Abstract: Various examples and schemes pertaining to timing advance validation for transmission in preconfigured uplink resources in narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) are described. When in a first mode, an apparatus (e.g., a user equipment) receives a plurality of different values for a time alignment timer (TAT) from a network before entering a second mode from the first mode. When in the second mode, the apparatus selects one of the plurality of values to apply to the TAT and also starts the TAT to count. When there is data for uplink transmission while the apparatus is still in the second mode, the apparatus performs an early data transmission in an event that a timing advance (TA) value is valid and that the apparatus is in the same serving cell as it was before entering the second mode.

Abstract: An enhanced paging mechanism is provided for UEs waking up from a very long paging cycle to improve paging robustness and flexibility. Enhanced paging includes absolute time paging (ATP) and paging with extended wakeup time. For absolute time paging, a UE receives ATP configuration and uses the actual wall time to calculate paging occasion if a condition is satisfied. In one embodiment, the wall time is acquired from at least one of an internal UE clock, a GPS time, information broadcasted from the network, or information from a higher layer signaling. For paging with extended wakeup time, a UE applies a long paging cycle followed by multiple normal paging cycles after waking up from the long paging cycle. In one embodiment, the long paging cycle is infinite and the UE enters normal paging cycle only upon TAU-triggered paging or uplink traffic.

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 MDT information logging and problem event reporting is provided. The method supports provisioning of reference events to enable correlation of system time and the problem occurrence. In one embodiment, a problem event report includes time information directly or indirectly related to a reference event. A method of handling battery condition is also provided. The method supports autonomously suspending or resuming OAM activities in MDT based on predefined battery condition. In one embodiment, a testable battery condition handling is designed for MDT logging.

Abstract: Apparatus and method are provided to enhance scheduling request to multiple schedulers with inter base station carrier aggregation. In one novel aspect, the UE monitors and detects one or more SR triggering event. The UE selects one or more base stations based on predefined criteria and sends the SR to the selected one or more base stations. In one embodiment, at least one LC of the UE is associated with multiple BSs with association priorities. In one embodiment, the association priorities are configured by the network. In other embodiments, the association priorities are derived based on predefined UE configurations, or are derived from load information received by the UE, or are derived from radio measurements. In one novel aspect, the UE upon detecting SR failure triggered on a triggering LC, sends SR failure indication to a RRC layer or associates the triggering LC with a different base station.

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: 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: Aspects of the disclosure provide a method for reflective quality of service (QoS) control and management at a user equipment (UE). The method can include creating a derived QoS rule belonging to a session and having a QoS flow identifier (QFI). The derived QoS rule includes a precedence value that is set to one of a precedence value associated with a session identifier (ID) of the session received from a core network (CN) of a wireless communication system during a session establishment procedure for establishing the session, a precedence value associated with the QFI received from the CN during the session establishment procedure for establishing the session or when a downlink QoS flow having the QFI is added to the session, or a precedence value that is defined by an operator of the wireless communication system.

Abstract: A method of adaptive transmission time interval (TTI) tuning based on TCP information is proposed. First, a procedure for TCP information delivery between eNB and TCP sender/TCP receiver is disclosed. The TCP information comprises TCP status, TCP congestion window (CWND) size, TCP round trip delay, TCP SS threshold, TCP index, and TCP event indication. Second, various methods for eNB to configure TTI with UE TCP information and/or buffer information are disclosed. A first method is saturation detection which includes buffer status based saturation detection and CWND based saturation detection. A second method is Greedy Buffer Clearing. A third method is TCP state based TTI selection method.

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: Methods and apparatus are provided for load balancing and load distribution using a set of alternative configurations. In one novel aspect, the UE receives and stores a set of alternative configurations. The UE selects a new alternative configuration upon detecting one or more triggering events and performs a cell selection based on the new alternative configuration. In one embodiment, the UE receives the set of alternative configurations from a broadcast signaling channel. In another embodiment, the UE applies a new configuration upon detecting one or more triggering events. In another embodiment, the UE selects the new alternative configuration using a hash function based on a UE identifier, wherein the hash function hashes to a priority class, and wherein each priority class maps to an alternative configuration. In one embodiment, a prohibition timer is used to prevent too frequent resource changes.

Abstract: Apparatus and method are provided to configure two-tier identifiers for serving cells of a UE configured with inter-eNB carrier aggregation (CA). In one novel aspect, cell group identifiers are configured. The cell group identifier is a super set of one or more uplink group identifiers that are associated with serving cells served by the same base station. In one embodiment, different MAC entities are associated with different cell group identifiers. The UE performs uplink alignment, monitoring and management procedures linking to the cell group identifier. In another novel aspect, a group TAG, which is a super set identifier of one or more cell TAGs associated with serving cells served by the same base station, is configured. In one embodiment, the UE performs uplink alignment procedure based on the status of the group TAG, which is determined based on the status of the cell TAGs associated with the group TAG.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for handling of new UE capability. In one novel aspect, the UE reports a new UE capability to an eNB, determines whether the eNB supports the new UE capability and monitors a new DCI format to implement the new UE capability in the USS if the eNB supports the new UE capability, otherwise, monitors for a default DCI format to implement the default UE capability by the UE. In one embodiment, the UE is a NB-IoT device and reports the new UE capability in MSG3. In one embodiment, the UE obtains a configuration in system information to determine whether the eNB supports the new UE capability. In another embodiment, the UE obtains an indication in a dedicated RRC signaling to determine whether the eNB supports the new UE capability. In one embodiment, the new DCI format includes an indicator for a HARQ process number.

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 method of system information (SI) acquisition with reduced signaling overhead is proposed. To reduce SI broadcast overhead, the quantity of periodic SI broadcast and the frequency of on-demand SI acquisition need to be reduced. To reduce the frequency of on-demand SI acquisition, rather than always re-acquire SI when serving cell changes, UE is enabled to reuse stored SI information elements across different cells. More specifically, a novel concept of SI ID is introduced to be associated with an area that applies the same SI configuration. UE can reuse stored SI information elements if the stored SI information elements are valid based on the SI ID and validity check.

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: A method of system information (SI) acquisition with reduced signaling overhead is proposed. To reduce SI broadcast overhead, the quantity of periodic SI broadcast and the frequency of on-demand SI acquisition need to be reduced. In order to reduce the quantity of periodic SI broadcasting, on-demand SI delivery is enabled. With on-demand SI delivery, signaling overhead is proportional to the frequency of SI acquisition. From the network side, the base stations proactively provide SI delivery options and delivers SI over unicast or scheduled broadcast. From the UE side, UE determines how to acquire SI, i.e., by listening to broadcast or by sending an on-demand request via existing procedures such as a random-access procedure over a random-access channel (RACH).

Abstract: A method of reporting UE measurement state information in RLF report is provided. A UE performs radio measurements of a serving cell and neighbor cells in a mobile communication network. The UE evaluates a measurement reporting criteria and attempts to access the network to deliver a measurement report if the criteria is met. The UE then detects a radio link failure or a handover failure event and reconnects to the network by performing RRC reestablishment or RRC establishment. Finally, the UE transmits a failure event report to the network. The failure event report comprises UE measurement state information corresponds to the failure event. The UE measurement state information helps the network to determine whether to apply corrective actions to mitigate the failure.

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.