Conditional handovers for wireless relay networks

1. A wireless node that communicates over a radio interface with a wireless access node of a radio access network (RAN) through an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, the wireless node comprising

receiver circuitry configured to:

receive from the wireless access node a reconfiguration message comprising a conditional handover configuration, the conditional handover configuration comprising an identification of a candidate target cell and configuration parameters for the candidate target cell;

receive from the IAB node a notification message comprising information representing a radio condition measured on a path between the IAB node and the wireless access node, and

processor circuitry configured to perform, based on the information, a handover to the candidate target cell, using the configuration parameters.

2. The wireless node of claim 1 , wherein the information corresponds to signal strength/quality, and the handover is performed by evaluating the signal strength/quality.

3. The wireless node of claim 1 , wherein the information corresponds to a radio link failure (RLF), and the handover is performed by considering the RLF as if the RLF were occurring at the wireless node.

4. The wireless node of claim 1 , wherein the conditional handover configuration further comprises a triggering condition defining a reception of the notification message as an event to trigger the handover to the candidate target cell.

5. A method for a wireless node that communicates over a radio interface with a wireless access node of a radio access network (RAN) through at least one Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, the method comprising

receiving from the wireless access node a reconfiguration message comprising a conditional handover configuration, the conditional handover configuration comprising an identification of a candidate target cell and configuration parameters for the candidate target cell;

receiving from the IAB node a notification message comprising information representing a radio condition measured on a path between the IAB node and the wireless access node, and;

performing, based on the information, a handover to the candidate target cell, using the configuration parameters.

6. A wireless access node of a radio access network (RAN) that communicates over a radio interface with a wireless node through an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, the wireless access node comprising:

processor circuitry configured to generate a reconfiguration message comprising a conditional handover configuration, the conditional handover configuration comprising an identification of a candidate target cell and configuration parameters for the candidate target cell;

transmitter circuitry configured to transmit the reconfiguration message to the wireless node; wherein

the identification of a candidate target cell and information are used by the wireless node to perform a handover to the candidate target cell, using the configuration parameters, the information representing a radio condition measured on a path between the IAB node and the wireless access node, and;

the information is included in a notification message sent to the wireless node by the IAB node.

7. The wireless access node of claim 6 , wherein the information corresponds to signal strength/quality, and the handover is performed by evaluating the signal strength/quality.

8. The wireless access node of claim 6 , wherein the information corresponds to a radio link failure (RLF), and the handover is performed by considering the RLF as if the RLF were occurring at the wireless node.

9. The wireless access node of claim 6 , wherein the conditional handover configuration further comprises a triggering condition defining a reception of the notification message as an event to trigger the handover to the candidate target cell.