POWER ACCURACY IN NEW RADIO

Cross Reference to Related Application

The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.

62/742,777, filed October 8, 2018, entitled“Methods of Defining and Evaluating Relative Ll- RSRP accuracy for 5GNR Beam management,” all of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Field

Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to the technical field of wireless communications.

Background

The background description generally presents the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure. ETnless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in the present disclosure and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

Layer 1 reference signal received power (Ll-RSRP) tests have been adopted in Fifth Generation (5G) new radio (NR) communications. However, Ll-RSRP accuracy may not be evaluated accurately due to various concerns. New solutions are needed for evaluating Ll-RSRP accuracy in UE conformance tests.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Embodiments will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitate this description, like reference numerals designate like structural elements. Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 schematically illustrates an example block diagram of an architecture of a user equipment (UE) operating in compliance with NR standards, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 2 illustrates example components of a UE in accordance with various

embodiments.

Figure 3 illustrates an example of an NR conformance test setup, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figures 4A illustrates an example operation flow/test procedure to facilitate a relative Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation by a test equipment (TE), in accordance with various embodiments. Figures 4B illustrates another example operation flow/test procedure to facilitate the relative Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation by the TE, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 5A and 5B illustrate examples of forming an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol based on various types of reference signals, in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 6 illustrates an operation flow/algorithmic structure to facilitate the relative Ll- RSRP accuracy evaluation by a UE, in accordance with some embodiments.

Figure 7 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with some embodiments.

Figure 8 illustrates hardware resources in accordance with some embodiments.

Detailed Description

In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof wherein like numerals designate like parts throughout, and in which is shown by way of illustration embodiments that may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural or logical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense.

Various operations may be described as multiple discrete actions or operations in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the claimed subject matter. However, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations may not be performed in the order of presentation. Operations described may be performed in a different order than the described embodiment. Various additional operations may be performed and/or described operations may be omitted in additional embodiments.

For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrases“A or B” and“A and/or B” mean (A), (B), or (A and B). For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrases“A, B, or C” and “A, B, and/or C” mean (A), (B), (C), (A and B), (A and C), (B and C), or (A, B and C).

The description may use the phrases“in an embodiment,” or“in embodiments,” which may each refer to one or more of the same or different embodiments. Furthermore, the terms “comprising,”“including,”“having,” and the like, as used with respect to embodiments of the present disclosure, are synonymous.

As used herein, the term“circuitry” may refer to, be part of, or include any combination of integrated circuits (for example, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc.), discrete circuits, combinational logic circuits, system on a chip (SOC), system in a package (SiP), that provides the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware modules to provide the described functions. In some embodiments, circuitry may include logic, at least partially operable in hardware.

5G NR wireless communication systems will operate in multiple frequency ranges including a mmWave frequency range above 6 GHz, for example, NR Frequency Range 2 (FR2) from 24250 MHz to 52600 MHz. In NR communication with respect to mmWave, it is reasonable to expect a greater level of integration of high-frequency devices, for example for devices operating above 6 GHz, than seen today with the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard for Long Term Evolution (LTE) devices and NR devices operating in lower frequencies, for example, NR Frequency Range 1 (FR1) from 450 MHz to 6000 MHz. Such highly integrated devices may feature innovative front-end solutions, multi-element antenna arrays, passive and active feeding networks, and so on, that may not allow for the same testing techniques used to verify LIE radio frequency (RF), radio resource management (RRM) and demodulation and channel state information (CSI) reporting performance requirements as applied to current LTE devices.

Ll-RSRP may be used for measuring the received power level of a reference signal to indicate signal strength from one or more beams and/or one or more cells. RSRQ, RSSI, and/or RS-SINR may be alternatively or additionally used for similar purposes. For simplicity of the discussion, only RSRP is illustrated as an example, but all the descriptions herein apply to the other reference signal measurements, as well as, but not limited to, RSRQ, RSSI and RS-SINR.

