CN111836253A - Apparatus and method for UE triggered panel status reporting - Google Patents

Abstract

The present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for UE triggered panel status reporting. An apparatus for a UE comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and a processor circuit coupled to the RF interface, wherein the processor circuit is configured to: switching an active panel of the UE from a first panel to a second panel; and causing a panel status report to be sent to AN Access Node (AN) via the RF interface, wherein the panel status report indicates that the first panel has been deactivated and the second panel has been activated. Other embodiments may be disclosed and claimed.

Description

Apparatus and method for UE triggered panel status reporting

Priority declaration

The present application is based on the international application with serial number PCT/CN2019/083690, filed on 22/4/2019, and claims priority to this application. The entire contents of this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for User Equipment (UE) triggered panel status reporting.

Background

With the development of wireless communication, devices such as User Equipment (UE) may be equipped with more than one antenna panel (hereinafter panel) to improve the quality and quantity of communication. A panel may be a set of UE antenna ports (antenna ports) that may form multiple beams (beams) for communication. Beams associated with different panels may experience different path losses. Thus, the UE may deactivate (deactivate) some panels with poor signal quality to save power. The present disclosure will describe in detail panel activation/deactivation.

Disclosure of Invention

An aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus for a UE, the apparatus comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface, wherein the processor circuit is to: switching an active panel of the UE from a first panel to a second panel; and causing a panel status report to be sent to AN Access Node (AN) via the RF interface, wherein the panel status report indicates that the first panel has been deactivated and the second panel has been activated.

An aspect of the disclosure provides a computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a processor circuit, cause the processor circuit to: generating a panel status report to indicate a signal quality of a first panel of UEs and a signal quality of a second panel of the UEs, wherein the first panel is active, the second panel is inactive, and the signal quality of the first panel is lower than the signal quality of the second panel; causing the panel status report to be sent to AN; and decode a response received from the AN to the panel status report, wherein the response is to instruct the UE to deactivate the first panel and activate the second panel.

AN aspect of the present disclosure provides AN apparatus for AN, the apparatus comprising: a memory; and a processor circuit coupled with the memory, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding a panel status report received from a UE, wherein the panel status report indicates that an active panel of the UE has been switched from a first panel to a second panel; determining, based on the panel status report, to communicate with the UE based on the second panel; and causing an acknowledgement to be sent to the UE for the panel status report.

AN aspect of the present disclosure provides AN apparatus for AN, the apparatus comprising: an RF interface; and a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding a panel status report received from a UE, wherein the panel status report indicates a signal quality of a first panel of the UE and a signal quality of a second panel of the UE, the first panel is active, the second panel is inactive, and the signal quality of the first panel is lower than the signal quality of the second panel; determining, based on the panel status report, to communicate with the UE based on the second panel; and causing a response to the panel status report to be sent to the UE via the RF interface, wherein the response is to instruct the UE to switch an active panel of the UE from the first panel to the second panel.

An aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus for a UE, the apparatus comprising: means for switching an active panel of the UE from a first panel to a second panel; and means for causing a panel status report to be sent to the AN, wherein the panel status report is to indicate that the first panel has been deactivated and the second panel has been activated; and means for decoding a response received from the AN to the panel status report, wherein the response is to acknowledge receipt of the panel status report by the AN.

Drawings

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described by way of example, and not limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example architecture of a system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example process diagram for UE triggered panel status reporting in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example process diagram for UE triggered panel status reporting in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for UE triggered panel status reporting performed by processor circuitry for a UE in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for UE-triggered panel status reporting performed by processor circuitry for a next generation nodeb (gnb), according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for UE triggered panel status reporting performed by processor circuitry for a UE in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method for UE triggered panel status reporting performed by processor circuitry for a gNB, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 illustrates example components of a device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 9 illustrates an example interface of a baseband circuit according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 10 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some example embodiments.

Detailed Description

Various aspects of the illustrative embodiments will be described using terms commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of the disclosure to others skilled in the art. However, it will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that many alternative embodiments may be practiced using portions of the described aspects. For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials, and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the illustrative embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that alternative embodiments may be practiced without the specific details. In other instances, well-known features may be omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the illustrative embodiments.

Further, various operations will be described as multiple discrete operations, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the illustrative embodiments; however, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations need not be performed in the order of presentation.

The phrases "in an embodiment," "in one embodiment," and "in some embodiments" are used repeatedly herein. The phrase generally does not refer to the same embodiment; however, it may refer to the same embodiment. The terms "comprising," "having," and "including" are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise. The phrases "A or B" and "A/B" mean "(A), (B) or (A and B)".

UE panel specific beam selection will be specified in release 16(Rel-16), where the next generation nodeb (gnb) may specify the beam for the UE's panel. The gNB needs to know the activation/deactivation status of each panel. Therefore, how to report such panel status may be a problem. One possible way is to report such information based on a gNB triggered report. In this approach, if there is no gNB report, it is very likely that the UE cannot turn on/off the UE panel(s). Another possibility is to define a UE triggered panel status reporting method to report such information.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example architecture of a system 100 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The following description is provided for an example system 100 operating in conjunction with the Long Term Evolution (LTE) system standard and the 5G or New Radio (NR) system standard provided by the 3GPP Technical Specification (TS). However, the example embodiments are not limited in this respect and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., sixth generation (6G)) systems, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)802.16 protocols (e.g., wireless Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), etc.), and so forth.

As shown in FIG. 1, the system 100 can include a UE101 a and a UE101 b (collectively referred to as "UE(s) 101"). As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may refer to devices having radio communication capabilities and may describe remote users of network resources in a communication network. The terms "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonyms and may be referred to as a client, a mobile phone, a mobile device, a mobile terminal, a user terminal, a mobile unit, a mobile station, a mobile user, a subscriber, a user, a remote station, an access agent, a user agent, a receiver, a radio, a reconfigurable mobile, and the like. Furthermore, the terms "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface. In this example, the UE101 is shown as a smartphone (e.g., a handheld touchscreen mobile computing device connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as a consumer electronic device, a cellular phone, a smartphone, a feature phone, a tablet, a wearable computer device, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a pager, a wireless handheld device, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an in-vehicle infotainment system (IVI), an in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) device, an Instrument panel (Instrument Cluster, IC), a head-up display (HUD) device, an in-vehicle diagnostics (OBD) device, a dashboard mobile Device (DME), a Mobile Data Terminal (MDT), an Electronic Engine Management System (EEMS), an electronic/Engine Control Unit (ECU), an electronic/Engine Control Module (ECM), a mobile computing device(s), a mobile computing device, a mobile, Embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, Engine Management Systems (EMS), networked or "smart" devices, Machine Type Communication (MTC) devices, machine-to-machine (M2M), internet of things (IoT) devices, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, any of the UEs 101 may include an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. IoT UEs may utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with MTC servers or devices via PLMNs, proximity-based services (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communications, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The data exchange of M2M or MTC may be a machine initiated data exchange. An IoT network describes interconnected IoT UEs that may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the internet infrastructure) with short-term connections. The IoT UE may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate connection of the IoT network.

UE101 may be configured to connect with (e.g., communicatively couple with) RAN 110. In an embodiment, RAN 110 may be a Next Generation (NG) RAN or a 5G RAN, an evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), or a legacy RAN, such as a UTRAN (UMTS terrestrial radio access network) or a GERAN (GSM (global system for Mobile communications or group Sp specific Mobile) EDGE (GSM evolution) radio access network). As used herein, the term "NGRAN" or the like may refer to RAN 110 operating in NR or 5G system 100, and the term "E-UTRAN" or the like may refer to RAN 110 operating in LTE or 4G system 100. The UE101 utilizes connections (or channels) 103 and 104, respectively, each of which includes a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below). As used herein, the term "channel" may refer to any tangible or intangible transmission medium that communicates data or a stream of data. The term "channel" may be synonymous and/or equivalent to "communication channel," "data communication channel," "transmission channel," "data transmission channel," "access channel," "data access channel," "link," "data link," "carrier," "radio frequency carrier," and/or any other similar term denoting a path or medium through which data is communicated. In addition, the term "link" may refer to a connection between two devices for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information over a Radio Access Technology (RAT).

In this example, connections 103 and 104 are shown as air interfaces to enable communicative coupling, and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol, such as a global system for mobile communications (GSM) protocol, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network protocol, a push-to-talk (PTT) protocol, a cellular PTT (poc) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a fifth generation (5G) protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, and/or any other communication protocol discussed herein. In an embodiment, the UE101 may exchange communication data directly via the ProSe interface 105. The ProSe interface 105 may alternatively be referred to as a Sidelink (SL) interface 105 and may include one or more logical channels including, but not limited to, a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), and a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH).

UE101 b is shown configured to access an Access Point (AP)106 (also referred to as "WLAN node 106", "WLAN terminal 106", or "WT 106", etc.) via a connection 107. The connection 107 may comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, where the AP 106 would comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi) router. In this example, the AP 106 is shown connected to the internet without being connected to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, UE101 b, RAN 110, and AP 106 may be configured to utilize LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA) operations and/or WLAN LTE/WLAN radio level integration (LWIP) operations with IPsec tunneling. LWA operation may involve UE101 b in RRC _ CONNECTED being configured by RAN node 111 to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. The LWIP operation may involve the UE101 b using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 107) via an internet protocol security (IPsec) protocol tunnel to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., Internet Protocol (IP) packets) sent over the connection 107. An IPsec tunnel may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header to protect the original header of the IP packet.

RAN 110 may include one or more RAN nodes 111a and 111b (collectively referred to as "RAN node(s) 111") that enable connections 103 and 104. As used herein, the terms "Access Node (AN)", "access point", "RAN node", and the like may describe a device that provides radio baseband functionality for data and/or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as Base Stations (BSs), next generation node BS (gnbs), RAN nodes, evolved nodebs (enbs), nodebs, Road Side Units (RSUs), transmission reception points (TRxP or TRP), etc., and may include ground stations (e.g., ground access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the term "NGRAN node" or the like may refer to a RAN node 111 (e.g., a gNB) operating in the NR or 5G system 100, and the term "E-UTRAN node" or the like may refer to a RAN node 111 (e.g., an eNB) operating in the LTE or 4G system 100. According to various embodiments, the RAN node 111 may be implemented as one or more dedicated physical devices such as a macro cell base station and/or a Low Power (LP) base station for a femto cell, pico cell or other similar cell providing a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity or higher bandwidth than a macro cell.

In some embodiments, all or part of the RAN node 111 may be implemented as one or more software entities running on a server computer as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN) and/or a virtual baseband unit pool (vbbp). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vbbp may implement RAN functional partitioning, such as: PDCP partitioning, wherein RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN/vbbp, while other layer 2 (L2) protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 111; MAC/PHY division, where RRC, PDCP, RLC and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN/vbup, and PHY layers are operated by individual RAN nodes 111; or "lower PHY" division, where the RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers and upper parts of the PHY layers are operated by the CRAN/vbup and lower parts of the PHY layers are operated by the individual RAN node 111. The virtualization framework allows freeing up processor cores of RAN node 111 to execute other virtualized applications. In some implementations, the individual RAN nodes 111 may represent individual gNB-DUs that are connected to the gNB-CUs via individual F1 interfaces (not shown in fig. 1). In these implementations, the gbb-DUs may include one or more remote radio heads or radio front-end modules (RFEM), and the gbb-CUs may be operated by a server (not shown) located in the RAN 110 or by a server pool in a similar manner to the CRAN/vbbp. Additionally or alternatively, one or more RAN nodes 111 may be next generation enbs (NG-enbs), which are RAN nodes that provide E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminations towards the UE101 and which are connected to the 5GC via an NG interface.

In the V2X scenario, one or more RAN nodes 111 may be or act as RSUs. The term "roadside unit" or "RSU" may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity for V2X communication. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a fixed (or relatively stationary) UE, where the RSU in or by the UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU", the RSU in or by the eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU", the RSU in or by the gNB may be referred to as a "gNB-type RSU", and so on. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located at the curb side that provides connectivity support for a passing vehicle UE101 (vUE 101). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications/software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9GHz Direct Short Range Communication (DSRC) band to provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic warnings, etc. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate on the cellular V2X frequency band to provide the low latency communications described above as well as other cellular communication services. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a WiFi hotspot (2.4GHz band) and/or provide a connection to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. The computing device(s) and some or all of the radio frequency circuitry of the RSU may be enclosed in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide wired (e.g., ethernet) connectivity to a traffic signal controller and/or a backhaul network.

Any RAN node 111 may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for the UE 101. In some embodiments, any RAN node 111 may fulfill various logical functions of RAN 110, including but not limited to Radio Network Controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In an embodiment, the UEs 101 may be configured to communicate with each other or any of the RAN nodes 111 over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance with various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communications) or single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may include a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, the downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any RAN node 111 to the UE101, while uplink transmissions may use similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink per slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is common practice for OFDM systems, which makes radio resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one time slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is represented as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources that can currently be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels transmitted using such resource blocks.

According to various embodiments, UE101 and RAN node 111 communicate (e.g., transmit and receive) data over a licensed medium (also referred to as "licensed spectrum" and/or "licensed band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as "unlicensed spectrum and/or" unlicensed band "). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of about 400MHz to about 3.8GHz, while the unlicensed spectrum may include a 5GHz band.

To operate in unlicensed spectrum, the UE101 and RAN node 111 may operate using Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), enhanced LAA (elaa), and/or other elaa (felaa) mechanisms. In these implementations, UE101 and RAN node 111 may perform one or more known medium sensing operations and/or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied prior to transmission in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium/carrier sensing operation may be performed according to a Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

LBT is a mechanism in which a device (e.g., UE101, RAN node 111,112, etc.) senses a medium (e.g., channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a particular channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) that utilizes at least Energy Detection (ED) to determine whether other signals are present on the channel in order to determine whether the channel is occupied or clear. The LBT mechanism allows the cellular/LAA network to coexist with incumbent systems in unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing Radio Frequency (RF) energy over an expected transmission band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predetermined or configured threshold.

Generally, an incumbent system in the 5GHz band is a WLAN based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLANs employ a contention-based channel access mechanism known as carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA). Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a Mobile Station (MS) such as UE101, AP 106) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform a CCA prior to the transmission. In addition, a back-off mechanism is used to avoid collisions in the case where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits at the same time. The back-off mechanism may be a counter drawn randomly within the Contention Window Size (CWS) that is exponentially increased when collisions occur and reset to a minimum value when a transmission is successful. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to CSMA/CA of WLAN. In some implementations, an LBT procedure for a DL or UL transmission burst including PDSCH or PUSCH transmissions, respectively, may have an LAA contention window of variable length between X and Y extended cca (ecca) slots, where X and Y are minimum and maximum values of a CWS for the LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds (μ β); however, the size of the CWS and the Maximum Channel Occupancy Time (MCOT) (e.g., transmission bursts) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

The LAA mechanism is established based on the Carrier Aggregation (CA) technique of the LTE-Advanced (LTE-Advanced) system. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a Component Carrier (CC). The CCs may have bandwidths of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20MHz, and may be aggregated for up to five CCs, and thus, the maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, the number of aggregated carriers may be different for DL and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, individual CCs may have different bandwidths than other CCs. In a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC are typically the same for DL and UL.

