Various embodiments relate to wireless communications.
Minimization of drive tests (MDT) is a standardized mechanism implemented in many current wireless communication systems (e.g., 5G communication systems). MDT enables network operators to utilize terminal devices within the network for performing radio measurements and acquiring associated location information in order to assess network performance. The use of MDT serves to reduce the need for traditional drive tests. An MDT mechanism has been defined, for example, for Multicast Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) Long Term Evolution (LTE) deployments. However, said MDT mechanism for MBSFN LTE is not suitable for use in New Radio deployments using MBSFN due to differences between LTE and NR.
According to an aspect, there is provided an apparatus for a terminal device of a wireless communication network, the apparatus comprising:
According to an aspect, there is provided an apparatus for an access node of a wireless communication network, the apparatus comprising:
According to an aspect, there is provided a method comprising:
According to an aspect, there is provided a method comprising:
According to an aspect, there is provided a computer program comprising instructions for causing an apparatus as a terminal device in a wireless communication network to perform at least the following:
According to an aspect, there is provided a computer program comprising instructions for causing an apparatus as an access node of a wireless communication network to perform at least the following:
According to an aspect, there is provided the subject matter of the independent claims. Embodiments are defined in the dependent claims.
One or more examples of implementations are set forth in more detail in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features will be apparent from the description, drawings and the claims.
In the following, embodiments will be described in greater detail with reference to the attached drawings, in which
The following embodiments are only presented as examples. Although the specification may refer to “an”, “one”, or “some” embodiment(s) and/or example(s) in several locations of the text, this does not necessarily mean that each reference is made to the same embodiment(s) or example(s), or that a particular feature only applies to a single embodiment and/or example. Single features of different embodiments and/or examples may also be combined to provide other embodiments and/or examples.
In the following, different exemplifying embodiments will be described using, as an example of an access architecture to which the embodiments may be applied, a radio access architecture based on long term evolution advanced (LTE Advanced, LTE-A) or new radio (NR, 5G), without restricting the embodiments to such an architecture, however. It is obvious for a person skilled in the art that the embodiments may also be applied to other kinds of communications networks having suitable means by adjusting parameters and procedures appropriately. Some examples of other options for suitable systems are the universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) radio access network (UTRAN or E-UTRAN), long term evolution (LTE, the same as E-UTRA), wireless local area network (WLAN or WiFi), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), Bluetooth®, personal communications services (PCS), ZigBee®, wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), systems using ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, sensor networks, mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) and Internet Protocol multimedia subsystems (IMS) or any combination thereof.
The embodiments are not, however, restricted to the system given as an example but a person skilled in the art may apply the solution to other communication systems provided with necessary properties.
The example of
A communications system typically comprises more than one (e/g)NodeB in which case the (e/g)NodeBs may also be configured to communicate with one another over links, wired or wireless, designed for the purpose. These links may be used for signalling purposes. The (e/g)NodeB is a computing device configured to control the radio resources of communication system it is coupled to. The NodeB may also be referred to as a base station, an access point or any other type of interfacing device including a relay station capable of operating in a wireless environment. The (e/g)NodeB includes or is coupled to transceivers. From the transceivers of the (e/g)NodeB, a connection is provided to an antenna unit that establishes bi-directional radio links to user devices. The antenna unit may comprise a plurality of antennas or antenna elements. The (e/g)NodeB is further connected to core network 110 (CN or next generation core NGC). Depending on the system, the counterpart on the CN side can be a serving gateway (S-GW, routing and forwarding user data packets), packet data network gateway (P-GW), for providing connectivity of user devices (UEs) to external packet data networks, or mobile management entity (MME), etc.
The (e/g)NodeB may be divided, in some cases, into two or more physical entities comprising a centralized unit (CU) 108 and at least one distributed unit (DU) 104. The CU may provide support for the higher layers of the protocol stack such as service data adaption protocol (SDAP), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) and radio resource control (RRC) while the DU may provide support for the lower layers of the protocol stack such as radio link control (RLC), medium access control (MAC) and physical layer.
