Beam management enhancement for discontinuous reception (DRX) operation

1. A baseband processor for a user equipment (UE) configured to, when executing instructions stored in a memory, perform operations comprising:

determining by measuring, for each beam of one or more beams, an associated beam quality metric for that beam based on one or more of a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) or a Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) associated with that beam;

selecting a beam of the one or more beams based on the associated beam quality metric, wherein the selected beam is mapped to a selected set of Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources; and

generating, during a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) on duration of the UE, a Scheduling Request (SR) for transmission over the best selected beam using the selected set of PUCCH resources.

2. The baseband processor of claim 1 , wherein, for each beam of the one or more beams, the one or more of the SSB or the CSI-RS is mapped to an associated set of time-frequency resources within the DRX on duration.

3. The baseband processor of claim 1 , wherein, for each beam of the one or more beams, the one or more of the SSB or the CSI-RS is mapped to an associated set of time-frequency resources prior to the DRX on duration.

4. The baseband processor of claim 1 , wherein the selected set of PUCCH is uniquely associated with the one or more of the SSB or the CSI-RS associated with the best selected beam.

5. The baseband processor of claim 4 , wherein, for each beam of the one or more beams, the SR is generated based on a determination that the associated beam quality metric for the selected beam is equal to or greater than a threshold value.

6. The baseband processor of claim 1 , wherein the selected set of PUCCH resources is mapped to both the selected beam and a first beam that is different than the best selected beam.

7. The baseband processor of claim 1 , wherein the associated beam quality metric measured for the selected beam was based on at least a threshold number of measurements to estimate a path loss associated with the selected beam, and wherein the operations further comprises:

estimating the path loss associated with the selected beam based at least in part on the associated beam quality metric; and

selecting a transmit power for the SR based on the estimated path loss associated with the selected beam.

8. The baseband processor of claim 1 ,

wherein the associated beam quality metric measured for a first beam of the one or more beams is a highest associated beam quality metric, wherein the highest associated beam quality metric is based on a number of measurements to estimate a path loss associated with the selected beam, and wherein the operations further comprises:

select one of the first beam or a previous selected beam as the selected beam, wherein the previous selected beam is associated with a previous path loss estimate; and

determine a transmit power for the SR based on the previous path loss estimate, if the number of measurements is fewer than a threshold number.

9. The baseband processor of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprises to monitor one or more of Downlink Control Information (DCI) for an Uplink (UL) grant, a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), via the best selected beam for which the SR was generated for transmission over.

10. UE (User Equipment), comprising:

RF circuitry configured to convert between RF signals and baseband signals;

one or more processors coupled to the RF circuitry and configured to process the baseband signals and cause the UE to:

receive higher layer signaling that configures for a cell, at each time of one or more times during a discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle of the UE, one or more of a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) or a Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) associated with that time and with a first beam, and wherein the one or more times comprise a first time within a DRX on duration of the UE;

measure the one or more of the SSB or the CSI-RS associated with the first time and with the first beam; and

transmit an indication of a determination of whether a beam failure of the first beam has occurred based on the measuring of the one or more of the SSB or the CSI-RS.

11. The UE of claim 10 , wherein the one or more times during the DRX cycle of the UE comprise a second time outside of the DRX on duration of the UE, and wherein the beam failure of the first beam is also determined based on measuring the one or more of the SSB or the CSI-RS associated with the second time.

12. The UE of claim 10 , wherein, when the determination has been made that the beam failure of the first beam occurred, the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to:

transmit a beam failure recovery request

over a set of resources,

wherein, when the cell is a Primary Cell (PCell) or a Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell), the set of resources is associated with one of a contention-based Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) or a contention free PRACH, and

wherein, when the cell is a Secondary Cell, the set of resources is associated with a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) grant of the UE.

13. The UE of claim 12 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to stop a DRX on duration timer in response to the determination that the beam failure of the first beam occurred.

14. The UE of claim 13 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to reset and restart the DRX on duration timer in response to the determination that the beam failure of the first beam occurred.

15. The UE of claim 13 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

determine that the beam failure recovery request was unsuccessful;

expire the DRX on duration timer; and

enter a sleep state in response to an expiration of the DRX on duration timer.

16. The UE of claim 12 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to stop a DRX inactivity timer in response to the determination that the beam failure of the first beam occurred.

17. The UE of claim 16 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to reset or restart the DRX inactivity timer in response to processing a successful beam failure recovery response.

18. A UE (User Equipment), comprising:

RF circuitry configured to convert between RF signals and baseband signals;

one or more processors coupled to the RF circuitry and configured to process the baseband signals and cause the UE to:

measure a beam quality metric for a beam based on one or more of a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) or a Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) associated with the beam, wherein the one or more of the SSB or the CSI-RS is mapped to an associated set of time-frequency resources within or prior to a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) on duration of the UE;

transmit a beam measurement report that indicates the beam quality metric, wherein the beam measurement report is configured as one of periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic; and

transmit, over a beam determined based on the beam quality metric, a scheduling request (SR) during the DRX on duration.

19. The UE of claim 18 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to generate the beam measurement report in response to a power saving signal that indicates to the UE to wake up.

20. The UE of claim 18 , wherein the beam measurement report is aperiodic, and wherein the one or more processors are further configured to

transmit a request for a DRX wake up for transmitting the beam measurement report, if the beam has changed by at least a threshold amount.