Ll-RSRP is defined as the linear average over the power contribution in Watt of the resource elements received at each antenna connector, which is associated with each receiver branch. Ll-RSRP measurement results may be used for beam selection in NR communications, from either a based station perspective or a UE perspective. Ll-RSRP may indicates an absolute received power level with respect to physical layer (Ll). Ll-RSRP measurements may be based on measurements regarding one or more configured or target downlink (DL) resources for beam measurements. The DL resource signals may include one or more synchronization signal block (SSB) resources, channel status information - reference signal (CSI-RS) resources, or other like reference signal resources. One or more conformance tests may be implemented to ensure the Ll-RSRP measurement performed by a baseband receiver of the UE is accurate. This means that the baseband receiver can measure the Ll-RSRP within certain limits of error. Otherwise, the UE may be determined as not being able to measure Ll-RSRP accurately, and may not pass the Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation. There are several factors that may affect Ll-RSRP measurement accuracy. Some of those factors are described below as examples. First, radio frequency (RF) impairments may cause Ll-RSRP measurement inaccuracy. The RF impairments may be related to some RF calibration errors while calibrating RF receivers. For example, a receiver gain of the RF receiver may not be as accurate as configured by the UE due to RF mismatch and other RF impairments. Further, ambient temperature changes may also affect RF impairments, since RF components are sensitive to temperature changes.

Second, a reference point of the RF receiver may not be identifiable. With respect to mmWave and/or sub-mmWave operations in NR, receiver beamforming may be used by a UE receiver. In beamforming, each antenna of an antenna panel may receive a reference signal with respect to a cell. Two or more antennas of the panel may be in use for beamforming. Ll-RSRP may be defined at a point after receiver beamforming. However, in NR FR2 operations, a reference point is not defined and may not be identifiable any more.

Third, a baseband receiver may cause errors itself. Such errors or variance may vary due to different levels of noise and/or interferences associated with various deep fading channels.

The above-mentioned first two factors are related to RF receivers, and they may contribute to a common Ll-RSRP measurement error, since in a limited period of time window, the RF impairment may be assumed to be constant. This means that when more than one DL beams or resources are measured for Ll-RSRP in a given time interval, the corresponding results may share the same common error (or an offset). Meanwhile, the errors caused by the baseband receiver may introduce a relative measurement error during a limited time window. This means that when more than one DL beams or resources are measured for Ll-RSRP in a given time interval, the corresponding results may have different errors or offsets. But there may not be a common error.

Existing Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation may only evaluate an absolute Ll-RSRP error that may include both the common error and the relative error with respect to the above described three factors. However, in certain beam management use cases, the common error introduced by RF receivers may not affect pertinent system level performance and it may be preferred to be removed from the Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation. This means that a relative Ll- RSRP evaluation may be needed to focus on the relative error caused by baseband receivers.

Various embodiments described herein may include, for example, apparatuses, methods, and storage media for evaluating relative Ll-RSRP accuracy in, or related to, a UE in NR or NR-related communications. Various embodiments may be directed to configurations and/or operations in relative Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation. The various embodiments may be applicable to like relative accuracy evaluations, such as RSRQ, SINR, etc.

Figure 1 schematically illustrates an example block diagram of an architecture of a UE 100 operating in compliance with NR standards in accordance with one or more embodiments. The UE 100 may be a smartphone (for example, a handheld touchscreen mobile computing device connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also comprise any mobile or non- mobile computing devices, such as a Personal Data Assistant (PDA), pager, laptop computer, desktop computer, wireless handset, customer premises equipment (CPE), fixed wireless access (FWA) device, Vehicle mounted EE or any computing device including a wireless

communications interface. In some embodiments, the EE 100 can comprise an Internet of Things (IoT) EE, which can comprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived EE connections. An IoT EE can utilize technologies such as narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type communications (MTC) for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An NB-IoT/MTC network describes interconnecting NB-IoT/MTC EEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The NB-IoT/MTC EEs may execute background applications (for example, keep-alive message, status updates, location related services, etc.).

The EE 100 includes baseband processing circuitry 110, IF processing circuitry 115 if applicable, RF processing circuitry 120, an antenna-array matching network 125, and an antenna array 130. Based on the latest NR standards defined by the 3GPP, it is reasonable to expect that all or a vast majority of NR tests will be defined and tested with respect to the OTA

measurement reference 135 at the output of antenna array 130.

