Patent Description:
Wireless communication networks can include network communication devices and network communication nodes. In some instances, the network communication devices can communicate random access (RA) resources, related to a RA procedure, to the communication network.

The example embodiments disclosed herein are directed to solving the issues relating to one or more of the problems presented in the prior art, as well as providing additional features that will become readily apparent by reference to the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompany drawings. In accordance with various embodiments, example systems, methods, devices and computer program products are disclosed herein. It is understood, however, that these embodiments are presented by way of example and are not limiting, and it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art who read the present disclosure that various modifications to the disclosed embodiments can be made while remaining within the scope of this disclosure.

In one embodiment, a method includes storing, by a wireless communication device , random access (RA) information of multiple sets of RA resource of a completed RA procedure. The method further includes receiving, by the wireless communication device from a wireless communication node, an indicator via a radio resource control (RRC) message. The method also includes transmitting, by the wireless communication device to the wireless communication node, responsive to the indicator, the RA information of the multiple sets of RA resource of the completed RA procedure.

In another embodiment, a method includes transmitting, by a wireless communication node to a wireless communication device, an indicator via a radio resource control (RRC) message. The method further includes receiving, by the wireless communication node from the wireless communication device, random access (RA) information of multiple sets of RA resource of a completed RA procedure, after the indicator is transmitted. 3GPP Draft R2-<NUM> is directed to the Radio Resource protocol for the radio interface between the UE and the NG-RAN. More particularly it discloses RA information reporting fields.

" Such an example network <NUM> includes a base station <NUM> (also referred to as "communication point <NUM>" or "BS <NUM>" or "transmitting receiving point (TRP)", or "communication node") and a user equipment device <NUM> (hereinafter "UE <NUM>") that can communicate with each other via a communication link <NUM> (e.g., a wireless communication channel), and a cluster of cells <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM> overlaying a geographical area <NUM>. In <FIG>, the communication point <NUM> and UE <NUM> are contained within a respective geographic boundary of cell <NUM>.

For example, the communication point <NUM> may operate at an allocated channel transmission bandwidth to provide adequate coverage to the UE <NUM>. The communication point <NUM> and the UE <NUM> may communicate via a downlink radio frame <NUM>, and an uplink radio frame <NUM> respectively. In the present disclosure, the communication point <NUM> and UE <NUM> are described herein as non-limiting examples of "communication nodes," generally, which can practice the methods disclosed herein.

<FIG> illustrates a block diagram of an example wireless communication system <NUM> for transmitting and receiving wireless communication signals, e.g., orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM)/orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) signals, in accordance with some embodiments of the present solution. The system <NUM> may include components and elements configured to support known or conventional operating features that need not be described in detail herein. In one illustrative embodiment, system <NUM> can be used to communicate (e.g., transmit and receive) data symbols in a wireless communication environment such as the wireless communication environment <NUM> of <FIG>, as described above.

System <NUM> generally includes a base station <NUM> (also referred to as "communication point <NUM>") and a user equipment device <NUM> (hereinafter "UE <NUM>"). The communication point <NUM> includes a the communication point (base station) transceiver module <NUM>, a communication point antenna <NUM>, a communication point processor module <NUM>, a communication point memory module <NUM>, and a network communication module <NUM>, each module being coupled and interconnected with one another as necessary via a data communication bus <NUM>. The communication point <NUM> communicates with the UE <NUM> via a communication channel <NUM>, which can be any wireless channel or other medium suitable for transmission of data as described herein.

Similarly, in accordance with some embodiments, the communication point transceiver <NUM> may be referred to herein as a "downlink" transceiver <NUM> that includes a RF transmitter and a RF receiver each comprising circuity that is coupled to the antenna <NUM>. The operations of the two transceiver modules <NUM> and <NUM> can be coordinated in time such that the uplink receiver circuitry is coupled to the uplink antenna <NUM> for reception of transmissions over the wireless transmission link <NUM> at the same time that the downlink transmitter is coupled to the downlink antenna <NUM>.

In accordance with various embodiments, the communication point <NUM> may be an evolved node B (eNB), a serving eNB, a target eNB, a femto station, or a pico station, for example.

Having discussed aspects of a networking environment as well as devices that can be used to implement the systems, methods and apparatuses described herein, additional details shall follow.

