WO2021163919A1

WO2021163919A1 - Performing cell selection prioritizing non-standalone operation cells

Info

Publication number: WO2021163919A1
Application number: PCT/CN2020/075841
Authority: WO
Inventors: Rulin XING; Hui Zhao; Yilan SUN; Junli WU; Heming Li; Yinxiong YAO
Original assignee: Qualcomm Inc
Current assignee: Qualcomm Inc
Priority date: 2020-02-19
Filing date: 2020-02-19
Publication date: 2021-08-26
Anticipated expiration: 2022-08-19

Abstract

Embodiments include systems and methods for performing cell selection. In various embodiments, a processor of a wireless device may determine whether a Global Cell ID received from a cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device. The processor may perform cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation. The processor may determine whether the Global Cell ID is present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device. The processor may determine whether a SIB2 message from the cell includes an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation, and may perform cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the SIB2 message includes such indication.

Description

无标题

CHINA PROVISIONAL Patent Application

for

Performing Cell Selection Prioritizing Non-Standalone Operation Cells

Inventor 1: Rulin XING

Residence: Beijing, China

Citizenship: China

Inventor 2: Hui ZHAO

Residence: San Diego, US

Citizenship: USA

Inventor 3: Yilan SUN

Residence: Beijing, China

Citizenship: China

Inventor 4: Junli WU

Residence: Beijing, China

Citizenship: China

Inventor 5: Heming LI

Residence: Beijing, China

Citizenship: China

Inventor 6: Yin Xiong YAO

Residence: Shanghai, China

Citizenship: China

TITLE

Performing Cell Selection Prioritizing Non-Standalone Operation Cells

BACKGROUND

To facilitate the gradual deployment of 5G NR (New Radio) wireless communications systems, networks and devices may be configured to operation in a Non-Standalone (NSA) mode in which NR-capable network elements, such as base stations, may be supported by a legacy 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) infrastructure. Thus, NR-capable base stations are being deployed alongside, and in some cases co-located with, base stations that only support 4G communications. Conventional cell selection procedures are based on the strength of base station signals received by a wireless device. Such procedures may cause a NR-capable wireless device to perform cell selection to a base station having a superior signal strength but that is not capable of supporting NR communications, thus depriving the NR-capable wireless device of the benefits of the NR communication system. SUMMARY

Various aspects include systems and methods for performing cell selection that prioritize cell selection of a cell capable of NSA operation that may be performed by a processor of a wireless device.

Various aspects may include determining whether a Global Cell ID received from a cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device, and performing cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.

Various aspects include methods that may be performed by a processor of a wireless device for performing cell selection to favor base stations capable of Non-Standalone (NSA) operations. Various aspects may include determining whether a Global Cell ID received from a cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operations stored in memory of the wireless device, and performing cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.

Some aspects may further include determining whether the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation, determining whether a System Information Block Type 2 (SIB2) message received from the cell includes an indication that the cell is capable of New Radio (NR) operation in response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is not present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation, and performing cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the SIB2 message includes an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation. Some aspects may further include storing in memory of the wireless device the Global Cell ID received from the cell in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation. Some aspects may further include storing in memory of the wireless device the Global Cell ID received from the cell in the list of base stations not capable of NSA operation in response to determining that the SIB2 message does not include an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation.

Some aspects may further include updating the list of base stations capable of NSA operation with a temporal indication of when or an order in which cells are or have been selected, and updating the list of base stations not capable of NSA operation with a temporal indication of when or an order in which cells are or were determined to be incapable of NSA operations.

Some aspects may further include determining whether a maximum reselection counter meets a threshold in response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation, selecting a second cell and determining whether a Global Cell ID received from the second cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device in response to determining that the maximum reselection counter does not meet the threshold, and performing cell selection to the second cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the second cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation. Some aspects may further include performing cell selection to a third cell having a strongest non-NR signal strength in response to determining that the maximum reselection counter meets the threshold.

Some aspects may further include determining whether a maximum reselection counter meets a threshold in response to determining that the SIB2 message from the cell does not include an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation, selecting a second cell and determining whether a Global Cell ID received from the second cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device, and performing cell selection to the second cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the second cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.

Further aspects may include a wireless device having memory and a processor configured to perform one or more operations of the methods summarized above. Further aspects may include a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium having stored thereon processor-executable instructions configured to cause a processor of a wireless device to perform operations of the methods summarized above. Further aspects include a wireless device having means for performing functions of the methods summarized above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and constitute part of this specification, illustrate exemplary embodiments of the claims, and together with the general description given above and the detailed description given below, serve to explain the features of the claims.

FIG. 1 is a system block diagram illustrating an example communications system suitable for implementing any of the various embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a component block diagram illustrating a computing system suitable for implementing any of the various embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a software architecture including a radio protocol stack for the user and control planes in wireless communications suitable for implementing any of the various embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a component block diagram illustrating a system configured for performing cell selection in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 5A and5B are process flow diagrams illustrating methods for performing cell selection by a processor of a wireless device in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 6 is a component block diagram of a wireless router device suitable for use with various embodiments.

FIG. 7 is a component block diagram of a wireless communication device suitable for performing cell selection by a processor of a wireless device in accordance with various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts. References made to particular examples and implementations are for illustrative purposes, and are not intended to limit the scope of the claims.

Various embodiments provide methods for performing cell selection by a processor of a wireless device that prioritizes identifying and performing cell selection to base stations, or cells of base stations, that are capable of supporting NSA 5G NR communications. Various embodiments include determining whether a Global Cell ID received from a cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device. In some embodiments, the wireless device may add to or build up over time the list of base stations capable of NSA operation. Various embodiments may further include performing cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.

The term “wireless device” is used herein to refer to any one or all of wireless router devices, wireless appliances, cellular telephones, smartphones, portable computing devices, personal or mobile multi-media players, laptop computers, tablet computers, smartbooks, ultrabooks, palmtop computers, wireless electronic mail receivers, multimedia Internet-enabled cellular telephones, medical devices and equipment, biometric sensors/devices, wearable devices including smart watches, smart clothing, smart glasses, smart wrist bands, smart jewelry (e.g., smart rings, smart bracelets, etc. ) , entertainment devices (e.g., wireless gaming controllers, music and video players, satellite radios, etc. ) , wireless-network enabled Internet of Things (IoT) devices including smart meters/sensors, industrial manufacturing equipment, large and small machinery and appliances for home or enterprise use, wireless communication elements within autonomous and semiautonomous vehicles, wireless devices affixed to or incorporated into various mobile platforms, Global positioning system devices, and similar electronic devices that include a memory, wireless communication components and a programmable processor.

