Time domain restriction for channel state information reference signal configuration

[0001] This application is a U.S. National Stage Application under 35 U.S.C. 371 and claims the priority benefit of International Application No. PCT/US2022/028551, filed May 10, 2022 and of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/186,433, filed May 10, 2021, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference as set forth in full.

[0002] This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for wireless communications and, more particularly, to time domain restriction for channel state information reference signal configuration.

[0003] Wireless devices are becoming widely prevalent and are increasingly requesting access to wireless channels. Channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) is a reference signal (RS) in 5G new radio (5G NR), to measure the characteristics of a radio channel.

[0013] The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail. For the purposes of the present document, the phrases “A or B” and “A/B” mean (A), (B), or (A and B).

[0014] Channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) is a reference signal (RS) in 5G new radio (5G NR), to measure the characteristics of a radio channel. UEs will use these reference signals to measure the quality of the radio channel and report this in the UL through the CQI Reports. A next generation radio access network (gNB) sends CSI Reference signals to report channel status information such as CSI-RSRP, CSI-RSRQ and CSI-SINR for mobility procedures. Specific instances of CSI reference signals can be configured for time/frequency tracking and mobility measurements.

[0015] In RAN4 #98bis, there is an open issue for time domain restriction for CSI-RS resource configuration. Whether all CSI-RS resources configured in the same measurement object (MO) are configured in the same 5 milliseconds (ms) window or different windows. However, there is no solution currently.

[0016] Various embodiments herein provide techniques for time domain restriction for CSI-RS resource configuration.

[0017] The above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting. Numerous other examples, configurations, processes, algorithms, etc., may exist, some of which are described in greater detail below. Example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying figures.

[0018] FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram for CSI-RS configuration, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0019] Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a measurement window for CSI-RS measurement.

[0020] In a 5GS, there are time domain restrictions for CSI-RS resource configuration. For example, for CSI-RS L3 measurement, different from synchronization signal/PBCH block (SSB) based measurement, CSI-RS resource can be configured more dynamically.

[0021] If a UE is configured with the higher layer parameter CSI-RS-Resource-Mobility, the UE shall perform measurements based on CSI-RS-Resource-Mobility and the UE may base the timing of the CSI-RS resource on the timing of the serving cell.

[0022]

The CSI-RS-Resource-Mobility is specified
in 3GPP TS38.331, as follows:
	CSI-RS-Resource-Mobility ::= SEQUENCE {
	csi-RS-Index CSI-RS-Index,
	slotConfig CHOICE {
	ms4 INTEGER (0..31),
	ms5 INTEGER (0..39),
	ms10 INTEGER (0..79),
	ms20 INTEGER (0..159),
	ms40 INTEGER (0..319)
	},
	associatedSSB SEQUENCE {
	ssb-Index SSB-Index,
	isQuasiColocated BOOLEAN
	} OPTIONAL, -- Need R
	frequencyDomainAllocation CHOICE {
	row1 BIT STRING (SIZE (4)),
	row2 BIT STRING (SIZE (12))
	},
	firstOFDMSymbolInTimeDomain INTEGER (0..13),
	sequenceGenerationConfig INTEGER (0..1023),
	...
	}

[0023] As shown above, the periodic and timing offset can be configured differently for CSI-RS resources in one Measurement Object (MO).

[0024] In order to reduce the network (NW) and UE complexity, a measurement window for CSI-RS L3 measurement is needed. With the window, it will limit the UE CSI-RS L3 measurement location in the time domain. The window duration will be X ms and periodicity will be Y ms, where X and Y are positive integers.

[0025] In one or more embodiments, a measurement window for CSI-RS L3 measurement will be defined. The measurement window duration X and Y are configurable.

[0026] It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0027] FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram for CSI-RS configuration, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0028] Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown confliction between CSI-RS resource and measurement gap with different timing offset.

[0029] During a measurement window, due to limited time-frequency resource limitation, the number of CSI-RS resources will be limited.

[0030] For neighbor cell intra-frequency measurement, there are multiple cells. For each cell, there are multiple beams where each beam quality needs to be measured. Therefore, the total number of measurements will be large. There may be multiple CSI-RS resources configured in one MO. The supported maximum CSI-RS will depend on UE capability, as specified in 38.214:

[0031] A UE configured with the higher layer parameters CSI-RS-Resource-Mobility may expect to be configured;

• • [0032] With no more than 96 CSI-RS resources per higher layer parameter MeasObjectNR for UEs not supporting [increasedNumberofCSIRSPerMO-r16] when all CSI-RS resources configured by the same higher layer parameter MeasObjectNR have been configured with associatedSSB, or,
  • [0033] With no more than 192 CSI-RS resources per higher layer parameter MeasObjectNR for UEs supporting [increasedNumberofCSIRSPerMO-r16] when all CSI-RS resources configured by the same higher layer parameter MeasObjectNR have been configured with associatedSSB, or,
  • [0034] In one time window, it is possible that it cannot measure all the CSI-RS resources configured in one MO. Therefore, it needs to consider defining multiple windows for one MO. The benefit is that this allow flexible CSI-RS configuration. Considering CSI-RS resources may need to be placed in the same window as SSB, it may be difficult to accommodate all CSI-RS resources in a single window. Instead, NW may configure a larger resource periodicity and distribute CSI-RS resources to multiple windows.

[0035] Multiple CSI-RS L3 measurement windows may be configured for one MO. However, there will be some other scenarios where measurement gap will be used, e.g. SSB based inter-frequency measurement, positioning and so on. If CSI-RS resources are located at different windows, it's possible that some of the resources will conflict with these measurement gaps while some others may not. This is shown in FIG. 2.

[0036] Each CSI-RS resource will be a periodic signal, which has a configuration of periodicity and offset. In FIG. 2, the periodicity of CSI-RS resource 1 and CSI-RS resource 2 is the same, e.g. 20 ms. However, the timing offset of CSI-RS resource 1 and resource 2 are different. Suppose that 5 instances of CSI-RS will be needed for averaging and get CSI-RS measurement results. For CSI-RS resource 1, the measurement period is 20 ms*5=100 ms. For CSI-RS resource 2, it will fall into another measurement window and inside the window, there is a measurement gap, which will conflict with CSI-RS resource 2. Then the measurement period for CSI-RS resource 2 will be 20 ms*5*2=200 ms. Since the location of the measurement gap cannot be used, more measurement periods will be used. Therefore, the measurement period is different for CSI-RS resource 1 and 2, which make it impossible to define measurement requirement. Therefore, more conditions will be added for CSI-RS timing configuration, NW needs to make sure that no measurement gaps collide with all the CSI-RS resources. Otherwise, no requirement will apply.

[0037] In one or more embodiments, a CSI-RS configuration system may facilitate that if CSI-RS resources are configured in different timing windows, NW needs to make sure that no measurement gaps collide with all the CSI-RS resources. Otherwise, no requirement for CSI-RS measurement will apply.

[0038] It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0039] FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram for CSI-RS configuration, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0040] Referring to FIG. 3, there is shown a conflict between CSI-RS resources and measurement gap with different periodicities.

[0041] In one or more embodiments, a CSI-RS configuration system may facilitate that if CSI-RS resources have different periodicity, it is also possible that some CSI-RS will fall into the measurement gap while some others will not, which are shown in FIG. 3.

[0042] FIG. 4 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram for CSI-RS configuration, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0043] Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown CSI-RS resource periodicity in one MO. In FIG. 2, CSI-RS resource 2 with periodicity=20 ms, then in some cases it will fall into the measurement gap and sometimes will not. However, CSI-RS resource 1 will not collide with the measurement gap. Since CSI-RS 1 and CSI-RS 2 are configured in the same MO, it is difficult to define the requirement for this case since resources in the same MO will have different measurement periods. Therefore, it is preferred that all the CSI-RS resource will have the same periodicity. FIG. 4 shows that possible configuration.

[0044] In one or more embodiments, a CSI-RS configuration system may facilitate that all the CSI-RS resources in one MO will have the same periodicity.

[0045] In one or more embodiments, the CSI-RS periodicity can be configurable in one MO, e.g. 20 ms, 40 ms, and 80 ms.

[0046] FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram for CSI-RS configuration, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0047] Referring to FIG. 5, there is shown a measurement window with a plurality of CSI-RS resources in the same MO.

[0048] There is a need to determine whether CSI-RS offset is the same or not in the same MO. As proposed above, CSI-RS resources can be configured in a different window with the same periodicity. Therefore, the CSI-RS resource offset can be different. If CSI-RS resources are configured in the same MO, the timing offset can be different either.

[0049] For the relation between CSI-RS offset and window starting point, there may be different timing offsets for multiple CSI-RS resources in the MO.

[0050] In one or more embodiments, NW can order these timing offsets of CSI-RS resources and make sure that the first configured L3 CSI-RS resource corresponds to the smallest offset.

[0051] In one or more embodiments, the window starting point corresponds to the smallest offset of the CSI-RS resource.

[0052] It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0053] In some embodiments, the electronic device(s), network(s), system(s), chip(s) or component(s), or portions or implementations thereof, of FIGS. 7-9, or some other figure herein, may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, or methods as described herein, or portions thereof. One such process is depicted in FIG. 6.

[0054] For example, the process may include, at 602, establishing a first measurement window for a first CSI-RS associated with a first type of measurement in a measurement object (MO).

[0055] The process further includes, at 604, identifying a measurement gap associated a second type of measurement.

[0056] The process further includes, at 606, performing adjustment to avoid a collision between the first measurement window and the measurement gap.

[0057] The process further includes, at 608, detecting the first CSI-RS within the first measurement window.

[0058] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section.

[0059] It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0060] FIGS. 7-9 illustrate various systems, devices, and components that may implement aspects of disclosed embodiments.

[0061] FIG. 7 illustrates a network 700 in accordance with various embodiments. The network 700 may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G/NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems, or the like.

[0062] The network 700 may include a UE 702, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN 704 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 702 may be communicatively coupled with the RAN 704 by a Uu interface. The UE 702 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment, in-car entertainment device, instrument cluster, head-up display device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electronic/engine control unit, electronic/engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, IoT device, etc.

[0063] In some embodiments, the network 700 may include a plurality of UEs coupled directly with one another via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M/D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc.

[0064] In some embodiments, the UE 702 may additionally communicate with an AP 706 via an over-the-air connection. The AP 706 may manage a WLAN connection, which may serve to offload some/all network traffic from the RAN 704. The connection between the UE 702 and the AP 706 may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 706 could be a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router. In some embodiments, the UE 702, RAN 704, and AP 706 may utilize cellular-WLAN aggregation (for example, LWA/LWIP). Cellular-WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 702 being configured by the RAN 704 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

[0065] The RAN 704 may include one or more access nodes, for example, AN 708. AN 708 may terminate air-interface protocols for the UE 702 by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and LI protocols. In this manner, the AN 708 may enable data/voice connectivity between CN 720 and the UE 702. In some embodiments, the AN 708 may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of, for example, a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool. The AN 708 be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN 708 may be a macrocell base station or a low power base station for providing femtocells, picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.

