阅读说明：本技术 用于在无线通信中测量同步信号块的技术 (Techniques for measuring synchronization signal blocks in wireless communications ) 是由 P·S·德奥古 O·奥兹图科 J·孙 张晓霞 K·巴塔德 A·N·塞加拉简 于 2020-03-17 设计创作，主要内容包括：本文描述的各方面涉及在测量时间窗口上从目标蜂窝小区接收多个同步信号块(SSB)。可至少部分地基于重复参数的确定来标识用于该多个SSB中的一个或多个SSB的重复波束索引,该重复参数指示用于目标蜂窝小区的SSB模式中的波束数目。该多个SSB中被确定为具有相同重复波束索引的一个或多个SSB的波束集可以被关联。可测量和报告该波束集中的多个SSB中的该一个或多个SSB的一个或多个参数。(Aspects described herein relate to receiving a plurality of Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs) from a target cell over a measurement time window. A repetition beam index for one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs may be identified based at least in part on a determination of a repetition parameter indicating a number of beams in an SSB pattern for the target cell. A set of beams of one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs determined to have the same repeated beam index may be associated. One or more parameters of the one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs in the beam set may be measured and reported.)

1. A method for wireless communication, comprising:

receiving a plurality of Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs) from a target cell over a measurement time window;

identifying a repetition beam index for one or more of the plurality of SSBs, wherein identifying the repetition beam index is based at least in part on a determination of a repetition parameter indicating a number of beams in an SSB pattern for the target cell;

associating a set of beams of the one or more of the plurality of SSBs determined to have the same repeated beam index;

measuring one or more parameters of the one or more of the plurality of SSBs in the beam set; and

reporting, to a serving cell, measurements of the one or more parameters for the beam set of the target cell.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination of the repetition parameter comprises receiving an indication of the repetition parameter from the serving cell.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the indication of the repetition parameter applies to at least one of the cells associated with a frequency.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the indication of the repetition parameter applies to one or more cell lists within or across a frequency.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising reporting the repetition parameter received from a broadcast channel of the target cell to the serving cell based on a serving cell configuration.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising reporting to the serving cell one or more target cells from which SSBs are received and whose repetition parameters are not determined.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the one or more of the plurality of SSBs have a threshold signal strength, and wherein the determination of the repetition parameter comprises decoding a broadcast channel of the target cell based on the one or more of the plurality of SSBs having the threshold signal strength.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein reporting the measurements comprises filtering measurements of two or more of the plurality of SSBs in the beam set having a signal strength that reaches a threshold.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein reporting the measurement comprises determining at least one of: an average value of the one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs, a maximum value of the one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs, a random selection of values of the one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs, or all values of the one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, from the serving cell, at least one of: an indication to measure outside the measurement time window associated with a frequency, an indication of an additional measurement time window, or a list of cells to measure within the additional measurement time window including the target cell.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving, from the serving cell, at least one of: an indication of a gap duration in the measurement time window for measuring at least the target cell, a gap periodicity or an offset for starting measurements, or an activation or deactivation command for starting or stopping measurements in the gap duration.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an indication of whether the repetition parameter is limited to a set of one or more values.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining whether the repetition parameter is limited to the set of one or more values based at least in part on the indication and based on whether the target cell is synchronized with the serving cell.

14. A method for wireless communication, comprising:

a number of Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs) configured for transmission based on different beams;

determining that the number of SSBs is not a factor of a configured value; and

transmitting one or more of the number of SSBs as one or more additional beams to achieve a new number of beams that is a factor of the configured value.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the configured value is a number of demodulation reference signal sequences.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising transmitting an indication of quasi-co-location between multiple transmissions of the one or more of the number of SSBs.

17. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

a transceiver;

a memory configured to store instructions; and

one or more processors communicatively coupled with the transceiver and the memory, wherein the one or more processors are configured to:

receiving a plurality of Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs) from a target cell over a measurement time window;

identifying a repetition beam index for one or more of the plurality of SSBs, wherein identifying the repetition beam index is based at least in part on a determination of a repetition parameter indicating a number of beams in an SSB pattern for the target cell;

associating a set of beams of the one or more of the plurality of SSBs determined to have the same repeated beam index;

measuring one or more parameters of the one or more of the plurality of SSBs in the beam set; and

reporting, to a serving cell, measurements of the one or more parameters for the beam set of the target cell.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine the repetition parameter at least in part by receiving an indication of the repetition parameter from the serving cell.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the indication of the repetition parameter applies to at least one of the cells associated with a frequency.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the indication of the repetition parameter applies to one or more cell lists within or across a frequency.

21. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to report the repetition parameter received from a broadcast channel of the target cell to the serving cell based on a serving cell configuration.

22. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to report to the serving cell one or more target cells from which SSBs are received and whose repetition parameters are not determined.

23. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to determine that the one or more of the plurality of SSBs have a threshold signal strength, and wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine the repetition parameter at least in part by decoding a broadcast channel of the target cell based on the one or more of the plurality of SSBs having the threshold signal strength.

24. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the one or more processors are configured to report the measurements at least in part by filtering measurements of two or more of the plurality of SSBs in the beam set that have a signal strength that reaches a threshold.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the one or more processors are configured to report the measurement at least in part by determining at least one of: an average value of the one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs, a maximum value of the one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs, a random selection of values of the one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs, or all values of the one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs.

26. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

receiving, from the serving cell, at least one of: an indication that measurements are to be made outside of the measurement time window associated with a frequency, an indication of an additional measurement time window, or a list of cells, including the target cell, that are to be measured within the additional measurement time window; and

receiving, from the serving cell, at least one of: an indication of a gap duration in the measurement time window for measuring at least the target cell, a gap periodicity or an offset for starting measurements, or an activation or deactivation command for starting or stopping measurements in the gap duration.

27. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

receiving an indication of whether the repetition parameter is limited to a set of one or more values; and

determining whether the repetition parameter is limited to the set of one or more values based at least in part on the indication and based on whether the target cell is synchronized with the serving cell.

28. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

a transceiver;

a memory configured to store instructions; and

one or more processors communicatively coupled with the transceiver and the memory, wherein the one or more processors are configured to:

a number of Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs) configured for transmission based on different beams;

determining that the number of SSBs is not a factor of a configured value; and

transmitting one or more of the number of SSBs as one or more additional beams to achieve a new number of beams that is a factor of the configured value.

29. The device of claim 28, wherein the configured value is a number of demodulation reference signal sequences.

30. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to transmit an indication of quasi-co-location between multiple transmissions of the one or more SSBs of the number of SSBs.

Background

Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to communication related to Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs).

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems, as well as single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems.

These multiple access techniques have been adopted in various telecommunications standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a city, country, region, and even global level. For example, fifth generation (5G) wireless communication technologies, which may be referred to as 5G new radios (5G NRs), are designed to extend and support diverse usage scenarios and applications relative to current mobile network generation. In one aspect, the 5G communication technology may include: enhanced mobile broadband for human-centric use cases for accessing multimedia content, services and data; ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) with certain specifications regarding latency and reliability; and large-scale machine-type communications, which may allow for a very large number of connected devices and the transmission of relatively small amounts of non-delay sensitive information.

In some wireless communication technologies, a base station may transmit an SSB to allow a device, such as a User Equipment (UE), to determine timing synchronization with the base station and establish communication with the base station. The UE may additionally report measurements of SSBs to the serving cell for determining a target cell for handover. In wireless communication technologies that use a Listen Before Talk (LBT) mechanism, SSBs may be transmitted asynchronously and/or in bursts. Without decoding the broadcast information, it may be difficult for the UE to determine certain information about the SSB for reporting to the serving cell.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary of one or more aspects in order to provide a basic understanding of such aspects. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated aspects, and is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of all aspects nor delineate the scope of any or all aspects. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

According to an example, a method of wireless communication is provided. The method comprises the following steps: the method generally includes receiving a plurality of Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs) from a target cell over a measurement time window, identifying a repetition beam index for one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs, wherein identifying the repetition beam index is based at least in part on a determination of a repetition parameter indicating a number of beams in an SSB pattern for the target cell, associating a set of beams of the one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs determined to have the same repetition beam index, measuring one or more parameters of one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs of the set of beams, and reporting the measurement of the one or more parameters of the set of beams for the target cell to a serving cell.

In another example, a method for wireless communication is provided. The method comprises the following steps: the method includes receiving, at a serving cell, a report of measurements of one or more parameters of a beam set of a target cell from a User Equipment (UE), and processing, by the serving cell, the measurements to determine whether to handover the UE to the target cell based at least in part on whether a repetition parameter used to determine a repetition beam index can be determined by the UE.

In another example, a method for wireless communication is provided. The method comprises the following steps: the method includes configuring a number of SSBs for transmission based on different beams, determining that the number of SSBs is not a factor of a configured value, and transmitting one or more SSBs of the number of SSBs as one or more additional beams to achieve a new number of beams that is a factor of a configured value.

In a further example, an apparatus for wireless communication is provided that includes a transceiver, a memory configured to store instructions, and one or more processors communicatively coupled with the transceiver and the memory. The one or more processors are configured to execute instructions to perform the operations of the methods described herein. In another aspect, an apparatus for wireless communication is provided that includes means for performing the operations of the methods described herein. In yet another aspect, a computer-readable medium is provided that includes code executable by one or more processors to perform the operations of the methods described herein.

In an example, an apparatus for wireless communication is provided that includes a transceiver, a memory configured to store instructions, and one or more processors communicatively coupled with the transceiver and the memory. The one or more processors are configured to: the method generally includes receiving a plurality of SSBs from a target cell over a measurement time window, identifying a repetition beam index for one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs, wherein identifying the repetition beam index is based at least in part on a determination of a repetition parameter indicating a number of beams in an SSB pattern for the target cell, associating a set of beams of the one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs determined to have the same repetition beam index, measuring one or more parameters of one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs of the set of beams, and reporting the measurement of the one or more parameters of the set of beams for the target cell to a serving cell.

In an example, an apparatus for wireless communication is provided that includes a transceiver, a memory configured to store instructions, and one or more processors communicatively coupled with the transceiver and the memory. The one or more processors are configured to: the method includes configuring a number of SSBs for transmission based on different beams, determining that the number of SSBs is not a factor of a configured value, and transmitting one or more SSBs of the number of SSBs as one or more additional beams to achieve a new number of beams that is a factor of a configured value.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the one or more aspects comprise the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative features of the one or more aspects. These features are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of various aspects may be employed and the present description is intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents.

Brief Description of Drawings

The disclosed aspects will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings, provided to illustrate and not to limit the disclosed aspects, wherein like designations denote like elements, and in which:

fig. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless communication system in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure;

fig. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a UE in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure;

fig. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a base station in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method for receiving and measuring a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method for processing SSB measurements in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure;

fig. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example of a method for transmitting SSBs in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure;

fig. 7 illustrates an example of an SSB burst in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of filtering SSB measurements, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure;

fig. 9 illustrates an example of evaluating cell quality in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; and

fig. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a MIMO communication system including a base station and a UE in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Various aspects are now described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of one or more aspects. It may be evident, however, that such aspect(s) may be practiced without these specific details.

The features generally relate to mechanisms for determining certain parameters from which Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) information may be derived when reporting measurements of one or more SSBs and/or filtering measurement information of one or more SSBs. For example, the repetition parameter may be defined to indicate the number of SSBs in the measurement time window before the beam is repeated. From this parameter, and given a beam index that can be identified in a beam, a repeated beam index can be determined to distinguish between the beams that are repeated in the measurement time window. Given this information, the measurement report may include measurements related to a beam set of beams having the same repeating beam index, such as an average measurement between beams, a maximum measurement between beams, a measurement of a randomly selected beam, and so on. When such information (e.g., repetition parameters) is unknown or indeterminable and thus the repetition beam index cannot be determined, the SSB measurement information may be separately reported for the base station to determine processing thereof, and/or repetition parameters may be assumed, where multiple beam measurements are provided based on different repetition parameter hypotheses. Additionally, the base station may provide parameters related to a beam-based reporting trigger for reporting SSB measurement information. Further, the base station may provide parameters related to measuring and reporting SSB measurements for the target cell that are asynchronous in time with respect to the base station (e.g., such that the measurement timing window is different from the measurement timing window specified by the base station for measuring SSBs).

