Patent Application
20230370919
The present invention relates to mobile telecommunications networks, particularly but not exclusively networks operating according to the 3GPP standards or equivalents or derivatives thereof.
Mobile telecommunications networks enable users of User Equipment (UE) to communicate with other such users via one of a number of base stations (eNodeB, eNB) and a core network 7. Each base station defines a number of cells of the network. In an active state a UE is registered with the network and has an RRC (Radio Resource Control) with a base station so that the network knows which cell the UE belongs to and can transmit data to and receive data from the UE. In LTE, in the Active state, the Handover procedure allows UEs to have service continuity while moving within the Intra LTE system (Intra and Inter Frequency) and towards other RATS (Radio Access Technologies). A UE at or near a border region between cells may move back and forth (“ping pong”) between cells and may as a consequence generate an excessive number of requests for reconnection to different base stations.
A UE also has a power conservation or idle state in which, typically, the UE is not transmitting or receiving data and no context about the UE is stored by the base station.
In the idle state the location of the UE is known only (to the MME (Mobility Management Entity) in 3GPP) at the granularity of a Tracking Area (TA) comprising a cluster or group of base station cells.
When in the idle state, a UE selects and reselects cells according to the parameters broadcasted in the BCH (Broadcast Channel) and the base station is not aware of the cell selections/reselections made by the UE.
A wrong setting of the cell selection/reselection parameters may cause the UE to ping pong between the cells which may be harmful in terms of both signalling, processing and resource utilization.
For example, if the cell selection/reselection parameters are not properly set, then a Handover procedure may be performed as soon as the UE enters the Active state. A Tracking Area Update may also be performed if the UE is at Tracking Area border and the new Tracking Area is not in the list of TAs the UE is registered with.
Furthermore, ping-pong in idle state or mode may cause:
According to one aspect, the present invention provides a method performed by a user communications device of a cellular communications network in which user communications devices communicate via network communications devices of cells of the network, the method comprising the user communications device: maintaining history data relating to the location (cell and/or tracking area) of the cellular communications network in the idle state; and providing data relating to the history data to a network communications device.
The history data may identify the last n cells in which the user communications device has been present (camped in), where n may be, for example, five. The history data may identify the time for which the user communications device was present in each cell.
The history data may be used to detect at least one of ping pong between cells and ping pong between tracking areas (TAs).
The user communications device may provide the history data to a network communications device at any appropriate time, for example at at least one of entry into the active state, for example in the RRC Initial Direct Transfer or in any other RRC messages involved in the idle to Active transition procedure in response to detection of ping pong between cells and/or or TAs.
The user communications device may check whether the tracking area of the cell in which it is present is different from the tracking area of the last cell in which it was present, before providing the cell history data, if the purpose is to identify ping pong only between tracking areas and may provide the history data to a network communications device only if the tracking areas are different, thereby enabling ping pong between TAs to be addressed by adjustment of cell selection/reselection parameters.
The user communications device may check whether it is in a high mobility state (which may arise if, for example, the user is in a moving vehicle) before providing the cell history data and may only send the history data if it is not a high mobility state, thereby enabling differentiation between ping pong due to incorrect setting of cell selection/reselection parameters and ping pong caused by high mobility of the user communications device.
As another possibility or additionally, in the active state the user communications device may provide the cell history data in response to a request from a network communications device. This enables the network communications device to control the amount of signalling needed and the amount of data collected.
Another aspect of the invention provides a method performed by a network communications device of a cellular communications network in which user communications devices communicate via network communications devices of cells of the network, the method comprising the network
communications device receiving from a user communications device cell data relating to history data relating to the location of the cellular communications network in the idle mode. This enables the cell selection/reselection
parameters provided to the affected cells in the BCH to be checked and adjusted if necessary to reduce the possibility of ping pong between at least one of cells and TAs.
In an embodiment, a user communications device having active and idle states operates in a cellular communications network in which user
communications devices communicate via network communications devices of cells of the network. History data identifying the cells and TAs in which the user communications device has been present whilst in the idle state is maintained. This history data is used by the user communications device or by a network communications device to enable adjustment of cell selection/reselection parameters in the affected cells.
The user communications device may initiate provision of the data relating to the history data, in which case the user communications device may provide the actual history data or data indicating the existence of ping pong between cells and/or TAs. As another possibility, the network communications device may request a user communications device to provide its history data as, for example, a response to the Communication Network Request message.
