Patent Publication Number: US-2023155752-A1

Title: User Equipment Assisted Carrier Aggregation

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     A user equipment (UE) may establish a connection to at least one of a plurality of different networks or types of networks. When establishing the network connection such as, for example, a connection to a 5G new radio (NR) network, the UE may provide capability information to the network that indicates the radio access capabilities of the UE. The capability information may enable the network to provide the UE with relevant services. For example, the UE may advertise a plurality of band combinations that may be used for dual-connectivity (DC) and/or carrier aggregation (CA). Subsequently, to provide the UE with DC and/or CA, the network may configure the UE with a plurality of component carriers (CCs) to facilitate communication between the network and the UE over one of the advertised band combinations. 
     While connected to the network(s), the UE may utilize further network capabilities. For example, the UE may utilize a carrier aggregation (CA) functionality in which a primary component carrier (PCC) and at least one secondary component carrier (SCC) are used to communicate data over the various network bands. Typically, the UE advertises the combinations of PCC and SCCs that are supported by the UE. Subsequently, the network determines the CCs included in the CA such as, for example, the uplink (UL) CA. However, the network does so without any feedback from the UE. As such, the UL CA combinations selected by the network may include CCs that result in inferior power and/or throughout performance and, thus, lower network efficiency. 
     SUMMARY 
     In some exemplary embodiments, a method is performed by a user equipment. The method includes receiving a measurement configuration request from a network, in response to the measurement configuration request, measuring a quality of one or more uplink (UL) carrier aggregation (CA) combinations, wherein each UL CA combination comprises a plurality of component carriers, generating a message that includes the quality of the one or more UL CA combinations and transmitting the message to the network. 
     Further exemplary embodiments include a method performed by a user equipment (UE) with uplink (UL) carrier aggregation (CA) activated, the UL CA comprising a UL CA combination comprising primary component carrier (PCC) and a secondary component carrier (SCC). The method includes determining that the UL CA should be deactivated and transmitting a quality report to a network comprising quality measurements for only the PCC. 
     Still further exemplary embodiments include a method performed at a network component. The method includes instructing a UE to send transmit first sounding reference signals (SRS) on component carriers (CC) of a first UL CA combination, receiving the first SRSs on the CCs of the first UL CA combination and determining quality characteristics of the first UL CA combination based on the first SRSs. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    shows an exemplary network arrangement according to various exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG.  2    shows an exemplary UE according to various exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG.  3    shows a signaling diagram that relates to configuring the UE with a network connection that includes UE feedback according to various exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG.  4    shows a method of configuring the UE with a network connection that includes UE feedback according to various exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG.  5    shows a method of deactivating an uplink carrier aggregation by the UE according to various exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG.  6    shows a signaling diagram that relates to SRS UL CA activation according to various exemplary embodiments. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The exemplary embodiments may be further understood with reference to the following description and the related appended drawings, wherein like elements are provided with the same reference numerals. The exemplary embodiments relate to a device, system and method for communicating feedback related to a user equipment (UE) uplink (UL) carrier aggregation (CA) to a network (NW) to which the UE is connected. 
     The exemplary embodiments are described with regard to a UE. However, the use of a UE is merely for illustrative purposes. The exemplary embodiments may be utilized with any electronic component that may establish a connection with a network and is configured with the hardware, software, and/or firmware to exchange information and data with the network. Therefore, the UE as described herein is used to represent any electronic component. 
     The exemplary embodiments are also described with regard to a network (NW) that includes 5G new radio (NR) radio access technology (RAT). However, in some embodiments, the network may also include a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) RAT even though the following description will focus primarily on 5G NR RAT. In some embodiments, the network may support carrier aggregation (CA) and/or LTE-NR dual-connectivity (ENDC). Although the following description will focus primarily on CA, both CA and ENDC relate to the UE being configured with a plurality of component carriers (CCs). Each CC may represent a channel that facilitates communication between the UE and the network over a particular frequency band. A plurality of CCs may correspond to the same frequency band, each CC may correspond to a different band or a combination thereof. Further, each CC has a particular bandwidth, the more CCs the UE is configured with the more bandwidth that is available for communications with the network. 
