CN120226406A

CN120226406A - WTRU measurement method in energy-saving network

Info

Publication number: CN120226406A
Application number: CN202380074342.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 法里斯·阿尔法罕; O·泰耶布; 保罗·马里内尔; 维吉尔·康萨
Original assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings Inc
Current assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings Inc
Priority date: 2022-09-28
Filing date: 2023-09-28
Publication date: 2025-06-27
Also published as: WO2024242695A2; EP4595571A2; KR20250073450A; WO2024242695A3

Abstract

The present systems and methods include WTRU measurements, mobility, carrier reselection for WTRUs capable of operating in a network employing energy-saving techniques. The systems and methods include connected mode procedures/behaviors for WTRUs operating in NES cells, including mobility and related measurements. The systems and methods include idle/inactive mode procedures/behaviors for WTRUs, such as cell reselection. The present systems and methods include mobility and cell reselection measurement methods for triggering inter-cell/inter-frequency/inter-RAT measurements upon determining a change in NES state.

Description

WTRU measurement method in energy-saving network

Cross Reference to Related Applications

The present application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. Nos. 63/410,971 and 63/445,568 filed on month 28 of 2022 and 2 of 2023, respectively, which are incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth herein.

Background

There is an incentive to research the enhanced functionality to enable the network to minimize its power consumption from transmission and reception. Such minimization is beneficial for reducing operating costs and for environmental sustainability. The design of NR is very efficient from the point of view of minimizing emissions from the network in the absence of data compared to earlier systems. For example, an always-on cell-specific reference signal (CRS) is not used in NR. However, there is still the potential for reduced energy consumption.

Disclosure of Invention

The present systems and methods include WTRU measurements, mobility, carrier reselection for WTRUs capable of operating in a network employing power saving techniques. The systems and methods include connection mode procedures/behaviors, including mobility and related measurements, for WTRUs operating in NES cells. The systems and methods include idle/inactive mode procedures/actions for a WTRU, such as cell reselection. The present systems and methods include mobility and cell reselection measurement methods for triggering inter-cell/inter-frequency/inter-RAT measurements when a NES state change is determined.

Drawings

A more detailed understanding can be derived from the following description, given by way of example in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the drawings, and wherein:

FIG. 1A is a system diagram illustrating an exemplary communication system in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented;

Fig. 1B is a system diagram illustrating an exemplary wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) that may be used within the communication system shown in fig. 1A, in accordance with an embodiment;

Fig. 1C is a system diagram illustrating an exemplary Radio Access Network (RAN) and an exemplary Core Network (CN) that may be used within the communication system shown in fig. 1A, in accordance with an embodiment;

Fig. 1D is a system diagram illustrating yet another exemplary RAN and yet another exemplary CN that may be used within the communication system shown in fig. 1A, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 2 shows the time-frequency structure of SSB;

FIG. 3 is an example of beam scanning;

FIG. 4 illustrates a conditional switch configuration and execution;

fig. 5 shows a procedure of cell selection and reselection;

FIG. 6 shows an example;

Figure 7 shows a WTRU measurement method in a power save network, and

Fig. 8 illustrates a method performed in a WTRU.

Detailed Description

As described above, enhanced functionality is needed to enable a network to minimize its power consumption from both transmission and reception. Such minimization is beneficial for reducing operating costs and for environmental sustainability. The current design of NRs is very efficient from the point of view of minimizing emissions from the network in the absence of data compared to earlier systems. For example, an always-on cell-specific reference signal (CRS) is not used in NR. There is still the potential for additional energy consumption reduction.

For example, the network may consume energy when not transmitting, as well as for other activities such as baseband (digital) processing for reception or beamforming. This "idle" power consumption is not negligible in dense networks, even if no WTRU is serving for a given period of time. If the network can shut down these activities when not transmitting to the WTRU, power consumption may be reduced.

In addition, NR supports beamforming using many ports (up to 64 transmit and receive ports), and power consumption increases with the number of ports used. In practice, the use of the maximum number of ports may not be necessary for all WTRUs. If the network only adjusts the number of ports to the required number, power consumption can be reduced.

Network power saving may be aimed at improving the operation of the cellular ecosystem to enable more efficient adaptation of network transmit and receive resources in the time, frequency, space, and power domains, and may obtain support, feedback, and assistance from WTRUs. This enables echo-friendly WTRU operation, allowing for more environmentally friendly network deployment, which in turn allows for reduced emissions and Opex costs for operating the cellular network. Unlike LTE, NR does not need to transmit synchronization or reference signals that are always on, and supports adaptable bandwidth and MIMO functions. While initial work in this area is not expected to impact legacy WTRUs, it is also appreciated that the adaptability of network resources may enable deployment of operational updates and higher efficiency in later generations.

A system, WTRU and method for performing WTRU measurements in a power save network are described. The method may be performed in a Wireless Transmit Receive Unit (WTRU). The method includes receiving configuration information indicating one or more measurement configurations, wherein each of the one or more measurement configurations includes NES state information indicating one or more Network Energy Saving (NES) states for which the measurement configuration may be applicable, receiving signaling associated with activating a first NES state of the indicated one or more NES states, determining a measurement configuration applicable to the first NES state based on the received information, performing one or more measurements using the determined measurement configuration, and reporting the one or more measurements. The measurement is performed during a time period configured for the first NES state. The measurements are reported during a time period configured for the first NES state. The signaling associated with activating the first NES state may indicate at least one selected from the group consisting of activation of the first NES state, when the first NES state is to be activated, and a period of time in which the first NES state may be activated. The signaling associated with activating the first NES state may include a Conditional Handover (CHO) configuration associated with the first NES state. The signaling associated with activating the first NES state may include a Conditional Handover (CHO) reconfiguration associated with the first NES state. The method may include receiving signaling associated with activating a second NES state of the indicated one or more NES states. The method may include disabling the first NES state and may include utilizing one or more measurement configurations not associated with any NES state. The one or more measurements may include at least one measurement of a neighboring cell.

A Wireless Transmit Receive Unit (WTRU) includes a processor and a transceiver communicatively coupled to the processor. The processor and transceiver are operative to receive configuration information indicating one or more measurement configurations, wherein each of the one or more measurement configurations includes NES state information indicating one or more Network Energy Saving (NES) states for which the measurement configuration may be applicable, receive signaling associated with activating a first NES state of the indicated one or more NES states, determine a measurement configuration applicable to the first NES state based on the received information, perform one or more measurements using the determined measurement configuration, and report the one or more measurements. The measurement may be performed during a time period configured for the first NES state. The measurements may be reported during a time period configured for the first NES state. The signaling associated with activating the first NES state may indicate at least one selected from the group consisting of activation of the first NES state, when the first NES state is to be activated, and a period of time in which the first NES state may be activated. The signaling associated with activating the first NES state may include a Conditional Handover (CHO) configuration associated with the first NES state. The signaling associated with activating the first NES state may include a Conditional Handover (CHO) reconfiguration associated with the first NES state. The processor and transceiver may be further configured to receive signaling associated with activating a second NES state of the indicated one or more NES states. The processor and transceiver may also be configured to deactivate the first NES state. The processor and transceiver may also be configured to utilize one or more measurement configurations that are not associated with any NES states. The one or more measurements may include at least one measurement of a neighboring cell.

Fig. 1A is a diagram illustrating an exemplary communication system 100 in which one or more disclosed embodiments may be implemented. Communication system 100 may be a multiple-access system that provides content, such as voice, data, video, messaging, broadcast, etc., to a plurality of wireless users. Communication system 100 may enable multiple wireless users to access such content through shared system resources, including wireless bandwidths. For example, communication system 100 may employ one or more channel access methods such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), zero-tail unique word discrete fourier transform spread OFDM (ZT-UW-DFT-S-OFDM), unique word OFDM (UW-OFDM), resource block filter OFDM, filter Bank Multicarrier (FBMC), and the like.

As shown in fig. 1A, the communication system 100 may include wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, a Radio Access Network (RAN) 104, a Core Network (CN) 106, a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) 108, the internet 110, and other networks 112, although it will be appreciated that the disclosed embodiments contemplate any number of WTRUs, base stations, networks, and/or network elements. Each of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may be any type of device configured to operate and/or communicate in a wireless environment. For example, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, any of which may be referred to as a Station (STA), may be configured to transmit and/or receive wireless signals, and may include User Equipment (UE), mobile stations, fixed or mobile subscriber units, subscription-based units, pagers, cellular telephones, personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), smartphones, laptop computers, netbooks, personal computers, wireless sensors, hotspots or Mi-Fi devices, internet of things (IoT) devices, watches or other wearable devices, head Mounted Displays (HMDs), vehicles, drones, medical devices and applications (e.g., tele-surgery), industrial devices and applications (e.g., robots and/or other wireless devices operating in the context of industrial and/or automated processing chains), consumer electronics devices, devices operating on commercial and/or industrial wireless networks, and the like. Any of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may be interchangeably referred to as a UE.

Communication system 100 may also include base station 114a and/or base station 114b. Each of the base stations 114a, 114b may be any type of device configured to wirelessly interface with at least one of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d to facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as the CN 106, the internet 110, and/or other networks 112. For example, the base stations 114a, 114B may be Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs), nodebs, enodebs (enbs), home nodebs, home eNode bs, next generation nodebs, such as gNode B (gNB), new Radio (NR) nodebs, site controllers, access Points (APs), wireless routers, and the like. While the base stations 114a, 114b are each depicted as a single element, it will be appreciated that the base stations 114a, 114b may include any number of interconnected base stations and/or network elements.

Base station 114a may be part of RAN 104 that may also include other base stations and/or network elements (not shown), such as Base Station Controllers (BSCs), radio Network Controllers (RNCs), relay nodes, and the like. Base station 114a and/or base station 114b may be configured to transmit and/or receive wireless signals on one or more carrier frequencies, which may be referred to as a cell (not shown). These frequencies may be in a licensed spectrum, an unlicensed spectrum, or a combination of licensed and unlicensed spectrum. A cell may provide coverage of wireless services to a particular geographic area that may be relatively fixed or may change over time. The cell may also be divided into cell sectors. For example, a cell associated with base station 114a may be divided into three sectors. Thus, in one embodiment, the base station 114a may include three transceivers, i.e., one transceiver for each sector of a cell. In one embodiment, the base station 114a may employ multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology and may utilize multiple transceivers for each sector of a cell. For example, beamforming may be used to transmit and/or receive signals in desired spatial directions.

The base stations 114a, 114b may communicate with one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d over an air interface 116, which may be any suitable wireless communication link (e.g., radio Frequency (RF), microwave, centimeter wave, millimeter wave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, etc.). The air interface 116 may be established using any suitable Radio Access Technology (RAT).

More specifically, as described above, communication system 100 may be a multiple access system and may employ one or more channel access schemes, such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, or the like. For example, the base station 114a in the RAN 104 and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) terrestrial radio access (UTRA) that may use Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) to establish the air interface 116. WCDMA may include communication protocols such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and/or evolved HSPA (hspa+). HSPA may include high speed Downlink (DL) packet access (HSDPA) and/or high speed Uplink (UL) packet access (HSUPA).

In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement radio technologies such as evolved UMTS terrestrial air access (E-UTRA) that may use Long Term Evolution (LTE) and/or LTE-advanced (LTE-a) and/or LTE-advanced Pro (LTE-a Pro) to establish the air interface 116.

In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology, such as NR radio access that may use NR to establish the air interface 116.

In an embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement multiple radio access technologies. For example, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may jointly implement LTE radio access and NR radio access, e.g., using a Dual Connectivity (DC) principle. Thus, the air interface used by the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may be characterized by multiple types of radio access technologies and/or transmissions sent to/from multiple types of base stations (e.g., enbs and gnbs).

In other embodiments, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement radio technologies such as IEEE 802.11 (i.e., wireless fidelity (WiFi), IEEE 802.16 (i.e., worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), CDMA2000 1X, CDMA EV-DO, tentative standard 2000 (IS-2000), tentative standard 95 (IS-95), tentative standard 856 (IS-856), global system for mobile communications (GSM), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), and the like.

The base station 114B in fig. 1A may be, for example, a wireless router, home NodeB, home eNode B, or access point, and may utilize any suitable RAT to facilitate wireless connections in local areas such as business, home, vehicle, campus, industrial facility, airline hallways (e.g., for use by drones), roads, etc. In one embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.11 to establish a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). In one embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.15 to establish a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN). In yet another embodiment, the base station 114b and the WTRUs 102c, 102d may utilize a cellular-based RAT (e.g., WCDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, LTE, LTE-A, LTE-a Pro, NR, etc.) to establish a pico cell or femto cell. As shown in fig. 1A, the base station 114b may be directly connected to the internet 110. Thus, the base station 114b may not need to access the internet 110 via the CN 106.

The RAN 104 may communicate with the CN 106, which may be any type of network configured to provide voice, data, applications, and/or voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services to one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102 d. The data may have different quality of service (QoS) requirements, such as different throughput requirements, latency requirements, fault tolerance requirements, reliability requirements, data throughput requirements, mobility requirements, and the like. The CN 106 may provide call control, billing services, mobile location based services, prepaid calls, internet connections, video distribution, etc., and/or perform advanced security functions such as user authentication. Although not shown in fig. 1A, it will be appreciated that the RAN 104 and/or CN 106 may communicate directly or indirectly with other RANs that employ the same RAT as the RAN 104 or a different RAT. For example, in addition to being connected to the RAN 104 that may be utilizing an NR radio technology, the CN 106 may also communicate with another RAN (not shown) that employs GSM, UMTS, CDMA a 2000, wiMAX, E-UTRA, or WiFi radio technology.

The CN 106 may also act as a gateway for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d to access the PSTN 108, the internet 110, and/or other networks 112. PSTN 108 may include circuit-switched telephone networks that provide Plain Old Telephone Services (POTS). The internet 110 may include a global system of interconnected computer networks and devices that use common communication protocols such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), user Datagram Protocol (UDP), and/or Internet Protocol (IP) in the TCP/IP internet protocol suite. Network 112 may include wired and/or wireless communication networks owned and/or operated by other service providers. For example, the network 112 may include another CN connected to one or more RANs, which may employ the same RAT as the RAN 104 or a different RAT.

Some or all of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d in the communication system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities (e.g., the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may include multiple transceivers for communicating with different wireless networks over different wireless links). For example, the WTRU 102c shown in fig. 1A may be configured to communicate with the base station 114a, which may employ a cellular-based radio technology, and with the base station 114b, which may employ an IEEE 802 radio technology.

