Signaling for proximity services and D2D discovery in an LTE network

• US 10,321,294 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2016
• Issued: 06/11/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Chatterjee, Debdeep, Heo, Youn Hyoung, Niu, Huaning, Xiong, Gang, He, Hong, Khoryaev, Alexey, Panteleev, Sergey
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Hai V
• Application Number:
  US15/186,779
• Publication Number:
  US 20160302251A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,086 Days
• Field of Search: 455 412
• CPC Class Codes: E04G 23/0218 Increasing or restoring the load-bearing capacity of building construction elements E04G23/0203 and E04G23/0266 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: E04H 9/025 Structures with concrete columns
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0456 Selection of precoding matrices or codebooks, e.g. using matrices antenna weighting
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0626 Channel coefficients, e.g. channel state information [CSI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0639 Using selective indices, e.g. of a codebook, e.g. pre-distortion matrix index [PMI] or for beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0026 Transmission of channel quality indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2602 Signal structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0058 Allocation criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0062 Avoidance of ingress interference, e.g. ham radio channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/1469 using time-sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/26 Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/08 Reselecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/14 : Reselecting a network or an air interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/28 : involving a plurality of connections, e.g. multi-call or multi-bearer connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/32 : by location or mobility data, e.g. speed data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 : using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 : Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 : Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 : using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 : Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0206 : in access points, e.g. base stations access point devices per se H04W88/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0209 : in terminal devices terminal devices per se H04W88/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0219 : where the power saving management affects multiple terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0005 : synchronizing of arrival of multiple uplinks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 : with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 : Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 : Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 : Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/54 : based on quality criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 : using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0833 : Random access procedures, e.g. with 4-step access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 : Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 : Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 : Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 : Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/02 : Processing of mobility data, e.g. registration information at HLR [Home Location Register] or VLR [Visitor Location Register]; Transfer of mobility data, e.g. between HLR, VLR or external networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 : adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 : Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Embodiments of an enhanced node B (eNB), user equipment (UE) and methods of signaling for proximity services and device-to-device (D2D) discovery in an LTE network are generally described herein. In some embodiments, the eNB may transmit signaling to indicate D2D discovery zone configuration to proximity service (ProSe) enabled UEs. The signaling may indicate time and frequency resources and a periodicity of a discovery zone and may indicate operational parameters for the discovery zone. The resources of the D2D discovery zone may be allocated for D2D discovery signal transmission by the ProSe-enabled UEs.

Claims

1. An apparatus of a user equipment (UE) configured for proximity services (ProSe), the apparatus comprising:

memory; and

processing circuitry, configured to;

cause the UE to transmit radio resource control (RRC) signaling to include UE-to-UE capabilities to an enhanced node B (eNB), the UE-to-UE capabilities to indicate whether the UE supports UE-to-UE discovery;

cause the UE to receive a system information block (SIB) from the eNB, the SIB comprising discovery resource configuration information for direct UE-to-UE communications, the SIB including;

an indication of resources of a discovery resource pool for transmission and reception of discovery signals;

a first indication of first time and frequency resources of the discovery resource pool that are configured for use by the UE while the UE is in radio resource control (RRC) idle mode; and

a second indication of second time and frequency resources of the discovery resource pool that are different from the first time and frequency resources and are configured for use by the UE while the UE is in RRC connected mode;

cause the UE to transmit a UE information message to the eNB, the UE information message to indicate that the UE is available for direct UE-to-UE communications;

monitor some of the resources of the discovery resource pool for discovery signals from other UEs;

select a resource of the discovery resource pool for transmission of a discovery signal, the UE being configured for reference signal received power (RSRP) based selection; and

cause the UE to transmit data to one of the other UEs on resources indicated for direct UE-to-UE data communications, based on a discovery signal received from the one other UE.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to cause the UE to transmit the discovery signal at a power level based at least in part on a power factor associated with the discovery resource configuration.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause the UE to receive a second SIB, the second SIB to include resource configuration information for direct UE-to-UE data communication, and

