Early measurement report

1 . A method of operating a wireless communication device, the method comprising:

performing a channel measurement of a wireless link between the wireless communication device and a network node of a communication network during a time gap including multiple repetitions of a downlink message of a random access procedure;

transmitting, as part of an early data transmission (EDT) during the random access procedure for accessing the communication network, an uplink message to the network node, the uplink message carrying a measurement report of the channel measurement; and

providing, to the network node, an indication related to whether the uplink message carries the measurement report, wherein the indication is included in a header,

wherein the measurement report is a channel quality indicator (CQI) corresponding to a repetition count of the downlink message.

2 . The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the indication comprises implementing a predefined structure of a transport block associated with the uplink message.

3 . The method of claim 2 ,

wherein the transport block structure comprises at least one of a size of the transport block and a partitioning of the transport block.

4 . The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the indication comprises partitioning of a set of random access preambles or random access preamble resources of the random access procedure.

5 . The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the indication comprises Layer 3 uplink control signaling from the wireless communication device and to the communication network prior to commencing the random access procedure.

6 . The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the uplink message selectively carries the measurement report depending on a trigger criterion.

7 . The method of claim 6 ,

wherein the trigger criterion comprises a measurement request received from the communication network.

8 . The method of claim 7 ,

wherein the measurement request is received prior to commencing the random access procedure.

9 . The method of claim 7 ,

wherein the measurement request is received in a downlink message of the random access procedure, the downlink message being received by the wireless communication device prior to transmitting the uplink message.

10 . The method of claim 9 ,

wherein the channel measurement is performed in response to receiving the downlink message carrying the measurement request.

11 . The method of claim 6 ,

wherein the trigger criterion comprises a result of the channel measurement fulfilling a predefined criterion.

12 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

depending on whether the uplink message carries the measurement report, setting a time gap between a downlink message of the random access procedure and the uplink message.

13 . The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the measurement report is punctured into the uplink data or attached to the uplink data.

14 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

selecting, from a predefined table, a transport block size based on the uplink data, and

allocating a fraction of the transport block to the measurement report and a further fraction of the transport block to the uplink data.

15 . The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the channel measurement is performed in a narrowband of the wireless link defined as a fraction of a channel bandwidth of the wireless link.

16 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving multiple repetitions of the downlink message of the random access procedure, and

prior to completing said receiving of the multiple repetitions: performing an early decoding attempt,

wherein the channel measurement is performed based on a result of the early decoding attempt.

17 . The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the indication is indicative of whether the wireless communication device is capable of transmitting the uplink message carrying the measurement report.

18 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the time gap is defined by a random access response message of the random access procedure and the uplink message.

19 . A method of operating a network node of a communication network, the method comprising:

receiving, as part of an early data transmission (EDT) during a random access procedure of a wireless communication device accessing the communication network, an uplink message from the wireless communication device, the uplink message carrying a measurement report of a channel measurement of the wireless link performed by the wireless communication device;

obtaining, from the wireless communication device, an indication related to whether the uplink message carries the measurement report, wherein the indication is included in a header; and

processing the uplink message in accordance with the indication,

wherein the measurement report is channel quality indicator (CQI) corresponding to a repetition count of a downlink message in a time gap during the random access procedure.

20 . A wireless communication device, comprising:

an interface over which wireless communications with one or more network nodes are carried out; and

a processor configured to:

perform a channel measurement of a wireless link between the wireless communication device and a network node of a communication network during a time gap including multiple repetitions of a downlink message of a random access procedure;

transmit, as part of an early data transmission (EDT) during the random access procedure for accessing the communication network, an uplink message to the network node, the uplink message carrying a measurement report of the channel measurement; and

provide, to the network node, an indication related to whether the uplink message carries the measurement report, wherein the indication is included in a header,

wherein the measurement report is a channel quality indicator (CQI) corresponding to a repetition count of the downlink message.