The user device (also called UE, user equipment, user terminal, terminal device, etc.) illustrates one type of an apparatus to which resources on the air interface are allocated and assigned, and thus any feature described herein with a user device may be implemented with a corresponding apparatus, such as a relay node. An example of such a relay node is a layer 3 relay (self-backhauling relay) towards the base station.
The user device typically refers to a portable computing device that includes wireless mobile communication devices operating with or without a subscriber identification module (SIM), including, but not limited to, the following types of devices: a mobile station (mobile phone), smartphone, personal digital assistant (PDA), handset, device using a wireless modem (alarm or measurement device, etc.), laptop and/or touch screen computer, tablet, game console, notebook, and multimedia device. It should be appreciated that a user device may also be a nearly exclusive uplink only device, of which an example is a camera or video camera loading images or video clips to a network. A user device may also be a device having capability to operate in Internet of Things (IoT) network which is a scenario in which objects are provided with the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. The user device (or in some embodiments a layer 3 relay node) is configured to perform one or more of user equipment functionalities. The user device may also be called a subscriber unit, mobile station, remote terminal, access terminal, user terminal or user equipment (UE) just to mention but a few names or apparatuses.
Various techniques described herein may also be applied to a cyber-physical system (CPS) (a system of collaborating computational elements controlling physical entities). CPS may enable the implementation and exploitation of massive amounts of interconnected ICT devices (sensors, actuators, processors microcontrollers, etc.) embedded in physical objects at different locations. Mobile cyber physical systems, in which the physical system in question has inherent mobility, are a subcategory of cyber-physical systems. Examples of mobile physical systems include mobile robotics and electronics transported by humans or animals.
It should be understood that, in
Additionally, although the apparatuses have been depicted as single entities, different units, processors and/or memory units (not all shown in
5G enables using multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) antennas, many more base stations or nodes than the LTE (a so-called small cell concept), including macro sites operating in co-operation with smaller stations and employing a variety of radio technologies depending on service needs, use cases and/or spectrum available. 5G mobile communications supports a wide range of use cases and related applications including video streaming, augmented reality, different ways of data sharing and various forms of machine type applications, including vehicular safety, different sensors and real-time control. 5G is expected to have multiple radio interfaces, namely below 6 GHz, cmWave and mmWave, and also being integradable with existing legacy radio access technologies, such as the LTE. Integration with the LTE may be implemented, at least in the early phase, as a system, where macro coverage is provided by the LTE and 5G radio interface access comes from small cells by aggregation to the LTE. In other words, 5G is planned to support both inter-RAT operability (such as LTE-5G) and inter-RI operability (inter-radio interface operability, such as below 6 GHz-cmWave, below 6 GHz-cmWave-mmWave). One of the concepts considered to be used in 5G networks is network slicing in which multiple independent and dedicated virtual sub-networks (network instances) may be created within the same infrastructure to run services that have different requirements on latency, reliability, throughput and mobility.
The current architecture in LTE networks is fully distributed in the radio and fully centralized in the core network. The low latency applications and services in 5G require to bring the content close to the radio which leads to local break out and multi-access edge computing (MEC). 5G enables analytics and knowledge generation to occur at the source of the data. This approach requires leveraging resources that may not be continuously connected to a network such as laptops, smartphones, tablets and sensors. MEC provides a distributed computing environment for application and service hosting. It also has the ability to store and process content in close proximity to cellular subscribers for faster response time. Edge computing covers a wide range of technologies such as wireless sensor networks, mobile data acquisition, mobile signature analysis, cooperative distributed peer-to-peer ad hoc networking and processing also classifiable as local cloud/fog computing and grid/mesh computing, dew computing, mobile edge computing, cloudlet, distributed data storage and retrieval, autonomic self-healing networks, remote cloud services, augmented and virtual reality, data caching, Internet of Things (massive connectivity and/or latency critical), critical communications (autonomous vehicles, traffic safety, real-time analytics, time-critical control, healthcare applications).
