WO2024082725A1

WO2024082725A1 - Devices and methods of communication

Info

Publication number: WO2024082725A1
Application number: PCT/CN2023/107161
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ran YUE; Jing HAN; Lianhai WU
Original assignee: Lenovo (Beijing) Limited
Priority date: 2023-07-13
Filing date: 2023-07-13
Publication date: 2024-04-25

Abstract

Various aspects of the present disclosure relate to devices and methods of communication. Upon determination that a plurality of SDT procedures are ongoing, UE may manage the plurality of SDT procedures. In this way, handling of parallel SDT procedures may be achieved.

Description

DEVICES AND METHODS OF COMMUNICATION

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to devices and methods of communication for small data transmission (SDT) .

BACKGROUND

A wireless communications system may include one or multiple network communication devices, such as base stations, which may be otherwise known as an eNodeB (eNB) , a next-generation NodeB (gNB) , or other suitable terminology. Each network communication devices, such as a base station 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) . 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) ) .

Currently, SDT in an inactive state or an idle state has been approved so as to save signaling overhead. Further, it has been agreed to support mobile originating-SDT (MO-SDT) and mobile terminating-SDT (MT-SDT) procedures.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure relates to methods, apparatuses, and systems that support handling of one or more SDT procedures. By determining one or more ongoing SDT procedures, a communication device may manage the one or more SDT procedures. In this way, interplay among SDT procedures may be specified, and SDT enhancement may be achieved.

In one aspect, some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein may include: determining that a plurality of SDT procedures are ongoing; and managing the plurality of SDT procedures.

In some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein, managing the plurality of SDT procedures may comprise at least one of the following: keeping at least one of the plurality of SDT procedures; handling one or more timers for failure detection of the plurality of SDT procedures; or determining completion of the plurality of SDT procedures.

In some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein, one of the plurality of SDT procedures is an MO-SDT procedure or an MT-SDT procedure.

In some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein, managing the plurality of SDT procedures may comprise at least one of the following: in accordance with a determination that a downlink resource for the MT-SDT procedure is allocated during the MO-SDT procedure, stopping or cancelling or suspending the MT-SDT procedure; in accordance with a determination that a downlink resource for downlink data reception is allocated during the MO-SDT procedure before a response to a paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is transmitted, stopping or cancelling or suspending the MT-SDT procedure; in accordance with a determination that a downlink resource for downlink data reception is allocated during the MO-SDT procedure before the downlink resource for the MT-SDT procedure is allocated during the MT-SDT procedure, stopping or cancelling or suspending the MT-SDT procedure; in accordance with a determination that an uplink grant is received before an uplink transmission of the MO-SDT procedure, stopping or cancelling or suspending the MO-SDT procedure; or in accordance with a determination that a buffer status report (BSR) is transmitted before an uplink transmission of the MO-SDT procedure, stopping or cancelling or suspending the MO-SDT procedure.

In some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein, a timer is configured for the user equipment for failure detection of the plurality of SDT procedures. Managing the plurality of SDT procedures may comprise at least one of the following: in accordance with a determination that a radio resource control (RRC) resume request message for SDT is transmitted, starting or restarting the timer; in accordance with a determination that the RRC resume request message for SDT is transmitted for the first time, starting the timer; in accordance with a determination that the plurality of SDT procedures are completed or stopped, stopping the timer; in accordance with a determination that the timer expires, determining that the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed; or in accordance with a determination that the timer expires, determining that one or more ongoing SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed.

In some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein, a plurality of timers are configured for the plurality of SDT procedures. Managing the plurality of SDT procedures may comprise at least one of the following: in accordance with a determination that a first SDT procedure in the plurality of SDT procedures is started, starting a first timer in the plurality of timers; in accordance with a determination that the first SDT procedure is stopped or cancelled or suspended, stopping or resetting the first timer; or in accordance with a determination that the first timer expires, determining that the first SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed.

In some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein, the plurality of timers are a same timer configured for the user equipment.

In some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein, managing the plurality of SDT procedures may comprise at least one of the following: in accordance with a determination that an RRC release message is received, determining that the plurality of SDT procedures are completed or successfully completed; or in accordance with a determination that an indication of a state of the user equipment is received, determining that the plurality of SDT procedures are completed or successfully completed.

In some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein, managing the plurality of SDT procedures may comprise: in accordance with a determination that one or more SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed, determining that the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed.

Some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein may further include at least one of the following: in accordance with a determination that a timer for failure detection of a first SDT procedure in the one or more SDT procedures expires, determining that the first SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed; in accordance with a determination that number of times of a preamble transmission for a second SDT procedure in the one or more SDT procedures is equal to a first threshold number, determining that the second SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed; in accordance with a determination that number of times of a retransmission for a third SDT procedure in the one or more SDT procedures is equal to a second threshold number, determining that the third SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed; or in accordance with a determination that a timing alignment timer for a fourth SDT procedure in the one or more SDT procedures expires while the fourth SDT procedure is ongoing over a configured grant resource and no response from a base station is received after initial transmission of the fourth SDT procedure, determining that the fourth SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed.

In some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein, managing the plurality of SDT procedures may comprise at least one of the following: receiving, from a base station, an indication of one or more SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures that have been completed; in accordance with a determination that an indication of keeping an inactive state is received from the base station, determining that the one or more SDT procedures are completed or successfully completed; or in accordance with a determination that an indication of keeping an inactive state is received from the base station, determining that a set of SDT procedures other than the one or more SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures is ongoing.

In some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein, receiving the indication of the one or more SDT procedures may comprise: receiving a message with one or more cause values, the one or more cause values indicating the one or more SDT procedures; or receiving a message with one or more information elements, the one or more information elements indicating the one or more SDT procedures.

In another aspect, some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein may include: determining that an MT-SDT procedure is ongoing; and managing the MT-SDT procedure.

In some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing may comprise at least one of the following: in accordance with a determination that one or more conditions for initiating a SDT to respond to a paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure are fulfilled, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing; in accordance with a determination that the paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is received, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing; or in accordance with a determination that a response to the paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is transmitted, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing.

In some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein, a timer is configured for failure detection of the MT-SDT procedure. Managing the MT-SDT procedure may comprise at least one of the following: in accordance with a determination that the MT-SDT procedure is started, starting the timer; in accordance with a determination that the MT-SDT procedure is stopped or cancelled or suspended, stopping or resetting the timer; or in accordance with a determination that the timer expires, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed.

