WO2022213284A1

WO2022213284A1 - Methods of cell activation and coverage enhancement

Info

Publication number: WO2022213284A1
Application number: PCT/CN2021/085719
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jian Li; Xingguang WEI; Jing Shi; Xianghui HAN; Yiwei DENG
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2021-04-06
Filing date: 2021-04-06
Publication date: 2022-10-13
Anticipated expiration: 2023-10-06
Also published as: CN116391416A

Abstract

Systems, apparatus, and methods for wireless communication are described, and more specifically, to techniques related to serving cell activation and coverage enhancement. One example method for wireless communication includes receiving, at a wireless device from a network device, control information, triggering a first number of reference signals corresponding to a first number of serving cells based on the control information, and activating a second number of secondary cells based on the control information, wherein the first number is greater than or equal the second number.

Description

METHODS OF CELL ACTIVATION AND COVERAGE ENHANCEMENT

TECHNICAL FIELD

This document is directed generally to wireless communications.

BACKGROUND

Wireless communication technologies are moving the world toward an increasingly connected and networked society. The rapid growth of wireless communications and advances in technology has led to greater demand for capacity and connectivity. Other aspects, such as energy consumption, device cost, spectral efficiency, and latency are also important to meeting the needs of various communication scenarios. In comparison with the existing wireless networks, next generation systems and wireless communication techniques need to provide support for an increased number of users and devices.

SUMMARY

This document relates to methods, systems, and devices for transmitting configuration information in mobile communication technology, including 5th Generation (5G) , and new radio (NR) communication systems.

In one exemplary aspect, a wireless communication method is disclosed. The method includes receiving, at a wireless device from a network device, control information; triggering a first number of reference signals corresponding to a first number of serving cells based on the control information; and activating a second number of secondary cells based on the control information, wherein the first number is greater than or equal the second number.

In another exemplary aspect, a wireless communication method is disclosed. The method includes transmitting, to a wireless device from a network device, control information; and transmitting a first number of reference signals corresponding to a first number of serving cells based on the control information, wherein the control information enables the wireless device to activate a second number of secondary cells based on the control information, and wherein the first number is greater than or equal the second number.

In yet another exemplary aspect, the above-described methods are embodied in the form of processor-executable code and stored in a computer-readable program medium.

In yet another exemplary embodiment, a device that is configured or operable to perform the above-described methods is disclosed.

The above and other aspects and their implementations are described in greater detail in the drawings, the descriptions, and the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an example of a base station (BS) and user equipment (UE) in wireless communication.

FIG. 2 shows an IE NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet.

FIG. 3 shows an example SCell activation.

FIG. 4 shows an example aperiodic trigger state design.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a resource set corresponding to the aperiodic TRS trigger MAC CE.

FIG. 6 shows an example MAC-CE configuration.

FIG. 7 shows an example MAC-CE configuration.

FIG. 8 shows an example timeline of TRS triggering using MAC-CE.

FIG. 9 shows an example MAC-CE configuration.

FIG. 10 shows an example MAC-CE configuration.

FIG. 11 shows a CSI-ResourcePeriodicityAndOffset IE.

FIG. 12 shows a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet IE.

FIG. 13 shows an example TRS transmission.

FIG. 14 shows an example method.

FIG. 15 shows an example PUCCH transmission overlapping with a TBoMS PUSCH.

FIG. 16 shows an example of PUCCH and TBoMS PUSCH overlapping within one slot.

FIG. 17 shows an example of PUCCH and TBoMS PUSCH overlapping within multiple slots.

FIG. 18 shows an example overlap scenario.

FIG. 19 shows an example overlap scenario where PUCCH and TBoMS PUSCH are overlapped within multiple actual TOs.

FIG. 20 shows an example scenario where multiple PUCCHs and TBoMS PUSCH are overlapped within multiple actual TOs.

FIG. 21 shows an example MAC RAR.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram representation of a portion of an apparatus that can be used to implement methods and/or techniques of the presently disclosed technology.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Section headings are used in the present document only to improve readability and do not limit scope of the disclosed embodiments and techniques in each section to only that section. Certain features are described using the example of Fifth Generation (5G) wireless protocol. However, applicability of the disclosed techniques is not limited to only 5G wireless systems

FIG. 1 shows an example of a wireless communication system (e.g., a long term evolution (LTE) , 5G or NR cellular network) that includes a base station (BS) 120 and one or more user equipment (UE) 111, 112 and 113. In some embodiments, the uplink transmissions (131, 132, 133) can include uplink control information (UCI) , higher layer signaling (e.g., UE assistance information or UE capability) , or uplink information. In some embodiments, the downlink transmissions (141, 142, 143) can include DCI or high layer signaling or downlink information. The UE may be, for example, a smartphone, a tablet, a mobile computer, a machine to machine (M2M) device, a terminal, a mobile device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, and so on.

Current discussions propose certain enhancements to Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) to specify efficient activation and deactivation mechanisms for secondary cells (SCells) based on RAN1 leading mechanisms.

Case 1: In Rel-17, it was proposed to use a temporary reference signal (RS) instead of a synchronization signal block (SSB) for efficient SCell activation. but in RAN4 specifications, in the case of frequency range 1 (FR1) intra-band SCell activation, the cell specific reference signals from the active serving cells and the SCells being activated or released are available in the same slot. Because a UE is allowed to use one radio frequency (RF) chain to receive all the carriers in intra-band carrier aggregation (CA) , and Automatic Gain Control (AGC) needs to accommodate input from all carriers, this means the temporary RS also needs to trigger in all the carriers in a band for intra-band CA, even if the cells has been activated. But how to trigger temporary RS in all the carriers in intra band CA, including activated serving cells, is still unclear.

Case 2: It has been discussed using temporary RS for SCell activation in multiple scenarios (FR1/FR2, known/unknown cell, etc. ) , including how many temporary RS bursts/symbols are required to achieve both UE AGC setting and time/frequency tracking. A summary can be found in following table. It can be seen that if the SCell measurement cycle is larger than 160 ms, then one additional temporary RS burst is needed, and a gap between the RS symbol (s) for AGC and the RS symbols for time/frequency acquisition may be needed. For FR2, more temporary RS bursts and symbols are needed for beam sweeping.

For more than one temporary RS burst of TRS, the information element (IE) repetiton in IE NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet in TS 38.331 can be used, but this IE cannot indicate the number of repetitions.

FIG. 2 shows an IE NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet. As shown, the IE repetition indicates whether repetition is on or off. If the field is set to off or if the field is absent, the UE cannot assume that the NZP-CSI-RS resources within the resource set are transmitted with the same downlink spatial domain transmission filter. It can only be configured for channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource sets which are associated with CSI-ReportConfig configured to report L1-RSRP or "no report" .

NR coverage enhancements have also been discussed. One objective is to solve the problem of coverage bottleneck channels. Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) is potentially a coverage bottleneck channel. In this document, some enhancement mechanisms for PUSCH are described.

FIG. 3 shows an example SCell activation. In Rel-15 specifications, upon receiving an SCell activation command in slot n, the UE can transmit a valid channel state information (CSI) report and apply actions related to the activation command for the SCell being activated no earlier than n+k and no later than slot n+ [T _HARQ + T _{activation_time} + T _{CSI_Reporting}] /T _slotlength as shown in FIG. 3, where T _HARQ is the timing between DL data transmission and acknowledgement, i.e., k ₁ as defined in RAN1. According to TS38.331, the potential values for k ₁ can be {0-15} slots. T _{activation_time} is mainly used for time-domain and frequency-domain synchronization, RF warm up, and AGC adjustment. T _{activation_time} largely depends on the frequency range, SCell measurement cycle, and whether the SCell is known or unknown. According to TS38.133 and TS38.331, the smallest value for T _{activation_time} is [T _{SMTC_SCell} + 5ms] = 25ms when T _{SMTC_SCell} is configured with the common value of 20ms. T _{CSI_Reporting} is the delay including uncertainty in acquiring the first available downlink CSI reference resource, UE processing time for CSI reporting, and uncertainty in acquiring the first available CSI reporting resource. Assume that both periodical CSI-RS and CSI report are configured for a UE both with the smallest periodicity, i.e., 4ms. In this case, the average CSI measurement and reporting delay can be calculated as 0.5* [CSI-RS periodicity + CSI reporting periodicity] = 0.5* [4ms + 4ms] =4ms. Therefore, reducing T _HARQ, T _{activation_time} and T _{CSI_Reporting} is the key to achieve efficient SCell activation/de-activation mechanisms.

