WO2024074081A1

WO2024074081A1 - Method and apparatus of supporting beam reporting

Info

Publication number: WO2024074081A1
Application number: PCT/CN2023/112463
Authority: WO
Inventors: Wei Ling; Chenxi Zhu; Bingchao LIU; Lingling Xiao
Original assignee: Lenovo (Beijing) Limited
Priority date: 2023-08-11
Filing date: 2023-08-11
Publication date: 2024-04-11

Abstract

Various aspects of the present disclosure relate to a method and apparatus of supporting beam reporting. An exemplary UE includes: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to: receive DMRSs of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state of one or more indicated joint or DL TCI states, wherein each indicated joint or DL TCI state is a joint or DL TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance; and determine whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered based on a difference value between two QoS metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS OF SUPPORTING BEAM REPORTING

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to technique of supporting beam reporting.

BACKGROUND

A wireless communications system may include one or multiple network communication devices, such as base stations, which may support wireless communications for one or multiple user communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE) , or other suitable terminology. The wireless communications system may support wireless communications with one or multiple user communication devices by utilizing resources of the wireless communication system (e.g., time resources (e.g., symbols, slots, subframes, frames, or the like) or frequency resources (e.g., subcarriers, carriers, or the like) . Additionally, the wireless communications system may support wireless communications across various radio access technologies including third generation (3G) radio access technology, fourth generation (4G) radio access technology, fifth generation (5G) radio access technology, among other suitable radio access technologies beyond 5G (e.g., sixth generation (6G) ) .

SUMMARY

An article “a” before an element is unrestricted and understood to refer to “at least one” of those elements or “one or more” of those elements. The terms “a, ” “at least one, ” “one or more, ” and “at least one of one or more” may be interchangeable. As used herein, including in the claims, “or” as used in a list of items (e.g., a list of items prefaced by a phrase such as “at least one of” or “one or more of” or “one or both of” ) indicates an inclusive list such that, for example, a list of at least one of A, B, or C means A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., A and B and C) . Also, as used herein, the phrase “based on” shall not be construed as a reference to a closed set of conditions. For example, an example step that is described as “based on condition A” may be based on both a condition A and a condition B without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In other words, as used herein, the phrase “based on” shall be construed in the same manner as the phrase “based at least in part on. Further, as used herein, including in the claims, a “set” may include one or more elements.

Some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein may further include a UE for wireless communication, which includes: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to: receive demodulation reference signals (DMRSs) of downlink (DL) transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL transmission configuration indication (TCI) state of one or more indicated joint or DL TCI states, wherein each indicated joint or DL TCI state is a joint or DL TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance; and determine whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered based on a difference value between two quality of service (QoS) metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to: determine groups of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state based on a plurality of windows, wherein, each group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state includes at least N, N>=1, DL transmissions in a corresponding window, a first one of the plurality of windows starts from a first symbol of a first slot where the one indicated joint or DL TCI state starts to be applicable, and there is a gap between starts of adjacent windows.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, N, a duration of the window, and the gap are configured by radio resource control (RRC) or are predefined.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, the gap is equal to ceil (a duration of the window/2) , or floor (a duration of the window/2) , or a time duration of the window.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, in the case that the one indicated joint or DL TCI state is replaced by another indicated joint or DL TCI state, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to: stop determination of groups of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state; and start determination of groups of DL transmissions associated with the other indicated joint or DL TCI state based on re-determined plurality of windows, wherein, a first one of the re-determined plurality of windows starts from a first symbol of a first slot where the other indicated joint or DL TCI state starts to be applicable.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to: determine groups of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state based on a plurality of consecutive DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state, wherein each group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state includes N, N>=1, consecutive DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state, a first DL transmission of the plurality of consecutive DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state is an earliest DL transmission after the one indicated joint or DL TCI state starts to be applicable, and there is a gap of N_offset, N_offset >=1 DL transmissions between starts of adjacent groups of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, a duration from a first symbol of a first DL transmission to a last symbol of a last DL transmission in each group of DL transmissions is equal to or less than a duration threshold, or a gap between a last symbol of a first DL transmission of two consecutive DL transmissions in each group of DL transmissions and a first symbol of a second DL transmission of the two consecutive DL transmissions is not larger than a gap threshold.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, N and N_offset are configured by RRC or are predefined.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, N_offset is equal to ceil (N/2) , or floor (N/2) or N.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, the duration threshold and the gap threshold are configured by RRC or are predefined.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, in the case that the one indicated joint or DL TCI state is replaced by another indicated joint or DL TCI state, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to: stop determination of groups of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state; and start determination of groups of DL transmissions associated with the other indicated joint or DL TCI state based on a plurality of consecutive DL transmissions associated with the other indicated joint or DL TCI state, wherein a first DL transmission of the plurality of consecutive DL transmissions associated with the other indicated joint or DL TCI state is an earliest DL transmission after the other indicated joint or DL TCI state starts to be applicable.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, the group of DL transmissions is a group of physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) , a group of physical downlink shared channels (PDSCHs) , or a group of PDCCHs and PDSCHs.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, a PDCCH in a group of DL transmissions is a PDCCH associated with UE-specific search space (USS) or Type3-PDCCH common search space (CSS) , and a PDSCH in a group of DL transmissions is a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH or a downlink grant (DG) PDSCH.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, in the case that a DL transmission in a group of DL transmissions is a PDCCH, a QoS metric of DMRS of the DL transmission is a QoS metric of DMRS of a PDCCH; and in the case that a DL transmission in a group of DL transmissions is a PDSCH, a QoS metric of DMRS of the DL transmission is a QoS metric of DMRS of a PDSCH in DMRS ports, and the QoS metric of DMRS of a PDSCH in DMRS ports is a linear average of QoS metric of DMRS of the PDSCH in each DMRS port.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, a QoS metric of DMRS of a DL transmission is a reference signal receiving power (RSRP) of DMRS of a DL transmission, wherein, a RSRP of DMRS of a PDCCH is a linear average over power contributions of resource elements of an antenna port that carries DMRS of the PDCCH, a RSRP of DMRS of a PDSCH in DMRS ports is a linear average of RSRP of DMRS of the PDSCH in each DMRS port, and the RSRP of DMRS of a PDSCH in each DMRS port is a linear average over power contributions of resource elements of an antenna port that carries the DMRS port of the PDSCH.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, the difference value between the two QoS metrics is calculated by an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a first group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state minus an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a second group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state, wherein the second group of DL transmissions is after the first group of DL transmissions.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, there is only one indicated joint or DL TCI state, and the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to: determine that an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered in the case that the difference value is larger than or equal to a quality threshold.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, there are two indicated joint or DL TCI states, and the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to: in the case that the difference value is larger than or equal to a quality threshold and one UE initiated beam report is configured, determine that an event associated with the one UE initiated beam report is triggered; or in the case that the difference value is larger than or equal to a quality threshold and two UE initiated beam reports are configured, wherein each UE initiated beam report is associated with a corresponding indicated joint or DL TCI state, determine that an event associated with the corresponding UE initiated beam report associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state is triggered.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to: receive dedicated scheduling request (SR) configuration indicating a dedicated SR resource for transmitting an indication of event associated with UE initiated beam report being triggered; and transmit an indication of event associated with UE initiated beam report being triggered in the dedicated SR resource.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to: receive uplink grant DL control information (DCI) to trigger transmission of the UE initiated beam report associated with the dedicated SR request resource; and transmit the UE initiated beam report in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) , wherein, the UE initiated beam report is an aperiodic channel state information (CSI) report associated with the dedicated SR resource.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to: transmit a UE initiated beam report associated with the triggered event in a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) in a PUSCH, wherein, the UE initiated beam report is a CSI report configured with a type different from ‘periodic’ , ‘semi-persistent’ and ‘aperiodic. ’

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to: transmit a UE initiated beam report associated with the triggered event in an MAC CE in a PUSCH, wherein, the UE initiated beam report is based on measurements of a set of periodic DL RSs.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, the set of periodic DL RSs is a candidate resource set of candidate resource sets configured for beam failure recovery.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, a number of RSs in the set of periodic DL RSs and/or whether QoS metric associated with the UE initiated beam report will be reported is configured by RRC or predefined.

In some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, the quality threshold is configured by RRC or predefined.

Some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein may further include a processor for wireless communication, which includes: at least one controller coupled with at least one memory and configured to cause the processor to: receive DMRSs of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state of one or more indicated joint or DL TCI states, wherein each indicated joint or DL TCI state is a joint or DL TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance; and determine whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered based on a difference value between two QoS metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state.

Some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein may further include a network equipment (NE) for wireless communication, which includes: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the NE to transmit DMRSs of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state of one or more indicated joint or DL TCI states, wherein each indicated joint or DL TCI state is a joint or DL TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance, so that whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered will be determined based on a difference value between two QoS metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state; and receive a UE initiated beam report in a PUSCH in the case that the event associated with the UE initiated beam report is triggered.

Some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein may further include a method performed by a UE, including: receiving DMRSs of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state of one or more indicated joint or DL TCI states, wherein each indicated joint or DL TCI state is a joint or DL TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance; and determining whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered based on a difference value between two QoS metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 illustrates an example of a wireless communications system in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Figure 2 is an example of determination of windows under scheme 1-1 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Figure 3 is an example of determination of groups of DL transmissions under scheme 1-2 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Figure 4 is an example of determination of whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report will be triggered under Scheme 1-1 in S-TRP scenarios in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Figure 5 is an example of determination of whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report will be triggered under Scheme 1-2 in S-TRP scenarios in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Figure 6 illustrates an example of a UE in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Figure 7 illustrates an example of a processor in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Figure 8 illustrates an example of a NE in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Figure 9 illustrate a flowchart of method performed by a UE in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Figure 10 illustrate a flowchart of method performed by a NE in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Beam management is an important topic in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) for new radio (NR) . A "beam" can be represented by or be associated with spatial relation information, TCI state, or RS etc. A legacy beam report is a CSI report configured by the network side, e.g., by a gNB which can be periodic, semi-persistent or aperiodic, wherein, RSI (s) , e.g., CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) (s) or SSB resource indicator (SSBRI) with corresponding layer 1 (L1) -RSRP or L1-signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) can be reported. For a periodic beam report, it is carried by a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource. For a semi-persistent or aperiodic beam report, it is carried by a PUCCH resource or a PUSCH (or PUSCH resource) , which is configured by RRC. For an aperiodic beam report, it is carried by a PUSCH. The details of L1-RSRP report and L1-SINR report have been drafted in 3GPP TS38.214.

