Methods for activation of a secondary cell group (scg)

An apparatus comprising memory coupled to a processor, the processor configured to:

• receive a radio resource configuration (RRC) message for activation of a secondary cell group (SCG), the UE configured for a beam failure detection (BFD) of the antenna beam or radio link monitoring (RLM) of the radio link connecting the UE with the network device via the transceiver;
• in accordance with determining that the RACH procedure is not required for activation of the SCG, determine a status of a set of primary and secondary cells (PSCell) and a status of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI);
• and
• in accordance with the status of the PSCell being known and the status of the TCI being unknown,
• determine downlink (DL) synchronization timing without performing any cell specific tracking using a previous cell specific tracking result;
• and
• perform a RACH preamble via the transceiver to the identified target PSCell using the determined DL synchronization timing.

A method comprising:

• receiving, at a user equipment (UE) from the network device, a radio resource configuration (RRC) message for activation of a secondary cell group (SCG), the UE configured for a beam failure detection (BFD) of one or more antenna beams connecting the UE with the network device or radio link monitoring (RLM) of one or more radio links connecting the UE with the network device;
• determining whether a random access (RACH) procedure is required for activation of the SCG;
• and
• in accordance with the determination that the RACH procedure is not required for activation of the SCG, performing activation of the SCG based on a status of a set of primary and secondary cells (PSCell) and a status of a transmission configuration indicator (TCI).