The CA also includes individual serving cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of the serving cell may be different, e.g., because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. A primary serving cell or primary cell (PCell) may provide a primary cc (pcc) for both UL and DL and may handle Radio Resource Control (RRC) and non-access stratum (NAS) related activities. The other serving cells are referred to as secondary cells (scells), and each SCell may provide a separate secondary cc (scc) for both UL and DL. SCCs may be added and removed as needed, while changing the PCC may require the UE101 to undergo handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all scells may operate in unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA scells"), and the LAA scells are assisted by pcells operating in licensed spectrum. When a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive a UL grant on the configured LAASCell, the UL grant indicating different Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) starting positions within the same subframe.

The Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) may carry user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 101. A Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) may carry information on a transport format and resource allocation related to a PDSCH channel, and the like. It may also inform the UE101 of transport format, resource allocation and H-ARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request) information related to the uplink shared channel. In general, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to UEs 101b within a cell) may be performed at any RAN node 111 based on channel quality information fed back from any UE 101. The downlink resource allocation information may be sent on a PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) each UE 101.

The PDCCH may use Control Channel Elements (CCEs) to convey control information. The PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets before mapping to resource elements, which may then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements called Resource Element Groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of Downlink Control Information (DCI) and channel conditions. Four or more different PDCCH formats with different numbers of CCEs may be defined in LTE (e.g., aggregation level, L ═ 1, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use the concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above-described concept. For example, some embodiments may use an Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more Enhanced Control Channel Elements (ECCEs). Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements referred to as Enhanced Resource Element Groups (EREGs). In some cases, ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs.

The RAN nodes 111 may be configured to communicate with each other via an interface 112. In embodiments where system 100 is an LTE system, interface 112 may be an X2 interface 112. An X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more enbs, etc.) connected to the EPC120 and/or two enbs connected to the EPC 120. In some implementations, the X2 interfaces may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user data packets transmitted over the X2 interface and may be used to communicate information about user data transfer between enbs. For example, X2-U may provide specific sequence number information for user data transmitted from a master enb (menb) to a secondary enb (senb); information on successful in-order transmission of PDCP PDUs for user data from the SeNB to the UE 101; information of PDCP PDUs not delivered to the UE 101; information on a current minimum required buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting user data to the UE; and so on. X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functions including context transfer from source eNB to target eNB, user plane transfer control, etc.; a load management function; and an inter-cell interference coordination function.

In embodiments where system 100 is a 5G or NR system, interface 112 may be an Xn interface 112. An Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more gnbs, etc.) connected to the 5GC 120, between a RAN node 111 (e.g., a gNB) connected to the 5GC 120 and an eNB, and/or between two enbs connected to the 5GC 120. In some implementations, the Xn interface can include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U can provide unsecured transport of user plane PDUs and support/provide data forwarding and flow control functionality. Xn-C may provide: management and error handling functions; managing the function of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for a UE101 in CONNECTED mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) includes functionality to manage CONNECTED mode UE mobility between one or more RAN nodes 111. Mobility support may include context transfer from the old (source) serving RAN node 111 to the new (target) serving RAN node 111; and control of user plane tunnels between the old (source) serving RAN node 111 and the new (target) serving RAN node 111. The protocol stack of the Xn-U may include a transport network layer established above an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer and a GTP-U layer above UDP(s) and/or IP layers for carrying user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol, referred to as the Xn application protocol (Xn-AP), and a transport network layer built over SCTP. SCTP can be located above the IP layer and can provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transport is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and/or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same as or similar to the user plane and/or control plane protocol stack(s) shown and described herein.

RAN 110 is shown communicatively coupled to a core network, in this embodiment, Core Network (CN) 120. CN120 may include a plurality of network elements 122 configured to provide various data and telecommunications services to clients/subscribers (e.g., users of UE 101) connected to CN120 through RAN 110. The term "network element" may describe a physical or virtualized device used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with and/or referred to as: a networking computer, network hardware, network device, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, radio access network device, gateway, server, Virtualized Network Function (VNF), Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI), and/or the like. The components of CN120 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes, including components that read and execute instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) may be used to virtualize any or all of the above network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media (described in further detail below). Logical instantiations of the CN120 may be referred to as network slices, and logical instantiations of a portion of the CN120 may be referred to as network subslices. The NFV architecture and infrastructure may be used to virtualize one or more network functions or be executed by dedicated hardware onto physical resources including a combination of industry standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches. In other words, the NFV system may be used to perform a virtual or reconfigurable implementation of one or more EPC components/functions.

In general, the application server 130 may be an element that provides applications that use IP bearer resources with a core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Service (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 130 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., voice over internet protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UE101 via the EPC 120.

In an embodiment, the CN120 may be a 5GC (referred to as "5 GC 120" or the like), and the RAN 110 may be connected with the CN120 via the NG interface 113. In an embodiment, the NG interface 113 may be divided into two parts: a NG user plane (NG-U) interface 114 that carries traffic data between RAN node 111 and User Plane Functions (UPFs); and S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 115, which is the signaling interface between RAN node 111 and the AMF.

In an embodiment, the CN120 may be a 5G CN (referred to as "5 GC 120," etc.), while in other embodiments, the CN120 may be an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). In the case where CN120 is an EPC (referred to as "EPC 120," etc.), RAN 110 may connect with CN120 via S1 interface 113. In an embodiment, the S1 interface 13 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 114, which carries traffic data between the RAN node 111 and the serving gateway (S-GW); and S1-Mobility Management Entity (MME) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 111 and the MME.

In making the UE triggered panel status report, the UE may notify the gNB of such information when the activation/deactivation status of the panel changes or is about to change. Fig. 2 and 3 show two options for UE triggered panel status reporting, respectively.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example process diagram 200 for UE triggered panel status reporting in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 2, UE 201 (e.g., UE(s) 101 in fig. 1) may communicate with a gNB202 (e.g., RAN node(s) 111 in fig. 1).

At 210, the UE 201 may switch an active panel of the UE 201, e.g., switch the active panel of the UE 201 from a first panel to a second panel. For example, the original active panel is the first panel, and at 210, the UE 201 deactivates the first panel and activates the second panel, so the second panel is currently used as the active panel for the UE 201.

At 220, UE 201 may send a panel status report to gNB 202. The panel status report may be used to inform the gNB202 that the first panel has been deactivated and the second panel has been activated.

In response to the panel status report, at 230, the gNB202 can send a response to the UE 201 to confirm that the gNB202 received the panel status report.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 2, UE 201 switches its active panel itself and then informs the gNB202 of this switching. However, in some embodiments, the UE may first communicate with the gNB and switch its active panel based on instructions from the gNB. The latter case is shown in fig. 3.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example process diagram 300 for UE triggered panel status reporting in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 3, UE301 (e.g., UE(s) 101 in fig. 1) may communicate with a gNB302 (e.g., RAN node(s) 111 in fig. 1).

At 310, UE301 may send a panel status report to gNB 302. The panel status report may include the signal quality of a portion of the panels or all of the panels (including active and inactive panels) of UE 301. For example, the panel status report may include the signal quality of one or more active panels of UE301 and the signal quality of one or more inactive panels of UE 301.

At 320, the gNB302 may send a response to the UE301 in response to the panel status report. In this response, the gNB302 may designate the panel(s) of the reported panels as the target active panel(s) for the UE 301. For example, the gNB302 may designate the panel with the highest signal quality as the target active panel for the UE 302. As another example, the gNB302 may designate one or more panels for which the signal quality is greater than a threshold as one or more target active panels for the UE 302.

At 330, UE301 may switch its active panel based on the response received at 320.

In one embodiment, UE301 may periodically send a panel status report to gNB 302. In another embodiment, UE301 may send a panel status report to gNB302 only when UE301 wishes to switch its active panel.

In one embodiment, the UE may wish to deactivate the current active panel of the UE when the quality of each downlink reference signal measured from the current active panel for each active Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state is less than a first threshold within a first time period.