Considering further enhancements on MIMO, UE initiated beam reporting is desired by the industry to reduce the overhead and latency of beam management. However, no details of UE initiated beam reporting have been discussed yet, e.g., how to determine whether an event (or conditions or the like) associated a UE initiated beam report is triggered (or is satisfied) , how to indicate the network side that the event associated a UE initiated beam report has been triggered, and how to transmit the UE initiated beam report associated with the triggered event to the network side etc.

At least considering the above issues, aspects of the present disclosure propose a technical solution of supporting beam reporting, e.g., methods and apparatuses of supporting beam reporting.

For example, regarding how to determine whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered, some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein propose: receiving, e.g., by a UE from a NE, DMRSs of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state of one or more indicated joint or DL TCI states, wherein each indicated joint or DL TCI state is a joint or DL TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance; and determining, e.g., by the UE in the remote side or by the UE in the network side, whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered based on a difference value between two QoS metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state.

Some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein also propose transmitting the UE initiated beam report in a PUSCH by the UE to the NE in the case that the event associated with the UE initiated beam report is triggered.

Regarding how to indicate the NE that an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered and report the associated UE initiated beam report, there are various implementations. For example, in some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, a SR resource, e.g., a PUCCH resource in a dedicated SR configuration is used to send an indication of event associated with UE initiated beam report being triggered, and the associated UE initiated beam report is transmitted by a PUSCH which is triggered by DCI in a PDCCH. In some other implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, a normal (non-dedicated) SR resource in a normal SR configuration is used to send the indication of event associated with UE initiated beam report being triggered, and the related UE initiated beam report is transmitted in a MAC CE.

Regarding the content and related configuration of the UE initiated beam report, there are also various implementations. For example, in some implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, the UE initiated beam report is an aperiodic CSI report associated with the dedicated SR resource. In some other implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, the UE initiated beam report is a CSI report configured with a type different from ‘periodic’ , ‘semi-persistent’ and ‘aperiodic. ’ In some yet other implementations of the methods and apparatuses described herein, the UE initiated beam report is based on measurements of a set of periodic DL RSs, e.g., based on a candidate resource set of candidate resource sets configured for beam failure recovery.

It can be seen, the technical solution of supporting beam reporting disclosed in the present disclosure solve key technical problems on how to support UE initiated beam reporting, and accordingly will facilitate the implementations of UE initiated beam reporting and further enhance MIMO in NR.

Aspects of the present disclosure are described in the context of a wireless communications system.

Figure 1 illustrates an example of a wireless communication system 100 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The wireless communication system 100 may include one or more NE 102, one or more UE 104, and a CN 106. The wireless communication system 100 may support various radio access technologies. In some implementations, the wireless communication system 100 may be a 4G network, such as an LTE network or an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network. In some other implementations, the wireless communication system 100 may be a NR network, such as a 5G network, a 5G-Advanced (5G-A) network, or a 5G ultrawideband (5G-UWB) network. In other implementations, the wireless communication system 100 may be a combination of a 4G network and a 5G network, or other suitable radio access technology including Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 (Wi-Fi) , IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) , IEEE 802.20. The wireless communication system 100 may support radio access technologies beyond 5G, for example, 6G. Additionally, the wireless communication system 100 may support technologies, such as time division multiple access (TDMA) , frequency division multiple access (FDMA) , or code division multiple access (CDMA) , etc.

The one or more NE 102 may be dispersed throughout a geographic region to form the wireless communication system 100. One or more of the NE 102 described herein may be or include or may be referred to as a network node, a base station, a network element, a network function, a network entity, a RAN, a RAN node, a NodeB, an eNodeB (eNB) , a next-generation NodeB (gNB) , or other suitable terminology. An NE 102 and a UE 104 may communicate via a communication link, which may be a wireless or wired connection. For example, an NE 102 and a UE 104 may perform wireless communication (e.g., receive signaling, transmit signaling) over a Uu interface.

An NE 102 may provide a geographic coverage area for which the NE 102 may support services for one or more UEs 104 within the geographic coverage area. For example, an NE 102 and a UE 104 may support wireless communication of signals related to services (e.g., voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. ) according to one or multiple radio access technologies. In some implementations, an NE 102 may be moveable, for example, a satellite associated with a non-terrestrial network (NTN) . In some implementations, different geographic coverage areas 112 associated with the same or different radio access technologies may overlap, but the different geographic coverage areas 112 may be associated with different NE 102.

The one or more UE 104 may be dispersed throughout a geographic region of the wireless communication system 100. A UE 104 may include or may be referred to as a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a remote device, a subscriber device, a transmitter device, a receiver device, or some other suitable terminology. In some implementations, the UE 104 may be referred to as a unit, a station, a terminal, or a client, among other examples. Additionally, or alternatively, the UE 104 may be referred to as an Internet-of-Things (IoT) device, an Internet-of-Everything (IoE) device, or machine-type communication (MTC) device, among other examples.

A UE 104 may be able to support wireless communication directly with other UEs 104 over a communication link. For example, a UE 104 may support wireless communication directly with another UE 104 over a device-to-device (D2D) communication link. In some implementations, such as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) deployments, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) deployments, or cellular-V2X deployments, the communication link 114 may be referred to as a sidelink. For example, a UE 104 may support wireless communication directly with another UE 104 over a PC5 interface.

An NE 102 may support communications with the CN 106, or with another NE 102, or both. For example, an NE 102 may interface with other NE 102 or the CN 106 through one or more backhaul links (e.g., S1, N2, N2, or network interface) . In some implementations, the NE 102 may communicate with each other directly. In some other implementations, the NE 102 may communicate with each other or indirectly (e.g., via the CN 106. In some implementations, one or more NE 102 may include subcomponents, such as an access network entity, which may be an example of an access node controller (ANC) . An ANC may communicate with the one or more UEs 104 through one or more other access network transmission entities, which may be referred to as a radio heads, smart radio heads, or TRPs.

The CN 106 may support user authentication, access authorization, tracking, connectivity, and other access, routing, or mobility functions. The CN 106 may be an evolved packet core (EPC) , or a 5G core (5GC) , which may include a control plane entity that manages access and mobility (e.g., a mobility management entity (MME) , an access and mobility management functions (AMF) ) and a user plane entity that routes packets or interconnects to external networks (e.g., a serving gateway (S-GW) , a Packet Data Network (PDN) gateway (P-GW) , or a user plane function (UPF) ) . In some implementations, the control plane entity may manage non-access stratum (NAS) functions, such as mobility, authentication, and bearer management (e.g., data bearers, signal bearers, etc. ) for the one or more UEs 104 served by the one or more NE 102 associated with the CN 106.

The CN 106 may communicate with a packet data network over one or more backhaul links (e.g., via an S1, N2, N2, or another network interface) . The packet data network may include an application server. In some implementations, one or more UEs 104 may communicate with the application server. A UE 104 may establish a session (e.g., a protocol data unit (PDU) session, or the like) with the CN 106 via an NE 102. The CN 106 may route traffic (e.g., control information, data, and the like) between the UE 104 and the application server using the established session (e.g., the established PDU session) . The PDU session may be an example of a logical connection between the UE 104 and the CN 106 (e.g., one or more network functions of the CN 106) .

In the wireless communication system 100, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may use resources of the wireless communication system 100 (e.g., time resources (e.g., symbols, slots, subframes, frames, or the like) or frequency resources (e.g., subcarriers, carriers) ) to perform various operations (e.g., wireless communications) . In some implementations, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may support different resource structures. For example, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may support different frame structures. In some implementations, such as in 4G, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may support a single frame structure. In some other implementations, such as in 5G and among other suitable radio access technologies, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may support various frame structures (i.e., multiple frame structures) . The NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may support various frame structures based on one or more numerologies.

One or more numerologies may be supported in the wireless communication system 100, and a numerology may include a subcarrier spacing and a cyclic prefix. A first numerology (e.g., μ=0) may be associated with a first subcarrier spacing (e.g., 15 kHz) and a normal cyclic prefix. In some implementations, the first numerology (e.g., μ=0) associated with the first subcarrier spacing (e.g., 15 kHz) may utilize one slot per subframe. A second numerology (e.g., μ=1) may be associated with a second subcarrier spacing (e.g., 30 kHz) and a normal cyclic prefix. A third numerology (e.g., μ=2) may be associated with a third subcarrier spacing (e.g., 60 kHz) and a normal cyclic prefix or an extended cyclic prefix. A fourth numerology (e.g., μ=3) may be associated with a fourth subcarrier spacing (e.g., 120 kHz) and a normal cyclic prefix. A fifth numerology (e.g., μ=4) may be associated with a fifth subcarrier spacing (e.g., 240 kHz) and a normal cyclic prefix.

A time interval of a resource (e.g., a communication resource) may be organized according to frames (also referred to as radio frames) . Each frame may have a duration, for example, a 10 millisecond (ms) duration. In some implementations, each frame may include multiple subframes. For example, each frame may include 10 subframes, and each subframe may have a duration, for example, a 1 ms duration. In some implementations, each frame may have the same duration. In some implementations, each subframe of a frame may have the same duration.

Additionally or alternatively, a time interval of a resource (e.g., a communication resource) may be organized according to slots. For example, a subframe may include a number (e.g., quantity) of slots. The number of slots in each subframe may also depend on the one or more numerologies supported in the wireless communication system 100. For instance, the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth numerologies (i.e., μ=0, μ=1, μ=2, μ=3, μ=4) associated with respective subcarrier spacings of 15 kHz, 30 kHz, 60 kHz, 120 kHz, and 240 kHz may utilize a single slot per subframe, two slots per subframe, four slots per subframe, eight slots per subframe, and 16 slots per subframe, respectively. Each slot may include a number (e.g., quantity) of symbols (e.g., OFDM symbols) . In some implementations, the number (e.g., quantity) of slots for a subframe may depend on a numerology. For a normal cyclic prefix, a slot may include 14 symbols. For an extended cyclic prefix (e.g., applicable for 60 kHz subcarrier spacing) , a slot may include 12 symbols. The relationship between the number of symbols per slot, the number of slots per subframe, and the number of slots per frame for a normal cyclic prefix and an extended cyclic prefix may depend on a numerology. It should be understood that reference to a first numerology (e.g., μ=0) associated with a first subcarrier spacing (e.g., 15 kHz) may be used interchangeably between subframes and slots.