The term “system on chip” (SOC) is used herein to refer to a single integrated circuit (IC) chip that contains multiple resources and/or processors integrated on a single substrate. A single SOC may contain circuitry for digital, analog, mixed-signal, and radio-frequency functions. A single SOC may also include any number of general purpose and/or specialized processors (digital signal processors, modem processors, video processors, etc. ) , memory blocks (e.g., ROM, RAM, Flash, etc. ) , and resources (e.g., timers, voltage regulators, oscillators, etc. ) . SOCs may also include software for controlling the integrated resources and processors, as well as for controlling peripheral devices.

The term “system in a package” (SIP) may be used herein to refer to a single module or package that contains multiple resources, computational units, cores and/or processors on two or more IC chips, substrates, or SOCs. For example, a SIP may include a single substrate on which multiple IC chips or semiconductor dies are stacked in a vertical configuration. Similarly, the SIP may include one or more multi-chip modules (MCMs) on which multiple ICs or semiconductor dies are packaged into a unifying substrate. A SIP may also include multiple independent SOCs coupled together via high speed communication circuitry and packaged in close proximity, such as on a single motherboard or in a single wireless device. The proximity of the SOCs facilitates high speed communications and the sharing of memory and resources.

The term “multicore processor” may be used herein to refer to a single integrated circuit (IC) chip or chip package that contains two or more independent processing cores (e.g., CPU core, Internet protocol (IP) core, graphics processor unit (GPU) core, etc. ) configured to read and execute program instructions. A SOC may include multiple multicore processors, and each processor in an SOC may be referred to as a core. The term “multiprocessor” may be used herein to refer to a system or device that includes two or more processing units configured to read and execute program instructions.

NR-capable base stations are being deployed alongside, and in some cases co-located with, base stations that only support 4G communications. For example, in some markets (such as China) , government regulations require network providers to share 5G NR communication network infrastructure. In such markets, radio access network (RAN) sharing may be employed and base stations in communication with to the shared 5G NR network may broadcast network identifiers (such as Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) identifiers) that identify multiple network providers (e.g., PLMN IDs of both China Telecom and China Unicom, and so forth) . However, because NR upgrades and capabilities are being gradually deployed, some base stations that are detected by a wireless device may be capable of NSA operation, and some base stations may not.

Conventional cell selection and cell reselection procedures (referred to herein collectively as “cell selection” or “cell selection procedures” ) are based on the detection by a wireless device of a signal strength, such as a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) or a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) , of a signal from one or more base stations, cells, access points, etc. Even in the presence of an NSA-capable base station that can provide a communication link sufficient to support NR communications, conventional cell selection procedures may lead a wireless device to perform cell selection to a base station not configured to provide NR communications because the wireless device determines that that base station has a superior signal strength. This can result in the wireless device, and the user of the device, missing out on 5G network capabilities provided by the NSA-capable base station.

Various embodiments include systems and methods of performing cell selection by a processor of wireless device in a manner that prioritizes cell selection to base stations capable of NSA operation. Various embodiments include a processor of the wireless device determining whether a Global Cell ID received from a cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device, and performing cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is present in the stored list of base stations capable of NSA operation. In some embodiments, the processor may update the list of base stations capable of NSA operations to associate the Global Cell ID a time stamp, ranking, or a list order (e.g., moving the Global Cell ID to the top of the list) to indicate when the cell was last selected. In response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is not present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation, the processor may determine whether the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation that is also stored in memory of the device.

As used herein, the term “list” refers generally to any form of data structure storing Global Cell ID information. Examples of lists include a data table of Global Cell IDs, a database of Global Cell IDs, an indexed set of addresses or pointers to locations in memory of stored Global Cell IDs, a sequential listing in memory of Global Cell IDs, and the like.

In some embodiments, the wireless device processor may determine whether a System Information Block Type 2 (SIB2) message from the cell includes an indication that the cell is capable of New Radio (NR) operation in response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is not present in the stored list of base stations not capable of NSA operation. For example, the SIB2 message may include information, such as an upperLayerIndication-r15 that is set to “true, ” “1” or other suitable information, to indicate that a base station is capable of NSA operation. The wireless device processor may perform cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the SIB2 message includes an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation. In some embodiments, the wireless device processor may store the Global Cell ID received from the cell in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device so this information may be used for rapid selection of the cell for 5G communications in the future. In some embodiments, the processor may store the Global Cell ID in the list with a time stamp, ranking or in an order (e.g., at the top of the list) to indicate when the Global Cell ID was identified as being selected as a cell capable of NSA operations.

In some embodiments, the wireless device processor may store the Global Cell ID received from the cell in the list of base stations not capable of NSA operation in response to determining that the SIB2 message does not include an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation. Storing the Global Cell ID of base stations that are not capable of NSA operation in memory of the wireless device may enable the wireless device to rapidly identify whether a base station is capable of NSA operation in the future, and thus to more rapidly identify an NSA-capable base station for cell reselection, or determine whether to perform cell reselection to a base station that is not capable of NSA operation. In some embodiments, the processor may store the Global Cell ID in the list with a time stamp, ranking or in an order (e.g., at the top of the list) to indicate when the cell was identified as being incapable of NSA operations.

In some embodiments, the wireless device may scan a plurality of base stations and determine whether a maximum reselection counter meets a threshold in response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in the stored list of base stations not capable of NSA operation. In such embodiments, the wireless device processor may select a second cell and determining whether a Global Cell ID received from the second cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device. The wireless device may perform cell selection to the second cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the second cell is present in the stored list of base stations capable of NSA operation.

In some embodiments, having scanned a plurality of base stations, the wireless device processor may determine that no detectable base stations are capable of NSA operation. In such cases, the wireless device may perform cell selection to a non-NSA-capable base station with the strongest relative signal strength. In some embodiments, the wireless device processor may use a counter, such as a maximum reselection counter to limit a number of base stations that the wireless device may scan to determine whether an NSA-capable base station is detected. In some embodiments, in response to the processor determining that a maximum reselection counter meets a threshold, the wireless device may perform cell selection to a cell having a strongest non-NR signal strength (for example, an LTE cell) .

In some embodiments, in response to determining that the SIB2 message from the cell does not include an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation, the wireless device processor may determine whether a maximum reselection counter meets a threshold. In such embodiments, the wireless device processor may select a second cell and determine whether a Global Cell ID received from the second cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device. In such embodiments, the wireless device may perform cell selection to the second cell in response to the processor determining that the Global Cell ID from the second cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.

In some embodiments, the list of cells capable of NSA operations and/or the list of cells incapable of NSA operations stored the wireless device may be of finite length to save memory and searching time. As noted above, in some embodiments the Global Cell ID may be stored or updated in the list of cells capable of NSA operations to indicate (e.g., by a time stamp, priority rank, list position, etc. ) a day/time or relative order in time of when each listed cell was last selected. In some embodiments, when the list of cells capable of NSA operations contains the maximum number of entries and there is a new Global Cell ID to be added to the list, the processor may deleted from the list the Global Cell ID with the longest duration since a last selection (e.g., the last entry in a time-ordered list) when adding the new Global Cell ID. In this manner, the list of cells capable of NSA operations may be limited to the most recent N number of cells that were selected for service. Similarly, in some embodiments the list of cells incapable of NSA operations may be limited to the most recent M number of cells determined to be incapable of NSA operations. Further, in some embodiments, Global Cell ID’s may be removed from either list after a predetermined amount of time (e.g., a week, month, year, etc. ) since a last selection or a last determination of incapacity of NSA operations to ensure that changes in base station functionality (e.g., acquiring NSA operation capability or losing NSA operation capability) are recognized the two lists.