Fig. 1B is a system diagram illustrating an exemplary WTRU 102. As shown in fig. 1B, the WTRU 102 may include a processor 118, a transceiver 120, a transmit/receive element 122, a speaker/microphone 124, a keypad 126, a display/touchpad 128, non-removable memory 130, removable memory 132, a power source 134, a Global Positioning System (GPS) chipset 136, and/or other peripheral devices 138, etc. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may include any sub-combination of the foregoing elements while remaining consistent with an embodiment.

The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in association with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) circuits, any other type of Integrated Circuit (IC), a state machine, or the like. The processor 118 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any other function that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wireless environment. The processor 118 may be coupled to a transceiver 120, which may be coupled to a transmit/receive element 122. Although fig. 1B depicts the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 as separate components, it will be appreciated that the processor 118 and the transceiver 120 may be integrated together in an electronic package or chip.

The transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit signals to and receive signals from a base station (e.g., base station 114 a) over the air interface 116. For example, in one embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be an antenna configured to transmit and/or receive RF signals. In one embodiment, for example, the transmit/receive element 122 may be an emitter/detector configured to emit and/or receive, for example, IR, UV, or visible light signals. In another embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and/or receive both RF signals and optical signals. It will be appreciated that the transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and/or receive any combination of wireless signals.

Although the transmit/receive element 122 is depicted as a single element in fig. 1B, the WTRU 102 may include any number of transmit/receive elements 122. More specifically, the WTRU 102 may employ MIMO technology. Thus, in one embodiment, the WTRU 102 may include two or more transmit/receive elements 122 (e.g., multiple antennas) for transmitting and receiving wireless signals over the air interface 116.

The transceiver 120 may be configured to modulate signals to be transmitted by the transmit/receive element 122 and demodulate signals received by the transmit/receive element 122. As described above, the WTRU 102 may have multi-mode capabilities. Thus, the transceiver 120 may include multiple transceivers for enabling the WTRU 102 to communicate via multiple RATs (e.g., such as NR and IEEE 802.11).

The processor 118 of the WTRU 102 may be coupled to and may receive user input data from a speaker/microphone 124, a keypad 126, and/or a display/touchpad 128 (e.g., a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) display unit or an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display unit). The processor 118 may also output user data to the speaker/microphone 124, the keypad 126, and/or the display/touchpad 128. In addition, the processor 118 may access information from and store data in any type of suitable memory, such as non-removable memory 130 and/or removable memory 132. The non-removable memory 130 may include Random Access Memory (RAM), read Only Memory (ROM), a hard disk, or any other type of memory storage device. Removable memory 132 may include a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card, a memory stick, a Secure Digital (SD) memory card, and the like. In other embodiments, the processor 118 may access information from, and store data in, a memory that is not actually located on the WTRU 102, such as on a server or home computer (not shown).

The processor 118 may receive power from the power source 134 and may be configured to distribute and/or control power to other components in the WTRU 102. The power source 134 may be any suitable device for powering the WTRU 102. For example, the power source 134 may include one or more dry cells (e.g., nickel cadmium (NiCd), nickel zinc (NiZn), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lithium ion (Li-ion), etc.), solar cells, fuel cells, and the like.

The processor 118 may also be coupled to a GPS chipset 136, which may be configured to provide location information (e.g., longitude and latitude) regarding the current location of the WTRU 102. In addition to or in lieu of information from the GPS chipset 136, the WTRU 102 may receive location information from base stations (e.g., base stations 114a, 114 b) over the air interface 116 and/or determine its location based on the timing of signals received from two or more nearby base stations. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may acquire location information by any suitable location determination method while remaining consistent with an embodiment.

The processor 118 may also be coupled to other peripheral devices 138, which may include one or more software and/or hardware modules that provide additional features, functionality, and/or wired or wireless connections. For example, the number of the cells to be processed, peripheral devices 138 may include an accelerometer, an electronic compass, a camera satellite transceiver, digital camera (for photo and/or video), camera module Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, vibrating device, television transceiver, hands-free headset,Modules, frequency Modulation (FM) radio units, digital music players, media players, video game player modules, internet browsers, virtual reality and/or augmented reality (VR/AR) devices, activity trackers, and the like. The peripheral device 138 may include one or more sensors. The sensor may be one or more of a gyroscope, accelerometer, hall effect sensor, magnetometer, orientation sensor, proximity sensor, temperature sensor, time sensor, geolocation sensor, altimeter, light sensor, touch sensor, magnetometer, barometer, gesture sensor, biometric sensor, humidity sensor, etc.

WTRU 102 may include a full duplex radio in which transmission and reception of some or all of the signals (e.g., associated with particular subframes of both UL (e.g., for transmission) and DL (e.g., for reception)) may be concurrent and/or simultaneous. The full duplex radio may include an interference management unit to reduce and or substantially eliminate self-interference via hardware (e.g., choke) or signal processing via a processor (e.g., a separate processor (not shown) or via processor 118). In one embodiment, the WTRU 102 may include a half-duplex radio in which some or all of the signals (e.g., associated with a particular subframe of either UL (e.g., for transmission) or DL (e.g., for reception)) are transmitted and received.

Fig. 1C is a system diagram illustrating a RAN 104 and a CN 106 according to an embodiment. As described above, the RAN 104 may employ an E-UTRA radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. RAN 104 may also communicate with CN 106.

RAN 104 may include eNode-bs 160a, 160B, 160c, but it will be appreciated that RAN 104 may include any number of eNode-bs while remaining consistent with an embodiment. The eNode-bs 160a, 160B, 160c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102B, 102c over the air interface 116. In one embodiment, eNode-bs 160a, 160B, 160c may implement MIMO technology. Thus, for example, eNode-B160 a may use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to and/or receive wireless signals from WTRU 102 a.

Each of eNode-bs 160a, 160B, 160c may be associated with a particular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle air interface resource management decisions, handover decisions, user scheduling in UL and/or DL, and the like. As shown in fig. 1C, eNode-bs 160a, 160B, 160C may communicate with each other through an X2 interface.

The CN 106 shown in fig. 1C may include a Mobility Management Entity (MME) 162, a Serving Gateway (SGW) 164, and a Packet Data Network (PDN) gateway (PGW) 166. While the foregoing elements are described as part of the CN 106, it will be appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and/or operated by entities other than the CN operator.

MME 162 may be connected to each of eNode-bs 162a, 162B, 162c in RAN 104 via an S1 interface and may act as a control node. For example, the MME 162 may be responsible for authenticating the user of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, bearer activation/deactivation, selecting a particular serving gateway during initial contact of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and the like. MME 162 may provide control plane functionality for switching between RAN 104 and other RANs (not shown) employing other radio technologies, such as GSM and/or WCDMA.

SGW 164 may be connected to each of eNode bs 160a, 160B, 160c in RAN 104 via an S1 interface. The SGW 164 may generally route and forward user data packets to and from the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102 c. The SGW 164 may perform other functions such as anchoring the user plane during inter-eNode B handover, triggering paging when DL data is available to the WTRUs 102a, 102B, 102c, managing and storing the contexts of the WTRUs 102a, 102B, 102c, etc.

The SGW 164 may be connected to a PGW 166 that may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to a packet switched network, such as the internet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and IP-enabled devices.

The CN 106 may facilitate communications with other networks. For example, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to a circuit-switched network (such as the PSTN 108) to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and conventional landline communication devices. For example, the CN 106 may include or may communicate with an IP gateway (e.g., an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) server) that is an interface between the CN 106 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to other networks 112, which may include other wired and/or wireless networks owned and/or operated by other service providers.

Although the WTRU is depicted in fig. 1A-1D as a wireless terminal, it is contemplated that in some representative embodiments such a terminal may use (e.g., temporarily or permanently) a wired communication interface that utilizes a communication network.

In representative embodiments, the other network 112 may be a WLAN.

A WLAN in infrastructure Basic Service Set (BSS) mode may have an Access Point (AP) for the BSS and one or more Stations (STAs) associated with the AP. The AP may have access or interface to a Distribution System (DS) or another type of wired/wireless network that loads traffic into and/or out of the BSS. Traffic originating outside the BSS destined for the STA may arrive through the AP and may be delivered to the STA. Traffic originating from STAs to destinations outside the BSS may be sent to the AP for delivery to the corresponding destinations. Traffic between STAs within the BSS may be sent by the AP, for example, where the source STA may send traffic to the AP and the AP may deliver the traffic to the destination STA. Traffic between STAs within a BSS may be considered and/or referred to as point-to-point traffic. Point-to-point traffic may be sent between a source STA and a destination STA (e.g., directly between them) with Direct Link Setup (DLS). In certain representative embodiments, the DLS may use 802.11e DLS or 802.11z Tunnel DLS (TDLS). A WLAN using an Independent BSS (IBSS) mode may have no AP and STAs (e.g., all STAs) within or using the IBSS may communicate directly with each other. The IBSS communication mode may sometimes be referred to herein as an "ad hoc" communication mode.

When using an 802.11ac infrastructure mode of operation or similar mode of operation, the AP may transmit beacons on a fixed channel, such as a primary channel. The primary channel may be a fixed width (e.g., 20MHz wide bandwidth) or a dynamically set width. The primary channel may be an operating channel of the BSS and may be used by the STA to establish a connection with the AP. In some representative embodiments, carrier sense multiple access-collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) may be implemented, for example, in an 802.11 system. For CSMA/CA, STAs (e.g., each STA) including the AP may sense the primary channel. The particular STA may fall back if the primary signal is sensed/detected and/or determined to be busy by the particular STA. One STA (e.g., only one station) may transmit in a given BSS at any given time.

High Throughput (HT) STAs may communicate using 40MHz wide channels, e.g., forming 40MHz wide channels via a combination of a primary 20MHz channel and an adjacent or non-adjacent 20MHz channel.

Very High Throughput (VHT) STAs may support channels that are 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz and/or 160MHz wide. 40MHz and/or 80MHz channels may be formed by combining consecutive 20MHz channels. The 160MHz channel may be formed by combining 8 consecutive 20MHz channels or by combining two discontinuous 80MHz channels, which may be referred to as an 80+80 configuration. For the 80+80 configuration, the data may be passed through a fragment parser after channel encoding, which may split the data into two streams. An Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) process and a time domain process may be performed on each stream separately. The streams may be mapped onto two 80MHz channels and the data may be transmitted by the transmitting STA. At the receiver of the receiving STA, the above-described operation of the 80+80 configuration may be reversed, and the combined data may be transmitted to a Medium Access Control (MAC).

The 802.11af and 802.11ah support modes of operation below 1 GHz. The channel operating bandwidths and carriers are reduced in 802.11af and 802.11ah relative to those used in 802.11n and 802.11 ac. The 802.11af supports 5MHz, 10MHz, and 20MHz bandwidths in the TV white space (TVWS) spectrum, and the 802.11ah supports 1MHz, 2MHz, 4MHz, 8MHz, and 16MHz bandwidths using non-TVWS spectrum. According to representative embodiments, 802.11ah may support meter type control/Machine Type Communication (MTC), such as MTC devices in macro coverage. MTC devices may have certain capabilities, e.g., limited capabilities, including supporting (e.g., supporting only) certain and/or limited bandwidth. MTC devices may include batteries with battery lives above a threshold (e.g., to maintain very long battery lives).

WLAN systems that can support multiple channels and channel bandwidths, such as 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11af, and 802.11ah, include channels that can be designated as primary channels. The primary channel may have a bandwidth equal to the maximum common operating bandwidth supported by all STAs in the BSS. The bandwidth of the primary channel may be set and/or limited by the STA supporting the minimum bandwidth operation mode among all STAs operating in the BSS. In the example of 802.11ah, for STAs (e.g., MTC-type devices) that support (e.g., support only) 1MHz modes, the primary channel may be 1MHz wide, even though the AP and other STAs in the BSS support 2MHz, 4MHz, 8MHz, 16MHz, and/or other channel bandwidth modes of operation. The carrier sense and/or Network Allocation Vector (NAV) settings may depend on the state of the primary channel. If the primary channel is busy, for example, due to a STA (which only supports a 1MHz mode of operation) transmitting to the AP, all available frequency bands may be considered busy even if most of the available frequency bands remain idle.

In the united states, the available frequency band that can be used by 802.11ah is 902MHz to 928MHz. In korea, the available frequency band is 917.5MHz to 923.5MHz. In Japan, the available frequency band is 916.5MHz to 927.5MHz. The total bandwidth available for 802.11ah is 6MHz to 26MHz, depending on the country code.

Fig. 1D is a system diagram illustrating a RAN 104 and a CN 106 according to an embodiment. As described above, the RAN 104 may employ NR radio technology to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. RAN 104 may also communicate with CN 106.

RAN 104 may include gnbs 180a, 180b, 180c, but it will be appreciated that RAN 104 may include any number of gnbs while remaining consistent with an embodiment. The gnbs 180a, 180b, 180c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. In one embodiment, gnbs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement MIMO technology. For example, the gnbs 180a, 180b may utilize beamforming to transmit signals to and/or receive signals from the gnbs 180a, 180b, 180 c. Thus, for example, the gNB 180a may use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to and/or receive wireless signals from the WTRU 102 a. In one embodiment, the gnbs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement carrier aggregation techniques. For example, the gNB 180a may transmit multiple component carriers to the WTRU 102a (not shown). A subset of these component carriers may be located on the unlicensed spectrum while the remaining component carriers may be located on the licensed spectrum. In one embodiment, the gnbs 180a, 180b, 180c may implement coordinated multipoint (CoMP) techniques. For example, WTRU 102a may receive coordinated transmissions from gNB 180a and gNB 180b (and/or gNB 180 c).

The WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with the gnbs 180a, 180b, 180c using transmissions associated with the scalable digital architecture. For example, the OFDM symbol interval and/or OFDM subcarrier spacing may vary for different transmissions, different cells, and/or different portions of the wireless transmission spectrum. The WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with the gnbs 180a, 180b, 180c using subframes or Transmission Time Intervals (TTIs) of various lengths or of scalable lengths (e.g., including different numbers of OFDM symbols and/or for different lengths of absolute time).

