WO2025027504A2 - Signaling methods of aggregating csi-rs resources for large arrays - Google Patents

Abstract

Systems and methods of signaling aggregating Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) resources for large arrays are provided. In some embodiments, a method performed by a User Equipment (UE) includes: being configured with channel measurement resources in channel measurement resource sets; receiving an indication grouping the channel measurement resources subsets; aggregating antenna ports in the measurement resources within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources wherein a total number of antenna ports is larger than 32 ports; performing channel measurements over the total number of antenna ports; computing one or more Channel State Information (CSI) based on the one or more subset; and reporting the one or more computed CSIs to a network node. In this way, the network node can efficiently signal to the UE which legacy CSI-RS resources can be aggregated to form aggregated CSI-RS resources that contain a larger number of CSI-RS ports.

Description

SIGNALING METHODS OF AGGREGATING CSI-RS RESOURCES FOR LARGE ARRAYS

RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application serial number 63/516,247, filed July 28, 2023, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] This disclosure relates generally to wireless communication.

BACKGROUND

[0003] Codebook-based precoding

[0004] Multi- antenna techniques can significantly increase the data rates and reliability of a wireless communication system. The performance is in particular improved if both the transmitter and the receiver are equipped with multiple antennas, which results in a multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) communication channel. Such systems and/or related techniques are commonly referred to as MIMO.

[0005] A core component of the fifth Generation (5G) wireless network or New Radio (NR) is the support of MIMO antenna deployments and MIMO related techniques such as spatial multiplexing. Spatial multiplexing can be used to increase data rates in favorable channel conditions. Figure 1 shows an example of spatial multiplexing. An information carrying symbol vector s is multiplied by an N_T X r precoding matrix or precoder W, which serves to distribute the transmit energy in a subspace of the N_T dimensional vector space. The precoding matrix is typically selected from a codebook of possible precoding matrices, and typically indicated by means of a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), which specifies a unique precoding matrix in the codebook for a given number of symbol streams. The r symbols in s each correspond to a MIMO layer and r is referred to as the transmission rank, which equals to the number of columns of the precoder W. In this way, spatial multiplexing is achieved since multiple symbols can be transmitted simultaneously over the same time/frequency resource element (RE). The number of symbols r is typically adapted to suit the current channel properties.

[0006] NR uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) in downlink. The received N_R X lvector y_n at a UE on a certain RE can be expressed as

where e_n is a receiver noise/interference vector. The precoder W can be constant over frequency (i.e., wideband), or frequency selective (i.e., per subband).

[0007] The precoder W is chosen to match the characteristics of the N_R X N_T MIMO channel matrix H_n, resulting in so-called channel dependent precoding. This is also commonly referred to as closed-loop precoding.

[0008] In closed-loop precoding, the UE feeds back recommendations on a suitable precoder to the gNB in the form of a PMI based on downlink channel measurements. For that purpose, the UE is configured with a channel state information (CSI) report configuration including CSI reference signals (CSI-RS) for channel measurements and a codebook of candidate precoders. In addition to precoders, the feedback may also include a rank indicator (RI) and one or two channel quality indicators (CQIs). RI, PMI and CQI are part of a CSI feedback. In NR, CSI feedback can be either wideband, where one CSI is reported for the entire channel bandwidth, or frequency- selective, where one CSI is reported for each subband, which is defined as a number of contiguous physical resource blocks (PRBs) ranging between 4-32 PRBs depending on the band width part (BWP) size.

[0009] Given the CSI feedback from the UE, the gNB determines the transmission parameters it wishes to use to transmit to the UE, including the precoding matrix, transmission rank, and modulation and coding scheme (MCS).

[0010] 2D Antenna arrays

[0011] Two-dimensional antenna arrays are widely used, and such antenna arrays can be described by a number of antenna ports, N_r, in a first dimension (e.g., the horizontal dimension), a number of antenna ports, N₂, in the second dimension perpendicular to the first dimension (e.g., the vertical dimension), and a number of polarizations N_p. The total number of antenna ports is thus N = N₁N₂N_p. The concept of an antenna port is non-limiting in the sense that it can refer to any virtualization (e.g., linear mapping) to the physical antenna elements. For example, pairs of physical antenna elements could be fed the same signal, and hence share the same virtualized antenna port.

[0012] An example of a 4 X 4 (i.e.,

X N₂,) array with dual-polarized antenna elements (i.e., N_p = 2) is illustrated below in Figure 2.

[0013] Precoding may be interpreted as multiplying the signal to be transmitted by a set of beamforming weights on the antenna ports prior to transmission. A typical approach is to tailor the precoder to the antenna form factor, i.e., taking into account N_lt N₂ , and N_p when designing the precoder codebook.

[0014] Channel State Information Reference Signals (CSI-RS)

[0015] For CSI measurement and feedback, CSI-RS are defined. A CSI-RS is transmitted on an antenna port at the gNB and is used by a UE to measure downlink channel between the antenna port and each of the UE’s receive antenna ports. The transmit antenna ports are also referred to as CSI-RS ports. The supported number of CSI-RS ports in NR are { 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32}. By measuring the received CSI-RS, a UE can estimate the channel that the CSI-RS is traversing, including the radio propagation channel and antenna gains. The CSI-RS for the above purpose is also referred to as Non-Zero Power (NZP) CSI-RS.

[0016] CSI-RS can be configured to be transmitted in certain REs in a slot and certain slots. Figure 3 shows an example of CSI-RS REs for 12 antenna ports, where IRE per RB per port is shown.

[0017] In addition, Interference Measurement Resource (IMR) is also defined in NR for a UE to measure interference. An IMR resource contains 4 REs, either 4 adjacent RE in frequency in the same OFDM symbol or 2 by 2 adjacent REs in both time and frequency in a slot. By measuring both the channel based on NZP CSI-RS and the interference based on an IMR, a UE can estimate the effective channel and noise plus interference to determine the CSI. Furthermore, a UE in NR may be configured to measure interference based on one or multiple NZP CSI-RS resource.

[0018] CSI framework in NR

[0019] In NR, a UE can be configured with multiple CSI reporting settings and multiple CSI- RS resource settings. Each resource setting can contain multiple resource sets, and each resource set can contain up to 8 CSI-RS resources. For each CSI reporting setting, a UE feeds back a CSI report.

[0020] Each CSI reporting setting contains at least the following information:

• A CSI-RS resource setting for channel measurement

• An IMR resource set for interference measurement

• Optionally, a CSI-RS resource set for interference measurement

• Time-domain behavior, i.e., periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic reporting

• Frequency granularity, i.e., wideband or subband

• CSI parameters to be reported such as RI, PMI, CQI, and CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) in case of multiple CSI-RS resources in a resource set • Codebook types, i.e., type I or II, N₁, N₂ and codebook subset restriction

• Measurement restriction

• Subband size. One out of two possible subband sizes is indicated, the value range depends on the bandwidth of the BWP. One CQI/PMI (if configured for subband reporting) is fed back per subband).

[0021] The CSI-RS resource setting for channel measurement may contain one or more CSI- RS resource sets. However, only one CSI-RS resource set is further configured for CSI report. When more than one CSI-RS resources are present/configured in a CSI-RS resource set, only one of the CSI-RS resources is selected and an associated CSI is reported in a CSI report, The selected CSI-RS resource is also indicated by a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) in the CSI report. Each of the CSI-RS resources, CSI-RS resource sets and CSI-RS resource settings has an associated index or identifier (ID).

[0022] For CSI report for non-coherent joint transmission (NC-JT) over multiple transmission/reception points (TRPs), a UE is configured with two groups of CSI-RS resources in a CSI-RS resource set for channel measurement, where each group of CSI-RS resources are associated to one TRP. A UE selects one CSI-RS resource from each of the two CSI-RS resource groups and reports a CSI associated to the two selected CSI-RS resources, where the CSI contains a CRI, a rank indicator, and a PMI associated to each of the two selected CSI-RS resources.

[0023] For CSI report for coherent joint transmission (CJT) over multiple TRPs, a UE is configured with multiple CSI-RS resources, each associated to a TRP, in a CSI-RS resource set for channel measurement. The UE may be configured to select a subset of the CSI-RS resources and report a type II codebook based CJT CSI for the selected CSI-RS resources. The selected CSI- RS resources are also indicated in the CSI report.

[0024] For CSI report with channel prediction for medium and high UE mobility, a UE is configured with multiple CSI-RS resources, each corresponding to a same set of antenna ports transmitted at a different time instance, in a CSI-RS resource set for channel measurement. The multiple CSI-RS resources are used to measure and predict channel changes. A predicted CSI for a future time period is computed and reported.

SUMMARY

[0025] Systems and methods of signaling aggregating Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) resources for large arrays are provided. In some embodiments, a method performed by a User Equipment (UE) includes: being configured with a plurality of channel measurement resources for channel measurement in one or more channel measurement resource sets; receiving an indication grouping the plurality of channel measurement resources into one or more subset of channel measurement resources; aggregating antenna ports in the measurement resources within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources wherein with a total number of antenna ports within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources is larger than 32 ports; performing channel measurements over the total number of antenna ports within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources; computing one or more Channel State Information (CSI) based on the one or more subset of channel measurement resources; and reporting the one or more computed CSIs to a network node. In this way, the network node can efficiently signal to the UE which legacy CSI-RS resources (i.e., resources each with 32 CSI-RS ports or less) that can be aggregated to form aggregated CSI-RS resources that contain a larger number of CSI-RS ports (e.g., 64, 96, or 128 CSI-RS ports).

[0026] In some embodiments, the channel measurement resource comprises: one or multiple antenna ports for measurements and/or is mapped to configured resource elements in the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM, time-frequency grid.

[0027] In some embodiments, a first subset of the configured channel measurement resources is associated with a first aggregation index, and a second subset of the configured channel measurement resources is associated with a second aggregation index.

[0028] In some embodiments, the first subset and the second subset of channel measurements are mutually exclusive subsets.

[0029] In some embodiments, a first aggregated resource and a second aggregated resource correspond to two independent new channel measurement resources.

[0030] In some embodiments, all the channel measurement resources in each subset have the same number of antenna ports. In some embodiments, the channel measurement resources in each subset can have different number of antenna ports.

[0031] In some embodiments, the configuration of the second subset is optional.

[0032] In some embodiments, the CSI consists of one or more of: a rank indicator (RI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), and a channel quality indicator (CQI). In some embodiments, the PMI is obtained from a codebook that is defined based on the number of CSI-RS ports in the aggregated resource.

[0033] In some embodiments, when all the channel measurement resources are configured with the same aggregation index, CSI Resource Indicator, CRI, is not reported as part of CSI, and that resource is used for channel measurement and for CSI feedback. [0034] In some embodiments, the value of the CRI indicating a certain aggregated resource is the same as the Aggregation ID of that aggregated resource.

