PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-12082032-B2
Application Number: US-202017593453-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Reporting interference and noise power fluctuations

Abstract:
A user equipment (UE) is configured to report channel state information (CSI) to a base station of a network. The UE receives configuration information from the base station including one or more interference measurement resources (IMRs) to be measured by the UE, determines a noise power for each of the IMRs, transmits a reference channel state information (CSI) report the base station, measures CSI reference signals (CSI RS) transmitted by the base station to determine an interference and noise power for each of the one or more IMRs and transmits a new CSI report including one of i) only interference and noise power fluctuation feedback or ii) multiple signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) or SINR statistics to the base station.

Claims:
What is claimed: 
     
       1. A user equipment (UE), comprising:
 a transceiver configured to communicate with a base station; and 
 a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and configured to perform operations comprising: 
 receiving configuration information from the base station including one or more interference measurement resources (IMRs) to be measured by the UE; 
 determining a noise power for each of the IMRs; 
 transmitting a reference channel state information (CSI) report the base station; 
 measuring CSI reference signals (CSI RS) transmitted by the base station to determine an interference and noise power for each of the one or more IMRs; and 
 transmitting a new CSI report including one of i) only interference and noise power fluctuation feedback or ii) multiple signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) or SINR statistics to the base station, 
 wherein, when the one or more IMRs is less than or equal to a predetermined number of IMRs, the new CSI report includes a measured interference and noise power for each IMR. 
 
     
     
       2. The UE of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more IMRs are one of in a same slot or are in different slots. 
     
     
       3. The UE of  claim 1 , wherein the base station is a next generation node B (gNB) of a New Radio (NR) network. 
     
     
       4. The UE of  claim 3 , wherein the one or more IMRs are in the Frequency Range 1 (FR1) of the NR network. 
     
     
       5. One or more processors configured to perform operations comprising:
 receiving configuration information from a base station including one or more interference measurement resources (IMRs) to be measured by a user equipment (UE); 
 determining a noise power for each of the IMRs; 
 transmitting a reference channel state information (CSI) report to the base station; 
 measuring CSI reference signals (CSI RS) transmitted by the base station to determine an interference and noise power for each of the one or more IMRs; and 
 transmitting a new CSI report including one of i) only interference and noise power fluctuation feedback or ii) multiple signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) or SINR statistics to the base station, 
 wherein, when the one or more IMRs is greater than a predetermined number of IMRs, the new CSI report includes parameters to model interference and noise power fluctuation. 
 
     
     
       6. The one or more processors of  claim 5 , wherein a gamma distribution is used to model the interference and noise power fluctuation, and wherein the parameters include an average interference and noise power (γ) and a shape factor (m). 
     
     
       7. The one or more processors of  claim 5 , wherein the one or more IMRs are one of in a same slot or are in different slots. 
     
     
       8. The one or more processors of  claim 5 , wherein the base station is a next generation node B (gNB) of a New Radio (NR) network. 
     
     
       9. The one or more processors of  claim 8 , wherein the one or more IMRs are in the Frequency Range 1 (FR1) of the NR network. 
     