The gnbs 180a, 180b, 180c may be configured to communicate with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c in an independent configuration and/or in a non-independent configuration. In a standalone configuration, the WTRUs 102a, 102B, 102c may communicate with the gnbs 180a, 180B, 180c without also accessing other RANs (e.g., such as eNode bs 160a, 160B, 160 c). In a standalone configuration, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may use one or more of the gnbs 180a, 180b, 180c as mobility anchor points. In a stand-alone configuration, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may communicate with the gnbs 180a, 180b, 180c using signals in unlicensed frequency bands. In a non-standalone configuration, the WTRUs 102a, 102B, 102c may communicate/connect with the gnbs 180a, 180B, 180c while also communicating/connecting with another RAN (such as eNode-bs 160a, 160B, 160 c). For example, the WTRUs 102a, 102B, 102c may implement DC principles to communicate with one or more gnbs 180a, 180B, 180c and one or more eNode-bs 160a, 160B, 160c substantially simultaneously. In a non-standalone configuration, the eNode-bs 160a, 160B, 160c may serve as mobility anchors for the WTRUs 102a, 102B, 102c, and the gnbs 180a, 180B, 180c may provide additional coverage and/or throughput to serve the WTRUs 102a, 102B, 102 c.

Each of the gnbs 180a, 180b, 180c may be associated with a particular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle air interface resource management decisions, handover decisions, user scheduling in UL and/or DL, support for network slicing, interworking between DC, NR and E-UTRA, routing of user plane data towards User Plane Functions (UPFs) 184a, 184b, routing of control plane information towards access and mobility management functions (AMFs) 182a, 182b, and so on. As shown in fig. 1D, gnbs 180a, 180b, 180c may communicate with each other through an Xn interface.

The CN 106 shown in fig. 1D may include at least one AMF 182a, 182b, at least one UPF 184a, 184b, at least one Session Management Function (SMF) 183a, 183b, and possibly a Data Network (DN) 185a, 185b. While the foregoing elements are described as part of the CN 106, it will be appreciated that any of these elements may be owned and/or operated by entities other than the CN operator.

The AMFs 182a, 182b may be connected to one or more of the gnbs 180a, 180b, 180c in the RAN 104 via an N2 interface and may act as control nodes. For example, the AMFs 182a, 182b may be responsible for authenticating users of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, supporting network slicing (e.g., handling different Protocol Data Unit (PDU) sessions with different requirements), selecting a particular SMF 183a, 183b, managing registration areas, terminating non-access stratum (NAS) signaling, mobility management, etc. The AMFs 182a, 182b may use network slices to customize CN support for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c based on the type of service the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c are utilizing. For example, different network slices may be established for different use cases, such as services relying on ultra-reliable low latency (URLLC) access, services relying on enhanced large-scale mobile broadband (eMBB) access, services for MTC access, and so on. The AMFs 182a, 182b may provide control plane functionality for switching between the RAN 104 and other RANs (not shown) employing other radio technologies (such as LTE, LTE-A, LTE-a Pro) and/or non-3 GPP access technologies (such as WiFi).

The SMFs 183a, 183b may be connected to AMFs 182a, 182b in the CN 106 via an N11 interface. The SMFs 183a, 183b may also be connected to UPFs 184a, 184b in the CN 106 via an N4 interface. SMFs 183a, 183b may select and control UPFs 184a, 184b and route traffic through UPFs 184a, 184b. The SMFs 183a, 183b may perform other functions such as managing and assigning WTRU IP addresses, managing PDU sessions, controlling policy enforcement and QoS, providing DL data notifications, etc. The PDU session type may be IP-based, non-IP-based, ethernet-based, and the like.

The UPFs 184a, 184b may be connected via an N3 interface to one or more of the gnbs 180a, 180b, 180c in the RAN 104, which may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to a packet-switched network, such as the internet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and IP-enabled devices. UPFs 184, 184b may perform other functions such as routing and forwarding packets, enforcing user plane policies, supporting multi-host PDU sessions, handling user plane QoS, buffering DL packets, providing mobility anchoring, and the like.

The CN 106 may facilitate communications with other networks. For example, the CN 106 may include or may communicate with an IP gateway (e.g., an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) server) that is an interface between the CN 106 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the CN 106 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to other networks 112, which may include other wired and/or wireless networks owned and/or operated by other service providers. In one embodiment, the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may connect to the DNs 185a, 185b through the UPFs 184a, 184b via an N3 interface to the UPFs 184a, 184b and an N6 interface between the UPFs 184a, 184b and the local DNs 185a, 185b.

In view of the corresponding descriptions of fig. 1A-1D and 1A-1D, one or more or all of the functions described herein with respect to one or more of the WTRUs 102 a-102D, the base stations 114 a-114B, the eNode-bs 160 a-160 c, the MME 162, the SGW 164, the PGW 166, the gNB 180 a-180 c, the AMFs 182 a-182B, the UPFs 184 a-184B, the SMFs 183 a-183B, the DNs 185 a-185B, and/or any other devices described herein may be performed by one or more emulating devices (not shown). The simulation device may be one or more devices configured to simulate one or more or all of the functions described herein. For example, the emulation device may be used to test other devices and/or analog network and/or WTRU functions.

The simulation device may be designed to enable one or more tests of other devices in a laboratory environment and/or an operator network environment. For example, one or more emulation devices can perform one or more or all functions when fully or partially implemented and/or deployed as part of a wired and/or wireless communication network in order to test other devices within the communication network. One or more emulation devices can perform one or more or all of the functions when temporarily implemented/deployed as part of a wired and/or wireless communication network. The emulation device may be directly coupled to another device for testing purposes and/or perform testing using over-the-air wireless communications.

One or more emulation devices can perform one or more (including all) functions when not implemented/deployed as part of a wired and/or wireless communication network. For example, the simulation apparatus may be used in a test scenario in a test laboratory and/or an undeployed (e.g., tested) wired and/or wireless communication network in order to enable testing of one or more components. The one or more simulation devices may be test equipment. The emulation device can transmit and/or receive data using direct RF coupling and/or wireless communication via RF circuitry (e.g., which can include one or more antennas).

Channel State Information (CSI) may include at least one of a Channel Quality Index (CQI), a Rank Indicator (RI), a Precoding Matrix Index (PMI), L1 channel measurements (e.g., RSRP such as L1-RSRP or SINR), CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI), SS/PBCH block resource indicator (SSBRI), layer Indicator (LI), and/or any other measurement quantity measured by the WTRU from a configured CSI-RS or SS/PBCH block.

Uplink Control Information (UCI) may include CSI, HARQ feedback for one or more HARQ processes, scheduling Request (SR), link Recovery Request (LRR), CG-UCI, and/or other control information bits that may be transmitted on PUCCH or PUSCH.

The channel condition may be any condition related to the state of the radio/channel that may be determined by the WTRU based on WTRU measurements (e.g., L1/SINR/RSRP, CQI/MCS, channel occupancy, RSSI, power headroom, exposure headroom), measurements based on L3/mobility (e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, s-measurements), RLM state, and/or channel availability in the unlicensed spectrum (e.g., determining whether the channel is occupied based on a determination of the LBT procedure, or whether the channel is deemed to have experienced a consistent LBT failure).

PRACH resources include PRACH resources (e.g., in frequency), PRACH occasions (ROs) (e.g., in time), preamble formats (e.g., in terms of total preamble duration, sequence length, guard time duration, and/or length of cyclic prefix), and/or particular preamble sequences used to transmit preambles during random access.

The properties of the scheduling information (e.g., uplink grant or downlink assignment) may include one or more of frequency assignment, aspects of time assignment such as duration, priority, modulation and coding scheme, transport block size, number of spatial layers, number of transport blocks to carry, TCI status or SRI, number of repetitions, and whether the grant is a configured grant type 1, type2, or dynamic grant.

The indication or indication by DCI may include one or more of an explicit indication of DCI field or RNTI for masking CRC of PDCCH, an implicit indication of an attribute such as DCI format, DCI size, core set or search space, aggregation level, identification of first control channel resource of DCI (e.g., index of first CCE), where mapping between the attribute and value may be signaled by RRC or MAC, and an explicit indication by DL MAC CE.

The terms network availability status and NES status may be used interchangeably.

The NR System Information (SI) includes MIB (master information block) and a plurality of SIBs (system information blocks). The SIBs are divided into minimum SI and other SIs. The minimum SI carries the information needed for initial access and acquisition of any other SI. The minimum SI consists of MIB and SIB 1. In order for a WTRU to be allowed to camp on a cell, it must already acquire the content of the minimum SI for that cell. Other SIs include SIBs that are not broadcast in the smallest SI. The WTRU need not receive these SIBs prior to accessing the cell. Other SIs are also referred to as on-demand SIs because the gNB may transmit/broadcast these SIBs only when explicitly requested by the WTRU. This is for the purpose of saving network energy.

The MIB may contain cell barring status information and basic physical layer information of the cell required to receive further system information, such as CORESET #0 configuration. The MIB is broadcast periodically on the BCH (with a period of 80ms, and within 80ms, repeated transmissions may occur).

SIB1 may define scheduling of other system information blocks and contain information needed for initial access. SIB1 is also known as Residual Minimum SI (RMSI) and is periodically broadcast on DL-SCH or sent to the WTRU on DL-SCH in a dedicated manner in rrc_connected.

Fig. 2 shows a time-frequency structure of a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) 200. SSB 200 occupies 240 subcarriers 210 in the frequency domain and 4 symbols 220 in the time domain. SSB 200 includes a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) 230, a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS) 240, and a Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) 250.PSS230 and SSS240 each occupy 1 symbol and 127 subcarriers. PBCH 250 may span 3 OFDM symbols and 240 subcarriers. As shown in fig. 2, one symbol in the middle of PBCH 250 may not be used for SSS240.PSS230 and SSS240 may provide Physical Cell Identity (PCI) and PBCH 250 may carry a Master Information Block (MIB) plus additional payload bits.

The possible time positions of SSB 200 within a field are determined by the subcarrier spacing and the periodicity of the field in which SSB 200 is transmitted is configured by the network. During the half-frame, different SSBs 200 may transmit in different spatial directions (i.e., using different beams, across the coverage area of the cell). Within the frequency span of the carrier, multiple SSBs 200 may be transmitted. The PCI of SSBs 200 transmitted in different frequency locations need not be unique, i.e., different SSBs 200 in the frequency domain may have different PCIs. However, when SSB is associated with RMSI, SSB is referred to as cell definition SSB (CD-SSB). The PCell is always associated with a CD-SSB located on the synchronization grating.

The WTRU may assume a band specific subcarrier spacing for SSB 200 unless the network has configured the WTRU to assume a different subcarrier spacing. Multiple beams may be associated with a given beam and multiple SSBs 200 may be transmitted on different beams within a given cell (i.e., beam scanning).

Fig. 3 illustrates an example of a beam sweep 300. Periodically broadcast SSBs 310 may be periodically transmitted from each cell. SSBs may be organized into burst sets, each burst set including one or more SSBs. The number of SSBs may be configured such that, for example, 64 may be used for higher frequencies. Each SSB has an index 325 that increases from 0 to the number of SSBs minus 1. Periodicity 315 is shown in fig. 3 as 10ms. The periodicity 315 may range from 5ms to 160ms.

Fig. 3 shows, via beam sweep 300, that a plurality of SSBs 320 (8 SSB-indices 325 from 0 to 7) are transmitted at intervals. Each SSB may be identified by an SSB index 325, where each SSB is transmitted via a particular beam radiating in a particular direction. A plurality of WTRUs (shown as WTRU 334 and WTRU 336) are located at various locations around the gNB 330. Each WTRU 334, 336 measures the signal strength of each SSB it detects over a period of time (a period of one SSB set). Based on the measurements, each WTRU 334, 336 may use the measured signal strength map 340 to identify the SSB index with the strongest signal strength. For example, as further shown in fig. 3, beam #1 342 is the best beam (selected beam) for WTRU 1 334 and beam #7 344 is the best beam for WTRU 2 336.

The number of different beams transmitted may be determined by the number of SSBs transmitted within a SSB burst (a set of SSBs transmitted in a 5ms SSB transmission window). For example, in FR1, the maximum number of SSBs within the SSB set is 4 or 8, while for FR2 it may be 64.

There may be a network availability status/NES status. The WTRU may determine whether the WTRU may transmit or receive on certain resources based on the network availability status (implying a power saving state of the gNB). The availability status may correspond to a network power saving status or a gNB activity level. The availability status may be uplink or downlink specific and may change at inter-symbol, inter-slot, inter-frame or longer duration granularity. The availability status may be determined by the WTRU or indicated by the network. The availability status may be, for example, "on", "DL and UL activity", "UL activity only", "off", "Tx power down", "sleep", "microsleep", "light sleep" or "deep sleep". Such states may be abstracted by NW configuration parameters and/or values, and dynamic indications may point to active availability states (e.g., through DCI or MAC CE signaling). The "off availability status may mean that the baseband hardware of the gNB has been completely turned off. The "sleep" availability status may mean that the gNB periodically wakes up to transmit certain signals (e.g., presence signals, synchronization or reference signals) or to receive certain UL signals. In certain availability states, certain DL or UL resources are not available for certain periods of time, and this enables the network to shut down baseband processing and other activities. Some measurement resources (e.g., SSBs or CSI-RSs) may be available only in some available states, including RLM, BFD, RRM measurements, CSI-RS feedback configurations, and/or different power offsets for CSI feedback.

Under certain conditions, the WTRU may also transmit a request (wake-up request) to the network to modify the availability status to a state that will satisfy the WTRU's required resources availability. Such a wake-up request may include a transmission that may be decodable by a low complexity receiver at the gNB for which the energy consumption requirements are minimal. The wake-up request, the turn-on request, or the turn-on WTRU assistance information may be used interchangeably. Under certain availability states (e.g., "microsleep" or "deep sleep"), the wake-up request may be used exclusively, and may refer to a physical uplink signal transmitted by the WTRU for requesting a change in availability state. The physical layer design of the wake-up request signal is detailed below. The turn-on request may also be a physical layer or L2 indication from the WTRU to the network, which may be transmitted as MAC CE, UCI, RRC signaling or RRC reconfiguration signaling (e.g., applicable to NES-, PUCCH or RACH indications), and may include turn-on WTRU assistance information and/or positioning reports.

The WTRU may determine the availability status based on an availability status indication received from, for example, L1/L2 signaling (e.g., a group common DCI or indication), or implicitly based on received periodic DL signaling (or lack thereof).

