Method, device, base station and UE for uplink transmission main carrier switch and control

• US 10,721,734 B2
• Filed: 08/27/2015
• Issued: 07/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Company Limited (China Information Communication Technology Group Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: China Academy of Telecom Technology (China Information Communication Technology Group Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Xu, Fangli, Bao, Wei
• Primary Examiner(s): Thier, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sandhu, Nevena Zecevic
• Application Number:
  US15/507,713
• Publication Number:
  US 20170290015A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,790 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0027 for a plurality of data sessions of end-to-end connections, e.g. multi-call or multi-bearer end-to-end data connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/08 Reselecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/28 involving a plurality of connections, e.g. multi-call or multi-bearer connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network

Abstract

A method, device, base station and UE for uplink transmission main carrier switch and control to enable the uplink transmission main carrier of the UE to switch among multiple different cells providing service for the UE, enhance the transmission flexibility of the uplink transmission main carrier of the UE, and at the same time take account of the transmission requirements of transmission power and UE services. The method for uplink transmission main carrier switch and control includes: determining the transmission resources of the cell set used for providing service for the UE, the transmission resources being configured for the user equipment (UE), wherein the transmission resources include the configured resources of uplink transmission carrier of multiple cells, the transmission resources being used for enabling the uplink transmission main carrier of UE to switch among the uplink transmission carriers corresponding to different cells; informing the UE of the transmission resource of the cell set.

Claims

1. A method for switching an uplink transmission primary carrier, the method comprises:

obtaining, by a User Equipment (UE), transmission resources of a set of cells configured for the UE to serve the UE, as notified by a network side, wherein the transmission resources comprise configured resources of uplink transmission carriers of a plurality of cells; and

determining, by the UE, that the uplink transmission primary carrier needs to be switched,

switching, by the UE, the uplink transmission primary carrier to an uplink transmission carrier corresponding to a new cell, over the configured resources of the uplink transmission carrier of the new cell;

wherein determining, by the UE, that the uplink transmission primary carrier needs to be switched, is through one of the following schemes;

determining, by the UE, that a transmission carrier where a preamble sequence is active needs to be selected as the uplink transmission primary carrier, in a random access procedure initiated by the UE;

determining, by the UE, that a carrier where a Dedicated Scheduling Request (D-SR) is active needs to be selected as the uplink transmission primary carrier, in a D-SR procedure initiated by the UE; and

determining, by the UE, that an uplink transmission carrier of one of the plurality of cells needs to be selected as the uplink transmission primary carrier, upon reception of an uplink scheduling command transmitted by the network side for the cell; and

when determining, by the UE, that the transmission carrier where the preamble sequence is active needs to be selected as the uplink transmission primary carrier, in the random access procedure initiated by the UE, the method further comprises;

when the UE currently selects an uplink transmission carrier of a secondary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, and the secondary cell is not configured with random access Contention Based Random Access (CBRA) and D-SR resources, when the UE needs to initiate an uplink scheduling request, switching, by the UE, to a primary cell to initiate a CBRA, and selecting an uplink transmission carrier of the primary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier;

or

when the UE currently selects an uplink transmission carrier of a secondary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, and the secondary cell is only configured with a D-SR resource, when the UE fails to transmit a D-SR over the secondary cell, switching, by the UE, to a primary cell to initiate a CBRA, and selecting the uplink transmission carrier of the primary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier;

or

when the UE currently selects an uplink transmission carrier of a secondary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, and the transmission quality of the secondary cell is not satisfactory, selecting, by the UE, the uplink transmission carrier of the primary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, and initiating a Routing Area (RA) update.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein when receiving, by the UE, the instruction transmitted by the network side to select the uplink transmission carrier of the specific cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, via the layer-3 command, the method further comprises:

obtaining, by the UE, configured resources of the uplink transmission carrier of the specific cell from the layer-3 command; and

switching, by the UE, the uplink transmission primary carrier to the uplink transmission carrier corresponding to the new cell, over the configured resources of the uplink transmission carrier of the new cell comprises;

