阅读说明：本技术 多波束系统中的小区排名 (Cell ranking in a multi-beam system ) 是由 T·科斯克拉 J·凯科南 J·斯坦科扎克 S·图尔蒂南 J·科斯克拉 于 2018-06-20 设计创作，主要内容包括：根据示例实施例,公开了一种方法,包括：由无线网络中的用户设备从服务小区和每个相邻小区接收波束信息；根据该信息来评估服务小区和每个相邻小区的波束质量；确定服务小区和相邻小区的子集,该子集包括该服务小区和具有服务小区的第一偏移内的波束质量的每个相邻小区以及具有最高质量波束的每个相邻小区；从最高质量到最低质量以降序对子集中的每个小区排名。(According to an example embodiment, methods are disclosed that include receiving, by a user equipment in a wireless network, beam information from a serving cell and each neighboring cell, evaluating beam quality of the serving cell and each neighboring cell from the information, determining a subset of the serving cell and neighboring cells, the subset including the serving cell and each neighboring cell having a beam quality within th offset of the serving cell and each neighboring cell having a highest quality beam, and ranking each cell in the subset in descending order from highest quality to lowest quality.)

1, a method comprising:

receiving, by a user equipment in a wireless network, beam information from a serving cell and each neighboring cell;

evaluating beam quality of the serving cell and each neighboring cell according to the information;

determining a subset of the serving cell and neighbor cells, the subset including the serving cell and each neighbor cell having a beam quality within an th offset of the serving cell and each neighbor cell having a highest quality beam;

ranking each cell in the subset in descending order from highest quality to lowest quality;

calculating the reception level of the strongest cell minus a second offset times over the duration of trigger times and calculating the reception level of the strongest cell minus the second offset a second time over the duration of a second trigger time;

comparing the reception level of the beam from each ranked cell to the th and second calculations;

advancing by beam the order of each ranked cell with reception levels:

the th level was higher than the th calculation,

a second level higher than said second calculation, an

Higher score rating than equally ranked cells;

the cell with the highest order is selected.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the th offset is defined as a relative threshold compared to the highest quality beams of the serving cell and the neighboring cell.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein

The second offset is defined as a relative threshold compared to the highest quality beams of the serving cell and neighboring cells, and is used for determining high quality beams contributing to an overall ranking of individual cells,

the second offset is not defined and the th offset is used in place of the second offset, or

The second offset is equal to the th offset.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the th trigger time is defined as a minimum duration for which a beam reception level must be above the relative threshold defined by th offset and/or a second offset.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second trigger time is defined as a minimum duration for which a beam reception level (higher layer filtered/not higher layer filtered) must be above the relative threshold defined by offset 1 (or offset 2, if defined) such that it contributes a different value (e.g., higher) to a cell rank than by the th trigger time.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the th trigger time is set to 0.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the reception level of a beam is greater than a reception level of the highest quality beam minus a second offset for a duration of trigger times, or the reception level of a beam is greater than the reception level of the cell minus the second offset during a trigger time, indicating that the beam is a high quality beam.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the order is represented by an integer.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein

The second level is greater than the th level, and

the score rating is less than the th rating and less than the second rating.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection is for a conditional handover.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting is for reselecting a cell for camping.

Computer program of 12, , having code comprising instructions to control or perform a method according to any of the preceding claims.

computer program product, embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium, in which a computer program is stored, which computer program, when executed by a computer, is configured to provide instructions to control or carry out a method according to any of claims 1 to 10.

An apparatus of the type , comprising:

means for receiving, by a user equipment in a wireless network, beam information from a serving cell and each neighboring cell;

means for evaluating beam quality of the serving cell and each neighboring cell based on the information;

means for determining a subset of the serving cell and neighboring cells, the subset including the serving cell and each neighboring cell having a beam quality within an th offset of the serving cell and each neighboring cell having a highest quality beam;

means for ranking each cell in the subset in descending order from highest quality to lowest quality;

means for calculating the receive level of the strongest cell minus a second offset times over the duration of trigger time and calculating the receive level of the strongest cell minus the second offset a second time over the duration of a second trigger time;

means for comparing the reception level of the beam from each ranked cell with the th and second calculations;

means for beam advancing each ranked cell having an reception level in order, the reception level:

the th level was higher than the th calculation,

a second level higher than said second calculation, an

Higher score rating than equally ranked cells;

means for selecting the cell with the highest rank.

