METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REASSIGNING FREQUENCY RESOURCE IN A FEMTO BASE STATION DURING HANDOVER

• US 20120238273A1
• Filed: 09/11/2009
• Published: 09/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Lim, Jae-Won, Jang, Seo-Woo, Jo, Jun-Ho
• Granted Patent: US 8,996,007 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/436
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/04 Traffic adaptive resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/10 Dynamic resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/08 Reselecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for arbitrating radio resources between femto base stations in which, when handover of a terminal takes place between femto base stations, the handover is carried out by reallocating radio resources of a serving femto base station assigned to the terminal to a target femto base station, to rearbitrate the radio resources and reduce the time required for rearbitration, thereby enhancing communication effectiveness.

Claims

1. A method for arbitrating radio resources assigned to one or a plurality of terminals in a femto base station, comprising:

allocating and assigning its own radio resources to the one or plurality of terminals by the femto base station to provide a communication service;

transmitting information on a radio resource assigned to the terminal to a network entity by the femto base station when a specific terminal among the one or plurality of terminals is handed over from the femto base station to a target femto base station; and

excluding the radio resource assigned to the terminal from the its own radio resources by the femto base station when the specific terminal is handed over to the target femto base station.

2. The radio resources arbitration method as set forth in claim 1, subsequent to providing the communication service, further comprising:

receiving a measurement result for neighboring femto base stations from the terminals;

determining whether or not the specific terminal is handed over to the target femto base station based upon the measurement result; and

transmitting a handover request message to the target femto base station when determined that it is handed over to the target femto base station.

3. The radio resources arbitration method as set forth in claim 1, subsequent to transmitting the information on the radio resource to a network entity, further comprising:

receiving a response message for the resource arbitration message from the network entity.

4. The radio resources arbitration method as set forth in claim 3, wherein the response message indicates that the radio resource assigned to the terminal is moved to the target femto base station.

5. The radio resources arbitration method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the network entity includes at least one of a femto base station controller, the terminal, the target femto base station, and a core network.

6. A method for arbitrating radio resources assigned to one or a plurality of terminals in a femto base station, comprising:

allocating and assigning its own first radio resource to the one or plurality of terminals by the femto base station to provide a service;

receiving a message for requesting handover to a specific terminal accessed to a neighboring femto base station;

receiving information on a second radio resource of the neighboring femto base station assigned to the specific terminal by the neighboring femto base station; and

expanding an operating frequency into the second radio resource to provide a communication service for the specific terminal after handover, in addition to the previously assigned first radio resource by the femto base station.

7. The radio resources arbitration method as set forth in claim 7, wherein a frequency bandwidth of the second radio resource is different from that of the first radio resource.

8. The radio resources arbitration method as set forth in claim 7, subsequent to expanding the operating frequency into the second radio resource, further comprising:

transmitting information including that a radio resource is reallocated to the network entity.

9. The radio resources arbitration method as set forth in claim 9, wherein the information further includes radio resource reallocation information for the neighboring femto base station.

10. A terminal to be handed over from a serving femto base station to a target femto base station, comprising:

a transceiver unit; and

a control unit for controlling the transceiver unit, when handed over to the target femto base station, to receive information on a radio resource assigned by the serving femto base station, and request a radio resource required during handover to the target femto base station based upon the information on the radio resource, and then perform a handover to the target femto base station.