CN117425231A

CN117425231A - Method performed by user equipment and user equipment

Info

Publication number: CN117425231A
Application number: CN202210807244.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 肖芳英; 刘仁茂
Original assignee: Sharp Corp
Current assignee: Sharp Corp
Priority date: 2022-07-07
Filing date: 2022-07-07
Publication date: 2024-01-19
Also published as: WO2024008069A1

Abstract

The invention provides a method executed by user equipment, wherein the user equipment is in an RRC connection state in a first network, the user equipment is configured to execute network quality detection of an auxiliary service cell group in the first network, and the auxiliary service cell group where the user equipment is in an inactive state in the first network, and the method comprises the following steps: performing secondary service cell group network quality detection; when the failure of the auxiliary service cell group is detected, initiating an auxiliary service cell group failure information message transmission process to the first network, wherein the auxiliary service cell group failure information message transmission process is used for sending an auxiliary service cell group failure information message which indicates that the auxiliary service cell group where the user equipment is located in the first network is failed to the first network, and the auxiliary service cell group failure information message transmission process comprises: determining whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state; when the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, MUSIM indication information for indicating that the user equipment is in the MUSIM state is included in the secondary service cell group failure information message.

Description

Method performed by user equipment and user equipment

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communication technology, and in particular, to a method performed by a user equipment and the user equipment.

Background

In recent years, multiple USIM card devices have become increasingly popular. For example, one user installs two USIM cards on a mobile phone supporting multiple USIM cards, one USIM card for subscribing to private services and the other USIM card for subscribing to office services. Existing devices supporting multiple USIM cards are vendor-based implementations and have not been standardized by 3 GPP. Resulting in different vendors using different implementations, the behavior of the user equipment UE is also different. In the existing implementation, if these USIM cards are registered with networks respectively (the USIM cards can be registered with the same network or two or more networks respectively), the UE needs to receive pages from these networks, and based on the transceiving capability of the UE, there may be a situation that another network initiates a page to the UE when receiving the page of the current network, or another network initiates a page to the UE when communicating with one network. One result that may result if the UE switches between different networks is that the UE can no longer receive data from the current network when the UE switches to another network. This would compromise network performance, e.g., the network sent a page to the UE but the UE did not receive this page due to a handover to another network, or the UE handed over to another network and could not receive the current network schedule. Some manufacturers propose to perform 3GPP standardization study on the network access behavior of the UE with multiple USIM cards and related networks, which has the advantage of improving network performance based on predictable UE behavior.

For the reasons described above, at 12 months 2019, on the third generation partnership project (3rd Generation Partnership Project:3GPP) ran#86 full meeting, the vivo proposed work items for multi-SIM card devices of version 17 (see non-patent literature: RP-193263:New WID:Stupport of Multi-SIM devices in Rel-17) and approved. One of the goals of this work item is to define a mechanism for the UE to notify network a when leaving network a, where network a is NR, network B is LTE or NR, and UE Single-receive Single-transmit (Single-Rx/Single-Tx) or UE Dual-receive Single-transmit (Dual-Rx/Single-Tx).

A further enhancement to multi USIM card UE with dual receive and dual transmit capability (dual Rx/Tx) was achieved over 3gpp ran #94 conferences, month 12 of 2021, so that the UE could be in RRC connected state at both networks (see non-patent document: RP-213584New WI on DualTx Rx MUSIM enhancements).

The present disclosure discusses the relevant issues involved in achieving the above-mentioned objectives.

Disclosure of Invention

The object of the present invention is to provide a method capable of avoiding activation of an SCG corresponding to a first network when the user equipment does not prefer to activate the SCG.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment, the user equipment being in an RRC connected state in a first network in which it is configured to need to perform secondary cell group network quality detection, the secondary cell group in which the user equipment is located being in an inactive state, the method comprising: performing secondary service cell group network quality detection; and when the failure of the auxiliary service cell group is detected, initiating an auxiliary service cell group failure information message transmission process to the first network, wherein the auxiliary service cell group failure information message transmission process is used for sending an auxiliary service cell group failure information message which indicates that the auxiliary service cell group where the user equipment is located in the first network is failed to the first network. The secondary service cell group failure information message transmission process comprises the following steps: determining whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state; and when the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, the MUSIM indication information for indicating that the user equipment is in the MUSIM state is included in the auxiliary service cell group failure information message.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment, comprising: when an RRC reconfiguration message from a first network is received, determining whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state, wherein the RRC reconfiguration message is used for configuring a new auxiliary service cell group and configuring the new auxiliary service cell group into an active state or activating an existing auxiliary service cell group; and if the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, sending an indication message to the first network indicating that the user equipment is in the MUSIM state.

The beneficial effects of the invention are that

According to the scheme of the specification, the SCG corresponding to the first network can be prevented from being activated when the user equipment does not prefer to activate the SCG.

Drawings

The foregoing and other features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

fig. 1 is a schematic diagram for one example of a MUSIM-capable user equipment referred to in this specification.

Fig. 2 is an exemplary flowchart for explaining a method performed by a user equipment provided in the first embodiment in the present specification.

Fig. 3 is another exemplary flowchart for explaining a method performed by a user equipment provided in the first embodiment in the present specification.

Fig. 4 is an exemplary flowchart for explaining a method performed by a user equipment provided in the second embodiment in the present specification.

Fig. 5 is an exemplary flowchart for explaining a method of performing synchronous reconfiguration by a user equipment provided in the third embodiment in the present specification.

Fig. 6 is an exemplary flowchart for explaining a method of performing synchronous reconfiguration by a user equipment provided in the fourth embodiment in the present specification.

Fig. 7 is another exemplary flowchart for explaining a method of performing synchronous reconfiguration by a user equipment according to the fourth embodiment in the present specification.

Fig. 8 is an exemplary flowchart for explaining a method of configuring a secondary serving cell performed by a user equipment according to the fifth embodiment in the present specification.

Fig. 9 is an exemplary flowchart for explaining addition of a secondary serving cell in a method of configuring a secondary serving cell performed by a user equipment according to the fifth embodiment in the present specification.

Fig. 10 is an exemplary flowchart for explaining modification of a secondary serving cell in a method of configuring a secondary serving cell performed by a user equipment according to the fifth embodiment in the present specification.

Fig. 11 is an exemplary flowchart for explaining a method performed by a user equipment provided in the sixth embodiment in the present specification.

Fig. 12 is an exemplary flowchart for explaining a MUSIM release indication processing procedure in the method performed by the user equipment provided in the sixth embodiment in the present specification.

Fig. 13 is an exemplary flowchart for explaining a method for recovering an RRC connection performed by a user equipment according to the seventh embodiment in the present specification.

Fig. 14 is an exemplary flowchart for explaining a method for recovering an RRC connection performed by a user equipment according to the eighth embodiment in the present specification.

Fig. 15 is a block diagram of a user equipment provided in the present specification.

Detailed Description

The disclosure is described in detail below with reference to the drawings and detailed description. It should be noted that the present disclosure should not be limited to the specific embodiments described below. In addition, for the sake of brevity, detailed descriptions of well-known techniques, which are not directly related to the present disclosure, are omitted to prevent confusion of an understanding of the present disclosure.

The following describes some terms related to the present disclosure, and specific meanings of the terms are found in 3GPP latest relevant documents, such as TS38.300, TS38.331, TS36.300, TS36.331, and the like.

NAS: non-access stratum, non-access stratum.

AS: access stratum, access stratum.

RRC: radio Resource Control, radio resource control.

Rrc_connected: and an RRC connected state.

Rrc_inactive: and the RRC is inactive.

Rrc_idle: and RRC idle state.

RLC: radio Link Control, radio link control.

CPA: conditional PSCell Addition, the condition PSCell increases.

CPC: conditional PSCell Change, the condition PSCell changes.

RAN: radio Access Network, radio access layer.

BWP: bandwidth Part.

USIM: universal Subscriber Identity Module, global subscriber identity card.

MUSIM: multi-Universal Subscriber Identity Module, multiple global subscriber identity cards.

Tx: transmitter, transmitter.

Rx: receiver, receiver.

NR: new RAT, new radio Access technology.

gNB: the UE is provided with an NR user plane and control plane protocol stack (NR user plane and control plane protocol terminations) and is connected to a base station node of the 5G core network via an NG interface.

eNB: the E-UTRAN user plane and control plane protocol stacks are provided to the UE and are connected to the base station node of the EPC core network.

ng-eNB: the E-UTRAN user plane and control plane protocol stacks are provided to the UE and are connected to the base station node of the 5G core network through the NG interface.

Dual or multiple connection: it means that the UE operating in RRC connected state establishes a physical radio path with more than one network node and realizes data transmission. In dual connectivity, a multi-Tx/Rx capable UE is configured to use resources provided by two network nodes connected through a non-ideal backhaul (non-ideal backhaul). One of the network nodes serves as a Master control Node (Master Node, MN or MN gNB), and the other network Node serves as a Secondary control Node (Secondary Node, SN or SN gNB). The MN and SN are connected through a network interface and at least the MN is connected to a core network. The MN may be implemented by a gNB/eNB/ng-eNB, and the set of serving cells controlled by the MN is referred to as a master cell set (Master Cell Group, MCG), i.e. the MCG associates the MN. At least one primary serving cell in the MCG operating on the primary frequency, referred to as primary cell PCell (Primary Cell), the UE performs an initial connection establishment procedure or initiates a connection re-establishment procedure on the PCell. The MCG may be collectively referred to as a secondary serving cell SCell if other cells are also included. Accordingly, the SN may be performed by one or more gnbs/enbs/ng-enbs, with the set of serving cells controlled by the SN referred to as secondary serving cell set (Secondary Cell Group, SCG), i.e., the SCG is associated to the SN. The SCG includes at least one primary serving cell, which is referred to as primary secondary cell PSCell (Primary Second Cell). The UE performs random access on the PSCell (when it needs to perform) when performing a synchronization reconfiguration (synchronization reconfiguration for SCG or SCG change) procedure. The SCG may be collectively referred to as a secondary serving cell SCell if other cells are also included. A signaling radio bearer SRB, commonly referred to as SRB3, may be established between the SN and the UE. SRB3 is used for specific RRC messages transmitted on DCCH logical channels, and is applicable to UEs in (NG) EN-DC or NR-DC. SRB3 may be used to communicate RRC messages between the SN and the UE, such as SCG-associated measurement configuration and reporting. In this disclosure, spCell may refer to PCell of MCG or PSCell of SCG.

The SCG radio bearer is a radio bearer with one RLC bearer only in the SCG or two RLC bearers in carrier aggregation packet repetition. The SCG radio bearer includes an SCG signaling radio bearer SRB and an SCG data radio bearer DRB.

SRB1 is used to carry all RRC messages using DCCH logical channels and NAS messages before SRB2 is established.

SRB2 is used to carry NAS messages and all RRC messages containing recorded measurement information using DCCH logical channels.

EN-DC: E-UTRA-NR dual connectivity, E-UTRA being MN, NR being SN dual connectivity and connected to EPC.

NGEN-DC: NG-RAN, E-UTRA-NR dual connectivity, and connect to the 5G core network 5GC.

NR DC: NR-NR dual connectivity, NR-SCG if and only if the configured mrdc-second cell group is set.

MR-DC: multi-Radio Dual Connectivity, multi-radio dual connectivity, including (NG) EN-DC, NE-DC, NR-DC.

In the present disclosure, a network (or network node), a base station (or base station node), and a RAN are used interchangeably, and the network may be a long term evolution LTE network, an NR network, an enhanced long term evolution LTE network, or other networks defined in a later evolution version of 3 GPP.

In this disclosure, the user equipment UE may refer to an apparatus that physically supports multiple USIM cards (two or more USIM cards), which may be a physical SIM or eSIM (USIM can be a physical SIM or eSIM). The apparatus is equipped with two or more USIM cards, each associated with one network (i.e., establishing an RRC connection with one network). The multiple USIM cards may come from the same operator or different operators. From a network perspective, different USIM cards may correspond to different UEs, one for each USIM card. This disclosure does not distinguish between this, unless otherwise specified. One skilled in the art can easily determine whether the UE refers to a UE supporting multiple USIM cards or a UE respectively corresponding to each USIM card in an apparatus supporting multiple USIM cards according to the context. The user equipment provided with the multiple USIM cards can receive and/or transmit data from multiple networks by using single or double receipts in a time division multiplexing manner or the like. And a UE having two Tx and two Rx (dual transmission and dual reception) may transmit data to and receive data from both networks simultaneously. The hardware capabilities of the MUSIM UE are shared by the two SIM cards, with the associated capabilities dynamically allocated between the two SIM cards (dynamically split). This will result in a short hardware conflict, causing the UE to release some resources from one SIM card for use by another SIM card. For example, when the SIM a of the UE is in an RRC connected state at network a, and the SIM B is in an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state at network B, two radio frequency links (RF chains) or two transceivers are occupied by the SIM a for communication with network a. If SIM B needs to establish an RRC connection with network B, one of the radio links needs to be handed over to SIM B. If network a does not know the change of the UE in radio frequency link capability, it will result in data loss of network a and waste of radio resources.

The embodiment of the disclosure takes UE configuration of two USIM cards as an example, and a person skilled in the art can easily extend to the case of multiple USIM cards.

The following describes the fields (filtered) to which the present disclosure relates:

the masterCellGroup field is used to configure the master cell group MCG.

The spCellConfig field contains parameters of the SpCell of the corresponding cell group (i.e., PCell of MCG or PSCell of SCG).

The reconfigurationWithSync field contains parameters for synchronization reconfiguration to the target SpCell.

The CellGroupConfig field is used to configure the primary cell group MCG or secondary serving cell group SCG.

SCG-State field is used to indicate that the SCG is in an inactive State. The base station indicates that the SCG is configured to the active State by not including a SCG-State field in the RRC reconfiguration message rrcrecon configuration; the SCG is indicated to be configured to the inactive State by including a SCG-State field in the RRC reconfiguration message.

BFD-and-RLM field is used to indicate whether the UE performs beam failure detection (Beam Failure Detection, BFD) and radio link monitoring (Radio Link Monitoring, RLM) when SCG is deactivated (deactivated).

The second condarycell group field contains the configuration of SCG (for (NG) EN-DC or NR-DC) and the second condarycell group field contains the CellGroupConfig field.

The CellGroupConfig field is used to configure one MCG or SCG, and a cell group is composed of one MAC entity, one logical channel set (a set of logical channels with associated RLC entities) associated with the associated RLC entity, one SpCell, and one or more scells.

The mrdc-second cell group field contains RRC messages for SCG configuration in NR-DC or NE-DC where the mrdc-second cell group field contains RRCReconfiguration messages generated entirely by the SN gNB, which may contain a second cell group field, an other configuration field, a conditional reconfiguration field, and a measconfiguration field.

The otherConfig field contains configurations related to other configurations, such as configuring UE reporting assistance information to inform the gNB about UE power saving discontinuous reception, DRX, preferences, etc.

The conditional reconfigurability field changes the configuration candidate target SpCell(s) and execution conditions for conditional switch and conditional PSCell.

The measConfig field defines the measurements performed by the UE, the configuration of intra-Frequency (intra-Frequency), inter-Frequency (inter-Frequency) and inter-RAT (inter-RAT) movements, and the measurement intervals.

The NR-SCG field is included in the mrdc-second cell group field to indicate that the dual connection is NR-DC, when the RRC reconfiguration message contained by the mrdc-second cell group is generated entirely by the SN gNB.

The sCellToAddModList field is used to indicate a list of added or modified scells.

The sCellIndex field is used to identify one SCell.

The sCellState field indicates whether the SCell is considered active when the SCell is configured (indicates whether the SCell shall be considered to be in activated state upon SCell configuration). If the RRC reconfiguration message includes the field, setting the field value to 'activated' indicates that the SCell is in an active state when the SCell is configured, and if the RRC reconfiguration message does not include the field, indicates that the SCell is in an inactive state when the SCell is configured.

The firstactiva downlink BWP-Id field is used to configure the SpCell, contains an identification Id of the downlink BWP activated when performing RRC reconfiguration or contains an identification Id of the downlink BWP used as RLM, BFD and measurement when SCG is deactivated (this meaning is indicated when the UE needs to perform RLM, BFD and measurement in the RRC reconfiguration message); when used to configure the SCell, this field contains the identification ID of the downlink BWP used when the SCell is activated.

When the first actionuplinkbwp-Id is used to configure SpCell, it contains the identification Id of the uplink BWP activated when RRC reconfiguration is performed; when used to configure the SCell, this field contains the identification ID of the uplink BWP used when the SCell is activated.

The sCellConfigCommon field applies to a ServingCellConfigCommon field that configures configurable cell-specific parameters of the serving cell of the UE. The ServingCellConfigCommon field contains parameters acquired from a synchronization signal block SSB, a master information block MIB, or a system information block SIB when an IDLE state UE accesses the cell, and the network provides these information through dedicated signaling containing this field when configuring the SCell.

The scellconfigdodicated field corresponds to a ServingCellConfig field, which is used to configure (i.e. add or modify) a serving cell for the UE, which may be a SpCell or SCell of the MCG or SCG.

The varconditional reconfig variable contains a cumulative configuration including conditional switch CHO, conditional PSCell add CPA, conditional PSCell change CPC configuration, including pointers to CHO, CPA, CPC execution conditions (associated measId (s)) and stored target candidate SpCell RRC reconfiguration (includes the accumulated configuration of the conditional handover, conditional PSCell addition or conditional PSCell change configurations including the pointers to conditional handover, conditional PSCell addition or conditional PSCell change execution condition (associated measId (s)) and the stored target candidate SpCell RRCReconfiguration).

The condReconfigID field is used to identify one CHO, CPA, CPC configuration.

The condrrcrecondonfig field contains an RRC reconfiguration message applied when the condition is satisfied.

The condTriggerConfig field is used for CHO, CPA, CPC configuration, setting the trigger condition of CHO, CPA, CPC.

The measId field is used to identify the measurement identity (identifies the measurement identity for which the reporting is being performed) that the report is being performed.

The DRB-Identity field is used to identify (identify) a DRB used by one UE.

The RLC-beaderconfig field is used to configure one RLC entity, a corresponding logical channel in the MAC, and an association (radio bearer of service) with the PDCP entity.

The SCG failure information message, i.e., scgfailueinformation message, is used to provide information about SCG failure detected by the UE.

The RRC resume request message rrcruumerequest or rrcruumerequest is used to request to resume a suspended RRC connection or to perform a RAN-based notification area (RNA) update. The UE may choose to resume one RRC connection with rrcresemerequest or rrcresemerequest l request based on whether SIB1 sent (signal) usefillresumeid field (filtered). If SIB1 sends a usefull resumeid field (filled), rrcresemerequestl is used to request a restoration of an RRC connection, and if SIB1 does not send a usefull resumeid field (filled), rrcresemerequest is used to request a restoration of an RRC connection.

The RRC resume rrcresse message is used to resume the suspended RRC connection. The RRC reconfiguration message rrcrecon configuration is an instruction to modify the RRC connection.

The UE assistance information message is used to indicate UE assistance information to the network.

The RRC reconfiguration complete message rrcrecnonfigurationcomplete is used to confirm successful completion of RRC connection reconfiguration.

If an upper layer (e.g., RRC layer) indicates activation of SCG (SCG in active state), it may perform: SRS transmission on PSCell, CSI reporting of PSCell, PDCCH monitoring on PSCell, PUCCH transmission on PSCell, etc.

If an upper layer (e.g., RRC layer) indicates that SCG is deactivated, it may perform: deactivating all scells of the SCG, deactivating the SCG, clearing downlink allocations of a PSCell-associated configuration or uplink grants of a type 2 configuration, suspending a PSCell-associated type 1 configuration uplink grant, resetting (reset) MAC, etc.

The SCG in the inactive state does not transmit SRS on PSCell, does not report CSI of PSCell, does not transmit UL-SCH on PSCell, does not transmit PUCCH on PSCell, and the like.

In this disclosure, the UE considering that an SCG or SCell is activated may indicate that the UE instructs the lower layer to activate the SCG or SCell.

It should be noted that in dual connectivity, the UE establishes an RRC connection with only the MN, although it performs data transmission with both network nodes MN and SN. In the MUSIM, the UE may establish RRC connection with the network through each SIM card.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a MUSIM-capable UE in dual connectivity at network a. In fig. 1, a SIM card a of the UE establishes an RRC connection with a network a (denoted as a first network), a SIM card B establishes an RRC connection with a network B (denoted as a second network), and the UE is configured with a dual connection by the network a, which is the MN, and a network C is the SN. The disclosed embodiments are based on the scenario described in fig. 1.

Fig. 2 is an exemplary flowchart for explaining a method performed by a user equipment provided in the first embodiment in the present specification. In a first embodiment, a user equipment is in an RRC connected state in a first network and is configured in the first network to need to perform secondary serving cell group network quality detection. In the first network, the secondary cell group where the user equipment is located is in an inactive state.

As shown in fig. 2, in S202 to S204, secondary cell group network quality detection is performed. Network quality detection may include RLM and BFD.

And when the failure of the auxiliary service cell group is detected, initiating an auxiliary service cell group failure information message transmission process to a first network, wherein the auxiliary service cell group failure information message transmission process is used for sending an auxiliary service cell group failure information message which indicates that the auxiliary service cell group where the user equipment is located in the first network is failed to the first network. For example, it may be determined that a secondary cell group failure is detected when a beam failure is detected.

Specifically, the secondary cell group failure information message transmission procedure may include S206 to S212.

At S206, it is determined whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state. The MUSIM state refers to a state in which the capability of the user equipment is limited, or in other words, a state in which the user equipment can communicate with the first network using only part of its capability. For example, one of the MUSIM states is the following: a user equipment comprising a plurality of SIMs is in an RRC connected state in a first network and maintains an RRC connection with a second network different from the first network, and the user equipment prefers not to release the RRC connection with the second network.

