WO2025200031A1

WO2025200031A1 - Buffer status report or delay status report triggering

Info

Publication number: WO2025200031A1
Application number: PCT/CN2024/085075
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sunyoung Lee; Chunli Wu; Benoist Pierre Sebire
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Current assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Priority date: 2024-03-29
Filing date: 2024-03-29
Publication date: 2025-10-02
Anticipated expiration: 2026-09-29

Abstract

Example embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to buffer status report (BSR) or Delay Status Report (DSR) triggering. A method comprises: determining that at least one priority level of one or more logical channels, LCHs is changed; and triggering, at least based on the determination, a transmission of a BSR or a DSR to a second apparatus.

Description

BUFFER STATUS REPORT OR DELAY STATUS REPORT TRIGGERING

FIELD

Various example embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication and in particular, to methods, devices, apparatuses and computer readable storage medium for buffer status report (BSR) or Delay Status Report (DSR) triggering.

BACKGROUND

Uplink (UL) scheduling enhancement related delay information has been studied. In this aspect, a BSR may be triggered if one or more corresponding conditions are met. In addition, DSR has been defined for XR work item with which the user equipment (UE) can report per logical channel group (LCG) the shortest remaining time of the buffered data and the amount of data with remaining time below a configured threshold.

SUMMARY

In a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus at least to: determine that at least one priority level of one or more logical channels, LCHs is changed; and trigger, at least based on the determination, a transmission of a buffer status report, BSR, or a delay status report, DSR, to a second apparatus.

In a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises: determining that at least one priority level of one or more logical channels, LCHs is changed; and triggering, at least based on the determination, a transmission of a buffer status report, BSR, or a delay status report, DSR, to a second apparatus.

In a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises means for determining that at least one priority level of one or more logical channels, LCHs is changed; and means for triggering, at least based on the determination, a transmission of a buffer status report, BSR, or a delay status report, DSR, to a second apparatus.

In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium comprises instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to the second aspect.

It is to be understood that the Summary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, where:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

FIG. 2 illustrates a signaling chart for a communication in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the disclosure. Embodiments described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

References in the present disclosure to “one embodiment, ” “an embodiment, ” “an example embodiment, ” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

It shall be understood that although the terms “first, ” “second, ” …, etc. in front of noun (s) and the like may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another and they do not limit the order of the noun (s) . For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.

As used herein, “at least one of the following: <a list of two or more elements>” and “at least one of <a list of two or more elements>” and similar wording, where the list of two or more elements are joined by “and” or “or” , mean at least any one of the elements, or at least any two or more of the elements, or at least all the elements.

As used herein, unless stated explicitly, performing a step “in response to A” does not indicate that the step is performed immediately after “A” occurs and one or more intervening steps may be included.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a” , “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” , “comprising” , “has” , “having” , “includes” and/or “including” , when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and/or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and/or combinations thereof.

As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following:

(a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and/or digital circuitry) and

(b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable) :

(i) a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuit (s) with software/firmware and

(ii) any portions of hardware processor (s) with software (including digital signal processor (s) ) , software, and memory (ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and

(c) hardware circuit (s) and or processor (s) , such as a microprocessor (s) or a portion of a microprocessor (s) , that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as New Radio (NR) , Long Term Evolution (LTE) , LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) , Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) , 5.5G, the sixth generation (6G) communication protocols, and/or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.

As used herein, the term “network device” refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP) , for example, a node B (NodeB or NB) , an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , an NR NB (also referred to as a gNB) , a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) , a radio header (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a relay, an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) or non-ground network device such as a satellite network device, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite and a geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellite, an aircraft network device, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology. In some example embodiments, radio access network (RAN) split architecture comprises a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) at an IAB donor node. An IAB node comprises a Mobile Terminal (IAB-MT) part that behaves like a UE toward the parent node, and a DU part of an IAB node behaves like a base station toward the next-hop IAB node.