In certain particular examples, a wireless communication technology, such as a fifth generation (5G) New Radio (NR), may define an SSB-based measurement timing configuration (SMTC) window for measuring SSBs of one or more target cells. Each SMTC window may have a fixed duration (e.g., 8 milliseconds (ms)) and may be periodic in time. The SMTC window may include candidate SSB locations where SSBs may be transmitted. A base station, such as a gNB, may opportunistically transmit a SSB burst (e.g., a set of consecutive SSBs) within each SMTC window based on whether a Listen Before Talk (LBT) performed to acquire a communication channel was successful. Each SSB may include one or more of a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS), a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS), a Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) (e.g., for PBCH), and so on. The PSS and SSS may be used to indicate the physical cell identifier. The PBCH DM-RS sequence and PBCH may indicate SSB indices, which may be used for timing acquisition and beam identification and may be used to perform measurements and report results to a serving base station. However, it may be desirable for a User Equipment (UE) to not decode the PBCH of each detected neighbor cell for Radio Resource Management (RRM) measurements, thereby reducing UE complexity and resource consumption. Additionally, it may be desirable to support asynchronous cell deployments (e.g., where SMTC windows of neighbor cells may not be synchronized with each other and/or with a serving cell).

In a particular example, a wireless communication technology can define (e.g., and/or a gNB operating in accordance with the wireless communication technology can define) a number (N) SSB occasions available within an SMTC window, where N is a positive integer. The wireless communication technology may also define a fixed mapping of SSB indices to SSB occasions within the SMTC window. SSB _ index 0 may be mapped to a first SSB occasion, SSB _ index 1 may be mapped to a second SSB occasion, and so on. The SSB index may be determined by the UE by receiving a PBCH DM-RS sequence and a PBCH payload associated with the SSB. In an example, for a given SSB occasion, the SSB _ index is 8 × PBCH _ payload + DM-RS _ sequence. In 5G NR, for example and based on the above, the pattern of PBCH DM-RS sequences may repeat after every 8 SSB occasions and the PBCH payload may indicate the number of cycles of the PBCH DM-RS sequence. In this example, the PBCH DM-RS sequence may be represented by indices 0-7, and the PBCH payload may be represented by 0 or 1 depending on the cycle. More generally, there may be a fixed mapping of beams to SSB occasions within the SMTC window, and the SSB beam pattern may repeat after every Q SSB occasions (Q indicates the number of beams), where Q may be a repetition parameter as described herein. The beam index may be used to identify the SSB beam such that the beam _ index is SSB _ index modulo Q. The beam index value of the beam may be used by the UE for RRM measurements of the cell, so the UE may need knowledge of the Q value of the cell to perform the RRM measurements.

One possible problem is that without knowing the Q, the UE may need to acquire the Q value of the measured cell by receiving the full SSB index (and thus decoding the PBCH) and/or acquiring the Remaining Minimum System Information (RMSI) of the measured cell. However, this may be avoided by ensuring that the UE may determine Q without decoding PBCH or acquiring RMSI, or by allowing the UE to report measurements without knowing Q (where the base station may still associate the measurements with the corresponding SSB), and so on, as described herein. This may reduce the processing burden on the UE in determining information for reporting signal measurements of neighboring cells to the serving cell.

The described features will be presented in more detail below with reference to fig. 1-10.

As used in this application, the terms "component," "module," "system," and the like are intended to include a computer-related entity, such as but not limited to hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a computing device and the computing device can be a component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. In addition, these components can execute from various computer readable media having various data structures stored thereon. The components may communicate by way of local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets, such as data from one component interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network such as the internet with other systems by way of the signal.

The techniques described herein may be used for various wireless communication systems such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA and other systems. The terms "system" and "network" may generally be used interchangeably. A CDMA system may implement a radio technology such as CDMA2000, Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), etc. CDMA2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. IS-2000 releases 0 and A are commonly referred to as CDMA 20001X, 1X, etc. IS-856(TIA-856) IS commonly referred to as CDMA 20001 xEV-DO, High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), etc. UTRA includes wideband CDMA (wcdma) and other variants of CDMA. The TDMA system canRadio technologies such as global system for mobile communications (GSM) are implemented. OFDMA systems may implement methods such as Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE 802.11(Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16(WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM^TMAnd so on. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-advanced (LTE-A) are new UMTS releases that use E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE-A, and GSM are described in literature from an organization named "third Generation partnership project" (3 GPP). CDMA2000 and UMB are described in documents from an organization named "third generation partnership project 2" (3GPP 2). The techniques described herein may be used for both the above-mentioned systems and radio technologies, as well as for other systems and radio technologies, including cellular (e.g., LTE) communications over a shared radio frequency spectrum band. However, the following description describes an LTE/LTE-a system for purposes of example, and LTE terminology is used in much of the description below, but the techniques may also be applied beyond LTE/LTE-a applications (e.g., to fifth generation (5G) New Radio (NR) networks or other next generation communication systems).

The following description provides examples and does not limit the scope, applicability, or examples set forth in the claims. Changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements discussed without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Various examples may omit, substitute, or add various procedures or components as appropriate. For example, the described methods may be performed in an order different than described, and various steps may be added, omitted, or combined. Additionally, features described with reference to some examples may be combined in other examples.

Various aspects or features will be presented in terms of systems that may include a number of devices, components, modules, and the like. It is to be understood and appreciated that the various systems may include additional devices, components, modules, etc. and/or may not include all of the devices, components, modules etc. discussed in connection with the figures. Combinations of these approaches may also be used.

Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication system and an access network 100. A wireless communication system, also referred to as a Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN), may include base stations 102, UEs 104, an Evolved Packet Core (EPC)160, and/or a 5G core (5GC) 190. Base station 102 may include macro cells (high power cellular base stations) and/or small cells (low power cellular base stations). The macro cell may include a base station. The small cells may include femtocells, picocells, and microcells. In an example, base station 102 can also include a gNB 180, as further described herein. In one example, some nodes of a wireless communication system may have a modem 240 and a communication component 242 for measuring and/or reporting measurement information for SSBs received from one or more cells. Additionally, some nodes may have a modem 340 and a handover component 342 for processing SSB measurement information to determine whether to handover the UE 104 or for other purposes, etc., as described herein. Although UE 104 is shown with modem 240 and communication component 242, and base station 102/gNB 180 is shown with modem 340 and switching component 342, this is an illustrative example, and substantially any node or node type may include modem 240 and communication component 242 and/or modem 340 and switching component 342 for providing the corresponding functionality described herein.

A base station 102 configured for 4G LTE, which may be collectively referred to as an evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), may interface with the EPC 160 over a backhaul link 132 (e.g., using the S1 interface). A base station 102 configured for a 5G NR, which may be collectively referred to as a next generation RAN (NG-RAN), may interface with a 5GC 190 over a backhaul link 184. Among other functions, the base station 102 may perform one or more of the following functions: communication of user data, radio channel ciphering and deciphering, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection establishment and release, load balancing, distribution of non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, Radio Access Network (RAN) sharing, Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), subscriber and equipment tracking, RAN Information Management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of alert messages. Base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., through EPC 160 or 5GC 190) over backhaul link 134 (e.g., using the X2 interface). The backhaul link 134 may be wired or wireless.

A base station 102 may communicate wirelessly with one or more UEs 104. Each base station 102 may provide communication coverage for a respective geographic coverage area 110. There may be overlapping geographic coverage areas 110. For example, a small cell 102 'may have a coverage area 110' that overlaps with the coverage areas 110 of one or more macro base stations 102. A network that includes both small cells and macro cells may be referred to as a heterogeneous network. The heterogeneous network may also include a home evolved node B (eNB) (HeNB), which may provide services to a restricted group, which may be referred to as a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG). The communication link 120 between base station 102 and UE 104 may include Uplink (UL) (also known as reverse link) transmissions from UE 104 to base station 102 and/or Downlink (DL) (also known as forward link) transmissions from base station 102 to UE 104. The communication link 120 may use multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna techniques including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and/or transmit diversity. These communication links may be over one or more carriers. For each carrier allocated in an aggregation of carriers up to a total of Yx MHz (e.g., for x component carriers) for transmission in the DL and/or UL directions, base station 102/UE 104 may use a spectrum up to a bandwidth of Y MHz (e.g., 5, 10, 15, 20, 100, 400MHz, etc.). These carriers may or may not be adjacent to each other. The allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to DL and UL (e.g., more or fewer carriers may be allocated to DL than UL). The component carriers may include a primary component carrier and one or more secondary component carriers. The primary component carrier may be referred to as a primary cell (PCell), and the secondary component carrier may be referred to as a secondary cell (SCell).

In another example, certain UEs 104 may communicate with each other using a device-to-device (D2D) communication link 158. The D2D communication link 158 may use DL/UL WWAN spectrum. D2D communication link 158 may use one or more sidelink channels such as a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH), and a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH). The D2D communication may be over a variety of wireless D2D communication systems such as, for example, FlashLinQ, WiMedia, bluetooth, ZigBee, Wi-Fi based on IEEE 802.11 standards, LTE, or NR.

The wireless communication system may further include a Wi-Fi Access Point (AP)150 in communication with a Wi-Fi Station (STA)152 via a communication link 154 in a 5GHz unlicensed spectrum. When communicating in the unlicensed spectrum, the STA 152/AP 150 may perform a Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) prior to the communication in order to determine whether the channel is available.

The small cell 102' may operate in licensed and/or unlicensed spectrum. When operating in unlicensed spectrum, the small cell 102' may employ NR and use the same 5GHz unlicensed spectrum as used by the Wi-Fi AP 150. A small cell 102' employing NR in the unlicensed spectrum may boost the coverage of the access network and/or increase the capacity of the access network.

Whether a small cell 102' or a large cell (e.g., a macro base station), the base station 102 may include an eNB, g B node (gNB), or other type of base station. Some base stations, such as the gNB 180, may operate in the legacy sub-6 GHz spectrum, millimeter wave (mmW) frequencies, and/or near mmW frequencies to communicate with the UE 104. When gNB 180 operates in mmW or near mmW frequencies, gNB 180 may be referred to as a mmW base station. Extremely High Frequencies (EHF) are part of the RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. The EHF has a range of 30GHz to 300GHz and a wavelength between 1 millimeter and 10 millimeters. Radio waves in this frequency band may be referred to as millimeter waves. Near mmW can be extended down to 3GHz frequencies with 100 mm wavelength. The ultra-high frequency (SHF) band extends between 3GHz to 30GHz, which is also known as a centimeter wave. Communications using the mmW/near mmW radio frequency band have extremely high path loss and short range. The mmW base station 180 may utilize beamforming 182 with the UE 104 to compensate for the very high path loss and short range. A base station 102 as referred to herein may include a gNB 180.

The EPC 160 may include a Mobility Management Entity (MME)162, other MMEs 164, a serving gateway 166, a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) gateway 168, a broadcast multicast service center (BM-SC)170, and a Packet Data Network (PDN) gateway 172. MME 162 may be in communication with Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 174. MME 162 is a control node that handles signaling between UE 104 and EPC 160. Generally, the MME 162 provides bearer and connection management. All user Internet Protocol (IP) packets pass through the serving gateway 166, which serving gateway 166 itself connects to the PDN gateway 172. The PDN gateway 172 provides UE IP address allocation as well as other functions. The PDN gateway 172 and BM-SC 170 are connected to an IP service 176. IP services 176 may include the internet, intranets, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), PS streaming services, and/or other IP services. The BM-SC 170 may provide functionality for MBMS user service provisioning and delivery. The BM-SC 170 may be used as an entry point for content provider MBMS transmissions, may be used to authorize and initiate MBMS bearer services within a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), and may be used to schedule MBMS transmissions. The MBMS gateway 168 may be used to distribute MBMS traffic to base stations 102 belonging to a Multicast Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) area broadcasting a particular service and may be responsible for session management (start/stop) and for collecting eMBMS-related charging information.

