Method and apparatus of group-based beam reporting

A base station (BS), comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a transceiver operably coupled to the processor, the transceiver configured to:
• transmit a first set of reference signals (RSs) through a first set of RS resources, wherein RS resources in the first set of RS resources are associated with first and second entity identities (IDs), respectively, and
• receive, in a channel state information (CSI) report, a first group of two resource indicators and corresponding beam metrics, wherein a first resource indicator and a second resource indicator in the first group of two resource indicators are based on the RS resources from the first set of RS resources,
• wherein the first group of two resource indicators are synchronization signal block (SSB) resource indicators (SSBRIs) or CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) resource indicators (CRIs) and the corresponding beam metrics are layer-1 reference signal received powers (L1-RSRPs) or layer-1 signal to interference and noise ratios (L1-SINRs),
• wherein the first or second entity IDs correspond to at least one of:
• a physical cell identity (PCI) corresponding to a serving cell PCI or a PCI different from the serving cell PCI;
• and
• a PCI index pointing to a PCI corresponding to the serving cell PCI or a PCI different from the serving cell PCI in a list of PCIs that are higher layer configured, and
• wherein the first set of RS resources corresponds to at least one of:
• (1) a SSB resource set provided by a CSI-SSB-ResourceSet and (2) a non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS resource set provided by a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet.

A method of operating a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

• receiving a first set of reference signals (RSs) through a first set of RS resources, wherein RS resources in the first set of RS resources are associated with first and second entity identities (IDs), respectively;
• measuring RSs in the first set of RSs;
• determining (i) a first resource indicator and a second resource indicator from a first group of two resource indicators based on the measured RSs and (ii) corresponding beam metrics associated with the first entity (ID and the second entity ID, respectively;
• and
• transmitting, in a channel state information (CSI) report, the first group of two resource indicators and the corresponding beam metrics, wherein the first group of two resource indicators are synchronization signal block (SSB) resource indicators (SSBRIs) or CSI reference signal (CSI-RS) resource indicators (CRIs) and the corresponding beam metrics are layer-1 reference signal received powers (L1-RSRPs) or layer-1 signal to interference and noise ratios (L1-SINRs),
• wherein the first or second entity IDs correspond to at least one of:
• a physical cell identity (PCI) corresponding to a serving cell PCI or a PCI different from the serving cell PCI;
• and
• a PCI index pointing to a PCI corresponding to the serving cell PCI or a PCI different from the serving cell PCI in a list of PCIs that are higher layer configured to the UE, and
• wherein the first set of RS resources corresponds to at least one of (i) a SSB resource set provided by a CSI-SSB-ResourceSet and (ii) a non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS resource set provided by a NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceSet.