User equipment, base station and methods in a radio communications network

A host computer configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host computer comprising:

• processing circuitry configured to initiate transmissions to receive or provide user data associated with the OTT service;
• and
• a network interface configured to facilitate reception or transmission of the user data from a user equipment (UE) via a network node in a cellular network, the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform operations comprising:
• configuring a UE to monitor a reference signal related to a beam transmitted by the network node;
• configuring the UE with an OOS Beam Failure Detection (BFD) threshold to be used by the UE to trigger a beam recovery preparation procedure when a number of out-of-synchronization (OOS) events generated by the UE reaches the OOS BFD threshold, the OOS BFD threshold being lower than an OOS Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) threshold used by the UE for starting a radio link failure (RLF) timer;
• and
• continuing transmission of user data based on the beam recovery preparation procedure.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising, stored thereupon, a client application associated with a UE operable in a wireless communication network, the client application being executable on the UE to transmit or receive user data to or from a host application associated with a host computer providing an over-the-top (OTT) service via the wireless communication network, the client application comprising instructions configured to cause the UE to:

• initiate transmission of the user data to or from the host application by processing circuitry and transceiver circuitry of the UE, the UE being configured to:
• monitor a reference signal related to a beam transmitted by a network node serving the UE;
• generate an Out-Of-Synchronization (OOS) event each time a quality of the reference signal is below a first threshold;
• trigger a beam recovery preparation procedure when the number of OOS events reaches an OOS Beam Failure Detection (BFD) threshold, the OOS BFD threshold being lower than an OOS Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) threshold used by the UE for starting a radio link failure (RLF) timer;
• and
• receive or transmit user data.

A communication system operable to enable provision of an over-the-top (OTT) service, the communication system comprising:

• a host computer configured to provide the OTT service, the host computer comprising:
• processing circuitry configured to initiate transmissions to receive or provide user data associated with the OTT service;
• and
• a network interface configured to facilitate reception or transmission of the user data from a user equipment (UE) via a network node in a cellular network, the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform operations comprising:
• configuring a UE to monitor a reference signal related to a beam transmitted by the network node;
• configuring the UE with an OOS Beam Failure Detection (BFD) threshold to be used by the UE to trigger a beam recovery preparation procedure when a number of out-of-synchronization (OOS) events generated by the UE reaches the OOS BFD threshold, the OOS BFD threshold being lower than an OOS Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) threshold used by the UE for starting a radio link failure (RLF) timer;
• and
• continuing transmission of user data based on the beam recovery preparation procedure.