A UE includes a transceiver configured to receive a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message including a configuration for at least one lower layer triggered mobility (LTM) candidate cell, and receive an LTM switch command media access control (MAC) control element (CE) indicating to perform an LTM cell switch to an LTM candidate cell of the at least one LTM candidate cell. The transceiver is also configured to transmit, a repetition number N of times, a random access (RA) preamble to the LTM candidate cell indicated by the MAC CE. The UE also includes a processor operatively coupled to the transceiver. The processor is configured to, after the RA preamble has been transmitted the N times, monitor a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for a random access response.