In one embodiment, the UE may wish to deactivate the currently active panel of the UE when the quality of each downlink reference signal for each active TCI state measured from the currently active panel is less than the quality of each downlink reference signal for each active TCI state measured from the inactive panel for a second period of time, and the difference between the two is greater than a second threshold.

In one embodiment, the UE may select an inactive panel as a candidate for the target active panel(s) when the quality of each downlink reference signal measured from the inactive panel for each active TCI state is greater than a third threshold for a third time period.

In one embodiment, when the quality of each downlink reference signal for each active TCI state measured from the inactive panel for the fourth period of time is greater than the quality of each downlink reference signal for each active TCI state measured from another panel (e.g., the active panel or the inactive panel), and the difference between the two is greater than a fourth threshold, the UE may select the inactive panel as a candidate for the target active panel(s).

In one embodiment, the panel status report in the embodiment of FIG. 3 may include the signal quality of such inactive panel(s). In another embodiment, the panel status report in the embodiment of FIG. 3 may also include the signal quality of other inactive panels that do not meet the above conditions.

The above panel switching condition is applicable not only to the embodiment of fig. 3 but also to the embodiment of fig. 2. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

In one embodiment, the first threshold, the second threshold, the third threshold and the fourth threshold may be the same. In another embodiment, the first threshold, the second threshold, the third threshold, and the fourth threshold may be different. The first, second, third and fourth thresholds may be predefined or configured by higher layer signaling. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

In one embodiment, the first time period, the second time period, the third time period and the fourth time period may be the same. In another embodiment, the first, second, third and fourth periods of time may be different. The first time period, the second time period, the third time period, and the fourth time period may be predefined or configured by higher layer signaling. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

In one embodiment, the quality of the downlink reference signal may be indicated by at least one of: reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR), and assumed block error rate (BLER). The indicator of signal quality may be predefined or configured by higher layer signaling. The present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

The minimum delay for the UE to activate the panel and the minimum delay for the UE to deactivate the panel are different because the panel activation requires more time, for example, to enable the respective transmit and receive functions. The UE and the gNB need to maintain the same understanding of the UE panel activation/deactivation status so that the gNB can see the minimum delay of panel activation/deactivation when a panel switch occurs.

In one embodiment, the gNB may communicate with the UE based on the new active panel after a few symbols since the gNB received the panel status report or since the gNB sent a response to the panel status report. In one embodiment, the number of symbols may be predefined or configured through higher layer signaling.

In some embodiments, the UE may send the panel status report in a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure.

Specifically, for a 2-step RACH procedure, the UE may send a panel status report via MsgA; for a 4-step RACH procedure, the UE may send a panel status report via Msg 3. For both 2-step and 4-step RACH procedures, the gNB may send a response to the panel status report using a corresponding contention resolution message. Specifically, for a 2-step RACH procedure, the gNB may send a response via MsgB; for a 4-step RACH procedure, the gNB may send a response via Msg 4.

For example, MsgA or Msg3 may carry a UE ID (e.g., a cell radio network temporary ID (C-RNTI)) and an activation/deactivation status of the panel. Both information may be carried in a single MAC Control Element (CE) or two separate MAC CEs.

In some embodiments, the UE may send the panel status report via one or more PUCCH resources.

For example, the gNB may reserve one or more dedicated PUCCH resources for the UE to report its panel status. In one embodiment, the panel status may be explicitly reported via multi-bit PUCCH resources. For example, a multi-bit PUCCH resource may carry a mapping of panels to corresponding states.

In another embodiment, the panel status may be implicitly reported via multiple single-bit PUCCH resources. For example, each single-bit PUCCH resource may correspond to a respective panel, and thus, the gNB may detect the PUCCH resource to learn the panel status of the corresponding panel. Each single-bit PUCCH resource may indicate a status of a corresponding panel, e.g., activated or deactivated. Alternatively, each single-bit PUCCH resource may indicate a state switch of the corresponding panel.

In some embodiments, the UE may send the panel status report via a PUSCH transmission.

In one embodiment, the gbb may reserve a single-bit dedicated PUCCH resource for the UE to request resources for PUSCH transmission for panel status reporting. For example, the panel status report may be carried by a MAC CE or Uplink Control Information (UCI) associated with the PUSCH transmission.

In one embodiment, the UE may send the panel status report using the configured allowed PUSCH. In particular, the panel status report may be reported in the MAC CE carried by the configured grant PUSCH. For example, the gNB may configure a specific PUSCH transmission for the UE to send the panel status report, i.e., without the UE requesting a PUSCH transmission for the panel status report. For example, the panel status report may be carried by the MAC CE or UCI associated with the PUSCH transmission.

In embodiments where the panel status report is carried by a MAC CE or UCI, the activation/deactivation status of the panel may be based on a bitmap. For example, each bit may correspond to a respective panel, and the value "0" or "1" of each bit may be used to indicate the status of the respective panel, e.g., activated or deactivated, respectively, and vice versa. Alternatively, the status of the panel may be implicitly indicated by beam reporting. For example, a panel with a reported beam may be considered an active panel, while a panel without any reported beam may be considered a deactivated panel.

In some embodiments, if the UE fails to detect any downlink signals from the current panel within a period of time (or "window"), the UE may fall back to the panel it used in the most recent PRACH procedure (e.g., the PRACH procedure used for initial access, handover, etc.). The time period may be predefined or configured by higher layer signaling.

The interaction between the UE and the gNB for UE-triggered panel status reporting is described in detail above. The methods will be described below from the perspective of the UE and the gNB, respectively.

Fig. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of a method 400 for UE triggered panel status reporting performed by processor circuitry for a UE in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. Fig. 4 can be understood in conjunction with fig. 2.

At 410, the processor circuit may be configured to switch an active panel of the UE from the first panel to the second panel.

At 420, the processor circuit may be configured to cause a panel status report to be sent to the gNB via the RF interface. The panel status report may indicate that the first panel has been deactivated and the second panel has been activated.

Fig. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of a method 500 for UE triggered panel status reporting performed by processor circuitry for a gNB in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. Fig. 5 can be understood in conjunction with fig. 2.

At 510, the processor circuit may be configured to decode a panel status report received from the UE. The panel status report may indicate that the active panel of the UE has switched from the first panel to the second panel.

At 520, the processor circuit may be configured to determine to communicate with the UE based on the second panel based on the panel status report.

At 530, the processor circuit may be configured to cause a confirmation of the panel status report to be sent to the UE via the RF interface.

Fig. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of a method 600 for UE triggered panel status reporting performed by processor circuitry for a UE in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. Fig. 6 can be understood in conjunction with fig. 3.

At 610, the processor circuit may be configured to generate a panel status report to indicate a signal quality of a first panel of the UE and a signal quality of a second panel of the UE. The first panel is active, the second panel is inactive, and the signal quality of the first panel is lower than the signal quality of the second panel.

At 620, the processor circuit may be configured to cause the panel status report to be sent to the gNB via the RF interface.

At 630, the processor circuit may be configured to decode a response received from the gNB for the panel status report. The response may be used to instruct the UE to: deactivating the first panel and activating the second panel.

Fig. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method 700 for UE triggered panel status reporting performed by processor circuitry for a gNB, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. Fig. 7 can be understood in conjunction with fig. 3.

At 710, the processor circuit may be configured to decode a panel status report received from the UE. The panel status report may indicate a signal quality of a first panel of the UE and a signal quality of a second panel of the UE. The first panel is active, the second panel is inactive, and the signal quality of the first panel is lower than the signal quality of the second panel.

At 720, the processor circuit may be configured to determine to communicate with the UE based on the second panel based on the panel status report.

At 730, the processor circuit can be configured to cause a response to the panel status report to be sent to the UE via the RF interface. The response may instruct the UE to: an active panel of the UE is switched from the first panel to the second panel.

