UE PANEL COMBINATION-SPECIFIC CORESET CONFIGURATION FOR CELL-FREE MASSIVE MIMO

A method of operating a radio network element includes receiving user equipment (UE) capability information indicating panel combinations of a multi panel UE (MP-UE), each including at least one antenna panel from among a plurality of antenna panels of the MP-UE; receiving signal strength information corresponding to plurality of transmission reception points (TRPs); based on the signal strength information, determining a plurality of TRP sets corresponding to the plurality of panel combinations, respectively; and generating a plurality of control resource set (CORESET) configurations corresponding to the plurality of panel combinations, respectively, wherein, for each panel combination, the TRP set corresponding to the panel combination indicates at least one TRP from among the plurality of TRPs, and the CORESET configuration corresponding to the panel combination defines one or more CORESETs to be used by the at least one TRP to provide downlink (DL) transmissions to the MP-UE via the panel combination.