# US 2023/0276291 A1 · Uplink Traffic Throughput Enhancement

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- Number: US 2023/0276291 A1
- Document ID: US20230276291A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 17/780,882
- Filed: 2021-05-28
- Published: 2023-08-31
- Earliest claimed: 2021-05-28
- Assignees: Apple Inc.
- Applicants: Apple Inc.
- Inventors: Rodney G. Ibrahim; ChunLei Lin; Mohammed Sadique; Han Pu; Alosious Pradeep Prabhakar; Vijay Venkataraman
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20230276291A1

## CPC

- H04W 28/0252: {per individual bearer or channel (dynamic wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12)}
- H04W 72/0453: Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
- H04W 76/15: Setup of multiple wireless link connections
- H04W 76/19: Connection re-establishment
- H04W 76/16: Involving different core network technologies, e.g. a packet-switched [PS] bearer in combination with a circuit-switched [CS] bearer
- H04W 88/06: adapted for operation in multiple networks {or having at least two operational modes}, e.g. multi-mode terminals
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)

## Abstract

Apparatuses, systems, and methods for UL traffic throughput enhancements in NSA deployments. A UE may determine that an UL data requirement is substantially greater than a DL data requirement. The UE may perform an UL enhancement procedure based on UL enhancement conditions. The UL enhancement conditions may include determining that a master cell group does or does not operate according to LTE, determining that UL data traffic is only carried via LTE bands or that UL data traffic is split between LTE bands and NR bands, determining that UL carrier aggregation is or is not available, and/or determining that blind secondary cell group addition is supported or is not support by a network. The UE may be configured to perform the at least one UL enhancement procedure thereby enhancing uplink throughput.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A user equipment device (UE), comprising:
at least one antenna;
at least one radio, wherein the at least one radio is configured to perform cellular communication using at least one radio access technology (RAT);
one or more processors coupled to the at least one radio, wherein the one or more processors and the at least one radio are configured to perform communications;
wherein the one or more processors are configured to cause the UE to:
monitor uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) data requirements;
determine, based on the monitoring, that an UL data requirement is substantially greater than a DL data requirement;
determine, based on one or more UL enhancement conditions, to perform at least one UL enhancement procedure; and
perform the at least one UL enhancement procedure.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The UE of claim 1,
wherein, to determine that the UL data requirement is substantially greater that the DL data requirement, the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to determine that, for a first time period, the UL data requirement is greater than downlink data requirement by a predefined factor.

### Claim 3

(canceled)

### Claim 4

(canceled)

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The UE of claim 1,
wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to:
determine, based on the monitoring, that the UL data requirement is not substantially greater than the DL data requirement;
in response to determining that an anchor band does not support dual connectivity, trigger a radio link failure; and
re-establish a connection via a band that supports dual connectivity.

### Claim at position 6

-8. (canceled)

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The UE of claim 1,
wherein the one or more UL enhancement conditions include at least one of:
the UE determining that a master cell group operates according to Long Term Evolution (LTE) or that the master cell group does not operate according to LTE;
the UE determining that UL data traffic is only carried via LTE bands or that UL data traffic is split between LTE bands and New Radio (NR) bands;
the UE determining that UL carrier aggregation is available or that UL carrier aggregation is not available; or
the UE determining that blind secondary cell group addition is supported by a network or that blind secondary cell group addition is not supported by the network.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The UE of claim 1,
wherein to perform the at least one UL enhancement procedure when the one or more conditions include determining that a master cell group does not operate according to LTE, the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to:
determine whether UL data traffic is carried via a split bearer between LTE and NR; and
in response to determining that UL traffic is carried via the split bearer:
compare UL performance for an LTE bearer and an NR bearer; and
modify, based on the comparison, an UL data traffic split between the LTE bearer and the NR bearer, wherein when the UL performance for the LTE bearer is better than the UL performance for the NR bearer, the LTE bearer is preferred over the NR bearer, and wherein when the UL performance for the NR bearer is better than the UL performance for the LTE bearer, the NR bearer is preferred over the LTE bearer.

### Claim at position 9

-14. (canceled)

### Claim 15 (depends on 1)

The UE of claim 1,
wherein to perform the at least one UL enhancement procedure when the one or more conditions include determining that a master cell group operates according to LTE and that UL data traffic is not split between LTE bands and NR bands, the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to:
determine whether UL carrier aggregation is available;
in response to determining that UL carrier aggregation is available, determine whether there is network support for blind secondary cell group addition;
in response to determining that there is not network support for blind secondary cell group addition, artificially fail a current secondary cell group; and
use uplink carrier aggregation on the master cell group.

### Claim at position 11

-21. (canceled)

### Claim 22 (depends on 1)

The UE of claim 1,
wherein to perform the at least one UL enhancement procedure when the one or more conditions include determining that a master cell group operates according to LTE, determining that UL data traffic is only carried via LTE bands, and determining that UL carrier aggregation is available or determining that UL carrier aggregation is not available but that blind secondary cell group addition is supported, the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to:
identify alternative bands via a query of a network acquisition database;
prioritize alternative bands, based at least in part, on UL performance;
determine whether at least one alternative band has better UL performance as compared to a current band;
in response to determining that at least one alternative band has better UL performance as compared to the current band, trigger a radio link failure; and
re-establish a connection with the network via the at least one alternative band.