Efficient activation/de-activation mechanism for SCells has been discussed in Rel-16, and two candidate solutions have emerged, i.e., (1) dormant bandwidth part (BWP) and (2) temporary RS. For these two candidate solutions, only dormant BWP is finally finalized in Rel-16 due to limited time constraints.

In Rel-16, there are some agreements about dormancy indication within active time. For case 1, the explicit information field for the SCell dormancy indication is a bitmap of length N. The bitmap is appended to existing fields of non-fallback downlink control information (DCI) (i.e., size of DCI format 0-1, 1-1 is increased by N (0≤N≤5) bits) . For case 2, when a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) with DCI format 1-1 is used for indicating dormancy for SCells, and when the UE indicates that the PDCCH is not used for Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) scheduling, up to 15 dormancy cells can be indicated by repurposing the scheduling fields (i.e., MCS (5) , NDI (1) , RV (2) , Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process number (4) , Antenna port (s) (at least 4) , Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) sequence initialization) for dormancy indication. For a dormancy indication within active time:

If “0” is indicated by DCI field:

● If UE is in a non-dormant BWP, UE switches to dormant BWP.

● If UE is in a dormant BWP, UE continues with the dormant BWP.

If “1” is indicated by DCI field:

● If UE is in a non-dormant BWP, UE continues with the non-dormant BWP.

● If UE is in a dormant BWP, the UE switches to a specific non-dormant BWP explicitly configured by Radio Resource Control (RRC) .

Further study is needed on using a temporary RS for efficient SCell activation. One need is to activate SCells and trigger a temporary RS at same time. Some options have been discussed previously:

Option 1: MAC Control Element (s) (MAC-CE (s) ) contained in a single PDSCH to trigger both SCell activation and corresponding temporary RS (s) .

● Option 1a: Legacy MAC-CE for SCell activation, and a new MAC-CE for Temporary RS trigger.

● Option 1b: A new MAC-CE for both triggers.

● Option 1c: A PDSCH Transport Block (TB) and its scheduling DL Grant, and DL Grant for temporary RS trigger.

● Option 1d: Legacy MAC-CE for SCell activation, and implicit trigger temporary RS in Rel-17.

Option 2: A single DCI to trigger both SCell activation and corresponding temporary RS (s) .

Option 3: A Rel-15/16 SCell activation MAC-CE to trigger SCell activation and a Rel-15/16 DCI to trigger corresponding temporary RS (s) with enhancement of timeline.

In RAN1#102 e-meeting, it was agreed that TRS (Tracking RS) was selected as the temporary RS for SCell activation, and the temporary RS should at least provide the functionalities of AGC settling and time/frequency tracking during the SCell activation procedure. But which TRS have not been determined, such as Aperiodic Tracking RS (A-TRS) , Periodic Tracking RS (P-TRS) , or Semi-persistent Tracking RS (SP-TRS) .

A burst of a temporary RS is notated as follows:

● “2-slot with four CSI-RSs resources (4 samples) ” for FR1.

● “1-slot with two CSI-RSs resources (2 samples) ” or “2-slot with four CSI-RSs resources (4 samples) ” for FR2.

All the BWPs configured on a cell are inactive before the cell is activated. If a UE measures the triggered temporary RS during the SCell activation procedure, the measurement on the target BWP should be performed regardless of the activation state of the BWP. There are two main views as to which BWP the UE should measure the temporary RS on:

1) The BWP configured by “firstActiveDownlinkBWP-Id. ”

2) gNodeB (gNB) indicates the BWP along with an indication to trigger the temporary RS.

In addition, coverage is one of the key factors that an operator considers when commercializing cellular communication networks due to its direct impact on service quality, capital expenditures, and operating expenses. Despite the importance of coverage on the success of NR commercialization, a thorough coverage evaluation and a comparison with legacy radio access technologies (RATs) considering all NR specification details have not been done up to now.

Among physical channels, PUSCH and Msg3 PUSCH are potential coverage bottleneck channels, and corresponding enhancements are needed. For PUSCH transmission, transport block (TB) processing over multiple slots (TBoMS) is proposed as a way for coverage enhancement. In that case, UCI (uplink control information) multiplexing on PUSCH for TBoMS should be determined, such as the location, timeline, or coded modulation symbols used for UCI multiplexing on TBoMS PUSCH.

Msg3 PUSCH repetition has been identified to provide coverage enhancement. However, how to indicate the number of repetitions is not decided yet.

Example 1

This example relates to methods for efficient SCell activation.

Option 1

When one MAC-CE is used for SCell activation and deactivation, K additional MAC-CEs can be used to trigger TRS corresponding to K cells.

A first MAC CE can be used to activate N SCells. At the same time, an additional K MAC CEs triggers several A-TRSs for K cells, where K is greater than or equal to N. The K cells include activated PCells and/or SCells. Multiple MAC CEs can be sent to trigger A-TRS, and each MAC CE used to trigger A-TRS indicates M A-TRS’s used to activate a cell, where M can be greater than or equal to 1. The A-TRS can be an aperiodic trigger state or resource set.

FIG. 4 shows an example aperiodic trigger state design. The BWP ID field indicates the DL BWP ID of the MAC CE application. The Serving Cell ID field indicates a certain SCell or PCell of the MAC CE application. The T _i field indicates the triggered aperiodic trigger state, and setting this field to 1 indicates that the aperiodic trigger state is triggered. The R domain is a reserved bit, set to 0.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a resource set corresponding to the aperiodic TRS trigger MAC CE. The BWP ID field indicates the DL BWP ID of the MAC CE application. The Serving Cell ID field indicates a certain SCell or PCell of the MAC CE application. The NZP CSI-RS resource set ID _i field indicates whether the aperiodic NZP CSI-RS resource set is activated, and the minimum settable number is 1. The transmission configuration indicator (TCI) State ID _i field indicates the TCI state corresponding to the resource in the resource set; if the A/D field is set to 0, the octets corresponding to the TCI State ID field do not exist. The R domain is a reserved bit, set to 0.

Option 2

When one MAC-CE is used for SCell activation and deactivation, a single new MAC-CE can be used to trigger M TRSs of K cells, where M can be greater than or equal to 1.

FIG. 6 shows an example MAC-CE configuration. As shown, the serving cell ID becomes a serving cell list, which can include PCell and SCells. The serving cell list can have up to 16 or 32 cells, indicated by a bitmap. Although FIG. 6 shows 16 cells, in some embodiments, the serving cell list can have any whole number of cells. In one example, the serving cell list can be configured as 1010110000010000, which indicates that Cell 1 (PCell) , Cell 3, Cell 5, Cell 6, and Cell 12 need to trigger TRS on the same slot.

FIG. 7 shows an example MAC-CE configuration. A new RRC high-level parameter IE Scell-groups-for-R17-Scell-activation can be defined, and the servingcell ID field in the MAC-CE becomes ScellGroupID. The new IE can be used to confirm the number of bits corresponding to the ScellGroupID field in MAC-CE. The grouping depends on CCs within intra-band CA, which can include PCell and SCells. In one example, the IE Scell-groups-for-R17-Scell-activation is configured as Group 1 with Cell 1 (PCell) , Cell 3, Cell 5, and Cell 6 in a first band in intra-band CA; Group 2 with Cell 2, Cell 4, Cell 7, and Cell 8 are in a second band in intra-band CA; and Group 3 with Cell 9 and Cell l0 are in a third band in intra-band CA. In this example, the ScellGroupID field in MAC-CE is 3 bits corresponding to the 3 groups. When the ScellGroupID field in MAC-CE is configured as 010, the Cell 2, Cell 4, Cell 7, and Cell 8 within Group 2 trigger TRS on the same slot.

FIG. 8 shows an example timeline of TRS triggering using MAC-CE. As shown, a trigger offset can be configured when triggering a TRS. The starting location of the trigger offset has not yet been clearly discussed. There are several possibilities:

Case 1: The starting position may be the slot where acknowledgment (ACK) feedback is received by the PDSCH where the MAC-CE is located.

Case 2: The starting position may be one slot after the slot where ACK feedback is received by the PDSCH where the MAC-CE is located.

Case 3: The starting position may be three slots after the slot where ACK feedback is received by the PDSCH where the MAC-CE is located.

Case 4: The starting position may be four slots after the slot where ACK feedback is received by the PDSCH where the MAC-CE is located.