[0035] In some embodiments, the CRI indicating a certain aggregated resource is based on a certain order of the aggregated resources associated with a report setting.

[0036] In some embodiments, the order of the aggregated resources associated with a report setting is based on the Aggregation IDs of the aggregated resources associated with that report setting.

[0037] In some embodiments, each of the aggregated resources represents a Transmission/Reception Point, TRP.

[0038] In some embodiments, all the aggregated resources are used as different samples to compute a predicted PMI or a predicted/Doppler compressed PMI.

[0039] In some embodiments, one or more aggregated resources are configured per Channel Measurement Resource (CMR) group for CSI for Noncoherent Joint Transmission (NC-JT).

[0040] In some embodiments, an aggregated resource is indicated by a pair of CSI-RS IDs. In some embodiments, only the number of aggregated resources is indicated per channel measurement resource set level.

[0041] In some embodiments, the first N_x channel measurement resources in the channel measurement resource set will generate the first of the N indicated number of aggregated resources, and the next N_x channel measurement resources will generate the next aggregated resource and so on.

[0042] In some embodiments, the aggregation index can be implicitly signaled or determined via the channel measurement resource set ID.

[0043] In some embodiments, the n-th channel measurement resource from each channel measurement resource set is aggregated and becomes the n-th aggregated channel measurement resource, where n = 0, 1, ... N-l, and N is the number of channel measurement resources in each channel measurement resource set.

[0044] In some embodiments, in the case with implicit signaling of aggregation index, an identifier is introduced to indicate that resource aggregation is enabled.

[0045] In some embodiments, the identifier is included in a Channel State Information Reference Signal, CSI-RS, -ResourceSet Information Element, IE.

[0046] In some embodiments, an aggregation index for a channel measurement resource in a channel measurement resource set is implicitly determined by the parameters N and N₂ configured in a corresponding codebook configuration, where N₁ and N₂ indicate the number of channel measurement antenna ports in a first and a second dimensions, respectively, for each aggregated channel measurement resource.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0047] The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming a part of this specification illustrate several aspects of the disclosure, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.

[0048] Figure 1 shows an example of spatial multiplexing;

[0049] Figure 2 illustrates an example of a 4 X 4 (i.e., N N₂,~) array with dual-polarized antenna elements (i.e., N_p = 2);

[0050] Figure 3 shows an example of Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) Resource Elements (REs) for 12 antenna ports, where 1 RE per Resource Block (RB) per port is shown;

[0051] Figure 4 illustrates a flowchart of general embodiments disclosed herein;

[0052] Figure 5 shows a first example embodiment where two Non-Zero Power (NZP) CSI- RS resources are configured within an NZP CSI-RS resource set and an aggregation index (e.g., Aggregation ID = 0) is configured per NZP CSI-RS resource;

[0053] Figure 6 shows a second example embodiment where eight NZP CSI-RS resources are configured within an NZP CSI-RS resource set;

[0054] Figure 7 illustrates an example of information element for configuring an aggregated NZP CSI-RS resource;

[0055] Figure 8 shows a first example embodiment where four NZP CSI-RS resources are configured within two NZP CSI-RS resource sets;

[0056] Figure 9 shows a second example embodiment with implicit signaling of aggregation index, where two NZP CSI-RS resource sets are configured, each with four NZP CSI-RS resources;

[0057] Figure 10 shows an example embodiment where a CSI resource for channel measurement contains a single CSI-RS resource set which consists of four 32 ports CSI-RS resources;

[0058] Figure 11 shows an example of a communication system in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0059] Figure 12 shows a User Equipment device (UE) in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; [0060] Figure 13 shows a network node in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0061] Figure 14 is a block diagram of a host, which may be an embodiment of the host of Figure 11 , in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure described herein;

[0062] Figure 15 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment in which functions implemented by some embodiments of the present disclosure may be virtualized; and [0063] Figure 16 shows a communication diagram of a host communicating via a network node with a UE over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0064] The embodiments set forth below represent information to enable those skilled in the art to practice the embodiments and illustrate the best mode of practicing the embodiments. Upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilled in the art will understand the concepts of the disclosure and will recognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressed herein. It should be understood that these concepts and applications fall within the scope of the disclosure.

[0065] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art.

[0066] There currently exist certain challenge(s). With carrier frequencies becoming available above 6 GHz, for the same antenna size, more antenna elements can be accommodated at such higher frequencies than that at carrier frequencies below 6 GHz, which are widely deployed today. In NR, the maximum number of supported antenna ports for Type I single panel codebook-based CSI feedback is 32. A straightforward solution to deal with large number of antenna elements (i.e., larger than 32) would be to increase antenna subarray size, i.e., to map an antenna port (or equivalently a CSI-RS port) to multiple antenna elements and keep the maximum number of antenna ports to 32. However, this would reduce the angular coverage if there were many antenna elements in a subarray because the subarray (or the antenna port) antenna beam pattern would be much narrower than that of each antenna element, which has typically an antenna pattern covering the whole serving cell.

[0067] An alternative solution is to introduce more CSI-RS ports and extend the existing NR type I codebook to support more than 32 ports, such as 64 ports or 128 ports. For 64 ports and 128 ports, it has been discussed that multiple CSI-RS resources (in the existing NR specifications) may be aggregated to support measurements in the new (Release 19 and beyond) UE for more than 32 ports at the base station/gNB/network node.

[0068] However, how to efficiently signal which CSI-RS resources in the existing specifications to aggregate and the related new UE behavior in the context of 5G NR and beyond is not known in the prior art. Hence, how to signal which resources to aggregate for large number of CSI-RS ports (e.g., 64 or 128 ports) is an open problem to be solved.

[0069] It is further a problem how to construct and configure multiple >32 port CSI-RS resources to a UE.

[0070] Certain aspects of the disclosure and their embodiments may provide solutions to these or other challenges. The main idea is to modify the legacy CSI-RS resource configuration by introducing an aggregation index (explicitly in the configuration or implicitly) and among all CSI- RS resources that are configured to the UE, the ones that have the same index shall be aggregated together by the wireless device, and these aggregated resources should then be used to compute PMI using the new codebook which has dimension that matches the sum of the number of antenna ports of these aggregated resources. The aggregation index can be introduced either at the CSI- RS resource level or CSI-RS resource set level.

[0071] The sum of the number of antenna ports of the aggregated resources can be, but not limited to, 64, 96, and 128.

[0072] Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s). With the proposed methods, the gNB can efficiently signal to the UE which legacy CSI-RS resources (i.e., resources each with 32 CSI-RS ports or less) that can be aggregated to form aggregated CSI-RS resources that contain a larger number of CSI-RS ports (e.g., 64, 96, or 128 CSI-RS ports).

[0073] Some embodiments disclosed herein modify the legacy CSI-RS resource configuration by introducing an aggregation index (explicitly in the configuration or implicitly) and among all CSI-RS resources that are configured to the UE, the ones that have the same index shall be aggregated together by the wireless device, and these aggregated resources should then be used to compute PMI using the new codebook which has dimension that matches the sum of the number of antenna ports of these aggregated resources.

[0074] The general embodiments disclosed herein are depicted in the flowchart of Figure 4.

[0075] In the first step, a network node (e.g., a gNB or a similar network node in the context of 6G and beyond) configures a wireless device (e.g., a UE) with a plurality of channel measurement resources (e.g., NZP CSI-RS resources) for channel measurement in one or more NZP CSI-RS resource set(s). [0076] A channel measurement resource comprises one or multiple antenna ports for measurements and is mapped to configured resource elements in the OFDM time-frequency grid. [0077] A first subset of the configured channel measurement resources is associated with a first aggregation index, and a second subset of the configured channel measurement resources is associated with a second aggregation index wherein the first subset and the second subset of channel measurements are mutually exclusive subsets (i.e., the two subsets do not have any common resources). Hence, these two new resources correspond to two independent new channel measurement resources.

[0078] In some embodiments, all the channel measurement resources in each subset have the same number of antenna ports. For instance, NZP CSI-RS resources #1 and #2 configured for channel measurement in one subset will have the same number of CSI-RS ports. In an alternative embodiment, the channel measurement resources in each subset can have different number of antenna ports. Note that in some embodiments, the configuration of the second subset may be optional. In some embodiments, the discussion of an aggregated resource herein refer to channel measurement resources with a total number of antenna ports larger than 32 ports.

[0079] In the second step, to form the aggregated channel measurement resource with a larger number of ports compared to the number of ports in any of the configured subsets, the wireless device aggregates the antenna ports in the resources of each subset to form a superset of antenna ports. The aggregated number of ports is referred to as an aggregated resource henceforth. The following are some example embodiments of the second step:

[0080] Example Embodiment 1 of step 2: assume that NZP CSI-RS resources #1 and #2 are each configured within the first subset and each of these resources have 32 CSI-RS ports. These resources are configured from network (e.g., from gNB) to UE with the same aggregation index. Then, in this embodiment, the wireless device aggregates the two 32 CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI- RS resources #1 and #2 to form a first 64 port CSI-RS aggregated resource. Similarly, when NZP CSI-RS resources #3 and #4 are each configured within the second subset (with a different aggregation index compared to the aggregation index configured for NZP CSI-RS resources #1 and #2) and each of these resources have 32 CSI-RS ports, the wireless device aggregates the two 32 CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI-RS resources #3 and #4 to form a second 64 CSI-RS port aggregated resource;

[0081] Example Embodiment 2 of step 2: assume that NZP CSI-RS resources #1, #2, and #3 are each configured within the first subset and each of these resources have 32 CSI-RS ports. Then, in this embodiment, the wireless device aggregates the three 32 CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI- RS resources #1 , #2 and #3 to form a first 96 CSI-RS port aggregated resource. Similarly, when NZP CSI-RS resources #4, #5 and #6 are each configured within the second subset and each of these resources have 32 CSI-RS ports, the wireless device aggregates the three 32 CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI-RS resources #4, #5 and #6 to form a second 96 CSI-RS port aggregated resource;

[0082] Example Embodiment 3 of step 2: assume that NZP CSI-RS resources #1, #2, #3 and #4 are each configured within the first subset and each of these resources have 32 CSI-RS ports. Then, in this embodiment, the wireless device aggregates the four 32 CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI- RS resources #1, #2, #3 and #4 to form a first 128 CSI-RS port aggregated resource. Similarly, when NZP CSI-RS resources #5, #6, #7 and #8 are each configured within the second subset and each of these resources have 32 CSI-RS ports, the wireless device aggregates the four 32 CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI-RS resources #5, #6, #7 and #8 to form a second 128 CSI-RS port aggregated resource.

[0083] Example Embodiment 4 of step 2: assume that NZP CSI-RS resources #1, #2, #3 and #4 are each configured within the first subset and each of these resources have 16 CSI-RS ports. Then, in this embodiment, the wireless device aggregates the four 16 CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI- RS resources #1, #2, #3 and #4 to form a first 64 CSI-RS port aggregated resource. Similarly, when NZP CSI-RS resources #5, #6, #7 and #8 are each configured within the second subset and each of these resources have 16 CSI-RS ports, the wireless device aggregates the four 16 CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI-RS resources #5, #6, #7 and #8 to form a second 64 CSI-RS port aggregated resource.