The present disclosure describes how to support UE triggered panel status reporting. However, embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited in this respect, and they may also be applied to a gNB triggered panel status report.

Fig. 8 illustrates example components of a device 800 according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, device 800 may include application circuitry 802, baseband circuitry 804, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 806, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 808, one or more antennas 810, and Power Management Circuitry (PMC)812 coupled together at least as shown. The illustrated components of the apparatus 800 may be included in a UE or AN. In some embodiments, the apparatus 800 may include fewer elements (e.g., the AN may not use the application circuitry 802, but rather include a processor/controller to process IP data received from the EPC). In some embodiments, device 800 may include additional elements, such as memory/storage devices, displays, cameras, sensors, or input/output (I/O) interfaces. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., for a Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementation, the circuitry may be included separately in more than one device).

The application circuitry 802 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 802 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to: one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and special-purpose processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processor may be coupled with or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the device 800. In some embodiments, the processor of the application circuitry 802 may process IP packets received from the EPC.

Baseband circuitry 804 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to: one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Baseband circuitry 804 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from the receive signal path of RF circuitry 806 and to generate baseband signals for the transmit signal path of RF circuitry 806. Baseband processing circuits 804 may interface with application circuits 802 to generate and process baseband signals and control operation of RF circuits 806. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 804 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 804A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 804B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor 804C, or other baseband processor(s) 804D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 804 (e.g., one or more of the baseband processors 804A-D) may handle various radio control functions that support communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 806. In other embodiments, some or all of the functions of the baseband processors 804A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 804G and may be performed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 804E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to: signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation/demodulation circuitry of baseband circuitry 804 may include Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding circuitry of baseband circuitry 804 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi (Viterbi), and/or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functions are not limited to these examples, and other suitable functions may be included in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 804 may include one or more audio Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) 804F. The audio DSP(s) 804F may include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation, and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. In some embodiments, components of the baseband circuitry may be combined as appropriate in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 804 and the application circuitry 802 may be implemented together, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 804 may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, baseband circuitry 804 may support communication with an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) or other Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 804 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

The RF circuitry 806 may support communication with a wireless network using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 806 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, and the like to facilitate communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 806 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from FEM circuitry 808 and provide baseband signals to baseband circuitry 804. RF circuitry 806 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by baseband circuitry 804 and provide an RF output signal to FEM circuitry 808 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of RF circuitry 806 may include mixer circuitry 806a, amplifier circuitry 806b, and filter circuitry 806 c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of RF circuitry 806 may include filter circuitry 806c and mixer circuitry 806 a. The RF circuitry 806 may also include synthesizer circuitry 806d for synthesizing frequencies for use by the mixer circuitry 806a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 806a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 808 based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 806 d. The amplifier circuit 806b may be configured to amplify the downconverted signal, and the filter circuit 806c may be a Low Pass Filter (LPF) or a Band Pass Filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the downconverted signal to generate an output baseband signal. The output baseband signal may be provided to baseband circuitry 804 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero frequency baseband signal, but this is not required. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path may comprise a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 806a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert the input baseband signal based on a synthesis frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 806d to generate an RF output signal for the FEM circuitry 808. The baseband signal may be provided by baseband circuitry 804 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 806 c.

In some embodiments, mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path and mixer circuit 806a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and/or up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 806a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuit 806a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion and/or direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 806a of the receive signal path and mixer circuit 806a of the transmit signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuitry 806 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and the baseband circuitry 804 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 806.

In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuitry may be provided to process signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 806d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N/N +1 synthesizer, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 806d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuit 806d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuit 806a of the RF circuit 806 based on the frequency input and the divider control input. In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 806d may be a fractional-N/N +1 type synthesizer.

In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO), but this is not required. The divider control input may be provided by the baseband circuitry 804 or the application processor 802 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on the channel indicated by the application processor 802.

Synthesizer circuit 806d of RF circuit 806 may include a frequency divider, a Delay Locked Loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual-mode divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a Digital Phase Accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide an input signal by N or N +1 (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, a DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump, and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to decompose the VCO period into at most Nd equal phase groups, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this manner, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 806d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used with a quadrature generator and divider circuit to generate a plurality of signals having a plurality of different phases from one another at the carrier frequency. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 806 may include an IQ/polarity converter.

FEM circuitry 808 may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 810, amplify the received signals, and provide amplified versions of the received signals to RF circuitry 806 for further processing. FEM circuitry 808 may also include a transmit signal path that may include circuitry configured to amplify signals provided by RF circuitry 806 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 810. In various embodiments, amplification through either the transmit signal path or the receive signal path may be done only in RF circuitry 806, only in FEM 808, or both RF circuitry 806 and FEM 808.

In some embodiments, FEM circuitry 808 may include TX/RX switches to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (e.g., to RF circuitry 806). The transmit signal path of FEM circuitry 808 may include a Power Amplifier (PA) to amplify an input RF signal (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 806) and one or more filters to generate an RF signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 810).

In some embodiments, PMC 812 may manage power provided to baseband circuitry 804. Specifically, PMC 812 may control power selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-DC conversion. PMC 812 may generally be included when device 800 is capable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device is included in a UE. PMC 812 may improve power conversion efficiency while providing desired implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics.

Although figure 8 shows PMC 812 coupled only to baseband circuitry 804. However, in other embodiments, PMC 812 may additionally or alternatively be coupled with and perform similar power management operations on other components, such as, but not limited to, application circuitry 802, RF circuitry 806, or FEM 808.

In some embodiments, PMC 812 may control or otherwise be part of various power saving mechanisms of device 800. For example, if the device 800 is in an RRC _ Connected state where the device 800 is still Connected to the RAN node when it expects to receive traffic soon, then after a period of inactivity it may enter a state called discontinuous reception mode (DRX). During this state, the device 800 may be powered down for a brief interval of time, thereby saving power.

If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, the device 800 may transition to an RRC _ Idle state in which the device 800 is disconnected from the network and no operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. are performed. The device 800 enters a very low power state and performs paging, where the device 800 again periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers down again. The device 800 may not receive data in this state and it may transition back to the RRC Connected state in order to receive data.

The additional power-save mode may allow the device to be unavailable to the network for a period longer than the paging interval (ranging from a few seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is completely unable to access the network and may be completely powered down. Any data transmitted during this period will incur a significant delay and the delay is assumed to be acceptable.

A processor of the application circuitry 802 and a processor of the baseband circuitry 804 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, a processor of the baseband circuitry 804, alone or in combination, may be configured to perform layer 3, layer 2, or layer 1 functions, while a processor of the application circuitry 804 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further perform layer 4 functions (e.g., Transmission Communication Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) layers). As mentioned herein, layer 3 may include an RRC layer. As referred to herein, layer 2 may include a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer. As referred to herein, layer 1 may comprise the Physical (PHY) layer of the UE/RAN node.

Fig. 9 illustrates an example interface of a baseband circuit according to some embodiments. As described above, the baseband circuitry 804 of FIG. 8 may include processors 804A-804E and memory 804G used by the processors. Each of the processors 804A-804E may include a memory interface 904A-904E, respectively, to send and receive data to and from the memory 804G.

The baseband circuitry 804 may also include one or more interfaces, to communicatively couple to other circuitry/devices, such as a memory interface 912 (e.g., an interface for sending/receiving data to/from memory external to baseband circuitry 804), an application circuitry interface 914 (e.g., an interface for sending/receiving data to/from application circuitry 802 of fig. 8), an RF circuitry interface 916 (e.g., an interface for sending/receiving data to/from RF circuitry 806 of fig. 8), a wireless hardware connection interface 918 (e.g., an interface for sending/receiving data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC) components, bluetooth components (e.g., bluetooth low power), Wi-Fi components, and other communications components), and a power management interface 920 (e.g., an interface for sending/receiving power or control signals to/from PMC 812).