In some embodiments, the starting position can be other numbers of slots after receiving ACK feedback from the PDSCH where the MAC-CE is located, such as 2, 5, 6, 7, etc.

FIG. 9 shows an example MAC-CE configuration. The BWP ID field indicates the DL BWP ID of the MAC CE application. The SCell Group ID field indicates an SCell group of the MAC CE application. The NZP CSI-RS resource set ID _i field indicates whether the aperiodic NZP CSI-RS resource set is activated, and the minimum settable number is 1. The transmission configuration indicator (TCI) State ID _i field indicates the TCI state corresponding to the resource in the resource set; if the A/D field is set to 0, the octets corresponding to the TCI State ID field do not exist. The R domain is a reserved bit, set to 0.

Option 3

FIG. 10 shows an example MAC-CE configuration. If only one SCell's TRS can be triggered, then it can be implicitly indicated that the PCell and/or SCells which are in intra-band CA with the SCell need also trigger TRS. All other cells trigger TRS at the same time, including PCells and/or SCells. For example, if SCell 2 needs to activate and trigger TRS, and PCell and SCell 3 are activated cells and in intra-band CA with SCell 2, then the PCell, SCell 2 and SCell 3 all trigger TRS on the same slot.

Case 1: The starting position may be the slot where acknowledgment (ACK) feedback is received by the PDSCH where the MAC-CE is located;

Case 2: The starting position may be one slot after the slot where ACK feedback is received by the PDSCH where the MAC-CE is located;

Case 3: The starting position may be three slots after the slot where ACK feedback is received by the PDSCH where the MAC-CE is located;

Case 4: The starting position may be four slots after the slot where ACK feedback is received by the PDSCH where the MAC-CE is located;

Option 4

When DCI is used for SCell activation and deactivation, DCI is used to trigger TRS.

Rel-16 introduced a method to switch from dormancy BWP to normal BWP. SCells can be activated quickly through the SCell dormancy indication field in the DCI, where the SCell dormancy indication is used to determine the number of bits according to a high-level parameter Scell-groups-for-dormancy-within-active-time in an RRC message. Each bit corresponds to an SCell Group, which can be configured through the high-level parameter Scell-groups-for-dormancy-within-active-time in the RRC message.

In Rel-17, the SCell dormancy indication field can be reused to activate/deactivate SCells. The RRC configuration can put the SCells of the same intra-band into a group. If the bit indicating the group is set to 1, then the field used to trigger the TRS in DCI can trigger TRS for cells in the entire group.

However, in Rel-16, only SCells are considered in the above signaling, and PCell is not considered. In this case, the TRS can be trigger for the PCell co-banded with SCells at the same time through the default behavior. In some embodiments, bit fields, such as the carrier indicator field (CIF) in DCI, can be reinterpreted. In some embodiments, a new domain can be added, or the RRC message can be redefined to put all intra-band CA cells in one group, including PCells and SCells.

In Rel-17, a new RRC IE Scell-groups-for-R17-sell-activation can be used to activate or deactivate SCells. The RRC configuration can put the PCell and SCells of the same intra-band into a group. If the bit indicating the group is set to 1, then the field used to trigger the TRS in DCI can trigger TRS for cells in the entire group. The new IE can confirm the number of bits corresponding to an SCell dormancy indication field in DCI. For example, the IE Scell-groups-for-R17-Scell-activation can be configured as Group 1 with Cell 1 (PCell) , Cell 3, Cell 5, and Cell 9 in a first band in intra-band CA; Group 2 with Cell 2, Cell 4, Cell 7, and Cell 8 are in a second band in intra-band CA; Group 3 with Cell 10 and Cell l1 are in a third band in intra-band CA; Group 4 with Cell 12, Cell 13, Cell 14, and Cell 16 are in a fourth band in intra-band CA; and Group 5 includes Cell 15. In this case, the SCell dormancy indication field in DCI is 5 bits correspond to the 5 groups. When the SCell dormancy indication field in DCI is configured as 01010, the all cells in Group 2 and Group 4 trigger TRS on the same slot. In some embodiments, the SCell dormancy indication field can be a new field in DCI.

SCell dormancy indication can be used to activate SCells by reinterpreting existing bit fields. However, DCI bit size must be consistent, which means that the SCell dormancy indication field in DCI is not used. Thus, the first bit of this field can be passed to indicate whether to trigger the TRS for PCell. In some embodiments, other fields such as the CIF field, can be used. In addition, when activating both PCell and SCells, the subcarrier spacing can be different for different cells.

When PDCCH with DCI format 1-1 is used to indicate dormancy for SCells, and when it is indicated that PDCCH is not used for PDSCH scheduling, up to 15 dormancy cells can be indicated by repurposing DCI scheduling fields (i.e., Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) (5) , New Data Indicator (NDI) (1) , Redundancy Version (RV) (2) , Hybrid Automatic Repeat request (HARQ) process number (4) , Antenna port (s) (at least 4) , and Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) sequence initialization) .

The DCI can trigger TRS through the CSI-request field. DCI can be DCI format 0-1, DCI format 1-1, DCI format 2-6. TRS can be A-TRS, SP-TRS or P-TRS. DCI can be used for both activation and deactivation.

In addition, the specific location where the TRS is sent depends on the target BWP of the SCell to be activated and the activated BWP of the activated cell in the maximum or minimum configuration subcarrier spacing (SCS) . The location where the TRS is sent can also depend on the target BWP SCS of the SCell to be activated as a reference or the activated BWP. The activated BWP of the cell can be determined by reference. In one example, SCell 4 is set to activate and trigger TRS, and SCell 3 is an activated cell and in intra-band CA with SCell 4. SCell 4’s target BWP SCS is 30KHz, and the activated BWP’S SCS of SCell 3 is 15KHz. SCell 4 and SCell 3 must trigger TRS on the same slot, and the location slot can depend on the maximum (30HKz) or minimum (15HKz) configuration SCS, the target BWP SCS of the SCell (SCell 4) to be activated as a reference, or the activated BWP of the cell (SCell 3) determined by reference.

Example 2

This example relates to methods for efficient SCell activation.

A TRS burst can include one or more TRSs over a number of time domain units, such as slots. When the TRS requires more than one burst, additional bursts can be achieved through repetition. The restriction that TRS cannot be configured with repetition can be removed in the protocol. The following embodiments address how repetition transmission takes into account the gap between RS symbol (s) for AGC (automatic gain control) for time/frequency acquisition.

Option 1

FIG. 11 shows a CSI-ResourcePeriodicityAndOffset IE. With SP-TRS as the temporary RS, the high-level parameter IE CSI-ResourcePeriodicityAndOffset can be used to configure a period length to include one TRS burst and gap. N cycles of transmission can be executed at the end (i.e., N=2 for a known cell in FR 1, where the cell is an SCell and the measurement cycle is larger than 160ms) . Note that the current high-level parameters as shown below support a minimum period of 4 slots, but the gap value may only have 1 slot, etc. As a result, the CSI-ResourcePeriodicityAndOffset IE must be modified to add slot1 INTEGER (0) , slots2 INTEGER (0.. 1) , slots3 INTEGER (0.. 2) , etc.

The IE CSI-ResourcePeriodicityAndOffset is used to configure a periodicity and a corresponding offset for periodic and semi-persistent CSI resources and for periodic and semi-persistent reporting on Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) . Both periodicity and an offset are given using the number of slots. For example, the periodicity value slots4 can corresponds to 4 slots, the value slots5 can correspond to 5 slots, etc.

Option 2

The repetition can configured using A-TRS, and the gap duration can be configured by configuring the number of repetitions.

A parameter repetitionNumber, can be added to the IE. For example, if RAN4 defines a gap value of 2 slots, the repetition number can be configured to 6, so that the first and second slots can be used for AGC adjustment, and the fifth and sixth slots can be used for channel tracking.

FIG. 12 shows an NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet IE. The IE NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet is a set of Non-Zero-Power (NZP) CSI-RS resources (their IDs) and set-specific parameters.

Option 3

The temporary RS can be A-TRS. Repetitions can be configured by configuring a time window to execute the repetitions.

A high-level parameter specifying a time window can be added. TRS repetition is only valid in the specified time window, and different time window lengths can be configured according to different UE capabilities. Note the repetition may not occupy the entire time window, which means that the length of the repetition is less than or equal to the time window.

