CN118402285A

CN118402285A - Base station, user equipment and paging early indication processing method

Info

Publication number: CN118402285A
Application number: CN202180104987.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 沙希德·简; 生嘉
Original assignee: Huizhou TCL Cloud Internet Corp Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huizhou TCL Cloud Internet Corp Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-11-01
Filing date: 2021-11-01
Publication date: 2024-07-26
Also published as: WO2023070688A1

Abstract

The application provides a base station, user Equipment (UE) and a method for processing Paging Early Indication (PEI). The present application provides a PEI downlink control information DCI format whose payload size is associated with a corresponding aggregation level AL candidate. In addition, the application also defines the time domain position of the PEI monitoring opportunity. Furthermore, the present application defines one PEI mapped to multiple POs in a single PF or across multiple PFs.

Description

Base station, user equipment and paging early indication processing method

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communication systems, and more particularly, to a paging early indication method, a user equipment, and a base station.

Background

Wireless communication systems of third generation (3G) mobile telephone standards and technologies are well known. Such 3G standards and technologies were developed by the third generation partnership project (3 GPP). Third generation wireless communications have been developed to support macro cellular mobile phone communications, such that communication systems and networks are evolving towards broadband and mobile systems. In a cellular wireless communication system, a User Equipment (UE) is connected to a Radio Access Network (RAN) through a radio link. The RAN includes a set of Base Stations (BSs) that provide radio links with UEs in a base station coverage cell and interfaces to a Core Network (CN) that provides overall network control. The third generation partnership project has developed a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, i.e. an evolved universal mobile telecommunications system radio access network (E-UTRAN), for mobile access networks in which one or more macro base stations are supported by base stations called enodebs or enbs (evolved nodebs). LTE is further evolving towards so-called 5G or NR (new radio) systems, where one or more cells are supported by a base station called next generation node B's base station (gNB).

The power saving technology plays a key role in a 5G NR system to support low power consumption devices such as industrial wireless sensors, video monitoring, and wearable devices. To conserve power and battery power, the UE may perform discontinuous reception (Discontinuous reception, DRX) and spend a significant amount of time in a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) idle mode or an RRC inactive mode. In RRC idle/inactive mode, the UE may remain in sleep mode to shut down Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry and wake up periodically to monitor the physical downlink control channel (physical downlink control channel, PDCCH) to check if a paging message is present. Typically, the UE performs the following steps to monitor for pages:

wake up before paging opportunity;

Secondly, turning on a radio frequency and baseband circuit;

Automatic Gain Control (AGC) and time-frequency synchronization (called loop convergence) and service unit validation;

Attempting to perform PDCCH decoding on Downlink Control Information (DCI) scrambled with a paging radio network temporary identifier (P-RNTI);

Fifth, returning DRX if paging is not found;

Sixth, if paging DCI is found, the UE decodes a corresponding Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) according to the payload; and

Seventhly, if the UE identity of the UE is contained in the PDSCH, the UE will initiate a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure, otherwise the UE will return DRX.

The paging procedure consumes more energy and wastes UE power, especially in the case of so-called false paging, the UE decodes the paging PDCCH and finds that the UE is not paged. In order to save power consumption and reduce unnecessary UE paging reception, the 3GPP RAN working group approves the work item of the UE power saving enhancement function, including the following objectives:

(1) Enhanced functionality to power save for idle/inactive mode UEs is specified while taking into account system performance aspects:

First, the paging enhancement function is studied and specified to reduce unnecessary UE paging reception without regard to legacy UEs

An influence is generated;

(II) specify providing a potential Tracking Reference Signal (TRS) to idle/inactive mode UE in RRC connected mode

Means for Channel State Information (CSI) reference signals (CSI-RS) while minimizing overhead impact.

To reduce unnecessary paging and save power consumption, UE subgroup paging was developed as an effective method, reducing paging rate per group and thus reducing false paging rate. Also, a Paging Early Indication (PEI) was introduced in 3GPP standard Rel-17 paging enhancements, where the PEI was transmitted before the target Paging Occasion (PO) to indicate whether the UE subgroup monitored the PDCCH scrambled with the P-RNTI. When PEI is detected, UEs in the UE subgroup will wake up the baseband circuitry and initiate the paging procedure. If PEI is not detected, the UEs in the subset of UEs will remain in sleep mode, thereby avoiding unnecessary paging and saving power consumption.

Technical problem

According to the current standardized protocol, the physical layer channel of PEI is based solely on the PEI based on PDCCH, and for NR Rel-17, paging indication of idle/inactive UE subgroups is performed solely in PEI. The payload size of the new DCI format of PDCCH-based PEI is still under discussion. The larger payload size of PEIDCI may affect the detection performance of PEI. However, if the payload size PEIDCI is too small, it cannot be used to transmit the indication information of a plurality of POs, and additional functions such as TRS availability indication and SI/ETWS indication cannot be performed. In addition, the smaller payload size of PEIDCI may result in the BS transmitting PEI to the UE in each PO, resulting in increased UE power consumption. Likewise, the time domain location of the PEI's opportunity also affects the PEI's additional functionality capability and power saving gain. Therefore, there is a need to define an efficient PEIDCI format with payload size and proper position of PEI-O in the time domain to improve the detection performance and functionality of PEI.

