Granted Patent B2

US 12,745,309 · App. 18/000,631 · Granted Sep 22, 2026

Inventors: Peng Cheng (Beijing, CN); Karthika Paladugu (San Diego, CA); Ozcan Ozturk (San Diego, CA); Gavin Bernard Horn (La Jolla, CA); Hong Cheng (Basking Ridge, NJ)

H04W76/27

Abstract

Claims (63)

1 . A method for wireless communications by a remote user equipment (UE), comprising:

receiving, from a relay UE to which the remote UE is connected, a sidelink radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message indicating to transition from a connected state to an idle or inactive state wherein the sidelink RRC reconfiguration message is received while the relay UE is in a connected state; and

transitioning into the idle or inactive state in response to receiving the sidelink RRC reconfiguration message while the relay UE is in the connected state.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting, to the relay UE while the remote UE is in the idle or inactive state, a request to establish or resume a connection with a network entity; and

subsequent to transmitting the request, receiving a setup or resume message from the network entity via the relay UE; and

entering a connected state based on receiving the setup or resume message from the network entity via the relay UE.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the request to establish or resume connection is transmitted to the network entity via the relay UE.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

attempting to enter the connected state from an idle state;

determining that no suitable relay UE exists; and

transmitting, directly to a network entity, a setup or resume request message, using a default physical (PHY) layer or medium access layer (MAC) layer configuration.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

monitoring for core network (CN) paging for the remote UE while in an inactive state; and

determining that the relay UE is not to enter the idle state; and

forwarding, to the remote UE, the CN paging for the remote UE.

6 . An apparatus for wireless communications by a remote user equipment (UE), comprising:

memory comprising instructions; and one or more processors configured, individually or collectively, to execute the instructions to cause the apparatus to:

receive, from a relay UE to which the remote UE is connected, a sidelink radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message indicating to transition from a connected state to an idle or inactive state, wherein the sidelink RRC reconfiguration message is received while the relay UE is in a connected state; and

transition into the idle or inactive state in response to receiving the sidelink RRC reconfiguration message while the UE is in the connected state.

7 . A method for wireless communications by a relay user equipment (UE), comprising:

while in a connected state, determining that the relay UE is to enter an idle or inactive state based on one of signaling from a network entity to which the relay UE is connected or detection of a radio link failure event;

entering the idle or inactive state such that remote UEs connected with the relay UE are also transitioned from a connected state to an idle state prior to the relay UE being transitioned to the idle or inactive state; and

transmitting sidelink radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration messages to the remote UEs connected to the relay UE to cause the remote UEs to enter the idle or inactive state.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the signaling comprises a radio resource control (RRC) release message received from the network entity after the RRC release messages have been transmitted to the remote UEs connected to the relay UE.

9 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

based on detecting a radio link failure event, attempting to re-establish a connection with the network entity; and

determining that the attempt to re-establish the connection with the network entity has failed, wherein the sidelink RRC reconfiguration messages to the remote UEs are transmitted based on the determining that the attempt to re-establish the connection with the network entity has failed.

10 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

while in the connected state, receiving, from a remote UE in the idle or inactive state, a request to setup or resume a connection with the network entity;

transmitting, to the network entity, setup or resume requests for the remote UE; and

receiving setup or resume messages for the remote UE in response to transmitting the setup or resume requests.

11 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

while in the idle or inactive state, receiving, from the remote UE in an idle or inactive state, a request to setup or resume a connection with the network entity;

transmitting, to the network entity, setup or resume requests for the relay UE and the remote UE;

receiving setup or resume messages for the relay UE and the remote UE in response to transmitting the setup or resume requests; and

entering a connected state based on receiving the setup or resume messages for the relay UE and the remote UE.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising: forwarding, to the remote UE, the setup or resume message for the remote UE, to trigger the remote UE to enter the connected state.

13 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

monitoring for radio access network (RAN) paging for the remote UE while in the idle state; and

forwarding, to the remote UE, RAN paging for the remote UE.

14 . An apparatus for wireless communications by a relay user equipment (UE), comprising:

memory comprising instructions; and one or more processors configured, individually or collectively, to execute the instructions to cause the apparatus to:

while in a connected state, determine that the relay UE is to enter an idle or inactive state based on one of signaling from a network entity to which the relay UE is connected or detection of a radio link failure event; and

enter the idle or inactive state such that remote UEs connected with the relay UE are also transitioned from a connected state to an idle state prior to the relay UE being transitioned to the idle or inactive state; and

transmit sidelink radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration messages to the remote UEs connected to the relay UE to cause the remote UEs to enter the idle or inactive state.

15 . A method for wireless communications by a network entity, comprising:

determining that a remote user equipment (UE) connected to the network entity via a relay UE is to enter an idle or inactive state;

transmitting, to the remote UE, signaling to trigger the remote UE to enter the idle or inactive state; and

subsequent to transmitting the signaling to trigger the remote UE to enter the idle or inactive state, transmitting signaling to the relay UE to trigger the relay UE to enter the idle or inactive state.

16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

receiving, from the relay UE, a first request to setup or resume a connection between the relay UE and the network entity;

receiving, from the relay UE, a second request to setup or resume a connection between the network entity and the remote UE;

transmitting, to the relay UE, a first setup or resume message to establish a connection between the relay UE and the network entity in response to the first request; and

transmitting, to the relay UE for forwarding to the remote UE, a second setup or resume message to establish a connection between the remote UE and the network entity in response to the first request.

17 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

receiving, from a second remote UE which was not previously connected with the network entity through the relay UE, a request to establish or resume a connection between the second remote UE and the network entity; and

performing a context retrieval process with a second network entity for the second remote UE, wherein the second network entity comprises a network entity to which the second UE was previously connected.

18 . An apparatus for wireless communications by a network entity, comprising:

memory comprising instructions; and one or more processors configured, individually or collectively, to execute the instructions to cause the apparatus to:

determine that a remote user equipment (UE) connected to the network entity via a relay UE is to enter an idle or inactive state;

transmit, to the remote UE, signaling to trigger the remote UE to enter the idle or inactive state; and

subsequent to transmitting the signaling to trigger the remote UE to enter an idle or inactive state, transmit signaling to the relay UE to trigger the relay UE to enter an idle or inactive state.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (30)