[0084] Example Embodiment 5 of step 2: assume that NZP CSI-RS resources #1 and #2 are configured within the first subset and these resources have 32 and 16 CSI-RS ports respectively. Then, in this embodiment, the wireless device aggregates the CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI-RS resources #1 and #2 to form a first 48 CSI-RS port aggregated resource.

[0085] Example Embodiment 6 of step 2: assume that NZP CSI-RS resources #1 and #2 are configured within the first subset and these resources have 8 and 2 CSI-RS ports respectively. Then, in this embodiment, the wireless device aggregates the CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI-RS resources #1 and #2 to form a first 10 CSI-RS port aggregated resource. Note that the total number of CSI-RS ports is less than 32, which is the maximally supported in legacy, however, the resource with 10 ports is not available for legacy terminals. Hence, some embodiments disclosed herein allow introducing new CSI-RS resources with arbitrary number of CSI-RS resources, through aggregation.

[0086] In the third step, the wireless device selects one or more of the aggregated resource(s) and performs channel measurements over the selected one or more of the aggregated resource(s). In case the second subset is optional and is not configured, there may be only one aggregated resource in which case the selection step is optional, and the wireless device performs channel measurements on the one aggregated resource.

[0087] In the fourth step, the wireless device computes CSI(s) for the one or more selected aggregated resource(s). The CSI may consist of a rank indicator (RI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) and a channel quality indicator (CQI). The PMI is obtained from a codebook that is defined based on the number of CSI-RS ports in the aggregated resource (e.g., 48, 64, 96 or 128 port codebook). In case the second subset is optional and is not configured, there may be only one aggregated resource in which case the wireless device computes CSI for the one aggregated resource.

[0088] In the fifth step, the wireless device reports the computed CSI(s) to the network node. [0089] Note that for each aggregated CSI-RS resource, an interference measurement resource (CSI-IM) may also be configured for interference measurement.

[0090] Embodiments for signaling aggregation index per NZP CSI-RS resource

[0091] Figure 5 shows a first example embodiment where two NZP CSI-RS resources are configured within an NZP CSI-RS resource set and an aggregation index (e.g., Aggregation ID = 0) is configured per NZP CSI-RS resource. Since the same Aggregation ID is configured for the two NZP CSI-RS resources in the NZP CSI-RS resource set shown in Figure 5, the UE aggregates NZP CSI-RS resources #0 and #1 to form an aggregated resource.

[0092] In the example of Figure 5, since all the NZP CSI-RS resources are configured with the same aggregation index, the second subset is not configured. In one embodiment, when all the NZP CSI-RS resources are configured with the same aggregation index, CSI Resource Indicator (CRI) is not reported as part of CSI, since there is only a single aggregated resource, and that resource is used for channel measurement and for CSI feedback.

[0093] Note that since the Aggregation ID is configured per NZP CSI-RS resource, this type of aggregation is referred to as explicit resource aggregation as shown in Figure 5.

[0094] Even though only two NZP CSI-RS resources are shown in the example of Figure 5, this embodiment is non-limiting and can be equally applicable to aggregation of IV > 1 NZP CSI- RS resources. That is, if the N > 1 NZP CSI-RS resources are all configured with the same aggregation index, then the N > 1 NZP CSI-RS resources will be aggregated to form an aggregated resource. [0095] Figure 6 shows a second example embodiment where eight NZP CSI-RS resources are configured within an NZP CSI-RS resource set. However, in this case, different NZP CSI-RS resources within the NZP CSI-RS resource set have different aggregation indices. As shown in

Figure 6, the following NZP CSI-RS resources have the same aggregation index:

• NZP CSI-RS resources #0 and #4 are configured the same aggregation index (e.g., Aggregation ID = 0)

• NZP CSI-RS resources #1 and #5 are configured the same aggregation index (e.g., Aggregation ID = 1)

• NZP CSI-RS resources #2 and #6 are configured the same aggregation index (e.g., Aggregation ID = 2)

• NZP CSI-RS resources #3 and #7 are configured the same aggregation index (e.g., Aggregation ID = 3)

[0096] Hence, there can be up to four aggregated resources wherein each Aggregation ID corresponds to one aggregated resource.

[0097] In one embodiment, the UE may select one of the aggregated resources for performing channel measurement and CSI feedback. In this case, the UE may report a CRI as part of the CSI report to indicate which of the four aggregated resources were selected for channel measurement and CSI feedback. In one embodiment the value of the CRI indicating a certain aggregated resource is the same as the Aggregation ID of that aggregated resource. In another embodiment, the CRI indicating a certain aggregated resource is based on a certain order of the aggregated resources associated with a report setting (i.e., CSI- ReportConfig as specified in TS 38.331 version 17.2.0). In one related embodiment, the order of the aggregated resources associated with a report setting is based on the Aggregation IDs of the aggregated resources associated with that report setting. For example, in case a report setting is associated with an NZP-CSI-RS resource set with four NZP CSI-RS resources, where the first two NZP CSI-RS resources are generating a first aggregated resource with the Aggregation ID=2 and the remaining two NZP CSI-RS resources are generating a second aggregated resource with the Aggregation ID=3. then the aggregated resources will be ordered such that the first aggregated resource is ordered first (since it has the lowest Aggregation ID of the two aggregated resources associated with this report setting) and the second aggregated resource is ordered last (since it has the highest Aggregation ID of the two aggregated resources associated with this report setting). The UE can then indicate the first aggregated resource by indicating the lowest codepoint value of the CRI (e.g., 0), and indicate the second aggregated resource by indicating the highest codepoint value of the CRI (e.g., 1).

[0098] In another embodiment, each of the aggregated resources may represent a TRP hence be associated with an individually configured TCI state or RS for the QCL source. In the case of CSI for CJT (e.g., CJT Type II CSI feedback), the UE may select more than one aggregated resource to compute CSI. In the case of CJT Type II CSI, the UE may select one or more spatial DFT vectors from more than one aggregated resource to compute CSI. The UE may indicate multiple CRIs to indicate which of the aggregated resources are selected (note that one CRI in this case indicates an aggregated resource).

[0099] In another embodiment, all the aggregated resources may be used as different samples to compute a predicted PMI or a predicted/Doppler compressed PMI. The predicted and/or Doppler compressed PMI is included as part of CSI feedback. Since all aggregated resources are used for computing CSI in this case, the CRI does not need to be indicated as part of CSI in this embodiment.

[0100] In another embodiment, one or more aggregated resource(s) may be configured per Channel Measurement Resource (CMR) group for CSI for NC-JT. In this case, the UE may compute CSI for one or more NC-JT hypotheses, where each NC-JT hypothesis is associated with measurements on two different aggregated resources, where the two aggregated resources are associated with different CMR groups. The UE may then select one of the NC-JT hypotheses and indicate the selected NC-JT hypothesis with a CRI. The UE may also report CSI based on the measurements associated with the two aggregated resources of the indicated NC-JT hypothesis.

[0101] In another embodiment, a pair of aggregated resources may be configured to the UE. In this case, the UE computes NC-JT CSI using the configured pair of aggregated resources. As part of the NC-JT CSI, the UE determines a first PMI corresponding to the first of the configured pair of aggregated resources and determines a second PMI corresponding to the second of the configured pair of aggregated resources.

[0102] In one embodiment, instead of configuring the Aggregation ID with a parameter per NZP CSI-RS resource, the NZP CSI-RS resources can be aggregated into different aggregation resources by one or more parameters or list of parameters or bitfields introduced per NZP CSI-RS resource set (i.e., in NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet as specified in TS 38331. Version 17.2.0). For example, a new Information Element (IE) might be included in NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet IE, where the new information element indicates which of the NZP CSI-RS resources configured in the NZP CSI-RS resource set that should be aggregated to form an aggregated resource. [0103] For example, assume that one NZP CSI-RS resource set consists of four NZP CSI-RS resources with NZP CSI-RS resource ID #0, NZP CSI-RS resource ID #1, NZP CSI-RS resource ID #2 and NZP CSI-RS resource ID #3. In this case, the new IE can consist of a list of bitfields, where each bitfield consist of 4 bits (equal to the number of NZP CSI-RS resources in the NZP CSI-RS resource set), and where the first bitfield in the list indicates which NZP CSI-RS resources that should be aggregated to a first aggregated resource, and the second bitfield in the list indicates which NZP CSI-RS resources that should be aggregated to a second aggregated resource (and so). For example, in case the list consists of the following two bitfield: [1100] and [0011], then a first aggregated resource will consist of the first and second NZP CSI-RS resources (with NZP CSI-RS resource ID #0, NZP CSI-RS resource ID #1), and a second aggregated resource will consist of the third and fourth NZP CSI-RS resources (with NZP CSI-RS resource ID #2 and NZP CSI-RS resource ID #3).

[0104] Note that this is just one example how to group the NZP CSI-RS resource in an NZP CSI-RS resource set in to aggregated resources by introducing one or more new parameters on NZP-CSI-RS resource set level. Yet another example could be that the explicit NZP CSI-RS resource IDs are used to indicate which of the NZP CSI-RS resources should be aggregated to aggregated resource within a certain NZP CSI-RS resource set.

[0105] For example ,a first entry of a list could indicate the two values “0” and “1”, which could indicate that a first aggregated resource should consist of NZP CSI-RS resource ID #0 and NZP CSI-RS resource ID #1, and in a similar way a second entry of the list could indicate the two values “2” and “3”, which could indicate that a second aggregated resource should consist of NZP CSI-RS resource ID #2 and NZP CSI-RS resource ID #3.