The present invention may be applied to, for example:
The invention also provides, for all methods disclosed, corresponding computer programs or computer program products for execution on corresponding user communications devices or network communications devices. The invention also provides user communications devices and network communications devices configured or operable to implement the methods and components thereof and methods of updating these.
Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Overview
With reference to the drawings in general, it should be understood that any functional block diagrams are intended simply to show the functionality that exists within the device and should not be taken to imply that each block shown in the functional block diagram is necessarily a discrete or separate entity. The functionality provided by a block may be discrete or may be dispersed throughout the device or throughout a part of the device. In addition, the functionality may incorporate, where appropriate, hardwired elements, software elements or firmware elements or any combination of these.
The mobile (cellular) telecommunications system 1 may operate according to the 3GPP standards or equivalents or derivatives thereof or any other appropriate cellular telecommunications standard or standards.
Each base station defines a number of cells of the network and the cells are separated into groups or clusters known as tracking areas (TAs).
UEs of such a mobile (cellular) telecommunications system have active and idle modes or states. In the active state a UE is registered with the network and has an RRC (Radio Resource Control) with a base station so that the network knows which cell the UE belongs to and can transmit data to and receive data from the UE. In LTE, a handover procedure allows UEs to have service continuity while moving within the Intra LTE system (Intra and Inter Frequency) and towards other RATS (Radio Access Technologies).
The idle state is a power conservation idle state in which, typically, the
UE is not transmitting or receiving data and no context about the UE is stored by the base station. Rather, in the idle state the location of the UE is known only to functionality of the core network, for example to the MME (Mobility Management Entity) in 3GPP, and only at the resolution or granularity of a Tracking Area (for example TA1, TA2, or TA3 in
When in the idle state, a UE selects and reselects cells according to the parameters broadcasted in the BCH (Broadcast Channel) and may also perform a tracking area update if it is at tracking area border and the tracking area into which it is moving is not in the list of TAs the UE is registered with.
A UE embodying the invention is configured to maintain history data relating to the cells and TAs of the cellular communications network in which it has been present (camped) while in the idle mode or state and to provide data related to such history data to a network communications device in order to enable a determination to be made as to whether any adjustment of its cell selection/reselection parameters is required to avoid or at least reduce the possibility of ping pong between cells and/or TAs.
UE
Although not necessarily shown in
Software may be pre-installed in the memory and/or may be downloaded via the telecommunications network or from a removable data storage device (RMD) 23, for example.
The controller 27 is configured to control overall operation of the UE by, in this example, program instructions or software instructions stored within memory 29. As shown, these software instructions include, among other things, an operating system 31, a cell selector/reselector 33 to enable selection and reselection of cells in accordance with cell selection/reselection parameters provided by the BCH, and a reporter 34 to report to a base station data relating to the cells within which the UE has been camped or present while in the idle state. The memory 29 also provides a data store 32 associated with the reporter 34 to store cell history data 32a identifying the last n cells Cy to Cy-n within which the UE has been camped or present while in the idle state, the Tracking Area of those cells and the time ty to ty-n for which the UE was present in each of those cells. The data store 32 may be configured to store data for the last 5 cells, although the data store 32 may store data for fewer or more cells. The UE also has a checker 35 to check for a high mobility state and to check the TA status. It will of course be appreciated that, particularly where ping pong is occurring, the same cell and/or the same TA may be present more than once in the stored history data.
Base Station
The controller 47 is configured to control overall operation of the base station by, in this example, program instructions or software instructions stored within memory 49. As shown, these software instructions include, among other things, an operating system 51, a cell selection/reselection parameter controller 53 to enable the parameters by which a UE selects/reselects a cell to be adjusted and a history data receiver 52 to receive data relating to history data provided by a reporter 34 of a UE.
In the above description, the base station 5 and the UEs 3 are described for ease of understanding as having a number of discrete functional components or modules (such as the history data receiver, cell selection parameter controller. cell selector, reporter, data store). Whilst these modules may be provided in this way for certain applications, for example where an existing system has been modified to implement the invention, in other applications, for example in systems designed with the inventive features in mind from the outset, these modules may be built into the overall operating system or code and so these modules may not be discernible as discrete entities.
In operation of the system described above, when in idle or inactive state, the cell selector 33 of a UE selects and reselects cells according to the parameters broadcasted in the BCH (Broadcast Channel).
Each time the UE reselects a cell, the reporter 34 updates the cell history data 32a to add the new cell as the nth cell, logs the time at which the UE switched to that cell and stores the total time for which the UE was in the previous cell. The TA of the reselected cell may also be added as shown in
If the cell history data already has n entries, then the reporter 34 removes the oldest entry so that the cell UE maintains a list of the last n cells in which it was camped and the time for which it was camped in each of those cells. The same cell may of course appear more than once in the list.