The 5GC 190 may include an access and mobility management function (AMF)192, other AMFs 193, a Session Management Function (SMF)194, and a User Plane Function (UPF) 195. The AMF 192 may be in communication with a Unified Data Management (UDM) 196. The AMF 192 may be a control node that processes signaling between the UE 104 and the 5GC 190. In general, AMF 192 may provide QoS flow and session management. User Internet Protocol (IP) packets (e.g., from one or more UEs 104) may be communicated via the UPF 195. The UPF 195 may provide UE IP address assignment for one or more UEs, among other functions. The UPF 195 is connected to the IP service 197. The IP services 197 may include the internet, intranets, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), PS streaming services, and/or other IP services.

A base station may also be called a gbb, a node B, an evolved node B (eNB), an access point, a base transceiver station, a radio base station, a radio transceiver, a transceiver function, a Basic Service Set (BSS), an Extended Service Set (ESS), a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), or some other suitable terminology. The base station 102 provides an access point for the UE 104 to the EPC 160 or the 5GC 190. Examples of UEs 104 include cellular phones, smart phones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, laptops, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), satellite radios, global positioning systems, multimedia devices, video devices, digital audio players (e.g., MP3 players), cameras, game consoles, tablets, smart devices, wearable devices, vehicles, electricity meters, gas pumps, large or small kitchen appliances, healthcare devices, implants, sensors/actuators, displays, or any other similar functioning device. Some UEs 104 may be referred to as IoT devices (e.g., parking meters, oil pumps, ovens, vehicles, heart monitors, etc.). IoT UEs may include Machine Type Communication (MTC)/enhanced MTC (eMTC, also known as Category (CAT) -M, CAT M1) UEs, NB-IoT (also known as CAT NB1) UEs, and other types of UEs. In this disclosure, eMTC and NB-IoT may refer to future technologies that may evolve from or may be based on these technologies. For example, emtcs may include FeMTC (further eMTC), efmtc (further enhanced eMTC), MTC (large-scale MTC), etc., while NB-IoT may include eNB-IoT (enhanced NB-IoT), FeNB-IoT (further enhanced NB-IoT), etc. UE 104 may also be referred to as a station, a mobile station, a subscriber station, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless communication device, a remote device, a mobile subscriber station, an access terminal, a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or some other suitable terminology.

In an example, neighboring base stations 102 of the base station 102 serving the UE 104 may transmit SSBs in certain measurement time windows, and the communication component 242 of the UE 104 may measure the SSBs and/or report measurements of the SSBs as received at the UE 104. The communication component 242 may report the measurements to its serving base station 102. In one example, where the UE 104 may determine the repetition parameters of the SSBs, the UE 104 may be able to determine the beam set of the relevant SSBs in the SSB burst and may report the measurements of the beam set accordingly. In the event that communication component 242 cannot determine the repetition parameters, communication component 242 may report the measurements with additional information to allow serving base station 102 to determine associations between SSBs in the reported measurements. In any case, communications component 242 may report measurement information without having to decode a broadcast channel (e.g., PBCH) to determine a duplicate beam index for an SSB, which may reduce processing consumption and/or complexity at UE 104, as further described herein. The switching component 342 may accordingly process the received measurements based on whether the repetition parameter can be determined by the UE 104, as further described herein.

2-10, aspects are depicted with reference to one or more components and one or more methods that may perform the acts or operations described herein, where aspects in dashed lines may be optional. 4-6 are presented in a particular order and/or are presented as being performed by example components, it should be understood that the order of the actions, as well as the components performing the actions, may vary depending on the implementation. Moreover, it should be understood that the following acts, functions, and/or described components may be performed by a specially programmed processor, a processor executing specially programmed software or computer readable media, or by any other combination of hardware components and/or software components capable of performing the described acts or functions.

With reference to fig. 2, one example of an implementation of the UE 104 may include various components, some of which have been described above and further described herein, including components such as the one or more processors 212 and memory 216 and transceiver 202 in communication via one or more buses 244, which may operate in conjunction with the modem 240 and/or communication component 242 for measuring SSBs and/or reporting measurements of SSBs.

In an aspect, the one or more processors 212 may include a modem 240 and/or may be part of the modem 240 using one or more modem processors. Thus, various functions associated with the communications component 242 may be included in the modem 240 and/or the processor 212 and, in an aspect, may be performed by a single processor, while in other aspects, different ones of the functions may be performed by a combination of two or more different processors. For example, in an aspect, the one or more processors 212 may include any one or any combination of the following: a modem processor, or a baseband processor, or a digital signal processor, or a transmit processor, or a receiver processor, or a transceiver processor associated with the transceiver 202. In other aspects, some of the features of the one or more processors 212 and/or modem 240 associated with the communication component 242 may be performed by the transceiver 202.

Further, the memory 216 may be configured to store local versions of data and/or applications 275, as used herein, or the communication component 242 and/or one or more subcomponents thereof, executed by the at least one processor 212. The memory 216 may include any type of computer-readable medium usable by the computer or at least one processor 212, such as Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), tape, magnetic disk, optical disk, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, and any combination thereof. In an aspect, for example, while UE 104 is operating at least one processor 212 to execute communication component 242 and/or one or more subcomponents thereof, memory 216 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores one or more computer-executable codes and/or data associated therewith that define communication component 242 and/or one or more subcomponents thereof.

The transceiver 202 may include at least one receiver 206 and at least one transmitter 208. The receiver 206 may include hardware, firmware, and/or software code executable by a processor, the code comprising instructions and being stored in a memory (e.g., a computer-readable medium) for receiving data. Receiver 206 may be, for example, a Radio Frequency (RF) receiver. In an aspect, receiver 206 may receive signals transmitted by at least one base station 102. Additionally, receiver 206 may process such received signals and may also obtain measurements of signals such as, but not limited to, Ec/Io, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), and so forth. The transmitter 208 may include hardware, firmware, and/or software code executable by a processor for transmitting data, the code comprising instructions and being stored in a memory (e.g., a computer-readable medium). Suitable examples of the transmitter 208 may include, but are not limited to, an RF transmitter.

Also, in an aspect, the UE 104 may include an RF front end 288 that is communicatively operable with the one or more antennas 265 and the transceiver 202 for receiving and transmitting radio transmissions, such as wireless communications transmitted by the at least one base station 102 or wireless transmissions transmitted by the UE 104. The RF front end 288 may be connected to one or more antennas 265 and may include one or more Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs) 290, one or more switches 292, one or more Power Amplifiers (PAs) 298, and one or more filters 296 for transmitting and receiving RF signals.

In an aspect, the LNA 290 may amplify the received signal to a desired output level. In an aspect, each LNA 290 may have specified minimum and maximum gain values. In an aspect, the RF front end 288 may use one or more switches 292 to select a particular LNA 290 and its specified gain value based on the desired gain value for a particular application.

Further, for example, one or more PAs 298 may be used by the RF front end 288 to amplify the signal to obtain an RF output at a desired output power level. In an aspect, each PA 298 may have specified minimum and maximum gain values. In an aspect, the RF front end 288 may use one or more switches 292 to select a particular PA 298 and its specified gain value based on the desired gain value for a particular application.

Further, for example, one or more filters 296 may be used by the RF front end 288 to filter the received signal to obtain an input RF signal. Similarly, in an aspect, for example, respective filters 296 may be used to filter the output from respective PAs 298 to generate output signals for transmission. In an aspect, each filter 296 may be connected to a particular LNA 290 and/or PA 298. In an aspect, the RF front end 288 may use one or more switches 292 to select transmit or receive paths using a specified filter 296, LNA 290, and/or PA 298 based on the configuration as specified by the transceiver 202 and/or processor 212.

As such, the transceiver 202 may be configured to transmit and receive wireless signals through the one or more antennas 265 via the RF front end 288. In an aspect, the transceiver may be tuned to operate at a specified frequency such that the UE 104 may communicate with one or more base stations 102 or one or more cells associated with one or more base stations 102, for example. In an aspect, for example, the modem 240 may configure the transceiver 202 to operate at a specified frequency and power level based on the UE configuration of the UE 104 and the communication protocol used by the modem 240.

In an aspect, the modem 240 can be a multi-band-multi-mode modem that can process digital data and communicate with the transceiver 202 such that the transceiver 202 is used to transmit and receive digital data. In an aspect, the modem 240 may be multi-band and configured to support multiple frequency bands for a particular communication protocol. In an aspect, the modem 240 may be multi-mode and configured to support multiple operating networks and communication protocols. In an aspect, the modem 240 may control one or more components of the UE 104 (e.g., the RF front end 288, the transceiver 202) to enable transmission and/or reception of signals from the network based on a specified modem configuration. In an aspect, the modem configuration may be based on the mode of the modem and the frequency band used. In another aspect, the modem configuration may be based on UE configuration information associated with the UE 104, as provided by the network during cell selection and/or cell reselection.

In an aspect, communications component 242 may optionally include: an SSB measurement component 252 to measure SSBs transmitted by the target cell, a beam set determination component 254 to determine a beam set of one or more SSBs based on whether duplicate parameters can be determined (e.g., to determine duplicate beam indices and associate SSBs of the same duplicate beam index), and/or a measurement component 256 to report measurements of one or more parameters of one or more SSBs to the serving cell for processing.

In an aspect, the processor 212 may correspond to one or more of the processors described in connection with the UE in fig. 10. Similarly, memory 216 may correspond to the memory described in connection with the UE in fig. 10.

Referring to fig. 3, one example of an implementation of base station 102 (e.g., base station 102 and/or gNB 180, as described above) may include various components, some of which have been described above, but also components such as one or more processors 312 and memory 316 and transceiver 302 in communication via one or more buses 344, which may operate in conjunction with modem 340 and handover component 342 to process measurements of one or more parameters of one or more SSBs transmitted by a target cell (as measured by a UE) for use in determining whether to handover the UE.

The transceiver 302, receiver 306, transmitter 308, one or more processors 312, memory 316, applications 375, bus 344, RF front end 388, LNA 390, switch 392, filter 396, PA 398, and one or more antennas 365 may be the same as or similar to corresponding components of the UE 104 as described above, but configured or otherwise programmed for base station operation rather than UE operation.

In an aspect, switching component 342 may optionally include: a report processing component 354 for obtaining and processing a report of one or more measurements of one or more parameters of one or more SSBs, wherein the processing of the report may be based on whether a repetition parameter defining a number of SSBs in a repetition pattern of SSB bursts can be determined by the UE.

In an aspect, processor 312 may correspond to one or more of the processors described in connection with the base station in fig. 10. Similarly, memory 316 may correspond to the memory described in connection with the base station in fig. 10.

Fig. 4 illustrates a flow chart of an example of a method 400 for receiving and measuring SSBs from a target cell. Fig. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of an example of a method 500 for processing SSB measurements from a UE to determine whether to handover the UE or for other purposes. For ease of illustration, the methods 400 and 500 are described in conjunction with each other, although the methods 400 and 500 need not be performed in conjunction. In an example, the UE 104 may perform the functions described in the method 400 using one or more components described in fig. 1 and 2. In an example, base station 102 can perform the functions described in method 500 using one or more components described in fig. 1 and 3.

In method 400, at block 402, a plurality of SSBs may be received from a target cell over a measurement time window. In an aspect, SSB measuring component 252 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 242, etc.) may receive a plurality of SSBs from a target cell over a measurement time window. In one example, the serving cell may configure a measurement time window (e.g., SMTC window) for the UE 104 to measure SSBs transmitted by neighboring cells. For example, the serving cell may configure the measurement time window using Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, dedicated signaling (e.g., over a downlink control channel), etc., indicating one or more parameters related to the measurement time window, such as a start time, a duration, etc. For example, the start time, duration, etc. may take a time division form, such as one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, single carrier frequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) symbols, etc. In this example, the start time may include a symbol index of a symbol within a set of symbols (e.g., a slot), an identifier of the slot, etc., and the duration may take the form of a number of symbols, a number of slots including a plurality of symbols, etc. In another example, the measurement time window may be indicated based on one or more parameters from which a duration, start time, etc. may be determined (e.g., from a reference time, current time, etc.). Accordingly, SSB measurement component 252 may attempt to receive and measure SSBs during a measurement time window.

