IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,328,612
Granted Patent B2
US 12,328,612 · App. 17/593,711 · Granted Jun 10, 2025

Measurement objects merging for NR unlicensed spectrums

Inventors: Jie Cui (Cupertino, CA); Yuqin Chen (Beijing, CN); Chunxuan Ye (San Diego, CA); Dawei Zhang (Cupertino, CA); Hong He (Cupertino, CA); Manasa Raghavan (Cupertino, CA); Oghenekome Oteri (San Diego, CA); Weidong Yang (San Diego, CA); Wenshu Zhang (San Diego, CA); Yang Tang (Cupertino, CA)
Assignee: APPLE INC.
H04W24/10H04W16/14H04W36/00698H04W36/1446H04W76/16H04W88/06H04B17/318
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 12,328,612
App. No.
17/593,711
Granted
Jun 10, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

This disclosure describes techniques for NR-U MO merging in EN-DC and NR-DC embodiments, with consideration of additional parameters including different Q values and RSSI Measurement Timing Configuration (RMTC) configurations.

Claims (27)

1. A method, performed by a user equipment (UE), for merging measurement objects (MOs) in a New Radio (NR) system including NR unlicensed (NR-U) carriers configured to provide E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity (EN-DC) between a licensed band LTE Primary Cell (PCell) and an NR-U Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell), the method comprising:

determining whether an E-UTRA PCell and an NR PSCell configure a same NR carrier frequency layer with clear channel assessment (CCA) to be monitored by the UE in synchronous intra-band EN-DC, wherein the NR PSCell is an NR-U PSCell with CCA and the E-UTRA PCell is a licensed band LTE PCell; and

merging MOs for the same NR carrier frequency layer configured by the NR-U PSCell with CCA and the licensed band LTE PCell by:

counting the same NR carrier frequency layer once to a total number of effective carrier frequency layers by checking that system frame numbers and slot boundaries are aligned and in response to the same NR carrier frequency layer having no differences in RSSI measurement resources, deriveSSB-IndexFromCell indications, SMTC configurations, Q values, and RSSI Measurement Timing Configuration (RMTC) configurations,

wherein the Q values indicate the Quasi-Colocation (QCL) relationship between Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) positions on a frequency indicated by ssbFrequency;

wherein for the MOs of the same NR carrier frequency layer configured by the NR-U PSCell with CCA and the licensed band LTE PCell to be merged, the RMTC and the Q values must be the same.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the Q value is represented by an SSB-PositionQCL-Relation-r16 parameter.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the Q value is represented by an SSB-PositionQCL-CellsToAddModList-r16 parameter.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the RMTC configuration is represented by an RMTC-Config-r16 parameter of an NR unlicensed carrier frequency layer.

5. A method, performed by a user equipment (UE), for merging measurement objects (MOs) in a New Radio (NR) system including NR unlicensed (NR-U) carriers configured to provide NR Dual Connectivity (NR-DC) between a licensed band NR and an NR-U, the method comprising:

determining whether an NR Primary Cell (PCell) and an NR Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) configure a same NR carrier frequency layer with clear channel assessment (CCA) to be monitored by the UE in synchronous NR-DC, wherein the NR PSCell is an NR-UPSCell with CCA and the NR PCell is a licensed band NR PCell; and

merging MOs for the same NR carrier frequency layer configured by the NR-U PSCell with CCA and the licensed band NR PCell by:

counting the same NR carrier frequency layer once to a total number of effective carrier frequency layers by checking that system frame numbers and slot boundaries are aligned and in response to the same NR carrier frequency layer having no differences in RSSI measurement resources, deriveSSB-IndexFromCell indications, SMTC configurations, Q values, and RSSI Measurement Timing Configuration (RMTC) configurations,

wherein the Q values indicate the Quasi-Colocation (QCL) relationship between Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) positions on a frequency indicated by ssbFrequency;

wherein for the MOs of the same NR carrier frequency layer configured by the NR-UPSCell with CCA and the licensed band NR PCell to be merged, the RMTC and the Q values must be the same.

6. The method of claim 5 in which the Q value is represented by an SSB-PositionQCL-Relation-r16 parameter.

7. The method of claim 5 in which the Q value is represented by an SSB-PositionQCL-CellsToAddModList-r16 parameter.

8. The method of claim 5 in which the RMTC configuration is represented by an RMTC-Config-r16 parameter of an NR carrier frequency layer.

9. A method, performed by apparatus of a New Radio (NR) system configured to provide NR unlicensed (NR-U) carriers for E-UTRA NR Dual Connectivity (EN-DC) or dual connectivity between a licensed band LTE Primary Cell (PCell) and an NR-U Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell), for measurement object (MO) configuration of a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

configuring an MO for the UE, wherein the MO is associated with an NR carrier frequency layer with clear channel assessment (CCA) to be monitored by the UE in synchronous intra-band EN-DC; and

determining that the MO was merged with another MO at the UE for the same NR carrier frequency layer for which the MOs system frame numbers and slot boundaries are aligned with the NR carrier frequency layer and having no differences in RSSI measurement resources, deriveSSB-IndexFromCell indications, SMTC configurations, Q values, and RSSI Measurement Timing Configuration (RMTC) configurations,

wherein the Q values indicate the Quasi-Colocation (QCL) relationship between Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) positions on a frequency indicated by ssbFrequency;

wherein for MOs of a same NR carrier frequency layer configured by the NR-UPSCell with CCA and the licensed band LTE PCell to be merged, the RMTC and the Q values must be the same.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising receiving a merged MO measurement result as a single MO report associated with two or more NR carrier frequency layers.

11. The method of claim 9 in which the Q value is represented by an SSB-PositionQCL-Relation-r16 parameter.

12. The method of claim 9 in which the Q value is represented by an SSB-PositionQCL-CellsToAddModList-r16 parameter.

13. The method of claim 9 in which the RMTC configuration is represented by an RMTC-Config-r16 parameter of an NR unlicensed carrier frequency layer.

Assignments (2)
CORRECTIVE ASSIGNMENT TO CORRECT THE CONVEYING PARTY DATA CHUNXUAN YAO PREVIOUSLY RECORDED ON REEL 57738 FRAME 645. ASSIGNOR(S) HEREBY CONFIRMS THE ASSIGNMENT. Recorded Mar 5, 2025
From: CUI, JIE; YE, CHUNXUAN; ZHANG, DAWEI; HE, HONG; RAGHAVAN, MANASA; OTERI, OGHENEKOME; YANG, WEIDONG; ZHANG, WENSHU; TANG, YANG; CHEN, YUQIN
To: APPLE INC.
Reel/Frame 070410/0512 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 8, 2021
From: CUI, JIE; YAO, CHUNXUAN; ZHANG, DAWEI; HE, HONG; RAGHAVAN, MANASA; OTERI, OGHENEKOME; YANG, WEIDONG; ZHANG, WENSHU; TANG, YANG; CHEN, YUQIN
To: APPLE INC.
Reel/Frame 057738/0645 →
Priority Claims (1)
WO PCT/CN2020/105466 · Jul 29, 2020 · international
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20220312248A1 · Sep 29, 2022
References Cited (23)
US 11234152B2 · Tsuboi · 2022 [cited by examiner]
US 20180220459A1 · Park et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20190230550A1 · Yiu · 2019 [cited by applicant]
US 20190387424A1 · Yiu · 2019 [cited by examiner]
US 20200052803A1 · Deenoo · 2020 [cited by examiner]
US 20220183055A1 · Rune · 2022 [cited by examiner]
US 20230262600A1 · Wallentin · 2023 [cited by examiner]
US 20230337278A1 · Wang · 2023 [cited by examiner]
CN 107787005A · 2018 [cited by applicant]
CN 110475281A · 2019 [cited by applicant]
CN 110999375A · 2020 [cited by applicant]
WO 2019193125A1 · 2019 [cited by applicant]
Intel Corporation, “On remaining issues for MOs merging,” R4-1812135, 3GPP TSG-RAN4 Meeting #88bis, Chengdu, China, Agenda Item 7.11.2.1, Oct. 8-12, 2018, pp. 1-2 (Year: 2018) (Year: 2018). [cited by examiner]
ETSI TS138.311, V16.1.0 5G; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) Protocol Specification (3GPP TS 38.311 Version 16.1.0 Release 16), pages: (Year: 2020) (Year: 2020). [cited by examiner]
3GPP TS 38.331, “3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NRÂ.' Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 16)”, V16.1.0, Jul. 2020, 906 pages. [cited by applicant]
Apple, “On MO merging for NR-U”, R4-2009908, 3GPP TSG-RAN4 Meeting #96-e, Online, Agenda Item 7.1.5.11, Aug. 17-28, 2020, 6 pages. [cited by applicant]
NTT Docomo, Inc., “Enhancements to initial access procedure for NR-U”, R1-1912875, 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #99, Reno, Nevada, USA, Agenda Item 7.2.2.2.2, Nov. 18-22, 2019, 9 pages. [cited by applicant]
Apple , “CR on UE measurements capability and reporting criteria for NR-U”, R4-2006183, 3GPP TSG-RAN4 Meeting #95-e, online, Change Request 38.133 CR0617, current version 16.3.0, May 25-Jun. 5, 2020, 6 pages. [cited by applicant]
Apple , “CR on UE measurements capability and reporting criteria for NR-U”, R4-1913498, 3GPP TSG-RAN4 Meeting #93, Reno, Nevada, Change Request 38.133 CR 0132 Current Version 16.1.0, Nov. 18-22, 2019, 26 pages. [cited by applicant]
Huawei, Hisilicon , “Discussion on remaining issues on MO merging”, R4-1812979, 3GPP TSG-RAN WG4 Meeting #88bis, Chengdu, China, Agenda Item 7.11.2.1, Oct. 8-12, 2018, 3 pages. [cited by applicant]
Huawei, Hisilicon , “Discussion on the remaining issues on MO merging”, R4-1815119, 3GPP TSG-RAN WG4 Meeting #89, Spokane, Washington, Agenda Item 7.11.2.1, Nov. 12-16, 2018, 3 pages. [cited by applicant]
Intel Corporation , “On remaining issues for MOs merging”, R4-1812135, 3GPP TSG-RAN4 Meeting #88bis, Chengdu, China, Agenda Item 7.11.2.1, Oct. 8-12, 2018, 2 pages. [cited by applicant]
PCT/CN2021/086925 , International Search Report and Written Opinion, Jul. 9, 2021, 9 pages. [cited by applicant]