In the wireless communication system 100, an electromagnetic (EM) spectrum may be split, based on frequency or wavelength, into various classes, frequency bands, frequency channels, etc. By way of example, the wireless communication system 100 may support one or multiple operating frequency bands, such as frequency range designations FR1 (410 MHz –7.125 GHz) , FR2 (24.25 GHz –52.6 GHz) , FR3 (7.125 GHz –24.25 GHz) , FR4 (52.6 GHz –114.25 GHz) , FR4a or FR4-1 (52.6 GHz –71 GHz) , and FR5 (114.25 GHz –300 GHz) . In some implementations, the NEs 102 and the UEs 104 may perform wireless communications over one or more of the operating frequency bands. In some implementations, FR1 may be used by the NEs 102 and the UEs 104, among other equipment or devices for cellular communications traffic (e.g., control information, data) . In some implementations, FR2 may be used by the NEs 102 and the UEs 104, among other equipment or devices for short-range, high data rate capabilities.

FR1 may be associated with one or multiple numerologies (e.g., at least three numerologies) . For example, FR1 may be associated with a first numerology (e.g., μ=0) , which includes 15 kHz subcarrier spacing; a second numerology (e.g., μ=1) , which includes 30 kHz subcarrier spacing; and a third numerology (e.g., μ=2) , which includes 60 kHz subcarrier spacing. FR2 may be associated with one or multiple numerologies (e.g., at least 2 numerologies) . For example, FR2 may be associated with a third numerology (e.g., μ=2) , which includes 60 kHz subcarrier spacing; and a fourth numerology (e.g., μ=3) , which includes 120 kHz subcarrier spacing.

Based on the unified TCI state framework, one MAC CE from the network side, e.g., from a gNB will activate one or multiple TCI states in an activated BWP of a serving cell for single TRP (S-TRP) operations or single DCI (S-DCI) based multi-TRP (M-TRP) operations, or each of two MAC CEs will activate one or multiple TCI states for multi-DCI (M-DCI) based M-TRP operations. Regarding a TCI state, it can be a joint TCI state or a DL TCI state or an uplink (UL) TCI state under the unified TCI state frame. An indicated state of all the activated TCI states is a TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance. Other TCI state (s) of the all the activated TCI states except from the indicated joint or DL TCI state is non-indicated joint or DL TCI state. For example, one joint TCI state or one pair of DL and UL TCI state among all the activated TCI states will be applicable for transmission by DCI indication for S-TRP operations which are applied starting from the first slot that is at least beamAppTime symbols after the last symbol of the PUCCH or the PUSCH with hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) -acknowledge (HARQ-ACK) information corresponding to the DCI carrying a TCI state indication and without DL assignment, or corresponding to a PDSCH scheduled by a DCI carrying a TCI state indication or from the first slot that is at least 3 millisecond after the last symbol of the PUCCH or the PUSCH with HARQ-ACK information corresponding to the TCI activation MAC CE indicating only one codepoint and carrying the TCI state. Two joint TCI states or two pairs of DL and UL TCI states among all the activated TCI states will be applicable for transmission by DCI indication for M-TRP operation which are applied starting from the first slot that is at least beamAppT me symbols after the last symbol of the PUCCH or the PUSCH with HARQ-ACK information corresponding to a DCI carrying a TCI State indication and without DL assignment, or corresponding to a PDSCH scheduled by a DCI carrying a TCI state indication or from the first slot that is at least 3 millisecond after the last symbol of the PUCCH or the PUSCH with HARQ-ACK information corresponding to the TCI activation MAC CE indicating only one codepoint and carrying the TCI state.

In addition, there may be one or multiple, e.g., one or two TRPs in an activated BWP of the serving cell. It is assumed that there is one or more, e.g., T, T>=1 activated joint or DL TCI states associated with each TRP of the one or multiple TRPs, including one indicated joint or DL TCI state and (T-1) non-indicated joint or DL TCI states other than the indicated joint or DL TCI state. T is identical or different for different TRPs. A TRP can be represented by various manners, and thus associations between TCI state and TRP in different scenarios may be determined in different manners. In the case that two CORESET pool index values, e.g., CORESETPoolIndex 0 and CORESETPoolIndex 1, are configured, two activated joint or DL TCI states are associated with one TRP in the case that the two activated joint or DL TCI states are associated with the same CORESET pool index value. In the case that at least two joint or DL TCI states are activated in a codepoint of a TCI state activation MAC CE and each joint or DL TCI state in a codepoint of the MAC CE is indicated as a first or a second TCI state, two activated joint or DL TCI states are associated with one TRP in the case that the two activated joint or DL TCI states are both indicated as the first TCI state or both indicated as the second TCI state; otherwise, any two activated joint or DL TCI states are associated with one TRP.

For example, for exemplary S-TRP operations (or S-TRP scenarios, or S-TRP) , any two activated joint or DL TCI states are associated with the same TRP. A CORESET is configured to follow the only one indicated joint or DL TCI state or not, which is indicated by DCI with a TCI state activation MAC CE, or by a TCI state activation MAC CE only if only one joint or DL TCI state is activated by the TCI state activation MAC CE. For exemplary M-DCI based M-TRP operations, two CORESET pool index values are configured, and each CORESET pool index value represents a TRP. Two activated joint or DL TCI states associated with the same CORESETPoolIndex value are associated with the same TRP. A CORESET associated with one CORESETPoolIndex value is configured by RRC to follow the indicated joint or DL TCI state associated with the CORESETPoolIndex value or not. For exemplary S-DCI based M-TRP operations, at least one codepoint in the MAC CE activating joint or separate DL/UL TCI states is mapped to two joint or DL TCI states and each TCI state in one TCI codepoint is indicated as the first TCI state (representing the first TRP) or the second TCI state (representing the second TRP) . Therefore, two different activated joint or DL TCI states which are both indicated as the first TCI state or the second TCI state are associated with the first TRP or the second TRP respectively. A CORESET is configured to follow the first, the second, both or none of the two indicated joint or DL TCI states. In addition, in exemplary S-DCI based M-TRP operations, a CORESET is configured to follow two indicated joint or DL TCI states only in single frequency network (SFN) mode; otherwise, a CORESET is configured to follow one of the two indicated joint or DL TCI states.

Generally, the network side, e.g., gNB will indicate one or two joint TCI states, or one or two pairs of DL and UL TCI states for a UE with good beam quality. However, the indicated beam (s) may not be good for the UE any more due to UE mobility or channel change. The network side, e.g., a gNB may also indicate DMRSs of DL transmissions, e.g., PDCCHs and/or PDSCHs associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state to UE. UE will measure the DMRSs of DL transmissions associated with the same indicated joint or DL TCI state to be aware of whether the indicated beam is suit for itself, and further determine whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered.

The network, e.g., a gNB may configure one or multiple UE initiated beam reports, each UE initiated beam report is associated a corresponding event, which may be predefined (or fixed) in the specification. An event may be associated with one TRP or multiple TRPs. For example, in the scenarios of S-TRP, only one UE initiated beam report will be configured for an event. In the scenarios of M-DCI based M-TRP, one or multiple UE initiated beam reports can be configured. In the case that multiple UE initiated beam reports, e.g., two UE initiated beam reports are configured to be associated with two TRPs respectively, e.g., two CORSET pool index values respectively, each UE initiated beam report is associated with an event. Similarly, in the scenarios of S-DCI based M-TRP, one or multiple UE initiated beam reports can be configured. In the case that multiple UE initiated beam reports, e.g., two UE initiated beam reports are configured to be associated with two TRPs respectively, e.g., two TCI states respectively, each UE initiated beam report is associated with an event.

Based on the above, some detailed implementations of the methods and apparatuses in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure are illustrated as follows. Persons skilled in the art should well know that although some implementations are illustrated in view of the remote side or UE, consistent operations in the network side or NE can be determined accordingly and thus there are no repeated descriptions in the network side for simplification and clearness.

Scheme 1: Determination of whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered

In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered is determined based on measurements of DMRSs of DL transmissions, e.g., DMRSs of PDCCHs, or DMRSs of PDSCHs, or DMRSs of PDCCHs and PDSCHs. Regarding the expression 'whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered, ' it may also be referred to as a triggering state of an event associated with a UE initiated beam report, wherein, when an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered, the triggering state is positive and when an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is not triggered, the triggering state is negative.

For example, UE will determine whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered based on a difference value between two QoS metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state. For example, the difference value between two QoS metrics is calculated by an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a first group of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state minus an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a second group of DL transmissions associated with the same indicated joint or DL TCI state, wherein the second group of DL transmissions follows (or is after or succeeds or the like) the first group of DL transmissions.

Regarding groups of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state, it can be determined by various manners.

For example, in some implementations of the present disclosure (scheme 1-1) , the UE (or a NE in the network side) will determine groups of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state based on a plurality of windows. Each group of DL transmissions associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state includes at least N, N>=1, DL transmissions in a corresponding window. The first one of the plurality of windows starts from the first symbol (or the start) of the first slot where the indicated joint or DL TCI state starts to be applicable, and there is a gap, e.g., N_offset slots or milliseconds (ms) between starts of adjacent windows. N, the duration (or time duration) of the window, e.g., M slots or M milliseconds, M>=1 and the gap are configured by RRC or are predefined (or fixed) in the specification. For example, the gap is configured to be or predefined to be ceil (a duration of the window/2) , e.g., N_offset =ceil (M/2) , or floor (a duration of the window/2) , e.g., N_offset =floor (M/2) , or the time duration of the window, e.g., N_offset = M, or is another time length in slots or milliseconds.