Additionally, as described, a given target cell may transmit multiple SSBs in an SSB burst (e.g., once LBT succeeds). The plurality of SSBs may include a plurality of transmissions to a plurality of SSB beams in a patterned sequence. For example, for 3 SSB beams, the target cell may transmit the SSB beams in order and repeat the order until the SSB burst ends. Thus, the SSB beam may be transmitted multiple times in an SSB burst. An example is shown in fig. 7, where 3 SSB beams may be transmitted in bursts 702 in a repeating pattern in an SSB opportunity 700. In this example, SSB burst 702 may include beam 1, followed by beam 2, followed by beam 0. Within the SMTC window, the SSB can be considered to have an index that can correspond to the location of the SSB within the SMTC. As described above, for example, the index may indicate the relative location of the SSB within the SMTC. In the depicted example, the SSB index may be determined based on the SSB _ index-8 × PBCH _ payload + DM-RS _ sequence.

A repetition factor (also referred to herein as a repetition parameter) may be defined and may correspond to the number of SSBs transmitted in a given instance of a pattern (e.g., the number of SSBs in SSB burst 702 in fig. 7). If the repetition factor is known or determinable by the UE 104, the UE 104 may associate the repeated SSBs according to the repetition beam index (e.g., 1, 2, or 3 in the example of fig. 7). In this regard, for example, as further described herein, the UE 104 may associate measurements of SSBs having the same repeated beam index and may accordingly provide SSB measurements that consider SSBs having the same repeated beam index to be associated with one another. If the repetition factor is unknown or indeterminable, the UE 104 may include additional information in the SSB report to allow the serving cell to determine which measurements may be associated with the repeated beams, etc., as further described herein.

In the method 400, at block 404, a repetition beam index of one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs may be identified based on the determination of the repetition parameter. In an aspect, beam set determining component 252 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 242, etc.) may identify a duplicate beam index for one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs based on the determination of the duplicate parameter. For example, the beam set determining component 252 may determine a repetition beam index based on whether the repetition parameter is known or determinable. For example, where the repetition parameter is known or determined, the beam set determining component 252 may determine the repetition beam index as an SSB index modulo Q, where Q is the repetition parameter. In the event that the repetition parameter is unknown, beam set determining component 252 may determine the repetition beam index as an SSB index or other parameter or identification related to the SSB to report to base station 102 along with the corresponding measurements (e.g., and base station 102 may determine the repetition beam index and/or other associated SSBs).

For RRM measurements, the UE 104 may be required to identify the beam index and PSS/SSS signal strength of the neighbor cells. For an NR-U interface (e.g., an NR interface between the UE 104 and the base station 102), the UE 104 may not be able to determine the beam index of the SSB without PBCH decoding, such as where the value of Q (repetition parameter) is unknown to the UE (e.g., the value of Q may be provided within PBCH or Remaining Minimum System Information (RMSI)) or where Q is not a factor of 8. Given PBCH decoding on neighbor cells may increase UE burden for RRM measurements and may be avoided by using aspects described herein. Thus, examples are described herein for deriving repetition parameters or reporting without knowledge of repetition parameters.

In a particular example, identifying the repetition beam index at block 404 may optionally include receiving an indication of a repetition parameter at block 406. In an aspect, beam set determining component 254 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communicating component 242, and/or the like) may receive an indication of a repetition parameter from a serving cell, from a target cell, and/or the like. For example, the network (e.g., via base station 102 being a serving cell or a target cell) may indicate a value for Q to UE 104 to allow the UE to identify a beam index using PBCH DM-RS. In one example, the measurement configuration received from the serving cell or the target cell may include an indication of Q (repetition parameter) for a cell list. This may include a plurality of such lists and associated Q values. In an example, the cell list may be an explicit list of cells within or across frequency, all cells operating in a frequency, and so on. For example, beam set determining component 254 may receive a configuration or other indication of a repeating beam index from a serving cell or a target cell via RRC signaling (e.g., broadcast RRC signaling, such as System Information Block (SIB) broadcast or dedicated RRC signaling), dedicated control signaling, and/or the like, as described. In any case, for example, beam set determining component 254 may determine the repetition parameter based on an indication in the measurement configuration or one or more related parameters, a list of cells, and/or the like.

Additionally, in an example, in the method 500, optionally at block 502, an indication of a repetition parameter may be transmitted. In an aspect, switching component 342 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, etc.) may transmit (e.g., to UE 104, as described above) an indication of a repetition parameter. For example, switching component 342 can transmit an indication of the repetition parameter to UE 104 (and/or other UEs) in RRC signaling (e.g., broadcast or dedicated RRC signaling), dedicated control signaling, and/or the like. In another example, the base stations can transmit indications of the repetition parameter between each other, and thus in an example, switching component 342 can transmit and/or receive indications of the repetition parameter to and/or from other cells. In this regard, in the method 500, optionally at block 504, an indication of a repetition parameter may be received. In an aspect, switching component 342 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, etc.) may receive an indication of a repetition parameter (e.g., from other cells). For example, the signaling enhancements may allow the network to obtain the Q values of neighbor cells for this. In this example, the inter-node signaling between gNG includes a Q value for operating the cell.

In yet another example, the UE may be configured to report Q values for a set of cells, which may include the network configuring a list of cells whose Q values the UE reports and/or configuring the UE to report Q values for cells whose Q values are not indicated within the measurement configuration. For example, receiving an indication of a repetition parameter at block 504 or an indication of a target cell for which the repetition parameter is indeterminable may additionally or alternatively comprise switching component 342 receiving such information from UE 104.

For example, based on being configured by the network, in method 400, a target cell for which the repetition parameter is indeterminate may be reported, optionally at block 408. In an aspect, beam set determining component 254 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 242, etc.) may report one or more of the target cells for which the repetition parameter or repetition parameters are indeterminable. In this example, beam set determining component 254 may determine a repetition parameter based on signaling from the target cell or other cells, and may report the repetition parameter to the serving cell if determined. If the repetition parameter is not determinable, beam set determining component 254 may report to the serving cell the identity of the target cell whose repetition parameter is not determined.

In an example, where an indication of a repetition parameter (with respect to a target cell) is received by a serving cell (e.g., from the target cell or UE), switching component 342 can transmit an indication of the repetition parameter to another UE. In another example, as described, handover component 342 can transmit an indication of a repetition parameter configured in a serving cell that may be the same for a target cell in some network configurations. In yet another example, handover component 342 may determine the repetition parameter for the target cell in the indication received at block 504 (e.g., based on requesting the repetition parameter from the target cell over the backhaul connection) and/or may notify UE 104 or other UEs of the repetition parameter for the target cell. In any case, where beam set determining component 254 may receive an indication of a repetition parameter for the target cell, beam set determining component 254 may use the repetition parameter to determine a repetition beam index for the SSB.

In another example, the repetition parameter may be determinable based on keeping the repetition parameter a factor of the number of PBCH DM-RS sequences (e.g., 1, 2, 4, or 8 if there are 8 PBCH DM-RS sequences), allowing the repetition beam index identification to be determined based on the repetition parameter without PBCH decoding. In the case where the repetition parameter is not a factor of the number of PBCH DM-RS sequences, the base station may perform multiple transmissions of the subset of SSB beams within the pattern to achieve a factor of 8, such as by transmitting repetitions of one or more SSB beams. For example, if the number of repeated beams is 3, the first beam (or another beam) may be retransmitted using the last SSB of the repetition pattern to achieve a repetition parameter (i.e., repetition factor) of 4. Additionally, in this example, the base station may indicate a quasi-co-location (QCL) relationship between the same SSBs (e.g., between the first and last SSBs of the repeating pattern) to allow the UE 104 to associate the measurements of these SSBs as well, even though they are within the beam set.

In this example, in method 500, an indication of a QCL between two or more SSBs may be transmitted, optionally at block 506. In an aspect, switching component 342 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, etc.) can communicate an indication of a QCL between two or more SSBs. Similarly, in method 400, optionally at block 410, an indication of a QCL between two or more SSBs may be received. In an aspect, beam set determining component 254 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communicating component 242, etc.) may receive an indication of a QCL between two or more SSBs. In one example, the information may be provided within the RMSI or in a handover command or measurement configuration from the serving cell. As described above and in more detail herein, the UE 104 may combine measurements of the same beam transmission (e.g., within a beam set in a repeating pattern) and/or may use this information to receive other downlink transmissions. If such information is not available, the UE 104 may assume that all SSBs within the pattern of Q SSBs correspond to different beams (to associate and/or report measurements, as further described herein). Further, to allow a single SSB transmission per beam while keeping the value of Q a factor of the number of PBCH DM-RS sequences, the base station may not transmit at a subset of SSB locations within the SMTC. In one example, the serving base station may use a measurement configuration or a handover command to indicate SSB locations or SSB indices that are not transmitted within a set of Q SSBs for the cell list. In another example, the cell may use the system information to indicate SSB locations or SSB indices that are not transmitted within the set of Q SSBs. A UE receiving this information may determine, e.g., via beam set determining component 254, SSB occasions within the SMTC that are not used for transmission and may assume that no SSB is transmitted within the determined occasions and may use the occasions for receiving other downlink signals or transmitting uplink signals.

In another example, where the repetition parameter may be determinable, the network may indicate neighboring cells with synchronized SSB occasions, and the UE 104 may thus determine a target cell SSB occasion and associated SSB index based on the timing of the reference cell and associated SSB information without decoding the PBCH of the neighboring cells. In an example, in the method 500, synchronization information between the target cell and the reference cell may be transmitted, optionally at block 508. In an aspect, switching component 342 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, and/or the like) may transmit synchronization information between the target cell and the reference cell (e.g., to one or more UEs via RRC signaling, dedicated control signaling, and/or the like). Similarly, in the method 400, synchronization information between the target cell and the reference cell may be received, optionally at block 412. In an aspect, beam set determining component 254 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communicating component 242, and/or the like) may receive synchronization information between the target cell and the reference cell (e.g., from a base station via RRC signaling, dedicated control signaling, and/or the like). For example, the synchronization information may include one or more of an indication of synchronization between the target cell and the reference cell, an indication of an offset between a measurement window of the target cell and a measurement window of the reference cell, etc., and the UE 104 may be aware of (or otherwise configured with) the identity of the reference cell. In an example, the reference cell may be a serving cell. In any case, for example, beam set determining component 254 may use the synchronization information to determine the SSB occasion for the target cell.

For example, if synchronization between cells is assumed, all cells within a frequency are fully synchronized (i.e., SSB occasions are also in synchronization). In this example, switching component 342 may not indicate an offset between SMTC windows of neighbor cells. For synchronized cells, beam set determining component 254 may determine the SSB index using the serving cell timing without decoding the neighbor cell PBCH. However, the NR-U may not allow all cells to be fully synchronized (i.e., the same timing for SSB indexing for neighbor cells and serving cells). However, as described herein, if the UE can determine the repetition parameters, beam set determining component 254 can determine the repetition beam index for one or more SSBs without decoding the PBCH. For example, the network (e.g., via the serving cell, target cell, or other cell) may indicate a synchronized cell list, and a time offset of the STMC starting point or reference SSB occasion relative to a reference cell or other reference time that may be determined by the UE 104. In one example, the reference point may be the SMTC window/frame time/SSB occasion of the serving cell, the SMTC window/frame time/SSB occasion of the neighbor cell, and so on. The network may indicate one or more of the above information. In one example, switching component 342 can indicate a frame time difference between a serving cell (or another reference cell) and a neighbor cell and an SMTC occurrence/SSB opportunity for a given neighbor cell. In another example, the network may directly indicate the time difference between SMTC occasions or SSB occasions between the serving cell and the neighbor cell. The beam set determining component 254 may use this information to determine the SSB occasion timing of the target cell (e.g., based on the known SSB occasions of the offset and the reference point). Thus, the beam set determining component 254 can determine the SSB beam set based on known SSB timing and repetition parameters (e.g., SSB index mode repetition parameters, as described).