[0066] In embodiments in which the RAN 704 includes a plurality of ANs, they may be coupled with one another via an X2 interface (if the RAN 704 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 704 is a 5G RAN). The X2/Xn interfaces, which may be separated into control/user plane interfaces in some embodiments, may allow the ANs to communicate information related to handovers, data/context transfers, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc.

[0067] The ANs of the RAN 704 may each manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc. to provide the UE 702 with an air interface for network access. The UE 702 may be simultaneously connected with a plurality of cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 704. For example, the UE 702 and RAN 704 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 702 to connect with a plurality of component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or Scell. In dual connectivity scenarios, a first AN may be a master node that provides an MCG and a second AN may be secondary node that provides an SCG. The first/second ANs may be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-eNB, etc.

[0068] The RAN 704 may provide the air interface over a licensed spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum. To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may use LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms based on CA technology with PCells/Scells. Prior to accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may perform medium/carrier-sensing operations based on, for example, a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

[0069] In V2X scenarios the UE 702 or AN 708 may be or act as a RSU, which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable AN or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by: a UE may be referred to as a “UE-type RSU”; an eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU”; a gNB may be referred to as a “gNB-type RSU”; and the like. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located on a roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry to store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well as applications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as crash avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular/WLAN communications services. The components of the RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or a backhaul network.

[0070] In some embodiments, the RAN 704 may be an LTE RAN 710 with eNBs, for example, eNB 712. The LTE RAN 710 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: SCS of 15 kHz; CP-OFDM waveform for DL and SC-FDMA waveform for UL; turbo codes for data and TBCC for control; etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation; and CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation/detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operating on sub-6 GHz bands.

[0071] In some embodiments, the RAN 704 may be an NG-RAN 714 with gNBs, for example, gNB 716, or ng-eNBs, for example, ng-eNB 718. The gNB 716 may connect with 5G-enabled UEs using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 716 may connect with a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB 718 may also connect with the 5G core through an NG interface, but may connect with a UE via an LTE air interface. The gNB 716 and the ng-eNB 718 may connect with each other over an Xn interface.

[0072] In some embodiments, the NG interface may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface, which carries traffic data between the nodes of the NG-RAN 714 and a UPF 748 (e.g., N3 interface), and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between the nodes of the NG-RAN 714 and an AMF 744 (e.g., N2 interface).

[0073] The NG-RAN 714 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polar, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller codes for control and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use a CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; PTRS for phase tracking for PDSCH; and tracking reference signal for time tracking. The 5G-NR air interface may operating on FR1 bands that include sub-6 GHz bands or FR2 bands that include bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHZ. The 5G-NR air interface may include an SSB that is an area of a downlink resource grid that includes PSS/SSS/PBCH.

[0074] In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWP can be used for dynamic adaptation of the SCS. For example, the UE 702 can be configured with multiple BWPs where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 702, the SCS of the transmission is changed as well. Another use case example of BWP is related to power saving. In particular, multiple BWPs can be configured for the UE 702 with different amount of frequency resources (for example, PRBs) to support data transmission under different traffic loading scenarios. A BWP containing a smaller number of PRBs can be used for data transmission with small traffic load while allowing power saving at the UE 702 and in some cases at the gNB 716. A BWP containing a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic load.

[0075] The RAN 704 is communicatively coupled to CN 720 that includes network elements to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (for example, users of UE 702). The components of the CN 720 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 720 onto physical compute/storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 720 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 720 may be referred to as a network sub-slice.

[0076] In some embodiments, the CN 720 may be an LTE CN 722, which may also be referred to as an EPC. The LTE CN 722 may include MME 724, SGW 726, SGSN 728, HSS 730, PGW 732, and PCRF 734 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the LTE CN 722 may be briefly introduced as follows.

[0077] The MME 724 may implement mobility management functions to track a current location of the UE 702 to facilitate paging, bearer activation/deactivation, handovers, gateway selection, authentication, etc.

[0078] The SGW 726 may terminate an S1 interface toward the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 722. The SGW 726 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.

[0079] The SGSN 728 may track a location of the UE 702 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 728 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 724; MME selection for handovers; etc. The S3 reference point between the MME 724 and the SGSN 728 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in idle/active states.

[0080] The HSS 730 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities' handling of communication sessions. The HSS 730 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 730 and the MME 724 may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user access to the LTE CN 720.

[0081] The PGW 732 may terminate an SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 736 that may include an application/content server 738. The PGW 732 may route data packets between the LTE CN 722 and the data network 736. The PGW 732 may be coupled with the SGW 726 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 732 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (for example, PCEF). Additionally, the SGi reference point between the PGW 732 and the data network 7 36 may be an operator external public, a private PDN, or an intra-operator packet data network, for example, for provision of IMS services. The PGW 732 may be coupled with a PCRF 734 via a Gx reference point.

[0082] The PCRF 734 is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 722. The PCRF 734 may be communicatively coupled to the app/content server 738 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for service flows. The PCRF 732 may provision associated rules into a PCEF (via Gx reference point) with appropriate TFT and QCI.

[0083] In some embodiments, the CN 720 may be a 5GC 740. The 5GC 740 may include an AUSF 742, AMF 744, SMF 746, UPF 748, NSSF 750, NEF 752, NRF 754, PCF 756, UDM 758, and AF 760 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the 5GC 740 may be briefly introduced as follows.

[0084] The AUSF 742 may store data for authentication of UE 702 and handle authentication-related functionality. The AUSF 742 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 740 over reference points as shown, the AUSF 742 may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface.

[0085] The AMF 744 may allow other functions of the 5GC 740 to communicate with the UE 702 and the RAN 704 and to subscribe to notifications about mobility events with respect to the UE 702. The AMF 744 may be responsible for registration management (for example, for registering UE 702), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 744 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 702 and the SMF 746, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 744 may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE 702 and an SMSF. AMF 744 may interact with the AUSF 742 and the UE 702 to perform various security anchor and context management functions. Furthermore, AMF 744 may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the RAN 704 and the AMF 744; and the AMF 744 may be a termination point of NAS (N1) signaling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. AMF 744 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 702 over an N3 IWF interface.

[0086] The SMF 746 may be responsible for SM (for example, session establishment, tunnel management between UPF 748 and AN 708); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF 748 to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement, charging, and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN specific SM information, sent via AMF 744 over N2 to AN 708; and determining SSC mode of a session. SM may refer to management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or “session” may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 702 and the data network 736.

[0087] The UPF 748 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to data network 736, and a branching point to support multi-homed PDU session. The UPF 748 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for a user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF-to-QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 748 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network.

[0088] The NSSF 750 may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE 702. The NSSF 750 may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed. The NSSF 750 may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE 702, or a list of candidate AMFs based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 754. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 702 may be triggered by the AMF 744 with which the UE 702 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 750, which may lead to a change of AMF. The NSSF 750 may interact with the AMF 744 via an N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). Additionally, the NSSF 750 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.

[0089] The NEF 752 may securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third party, internal exposure/re-exposure, AFs (e.g., AF 760), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF 752 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AFs. NEF 752 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 760 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 752 may translate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF 752 may also receive information from other NFs based on exposed capabilities of other NFs. This information may be stored at the NEF 752 as structured data, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF 752 to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF 752 may exhibit an Nnef service-based interface.

[0090] The NRF 754 may support service discovery functions, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide the information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 754 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 754 may exhibit the Nnrf service-based interface.

[0091] The PCF 756 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF 756 may also implement a front end to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM 758. In addition to communicating with functions over reference points as shown, the PCF 756 exhibit an Npcf service-based interface.

[0092] The UDM 758 may handle subscription-related information to support the network entities' handling of communication sessions, and may store subscription data of UE 702. For example, subscription data may be communicated via an N8 reference point between the UDM 758 and the AMF 744. The UDM 758 may include two parts, an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 758 and the PCF 756, and/or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFDs for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 702) for the NEF 752. The Nudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 758, PCF 756, and NEF 752 to access a particular set of the stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notification of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, location management, subscription management and so on. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification handling, access authorization, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs over reference points as shown, the UDM 758 may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface.

[0093] The AF 760 may provide application influence on traffic routing, provide access to NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.

[0094] In some embodiments, the 5GC 740 may enable edge computing by selecting operator/3rd party services to be geographically close to a point that the UE 702 is attached to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge-computing implementations, the 5GC 740 may select a UPF 748 close to the UE 702 and execute traffic steering from the UPF 748 to data network 736 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 760. In this way, the AF 760 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 760 is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF 760 to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 760 may exhibit an Naf service-based interface.

[0095] The data network 736 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third party services that may be provided by one or more servers including, for example, application/content server 738.

[0096] FIG. 8 schematically illustrates a wireless network 800 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 800 may include a UE 802 in wireless communication with an AN 804. The UE 802 and AN 804 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, like-named components described elsewhere herein.

[0097] The UE 802 may be communicatively coupled with the AN 804 via connection 806. The connection 806 is illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols such as an LTE protocol or a 5G NR protocol operating at mmWave or sub-6 GHZ frequencies.

[0098] The UE 802 may include a host platform 808 coupled with a modem platform 810. The host platform 808 may include application processing circuitry 812, which may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 814 of the modem platform 810. The application processing circuitry 812 may run various applications for the UE 802 that source/sink application data. The application processing circuitry 812 may further implement one or more layer operations to transmit/receive application data to/from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (for example UDP) and Internet (for example, IP) operations.

[0099] The protocol processing circuitry 814 may implement one or more of layer operations to facilitate transmission or reception of data over the connection 806. The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 814 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC and NAS operations.

[0100] The modem platform 810 may further include digital baseband circuitry 816 that may implement one or more layer operations that are “below” layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 814 in a network protocol stack. These operations may include, for example, PHY operations including one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling/descrambling, encoding/decoding, layer mapping/de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol/bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding/decoding, which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency or spatial coding, reference signal generation/detection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generation/detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

[0101] The modem platform 810 may further include transmit circuitry 818, receive circuitry 820, RF circuitry 822, and RF front end (RFFE) 824, which may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 826. Briefly, the transmit circuitry 818 may include a digital-to-analog converter, mixer, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc.; the receive circuitry 820 may include an analog-to-digital converter, mixer, IF components, etc.; the RF circuitry 822 may include a low-noise amplifier, a power amplifier, power tracking components, etc.; RFFE 824 may include filters (for example, surface/bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (for example, phase-array antenna components), etc. The selection and arrangement of the components of the transmit circuitry 818, receive circuitry 820, RF circuitry 822, RFFE 824, and antenna panels 826 (referred generically as “transmit/receive components”) may be specific to details of a specific implementation such as, for example, whether communication is TDM or FDM, in mmWave or sub-6 gHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit/receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit/receive chains, may be disposed in the same or different chips/modules, etc.