The communication system is also able to communicate with other networks, such as a public switched telephone network or the Internet 112, or utilise services provided by them. The communication network may also be able to support the usage of cloud services, for example at least part of core network operations may be carried out as a cloud service (this is depicted in
Edge cloud may be brought into radio access network (RAN) by utilizing network function virtualization (NVF) and software defined networking (SDN). Using edge cloud may mean access node operations to be carried out, at least partly, in a server, host or node operationally coupled to a remote radio head or base station comprising radio parts. It is also possible that node operations will be distributed among a plurality of servers, nodes or hosts. Application of cloudRAN architecture enables RAN real time functions being carried out at the RAN side (in a distributed unit, DU 104) and non-real time functions being carried out in a centralized manner (in a centralized unit, CU 108).
It should also be understood that the distribution of labour between core network operations and base station operations may differ from that of the LTE or even be non-existent. Some other technology advancements probably to be used are Big Data and all-IP, which may change the way networks are being constructed and managed. 5G (or new radio, NR) networks are being designed to support multiple hierarchies, where MEC servers can be placed between the core and the base station or nodeB (gNB). It should be appreciated that MEC can be applied in 4G networks as well.
5G may also utilize satellite communication to enhance or complement the coverage of 5G service, for example by providing backhauling. Possible use cases are providing service continuity for machine-to-machine (M2M) or Internet of Things (IoT) devices or for passengers on board of vehicles, or ensuring service availability for critical communications, and future railway/maritime/aeronautical communications. Satellite communication may utilise geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite systems, but also low earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems, in particular mega-constellations (systems in which hundreds of (nano)satellites are deployed). Each satellite 106 in the mega-constellation may cover several satellite-enabled network entities that create on-ground cells. The on-ground cells may be created through an on-ground relay node 104 or by a gNB located on-ground or in a satellite.
It is obvious for a person skilled in the art that the depicted system is only an example of a part of a radio access system and in practice, the system may comprise a plurality of (e/g)NodeBs, the user device may have an access to a plurality of radio cells and the system may comprise also other apparatuses, such as physical layer relay nodes or other network elements, etc. At least one of the (e/g)NodeBs or may be a Home(e/g)nodeB. Additionally, in a geographical area of a radio communication system a plurality of different kinds of radio cells as well as a plurality of radio cells may be provided. Radio cells may be macro cells (or umbrella cells) which are large cells, usually having a diameter of up to tens of kilometers, or smaller cells such as micro-, femto-or picocells. The (e/g)NodeBs of
For fulfilling the need for improving the deployment and performance of communication systems, the concept of “plug-and-play” (e/g)NodeBs has been introduced. Typically, a network which is able to use “plug-and-play” (e/g)Node Bs, includes, in addition to Home (e/g)NodeBs (H(e/g)nodeBs), a home node B gateway, or HNB-GW (not shown in
6G networks are expected to adopt flexible decentralized and/or distributed computing systems and architecture and ubiquitous computing, with local spectrum licensing, spectrum sharing, infrastructure sharing, and intelligent automated management underpinned by mobile edge computing, artificial intelligence, short-packet communication and blockchain technologies. Key features of 6G will include intelligent connected management and control functions, programmability, integrated sensing and communication, reduction of energy footprint, trustworthy infrastructure, scalability and affordability. In addition to these, 6G is also targeting new use cases covering the integration of localization and sensing capabilities into system definition to unifying user experience across physical and digital worlds.
The system of
The (5G NR or 6G) system of
The system of
NR MDT framework is based on Trace and Control Plane based architecture. MDT originates in Orchestration and Management (OAM) layer, where the MDT configuration (i.e., Trace Activation) starts. Measurements are configured to the terminal device via RRC signalling, following Network Management. MDT reports that come from a terminal device 100, 102 to the access node 104 may be forwarded to a trace collection entity of the core network 110.
Three different MDT data collection modes may be defined for the (5G NR or 6G) system of
A first MDT data collection mode (“immediate MDT mode”) is usable by terminal devices operating in RRC connected mode. The first MDT data collection mode may be applicable to NR and EN-DC (Evolved-Universal Terrestrial Radio Access-New Radio). The term EN-DC refers to E-UTRA NR Dual connectivity. In the first MDT data collection mode, radio measurements are carried out (i.e., data is collected) and reported back to an access node in real time (i.e., without delay).
