Patent Description:
Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication and to techniques and apparatuses for transmission configuration indicator state activation and deactivation.

Relatedly, document 3GPP R1-<NUM> describes beam measurement and reporting while document <CIT> describes a method to reduce power consumption in response to an outcome of a signal reception.

A method performed by a user equipment (UE) and relative computer program and apparatus of wireless communication are defined in the appended independent claims, while optionally aspects thereof are indicated in the dependent claims.

Aspects generally include a method, apparatus, system, computer program product, non-transitory computer-readable medium, user equipment, base station, wireless communication device, and/or processing system as substantially described herein with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings and specification.

Controller/processor <NUM> of base station <NUM>, controller/processor <NUM> of UE <NUM>, and/or any other component(s) of <FIG> may perform one or more techniques associated with transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state activation and deactivation, as described in more detail elsewhere herein. For example, controller/processor <NUM> of base station <NUM>, controller/processor <NUM> of UE <NUM>, and/or any other component(s) of <FIG> may perform or direct operations of, for example, process <NUM> of <FIG> and/or other processes as described herein. Memories <NUM> and <NUM> may store data and program codes for base station <NUM> and UE <NUM>, respectively. In some aspects, memory <NUM> and/or memory <NUM> may comprise a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing one or more instructions for wireless communication. For example, the one or more instructions, when executed by one or more processors of the base station <NUM> and/or the UE <NUM>, may perform or direct operations of, for example, process <NUM> of <FIG> and/or other processes as described herein.

In some aspects, UE <NUM> may include means for receiving an activation status message identifying one or more TCI states or one or more spatial relationships, the activation status message being configured to alter one or more activation statuses for the one or more TCI states or the one or more spatial relationships in a single bandwidth part associated with a single component carrier, means for selectively altering the one or more activation statuses of the one or more TCI states or the one or more spatial relationships in a plurality of bandwidth parts associated with a plurality of component carriers based at least in part on receiving the activation status message, and/or the like. In some aspects, such means may include one or more components of UE <NUM> described in connection with <FIG>, such as controller/processor <NUM>, transmit processor <NUM>, TX MIMO processor <NUM>, MOD <NUM>, antenna <NUM>, DEMOD <NUM>, MIMO detector <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, and/or the like.

In some communications systems, a UE may have a plurality of bandwidth parts that the UE may use for communication. For example, the UE may communicate with a BS using a plurality of component carriers, and each component carrier may have a plurality of bandwidth parts that are defined for the component carrier. Each bandwidth part may have a plurality of defined TCI states. For example, a UE may have a first component carrier with a first bandwidth part and a second bandwidth part, and the first bandwidth part may have a first TCI state and a second TCI state defined, and the second bandwidth part may have a third TCI state and a fourth TCI state defined. Similarly, the UE may have a second component carrier with a third bandwidth part and a fourth bandwidth part, and the third bandwidth part may have the first TCI state and the second TCI state defined, and the fourth bandwidth part may have the third TCI state and the fourth TCI state defined.

The TCI states define parameters for receiving and/or transmitting on a bandwidth part. For example, a UE may use a TCI state to determine a set of parameters with which a BS transmits a downlink signal, which may enable the UE to receive the downlink signal. Information identified based at least in part on a TCI may include quasi-co-location (QCL) information, beam identification information, and/or the like. A UE may be configured with, for example, up to <NUM> TCI states, which may be in an active state, an inactive state, and/or the like. For reception of a downlink channel, such as a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), the UE may select an active TCI state to apply to the downlink channel to enable the UE to receive the channel. However, using separate activation and/or deactivation signaling may result in an excessive utilization of network resources. For example, a BS may transmit multiple transmissions to activate the same TCI state on multiple bandwidth parts of multiple component carriers in a single band. When bandwidth parts are in the same band, channel properties may be similar, which may result in the TCI state having the same activation status on multiple different bandwidth parts.