In examples that may relate to whether synchronization information is transmitted/received, the indication of the repetition parameter may comprise an indication of whether the repetition parameter is limited to a set of one or more values. For example, upon receiving an indication of a repetition parameter at block 406, beam set determining component 254 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 242, etc.) may receive an indication of whether the repetition parameter is limited to a set of one or more values or whether the repetition parameter may be set to other values (e.g., substantially any configured values). In one example, beam set determining component 254 may receive this indication in a measurement configuration from a serving cell. For example, beam set determining component 254 may decode the measurement configuration to determine whether the repetition parameter may take any value without any limitation. In this example, upon transmitting an indication of a repetition parameter at block 502, switching component 342 can transmit an indication of whether the repetition parameter is limited to a set of one or more values or other values can be employed.

Based on receiving this indication, for example, beam set determining component 254 may determine whether the repetition parameter of the cell under test is only capable of using a limited value (e.g., a factor of the number of PBCH DM-RS sequences available, such as 1, 2, 4, 8, etc.) or any valid value of the repetition parameter (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 … …) may be used. In one example, beam set determining component 254 may additionally or alternatively determine whether the repetition parameter is limited to a set of one or more values or other values may be used based on whether the measured cell is synchronized with the reference cell (e.g., based on synchronization information received at block 412). In an aspect, if the measured cell is synchronized with the serving cell or another reference cell (e.g., its identity or an indication that it is a synchronized cell may be indicated within the measurement configuration received at block 412), beam set determining component 254 may determine that the measured cell may have any valid value of the repetition parameter (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 … …) or at least one or more other values outside of a limited set of values, and beam set determining component 254 may determine the repeated beam index by decoding the PBCH of the measured cell or based on the timing of the SSB detection of the measured cell and the decoded PBCH DM-RS sequence as indicated otherwise. In another aspect, if the measured cell is not synchronized with the serving cell or another reference cell (e.g., its identity or an indication that it is not a synchronized cell may be indicated within the measurement configuration received at block 412), beam set determining component 254 may determine that the measured cell may have a repetition parameter value within a limited set (e.g., a factor of the number of PBCH DM-RS sequences available, such as 1, 2, 4, 8, etc.) and the beam set determining component may decode the PBCH DM-RS sequence of the measured cell to determine the repetition beam index. In one example, the limited set of values may be indicated by an indication of a repetition parameter and/or in other configuration signaling (such as measurement configuration, etc.). The indication of the finite set of values may be explicit and/or implicit (e.g., based on using an index as an indication and mapping the index to a corresponding finite set of values), etc.

In another example, the network may indicate whether the cell is in full synchronization (e.g., synchronization within a threshold time duration, such as half a time slot) or approximate synchronization (synchronization with an error boundary greater than the threshold time duration). For example, full synchronization may be used when cells are synchronized using a common timing source (e.g., Global Positioning System (GPS)), while approximate synchronization may be more appropriate for the case when the gbb receives the time difference between the serving cell and the neighbor cell (e.g., based on UE reports). For full synchronization, beam set determining component 254 may determine the SSB index of the neighbor cell based on the time of PSS/SSS detection and the time offset of the SMTC start/reference SSB occasion of the cell relative to the reference point, as described. For approximate synchronization, beam set determining component 254 may determine the SSB index of the neighbor cell based on the time of PSS/SSS detection, the time offset of the SMTC start/reference SSB occasion of the cell relative to the reference point, and the decoded DM-RS sequence. In this example, the PSS/SSS and time offset may facilitate obtaining an approximate notion of the SSB index range corresponding to the SSB received by beam set determining component 254, while the DM-RS sequence may provide finer granularity information about the exact SSB index within the determined SSB index range.

In yet another example, in the method 400, optionally at block 416, a broadcast channel of one or more cells having at least a threshold signal strength may be decoded. In an aspect, beam set determining component 254 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communicating component 242, and/or the like) may decode a broadcast channel of one or more cells having at least a threshold signal strength. For example, beam set determining component 254 may determine the signal strength of each beam and decode only those beams having a signal strength that reaches a threshold. In this regard, beam set determining component 254 may refrain from decoding the PBCH of all SSBs. In this example, beam set determining component 254 may determine the repetition beam index from PBCH (e.g., as an SSB index-mode repetition parameter). For example, a threshold check may be performed on cell signal strength or individual SSB signal strength. Additionally, in an example, the threshold may be configured by a serving cell.

In the case that the repetition parameter may be determined by the UE, the UE may perform measurement filtering and reporting by determining the associated SSB based on the repetition parameter, as described. For example, as described, for NR-U, a UE may receive multiple SSBs corresponding to the same beam within an SMTC window, where the SSBs repeat in an SSB burst. In the case that the repetition parameter is not determinable, the UE may include additional information in the report to allow possible SSB association.

In the method 400, at block 418, a set of beams of the plurality of SSBs determined to be one or more SSBs having the same repeated beam index may be associated. In an aspect, beam set determining component 254 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 242, etc.) may associate a beam set of one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs that are determined to have the same repeated beam index. For example, where repetition parameters can be determined, beam set determining component 254 can associate a set of multiple SSBs having the same repetition beam index (as determined based on the repetition parameters). In the event that the repetition parameters cannot be determined, beam set determining component 254 may associate the beam set as a single beam in one example (e.g., different transmit instances of the same beam), or may associate multiple beams in one set based on assumptions for the repetition parameters in other examples, as further described herein.

In any case, in the method 400, at block 420, one or more parameters of one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs in the beam set may be measured. In an aspect, measurement component 256 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 242, etc.) can measure one or more parameters of one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs in the beam set. For example, measurement component 256 may measure signal strength of one or more SSBs in a beam set, such as Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and so forth. For example, measurement component 256 may measure each SSB in a beam set for all of one or more beam sets determined for a plurality of SSBs.

In method 400, at block 422, measurements of one or more parameters for a beam set of a target cell may be reported to a serving cell. In an aspect, measurement component 256 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 242, etc.) may report measurements of one or more parameters of a beam set for a target cell to a serving cell. For example, where there are multiple SSBs in a given set of beams, measurement component 256 may report measurements (such as average measurements, maximum measurements, randomly selected measurements, total measurements, etc.) from the measurements of the multiple SSBs in the set.

In an example, where the repetition parameter is known, the UE 104 may receive multiple SSBs corresponding to the same beam (e.g., each beam having the same repeated beam index determined based on the SSB index and the repetition parameter, as described) substantially within the SMTC window. In this example, the measurement component 256 may perform filtering and reporting of multiple beams. Additionally, in an example, when reporting measurements at block 422, optionally at block 424, measurements of two or more SSBs having signal strengths that meet a threshold may be filtered. In an aspect, measurement component 256 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 242, etc.) can filter measurements of two or more SSBs having signal strengths that reach a threshold. In this example, reporting measurements as described herein may be limited to considering, for each beam set, SSBs with signal strengths that reach a threshold.

Fig. 8 depicts an example of a filtering operation 800 for filtering measurements received for multiple SSBs corresponding to the same beam (e.g., the same beam beamformed using the same beamforming matrix). For example, in reporting measurements of one or more parameters, measurement component 256 may optionally perform UE implementation-specific layer 1 (e.g., PHY layer) filtering on one or more beams at 802. Additionally, for example, measurement component 256 may filter multiple measurement SSB samples within the SMTC window corresponding to the same repeated beam index (SMTC filtering indicated at 804). For example, measurement component 256 may consider SSB samples for filtering only if the detected signal strength is above a threshold. The threshold may be fixed or may be based on the highest signal strength of SSBs with the same beam index (e.g., threshold-maximum signal strength-offset), etc. The number of SSB samples may be further limited by the number of SSBs transmitted within an SS burst (which may be indicated or otherwise configured by the network). For example, measurement component 256 may report the measurements using one or more of the following procedures. In one example, measurement component 256 may perform averaging over SSB samples to generate measurements for reporting (e.g., averaging may be linear averaging or any other type of averaging (e.g., Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) filtering)). In another example, measurement component 256 may perform a filtering operation to select the SSB sample with the greatest signal strength (e.g., RSRP/RSRQ/RSSI/SINR) among the samples of the same beam. In another example, measurement component 256 may perform random selection of SSB samples among samples having the same beam index. In another example, measurement component 256 may perform a filtering operation to select the SSB sample that was last received by the UE. In another example, measurement component 256 may perform a filtering operation to select the SSB sample that was first received by the UE.

In yet another example, measurement component 256 may not perform filtering, e.g., may pass all SSB measurement samples to layer 3(L3) (or Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer) filtering of block 806. The above operations may be performed in the physical layer (e.g., PHY or layer 1(L1)) where for each SMTC window, the physical layer forwards the signal strength of the SSB samples and the beam index to upper layers for further processing, the RRC layer assuming that the physical layer forwards each SSB measurement sample to the RRC layer for filtering (e.g., where for each beam index, the RRC performs L3 filtering of the SSB samples for that SMTC window and the previous SMTC window). For beam reporting, measurement component 256 may report a beam index (e.g., a duplicate beam index) and the filtered results at 808.

In another example, measurement component 256 may report cell quality by reporting an average signal strength of SSBs associated with several different repeated beam indices. For example, measurement component 256 may report the average signal strength of beams having a signal strength that reaches a threshold regardless of the beam index. One example is shown in fig. 9, fig. 9 depicts selection operations 900 for filtering two or more SSBs associated with the same beam index, selecting a number of beams, layer 3 filtering for the selection, and evaluating reporting criteria for reporting cell quality. Additionally, in an example, measurements of two or more SSBs having signal strengths that reach a threshold may be filtered. In an aspect, measurement component 256 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 242, etc.) may optionally perform UE-implementation-specific layer 1 (e.g., PHY layer) filtering on one or more beams at 902. Additionally, for example, measurement component 256 may filter multiple measurement SSB samples within the SMTC window corresponding to the same repeated beam index (SMTC filtering indicated at 904). Further, measurement component 256 can filter, at 906, measurements of two or more SSBs having signal strengths that meet a threshold (e.g., based on RRC configured parameters, which can include a threshold). Measurement component 256 may additionally filter these measurements for cell quality at 908 (e.g., communicate for evaluation measurements that reach a cell quality threshold), which may be based on RRC configured parameters. Measurement component 256 may evaluate the measurements for a reporting criterion at 910 and may report one or more measurements that satisfy the criterion (which may also be based on RRC configured parameters). In this example, evaluating cell quality as described herein may be limited to considering, for each beam set, SSBs with signal strengths that reach a threshold.

Fig. 9 depicts an example of a filtering operation 900 for filtering measurements received for multiple SSBs corresponding to the same beam (e.g., the same beam beamformed using the same beamforming matrix). For example, in evaluating cell quality, measurement component 256 may optionally perform UE implementation-specific layer 1 (e.g., PHY layer) filtering on one or more beams at 902. Additionally, for example, measurement component 256 may filter multiple measurement SSB samples within the SMTC window corresponding to the same repeated beam index (SMTC filtering indicated at 904). For example, the measurement component 256 may consider SSB samples for filtering at 906 only if the detected signal strength is above a threshold. The threshold may be fixed or may be based on the highest signal strength of SSBs with the same beam index (e.g., threshold-maximum signal strength-offset), etc. The number of SSB samples may be further limited by the number of SSBs transmitted within an SS burst (which may be indicated or otherwise configured by the network). For example, measurement component 256 may report the measurements using one or more of the following procedures. In one example, measurement component 256 may perform averaging over SSB samples to generate measurements for reporting (e.g., averaging may be linear averaging or any other type of averaging (e.g., Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) filtering)). In another example, measurement component 256 may perform a filtering operation to select the SSB sample with the greatest signal strength (e.g., RSRP/RSRQ/RSSI/SINR) among the samples of the same beam. In another example, measurement component 256 may perform random selection of SSB samples among samples having the same beam index. In another example, measurement component 256 may perform a filtering operation to select the SSB sample that was last received by the UE. In another example, measurement component 256 may perform a filtering operation to select the SSB sample that was first received by the UE. In yet another example, the measurement component 256 may not perform filtering, e.g., all SSB measurement samples may be passed to layer 3(L3) (or Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer) filtering at 908. The above operations may be performed in the physical layer (e.g., PHY or layer 1(L1)) where for each SMTC window, the physical layer forwards the signal strength of the SSB samples and the beam index to upper layers for further processing, the RRC layer assuming that the physical layer forwards each SSB measurement sample to the RRC layer for filtering (e.g., where for each beam index, the RRC performs L3 filtering of the SSB samples for that SMTC window and the previous SMTC window). To evaluate cell quality, measurement component 256 may process the beam index (e.g., the duplicate beam index) and the filtered results for beam selection and layer 3 filtering.