A second MDT data collection mode (“logged MDT mode”) is usable by terminal devices operating in RRC idle mode or RRC inactive mode. In the second MDT data collection mode, radio measurements are carried out (i.e., data is collected) but the reporting does not occur in real time (i.e., there may be a significant delay between the radio measurement and the reporting of the radio measurement). Specifically, the terminal device may start collecting the data (i.e., perform the radio measurements) upon transition to RRC idle or inactive mode and report the availability of MDT data (i.e., results of radio measurements) when returning to RRC connected mode (e.g., using UEInformation procedure). To enable the reporting of the availability of MDT data, availability bit may be included within RRCSetupComplete, RRCResumeComplete, RRCReconfigurationComplete and/or RRCReestablishment-Complete message. Subsequently, an (NR) MDT report (comprising, e.g., serving/neighboring cell radio measurements, location information, time stamp, and/or events/failures records) may be transmitted by the terminal device to an access node. The second MDT data collection mode may be configured to the terminal device using a dedicated (RRC) measurement configuration message (namely, an RRC LoggedMeasurementConfiguration message). The trigger for reporting the results of the radio measurements may be a periodic trigger or event-based trigger (e.g., an A2-like event or an out of coverage event). A2 event corresponds to an event which is triggered when a sum of signal quality (e.g., RSRP or RSRQ) for a serving cell and a pre-defined hysteresis parameter falls below a pre-defined threshold.
A third MDT data collection mode (“deferred reporting mode”) is triggered by a pre-defined event (e.g., a detected radio link failure or a detected connection establishment failure).
In some embodiments, at least the second MDT data collection mode may be defined for the system of
While MDT report for Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) has been defined for LTE MBSFN deployments, no such definition exists for NR deployments. In case of NR, there are significant changes in multicast/broadcast architecture, in addition to the changes resulting from the network technology itself (NR compared to LTE).
One of the main differences between NR MBS and LTE MBMS is the usage of DL-SCH and PDSCH, in place of dedicated channels as used with LTE MBMS. Moreover, MBSFN is transparent to the terminal device. Therefore, the terminal device has no information on any MBSFN area.
At least due to above reasons, MDT report from LTE MBMS cannot be used for optimizing the network in NR. Hence, there exists a need for a solution enabling the network to successfully perform optimizations for broadcast transmissions using an MDT report designed specifically for the needs of 5G NR MBS framework.
Referring to
The MDT measurement configuration may define a trigger for reporting the results of the MDT measurements. Said trigger may be a periodic trigger or an event-based trigger (e.g., an A2-like event or an out of coverage event).
The MDT measurement configuration may define one or more first (averaging) parameters for the averaging carried out when (blind) repetitions of multiple different broadcast transmissions are received by the terminal device (as described in detail in connection with
Additionally or alternatively, the MDT measurement configuration may comprise one or more second (averaging) parameters for determining an average MCS index.
The apparatus performs or causes performing, in block 202, MDT measurements for the one or more MBS based on broadcast transmissions (of transport blocks) associated with one or more cells of the wireless communication network based on the received MDT measurement configuration. In other words, the broadcast transmissions may be received from one or more access nodes serving, respectively, one or more cells of the wireless communication network. Thus, the apparatus performs or causes performing MDT measurements while visiting one or more cells. In general, one or more MDT measurements may be performed per visited cell. The terminal device (being or comprising the apparatus) may be assumed to operate, during the MDT measurements in block 202, in an RRC idle, inactive or connected operating mode and/or using MBS delivery mode 1 and/or 2.
The MDT measurements are carried out on a per cell basis (i.e., separately for each cell). In other words, each of the MDT measurements may be associated with or mapped to a particular (camped) cell identifier identifying a cell associated with the given MDT measurement.
In some embodiments, the apparatus may specifically perform or cause performing, in block 202, measurements of reference signal received power (RSRP) and/or reference signal received quality (RSRQ) based on the broadcast transmissions. Here, the broadcast transmissions may correspond to or comprise one or more reference signals of a pre-defined type. The pre-defined type of the one or more reference signals may be, e.g., a synchronization signal block (SSB) or a tracking reference signal (TRS).
