Apparatuses and methods for Bandwidth Part (BWP) selection for a random access procedure

1. A User Equipment (UE), comprising:

a wireless transceiver, configured to perform wireless transmission and reception to and from a service network; and

a controller, configured to select one of one or more uplink (UL) Bandwidth Parts (BWPs) to be an active UL BWP, select one of one or more downlink (DL) BWPs to be an active DL BWP according to an association between the UL BWPs and the DL BWPs, and perform a random access procedure on the active UL BWP and the active DL BWP via the wireless transceiver;

wherein the selecting of one of the DL BWPs to be the active DL BWP comprises: switching the active DL BWP to one of the DL BWPs, which is associated with the active UL BWP according to the association between the UL BWPs and the DL BWPs, in response to PRACH occasions being configured for the active UL BWP and the active DL BWP not being associated with the active UL BWP.

2. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the selecting of one of the UL BWPs to be the active UL BWP comprises:

switching the active UL BWP to one of the UL BWPs, which is indicated as an initial UL BWP configured by the service network, in response to no Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) occasions being configured for the active UL BWP.

3. The UE of claim 2 , wherein the selecting of one of the DL BWPs to be the active DL BWP comprises:

switching the active DL BWP to one of the DL BWPs, which is indicated as an initial DL BWP configured by the service network.

4. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the association between the UL BWPs and the DL BWPs indicates that UL BWP and DL BWP with the same BWP ID are associated with each other, and each BWP ID is uniquely configured for a respective UL BWP and a respective DL BWP.

5. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the active UL BWP comprises a plurality of PRACH occasions and the active DL BWP comprises a plurality of DL resources, and the controller is further configured to receive an association between the PRACH occasions and the DL resources from the service network via the wireless transceiver.

6. The UE of claim 5 , wherein the performing of the random access procedure comprises:

selecting one of the PRACH occasions for sending a random access preamble to the service network via the wireless transceiver; and

selecting one of the DL resources, which is associated with the selected PRACH occasion according to the association between the PRACH occasions and the DL resources, for receiving a random access response from the service network via the wireless transceiver.

7. The UE of claim 6 , wherein the random access response comprises information indicating on which one of the PRACH occasions the random access preamble was received by the service network, in response to more than one of the PRACH occasions being associated with the selected DL resource according to the association between the PRACH occasions and the DL resources.

8. A method for Bandwidth Part (BWP) selection for a random access procedure, executed by a UE wirelessly connected to a service network, comprising:

selecting one of one or more uplink (UL) BWPs to be an active UL BWP;

selecting one of one or more downlink (DL) BWPs to be an active DL BWP according to an association between the UL BWPs and the DL BWPs, wherein the selecting of one of the DL BWPs to be the active DL BWP comprises: switching the active DL BWP to one of the DL BWPs, which is associated with the active UL BWP according to the association between the UL BWPs and the DL BWPs, in response to PRACH occasions being configured for the active UL BWP and the active DL BWP not being associated with the active UL BWP; and

performing a random access procedure on the active UL BWP and the active DL BWP.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the selecting of one of the UL BWPs to be the active UL BWP comprises:

switching the active UL BWP to one of the UL BWPs, which is indicated as an initial UL BWP configured by the service network, in response to no Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) occasions being configured for the active UL BWP.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the selecting of one of the UL BWPs to be the active UL BWP comprises:

switching the active DL BWP to one of the DL BWPs, which is indicated as an initial DL BWP configured by the service network.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the association between the UL BWPs and the DL BWPs indicates that UL BWP and DL BWP with the same BWP ID are associated with each other, and each BWP ID is uniquely configured for a respective UL BWP and a respective DL BWP.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the active UL BWP comprises a plurality of PRACH occasions and the active DL BWP comprises a plurality of DL resources, and the method further comprises:

receiving an association between the PRACH occasions and the DL resources from the service network.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the performing of the random access procedure comprises:

selecting one of the PRACH occasions for sending a random access preamble to the service network; and

selecting one of the DL resources, which is associated with the selected PRACH occasion according to the association between the PRACH occasions and the DL resources, for receiving a random access response from the service network.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the random access response comprises information indicating on which one of the PRACH occasions the random access preamble was received by the service network, in response to more than one of the PRACH occasions being associated with the selected DL resource according to the association between the PRACH occasions and the DL resources.