wherein the processing circuitry is configured to cause the UE to transmit the data to the one other UE on resources indicated in the second SIB.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the SIB indicates time and frequency resources and a periodicity of the resources of the discovery resource pool.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein, when the UE is in radio-resource control (RRC) idle mode (RRC_IDLE), the processing circuitry is configured to cause the UE to transition to RRC connected mode (RRC_CONNECTED) to send a discovery resource request to the eNB, and

wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause the UE to switch back to the RRC idle mode upon reception of a resource configuration message from the eNB, at least for transmission within the discovery resources of the discovery resource pool indicated for contention-based transmissions.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the SIB indicates that:

periodic discovery resources of the discovery resource pool are allocated for non-contention based transmission of discovery signals by ProSe-enabled UEs in RRC connected mode; and

periodic discovery resources of the discovery resource pool are allocated for contention based transmission of discovery signals by ProSe-enabled UEs in RRC idle mode.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising transceiver circuitry configured for transmission and reception of signals on the discovery resources.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by processing circuitry of user equipment (UE) to configure the UE to perform operations for proximity services (ProSe), the processing circuitry configured by the instructions to:

cause the UE to transmit radio resource control (RRC) signaling to include UE-to-UE capabilities to an enhanced node B (eNB), the UE-to-UE capabilities to indicate whether the UE supports UE-to-UE discovery;

cause the UE to receive a system information block (SIB) from the eNB, the SIB comprising discovery resource configuration information for direct UE-to-UE communications, the SIB including;

an indication of resources of a discovery resource pool for transmission and reception of discovery signals;

a first indication of first resources of the discovery resource pool that are configured for use by the UE while the UE is in radio resource control (RRC) idle mode; and

a second indication of second resources of the discovery resource pool that are different from the first resources and are configured for use by the UE while the UE is in RRC connected mode;

cause the UE to transmit a UE information message to the eNB, the UE information message to indicate that the UE is available for direct D2D communications;

monitor some of the resources of the discovery resource pool for discovery signals from other UEs;

cause the UE to transmit data to one of the other UEs on resources indicated for direct D2D data communications, based on a discovery signal received from the one other UE.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured by the instructions to:

select a resource of the discovery resource pool for transmission of a discovery signal, wherein the UE is configured for reference signal received power (RSRP) based selection.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the processing circuitry is configured by the instructions to cause the UE to transmit the discovery signal at a power level based at least in part on a power factor associated with the discovery resource configuration.

11. An apparatus of a user equipment (UE) configured for proximity services (ProSe), the apparatus comprising:

memory; and

processing circuitry, configured to;

cause the UE to transmit radio resource control (RRC) signaling to include UE-to-UE capabilities to an enhanced node B (eNB), the UE-to-UE capabilities to indicate whether the UE supports UE-to-UE discovery;

cause the UE to receive a system information block (SIB) from the eNB, the SIB comprising discovery resource configuration information for direct UE-to-UE communications, the SIB including;

an indication of resources of a discovery resource pool for transmission and reception of discovery signals;

a first indication of first resources of the discovery resource pool that are configured for use by the UE while the UE is in radio resource control (RRC) idle mode; and

a second indication of second resources of the discovery resource pool that are different from the resources and are configured for use by the UE while the UE is in RRC connected mode;

configure the UE to transmit a UE information message to the eNB, the UE information message to indicate that the UE is available for direct UE-to-UE communications;

monitor some of the resources of the discovery resource pool for discovery signals from other UEs;

select a resource of the discovery resource pool for transmission of a discovery signal; and

configure the UE to transmit data to one of the other UEs on resources indicated for direct UE-to-UE data communications, based on a discovery signal received from the one other UE.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to cause the UE for transmission of the discovery signal at a power level based at least in part on a power factor associated with the discovery resource configuration.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause the UE to receive a second SIB, the second SIB to include resource configuration information for direct UE-to-UE data communication, and

wherein the processing circuitry is configured to cause the UE to transmit the data to the one other UE on resources indicated in the second SIB.