[0106] In another embodiment, an aggregated resource may be indicated by a pair of NZP CSI-RS IDs as illustrated in Figure 7. In the figure, AGGREGATEDNZP-CSI-RS-rxx defines the IDs of the NZP CSI-RS resources to be aggregated (e.g., nzp-CSI-RS-Resourceldl-rxx and nzp-CSI-RS-Resource!d2-rxx). Alternatively, instead of signaling a pair of IDs of the NZP CSI- RS resources to be aggregated, other structures may also be used such as indicating a list of IDs of the NZP CSI-RS resources to be aggregated. Although aggregation of two NZP CSI-RS resources is shown in the example, this is non-limiting and is applicable to aggregation of any number of NZP CSI-RS resources larger than 1. NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet information element

- ASN1 START

— TAG-NZP-CSI-RS-RESOURCESET-START

NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet ::= SEQUENCE { nzp-CSI-ResourceSetld NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSetld, nzp-CSI-RS-Resources SEQUENCE (SIZE (L.maxNrofNZP-CSI-RS-

ResourcesPerSet)) OF NZP-CSLRS-Resourceld, repetition ENUMERATED { on, off }

OPTIONAL, - Need S aperiodicTriggeringOffset INTEGER(0..6)

OPTIONAL, - Need S trs-Info ENUMERATED {true}

OPTIONAL, - Need R

[[ aperiodicTriggeringOffset-r 16 INTEGER(0..31)

OPTIONAL - Need S

]],

[[ pdc-Info-rl7 ENUMERATED {true}

OPTIONAL, - Need R cmrGroupingAndPairing-r 17 CMRGrouping AndPairing-r 17

OPTIONAL, - Need R aperiodicTriggeringOffset-r 17 INTEGER (0..124)

OPTIONAL, - Need S aperiodicTriggeringOffsetL2-rl7 INTEGER(0..31)

OPTIONAL - Need R

]]

[[ aggregatedNzp-CSI-RS-rxx AGGREGATEDNZP-CSI-RS-rxx

OPTIONAL, - Need R

]]

}

CMRGroupingAndPairing-rl7 ::= SEQUENCE { nrofResourcesGroup 1 -r 17 INTEGER (1..7), pair 1 OfNZP-CSI-RS-r 17 NZP-CSI-RS-Pairing-rl7

OPTIONAL, - Need R pair2 OfNZP-CSI-RS-r 17 NZP-CSI-RS-Pairing-rl7

OPTIONAL - Need R

}

NZP-CSI-RS-Pairing-rl7 ::= SEQUENCE { nzp-CSI-RS-ResourceIdl-rl7 INTEGER (1..7), nzp-CSI-RS-ResourceId2-rl7 INTEGER (1..7) }

AGGREGATEDNZP-CSI-RS-rxx ::= SEQUENCE nzp-CSI-RS-Resourceldl -rxx INTEGER (1..7), nzp-CSI-RS-Resource!d2 -rxx INTEGER (1..7)

}

— TAG-NZP-CSI-RS-RESOURCESET-STOP

- ASN1STOP

[0107] In yet another embodiment, only the number of aggregated resources is indicated per NZP CSI-RS resource set level. For example, in the case, where the NZP CSI-RS resource set consist of the four NZP CSI-RS resources as described above, a new parameter could indicate the value N, which would indicate that the NZP CSI-RS resources in the NZP CSI-RS resource set should be aggregated into N different aggregated resources. The number of NZP CSI-RS resources to be aggregated to form one aggregated resource is denoted as N_x. In one embodiment, the first N_x NZP CSI-RS resources in the NZP CSI-RS resource set will generate the first of the N indicated number of aggregated resources, and the next N_x NZP CSI-RS resources will generate the next aggregated resource and so on. So, in the example above, if the new parameter N indicates the value 2, NZP CSI-RS resource ID #0 and NZP CSI-RS resource ID #1 (i.e., the first two NZP CSI-RS resources in the NZP CSI-RS resource set) will be aggregated to a first aggregated resource, and NZP CSI-RS resource ID #2 and NZP CSI-RS resource ID #3 will be aggregated to a second aggregated resource. In a similar way, in case the new parameter indicates the value 1, all four NZP CSI-RS resources (NZP CSI-RS resource ID #0, NZP CSI-RS resource ID #1, NZP CSI-RS resource ID #2, and NZP CSI-RS resource ID #3) will generate one aggregated resource. [0108] In yet another example, a list of pre-defined patterns for resource aggregation is specified in 3GPP specification. In this case, a new IE might be included in NZP-CSI-RS- ResourceSet IE, such as resourceAggregationPattern, indicating how resources shall be aggregated. For example, assume that one NZP CSI-RS resource set consist of four NZP CSI-RS resources, NZP CSI-RS resource ID #0, NZP CSI-RS resource ID #1, NZP CSI-RS resource ID #2 and NZP CSI-RS resource ID #3, the said aggregation pattern indicator might be a 1 bit indicator, where

• “0” means aggregating the first half of the resources in the set and the second half of the resources in the set, while

• “1” means aggregating every second resources in the set starting from the first resource as a first aggregated resource and aggregating the remaining resources in the set as a second aggregated resource.

[0109] Embodiments for signaling aggregation index per NZP CSI-RS resource set

[0110] Alternatively, the aggregation index can be implicitly signaled or determined via the

NZP CSI-RS resource set ID. This applies to when the number of NZP CSI-RS resources contained in each of the configured NZP CSI-RS resource set is the same. Note however that the number of NZP CSI-RS ports in each of the individual NZP CSI-RS resources may or may not be the same. In this case, “implicit” means that a pre-defined rule is specified. [0111] Figure 8 shows a first example embodiment of the above where four NZP CSI-RS resources are configured within two NZP CSI-RS resource sets, where NZP CSI-RS resources #0 and #1 belong to resource set#l while NZP CSI-RS resources #2 and #3 belong to resource set #2. In one embodiment, the n-th NZP CSI-RS resource from each NZP CSI-RS resource set is aggregated and becomes the n-th aggregated NZP CSI-RS resource, where n = 0, 1, ... IV- 1, and N is the number of NZP CSI-RS resources in each NZP CSI-RS resource set.

[0112] Figure 9 shows a second example embodiment with implicit signaling of aggregation index, where 2 NZP CSI-RS resource sets are configured, each with 4 NZP CSI-RS resources. In this case, the n-th NZP CSI-RS resource from the first NZP CSI-RS resource set is aggregated the n-th NZP CSI-RS resource from the second NZP CSI-RS resource set, for n = 0, 1, 2, 3, which means the followings are aggregated:

• NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceId#0 and NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceId#4

• NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceId#l and NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceId#5

• NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceId#2 and NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceId#6

• NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceId#3 and NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceId#7

[0113] In one embodiment, in the case with implicit signaling of aggregation index, an identifier might be introduced to indicate that resource aggregation is enabled. This identifier may be included in the in NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet IE. Such identifier could be using 1 bit, for example, “0” means aggregation disabled, while “1” means aggregation enabled. Hence, for all NZP CSI-RS resource sets configured with aggregation enabled, the corresponding NZP CSI-RS resources shall be aggregated.

[0114] In an alternative embodiment, an aggregation index for a CSI-RS resource in a CSI-RS resource set is implicitly determined by the parameters N₄ and N₂ configured in a corresponding codebook configuration, where N₁ and N₂ indicate the number of CSI-RS antenna ports in a first and a second dimensions, respectively, for each aggregated CSI-RS resource. For example, if a CSI-RS resource set with four CSI-RS resources each with 32 antenna ports are configured and (N₄, N₂~) = (8, 4) is configured in a corresponding codebook, then the number of antenna ports in each aggregated CSI-RS resource is given by 2N₁N₂ = 64. In this case, the first two CSI-RS resources are associated to a first aggregated CSI-SR resource and the third and the fourth CSI-RS resources are associated to a second aggregated CSI-RS resource. An example is shown in Figure 10, where a CSI resource for channel measurement contains a single CSI-RS resource set which consists of four 32 ports CSI-RS resources with CSI-RS resource IDs {k₁, k₂, k₃, k₄} and (N₁,N₂) = (8,4) is configured in a codebook configuration in a same CSI report configuration as the CSI resource for channel measurement. Based on (N₄, /V₂) = (8, 4), a UE can determine that each aggregated CSI-RS resource has 64 ports. It can then determine that there are two aggregated CSI-RS resources. In this figure, the CSI-RS resources are aggregated according to the order of the CSI-RS resources appeared/configured in the CSI-RS resource set, i.e., the first aggregated CSI-RS resource consists of the two CSI-RS resources / and k₂ and the second aggregated CSI- RS resource consists of the next two CSI-RS resources k₃ and k₄.

[0115] In another scenario, the CSI-RS resources are aggregated in increasing order of the CSI-RS resource ID value. Assume that k₁ > k₂ > k₃ > k₄, then the first aggregated CSI-RS resource would consist of CSI-RS resource k₄ and CSI-RS resource k₃ , and the second aggregated CSI-RS resource would consist of CSI-RS resource k₂ and CSI-RS resource k₄.

[0116] Figure 11 shows an example of a communication system 1100 in accordance with some embodiments.

[0117] In the example, the communication system 1100 includes a telecommunication network 1102 that includes an access network 1104, such as a Radio Access Network (RAN), and a core network 1106, which includes one or more core network nodes 1108. The access network 1104 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 1110A and 1110B (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 1110), or any other similar Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access nodes or non-3GPP Access Points (APs). Moreover, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, a network node is not necessarily limited to an implementation in which a radio portion and a baseband portion are supplied and integrated by a single vendor. Thus, it will be understood that network nodes include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the telecommunication network 1102 includes one or more Open-RAN (ORAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a node in the telecommunication network 1102 that supports an ORAN specification (e.g., a specification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization) and may operate alone or together with other nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any node in the telecommunication network 1102, including one or more network nodes 1110 and/or core network nodes 1108.

[0118] Examples of an ORAN network node include an Open Radio Unit (O-RU), an Open Distributed Unit (O-DU), an Open Central Unit (O-CU), including an O-CU Control Plane (O- CU-CP) or an O-CU User Plane (O-CU-UP), a RAN intelligent controller (near-real time or non- real time) hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time control application (e.g., xApp) or a non-real time control application (e.g., rApp), or any combination thereof (the adjective “open” designating support of an ORAN specification). The network node may support a specification by, for example, supporting an interface defined by the ORAN specification, such as an Al, Fl, Wl, El, E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaul management plane interface. Moreover, an ORAN access node may be a logical node in a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualization environment (described further below) in which one or more network functions are virtualized. For example, the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platform orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an 0-2 interface defined by the 0-RAN Alliance or comparable technologies. The network nodes 1110 facilitate direct or indirect connection of User Equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 1112A, 1112B, 1112C, and 1112D (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 1112) to the core network 1106 over one or more wireless connections.

[0119] Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and/or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system 1100 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and/or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communication system 1100 may include and/or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and/or other similar type of system.

[0120] The UEs 1112 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 1110 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 1110 are arranged, capable, configured, and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 1112 and/or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 1102 to enable and/or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and/or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunication network 1102.

[0121] In the depicted example, the core network 1106 connects the network nodes 1110 to one or more hosts, such as host 1116. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network 1106 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 1108) that are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, network nodes, and/or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 1108. Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-Concealing Function (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and/or a User Plane Function (UPF).

[0122] The host 1116 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 1104 and/or the telecommunication network 1102 and may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The host 1116 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio/video content, data collection services such as retrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server. [0123] As a whole, the communication system 1100 of Figure 11 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system 1100 may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Fong Term Evolution (LTE), and/or other suitable Second, Third, Fourth, or Fifth Generation (2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G) standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., Sixth Generation (6G)); Wireless Focal Area Network (WEAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi); and/or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, EiFi, and/or any Eow Power Wide Area Network (EPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox.