Some implementations of the method and apparatuses described herein may further include: in accordance with a determination that data associated with the MT-SDT procedure arrives, determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started; in accordance with a determination that the data associated with the MT-SDT procedure is transmitted, determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started; in accordance with a determination that an RRC connection resume procedure associated with the MT-SDT procedure is initiated, determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started; in accordance with a determination that a set of conditions for initiating the MT-SDT procedure is fulfilled, determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started; or in accordance with a determination that a paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is received, determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless communications system that supports handling of one or more SDT procedures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example scenario of parallel SDT procedures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2B illustrates another example scenario of parallel SDT procedures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a process that supports handling of an MT-SDT procedure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a process that supports handling of parallel SDT procedures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a device that supports handling of an MT-SDT procedure or parallel SDT procedures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a processor that supports handling of an MT-SDT procedure or parallel SDT procedures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method that supports handling of an MT-SDT procedure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a method that supports handling of parallel SDT procedures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As known, a SDT procedure may be performed either by a random access (RA) procedure with 2-step RA type or 4-step RA type (i.e., RA-SDT) or by configured grant (CG) Type 1 (i.e., CG-SDT) . For convenience, a CG resource configured for SDT may also be referred to as a CG-SDT resource, and an RA resource configured for SDT may also be referred to as an RA-SDT resource. An RA resource configured for UE may also be used for a SDT procedure.

As also known, an MO-SDT procedure and an MT-SDT procedure have been proposed for SDT enhancement. However, it is still unclear how to handle an MT-SDT procedure and how to handle interplay among multiple SDT procedures.

In view of this, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution of handling an MT-SDT procedure. In the solution, upon determination that an MT-SDT procedure is ongoing, a communication device may manage the MT-SDT procedure. In this way, by determination of an ongoing MT-SDT procedure, handling of the MT-SDT procedure may be enhanced.

In the other hand, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution of handling parallel SDT procedures. In the solution, upon determination that a plurality of SDT procedures are ongoing, a communication device may manage the plurality of SDT procedures. In this way, handling of parallel SDT procedures may be achieved.

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

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless communications system 100 that supports handling of overlap among at least SDT procedures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The wireless communications system 100 may include one or more network entities 102 (also referred to as network equipment (NE) ) , one or more UEs 104, a core network 106, and a packet data network 108. The wireless communications system 100 may support various radio access technologies. In some implementations, the wireless communications 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 communications system 100 may be a 5G network, such as an NR network. In other implementations, the wireless communications 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 communications system 100 may support radio access technologies beyond 5G. Additionally, the wireless communications 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 network entities 102 may be dispersed throughout a geographic region to form the wireless communications system 100. One or more of the network entities 102 described herein may be or include or may be referred to as a network node, a base station, a network element, a radio access network (RAN) , a base transceiver station, an access point, a NodeB, an eNodeB (eNB) , a next-generation NodeB (gNB) , or other suitable terminology. A network entity 102 and a UE 104 may communicate via a communication link 110, which may be a wireless or wired connection. For example, a network entity 102 and a UE 104 may perform wireless communication (e.g., receive signaling, transmit signaling) over a Uu interface.

A network entity 102 may provide a geographic coverage area 112 for which the network entity 102 may support services (e.g., voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. ) for one or more UEs 104 within the geographic coverage area 112. For example, a network entity 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, a network entity 102 may be moveable, for example, a satellite associated with a non-terrestrial network. 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 network entities 102. Information and signals described herein may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

The one or more UEs 104 may be dispersed throughout a geographic region of the wireless communications system 100. A UE 104 may include or may be referred to as a mobile device, a wireless device, a remote device, a remote unit, a handheld device, or a subscriber 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. In some implementations, a UE 104 may be stationary in the wireless communications system 100. In some other implementations, a UE 104 may be mobile in the wireless communications system 100.

The one or more UEs 104 may be devices in different forms or having different capabilities. Some examples of UEs 104 are illustrated in FIG. 1. A UE 104 may be capable of communicating with various types of devices, such as the network entities 102, other UEs 104, or network equipment (e.g., the core network 106, the packet data network 108, a relay device, an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, or another network equipment) , as shown in FIG. 1. Additionally, or alternatively, a UE 104 may support communication with other network entities 102 or UEs 104, which may act as relays in the wireless communications system 100.

A UE 104 may also be able to support wireless communication directly with other UEs 104 over a communication link 114. 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.

A network entity 102 may support communications with the core network 106, or with another network entity 102, or both. For example, a network entity 102 may interface with the core network 106 through one or more backhaul links 116 (e.g., via an S1, N2, N2, or another network interface) . The network entities 102 may communicate with each other over the backhaul links 116 (e.g., via an X2, Xn, or another network interface) . In some implementations, the network entities 102 may communicate with each other directly (e.g., between the network entities 102) . In some other implementations, the network entities 102 may communicate with each other or indirectly (e.g., via the core network 106) . In some implementations, one or more network entities 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 transmission-reception points (TRPs) .

In some implementations, a network entity 102 may be configured in a disaggregated architecture, which may be configured to utilize a protocol stack physically or logically distributed among two or more network entities 102, such as an integrated access backhaul (IAB) network, an open RAN (O-RAN) (e.g., a network configuration sponsored by the O-RAN Alliance) , or a virtualized RAN (vRAN) (e.g., a cloud RAN (C-RAN) ) . For example, a network entity 102 may include one or more of a central unit (CU) , a distributed unit (DU) , a radio unit (RU) , a RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) (e.g., a Near-Real Time RIC (Near-RT RIC) , a Non-Real Time RIC (Non-RT RIC) ) , a Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) system, or any combination thereof.

An RU may also be referred to as a radio head, a smart radio head, a remote radio head (RRH) , a remote radio unit (RRU) , or a transmission reception point (TRP) . One or more components of the network entities 102 in a disaggregated RAN architecture may be co-located, or one or more components of the network entities 102 may be located in distributed locations (e.g., separate physical locations) . In some implementations, one or more network entities 102 of a disaggregated RAN architecture may be implemented as virtual units (e.g., a virtual CU (VCU) , a virtual DU (VDU) , a virtual RU (VRU) ) .

Split of functionality between a CU, a DU, and an RU may be flexible and may support different functionalities depending upon which functions (e.g., network layer functions, protocol layer functions, baseband functions, radio frequency functions, and any combinations thereof) are performed at a CU, a DU, or an RU. For example, a functional split of a protocol stack may be employed between a CU and a DU such that the CU may support one or more layers of the protocol stack and the DU may support one or more different layers of the protocol stack. In some implementations, the CU may host upper protocol layer (e.g., a layer 3 (L3) , a layer 2 (L2) ) functionality and signaling (e.g., Radio Resource Control (RRC) , service data adaption protocol (SDAP) , Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) ) . The CU may be connected to one or more DUs or RUs, and the one or more DUs or RUs may host lower protocol layers, such as a layer 1 (L1) (e.g., physical (PHY) layer) or an L2 (e.g., radio link control (RLC) layer, medium access control (MAC) layer) functionality and signaling, and may each be at least partially controlled by the CU 160.

