System and Method for Hierarchical Paging, Cell Selection and Cell Reselection

A method comprising:

• obtaining, by a user equipment (UE), a configuration specifying to monitor pages in a first set of frequencies before monitoring pages in a second set of frequencies higher than the first set of frequencies;
• monitoring, by the UE when entering a low-power mode, a first paging message in a first frequency of the first set of frequencies according to the configuration, and receiving, by the UE in the first frequency from a master node (MN), the first paging message comprising information of one or more secondary nodes (SNs) operable in the second set of frequencies;
• and
• monitoring, by the UE after receiving the first paging message, a second paging message in the second set of frequencies according to the information of the one or more SNs.

An apparatus comprising:

• a non-transitory memory storage comprising instructions;
• and
• one or more processors in communication with the memory storage, wherein the one or more processors executes the instructions to cause the apparatus to perform:
• obtaining, by a master node (MN) of a user equipment (UE), a configuration specifying to page the UE in a first set of frequencies before paging the UE in a second set of frequencies higher than the first set of frequencies;
• upon determining there is a need to page the UE, sending, by the MN according to the configuration, a paging message to the UE using a first frequency in the first set of frequencies to page the UE according to the configuration, the paging message comprising information of one or more secondary nodes (SNs) operable in the second set of frequencies;
• instructing, by the MN, the one or more SNs to page the UE using the second set of frequencies;
• and
• receiving, by the MN, a page response of the UE from a first secondary node of the one or more SNs.