Various embodiments improve the operation of wireless devices and communication networks by enabling a wireless device to rapidly identify whether a base station is capable of NSA operation, enabling the wireless device to perform reselection to such NR-capable base station. Various embodiments further improve the operation of wireless devices and communication networks by enabling a wireless device to rapidly identify whether no detectable base stations are capable of NSA operation, thereby reducing latency and establishing communication services by enabling the wireless device to quickly perform cell selection to a base station that provides legacy 4G communications.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a communications system 100 that is suitable for implementing various embodiments. The communications system 100 may be an 5G NR network, or any other suitable network such as an LTE network.

The communications system 100 may include a heterogeneous network architecture that includes a core network 140 and a variety of wireless devices (illustrated as wireless device 120a-120e in FIG. 1) . The communications system 100 may also include a number of base stations (illustrated as the BS 110a, the BS 110b, the BS 110c, and the BS 110d) and other network entities. A base station is an entity that communicates with wireless devices (which may be mobile devices) , and also may be referred to as an NodeB, a Node B, an LTE evolved nodeB (eNB) , an access point (AP) , a radio head, a transmit receive point (TRP) , a New Radio base station (NR BS) , a 5G NodeB (NB) , a Next Generation NodeB (gNB) , or the like. Each base station may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area. In 3GPP, the term “cell” can refer to a coverage area of a base station, a base station subsystem serving this coverage area, or a combination thereof, depending on the context in which the term is used.

A base station 110a-110d may provide communication coverage for a macro Cell, a pico Cell, a femto Cell, another type of Cell, or a combination thereof. A macro Cell may cover a relatively large geographic area (for example, several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access by wireless devices with service subscription. A pico Cell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allow unrestricted access by wireless devices with service subscription. A femto Cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (for example, a home) and may allow restricted access by wireless devices having association with the femto Cell (for example, wireless devices in a closed subscriber group (CSG) ) . A base station for a macro Cell may be referred to as a macro BS. A base station for a pico Cell may be referred to as a pico BS. A base station for a femto Cell may be referred to as a femto BS or a home BS. In the example illustrated in FIG. 1, a base station 110a may be a macro BS for a macro Cell 102a, a base station 110b may be a pico BS for a pico Cell 102b, and a base station 110c may be a femto BS for a femto Cell 102c. A base station 110a-110d may support one or multiple (for example, three) cells. The terms “eNB” , “base station” , “NR BS” , “gNB” , “TRP” , “AP” , “node B” , “5G NB” , and “cell” may be used interchangeably herein.

In some examples, a cell may not be stationary, and the geographic area of the cell may move according to the location of a mobile base station. In some examples, the base stations 110a-110d may be interconnected to one another as well as to one or more other base stations or network nodes (not illustrated) in the communications system 100 through various types of backhaul interfaces, such as a direct physical connection, a virtual network, or a combination thereof using any suitable transport network

The base station 110a-110d may communicate with the core network 140 over a wired or wireless communication link 126. The wireless device 120a-120e may communicate with the base station 110a-110d over a wireless communication link 122.

The wired communication link 126 may use a variety of wired networks (e.g., Ethernet, TV cable, telephony, fiber optic and other forms of physical network connections) that may use one or more wired communication protocols, such as Ethernet, Point-To-Point protocol, High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC) , Advanced Data Communication Control Protocol (ADCCP) , and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) .

The communications system 100 also may include relay stations (e.g., relay BS 110d) . A relay station is an entity that can receive a transmission of data from an upstream station (for example, a base station or a wireless device) and send a transmission of the data to a downstream station (for example, a wireless device or a base station) . A relay station also may be a wireless device that can relay transmissions for other wireless devices. In the example illustrated in FIG. 1, a relay station 110d may communicate with macro the base station 110a and the wireless device 120d in order to facilitate communication between the base station 110a and the wireless device 120d. A relay station also may be referred to as a relay base station, a relay base station, a relay, etc.

The communications system 100 may be a heterogeneous network that includes base stations of different types, for example, macro base stations, pico base stations, femto base stations, relay base stations, etc. These different types of base stations may have different transmit power levels, different coverage areas, and different impacts on interference in communications system 100. For example, macro base stations may have a high transmit power level (for example, 5 to 40 Watts) whereas pico base stations, femto base stations, and relay base stations may have lower transmit power levels (for example, 0.1 to 2 Watts) .

A network controller 130 may couple to a set of base stations and may provide coordination and control for these base stations. The network controller 130 may communicate with the base stations via a backhaul. The base stations also may communicate with one another, for example, directly or indirectly via a wireless or wireline backhaul.

The

wireless devices

120a, 120b, 120c may be dispersed throughout communications system 100, and each wireless device may be stationary or mobile. A wireless device also may be referred to as an access terminal, a terminal, a mobile station, a subscriber unit, a station, etc.

A macro base station 110a may communicate with the communication network 140 over a wired or wireless communication link 126. The

wireless devices

120a, 120b, 120c may communicate with a base station 110a-110d over a wireless communication link 122.

The

wireless communication links

122, 124 may include a plurality of carrier signals, frequencies, or frequency bands, each of which may include a plurality of logical channels. The

wireless communication links

122 and 124 may utilize one or more radio access technologies (RATs) . Examples of RATs that may be used in a wireless communication link include 3GPP LTE, 3G, 4G, 5G (e.g., NR) , GSM, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) , Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) , and other mobile telephony communication technologies cellular RATs. Further examples of RATs that may be used in one or more of the various

wireless communication links

122, 124 within the communication system 100 include medium range protocols such as Wi-Fi, LTE-U, LTE-Direct, LAA, MuLTEfire, and relatively short range RATs such as ZigBee, Bluetooth, and Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) .

Certain wireless networks (e.g., LTE) utilize orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) on the downlink and single-carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. OFDM and SC-FDM partition the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers, which are also commonly referred to as tones, bins, etc. Each subcarrier may be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent in the frequency domain with OFDM and in the time domain with SC-FDM. The spacing between adjacent subcarriers may be fixed, and the total number of subcarriers (K) may be dependent on the system bandwidth. For example, the spacing of the subcarriers may be 15 kHz and the minimum resource allocation (called a “resource block” ) may be 12 subcarriers (or 180 kHz) . Consequently, the nominal Fast File Transfer (FFT) size may be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024 or 2048 for system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10 or 20 megahertz (MHz) , respectively. The system bandwidth may also be partitioned into subbands. For example, a subband may cover 1.08 MHz (i.e., 6 resource blocks) , and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 subbands for system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10 or 20 MHz, respectively.

