User equipment and base station

A method comprising the following steps performed by a communication apparatus:

• operating a monitoring function that involves monitoring of a downlink control channel,
• receiving a downlink control information message via the monitored downlink control channel, wherein the received downlink control information message schedules transmission or reception of data to the communication apparatus,
• determining a search space set group (SSSG) out of more than two SSSGs for performing the monitoring function of the downlink control channel based on the received downlink control information message including a field having more than one bit to identify the determined SSSG,
• when the determined SSSG is not SSSG 0, switching from the determined SSSG to SSSG 0 after a switching time period expires, and
• determining a time duration for which to skip the monitoring function based on the received downlink control information message.

A base station comprising:

• a processor, which, in operation, generates a downlink control information message, wherein the generated downlink control information message schedules transmission or reception of data to a communication apparatus, and wherein the generated downlink control information message includes a field having more than one bit to identify a search space set group (SSSG) out of more than two SSSGs used by the communication apparatus for performing a monitoring function that involves monitoring of a downlink control channel for receiving the downlink control information message, and
• a transmitter, which, in operation, transmits the downlink control information message via the downlink control channel to the communication apparatus, based on the identified SSSG,
• wherein, when the identified SSSG is not SSSG 0, the communication apparatus switches from the identified SSSG to SSSG 0 after a switching time period expires, and
• wherein the downlink control information message is associated with a time duration, for which the communication apparatus skips the monitoring function.