1. A method implemented in a user equipment, UE, for reporting channel state information, CSI, of one or more secondary serving cells, SCells, wherein the method comprising: receiving, from a radio station, first configuration information for reporting CSI; measuring power of at least one beam transmitted on one or more SCells for the CSI during dormancy behaviour on the SCells; and reporting the CSI comprising beam index of the beam, without the power of corresponding beam to the radio station based on the first configuration information.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising, during dormancy behaviour, monitoring downlink control channel a fewer times on the SCells.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising receiving, from the radio station, second configuration information for reporting the CSI, wherein the second configuration information configures the UE to report CSI comprising the beam index with the power of corresponding beam in the CSI report.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the second configuration information is applied for the CSI reporting during non-dormancy behavior.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising 35 receiving, from the radio station, a signaling information for switching from the non-dormancy behaviour to the dormancy behaviour; and reporting the CSI based on the first configuration information, in response to the signaling information.

6. The method according to claim 3, further comprising: receiving, from the radio station, an indicator indicating whether the UE uses the first configuration information or the second configuration information for reporting the CSI; wherein the UE is configured to report the CSI comprising the beam index of at least one beam without the power of corresponding beam to the radio station, in a case where the indicator indicates to use the first configuration information; or the UE is configured to report the CSI comprising the beam index and the power of the beam to the radio station, in a case where the indicator indicates to use the second configuration information.

7. A user equipment, UE, comprising: at least one transceiver; and at least one processor; wherein the processor is configured to: receive, from a radio station, first configuration information for reporting channel state information, CSI; measure power of at least one beam transmitted on one or more secondary serving cells, SCells, for the CSI during dormancy behavior on the 36 SCells; and report the CSI comprising beam index of the beam without the power of corresponding beam, to the radio station based on the first configuration information.

8. The UE according to claim 7, wherein the UE, during dormancy behaviour, monitors downlink control channel a fewer times on the SCells.

9. The UE according to claim 7, wherein the processor is configured to receive, from the radio station, second configuration information for reporting the CSI wherein the second configuration information configures the UE to report the CSI comprising the beam index with the power of corresponding beam.

10. The UE according to claim 9, wherein the second configuration information is applied for reporting the CSI during non-dormancy behavior.

11. The UE according to claim 7, wherein the processor is configured to: receive, from the radio station, a signaling information to switch from the nondormancy behaviour to the dormancy behaviour; and perform the CSI reporting based on the first configuration information, in response to the signaling information.

12. The UE according to claim 7, wherein the processor is configured to: receive, from the radio station, an indicator indicating whether the UE to use the 37 first configuration information or the second configuration information for reporting the CSI; wherein the CSI comprises the beam index of at least one beam without the power of corresponding beam, to the radio station, in a case where the indicator indicates to use the first configuration information; or the CSI reporting comprises the beam index and the power of at least one beam to the radio station, in a case where the indicator indicates to use the second configuration information.

13. A method implemented in a radio station, for configuring channel state information, CSI, reporting of one or more secondary serving cells, SCells, during dormancy behaviour on the SCells of a user equipment, UE, the method comprising: transmitting, to the UE, a first configuration information for the CSI reporting; receiving, from the UE, the CSI reporting during dormancy behaviour on one or more SCells; wherein the CSI reporting comprising beam index of at least one beam on the SCells without power of corresponding beam based on the first configuration information.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising, during dormancy behaviour, monitoring downlink control channel a fewer times on the SCells.

15. The method according to claim 13, further comprising transmitting, to the UE, a second configuration information for the CSI report; 38 wherein the second configuration information configures the UE to report the beam index with the power of corresponding beam in the CSI report.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein the second configuration information is applied for the CSI reporting during non-dormancy behavior.

17. The method according to claim 13, further comprising transmitting, to the UE, a signaling information to switch from the nondormancy behaviour to the dormancy behaviour; and receiving the CSI reporting based on the first configuration information, in response to the signaling information.

18. The method according to claim 13, further comprising: transmitting, to the UE, an indicator indicating whether the UE uses the first configuration information or the second configuration information for the CSI reporting; wherein the indicator indicates the UE to use the first configuration information, expecting the UE to report the beam index without the power of corresponding beam to the radio station; and the indicator indicates the UE to use the second configuration information, expecting the UE to report the beam index and the power of the at least one beam to the radio station.

19. A radio station comprising: 39 at least one transceiver; and at least one processor; wherein the at least one processor is configured to: transmit, to a user equipment, UE, a first configuration information for channel state information, CSI, reporting of one or more secondary cells, SCells, during dormancy behaviour by the UE; receive, from the UE, the CSI report comprising beam index of at least one beam on the one or more SCells without power of corresponding beam based on the first configuration information.

20. The radio station according to claim 19, wherein the user equipment, during dormancy behaviour, monitors downlink control channel fewer times on the SCells.

21. The radio station according to claim 19, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to transmit a second configuration information to the UE, for the CSI reporting, wherein the second configuration information configures the UE to report the beam index with the power of corresponding beam in the CSI report.

22. The user equipment according to claim 21, wherein the second configuration information is applied for the CSI reporting during non-dormancy behavior.

23. The radio station according to claim 19, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: transmit, to the UE, a signaling information to switch from the non- 40 dormancy behaviour to the dormancy behaviour; and receive, from the UE, the CSI reporting based on the first configuration information, in response to the signaling information.

24. The radio station according to claim 19, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: transmit, to the UE, an indicator indicating whether the UE uses the first configuration information or the second configuration information for the CSI report; wherein when the radio station indicates the UE to use the first configuration information, the radio station expects the UE to report the beam index without the power of corresponding beam to the radio station; and when the radio station indicates the UE to use the second configuration, the radio station expects the UE to report the beam index and the power of the at least one beam to the radio station