If the resources are available in an active availability state, the WTRU may determine whether the resources are available for transmission/reception and/or make measurements for the determined network availability state. In addition, the WTRU may adjust its active C-DRX cycle, active spatial elements (e.g., antennas or logical ports), active TRP, paging occasions based on the signaled or determined NES state. The WTRU may be configured with one or more sets of NES transmit and/or receive parameters for each NES state, e.g., by broadcast or dedicated configuration signaling. The WTRU may apply the NES parameter set based on the determined or signaled NES state. The WTRU may apply one or more applicable configurations based on the determined NES state. The set of NES parameters may include one or more of a number of antenna ports, a C-DRX configuration, a measurement configuration (e.g., for RRM, RLM, and/or BFD), CSI feedback, a CSI-RS configuration, an SSB configuration, a CHO or mobility candidate, a set of active TRPs.

The availability status may be applicable to at least one transmission, reception or measurement resource. The availability status may be applicable for at least one time period, such as a slot or a time symbol. The availability status may be applicable to a serving cell, a group of cells, a frequency band, a bandwidth portion, a TRP, a set of spatial elements, or a frequency range within the bandwidth portion. For example, when the NES state changes in a cell, the WTRU may receive an availability status change indication indicating that this change is only for that cell, for all cells of the same frequency or/and the same RAT.

Upon receiving DL signaling to change the availability status of a cell or TRP, the WTRU may consider the active availability status associated with the cell, carrier, TRP, or band as "off", "deep sleep", or "micro sleep". For example, the WTRU may receive the shutdown command on broadcast signaling, RRC signaling, DCI (e.g., group common DCI), or DL MAC CE (e.g., an indicated portion of PDSCH). The WTRU may determine the availability status from, for example, receiving an availability status indication via L1/L2 signaling (e.g., group common DCI or indication).

For example, the WTRU may determine a change in the NES state change from receiving group common command L1 signaling (e.g., group common DCI, multi-level DCI, a specific DCI format, or DCI scrambled by a configured or specified NES-specific RNTI). The L1 signaling may indicate one of the configured NES parameter sets to be applied, or may determine the delta configuration from the current parameter set after determining the NES state change. Upon receiving the NES state change indication, the WTRU may transmit feedback/acknowledgement to the gNB, possibly multiplexed with UL data (e.g., as part of the UL TB indicated by the MAC CE or subheader).

Further, for example, the WTRU may determine a change in the NES state change from receiving broadcast signaling associated with the NES state indication or change, including signaling in the SIB, or a portion of the broadcast or multicast PDSCH. The WTRU may explicitly indicate the NES state in the SIB. The WTRU may be configured with one or more SIBs specifically associated with the configuration of the NES parameters. The WTRU may be configured to periodically receive such broadcast or multicast indications, if no indication is received at an expected periodic occasion, if a certain number of false detections are counted, and/or if a timer has expired since the last time the NES status indication was received, the WTRU may determine that the indication was false detected. After determining error detection of the NES status indication, the WTRU may initiate inter-cell, inter-frequency, and/or inter-RAT measurements, initiate mobility procedures, and/or begin evaluating configured CHO candidates.

The WTRU may implicitly assume certain availability states (e.g., "off," deep sleep, "" microsleep, "or dormant") associated with a cell, carrier, TRP, or band from at least one of the following.

The WTRU may assume certain availability states based on receiving a command or signal indicating a change in availability state (e.g., a group common DCI or RRC signaling or presence signal in connected mode). The WTRU may implicitly determine the availability status based on receiving periodic DL signaling. The WTRU may be configured or designated to associate an availability status with one or more DL signal types (e.g., SSB, partial SSB, and/or one or more periodicities).

The WTRU may assume some availability status based on receiving paging messages, paging DCI, paging PDSCH, or paging related signals (e.g., PEI) that may be located in a subset of POs (e.g., those consistent with the NES drx cycle or a configured subset of PDCCH resources). The WTRU may assume some availability status after receiving an indication portion of DCI or PDCCH scheduling paging (e.g., based on P-RNTI, NES-RNTI, or based on receiving an explicit indication on reserved bits, for example). The WTRU may assume some availability status after receiving a paging message with a specific P-RNTI, a separately configured NESP-RNTI, or a NES group RNTI. The WTRU may assume a particular available state after receiving a paging message with a particular P-RNTI. The WTRU may be configured with another PEI subgroup for the NES, wherein the subgroup may be associated with one or more availability states. The WTRU may assume certain availability states after receiving PEI with the NES subgroup, possibly if the subgroup is already configured with and/or associated with the availability state. The indication of availability status or availability status switch may be indicated in the paging payload, for example as a flag portion of a paging message or a short message. Such paging indication may also instruct the spare cell to monitor for pages while the cell receiving the signaling is off, asleep, or in the NES state. Such paging indication may also indicate or signal applicable reconfiguration parameters (e.g., for initial access, applicable PRACH resources, applicable SSB/RS occasions, applicable SI periods, and/or applicable cells and associated availability status).

The WTRU may assume a particular availability state based on the gNB DTX state (whether the gNB is active or whether an associated activity timer is running).

The WTRU may assume certain availability states due to the absence of a detected presence indication, including the WTRU determining availability states associated with the cell (e.g., "off" or "deep sleep"), and if the presence indication is not detected at one or more presence indication occasions, the WTRU may assume or change the availability state of the cell after a number of consecutive false detections or after expiration of a timer after the absence of a detected presence signal. The WTRU may determine whether the availability status is active or inactive after expiration of a timer associated with the availability status. Such timers may be configured and/or maintained only in a connected mode, or may be configured and/or maintained in other states (e.g., idle and inactive states). The WTRU may implicitly determine the availability status based on not receiving periodic DL signaling. For example, the WTRU may be configured with a signal quality threshold (e.g., RSRP threshold), and if the WTRU does not detect a signal associated with an availability state (e.g., presence signal or SSB) with a signal strength above the threshold, the WTRU may assume that the availability state is inactive and may assume a different availability state. The criteria may also be combined with an identification sequence (e.g., a PSS sequence is detected) where no presence signal is detected.

The WTRU may assume some availability status based on the time of day. For example, the WTRU may be configured to automatically assume certain availability states (e.g., off, sleep, or dormant) for a configured subset of cells (e.g., capacity booster cells) based on the time of day. For example, the WTRU may determine that the availability status of the capacity boosting cell is "on" for certain periods of the day, "deep sleep" for other configured periods, and "off" for a third set of configured periods of the day or night.

The WTRU may assume some availability states based on the availability state of an associated cell (e.g., another carrier of the same MAC entity, another carrier in the same cell group, another carrier in the same gNB, another sector in the same gNB, or a configured associated cell or capacity booster cell).

The WTRU may assume certain availability states based on the detection of PSS only signals or reduced/abbreviated SSB signals.

The WTRU may assume some availability states based on detection of an RS signal (e.g., CSI-RS, PRS, TRS) or lack of an RS signal.

The WTRU may assume some availability states based on the RRC state (idle, inactive, or connected mode) of the WTRU.

The WTRU may assume some availability status based on whether a page has been received (possibly within a configured time window).

The WTRU may assume some availability status based on whether system information (e.g., periodic SI or a subset of SIBs) has been received (possibly within a configured time window).

The WTRU may assume some availability states based on measured channel conditions below or above a threshold. The WTRU may assume a change in NES state based on a change in measured channel conditions or making channel measurements below or above a threshold. For example, the WTRU may use the measured degradation of SSB or CSI-RS (possibly in combination with other signaling) to determine the NES state. For example, a window configured after DCI reception may be used to measure degradation of SSB and/or CSI-RS, and if an increase in SSB-RSRP drop is measured, the WTRU may determine that the NES state has changed and take actions associated with such NES state (e.g., triggering CHO candidate selection or triggering group scheduling of mobility commands).

The WTRU may be configured to monitor for an indication that may characterize a network activity level (e.g., availability status). Network activity may be associated with the gNB and/or the cell. The WTRU may assume the same availability status for all cell parts of the same gNB (e.g., cells of the same MAC entity). The network activity indication (e.g., presence indication) may include a channel (e.g., PDCCH) and/or a signal (e.g., sequence). The activity indication or NES state change indication/command may indicate a level of activity that the WTRU may expect from the associated gNB and/or cell, e.g., reduced activity. The activity indication may contain activity information of other gnbs/cells. The activity indication may be a PDCCH containing group common signaling. For example, the NW may transmit a group common DCI to a group of WTRUs (e.g., WTRUs in a serving cell) indicating a change in activity state or activity level in the UL and/or DL. The CRC of the PDCCH may be scrambled with a dedicated "Activity indication RNTI or NES-RNTI". The WTRU may be configured with at least one search space associated with a monitoring occasion of the active indication PDCCH. The indication may consist of an incoming sleep signal, e.g. a predefined sequence. When the WTRU detects this sequence, the WTRU may expect the activity level to decrease for a certain duration. The WTRU may activate C-DRX for the indicated period of time. Alternatively, two sequences may be used to indicate regular activity and reduced activity.

The signaling or activity indication within the PDCCH may include at least one of the following.

The signaling or activity indication within the PDCCH may include an expected activity level (e.g., availability status) of the associated gNB/cell over a particular time interval. The activity level may be predetermined and/or configured and may, for example, consist of regular activity and reduced activity. The signaling may indicate an activity level. For example, a bit of "1" may indicate regular activity and a bit of "0" may indicate reduced activity.

Signaling or activity indication within the PDCCH may include, for each activity level (e.g., availability status), transmission and reception attributes may be defined. For example, during reduced activity, the WTRU may not expect to monitor certain PDCCH search spaces (including all SSs), and/or receive certain types of PDSCH (including all PDSCH), and/or transmit PUCCH/PUSCH, and/or perform certain measurements. The WTRU may start or stop monitoring PDCCH and/or TCI states associated with the determined NES state, including PDCCH resources or TCI states associated with the (de) activated TRP or spatial element.

The signaling or activity indication within the PDCCH may include a set of configurations that may be associated with an activity level and may be used/applied (e.g., NES parameter sets) in indicating the activity level. Such as SS configuration, CSI reporting configuration, index of transmitted SSBs, etc. Each set of configurations may have attributes associated with an activity level. For example, a label of "reduced activity" may be set.

The signaling or activity indication within the PDCCH may include a time interval assuming an activity level, which may be signaled in the PDCCH or as part of the activity indication. A bitmap may be used to indicate time intervals, where each bit in the bitmap may be associated with a particular duration, such as a slot or frame. For example, a bit of "1" may indicate regular activity and a bit of "0" may indicate reduced activity on the associated frame. The time interval may be indicated by a start time and an interval length. The start time may be defined, for example, which may be determined by adding a fixed offset to the time at which the indication was received. The length of the interval may be configured or signaled in the indication PDCCH.

The signaling or activity indication within the PDCCH may include a time interval at which a hypothetical activity level may be predetermined. The WTRU may assume an interrupt delay (or more generally, until such time as the NES state changes) after receiving the NES state change command (e.g., after the last symbol or slot in which the command was received). The interruption time may be an absolute time, a number of symbols, or a number of slots.

The WTRU may perform mobility to another serving cell after determining the NES change, trigger mobility related measurements, and/or begin evaluating CHO candidates on the standby cell. The WTRU may be configured or predefined with a standby serving cell to perform initial access, mobility, or cell reselection if the current serving cell or capacity booster cell is turned off or certain conditions are met. The WTRU may be configured with a list of fallback or backup serving cells, possibly for each serving cell or each gNB, according to broadcast or dedicated signaling. For example, the WTRU may initiate a cell reselection or mobility procedure for a standby serving cell associated with the cell or the gNB that received the shutdown indication. In one example, the indication to turn off or go to sleep may dynamically indicate to the WTRU which cell to fall back or connect to, e.g., through dedicated or broadcast signaling. The fallback/standby cell may be configured or predefined as a cell within the same gNB that the sector has entered the NES state (e.g., turned off, asleep, or reduced power). In another example, if the WTRU is in dual connectivity, the fallback cell may be predefined as the primary node cell. The fallback/standby cells may be configured or predefined as cells associated with different RATs or frequency bands. For example, the WTRU may fall back to an LTE or FR1 cell associated with the cell or gNB from which the shutdown indication was received (e.g., if the WTRU is in CA or DC using multiple RATs or multiple frequency bands).

If the uplink or downlink resources or signals are applicable in the active availability state, the WTRU may determine whether the uplink or downlink resources or signals are available for transmission/reception and/or make measurements for the determined network availability state. The WTRU may determine that a subset of measurement resources and/or signals (e.g., SSB, CSI-RS, TRS, PRS) are not applicable in certain availability states. The WTRU may determine that a subset of uplink or downlink resources (e.g., PRACH, PUSCH, PUCCH) are not applicable in certain availability states. The WTRU may transmit some uplink signals only in a subset of NW availability status (e.g., SRS, pSRS, PRACH, UCI).

A NES WTRU group may be provided. The WTRUs may be grouped for NES purposes, for example, to control multiple WTRUs simultaneously, for example, to indicate bwp handover, to indicate a change in NW availability status, to indicate a change in WTRU DRX cycle/parameters, for mobility/cell reselection, paging, and/or activation/deactivation of DL measurement resources. For this purpose, the WTRU may be configured with a NES group RNTI (more generally, a NES group identifier) that may be used to signal to one or more WTRUs in the same serving cell. The WTRU may monitor cell-specific DL resources to receive control and/or data to receive a group common indication of NES (e.g., group common DCI, availability status switch command, NES PCell switch command).

The WTRU may monitor for receipt of an indication or presence of a signal (such as a cell presence indication) associated with a gNB configured with one or more availability states (e.g., on, off, dormant, and/or deep sleep). The presence indication may be a physical downlink signal transmitted by an associated cell or gNB that is sleeping, e.g., may be in some availability state (e.g., deep sleep, microsleep, dormant, or off). Alternatively, the presence indication may be downlink information bits transmitted to the WTRU, for example, by broadcast signaling (e.g., SIB) or by dedicated signaling (e.g., RRC signaling or MAC CE).

The WTRU may change to an availability status associated with detecting the presence signal (e.g., the WTRU assumes "on") after it successfully receives a response from the requested cell to the transmitted WTRU assistance information or on request, which may be the receipt of a DL signal or channel (e.g., SSB, CSI-RS, PRS, PDCCH, DCI, PDSCH, HARQ-ACK) or L2 message (e.g., RRC message, DL MAC CE, msg2, msgB, or Msg 4). The WTRU may begin monitoring for additional TRP, SSB and/or CSI-RS resources after transmitting a wake-up WTRU assistance information or an on request or successfully receiving a response thereto. After successfully measuring channel conditions (e.g., RSRP, SINR) on measurement resources of the associated cell above a configured threshold, the WTRU may change to an availability state associated with detecting the presence signal (e.g., on).