In particular, TRS may be useful in the context of terminal device transparent MBSFN. SSBs are cell-specific transmissions and thus they are not, in general, expected to be synchronized between neighboring cells. However, TRSs are highly configurable. Therefore, it is possible to configure same TRS resources (time-frequency resources) from the cells in the MBSFN area so that the terminal device would indeed measure the sum of the signals synchronously transmitted by the cells of a particular MBSFN area.
In some embodiments, the MDT measurements performed in block 202 may comprise, additionally or alternatively, various measurements relating to decoding of at least one transport block contained in the broadcast transmissions, as will be described in further detail in connection with
In some embodiments, the one or more cells may comprise a plurality of cells. In other words, the apparatus (or the terminal device) may receive broadcast transmissions from multiple cells over time, e.g., due to mobility.
In addition to being performed on a per cell basis, the MDT measurements in block 202 may be performed on a per G-RNTI basis (i.e., separately for each G-RNTI) when MTCH is employed and/or on a per MCCH-RNTI basis (i.e., separately for each MCCH-RNTI) when MCCH is employed so as to differentiate between different services and control/data plane. Here, it may be assumed that the terminal device (or the apparatus) is configured with one or more G-RNTIs (or a plurality of G-RNTIs) and/or with one or more MCCH-RNTIs (or a plurality of MCCH-RNTIs). As described above, transport blocks containing MCCH may be transmitted by access node(s) via PDSCH by scrambling their cyclic redundancy check (CRC) using a MCCH-RNTI (of the terminal device) while transport blocks containing MTCH may be transmitted by access node(s) via PDSCH with the CRC scrambled using a G-RNTI. The apparatus (or the terminal device) may perform descrambling or decoding of received broadcast transmissions using the one or more G-RNTIs and/or the one or more MCCH-RNTIs configured to the terminal device. The apparatus may log (i.e., store to a database) results of MTCH measurements for each G-RNTI configured to the terminal device and/or results of MCCH measurements for each MCCH-RNTI configured to the terminal device.
Thus, the MDT measurements as defined in block 202 may comprise:
In other words, each MDT measurement may be associated with a particular G-RNTI or a particular MCCH-RNTI. Each of the MDT measurements may also in these cases be associated with a particular cell in which the measurement in question was performed.
In some embodiments, the MDT measurements on the broadcast transmissions for the one or more MBS associated with the one or more cells of the wireless communication network may be performed in block 202 while the terminal device operates in MBS delivery mode 1 and/or MBS delivery mode 2 (as defined above). In other words, all of the MDT measurements may have been performed when operating in MBS delivery mode 1 or in MBS delivery mode 2 or some of the MDT measurements may have been performed when operating in MBS delivery mode 1 and others while operating in MBS delivery mode 2.
In some embodiments, the apparatus may store the results of the MDT measurements (and further information associated with the one or more MDT measurements such as one or more cell identifiers, one or more G-RNTIs, one or more MCCH-RNTIs, one or more MBS delivery modes and/or one or more MCS indices used for decoding) to a database. The results of the MDT measurements may be indexed (or ordered or organized), in the database, based on the one or more cell identifiers, one or more G-RNTIs, one or more MCCH-RNTIs, MBS delivery modes and/or one or more MCS indices used for decoding. Said database may be an internal or external database of the apparatus or an internal or external database of the terminal device. This process may be equally called logging. The logged information may be stored at least for a pre-defined amount of time (e.g., 48 hours) following the logging.
