EP-4740571-A1 - METHODS AND COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES FOR A WIRELESS COMMUNCIATIONS NETWORK

Abstract

Methods, communications devices, and circuitry having one or more peer communications devices. A communications device measures a quality of a direct radio link to an infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network, and a quality of a direct radio link to a peer communications device. The communications device transmits a sidelink measurement report to a peer communications device, where the sidelink measurement report includes an indication of the quality of both the measured links.

Inventors

• WEI, YUXIN
• SHARMA, VIVEK
• AWAD, YASSIN ADEN

Assignees

• Sony Group Corporation
• Sony Europe B.V.

Dates

Publication Date

20260513

Application Date

20240703

Claims (20)

1. 1. A method of operating a first communications device configured to transmit signals to and/or to receive signals from one or more infrastructure equipment of a wireless communications network via a wireless radio interface provided by the wireless communications network, and to transmit signals to and/or to receive signals from one or more peer communications devices, the method comprising: performing a first measurement of a quality of a first link, the first link being a direct radio link between the first communications device and a first infrastructure equipment of the one or more infrastructure equipment; performing a second measurement of a quality of one or more second links, the one or more second links being direct radio links between the first communications device and the one or more peer communications devices; and transmitting, to the one or more peer communications devices, a measurement report, wherein the measurement report includes an indication of the quality of the first link and an indication of the quality of the one or more second links.
2. 2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the measurement report additionally includes a serving cell identifier for the first communications device.
3. 3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: receiving an indication that the quality of the first link should be included in the measurement report.
4. 4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the indication that the quality of the first link should be included in the measurement report is received from the infrastructure equipment.
5. 5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the indication that the quality of the first link should be included in the measurement report is received from the one or more peer communications devices.
6. 6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: determining that the measurement report should be transmitted to the one or more peer communications devices.
7. 7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the first communications device determines that the measurement report should be transmitted to the one or more peer communications devices based on the quality of the first link falling below a predefined threshold.
8. 8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the first communications device determines that the measurement report should be transmitted to the one or more peer communications devices based on a received trigger.
9. 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the first communications device receives the trigger from the infrastructure equipment.
10. 10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the trigger is received in a broadcast transmission from the infrastructure equipment.
11. 11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the first communications device receives the trigger from the one or more peer communications devices.
12. 12. The method according to claim 8, wherein the trigger is received in dedicated signalling from the infrastructure equipment or the one or more peer communications devices.
13. 13. The method according to claim 8, wherein the trigger is an explicit instruction for the first communications device to transmit the measurement report.
14. 14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the first communications device determines a randomised time window in which to transmit the measurement report.
15. 15. The method according to claim 8, wherein the trigger is a conditional trigger.
16. 16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the conditional trigger includes the quality of the first link falling below a predefined threshold.
17. 17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the conditional trigger includes a particular time period or time duration elapsing.
18. 18. The method according to claim 15, wherein the conditional trigger includes a change in location of the first communications device.
19. 19. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first communications device is a master node having direct radio connections to a plurality of communications devices.
20. 20. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more peer communications devices has a direct radio connection to an infrastructure equipment of the wireless communications network.

Description

METHODS AND COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES FOR A WIRELESS COMMUNCIATIONS NETWORK The present application claims the Paris Convention priority of European patent application EP23183925.9, filed 6 July 2023, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. BACKGROUND Field of Disclosure The present disclosure relates to communications device and methods of operating communications devices for inter-communications device communications. Description of Related Art The “background” description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting 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 which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the present invention. Modern mobile telecommunication systems, such as those based on the 3GPP defined UMTS and Long Term Evolution (LTE) architecture, are able to support a wider range of services than simple voice and messaging services offered by previous generations of mobile telecommunication systems. For example, with the improved radio interface and enhanced data rates provided by LTE systems, a user is able to enjoy high data rate applications such as mobile video streaming and mobile video conferencing that would previously only have been available via a fixed line data connection. The demand to deploy such networks is therefore strong and the coverage area of these networks, i.e. geographic locations where access to the networks is possible, is expected to continue to increase rapidly. Wireless communications networks are expected to routinely and efficiently support communications with an ever-increasing range of devices associated with a wide range of data traffic profiles and types. For example, it is expected that wireless communications networks efficiently support communications with devices including reduced complexity devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, high resolution video displays, virtual reality headsets and so on. Some of these different types of devices may be deployed in very large numbers, for example low complexity devices for supporting the “The Internet of Things”, and may typically be associated with the transmissions of relatively small amounts of data with relatively high latency tolerance. Other types of device, for example supporting high-definition video streaming, may be associated with transmissions of relatively large amounts of data with relatively low latency tolerance. Other types of device, for example used for autonomous vehicle communications and for other critical applications, may be characterised by data that should be transmitted through the network with low latency and high reliability. A single device type might also be associated with different traffic profiles I characteristics depending on the application(s) it is running. For example, different consideration may apply for efficiently supporting data exchange with a smartphone when it is running a video streaming application (high downlink data) as compared to when it is running an Internet browsing application (sporadic uplink and downlink data) or being used for voice communications by an emergency responder in an emergency scenario (data subject to stringent reliability and latency requirements). In view of this there is a desire for current generation wireless communications networks, for example those referred to as 5G or new radio (NR) systems / new radio access technology (RAT) systems, as well as future iterations I releases of existing systems, to efficiently support connectivity for a wide range of devices associated with different applications and different characteristic data traffic profiles and requirements. One example of a new service is referred to as Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) services which, as its name suggests, requires that a data unit or packet be communicated with a high reliability and with a low communications delay. Another example of a new service is enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services, which are characterised by a high capacity with a requirement to support up to 20 Gb/s. URLLC and eMBB type services therefore represent challenging examples for both LTE type communications systems and 5G/NR communications systems. 5G NR has continuously evolved and the current work plan includes 5G-NR-advanced in which some further enhancements are expected, especially to support new use- cases/scenarios with higher requirements. The desire to support these new use-cases and scenarios gives rise to new challenges for efficiently handling communications in wireless communications systems that need to be addressed. SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE The present disclosure can help address or mitigate at least some of the issues discussed above. Respective aspects and features of the present disclosure are defined in th