Secondary cell activation with beam management in new radio mobile communications

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a processor of an apparatus, from a wireless network a secondary cell (SCell) activation command;

determining, by the processor, whether a target SCell is known; and

performing, by the processor, one or more operations based on a result of the determining,

wherein the determining of whether the target SCell is known comprises:

determining that the target SCell is known responsive to a Layer 1 (L1) or Layer 3 (L3) reference signal received power (RSRP) report having been transmitted before the receiving of the SCell activation command by no more than a predefined duration (X); and

determining that the target SCell is unknown responsive to the L1 or L3 RSRP report having not been transmitted or having been transmitted before the receiving of the SCell activation command by more than the predefined duration (X).

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by the processor, from the wireless network a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state activation command after a duration (D) later than receiving the SCell activation command,

wherein, in an event that the target SCell is known, the performing of the one or more operations comprises:

transmitting to the wireless network a channel state information (CSI) report within an extended duration (Y′) after the receiving of the SCell activation command; and

applying the TCI state activation command,

wherein the extended duration (Y′) is equal to a non-extended duration (Y) plus the duration (D).

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the non-extended duration (Y) is equal to a time for fine synchronization (T FineTiming ) plus a time for decoding a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) that contains the SCell activation command.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the duration (D) is more than 0 ms and up to a predefined value.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by the processor, from the wireless network a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state activation command within a predefined duration (X) before receiving the SCell activation command,

wherein, in an event that the target SCell is known, the performing of the one or more operations comprises:

transmitting to the wireless network a channel state information (CSI) report within a non-extended duration (Y) after the receiving of the SCell activation command; and

applying the TCI state activation command.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the SCell activation delay (Y) is equal to a time for fine synchronization (T FineTiming ) plus a time for decoding a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) that contains the SCell activation command.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the predefined duration (X) is 80 ms, 160 ms, 320 ms or 640 ms.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting, by the processor, to the wireless network the L1 or L3 RSRP report.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

performing, by the processor, either:

transmitting to the wireless network the L1 or L3 RSRP report; or

receiving from the wireless network a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state activation command before receiving the SCell activation command,

wherein the determining of whether the target SCell is known comprises determining that the target SCell is unknown responsive to:

the SCell activation command being received more than a predefined duration (X) after the transmitting of the L1 or L3 RSRP report, or

the SCell activation command being received more than the predefined duration (X) after the receiving of the TCI state activation command.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the performing of the one or more operations comprises:

performing a beam management procedure; and

transmitting to the wireless network the L1 RSRP report.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the performing of the one or more operations further comprises:

receiving from the wireless network a second TCI state activation command; and

applying the second TCI state activation command.

12. A method, comprising:

transmitting, by a processor of an apparatus, to a wireless network a Layer 1 (L1) or Layer 3 (L3) reference signal received power (RSRP) report;

receiving, by the processor, from the wireless network a secondary cell (SCell) activation command;

receiving, by the processor, from the wireless network a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state activation command; and

performing, by the processor, one or more operations responsive to the TCI state activation command being received after a duration (D) later than receiving the SCell activation command,

wherein the receiving of the SCell activation command comprises receiving the SCell activation command within a second predefined duration (X) after transmitting the L1 or L3 RSRP report.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the second predefined duration (X) is 80 ms, 160 ms, 320 ms or 640 ms.

14. A method, comprising:

transmitting, by a processor of an apparatus, to a wireless network a Layer 1 (L1) or Layer 3 (L3) reference signal received power (RSRP) report;

receiving, by the processor, from the wireless network a secondary cell (SCell) activation command;

receiving, by the processor, from the wireless network a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state activation command; and

performing, by the processor, one or more operations responsive to the TCI state activation command being received after a duration (D) later than receiving the SCell activation command,

wherein the performing of the one or more operations comprises:

transmitting to the wireless network a channel state information (CSI) report; and

applying the TCI state activation command,

wherein the transmitting of the CSI report comprises transmitting the CSI report within an extended duration (Y′) after the receiving of the SCell activation command, and

wherein the extended duration (Y′) is equal to a SCell activation delay (Y) plus the duration (D).

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the SCell activation delay (Y) is equal to a time for fine synchronization (T FineTiming ) plus a time for decoding a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) that contains the SCell activation command.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the duration (D) is more than 0 ms and up to a predefined value.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the predefined value is 320 ms.