     The UE may be configured to access 5G NR services when operating in non-standalone (NSA) mode for 5G or standalone (SA) mode for 5G. In NSA mode, the UE may establish a connection with both 5G NR RAT and LTE RAT (e.g., ENDC). 
     The following examples provide a general overview of a type of carrier aggregation (CA) activation/deactivation functionality. CA may include a primary component carrier (PCC) and at least one secondary component carrier (SCC) that correspond to the same RAT being used to facilitate communication with the network. The PCC may be used, in part, for control information such as scheduling requests, uplink grants, downlink grants, etc. CA functionality enables the PCC and at least one SCC to combine bandwidths to exchange data with the UE. Thus, with CA, the PCC may provide a first portion of a total bandwidth for data to be exchanged while the SCC may provide a second portion of the total bandwidth. The combination of a PCC and a single SCC may be characterized as a CC combination that includes two carriers. To further increase the total available bandwidth for data to be exchanged with the UE, additional SCCs may be incorporated. 
     Several issues may arise with the current method of providing UL CA to a UE without any UE preference feedback regarding UL CA combinations. For example, dynamic transmit antenna selection for different UL CCs may have conflicts and thus some CCs may end up with a less preferred transmission (Tx) antenna. Furthermore, some Tx CC combinations may lead to interference on the DL side due to intermodulation, especially in a non-standalone (NSA) scenario with LTE UL present at the same time. Still further, there could be other limitations on UE such as, for example, negative thermal impacts of some UL CA combinations, some bands being incapable of being transmitted on all Tx antennas, thus leading to less robustness. The UE may not be experiencing similar conditions on the UL as compared to the DL due to various factors such as, for example, specific absorption rate (SAR) limitations, inaccurate beam correspondence, etc. As such, without UE preference feedback, a UL CA combination can be activated that leads to inferior power/throughput performance and, therefore, lower NW efficiency. 
     According to a first exemplary embodiment, a manner of providing UE preference feedback to the NW regarding UL CA combinations is described. As will be described in further detail below, the UE may provide preference feedback regarding UL CA combinations to the NW periodically, based on the occurrence of a predetermined event, or based on a trigger. The NW can take this feedback into consideration when activating CCs for the UL CA. 
     According to a second exemplary embodiment, the NW may alternatively instruct the UE to send sounding reference signals (SRS) on CCs even before those CCs are added to the UL CA combination. Using this SRS approach, the NW may obtain a better understanding of the UL conditions directly. After the UE SRS transmission(s), the NW may activate CCs for a UL CA combination. 
     Additional issues may arise with respect to UL CA deactivation/deconfiguration by a UE. For example, if a UE unilaterally deactivates a UL CA because the UL CA is harmful to the UE due to undesirable thermal and/or power consumption effects and does so without notifying the NW, confusion on the NW side may result (i.e., because of the asymmetrical information on the NW side). Furthermore, with respect to power efficiency, a given UL CA may be less desirable when the UL data traffic rate is lower than a certain threshold determined by the UE (known to the UE, but not the NW). 
     According to a third exemplary embodiment, the UE may suggest to the NW that the UL CA be deactivated by sending a quality report in which only the PCC as the single CC for the UL CA combination to indicate the limitations of the UE. Alternatively, the UE may send a quality report to the NW in which thermal/power limitations of the UE are set to true for all UL CA combinations. Although it is up to the NW&#39;s discretion whether or not to honor the UE&#39;s request to deactivate/deconfigure the UL CA, the confusion on the NW side is eliminated if the UE later deactivates the UL CA unilaterally. 
       FIG.  1    shows an exemplary network arrangement  100  according to various exemplary embodiments. The exemplary network arrangement  100  includes a UE  110 . Those skilled in the art will understand that the UE  110  may be any type of electronic component that is configured to communicate via a network, e.g., mobile phones, tablet computers, desktop computers, smartphones, phablets, embedded devices, wearables, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, etc. It should also be understood that an actual network arrangement may include any number of UEs being used by any number of users. Thus, the example of a single UE  110  is merely provided for illustrative purposes. 