15, an apparatus comprising:

at least processors and at least memories, the at least memories comprising computer program code, wherein the at least memories and the computer code are configured to, with the at least processors , cause the apparatus at least to:

receiving beam information from a serving cell and each neighboring cell;

evaluating beam quality of the serving cell and each neighboring cell according to the information;

determining a subset of the serving cell and neighbor cells, the subset including the serving cell and each neighbor cell having a beam quality within an th offset of the serving cell and each neighbor cell having a highest quality beam;

ranking each cell in the subset in descending order from highest quality to lowest quality;

calculating the reception level of the strongest cell minus a second offset times over the duration of trigger times and calculating the reception level of the strongest cell minus the second offset a second time over the duration of a second trigger time;

comparing the reception level of the beam from each ranked cell to the th and second calculations;

advancing by beam the order of each ranked cell with reception levels:

the th level was higher than the th calculation,

a second level higher than said second calculation, an

Higher score rating than equally ranked cells;

the cell with the highest order is selected.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the th offset is defined as a relative threshold compared to the highest quality beams of the serving cell and the neighboring cell.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein

The second offset is defined as a relative threshold compared to the highest quality beams of the serving cell and neighboring cells, and is used for determining high quality beams contributing to an overall ranking of individual cells,

the second offset is not defined and the th offset is used in place of the second offset, or

The second offset is equal to the th offset.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the th trigger time is defined as a minimum duration for which a beam reception level must be above the relative threshold defined by th offset and/or a second offset.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the second trigger time is defined as a minimum duration for which a beam reception level (higher layer filtered/not higher layer filtered) must be above the relative threshold defined by offset 1 (or offset 2, if defined) such that it contributes a different value (e.g., higher) to a cell rank than by the -th trigger time.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the th trigger time is set to 0.

21. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the reception level of a beam being greater than a reception level of the highest quality beam minus a second offset for a duration of trigger times or the reception level of a beam being greater than the reception level of the cell minus the second offset during a trigger time indicates that the beam is a high quality beam.

22. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the order is represented by an integer.

23. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein

The second level is greater than the th level, and

the score rating is less than the th rating and less than the second rating.

24. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the selection is for a conditional handover.

25. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the selecting is for reselecting a cell for camping.

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to New Radios (NR) and, in particular, to improving performance of intra-frequency cell ranking in a multi-beam system in a UE-based mobility environment.

Background

This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention that is disclosed below, the description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not that have been previously conceived, implemented, or described.

In NR, the UE determines a cell quality level (e.g., rsrp (dbm), rsrq (db)) based on beam measurements, which may be based on measurements on signals contained in SS blocks (IDLE and RRC INACTIVE), i.e., SSs and/or PBCH DMRSs, SS blocks may be transmitted to beams, SS blocks may be superimposed on multiple beams, and/or different SS blocks may be sent on different beams.

Several papers on this subject have been filed with 3GPP RAN2#98 (5 months 2017), but, depending on the record of the chairperson, these papers are not treated (it is expected to be relevant discussions in the next RAN2 conference) — for example, Hua is (in R2-1704896, deviation of cell quality in IDLE/INACTIVE, Hua is, Hai Si, 3GPP TSG-RANWG2 Meeting #98, Hangzhou, 2017, 5 months 15 to 19 days) proposes methods to get cell quality in RRC _ IDLE/RRC _ Inactive mode, where methods are simply averaging multiple beams to get cell-level quality.

