Signaling support for devices with multiple and/or flexible form factors

1. A method, comprising:

signaling, by a device associated with a network and capable of having multiple form factors that affect radio operation, all sets of pre-defined radio resource control (RRC) configurations supported by the device to the network, wherein each set of the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations depends on a supported form factor of the device, and wherein the dependency corresponds to the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations that only match form factors supported by the device;

specifying at a first time by the device, which one of the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations is active;

determining, by the device, a change in the form factor of the device;

determining which set of the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations is to be used by the device according to the change in the form factor of the device; and

signaling after the first time, upon the change in the form factor of the device, a pointer to the network, to indicate the determined set of the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations supported by the device which is currently active,

wherein when two sets of pre-defined RRC configurations are supported, only 1-bit signaling is required to indicate a change to one of the two sets of pre-defined RRC configurations due to the change in the form factor of the device.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the determining of the current form factor of the device comprises measuring at least one condition, wherein the condition comprises whether there is a change in the current form factor of the device, and wherein the method further comprises reporting new radio communication parameters to the network when there is a change in the current form factor of the device.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the new radio communication parameters comprise at least one of an update on the device multiple input multiple output (MIMO) capability, an update on advanced receiver capability, an update to baseband processing impacting radio performance, an update on both supported frequency bands and carrier aggregation capabilities, an update on the device class, bandwidth and transmission power capability, and/or an update on supported radio technologies.

4. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the measuring is initiated by a signaling from the network or a detected change in the current form factor of the device.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the form factors comprise a flexible form factor, a foldable form factor, an expandable form factor, an extendable form factor, or a stretchable form factor.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method is performed by a user equipment operating under a cellular system.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising signaling the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations to the network during an initial access to the network in a first access to a session.

8. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising, indicating, upon the change in the form factor of the device, to the network that a previous set of RRC configurations used by the network is not up-to-date.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory comprising computer program code,

wherein the apparatus is capable of having multiple form factors that affect radio communication and associated with a network, and

wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus at least to signal all sets of pre-defined radio resource configurations (RRC) configurations supported by the apparatus to the network,

wherein each set of the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations depends on a supported form factor of the apparatus, and

wherein the dependency corresponds to the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations that only match form factors supported by the apparatus;

specify at a first time, which one of the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations is active;

determine a change in the form factor of the apparatus;

determine which set of the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations is to be used by the apparatus according to the change in the form factor of the apparatus; and

signal after the first time, upon the change in the form factor of the apparatus, a pointer to the network, to indicate the determined set of the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations supported by the apparatus which is currently active,

wherein when two sets of pre-defined RRC configurations are supported, only 1-bit signaling is required to indicate a change to one of the two sets of pre-defined RRC configurations due to the change in the form factor of the apparatus.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus at least to

determine the current form factor of the apparatus by measuring at least one condition,

wherein the condition comprises a change in the current form factor of the apparatus, and

report new radio communication parameters to the network when there is a change in the current form factor of the apparatus.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the new radio communication parameters comprise at least one of

an update on the apparatus multiple input multiple output (MIMO) capability,

an update on advanced receiver capability,

an update to baseband processing impacting radio performance,

an update on both supported frequency bands and carrier aggregation capabilities,

an update on the apparatus class, bandwidth and transmission power capability, and/or

an update on supported radio technologies.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus at least to report the new radio communication parameters by sending feature group indicators (FGIs) to the network.

13. The apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus at least to initiate the measuring by a signaling from the network or a detected change in the current form factor of the apparatus.

14. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the apparatus comprises physically separate parts.

15. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the apparatus is a user equipment operating under a cellular system.

16. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus at least to signal the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations to the network during an initial access to the network in a first access to a session.

17. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus at least to indicate, upon the change in the form factor of the device, to the network that a previous set of RRC configurations used by the network is not up-to-date.

18. A computer program, embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, wherein the computer program is configured to control a processor to perform a process, comprising:

signaling, by a device associated with a network and capable of having multiple form factors that affect radio operations, all sets of pre-defined radio resource control (RRC) configurations supported by the device to the network, wherein each set of the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations depends on a supported form factor of the device, and wherein the dependency corresponds to the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations that only match form factors supported by the device;

specifying at a first time, which one of the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations is active;

determining, by the device, a change in the form factor of the device;

determining which set of the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations is to be used by the device according to the change in the form factor of the device; and

signaling after the first time, upon the change in the form factor of the device, a pointer to the network, to indicate the determined set of the sets of pre-defined RRC configurations supported by the device which is currently active,

wherein when two sets of pre-defined RRC configurations are supported, only 1-bit signaling is required to indicate a change to one of the two sets of pre-defined RRC configurations due to the change in the form factor of the device.