The presence indication signal may be at least one of a reduced or abbreviated SSB signal, such as a PSS/SSS without PBCH multiplexing, a wide beam or omni-SSB, PRS, CSI-RS, a signal detected based on energy-sensing ethernet (e.g., a DL signal associated with a wake-up radio if the WTRU is capable of having such hardware to detect it), a PDSCH or PDCCH received on a different cell or TRP (possibly on a subset of configured resources, a core set or search space), and/or one or more SSBs received on a different cell or TRP (possibly configured on a subset of SSB occasions).

NR includes concepts of Conditional Handover (CHO) and conditional PSCell addition/change (CPA/CPC, or collectively CPAC), the main purpose of which is to reduce the likelihood of Radio Link Failure (RLF) and handover failure (HOF). Conventional LTE/NR handover is typically triggered by measurement reports, even though nothing prevents the network from sending HO commands to the WTRU without receiving measurement reports. For example, in the case of Dual Connectivity (DC), the WTRU is configured with an A3 event that triggers a measurement report to be sent when the radio signal level/quality (RSRP, RSRQ, etc.) of the neighboring cell becomes better than the primary serving cell (PCell) or also the primary secondary serving cell (PSCell). The WTRU monitors the serving cell and the neighboring cell and may send measurement reports when conditions are met. Upon receiving such a report, the network (current serving node/cell) may prepare and send a HO command (basically an RRC reconfiguration message with reconfigurationWithSync) to the WTRU, which immediately executes the command, resulting in the WTRU being connected to the target cell.

CHO differs from traditional handover in two main ways. Firstly, multiple handover targets are prepared (in contrast to only one target in the conventional case), and secondly, the WTRU does not perform CHO immediately as in the conventional handover. Instead, the WTRU is configured with a trigger condition (a set of radio conditions) and only if/if the trigger condition is met, the WTRU will perform a handover to one of the targets.

When radio conditions for the current serving cell are still good, CHO commands may be sent, reducing the two major points of failure in conventional handover, namely the risk of failing to send measurement reports (e.g., decreasing the link quality of the current serving cell to an acceptable level if the measurement report is triggered in a normal handover) and failing to receive handover commands (e.g., decreasing the link quality of the current serving cell to an acceptable level if the WTRU decreases after it has sent a measurement report but before it receives a HO command).

The CHO trigger condition may also be based on the radio quality of the serving cell and the neighboring cells, just as the conditions used to trigger measurement reports in conventional NR/LTE. For example, the WTRU may be configured with CHO with class A3 trigger conditions and associated HO commands. The WTRU monitors the current and serving cells and when the A3 trigger condition is met, it may execute the associated HO command and switch its connection to the target cell instead of sending a measurement report.

Fig. 4 shows a signaling diagram 400 of a conditional handoff configuration and execution. The signaling diagram includes a WTRU 405, a source node 415, and a potential target node 425 in communication. At 402, source node 415 may signal a CHO request at potential destination node 425. At 404, the potential destination node 425 provides CHO request acknowledgements to the source node 415 at 404. In some examples, the CHO request acknowledgement may be RRCReconfioguiration messages. At 406, the source node 415 signals the CHO configuration to the WTRU 405. CHO configurations may include conditions that trigger CHO. For example, the condition may be an A3/A5 event and may also include RRCReconfiguration messages.

At 410, the WTRU 405 may monitor CHO conditions provided in message 406 for one or more target cell candidates. If the condition is met, the WTRU 405 performs a HO to the target cell that meets the condition at 4210. At 412, the WTRU 405 sends a CHO acknowledgement to the potential target node 425. At 430, the potential target node 426 performs path switching and WTRU context release.

CHO may help prevent unnecessary re-establishment in case of radio link failure. For example, assume that the WTRU is configured with multiple CHO targets and the WTRU experiences RLF before the trigger condition for any target is met. Conventional operation would result in an RRC reestablishment procedure, which would result in a significant interruption time for the WTRU's bearers. However, in the case of CHO, if the WTRU eventually reaches the cell with which it has CHO association after detecting RLF (i.e., the target cell is ready for this), the WTRU will directly perform HO commands associated with the target cell instead of continuing the full re-establishment procedure.

CPC and CPA are just extensions of CHO, but in DC scenarios. The WTRU may be configured with a trigger condition for a PSCell change or addition, and when the trigger condition is met, it may execute an associated PSCell change or PSCell addition command.

For WTRUs 405 performing the monitoring 410, measurements and event configurations for handover and conditional handover may be provided. Some IEs (information elements) that may be provided to the measurement configuration of the WTRU are shown below.

The main components of the measurement configuration include a measurement object, a reporting configuration, a measurement ID configuration, an S-measurement configuration, a quantity configuration, and a measurement gap configuration.

The measurement object specifies what the WTRU 405 must measure and some information about how to perform the measurement. This includes information such as RAT, frequency, subcarrier spacing, SSB periodicity/offset/duration, reference signals and signal types to be measured, list of allowed/excluded neighbor cells for the relevant RAT/frequency to be measured, measurement gaps (occasion and duration), offsets that can be used to prioritize/de-prioritize certain cells, etc. The WTRU 405 may be configured with multiple measurement objects and the WTRU 405 may have measurement configurations that may be related to different frequencies or even different RATs. The WTRU 405 may be configured with up to 64 measurement objects, and each measurement object is identified by a measurement object ID.

The reporting configuration specifies the content to report (e.g., reference signal type such as CSI-RS or SSB, number of beams and cell levels to report such as RSRP/RSRQ, maximum number of cells or/and beams to report, etc.) and reporting criteria, upon which the WTRU may send a measurement report or perform an associated HO configuration in the case of CHO. The reporting criteria may simply be the expiration of a periodic timer (periodic reporting configuration) or may be based on some radio conditions of the serving cell and/or neighboring cells. The WTRU 405 may be configured with a maximum of 64 reporting configurations, and each reporting configuration is identified by a reporting configuration ID.

The WTRU 405 in the monitoring 410 may include measurement objects that may be associated with one or more reporting configurations. This association is made by measuring the ID. The measurement ID configuration is a list of measurement IDs, measurement object IDs, and report configuration IDs. The WTRU 405 may be configured with up to 64 measurement IDs.

There are a number of ways to configure event triggered reporting. These ways may include event A1 (serving cell becomes better than threshold), event A2 (serving becomes worse than threshold), event A3 (neighbor offset becomes better than SpCell), event A4 (neighbor becomes better than threshold), event A5 (SpCell becomes worse than threshold 1 and neighbor becomes better than threshold 2), event A6 (neighbor offset becomes better than SCell), event B1 (inter-RAT neighbor becomes better than threshold), and event B2 (PCell becomes worse than threshold 1 and inter-RAT neighbor becomes better than threshold 2). The term SpCell refers to the PCell (primary cell), or in the case of DC, to the primary secondary cell (PSCell). Events A3, A5, B2 may be configured only for PCell or PSCell. Events A1, A2, A3, A5, B2 may be configured for any serving cell. Event A6 may only be configured for scells, i.e. secondary cells in Carrier Aggregation (CA). Events A4 and B1 are related only to neighbor cell measurements (and thus not to any serving cell). Each event configuration is associated with a threshold (offset), hysteresis, and timeToTrigger (TTT) parameters.

In the CHO case, the WTRU 405 performs HO commands at 420 when reporting conditions are met, instead of sending measurement reports. For CHO, the following event-triggered reporting configurations may be defined as CondEvent A (neighbor offset becomes better than SpCell), condEvent A (neighbor becomes better than threshold), and CondEvent A5 (SpCell becomes worse than threshold 1 and neighbor becomes better than threshold 2).

CHO configurations may include a conditional reconfiguration ID, a conditional reconfiguration trigger condition, and RRC reconfiguration (i.e., HO command) performed when the condition is satisfied at 420.

The trigger condition monitored by WTRU 405 at 410 may reference 1 or 2 measurement IDs, and if 2 measurement IDs are specified, the two measurement IDs may reference the same measurement object (e.g., one measID associates the PCell-related measurement object with an A3 event and the other measID associates the same measurement object with an A5 event). Typically, the WTRU 405 may be configured with a maximum of 8 CHO configurations.

The WTRU 405 measurement configuration may include an s-measurement configuration (s-MeasureConfig) that specifies a threshold for NR SPCELL RSRP measurements that controls when the WTRU 405 is required to perform measurements on non-serving cells. That is, when the RSRP of the serving cell (e.g., PCell) is above the s-measurement threshold, the WTRU 405 does not need to perform neighbor cell measurements, thereby conserving WTRU battery.

Fig. 5 illustrates a procedure 500 for cell selection and reselection. Program 500 provides a digest for, for example, NR. The starting point of procedure 500 is whenever a new PLMN or a new SNPN is selected at 502. If cell information is stored for a PLMN or SNPN at 504, then cell selection information is stored at 510. If no cell information is stored for the PLMN or SNPN at 506, then initial cell reselection occurs at 520.

When information related to cell selection is stored at 510, initial cell selection 520 may occur if no suitable cell is found at 512. If a suitable cell is found at 514, the cell may be camped on in the normal camping manner at 505.

When initial cell selection is performed at 520, any cell selection 525 may occur if no suitable cell is found at 518. If a suitable cell is found at 516, the cell may be camped on in the normal camping manner at 505.

When camping on a cell normally at 505, if a trigger occurs at 562, cell reselection and evaluation may be handled at 540, leaving idle/inactive mode at 558 and entering connected mode 515.

Starting from connected mode 515, it may return to idle/inactive mode 556 to return to cell selection when the connected mode is left at 530. Starting with the cell selection when leaving the connected mode at 530, if a suitable cell is found at 554, normal camping on the cell may occur at 505. If a suitable cell is not found at 508, a return to storing information regarding cell selection may occur at 510.

When camping normally at 505, the NAS message may indicate a rejection of registration on the selected PLMN or selected SNPN at 522, and cell selection may be made at 525.

Through the cell reselection evaluation process 540, if a suitable cell is found at 568, it may camp normally at 505. If no suitable cell is found at 526, any cell selection may be made at 525.

With any cell selection 525, if a suitable cell is found at 532, the cell can be camped normally at 505. If a USIM is inserted or a SNPN subscription is added at 528, then the new PLMN or new SNPN may be analyzed at 502. If an acceptable cell is found, a move to idle mode may occur at 534 and then camp on any cell at 535. If camping on any cell 535 determines that a suitable cell is found at 536, the cell may be camped on normally at 505.

While camping on any cell 535, if any triggers occur at 544, a cell reselection evaluation procedure may occur at 560. If reselection 560 finds an acceptable cell at 542, the cell may be camped on at 535. If an acceptable cell is not found at 538 via reselection 560, any cell selection 525 may be entered.

If any cells are camped on at 535 and idle mode is maintained at 548, a connected mode may be entered at 545 for an emergency call. From there, when leaving the connected mode at 550, a return to idle mode to enter cell selection may occur at 552. If an acceptable cell is found at 546 during selection 550, the cell may be camped on at 535. If an acceptable cell is not found at 572, the selection 550 may result in any cell selection 525.

As shown in fig. 5, there is a block 590 highlighting aspects related to the transition from rrc_connected to rrc_idle/rrc_inactive (e.g., upon receipt of an RRC release message or completion of temporary cell selection during RRC reestablishment), and when the WTRU is able to find a suitable cell to camp on (e.g., at 505). Furthermore, inter-RAT cell reselection is not considered.

When searching for a suitable cell (multiple times in fig. 5), the WTRU searches for the NR frequency band and identifies the strongest cell for each carrier frequency based on the CD-SSB. The WTRU reads the cell system information broadcast to identify its PLMN to find a suitable cell to camp on. The suitable cell is one for which the measured cell attribute meets the cell selection criteria, the cell PLMN is a selected PLMN, registered or equivalent PLMN, the cell is not barred or reserved, and the cell is not part of the tracking area in the "roaming barred tracking area" list. Upon transitioning from rrc_connected to rrc_inactive or rrc_idle, the WTRU may camp on the cell according to the cell selection based on the frequency assigned by RRC in the state transition message (if any). Cell selection criteria (referred to as criteria S) are satisfied based on equation 1, where:

srxlev >0 and square >0 equation 1

Wherein Srxlev = Qrxlevmeas- (Qrxlevmin + Qrxlevminoffset) -Pcompensation-Qoffsettemp and square = Qqualmeas- (qqualmein + Qqualminoffset) -Qoffsettemp, and wherein:

The signaled values Qrxlevminoffset and Qqualminoffset may only be applied when evaluating cells for cell selection as a result of periodic searching for higher priority PLMNs while camping normally in the VPLMN. During such periodic searches for higher priority PLMNs, the WTRU may check the S-criteria of the cell using parameter values stored from different cells of the higher priority PLMN.

For example, the WTRU at rrc_idle/rrc_inactive performs cell reselection at 530, 550. The WTRU may perform intra-frequency, inter-frequency or inter-RAT cell reselection. The WTRU is configured with inter-RAT priorities (e.g., to preempt NRs rather than LTE as long as NR cells are available) or inter-frequency priorities within the same RAT (e.g., fa has highest priority, fb has medium priority, fc has lowest priority, etc.). A WTRU may be provided with a Neighbor Cell List (NCL) indicating which neighbor cells (e.g., intra-frequency, inter-RAT) should be considered for cell reselection. The WTRU may be provided with an allow list indicating only neighbor cells for which reselection may take into account. An exclusion list may be provided to the WTRU that indicates neighboring cells that should not be considered for reselection. The WTRU may attempt to camp on the cell operating on the highest priority RAT and/or highest priority frequency. The WTRU may choose not to perform intra-frequency measurements if the serving cell satisfies Srxlev > sintrasetp and square > sintrasetq, otherwise the WTRU may perform intra-frequency measurements.

The WTRU may choose not to perform measurements of NR inter-frequency cells with equal or lower priority or inter-RAT inter-frequency cells with lower priority if the serving cell satisfies Srxlev > snonlin setp and square > snonlin setq, otherwise the WTRU may perform measurements of NR inter-frequency cells with equal or lower priority or inter-RAT inter-frequency cells with lower priority.

The sintrasetp specifies the Srxlev threshold (in dB) measured in frequency. The sintrasetq specifies the square threshold (in dB) of intra-frequency measurement. Snonintrasetp specifies the Srxlev threshold (in dB) for NR inter-frequency and inter-RAT measurements. Snonintrasetq specifies the square threshold (in dB) for NR inter-frequency and inter-RAT measurements.

