Patent Description:
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. Examples of such multiple-access systems include code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time-division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, and single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems.

For example, a fifth generation (<NUM>) wireless communications technology (which can be referred to as <NUM> new radio (<NUM> NR)) is envisaged to expand and support diverse usage scenarios and applications with respect to current mobile network generations. In an aspect, <NUM> communications technology can include: enhanced mobile broadband addressing human-centric use cases for access to multimedia content, services and data; ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) with certain specifications for latency and reliability; and massive machine type communications, which can allow a very large number of connected devices and transmission of a relatively low volume of non-delay-sensitive information.

In some wireless communication technologies, a source cell can configure a user equipment (UE) to perform conditional handover to one or more target cells. The source cell can transmit the configuration to the UE before the handover event, where the configuration can specify parameters for performing the handover and one or more conditions for the UE to detect for performing the handover. The UE can accordingly attempt to detect the one or more conditions, and can initiate handover to the one or more corresponding target cells, without further instruction from the source cell, when the one or more conditions are detected.

Document <CIT> relates to a method for facilitating conditional handover procedure for a user equipment, which involves transmitting conditional handover notification to source base station based on evaluating whether triggering condition is fulfilled by user equipment.

The 3GPP standard contribution from <NPL> relates to a conditional "make-before-break" handover procedure.

The 3GPP contribution from <NPL> relates to an enhanced "make-before-break" handover procedure combined with a conditional handover mechanism.

The described features generally relate to performing conditional handover in scenarios where a user equipment (UE) handing over from a source cell to one or more target cell may be in communication with both the source cell and the one or more target cells for a period of time. For example, in conditional handover, the source cell can configure the UE to perform handover to one or more target cells when one or more conditions are detected. In this regard, the decision to perform handover, once the configuration is received, can be on the UE, and thus the UE may be in communications with both the source cell and the target cell for at least a period of time before handover is completed. This may also be so in cases where conditional handover is used with other handover optimizations, such as make-before-break (MBB) handover, dynamic contention resolution scheme (DCRS) handover, etc. In MBB handover, for example, the source cell does not release the UE resources until the target cell indicates to the source cell that a connection is established with the UE. When the UE is concurrently connected to the source and target cells, in this regard, overlapping transmissions from the cells may occur. The MBB handover described herein may also be known as a Dual Active Protocol Stack (DAPS) handover.

In examples described herein, where a UE determines that it is connected with the source cell and one or more target cells (e.g., simultaneously), the UE can transmit a notification to the source cell, where the notification can relate to the simultaneous connection, at the UE, with the source cell and the one or more target cells. The notification can include one or more of an indication of a search space configuration or resource scheduling with the one or more target cells, an indication of one or more beams used by the one or more target cells, a request for activation of slot aggregation at the source cell, a request for the source cell to release resources, and/or the like. For example, the source cell may use the notification(s) for performing one or more functions related to the handover, such as scheduling resources for the UE to not collide with the search space configuration or resource scheduling of the target cell, using one or more beams similar to those used by the target cell, activating slot aggregation to improve reliability of source cell communications during handover, releasing the resources as requested by the UE, etc. This can help avoid occurrence of overlapping transmissions from the source cell and target cell.

As used in this application, the terms "component," "module," "system" and the like are intended to include a computer-related entity, such as but not limited to hardware, software, a combination of hardware and software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a computing device and the computing device can be a component. One or more components can reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component can be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. In addition, these components can execute from various computer readable media having various data structures stored thereon. The components can communicate by way of local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets, such as data from one component interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network such as the Internet with other systems by way of the signal.

Techniques described herein may be used for various wireless communication systems such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, and other systems. The terms "system" and "network" may often be used interchangeably. IS-<NUM> Releases <NUM> and A are commonly referred to as CDMA2000 1X, 1X, etc. IS-<NUM> (TIA-<NUM>) is commonly referred to as CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, High Rate Packet Data (HRPD), etc. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. An OFDMA system may implement a radio technology such as Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE <NUM> (Wi-Fi), IEEE <NUM> (WiMAX), IEEE <NUM>, Flash-OFDM™, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) are new releases of UMTS that use E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, and GSM are described in documents from an organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project" (3GPP). The techniques described herein may be used for the systems and radio technologies mentioned above as well as other systems and radio technologies, including cellular (e.g., LTE) communications over a shared radio frequency spectrum band. The description below, however, describes an LTE/LTE-A system for purposes of example, and LTE terminology is used in much of the description below, although the techniques are applicable beyond LTE/LTE-A applications (e.g., to fifth generation (<NUM>) new radio (NR) networks or other next generation communication systems).