[0124] In some examples, the telecommunication network 1102 is a cellular network that implements 3GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunication network 1102 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 1102. For example, the telecommunication network 1102 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and/or massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC)/massive Internet of Things (loT) services to yet further UEs. [0125] In some examples, the UEs 1112 are configured to transmit and/or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 1104 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 1104. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi-Radio Access Technology (RAT) or multi-standard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of WiFi, New Radio (NR), and LTE, i.e., being configured for Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC), such as Evolved UMTS Terrestrial RAN (E-UTRAN) NR - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

[0126] In the example, a hub 1114 communicates with the access network 1104 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 1112C and/or 1112D) and network nodes (e.g., network node 1110B). In some examples, the hub 1114 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 1114 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 1106 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 1114 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes 1110, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 1114. As another example, the hub 1114 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 1114 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a Virtual Reality (VR) headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 1114 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 1114 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and/or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 1114 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular if one or more of the UEs are low energy loT devices.

[0127] The hub 1114 may have a constant/persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 1110B. The hub 1114 may also allow for a different communication scheme and/or schedule between the hub 1114 and UEs (e.g., UE 1112C and/or 1112D), and between the hub 1114 and the core network 1106. In other examples, the hub 1114 is connected to the core network 1106 and/or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 1114 may be configured to connect to a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) service provider over the access network 1104 and/or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 1110 while still connected via the hub 1114 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 1114 may be a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to/from the UEs from/to the network node 1110B. In other embodiments, the hub 1114 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and the network node 1110B, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and/or end point for certain data channels.

[0128] Figure 12 shows a UE 1200 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, a UE refers to a device capable, configured, arranged, and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and/or other UEs. Examples of a UE include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), wireless camera, gaming console or device, music storage device, playback appliance, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, Laptop Embedded Equipment (LEE), Laptop Mounted Equipment (LME), smart device, wireless Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), vehicle, vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded/integrated wireless device, etc. Other examples include any UE identified by the 3GPP, including a Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) UE, a Machine Type Communication (MTC) UE, and/or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.

[0129] A UE may support Device-to-Device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I), or Vehicle - to-Everything (V2X). In other examples, a UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and/or operates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).

[0130] The UE 1200 includes processing circuitry 1202 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1204 to an input/output interface 1206, a power source 1208, memory 1210, a communication interface 1212, and/or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in Figure 12. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc. [0131] The processing circuitry 1202 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 1210. The processing circuitry 1202 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or Digital Signal Processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 1202 may include multiple Central Processing Units (CPUs).

[0132] In the example, the input/output interface 1206 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and/or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into the UE 1200. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.

[0133] In some embodiments, the power source 1208 is structured as a battery or battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used. The power source 1208 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 1208 itself, and/or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 1200 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 1208. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source 1208 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 1200 to which power is supplied.

[0134] The memory 1210 may be or be configured to include memory such as Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), Programmable ROM (PROM), Erasable PROM (EPROM), Electrically EPROM (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 1210 includes one or more application programs 1214, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 1216. The memory 1210 may store, for use by the UE 1200, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

[0135] The memory 1210 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, High Density Digital Versatile Disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, Holographic Digital Data Storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini Dual In-line Memory Module (DIMM), Synchronous Dynamic RAM (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as a tamper resistant module in the form of a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) including one or more Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs), such as a Universal SIM (USIM) and/or Internet Protocol Multimedia Services Identity Module (ISIM), other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as a ‘SIM card.’ The memory 1210 may allow the UE 1200 to access instructions, application programs, and the like stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system, may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 1210, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

[0136] The processing circuitry 1202 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 1212. The communication interface 1212 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 1222. The communication interface 1212 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 1218 and/or a receiver 1220 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 1218 and receiver 1220 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., the antenna 1222) and may share circuit components, software, or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

[0137] In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 1212 may include cellular communication, WiFi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short- range communications such as Bluetooth, NFC, location-based communication such as the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. Communications may be implemented according to one or more communication protocols and/or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, NR, UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Quick User Datagram Protocol Internet Connection (QUIC), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

[0138] Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 1212, via a wireless connection to a network node. Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE. The output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient). [0139] As another example, a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, the UE may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.

[0140] A UE, when in the form of an loT device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, city wearable technology, extended industrial application, and healthcare. Non-limiting examples of such an loT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a television, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door/window sensor, a flood/moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a head-mounted display for Augmented Reality (AR) or VR, a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, an industrial robot, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and any kind of medical device, like a heart rate monitor or a remote controlled surgical robot. A UE in the form of an loT device comprises circuitry and/or software in dependence of the intended application of the loT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the UE 1200 shown in Figure 12.

[0141] As yet another specific example, in an loT scenario, a UE may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/or measurements and transmits the results of such monitoring and/or measurements to another UE and/or a network node. The UE may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the UE may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, a UE may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship, an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.

[0142] In practice, any number of UEs may be used together with respect to a single use case. For example, a first UE might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second UE that is a remote controller operating the drone. When the user makes changes from the remote controller, the first UE may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g., by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed. The first and/or the second UE can also include more than one of the functionalities described above. For example, a UE might comprise the sensor and the actuator and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.

[0143] Figure 13 shows a network node 1300 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged, and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and/or with other network nodes or equipment in a telecommunication network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, APs (e.g., radio APs), Base Stations (BSs) (e.g., radio BSs, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs), NR Node Bs (gNBs)), and O-RAN nodes or components of an O-RAN node (e.g., O-RU, O-DU, O-CU).

[0144] Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units, distributed units (e.g., in an O-RAN access node), and/or Remote Radio Units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such RRUs may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a Distributed Antenna System (DAS). [0145] Other examples of network nodes include multiple Transmission Point (multi- TRP) 5G access nodes, Multi-Standard Radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as Radio Network Controllers (RNCs) or BS Controllers (BSCs), Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, Multi-Cell/Multicast Coordination Entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and/or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).

[0146] The network node 1300 includes processing circuitry 1302, memory 1304, a communication interface 1306, and a power source 1308. The network node 1300 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and an RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 1300 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeB s. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 1300 may be configured to support multiple RATs. In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 1304 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 1310 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 1300 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 1300, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within the network node 1300.

[0147] The processing circuitry 1302 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, CPU, DSP, ASIC, FPGA, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software, and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 1300 components, such as the memory 1304, to provide network node 1300 functionality.

[0148] In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1302 includes a System on a Chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1302 includes one or more of Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1312 and baseband processing circuitry 1314. In some embodiments, the RF transceiver circuitry 1312 and the baseband processing circuitry 1314 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of the RF transceiver circuitry 1312 and the baseband processing circuitry 1314 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

[0149] The memory 1304 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer- readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, RAM, ROM, mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD), or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device- readable, and/or computer-executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 1302. The memory 1304 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and/or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 1302 and utilized by the network node 1300. The memory 1304 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 1302 and/or any data received via the communication interface 1306. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 1302 and the memory 1304 are integrated.

[0150] The communication interface 1306 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and/or data between a network node, access network, and/or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface 1306 comprises port(s)/terminal(s) 1316 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 1306 also includes radio front-end circuitry 1318 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 1310. The radio front-end circuitry 1318 comprises filters 1320 and amplifiers 1322. The radio front-end circuitry 1318 may be connected to the antenna 1310 and the processing circuitry 1302. The radio front-end circuitry 1318 may be configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna 1310 and the processing circuitry 1302. The radio front-end circuitry 1318 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuitry 1318 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of the filters 1320 and/or the amplifiers 1322. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 1310. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 1310 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 1318. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 1302. In other embodiments, the communication interface 1306 may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.

[0151] In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 1300 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 1318; instead, the processing circuitry 1302 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 1310. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 1312 is part of the communication interface 1306. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 1306 includes the one or more ports or terminals 1316, the radio front-end circuitry 1318, and the RF transceiver circuitry 1312 as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 1306 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 1314, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

[0152] The antenna 1310 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals. The antenna 1310 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 1318 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 1310 is separate from the network node 1300 and connectable to the network node 1300 through an interface or port.

[0153] The antenna 1310, the communication interface 1306, and/or the processing circuitry 1302 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node 1300. Any information, data, and/or signals may be received from a UE, another network node, and/or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 1310, the communication interface 1306, and/or the processing circuitry 1302 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node 1300. Any information, data, and/or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node, and/or any other network equipment.

[0154] The power source 1308 provides power to the various components of the network node 1300 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 1308 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 1300 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 1300 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid or an electricity outlet) via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 1308. As a further example, the power source 1308 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.

[0155] Embodiments of the network node 1300 may include additional components beyond those shown in Figure 13 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and/or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 1300 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 1300 and to allow output of information from the network node 1300. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 1300.

[0156] Figure 14 is a block diagram of a host 1400, which may be an embodiment of the host 1116 of Figure 11, in accordance with various aspects described herein. As used herein, the host 1400 may be or comprise various combinations of hardware and/or software including a standalone server, a blade server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server, a virtual machine, container, or processing resources in a server farm. The host 1400 may provide one or more services to one or more UEs.

[0157] The host 1400 includes processing circuitry 1402 that is operatively coupled via a bus 1404 to an input/output interface 1406, a network interface 1408, a power source 1410, and memory 1412. Other components may be included in other embodiments. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the devices of previous figures, such as Figures 12 and 13, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the host 1400.

[0158] The memory 1412 may include one or more computer programs including one or more host application programs 1414 and data 1416, which may include user data, e.g., data generated by a UE for the host 1400 or data generated by the host 1400 for a UE. Embodiments of the host 1400 may utilize only a subset or all of the components shown. The host application programs 1414 may be implemented in a container-based architecture and may provide support for video codecs (e.g., Versatile Video Coding (VVC), High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), Advanced Video Coding (AVC), Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), VP9) and audio codecs (e.g., Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), MPEG, G.711), including transcoding for multiple different classes, types, or implementations of UEs (e.g., handsets, desktop computers, wearable display systems, and heads-up display systems). The host application programs 1414 may also provide for user authentication and licensing checks and may periodically report health, routes, and content availability to a central node, such as a device in or on the edge of a core network. Accordingly, the host 1400 may select and/or indicate a different host for Over-The-Top (OTT) services for a UE. The host application programs 1414 may support various protocols, such as the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol, Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH or MPEG-DASH), etc.

[0159] Figure 15 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 1500 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices, and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more Virtual Machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 1500 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, UE, core network node, or host. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized. In some embodiments, the virtualization environment 1500 includes components defined by the O-RAN Alliance, such as an O-Cloud environment orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an 0-2 interface.

[0160] Applications 1502 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment 1500 to implement some of the features, functions, and/or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0161] Hardware 1504 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and/or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and/or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input/output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 1506 (also referred to as hypervisors or VM Monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 1508A and 1508B (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 1508), and/or perform any of the functions, features, and/or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 1506 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 1508.