[0102] In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 814 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmit/receive components.

[0103] A UE reception may be established by and via the antenna panels 826, RFFE 824, RF circuitry 822, receive circuitry 820, digital baseband circuitry 816, and protocol processing circuitry 814. In some embodiments, the antenna panels 826 may receive a transmission from the AN 804 by receive-beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas/antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels 826.

[0104] A UE transmission may be established by and via the protocol processing circuitry 814, digital baseband circuitry 816, transmit circuitry 818, RF circuitry 822, RFFE 824, and antenna panels 826. In some embodiments, the transmit components of the UE 804 may apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam emitted by the antenna elements of the antenna panels 826.

[0105] Similar to the UE 802, the AN 804 may include a host platform 828 coupled with a modem platform 830. The host platform 828 may include application processing circuitry 832 coupled with protocol processing circuitry 834 of the modem platform 830. The modem platform may further include digital baseband circuitry 836, transmit circuitry 838, receive circuitry 840, RF circuitry 842, RFFE circuitry 844, and antenna panels 846. The components of the AN 804 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with like-named components of the UE 802. In addition to performing data transmission/reception as described above, the components of the AN 808 may perform various logical functions that include, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

[0106] FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 9 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 900 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 910, one or more memory/storage devices 920, and one or more communication resources 930, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 940 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 902 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 900.

[0107] The processors 910 may include, for example, a processor 912 and a processor 914. The processors 910 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

[0108] The memory/storage devices 920 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 920 may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

[0109] The communication resources 930 may include interconnection or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 904 or one or more databases 906 or other network elements via a network 908. For example, the communication resources 930 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

[0110] Instructions 950 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 910 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 950 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 910 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), the memory/storage devices 920, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 950 may be transferred to the hardware resources 900 from any combination of the peripheral devices 904 or the databases 906. Accordingly, the memory of processors 910, the memory/storage devices 920, the peripheral devices 904, and the databases 906 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0111] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section.

[0112] Additional examples of the presently described embodiments include the following, non-limiting implementations. Each of the following non-limiting examples may stand on its own or may be combined in any permutation or combination with any one or more of the other examples provided below or throughout the present disclosure.

[0113] For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below.

[0114] The following examples pertain to further embodiments.

[0115] Example 1 may include a device comprising processing circuitry coupled to storage, the processing circuitry configured to: establish a first measurement window for a first channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) associated with a first type of measurement in a measurement object (MO); identify a measurement gap associated a second type of measurement; perform adjustment to avoid a collision between the first measurement window and the measurement gap; and detect the first CSI-RS within the first measurement window.

[0116] Example 2 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first measurement window has a first duration that may be configurable.

[0117] Example 3 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first measurement window has a first periodicity that may be configurable.

[0118] Example 4 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein multiple CSI-RS measurement windows are configured for one MO.

[0119] Example 5 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry may be further configured to: define a second CSI-RS associated with the first type of measurement of the MO; and set the first CSI-RS and the second CSI-RS in the MO to have a CSI-RS periodicity that may be the same for the first CSI-RS and the second CSI-RS.

[0120] Example 6 may include the device of example 5 and/or some other example herein, wherein the CSI-RS periodicity may be at least one of 20 milliseconds (ms), 40 ms, or 80 ms.

[0121] Example 7 may include the device of example 5 and/or some other example herein, wherein a first timing offset of the first CSI-RS may be different from a second timing offset of the second CSI-RS.

[0122] Example 8 may include the device of example 7 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first timing offset of the first CSI-RS may be configured before the second timing offset of the second CSI-RS.

[0123] Example 9 may include the device of example 7 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first timing offset of the first CSI-RS may be a smaller time offset than the second timing offset of the second CSI-RS.

[0124] Example 10 may include a computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations comprising: establishing a first measurement window for a first channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) associated with a first type of measurement in a measurement object (MO); identifying a measurement gap associated a second type of measurement; performing adjustment to avoid a collision between the first measurement window and the measurement gap; and detecting the first CSI-RS within the first measurement window.

[0125] Example 11 may include the computer-readable medium of example 10 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first measurement window has a first duration that may be configurable.

[0126] Example 12 may include the computer-readable medium of example 10 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first measurement window has a first periodicity that may be configurable.

[0127] Example 13 may include the computer-readable medium of example 10 and/or some other example herein, wherein multiple CSI-RS measurement windows are configured for one MO.

[0128] Example 14 may include the computer-readable medium of example 10 and/or some other example herein, wherein the operations further comprise: define a second CSI-RS associated with the first type of measurement of the MO; and setting the first CSI-RS and the second CSI-RS in the MO to have a CSI-RS periodicity that may be the same for the first CSI-RS and the second CSI-RS.

[0129] Example 15 may include the computer-readable medium of example 14 and/or some other example herein, wherein the CSI-RS periodicity may be at least one of 20 milliseconds (ms), 40 ms, or 80 ms.

[0130] Example 16 may include the computer-readable medium of example 14 and/or some other example herein, wherein a first timing offset of the first CSI-RS may be different from a second timing offset of the second CSI-RS.

[0131] Example 17 may include the computer-readable medium of example 16 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first timing offset of the first CSI-RS may be configured before the second timing offset of the second CSI-RS.

[0132] Example 18 may include the computer-readable medium of example 16 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first timing offset of the first CSI-RS may be a smaller time offset than the second timing offset of the second CSI-RS.

[0133] Example 19 may include a method comprising: establishing, by one or more processors, by one or more processors, a first measurement window for a first channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) associated with a first type of measurement in a measurement object (MO); identifying a measurement gap associated a second type of measurement; performing adjustment to avoid a collision between the first measurement window and the measurement gap; and detecting the first CSI-RS within the first measurement window.

[0134] Example 20 may include the method of example 19 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first measurement window has a first duration that may be configurable.

[0135] Example 21 may include the method of example 19 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first measurement window has a first periodicity that may be configurable.

[0136] Example 22 may include the method of example 19 and/or some other example herein, wherein multiple CSI-RS measurement windows are configured for one MO.

[0137] Example 23 may include the method of example 19 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: define a second CSI-RS associated with the first type of measurement of the MO; and setting the first CSI-RS and the second CSI-RS in the MO to have a CSI-RS periodicity that may be the same for the first CSI-RS and the second CSI-RS.

[0138] Example 24 may include the method of example 23 and/or some other example herein, wherein the CSI-RS periodicity may be at least one of 20 milliseconds (ms), 40 ms, or 80 ms.

[0139] Example 25 may include the method of example 23 and/or some other example herein, wherein a first timing offset of the first CSI-RS may be different from a second timing offset of the second CSI-RS.

[0140] Example 26 may include the method of example 25 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first timing offset of the first CSI-RS may be configured before the second timing offset of the second CSI-RS.

[0141] Example 27 may include the method of example 25 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first timing offset of the first CSI-RS may be a smaller time offset than the second timing offset of the second CSI-RS.

[0142] Example 28 may include an apparatus comprising means for: establishing a first measurement window for a first channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) associated with a first type of measurement in a measurement object (MO); identifying a measurement gap associated a second type of measurement; performing adjustment to avoid a collision between the first measurement window and the measurement gap; and detecting the first CSI-RS within the first measurement window.

[0143] Example 29 may include the apparatus of example 28 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first measurement window has a first duration that may be configurable.

[0144] Example 30 may include the apparatus of example 28 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first measurement window has a first periodicity that may be configurable.

[0145] Example 31 may include the apparatus of example 28 and/or some other example herein, wherein multiple CSI-RS measurement windows are configured for one MO.

[0146] Example 32 may include the apparatus of example 28 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: define a second CSI-RS associated with the first type of measurement of the MO; and setting the first CSI-RS and the second CSI-RS in the MO to have a CSI-RS periodicity that may be the same for the first CSI-RS and the second CSI-RS.

[0147] Example 33 may include the apparatus of example 32 and/or some other example herein, wherein the CSI-RS periodicity may be at least one of 20 milliseconds (ms), 40 ms, or 80 ms.

[0148] Example 34 may include the apparatus of example 32 and/or some other example herein, wherein a first timing offset of the first CSI-RS may be different from a second timing offset of the second CSI-RS.

[0149] Example 35 may include the apparatus of example 34 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first timing offset of the first CSI-RS may be configured before the second timing offset of the second CSI-RS.

[0150] Example 36 may include the apparatus of example 34 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first timing offset of the first CSI-RS may be a smaller time offset than the second timing offset of the second CSI-RS.

[0151] Example 37 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing any of the methods of examples 1-36.

[0152] Example 38 may include a network node comprising a communication interface and processing circuitry connected thereto and configured to perform the methods of examples 1-36.

[0153] Example 39 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-36, or any other method or process described herein.

[0154] Example 40 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-36, or any other method or process described herein.

[0155] Example 41 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-36, or any other method or process described herein.

[0156] Example 42 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-36, or portions or parts thereof.

[0157] Example 43 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-36, or portions thereof.

[0158] Example 44 may include a signal as described in or related to any of examples 1-36, or portions or parts thereof.

[0159] Example 45 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-36, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0160] Example 46 may include a signal encoded with data as described in or related to any of examples 1-36, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0161] Example 47 may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-36, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

[0162] Example 48 may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors is to cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-36, or portions thereof.

[0163] Example 49 may include a computer program comprising instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element is to cause the processing element to carry out the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-36, or portions thereof.