Technical proposal

The invention aims to provide User Equipment (UE), a base station and a method for processing early paging indication.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method of handling early paging indications executable in a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

In a Radio Resource Control (RRC) idle mode or an RRC inactive mode, receiving a paging early indication carrying indication information at a Paging Early Indication (PEI) monitoring opportunity, wherein the indication information comprises one or more of a UE subgroup paging indication, a Tracking Reference Signal (TRS) availability indication, a System Information (SI) notification, an Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) notification;

And based on the received indication information carried in the PEI, paging operation or no paging operation is carried out in a target paging opportunity PO, wherein the target PO is indicated by the indication information.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the present invention provide a User Equipment (UE) comprising a processor for invoking and running a computer program stored in memory to cause the device in which the processor is installed to perform the disclosed method.

In a third aspect, embodiments of the present invention provide a method of processing early paging indications, the method being executable in a base station, the method comprising: the base station sends a paging early indication PEI in a PEI monitoring opportunity, wherein the indication information comprises one or more of paging indication of a User Equipment (UE) subgroup, tracking Reference Signal (TRS) availability indication, system Information (SI) notification, earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) notification.

In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present invention provide a base station comprising a processor for invoking and running a computer program stored in memory to cause a device in which the processor is installed to perform the disclosed method.

The method of the present invention may be implemented in a chip. The chip may include a processor configured to invoke and run a computer program stored in memory to cause a device on which the chip is installed to perform the disclosed methods.

The methods of the present invention may be programmed as computer-executable instructions stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium. The non-transitory computer readable medium, when loaded into a computer, instructs the processor of the computer to perform the method of the present invention.

The non-transitory computer readable medium may include at least one of the group of: hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, erasable programmable read-only memory, EPROM, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, and flash memory.

The present invention provides a computer program product comprising a computer program, wherein the computer program causes a computer to perform the above method.

The present invention provides a computer program which causes a computer to execute the above method.

Advantageous effects

As described in the protocol in current 3GPP standardization work, the physical layer channel of PEI is based solely on PDCCH-based PEI, and for NR Rel-17, paging indication of idle/inactive UEs in the UE subgroup is only done in PEI. However, defining an efficient PEIDCI format with payload size is critical to improving detection performance and functionality of PEI, such as paging indication, TRS availability indication, system Information (SI) change indication, and Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) notification. Furthermore, there is no specific protocol in this regard, as the reference point of the PEI's monitoring opportunity's time domain location and the indication information carried by the PEI are still under discussion. Accordingly, the present invention provides a PEIDCI format whose payload size is associated with the corresponding Aggregation Level (AL). In addition, the invention also defines the time domain position of the PEI monitoring opportunity. Furthermore, the present invention defines one PEI mapped to multiple POs in a single PF or across multiple PFs.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings that are needed in the description of the embodiments will be briefly described below, it being obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and that other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a communication system.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a PEI process according to a disclosed embodiment.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of PEI opportunity (PEI-O) locations with an incoming target Paging Opportunity (PO) as a reference point under good channel conditions.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating PEI-O locations with incoming target Paging Opportunities (PO) as reference points under severe channel conditions.

FIG. 5 shows an example of PEI-O location 3 SSBs earlier than the target PO used as the reference point.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing PEI-O locations referenced to previous POs under good channel conditions.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing PEI-O locations referenced to a previous PO under severe channel conditions.

FIG. 8 shows a schematic of PEI mapping to one PO in the PF.

FIG. 9 shows a schematic diagram of PEI mapping to two POs in a PF.

FIG. 10 shows a schematic diagram of PEI mapping to four POs in a PF.

FIG. 11 shows a schematic diagram of PEI mapping to four POs in four PFs.

FIG. 12 shows a schematic diagram of PEI mapping to four POs in two PFs.

FIG. 13 shows a schematic diagram of PEI mapping to three POs in two PFs.

FIG. 14 shows a schematic diagram of PEI mapping to one PO in the PF.

FIG. 15 shows a schematic diagram of PEI mapping to three POs in a PF.

FIG. 16 shows a schematic of PEI mapping to one PO in another PF.

FIG. 17 shows a schematic diagram of PEI mapping to four POs in four PFs.

FIG. 18 shows a schematic diagram of PEI mapping to four POs in three PFs.

FIG. 19 shows a schematic of PEI mapping to four POs in two PFs.

Fig. 20 is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

The embodiments of the present invention describe in detail technical matters, structural features, achieving objects and effects with reference to the accompanying drawings. In particular, the terminology used in the embodiments of the invention is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure.

