Patent Application
20250105992
Embodiments herein relate to a radio network node, a user equipment (UE) and methods performed therein regarding wireless communication. Furthermore, a computer program and a computer readable storage medium are also provided herein. In particular, embodiments herein relate to handling cell barring in a wireless communications network.
In a typical wireless communications network, UEs, also known as wireless communication devices, mobile stations, stations (STA) and/or wireless devices, communicate via a Radio Access Network (RAN) with one or more core networks (CN). The RAN covers a geographical area which is divided into service areas or cells, with each service area or cell being served by a radio network node such as an access node e.g. a Wi-Fi access point or a radio base station (RBS), which in some networks may also be called, for example, a NodeB, a gNodeB, or an eNodeB. The service area or cell is a geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the radio network node. The radio network node operates on radio frequencies to communicate over an air interface with the UEs within range of the radio network node. The radio network node communicates over a downlink (DL) to the UE and the UE communicates over an uplink (UL) to the radio network node.
A Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation (3G) telecommunication network, which evolved from the second generation (2G) Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). The UMTS terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) is essentially a RAN using wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) and/or High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) for communication with user equipment. In a forum known as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), telecommunications suppliers propose and agree upon standards for present and future generation networks and investigate, e.g., enhanced data rate and radio capacity. In some RANs, e.g., as in UMTS, several radio network nodes may be connected, e.g., by landlines or microwave, to a controller node, such as a radio network controller (RNC) or a base station controller (BSC), which supervises and coordinates various activities of the plural radio network nodes connected thereto. The RNCs are typically connected to one or more core networks.
Specifications for the Evolved Packet System (EPS) have been completed within the 3GPP and coming 3GPP releases, such as New Radio (NR), are worked on. The EPS comprises the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), also known as the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) radio access network, and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), also known as System Architecture Evolution (SAE) core network. E-UTRAN/LTE is a 3GPP radio access technology wherein the radio network nodes are directly connected to the EPC core network. As such, the RAN of an EPS has an essentially “flat” architecture comprising radio network nodes connected directly to one or more core networks.
With the emerging 5G technologies such as NR, the use of very many transmit- and receive-antenna elements may be of great interest as it makes it possible to utilize beamforming, such as transmit-side and receive-side beamforming. Transmit-side beamforming means that the transmitter can amplify the transmitted signals in a selected direction or directions, while suppressing the transmitted signals in other directions. Similarly, on the receive-side, a receiver can amplify signals from a selected direction or directions, while suppressing unwanted signals from other directions.
Procedures and requirements to support reduced capability (Redcap) UE, which entails characteristics like low complexity, low power consumption and low, are being specified in Rel-17. A RedCap UE will support the following UE complexity reduction features:
A frequency band or an operating frequency band supports one or more certain duplex modes of operation or duplex operational mode. Examples of duplex modes are FDD, TDD, HD-FDD, full duplex (FD). A device, e.g., UE, base station (BS) etc, may be capable of any of the duplex modes for certain supported frequency band. A UE may explicitly indicate its duplex mode of operation for a band or implicitly if the supported band only supports one duplex mode, e.g., by signalling UE capability related to duplex mode and/or band to the network.
In the above examples of the duplex modes the device can be a UE or a network node, e.g., BS:
Access barring mechanism is used under certain circumstances or in certain scenarios to prevent a UE from access attempts, including emergency call attempts, or when responding to paging in some areas of a public land mobile network (PLMN). Broadcast messages are transmitted on cell by cell basis indicating the class(es) or categories of subscribers which are barred from accessing the network. There are two types of access barring: ‘cell barring’ and ‘access class barring’. Cell barring is intended to bar UEs from accessing the cell on a long-term basis and is common for all UEs. E.g., a carrier which is intended to be used for off-loading can be set as cell barred to ensure UEs does not directly attempt to access this carrier but instead use the “main carrier” for access. Cell barring information is transmitted in master information block (MIB) and is indicated by the information element (IE) cellBarred.
Access class barring is instead used upon congestion to reduce the number of incoming access attempts. UEs are configured with different access classes and the barring parameters configured in SIB1 allows for reducing the access attempts from the different access classes.
In order to camp on certain cell, the UE has to acquire at least the contents of the MIB and system information block one (SIB1) for that cell.
As part of developing embodiments herein a problem has been identified. For example, a Redcap UE may be capable of supporting different types of duplex operations, e.g., FDD, HD-FDD, TDD etc. The UE's duplex operational capability may also depend on frequency band, e.g., for a certain band the UE may support FDD while for another band the UE may support HD-FDD etc. A Redcap UE may support different types of receiver configuration, e.g., 1 receiver (Rx) or 2 Rx. A Redcap UE may support any combination of the duplex operational capability and receiver configuration.
Every base station may not be able to efficiently serve different Redcap UE capabilities. For example, a legacy BS operating on FDD carrier may not be upgraded or is not yet upgraded to serve HD-FDD capable UEs. Serving HD-FDD capable UEs in an FDD base station requires new scheduling paradigm to ensure that the UE does not drop important data/reference signals required by the UE and/or the BS for different procedures. Similarly serving UE capable of HD-FDD and supporting fewer receivers, e.g., 1Rx, may require the BS to adapt its maximum MIMO layers and/or transmission power and/or may have to handle more retransmissions. HD-FDD also requires network implementation changes for the scheduler and collision cases, for different physical (PHY)-channels.
In NR release (Rel)-18, FD operation is also being specified. A legacy network not supporting FD can serve FD capable UE also using a less efficient duplex mode, e.g., FDD or HD-FDD or even TDD. But this approach is not very efficient from UE perspective as the UE can operate more efficiently, e.g., with higher throughput and/or better spectral efficiency.
The BS may also have to serve mixture of UEs supporting different duplex operational capabilities. This requires implementation of different resource allocation mechanisms in the same BS. But this may not be very efficient or not supported by all the BSs.
