阅读说明：本技术 用于多面板ue的波束故障检测的提前终结的装置和方法 (Apparatus and method for early termination of beam failure detection for multi-panel UE ) 是由 白天阳 V·拉加万 J·H·柳 K·维努戈帕尔 J·塞尚 骆涛 J·李 于 2020-02-28 设计创作，主要内容包括：由UE发起的事件(诸如UE折叠或UE天线面板关闭)导致的波束故障可以可预测的。因此,UE可以声明波束故障检测(BFD),而无需经历潜在较长的检测规程。本文公开了用于检测波束故障并早于当前DFD过程来终结BFD的装置和方法。该方法可包括标识UE处影响至少一个波束对链路(BPL)的波束故障(BF)事件,以及向相关联基站传达要停止在受影响波束对链路上进行通信的请求,而无需经历整个BFD过程。(Beam failures caused by UE-initiated events, such as UE folding or UE antenna panel closing, may be predictable. Thus, the UE may declare Beam Failure Detection (BFD) without having to go through a potentially long detection procedure. Apparatus and methods for detecting beam failures and terminating BFD earlier than current DFD procedures are disclosed herein. The method may include identifying a Beam Failure (BF) event at the UE affecting at least one Beam Pair Link (BPL), and communicating a request to an associated base station to cease communications over the affected beam pair link without going through an entire BFD process.)

1. A method of wireless communication at a first wireless communication device, comprising:

identifying a Beam Failure (BF) event at the first wireless communication device affecting at least one Beam Pair Link (BPL); and

communicating a request to a second wireless communication device to cease communication on the at least one BPL without undergoing a Beam Failure Detection (BFD) process.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an acknowledgement from the second wireless communication device in response to the request.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the request indicates a time at which the first wireless communication device stops monitoring the BPL and/or a time at which the first wireless communication device does not expect any further transmissions scheduled on the BPL.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

terminating monitoring of the at least one BPL in response to the acknowledgement from the second wireless communication device.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying the BF event comprises:

an Identifier (ID) of an antenna panel associated with the at least one affected BPL is determined.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

terminating monitoring for a second BPL associated with the ID of the antenna panel.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the BF event comprises: detecting a change in relative position of a component of the first wireless communication device using a sensor of the first wireless communication device.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the request comprises:

an identifier of the beam failure event is identified,

an identifier of the at least one BPL,

an identifier of the antenna panel is identified,

an indication of the time of day or of the day,

the prediction period for which the affected BPL remains available,

an indication of which of the transmit and receive functions of the affected BPL are affected by the BF event,

a recommended BPL that replaces the affected BPL, or a combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the time comprises a predicted BF time or a time during which the first wireless communication device will terminate receiving or transmitting signals using the BPL.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the requests are carried on different carriers on the same or different frequency bands and/or in a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or in a scheduling request transmitted to the second wireless communication device.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the identifier of the at least one BPL is associated with a Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) status, an antenna panel ID, an ID of SRS resources, RS resources, and/or assigned target RS resources, or wherein the identifier of the BPL is associated with a configuration of RSs.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the configuration of the RS indicates spatial relationship information linking the RS resource with an RS resource or an antenna panel ID.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the BFD procedure includes at least a minimum number of beam failures occurring, a timer between two beam failures, and a delay in signaling message exchange between the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device, and/or wherein the BFD procedure includes at least one of measuring Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP)/signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)/signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) of BFD Reference Signals (RSs) received from the second wireless communication device.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

communicating the request only after expiration of a timer since a previous request has been sent to the second wireless communication device; and/or

Refraining from using the affected BPL until expiration of the second timer;

wherein one of the first wireless communication apparatus and the second wireless communication apparatus comprises one of a user equipment, a base station, and a backhaul network node.

15. A method of wireless communication at a first wireless communication device, comprising:

receiving a request from a second wireless communication device reporting a Beam Failure (BF) event affecting at least one Beam Pair Link (BPL) without undergoing a BF detection (BFD) process; and

refrain from communicating with and scheduling the at least one BPL and/or terminate monitoring the at least one BPL in response to the request.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

communicating an acknowledgement to the second wireless communication device in response to the request.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein terminating monitoring of the at least one BPL comprises: terminating monitoring all BPLs associated with an Identifier (ID) of an antenna panel associated with the BPL.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the requesting comprises:

an identifier of the beam failure event is identified,

an identifier of the at least one BPL,

the identifier of the associated antenna panel(s),

an indication of the time of day or of the day,

the BPL remains available for the prediction period of time,

an indication of whether a transmit function, a receive function, or both on an affected BPL are affected by the BF event,

a recommended BPL that replaces the affected BPL, or a combination thereof.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the time comprises a predicted BF time or a time during which the second wireless communication device will terminate receiving or transmitting signals using the BPL.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein refraining from communicating and scheduling and/or terminating monitoring comprises: refrain from communicating with and scheduling the at least one BPL and/or terminating monitoring the at least one BPL based on the indication of time.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the requests are carried on different carriers on the same or different frequency bands and/or in a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or in a scheduling request transmitted to the first wireless communications device.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the identifier of the at least one BPL is associated with a Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) status, an ID of an SRS resource, an RS resource, and/or an assigned target RS resource, or wherein the identifier of the BPL is associated with a configuration of an RS.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the configuration of the RS includes spatial relationship information linking the RS resource with an RS resource.

24. The method of claim 15, wherein the BFD procedure includes at least a minimum number of beam failures occurring, a timer between two beam failures, and a delay in signaling message exchange between the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device, and/or wherein the BFD procedure includes at least one of measuring Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP)/signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)/signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) of a BFD Reference Signal (RS) received from the first wireless communication device.

25. The method of claim 15, further comprising scheduling transmission or reception on an affected BPL based on an indication of whether transmission functionality, reception functionality, or both, on the affected BPL are affected by the BF event, wherein one of the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device comprises one of a user equipment, a base station, and a backhaul network node.

