Fast primary cell switching in carrier aggregation

A network device, comprising:

• one or more memories;
• and
• one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories and configured to:
• establish a first component carrier as a primary cell for a user equipment (UE) and a second component carrier as a secondary cell for the UE, wherein the first component carrier and the second component carrier are in a same timing advance group;
• transmit, to the UE, primary cell configuration information for the second component carrier while the second component carrier is the secondary cell for the UE;
• transmit, to the UE, a control message triggering a switch of the primary cell from the first component carrier to the second component carrier;
• establish the second component carrier as the primary cell for the UE based at least in part on the control message and in accordance with the primary cell configuration information associated with the second component carrier;
• and
• receive, based at least in part on establishing the second component carrier as the primary cell, a completion message included in a dedicated field of one or more uplink messages.

A method of fast primary cell switching for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising:

• establishing a first component carrier as a primary cell for the UE and a second component carrier as a secondary cell for the UE, wherein the first component carrier and the second component carrier are in a same timing advance group;
• receiving primary cell configuration information for the second component carrier while the second component carrier is the secondary cell for the UE;
• receiving a control message triggering a switch of the primary cell from the first component carrier to the second component carrier;
• establishing the second component carrier as the primary cell for the UE based at least in part on the control message and in accordance with the primary cell configuration information associated with the second component carrier;
• and
• transmitting, based at least in part on establishing the second component carrier as the primary cell, a completion message included in a dedicated field of one or more uplink messages.

A method of fast primary cell switching for wireless communication at a network device, further comprising:

• establishing a first component carrier as a primary cell for a user equipment (UE) and a second component carrier as a secondary cell for the UE, wherein the first component carrier and the second component carrier are in a same timing advance group;
• transmitting, to the UE, primary cell configuration information for the second component carrier while the second component carrier is the secondary cell for the UE;
• transmitting, to the UE, a control message triggering a switch of the primary cell from the first component carrier to the second component carrier;
• establishing the second component carrier as the primary cell for the UE based at least in part on the control message and in accordance with the primary cell configuration information associated with the second component carrier;
• and
• receiving, based at least in part on establishing the second component carrier as the primary cell, a completion message included in a dedicated field of one or more uplink messages.