Currently there is no mechanism to limit or avoid operation of UEs supporting different duplex operational capabilities in a certain BS, e.g., legacy BS or BS with limited resources.
Therefore, new procedures to efficiently handle UEs supporting different duplex operational capabilities are proposed herein.
An object herein is to provide a mechanism to handle communication in an efficient manner in the wireless communications network.
According to an aspect the object is achieved, according to embodiments herein, by providing a method performed by a radio network node, such as a BS, for handling communication in a wireless communications network. The radio network node transmits an indication indicating duplex barring information (DBI) associated with or related to at least one duplex operational mode (DOM) of a UE, wherein the DBI for a cell indicates whether the UE supporting the at least one DOM can access the cell, or not. The indication may be transmitted to the UE or another radio network node. For example, a first radio network node may receive, from a second radio network node, the indication indicating DBI associated with or related to at least one DOM of a UE, wherein the DBI for a cell indicates whether the UE supporting the at least one DOM can access the cell, or not.
According to another aspect the object is achieved, according to embodiments herein, by providing a method performed by a UE for handling communication in a wireless communications network. The UE obtains an indication indicating DBI associated with or related to at least one DOM of the UE, wherein the DBI for a cell indicates whether the UE supporting the at least one DOM can access the cell, or not. The indication may be received from a radio network node or retrieved internally. The UE uses the indication for determining whether the UE can access a cell and/or stores the indication.
According to an aspect the object is achieved, according to embodiments herein, by providing a radio network node, and a UE configured to perform the methods herein, respectively.
According to yet another aspect the object is achieved, according to embodiments herein, by providing a radio network node for handling communication in a wireless communications network. The radio network node is configured to transmit an indication indicating DBI associated with or related to at least one DOM of a UE, wherein the DBI for a cell indicates whether the UE supporting the at least one DOM can access the cell, or not. The indication may be transmitted to the UE or another radio network node.
According to still another aspect the object is achieved, according to embodiments herein, by providing a UE for handling communication in a wireless communications network. The UE is configured to obtain an indication indicating DBI associated with or related to at least one DOM of the UE, wherein the DBI for a cell indicates whether the UE supporting the at least one DOM can access the cell, or not. The indication may be received from a radio network node or retrieved internally. The UE is configured to use the indication for determining whether the UE can access a cell and/or to store the indication.
It is furthermore provided herein a computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out any of the methods herein, as performed by the radio network node and the UE, respectively. It is additionally provided herein a computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out any of the methods herein, as performed by the radio network node and the UE, respectively.
Embodiments herein disclose procedures for the UE and the radio network node to distribute the DBI in the wireless communications network. Thus, it is herein provided a mechanism that allows the network to bar or forbid access to a cell, e.g., served by a legacy radio network node, which does not support or cannot efficiently serve the UE capable of a certain type of duplex operation, e.g., legacy FDD cell may not support scheduling UE with HD-FDD operation. This enables or directs the UE to access another cell which can serve the UE more efficiently. Thus, it is herein disclosed a solution to handle communication in an efficient manner in the wireless communications network.
Embodiments will now be described in more detail in relation to the enclosed drawings, in which:
Embodiments herein relate to wireless communications networks in general.
In the wireless communications network 1, a user equipment (UE) 10 exemplified herein as a wireless device such as a mobile station, a non-access point (non-AP) station (STA), a STA and/or a wireless terminal, is comprised communicating via e.g. one or more Access Networks (AN), e.g. radio access network (RAN), to one or more core networks (CN). It should be understood by the skilled in the art that “UE” is a non-limiting term which means any terminal, wireless communications terminal, user equipment, narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) device, Machine Type Communication (MTC) device, Device to Device (D2D) terminal, or node e.g. smart phone, laptop, mobile phone, sensor, relay, mobile tablets or even a small base station capable of communicating using radio communication with a radio network node within an area served by the radio network node.
The wireless communications network 1 comprises a first radio network node 12 or just radio network node, providing radio coverage over a geographical area, a first service area 11 or first cell, of a first radio access technology (RAT), such as NR, LTE, or similar. The first radio network node 12 may be a transmission and reception point such as an access node, an access controller, a base station, e.g. a radio base station such as a gNodeB (gNB), an evolved Node B (eNB, eNode B), a NodeB, a base transceiver station, a radio remote unit, an Access Point Base Station, a base station router, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access point or an Access Point Station (AP STA), a transmission arrangement of a radio base station, a stand-alone access point or any other network unit or node capable of communicating with a wireless device within the area served by the radio network node depending e.g. on the first radio access technology and terminology used. The first radio network node 12 may be referred to as a serving radio network node wherein the service area may be referred to as a serving cell, and the serving network node communicates with the UE 10 in form of DL transmissions to the UE 10 and UL transmissions from the UE 10. It should be noted that a service area may be denoted as cell, beam, beam group or similar to define an area of radio coverage.
The wireless communications network 1 comprises a second radio network node 13 or another radio network node, providing radio coverage over a geographical area, a second service area 14 or second cell, of a second RAT, such as NR, LTE, or similar. The second radio network node 13 may be a transmission and reception point such as an access node, an access controller, a base station, e.g. a radio base station such as a gNodeB (gNB), an evolved Node B (eNB, eNode B), a NodeB, a base transceiver station, a radio remote unit, an Access Point Base Station, a base station router, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access point or an Access Point Station (AP STA), a transmission arrangement of a radio base station, a stand-alone access point or any other network unit or node capable of communicating with a wireless device within the area served by the radio network node depending e.g. on the first radio access technology and terminology used. The second radio network node 13 may be referred to as a target radio network node wherein the service area may be referred to as a target cell, and the target network node communicates with the UE 10 in form of DL transmissions to the UE 10 and UL transmissions from the UE 10. It should be noted that a service area may be denoted as cell, beam, beam group or similar to define an area of radio coverage.
