Systems and methods to report band combination capabilities in a telecommunication network

An apparatus of a User Equipment (UE) comprising:

• an interface to radio frequency (RF) circuitry;
• and
• one or more processors that are controlled to:
• receive, from a base station, via the interface to the RF circuitry, an indication of a preferred subset of frequency band combinations selected from a plurality of frequency band combinations based upon a prioritization criteria, each frequency band combination, of the preferred subset of frequency band combinations, including a plurality of wireless frequency bands supported by the base station for carrier aggregation;
• determine, based on the indication, at least one frequency band combination that corresponds to the preferred subset of frequency band combinations and that is supported by the UE for carrier aggregation;
• and
• communicate, via the interface to the RF circuitry, the at least one frequency band combination to the base station.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing program instructions for causing one or more processors, associated with a base station, to:

• determine a plurality of frequency band combinations, each frequency band combination, of the plurality of frequency band combinations, including a plurality of wireless frequency bands supported by the base station for carrier aggregation;
• determine from the plurality of frequency band combinations a preferred subset of frequency band combinations based upon a prioritization criteria;
• communicate, to a User Equipment (UE), an indication of the preferred subset of frequency band combinations;
• and
• receive, from the UE, at least one frequency band combination that corresponds to the preferred subset of frequency band combinations and is supported by the UE for carrier aggregation.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing program instructions for causing one or more processors, associated with a User Equipment (UE), to:

• receive, from a base station, an indication of a preferred subset of frequency band combinations selected from a plurality of frequency band combinations based upon a prioritization criteria, each frequency band combination, of the preferred subset of frequency band combinations, including a plurality of wireless frequency bands supported by the base station for carrier aggregation;
• determine, based on the indication, at least one frequency band combination that corresponds to the preferred subset of frequency band combinations and is supported by the UE for carrier aggregation;
• and
• communicate the at least one frequency band combination to the base station.