Abstract: A method of L1/L2-based mobility with signaling optimization using base (reference) configuration and replaceable (delta) configuration for candidate cells is proposed. All candidates can be configured at different levels provided by Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling. To support L1/L2-triggered mobility (LTM), there is a common base configuration for candidates, and the candidates are modelled as replaceable configurations which are delta configurations on top of the common base configuration (instead of UE's current RRC configuration). The common and replaceable configurations are also referred to as reference configuration and candidate delta configuration. The candidate delta configuration is applied on top of the reference configuration to form a complete candidate configuration for handover.

Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure provide a method to activate secondary cell group (SCG) selectively. For example, the method can include receiving a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message including first and second radio resource configurations of first and second primary secondary cells (PSCells) and conditional PSCell addition (CPA) and conditional PSCell change (CPC) triggering conditions, setting a current triggering condition to be the CPA triggering condition, evaluating the current triggering condition and determining that the first PSCell satisfies the current triggering condition, and performing a CPA step to add the first PSCell as a current SCG, updating the current triggering condition to be the CPC triggering condition, the UE still keeping the first and second radio resource configurations and the CPA and CPC triggering conditions for subsequent CPC step, without releasing the second radio resource configuration and the CPA and CPC triggering conditions associated with the second PSCell.

Abstract: A method of introducing a Downlink Control Information (DCI)-based early paging indication (PEI) for power consumption enhancements in a 5G/NR network is proposed. In particular, a Base Station (BS) can transmit a message including a PEI to a User Equipment (UE) when the UE is under an idle ode. Then, the UE can receive the PEI under the idle mode and determine whether to monitor a Paging Occasion (PO) according to the PEI. In some embodiments, a format of the message including the PEI can include a format of DCI.

Abstract: A method of acquiring timing advance (TA) for neighbor cells to reduce latency and interruption for inter-cell mobility is proposed. A UE is configured with a set of active cells for fast cell-switching. A neighbor cell in the active set is likely to be UE’s target cell. To reduce handover interruption, the UE acquires and maintains the TA corresponding to the cells in the active set. The UE performs early RACH for potential target cells and obtains the TA of the potential target cells. Once the UE receives handover command indicating one of the active cells as target cell, the UE can complete the handover without performing RACH again.

Abstract: A method of providing early paging indication (PEI) for power consumption enhancements in a 5G/NR network is proposed. Under the novel paging reception procedure with PEI, UE can skip PO monitoring if PEI indicates negative. The UE main receiver is typically turned on in every paging cycle, for LOOP, MEAS, and PEI reception. However, if PEI indicates no paging, then UE can turn off its main receiver right after performing measurements. Since PEIs are always transmitted and are located near synchronization signal block (SSB) bursts, power saving can be achieved not only for PO monitoring but also for light sleep between the last SSB/PEI and the PO monitoring gap and state transitions, when no UE in the UE group is paged.

Abstract: A method of configuring a set of active cells among neighboring cells to reduce latency and interruption for inter-cell mobility is proposed. The set of active cells is an active set of cells among which UE can do fast cell switching. The set of active cells is configured by the network based on UE measurement report or network deployment information. UE maintains the configuration and can perform pre-synchronization to the configured active cells in downlink (DL) only or in both DL and uplink (UL). UE maintains the DL/UL synchronization with the active cells, and applies configuration once UE is indicated to switch to an active cell as the target cell. Because UE maintains the configuration and DL/UL timing of the target cell before receiving the cell-switch command, the mobility latency and interruption time for inter-cell mobility is reduced.

Abstract: A method of acquiring timing advance (TA) for neighbor cells to reduce latency and interruption for inter-cell mobility is proposed. A UE is configured with a set of active cells for fast cell-switching. To reduce handover interruption, UE performs early RACH for potential target cells and obtains the TA of the potential target cells. In one novel aspect, for overhead reduction, a single RACH preamble may be received by multiple cells. Using a single RACH preamble, UE acquires TA for multiple cells, aiming at reducing the interruption due to RACH during handover. In another novel aspect, UE reports DL reception timing difference between the serving cell and the neighbor cell, and then adjust the TA for the neighbor cell accordingly.

