negative ACK

RSRP Reference Signal Received Power

RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality

L2 Layer 2

L3 Layer 3

UL Uplink

DL Downlink

DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal

PSS Primary Synchronization Signal

SSS Secondary Synchronization Signal lx RTT CDMA2000 lx Radio Transmission Technology

3 GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project

5G 5th Generation

6G 6th Generation

ABS Almost Blank Subframe

ARQ Automatic Repeat Request

AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise

BCCH Broadcast Control Channel

BCH Broadcast Channel

CA Carrier Aggregation

CC Carrier Component

CCCH SDU Common Control Channel SDU

CDMA Code Division Multiplexing Access CGI Cell Global Identifier

CIR Channel Impulse Response

CP Cyclic Prefix

CPICH Common Pilot Channel

CPICH Ec/No CPICH Received energy per chip divided by the power density in the band

CQI Channel Quality information

C-RNTI Cell RNTI

CSI Channel State Information

DCCH Dedicated Control Channel

DL Downlink

DM Demodulation

DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal

DRX Discontinuous Reception

DTX Discontinuous Transmission

DTCH Dedicated Traffic Channel

DUT Device Under Test

E-CID Enhanced Cell-ID (positioning method) eMBMS evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services

E-SMLC Evolved-Serving Mobile Location Centre

ECGI Evolved CGI eNB E-UTRAN NodeB ePDCCH Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel

E-SMLC Evolved Serving Mobile Location Center

E-UTRA Evolved UTRA

E-UTRAN Evolved UTRAN

FDD Frequency Division Duplex

FFS For Further Study gNB Base station in NR

GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System

HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

HO Handover

HSPA High Speed Packet Access

HRPD High Rate Packet Data

LOS Line of Sight LPP LTE Positioning Protocol

LTE Long-Term Evolution

MAC Medium Access Control

MAC Message Authentication Code

MBSFN Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency Network

MBSFN ABS MBSFN Almost Blank Subframe

MDT Minimization of Drive Tests

MIB Master Information Block

MME Mobility Management Entity

MSC Mobile Switching Center

NPDCCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel

NR New Radio

OCNG OFDMA Channel Noise Generator

OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access

OSS Operations Support System

OTDOA Observed Time Difference of Arrival

O&M Operation and Maintenance

PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel

P-CCPCH Primary Common Control Physical Channel

PCell Primary Cell

PCFICH Physical Control Format Indicator Channel

PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel

PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol

PDP Profile Delay Profile

PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel

PGW Packet Gateway

PHICH Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel

PLMN Public Land Mobile Network

PMI Precoder Matrix Indicator

PRACH Physical Random Access Channel

PRS Positioning Reference Signal

PSS Primary Synchronization Signal

PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel

RACH Random Access Channel

QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

RAN Radio Access Network

RAT Radio Access Technology

RLC Radio Link Control

RLM Radio Link Management

RNC Radio Network Controller

RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier

RRC Radio Resource Control

RRM Radio Resource Management

RS Reference Signal

RSCP Received Signal Code Power

RSRP Reference Symbol Received Power OR Reference Signal Received Power

RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality OR Reference Symbol Received Quality

RS SI Received Signal Strength Indicator

RSTD Reference Signal Time Difference

SCH Synchronization Channel

SCell Secondary Cell

SDAP Service Data Adaptation Protocol

SDU Service Data Unit

SFN System Frame Number

SI System Information

SIB System Information Block

SNR Signal to Noise Ratio

SON Self Optimized Network

SS Synchronization Signal

SSS Secondary Synchronization Signal

TDD Time Division Duplex

TDOA Time Difference of Arrival

TOA Time of Arrival

TSS Tertiary Synchronization Signal

TTI Transmission Time Interval

UE User Equipment UL Uplink

USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module

WCDMA Wide CDMA

WLAN Wide Local Area Network

Claims

1. A method performed by a user equipment, UE, that is configured with a first cell group and a second cell group for managing multicarrier, MC, operation in a network, the method comprising: determining (702) the presence of a radio link problem on a first radio link procedure, RLP, that is associated with the second cell group, when the second cell group is in a deactivated state; and altering (704) the performance of one or more RLPs based on the determination of the presence of the radio link problem.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein: the UE is configured to use Dual Connectivity, DC; one of the first cell group and second cell group is a Master Cell Group, MCG; and the other of the first cell group and second cell group is a Secondary Cell Group, SCG.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein: the DC is Multi-Radio DC, MR-DC; the first cell group uses a first Radio Access Technology, RAT; and the second cell group uses a second RAT that is different to the first RAT.

4. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the presence of the radio link problem is determined based on beam failure determination.

5. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the presence of the radio link problem is determined based on the triggering of a Qout event at the UE resulting from a measured radio link quality.

6. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the altering of the performance of one or more RLPs comprises stopping performing one or more RLPs.

7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the altering of the performance of one or more RLPs comprises not performing one or more RLPs that, but for the determination that a radio link problem is present, would have been performed. The method of any of claims 6 or 7, wherein the altering of the performance of one or more RLPs further comprises resuming performing the RLPs when one or more resumption criteria are satisfied. The method of claim 8, wherein the resumption criteria are based on information about new active states for one or more channel receptions being received by the UE, and/or on certain durations expiring. The method of any one of claims 1 to 9, further comprising: transmitting (1050) first information about the radio link problem to one or more network nodes, and/or transmitting second information about operational tasks the UE has performed or intends to perform to one or more network nodes. The method of claim 10, further comprising: receiving (1060) updated configuration information from the one or more network nodes. A user equipment, UE, (701) for managing multicarrier, MC, operation in a network with a first cell group and a second cell group, the UE comprising a processor and a memory, said memory containing instructions executable by said processor whereby said UE is operative to: determine (702) the presence of a radio link problem on a first radio link procedure, REP, that is associated with the second cell group, when the second cell group is in a deactivated state; and alter (704) the performance of one or more RLPs based on the determination of the presence of the radio link problem. The UE of claim 12, wherein: the UE is configured to use Dual Connectivity, DC; one of the first cell group and second cell group is a Master Cell Group, MCG; and the other of the first cell group and second cell group is a Secondary Cell Group, SCG.

14. The UE of claim 13, wherein: the DC is Multi-Radio DC, MR-DC; the first cell group uses a first Radio Access Technology, RAT; and the second cell group uses a second RAT that is different to the first RAT.

15. The UE of any one of claims 12 to 14, wherein the presence of the radio link problem is determined based on beam failure determination.

16. The UE of any one of claims 12 to 14, wherein the presence of the radio link problem is determined based on the triggering of a Qout event at the UE resulting from a measured radio link quality.

17. The UE of any one of claims 12 to 16, wherein the UE is operative to alter the performance of one or more RLPs by stopping performing one or more RLPs.

18. The UE of any one of claims 12 to 17, wherein the UE is operative to alter the performance of one or more RLPs by not performing one or more RLPs that, but for the determination that a radio link problem is present, would have been performed.

19. The UE of any of claims 17 or 18, wherein the UE is operative to alter the performance of one or more RLPs further by resuming performing the RLPs when one or more resumption criteria are satisfied. 0. The UE of claim 19, wherein the resumption criteria are based on information about new active states for one or more channel receptions being received by the UE, and/or on certain durations expiring. 1. The UE of any one of claims 12 to 20, wherein the UE is further operative to: transmit (1050) first information about the radio link problem to one or more network nodes, and/or transmit second information about operational tasks the UE has performed or intends to perform to one or more network nodes. The UE of claim 21, wherein the UE is further operative to: receive (1060) updated configuration information from the one or more network nodes. A user equipment (701) for managing multicarrier, MC, operation in a network with a first cell group and a second cell group, wherein the UE is adapted to: determine (702) the presence of a radio link problem on a first radio link procedure, RLP, that is associated with the second cell group, when the second cell group is in a deactivated state; and alter (704) the performance of one or more RLPs based on the determination of the presence of the radio link problem. The UE as claimed in claim 23 wherein the UE is further adapted to perform the method as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 11.