IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,213,091
Granted Patent B2
US 12,213,091 · App. 17/442,080 · Granted Jan 28, 2025

Reference cell timing determination

Inventors: Jie Cui (San Jose, CA); Qiming Li (Beijing, CN); Chunxuan Ye (San Diego, CA); Dawei Zhang (Saratoga, CA); Haitong Sun (Cupertino, CA); Hong He (San Jose, CA); Manasa Raghavan (Sunnyvale, CA); Seyed Ali Akbar Fakoorian (San Diego, CA); Xiang Chen (Campbell, CA); Yang Tang (San Jose, CA)
Assignee: Apple Inc.
H04W56/0045H04W76/28
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,213,091
App. No.
17/442,080
Granted
Jan 28, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

The present application relates to devices and components including apparatus, systems, and methods to determine availability of a reference cell for determining a timing of an uplink transmission in a user equipment transmission occasion.

Claims (54)

1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed, cause processing circuitry to:

determine whether two successive candidate synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SSB) positions for a same SSB index within a discovery burst transmission window during a last 1280 milliseconds prior to an uplink (UL) transmission are available;

determine whether a reference cell on a carrier frequency subject to clear channel assessment (CCA) is available based at least in part on whether the two successive candidate SSB positions are determined to be available; and

determine a timing of the UL transmission based at least in part on whether the reference cell is determined to be available.

2. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1 , wherein to:

determine the timing includes to measure a timing advance (TA) with an SSB within the discovery burst transmission window, the SSB corresponding to the reference cell.

3. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1 , wherein to:

determine whether the reference cell is available includes to:

identify one or more discovery burst transmission windows within the last 1280 milliseconds; and

determine that at least one of the one or more discovery burst transmission windows are available; and

determine the timing includes to measure a timing advance (TA) with an SSB within the at least one of the one or more discovery burst transmission windows, the SSB corresponding to the reference cell.

4. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1 , wherein a user equipment (UE) is configured with a measurement gap (MG), and wherein to determine whether the reference cell is available at the UE is based at least in part on whether the discovery burst transmission window is within the MG.

5. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 4 , wherein to determine whether the reference cell is available includes to:

determine that an SSB within the discovery burst transmission window is to be utilized for a reference cell measurement to determine a timing advance (TA);

determine whether the discovery burst transmission window is to be measured with the MG or without the MG;

identify one or more discovery burst transmission windows either within the MG or outside of the MG based on the determination whether the discovery burst transmission window is to be measured with the MG or without the MG, the discovery burst transmission window being included in the one or more discovery burst transmission windows; and

determine whether all of the one or more discovery burst transmission windows are available.

6. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 4 , wherein to determine whether the reference cell is available includes to:

determine that an SSB within the discovery burst transmission window is to be utilized for a reference cell measurement to determine a timing advance (TA);

determine whether the discovery burst transmission window is to be measured with the MG or without the MG;

identify one or more discovery burst transmission window either within the MG or outside of the MG based on the determination whether the discovery burst transmission window is to be measured with the MG or without the MG, the discovery burst transmission window being included in the one or more discovery burst transmission windows; and

determine whether at least one of the one or more SSB bursts are available to the UE.

7. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1 , wherein the UL transmission occasion is a UE transmission or a UE random access channel (RACH) transmission.

8. An apparatus comprising:

processing circuitry to:

determine whether two successive candidate synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SSB) positions for a same SSB index within a discovery burst transmission window during a last 1280 milliseconds prior to an uplink (UL) transmission are available;

determine whether a reference cell on a carrier frequency subject to clear channel assessment (CCA) is available based at least in part on whether the two successive candidate SSB positions are determined to be available; and

determine a timing of the UL transmission based at least in part on whether the reference cell is determined to be available; and

interface circuitry coupled with the processing circuitry, the interface circuitry to communicatively couple the processing circuitry with a component of a device.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein to determine whether the reference cell is available includes to:

identify one or more discovery burst transmission windows within a discontinuous (DRX) inactive period and during the last 1280 milliseconds, the one or more discovery burst transmission windows including the discovery burst transmission window; and

determine that at least one of the one or more discovery burst transmission windows is available, wherein the reference cell is identified as being available based on the at least one of the one or more discovery burst transmission windows being available.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein to determine whether the reference cell is available includes to:

identify one or more discovery burst transmission windows within a discontinuous (DRX) inactive period and during the last 1280 milliseconds, the one or more discovery burst transmission windows including the discovery burst transmission window; and