26. An apparatus for wireless communications implemented at a first wireless communication device, comprising:

a transceiver;

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to: identifying a Beam Failure (BF) event at the first wireless communication device affecting at least one Beam Pair Link (BPL); and

communicating a request to a second wireless communication device to cease communication on the at least one BPL without undergoing a Beam Failure Detection (BFD) process.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

receiving an acknowledgement from the second wireless communication device in response to the request;

terminating monitoring of the at least one BPL in response to the acknowledgement from the second wireless communication device; or

Combinations thereof.

28. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the request indicates a time at which the first wireless communication device stops monitoring the BPL and/or a time at which the first wireless communication device does not expect any further transmissions scheduled on the BPL.

29. An apparatus for wireless communications implemented at a first wireless communication device, comprising:

a transceiver;

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to:

receiving a request from a second wireless communication device reporting a Beam Failure (BF) event affecting at least one Beam Pair Link (BPL) without undergoing a BF detection (BFD) process; and

refrain from communicating with and scheduling the at least one BPL and/or terminate monitoring the at least one BPL in response to the request.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the request comprises one or more of:

an identifier of the beam failure event;

an identifier of the at least one BPL;

an identifier of an associated antenna panel;

an indication of time;

the BPL remains available for a predicted period of time;

an indication of whether a transmit function, a receive function, or both on an affected BPL are affected by the BF event; and

replacing the recommended BPL of the affected BPL.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, and more particularly to early termination of Beam Failure Detection (BFD) for multi-panel User Equipment (UE).

Background

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasting. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access techniques capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources. Examples of such multiple-access techniques include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems, single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) 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. An example telecommunication standard is the 5G New Radio (NR). The 5G NR is part of a continuous mobile broadband evolution promulgated by the third generation partnership project (3GPP) to meet new requirements associated with latency, reliability, security, scalability (e.g., with the internet of things (IoT)), and other requirements. Some aspects of the 5G NR may be based on the 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. There is a need for further improvements in the 5G NR technology. These improvements are also applicable to other multiple access techniques and telecommunications standards employing these techniques.

New display technologies provide flexible and foldable UEs, and also create new problems for beam management for those UEs with multiple antenna arrays or multiple antenna panels. When a multi-panel UE is folded, the beam configuration of the UE may be changed and the availability of the currently serving beam to the link (BPL) may be affected. Existing beam failure detection mechanisms may not be able to effectively detect and manage Beam Failures (BF) caused by folding of UEs.

Background

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.

New display technologies provide flexible and foldable UEs, and also create new problems for beam management for those UEs with multiple antenna arrays or multiple antenna panels. When such a UE is folded, the beam configuration of the UE may be changed, as some antenna panels may become unavailable. Existing beam failure detection mechanisms may not be able to effectively detect and manage beam failures caused by folding of UEs. Current mechanisms may include measuring BPL quality by measuring Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), and/or signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SNR) of Reference Signals (RSs), which may go through several stages to ensure that a beam failure event is not a false alarm. Current beam failure detection mechanisms are designed for link failure caused by external events such as signaling fading, UE mobility, or dynamic blocking. These external events are uncontrollable or unpredictable from the UE perspective.

On the other hand, beam failures caused by UE-initiated events (e.g., folding of the UE) may be predictable. For example, when a multi-panel UE is folded, the UE may detect and predict which antenna panel may be affected and thus may declare BFD directly without going through a long and expensive detection procedure. Apparatus and methods are disclosed herein for early detection of beam failure and terminating BFD earlier than the time at which the current DFD process would otherwise terminate BFD. The method may include identifying a Beam Failure (BF) event at the UE affecting at least one Beam Pair Link (BPL); and transmitting a request to an associated base station to cease communicating on the affected beam pair link without undergoing a Beam Failure Detection (BFD) process and/or without measuring at least one of RSRP/SNR/SINR of a BFD Reference Signal (RS) received from the gNB for one of the at least one BPL.

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

Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication system and an access network.

Fig. 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D are diagrams illustrating examples of a DL frame structure, DL channels within the DL frame structure, an UL frame structure, and UL channels within the UL frame structure, respectively.

Fig. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a base station and a User Equipment (UE) in an access network according to aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 is a diagram illustrating a base station in communication with a UE, according to aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 illustrates an example BF event in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example Beam Failure Detection (BFD) process, according to aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example message flow between an NR 5G base station and a multi-panel UE, according to aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 is a flow diagram of a method of wireless communication, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 9 is a conceptual data flow diagram illustrating the data flow between different means/components in an exemplary apparatus according to aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation of a device employing a processing system according to aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 11 is a flow diagram of a method of wireless communication, according to aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 12 is a conceptual data flow diagram illustrating the data flow between different means/components in an exemplary apparatus according to aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation of a device employing a processing system according to aspects of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of various configurations and is not intended to represent the only configurations in which the concepts described herein may be practiced. The detailed description includes specific details to provide a thorough understanding of the various concepts. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and components are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring such concepts.

Several aspects of a telecommunications system will now be presented with reference to various apparatus and methods. These apparatus and methods are described in the following detailed description and are illustrated in the accompanying drawings by various blocks, components, circuits, processes, algorithms, etc. (collectively referred to as "elements"). These elements may be implemented using electronic hardware, computer software, or any combination thereof. Whether such elements are implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system.

As an example, an element, or any portion of an element, or any combination of elements, may be implemented as a "processing system" that includes one or more processors. Examples of processors include: a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a Central Processing Unit (CPU), an application processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) processor, a system-on-chip (SoC), a baseband processor, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), a state machine, gated logic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardware configured to perform the various functionalities described throughout this disclosure. One or more processors in the processing system may execute software. Software should be construed broadly to mean instructions, instruction sets, code segments, program code, programs, subprograms, software components, applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether referred to in software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or other terminology.

Accordingly, in one or more example embodiments, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored or encoded as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer readable media includes computer storage media. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (eeprom), optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage, other magnetic storage devices, combinations of the preceding types of computer-readable media, or any other medium that can be used to store computer-executable code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer.

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), includes a base station 102, a UE104, and an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) 160. Base station 102 may include macro cells (high power cellular base stations) and/or small cells (low power cellular base stations). The macro cell includes a base station. Small cells include femtocells, picocells, and microcells.