The wireless communications system (also referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) can include base stations <NUM>, UEs <NUM>, an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) <NUM>, and/or a <NUM> Core (5GC) <NUM>. The macro cells can include base stations. The small cells can include femtocells, picocells, and microcells. In an example, the base stations <NUM> may also include gNBs <NUM>, as described further herein. In one example, some nodes of the wireless communication system may have a modem <NUM> and communicating component <NUM> for configuring conditional handover and/or notifying a source cell of occurrence of a conditional handover. In addition, some nodes may have a modem <NUM> and scheduling component <NUM> for configuring a UE to perform conditional handover and/or receiving a notification of conditional handover therefrom, as described herein. Though a UE <NUM> is shown as having the modem <NUM> and communicating component <NUM> and a base station <NUM> is shown as having the modem <NUM> and scheduling component <NUM>, this is one illustrative example, and substantially any node or type of node may include a modem <NUM> and communicating component <NUM> and/or a modem <NUM> and scheduling component <NUM> for providing corresponding functionalities described herein.

The base stations <NUM> configured for <NUM> LTE (which can collectively be referred to as Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN)) may interface with the EPC <NUM> through backhaul links <NUM> (e.g., using an S1 interface). The base stations <NUM> configured for <NUM> NR (which can collectively be referred to as Next Generation RAN (NG-RAN)) may interface with 5GC <NUM> through backhaul links <NUM>. The base stations <NUM> may communicate directly or indirectly (e.g., through the EPC <NUM> or 5GC <NUM>) with each other over backhaul links <NUM> (e.g., using an X2 interface).

The base stations <NUM> may wirelessly communicate with one or more UEs <NUM>. A network that includes both small cell and macro cells may be referred to as a heterogeneous network. A heterogeneous network may also include Home Evolved Node Bs (eNBs) (HeNBs), which may provide service to a restricted group, which can be referred to as a closed subscriber group (CSG). The base stations <NUM> / UEs <NUM> may use spectrum up to Y MHz (e.g., <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. MHz) bandwidth per carrier allocated in a carrier aggregation of up to a total of Yx MHz (e.g., for x component carriers) used for transmission in the DL and/or the UL direction. Allocation of carriers may be asymmetric with respect to DL and UL (e.g., more or less carriers may be allocated for DL than for UL).

In another example, certain UEs <NUM> may communicate with each other using device-to-device (D2D) communication link <NUM>.

A base station <NUM>, whether a small cell <NUM>' or a large cell (e.g., macro base station), may include an eNB, gNodeB (gNB), or other type of base station. A base station <NUM> referred to herein can include a gNB <NUM>.

The 5GC <NUM> may include an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) <NUM>, other AMFs <NUM>, a Session Management Function (SMF) <NUM>, and a User Plane Function (UPF) <NUM>. The AMF <NUM> can be a control node that processes the signaling between the UEs <NUM> and the 5GC <NUM>. Generally, the AMF <NUM> can provide QoS flow and session management. User Internet protocol (IP) packets (e.g., from one or more UEs <NUM>) can be transferred through the UPF <NUM>. The UPF <NUM> can provide UE IP address allocation for one or more UEs, as well as other functions.