In the case that the indicated joint or DL TCI state (the old one) is updated (or changed) to be a new one, e.g., being replaced by another indicated joint or DL TCI state, the UE (or a NE in the network side) will stop determination of groups of DL transmissions associated with the old indicated joint or DL TCI state. The UE (or a NE in the network side) will start determination of groups of DL transmissions associated with the new indicated joint or DL TCI state based on re-determined plurality of windows, wherein, the first one of the re-determined plurality of windows starts from the first symbol of the first slot where the new indicated joint or DL TCI state starts to be applicable.

Referring to Figure 2, a window i, i=0, 1…associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state, starts from slot i*N_offset with a duration of M slots or starts from i*N_offset ms with a duration of M ms with reference to the start of the first slot where the indicated joint or DL TCI state starts to be applicable. For example, for a first indicated joint or DL TCI state, e.g., TCI state 1, the first window, e.g., window 0 starts from the first symbol of the first slot where TCI state 1 starts to be applicable, e.g., t01, window 1 associated with TCI state 1 starts from t01+N_offset, and so on.

If the indicated joint or DL TCI state is changed, the windows for determination groups of DL transmissions will be reset (or re-determined) for the new indicated joint or DL TCI state. For different indicated joint or DL TCI states, M, N and N_offset may be the same or different.

For example, as shown in Figure 2, in response to the indicated joint or DL TCI state is updated, e.g., TCI state 2 will be applicable in t02, the windows associated with TCI state 1 will be stopped. If the space or gap between the last start of a window associated with the old indicated joint or DL TCI state to be determined before the new indicated joint or DL TCI state is applicable, e.g., (t01+ 3N_offset) and t02 is short than the duration of a window, e.g., shorter than M slots or ms, there will be no window associated with TCI state 1 to be determined (e.g., no window 3 associated with TCI state 1) . On the other hand, UE (or the NE in the network side) will determine the windows associated with the new indicated joint or DL TCI state, e.g., TCI state 2. Herein, it is assumed that M, N and N_offset are the same for TCI state 1 and TCI state 2. A window i, i=0, 1…associated with the new indicated joint or DL TCI state, e.g., TCI state 2, will start from slot i*N_offset with a duration of M slots or starts from i*N_offset ms with a duration of M ms with reference to the start of the first slot where TCI state 2 starts to be applicable. For example, window 0 associated with TCI state 2 will start from t02, window 1 associated with TCI state 2 will start from t02+N_offset, and so on.

When there are at least N DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state within a window associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state, a group of DL transmissions will be determined for calculating an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of the group of DL transmissions, and a corresponding window may be referred to as a valid window. Otherwise, no group of DL transmissions will be determined or such a group is not valid for determination of whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report, and a corresponding window may be referred to as an invalid window.

In some other implementations of the present disclosure (scheme 1-2) , the UE (or a NE in the network side) will determine groups of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state based on a plurality of consecutive DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state. Each group of DL transmissions associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state includes N, N>=1, consecutive DL transmissions associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state. The first DL transmission of the plurality of consecutive DL transmissions associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state is the earliest DL transmission after the indicated joint or DL TCI state starts to be applicable. In addition, there is a gap, e.g., N_offset, N_offset >=1 DL transmissions between starts of adjacent groups of DL transmissions associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state. Regarding "consecutive DL transmissions associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state, " it means the qualified DL transmissions are consecutive but not mean there is no break between DL transmissions or the DL transmissions must be adjacent in time domain. For example, for a group of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state, there may be other DL transmission (s) associated with other indicated joint or DL TCI state (s) between two consecutive DL transmissions in the group of DL transmissions, but the DL transmission (s) associated with other indicated joint or DL TCI state (s) will not be included in the group of DL transmissions.

In fact, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, there may be some additional restrictions to a group of DL transmissions for calculating an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs (or a valid group of DL transmissions) in scheme 1-2. For example, the duration from the first symbol of the first DL transmission to the last symbol of the last DL transmission in each group of DL transmissions is equal to or less than a duration threshold in some implementations of the present disclosure. In some other implementations of the present disclosure, the gap between the last symbol of the first DL transmission of two consecutive DL transmissions in each group of DL transmissions and the first symbol of the second DL transmission of the two consecutive DL transmissions is not larger than a gap threshold.

Similarly, N, N_offset, the duration threshold, and the gap threshold are configured by RRC or are predefined (or fixed) in the specification. For example, N_offset is configured to be or predefined to be ceil (N/2) , or floor (N/2) or N, or is another number. A gap threshold is L slots or L ms, L>=1, and the value of L is configured, e.g., by RRC or predefined (fixed) in the specification.

In the case that the indicated joint or DL TCI state (the old one) is updated (or changed) to be a new one, e.g., being replaced by another indicated joint or DL TCI state, the UE (or a NE in the network side) will stop determination of groups of DL transmissions associated with the old indicated joint or DL TCI state. The UE (or a NE in the network side) will start determination of groups of DL transmissions associated with the new indicated joint or DL TCI state based on a plurality of consecutive DL transmissions associated with the new indicated joint or DL TCI state. The first DL transmission of the plurality of consecutive DL transmissions associated with the new indicated joint or DL TCI state is the earliest DL transmission after the new indicated joint or DL TCI state starts to be applicable. For different indicated joint or DL TCI states, N, N_offset and gap threshold etc., may be the same or different.

Referring to Figure 3, it is assumed that N is configured or predefined to be 4, and N_offset is configured or predefined to be 2.

At first, there are a plurality of consecutive DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state, e.g., TCI state 1, wherein the first DL transmission of the plurality of consecutive DL transmissions associated with TCI state 1 is the earliest DL transmission after TCI state 1 starts to be applicable, e.g., after t01. The (i+1) -th, i=0, 1... group of consecutive DL transmissions associated with TCI state 1 starts from the (i*N_offset +1) th DL transmission associated with TCI state 1. For example, the first group, e.g., Group 0 associated with TCI state 1 starts from the first DL transmission associated with TCI state 1 and includes the first four DL transmissions associated with TCI state 1 after t01, the second group, e.g., Group 1 associated with TCI state 1 starts from the third DL transmission associated with TCI state 1 and includes the third to the sixth DL transmissions associated with TCI state 1, and so on.

When the indicated joint or DL TCI state is updated by a MAC CE or a DCI, e.g., to be TCI state 2, the groups of DL transmission associated with TCI state 1 will stop. Since there are only three consecutive DL transmissions associated with TCI state 1, which start from the (3*N_offset +1) th DL transmissions associated with TCI state 1, there is no fourth group (Group 3) of DL transmissions. UE (or NE in the network side) will start determination of groups of DL transmissions associated with TCI state 2 according the starting application timing of TCI state 2, e.g., from t02. It is assumed that N and N_offset are not changed. Then, similarly, Group 0 associated with TCI state 2 starts from the first DL transmission associated with TCI state 2 and includes the first four DL transmissions associated with TCI state 2 after t02, Group 2 associated with TCI state 2 starts from the third DL transmission associated with TCI state 2 and includes the third to the sixth DL transmissions associated with TCI state 2, and so on.

In addition, a group of DL transmissions for calculating an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs is various in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. For example, an exemplary group of DL transmissions is a group of PDCCHs, a group of PDSCHs, or a group of PDCCHs and PDSCHs. In the case that a DL transmission in a group of DL transmissions is a PDCCH, a QoS metric of DMRS of the DL transmission is a QoS metric of DMRS of a PDCCH. In the case that a DL transmission in a group of DL transmissions is a PDSCH, a QoS metric of DMRS of the DL transmission is a QoS metric of DMRS of a PDSCH in DMRS ports, and the QoS metric of DMRS of a PDSCH in DMRS ports is a linear average of QoS metric of DMRS of the PDSCH in each DMRS port. Whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is based on measurement of DMRSs of PDCCHs only, DMRSs of PDSCHs only, or DMRSs of PDCCHs and PDSCHs can be configured e.g., by RRC, or predefined (fixed) in the specification.

Regarding a QoS metric, it may be a RSRP or signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) etc. For example, in some implementations of the present disclosure, a QoS metric of DMRS of a DL transmission is a RSRP of DMRS of a DL transmission. In the case of a DL transmission being a PDCCH, an exemplary RSRP of DMRS of a PDCCH is a linear average over power contributions, e.g., in Watt (W) of resource elements of an antenna port that carries DMRS of the PDCCH. In the case of a DL transmission being a PDSCH, an exemplary RSRP of DMRS of a PDSCH in DMRS ports is a linear average of RSRP of DMRS of the PDSCH in each DMRS port, and the RSRP of DMRS of a PDSCH in each DMRS port is a linear average over power contributions, e.g., in Watt (W) of resource elements of an antenna port that carries the DMRS port of the PDSCH.

More detailed implementations of scheme 1 of the present disclosure will be illustrated in the following in view of an example based on measurements of DMRSs of PDCCHs only.

Since a PDCCH is received in a CORESET, the beam of DMRS of a PDCCH reception is the same as the beam of its associated CORESET. The beam of a PDCCH will be associated with (or follow) the indicated joint or DL TCI state or not. In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, the bandwidth of the DMRS of PDCCH (or PDCCH DMRS) is determined by the frequency resources of the PDCCH carrying a DCI. In time domain, all the DMRS resources for the PDCCH carrying a DCI are considered for the QoS metric, e.g., RSRP calculation of PDCCH DMRS. In some implementations of the present disclosure, UE will only monitor the quality of the indicated joint or DL TCI state to determine whether to trigger an event associated with a UE initiated beam report. Therefore, only the DMRS of a PDCCH which follows one indicated joint or DL TCI state is measured for determining whether an event associated with UE initiated beam report is triggered. For example, UE can measure the QoS metric, e.g., RSRP of DMRSs of PDCCHs which follow the indicated joint or DL TCI state to monitor the quality of the indicated joint or DL TCI state.

In order to make sure that the QoS metric, e.g., RSRP of DMRSs of groups of PDCCHs can be averaged and comparable, the power of DMRSs of groups of PDCCHs which follow the indicated joint or DL TCI state will be the same. Therefore, if determination of whether an event associated an UE initiated beam report is triggered is configured to be based on DMRS measurement of PDCCHs only, which is a feature configured by the network side, e.g., by a gNB, only the DMRS of PDCCH associated with (or from) USS or Type3-PDCCH CSS will be used. The network side can guarantee the power of DMRSs of PDCCHs from USS or Type3-PDCCH CSS which follow the same indicated joint or DL TCI state are the same if the feature is configured for UE by the network side.