The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. By way of example rather than limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE) , a Subscriber Station (SS) , a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS) , or an Access Terminal (AT) . The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, a tablet, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) , portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, vehicle-mounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE) , laptop-mounted equipment (LME) , USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE) , an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD) , a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery) , an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and/or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and/or an automated processing chain contexts) , a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and/or industrial wireless networks, and the like. The terminal device may also correspond to a Mobile Termination (MT) part of an IAB node (e.g., a relay node) . In the following description, the terms “terminal device” , “communication device” , “terminal” , “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

As used herein, the term “resource, ” “transmission resource, ” “resource block, ” “physical resource block” (PRB) , “uplink resource, ” or “downlink resource” may refer to any resource for performing a communication, for example, a communication between a terminal device and a network device, such as a resource in time domain, a resource in frequency domain, a resource in space domain, a resource in code domain, or any other combination of the time, frequency, space and/or code domain resource enabling a communication, and the like. In the following, unless explicitly stated, a resource in both frequency domain and time domain will be used as an example of a transmission resource for describing some example embodiments of the present disclosure. It is noted that example embodiments of the present disclosure are equally applicable to other resources in other domains.

Example embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication environment 100 in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication network 100 may comprise a first apparatus 110 which may be, for example, a terminal device or be comprised in a terminal device. In some example embodiments, the terminal device may also be discussed as a UE.

The communication network 100 may further comprise a second apparatus 120, which may be, for example, a network device or be comprised in a network device. In some example embodiments, the network device may be discussed as a BS, a gNB, or an eNB.

A serving area provided by the second apparatus 120 is called a cell. The first apparatus 110 may communicate with the second apparatus 120 within the cell 102. The cell currently serving the first apparatus may be considered as a serving cell 102.

In the following, for the purpose of illustration, some example embodiments are described with the first apparatus 110 operating as a terminal device and the second apparatus 120 operating as a network device. However, in some example embodiments, operations described in connection with a terminal device may be implemented at a network device or other device, and operations described in connection with a network device may be implemented at a terminal device or other device.

In some example embodiments, if the first apparatus 110 is a terminal device and the second apparatus 120 is a network device, a link from the second apparatus 120 to the first apparatus 110 is referred to as a downlink (DL) , while a link from the first apparatus 110 to the second apparatus 120 is referred to as an uplink (UL) . In DL, the second apparatus 120 is a transmitting (TX) apparatus (or a transmitter) and the first apparatus 110 is a receiving (RX) apparatus (or a receiver) . In UL, the first apparatus 110 is a TX apparatus (or a transmitter) and the second apparatus 120 is an RX apparatus (or a receiver) .

It is to be understood that the number of network devices and terminal devices shown in FIG. 1 is given for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations. The communication environment 100 may include any suitable number of network devices and terminal devices.

Communications in the communication environment 100 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol (s) , comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , the fifth generation (5G) , the sixth generation (6G) , and the like, wireless local network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and/or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) , Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) , Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) , Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) , Time Division Duplex (TDD) , Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) , Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM) , Discrete Fourier Transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) and/or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.

UL scheduling enhancement related delay information has been listed as one of the objectives for XR work item (WI) . In this study, enhancements for scheduling is specified. For example, for the UL, study and if justified, specify enhancements using delay/deadline information, for support of UL scheduling to enable high XR capacity while meeting delay requirements/avoiding too late PDUs.

DSR has been defined for XR WI with which the UE can report per LCG the shortest remaining time of the buffered data and the amount of data with remaining time below a configured threshold.

There had been some discussions during XR study item phase to enhance the logical channel prioritization (LCP) procedure with delay information taken into account. But nothing was included in the WI phase considering the LCP complexity.

For example, BSR trigger condition is specified as below:

Table 1

When a new UL data becomes available for a logical channel, BSR is triggered considering the priority and the presence of existing UL data. If the UL data is already available for the logical channel, BSR is triggered only based on a timer and/or padding condition.

If a priority of the logical channel, for which UL data is already available, is adjusted, e.g., to a higher priority to allow delay-aware LCP procedure, the current BSR trigger condition is not met.

Therefore, the UE may need to wait for another BSR trigger based on a timer/padding or the arrival of new data of higher priority, which causes undesirable delay in transmission of UL data, which in turn might even lead to data discard when discardTimer expires at Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) .

Considering the reason for adjusting the priority of the logical channel, which is to transmit the UL data before the discardTimer expires in PDCP, it would be important to request and obtain the UL resources quickly.