Abstract: Method and user equipment (UE) are provided for early evaluation termination. In particular, a UE can receive a downlink (DL) reference signal (RS) from a network. The UE can measure the DL RS to derive a measurement. Then, the UE can adjust a time value or a count value based on the measurement. The time value is configured by the network for triggering measurement reporting procedure or declaring a radio link failure. The count value is configured by the network for triggering beam failure recovery or random access procedure.

Abstract: Signalling and protocol methods are proposed to allow positioning operations with signals of the cellular system for a UE in idle or inactive mode. In one novel aspect, UL-PRS is embedded in the RACH procedure: a set of RACH preambles with the functionality of UL-PRS are defined. These preambles are sent by the UE to the serving gNB to initiate a RACH procedure, and the following signalling could convey the measurement results. In another novel aspect, positioning operations on the network side are triggered through an AMF. The AMF may elect not to bring the UE to connected mode before transferring the location request to an LMF; instead, the AMF may indicate that the UE is in idle mode and it expects to page the UE with a subsequent message from the LMF.

Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure provide an electronic device including processing circuitry and a method for radio resource management (RRM) measurements. The processing circuitry determines, based on a signal received in a serving cell for the electronic device, a location and mobility of the electronic device. The electronic device is in one of a first state and a second state for RRM measurements. A normal level of RRM measurements is implemented for one or more neighboring cells when the electronic device is in the first state, and a relaxed level of RRM measurements is implemented for the one or more neighboring cells when the electronic device is in the second state. The processing circuitry determines whether the electronic device is to be switched from the one of the first state and the second state to another of the first state and the second state based on the mobility and the location.

Abstract: A method of providing paging early indication (PEI) for power consumption enhancements in a 5G/NR network is proposed. In accordance with one novel aspect, UE subgrouping is used to indicate whether some UEs (a subgroup) among those UEs monitoring the same paging occasion needs to read paging. The UE subgroup can be grouped based on different factors, e.g., power consumption profiled (PCP), or paging probability. The UE subgroup has a reduced number of UEs, with a reduced false alarm rate for paging, at thus a reduced power consumption. In one preferred embodiment, the PEI contains a bitmap, each bit indicates if a subgroup of UEs monitoring the same PO needs to read paging.

Abstract: Apparatus and methods are provided to support dual active protocol stacks (DAPS) to reduce mobility interruption time in both LTE and NR system. In novel aspect, the PDCP reconfiguration includes reconfiguring a normal PDCP to an DAPS PDCP for DAPS such that the DAPS PDCP is associated with both the source cell and the target cell, and reconfiguring an DAPS PDCP to the a normal PDCP by releasing the association with the source cell. In one embodiment, the PDCP entity receives a PDCP reconfiguration request from upper layers of the UE configured with DAPS establishes a header compression protocol, a ciphering function, and an integrity protection function for the target cell. In one embodiment, the PDCP reconfiguration request triggers the DAPS PDCP to be released. The DAPS PDCP resets and releases the source header compression, ciphering and integrity protection functions.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for UE-triggered handover and early preparation with coexistence of the network-triggered handover. In one novel aspect, the UE is configured early measurement report configuration, receives an early handover command from the serving base station with a handover candidate cell list, monitors handover triggering conditions for each candidate cell on the handover candidate cell list based on a UE-triggered handover configuration and performs the UE-triggered handover to a candidate cell when the corresponding triggering condition is met for the candidate cell. In one embodiment, the UE receives a network-triggered handover command to a target cell, suspends the UE-triggered handover configuration and performs the network-triggered handover to the target cell. The UE discards the UE-triggered handover configuration upon success of the network-triggered handover and resumes the UE-triggered handover configuration upon failure of the network-triggered handover.

Abstract: Apparatus and methods are provided for handover robustness. In novel aspect, the UE receives a conditional handover (CHO) command from a source gNB containing a set of candidate cells with corresponding triggering conditions; detects a handover conditions for a target gNB belonging to the set of candidate cells; and performs HO procedure towards the target gNB. In one embodiment, the conditional HO command further configures a validity timer that controls a validity of handover conditions for the set of candidate cells. The validity timer is started upon receiving the conditional HO command, the validity timer is stopped upon detecting at least one events comprising a handover condition is met and a normal handover command is received, and the conditional HO command is set to be invalid upon the expiration of the validity timer.