The base station <NUM> provides an access point to the EPC <NUM> or 5GC <NUM> for a UE <NUM>. Examples of UEs <NUM> include a cellular phone, a smart phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a laptop, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a satellite radio, a positioning system (e.g., satellite, terrestrial), a multimedia device, a video device, a digital audio player (e.g., MP3 player), a camera, a game console, a tablet, a smart device, robots, drones, an industrial/manufacturing device, a wearable device (e.g., a smart watch, smart clothing, smart glasses, virtual reality goggles, a smart wristband, smart jewelry (e.g., a smart ring, a smart bracelet)), a vehicle/a vehicular device, a meter (e.g., parking meter, electric meter, gas meter, water meter, flow meter), a gas pump, a large or small kitchen appliance, a medical/healthcare device, an implant, a sensor/actuator, a display, or any other similar functioning device. Some of the UEs <NUM> may be referred to as IoT devices (e.g., meters, pumps, monitors, cameras, industrial/manufacturing devices, appliances, vehicles, robots, drones, etc.). IoT UEs may include MTC/enhanced MTC (eMTC, also referred to as CAT-M, Cat M1) UEs, NB-IoT (also referred to as CAT NB1) UEs, as well as other types of UEs. In the present disclosure, eMTC and NB-IoT may refer to future technologies that may evolve from or may be based on these technologies. For example, eMTC may include FeMTC (further eMTC), eFeMTC (enhanced further eMTC), mMTC (massive MTC), etc., and NB-IoT may include eNB-IoT (enhanced NB-IoT), FeNB-IoT (further enhanced NB-IoT), etc. The UE <NUM> may also be referred to as a station, a mobile station, a subscriber station, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wireless communications device, a remote device, a mobile subscriber station, an access terminal, a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or some other suitable terminology.

In an example, communicating component <NUM> can configure conditional handover to one or more target cells (provided by one or more base station <NUM>) based on detecting one or more conditions. Where communicating component <NUM> detects the one or more conditions, it can initiate handover to the one or more target cells, and in some examples, can transmit a notification of the conditional handover to a source cell (provided by one or more base stations <NUM>, which may be a different or same base station that provides one or more target cells). The notification may include parameters related to the UE <NUM> communicating with the target cell and/or can otherwise include requests related to the UE <NUM> communicating with the source cell. In any case, the source cell (or corresponding base station <NUM>) can modify parameters for communicating with the UE <NUM> based at least in part on receiving the notification. This can avoid overlapping transmissions between the source cell and one or more target cell, as described above and further herein.

Turning now to <FIG>, aspects are depicted with reference to one or more components and one or more methods that may perform the actions or operations described herein, where aspects in dashed line may be optional. Although the operations described below in <FIG> are presented in a particular order and/or as being performed by an example component, it should be understood that the ordering of the actions and the components performing the actions may be varied, depending on the implementation. Moreover, it should be understood that the following actions, functions, and/or described components may be performed by a specially-programmed processor, a processor executing specially-programmed software or computer-readable media, or by any other combination of a hardware component and/or a software component capable of performing the described actions or functions.

Referring to <FIG>, one example of an implementation of UE <NUM> may include a variety of components, some of which have already been described above and are described further herein, including components such as one or more processors <NUM> and memory <NUM> and transceiver <NUM> in communication via one or more buses <NUM>, which may operate in conjunction with modem <NUM> and/or communicating component <NUM> for performing conditional handover and/or notifying a source cell of the conditional handover, as described herein.

In an aspect, the one or more processors <NUM> can include a modem <NUM> and/or can be part of the modem <NUM> that uses one or more modem processors. Thus, the various functions related to communicating component <NUM> may be included in modem <NUM> and/or processors <NUM> and, in an aspect, can be executed by a single processor, while in other aspects, different ones of the functions may be executed by a combination of two or more different processors. For example, in an aspect, the one or more processors <NUM> may include any one or any combination of a modem processor, or a baseband processor, or a digital signal processor, or a transmit processor, or a receiver processor, or a transceiver processor associated with transceiver <NUM>. In other aspects, some of the features of the one or more processors <NUM> and/or modem <NUM> associated with communicating component <NUM> may be performed by transceiver <NUM>.

Also, memory <NUM> may be configured to store data used herein and/or local versions of applications <NUM> or communicating component <NUM> and/or one or more of its subcomponents being executed by at least one processor <NUM>. Memory <NUM> can include any type of computer-readable medium usable by a computer or at least one processor <NUM>, such as random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), tapes, magnetic discs, optical discs, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, and any combination thereof. In an aspect, for example, memory <NUM> may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores one or more computer-executable codes defining communicating component <NUM> and/or one or more of its subcomponents, and/or data associated therewith, when UE <NUM> is operating at least one processor <NUM> to execute communicating component <NUM> and/or one or more of its subcomponents.

