The patent related to the method of maintaining radio connectivity and 5G service of user equipment (UE) during the transfer from the 4G technology base station (source eNodeB station) to the target base station (target eNodeB station) which will be connected to the 5G technology base station (gNodeB station) on the dual-connected mobile technology platform (Dual Connectivity) in the 4th and 5th generation.
The 5th generation mobile technology (5G) shows the ability to provide high-speed data for UE with the fact that the current number of UE is very large and increasing strongly.
However, the actual requirements for mobile network operators in providing 5G services to users are: With the number of UE supporting 5G technology in the first phase is limited, the number of sacrifices 5G cells will not be widely popular and there will be holes in the coverage of 5G network. Solutions for operators can provide seamless services for 5G devices by combining with long-term 4G network currently (4G-5G Dual Conectivity-Endc technology).
The concern of UE 5G is to ensure the connection during the UE process moving from the coverage of eNodeB station to the coverage of other eNodeB station. Currently, the 3GPP standard system has come up with the solution for the case of signal and data transfer of UE mentioned above, which is: Information transmission of UE (UE Context) at the source eNodeB station will be sent to the target eNodeB station by handover procedure. Simultaneously, the target eNodeB station carries out the connection procedure with GNB at the same time. However, this method is only suitable when the process of transferring dual radio from 4G station to 4G station is capable of connecting to 5G station to ensure the delay time does not exceed 1 ms.
In fact, the current network operators need to develop and optimize a lot to achieve the requirements of the above handling time because the complexity of the procedure needs to be handled. Moreover, with the solution of 3GPP, UE's battery energy consumption for the measurement process for necessary information (Measurement Report) as a basis for selecting the target eNodeB station with the ability to connect to 5G station will not be small. The invention provides a method to solve these mentioned existing disadvantages and easily deployed for carriers to use in combination with both 4G and 5G technology platforms (4G -5G Dual Conectivity-ENDC).
When the signal quality between UE and eNodeB station is impaired, to ensure the connection between UE and the network, the eNodeB station will perform the handover connection procedure to other eNodeB station by triggering A5 event. The method of the invention is to perform the handover procedure, then get the information of UE and request the measurement of B1 event. After that, the target eNodeB station select the most suitable 5G station based on resulting measurement report. Finally, the eNodeB station will proceed to activate the sgnb addition procedure with the gNodeB station until the success. Because the procedure of transferring connection from the source eNodeB station to the target eNodeB station is now with a delay period that allows up to hundreds of ms, it will ensure the rate of drop/data interruption is extremely low. Once the UE is in the coverage and connected to the target eNodeB station, the station will choose the destination gNodeB station with the best data transmission quality for UE at the coming position immediately. Thus, the method has advantages: always ensure the quality of UE using 5G service at a high level, connecting between UE and the network is continuous, saving battery for UE because it is not necessary to measure B1 event so many times and easy to deploy with the small number of 5G stations and we can take advantage of the available 4G network infrastructure.
To achieve the above goal, the patent proposes a new solution for the case of UE to transfer from source eNodeB station to the target eNodeB station having connection with a gNodeB station, including:
Step 1: Measure the signal quality of 4G eNodeB neighbors and select a best eNodeB to handover.
UE is in a connected state with the source eNodeB. The eNodeB synthesizes the list of eNodeB neighbors and asks UE to send signal quality measurement reports at frequencies through the A5 event. The source eNodeB found that the quality of UE signals decline, the source eNodeB selects a target eNodeB station having good signal quality for UE to carry out the connection procedure.
Step 2: the source eNodeB activates the UE connection procedure to the target eNodeB.
The source eNodeB start the handover procedure from source 4G eNodeB to target eNodeB until success.
Step 3: The eNodeB chooses a 5G gNodeB. The step includes the following small steps:
The target eNodeB checks the ability to support the dual connectivity technology (4G-5G Dual Conectivity-ENDC). If the station has support, request UE to provide the 5G technology support information;
The target eNodeB receives a response, if the UE supports 5G technology, the eNodeB station will activate the measurement of B1 event, by sending information frequency of neighboring 5G stations to request UE to measure signal quality;
UE sends the measurement report to the target eNodeB following the B1 event;
The target eNodeB receives measurement information and select the eligible gNodeB station:
After this step, the selected 5G gNodeB station will be named by “the target gNodeB”.