Some aspects described herein provide for TCI state activation and/or deactivation with reduced signaling overhead. Additionally, or alternatively, some aspects provide for activation and/or deactivation of another type of spatial relationship for bandwidth parts with reduced signaling overhead. For example, a UE may receive, from a BS, an activation status message that identifies an alteration to one or more activation statuses of one or more TCI states or one or more spatial relationships in a single bandwidth part of a single component carrier. Further, the UE may receive an activation status indicator (e.g., which may be a field of the activation status message) that may indicate whether to apply the activation status message to a plurality of bandwidth parts of a plurality of component carriers in the same band as an identified bandwidth part of the activation status message. In this case, based on the activation status message and the activation status indicator, the UE may determine to activate or deactivate, for example, a particular TCI state in a plurality of bandwidth parts in which the particular TCI state is defined. In this way, the BS and the UE may reduce a utilization of network resources, relative to separately indicating the alteration to the activation status of the particular TCI state for each bandwidth part for which the particular TCI state is defined.

<FIG> are diagrams illustrating an example <NUM> of TCI state activation and deactivation, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, example <NUM> includes a BS <NUM> and a UE <NUM>.

As further shown in <FIG>, and by reference number <NUM>, UE <NUM> may receive an activation status message, which may include an activation status indicator. For example, BS <NUM> may provide an activation status message that identifies one or more TCI states, one or more spatial relationships, and/or the like for a single bandwidth part and includes a field set to indicate whether the activation status message is to apply to a plurality of bandwidth parts. In some aspects, UE <NUM> may receive an activation status message separate from the activation status indicator. For example, UE <NUM> may receive the activation status indicator via a separate transmission that occurs before the activation status message, concurrent with the activation status message, after the activation status message, and/or the like.

According to the present invention, BS <NUM> determines a value for the activation status indicator based at least in part on receiving a UE capability indicator from UE <NUM>. For example, UE <NUM> provides the UE capability indicator to indicate whether UE <NUM> is capable of applying an activation status message for a single bandwidth part to a plurality of bandwidth parts in the same frequency band. In some aspects, BS <NUM> may convey the activation status indicator via a particular type of message. For example, BS <NUM> may set a radio resource control (RRC) configured flag or a bit indicator in a downlink control information (DCI) or a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) (MAC CE).

As further shown in <FIG>, and by reference number <NUM>-A, in one example, a MAC CE activation status message may include a set of octets (Oct <NUM> through Oct N) including information identifying a serving cell of BS <NUM> (Serving Cell ID), a bandwidth part to which the activation status message applies (BWP ID), and an activation status of a set of TCI states defined for the bandwidth part (T<NUM> to T(N-<NUM>) *<NUM>+<NUM>). Further, the activation status message may include a reserved bit (R) that is set to indicate whether the TCI state activations or deactivations (e.g., the values for the activation statuses of the set of TCI states) for the bandwidth part are to apply to one or more other bandwidth parts in the same frequency band.

Similarly, as shown in <FIG>, and by reference number <NUM>-B, in another example of an activation status message, the activation status message may include a set of octets including information identifying the serving cell, the bandwidth part, a semi-persistent (SP) channel state information (CSI) reference signal (RS) resource set, an SP CSI interference measurement (IM) resource set, and a set of TCI states. In this case, the activation status message includes a set of reserved bits to indicate whether the activation status message applies to a single bandwidth part or a plurality of bandwidth parts for a change to an activation status of, for example, the CSI-RS resource set, the CSI-IM resource set, the set of TCI states, and/or the like.

Similarly, as shown in <FIG>, and by reference number <NUM>-C, in another example of an activation status message, the activation status message may include information for an alteration to an activation status of a spatial relationship. For example, the activation status message may include a reserved bit (R) to indicate whether the activation status message applies to spatial relationships in a plurality of bandwidth parts in the same frequency band as an identified bandwidth part and information identifying a plurality of resource set identifiers (Resource ID) from which UE <NUM> can derive a spatial relationship. Additionally, or alternatively, the activation status message includes a field to indicate whether an SP sounding reference signal (SRS) set is to be activated or deactivated (SP SRS Resource Set ID) in a single bandwidth part or, based on the activation status indicator, a plurality of bandwidth parts. In one example, the spatial relationship may include a relation between a reference RS and a target SRS. The reference RS may be an SS/PBCH block, a CSI-RS, or an SRS in some examples.