The present invention relates to 5G NR wireless communication systems, and more particularly to UE paging enhancements in RRC idle/inactive mode. Embodiments of a Paging Early Indication (PEI) DCI format, a time domain location of a PEI monitoring opportunity, and a mapping between the PEI and one or more POs are described in detail below. In this context, the term "/" should be interpreted as "or". UEs in RRC idle mode are referred to as idle UEs, and UEs in RRC inactive mode are referred to as inactive UEs.

Referring to fig. 1, a communication system including a UE10 a, a UE10b, a Base Station (BS) 20a and a network entity apparatus 30 is used to perform the method disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention. Fig. 1 shows an illustration, not a limitation, and the system may contain more UE, BS and CN entities. The connections between the devices and the device components are shown as lines and arrows in the figures. The UE10 a may include a processor 11a, a memory 12a, and a transceiver 13a. The UE10b may include a processor 11b, a memory 12b, and a transceiver 13b. The base station 20a may include a processor 21a, a memory 22a, and a transceiver 23a. The network entity device 30 may include a processor 31, a memory 32, and a transceiver 33. The processors 11a, 11b, 21a, 31 may be configured to implement the proposed functions, procedures and/or methods described in the description. The radio interface protocol layers may be implemented in the processors 11a, 11b, 21a and 31. Each of the memories 12a, 12b, 22a and 32 is operable to store various programs and information to operate the connected processors. Each transceiver 13a, 13b, 23a and 33 is operatively coupled to a connected processor to transmit and/or receive radio signals or wired signals. The base station 20a may be one of an eNB, a gNB, or other type of radio node, and may configure radio resources for the UE10 a and the UE10b. The communication system comprises a plurality of UEs belonging to a UE subgroup 14 and a plurality of UEs belonging to a UE subgroup 15. UEs belong to UE subgroup 14, including UE10 a, and UEs belong to UE subgroup 15, including UE10b.

Each of the processors 11a, 11b, 21a, and 31 may include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), other chipset, logic circuit, and/or data processing device. Each of the memories 12a, 12b, 22a, and 32 may include Read Only Memory (ROM), random Access Memory (RAM), flash memory, memory cards, storage media, and/or other storage devices. Each of the transceivers 13a, 13b, 23a, and 33 may include baseband circuitry and Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry to process radio frequency signals. When the embodiments are implemented in software, the techniques described herein may be implemented with modules, procedures, functions, entities, and so on that perform the functions described herein. These modules may be stored in memory and executed by a processor. The memory may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor, in which case it can be communicatively coupled to the processor via various means as is known in the art.

The network entity device 30 may be a CN node, i.e. a node in the CN. The CN may include LTE CN and/or 5G core (5 GC), including User Plane Functions (UPF), session Management Functions (SMF), mobility management functions (AMF), unified Data Management (UDM), policy Control Functions (PCF), control Plane (CP)/User Plane (UP) separation (CUPS), authentication server (AUSF), network Slice Selection Functions (NSSF), and network public functions (NEF).

The present invention provides PEIDCI formats with payload size and PEI configuration, such as basic and additional functions and Aggregation Level (AL) candidates, time domain locations of PEI monitor opportunities for reference POs/PFs, and mapping of one PEI to a paging frame (PAGING FRAME, PF) or multiple POs across multiple PFs. The embodiment of the invention defines PEIDCI dimensions. The embodiment of the invention provides a time domain position example of a PEI monitoring opportunity. Embodiments of the present invention provide examples where one PEI maps to one paging frame or multiple POs across multiple paging frames.

Referring to fig. 2, the UE 10 may include one of the UE 10a or the UE 10b. Base station 20 may include base station 200a. Note that even though the gNB is described below as an example of a base station, the disclosed method may be implemented in any other type of base station, such as an eNB or a 5G above base station. Uplink (UL) transmission of control signals or data may be a transmission operation from a UE to a base station. The Downlink (DL) transmission of the control signal or data may be a transmission operation from the base station to the UE. The disclosed method is described in detail below. The UE 10 and the base station 20 (e.g., the gNB) perform a method of handling early indications of paging.

The base station 20 transmits a Paging Early Indication (PEI) 203 carrying indication information to one or more UE subsets including the UE 10 at the PEI monitoring opportunity, wherein the PEI 203 includes one or more of UE subset paging indication, TRS availability indication, system Information (SI) notification, and Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) notification (step 200).

UEs in one or more UE sub-groups including UE 10 perform PEI monitoring and receive PEI 203 carrying indication information in Radio Resource Control (RRC) idle mode or RRC inactive mode (step 202).