The base stations 102, collectively referred to as the evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), interface with the EPC160 over a backhaul link 132 (e.g., the S1 interface). 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. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other over the backhaul link 134 (e.g., the X2 interface), either directly or indirectly (e.g., through the EPC 160). The backhaul link 134 may be wired or wireless.

The base station 102 may communicate wirelessly with the UE 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 referred to as a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG). The communication link 120 between base station 102 and UE104 may include Uplink (UL) (also known as reverse link) transmissions from UE104 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 (x component carriers) for transmission in each direction, the base station 102/UE 104 may use a spectrum up to a Y MHz (e.g., 5, 10, 15, 20, 100MHz) bandwidth. 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).

Certain UEs 104 may communicate with each other using a device-to-device (D2D) communication link 192. The D2D communication link 192 may use DL/UL WWAN spectrum. The D2D communication link 192 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.

The gNB 180 may operate in a millimeter wave (mmW) frequency and/or a near mmW frequency 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 184 with the UE104 to compensate for the very high path loss and short range.

The EPC160 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. MME162 may be in communication with Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 174. MME162 is a control node that handles signaling between UE104 and EPC 160. Generally, the MME162 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.

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), or some other suitable terminology. The base station 102 provides an access point for the UE104 to the EPC 160. Examples of UEs 104 include a cellular phone, a smart phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a laptop, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a satellite radio, a global positioning system, a multimedia device, a video device, a digital audio player (e.g., MP3 player), a camera, a game console, a tablet device, a smart device, a wearable device, a vehicle, an electric meter, a gas station, an oven, or any other similar functioning device. Some of the UEs 104 may be referred to as IoT devices (e.g., parking meters, gas stations, ovens, vehicles, etc.). UE104 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.

Referring again to fig. 1, in certain aspects, the UE 104/base station 180 may include a BF detection module (198) configured to detect and prematurely terminate BF detection.

Fig. 2A is a diagram 200 illustrating an example of a DL frame structure. Fig. 2B is a diagram 230 illustrating an example of channels within a DL frame structure. Fig. 2C is a diagram 250 illustrating an example of a UL frame structure. Fig. 2D is a diagram 280 illustrating an example of channels within a UL frame structure. Other wireless communication technologies may have different frame structures and/or different channels. A frame (10ms) may be divided into 10 equally sized subframes. Each subframe may include two consecutive slots. A resource grid may be used to represent the two slots, each slot including one or more time-concurrent Resource Blocks (RBs) (also known as physical RBs (prbs)). The resource grid is divided into a plurality of Resource Elements (REs). For a normal cyclic prefix, an RB may contain 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 7 consecutive symbols in the time domain (OFDM symbols for DL; SC-FDMA symbols for UL), for a total of 84 REs. For an extended cyclic prefix, an RB may contain 12 consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and 6 consecutive symbols in the time domain, for a total of 72 REs. The number of bits carried by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

As illustrated in fig. 2A, some REs carry DL reference (pilot) signals (DL-RSs) used for channel estimation at the UE. The DL-RS may include cell-specific reference signals (CRS) (also sometimes referred to as common RS), UE-specific reference signals (UE-RS), and channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS). Fig. 2A illustrates CRS for antenna ports 0, 1, 2, and 3 (indicated as R0, R1, R2, and R3, respectively), UE-RS for antenna port 5 (indicated as R5), and CSI-RS for antenna port 15 (indicated as R).

Fig. 2B illustrates an example of various channels within the DL subframe of a frame. The Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) is within symbol 0 of slot 0 and carries a Control Format Indicator (CFI) indicating whether the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) occupies 1, 2, or 3 symbols (fig. 2B illustrates a PDCCH occupying 3 symbols). The PDCCH carries Downlink Control Information (DCI) within one or more Control Channel Elements (CCEs), each CCE includes nine RE groups (REGs), each REG including four consecutive REs in an OFDM symbol. The UE may be configured with a UE-specific enhanced pdcch (epdcch) that also carries DCI. The ePDCCH may have 2, 4, or 8 RB pairs (fig. 2B shows 2 RB pairs, each subset including 1 RB pair). A physical hybrid automatic repeat request (ARQ) (HARQ) indicator channel (PHICH) is also within symbol 0 of slot 0 and carries HARQ Indicators (HIs) indicating HARQ Acknowledgement (ACK)/negative ACK (nack) feedback based on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH). The Primary Synchronization Channel (PSCH) may be within symbol 6 of slot 0 within subframes 0 and 5 of the frame. The PSCH carries a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) that is used by the UE104 to determine subframe/symbol timing and physical layer identity. The Secondary Synchronization Channel (SSCH) may be within symbol 5 of slot 0 within subframes 0 and 5 of the frame. The SSCH carries a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS) that is used by the UE to determine the physical layer cell identity group number and radio frame timing. Based on the physical layer identity and the physical layer cell identity group number, the UE may determine a Physical Cell Identifier (PCI). Based on the PCI, the UE may determine the location of the aforementioned DL-RS. A Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) carrying a Master Information Block (MIB) may be logically grouped with PSCH and SSCH to form a Synchronization Signal (SS) block. The MIB provides the number of RBs in the DL system bandwidth, PHICH configuration, and System Frame Number (SFN). The Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) carries user data, broadcast system information, such as System Information Blocks (SIBs), which are not transmitted through the PBCH, and a paging message.

As illustrated in fig. 2C, some REs carry demodulation reference signals (DM-RS) used for channel estimation at the base station. The UE may additionally transmit a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) in a last symbol of the subframe. The SRS may have a comb structure, and the UE may transmit the SRS on one of the combs. The SRS may be used by the base station for channel quality estimation to enable frequency-dependent scheduling on the UL.

Fig. 2D illustrates an example of various channels within the UL subframe of a frame. A Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) may be within one or more subframes within a frame based on a PRACH configuration. The PRACH may include 6 consecutive RB pairs within a subframe. The PRACH allows the UE to perform initial system access and achieve UL synchronization. The Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) may be located at the edge of the UL system bandwidth. The PUCCH carries Uplink Control Information (UCI) such as scheduling request, Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI), Rank Indicator (RI), and HARQ ACK/NACK feedback. The PUSCH carries data and may additionally be used to carry Buffer Status Reports (BSRs), Power Headroom Reports (PHR), and/or UCI.

Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a base station 310 in communication with a UE 350 in an access network. In the DL, IP packets from EPC160 may be provided to controller/processor 375. The controller/processor 375 implements layer 3 and layer 2 functionality. Layer 3 includes a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer, and layer 2 includes a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, and a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. The controller/processor 375 provides RRC layer functionality associated with broadcast of system information (e.g., MIB, SIBs), RRC connection control (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), inter-Radio Access Technology (RAT) mobility, and measurement configuration of UE measurement reports; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression/decompression, security (ciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification), and handover support functions; RLC layer functionality associated with delivery of upper layer Packet Data Units (PDUs), error correction by ARQ, concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC Service Data Units (SDUs), re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and re-ordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto Transport Blocks (TBs), demultiplexing MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction by HARQ, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

The Transmit (TX) processor 316 and the Receive (RX) processor 370 implement layer 1 functionality associated with various signal processing functions. Layer 1, which includes the Physical (PHY) layer, may include error detection on the transport channel, Forward Error Correction (FEC) encoding/decoding of the transport channel, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto the physical channel, modulation/demodulation of the physical channel, and MIMO antenna processing. The TX processor 316 processes the mapping to the signal constellation based on various modulation schemes (e.g., Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK), Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK), M-phase shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM)). The coded and modulated symbols may then be split into parallel streams. Each stream may then be mapped to OFDM subcarriers, multiplexed with reference signals (e.g., pilots) in the time and/or frequency domain, and then combined together using an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) to generate a physical channel carrying a time-domain OFDM symbol stream. The OFDM stream is spatially precoded to produce a plurality of spatial streams. The channel estimates from channel estimator 374 may be used to determine coding and modulation schemes and for spatial processing. The channel estimate may be derived from a reference signal transmitted by the UE 350 and/or channel condition feedback. Each spatial stream may then be provided to a different antenna 320 via a separate transmitter 318 TX. Each transmitter 318TX may modulate an RF carrier with a respective spatial stream for transmission.

At the UE 350, each receiver 354RX receives a signal through its respective antenna 352. Each receiver 354RX recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to a Receive (RX) processor 356. The TX processor 368 and the RX processor 356 implement layer 1 functionality associated with various signal processing functions. The RX processor 356 may perform spatial processing on the information to recover any spatial streams destined for the UE 350. If multiple spatial streams are destined for the UE 350, they may be combined into a single OFDM symbol stream by the RX processor 356. RX processor 356 then transforms the OFDM symbol stream from the time domain to the frequency domain using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal includes a separate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. The symbols on each subcarrier, as well as the reference signal, are recovered and demodulated by determining the most likely signal constellation points transmitted by the base station 310. These soft decisions may be based on channel estimates computed by channel estimator 358. These soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data and control signals that were originally transmitted by the base station 310 on the physical channel. These data and control signals are then provided to a controller/processor 359 that implements layer 3 and layer 2 functionality.

The controller/processor 359 can be associated with memory 360 that stores program codes and data. The memory 360 may be referred to as a computer-readable medium. In the UL, the controller/processor 359 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, cipher interpretation, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the EPC 160. The controller/processor 359 is also responsible for error detection using ACK and/or NACK protocols to support HARQ operations.

Similar to the functionality described in connection with the DL transmission by base station 310, controller/processor 359 provides RRC layer functionality associated with system information (e.g., MIB, SIB) acquisition, RRC connection, and measurement reporting; PDCP layer functionality associated with header compression/decompression, and security (ciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification); RLC layer functionality associated with delivery of upper layer PDUs, error correction by ARQ, concatenation, segmentation, and reassembly of RLC SDUs, re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs, and re-ordering of RLC data PDUs; and MAC layer functionality associated with mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, demultiplexing MAC SDUs from TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction by HARQ, priority handling, and logical channel prioritization.

Channel estimates, derived by a channel estimator 358 from reference signals or feedback transmitted by base station 310, may be used by TX processor 368 to select appropriate coding and modulation schemes, as well as to facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streams generated by the TX processor 368 may be provided to different antennas 352 via separate transmitters 354 TX. Each transmitter 354TX may modulate an RF carrier with a respective spatial stream for transmission.

UL transmissions are processed at the base station 310 in a manner similar to that described in connection with receiver functionality at the UE 350. Each receiver 318RX receives a signal through its corresponding antenna 320. Each receiver 318RX recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to RX processor 370.

The controller/processor 375 can be associated with a memory 376 that stores program codes and data. Memory 376 may be referred to as a computer-readable medium. In the UL, the controller/processor 375 provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, cipher interpretation, header decompression, control signal processing to recover IP packets from the UE 350. IP packets from controller/processor 375 may be provided to EPC 160. The controller/processor 375 is also responsible for error detection using ACK and/or NACK protocols to support HARQ operations.

Fig. 4 is a diagram 400 illustrating a base station 402 in communication with a UE 404. Referring to fig. 4, a base station 402 may transmit a beamformed signal to a UE 404 in one or more of directions 402a, 402b, 402c, 402d, 402e, 402f, 402g, 402 h. The UE 404 may receive beamformed signals from the base station 402 in one or more receive directions 404a, 404b, 404c, 404 d. The UE 404 may also transmit beamformed signals to the base station 402 in one or more of the directions 404a-404 d. The base station 402 may receive beamformed signals from the UE 404 in one or more of the receive directions 402a-402 h. The base station 402/UE 404 may perform beam training to determine the best receive direction and transmit direction for each of the base station 402/UE 404. The transmit direction and the receive direction of the base station 402 may be the same or may be different. The transmit direction and the receive direction of the UE 404 may be the same or may be different. UE 404 may be a multi-panel UE configured to detect and prematurely terminate BF detection.