     The UE  110  may be configured to communicate with one or more networks. In the example of the network configuration  100 , the networks with which the UE  110  may wirelessly communicate are a 5G New Radio (NR) radio access network (5G NR-RAN)  120  and an LTE radio access network (LTE-RAN)  122 . However, it should be understood that the UE  110  may also communicate with other types of networks (e.g. legacy cellular network, WLAN, etc.) and the UE  110  may also communicate with networks over a wired connection. With regard to the exemplary embodiments, the UE  110  may establish a connection with the 5G NR-RAN  120  and/or the LTE-RAN  122 . Therefore, the UE  110  may have both a 5G NR chipset to communication with the 5G NR-RAN  120  and an LTE chipset to communicate with the LTE-RAN  122 . 
     The 5G NR-RAN  120  and the LTE-RAN  122  may be portions of cellular networks that may be deployed by cellular providers (e.g., Verizon, AT&amp;T, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc.). These networks  120  and  122  may include, for example, cells or base stations (Node Bs, eNodeBs, HeNBs, eNBS, gNBs, gNodeBs, macrocells, microcells, small cells, femtocells, etc.) that are configured to send and receive traffic from UEs that are equipped with the appropriate cellular chip set. 
     The use of a separate 5G NR-RAN  120  and an LTE-RAN  122  is merely provided for illustrative purposes. An actual network arrangement may include a radio access network that includes architecture that is capable of providing both 5G NR RAT and LTE RAT services. For example, a next-generations radio access network (NG-RAN) may include a next generation Node B (gNB) that provides 5G NR services and a next generation evolved Node B (ng-eNB) that provides LTE services. The NG-RAN may be connected to at least one of the evolved packet core (EPC) or the 5G core (5GC). Thus, in one exemplary configuration, the UE  110  may achieve ENDC by establishing a connection to at least one cell corresponding to the 5G NR-RAN  120  and at least one cell corresponding to the LTE-RAN  122 . In another exemplary configuration, the UE  110  may achieve ENDC by establishing a connection to at least two cells corresponding to the NG-RAN or other type of similar RAN. Accordingly, the example of a separate 5G NR-RAN  120  and an LTE-RAN  122  is merely provided for illustrative purposes. 
     Returning to the exemplary network arrangement  100 , the UE  110  may connect to the 5G NR-RAN  120  via at least one of the next generation Node B (gNB)  120 A or the gNB  120 B. The UE  110  may connect to the LTE-RAN  122  via at least one of the evolved Node B (eNB)  122 A or eNB  122 B. Those skilled in the art will understand that any association procedure may be performed for the UE  110  to connect to the 5G NR-RAN  120  or the LTE-RAN  122 . For example, as discussed above, the 5G NR-RAN  120  may be associated with a particular cellular provider where the UE  110  and/or the user thereof has a contract and credential information (e.g., stored on a SIM card). Upon detecting the presence of the 5G NR-RAN  120 , the UE  110  may transmit the corresponding credential information to associate with the 5G NR-RAN  120 . More specifically, the UE  110  may associate with a specific cell (e.g., the gNB  120 A of the 5g NR-RAN  120 ). Similarly, for access to LTE services, the UE  110  may associate with eNB  122 A. However, as mentioned above, the use of the 5G NR-RAN  120  and the LTE-RAN  122  is for illustrative purposes and any appropriate type of RAN may be used. 
     In addition to the RANs  120  and  122 , the network arrangement  100  also includes a cellular core network  130 , the Internet  140 , an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)  150 , and a network services backbone  160 . The cellular core network  130  may be considered to be the interconnected set of components that manages the operation and traffic of the cellular network. It may include the EPC and/or the 5GC. The cellular core network  130  also manages the traffic that flows between the cellular network and the Internet  140 . The IMS  150  may be generally described as an architecture for delivering multimedia services to the UE  110  using the IP protocol. The IMS  150  may communicate with the cellular core network  130  and the Internet  140  to provide the multimedia services to the UE  110 . The network services backbone  160  is in communication either directly or indirectly with the Internet  140  and the cellular core network  130 . The network services backbone  160  may be generally described as a set of components (e.g., servers, network storage arrangements, etc.) that implement a suite of services that may be used to extend the functionalities of the UE  110  in communication with the various networks. 
