User equipment operating as relay via a sidelink connection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12267909-B2
Application number	US-202017593591-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 24, 2020
Priority date	Jul 24, 2020
Publication date	Apr 1, 2025
Grant date	Apr 1, 2025

Abstract

A first user equipment (UE) is capable of serving as a relay for a second UE using a sidelink connection. The first UE determines that a predetermined condition is satisfied, the predetermined condition associated with the first UE operating as a relay for a second UE, transmits a discovery message and monitors for a signal from the second UE in response to the discovery message.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method, comprising:
at a first user equipment (UE):
determining that a predetermined condition is satisfied, the predetermined condition associated with the first UE operating as a layer 2 (L2) UE-to-network relay for a second UE and comprising at least one or more access stratum (AS) layer based conditions, wherein the L2 UE-to-network relay comprises a Uu interface between the first UE and a base station and a PC5 interface between the first UE and the second UE;
transmitting a sidelink discovery message, in response to determining that the predetermined condition is satisfied; and
monitoring for a signal from the second UE in response to the discovery message.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
collecting measurement data corresponding to a connection between the first UE and a currently camped cell, and
wherein determining that the predetermined condition is satisfied includes determining that the measurement data is above a first threshold and below a second threshold and wherein the first threshold and the second threshold is configured by the currently camped cell.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the measurement data is a single quality value based on measurement data corresponding to multiple beams.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the discovery message is transmitted in response to a query received from the second UE.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
collecting measurement data corresponding to multiple beams, and
wherein determining that the predetermined condition is satisfied includes determining whether measurement data corresponding to each beam in a subset of the multiple beams satisfies a threshold value.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined condition is based on a synchronization signal block (SSB) index value.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the discovery message includes at least one of a proximity services (ProSe) relay UE ID, relay type information, mobility information, a layer 2 (L2) relay indication and a layer 3 (L3) relay indication.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the discovery message includes at least one of an indication of a quality of a connection between the first UE and a currently camped cell, system information, supported sidelink frequency bands and an indication that hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback is supported.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the discovery message includes at least one of i) a layer 2 (L2) address specific for discovery services and ii) a service data unit (SDU) type in a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) header.

10. A user equipment (UE), comprising:
a transceiver configured to communicate with a network; and
a processor configured to perform operations, the operations comprising:
determining that a predetermined condition is satisfied, the predetermined condition associated with the UE operating as a layer 2 (L2) UE-to-Network relay for a second UE and comprising at least one or more access stratum (AS) layer based conditions, wherein the L2 UE-to-network relay comprises a Uu interface between the first UE and a base station and a PC5 interface between the first UE and the second UE;
transmitting a sidelink discovery message, in response to determining that the predetermined condition is satisfied; and
monitoring for a signal from the second UE in response to the discovery message.

11. The UE of claim 10 , further comprising:
collecting measurement data corresponding to a connection between the UE and a currently camped cell, and
wherein determining that the predetermined condition is satisfied includes determining that the measurement data is above a first threshold and below a second threshold.

12. The UE of claim 11 , wherein the second UE is outside of a coverage area of the currently camped cell.

13. The UE of claim 11 , wherein the measurement data is a single quality value based on measurement data corresponding to multiple beams.

14. The UE of claim 10 , wherein the predetermined condition is based on a direction of the UE relative to a currently camped cell.

15. The UE of claim 11 , wherein the discovery message includes a service data unit (SDU) type in a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) header.

16. An integrated circuit, comprising:
circuitry configured to determine that a predetermined condition is satisfied, the predetermined condition associated with a first UE operating as a layer 2 (L2) UE-to-network relay for a second UE and comprising at least one or more access stratum (AS) layer based conditions, wherein the L2 UE-to-network relay comprises a Uu interface between the first UE and a base station and a PC5 interface between the first UE and the second UE;
circuitry configured to transmit a sidelink discovery message, in response to determining that the predetermined condition is satisfied; and
circuitry configured to monitor for a signal from the second UE in response to the discovery message.

17. The integrated circuit of claim 16 , further comprising:
circuitry configured to collect measurement data corresponding to a connection between the UE and a currently camped cell, and
wherein determining that the predetermined condition is satisfied includes determining that the measurement data is above a first threshold and below a second threshold.

18. The integrated circuit of claim 17 , wherein the measurement data is a single quality value based on measurement data corresponding to multiple beams.

19. The integrated circuit of claim 16 , wherein the predetermined condition is based on a synchronization signal block (SSB) index value.

20. The integrated circuit of claim 16 , wherein the discovery message includes a service data unit (SDU) type in a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) header.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Wu Zhibin
• Kumar Adesh
• Zhang Dawei
• Xu Fangli
• Hu Haijing
• Palle Venkata Naveen Kumar R
• Gurumoorthy Sethuraman
• Lovlekar Srirang A
• Vamanan Sudeep Manithara
• Chen Yuqin

Classifications

• H04W92/18

  between terminal devices · CPC title

• H04W88/04

  adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user · CPC title

• H04W24/10

  Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports} · CPC title

• H04W24/08

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

• H04W16/28

  using beam steering · CPC title