Considering whether S-TRP or M-TRP operations are applied for UE, each of scheme 1-1 and scheme 1-2 will be illustrated separately in view of the scenarios of S-TRP and M-TRP. When S-TRP operations are applied for UE, only one indicated joint or DL TCI state is applicable for DL transmissions, e.g. PDCCH. When M-TRP operations are applied for UE, two indicated joint or DL TCI states are applicable, and a DL transmission, e.g., a PDCCH is configured to follow one of the two indicated joint or DL TCI states. Then, for each PDCCH following one indicated joint or DL TCI state is associated with one TRP.

Scheme 1-1 in S-TRP scenarios

In order to monitor the beam quality of the indicated joint or DL TCI state, an average QoS metric, e.g., average RSRP of DMRS of a group of PDCCHs associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state will to be measured. A difference value of QoS metric (or delta QoS metric or QoS metric difference or the like) , e.g., a RSRP difference of DMRS of PDCCHs which is the difference between average RSRPs of DMRSs of two groups of PDCCHs is used to determine the quality of indicated joint or DL TCI state. Since the indicated joint or DL TCI state (s) may be updated by MAC CE or DCI in some cases of the present disclosure, a QoS metric difference of DMRS of groups of PDCCHs will only be calculated between average QoS metrics of DMRSs of two groups of PDCCHs associated with the same indicated joint or DL TCI state. Hereafter, a QoS metric will be illustrated by RSRP as an example.

In accordance with scheme 1-1, an average RSRP is calculated based on a group of PDCCHs in a window, wherein, there are at least N, N>=1 PDCCHs associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state in the group. That is, if the number of PDCCHs in a group of PDCCHs in a window is less than N, there is no group used for calculating (or determining) the average RSRP or the group of PDCCHs cannot be used for calculating (or determining) the average RSRP, wherein the group of PDCCHs is not a valid group and the window is not a valid window. Herein, only group of PDCCHs used for calculating the average RSRP are considered.

A delta RSRP of DMRS of PDCCHs associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state will be calculated by an average value of RSRPs of DMRSs of a first group of PDCCHs associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state, e.g., an average value of RSRPs of DMRSs of a group of PDCCHs in a valid window i minus an average value of RSRPs of DMRSs of a second group of PDCCHs associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state, wherein the second group of PDCCHs is the first valid group of PDCCHs after the first group of PDCCHs, e.g., an average value of RSRPs of DMRSs of a group of PDCCHs in a valid window (i+1) .

If a delta RSRP of DMRS of PDCCHs associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state is larger than or equal to a quality threshold, which is used to identify the quality of the indicated joint or DL TCI state is getting worse, an event associated with a UE initiated beam report will be triggered. However, if a new indicated joint or DL TCI state (s) is indicated by MAC CE or DCI to be applicable during a window associated with the old indicated joint or DL TCI state, an event associated with a UE initiated beam report will not be triggered based on the DMRS measurement associated with the old indicated joint or DL TCI state.

Referring to Figure 4, it is assumed that the duration of a window for DMRS measurement is predefined to be 10ms, N_offset is predefined to be 10ms, and N is predefined to be 4.

It can be seen that the first window, Window 1_1 associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state, e.g., TCI state 1, starts from the first symbol of the first slot where TCI state 1 starts to be applicable, e.g., t01. Since there are 4 PDCCHs whose beams are TCI state 1 in Window 1_1, an average RSRP of DMRS of a group of PDCCHs in Window 1_1, e.g., RSRP 1_1 will be calculated. Similarly, average RSRP 1_2 will calculated based on the 4 PDCCHs in Window 1_2. Therefore, a delta RSRP 1_1 will be calculated by average RSRP 1_1 minus average RSRP 1_2. It is assumed that delta RSRP 1_1 is less than a configured quality threshold. Then, UE will not trigger an event associated with a UE initiated beam report.

When UE knows that the indicated joint or DL TCI state, e.g., TCI state 1 will be updated by receiving a DCI in a PDCCH associated with TCI state 1, UE will stop measuring the RSRP of DMRS of PDCCH until the new joint or DL TCI state, e.g., TCI state 2 is applicable, e.g., in t02. Similarly, the first window, e.g., Window 2_1 associated with TCI state 2 starts from the first symbol of the first slot where TCI state 2 starts to be applicable. Since there are only 3 PDCCHs whose beams are TCI state 2, the average RSRP of DMRS of PDCCH in Window 2_1 will not be calculated or not be used for determining whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered even if being calculated. While for Window 2_2 and Window 2_3, the average RSRPs of DMRS of groups of PDCCHs in each of them, e.g., average RSRP 2_1 of DMRS of groups of PDCCHs in Window 2_2 and average RSRP 2_2 of DMRS of groups of PDCCHs in Window 2_3 will be calculated. Accordingly, a delta RSRP 2_1 will be calculated by average RSRP 2_1 minus average RSRP 2_2. It is assumed that, delta RSRP 2_1 is larger than or equal to the quality threshold. Then, UE will determine that an event associated with a UE initiated beam report will be triggered in t03.

Scheme 1-1 in M-TRP scenarios

As aforementioned, there are multiple, e.g., a first and second indicated joint or DL TCI states respectively associated with different TRPs in M-TRP scenarios. For each of the multiple indicated joint or DL TCI states, implementations similar to scheme 1-1 in S-TRP scenarios can be applied. Parameters related to determination of whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered, e.g., N, N_offset, and quality threshold etc., may be the same or different for different TRPs.

Taking the first indicated joint or DL TCI state as an example, in order to monitor the beam quality of the first indicated joint or DL TCI state, a delta RSRP associated with the first indicated joint or DL TCI state can be calculated by an average value of RSRPs of DMRSs of a first group of PDCCHs associated with the first indicated joint or DL TCI state, e.g., an average value of RSRPs of DMRSs of a group of PDCCHs in a valid window i minus an average value of RSRPs of DMRSs of a second group of PDCCHs associated with the first indicated joint or DL TCI state which is the first valid group of PDCCHs after the first group of PDCCHs, e.g., an average value of RSRPs of DMRSs of a group of PDCCHs in a valid window (i+1) .

If a delta RSRP of DMRS of PDCCHs associated with the first indicated joint or DL TCI state is larger than or equal to a quality threshold and only one UE initiated beam report associated with the first indicated joint or DL TCI state is configured, an event associated with the UE initiated beam report will be triggered. If a delta RSRP of DMRS of PDCCHs associated with the first indicated joint or DL TCI state is larger than or equal to a quality threshold and two UE initiated beam reports respectively associated with the first and second indicated joint or DL TCI states are configured, an event associated with the UE initiated beam report associated with the first indicated joint or DL TCI state will be triggered.

Similar operations can be applied to the second indicated joint or DL TCI state, and thus will not repeated.

Scheme 1-2 in S-TRP scenarios

Similarly, in order to monitor the beam quality of one indicated joint or DL TCI state in S-TRP scenarios, an average QoS metric, e.g., average RSRP of DMRS of a group of PDCCHs associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state will to be measured.

For example, an average RSRP i (i=0, 1, …) of DMRS of PDCCHs associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state is calculated according to the RSRP of DMRS of the (i+1) -th group (e.g., Group i) of consecutive PDCCHs which follow the indicated joint or DL TCI state. The (i+1) -th group of consecutive PDCCHs associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state starts from the (i*N_offset +1) th PDCCH associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state, wherein the first PDCCH associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state is the earliest PDCCH associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state from the first slot where the indicated joint or DL TCI state starts to be applicable.

When the indicated joint or DL TCI state is updated by a MAC CE or a DCI, the (i+1) th groups of consecutive PDCCHs will be recounted (or re-determined) according the starting application timing of the new indicated joint or DL TCI state. Accordingly, during determining groups of PDCCHs associated with the old indicated joint or DL TCI state, the last remaining consecutive PDCCHs associated with the old indicated joint or DL TCI state may be less than N PDCCHs and cannot form a group because the following PDCCHs will be associated with the new indicated joint or DL TCI state. Groups of PDCCHs associated with the new indicated joint or DL TCI state will be determined based on consecutive PDCCHs associated with the new indicated joint or DL TCI state from the starting application timing of the new indicate joint or DL TCI state.

Similarly, a RSRP difference (or delta RSRP) of DMRS of PDCCHs, which is the difference between average RSRPs of DMRSs of two groups of PDCCHs associated with the same indicated joint or DL TCI state, is used to determine the quality of the indicated joint or DL TCI state. For example, a delta RSRP of DMRS of PDCCHs associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state is calculated by an average value of RSRPs of DMRSs of the (i+1) -th group of PDCCHs associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state minus an average value of RSRPs of DMRSs of the (i+2) -th group of PDCCHs associated with the same indicated joint or DL TCI state.

If a delta RSRP of DMRS of PDCCHs associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state is larger than or equal to a quality threshold, which is used to identify the quality of the indicated joint or DL TCI state is getting worse, an event associated with a UE initiated beam report will be triggered. However, if a new indicated joint or DL TCI state (s) is indicated by MAC CE or DCI to be applicable, the UE will not trigger an event with the UE initiated beam report even if the delta RSRP of DMRS of PDCCHs associated with the indicated joint or DL TCI state is larger than or equal to a quality threshold.

Referring to Figure 5, it is assumed that N is 4, and N_offset is 3. It can be seen that the first group of PDCCHs, e.g., Group 1_0 associated with TCI state 1 includes the first 4 PDCCHs for calculating the first average RSRP, e.g., average RSRP 1_0 of DMRS of PDCCHs associated with TCI state 1, which starts from the earliest PDCCH where TCI state 1 starts to be applicable, e.g., from t01. Similarly, the second group of PDCCHs, e.g., Group 1_1 associated with TCI state 1 includes 4 PDCCHs for calculating the second average RSRP, e.g., average RSRP 1_1 of DMRS of PDCCHs associated with TCI state 1, which starts from the fourth PDCCHs after t01. The third group of PDCCHs, e.g., Group 1_2 associated with TCI state 1 includes 4 PDCCHs for calculating the third average RSRP, e.g., average RSRP 1_2 of DMRS of PDCCHs associated with TCI state 1, which starts from the seventh PDCCH after t0. Then, a delta RSRP 1_0 will be calculated by the average RSRP 1_0 minus the average RSRP 1_1, and a delta RSRP 1_1 will be calculated by the average RSRP 1_1 minus the average RSRP 1_2. It is assumed that both delta RSRP 1_0 and delta RSRP 1_1 are less than a quality threshold. Then, the event associated with an UE initiated beam report will not be triggered.