### Claim 23 (depends on 1)

The UE of claim 1,
wherein, to perform at least one UL enhancement procedure, the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to:
transmit, to a base station, an indication of an expected uplink resource requirement;
receive, from the base station and based, at least in part, on the indication of the expected uplink resource requirement, instructions for enhancing uplink throughput, wherein the instructions include at least one of handover instructions to move to a new band or a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration indicating a new uplink-downlink configuration, wherein the new uplink-downlink configuration includes at least one of additional uplink slots or additional dynamic slots on a New Radio (NR) band as compared to a prior RRC configuration;
transition to the new band or new uplink-downlink configuration;
re-transmit, to the base station, the indication of the expected uplink resource requirement; and
receive, from the base station, an uplink grant for either the new band or based on the new uplink-downlink configuration, wherein the uplink grant is based, at least in part, on the indication of the expected uplink resource requirement.

### Claim 24

A non-transitory computer readable memory medium storing program instructions executable by processing circuitry to cause a user equipment device (UE) to:
monitor uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) data requirements;
determine, based on the monitoring, that an UL data requirement is substantially greater than a DL data requirement;
transmit, to a base station, an indication of an expected uplink resource requirement;
receive, from the base station and based, at least in part, on the indication of the expected uplink resource requirement, instructions for enhancing uplink throughput, wherein the instructions include at least one of handover instructions to move to a new band or a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration indicating a new uplink-downlink configuration, wherein the new uplink-downlink configuration includes at least one of additional uplink slots or additional dynamic slots on a New Radio (NR) band as compared to a prior RRC configuration;
transition to a new band or new uplink-downlink configuration based on the instructions for enhancing uplink throughput;
re-transmit, to the base station, the indication of the expected uplink resource requirement; and
receive, from the base station, an uplink grant for either the new band or based on the new uplink-downlink configuration, wherein the uplink grant is based, at least in part, on the indication of the expected uplink resource requirement.

### Claim 25 (depends on 24)

The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 24,
wherein the instructions for enhancing uplink throughput include at least one of:
instructions to handover to a new band; or
a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration indicating a new uplink-downlink configuration, wherein the new uplink-downlink configuration includes at least one of additional uplink slots or additional dynamic slots on a New Radio (NR) band as compared to a prior RRC configuration.

### Claim 26 (depends on 24)

The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 24,
wherein the instructions for enhancing uplink throughput include one of a radio resource control reconfiguration message or a handover request message.

### Claim 27 (depends on 24)

The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 24,
wherein the indication of the expected uplink resource requirement is transmitted via a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE).

### Claim 28 (depends on 27)

The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 27,
wherein the MAC CE is a BSR_Duration_Timer MAC CE; wherein the MAC CE includes an expected buffer status report (BSR) duration field, wherein the BSR duration field is an indication of a time period of the BSR, and wherein the MAC CE further includes an uplink logical channel group (LCG) index (ID).

### Claim at position 19

-31. (canceled)

### Claim 32

An apparatus, comprising:
a memory; and
a processor in communication with the memory, wherein the processor is configured to:
monitor uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) data requirements;
determine, based on the monitoring, that an UL data requirement is substantially greater than a DL data requirement;
determine, based on one or more UL enhancement conditions, to perform at least one UL enhancement procedure; and
perform the at least one UL enhancement procedure.

### Claim 33 (depends on 32)

The apparatus of claim 32,
wherein, to determine that the UL data requirement is substantially greater that the DL data requirement, the processor is further configured to determine that, for a first time period, the UL data requirement is greater than downlink data requirement by a predefined factor.

### Claim 34 (depends on 33)

The apparatus of claim 33,
wherein the first time period is at least ten seconds; and wherein the predefined factor is at least two.

### Claim 35

(canceled)

### Claim 36 (depends on 32)

The apparatus of claim 32,
wherein the processor is further configured to:
determine, based on the monitoring, that the UL data requirement is not substantially greater than the DL data requirement;
in response to determining that an anchor band does not support dual connectivity, trigger a radio link failure; and
re-establish a connection via a band that supports dual connectivity.

### Claim 37 (depends on 36)

The apparatus of claim 36,
wherein to determine whether the anchor band supports dual connectivity, the processor is further configured to query a network acquisition database to determine the anchor band's dual connectivity capability, and wherein the network acquisition database is crowd-sourced.

### Claim 38

(canceled)

### Claim 39 (depends on 36)

The apparatus of claim 36,
wherein the processor is further configured to:
query a network acquisition database to determine bands that support dual connectivity;
prioritize bands that support dual connectivity; and
select the band based on the prioritizing.

### Claim 40 (depends on 32)

The apparatus of claim 32,
wherein the one or more UL enhancement conditions include at least one of:
determining that a master cell group operates according to Long Term Evolution (LTE) or that the master cell group does not operate according to LTE;
determining that UL data traffic is only carried via LTE bands or that UL data traffic is split between LTE bands and New Radio (NR) bands;
determining that UL carrier aggregation is available or that UL carrier aggregation is not available; or
determining that blind secondary cell group addition is supported by a network or that blind secondary cell group addition is not supported by the network.