The WTRU may perform cell ordering of the relevant cells when the WTRU decides to perform intra-frequency measurements for cell reselection based on the criteria described above. Inter-frequency and inter-RAT reselection is based on absolute priority, where the WTRU attempts to camp on the highest priority frequency available. The cell ordering criteria (called criteria R) of the serving cell (Rs) and the neighboring cell (Rn) are defined by equations 2 and 3.

Rs=qmeas, s+qhyst-Qoffsettemp equation 2

Rn=Qmeas, n-Qoffset-Qoffsettemp equation 3

Wherein:

The WTRU may rank all cells that meet the cell selection criteria S defined above. The cells may be ordered according to the R criteria described above by deriving Qmeas, n and Qmeas, s and calculating the R value using the average RSRP result. If rangeToBestCell is not configured, the WTRU may perform cell reselection to the highest ranked cell. If rangeToBestCell is configured, the WTRU may perform cell reselection for the cell with the highest number of beams above the threshold (i.e., absThreshSS-BlocksConsolidation) among cells with R values within rangeToBestCell of the R value of the highest ranked cell. If there are multiple such cells, the WTRU may perform cell reselection to the highest ranked cell among them.

The WTRU may reselect to the new cell at 525 only if certain conditions are met. Such conditions include that the new cell is better than the serving cell, and that more than 1 second has elapsed since the WTRU camped on the current serving cell, according to the cell reselection criteria specified above in time interval TreselectionRAT.

The WTRU may use the measurement gap to perform measurements when the WTRU is unable to measure the target carrier frequency while transmitting/receiving on the serving cell at the same time. In the case of LTE, the WTRU needs measurement gaps to perform inter-frequency and inter-RAT measurements. A typical LTE gap length is 6ms, which accommodates 5ms measurement times (PSS and SSS are transmitted once every 5 ms) and 0.5ms RF retune times before and after the measurement gap. The measurement gap is repeated with a periodicity of 40ms or 80 ms. Similarly, in NR, the measurements performed by the WTRU may be gap-assisted (network configuration measurement gap) or non-gap-assisted. The use of measurement gaps in NR depends on the WTRU's capabilities, the WTRU's active BWP and the current operating frequency. In NR, intra-frequency, inter-frequency and inter-RAT measurements may require measurement gaps. Unlike the LTE intra-frequency case, intra-frequency measurements in NR may require measurement gaps, for example, in the case where intra-frequency measurements are to be done outside the active BWP. Measurement gap lengths of 1.5ms, 3ms, 3.5ms, 4ms, 5.5ms and 6ms are defined in NR, with measurement gap repetition periods of 20ms, 40ms, 80ms and 160ms.

In NR, the RF retune time for carrier frequency measurement in FR1 (frequency range 1) is 0.5ms and for FR2 (frequency range 2) is 0.25ms, where FR1 defines a frequency band in the frequency spectrum below 6GHz and FR2 defines a frequency band in the mmWave (millimeter wave) frequency spectrum. For example, a gap length of 4ms for FR1 measurement would allow for an actual measurement of 3ms, and a gap length of 3.5ms for FR2 measurement would allow for an actual measurement of 3ms. During the measurement gap, measurements will be performed on SSBs of neighboring cells. The network provides the timing of the neighbor cell SSB using SS/PBCH block measurement timing configuration (SMTC).

The measurement gap and SMTC duration are configured such that the WTRU may identify and measure SSBs within the SMTC window, i.e., the SMTC duration should be sufficient to accommodate all SSBs being transmitted.

For SSB-based intra-frequency measurements, the network may configure the measurement gap if any WTRU-configured BWP does not contain the frequency domain resources of the SSB associated with the initial DL BWP.

For SSB-based inter-frequency measurements, the network may configure the measurement gap if the WTRU supports each FR measurement gap and if the carrier frequency to be measured is located in the same FR as any serving cell. For SSB-based inter-frequency measurements, the network may configure the measurement gap if the WTRU only supports each WTRU measurement gap. In this case, the measurement object may be configured on any frequency range (FR 1 or FR 2), but the gap may be configured by the network.

Inter-RAT measurements in NR are limited to E-UTRA only. For a WTRU configured with E-UTRA inter-RAT measurements, a measurement gap configuration may be provided when the WTRU supports only each WTRU measurement gap, or the WTRU supports each FR measurement gap and at least one NR serving cell is located in FR 1. Two types of measurement gaps are defined in the NR, each WTRU and each FR, based on the ability of the WTRU to support independent FR measurements and network preferences. In each FR gap, two independent gap patterns (i.e., FR1 gap and FR2 gap) are defined for FR1 and FR2, respectively. Each WTRU gap applies to both FR1 (E-UTRA and NR) and FR2 (NR) frequencies.

The main parameters of the measurement gap configuration include mgrp (measurement gap repetition period) being the period (in ms) of the measurement gap repetition. Periods of 20ms, 40ms, 80ms and 160ms are defined in NR.

The main parameters of the measurement gap configuration include gapOffset the gap offset, which is the gap pattern. Not all 160 offset values are applicable to all periodicities. Since the offset value points to the starting subframe within the period, its value ranges from 0 to mgrp-1. For example, if the periodicity is 40ms, the offset range is 0 to 39.

The main parameters of the measurement gap configuration include that mgl (measurement gap length) is the length of the measurement gap (in ms). Measurement gap lengths of 1.5ms, 3ms, 3.5ms, 4ms, 5.5ms and 6ms are defined in NR.

The main parameters of the measurement gap configuration include mgta (measurement gap timing advance). If the parameter is configured, the WTRU will begin measurement mgta ms before the gap subframe occurs, i.e., the measurement gap starts at time mgta ms, which is advanced to the end of the latest subframe that occurs immediately before the measurement gap. The timing advance may be 0.25ms (FR 2) or 0.5ms (FR 1).

The WTRU may be configured with a variety of measurement gap configurations.

Network power consumption may be significant and may be unnecessary in some situations, such as during quiet periods. The network may turn off the small cells and rely on the macro cells for coverage during quiet periods, turn off certain sectors or gnbs entirely, reduce PA power consumption, and/or enable gNB side sleep modes without significantly sacrificing WTRU performance. The gNB makes this determination in conjunction with information including WTRU measurements, WTRU assistance information, interference status, load information, proprietary information.

From the WTRU's perspective, when the capacity of certain cells is active NES, the WTRU may experience coverage loss, and the WTRU may not be aware that the gNB is in the NES state (e.g., deep sleep or dormant), especially in the IDLE state and INACTIVE state. Adjusting network availability resources requires adapting how the WTRU knows whether or not the common cell signals (e.g., SSB, paging, SI) are transmitted as usual, rather than being unable to receive them due to poor channel conditions.

Some WTRU control plane procedures for connection management, WTRU reachability, cell reselection, and WTRU battery consumption may be affected when the gNB is asleep or turned off, including inter-cell mobility and reselection, and WTRU measurements.

For inter-cell mobility and reselection, when the gNB is turned off or enters a dormant or deep sleep state, the network may wish to offload/handover the remaining WTRUs to other cells in the area. Performing a handover command/RRC reconfiguration for each remaining WTRU requires multiple signaling and may delay the time for the gNB to enter sleep state. For idle mode WTRUs, the network does not know which WTRUs camp on it. One problem is how to select CHO candidates for mobility when the serving cell is off/asleep, especially when some candidate cells may be in sleep mode, may support both legacy and NES-supporting WTRUs, and/or may be more suitable for a subset of services (e.g., eMBB or IoT). In addition, the WTRU may actively initiate inter-cell/inter-frequency measurements on neighboring cells before the serving cell is turned off or enters a sleep state or when the NES cell is turned on.

For WTRU measurements, certain measurement resources for mobility or cell reselection may not be applicable when the network changes its sleep state. In view of the dynamic change of sleep state and the gNB on/off state, relying on existing frameworks requires the network to dynamically send RRC reconfiguration messages to each WTRU in the cell each time the gNB goes to sleep or turns off, which can create significant overhead and may also delay the gNB sleep start time.

The terms "power saving mode", "NES state", "availability status", "power saving mode", "cell DTX state/mode" and "sleep mode" are used interchangeably. When a cell is in full power operation, it may be considered to have no NES state, or it may have a "normal mode" or "full power operation" NES state. The NES state change may be indicated to the WTRU directly (e.g., group DCI, broadcast message, etc.) or implicitly (e.g., the WTRU notices a change in SSB mode, etc.).

The WTRU may treat the NES state as cell DTX or cell DRX activated and treat the other NES state as cell DTX and/or cell DRX deactivated. The WTRU may consider the NES state during active cell DTX/DRX activity and the WTRU may consider another NES state during inactive of the active cell DTX and/or DRX configuration. The WTRU may consider separate NES states for each cell DTX and/or cell DRX configuration.

The cell DTX active period may correspond to a C-DRX on duration or active time of the WTRU and the cell DTX inactive period may correspond to a C-DRX inactive time of the WTRU. The WTRU may consider one NES state when a subset of the spatial elements (e.g., number of ports, number of elements) is activated or deactivated, and another NES state when a different subset of the spatial elements is activated or deactivated. The WTRU may consider one NES state when PDSCH power is reduced (e.g., the WTRU indicates a different PDSCH for CSI-RS power offsets), and another NES state when the PA operates on the conventional assumption or without PDSCH power reduction. The WTRU may consider cells in the NES state when PA power decreases (for all or a subset of channels), if power increases for a subset of channels change, and/or if the PA is operating in a low efficiency state (e.g., in a configuration corresponding to a lower input bias current).

Cell DTX inactive period: configured duration of cell DTX mode inactivity/inactivity (e.g., a period of time outside the periodic on duration of the cell DTX mode). This may only apply after the NW has indicated that the cell DTX configuration is to be activated. Activated cell DRX/DTX: a state of a configured cell DRX or cell DTX mode, wherein such state has been activated by L1/L2 DL signaling, RRC (re) configuration and/or cell generic configuration, and has not been deactivated.

For connected mode, the WTRU may begin mobility related measurements (e.g., channel conditions, interference Measurement Resources (IMR), or CHO related measurements), including inter-cell, inter-frequency, and/or inter-RAT measurements, after receiving the NES state change signaling, or determining a NES state change on the serving cell, or a cell DTX indication related to the serving cell or neighbor cell (e.g., an instance between 0 and t 1). The WTRU may initiate mobility related measurements (e.g., channel conditions or CHO related measurements) including inter-cell, inter-frequency and/or inter-RAT measurements based on the active period/on duration of the serving cell entering its configured cell DTX mode and/or based on the active period/on duration of the neighboring cell entering its configured cell DTX mode after satisfying at least one of the conditions listed above for the NES-specific CHO condition and selection (e.g., serving cell changing its NES state, serving cell activating cell DTX, neighboring cell changing its NES state, neighboring cell activating DTX). For a neighbor cell, if the neighbor cell DTX mode configuration is provided by the serving cell, the UE may initiate related inter-cell measurements during the neighbor cell's cell DTX on duration. The WTRU may initiate such measurements even before receiving or determining a serving cell's NES state change, which may be triggered by receiving an indication or signaling from the NW (e.g., group common L1/L2 signaling (e.g., for cell DTX), broadcast signaling or configuration, or RRC reconfiguration message), and the WTRU may initiate a timer after receiving such an indication to perform the measurements within a configured or predetermined time window (t 2). The WTRU may report the measurement before t2 expires. This may enable the gNB to learn whether it is going to sleep, deep sleep, or off, and/or how much it may reduce its PA power efficiency, and also enable the gNB to transition to the NES state at a different time (non-static) after the WTRU starts performing and reporting measurements.

For NES-specific CHO conditions and selection, cells configured as backup cells, cells in the same DU, cells in the same site, cells with known cell DTX configurations, or cells serving only the WTRUs supporting NES, the WTRUs may measure candidate cells selected in accordance with the methods described herein.

A WTRU in the CONNECTED state may be configured with different s-measurement configurations for different NES states of the serving cell, e.g., depending on whether the cell has activated cell DTX. For example, a WTRU may be configured with a set of s-measurement configurations, each configuration associated with one or more NES states. For example, when the WTRU may apply the following s-measurement thresholds, RSRP_threshold_1:NES state 1, normal mode (e.g., on or active downlink and/or uplink), RSRP_threshold_2:NES state 2, micro-sleep mode, RSRP_threshold_3:NES state 3, light sleep mode, RSRP_threshold_4:NES state 4, deep sleep mode, RSRP threshold 5:NES state 5, reduced power or PA efficient state, etc., wherein RSRP_threshold_1< RSRP_threshold_2< RSRP_threshold_3< RSRP_threshold_4, etc. That is, the deeper the sleep mode, the more aggressive the WTRU may perform measurements on the standby cell (i.e., the conditions of the serving cell are excellent, even from a signal level perspective).

The WTRU may be configured with one S-measurement threshold (as is conventional) instead of a different S-measurement threshold for each NES-state, so that the threshold is applied when the serving cell is in full power mode, but with a scaling factor or offset to apply to each NES-state, and the WTRU updates the S-measurement value based on the scaling factor or offset and the current NES-state whenever the serving cell' S NES-state changes. The scaling factor may be provided via dedicated signaling (e.g., as part of an S-measurement configuration), or it may be provided via broadcast signaling (e.g., the same scaling factor applicable to WTRUs in the cell).

The S-measurement configuration may depend on the direction of the NES state transition. For example, when the NES state changes from NES state 1 to NES state 3, a certain S-measurement applies, and when the NES state changes from NES state 2 to NES state 3, another S-measurement configuration applies, and so on.

The S-measurement configuration may be extended to cover different types of neighboring cells. For example, different S-measurements (or scaling factors) may be configured for different types of measurements (e.g., a set of S-measurements related to starting intra-frequency measurements, a set of S-measurements related to starting inter-RAT measurements, etc.), and these S-measurement configurations may be associated with the NES state. For example, the WTRU may receive an S-measurement configuration for intra-frequency measurements and another S-measurement for inter-frequency measurements, where each S-measurement configuration may also have a different threshold for different NES states.

The WTRU may be configured with different measurement gap configurations for application to intra-frequency, inter-frequency, or/and inter-RAT measurements depending on the serving cell's NES state. For example, a WTRU may measure or skip measurement occasions for a given cell based on cell DTX activity of the cell, where the WTRU may measure at measurement occasions that overlap with the cell DTX activity period/on duration of the cell. The measurements may include L1, L2, and/or L3 measurements.

