Enhanced mobility load balancing (MLB) with beam-specific handover

A method, performed by a target node, for beam-level mobility load balancing (MLB) in a radio access network (RAN), the method comprising:

• exchanging beam-level load information with a source node in the RAN;
• and
• receiving, from the source node, a request including one or more first handover offsets to be applied during MLB operations between:
• a group of one or more source beams associated with the source node, including a particular source beam serving a first plurality of user equipment (UEs);
• and
• a group of one or more target beams associated with the target node;
• and
• transmitting, to the source node, a response including one of the following:
• an acknowledgement that the one or more first handover offsets will be applied;
• or
• one or more second handover offsets to be applied instead of the one or more first handover offsets, wherein:
• the request is a Handover Request for a subset of the first plurality of UEs to a particular one of the group of one or more target beams;
• and
• the response is one of the following messages:
• a Handover Request Acknowledge, and a Handover Preparation Failure.

A network node configured for beam-level mobility load balancing in a radio access network (RAN), the network node comprising:

• communication interface circuitry configured to communicate with one or more user equipment (UEs) and with one or more target nodes in the RAN;
• and
• processing circuitry operably coupled with the communication interface circuitry, whereby the processing circuitry and the communication interface circuitry are configured to:
• exchange beam-level load information with the one or more target nodes;
• based on the beam-level load information, select one or more particular target beams, associated with a particular target node, for MLB operations with a particular source beam associated with the network node;
• and
• transmit, to the particular target node, a request including one or more first handover offsets to be applied during MLB operations between:
• a group of one or more source beams associated with the source node, including the particular source beam;
• and
• a group of one or more target beams associated with the particular target node, including the selected one or more particular target beams;
• and
• receive, from the particular target node, a response including one of the following:
• an acknowledgement that the one or more first handover offsets will be applied;
• or
• one or more second handover offsets to be applied instead of the one or more first handover offsets, wherein:
• the request is a Handover Request for a subset of a first plurality of user equipment (UEs) to the selected one or more particular target beams;
• and
• the response is one of the following messages:
• a Handover Request Acknowledge, or a Handover Preparation Failure.