In <NUM> NR, a UE can gain initial access to a network by requesting a setup of a connection in a procedure commonly referred to as random access (RA). For example, when a UE is switched on, or enters a new cell, the UE can carry out a cell search and RA procedure to communicate with the network or the node associated with the new cell. The RA procedure can also be used to gain timing alignment between the network and the UE or request UL resource when there is no physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource for scheduling request or to perform beam failure recovery and for other purposes as specified in protocol. <FIG> shows a schematic of an example timing diagram <NUM> depicting communication between a UE <NUM> and a network (NW) <NUM>. A network periodically broadcasts system information block information, which can include several parameters, such as, for example, root sequence ID, random access channel (RACH) configuration index, power offset, and initial power. The UE <NUM> can randomly select one preamble and transmit the preamble <NUM> to the NW <NUM>. The preamble <NUM> can be transmitted on a RA subframe in time and resource block in frequency corresponding to a temporary identifier (RA-RNTI). In response, the NW <NUM> can transmit a random access response (RAR) including, for example, a temporary cell identifier (TC-RNTI), timing advance, and uplink resource grant. In some implementations, the UE and the NW can carry out a four-step exchange to establish a connection. In some such implementations, the UE, upon receiving the RAR from the NW, can transmit a radio resource control (RRC) connection request, where in some example the first <NUM> bits of the RRC message sent can be used as the contention resolution identity. In a contention based communication, two or more UEs may use the same preamble to request communication with the NW. In such instances, the NW can transmit an identity, which the UEs can match with the contention resolution identity. If there is a match, the contention is resolved successfully. However if there is no match, the UE can assume that the contention resolution failed , and restart the process by resending the preamble.

In some implementations, the UE and the NW can carry out a two-step exchange to perform RACH. In such implementations, the UE can send the preamble together with a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) payload in the first message, e.g. MsgA, to the NW. In response to the first message received, the NW can send back a second message, e.g., MsgB to the UE. The contention resolution at UE's side in <NUM>-step RA is performed together with the reception of MsgB. If both the preamble and the PUSCH payload in MsgA are successfully decoded, the NW can send a success-RAR message to the UE with a contention resolution ID. The UE, in turn, can assume that the RA is successfully completed if the contention resolution ID is matched with that included in the MsgA. If only the preamble part of MsgA is successfully decoded, the NW can send a fallback-RAR message to the UE, which can then fall back to the four-step RACH to resolve the contention and establish connection with the NW.

Once the UE complete the RA procedure, UE could store the related RA information and the NW may request the UE to provide the NW with a report including RA related information. For example, the UE may utilize one or more procedures to transmit the RA related information to the NW, the procedures including, for example, a RA report, a RLF (radio link failure) report, a connection establishment failure (CEF) report, etc. Traditional approaches to reporting RA related information allow the reporting of information related to only one set of RA resources used to perform the RA procedure. This information when received by the NW may be insufficient in providing an adequate assessment of all the resources used by the UE to perform the RA procedure.

The following discussion provides a technical solution to the above mentioned problem of the limited RA information being provided to the NW. In particular, as discussed below, the UE can store one or more sets of RA resource information in memory. In response to receiving an indicator from the NW, the UE can transmit the stored one or more sets of RA resource information to the NW.

Referring again to <FIG>, the UE stores (<NUM>) one or more sets of RA information in memory at the UE. The NW then transmits an indicator <NUM> to the UE. The indicator can indicate to the UE that the NW has requested RA information. Or in other examples, the indicator can indicate to the UE that NW has requested a report that might optionally include RA information. In some implementations, the NW can transmit a dedicated or a broadcast RRC message (e.g., UEInformationRequest message), which can include a request bit, to the UE. In response to receiving the indicator, the UE transmits (<NUM>) the stored one or more sets of RA information to the NW. In some implementations, the UE can transmit the RA information to the NW over a dedicated RRC message, such as, for example, a UEInformationResponse message. However, the messages discussed above are only examples, and the NW and UE can communicate the request and the RA information over other communication messages or formats. In some examples, the UE can transmit the RA information to the NW in the form of a report. For example, the UE can transmit a RA report that includes one or more RA entry, where each entry can include RA information related to successful completion of a RA procedure. In some other examples, the UE can send RA information related unsuccessful RA procedures to the NW in a RLF report or a connection establishment failure (CEF) report. In yet another example, the RA report can include RA information regardless of whether the RA procedure was successfully or unsuccessfully completed. In some implementations, the NW or the communication protocol can define a maximum number of RA entries in the RA reports transmitted by the UE.