     
       10. A method, comprising:
 receiving configuration information from a base station including one or more interference measurement resources (IMRs) to be measured by a user equipment (UE); 
 determining a noise power for each of the IMRs; 
 transmitting a reference channel state information (CSI) report to the base station; 
 measuring CSI reference signals (CSI RS) transmitted by the base station to determine an interference and noise power for each of the one or more IMRs; and 
 transmitting a new CSI report including one of i) only interference and noise power fluctuation feedback or ii) multiple signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) or SINR statistics to the base station, 
 wherein, when the one or more IMRs is less than or equal to a predetermined number of IMRs, the new CSI report includes a measured interference and noise power for each IMR, or 
 wherein, when the one or more IMRs is greater than a predetermined number of IMRs, the new CSI report includes parameters to model interference and noise power fluctuation. 
 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 10 , wherein, when the one or more IMRs is greater than the predetermined number of IMRs, a gamma distribution is used to model the interference and noise power fluctuation, and wherein the parameters include an average interference and noise power (γ) and a shape factor (m). 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 10 , wherein the one or more IMRs are one of in a same slot or are in different slots. 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 10 , wherein the base station is a next generation node B (gNB) of a New Radio (NR) network and wherein the one or more IMRs are in the Frequency Range 1 (FR1) of the NR network.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     In 5G new radio (NR) wireless communications, the 5G NR network may assign one or more frequency sub-bands to a user equipment (UE) to exchange information with the network. These sub-bands are allocated to the UE based on measured channel conditions that the UE reports to a next generation-NodeB (gNB) of the network. In addition, an optimal modulation and coding scheme (MCS) is selected by the network based on the measured channel conditions. A mean signal-to-noise and interference ratio (SINR) and a SINR standard deviation may be used by the UE to model the SINR and reported to the network to help the gNB select the optimal MCS. Alternatively, the SINR can be modelled using a gamma distribution for improved power control. 
     SUMMARY 
     Some exemplary embodiments are related to a user equipment (UE) having a transceiver configured to communicate with a base station and a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and configured to perform operations. The operations include receiving configuration information from the base station including one or more interference measurement resources (IMRs) to be measured by the UE, determining a noise power for each of the IMRs, transmitting a reference channel state information (CSI) report the base station, measuring CSI reference signals (CSI RS) transmitted by the base station to determine an interference and noise power for each of the one or more IMRs and transmitting a new CSI report including one of i) only interference and noise power fluctuation feedback or ii) multiple signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) or SINR statistics to the base station. 
     Other exemplary embodiments relate to one or more processors that are configured to perform operations. The operations include receiving configuration information from a base station including one or more interference measurement resources (IMRs) to be measured by the UE, determining a noise power for each of the IMRs, transmitting a reference channel state information (CSI) report to the base station, measuring CSI reference signals (CSI RS) transmitted by the base station to determine an interference and noise power for each of the one or more IMRs and transmitting a new CSI report including one of i) only interference and noise power fluctuation feedback or ii) multiple signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) or SINR statistics to the base station. 
     Still further exemplary embodiments relate to a method that includes receiving configuration information from a base station including one or more interference measurement resources (IMRs) to be measured by a user equipment (UE), determining a noise power for each of the IMRs, transmitting a reference channel state information (CSI) report to the base station, measuring CSI reference signals (CSI RS) transmitted by the base station to determine an interference and noise power for each of the one or more IMRs and transmitting a new CSI report including one of i) only interference and noise power fluctuation feedback or ii) multiple signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) or SINR statistics to the base station. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    shows an exemplary network arrangement according to various exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG.  2    shows an exemplary UE according to various exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG.  3    shows an exemplary base station configured to establish a connection with a user equipment according to various exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG.  4    shows a method of reporting interference fluctuation according to various exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG.  5    shows exemplary resource blocks allocated by a g-NodeB to a UE for interference measurements according to various exemplary embodiments. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The exemplary embodiments may be further understood with reference to the following description and the related appended drawings, wherein like elements are provided with the same reference numerals. The exemplary embodiments describe a device, system and method for a user equipment (UE) connected to a 5G new radio (NR) network to determine cell interference fluctuation and provide feedback regarding such interference fluctuation to a next generation-NodeB (gNB) of the network. 