While descriptions of some embodiments may use terminology and examples associated with LTE technologies, various embodiments may be applicable to other wireless communications systems, such as a new radio (NR) or 5G network. NR may utilize OFDM with a cyclic prefix (CP) on the uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) and include support for half-duplex operation using time division duplex (TDD) . A single component carrier bandwidth of 100 MHz may be supported. NR resource blocks may span 12 sub-carriers with a sub-carrier bandwidth of 75 kHz over a 0.1 millisecond (ms) duration. Each radio frame may consist of 50 subframes with a length of 10 ms. Consequently, each subframe may have a length of 0.2 ms. Each subframe may indicate a link direction (i.e., DL or UL) for data transmission and the link direction for each subframe may be dynamically switched. Each subframe may include DL/UL data as well as DL/UL control data. Beamforming may be supported and beam direction may be dynamically configured. Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) transmissions with precoding may also be supported. MIMO configurations in the DL may support up to eight transmit antennas with multi-layer DL transmissions up to eight streams and up to two streams per wireless device. Multi-layer transmissions with up to 2 streams per wireless device may be supported. Aggregation of multiple cells may be supported with up to eight serving cells. Alternatively, NR may support a different air interface, other than an OFDM-based air interface.

Some wireless devices may be considered machine-type communication (MTC) or evolved or enhanced machine-type communication (eMTC) mobile devices. MTC and eMTC mobile devices include, for example, robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors, location tags, etc. , that may communicate with a base station, another device (for example, remote device) , or some other entity. A wireless node may provide, for example, connectivity for or to a network (for example, a wide area network such as Internet or a cellular network) via a wired or wireless communication link. Some wireless devices may be considered Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices or may be implemented as NB-IoT (narrowband internet of things) devices. A wireless device 120a-e may be included inside a housing that houses components of the wireless device, such as processor components, memory components, similar components, or a combination thereof.

In general, any number of communications systems and any number of wireless networks may be deployed in a given geographic area. Each communications system and wireless network may support a particular radio access technology (RAT) and may operate on one or more frequencies. A RAT also may be referred to as a radio technology, an air interface, etc. A frequency also may be referred to as a carrier, a frequency channel, etc. Each frequency may support a single RAT in a given geographic area in order to avoid interference between communications systems of different RATs. In some cases, NR or 5G RAT networks may be deployed.

In some implementations, two or more wireless devices 120a-e (for example, illustrated as the wireless device 120a and the wireless device 120e) may communicate directly using one or more sidelink channels 124 (for example, without using a base station 110 as an intermediary to communicate with one another) . For example, the wireless devices 120a-e may communicate using peer-to-peer (P2P) communications, device-to-device (D2D) communications, a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) protocol (which may include a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) protocol, a vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) protocol, or similar protocol) , a mesh network, or similar networks, or combinations thereof. In this case, the wireless device 120a-e may perform scheduling operations, resource selection operations, as well as other operations described elsewhere herein as being performed by the base station 110a

Various embodiments may be implemented on a number of single processor and multiprocessor computer systems, including a system-on-chip (SOC) or system in a package (SIP) . FIG. 2 illustrates an example computing system or SIP 200 architecture that may be used in wireless devices implementing the various embodiments.

With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, the illustrated example SIP 200 includes a two

SOCs

202, 204, a clock 206, and a voltage regulator 208. In some embodiments, the first SOC 202 operate as central processing unit (CPU) of the wireless device that carries out the instructions of software application programs by performing the arithmetic, logical, control and input/output (I/O) operations specified by the instructions. In some embodiments, the second SOC 204 may operate as a specialized processing unit. For example, the second SOC 204 may operate as a specialized 5G processing unit responsible for managing high volume, high speed (e.g., 5 Gbps, etc. ) , and/or very high frequency short wave length (e.g., 28 GHz mmWave spectrum, etc. ) communications.

The first SOC 202 may include a digital signal processor (DSP) 210, a modem processor 212, a graphics processor 214, an application processor 216, one or more coprocessors 218 (e.g., vector co-processor) connected to one or more of the processors, memory 220, custom circuity 222, system components and resources 224, an interconnection/bus module 226, one or more temperature sensors 230, a thermal management unit 232, and a thermal power envelope (TPE) component 234. The second SOC 204 may include a 5G modem processor 252, a power management unit 254, an interconnection/bus module 264, a plurality of mmWave transceivers 256, memory 258, and various additional processors 260, such as an applications processor, packet processor, etc.

Each

processor

210, 212, 214, 216, 218, 252, 260 may include one or more cores, and each processor/core may perform operations independent of the other processors/cores. For example, the first SOC 202 may include a processor that executes a first type of operating system (e.g., FreeBSD, LINUX, OS X, etc. ) and a processor that executes a second type of operating system (e.g., MICROSOFT WINDOWS 10) . In addition, any or all of the

processors

210, 212, 214, 216, 218, 252, 260 may be included as part of a processor cluster architecture (e.g., a synchronous processor cluster architecture, an asynchronous or heterogeneous processor cluster architecture, etc. ) .

The first and

second SOC

202, 204 may include various system components, resources and custom circuitry for managing sensor data, analog-to-digital conversions, wireless data transmissions, and for performing other specialized operations, such as decoding data packets and processing encoded audio and video signals for rendering in a web browser. For example, the system components and resources 224 of the first SOC 202 may include power amplifiers, voltage regulators, oscillators, phase-locked loops, peripheral bridges, data controllers, memory controllers, system controllers, access ports, timers, and other similar components used to support the processors and software clients running on a wireless device. The system components and resources 224 and/or custom circuitry 222 may also include circuitry to interface with peripheral devices, such as cameras, electronic displays, wireless communication devices, external memory chips, etc.

The first and

second SOC

202, 204 may communicate via interconnection/bus module 250. The

various processors

210, 212, 214, 216, 218, may be interconnected to one or more memory elements 220, system components and resources 224, and custom circuitry 222, and a thermal management unit 232 via an interconnection/bus module 226. Similarly, the processor 252 may be interconnected to the power management unit 254, the mmWave transceivers 256, memory 258, and various additional processors 260 via the interconnection/bus module 264. The interconnection/

bus module

226, 250, 264 may include an array of reconfigurable logic gates and/or implement a bus architecture (e.g., CoreConnect, AMBA, etc. ) . Communications may be provided by advanced interconnects, such as high-performance networks-on chip (NoCs) .

The first and/or

second SOCs

202, 204 may further include an input/output module (not illustrated) for communicating with resources external to the SOC, such as a clock 206 and a voltage regulator 208. Resources external to the SOC (e.g., clock 206, voltage regulator 208) may be shared by two or more of the internal SOC processors/cores.