The present disclosure generally relates to wireless communication networks, and more
particularly, to an apparatus, and a method for optimizing user equipment (UE) power
consumption on activated Secondary Cells.
BACKGROUND
Various abbreviations that may appear in the specification and/or in the drawing figures are
defined as follows:
List of Abbreviations
5GC 5G Core Network
5GS 5G System
5QI 5G QoS Identifier
AGC Automatic Gain Control
AMF Access and Mobility Management Function
AS Access Stratum
ASN1 Abstract Syntax Notation One
BWP Bandwidth Part
CORESET Control Resource SET
CP Cyclic Prefix
CSI Channel State Information
CSI-RS Channel State Information- Reference Signals
DL Downlink
MAC Medium Access Control
MAC CE MAC Control Element
NG-RAN Next Generation Radio Access Network
NR New Radio/ NR radio access
PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel
PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel
PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel
PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel
PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel
QCL Quasi Co Location
(R)AN (Radio) Access Network
RRC Radio Resource Control
RS Reference Signal
3
SA NR Standalone NR
SCS Sub Carrier Spacing
SS Synchronization Signal
SSB SS/PBCH Block
TCI Transmission Configuration Indication
UE User Equipment
UL Uplink
USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module
For the purposes of the present application, the terms and definitions given in 3GPP TR 21.905
and the following apply. A term defined in the present document takes precedence over the
definition of the same term, if any, in 3GPP TR 21.905.
The following documents are hereby incorporated by reference into the present disclosure as if
fully set forth herein: 3GPP TR 21.905: "Vocabulary for 3GPP Specifications" V15.0.0 (2018-
03); 3GPP TS 38.331: "Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification" V15.7.0; 3GPP
TS 38.133: “Requirements for support of radio resource management”; 3GPP TS 38.211:
“Physical channels and modulation” V15.7.0; 3GPP TS 38.212: “Multiplexing and channel
coding” V15.7.0; 3GPP TS 38.213: “Physical layer procedures for control” V15.70; 3GPP TS
38.214: “Physical layer procedures for data” V15.7.0; and 3GPP TS 38.321: “Medium Access
Control (MAC) protocol specification” V15.7.0.
A fifth generation (5G) wireless communication technology [which can be referred to as new
radio (NR)] is envisaged to expand and support diverse usage scenarios and applications with
respect to current mobile network. In an aspect, 5G communication can include enhanced
mobile broadband addressing human-centric-use cases for access to multimedia content,
services and data; ultra-low latency (ULL) with high reliability; and massive machine-type
communications which can allow a very large number of connected devices and transmission
of a relatively low volume of non-delay-sensitive information. However, as the demand for
mobile broadband access continues to increase, further improvements in NR communication
technology and beyond may be desired.
4
Measurement framework:
In NR, UE transmits different kinds of channel state information (CSI) and cell quality
information from time to time using CSI reporting framework and Layer 3 (L3) measurements
framework. CSI framework is a L1 mechanism, and it is transmitted from user equipment (UE)
to radio station using L1 layer (Physical layer or PHY layer). L3 measurements framework as
the name suggests is a L3 mechanism and transmitted using L3 layer (RRC layer) from UE to
radio station.
CSI reporting framework
The CSI reporting framework consists of CSI related measurements (which consists of Channel
Quality Information (CQI), Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI), Rank Indicator (RI), Layer
Indicator (LI)), L1-RSRP related measurements (RSRP using CSI-RS and RSRP using SSB)
and Resource indicators (which consists of CSI-RS Resource Indicator (CRI), SS/PBCH
Resource Indicator (SSBRI)).
CSI reportQuantity, which provides information on the report quantity, is provided to UE
through RRC message CSI-ReportConfig. The Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN1) of
Information Element (IE) of CSI-ReportConfig is given in TS 38.331.
In NR, UE can be provided or added with multiple secondary cells (hereinafter referred as
‘SCell’). However, to reduce UE power consumption, all the added SCell(s) are not activated
always. Upon addition, SCell(s) are in deactivated state and they are activated at a later point
based on the network indication. When UE has more data to be transmitted/received, network
may activate the SCell, and when there is not much of data expected for UE, network may
deactivate the SCell. However, there is a cost associated with the activation and deactivation
process.
In addition to cost, transition of SCell from deactivated to activated state also involves
significant amount delay as the UE has to perform measurements for automatic gain control
(AGC), channel state information (CSI), time and frequency tracking, etc. to come to active
state. However, in some scenarios, where the UE traffic needs to be served quickly, the delay
involved for activating a SCell may have impact on network capacity. Hence, at least in those
scenarios it is desirable to bring the SCell to active state as quickly as possible. In order, to
facilitate this, NR Release 16, introduces SCell dormancy (or dormancy SCell) framework.
5
During SCell dormancy, instead of deactivating a SCell to reduce UE power consumption, the
network introduces a special behavior within the SCell active state itself. When there is a
special behavior introduced, regular behavior needs to be differentiated from special behavior.
Hence, for an active SCell, special behavior is called as dormancy behavior and regular or
legacy SCell active state behavior is called as non-dormancy behavior.
With the introduction of this special behavior on active SCell, whenever there is not much of
data expected for UE on particular SCell, SCell can be moved to dormancy behavior instead of
deactivated state.
Problem to be solved
Since dormancy behavior is introduced to reduce UE power consumption on activated SCell,
UE is not expected to transmit or receive data on the dormancy SCell. Therefore, to move the
dormancy SCell to non-dormancy SCell without delay, UE performs CSI measurements, AGC
gain tuning and beam management as configured by the network.
Measurements in dormancy behavior are useful to speed up the dormancy to non-dormancy
transition on SCell. In some scenarios, these measurements in dormancy behavior are useful to
facilitate faster data scheduling upon SCell transition to non-dormancy behavior. However, in
some other scenarios these measurements are not used for any data transmission until the SCell
is moved to non-dormancy behavior. Therefore, using the same kind of measurement reporting
for both dormancy and non-dormancy behavior of SCell leads to wastage of measurement
reporting resources such as radio resources and power.
However current 3GPP standard(s) does not specify different mechanisms for CSI
measurement and/or reporting of for SCells in dormancy and non-dormancy.
Thereupon, the present invention has been accomplished in consideration of the abovementioned problems, and an object thereof is to provide a radio communication system, a radio
terminal, a radio network, a radio communication method, and a program therefor capable of
collecting information that the radio network side requires while alleviating a load on the
terminal caused by the measurement and/or the reporting, and/or deleting the reporting of the
information with a low necessity.
6
SUMMARY
The following presents a simplified summary of the subject matter in order to provide a basic
understanding of some aspects of subject matter aspects. This summary is not an extensive
overview of the subject matter. It is not intended to identify key/critical elements of the aspects
or to delineate the scope of the subject matter.
Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the subject matter in a simplified form as a
prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.
It is therefore a primary objective of this disclosure to provide an apparatus, and a method for
optimizing user equipment (UE) power consumption on activated Secondary Cells.
It is another objective of the present disclosure is to save radio resources and transmission
power without dormancy behavior performance being affected.
It is another objective of the present invention to reduce the overall cost of wireless
communication.
According to the preferred aspect, the present invention provides a method implemented in a
user equipment (UE), for reporting channel state information (CSI) of one or more secondary
serving cells (SCells), wherein the method comprising receiving, from a radio station, a first
configuration information for CSI reporting; measuring power of at least one beam transmitted
on one or more SCells for the CSI reporting during dormancy behaviour on the SCells; and
performing the CSI reporting comprising beam index of the beam without the power of
corresponding beam to the radio station based on the first configuration information.
The dormancy behaviour is characterized in that the UE does not monitor downlink control
channel or monitors the downlink control channel fewer times on the SCells.
The present invention further provides a method implemented in a user equipment (UE), for
receiving, from the radio station, second configuration information for the CSI reporting,
wherein the second configuration information configures the UE to report the beam index with
the power of corresponding beam in the CSI report. The second configuration information is
applied for the CSI reporting during non-dormancy behavior.
The present invention provides a method implemented in a user equipment (UE), for receiving,
from the radio station, a signaling information to switch from the non-dormancy behavior to
7
the dormancy behavior; and performing the CSI reporting based on the first configuration
information, in response to the signaling information.
The present invention provides a method implemented in a user equipment (UE), for receiving,
from the radio station, an indicator indicating whether the UE uses the first configuration
information or the second configuration information for the CSI reporting; wherein the CSI
reporting, comprising the beam index of at least one beam without the power of corresponding
beam to the radio station, in a case where the indicator indicates to use the first configuration
information; or the CSI reporting, comprising the beam index and the power of the beam to
the radio station, in a case where the indicator indicates to use the second configuration
information.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a user equipment, UE, comprising at least
one transceiver; and at least one processor; wherein the processor is configured to receive, from