In some embodiments, baseband processing circuitry 110 may include multiple parallel baseband chains. Each baseband chain may process baseband signals and be the same or substantially similar to the baseband circuitry 204 in Figure 2. RF processing circuitry 115 may include multiple parallel RF chains or branches corresponding to one or more baseband chains. One baseband chain may be connected with one or more RF chains and one RF chain may be connected with one or more baseband chains, depending on various EE architectures. Each RF chain or branch may be coupled with one antenna-array matching network 125, which may be connected with one or more antenna arrays 130. It is noted that“baseband chain,”“baseband branch,” and“baseband port” are used interchangeably in this application. A baseband chain may also refer to a receiver branch regarding EE reception.

In some embodiments, the EE 100 may include protocol processing circuitry that may include one or more instances of control circuitry to provide control functions for the baseband processing circuitry 110, IF processing circuitry 115, RF processing circuitry 120, antenna-array feeding network 125, and antenna array(s) 130. It is noted that in NR operation with respect to mmWave, baseband port 140 may not be accessible to test equipment to conduct a direct baseband-demodulation performance test due to the highly integrated baseband/RF circuitry. Similarly, IF port 145, RF port 150, and antenna element inputs 155 may not have access points either from test equipment point of view. In addition, antenna array 130 may be used in mmWave operation, which means for frequency above 6 GHz. Thus, conductive measurements are not applicable for mmWave NR. Instead, OTA measurement may apply to most of, if not all, NR UE performance measurements in frequency range 2 (FR2). FR2 herein refers to mmWave above 24 GHz.

Figure 2 illustrates example components of the UE 100 in accordance with some embodiments. In contrast to Figure 1, Figure 2 shows example components of the UE 100 from receiving and transmitting function point of view, and it may not include all of the components described in Figure 1. In some embodiments, the UE 100 may include application circuitry 202, baseband circuitry 204, RF circuitry 206, RF front-end (RFFE) circuitry 208, and a plurality of antennas 210 together at least as shown. In some embodiments, the UE 100 may include additional elements such as, for example, a memory/ storage, display, camera, sensor, or input/output (EO) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (for example, said circuitry may be separately included in more than one device for Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementations).

The application circuitry 202 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 202 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processors may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (for example, graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled with or may include

memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device 100. In some

embodiments, processors of application circuitry 202 may process IP data packets received from an evolved packet core (EPC).

The baseband circuitry 204 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 204 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the baseband circuitry 110 in some embodiments. The baseband circuitry 204 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 206 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 206. Baseband circuitry 204 may interface with the application circuitry 202 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 206. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 204A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 204B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor 204C, or other baseband processor(s) 204D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (for example, second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 204 (for example, one or more of baseband processors 204A-D) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 206. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 204A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 204G and executed via a central processing unit (CPU) 204E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 204 may include convolutional, tail-biting convolutional, convolutional turbo, Viterbi, Polar, or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of

modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 204F. The audio DSP(s) 204F may be include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, in a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board in some embodiments. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 204 and the application circuitry 202 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a SOC.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 204 may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 204 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 206 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. The RF circuitry 206 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the RF processing circuitry 120 in some embodiments. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include one or more switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 206 may include receiver circuitry 206A, which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the RFFE circuitry 208 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 204. RF circuitry 206 may also include transmitter circuitry 206B, which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 204 and provide RF output signals to the RFFE circuitry 208 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RF circuitry 206 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 204 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 206.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio integrated circuit (IC) circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

The RFFE circuitry 208 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF beams received from one or more antennas. The RF beams may operate in mmWave, sub-mmWave, or microwave frequency range. The RFFE circuitry 208 coupled with the one or more antennas 210 may receive the transmit beams and proceed them to the RF circuitry 206 for further processing. The RFFE circuitry 208 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 206 for transmission by one or more of the antennas 210, with or without beamforming. In various embodiments, the amplification through transmit or receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 206, solely in the RFFE circuitry 208, or in both the RF circuitry 206 and the RFFE circuitry 208. The RFFE circuitry 208 may include an antenna- array feeding network similar to and substantially interchangeable with the antenna-array feeding network 125 in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, the RFFE circuitry 208 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The RFFE circuitry 208 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the RFFE circuitry 208 may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify received RF beams and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (for example, to the RF circuitry 206). The transmit signal path of the RFFE circuitry 208 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (for example, provided by RF circuitry 206), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for beamforming and subsequent transmission (for example, by one or more of the one or more antennas 210).