The base station 20 transmits a paging message 205 to UEs in one or more UE subgroups including the UE 10 (step 204). Each UE of the one or more UE subsets including the UE 10 performs a paging operation in a target Paging Opportunity (PO) indicated by indication information indicated based on the indication information carried by the received PEI 203 (step 206). The paging operation may include: the UE 10 wakes up from sleep mode, transitions from RRC idle/inactive mode to RRC connected mode, receives and decodes the paging message 205 when the PEI 203 indicates that the paging message 205 in the target PO is for the UE 10. When the PEI 203 indicates that the paging message in the target PO is not applicable to the UE 10, the UE 10 does not perform the paging operation.

1.1PEIDCI format:

The PDCCH-based PEI transmits indication information to one or more idle/inactive UEs in one or more UE subgroups using the new DCI, wherein the indication information may include one or more UE subgroup paging indications, TRS availability indications, and SI/ETWS notifications. The indication information may include all UEs subgroup paging indication, TRS availability indication and SI/ETWS notification in one PEI. The UE subgroup paging indication is a paging indication transmitted from the gNB to the UE subgroup. The subset of UEs is referred to as a UE subset. The paging indication in PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may include indication information indicating to UEs in the subset of UEs whether to transmit paging messages at paging opportunities for the UEs. Similarly, the paging indication in the PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may include indication information indicating to the UEs in the one or more UE subgroups whether to transmit one or more paging messages at one or more paging opportunities for the UEs in the one or more UE subgroups. Thus, the indication information in the PEI (e.g., PEI 203) associates the PEI with one or more paging opportunities. The relationship between the associated PEI and one or more paging opportunities is referred to as a mapping between PEI and one or more paging opportunities.

1.1.1PEIDCI size:

the embodiment of the invention provides a PEIDCI format with a payload size, which is designed in a way of improving the detection performance of PEI and effectively utilizing available bits to realize basic and additional functions of PEI based on PDCCH.

Embodiments of the present invention provide PEIDCI with a payload size that includes multiple bits to accommodate the following fields. Ue subgroup paging indication field: one PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may be used to indicate to the subset of UEs up to 4 POs in one PF or in multiple PFs. Since a maximum of 8 UE subgroups can be paged in each PO, and each UE subgroup requires at least 1 bit in the UE subgroup paging indication field for paging indication. The UE subgroup paging indication field may contain 4*8 =32 UE subgroup paging indications of at most 4 POs. Thus, in the PEIDCI format proposed in this embodiment, the UE subgroup paging indication field of a PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may include a size of 32 bits, where each bit is configured as a UE paging indication of the UE subgroup for indicating paging of the UE subgroup in the PO. Thus, the UE subgroup paging indication field in PEI (e.g., PEI 203) includes paging indications of up to four Paging Opportunities (POs) in one Paging Frame (PF) or across multiple PFs, and for each PO, the paging indications correspond to up to 8 UE subgroups.

Trs availability indication field: in paging DCI, the TRS availability indication field may have 6 reserved bits for TRS availability indication. For TRS availability indication, the same mechanism/principle may be used for paging DCI and PEI. Similar to the number of bits reserved in paging DCI, embodiments of the present invention propose to use at least 6 bits in the TRS availability indication field of PEI (e.g., PEI 203) for TRS availability indication.

Si/ETWS notification field: PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may contain SI/ETWS notification fields that indicate SI changes and/or ETWS notifications, which may help the UE avoid unnecessary decoding of paging DCI when paging DCI is only used for SI changes or ETWS notifications. At least 2 bits in PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may be used for SI or ETWS notification, with 1 bit for SI change and 1 bit for ETWS notification.

Using a 32 bit UE subgroup paging indication field, a 6 bit TRS availability indication field and a2 bit SI or ETWS notification, the total payload size of the PEI (e.g., PEI 203) is at least 40 bits. PEI may include cyclic redundancy check (Cyclic Redundancy Check, CRC) bits scrambled with P-RNTI or PEI-RNTI. When the base station 20 transmits PEI (e.g., PEI 203), the CRC bits may be scrambled with the P-RNTI/PEI-RNTI PEIDCI may have 80 bits, as shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1PEIDCI load size

Field item	Bits
		UE subgroup paging indication	32
TRS availability indication	6
		SI/ETWS notification	2
P-RNTI or PEI-RNTI	16
		Scrambling CRC	24
Total load of	80

1.1.2 Aggregation level (Aggregation Level, AL) candidates:

In NR, an Aggregation Level (AL) is used to define the number of Control Channel Element (CCE) candidates for the PDCCH. CCE candidates are physical radio resources in the DCI transmission control region. Because the network may not have enough resources in the control region for other UE subgroups at the same opportunity (Occasion), PDCCH transmissions with high AL are very resource intensive and may cause PDCCH blocking problems. Thus, in the present embodiment, one or more UEs in one or more UE subsets may be configured to receive a lower AL of PEI (e.g., PEI 203). The payload size of PEI must not exceed the number of bits in the PDCCH CCE capacity in which AL is allocated. The AL configured may be one of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16. For example, in NR, the capacity of PDCCH CCEs with configuration AL may be calculated according to current specification TS 38.213, as shown in table 2.