In a first embodiment a radio network node, such as the second radio network node 13, transmits an indication indicating DBI associated with or related to at least one DOM of the UE 10, wherein the DBI for a cell indicates whether the UE 10 supporting the DOM associated with the transmitted DBI can access that cell, or not. The indication may for example comprise supported one or more DOMs of the cell and/or one or more DOMs not supported. The DBI information may further comprise cell change information (CCI), wherein the transmitted CCI indicates that upon barring the cell whether the UE can perform cell change to another cell, or not. The CCI may further comprise information about one or more cells to which the UE to perform the cell change upon barring the cell based on the received DBI. Prior to transmitting the DBI and/or CCI for a cell, the radio network node may determine the DBI and/or CCI for the cell based on one or more criteria or scenarios, e.g., whether the cell can schedule mixture of UEs capable of different duplex operational modes.
In a second embodiment, a second network node (NW2), such as the second radio network node 13, transmits a DBI associated with or related to at least one DOM, for a cell, e.g., cell2, to a first network node (NW1), such as the first radio network node 12, which first network node may use it for one or more tasks e.g. for cell change of the UE 10 to cell2. NW2 may further transmit the CCI associated with the DBI to NW1, which may further use it for one or more tasks.
In a third embodiment the UE 10 obtains a DBI associated with or related to at least one DOM in a second cell (cell2) and uses the obtained DBI for determining whether the UE can access cell2 or not. The UE 10 may further obtain cell change information (CCI) and use the obtained CCI for determining that, upon barring cell2, whether the UE 10 can perform cell change to another cell. The UE 10 may further obtain information about a third cell (cell3) and upon barring cell2, the UE 10 may perform cell change to cell3. The UE 10 may further store the obtained DBI and/or CCI and may use it for one or more additional operational tasks, e.g., the UE 10 may store them as part of self organizing network (SON)/minimization of drive test (MDT) and transmit the results to the network when in radio resource control (RRC) connected state.
In one example, the UE 10 may obtain DBI and/or CCI by receiving it from a cell which is being managed, served or controlled by a network node. In this case, in one example the DBI and/or CCI may be received by the UE 10 from cell2 while the UE 10 is served a first cell (cell1), e.g., cell2 is target cell during a cell change procedure. In another example the DBI and/or CCI may be received by the UE from cell2 while the UE 10 is not served by any cell e.g. cell2 is cell for initial access during initial access or cell selection procedure. In another example, the UE 10 may obtain DBI and/or CCI based on pre-configured information e.g. retrieving from the SIM, eSIM or USIM card.
Examples of DOM of a UE are, HD-FDD, FDD, Full duplex (FD), TDD, combination of UE receiver configuration and any of the DOM of the UE 10, e.g. HD-FDD for UE with 1Rx, HD-FDD for UE with 2Rx etc.
Examples of cell change operations are cell reselection, RRC connection release with redirection, RRC connection re-establishment, handover, serving cell change etc.
Examples of the UE receiver configuration may correspond to a number of receivers or receive chains in the UE 10. In one example Rx1, Rx2, Rx4 and Rx8 may correspond to 1 receiver, 2 receivers, 4 receivers and 8 receivers respectively. In another example the UE 10 receiver configuration may correspond to whether the UE receiver can mitigate interference and/or type of interference mitigation mechanism etc.
It is herein provided a mechanism that allows the network to bar or forbid access to a cell, e.g., served by a legacy base station (BS), which does not support or cannot efficiently serve the UE 10 capable of certain type of duplex operation, e.g., legacy FDD cell may not support scheduling UE with HD-FDD operation. This allows the UE 10 to access another cell which can serve the UE 10 more efficiently.
Embodiments herein allow the network to bar the UE 10 from accessing a cell which does not support a certain type of duplex operation. This is especially beneficial for the legacy radio network nodes which may not support certain duplex operation of the UE 10.
Embodiments herein enhance the UE 10 performance since the UE 10 does not access any cell which cannot serve or cannot serve efficiently with certain duplex operation supported by the UE 10.
The overall user and system throughput are enhanced since the UE 10 will not lose data or miss the scheduling in a cell which does not support the certain duplex operation of the UE 10.
The UE mobility performance is enhanced since the UE 10 may be served only by the cell which can serve the UE 10 according to the duplex operation supported by the UE 10. For example, the serving cell will avoid scheduling the uplink transmission for HD-FDD UE during the resources containing reference signals, e.g., synchronization signal block (SSB), used for the measurements.
Embodiments herein enable a gradual roll out of new features that use certain duplex mode in existing network deployment.
In this disclosure a term node is used which can be a network node (radio network node) or a user equipment (UE).
Examples of network nodes or radio network nodes are NodeB, base station (BS), multi-standard radio (MSR) radio node such as MSR BS, eNodeB, gNodeB, master eNodeB (MeNB), secondary eNodeB (SeNB), location measurement unit (LMU), integrated access backhaul (IAB) node, network controller, radio network controller (RNC), base station controller (BSC), relay, donor node controlling relay, satellite node, non-terrestrial network (NTN) node, high altitude platform (HAPS) node, base transceiver station (BTS), Central Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Distributed Unit (e.g. in a gNB), Baseband Unit, Centralized Baseband, C-RAN, access point (AP), transmission points, transmission nodes, transmission reception point (TRP), RRU, RRH, nodes in distributed antenna system (DAS), core network node, e.g., Mobility Management Entity (MME), mobile switching center (MME) etc, operations and maintenance (O&M), OSS, SON, positioning server (e.g. LMF, E-SMLC), etc.