Ericsson (in R2-1705436, deviation of cell quality in IDLE/INACTIVE, ericsson, 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #98, hangzhou, china, 5/15/19/2017) also touches the subject, but does not propose any specific procedure, but rather focuses more on the value of N (i.e. the number of beams), and suggests to consider relative thresholds (i.e. offsets) rather than absolute thresholds.

The present invention extends beyond current technology and/or materials.

Acronyms or abbreviations that may be found in the specification and/or the drawings are defined within the context of the present disclosure or as follows:

3GPP third generation partnership project

5G fifth generation

ACK acknowledgement

AR augmented reality

CSI-RS channel state information reference signal

DCI downlink control information

DL downlink

DL-SCH Downlink shared channel

DMRS demodulation reference signals

eNB or eNodeB base station, evolved node B

FFS remains to be studied at

gNB NR/5G node B

HO handover

HARQ hybrid automatic repeat request

LTE Long term evolution

LTE-A Long term evolution-advanced

LVL level

MBB mobile broadband

MME mobility management entity

MSG messages

NACK negative acknowledgement

NCE network control entity

NR new radio

NW network

OFDM orthogonal frequency division multiplexing

PBCH physical broadcast channel

PDCCH physical downlink control channel

PDSCH physical downlink shared channel

PRACH (physical random Access channel)

PRB physical resource block

PSS primary synchronization signal

PUCCH physical uplink control channel

PUSCH physical uplink shared channel

RACH random access channel

RA resource allocation

RAR random access response

RAT radio access technology

RB resource block

Rel version

RE resource elements

RS reference signal

RSRP reference signal received power

RSRQ reference signal received quality

RRC radio resource control

RV redundancy version

RX-reception

SS synchronization signal

SSS auxiliary synchronization signal

TB transport block

TS technical Specification

TRP transmission receiving point

TTI Transmission time Interval

TTT time of trigger

UE user equipment

TX transmission

UCI uplink control information

UE user equipment

The UL uplink.

Disclosure of Invention

Various aspects of examples of the invention are set out in the claims.

According to a th aspect of the present invention, an apparatus comprising at least processors and at least memories, the at least memories comprising computer program code, wherein the at least memories and the computer code are configured to cause the apparatus, in conjunction with the at least processors , to at least receive beam information from the serving cell and each of the neighboring cells, evaluate beam quality of the serving cell and each of the neighboring cells based on the information, determine a subset of the serving cell and the neighboring cells including the serving cell and each of the neighboring cells having beam quality within a 7 th offset of the serving cell and each of the neighboring cells having a highest quality beam, rank each of the cells in a descending order of pair from highest quality to lowest quality, calculate a reception level of the cell minus a second offset from a th time for the duration of a trigger time of , and calculate a reception level of the second cell minus a second offset for the duration of the trigger time, and calculate a ratio of the reception level of the second cell minus the second offset from the second rank of the strongest cell minus the second cell in the second trigger time, calculate a reception level from a ratio of the second rank of the second cell order of the second trigger time to the second trigger time, calculate a reception level of the second trigger time, calculate a ratio of the second trigger level of the second trigger time to the second trigger time, calculate a beam, calculate a reception level of the second trigger time, and calculate a beam, and.

According to a second aspect of the invention, a method includes receiving, by a user equipment in a wireless network, beam information from a serving cell and each neighboring cell, evaluating beam quality of the serving cell and each neighboring cell according to the information, determining a subset of the serving cell and neighboring cells, the subset including the serving cell and each neighboring cell having a beam quality within a offset of the serving cell and each neighboring cell having a highest quality beam, ranking each cell in the subset in descending order from highest quality to lowest quality, computing a reception level of the strongest cell minus a second offset for a duration of a trigger time at , and computing a reception level of the strongest cell minus a second offset for a duration of the second trigger time at a second time, comparing the reception level of the beam from each ranked cell with a th computation and a second computation, advancing the order of each ranked cell having a reception level by a beam, the reception level being earlier than the second score of the second rank, the 395, the computing a score of the second rank having a higher rank than the highest score of the second computation, and selecting the highest score of the highest score having a rank equal ratio of .

