Time monitoring of packet retransmissions during soft handover

• US 20070106924A1
• Filed: 10/27/2006
• Published: 05/10/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Lohr, Joachim, Seidel, Eiko, Petrovic, Dragan
• Granted Patent: US 7,921,348 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/748
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/16 in which the return channel carries supervisory signals, e.g. repetition request signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1845 Combining techniques, e.g. code combining
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1848 Time-out mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1887 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/02 Buffering or recovering information during reselection ; Modification of the traffic flow during hand-off
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/18 for allowing seamless reselection, e.g. soft reselection

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for scheduling data retransmissions, a method for use in a data retransmission scheme and a method for updating a soft buffer of a base station in a mobile communication system during a soft-handover. The present invention relates to a base station executing the controlling and updating method, a communication terminal for executing the scheduling method and to a mobile communication system comprising at least one the base station and communication terminal. To prevent erroneous combining of data packets in a packet retransmission scheme at the receiver, the present invention provides a method that may flush the soft buffer region associated to a received data packet upon its correct reception. Further, a method is provided that monitors the time elapsed since the last storing of a data packet in a buffer region of a base station to be able to trigger the flush of the buffer region upon expiry of a threshold time period.

Claims

1-38. -38. (canceled)

39. A method for receiving data in a data retransmission scheme, said method comprising:

receiving, at a Node B, information about a soft handover state of a user equipment, and

receiving, at the Node B, data from the user equipment.

40. The method for receiving data according to claim 39, wherein said information indicates whether the user equipment has several radio link sets or not.

41. The method for receiving data according to claim 39, wherein said information indicates whether the user equipment is in communication with a plurality of Node Bs or not.

42. The method for receiving data according to claim 39, wherein said information indicates that the user equipment is in the soft handover.

43. The method for receiving data according to claim 42, wherein said information indicates that the user equipment has several radio link sets.

44. The method for receiving data according to claim 42, wherein said information indicates that the user equipment is in communication with a plurality of Node Bs.

45. The method for receiving data according to claim 39, wherein said information is received from a radio network controller.

46. The method for receiving data according to claim 45, wherein the radio network controller is a serving radio network controller.

47. The method for receiving data according to claim 39, wherein said information is received in a procedure for updating communication parameter between the user equipment and a UTRAN.

48. The method for receiving data according to claim 39, the method further comprising:

storing the received data in an associated soft buffer of the Node B, and

using the time elapsed since storing said data in the associated soft buffer in order to flush the soft buffer.

49. The method for receiving data according to claim 48, wherein the time is used in case that the user equipment is in the soft handover based on said information.

50. The method for receiving data according to claim 48, further comprising:

flushing the soft buffer based on the elapsed time.

51. The method for receiving data according to claim 48, wherein if the received data is decoded successfully, the soft buffer is flushed.

52. The method for receiving data according to claim 48, wherein the soft buffer is flushed, if the elapsed time is equal to or larger than a threshold time period.

53. The method for receiving data according to claim 39, further comprising:

receiving, at the Node B, data retransmitted from the user equipment, and

storing the retransmitted data in an associated soft buffer.

54. The method for receiving data according to claim 53, further comprising:

stopping the elapsed time if the retransmitted data is decoded successfully.

55. The method for receiving data according to claim 53, further comprising:

combining the retransmitted data with the previously received data.

56. A Node B implementing the method according to claim 39.

74. A method for sending information to the Node B implementing the method according to claim 39, said method comprising sending, at a radio network controller, said information about the soft handover state of the user equipment to the Node B.

57. A Node B for receiving data in a data retransmission scheme, said Node B comprising:

a receiving section that receives information about a soft handover state of a user equipment and that receives data from the user equipment, and

a soft buffer that stores the received data.

58. The Node B according to claim 57, wherein said information indicates whether the user equipment has several radio link sets or not.

59. The Node B according to claim 57, wherein said information indicates whether the user equipment is in communication with a plurality of Node Bs or not.

60. The Node B according to claim 57, wherein said information indicates that the user equipment is in the soft handover.

61. The Node B according to claim 60, wherein said information indicates that the user equipment has several radio link sets.

62. The Node B according to claim 60, wherein said information indicates that the user equipment is in communication with a plurality of Node Bs.

63. The Node B according to claim 57, wherein said receiving section receives said information from a radio network controller.

64. The Node B according to claim 63, wherein the radio network controller is a serving radio network controller.

65. The Node B according to claim 57, wherein said receiving section receives said information in a procedure for updating communication parameter between the user equipment and a UTRAN.

66. The Node B according to claim 57, wherein the Node B is operable to use the time elapsed since storing the received data in the associated soft buffer in order to flush the soft buffer.

67. The Node B according to claim 66, wherein the Node B is operable to use the time in case that the user equipment is in the soft handover based on said information.

68. The Node B according to claim 66, wherein the Node B is operable to flush the soft buffer based on the elapsed time.

69. The Node B according to claim 66, wherein the Node B is operable to flush the soft buffer if the received data is decoded successfully.

70. The Node B according to claim 66, wherein the Node B is operable to flush the soft buffer if the elapsed time is equal to or larger than a threshold time period.

71. The Node B according to claim 57, wherein said receiving section receives data retransmitted from the user equipment, and the soft buffer stores the retransmitted data.

72. The Node B according to claim 71, wherein the Node B is operable to stop the elapsed time if the retransmitted data is decoded successfully.

73. The Node B according to claim 71, wherein the Node B further comprises a combining section that combines the retransmitted data with the previously received data.

75. A radio network controller in communication with the Node B according to claim 57, said controller comprising a sending section that sends said information about the soft handover state of the user equipment to the Node B.