The non-limiting term UE refers to any type of wireless device communicating with a network node and/or with another UE in a cellular or mobile communication system. Examples of UE are target device, device to device (D2D) UE, vehicular to vehicular (V2V), machine type UE, MTC UE or UE capable of machine to machine (M2M) communication, internet of things (IoT) capable device, tablet, mobile terminals, smart phone, laptop embedded equipment (LEE), laptop mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles etc.
The term radio access technology, or RAT, may refer to any RAT e.g. UTRA, E-UTRA, narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT), WiFi, Bluetooth, next generation RAT, New Radio (NR), 4G, 5G, etc. Any of the equipment denoted by the term node, network node or radio network node may be capable of supporting a single or multiple RATs.
The term signal or radio signal used herein can be any physical signal or physical channel. Examples of DL physical signals are reference signal (RS) such as primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), CSI-RS, DMRS signals in SS/PBCH block (SSB), discovery reference signal (DRS), CRS, PRS etc. RS may be periodic e.g. RS occasion carrying one or more RSs may occur with certain periodicity e.g. 20 ms, 40 ms etc. The RS may also be aperiodic. Each SSB carries NR-PSS, NR-SSS and NR-physical broadcast channel (PBCH) in 4 successive symbols. One or multiple SSBs are transmit in one SSB burst which is repeated with certain periodicity e.g. 5 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms and 160 ms. The UE is configured with information about SSB on cells of certain carrier frequency by one or more SS/PBCH block measurement timing configuration (SMTC) configurations. The SMTC configuration comprises parameters such as SMTC periodicity, SMTC occasion length in time or duration, SMTC time offset with regards to reference time, e.g. serving cell's SFN, etc. Therefore, SMTC occasion may also occur with certain periodicity e.g. 5 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms and 160 ms. Examples of UL physical signals are reference signal such as SRS, DMRS etc. The term physical channel refers to any channel carrying higher layer information, e.g., data, control etc. Examples of physical channels are PBCH, narrow band physical broadcast channel (NPBCH), physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), short physical uplink control channel (sPUCCH), short PDSCH, short physical uplink shared channel (sPUSCH), MTC physical downlink control channel (MPDCCH), narrowband PDCCH (NPDCCH), narrowband PDSCH (NPDSCH), Enhanced-PDCCH, physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), Narrowband PUSCH (NPUSCH) etc.
The term time resource used herein may correspond to any type of physical resource or radio resource expressed in terms of length of time. Examples of time resources are: symbol, sub-slot, mini-slot, time slot, subframe, radio frame, transmission time interval (TTI), interleaving time, frame, SFN cycle, hyper-SFN cycle, etc.
In some embodiment a scenario comprising the UE 10, which is served by a first cell (cell1), which is managed or served or controlled by a first network node (NW1), see
The UE 10 may be configured with multiple serving cells using multicarrier (MC) operation. Examples of MC operations are carrier aggregation (CA), multi-connectivity (MuC) etc. An example of MuC is dual connectivity (DC). Examples of DC are multi RAT (MR)-DC, NR-DC, EN-DC, NE-DC etc. Examples of serving cells are serving(s) primary cell (PCell), secondary cell (SCell) etc. Examples of sPCell are PCell, PSCell etc. Examples of cell change procedures are cell reselection, RRC connection release with redirection, RRC connection re-establishment, handover, serving cell change, e.g. sPCell change, SCell change, etc.
In some embodiments a scenario regards the UE 10, which is not currently served by any cell. The UE 10 is further configured to select a second cell (cell2) e.g. during initial access procedure. An example of this scenario is illustrated in
The UE 10 may be capable of or support one or more receiver configurations (Rx). The UE receiver configuration may further depend on frequency band supported by the UE 10. In one example the UE receiver configuration may correspond to number of receiver branches or receiver chains supported by the UE 10. In another example the UE receiver configuration may be related to the ability of the receiver to mitigate interference e.g. partially or fully cancel interference, minimize interference, reject interference etc. In one example the UE 10 may be capable of or support one receiver configuration comprising one or more Rx branches e.g. 1 Rx or 2 Rx or 4 Rx. In another example the same UE 10 may be capable of or support multiple receiver configurations each comprising one or more Rx branches (e.g. 1 Rx and 2 Rx; or 1Rx and 4 Rx, or 2 Rx and 4 Rx etc). The receiver type configuration may also change over time dynamically or semi-statically e.g. after 1 or multiple time resources. The configured receiver type is used by the UE for receiving one or more signals e.g. RS such as SSB, CSI-RS and/or channels e.g. PBCH, PDCCH, PDSCH etc.
The embodiments are applicable to all the scenarios described above. In the embodiments the term “cell change” to certain target cell (e.g. cell2) may also refer to cell selection to the target cell (e.g. cell2). Therefore, the embodiments are applicable regardless of whether the UE is served by a cell (e.g. cell1) or is not served by any cell (e.g. performing initial cell selection).
In one aspect of a first embodiment a network node, such as the first radio network node 12 or the second radio network node 13, transmits a DBI for a cell (e.g. second cell (cell2) and is associated with or related to at least one DOM configured at a UE 10. The configured DOM may correspond to UE capability, or it can be dynamically or semi-statically configured based on one or more criteria (as described above). The DBI enables the UE 10, which by comparing its supported DOM to the received DBI, to determine whether the UE 10 can access the cell for which the DBI is transmitted by the network node (i.e. UE in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE). In RRC_CONNECTED it can be left to the network to configure DOM for the UE 10 if it is capable of more than one, e.g., configuring HD-FDD for the UE 10 even if the UE 10 is capable of FD-FDD. In this case, the DBI information may further be associated with the configured DOM and the UE receiver configuration (Rx). The UE 10 can be configured with certain DOM and/or certain receiver configuration autonomously or based on information received from a network node.
