WO2024011384A1

WO2024011384A1 - Methods and apparatuses for cell activation and deactivation

Info

Publication number: WO2024011384A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/105004
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yingying Li; Zhi YAN; Hongmei Liu; Yuantao Zhang; Ran YUE; Haiming Wang
Original assignee: Lenovo Beijing Ltd
Current assignee: Lenovo Beijing Ltd
Priority date: 2022-07-11
Filing date: 2022-07-11
Publication date: 2024-01-18
Anticipated expiration: 2025-01-11

Abstract

Embodiments of the present application are related to methods and apparatuses for cell activation and deactivation. An embodiment of the present application provides a user equipment (UE) including: a transceiver configured to: receive a configuration of a cell group including a primary cell and one or more secondary cells; and transmit cell activation assistance information for assisting a base station (BS) to perform activation or deactivation of the one or more secondary cells; and a processor coupled to the transceiver.

Description

METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR CELL ACTIVATION AND DEACTIVATION

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to wireless communications, and especially to cell activation and deactivation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Cell activation and deactivation (i.e., on and off) based on a semi-static manner is supported or developed in current wireless technology for e.g., power or energy saving. The criteria used for such cell activation and deactivation could be based on the increase or decrease of the network system load, user equipment (UE) arrival or departure, packet call arrival or completion, etc.

A UE can be configured with at least one cell group. In the case that more than one cell group is configured, one cell group is called "master cell group" (MCG) , and other cell group (s) is (are) called "secondary cell group" (SCG) . Each of the at least one cell group may include a special cell (also called "primary cell" ) (e.g., PCell of the MCG, or PSCell of the SCG, as defined in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) specification) and one or more secondary cells (e.g., SCell as defined in the 3GPP specification) . The maximum number of secondary cells in each cell group is defined in the current 3GPP specification, e.g., 31. Related physical procedures about cell activation and deactivation are secondary cell activation and deactivation.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present disclose provide at least improved solutions for cell activation and deactivation.

Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a UE including: a transceiver configured to: receive a configuration of a cell group including a primary cell and one or more secondary cells; and transmit cell activation assistance information for assisting a base station (BS) to perform activation or deactivation of the one or more secondary cells; and a processor coupled to the transceiver.

In some embodiments, the cell activation assistance information comprises a cell activation request indicating to activate at least one cell of the one or more secondary cells.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request includes a least one of: a wake-up request; information identifying a first cell (i.e., the cell requested to be activated) of the one or more secondary cells; or information indicating, for each cell of the one or more secondary cells, whether the cell is requested to be activated.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is transmitted on a time-frequency domain resource configured by a higher layer signaling, which indicates at least one of: a frequency location; time periodicity; or a time domain offset.

In some embodiments, the time-frequency domain resource is configured on the primary cell.

In some embodiments, the time-frequency domain resource is dedicated to the first cell, and is configured on the primary cell or configured on the first cell.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is transmitted on a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource, and the wake-up request or the information identifying the first cell is associated with a cyclic shift for generating a sequence on the SRS resource.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is transmitted on a resource for a configured grant physical uplink shared channel (CG-PUSCH) , and the wake-up request or the information identifying the first cell is associated with a scrambling sequence for the CG-PUSCH.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is carried by a bit sequence, wherein the bit sequence is transmitted on a resource for a CG-PUSCH and is scrambled with a dedicated scrambling sequence.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is transmitted on a random access channel (RACH) occasion resource, and the transceiver is further configured to receive downlink control information (DCI) indicating: whether the first cell is activated; information identifying a cell of the one or more secondary cells which is to be activated; an activation or deactivation state of each of the one or more secondary cells; or an activation command common to at least one secondary cell of the one or more secondary cells.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is transmitted on a resource configured for a scheduling request (SR) in uplink control information (UCI) , a first sequence cyclic shift or a first setting of blocks to be transmitted is used in the case that the SR is also transmitted on the resource, and a second sequence cyclic shift or a second setting of blocks to be transmitted is used in the case that the SR is not transmitted on the resource.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is transmitted via a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) , and the MAC CE includes at least one of: a field indicating the wake-up request; a field indicating the information identifying the first cell; or a field including one or more bits respectively corresponding to the one or more secondary cells, wherein each bit indicates whether a corresponding secondary cell is requested to be activated.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is transmitted via UCI.

In some embodiments, the UCI is transmitted on a dedicated resource and includes only the cell activation request, and a length of bit sequence of the UCI is a fixed value or is determined by a maximum number of secondary cells in the cell group.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is transmitted along with a UCI content on a resource configured or indicated for the UCI content, and a length of bit sequence of the UCI is determined by a maximum number of secondary cells in the cell group and a predefined sequence length for the UCI content.

In some embodiments, the transceiver is further configured to receive a first indicator from the BS to trigger the transmission of the cell activation assistance information.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request includes the information identifying the first cell, and the processor is configured to perform actions on or for the first cell after a time offset from the transmission of the cell activation request.

In some embodiments, the time offset is configured by a higher layer signaling or is predefined.

In some embodiments, the transceiver is further configured to receive a second indicator from a BS, which indicates at least one of: whether the first cell is activated; information identifying a cell of the one or more secondary cells which is to be activated; or an activation or deactivation state of each of the one or more secondary cells; or an activation command common to at least one secondary cell of the one or more secondary cells.

In some embodiments, the second indicator is indicated by a dedicated field in a DCI, and a length of the dedicated field is associated with a maximum number of secondary cells in the cell group or is a fixed value.

In some embodiments, the second indicator is carried by a DCI with cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a dedicated radio network temporary identity (RNTI) .

In some embodiments, the processor is configured to perform actions on or for an activated cell indicated by the second indicator no later than a minimum timing requirement, and the minimum timing requirement is associated with at least processing time of layer 1 signaling.

Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a BS including: a transceiver configured to: transmit a configuration of a cell group including a primary cell and one or more secondary cells; and receive cell activation assistance information for assisting the BS to perform activation or deactivation of the one or more secondary cells from a UE; and a processor coupled to the transceiver.