In an aspect, communicating component <NUM> can optionally include a handover component <NUM> for performing conditional handover from a source cell to one or more target cells, which may be based on a conditional handover configuration received from the source cell, and/or a handover notifying component <NUM> for transmitting a notification (e.g., to the source cell) related to performing the conditional handover to the one or more target cells, as described herein.

Referring to <FIG>, one example of an implementation of base station <NUM> (e.g., a base station <NUM> and/or gNB <NUM>, as described above) may include a variety of components, some of which have already been described above, but including components such as one or more processors <NUM> and memory <NUM> and transceiver <NUM> in communication via one or more buses <NUM>, which may operate in conjunction with modem <NUM> and scheduling component <NUM> for configuring conditional handover to one or more UEs and/or receiving a notification of occurrence of the conditional handover from the one or more UEs, as described herein.

In an aspect, scheduling component <NUM> can optionally include a handover configuring component <NUM> for configuring conditional handover for one or more UEs and/or a notification processing component <NUM> for obtaining and processing a notification of occurrence of the conditional handover from the one or more UEs and/or accordingly generating downlink communications for transmitting to the one or more UEs.

<FIG> illustrates a flow chart of an example of a method <NUM> for notifying of a conditional handover to one or more target cells. <FIG> illustrates a flow chart of an example of a method <NUM> for receiving notification of conditional handover to one or more target cells. Methods <NUM> and <NUM> are described in conjunction with one another for ease of explanation, though the methods <NUM> and <NUM> are not required to be performed in conjunction. In an example, a UE <NUM> can perform the functions described in method <NUM> using one or more of the components described in <FIG> and <FIG> and/or a base station <NUM> and/or other network component can perform the functions described in method <NUM> using one or more of the components described in <FIG> and <FIG>.

In method <NUM>, at Block <NUM>, one or more configurations for performing conditional handover to one or more target cells can be transmitted to a UE. In an aspect, handover configuring component <NUM>, e.g., in conjunction with processor(s) <NUM>, memory <NUM>, transceiver <NUM>, scheduling component <NUM>, etc., can transmit, to the UE, the one or more configurations for performing conditional handover to the one or more target cells. For example, the UE <NUM> can be communicating with the base station <NUM> in a cell provided as a source cell from which the UE <NUM> can perform conditions handover to the one or more target cells. In an example, handover configuring component <NUM> can generate the configuration(s) to include an indication of the one or more target cells, which may include cells that are nearby the source cell. In an example, handover configuring component <NUM> can determine the one or more target cells based on a measurement report received from the UE <NUM> or other UEs (e.g., which may be generated to include target cells having a reported measurement that achieves a threshold and/or complies with other constraints). In addition, for example, handover configuring component <NUM> can generate the configuration(s) to include one or more conditions under which the UE <NUM> can perform conditional handover to the one or more target cells (e.g., signal power/quality of the target cell(s) achieving a threshold, signal power/quality of the source cell falling below a threshold, etc.). In addition, for example, handover configuring component <NUM> can generate the configuration(s) to include an indication of one or more handover optimizations to use in performing conditional handover (e.g., MBB handover, DCRS handover, etc.). In one example, the a given conditions of the one or more conditions can be indicated as relating to perform conditional handover to any of the one or more target cells, a subset of the one or more target cells, a given one of the one or more target cells, etc..

For example, the conditional handover can be implemented by the wireless communication technology to be performed when a source cell (e.g., provided by a base station <NUM>) prepares resources of N number of potential target cells (e.g., provided by the base station <NUM> and/or other base stations) to which the UE can handover. In conditional handover, for example, the source call can also provide to the UE <NUM> conditions under which the UE should handover to one of the N cells. Once the handover condition is met, as described further herein, the UE <NUM> can determine which of the cells is best suited for conditional handover of the UE <NUM> (e.g., which of the cells has a highest signal strength/quality, offers services desired by the UE <NUM>, is of a network operator associated with a subscription of the UE, or is otherwise deemed most desirable, etc.). In another example, once the handover condition is met, where the handover condition relates to a specific one of the one or more target cells, the UE <NUM> can determine to handover to the specific target cell. In any case, when the UE connects to one of the target cells, the target cell can inform the source cell of the handover so the source cell can release resources allocated to the UE <NUM>.