In this specification, it may be determined that the user equipment is in the MUSIM state when any of the following conditions is satisfied: the user equipment is in an RRC connected state in a second network different from the first network; the user equipment performs uplink data transmission or downlink data transmission in the second network; the auxiliary service cell group where the user equipment is located in the first network cannot be activated; the secondary cell group in which the user equipment is located in the first network cannot be configured; the user equipment prefers not to activate the auxiliary service cell group in the first network; the user equipment is in a user equipment capacity limited state in the first network; part of the hardware functionality of the user equipment is occupied and thus not available for data transmission of said user equipment in said first network.

When the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, MUSIM indication information indicating that the user equipment is in the MUSIM state is included in the secondary cell group failure information message at S208. In other words, a secondary cell group failure information message including MUSIM indication information indicating that the user equipment is in a MUSIM state is generated.

As an example, the MUSIM indication message may be included in the secondary serving cell group failure information message by any one of the following: adding a field for indicating that the user equipment is in MUSIM state in the auxiliary service cell group failure information message; in the secondary cell group failure information message, a field for indicating the secondary cell group failure cause is given a value for indicating that the user equipment is in the MUSIM state.

Then, at S212, a secondary cell group failure information message including MUSIM indication information is transmitted to the first network. After receiving the failure information message of the secondary service cell group, the first network can learn that the secondary service cell group of the user equipment has failed, and can configure a new secondary service cell for the user equipment. At this time, since the received secondary cell group failure information message includes MUSIM indication information, the first network considers that the user equipment is in a MUSIM state when configuring a new secondary cell for the user equipment, and avoids configuring an activated SCG for the user equipment. Accordingly, even if the SCG is activated, the SCG is prevented from being used, but the SCG cannot smoothly transmit data due to the occupation of part of hardware resources of the user equipment, and thus, problems such as resource waste and data loss can be prevented.

When the user equipment is not in the MUSIM state, a secondary cell group failure information message that does not include MUSIM indication information indicating that the user equipment is in the MUSIM state is generated at S210. Then, next at S212, a secondary cell group failure information message is sent to the first network that does not include MUSIM indication information indicating that the user equipment is in a MUSIM state.

Fig. 3 is another exemplary flowchart for explaining a method performed by a user equipment provided in the first embodiment in the present specification. Fig. 3 is different from fig. 2 in S304, S302 in fig. 3 is the same as S202 described above, and S306 to S312 are the same as S206 to S212 described above, respectively.

In S304, it is determined whether the detected secondary cell group failure is a beam failure of the PSCell.

When the detected secondary cell group failure is a beam failure of the PSCell, a subsequent secondary cell group failure information message transmission procedure is performed.

Further, in the present specification, whether or not to allow communication with the first network using part of the hardware capability of the user equipment may be configured by the first network. It should be noted that, allowing to use part of the hardware capabilities of the user equipment for communication with the first network may be expressed as that the UE is configured with assistance information reporting that UE capabilities are limited at the first network (or that UE capabilities are limited at the first network or that UE capabilities used at the first network) for MUSIM purposes.

The secondary cell group failure information message transmission procedure, i.e. the operation of determining whether to perform the user equipment in MUSIM state, may be performed in case the user equipment is configured by the first network to allow communication with the first network using only part of the hardware capabilities of the user equipment. Further, when the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, MUSIM indication information indicating that the user equipment is in the MUSIM state is included in the secondary cell group failure information message. In this case, the user equipment needs to notify that it is in the MUSIM state.

On the other hand, in case the user equipment is configured by the first network not to allow communication with the first network using only part of the hardware capabilities of the user equipment or not to allow communication with the first network using only part of the hardware capabilities of the user equipment, the RRC connection with the first network will be released in case the user equipment needs to establish an RRC connection with the second network. That is, in this case, no MUSIM state exists.

Specific examples of the first embodiment will be described below.

Embodiments in which a UE detects PSCell beam failure of an SCG in an inactive state

Embodiment 1 of the present disclosure aims to solve the related problem involved in sending an SCG failure information message to a network a when a UE having at least dual-reception and dual-transmission capability detects PSCell beam failure of an SCG in an inactive state but the UE considers that the priority of the network B is higher when both the network a and the network B are in an RRC connection state, so as to avoid that the network a configures the SCG in the active state for the UE after receiving the SCG failure information message.

Example 1

In this embodiment, the UE is in dual-link at network a, where the SCG is inactive but configured to need to perform beam failure detection and radio link monitoring. Specifically, the UE receives an RRC reconfiguration message from the base station, wherein configuration information of the SCG is included (i.e., the RRC reconfiguration message includes a second-second cell group field or an mrdc-second cell group field), and the SCG is configured to be in an inactive state but needs to perform BFD and RLM (i.e., the configuration information of the SCG includes a BFD-and-RLM field, whose value is set to "true"). The UE configures SCG according to the received RRC reconfiguration message.

When the SCG is in an inactive state and the PSCell beam failure is detected, the UE initiates an SCG failure information transmission process, which specifically comprises at least one of the following steps:

1) Timer T304 of the SCG is stopped (T304 of the SCG is executing while running); t304 starts (start upon reception of RRCRe configuration including reconfigurationWithSync for the SCG not indicated as deactivated in the NR message containing the RRCReconfiguration message) upon receiving an RRC reconfiguration message containing a synchronous reconfiguration for SCG configured to be inactive, and stops when random access is successfully completed or SCG is released on SpCell.

2) Stopping (conditional reconfigu ration evaluation) the conditional reconfiguration assessment of the CPA and/or CPC (performed when the CPA and/or CPC is configured);

3) Initiating transmission of an SCG failure information message.

Transmitting the SCG failure information message SCGFaulureInformation includes the operations of:

the UE sets the content of the scgfaulurenformation message as follows:

if the UE initiates transmission of the scgfailueinformation message because of detection of a beam failure of PSCell while SCG is inactive (if the UE initates transmission of the S CGFaulureInformation message due to beam failure of the PSCell while the SCG is dectivated), it is further determined whether the UE is in MUSIM state. If the UE is in the MUSIM state, the SCGFailureinformation message contains the indication information that the UE is in the MUSIM state, otherwise, the SCGFailureinformation message does not contain the indication information that the UE is in the MUSIM state.

The indication information that the UE is in the MUSIM state may be implemented by the following several embodiments:

in one embodiment, a new field music is added to the scgfailueinformation message to indicate that the UE is in MUSIM state. Specifically, if the UE is in the MUSIM state, the failureType field value in the SCGFailureInformation message for indicating the cause is set to "other" and the failureType-v1610 in the SCGFailureInformation message is set to "beam failure" for further indicating the cause field, and a MUSIM field is included to indicate that the UE is in the MUSIM state or the value of the setting field MUSIM is a value indicating that the UE is in the MUSIM state, for example, "true"; if the UE is not in MUSIM state, the failureType and value are set to "other" and failureType-v1610 is set to "beamFaure", and the SCGFailureinformation message does not contain a music field or the SCGFailureinformation message contains a music field but its value is set to a value corresponding to the UE not being in MUSIM state, e.g., the music field value is "false".

In one embodiment, the value of a field (for example, the failureType-v1610 field) for indicating the reason of the SCG failure is increased, and a new value is set for the field to indicate that the UE is in the MUSIM state or that the UE in the MUSIM state has the SCG beam failure, or that the UE is in the MUSIM state and that the SCG beam failure has occurred. For example, failureType-v1610, when it takes a value of "music", indicates that the UE is in USIM state or that the UE in MUSIM state detects PSCell beam failure of the non-activated SCG.

When the network receives the SCG failure information message, the state of the SCG reconfigured for the UE can be determined according to whether the message contains an indication identifier for indicating that the UE is in the MUSIM state. For example, if the SCG failure information message received by the network includes an indication identifier that the UE is in a MUSIM state, the SCG reconfigured for the UE is set to an inactive state, otherwise, the SCG may be set to an active state.

In the present disclosure, the UE being in a MUSIM state includes: the UE is in RRC connected state in network B, the UE is performing MUSIM operations (i.e., the UE is performing or needs to perform MUSIM operations that cannot be performed within a MUSIM interval), the UE is in RRC connected state in both networks or the SCG cannot be activated or configured, the UE preference (preference) activates the SCG (i.e., the UE preference does not activate the SCG or the UE preference SCG is in an inactive state), part of the UE capability (e.g., transceiver or radio frequency link) is occupied (or occupied by another network), communication with network a may use only part of the UE capability, UE capability of the UE in network a is limited, UE in UE capability limited state in network a, UE preference is limited to UE capability of network a, UE capability is shared among multiple networks simultaneously. In the carrier aggregation scenario, the UE being in a MUSIM state further includes: the UE does not desire to activate the SCell, the UE does not desire to activate the SCell that is co-frequency with the PCell, the UE prefers the SCell to be in an inactive state, the UE prefers the SCell that is co-frequency with the PCell to be in an inactive state.

In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE considers that the priority of the network B is higher includes: the UE does not release RRC connection with network B, the UE prefers to maintain MUSIM state, the UE prefers not to activate SCG, the UE prefers not to activate SCell on different frequency than PSCell. The condition that the UE is in the MUSIM state may be replaced with that the UE considers the priority of the network B to be higher or that the UE is in the MUSIM state and considers the priority of the network B to be higher.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the condition of determining whether the UE is in the MUSIM state may be replaced by determining whether the UE is in the MUSIM state when the UE is configured by the network a to allow the UE to request to enter the MUSIM state, that is, if the UE is configured to allow the UE to request to enter the MUSIM state and the UE is in the MUSIM state, the operation that should be performed when the UE is in the MUSIM state is satisfied in the embodiment is performed. The base station may configure whether to allow the UE to request to enter the MUSIM state (or whether to allow the UE to request to enter the MUSIM state or to be in the UE capability restricted state or whether to allow the UE to request to restrict the UE capability) through the RRC reconfiguration message. Accordingly, the UE is either in MUSIM state or the UE is in RRC connected state only in one of the networks (e.g. network a) or the UE does not perform MUSIM operations or the SCG may be activated or the SCG may be configured or the UE capabilities (e.g. transceiver or radio frequency link) are not occupied by other networks or the communication with network a may use the full UE capabilities or the UE capabilities of the UE in network a are not limited or the UE is not in UE capability limited state in network a or the UE preferences are not limited to the UE capabilities of network a. In the carrier aggregation scenario, the UE not being in the MUSIM state further includes: the SCell may be activated, the SCell may be activated on a different frequency than the PCell, the UE does not prefer the SCell to be in an inactive state, the UE does not prefer the SCell on a different frequency than the PCell to be in an inactive state.