In some embodiments, the first cell is in a dormant state before the cell activation request is received, and the processor is configured to monitor the cell activation request on the first cell in the dormant state.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is received on a time-frequency domain resource configured by a higher layer signaling, which indicates at least one of: a frequency location; time periodicity; or a time domain offset.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is received on an SRS resource, and the wake-up request or the information identifying the first cell is associated with a cyclic shift for generating a sequence on the SRS resource.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is received on a resource configured for a CG-PUSCH, and the wake-up request or the information identifying the first cell is associated with a scrambling sequence for the CG-PUSCH.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is carried by a bit sequence, wherein the bit sequence is received on a resource for a CG-PUSCH and is scrambled with a dedicated scrambling sequence.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is received on a RACH occasion resource, and the transceiver is further configured to transmit DCI indicating: whether the first cell is activated; information identifying a cell of the one or more secondary cells which is to be activated; an activation or deactivation state of each of the one or more secondary cells; or an activation command common to at least one secondary cells of the one or more secondary cells.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is received on a resource configured for an SR in UCI, a first sequence cyclic shift or a first setting of blocks to be transmitted is used in the case that the SR is also received on the resource, and a second sequence cyclic shift or a second setting of blocks to be transmitted is used in the case that the SR is not received on the resource.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is received via a MAC CE, and the MAC CE includes at least one of: a field indicating the wake-up request; a field indicating the information identifying the first cell; or a field including one or more bits respectively corresponding to the one or more secondary cells, wherein each bit indicates whether a corresponding secondary cell is requested to be activated.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is received via UCI.

In some embodiments, the UCI is received on a dedicated resource and includes only the cell activation request, and a length of bit sequence of the UCI is a fixed value or is associated with a maximum number of secondary cells in the cell group.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request is received along with a UCI content on a resource configured or indicated for the UCI content, and a length of bit sequence of the UCI is associated with a maximum number of secondary cells in the cell group and a predefined sequence length for the UCI content.

In some embodiments, the transceiver is further configured to transmit a first indicator to the UE to trigger transmission of the cell activation assistance information.

In some embodiments, the transceiver is further configured to transmit a second indicator to the UE, which indicates at least one of: whether the first cell is activated; information identifying a cell of the one or more secondary cells which is to be activated; an activation or deactivation state of each of the one or more secondary cells; or an activation command common to at least one secondary cell of the one or more secondary cells.

In some embodiments, the second indicator is indicated by a dedicated field in a DCI, and a length of the dedicated field is determined by a maximum number of secondary cells in the cell group or is set to a fixed value.

In some embodiments, the second indicator is carried by a DCI with CRC scrambled by a dedicated RNTI.

Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method performed by a UE. The method includes: receiving a configuration of a cell group including a primary cell and one or more secondary cells; and transmitting cell activation assistance information for assisting a BS to perform activation or deactivation of the one or more secondary cells.

Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method performed by a BS. The method includes: transmitting a configuration of a cell group including a primary cell and one or more secondary cells; and receiving cell activation assistance information for assisting the BS to perform activation or deactivation of the one or more secondary cells from a UE.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to describe the manner in which advantages and features of the application can be obtained, a description of the application is rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof, which are illustrated in the appended drawings. These drawings depict only example embodiments of the application and are not therefore to be considered limiting of its scope.

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary wireless communication system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 2 illustrates a flowchart of an exemplary method performed by a UE according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 3 illustrates a flowchart of an exemplary method performed by a BS according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Figure 4 illustrates a simplified block diagram of an exemplary apparatus according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description of the appended drawings is intended as a description of the currently preferred embodiments of the present invention, and is not intended to represent the only form in which the present invention may be practiced. It should be understood that the same or equivalent functions may be accomplished by different embodiments that are intended to be encompassed within the spirit and scope of the present invention.

While operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, persons skilled in the art will readily recognize that such operations need not be performed in the particular order as shown or in a sequential order, or that all illustrated operations need be performed, to achieve desirable results; sometimes one or more operations can be skipped. Further, the drawings can schematically depict one or more example processes in the form of a flow diagram. However, other operations that are not depicted can be incorporated in the example processes that are schematically illustrated. For example, one or more additional operations can be performed before, after, simultaneously, or between any of the illustrated operations. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing can be advantageous.

Reference will now be made in detail to some embodiments of the present disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. To facilitate understanding, embodiments are provided under specific network architecture and new service scenarios, such as the 3GPP 5G new radio (NR) , 3GPP long term evolution (LTE) , and so on. It is contemplated that along with the developments of network architectures and new service scenarios, all embodiments in the present disclosure are also applicable to similar technical problems; and moreover, the terminologies recited in the present disclosure may change, which should not affect the principle of the present disclosure.

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary wireless communication system 100 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in Figure 1, the wireless communication system 100 is compatible with any type of network that is capable of sending and receiving wireless communication signals. For example, the wireless communication system 100 is compatible with a wireless communication network, a cellular telephone network, a time division multiple access (TDMA) based network, a code division multiple access (CDMA) based network, an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) based network, an LTE network, a 3GPP-based network, a 3GPP 5G network, a satellite communications network, a high-altitude platform network, and/or other communications networks.

The wireless communication system 100 may manage its spectrum resources in a carrier aggregation (CA) manner, where each segment of the spectrum resources is referred to as a component carrier (CC) . Each CC corresponds to a cell of the wireless communication system 100, and multiple cells of a BS will be grouped into at least one cell group for unified management, e.g., an MCG or an SCG. In a cell group, a cell that carries centralized control information is referred to as a special cell (SpCell) (e.g., PCell for MCG or PSCell for SCG) , and other cells in the cell group are referred to as secondary cells (e.g. SCell) . In the present disclosure, the terms "special cell" and "primary cell" can be used interchangeably. It is contemplated that the wireless communication system 100 includes at least one cell group.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, a BS may be referred to as an access point, an access terminal, a base, a macro cell, a RAN node, a next generation (NG) RAN node, a node-B, an enhanced node B (eNB) , a gNB, a home node-B, a relay node, or a device, or described using other terminology used in the art. The BS is generally part of a RAN that may include a controller communicably coupled to the BS.

As shown in Figure 1, a cell group of a BS in the wireless communication system 100 may include a SpCell 101 and at least one SCell (e.g., an SCell 102 and an SCell 103) . At least one UE (e.g., UE 104) may be configured with the cell group. Although only one UE and two SCells are depicted for illustrative purpose, it is contemplated that any number of SCells (not exceeding the maximum number supported by 3GPP, e.g., 31) may be included in the cell group, and it is contemplated that the wireless communication system 100 may include any number of UEs.