The RA information can include at least one of the parameters listed below: one or more sets of RA resources used during an RA procedure, preamble group indication, time related information, RA type indicator (which can indicate whether the RA information stored is related to a two-step or a four step RA procedure), RA purpose (which can indicate triggering events of the RA procedure), absolute frequency of the reference resource block (e.g., common RB <NUM>, absoluteFrequencyPointA), bandwidth part (BWP) related information, contention detection information per RA attempt, beam related information, and the index of RA resource set used per successive RA attempt in the same beam. In some implementations, the RA information can also include additional information such as, for example, other RA parameters that are specified by the communication protocol.

As mentioned above, the RA information can include a parameter field that includes parameters of one or more sets of RA resources used during one RA procedure. Each set of RA resources can include at least one of the parameters discussed below. For each set of RA resources, a resource set identifier can be included (in some example a resource set identifier can also be referred to as a resource set index), which can be used to identify different RA resource sets used in one RA procedure. For each set of RA resources, a starting frequency of a physical random access channel (PRACH) also can be included. The starting frequency parameter can indicate an offset of a lowest PRACH transmission occasion in the frequency domain with respect to physical resource block (PRB) <NUM>, which is the lowest PRB of the bandwidth part (BWP) in which the RA resource is located. For each set of RA resources, a number of PRACH transmission occasions frequency-division multiplexed (FDMed) at a time instance also can be included. For example, a value of the parameter prach-FDM can be included. For each set of RA resources, a sub-carrier spacing (SCS) of the PRACH also can be included. For example, a value of the parameter prach-SubcarrierSpacing can be included. For each set of RA resources, a PRACH configuration index can also be included. The PRACH configuration index (e.g., prach-Configuration Index) parameter can specify the type of preamble format is used and at which system frame and subframe UE transmits the PRACH preamble.

For each set of RA resources, a power ramping step for PRACH (e.g., powerRampingStep) value also can be included. The power ramping step of PRACH can specify the incremental increase (e.g., in dB) in the PRACH power by the UE each time the UE retries the PRACH procedure. For each set of RA resources, a backoff indicator also can be included. The backoff indicator can indicate a time delay region between a PRACH attempt and the next PRACH attempt. For each set of RA resources, a resource type also can be included. The resource type can indicate the usage of the RA resource, where the RA resource type can include at least one of: contention based RA, contention free RA, beam failure recovery (BFR), on demand system information (SI) request, <NUM>-step contention based RA, <NUM>-step contention free RA, <NUM>-step contention free RA, <NUM>-step contention based RA, common, or dedicated. In some examples, the RA resource type can be used to identify the RA resource configured. For each set of RA resources, RA prioritized parameters can also be included. In some implementations, the RA prioritized parameters can be used by the UE to select a particular set of RA resources. The RA prioritized parameters can include, for example, power ramping step used for prioritized random access procedure (e.g., powerRampingStepHighPriority for handover or for BFR) or a scaling factor for the backoff indictor for the prioritized random access procedure (e.g., scalingFactorBI for handover or BFR). In some implementation, an indicator can be used to indicate whether the RA prioritized parameter is configured for a particular resource set. For example, a "<NUM>" can indicate that no RA prioritized parameters are provided for a particular set of RA resources, and a "<NUM>" can indicate that RA prioritized parameters are provided for the particular set of RA resources. In some implementations, the inclusion of the RA prioritized parameter can be indicated by the presence of an RA prioritized bit, and the absence of such a bit can indicate that the RA prioritized parameters is not used in the corresponding set of RA resources.

In some implementations, for one RA procedure, the UE can include detailed information of one RA resource set with one or more above parameters per successive RA attempt within the same beam (channel state information - reference signal (CSI-RS), or synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel (SSB)) to indicate the RA resource being used for each successive RA attempt. In some implementations, for one RA procedure, the UE can include detailed information of one or more RA resource sets with an identifier (e.g., RA resource index) to identify each RA resource set being used in RA procedure. The UE can indicate the RA resource being used per successive RA attempt by setting the corresponding identifier (e.g., RA resource index) per successive RA attempt in the same beam (CSI-RS or SSB).

For the introduction of multiple RA resource, the following alternatives can be considered :.

To associate the RA resource and RA transmission attempt, the following alternatives can be considered:.

As mentioned above, the RA information can include a preamble group indication. The preamble group indication can be used to indicate the preamble group from which the preamble is selected. The preamble group indication can be set per RA attempt or per RA procedure. In some implementations, a one bit indication can be used to indicate whether the preamble used in the particular RA attempt is selected from group B. For instance, a "<NUM>" can indicate that the preamble is selected from group B, and a "<NUM>" can indicate otherwise, or vice versa. In some implementations, the inclusion of the preamble group indication itself can indicate that the preamble is selected from group B, and where the absence of the preamble group indicator can indicate that the preamble is selected from group A instead, or vice versa. In some implementations, the preamble group indication indicates whether a preamble used in an RA attempt is selected from a specific preamble group. That is, for example, the preamble group indicator can be selected from one of two values: groupA or groupB. The preamble group indicator can be optionally included when the preamble of group B is configured.

