Method and Apparatus for Allocating Bearer Resources

• US 20130064078A1
• Filed: 10/12/2010
• Published: 03/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Original Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Inventors: Guo, Jing
• Granted Patent: US 9,119,183 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/15 Setup of multiple wireless link connections

Abstract

The invention discloses a method and apparatus for allocating bearer resources, and relates to LTE system in the communication field. The method comprises: when a network side receives a bearer resource allocation request initiated by a user, if the number of currently activated EPS bearers has reached or exceeded a set upper limit, the network side searching the currently activated EPS bearers according to a QCI carried in the bearer resource allocation request, and if an EPS bearer corresponding to a QCI consistent with the QCI carried in the bearer resource allocation request is found, performing a proprietary bearer modification operation on the found EPS bearer to respond to the bearer resource allocation request.

Claims

1. A method for allocating bearer resources comprising:

when a network side receives a bearer resource allocation request initiated by a user, if the number of currently activated 3GPP Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearers has reached or exceeded a set upper limit, the network side searching the currently activated EPS bearers according to a QoS Class Identifier (QCI) carried in the bearer resource allocation request, and if an EPS bearer corresponding to a QCI consistent with the QCI carried in the bearer resource allocation request is found, performing a proprietary bearer modification operation on the found EPS bearer to respond to the bearer resource allocation request.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

the network side storing EPS bearer information corresponding to all the currently activated EPS bearers in advance, the EPS bearer information including bearer identifiers, QCIs and current bearer states corresponding to the currently activated EPS bearers.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

after finding the EPS bearer corresponding to the QCI consistent with the QCI carried in the bearer resource allocation request, the network side determining whether the current bearer state of the found EPS bearer is an idle state, and only if yes, performing the proprietary bearer modification operation on the found EPS bearer to respond to the bearer resource allocation request.

4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

if the network side has not found any EPS bearer corresponding to the QCI consistent with the QCI carried in the bearer resource allocation request, the network side searching for an EPS bearer with the current bearer state being the idle state according to the EPS bearer information corresponding to all the currently activated EPS bearers, and performing the proprietary bearer modification operation on the found EPS bearer to respond to the bearer resource allocation request.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein

the EPS bearer information further included priorities corresponding to the currently activated EPS bearers;

and

the method further comprises;

if the network side has not found any EPS bearer corresponding to the QCI consistent with the QCI carried in the bearer resource allocation request, the network side searching the EPS bearers according to a priority corresponding to a bearer requested by the bearer resource allocation request, and if an EPS bearer with a priority lower than the priority corresponding to the bearer requested by the bearer resource allocation request is found, performing the proprietary bearer modification operation on the found EPS bearer to respond to the bearer resource allocation request.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

after finding the EPS bearer with the priority lower than the priority corresponding to the bearer requested by the bearer resource allocation request, the network side obtaining the current bearer state corresponding to the found EPS bearer from the EPS bearer information corresponding to all the currently activated EPS bearers, and performing the proprietary bearer modification operation on the found EPS bearer to respond to the bearer resource allocation request only when the obtained current bearer state is the idle state.

7. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

after performing the proprietary bearer modification operation, the network side updating and storing the EPS bearer information corresponding to all the currently activated EPS bearers according to an operation result.

15. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

after performing the proprietary bearer modification operation, the network side updating and storing the EPS bearer information corresponding to all the currently activated EPS bearers according to an operation result.

16. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

after performing the proprietary bearer modification operation, the network side updating and storing the EPS bearer information corresponding to all the currently activated EPS bearers according to an operation result.

17. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

after performing the proprietary bearer modification operation, the network side updating and storing the EPS bearer information corresponding to all the currently activated EPS bearers according to an operation result.

8. An apparatus for allocating bearer resources comprising a bearer allocating unit and a receiving unit, wherein

the receiving unit is configured to receive a bearer resource allocation request initiated by a user, and forward the bearer resource allocation request to the bearer allocating unit;

and

the bearer allocating unit is configured to determine whether the number of currently activated 3GPP Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearers has reached or exceeded a set upper limit after receiving the bearer resource allocation request, search the currently activated EPS bearers according to a QoS Class Identifier (QCI) carried in the bearer resource allocation request if the number of the currently activated EPS bearers has reached or exceeded the set upper limit, and if an EPS bearer corresponding to a QCI consistent with the QCI carried in the bearer resource allocation request is found, perform a proprietary bearer modification operation on the found EPS bearer to respond to the bearer resource allocation request.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a bearer information storing unit configured to store EPS bearer information corresponding to all the currently activated EPS bearers, the EPS bearer information including bearer identifiers, QCIs and current bearer states corresponding to the currently activated EPS bearers;

and

the bearer allocating unit is further configured to search the bearer information storing unit for an EPS bearer corresponding to the QCI consistent with the QCI carried in the bearer resource allocation request.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein

the bearer allocating unit is further configured to, after finding the EPS bearer corresponding to the QCI consistent with the QCI carried in the bearer resource allocation request, obtain the current bearer state of the found EPS bearer from the bearer information storing unit, and perform the proprietary bearer modification operation on the found EPS bearer to respond to the bearer resource allocation request only if the obtained current bearer state is an idle state.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein

the bearer allocating unit is further configured to search the bearer information storing unit for an EPS bearer with the current bearer state being the idle state if the EPS bearer corresponding to the QCI consistent with the QCI carried in the bearer resource allocation request is not found, and perform the proprietary bearer modification operation on the found EPS bearer to respond to the bearer resource allocation request.

12. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein

the bearer information storing unit is further configured to store priorities corresponding to the currently activated EPS bearers;

and

the bearer allocating unit is further configured to search the bearer information storing unit for an EPS bearer according to a priority corresponding to a bearer requested by the bearer resource allocation request if the EPS bearer corresponding to the QCI consistent with the QCI carried in the bearer resource allocation request is not found, and if an EPS bearer with a priority lower than the priority corresponding to the bearer requested by the bearer resource allocation request is found, perform the proprietary bearer modification operation on the found EPS bearer to respond to the bearer resource allocation request.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein

the bearer allocating unit is further configured to, after finding the EPS bearer with the priority lower than the priority corresponding to the bearer requested by the bearer resource allocation request, obtain the current bearer state corresponding to the found EPS bearer from the bearer information storing unit, and perform the proprietary bearer modification operation on the found EPS bearer to respond to the bearer resource allocation request only when the obtained current bearer state is the idle state.

14. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein

the bearer allocating unit is further configured to update and store the EPS bearer information corresponding to all the currently activated EPS bearers stored in the bearer information storing unit according to an operation result after performing the proprietary bearer modification operation.

18. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein

the bearer allocating unit is further configured to update and store the EPS bearer information corresponding to all the currently activated EPS bearers stored in the bearer information storing unit according to an operation result after performing the proprietary bearer modification operation.

19. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein

the bearer allocating unit is further configured to update and store the EPS bearer information corresponding to all the currently activated EPS bearers stored in the bearer information storing unit according to an operation result after performing the proprietary bearer modification operation.

20. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein

the bearer allocating unit is further configured to update and store the EPS bearer information corresponding to all the currently activated EPS bearers stored in the bearer information storing unit according to an operation result after performing the proprietary bearer modification operation.