Additionally, or alternatively, a functional split of the protocol stack may be employed between a DU and an RU such that the DU may support one or more layers of the protocol stack and the RU may support one or more different layers of the protocol stack. The DU may support one or multiple different cells (e.g., via one or more RUs) . In some implementations, a functional split between a CU and a DU, or between a DU and an RU may be within a protocol layer (e.g., some functions for a protocol layer may be performed by one of a CU, a DU, or an RU, while other functions of the protocol layer are performed by a different one of the CU, the DU, or the RU) .

A CU may be functionally split further into CU control plane (CU-CP) and CU user plane (CU-UP) functions. A CU may be connected to one or more DUs via a midhaul communication link (e.g., F1, F1-c, F1-u) , and a DU may be connected to one or more RUs via a fronthaul communication link (e.g., open fronthaul (FH) interface) . In some implementations, a midhaul communication link or a fronthaul communication link may be implemented in accordance with an interface (e.g., a channel) between layers of a protocol stack supported by respective network entities 102 that are in communication via such communication links.

The core network 106 may support user authentication, access authorization, tracking, connectivity, and other access, routing, or mobility functions. The core network 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 network entities 102 associated with the core network 106.

The core network 106 may communicate with the packet data network 108 over one or more backhaul links 116 (e.g., via an S1, N2, N2, or another network interface) . The packet data network 108 may include an application server 118. In some implementations, one or more UEs 104 may communicate with the application server 118. A UE 104 may establish a session (e.g., a protocol data unit (PDU) session, or the like) with the core network 106 via a network entity 102. The core network 106 may route traffic (e.g., control information, data, and the like) between the UE 104 and the application server 118 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 core network 106 (e.g., one or more network functions of the core network 106) .

In the wireless communications system 100, the network entities 102 and the UEs 104 may use resources of the wireless communications 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 network entities 102 and the UEs 104 may support different resource structures. For example, the network entities 102 and the UEs 104 may support different frame structures. In some implementations, such as in 4G, the network entities 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 network entities 102 and the UEs 104 may support various frame structures (i.e., multiple frame structures) . The network entities 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 communications 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 communications 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 communications 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 communications 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 network entities 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 network entities 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 network entities 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.

In the context of the present disclosure, the term “a connected state” may be interchangeably used with “an RRC_CONNECTED state” , the term “an idle state” may be interchangeably used with “an RRC_IDLE state” , and the term “an inactive state” may be interchangeably used with “an RRC_INACTIVE state” .

In some scenarios, the UE 104 may enter an inactive state or an idle state. In some embodiments where the UE 104 is in the inactive or idle state, small and infrequency uplink (UL) data may arrive at the UE 104. The UE 104 may perform a SDT procedure to transmit the UL data to the network entity 102. This procedure is a MO-SDT procedure.

In some embodiments where the UE 104 is in the inactive or idle state, the network entity 102 may transmit a paging message for the UE 104. The paging message may be associated with SDT. In other words, the paging message may indicate the SDT. Upon reception of the paging message, the UE 104 may transmit, to the network entity 102, a response to the paging message. The network entity 102 may transmit downlink (DL) data to the UE 104 while the UE 104 maintains in the inactive state or the idle state. This procedure is a MT-SDT procedure.

FIG. 2A illustrates an example scenario 200A of parallel SDT procedures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 2A, UL small data may arrive at a timing T1. In this case, an RRC connection resume procedure may be initiated by an RRC layer of the UE 104. The RRC layer or a lower layer of the UE 104 may consider that the first available configured grant (CG) resource is valid or may use the first available CG resource to transmit pending or buffered or arrived UL small data. The first available CG resource may be located at a timing T3 as shown. The RRC layer of the UE 104 may determine that an UL SDT procedure is ongoing at the timing T1. Continuing to refer to FIG. 2A, in some scenarios, a paging message associated with an MT-SDT may be received at a timing T2. In this case, an MO-SDT procedure and an MT-SDT procedure are parallel. It is to be understood that the CG resource is merely an example, and an available resource to perform the MO-SDT procedure may also be a RA-SDT resource or any other suitable resources.

FIG. 2B illustrates another example scenario 200B of parallel SDT procedures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 2B, a paging message associated with an MT-SDT may be received at a timing T4. An RRC layer of the UE 104 may initiate an RRC connection resume procedure. The RRC layer or a lower layer of the UE 104 may determine to respond to the paging message with a random access (RA) resource. The RA resource may be located at a timing T6 as shown. The RRC layer of the UE 104 may determine that a DL SDT procedure is ongoing at the timing T4. Continuing to refer to FIG. 2B, in some scenarios, UL small data may arrive at a timing T5. In this case, an MO-SDT procedure and a MT-SDT procedure are parallel. It is to be understood that the RA resource is merely an example, and an available resource for responding to the paging message may also be a CG-SDT resource or any other suitable resources.

As mentioned above, it is still unclear how to handle an MT-SDT procedure. It is also unclear how to handle interplay among multiple SDT procedures.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution of handling an MT-SDT procedure. The solution will be described in connection with FIG. 3 below.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a process 300 that supports handling of an MT-SDT procedure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the process 300 will be described with reference to FIG. 1. The process 300 may involve the UE 104 and the network entity 102 as illustrated in FIG. 1. It is to be understood that the steps and the order of the steps in FIG. 3 are merely for illustration, and not for limitation.

As shown in FIG. 3, the UE 104 may determine 310 that a MT-SDT procedure is ongoing. In some embodiments, if one or more conditions for initiating a SDT to respond to a paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure are fulfilled, the UE 104 may determine that the MT-SDT is ongoing. In some embodiments, if a SDT is initiated to respond to a paging message associated with an MT-SDT procedure, the UE 104 may determine that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing. In some embodiments, if the paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is received, the UE 104 may determine that the MT-SDT is ongoing. In some embodiments, if a response to the paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is transmitted, the UE 104 may determine that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing. In some embodiments, if the first common control channel (CCCH) message for the MT-SDT procedure is transmitted, the UE 104 may determine that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 3, the UE 104 may manage 320 the MT-SDT procedure. In some embodiments, a timer may be configured for failure detection of the MT-SDT procedure. In other words, a SDT failure detection timer may be defined, e.g., T319b dedicated for MT-SDT. With reference to FIG. 3, the network entity 102 may configure 321 the timer to the UE 104. Alternatively, the timer may be predefined.

As shown in FIG. 3, in some embodiments, if the MT-SDT procedure is started, the UE 104 may start 322 the timer. In some embodiments, if data associated with the MT-SDT procedure arrives, the UE 104 may determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started. In some embodiments, if the data associated with the MT-SDT procedure is transmitted, the UE 104 may determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started. In some embodiments, if an RRC connection resume procedure associated with the MT-SDT procedure is initiated, the UE 104 may determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started. In some embodiments, if a set of conditions for initiating the MT-SDT procedure is fulfilled, the UE 104 may determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started. In some embodiments, if a paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is received, the UE 104 may determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started. In some embodiments, if a lower layer of the UE 104 first transmits a CCCH message for the MT-SDT procedure, the UE 104 may determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started. Upon determination that the MT-SDT procedure, the UE 104 may start the timer.

