Beam limitations for RACH-less access

1. A method by a user equipment, UE, in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:

receiving an access command from a source node, the access command instructing the UE to access a target cell and including an access configuration specifying an access method without random access and one or more valid target cell beams for which the access configuration is configured as valid at the target cell, one of:

the access configuration specifying one or more pre-allocated uplink transmission resource grants; and

the access configuration indicating that the UE should receive an uplink transmission resource grant in a downlink transmission in the target cell, the downlink transmission being associated with one of the one or more valid target cell beams in the target cell;

performing beam selection to select a target cell beam for communicating with the target cell;

determining if the selected target cell beam corresponds to at least one of the one or more valid target cell beams; and, in response to the access command, at least one of:

in response to determining that the selected target cell beam corresponds to at least one of the one or more valid target cell beams, accessing the target cell using the selected target cell beam and the access method without random access; and

in response to determining that the selected target cell beam does not correspond to at least one of the one or more valid target cell beams, accessing the target cell using a random-access channel, RACH, based access procedure.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein accessing the target cell using the selected target cell beam comprises transmitting an access message to the target cell using a pre-allocated uplink transmission resource grant included in the access command.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein transmitting the access message comprises transmitting the access message via a physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the RACH-based access procedure comprises a contention-based random access.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the RACH-based access procedure comprises a contention-free random access.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the access configuration comprises a contention free random access, CFRA, configuration including one or more contention-free random access preamble(s) associated with one or more target cell beams in the target cell.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

in response to determining that the selected target cell beam does not correspond to at least one of the one or more valid target cell beams, repeating beam selection until a beam is selected that corresponds to at least one of the one or more valid target cell beams.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the access configuration specifies one or more pre-allocated uplink transmission resource grants and accessing the target cell comprises:

attempting to access to the target cell using the pre-allocated resource grant on one of the one or more valid target cell beams; and

in response to failure of the attempt to access to the target cell using the pre-allocated resource grant on one of the one or more valid target cell beams, performing a random access channel, RACH, based access to the target cell.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the access command comprises a radio resource control, RRC, message.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the access command comprises one of an RRCConnection Reconfiguration message and an RRCReconfiguration message.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the access command comprises a handover command, and wherein accessing the target cell comprises performing a handover to the target cell.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the access command comprises a secondary cell group, SCG, modification command, and wherein accessing the target cell comprises performing an SCG modification at the target cell.

13. A user equipment, UE, comprising:

a processor circuit;

a transceiver coupled to the processor circuit; and

a memory coupled to the processor circuit, the memory comprising machine readable program instructions that, when executed by the processor circuit, cause the UE to perform operations of:

receiving an access command from a source node, the access command instructing the UE to access a target cell and including an access configuration specifying an access method without random access and one or more valid target cell beams for which the access configuration is configured as valid at the target cell, one of:

the access configuration specifying one or more pre-allocated uplink transmission resource grants; and

the access configuration indicating that the UE should receive an uplink transmission resource grant in a downlink transmission in the target cell, the downlink transmission being associated with one of the one or more valid target cell beams in the target cell;

performing beam selection to select a target cell beam for communicating with the target cell;

determining if the selected target cell beam corresponds to at least one of the one or more valid target cell beams; and, in response to the access command, at least one of:

in response to determining that the selected target cell beam corresponds to at least one of the one or more valid target cell beams, accessing the target cell using the selected target cell beam and the access method without random access; and

in response to determining that the selected target cell beam does not correspond to at least one of the one or more valid target cell beams, accessing the target cell using a random-access channel, RACH, based access procedure.

14. A method by a node in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:

preparing an access command for instructing a user equipment, UE, to access a target cell, the access command including a random-access channel, RACH, less configuration specifying an access method without random access and one or more valid target cell beams for which the RACH-less configuration is configured as valid at the target cell, the one or more valid target cell beams being configured for non-RACH access by the UE, one of:

the access configuration specifying one or more pre-allocated uplink transmission resource grants; and

the access configuration indicating that the UE should receive an uplink transmission resource grant in a downlink transmission in the target cell, the downlink transmission being associated with one of the one or more valid target cell beams in the target cell; and

transmitting the access command toward the UE.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein preparing the access command and transmitting the access command are performed by the target cell.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein transmitting the access command comprises transmitting the access command to a source node to which the UE is connected.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein transmitting the access command to the source node comprises transmitting the access command in a transparent radio resource control, RRC, container.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein preparing the access command and transmitting the access command are performed by a source node to which the UE is connected.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising:

informing the target cell of the transmission of the access command to the UE.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the access command comprises a radio resource control, RRC, message.

21. The method of claim 18 , wherein the access command comprises an RRCConnection Reconfiguration message.

22. The method of claim 14 , wherein the access command comprises a handover command.

23. A network node, comprising:

a processor circuit;

a transceiver coupled to the processor circuit; and

a memory coupled to the processor circuit, the memory comprising machine readable program instructions that, when executed by the processor circuit, cause the network node to perform operations comprising operations of:

preparing an access command for instructing a user equipment, UE, to access a target cell, the access command including a random-access channel, RACH, less configuration specifying an access method without random access and one or more valid target cell beams for which the RACH-less configuration is configured as valid at the target cell, the one or more valid target cell beams being configured for non-RACH access by the UE, one of:

the access configuration specifying one or more pre-allocated uplink transmission resource grants; and

the access configuration indicating that the UE should receive an uplink transmission resource grant in a downlink transmission in the target cell, the downlink transmission being associated with one of the one or more valid target cell beams in the target cell; and

transmitting the access command toward the UE.