Therefore, how to trigger the BSR based on a change of a priority for a Logical Channel (LCH) may need to be further discussed.

In accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a solution for BSR triggering condition. In this solution, if the first apparatus 110 determines that at least one priority level of one or more logical channels, LCHs is changed, the first apparatus 110 may trigger a transmission of a BSR or a DSR to a second apparatus.

The reference now is made to FIG. 2, which illustrates a signaling flow 200 of communication in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purposes of discussion, the signaling flow 200 will be discussed with reference to FIG. 1, for example, by using the first apparatus 110 and the second apparatus 120 that manages a cell currently serving the first apparatus 110.

As shown in FIG. 2, the first apparatus 110 may determine (210) that at least one priority level of one or more LCHs is changed.

In some embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may determine the change of the at least one priority level of one or more LCHs based on an indication received from the second apparatus 120 to change of the at least one priority level of the one or more LCHs.

In some other embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may determine the change of the at least one priority level of one or more LCHs based on an adjustment of the at least one priority level of the one or more LCHs performed by the first apparatus.

In some other embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may determine the change of the at least one priority level of one or more LCHs based on a situation that data of the one or more LCHs has a remaining time satisfies a remaining time threshold.

Based on the determination of the change, the first apparatus 110 may trigger (230) a transmission of a buffer status report, BSR, or a delay status report, DSR, to a second apparatus.

In some embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may indicate, to the second apparatus 120, a change of the at least one priority level of one or more LCHs via the BSR or DSR.

In some embodiments, if the first apparatus 110 determines that a current priority level of an LCH becomes higher than a previous priority level, the first apparatus 110 may trigger the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus 120.

As an example, a change of priority of a LCH may refer to a priority level of the LCH that becomes higher. In this case, the UE may trigger the BSR when the priority of the LCH is adjusted, i.e., priority value becomes lower than a previous priority value. It is to be understood that a higher priority value indicates a lower priority level hereinafter.

As an option, the first apparatus 110 may receive a configuration, e.g., an indication associated with a priority level change and may therefore trigger the BSR or DSR based on the determination of the change and the configuration received from the second apparatus 120.

As shown in FIG. 2, the first apparatus 110 may receive (220) , from the second apparatus 120, an indication associated with a priority level change. In some embodiments, the indication may comprise a priority level threshold that is used for triggering the BSR or the DSR for an LCH having uplink data. In some other embodiments, the indication may also comprise a remaining time threshold that is used for triggering the BSR for an LCH having uplink data.

In some embodiments, the indication may be received from the second apparatus 120 via a radio resource control, RRC, configuration or reconfiguration message. It is to be understood that the indication may also be received via any other suitable signaling, such as Medium Access Control-Control Element (MAC-CE) and the priority level threshold or the remaining time threshold is signaled per LCH or per LCG.

For example, the priority level threshold may be considered as a specific priority level, a specific/absolute value or a change offset. For the BSR trigger, a priority level threshold is indicated to the first apparatus 110 for triggering a BSR for a LCH having UL data.

In some embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may obtain, from the indication, the priority level threshold corresponding to an LCH. If the first apparatus 110 determines that a current priority level of the LCH satisfies the priority level threshold, the first apparatus 110 may trigger the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus 120.

That is, the first apparatus 110 may trigger the BSR when the priority of the LCH is adjusted, i.e., priority value becomes lower than a threshold.

In some embodiments, the priority level threshold comprises a specific priority value corresponding to an LCH. If the first apparatus 110 determines that a current priority level of the LCH corresponds to the specific priority value, the first apparatus 110 may trigger the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus 120.

In some embodiments, the priority level threshold comprises a priority level change threshold. If the first apparatus 110 determines that a priority level change of the LCH satisfies the priority level change threshold, the first apparatus 110 may trigger the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus 120. For example, the first apparatus 110 may trigger the BSR when the priority value of the LCH is decreased by delta, i.e., the priority level change threshold.

Furthermore, the indication may further indicate a remaining time threshold that is used for triggering a BSR for a LCH having an UL data.

Additionally, in a LCH configuration, the second priority information may be provided in addition to the first priority information. For example, the second priority information includes, e.g., a priority value of a LCH, which is different from a priority value for a LCH indicated in the first priority information, and a condition when the second priority information is used.