a radio station, a first configuration information for channel state information, CSI, reporting;
measure power of at least one beam transmitted on one or more secondary serving cells, SCells,
for the CSI reporting during dormancy behavior on the SCells; and perform the CSI reporting
comprising beam index of the beam without the power of corresponding beam, to the radio
station based on the first configuration information.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a method implemented in a radio station, for
configuring channel state information, CSI, reporting of one or more secondary serving cells,
SCells, during dormancy behaviour on the SCells of a user equipment, UE, the method
comprising transmitting, to the UE, a first configuration information for the CSI reporting;
receiving, from the UE, the CSI reporting during dormancy behaviour on one or more SCells;
wherein the CSI reporting comprising beam index of at least one beam on the SCells without
power of corresponding beam based on the first configuration information.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a radio station comprising at least one
transceiver; and at least one processor; wherein the at least one processor is configured to
transmit, to a user equipment, UE, a first configuration information for channel state
information, CSI, reporting of one or more secondary cells, SCells, during dormancy behaviour
by the UE; receive, from the UE, the CSI report comprising beam index of at least one beam
8
on the one or more SCells without power of corresponding beam based on the first
configuration information.
These and other objects, aspects and advantages of the present disclosure will become readily
apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the aspects having
reference to the attached figures, the disclosure not being limited to any particular aspects
disclosed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
For a better understanding of the aspects of the systems and methods described herein, and to
show more clearly how they may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way
of example, to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIGURE 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to aspects of the present
disclosure.
FIGURE 2 illustrates an exemplary aspect of a radio Station (RS) according to aspects of
the present disclosure.
FIGURE 3 illustrates an exemplary aspect of a user equipment (UE) in accordance with
the aspects of the present disclosure.
FIGURE 4 Figure 4 illustrates signaling flow to facilitate the CSI measurement reporting
of one or more Secondary Cell(s) during dormancy behavior by user equipment
(UE) in accordance with the aspects of present disclosure.
FIGURE 5 illustrates signalling flow to facilitate the CSI measurement reporting of one or
more Secondary Cells (SCells) during dormancy in accordance with the aspects
of the present disclosure.
FIGURE 6 illustrates signalling flow to facilitate the CSI measurement reporting of one or
more secondary cells (SCells) during dormancy in accordance with the aspects
of the present disclosure.
9
FIGURE 7 illustrates signalling flow to facilitate the CSI measurement reporting of one or
more secondary cells (SCells) during dormancy and non-dormancy in
accordance with the aspects of the present disclosure.
FIGURE 8 illustrates call flow during dormancy of activated SCell according to another
aspect of the present disclosure.
FIGURE 9 illustrates call flow of the new UE behavior of transmitting index measurement
report during SCell dormancy (when both index and full measurement report
are configured) according to another aspects of the present disclosure
FIGURE 10 illustrates call flow of dynamically indicating whether UE to transmit full
measurement report or index measurement report during SCell dormancy of
activated SCell according to another aspect of the present disclosure.
Figure 10a illustrates call flow of dynamically indicating (using another preferred signaling
method) whether UE to transmit full measurement report or index measurement
report during SCell dormancy of activated SCell according to another aspect of
the present disclosure.
FIGURE 11 illustrates call flow describing the contents of the index measurement report to
the gNB during SCell dormancy according to another aspect of the present
disclosure.
FIGURE 12 illustrates other aspect which describes the index measurement report signaling
mechanism and the contents of the index measurement report during the nondormancy behavior to save the reporting resources during non-dormancy
behavior according to the aspect of the present disclosure.
DESCRIPTION
Exemplary aspects now will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The
disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed
10
as limited to the aspects set forth herein; rather, these aspects are provided so that this
disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey its scope to those skilled in
the art. The terminology used in the detailed description of the particular exemplary aspects
illustrated in the accompanying drawings is not intended to be limiting. In the drawings, like
numbers refer to like elements.
The specification may refer to “an”, “one” or “some” aspect(s) in several locations. This does
not necessarily imply that each such reference is to the same aspect(s), or that the feature only
applies to a single aspect. Single features of different aspects may also be combined to provide
other aspects.
As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms
as well, unless expressly stated otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms
“includes”, “comprises”, “including” and/or “comprising” when used in this specification,
specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or
components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features,
integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. It will be understood
that when an element is referred to as being “connected” or “coupled” to another element, it
can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be
present. Furthermore, “connected” or “coupled” as used herein may include operatively
connected or coupled. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations and
arrangements of one or more of the associated listed items.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have
the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this
disclosure pertains. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly
used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their
meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly
formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
The figures depict a simplified structure only showing some elements and functional entities,
all being logical units whose implementation may differ from what is shown. The connections
shown are logical connections; the actual physical connections may be different. It is apparent
to a person skilled in the art that the structure may also comprise other functions and structures.
11
Also, all logical units described and depicted in the figures include the software and/or hardware
components required for the unit to function. Further, each unit may comprise within itself one
or more components which are implicitly understood. These components may be operatively
coupled to each other and be configured to communicate with each other to perform the function
of the said unit.
The features provided by the disclosed system in the present disclosure, may be accessed
remotely, in one or more aspects, and/or through an online service provider. Such types of
online service providers operates and maintains the computing systems and environment, such
as server system and architectures, that promote the delivery of portable electronic documents
in a communication network. Typically, server architecture includes the infrastructure (e.g.
hardware, software, and communication lines) that offers online services.
The detailed description follows in parts to terms of processes and symbolic representations of
operations performed by conventional computers, including computer components. For the
purpose of this disclosure, a computer may be any microprocessor or processor (hereinafter
referred to as processor) controlled device such as, by way of example, personal computers,
workstations, servers, clients, minicomputers, main-frame computers, laptop computers, a
network of one or more computers, mobile computers, portable computers, handheld
computers, palm top computers, set-top boxes for a TV, interactive televisions, interactive
kiosks, personal digital assistants, interactive wireless devices, mobile browsers, or any
combination thereof.
For the most part, the operations described herein are operations performed by a computer or a
machine in conjunction with a human operator or user that interacts with the computer or the
machine. The programs, modules, processes, methods, and the like, described herein are but an
exemplary implementation and are not related, or limited, to any particular computer, apparatus,
or computer language. Rather, various types of general purpose computing machines or devices
may be used with programs constructed in accordance with the teachings described herein.
It would be well appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the term “module” and “unit” can
be interchangeably used in the present disclosure.
12
An Aspect of the present disclosure
To avoid the wastage of the measurement reporting resources and power, the following
measurements are necessary in dormancy and non-dormancy behavior.
In non-dormancy behavior, UE CSI measurement report for beam management comprises of
beam index, beam strength (RSRP), and therefore it is called as ‘Full measurement report’.
Beam strength helps network to know how better the next best beam is for beam switching and
helps the network to determine the best beam among the reported set of beams, and switches
the serving beam if required.
In dormancy-behavior, the network requires the knowledge of UE beam index of SCell that is
best suited to enable the faster transition from dormancy to non-dormancy. The beam index is
derived (by the network) by comparing the UE reported measurement values. When there are
multiple SCell(s) in dormancy behavior, and only one or few SCells required to be transitioned
to non-dormancy behavior, knowledge of beam strength (of each SCell) may help the network
to select the SCell and the beam index of the SCell to transition to non-dormancy behavior.
UE enters dormancy behavior on the SCell(s) once it completes BWP switch to dormant BWP.
UE is not expected to track data or control channel on the dormancy SCell in both uplink and
downlink. However to facilitate the faster transition from dormancy to non-dormancy behavior,
UE is expected to perform AGC, time/frequency tracking, and CSI measurements (as per the
measurement and reporting configuration). The CSI beam measurement reports configured