As shown in FIG. 3, in some embodiments, if the MT-SDT procedure is stopped or cancelled or suspended, the UE 104 may stop or reset 323 the timer. In some embodiments, upon reception of a message indicating the stopping or cancelling or suspending of the MT-SDT procedure, the UE 104 may stop or reset the timer. For example, the message may be an RRC resume message, an RRC setup message, an RRC release message or RRC reject message. In some embodiments, upon failure to resume RRC connection for SDT, the UE 104 may stop or reset the timer. In some embodiments, upon cell reselection, the UE 104 may stop or reset the timer.

Still referring to FIG. 3, in some embodiments, if the timer expires, the UE 104 may determine 324 that the MT-SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed.

So far, handling of an ongoing MT-SDT procedure is described. With the process 300, an ongoing MT-SDT procedure may be determined and handled. Thereby, handling of an MT-SDT procedure may be enhanced.

Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a solution of handling parallel SDT procedures. The solution will be described in connection with FIG. 4 below.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a process 400 that supports handling of parallel SDT procedures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the process 400 will be described with reference to FIG. 1. The process 400 may involve the UE 104 and the network entity 102 as illustrated in FIG. 1. It is to be understood that the steps and the order of the steps in FIG. 4 are merely for illustration, and not for limitation.

As shown in FIG. 4, the UE 104 may determine 410 that a plurality of SDT procedures are ongoing. In some embodiments, if one or more conditions for initiating a SDT procedure are fulfilled, the UE 104 may consider that the SDT procedure is ongoing. It is to be understood that any other suitable ways are also feasible for determination of an ongoing SDT procedure.

In some embodiments, one of the plurality of SDT procedures may be an MO-SDT procedure. In some embodiments, one of the plurality of SDT procedures may be an MT-SDT procedure. In other words, the plurality of SDT procedures may include the MO-SDT procedure or the MT-SDT procedure or both.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 4, the UE 104 may manage 420 the plurality of SDT procedures. In some embodiments, the UE 104 may keep 421 at least one of the plurality of SDT procedures. In other words, the UE 104 may stop or cancel or suspend one or more of the plurality of SDT procedures.

In some embodiments, if a DL resource for an MT-SDT procedure is allocated during the MO-SDT procedure, the UE 104 may stop or cancel or suspend the MT-SDT procedure.

In some embodiments, if a DL resource for DL data reception is allocated during an MO-SDT procedure before a response to a paging message associated with an MT-SDT procedure is transmitted, the UE 104 may stop or cancel or suspend the MT-SDT procedure. For example, if the DL resource for DL data reception is allocated during the MO-SDT procedure before an RRC resume request message for the MT-SDT procedure is transmitted, the UE 104 may stop or cancel or suspend the MT-SDT procedure.

In some embodiments, if a DL resource for DL data reception is allocated during an MO-SDT procedure before the DL resource for DL data reception is allocated during an MT-SDT procedure, the UE 104 may stop or cancel or suspend the MT-SDT procedure.

In some embodiments, if an UL grant (e.g., for UL SDT) is received before an UL transmission of an MO-SDT procedure, the UE 104 may stop or cancel or suspend the MO-SDT procedure. For example, if the UL grant is received before the first UL transmission of an MO-SDT procedure, the UE 104 may stop or cancel or suspend the MO-SDT procedure. In some embodiments, if an UL grant is received during an MT-SDT procedure, the UE 104 may stop or cancel or suspend an MO-SDT procedure. In some embodiments, if an UL grant is received during an MT-SDT procedure and the UL grant can accommodate all of buffered UL data, the UE 104 may stop or cancel or suspend an MO-SDT procedure.

In some embodiments, if a BSR is transmitted before an UL transmission of an MO-SDT procedure, the UE 104 may stop or cancel or suspend the MO-SDT procedure. For example, if the BSR is transmitted before the first UL transmission of the MO-SDT procedure, the UE 104 may stop or cancel or suspend the MO-SDT procedure. In another example, if the BSR is transmitted before all of the UL small data are transmitted, the UE 104 may stop or cancel or suspend the MO-SDT procedure.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 4, in some embodiments, the UE 104 may handle 422 one or more timers for failure detection of the plurality of SDT procedures.

In some embodiments, one timer (e.g., T319a) may be configured for the UE 104 for failure detection of the plurality of SDT procedures. In other words, the timer may be configured per UE and only one timer is running in operation.

In some embodiments where the one timer is configured, if an RRC resume request message for SDT is transmitted, the UE 104 may start or restart the timer. In other words, the timer may be started upon each transmission of the RRC resume request message (for example, RRCResumeRequest or RRCResumeRequest1) when a resume procedure is initiated for SDT.

In some embodiments where the one timer is configured, if the RRC resume request message for SDT is transmitted for the first time, the UE 104 may start the timer. In other words, the timer may be started only upon the first transmission of the RRC resume request message (for example, RRCResumeRequest or RRCResumeRequest1) when the resume procedure is initiated for SDT, e.g., before the SDT is completed. In this case, one or more SDT procedures latter initiated do not start the timer if there is one ongoing SDT or if there is an SDT which is not ended.

In some embodiments where the one timer is configured, if the plurality of SDT procedures are completed or stopped, the UE 104 may stop the timer. In some embodiments, if the timer expires, the UE 104 may determine that the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed. That is, all of the SDT procedures may be considered as unsuccessfully completed.

In some embodiments where the one timer is configured, if the timer expires, the UE 104 may determine that one or more ongoing SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed. That is, all of the ongoing SDT procedures may be considered as unsuccessfully completed.

In some embodiments, a plurality of timers (e.g., T319a and/or T319b) may be configured for failure detection of the plurality of SDT procedures. In other words, a timer may be configured per SDT procedure, and may be running in parallel for each of the ongoing SDT procedures. In some alternative embodiments, the plurality of timers may be the same timer configured for the UE 104. In other words, a timer may be configured per UE and may be running in parallel for each of the ongoing SDT procedures.

In some embodiments where the plurality of timers are provided, if one (for convenience, also referred to as a first SDT procedure herein) of the plurality of SDT procedures is started, the UE 104 may start a timer (for convenience, also referred to as a first timer herein) corresponding to the first SDT procedure among the plurality of timers. In some embodiments, the first timer may be started when the lower layer of the UE 104 first transmit a CCCH message for the first SDT procedure. In some embodiments where the first SDT procedure is an MT-SDT procedure, the first timer may be started when a paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is received. In some embodiments where the first SDT procedure is an MT-SDT procedure, the first timer may be started when a set of conditions for initiating SDT to respond to the paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is fulfilled.