According to some embodiments of the present application, the UE 104 may include vehicle UEs (VUEs) and/or power-saving UEs (also referred to as power sensitive UEs) . The power-saving UEs may include vulnerable road users (VRUs) , public safety UEs (PS-UEs) , and/or commercial sidelink UEs (CS-UEs) that are sensitive to power consumption. In an embodiment of the present application, a VRU may include a pedestrian UE (P-UE) , a cyclist UE, a wheelchair UE or other UEs which require power saving compared with a VUE.

According to some other embodiments of the present application, the UE 104 may include computing devices, such as desktop computers, laptop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs) , tablet computers, smart televisions (e.g., televisions connected to the Internet) , set-top boxes, game consoles, security systems (including security cameras) , vehicle on-board computers, network devices (e.g., routers, switches, and modems) , or the like.

According to some other embodiments of the present application, the UE 104 may include a portable wireless communication device, a smart phone, a cellular telephone, a flip phone, a device having a subscriber identity module, a personal computer, a selective call receiver, or any other device that is capable of sending and receiving communication signals on a wireless network.

According to some other embodiments of the present application, the UE 104 may include wearable devices, such as smart watches, fitness bands, optical head-mounted displays, or the like.

Moreover, the UE 104 may be referred to as a subscriber unit, a mobile, a mobile station, a user, a terminal, a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a fixed terminal, a subscriber station, a user terminal, or a device, or described using other terminology used in the art.

The UE 104 in the example of Figure 1 is in a coverage area of SpCell 101 and may communicate with the BS via LTE or NR Uu interface. The UE 104 is also in a coverage area of SCell 102. The BS may perform activation or deactivation of SCell 102 and SCell 103.

As mentioned above, cell activation and deactivation may be semi-static. For example, the configured SCell (s) is (are) activated and deactivated by at least one of the following operations: receiving a secondary cell Activation/Deactivation MAC CE; configuring a timer (e.g., sCellDeactivationTimer) per configured secondary cell (except the secondary cell configured with physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) ) , where the associated secondary cell is deactivated upon expiry of the timer; or configuring a cell state (e.g., sCellState) per configured secondary cell: if configured, the associated secondary cell is activated upon a secondary cell configuration. These cell activation or deactivation operations are not suitable for fast changing channel cases, and dynamic cell activation and deactivation is desired.

Moreover, the criteria used for semi-static cell activation and deactivation could be the increase or decrease of the network system load, UE arrival or departure, packet call arrival or completion. In other words, the cell activation and deactivation is load-based. However, to some extent, the cell load cannot be accurately predicted, and the trade-off between network performance and system energy saving is possibly not well handled. Furthermore, it is difficult to set suitable thresholds of cell load for cell activation and deactivation, and it is not easy to balance the trade-off between local energy efficiency (e.g., energy efficiency limited to a single radio access network (RAN) node) and global energy efficiency (e.g., involving multiple RAN nodes) .

Therefore, the legacy load-based cell activation and deactivation is not accurate since the network may not actually know where the load is increased or decreased. Thus, it is possible that a cell is activated or deactivated by mistake. If a cell is incorrectly deactivated, the network performance is possibly deteriorated since the remaining active cells need to serve the additional traffic, or a UE may increase transmission power to access a far activated secondary cell because a nearby cell is deactivated, or even in the worst case that the UE may not reach the far activated cell. Wrong deactivation of the secondary cells may deteriorate the network performance, while wrong activation of the secondary cells may increase the whole network energy consuming.

For example, in the scenario illustrated in Figure 1, the BS may activate SCell 103, whereas the UE 104 is in the coverage area of SCell 102 instead of SCell 103. In such case, the power of SCell 103 will be wasted.

Therefore, to activate a secondary cell accurately, cell activation assistance information transmitted by the UE can serve as a good candidate to help the BS perform secondary cell activation and deactivation. In this way, dynamic secondary cell activation and deactivation can be achieved without performance degradation.

The present disclosure focuses on cell activation assistance information transmitted by the UE to avoid the aforementioned issues, i.e., cell activation and deactivation accuracy and timeliness issues (e.g., in fast changing channel cases) .

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, each secondary cell (e.g., SCell 102 or SCell 103) in the cell group may be in an activated state or in a dormant state (or deactivated state) . In some embodiments, a UE (e.g., UE 104) may transmit cell activation assistance information to the BS for assisting the BS to perform activation and deactivation of the secondary cells. The cell activation assistance information may include a cell activation request indicating to activate at least one secondary cell. The cell activation assistance information may additionally or alternatively include other UE assistance information, e.g., location information or the like, which can help the BS to activate or deactivate cells (e.g., SCells) more accurately.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, when a secondary cell (e.g., SCell 102 or SCell 103) is in the dormant state (or deactivated state) , at least one of the following actions is applied:

● not transmit SRS on the secondary cell;

● not report channel state information (CSI) for the secondary cell;

● not transmit on uplink shared channel (UL-SCH) on the secondary cell;

● not transmit on RACH on the secondary cell;

● not monitor the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) on the secondary cell;

● not monitor the PDCCH for the secondary cell;

● not transmit PUCCH on the secondary cell; or

● monitor the cell activation request on the secondary cell.

Figure 2 illustrates an exemplary method 200 performed by a UE (e.g., UE 104) or other device with similar functions according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

In step 210, the UE may receive a configuration of a cell group of a BS which includes a primary cell and one or more secondary cells. For example, the primary cell is a PCell if the cell group is an MCG or is a PSCell if the cell group is an SCG. It is contemplated that the UE may be configured with one or more cell groups.

In step 220, the UE may transmit cell activation assistance information for assisting the BS to perform activation or deactivation of the one or more secondary cells.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the cell activation assistance information includes a cell activation request indicating to activate at least one secondary cell of the one or more secondary cells. In some embodiments, the cell activation assistance information may include other assistance information, e.g., location information or the like, which may help the BS to activate or deactivate a secondary cell more accurately.

For example, if the UE will transmit a huge data package, while the secondary cell closest to the UE is deactivated, to get better performance or user experience, the UE may transmit cell activation assistance information for assisting the BS to perform at least activation of the closest secondary cell.