Embodiments in which the UE is in the MUSIM state is replaced with the UE configured to request to enter or exit the MUSIM state and the UE is in the MUSIM state are also within the scope of the protection of the present disclosure, and embodiments in which the UE is not in the MUSIM state is replaced with the UE configured to request to enter or exit the MUSIM state and the UE is not in the MUSIM state or if the UE is not configured to request to enter or exit the MUSIM state are also within the scope of the protection of the present disclosure. The UE requesting to exit the MUSIM state may include: the UE releases the RRC connection at network B, the UE does not perform MUSIM operations (i.e., the UE does not perform or need to perform MUSIM operations that cannot be performed within a MUSIM interval), the UE is in RRC connected state only at the first network or the SCG may be activated or the SCG may be configured, the UE capabilities (e.g., transceiver or radio frequency link) are unoccupied (or occupied by another network), communications with network a may use all UE capabilities, the UE capabilities at network a are not limited, the UE is not in UE capability limited state at network a, and the UE preferences are not limited to the UE capabilities at network a. In the carrier aggregation scenario, the UE not being in the MUSIM state further includes: scells may be activated, scells of different frequencies than PCell may be activated.

Network a may configure for the UE via an RRC reconfiguration message whether to allow the UE to request entry or exit from the MUSIM state or whether to allow the UE to request UE capabilities restricted to the current network. In this case, the network a is configured with information that allows the UE to enter or exit the MUSIM state before the UE can indicate to the network whether the UE is in the MUSIM state. If the UE is configured by the network a to request to enter or exit the MUSIM state, when the UE needs to enter the MUSIM state, an RRC message containing indication information requesting to enter the MUSIM state is transmitted to the network a. For example, if the UE is configured by network a to request to enter the MUSIM state, when the UE needs to establish an RRC connection with network B, the UE may be requested to enter the MUSIM state from network a, and when the UE releases the RRC connection with network B, the UE may be instructed to exit the MUSIM state from network a so that the network a may use the full UE capabilities.

It should be noted that configuring the UE to allow the UE to request to enter or exit from the MUSIM state may be replaced by allowing the UE to request to limit the UE capability in the current network, or allowing the UE to use part of the hardware capability of the UE to communicate with the first network, or configuring the UE to report auxiliary information limiting the UE capability in the first network for MUSIM purpose, or configuring the UE to report auxiliary information limiting the UE capability used in the first network for MUSIM purpose, or configuring the UE to report auxiliary information limiting the UE capability in the first network for MUSIM purpose, and embodiments obtained by any one of these descriptions in the embodiments of the present disclosure are also included in the present specification.

As shown in fig. 4, in S402, an RRC reconfiguration message from the first network is received. Here, the RRC reconfiguration message is used to configure the new secondary cell group and to configure the new secondary cell group to an active state, or to activate the existing secondary cell group. That is, the received RRC reconfiguration message includes configuration information that configures a new secondary cell group and configures the new secondary cell group to an active state, or configuration information that activates an existing secondary cell group.

When the RRC reconfiguration message from the first network is received, it is determined whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state at S404.

If the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, an indication message indicating that the user equipment is in the MUSIM state is sent to the first network at S406.

In one example, when the user equipment is in a MUSIM state, if the RRC reconfiguration message is used to configure the new secondary cell group and configure the new secondary cell group to an active state, the user equipment does not perform secondary cell group configuration indicated by the RRC reconfiguration message. At this time, the indication message includes information that secondary cell group configuration is not performed.

In another example, when the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, if the RRC reconfiguration message is used to configure a new secondary cell group and configure the new secondary cell group to an active state, the user equipment performs secondary cell group configuration indicated by the RRC reconfiguration message, but does not activate the configured new secondary cell group. At this time, the indication message includes information that the new secondary cell group is not activated.

In another example, when the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, if the RRC reconfiguration message is used to activate an existing secondary cell group, the user equipment does not perform secondary cell group activation indicated by the RRC reconfiguration message. At this time, the indication message includes information that secondary cell group activation is not performed.

Furthermore, upon receiving the RRC reconfiguration message, the user equipment may also determine whether its current available resources are sufficient to activate the new secondary cell group or the existing secondary cell group. When the current available resources of the user equipment are sufficient to activate the new secondary cell group or the existing secondary cell group, the new secondary cell group or the existing secondary cell group may be activated regardless of whether the user equipment is in MUSIM mode. The determination as to how the currently available resources are sufficient to activate the new secondary cell group or the existing secondary cell group may be implemented, for example, by internal logic of the user equipment, which may be provided by the providing end of the user equipment. As an example, it may be determined, for example, by whether the occupancy of the hardware resource is below a given threshold or the like.

Furthermore, whether to allow communication with the first network using part of the hardware capabilities of the user equipment may be configured by the first network. The determination of whether to perform the operation of the user equipment in the MUSIM state may be performed in case the user equipment is configured by the first network to allow communication with the first network using only part of the hardware capabilities of the user equipment.

A specific example of the second embodiment will be described below.

Embodiments in which the network configures an active SCG for a UE

Embodiment 2 of the present disclosure aims to solve the related problems involved in configuring SCG for a UE by network a or indicating to UE to activate SCG in inactive state by network a but to UE in MUSIM state when both network a and network B are in RRC connected state, so as to avoid UE in MUSIM state to activate SCG and make SCG states in UE and network a consistent.

Example 2

The present embodiment considers that the UE receives an RRC reconfiguration message rrcreconditioning from the network a, where the RRC reconfiguration message is used to configure the SCG and indicates that the SCG is in an active state or the RRC reconfiguration message is used to activate the SCG, specifically including the following cases:

case one (MN configures and activates SCG): the UE receives an RRC reconfiguration message from network a (MN) (in the embodiment of the present disclosure, an RRC reconfiguration message generated by the MN that is sent in SRB1 and is not included in other RRC messages) that is transmitted on SRB1, wherein configuration information of the SCG is included, i.e., the configuration information of the SCG is provided by including a second cell group field in the RRC reconfiguration message (i.e., the RRC reconfiguration message is generated by the MN), and the SCG is configured to be in an active state. This is for the case where the RRC reconfiguration message is used to configure SCG for the UE, which was not configured before. In this case, if the UE is in the musi state, the UE may configure the SCG according to the configuration information of the SCG carried in the RRC reconfiguration message but not activate the SCG, and the UE indicates to the network a (or MN) that the UE is in the musi state or information related to the SCG being configured but not activated (e.g., indicated in the RRC reconfiguration complete message), or may not configure the SCG but indicate to the network a that the UE is in the musi state or information for indicating that the SCG is not configured (e.g., indicated in the RRC reconfiguration complete message).

For case one, if the UE adopts the configuration SCG but does not activate the SCG, the operations specifically include: if the RRC reconfiguration message does not include mrdc-second cell group pconfig (an optional condition at this time) and if the RRC reconfiguration message does not include SCG-State and the UE is not in a MUSIM State, performing an SCG activation procedure without an SN message; alternatively, if SCG-State is not included in the RRC reconfiguration message and the UE is in MUSIM State, the UE indicates to the network MN that the UE is in MUSIM State or information related to the SCG being configured but not activated (e.g., indicated in the RRC reconfiguration complete rrcrecon configuration complete message), in which case the UE does not activate the SCG.

For the first case, if the UE adopts the non-configured SCG, the method specifically includes: and if the RRC reconfiguration message contains configuration information of the SCG and the SCG is configured to be in a non-activated state, or if the RRC reconfiguration message contains configuration information of the SCG and the SCG is configured to be in an activated state but the UE is not in a MISIM state, performing cell group configuration of the SCG. If mrdc-second cell group configuration (this condition is optional) is not included in the RRC reconfiguration message and if configuration information of SCG is included in the RRC reconfiguration message and SCG-State is not included but the UE is in the MUSIM State, the UE indicates to the network MN that the UE is in the MUSIM State or related information for indicating that SCG is not configured (e.g., indicated in the RRC reconfiguration complete rrcreconditioncomplete message), in which case the UE does not perform cell group configuration of SCG.

Case two (MN activates configured SCG): the UE receives an RRC reconfiguration message from network a (MN) that is transmitted on SRB1, excluding SCG-State to indicate activation of the configured SCG. This is the case for the MN to activate a configured SCG. In this case, if the UE is in MUSIM state and the UE considers the priority of network B to be higher, SCG is not activated. If the UE decides not to activate SCG, the UE indicates to the network MN that the UE is in MUSIM state or information related to the SCG being not activated (e.g. indicated in RRC reconfiguration complete message).

Specifically, if an RRC reconfiguration message is received from SRB1 and the UE is in NR-DC and the RRC reconfiguration message does not contain mrdc-second cell group pconfig (this condition is optional) and if the RRC reconfiguration message does not contain SCG-State and the UE is not in MUSIM State, performing SCG activation procedure without SN message; if an RRC reconfiguration message is received from SRB1 and the UE is in NR-DC and the RRC reconfiguration message does not contain mrdc-second cell group pconfig and if the RRC reconfiguration message does not contain SCG-State but the UE is in MUSIM State, the UE indicates to the network MN that the UE is in MUSIM State or information related to indicating that the SCG is not activated (e.g., indicated in an RRC reconfiguration complete message), in which case the UE does not activate the SCG.

Case three (SN configures SCG and MN activates SCG): the UE receives a first RRC reconfiguration message on SRB1 that includes an nr-SCG field in an mrdc-second cell group field, and does not include a SCG-State field in an RRC message (e.g., a second RRC reconfiguration message) that includes the first RRC reconfiguration message to indicate that the SCG is configured to an active State. This is the case where the configuration information for the SCG is provided entirely by the SN, and the MN configures the SCG in an active state. In this case, if the UE is in MUSIM state, the UE may not configure SCG or the UE configures but does not activate SCG, optionally the UE indicates to the network MN and/or SN that the UE is in MUSIM state or that the SCG is not configured or that the SCG is configured but not activated.

For the third case, if the UE adopts the non-configured SCG, the method specifically includes: if the first RRC reconfiguration message is an RRC reconfiguration message received on SRB1 that includes an nr-SCG field in an mrdc-second cell group field and if the first RRC reconfiguration message includes a second cell group:

if the RRC message comprising the first RRC reconfiguration message comprises SCG-State, performing cell group configuration of SCG; if the RRC message comprising the first RRC reconfiguration message does not comprise SCG-State and the UE is not in MUSIM State, executing cell group configuration of SCG; conversely, if the RRC message including the first RRC reconfiguration message does not include SCG-State and the UE is in a MUSIM State, cell group configuration of SCG is not performed; alternatively, if the first RRC reconfiguration message including the nr-SCG field in the mrdc-second cell group field is received on SRB1, and the RRC message including the first RRC reconfiguration message (e.g., the second RRC reconfiguration message) does not include SCG-State and the UE is in the MUSIM State, the UE indicates to the network MN and/or SN that the UE is in the MUSIM State or that the SCG is not configured.

For case three, if the UE adopts configuration SCG but does not activate SCG specifically includes: if the first RRC reconfiguration message is an RRC reconfiguration message received on an SRBl that includes an nr-SCG field in an mrdc-second cell group field and if the first RRC reconfiguration message includes a second cell group:

if the first RRC reconfiguration message is an RRC reconfiguration message received on SRB1 and including an nr-SCG field in an mrdc-second cell group field, and the RRC message including the first RRC reconfiguration message does not include SCG-State, if the UE is not in a MUSIM State, configuring SCG and performing an SCG activation operation; optionally, if the RRC message including the first RRC reconfiguration message does not include SCG-State, but the UE is in a MUSIM State, the SCG is configured and the UE indicates to the network a (MN and/or SN) that the UE is in the MUSIM State or that the SCG has been configured but not activated.