In addition to the example SIP 200 discussed above, various embodiments may be implemented in a wide variety of computing systems, which may include a single processor, multiple processors, multicore processors, or any combination thereof.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a software architecture 300 including a radio protocol stack for the user and control planes in wireless communications between a base station 350 (e.g., the base station 110a) and a wireless device 320 (e.g., the wireless device 120a-120e, 200) . With reference to FIGS. 1–3, the wireless device 320 may implement the software architecture 300 to communicate with the base station 350 of a communication system (e.g., 100) . In various embodiments, layers in software architecture 300 may form logical connections with corresponding layers in software of the base station 350. The software architecture 300 may be distributed among one or more processors (e.g., the

processors

212, 214, 216, 218, 252, 260) . While illustrated with respect to one radio protocol stack, in a multi-SIM (subscriber identity module) wireless device, the software architecture 300 may include multiple protocol stacks, each of which may be associated with a different SIM (e.g., two protocol stacks associated with two SIMs, respectively, in a dual-SIM wireless communication device) . While described below with reference to LTE communication layers, the software architecture 300 may support any of variety of standards and protocols for wireless communications, and/or may include additional protocol stacks that support any of variety of standards and protocols wireless communications.

The software architecture 300 may include a Non-Access Stratum (NAS) 302 and an Access Stratum (AS) 304. The NAS 302 may include functions and protocols to support packet filtering, security management, mobility control, session management, and traffic and signaling between a SIM (s) of the wireless device (e.g., SIM(s) 204) and its core network 140. The AS 304 may include functions and protocols that support communication between a SIM (s) (e.g., SIM (s) 204) and entities of supported access networks (e.g., a base station) . In particular, the AS 304 may include at least three layers (Layer 1, Layer 2, and Layer 3) , each of which may contain various sub-layers.

In the user and control planes, Layer 1 (L1) of the AS 304 may be a physical layer (PHY) 306, which may oversee functions that enable transmission and/or reception over the air interface. Examples of such physical layer 306 functions may include cyclic redundancy check (CRC) attachment, coding blocks, scrambling and descrambling, modulation and demodulation, signal measurements, MIMO, etc. The physical layer may include various logical channels, including the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) .

In the user and control planes, Layer 2 (L2) of the AS 304 may be responsible for the link between the wireless device 320 and the base station 350 over the physical layer 306. In the various embodiments, Layer 2 may include a media access control (MAC) sublayer 308, a radio link control (RLC) sublayer 310, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) 312 sublayer, each of which form logical connections terminating at the base station 350.

In the control plane, Layer 3 (L3) of the AS 304 may include a radio resource control (RRC) sublayer 3. While not shown, the software architecture 300 may include additional Layer 3 sublayers, as well as various upper layers above Layer 3. In various embodiments, the RRC sublayer 313 may provide functions INCLUDING broadcasting system information, paging, and establishing and releasing an RRC signaling connection between the wireless device 320 and the base station 350.

In various embodiments, the PDCP sublayer 312 may provide uplink functions including multiplexing between different radio bearers and logical channels, sequence number addition, handover data handling, integrity protection, ciphering, and header compression. In the downlink, the PDCP sublayer 312 may provide functions that include in-sequence delivery of data packets, duplicate data packet detection, integrity validation, deciphering, and header decompression.

In the uplink, the RLC sublayer 310 may provide segmentation and concatenation of upper layer data packets, retransmission of lost data packets, and Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) . In the downlink, while the RLC sublayer 310 functions may include reordering of data packets to compensate for out-of-order reception, reassembly of upper layer data packets, and ARQ.

In the uplink, MAC sublayer 308 may provide functions including multiplexing between logical and transport channels, random access procedure, logical channel priority, and hybrid-ARQ (HARQ) operations. In the downlink, the MAC layer functions may include channel mapping within a cell, de-multiplexing, discontinuous reception (DRX) , and HARQ operations.

While the software architecture 300 may provide functions to transmit data through physical media, the software architecture 300 may further include at least one host layer 314 to provide data transfer services to various applications in the wireless device 320. In some embodiments, application-specific functions provided by the at least one host layer 314 may provide an interface between the software architecture and the general purpose processor 206.

In other embodiments, the software architecture 300 may include one or more higher logical layer (e.g., transport, session, presentation, application, etc. ) that provide host layer functions. For example, in some embodiments, the software architecture 300 may include a network layer (e.g., IP layer) in which a logical connection terminates at a packet data network (PDN) gateway (PGW) . In some embodiments, the software architecture 300 may include an application layer in which a logical connection terminates at another device (e.g., end user device, server, etc. ) . In some embodiments, the software architecture 300 may further include in the AS 304 a hardware interface 316 between the physical layer 306 and the communication hardware (e.g., one or more radio frequency (RF) transceivers) .

FIG. 4 is a component block diagram illustrating a system 400 configured for performing Cell selection by a processor of a wireless device in accordance with various embodiments. In some embodiments, system 400 may include a wireless device 402 and/or one or more network nodes 404 and external resources 420. With reference to FIGS. 1–4, a wireless device 402 may include any of a variety of wireless devices (e.g., the wireless device 120a-120e, 200, 320) . Network node (s) 404 may include base stations (e.g., the base station 110, 350) and other network access points. External resources 420 may include sources of information outside of system 400, external entities participating with system 400, and/or other resources. In some implementations, some or all of the functionality attributed herein to external resources 420 may be provided by resources included in system 400.

Wireless device 402 may be configured by machine-readable instructions 406. Machine-readable instructions 406 may include one or more instruction modules. The instruction modules may include computer program modules. The instruction modules may include one or more of a cell ID determination module 408, a cell selection performance module 410, an NR capability determination module 412, a cell ID storing module 414, a reselection counter determination module 416, and/or other instruction modules.

The cell ID determination module 408 may be configured to receive a Global Cell ID from a cell (for example, in a System Information Block Type 1 (SIB1) message or another suitable message) . The cell ID determination module 408 may be configured to determine whether the Global Cell ID received from a cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device. The cell ID determination module 408 may also be configured to determine whether the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation.

The cell selection performance module 410 may be configured to perform cell selection to another cell. In some embodiments, the cell selection performance module 410 may be configured to perform cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation. In some embodiments, the cell selection performance module 410 may be configured to perform cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the SIB2 message includes an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation. In some embodiments, the cell selection performance module 410 may be configured to perform cell selection to a second cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the second cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation. In some embodiments, the cell selection performance module 410 may be configured to perform cell selection to a third cell having a strongest non-NR signal strength in response to determining that the maximum counter meets the threshold.

The NR capability determination module 412 may be configured to determine whether a SIB2 message from the cell includes an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation in response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is not present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation.

The cell ID storing module 414 may be configured to store the Global Cell ID received from the cell in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation. The cell ID storing module 414 may also be configured to store the Global Cell ID received from the cell in the list of base stations not capable of NSA operation.