[0164] Example 50 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0165] Example 51 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0166] Example 52 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0167] Example 53 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0168] An example implementation is an edge computing system, including respective edge processing devices and nodes to invoke or perform the operations of the examples above, or other subject matter described herein. Another example implementation is a client endpoint node, operable to invoke or perform the operations of the examples above, or other subject matter described herein. Another example implementation is an aggregation node, network hub node, gateway node, or core data processing node, within or coupled to an edge computing system, operable to invoke or perform the operations of the examples above, or other subject matter described herein. Another example implementation is an access point, base station, road-side unit, street-side unit, or on-premise unit, within or coupled to an edge computing system, operable to invoke or perform the operations of the examples above, or other subject matter described herein. Another example implementation is an edge provisioning node, service orchestration node, application orchestration node, or multi-tenant management node, within or coupled to an edge computing system, operable to invoke or perform the operations of the examples above, or other subject matter described herein. Another example implementation is an edge node operating an edge provisioning service, application or service orchestration service, virtual machine deployment, container deployment, function deployment, and compute management, within or coupled to an edge computing system, operable to invoke or perform the operations of the examples above, or other subject matter described herein. Another example implementation is an edge computing system operable as an edge mesh, as an edge mesh with side car loading, or with mesh-to-mesh communications, operable to invoke or perform the operations of the examples above, or other subject matter described herein. Another example implementation is an edge computing system including aspects of network functions, acceleration functions, acceleration hardware, storage hardware, or computation hardware resources, operable to invoke or perform the use cases discussed herein, with use of the examples above, or other subject matter described herein. Another example implementation is an edge computing system adapted for supporting client mobility, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-everything (V2X), or vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) scenarios, and optionally operating according to ETSI MEC specifications, operable to invoke or perform the use cases discussed herein, with use of the examples above, or other subject matter described herein. Another example implementation is an edge computing system adapted for mobile wireless communications, including configurations according to an 3GPP 4G/LTE or 5G network capabilities, operable to invoke or perform the use cases discussed herein, with use of the examples above, or other subject matter described herein. Another example implementation is a computing system adapted for network communications, including configurations according to an O-RAN capabilities, operable to invoke or perform the use cases discussed herein, with use of the examples above, or other subject matter described herein.

[0169] Any of the above-described examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples), unless explicitly stated otherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

[0170] Unless used differently herein, terms, definitions, and abbreviations may be consistent with terms, definitions, and abbreviations defined in 3GPP TR 21.905 v16.0.0 (2019-06). For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations may apply to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

[0171]