Table 2PDCCH AL and capacity

The DMRS represents a Demodulation reference signal (Demodulation REFERENCE SIGNAL). The total payload size of PEIDCI formatted PEI (e.g., PEI 203) after scrambling with 16 bits of P-RNTI/PEI-RNTI and adding 24 bits of CRC is 80 bits. The PDCCH CCE capacity of AL1 is about 108 bits, which can provide good forward error correction protection for efficient decoding of PDCCH-based PEI, enabling idle/inactive UEs to successfully receive and decode PEI messages. But in the current specification, DCI scrambled with a common RNTI (e.g., P-RNTI or PEIRNTI) and allocated in a common search space (e.g., paging search space or dedicated PEI search space) should always use the highest aggregation level, e.g., 4 or 8. Thus, the AL required for PDCCH-based PEI (e.g., PEI 203) should be configurable. Specifically, similar to the UE-specific PDCCH, the AL required for PDCCH-based PEI may be 1,2, 4,8 or 16, in order to provide better flexibility and guarantee detection performance for the base station 20 (e.g., gNB).

1.2PEI monitors time domain position of opportunity:

the PEI monitor opportunities are a set of PDCCH monitor opportunities, designated as units of time (e.g., subframes, slots, or OFDM symbols), where PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may be transmitted by the gNB (e.g., base station 20). OFDM stands for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.

The PEI (e.g., PEI 203) is configured to transmit indication information indicating the target PO before the target PO. Thus, the base station 20 should send PEI (e.g., PEI 203) before the target PO is to be sent. Thus, embodiments of the present invention provide that the time domain location of the PEI monitoring opportunity, such as PEI 203, is located relative to the reference point and defines a time offset between the reference point and the PEI monitoring opportunity. The PEI monitoring opportunity is a time offset away from the reference point. The reference point may be the previous PO before the PEI, or the target PO after the PEI. The time offset may be specified by S SSB bursts and indicate that the PEI is S SSB bursts far from the previous PO or to the target PO. SSB stands for synchronization signal block. The time domain location of the PEI monitoring opportunity may be referred to hereinafter as the PEI-O location.

(A) PEI monitors the time domain position of the opportunity, consulting the target PO:

As shown in fig. 3 and 4, the time domain location of the PEI (e.g., PEI 203) of the PEI monitoring opportunity may be associated with the target PO. That is, the target PO will be taken as the reference point for the PEI monitor opportunity time domain location. Since the UEs 10 in one or more UE sub-groups in RRC idle/inactive mode are out of synchronization with the network, the UE 10 may need to perform at least 1 SSB burst under good channel conditions and at least 3 SSB bursts under bad channel conditions before the PEI monitor can perform PEI monitoring. As shown in fig. 3 and 4, if the time domain location reference point of the PEI monitoring opportunity is the to-be-target PO and the PEI monitoring opportunity is configured in such a way that there is no SSB burst between the PEI monitoring opportunity and the to-be-target PO, the PEI can only be used for paging indication and cannot be used for TRS availability indication. In this case, even though the TRS is configured for the idle/inactive UE 10 for AGC and time/frequency synchronization and the PEI is used for the TRS availability indication, the UE 10 cannot detect the TRS because the PEI carrying the TRS availability indication is transmitted after the TRS event occurs.

However, if the reference point is to the target PO and the PEI monitoring opportunity is at least 3 SSB bursts earlier than the target PO, then the PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may be used for the paging indication as well as the TRS availability indication because the time offset between the PEI monitoring opportunity and the target PO is long enough so that the base station 20 may send the PEI to carry the TRS availability indication to one or more UE subgroups including the UE 10 and the UE 10 may receive the PEI and decode the TRS availability indication in the PEI before the TRS opportunity. As shown in fig. 5, in an embodiment, if the reference point of the time domain location of the PEI monitoring opportunity is associated with the target PO, the time offset between the reference point (i.e., the target PO) and the PEI monitoring opportunity should be at least 3 SSB bursts and the PEI should be sent at least 3 SSBs earlier than the target PO. In an embodiment, the PEI includes a TRS availability indication when the PEI monitoring opportunity is 3 SSB bursts away from the reference point, and the PEI does not include a TRS availability indication when the PEI monitoring opportunity is less than 3 SSB bursts away from the reference point.