In a RedCap specific example of this embodiment, gNB indicates in SIB1 if HD-FDD operation is enabled in the cell using the parameter hdFDDredcap and RedCap UEs which only support HD-FDD shall only consider the cell for (re-)selection if this parameter is not set to value barred, see ASN. 1 example below. The network can schedule the RedCap UE with the reasonable random access channel (RACH) resources to avoid the SIB information reception.
In another RedCap specific example of this embodiment, gNB indicates in MIB if HD-FDD operation is enabled in the cell hdFDDredcap and RedCap UEs which only support HD-FDD shall only consider the cell for (re-)selection if this parameter is not set to value barred.
In another RedCap specific example of this embodiment, in CONNECTED mode, the network may configure the UE 10 to perform cell change, e.g., handover, to a cell which is more efficient, e.g., more suitable for data reception, have higher signal quality etc, than current the serving cell. The network may configure the DOM and CCI information to the UE 10 together with the cell change command, e.g., handover command. The UE 10 will select a ‘suitable cell’ as part of the cell change, e.g., handover, and camp on or be served by it.
In a second aspect of the first embodiment the network node may further transmit a CCI to the UE 10 from the same cell transmitting the DBI. The CCI may be associated with certain DBI. The CCI may be used by the UE 10 if the UE 10 cannot access the cell as indicated by the DBI. The CCI enables the UE 10 to determine whether the UE 10 can perform cell change to another cell or not. The CCI may further enable the UE 10 to determine whether the UE 10 can perform cell change to another cell or not, on the carrier frequency of the cell, e.g., cell2, for which the associated DBI is transmitted, e.g., whether the intra-frequency/inter-frequency cell reselection is allowed or not. The CCI may further comprise information about at least one cell, e.g., a third cell (cell3)) which can be accessed by the UE 10 using the DOM, which is not allowed in cell2, as indicated by DBI. The cell information, e.g., about cell3, may comprise one or more of e.g. cell ID, e.g., PCI, CGI, carrier frequency of cell3, e.g., carrier frequency channel number such as ARFCN, NR-ARFCN etc, etc. In a RedCap specific example of this embodiment, CCI can be implemented by indicating the DBIs of the neighbor cells in system information, i.e., added to SIB3 for intra-frequency and to SIB4 for inter-frequency re-selection, respectively. In this way a RedCap UE supporting only HD-FDD would not consider neighbour cells not supporting HD-FDD from cell re-selection and thereby time and energy wasted on acquiring SI of each of these cells can be omitted.
In general the DBI may consist of a flag or a DBI indicator, which may be transmitted in system information (SI) or master information (MI) of a cell to the UE 10. Alternatively, the DBI indicator may also be a scrambling sequence to the PSS/SSS in SS block which is transparent to the legacy network. The CCI may be transmitted in SI of a cell to the UE 10. The DBI and CCI may be transmitted via higher layer signalling, e.g., via RRC in the SI, e.g., in a SIB such as SIB1. In one example DBI and/or CCI are transmitted in the same cell for which the DBI and/or CCI are applicable, e.g., DBI and/or CCI for cell2 is transmitted in cell2, e.g., in the SI of cell2. In another example DBI and/or CCI are transmitted in a cell which is different than the cell for which the DBI and/or CCI are applicable, e.g., DBI and/or CCI for cell2 is transmitted in cell1 e.g. in the SI of cell1, in cell change command or message, e.g., in a handover (HO) command.
In one example, the DBI for a cell may be configured as ‘barred’. In this case the UE receiving the DBI and supporting a DOM corresponding to the received DBI is not permitted to access that cell. But if the UE 10 does not receive the DBI then the UE 10 can access the cell. This example is shown in Table 1, where the transmitted DBI is for a target cell, e.g., cell2. In another example the DBI may be configured as ‘barred or ‘not barred’, e.g., ‘unbarred’. In this case the UE 10 receiving the DBI and supporting a DOM corresponding to the received DBI shall not access that cell if the DBI is set to ‘barred’. But the UE 10 can access that cell if the received DBI is set to ‘not barred’. This example is shown in Table 2, where the transmitted DBI is also for a target cell e.g. cell2. The ‘barred’ and ‘not barred’ may also be signalled in terms of 1 or more bits, e.g., 0 and 1 indicating ‘not barred’ and barred respectively or vice versa. In another example, the DBI for a cell may be configured as ‘not barred’. In this case the UE 10 receiving the DBI and supporting a DOM corresponding to the received DBI is permitted to access that cell. But if the UE 10 does not receive the DBI then the UE 10 cannot access the cell considering that it won't be possible for legacy cells to indicate the DBI. This example is shown in Table 3, where the transmitted DBI is for a target cell, e.g., cell2. In another example, the DBI for a cell may be configured as ‘not barred’. In this case the UE 10 receiving the DBI and supporting a DOM corresponding to the received DBI is permitted to access that cell. But if the UE 10 does not receive the DBI then the UE 10 still can access the cell considering that it won't be possible for legacy cells to indicate the DBI. This example is shown in Table 4, where the transmitted DBI is for a target cell, e.g., cell2.
The DBI may be provided implicitly via configuration for preamble partitioning based on what sort of duplex operation is supported/allowed in the cell. Such configuration may be transmitted to the UE 10 as part of the SI of the cell. When such configuration is provided the UE 10 may trigger a random access procedure to establish an RRC connection by transmitting a preamble selected from a set of preambles configured or allocated for a particular duplex operation, e.g., a set pf preambles allocated for HD-FDD operation which indicates that the network supports such operation and when received by the radio network node it is an indication from the UE 10 regarding what it supports and the mode of duplex operation that the UE 10 would like to use when establishing such connection. In another example the partitioning may be based on, not only the individual duplex operations, but a combination of those, e.g., a preamble set allocated to indicate that HD-FDD and FDD duplex operations are supported in the cell implicitly and provide means for the UE 10 to indicate its supported/preferred mode of duplex operation for and during connection establishment.