[0162] The VMs 1508 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking, or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 1506. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 1502 may be implemented on one or more of the VMs 1508, and the implementations may be made in different ways. Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as Network Function Virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers and customer premise equipment. [0163] In the context of NFV, a VM 1508 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of the VMs 1508, and that part of the hardware 1504 that executes that VM, be it hardware dedicated to that VM and/or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs 1508, forms separate virtual network elements. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more VMs 1508 on top of the hardware 1504 and corresponds to the application 1502.

[0164] The hardware 1504 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. The hardware 1504 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, the hardware 1504 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g., such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 1510, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of the applications 1502. In some embodiments, the hardware 1504 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a RAN or a base station. In some embodiments, some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system 1512 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

[0165] Figure 16 shows a communication diagram of a host 1602 communicating via a network node 1604 with a UE 1606 over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments. Example implementations, in accordance with various embodiments, of the UE (such as the UE 1112A of Figure 11 and/or the UE 1200 of Figure 12), the network node (such as the network node 1110A of Figure 11 and/or the network node 1300 of Figure 13), and the host (such as the host 1116 of Figure 11 and/or the host 1400 of Figure 14) discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to Figure 16.

[0166] Eike the host 1400, embodiments of the host 1602 include hardware, such as a communication interface, processing circuitry, and memory. The host 1602 also includes software, which is stored in or is accessible by the host 1602 and executable by the processing circuitry. The software includes a host application that may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as the UE 1606 connecting via an OTT connection 1650 extending between the UE 1606 and the host 1602. In providing the service to the remote user, a host application may provide user data which is transmitted using the OTT connection 1650. [0167] The network node 1604 includes hardware enabling it to communicate with the host 1602 and the UE 1606. The connection 1660 may be direct or pass through a core network (like the core network 1106 of Figure 11) and/or one or more other intermediate networks, such as one or more public, private, or hosted networks. For example, an intermediate network may be a backbone network or the Internet.

[0168] The UE 1606 includes hardware and software, which is stored in or accessible by the UE 1606 and executable by the UE’s processing circuitry. The software includes a client application, such as a web browser or operator-specific “app” that may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via the UE 1606 with the support of the host 1602. In the host 1602, an executing host application may communicate with the executing client application via the OTT connection 1650 terminating at the UE 1606 and the host 1602. In providing the service to the user, the UE’s client application may receive request data from the host's host application and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 1650 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The UE’s client application may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides to the host application through the OTT connection 1650.

[0169] The OTT connection 1650 may extend via the connection 1660 between the host 1602 and the network node 1604 and via a wireless connection 1670 between the network node 1604 and the UE 1606 to provide the connection between the host 1602 and the UE 1606. The connection 1660 and the wireless connection 1670, over which the OTT connection 1650 may be provided, have been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host 1602 and the UE 1606 via the network node 1604, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices.

[0170] As an example of transmitting data via the OTT connection 1650, in step 1608, the host 1602 provides user data, which may be performed by executing a host application. In some embodiments, the user data is associated with a particular human user interacting with the UE 1606. In other embodiments, the user data is associated with a UE 1606 that shares data with the host 1602 without explicit human interaction. In step 1610, the host 1602 initiates a transmission carrying the user data towards the UE 1606. The host 1602 may initiate the transmission responsive to a request transmitted by the UE 1606. The request may be caused by human interaction with the UE 1606 or by operation of the client application executing on the UE 1606. The transmission may pass via the network node 1604 in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. Accordingly, in step 1612, the network node 1604 transmits to the UE 1606 the user data that was carried in the transmission that the host 1602 initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 1614, the UE 1606 receives the user data carried in the transmission, which may be performed by a client application executed on the UE 1606 associated with the host application executed by the host 1602.

[0171] In some examples, the UE 1606 executes a client application which provides user data to the host 1602. The user data may be provided in reaction or response to the data received from the host 1602. Accordingly, in step 1616, the UE 1606 may provide user data, which may be performed by executing the client application. In providing the user data, the client application may further consider user input received from the user via an input/output interface of the UE 1606. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE 1606 initiates, in step 1618, transmission of the user data towards the host 1602 via the network node 1604. In step 1620, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, the network node 1604 receives user data from the UE 1606 and initiates transmission of the received user data towards the host 1602. In step 1622, the host 1602 receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the UE 1606.

[0172] One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE 1606 using the OTT connection 1650, in which the wireless connection 1670 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve the e.g., data rate, latency, power consumption, etc. and thereby provide benefits such as e.g., reduced user waiting time, relaxed restriction on file size, improved content resolution, better responsiveness, extended battery lifetime, etc.

[0173] In an example scenario, factory status information may be collected and analyzed by the host 1602. As another example, the host 1602 may process audio and video data which may have been retrieved from a UE for use in creating maps. As another example, the host 1602 may collect and analyze real-time data to assist in controlling vehicle congestion (e.g., controlling traffic lights). As another example, the host 1602 may store surveillance video uploaded by a UE. As another example, the host 1602 may store or control access to media content such as video, audio, VR, or AR which it can broadcast, multicast, or unicast to UEs. As other examples, the host 1602 may be used for energy pricing, remote control of non-time critical electrical load to balance power generation needs, location services, presentation services (such as compiling diagrams etc. from data collected from remote devices), or any other function of collecting, retrieving, storing, analyzing, and/or transmitting data.

[0174] In some examples, a measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency, and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve. There may further be an optional network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 1650 between the host 1602 and the UE 1606 in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 1650 may be implemented in software and hardware of the host 1602 and/or the UE 1606. In some embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with other devices through which the OTT connection 1650 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or by supplying values of other physical quantities from which software may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of the OTT connection 1650 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing, etc.; the reconfiguring need not directly alter the operation of the network node 1604. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling that facilitates measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency, and the like by the host 1602. The measurements may be implemented in that software causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection 1650 while monitoring propagation times, errors, etc.

[0175] Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes, hosts) may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions, and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining, or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination. Moreover, while components are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box or nested within multiple boxes, in practice computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components. For example, a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and/or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface. In another example, non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

[0176] In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hardwired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole and/or by end users and a wireless network generally.

[0177] EMBODIMENTS

[0178] Group A Embodiments

[0179] Embodiment 1 : A method performed by a user equipment, the method comprising one or more of: being configured with a plurality of channel measurement resources (e.g., (NonZero Power, NZP, Channel State Information Reference Signal, CSI-RS, resources) for channel measurement in one or more NZP CSI-RS resource sets; receiving indication grouping the plurality of channel measurement resources into one or more subset(s) of resources; aggregating the antenna ports in the resources of each subset to form an aggregated resource with a superset of antenna ports; selecting one or more of the aggregated resources and performing channel measurements over the selected one or more of the aggregated resources; computing CSIs for the one or more selected aggregated resources; and reporting the computed CSIs to a network node.

[0180] Embodiment 2: The method of the previous embodiment wherein the channel measurement resource comprises one or multiple antenna ports for measurements and/or is mapped to configured resource elements in the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM, time-frequency grid.

[0181] Embodiment 3: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein a first subset of the configured channel measurement resources is associated with a first aggregation index, and a second subset of the configured channel measurement resources is associated with a second aggregation index. [0182] Embodiment 4: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein the first subset and the second subset of channel measurements are mutually exclusive subsets (i.e., the two subsets do not have any common resources).

[0183] Embodiment s: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein a first aggregated resource and a second aggregated resource correspond to two independent new channel measurement resources.

[0184] Embodiment 6: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein all the channel measurement resources in each subset have the same number of antenna ports.

[0185] Embodiment 7 : The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein the channel measurement resources in each subset can have different number of antenna ports.

[0186] Embodiment 8: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein the configuration of the second subset is optional.

[0187] Embodiment 9: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein when NZP CSI-RS resources #1 and #2 are each configured within the first subset, then the wireless device aggregates the CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI-RS resources #1 and #2 to form an aggregated CSI-RS resource wherein the number of ports in the aggregated CSI-RS resource is the sum of the number of CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI-RS resources #1 and #2.

[0188] Embodiment 10: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein when NZP CSI-RS resources #1, #2, and #3 are each configured within the first subset, then the wireless device aggregates the CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI-RS resources #1, #2 and #3 to form an aggregated CSI-RS resource wherein the number of ports in the aggregated CSI-RS resource is the sum of the number of CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI-RS resources #1, #2 and #3.

[0189] Embodiment 11 : The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein when NZP CSI-RS resources #1, #2, #3 and #4 are each configured within the first subset, then the wireless device aggregates the CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI-RS resources #1, #2, #3 and #4 to form an aggregated CSI-RS resource wherein the number of ports in the aggregated CSI-RS resource is the sum of the number of CSI-RS ports in NZP CSI-RS resources #1, #2, #3 and #4.

[0190] Embodiment 12: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein the second subset is optional and is not configured, the selection step is optional, and the wireless device performs channel measurements on the one aggregated resource.

[0191] Embodiment 13: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein the CSI consists of one or more of: a rank indicator, RI, a precoding matrix indicator, PMI, and a channel quality indicator, CQI. [0192] Embodiment 14: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein the PMI is obtained from a codebook that is defined based on the number of CSI-RS ports in the aggregated resource.

[0193] Embodiment 15: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein, when all the NZP CSI-RS resources are configured with the same aggregation index, CSI Resource Indicator, CRI, is not reported as part of CSI, and that resource is used for channel measurement and for CSI feedback.

[0194] Embodiment 16: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein the value of the CRI indicating a certain aggregated resource is the same as the Aggregation ID of that aggregated resource.

[0195] Embodiment 17: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein the CRI indicating a certain aggregated resource is based on a certain order of the aggregated resources associated with a report setting.

[0196] Embodiment 18: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein the order of the aggregated resources associated with a report setting is based on the Aggregation IDs of the aggregated resources associated with that report setting.

[0197] Embodiment 19: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein each of the aggregated resources represents a Transmission/Reception Point, TRP, (e.g., is associated with an individually configured Transmission Configuration Indicator, TCI, state or RS for the Quasi Co- Located, QCL, source).

[0198] Embodiment 20: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein all the aggregated resources are used as different samples to compute a predicted PMI or a predicted/Doppler compressed PMI.

[0199] Embodiment 21: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein one or more aggregated resources are configured per Channel Measurement Resource, CMR, group for CSI for Noncoherent Joint Transmission, NC-JT.

[0200] Embodiment 22: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein computing comprises computing CSI for one or more NC-JT hypotheses, where each NC-JT hypothesis is associated with measurements on two different aggregated resources, where the two aggregated resources are associated with different CMR groups.

[0201] Embodiment 23: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein a pair of aggregated resources are configured.

[0202] Embodiment 24: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein, instead of configuring the Aggregation ID with a parameter per NZP CSI-RS resource, the NZP CSI-RS resources are aggregated into different aggregation resources by one or more parameters or list of parameters or bitfields introduced per NZP CSI-RS resource set.