In some embodiments, the BS may transmit a first indicator to trigger the UE's transmission of the cell activation assistance information. That is, the UE may receive a first indicator from the BS and then transmit the cell activation assistance information. For example, the first indicator can be carried by a MAC CE. In some other embodiments, the UE may transmit the cell activation assistance information without receiving the first indicator from the BS.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the cell activation request includes a least one of:

● a wake-up request;

● information (e.g., a cell index) identifying a secondary cell of the one or more secondary cells that is requested to be activated; or

● information indicating, for each cell of the one or more secondary cells, whether the cell is requested to be activated.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request may include only a wake-up request; and the BS may determine which secondary cell to be activated or determine the activation or deactivation state of SCells upon receiving the cell activation request. The wake-up request may be a sequence or one-bit information carried on a signal or a channel.

In some other embodiments, the cell activation request may include information identifying a secondary cell of the one or more secondary cells that is requested to be activated; and the BS may determine whether to activate the secondary cell or other secondary cell (s) .

In some embodiments, the cell activation request may include the information indicating, for each cell of the one or more secondary cells, whether the cell is requested to be activated, and the information may be indicated by a field for each secondary cell of the cell group, indicating whether the corresponding secondary cell is requested to be activated; and the BS may determine, for each secondary cell, whether to activate or deactivate the secondary cell.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the cell activation request and other information (e.g., legacy signals, block of bits transmitted on an uplink channel) , or the cell activation requests for different secondary cells in a cell group, can be distinguished by at least one of time domain, frequency domain, or code domain methods.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the UE may transmit the cell activation request on a dedicated time-frequency domain resource. The time-frequency domain resource may be configured by a higher layer signaling, which indicates at least one of:

● a frequency location;

● time periodicity; or

● a time domain offset.

In some embodiments, the time-frequency domain resource is configured on the primary cell. For example, in the case that the cell activation request includes only a wake-up request, the UE may transmit the cell activation request on a dedicated time-frequency domain resource configured on the primary cell.

In some embodiments, the time-frequency domain resource is dedicated to the secondary cell which is requested to be activated, and may be configured on the primary cell or configured on the secondary cell. For example, in the case that the cell activation request includes information identifying the secondary cell that is requested to be activated, the UE may transmit the cell activation request on a dedicated resource configured on the secondary cell, or on a dedicated resource configured on the primary cell but dedicated for the secondary cell. For example, if a UE requests to activate SCell 1, the UE may transmit a wake-up request on the resource configured on SCell 1 or resource configured on PCell but dedicated for SCell 1. A BS can acquire that the UE requests to activate SCell 1 by receiving the wake-up request on the resource configured on SCell 1 or resource configured on PCell but dedicated for SCell 1.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the UE may transmit the cell activation request on an SRS resource. In the case that the cell activation request includes a wake-up request or the information identifying a secondary cell requested to be activated, the wake-up request or the information is associated with a cyclic shift α for generating a sequence on the SRS resource. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the value of the cyclic shift α is a value of cyclic shift that is not used by a legacy SRS sequence. According to some embodiments, the value of the cyclic shift α is applied to all antenna ports. That is, no matter which antenna port p _i is used to transmit the cell activation request, the value of the cyclic shift α is the same.

For example, the cyclic shift α _i for antenna port p _i used by a legacy SRS sequence may be given by:

wherein:

● p _i = 1000 + i;

●

is contained in a higher layer parameter (e.g., transmissionComb) , wherein the maximum number of cyclic shifts

is a function of a transmission comb number K _TC. K _TC is contained in a higher layer parameter (e.g., transmissionComb) . The following Table 1 lists some examples of K _TC and

Table 1

For example, when K _TC is set to 2, the maximum number of cyclic shifts

is 8. When the number of antenna ports is set to 4, four values of the cyclic shift calculated by the above method may be used for the legacy SRS sequence. There may be four values of the cyclic shift not be used. Then, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, a UE may use one of these four not used values of the cyclic shift to generate a sequence on the SRS resource on which the UE transmits the cell activation request. When the cyclic shift is used to generate a sequence for the cell activation request, no matter which port is used to transmit the request, the cyclic shift is the same. For this example, four values of the cyclic shift

corresponding to

respectively calculated by the above method are used for the legacy SRS sequence. Then, the UE may use one of these four not used values of the cyclic shift

corresponding to

respectively to generate a sequence for the cell activation request on the SRS resource on which the UE transmits the cell activation request.

In the case that the cell activation request includes the information identifying the secondary cell requested to be activated, the information can be associated with the sequence of the cell activation request, e.g., the value of the cell information is a factor to generate the sequence of the cell activation request; in other words, the information can be associated with the cyclic shift α used to generate the sequence.

The sequence of the cell activation request may be generated according to:

wherein:

●

where

is the length of the SRS sequence given by 3GPP standard;

●

is the low-PAPR sequence given by 3GPP standard with δ=log ₂ (K _TC) , and the transmission comb number K _TC is set configured viathe higher-layer parameter (e.g., transmissionComb) ;

● u is a sequence group which is set to

wherein the SRS sequence identity

is given by the higher layer parameter sequenceId in the SRS-Resource information element (IE) , in which case

or the SRS-PosResource-r16 IE, in which case

● v is a sequence number which depends on a higher layer parameter groupOrSequenceHopping in the SRS-Resource IE or the SRS-PosResource IE;

● l′ is quantity which is the OFDM symbol number within the SRS resource,

● α is a cyclic shift, wherein its value is not a value used by a legacy SRS sequence.