Additionally, in method 500, a report of a measurement of one or more parameters of a beam set of a target cell may be received at block 510. In an aspect, switching component 342 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, etc.) may receive a report of a measurement of one or more parameters of a beam set of a target cell. For example, switching component 342 can receive measurements for multiple beam sets, cell quality measurements (e.g., an average of beams in a beam set), and/or the like.

In method 500, at block 512, measurements may be processed for determining whether to handover the UE to the target cell based at least in part on whether the repetition parameter is determinable. In an aspect, report processing component 352 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, switching component 342, and/or the like) may process measurements for determining whether to handover UE 104 to a target cell based at least in part on whether a repetition parameter is determinable. For example, where the repetition parameter is determinable, this may indicate that the UE 104 reported measurements for multiple beams having the same repetition beam index, and the report processing component 352 may process the measurements for each beam set related to a particular repetition beam index (which may be indicated in a report with measurements, as described), where the measurements are an average measurement of SSBs in the beam set (or an average of SSBs in the beam set that reach a threshold signal strength), a maximum measurement of SSBs in the beam set, a measurement of randomly selected SSBs in the beam set (or a measurement of SSBs in the beam set that reach a threshold signal strength), a measurement of all SSBs in the beam set (or a measurement of beams in the beam set that reach a threshold signal strength), and so forth. For example, switching component 342 can determine to switch UE 104 and/or determine a beam for use by UE 104 and/or the target cell (if the measurements reach one or more switching thresholds). In an example, switching component 342 can indicate the beam to UE 104 and/or the target cell.

In the case where the repetition parameter cannot be determined by the UE 104, other considerations may apply, for example, in reporting SSB measurements. For example, performing measurement filtering and reporting results may benefit from beam index identification, as described above. The beam index may be needed to allocate contention-free RACH resources in the target cell and/or for determining cell quality. However, the duplicate beam index may not be determinable where the Q value of the measured cell is unknown and/or where beam index calculation may otherwise require PBCH decoding and the UE has not acquired PBCH. In examples described herein, different operations may be performed to account for duplicate beam indices being undetermined. Examples described herein relate to operations in a physical layer and/or an RRC layer; however, each of the given operations may be performed in any layer. Additionally, in certain examples, the network may configure beam-based measurement reporting triggers, such as beam-based reporting triggers that may be implicitly activated for cells whose beam index cannot be derived by the UE, beam-based reporting triggers explicitly configured by the serving cell for a cell or frequency or measurement object list, and so on. For example, the triggers may be that the beam signal strength of the target cell becomes better/worse than a threshold, the beam signal strength of the target cell becomes better/worse than a threshold and the cell quality of the serving cell becomes better/worse than a threshold, the beam signal strength of the serving cell becomes better/worse than a threshold and the beam signal strength of the target cell becomes better/worse than a threshold, and so on. If the Q value is known, the beam _ index is SSB _ index modulo Q. Additionally, the beam signal strength may imply an average of the signal strengths of the best N SSBs (where N is predefined or provided by the serving cell).

In this example, in method 500, optionally at block 514, an indication of one or more reporting triggers may be transmitted. In an aspect, switching component 342 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, etc.) may transmit (e.g., via RRC signaling, dedicated control signaling, etc., to one or more UEs) an indication of one or more reporting triggers (e.g., in a measurement configuration or other transmission). Similarly, in method 400, optionally at block 426, a configuration indicating one or more reporting triggers may be received. In an aspect, SSB measurement component 252 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 242, etc.) may receive a configuration (e.g., in a measurement configuration or other transmission) indicating one or more reporting triggers (e.g., from a base station via RRC signaling, dedicated control signaling, etc.). For example, identifying the duplicate beam index may be based on the received configuration. In the event that the repetition parameter is not determinable, identifying a repetition beam index may include identifying an index for a given SSB that may not be considered as being repeated within the measurement time window because the beam set determining component 254 cannot associate a beam set within the measurement time window because the repetition parameter is unknown. For example, the beam set determining component 254 may determine the index as a sequential index of SSB beams within the SMTC window.

In this example, in method 400, optionally at block 428, the occurrence of a report trigger may be detected. In an aspect, SSB measurement component 252 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 242, etc.) may detect the occurrence of a reporting trigger, which may be based on the configuration received at block 426, as described. For example, SSB measurement component 252 may detect one or more of: the beam signal strength of the target cell becomes better/worse than the threshold, the beam signal strength of the target cell becomes better/worse than the threshold and the cell quality of the serving cell becomes better/worse than the threshold, the beam signal strength of the serving cell becomes better/worse than the threshold and the beam signal strength of the target cell becomes better/worse than the threshold, etc. In this example, beam set determining component 254 may, in one example, associate the beam within its own set, and measurement component 256 may report measurements for the beam (e.g., and other beams or others in the measurement time window). In NR, in one example, the UE 104 may report beam measurements as well as cell measurements if beam measurement reporting is configured. In this example, where the repetition parameter (and thus the repetition beam index) is not determinable, measurement component 256 may report cell measurements (e.g., beam measurements are excluded). For example, beam set determining component 254 may assume at the physical layer that each SSB measurement within the measurement time window corresponds to a different beam. For each measurement time window, measurement component 256 at the physical layer may forward each SSB signal strength to upper layers for further processing. Once the SSB results for the measurement time window are obtained from the physical layer, measurement component 256 may determine the cell quality at the RRC layer by averaging up to N SSB measurements that are greater than a threshold, where N is a positive integer. The determined values may then be averaged (e.g., using a linear average or an exponential average) over a previous measurement time window (e.g., SMTC window). In this example, measurement component 256 may report only cell measurements (e.g., excluding beam-based results) regardless of the reporting configuration, and report processing component 352 may process these measurements accordingly.

In another example, when reporting the measurement at block 422, optionally at block 430, measurements of one or more parameters of one or more other SSBs in the beam set and/or another measurement time window may be reported. In an aspect, measurement component 256 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 242, etc.) may report measurements of one or more parameters of one or more other SSBs in a beam set and/or another measurement time window. In this example, measurement component 256 may report the best (e.g., highest) SSB measurement within a measurement time (e.g., SMTC) window if the beam index cannot be determined. For example, measurement component 256 at the physical layer may assume that each SSB measurement within the SMTC corresponds to a different beam. For each SMTC window, measurement component 256 at the physical layer may forward each SSB signal strength to upper layers for further processing/reporting. The measurement component 256 may select the best beam (e.g., the SSB with the highest signal strength) at the RRC layer and may perform averaging of the signal strengths of the best beams over different SMTC windows, with the input to the filter being the highest signal strength observed for SSBs within the SMTC (whether the SSB indices are the same or different across SMTCs). The averaging may be a linear average or an exponential average over a previous SMTC window. The measurement component 256 may report only the best beam measurement without indicating the beam index.

In this example, in processing the measurements at block 512, optionally at block 516, measurements of one or more parameters of one or more other SSBs in the beam set and/or another measurement time window may be received. In an aspect, report processing component 352 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, switching component 342, and/or the like) may receive (e.g., from UE 104) measurements of one or more parameters of one or more other SSBs in a beam set and/or another measurement time window. Handover component 342 may use the measurements (which may be more indicative of cell measurements) to determine whether to handover UE 104 to the target cell (e.g., if the measurements reach one or more thresholds).

In another example where duplicate beam indices cannot be determined, reporting the beam measurements without reporting the beam indices, measurement component 256 may not perform any averaging at the RRC layer of the quality of the individual SSBs over multiple SMTC windows (i.e., the beam reports contain only the signal strengths of the beams of the most recent SMTC window), and measurement component 256 may report the signal strengths of the N-best SSBs without reporting the beam indices. In this example, handover component 342 may use the measurement to determine whether to handover UE 104 to the target cell (e.g., where the measurement reaches one or more thresholds).

In another example where a beam measurement is reported without reporting a beam index in the event that a duplicate beam index cannot be determined, measurement component 256 may report a time of SSB reception, which may allow a serving cell receiving the reported measurement to determine the duplicate beam index or its association for the received measurement. In this example, when reporting measurements at block 422, DM-RS sequences and/or time offset values relating to the beam set may optionally be reported at block 432. In an aspect, measurement component 256 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communications component 242, etc.) may report DM-RS sequences and/or time offset values (e.g., and corresponding measurements) related to a beam set.

For example, measurement component 256 at the physical layer may assume that each SSB measurement within the SMTC corresponds to a different beam and may track the SSB detection time offset relative to a reference point. The reference point may be configured by the network (e.g., in a report-triggered configuration). For example, the reference point may be an SMTC window of a serving cell, an SMTC window of a neighbor cell, an SMTC window of another reference cell, and so on. In this example, the time offset may perform a similar function as the PBCH payload indicates the number of DM-RS cycles. For each SMTC window, the measurement component 256 at the physical layer may forward each SSB signal strength (as well as the SSB's time offset and the detected DM-RS) to upper layers for further processing. The measurement component 256 at the RRC layer may perform averaging (e.g., linear averaging or exponential averaging) over the previous SMTC window for each combination of DM-RS and time offset value. The measurement component 256 may report an average measurement and a DM-RS sequence and/or time offset for each beam measurement.

In this example, when processing measurements at block 512, DM-RS sequences and/or time offset values relating to a beam set may optionally be received and/or transmitted at block 518. In an aspect, report processing component 352 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, switching component 342, and/or the like) may receive and/or transmit DM-RS sequences and/or time offset values related to a beam set. For example, report processing component 352 can decode the SSB index and thus the beam index (using the Q value) based on the DM-RS sequence and time offset known to be associated with the SSB index. The report processing component 352 may associate the measurements with the duplicate beam index accordingly and process the measurements as described above to determine whether to handover the UE 104. In another example, report processing component 352 may transmit the DM-RS and/or the time offset value to the target cell and cause the target cell to determine the measurements accordingly (and/or forward the measurements and/or associated beam index to the serving cell for handover consideration).

In another example where duplicate beam indices cannot be determined to report beam measurements without reporting beam indices, measurement component 256 may assume that each DM-RS sequence corresponds to a different beam, e.g., a beam index ═ DM-RS sequence, and may associate beams in a set of beams based on DM-RS. In this example, the measurement component 256 reports measurements in the beam set as described above (e.g., as an average measurement of SSBs or SSBs reaching a threshold signal strength, a maximum measurement of SSBs, a randomly selected measurement of SSBs or SSBs reaching a threshold signal strength, all measurements of SSBs or SSBs reaching a threshold signal strength, a last measurement of SSBs or SSBs reaching a threshold signal strength, a first measurement of SSBs or SSBs reaching a threshold signal strength, etc.). In this example, measurement component 256 may also indicate within the report that the beam index under consideration is a DM-RS sequence. As described above, report processing component 352 may perform at least one of: the SSB index and thus the beam index (using the Q value) is decoded based on the DM-RS sequence, or the DM-RS sequence is forwarded to the target cell and the target cell is caused to determine the measurements accordingly.

In another example where a duplicate beam index cannot be determined, reporting a beam measurement without reporting a beam index, measurement component 256 may assume a duplicate parameter, as described above. In this example, measurement component 256 may perform beam measurements and reports for different possible Q values. In this example, when reporting the measurements at block 422, optionally at block 434, a first measurement of one or more parameters of the beam set based on a first hypothesis of the repetition parameters and a second measurement of one or more parameters of the beam set based on a second hypothesis of the repetition parameters may be reported. In an aspect, measurement component 256 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communication component 242, etc.) may report a first measurement of one or more parameters of a beam set based on a first hypothesis of repetition parameters and a second measurement of one or more parameters of a beam set based on a second hypothesis of repetition parameters (and/or other measurements based on other hypotheses of repetition parameters).

For example, the measurement component 256 may assume different candidate Q values (which may be provided by the network or the UE may assume each possible Q value). For each candidate Q value, measurement component 256 may perform a filtering operation to determine a measurement of the beam set (e.g., as an average measurement of the SSBs or SSBs reaching a threshold signal strength, a maximum measurement of the SSBs, a randomly selected measurement of the SSBs or SSBs reaching a threshold signal strength, all measurements of the SSBs or SSBs reaching a threshold signal strength, a last measurement of the SSBs or SSBs reaching a threshold signal strength, a first measurement of the SSBs or SSBs reaching a threshold signal strength, etc.). Measurement component 256 may then report the beam measurements and the assumed Q value to the serving cell.

In this example, in processing the measurements at block 512, optionally at block 520, a first measurement of one or more parameters of a beam set based on a first hypothesis of the repetition parameter and a second measurement of one or more parameters of a beam set based on a second hypothesis of the repetition parameter may be received and/or transmitted. In an aspect, report processing component 352 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, switching component 342, and/or the like) may receive and/or transmit a first measurement of one or more parameters of a beam set based on a first hypothesis of repetition parameters and a second measurement of one or more parameters of a beam set based on a second hypothesis of repetition parameters (and/or other measurements based on other hypotheses of repetition parameters). In this example, report processing component 352 may select the correct measurements (using the Q value of the target cell) for further processing (e.g., to determine whether to handover UE 104). In another example, report processing component 352 may forward the reported measurements and Q values to the target cell and cause the target cell to select the measurements accordingly.

Additionally, in NR, in an example, a UE may not perform measurements outside of SMTC provided for a frequency. However, for asynchronous cell deployments, all neighbor cells may not be able to follow the same SMTC configuration. In this example, in NR-U, the serving cell may not be aware of the SMTC configuration of the neighbor cell (e.g., due to timing drift of the cell). Thus, in an example, the network may configure the UE to measure cells outside of the configured SMTC. In this example, in method 500, an indication that measurements are to be made outside of a measurement time window (SMTC), an additional measurement time window, or a list of cells to measure may optionally be transmitted at block 522. In an aspect, switching component 342 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, and/or the like) may transmit (e.g., via RRC signaling, dedicated control signaling, and/or the like, to one or more UEs) an indication to measure outside of a measurement time window (e.g., a window configured for a serving cell), an additional measurement time window (e.g., dedicated to one or more target cells), or a list of cells to measure. For additional measurement time windows, for example, the network may configure (e.g., via switching component 342) a measurement window outside of the SMTC window (which may be a continuously occurring periodic time window or a periodic time window with a limited number of periodic cycles or a single time window instance) in which the UE may perform SSB measurements, and which may or may not have any parameters in common with the SMTC window for the measured frequency.

In an example, the serving cell can indicate (e.g., via switching component 342) to the UE to perform measurements on neighbor cells for a period of time while a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) state is off. On the other hand, if no additional measurement window is indicated and if no SMTC is indicated, measurement component 256 may perform measurements at any time (i.e., no time limit for measuring the frequency at which measurement gaps are not needed) or at any time during a measurement gap (for measuring the frequency at which measurement gaps are needed) to identify neighbor cells. In another aspect, the serving cell may configure the UE to perform measurements in an RRC idle state by providing an indication that measurements are to be made outside of a measurement time window (SMTC), an additional measurement time window, or a list of cells to be measured, and may configure the UE to report the measurement results the next time the UE switches to an RRC connected state.

In this example, upon identifying the repeated beam index at block 404, an indication that measurements are to be made outside of a measurement time window (SMTC), an additional measurement time window, or a list of cells to measure may optionally be received at block 436. In an aspect, beam set determining component 254 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communicating component 242, etc.) may receive an indication that measurements are to be made outside of a measurement time window (SMTC), an additional measurement time window, or a list of cells to be measured. Beam set determining component 254 may accordingly identify a repeating beam index as described above, but identify a repeating beam index based on beams measured outside of a measurement time window (SMTC), beams measured in additional measurement time windows, and/or measured beams of one or more cells in a cell list. Further, the serving cell may configure the UE to report measurement parameters related to neighbor cells detected by the UE, which may include one or more of: physical cell identity, SMTC window start time relative to serving cell timing, duration of SMTC window, number of SSBs transmitted within an SS burst.

In yet another example of measuring beams outside of a measurement time window of a serving cell, a one-time/semi-persistent long measurement gap may be provided by the serving cell (e.g., in an RRC configuration, dedicated signaling, or other configuration). For example, the configuration may include a gap duration, a gap periodicity, and a gap offset from a fixed frame timing, an activation mechanism (e.g., L1 command or RRC or MAC CE), a deactivation mechanism, and so on. For example, the deactivation mechanism may include autonomous deactivation, wherein after activation, the measurement gap pattern repeats N cycles, where N is a positive integer, after which the gap is autonomously deactivated. In another example, the deactivation mechanism may include the network sending an explicit deactivation command (L1/RRC/MAC CE) to deactivate the gap.

Accordingly, in this example, in the method 500, an indication for measuring at least a gap duration, periodicity, offset, activation, or deactivation of the target cell may optionally be transmitted at block 524. In an aspect, switching component 342 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, and/or the like) may transmit (e.g., via RRC signaling, dedicated control signaling, and/or the like to one or more UEs) an indication to measure a gap duration, periodicity, offset, activation, or deactivation of at least a target cell. For example, switching component 342 can transmit this information in one or more configurations for UE 104, as described. Similarly, when a repeated beam index is identified at block 404, an indication to measure at least a gap duration, periodicity, offset, activation, or deactivation of the target cell may optionally be received at block 438. In an aspect, beam set determining component 254 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 212, memory 216, transceiver 202, communicating component 242, etc.) may receive an indication to measure gap duration, periodicity, offset, activation or deactivation of at least a target cell (e.g., from a base station via RRC signaling, dedicated control signaling, etc.). In this regard, in identifying duplicate beam indices, beam set determining component 254 may consider measurements received during gaps as determined based on duration, periodicity, and/or offset parameters from the time determined based on activation until determining deactivation.

Fig. 6 illustrates a flow chart of an example of a method 600 for transmitting SSBs. In an example, base station 102 can perform the functions described in method 600 using one or more components described in fig. 1 and 3.

In the method 600, at block 602, a number of SSBs may be configured for transmission based on different beams. In an aspect, switching component 342 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, etc.) may be configured for a number of SSBs transmitted based on different beams. For example, handover component 342 can transmit the SSBs for the UE 104 to obtain and measure to consider the base station 102 for handover. For example, switching component 342 can be configured for SSBs that are transmitted according to a mode (such as the mode shown in fig. 7).

In method 600, at block 604, it may be determined that the number of beams is not a factor of a configured value. In an aspect, switching component 342 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, etc.) may determine that the number of beams is not a factor of a configured value. In one example, switching component 342 can determine that the number of beams is not a factor of the number of DM-RS sequences (e.g., 8) related to transmitting the SSB.

At the method 600, at block 606, one or more of a number of SSBs may be transmitted as one or more additional beams to achieve a new number of beams that is a factor of a configured value. In an aspect, switching component 342 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, etc.) may transmit one or more of the number of beams as one or more additional beams to achieve a new number of beams that is a factor of the configured value. For example, switching component 342 can increase transmission of one or more beams to achieve a factor of the number of DM-RS sequences (e.g., a configured value of 8 DM-RS sequences to achieve 1, 2, 4, or 8 beams in the pattern that are a factor of 8). In this regard, the UE 104 may determine the repetition beam index according to a similar property of determining a signal based on a factor that is the number of DM-RS sequences.

In the method 600, optionally at block 608, an indication of a QCL between multiple transmissions for one or more SSBs of the number of SSBs may be transmitted. In an aspect, switching component 342 (e.g., in conjunction with processor 312, memory 316, transceiver 302, etc.) can communicate an indication of a QCL between multiple transmissions of one or more SSBs of a number of SSBs within an instance of a transmission mode. As described, the target cell may indicate this information and/or the serving cell may additionally or alternatively indicate this information in this example. For example, for 3 configured SSBs, where a factor of 8 is desired, switching component 342 can configure an additional SSB to achieve 4 SSBs, where the additional SSB is a repetition of one of the 3 configured SSBs. The switching component 342 can indicate a QCL relationship between the repeated SSBs and the additional SSBs. In either case, the UE 104 may determine the QCL attributes and may use this information in reporting the measurements of the SSBs (e.g., by associating the measurements of the QCL SSBs).

Fig. 10 is a block diagram of a MIMO communication system 1000 including a base station 102 and a UE 104. The MIMO communication system 1000 may illustrate aspects of the wireless communication access network 100 described with reference to fig. 1. The base station 102 may be an example of aspects of the base station 102 described with reference to fig. 1. The base station 102 may be equipped with antennas 1034 and 1035, while the UE 104 may be equipped with antennas 1052 and 1053. In MIMO communication system 1000, base station 102 may be capable of transmitting data on multiple communication links simultaneously. Each communication link may be referred to as a "layer," and the "rank" of a communication link may indicate the number of layers used for communication. For example, in a 2x2 MIMO communication system where the base station 102 transmits two "layers," the rank of the communication link between the base station 102 and the UE 104 is 2.

At base station 102, a transmit (Tx) processor 1020 may receive data from a data source. The transmit processor 1020 may process the data. Transmit processor 1020 may also generate control symbols or reference symbols. A transmit MIMO processor 1030 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, the control symbols, or the reference symbols, if applicable, and may provide an output symbol stream to transmit modulators/demodulators 1032 and 1033. Each modulator/demodulator 1032-1033 may process a respective output symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator/demodulator 1032-1033 may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a DL signal. In one example, DL signals from modulators/demodulators 1032 and 1033 may be transmitted via antennas 1034 and 1035, respectively.

The UE 104 may be an example of aspects of the UE 104 described with reference to fig. 1-2. At the UE 104, UE antennas 1052 and 1053 may receive the DL signal from the base station 102 and may provide the received signal to modulators/demodulators 1054 and 1055, respectively. Each modulator/demodulator 1054-1055 may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) a respective received signal to obtain input samples. Each modulator/demodulator 1054-1055 may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector 1056 may obtain received symbols from modulators/demodulators 1054 and 1055, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols if applicable, and provide detected symbols. A receive (Rx) processor 1058 may process (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data for the UE 104 to a data output, and provide decoded control information to a processor 1080 or a memory 1082.

Processor 1080 may execute the stored instructions in some cases to instantiate communication component 242 (see, e.g., fig. 1 and 2).

On the Uplink (UL), at the UE 104, a transmit processor 1064 may receive and process data from a data source. Transmit processor 1064 may also generate reference symbols for a reference signal. The symbols from transmit processor 1064 may be precoded by a transmit MIMO processor 1066 if applicable, further processed by modulators/demodulators 1054 and 1055 (e.g., for SC-FDMA, etc.), and transmitted to base station 102 based on the communication parameters received from base station 102. At base station 102, the UL signals from UE 104 may be received by antennas 1034 and 1035, processed by modulators/demodulators 1032 and 1033, detected by a MIMO detector 1036 if applicable, and further processed by a receive processor 1038. Receive processor 1038 may provide decoded data to a data output and to processor 1040 or memory 1042.

Processor 1040 may execute stored instructions to instantiate switching component 342 in some cases (see, e.g., fig. 1 and 3).

The components of the UE 104 may be implemented individually or collectively using one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) adapted to perform some or all of the applicable functions in hardware. Each of the mentioned modules may be means for performing one or more functions related to the operation of MIMO communication system 1000. Similarly, components of base station 102 may be implemented individually or collectively using one or more ASICs adapted to perform some or all of the applicable functions in hardware. Each of the referenced components may be a means for performing one or more functions related to the operation of MIMO communication system 1000.