According to a third aspect of the present invention computer program products comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium carrying computer program code embodied therein for use with computer , the computer program code comprising code for receiving, by a user equipment in the wireless network, beam information from a serving cell and each neighboring cell, evaluating the beam quality of the serving cell and each neighboring cell in accordance with the information, determining a subset of the serving cell and neighboring cells including the serving cell and each neighboring cell having a beam quality within a th offset of the serving cell and each neighboring cell having a highest quality beam, ranking each cell in descending order from highest quality to lowest quality, computing a reception level of the strongest cell minus a second offset for the duration of a trigger time, computing a reception level of the strongest cell minus the second offset for the duration of the trigger time, and computing a ratio of the reception level of the second strongest cell minus the second offset to the second trigger time, computing a reception level of the second cell minus the second offset for the duration of the second trigger time, computing a ratio of the reception level of the second strongest cell minus the second offset to the second rank of the second cell, computing a reception level of the second trigger time, computing a ratio of the second receive level of the highest receive level over the , computing the second trigger time, and the second trigger time, computing a ratio of the second receive level of the highest receive level of the 6778, and the second trigger time, computing the second rank of the second receive level of the highest receive level of the.

Drawings

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary system in which exemplary embodiments may be practiced; and

fig. 2 is a logic flow diagram illustrating operations of an exemplary method, resulting from execution of computer program instructions embodied on a computer readable memory and/or functions performed by logic implemented in hardware or otherwise, according to a possible embodiment.

Detailed Description

The word "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. All of the embodiments described in this detailed description are exemplary embodiments provided to enable persons skilled in the art to make or use the invention and not to limit the scope of the invention which is defined by the claims.

The exemplary embodiments herein describe how a UE will perform intra-frequency cell ranking in a multi-beam system based on UE mobility. Normally, UE-based mobility is already a feature of idle mode (e.g. in LTE), but the present invention now proposes that the UE will perform it also in inactive mode.

The mechanisms described in this disclosure may also be applied to connected mode operation, e.g., when the UE is configured to perform a "conditional HO" (i.e., a HO with an early HO command and conditions that need to be met to perform an actual HO) and has multiple cells with high quality beams to choose from, it may be a difficult task to immediately correctly select the best cell by measuring and weighting beams.

As specified in TS 36.304, the following cell reselection methods are most likely also applicable NR. when the UE is camped on a cell in the NR (receiving information from the network, such as system information and paging), the UE performs cell reselection based on the corresponding parameters of the seeded :

-intra-frequency reselection cell-based ranking;

-inter-frequency reselection is based on absolute priority;

inter-RAT reselection may also be based on absolute priority;

-a frequency-specific cell reselection parameter common to all neighbouring cells on a frequency;

service specific priorities, note that for NR, for which services service specific priorities apply and how it should be used in case of network slicing is to be further investigated ;

-the concept of a neighbor cell list and a black cell list;

-speed dependent cell reselection.

In multi-beam operation, the measurement volume of a cell is derived from the N best beams (N-best representing the N highest quality beams based on the measurement volume, such as RSRP, or RSRQ, SINR, etc.) corresponding to the same cell, where the value of N can be configured to be 1 or greater than 1 the details regarding the filtering to be applied (e.g., for the case of N ═ 1, the best beam is filtered by a single filter as the best beam changes) and whether only beams above a threshold (so-called "good beams") are considered are left to be investigated .

For the cell ranking procedure in a multi-beam system, the UE performs cell ranking between cells whose RX-LVL (where RX-LVL is determined, e.g., based on RSRP, RSRQ, etc.) is within a relative offset of the configuration compared to the cell with the highest RX-LVL by considering the contribution factor of the number of high quality beams per cell, where the high quality beams are determined based on parameters of the NW configuration (e.g., another offset value).