In some embodiments, if the first SDT procedure is stopped or cancelled or suspended, the UE 104 may stop or reset the first timer. In some embodiments, if the first timer expires, the UE 104 may determine that the first SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 4, in some embodiments, the UE 104 may determine 423 completion of the plurality of SDT procedures.

In some embodiments, if an RRC release message is received, the UE 104 may determine that the plurality of SDT procedures are completed. For example, the network entity 102 may transmit an RRCRelease message including suspendConfig when all of the SDT procedures are completed. Based on the RRCRelease message, the UE 104 may consider that all of the SDT procedures are completed.

In some embodiments, if an RRC release message is received, the UE 104 may determine that the plurality of SDT procedures are successfully completed. For example, the network entity 102 may transmit an RRCRelease message including suspendConfig when all of the SDT procedures are successfully completed. Based on the RRCRelease message, the UE 104 may consider that all of the SDT procedures are successfully completed.

In some embodiments, if an indication of a state of the UE 104 is received, the UE 104 may determine that the plurality of SDT procedures are completed. For example, if the UE 104 is directed to an idle state, e.g., via an RRCRelease message, the UE 104 may consider that all of the SDT procedures are completed. In another example, if the UE 104 is directed to continue in an inactive state, e.g., via an RRCRelease message or an RRCReject message, the UE 104 may consider that all of the SDT procedures are completed. In still another example, if the UE 104 is directed to a connected state, e.g., via an RRCResume message or an RRCSetup message, the UE 104 may consider that all of the SDT procedures are completed.

In some embodiments, if an indication of a state of the UE 104 is received, the UE 104 may determine that the plurality of SDT procedures are successfully completed. For example, if the UE 104 is directed to an idle state, e.g., via an RRCRelease message, the UE 104 may consider that all of the SDT procedures are successfully completed. In another example, if the UE 104 is directed to continue in an inactive state, e.g., via an RRCRelease message or an RRCReject message, the UE 104 may consider that all of the SDT procedures are successfully completed. In still another example, if the UE 104 is directed to a connected state, e.g., via an RRCResume message or an RRCSetup message, the UE 104 may consider that all of the SDT procedures are successfully completed.

In some embodiments, if one or more SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed, the UE 104 may determine that the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed. For example, if any of the plurality of SDT procedures is unsuccessfully completed, the UE 104 may determine that the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed. In another example, if all of the plurality of SDT procedures is unsuccessfully completed, the UE 104 may determine that the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed.

In some embodiments, if a timer for failure detection of one (for convenience, also referred to as a second SDT procedure herein) of the one or more SDT procedures expires, the UE 104 may determine that the second SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed.

In some embodiments, if number of times of a preamble transmission for one (for convenience, also referred to as a third SDT procedure herein) of the one or more SDT procedures is equal to a threshold number (for convenience, also referred to as a first threshold number herein) , the UE 104 may determine that the third SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed. For example, if a medium access control (MAC) entity of the UE 104 reaches a configured maximum PRACH preamble transmission threshold, the UE 104 may determine that the third SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed.

In some embodiments, if number of times of a retransmission for one (for convenience, also referred to as a fourth SDT procedure herein) of the one or more SDT procedures is equal to a threshold number (for convenience, also referred to as a second threshold number herein) , the UE 104 may determine that the fourth SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed. For example, if a radio link control (RLC) entity of the UE 104 reaches a configured maximum retransmission threshold, the UE 104 may determine that the fourth SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed.

In some embodiments, if a timing alignment timer for one (for convenience, also referred to as a fifth SDT procedure herein) of the one or more SDT procedures expires while the fifth SDT procedure is ongoing over a CG resource and no response from the network entity 102 is received after initial transmission (e.g., initial physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission) of the fifth SDT procedure, the UE 104 may determine that the fifth SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 4, the network entity 102 may transmit 424, to the UE 104, an indication of one or more SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures that have been completed. In some embodiments, the network entity 102 may transmit a message with one or more cause values indicating the one or more SDT procedures. In some embodiments, the network entity 102 may transmit a message with one or more IEs indicating the one or more SDT procedures. For example, the message may include an RRCRelease message or an RRCReject message. In this way, which SDT procedure (s) is completed may be indicated to UE. It is to be understood that any other suitable ways are also feasible to transmission of such indication.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 4, the network entity 102 may transmit 425, to the UE 104, an indication of keeping an inactive state. In these embodiments, the UE 110 may determine that the one or more SDT procedures are completed or successfully completed. In some embodiments, the network entity 102 may transmit a message including the indication of keeping an inactive state. For example, the message may include an RRCRelease message or an RRCReject message. It is to be understood that any other suitable ways are also feasible to transmission of such indication.

In some alternative or additional embodiments, if the indication of keeping the inactive state is received from the network entity 102, the UE 104 may determine that a set of SDT procedures (i.e., one or more other SDT procedures) other than the one or more indicated SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures is ongoing.

In some embodiments, the indication of the one or more SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures that have been completed and the indication of keeping the inactive state may be transmitted in the same message. In some embodiments, the indication of the one or more SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures that have been completed and the indication of keeping the inactive state may be separately transmitted in different messages.

So far, handling of parallel SDT procedures is described. With the process 400, parallel SDT procedures may be managed and SDT enhancement may be achieved.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a device 500 that supports handling of an MT-SDT procedure or parallel SDT procedures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The device 500 may be an example of the UE 104 as described herein. The device 500 may support wireless communication with one or more network entities 102, UEs 104, or any combination thereof. The device 500 may include components for bi-directional communications including components for transmitting and receiving communications, such as a processor 502, a memory 504, a transceiver 506, and, optionally, an I/O controller 508. 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 502, the memory 504, the transceiver 506, or various combinations thereof or various components thereof may be examples of means for performing various aspects of the present disclosure as described herein. For example, the processor 502, the memory 504, the transceiver 506, or various combinations or components thereof may support a method for performing one or more of the operations described herein.

In some implementations, the processor 502, the memory 504, the transceiver 506, or various combinations or components thereof may be implemented in hardware (e.g., in communications management circuitry) . The hardware may include a processor, a digital signal processor (DSP) , an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) , a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof configured as or otherwise supporting a means for performing the functions described in the present disclosure. In some implementations, the processor 502 and the memory 504 coupled with the processor 502 may be configured to perform one or more of the functions described herein (e.g., executing, by the processor 502, instructions stored in the memory 504) .

For example, the processor 502 may support wireless communication at the device 500 in accordance with examples as disclosed herein. The processor 502 may be configured to operable to support a means for determining that an MT-SDT procedure is ongoing and managing the MT-SDT procedure or a means for determining that a plurality of SDT procedures are ongoing and managing the plurality of SDT procedures.