during SCell dormancy may be periodic, aperiodic, or semi-static, which depends on the
configuration by the network. The CSI report(s) of the dormancy SCell are transmitted on the
primary cell using cross carrier scheduling framework.
During dormancy behavior, since the UE CSI beam measurement reports are not used for data
transfer, UE do not have to report full measurement report of beam index and beam strength.
It is sufficient if UE reports index report that contain beam index alone as per the configuration
from network configured by the network entity. Thus, a UE can explicitly suggest the best
possible beam index, performing the necessary comparison of the measured values (of beam
strengths across different SCells) at the UE itself, and just report the selected beam index, or
list of sorted beam indices. The CSI measurement report that contains only beam index(s)
13
without beam strength is called as ‘Index Measurement Report’ or ‘Index Report’ or ‘Beam
Index Measurement Report’ or 'Beam Index Report’.
Figure 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to aspects of the present disclosure.
The aspect of the wireless network shown in FIG. 1 is for illustration only. Other aspects of the
wireless network 100 could be used without departing from the scope of this disclosure.
As shown in Figure 1, the wireless network includes Radio Stations (101, 102, and 103). The
Radio Station 101 communicates with the Radio Station 102 and the Radio Station 103. The
Radio Station 101 also communicates with at least one network 104, such as the Internet, a
proprietary Internet Protocol (IP) network, or other data network.
The Radio Station 102 provides wireless broadband access to the network 104 for a first
plurality of user equipments (UEs) within a coverage area 120 of the Radio Station 102. The
first plurality of UEs includes a UE, which may be located in a small business; in an enterprise;
in a WiFi hotspot; in a residence; and a UE, which may be a mobile device, such as a cell
phone, a wireless laptop, a wireless PDA, or the like. The Radio Station 103 provides wireless
broadband access to the network 130 for a second plurality of UEs within a coverage
area 125 of the Radio Station 103. In some aspects, one or more of the Radio Stations 101-
103 may communicate with each other and with the UEs using 5G/NR, LTE, LTE-A, WiMAX,
WiFi, or other wireless communication techniques.
It will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that depending on the network type, the term
“radio Station” or “RS” can refer to any component (or collection of components) configured
to provide wireless access to a network, such as transmit point (TP), transmit-receive point
(TRP), a base station, an enhanced base station (eNodeB or eNB), a 5G base station (gNodeB
or gNB), a macrocell, a femtocell, a WiFi access point (AP), or other wirelessly enabled
devices. Radio Stations may provide wireless access in accordance with one or more wireless
communication protocols, e.g., 5G 3GPP new radio interface/access (NR), long term evolution
(LTE), LTE advanced (LTE-A), high speed packet access (HSPA), Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac,
etc. For the sake of convenience, the terms “Radio Station” and “gNB” are used
interchangeably in this patent document to refer to network infrastructure components that
provide wireless access to remote terminals. Also, depending on the network type, the term
“user equipment” or “UE” can refer to any component such as “mobile station,” “subscriber
14
station,” “remote terminal,” “wireless terminal,” “receive point,” or “user device.” For the sake
of convenience, the terms “user equipment” and “UE” are used in this patent document to refer
to remote wireless equipment that wirelessly accesses a Radio Station, whether the UE is a
mobile device (such as a mobile telephone or smartphone) or is normally considered a
stationary device (such as a desktop computer or vending machine).
Dotted lines show the approximate extents of the coverage areas, which are shown as
approximately circular for the purposes of illustration and explanation only. It should be clearly
understood that the coverage areas associated with Radio Stations, such as the coverage areas,
may have other shapes, including irregular shapes, depending upon the configuration of the
Radio Stations and variations in the radio environment associated with natural and man-made
obstructions.
As described in more detail below, one or more of the UEs include circuitry, programming, or
a combination thereof, for efficient CSI reporting on PUCCH in an advanced wireless
communication system. In certain aspects, and one or more of the Radio Stations 101-
103 includes circuitry, programming, or a combination thereof, for receiving efficient CSI
reporting on PUCCH in an advanced wireless communication system.
Although Figure 1 illustrates one example of a wireless network, various changes may be made
to Figure 1. For example, the wireless network could include any number of Radio Stations
and any number of UEs in any suitable arrangement. Also, the Radio Station 101 could
communicate directly with any number of UEs and provide those UEs with wireless broadband
access to the network 130. Similarly, each Radio Station 102-103 could communicate directly
with the network 130 and provide UEs with direct wireless broadband access to the
network 130. Further, the Radio Stations 101, 102, and/or 103 could provide access to other or
additional external networks, such as external telephone networks or other types of data
networks.
Figure 2 illustrates an exemplary aspect of a Radio Station 102 according to aspects of the
present disclosure. The aspect of the Radio Station 102 illustrated in FIG. 2 is for illustration
only, and the Radio Stations 101 and 103 of FIG. 1 could have the same or similar
configuration. However, Radio Stations come in a wide variety of configurations, and FIG. 2
does not limit the scope of this disclosure to any particular implementation of a Radio Station.
15
As shown in Figure 2, the Radio Station 102 includes multiple antennas, multiple RF
transceivers, transmit (TX) processing circuitry 201, and receive (RX) processing
circuitry 202. The Radio Station 102 also includes one or more controller(s)/processor(s) 203,
a memory 204, and a backhaul or network interface. The one or more
controller(s)/processor(s) 203 may operate in conjunction with cell activation component 205.
The cell activation component 205 further includes secondary cell indication and MAC control
element to enable one or more of the functions described herein.
The RF transceivers receive, from the antennas, incoming RF signals, such as signals
transmitted by UEs in the network 100. The RF transceivers down-convert the incoming RF
signals to generate baseband signals. The baseband signals are sent to the RX processing
circuitry 202, which generates processed baseband signals by filtering, decoding, and/or
digitizing the baseband signals. The RX processing circuitry 202 transmits the processed
baseband signals to the controller/processor 203 for further processing.
In some aspects, the RF transceiver is capable of transmitting configuration information
including beam identifications (IDs) associated with beams (either transmitted from gNB or
transmitted from UE) and the beams conveyed on different orthogonal frequency division
multiplexing (OFDM) symbols.
In some aspects, the RF transceiver is capable of transmitting the beams conveyed on different
slots, the beams including different beam IDs, respectively.
The TX processing circuitry 201 receives analog or digital data (such as voice data, web data,
e-mail, or interactive video game data) from the controller/processor 203. The TX processing
circuitry 201 encodes, multiplexes, and/or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate
processed baseband signals. The RF transceivers receive the outgoing processed baseband
signals from the TX processing circuitry 201 and up-converts the baseband to RF signals that
are transmitted via the antennas.
The controller/processor 203 can include one or more processors or other processing devices
that control the overall operation of the Radio Station 102. For example, the
controller/processor 203 could control the reception of forward channel signals and the
16
transmission of reverse channel signals by the RF transceivers, the RX processing
circuitry 202, and the TX processing circuitry 201 in accordance with well-known principles.
The controller/processor 203 could support additional functions as well, such as more
advanced wireless communication functions. For instance, the controller/processor 203 could
support beam forming or directional routing operations in which outgoing signals from
multiple antennas are weighted differently to effectively steer the outgoing signals in a desired
direction. Any of a wide variety of other functions could be supported in the Radio Station
102 by the controller/processor 203.
The controller/processor 203 is also capable of executing programs and other processes
resident in the memory 204, such as an OS. The controller/processor 204 can move data into
or out of the memory 204 as required by an executing process.
The memory 204 is coupled to the controller/processor 203. Part of the memory 204 could
include a RAM, and another part of the memory 204 could include a Flash memory or other
ROM.
Although Figure 2 illustrates one example of Radio Station 102, various changes may be made
to FIG. 2. For example, the Radio Station 102 could include any number of each component
shown in FIG. 2. As a particular example, an access point could include a number of interfaces,
and the controller/processor could support routing functions to route data between different
network addresses. As another particular example, while shown as including a single instance
of TX processing circuitry and a single instance of RX processing circuitry, the Radio Station
102 could include multiple instances of each (such as one per RF transceiver). Also, various
components in FIG. 2 could be combined, further subdivided, or omitted and additional
components could be added according to particular needs.
Figure 3 illustrates an exemplary aspect of a user equipment (UE) in accordance with the
aspects of the present disclosure. The aspect of the UE illustrated in Figure 3 is for illustration
only, and the plurality of UEs of Figure 1 could have the same or similar configuration.
However, UEs come in a wide variety of configurations, and FIG. 3 does not limit the scope
of this disclosure to any particular implementation of a UE.
17
As shown in Figure 3, the UE includes an antenna, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 301, TX
processing circuitry 302, a microphone, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 303. The
UE also includes a speaker, one or more controller(s)/processor(s) 304, an input/output (I/O)
interface, a touchscreen, a display, and a memory 305. The memory 305 includes an operating
system (OS) and one or more applications.