Fig. 10 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to some example embodiments. In particular, fig. 10 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 1000, which includes one or more processors (or processor cores) 1010, one or more memory/storage devices 1020, and one or more communication resources 1030, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1040. For embodiments utilizing node virtualization (e.g., NFV), hypervisor 1002 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/subslices to utilize hardware resources 1000.

Processor 1010 (e.g., a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) processor, a Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC) processor, a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, processor 1012 and processor 1014.

Memory/storage 1020 may include a main memory, a disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. Memory/storage 1020 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory, such as Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, solid state storage, and the like.

The communication resources 1030 may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1004 or one or more databases 1006 via the network 1008. For example, the communication resources 1030 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components, bluetooth components (e.g., bluetooth low energy), Wi-Fi components, and other communication components.

The instructions 1050 may include software, programs, applications, applets, apps, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 1010 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instructions 1050 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processor 1010 (e.g., within a processor's cache memory), the memory/storage 1020, or any suitable combination thereof. Further, any portion of instructions 1050 may be communicated to hardware resource 1000 from any combination of peripheral device 1004 or database 1006. Thus, the processors 1010, memory/storage devices 1020, peripherals 1004, and memory of databases 1006 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

The following paragraphs describe examples of various embodiments.

Example 1 includes an apparatus for a User Equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface, wherein the processor circuit is to: switching an active panel of the UE from a first panel to a second panel; and causing a panel status report to be sent to AN Access Node (AN) via the RF interface, wherein the panel status report indicates that the first panel has been deactivated and the second panel has been activated.

Example 2 includes the apparatus of example 1, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding a response received from the AN for the panel status report, wherein the response is to acknowledge receipt of the panel status report by the AN.

Example 3 includes the apparatus of examples 1 or 2, wherein the processor circuit is to: determining to switch an active panel of the UE from the first panel to the second panel based on the signal quality of the first panel and the signal quality of the second panel.

Example 4 includes the apparatus of example 3, wherein the processor circuitry is to determine to switch an active panel of the UE from the first panel to the second panel if: a first quality of each downlink reference signal for each active Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state measured from the first panel is less than a first threshold for a first time period and a second quality of each downlink reference signal for the each active TCI state measured from the second panel is greater than a second threshold for a second time period; or within a third time period, the first quality is less than the second quality, and a difference between the first quality and the second quality is greater than a third threshold.

Example 5 includes the apparatus of example 4, wherein the first quality or the second quality is specified by: reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), signal to interference noise ratio (SINR), or a hypothetical block error rate (BLER).

Example 6 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 5, wherein the processor circuit is to cause the panel status report to be sent to the AN via: MsgA in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; msg3 in a 4-step RACH procedure; physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources; or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission.

Example 7 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 5, wherein the processor circuit is to cause the panel status report to be sent to the AN via a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission, and wherein the PUSCH transmission is requested from the AN or is configured by higher layer signaling.

Example 8 includes the apparatus of example 7, wherein the processor circuit is to cause the panel status report to be sent to the AN via a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) or Uplink Control Information (UCI) of the PUSCH transmission.

Example 9 includes an apparatus for a User Equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface, wherein the processor circuit is to: generating a panel status report to indicate a signal quality of a first panel of the UE and a signal quality of a second panel of the UE, wherein the first panel is active, the second panel is inactive, and the signal quality of the first panel is lower than the signal quality of the second panel; causing the panel status report to be sent to AN Access Node (AN) via the RF interface; and decode a response received from the AN to the panel status report, wherein the response is to instruct the UE to deactivate the first panel and activate the second panel.

Example 10 includes the apparatus of example 9, wherein the processor circuit is to trigger generation of the panel status report if: a first quality of each downlink reference signal for each active Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state measured from the first panel is less than a first threshold for a first time period and a second quality of each downlink reference signal for the each active TCI state measured from the second panel is greater than a second threshold for a second time period; or within a third time period, the first quality is less than the second quality, and a difference between the first quality and the second quality is greater than a third threshold.

Example 11 includes the apparatus of example 10, wherein the first quality or the second quality is specified by: reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), signal to interference noise ratio (SINR), or a hypothetical block error rate (BLER).

Example 12 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 9 to 11, wherein the processor circuit is to cause the panel status report to be sent to the AN via: MsgA in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; msg3 in a 4-step RACH procedure; physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources; or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission.

Example 13 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 9 to 11, wherein the processor circuit is to send the panel status report to the AN via a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission, and wherein the PUSCH transmission is requested from the AN or is configured by higher layer signaling.

Example 14 includes the apparatus of example 13, wherein the processor circuit is to transmit the panel status report to the AN via a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) or Uplink Control Information (UCI) of the PUSCH transmission.

Example 15 includes AN apparatus for AN Access Node (AN), the apparatus comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding a panel status report received from a User Equipment (UE), wherein the panel status report indicates that an active panel of the UE has been switched from a first panel to a second panel; determining, based on the panel status report, to communicate with the UE based on the second panel; and causing an acknowledgement for the panel status report to be sent to the UE via the RF interface.

Example 16 includes the apparatus of example 15, wherein the processor circuit is to: communicating with the UE based on the second panel after a number of symbols since the AN received the panel status report or since the AN sent AN acknowledgement for the panel status report.

Example 17 includes the apparatus of example 16, wherein the number of symbols is predefined or configured by higher layer signaling.

Example 18 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 15 to 17, wherein the processor circuit is to cause the acknowledgement to be sent to the UE via: MsgB in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; or Msg4 in a 4-step RACH procedure.

Example 19 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 15 to 18, wherein the AN comprises a next generation nodeb (gnb).

Example 20 includes AN apparatus for AN Access Node (AN), the apparatus comprising: a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding a panel status report received from a User Equipment (UE), wherein the panel status report indicates a signal quality of a first panel of the UE and a signal quality of a second panel of the UE, the first panel is active, the second panel is inactive, and the signal quality of the first panel is lower than the signal quality of the second panel; determining, based on the panel status report, to communicate with the UE based on the second panel; and causing a response to the panel status report to be sent to the UE via the RF interface, wherein the response is to instruct the UE to switch an active panel of the UE from the first panel to the second panel.

Example 21 includes the apparatus of example 20, wherein the processor circuit is to: communicating with the UE based on the second panel after a number of symbols since the AN received the panel status report or since the AN sent a response to the panel status report.

Example 22 includes the apparatus of example 21, wherein the number of symbols is predefined or configured by higher layer signaling.

Example 23 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 20 to 22, wherein the processor circuit is to cause the response to be sent to the UE via: MsgB in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; or Msg4 in a 4-step RACH procedure.

Example 24 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 20 to 23, wherein the AN comprises a next generation nodeb (gnb).

Example 25 includes a method for a User Equipment (UE), the method comprising: switching an active panel of the UE from a first panel to a second panel; and causing a panel status report to be sent to AN Access Node (AN), wherein the panel status report indicates that the first panel has been deactivated and the second panel has been activated.

Example 26 includes the method of example 25, further comprising: decoding a response received from the AN for the panel status report, wherein the response is to acknowledge receipt of the panel status report by the AN.

Example 27 includes the method of example 25 or 26, further comprising: determining to switch an active panel of the UE from the first panel to the second panel based on the signal quality of the first panel and the signal quality of the second panel.

Example 28 includes the method of example 27, wherein the active panel of the UE is determined to be switched from the first panel to the second panel if: a first quality of each downlink reference signal for each active Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state measured from the first panel is less than a first threshold for a first time period and a second quality of each downlink reference signal for the each active TCI state measured from the second panel is greater than a second threshold for a second time period; or within a third time period, the first quality is less than the second quality, and a difference between the first quality and the second quality is greater than a third threshold.

Example 29 includes the method of example 28, wherein the first quality or the second quality is specified by: reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), signal to interference noise ratio (SINR), or a hypothetical block error rate (BLER).