The processor 502 may include an intelligent hardware device (e.g., a general-purpose processor, a DSP, a CPU, a microcontroller, an ASIC, an FPGA, a programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic component, a discrete hardware component, or any combination thereof) . In some implementations, the processor 502 may be configured to operate a memory array using a memory controller. In some other implementations, a memory controller may be integrated into the processor 502. The processor 502 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in a memory (e.g., the memory 504) to cause the device 500 to perform various functions of the present disclosure.

The memory 504 may include random access memory (RAM) and read-only memory (ROM) . The memory 504 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code including instructions that, when executed by the processor 502 cause the device 500 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. In some implementations, the code may not be directly executable by the processor 502 but may cause a computer (e.g., when compiled and executed) to perform functions described herein. In some implementations, the memory 504 may include, among other things, a basic I/O system (BIOS) which may control basic hardware or software operation such as the interaction with peripheral components or devices.

The I/O controller 508 may manage input and output signals for the device 500. The I/O controller 508 may also manage peripherals not integrated into the device 500. In some implementations, the I/O controller 508 may represent a physical connection or port to an external peripheral. In some implementations, the I/O controller 508 may utilize an operating system such as or another known operating system. In some implementations, the I/O controller 508 may be implemented as part of a processor, such as the processor 506. In some implementations, a user may interact with the device 500 via the I/O controller 508 or via hardware components controlled by the I/O controller 508.

In some implementations, the device 500 may include a single antenna 510. However, in some other implementations, the device 500 may have more than one antenna 510 (i.e., multiple antennas) , including multiple antenna panels or antenna arrays, which may be capable of concurrently transmitting or receiving multiple wireless transmissions. The transceiver 506 may communicate bi-directionally, via the one or more antennas 510, wired, or wireless links as described herein. For example, the transceiver 506 may represent a wireless transceiver and may communicate bi-directionally with another wireless transceiver. The transceiver 506 may also include a modem to modulate the packets, to provide the modulated packets to one or more antennas 510 for transmission, and to demodulate packets received from the one or more antennas 510. The transceiver 506 may include one or more transmit chains, one or more receive chains, or a combination thereof.

A transmit chain may be configured to generate and transmit signals (e.g., control information, data, packets) . The transmit chain 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 transmit chain 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 transmit chain may also include one or more antennas 510 for transmitting the amplified signal into the air or wireless medium.

A receive chain may be configured to receive signals (e.g., control information, data, packets) over a wireless medium. For example, the receive chain may include one or more antennas 510 for receive the signal over the air or wireless medium. The receive chain may include at least one amplifier (e.g., a low-noise amplifier (LNA) ) configured to amplify the received signal. The receive chain 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 receive chain may include at least one decoder for decoding the processing the demodulated signal to receive the transmitted data.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a processor 600 that supports handling of an MT-SDT procedure or parallel SDT procedures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The processor 600 may be an example of a processor configured to perform various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. The processor 600 may include a controller 602 configured to perform various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. The processor 600 may optionally include at least one memory 604, such as L1/L2/L3 cache. Additionally, or alternatively, the processor 600 may optionally include one or more arithmetic-logic units (ALUs) 606. 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 600 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 600) 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 602 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 600 to cause the processor 600 to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. For example, the controller 602 may operate as a control unit of the processor 600, generating control signals that manage the operation of various components of the processor 600. These control signals include enabling or disabling functional units, selecting data paths, initiating memory access, and coordinating timing of operations.

The controller 602 may be configured to fetch (e.g., obtain, retrieve, receive) instructions from the memory 604 and determine subsequent instruction (s) to be executed to cause the processor 600 to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. The controller 602 may be configured to track memory address of instructions associated with the memory 604. The controller 602 may be configured to decode instructions to determine the operation to be performed and the operands involved. For example, the controller 602 may be configured to interpret the instruction and determine control signals to be output to other components of the processor 600 to cause the processor 600 to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. Additionally, or alternatively, the controller 602 may be configured to manage flow of data within the processor 600. The controller 602 may be configured to control transfer of data between registers, arithmetic logic units (ALUs) , and other functional units of the processor 600.

The memory 604 may include one or more caches (e.g., memory local to or included in the processor 600 or other memory, such RAM, ROM, DRAM, SDRAM, SRAM, MRAM, flash memory, etc. In some implementation, the memory 604 may reside within or on a processor chipset (e.g., local to the processor 600) . In some other implementations, the memory 604 may reside external to the processor chipset (e.g., remote to the processor 600) .

The memory 604 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code including instructions that, when executed by the processor 600, cause the processor 600 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 602 and/or the processor 600 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in the memory 604 to cause the processor 600 to perform various functions. For example, the processor 600 and/or the controller 602 may be coupled with or to the memory 604, and the processor 600, the controller 602, and the memory 604 may be configured to perform various functions described herein. In some examples, the processor 600 may include multiple processors and the memory 604 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 606 may be configured to support various operations in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementation, the one or more ALUs 606 may reside within or on a processor chipset (e.g., the processor 600) . In some other implementations, the one or more ALUs 606 may reside external to the processor chipset (e.g., the processor 600) . One or more ALUs 606 may perform one or more computations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division on data. For example, one or more ALUs 606 may receive input operands and an operation code, which determines an operation to be executed. One or more ALUs 606 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 606 may support logical operations such as AND, OR, exclusive-OR (XOR) , not-OR (NOR) , and not-AND (NAND) , enabling the one or more ALUs 606 to handle conditional operations, comparisons, and bitwise operations.

The processor 600 may support wireless communication in accordance with examples as disclosed herein. The processor 600 may be configured to or operable to support a means for determining that an MT-SDT procedure is ongoing and managing the MT-SDT procedure or a means for determining that a plurality of SDT procedures are ongoing and managing the plurality of SDT procedures.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method 700 that supports handling of an MT-SDT procedure in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of the method 700 may be implemented by a device or its components as described herein. For example, the operations of the method 700 may be performed by the UE 104 as described herein. In some implementations, the device may execute a set of instructions to control the function elements of the device to perform the described functions. Additionally, or alternatively, the device may perform aspects of the described functions using special-purpose hardware.

At block 705, the method 700 may include determining that an MT-SDT procedure is ongoing. The operations of 705 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 705 may be performed by a device as described with reference to FIG. 1.

In some embodiments, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing may comprise at least one of the following: in accordance with a determination that one or more conditions for initiating a SDT to respond to a paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure are fulfilled, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing; in accordance with a determination that the paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is received, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing; or in accordance with a determination that a response to the paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is transmitted, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing.

At block 710, the method 700 may include managing the MT-SDT procedure. The operations of 710 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 710 may be performed by a device as described with reference to FIG. 1.