Step 4: the target eNodeB conducts the SGNB Addition Procedure to the target gNodeB;
At the end of the processing flow, UE exchanges control signals via the target eNodeB station and using the service provided by the target gNodeB.
The following section clearly and fully describes the technical solution of the invention. In which, professional terms are defined as follows:
The invention offers a method that is easy to deploy at 4G service providers that can combine 5G services for the transfer procedure from a source eNodeB to a target eNodeB station having connection with target gNodeB.
Within the scope of the invention, the guarantee conditions of the method is the eNodeB can exchange control/data signals with UE and carry out normal procedures based on 4G technology.
Step 1: Measure the Signal Quality of Source eNodeB Neighbors and Select a Target eNodeB to Handover.
UE is in a state of “UE CONNECTED” with the source eNodeB station. Through the A5 event, the source eNodeB sent a list of frequencies that require UE to measure the quality of RSRP/RSRQ signals to decide whether handover procedures.
At the Source eNodeB Station:
In particular, the operating frequency information of neighbor stations will be the input of the block (102)—request UE to measure the signal quality of the source eNodeB and eNodeB Neighbor;
Receiving the “RRC connection configuration” newsletter containing information requiring signal quality measurement, the UE will get the measurement request as an input of the signal quality block (103).
Selection of a target eNodeB—block (106): Receive information {RSRP, PhyCellID} at each frequency satisfying the conditions of activating the event A5. The source eNodeB selects a target eNodeB that is highest RSRP.
Step 2: The Source eNodeB Station Activates the UE Handover Procedure to the Target eNodeB Station.
Information pair (B1ThresholdNrRsrp, NRArfcn): is the input of the activation event B1—lock (114).
To prove the effectiveness of the patent, the authors have applied the invention into the integration of hardware on the high frequency broadcasting device 4G and 5G produced by VHT-Viettel. The model described in
In this actual testing example, we using a eNodeB Viettel-VHT station (referred to as ENODEB_0) and two 4G ENDC eNodeB Viettel-VHT stations (referred to as eNodeB_ENDC_1 and eNodeB_ENDC_2) are structured: Including a signal control and Concentrate Component (CTC), three Baseband Component (BBC), three Remote Radio Units (RRU), three antennas:
Authors establish two gNodeB stations VHT-VIETEL (referred to as gNodeB_1, gNodeB_2) with a hardware structure including the distribution unit block (DU), concentrated unit (CU) and Remote Radio Unit (RRU). DU and CU base on the Intel processor (R) Xeon (R) Gold 6342 CPU 2.8 GHz of Intel. This processor has 24 core (Core), 48 specialized threads. Currently, VHT uses CU to handle signal control operations and processing physical-class orchids, traveling with high-speed data transport operations.
The adjacent stations eNodeB_0 are eNodeB_ENDC_1 and eNodeB_ENDC_2 stations. eNodeB_ENDC_1 station has an X2 connection with two gNodeB_1 and gNodeB_2 stations. eNodeB_ENDC_2 also has an X2 connection with two gNodeB_1 and gNodeB_2 stations.
With the condition of activating the A5 event, and based on the configuration eNodeB_0 sent to UE. UE will decide to send to eNodeB_0 the information {RSRP, PhyCellID}, satisfy the A5 event.
The transfer procedure from Enodeb VHT-Viettel (not support Endc) to eNodeB ENDC VHT-Viettel and connects to 5g gNodeB VHT-Viettel are successful. UE connects the signal to the Enodeb Endc VHT-Viettel and uses the 5G service via 5G gNodeB VHT-Viettel device.
The method is feasible, easy to apply and make the most of the existing hardware equipment, saving development time. The actual implementation of the method has shown the ability to UE using 5G technology service in parallel with a stable 4G connection. Fast growing time, optimization of costs and ensuring very low call drop rate are the outstanding benefits of inventions that bring carriers who want to take advantage of the available 4G platform and can still provide 5G service for users.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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1-2022-04833 | Jul 2022 | VN | national |