[0203] Embodiment 25: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein an aggregated resource is indicated by a pair of NZP CSI-RS IDs.

[0204] Embodiment 26: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein AGGREGATEDNZP-CSI-RS-rxx defines the IDs of the NZP CSI-RS resources to be aggregated (e.g., nzp-CSI-RS-Resourceldl-rxx and nzp-CSI-RS-ResourceId2-rxx).

[0205] Embodiment 27 : The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein, instead of signaling a pair of IDs of the NZP CSI-RS resources to be aggregated, other structures are used such as indicating a list of IDs of the NZP CSI-RS resources to be aggregated.

[0206] Embodiment 28: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein only the number of aggregated resources is indicated per NZP CSI-RS resource set level.

[0207] Embodiment 29: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein the first N_x NZP CSI-RS resources in the NZP CSI-RS resource set will generate the first of the N indicated number of aggregated resources, and the next N_x NZP CSI-RS resources will generate the next aggregated resource and so on.

[0208] Embodiment 30: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein the aggregation index can be implicitly signaled or determined via the NZP CSI-RS resource set ID.

[0209] Embodiment 31 : The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein the n-th NZP CSI-RS resource from each NZP CSI-RS resource set is aggregated and becomes the n-th aggregated NZP CSI-RS resource, where n=0,l,...N-l, and N is the number of NZP CSI-RS resources in each NZP CSI-RS resource set.

[0210] Embodiment 32: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein, in the case with implicit signaling of aggregation index, an identifier is introduced to indicate that resource aggregation is enabled.

[0211] Embodiment 33: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein the identifier is included in the in NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet Information Element, IE.

[0212] Embodiment 34: The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein an aggregation index for a CSI-RS resource in a CSI-RS resource set is implicitly determined by the parameters N_1 and N_2 configured in a corresponding codebook configuration, where N_1 and N_2 indicate the number of CSI-RS antenna ports in a first and a second dimensions, respectively, for each aggregated CSI-RS resource. [0213] Embodiment 35 : The method of any of the previous embodiments, further comprising: providing user data; and forwarding the user data to a host via the transmission to the network node.

[0214] Group B Embodiments

[0215] Embodiment 36: A method performed by a network node, the method comprising one or more of: configuring a wireless device (e.g., a UE) with a plurality of channel measurement resources (e.g., NZP CSI-RS resources) for channel measurement in one or more NZP CSI-RS resource sets; and receiving one or more computed CSIs from the wireless device; wherein the computed CSIs are computed based on: aggregating the antenna ports in the resources of each subset to form a superset of antenna ports; and selecting one or more of the aggregated resources and performing channel measurements over the selected one or more of the aggregated resources; computing CSIs for the one or more selected aggregated resources.

[0216] Embodiment 37 : The method of the previous embodiment further comprising the features of any of the Group A Embodiments.

[0217] Embodiment 38: The method of any of the previous embodiments, further comprising: obtaining user data; and forwarding the user data to a host or a user equipment.

[0218] Group C Embodiments

[0219] Embodiment 39: A user equipment, comprising: processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments; and power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the processing circuitry.

[0220] Embodiment 40: A network node, the network node comprising: processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments; and power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the processing circuitry.

[0221] Embodiment 41: A user equipment (UE), the UE comprising: an antenna configured to send and receive wireless signals; radio front-end circuitry connected to the antenna and to processing circuitry, and configured to condition signals communicated between the antenna and the processing circuitry; the processing circuitry being configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments; an input interface connected to the processing circuitry and configured to allow input of information into the UE to be processed by the processing circuitry; an output interface connected to the processing circuitry and configured to output information from the UE that has been processed by the processing circuitry; and a battery connected to the processing circuitry and configured to supply power to the UE.

[0222] Embodiment 42: A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data to a network node in a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE), the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform any of the operations of any of the Group B embodiments to transmit the user data from the host to the UE.

[0223] Embodiment 43: The host of the previous embodiment, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application that provides the user data; and the UE comprises processing circuitry configured to execute a client application associated with the host application to receive the transmission of user data from the host.

[0224] Embodiment 44: A method implemented in a host configured to operate in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: providing user data for the UE; and initiating a transmission carrying the user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the network node, wherein the network node performs any of the operations of any of the Group B embodiments to transmit the user data from the host to the UE.

[0225] Embodiment 45: The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising, at the network node, transmitting the user data provided by the host for the UE.

[0226] Embodiment 46: The method of any of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein the user data is provided at the host by executing a host application that interacts with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.

[0227] Embodiment 47 : A communication system configured to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the communication system comprising: a host comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data for a user equipment (UE), the user data being associated with the over-the-top service; and a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data toward a cellular network node for transmission to the UE, the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform any of the operations of any of the Group B embodiments to transmit the user data from the host to the UE.

[0228] Embodiment 48: The communication system of the previous embodiment, further comprising: the network node; and/or the UE.

[0229] Embodiment 49: A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising: processing circuitry configured to initiate receipt of user data; and a network interface configured to receive the user data from a network node in a cellular network, the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform any of the operations of any of the Group B embodiments to receive the user data from a user equipment (UE) for the host.

[0230] Embodiment 50: The host of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application that receives the user data; and the host application is configured to interact with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.

[0231] Embodiment 51 : The host of the any of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein the initiating receipt of the user data comprises requesting the user data.

[0232] Embodiment 52: A method implemented by a host configured to operate in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: at the host, initiating receipt of user data from the UE, the user data originating from a transmission which the network node has received from the UE, wherein the network node performs any of the steps of any of the Group B embodiments to receive the user data from the UE for the host.

[0233] Embodiment 53: The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising at the network node, transmitting the received user data to the host.

[0234] Embodiment 54: A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data to a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE), wherein the UE comprises a communication interface and processing circuitry, the communication interface and processing circuitry of the UE being configured to perform any of the operations of any of the Group A embodiments to receive the user data from the host.

[0235] Embodiment 55: The host of the previous embodiment, wherein the cellular network further includes a network node configured to communicate with the UE to transmit the user data to the UE from the host.

[0236] Embodiment 56: The host of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data; and the host application is configured to interact with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.

[0237] Embodiment 57 : A method implemented by a host operating in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: providing user data for the UE; and initiating a transmission carrying the user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the network node, wherein the UE performs any of the operations of any of the Group A embodiments to receive the user data from the host.

[0238] Embodiment 58: The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising: at the host, executing a host application associated with a client application executing on the UE to receive the user data from the host application.

[0239] Embodiment 59: The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising: at the host, transmitting input data to the client application executing on the UE, the input data being provided by executing the host application, wherein the user data is provided by the client application in response to the input data from the host application.

[0240] Embodiment 60: A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data to a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE), wherein the UE comprises a communication interface and processing circuitry, the communication interface and processing circuitry of the UE being configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments to transmit the user data to the host.

[0241] Embodiment 61: The host of the previous embodiment, wherein the cellular network further includes a network node configured to communicate with the UE to transmit the user data from the UE to the host.

[0242] Embodiment 62: The host of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data; and the host application is configured to interact with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.

[0243] Embodiment 63: A method implemented by a host configured to operate in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: at the host, receiving user data transmitted to the host via the network node by the UE, wherein the UE performs any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments to transmit the user data to the host.

[0244] Embodiment 64: The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising: at the host, executing a host application associated with a client application executing on the UE to receive the user data from the UE.

[0245] Embodiment 65: The method of the previous 2 embodiments, further comprising: at the host, transmitting input data to the client application executing on the UE, the input data being provided by executing the host application, wherein the user data is provided by the client application in response to the input data from the host application.

[0246] Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modifications to the embodiments of the present disclosure. All such improvements and modifications are considered within the scope of the concepts disclosed herein.

ABBREVIATIONS

At least some of the following abbreviations may be used in this disclosure. If there is an inconsistency between abbreviations, preference should be given to how it is used above. If listed multiple times below, the first listing should be preferred over any subsequent listing(s).

Ix RTT CDMA2000 lx Radio Transmission Technology 3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project 5G 5th Generation 6G 6th Generation ABS Almost Blank Subframe ARQ Automatic Repeat Request AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise BCCH Broadcast Control Channel BCH Broadcast Channel CA Carrier Aggregation CC Carrier Component CCCH SDU Common Control Channel SDU CDMA Code Division Multiplexing Access CGI Cell Global Identifier CIR Channel Impulse Response CMR Channel Measurement Resource CP Cyclic Prefix CPICH Common Pilot Channel CPICH Ec/No CPICH Received energy per chip divided by the power density in the band CQI Channel Quality information CRI CSI Resource Indicator C-RNTI Cell RNTI CSI Channel State Information DCCH Dedicated Control Channel DL Downlink DM Demodulation DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal DRX Discontinuous Reception DTX Discontinuous Transmission DTCH Dedicated Traffic Channel DUT Device Under Test E-CID Enhanced Cell- ID (positioning method) eMBMS evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services E-SMLC Evolved-Serving Mobile Location Centre ECGI Evolved CGI eNB E-UTRAN NodeB ePDCCH Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel E-SMLC Evolved Serving Mobile Location Center E-UTRA Evolved UTRA E-UTRAN Evolved UTRAN FDD Frequency Division Duplex FFS For Further Study gNB Base station in NR GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

HO Handover

HSPA High Speed Packet Access

HRPD High Rate Packet Data

LOS Line of Sight

LPP LTE Positioning Protocol

LTE Long-Term Evolution

MAC Medium Access Control

MAC Message Authentication Code

MBSFN Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency Network

MBSFN ABS MBSFN Almost Blank Subframe

MDT Minimization of Drive Tests

MIB Master Information Block

MME Mobility Management Entity

MSC Mobile Switching Center NPDCCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel NR New Radio NZP Non-Zero Power OCNG OFDMA Channel Noise Generator OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access OSS Operations Support System OTDOA Observed Time Difference of Arrival O&M Operation and Maintenance PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel P-CCPCH Primary Common Control Physical Channel PCell Primary Cell PCFICH Physical Control Format Indicator Channel PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol PDP Profile Delay Profile PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel PGW Packet Gateway PHICH Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel PLMN Public Land Mobile Network PMI Precoder Matrix Indicator PRACH Physical Random Access Channel PRS Positioning Reference Signal PSS Primary Synchronization Signal PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel RACH Random Access Channel QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation QCL Quasi Co-Located RAN Radio Access Network RAT Radio Access Technology RI Rank Indicator RLC Radio Link Control RLM Radio Link Management RNC Radio Network Controller RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier RRC Radio Resource Control

RRM Radio Resource Management

RS Reference Signal

RSCP Received Signal Code Power

RSRP Reference Symbol Received Power OR Reference Signal Received Power

RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality OR Reference Symbol Received Quality

RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator

RSTD Reference Signal Time Difference

SCH Synchronization Channel

SCell Secondary Cell

SDAP Service Data Adaptation Protocol

SDU Service Data Unit

SFN System Frame Number

SGW Serving Gateway

SI System Information

SIB System Information Block

SNR Signal to Noise Ratio

SON Self Optimized Network

SS Synchronization Signal

SSS Secondary Synchronization Signal

TCI Transmission Configuration Indicator

TDD Time Division Duplex

TDOA Time Difference of Arrival

TOA Time of Arrival

TRP Transmission/Reception Point

TSS Tertiary Synchronization Signal

TTI Transmission Time Interval

UE User Equipment

UL Uplink

USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module

UTDOA Uplink Time Difference of Arrival

WCDMA Wide CDMA

WLAN Wide Local Area Network

Claims

1. A method performed by a User Equipment, UE, the method comprising: being configured with a plurality of channel measurement resources for channel measurement in one or more channel measurement resource sets; receiving an indication grouping the plurality of channel measurement resources into one or more subset of channel measurement resources; aggregating antenna ports in the measurement resources within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources wherein a total number of antenna ports within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources is larger than 32 ports; performing channel measurements over the total number of antenna ports within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources; computing one or more Channel State Information, CSI, based on the one or more subset of channel measurement resources; and reporting the one or more computed CSIs to a network node.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the channel measurement resource comprises: one or multiple antenna ports for channel measurements and/or is mapped to configured resource elements in the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM, time-frequency grid.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources forms an aggregated resource.