The RF transceiver 301 receives, from the antenna, an incoming RF signal transmitted by an
Radio Station of the network 100. The RF transceiver 301 down-converts the incoming RF
signal to generate a baseband signal. The baseband signal is sent to the RX processing
circuitry 303, which generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding, and/or
digitizing the baseband signal. The RX processing circuitry 303 transmits the processed
baseband signal to the speaker (such as for voice data) or to the processor 304 for further
processing (such as for web browsing data).
In some aspects, the RF transceiver 301 is capable of receiving configuration information
including beam identifications (IDs) associated with radio station beams and the beams
conveyed on different orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, wherein
the beams include different beam IDs, respectively.
In some aspects, the RF transceiver 301 is capable of receiving the beams conveyed on
different slots, wherein the beams include different beam IDs, respectively, included in the
configuration information.
The TX processing circuitry 302 receives analog or digital voice data from the microphone or
other outgoing baseband data (such as web data, e-mail, or interactive video game data) from
the processor 340. The TX processing circuitry 302 encodes, multiplexes, and/or digitizes the
outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband signal. The RF
transceiver 301 receives the outgoing processed baseband signal from the TX processing
circuitry 302 and up-converts the baseband signal to an RF signal that is transmitted via the
antenna.
The controller/processor 304 can include one or more processors or other processing devices
and execute the OS stored in the memory in order to control the overall operation of the UE.
For example, the processor could control the reception of forward channel signals and the
18
transmission of reverse channel signals by the RF transceiver, the RX processing circuitry, and
the TX processing circuitry in accordance with well-known principles. In some aspects, the
processor includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.
The processor 304 is also capable of executing other processes and programs resident in the
memory 305, such as processes for CSI reporting on PUCCH. The processor 304 can move
data into or out of the memory 305 as required by an executing process. In some aspects, the
processor 304 is configured to execute the applications based on the OS or in response to
signals received from Radio Stations or an operator. The processor 304 is also coupled to the
I/O interface, which provides the UE with the ability to connect to other devices, such as laptop
computers and handheld computers. The I/O interface is the communication path between these
accessories and the processor.
The processor 304 is also coupled to the touchscreen and the display. The operator of the
UE can use the touchscreen to enter data into the UE. The display may be a liquid crystal
display, light emitting diode display, or other display capable of rendering text and/or at least
limited graphics, such as from web sites.
In some aspects, the controller/processor 304, memory 305 and transceiver 301 in
communication, may operate in conjunction with carrier aggregation component 306 to support
dormant/non-dormant secondary serving cell state 360 as described herein.
In some aspects, the processor 340 is capable of measuring the beams based on a beam
reference signal (BRS) and a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) received
from the Radio Station and performing an beam cycling operation for the measured beams to
receive downlink channels.
In some aspects, the processor 304 is capable of monitoring the downlink channels based on
the received beams conveyed on different slots.
The memory 305 is coupled to the processor 304. Part of the memory 305 could include a
random access memory (RAM), and another part of the memory 305 could include a Flash
memory or other read-only memory (ROM).
19
Although Figure 3 illustrates one example of UE, various changes may be made to FIG. 3. For
example, various components in FIG. 3 could be combined, further subdivided, or omitted and
additional components could be added according to particular needs. As a particular example,
the processor 304 could be divided into multiple processors, such as one or more central
processing units (CPUs) and one or more graphics processing units (GPUs). Also, while Figure
3 illustrates the UE configured as a mobile telephone or smartphone, UEs could be configured
to operate as other types of mobile or stationary devices.
First Aspect of the present disclosure:
Figure 4 illustrates signaling flow to facilitate the CSI measurement reporting of one or more
Secondary Cell(s) (SCell(s)) during dormancy behavior by user equipment (UE) in accordance
with a first aspect of the present disclosure.
Radio Station or gNB may configure UE with RRC Connection Reconfiguration message to
add and/or modify SCell(s). The RRC Connection Reconfiguration message to add and/or
modify SCell(s) may also contain CSI measurement configuration. CSI measurement
configuration of SCell contains reference signal configuration on which measurement have to
be performed.
In a dormancy behavior on SCell(s), UE measures power of reference signal(s) of
corresponding beam(s) from SCell(s). And UE report beam index of the beam without the
power of corresponding the beam to Radio Station.
Second Aspect of the present disclosure
Figure 5 /6 illustrates signalling flow to facilitate the CSI measurement reporting of one or
more Secondary cells (SCells) during dormancy behaviour by the user equipment in
accordance with a second aspect of the present disclosure. Radio Station or gNB may configure
UE with first configuration information using RRC Connection Reconfiguration message for
CSI measurements. The first configuration information may configure the UE to measure
power of beam(s) transmitted from one or more SCell(s). The first configuration information
configures the UE to report beam index of the beam without the power of corresponding the
beam.
20
In a dormancy behavior on SCell(s), the UE measures power of at least one beam transmitted
from the SCell(s). The measurement may be based on the first configuration information. The
UE generate CSI report based on the first configuration information. The CSI report comprises
beam index of the beam without the power of corresponding beam. In another aspect, as
described in Figure 7, Radio Station may transmit to UE second configuration information for
CSI measurements and/or report. The second configuration information configures UE to
report beam index of the beam and the power of corresponding the beam. UE, based on the
second configuration information, performs CSI report comprising beam index of the beam
and the power of corresponding beam. In this aspect, Radio Station can select whether the
power of beam of Dormancy SCell(s) is needed or not. If Radio Station need the power of beam
of Dormancy SCell(s), Radio Station configures second configuration information to UE.
Third Aspect of the present disclosure
Figure 8 illustrates call flow for the signaling method(s) design to facilitate the index reporting
during dormancy of SCell.
In step 801, Radio station or gNB may configure UE with RRC Connection reconfiguration
message to add or modify SCell(s). The RRC Connection reconfiguration message to add or
modify SCell(s) also contains CSI measurements configuration. CSI measurement
configuration of SCell contains reference signal configuration on which measurements have to
be performed and measurements reporting configuration for CSI measurements report.
gNB configures UE with the first configuration information including reportQuantity-v16xy.
The contents of the IE reportQuantity-v16xy can be designed to contain only CSI-RS Resource
Indicator (cri) or SSB-Index (based on the reference signal configuration for CSI
measurements).
In some aspects, gNB configures UE with the second configuration information including
reportQuantity. The contents of the IE reportQuantity are cri-RSRP or ssb-Index-RSRP based
on the RS configured.
Based on the requirement, gNB activates the (configured and added) SCells using MAC CE
command. One or more SCells may be activated using single MAC CE command. Upon
activation, the SCell may be assumed to be in non-dormancy behavior.
21
In step 802, when the UE is in dormancy behavior, based on the measurement configuration,
UE measures power of at least one beam transmitted on the one or more SCells.
In some aspects, when the UE is in non-dormancy behavior, based on the measurement
configuration, UE measures power of at least one beam transmitted on the one or more SCells.
In step 803, whenever there is not enough data to be scheduled on the activated SCell(s), gNB
may activate dormancy behavior for certain SCell(s) to reduce UE power consumption.
In some instances, as shown in Figure 4, when dormancy behaviour is activated UE performs
the CSI report including beam index of the beam without the power of corresponding beam to
the radio station based on the first configuration information.
In step 804, whenever gNB receives bursty traffic for a particular UE, gNB may ask UE to
transition from dormancy behaviour to non-dormancy behaviour on the activated SCell(s).
Upon transitioning to non-dormancy behaviour, UE is expected receive data on the nondormancy SCells. In some instances, when the second configuration information is configured,
the UE shall report the beam index with the power of corresponding beam in the CSI report.
Another instance of the third aspect of the present disclosure
In another instance, as part of SCell addition and SCell activation gNB configures UE with
RRC Connection reconfiguration message to add or modify SCell(s). The RRC Connection
reconfiguration message to add or modify SCell(s) contains CSI measurements configuration.
New IEs [reportQuantity (cri-RSRP or ssb-Index-RSRP or cri or ssb-Index)] are introduced to
the CSI-ReportConfig RRC message.
CSI measurement configuration of SCell contains reference signal configuration on which
measurements have to be performed and measurements reporting configuration for CSI
measurements reporting.
The contents of the new report quantity type IEs CSI-RS Resource Indicator (cri) or SSB-Index
are added to IE reportQuantity to support index reporting. If gNB configures cri in the
reportQuantity, UE measures and reports the CSI-RS resource indicator in the CSI
22
measurement report. If gNB configures ssb-Index in the reportQuantity, UE measures and
reports the SSB index in the CSI measurement report.
However in this method, network can indicate only one element of reportquantity to UE. That
is for example either cri-RSRP or ssb-Index-RSRP or cri or ssb-Index. This may put some
restriction on the network implementation in some scenarios. However, this will simplify
signaling without adding a separate IE to CSI-ReportConfig.
