ENHANCEMENTS TO CBRA AND CFRA L1/L2 TRIGGERED MOBILITY

1 . A method, performed by at least one processor, for configuring inter-cell changes, the method comprising:

transmitting, by a serving distributed unit (DU) to a user equipment (UE), a request to perform an uplink sync with a target cell of a target distributed unit (DU), wherein the UE performs the uplink sync with the target DU including transmitting a preamble signal to the target DU upon receiving the request, wherein the target DU determines a best beam group (BG) for the UE upon receiving the preamble signal;

receiving, by the serving DU, a Random Access Channel (RACH) preamble based on the best BG for the UE, wherein the RACH preamble originates from the target DU; and

executing, by the serving DU, a serving cell change (SCC) for the UE to one of a prepared target cell based on the received RACH preamble.

2 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the preamble signal used during the UL sync includes a contention based random access (CBRA) preamble, wherein the UE is configured to determine whether the uplink sync is successful or not,

wherein based on a determination that the uplink sync is successful, the target DU is configured to determine that there is no preamble allocated to the UE during a handover (HO) preparation phase, and

wherein based on a determination that there is no preamble allocated to the UE, the target DU is configured to allocate a RACH preamble and send to the UE via the serving DU, to configure contention free random access (CFRA) for the UE with the best BG for the UE.

3 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:

the preamble signal used during the UL sync includes a contention based random access (CBRA) preamble;

the UE is configured to determine whether the uplink sync is successful or not; and

based on a determination that the uplink sync is not successful, the UE is configured to prevent any further attempts of uplink sync.

4 . The method as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the UE is configured to determine whether the RACH preamble received from the serving DU has arrived at the UE or not prior to the serving DU executing the SCC, and

wherein based on a determination that an RACH preamble has not arrived at the serving DU prior to executing the SCC, the UE is configured to perform CBRA during execution of the SCC by the serving DU.

5 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the preamble signal includes a contention free random access (CFRA) preamble, wherein the target DU is configured to determine whether there is already a preamble allocated to the UE,

wherein based on a determination that there is already a preamble allocated to the UE, the target DU is configured to determine whether the preamble allocated to the UE is associated with the best BG for the UE, and

wherein based on a determination that the preamble allocated to the UE is not associated with the best BG for the UE, the target DU is configured to allocate the RACH preamble to be a new preamble associated with the best BG for the UE, and wherein the method further comprises:

sending the newly allocated RACH preamble to the serving DU,

wherein the sending to the serving DU is via a control unit (CU) or directly over a DU-DU interface.

6 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the serving DU executing the SCC for the UE further comprises:

transmitting, by the serving DU, a downlink MAC Control Element (DL MAC CE) which includes the RACH preamble received from the target DU to the UE.

7 . The method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the target DU is configured to estimate a timing advance (TA) of the UE based on the preamble signal received from the UE, shared with the serving DU and wherein the DL MAC CE sent by the serving DU to the UE includes the estimated TA.

8 . A method, performed by at least one processor, for configuring inter-cell changes, the method comprising:

receiving, by a serving distributed unit (DU), a Random Access Channel (RACH) preamble, wherein the RACH preamble originates from a target distributed unit (DU); and

executing, by the serving DU, a serving cell change (SCC) for a user equipment (UE) to one of a prepared target cell based on the RACH preamble,

wherein the (UE) is not configured to perform uplink sync by the serving DU and the UE is not configured with a CFRA RACH preamble by the target DU,

wherein the target DU is configured to determine whether availability of a RACH resource is subject to change between target cell configuration preparation and execution of the serving cell change, and

wherein based on a determination that the RACH resource has become available, the target DU is configured to allocate a RACH preamble and send the RACH preamble to the serving DU, to configure contention free random access (CFRA) for the UE with a best beam group (BG) for the UE.

9 . An apparatus for configuring inter-cell changes, the apparatus comprising:

at least one memory storing computer-executable instructions; and

at least one processor configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

transmit, by a serving distributed unit (DU) to a user equipment (UE), a request to perform an uplink sync with a target cell of a target distributed unit (DU), wherein the UE performs the uplink sync with the target DU including transmitting a preamble signal to the target DU upon receiving the request, wherein the target DU determines a best beam group (BG) for the UE upon receiving the preamble signal;

receive, by the serving DU, a Random Access Channel (RACH) preamble based on the best BG, wherein the RACH preamble originates from the target DU; and

execute, by the serving DU, a serving cell change (SCC) for the UE to one of a prepared target cell based on the RACH preamble.

10 . The apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the preamble signal used during the UL sync includes a contention based random access (CBRA) preamble, wherein the UE is configured to determine whether the uplink sync is successful or not,

wherein based on a determination that the uplink sync is successful, the target DU is configured to determine that there is no preamble allocated to the UE during a handover (HO) preparation phase, and

wherein based on a determination that there is no preamble allocated to the UE, the target DU is configured to allocate a RACH preamble and send to the serving DU, to configure contention free random access (CFRA) for the UE with the best BG for the UE.

11 . The apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein:

the preamble signal used during the UL sync includes a contention based random access (CBRA) preamble;

the UE is configured to determine whether the uplink sync is successful or not; and

based on a determination that the uplink sync is not successful, the UE is configured to prevent any further attempts of uplink sync.

12 . The apparatus as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the UE is configured to determine whether the RACH preamble received from the serving DU has arrived at the UE or not prior to the serving DU executing the SCC, and

wherein based on a determination that an RACH preamble has not arrived at the serving DU prior to executing the SCC, the UE is configured to perform CBRA during execution of the SCC by the serving DU.

13 . The apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the preamble signal includes a contention free random access (CFRA) preamble, wherein the target DU is configured to determine whether there is already a preamble allocated to the UE,

wherein based on a determination that there is already a preamble allocated to the UE, the target DU is configured to determine whether the preamble allocated to the UE is associated with the best BG for the UE, and

wherein based on a determination that the preamble allocated to the UE is not associated with the best BG for the UE, the target DU is configured to allocate the RACH preamble to be a new preamble associated with the best BG for the UE, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

send the newly allocated RACH preamble to the serving DU,

wherein the sending to the serving DU is via a control unit (CU) or directly over a DU-DU interface.

14 . The apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to execute the SCC for the UE by:

transmitting, by the serving DU, a downlink MAC Control Element (DL MAC CE) which includes the RACH preamble received from the target DU to the UE.

15 . The apparatus as claimed in claim 14 , wherein the target DU is configured to estimate a timing advance (TA) of the UE based on the preamble signal received from the UE, wherein the DL MAC CE includes the estimated TA.

16 . An apparatus for configuring inter-cell changes, the apparatus comprising:

at least one memory storing computer-executable instructions; and

at least one processor configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

receive, by a serving distributed unit (DU), a Random Access Channel (RACH) preamble, wherein the RACH preamble originates from a target distributed unit (DU); and

execute, by the serving DU, a serving cell change (SCC) for a user equipment (UE) to one of a prepared target cell based on the RACH preamble,

wherein the (UE) is not configured to perform uplink sync by the serving DU and the UE is not configured with a CFRA RACH preamble by the target DU,

wherein the target DU is configured to determine whether availability of a RACH resource is subject to change between target cell configuration preparation and execution of the serving cell change, and

wherein based on a determination that the RACH resource has become available, the target DU is configured to allocate a RACH preamble and send the RACH preamble to the serving DU, to configure contention free random access (CFRA) for the UE with a best beam group (BG) for the UE.

17 . The apparatus as claimed in claim 16 , wherein the RACH preamble is received when a resource situation changes at the target DU.

18 . The apparatus as claimed in claim 16 , wherein executing the SCC comprises sending the RACH preamble to the UE via a downlink MAC Control Element (DL MAC CE).

19 . The apparatus as claimed in claim 18 , wherein the target DU is configured to estimate a timing advance (TA), and the DL MAC CE includes the estimated TA.

20 . The apparatus as claimed in claim 16 , wherein the RACH preamble is sent to the serving DU via a control unit (CU) or directly over a DU-DU interface.