determine that all of the one or more discovery burst transmission windows are available, wherein the reference cell is identified as being available based on all of the one or more discovery burst transmission windows being available.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the reference cell is identified as being available based on the two successive candidate SSB positions being available.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein a user equipment (UE) is configured with a measurement gap (MG), and wherein to determine whether the reference cell is available includes to:

determine whether the discovery burst transmission window is to be measured with the MG or without the MG;

identify one or more discovery burst transmission windows either within the MG or outside of the MG based on the determination whether the discovery burst transmission window is to be measured with the MG or without the MG, the one or more bursts discovery burst transmission windows including the SSB burst discovery burst transmission window; and

determine that at least one of the one or more discovery burst transmission windows is available, wherein the reference cell is identified as being available based on the at least one of the one or more discovery burst transmission windows being available.

13. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein a user equipment (UE) is configured with a measurement gap (MG), and wherein to determine whether the reference cell is available includes to:

determine whether the discovery burst transmission window is to be measured with the MG or without the MG;

identify one or more discovery burst transmission windows either within the MG or outside of the MG based on the determination whether the discovery burst transmission window is to be measured with the MG or without the MG, the one or more discovery burst transmission windows including the discovery burst transmission window; and

determine that all of the one or more discovery burst transmission windows are available, wherein the reference cell is identified as being available based on all of the one or more discovery burst transmission windows being available.

14. A method comprising:

determine whether two successive candidate synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SSB) positions for a same SSB index within a discovery burst transmission window during a last 1280 milliseconds prior to an uplink (UL) transmission are available;

determining whether a-synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SSB) reference cell on a carrier frequency subject to clear channel assessment (CCA) is available based at least in part on whether the two successive candidate SSB positions are determined to be available; and

determining a timing of the UL transmission based at least in part on whether the reference cell is determined to be available.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein determining whether the reference cell is available includes determining whether all discovery burst transmission windows within the last 1280 milliseconds within a discontinuous (DRX) inactive period are available.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein determining whether the reference cell is available includes determining whether at least one discovery burst transmission window within the last 1280 milliseconds within a discontinuous (DRX) inactive period is available.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein determining the timing of the UL transmission in a UE transmission occasion includes measuring an SSB included within the discovery burst transmission window to determine a timing advance (TA) associated with the reference cell.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein determining whether the reference cell is available includes:

determining whether the discovery burst transmission window is within or outside of a measurement gap (MG) of a user equipment (UE); and

determining whether other-SSB bursts discovery burst transmission windows within the last 1280 milliseconds within a discontinuous (DRX) inactive period correspondingly within or outside of the MG are available.

Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20230232354A1 · Jul 20, 2023
References Cited (23)
US 11357052B2 · Siomina · 2022 [cited by examiner]
US 20200137601A1 · Siomina · 2020 [cited by examiner]
US 20200162939A1 · Kim · 2020 [cited by examiner]
US 20200267701A1 · Park et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20200389221A1 · He · 2020 [cited by examiner]
US 20210289443A1 · Nam · 2021 [cited by examiner]
US 20210314888A1 · Rahman · 2021 [cited by examiner]
US 20210392582A1 · Chen · 2021 [cited by examiner]
US 20220007316A1 · Tang · 2022 [cited by examiner]
US 20220141842A1 · Kanamarlapudi · 2022 [cited by examiner]
US 20220377756A1 · Sun · 2022 [cited by examiner]
US 20230032593A1 · Chen · 2023 [cited by examiner]
US 20230043974A1 · Islam · 2023 [cited by examiner]
US 20230087417A1 · Wang · 2023 [cited by examiner]
US 20230224836A1 · Wu · 2023 [cited by examiner]
US 20240014979A1 · Lei · 2024 [cited by examiner]
CN 111095846 · 2020 [cited by applicant]
CN 111510262 · 2020 [cited by applicant]
WO 2020146892 · 2020 [cited by applicant]
Enhancements on Multi-beam Operation, Qualcomm Incorporated 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 Meeting #100-Bis-e R1-2002552, Apr. 30, 2020, 8 pages. [cited by applicant]
Feature Lead Summary #1 on L1-SINR and SCell BFR, Moderator (Apple) 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #100b R1-2002339, Apr. 30, 2020, 18 pages. [cited by applicant]
International Patent Application No. PCT/CN2021/084709, International Search Report and Written Opinion, Mailed on Dec. 30, 2021, 9 pages. [cited by applicant]
3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Requirements for support of radio resource management (Release 17), 3GPP TS 38.133 V17.0.0, Dec. 2020, 2400 pages. [cited by applicant]