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: 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 service network. The controller transmits a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message including assistance information to indicate the UE's preference of transition out of an RRC_CONNECTED state to the service network via the wireless transceiver, and receives an RRC Release message from the service network via the wireless transceiver in response to transmitting the RRC message including the assistance information to indicate the UE's preference of transition out of the RRC_CONNECTED state. Also, the controller configures the UE to enter an RRC_IDLE state or an RRC_INACTIVE state from the RRC_CONNECTED state in response to receiving the RRC Release message.

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: Apparatus and methods are provided to support dual active protocol stacks (DAPS) to reduce mobility interruption time in communication system. In novel aspect, the PDCP reconfiguration includes reconfiguring a normal PDCP to a DAPS PDCP such that the DAPS PDCP is associated with both the source cell and the target cell, and reconfiguring a DAPS PDCP to the 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 normal PDCP. The DAPS PDCP releases the source header compression, ciphering and integrity protection functions.

Abstract: A method of high reliability and early data transmission (EDT) is proposed. EDT allows one uplink transmission (optionally) followed by one downlink data transmission during a random-access channel (RACH) procedure, which can reduce the signaling overhead and save UE power. To improve reliability, for uplink EDT, there would be different set of RACH reattempt parameters in the UE for different types of access. For downlink EDT, there would be an indication in the paging message to trigger whether the UE would use legacy RACH or not. Further, the configuration for PRACH resource for EDT can be independent to legacy PRACH resource configuration. Under certain conditions, UE can fallback to legacy RACH procedure for high reliability.

Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure can provide an apparatus and method for paging transmission including receiving, by a processing circuitry of a user equipment, a synchronization signal burst in a beamformed wireless communication system for downlink synchronization, and receiving at least a paging frame offset. The method can further include selecting at least a paging frame of a frame structure that has system frame number that satisfies a paging frame formula, and remapping the selected paging frame to location within the frame structure based on the paging frame offset value.

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: Various examples and schemes pertaining machine-to-machine (M2M) semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) in wireless communications are described. A user equipment (UE) receives a control signal from a network node of a wireless network. The UE applies, based on the control signal, an SPS configuration such that the UE enters one of one or more low-power modes between two adjacent SPS occasions.

Abstract: Various examples and schemes pertaining to user equipment (UE) group wake-up signal (WUS) in narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) are described. A wireless network indicates to a plurality of user equipment (UEs) a paging configuration of a UE-group wake-up signal (WUS) for one or more groups of UEs among the plurality of UEs in an NB-IoT cell. The paging configuration may be related to a discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle and a value related to UE identification of each UE in the one or more groups of UEs. The wireless network also transmits the UE-group WUS to the one or more groups of UEs.

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: Aspects of the disclosure provide a mobile terminal including a processing circuit. The processing circuit is configured to obtain a serving cell measurement result of measuring a first set of signal beams from a serving base station, determine a cell-level signal quality parameter based on the serving cell measurement result, and determine whether the cell-level signal quality parameter meets a poor cell-level signal quality condition. The processing circuit is further configured to, in response to a determination that the cell-level signal quality parameter meets the poor cell-level signal quality condition, obtain a neighboring cell measurement result of measuring a second set of signal beams from a neighboring base station, determine whether a measurement event occurs based on the serving cell measurement result and the neighboring cell measurement result, and send a measurement report to the serving base station in response to a determination that the measurement event occurs.

Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure can provide an apparatus and method for paging transmission including receiving, by a processing circuitry of a user equipment, a synchronization signal burst in a beamformed wireless communication system for downlink synchronization, and receiving at least a paging frame offset. The method can further include selecting at least a paging frame of a frame structure that has system frame number that satisfies a paging frame formula, and remapping the selected paging frame to location within the frame structure based on the paging frame offset value.

Abstract: A method of high reliability and early data transmission (EDT) is proposed. EDT allows one uplink transmission (optionally) followed by one downlink data transmission during a random-access channel (RACH) procedure, which can reduce the signaling overhead and save UE power. To improve reliability, for uplink EDT, there would be different set of RACH reattempt parameters in the UE for different types of access. For downlink EDT, there would be an indication in the paging message to trigger whether the UE would use legacy RACH or not. Further, the configuration for PRACH resource for EDT can be independent to legacy PRACH resource configuration. Under certain conditions, UE can fallback to legacy RACH procedure for high reliability.

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: 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: Various examples and schemes pertaining to conditional radio resource control (RRC) confirm messaging are described. A user equipment (UE) communicates with a network node of a wireless network. In communicating with the network node, the UE transmits a first message to the network node and receives a second message from the network node responsive to the transmitting of the first message. The UE also determines whether to transmit a third message to the network node acknowledging receipt of the second message. That is, transmission of the third message as a confirmation of receipt of the second message is conditional or otherwise optional so as to reduce signaling overhead.

Abstract: A method of high reliability and early data transmission (EDT) is proposed. EDT allows one uplink transmission (optionally) followed by one downlink data transmission during a random-access channel (RACH) procedure, which can reduce the signaling overhead and save UE power. To improve reliability, for uplink EDT, there would be different set of RACH reattempt parameters in the UE for different types of access. For downlink EDT, there would be an indication in the paging message to trigger whether the UE would use legacy RACH or not. Further, the configuration for PRACH resource for EDT can be independent to legacy PRACH resource configuration. Under certain conditions, UE can fallback to legacy RACH procedure for high reliability.

Abstract: Various examples and schemes pertaining machine-to-machine (M2M) semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) in wireless communications are described. A user equipment (UE) receives a control signal from a network node of a wireless network. The UE applies, based on the control signal, an SPS configuration such that the UE enters one of one or more low-power modes between two adjacent SPS occasions.

Abstract: A method of providing two cell barring indications via system information for UE cell selection or reselection is proposed. A first indication is a “cellBarred” indication for EPC, which indicates wither UE is barred to access EPC core network, and a second indication is a “cellBarred5GS” indication for 5GC, which indicates whether UE is barred to access 5GC core network. For E-UTRAN cell connected to both EPC and 5GC, the two indications are determined on demand, based on network preference and congestion control. For E-UTRAN cell connected to 5GC only, the value of the “cellBarred” indication is always barred. For E-UTRAN cell connected to EPC only, the base station may omit the “cellBarred5GS” field, and the existence of “cellBarred5GS” can act as an indication whether the E-UTRAN connects to 5GC.