Wherein, f _gh may be given by:

● if groupOrSequenceHopping equals 'neither' , neither group, nor sequence hopping shall be used, and

v=0

● if groupOrSequenceHopping equals 'groupHopping' , group hopping but not sequence hopping shall be used, and

v=0 wherein, the pseudo-random sequence c (i) is defined by in 3GPP specification and shall be initialized with

at the beginning of each radio frame;

● if groupOrSequenceHopping equals 'sequenceHopping' , sequence hopping but not group hopping shall be used and

Wherein, the pseudo-random sequence c (i) is defined in 3GPP specification and shall be initialized with

at the beginning of each radio frame.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, in the case that the cell activation request includes at least one of the wake-up request or the information identifying a secondary cell requested to be activated or information indicating, for each cell of the one or more secondary cells, whether the cell is requested to be activated, the UE may transmit the cell activation request on a resource configured for a CG-PUSCH, and the wake-up request or the information identifying a secondary cell requested to be activated is associated with a scrambling sequence for the CG-PUSCH. In some embodiments, the information identifying a secondary cell requested to be activated or information indicating, for each cell of the one or more secondary cells, whether the cell is requested to be activated can be carried on the PUSCH as block (s) of bits of data (or a bit sequence) , and the scrambling sequence for the CG-PUSCH can be generated to distinguish the cell activation request from other block (s) of bits of data on the CG-PUSCH. In some embodiments, a scrambling sequence generator used for generating the scrambling sequence for the CG-PUSCH may be initialized with:

Wherein:

● n _ID∈ {0, 1, …, 1023} and equals:

– the higher-layer parameter dataScramblingIdentityPUSCH if configured and the RNTI equals the Cell Radio Network Temporary Identity (C-RNTI) , Modulation Coding Scheme Cell RNTI (MCS-C-RNTI) , Semi-Persistent Channel state information RNTI (SP-CSI-RNTI) , or Configured Scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI) , and the transmission is not scheduled using DCI format 0_0 in a common search space; or

– the higher-layer parameter msgA-DataScramblingIndex if configured and the PUSCH transmission is triggered by a Type-2 random access procedure as described in 3GPP specification; otherwise

–

● n _RAPID is the index of the random-access preamble transmitted for msgA as described in 3GPP specification; and

● n _RNTI equals the Random Access RNTI (RA-RNTI) for msgA and otherwise corresponds to the RNTI associated with the PUSCH transmission as described in 3GPP specification.

● n _cell index is the index of the cell requested to be activated by the UE.

In some embodiments, in the case that the cell activation request includes information identifying a secondary cell requested to be activated, the UE may use n _RNTI ·2 ¹⁵+ n _cell index·2 ¹⁰+n _ID to initialize the scrambling sequence generator to generate a scrambling sequence for transmitting the cell activation request on the GC-PUSCH resource. Otherwise, the UE may use N _RNTI ·2 ¹⁰+n _ID to initialize the scrambling sequence generator to generate a scrambling sequence for transmitting the cell activation request on the GC-PUSCH resource, and a bit sequence transmitted on PUSCH is the information identifying a secondary cell requested to be activated.

In some embodiments, in the case that the cell activation request includes only a wake-up request, the UE may use n _RNTI ·2 ¹⁰+n _ID to initialize the scrambling sequence generator to generate a scrambling sequence for transmitting the cell activation request on the GC-PUSCH resource.

In some embodiments, in the case that the cell activation request includes information indicating, for each cell of the one or more secondary cells, whether the cell is requested to be activated, the UE may use n _RNTI ·2 ¹⁰+n _ID to initialize the scrambling sequence generator to generate a scrambling sequence for transmitting the cell activation request on the GC-PUSCH resource, and the bit sequence transmitted on PUSCH is the information identifying each secondary cell requested to be activated. For example, each bit in the bit sequence may indicate whether a corresponding secondary cell is requested to be activated.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the cell activation request is carried by a bit sequence, wherein the bit sequence is transmitted on a resource for a CG-PUSCH and is scrambled with a dedicated scrambling sequence.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the UE may transmit the cell activation request to the BS on a RACH occasion resource. After receiving the cell activation request, the BS may transmit DCI with CRC scrambled with an RA-RNTI, wherein the DCI may include a second indicator that indicates at least one of:

● whether the secondary cell requested to be activated is activated;

● information identifying a secondary cell of the one or more secondary cells which is to be activated (the secondary cell may be the same as or different from the secondary cell requested to be activated as indicated in the cell activation request) ;

● an activation or deactivation state of each of the one or more secondary cells; or

● an activation command common to at least one secondary cells of the one or more secondary cells (e.g., the BS may activate all secondary cells via the activation command in response to the reception of the cell activation request) .

In some embodiments, a TB scaling field (2 bits) in the DCI is set to "11, " and one or more fields in the DCI indicates the second indicator.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, a "Modulation and Coding" field in the DCI may indicate the information identifying the secondary cell that is to be activated by the BS in response to the reception of the cell activation request. In some embodiments, the value of the "Modulation and Coding" field in the DCI corresponds to the cell index of the cell to be activated. For example, if the value of the "Modulation and Coding" field is i (zero or positive integer) , the cell index of the cell to be activated is (i+1) .

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, other fields except for the TB scaling field in the DCI are used to indicate an activation or deactivation (or dormant) state of each of the one or more secondary cells, i.e., each bit is associated with an activation or deactivation state of a secondary cell of the one or more secondary cells. In some embodiments, each bit of the other fields in the DCI is associated to a secondary cell in an increasing order of secondary cell indexes of the one or more secondary cells. For example, in the other fields except for the TB scaling filed in the DCI, if the i ^th bit is set to 1, the secondary cell with secondary cell index i is activated; if the i ^th bit is set to 0, the secondary cell with secondary cell index i is deactivated, or the current state of the secondary cell with secondary cell index i is maintained; wherein i is an integer and 1≤i≤31.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the UE may transmit the cell activation request on a resource configured for SR in UCI. A first sequence cyclic shift or a first setting of blocks to be transmitted is used in the case that the SR is also transmitted on the resource, and a second sequence cyclic shift or a second setting of blocks to be transmitted is used in the case that the SR is not transmitted on the resource.

For example, in the case that the UE also transmits the SR on the resource configured for SR (i.e., positive SR) :

● if PUCCH format 0 is used for transmitting the UCI, the sequence cyclic shift m _cs is set to 6; and

● if PUCCH format 1 is used for transmitting the UCI, the block (s) to be transmitted (e.g., b (0) ) is set to 1.

In the case that no SR is transmitted on the resource configured for SR (i.e., negative SR) :

● if PUCCH format 0 is used for transmitting the UCI, the sequence cyclic shift m _cs is set to 12; and

● if PUCCH format 1 is used for transmitting the UCI, the block (s) to be transmitted is set to ‘11’ (e.g., b (0) is set to 1 and b (1) is set to 1) .