The reselection counter determination module 416 may be configured to determine whether a maximum reselection counter meets a threshold in response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation. The reselection counter determination module 416 may also be configured to determine whether a maximum reselection counter meets a threshold in response to determining that the SIB2 message from the cell does not include an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation.

FIG. 5A is a process flow diagram illustrating a method 500 for performing so selection by a processor of a wireless device in accordance with various embodiments. With reference to FIGS. 1-5A, the method 500 may be implemented by a processor (such as 212, 216, 252, 260, 424) of a wireless device (such as the wireless device 120a-120e, 200, 320, 402) .

In block 501, the processor may perform operations associated with powering up or otherwise returning the wireless device to an active communication mode. For example, the processor may perform operations to exit a low-power or idle mode (for example, Radio Resource Control (RRC) Idle mode or another suitable mode of operation of the wireless device) .

In determination block 502, the processor may the processor may access memory of the wireless device to determine whether a Global Cell ID received from a cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation that is stored in memory. In some embodiments, the processor may select a cell having a highest signal strength from among a plurality of detected cells and determine whether the Global Cell ID received from the selected cell is present in the stored list of base stations capable of NSA operation.

In response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from a cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device (i.e., determination block 502 = “Yes” ) , the processor may perform cell selection to the cell in block 504.

In response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from a cell is not present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device (i.e., determination block 502 = “No” ) , the processor may access memory of the wireless device to determine whether the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in a stored list of base stations not capable of NSA operation in determination block 506.

In response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in the stored list of base stations not capable of NSA operation (i.e., determination block 506 = “Yes” ) , the processor may increment a maximum reselection counter in block 518, as further described below.

In response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is not present in the stored list of base stations not capable of NSA operation (i.e., determination block 506 = “No” ) , the processor may read a System Information Block Type 2 (SIB2) message received from the cell in block 508.

In determination block 510, the processor may determine whether the SIB2 message received from the cell includes an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation. For example, the SIB2 message may include information, such as an upperLayerIndication-r15 that is set to “true” or other suitable information, to indicate that a base station is capable of NSA operation. In some embodiments, the processor may determine whether such information included in the received SIB2 message (e.g., upperLayerIndication-r15) is set to “true, ” or “1” or other similar indication.

In response to determining that the SIB2 message from the cell includes an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation (i.e., determination block 510 =“Yes” ) , the processor may store the Global Cell ID in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation in block 512. For example, the processor may add the Global Cell ID as an entry in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device.

In block 514, the processor may perform cell selection to the cell.

In response to determining that the SIB2 message from the cell does not include an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation (i.e., determination block 510 = “No” ) , the processor may store the Global Cell ID in the list of base stations not capable of NSA operation in block 516.

Following the operations of block 516, or in response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in the list of base stations not capable of NSA operation (i.e., determination block 506 = “Yes” ) , the processor may increment a maximum reselection counter in block 518.

In determination block 520, the processor may determine whether the maximum reselection counter meets a threshold. In some embodiments, the threshold may be set to impose a limit on a number of cells that the processor should scan, such as to reduce latency in performing cell selection.

In response to determining that the maximum reselection counter meets the threshold (i.e., determination block 520 = “Yes” ) , the processor may perform cell selection to a cell having a strongest non-NR signal strength in block 522. In some embodiments, after scanning a maximum permitted number of cells and determining that none of the scanned cells are capable of NSA operation, the processor may perform cell selection to a cell capable of operation using another radio access technology, such as 4G LTE.

In response to determining that the maximum reselection counter does not meet the threshold (i.e., determination block 520 = “No” ) , the processor may select another cell (e.g., from among a plurality of detected cells) in block 524 and return to determination block 502 to repeat the operations of the method 500 until the processor performs cell selection in

blocks

514 or 522. In some embodiments, the processor may select a cell having a next highest signal strength relative to the previously-selected cell for the next performance of operations of the method 500.

Periodically or in response to degradation or losing a wireless connection to the selected cell, the processor may again perform the operations of determination block 502 and repeat the method 500 of selecting a cell on which to camp.

. 5B is a process flow diagram illustrating a method 530 for performing so selection by a processor of a wireless device in which lists of NSA capable and NSA incapable base stations or cells are time-or age-ordered in accordance with some embodiments. With reference to FIGS. 1-5B, the method 530 may be implemented by a processor (such as 212, 216, 252, 260, 424) of a wireless device (such as the wireless device 120a-120e, 200, 320, 402) .

In block 505, after, before or as part of performing cell selection in block 504 to the cell with a Global Cell ID present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation (i.e., determination block 502 = “Yes” ) , the processor may update the list of base stations capable of NSA operations with a temporal indication of the Global Cell ID to reflect the current selection of the cell. For example, the list may be updated to associate the Global Cell ID with a time stamp, ranking, or a list order (e.g., moving the Global Cell ID to the top of the list) to indicate when the cell was last selected. As another example, a time stamp associated with the Global Cell ID stored in the list may be replace with a current time stamp. As another example, a priority ranking (e.g., “1” ) may be associated with the Global Cell ID stored in the list and the rankings of all other Global Cell IDs stored in the list may be decremented by 1. In this manner, the list of base stations capable of NSA operation may reflect the time since a last selection or a time sequence of Global Cell IDs, which may permit the processor to more quickly recognize an NSA capable base station when comparing a received Global Cell ID to base stations in the list.

In the method 530, the operations in

blocks

501, 502, 504, 506, 508, 510, 514, 518, 520, 522 and 524 may be performed as described for like-numbered blocks of the method 500.

I In response to determining that the SIB2 message from the cell includes an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation (i.e., determination block 510 = “Yes” ) , the processor may store in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation the Global Cell ID along with a temporal indication (e.g., a time/date or list order) of when that the cell was selected in block 512a. For example, the processor may add the Global Cell ID as the first entry in time-ordered list of base stations capable of NSA operation, moving previous entries down in the list order. If the list is of a finite size, as may be the case in some embodiments, the oldest, lowest rank or last entry in a time-ordered list may be deleted from the list to make room for the new Global Cell ID.

In response to determining that the SIB2 message from the cell does not include an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation (i.e., determination block 510 = “No” ) , the processor may store the Global Cell ID along with a temporal indication in the list of base stations not capable of NSA operation in block 516a. The temporal indication may be a time/date value (e.g., a time stamp) , a ranking, or a position in the list (e.g., storing or moving Global Cell ID to the top or first entry in the list) . If the list is of a finite size, as may be the case in some embodiments, the oldest, lowest rank or last entry in a time-ordered list may be deleted from the list to make room for the new Global Cell ID.

In some embodiments, Global Cell ID’s may be removed from either or both lists after a predetermined amount of time (e.g., a week, month, year, etc. ) since a last selection or a last determination of incapacity of NSA operations. This operation may ensure that changes in base station functionality (e.g., acquiring NSA operation capability or losing NSA operation capability) are recognized the two lists.