Processors of the application circuitry 202 and processors of the baseband circuitry 204 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuitry 204, alone or in combination, may be used to execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the application circuitry 202 may utilize data (for example, packet data) received from these layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (for example, transmission communication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a radio resource control (RRC) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 may comprise a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE, described in further detail below.

Figure 3 illustrates an example of an NR. conformance test setup 300, in accordance with various embodiments. A system test and control equipment 305 (hereinafter“test equipment 305”) may implement functionalities of a next Generation NodeB (gNB) emulator in the context of testing. The gNodeB emulator can be referred to as an emulator for a base station (BS), access node (AN), NodeB, evolved NodeB (eNB), RAN node, serving cell, and neighbour cell. The test equipment (TE) 305 may be connected to a plurality of measurement antennas 310. The plurality of measurement antennas 310 may be placed in an anechoic chamber 315. The measurement antennas 310 may be capable of operating in single or dual polarization. The number of measurement antennas required in a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) demodulation test is determined by the MIMO applications. For example, a 2x2 MIMO demodulation test may require two measurement antennas; a 4x4 MIMO demodulation test may require four measurement antennas, and so on and so forth.

A device under test (DUT) 320 may be placed in the anechoic chamber 315 for OTA tests. The DUT 320 may be a smart phone, laptop mounted equipment (for example, a plug-in device like a Universal Serial Bus (USB) dongle), laptop embedded equipment, tablet, wearable device, vehicular mounted device, customer premise equipment (CPE), fixed wireless access (FWA) terminal, fixed mounted device, and any other UE-type device. The discussion herein may use the UE 100 as an example of a DUT. A transmission from the measurement antennas 310 to the DUT 320 may be via one or more propagation channels 325. The propagation channels 325 refer to all of the possible links between each measurement antenna and each baseband port/receiver chain of the UE 100 in the anechoic chamber 315. Meanwhile, a link antenna 330 may be collocated with the measurement antennas 310 to establish a stable uplink communication between the DUT 320 and the TE 305. In contrast to the links between the measurement antennas 310 and DUT 320 that may not be always connected or vary in path loss, this stable uplink may be always connected during the test procedure and have constant pass loss. The link antenna 330 may be separately placed with the measurement antennas 310 in the anechoic chamber 315. In some embodiments, the link antenna 330 may further provide a communication connection from the TE 305 to the DUT 320. The communication connection may be via LTE communications, NR communications, or other wireless communications. Any type of positioning system may be used to position the DUT 320 relative to the measurement antennas 310 and the link antenna 330 in desired configurations.

In some embodiments, the TE 305 may implement a test interface (TI) 335 to connect and control the link antenna 330. The TI 335 may further connect and control the plurality of measurement antennas 310.

It is noted that a number of physical antenna elements of the UE may exceed a number of receiver chains of the UE 100. Thus, the propagation channels 325 encompass effects of signal propagation over the air between the measurement antennas 310 and UE antennas, as well as effects of the antenna array feeding network 125, RF processing circuitry 120, and if applicable, IF processing circuitry 115.

Figures 4A illustrates an example operation flow/test procedure 400A to facilitate the relative Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation by the TE 305, in accordance with various embodiments. A test equipment or gNB emulator, collectively a TE 305, and a UE 100 under test may establish links for OTA measurements by TE emulation of one or more transmission and reception points (TRxP) and identifying respective TRxPs by the UE 100 under test. The operation flow/test structure 400A may be performed by the TE 305 or circuitry thereof.

The operation flow/test structure 400 A may include, at 410, transmitting two DL resource signals for the relative Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation. The two DL resource signals may be of the same or different types of DL beam measurement resources. For example, the two DL resource signals may be two SSB resources, two CSI-RS resource, one SSB resource and one CSI-RS resource, other like reference signal resources, or any combination thereof. The TE 205 may generate the two DL resource signals with the same or different parameters and/or configurations. Those parameters may include, but are not limited to, SCS, carrier frequency, and type of reference signals (e.g., SSB and CSI-RS). Further, the two DL resource signals may be transmitted with the same or different power levels. Thus, respective transmission power values may be determined based on the transmission power levels associated with the two DL resource signals. Since the TE 305 may transmit the two DL resource signals, the TE 305 may determine the respective transmission power values while the transmission of the two DL resource signals are configured.

