IP Library Granted Patent US 12,225,393
Granted Patent B2
US 12,225,393 · App. 17/431,286 · Granted Feb 11, 2025

Methods and systems for radio link monitoring for high speed scenario

Inventors: Yuhan Zhou (Santa Clara, CA); Qiming Li (Beijing, CN); Shuang Tian (Santa Clara, CA); Jie Cui (Santa Clara, CA); Rui Huang (Beijing, CN); Yang Tang (Santa Clara, CA)
Assignee: Apple Inc.
H04W24/08H04L1/203H04W24/02
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,225,393
App. No.
17/431,286
Granted
Feb 11, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

Some embodiments of this disclosure include systems, apparatuses, methods, and computer-readable media for use in a wireless network for radio link monitoring for high speed user equipment (UE). For example, some embodiments are directed to the UE including radio front end circuitry and processor circuitry coupled to the radio front end circuitry. The processor circuitry can be configured to monitor a downlink associated with a cell using a reference signal and estimate a downlink radio link quality associated with the downlink. The processor circuitry can further be configured to compare the estimated downlink radio link quality with a threshold. The processor circuitry can further be configured to trigger an out-of-sync operation in response to the downlink radio link quality being worse than the threshold. The threshold can include a value less than 10%.

Claims (55)

1. A user equipment (UE), comprising:

radio front end circuitry; and

processor circuitry, coupled to the radio front end circuitry, and configured to:

monitor, using the radio front end circuitry, a downlink associated with a cell using a reference signal;

estimate a downlink radio link quality associated with the downlink;

in response to the downlink radio link quality being greater than a first threshold:

transmit, using the radio front end circuitry and to a network, a signal indicating that the UE is to be out-of-sync; and

in response to the transmitted signal indicating that the UE is to be out-of-sync, receive, from the network, a message for preventing the UE from initiating the out-of-sync, wherein the message comprises at least one of a ratio of an energy of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) Resource Element (RE) to an average energy of a reference signal (RS) RE, or a ratio of an energy of a Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) RE to the average energy of the RS RE; and

in response to the downlink radio link quality being greater than a second threshold, trigger an out-of-sync operation.

2. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the downlink radio link quality comprises a block error rate (BLER) of the PDCCH.

3. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the second threshold comprises a value between 1% and 9% block error rate (BLER) of the PDCCH.

4. The UE of claim 1 , wherein:

the first threshold comprises a value of 2% block error rate (BLER) of the PDCCH, and the second threshold is 10% BLER of the PDCCH.

5. The UE of claim 4 , wherein:

the message further comprises at least one of Downlink Control Information (DCI) format, a number of control Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, or an aggregation level of a Control Channel Element (CCE).

6. The UE of claim 1 , wherein:

a third threshold corresponding to a block error rate (BLER) of a machine-type communication (MTC) Physical Downlink Control Channel (MPDCCH) comprises a value of 2%, and

in response to a PDCCH decoding error rate being higher than the third threshold, the processor circuitry is further configured to report to the network to increase a maximum MPDCCH repetition level.

7. The UE of claim 1 , wherein to trigger the out-of-sync operation the processor circuitry is configured to transmit, using the radio front end circuitry and to the network, a second signal indicating that the UE will initiate the out-of-sync operation.

8. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to monitor the downlink for a period of time before triggering the out-of-sync operation.

9. A method, comprising:

estimating, by a user equipment (UE), a downlink radio link quality associated with a downlink of a cell using a reference signal;

in response to the downlink radio link quality being greater than a first threshold:

transmitting, by the UE and to a network, a signal indicating that the UE is to be out-of-sync; and

in response to the transmitted signal indicating that the UE is to be out-of-sync, receiving a message from the network for preventing the UE from initiating the out-of-sync, wherein the message comprises at least one of a ratio of an energy of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) Resource Element (RE) to an average energy of a reference signal (RS) RE, or a ratio of an energy of a Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) RE to the average energy of the RS RE; and

in response to the downlink radio link quality being greater than a second threshold, triggering, by the UE, an out-of-sync operation.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the downlink radio link quality comprises a block error rate (BLER) of the PDCCH.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the second threshold comprises a value between 1% and 9% block error rate (BLER) of the PDCCH.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first threshold comprises a value of 2% block error rate (BLER) of the PDCCH, and the second threshold is 10% BLER of the PDCCH.

13. The method of claim 12 ,

wherein the message further comprises at least one of Downlink Control Information (DCI) format, a number of control Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, or an aggregation level of a Control Channel Element (CCE).

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein a third threshold corresponding to a block error rate (BLER) of a machine-type communication (MTC) Physical Downlink Control Channel (MPDCCH) comprises a value of 2%, and the method further comprising:

in response to a PDCCH decoding error rate being higher than the third threshold, reporting to the network to increase a maximum MPDCCH repetition level.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein triggering the out-of-sync operation comprises:

transmitting, by the UE and to the network, a second signal indicating that the UE will initiate the out-of-sync operation.

16. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

monitoring the downlink for a period of time before triggering the out-of-sync operation.

17. A user equipment (UE), comprising:

a memory configured to store program instructions; and

a processor, upon executing the program instructions, configured to:

monitor, for a period of time, a downlink associated with a cell using a reference signal;

estimate a downlink radio link quality associated with the downlink during the period of time;

in response to the downlink radio link quality being greater than a first threshold:

transmit, to a network, a signal indicating that the UE is to be out-of-sync; and

in response to the transmitted signal indicating that the UE is to be out-of-sync, receive, from the network, a message for preventing the UE from initiating the out-of-sync, wherein the message comprises at least one of a ratio of an energy of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) Resource Element (RE) to an average energy of a reference signal (RS) RE, or a ratio of an energy of a Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) RE to the average energy of the RS RE; and

in response to the downlink radio link quality being greater than a second threshold, trigger an out-of-sync operation.

18. The UE of claim 17 , wherein:

the cell comprises a Primary Cell (PCell), or a Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell),

the downlink radio link quality comprises a block error rate (BLER) of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), and

the second threshold comprises a value between 1% and 9% BLER of the PDCCH.

19. The UE of claim 17 , wherein:

the first threshold comprises a value of 2% block error rate (BLER) of the PDCCH, and the second threshold is 10% BLER of the PDCCH.

20. The UE of claim 17 , wherein:

a third threshold corresponding to a block error rate (BLER) of a machine-type communication (MTC) Physical Downlink Control Channel (MPDCCH) comprises a value of 2%, and

in response to a PDCCH decoding error rate being higher than the third threshold, the processor is further configured to report to the network such that to increase a maximum MPDCCH repetition level.

Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 62808725 · Feb 21, 2019
Related Publication 20220132344A1 · Apr 28, 2022
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