TABLE 1
Abbreviations:
3GPP	Third Generation	IBE	In-Band Emission	PUSCH	Physical Uplink Shared
	Partnership Project				Channel
4G	Fourth Generation	IEEE	Institute of Electrical	QAM	Quadrature Amplitude
			and Electronics		Modulation
			Engineers
5G	Fifth Generation	IEI	Information Element	QCI	QoS class of identifier
			Identifier
5GC	5G Core network	IEIDL	Information Element	QCL	Quasi co-location
			Identifier Data Length
AC	Application Client	IETF	Internet Engineering	QFI	QoS Flow ID, QoS
			Task Force		Flow Identifier
ACK	Acknowledgement	IF	Infrastructure	QoS	Quality of Service
ACID	Application Client	IM	Interference	QPSK	Quadrature
	Identification		Measurement,		(Quaternary) Phase
			Intermodulation, IP		Shift Keying
			Multimedia
AF	Application Function	IMC	IMS Credentials	QZSS	Quasi-Zenith Satellite
					System
AM	Acknowledged Mode	IMEI	International Mobile	RA-RNTI	Random Access RNTI
			Equipment Identity
AMBR	Aggregate Maximum Bit	IMGI	International mobile	RAB	Radio Access Bearer,
	Rate		group identity		Random Access Burst
AMF	Access and Mobility	IMPI	IP Multimedia Private	RACH	Random Access
	Management Function		Identity		Channel
AN	Access Network	IMPU	IP Multimedia PUblic	RADIUS	Remote Authentication
			identity		Dial In User Service
ANR	Automatic Neighbour	IMS	IP Multimedia	RAN	Radio Access Network
	Relation		Subsystem
AP	Application Protocol,	IMSI	International Mobile	RAND	RANDom number
	Antenna Port, Access		Subscriber Identity		(used for
	Point				authentication)
API	Application Programming	IoT	Internet of Things	RAR	Random Access Response
	Interface
APN	Access Point Name	IP	Internet Protocol	RAT	Radio Access
					Technology
ARP	Allocation and Retention	Ipsec	IP Security, Internet	RAU	Routing Area Update
	Priority		Protocol Security
ARQ	Automatic Repeat Request	IP-CAN	IP-Connectivity	RB	Resource block, Radio
			Access Network		Bearer
AS	Access Stratum	IP-M	IP Multicast	RBG	Resource block group
ASP	Application Service	IPv4	Internet Protocol	REG	Resource Element Group
	Provider		Version 4
ASN.1	Abstract Syntax Notation	IPv6	Internet Protocol	Rel	Release
	One		Version 6
AUSF	Authentication Server	IR	Infrared	REQ	REQuest
	Function
AWGN	Additive White Gaussian	IS	In Sync	RF	Radio Frequency
	Noise
BAP	Backhaul Adaptation	IRP	Integration Reference	RI	Rank Indicator
	Protocol		Point
BCH	Broadcast Channel	ISDN	Integrated Services	RIV	Resource indicator
			Digital Network		value
BER	Bit Error Ratio	ISIM	IM Services Identity	RL	Radio Link
			Module
BFD	Beam Failure Detection	ISO	International	RLC	Radio Link Control,
			Organisation for		Radio Link Control
			Standardisation		layer
BLER	Block Error Rate	ISP	Internet Service	RLC AM	RLC Acknowledged
			Provider		Mode
BPSK	Binary Phase Shift Keying	IWF	Interworking-Function	RLC UM	RLC Unacknowledged
					Mode
BRAS	Broadband Remote	I-WLAN	Interworking WLAN	RLF	Radio Link Failure
	Access Server
BSS	Business Support System	Constraint length of the	RLM	Radio Link Monitoring
		convolutional code, USIM
		Individual key
BS	Base Station	kB	Kilobyte (1000 bytes)	RLM-RS	Reference Signal for
					RLM
BSR	Buffer Status Report	kbps	kilo-bits per second	RM	Registration
					Management
BW	Bandwidth	Kc	Ciphering key	RMC	Reference
					Measurement Channel
BWP	Bandwidth Part	Ki	Individual subscriber	RMSI	Remaining MSI,
			authentication key		Remaining Minimum
					System Information
C-RNTI	Cell Radio Network	KPI	Key Performance	RN	Relay Node
	Temporary Identity		Indicator
CA	Carrier Aggregation,	KQI	Key Quality Indicator	RNC	Radio Network
	Certification Authority				Controller
CAPEX	CAPital Expenditure	KSI	Key Set Identifier	RNL	Radio Network Layer
CBRA	Contention Based Random	ksps	kilo-symbols per	RNTI	Radio Network
	Access		second		Temporary Identifier
CC	Component Carrier,	KVM	Kernel Virtual	ROHC	RObust Header
	Country Code,		Machine		Compression
	Cryptographic Checksum
CCA	Clear Channel Assessment	L1	Layer 1 (physical	RRC	Radio Resource
			layer)		Control, Radio
					Resource Control layer
CCE	Control Channel Element	L1-RSRP	Layer 1 reference	RRM	Radio Resource
			signal received power		Management
CCCH	Common Control Channel	L2	Layer 2 (data link	RS	Reference Signal
			layer)
CE	Coverage Enhancement	L3	Layer 3 (network	RSRP	Reference Signal
			layer)		Received Power
CDM	Content Delivery Network	LAA	Licensed Assisted	RSRQ	Reference Signal
			Access		Received Quality
CDMA	Code-Division Multiple	LAN	Local Area Network	RSSI	Received Signal
	Access				Strength Indicator
CFRA	Contention Free Random	LADN	Local Area Data	RSU	Road Side Unit
	Access		Network
CG	Cell Group	LBT	Listen Before Talk	RSTD	Reference Signal Time
					difference
CGF	Charging Gateway	LCM	LifeCycle	RTP	Real Time Protocol
	Function		Management
CHF	Charging Function	LCR	Low Chip Rate	RTS	Ready-To-Send
CI	Cell Identity	LCS	Location Services	RTT	Round Trip Time
CID	Cell-ID (e.g., positioning	LCID	Logical Channel ID	Rx	Reception, Receiving,
	method)				Receiver
CIM	Common Information	LI	Layer Indicator	S1AP	S1 Application
	Model				Protocol
CIR	Carrier to Interference	LLC	Logical Link Control,	S1-MME	S1 for the control plane
	Ratio		Low Layer
			Compatibility
CK	Cipher Key	LPLMN	Local PLMN	S1-U	S1 for the user plane
CM	Connection Management,	LPP	LTE Positioning	S-GW	Serving Gateway
	Conditional Mandatory		Protocol
CMAS	Commercial Mobile Alert	LSB	Least Significant Bit	S-RNTI	SRNC Radio Network
	Service				Temporary Identity
CMD	Command	LTE	Long Term Evolution	S-TMSI	SAE Temporary
					Mobile Station
					Identifier
CMS	Cloud Management	LWA	LTE-WLAN	SA	Standalone operation
	System		aggregation		mode
CO	Conditional Optional	LWIP	LTE/WLAN Radio	SAE	System Architecture
			Level Integration with		Evolution
			IPsec Tunnel
CoMP	Coordinated Multi-Point	LTE	Long Term Evolution	SAP	Service Access Point
CORESET	Control Resource Set	M2M	Machine-to-Machine	SAPD	Service Access Point
					Descriptor
COTS	Commercial Off-The-	MAC	Medium Access	SAPI	Service Access Point
	Shelf		Control (protocol		Identifier
			layering context)
CP	Control Plane, Cyclic	MAC	Message authentication	SCC	Secondary Component
	Prefix, Connection Point		code		Carrier, Secondary CC
			(security/encryption
			context)
CPD	Connection Point	MAC-A	MAC used for	SCell	Secondary Cell
	Descriptor		authentication and key
			agreement (TSG T
			WG3 context)
CPE	Customer Premise	MAC-I	MAC used for data	SCEF	Service Capability
	Equipment		integrity of signalling		Exposure Function
			messages (TSG T
			WG3 context)
CPICH	Common Pilot Channel	MANO	Management and	SC-FDMA	Single Carrier
			Orchestration		Frequency Division
					Multiple Access
CQI	Channel Quality Indicator	MBMS	Multimedia Broadcast	SCG	Secondary Cell Group
			and Multicast Service
CPU	CSI processing unit,	MBSFN	Multimedia Broadcast	SCM	Security Context
	Central Processing Unit		multicast service		Management
			Single Frequency
			Network
C/R	Command/Response field	MCC	Mobile Country Code	SCS	Subcarrier Spacing
	bit
CRAN	Cloud Radio Access	MCG	Master Cell Group	SCTP	Stream Control
	Network, Cloud RAN				Transmission Protocol
CRB	Common Resource Block	MCOT	Maximum Channel	SDAP	Service Data
			Occupancy Time		Adaptation Protocol,
					Service Data
					Adaptation Protocol
					layer
CRC	Cyclic Redundancy Check	MCS	Modulation and coding	SDL	Supplementary
			scheme		Downlink
CRI	Channel-State Information	MDAF	Management Data	SDNF	Structured Data
	Resource Indicator, CSI-		Analytics Function		Storage Network
	RS Resource Indicator				Function
C-RNTI	Cell RNTI	MDAS	Management Data	SDP	Session Description
			Analytics Service		Protocol
CS	Circuit Switched	MDT	Minimization of Drive	SDSF	Structured Data
			Tests		Storage Function
CSAR	Cloud Service Archive	ME	Mobile Equipment	SDU	Service Data Unit
CSI	Channel-State Information	MeNB	master eNB	SEAF	Security Anchor
					Function
CSI-IM	CSI Interference	MER	Message Error Ratio	SeNB	secondary eNB
	Measurement
CSI-RS	CSI Reference Signal	MGL	Measurement Gap	SEPP	Security Edge
			Length		Protection Proxy
CSI-RSRP	CSI reference signal	MGRP	Measurement Gap	SFI	Slot format indication
	received power		Repetition Period
CSI-RSRQ	CSI reference signal	MIB	Master Information	SFTD	Space-Frequency Time
	received quality		Block, Management		Diversity, SFN and
			Information Base		frame timing difference
CSI-SINR	CSI signal-to-noise and	MIMO	Multiple Input	SFN	System Frame Number
	interference ratio		Multiple Output
CSMA	Carrier Sense Multiple	MLC	Mobile Location	SgNB	Secondary gNB
	Access		Centre
CSMA/CA	CSMA with collision	MM	Mobility Management	SGSN	Serving GPRS Support
	avoidance				Node
CSS	Common Search Space,	MME	Mobility Management	S-GW	Serving Gateway
	Cell-specific Search Space		Entity
CTF	Charging Trigger Function	MN	Master Node	SI	System Information
CTS	Clear-to-Send	MNO	Mobile Network	SI-RNTI	System Information
			Operator		RNTI
CW	Codeword	MO	Measurement Object,	SIB	System Information
			Mobile Originated		Block
CWS	Contention Window Size	MPBCH	MTC Physical	SIM	Subscriber Identity
			Broadcast CHannel		Module
D2D	Device-to-Device	MPDCCH	MTC Physical	SIP	Session Initiated
			Downlink Control		Protocol
			CHannel
DC	Dual Connectivity, Direct	MPDSCH	MTC Physical	SiP	System in Package
	Current		Downlink Shared
			CHannel
DCI	Downlink Control	MPRACH	MTC Physical	SL	Sidelink
	Information		Random Access
			CHannel
DF	Deployment Flavour	MPUSCH	MTC Physical Uplink	SLA	Service Level
			Shared Channel		Agreement
DL	Downlink	MPLS	MultiProtocol Label	SM	Session Management
			Switching
DMTF	Distributed Management	MS	Mobile Station	SMF	Session Management
	Task Force				Function
DPDK	Data Plane Development	MSB	Most Significant Bit	SMS	Short Message Service
	Kit
DM-RS,	DMRS Demodulation	MSC	Mobile Switching	SMSF	SMS Function
	Reference Signal		Centre
DN	Data network	MSI	Minimum System	SMTC	SSB-based
			Information, MCH		Measurement Timing
			Scheduling		Configuration
			Information
DNN	Data Network Name	MSID	Mobile Station	SN	Secondary Node,
			Identifier		Sequence Number
DNAI	Data Network Access	MSIN	Mobile Station	SoC	System on Chip
	Identifier		Identification Number
DRB	Data Radio Bearer	MSISDN	Mobile Subscriber	SON	Self-Organizing
			ISDN Number		Network
DRS	Discovery Reference	MT	Mobile Terminated,	SpCell	Special Cell
	Signal		Mobile Termination
DRX	Discontinuous Reception	MTC	Machine-Type	SP-CSI-RNTI	Semi-Persistent
			Communications		CSI RNTI
DSL	Domain Specific	mMTC	massive MTC, massive	SPS	Semi-Persistent
	Language. Digital		Machine-Type		Scheduling
	Subscriber Line		Communications
DSLAM	DSL Access Multiplexer	MU-MIMO	Multi User MIMO	SQN	Sequence number
DwPTS	Downlink Pilot Time Slot	MWUS	MTC wake-up signal,	SR	Scheduling Request
			MTC WUS
E-LAN	Ethernet Local Area	NACK	Negative	SRB	Signalling Radio
	Network		Acknowledgement		Bearer
E2E	End-to-End	NAI	Network Access	SRS	Sounding Reference
			Identifier		Signal
ECCA	extended clear channel	NAS	Non-Access Stratum,	SS	Synchronization Signal
	assessment, extended		Non-Access Stratum
	CCA		layer
ECCE	Enhanced Control	NCT	Network Connectivity	SSB	Synchronization Signal
	Channel Element,		Topology		Block
	Enhanced CCE
ED	Energy Detection	NC-JT	Non-Coherent Joint	SSID	Service Set Identifier
			Transmission
EDGE	Enhanced Datarates for	NEC	Network Capability	SS/PBCH	Block
	GSM Evolution (GSM		Exposure
	Evolution)
EAS	Edge Application Server	NE-DC	NR-E-UTRA Dual	SSBRI	SS/PBCH Block
			Connectivity		Resource Indicator,
					Synchronization Signal
					Block Resource
					Indicator
EASID	Edge Application Server	NEF	Network Exposure	SSC	Session and Service
	Identification		Function		Continuity
ECS	Edge Configuration Server	NF	Network Function	SS-RSRP	Synchronization Signal
					based Reference Signal
					Received Power
ECSP	Edge Computing Service	NFP	Network Forwarding	SS-RSRQ	Synchronization Signal
	Provider		Path		based Reference Signal
					Received Quality
EDN	Edge Data Network	NFPD	Network Forwarding	SS-SINR	Synchronization Signal
			Path Descriptor		based Signal to Noise
					and Interference Ratio
EEC	Edge Enabler Client	NFV	Network Functions	SSS	Secondary
			Virtualization		Synchronization Signal
EECID	Edge Enabler Client	NFVI	NFV Infrastructure	SSSG	Search Space Set
	Identification				Group
EES	Edge Enabler Server	NFVO	NFV Orchestrator	SSSIF	Search Space Set
					Indicator
EESID	Edge Enabler Server	NG	Next Generation, Next	SST	Slice/Service Types
	Identification		Gen
EHE	Edge Hosting	NGEN-DC	NG-RAN E-UTRA-	SU-MIMO	Single User MIMO
	Environment		NR Dual Connectivity
EGMF	Exposure Governance	NM	Network Manager	SUL	Supplementary Uplink
	tableManagement
	Function
EGPRS	Enhanced GPRS	NMS	Network Management	TA	Timing Advance,
			System		Tracking Area
EIR	Equipment Identity	N-PoP	Network Point of	TAC	Tracking Area Code
	Register		Presence
eLAA	enhanced Licensed	NMIB, N-MIB	Narrowband MIB	TAG	Timing Advance Group
	Assisted Access, enhanced
	LAA
EM	Element Manager	NPBCH	Narrowband Physical	TAI	Tracking Area Identity
			Broadcast CHannel
eMBB	Enhanced Mobile	NPDCCH	Narrowband Physical	TAU	Tracking Area Update
	Broadband		Downlink Control
			CHannel
EMS	Element Management	NPDSCH	Narrowband Physical	TB	Transport Block
	System		Downlink Shared
			CHannel
eNB	evolved NodeB, E-	NPRACH	Narrowband Physical	TBS	Transport Block Size
	UTRAN Node B		Random Access
			CHannel
EN-DC	E-UTRA-NR Dual	NPUSCH	Narrowband Physical	TBD	To Be Defined
	Connectivity		Uplink Shared
			CHannel
EPC	Evolved Packet Core	NPSS	Narrowband Primary	TCI	Transmission
			Synchronization Signal		Configuration Indicator
EPDCCH	enhanced PDCCH,	NSSS	Narrowband	TCP	Transmission
	enhanced Physical		Secondary		Communication
	Downlink Control Cannel		Synchronization Signal		Protocol
EPRE	Energy per resource	NR	New Radio, Neighbour	TDD	Time Division Duplex
	element		Relation
EPS	Evolved Packet System	NRF	NF Repository	TDM	Time Division
			Function		Multiplexing
EREG	enhanced REG, enhanced	NRS	Narrowband Reference	TDMA	Time Division Multiple
	resource element groups		Signal		Access
ETSI	European	NS	Network Service	TE	Terminal Equipment
	Telecommunications
	Standards Institute
ETWS	Earthquake and Tsunami	NSA	Non-Standalone	TEID	Tunnel End Point
	Warning System		operation mode		Identifier
eUICC	embedded UICC,	NSD	Network Service	TFT	Traffic Flow Template
	embedded Universal		Descriptor
	Integrated Circuit Card
E-UTRA	Evolved UTRA	NSR	Network Service	TMSI	Temporary Mobile
			Record		Subscriber Identity
E-UTRAN	Evolved UTRAN	NSSAI	Network Slice	TNL	Transport Network
			Selection Assistance		Layer
			Information
EV2X	Enhanced V2X	S-NNSAI	Single-NSSAI	TPC	Transmit Power
					Control
F1AP	F1 Application Protocol	NSSF	Network Slice	TPMI	Tramsmitted Precoding
			Selection Function		Matrix Indicator
F1-C	F1 Control plane interface	NW	Network	TR	Technical Report
F1-U	F1 User plane interface	NWUS	Narrowband wake-up	TRP, TRxP	Transmission
			signal, Narrowband		Reception Point
			WUS
FACCH	Fast Associated Control	NZP	Non-Zero Power	TRS	Tracking Reference
	CHannel				Signal
FACCH/F	Fast Associated Control	O&M	Operation and	TRx	Transceiver
	Channel/Full rate		Maintenance
FACCH/H	Fast Associated Control	ODU2	Optical channel Data	TS	Technical
	Channel/Half rate		Unit - type 2		Specifications,
					Technical Standard
FACH	Forward Access Channel	OFDM	Orthogonal Frequency	TTI	Transmission Time
			Division Multiplexing		Interval
FAUSCH	Fast Uplink Signalling	OFDMA	Orthogonal Frequency	Tx	Transmission,
	Channel		Division Multiple		Transmitting,
			Access		Transmitter
FB	Functional Block	OOB	Out-of-band	U-RNTI	UTRAN Radio
					Network Temporary
					Identity
FBI	Feedback Information	OOS	Out of Sync	UART	Universal
					Asynchronous
					Receiver and
					Transmitter
FCC	Federal Communications	OPEX	OPerating EXpense	UCI	Uplink Control
	Commission				Information
FCCH	Frequency Correction	OSI	Other System	UE	User Equipment
	CHannel		Information
FDD	Frequency Division	OSS	Operations Support	UDM	Unified Data
	Duplex		System		Management
FDM	Frequency Division	OTA	over-the-air	UDP	User Datagram
	Multiplex				Protocol
FDMA	Frequency Division	PAPR	Peak-to-Average	UDSF	Unstructured Data
	Multiple Access		Power Ratio		Storage Network
					Function
FE	Front End	PAR	Peak to Average Ratio	UICC	Universal Integrated
					Circuit Card
FEC	Forward Error Correction	PBCH	Physical Broadcast	UL	Uplink
			Channel
FFS	For Further Study	PC	Power Control,	UM	Unacknowledged
			Personal Computer		Mode
FFT	Fast Fourier	PCC	Primary Component	UML	Unified Modelling
	Transformation		Carrier, Primary CC		Language
feLAA	further enhanced Licensed	PCell	Primary Cell	UMTS	Universal Mobile
	Assisted Access, further				Telecommunications
	enhanced LAA				System
FN	Frame Number	PCI	Physical Cell ID,	UP	User Plane
			Physical Cell Identity
FPGA	Field-Programmable Gate	PCEF	Policy and Charging	UPF	User Plane Function
	Array		Enforcement Function
FR	Frequency Range	PCF	Policy Control	URI	Uniform Resource
			Function		Identifier
FQDN	Fully Qualified Domain	PCRF	Policy Control and	URL	Uniform Resource
	Name		Charging Rules		Locator
			Function
G-RNTI	GERAN Radio Network	PDCP	Packet Data	URLLC	Ultra-Reliable and Low
	Temporary Identity		Convergence Protocol,		Latency
			Packet Data
			Convergence Protocol
			layer
GERAN	GSM EDGE RAN, GSM	PDCCH	Physical Downlink	USB	Universal Serial Bus
	EDGE Radio Access		Control Channel
	Network
GGSN	Gateway GPRS Support	PDCP	Packet Data	USIM	Universal Subscriber
	Node		Convergence Protocol		Identity Module
GLONASS	GLObal'naya	PDN	Packet Data Network,	USS	UE-specific search
	NAvigatsionnaya		Public Data Network		space
	Sputnikovaya Sistema
	(Engl.: Global Navigation
	Satellite System)
gNB	Next Generation NodeB	PDSCH	Physical Downlink	UTRA	UMTS Terrestrial
			Shared Channel		Radio Access
gNB-CU	gNB-centralized unit, Next	PDU	Protocol Data Unit	UTRAN	Universal Terrestrial
	Generation NodeB				Radio Access Network
	centralized unit
gNB-DU	gNB-distributed unit, Next	PEI	Permanent Equipment	UwPTS	Uplink Pilot Time Slot
	Generation NodeB		Identifiers
	distributed unit
GNSS	Global Navigation	PFD	Packet Flow	V2I	Vehicle-to-
	Satellite System		Description		Infrastruction
GPRS	General Packet Radio	P-GW	PDN Gateway	V2P	Vehicle-to-Pedestrian
	Service
GPSI	Generic Public	PHICH	Physical hybrid-ARQ	V2V	Vehicle-to-Vehicle
	Subscription Identifier		indicator channel
GSM	Global System for Mobile	PHY	Physical layer	V2X	Vehicle-to-everything
	Communications, Groupe
	Special Mobile
GTP	GPRS Tunneling Protocol	PLMN	Public Land Mobile	VIM	Virtualized
			Network		Infrastructure Manager
GTP-U	GPRS Tunnelling Protocol	PIN	Personal Identification	VL	Virtual Link,
	for User Plane		Number
GTS	Go To Sleep Signal	PM	Performance	VLAN	Virtual LAN, Virtual
	(related to WUS)		Measurement		Local Area Network
GUMMEI	Globally Unique MME	PMI	Precoding Matrix	VM	Virtual Machine
	Identifier		Indicator
GUTI	Globally Unique	PNF	Physical Network	VNF	Virtualized Network
	Temporary UE Identity		Function		Function
HARQ	Hybrid ARQ, Hybrid	PNFD	Physical Network	VNFFG	VNF Forwarding
	Automatic Repeat Request		Function Descriptor		Graph
HANDO	Handover	PNFR	Physical Network	VNFFGD	VNF Forwarding
			Function Record		Graph Descriptor
HFN	HyperFrame Number	POC	PTT over Cellular	VNFM	VNF Manager
HHO	Hard Handover	PP, PTP	Point-to-Point	VoIP	Voice-over-IP, Voice-
					over-Internet Protocol
HLR	Home Location Register	PPP	Point-to-Point Protocol	VPLMN	Visited Public Land
					Mobile Network
HN	Home Network	PRACH	Physical RACH	VPN	Virtual Private
					Network
HO	Handover	PRB	Physical resource	VRB	Virtual Resource Block
			block
HPLMN	Home Public Land Mobile	PRG	Physical resource	WiMAX	Worldwide
	Network		block group		Interoperability for
					Microwave Access
HSDPA	High Speed Downlink	ProSe	Proximity Services,	WLAN	Wireless Local Area
	Packet Access		Proximity-Based		Network
			Service
HSN	Hopping Sequence	PRS	Positioning Reference	WMAN	Wireless Metropolitan
	Number		Signal		Area Network
HSPA	High Speed Packet Access	PRR	Packet Reception	WPAN	Wireless Personal Area
			Radio		Network
HSS	Home Subscriber Server	PS	Packet Services	X2-C	X2-Control plane
HSUPA	High Speed Uplink Packet	PSBCH	Physical Sidelink	X2-U	X2-User plane
	Access		Broadcast Channel
HTTP	Hyper Text Transfer	PSDCH	Physical Sidelink	XML	eXtensible Markup
	Protocol		Downlink Channel		Language
HTTPS	Hyper Text Transfer	PSCCH	Physical Sidelink	XRES	EXpected user
	Protocol Secure (https is		Control Channel		RESponse
	http/1.1 over SSL, i.e. port
	443)
I-Block	Information Block	PSSCH	Physical Sidelink	XOR	eXclusive OR
			Shared Channel
ICCID	Integrated Circuit Card	PSCell	Primary SCell	ZC	Zadoff-Chu
	Identification
IAB	Integrated Access and	PSS	Primary	ZP	Zero Po
	Backhaul		Synchronization Signal
ICIC	Inter-Cell Interference	PSTN	Public Switched
	Coordination		Telephone Network
ID	Identity, identifier	PT-RS	Phase-tracking
			reference signal
IDFT	Inverse Discrete Fourier	PTT	Push-to-Talk
	Transform
IE	Information element	PUCCH	Physical Uplink
			Control Channel