Furthermore, for an unknown cell or a cell in FR2, beam sweeping is required, which requires additional TRS bursts. Continuous repetitions can result in a large the resource overhead. Thus, the time window can be increased to decrease overhead. For example, the length of the time window can 5 slots, where a gap is 1 slot. The first and second slot (which comprise 1 burst) in the time window can be used for AGC adjustment, and the fourth and fifth slots (another burst) can be used for channel tracking. Different time window repetitions can used for beam sweeping, including an AGC adjustment and channel tracking in each repetition. To adjust the time windows, an offset can be configured between successive time window repetitions. In addition, the number of repetitions can also be configured as any whole number k.

In one example, a time window length is 5 slots. An offset between time windows can be set to two slots. As a result, a TRS transmission with two time windows comprises: repetition 1; a 2 slots offset; and repetition2. In this case, the TRS is transmitted on a total of 10 slots in 2 time windows. In comparison, using option 1 requires transmission using a total of 12 slots, which results in higher overhead.

In addition, the gap within a time window can be configured so that the TRS is not transmitted during that time. For example, if the slots used for a TRS burst or the slots used for the gap can be identified, then those slots can be configured more efficiently.

Option 4

FIG. 13 shows an example TRS transmission. A repetition duration can be configured, where the duration is the continuous slot length used to send the TRS. At the same time, offset1 can be configured and refers to the gap value between bursts used for AGC and T/F tracking within one beam. In some embodiments, offset2 can be configured, where offset2 refers to a gap value between different beams, such as Beam 1 and Beam 2 shown in FIG. 13. The number of repetitions, K, can also be defined. In some embodiments, the number of repetitions can be used to configure beam sweeping, when necessary.

In some embodiments, offset1 and offset2 can be configured with a single parameter. For example, one parameter in RRC can indicate offset2 and offset1 at the same time. In various embodiments, only offset 1 is configured, only offset2 is configured, or both offset1 and offset2 are configured. As shown in FIG. 13, offset1 and offset2 can be configured to be a specified length of time, and the number of repetitions K can indicate the number of beams.

In some embodiments, the TRS can be indicated as a quasi co-location (QCL) source for an SSB or CSI-RS. The quasi co-location relationship can be configured by a higher layer parameter qcl-Type1 for the first DL RS and qcl-Type2 for the second DL RS (if configured) . If there are two DL RSs, the QCL types can be different, regardless of whether the references are to the same DL RS or different DL RSs. For example, the QCL types corresponding to each DL RS can be given by the higher layer parameter qcl-Type in QCL-Info and can take one of the following values:

● 'QCL-TypeA' : {Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread}

● 'QCL-TypeB' : {Doppler shift, Doppler spread}

● 'QCL-TypeC' : {Doppler shift, average delay}

● 'QCL-TypeD' : {Spatial Rx parameter}

The UE can receive an activation command used to map up to 8 TCI states to the codepoints of the DCI field 'Transmission Configuration Indication' in one component carrier (CC) /DL BWP or in a set of CCs/DL BWPs. When a set of TCI state IDs are activated for a set of CCs/DL BWPs, where the applicable list of CCs is determined by an indicated CC in the activation command, the same set of TCI state IDs are applied for all DL BWPs in the indicated CCs.

The SSB or CSI-RS can be QCLed with the TRS via any paired combination of: QCL-typeA, QCL-typeB, QCL-typeC, and QCL-typeD. Examples of some of these combinations are shown below:

FIG. 14 shows an example method 1400. At 1402, control information is received at a wireless device. At 1404, a first number of reference signals corresponding to a first number of serving cells is triggered based on the control information. At 1406, a second number of SCells is activated based on the control information. The first number can be greater than or equal to the second number. The first number can be less than or equal to the total number of component carriers serving the wireless device, for a wireless device operating in CA. The first number of serving cells can include activated and deactivated serving cells, SCells, or PCells. In some embodiments, the reference signals are Aperiodic Tracking Reference Signals. In some embodiments, the control information includes a MAC-CE, similar to the MAC-CEs described above. The reference signals can be triggered in bursts over a number of time units, such as slots. The control information can include periodicity information, repetition information, duration, or a time window, each of which can be used to configure repetition of the triggering of reference signals.

Example 3

This example describes a method for TB processing over multiple slots.

When TB processing over multiple slots is enabled, and a UE transmits a PUCCH (PUCCHs) which is overlapped with one or more slot (s) within multiple slots for TBoMS PUSCH, the UCI information can be multiplexed on PUSCH. Then, the timeline for UCI multiplexing is based on the first slot, overlapped slot (s) , or any slot of TBoMS PUSCH. The timeline for UCI multiplexing is defined in clause 9.2.5 of TS 38.213. The following methods can be considered.

Option 1: The timeline is based on the first slot of TBoMS PUSCH.

Option 2: The timeline is based on any one or more of the overlapped slot (s) of TBoMS PUSCH.

Option 3: The timeline is based on one or more slots of TBoMS PUSCH.

FIG. 15 shows an example PUCCH transmission overlapping with a TBoMS PUSCH. As shown, the PUCCH transmission is overlapped with slot 2 and slot 3 of TBoMS PUSCH. The timeline for UCI multiplexing could be based on slot 1, slot 2, slot 3, slot 4 or any combination of these slots. In some embodiments, the timeline for UCI multiplexing based on one slot means the timeline condition is determined based on the first symbol of PUSCH within the slot. In some embodiments, the timeline for UCI multiplexing based on more than one slots means the timeline condition is determined based in the first symbol of PUSCH within the more than one slots.

In some embodiments, the time domain resource determination of TBoMS PUSCH is based on PUSCH repetition Type B like time domain resource assignment (TDRA) . Similar methods to the above options could be reused to determine timeline conditions of UCI multiplexing. In this case, the time resource granularity needs to be changed from slot (s) to transmission occasions (TOs) . In some embodiments, the TO (s) are nominal TO (s) . In some embodiments, the TO (s) are actual TO (s) .

The following options should be considered for which slot (s) of TBoMS PUSCH can be used for UCI multiplexing.

Option 1: The UCI could be multiplexed on the first slot of TBoMS PUSCH.

Option 2: The UCI could be multiplexed on the overlapped slot (s) of TBoMS PUSCH.

Option 3: The UCI could be multiplexed on any one or more slot (s) within the overlapped slot (s) of TBoMS PUSCH.

Option 4: The UCI could be multiplexed on any one or multiple slots of TBoMS PUSCH

FIG. 16 shows an example of PUCCH and TBoMS PUSCH overlapping within one slot. FIG. 17 shows an example of PUCCH and TBoMS PUSCH overlapping within multiple slots. In some embodiments, TBoMS is enabled, and a UE transmits a PUCCH which is overlapped with one or more slot (s) within multiple slots for TBoMS PUSCH. In FIG. 17, if the timeline for UCI multiplexing on TBoMS PUSCH is satisfied based on slot 1, then the UCI could be multiplexed on slot 1, slot 2, slot 3, {slot 2, slot 3} , or any combination of {slot 1, slot 2 , slot 3, slot 4} . If the timeline for UCI multiplexing on TBoMS PUSCH is not satisfied based on slot 1 but is satisfied based on slot 2, then the UCI could be multiplexed on slots 2, slot 3, {slot 2 , slot 3} , or any combination of {slot 2, slot 3, slot 4} . If the timeline for UCI multiplexing on TBoMS PUSCH is not satisfied based on slot 2 but is satisfied based on slot 3, then the UCI could be multiplexed on slot 3, slot 4, or {slot 3, slot 4} .

FIG. 18 shows an example overlap scenario. Furthermore, when the time domain resource determination of TBoMS PUSCH is based on PUSCH repetition Type B like TDRA , and the TBoMS PUSCH includes multiple PUSCH Type B like transmission occasions, as shown in FIG. 18, UCI could be multiplexed on A Rep1, A Rep 3, A Rep 4, {A Rep 3, A Rep 4} , or any TOs of {A Rep1, A Rep2, A Rep3, A Rep 4, A Rep 5} . “A Rep” is an actual repetition transmission, and “N Rep” is a nominal repetition transmission.