       FIG.  2    shows an exemplary UE  110  according to various exemplary embodiments. The UE  110  will be described with regard to the network arrangement  100  of  FIG.  1   . The UE  110  may represent any electronic device and may include a processor  205 , a memory arrangement  210 , a display device  215 , an input/output (I/O) device  220 , a transceiver  225 , and other components  230 . The other components  230  may include, for example, an audio input device, an audio output device, a battery that provides a limited power supply, a data acquisition device, ports to electrically connect the UE  110  to other electronic devices, sensors to detect conditions of the UE  110 , etc. 
     The processor  205  may be configured to execute a plurality of engines for the UE  110 . For example, the engines may include a CA feedback engine  235 . The CA feedback engine  235  may receive a plurality of component carriers (CC) that the UE  110  identifies may be utilized for the network connection. Subsequently, the CA feedback engine  235  may prioritize particular CC combinations based on various factors. The CC combinations are then advertised based on their corresponding priority. 
     The above referenced engines each being an application (e.g., a program) executed by the processor  205  is only exemplary. The functionality associated with the engines may also be represented as a separate incorporated component of the UE  110  or may be a modular component coupled to the UE  110 , e.g., an integrated circuit with or without firmware. For example, the integrated circuit may include input circuitry to receive signals and processing circuitry to process the signals and other information. The engines may also be embodied as one application or separate applications. In addition, in some UEs, the functionality described for the processor  205  is split among two or more processors such as a baseband processor and an applications processor. The exemplary embodiments may be implemented in any of these or other configurations of a UE. 
     The memory  210  may be a hardware component configured to store data related to operations performed by the UE  110 . The display device  215  may be a hardware component configured to show data to a user while the I/O device  220  may be a hardware component that enables the user to enter inputs. The display device  215  and the I/O device  220  may be separate components or integrated together such as a touchscreen. The transceiver  225  may be a hardware component configured to establish a connection with the 5G NR-RAN  120 , the LTE-RAN  122  etc. Accordingly, the transceiver  225  may operate on a variety of different frequencies or channels (e.g., set of consecutive frequencies). 
     When connected to a network (e.g., 5G NR-RAN  120 , LTE-RAN  122 ), the UE  110  may be configured to be in one of a plurality of different operating states. One operating state may be characterized as RRC idle state and another operating state may be characterized as RRC connected state. RRC refers to the radio resource control (RRC) protocols. Those skilled in the art will understand that when the UE  110  is in RRC connected state, the UE  110  and the network may be configured to exchange information and/or data. The exchange of information and/or data may allow the UE  110  to perform functionalities available via the network connection. Further, those skilled in the art will understand that when the UE  110  is connected to the network and in RRC idle state the UE  110  is generally not exchanging data with the network and radio resources are not being assigned to the UE  110  within the network. However, when the UE  110  is in RRC idle state, the UE  110  may monitor for information and/or data transmitted by the network. 
     As mentioned above, during operation, the UE  110  may be configured with CA, which relates to a plurality of CCs being used to facilitate communications between the network and the UE  110 . To achieve CA, the UE  110  may initially provide the network with feedback regarding which CCs the UE prefers for CA (i.e., CA feedback information). The CA feedback information may include CC quality as well. 
     The signaling diagram of  FIG.  3    shows a general example of how the network may provide the UE  110  with CA. However, the exemplary embodiments are not limited to the signaling diagram of  FIG.  3   . This signaling diagram is only intended to illustrate a general example of the context in which the UE  110  may advertise preferred UL CA combinations to the network. The exemplary embodiments apply to any scenario in which the UE  110  is triggered to advertise UL CA combinations to the network. 
       FIG.  3    shows a signaling diagram  300  that relates to configuring the UE  110  with CA according to various exemplary embodiments. The signaling diagram  300  will be described with regard to the UE  110  and the network arrangement  100 . At  305 , the 5G NR-RAN  120  sends a measurement configuration request to the UE regarding uplink carrier aggregation (UL CA). As a result, the UE  110  determines the quality of different CA combinations and UE  110  preferences regarding a specific one or more of the CA combinations. The quality of the different combinations may be based on any physical layer measurements that the UE  110  may perform on the downlink (DL) component carriers. 
