Methods and devices for measurement reporting in beam operations

1. A method performed by a User Equipment (UE), the method comprising:

measuring a plurality of Reference Signals (RSs) configured to the UE;

determining measured results of the plurality of RSs;

ranking the plurality of RSs by the measured results;

determining N RSs of the plurality of RSs as top N ranked RSs according to a ranking of each of the plurality of RSs, N being a positive integer;

counting a number of beam switching occurrences within a particular period of time, wherein the number of beam switching occurrences increases when the ranking of at least one of the N RSs changes; and

transmitting a measurement report to a base station when the number of beam switching occurrences exceeds a threshold during the particular period of time.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by the UE, a report configuration associated with at least one measurement configuration from the base station, wherein the report configuration indicates at least one of:

the threshold, and

the particular period of time.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by the UE, Downlink Control Information (DCI) comprising a first Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state from the base station; and

applying, by the UE, a second TCI state instead of the first TCI state indicated in the DCI after receiving the DCI.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the second TCI state is applied by the UE until the UE receives Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling or a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) from the base station indicating modification to TCI state.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the RRC signaling is to reconfigure or modify a mapping of a set of reference signals to a set of TCI states, and the MAC CE is to indicate or activate a new TCI state Identifier (ID).

6. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the second TCI state is a default TCI state contained in a Control Resource Set (CORESET) configuration.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

determining, by the UE, a supplementary Uplink (sUL) threshold for an initial access transmission based on a difference between a preamble transmission counter value and a preamble power ramping counter value.

8. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising:

increasing, by the UE, the sUL threshold when the difference between the preamble transmission counter value and the preamble power ramping counter value exceeds a predetermined threshold.

9. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by the UE, DCI containing spatial information for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission from the base station; and

performing, by the UE, a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmission using the spatial information contained in the DCI, when a time offset between a configured Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) and a configured PUCCH is less than a transition gap configured by the base station.

10. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting, by the UE, Uplink Control Information (UCI) on a PUSCH when a time offset between a configured PUSCH and a configured PUCCH is less than a transition gap configured by the base station.

11. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting, by the UE, UE capability information to the base station, wherein the UE capability information comprises a minimum required time for the UE to switch beams between a PUSCH transmission and a PUCCH transmission.

12. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting, by the UE, a report to the base station after a beam failure recovery procedure, wherein the report indicates a total number of Beam Failure Recovery Request (BFRQ) transmitted by the UE during the beam failure recovery procedure.

13. A communication device comprising:

one or more non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon; and

at least one processor coupled to the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media, and configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

measure a plurality of Reference Signals (RSs) configured to the UE;

determine measured results of the plurality of RSs;

rank the plurality of RSs by the measured results;

determine N RSs of the plurality of RSs as top N ranked RSs according to a ranking of each of the plurality of RSs, N being a positive integer;

count a number of beam switching occurrences within a particular period of time, wherein the number of beam switching occurrences increases when the ranking of at least one of the N RSs changes; and

transmit a measurement report to a base station when the number of beam switching occurrences exceeds a threshold during the particular period of time.

14. The communication device according to claim 13 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

receive a report configuration associated with at least one measurement configuration from the base station, wherein the report configuration indicates at least one of:

the threshold, and

the particular period of time.

15. The communication device according to claim 13 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

receive Downlink Control Information (DCI) comprising a first Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state from the base station; and

apply a second TCI state instead of the first TCI state indicated in the DCI after receiving the DCI.

16. The communication device according to claim 15 , wherein the second TCI state is applied by the UE until the UE receives Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling or a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) from the base station indicating modification to TCI state.

17. The communication device according to claim 16 , wherein the RRC signaling is to reconfigure or modify a mapping of a set of reference signals to a set of TCI states, and the MAC CE is to indicate or activate a new TCI state Identifier (ID).

18. The communication device according to claim 15 , wherein the second TCI state is a default TCI state contained in a Control Resource Set (CORESET) configuration.

19. The communication device according to claim 13 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

determine a supplementary Uplink (sUL) threshold for an initial access transmission based on a difference between a preamble transmission counter value and a preamble power ramping counter value.

20. The communication device according to claim 19 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

increase the sUL threshold when the difference between the preamble transmission counter value and the preamble power ramping counter value exceeds a predetermined threshold.

21. The communication device according to claim 13 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

receive DCI containing spatial information for a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission from the base station; and

perform a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmission using the spatial information contained in the DCI, when a time offset between a configured Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) and a configured PUCCH is less than a transition gap configured by the base station.

22. The communication device according to claim 13 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

transmit Uplink Control Information (UCI) on a PUSCH when a time offset between a configured PUSCH and a configured PUCCH is less than a transition gap configured by the base station.

23. The communication device according to claim 13 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

transmit UE capability information to the base station, wherein the UE capability information comprises a minimum required time for the UE to switch beams between a PUSCH transmission and a PUCCH transmission.

24. The communication device according to claim 13 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

transmit a report to the base station after a beam failure recovery procedure, wherein the report indicates a total number of Beam Failure Recovery Request (BFRQ) transmitted by the UE during the beam failure recovery procedure.