In method <NUM>, at Block <NUM>, one or more configurations for performing conditional handover to one or more target cells can be received from a source cell. In an aspect, handover component <NUM>, e.g., in conjunction with processor(s) <NUM>, memory <NUM>, transceiver <NUM>, communicating component <NUM>, etc., can receive, from the source cell, the one or more configurations for performing conditional handover to one or more target cells. For example, the one or more configurations can include one or more parameters for performing conditional handover from the source cell to the one or more target cells, such as parameters related to the one or more target cells (e.g., parameters for establishing the connection with the one or more target cells, such as one or more cell identifiers, an indication of one or more handover optimizations to use, etc.). The one or more configurations may also indicate one or more conditions based on which to perform conditional handover at the UE <NUM>. For example, the one or more conditions can relate to measuring a signal power or quality of signals received from the one or more target cells, and determining whether the signal power or quality achieves one or more thresholds. In another example, the one or more conditions can relate to measuring a signal power or quality of the source cell, and determining whether the signal power or quality falls below one or more thresholds, etc. In addition, for example, the one or more configurations may include a configuration or indication to use a MBB handover, DCRS handover, etc..

<FIG> illustrates an example of a system <NUM> for performing conditional handover, where a UE can receive a configuration <NUM> for performing conditional handover based on a measurement report <NUM> provided to a source cell (e.g., source gNB). The measurement report <NUM> can include measurements of signals received from one or more target cells, as described. In this example, source gNB can determine one or more target cells to prepare for receiving handover of the UE via handover preparation messages <NUM>, <NUM>, and can provide information regarding the one or more target cells and condition(s) for performing handover thereto in the configuration <NUM> sent back to the UE. The UE can monitor for occurrence of the one or more conditions for performing the conditional handover at <NUM>. Once detected, the UE can initiate conditional handover to the target cell (which can be a target cell to which the UE determines to handover), which may be based on one or more other considerations. The UE can initiate the conditional handover by sending a connection reconfiguration complete message <NUM> to the target cell based on detecting the condition (and/or based on determining the target cell as the most desirable target cell). The target cell can indicate, to the source cell, that handover is complete based on decision <NUM> and transmitting one or more messages <NUM> thereto, as shown.

As described, however, when certain handover optimizations are enabled, such as MBB handover, DCRS handover, etc., the source cell may remain connected to the UE for some time after the UE performs the conditional handover (e.g., based on waiting for the messages <NUM> from the target cell). Once the source cell transmits a release message <NUM> to the UE, the UE can release its connection to the source cell at <NUM>. During this time <NUM>, the UE may remain connected to both the target cell and the source cell. In these examples, the UE <NUM> may desire to prevent overlapping transmissions from the source and target cells at least in part by transmitting a notification to the source cell, where the notification is related to occurrence of the conditional handover, as described further herein (e.g., in reference to Block <NUM> of method <NUM> in <FIG>).

In method <NUM>, at Block <NUM>, a connection can be established with the target cell based on detecting a condition from the one or more configurations. In an aspect, handover component <NUM>, e.g., in conjunction with processor(s) <NUM>, memory <NUM>, transceiver <NUM>, communicating component <NUM>, etc., can establish, based on detecting the condition from the one or more configurations, the connection with the target cell. For example, the condition may correspond to a general condition regardless of the target cell (e.g., a condition of the source cell) or may be a condition specific to each target cell in the configuration, etc. As described, for example, the condition can relate to signal power/quality (or detecting the signal power/quality achieves or does not achieve one or more thresholds) at the target cell(s) and/or source cell, etc., and the handover component <NUM> can measure signal powers/qualities to determine when to initiate the conditional handover to the one or more target cells.

In method <NUM>, at Block <NUM>, a notification can be transmitted to the source cell based on establishing the connection with the target cell or based on determining that the conditional handover is of a type where a connection with the source cell remains. In an aspect, handover notifying component <NUM>, e.g., in conjunction with processor(s) <NUM>, memory <NUM>, transceiver <NUM>, communicating component <NUM>, etc., can transmit, based on establishing the connection with the target cell or based on determining that the conditional handover is of a type where a connection with the source cell remains (e.g., at least for a period of time after establishing the connection with the target cell), the notification to the source cell. For example, handover notifying component <NUM> can transmit the notification based at least in part on determining that the UE <NUM> is simultaneously connected to the source cell and target cell for at least a period of time during the handover. In one example, handover notifying component <NUM> can transmit the notification based on detecting existence of scheduled resources for the UE <NUM> from both the source cell and target cell (e.g., over a similar period of time or otherwise). In another example, handover notifying component <NUM> can transmit the notification based on determining that conditional handover is of a type where a connection where the source cell remains (e.g., based on the one or more configurations indicating to use MBB handover, DCRS handover, or other optimizations, etc.) for at least a period of time as part of the handover. In any case, transmitting the notification can avoid overlap in transmissions from the source cell and target cell.

In one example, the notification can include a notification of search space configuration(s) or schedule from the target cell over which the target cell can transmit downlink communications to the UE <NUM> (over a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)). For example, such notifications may include resources configured for a common search space (CSS), UE-specific search space (UESS), etc. In another example, the notification can include a notification of resources scheduled by the target cell for transmitting downlink communications to the UE <NUM> (e.g., PDCCH or physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resources). In either example, the source cell can receive the notification and can avoid overlapping the indicated schedule in scheduling downlink resources for the source cell to the UE <NUM>, as described further herein. In another example, the notification can indicate parameters related to one or more beams used by the target cell (e.g., beamforming parameters to create the beam or a similar beam), in which case the source cell can transmit downlink communications using the same or a similar beam determined based on the indicated parameters. In yet another example, the notification can include a request for activation of slot aggregation, in which case the source cell can activate slot aggregation in transmitting downlink communications to the UE <NUM> for higher reliability during the MBB handover. In yet another example, the notification can include a request to release resources from the source cell, in which case the source cell can release the resources for the UE <NUM>. In an example, the request to release resources may include a time indicated in the request where the time indicates the time during which the resources scheduled from the source cell are to be released (e.g., an OFDM symbol, slot, etc., during or after which the resources are to be released).

In addition, for example, handover notifying component <NUM> can transmit the notification to the source cell in grant-free resources that may be indicated in the configuration for conditional handover, over control channel or shared channel resources ongoing on the connection between the source cell and UE <NUM>, etc. For example, the conditional handover configuration received from the source cell (e.g., as described with reference to Block <NUM>) may include an indication of grant-free resources for communicating with the source cell. In this regard, for example, handover notifying component <NUM> can transmit the notification to the source cell over the grant-free resources as indicated in the conditional handover configuration. In another example, handover notifying component <NUM> can transmit the notification by including the notification in data otherwise communicated over a control channel (e.g., physical uplink control channel (PUCCH)) or data channel (e.g., physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)) established with the source cell.

In method <NUM>, at Block <NUM>, a notification related to establishing a connection with the target cell can be received from the UE. In an aspect, notification processing component <NUM>, e.g., in conjunction with processor(s) <NUM>, memory <NUM>, transceiver <NUM>, scheduling component <NUM>, etc., can receive, from the UE, the notification related to establishing the connection with the target cell. For example, the notification can include information relating to avoiding overlap in transmissions between the source cell and one or more target cells, as described, such as an indication of search space configuration or resources from the target cell, one or more beams used by the target cell, a request to activate slot aggregation, a request to release resources for the UE <NUM>, etc..

In method <NUM>, optionally at Block <NUM>, one or more downlink communications can be generated based on the notification. In an aspect, scheduling component <NUM>, e.g., in conjunction with processor(s) <NUM>, memory <NUM>, transceiver <NUM>, etc., can generate, based on the notification, the one or more downlink communications (e.g., for the UE <NUM>). For example, notification processing component <NUM> can generate the one or more downlink communications to avoid overlap in transmissions from the one or more target cells based on information included in the notification.

In one example, in generating the one or more downlink communications at Block <NUM>, optionally at Block <NUM>, resource scheduling can be generated based on the notification. For example, scheduling component <NUM> can generate the resource scheduling to schedule downlink resources (e.g., PDCCH, PDSCH, etc., resources) for the UE <NUM>. In scheduling the downlink resources, for example, scheduling component <NUM> can schedule the downlink resources such to avoid resources that overlap the search space configuration or resources (e.g., for CSS, UESS, PDCCH, PDSCH, etc. of the target cell) as indicated in the notification.