Example 30 includes the method of any one of examples 25 to 29, wherein the panel status report is sent to the AN via: MsgA in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; msg3 in a 4-step RACH procedure; physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources; or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission.

Example 31 includes the method of any one of examples 25 to 29, wherein the panel status report is sent to the AN via a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission, and wherein the PUSCH transmission is requested from the AN or is configured by higher layer signaling.

Example 32 includes the method of example 31, wherein the panel status report is sent to the AN via a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) or Uplink Control Information (UCI) of the PUSCH transmission.

Example 33 includes a method for a User Equipment (UE), the method comprising: generating a panel status report to indicate a signal quality of a first panel of the UE and a signal quality of a second panel of the UE, wherein the first panel is active, the second panel is inactive, and the signal quality of the first panel is lower than the signal quality of the second panel; causing the panel status report to be sent to AN Access Node (AN); and decode a response received from the AN to the panel status report, wherein the response is to instruct the UE to deactivate the first panel and activate the second panel.

Example 34 includes the method of example 33, further comprising triggering generation of the panel status report if: a first quality of each downlink reference signal for each active Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state measured from the first panel is less than a first threshold for a first time period and a second quality of each downlink reference signal for the each active TCI state measured from the second panel is greater than a second threshold for a second time period; or within a third time period, the first quality is less than the second quality, and a difference between the first quality and the second quality is greater than a third threshold.

Example 35 includes the method of example 34, wherein the first quality or the second quality is specified by: reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), signal to interference noise ratio (SINR), or a hypothetical block error rate (BLER).

Example 36 includes the method of any one of examples 33 to 35, wherein the panel status report is sent to the AN via: MsgA in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; msg3 in a 4-step RACH procedure; physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources; or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission.

Example 37 includes the method of any one of examples 33 to 35, wherein the panel status report is sent to the AN via a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission, and wherein the PUSCH transmission is requested from the AN or is configured by higher layer signaling.

Example 38 includes the method of example 37, wherein the panel status report is sent to the AN via a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) or Uplink Control Information (UCI) of the PUSCH transmission.

Example 39 includes a method for AN Access Node (AN), the method comprising: decoding a panel status report received from a User Equipment (UE), wherein the panel status report indicates that an active panel of the UE has been switched from a first panel to a second panel; determining, based on the panel status report, to communicate with the UE based on the second panel; and causing an acknowledgement to be sent to the UE for the panel status report.

Example 40 includes the method of example 39, further comprising: communicating with the UE based on the second panel after a number of symbols since the AN received the panel status report or since the AN sent AN acknowledgement for the panel status report.

Example 41 includes the method of example 40, wherein the number of symbols is predefined or configured by higher layer signaling.

Example 42 includes the method of any one of examples 39 to 41, wherein the acknowledgement is sent to the UE via: MsgB in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; or Msg4 in a 4-step RACH procedure.

Example 43 includes the method of any one of examples 39 to 42, wherein the AN comprises a next generation nodeb (gnb).

Example 44 includes a method for AN Access Node (AN), the method comprising: decoding a panel status report received from a User Equipment (UE), wherein the panel status report indicates a signal quality of a first panel of the UE and a signal quality of a second panel of the UE, the first panel is active, the second panel is inactive, and the signal quality of the first panel is lower than the signal quality of the second panel; determining, based on the panel status report, to communicate with the UE based on the second panel; and causing a response to the panel status report to be sent to the UE, wherein the response is to instruct the UE to switch an active panel of the UE from the first panel to the second panel.

Example 45 includes the method of example 44, further comprising: communicating with the UE based on the second panel after a number of symbols since the AN received the panel status report or since the AN sent a response to the panel status report.

Example 46 includes the method of example 45, wherein the number of symbols is predefined or configured by higher layer signaling.

Example 47 includes the method of any one of examples 44 to 46, wherein the response is sent to the UE via: MsgB in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; or Msg4 in a 4-step RACH procedure.

Example 48 includes the method of any one of examples 44 to 47, wherein the AN comprises a next generation nodeb (gnb).

Example 49 includes an apparatus for a User Equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: means for switching an active panel of the UE from a first panel to a second panel; and means for causing a panel status report to be sent to AN Access Node (AN), wherein the panel status report is to indicate that the first panel has been deactivated and the second panel has been activated.

Example 50 includes the apparatus of example 49, further comprising: means for decoding a response received from the AN to the panel status report, wherein the response is to acknowledge receipt of the panel status report by the AN.

Example 51 includes the apparatus of examples 49 or 50, further comprising: means for determining to switch an active panel of the UE from the first panel to the second panel based on the signal quality of the first panel and the signal quality of the second panel.

Example 52 includes the apparatus of example 51, wherein the active panel of the UE is determined to be switched from the first panel to the second panel if: a first quality of each downlink reference signal for each active Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state measured from the first panel is less than a first threshold for a first time period and a second quality of each downlink reference signal for the each active TCI state measured from the second panel is greater than a second threshold for a second time period; or within a third time period, the first quality is less than the second quality, and a difference between the first quality and the second quality is greater than a third threshold.

Example 53 includes the apparatus of example 52, wherein the first quality or the second quality is specified by: reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), signal to interference noise ratio (SINR), or a hypothetical block error rate (BLER).

Example 54 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 49-53, wherein the panel status report is sent to the AN via: MsgA in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; msg3 in a 4-step RACH procedure; physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources; or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission.

Example 55 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 49 to 53, wherein the panel status report is sent to the AN via a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission, and wherein the PUSCH transmission is requested from the AN or is configured by higher layer signaling.

Example 56 includes the apparatus of example 55, wherein the panel status report is sent to the AN via a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) or Uplink Control Information (UCI) of the PUSCH transmission.

Example 57 includes an apparatus for a User Equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: means for generating a panel status report to indicate a signal quality of a first panel of the UE and a signal quality of a second panel of the UE, wherein the first panel is active, the second panel is inactive, and the signal quality of the first panel is lower than the signal quality of the second panel; means for causing the panel status report to be sent to AN Access Node (AN); and means for decoding a response to the panel status report received from the AN, wherein the response is to instruct the UE to deactivate the first panel and activate the second panel.

Example 58 includes the apparatus of example 57, further comprising means for triggering generation of the panel status report if: a first quality of each downlink reference signal for each active Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state measured from the first panel is less than a first threshold for a first time period and a second quality of each downlink reference signal for the each active TCI state measured from the second panel is greater than a second threshold for a second time period; or within a third time period, the first quality is less than the second quality, and a difference between the first quality and the second quality is greater than a third threshold.

Example 59 includes the apparatus of example 58, wherein the first quality or the second quality is specified by: reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), signal to interference noise ratio (SINR), or a hypothetical block error rate (BLER).

Example 60 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 57-59, wherein the panel status report is sent to the AN via: MsgA in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; msg3 in a 4-step RACH procedure; physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources; or Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission.

Example 61 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 57-59, wherein the panel status report is sent to the AN via a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission, and wherein the PUSCH transmission is requested from the AN or configured by higher layer signaling.

Example 62 includes the apparatus of example 61, wherein the panel status report is sent to the AN via a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) or Uplink Control Information (UCI) of the PUSCH transmission.

Example 63 includes AN apparatus for AN Access Node (AN), the apparatus comprising: means for decoding a panel status report received from a User Equipment (UE), wherein the panel status report indicates that an active panel of the UE has been switched from a first panel to a second panel; means for determining, based on the panel status report, to communicate with the UE based on the second panel; and means for causing an acknowledgement for the panel status report to be sent to the UE.

Example 64 includes the apparatus of example 63, further comprising: means for communicating with the UE based on the second panel after a number of symbols since the AN received the panel status report or since the AN sent AN acknowledgement for the panel status report.