The apparatus transmits or causes transmitting, in block 203, an MDT report (for the one or more MBS) to an access node of the wireless communication network. This access node may or may not be the access node from which the MDT measurement configuration was received and/or an access node involved in the one or more MDT measurements. The MDT report is formed by the apparatus, at least in part, based on the MDT measurement configuration. Here, the MDT report comprises at least information on results of the MDT measurements (or at least some of them). The results of the MDT measurements are indexed (or ordered or organized), in the MDT report, based at least on one or more cell identifiers of the one or more cells. The one or more cell identifiers of the one or more cells may be comprised in the MDT report. In some cases (e.g., when the one or more cell identifiers consist of a single cell identifier), the one or more cell identifiers may be omitted from the MDT report. In other words, the results of each (or at least one) of the MDT measurements may be associated with or tagged to one of the one or more cell identifiers in the MDT report so that it may discerned, based on the MDT report, which MDT measurement result is related to which cell. The results of the MDT measurements may correspond to, for example, to measured values of RSRP, RSRQ and/or BLER. The one or more cell identifiers may be, for example, cell global identifiers (CGIs).
In some embodiments, the MDT report comprises information on the pre-defined type(s) of the reference signals associated with the measurements of the RSRP and/or RSRQ (e.g., SSB or TRS). The results of the measurements of the RSRP and/or RSRQ may be indexed (or ordered or organized), in the MDT report, based on the pre-defined type of the reference signals (if multiple different types are used).
If the MDT measurements (or at least some of them) are carried out on a per G-RNTI basis as described in connection with block 202, results of the one or more MDT measurements on the broadcast transmissions for the one or more MBS associated with the one or more MTCHs may be indexed (or ordered or organized), in the MDT report, based on the one or more G-RNTIs associated with the one or more MTCHs (and on the one or more cell identifier). In such a case, the MDT report may comprise at least information on results of the one or more MDT measurements, the one or more cell identifiers and the one or more G-RNTIs. In other words, each MDT measurement result (e.g., RSRP and/or RSRQ value) or at least one MDT measurement result may be associated with or tagged to, in the MDT report, a particular cell identifier and a particular G-RNTI.
If the MDT measurements (or at least some of them) are carried out on a per MCCH-RNTI basis as described in connection with block 202, results of the one or more MDT measurements on the broadcast transmissions for the one or more MBS associated with the one or more MCCHs may be indexed (or ordered or organized), in the MDT report, based on the one or more MCCH-RNTIs associated with the one or more MCCHs (and on the one or more cells). In such a case, the MDT report may comprise at least information on results of the MDT measurements, the one or more cell identifiers and the one or more MCCH-RNTIs. In other words, each MDT measurement result (e.g., RSRP and/or RSRQ value) or at least one MDT measurement result may be associated with or tagged to a particular cell identifier and a particular MCCH-RNTI in the MDT report.
In some embodiments, results of the MDT measurements on the broadcast transmissions for the one or more MBS may be indexed (or ordered or organized), in the MDT report, based on at least one MBS delivery mode used for performing the MDT measurements. The information on the used MBS delivery mode(s) may be comprised in the MDT report (tagged to the results of the MDT measurements).
In some embodiments where the MDT measurements in block 202 are radio measurements of reference signal(s) of a pre-defined type (e.g., SSB or TRS), the MDT report transmitted in block 203 may also comprise information on said pre-defined type.
In some embodiments, the MDT report may comprise DL-SCH block error rate (BLER) for the one or more MDT measurements.
In some embodiments, the MDT report may comprise information on at least one carrier frequency used in the one or more MDT measurements (i.e., used in the broadcast transmissions).
In some embodiments, the MDT report may comprise location information (namely, location information of the terminal device at the time of the MDT measurements), time stamps associated with the MDT measurements and/or one or more event or failure records.
Referring to
In general, the MDT measurement configuration transmitted in block 211 may be defined so as to implement any of the embodiments of the terminal device-side as discussed, e.g., in connection with
The following blocks 212, 213 of
The apparatus broadcasts, in block 212, one or more signals (comprising, e.g., one or more SSBs and/or one or more TRSs) to be measured by the terminal device.
The apparatus receives, in block 213, an MDT report from the terminal device. The MDT may (or may not) comprise results of MDT measurements carried out based on the one or more signals transmitted in block 212. The MDT report may be defined as described in detail in connection with block 203 of
The access node may, following the reception of the MDT report in block 213, communicate the MDT report or at least some of the MDT measurement results comprised therein to a core network entity (e.g., a trace collection entity) for enabling optimization of the broadcast transmissions in the wireless communication network. As the results of the MDT measurements are provided at least per cell, the parameters for broadcast transmission in each cell that the terminal device has visited can be separately optimized.