Case four (SN initiated SCG change and MN activating SCG): the UE receives a first RRC reconfiguration message on SRB1 that includes an nr-SCG field in an mrdc-second cell group field, does not include a SCG-State field in an RRC message (e.g., a second RRC reconfiguration message) that includes the first RRC reconfiguration message to indicate that the SCG is configured to an active State if the speccellconfiguration field in the nr-SCG field includes a reconfigurationWithSync:

If the UE is not in MUSIM state, then random access is initiated (initial) on the PScell.

If the UE is in the MUSIM state, the UE does not initiate random access until exiting the MUSIM state; alternatively, if the UE is in MUSIM state, the UE indicates in the answer message that the UE is in MUSIM state (when the UE does not initiate random access on PSCell). The response message may be an RRC reconfiguration complete message, and the indication information that the UE is in a MUSIM state may be indicated only in the response message sent to the MN, may be indicated only in the response message forwarded to the SN by the MN, or may be indicated both in the response message sent to the MN and in the response message forwarded to the SN by the MN.

In the present disclosure, the MUSIM and DAPS may be restricted from being simultaneously configured, or if the UE is in the MUSIM state, the DAPS handoff may not be configured.

As shown in fig. 5, an RRC reconfiguration message is received from the first network at S502.

Then, at S504, it is determined whether the received RRC reconfiguration message includes configuration information for the secondary cell group.

The configuration information for the secondary cell group may be, for example, configuration information for secondary cell group changes, at which time the RRC reconfiguration message may indicate configuration of the target secondary cell group. The secondary cell group change referred to herein means that at least the primary secondary cell PSCell of the secondary cell group is changed, i.e. from the current primary secondary cell to a target primary secondary cell different from the current primary secondary cell.

The configuration information for the secondary cell group may also be, for example, configuration information for changing the secondary cell group where the user equipment is currently located. At this time, the RRC reconfiguration message may indicate a change to the secondary serving cell group where the user equipment is currently located. Here, changing refers to changing a configurable parameter of a secondary serving cell group where the secondary serving cell group is currently located, for example, configuring the secondary serving cell group to be active, adding or releasing scells of the secondary serving cell group.

When it is determined in S504 that the RRC reconfiguration message includes configuration information for the secondary cell group, it is determined in S506 whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state.

If the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, in S508, no secondary cell group configuration including making the secondary cell group in the active state is performed, and a response message indicating that the user equipment is in the MUSIM state is sent to the network. The non-execution of the synchronization reconfiguration including the activation of the secondary cell group may be, for example, the non-execution of the secondary cell group configuration indicated by the RRC reconfiguration message, or the execution of the secondary cell group configuration without the activation of the secondary cell group (even if the secondary cell group is inactive).

If the RRC reconfiguration message does not include configuration information for the secondary cell group (no in S504) or the user equipment is not in a MUSIM state (no in S506), at S510, the reconfiguration indicated by the RRC reconfiguration message is performed.

A specific example of the third embodiment will be described below.

Handover HO

At least a UE with dual-reception and dual-transmission capability, when both network a and network B are in RRC connected state, receives an RRC reconfiguration message from network a to instruct the UE to perform a synchronous reconfiguration procedure, where the UE includes an indication identifier to activate SCG, but the UE considers that the priority of network B is higher, so as to avoid the UE in MUSIM state to activate SCG and make the SCG states in UE and network a consistent. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, when the UE performs the synchronous reconfiguration or handover, the current MCG or SCG is referred to as a source MCG or a source SCG, and the MCG or SCG to which the synchronous reconfiguration or handover is performed is referred to as a target MCG or a target SCG.

An example of an operation performed by the UE when receiving an RRC reconfiguration message for handover from the MN (i.e., the RRC reconfiguration message includes a masterCellGroup field, and the speccellconfig field included in the masterCellGroup field includes a reconfigurationWithSync field, i.e., synchronous reconfiguration of the MCG) is described below.

In this embodiment, the UE receives an RRC reconfiguration message for handover from the MN, and performs a synchronous reconfiguration (reconfiguration with sync), see in particular the latest version of TS38.331, if one of the following conditions A1-A3 is met;

condition A1: the RRC reconfiguration message does not include configuration information of SCG (i.e., the RRC reconfiguration message does not include a second-second cell group field and an mrdc-second cell group pconfig field).

Condition A2: the RRC reconfiguration message includes configuration information of SCG (i.e., the RRC reconfiguration message includes a second-second cell group field or an mrdc-second cell group pconfig field), and the received RRC reconfiguration message includes a SCG-State field.

Condition A3: the RRC reconfiguration message includes configuration information of SCG (i.e., the RRC reconfiguration message includes a second cell group field or an mrdc-second cell group pconfig field), the received RRC reconfiguration message does not include a SCG-State field, and the UE is not in a MUSIM State.

The UE receives an RRC reconfiguration message for handover from network a (MN), if the following condition B is satisfied:

condition B: the RRC reconfiguration message contains configuration information of SCG, the received RRC reconfiguration message does not contain SCG-State field, and the UE is in MUSIM State.

In one embodiment, the UE indicates in the response message that the UE is in the MUSIM state-related information (at this time, the UE does not perform synchronous reconfiguration, the RRC reconfiguration procedure ends, and optionally, the UE resumes its original configuration); in another embodiment, the UE performs MCG synchronization reconfiguration and configures the SCG but does not activate or configure the SCG, and indicates in the reply message information related to the UE being in a MUSIM state or information indicating that the SCG has been configured but not activated or information indicating that the SCG has not been configured. The acknowledgement message may be an RRC reconfiguration complete message rrcrecon configuration complete.

SCG change

At least a dual-reception and dual-transmission capable UE, when both the first network (denoted as network a) and the second network (denoted as network B) are in RRC connected state, receives an RRC reconfiguration message from network a to instruct the UE to perform an SCG change procedure, but the UE is in MUSIM state, to avoid the related problems involved in the UE in MUSIM state activating SCG and making the SCG states in the UE and network a consistent.

An embodiment of an operation performed by the UE when receiving an RRC reconfiguration message for changing SCG from the MN (i.e., the RRC reconfiguration message contains a second-second cell group field or an mrdc-second cell group pconfig field, and the second-second cell group field or the mrdc-second cell group pconfig field contains a reconfigurationwisync field, i.e., synchronous reconfiguration of SCG) is described in detail below.

In this embodiment, the UE receives an RRC reconfiguration message from network a (MN) to change SCG, and performs SCG synchronization reconfiguration (reconfiguration with sync) (also referred to as SCG change), see in particular the latest version of TS38.331, if one of the following conditions C1-C4 is met; :

condition C1: the received RRC reconfiguration message includes a scg-State field.

Condition C2: the received RRC reconfiguration message does not include a scg-State field and the UE is not in a MUSIM State.

Condition C3: the RRC message comprising the RRC reconfiguration message comprises a scg-State field.

Condition C4: the RRC message including the RRC reconfiguration message does not include a scg-State field, and the UE is not in MUSIM State.

The UE receives an RRC reconfiguration message from the MN to change SCG if one of the following conditions D1-D2 is met:

condition D1: the received RRC reconfiguration message does not contain scg-State field, and the UE is in MUSIM State.

Condition D2: the RRC message including the RRC reconfiguration message does not include a scg-State field, and the UE is in a MUSIM State.

In one embodiment, the UE indicates, in the response message, information related to the UE being in a MUSIM state (at this time, the UE does not perform SCG synchronization reconfiguration, the RRC reconfiguration procedure ends, and optionally, the UE resumes the original configuration) or information related to the SCG synchronization reconfiguration not being performed; in another embodiment, the UE performs the SCG sync reconfiguration according to the RRC reconfiguration message but considers the SCG to be deactivated, i.e. performs the RRC reconfiguration message according to the case that the RRC reconfiguration message contains the SCG-State field but considers the SCG to be deactivated, and the UE indicates in the acknowledgement message information about the UE being in the MUSIM State or information about that the SCG sync reconfiguration has been performed but the SCG is not activated. The acknowledgement message may be an RRC reconfiguration complete message rrcrecon configuration complete. The indication information that the UE is in the MUSIM state may be indicated only in the response message sent to the MN, may be indicated only in the response message forwarded to the SN by the MN, or may be indicated both in the response message sent to the MN and in the response message forwarded to the SN by the MN. In yet another embodiment, the UE initiates an SCG failure information transmission procedure, indicating in the SCG failure information message that the UE is in a MUSIM state.

In the embodiment of the disclosure, the RRC message including the RRC reconfiguration message may be an RRC reconfiguration message or an RRC recovery message.

A fourth embodiment of the present specification provides a method of performing a conditional synchronization reconfiguration by a user equipment, comprising: when the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, the conditional reconfiguration is not performed even if the user equipment is configured to require the conditional reconfiguration to be performed; and performing the condition reconfiguration when the user equipment is not in the MUSIM state and the user equipment is configured to be required to perform the condition reconfiguration, and an evaluation result after the condition evaluation of performing the condition reconfiguration is that the reconfiguration condition is satisfied.

Specific examples of the fourth embodiment are described below with reference to fig. 6 and 7.

As shown in fig. 6, in S602 to S604, it is determined whether the user equipment is in the MUSIM state.

When the user equipment is not in the MUSIM state, evaluation of the condition reconfiguration is performed at S606. And, at S608, it is determined whether the evaluation result is that the reconfiguration condition is satisfied.

When the evaluation result is that the reconfiguration condition is satisfied, at S610, the condition reconfiguration is performed.

When the user equipment is in the MUSIM state (yes in S604) or the reconfiguration condition is not satisfied (no in S608), at S612, the condition reconfiguration is not performed. Thereby, activation of SCG after performing a conditional reconfiguration is avoided.

As shown in fig. 7, in S702, when the user equipment is configured to need to perform the condition reconfiguration, evaluation of the condition reconfiguration is performed. And, at S704, it is determined whether the evaluation result of the condition reconfiguration is that the reconfiguration condition is satisfied.

When the evaluation result of the condition reconfiguration is that the reconfiguration condition is satisfied, it is determined whether the user equipment is in the MUSIM state at S708.

If the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, at S712, no conditional reconfiguration is performed. Thereby, activation of SCG after performing a conditional reconfiguration is avoided. If the user equipment is not in the MUSIM state, at S710, a conditional reconfiguration is performed.

Further, when the reconfiguration condition is not satisfied, the condition reconfiguration is also not performed.

In this embodiment, when the user equipment is instructed to perform the conditional reconfiguration and the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, a message indicating that the user equipment is in the MUSIM state may be transmitted to the network.

In the case where the user equipment is configured by the first network to allow communication with the first network using only a part of the hardware capability of the user equipment, if it is determined that the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, the conditional reconfiguration corresponding to the conditional reconfiguration information is not performed even if the user equipment is configured to require the conditional reconfiguration. This is to avoid activating the secondary cell group after performing the conditional reconfiguration.

A specific example of the fourth embodiment will be described below.