Based on the requirement, gNB activates the (configured and added) SCells using MAC CE
command. One or more SCells may be activated using single MAC CE command. Upon
activation, the SCell may be assumed to be in non-dormancy behavior.
In another instance, when the UE is in non-dormancy behavior, based on the RRC Connection
Reconfiguration message, UE performs CSI measurements on the configured measurement
resources and reports the full CSI measurement report to the gNB as per the reporting
configuration.
Fourth aspect of the present disclosure
Figure 9 illustrates call flow of the new UE behavior of transmitting index measurement report
during SCell dormancy (when both index and full measurement report are configured)
according to another aspects of the present disclosure.
In step 901, gNB provides configuration for addition or modification of SCell(s) using RRC
Connection reconfiguration message for full measurement and index measurement reporting.
Based on the requirement, gNB activates the (configured and added) SCells using MAC CE
command. One or more SCells may be activated using single MAC CE command. Upon
activation, the SCell may be assumed to be in non-dormancy behavior.
In step 902, when the UE is in non-dormancy behavior, based on the RRC Connection
Reconfiguration message, UE performs CSI measurements on the configured measurement
resources and reports the full CSI measurement report to the gNB as per the reporting
configuration.
23
In step 903, based on the requirement, activated SCell(s) are transitioned from non-dormancy
to dormancy behavior. Now, UE is expected to perform AGC, time/frequency tracking, and
CSI measurements as per the configuration from the network.
Further, as per the CSI measurement configuration, UE performs measurements on the
configured measurement resources.
In some aspects, index reporting is achieved during SCell dormancy without introducing new
additional signaling mechanism specifying a UE behavior that is commonly understood at both
gNB and UE whenever an activated SCell is transitioned from non-dormancy to dormancy
behavior. Even when, gNB configures UE to report full measurement report and index
measurement report, if UE enters SCell dormancy on the particular SCell, UE shall be reporting
cri or ssb-Index (based on the Reference Signal (RS) as configured).
When gNB configures full measurement report and index measurement report for activated
SCells, and if gNB activates dormancy behavior for a particular SCell(s), gNB expects UE to
report cri or ssb-Index (depending on the RS is configured) for those SCell(s) which are in
dormancy behavior. Defining a UE behavior that is commonly understood at gNB and UE
during SCell dormancy helps reducing the signaling overhead.
In step 904, whenever gNB receives bursty traffic for a particular UE, gNB may ask UE to
transition from dormancy behaviour to non-dormancy behaviour on activated SCell(s). Upon
transitioning to non-dormancy behaviour, since UE is expected receive data on the nondormancy SCells, UE transmits CSI measurement reports as per the CSI-ReportConfig.
Fifth Aspect of the present disclosure
Figure 10 illustrates call flow of dynamically indicating whether UE to transmit full
measurement report or index measurement report during SCell dormancy of activated SCell
according to another aspect of the present disclosure. One example of this aspect is described
below.
In detail, at 1001, gNB provides configuration for addition or modification of SCell(s) using
RRC Connection reconfiguration message. gNB configures reportQuantity with either cri-
24
RSRP or ssb-Index-RSRP (based on the RS used) and reportQuantity-v16xy with either cri or
ssb-Index (based on the RS used) for UE to report full or index measurement report.
Further, based on the requirement, gNB activates the (configured and added) SCells using
MAC CE command. One or more SCells may be activated using single MAC CE command.
Upon activation, the SCell may be assumed to be in non-dormancy behavior
At 1002, when the UE is in non-dormancy behavior, based on the RRC Connection
reconfiguration message, UE performs CSI measurements on the configured measurement
resources and reports the full CSI measurement report to the gNB as per the reporting
configuration.
At 1003, based on the requirement, activated SCell(s) may be transitioned to dormancy
behavior using DCI based BWP switching mechanism. To indicate the type of measurement
report for the dormancy, an additional one bit is introduced to DCI command. The newly
introduced one additional bit will indicate whether UE has to report full or index measurement
report during the dormancy behavior. RRC configures reportQuantity and reportQuantityv16xy to indicate the report quantity type for measurement report(s). However, during each
instance of dormancy activation, gNB indicates (using DCI) what type of measurement report
(full or index) UE has to report for that dormancy instance. For example, the new additional
bit may be added to DCI format 1_x at position “n”. Here, x in DCI format 1_x can be zero or
one (or in future if new DCI formats are introduced, this additional bit can be added to those
new DCI formats also).
In a preferred example of UE behavior with the additional 1-bit indication in DCI format 1_x
is:
When bit “n” of DCI format 1_x is equal to zero,
UE shall send cri-RSRP or ssb-Index-RSRP based on the RS configured.
When bit “n” of DCI format 1_x is equal to one,
UE shall report cri as UE is configured with both cri and cri-RSRP
UE shall report ssb-Index as UE is configured with both ssb-Index-RSRP and ssbIndex
As further described in the 1003, UE is expected to perform AGC, time/frequency tracking,
along with the above-mentioned CSI measurements as per the configuration from the network.
25
The solution presented in this disclosure is applicable for L1 CSI reporting framework (mainly
for SCell dormancy).
As it is already well known to a person skilled in the art fact RRC Connection Reconfiguration
message is slow and time-consuming mechanism that involves interruption of data services
during RRC Connection Reconfiguration message. However, the solution described in this
aspect (that is RRC configured and DCI down selected for each dormancy instance) do not
include frequent RRC Connection Reconfiguration messages for each time gNB has to change
the full or index measurement report for each dormancy instance. Hence, it is fast and has less
service interruptions. Therefore solution of this aspect has advantages.
At 1004, whenever gNB receives bursty traffic for a particular UE, gNB may ask UE to
transition from dormancy behavior to non-dormancy behavior on activated SCell(s). Upon
transitioning to non-dormancy behavior, since UE is expected to receive data on the nondormancy SCells, UE transmits CSI measurement reports as per the CSI-ReportConfig.
Another instance of the fifth aspect of the present disclosure
Figure 10a illustrates call flow of another preferred example of dynamically indicating
whether UE to transmit full measurement report or index measurement report during SCell
dormancy of activated SCell according to another aspect of the present disclosure. Another
example of this aspect is described below.
In detail, at 10a01 gNB provides configuration for addition or modification of SCell(s) using
RRC Connection Reconfiguration message. gNB configures reportQuantity with either criRSRP or ssb-Index-RSRP or cri or ssb-Index (based on the RS used) for UE to report full or
index measurement report.
Further, based on the requirement, gNB activates the (configured and added) SCells using
MAC CE command. One or more SCells may be activated using single MAC CE command.
Upon activation, the SCell may be assumed to be in non-dormancy behavior
At 10a02, when the UE is in non-dormancy behaviour, based on the RRC Connection
Reconfiguration message, UE performs CSI measurements on the configured measurement
26
resources and reports the full CSI measurement report to the gNB as per the reporting
configuration.
At 10a03, as described in 603, based on the requirement, activated SCell(s) may be transitioned
to dormancy behaviour using BWP switching mechanism. Further as described 803, DCI
command (with newly introduced one additional bit) is used to indicate the type of
measurement report (full or index) to be sent during dormancy behaviour instance. RRC
configures reportQuantity to indicate the report quantity type for measurement report. However,
during each instance of dormancy activation, DCI indicates what type of measurement report
(full or index) UE has to report for that dormancy instance.
One preferred example of UE behaviour with the additional 1-bit indication in DCI format 1_x
is:
When bit “n” of DCI format 1_x is equal to zero
UE shall send cri-RSRP or ssb-Index-RSRP if the reportQuantity configuration is criRSRP or ssb-index-RSRP respectively.
UE shall send cri-RSRP or ssb-Index-RSRP if the reportQuantity configuration is cri
or ssb-index respectively.
When bit “n” of DCI format 1_x is equal to one
UE shall send cri or ssb-Index if the reportQuantity configuration is cri-RSRP or ssbindex-RSRP respectively.
UE shall send cri or ssb-Index if the reportQuantity configuration is cri or ssb-index
respectively.
At 10a04, whenever gNB receives bursty traffic for a particular UE, gNB may ask UE to
transition from dormancy behaviour to non-dormancy behaviour on activated SCell(s). Upon
transitioning to non-dormancy behaviour, since UE is expected receive data on the nondormancy SCells, UE transmits CSI measurement reports as per the CSI-ReportConfig.
Sixth aspect of the present disclosure
Figure 11 illustrates call flow describing the contents of the index measurement report to the
gNB during SCell dormancy according to another aspect of the present disclosure.
27
In detail, at 1101, gNB provides configuration for addition or modification of SCell(s) using
RRC Connection Reconfiguration message. Report quantity may be configured using any of
the methods described in the previous aspects. Based on the requirement, gNB activates the
(configured and added) SCells using MAC CE command. One or more SCells may be activated
using single MAC CE command. Upon activation, the SCell may be assumed to be in nondormancy behavior.
At 1102, when the UE is in non-dormancy behavior, based on the RRC Connection
Reconfiguration message, UE performs CSI measurements on the configured measurement
resources and reports the full CSI measurement report to the gNB as per the reporting
configuration.
In step 1103, dormancy behavior may be activated whenever UE do not have any data to
receive or transmit. The measurement report type (to be used) during the dormancy behavior
may be indicated to UE using any of the preceding aspects. Based on the CSI measurement
configuration, during dormancy duration UE tracks and measures the reference signal for CSI
measurement report.
In NR, UE may report upto four strong beams for each measurement-reporting instance. If UE
detects more than four beams, then UE will report four strong beams from the set of detected