Example 65 includes the apparatus of example 64, wherein the number of symbols is predefined or configured by higher layer signaling.

Example 66 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 63 to 65, wherein the acknowledgement is sent to the UE via: MsgB in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; or Msg4 in a 4-step RACH procedure.

Example 67 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 63-66, wherein the AN comprises a next generation nodeb (gnb).

Example 68 includes AN apparatus for AN Access Node (AN), the apparatus comprising: means for decoding a panel status report received from a User Equipment (UE), wherein the panel status report is to indicate a signal quality of a first panel of the UE and a signal quality of a second panel of the UE, the first panel is active, the second panel is inactive, and the signal quality of the first panel is lower than the signal quality of the second panel; means for determining, based on the panel status report, to communicate with the UE based on the second panel; and means for causing a response to the panel status report to be sent to the UE, wherein the response is to instruct the UE to switch an active panel of the UE from the first panel to the second panel.

Example 69 includes the apparatus of example 68, further comprising: means for communicating with the UE based on the second panel after a number of symbols from the AN receiving the panel status report or from the AN sending a response to the panel status report.

Example 70 includes the apparatus of example 69, wherein the number of symbols is predefined or configured by higher layer signaling.

Example 71 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 68 to 70, wherein the response is sent to the UE via: MsgB in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; or Msg4 in a 4-step RACH procedure.

Example 72 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 68-71, wherein the AN comprises a next generation nodeb (gnb).

Example 73 includes one or more computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a processor circuit, cause the processor circuit to perform the method of any of examples 25 to 38.

Example 74 includes one or more computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a processor circuit, cause the processor circuit to perform the method of any of examples 39-48.

Example 75 includes a User Equipment (UE) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Example 76 includes AN Access Node (AN) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Example 77 includes a method performed at a User Equipment (UE) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Example 78 includes a method performed at AN Access Node (AN) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Although certain embodiments have been illustrated and described herein for purposes of description, various alternative and/or equivalent embodiments or implementations calculated to achieve the same purposes may be substituted for the embodiments shown and described without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. This application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the embodiments discussed herein. Therefore, it is manifestly intended that the embodiments described herein be limited only by the claims and the equivalents thereof.

Claims (25)

1. An apparatus for a User Equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising:

a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and

a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface,

wherein the processor circuit is to:

switching an active panel of the UE from a first panel to a second panel; and

cause a panel status report to be sent to AN Access Node (AN) via the RF interface, wherein the panel status report indicates that the first panel has been deactivated and the second panel has been activated.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor circuit is to:

decoding a response received from the AN for the panel status report, wherein the response is to acknowledge receipt of the panel status report by the AN.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor circuit is to:

determining to switch an active panel of the UE from the first panel to the second panel based on the signal quality of the first panel and the signal quality of the second panel.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the processor circuit is to determine to switch an active panel of the UE from the first panel to the second panel if:

a first quality of each downlink reference signal for each active Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state measured from the first panel is less than a first threshold for a first time period and a second quality of each downlink reference signal for the each active TCI state measured from the second panel is greater than a second threshold for a second time period; or

The first quality is less than the second quality and a difference between the first quality and the second quality is greater than a third threshold over a third time period.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the first quality or the second quality is specified by: reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), signal to interference noise ratio (SINR), or a hypothetical block error rate (BLER).

6. The apparatus of any of claims 1-5, wherein the processor circuit is to cause the panel status report to be sent to the AN via:

MsgA in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure;

msg3 in a 4-step RACH procedure;

physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources; or

Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission.

7. The apparatus of any of claims 1-5, wherein the processor circuit is to cause the panel status report to be sent to the AN via a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission, and wherein the PUSCH transmission is requested from the AN or is configured by higher layer signaling.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processor circuit is configured to cause the panel status report to be transmitted to the AN via a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) or Uplink Control Information (UCI) of the PUSCH transmission.

9. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a processor circuit, cause the processor circuit to:

generating a panel status report to indicate a signal quality of a first panel of a User Equipment (UE) and a signal quality of a second panel of the UE, wherein the first panel is active, the second panel is inactive, and the signal quality of the first panel is lower than the signal quality of the second panel;

causing the panel status report to be sent to AN Access Node (AN); and

decoding a response to the panel status report received from the AN, wherein the response is to instruct the UE to deactivate the first panel and activate the second panel.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor circuit, further cause the processor circuit to trigger generation of the panel status report if:

a first quality of each downlink reference signal for each active Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) state measured from the first panel is less than a first threshold for a first time period and a second quality of each downlink reference signal for the each active TCI state measured from the second panel is greater than a second threshold for a second time period; or

The first quality is less than the second quality and a difference between the first quality and the second quality is greater than a third threshold over a third time period.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the first quality or the second quality is specified by: reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), signal to interference noise ratio (SINR), or a hypothetical block error rate (BLER).

12. The computer readable medium of any of claims 9 to 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor circuit, further cause the processor circuit to cause the panel status report to be sent to the AN via:

MsgA in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure;

msg3 in a 4-step RACH procedure;

physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources; or

Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission.

13. The computer readable medium of any of claims 9 to 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor circuit, further cause the processor circuit to send the panel status report to the AN via a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) transmission, and wherein the PUSCH transmission is requested from the AN or is configured by higher layer signaling.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor circuit, further cause the processor circuit to transmit the panel status report to the AN via a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) or Uplink Control Information (UCI) of the PUSCH transmission.

15. AN apparatus for AN Access Node (AN), the apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

a processor circuit coupled with the memory,

wherein the processor circuit is to:

decoding a panel status report received from a User Equipment (UE), wherein the panel status report indicates that an active panel of the UE has been switched from a first panel to a second panel;

determining, based on the panel status report, to communicate with the UE based on the second panel; and

causing an acknowledgement to be sent to the UE for the panel status report.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor circuit is to: communicating with the UE based on the second panel after a number of symbols since the AN received the panel status report or since the AN sent AN acknowledgement for the panel status report.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the number of symbols is predefined or configured by higher layer signaling.

18. The apparatus of any of claims 15 to 17, wherein the processor circuit is to cause the acknowledgement to be sent to the UE via:

MsgB in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; or

Msg4 in a 4-step RACH procedure.

19. The apparatus of any of claims 15-17, wherein the AN comprises a next generation nodeb (gnb).

20. AN apparatus for AN Access Node (AN), the apparatus comprising:

a Radio Frequency (RF) interface; and

a processor circuit coupled with the RF interface,

wherein the processor circuit is to:

decoding a panel status report received from a User Equipment (UE), wherein the panel status report indicates a signal quality of a first panel of the UE and a signal quality of a second panel of the UE, the first panel is active, the second panel is inactive, and the signal quality of the first panel is lower than the signal quality of the second panel;

determining, based on the panel status report, to communicate with the UE based on the second panel; and

causing a response to the panel status report to be sent to the UE via the RF interface, wherein the response is to instruct the UE to switch an active panel of the UE from the first panel to the second panel.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the processor circuit is to: communicating with the UE based on the second panel after a number of symbols since the AN received the panel status report or since the AN sent a response to the panel status report.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the number of symbols is predefined or configured by higher layer signaling.

23. The apparatus of any of claims 20 to 22, wherein the processor circuit is to cause the response to be sent to the UE via:

MsgB in a 2-step Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure; or

Msg4 in a 4-step RACH procedure.

24. An apparatus for a User Equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising:

means for switching an active panel of the UE from a first panel to a second panel; and

means for causing a panel status report to be sent to AN Access Node (AN), wherein the panel status report is to indicate that the first panel has been deactivated and the second panel has been activated; and

means for decoding a response received from the AN to the panel status report, wherein the response is to acknowledge receipt of the panel status report by the AN.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising:

means for determining to switch an active panel of the UE from the first panel to the second panel based on a signal quality of the first panel and a signal quality of the second panel.

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