METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING CARRIER FREQUENCY IN MULTI-CARRIER/CELL SYSTEM

• US 20110026422A1
• Filed: 09/24/2010
• Published: 02/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Chen, Jun, Zhang, Jinlin, Ma, Jie, Ma, Xiaofei, Zhang, Yi
• Granted Patent: US 8,897,234 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0057 Physical resource allocation for CQI
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0098 Signalling of the activation or deactivation of component carriers, subcarriers or frequency bands
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/54 based on quality criteria

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for controlling a carrier frequency in a multi-carrier/cell system are provided. The method includes receiving Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) information of a carrier frequency reported by a terminal, determining whether to deactivate or activate the carrier frequency according to the CQI information, and instructing the terminal to deactivate or activate the carrier frequency according to a result of the determining. Thus, a certain carrier frequency is flexibly activated or deactivated in the multi-carrier/cell system through carrier frequency quality reporting and threshold comparison.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a carrier frequency in a multi-carrier/cell system, comprising:

determining whether to deactivate or activate a subsidiary carrier frequency according to a buffering performance of a multi-carrier/cell; and

instructing a terminal to deactivate or activate the subsidiary carrier frequency according to a result of the determining.

2. The method for controlling a carrier frequency in a multi-carrier/cell system according to claim 1, wherein the determining whether to deactivate or activate the subsidiary carrier frequency according to the buffering performance of the multi-carrier/cell comprises:

measuring, by a base station, the number of HSDPA service pending bytes of the subsidiary carrier frequency; and

comparing, by the base station, the number of HSDPA service pending bytes of the subsidiary carrier frequency with a deactivation threshold or an activation threshold, so as to determine whether to deactivate or activate the subsidiary carrier frequency.

3. The method for controlling a carrier frequency in a multi-carrier/cell system according to claim 2, wherein the comparing the number of HSDPA service pending bytes of the subsidiary carrier frequency with the deactivation threshold or the activation threshold comprises:

determining to deactivate the subsidiary carrier frequency if the number of HSDPA service pending bytes of the subsidiary carrier frequency is lower than the deactivation threshold;

or

determining to activate the subsidiary carrier frequency if the number of HSDPA service pending bytes of the subsidiary carrier frequency is higher than the activation threshold.

4. The method for controlling a carrier frequency in a multi-carrier/cell system according to claim 1,

wherein the instructing a terminal to deactivate or activate the subsidiary carrier frequency comprises instructing the terminal to deactivate the subsidiary carrier frequency, and

wherein after the instructing the terminal to deactivate the subsidiary carrier frequency, the method further comprises a data operation procedure of deactivating the subsidiary carrier frequency by the terminal, and the data operation procedure comprises:

waiting for a response, for the data sent by the subsidiary carrier frequency but having no response received;

resending, by other carrier frequencies, data sent by the subsidiary carrier frequency but having no response received or having a failed response received in a response time; and

transferring data not sent by the carrier frequency into a sending sequence of the other carrier frequencies according to a sequence number of the data for sending, or discarding the data.

5. The method for controlling a carrier frequency in a multi-carrier/cell system according to claim 1, wherein after the instructing the terminal to deactivate or activate the subsidiary carrier frequency, the method further comprises:

sending, by the terminal, a feedback of deactivating the subsidiary carrier frequency after receiving a deactivation instruction, or,

sending, by the terminal, a feedback of activating the subsidiary carrier frequency after receiving an activation instruction.

6. The method for controlling a carrier frequency in a multi-carrier/cell system according to claim 1,

wherein the instructing a terminal to deactivate or activate the subsidiary carrier frequency comprises instructing the terminal to activate the subsidiary carrier frequency, and

wherein after the instructing the terminal to activate the subsidiary carrier frequency, the method further comprises:

when a quality of the subsidiary carrier frequency activated is superior to a quality of an existing subsidiary carrier frequency, replacing the existing subsidiary carrier frequency with the activated subsidiary carrier frequency.

7. A method for setting up a multi-carrier/cell connection between a terminal and a network, comprising:

receiving information indicating a multi-carrier/cell capability of the terminal sent by the terminal, and

setting up a multi-carrier/cell connection with the terminal.

8. The method for setting up a multi-carrier/cell connection between a terminal and network according to claim 7, wherein the information indicating the multi-carrier/cell capability of the terminal is carried in an uplink (UL) Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling.

9. The method for setting up a multi-carrier/cell connection between a terminal and network according to claim 7, wherein the receiving the information indicating the multi-carrier/cell capability of the terminal sent by the terminal, and setting up the multi-carrier/cell connection with the terminal comprises:

receiving information of the multi-carrier/cell capability, and sending feedback information to the terminal, and

setting up the multi-carrier/cell connection with the terminal.

10. The method for setting up a multi-carrier/cell connection between a terminal and network according to claim 9, wherein after the receiving the information of the multi-carrier/cell capability, the method further comprises:

assigning the terminal to use a multi-carrier/cell receiving capability and/or a multi-carrier/cell sending capability according to the information of the multi-carrier/cell capability of the terminal and a requested service type.

11. The method for setting up a multi-carrier/cell connection between a terminal and network according to claim 9, wherein the feedback information is carried in a downlink (DL) RRC signaling.

12. The method for setting up a multi-carrier/cell connection between a terminal and network according to claim 7, wherein when the multi-carrier/cell connection is set up through M DL carrier frequencies and N UL carrier frequencies, and M is greater than N, the setting up the multi-carrier/cell connection comprises:

setting up a Fractional Dedicated Physical Channel (F-DPCH) on N DL carrier frequencies corresponding to the UL carrier frequencies for performing power control on a UL physical channel, and sending data through a High-Speed Down Share Channel (HS-DSCH) on the N DL carrier frequencies; and

sending data through the HS-DSCH on the remaining (M-N) DL carrier frequencies.

13. The method for setting up a multi-carrier/cell connection between a terminal and network according to claim 7, wherein after the setting up the multi-carrier/cell connection with the terminal, the method further comprises:

configuring a corresponding terminal identifier for each multi-carrier/cell.

14. A method for activating/deactivating a carrier frequency in a multi-carrier/cell system, comprising:

instructing a terminal to deactivate or activate a carrier frequency, according to a result of activation/deactivation determination of the carrier frequency.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the instructing the terminal to deactivate or activate the carrier frequency comprises:

carrying the result of activation/deactivation determination by a Media Access Control (MAC) layer Protocol Data Unit (PDU), so as to instruct the terminal to deactivate or activate the carrier frequency;

or

carrying the result of activation/deactivation determination by a physical layer signaling, so as to instruct the terminal to deactivate or activate the carrier frequency.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the physical layer signaling is a High-Speed Shared Control Channel (HS-SCCH) order, a signaling borne on a physical layer information Enhanced Dedicated Channel (E-DCH) Absolute Grant Channel (E-AGCH), or a signaling borne on an E-DCH Relatively Grant Channel (E-RGCH).