As mentioned above, the RA information can include time related information. Time related information could be used by the NW to determine when the RA procedure occurred. In one implementation, the time related information can include the time when the RA procedure is initiated. For example, the UE can record the absolute time at the end of the first preamble transmission during one RA procedure for a <NUM>-step RA or the absolute time at the end of the first PUSCH payload transmission in a <NUM>-step RA. Alternatively, in some implementations, the time related information can include the time when the UE considers the RA procedure to be complete as per the communication protocol. Alternatively, in some implementations, the time related information can include the amount of time to complete the RA procedure. In some implementations, a combination of one or more of the above examples can be included in the time related information. For example, the time related information can include a combination of the time when the RA procedure is initiated and the time when the UE considers the RA procedure to be complete, or a combination of the time when the RA procedure is initiated and the amount of time to complete the RA procedure, or a combination of the time when the UE considers the RA procedure to be complete and the amount of time to complete the RA procedure.

As mentioned above, the RA information can include a RA type indicator. The UE can use the RA type indicator to indicate whether the RA information corresponds to a two-step or a four-step RA procedure. In some implementations, the RA type indicator can be a one-bit indicator, such as for example, where a bit value of "<NUM>" can indicate a two-step RA procedure, and a bit value of "<NUM>" can indicate a four step RA procedure. In some other implementations, RA indicator can include a two-step RA procedure indicator, the presence of which can indicate the use of a two-step RA procedure, and the absence of which can indicate the use of a four-step procedure. In some implementations, the RA indicator can have values such as "<NUM> RA" or "<NUM> RA" indicating a two-step RA procedure or a four-step RA procedure, respectively.

As mentioned above, the RA information can include a RA purpose information, which can indicate the event that triggered the UE to perform the RA procedure. The RA purpose information can include one or more of the following list of events: initial access from RRC_IDLE state, RRC Connection Re-establishment procedure, downlink (DL) or uplink (UL) data arrival during the RRC_CONNECTED state when the UL synchronization status is "non-synchronized," UL data arrival during the RRC_CONNECTED state when there are no Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources for Scheduling Request (SR) is available, SR failure, Request by RRC upon synchronization configuration (e.g., a handover), a transition from an RRC_INACTIVE state, to establish time alignment for a secondary timing advance group (TAG), Msg3 based SI request, MSg1 based SI request, and Beam failure recovery. It should be noted that the above list is not exhaustive or exclusive, and other events not listed above also can trigger the UE to perform the RA procedure, and the UE can include the identity of such events in the RA purpose information.

As mentioned above, the RA information can include BWP related information. The BWP related information can include at least one of the following information: frequency domain location and bandwidth of the BWP associated with the RA resources used, or the SCS of the BWP associated with the RA resources used.

As mentioned above, the RA information can also include beam related information. The beam related information can indicate whether the Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) of the selected beam is above a configured threshold value per RA attempt. The beam related information also can include the beam type, which can be selected from the SSB or the CSI-RS. The beam information also can include a beam index or a number of preambles sent per beam.

The following discusses an example of a RA information. In particular, the following shows the contents of an RA information in the abstract syntax notation one (ASN. <NUM>) object identifiers. It should be noted that this is only an example notation, and other notations also may be used. Also the parameter names shown below are merely examples, and different terminology can be used to indicate similar meaning of the parameters. For example the prach-FrequencyStart, prach-FDM and prach-SubcarrierSpacing parameters shown below might also be referred to as msg1-FrequencyStart, msg1-FDM and msg1-SubcarrierSpacing, respectively, in other examples. <IMG>
<IMG>
<IMG>
<IMG>
<IMG>
<IMG>
<IMG>.

Various parameters in the ASN. <NUM> notation above have been highlighted (bold and italicized) to indicate examples of the various parameters discussed above. As an example, an information element (IE) list is used to include multiple RA resources utilized in one RA procedure, where each entry in the list includes information related to one set of RA resources. For example, the set of RA resources can include starting frequency of the PRACH transmission (prach-FrequencyStart-r16), the SCS of the PRACH (prach-SubcarrierSpacing-r16), the PRACH frequency division multiplexed (FDM) (prach-FDM-r16), among other parameters. One RA resource index is used to identify each set of RA resources.