     The exemplary embodiments are described with regard to a network that includes 5G new radio NR radio access technology (RAT). However, the exemplary embodiments may be implemented in other types of networks using the principles described herein. 
     The exemplary embodiments are also described with regard to a UE. However, the use of a UE is merely for illustrative purposes. The exemplary embodiments may be utilized with any electronic component that may establish a connection with a network and is configured with the hardware, software, and/or firmware to exchange information and data with the network. Therefore, the UE as described herein is used to represent any electronic component. 
     Deployment of ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC) is expected to be in the frequency range 1 (FR1) of NR because the channel state does not vary as easily as frequency range 2 (FR2). As such, a change in the signal-to-noise and interference ratio (SINR) is more often caused by fluctuations in interference than by channel variations. Such interference may be caused by, for example, other cell interference, multiuser (MU) interference, etc. 5G NR has an increased flexibility in physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring/mini-slot scheduling that may cause an increase in interference fluctuation. However, tasking a UE with sending frequent CSI reports to the gNB is extremely burdensome on the UE (e.g., increased monitoring, increased power consumption, etc.). 
     According to some exemplary embodiments, a new Channel State Information (CSI) report quantity may be defined in so that the UE can send a CSI report including only interference and noise measurements instead of a conventional CSI report including other channel measurements as well. Such a report would advantageously be less burdensome on the UE and would provide the gNB with more useful information in determining a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) to be used. 
       FIG.  1    shows an exemplary network arrangement  100  according to various exemplary embodiments. The exemplary network arrangement  100  includes a UE  110 . It should be noted that any number of UEs may be used in the network arrangement  100 . Those skilled in the art will understand that the UE  110  may alternatively be any type of electronic component that is configured to communicate via a network, e.g., mobile phones, tablet computers, desktop computers, smartphones, phablets, embedded devices, wearables, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, etc. It should also be understood that an actual network arrangement may include any number of UEs being used by any number of users. Thus, the example of a single UE  110  is merely provided for illustrative purposes. 
     The UE  110  may be configured to communicate with one or more networks. In the example of the network configuration  100 , the networks with which the UE  110  may wirelessly communicate are a 5G New Radio (NR) radio access network (5G NR-RAN)  120 , an LTE radio access network (LTE-RAN)  122  and a wireless local access network (WLAN)  124 . However, it should be understood that the UE  110  may also communicate with other types of networks and the UE  110  may also communicate with networks over a wired connection. Therefore, the UE  110  may include a 5G NR chipset to communicate with the 5G NR-RAN  120 , an LTE chipset to communicate with the LTE-RAN  122  and an ISM chipset to communicate with the WLAN  124 . 
     The 5G NR-RAN  120  and the LTE-RAN  122  may be portions of cellular networks that may be deployed by cellular providers (e.g., Verizon, AT&amp;T, T-Mobile, etc.). These networks  120 ,  122  may include, for example, cells or base stations (Node Bs, eNodeBs, HeNBs, eNBS, gNBs, gNodeBs, macrocells, microcells, small cells, femtocells, etc.) that are configured to send and receive traffic from UE that are equipped with the appropriate cellular chip set. The WLAN  124  may include any type of wireless local area network (WiFi, Hot Spot, IEEE 802.11x networks, etc.). 
     The UE  110  may connect to the 5G NR-RAN  120  via the gNB  120 A and/or the gNB  120 B. During operation, the UE  110  may be within range of a plurality of gNBs. Thus, either simultaneously or alternatively, the UE  110  may connect to the 5G NR-RAN  120  via the gNBs  120 A and  120 B. Further, the UE  110  may communicate with the eNB  122 A of the LTE-RAN  122  to transmit and receive control information used for downlink and/or uplink synchronization with respect to the 5G NR-RAN  120  connection. 
     Those skilled in the art will understand that any association procedure may be performed for the UE  110  to connect to the 5G NR-RAN  120 . For example, as discussed above, the 5G NR-RAN  120  may be associated with a particular cellular provider where the UE  110  and/or the user thereof has a contract and credential information (e.g., stored on a SIM card). Upon detecting the presence of the 5G NR-RAN  120 , the UE  110  may transmit the corresponding credential information to associate with the 5G NR-RAN  120 . More specifically, the UE  110  may associate with a specific base station (e.g., the gNB  120 A of the 5G NR-RAN  120 ). 
     In addition to the networks  120 ,  122  and  124  the network arrangement  100  also includes a cellular core network  130 , the Internet  140 , an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)  150 , and a network services backbone  160 . The cellular core network  130  may be considered to be the interconnected set of components that manages the operation and traffic of the cellular network, e.g. the 5GC for NR. The cellular core network  130  also manages the traffic that flows between the cellular network and the Internet  140 . 