When UE knows that the indicated joint or DL TCI state will be updated by receiving a DCI in a PDCCH, UE will stop measuring the RSRP of DMRS of PDCCH until the new joint or DL TCI state, e.g., TCI state 2 is applicable, e.g., in t02. Similarly, average RSRPs of DMRS will be calculated based on each group of PDCCHs associated TCI state 2, and then the delta RSRP between two average RSRPs of DMRS will be calculated. For example, the first group of PDCCHs, e.g., Group 2_0 associated with TCI state 2 includes the first 4 PDCCHs for calculating the first average RSRP, e.g., average RSRP 2_0 of DMRS of PDCCHs associated with TCI state 2, which starts from the earliest PDCCH where TCI state 2 starts to be applicable, e.g., from t02. The second group of PDCCHs, e.g., Group 2_1 associated with TCI state 2 includes 4 PDCCHs for calculating the second average RSRP, e.g., average RSRP 2_1 of DMRS of PDCCHs associated with TCI state 2, which starts from the fourth PDCCHs after t02. Then, a delta RSRP 2_0 will be calculated by the average RSRP 2_0 minus the average RSRP 2_1. It is assumed that the delta RSRP 2_0 is larger than or equal to a quality threshold. Then, the event associated with an UE initiated beam report will be triggered in t03.

Scheme 1-2 in M-TRP scenarios

There are multiple, e.g., a first and second indicated joint or DL TCI states associated with different TRPs in M-TRP scenarios. For each of the multiple indicated joint or DL TCI states, implementations similar to scheme 1-2 in S-TRP scenarios can be applied. Similarly, parameters related to the determination of whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered, e.g., N, N_offset, and quality threshold etc., may be the same or different for different TRPs.

Taking the first indicated joint or Dl TCI state as an example, in order to monitor the beam quality of the first indicated joint or DL TCI state, a delta RSRP of DMRS of PDCCHs associated with the first indicated joint or DL TCI state is calculated by an average value of RSRPs of DMRSs of the (i+1) -th group of PDCCHs associated with the first indicated joint or DL TCI state minus an average value of RSRPs of DMRSs of the (i+2) -th group of PDCCHs associated with the same first indicated joint or DL TCI state.

Regarding DMRS measurement based on PDSCHs only, it is similar to those based on PDCCHs only. Thus, specific implementations related to DMRS measurement based on PDSCHs only will not be repeated herein except for the following which need to be emphasized.

For DMRS ports of a PDSCH (or DMRS of PDSCH in a DMRS port) , it may be associated with one or multiple, e.g., two indicated joint or DL TCI states in S-DCI based M-TRP operation. Otherwise, DMRS ports of a PDSCH are always associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state. Similar to DMRS measurement based on PDCCHs only, the measurement of DMRS of PDSCHs only considers PDSCHs associated with only one indicated joint or DL TCI state to monitor the quality of indicated joint or DL TCI states.

In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, both SPS PDSCH and DG PDSCH are considered for DMRS measurement for determining whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report will be triggered. A PDSCH, whose DL grant is received successfully, can be decoded successfully or not. The bandwidth of the DMRS for QoS metric calculation is just the frequency bandwidth of the PDSCH. In time domain, all the symbols carry the DMRS for the same PDSCH are considered.

Similarly, in order to make the QoS metrics of DMRS of PDSCHs comparable, when calculating the QoS metrics of DMRS ports of a PDSCH, the DMRS scaling factor will be normalized, which will be indicated by the scheduling DCI.

In addition, in order to make sure that the QoS metrics of DMRS of multiple PDSCHs can be averaged, the power of PDSCHs which follow the indicated joint or DL TCI state will be the same. That can be guaranteed by network side’s implementations, e.g., the gNB's implementations. Determination of whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered based on DMRS measurement of PDSCHs is a feature configured by network side, e.g., a gNB. Therefore, the gNB can guarantee the power of PDSCHs which follow the same indicated joint or DL TCI state are the same if the feature is configured for UE.

When DMRS measurement based on both PDCCHs and PDSCHs are configured, in order to make sure that the QoS metric of DMRS of PDSCHs and PDCCHs can be averaged, the power of PDSCHs which follow one indicated joint or DL TCI state and DMRS of PDCCHs which follow the same indicated joint or DL TCI state will be the same. That can be guaranteed by network side’s implementations, e.g., the gNB's implementations. Similarly, determination of whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered based on DMRS measurement of PDSCHs and PDCCHs is a feature configured by network side, e.g., a gNB. Therefore, the gNB can guarantee the power of PDSCHs which follow one indicated joint or DL TCI state and the power of PDCCHs which follow the same indicated joint or DL TCI state are the same if the feature is configured for UE.

Scheme 2: Indication of whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered, and UE initiated beam reporting

After an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered, a related indication may be transmitted to the network side in some cases, to indicate the network side that the event is triggered. For simplification and clearness, such indication is also referred to as an indication of triggering state, wherein an indication indicating a positive trigging state is referred to as an indication of positive triggering state and an indication indicating a negative triggering state is referred to as an indication of negative triggering state. The UE initiated beam report associated with the event will also transmitted to the network side, e.g., a gNB.

In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, a dedicated SR configuration from the network side will configure a dedicated resource, e.g., a SR resource (e.g., a PUCCH resource) used to carry an indication of triggering state, e.g., the indication of positive triggering state. One dedicated SR resource is associated with one event associated with one UE initiated beam report. Therefore, one dedicated SR resource is configured if only one UE initiated beam report is configured, or multiple, e.g., two dedicated SR resources are configured if multiple, e.g., two UE initiated beam reports are configured (which is per-TRP trigger and report) . An exemplary UE initiated beam report is an aperiodic CSI report associated with a dedicated SR resource. For example, a UE initiated beam report is a legacy CSI report which just follows the configuration of the aperiodic CSI report associated with the dedicated SR configuration.

For example, UE will receive a dedicated SR configuration indicating a dedicated SR resource for transmitting an indication of positive triggering state associated with a UE initiated beam report. Then, UE will transmit an indication of positive triggering state in the dedicated SR resource in the case that an event associated with the UE initiated beam report is triggered.

After receiving the indication of positive triggering state, the network side, e.g., the gNB will schedule a UL grant DCI to trigger the transmission of UE initiated beam report associated with the triggered event (or associated with the dedicated SR resource) , e.g., in the CSI field. The CSI field will codepoint to aperiodic CSI reports including at least the UE initiated beam report. UE will transmit the UE initiated beam report in the PUSCH triggered by the DCI. While for other normal aperiodic CSI reports, there is no such association.

Since the UE initiated beam report is transmitted in a PUSCH and must be triggered by a UL grant DCI, at least the dedicated SR resource with an indication of positive triggering state will be multiplexed on a PUSCH if the PUSCH is overlapped with the PUCCH resource of the dedicated SR configuration in time domain. That is, in some cases, an indication of negative triggering state will be transmitted in the dedicated SR resource, which is multiplexed on a PUSCH if the PUSCH is overlapped with the PUCCH resource of the dedicated SR configuration in time domain. However, for a normal SR resource, if it is overlapped with a PUSCH, the normal SR resource will be dropped.

In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, a normal SR resource in a normal SR configuration from the network side will be used to send the indication of triggering state. The UE initiated beam report associated with the triggered event will be transmitted in a MAC CE, which is carried by a PUSCH. A MAC CE for transmitting UE initiated beam report (s) is also referred to as a beam report MAC CE for simplification and clearness.

In some implementations of the present disclosure, the UE initiated beam report is a CSI report configured with a new type different from ‘periodic’ , ‘semi-persistent’ and ‘aperiodic. ’ The new type can be configured by RRC as ‘UE initiated’ or ‘UE triggered. ’ With the RRC configuration of type, UE will know the association between the UE initiated beam report and the event. Other configuration (s) of the UE initiated beam report is the same as a normal or legacy CSI report configuration. However, there is a restriction for the RSs in the channel measurement resource (CMR) set and interference measurement resource (IMR) set if they are configured for the UE initiated beam report, which is: the RSs in the CMR set or IMR set if any, configured for the UE initiated beam report should be periodic, or either periodic or semi-persistent. That is, the DL RSs for the UE initiated beam report are configured to be all periodic, or to be either periodic or semi-persistent.

The content of the UE initiated beam report may be the same as that of an aperiodic CSI report configured for L1-RSRP or L1-SINR report. The difference is that the CSI content of the UE initiated beam report is transmitted by a MAC CE carried by a PUSCH where the content is only aware by MAC layer, while the CSI content of the aperiodic CSI report is transmitted by a PUSCH where the content is aware by physical layer.

In some other implementations of the present disclosure, the UE initiated beam report in the MAC CE is based on the measurements of a set of periodic DL RSs. The set of periodic DL RSs, e.g., SSBs or CSI-RSs are configured by RRC for a UE initiated beam report.

If one UE initiated beam report is configured, then only one DL RS set is configured. If multiple, e.g., two UE initiated beam reports are configured, wherein each UE initiated beam report is associated with a corresponding TRP, then two DL RS sets are configured to be associated with two TRPs.

In some implementations of the present disclosure, a DL RS set for a UE initiated beam report is a candidate resource set configured for beam failure recovery. If cell-specific BFR request (BFRQ) is configured where only one candidate resource set is configured, then only one UE initiated beam report is configured and the candidate resource set is used for beam management for the UE initiated beam report. If TRP-specific BFRQ is configured where two candidate resource sets are configured, then two UE initiated beam reports are configured and a candidate resource set associated with a corresponding TRP is used for beam management for a UE initiated beam report associated with the TRP.

