Method, network device, and base station for paging narrowband terminal

• US 10,219,243 B2
• Filed: 03/01/2017
• Issued: 02/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Zhu, Song, Li, Yue
• Primary Examiner(s): Acolatse, Kodzovi
• Application Number:
  US15/446,856
• Publication Number:
  US 20170181124A1
• Time in Patent Office: 727 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/654 International mobile subscriber identity [IMSI] numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0005 Time-frequency
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/02 Arrangements for increasing efficiency of notification or paging channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 based on terminal or device properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, a network device, and a base station for paging a narrowband terminal, where the method includes: determining that a paging message for paging a narrowband terminal needs to be sent; sending a paging message including narrowband terminal information to a base station, so that the base station obtains a radio capability of the narrowband terminal according to the narrowband terminal information and transmits the paging message according to the radio capability of the narrowband terminal. In the embodiments of the present invention, after it is determined that a paging message is used to page a narrowband terminal, because narrowband terminal information is added in the paging message, a base station is allowed to transmit the paging message according to a radio capability of the narrowband terminal.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining, by a mobile management entity (MME), that a first paging message for paging a narrowband terminal needs to be sent; and

sending, by the MME, the first paging message comprising narrowband terminal information of the narrowband terminal to a base station, wherein the narrowband terminal information includes a radio capability of the narrowband terminal, and wherein the radio capability includes a bandwidth supported by the narrowband terminal;

wherein the first paging message enables the base station to transmit a second paging message to the narrowband terminal in a control channel in accordance with the radio capability.

2. The method according to claim 1, the method further comprising:

pre-acquiring, by the MME, the radio capability of the narrowband terminal;

storing, by the MME, a correspondence between a terminal identity (ID) of the narrowband terminal and the radio capability of the narrowband terminal; and

before sending, by the MME, the first paging message, the method further comprising;

acquiring, by the MME, according to the terminal ID of the narrowband terminal, the radio capability corresponding to the terminal ID from the stored correspondence, and

writing, by the MME, the acquired radio capability into the first paging message.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein pre-acquiring, by the MME, the radio capability of the narrowband terminal comprises at least one of:

acquiring, by the MME, from a non-access stratum (NAS) message transparently transmitted by the base station, the radio capability of the narrowband terminal borne in the NAS message, wherein the NAS message is a message transparently transmitted by the base station when the narrowband terminal is performing attachment to a network or performing a tracking area update;

after it is determined, according to an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) or an international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) of the narrowband terminal, that the narrowband terminal is a narrowband terminal, acquiring the radio capability of the narrowband terminal from a network device storing the IMSI or the IMEI;

acquiring the radio capability of the narrowband terminal from a terminal capability information indication sent by the base station, wherein the radio capability of the narrowband terminal is acquired by the base station from a message sent by the narrowband terminal; and

acquiring the radio capability of the narrowband terminal from a radio capability notification message sent by the base station, wherein the radio capability of the narrowband terminal is acquired by the base station according to an extended random access resource adopted by the narrowband terminal to access a network, and the radio capability of the narrowband terminal corresponds to the extended random access resource.

4. The method according to claim 1, the method further comprising:

prestoring, by the MME, a correspondence between a service type of a service activated by the narrowband terminal and the radio capability of the narrowband terminal; and

before sending, by the MME, the narrowband terminal information, the method further comprising;

acquiring, by the MME, according to a service type of a service triggering the first paging message, the radio capability corresponding to the service type of the service triggering the first paging message from the prestored correspondence; and

writing, by the MME, the acquired radio capability into the first paging message.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the narrowband terminal information comprises a narrowband terminal indication indicating the narrowband terminal, whereby the base station transmits the second paging message according to the radio capability of the narrowband terminal after acquiring the radio capability of the narrowband terminal according to the narrowband terminal indication.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein sending the first paging message comprises

sending, by the MME, the first paging message with the narrowband terminal indication added in a new information field of the paging message to the base station.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein sending the first paging message comprises sending, by the MME, the first paging message to the base station through a dedicated mobility management entity (MME) of the narrowband terminal, wherein the first paging message sent by the dedicated MME of the narrowband terminal indicates the narrowband terminal.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein sending the first paging message comprises sending a generated paging message in a preset format to the base station, wherein the generated paging message in the preset format indicates the narrowband terminal.

