Methods and systems for secondary cell beam recovery

1. A user equipment (UE), comprising:

radio front end circuitry; and

processor circuitry, coupled to the radio front end circuitry, wherein the processor circuitry is configured to:

detect that a first beam associated with a secondary cell (SCell) is misaligned, wherein the first beam is associated with a first reference signal (RS);

configure a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure for the SCell;

perform the BFR procedure to replace the first beam with a second beam, wherein the second beam is associated with the SCell, and wherein the configuration of the BFR procedure comprises obtaining a parameter including a timer which controls a time interval between consecutive BFR requests transmitted for the SCell; and

transmit, using the front end circuitry, a layer 1 (L1) channel state information (CSI) report associated with the SCell, wherein the L1 CSI comprises an index associated with the SCell and information about a reference signal received power (RSRP) of the second beam.

2. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor circuitry is further configured to:

transmit, using the front end circuitry, to a base station, a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) as a BFR request (BFRQ), wherein the MAC CE comprises an identifier identifying the SCell and the index.

3. The UE of claim 2 , wherein the index indicates whether the RSRP exceeds a threshold.

4. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor circuitry is further configured to:

select a second RS, wherein the second RS is associated with the second beam and has an RSRP that exceeds a threshold; and

access the SCell using the second RS as a quasi-collocated RS.

5. The UE of claim 4 , wherein the processor circuitry is further configured to:

receive, using the front end circuitry, a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) from a base station;

process the MAC CE; and

select the second beam to replace the first beam in response to the processing of the MAC CE.

6. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to configure the BFR procedure without an uplink (UL) data transmission.

7. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the BFR procedure is configured on a per serving cell basis.

8. A method, comprising:

detecting, by a user equipment (UE), that a first beam associated with a secondary cell (SCell) is misaligned, wherein the first beam is associated with a first reference signal (RS);

configuring a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure for the SCell;

performing the BFR procedure to replace the first beam with a second beam, wherein the second beam is associated with the SCell, and wherein the configuration of the BFR procedure comprises obtaining a parameter including a timer which controls a time interval between consecutive BFR requests transmitted for the SCell and

transmitting a layer 1 (L1) channel state information (CSI) associated with the SCell, wherein the L1 CSI comprises an index associated with the SCell and information about a reference signal received power (RSRP) of the second beam.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

transmitting, to a base station, a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) as a BFR request (BFRQ), wherein the MAC CE comprises an identifier identifying the SCell and the index.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the index associated with the second beam indicates whether the RSRP exceeds a threshold.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

selecting a second RS, wherein the second RS is associated with the second beam and has an RSRP that exceeds a threshold; and

accessing the SCell using the second RS as a quasi-collocated RS.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

receiving a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) from a base station; processing the MAC CE; and

selecting the second beam to replace the first beam in response to the processing of the MAC CE.

13. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

configuring the BFR procedure on a per serving cell basis and without an uplink (UL) data transmission.

14. A user equipment (UE), comprising:

a memory configured to store program instructions; and

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

detect that a first beam associated with a secondary cell (SCell) is misaligned, wherein the first beam is associated with a first reference signal (RS);

configure a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure for the SCell;

perform the BFR procedure to replace the first beam with a second beam, wherein the second beam is associated with the SCell, and wherein the configuration of the BFR procedure comprises obtaining a parameter including a timer which controls a time interval between consecutive BFR requests transmitted for the SCell; and

transmit a layer 1 (L1) channel state information (CSI) associated with the SCell, wherein the L1 CSI comprises an index associated with the SCell and information about a reference signal received power (RSRP) of the second beam.

15. The UE of claim 14 , wherein:

the processor is further configured to transmit to a base station, a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) as a BFR request (BFRQ),

the MAC CE comprises an identifier identifying the SCell and the index, and

the index associated with the second beam indicates whether the RSRP exceeds a threshold.

16. The UE of claim 14 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

select a second RS, wherein the second RS is associated with the second beam and has an RSRP that exceeds a threshold;

access the SCell using the second RS as a quasi-collocated RS;

receive a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) from a base station;

process the MAC CE; and

select the second beam to replace the first beam in response to the processing of the MAC CE.

17. The UE of claim 14 , wherein the processor is configured to configure the BFR procedure on a per serving cell basis without an uplink (UL) data transmission.