In another example, in generating the one or more downlink communications at Block <NUM>, optionally at Block <NUM>, one or more beams can be generated based on the notification. For example, scheduling component <NUM> can generate the one or more beams for transmitting downlink communications to the UE <NUM>, where the one or more beams can be generated based on the one or more beams used by the one or more target cells, parameters of which can be in the notification. For example, the notification can include a beam identifier, a beam direction, or other beamforming parameters that are based on beams detected from the one or more target cells, and scheduling component <NUM> can use the parameters to beamform downlink signals for the UE <NUM>. For example, scheduling component <NUM> can beamform the downlink signals to be of the same or similar beam (e.g., to have a same or similar directionality with respect to the UE <NUM>) as that indicated in the notification. For example, scheduling component <NUM> can use the beam in downlink communications with the UE <NUM> based on receiving the notification and until the UE <NUM> disconnects from the source cell.

In another example, in generating the one or more downlink communications at Block <NUM>, optionally at Block <NUM>, slot aggregated communications can be generated based on the notification. For example, scheduling component <NUM> can generate the slot aggregated communications based on a request for such indicated in the notification. For example, the notification can request slot aggregated communications from the source cell to improve reliability thereof, and scheduling component <NUM> can accordingly generate downlink communications to span multiple aggregated slots in transmitting the communications to the UE <NUM>. For example, scheduling component <NUM> can generate the slot aggregated communications based on receiving the notification and until the UE <NUM> disconnects from the source cell.

In another example, in generating the one or more downlink communications at Block <NUM>, optionally at Block <NUM>, release of resources can be generated based on the notification. For example, scheduling component <NUM> can generate the release of resources based on a request for such indicated in the notification. For example, scheduling component <NUM> can generate the release as an indication to release downlink and/or uplink resources previously configured by the base station <NUM> for communicating with the UE <NUM>. For example, scheduling component <NUM> can transmit an indication of the release of resources to the UE <NUM>. In any case, releasing the resources can avoid overlap with target cell communications that may occur over the previously configured resources.

In method <NUM>, at Block <NUM>, the one or more downlink communications can be transmitted to the UE. In an aspect, scheduling component <NUM>, e.g., in conjunction with processor(s) <NUM>, memory <NUM>, transceiver <NUM>, etc., can transmit the one or more downlink communications to the UE, which may include transmitting the one or more downlink communications as generated at Block <NUM> (e.g., and/or over the resources that avoid overlap with resources used by the one or more target cells).

In method <NUM>, optionally at Block <NUM>, one or more downlink communications can be received from the source cell and based on the notification. In an aspect, communicating component <NUM>, e.g., in conjunction with processor(s) <NUM>, memory <NUM>, transceiver <NUM>, etc., can receive, from the source cell (or corresponding base station <NUM>) and based on the notification, the one or more downlink communications. As described, for example, the one or more downlink communications can have been generated to avoid overlap with communications of the one or more target cells.

In an example, receiving the one or more downlink communications at Block <NUM> can optionally include, at Block <NUM>, receiving resource scheduling based on the notification. As described, the resource scheduling can be based on search space configuration and/or resource information of the target cell as provided in the notification at Block <NUM>, and thus can be generated to avoid overlap with search space resources. For example, the resource scheduling can include PDCCH and/or PDSCH scheduling over which the UE <NUM> can receive downlink communications from the source cell while also communicating with the target cell.

In another example, receiving the one or more downlink communications at Block <NUM> can optionally include, at Block <NUM>, receiving one or more beams generated based on the notification. As described, the one or more beams can correspond to one or more beams identified by the UE <NUM> and indicated in the notification (e.g., based on parameters indicated in the notification for generating the beam or otherwise). For example, the UE <NUM> can receive downlink signaling from the source cell that is beamformed using the one or more beams, such that the UE <NUM> can receive similar beams from the source cell and target cell while the UE <NUM> is connected to the source cell.