Some further examples

In an example, a method for wireless communication includes: the method generally includes receiving a plurality of Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs) from a target cell over a measurement time window, identifying a repetition beam index for one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs, wherein identifying the repetition beam index is based at least in part on a determination of a repetition parameter indicating a number of beams in an SSB pattern for the target cell, associating a set of beams of the one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs determined to have the same repetition beam index, measuring one or more parameters of one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs of the set of beams, and reporting the measurement of the one or more parameters of the set of beams for the target cell to a serving cell.

In one or more of the above examples, the determining of the repetition parameter includes receiving, from the serving cell, an indication of the repetition parameter for at least one of the cells associated with a frequency or a list of one or more cells within or across a frequency.

One or more of the above examples may further include reporting, to the serving cell, the repetition parameter received from the broadcast channel of the target cell based on the serving cell configuration.

One or more of the above examples may further include reporting, to the serving cell, one or more target cells from which the SSB was received and whose repetition parameters were not determined.

One or more of the above examples may further include determining that one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs have a threshold signal strength, and wherein the determining of the repetition parameter includes decoding the broadcast channel of the target cell based on the one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs having the threshold signal strength.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein reporting the measurements comprises filtering measurements of two or more of the plurality of SSBs in the beam set having a signal strength reaching a threshold.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein reporting the beam measurements and the evaluation of the cell quality comprises determining at least one of: an average value of one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs, a maximum value of one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs, a random selection of values of one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs, or all values of one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs.

One or more of the above examples may further include receiving, from the serving cell, at least one of: an indication to measure outside a measurement window associated with a frequency, an indication of an additional measurement time window, or a list of cells to measure within the additional measurement time window, including a target cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include receiving, from the serving cell, at least one of: an indication of a gap duration for measuring at least the target cell in the measurement time window, a gap periodicity or an offset for starting the measurement, or an activation or deactivation command for starting or stopping the measurement in the gap duration.

One or more of the above examples may further include receiving an indication of whether the repetition parameter is limited to a set of one or more values.

One or more of the above examples may further include determining whether the repetition parameter is limited to a set of one or more values based at least in part on the indication and based on whether the target cell is synchronized with the serving cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include: receiving, from one of the broadcast channels of the serving cell or the target cell, an indication of quasi-co-location between two SSBs including one SSB in the beam set and one SSB outside the beam set, wherein measuring the one or more parameters comprises measuring one or more parameters of the one or more SSBs in the beam set and the one or more SSBs outside the beam set, and wherein reporting the measurement comprises reporting a combined measurement of the one or more SSBs in the beam set and the one or more parameters of the one or more SSBs outside the beam set.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein identifying the SSB occasion and the repeated beam indexing is further based at least in part on receiving an identity of the reference cell from the serving cell and an offset between a measurement time window of the target cell and a measurement time window of the reference cell, and further comprising receiving a synchronization indication from the serving cell that the reference cell and at least the target cell are substantially synchronized in time.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein the reference cell may be a serving cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein the synchronization indication indicates that the reference cell and the target cell are synchronized within the half slot duration, and further comprising determining the SSB occasion and the beam index of the target cell based at least in part on at least one of a time instant of synchronization signal detection from the target cell or a time offset between a measurement window of the reference cell and a measurement window of the target cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein the synchronization indication indicates that the reference cell and the target cell are synchronized within a number of time slots greater than a half time slot duration, and further comprising determining the SSB occasion and the beam index of the target cell based at least in part on at least one of a time instant of synchronization signal detection from the target cell, a time offset between a measurement window of the reference cell and a measurement window of the target cell, or a decoded demodulation reference signal sequence of a broadcast channel of the target cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include determining that one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs have a threshold signal strength, and wherein the determining of the repetition parameter includes decoding the broadcast channel of the target cell based on the one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs having the threshold signal strength.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein reporting the measurements comprises filtering measurements of two or more of the plurality of SSBs in the beam set having a signal strength reaching a threshold.

One or more of the above examples may further include, wherein reporting the measurement comprises reporting at least one of: an average value of one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs, a maximum value of one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs, a random selection of values of one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs, or all values of one or more parameters of the two or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein the determination of the repetition parameter is unsuccessful, and further comprising reporting the measurement based on the detected reporting trigger.

One or more of the above examples may further include receiving an indication of the detected reporting trigger from the serving cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein the detected reporting trigger is detected based at least in part on comparing the measurements of the beam set to one or more thresholds and/or measurements of the serving cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include, wherein reporting the measurement comprises reporting the measurement as at least one of: an average of the measurement and measurements of other SSBs of the plurality of SSBs over a plurality of measurement time windows, a maximum of the measurement and measurements of other SSBs of the plurality of SSBs over a plurality of measurement time windows, an overall of the measurement and measurements of other SSBs of the plurality of SSBs over a plurality of measurement time windows that reach a threshold.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein reporting the measurement comprises reporting the measurement and a demodulation reference signal sequence of the broadcast channel and a time offset value from a reference time based on the determination of the repetition parameter being unsuccessful.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein the time offset value corresponds to a measurement timing window of the serving cell or a reference cell indicated by the serving cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein reporting the measurement includes reporting the measurement based on the determination of the repetition parameter being unsuccessful and a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) sequence of the broadcast channel and reporting an indication that the identity is the DM-RS sequence.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein associating the beam sets includes associating a first beam set based on a first hypothesis of the repetition parameter and a second beam set based on a second hypothesis of the repetition parameter based on the determination of the repetition parameter being unsuccessful, wherein reporting includes reporting the measurements for the first beam set along with an indication of the first hypothesis and the measurements for the second beam set along with an indication of the second hypothesis.

One or more of the above examples may further include receiving, from the serving cell, at least one of: an indication to measure outside a measurement window associated with a frequency, an indication of an additional measurement time window, or a list of cells to measure within the additional measurement time window, including a target cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include receiving, from the serving cell, at least one of: an indication of a gap duration for measuring at least the target cell in the measurement time window, a gap periodicity or an offset for starting the measurement, or an activation or deactivation command for starting or stopping the measurement in the gap duration.

One or more of the above examples may further include receiving an indication of whether the repetition parameter is limited to a set of one or more values.

One or more of the above examples may further include determining whether the repetition parameter is limited to a set of one or more values based at least in part on the indication and based on whether the target cell is synchronized with the serving cell.

In an example, a method for wireless communication includes: receiving, at a serving cell, a report of measurements of one or more parameters of a beam set of a target cell from a User Equipment (UE); and processing, by the serving cell, the measurements for determining whether to handover the UE to the target cell based at least in part on whether a repetition parameter used to determine the repetition beam index can be determined by the UE.

One or more of the above examples may further include: repetition parameters for at least one of a list of cells within or across a frequency or all cells operating within a frequency are indicated in a measurement configuration.

One or more of the above examples may further include receiving an indication of the repetition parameter from the target cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include receiving a repetition parameter for the target cell from the UE based on configuring the UE to report the repetition parameter.

One or more of the above examples may further include indicating to the UE the reference cell identity, a list of cells, including the target cell, that are synchronized in time with the reference cell, and a time offset of measurement windows of the target cell and the reference cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include indicating to the UE whether the reference cell and the target cell are synchronized within one or more threshold time durations.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein the repetition parameter is determinable by the UE, and wherein processing the measurement is based at least in part on processing the measurement as at least one of: an average value of one or more parameters of the beam set, a maximum value of one or more parameters of the beam set, a random selection of values of one or more parameters of the beam set, or all values of one or more parameters of the beam set.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein the repetition parameter cannot be determined by the UE, and further comprising configuring one or more beam set based reporting triggers for the UE to report beam measurements.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein the one or more reporting triggers are based at least in part on comparing the measurements of the beam set to one or more thresholds and/or measurements of the serving cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein the repetition parameter cannot be determined by the UE, and wherein processing the measurement comprises processing the measurement to at least one of: an average of the measurement with measurements of other SSBs over a plurality of measurement time windows, a maximum of the measurement with measurements of other SSBs over a plurality of measurement time windows, an overall value of the measurement with measurements of other SSBs reaching a threshold over a plurality of measurement time windows.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein the repetition parameter cannot be determined by the UE, and wherein the one or more parameters include a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) sequence of the broadcast channel and a time offset value from a reference time.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein the time offset value corresponds to a measurement timing window of the serving cell or a reference cell indicated by the serving cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein the processing measurements are based at least in part on decoding beam indices of the beam sets according to the DM-RS sequence of the broadcast channel and the time offset values.

One or more of the above examples may further include forwarding the DM-RS sequence and the time offset value to the target cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein the repetition parameter cannot be determined by the UE, and wherein the one or more parameters include a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) sequence of the broadcast channel and an indication that the reporting identity is the DM-RS sequence.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein processing the measurements is based at least in part on decoding beam indices of the beam set according to the DM-RS sequence.

One or more of the above examples may further include forwarding the DM-RS sequence to the target cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein receiving the report of measurements includes receiving first measurements of the first set of beams based on a first hypothesis of the repetition parameter along with the first hypothesis, and second measurements of the second set of beams based on a second hypothesis of the repetition parameter along with the second hypothesis, wherein processing the measurements is based on a value of the repetition parameter of the target cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein receiving the report of measurements includes receiving first measurements of the first set of beams based on a first hypothesis of the repetition parameter and second measurements of the second set of beams based on a second hypothesis of the repetition parameter, and further including indicating the first measurements, the first hypothesis, the second measurements, and the second hypothesis to the target cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include indicating to the UE at least one of: an indication to measure outside a measurement window associated with a frequency, an indication of an additional measurement time window, or a list of cells to measure within the additional measurement time window, including a target cell.

One or more of the above examples may further include indicating to the UE at least one of: an indication of a gap duration for measuring at least the target cell in the measurement time window, a gap periodicity or an offset for starting the measurement, or an activation or deactivation command for starting or stopping the measurement in the gap duration.

One or more of the above examples may further include transmitting an indication as to whether the repetition parameter is limited to a set of one or more values.

In an example, a method for wireless communication includes: a number of Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs) configured for transmission based on different beams; determining that the number of beams is not a factor of a configured value; and transmitting one or more of the number of SSBs as one or more additional beams to achieve the new number of beams as a factor of the configured value.

One or more of the above examples may further include wherein the configured value is a number of demodulation reference signal sequences.

One or more of the above examples may further include transmitting an indication of quasi-co-location between multiple transmissions of one or more SSBs of the number of SSBs.

The above detailed description, set forth above in connection with the appended drawings, describes examples and is not intended to represent the only examples that may be implemented or fall within the scope of the claims. The term "example" when used in this description means "serving as an example, instance, or illustration," and does not mean "preferred" or "superior to other examples. The detailed description includes specific details to provide an understanding of the described technology. However, the techniques may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the concepts of the described examples.

Information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits (bits), symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, computer-executable code or instructions stored on a computer-readable medium, or any combination thereof.

The various illustrative blocks and components described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented or performed with a specially programmed device, such as but not limited to a processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an ASIC, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. The specially programmed processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A specially programmed processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

The functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, software executed by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software executed by a processor, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a non-transitory computer-readable medium. Other examples and implementations are within the scope and spirit of the disclosure and the following claims. For example, due to the nature of software, the functions described above may be implemented using software executed by a specifically programmed processor, hardware, firmware, hard wiring, or any combination thereof. Features that implement functions may also be physically located at various locations, including being distributed such that portions of functions are implemented at different physical locations. Further, as used herein, including in the claims, "or" as used in a list of items prefaced by "at least one of indicates a disjunctive list, such that, for example, a list of" at least one of A, B or C "means a or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., a and B and C).

Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media, including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer, or a general-purpose or special-purpose processor. Any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. Disk (disk) and disc (disc), as used herein, includes Compact Disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), floppy disk, and blu-ray disc where disks (disks) usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs (discs) reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above are also included within the scope of computer-readable media.

The previous description of the disclosure is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Furthermore, although elements of the described aspects and/or embodiments may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated. Additionally, all or a portion of any aspect and/or embodiment may be utilized with all or a portion of any other aspect and/or embodiment, unless stated otherwise. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.