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the UE may transmit the cell activation request via a MAC CE, and the MAC CE includes at least one of:

● a field indicating the wake-up request;

● a field indicating the information identifying the secondary cell requested to be activated; or

● a field including one or more bits respectively corresponding to the one or more secondary cells, wherein each bit indicates whether a corresponding secondary cell is requested to be activated.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the UE may transmit the cell activation request via UCI. The UCI may contain the cell activation request only; in other words, the UCI does not contain any other UCI content (e.g., Acknowledgement (ACK) or Non-acknowledgement (NACK) , SR, or Channel State Information (CSI) , etc. ) .

In some embodiments, the UCI is transmitted on a dedicated resource (e.g., configured by a higher layer) and includes only the cell activation request. In such cases, a length of bit sequence of the UCI is a fixed value or is determined by a maximum number of secondary cells in the cell group. In some embodiment, in the case that the cell activation request includes only the wake-up request, the length of bit sequence of the UCI is a fixed value (e.g., 1) . In some embodiments, in the case that the cell activation request includes the information identifying a secondary cell requested to be activated, the length of bit sequence of the UCI is determined by a maximum number of secondary cells in the cell group. For example, the length of bit sequence of the UCI may equal the maximum number of secondary cells in the cell group such that each bit in the sequence may correspond to a secondary cell. As another example, the bit sequence may indicate a cell index of the secondary cell requested to be activated. If the maximum number of secondary cells in the cell group is 31, the length of bit sequence may be 5 bits.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the UE may transmit the cell activation request on a resource configured or indicated for a UCI content (e.g., ACK or NACK, SR, or CSI) together with the UCI content. For example, a bit sequence of the cell activation request may be padded to the UCI content on the resource configured or indicated for the UCI content.

For example, in some embodiments, the UE may transmit a bit sequence of the cell activation request padded to the HARQ-ACK information bit (s) , and the starting sequence bit of the bit sequence of the cell activation request is following the HARQ-ACK information bit (s) . For example, a ₀, a ₁…a _A-1 is the UCI bit sequence, A=O ^ACK+O ^request, a ₀…a _O ^ACK _-1 is the HARQ-ACK bit sequence, and a _O ^ACK …a _A-1 is the bit sequence of the cell activation request.

In some embodiments, in the case that a bit sequence of the cell activation request is transmitted along with a UCI content on a resource configured or indicated for the UCI content, a length of bit sequence of the UCI is determined by a maximum number of secondary cells in the cell group (e.g., as defined in 3GPP specification) and a sequence length for the UCI content determined based on current 3GPP specification.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, in the case that the cell activation request includes the information identifying the secondary cell requested to be activated, the UE may assume that the secondary cell requested to be activated is actually activated by the BS after a time offset from the transmission of the cell activation request. Accordingly, the UE may perform actions on or for the secondary cell after the time offset from the transmission of the cell activation request. According to some embodiments, performing actions on the secondary cell means that the UE operates (e.g., transmitting PUSCH or PUCCH or receiving PDSCH or PDCCH) on the resources on the secondary cell, and performing actions for the secondary cell means that the UE performs some actions that may be related to the secondary cell (e.g., monitoring PDCCH or reporting CSI for the secondary cell) . In some embodiments, if the UE transmits the cell activation request ending in slot n, and the time offset is k slots, the UE may perform actions on or for the secondary cell requested to be activated no earlier than slot (n+k) and start or restart a timer (e.g., sCellDeactivationTimer) associated with the secondary cell requested to be activated in slot (n+k) , wherein n and k are non-zero integers. In some embodiments, the time offset is configured by a higher layer signaling or is predefined. In some embodiments, the UE may perform actions on or for the secondary cell requested to be activated no later than a first minimum timing requirement. The first minimum timing requirement can be determined by the cell activation delay, wherein the cell activation delay may include uncertainty in acquiring the earliest available downlink CSI reference resource, uncertainty in UE processing time for CSI reporting, and uncertainty in acquiring the earliest available CSI reporting resources.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the UE may receive a second indicator from the BS, which may indicate at least one of:

● whether the secondary cell requested to be activated is activated;

● information identifying a cell of the one or more secondary cells which is to be activated (the cell may be the same as or different from the secondary cell requested to be activated as indicated in the cell activation request) ; or

● an activation command common to at least one secondary cell of the one or more secondary cells (e.g., the BS may activate all secondary cells via the activation command in response to the reception of the cell activation request) .

In some embodiments, the BS may transmit the second indicator to the UE after receiving a cell activation request from the UE. In some embodiments, the BS may transmit the second indicator to the UE, e.g., for improving the network performance according to some factors (e.g., communication traffic load) , even without receiving a cell activation request from the UE.

In some embodiments, the second indicator is indicated by a dedicated field within a layer 1 signaling or channel. In some embodiments, the second indicator is indicated by a dedicated field in a DCI. In some embodiments, the second indicator is carried by a DCI with CRC scrambled by a dedicated RNTI.

In some embodiments, if the cell activation request includes the information identifying a secondary cell requested to be activated, the second indicator may indicate whether the secondary cell is activated. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the dedicated field indicates whether the secondary cell is activated or not. The length of the dedicated field may be a fixed value, e.g., 1.

In some embodiments, in the case that the second indicator indicates which cell is activated, the length of the dedicated field in the DCI may be associated with a maximum number of secondary cells in a cell group. For example, if the maximum number of secondary cells in a cell group is 31, the length of the dedicated field that indicates the second indicator may be 5 bits. For example, if the value of the dedicated field is i (an integer) , the secondary cell with secondary cell index i+1 is activated.

In some embodiments, in the case that the second indicator indicates the activation and deactivation state of each secondary cell of the cell group, the length of the dedicated field may be associated with a maximum number of secondary cells in a cell group. For example, if the maximum number of secondary cells in a cell group is 31, the length of the dedicated field that indicates the second indicator may be 31 bits. For example, if the i ^th bit is set to 1, the secondary cell with secondary cell index i is activated or maintain the current state; if the i ^th bit is set to 0, the secondary cell with secondary cell index i is deactivated, or the current state of the secondary cell with secondary cell index i is maintained; wherein i is an integer and 1≤i≤31.