switching, by the UE, the uplink transmission primary carrier to the uplink transmission carrier corresponding to the new cell over the configured resources of the uplink transmission carrier of the specific cell obtained from the layer-3 command.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein when determining, by the UE, that the carrier where the D-SR is active needs to be selected as the uplink transmission primary carrier, in the D-SR procedure initiated by the UE, the method further comprises:

when the UE currently selects an uplink transmission carrier of a secondary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, and the secondary cell is not configured with CBRA and D-SR resources, when the UE needs to initiate an uplink scheduling request, switching, by the UE, to a primary cell to initiate a D-SR, and selecting an uplink transmission carrier of the primary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein for a deselected uplink transmission carrier, the method further comprises any one or more of the steps of:

maintaining, by the UE, all the configured resources of the uplink transmission carrier;

stopping, by the UE, all the transmission over the uplink transmission carrier;

clearing, by the UE, a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffer corresponding to the uplink transmission carrier, and uplink grant information corresponding to the uplink transmission carrier; and

resetting, by the UE, an uplink Media Access Control (MAC) related context.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

when the UE currently selects an uplink transmission carrier corresponding to a primary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, when the UE receives a command transmitted by the network side to activate a secondary cell, only activating, by the UE, the downlink transmission resource of the secondary cell; and

when the UE currently selects an uplink transmission carrier corresponding to a secondary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, when the UE receives a command transmitted by the network side to deactivate the secondary cell, only deactivating, by the UE, the uplink transmission resource of the secondary cell, and selecting an uplink transmission carrier corresponding to a primary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein before the UE obtains the transmission resources of the set of cells for serving the UE as notified by the network side, the method further comprises:

reporting, by the UE, capability information about a capability of the UE to support switching the uplink transmission primary carrier to the network side.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein when the UE determines that the uplink transmission primary carrier needs to be switched, at an instance n of time, validating, a new uplink transmission primary carrier at an instance n+k of time, wherein k>

=0; and

stop transmitting over the original uplink transmission primary carrier at the instance n of time, or the instance n+k of time.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the UE determines that the uplink transmission primary carrier needs to be switched, according to an instruction transmitted by the network side to switch the uplink transmission primary carrier.

9. The method according to claim 8 wherein receiving, by the UE, the instruction transmitted by the network side to switch the uplink transmission primary carrier, is through one of the following schemes:

receiving an instruction transmitted by the network side to select an uplink transmission carrier of a specific cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, via a layer-3, layer-2, or layer-1 command;

or

receiving a notification transmitted by the network side about sub-frame configuration information of the uplink transmission primary carrier, comprising a correspondence relationship between a cell corresponding to the uplink transmission primary carrier, and a sub-frame;

or

receiving a command transmitted by the network side to deactivate configured resources of an uplink transmission carrier of a secondary cell, which is currently the uplink transmission primary carrier of the UE, as the instruction to instruct the UE to select an uplink transmission carrier of a primary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier.

10. A User Equipment (UE), comprising a transceiver, a processor, and a memory, wherein:

the processor is configured to read programs in the memory to perform the processes of;

obtaining transmission resources of a set of cells configured for the UE to serve the UE, as notified by a network side through the transceiver, wherein the transmission resources comprise configured carriers of uplink transmission resources of a plurality of cells; and

determining that the uplink transmission primary carrier needs to be switched, switching the uplink transmission primary carrier to an uplink transmission carrier corresponding to a new cell, over the configured resources of the uplink transmission carrier of the new cell;

wherein the processor is configured to determine that the uplink transmission primary carrier needs to be switched, is through one of the following schemes;

determining that a transmission carrier where a preamble sequence is active needs to be selected as the uplink transmission primary carrier, in a random access procedure initiated by the UE;

determining that a carrier where a Dedicated Scheduling Request (D-SR) is active needs to be selected as the uplink transmission primary carrier, in a D-SR procedure initiated by the UE; and

determining that an uplink transmission carrier of one of the plurality of cells needs to be selected as the uplink transmission primary carrier, upon reception of an uplink scheduling command transmitted by the network side for the cell; and

wherein when the processor determines that the transmission carrier where the preamble sequence is active needs to be selected as the uplink transmission primary carrier, in the random access procedure initiated by the UE, the processor is further configured;