Prior to transmitting the DBI and/or CCI for a cell to the UE 10, the radio network node may determine the DBI and/or CCI for the cell based on one or more criteria or scenarios or rules or principles. Examples of criteria or scenarios are:
Each DBI flag may define a mapping or relation or association with at least one DOM supported by the UE e.g. one DPI for HD-FDD capable UE. In another example the same DBI flag may be associated with multiple types of duplex operational capabilities of the same UE or of different UEs, e.g., one DBI for HD-FDD and FD capable UEs. The DOM can be UE capability, which can be signalled to the radio network node or pre-defined, e.g., declared by the UE in a specification. Examples of different DBIs and corresponding DOMs are described below:
SIB1-v17xy-IEs
OPTIONAL
}
SIB1-v17xy-IEs ::=
Need
R
Need
R
Need
R
Need
R
:
<Field
description
for
new
IEs
start
here>
cellBarredRedcap1Rx
Indicates
cell
barring
for
RedCap
UE
with
1
Rx
branch.
Value
barred
means
that
the
cell
is
barred,
as
defined
in
TS
38.304
[
20
]
.
cellBarredRedcap2Rx
Indicates
cell
barring
for
RedCap
UE
with
2
Rx
branch.
Value
barred
means
that
the
cell
is
barred,
as
defined
in
TS
38.304
[
20
]
.
intraFreqReselection
Controls
cell
selection/reselection
to
intra-frequency cells for RedCap type UEs when the highest
ranked
cell
is
barred,
or
treated
as
barred
by
the
UE,
as
specified
in
TS
38.304
[
20
]
.
If
this
field
is
absent,
the
UE
considers
the
cell
does
not
support
RedCap.
hdFDDredcap
Indicates
cell
barring
for
RedCap
UE
not
supporting
full-duplex FDD. Value barred means that the
cell
is
barred
for
RedCap
UE
only
supporting
half-duplex FDD, as defined in TS 38.304
[
20
]
.
:
<Field
description
for
new
IEs
stop
here>
Above is an example of changes, underlined, in the latest version of TS 38.331 v16.7.0, to bar access of UE configured with or capable of HD-FDD in a cell.
In a second embodiment the radio network node such as a second network node (NW2) transmits a DBI associated with a cell, e.g., second cell (cell2) to another network node, e.g., to a first network node (NW1). The received DBI enables the NW1 to identify the access barring status related one or more DOMs in cell2, e.g., whether cell2 can serve UE configured with certain DOM, e.g., UE configured with HD-FDD, or not. The NW2 may further transmit CCI to the NW1. The received CCI enables the NW1 to identify whether the UE 10 configured with DOM associated with the DBI can perform cell change to another cell if the cell change to cell2 is not successful due to the access barring.
The details related to DBI and CCI in this embodiment are the same as described in the first embodiment. The NW2, before transmitting DBI and CCI to the NW1, may further determine the DBI and the CCI based on one or more criteria, scenarios, rules or principles as described in the first embodiment.
The NW2 may transmit DBI and CCI associated with cell2 to the NW1 using one or more of the following mechanisms:
In one aspect of a third embodiment the UE 10, configured to access a cell (e.g. cell2), obtains the DBI associated with that cell (e.g. second cell (cell2)) and uses the obtained DBI for performing a first set of one or more tasks. The one or more first set of tasks depend on whether the received DBI is associated with or is related to at least one DOM configured at the UE 10. The UE 10 may further obtain CCI associated with the obtained DBI for cell2 and uses the obtained CCI for performing a second set of one or more tasks.
The UE 10 may obtain DBI and/or CCI by receiving them via signalling, e.g., RRC message, from a network node e.g. from the NW1 and/or the NW2. For example, in low activity RRC state the UE 10 may obtain DBI and CCI by acquiring or receiving the SI of cell2 which is managed by the NW2. In another example, in high activity RRC state, e.g., in RRC connected state, the UE 10 may obtain DBI and CCI by acquiring or receiving a cell change message, e.g., HO command, RRC release message etc., from cell1 which is managed by the NW1. In both cases the DBI enables the UE 10 to identify the cell barring status of cell2 when the UE 10 is configured with certain DOM or combination of certain DOM and UE receiver configuration. Also, in both cases the CCI enables the UE 10 to identify if the UE 10 accesses to another cell, e.g., cell3, if the UE 10 access to cell2 is barred on the basis of the UE's configured DOM or combination of the UE's configured DOM and receiver.
In one specific example, to avoid the UE 10 from missing the DBI and CCI information in SI command, the UE 10 in low activity RRC state will prioritize the CORESET #0 reception than the RACH transmission once the UE 10 detects the overlapping between the CORESET #0 occasion and RACH occasion in time.
In one specific example, to avoid the UE 10 from missing the DBI and CCI information from cell change message in high activity RRC state, the UE 10 may prioritize the downlink reception than the uplink transmission when the UE 10 detecting the received signal level measurements (Sr) is lower than certain threshold. Examples of Sr are measurements such as signal strength (SS), signal quality (SQ) etc. Examples of SS are path loss, RSRP, SS-RSRP etc. Examples of SQ are RSRQ, SS-RSRQ, SNR, SINR etc.
The UE 10 can be configured with certain DOM and/or certain receiver configuration autonomously or based on information received from a network node. The DOM and/or certain receiver configuration can be pre-configured in the UE 10 or it may be dynamically or semi-statically configured in the UE 10 as explained with examples below:
The explanation and examples, e.g., in Tables 1-7, describing DBI and CCI provided in the first embodiment also apply to this embodiment.