In another example, receiving the one or more downlink communications at Block <NUM> can optionally include, at Block <NUM>, receiving slot aggregated communications based on the notification. As described, this can be based on a request indicated in the notification to receive slot aggregated communications from the source cell to improve reliability thereof. For example, the UE <NUM> can receive downlink signaling from the source cell that is slot aggregated to improve reliability while the UE <NUM> is also receiving downlink signaling from the target cell while the UE <NUM> is connected to the source cell.

In another example, receiving the one or more downlink communications at Block <NUM> can optionally include, at Block <NUM>, receiving release of resources based on the notification. As described, this can including receiving an indication that resources with the source cell are being released. The UE <NUM> can accordingly release the resources, which can further avoid overlap from the source cell when receiving downlink communications from the target cell over the resources.

<FIG> is a block diagram of a MIMO communication system <NUM> including a base station <NUM> and a UE <NUM>, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. The MIMO communication system <NUM> may illustrate aspects of the wireless communication access network <NUM> described with reference to <FIG>. The base station <NUM> may be an example of aspects of the base station <NUM> described with reference to <FIG>. The base station <NUM> may be equipped with antennas <NUM> and <NUM>, and the UE <NUM> may be equipped with antennas <NUM> and <NUM>. In the MIMO communication system <NUM>, the base station <NUM> may be able to send data over multiple communication links at the same time. Each communication link may be called a "layer" and the "rank" of the communication link may indicate the number of layers used for communication. For example, in a 2x2 MIMO communication system where base station <NUM> transmits two "layers," the rank of the communication link between the base station <NUM> and the UE <NUM> is two.

The UE <NUM> may be an example of aspects of the UEs <NUM> described with reference to <FIG>. At the UE <NUM>, the UE antennas <NUM> and <NUM> may receive the DL signals from the base station <NUM> and may provide the received signals to the modulator/demodulators <NUM> and <NUM>, respectively. Each modulator/demodulator <NUM> through <NUM> may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, and digitize) a respective received signal to obtain input samples. Each modulator/demodulator <NUM> through <NUM> may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector <NUM> may obtain received symbols from the modulator/demodulators <NUM> and <NUM>, perform MIMO detection on the received symbols, if applicable, and provide detected symbols. A receive (Rx) processor <NUM> may process (e.g., demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) the detected symbols, providing decoded data for the UE <NUM> to a data output, and provide decoded control information to a processor <NUM>, or memory <NUM>.

The processor <NUM> may in some cases execute stored instructions to instantiate a communicating component <NUM> (see e.g., <FIG> and <FIG>).

The processor <NUM> may in some cases execute stored instructions to instantiate a scheduling component <NUM> (see e.g., <FIG> and <FIG>).

The functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, or any combination thereof. For example, due to the nature of software, functions described above can be implemented using software executed by a specially programmed processor, hardware, hardwiring, or combinations of any of these. " That is, unless specified otherwise, or clear from the context, the phrase, for example, "X employs A or B" is intended to mean any of the natural inclusive permutations. That is, for example the phrase "X employs A or B" is satisfied by any of the following instances: X employs A; X employs B; or X employs both A and B. Also, as used herein, including in the claims, "or" as used in a list of items prefaced by "at least one of" indicates a disjunctive list such that, for example, a list of "at least one of A, B, or C" means A or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (A and B and C).

Claim 1:
A method for wireless communication, comprising:
receiving, (<NUM>) by a user equipment, UE and from a source cell with which the UE is communicating, one or more configurations for performing conditional handover to one or more target cells, wherein the one or more configurations indicate to use a make-before-break handover;
establishing (<NUM>), by the UE and based on detecting a condition from the one or more configurations, a connection with a target cell for performing handover of the UE to the target cell; and
transmitting (<NUM>), by the UE and based on establishing the connection with the target cell and based on the one or more configurations indicating to use the make-before-break handover, a notification to the source cell, wherein the notification indicates at least one of:
a search space configuration received, by the UE, from the target cell;
a resource scheduling parameters received, by the UE, from the target cell, wherein the scheduling parameters indicates downlink resources scheduled for the UE to receive downlink communications from the target cell;
one or more beams detected, by the UE, as used by the target cell in downlink communications received from the target cell after establishing the connection with the target cell; or
a request to activate, by the source cell, slot aggregation in transmitting downlink communications.