Various embodiments may be implemented on a variety of wireless network devices, an example of which is illustrated in FIG. 6 in the form of a wireless network computing device 600 functioning as a network element of a communication network, such as a base station. Such network computing devices may include at least the components illustrated in FIG. 6. With reference to FIGS. 1–6, the network computing device 600 may typically include a processor 601 coupled to volatile memory 602 and a large capacity nonvolatile memory, such as a disk drive 603. The network computing device 600 may also include a peripheral memory access device such as a floppy disc drive, compact disc (CD) or digital video disc (DVD) drive 606 coupled to the processor 601. The network computing device 600 may also include network access ports 604 (or interfaces) coupled to the processor 601 for establishing data connections with a network, such as the Internet and/or a local area network coupled to other system computers and servers. The network computing device 600 may include one or more antennas 607 for sending and receiving electromagnetic radiation that may be connected to a wireless communication link. The network computing device 600 may include additional access ports, such as USB, Firewire, Thunderbolt, and the like for coupling to peripherals, external memory, or other devices.

Various embodiments may be implemented on a variety of wireless devices (e.g., the wireless device 120a-120e, 200, 320) , an example of which is illustrated in FIG. 7 in the form of a smartphone 700. The smartphone 700 may include a first SOC 202 (e.g., a SOC-CPU) coupled to a second SOC 204 (e.g., a 5G capable SOC) . The first and

second SOCs

202, 204 may be coupled to

internal memory

706, 716, a display 712, and to a speaker 714. Additionally, the smartphone 700 may include an antenna 704 for sending and receiving electromagnetic radiation that may be connected to a wireless data link and/or cellular telephone transceiver 708 coupled to one or more processors in the first and/or

second SOCs

202, 204. Smartphones 700 typically also include menu selection buttons or rocker switches 720 for receiving user inputs.

A typical smartphone 700 also includes a sound encoding/decoding (CODEC) circuit 710, which digitizes sound received from a microphone into data packets suitable for wireless transmission and decodes received sound data packets to generate analog signals that are provided to the speaker to generate sound. Also, one or more of the processors in the first and

second SOCs

202, 204, wireless transceiver 708 and CODEC 710 may include a digital signal processor (DSP) circuit (not shown separately) .

The processors of the wireless network computing device 600 and the smart phone 700 may be any programmable microprocessor, microcomputer or multiple processor chip or chips that can be configured by software instructions (applications) to perform a variety of functions, including the functions of the various embodiments described below. In some wireless devices, multiple processors may be provided, such as one processor within an SOC 204 dedicated to wireless communication functions and one processor within an SOC 202 dedicated to running other applications. Typically, software applications may be stored in the

memory

706, 716 before they are accessed and loaded into the processor. The processors may include internal memory sufficient to store the application software instructions.

As used in this application, the terms “component, ” “module, ” “system, ” and the like are intended to include a computer-related entity, such as, but not limited to, hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution, which are configured to perform particular operations or functions. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a wireless device and the wireless device may be referred to as a component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one processor or core and/or distributed between two or more processors or cores. In addition, these components may execute from various non-transitory computer readable media having various instructions and/or data structures stored thereon. Components may communicate by way of local and/or remote processes, function or procedure calls, electronic signals, data packets, memory read/writes, and other known network, computer, processor, and/or process related communication methodologies.

A number of different cellular and mobile communication services and standards are available or contemplated in the future, all of which may implement and benefit from the various embodiments. Such services and standards include, e.g., third generation partnership project (3GPP) , long term evolution (LTE) systems, third generation wireless mobile communication technology (3G) , fourth generation wireless mobile communication technology (4G) , fifth generation wireless mobile communication technology (5G) , Global system for mobile communications (GSM) , universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) , 3GSM, general packet radio service (GPRS) , code division multiple access (CDMA) systems (e.g., cdmaOne, CDMA1020TM) , enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) , advanced mobile phone system (AMPS) , digital AMPS (IS-136/TDMA) , evolution-data optimized (EV-DO) , digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT) , Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) , wireless local area network (WLAN) , Wi-Fi Protected Access I &II (WPA, WPA2) , and integrated digital enhanced network (iDEN) . Each of these technologies involves, for example, the transmission and reception of voice, data, signaling, and/or content messages. It should be understood that any references to terminology and/or technical details related to an individual telecommunication standard or technology are for illustrative purposes only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the claims to a particular communication system or technology unless specifically recited in the claim language.

Various embodiments illustrated and described are provided merely as examples to illustrate various features of the claims. However, features shown and described with respect to any given embodiment are not necessarily limited to the associated embodiment and may be used or combined with other embodiments that are shown and described. Further, the claims are not intended to be limited by any one example embodiment. The operations or steps of the various embodiments may be performed in parallel and/or in other orders of operations, as may be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art.

The foregoing method descriptions and the process flow diagrams are provided merely as illustrative examples and are not intended to require or imply that the operations of various embodiments must be performed in the order presented. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art the order of operations in the foregoing embodiments may be performed in any order. Words such as “thereafter, ” “then, ” “next, ” etc. are not intended to limit the order of the operations; these words are used to guide the reader through the description of the methods. Further, any reference to claim elements in the singular, for example, using the articles “a, ” “an, ” or “the” is not to be construed as limiting the element to the singular.

Various illustrative logical blocks, modules, components, circuits, and algorithm operations described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and operations have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such embodiment decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the claims.

The hardware used to implement various illustrative logics, logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with 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 designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but, in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of receiver smart objects, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration. Alternatively, some operations or methods may be performed by circuitry that is specific to a given function.

In one or more embodiments, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored as one or more instructions or code on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or non-transitory processor-readable storage medium. The operations of a method or algorithm disclosed herein may be embodied in a processor-executable software module or processor-executable instructions, which may reside on a non-transitory computer-readable or processor-readable storage medium. Non-transitory computer-readable or processor-readable storage media may be any storage media that may be accessed by a computer or a processor. By way of example but not limitation, such non-transitory computer-readable or processor-readable storage media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, FLASH memory, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage smart objects, or any other medium that may be used to store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that may be accessed by a computer. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD) , laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD) , floppy disk, and Blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above are also included within the scope of non-transitory computer-readable and processor-readable media. Additionally, the operations of a method or algorithm may reside as one or any combination or set of codes and/or instructions on a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium and/or computer-readable storage medium, which may be incorporated into a computer program product.