Turning to fig. 1, this figure illustrates a block diagram of possible and non-limiting example systems in which example embodiments may be practiced, in fig. 1, a User Equipment (UE)110 in wireless communication with a wireless network 100. a UE is wireless, typically a mobile device that may access a wireless network. a UE110 includes 0 or more processors 120, 1 or more memories 125, and or more transceivers 130, or more transceivers 130 interconnected by or more buses 127. each transceiver 130 of the transceivers 130 includes a receiver Rx 132 and a transmitter Tx 133. or more buses 127 may be an address, data, or control bus and may include any interconnection mechanism, such as the series of lines on an integrated circuit, optical fiber or other optical communication device, etc. or more transceivers 130 are connected or more antennas 128 or more memories 123. the memories 123 include computer program 123, 120 or more y modules 140 may be implemented in hardware implemented as a y-y module 140 or multiple y modules 140 implemented in hardware implemented as a y 140 or multiple y modules 140 implemented in hardware modules 140, such as y modules 140, 120-y modules 140 implemented in which may be implemented as y modules 140 or as y modules 140 implemented in hardware-y modules 140 or implemented as y modules 140 or as y modules 140 implemented by 967, 120-y modules 140 implemented in hardware, 120-y 120 or by a host 140.

The gNB (NR/5G NodeB, but possibly evolved NodeB)170 is a base station (e.g., for LTE or long term evolution) in a set of base stations available to the UE110, which provides access to the wireless network 100 by wireless devices such as the UE 100. the gNB170 includes or more processors 152, 0 or more memories 155, 1 or more network interfaces (N/WI/F)161, and or more transceivers 160 interconnected by or more buses 157. each transceiver 160 of the or more transceivers 160 includes a receiver Rx 162 and a transmitter Tx 163. 5 or more transceivers 160 are connected to or more antennas 158. . the storage or memories 155 include computer program code 153. the gNB170 includes a ZZZ module 150, the ZZZ module 150 includes a section 150 including or two or more sections 150-1 and/or 150-2, which may be implemented in a wired or more hardware processing mode such as a wireless network interface 150 or a wireless network 150 — a wireless network interface 150 — a transceiver 150 or a plurality of processors 150, such as a wireless network interface 150, a wireless network 150, a wireless device.

or more buses 157 may be address, data, or control buses, and may include any interconnection mechanism, such as a series of wires on a motherboard or integrated circuit, fiber optics or other optical communication devices, wireless channels, etc. for example, or more transceivers 160 may be implemented as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs) 195, while other elements of gNB170 are physically located at a different location than the RRHs, and or more buses 157 may be implemented in part as fiber optic cables to connect the other elements of gNB170 to RRHs 195.

It should be noted that the description herein indicates that a "cell" performs the function, but it should be clear that the gNB forming the cell will perform the function.

Wireless network 100 may include a Network Control Element (NCE)190, which may include MME (mobility management entity)/SGW (serving gateway) functionality and provide connectivity to additional networks, such as a telephone network and/or a data communications network (e.g., the internet), a gNB170 is coupled to the NCE190 via a link 131. link 131 may be implemented as, for example, an S1 interface the NCE190 includes or more processors 175, or more memories 171, and or more network interfaces (N/WI/F)180 interconnected by or more buses 185 the NCE190 includes computer program code 173. or more memories 171 and computer program code 173 are configured to, with or more processors , cause the NCE190 to perform or more operations 175.

Wireless network 100 may implement network virtualization, which is the process of combining hardware and software network resources and network functions into a single software-based management entity, i.e., a virtual network. Network virtualization involves platform virtualization, often in combination with resource virtualization. Network virtualization is external (combining many networks or parts of networks into virtual units), or internal (providing network-like functionality to software containers on a single system). It should be noted that the virtualized entities resulting from network virtualization are still implemented to some extent using hardware such as the processors 152 or 175 and memories 155 and 171, and that such virtualized entities also produce technical effects.

The computer-readable memories 125, 155, and 171 may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as semiconductor-based memory devices, flash memory, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory.