     The IMS  150  may be generally described as an architecture for delivering multimedia services to the UE  110  using the IP protocol. The IMS  150  may communicate with the cellular core network  130  and the Internet  140  to provide the multimedia services to the UE  110 . The network services backbone  160  is in communication either directly or indirectly with the Internet  140  and the cellular core network  130 . The network services backbone  160  may be generally described as a set of components (e.g., servers, network storage arrangements, etc.) that implement a suite of services that may be used to extend the functionalities of the UE  110  in communication with the various networks. 
       FIG.  2    shows an exemplary UE  110  according to various exemplary embodiments. The UE  110  will be described with regard to the network arrangement  100  of  FIG.  1   . The UE  110  may represent any electronic device and may include a processor  205 , a memory arrangement  210 , a display device  215 , an input/output (I/O) device  220 , a transceiver  225  and other components  230 . The other components  230  may include, for example, an audio input device, an audio output device, a battery that provides a limited power supply, a data acquisition device, ports to electrically connect the UE  110  to other electronic devices, one or more antenna panels, etc. For example, the UE  110  may be coupled to an industrial device via one or more ports. 
     The processor  205  may be configured to execute a plurality of engines of the UE  110 . For example, the engines may include a CSI management engine  235 . The CSI management engine  235  may perform various operations related to measuring interference on allocated interference measurement blocks (IMR) and providing interference fluctuation feedback to the network (e.g., via the gNB  120 A or  120 B). 
     The above referenced engine being an application (e.g., a program) executed by the processor  205  is only exemplary. The functionality associated with the engine may also be represented as a separate incorporated component of the UE  110  or may be a modular component coupled to the UE  110 , e.g., an integrated circuit with or without firmware. For example, the integrated circuit may include input circuitry to receive signals and processing circuitry to process the signals and other information. The engines may also be embodied as one application or separate applications. In addition, in some UE, the functionality described for the processor  205  is split among two or more processors such as a baseband processor and an applications processor. The exemplary embodiments may be implemented in any of these or other configurations of a UE. 
     The memory arrangement  210  may be a hardware component configured to store data related to operations performed by the UE  110 . The display device  215  may be a hardware component configured to show data to a user while the I/O device  220  may be a hardware component that enables the user to enter inputs. The display device  215  and the I/O device  220  may be separate components or integrated together such as a touchscreen. The transceiver  225  may be a hardware component configured to establish a connection with the 5G NR-RAN  120 , the LTE-RAN  122 , the WLAN  124 , etc. Accordingly, the transceiver  225  may operate on a variety of different frequencies or channels (e.g., set of consecutive frequencies). 
       FIG.  3    shows an exemplary network cell, in this case gNB  120 A, according to various exemplary embodiments. The gNB  120 A may represent any access node of the 5G NR network through which the UEs  110  may establish a connection. The gNB  120 A illustrated in  FIG.  3    may also represent the gNB  120 B. 
     The gNB  120 A may include a processor  305 , a memory arrangement  310 , an input/output (I/O) device  320 , a transceiver  325 , and other components  330 . The other components  330  may include, for example, a power supply, a data acquisition device, ports to electrically connect the gNB  120 A to other electronic devices, etc. 
     The processor  305  may be configured to execute a plurality of engines of the gNB  120 A. For example, the engines may include a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) management engine  335  for performing operations including determining an MCS for a UE based on interference fluctuation feedback received from the UE. Examples of this process will be described in greater detail below. 
     The above noted engine being an application (e.g., a program) executed by the processor  305  is only exemplary. The functionality associated with the engines may also be represented as a separate incorporated component of the gNB  120 A or may be a modular component coupled to the gNB  120 A, e.g., an integrated circuit with or without firmware. For example, the integrated circuit may include input circuitry to receive signals and processing circuitry to process the signals and other information. In addition, in some gNBs, the functionality described for the processor  305  is split among a plurality of processors (e.g., a baseband processor, an applications processor, etc.). The exemplary aspects may be implemented in any of these or other configurations of a gNB. 
     The memory  310  may be a hardware component configured to store data related to operations performed by the UEs  110 ,  112 . The I/O device  320  may be a hardware component or ports that enable a user to interact with the gNB  120 A. The transceiver  325  may be a hardware component configured to exchange data with the UE  110  and any other UE in the system  100 . The transceiver  325  may operate on a variety of different frequencies or channels (e.g., set of consecutive frequencies). Therefore, the transceiver  325  may include one or more components (e.g., radios) to enable the data exchange with the various networks and UEs. 