(B) PEI-O location references the previous PO:

The reference point may be the previous PO before PEI. The opportunity for PEI monitoring may be one, two or three SSB bursts away from the reference point. As shown in fig. 6 and 7, when the time domain location of the PEI monitoring opportunity is associated with a previous PO before the target PO, at least 1 SSB burst with good channel conditions and 3 SSBs with bad channel conditions may be required, respectively, and the time domain location of the PEI monitoring opportunity requires at least 3 SSB bursts after the previous PO to ensure that the idle/inactivity of the UE 10 is synchronized with the network in one or more UE subgroups before receiving the PEI (e.g., PEI 203). In this case, PEI may be used for UE subgroup paging indication as well as TRS availability indication. Thus, in the disclosed embodiment, the base station 20 configures the time domain location of the PEI monitor opportunity with reference to the previous PO. For example, the base station 20 configures the time domain position of the PEI monitoring opportunity with a time offset of at least 3 SSB bursts such that the time domain position of the PEI monitoring opportunity is 3 SSB bursts after the previous PO. An advantage of associating the time domain location of the PEI monitor opportunity with the previous PO is that the UE 10 can receive the indication in advance and return to the deep sleep state until the target PO is reached.

1.3 Mapping of PEI to PO:

Examples of PEI, such as PEI 203, indicating a Paging Frame (PF) or one or more POs across multiple PFs are described in detail below. The PEI may carry indication information including one or more of a UE subgroup paging indication, TRS availability indication, or SI/ETWS notification. PEI (e.g., PEI 203) in the PEI-O location, references may have various mappings from PEI to one or more POs to the target PO. Similarly, PEI (e.g., PEI 203) of a PEI-O location may have various mappings from PEI to one or more POs with reference to a previous PO.

It should be noted that in the current specification, 1,2 or 4 POs may be configured in the PF, and PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may be used to transmit indication information of up to 4 POs.

1.3.1 When the reference point for the PEI-O location of PEI is the target PO, PEI indicates one or more POs:

In an embodiment, when the PEI-O location of the PEI is associated with a target PO, the PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may be used to transmit an indication of one or more POs in the PF or across multiple PFs. As in the previous examples, the PEI may be at least 3 SSBs earlier than the target PO. The following example shows all possible images of one PEI to one PO or multiple POs in one PF or in multiple PFs.

(A) One PEI maps to one or more POs in the PF:

When the time domain location reference point of the PEI monitoring opportunity is the target PO to be after the PEI (e.g., PEI 203), the PEI may be configured to transmit an indication of 1, 2, or 4 POs in the PF, depending on the number of POs configured in the PF. The PEI may include indication information including paging indications of up to four POs in one or more paging frames. The paging indication of up to four POs may include a target PO after PEI and three POs after target PO. Each of the one or more paging frames may be configured to include one, two, or four POs. Different ones of the one or more paging frames may be configured to include different numbers of POs. For example, referring to FIG. 8, when configuring a PO in a PF, a single PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may be used to transmit an indication of the PO in the PF.

Similarly, as shown in FIG. 9, when two POs are configured in the PF, a single PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may be used to transmit an indication of both POs in the PF.

As shown in fig. 10, when 4 POs are configured in the PF, one PEI may be used to transmit indication information of the 4 POs in the PF.

(B) PEI maps to 1 PO or multiple POs of multiple PFs:

The PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may also be used to transmit an indication of 1, 2, 3, or 4 POs among the PFs when the time domain location reference point of the PEI monitoring opportunity is the intended PO. For example, when one PO is configured in each PF, one PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may be used to transmit an indication of each PO in four PFs. As shown in fig. 11, PEI (e.g., PEI 203) in the nth PF is used to transmit the indication information of each PO in PFs N, n+1, n+2, and n+3.

Also, when two POs are configured in each PF, one PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may be used to transmit an indication of each PO in the PF. As shown in fig. 12, PEI (e.g., PEI 203) in the nth PF is used to transmit the indication information of each PO in PFs N and n+1.

In another example, a different number of POs are configured in each PF. As shown in fig. 13, for example, one PO is disposed in the PF N, and two POs are disposed in the PF n+2. In this case, one PEI (e.g., PEI 203) in the PF N may be used to transmit an indication of one PO in the PF N and two POs in the PF N+2.

1.3.2 When the reference point for the PEI-O position of PEI is the previous PO to the target PO, PEI represents one or more POs:

In an embodiment, when a PEI-O location is associated with a previous PO prior to the target PO, the PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may be used to transmit an indication of the PO or POs in the PF or across multiple PFs. In this case, the time domain location of the PEI monitoring opportunity of the PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may be configured with at least 3 SSB bursts after the previous PO to ensure synchronization before transmitting PEI under good and bad channel conditions. The PEI may include indication information including paging indications of up to four POs in one or more paging frames. The paging indication of up to four POs may include a target PO after PEI and three POs after target PO. Each of the one or more paging frames may be configured to include one, two, three, or four POs. Different ones of the one or more paging frames may be configured to include different numbers of POs. The following example shows all possible images of one PEI to one PO or one PF or multiple POs across multiple PFs. (a) one PEI maps to one or more POs in the PF:

The PEI may also be used to transmit an indication of 1 or 3 POs in the PF when the time domain location reference point of the PEI monitoring opportunity is the previous PO before the PEI (e.g., PEI 203). Referring to fig. 14, in this case, if one PEI (e.g., PEI 203) is used to transmit indication information of one PO, the base station 20 needs to configure at least 2 POs in the PF. For example, a PEI associated with PO1 is used to transmit an indication of the target PO, namely PO2.

