TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments herein relate to methods and arrangements, such as a system of a wireless communication network and a wireless communication device. More particularly embodiments herein relate to provision of a message with instructions related to measurements by the wireless communication device on a signal received by the wireless communication device from a network node of the wireless communication network.

BACKGROUND

Communication devices such as wireless communication devices, that simply may be named wireless devices, may also be known as e.g. user equipments (UEs), mobile terminals, wireless terminals and/or mobile stations. A wireless device is enabled to communicate wirelessly in a wireless communication network, that alternatively e.g. may be named cellular communication network, wireless communication system, radio communication system, cellular radio system, cellular network or cellular communication system. The communication may be performed e.g. between two wireless devices, between a wireless device and a regular telephone and/or between a wireless device and a server via a Radio Access Network (RAN) and possibly one or more core networks, comprised within the cellular communication network. The wireless device may further be referred to as a mobile telephone, cellular telephone, laptop, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), tablet computer, just to mention some further examples. Wireless devices may be so called Machine to Machine (M2M) devices or Machine Type of Communication (MTC) devices, i.e. devices that are not associated with a conventional user. The wireless device may be, for example, portable, pocket-storable, hand-held, computer-comprised, or vehicle-mounted mobile device, enabled to communicate voice and/or data, via the RAN, with another entity, such as another wireless device or a server. The wireless communication network covers a geographical area in which radio coverage is provided and enables wireless devices to connect and communicate in the network. The area may be divided into subareas, e.g. cell areas, wherein each subarea is served by at least one base station, or Base Station (BS), e.g. a Radio Base Station (RBS), which sometimes may be referred to as e.g. “eNB”, “eNodeB”, “NodeB”, “B node”, or BTS (Base Transceiver Station), gNB, depending on the technology and terminology used. The base stations may be of different classes such as e.g. macro eNodeB, home eNodeB or pico base station, based on transmission power and thereby also cell size. The base station at a base station site typically provides radio coverage for one or more cells. A cell is typically identified by one or more cell identities and may be associated with a geographical area where radio coverage for that cell is provided by the base station at the base station site. Cells may overlap so that several cells cover the same geographical area. By the base station providing or serving a cell is meant that the base station provides radio coverage such that one or more wireless devices located in the geographical area where the radio coverage is provided may be served by the base station in said cell. When a wireless device is said to be served in or by a cell this implies that the wireless device is served by the base station providing radio coverage for the cell. One base station may serve one or several cells. Further, each base station may support one or several communication technologies. The base stations communicate over the air interface operating on radio frequencies with the wireless device within range of the base stations.

The expression downlink (DL) is used for the transmission path from the base station to the wireless device. The expression uplink (UL) is used for the transmission path in the opposite direction i.e. from the wireless device to the base station.

UMTS is a 3G, or third generation, mobile communication system, which evolved from Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) that belongs to the so called 2nd generation or 2G. UMTS provides improved mobile communication services based on Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) access technology. UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) is essentially a radio access network using wideband code division multiple access for wireless devices. High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two mobile telephony protocols, High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), defined by 3GPP, that extends and improves the performance of existing 3G mobile telecommunication networks utilizing the WCDMA. Such networks may be named WCDMA/HSPA.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has further evolved the UTRAN and GSM based radio access network technologies, for example into Evolved UTRAN (EUTRAN) used in Long Term Evolution (LTE) that is a 4G, i.e. 4thgeneration, mobile communication system.

3GPP is also involved in standardizing another new generation wide area networks, which may be referred to as fifth generation (5G). 5G New Radio (5G NR), or simply NR, is the new radio air interface being developed for 5G. However, NR may also be used to denote 5G in general. Another acronym being used to denote 5G is Next Generation (NG).

In wireless communication networks, UE measurements are used to monitor and report the serving cell and neighboring cell(s) signal level and quality to assist the radio network to choose a suitable serving cell for the UE. There are different reasons to relocate a UE from a current serving cell to another cell, such as coverage reasons, traffic load level or support of a specific service.

UE measurements are configured by the radio network, also called wireless communication network, and several parameters are involved to specify the conditions for measurements and reporting.

In LTE, UE measurement configurations provided by the EUTRAN, i.e. the radio network, to a UE are specified in the 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 36.331 EUTRA Radio Resource Control (RRC) Protocol Specification, see e.g. V14.3.0 (2017-06). A corresponding specification, 3GPP TS 38.331 NR RRC Protocol Specification, see e.g. V0.0.4, is under development for NR which is expected to be partly similar to the EUTRAN version where applicable. For both specifications, see particularly chapters 5.5 and 6.3. The measurement configuration framework in NR will be based on the framework from LTE, as described in said 3GPP TS 38.331. In NR, the network can configure a so called RRC_CONNECTED UE to perform cell level and beam level measurements and report them in accordance with the measurement configuration. The measurement configuration is provided by means of dedicated signaling. The measurement configuration may be provided to the UE via RRC messages such as RRCConnectionReconfiguration and/or RRCConnectionResume.

The radio network can configure the UE to perform the following types of measurements:

Intra-frequency measurements: measurements at the downlink carrier frequency/frequencies of the serving cell/cells.

Inter-frequency measurements: measurements at frequencies that differ from any of the downlink carrier frequency/frequencies of the serving cell/cells.

Inter Radio Access Technology (inter-Rat or IRAT) measurements of EUTRA frequencies.