beams. UE beam measurement report contains the reporting of best beam in absolute strength
and remaining three beams as differential w.r.t best beam.
In non-dormancy behavior, UE CSI measurement report of beam index and beam strength
(RSRP) helps gNB to know how better the next best beam is for beam switching. Beam strength
helps a gNB to determine the best beam among the reported set of beams, and switches the
serving beam if required.
Whereas, in dormancy behavior, in some scenarios (based on the UE activity and number of
dormancy SCells), a gNB may only requires the knowledge of a best beam index alone and
may not be the beam strength to enable a UE to transition from dormancy to non-dormancy
faster. This can be achieved in multiple methods. In one method, the beam index can be derived
by comparing the UE reported measurement values by a gNB. In other method, UE can
explicitly suggest the best possible beam index by performing the necessary comparison of the
28
measured values at the UE itself, and just report the selected beam index, or list of sorted beam
indices through index reporting to save the measurement reporting resources such as radio
resources and UE transmit power.
UE may report beam indexes in sorted order when more than two beams do not differ
significantly (in beam strength). By providing a set of indices, this option gives gNB the
flexibility to choose a beam index, apart from the best beam, when gNB wishes to optimize the
number of beams transmitted (for multiple users).
UE may report best beam when there is one strong beam compared to other beams. In addition,
in this case the radio resources usage is minimal.
At 1104, whenever gNB receives bursty traffic for a particular UE, gNB may ask UE to
transition from dormancy behavior to non-dormancy behavior on activated SCell(s). Upon
transitioning to non-dormancy behaviour, since UE is expected receive data on the nondormancy SCells, UE transmits CSI measurement reports as per the CSI-ReportConfig.
Other aspects of the present disclosure
Figure 12 illustrates other aspect which describes the index measurement report signaling
mechanism and the contents of the index measurement report during the non-dormancy
behavior to save the reporting resources during non-dormancy behavior according to the aspect
of the present disclosure.
In detail, at 1201, gNB configures reportQuantity with either cri-RSRP or ssb-Index-RSRP
(based on the RS used) and reportQuantity-v16xy with either cri or ssb-Index (based on the RS
used) for UE to report full or index measurement report. Based on the requirement, gNB
activates the (configured and added) SCells using MAC CE command. One or more SCells
may be activated using single MAC CE command. Upon activation, the SCell(s) may be
assumed to be in non-dormancy behavior.
At 1202, when the UE is in non-dormancy behavior, based on the RRC Connection
Reconfiguration message, UE performs CSI measurements on the configured measurement
resources and the CSI reporting is done based on the indication received from the network in
DCI command. DCI command contains newly introduced one additional bit to indicate whether
29
UE has to report full or index measurement report during the non-dormancy behavior. RRC
configures reportQuantity and reportQuantity-v16xy to indicate the report quantity type for
measurement report. However, network will further down selects which type of measurement
report (full or index) UE has to report using DCI. Network can change the type of report
dynamically using DCI.
For example, the new one additional bit may be added to DCI format 1_x at position “n”. Here,
x in DCI format 1_x can be zero or one (or in future if there are new DCI format are introduced
this additional bit can be added to those new DCI formats also). As described above, network
indicates which type of measurement report (full or index measurement report) to be reported
by UE.
When bit “n” of DCI format 1_x is equal to zero, UE shall report full measurement report.
When bit “n” of DCI format 1_x is equal to one, UE shall report index report.
If the DCI format 1_x is equal to 0 full measurement report as per the existing procedure is
reported. That is cri-RSRP or ssb-Index-RSRP is reported based on the RS configured.
If the DCI format 1_x is equal to 1, index measurement report shall be reported. That means
UE have to report only beam indexes and not beam strength. UE determines whether to report
sorted beam indexes or best beam index is determined as per the procedure described in
previous aspect.
In other words, UE reports beam indices in a sorted order when more than two beam strengths
do not differ significantly. UE reports only the best beam index when there is one strong beam
compared to other beams. UE reports in same measurement report type till network indicate
the change of measurement report type to UE using another DCI command
In other aspects, UE may be a device or a part of a system that provides applications, services,
and solutions described below, as to “internet of things (IoT)”, using a variety of wired and/or
wireless communication technologies. Internet of Things devices (or "things") may be
equipped with appropriate electronics, software, sensors, network connectivity, and/or the like,
which enable these devices to collect and exchange data with each other and with other
communication devices. IoT devices may comprise automated equipment that follow software
30
instructions stored in an internal memory. IoT devices may operate without requiring human
supervision or interaction. IoT devices might also remain stationary and/or inactive for a long
period of time. IoT devices may be implemented as a part of a (generally) stationary apparatus.
IoT devices may also be embedded in non-stationary apparatus (e.g. vehicles) or attached to
animals or persons to be monitored/tracked.
It will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that IoT technology can be implemented on
any communication devices that can connect to a communications network for
sending/receiving data, regardless of whether such communication devices are controlled by
human input or software instructions stored in memory.
It will be appreciated that IoT devices are sometimes also referred to as Machine-Type
Communication (MTC) devices or Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication devices or
Narrow Band-IoT UE (NB-IoT UE). It will be appreciated that a UE may support one or more
IoT or MTC applications. Some examples of MTC applications are listed in the following table
(source: 3GPP TS 22.368 V13.1.0, Annex B, the contents of which are incorporated herein by
reference). This list is not exhaustive and is intended to be indicative of some examples of
machine-type communication applications.
Table 1: Some examples of machine-type communication applications.
Service Area MTC applications
Security
Surveillance systems
Backup for landline
Control of physical access (e.g. to buildings)
Car/driver security
Tracking & Tracing
Fleet Management
Order Management
Pay as you drive
Asset Tracking
Navigation
Traffic information
Road tolling
31
Road traffic optimisation/steering
Payment
Point of sales
Vending machines
Gaming machines
Health
Monitoring vital signs
Supporting the aged or handicapped
Web Access Telemedicine points
Remote diagnostics
Remote Maintenance/Control
Sensors
Lighting
Pumps
Valves
Elevator control
Vending machine control
Vehicle diagnostics
Metering
Power
Gas
Water
Heating
Grid control
Industrial metering
Consumer Devices
Digital photo frame
Digital camera
eBook
Applications, services, and solutions may be an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator)
service, an emergency radio communication system, a PBX (Private Branch eXchange) system,
a PHS/Digital Cordless Telecommunications system, a POS (Point of sale) system, an advertise
calling system, an MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service), a V2X (Vehicle to
Everything) system, a train radio system, a location related service, a Disaster/Emergency
Wireless Communication Service, a community service, a video streaming service, a femto cell
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application service, a VoLTE (Voice over LTE) service, a charging service, a radio on demand
service, a roaming service, an activity monitoring service, a telecom carrier/communication
NW selection service, a functional restriction service, a PoC (Proof of Concept) service, a
personal information management service, an ad-hoc network/DTN (Delay Tolerant
Networking) service, etc.
The present disclosure is applicable to all types of on-chip and off chip memories used in
various in digital electronic circuitry, or in hardware, firmware, or in computer hardware,
firmware, software, or in combination thereof. Apparatus of the disclosure can be implemented
in a computer program product tangibly embodied in a machine-readable storage device for
execution by a programmable processor; and methods actions can be performed by a
programmable processor executing a program of instructions to perform functions of the
disclosure by operating on input data and generating output. The disclosure can be
implemented advantageously on a programmable system including at least one input device,
and at least one output device. Each computer program can be implemented in a high-level
procedural or object-oriented programming language or in assembly or machine language, if
desired; and in any case, the language can be a compiled or interpreted language.
Suitable processors include, by way of example, both general and specific microprocessors.
Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory and/or a
random access memory. Generally, a computer will include one or more mass storage devices
for storing data file; such devices include magnetic disks and cards, such as internal hard disks,
and removable disks and cards; magneto-optical disks; and optical disks. Storage devices
suitable for tangibly embodying computer program instructions and data include all forms of
volatile and non-volatile memory, including by way of example semiconductor memory
devices, such as EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks such as
internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; CD-ROM and DVD-ROM
disks; and buffer circuits such as latches and/or flip flops. Any of the foregoing can be
supplemented by, or incorporated in ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits), FPGAs
(field-programmable gate arrays) and/or DSPs) digital signal processors).
It will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in this art that various modifications and
variations may be made to the aspects disclosed herein, consistent with the present disclosure,
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without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Other aspects consistent
with the present disclosure will become apparent from consideration of the specification and
the practice of the description disclosed herein.