As shown in fig. 15, also when 4 POs are configured in the PF, one PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may be used to transmit the indication information of the remaining 3 POs in the PF.

(B) PEI maps to one PO or multiple POs across multiple PFs:

When the time domain location reference point of the PEI monitoring opportunity is associated with a previous PO prior to the PEI (e.g., PEI 203), the PEI may be used to transmit an indication of 1,2,3, or 4 POs among the multiple PFs. For example, as shown in FIG. 16, PEI located in the PF N is associated with PO1 in the PF N and may be used to transmit an indication of the target PO in the PF N+1. As shown in fig. 17, also when one PO is configured in each PF, PEI in the PF N (e.g., PEI 203) may be used to transmit an indication of each PO in pfn+1, n+2, n+3, and n+4.

As shown in fig. 18, when two POs are configured in each PF, PEI in the PF N (e.g., PEI 203) may be used to transmit the indication information of PO2 in the PF N, PO1 and PO2 in the PF n+1, and PO1 in the PF n+2.

As shown in fig. 19, also when 4 POs are configured in each PF, PEI (e.g., PEI 203) may be used to transmit the indication of PO1, PO2, PO3 in PF N and PO1 in PF n+1.

Fig. 20 is a block diagram of an example system 700 for wireless communication in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The embodiments described herein may be implemented into a system using any suitable configuration of hardware and/or software. Fig. 20 illustrates a system 700 including Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 710, baseband circuitry 720, processing unit 730, memory/storage 740, display 750, camera 760, sensor 770, and input/output (I/O) interface 780 coupled to one another.

The processing unit 730 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Processors may include any combination of general-purpose processors and special-purpose processors, such as graphics processors and application processors. The processor may be coupled to the memory/storage and configured to execute instructions in the memory/storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems running on the system.

Radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation, encoding, decoding, radio frequency shifting, and the like. In some embodiments, baseband circuitry may provide communications compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry may support communication with 5G NR, LTE, evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN), and/or other Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs), wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs). An embodiment in which the baseband circuitry is configured to support radio communications for multiple wireless protocols may be referred to as a multimode baseband circuitry. In various embodiments, baseband circuitry 720 may include circuitry to operate signals that are not strictly considered to be in baseband frequency. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry may include circuitry to operate a signal having an intermediate frequency that is between the baseband frequency and the radio frequency.

In various embodiments, system 700 may be a mobile computing device such as, but not limited to, a notebook computing device, a tablet computing device, a netbook, an ultrabook, a smartphone, and the like. In various embodiments, the system may have more or less components, and/or different architectures. The methods described herein may be implemented as computer programs, where appropriate. The computer program may be stored on a storage medium, such as a non-transitory storage medium.

Embodiments of the present invention are a combination of techniques/procedures that may be employed in the 3GPP specifications to create the end product.

If the software functional unit is implemented and used and sold as a product, it may be stored in a readable storage medium of a computer. Based on this understanding, the solution proposed by the present invention may be implemented basically or partly as a software product. Or a portion of a technical program, which facilitates conventional techniques, may be implemented as a software product. The software product is stored in a storage medium in a computer, including a plurality of commands for a computing device (e.g., a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps disclosed by embodiments of the present invention. The storage medium includes a USB disk, a removable hard disk, a Read Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a floppy disk, or other medium capable of storing program code.

The disclosure provides a PEIDCI format whose payload size is associated with the corresponding AL candidate. In addition, the disclosure defines the time domain location of PEI monitoring opportunities. Furthermore, the disclosure defines mapping of one PEI to multiple POs in a single PF or across multiple PFs.

While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment, but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the broadest interpretation of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of handling early paging indications, the method being executable in a user equipment, UE, the method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the PEI includes a field of the UE subgroup paging indication.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the field of UE subgroup paging indication in the PEI comprises paging indication of at most 4 paging opportunities, POs, in one paging frame, PF, or across multiple PFs, and for each PO, the paging indication corresponds to at most 8 UE subgroups.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the UE subgroup paging indication field in the PEI comprises 32 bits.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the PEI includes a field for a TRS availability indication.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the field of the TRS availability indication for the PEI comprises a TRS availability indication.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the field of the TRS availability indication for the PEI comprises 6 bits.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the PEI includes a field for SI/ETWS notification.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the field of the SI/ETWS notification for the PEI comprises a SI/ETWS notification.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the field of the SI/ETWS notification of the PEI comprises 2 bits.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE is configured to have a lower aggregation level AL for PEI reception.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the payload size of the PEI does not exceed the number of bits of the control channel element CCE capacity of the physical downlink control channel PDCCH, the number of bits of the PDCCH CCE capacity being determined by configuration AL.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the configuration AL comprises one of 1,2,4, 8, or 16.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the time domain location of the PEI monitoring opportunity is determined based on a reference point, the reference point being a time offset relative to the PEI monitoring opportunity.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the time offset is specified by S sync signal block SSB bursts.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference point is an upcoming target PO after the PEI.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the PEI includes the TRS availability indication when the PEI monitoring opportunity is 3 SSB bursts away from the reference point; and