4. The method of any of claims 1-3 wherein a first subset of channel measurement resources is associated with a first aggregation index, and a second subset of channel measurement resources is associated with a second aggregation index.

5. The method of any of claims 1-4 wherein the first subset and the second subset of channel measurement resources are mutually exclusive subsets.

6. The method of any of claims 1-5 wherein a first aggregated resource and a second aggregated resource correspond to two independent new channel measurement resources.

7. The method of any of claims 1-6 wherein all the channel measurement resources in each subset have the same number of antenna ports.

8. The method of any of claims 1-6 wherein the channel measurement resources in each subset can have different numbers of antenna ports.

9. The method of any of claims 1-8 wherein the configuration of the second subset is optional.

10. The method of any of claims 1-9 wherein the CSI consists of one or more of: a rank indicator, RI, a precoding matrix indicator, PMI, and a channel quality indicator, CQI.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the PMI is obtained from a codebook that is defined based on the total number of antenna ports within one subset of channel measurement resources.

12. The method of any of claims 1-11 wherein, when all the channel measurement resources are configured with the same aggregation index, CSI Resource Indicator, CRI, is not reported as part of CSI, and that resource is used for channel measurement and for CSI feedback.

13. The method of any of claims 1-11 wherein the value of the CRI indicating a certain subset of channel measurement resources is the same as the Aggregation ID of that subset of channel measurement resources.

14. The method of any of claims 1-13 wherein the CRI indicating a certain subset of channel measurement resources is based on a certain order of the subsets of channel measurement resources associated with a report setting.

15. The method of any of claims 1-14 wherein the order of the subsets of channel measurement resources associated with a report setting is based on the Aggregation IDs of the subsets of channel measurement resources associated with that report setting.

16. The method of any of claims 1-15 wherein each of the subsets of channel measurement resources represents a Transmission/Reception Point, TRP.

17. The method of any of claims 1-16 wherein all the subsets of channel measurement resources are used as different samples to compute a predicted PMI or a predicted/Doppler compressed PMI.

18. The method of any of claims 1-17 wherein a subset of channel measurement resources is indicated by two or more CSI-RS IDs.

19. The method of any of claims 1-18 wherein only the number N of subsets of channel measurement resources is indicated per channel measurement resource set level.

20. The method of any of claims 1-19 wherein the first N_x channel measurement resources in the channel measurement resource set will generate the first of the N indicated subsets of channel measurement resources, and the next N_x channel measurement resources will generate the next subset of channel measurement resources and so on.

21. The method of any of claims 1-20 wherein the aggregation index can be implicitly signaled or determined via the channel measurement resource set ID.

22. The method of any of claims 1-21 wherein the n-th channel measurement resource from each channel measurement resource set is aggregated and becomes the n-th subset of channel measurement resources, where n = 0, 1, ... N-l, and N is the number of subsets of channel measurement resources in each channel measurement resource set.

23. The method of any of claims 1-22 wherein, in the case with implicit signaling of aggregation index, an identifier is introduced to indicate that resource aggregation is enabled.

24. The method of any of claims 1-23 wherein the identifier is included in a Channel State Information Reference Signal, CSI-RS, -ResourceSet Information Element, IE.

25. The method of any of claims 1-24 wherein an aggregation index for a channel measurement resource in a channel measurement resource set is implicitly determined by the parameters N and N₂ configured in a corresponding codebook configuration, where N₁ and N₂ indicate the number of channel measurement antenna ports in a first and a second dimensions, respectively, for each aggregated channel measurement resource.

26. The method of any of claims 1-24, wherein a single interference measurement resource is used for interference measurement when computing the one or more Channel State Information, CSI, based on one or more selected aggregated the one or more subset of channel measurement resources.

27. A method performed by a network node, the method comprising: configuring a User Equipment, UE, with a plurality of channel measurement resources for channel measurement in one or more channel measurement resource sets; transmitting, to the UE, an indication grouping the plurality of channel measurement resources into one or more subset of channel measurement resources; and receiving one or more computed Channel State Information, CSIs, from the UE; wherein the received CSIs are computed based on: aggregating the antenna ports in the measurement resources within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources wherein a total number of antenna ports within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources is larger than 32 ports; and performing channel measurements over the total number of antenna ports within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the channel measurement resource comprises: one or multiple antenna ports for channel measurements and/or is mapped to configured resource elements in the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM, time-frequency grid.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources forms an aggregated resource.

30. The method of any of claims 27-28 wherein a first subset of channel measurement resources is associated with a first aggregation index, and a second subset of channel measurement resources is associated with a second aggregation index.

31. The method of any of claims 27-30 wherein the first subset and the second subset of channel measurement resources are mutually exclusive subsets.

32. The method of any of claims 27-31 wherein a first aggregated resource and a second aggregated resource correspond to two independent new channel measurement resources.

33. The method of any of claims 27-32 wherein all the channel measurement resources in each subset have the same number of antenna ports.

34. The method of any of claims 27-33 wherein the channel measurement resources in each subset can have different number of antenna ports.

35. The method of any of claims 27-34 wherein the configuration of the second subset is optional.

36. The method of any of claims 27-35 wherein the CSI consists of one or more of: a rank indicator, RI, a precoding matrix indicator, PMI, and a channel quality indicator, CQI.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein the PMI is obtained from a codebook that is defined based on the total number of antenna ports within one subset of channel measurement resources.

38. The method of any of claims 27-37 wherein, when all the channel measurement resources are configured with the same aggregation index, CSI Resource Indicator, CRI, is not reported as part of CSI, and that resource is used for channel measurement and for CSI feedback.

39. The method of claims 38 wherein the value of the CRI indicating a certain subset of channel measurement resources is the same as the Aggregation ID of that subset of channel measurement resources.

40. The method of any of claims 38-39 wherein the CRI indicating a certain subset of channel measurement resources is based on a certain order of the subset of channel measurement resources associated with a report setting.

41. The method of any of claims 27-40 wherein the order of the subsets of channel measurement resources associated with a report setting is based on the Aggregation IDs of the subset of channel measurement resources associated with that report setting.

42. The method of any of claims 27-41 wherein each of the subset of channel measurement resources represents a Transmission/Reception Point, TRP.

43. The method of any of claims 27-42 wherein all the subsets of channel measurement resources are used as different samples to compute a predicted PMI or a predicted/Doppler compressed PMI.

44. The method of any of claims 27-43 wherein a subset of channel measurement resources is indicated by two or more CSI-RS IDs.

45. The method of any of claims 27-44 wherein only the number N of subsets of channel measurement resources is indicated per channel measurement resource set level.

46. The method of any of claims 27-45 wherein the first N_x channel measurement resources in the channel measurement resource set will generate the first of the N indicated subsets of channel measurement resources, and the next N_x channel measurement resources will generate the next aggregated resources and so on.

47. The method of any of claims 27-46 wherein the aggregation index can be implicitly signaled or determined via the channel measurement resource set ID.

48. The method of any of claims 27-47 wherein the n-th channel measurement resource from each channel measurement resource set is aggregated and becomes the n-th subset of channel measurement resources, where n = 0, 1, ... N-l, and N is the number of subsets of channel measurement resources in each channel measurement resource set.

49. The method of any of claims 27-48 wherein, in the case with implicit signaling of aggregation index, an identifier is introduced to indicate that resource aggregation is enabled.

50. The method of any of claims 27-49 wherein the identifier is included in a Channel State Information Reference Signal, CSI-RS, -ResourceSet Information Element, IE.

51. The method of any of claims 27-50 wherein an aggregation index for a channel measurement resource in a channel measurement resource set is implicitly determined by the parameters N and N₂ configured in a corresponding codebook configuration, where N₁ and N₂ indicate the number of channel measurement antenna ports in a first and a second dimensions, respectively, for each aggregated channel measurement resource.

52. The method of any of claims 27-51, wherein a single interference measurement resource is used for interference measurement when computing the one or more Channel State Information, CSI, based on one or more selected aggregated the one or more subset of channel measurement resources.

53. A User Equipment, UE, (1200) comprising processing circuitry (1202) and memory (1210), the memory (1210) comprising instructions to cause the UE (1200) to: be configured with a plurality of channel measurement resources for channel measurement in one or more channel measurement resource sets; receive an indication grouping the plurality of channel measurement resources into one or more subset of channel measurement resources; aggregate antenna ports in the measurement resources within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources with a total number of antenna ports within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources is larger than 32 ports; perform channel measurements over the total number of antenna ports within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources; compute one or more Channel State Information, CSI, based on the one or more subset of channel measurement resources; and report the one or more computed CSIs to a network node.

54. The UE (1200) of claim 53 further operable to implement the features of any of claims 2- 26.

55. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method according to any one of claims 1 to 26.

56. A network node (1300) comprising processing circuitry (1302) and memory (1304), the memory (1304) comprising instructions to cause the network node (1300) to: configure a User Equipment, UE, with a plurality of channel measurement resources for channel measurement in one or more channel measurement resource sets; transmit, to the UE, an indication grouping the plurality of channel measurement resources into one or more subset of channel measurement resources; and receive one or more computed Channel State Information, CSIs, from the UE; wherein the received CSIs are computed based on: aggregating the antenna ports in the measurement resources of within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources with a superset total number of antenna ports within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources is larger than 32 ports; and performing channel measurements over the total number of antenna ports within each of the one or more subset of channel measurement resources.

57. The network node (1300) of claim 56 further operable to implement the features of any of claims 28-52.

58. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method according to any one of claims 27 to 52.