Preventing inadvertent idle mode in multi-node connectivity environments

A user equipment (UE) apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• one or more transceivers;
• and
• a computer-readable storage media having stored thereon instructions that, responsive to execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
• connect, through multi-node connectivity, to a master node (MN) and a secondary node (SN), the apparatus including a first Media Access Control (MAC) entity for communicating with the MN and a second MAC entity for communicating with the SN, at least one of the MN or the SN comprising a Fifth Generation New Radio (5G NR) base station;
• operate in a connected mode at a radio resource control (RRC) layer;
• detect a reception of a first MAC Service Data Unit (SDU) for a logical channel (LCH) by the first MAC entity or the second MAC entity;
• start or restart a dual-data inactivity timer responsive to the detecting the reception of the first MAC SDU;
• prior to the dual-data inactivity timer expiring, detect a transmission of a second MAC SDU for an LCH by the first MAC entity or the second MAC entity;
• start or restart the dual-data inactivity timer responsive to the detecting the transmission of the second MAC SDU;
• and
• responsive to the dual-data inactivity timer expiring:
• release the connections to both the MN and the SN;
• and
• transition from the connected mode at the RRC layer to an idle mode at the RRC layer.

A method for a user equipment (UE) in a multi-node connectivity environment, the method comprising the UE performing operations including:

• connecting, through multi-node connectivity, to a master node (MN) and a plurality of secondary nodes (SN), the UE including a plurality of Media Access Control (MAC) entities for communicating with the MN and each of the plurality of SN, at least one of the MN or the SN comprising a Fifth Generation New Radio (5G NR) base station;
• operating in a connected mode at a radio resource control (RRC) layer;
• detecting a reception of a first MAC Service Data Unit (SDU) for a logical channel (LCH) by a first MAC entity or a second MAC entity;
• starting or restarting a multi-data inactivity timer responsive to the detecting the reception of the first MAC SDU;
• prior to the multi-data inactivity timer expiring, detecting a transmission of a second MAC SDU for an LCH by a MAC entity;
• starting or restarting the multi-data inactivity timer responsive to the detecting the transmission of the second MAC SDU;
• and
• responsive to the multi-data inactivity timer expiring:
• releasing the connections to the MN and each of the plurality of SN;
• and
• transitioning from the connected mode at the RRC layer to an idle mode at the RRC layer.