The reporter may store and so report RAT information and frequency information together with cell identification data and time.
The UE reports data relating to the history data to the base station of the cell in which it is next in the active state. The reporter 34 of the UE may, for example, report the actual history data to a base station the next time it enters the active state or sometime whilst it is in the active state. As another possibility, to reduce the data traffic and signalling, the reporter 34 may check the history data to determine, in accordance with a ping pong detection algorithm, whether or not ping pong is present in the history data and only report when ping pong is detected. In this case, the reporter 34 may report to a base station the next time it enters the active state the actual history data (so that the base station can make its own identification of ping pong) or the fact that ping pong has occurred and the identity of the cells and/or TAs involved in the ping pong. As an example, a UE may determine that ping pong is occurring if the entries in the cell history alternate between two cells (and optionally TAs whenever the cells affected by ping-pong belongs to different TAs) within a predetermined time period. The reporter of the UE may, before reporting history data to a base station, check whether or not the UE is in a high mobility state (that is the UE is moving very quickly, for example the user is travelling in a vehicle) and, if so, may decide not to report the history data. As another possibility or additionally, a base station may request history data when a UE is already in the active state.
Upon receipt of the data relating to the history data (the actual history data or ping pong detection data) by the history data receiver 52 of a base station, the cell selection parameter controller 53 determines whether or not adjustment needs to be made to the cell selection parameters provided to the UE in the BCH. Other measurement from other UES may be taken into account for that purpose. Where the received data is the actual history data, the bases station uses a ping pong detection algorithm to determine whether ping pong has occurred. For example, if the received data indicates that ping pong is occurring, then the base station cell selection parameter controller 53 will cause the cell selection parameters in the BCH for that UE to be altered. This may be done by alerting the operator who can then change the cell selection parameters manually via the Operations and Management (O&M) system. As another possibility, the cell selection parameters may be changed automatically in accordance with an algorithm which may be implementation specific.
The base station generally provides the cell selection/reselection parameter data in the BCH for its cell rather than for a specific UE so that any UE in that cell will receive the same cell selection/reselection parameter data. The base station may consider history or other data from other UEs in the same cell when providing the cell selection/reselection parameter data.
The embodiments described above enable a network to detect cases of frequent idle mode or state cell selection/reselection between neighbouring cells so that this can be corrected. This may be carried out during any cell selection/reselection process the cell selector may carry out, for example: Intra LTE Intra Frequency cell selection/reselection; Intra LTE Inter Frequency cell selection/reselection; Inter system cell selection/reselection.
In the case of intra LTE intra frequency cell selection/reselection, the UE, while moving, will reselect a new cell on the base of the cell reselection criteria broadcast in the BCH channel. The data reporting described above enables the cell selection reselection parameters to be adjusted so that they are properly set, may avoid a handover procedure being performed as soon as the UE enters the Active state and may also avoid the performing of a Tracking Area Update if the UE is at a border region between tracking areas and the tracking area into which it is moving does not belong to the list of TAs the UE is registered with. In addition the adjustment of the cell selection/reselection parameters also improves both UE and Network performances in terms of UE battery consumption and paging failure rate.
In the case of intra LTE inter frequency cell selection/reselection, the UE, while in the idle state, makes measurement on Inter-frequency cells according to the inter-frequency cell reselection criteria broadcasted in BCH. Cell selection/reselection parameters for inter-frequency cell reselection are set in order to address signalling, processing and resource optimization. In addition the adjustment of the cell selection/reselection parameters also improves both UE and Network performances in terms of UE battery consumption and paging failure rate. The data reporting described above enables the cell selection reselection parameters to be adjusted so that they are properly set and may, when two inter-frequency cells overlap, avoid inter-frequency measurement and possible GAP activation being required upon detection of bad frequency quality by the UE (as soon as it enters the Active state) which could otherwise trigger Inter-frequency Handover and also a Tracking area update, if the UE is at Tracking Area border and the new Tracking area does not belong to the list of TAs the UE is registered with. The history data reporting described above also enables setting of the cell selection/reselection parameters to mirror the Operator strategy which may want most of the UEs accessing the network from one frequency so as to reserve other frequencies for other services.
In the case of Inter RAT cell selection/reselection, while in the idle state, the UE will make measurements on Inter-Rat cells according to the Inter-System cell reselection criteria broadcast in the BCH. Cell selection/reselection parameters for inter-RAT cell reselection are set in order to address signalling, processing and resource optimization.