[0172] The foregoing description provides illustration and description of various example embodiments, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments. Where specific details are set forth in order to describe example embodiments of the disclosure, it should be apparent to one skilled in the art that the disclosure can be practiced without, or with variation of, these specific details. It should be understood, however, that there is no intent to limit the concepts of the present disclosure to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives consistent with the present disclosure and the appended claims.

[0173] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” are intended to include plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specific the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operation, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

[0174] For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrase “A and/or B” means (A), (B), or (A and B). For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrase “A, B, and/or C” means (A), (B), (C), (A and B), (A and C), (B and C), or (A, B and C). The description may use the phrases “in an embodiment,” or “In some embodiments,” which may each refer to one or more of the same or different embodiments. Furthermore, the terms “comprising,” “including,” “having,” and the like, as used with respect to embodiments of the present disclosure, are synonymous.

[0175] The terms “coupled,” “communicatively coupled,” along with derivatives thereof are used herein. The term “coupled” may mean two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with one another, may mean that two or more elements indirectly contact each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and/or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are said to be coupled with each other. The term “directly coupled” may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with one another. The term “communicatively coupled” may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with one another by a means of communication including through a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wireless communication channel or ink, and/or the like.

[0176] The term “circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes hardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term “circuitry” may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the program code used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

[0177] The term “processor circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data. Processing circuitry may include one or more processing cores to execute instructions and one or more memory structures to store program and data information. The term “processor circuitry” may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes. Processing circuitry may include more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, or the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and/or deep learning (DL) accelerators. The terms “application circuitry” and/or “baseband circuitry” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, “processor circuitry.”

[0178] The term “memory” and/or “memory circuitry” as used herein refers to one or more hardware devices for storing data, including RAM, MRAM, PRAM, DRAM, and/or SDRAM, core memory, ROM, magnetic disk storage mediums, optical storage mediums, flash memory devices or other machine readable mediums for storing data. The term “computer-readable medium” may include, but is not limited to, memory, portable or fixed storage devices, optical storage devices, and various other mediums capable of storing, containing or carrying instructions or data.

[0179] The term “interface circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term “interface circuitry” may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, I/O interfaces, peripheral component interfaces, network interface cards, and/or the like.

[0180] The term “user equipment” or “UE” as used herein refers to a device with radio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communications network. The term “user equipment” or “UE” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the term “user equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.

[0181] The term “network element” as used herein refers to physical or virtualized equipment and/or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term “network element” may be considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and/or the like.

[0182] The term “computer system” as used herein refers to any type interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or components thereof. Additionally, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled with one another. Furthermore, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to multiple computer devices and/or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled with one another and configured to share computing and/or networking resources.

[0183] The term “appliance,” “computer appliance,” or the like, as used herein refers to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g., software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide a specific computing resource. A “virtual appliance” is a virtual machine image to be implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or otherwise is dedicated to provide a specific computing resource. The term “element” refers to a unit that is indivisible at a given level of abstraction and has a clearly defined boundary, wherein an element may be any type of entity including, for example, one or more devices, systems, controllers, network elements, modules, etc., or combinations thereof. The term “device” refers to a physical entity embedded inside, or attached to, another physical entity in its vicinity, with capabilities to convey digital information from or to that physical entity. The term “entity” refers to a distinct component of an architecture or device, or information transferred as a payload. The term “controller” refers to an element or entity that has the capability to affect a physical entity, such as by changing its state or causing the physical entity to move.

[0184] The term “cloud computing” or “cloud” refers to a paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable computing resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand and without active management by users. Cloud computing provides cloud computing services (or cloud services), which are one or more capabilities offered via cloud computing that are invoked using a defined interface (e.g., an API or the like). The term “computing resource” or simply “resource” refers to any physical or virtual component, or usage of such components, of limited availability within a computer system or network. Examples of computing resources include usage/access to, for a period of time, servers, processor(s), storage equipment, memory devices, memory areas, networks, electrical power, input/output (peripheral) devices, mechanical devices, network connections (e.g., channels/links, ports, network sockets, etc.), operating systems, virtual machines (VMs), software/applications, computer files, and/or the like. A “hardware resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by physical hardware element(s). A “virtualized resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. The term “network resource” or “communication resource” may refer to resources that are accessible by computer devices/systems via a communications network. The term “system resources” may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services, and may include computing and/or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services, accessible through a server where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable. As used herein, the term “cloud service provider” (or CSP) indicates an organization which operates typically large-scale “cloud” resources comprised of centralized, regional, and edge data centers (e.g., as used in the context of the public cloud). In other examples, a CSP may also be referred to as a Cloud Service Operator (CSO). References to “cloud computing” generally refer to computing resources and services offered by a CSP or a CSO, at remote locations with at least some increased latency, distance, or constraints relative to edge computing.