FIG. 19 shows an example overlap scenario where PUCCH and TBoMS PUSCH are overlapped within multiple actual TOs. In some embodiments, TBoMS is enabled, and a UE transmits more than one PUCCHs which are overlapped with one or more slots within multiple slots for TBoMS PUSCH, as shown in FIG. 19. If the timeline for both UCI on PUCCH 1 (UCI 1) and PUCCH 2 (UCI 2) multiplexing on TBoMS PUSCH is satisfied based on slot 1, then concatenate UCI1 and UCI2 together and multiplex on slot 1 or slot 2 or any slots within {slot 1, slot 2, slot 3, slot 4} . If the timeline for both UCI 1 and UCI 2 multiplexing on TBoMS PUSCH is not satisfied based on slot 1 and it’s satisfied based on slot 2, then concatenate UCI 1 and UCI 2 together and multiplexing on slot 2 or any slots within {slot 1, slot 2, slot 3, slot 4} . In some embodiments, the timeline is satisfied based on slot 1 if the timeline is satisfied considering the first symbol of slot 1 or the first symbol of all slots for TBoMS.

FIG. 20 shows an example scenario where multiple PUCCHs and TBoMS PUSCH are overlapped within multiple actual TOs. In FIG. 20, the time domain resource determination of TBoMS PUSCH is based on PUSCH repetition Type B like TDRA and the TBoMS PUSCH includes multiple PUSCH Type B like transmission occasions. If the timeline for both UCI on PUCCH 1 (UCI 1) and PUCCH 2 (UCI 2) multiplexing on TBoMS PUSCH is satisfied based on A Rep 1, then concatenate UCI1 and UCI2 together and multiplexing on A Rep 1 or A Rep 2 or any actual TOs within {A Rep 1, A Rep 2, A Rep3, A Rep 4, A Rep 5} . If the timeline for both UCI 1 and UCI 2 multiplexing on TBoMS PUSCH is not satisfied based on A Rep 1 but is satisfied based on A Rep 2, then concatenate UCI 1 and UCI 2 together and perform multiplexing on A Rep 2 or any actual TOs within {A Rep 2, A Rep3, A Rep 4, A Rep 5} . In FIG. 20, “A Rep” is an actual repetition transmission and “N Rep” is a nominal repetition transmission.

In some embodiments, the slot (TO) for UCI multiplexing is the first slot (TO) of TBoMS PUSCH that includes DMRS symbols. In some embodiments, the slot (TO) for UCI multiplexing is the first overlapped slot (TO) of TBoMS PUSCH thay includes DMRS symbols. In some embodiments, the slots (TOs) for UCI multiplexing is any single slot of TBoMS PUSCH that includes DMRS symbols. In some embodiments, the slots (TOs) for UCI multiplexing are any multiple slots (TOs) of TBoMS PUSCH and the first slot (TO) within the slots (TOs) which include DMRS symbols.

Example 4

When TB processing over multiple slots is enabled, and a UE transmits a PUCCH (PUCCHs) which is overlaps one or more slots within multiple slots for TBoMS PUSCH, the UCI information can be multiplexed on TBoMS PUSCH. The number of coded modulation symbols for each layer of UCI information can be determined, where, the UCI information includes at least one of: HARQ-ACK, CSI part 1, CSI part 2, CG-UCI, HARQ-ACK, or CG-UCI. Take HARQ-ACK multiplexing on PUSCH as an example.

For HARQ-ACK transmission on PUSCH not using repetition type B with UL-SCH, the number of coded modulation symbols per layer for HARQ-ACK transmission, denoted as Q′ _ACK, is determined as follows:

Where:

● O _ACK is the number of HARQ-ACK bits.

● If O _ACK≥360, L _ACK=11; otherwise L _ACK is the number of CRC bits for HARQ-ACK determined according to Clause 6.3.1.2.1.

●

● C _UL-SCH is the number of code blocks for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission.

● If the DCI format scheduling the PUSCH transmission includes a CBGTI field indicating that the UE shall not transmit the r-th code block, K _r=0; otherwise, K _r is the r-th code block size for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission.

●

is the scheduled bandwidth of the PUSCH transmission, expressed as a number of subcarriers.

●

is the number of subcarriers in OFDM symbol l that carries PTRS, in the PUSCH transmission.

●

is the number of resource elements that can be used for transmission of UCI in OFDM symbol l, for

in the PUSCH transmission, and

is the total number of OFDM symbols of the PUSCH, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS.

● For any OFDM symbol that carries DMRS of the PUSCH,

● For any OFDM symbol that does not carry DMRS of the PUSCH,

● α is configured by higher layer parameter scaling.

● l ₀ is the symbol index of the first OFDM symbol that does not carry DMRS of the PUSCH, after the first DMRS symbol (s) , in the PUSCH transmission.

When TB processing over multiple slots is enabled, the number of coded modulation symbols for each layer of UCI information should be determined. The following options can be considered.

Option 1: C _UL-SCH is the number of code blocks for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission. For

is the total number of OFDM symbols of the PUSCH, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS. For

is redefined as the total number of OFDM symbols in one or more slots of the PUSCH, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS. In some embodiments, the one or more slots of the PUSCH are the slot (s) overlapping with PUCCH. In some embodiments, for

is redefined as the total number of OFDM symbols of the PUSCH, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS.

Option 2: C _UL-SCH is the number of code blocks in one or more slots of the PUSCH for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission. K _r is the r-th code block size for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission.

For

is redefined as the total number of OFDM symbols in one or more slots of the PUSCH, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS; In some embodiments, for

is redefined as the total number of OFDM symbols in one or more slots of the PUSCH, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS. In some embodiments, the one or more slots of the PUSCH is the slot (s) overlapping with PUCCH. In some embodiments, for

Option 3: C _UL-SCH is the number of code blocks for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission. In some embodiments, C _UL-SCH should be multiplied by a factor k , where k could be configured by RRC signaling or indicated by DCI or combined coding with TDRA. In this case, k is less than or equal to 1. For

is the total number of OFDM symbols in one or more slots of the PUSCH, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS. In some embodiments,

should be multiplied a scaling factor K, and K could be configured by RRC signaling or indicated by DCI or combined coding with TDRA. In this case, K is greater than or equal to 1. For

Option 4: C _UL-SCH is the number of code blocks in one or more slots for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission, and K _r is the r-th code block size for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission. In some embodiments, C _UL-SCH should be multiplied by a factor K , and K could be configured by RRC signaling or indicated by DCI or combined coding with TDRA. In this case, K is greater than or equal to 1. For

is the total number of OFDM symbols of the PUSCH, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS. In some embodiments,

should be multiplied a scaling factor k, and k could be configured by RRC signaling or indicated by DCI or combined coding with TDRA. In this case, k is less than or equal to 1. For

For CSI-part 1, in some embodiments, the same methods described in the above four options can be reused. In some embodiments, the methods to determine the number of OFDM symbols of the

within

should be reused for

within

The same methods to determine the number of OFDM symbols of

within

should be reused for

within

In some embodiments, the same methods to determine the OFDM symbols of the

within

should be reused for both

within

and

For CSI-part 2, in some embodiments, the same methods described in the four options above can be reused. In some embodiments, the same methods to determine the number of OFDM symbols of the

within

should be reused for

within

The same methods to determine the number of OFDM symbols of

within

should be reused for

within

In some embodiments, the same methods to determine the OFDM symbols of the

within

should be reused for both

within

and

For HARQ-ACK transmission on an actual repetition of a PUSCH with repetition Type B with UL-SCH, the number of coded modulation symbols per layer for HARQ-ACK transmission, denoted as Q′ _ACK, is determined as follows:

where:

●

in the PUSCH transmission assuming a nominal repetition without segmentation, and

is the total number of OFDM symbols in a nominal repetition of the PUSCH, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS.

● For any OFDM symbol that carries DMRS of the PUSCH assuming a nominal repetition without segmentation,

● For any OFDM symbol that does not carry DMRS of the PUSCH assuming a nominal repetition without segmentation,

where

is the number of subcarriers in OFDM symbol l that carries PTRS, in the PUSCH transmission assuming a nominal repetition without segmentation.

●

is the number of resource elements that can be used for transmission of UCI in OFDM symbol l , for

in the actual repetition of the PUSCH transmission, and

is the total number of OFDM symbols in the actual repetition of the PUSCH transmission, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS.

● For any OFDM symbol that carries DMRS of the actual repetition of the PUSCH transmission,

● For any OFDM symbol that does not carry DMRS of the actual repetition of the PUSCH transmission,

where

is the number of subcarriers in OFDM symbol l that carries PTRS, in the actual repetition of the PUSCH transmission.

● All other notations in the formula are defined the same as for PUSCH not using repetition type B.

The number of coded modulation symbols for each layer of UCI information should be determined, where the UCI information includes at least one of HARQ-ACK, CSI part 1, CSI part 2 , CG-UCI, HARQ-ACK, or CG-UCI. The following options should be considered.