Examples of the first set of one or more tasks performed by the UE 10 based on the received DBI are related to whether the UE 10 can access cell2 or not, are:
Examples of the second set of one or more tasks performed by the UE 10 based on the received CCI associated with certain DBI are related to whether the UE 10 can access another cell or not, are:
In another example, if the CCI indicates that the UE 10 cannot access any cell (different than cell2) operating on the carrier frequency, e.g. F2, of cell2, e.g. intra-frequency cell on F2, then the UE 10 may perform one or more of: does not perform access to any cell on F2, does not perform access to any cell on F2 for certain time period, e.g. 300 s, performs access to a cell on another carrier frequency, e.g. F3, different than F2, performs cell selection procedure, reverts to previous serving cell (e.g. cell1) if the UE 10 was served by it etc.
The method actions performed by a radio network node, such as the first radio network node 12 or the second radio network node 13, for handling communication in the wireless communications network according to embodiments will now be described with reference to a flowchart depicted in
The method actions performed by the UE 10 for handling communication in the wireless communications network according to embodiments will now be described with reference to a flowchart depicted in
The radio network node may comprise processing circuitry 1001, e.g., one or more processors, configured to perform the methods herein.
The radio network node may comprise a transmitting unit 1002, e.g., a transmitter or a transceiver. The radio network node, the processing circuitry 1001 and/or the transmitting unit 1002 is configured to transmit the indication indicating DBI associated with or related to at least one DOM of the UE 10, wherein the DBI for a cell indicates whether the UE 10 supporting the at least one DOM can access the cell, or not. The DBI further comprises the CCI, wherein the CCI indicates that upon barring the cell whether the UE can perform cell change to another cell, or not. The CCI may comprise information about one or more cells to which the UE 10 is to perform a cell change to. The indication may be transmitted to the UE 10 and/or the first radio network node 12.
The radio network node may comprise an obtaining unit 1003, e.g., a receiver and/or a transceiver. The radio network node, the processing circuitry 1001 and/or the obtaining unit 1003 may be configured to obtain the indication of the DBI, from another radio network node or internally, for a cell.
The radio network node may comprise a determining unit 1004. The radio network node, the processing circuitry 1001 and/or the determining unit 1004 may be configured to determine the DBI and/or the CCI for the cell based on one or more criteria, such as capability and/or resources.
The radio network node may comprise a memory 1005. The memory 1005 comprises one or more units to be used to store data on, such as data packets, DBIs, CCIs, RA configurations, allocated resources, thresholds, events and applications to perform the methods disclosed herein when being executed, and similar. Furthermore, the radio network node may comprise a communication interface 1008 such as comprising a transmitter, a receiver, a transceiver and/or one or more antennas.
The methods according to the embodiments described herein for the radio network node are respectively implemented by means of e.g. a computer program product 1006 or a computer program, comprising instructions, i.e., software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the radio network node. The computer program product 1006 may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 1007, e.g. a disc, a universal serial bus (USB) stick or similar. The computer-readable storage medium 1007, having stored thereon the computer program product, may comprise the instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the radio network node. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium may be a transitory or a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. Thus, embodiments herein may disclose a radio network node for handling communication in a wireless communications network, wherein the radio network node comprises processing circuitry and a memory, said memory comprising instructions executable by said processing circuitry whereby said radio network node is operative to perform any of the methods herein.
The UE 10 may comprise processing circuitry 901, e.g., one or more processors, configured to perform the methods herein.
The UE 10 may comprise an obtaining unit 902, e.g., a receiver or transceiver. The UE 10, the processing circuitry 901 and/or the obtaining unit 902 is configured to obtain the indication indicating the DBI associated with or related to at least one DOM, of the UE 10, wherein the DBI for a cell indicates whether the UE 10 supporting the at least one DOM can access the cell, or not. The DBI may further comprise the CCI, wherein the CCI indicates that upon barring the cell whether the UE 10 can perform cell change to another cell, or not. The CCI may comprise information about one or more cells to which the UE is to perform a cell change to. The indication may be received from a radio network node or retrieved internally. The at least one DOM supported by the UE 10 may comprise at least one of: a half-duplex frequency division duplex and a full duplex.
The UE 10 may comprise a using unit 903. The UE 10, the processing circuitry 901 and/or the using unit 903 may be configured to use the indication for determining whether the UE 10 can access the cell or not. The UE 10 may be configured to determine whether the UE 10 can access the cell or not based on whether the DBI is transmitted by a radio network node or not.
The UE 10 may comprise a storing unit 904. The UE 10, the processing circuitry 901 and/or the storing unit 904 may be configured to store the indication.
The UE 10 may comprise a memory 905. The memory 905 comprises one or more units to be used to store data on, such as data packets, DBI, DOM, indications, thresholds, signal strengths/qualities, measurements, RA procedures, events and applications to perform the methods disclosed herein when being executed, and similar. Furthermore, the UE 10 may comprise a communication interface 908 such as comprising a transmitter, a receiver, a transceiver and/or one or more antennas.
The methods according to the embodiments described herein for the UE 10 are respectively implemented by means of e.g. a computer program product 906 or a computer program, comprising instructions, i.e., software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the UE 10. The computer program product 906 may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 907, e.g. a disc, a universal serial bus (USB) stick or similar. The computer-readable storage medium 907, having stored thereon the computer program product, may comprise the instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the UE 10. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium may be a transitory or a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. Thus, embodiments herein may disclose a UE 10 for handling communication in a wireless communications network, wherein the UE 10 comprises processing circuitry and a memory, said memory comprising instructions executable by said processing circuitry whereby said UE 10 is operative to perform any of the methods herein.
In some embodiments a more general term “radio network node” is used and it can correspond to any type of radio-network node or any network node, which communicates with a wireless device and/or with another network node. Examples of network nodes are NodeB, MeNB, SeNB, a network node belonging to Master cell group (MCG) or Secondary cell group (SCG), base station (BS), multi-standard radio (MSR) radio node such as MSR BS, eNodeB, gNodeB, network controller, radio-network controller (RNC), base station controller (BSC), relay, donor node controlling relay, base transceiver station (BTS), access point (AP), transmission points, transmission nodes, Remote radio Unit (RRU), Remote Radio Head (RRH), nodes in distributed antenna system (DAS), etc.