The preceding description of the disclosed embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the claims. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the scope of the claims. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the following claims and the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims

A method for performing cell selection by a processor of a wireless device, comprising:

determining whether a Global Cell ID received from a cell is present in a list of base stations capable of Non-Standalone (NSA) operation stored in memory of the wireless device; and

performing cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation;

determining whether a System Information Block Type 2 (SIB2) message received from the cell includes an indication that the cell is capable of New Radio (NR) operation in response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is not present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation; and

performing cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the SIB2 message includes an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation.
The method of claim 2, further comprising storing in memory of the wireless device the Global Cell ID received from the cell in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.
The method of claim 3, further comprising:

storing in memory of the wireless device the Global Cell ID received from the cell in the list of base stations not capable of NSA operation in response to determining that the SIB2 message does not include an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation.
The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining whether a maximum reselection counter meets a threshold in response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation;

selecting a second cell and determining whether a Global Cell ID received from the second cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device in response to determining that the maximum reselection counter does not meet the threshold; and

performing cell selection to the second cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the second cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.
The method of claim 5, further comprising:

performing cell selection to a third cell having a strongest non-NR signal strength in response to determining that the maximum reselection counter meets the threshold.
The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining whether a maximum reselection counter meets a threshold in response to determining that the SIB2 message from the cell does not include an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation;

selecting a second cell and determining whether a Global Cell ID received from the second cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device; and

performing cell selection to the second cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the second cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.
The method of claim 4, further comprising:

updating the list of base stations capable of NSA operation with a temporal indication of when or an order in which cells are or have been selected; and

updating the list of base stations not capable of NSA operation with a temporal indication of when or an order in which cells are or were determined to be incapable of NSA operations.
A wireless device, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory and configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations comprising:

determining whether a Global Cell ID received from a cell is present in a list of base stations capable of Non-Standalone (NSA) operation stored in the memory; and

performing cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.
The wireless device of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising:

determining whether the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation stored in the memory in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation;

determining whether a System Information Block Type 2 (SIB2) message received from the cell includes an indication that the cell is capable of New Radio (NR) operation in response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is not present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation; and

performing cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the SIB2 message includes an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation.
The wireless device of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising storing in the memory the Global Cell ID received from the cell in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.
The wireless device of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising:

storing in the memory the Global Cell ID received from the cell in the list of base stations not capable of NSA operation in response to determining that the SIB2 message does not include an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation.
The wireless device of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising:

determining whether a maximum reselection counter meets a threshold in response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation;

selecting a second cell and determining whether a Global Cell ID received from the second cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in the memory in response to determining that the maximum reselection counter does not meet the threshold; and

performing cell selection to the second cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the second cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.
The wireless device of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising:

performing cell selection to a third cell having a strongest non-NR signal strength in response to determining that the maximum reselection counter meets the threshold.
The wireless device of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising:

determining whether a maximum reselection counter meets a threshold in response to determining that the SIB2 message from the cell does not include an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation;

selecting a second cell and determining whether a Global Cell ID received from the second cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in the memory; and

performing cell selection to the second cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the second cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.
The wireless device of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising:

updating the list of base stations capable of NSA operation with a temporal indication of when or an order in which cells are or have been selected; and

updating the list of base stations not capable of NSA operation with a temporal indication of when or an order in which cells are or were determined to be incapable of NSA operations.
A wireless device, comprising:

means for determining whether a Global Cell ID received from a cell is present in a list of base stations capable of Non-Standalone (NSA) operation stored in memory; and

means for performing cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.
The wireless device of claim 17, further comprising:

means for determining whether the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation stored in the memory in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation;

means for determining whether a System Information Block Type 2 (SIB2) message received from the cell includes an indication that the cell is capable of New Radio (NR) operation in response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is not present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation; and

means for performing cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the SIB2 message includes an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation.
The wireless device of claim 18, further comprising means for storing in the memory the Global Cell ID received from the cell in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.
The wireless device of claim 19, further comprising:

means for storing in the memory the Global Cell ID received from the cell in the list of base stations not capable of NSA operation in response to determining that the SIB2 message does not include an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation.
The wireless device of claim 18, further comprising:

means for determining whether a maximum reselection counter meets a threshold in response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation;

means for selecting a second cell and determining whether a Global Cell ID received from the second cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in the memory in response to determining that the maximum reselection counter does not meet the threshold; and

means for performing cell selection to the second cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the second cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.
The wireless device of claim 21, further comprising:

means for performing cell selection to a third cell having a strongest non-NR signal strength in response to determining that the maximum reselection counter meets the threshold.
The wireless device of claim 18, further comprising:

means for determining whether a maximum reselection counter meets a threshold in response to determining that the SIB2 message from the cell does not include an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation;

means for selecting a second cell and determining whether a Global Cell ID received from the second cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in the memory; and

means for performing cell selection to the second cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the second cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.
The wireless device of claim 19, further comprising:

means for updating the list of base stations capable of NSA operation with a temporal indication of when or an order in which cells are or have been selected; and

means for updating the list of base stations not capable of NSA operation with a temporal indication of when or an order in which cells are or were determined to be incapable of NSA operations.
A non-transitory processor-readable medium having stored thereon processor-executable instructions configured to cause a processor of a wireless device to perform operations comprising:

determining whether a Global Cell ID received from a cell is present in a list of base stations capable of Non-Standalone (NSA) operation stored in memory of the wireless device; and

performing cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.
The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the stored processor-executable instructions are configured to cause a processor of a wireless device to perform operations further comprising:

determining whether the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation;

determining whether a System Information Block Type 2 (SIB2) message received from the cell includes an indication that the cell is capable of New Radio (NR) operation in response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is not present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation;

performing cell selection to the cell in response to determining that the SIB2 message includes an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation; and

storing in memory of the wireless device the Global Cell ID received from the cell in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.
The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the stored processor-executable instructions are configured to cause a processor of a wireless device to perform operations further comprising:

storing in memory of the wireless device the Global Cell ID received from the cell in the list of base stations not capable of NSA operation in response to determining that the SIB2 message does not include an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation.
The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the stored processor-executable instructions are configured to cause a processor of a wireless device to perform operations further comprising:

determining whether a maximum reselection counter meets a threshold in response to determining that the Global Cell ID received from the cell is present in a list of base stations not capable of NSA operation;

selecting a second cell and determining whether a Global Cell ID received from the second cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device in response to determining that the maximum reselection counter does not meet the threshold;

performing cell selection to the second cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the second cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation; and

performing cell selection to a third cell having a strongest non-NR signal strength in response to determining that the maximum reselection counter meets the threshold.
The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the stored processor-executable instructions are configured to cause a processor of a wireless device to perform operations further comprising:

determining whether a maximum reselection counter meets a threshold in response to determining that the SIB2 message from the cell does not include an indication that the cell is capable of NR operation;

selecting a second cell and determining whether a Global Cell ID received from the second cell is present in a list of base stations capable of NSA operation stored in memory of the wireless device; and

performing cell selection to the second cell in response to determining that the Global Cell ID from the second cell is present in the list of base stations capable of NSA operation.
The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 27, wherein the stored processor-executable instructions are configured to cause a processor of a wireless device to perform operations further comprising:

updating the list of base stations capable of NSA operation with a temporal indication of when or an order in which cells are or have been selected; and

updating the list of base stations not capable of NSA operation with a temporal indication of when or an order in which cells are or were determined to be incapable of NSA operations.