In some embodiments, the UE may perform actions on or for an activated cell indicated by the second indicator no later than a second minimum timing requirement, and the second minimum timing requirement is associated with at least processing time of layer 1 signaling or layer 1 channel. In some embodiments, the second minimum timing requirement can be determined at least by the processing time of layer 1 signaling or layer 1 channel and/or the cell activation delay, where the delay may include uncertainty in acquiring the earliest available downlink CSI reference resource, UE processing time for CSI reporting and uncertainty in acquiring the earliest available CSI reporting resources. The processing time of layer 1 signaling or layer 1 channel can be defined in the 3GPP specifications.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, after the UE receives the second indicator via the DCI, the UE may perform actions on or for the activated secondary cell after a time offset from the reception of the second indicator. In some embodiments, if the UE receives the second indicator in slot n, and the time offset is k slots, the UE may perform actions on or for the activated secondary cell no earlier than slot (n+k) and may start or restart a timer (e.g., sCellDeactivationTimer) associated with the secondary cell to be activated in slot (n+k) , wherein n and k are non-zero integers. In some embodiments, the time offset is configured by a higher layer signaling or is predefined.

It is contemplated that the BS performs corresponding methods or operations according to some embodiments of the present application.

Figure 3 illustrates an exemplary method 300 performed by a BS or other device with similar functions according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

In step 310, the BS may transmit a configuration of a cell group which includes a primary cell and one or more secondary cells. For example, the primary cell is a PCell if the cell group is an MCG or a PSCell if the cell group is an SCG. It is contemplated that the BS may configure one or more cell groups for a UE.

In step 320, the BS may receive cell activation assistance information for assisting the BS to perform activation or deactivation of the one or more secondary cells.

The cell activation assistance information may include a cell activation request indicating to activate at least one secondary cell of the one or more secondary cells. The secondary cell requested to be activated is in a dormant state before the BS receives the cell activation request, and the BS may monitor the cell activation request on the primary cell or on the secondary cell requested to be activated in the dormant state.

In some embodiments, the BS may transmit a first indicator to the UE to trigger transmission of the cell activation assistance information. For example, the first indicator can be carried by a MAC CE.

In some embodiments, the cell activation request may include a least one of:

● a wake-up request;

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the BS may receive the cell activation request in at least one of the following manners:

● on a time-frequency domain resource configured by a higher layer signaling, which indicates at least one of: a frequency location; time periodicity; or a time domain offset, where the time-frequency domain resource may be configured on the primary cell, or be dedicated to the secondary cell requested to be activated and configured on the primary cell or the secondary cell requested to be activated;

● on an SRS source, wherein the wake-up request or the information identifying the secondary cell requested to be activated is associated with a cyclic shift for generating a sequence on the SRS resource;

● on a resource configured for a CG-PUSCH, wherein the wake-up request or the information identifying the secondary cell requested to be activated is associated with a scrambling sequence for the CG-PUSCH;

● via a bit sequence received on a resource for a CG-PUSCH, wherein the bit sequence carries the cell activation request and is scrambled with a dedicated scrambling sequence;

● on an RACH occasion resource, wherein the BS may transmit DCI in response to reception of the cell activation request on the RACH occasion resource, which indicates at least one of:

- whether the secondary cell requested to be activated is activated;

- information identifying a cell of the one or more secondary cells to be activated;

- an activation or deactivation state of each the one or more secondary cells; or

- an activation command common to at least one secondary cells of the one or more secondary cells.

● on a resource configured for SR in UCI, wherein a first sequence cyclic shift or a first setting of blocks to be transmitted is used in the case that the SR is also received on the resource, and a second sequence cyclic shift or a second setting of blocks to be transmitted is used in the case that the SR is not received on the resource;

● via a MAC CE including at least one of:

- a field indicating the wake-up request;

- a field indicating the information identifying the secondary cell to be activated; or

- a field including one or more bits respectively corresponding to the one or more secondary cells, wherein each bit indicates whether a corresponding secondary cell is requested to be activated.

● via a UCI on a dedicated resource, wherein the UCI includes only the cell activation request, and a length of bit sequence of the UCI is a fixed value or is associated with a maximum number of secondary cells in the cell group; or

● along with a UCI content (e.g., ACK, NACK, SR, CSI, or etc. ) on a resource configured for the UCI content, wherein a length of bit sequence of the UCI is associated with a maximum number of secondary cells in the cell group and a predefined sequence length for the UCI content.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the BS may transmit a second indicator to the UE, which indicates at least one of:

● whether the secondary cell requested to be activated is activated;

● information identifying a cell of the one or more secondary cells which is to be activated;

● an activation or deactivation state of each the one or more secondary cells; or

● an activation command common to at least one secondary cell of the one or more secondary cells.

In some embodiments, the second indicator is carried by a DCI with CRC scrambled by a dedicated RNTI. In some embodiments, the second indicator is indicated by a dedicated field in a DCI.

It is contemplated that the cell activation request may be received in the manner corresponding to that described above with respect to Figure 2, and the second indicator may be transmitted in the manner corresponding to that described above with respect to Figure 2.

Although solutions regarding the cell activation request are specifically described, it is contemplated that similar solutions may apply to other cell activation assistance information.

Figure 4 illustrates a simplified block diagram of an exemplary apparatus 400 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 400 may be or include at least part of a UE which is capable of performing the aforementioned methods of the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 400 may be or include at least part of a BS which is capable of performing the aforementioned methods of the present disclosure.

As shown in Figure 4, the apparatus 400 may include at least a transceiver 410 and a processor 420 coupled to transceiver 410. In some embodiments, the transceiver 410 may include a transmitter and a receiver integrated together. In some embodiments, the transceiver 410 may include a transmitter and a receiver which are separated from each other. In some embodiments, the transceiver 410 may be a wireless transceiver.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 400 may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium 430 with computer-executable instructions 440 stored thereon, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium 430 may be coupled to the processor 420 and the transceiver 410, and the computer-executable instructions 440 may be configured to be executable by the processor 420. In some embodiments, the transceiver 410, the non-transitory computer-readable medium 430, and the processor 420 may be coupled to each other via one or more local buses.

Although in Figure 4, elements such as the transceiver 410, the non-transitory computer-readable medium 430, and the processor 420 are described in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated. In certain embodiments of the present disclosure, the apparatus 400 may further include other components for actual usage.

In various example embodiments, the processor 420 may include, but is not limited to, at least one hardware processor, including at least one microprocessor such as a CPU, a portion of at least one hardware processor, and any other suitable dedicated processor such as those developed based on for example Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) . Further, the processor 420 may also include at least one other circuitry or element not shown in Figure 4.