Option 1: C _UL-SCH is the number of code blocks for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission. In some embodiments, the PUSCH transmission is a nominal PUSCH transmission. In some embodiments, the PUSCH transmission is an actual PUSCH transmission. For

is the total number of OFDM symbols of the nominal PUSCH, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS; In some embodiments, for

is total OFDM symbols of one or more actual TOs within multiple actual TOs for TB processing. In some embodiments, the one or more actual TOs of the PUSCH is the TO (s) overlapping with PUCCH. Alternatively,

is the total OFDM symbols of all actual TOs within multiple actual TOs for TB processing PUSCH.

Option 2: C _UL-SCH is the number of code blocks in one or more TOs of the PUSCH for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission. K _r is the r-th code block size for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission. In some embodiments, the PUSCH transmission is a nominal PUSCH transmission. In some embodiments, the PUSCH transmission is an actual PUSCH transmission. For

is redefined as the total number of OFDM symbols in one or more nominal TOs of the PUSCH, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS. In some embodiments, for

can be the total OFDM symbols of all actual TOs within multiple actual TOs for TB processing PUSCH.

Option 3: C _UL-SCH is the number of code blocks for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission. In some embodiments, C _UL-SCH should be multiplied a factor k , and k could be configured by RRC signaling or indicated by DCI or combined coding with TDRA. In this case, k is less than or equal to 1. In some embodiments, the PUSCH transmission is a nominal PUSCH transmission. In some embodiments, the PUSCH transmission is an actual PUSCH transmission. For

is redefined as the total number of OFDM symbols in one or more nominal TOs of the PUSCH, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS. In some embodiments,

is total OFDM symbols of one or more actual TOs within multiple actual TOs for TB processing. In some embodiments, the one or more actual TOs of the PUSCH are the TO (s) overlapping with PUCCH. Alternatively,

Option 4: C _UL-SCH is the number of code blocks in one or more TOs for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission, K _r is the r-th code block size for UL-SCH of the PUSCH transmission. In some embodiments, C _UL-SCH should be multiplied a factor K , and K could be configured by RRC signaling or indicated by DCI or combined coding with TDRA. In this case, K is greater than or equal to 1. In some embodiments, the PUSCH transmission is a nominal PUSCH transmission. In some embodiments, the PUSCH transmission is an actual PUSCH transmission. For

is redefined as the total number of OFDM symbols of the PUSCH, including all OFDM symbols used for DMRS. In some embodiments,

is total OFDM symbols of one or more actual TOs within multiple actual TOs for TB processing. In some embodiments, the one or more actual TOs of the PUSCH is the TO(s) overlapping with PUCCH. Alternatively,

Example 5

To indicate the number of repetitions for Msg3 initial transmission, one option is to use UL RAR grant scheduling Msg3. More specifically, the repetition factor can be included in the TDRA table, and the 4-bit ‘PUSCH time resource allocation’ bit filed can be used for indicating one row of the TDRA table. However, the addition information included in a TDRA table, a 4-bit indication may not be flexible enough. One way to solve this issue is to additionally use the one reserved bit ‘R’ in MAR RAR for repetition factor indication. That is, one bit in MAR RAR and the 4-bit ‘PUSCH time resource allocation’ in UL RAR grant are used for repetition factor indication. In some embodiments, there are up to 64 rows in the TDRA table, and up to 5 bits are jointly used to indicate of one row of the TDRA table.

MAC RAR can be redesigned. In some embodiments, there can be no reserved bit in the redesigned MAC RAR. The timing advance command bit filed in MAC RAR can start from the first bit of the MAC RAR.

FIG. 21 shows an example MAC RAR. In some embodiments, two coverage levels are defined, and each coverage level corresponds to a set of repetition factors. The one reserved bit ‘R’ in MAR RAR can be used to indicate a coverage level. Furthermore, a ‘PUSCH time resource allocation’ bit or other bit filed in RAR UL grant can be used to indicate one row of the TDRA table, which includes a set of repetition factors. These methods are also applicable for MAC fallbackRAR.

Example 6

Based on RAN4 LS, in order to maintain phase coherence across slots, it is possible that joint channel estimation (JCE) cannot work simultaneously with intra/inter-slot FH (as long as FH is configured, JCE cannot be enabled even with in one hop) . Once JCE is configured/enabled, the 1-bit FH flag in DCI would be reserved or could be interpreted for other purpose.

In 3GPP #104 e-meeting, for joint channel estimation, a defined time domain window was introduced to facilitate further discussion, during which a UE is expected to maintain power consistency and phase continuity among PUSCH transmissions, subject to power consistency and phase continuity requirements. Several options to indicate the time domain window are:

Option 1: The 1-bit frequency hopping (FH) flag in DCI can be used to indicate the length of time domain window with JCE.

Option 1-1: The length of time domain window can be 2/4 or 4/8 or another length, based on RRC configuration. For example, if RRC is configured as 2/4, the 1 bit FH flag can be used to indicate that the length of the time domain window is 2 or 4.

Option 1-2: The length of the time domain window is fixed to 2/4 or 4/8 or another length. For example, if the time domain window is fixed to 4/8, the 1 bit FH flag can be used to indicate the length of time domain window is 4 or 8.

Option 2: The 1-bit FH flag in DCI can be used to indicate the configuration of time domain window using JCE. RRC can be configured with two sets of time domain window configurations, and the time domain window configuration can includes at least one of following: the length of the time domain window or DMRS less pattern. A DMRS less pattern means the DMRS location/granularity in repetition slots is less than a normal DMRS configuration. For example, a DMRS less pattern can be equally spaced among PUSCH repetition transmissions. In another example, the DMRS less pattern is the DMRS only located in parts of repetition slots, and the DMRS less pattern is fixed or based on RRC configuration. For example, RRC is configured with one set of time domain windows, with the length of time domain window set as 8. The DMRS less pattern can be 1/3/5/7, meaning DMRS is located only in odd repetition (1/3/5/7) , and the even repetitions do not have DMRS.

Option3: The 1 bit FH flag in DCI can be used to indicate whether to use DMRS less with JCE, and the DMRS less pattern can be fixed or based on the RRC configuration.

Some embodiments may preferably incorporate the following solutions as described herein.

For example, the solutions listed below may be used by a wireless device for activating a serving cell as described herein (e.g., as described in Example 1) :

1. A method of wireless communication (e.g., method 1400 described in FIG. 14) comprising: receiving, at a wireless device from a network device, control information (1402) ; triggering a first number of reference signals corresponding to a first number of serving cells based on the control information (1404) ; and activating a second number of secondary cells based on the control information, wherein the first number is greater than or equal the second number (1406) .

2. The method of solution 1, wherein the serving cells comprise primary cells (PCells) and secondary cells (SCells) .

3. The method of solution 1, wherein: the wireless device is configured to operate in a component carrier (CC) aggregated mode via carrier aggregation (CA) , and the first number is less than or equal to a total number of CCs serving the wireless device.

4. The method of solution 1, wherein the reference signals are Aperiodic Tracking reference signals (A-TRS) .

5. The method of solution 1, wherein the control information includes a MAC control element (MAC-CE) (e.g., as described in Example 1 and FIGS 4-10) .

6. The method of solution 5, wherein the MAC-CE includes a serving cell identifier associated with a secondary cell (SCell) .

7. The method of solution 5, wherein the MAC-CE includes a bandwidth part (BWP) identifier indicating a BWP to receive the reference signals.

8. The method of solution 5, wherein the MAC-CE includes a field indicating whether an aperiodic trigger state is triggered.

9. The method of solution 5, wherein the MAC-CE includes a field indicating whether an aperiodic non-zero-power (NZP) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource set is activated (e.g., as described in FIG. 12) .

10. The method of solution 5, wherein the MAC-CE includes a field indicating a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state (e.g., as described in FIG. 5 and 9) .

11. The method of solution 5, wherein the MAC-CE includes a serving cell list associated with a plurality of serving cells (e.g., as described in FIG. 6) .

12. The method of solution 5, wherein the MAC-CE includes a serving cell group identifier associated with a group of serving cells (e.g., as described in FIG. 7) .

13. The method of solution 5, further comprising: configuring a trigger offset, the trigger offset including a starting position at a starting slot prior to the triggering the first number of reference signals (e.g., as described in FIG. 8) .

14. The method of solution 13, further comprising: transmitting an acknowledgment corresponding to a MAC-CE PDSCH at the starting slot or one, three, or four, slots prior to the starting slot.

15. The method of solution 1, wherein the control information includes downlink control information (DCI) .

16. The method of solution 15, wherein: the DCI indicates the first number of serving cells, a subset of the first number of serving cells is in an activated state prior to the activating the second number of secondary cells, and the second number of secondary cells plus the number of serving cells in the subset is equal to the first number of serving cells or the first number of serving cells minus one.

17. The method of solution 16, wherein the DCI indicates the first number of serving cells in an SCell dormancy indication field of the DCI.

18. The method of solution 17, further comprising: confirming a number of bits corresponding to the SCell dormancy indication field of the DCI using a radio resource control (RRC) information element (IE) Scell-groups-for-R17-scell-activation.

19. The method of solution 18, wherein the RRC IE Scell-groups-for-R17-scell-activation is configured to confirm a bit corresponding to a PCell.

20. The method of solution 16, wherein the DCI indicates the first number of serving cells in a scheduling field of the DCI.

21. The method of solution 20, wherein the DCI further indicates the first number of serving cells in at least one of the following fields: an SCell dormancy indication field or a Carrier Indicator Field (CIF) .

22. The method of solution 15, wherein the reference signals are triggered based on information in a channel state information (CSI) request field of the DCI.

23. The method of solution 1, further comprising: deactivating a third number of serving cells based on the control information.

For example, the solutions listed below may be used by a wireless device for configuring repetition information as described herein (e.g., as described in Example 2 and FIG. 11-13) .

24. The method of solution 1, wherein the triggering the first number of reference signals comprises: triggering the reference signals over one or more time domain units, wherein the time domain units are slots.

25. The method of solution 24, wherein: the configuration information includes periodicity information; and the reference signals are triggered periodically according to the periodicity information.

26. The method of solution 25, wherein the periodicity information is included in a CSI information element (IE) .

27. The method of solution 24, wherein: the configuration information includes repetition information; and the reference signals are triggered a number of times based on the repetition information.

28. The method of solution 24, wherein: the configuration information includes a time window; and the triggering the reference signals over the one or more time domain units comprises repeatedly triggering the reference signals during the time window.

29. The method of solution 28, wherein: the configuration information further includes repetition information; and the triggering the reference signals over the one or more time domain units further comprises: repeatedly triggering the reference signals during a number of additional time windows, wherein the number of additional time windows is based on the repetition information.

30. The method of solution 24, wherein: the configuration information includes a duration; and the reference signals are triggered over the duration.

31. The method of solution 30, wherein: the configuration information includes a first time offset; and the triggering the reference signals over the one or more time domain units comprises: triggering a first reference signal burst, and triggering a second reference signal burst, wherein a first amount of time between triggering the first and second reference signal bursts is based on the first time offset.

32. The method of solution 31, wherein: the first and second reference signal bursts are included in a first beam; a third reference signal burst and a fourth reference signal burst are included in a second beam; the configuration information includes a second time offset; and the triggering the reference signals over the one or more time domain units further comprises: triggering the third reference signal burst, and triggering the fourth reference signal burst, wherein a second amount of time between triggering the second and third reference signal bursts or slots is based on the second time offset.

33. The method of solution 30, wherein: the configuration information further includes a repetition number K indicating a number of repetitions of the duration.

34. The method of solution 32, wherein: the configuration information further includes a repetition number K indicating a number of beams carrying the reference signals, and the reference signals are configured for beam sweeping based on the repetition number.

35. The method of solution 34, wherein a reference signal of the first number of reference signals is indicated as a Quasi Co-location (QCL) source for a synchronization signal block (SSB) .

36. The method of solution 35, wherein the SSB is quasi co-located with the reference signal via QCL-typeC or QCL-typeD.

For example, the solutions listed below may be used by a network device for activating a serving cell as described herein:

37. A method of wireless communication comprising: transmitting, to a wireless device from a network device, control information; and transmitting a first number of reference signals corresponding to a first number of serving cells based on the control information, wherein the control information enables the wireless device to activate a second number of secondary cells based on the control information, and wherein the first number is greater than or equal the second number.

38. The method of solution 37, wherein the serving cells comprise primary cells (PCells) and secondary cells (SCells) .

39. The method of solution 37, wherein: the wireless device is configured to operate in a component carrier (CC) aggregated mode via carrier aggregation (CA) , and the first number is less than or equal to a total number of CCs serving the wireless device.

40. The method of solution 37, wherein the reference signals are Aperiodic Tracking reference signals (A-TRS) .

41. The method of solution 37, wherein the control information includes a MAC control element (MAC-CE) .

42. The method of solution 41, wherein the MAC-CE includes a serving cell identifier associated with a secondary cell (SCell) .

43. The method of solution 41, wherein the MAC-CE includes a bandwidth part (BWP) identifier indicating a BWP to receive the reference signals.

44. The method of solution 41, wherein the MAC-CE includes a field indicating whether an aperiodic trigger state is triggered.

45. The method of solution 41, wherein the MAC-CE includes a field indicating whether an aperiodic non-zero-power (NZP) channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource set is activated.

46. The method of solution 41, wherein the MAC-CE includes a field indicating a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state.

47. The method of solution 41, wherein the MAC-CE includes a serving cell list associated with a plurality of serving cells.

48. The method of solution 41, wherein the MAC-CE includes a serving cell group identifier associated with a group of serving cells.

49. The method of solution 41, wherein the MAC-CE indicates a trigger offset including a starting position at a starting slot.

50. The method of solution 49, further comprising:

receiving an acknowledgment corresponding to a MAC-CE PDSCH at the starting slot or one, three, or four, slots prior to the starting slot.

51. The method of solution 37, wherein the control information includes downlink control information (DCI) .

52. The method of solution 51, wherein:

the DCI indicates the first number of serving cells,

a subset of the first number of serving cells is in an activated state prior to the activating the second number of secondary cells, and

the second number of secondary cells plus the number of serving cells in the subset is equal to the first number of serving cells or the first number of serving cells minus one.

53. The method of solution 51, wherein the DCI indicates the first number of serving cells in an SCell dormancy indication field of the DCI.

54. The method of solution 53, wherein an RRC IE Scell-groups-for-R17-scell-activation is configured to confirm a number of bits corresponding to the SCell dormancy indication.

55. The method of solution 54, wherein the RRC IE Scell-groups-for-R17-sell-activation is configured to confirm a bit corresponding to a PCell.

56. The method of solution 52, wherein the DCI indicates the first number of serving cells in a scheduling field of the DCI.

57. The method of solution 56, wherein the DCI further indicates the first number of serving cells in at least one of the following fields: an SCell dormancy indication field or a Carrier Indicator Field (CIF) .

58. The method of solution 51, wherein the reference signals are transmitted based on information in a channel state information (CSI) request field of the DCI.

59. The method of solution 37, wherein the control information enables the wireless device to deactivate a third number of serving cells based on the control information.

For example, the solutions listed below may be used by a network device for configuring repetition information as described herein.

60. The method of solution 37, wherein the transmitting the first number of reference signals comprises: transmitting the reference signals over one or more time domain units, wherein the time domain units are slots.

61. The method of solution 60, wherein: the configuration information includes periodicity information; and the reference signals are transmitted periodically according to the periodicity information.

62. The method of solution 61, wherein the periodicity information is included in a CSI information element (IE) .

63. The method of solution 60, wherein: the configuration information includes repetition information; and the reference signals are transmitted a number of times based on the repetition information.

64. The method of solution 60, wherein: the configuration information includes a time window; and the transmitting the reference signals over the one or more time domain units comprises repeatedly transmitting the reference signals during the time window.

65. The method of solution 64, wherein: the configuration information further includes repetition information; and the transmitting the reference signals over the one or more time domain units further comprises: repeatedly transmitting the reference signals during a number of additional time windows, wherein the number of additional time windows is based on the repetition information.

66. The method of solution 60, wherein: the configuration information includes a duration; and the reference signals are transmitted over the duration.

67. The method of solution 66, wherein: the configuration information includes a first time offset; and the transmitting the reference signals over the one or more time domain units comprises: transmitting a first reference signal burst, and transmitting a second reference signal burst, wherein a first amount of time between transmitting the first and second reference signal bursts is based on the first time offset.

68. The method of solution 67, wherein: the first and second reference signal bursts are included in a first beam; a third reference signal burst and a fourth reference signal burst are included in a second beam; the configuration information includes a second time offset; and the transmitting the reference signals over the one or more time domain units further comprises: transmitting the third reference signal burst, and transmitting the fourth reference signal burst, wherein a second amount of time between transmitting the second and third reference signal bursts or slots is based on the second time offset.