That is, a priority value corresponding to the priority level threshold to be used for triggering the BSR or the DSR for an LCH is different from a further priority value configured for the LCH.

It is to be understood that the LCH comprises an LCH for which the uplink data is already available.

In some embodiments, the BSR as mentioned above may belong to a regular BSR.

In this case, after a triggering of the BSR, the first apparatus 110 may cause a start or restart of a timer for delaying scheduling request for a LCH, e.g., logicalChannelSR-DelayTimerApplied to be skipped.

That is, even if logicalChannelSR-DelayTimerApplied is set to true for the LCH, the UE does not start or restart the logicalChannelSR-DelayTimer. If logicalChannelSR-DelayTimerApplied is set to true for the LCH, the first apparatus 110 stops the logicalChannelSR-DelayTimer, if running. That is, even if the logicalChannelSR-DelayTimer is running for the LCH, the UE triggers the SR by the triggered BSR without waiting for expiry of the logicalChannelSR-DelayTimer.

In some embodiments, the first apparatus 110 may start or restart a periodic BSR timer and/or a retransmission BSR timer when the triggered BSR comprising buffer status of the LCH or a LCG to which the LCH belongs.

If BSR MAC CE is generated including buffer status of the LCH or a LCH to which the concerned LCH belongs, the first apparatus 110 may start/restart periodicBSR-Timer and/or retxBSR-Timer based on a value configured by the network: the UE may be configured with two different values for a BSR timer, wherein one value is used when a legacy priority is to used or the smallest remaining time is equal to or above the configured threshold, while the other value is used when a new priority is used or the smallest remaining time is below the configured threshold.

On the basis of the solution of the present disclosure, an example of the specification implementation is listed as below:

Table 2

According to the solution of the present disclosure, even when there is already UL data available for a LCH, BSR can be sent with reduced latency based on the adjusted priority or remaining time of the LCH, i.e., without waiting for BSR timer expiry. Furthermore, NW can control how fast the BSR can be triggered based the configured delay/priority threshold.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of an example method 300 implemented at a first apparatus in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 300 will be described from the perspective of the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1.

At block 310, the first apparatus 110 determines that at least one priority level of one or more logical channels, LCHs is changed.

At block 320, the first apparatus 110 triggers, at least based on the determination, a transmission of a buffer status report, BSR, or a delay status report, DSR, to a second apparatus.

In some example embodiments, the method 300 further comprises: indicating, to the second apparatus, a change of the at least one priority level of one or more LCHs via the BSR or DSR.

In some example embodiments, the method 300 further comprises: in accordance with a determination that a current priority level of an LCH becomes higher than a previous priority level, triggering the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus.

In some example embodiments, the method 300 further comprises: receiving, from the second apparatus, an indication associated with a priority level change, wherein the indication comprises at least one of the following: a priority level threshold that is used for triggering the BSR or the DSR for an LCH having uplink data, or a remaining time threshold that is used for triggering the BSR for an LCH having uplink data.

In some example embodiments, the indication is received from the second apparatus via a radio resource control, RRC, configuration or reconfiguration message.

In some example embodiments, the priority level threshold or the remaining time threshold is signaled per LCH or per logical channel group, LCG.

In some example embodiments, a priority value corresponding to the priority level threshold to be used for triggering the BSR or the DSR for an LCH is different from a further priority value configured for the LCH.

In some example embodiments, the method 300 further comprises: obtaining, from the indication, the priority level threshold corresponding to an LCH; and in accordance with a determination that a current priority level of the LCH satisfies the priority level threshold, triggering the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus.

In some example embodiments, the method 300 further comprises: in accordance with a determination that a current priority level of the LCH corresponds to the specific priority value, triggering the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus.

In some example embodiments, the method 300 further comprises: in accordance with a determination that a priority level change of the LCH satisfies the priority level change threshold, triggering the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus.

In some example embodiments, the LCH comprises an LCH for which the uplink data is already available.

In some example embodiments, the method 300 further comprises: determining the change of the at least one priority level of one or more LCHs based on at least one of the following: an indication received from the second apparatus to change of the at least one priority level of the one or more LCHs, an adjustment of the at least one priority level of the one or more LCHs performed by the first apparatus, or a situation that data of the one or more LCHs has a remaining time satisfies a remaining time threshold.

