Facilitating bandwidth part selection in wireless communication systems

1. A scheduled entity, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory and configured to:

receive a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message indicating a handover from a source cell to a target cell;

identify uplink data in a buffer; and

transmit, to the target cell in association with the RRC reconfiguration message and the identification of the uplink data in the buffer, a random access channel (RACH) message that comprises a payload including enhanced UE assistance information (UAI), the enhanced UAI indicating a preferred bandwidth part (BWP) of the target cell.

2. The scheduled entity of claim 1 , wherein the uplink data comprises user plane data or control plane data.

3. The scheduled entity of claim 1 , wherein the enhanced UAI transmission further indicates at least one of a preferred bandwidth, a preferred modulation and coding scheme (MCS), a preferred random access channel (RACH) configuration, a preference between contention-free random access and contention-based random access, or partial UE capabilities.

4. The scheduled entity of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:

multiplex the enhanced UAI transmission with a measurement report of the target cell; and

transmit via the transceiver the multiplexed enhanced UAI transmission and the measurement report of the target cell to the source cell.

5. The scheduled entity of claim 1 , wherein the received RRC reconfiguration message includes an acknowledgement message for UAI and a mapping rule between BWP configurations and RACH resource configurations.

6. The scheduled entity of claim 5 , wherein the processor is configured to:

select the preferred BWP;

select a physical RACH (PRACH) resource associated with the preferred BWP based on the mapping rule; and

transmit via the transceiver a PRACH preamble utilizing the selected PRACH resource associated with the preferred BWP.

7. The scheduled entity of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:

convey the enhanced UAI transmission indirectly to the target cell.

8. A method operational on a scheduled entity, comprising:

receiving a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message indicating a handover from source cell to a target cell;

identifying uplink data in a buffer; and

transmitting, to the target cell in association with the RRC reconfiguration message and the identification of the uplink data in the buffer, a random access channel (RACH) message that comprises a payload including enhanced UE assistance information (UAI), the enhanced UAI indicating a preferred bandwidth part (BWP) of the target cell.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the uplink data comprises user plane data or control plane data.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the enhanced UAI transmission further indicates at least one of a preferred bandwidth, a preferred modulation and coding scheme (MCS), a preferred RACH configuration, a preference between contention-free random access and contention-based random access, or partial UE capabilities.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the conveying the enhanced UAI transmission comprises:

multiplexing the enhanced UAI transmission with a measurement report of the target cell; and

transmitting the multiplexed enhanced UAI transmission and the measurement report of the target cell to the source cell.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the received RRC reconfiguration message includes an acknowledgement message for UAI and a mapping rule between BWP configurations and RACH resource configurations.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the conveying the enhanced UAI transmission comprises:

selecting the preferred BWP;

selecting a physical RACH (PRACH) resource associated with the preferred BWP based on the mapping rule; and

transmitting a PRACH preamble utilizing the selected PRACH resource associated with the preferred BWP.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein the conveying the enhanced UAI transmission comprises:

conveying the enhanced UAI transmission indirectly to the target cell.

15. A scheduling entity, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory and configured to:

receive enhanced UE assistance information (UAI) in a payload of a random access channel (RACH) message from a scheduled entity, the enhanced UAI indicating a preferred bandwidth part (BWP) for the scheduled entity; and

select the preferred BWP for communication with the scheduled entity based on the received enhanced UAI.

16. The scheduling entity of claim 15 , wherein the received enhanced UAI transmission further indicates at least one of a preferred bandwidth, a preferred modulation and coding scheme (MCS), a preferred RACH configuration, a preference between contention-free random access and contention-based random access, or partial UE capabilities.

17. The scheduling entity of claim 15 , wherein the processor is configured to:

receive the enhanced UAI multiplexed with a measurement report of a cell associated with the scheduling entity.

18. The scheduling entity of claim 15 , wherein the memory includes a mapping rule between BWP configurations and RACH resource configurations.

19. The scheduling entity of claim 18 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive a PRACH preamble from the scheduled entity utilizing a particular PRACH resource; and

determine the preferred BWP based on a BWP configuration associated with the particular PRACH resource based on the mapping rule.

20. The scheduling entity of claim 15 , wherein the processor is configured to:

receive the enhanced UAI indirectly from the scheduled entity.

21. A method operational on a scheduling entity, comprising:

receiving enhanced UE assistance information (UAI) in a payload of a random access channel (RACH) message from a scheduled entity, the enhanced UAI indicating a preferred bandwidth part (BWP) for the scheduled entity; and

selecting the preferred BWP for communication with the scheduled entity based on the received enhanced UAI.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the received enhanced UAI transmission further indicates at least one of a preferred bandwidth, a preferred modulation and coding scheme (MCS), a preferred RACH configuration, a preference between contention-free random access and contention-based random access, or partial UE capabilities.

23. The method of claim 21 , wherein the receiving the enhanced UAI transmission from a scheduled entity comprises:

receiving the enhanced UAI multiplexed with a measurement report of a cell associated with the scheduling entity.

24. The method of claim 21 , further comprising:

storing a mapping rule between BWP configurations and RACH resource configurations.

25. The method of claim 24 , further comprising:

receiving a PRACH preamble from the scheduled entity utilizing a particular PRACH resource; and

determining the preferred BWP based on a BWP configuration associated with the particular PRACH resource from the stored mapping rule.

26. The method of claim 21 , wherein the receiving the enhanced UAI transmission from a scheduled entity comprises:

receiving the enhanced UAI indirectly from the scheduled entity.