In some embodiments the non-limiting term wireless device or user equipment (UE) is used and it refers to any type of wireless device communicating with a network node and/or with another wireless device in a cellular or mobile communication system. Examples of UE are target device, device to device (D2D) UE, proximity capable UE (aka ProSe UE), machine type UE or UE capable of machine to machine (M2M) communication, Tablet, mobile terminals, smart phone, laptop embedded equipped (LEE), laptop mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles etc.
Embodiments are applicable to any RAT or multi-RAT systems, where the wireless device receives and/or transmit signals (e.g. data) e.g. New Radio (NR), Wi-Fi, Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Global System for Mobile communications/enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution (GSM/EDGE), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), or Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), just to mention a few possible implementations.
As will be readily understood by those familiar with communications design, that functions means or circuits may be implemented using digital logic and/or one or more microcontrollers, microprocessors, or other digital hardware. In some embodiments, several or all of the various functions may be implemented together, such as in a single application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or in two or more separate devices with appropriate hardware and/or software interfaces between them. Several of the functions may be implemented on a processor shared with other functional components of a wireless device or network node, for example.
Alternatively, several of the functional elements of the processing means discussed may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware, while others are provided with hardware for executing software, in association with the appropriate software or firmware. Thus, the term “processor” or “controller” as used herein does not exclusively refer to hardware capable of executing software and may implicitly include, without limitation, digital signal processor (DSP) hardware and/or program or application data. Other hardware, conventional and/or custom, may also be included. Designers of communications devices will appreciate the cost, performance, and maintenance trade-offs inherent in these design choices.
Any appropriate steps, methods, features, functions, or benefits disclosed herein may be performed through one or more functional units or modules of one or more virtual apparatuses. Each virtual apparatus may comprise a number of these functional units. These functional units may be implemented via processing circuitry, which may include one or more microprocessor or microcontrollers, as well as other digital hardware, which may include digital signal processors (DSPs), special-purpose digital logic, and the like. The processing circuitry may be configured to execute program code stored in memory, which may include one or several types of memory such as read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), cache memory, flash memory devices, optical storage devices, etc. Program code stored in memory includes program instructions for executing one or more telecommunications and/or data communications protocols as well as instructions for carrying out one or more of the techniques described herein. In some implementations, the processing circuitry may be used to cause the respective functional unit to perform corresponding functions according one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.
With reference to
The telecommunication network 3210 is itself connected to a host computer 3230, which may be embodied in the hardware and/or software of a standalone server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server or as processing resources in a server farm. The host computer 3230 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider, or may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The connections 3221, 3222 between the telecommunication network 3210 and the host computer 3230 may extend directly from the core network 3214 to the host computer 3230 or may go via an optional intermediate network 3220. The intermediate network 3220 may be one of, or a combination of more than one of, a public, private or hosted network; the intermediate network 3220, if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular, the intermediate network 3220 may comprise two or more sub-networks (not shown).
The communication system of
Example implementations, in accordance with an embodiment, of the UE, base station and host computer discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to
The communication system 3300 further includes a base station 3320 provided in a telecommunication system and comprising hardware 3325 enabling it to communicate with the host computer 3310 and with the UE 3330. The hardware 3325 may include a communication interface 3326 for setting up and maintaining a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of the communication system 3300, as well as a radio interface 3327 for setting up and maintaining at least a wireless connection 3370 with a UE 3330 located in a coverage area (not shown in
The communication system 3300 further includes the UE 3330 already referred to. Its hardware 3335 may include a radio interface 3337 configured to set up and maintain a wireless connection 3370 with a base station serving a coverage area in which the UE 3330 is currently located. The hardware 3335 of the UE 3330 further includes processing circuitry 3338, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The UE 3330 further comprises software 3331, which is stored in or accessible by the UE 3330 and executable by the processing circuitry 3338. The software 3331 includes a client application 3332. The client application 3332 may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via the UE 3330, with the support of the host computer 3310. In the host computer 3310, an executing host application 3312 may communicate with the executing client application 3332 via the OTT connection 3350 terminating at the UE 3330 and the host computer 3310. In providing the service to the user, the client application 3332 may receive request data from the host application 3312 and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 3350 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The client application 3332 may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides.
It is noted that the host computer 3310, base station 3320 and UE 3330 illustrated in
In
The wireless connection 3370 between the UE 3330 and the base station 3320 is in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE 3330 using the OTT connection 3350, in which the wireless connection 3370 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve the performance since UEs will avoid accessing cells for DOMs not supported by the UE and thereby provide benefits such as reduced user waiting time, and better responsiveness.
A measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve. There may further be an optional network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 3350 between the host computer 3310 and UE 3330, in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 3350 may be implemented in the software 3311 of the host computer 3310 or in the software 3331 of the UE 3330, or both. In embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with communication devices through which the OTT connection 3350 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which software 3311, 3331 may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of the OTT connection 3350 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not affect the base station 3320, and it may be unknown or imperceptible to the base station 3320. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signalling facilitating the host computer's 3310 measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like. The measurements may be implemented in that the software 3311, 3331 causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection 3350 while it monitors propagation times, errors etc.
It will be appreciated that the foregoing description and the accompanying drawings represent non-limiting examples of the methods and apparatus taught herein. As such, the apparatus and techniques taught herein are not limited by the foregoing description and accompanying drawings. Instead, the embodiments herein are limited only by the following claims and their legal equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CN2022/071047 | Jan 2022 | WO | international |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/SE2022/051244 | 12/27/2022 | WO |