Fig. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example UE display 500. The UE display 500 has two display arrangements 501 and 511. Arrangement 501 shows a display with a 4x2 antenna array/panel 503 in a flat, unfolded arrangement. Display arrangement 511 shows a UE display with three antenna arrays 513, 515 and 517, respectively, in a folded arrangement. Antenna array 513 (i.e., 4x1 antenna panel) remains available after the display is folded. The combined antenna array 515 (i.e., the 4x2 antenna panel) remains generally available, but the array configuration may change due to the event of the UE display folding, which may result in changes in antenna size and beamforming gain. Antenna array 517 (i.e., a 4x1 antenna panel), not fully shown in fig. 5, may be hidden within the folded display, and as a result of the display folding, at least some of the antenna elements may be turned off and become unavailable.

Fig. 5 illustrates that BF events like UE display folding may result in some antenna arrays of the UE being reconfigured and some antenna panels being turned off and some other panels being activated. The UE display folding may also cause some of the beam pair links on the affected antenna panel to be reconfigured or/and its size and beamforming gain to be changed. Thus, BF events that resemble UE display folding may result in a change in received signal quality.

Fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example Beam Fault Detection (BFD) process 600. The BFD procedure 600 may include several steps involving the UE and associated base stations. In general, a base station may send Reference Signals (RSs) to a UE to monitor link quality, such as RSRP of monitored BPLs. The UE sends the measurement results back to the base station. The base station may make a decision as to whether or not to switch the current beam pair based on the measurement results.

The UE may monitor RSRP of RSs on BPL to detect beam failure. The BFD process 600 illustrates the BF detection and validation process. There may be a predefined maximum number of beam faults that need to be reached before declaring BF detection and a BFD clock that needs to expire to avoid frequent BF declarations due to short term variations. As shown in fig. 6, when the UE detects RS quality degradation/RS signal failure at 601, the UE starts a BFD clock and BFD counter. At 603, the new RS signal is measured and the quality is above a predefined threshold. Thus, no RS signal failure is detected and when the BFD clock expires at 604, no more RS signal failures are detected and the maximum BFD counter is not reached. Therefore, BFD is not declared.

Then, when an RS failure is detected at 605, the BFD clock and BFD counter are both started again. Before the BFD clock times out, another RS signal failure is detected at 607 and the maximum BFD counter (2) is reached. BFD is then declared at 607.

For the UE, the above BF detection and declaration process may be lengthy and expensive for the UE in terms of battery power and resources. The procedure is primarily designed for BF due to external causes such as UE mobility, dynamic blocking, signal fading, etc. Generally, the UE is unaware of or unable to control the external cause. Conversely, for those BFs that result from UE-initiated actions, the UE may be able to detect BF events earlier and faster, and may even predict the impact on a particular antenna panel and BPL without going through the lengthy process of BFD validation and declaration as shown in fig. 6.

Fig. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example message flow 700 between a base station and a multi-panel UE, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Message flow 700 illustrates an example message exchange for detecting a beam failure caused by an internal event, such as a display collapse at a UE. The base station 704 may be an NR 5G gbb and the multi-panel UE 702 may be a 5G capable UE with multiple antenna panels. The dotted lines indicate that the associated step may be optional.

At block 705, the UE may detect and predict a BF caused by an event initiated by the UE itself, such as a UE display collapse. The UE may have a plurality of sensors, including a gyro sensor configured to detect the start of the display being folded. Once the UE is reasonably confident of a display collapse event, the UE can predict the impact or effect of the event on the antenna panel. For example, the UE may determine which panel(s) of the plurality of panels will become unavailable based on the detected angle and movement of the display fold and which panel(s) will remain functional once the fold event is complete.

At block 706, upon detecting the BF event and predicting the impact of the event, the UE sends a request to the base station. The request informs at least the base station of the affected panel, and may request the base station to refrain from using the affected BPL associated with the antenna panel (ID) to convey/schedule transmissions to the UE or terminate monitoring of the BLP associated with the panel. Based on the detected and predicted event impact on events initiated by the UE, the UE may send a request to the base station to terminate BFD ahead of time without going through a potentially lengthy and expensive BFD procedure. The request sent to the base station may include various information, as will be discussed in detail below.

Upon receiving a request from the UE, the base station becomes aware of which panel(s) of the UE panels become unavailable for communication due to the detected BF event, at block 707. The base station may then terminate monitoring for affected BLPs associated with that panel and refrain from using any of the panels in communication with the UE. The base station may determine an alternate Beam Pair Link (BPL) for the affected BPL, either alone or in cooperation with the UE.

At block 708, upon ceasing to monitor the BLP associated with the panel, the base station sends an acknowledgement message to the UE to confirm the action taken at the base station side. The confirmation message may also include other information, such as a replacement BPL.

At block 709, the UE, upon receiving the acknowledgement message from the base station, may deactivate the affected panel on the UE side and also stop monitoring the affected BPLs to save at least power for beam measurements and beam monitoring. The UE may also take some other action, such as activating an alternate BPL for communication with the base station.

Although message flow 700 as described herein is applied as an example to a UE-base station scenario in which a UE detects a BF event and sends a request to a base station to terminate monitoring of affected panels and BPLs, message flow 700 is also applicable to other scenarios including, but not limited to, UE-UE and backhaul network scenarios. In a UE-UE scenario, the UE may detect a BF event and send a request to the peer UE to stop monitoring for impact BPL. In a backhaul network scenario, one backhaul network node may detect a BF event and send a request to another backhaul network node to stop monitoring affected BPLs.

As indicated above, fig. 7 is provided by way of example only. Other examples with different message flow sequences are possible and may differ from that described with respect to fig. 7, while still remaining within the spirit of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a method 800 of wireless communication in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure. Method 800 implements a process for a UE with multiple panels to detect a BF event and predict the impact of the BF event on a BPL currently being serviced. Method 800 may be performed by a UE, such as UE 702 of fig. 7 or any of UEs 120 of fig. 1. Optional steps are indicated in the dotted lines.

At 802, method 800 includes identifying a beam failure event at a UE. In one example aspect, the UE may detect the start of a BF event (such as folding of the UE display) initiated by the UE. Another example of a UE-initiated BF event may be that the UE turns off some antenna panel in some cases to save battery power.