An RRC_CONNECTED UE in NR can be configured to perform UTRA measurements, GSM measurements and/or non-3GPP IRAT measurements, such as Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA2000), etc. The measurement configuration includes the following parameters:

1. Measurement objects: A list of objects on which the UE shall perform the measurements.

For intra-frequency and inter-frequency measurements a measurement object is associated to an NR downlink carrier frequency. Associated with this carrier frequency, the network can configure a list of ‘blacklisted’ cells and a list of ‘whitelisted’ cells. Blacklisted cells are not applicable in event evaluation or measurement reporting. Whitelisted cells are the only ones applicable in event evaluation and/or measurement reporting.

For inter-RAT E-UTRA measurements a measurement object is a single E-UTRA downlink carrier frequency.

2. Reporting configurations: A list of reporting configurations where there can be one or multiple reporting configurations per measurement object. Each reporting configuration comprises the following:

Reporting criterion: The criterion that triggers the UE to send a measurement report

which can either be event triggered or periodical. The criterion also includes a trigger quantity, such as Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) or Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR).

Reference Signal (RS) type: The RS to be considered by the UE for cell level and beam level measurements, such as New Radio Synchronization Signal (NR-SS) or Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS).

There is a new aspect in NR that cell quality can be computed based on two types of RSs, NR-SS, basically NR-Primary SS (NR-PSS) and/or NR-Secondary SS (NR-SSS) and CSI-RS.

Reporting format: The cell level and beam level quantities that the UE includes in the measurement report, e.g. RSRP and/or RSRQ and/or SINR, and associated information, e.g. number of cells and/or beams to report.

3. Measurement identities: A list of measurement identities where each measurement identity links one measurement object with one reporting configuration. By configuring multiple measurement identities, it is possible to link more than one measurement object to the same reporting configuration, as well as to link more than one reporting configuration to the same measurement object. The measurement identity is also included in the measurement report that triggered the reporting, serving as a reference to the network.

4. Quantity configurations: One quantity configuration is configured per RAT type. The quantity configuration defines the measurement quantities and associated filtering used for all event evaluation and related reporting of that measurement type.

5. Measurement gaps: Periods that the UE may use to perform measurements, i.e. no (uplink, UL, downlink, DL) transmissions are scheduled.

SUMMARY

In view of the above, an object to improve or enable improvements regarding reporting by a wireless communication device, e.g. a UE, to the wireless communication network of measurements performed by the wireless device. The improvements may e.g. be to enable to send more accurate measurement result from the UE to the wireless communication network, for example discard sending measurements that are not of interest for the network and/or to reduce signaling for sending measurements from the UE to the wireless communication network compared to prior art.

According to a first aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a method performed by a system of a wireless communication network. The wireless communication network comprises a first network node arranged for wireless communication with a wireless communication device. The system triggers sending of a message from the first network node to the wireless communication device. The message comprises instructions related to measurements by the wireless communication device on a signal received by the wireless communication device from a network node of the wireless communication network. The instructions comprise a first measurement condition and a second measurement condition where both the first measurement condition and the second measurement condition have to be fulfilled for the wireless communication device to report at least one of the measurements to the wireless communication network.

According to a second aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a system of a wireless communication network. The wireless communication network comprises a first network node arranged for wireless communication with a wireless communication device. The system is configured to trigger sending of a message from the first network node to the wireless communication device. The message comprises instructions related to measurements by the wireless communication device on a signal received by the wireless communication device from a network node of the wireless communication network. The instructions comprise a first measurement condition and a second measurement condition where both the first measurement condition and the second measurement condition have to be fulfilled for the wireless communication device to report at least one of the measurements to the wireless communication network.

According to a third aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a method performed by a by a wireless communication device wirelessly connected to a first network node of a wireless communication network. The wireless communication device receives a message from the first network node, which message comprises instructions related to at least one measurement by the wireless communication device on a signal received by the wireless communication device from a network node of the wireless communication network. The instructions comprise a first measurement condition and a second measurement condition where both the first measurement condition and the second measurement condition have to be fulfilled for the wireless communication device to report the at least one measurement to the wireless communication network. The wireless communication device performs the at least one measurement on the signal received from the network node. The wireless communication device reports the at least one measurement to the wireless communication network based on whether the at least one measurement fulfils the first measurement condition and the second measurement condition.

According to a fourth aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by a wireless communication device wirelessly configured to wirelessly connected to a first network node of a wireless communication network. The wireless communication device is configured to receive a message from the first network node, which message comprises instructions related to at least one measurement by the wireless communication device on a signal received by the wireless communication device from a network node of the wireless communication network. The instructions comprise a first measurement condition and a second measurement condition where both the first measurement condition and the second measurement condition have to be fulfilled for the wireless communication device to report the at least one measurement to the wireless communication network. The wireless communication device is further configured to perform the at least one measurement on the signal received from the network node. Moreover, the wireless communication device is configured to report the at least one measurement to the wireless communication network based on whether the at least one measurement fulfils the first measurement condition and the second measurement condition.

Thanks to the above and embodiments herein, the system and thus the wireless communication network are enabled to instruct the wireless communication device to take two or even more measurement conditions into consideration when determining whether to send, such as report, one or more measurements to the network node. Thereby it e.g. becomes possible to determine with greater precision whether a measurement is of value for the network node, when e.g. deciding whether to perform handover of the wireless communication device from the first network node to the second network node. In other words, embodiments herein enable improvements regarding reporting by a wireless communication device to the wireless communication network of measurements performed by the wireless communication device.

