Systems and methods for beam indication for candidate cells within a candidate cell group

A method of a radio access network (RAN), comprising:

• sending, to a user equipment (UE), configuration information defining a first candidate cell group (CCG) comprising a special cell (SpCell) and one or more secondary cells (SCells), the configuration information dividing the SpCell and the one or more SCells into a first sub-CCG and a second sub-CCG;
• sending, to the UE, first a medium access control control element (MAC-CE) for a first candidate cell, the first MAC-CE indicating first one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state identifiers (IDs) for use with a first TCI state list for the first candidate cell and a second TCI state list for a second candidate cell;
• wherein the first candidate cell and the second candidate cell are in the first sub-CCG, and
• communicating, corresponding to a handover of the UE to the SpCell of the CCG, with the UE on the first candidate cell and on the second candidate cell.

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

• receiving, from a network, configuration information defining a first candidate cell group (CCG) comprising a special cell (SpCell) and one or more secondary cells (SCells), the configuration information dividing the SpCell and the one or more SCells into a first sub-CCG and a second sub-CCG;
• receiving, from the network, a first medium access control control element (MAC-CE) for a first candidate cell, the first MAC-CE indicating first one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state identifiers (IDs), wherein the first candidate cell is in the first sub-CCG;
• identifying first one or more activated TCI states at the first candidate cell and a second candidate cell by applying the first one or more TCI state IDs to a first TCI state list for the first sub-CCG, wherein the second candidate cell is in the first sub-CCG;
• communicating, corresponding to a handover of the UE to the SpCell of the CCG, with the network on the first candidate cell and on the second candidate cell based on one or more of the first one or more activated TCI states.