Table <NUM> below provides descriptions of one or more terms used in the RA information example reproduced above.

Upon completion of the RA procedure, the UE can include the detailed information of one or more sets of RA resources being used in the RA procedure. The UE can include the RA resource index for each successive RA attempt in the same beam (SSB or CSI-RS) to indicate the corresponding RA resource being used, and where the RA resource index can indicate the detailed set of RA resource information.

In some examples the RA resource index parameter (e.g., ra-Resource-Index-r16 as described above ) is conditionally presented. For example, the RA resource index parameter is mandatory presented when there is more than one RA resource included in RA resource list (e.g., ra-ResourceList-r16 as described in above example). Otherwise the RA resource index parameter is absent. And the absence of the RA resource index parameter means the first RA resource included in RA resource list is used for the RA attempt.

In another example, the identifier to identify each set of RA resource configured can be an indicator for RA resource type, e.g., ra-ResourceType-r16, instead of RA resource index parameter as mentioned above. For example, the RA resource type can be selected between contention based RA (CBRA) or contention free RA (CFRA), and UE will set the field ra-ResourceType-r16 to CBRA or CFRA based on the type of RA resource used for each successive attempt in the same beam.

In some examples, the maximum number of RA resources can be pre-defined in protocol. Or a parameter (e. g, maxRAResource) can be used to limit the number of RA resources that can be included in the RA resource list. An example notation (in ASN. <NUM>) of this parameter is shown below. It should be noted that this is only an example notation, and other notations also may be used. <IMG>
<IMG>.

The following discusses another example of RA information in ASN. In this example separate IE is used to indicate different RA resource used in a RA procedure. In this example, the UE can indicate the RA resource associated with each RA attempt by setting the RA resource type per successive RA attempt in the same beam. It should be noted that this is only an example notation, and other notations also may be used. Also the parameter name shown below are merely examples, and that different terminology can be used to indicate similar meaning of the parameters. <IMG>
<IMG>
<IMG>
<IMG>
<IMG>
<IMG>
<IMG>.

Various parameters in the ASN. <NUM> notation above have been highlighted (bold and italicized) to indicate examples of the various parameters discussed above. Table <NUM> below provides descriptions of one or more terms used in the RA information example reproduced above.

Table <NUM> below describes the multiRA condition mentioned above.

In another example, an indicator to differentiate whether this RA attempt is CB based or CF based can be introduced. For example, a bit indicator can be used, "<NUM>" means RA attempt is CB based while "<NUM>" means it is CF based, or vice versa. Or in another example, the presence of such indicator indicates that the RA attempt is CF based, and absence of such indicator indicates that the RA attempt is CB based or vice versa. In another example, the above mentioned indicator can be set per successive RA attempt within the same beam. If an indicator to differentiate the RA attempt type (e.g. CB based or CF based ) is used, the RA resource type indicator as mentioned in the above example might not be needed. And the RA resource used per RA attempt or per successive RA attempt within the same beam can be implicitly indicated by the indicator. For example, if the indicator indicates that the RA attempt is CB based, then the RA resource used in the corresponding attempt is common RA resource, otherwise the RA resource used is dedicated RA resource.

In some examples, the parameters included in the first IE of RA resource (e.g., msg1-FDM, msg1-FrequencyStart and msg1-SubcarrierSpacing as defined in above example) are mandatorily present, and the parameters included in additionally included IE of RA resource are optionally present, i.e., the parameter is included if the value is different from that defined in the first RA resource IE. For those parameters that are not included in the additionally included RA resource IE, the same values as defined in the first RA resource IE can be reused. For example, if the common RA resource IE includes three parameters: msg1-FDM, msg1-FrequencyStart and msg1-SubcarrierSpacing, and a second RA resource is used (e.g., dedicated RA resource) and only msg1-SubcarrierSpacing is different from that defined in common RA resource, then the dedicated RA resource IE will only include the msg1-SubcarrierSpacing, and the value of msg1-FDM and msg1-FrequencyStart defined in common RA resource IE will be reused for dedicated RA resource, respectively.

Claim 1:
A method, comprising:
storing, by a wireless communication device (<NUM>), random access, RA, information of multiple sets of RA resources of a completed RA procedure;
receiving, by the wireless communication device (<NUM>) from a wireless communication node (<NUM>), an indicator via a radio resource control, RRC, message; and
transmitting, by the wireless communication device (<NUM>) to the wireless communication node (<NUM>), responsive to the indicator, the RA information of the multiple sets of RA resources of the completed RA procedure.