Similarly, as shown in <FIG>, and by reference number <NUM>-D, in another example of an activation status message, the activation status message may include a reserved bit for the activation status indicator and a field to identify a single TCI state (TCI State ID) for a single identified bandwidth part (or a plurality of bandwidth parts based at least in part on a value of the activation status indicator). If the activation status indicator indicates the single TCI state activation is to be applied for the plurality of bandwidth parts, the field for the single TCI state may indicate that UE <NUM> is to activate an identified TCI state for all control resource sets (CORESETs) on all component carriers that have a corresponding TCI state with the same TCI state identifier as is identified in the field. For example, the activation status message may indicate that UE <NUM> is to activate a TCI state for a CORESET <NUM> in a first component carrier and another TCI state for a CORESET <NUM> in a second component carrier.

As further shown in <FIG>, and by reference number <NUM>, based at least in part on receiving the activation status message, UE <NUM> may alter one or more activation statuses. For example, when the activation status indicator indicates that the activation status message is to apply to a single bandwidth part, UE <NUM> may alter one or more activation statuses of one or more TCI states or one or more spatial relationships in the single bandwidth part. Additionally, or alternatively, when the activation status indicator indicates that the activation status is to apply to a plurality of bandwidth parts, UE <NUM> may alter one or more activation statuses of one or more TCI states or one or more spatial relationships in the plurality of bandwidth parts. For example, UE <NUM> may activate a TCI state with a particular TCI indicator in a plurality of bandwidth parts. Additionally, or alternatively, UE <NUM> may deactivate the TCI state in the plurality of bandwidth parts.

In some aspects, UE <NUM> may receive a transmission from BS <NUM> based at least in part on activating or deactivating a TCI state, altering a spatial relationship, and/or the like. For example, UE <NUM> may receive a PDSCH, a PDCCH, and/or the like. Additionally, or alternatively, UE <NUM> may receive a CSI RS, a CSI IM, and/or the like. Additionally, or alternatively, UE <NUM> may transmit an SRS and/or the like.

<FIG> is a diagram illustrating an example process <NUM> performed, for example, by a UE, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. Example process <NUM> is an example where the UE (e.g., UE <NUM> and/or the like) performs operations associated with TCI state activation and deactivation.

As shown in <FIG>, in some aspects, process <NUM> may include receiving an activation status message identifying one or more TCI states or one or more spatial relationships, the activation status message being configured to alter one or more activation statuses for the one or more TCI states or the one or more spatial relationships in a single bandwidth part associated with a single component carrier (block <NUM>). For example, the UE (e.g., using antenna <NUM>, DEMOD <NUM>, MIMO detector <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, controller/processor <NUM>, and/or the like) may receive an activation status message identifying one or more TCI states or one or more spatial relationships. In some aspects, the activation status message is configured to alter one or more activation statuses for the one or more TCI states or the one or more spatial relationships in a single bandwidth part associated with a single component carrier, as described above in connection with <FIG>.

According to the present invention, receiving the activation status message includes transmitting a UE capability indicator to indicate that the UE is capable of applying the activation status message to the plurality of bandwidth parts, and receiving the activation status message based at least in part on transmitting the UE capability indicator.

In a second aspect, alone or in combination with the first aspect, the plurality of bandwidth parts and the plurality of component carriers are in a same band.

In a third aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through second aspects, the activation status message is a medium access control control element.

In a fourth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through third aspects, the activation status indicator is a bit indicator of a radio resource configuration message control message.

In a fifth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through fourth aspects, the activation status indicator is a bit indicator of a downlink control information of a downlink shared channel medium access control control element.

In a sixth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through fifth aspects, the one or more TCI states are associated with semi-persistent channel state information reference signal resources or channel state information interference measurement resources.

In a seventh aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through sixth aspects, the one or more spatial relationships are associated with semi-persistent sounding reference signal resources.

In an eighth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through seventh aspects, the one or more TCI states are associated with physical downlink control channel resources.