9. The method according to claim 5, wherein sending the first paging message comprises sending a paging message comprising a terminal ID of the narrowband terminal to the base station, wherein the terminal ID indicates the narrowband terminal.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a base station, a first paging message from a mobile management entity (MME), the first paging message comprising narrowband terminal information of a narrowband terminal, wherein the narrowband terminal information includes a radio capability of the narrowband terminal, and wherein the radio capability includes a bandwidth supported by the narrowband terminal; and

transmitting, by the base station in a control channel according to the radio capability, a second paging message to the narrowband terminal for the narrowband terminal to detect the second paging message and implement paging access after detecting the second paging message.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein transmitting the second paging message comprises at least one of:

according to a maximum bandwidth supported by the narrowband terminal, bearing a control message of the second paging message and the second paging message in a radio resource that matches the maximum bandwidth;

scrambling control information of the second paging message according to a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) that can be decoded by the narrowband terminal, and sending the second paging message with the scrambled control information; and

coding and modulating the second paging message according to a coding and modulation scheme supported by the narrowband terminal, and sending the coded and modulated paging message.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein transmitting the second paging message comprises:

sending the second paging message according to a location of a time-frequency resource monitored by the narrowband terminal;

or

sending the second paging message according to a subframe resource monitored by the narrowband terminal.

13. A network device, comprising:

a processor, configured to determine that a first paging message for paging a narrowband terminal needs to be sent; and

a transmitter, configured to send the first paging message comprising narrowband terminal information of the narrowband terminal to a base station, wherein the narrowband terminal information includes a radio capability of the narrowband terminal, and the radio capability includes a bandwidth supported by the narrowband terminal;

wherein the first paging message enables the base station to transmit a second paging message to the narrowband terminal in a control channel in accordance with the radio capability.

14. The network device according to claim 13, the processor is further configured to:

pre-acquire the radio capability of the narrowband terminal; and

store a correspondence between a terminal ID of the narrowband terminal and the radio capability of the narrowband terminal.

15. The network device according to claim 14, the processor is further configured to:

acquire, according to the terminal ID of the narrowband terminal, the radio capability corresponding to the terminal ID from the correspondence; and

write the radio capability into the first paging message.

16. The network device according to claim 14, wherein the radio capability of the narrowband terminal is pre-acquired by:

acquiring, from a non-access stratum (NAS) message transparently transmitted by the base station, the radio capability of the narrowband terminal borne in the NAS message, wherein the NAS message is a message transparently transmitted by the base station when the narrowband terminal is performing attachment to a network or performing a tracking area update;

or

after it is determined, according to an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) or an international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) of the narrowband terminal, that the narrowband terminal is a narrowband terminal, acquiring the radio capability of the narrowband terminal from a network device storing the IMSI or the IMEI;

or

acquiring the radio capability of the narrowband terminal from a terminal capability information indication sent by the base station, wherein the radio capability of the narrowband terminal is acquired by the base station from a message sent by the narrowband terminal;

or

acquiring the radio capability of the narrowband terminal from a radio capability notification message sent by the base station, wherein the radio capability of the narrowband terminal is acquired by the base station according to an extended random access resource adopted by the narrowband terminal to access a network, and the radio capability of the narrowband terminal corresponds to the extended random access resource.

17. The network device according to claim 13, wherein the narrowband terminal information comprises a narrowband terminal indication indicating the narrowband terminal, whereby the base station acquires the radio capability of the narrowband terminal according to the narrowband terminal indication, and transmits the second paging message according to the radio capability of the narrowband terminal.

18. The network device according to claim 17, wherein the transmitter is further configured to:

send the first paging message with the narrowband terminal indication added to a new information field of the paging message to the base station;

or

send the first paging message to the base station through a dedicated MME of the narrowband terminal, wherein the first paging message sent by the dedicated MME of the narrowband terminal indicates the narrowband terminal;

or

send a generated paging message in a preset format to the base station, wherein the generated paging message in the preset format indicates the narrowband terminal;

or

send the paging message comprising a terminal ID of the narrowband terminal to the base station, wherein the terminal ID indicates the narrowband terminal.

19. A base station, comprising:

a receiver, configured to receive a first paging message from a mobile management entity (MME), the first paging message comprising narrowband terminal information of a narrowband terminal, wherein the narrowband terminal information includes a radio capability of the narrowband terminal, and wherein the radio capability includes a bandwidth supported by the narrowband terminal; and

a processor, configured to, according to the radio capability of the narrowband terminal, control a transmitter to transmit a second paging message to the narrowband terminal in a control channel, wherein the second paging message is for the narrowband terminal to detect the second paging message carried in the control channel and implement paging access after detecting the second paging message.

20. The base station according to claim 19, wherein the second paging message is transmitted by:

according to a maximum bandwidth supported by the narrowband terminal, bearing a control message of the second paging message and the second paging message in a radio resource that matches the maximum bandwidth;

or

sending the second paging message according to a location of a time-frequency resource monitored by the narrowband terminal;

or

sending the second paging message according to a subframe resource monitored by the narrowband terminal;

or

scrambling control information of the second paging message according to an RNTI that can be decoded by the narrowband terminal, and sending the second paging message with the scrambled control information;

or

coding and modulating the second paging message according to a coding and modulation scheme supported by the narrowband terminal, and sending the coded and modulated paging message.