[0185] As used herein, the term “data center” refers to a purpose-designed structure that is intended to house multiple high-performance compute and data storage nodes such that a large amount of compute, data storage and network resources are present at a single location. This often entails specialized rack and enclosure systems, suitable heating, cooling, ventilation, security, fire suppression, and power delivery systems. The term may also refer to a compute and data storage node in some contexts. A data center may vary in scale between a centralized or cloud data center (e.g., largest), regional data center, and edge data center (e.g., smallest).

[0186] As used herein, the term “edge computing” refers to the implementation, coordination, and use of computing and resources at locations closer to the “edge” or collection of “edges” of a network. Deploying computing resources at the network's edge may reduce application and network latency, reduce network backhaul traffic and associated energy consumption, improve service capabilities, improve compliance with security or data privacy requirements (especially as compared to conventional cloud computing), and improve total cost of ownership). As used herein, the term “edge compute node” refers to a real-world, logical, or virtualized implementation of a compute-capable element in the form of a device, gateway, bridge, system or subsystem, component, whether operating in a server, client, endpoint, or peer mode, and whether located at an “edge” of an network or at a connected location further within the network. References to a “node” used herein are generally interchangeable with a “device”, “component”, and “sub-system”; however, references to an “edge computing system” or “edge computing network” generally refer to a distributed architecture, organization, or collection of multiple nodes and devices, and which is organized to accomplish or offer some aspect of services or resources in an edge computing setting.

[0187] Additionally or alternatively, the term “Edge Computing” refers to a concept, as described in [6], that enables operator and 3rd party services to be hosted close to the UE's access point of attachment, to achieve an efficient service delivery through the reduced end-to-end latency and load on the transport network. As used herein, the term “Edge Computing Service Provider” refers to a mobile network operator or a 3rd party service provider offering Edge Computing service. As used herein, the term “Edge Data Network” refers to a local Data Network (DN) that supports the architecture for enabling edge applications. As used herein, the term “Edge Hosting Environment” refers to an environment providing support required for Edge Application Server's execution. As used herein, the term “Application Server” refers to application software resident in the cloud performing the server function.

[0188] The term “Internet of Things” or “IoT” refers to a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines capable of transferring data with little or no human interaction, and may involve technologies such as real-time analytics, machine learning and/or AI, embedded systems, wireless sensor networks, control systems, automation (e.g., smarthome, smart building and/or smart city technologies), and the like. IoT devices are usually low-power devices without heavy compute or storage capabilities. “Edge IoT devices” may be any kind of IoT devices deployed at a network's edge.

[0189] As used herein, the term “cluster” refers to a set or grouping of entities as part of an edge computing system (or systems), in the form of physical entities (e.g., different computing systems, networks or network groups), logical entities (e.g., applications, functions, security constructs, containers), and the like. In some locations, a “cluster” is also referred to as a “group” or a “domain”. The membership of cluster may be modified or affected based on conditions or functions, including from dynamic or property-based membership, from network or system management scenarios, or from various example techniques discussed below which may add, modify, or remove an entity in a cluster. Clusters may also include or be associated with multiple layers, levels, or properties, including variations in security features and results based on such layers, levels, or properties.

[0190] The term “application” may refer to a complete and deployable package, environment to achieve a certain function in an operational environment. The term “AI/ML application” or the like may be an application that contains some AI/ML models and application-level descriptions. The term “machine learning” or “ML” refers to the use of computer systems implementing algorithms and/or statistical models to perform specific task(s) without using explicit instructions, but instead relying on patterns and inferences. ML algorithms build or estimate mathematical model(s) (referred to as “ML models” or the like) based on sample data (referred to as “training data,” “model training information,” or the like) in order to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to perform such tasks. Generally, an ML algorithm is a computer program that learns from experience with respect to some task and some performance measure, and an ML model may be any object or data structure created after an ML algorithm is trained with one or more training datasets. After training, an ML model may be used to make predictions on new datasets. Although the term “ML algorithm” refers to different concepts than the term “ML model,” these terms as discussed herein may be used interchangeably for the purposes of the present disclosure.

[0191] The term “machine learning model,” “ML model,” or the like may also refer to ML methods and concepts used by an ML-assisted solution. An “ML-assisted solution” is a solution that addresses a specific use case using ML algorithms during operation. ML models include supervised learning (e.g., linear regression, k-nearest neighbor (KNN), decision tree algorithms, support machine vectors, Bayesian algorithm, ensemble algorithms, etc.) unsupervised learning (e.g., K-means clustering, principle component analysis (PCA), etc.), reinforcement learning (e.g., Q-learning, multi-armed bandit learning, deep RL, etc.), neural networks, and the like. Depending on the implementation a specific ML model could have many sub-models as components and the ML model may train all sub-models together. Separately trained ML models can also be chained together in an ML pipeline during inference. An “ML pipeline” is a set of functionalities, functions, or functional entities specific for an ML-assisted solution; an ML pipeline may include one or several data sources in a data pipeline, a model training pipeline, a model evaluation pipeline, and an actor. The “actor” is an entity that hosts an ML assisted solution using the output of the ML model inference). The term “ML training host” refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts the training of the model. The term “ML inference host” refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts model during inference mode (which includes both the model execution as well as any online learning if applicable). The ML-host informs the actor about the output of the ML algorithm, and the actor takes a decision for an action (an “action” is performed by an actor as a result of the output of an ML assisted solution). The term “model inference information” refers to information used as an input to the ML model for determining inference(s); the data used to train an ML model and the data used to determine inferences may overlap, however, “training data” and “inference data” refer to different concepts.

[0192] The terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like as used herein refers to the creation of an instance. An “instance” also refers to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. The term “information element” refers to a structural element containing one or more fields. The term “field” refers to individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains content. As used herein, a “database object”, “data structure”, or the like may refer to any representation of information that is in the form of an object, attribute-value pair (AVP), key-value pair (KVP), tuple, etc., and may include variables, data structures, functions, methods, classes, database records, database fields, database entities, associations between data and/or database entities (also referred to as a “relation”), blocks and links between blocks in block chain implementations, and/or the like.

[0193] An “information object,” as used herein, refers to a collection of structured data and/or any representation of information, and may include, for example electronic documents (or “documents”), database objects, data structures, files, audio data, video data, raw data, archive files, application packages, and/or any other like representation of information. The terms “electronic document” or “document,” may refer to a data structure, computer file, or resource used to record data, and includes various file types and/or data formats such as word processing documents, spreadsheets, slide presentations, multimedia items, webpage and/or source code documents, and/or the like. As examples, the information objects may include markup and/or source code documents such as HTML, XML, JSON, Apex®, CSS, JSP, MessagePack™, Apache® Thrift™, ASN.1, Google® Protocol Buffers (protobuf), or some other document(s)/format(s) such as those discussed herein. An information object may have both a logical and a physical structure. Physically, an information object comprises one or more units called entities. An entity is a unit of storage that contains content and is identified by a name. An entity may refer to other entities to cause their inclusion in the information object. An information object begins in a document entity, which is also referred to as a root element (or “root”). Logically, an information object comprises one or more declarations, elements, comments, character references, and processing instructions, all of which are indicated in the information object (e.g., using markup).

[0194] The term “data item” as used herein refers to an atomic state of a particular object with at least one specific property at a certain point in time. Such an object is usually identified by an object name or object identifier, and properties of such an object are usually defined as database objects (e.g., fields, records, etc.), object instances, or data elements (e.g., mark-up language elements/tags, etc.). Additionally or alternatively, the term “data item” as used herein may refer to data elements and/or content items, although these terms may refer to difference concepts. The term “data element” or “element” as used herein refers to a unit that is indivisible at a given level of abstraction and has a clearly defined boundary. A data element is a logical component of an information object (e.g., electronic document) that may begin with a start tag (e.g., “<element>”) and end with a matching end tag (e.g., “</element>”), or only has an empty element tag (e.g., “<element />”). Any characters between the start tag and end tag, if any, are the element's content (referred to herein as “content items” or the like).

[0195] The content of an entity may include one or more content items, each of which has an associated datatype representation. A content item may include, for example, attribute values, character values, URIs, qualified names (qnames), parameters, and the like. A qname is a fully qualified name of an element, attribute, or identifier in an information object. A qname associates a URI of a namespace with a local name of an element, attribute, or identifier in that namespace. To make this association, the qname assigns a prefix to the local name that corresponds to its namespace. The qname comprises a URI of the namespace, the prefix, and the local name. Namespaces are used to provide uniquely named elements and attributes in information objects. Content items may include text content (e.g., “<element>content item</element>”), attributes (e.g., “<element attribute=“attribute Value”>”), and other elements referred to as “child elements” (e.g., “<element1><element2>content item</element2></element1>”). An “attribute” may refer to a markup construct including a name-value pair that exists within a start tag or empty element tag. Attributes contain data related to its element and/or control the element's behavior.

[0196] The term “channel” as used herein refers to any transmission medium, either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or a data stream. The term “channel” may be synonymous with and/or equivalent to “communications channel,” “data communications channel,” “transmission channel,” “data transmission channel,” “access channel,” “data access channel,” “link,” “data link,” “carrier,” “radiofrequency carrier,” and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or medium through which data is communicated. Additionally, the term “link” as used herein refers to a connection between two devices through a RAT for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information. As used herein, the term “radio technology” refers to technology for wireless transmission and/or reception of electromagnetic radiation for information transfer. The term “radio access technology” or “RAT” refers to the technology used for the underlying physical connection to a radio based communication network. As used herein, the term “communication protocol” (either wired or wireless) refers to a set of standardized rules or instructions implemented by a communication device and/or system to communicate with other devices and/or systems, including instructions for packetizing/depacketizing data, modulating/demodulating signals, implementation of protocols stacks, and/or the like.