In addition the adjustment of the cell selection/reselection parameters also improves both UE and Network performances in terms of UE battery consumption and paging failure rate. The data reporting described above enables the cell selection reselection parameters to be adjusted so that they are properly set and may, when two inter-system cells overlap, avoid the need for Inter-system measurement and possible GAP activation upon detection of bad frequency quality by the UE as soon as the UE enters the Active state, thereby possibly avoiding triggering of Inter-system Handover and also possibly avoid a tracking area update, if the UE is at a tracking area/Routing Area border. The history data reporting described above also enables setting of the cell selection/reselection parameters to mirror Operator strategy which may want most of the UEs accessing the network to use a certain RAT rather than another one. In this case, the UE may also report the RAT and frequency information together with cell id and time.
In the UE-initiated examples of
Modifications and Alternatives
Detailed embodiments have been described above. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, a number of modifications and alternatives can be made to the above embodiments whilst still benefiting from the inventions embodied therein. By way of illustration only a number of these alternatives and modifications will now be described.
In the above embodiments, the UEs are cellular telephones. Other communications nodes or devices may include user devices such as, for example, personal digital assistants, laptop computers, web browsers, etc.
Although as described above the base station provides the cell selection/reselection parameter data, this data may be provided by another network device or devices.
The present invention may be implemented in any communications system in which communications devices move between different cells or areas.
In the above embodiments, a number of software modules were described. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, the software modules may be provided in compiled or un-compiled form and may be supplied to the base station or to the UE as a signal over a computer network, or on a recording medium. Further, the functionality performed by part or all of this software may be performed using one or more dedicated hardware circuits. However, the use of software modules is preferred as it facilitates the updating of base station 5 and the UEs 3 in order to update their functionalities.
Various other modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art and will not be described in further detail here.
The following is a detailed description of the way in which the present inventions may be implemented in the currently proposed 3GPP LTE standard. Whilst various features are described as being essential or necessary, this may only be the case for the proposed 3GPP LTE standard, for example due to other requirements imposed by the standard. These statements should not, therefore, be construed as limiting the present invention in any way.
Current the ping pong detection issue has been analysed and solved for the UEs in Active Mode. However even for the idle mode UEs, ping pong effect can create some inefficiency in terms of signalling, processing and resources utilization. Also the ping-pong in idle mode may affect both UE and Network performance in terms of the UE battery consumption and the paging failure rate.
It is left to the eNB implementation how to use the list of past selected cells.
In LTE, the UE can either be in Active state or in idle state.
When being in Active state, the Handover procedure allows the UEs to have service continuity while moving within the Intra LTE system (Intra and Inter Frequency) and towards other RATs.
Mechanisms have been discussed and agreed in RAN3 in order to detect the ping pong effect when the UE is Active state. It is left to the implementation how to optimize the HO parameters once the ping pong has been detected.
In idle mode, the UE selects and reselects cells according to the parameters broadcasted in the BCH.
A wrong setting of the cell selection reselection parameters may cause the UE to ping pong between the cells which may be harmful in terms of both signalling, processing and resource utilization.
Furthermore, ping-pong in idle mode may cause:
As a consequence it is important that the network is able to understand whether these parameters have been set properly.
In UMTS the network has the chance to monitor the cells the UE reselects since the cell selection/reselection procedure occurs also in connected mode (e.g. in cell FACH).
In LTE, when being in idle state, the eNB is unaware of the UE past selected cells and whether any ping pong occurs during cell selection-reselection.
The following paragraphs propose a method to detect the ping pong during cell reselection. The mechanism applies in the following scenarios:
4.1. Intra LTE Intra Frequency Cell Selection/Reselection
When the UE is in idle mode, the UE location is known at a Tracking Area granularity level. The UE1 while moving, will reselect a new cell on the base of the cell reselection criteria broadcasted in the BCH channel.
If the cell selection/reselection parameters are not properly set, it may happen that a Handover procedure is performed as soon as the UE enters Active state. In addition a Tracking Area Update may be performed as well if the UE is at Tracking Area border and the new Tracking area does not belong to the list of TAs the UE is registered with. Other performance issues as reported in the previous section may also occur. The proposal mainly consist on UEs keeping track of say last x cells it has camped on together with the time spent in each cell.
The UE will then send this list to the eNB either when entering Active state (UE Initiated) or when requested by the eNB (eNB Initiated). For more details on the reporting methods see paragraph 2.4.