In addition, the TE 305 may further determine a transmission delta (Dt) between the two transmission power values. AT may be zero if the two transmission power values are the same. If the two DL resource signals are of different types of reference signals, for example, one SSB and one CSI-RS, a transmission power boosting difference between the SSB resource and the CSI-RS resource may be added to the Dt. Dt may be referred to as reference delta, A _lc r. A _lc r may be an absolute value of the difference between the two transmission power values, and always be positive or equal to zero. Note that Dt and A _lc r ay be used interchangeably throughout this disclosure. Further adjustment to the reference delta may be implemented due to various scenarios with respect to test setting, channel conditions, UE receiver conditions,

transmission/reception power levels/ranges, etc.

Further, the TE 305 may configure or transmit a measurement configuration to the LIE 100 for measuring the two DL resource signals in the relative Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation.

The measurement configuration may indicate one or more measurement objects with respect to the two DL resource signals.

The operation flow/test structure 400A may include, at 420, decoding, upon reception of at least one beam measurement report from the EGE 100, two measured Ll-RSRP values (Ll- RSRP _R1 and Ll-RSRP R ₂ ) that are measurement results of the two DL resource signals received and measured by the UE 100. Once the UE 100 receives the measurement

configuration with respect to the two DL resource signals and receives the reference signal that includes the two DL resource signals, it may measure Ll-RSRP of the two DL resource signals respectively. The two DL resource signals may be transmitted within one beam or with two different beams, and within one OFDM symbol or with two different OFDM symbols. Further details with this regard is to be discussed infra with respect to Figure 5.

In embodiments, the TE 305 may determine a measured delta (D _M ) based on a difference between the two measured Ll-RSRP values (LURSRP RI and LURSRP RI).

DM= LURSRP RI - LDRSRP_R ₂ Equation

1

D _M may be referred to as AR, as receiving delta by the UE 100. Note that AM and AR may be used interchangeably throughout this disclosure. Alternatively or additionally, the UE 100 may determine the measured delta and report the measured delta to the TE 305.

The operation flow/test structure 400 A may include, at 430, determining a relative error based on the two measured Ll-RSRP values and the reference delta. The Ll-RSRP relative error may be determined by either of below equations: Relative Error = | Ll-RSRP_ _Ri - Ll-RSRP_ _R 2 - A _lc r | Equation 2

Relative Error = | DM - A _lc r | Equation 3

If the A _{M IS} not calculated, Equation 2 may be used to determine the relative error. Otherwise, if the A _{M IS} calculated or would be calculated, Equation 3 may be used to determine the relative error.

For example, if the two DL resource signals have respective transmission power values, 20 dBm and 18 dBm, the reference delta is 20 - 18 = 2 dB. Then, if the EGE 100 receives and measures the two DL resource signals at -80 dBm and -76 dBm, the measured delta is -80 - (- 76) = -4 dB, based on Equation 1. In accordance, the relative error is 6 dB, based on either Equation 2 or Equation 3.

The operation flow/test structure 400A may include, at 440, comparing the relative error with an error threshold to determine whether the TIE passes or fails the Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation based on the comparison. For example, if the relative error is greater than the error threshold, the TE 305 may determine that the TIE 100 fails the relative Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation, at 450. Otherwise, if the relative error is smaller than or equal to the error threshold value, the TE 305 may determine that the LIE 100 fails the relative Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation, at 460.

In embodiments, the error threshold may be predetermined or the TE 305 may determine the error threshold upon the transmission of the two DL resource signals. The error threshold may be determined based on one or more of various factors. Those factors may include, but are not limited to, SCSs, the number of resource elements (REs), and operating frequency ranges with respect to the two DL resource signals respectively or collectively. Alternatively or additionally, the error threshold may depend on different SINR ranges that are used for the transmitting or receiving resources. For examples, if -3 dB < SINR <0 dB and number of REs <= 72, the threshold may be determined to be 2.5dB. If -3dB < SINR <0dB and number of REs <= 72, the threshold may be determined to be 2dB. If SINR > =0dB and number of REs > 72, the threshold may be determined to be ldB.