[0197] As used herein, the term “radio technology” refers to technology for wireless transmission and/or reception of electromagnetic radiation for information transfer. The term “radio access technology” or “RAT” refers to the technology used for the underlying physical connection to a radio based communication network. As used herein, the term “communication protocol” (either wired or wireless) refers to a set of standardized rules or instructions implemented by a communication device and/or system to communicate with other devices and/or systems, including instructions for packetizing/depacketizing data, modulating/demodulating signals, implementation of protocols stacks, and/or the like. Examples of wireless communications protocols may be used in various embodiments include a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) radio communication technology, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) radio communication technology, an Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) radio communication technology, and/or a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) radio communication technology including, for example, 3GPP Fifth Generation (5G) or New Radio (NR), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Freedom of Multimedia Access (FOMA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE Advanced), LTE Extra, LTE-A Pro, cdmaOne (2G), Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA 2000), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Mobitex, Circuit Switched Data (CSD), High-Speed CSD (HSCSD), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDM), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), HSPA Plus (HSPA+), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), LTE LAA, MuLTEfire, UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only (EV-DO), Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), Digital AMPS (D-AMPS), Total Access Communication System/Extended Total Access Communication System (TACS/ETACS), Push-to-talk (PTT), Mobile Telephone System (MTS), Improved Mobile Telephone System (IMTS), Advanced Mobile Telephone System (AMTS), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), DataTAC, Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN), Personal Digital Cellular (PDC), Personal Handy-phone System (PHS), Wideband Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (WiDEN), iBurst, Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), also referred to as also referred to as 3GPP Generic Access Network, or GAN standard), Bluetooth®, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), IEEE 802.15.4 based protocols (e.g., IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN), WirelessHART, MiWi, Thread, 802.11a, etc.) WiFi-direct, ANT/ANT+, ZigBee, Z-Wave, 3GPP device-to-device (D2D) or Proximity Services (ProSe), Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), Low-Power Wide-Area-Network (LPWAN), Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRA) or LoRaWANT developed by Semtech and the LoRa Alliance, Sigfox, Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) standard, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), mmWave standards in general (e.g., wireless systems operating at 10-300 GHZ and above such as WiGig, IEEE 802.1 lad, IEEE 802.11ay, etc.), V2X communication technologies (including 3GPP C-V2X), Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) communication systems such as Intelligent-Transport-Systems (ITS) including the European ITS-G5, ITS-G5B, ITS-G5C, etc. In addition to the standards listed above, any number of satellite uplink technologies may be used for purposes of the present disclosure including, for example, radios compliant with standards issued by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), or the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), among others. The examples provided herein are thus understood as being applicable to various other communication technologies, both existing and not yet formulated.

[0198] The term “access network” refers to any network, using any combination of radio technologies, RATs, and/or communication protocols, used to connect user devices and service providers. In the context of WLANs, an “access network” is an IEEE 802 local area network (LAN) or metropolitan area network (MAN) between terminals and access routers connecting to provider services. The term “access router” refers to router that terminates a medium access control (MAC) service from terminals and forwards user traffic to information servers according to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

[0199] The term “SMTC” refers to an SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration. The term “SSB” refers to a synchronization signal/Physical Broadcast Channel (SS/PBCH) block, which includes a Primary Syncrhonization Signal (PSS), a Secondary Syncrhonization Signal (SSS), and a PBCH. The term “a “Primary Cell” refers to the MCG cell, operating on the primary frequency, in which the UE either performs the initial connection establishment procedure or initiates the connection re-establishment procedure. The term “Primary SCG Cell” refers to the SCG cell in which the UE performs random access when performing the Reconfiguration with Sync procedure for DC operation. The term “Secondary Cell” refers to a cell providing additional radio resources on top of a Special Cell for a UE configured with CA. The term “Secondary Cell Group” refers to the subset of serving cells comprising the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured with DC. The term “Serving Cell” refers to the primary cell for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED not configured with CA/DC there is only one serving cell comprising of the primary cell. The term “serving cell” or “serving cells” refers to the set of cells comprising the Special Cell(s) and all secondary cells for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED configured with CA. The term “Special Cell” refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term “Special Cell” refers to the Pcell.

[0200] The term “A1 policy” refers to a type of declarative policies expressed using formal statements that enable the non-RT RIC function in the SMO to guide the near-RT RIC function, and hence the RAN, towards better fulfilment of the RAN intent.

[0201] The term “A1 Enrichment information” refers to information utilized by near-RT RIC that is collected or derived at SMO/non-RT RIC either from non-network data sources or from network functions themselves.

[0202] The term “A1-Policy Based Traffic Steering Process Mode” refers to an operational mode in which the Near-RT RIC is configured through A1 Policy to use Traffic Steering Actions to ensure a more specific notion of network performance (for example, applying to smaller groups of E2 Nodes and UEs in the RAN) than that which it ensures in the Background Traffic Steering.

[0203] The term “Background Traffic Steering Processing Mode” refers to an operational mode in which the Near-RT RIC is configured through O1 to use Traffic Steering Actions to ensure a general background network performance which applies broadly across E2 Nodes and UEs in the RAN.

[0204] The term “Baseline RAN Behavior” refers to the default RAN behavior as configured at the E2 Nodes by SMO

[0205] The term “E2” refers to an interface connecting the Near-RT RIC and one or more O-CU-CPs, one or more O-CU-UPs, one or more O-DUs, and one or more O-eNBs.

[0206] The term “E2 Node” refers to a logical node terminating E2 interface. In this version of the specification, ORAN nodes terminating E2 interface are: for NR access: O-CU-CP, O-CU-UP, O-DU or any combination; and for E-UTRA access: O-eNB.

[0207] The term “Intents”, in the context of O-RAN systems/implementations, refers to declarative policy to steer or guide the behavior of RAN functions, allowing the RAN function to calculate the optimal result to achieve stated objective.

[0208] The term “O-RAN non-real-time RAN Intelligent Controller” or “non-RT RIC” refers to a logical function that enables non-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources, AI/ML workflow including model training and updates, and policy-based guidance of applications/features in Near-RT RIC.

[0209] The term “Near-RT RIC” or “O-RAN near-real-time RAN Intelligent Controller” refers to a logical function that enables near-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources via fine-grained (e.g., UE basis, Cell basis) data collection and actions over E2 interface.

[0210] The term “O-RAN Central Unit” or “O-CU” refers to a logical node hosting RRC, SDAP and PDCP protocols.

[0211] The term “O-RAN Central Unit-Control Plane” or “O-CU-CP” refers to a logical node hosting the RRC and the control plane part of the PDCP protocol.

[0212] The term “O-RAN Central Unit-User Plane” or “O-CU-UP” refers to a logical node hosting the user plane part of the PDCP protocol and the SDAP protocol

[0213] The term “O-RAN Distributed Unit” or “O-DU” refers to a logical node hosting RLC/MAC/High-PHY layers based on a lower layer functional split.

[0214] The term “O-RAN eNB” or “O-eNB” refers to an eNB or ng-eNB that supports E2 interface.

[0215] The term “O-RAN Radio Unit” or “O-RU” refers to a logical node hosting Low-PHY layer and RF processing based on a lower layer functional split. This is similar to 3GPP's “TRP” or “RRH” but more specific in including the Low-PHY layer (FFT/iFFT, PRACH extraction).

[0216] The term “O1” refers to an interface between orchestration & management entities (Orchestration/NMS) and O-RAN managed elements, for operation and management, by which FCAPS management, Software management, File management and other similar functions shall be achieved.

[0217] The term “RAN UE Group” refers to an aggregations of UEs whose grouping is set in the E2 nodes through E2 procedures also based on the scope of A1 policies. These groups can then be the target of E2 CONTROL or POLICY messages.

[0218] The term “Traffic Steering Action” refers to the use of a mechanism to alter RAN behavior. Such actions include E2 procedures such as CONTROL and POLICY.

[0219] The term “Traffic Steering Inner Loop” refers to the part of the Traffic Steering processing, triggered by the arrival of periodic TS related KPM (Key Performance Measurement) from E2 Node, which includes UE grouping, setting additional data collection from the RAN, as well as selection and execution of one or more optimization actions to enforce Traffic Steering policies.

[0220] The term “Traffic Steering Outer Loop” refers to the part of the Traffic Steering processing, triggered by the near-RT RIC setting up or updating Traffic Steering aware resource optimization procedure based on information from A1 Policy setup or update, A1 Enrichment Information (EI) and/or outcome of Near-RT RIC evaluation, which includes the initial configuration (preconditions) and injection of related A1 policies, Triggering conditions for TS changes.

[0221] The term “Traffic Steering Processing Mode” refers to an operational mode in which either the RAN or the Near-RT RIC is configured to ensure a particular network performance. This performance includes such aspects as cell load and throughput, and can apply differently to different E2 nodes and UEs. Throughout this process, Traffic Steering Actions are used to fulfill the requirements of this configuration.

[0222] The term “Traffic Steering Target” refers to the intended performance result that is desired from the network, which is configured to Near-RT RIC over O1.

[0223] Furthermore, any of the disclosed embodiments and example implementations can be embodied in the form of various types of hardware, software, firmware, middleware, or combinations thereof, including in the form of control logic, and using such hardware or software in a modular or integrated manner. Additionally, any of the software components or functions described herein can be implemented as software, program code, script, instructions, etc., operable to be executed by processor circuitry. These components, functions, programs, etc., can be developed using any suitable computer language such as, for example, Python, PyTorch, NumPy, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Scala, Smalltalk, Java™, C++, C #, “C”, Kotlin, Swift, Rust, Go (or “Golang”), EMCAScript, JavaScript, TypeScript, Jscript, ActionScript, Server-Side JavaScript (SSJS), PHP, Pearl, Lua, Torch/Lua with Just-In Time compiler (LuaJIT), Accelerated Mobile Pages Script (AMPscript), VBScript, JavaServer Pages (JSP), Active Server Pages (ASP), Node.js, ASP.NET, JAMscript, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), extensible HTML (XHTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), XML User Interface Language (XUL), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), RESTful API Modeling Language (RAML), wiki markup or Wikitext, Wireless Markup Language (WML), Java Script Object Notion (JSON), Apache® MessagePack™, Cascading Stylesheets (CSS), extensible stylesheet language (XSL), Mustache template language, Handlebars template language, Guide Template Language (GTL), Apache® Thrift, Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1), Google® Protocol Buffers (protobuf), Bitcoin Script, EVM® bytecode, Solidity™, Vyper (Python derived), Bamboo, Lisp Like Language (LLL), Simplicity provided by Blockstream™, Rholang, Michelson, Counterfactual, Plasma, Plutus, Sophia, Salesforce® Apex®, and/or any other programming language or development tools including proprietary programming languages and/or development tools. The software code can be stored as a computer- or processor-executable instructions or commands on a physical non-transitory computer-readable medium. Examples of suitable media include RAM, ROM, magnetic media such as a hard-drive or a floppy disk, or an optical medium such as a compact disk (CD) or DVD (digital versatile disk), flash memory, and the like, or any combination of such storage or transmission devices.