In some embodiments, a timer is configured for failure detection of the MT-SDT procedure. Managing the MT-SDT procedure may comprise at least one of the following: in accordance with a determination that the MT-SDT procedure is started, starting the timer; in accordance with a determination that the MT-SDT procedure is stopped or cancelled or suspended, stopping or resetting the timer; or in accordance with a determination that the timer expires, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed.

In some embodiments, the method 700 may further include: in accordance with a determination that data associated with the MT-SDT procedure arrives, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is started; in accordance with a determination that the data associated with the MT-SDT procedure is transmitted, determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started; in accordance with a determination that a radio resource control (RRC) connection resume procedure associated with the MT-SDT procedure is initiated, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is started; in accordance with a determination that a set of conditions for initiating the MT-SDT procedure is fulfilled, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is started; or in accordance with a determination that a paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is received, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is started.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a method 800 that supports handling of parallel SDT procedures in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of the method 800 may be implemented by a device or its components as described herein. For example, the operations of the method 800 may be performed by the UE 104 as described herein. In some implementations, the device may execute a set of instructions to control the function elements of the device to perform the described functions. Additionally, or alternatively, the device may perform aspects of the described functions using special-purpose hardware.

At block 805, the method 800 may include determining that an MT-SDT procedure is ongoing. The operations of 805 may be performed in accordance with examples as described herein. In some implementations, aspects of the operations of 805 may be performed by a device as described with reference to FIG. 1.

In some embodiments, managing the plurality of SDT procedures may comprise at least one of the following: keeping at least one of the plurality of SDT procedures; handling one or more timers for failure detection of the plurality of SDT procedures; or determining completion of the plurality of SDT procedures.

In some embodiments, one of the plurality of SDT procedures is an MO-SDT procedure or an MT-SDT procedure. In some embodiments, managing the plurality of SDT procedures may comprise at least one of the following: in accordance with a determination that a downlink resource for the MT-SDT procedure is allocated during the MO-SDT procedure, stopping or cancelling or suspending the MT-SDT procedure; in accordance with a determination that a downlink resource for downlink data reception is allocated during the MO-SDT procedure before a response to a paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is transmitted, stopping or cancelling or suspending the MT-SDT procedure; in accordance with a determination that a downlink resource for downlink data reception is allocated during the MO-SDT procedure before the downlink resource for downlink data reception is allocated during the MT-SDT procedure, stopping or cancelling or suspending the MT-SDT procedure; in accordance with a determination that an uplink grant is received before an uplink transmission of the MO-SDT procedure, stopping or cancelling or suspending the MO-SDT procedure; or in accordance with a determination that a BSR is transmitted before an uplink transmission of the MO-SDT procedure, stopping or cancelling or suspending the MO-SDT procedure.

In some embodiments, a timer may be configured for UE for failure detection of the plurality of SDT procedures. Managing the plurality of SDT procedures may comprise at least one of the following: in accordance with a determination that an RRC resume request message for SDT is transmitted, starting or restarting the timer; in accordance with a determination that the RRC resume request message for SDT is transmitted for the first time, starting the timer; in accordance with a determination that the plurality of SDT procedures are completed or stopped, stopping the timer; in accordance with a determination that the timer expires, determining that the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed; or in accordance with a determination that the timer expires, determining that one or more ongoing SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed.

In some embodiments, a plurality of timers may be configured for the plurality of SDT procedures. In some embodiments, the plurality of timers may be a same timer configured for the UE. In these embodiments, managing the plurality of SDT procedures may comprise at least one of the following: in accordance with a determination that a first SDT procedure in the plurality of SDT procedures is started, starting a first timer in the plurality of timers; in accordance with a determination that the first SDT procedure is stopped or cancelled or suspended, stopping or resetting the first timer; or in accordance with a determination that the first timer expires, determining that the first SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed.

In some embodiments, managing the plurality of SDT procedures may comprise at least one of the following: in accordance with a determination that an RRC release message is received, determining that the plurality of SDT procedures are completed or successfully completed; or in accordance with a determination that an indication of a state of the user equipment is received, determining that the plurality of SDT procedures are completed or successfully completed.

In some embodiments, managing the plurality of SDT procedures may comprise: in accordance with a determination that one or more SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed, determining that the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed.

In some embodiments, the method 800 may further include at least one of the following: in accordance with a determination that a timer for failure detection of a second SDT procedure in the one or more SDT procedures expires, determining that the second SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed; in accordance with a determination that number of times of a preamble transmission for a third SDT procedure in the one or more SDT procedures is equal to a first threshold number, determining that the third SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed; in accordance with a determination that number of times of a retransmission for a fourth SDT procedure in the one or more SDT procedures is equal to a second threshold number, determining that the fourth SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed; or in accordance with a determination that a timing alignment timer for a fifth SDT procedure in the one or more SDT procedures expires while the fifth SDT procedure is ongoing over a configured grant resource and no response from a base station is received after initial transmission of the fifth SDT procedure, determining that the fifth SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed.

In some embodiments, managing the plurality of SDT procedures may comprise at least one of the following: receiving, from a base station, an indication of one or more SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures that have been completed; in accordance with a determination that an indication of keeping an inactive state is received from the base station, determining that the one or more SDT procedures are completed or successfully completed; or in accordance with a determination that an indication of keeping an inactive state is received from the base station, determining that a set of SDT procedures other than the one or more SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures is ongoing.

In some embodiments, receiving the indication of the one or more SDT procedures may comprise: receiving a message with one or more cause values, the one or more cause values indicating the one or more SDT procedures; or receiving a message with one or more information elements, the one or more information elements indicating the one or more SDT procedures.

It should be noted that the methods described herein describes possible implementations, and that the operations and the steps may be rearranged or otherwise modified and that other implementations are possible. Further, aspects from two or more of the methods may be combined.

The various illustrative blocks and components described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented or performed with a general-purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, a CPU, an FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

The functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, software executed by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software executed by a processor, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Other examples and implementations are within the scope of the disclosure and appended claims. For example, due to the nature of software, functions described herein may be implemented using software executed by a processor, hardware, firmware, hardwiring, or combinations of any of these. Features implementing functions may also be physically located at various positions, including being distributed such that portions of functions are implemented at different physical locations.

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. By way of example, non-transitory computer-readable media may include RAM, ROM, electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM) , flash memory, compact disk (CD) ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other non-transitory medium that may be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of instructions or data structures and that may be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer, or a general-purpose or special-purpose processor.

As used herein, including in the claims, 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.