In some example embodiments, the BSR belongs to a regular BSR.

In some example embodiments, the method 300 further comprises: after a triggering of the BSR, cause a start or restart of a timer of logical channel scheduling request delay to be skipped; or stopping the timer of logical channel scheduling request delay that is running.

In some example embodiments, the method 300 further comprises: starting or restart a periodic BSR timer and/or a retransmission BSR timer when the triggered BSR comprising buffer status of the LCH or a LCG to which the LCH belongs.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises a terminal device, and the second apparatus comprises a network device.

In some example embodiments, a first apparatus capable of performing any of the method 300 (for example, the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1) may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 300. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The first apparatus may be implemented as or included in the first apparatus 110 in FIG. 1.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for determining that at least one priority level of one or more logical channels, LCHs is changed; and means for triggering, at least based on the determination, a transmission of a buffer status report, BSR, or a delay status report, DSR, to a second apparatus.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for indicating, to the second apparatus, a change of the at least one priority level of one or more LCHs via the BSR or DSR.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: in accordance with a determination that a current priority level of an LCH becomes higher than a previous priority level, means for triggering the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for receiving, from the second apparatus, an indication associated with a priority level change, wherein the indication comprises at least one of the following: means for a priority level threshold that is used for triggering the BSR or the DSR for an LCH having uplink data, or means for a remaining time threshold that is used for triggering the BSR for an LCH having uplink data.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for obtaining, from the indication, the priority level threshold corresponding to an LCH; and in accordance with a determination that a current priority level of the LCH satisfies the priority level threshold, means for triggering the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: in accordance with a determination that a current priority level of the LCH corresponds to the specific priority value, means for triggering the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: in accordance with a determination that a priority level change of the LCH satisfies the priority level change threshold, means for triggering the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for determining the change of the at least one priority level of one or more LCHs based on at least one of the following: means for an indication received from the second apparatus to change of the at least one priority level of the one or more LCHs, means for an adjustment of the at least one priority level of the one or more LCHs performed by the first apparatus, or means for a situation that data of the one or more LCHs has a remaining time satisfies a remaining time threshold.

In some example embodiments, the BSR belongs to a regular BSR.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for after a triggering of the BSR, cause a start or restart of a timer of logical channel scheduling request delay to be skipped; or means for stopping the timer of logical channel scheduling request delay that is running.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus further comprises: means for starting or restart a periodic BSR timer and/or a retransmission BSR timer when the triggered BSR comprising buffer status of the LCH or a LCG to which the LCH belongs.

FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of a device 400 that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 400 may be provided to implement a communication device, for example, the first apparatus 110 or the network device 120 as shown in FIG. 1. As shown, the device 400 includes one or more processors 410, one or more memories 420 coupled to the processor 410, and one or more communication modules 440 coupled to the processor 410.

The communication module 440 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 440 has one or more communication interfaces to facilitate communication with one or more other modules or devices. The communication interfaces may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements. In some example embodiments, the communication module 440 may include at least one antenna.

The processor 410 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may include one or more of the following: general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 400 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

The memory 420 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of the non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 424, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM) , a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD) , a digital video disk (DVD) , an optical disk, a laser disk, and other magnetic storage and/or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random-access memory (RAM) 422 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

A computer program 430 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 410. The instructions of the program 430 may include instructions for performing operations/acts of some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The program 430 may be stored in the memory, e.g., the ROM 424. The processor 410 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 430 into the RAM 422.

The example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 430 so that the device 400 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to FIGS. 2-3. The example embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

In some example embodiments, the program 430 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 400 (such as in the memory 420) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 400. The device 400 may load the program 430 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 422 for execution. In some example embodiments, the computer readable medium may include any types of non-transitory storage medium, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like. The term “non-transitory, ” as used herein, is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e., tangible, not a signal) as opposed to a limitation on data storage persistency (e.g., RAM vs. ROM) .

FIG. 5 shows an example of the computer readable medium 500 which may be in form of CD, DVD or other optical storage disk. The computer readable medium 500 has the program 430 stored thereon.

Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, and other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. Although various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representations, it is to be understood that the block, apparatus, system, technique or method described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

Some example embodiments of the present disclosure also provide at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a computer readable medium, such as a non-transitory computer readable medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target physical or virtual processor, to carry out any of the methods as described above. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. The program code may be provided to a processor or controller of a general-purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program code, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions/operations specified in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program code or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable the device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of the carrier include a signal, computer readable medium, and the like.

The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random-access memory (RAM) , a read-only memory (ROM) , an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) , an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) , an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Further, although operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, although several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Unless explicitly stated, certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, unless explicitly stated, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in a plurality of embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

Although the present disclosure has been described in languages specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

A first apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first apparatus at least to:

determine that at least one priority level of one or more logical channels, LCHs is changed; and

trigger, at least based on the determination, a transmission of a buffer status report, BSR, or a delay status report, DSR, to a second apparatus.
The first apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:

indicate, to the second apparatus, a change of the at least one priority level of one or more LCHs via the BSR or DSR.
The first apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:

in accordance with a determination that a current priority level of an LCH becomes higher than a previous priority level, trigger the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus.
The first apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:

receive, from the second apparatus, an indication associated with a priority level change, wherein the indication comprises at least one of the following:

a priority level threshold that is used for triggering the BSR or the DSR for an LCH having uplink data, or

a remaining time threshold that is used for triggering the BSR for an LCH having uplink data.
The first apparatus of claim 4, wherein the indication is received from the second apparatus via a radio resource control, RRC, configuration or reconfiguration message.
The first apparatus of claim 4 or 5, wherein the priority level threshold or the remaining time threshold is signaled per LCH or per logical channel group, LCG.
The first apparatus of claim 4 or 5, wherein a priority value corresponding to the priority level threshold to be used for for triggering the BSR or the DSR for an LCH is different from a further priority value configured for the LCH.
The first apparatus of any of claims 4-7, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:

obtain, from the indication, the priority level threshold corresponding to an LCH; and

in accordance with a determination that a current priority level of the LCH satisfies the priority level threshold, trigger the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus.
The first apparatus of any of claims 4-7, wherein the priority level threshold comprises a specific priority value corresponding to an LCH, and wherein the first apparatus is caused to:

in accordance with a determination that a current priority level of the LCH corresponds to the specific priority value, trigger the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus.
The first apparatus of claim 1, wherein the priority level threshold comprises a priority level change threshold, and wherein the first apparatus is caused to:

in accordance with a determination that a priority level change of the LCH satisfies the priority level change threshold, trigger the transmission of the BSR or the DSR to the second apparatus.
The first apparatus of any of claims 1-10, wherein the LCH comprises an LCH for which the uplink data is already available.
The first apparatus of any of claims 2-11, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:

determine the change of the at least one priority level of one or more LCHs based on at least one of the following:

an indication received from the second apparatus to change of the at least one priority level of the one or more LCHs,

an adjustment of the at least one priority level of the one or more LCHs performed by the first apparatus, or

a situation that data of the one or more LCHs has a remaining time satisfies a remaining time threshold.
The first apparatus of any of claims 1-12, wherein the BSR belongs to a regular BSR.
The first apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:

after a triggering of the BSR, cause a start or restart of a timer of logical channel scheduling request delay to be skipped; or

stop the timer of logical channel scheduling request delay that is running.
The first apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first apparatus is caused to:

start or restart a periodic BSR timer and/or a retransmission BSR timer when the triggered BSR comprising buffer status of the LCH or a LCG to which the LCH belongs.
The first apparatus of any of claims 1-15, wherein the first apparatus comprises a terminal device, and the second apparatus comprises a network device.
A method comprising:

determining, at a first apparatus, that at least one priority level of one or more logical channels, LCHs is changed.

triggering, at least based on the determination, a transmission of a buffer status report, BSR, or a delay status report, DSR, to a second apparatus.
A first apparatus comprising:

means for determining that at least one priority level of one or more logical channels, LCHs is changed; and

means for triggering, at least based on the determination, a transmission of a buffer status report, BSR, or a delay status report, DSR, to a second apparatus.
A computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus at least to perform the method of claim 17.