       FIG.  4    shows a method  400  of reporting interference fluctuation according to various exemplary embodiments. The method  400  of  FIG.  4    includes providing the network (e.g., gNB) with a new type of CSI report that includes only interference and noise measurements be less burdensome on the UE but still provide the network with information for determining a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) to be used. As will be described below, a reference report may be generated and linked to the new CSI report to provide normalized values for the reporting of the interference and noise in the new CSI report. Thus, throughout this description, the term “new CSI report” will refer to the CSI report that includes only interference and noise measurements and “reference CSI report” will refer to a report that provides the network with normalized values for the new CSI report. The new CSI report may also include multiple SINRs or SINR statistics. The SINR is based on a ratio of a reference signal (the desired signal) versus the interference-plus noise measurement. Thus, the desired signal may be used to normalize the new CSI report. In the example of  FIG.  4   , it may be considered that the UE  110  is camped on the gNB  120 A and will be providing the reference CSI report and the new CSI report to the gNB  120 A. 
     At  405 , the UE receives configuration information from the gNB  120 A identifying resource elements (REs) as interference measurement resources (IMRs) for which the UE  110  is to determine an interference fluctuation. In some embodiments, the IMRs are within the same slot. In some embodiments, the IMRs may alternatively or additionally be across different slots. Examples of IMRs will be provided below with reference to  FIG.  5   . 
     At  410 , the UE  110  determines a noise power (P Noise ) associated with a zero power (ZP) interference measurement resource (IMR) to generate a conventional CSI report. As those skilled in the art will understand, zero-power means that the resource element is used for a non-zero power (NZP) CSI reference signal (CSI RS) from a different component, e.g., the gNB  120 B. Thus, at  410 , the UE  110  measures the CSI RS from gNB  120 B for the purposes of normalizing the interference and noise values to be included in the new CSI report in subsequent operations. At  415 , the UE  110  sends a reference CSI report to the gNB  120 A (e.g., a channel quality indicator (CQI), a rank indicator (RI), a precoding matrix indicator (PMI), etc.). In some embodiments, if the new CSI report includes multiple SINRs and/or SINR statistics, at  410 , the UE  110  determines a desired signal power associated with the channel measurement resource (CMR) to generate a conventional CSI report. 
     The reference CSI report may be sent to the gNB  120 A based on a number of factors. For example, the reference CSI reports may be sent by the UE  110  based on a schedule, on a periodic basis, based on an event (e.g., a request from the gNB  120 A, a mobility threshold of the UE  110 , etc.), etc. Thus, the reference CSI report may correspond to one or more new CSI reports, e.g., the normalized values in the reference CSI report may be used for one or more new CSI reports. Thus, the operations  410  and  415  are related to generating and reporting the reference CSI report. As will be described in greater detail below, the operations  420  and  425  are related to generating and reporting the new CSI report. The operations  420  and  425  (new CSI report) may be performed multiple times for a single instance of performing the operations  410  and  415  (reference CSI report). In some embodiments, the conventional report and the new CSI report may be sent together. 
     At  420 , the UE  110  performs interference measurements on the IMRs allocated to the UE  110  by the gNB  120 A (at  405 ). It should be understood that the IMRs used for the interference measurements may include none/part of/all of the IMRs configured for the conventional CSI report. At  425 , the UE  110  provides interference fluctuation feedback to the gNB  120 A so that the gNB  120 A may determine the MCS for the UE  110  given the interference fluctuation. The interference feedback will be described in greater detail below. As described above, this feedback may be a new CSI report defined as “Interference+Noise Only” or “multiple SINRs and/or SINRs statistics.” The reference CSI report (from  415 ) may be functionally linked to the new CSI report so that the reference CSI report can serve as a baseline (benchmark). 
     For purposes of reporting the values in the new CSI report, the type of feedback may depend on the number of IMRs that are to be measured and reported. The following examples use the number of four (4) IMRs as an exemplary threshold for reporting. However, it should be understood that the threshold may be set at any value. In some exemplary embodiments, if the number of IMRs is less than or equal to four (4) IMRs, the UE  110  reports a normalized interference and noise power (measured interference and noise power with respect to P Noise ) to the gNB  120 A for each IMR. In some embodiments, if the number of IMRs is greater than four (4) IMRs, the noise/interference may alternatively be modelled using, for example, a gamma distribution so that the UE  110  is not overburdened with reporting a large number of interference and noise power values. In such a scenario, the UE  110  may include the parameters for the modelling in the feedback provided to the gNB  120 A. In the case of a gamma distribution, these parameters are  γ  and m, where  γ  is average interference and noise power and m is a shape factor. The probability density function is defined as 
                 P       γ   _     ,   m       (   γ   )     =           m   m     ⁢     γ     m   -   1               γ   _     m     ⁢     Γ   ⁡   (   m   )         ⁢     e         -   m     ⁢   γ       γ   _                 
where Γ(m) is the gamma function. If m is large, then there is essentially little variation in the observed interference and noise power. If, however, m is small, then there are possibly substantial fluctuations in the interference and noise power. To determine the parameters  γ  and m, the UE  110  may use the following functions
 