In a ninth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through eighth aspects, the one or more TCI states are associated with physical downlink shared channel resources.

As further shown in <FIG>, in some aspects, process <NUM> may include selectively altering the one or more activation statuses of the one or more TCI states or the one or more spatial relationships in a plurality of bandwidth parts associated with a plurality of component carriers based at least in part on receiving the activation status message (block <NUM>). For example, the UE (e.g., using antenna <NUM>, DEMOD <NUM>, MIMO detector <NUM>, receive processor <NUM>, controller/processor <NUM>, and/or the like) may selectively alter the one or more activation statuses of the one or more TCI states or the one or more spatial relationships in a plurality of bandwidth parts associated with a plurality of component carriers based at least in part on receiving the activation status message, as described above in connection with <FIG>.

In a tenth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through ninth aspects, the activation status message is an activation message, and selectively altering the one or more activation statuses of the one or more TCI states or the one or more spatial relationships includes activating the one or more TCI states or the one or more spatial relationships.

In an eleventh aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through tenth aspects, the activation status message is a deactivation message, and selectively altering the one or more activation statuses of the one or more TCI states includes deactivating the one or more TCI states or the one or more spatial relationships.

In a twelfth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through eleventh aspects, selectively altering the one or more activation statuses includes altering the one or more spatial relationships in the plurality of bandwidth parts.

In a thirteenth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through twelfth aspects, process <NUM> includes receiving the activation status indicator indicating that the activation status message is to apply to more than one bandwidth part, and selectively altering the one or more activation statuses of the one or more TCI states or the one or more spatial relationships in the plurality of bandwidth parts associated with the plurality of component carriers includes altering the one or more activation statuses of the one or more TCI states or the one or more spatial relationships in the plurality of bandwidth parts associated with the plurality of component carriers based at least in part on the activation status indicator.

In a fourteenth aspect, alone or in combination with one or more of the first through thirteenth aspects, selectively altering the one or more activation statuses may include selectively altering the one or more activation statuses based at least in part on an activation status indicator indicating whether the activation status message is to apply to the plurality of bandwidth parts associated with the plurality of component carriers.

Process <NUM> may include additional aspects, such as any single aspect or any combination of aspects described above and/or in connection with one or more other processes described elsewhere herein.

<FIG> is a conceptual data flow diagram illustrating an example <NUM> of a data flow between different modules/means/components in an example apparatus <NUM>. The apparatus <NUM> may include, for example, a UE (e.g., UE <NUM>). In some aspects, the apparatus <NUM> includes a reception module <NUM>, an alteration module <NUM>, and a transmission module <NUM>.

In some aspects, reception module <NUM> may receive transmissions that are transmitted to apparatus <NUM>. For example, reception module <NUM> may receive a transmission that includes an activation status message, an activation status indicator, and/or the like. In some aspects, reception module <NUM> may receive a MAC CE that includes the activation status message and the activation status indicator, as described with regard to <FIG>.

In some aspects, alteration module <NUM> may alter one or more activation statuses of one or more TCI states or one or more spatial relationships. For example, based on an activation status indicator indicating that an activation status message is to apply to a plurality of bandwidth parts, alteration module <NUM> may activate or deactivate a TCI state in the plurality of bandwidth parts to enable the apparatus <NUM> to receive transmissions from, for example, a BS (e.g., BS <NUM>), as described with regard to <FIG>.

In some aspects, transmission module <NUM> may transmit information to, for example, a BS. According to the present invention, transmission module <NUM> provides a UE capability indicator indicating that the apparatus <NUM> is capable of applying a single activation status message for a single bandwidth part to a plurality of bandwidth parts, as described with regard to <FIG>.

In some aspects, apparatus <NUM> may include additional modules that perform each of the blocks of the algorithm in the aforementioned flow chart of <FIG>. Each block in the aforementioned flow chart of <FIG> may be performed by a module, and apparatus <NUM> may include one or more of those modules. The modules may be one or more hardware components specifically configured to carry out the stated processes/algorithm, implemented by a processor configured to perform the stated processes/algorithm, stored within a computer-readable medium for implementation by a processor, or some combination thereof.