NR broadcasting using MBS delivery mode 2 (DM-2) does not support hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback. Therefore, (blind) repetitions may be to be used to improve the decoding performance of broadcast in NR. However, there are no means for the network to know how many (blind) repetitions were needed for the terminal devices to decode the TBs successfully.
For example, the network may have configured 4 (blind) retransmissions (AggregationLevel=4), such that every TB (potentially with different redundancy versions) is transmitted 5 times to the terminal devices. However, it may be that all the terminal devices decode the TB only in 3 transmissions and 2 over 5 transmissions are in general redundant and would decrease spectral efficiency. If the network would know when such situations occur, it could, in the long run, optimize the number of repetitions based on the current channel conditions of the network. The network may also change the MCS, if needed.
Any of the features and definitions provided in connection with
Referring to
Here, the performing of the MDT measurements corresponds to blocks 302, 303. It assumed, in this embodiment, that the broadcast transmissions transmitted by one or more access nodes to the terminal device (or to the apparatus) comprise original broadcast transmissions and (blind) repetitions of the original broadcast transmissions. Specifically, one or more (blind) repetitions may be transmitted for each (or at least one) of the original broadcast transmissions.
Accordingly, the apparatus receives, in block 302, a plurality of broadcast transmissions comprising at least some of the original broadcast transmissions and the (blind) repetitions of the original broadcast transmissions transmitted by said one or more access nodes. The plurality of broadcast transmissions may be defined here as discussed in connection with block 202 of
The apparatus decodes, in block 303, at least one transport block (TB) based on the received broadcast transmissions of transport blocks. In other words, for each original broadcast transmission, the decoding may be carried out based on one or more broadcast transmission comprising said original broadcast transmission (if available) and/or zero or more of one or more available (blind) repetitions of said original broadcast transmission. It should be noted that, in some cases, the original broadcast transmission may not be received successfully but one or more of its repetitions may. The number of the zero or more of the one or more available (blind) repetitions used in the decoding may be selected to be the smallest number resulting in successful decoding. The smallest number of (blind) repetitions needed for successful decoding may depend, for example, on signal quality (which, in turn, depends on, e.g., current channel conditions).
In some embodiments, the performing of the MDT measurements (by the apparatus) based on the received MDT measurement configuration (corresponding to block 202 of
In some embodiments, the performing of the MDT measurements (by the apparatus) based on the received MDT measurement configuration (corresponding to block 202 of
As described above, the averaging for calculating the average number of (blind) necessary or unnecessary repetitions may be carried out according one or more first (averaging) parameters defined in the MDT measurement configuration received from an access node.
In some embodiments, the performing of the MDT measurements (by the apparatus) based on the received MDT measurement configuration (corresponding to block 202 of
As described above, the averaging for determining the average MCS index may be carried out according one or more second (averaging) parameters defined in the MDT measurement configuration received from an access node.
The apparatus transmits or causes transmitting, in block 304, an MDT report to an access node of the wireless communication network (which may or may not be an access node involved in the MDT measurements), similar to block 203 of
Here, the MDT report further comprises measurement result information relating to the decoding. Namely, the MDT report may comprise:
In some embodiments, the information relating to the decoding may be provided, in the MDT report, per cell, per G-RNTI or MCCH-RNTI, per MCS (index) and/or per MBS delivery mode.
Additionally or alternatively, the MDT report may comprise measurement result information relating to the decoding represented as a BLER measured after each broadcast transmission (i.e., after each received original broadcast transmission and after each received (blind) repetition thereof). In some embodiments, this information may be provided, in the MDT report, per cell, per MCS (index), per G-RNTI or MCCH-RNTI and/or per MBS delivery mode.
In some embodiments, the MDT report may further comprise measurement result information on at least one MCS used in the decoding of said at least one transport block of the broadcast transmissions for the one or more MBS (e.g., comprising at least one MCS index). Additionally or alternatively, the MDT report may further comprise information on an average MCS index of the at least one MCS used in the decoding of said at least one transport block of the broadcast transmissions for the one or more MBS.
