Measurement gap design for NE-DC mode

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12035159-B2
Application number	US-202017429720-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 11, 2020
Priority date	Feb 11, 2019
Publication date	Jul 9, 2024
Grant date	Jul 9, 2024

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for determining a starting point of a measurement gap. For example, the present disclosure is directed to a user equipment (UE) that includes a memory and processor circuitry coupled to the memory. The processor circuitry may be configured to receive an indication of a measurement gap timing advance. The processor circuitry may be further configured to, based on the indication of the measurement gap timing advance, determine a starting point of a measurement gap in a dual connectivity mode that provides dual connectivity with a new radio (NR) and an evolved universal mobile telecommunications system terrestrial radio access (EUTRA). The NR may serve as a master Radio Access Network (RAN) and the EUTRA may serve as a secondary RAN. The processor circuitry may also be configured to perform a signal quality measurement during the measurement gap, wherein the signal quality measurement is performed on a target cell of the NR or EUTRA.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A user equipment (UE), comprising:
a radio front end circuitry; and
processor circuitry coupled to the radio front end circuitry, and configured to:
receive an indication of a measurement gap timing advance;
based on the indication of the measurement gap timing advance, determine a starting point of a measurement gap in a dual connectivity mode that provides dual connectivity with a new radio (NR) network and an evolved universal mobile telecommunications system terrestrial radio access (EUTRA) network, wherein the NR network serves as a master Radio Access Network (RAN) and the EUTRA network serves as a secondary RAN, wherein in response to the measurement gap being a first frequency range (FR1) measurement gap and the measurement gap timing advance equal to zero, the starting point of the FR1 measurement gap is determined based on a latest NR serving cell subframe boundary among master cell group (MCG) serving cell subframes in a second frequency range (FR2); and
perform, using the radio front end circuitry, a signal quality measurement during the measurement gap, wherein the signal quality measurement is performed on a target cell of the NR network or the EUTRA network.

2. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to cease transmissions and receptions during the measurement gap.

3. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the indication of the measurement gap timing advance is received from an access node.

4. The UE of claim 1 , wherein in response to the measurement gap being a per-UE measurement gap, the processor is further configured to determine the starting point as the measurement gap timing advance after an end of a latest NR subframe among master cell group (MCG) serving cell subframes that occurs before the measurement gap.

5. The UE of claim 1 , wherein in response to the measurement gap being for a frequency range and the UE uses a NR serving cell in the frequency range, the processor is further configured to determine the starting point as the measurement gap timing advance after an end of a latest NR subframe among master cell group (MCG) serving cell subframes in the frequency range that occurs before the measurement gap.

6. The UE of claim 1 , wherein in response to the measurement gap being for a frequency range and the UE does not use a NR serving cell in the frequency range, the processor is further configured to determine the starting point as the measurement gap timing advance after an end of a latest EUTRA subframe among secondary cell group (SCG) serving cell subframes that occurs before the measurement gap.

7. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the measurement gap timing advance is zero.

8. A method, comprising:
receiving, by a user equipment (UE), an indication of a measurement gap timing advance;
based on the indication of the measurement gap timing advance, determining, by the UE, a starting point of a measurement gap in a dual connectivity mode that provides dual connectivity with a new radio (NR) network and an evolved universal mobile telecommunications system terrestrial radio access (EUTRA) network, wherein the NR network serves as a master Radio Access Network (RAN) and the EUTRA network serves as a secondary RAN, wherein in response to the measurement gap being a first frequency range (FR1) measurement gap and the measurement gap timing advance equal to zero, the starting point of the FR1 measurement gap is determined based on a latest NR serving cell subframe boundary among master cell group (MCG) serving cell subframes in a second frequency range (FR2); and
performing, by the UE, a signal quality measurement during the measurement gap, wherein the signal quality measurement is performed on a target cell of the NR network or the EUTRA network.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising ceasing transmissions and receptions, by the UE, during the measurement gap.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the indication of the measurement gap timing advance is received from an access node.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein in response to the measurement gap being a per-UE measurement gap, the determining the starting point comprises determining the starting point as the measurement gap timing advance after an end of a latest NR subframe among master cell group (MCG) serving cell subframes that occurs before the measurement gap.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein in response to the measurement gap being for a frequency range and the UE uses a NR serving cell in the frequency range, determining the starting point comprises determining the starting point as the measurement gap timing advance after an end of a latest NR subframe among master cell group (MCG) serving cell subframes in the frequency range that occurs before the measurement gap.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein in response to the measurement gap being for a frequency range and the UE does not use a NR serving cell in the frequency range, determining the starting point comprises determining the starting point as the measurement gap timing advance after an end of a latest EUTRA subframe among secondary cell group (SCG) serving cell subframes that occurs before the measurement gap.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein the measurement gap timing advance is zero.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions to cause a user equipment (UE), upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the UE, to perform one or more operations, the operations comprising:
receiving an indication of a measurement gap timing advance;
based on the indication of the measurement gap timing advance, determining a starting point of a measurement gap in a dual connectivity mode with a new radio (NR) network and an evolved universal mobile telecommunications system terrestrial radio access (EUTRA) network, wherein the NR network serves as a master Radio Access Network (RAN) and the EUTRA network serves as a secondary RAN, wherein in response to the measurement gap being a first frequency range (FR1) measurement gap and the measurement gap timing advance equal to zero, the starting point of the FR1 measurement gap is determined based on a latest NR serving cell subframe boundary among master cell group (MCG) serving cell subframes in a second frequency range (FR2); and
performing a signal quality measurement during the measurement gap, wherein the signal quality measurement is performed on a target cell of the NR network or the EUTRA network.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , the operations further comprising ceasing transmissions and receptions, by the UE, during the measurement gap.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the indication of the measurement gap timing advance is received from an access node.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein in response to the measurement gap being a per-UE measurement gap, the determining the starting point comprises determining the starting point as the measurement gap timing advance after an end of a latest NR subframe among master cell group (MCG) serving cell subframes that occurs before the measurement gap.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein in response to the measurement gap being for a frequency range and the UE uses a NR serving cell in the frequency range, determining the starting point comprises determining the starting point as the measurement gap timing advance after an end of a latest NR subframe among master cell group (MCG) serving cell

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Cui Jie
• Tang Yang
• Li Qiming
• Zhou Yuhan
• He Hong

Classifications

• H04W36/00698

  using different RATs · CPC title

• H04W56/0045

  compensating for timing error by altering transmission time · CPC title

• H04W24/08 Primary

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic · CPC title

• H04W36/0088 Primary

  Scheduling hand-off measurements · CPC title