Each measurement gap configuration may be associated with one or more NES states of the serving cell or/and the target cell (e.g., whether the cell has active cell DTX, etc.), e.g., an IE in the measurement gap configuration specifies a NES state or a state to which a measurement gap is to be applied, an IE in the measurement gap configuration specifies a NES state or a state to which a measurement gap configuration is not to be applied, etc. For example, if the measurement gap configuration indicates that it is to be applied in light sleep, the WTRU may not apply the measurement gap and perform associated intra/inter frequency measurements or inter RAT measurements until it determines that the serving cell has begun to operate in light sleep mode. In another example, if a measurement gap configuration associated with a cell indicates that it is to be applied during sleep/cell DTX active mode, the WTRU may not apply the measurement gap and perform an associated intra/inter frequency measurement or inter RAT measurement until it determines that the cell has activated cell DTX (whether the cell is a serving cell or a neighboring cell) and that the cell is transmitting related measurement signals during the measurement gap (e.g., during the cell DTX on duration of the associated cell).

The WTRU may be configured with a baseline configuration that is applicable when the serving cell is operating in full power mode, rather than configuring different measurement gap configurations for different NES states, and may configure scaling factors, offsets, or factors associated with different NES states or cell DTX, and the WTRU may apply these scaling factors over the baseline measurement gap configuration. For example, the WTRU may be configured to apply a scaling factor over the measurement gap length or the measurement gap repetition period depending on the NES state (the scaling factor may be the same as the measurement gap length and repetition period for a given NES state, or a different scaling factor may be provided for each parameter of each NES state).

The scaling factor may be specified at a given measurement gap configuration level. The scaling factor may be specified to be applicable (universal) to all measurement gap configurations. The scaling factor may be specified as a subset of measurement gap configurations applicable (generic) to the WTRU (e.g., applicable to FR1 gap only, FR2 gap only, per WTRU gap only, measurement gap configuration list of explicit configurations only). The scaling factor may be provided via dedicated signaling (e.g., as part of MeasConfig), or it may be provided via broadcast signaling (e.g., the same scaling factor applicable to WTRUs in the cell).

The measurement gap configuration may depend on the direction of the NES state transition. For example, when the NES state is changed from NES state 1 to NES state 3, a certain measurement gap configuration is applied, and when the NES state is changed from NES state 2 to NES state 3, another measurement gap configuration is applied, and so on. For example, a certain measurement gap configuration may be applied when the cell DTX mode changes from active to inactive, a certain measurement gap configuration may be applied when the cell DTX is (de) activated, and another measurement gap configuration may be applied when the cell DTX mode changes from inactive to active. The cell DTX mode configuration may be associated with one or more measurement gap configurations.

The WTRU may be configured to continue applying a certain measurement gap configuration (or a measurement gap configuration scaled/updated according to a change in the NES state) as long as the NES state returns to the state before the measurement gap becomes active. For example, if the measurement gap configuration becomes active when the NES state changes from light sleep to medium sleep, the WTRU may continue to use the measurement gap when the NES state of the serving cell changes from medium sleep to deep sleep or back to medium sleep again, but may stop using the measurement gap when the NES state changes back to light sleep again. In another example, if the measurement gap configuration becomes active based on activation of cell DTX, the WTRU may cease using the measurement gap when cell DTX is deactivated.

The WTRU may be configured with different measurement object configurations that are associated with one or more NES states or cell DTX configurations of the serving cell and/or neighboring cells. For example, an IE may be introduced in measObjectNR or measObjectToAddModList IE that indicates which NES states the measurement object is associated with or associated with. In another example, the IE may indicate which NES states the measurement object is not related to, e.g., whether the measurement configuration is applicable to cell DTX or a particular cell DTX configuration. In another example, an IE (e.g., in MeasConfig) may be introduced that indicates a mapping/association between the measurement object and the NES state (e.g., NES state 1: measobject ID1, measobject ID2; NES state 2: measobject ID1, measobject ID, etc.). The WTRU may determine such configuration in the configured portion of the HO command and/or CHO candidate list (e.g., the source cell thereby providing cell DTX and/or cell DRX configuration associated with the target cell). The WTRU may receive a configuration of a cell DTX mode associated with a neighbor cell from a source cell so that it knows when to perform mobility and RRM measurements on the neighbor cell.

The WTRU may be configured with different measurement report/event configurations associated with one or more NES states of the serving cell and/or neighbor cells. For example, an IE may be introduced in reportConfigNR or reportConfigToAddModList IE that indicates which NES states the measurement report/event configuration is associated with or associated with. In another example, the IE may indicate with which NES states the measurement report/event configuration is not related. In another example, an IE (e.g., in MeasConfig) may be introduced that indicates a mapping/association between measurement reports/event configurations and NES states (e.g., NES states 1:reportConfig ID1, reportConfig ID2; NES states 2:reportConfig ID1, reportConfig ID3, etc.).

The WTRU may be configured with different measurement ID configurations associated with one or more NES states of the serving cell and/or neighbor cells. For example, an IE may be introduced in measIDToAddMod IE that indicates which NES states the measurement ID configuration is associated with or associated with. In another example, the IE may indicate which NES states the measurement ID configuration is not related to. In another example, an IE (e.g., in MeasConfig) may be introduced that indicates a mapping/association between the measurement ID and the NES state (e.g., NES state 1: meas ID1, meas ID2; NES state 2: meas ID1, meas ID3, etc.).

In one example, the WTRU may deactivate the measurement object, measurement report, measurement resource, or measid configuration when the NES state changes to a state that is not associated with the measurement object, measurement report, or measid.

For example, when the NES state changes to a state not associated with a given measID, the WTRU may stop performing measurements at the frequency/RAT of the measurement object associated with this measurement ID.

Further, for example, when the NES state changes to a state not associated with a given reportConfig, the WTRU may stop monitoring the conditions specified in this reporting configuration that trigger measurement reporting or CHO execution (for any measurement object in the measurement ID associated with this reporting configuration), but it may still continue to perform measurements (as long as the associated measID and/or measObject are associated with the current NES state), when Cell DTX is activated and measID is associated with Cell DTX, the WTRU may begin performing measurements at the frequency/RAT of the measurement object associated with this measurement ID. The UE may cease performing such measurements when the cell DTX is deactivated, and the WTRU may cease performing measurements at the frequency/RAT of the measurement object associated with this measurement ID during the cell DTX inactive period (e.g., outside the cell DTX on duration) when the cell DTX is activated and measID is not associated with the cell DTX inactive period.

In one example, the WTRU may activate a deactivated measurement object, measurement report, or measid configuration when the NES state changes to a state associated with the measurement object, measurement report, or measid. For example, when the NES state changes to the state associated with a given measID, the WTRU may begin performing measurements at the frequency/RAT of the measurement object associated with this measurement ID. If reportConfig associated with this measID is also associated with the current NES state, the WTRU may begin monitoring the measurement report or CHO trigger conditions indicated in reportConfig

The WTRU may be configured to issue all measurements associated with a given measID and/or measObject configuration when measID and/or measObject are deactivated. For example, the WTRU may be configured to issue all measurements associated with a given measID and/or measObject configuration when the NES state is reconfigured (e.g., when cell DTX is reconfigured).

The WTRU may be configured to retain all measurements associated with a given measID and/or measObject configuration when measID and/or measObject are deactivated.

It should be noted that the maximum number of measurement objects, measurement reports, and ID configurations that a WTRU may configure is currently limited. Specifically, maxNrofObjectId =64, maxReportConfigId =64, and maxNrofMeasId =64. In addition, WTRU capabilities may further limit these maximum values. For example, a low capability WTRU may only be able to perform 8 measurements at a time (i.e., maxNrofMeasID =8).

The use of the included method of associating measurement objects, reports, and ID configurations with the NES states described above allows the WTRU to be configured beyond what is allowed in the specification (and the WTRU is able to do so), since not all configurations are active/relevant for a given NES state of the serving cell and the serving cell may only be in one NES state at a given time. The concepts discussed above may even be generalized to sub-elements of a given measurement object configuration. For example, the number configuration associated with a given measurement object (including information such as L3 filter coefficients) may be configured to depend on the NES state (e.g., the given measurement object is configured with a plurality of number configurations, where each configuration is associated with a given NES state and the WTRU applies the configuration associated with the current NES state of the serving cell).

The NES state change indication received by the WTRU may include time information (e.g., the NES state changes to medium sleep in x ms, cell DTX activation time, DTX on duration to periodically start, etc.). In this case, the WTRU may perform the s-measurement, the measurement object, the measurement report, the measurement ID, and/or the update of the measurement gap in one or more of the following ways using any of the solutions described above. The WTRU may perform immediately upon receiving the NES state change indication. The WTRU may perform when the NES state change becomes active (e.g., expiration of a timer started with a value equal to the indicated expected NES state change, during an on duration of the cell DTX mode, etc.). The WTRU may perform at any time between receiving an indication of the NES state change (or an expected change) and when the NES state change is actually in effect. The WTRU may decide to apply immediately or when the NES change becomes active, depending on the current and upcoming NES state changes. For example, if the NES state changes from full operation mode to light sleep, the WTRU may wait until an indication of the NES state change to perform any relevant measurement configuration updates, whereas if the NES state changes from light sleep mode to deep sleep (or fully off), the WTRU may immediately perform all relevant measurement configuration updates without waiting until the NES state change is in effect. The WTRU may perform (e.g., apply the update immediately if the UL buffer level is above a certain threshold, but wait until the NES state change is in effect if the UL buffer level is below a certain threshold) depending on current WTRU conditions such as battery power, UL buffer level, UL/DL data rate, active bearer/traffic type, etc.

The WTRU may send an indication to the network regarding its behavior change regarding any changes related to the measurement configuration described above (e.g., S-measurement update, measurement gap update, activation/deactivation of measurement objects, reporting configuration or measurement ID, etc.). This indication may be sent when it has updated the configuration. The indication may be sent when it starts performing neighbor measurements due to updated configuration (e.g., due to S-measurement changes, due to activation of measurement IDs, due to application of measurement gaps, etc.). The indication may be sent when the measurement report is triggered later/due to a configuration change. The indication may be sent when CHO is executed later/due to a configuration change. The WTRU may not immediately send an indication to the network regarding such behavior changes related to any of the measurement related configurations described above, but rather store it in a log/information. The WTRU may indicate that it has such information available, e.g., in a WTRU assistance information message, a NES assistance information message, an RRC reconfiguration complete message, a HO complete message, etc.). The network may request this information at any time or as a response to an indication that this information is available from the WTRU. The WTRU may also send the indication in due course via another message (e.g., in a HO complete message, in a reconfiguration complete message, etc.).

Other measurements in the connected BFD/RLM/RRM/CSI may also be performed.

The WTRU may be configured with different mobility or cell reselection measurement resources for each NES state, including measurement objects, IDs, gaps, reporting configurations, and/or quantity configurations. The WTRU may apply a set of measurement configurations/resources based on the NES state associated with the source cell, the target cell, the camping cell, the candidate cell to reselect, and/or the frequency layer to reselect.

BFD/RLM/RRM or CSI measurements may be relaxed during cell DTX inactivity periods or NES states. The WTRU may suspend L1/L2/L3 measurement occasions when cell DTX and/or cell DRX are activated. The WTRU may relax BFD, RLM, RRM, CSI, IMR measurements when the cell DTX is active. During a cell DTX inactive period, the WTRU may suspend CSI measurement and beam management, for example, if SSB or RS is not transmitted according to conventional assumptions.

The WTRU may maintain one or more sets of minimum requirements for CSI-RS and/or SSB based beam fault detection if cell DTX is activated and/or during a cell DTX inactive period such that the WTRU meets relaxed measurement criteria. The WTRU may maintain one or more sets of minimum requirements for CSI-RS and/or SSB based radio link monitoring if cell DTX is activated and/or during a cell DTX inactive period so that the WTRU meets relaxed measurement criteria. The WTRU may be configured with a spare T _DRX period for applying measurements when activating cell DTX configuration in the serving cell. If the cell DTX configuration is activated, the UE may replace T _CSI-RS with max (cell DTX period, T _CSI-RS) when performing BFD/RLM/RRM/CSI measurements.

L1 measurements may occur that are expected to be devoid of SSB inter-band SCell activation. In one deployment scenario, a WTRU may configure one or more CSI-RS configurations for each SCell, each SSB-free SCell being associated with an SSB transmitted on a PCell or another anchor SCell. The WTRU may begin performing measurements on such CSI-RS resources upon or prior to receiving an SCell activation command and/or synchronizing with SSBs transmitted on the PCell or another anchor SCell. The WTRU may adjust the time-frequency synchronization determined from SSB measurements on the PCell by applying a frequency or time shift from the measured CSI-RS from the SSB-free SCell.

Without SSB Scell configuration, immediately followed by a Scell activation command, the WTRU may assume that CSI-RS broadcast on the Scell for further measurement is QCL with SSB on Pcell or PScell on its designated CG (cell group), and thus may apply the same spatial filter to Scell reception. Since full activation of Scell is only obtained after transmitting valid (in-range) CQI to the network, which means SCELL PDCCH is ready for reception and decoding, the network can speed up the process of sending CSI-RS aperiodic measurement requests on Pcell DCI for cell-crossing measurements, which requests can be sent on PUCCH or PUSCH UCI on Pcell UL. After full Scell activation, and first CSI-RS feedback from the Scell, or alternatively after decoding the first PDCCH on the Scell, the WTRU may follow its CSI-RS configuration measurements in the new carrier aggregation state.

In a carrier aggregation scenario, when the WTRU is configured with scells without SSBs, WTRU beam management on the scells may be based entirely on CSI-RS. Since the inter-band situation has different propagation characteristics between bands, the beamwidth may be different and the path loss may also be different. Thus, RLM and RLF on Scell may have different behavior even though Pcell and Scell may be quasi co-located.

If beam failure is declared on the Scell while the Pcell is still in a synchronized and functional state, a beam failure message may be sent on the Pcell. One of the problems is how to replace the beam if no SSB is Scell.

In one solution, a conditional beam changing procedure may be applied. The network may pre-configure the WTRU with beams in this SSB-free cell, e.g., beams adjacent to the active beam, which may be activated when the WTRU fails a first beam on the Scell, and associated CSI-RS-measurements on the secondary beam set.

Alternatively, the SSB-free Scell with a preconfigured conditional beam change procedure, the beam change mechanism may be associated with a CSI-RS-measurement threshold, which may trigger a report from the WTRU before RLF occurs on the Scell SSB-free beam. The preconfigured beam-change set may have its own CSI-RS configuration that the WTRU may measure. The WTRU report triggering the measurement threshold may be that the absolute RSRP level of the serving beam is below a certain quality, or that the relative delta between the active beam on the Scell of the candidate beam and the ready beam candidate is favorable.