The network is able to optimize the number of (blind) repetitions and/or MCS based on the MDT report.
In some embodiments, the apparatus may store (i.e., log) any of the decoding related information described above to a database.
Referring to
The access node transmits, in message 402, an MDT measurement configuration message defining a configuration for MDT measurements (for one or more MBS) and subsequent MDT reporting to the terminal device, as described in connection with block 201 of
In general, the MDT measurement configuration message (being, e.g., the LoggedMeasurementConfiguration message) may comprise one or more of the following:
The terminal device receives, in block 403, the MDT measurement configuration message and configures, also in block 403, itself according to the MDT measurement configuration message.
The terminal device switches, in block 404, from the RRC connected mode to RRC inactive or idle mode. While not explicitly shown in
The terminal device switches, in block 406, back to the RRC connected mode. While not explicitly shown in
Upon switching back to the RRC connected mode in block 406, the terminal device transmits, in message 407, to the access node, a message comprising an indication informing the access node that logged MDT data is available (i.e., results of the MDT measurements are available and thus an MDT report may be transmitted upon request). The message 407 may be an RRC setup complete message.
Upon receiving the message comprising the indication in block 408, the access node transmits, in message 409, an MDT information request to the terminal device (for requesting transmission of an MDT report).
Upon receiving the MDT information request in block 410, the terminal device generates or forms, in block 411, an MDT report according to the MDT measurement configuration defined via the configuration message 402 and based on logged measurement information and subsequently transmits, in block 412, the MDT report to the access node. In other embodiments, the MDT report may be generated already before the transmitting of message 407.
The access node receives, in block 413, the MDT report from the terminal device.
While it was assumed in
While
The blocks, related functions, and information exchanges (messages) described above by means of
The apparatus 501 may comprise one or more control circuitry 520, such as at least one processor, and at least one memory 530, including one or more algorithms 531, such as a computer program code (software) wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code (software) are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to carry out any one of the exemplified functionalities of the apparatus (or the terminal device) described above. Said at least one memory 530 may also comprise at least one database 532.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
The apparatus 601 may comprise one or more control circuitry 620, such as at least one processor, and at least one memory 630, including one or more algorithms 631, such as a computer program code (software) wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code (software) are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to carry out any one of the exemplified functionalities of the apparatus (or the access node) described above. Said at least one memory 630 may also comprise at least one database 632.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
As used in this application, the term ‘circuitry’ may refer to one or more or all of the following: (a) hardware-only circuit implementations, such as implementations in only analog and/or digital circuitry, and (b) combinations of hardware circuits and software (and/or firmware), such as (as applicable): (i) a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuit(s) with software/firmware and (ii) any portions of hardware processor(s) with software, including digital signal processor(s), software, and memory (ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a terminal device or an access node, to perform various functions, and (c) hardware circuit(s) and processor(s), such as a microprocessor(s) or a portion of a microprocessor(s), that requires software (e.g. firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation. This definition of ‘circuitry’ applies to all uses of this term in this application, including any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term ‘circuitry’ also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or a portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware. The term ‘circuitry’ also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit for an access node or a terminal device or other computing or network device.
In an embodiment, at least some of the processes described in connection with
According to an embodiment, there is provided an apparatus (for a terminal device), the apparatus comprising means for:
According to an embodiment, there is provided an apparatus (for an access node), the apparatus comprising means for:
Embodiments as described may also be carried out in the form of a computer process defined by a computer program or portions thereof. Embodiments of the methods described in connection with
Even though the embodiments have been described above with reference to examples according to the accompanying drawings, it is clear that the embodiments are not restricted thereto but can be modified in several ways within the scope of the appended claims. Therefore, all words and expressions should be interpreted broadly and they are intended to illustrate, not to restrict, the embodiment. It will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that, as technology advances, the inventive concept can be implemented in various ways. Further, it is clear to a person skilled in the art that the described embodiments may, but are not required to, be combined with other embodiments in various ways.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2022/058774 | 4/1/2022 | WO |