In embodiments, he Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation may be performed with repeated and/or additional DL resource signals. Figure 5B illustrate an example operation flow/test procedure 400B to facilitate the relative Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation by the TE 305 with more than one iteration in additional to the operation flow/test structure 400A, in accordance with various embodiments. In the operation flow/test structure 400B, the procedure of determining whether the relative error is greater than the error threshold based on a set of two DL resource signals is the same as or substantially similar to the operation flow/test structure 400A. Thus, the description below focuses on the iteration and its implementation in the Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation processes.

The operation flow/test structure 400B may further include, at 405, initializing a measurement count to count for a number of transmissions of DL resource signals for the Ll- RSRP accuracy evaluation. The initial value of the count may be zero or other integer.

The operation flow/test structure 400B may further include, at 415, incrementing the measurement count by one if the relative error is greater than the error threshold based on a first set or pair of two DL resource signals.

The operation flow/test structure 400B may further include, at 425, comparing the measurement error count with a count threshold. The count threshold may be a number configured by the TE 305. If the measurement error count is not greater than the count threshold, the TE 305 may retransmit the two DL resource at 410. The retransmission of the two DL resource signals may have the same transmission power values as transmitted the first time or a different set of transmission power values. Further, the TE 305 may generate a new set or pair of DL resource signals instead of using the same DL resource. If the measurement error count is greater than the count threshold, the TE 305 may determine that the UE fails the relative Ll- RSRP accuracy evaluation, at 450.

The operation flow/test structure 400B may further include, at 435, determining whether all iterations are completed. In embodiments, the relative Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation may require more than one iteration for measuring the same set of DL resource signals. Additionally or alternatively, the relative Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation may require more than one iteration for measuring more than one set of DL resource signals to have more thorough and/or comprehensive evaluations. Thus, if a required number of iterations are not completed, the TE 305 may have another iteration at 410 until the required number of iterations are completed, after acceptable relative errors. Then, the TE 305 may determine that the UE passes the relative Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation, at 460.

In embodiments, if the relative Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation is performed in the FR2 range, the two DL resource signals may be received with different receiver beamforming or different receiving beams, if the two DL resource signals are located in two different

transmitting beams. If two different receiver beams are used in receiving the two DL resource signals, the two measured Ll-RSRP values may include additional difference caused by the different receiver beams, so that the measured delta may not reflect only the baseband errors any more but introducing additional unwanted difference from receiver beamforming. Such unwanted difference needs to be removed in the accuracy evaluation. One example approach is to configure the two DL resource signals into one OFDM symbol, so that the two DL resource signals may always be received with the same receiver beam. Alternatively or additionally, the TE 305 may configure the UE 100 to receive the two DL resource signals with the same receiver beams.

Figure 5A illustrates an example of forming an OFDM symbol based on one CSI-RS resource and one SSB resource, which is an Secondary SSB resource, in accordance with various embodiments. The two transmitting DL resource signals are Tl 505 and T2 510. Figure 5B illustrates another example of forming an OFDM symbol based on two CSI-RS resources, in accordance with various embodiments. The two transmitting DL resource signals are T1515 and T2 520. Other like reference signals and reference signal combinations may be used for DL resource signals in the relative Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation.

Figure 6 illustrates an example operation flow/test procedure 600 to facilitate the relative Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation (400 A and 400B) by the UE 100, in accordance with various embodiments. The operation flow/test structure 600 may be performed by the UE 100 or circuitry thereof.

The operation flow/test structure 600 may include, at 610, decoding, upon reception of a message from the TE 305, at least one measurement configuration with respect to two DL resource signals for an Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation. The measurement configuration may indicate one or two MOs that correspond to the transmitted or to-be transmitted DL resource signals for the Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation.

The operation flow/test structure 600 may include, at 620, measuring, upon reception of the two DL resource signals in at least one reference signal, the two DL resource signals for Ll- RSRP measurements based on the measurement configuration. The two DL resource signals may be located in one reference signal or in two respective reference signals. The measurement may be performed in a test environment as described with respect to Figure 3.