<FIG> is a diagram illustrating an example <NUM> of a hardware implementation for an apparatus <NUM>' (e.g., apparatus <NUM> described above in connection with <FIG>) employing a processing system <NUM>. The apparatus <NUM>' may include, for example, a UE (e.g., UE <NUM>).

The processing system <NUM> may be implemented with a bus architecture, represented generally by the bus <NUM>. The bus <NUM> may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specific application of the processing system <NUM> and the overall design constraints. The bus <NUM> links together various circuits including one or more processors and/or hardware modules, represented by the processor <NUM>, the modules <NUM>, <NUM>, and/or <NUM>, and the computer-readable medium / memory <NUM>. The bus <NUM> may also link various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further.

The processing system <NUM> may be coupled to a transceiver <NUM>. The transceiver <NUM> is coupled to one or more antennas <NUM>. The transceiver <NUM> provides a means for communicating with various other apparatuses over a transmission medium. The transceiver <NUM> receives a signal from the one or more antennas <NUM>, extracts information from the received signal, and provides the extracted information to the processing system <NUM>. In addition, the transceiver <NUM> receives information from the processing system <NUM> and, based at least in part on the received information, generates a signal to be applied to the one or more antennas <NUM>.

The processing system <NUM> includes a processor <NUM> coupled to a computer-readable medium / memory <NUM>. The processor <NUM> is responsible for general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium / memory <NUM>. The software, when executed by the processor <NUM>, causes the processing system <NUM> to perform the various functions described herein for any particular apparatus. The computer-readable medium / memory <NUM> may also be used for storing data that is manipulated by the processor <NUM> when executing software. The processing system further includes at least one of the modules <NUM>, <NUM>, and/or <NUM>. The modules may be software modules running in the processor <NUM>, resident/stored in the computer readable medium / memory <NUM>, one or more hardware modules coupled to the processor <NUM>, or some combination thereof.

In some aspects, the apparatus <NUM> for wireless communication includes means for receiving an activation status message identifying one or more TCI states or one or more spatial relationships, the activation status message being configured to alter one or more activation statuses for the one or more TCI states or the one or more spatial relationships in a single bandwidth part associated with a single component carrier, means for selectively altering the one or more activation statuses of the one or more TCI states or the one or more spatial relationships in a plurality of bandwidth parts associated with a plurality of component carriers based at least in part on receiving the activation status message, and/or the like. The aforementioned means may be one or more of the aforementioned modules of the apparatus <NUM> and/or the processing system <NUM> of the apparatus <NUM>' configured to perform the functions recited by the aforementioned means.

Claim 1:
A method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment, UE (<NUM>), comprising:
transmitting a UE capability indicator to indicate that the UE (<NUM>) is capable of applying an activation status message (<NUM>-A, <NUM>-B, <NUM>-C, <NUM>-D) to a plurality of bandwidth parts;
receiving (<NUM>, <NUM>) the activation status message (<NUM>-A, <NUM>-B, <NUM>-C, <NUM>-D) identifying one or more transmission configuration indicator, TCI, states or one or more spatial relationships, the activation status message (<NUM>-A, <NUM>-B, <NUM>-C, <NUM>-D) being configured to alter one or more activation statuses for the one or more TCI states or the one or more spatial relationships in a single bandwidth part associated with a single component carrier, wherein receiving (<NUM>, <NUM>) the activation status message (<NUM>-A, <NUM>-B, <NUM>-C, <NUM>-D) comprises:
receiving the activation status message (<NUM>-A, <NUM>-B, <NUM>-C, <NUM>-D) based at least in part on transmitting the UE capability indicator; and
altering (<NUM>, <NUM>) the one or more activation statuses of the one or more TCI states or the one or more spatial relationships in the plurality of bandwidth parts associated with a plurality of component carriers based at least in part on an activation status indicator indicating whether the activation status message (<NUM>-A, <NUM>-B, <NUM>-C, <NUM>-D) is to apply to more than one bandwidth part of the plurality of bandwidth parts.