                 γ   _     ^     =       ∑     K   =   1     K       γ   k                     m   ^     =     1     2   ⁢     (       log   ⁢            γ   _     ^       -         ∑     k   =   1     K       log   ⁢     γ   k         K       )               
where γ k  is the measured interference and noise power in a given IMR k, with 1≤k≤K. In some embodiments,  {circumflex over (γ)}  is normalized using the CSI report based on the IMRs of the reference signal. In some embodiments, uniform quantization in the log domain with saturation may be used. In some embodiments, {circumflex over (m)} is quantized with a non-uniform range such as, for example, &lt;1, [1, 10), [10 20]), [20, 200), [200, +∞). The intervals for both  {circumflex over (γ)}  and {circumflex over (m)} may either be specified in the 3GPP standards or configured via RRC.
 
     The tail distribution of the statistical model may be of differing importance to the gNB scheduling depending on whether it is on the lower tail or the higher tail. For example, when forming the statistical model, fitting the higher tail for interference plus noise (or the lower tail for SINR) may be prioritized by the UE. In some exemplary embodiments, the UE processing to prioritize fitting on the higher tail for interference plus noise or the lower tail for SINR may be defined by the relevant standards (e.g., 3GPP standards), may be signaled to the UE by the network or may be preprogrammed into the UE. 
       FIG.  5    shows resource blocks of an exemplary reference signal allocated by the gNB  120 A to the UE  110  for interference measurements according to various exemplary embodiments. These resource blocks are merely illustrative examples of the IMRs allocated for the UE  110  by the gNB  120 A for interference and noise power measurements. As noted above, the IMRs  502   a - c  in slot 1 or  504   a - c  in slot 2 may within the same slot or, alternatively, the IMRS  502   a - c  and  504   a - c  may be across different slots (slot 1 and slot 2). The more IMRs allocated to the UE  110 , the more measurements the UE  110  can take, which advantageously helps the gNB  120 A select the MCS. 
     Those skilled in the art will understand that the above-described exemplary embodiments may be implemented in any suitable software or hardware configuration or combination thereof. An exemplary hardware platform for implementing the exemplary embodiments may include, for example, an Intel x86 based platform with compatible operating system, a Windows OS, a Mac platform and MAC OS, a mobile device having an operating system such as iOS, Android, etc. In a further example, the exemplary embodiments of the above described method may be embodied as a program containing lines of code stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium that, when compiled, may be executed on a processor or microprocessor. 
     Although this application described various aspects each having different features in various combinations, those skilled in the art will understand that any of the features of one aspect may be combined with the features of the other aspects in any manner not specifically disclaimed or which is not functionally or logically inconsistent with the operation of the device or the stated functions of the disclosed aspects. 
     It is well understood that the use of personally identifiable information should follow privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining the privacy of users. In particular, personally identifiable information data should be managed and handled so as to minimize risks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use should be clearly indicated to users. 
     It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made in the present disclosure, without departing from the spirit or the scope of the disclosure. Thus, it is intended that the present disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalent.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20200915
Publication Date: 20240903
Grant Date: 20240903
Priority Date: 20200915
Inventors: YANG, WEIDONG
YAO, CHUNHAI
YE, CHUNXUAN
ZHANG, DAWEI
SUN, HAITONG
HE, HONG
NIU, HUANING
CUI, JIE
RAGHAVAN, Manasa
OTERI, OGHENEKOME
FAKOORIAN, SEYED ALI AKBAR
YE, SIGEN
ZENG, WEI
TANG, YANG
ZHANG, YUSHU
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "H04W72/541", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/0453", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/0446", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L25/0224", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L25/0204", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W24/10", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/006", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W24/10", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L5/0051", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/541", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/0453", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W72/0446", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W24/10", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 80777470