Condition synchronous reconfiguration/condition PSCell increase/condition SCG change (CHO/CPA/CPC)

At least a UE with dual-reception and dual-transmission capability is configured with CHO or CPA or CPC when both the first network (denoted as network a) and the second network (denoted as network B) are in RRC connected state, and when CHO or CPA or CPC conditions are met, but the UE is in MUSIM state, the related problems involved are avoided that the UE in MUSIM state activates SCG, so that the SCG states in UE and network a are consistent. The conditional reconfiguration described in the following embodiments includes: CHO, CPA, CPC.

In one embodiment, the UE stops the evaluation of the conditional reconfiguration when the UE is in a MUSIM state or is configured by network a into (or in) a MUSIM state. In other words, when the UE is in the MUSIM state or is configured by network a to enter (or be in) the MUSIM state, if conditional reconfiguration is configured, the UE stops the evaluation of the conditional reconfiguration. This is because if the UE performs an evaluation of the condition reconfiguration, CHO or CPA needs to be performed when the UE detects that the condition is satisfied, both of which may activate SCG. When the UE exits the MUSIM state (or the UE is not in the MUSIM state or sends a request to the network a to exit the MUSIM state), the UE initiates evaluation of the conditional reconfiguration if it is configured. Alternatively, evaluation of the CHO conditional reconfiguration is stopped only if the configuration information of SCG is contained in the RRC reconfiguration message of CHO execution but SCG-State is not contained.

In one embodiment, if the UE is configured with a conditional reconfiguration and an evaluation condition for the conditional reconfiguration is satisfied, if the UE is not in a MUSIM state, a conditional reconfiguration execution procedure is started. If the UE is configured with the condition reconfiguration and the evaluation condition of the condition reconfiguration is satisfied, if the UE is in the MUSIM state, the UE indicates to the network a that the UE is in the MUSIM state-related information or the condition reconfiguration is performed when the UE exits the MUSIM state. Specifically, the condition reconfiguration evaluation condition is satisfied in such a manner that for each condReconfigID in the variable VarConditionalReconfig, events associated with all measIds in the condtriggerConfig of the target candidate cell in the saved condRRCReconfig are satisfied. Optionally, when the evaluation condition of CHO is satisfied, if the configuration information of SCG is included in the RRC reconfiguration message for performing CHO, the condition reconfiguration is performed when the UE exits the MUSIM state or information related to the UE being in the MUSIM state is indicated to the network a.

A fifth embodiment will be described below with reference to fig. 8 to 10.

As shown in fig. 8, at S802, a secondary serving cell activation indication is received from a first network.

Upon receiving the secondary serving cell activation indication from the first network, it is determined whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state at S804. Here, the secondary serving cell indicated by the secondary serving cell activation indication may transmit data with inter-frequency carrier aggregation with other secondary serving cells or special serving cells in the first network in which the user equipment is in an active state.

When the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, in S806, secondary serving cell activation indicated by the secondary serving cell activation indication is not performed, and an indication message indicating that it is in the MUSIM state is transmitted to the first network.

When the user equipment is not in the MUSIM state, secondary serving cell activation indicated by the secondary serving cell activation indication is performed at S808.

The secondary serving cell activation indication may be included in an RRC reconfiguration message, which may include addition configuration information for adding the secondary serving cell. At this time, the secondary serving cell may be added with reference to the flow of fig. 9.

As shown in fig. 9, in S902, a corresponding secondary serving cell is added based on the addition configuration information.

At S904, it is determined whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state.

When the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, the added secondary serving cell is put in an inactive state S906. When the user equipment is not in the MUSIM state, the added secondary serving cell is put in an active state in S908.

The RRC reconfiguration message may also include modification configuration information for modifying the secondary serving cell. In this case, the secondary serving cell may be modified with reference to the flow of fig. 10.

As shown in fig. 10, at S1002, a corresponding secondary serving cell is modified based on the modification configuration information. At S1004, it is determined whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state.

When the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, the modified secondary serving cell is put in an inactive state at S1006. When the user equipment is not in the MUSIM state, the modified secondary serving cell is put in an active state at S1008.

In one example, secondary serving cell activation indicated by the secondary serving cell activation indication may be performed when the current available resources of the user equipment are sufficient to perform the secondary serving cell activation, regardless of whether the user equipment is in MUSIM mode.

Further, in one example, the operation of determining whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state is performed in a case where the user equipment is configured by the first network to allow communication with the first network using a part of hardware capabilities of the user equipment. In case the user equipment is configured by the first network to allow communication with the first network using only part of the hardware capabilities of the user equipment or in case the first network is not configured to allow communication with the first network using only part of the hardware capabilities of the user equipment, performing secondary serving cell activation corresponding to the secondary serving cell activation indication when receiving the secondary serving cell activation indication from the first network.

A specific example of the fifth embodiment will be described below.

The following considers SCell configuration and activation scenarios in the case of carrier aggregation CA

At least a UE with dual-reception and dual-transmission capability receives an indication from network a to activate SCell when both the first network (denoted network a) and the second network (denoted network B) are in RRC connected state, but in MUSIM state, the related problems are involved to avoid the UE in MUSIM state to activate SCell and to make the state of SCell consistent in UE and network.

The UE working under carrier aggregation receives an indication of activating an SCell from a network, and if the UE is not in MUSIM state, the UE configures a lower layer to consider the SCell to be in an activated state or activate the SCell; if the UE is in a MUSIM state, the UE transmits indication information to the network to indicate that the UE is in a MUSIM state or that the SCell is not active (the indication information may contain specific cell identification information), in which case the UE does not activate the SCell. It should be noted that, the scenario considered here is that the network indicates that the activated SCell and the SCell or PSCell currently in the activated state in the UE are aggregated by using inter-frequency carriers, in other words, UE capability or resources of the UE currently in the MUSIM state cannot support activation of the SCell/scells or even if the scells are activated, and data cannot be received or transmitted from the scells due to the limited UE capability.

The indication of the activation of the SCell may be a sCellState field contained in an RRC reconfiguration message, or may be an SCell activation/deactivation MAC control element CE or an enhanced SCell activation/deactivation MAC CE.

The UE receives the RRC reconfiguration message from the base station, which includes a CellGroupConfig field (which may be included in the masterCellGroup field), based on the received CellGroupConfig field, the UE performs the following operations:

if the sCellToAddModList field is contained in the CellGroupConfig field, SCell addition or modification is performed. The SCell addition or modification includes the following operations:

for each sCellIndex value contained in sCellToAddModList that is not part of the current UE configuration (this is the case for SCell addition), at least one of the following operations is performed:

(1) Scells corresponding to sCellIndex are increased according to sCellConfigCommon and sCellConfigDedicated.

(2) If sCellState is included (i.e., SCell is configured to active state) and the UE is not in MUSIM state, the lower layer is configured to consider SCell to be active. If sCellState is included but the UE is in MUSIM state, or SCell is not included (i.e., SCell is configured to inactive state), the lower layer is configured to consider SCell to be inactive state.

For each sCellIndex value contained in sCellToAddModList that is part of the current UE configuration (this is the case for SCell modification), at least one of the following operations is performed:

(1) The SCG configuration is modified according to sCellConfigDedicated.

(2) If sCellToAddModList is received from the RRC reconfiguration message containing reconfiguration wistsync or from the RRC reconfiguration message containing reconfiguration wistsync and the RRC reconfiguration message is contained in another RRC reconfiguration message:

if sCellState is contained therein and the UE is not in MUSIM state, the lower layer is configured to consider SCell in active state.

If sCellState is included but UE is in MUSIM state or sCellState is not included, the lower layer is configured to consider SCell inactive.

The UE indicates in the answer message information about the UE being in MUSIM state or about the SCell not being activated (optionally this is performed only if the SCell is configured in inactive state but the UE is in MUSIM). The acknowledgement message may be an RRC reconfiguration complete message rrcrecon configuration complete.

In one embodiment, if the UE receives an RRC message from the network to configure and activate an SCell with a different frequency than PSCell, the SCell is not configured at the UE, and an indication that the UE is in a MUSIM state or that the SCell is configured is sent to the network, optionally including an unconfigured SCell identifier. In other words, if the UE receives an RRC message from the network to configure (or activate) an SCell of the same frequency as the PSCell, the SCell is configured (or activated) at the UE.

The following considerations apply to the reception of SCell activation/deactivation MAC CE or enhancement by UE from base station Scene of SCell activation/deactivation MAC CE

For each configured SCell, the MAC entity performs the following operations:

if the SCell is configured in an activated state when the SCell is configured, i.e., the SCell is configured with sCellState with a value set to "activated" (i.e., a value indicating activation of SCell), or one SCell activation/deactivation MAC CE or enhanced SCell activation/deactivation MAC CE is received to activate the SCell, the following operations are performed:

(1) If the UE is not in MUSIM state, further, at least one of the following operations is performed if (a) if an SCell is deactivated before receiving one SCell activation/deactivation MAC CE or an enhanced SCell activation/deactivation MAC CE, or (B) if sCellState where the SCell is configured is set to "activated" at SCell configuration:

(a) If the first ActiveDownlinkBWP-Id is not set to dormant BWP, the SCell is activated; otherwise, stopping bwp-InactivaityTImer of the service cell;

(b) The downstream part bandwidth BWP and upstream BWP indicated by the first ActiveDownlink BWP-Id and the first ActiveUpLinkBWP-Id are activated.

(2) Otherwise (i.e. the UE is in MUSIM state), information indicating to the network that the UE is in MUSIM state or related information indicating that the SCell is not activated, at which time the SCell is not activated. Specifically, one MAC CE may be defined or an existing MAC CE may be reused, where the MAC CE carries information for indicating that the UE is in a MUSIM state or related information indicating that the SCell is not activated.

In this disclosure, deactivation and deactivation are synonymous and may be used interchangeably.

As shown in fig. 11, at S1102, it is determined whether there is uplink data that needs to be transmitted through the SCG DRB in the first network.

When the user equipment has uplink data which needs to be transmitted through the SCG DRB in the first network, determining whether a preset condition is met. That is, in S1104, it is determined whether the secondary service cell group corresponding to the SCG DRB is in an inactive state. If the secondary cell group is in an inactive state, it is determined whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state at S1106.

If the above predetermined condition is satisfied, at S1110, uplink data indication information of the SCG DRB is transmitted to the first network, the uplink data indication information being used to indicate to the first network that uplink data for the SCG DRB arrives. Here "arrival" is relative to the transceiving module of the user equipment (e.g. the RRC entity of the user equipment for this RRC connection determines that there is uplink data for the SCG DRB to send). After the first network receives the uplink data indication information, the first network may configure corresponding MCG resources for the first network to use for transmitting uplink data.

If the SCG is in the active state (no in S1104), then in S1108, uplink data is transmitted through the SCG in the active state.

When the secondary cell group corresponding to the SCG DRB is in the inactive state, but the user equipment is not in the MUSIM state, that is, when S1104 is determined to be yes but S1106 is determined to be no, an indication message indicating that there is uplink data to be transmitted through the SCG DRB is sent to the first network in S1112, the indication message being used to indicate that the UE has uplink data for the deactivated SCG. The first network may configure the activated SCG for the user equipment for transmitting the uplink data when receiving the indication message.