In general, the various embodiments of the user device 110 can include, but are not limited to, cellular telephones (such as smart phones), tablet computers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) having wireless communication capabilities, portable computers having wireless communication capabilities, image capture devices (such as digital cameras) having wireless communication capabilities, gaming devices having wireless communication capabilities, music storage and playback appliances having wireless communication capabilities, internet appliances permitting wireless internet access and browsing, tablet computers having wireless communication capabilities, and portable units or terminals that incorporate combinations of such functions.

In the context of this document, a "computer-readable medium" may be any medium or means that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the instructions for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device (such as a computer, with being exemplified by the computer described and depicted in FIG. 1).

The current architecture in LTE networks is fully distributed in the radio and fully centralized in the core network.a low latency requirement places content close to the radio, which can lead to local outages and multiple access edge computing (MEC). 5G can use edge clouds and local cloud architecture.edge computing covers -generic technologies such as wireless sensor networks, mobile data collection, mobile signature analysis, cooperative distributed peer-to-peer ad hoc networks and processes can also be divided into local cloud/fog computing and mesh/mesh computing, bare computing, mobile edge computing, cloudlet, distributed data storage and retrieval, autonomous self-healing networks, remote cloud services, and augmented reality.

Implementing example embodiments of the system allows the edge cloud server and the radio nodes to be independent devices that communicate with each other via a radio path or via a wired connection, or they may be located in the same entity that communicates via a wired connection.

Fig. 2 is a logic flow diagram illustrating the operations of or more exemplary methods, which are produced by execution of computer program instructions embodied on a computer readable memory, and/or functions performed by logic implemented in hardware or otherwise, according to a possible embodiment the cell quality (RX-LVL) is based on the RX-LVL of the highest quality beam (RSRP/CSI-RS of the SS block), although the algorithm does not exclude other measurements.

The proposed ranking process comprises the following three steps.

In step 1, the UE determines the highest quality cell (e.g., cell 1) and determines whether any cell quality in a subset from cell 2 to cell N is within offset 1(N dB) of cell 1. if no cell is within offset 1 (i.e., a relative threshold), the highest quality cell is ranked and is ranked in descending order based on quality from cell 2 to cell N. if any of the cells is within offset 1 of the highest quality cell, it is considered a second step.

In step 2, the UE determines the number of high quality beams based on beam measurements filtered by higher layers (e.g., L2/L3, i.e., moving average filter) for all cells within offset 1 in step 1. Higher layer beam filtering, such as moving average, is used to filter the L1 measurements (L1 measurements (e.g., RSRP) may include N-L1 samples). In moving average filtering, the previously filtered measurement is weighted with a weight of 1, and the most recently received measurement is weighted with a weight of 2. As an example, the weights may be selected such that weight 1 equals alpha and weight 2 equals 1-alpha. The filter parameters used to calculate alpha may be configurable by the network.

The UE determines whether the beam is classified as high quality using TTT _1 and offset 2. offset 2 compares with the highest quality beam of the highest quality cell determined in step 1. offset 2 may also be the same as offset 1 in step 1. within the duration of TTT _1 (at least meaning equal time or longer), if beam RX-LVL > cell 1 RX-LVL-offset 2, it contributes e.g. +1 to the whole cell rank (TTT _1 may also be set to "0"), so that e.g. based on measurements (or the latest measurements or measurements), the beam contributes a certain value to the cell rank, such as + 1.) the TTT _1 parameter may also be omitted from this step, which causes the cell rank to be based on the latest measurements, similar to TTT _1 being set to "0". the measurements may be L1 measurements (i.e. applying only L1) or the latest filtered measurements within the cell rank, otherwise, the beam rank may be increased for the whole cell rank of which is likely to be based on the number of high quality beams in the TTT _2, thus no single contribution to the whole cell rank of the high quality cell rank is defined, i.e. based on the high quality beam RX-lvt 2, which the beam rank of the beam is not added to be added to the value of the cell rank of the TTT _2, i.g. the high quality of the cell rank, which is defined in a single value of TTT _2, which is based on the high quality of the high quality cell rank.

