METHOD OF SETTING UP CONNECTION IN A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, RADIO NETWORK CONTROLLER, AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20100151859A1
• Filed: 12/16/2009
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Inventors: Hsu, Yu-Ching
• Granted Patent: US 8,265,626 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/434
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/18 Management of setup rejection or failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/12 Access point controller devices

Abstract

A method of setting up a connection in a communication system is provided, wherein the communication system includes a user equipment (UE). The present method includes following steps. When a first radio resource control (RRC) connection request message is received from the UE, whether the first RRC connection request message has been received before is determined. If the first RRC connection request message has been received, a first RRC connection setup message is sent back to the UE. If the first RRC connection request message has not been received, whether there is an accessible Femto access point (FAP) near the UE is further determined. If there is the accessible FAP near the UE, a first RRC connection reject message is sent back to the UE. If there is no accessible FAP near the UE, the first RRC connection setup message is sent back to the UE.

Claims

1. A method of setting up a connection in a communication system, the communication system comprising a user equipment (UE) and a network controller (RNC), the method being performed by the RNC and comprising:

receiving a first radio resource control (RRC) connection request message from the UE;

determining whether the first RRC connection request message has been received before, wherein

if the first RRC connection request message has been received, a first RRC connection setup message is sent back to the UE, and if the first RRC connection request message has not been received, whether there is an accessible Femto access point (FAP) near the UE is further determined; and

if there is the accessible FAP near the UE, a first RRC connection reject message is sent back to the UE to guide the UE to the accessible FAP, and if there is no accessible FAP near the UE, the first RRC connection setup message is sent back to the UE.

2. The method according to claim 1 further comprising:

when the first RRC connection setup message is received by the UE, sending back a first RRC connection setup complete message from the UE to the RNC.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the connection is set up between the UE and the FAP by:

determining whether there is the accessible FAP near the UE;

sending back the first RRC connection reject message to the UE, wherein the first RRC connection reject message carries an information of the FAP; and

sending back a second RRC connection request message from the UE to the FAP according to the first RRC connection reject message, so as to set up the connection between the UE and the FAP.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the connection is set up between the UE and the FAP further by:

when the second RRC connection request message is received by the FAP, sending back a second RRC connection setup message from the FAP to the UE; and

sending back a second RRC connection setup complete message from the UE to the FAP.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the step of determining whether there is the accessible FAP near the UE comprises searching a database, wherein the database stores a context of the FAP.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the context stores the FAP and the UE that accesses the FAP to establish a first mapping between the FAP and the UE, and the context stores a relative location of the FAP to establish a second mapping between the FAP and the relative location, wherein the relative location is a macro cell corresponding to the FAP or a neighboring cell near the FAP.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the second mapping is established by scanning the neighboring cell when the FAP is turned on and sending an information of the neighbouring cell into the database by using the FAP.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the second mapping is established by using a global positioning system (GPS) technique.

9. A radio network controller (RNC), comprising:

a transceiver unit, for receiving a first RRC connection request message from a UE and sending back a first RRC connection setup message or a first RRC connection reject message to the UE;

a processing unit, coupled to the transceiver unit, for determining whether the transceiver unit has received the first RRC connection request message from the UE before, and if the transceiver unit has not received the first RRC connection request message, searching a database to determine whether there is an accessible FAP near the UE, so as to determine whether the transceiver unit needs to send the first RRC connection reject message to the UE to guide the UE to the accessible FAP and allow the UE to set up the connection with the FAP, wherein the first RRC connection reject message carries an information of the FAP; and

a database, coupled to the processing unit, for storing a context of the FAP.

10. The RNC according to claim 9, wherein when the UE receives the first RRC connection setup message, the UE sends back a first RRC connection setup complete message to the RNC.

11. The RNC according to claim 9, wherein when the UE receives the first RRC connection reject message, the UE sends a second RRC connection request message to the FAP to set up a connection with the FAP.

12. The RNC according to claim 11, wherein when the UE sends the second RRC connection request message to the FAP, the FAP sends back a second RRC connection setup message to the UE, and the UE then sends a second RRC connection setup complete message to the FAP.

13. The RNC according to claim 9, wherein the context comprises a first mapping and a second mapping, wherein

the first mapping stores the FAP and the UE that accesses the FAP to establish a first mapping between the FAP and the UE,

and the second mapping stores a relative location of the FAP to establish a second mapping between the FAP and the relative location, wherein the relative location is a macro cell corresponding to the FAP or a neighbouring cell near the FAP.

14. The RNC according to claim 13, wherein the second mapping is established by scanning the neighbouring cell when the FAP is turned on and sending an information of the neighbouring cell into the database by using the FAP.

15. The RNC according to claim 13, wherein the second mapping is established by using a GPS technique.

16. A communication system, comprising a UE, a RNC, and a FAP, wherein the RNC comprises:

a transceiver unit, for receiving a first RRC connection request message or a first RRC connection setup complete message from the UE and sending back a first RRC connection setup message or a first RRC connection reject message to the UE;

a processing unit, coupled to the transceiver unit, for determining whether the transceiver unit has received the first RRC connection request message from the UE, and if the transceiver unit has not received the first RRC connection request message, searching a database to determine whether there is the accessible FAP near the UE, so as to determine whether the transceiver unit needs to send the first RRC connection reject message to the UE to guide the UE to the accessible FAP and allow the UE to set up a connection with the FAP, wherein the first RRC connection reject message carries an information of the FAP; and

a database, coupled to the processing unit, for storing a context of the FAP.

17. The communication system according to claim 16, wherein when the UE receives the first RRC connection reject message, the UE sends a second RRC connection request message to the FAP to set up the connection with the FAP.

18. The communication system according to claim 17, wherein when the UE sends the second RRC connection request message to the FAP, the FAP sends back a second RRC connection setup message to the UE, and the UE then sends a second RRC connection setup complete message to the FAP.

19. The communication system according to claim 16, wherein the context comprises a first mapping and a second mapping, wherein

the first mapping stores the FAP and the UE that accesses the FAP to establish a first mapping between the FAP and the UE,

and the second mapping stores a relative location of the FAP to establish a second mapping between the FAP and the relative location, wherein the relative location is a macro cell corresponding to the FAP or a neighbouring cell near the FAP.

20. The communication system according to claim 19, wherein the second mapping is established by scanning the neighbouring cell when the FAP is turned on and sending an information of the neighbouring cell to the database by using the FAP.

21. The communication system according to claim 19, wherein the second mapping is established by using a GPS technique.