     In some exemplary embodiments, the UE preference information may also be based on one or more quality measurements. For example, the UE preference information may be based on a quality measurement of a DL CC being above a predefined threshold. To provide a specific example, the Reference Signal Receive Power (RSRP) for a CC may be above a threshold. The threshold may be preconfigured in the UE  110  or may be communicated to the UE  110  by the NW, etc. In some embodiments, the UE  110  preference may be based on a quality measurement of a DL CC being above a predefined threshold for a predefined period of time. For example, the RSRP being above a predefined threshold for a period of time may indicate the UE  110  is relatively stationary and the channels are unlikely to change over time and therefore the CCs may have a preference for UL CA. There may be other non-quality measurement preference conditions that may be used to select preferred CCs for UL CA. Examples of these other non-quality measurement preference conditions will be described below. 
     The UE may then report this information to the NW periodically (at  310 ), when a predetermined event occurs (at  315 ), and/or when a trigger occurs the UE  110  to send this information (at  320 ). For example, a predetermined event may be a if a measured parameter (e.g., RSRP) is greater or less than some threshold for a certain period of time, a motion state of the UE  110  has changed, the thermal limitations of the UE  110  have changed, etc. A trigger may be the network (e.g., 5G NR-RAN  120 ) triggering the UE  110  to report by sending, for example, triggering DCIs on the PDCCH. These are only examples of events and/or triggers and those skilled in the art will understand the full range of events/triggers that may be used to cause the UE  110  to report the information to the 5G NR-RAN  120 . Finally, at  325 , the 5G NR-RAN  120  configures UL CA for the UE  110  taking into consideration, for example, the feedback from the UE  110  (e.g., the quality report(s) and/or UE preference), other 5G NR-RAN  120  conditions (e.g., congestion, etc.). 
       FIG.  4    shows a method  400  for providing UE feedback to a NW regarding UL CA according to the exemplary embodiments. The method  400  provides for communications from the UE  110  to provide feedback to the NW regarding CA combinations. As discussed above, feedback regarding CA combinations may be in response to a measurement configuration request from the NW. Thus, the method  400  is performed by the UE  110  and will be described with regard to the system  100  of  FIG.  1   . In the example of  FIG.  4   , the NW may be considered the 5G NR-RAN  120 . 
     At  405 , the UE  110  receives a measurement configuration request via radio resource control (RRC) signaling from the 5G NR-RAN  120 . It may be considered that the UE  110  is already configured with DL CA and one or more CC activated on the UL side. In response, at  410 , the UE  110  measures a quality of multiple CCs that may be used for UL CA combinations. In addition to or alternatively to this measurement, at  415 , the UE  110  determines a UE preference regarding the multiple UL CA combinations based on at least one predetermined factor. Some exemplary preference factors were discussed above, and additional exemplary preference factors will be described below. 
     At  420 , the UE  110  generates a message that includes the quality of the multiple UL CA combinations and/or the UE preferences. At  425 , the UE  110  transmits the message to the 5G NR-RAN  120 . In some embodiments, the message (i.e., the feedback) may be through RRC signaling, medium access control-control element (MAC-CE) signaling or a long Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) message. In some exemplary embodiments, the message may include, for example, physical layer measurements, UL CA combination preference, and UE limitations. 
     The feedback provided by the UE  110  to the 5G NR-RAN  120  may include a number (N) of UL CA combinations in terms of priority, where N may be in the measurement configuration request or a predetermined number. In some embodiments, the N UL CA combinations may be based on existing DL CA combinations available for the UE  110 . Furthermore, if the UE  110  is already configured with UL CA, the reported N UL CA combinations do not need to include the existing UL SCCs since it is possible that those UL SCCs are not preferred CCs. There may be various manners of selecting the N UL CA combinations. The above described measurement based preferences. The following will describe other types of preferences to prioritize UL CA combinations to select the N UL CA combinations. 
     In addition to the exemplary factors described above (e.g., the quality measurement based factors), the UE  110  preference for different UL CA combinations may also be based on other one or more other types of factors. In some exemplary embodiments, these factors may include throughput priority (e.g., maximization of throughput), power efficiency priority (e.g., the amount of power needed to transmit each bit), beamforming priority, etc. These preference factors may be in addition to the factors described above or exclusive of the above factors. In some exemplary embodiments, the factors may be agreed upon between the UE and infrastructure vendors. 