The operation flow/test structure 600 may include, at 630, transmitting at least one beam measurement report that indicates two measured Ll-RSRP values that are measurement results of the two DL resource signals received by the UE. The UE 100 may generate a beam

measurement report that reports the measured Ll-RSRP values, LURSRP RI and Ll-RSRP_ _R 2. The UE 100 may generate two respective beam measurement reports to report the measured Ll- RSRP values separately. The beam measurement report(s) may be transmitted to the TE 305 via one or more Ll messages. For example, the report may be transmitted via an uplink control information (UCI) in a PUCCH, or in a PUSCH.

In embodiments, if the UE 100 needs to perform the Ll-RSRP measurements more than one iteration, the UE 100 may repeat the operation flow/test structure 600 more than one time with the same or different set(s) of DL resource signals. Figure 7 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with some embodiments. As discussed above, the baseband circuitry 204 of Figure 2 may comprise processors 204A-204E and a memory 204G utilized by said processors. Each of the processors 204A-204E may include a memory interface, 704A-704E, respectively, to send/receive data to/from the memory 204G.

The baseband circuitry 204 may further include one or more interfaces to

communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memory interface 712 (for example, an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to the baseband circuitry 204), an application circuitry interface 714 (for example, an interface to send/receive data to/from the application circuitry 202 of Figure 2), an RF circuitry interface 716 (for example, an interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 206 of Figure 2), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 718 (for example, an interface to send/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (for example, Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components), and a power

management interface 720 (for example, an interface to send/receive power or control signals).

Figure 8 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (for example, a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, Figure 8 shows a diagrammatic

representation of hardware resources 800 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 810, one or more memory/storage devices 820, and one or more communication resources 830, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 840. For embodiments where node virtualization (for example, network function virtualization (NFV)) is utilized, a hypervisor 802 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 800.

The processors 810 (for example, a central processing unit (CPET), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPET), a digital signal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 812 and a processor 814.

The memory/storage devices 820 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 820 may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random-access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

The communication resources 830 may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 804 or one or more databases 806 via a network 808. For example, the communication resources 830 may include wired communication components (for example, for coupling via a ETniversal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® components (for example, Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

Instructions 850 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 810 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. For example, in an embodiment in which the hardware resources 800 are implemented into the UE 100, the instructions 850 may cause the UE to perform some or all of the operation flow/algorithmic structure 500. In other embodiments, the hardware resources 800 may be implemented into the TE 305. The instructions 850 may cause the TE 305 to perform some or all of the operation flow/algorithmic structure 400A/B. The instructions 850 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 810 (for example, within the processor’s cache memory), the memory/storage devices 820, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 850 may be transferred to the hardware resources 800 from any combination of the peripheral devices 804 or the databases 806. Accordingly, the memory of processors 810, the memory/ storage devices 820, the peripheral devices 804, and the databases 806 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

Some non-limiting Examples of various embodiments are provided below.

Example 1 may include a method comprising: transmitting two DL resource signals for a relative Layer 1 reference signal received power (Ll-RSRP) accuracy evaluation for a user equipment (UE); determining a reference delta between two transmission power values of the two transmitted DL resource signals; decoding, upon reception of at least one beam

measurement report from the UE, two measured Ll-RSRP values that are measurement results of the two DL resource signals received and measured by the UE; determining a relative error based on the two measured Ll-RSRP values and the reference delta; determining that the UE passes or fails the Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation based on a comparison between the relative error and an error threshold value; and generating a message to indicate whether the UE passes or fails the Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation. Example 2 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the two DL resource signals are two synchronization signal block (SSB) resource signals or two channel status information - reference signal (CSI-RS) resource signals, and the two DL resource signals are configured for the Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation.

Example 3 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the two DL resource signals include one synchronization signal block (SSB) resource signal and one channel status information - reference signal (CSI-RS) resource signal and to determine the reference delta, the instructions are to cause the TE to add a transmission power boosting difference between the SSB resource signal and the CSI-RS resource signal and a difference between the two transmission power values of the two transmitted reference signals.

Example 4 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the two DL resource signals are to be in one DL orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol in a new radio (NR) frequency range 2 (FR2) operation.