The uplink data indication information may include, for example, identification information of SCG DRBs for uplink data or logical channel identification of SCG RLC entities.

In one example, the predetermined condition may include any one of the following in addition to the conditions shown in S1104 and S1106: the user equipment has not sent uplink data indication information to the network for uplink data; after the user equipment enters the current MUSIM state, uplink data indication information is not sent to the network for the uplink data; and the prohibition timer for prohibiting the transmission of the uplink data indication information is not in an operating state, and is started when the uplink data indication information is transmitted. The prohibit timer is used for limiting the frequency of transmitting the uplink data indication information and avoiding too frequent information transmission.

In one example, the first network may instruct the user equipment to exit the MUSIM state by a MUSIM state release indication. The ue may choose whether to exit the MUSIM state according to its own preference when receiving the MUSIM state release indication. The following description refers to fig. 12.

At S1202, a MUSIM state release indication is received from a first network.

Upon receiving the MUSIM state release instruction, at S1204, it is determined whether the MUSIM state can be exited. In other words, at S1204, it is determined whether the current user equipment prefers to exit the MUSIM state.

If yes is determined at S1204, at S1206, the MUSIM state is exited in response to the MUSIM state release indication to enable activation of the corresponding secondary cell group in the first network. And, next, at S1208, a response message is sent to the first network indicating that the MUSIM state has been exited.

When the user equipment determines that the MUSIM state cannot be exited (no in S1204), a request message indicating that the MUSIM state is maintained is transmitted to the first network at S1210. The request message may include information indicating that the user equipment is still in MUSIM state. For example, when the user equipment considers that there is more urgent data to be transmitted in a second network different from the first network or considers that the priority of the data transmitted in the second network is higher, it may be determined that the current preference does not exit the MUSIM-like portal.

Further, in one example, if the user equipment is configured by the first network if it is allowed to communicate with the first network using part of its hardware capabilities, the predetermined condition comprises that the user equipment is in a MUSIM state, if the user equipment is configured by the first network to allow communication with the first network using only part of its hardware capabilities. In case the user equipment is configured by the first network not to allow communication with the first network using only part of the hardware capabilities of the user equipment or not to allow communication with the first network using only part of the hardware capabilities of the user equipment, the RRC connection with the first network is released if the user equipment prefers to maintain the RRC connection with the second network.

Specific examples of the sixth embodiment are described in detail below.

The following describes a scenario when the uplink data of SCG DRB arrives but the UE is in MUSIM state

The UE in MUSIM state is in dual connectivity state at network a, SCG is deactivated, when the UE has an uplink data arrival for a data radio bearer DRB without MCG RLC bearer and the UE has not yet sent an indication to the network for an uplink data arrival of the DRB (the condition may alternatively be that the UE has not yet sent an indication to the network for an uplink data arrival of the DRB after last entry into MUSIM state or after last change of MUSIM state or that the UE has not sent an indication to the network for an uplink data arrival of the DRB before this), if a prohibit timer is not running (this condition is optional), the UE indicates to network a uplink data arrival for the DRB, which may contain a DRB identity or a corresponding logical channel identity of the DRB, optionally the prohibit timer is started.

Specifically, if the SCG is deactivated and the UE has uplink data for the SCG RLC entity to send but before this the UE does not have uplink data for the SCG RLC entity to send (the condition may be alternatively that after the UE has last entered the MUSIM state or the UE has not yet sent an indication to the network after the last change of MUSIM state for uplink data arrival of the SCG RLC entity or that before this the UE has not sent an indication to the network for uplink data arrival of the SCG RLC entity), and a prohibit timer is not running (this condition is optional), a transmit UE assistance information message is started to indicate that the UE has uplink data for DRB not included in any RLC-BearerConfig in the cell GroupConfig of the associated MCG, optionally the prohibit timer is started.

The following describes a procedure for transmitting UE assistance information messages:

if the UE auxiliary information message is started to transmit the indication that the UE has uplink data related to the inactive SCG, further, if the UE is in a MUSIM state, the UE auxiliary information message includes an identifier of an SCG DRB to which uplink data is to be transmitted or a logical channel identifier of an SCG RLC entity to which uplink data is to be transmitted; otherwise (UE is not in MUSIM state), the UE assistance information message contains an uplink data field for indicating that the UE has uplink data for SCG RLC entity or deactivated SCG to send.

When the SCG is deactivated and the UE is not in the MUSIM state, the UE need only include an uplink data field in the UE assistance information message indicating that the UE has uplink data for the SCG RLC entity to send, and the network may activate the SCG after receiving this message. However, when the SCG is deactivated and the UE is in the MUSIM state, the UE needs to include an identifier indicating that there is an SCG DRB to be sent for uplink data of the SCG RLC entity in the UE or an identifier of a corresponding logical channel in the UE auxiliary information message, and after receiving this message, the network may reconfigure the SCG DRB to be an MCG DRB or separate DRB (i.e. increase the MCG RLC bearer for the SCG DRB), thereby reducing the transmission delay of the SCG DRB.

In the present disclosure, a data radio bearer DRB without an MCG RLC bearer refers to an SCG DRB or an SCG RLC entity, i.e., an associated RLC bearer is only a DRB in an SCG, i.e., a DRB configured with only an SCG RLC bearer, i.e., a DRB-Identity is not included in any RLC-beaererconfig in a CellGroupConfig of an associated MCG, which expressions are used interchangeably. Further, in the embodiments of the present disclosure, an operation of starting a prohibit timer and a UE starting a UE assistance information message to indicate uplink data arrival of the DRB may be exchanged. RLC bearers and RLC entities may be used interchangeably.

The following considers the scenario when SCG DRB downlink data arrives but the UE is in MUSIM state

When the UE is in the MUSIM state, if the network a needs to perform a high priority service or an emergency service at the SCG, for example, there is a downlink data arrival for the SCG DRB at the network a, the network a needs to indicate related information to the UE, so that the UE can decide whether to release the RRC connection with another network or release the UE capability restriction at the network a according to the indication information.

Specifically, the UE receives an RRC message, such as an RRC reconfiguration message, from the network, which includes a field for indicating that the UE exits the MUSIM state or that the UE releases the UE capability restriction in network a. The UE may indicate in the reply message that the UE exits or remains MUSIM state or that the UE releases or maintains (or requests) the capability restriction at network a. The acknowledgement message may be an RRC reconfiguration complete message or a UE assistance information message.

In S1302, an RRC restoration request message requesting restoration of an RRC connection with the first network is transmitted to the first network.

Then, in S1304, an RRC recovery message from the first network is received.

Next, in S1306, it is determined whether the received RRC restore message indicates activation of the secondary serving cell group.

When the RRC restore message indicates that the secondary cell group is activated, it is determined whether the user prefers not to activate the secondary cell group at S1308.

If the user equipment preference does not activate the secondary cell group, at S1310, an indication information indicating that the user equipment preference does not activate the secondary cell group is transmitted to the first network. In one example, the indication information further includes information representing any one of: the new secondary cell group indicated by the RRC restore message is not configured; the new secondary cell group indicated by the RRC restore message is configured but not activated; the existing secondary cell group indicated by the RRC restore message is not restored; the existing secondary serving cell indicated by the RRC restore message is restored but not activated.

If the RRC restore message does not indicate activation of the secondary cell group, or the RRC restore message indicates activation of the secondary cell group but the user equipment does not prefer to deactivate the secondary cell group, then in S1312, the RRC connection with the first network is restored according to the received RRC restore message.

In one example, if the user equipment preference does not activate the secondary cell group, any of the following may be performed: when the RRC recovery message indicates to configure a new auxiliary service cell group, configuring the new auxiliary service cell but not activating the new auxiliary service cell group according to the RRC recovery message; when the RRC recovery message indicates to configure the new auxiliary service cell group, the configuration of the new auxiliary service cell group indicated by the RRC recovery message is not executed; when the RRC recovery message indicates to recover the existing auxiliary service cell group, not executing the recovery of the existing auxiliary service cell group indicated by the RRC recovery message; when the RRC restore message indicates restoration of an existing secondary cell group, the existing secondary cell group indicated by the RRC restore message is restored, but is not activated.

In one example, in a case where data is transmitted using inter-frequency carrier aggregation between a secondary serving cell indicated by an RRC restore message and other secondary serving cells or primary serving cells PCell in an active state in which a user equipment is located in a first network, when the RRC restore message indicates that the active secondary serving cell and the primary serving cell operate in different frequency bands, if the user equipment prefers not to activate the secondary serving cell, indication information indicating that the user equipment prefers not to activate the secondary serving cell is transmitted to the first network.

In one example, if the configuration is made by the first network to allow communication with the first network using a portion of the hardware capabilities of the user equipment, in case the user equipment is configured by the first network to allow communication with the first network using only a portion of the hardware capabilities of the user equipment, when the RRC restore message indicates activation of the secondary cell group, if the user equipment prefers not to activate the secondary cell group, an indication information indicating that the user equipment prefers not to activate the secondary cell group may be sent to the first network.

As shown in fig. 14, it is determined whether the user prefers not to activate the secondary cell group.

If the user equipment preference does not activate the secondary cell group, at S1404, an RRC restoration request message is sent to the first network requesting restoration of the RRC connection in the first network, the RRC restoration request message including indication information indicating that the user equipment preference does not activate the secondary cell group. Otherwise, if the user equipment does not prefer not to activate the secondary cell group, in S1406, an RRC restoration request message that does not include the above indication information is transmitted. As an example, the case where the user equipment preference does not activate the secondary cell group may include the user equipment being in a MUSIM state.

In one example, if whether to allow communication with the first network using a portion of the hardware capabilities of the user equipment is configured by the first network, if the user equipment prefers not to activate the secondary cell group, an RRC recovery request message including indication information indicating that the user equipment prefers not to activate the secondary cell group may be sent to the first network, in case the user equipment is configured by the first network to allow communication with the first network using only a portion of the hardware capabilities of the user equipment.

Then, in S1408, an RRC recovery message from the first network is received.

And, in S1410, the RRC connection with the first network is restored based on the RRC restore message.

In one example, if it is determined from the context information held by the user equipment that the secondary cell group needs to be activated when entering the RRC connected state in the first network and the user equipment does not prefer to activate the secondary cell group, then indication information indicating that the user equipment does not prefer to activate the secondary cell group is included in the RRC recovery request message. This is to avoid that the first network is configured to activate the secondary cell group when providing the user equipment with a configuration for recovering the RRC connection.

In case of transmitting an RRC restoration request message requesting restoration of an RRC connection in the first network to the first network, if it is determined that the user equipment is in a dual connection state in the first network, configuration information on the dual connection state is released.

Specific examples of the seventh and eighth embodiments are described in detail below.

