Granted Patent B2

US 12,317,142 · App. 18/748,297 · Granted May 27, 2025

Inventors: Yushu Zhang (Beijing, CN); Dawei Zhang (Saratoga, CA); Haitong Sun (Cupertino, CA); Jie Cui (San Jose, CA); Wei Zeng (Saratoga, CA)

Assignee: Apple Inc.

H04W36/0058H04W72/21H04W36/0011H04W36/0064

Abstract

Claims (67)

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of a serving base station (BS), cause the serving BS to perform operations, the operations comprising:

determining Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) or Channel-State Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS) measurements to be performed on a neighboring cell as a Channel Measurement Resource (CMR) in a reportConfig;

transmitting the reportConfig to a user equipment (UE);

collecting data comprising a physical cell ID of the neighboring cell based at least on the reportConfig; and

configuring N groups of Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) states for the UE, wherein a first group of the N groups corresponds to a serving BS cell and a second group of the N groups corresponds to the physical cell ID of the neighboring cell.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the collecting the data further comprises:

triggering a layer 3 (L3) results report; and

receiving the L3 results report from the UE via an Uplink Control Information (UCI) signal, wherein the L3 results report comprises: an L3-Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), an L3-Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), or an L3-Signal to Noise & Interference Ratio (SINR).

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the triggering the L3 results report further comprises:

using Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) signaling, or Downlink Control Information (DCI) signaling.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the UCI signal comprises a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) signal or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) signal.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:

determining an event that triggers an event-based report;

reserving a resource in a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) signal or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) signal that enables the UE to provide the event-based report; and

transmitting the event that triggers the event-based report and the reserved resource to the UE.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving the event-based report from the UE via an Uplink Control Information (UCI) signal, wherein the event-based report comprises: a layer 3 (L3)-Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), a L3-Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), or a L3-Signal to Noise & Interference Ratio (SINR).

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:

triggering a layer 1 (L1) results report; and

receiving the L1 results report from the UE via an Uplink Control Information (UCI) signal, wherein the L1 results report comprises: an L1-Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), an L1-Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), or an L1 Signal to Noise & Interference Ratio (SINR).

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving an indication of whether the L1 results report is received from a same downlink reception beam as a previous L1 results report;

determining based on the indication that the L1 results report is from the same downlink reception beam as the previous L1 results report;

performing layer 3 (L3) filtering based on the previous L1 results report and the L1 results report; and

configuring the N groups of TCI states based at least on a result of the L3 filtering.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving an indication of whether the L1 results report is received from a same downlink reception beam as a previous L1 results report;

determining based on the indication that the L1 results report is from a different downlink reception beam than the previous L1 results report;

performing layer 3 (L3) filtering on the L1 results report; and

configuring the N groups of TCI states based at least on a result of the L3 filtering.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:

deciding to perform a handover based at least on the data; and

perform the handover from a first TCI state of the first group to a second TCI state of the second group using a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE).

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:

deciding to perform a handover based at least on the data; and

perform the handover from a first TCI state of the first group to a second TCI state of the second group using a Downlink Control Information (DCI) signal, wherein the DCI signal comprises a downlink assignment, an uplink grant, or a dedicated DCI format.

12. A method for a user equipment (UE), comprising:

receiving instructions from a serving base station (BS) to report measurements;

transmitting a report based on the instructions to the serving BS;

subsequent to transmitting the report, receiving from the serving BS via a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) or a Downlink Control Information (DCI) signal, a new Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state of a neighboring cell; and

switching from a TCI state of a serving BS cell to the new TCI state.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the instructions comprise a request for a layer 3 (L3) results report, the method further comprises:

transmitting the L3 results report via a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) signal or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) signal.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the instructions comprise an event that triggers an event-based report and a reserved resource, the method further comprises:

determining that the event is triggered; and

transmitting the event-based report according to the reserved resource via a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) signal or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) signal.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

determining that the PUCCH signal or the PUSCH signal collides with a second signal;

dropping the PUCCH signal or the PUSCH signal; and

subsequently resending the PUCCH signal or the PUSCH signal.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the second signal is: a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) signal, a Scheduling Request (SR) signal, or a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ)-ACK signal.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to perform operations, the operations comprising:

receiving instructions from a serving base station (BS) to report measurements;

transmitting a report based on the instructions to the serving BS;

subsequent to transmitting the report, receiving from the serving BS via a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) or a Downlink Control Information (DCI) signal, a new Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state of a neighboring cell; and

switching from a TCI state of a serving BS cell to the new TCI state.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the instructions comprise an event that triggers an event-based report and a reserved resource, the operations further comprise:

determining that the event is triggered; and

transmitting the event-based report according to the reserved resource via a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) signal or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) signal.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the instructions further comprise an event that triggers an event-based report, the operations comprise:

determining that the event is triggered; and

requesting a resource by dedicated or normal scheduled request (SR) to transmit the event-based report.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise communicating with the neighboring cell via the new TCI state, including:

starting a confirmation timer;

receiving a dedicated Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) from the neighboring cell via the new TCI state;

in response to the PDCCH, stopping the confirmation timer; and

applying a new Timing Advance Group (TAG) corresponding to the neighboring cell before transmitting an uplink signal.

Continuity (2)

References Cited (24)