The PEI does not include the TRS availability indication when the PEI monitors less than 3 SSB bursts from the reference point.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the PEI includes indication information including paging indications of up to four POs in one or more paging frames.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the page indication of up to four of the POs comprises a target PO after the PEI.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein each of one or more of the paging frames is configured to include one, two, or four POs.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein two different ones of the one or more paging frames are configured to include different numbers of POs.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference point is a previous PO prior to the PEI.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the PEI monitor is located 1,2 or 3 SSB bursts away from the reference point.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the PEI includes indication information including paging indications of up to four POs in one or more paging frames.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein each of one or more of the paging frames is configured to include one, two, or four POs.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein two different ones of the one or more paging frames are configured to include different numbers of POs.

27. A user equipment, UE, comprising:

a processor configured to invoke and run a computer program stored in a memory to cause a device in which the processor is installed to perform the method of any of claims 1-26.

28. A chip, comprising:

a processor configured to invoke and run a computer program stored in a memory to cause a device on which the chip is installed to perform the method of any of claims 1-26.

29. A computer readable storage medium storing a computer program, wherein the computer program causes a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1-26.

30. A computer program product comprising a computer program, wherein the computer program causes a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1-26.

31. A computer program for causing a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1-26.

32. A method of processing early paging indications, the method being executable in a base station, the method comprising:

the base station sends a paging early indication PEI in a PEI monitoring opportunity, wherein the indication information comprises one or more of paging indication of a User Equipment (UE) subgroup, tracking Reference Signal (TRS) availability indication, system Information (SI) notification, earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) notification.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the PEI includes a field of the UE subgroup paging indication.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the field of UE subgroup paging indication in the PEI comprises paging indication of at most 4 paging opportunities, POs, in one paging frame, PF, or across multiple PFs, and for each PO, the paging indication corresponds to at most 8 UE subgroups.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the UE subgroup paging indication field in the PEI comprises 32 bits.

36. The method of claim 32 wherein the PEI includes a field for a TRS availability indication.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the field of the TRS availability indication for the PEI comprises a TRS availability indication.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein the field of the TRS availability indication for the PEI comprises 6 bits.

39. The method of claim 32, wherein the PEI includes a field for SI/ETWS notification.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the field of the SI/ETWS notification of the PEI includes a SI/ETWS notification.

41. The method of claim 39, wherein the field of the SI/ETWS notification of the PEI comprises 2 bits.

42. The method of claim 32, wherein the UE is configured to have a lower aggregation level AL for PEI reception.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the payload size of the PEI does not exceed a number of bits of a control channel element, CCE, capacity of a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, the number of bits of the CCE capacity being determined by configuration AL.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the configuration AL comprises one of 1,2,4, 8, or 16.

45. The method of claim 32 wherein the time domain location of the PEI monitoring opportunity is determined based on a reference point, the reference point being offset in time relative to the PEI monitoring opportunity.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the time offset is specified by S sync signal block SSB bursts.

47. The method of claim 32, wherein the reference point is an upcoming target PO after the PEI.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the PEI includes the TRS availability indication when the PEI monitoring opportunity is 3 SSB bursts away from the reference point; and

49. The method of claim 47, wherein the PEI includes indication information comprising paging indications of up to four POs in one or more paging frames.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the page indication of up to four of the POs comprises a target PO after the PEI.

51. The method of claim 49, wherein each of one or more of the paging frames is configured to include one, two, or four POs.

52. The method of claim 49, wherein two different ones of the one or more paging frames are configured to include different numbers of POs.

53. The method of claim 32, wherein the reference point is a previous PO prior to the PEI.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the PEI monitoring opportunity is 1,2 or 3 SSB bursts away from the reference point.

55. The method of claim 53, wherein the PEI includes indication information comprising paging indications of up to four POs in one or more paging frames.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein each of one or more of the paging frames is configured to include one, two, or four POs.

57. The method of claim 55, wherein two different ones of the one or more paging frames are configured to include different numbers of POs.

58. A base station, comprising:

A processor configured to invoke and run a computer program stored in a memory to cause a device in which the processor is installed to perform the method of any of claims 32-57.

59. A chip, comprising:

A processor configured to invoke and run a computer program stored in a memory to cause a device on which the chip is installed to perform the method of any of claims 32-57.

60. A computer readable storage medium storing a computer program, wherein the computer program causes a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 32-57.

61. A computer program product comprising a computer program, wherein the computer program causes a computer to perform the method of any of claims 32-57.

62. A computer program for causing a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 32-57.