4.2. Intra LTE Inter Frequency Cell Selection/Reselection
While the UE is in idle mode, it will make measurement on Inter-frequency cells according to the inter-frequency cell reselection criteria broadcasted in BCH.
Cell selection/reselection parameters for inter-frequency cell reselection are set in order to address signalling, processing and resource optimization. If for example, the parameters are not properly set when two inter-frequency cells overlap, it may happen that Inter-frequency measurement and possible GAP activation are needed upon detection of bad frequency quality by the UE when entering Active state.
As a consequence, Inter-frequency Handover may be triggered together with a Tracking area update if the UE is at Tracking Area border and the new Tracking area does not belong to the list of TAs the UE is registered with.
Furthermore the setting of the cell selection/reselection parameters has to mirror the Operator strategy which may want most of the UE accessing the network from one frequency and reserve other frequencies for other services.
In addition, if the ping pong occurs, other performance issues as reported in the previous chapter may occur.
In order for the eNB to detect the ping pong during inter-frequency cell reselection, the UE should send the eNB the list of the past selected cells together with the time spent either when entering Active state (UE Initiated) or when requested by the eNB (Network Initiated). For more details on the reporting methods see paragraph 2.4 The UE may also report the frequency information together with cell id and time.
4.3. Inter RAT cell selection Reselection
While the UE is in idle mode, it will make measurement on Inter-Rat cells according to the Inter-System cell reselection criteria broadcasted in BCH.
If for example, the parameters are not properly set when two inter-system cells overlap, it may happen that Inter-system measurement and possible GAP activation are needed upon detection of bad frequency quality by the UE as soon as the UE enters the Active state.
As a consequence, Inter-system Handover may be triggered together with a Tracking area update if the UE is at Tracking Area border and the new Tracking area does not belong to the list of TAs the UE is registered with.
Furthermore the setting has to mirror the Operator strategy which may want most of the UE accessing the network using a certain RAT rather than another one.
In addition, if the ping pong occurs, other performance issues as reported in the previous chapter may occur.
In order for the eNB to detect the ping pong during the IRAT cell reselection, the UE should send the eNB the list of the past selected cells together with the time spent either when entering Active state (UE Initiated) or when requested by the eNB (Network Initiated). For more details on the reporting methods see paragraph 2.4.
The UE may also report the RAT and frequency information together with cell id and time.
4.4. Reporting method
Two methods of reporting are proposed in this contribution:
If for example, the purpose of receiving report of the past cells selected/reselected is just to detect ping-pong between TAs, the UE could check that the TA of the cell which the UE camped on to is different from the last cell.
Also it is important to be able to differentiate the ping pong due to wrong setting of cell selection/reselection parameters from the ping pong caused by the UE high Mobility. In order to do that, the UE
could check whether he is in a high mobility state. The report will only be sent if the check is not verified.
The main advantage of this option is that the eNB controls the amount of data to collects and therefore the amount of signalling needed.
In this contribution we propose a simple mechanism used to detect ping pong effect during Intra LTE cell selection reselection both Intra frequency and Inter frequency case and Inter RAT cell selection reselection.
The mechanism consist on UE tracking the last visited cells during idle state together with the time spent in each cell and informs the eNB either when entering Active state or when requested by the eNB.
It is proposed to discuss the contribute and agree on the proposed mechanism. NEC is available to prepare the necessary CRs against 36.300.
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from United Kingdom patent application No. 0802021.6, filed on Feb. 4, 2008, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0802021.6 | Feb 2008 | GB | national |
The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/867,841 filed on May 6, 2020, which is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/503,096 filed on Jul. 3, 2019, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,694,436, which is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/633,115 filed on Jun. 26, 2017, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,390,270, which is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/735,616 filed on Aug. 3, 2010, which is a National Stage Entry of international application PCT/JP2009/052009, filed on Jan. 30, 2009, which claims the benefit of priority from United Kingdom Patent Application 0802021.6 filed on Feb. 4, 2008, the disclosures of all of which are incorporated in their entirety by reference herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 17587379 | Jan 2022 | US |
| Child | 18226683 | US | |
| Parent | 16867841 | May 2020 | US |
| Child | 17587379 | US | |
| Parent | 16503096 | Jul 2019 | US |
| Child | 16867841 | US | |
| Parent | 15633115 | Jun 2017 | US |
| Child | 16503096 | US | |
| Parent | 12735616 | Aug 2010 | US |
| Child | 15633115 | US |