The following considers the scenario where a UE in MUSIM state requests to resume RRC connection at network a

The UE is in an RRC inactive state (i.e., RRC connection is suspended) in network a and in an RRC connected state in network B. The UE sends an RRC restoration request rrcrecumruest message to network a requesting restoration of the RRC connection at network a. After receiving the resume request message, the network a may send an RRC resume message to the UE to resume the suspended RRC connection. In the RRC recovery message, it may be indicated whether SCG is activated. If the activation of SCG is indicated in the RRC resume message, since the UE is in MUSIM state, if the UE considers the priority of network B to be higher, the RRC connection with network B will not be released, resulting in the UE being unable to communicate with SCG in network a. But network a considers that SCG is activated and data transmission takes place on SCG, while the UE is not able to receive data transmitted on SCG, which would result in wasting resources of network a.

The following provides examples to address this problem.

In one embodiment, if the UE is in a MUSIM state or the UE prefers not to activate SCG (or prefers SCG to be in an inactive state), an indication information is included in the RRC resume request message, to indicate that the UE is in a MUSIM state or the UE prefers not to activate SCG or prefers SCG to be in an inactive state.

Specifically, the UE sets the content of the RRC resume request message as follows: if the UE is in MUSIM state, the RRC recovery request message contains indication information for indicating that the UE is in MUSIM state or indication information whether to prefer to activate SCG. Specifically, a new field may be defined for indicating that the UE is in MUSIM state or prefers not to activate SCG or prefers that SCG be in inactive state. If the UE is in MUSIM state or the UE prefers not to activate SCG or prefers SCG to be in inactive state, the field is included in the RRC resume request message, otherwise the field is not included in the RRC resume request message. Optionally, the UE may include, in the RRC resume request message, the UE in a MUSIM state or indication information indicating that the SCG is preferred to be inactive or preferred to be inactive, only when the SCG is in an active state in the context stored by the UE or the SCG is in an active state before the UE enters the RRC inactive state.

The UE delivers the RRC resume request message for transmission to the lower layer.

It should be noted that, when the embodiment is applied to the scenario of carrier aggregation, the indication information is used to indicate that the UE is in a MUSIM state or the UE prefers not to activate the SCell with different frequency from the PCell. Alternatively, the indication information is included in the RRC recovery request message only when an SCell different from the PCell exists in the configured scells.

As a modification of the above embodiment, the indication information is included in the RRC restoration request message only when the UE prefers to activate SCG or prefers SCG to be in an active state, so as to indicate that the UE prefers to activate SCG or prefers SCG to be in an active state.

In one embodiment, if the UE receives an RRC resume rrcresse message from the base station, which does not contain an indication SCG-State that the configuration SCG is in an inactive State, the UE does not activate the SCG if the UE is in a MUSIM State. Optionally, the UE sends indication information to the network, for indicating that the UE is in a MUSIM state or that the SCG is inactive or that the SCG is not configured. The indication information may be included in an RRC restoration complete message.

In this embodiment, if the UE is in the MUSIM state, the UE may configure or restore the SCG according to the received RRC restore message, or may not configure or restore the SCG. Specifically, if the RRC restoration message includes a reservecg and the UE is not in a MUSIM state, the UE restores mrdc-second cell group from the UE inactive AS context (context). In other words, if the RRC restore message contains the reservecg and the UE is in the MUSIM state, or the RRC restore message does not contain the reservecg, the MR-DC related configuration is released from the UE inactive AS context.

Wherein the reservecg field is used to indicate the UE to restore (restore) SCG configuration from the UE inactive AS context.

In one embodiment, the UE sends an RRC resume request message to network a and receives an RRC resume message from the network. If the UE has MUSIM capability or the UE is a multi-SIM configured UE (the UE has reported its multi-SIM capability to the network), the configuration SCG in the RRC recovery message is in an inactive State, i.e. the RRC recovery message contains a SCG-State field. In other words, for a UE configured with MUSIM, only SCG in inactive state or no SCG can be configured when RRC connection is restored.

In one embodiment, the UE releases the MR-DC related configuration from the UE inactive AS context when initiating the RRC connection recovery procedure if the UE is in NR-DC and the UE is in MUSIM state.

In one embodiment, if the UE receives an RRC recovery message from the base station, which includes an indication sCellState that an SCell configured with a different frequency than the PCell is in an active state, if the UE is in a MUSIM state, the UE does not activate the SCell or configure but does not activate the SCell or does not configure the SCell. Optionally, the UE sends indication information to the network, for indicating that the UE is in a MUSIM state or that the SCell is not activated or that the SCell is not configured or that the SCell is configured but not activated. The indication information may be an identification of an inactive or unconfigured SCell, and the indication information may be included in an RRC recovery complete message.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, releasing MR-DC related configuration from a UE inactive AS context includes: release SRB3 (for the case that SRB3 has been established), release measConfig of SCG association, release SCG configuration, etc.

Fig. 15 is a block diagram of a user equipment provided in the present specification. As shown in fig. 15, the user equipment UE40 includes a processor 151 and a memory 152. Processor 151 may include, for example, a microprocessor, microcontroller, embedded processor, or the like. The memory 42 may include, for example, volatile memory (such as random access memory RAM), a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), non-volatile memory (such as flash memory), or other memory. The memory 152 has stored thereon program instructions. Which, when executed by the processor 151, may perform the above-described method performed by the user equipment described in detail herein.

In the embodiments of the present disclosure, if it is necessary to determine whether or not a plurality of conditions are satisfied before performing a certain operation or operations, embodiments in which the order of execution of these determination conditions is exchanged are also within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

The program running on the apparatus according to the present invention may be a program for causing a computer to realize the functions of the embodiments of the present invention by controlling a Central Processing Unit (CPU). The program or information processed by the program may be temporarily stored in a volatile store such as a random access memory RAM, a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), a nonvolatile store such as a flash memory, or other memory system.

Computer-executable instructions or programs for implementing the functions of the embodiments of the present disclosure may be recorded on a computer-readable storage medium. The corresponding functions can be realized by causing a computer system to read programs recorded on the recording medium and execute the programs. The term "computer system" as used herein may be a computer system embedded in the device and may include an operating system or hardware (e.g., peripheral devices). The "computer-readable storage medium" may be a semiconductor recording medium, an optical recording medium, a magnetic recording medium, a recording medium storing a program dynamically at a short time, or any other recording medium readable by a computer.

The various features or functional modules of the apparatus used in the embodiments described above may be implemented or performed by circuitry (e.g., single-chip or multi-chip integrated circuits). Circuits designed to perform the functions described herein may include a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The circuit may be a digital circuit or an analog circuit. Where new integrated circuit technologies are presented as an alternative to existing integrated circuits due to advances in semiconductor technology, one or more embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented using these new integrated circuit technologies.

Further, the present disclosure is not limited to the above-described embodiments. Although various examples of the embodiments have been described, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Fixed or non-mobile electronic devices installed indoors or outdoors may be used as terminal devices or communication devices such as AV devices, kitchen devices, cleaning devices, air conditioners, office devices, vending machines, and other home appliances, etc.

As above, the embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the specific structure is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the present disclosure also includes any design modifications without departing from the gist of the present disclosure. In addition, various modifications can be made to the present disclosure within the scope of the claims, and embodiments obtained by appropriately combining the technical means disclosed in the different embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present disclosure. Further, the components having the same effects described in the above embodiments may be replaced with each other.

Claims

1. A method performed by a user equipment, the user equipment being in an RRC connected state in a first network in which the user equipment is configured to need to perform secondary cell group network quality detection, the secondary cell group in which the user equipment is located being in an inactive state, the method comprising:

Performing secondary service cell group network quality detection;

when detecting that the secondary service cell group fails, initiating a secondary service cell group failure information message transmission process to the first network, wherein the secondary service cell group failure information message transmission process is used for sending a secondary service cell group failure information message which indicates that the secondary service cell group where the user equipment is located in the first network has failed to the first network,

the secondary service cell group failure information message transmission process comprises the following steps:

determining whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state;

and when the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, the MUSIM indication information for indicating that the user equipment is in the MUSIM state is included in the auxiliary service cell group failure information message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state comprises:

determining that the user equipment is in a MUSIM state when any one of the following conditions is satisfied:

the user equipment is in an RRC connected state in a second network different from the first network;

the user equipment performs uplink data transmission or downlink data transmission in the second network;

The secondary cell group where the user equipment is located in the first network cannot be activated;

the secondary cell group where the user equipment is located in the first network cannot be configured;

the user equipment prefers not to activate secondary service cell groups in the first network;

the user equipment is in a user equipment capacity limited state in the first network;

part of the hardware functions of the user equipment are occupied and thus not available for data transmission of the user equipment in the first network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein including a MUSIM indication message in the secondary cell group failure information message that indicates that the user equipment is in a MUSIM state is achieved by any one of:

adding a field for indicating that the user equipment is in a MUSIM state in the auxiliary service cell group failure information message;

in the secondary cell group failure information message, a value indicating that the user equipment is in a MUSIM state is given to a field indicating a secondary cell group failure cause.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

It is determined whether the detected secondary cell group failure is a beam failure of the PSCell,

when the detected secondary cell group failure is a beam failure of the PSCell, it is determined whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the secondary cell group failure information message transmission procedure further comprises:

stopping the T304 timer of the auxiliary service cell; and/or

The condition reconfiguration evaluation of the CPA and/or CPC is stopped.

6. A method performed by a user device, comprising:

when an RRC reconfiguration message from a first network is received, determining whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state, wherein the RRC reconfiguration message is used for configuring a new auxiliary service cell group and configuring the new auxiliary service cell group into an active state or activating an existing auxiliary service cell group; and

and if the user equipment is in the MUSIM state, sending an indication message indicating that the user equipment is in the MUSIM state to the first network.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein when the user equipment is in a MUSIM state, the method further comprises at least one of:

if the RRC reconfiguration message is used for configuring a new auxiliary service cell group and configuring the new auxiliary service cell group into an active state, the user equipment does not execute the auxiliary service cell group configuration indicated by the RRC reconfiguration message, and the indication message comprises information that the auxiliary service cell group configuration is not executed;

If the RRC reconfiguration message is used for configuring a new auxiliary service cell group and configuring the new auxiliary service cell group into an active state, the user equipment executes the configuration of the auxiliary service cell group indicated by the RRC reconfiguration message but does not activate the configured new auxiliary service cell group, and the indication message comprises information that the new auxiliary service cell group is not activated;

and if the RRC reconfiguration message is used for activating the existing auxiliary service cell group, the user equipment does not execute the auxiliary service cell group activation indicated by the RRC reconfiguration message, and the indication message comprises information that the auxiliary service cell group activation is not executed.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether the current available resources of the user equipment are sufficient to activate a new secondary cell group or the existing secondary cell group; and

when the current available resources of the user equipment are sufficient to activate a new secondary cell group or the existing secondary cell group, the new secondary cell group or the existing secondary cell group is activated regardless of whether the user equipment is in MUSIM mode.

9. The method of any of claims 1-8, further comprising:

The operation of determining whether the user equipment is in a MUSIM state is performed in case the user equipment is configured by the first network to allow communication with the first network using only part of the hardware capabilities of the user equipment.

10. A user equipment, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory in which instructions are stored,

wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.