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, comprising:

a processor; and

a transceiver coupled to the processor,

wherein the processor is configured to:

determine that a plurality of small data transmission (SDT) procedures are ongoing; and

manage the plurality of SDT procedures.
The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to manage the plurality of SDT procedures by at least one of the following:

keeping at least one of the plurality of SDT procedures;

handling one or more timers for failure detection of the plurality of SDT procedures; or

determining completion of the plurality of SDT procedures.
The user equipment of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of SDT procedures is a mobile originating-small data transmission (MO-SDT) procedure or a mobile terminating-small data transmission (MT-SDT) procedure.
The user equipment of claim 3, wherein the processor is configured to manage the plurality of SDT procedures by at least one of the following:

in accordance with a determination that a downlink resource for the MT-SDT procedure is allocated during the MO-SDT procedure, stopping or cancelling or suspending the MT-SDT procedure;

in accordance with a determination that a downlink resource for downlink data reception is allocated during the MO-SDT procedure before a response to a paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is transmitted, stopping or cancelling or suspending the MT-SDT procedure;

in accordance with a determination that a downlink resource for downlink data reception is allocated during the MO-SDT procedure before the downlink resource for downlink data reception is allocated during the MT-SDT procedure, stopping or cancelling or suspending the MT-SDT procedure;

in accordance with a determination that an uplink grant is received before an uplink transmission of the MO-SDT procedure, stopping or cancelling or suspending the MO-SDT procedure; or

in accordance with a determination that a buffer status report (BSR) is transmitted before an uplink transmission of the MO-SDT procedure, stopping or cancelling or suspending the MO-SDT procedure.
The user equipment of claim 1, wherein a timer is configured for the user equipment for failure detection of the plurality of SDT procedures, and wherein the processor is configured to manage the plurality of SDT procedures by at least one of the following:

in accordance with a determination that a radio resource control (RRC) resume request message for SDT is transmitted, starting or restarting the timer;

in accordance with a determination that the RRC resume request message for SDT is transmitted for the first time, starting the timer;

in accordance with a determination that the plurality of SDT procedures are completed or stopped, stopping the timer;

in accordance with a determination that the timer expires, determining that the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed; or

in accordance with a determination that the timer expires, determining that one or more ongoing SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed.
The user equipment of claim 1, wherein a plurality of timers are configured for the plurality of SDT procedures, and wherein the processor is configured to manage the plurality of SDT procedures by at least one of the following:

in accordance with a determination that a first SDT procedure in the plurality of SDT procedures is started, starting a first timer in the plurality of timers;

in accordance with a determination that the first SDT procedure is stopped or cancelled or suspended, stopping or resetting the first timer; or

in accordance with a determination that the first timer expires, determining that the first SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed.
The user equipment of claim 6, wherein the plurality of timers are a same timer configured for the user equipment.
The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to manage the plurality of SDT procedures by at least one of the following:

in accordance with a determination that a radio resource control (RRC) release message is received, determining that the plurality of SDT procedures are completed or successfully completed; or

in accordance with a determination that an indication of a state of the user equipment is received, determining that the plurality of SDT procedures are completed or successfully completed.
The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to manage the plurality of SDT procedures by:

in accordance with a determination that one or more SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed, determining that the plurality of SDT procedures are unsuccessfully completed.
The user equipment of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to at least one of the following:

in accordance with a determination that a timer for failure detection of a second SDT procedure in the one or more SDT procedures expires, determining that the second SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed;

in accordance with a determination that number of times of a preamble transmission for a third SDT procedure in the one or more SDT procedures is equal to a first threshold number, determining that the third SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed;

in accordance with a determination that number of times of a retransmission for a fourth SDT procedure in the one or more SDT procedures is equal to a second threshold number, determining that the fourth SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed; or

in accordance with a determination that a timing alignment timer for a fifth SDT procedure in the one or more SDT procedures expires while the fifth SDT procedure is ongoing over a configured grant resource and no response from a base station is received after initial transmission of the fifth SDT procedure, determining that the fifth SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed.
The user equipment of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to manage the plurality of SDT procedures by at least one of the following:

receiving, from a base station via the transceiver, an indication of one or more SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures that have been completed;

in accordance with a determination that an indication of keeping an inactive state is received from the base station, determining that the one or more SDT procedures are completed or successfully completed; or

in accordance with a determination that an indication of keeping an inactive state is received from the base station, determining that a set of SDT procedures other than the one or more SDT procedures in the plurality of SDT procedures is ongoing.
The user equipment of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to receive the indication of the one or more SDT procedures by:

receiving a message with one or more cause values, the one or more cause values indicating the one or more SDT procedures; or

receiving a message with one or more information elements, the one or more information elements indicating the one or more SDT procedures.
A user equipment, comprising:

a processor; and

a transceiver coupled to the processor,

wherein the processor is configured to:

determine that a mobile terminating-small data transmission (MT-SDT) procedure is ongoing; and

manage the MT-SDT procedure.
The user equipment of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to determine that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing by at least one of the following:

in accordance with a determination that one or more conditions for initiating a SDT to respond to a paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure are fulfilled, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing;

in accordance with a determination that the paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is received, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing; or

in accordance with a determination that a response to the paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is transmitted, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing.
The user equipment of claim 13, wherein a timer is configured for failure detection of the MT-SDT procedure, and wherein the processor is configured to manage the MT-SDT procedure by at least one of the following:

in accordance with a determination that the MT-SDT procedure is started, starting the timer;

in accordance with a determination that the MT-SDT procedure is stopped or cancelled or suspended, stopping or resetting the timer; or

in accordance with a determination that the timer expires, determining that the MT-SDT procedure is unsuccessfully completed.
The user equipment of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to:

in accordance with a determination that data associated with the MT-SDT procedure arrives, determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started;

in accordance with a determination that the data associated with the MT-SDT procedure is transmitted, determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started;

in accordance with a determination that a radio resource control (RRC) connection resume procedure associated with the MT-SDT procedure is initiated, determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started;

in accordance with a determination that a set of conditions for initiating the MT-SDT procedure is fulfilled, determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started; or

in accordance with a determination that a paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is received, determine that the MT-SDT procedure is started.
A processor for wireless communication, comprising:

at least one memory; and

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

determine that a plurality of small data transmission (SDT) procedures are ongoing; and

manage the plurality of SDT procedures.
The processor of claim 17, wherein the processor is configured to manage the plurality of SDT procedures by at least one of the following:

keeping at least one of the plurality of SDT procedures;

handling one or more timers for failure detection of the plurality of SDT procedures; or

determining completion of the plurality of SDT procedures.
A processor for wireless communication, comprising:

a processor; and

a transceiver coupled to the processor,

wherein the processor is configured to:

determine that a mobile terminating-small data transmission (MT-SDT) procedure is ongoing; and

manage the MT-SDT procedure.
The processor of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to determine that the MT-SDT procedure is ongoing by at least one of the following:

in accordance with a determination that one or more conditions for initiating a SDT to respond to a paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure are fulfilled, determining that the MT-SDT is ongoing;

in accordance with a determination that the paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is received, determining that the MT-SDT is ongoing; or

in accordance with a determination that a response to the paging message associated with the MT-SDT procedure is transmitted, determining that the MT-SDT is ongoing.