Example 5 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other examples herein, wherein to transmit the two DL resource signals is to cause the TE to respectively transmit the two DL resource signals associated with a same beam identification.

Example 6 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other examples herein, wherein each of the two DL resource signals at transmission by the TE corresponds to a different power level from the each of the two DL resource signals at reception by the LIE.

Example 7 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other examples herein, wherein to determine the relative error based on the two measured Ll-RSRP values and the reference delta is to derive, based on the two measured Ll-RSRP values, a measured delta that is a difference between the two measured Ll-RSRP values; and derive, based on the measured delta and the reference delta, the relative error that is a difference between the measured delta and the reference delta.

Example 8 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising receiving the at least one beam measurement report via one or more Layer 1 (Ll) messages.

Example 9 may include the method of example 1 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising determining the error threshold based on at least one of a subcarrier spacing (SCS), a number of resource elements (REs), one or more signal-to-interference and noise (SINR) ranges, and an operating frequency range, with respect to the two DL resource signals.

Example 10 may include the method of any of examples 1-9 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising transmitting a message to configure the UE to measure the two DL resource signals. Example 11 may include the method of any of examples 1-9 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising comparing the relative error with the error threshold value.

Example 12 may include the method of example 11 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the two DL resource signals are a first pair of DL resource signals and the relative error is a first relative error of the first pair of DL resource signals.

Example 13 may include the method of example 12 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising initiating a measurement count to count for a number of transmissions of DL resource signals for the Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation.

Example 14 may include the method of example 13 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising comparing the measurement count with a count threshold.

Example 15 may include the method of example 14 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising transmitting a second pair of DL resource signals for continuing the Ll- RSRP accuracy evaluation, if the first relative error is greater than the error threshold value and the measurement count is not greater than the count threshold.

Example 16 may include the method of example 15 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising comparing a second relative error of the second pair of DL resource signals with the error threshold; determining that the LIE passes the Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation if the second relative error is smaller than or equal to the error threshold; and generating a message to indicate that the LIE passes the Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation.

Example 17 may include the method of any of examples 12-16 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising determining that the LIE fails the Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation if the measurement count is greater than the count threshold; and generating a message to indicate that the LIE fails the Ll-RSRP accuracy evaluation.

Example 18 may include the method of any of examples 1-17 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the method is performed by a test equipment (TE) or a portion thereof.

Example 19 may include a method comprising decoding, upon reception of a message from a test equipment (TE), at least one measurement configuration with respect to two downlink (DL) resource signals for a Layer 1 reference signal received power (Ll-RSRP) accuracy evaluation; measuring, upon reception of the two DL resource signals, the two DL resource signals for Ll-RSRP measurements based on the measurement configuration; and transmitting at least one beam measurement report that indicates two measured Ll-RSRP values that are measurement results of the two DL resource signals received by the UE. Example 20 may include the method of example 19 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising generating the at least one beam measurement report based on the

measurement results of the two DL resource signals received by the UE.

Example 21 may include the method of any of examples 19-20 and/or some other examples herein, wherein the two DL resource signals are a first pair of DL resource signals.

Example 22 may include the method of example 21 and/or some other examples herein, further comprising receiving a second pair of two DL resource signals; measuring the second pair of two DL resource signals; and transmitting at least another beam measurement report that indicates another two measured Ll-RSRP values that are measurement results of the second pair of two DL resource signals.

Example 23 may include the method of any of examples 19-22 and/or some other example herein, wherein the method is performed by the UE or a portion thereof.

Example 24 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of the method described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 25 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of the method described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 26 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/or circuitry to perform one or more elements of the method described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 27 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 28 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-23, or portions thereof.

The present disclosure is described with reference to flowchart illustrations or block diagrams of methods, apparatuses (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the disclosure. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart

illustrations or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable medium that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that implement the function/act specified in the flowchart or block diagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions that execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart or block diagram block or blocks.

The description herein of illustrated implementations, including what is described in the

Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. While specific implementations and examples are described herein for illustrative purposes, a variety of alternate or equivalent embodiments or implementations calculated to achieve the same purposes may be made in light of the above detailed description, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize.