Enhanced conditional handover for uncrewed aerial vehicles

1 . An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the following operations:

communicating a travel path plan of the apparatus to a communication network, content of the travel path plan comprising information on waypoints along a planned route of the apparatus, the information on waypoints containing an indication of a location and associated timestamp indicating when the apparatus is expected to arrive at the location;

based on the content of travel path plan and historical data from flights along a same route as the planned route and flight paths and trajectory in a threshold vicinity of the planned route, receiving a probability of accessing each cell in a list of cells and a re-configuration message estimating conditional handover candidate cells based on the received probability;

receiving, from the communication network, a time of stay value;

deriving a start of a time window and an end of the time window for a conditional handover to one or more target cells based on the time of stay value and a time of a preceding handover and property values related to the apparatus, the property values comprising: a location of the apparatus, speed of the apparatus, travelling direction of the apparatus, and a height of the apparatus;

receiving, from the communications network, a second time window based on a handover time and a time of stay;

based on the received second time window, triggering measuring on cells that require a measurement gap to reduce an amount of gaps the apparatus experiences during travel time through the planned route;

based on the re-configuration message, applying measurements to cells that require a measurement gap and applying relaxed measurements towards cells with low probability of accessing while prioritizing measurements towards cells with higher probability of accessing;

measuring received signals;

comparing the measured signals with a margin value, based on expected measurement values, only reporting measurements to the communication network when a measured value differs from a previous measured value more than the margin value, wherein measurement values comprise a received signal received power (RSRP) and a received signal received quality (RSRQ) of the cells the apparatus is expected to measure;

based on a condition of the conditional handover being met, initiate random access and establish a connection with a target cell; and

compete the random access by sending radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration complete message a network element at the targe cell, the RRC reconfiguration complete message further indicating that the apparatus has an updated planned route to be reported.

2 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the processor to configure expected measurement values the apparatus is expected to measure.

3 . The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the updated planned route is reported after the conditional handover.

4 . The apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the updated planned route is reported in a reconfiguration complete message.

5 . The apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the planned route is a flight path and the apparatus is an arial user equipment.

6 . The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the conditional handover is executed using RACH-less approach.

7 . The apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the processor to perform the following operations:

updating the probabilities of accessing each of the cells in the list based on previous measurement values and actual travel paths.

8 . A system comprising;

an apparatus;

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the following operations:

communicating a travel path plan of the apparatus to a communication network, content of the travel path plan comprising information on waypoints along a planned route of the apparatus, the information on waypoints containing an indication of a location and associated timestamp indicating when the apparatus is expected to arrive at the location;

based on the content of travel path plan and historical data from flights along a same route as the planned route and flight paths and trajectory in a threshold vicinity of the planned route, receiving a probability of accessing each cell in a list of cells and a re-configuration message estimating conditional handover candidate cells based on the received probability;

receiving, from the communication network, a time of stay value;

deriving a start of a time window and an end of the time window for a conditional handover to one or more target cells based on the time of stay value and a time of a preceding handover and property values related to the apparatus, the property values comprising: a location of the apparatus, speed of the apparatus, travelling direction of the apparatus, and a height of the apparatus;

receiving, from the communications network, a second time window based on a handover time and a time of stay;

based on the received second time window, triggering measuring on cells that require a measurement gap to reduce an amount of gaps the apparatus experiences during travel time through the planned route;

based on the re-configuration message, applying measurements to cells that require a measurement gap and applying relaxed measurements towards cells with low probability of accessing while prioritizing measurements towards cells with higher probability of accessing;

measuring received signals;

comparing the measured signals with a margin value,

based on expected measurement values, only reporting measurements to the communication network when a measured value differs from a previous measured value more than the margin value, wherein measurement values comprise a received signal received power (RSRP) and a received signal received quality (RSRQ) of the cells the apparatus is expected to measure;

based on a condition of the conditional handover being met, initiate random access and establish a connection with a target cell; and

compete the random access by sending radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration complete message a network element at the targe cell, the RRC reconfiguration complete message further indicating that the apparatus has an updated planned route to be reported.

9 . The system according to claim 8 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the processor to configure expected measurement values the apparatus is expected to measure.

10 . The system according to claim 9 , wherein the updated planned route is reported after the conditional handover.

11 . The system according to claim 10 , wherein the updated planned route is reported in a reconfiguration complete message.

12 . The system according to claim 11 , wherein the planned route is a flight path and the apparatus is an arial user equipment.

13 . The system according to claim 12 , wherein the conditional handover is executed using RACH-less approach.

14 . The system according to claim 13 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the processor to perform the following operations:

updating the probabilities of accessing each of the cells in the list based on previous measurement values and actual travel paths.

15 . A method comprising:

communicating a travel path plan of the apparatus to a communication network, content of the travel path plan comprising information on waypoints along a planned route of the apparatus, the information on waypoints containing an indication of a location and associated timestamp indicating when the apparatus is expected to arrive at the location;

based on the content of travel path plan and historical data from flights along a same route as the planned route and flight paths and trajectory in a threshold vicinity of the planned route, receiving a probability of accessing each cell in a list of cells and a re-configuration message estimating conditional handover candidate cells based on the received probability;

receiving, from the communication network, a time of stay value;

deriving a start of a time window and an end of the time window for a conditional handover to one or more target cells based on the time of stay value and a time of a preceding handover and property values related to the apparatus, the property values comprising: a location of the apparatus, speed of the apparatus, travelling direction of the apparatus, and a height of the apparatus;

receiving, from the communications network, a second time window based on a handover time and a time of stay;

based on the received second time window, triggering measuring on cells that require a measurement gap to reduce an amount of gaps the apparatus experiences during travel time through the planned route;

based on the re-configuration message, applying measurements to cells that require a measurement gap and applying relaxed measurements towards cells with low probability of accessing while prioritizing measurements towards cells with higher probability of accessing;

measuring received signals;

comparing the measured signals with a margin value,

based on expected measurement values, only reporting measurements to the communication network when a measured value differs from a previous measured value more than the margin value, wherein measurement values comprise a received signal received power (RSRP) and a received signal received quality (RSRQ) of the cells the apparatus is expected to measure;

based on a condition of the conditional handover being met, initiate random access and establish a connection with a target cell; and

compete the random access by sending radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration complete message a network element at the targe cell, the RRC reconfiguration complete message further indicating that the apparatus has an updated planned route to be reported.

16 . The method according to claim 15 , further comprising configuring expected measurement values the apparatus is expected to measure.

17 . The method according to claim 16 , wherein the updated planned route is reported after the conditional handover.

18 . The method according to claim 17 , wherein the updated planned route is reported in a reconfiguration complete message.

19 . The method according to claim 17 , wherein the planned route is a flight path and the apparatus is an arial user equipment.

20 . The method according to claim 19 , wherein the conditional handover is executed using RACH-less approach.