     In addition to the above information, it was described above that UE  110  limitations may also be reported to the 5G NR-RAN  120  with the other UL CA information. For example, for each UL CA combination reported to the 5G NR-RAN  120 , a bit mask corresponding to characteristics of the combination may be provided in addition to the physical layer metrics. These characteristics may include pre-agreed upon items such as, for example, intermodulation impact characteristics, thermal impact characteristics, power impact characteristics, transmission antenna conflict characteristics, beamforming conflict characteristics of each combination, etc. 
     The 5G NR-RAN  120  may then use some or all of this information received from the UE  110  regarding UL CA to determine the specific UL CA combinations to assign to the UE  110 . Those skilled in the art will understand that the 5G NR-RAN  120  may also use other information in addition to the UE  110  feedback to assign UL CA combinations to the UE  110 . 
     Moreover, since the measurements and/or characteristics can change over time, periodic or event-based reports may be sent by the UE  110  to the 5G NR-RAN  120  during UL CA operation. If the updated reports warrant a change to the assigned UL CA combinations, the 5G NR-RAN  120  may change the reports. In some exemplary embodiments, the periodicity of the reports may be increased  120  after UL CA has been activated. 
     In theory, the throughput of any UL CA combination is limited by the total channel capacity, which can be expressed as 
     
       
         
           
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     where W i  is the bandwidth of the i th  CC, P i   t  is the transmission power of the i th  CC, and PL i  is the pathloss of the i th  CC. The UE  110  may report physical layer metrics such as, for example, the reference signal received power (RSRP) of a selected active beam of each CC separately to the 5G NR-RAN  120  so that the 5G NR-RAN  120  can calculate the pathloss of each CC. The UE  110  may also report the total transmission power (Σ i  P i   t ). Based on this UE-reported information, the 5G NR-RAN  120  may calculate the transmission power for the UE  110  on each UL CC based on the activated BWP. 
     In addition, the 5G NR-RAN  120  may request, in the measurement configuration request, that these physical layer metrics be reported by the UE  110  regardless of whether or not the existing UL CA is active. The UE  110  may also adopt the same calculation for preference/priority when the limitations are the same for two UL CA combinations. The bandwidth of the new UL CC may be based the widest bandwidth part (BWP) configured on the DL. 
       FIG.  5    shows a method of deactivating an uplink carrier aggregation by the UE  110  according to various exemplary embodiments. Because the UE  110  is more aware of UL data traffic based on the activity of applications at the UE  110 , the UE  110  may be better suited to trigger UL CA deactivation/deconfiguration. 
     At  505 , the UE  110  sends a quality report to the 5G NR-RAN  120  in which only the PCC is the single CC for the UL CA combination to indicate the limitations of the UE  110 . This quality report is a suggestion by the UE  110  that the UL CA be deactivated. In some exemplary embodiments, the UE  110  may send a quality report to the NW  130  in which thermal/power limitations of the UE  110  are set to true for all UL CA combinations, e.g., the thermal or power limitations of the UE  110  as a result of the CA combination is not acceptable. In addition to the reports described above, in some exemplary embodiments the feedback may be reported to the 5G NR-RAN  120  via a MAC-CE, a UCI or PUCCH messages. 
     At  510 , the 5G NR-RAN  120  may deactivate/deconfigure the UL CA based on the information that is received from the UE  110 . However, since the 5G NR-RAN  120  is the entity that ultimately controls the activation/deactivation of CA, it is in the discretion of the 5G NR-RAN  120  whether or not to honor the request of the UE  110 . 
     If, at  510 , the NW  130  does not deactivate/deconfigure the UL CA, the UE  110  may unilaterally deactivate the UL CA at  515 . However, because of the quality report sent by the UE  110  at  505 , confusion at the 5G NR-RAN  120  is eliminated because the 5G NR-RAN  120  understands from the report that the UE  110  does not wish to continue with UL CA. 
     At  520 , the UE  110  may request that a UL CA combination be activated due to upcoming high data traffic. For example, the UE may send feedback information to the 5G NR-RAN  120  that the uplink will experience high data traffic in the near future. This indication may be a separate indication within the reporting from the UE  110  to the 5G NR-RAN  120 . The UE  110  may understand that such a high UL traffic scenarios may be upcoming based on applications running at the UE  110 . In other exemplary embodiments, the UE  110  may report very favorable UL CA data in anticipation of the upcoming high data traffic condition that may cause the 5G NR-RAN  120  to activate UL CA. 