Figure 6 illustrates an example of a UE 600 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The UE 600 may include a processor 602, a memory 604, a controller 606, and a transceiver 608. The processor 602, the memory 604, the controller 606, or the transceiver 608, or various combinations thereof or various components thereof may be examples of means for performing various aspects of the present disclosure as described herein. These components may be coupled (e.g., operatively, communicatively, functionally, electronically, electrically) via one or more interfaces.

The processor 602, the memory 604, the controller 606, or the transceiver 608, or various combinations or components thereof may be implemented in hardware (e.g., circuitry) . The hardware may include a processor, a digital signal processor (DSP) , an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) , or other programmable logic device, or any combination thereof configured as or otherwise supporting a means for performing the functions described in the present disclosure.

The processor 602 may include an intelligent hardware device (e.g., a general-purpose processor, a DSP, a CPU, an ASIC, an FPGA, or any combination thereof) . In some implementations, the processor 602 may be configured to operate the memory 604. In some other implementations, the memory 604 may be integrated into the processor 602. The processor 602 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in the memory 604 to cause the UE 600 to perform various functions of the present disclosure.

The memory 604 may include volatile or non-volatile memory. The memory 604 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code including instructions when executed by the processor 602 cause the UE 600 to perform various functions described herein. The code may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium such the memory 604 or another type of memory. Computer-readable media includes both non-transitory computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A non-transitory storage medium may be any available medium that may be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer.

In some implementations, the processor 602 and the memory 604 coupled with the processor 602 may be configured to cause the UE 600 to perform one or more of the functions described herein (e.g., executing, by the processor 602, instructions stored in the memory 604) . For example, the processor 602 may support wireless communication at the UE 600 in accordance with examples as disclosed herein. The UE 600 may be configured to support a means for supporting beam reporting, which is configured to receive DMRSs of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state of one or more indicated joint or DL TCI states, wherein each indicated joint or DL TCI state is a joint or DL TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance; and determine whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered based on a difference value between two QoS metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state.

The controller 606 may manage input and output signals for the UE 600. The controller 606 may also manage peripherals not integrated into the UE 600. In some implementations, the controller 606 may utilize an operating system such as or other operating systems. In some implementations, the controller 606 may be implemented as part of the processor 602.

In some implementations, the UE 600 may include at least one transceiver 608. In some other implementations, the UE 600 may have more than one transceiver 608. The transceiver 608 may represent a wireless transceiver. The transceiver 608 may include one or more receiver chains 610, one or more transmitter chains 612, or a combination thereof.

A receiver chain 610 may be configured to receive signals (e.g., control information, data, packets) over a wireless medium. For example, the receiver chain 610 may include one or more antennas for receive the signal over the air or wireless medium. The receiver chain 610 may include at least one amplifier (e.g., a low-noise amplifier (LNA) ) configured to amplify the received signal. The receiver chain 610 may include at least one demodulator configured to demodulate the receive signal and obtain the transmitted data by reversing the modulation technique applied during transmission of the signal. The receiver chain 610 may include at least one decoder for decoding the processing the demodulated signal to receive the transmitted data.

A transmitter chain 612 may be configured to generate and transmit signals (e.g., control information, data, packets) . The transmitter chain 612 may include at least one modulator for modulating data onto a carrier signal, preparing the signal for transmission over a wireless medium. The at least one modulator may be configured to support one or more techniques such as amplitude modulation (AM) , frequency modulation (FM) , or digital modulation schemes like phase-shift keying (PSK) or quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) . The transmitter chain 612 may also include at least one power amplifier configured to amplify the modulated signal to an appropriate power level suitable for transmission over the wireless medium. The transmitter chain 612 may also include one or more antennas for transmitting the amplified signal into the air or wireless medium.

Figure 7 illustrates an example of a processor 700 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The processor 700 may be an example of a processor configured to perform various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. The processor 700 may include a controller 702 configured to perform various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. The processor 700 may optionally include at least one memory 704, which may be, for example, an L1/L2/L3 cache. Additionally, or alternatively, the processor 700 may optionally include one or more arithmetic-logic units (ALUs) 706. One or more of these components may be in electronic communication or otherwise coupled (e.g., operatively, communicatively, functionally, electronically, electrically) via one or more interfaces (e.g., buses) .

The processor 700 may be a processor chipset and include a protocol stack (e.g., a software stack) executed by the processor chipset to perform various operations (e.g., receiving, obtaining, retrieving, transmitting, outputting, forwarding, storing, determining, identifying, accessing, writing, reading) in accordance with examples as described herein. The processor chipset may include one or more cores, one or more caches (e.g., memory local to or included in the processor chipset (e.g., the processor 700) or other memory (e.g., random access memory (RAM) , read-only memory (ROM) , dynamic RAM (DRAM) , synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM) , static RAM (SRAM) , ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM) , magnetic RAM (MRAM) , resistive RAM (RRAM) , flash memory, phase change memory (PCM) , and others) .

The controller 702 may be configured to manage and coordinate various operations (e.g., signaling, receiving, obtaining, retrieving, transmitting, outputting, forwarding, storing, determining, identifying, accessing, writing, reading) of the processor 700 to cause the processor 700 to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. For example, the controller 702 may operate as a control unit of the processor 700, generating control signals that manage the operation of various components of the processor 700. These control signals include enabling or disabling functional units, selecting data paths, initiating memory access, and coordinating timing of operations.

The controller 702 may be configured to fetch (e.g., obtain, retrieve, receive) instructions from the memory 704 and determine subsequent instruction (s) to be executed to cause the processor 700 to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. The controller 702 may be configured to track memory address of instructions associated with the memory 704. The controller 702 may be configured to decode instructions to determine the operation to be performed and the operands involved. For example, the controller 702 may be configured to interpret the instruction and determine control signals to be output to other components of the processor 700 to cause the processor 700 to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. Additionally, or alternatively, the controller 702 may be configured to manage flow of data within the processor 700. The controller 702 may be configured to control transfer of data between registers, arithmetic logic units (ALUs) , and other functional units of the processor 700.

The memory 704 may include one or more caches (e.g., memory local to or included in the processor 700 or other memory, such RAM, ROM, DRAM, SDRAM, SRAM, MRAM, flash memory, etc. In some implementations, the memory 704 may reside within or on a processor chipset (e.g., local to the processor 700) . In some other implementations, the memory 704 may reside external to the processor chipset (e.g., remote to the processor 700) .

The memory 704 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code including instructions that, when executed by the processor 700, cause the processor 700 to perform various functions described herein. The code may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium such as system memory or another type of memory. The controller 702 and/or the processor 700 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in the memory 704 to cause the processor 700 to perform various functions. For example, the processor 700 and/or the controller 702 may be coupled with or to the memory 704, the processor 700, the controller 702, and the memory 704 may be configured to perform various functions described herein. In some examples, the processor 700 may include multiple processors and the memory 704 may include multiple memories. One or more of the multiple processors may be coupled with one or more of the multiple memories, which may, individually or collectively, be configured to perform various functions herein.

The one or more ALUs 706 may be configured to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, the one or more ALUs 706 may reside within or on a processor chipset (e.g., the processor 700) . In some other implementations, the one or more ALUs 706 may reside external to the processor chipset (e.g., the processor 700) . One or more ALUs 706 may perform one or more computations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division on data. For example, one or more ALUs 706 may receive input operands and an operation code, which determines an operation to be executed. One or more ALUs 706 be configured with a variety of logical and arithmetic circuits, including adders, subtractors, shifters, and logic gates, to process and manipulate the data according to the operation. Additionally, or alternatively, the one or more ALUs 706 may support logical operations such as AND, OR, exclusive-OR (XOR) , not-OR (NOR) , and not-AND (NAND) , enabling the one or more ALUs 706 to handle conditional operations, comparisons, and bitwise operations.

The processor 700 may support wireless communication in accordance with examples as disclosed herein. The processor 700 may be configured to or operable to support a means for supporting beam reporting, which is configured to receive DMRSs of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state of one or more indicated joint or DL TCI states, wherein each indicated joint or DL TCI state is a joint or DL TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance; and determine whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered based on a difference value between two QoS metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state.

Figure 8 illustrates an example of a NE 800 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The NE 800 may include a processor 802, a memory 804, a controller 806, and a transceiver 808. The processor 802, the memory 804, the controller 806, or the transceiver 808, or various combinations thereof or various components thereof may be examples of means for performing various aspects of the present disclosure as described herein. These components may be coupled (e.g., operatively, communicatively, functionally, electronically, electrically) via one or more interfaces.

The processor 802, the memory 804, the controller 806, or the transceiver 808, or various combinations or components thereof may be implemented in hardware (e.g., circuitry) . The hardware may include a processor, a digital signal processor (DSP) , an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) , or other programmable logic device, or any combination thereof configured as or otherwise supporting a means for performing the functions described in the present disclosure.

The processor 802 may include an intelligent hardware device (e.g., a general-purpose processor, a DSP, a CPU, an ASIC, an FPGA, or any combination thereof) . In some implementations, the processor 802 may be configured to operate the memory 804. In some other implementations, the memory 804 may be integrated into the processor 802. The processor 802 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in the memory 804 to cause the NE 800 to perform various functions of the present disclosure.

The memory 804 may include volatile or non-volatile memory. The memory 804 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code including instructions when executed by the processor 802 cause the NE 800 to perform various functions described herein. The code may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium such the memory 804 or another type of memory. Computer-readable media includes both non- transitory computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A non-transitory storage medium may be any available medium that may be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer.

In some implementations, the processor 802 and the memory 804 coupled with the processor 802 may be configured to cause the NE 800 to perform one or more of the functions described herein (e.g., executing, by the processor 802, instructions stored in the memory 804) . For example, the processor 802 may support wireless communication at the NE 800 in accordance with examples as disclosed herein. The NE 800 may be configured to support a means for supporting beam reporting, which is configured to transmit DMRSs of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state of one or more indicated joint or DL TCI states, wherein each indicated joint or DL TCI state is a joint or DL TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance, so that whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered will be determined based on a difference value between two QoS metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state; and receive a UE initiated beam report in a PUSCH in the case that the event associated with the UE initiated beam report is triggered.