Another UE-initiated BF event is to turn down the transmission power of the panel to meet the regulatory requirements of Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE). The UE may turn down the transmission power on the antenna panel for MPE considerations. If the adjusted power fails to meet the link budget requirements, the UE may switch to another panel for transmission. In this case, the BF event may only affect the transmit function on the panel, while the receive function of the panel is not affected. In one example aspect, the UE may initiate a BF event that turns transmission power down when the UE detects/predicts that the human body moves close to the UE itself. The UE may then report the affected transmission functions of the affected panel and BPL to the base station.

The UE may be configured with various sensors, including one or more gyroscope (gyro) sensors. For example, the gyroscope sensor may be configured to detect angular velocity, i.e., the change in the angle of rotation per second of movement of the UE display, and the UE may determine that the display is folding based on the measured angular velocity.

In one example aspect, detecting a BF event using a UE sensor comprises: at least detecting a folding of the foldable display and detecting or predicting a change in configuration of an antenna panel of the UE caused by the folding of the UE display. As depicted in fig. 5 and described herein, the UE display folding may make some antenna panels unavailable.

In one example aspect, identifying a BF event may include: determining an affected beam pair link by identifying and/or predicting an affected antenna panel based in part on the predicted configuration change of the antenna panel. When the user has just started to fold the display, a UE sensor (such as a gyroscopic sensor) may detect a UE display folding event. A folding event may take a certain period of time, such as several time slots, to complete. As the BF event progresses, the UE may predict its ultimate impact on the antenna panel. For example, as described above, based on the measured angular velocity of the UE display, the UE may predict which antenna panel(s) will be affected when the UE display is collapsed. Since the UE may know the BPLs on the affected panel, the UE may also predict which BPLs will also be affected by the event. Further, in an example aspect, the UE may also predict how long a BF event may take to complete, predicting the time that the affected BPL will remain available.

At 804, method 800 includes communicating a request to an associated gNB. The UE may send a request to the base station for the gNB to terminate monitoring the BLP associated with the affected antenna panel. In one example aspect, the request is carried on a carrier of a different frequency band than the frequency band currently being served, and may be carried in a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH). In another example aspect, the request may be part of a regular scheduling request included in Uplink Control Information (UCI) sent to the gNB.

In one example aspect, the request may include an identifier of the beam failure event, the affected antenna panel identifier and the affected BPL identifier, a time indication, a predicted time period for which the BPL remains available, and a replacement BPL identifier identifying a recommended replacement BPL. The indication of time may be a predicted time before the BPL becomes unavailable, or a predicted time period during which the BPL will remain available.

In an example aspect, the identifier of the affected one of the BPLs may be associated with a Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state, an ID of a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resource, an RS resource, and/or an assigned target RS resource, or the identifier of the BPL is associated with a configuration of the RS, and the configuration may include some spatial relationship information linking the SRS resource with the RS resource. In one example aspect, there is a list of transmission TCI states for dynamically indicating (via DCI) transmission configurations including quasi-co-location (QCL) relationships between DL-RSs and PDSCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports in one RS set.

At 806, method 800 includes receiving an acknowledgement from the gNB in response to the request. The UE may receive an acknowledgement message from the gNB in response to the request sent at block 804. In one example aspect, the confirmation message may include an identifier that the gNB may determine an alternate BPL to use, which may be the same or different than the UE recommended alternate BPL. The acknowledgement message may also include some other information, such as the UE resource allocation for uplink or downlink communication with the UE.

At 808, method 800 includes deactivating the affected antenna panel and terminating monitoring the affected BPL. The UE may deactivate the affected antenna panel in the active panel list even if only some BPLs for that panel are in active service. The UE may also maintain a list of available BPLs to track all BPLs currently serving communications with the gNB. As a result of deactivating the affected antenna panel, the UE may also deactivate the affected BPL.

Additionally, the UE may also terminate monitoring the affected BPL at 808. The UE may stop monitoring the link quality of the affected BPL, including measurements made for link RSRP, SNR, and other measurements. Terminating monitoring of the affected BPL may also include stopping sending any feedback to the gNB on the affected BPL.

At 810, method 800 may optionally include activating the affected antenna panel once the affected antenna panel is restored to an original state prior to the BF event. The BF event may be restored. For example, the collapsed display may be expanded back to the previous expanded position. Further, a UE-initiated BF event (such as UE display collapse) may make some panels unavailable, but make some other previously unavailable panels available again. The UE may activate a previously unavailable panel that becomes available again through a BF event.

In another example aspect, method 800 may include communicating the request only after expiration of a timer since a previous request has been sent to the base station; and/or refrain from using the affected BPL until the second timer expires. This step is to prevent the UE from overusing or abusing a shortcut BFD that bypasses the potentially lengthy BFD procedure.

Although method 800 as described herein is applied as an example to a UE-base station scenario in which a UE detects a BF event and sends a request to a base station to terminate monitoring of affected panels and BPLs, method 800 is also applicable to other scenarios including, but not limited to, UE-UE and backhaul network scenarios. In a UE-UE scenario, the UE may detect a BF event and send a request to the peer UE to stop monitoring for impact BPL. In a backhaul network scenario, one backhaul network node may detect a BF event and send a request to another backhaul network node to stop monitoring the affected BPLs.

The method 800 is for illustration purposes and shows one possible procedure for a UE to detect BF events and predict their impact without having to go through a potentially lengthy, formal BFD procedure. Indeed, one or more steps shown in the illustrative flow chart of method 800 may be combined with other steps, performed in any suitable order, performed in parallel (e.g., simultaneously or substantially simultaneously), or removed.

Fig. 9 is a conceptual data flow diagram 900 illustrating the data flow between different means/components in an exemplary apparatus 902. The apparatus may be a UE. The apparatus includes a receiving component 904 that receives an acknowledgement message from an associated gNB 950, a BF detecting component 906 that may be configured with various sensors to detect a start of a UE-initiated event that may lead to a beam failure, a BF decision component 908 that may determine whether the detected event is a "true" event or a "false alarm" that will cause the beam failure and predict the impact of the detected true BF event, and a transmitting component 910 configured to transmit at least a request to the gNB 950 to stop monitoring one or more affected BPLs associated with the panel.