       FIG.  6    shows a signaling diagram that relates to sounding reference signal (SRS) UL CA activation according to various exemplary embodiments. SRSs are signals that may be inserted into the UL CC by the UE  110  at specific time, frequency and power level such that the 5G NR-RAN  120  (e.g., gNB  120 A) may receive the SRSs and understand the channel characteristics of the CC. Thus, using the SRSs allows the gNB  120 A to directly measure the quality of the UL CCs. 
     At  605 , the 5G NR-RAN  120  may instruct the UE  110 , for example, via a MAC-CE or a downlink channel information (DCI) message, to transmit SRSs on CCs of a first UL CA combination. This request may be made even before the CCs are added to the UL CA combinations for the UE  110 . Cross carrier scheduling may be adopted for SRS transmissions even though targeted CCs are not yet added to the UL CA combinations. 
     At  610 , the UE  110  transmits the SRSs on the CCs of the first UL CA combination. The PCC SRS may be scheduled at the same time as the SRS on these CCs to reflect any potential effects on beamforming and/or transmission (Tx) antenna conflicts. The transmission power of the SRS on the CCs may be equally divided among the CCs based on the maximum total transmission power. 
     At  615 , the 5G NR-RAN  120  may instruct the UE  110  to transmit SRSs on CCs of a second UL CA combination even before those CCs are added to the UL CA combination for the UE  110 . Cross carrier scheduling may also be adopted for these SRS transmissions even though the targeted CCs are not added to the UL CA combination yet. 
     At  620 , the UE transmits the SRS on the CCs of the second UL CA combination. The PCC SRS may also be scheduled at the same time as the SRS on these CCs and the transmission power of the SRS on the CCs may again be equally divided among those CCs based on the maximum total transmission power. 
     Using this approach, the 5G NR-RAN  120  may obtain a better understanding of the UL condition because the quality of the UL CCs is directly measured. In some embodiments, multiple rounds of SRS transmissions may be used. In some embodiments, the UE  110  may autonomously (e.g., unilaterally) disable the SRS transmission of some CCs if the UE  110  determines that the transmission cost is not affordable, e.g., the amount of power needed to transmit the SRSs is detrimental to the battery life of the UE  110 . After the UE SRS transmission(s), at  625 , the 5G NR-RAN  120  may prioritize the UL CA combinations based on, for example, cell load, traffic pattern, radio frequency (RF) conditions, etc. As noted above, multiple rounds of SRS transmissions may be sent before the 5G NR-RAN  120  selects a UL CA combination at  625 . 
     The exemplary embodiments describe various mechanisms related to advertising band combinations. These mechanisms may be used in conjunction with currently implemented band combination advertising methods, future implementations of band combination advertising methods or independently from other band combination advertising methods. The exemplary embodiments may apply to any scenario where the UE  110  is configured to advertise a plurality of band combinations to the network. 
     Those skilled in the art will understand that the above-described exemplary embodiments may be implemented in any suitable software or hardware configuration or combination thereof. An exemplary hardware platform for implementing the exemplary embodiments may include, for example, an Intel x86 based platform with compatible operating system, a Windows OS, a Mac platform and MAC OS, a mobile device having an operating system such as iOS, Android, etc. In a further example, the exemplary embodiments of the above described method may be embodied as a program containing lines of code stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium that, when compiled, may be executed on a processor or microprocessor. 
     Although this application described various embodiments each having different features in various combinations, those skilled in the art will understand that any of the features of one embodiment may be combined with the features of the other embodiments in any manner not specifically disclaimed or which is not functionally or logically inconsistent with the operation of the device or the stated functions of the disclosed embodiments. 
     It is well understood that the use of personally identifiable information should follow privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining the privacy of users. In particular, personally identifiable information data should be managed and handled so as to minimize risks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use should be clearly indicated to users. 
     It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made in the present disclosure, without departing from the spirit or the scope of the disclosure. Thus, it is intended that the present disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalent.