Link management for a connected user equipment

A base station, comprising:

• a communication interface;
• and
• a processor configured to perform operations, the operations comprising:
• transmitting configuration information to a remote user equipment (UE);
• receiving information corresponding to a serving link associated with the remote UE;
• determining that the serving link associated with the remote UE is to be switched from a Uu link to a relay link;
• transmitting a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message to the remote UE on the Uu link indicating that the serving link associated with the remote UE is to be switched from the Uu link to the relay link;
• transmitting a message to a relay UE, wherein the message is configured to trigger the relay UE to establish the relay link with the remote UE;
• receiving a RRC reconfiguration complete message from the remote UE via the relay link;
• and
• receiving a message from the relay UE, wherein the message indicates that the relay UE has detected that the relay link to the remote UE is broken.

A method, comprising:

• at a remote user equipment (UE) configured to communicate with a network using a first communication link:
• receiving configuration information from the network;
• transmitting to the network one or more of i) measurement data corresponding to the first communication link or a second communication link or ii) preference information;
• receiving radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message from the network on a Uu link, the RRC reconfiguration message comprising an indication that a communication link of the remote UE is to be switched from the Uu link to a relay link;
• establishing the relay link to the relay UE;
• and
• transmitting a RRC reconfiguration complete message to the network via the relay link.