The apparatus may include additional components that perform each block of the algorithm in the aforementioned flow diagrams of fig. 7 and 8. As such, each block in the aforementioned flow diagrams of fig. 7 and 8 may be performed by a component and the apparatus may include one or more of these components. These components may be one or more hardware components specifically configured to perform the described processes/algorithms, implemented by a processor configured to perform the described processes/algorithms, stored in a computer-readable medium for implementation by a processor, or some combination thereof.

Fig. 10 is a diagram 1000 illustrating an example of a hardware implementation of a device 902' employing a processing system 1014. The processing system 1014 may be implemented with a bus architecture, represented generally by the bus 1024. The bus 1024 may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specific application of the processing system 1014 and the overall design constraints. The bus 1024 links together various circuits including one or more processors and/or hardware components (represented by the processor 1004, the components 904, 906, 908, and the computer-readable medium/memory 1006). The bus 1024 may also link various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further.

The processing system 1014 may be coupled to the transceiver 1010. The transceiver 1010 is coupled to one or more antennas 1020. The transceiver 1010 provides a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The transceiver 1010 receives signals from the one or more antennas 1020, extracts information from the received signals, and provides the extracted information to the processing system 1014 (and in particular the receiving component 904). Further, transceiver 1010 receives information from processing system 1014 (and in particular transmission component 919) and generates a signal to be applied to the one or more antennas 1020 based on the received information. The processing system 1014 includes a processor 1004 coupled to a computer-readable medium/memory 1006. The processor 1004 is responsible for general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium/memory 1006. The software, when executed by the processor 1004, causes the processing system 1014 to perform the various functions described supra for any particular apparatus. The computer-readable medium/memory 1006 may also be used for storing data that is manipulated by the processor 1004 when executing software. The processing system 1014 further includes at least one of the components 904, 906, 908, and 908. These components may be software components running in the processor 1004, resident/stored in the computer readable medium/memory 1006, one or more hardware components coupled to the processor 1004, or some combination thereof. The processing system 1014 may be a component of the UE 350 and may include the memory 360 and/or at least one of: TX processor 368, RX processor 356, and controller/processor 359.

In one configuration, the apparatus 902/902' for wireless communication includes means for detecting an occurrence of a Beam Failure (BF) event, means for communicating a request to an associated general purpose node B (gNB), means for receiving an acknowledgement from the gNB, and means for terminating monitoring a beam pair link. The aforementioned means may be one or more of the aforementioned components of apparatus 1002 and/or processing system 1014 of apparatus 902' configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means. As described supra, the processing system 1014 may include the TX processor 368, the RX processor 356, and the controller/processor 359. As such, in one configuration, the aforementioned means may be the TX processor 368, the RX processor 356, and the controller/processor 359 configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means.

Fig. 11 is a flow diagram of a method of wireless communication, illustrating a method 1100 of wireless communication in accordance with various aspects of the disclosure. Method 1100 implements a process by which a base station cooperates with a UE having multiple panels to detect a BF event and predict the impact of the BF event on a BPL currently being serviced. Method 1100 may be performed by a base station, such as any of gNB 704 of fig. 7 or base station 120/180 of fig. 1. Optional steps are indicated in the dotted lines.

At 1102, method 1100 includes receiving a request from a UE. The UE may send a request to the base station that the gNB should refrain from communicating/scheduling transmissions to the UE using the affected BPL associated with the antenna panel (ID), or terminate monitoring the BLP associated with the panel. In an example aspect, the UE may detect the start of a BF event (such as folding of the UE display). The UE may be configured with various sensors, including one or more gyroscope (gyro) sensors. For example, a gyroscopic sensor may be configured to detect angular velocity, i.e., the change in the angle of rotation per second of movement of the UE display. In one example aspect, detecting a BF event using a UE sensor includes at least detecting a collapse of a collapsible display and detecting or predicting a configuration change of an antenna panel of a UE caused by the UE display collapsing. As depicted in fig. 5 and described herein, the UE display folding may make some antenna panels unavailable. When the UE reasonably determines a BF event, the UE sends a request to the gNB.

In an example aspect, the received request is carried on a carrier of a different frequency band than the frequency band currently being served, and may be carried in a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH). In another example aspect, the request may be part of a regular scheduling request included in Uplink Control Information (UCI) received by the gNB.

In one example aspect, the request may include an identifier of the beam failure event, the affected antenna panel identifier and the affected BPL identifier, a predicted beam failure time, a predicted time period for which the BPL remains available, and a replacement BPL identifier identifying a recommended replacement BPL.

In another example aspect, the affected BPL identifier and the affected antenna panel identifier may be associated with a Synchronization Reference Signal (SRS) resource set ID, or a reference RS resource and/or resource set, or an assigned target RS resource or resource set. In another example aspect, the identifier of the affected BPL and the affected antenna panel ID may be further associated with spatial relationship information.

At 1104, method 1100 includes terminating monitoring of the affected BPLs. The base station will refrain from communicating/scheduling transmissions to the UE via the BPL associated with the antenna panel (ID), or terminate monitoring the BLP associated with the panel. In an example aspect, the gNB may "deactivate" or delete the affected BPLs in the active list of available BPLs maintained by the gNB in local memory. The UE may maintain a list of active available BPLs to track all active BPLs serving communications with the UE.

Additionally, at 1104, the gNB may also terminate monitoring the affected BPLs. The gNB may stop monitoring the link quality of the affected BPL, including measurements made for link RSRP, SNR, and other measurements. Terminating monitoring of the affected BPLs may also include stopping receiving any feedback from the UE on the affected BPLs, as well as stopping all communications on the affected antenna panel.

At 1106, method 1100 includes communicating an acknowledgement message to the UE in response to receiving the request. The gNB may send an acknowledgement message in response to the request received at block 1104. In one example aspect, the confirmation message may include an identifier of the replacement BPL that the gNB decides to use, which may be the same or different from the replacement BPL recommended by the UE. The acknowledgement message may also include some other information, such as UE resource allocation for uplink or downlink communication with the gNB.