when currently selecting an uplink transmission carrier of a secondary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, and the secondary cell is not configured with random access Contention Based Random Access (CBRA) and D-SR resources, when it is necessary to initiate an uplink scheduling request, to switch to a primary cell to initiate a CBRA, and to select an uplink transmission carrier of the primary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier;

or

when currently selecting an uplink transmission carrier of a secondary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, and the secondary cell is only configured with a D-SR resource, when failing to transmit a D-SR over the secondary cell, to switch the UE to a primary cell to initiate a CBRA, and to select an uplink transmission carrier of the primary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier;

or

when currently selecting an uplink transmission carrier of a secondary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, and the transmission quality of the secondary cell is not satisfactory, to select the uplink transmission carrier of the primary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, and to initiate a Routing Area (RA) update.

11. The user equipment according to claim 10, wherein when the processor receives the instruction transmitted by the network side to select the uplink transmission carrier of the specific cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, via the layer-3 command, the processor is further configured:

to obtain configured resources of the uplink transmission carrier of the specific cell from the layer-3 command; and

the processor switches the uplink transmission primary carrier to the uplink transmission carrier corresponding to the new cell, over the configured resources of the uplink transmission carrier of the new cell by;

switching the uplink transmission primary carrier to the uplink transmission carrier corresponding to the new cell over the configured resources of the uplink transmission carrier of the specific cell obtained from the layer-3 command.

12. The user equipment according to claim 10, wherein when the processor determines that the carrier where the D-SR is active needs to be selected as the uplink transmission primary carrier, in the D-SR procedure initiated by the UE, the processor is further configured:

when currently selecting an uplink transmission carrier of a secondary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, and the secondary cell is not configured with CBRA and D-SR resources, when it is necessary to initiate an uplink scheduling request, to switch to a primary cell to initiate a D-SR, and to select an uplink transmission carrier of the primary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier.

13. The user equipment according to claim 10, wherein for a deselected uplink transmission carrier, the processor is further configured:

to maintain all the configured resources of the uplink transmission carrier; and

/or

to stop all the transmission over the uplink transmission carrier; and

/or

to clear a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffer corresponding to the uplink transmission carrier, and uplink grant information corresponding to the uplink transmission carrier; and

/or

to reset an uplink Media Access Control (MAC) related context.

14. The user equipment according to claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured:

when currently selecting an uplink transmission carrier corresponding to a primary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, when receiving a command transmitted by the network side to activate a secondary cell, to only activate the downlink transmission resource of the secondary cell; and

when currently selecting an uplink transmission carrier corresponding to a secondary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, when receiving a command transmitted by the network side to deactivate the secondary cell, to only deactivate the uplink transmission resource of the secondary cell, and to select an uplink transmission carrier corresponding to a primary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier.

15. The user equipment according to claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured, before the UE obtains the transmission resources of the set of cells for serving the UE as notified by the network side, to report capability information about a capability of the UE to support switching the uplink transmission primary carrier to the network side, through the transceiver.

16. The user equipment according to claim 10, wherein the processor is configured, when determining that the uplink transmission primary carrier needs to be switched, at an instance n of time, to validate a new uplink transmission primary carrier at an instance n+k of time, wherein k>

=0; and

to stop transmitting over the original uplink transmission primary carrier at the instance n of time, or the instance n+k of time.

17. The user equipment according to claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to determine that the uplink transmission primary carrier needs to be switched, according to an instruction transmitted by the network side to switch the uplink transmission primary carrier.

18. The user equipment according to claim 17, wherein the processor is configured to receive the instruction transmitted by the network side to switch the uplink transmission primary carrier, is through one of the following schemes:

receiving an instruction transmitted by the network side to select an uplink transmission carrier of a specific cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier, via a layer-3, layer-2, or layer-1 command;

or

receiving a notification transmitted by the network side about sub-frame configuration information of the uplink transmission primary carrier, wherein the sub-frame configuration information comprises a correspondence relationship between a cell corresponding to the uplink transmission primary carrier, and a sub-frame;

or

receiving a command transmitted by the network side to deactivate configured resources of an uplink transmission carrier of a secondary cell, which is currently the uplink transmission primary carrier of the UE, as the instruction to instruct the UE to select an uplink transmission carrier of a primary cell as the uplink transmission primary carrier.