In various example embodiments, the non-transitory computer-readable medium 430 may include at least one storage medium in various forms, such as a volatile memory and/or a non-volatile memory. The volatile memory may include, but is not limited to, for example, an RAM, a cache, and so on. The non-volatile memory may include, but is not limited to, for example, an ROM, a hard disk, a flash memory, and so on. Further, the non-transitory computer-readable medium 430 may include, but is not limited to, an electric, a magnetic, an optical, an electromagnetic, an infrared, or a semiconductor system, apparatus, or device or any combination of the above.

Further, in various example embodiments, the apparatus 400 may also include at least one other circuitry, element, and interface, for example antenna element, and the like.

According to some embodiments, the apparatus 400 is a UE. The transceiver 410 and the processor 420 may be configured to perform operations in any methods described above which are performed by a UE. For example, the transceiver 410 may be configured to receive a configuration of a cell group including a primary cell and one or more secondary cells, and transmit cell activation assistance information for assisting a BS to perform activation or deactivation of the one or more secondary cells.

According to some embodiments, the apparatus 400 is a BS. The transceiver 410 and the processor 420 may be configured to perform operations in any methods described above which are performed by a BS. For example, the transceiver 410 may be configured to transmit a configuration of a cell group including a primary cell and one or more secondary cells, and receive cell activation assistance information for assisting the BS to perform activation or deactivation of the one or more secondary cells from a UE.

In various example embodiments, the circuitry, parts, elements, and interfaces in exemplary apparatus, including processor and non-transitory computer-readable medium, may be coupled together via any suitable connections including, but not limited to, buses, crossbars, wiring and/or wireless lines, in any suitable ways, for example electrically, magnetically, optically, electromagnetically, and the like.

The methods of the present disclosure can be implemented on a programmed processor. However, controllers, flowcharts, and modules may also be implemented on a general purpose or special purpose computer, a programmed microprocessor or microcontroller and peripheral integrated circuit elements, an integrated circuit, a hardware electronic or logic circuit such as a discrete element circuit, a programmable logic device, or the like. In general, any device that has a finite state machine capable of implementing the flowcharts shown in the figures may be used to implement the processing functions of the present disclosure.

While the present disclosure has been described with specific embodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, various components of the embodiments may be interchanged, added, or substituted in other embodiments. Also, all of the elements shown in each figure are not necessary for operation of the disclosed embodiments. For example, one skilled in the art of the disclosed embodiments would be capable of making and using the teachings of the present disclosure by simply employing the elements of the independent claims. Accordingly, the embodiments of the present disclosure as set forth herein are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

The terms "includes, " "includes, " "including, " or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that includes a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by "a, " "an, " or the like does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that includes the element. Also, the term "another" is defined as at least a second or more. The terms "including, " "having, " and the like, as used herein, are defined as "comprising. "

In this disclosure, relational terms such as "first, " "second, " and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions.

Claims

A user equipment (UE) , comprising:

a transceiver configured to:

receive a configuration of a cell group including a primary cell and one or more secondary cells; and

transmit cell activation assistance information for assisting a base station (BS) to perform activation or deactivation of the one or more secondary cells; and

a processor coupled to the transceiver.
The UE of Claim 1, wherein the cell activation assistance information comprises a cell activation request indicating to activate at least one cell of the one or more secondary cells.
The UE of Claim 2, wherein the cell activation request includes a least one of:

a wake-up request;

information identifying a first cell of the one or more secondary cells; or

information indicating, for each cell of the one or more secondary cells, whether the cell is requested to be activated.
The UE of Claim 3, wherein the cell activation request is transmitted on a sounding reference signal (SRS) resource, and the wake-up request or the information identifying the first cell is associated with a cyclic shift for generating a sequence on the SRS resource.
The UE of Claim 3, wherein the cell activation request is transmitted on a resource for a configured grant physical uplink shared channel (CG-PUSCH) , and the wake-up request or the information identifying the first cell is associated with a scrambling sequence for the CG-PUSCH.
The UE of Claim 3, wherein the cell activation request is carried by a bit sequence, wherein the bit sequence is transmitted on a resource for a CG-PUSCH and is scrambled with a dedicated scrambling sequence.
The UE of Claim 3, wherein the cell activation request is transmitted on a random access channel (RACH) occasion resource, and the transceiver is further configured to receive downlink control information (DCI) indicating:

whether the first cell is activated;

information identifying a cell of the one or more secondary cells which is to be activated;

an activation or deactivation state of each of the one or more secondary cells; or

an activation command common to at least one secondary cell of the one or more secondary cells.
The UE of Claim 3, wherein the cell activation request is transmitted on a resource configured for a scheduling request (SR) in uplink control information (UCI) , a first sequence cyclic shift or a first setting of blocks to be transmitted is used in the case that the SR is also transmitted on the resource, and a second sequence cyclic shift or a second setting of blocks to be transmitted is used in the case that the SR is not transmitted on the resource.
The UE of Claim 3, wherein the cell activation request is transmitted via UCI.
The UE of Claim 9, wherein the cell activation request is transmitted along with a UCI content on a resource configured or indicated for the UCI content, and a length of bit sequence of the UCI is determined by a maximum number of secondary cells in the cell group and a predefined sequence length for the UCI content.
The UE of Claim 3, wherein the cell activation request includes the information identifying the first cell, and the processor is configured to perform actions on or for the first cell after a time offset from the transmission of the cell activation request.
The UE of Claim 11, wherein the time offset is configured by a higher layer signaling or is predefined.
The UE of Claim 3, wherein the transceiver is further configured to receive a second indicator from the BS, which indicates at least one of:

whether the first cell is activated;

information identifying a cell of the one or more secondary cells which is to be activated; or

an activation or deactivation state of each of the one or more secondary cells; or

an activation command common to at least one secondary cell of the one or more secondary cells.
A base station (BS) , comprising:

a transceiver configured to:

transmit a configuration of a cell group including a primary cell and one or more secondary cells; and

receive cell activation assistance information for assisting the BS to perform activation or deactivation of the one or more secondary cells from a user equipment (UE) ; and

a processor coupled to the transceiver.
A method performed by a user equipment (UE) , comprising:

receiving a configuration of a cell group including a primary cell and one or more secondary cells; and

transmitting cell activation assistance information for assisting a base station (BS) to perform activation or deactivation of the one or more secondary cells.