At 1108, method 1100 may optionally include activating the affected antenna panel upon receiving the second request once the affected antenna panel is restored to the original state prior to the BF event. In one example aspect, "activating" herein may mean that the base station resumes the affected BPLs on the active available list. The BF event may be restored. For example, the collapsed display may be expanded back to the previous expanded position. Upon restoring the BF event to the previous state, the gNB may receive a second request to restore the deactivated/deleted BPLs in the list of active available BPLs, and the gNB may begin monitoring/scheduling transmissions on the restored BPLs. Further, a UE-initiated BF event (such as UE display collapse) may make some panels unavailable, but make some other previously unavailable panels available again. The gNB may activate a previously unavailable panel that becomes available again through a BF event based on the received request.

Although method 1100 as described herein is applied as an example to a UE-base station scenario in which a UE detects a BF event and sends a request to a base station to terminate monitoring of affected BPLs, method 800 is also applicable to other scenarios including, but not limited to, UE-UE and backhaul network scenarios. In a UE-UE scenario, the UE may detect a BF event and send a request to the peer UE to stop monitoring for impact BPL. In a backhaul network scenario, one backhaul network node may detect a BF event and send a request to another backhaul network node to stop monitoring affected BPLs.

Method 1100 is for illustration purposes and shows one possible procedure for the gNB to assist the UE in detecting BF events and predicting their impact without having to go through a formal BFD procedure, which can be potentially lengthy. Indeed, one or more steps shown in the illustrative flow chart of method 1100 may be combined with other steps, performed in any suitable order, performed in parallel (e.g., simultaneously or substantially simultaneously), or removed.

Fig. 12 is a conceptual data flow diagram 1200 illustrating the data flow between different means/components in an exemplary apparatus 1202. The device may be a gbb. The apparatus includes a receiving component 1204 that receives a request from an associated UE 1250, a BF decision component 1006 that can determine, in response to the request, an impact of a BF event reported in the request and an action to be taken at the gNB, a beam pair management component 1208 that can stop monitoring affected BPLs associated with antenna panels and restart transmission using recovered or replacement BPLs and antenna panels, and a transmitting component 1210 that is configured to transmit at least an acknowledgement message to the UE 1250 confirming that an action has been taken at the gNB side in response to the reported BF event.

The apparatus may include additional components that perform each block of the algorithm in the aforementioned flow charts of fig. 7 and 11. As such, each block in the aforementioned flow diagrams of fig. 7 and 11 may be performed by a component and the apparatus may include one or more of these components. These components may be one or more hardware components specifically configured to perform the described processes/algorithms, implemented by a processor configured to perform the described processes/algorithms, stored in a computer-readable medium for implementation by a processor, or some combination thereof.

Fig. 13 is a diagram 1300 illustrating an example of a hardware implementation of a device 1202' employing a processing system 1314. The processing system 1314 may be implemented with a bus architecture, represented generally by the bus 1324. The bus 1324 may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specific application of the processing system 1314 and the overall design constraints. The bus 1324 links together various circuits including one or more processors and/or hardware components (represented by the processor 1304, the components 1204, 1206, 1208, and 1210, and the computer-readable medium/memory 1306). The bus 1324 may also link various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further.

The processing system 1314 may be coupled to the transceiver 1310. The transceiver 1310 is coupled to one or more antennas 1320. The transceiver 1310 provides a means for communicating with various other apparatus over a transmission medium. The transceiver 1310 receives a signal from the one or more antennas 1320, extracts information from the received signal, and provides the extracted information to the processing system 1314 (and in particular the receiving component 1204). Additionally, the transceiver 1310 receives information from the processing system 1314 (and in particular the transmission component 1210) and generates a signal to be applied to the one or more antennas 1320 based on the received information. The processing system 1314 includes a processor 1304 coupled to a computer-readable medium/memory 1306. The processor 1304 is responsible for general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium/memory 1306. The software, when executed by the processor 1304, causes the processing system 1314 to perform the various functions described supra for any particular apparatus. The computer-readable medium/memory 1306 may also be used for storing data that is manipulated by the processor 1304 when executing software. The processing system 1314 further includes at least one of the components 1204, 1206, 1208, and 1210. These components may be software components running in the processor 1304, resident/stored in the computer readable medium/memory 1306, one or more hardware components coupled to the processor 1304, or some combination thereof. The processing system 1314 may be a component of the base station 310 and may include the memory 376 and/or at least one of the following: TX processor 316, RX processor 370, and controller/processor 375.

In one configuration, the apparatus 1202/1202' for wireless communication includes means for receiving a request from a UE, means for terminating monitoring of an affected antenna panel, and means for communicating an acknowledgement message and means for activating the affected antenna panel upon receiving a second request. The aforementioned means may be the aforementioned components of apparatus 1202 and/or one or more components of processing system 1314 of apparatus 1202' configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means. As described supra, the processing system 1014 may include the TX processor 316, the RX processor 370, and the controller/processor 375. As such, in one configuration, the aforementioned means may be the TX processor 316, the RX processor 370, and the controller/processor 375 configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means.

It should be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of blocks in the processes/flow diagrams disclosed is an illustration of exemplary approaches. It will be appreciated that the specific order or hierarchy of blocks in the processes/flow diagrams may be rearranged based on design preferences. Further, some blocks may be combined or omitted. The accompanying method claims present elements of the various blocks in a sample order, and are not meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.

The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but is to be accorded the full scope consistent with the language claims, wherein reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean "one and only one" unless specifically so stated, but rather "one or more. The word "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any aspect described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. The term "some" means one or more unless specifically stated otherwise. Combinations such as "at least one of A, B or C", "one or more of A, B or C", "at least one of A, B and C", "one or more of A, B and C", and "A, B, C or any combination thereof" include any combination of A, B and/or C, and may include a plurality of a, B or C. In particular, combinations such as "at least one of A, B or C", "one or more of A, B or C", "at least one of A, B and C", "one or more of A, B and C", and "A, B, C or any combination thereof" may be a only, B only, C, A only and B, A and C, B and C, or a and B and C, wherein any such combination may contain one or more members of A, B or C. All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the various aspects described throughout this disclosure that are known or later come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed by the claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims. The terms "module," mechanism, "" element, "" device, "and the like may not be a substitute for the term" means. As such, no claim element should be construed as a means-plus-function unless the element is explicitly recited using the phrase "means for … …".