Discontinuous reception (DRX) alignment techniques for dual-connectivity architectures

• US 10,225,880 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2016
• Issued: 03/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Koc, Ali T., Jha, Satish C., Sivanesan, Kathiravetpillai, Vannithamby, Rath, Zhang, Yujian
• Primary Examiner(s): Duong, Frank
• Application Number:
  US15/396,477
• Publication Number:
  US 20170111956A1
• Time in Patent Office: 794 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/32 Hierarchical cell structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/15 Setup of multiple wireless link connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/28 Discontinuous transmission [DTX]; Discontinuous reception [DRX]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Discontinuous reception (DRX) alignment techniques for dual-connectivity architectures are described. In one embodiment, for example, user equipment (UE) may comprise one or more radio frequency (RF) transceivers, one or more RF antennas, and logic, at least a portion of which is in hardware, the logic to receive a radio resource control (RRC) configuration information message containing a small cell RRC configuration information element (IE), the small cell RRC configuration IE to contain a small cell discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration IE comprising one or more inter-cell-coordinated small cell DRX parameters, the logic to determine a start time for a small cell DRX cycle based on at least one of the one or more inter-cell-coordinated small cell DRX parameters and initiate the small cell DRX cycle at the determined start time. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory; and

logic, at least a portion of which is implemented in circuitry coupled to the memory, the logic to;

determine, based on a message received at a master evolved node B (MeNB) of a master cell group (MCG) for dually-connected user equipment (UE), a system frame number (SFN) and a subframe number, the SFN and the subframe number associated with a system timing of a secondary evolved node B (SeNB) of a secondary cell group (SCG) for the dually-connected user equipment UE, wherein the system timing of the SeNB is not synchronized with a system timing of the MeNB;

based on the SFN and the subframe number, select one or more MCG discontinuous reception (DRX) parameters to at least partially align MCG DRX operations of the dually-connected UE with SCG DRX operations of the dually-connected UE, the one or more MCG DRX parameters to comprise parameters controlling MCG DRX operations of the dually-connected UE;

generate a radio resource control (RRC) message comprising information identifying the one or more MCG DRX parameters; and

send the RRC message to a radio frequency (RF) interface for transmission to the dually-connected UE.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, the RRC message to comprise an RRCConnectionSetup message.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, the one or more MCG DRX parameters to be identified in a MAC-MainConfig information element (IE) contained in the RRCConnectionSetup message.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, the one or more MCG DRX parameters to include an onDurationTimer parameter.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, the one or more MCG DRX parameters to include a longDRX-Cycle parameter.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, the one or more MCG DRX parameters to include a shortDRX-Cycle parameter.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, the logic to:

identify one or more SCG DRX parameters based on a message received from the SeNB via an X2 interface; and

select the one or more MCG DRX parameters based on the SFN, the subframe number, and the one or more SCG DRX parameters.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, the logic to generate a message for transmission to the SeNB via an X2 interface, the message to identify the one or more MCG DRX parameters.

9. A system, comprising:

the apparatus of claim 1;

a radio frequency (RF) transceiver coupled to the circuitry; and

an RF antenna coupled to the RF transceiver.

10. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, comprising a set of instructions that, in response to being executed at an evolved node B (eNB), cause the eNB to:

select, while operating as a master evolved node B (MeNB) of a master cell group (MCG) for dually-connected user equipment (UE), one or more MCG discontinuous reception (DRX) parameters for the dually-connected UE based on received timing information, the timing information to indicate a system frame number (SFN) and a subframe number, the SFN and the subframe number associated with a system timing of a secondary evolved node B (SeNB) of a secondary cell group (SCG) for the UE, the one or more MCG DRX parameters to be selected to at least partially align MCG DRX operations of the dually-connected UE with SCG DRX operations of the dually connected UE, the one or more MCG DRX parameters to comprise parameters controlling MCG DRX operations of the dually-connected UE, wherein the system timing of the SeNB is not synchronized with a system timing of the MeNB; and

transmit an RRCConnectionSetup message to the dually-connected UE, the one or more MCG DRX parameters to be identified in an information element (IE) comprised in the RRCConnectionSetup message.

11. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, the logic to generate a message for transmission to the SeNB via an X2 interface, the message to identify the one or more MCG DRX parameters.

12. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, comprising instructions that, in response to being executed at the eNB, cause the eNB to:

identify one or more SCG DRX parameters based on a message received from the SeNB via an X2 interface; and

select the one or more MCG DRX parameters based on the timing information and the one or more SCG DRX parameters.

13. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, the one or more MCG DRX parameters to include an onDurationTimer parameter.

14. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, the one or more MCG DRX parameters to include a longDRX-Cycle parameter.

15. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, the one or more MCG DRX parameters to include a shortDRX-Cycle parameter.

16. An evolved node B (eNB), comprising:

a radio interface;

baseband circuitry coupled to the radio interface; and

logic, at least a portion of which is implemented in the baseband circuitry, the logic to;

determine, based on received timing information, during operation of the eNB as a master evolved node B (MeNB) of a master cell group (MCG) for dually-connected user equipment (UE), a timing offset between a system timing of the eNB and a system timing of a secondary evolved node B (SeNB) of a secondary cell group (SCG) for the dually-connected UE, the received timing information to indicate a system frame number (SFN) associated with the system timing of the SeNB and a subframe number associated with the system timing of the SeNB, wherein the system timing of the SeNB is not synchronized with the system timing of the eNB;

based on the timing offset, select one or more MCG discontinuous reception (DRX) parameters to at least partially align MCG DRX operations of the dually-connected UE with SCG DRX operations of the dually-connected UE, the one or more MCG DRX parameters to comprise parameters controlling MCG DRX operations of the dually-connected UE, the one or more MCG DRX parameters to include a longDRX-Cycle parameter;

generate a radio resource control (RRC) message containing an information element (IE) identifying the one or more MCG DRX parameters; and

send the RRC message to the RF interface for transmission to the dually-connected UE.

17. The eNB of claim 16, the logic to generate a message for transmission to the SeNB via an X2 interface, the message to identify the one or more MCG DRX parameters.

18. The eNB of claim 16, the logic to:

identify one or more SCG DRX parameters based on a message received from the SeNB via an X2 interface; and

select the one or more MCG DRX parameters based on the timing offset and the one or more SCG DRX parameters.

19. The eNB of claim 16, the IE to comprise a MAC-MainConfig IE.

20. The eNB of claim 16, the one or more MCG DRX parameters to include an onDurationTimer parameter.

21. The eNB of claim 16, the one or more MCG DRX parameters to include a shortDRX-Cycle parameter.