ULI cell selection prioritization

An apparatus, comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processor in communication with the memory, wherein the processor is configured to:
• perform one or more measurement scans associated with cell selection or cell re-selection;
• determine whether at least two cells meet a selection criteria based on one or more of reference signal received power (RSRP) or signal to noise ratio (SNR) measurements;
• in response to determining that at least two cells meet the selection criteria, prioritize a first cell of the at least two cells over a second cell of the at least two cells based on support of a dual connectivity mode of operation, wherein the first cell indicates support of the dual connectivity mode of operation, wherein the second cell does not indicate support of the dual connectivity mode of operation, and wherein the first cell is within a tolerance threshold of an RSRP and/or an SNR of the second cell;
• and
• select the first cell based on the first cell indicating support of at least one of NR Frequency Range 1 (NR FR1) or NR Frequency Range 2 (NR FR 2), wherein a system information block (SIB) type 2 (SIB2) received from the first cell comprises an upper layer indicator (ULI) indicating support of NR FR1 and/or NR FR2, and wherein NR FR1 includes a sub 6 GHz frequency band and NR FR2 includes a frequency band between 24.25 GHz and 52.6 GHz.

A non-transitory computer readable memory medium storing program instructions executable by processing circuitry to cause a user equipment device (UE) to:

• determine whether at least two cells meet a selection criteria based on one or more measurement scans associated with cell selection or cell re-selection;
• in response to determining that at least two LTE cells meet the selection criteria, prioritize a first cell of the at least two cells over a second cell of the at least two cells based on support of Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA)—New Radio (NR) dual connectivity (EN-DC), wherein the first cell indicates support of EN-DC, wherein the second cell does not indicate support of EN-DC, and wherein the first cell is within a tolerance threshold of the second cell;
• and
• select the first cell based on the first cell indicating support of at least one of NR Frequency Range 1 (NR FR1) or NR Frequency Range 2 (NR FR 2), wherein a system information block (SIB) type 2 (SIB2) received from the first cell comprises a first upper layer indicator (ULI) indicating support of NR FRI and/or NR FR2, and wherein NR FRI includes a sub 6 GHz frequency band and NR FR2 includes a frequency band between 24.25 GHz and 52.6 GHz.