Abstract: Various examples and schemes pertaining to narrowband reference signal (NRS) transmission on non-anchor carriers in narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) are described. A wireless network indicates a subset of one or more paging groups of user equipment (UEs) among a plurality of UEs in an NB-IoT cell. The wireless network then transmits one or more narrowband reference signals (NRSs) in one or more paging frames or one or more paging occasions associated with the subset of one or more paging groups.

Abstract: A User Equipment (UE) including a wireless transceiver and a controller is provided. The wireless transceiver performs wireless transmission and reception to and from a first service network and a second service network. The controller receives a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message comprising a measurement configuration for SFN (System Frame Number) and Frame Timing Difference (SFTD) from the first service network via the wireless transceiver, performs first SFTD measurements between a Primary Cell (PCell) of the first service network and neighbor cells of the second service network via the wireless transceiver in response to the measurement configuration for SFTD indicating the neighbor cells, and sends a result of the first SFTD measurements to the first service network via the wireless transceiver.

Abstract: Various examples and schemes pertaining to NB-IoT physical random access channel (PRACH) resource partitioning and multiple grants in random access response (RAR) for early data transmission (EDT are described. A network node schedules multiple grants for EDT during a random access (RA) procedure with a user equipment (UE). The network node transmits to the UE a message indicating the multiple grants mapped to a maximum broadcast transport block size (TBS) configured for each of one or more preamble resource of a plurality of preamble resources. The UE calculates a TBS that fits an uplink (UL) data packet of the UE. The UE selects one or more PRACH resources for EDT for the TBS based on a wireless communication coverage of the UE by the network node. The UE transmits to the network node in the RA procedure a first message (Msg1) indicating the selected one or more PRACH resources.

Abstract: Various examples and schemes pertaining to NB-IoT physical random access channel (PRACH) resource partitioning and multiple grants in random access response (RAR) for early data transmission (EDT are described. A network node schedules multiple grants for EDT during a random access (RA) procedure with a user equipment (UE). The network node transmits to the UE a message indicating the multiple grants mapped to a maximum broadcast transport block size (TBS) configured for each of one or more preamble resource of a plurality of preamble resources. The UE calculates a TBS that fits an uplink (UL) data packet of the UE. The UE selects one or more PRACH resources for EDT for the TBS based on a wireless communication coverage of the UE by the network node. The UE transmits to the network node in the RA procedure a first message (Msg1) indicating the selected one or more PRACH resources.

Abstract: Apparatus and methods are provided to for RRM measurement in the new radio (NR) access system. In one novel aspect, multiple transmission (TX) beams are measured by a user equipment (UE) with multiple receiving (RX) beams, stores the measured TX-RX pair in a measurement matrix, and calculates a consolidation measurement for each cell based on a consolidation rule. In one embodiment, the consolidation rule indicates generating a RX consolidated vector by consolidating all RX beams with the same TX beam ID, and subsequently, generating the consolidation measurement for the cell based on the RX consolidated vector. In another embodiment, the measurement matrix is layer-3 filtered and consolidated. In yet another embodiment, the UE sends a measurement report, either contains the consolidated measurement or the measurement vector, to the NR network based on the consolidation measurement. In one embodiment, the network performs consolidation on the received measurement vector.

Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure can provide an apparatus and method for cell reselection in a New Radio (NR) system. In some examples, the apparatus includes transceiver and processing circuitry. The processing circuitry ranks a priority list of frequencies which correspond to a plurality of cells, wherein the cells are part of a NR system. The plurality of cells can include a current serving cell, one or more inter-frequency cells, and one or more intra-frequency cells. The processing circuitry measures reference signal received power (RSRP) and/or reference signal received quality (RSRQ) of the cells in the priority list of frequencies in an unused synchronization signal block (SSB) time location in a discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle. Further, the processing circuitry can select a new serving cell when the measured signal performance of the new serving cell satisfies a cell selection criteria.