After triggering the WTRU report by the beam change procedure, the WTRU may begin scanning the PDCCH of the candidate beam as well as the active PDCCH. The correct PDCCH addressed to the first detection of the WTRU on the candidate beam may flag that the conditional beam change was successful.

The WTRU may be configured with different measurement object configurations that are associated with operating with DRSs and/or SSBs having longer periodicity at the serving cell.

L1 measurements triggered by spatial adaptation may occur. The WTRU may be configured with different measurement object configurations associated with one or more NES states or spatial element activation states of the serving cell and/or neighboring cells. For example, the measurement resource configuration may indicate with which spatial element configuration the measurement object is associated or associated. Upon determining or receiving an indication that the number of active spatial elements has changed, the WTRU may change the measurement configuration to match the spatial element activation status of the serving cell.

L1 measurements triggered by PA power reduction or CSI RS power boost changes may occur. The WTRU may be configured to measure and/or report CSI measurements (e.g., multiple CSI reports in a single report) to reflect different PA configurations, power offsets, number of active spatial elements, and/or gNB transmit power configurations.

The WTRU may be configured with multiple CSI reporting configurations, and the WTRU may select an appropriate configuration for PUCCH reporting based on the reporting payload size and/or the number of CSI reports combined together.

If the serving cell has activated a certain NES state (e.g., cell DTX, reduced number of spatial elements, PA power reduction, CSI-RS to PDSCH power offset change), the WTRU may add an offset to the serving cell's masked path loss, CSI-RS-measurements, and/or PRS-measurements (e.g., during PHR or RACH procedures), or estimate the path loss/measurements in a different manner, where the offset may depend on the NES state. The WTRU may apply such offsets and/or change the path loss estimate depending on whether the DL power is reduced for all DL channels/signals or for only a subset (e.g., only data channels). If the CSI-RS power boost (relative to other data channels) changes from the default configuration values of the legacy WTRU, the WTRU may apply such offsets and/or change the pathloss estimate. The WTRU may apply such an offset to the neighboring cells for mobility or RRM measurements if an indication of the NES state configuration may be provided by the source cell.

Measurement in IDLE/INACTIVE mode may occur. For example, these measurements may include mobility measurements of cell selection or reselection in the IDLE/INACTIVE state. In the IDLE/INACTIVE state, the WTRU may be configured to change its cell selection (S-criteria) for cell selection (as described above) based on the NES state of the associated cell. For example, the WTRU may be configured with different parameters/offset values for calculating Srexlev and/or square for the relevant cell for different NES states of the relevant cell (e.g., different set of values for Qrxlevmin, qqualmin, qrxlevminoffset, qqualminoffset and/or Qoffsettemp for the relevant cell for which S-criteria are being evaluated for cell selection). Alternatively, the WTRU may be configured with a set of values for the cell selection parameters for the normal mode (i.e., no power saving), and a scaling factor applied to these values for each NES state. The scaling factor may be the same for each value of a given NES state or different scaling factors may be configured for each cell selection related parameter.

In the IDLE/INACTIVE state, the WTRU may be configured to change the criteria that it initiates intra-frequency measurements for cell reselection (as described above), depending on the serving cell's NES state. For example, the WTRU may be configured with different sintrasetchp and/or sintrasetchq values for each NES state. Alternatively, the WTRU may be configured with a pair of sintrasetp/sintrasetq values for the normal mode (i.e., no power saving) and apply a scaling factor to these values for each NES state. The scaling factor may be the same for both sintrasetp and sintrasetq, or different scaling factors may be configured for sintrasetp and sintrasetq.

In the IDLE/INACTIVE state, the WTRU may be configured to change the criteria that it initiates inter-frequency or inter-RAT measurements for cell reselection (as described above), depending on the NES state of the serving cell. For example, the WTRU may be configured with different snonintrasetp and/or snonintrasetq values for each NES state. Alternatively, the WTRU may be configured with a pair of snonIntraSearchP/snonIntraSearchQ values for the normal mode (i.e., no power saving) and apply a scaling factor to these values for each NES state. The scaling factor may be the same for both snonIntraSearchP and snonIntraSearchQ, or different scaling factors may be configured for snonIntraSearchP and snonIntraSearchQ.

In the IDLE/INACTIVE state, the WTRU may be configured to change its cell ranking (standard R) for cell reselection (as described above), depending on the NES state of the serving cell and/or neighboring cells. For example, the WTRU may be configured with different Qhyst values for different NES states of the serving cell. For example, the WTRU may be configured with different Qoffset values for different NES states of neighboring cells. Alternatively, the WTRU may be configured with one Qhyst value for the normal mode (i.e., no power saving in the serving cell) and apply a scaling factor to the value for each NES state of the serving cell. Similarly, the WTRU may be configured with one Qoffset value for the normal mode (i.e., no power saving in the relevant neighbor cell) and apply a scaling factor to the value for each NES state of the neighbor cell. The Qhyst and Qoffset scaling factors may be the same for a given NES state, or different scaling factors may be configured for Qhyst and Qoffset.

In the idle/inactive state, the WTRU may start such measurements even before receiving or determining a serving cell's NES state change, which may be triggered by receiving an indication or signaling from the NW (e.g., group common L1/L2 signaling, broadcast signaling (e.g., part of the NES SIB), or configuration, or RRC reconfiguration message), and the WTRU may start a timer after receiving such an indication to perform the measurements within a configured or predetermined time window. The WTRU may only measure a subset of cells or frequency layers that satisfy the conditions described herein for the NES specific CHO conditions and selection, cells that indicate or prioritize a portion of the indication (e.g., a portion of the NES SIB), cells configured as backup cells, etc. Upon receiving such an indication, the WTRU may begin measurements even if the current measurement results on the camped cell and/or frequency layer are above a threshold configured for cell selection. The indication may also indicate a list of cells to measure, measurement resources (measurement objects, IDs, gaps, reporting configurations and/or quantity configurations), associated priorities for cell reselection and/or associated NES states.

The NES state change indication received by the WTRU may include time information (e.g., the NES state changes to medium sleep in x ms). In this case, the WTRU may perform the updating of the cell reselection configuration/behavior change in one or more of the following ways according to any of the solutions described above. The WTRU may perform the update immediately after receiving the NES state change indication. The WTRU may perform the update when the NES state change becomes active (e.g., a timer started with a value equal to the indicated expected NES state change expires). The WTRU may perform the update at any time between receiving an indication of the NES state change (or an expected change) and when the NES state change is actually in effect. The WTRU may decide to apply immediately or when the NES change becomes active, depending on the current and upcoming NES state changes. For example, if the NES state changes from a full operation mode to light sleep, the WTRU may wait until an indication time of the NES state change to perform any relevant cell reselection configuration/behavior updates, whereas if the NES state changes from light sleep mode to deep sleep (or fully off), the WTRU may immediately perform all relevant cell reselection configuration/behavior updates without waiting until the NES state change takes effect. The WTRU may perform the update (e.g., while in INACTIVE state, if the WTRU has a very delay sensitive bearer, then immediately apply the update, otherwise wait until the NES state change is in effect) based on current WTRU conditions (such as battery power, configured bearer/traffic type, etc.).

The WTRU may send an indication to the network regarding its behavior change, which may be related to any changes related to the cell reselection described above. However, since the WTRU is in IDLE/INACTIVE state, it is not desirable to send these indications each time a configuration/behavior change occurs according to any of the solutions described above. Instead, the WTRU may keep the changes in a log and send the changes to the network when it transitions to CONNECTED mode. For example, the log may be part of some other information that the WTRU maintains while in IDLE/INACTIVE mode, such as WTRU mobility history (e.g., where the stored cell reselection history may indicate additional details regarding the current cell reselection behavior/configuration, e.g., indicating cell reselection that occurred due to a cell reselection parameter/threshold update triggered by a change in the NES state of the serving cell or neighboring cell).

Fig. 6 illustrates an example 600. In example 600, the NES state may be associated with a cell DTX, a cell shutdown, or a state prior to a cell shutdown. The measurement configuration may include an ID, a measurement gap, a measurement object, and/or a measurement report configuration parameter, as described herein. Measurements of the WTRU may include inter-cell, inter-frequency, inter-RAT, BFD, RRM, and/or RLM measurements or examples. When the cell is not in the NES state, at 610, the example 600 includes the WTRU receiving one or more measurement configurations from the cell, wherein each configuration includes information indicating to which network energy saving stack (NES) state the configuration applies.

Provision may be made for a first NES state, and at 620 the WTRU receives signaling associated with activating the first NES state and determines which measurement configurations are applicable to the first NES state. The signaling may include, for example, an explicit NES indication or CHO reconfiguration associated with NES. The signaling may be explicit layer 1, layer 2 or CHO configurations.

During time window 640, the WTRU performs and reports measurements using the NES measurement configuration for the first NES state. The WTRU may stop performing measurements other than the NES configured measurements. The time window 640t may be configured at 610 and/or indicated with NES signaling at 620.

At 650, the cell is in a first NES state (i.e., the cell is off). The cell may or may not be in a second NES state, and the WTRU receives signaling associated with activating the second NES state or deactivating the NES at 630. In the deactivated case, the WTRU may use one or more measurement configurations (i.e., conventional measurements) that are not associated with any NES state.

Fig. 7 illustrates a method 700 for WTRU measurements in a power save network. The method 700 includes receiving a measurement configuration from a cell at 710. The measurement configuration may include information indicating the NES state for which the configuration applies. At 720, method 700 includes receiving a signal associated with activating a first NES state. For example, these signals may be explicit NES indications or CHO reconfiguration messages associated with NES states. The signal may be explicit in a layer 1 or layer 2 or CHO configuration.

At 730, method 700 includes determining a measurement configuration to apply to the first NES state. At 740, method 700 performs and reports measurements using the determined NES measurement configuration applied to the first NES state. At 750, method 700 includes receiving signaling associated with activating a second NES state or deactivating a NES state. If deactivation occurs, the WTRU may use one or more measurement configurations (i.e., conventional measurements) that are not associated with any NES state.

Fig. 8 illustrates a method 800 performed in a WTRU. The method 800 includes receiving configuration information indicating one or more measurement configurations, wherein each of the one or more measurement configurations includes NES state information indicating one or more Network Energy Saving (NES) states for which the measurement configuration is applicable at 810. At 820, method 800 includes receiving signaling associated with activating a first NES state of the indicated one or more NES states. At 830, method 800 includes determining a measurement configuration applicable to the first NES state based on the received information. At 840, method 800 includes performing one or more measurements using the determined measurement configuration. At 850, method 800 includes reporting the one or more measurements. In method 800, the measurement may be performed or reported during a time period configured or indicated for the first NES state. In method 800, signaling associated with activating the first NES state may indicate at least one of activation of the first NES state, when the first NES state is to be activated, or a time period during which the first NES state may be activated. In method 800, signaling associated with activating the first NES state may include a Conditional Handover (CHO) configuration or reconfiguration associated with the first NES state.

Although features and elements are described above in particular combinations, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that each feature or element can be used alone or in any combination with other features and elements. Furthermore, the methods described herein may be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmware incorporated into a computer readable medium for execution by a computer or processor. Examples of computer readable media include electronic signals (transmitted over a wired or wireless connection) and computer readable storage media. Examples of computer readable storage media include, but are not limited to, read Only Memory (ROM), random Access Memory (RAM), registers, caches, semiconductor memory devices, magnetic media such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical media, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks and Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs). A processor associated with the software may be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for a WTRU, UE, terminal, base station, RNC, or any host computer.

Claims

1. A method performed in a wireless transmit receive unit (WTRU), the method comprising:

receiving configuration information indicating one or more measurement configurations, wherein each of the one or more measurement configurations includes NES state information indicating one or more network energy saving (NES) states to which the measurement configuration is applicable;

receiving signaling associated with activating a first NES state of the indicated one or more NES states;

determining a measurement configuration applicable to the first NES state based on the received configuration information;

performing one or more measurements using the determined measurement configuration; and

The one or more measurements are reported.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the measuring is performed during a measurement time period configured for the first NES state.

3. The method of any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein the measurements are reported during a reporting time period configured for the first NES state.

4. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the signaling associated with activating the first NES state indicates at least one selected from the group consisting of: activation of the first NES state, when the first NES state is to be activated, and an activation time period during which the first NES state can be activated.

5. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the signaling associated with activating the first NES state comprises a conditional handover (CHO) configuration associated with the first NES state.

6. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the signaling associated with activating the first NES state comprises a conditional handover (CHO) reconfiguration associated with the first NES state.

7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising receiving signaling associated with activating a second NES state of the indicated one or more NES states.

8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 7, further comprising: deactivating the first NES state.

9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, further comprising utilizing one or more measurement configurations that are not associated with any NES state.

10. The method of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the one or more measurements include at least one measurement of a neighboring cell.

11. A wireless transmit receive unit (WTRU), comprising:

Processor; and

a transceiver, the transceiver being communicatively coupled to the processor,

The processor and the transceiver operate to:

The one or more measurements are reported.

12. The WTRU of claim 11, wherein the measurements are performed during a measurement time period configured for the first NES state.

13. The WTRU of claim 11 or 12, wherein the measurements are reported during a reporting time period configured for the first NES state.

14. A WTRU as described in any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein the signaling indication associated with activating the first NES state indicates at least one selected from the group consisting of: activation of the first NES state, when the first NES state is to be activated, and an activation time period during which the first NES state can be activated.

15. The WTRU of any one of claims 11 to 14, wherein the signaling associated with activating the first NES state comprises a conditional handover (CHO) configuration associated with the first NES state.

16. The WTRU of any one of claims 11 to 15, wherein the signaling associated with activating the first NES state comprises a conditional handover (CHO) reconfiguration associated with the first NES state.

17. The WTRU of any one of claims 11 to 16, wherein the processor and the transceiver are further configured to receive signaling associated with activating a second NES state of the indicated one or more NES states.

18. The WTRU of any one of claims 11 to 17, wherein the processor and the transceiver are further configured to: deactivate the first NES state.

19. The WTRU of any one of claims 11 to 18, wherein the processor and the transceiver are further configured to utilize one or more measurement configurations that are not associated with any NES state.

20. The WTRU as recited in any one of claims 11 to 19, wherein the one or more measurements include at least one measurement of a neighboring cell.