We claim:

1. A method implemented in a user equipment, UE, for reporting channel state
information, CSI, of one or more secondary serving cells, SCells, wherein the method
comprising:
receiving, from a radio station, first configuration information for reporting CSI;
measuring power of at least one beam transmitted on one or more SCells for the
CSI during dormancy behaviour on the SCells; and
reporting the CSI comprising beam index of the beam, without the power of
corresponding beam to the radio station based on the first configuration
information.
2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising, during dormancy behaviour,
monitoring downlink control channel a fewer times on the SCells.
3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising
receiving, from the radio station, second configuration information for reporting
the CSI, wherein the second configuration information configures the UE to
report CSI comprising the beam index with the power of corresponding beam in
the CSI report.
4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the second configuration information is
applied for the CSI reporting during non-dormancy behavior.
5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising
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receiving, from the radio station, a signaling information for switching from
the non-dormancy behaviour to the dormancy behaviour; and
reporting the CSI based on the first configuration information, in response to the
signaling information.
6. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:
receiving, from the radio station, an indicator indicating whether the UE uses the
first configuration information or the second configuration information for
reporting the CSI;
wherein the UE is configured to report the CSI comprising the beam index of at
least one beam without the power of corresponding beam to the radio station, in
a case where the indicator indicates to use the first configuration information; or
the UE is configured to report the CSI comprising the beam index and the
power of the beam to the radio station, in a case where the indicator indicates to
use the second configuration information.
7. A user equipment, UE, comprising:
at least one transceiver; and
at least one processor;
wherein the processor is configured to:
receive, from a radio station, first configuration information for
reporting channel state information, CSI;
measure power of at least one beam transmitted on one or more
secondary serving cells, SCells, for the CSI during dormancy behavior on the
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SCells; and
report the CSI comprising beam index of the beam without the power of
corresponding beam, to the radio station based on the first configuration
information.
8. The UE according to claim 7, wherein the UE, during dormancy behaviour, monitors
downlink control channel a fewer times on the SCells.
9. The UE according to claim 7, wherein the processor is configured to receive, from
the radio station, second configuration information for reporting the CSI wherein the
second configuration information configures the UE to report the CSI comprising the
beam index with the power of corresponding beam.
10. The UE according to claim 9, wherein the second configuration information is
applied for reporting the CSI during non-dormancy behavior.
11. The UE according to claim 7, wherein the processor is configured to:
receive, from the radio station, a signaling information to switch from the nondormancy behaviour to the dormancy behaviour; and
perform the CSI reporting based on the first configuration information, in
response to the signaling information.
12. The UE according to claim 7, wherein the processor is configured to:
receive, from the radio station, an indicator indicating whether the UE to use the
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first configuration information or the second configuration information for reporting
the CSI;
wherein the CSI comprises the beam index of at least one beam without the
power of corresponding beam, to the radio station, in a case where the indicator
indicates to use the first configuration information; or
the CSI reporting comprises the beam index and the power of at least one beam
to the radio station, in a case where the indicator indicates to use the second
configuration information.
13. A method implemented in a radio station, for configuring channel state information,
CSI, reporting of one or more secondary serving cells, SCells, during dormancy
behaviour on the SCells of a user equipment, UE, the method comprising:
transmitting, to the UE, a first configuration information for the CSI reporting;
receiving, from the UE, the CSI reporting during dormancy behaviour on one or
more SCells;
wherein the CSI reporting comprising beam index of at least one beam on the
SCells without power of corresponding beam based on the first configuration
information.
14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising, during dormancy behaviour,
monitoring downlink control channel a fewer times on the SCells.
15. The method according to claim 13, further comprising
transmitting, to the UE, a second configuration information for the CSI report;
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wherein the second configuration information configures the UE to report the
beam index with the power of corresponding beam in the CSI report.
16. The method according to claim 13, wherein the second configuration information is
applied for the CSI reporting during non-dormancy behavior.
17. The method according to claim 13, further comprising
transmitting, to the UE, a signaling information to switch from the nondormancy behaviour to the dormancy behaviour; and
receiving the CSI reporting based on the first configuration information,
in response to the signaling information.
18. The method according to claim 13, further comprising:
transmitting, to the UE, an indicator indicating whether the UE uses the
first configuration information or the second configuration information for the
CSI reporting;
wherein the indicator indicates the UE to use the first configuration
information, expecting the UE to report the beam index without the power of
corresponding beam to the radio station; and
the indicator indicates the UE to use the second configuration
information, expecting the UE to report the beam index and the power of the at
least one beam to the radio station.
19. A radio station comprising:
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at least one transceiver; and
at least one processor;
wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
transmit, to a user equipment, UE, a first configuration information for
channel state information, CSI, reporting of one or more secondary cells, SCells,
during dormancy behaviour by the UE;
receive, from the UE, the CSI report comprising beam index of at least
one beam on the one or more SCells without power of corresponding beam based
on the first configuration information.
20. The radio station according to claim 19, wherein the user equipment, during
dormancy behaviour, monitors downlink control channel fewer times on the SCells.
21. The radio station according to claim 19, wherein the at least one processor is further
configured to transmit a second configuration information to the UE, for the CSI
reporting, wherein the second configuration information configures the UE to report
the beam index with the power of corresponding beam in the CSI report.
22. The user equipment according to claim 21, wherein the second configuration
information is applied for the CSI reporting during non-dormancy behavior.
23. The radio station according to claim 19, wherein the at least one processor is further
configured to:
transmit, to the UE, a signaling information to switch from the non-
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dormancy behaviour to the dormancy behaviour; and
receive, from the UE, the CSI reporting based on the first configuration
information, in response to the signaling information.
24. The radio station according to claim 19, wherein the at least one processor is further
configured to:
transmit, to the UE, an indicator indicating whether the UE uses the first
configuration information or the second configuration information for the CSI report;
wherein when the radio station indicates the UE to use the first configuration
information, the radio station expects the UE to report the beam index without the
power of corresponding beam to the radio station; and
when the radio station indicates the UE to use the second configuration, the radio
station expects the UE to report the beam index and the power of the at least one
beam to the radio station