69. The method of solution 66, wherein: the configuration information further includes a repetition number K indicating a number of repetitions of the duration.

70. The method of solution 68, wherein: the configuration information further includes a repetition number K indicating a number of beams carrying the reference signals, and the reference signals are configured for beam sweeping based on the repetition number.

71. The method of solution 70, wherein a reference signal of the first number of reference signals is indicated as a Quasi Co-location (QCL) source for a synchronization signal block (SSB) .

72. The method of solution 71, wherein the SSB is quasi co-located with the reference signal via QCL-typeC or QCL-typeD.

For example, the solutions listed below may an apparatus or computer readable medium for implementing UE configuration as described herein.

A wireless apparatus comprising a processor configured to implement the method of any of solutions 1 to 72.

A computer readable medium having code stored thereon, the code when executed by a processor, causing the processor to implement a method recited in any of solutions 1 to 72.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram representation of a portion of an apparatus, in accordance with some embodiments of the presently disclosed technology. An apparatus 2205 such as a network device or a base station or a wireless device (or UE) , can include processor electronics 2210 such as a microprocessor that implements one or more of the techniques presented in this document. The apparatus 2205 can include transceiver electronics 2215 to send and/or receive wireless signals over one or more communication interfaces such as antenna (s) 2220. The apparatus 2205 can include other communication interfaces for transmitting and receiving data. Apparatus 2205 can include one or more memories (not explicitly shown) configured to store information such as data and/or instructions. In some implementations, the processor electronics 2210 can include at least a portion of the transceiver electronics 2215. In some embodiments, at least some of the disclosed techniques, modules or functions are implemented using the apparatus 2205.

Some of the embodiments described herein are described in the general context of methods or processes, which may be implemented in one embodiment by a computer program product, embodied in a computer-readable medium, including computer-executable instructions, such as program code, executed by computers in networked environments. A computer-readable medium may include removable and non-removable storage devices including, but not limited to, Read Only Memory (ROM) , Random Access Memory (RAM) , compact discs (CDs) , digital versatile discs (DVD) , etc. Therefore, the computer-readable media can include a non-transitory storage media. Generally, program modules may include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer-or processor-executable instructions, associated data structures, and program modules represent examples of program code for executing steps of the methods disclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executable instructions or associated data structures represents examples of corresponding acts for implementing the functions described in such steps or processes.

Some of the disclosed embodiments can be implemented as devices or modules using hardware circuits, software, or combinations thereof. For example, a hardware circuit implementation can include discrete analog and/or digital components that are, for example, integrated as part of a printed circuit board. Alternatively, or additionally, the disclosed components or modules can be implemented as an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) and/or as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device. Some implementations may additionally or alternatively include a digital signal processor (DSP) that is a specialized microprocessor with an architecture optimized for the operational needs of digital signal processing associated with the disclosed functionalities of this application. Similarly, the various components or sub-components within each module may be implemented in software, hardware or firmware. The connectivity between the modules and/or components within the modules may be provided using any one of the connectivity methods and media that is known in the art, including, but not limited to, communications over the Internet, wired, or wireless networks using the appropriate protocols.

While this document contains many specifics, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of an invention that is claimed or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in this document in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a sub-combination or a variation of a sub-combination. Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results.

Only a few implementations and examples are described, and other implementations, enhancements and variations can be made based on what is described and illustrated in this disclosure.

Claims

A method of wireless communication comprising:

receiving, at a wireless device from a network device, control information;

triggering a first number of reference signals corresponding to a first number of serving cells based on the control information; and

activating a second number of secondary cells based on the control information,

wherein the first number is greater than or equal the second number.
The method of claim 1, wherein the serving cells comprise primary cells (PCells) and secondary cells (SCells) .
The method of claim 1, wherein:

the wireless device is configured to operate in a component carrier (CC) aggregated mode via carrier aggregation (CA) , and

the first number is less than or equal to a total number of CCs serving the wireless device.
The method of claim 1, wherein the control information includes a MAC control element (MAC-CE) .
The method of claim 4, wherein the MAC-CE includes a serving cell identifier associated with a secondary cell (SCell) or primary cell (PCell) and a bandwidth part (BWP) identifier indicating a BWP to receive the reference signals.
The method of claim 4, wherein the MAC-CE includes a serving cell list associated with a plurality of serving cells.
The method of claim 4, wherein the MAC-CE includes a serving cell group identifier associated with a group of serving cells.
The method of claim 4, further comprising:

configuring a trigger offset, the trigger offset including a starting position at a starting slot prior to the triggering the first number of reference signals.
The method of claim 8, further comprising:

transmitting an acknowledgment corresponding to a MAC-CE PDSCH at the starting slot or one, three, or four, slots prior to the starting slot.
The method of claim 1, wherein:

the control information includes downlink control information (DCI) ,

the DCI indicates the first number of serving cells,

a subset of the first number of serving cells is in an activated state prior to the activating the second number of secondary cells, and

the second number of secondary cells plus the number of serving cells in the subset is equal to the first number of serving cells or the first number of serving cells minus one.
The method of claim 10, wherein the DCI indicates the first number of serving cells in an SCell dormancy indication field of the DCI.
The method of claim 11, further comprising:

confirming a number of bits corresponding to the SCell dormancy indication field of the DCI using a radio resource control (RRC) information element (IE) Scell-groups-for-R17-scell-activation.
The method of claim 12, wherein the RRC IE Scell-groups-for-R17-scell-activation is configured to confirm a bit corresponding to a PCell.
The method of claim 10, wherein the DCI indicates the first number of serving cells in a scheduling field of the DCI.
The method of claim 14, wherein the DCI further indicates the first number of serving cells in at least one of the following fields: an SCell dormancy indication field or a Carrier Indicator Field (CIF) .
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deactivating a third number of serving cells based on the control information.
The method of claim 1, wherein the triggering the first number of reference signals comprises:

triggering the reference signals over one or more time domain units, wherein the time domain units are slots.
The method of claim 17, wherein:

the configuration information includes periodicity information; and

the reference signals are triggered periodically according to the periodicity information.
The method of claim 17, wherein:

the configuration information includes repetition information; and

the reference signals are triggered a number of times based on the repetition information.
The method of claim 17, wherein:

the configuration information includes a time window; and

the triggering the reference signals over the one or more time domain units comprises repeatedly triggering the reference signals during the time window.
The method of claim 20, wherein:

the configuration information further includes repetition information; and

the triggering the reference signals over the one or more time domain units further comprises:

repeatedly triggering the reference signals during a number of additional time windows,

wherein the number of additional time windows is based on the repetition information.
The method of claim 17, wherein:

the configuration information includes a duration; and

the reference signals are triggered over the duration.
The method of claim 22, wherein:

the configuration information includes a first time offset; and

the triggering the reference signals over the one or more time domain units comprises:

triggering a first reference signal burst, and

triggering a second reference signal burst,

wherein a first amount of time between triggering the first and second reference signal bursts is based on the first time offset.
The method of claim 23, wherein:

the first and second reference signal bursts are included in a first beam;

a third reference signal burst and a fourth reference signal burst are included in a second beam;

the configuration information includes a second time offset; and

the triggering the reference signals over the one or more time domain units further comprises:

triggering the third reference signal burst, and

triggering the fourth reference signal burst,

wherein a second amount of time between triggering the second and third reference signal bursts or slots is based on the second time offset.
The method of claim 22, wherein:

the configuration information further includes a repetition number K indicating a number of repetitions of the duration.
The method of claim 24, wherein:

the configuration information further includes a repetition number K indicating a number of beams carrying the reference signals, and

the reference signals are configured for beam sweeping based on the repetition number.
The method of claim 26, wherein a reference signal of the first number of reference signals is indicated as a Quasi Co-location (QCL) source for a synchronization signal block (SSB) .
A method of wireless communication comprising:

transmitting, to a wireless device from a network device, control information; and

transmitting a first number of reference signals corresponding to a first number of serving cells based on the control information,

wherein the control information enables the wireless device to activate a second number of secondary cells based on the control information, and

wherein the first number is greater than or equal the second number.
A wireless communication apparatus comprising a processor configured to implement a method described in any of claims 1 to 28.
A computer readable medium having code stored thereon, the code, upon implementation by a processor, causing the processor to implement a method recited in any of claims 1 to 28.