Apparatus and method for handling lower layer triggered mobility in a wireless communication system

A method performed by a base station (BS) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:

• identifying whether to update a previous configuration associated with a lower layer triggered mobility (LTM);
• and
• transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message including configuration information for the LTM,
• wherein a reference configuration is included in the configuration information if a candidate configuration for at least one candidate cell is not a complete configuration, and
• wherein the reference configuration is associated with identifying whether to setup or release the previous configuration for each of the at least one candidate cell.

A user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the UE comprising:

• at least one transceiver;
• at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver;
• and
• at least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the UE to:
• receive, from a base station, a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message including configuration information for a lower layer triggered mobility (LTM), wherein a reference configuration is included in the configuration information if a candidate configuration for at least one candidate cell is not a complete configuration, and
• identify whether to setup or release a previous configuration for each of the at least one candidate cell, based on the reference configuration.

A base station (BS) in a wireless communication system, the BS comprising:

• at least one transceiver;
• at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver;
• and
• at least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the base station to:
• identify whether to update a previous configuration associated with a lower layer triggered mobility (LTM), and
• transmit, to a user equipment (UE), a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message including configuration information for the LTM,
• wherein a reference configuration is included in the configuration information if a candidate configuration for at least one candidate cell is not a complete configuration, and
• wherein the reference configuration is associated with identifying whether to setup or release the previous configuration for each of the at least one candidate cell.