The th offset may be defined as a relative threshold compared to the highest quality beams of the serving cell and neighboring cells, and may be used to determine which cells are considered to be ranked based on the high quality beams the offset is expressed in decibels the value may be signaled explicitly by the network, e.g., -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4dB, or as a factor (integer-1, 0, 1, 2, 3 … multiplied by a particular number, such as 0.5 dB).

The second offset may be defined as a relative threshold compared to the highest quality beams of the serving cell and the neighboring cells and used for determining the high quality beams contributing to the overall ranking of the individual cells.

The th trigger time is defined as the minimum duration that the beam reception level (higher layer filtered/not higher layer filtered) must be above the relative threshold defined by offset 1 (or offset 2 if defined) so that it contributes to the cell ranking.

The second trigger time is defined as the minimum duration that the beam reception level (higher layer filtered/not higher layer filtered) must be above the relative threshold defined by offset 1 (or offset 2 if defined) so that it contributes a different value (e.g., higher) to the cell ranking than the trigger time by .

In a further example, a particular hysteresis value (H1) may be defined such that the beam RX-LVL equation may be written as RX-LVL > cell 1 RX-LVL-offset 1+ H1. H1 may be a positive or negative number (expressed in dB, and may also be zero) and is configured by the network.

In variants, the contribution of beams to the cell rank may also be scaled in such a way that TTT _1 is considered as a default value, and if the condition of beam RX-LVL > cell 1 RX-LVL-offset 2 is met for the duration of K TTT _1, and K is an integer, then each TTT _1 duration adds +1 to the cell rank, so that K +1 will be added to the cell rank.

In step 3, the cells are ranked according to the points assigned in step 2 in descending order, i.e., the cell with the highest number of points is ranked highest. If two cells are ranked to have the same value, then, according to the point, the highest quality beam RX-LVL determines the ranking between equally ranked cells.

The selection may be for a conditional handover or for reselecting a cell for camping, where the UE may send indications to the base station of the cell from which the UE received the transmission in response.

The above parameters, such as contributions to cell ranking (+1, +1.5, +2), etc., may be predefined in a specification (e.g., 3GPP) or signaled to UE. via casting (system information) or dedicated signaling (RRC) additionally or alternatively, different sets of parameters may be configured to UE. based on the signals used (e.g., SS blocks/CSI-RS) without parameters common to all cells being explicitly configured as cell specific values.

In variations, the cell ranking process may use an alternative or additional interpretation of the configured offset (offset 1, offset 2) values in step 2, such that the higher the beam signal reception level (and the closer the value is to the highest quality beam reception level of all cells), the higher the contribution value to cell ranking.

In examples, the network may configure the UE to perform the previously described ranking for cells that have been configured for the UE to make a conditional HO based on the ranking, the UE will perform the conditional HO to the highest ranked cell when a trigger condition is met (i.e., cell or cells quality is offset better than current service).

In yet another example, when the UE is configured to report the N highest quality cells to the network, the UE may use cell ranking or determine which cell UEs prioritize RRM (radio resource management)/mobility measurements.

In yet another example, a cell ranking method may be applied to intra-cell mobility measurement/beam management, where a UE ranks different SS blocks of a serving cell (or cells) for reporting based on CSI-RS measurements (beams) of a particular SS block, the UE is provided with an association of a particular CSI-RS and SS block through broadcast signaling (SIB, i.e., system information block) or via dedicated RRC signaling.

While various aspects are set forth above, other aspects include other combinations of features from the described embodiments, not just the above-described combinations.

Although various aspects of the invention are set out in the independent claims, other aspects of the invention comprise other combinations of features from the described embodiments and/or the dependent claims with the features of the independent claims, and not solely the combinations explicitly set out in the claims.

The advantages or technical effects of the or more exemplary embodiments disclosed herein are added functionality without in any way limiting the scope, interpretation, or application of the claims appearing below.

It is also noted herein that while the above describes example embodiments of the invention, these descriptions should not be viewed in a limiting sense. Rather, several variations and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention.