NR power saving enhancements

1. A method, comprising:

establishing, by a processor of a user equipment (UE), a wireless connection with a network node of a wireless network; and

executing, by the processor, one or more procedures of a plurality of procedures related to bandwidth part (BWP) enhancement to improve power saving by the UE,

wherein the plurality of procedures comprise a time domain processing reduction procedure, a frequency domain processing reduction procedure, and a spatial domain processing reduction procedure, and

wherein the executing of the one or more procedures comprises executing the spatial domain processing reduction procedure by:

setting a maximum number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers on a per-BWP basis for one or more BWPs; and

performing MIMO wireless communications with the network node using the maximum number of MIMO layers in an active BWP among the one or more BWPs.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the executing of the one or more procedures further comprises executing the time domain processing reduction procedure, and wherein the executing of the time domain processing reduction procedure comprises increasing a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring period in an event that a BWP timer reaches a predetermined threshold before expiration.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the executing of the one or more procedures further comprises executing the time domain processing reduction procedure, and wherein the executing of the time domain processing reduction procedure comprises entering a sleep mode in an event that there is no data for reception or transmission.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the executing of the time domain processing reduction procedure further comprises detecting presence of an aperiodic channel state information (CSI) reference signal (CSI-RS) bundled with data presence.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the executing of the one or more procedures further comprises executing the time domain processing reduction procedure, and wherein the executing of the time domain processing reduction procedure comprises receiving, from the network node, data of a small size together with downlink control information (DCI) over a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the executing of the time domain processing reduction procedure further comprises performing polar coding on the data in an event that a codeblock size of the data is no more than a predefined size.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein a data location is associated to a resource allocation (RA) field or another DCI format.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the data comprises a keep-sync message, a voice session identifier (SID), a paging message, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), a higher-layer command, or a combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the executing of the one or more procedures further comprises executing the frequency domain processing reduction procedure, and wherein the executing of the frequency domain processing reduction procedure comprises:

receiving, from the network node, radio resource control (RRC) signaling that indicates a time duration and a data size threshold; and

performing BWP fallback to a default or narrowband bandwidth for data of a small size in an event that there is no scheduled data of a size larger than the data size threshold during the indicated time duration after a data arrival.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein, in an event that the maximum number of MIMO layers is one or two, the performing of the MIMO wireless communications with the network node comprises utilizing one or two receive (RX) antennas in the MIMO wireless communications.

11. An apparatus implemented in a user equipment (UE), comprising:

a transceiver configured to wirelessly communicate with a network node of a wireless network via a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication link; and

a processor coupled to the transceiver, the processor configured to perform operations comprising:

establishing, via the transceiver, a wireless connection with a network node of a wireless network; and

executing one or more procedures of a plurality of procedures related to bandwidth part (BWP) enhancement to improve power saving by the UE,

wherein the plurality of procedures comprise a time domain processing reduction procedure, a frequency domain processing reduction procedure, and a spatial domain processing reduction procedure, and

wherein, in executing the one or more procedures, the processor is configured to execute the spatial domain processing reduction procedure by:

setting a maximum number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers on a per-BWP basis for one or more BWPs; and

performing, via the transceiver, MIMO wireless communications with the network node using the maximum number of MIMO layers in an active BWP among the one or more BWPs.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein, in executing the one or more procedures, the processor is further configured to execute the time domain processing reduction procedure, and wherein, in executing the time domain processing reduction procedure, the processor is configured to increase a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring period in an event that a BWP timer reaches a predetermined threshold before expiration.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein, in executing the one or more procedures, the processor is further configured to execute the time domain processing reduction procedure, and wherein, in executing the time domain processing reduction procedure, the processor is configured to enter a sleep mode in an event that there is no data for reception or transmission.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein, in executing the one or more procedures, the processor is further configured to execute the time domain processing reduction procedure, and wherein, in executing the time domain processing reduction procedure, the processor is configured to detect presence of an aperiodic channel state information (CSI) reference signal (CSI-RS) bundled with data presence.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein, in executing the one or more procedures, the processor is further configured to execute the time domain processing reduction procedure by performing operations comprising:

receiving, via the transceiver, data of a small size together with downlink control information (DCI) over a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) from the network node; and

performing polar coding on the data in an event that a codeblock size of the data is no more than a predefined size.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein a data location is associated to a resource allocation (RA) field or another DCI format, and wherein the data comprises a keep-sync message, a voice session identifier (SID), a paging message, a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), a higher-layer command, or a combination thereof.

17. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein, in executing the one or more procedures, the processor is further configured to execute the frequency domain processing reduction procedure, and wherein, in executing the frequency domain processing reduction procedure, the processor is configured to perform operations comprising:

receiving, via the transceiver, radio resource control (RRC) signaling from the network node indicating a time duration and a data size threshold; and

performing BWP fallback to a default or narrowband bandwidth for data of a small size in an event that there is no scheduled data of a size larger than the data size threshold during the indicated time duration after a data arrival.

18. The method of claim 11 , wherein, in an event that the maximum number of MIMO layers is one or two, the processor is configured to perform the MIMO wireless communications with the network node by utilizing one or two receive (RX) antennas of the transceiver in the MIMO wireless communications.