The controller 806 may manage input and output signals for the NE 800. The controller 806 may also manage peripherals not integrated into the NE 800. In some implementations, the controller 806 may utilize an operating system such as or other operating systems. In some implementations, the controller 806 may be implemented as part of the processor 802.

In some implementations, the NE 800 may include at least one transceiver 808. In some other implementations, the NE 800 may have more than one transceiver 808. The transceiver 808 may represent a wireless transceiver. The transceiver 808 may include one or more receiver chains 810, one or more transmitter chains 812, or a combination thereof.

A receiver chain 810 may be configured to receive signals (e.g., control information, data, packets) over a wireless medium. For example, the receiver chain 810 may include one or more antennas for receive the signal over the air or wireless medium. The receiver chain 810 may include at least one amplifier (e.g., a low-noise amplifier (LNA) ) configured to amplify the received signal. The receiver chain 810 may include at least one demodulator configured to demodulate the receive signal and obtain the transmitted data by reversing the modulation technique applied during transmission of the signal. The receiver chain 810 may include at least one decoder for decoding the processing the demodulated signal to receive the transmitted data.

A transmitter chain 812 may be configured to generate and transmit signals (e.g., control information, data, packets) . The transmitter chain 812 may include at least one modulator for modulating data onto a carrier signal, preparing the signal for transmission over a wireless medium. The at least one modulator may be configured to support one or more techniques such as amplitude modulation (AM) , frequency modulation (FM) , or digital modulation schemes like phase-shift keying (PSK) or quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) . The transmitter chain 812 may also include at least one power amplifier configured to amplify the modulated signal to an appropriate power level suitable for transmission over the wireless medium. The transmitter chain 812 may also include one or more antennas for transmitting the amplified signal into the air or wireless medium.

Figure 9 illustrates a flowchart of a method in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of the method may be implemented by a UE as described herein. In some implementations, the UE may execute a set of instructions to control the function elements of the UE to perform the described functions.

At step 901, the method may include receiving DMRSs of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state of one or more indicated joint or DL TCI states, wherein each indicated joint or DL TCI state is a joint or DL TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance. The operations of step 901 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of step 901 may be performed by a UE as described with reference to Figure 6.

At step 903, the method may include determining whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered based on a difference value between two QoS metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state. The operations of step 903 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of step 903 may be performed by a UE as described with reference to Figure 6.

It should be noted that the method described herein describes a possible implementation, and that the operations and the steps may be rearranged or otherwise modified and that other implementations are possible.

Figure 10 illustrates a flowchart of a method in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of the method may be implemented by a NE as described herein. In some implementations, the NE may execute a set of instructions to control the function elements of the NE to perform the described functions.

At step 1001, the method may include transmitting DMRSs of DL transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL TCI state of one or more indicated joint or DL TCI states, wherein each indicated joint or DL TCI state is a joint or DL TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance, so that whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered will be determined based on a difference value between two QoS metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state. The operations of step 1001 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of step 1001 may be performed by a NE as described with reference to Figure 8.

At step 1003, the method may include receiving a UE initiated beam report in a PUSCH in the case that the event associated with the UE initiated beam report is triggered. The operations of step 1003 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of step 1003 may be performed by a NE as described with reference to Figure 8.

The description herein is provided to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be apparent to a person having ordinary skill in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the broadest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims

A user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:

at least one memory; and

at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to:

receive demodulation reference signals (DMRSs) of downlink (DL) transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL transmission configuration indication (TCI) state of one or more indicated joint or DL TCI states, wherein each indicated joint or DL TCI state is a joint or DL TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance; and

determine whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered based on a difference value between two quality of service (QoS) metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state.
The UE of claim 1, wherein, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:

determine groups of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state based on a plurality of windows, wherein, each group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state includes at least N, N>=1, DL transmissions in a corresponding window, a first one of the plurality of windows starts from a first symbol of a first slot where the one indicated joint or DL TCI state starts to be applicable, and there is a gap between starts of adjacent windows.
The UE of claim 2, wherein, in the case that the one indicated joint or DL TCI state is replaced by another indicated joint or DL TCI state, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:

stop determination of groups of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state; and

start determination of groups of DL transmissions associated with the other indicated joint or DL TCI state based on re-determined plurality of windows, wherein, a first one of the re-determined plurality of windows starts from a first symbol of a first slot where the other indicated joint or DL TCI state starts to be applicable.
The UE of claim 1, wherein, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:

determine groups of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state based on a plurality of consecutive DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state, wherein each group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state includes N, N>=1, consecutive DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state, a first DL transmission of the plurality of consecutive DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state is an earliest DL transmission after the one indicated joint or DL TCI state starts to be applicable, and there is a gap of N_offset, N_offset >=1 DL transmissions between starts of adjacent groups of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state.
The UE of claim 4, wherein, in the case that the one indicated joint or DL TCI state is replaced by another indicated joint or DL TCI state, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:

stop determination of groups of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state; and

start determination of groups of DL transmissions associated with the other indicated joint or DL TCI state based on a plurality of consecutive DL transmissions associated with the other indicated joint or DL TCI state, wherein a first DL transmission of the plurality of consecutive DL transmissions associated with the other indicated joint or DL TCI state is an earliest DL transmission after the other indicated joint or DL TCI state starts to be applicable.
The UE of claim 1, wherein, the group of DL transmissions is a group of physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) , a group of physical downlink shared channels (PDSCHs) , or a group of PDCCHs and PDSCHs.
The UE of claim 6, wherein, a PDCCH in a group of DL transmissions is a PDCCH associated with UE-specific search space (USS) or Type3-PDCCH common search space (CSS) , and a PDSCH in a group of DL transmissions is a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) PDSCH or a downlink grant (DG) PDSCH.
The UE of claim 6, wherein,

in the case that a DL transmission in a group of DL transmissions is a PDCCH, a QoS metric of DMRS of the DL transmission is a QoS metric of DMRS of a PDCCH; and

in the case that a DL transmission in a group of DL transmissions is a PDSCH, a QoS metric of DMRS of the DL transmission is a QoS metric of DMRS of a PDSCH in DMRS ports, and the QoS metric of DMRS of a PDSCH in DMRS ports is a linear average of QoS metric of DMRS of the PDSCH in each DMRS port.
The UE of claim 8, wherein, a QoS metric of DMRS of a DL transmission is a reference signal receiving power (RSRP) of DMRS of a DL transmission, wherein, a RSRP of DMRS of a PDCCH is a linear average over power contributions of resource elements of an antenna port that carries DMRS of the PDCCH, a RSRP of DMRS of a PDSCH in DMRS ports is a linear average of RSRP of DMRS of the PDSCH in each DMRS port, and the RSRP of DMRS of a PDSCH in each DMRS port is a linear average over power contributions of resource elements of an antenna port that carries the DMRS port of the PDSCH.
The UE of claim 1, wherein, the difference value between the two QoS metrics is calculated by an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a first group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state minus an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a second group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state, wherein the second group of DL transmissions is after the first group of DL transmissions.
The UE of claim 1, wherein, there is only one indicated joint or DL TCI state, and the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:

determine that an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered in the case that the difference value is larger than or equal to a quality threshold.
The UE of claim 1, wherein, there are two indicated joint or DL TCI states, and the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:

in the case that the difference value is larger than or equal to a quality threshold and one UE initiated beam report is configured, determine that an event associated with the one UE initiated beam report is triggered; or

in the case that the difference value is larger than or equal to a quality threshold and two UE initiated beam reports are configured, wherein each UE initiated beam report is associated with a corresponding indicated joint or DL TCI state, determine that an event associated with the corresponding UE initiated beam report associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state is triggered.
The UE of claim 11 or 12, wherein, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:

receive dedicated scheduling request (SR) configuration indicating a dedicated SR resource for transmitting an indication of event associated with UE initiated beam report being triggered; and

transmit an indication of event associated with UE initiated beam report being triggered in the dedicated SR resource.
The UE of claim 13, wherein, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:

receive uplink grant DL control information (DCI) to trigger transmission of the UE initiated beam report associated with the dedicated SR request resource; and

transmit the UE initiated beam report in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) , wherein, the UE initiated beam report is an aperiodic channel state information (CSI) report associated with the dedicated SR resource.
The UE of claim 11 or 12, wherein, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:

transmit a UE initiated beam report associated with the triggered event in a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) , wherein, the UE initiated beam report is a channel state information (CSI) report configured with a type different from ‘periodic’ , ‘semi-persistent’ and ‘aperiodic.’
The UE of claim 11 or 12, wherein, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:

transmit a UE initiated beam report associated with the triggered event in a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) , wherein, the UE initiated beam report is based on measurements of a set of periodic DL RSs.
The UE of claim 16, wherein, the set of periodic DL RSs is a candidate resource set of candidate resource sets configured for beam failure recovery.
A processor for wireless communication, comprising:

at least one controller coupled with at least one memory and configured to cause the processor to:

receive demodulation reference signals (DMRSs) of downlink (DL) transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL transmission configuration indication (TCI) state of one or more indicated joint or DL TCI states, wherein each indicated joint or DL TCI state is a joint or DL TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance; and

determine whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered based on a difference value between two quality of service (QoS) metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state.
A network equipment (NE) for wireless communication, comprising:

at least one memory; and

at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the NE to:

transmit demodulation reference signals (DMRSs) of downlink (DL) transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL transmission configuration indication (TCI) state of one or more indicated joint or DL TCI states, wherein each indicated joint or DL TCI state is a joint or DL TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance, so that whether an event associated with a user equipment (UE) initiated beam report is triggered will be determined based on a difference value between two quality of service (QoS) metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state; and

receive a UE initiated beam report in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) in the case that the event associated with the UE initiated beam report is triggered.
A method performed by a user equipment (UE) , comprising:

receiving demodulation reference signals (DMRSs) of downlink (DL) transmissions associated with one indicated joint or DL transmission configuration indication (TCI) state of one or more indicated joint or DL TCI states, wherein each indicated joint or DL TCI state is a joint or DL TCI state indicated to be applicable from a time instance; and

determining whether an event associated with a UE initiated beam report is triggered based on a difference value between two quality of service (QoS) metrics, wherein, each QoS metric is an average value of QoS metrics of DMRSs of a group of DL transmissions associated with the one indicated joint or DL TCI state.