METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DEVICE TO DEVICE COMMUNICATION

• US 20140010172A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 01/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Inventors: Wei, Hung-Yu, Chou, Ching-Chun
• Granted Patent: US 9,445,446 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

This disclosure proposes a method to achieve D2D (device to device) communication in LTE system. Traditional communication in LTE systems is based on eNB. UEs (User Equipment) need to connect to eNB to send uplink and downlink transmission. Device to device communication is different from the traditional LTE scheme. UEs may directly connect to other UEs, sending data to each other. The disclosure provides the signaling process, based on LTE network entry procedure, to establish D2D communication in LTE system. D2D UEs send Msg1 to another D2D UE, and the recipient respond with Msg2. After the negotiation between D2D UEs, Msg3 and Msg4 are exchanged between UEs and eNB. Several embodiments are provided for the signaling of Msg3 and Msg4. The D2D data transmission may be enabled after the Msg4 or explicit data session initialization.

Claims

1. A device to device (D2D) communication method, adapted for a caller user equipment (UE), and the method comprising:

transmitting to a first device a Msg1 comprising a request for a direct communication with the first device;

receiving from the first device a Msg2 comprising a first decision to either accept or reject the request for the direct communication with the first device;

transmitting to a second device a Msg3 comprising the request for the direct communication with the first device when the first decision is to accept; and

establishing the direct communication with the first device when the request is accepted by the second device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein before the step of establishing the direct communication with the first device when the request is accepted by the second device, claim 2 further comprises:

receiving from the second device a Msg4 comprising a second decision to either accept or reject the direction communication between the caller UE and the first device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of receiving from the first device a Msg2 comprising a first decision to either accept or reject the request for the direct communication with the first device further comprises:

receiving from the second device another Msg2 which includes resource allocation for the Msg3 and the Msg4.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the caller UE and the first device synchronize with each other when the caller UE transmits the Msg1 to the first device and then the caller UE receives the Msg2 from the first device.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the caller UE and the second device synchronized with each other when the caller UE transmits the Msg1 to the first device and then the caller UE receives the another Msg2 from the second device.

6. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

obtaining a preamble code of the first device from the Msg2; and

decoding a DCI from the first device based on the preamble code of the first device from the Msg2.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the Msg1 further comprises a predefined signaling sequence or a predefined code.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the Msg1 further comprises a dynamically selected signaling sequence or a dynamically selected code from a set of signaling sequences or from a set of codes.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the Msg1 further comprises indicating a D2D service or a non-D2D service and a caller UE or a callee UE.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the Msg3 further comprises a request for radio resources from the second device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the Msg3 further comprises:

a device identification, authorization information, D2D configuration or policy, type of D2D service request, reception quality of the Msg1 and/or the Msg2, expiration time, and the RNTI of the caller UE or the first device or both.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the Msg4 further comprises:

a device identification, authorization information, D2D connection configuration or policy, type of D2D service grant, expiration time, resource allocation, QoS configuration, Security credential, authorization code, configuration for D2D data transmission, and method of starting the actual D2D data session.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of claim 1 are executed by a user equipment comprising a transceiver for transmitting and receiving wireless data and a processing circuit coupled to the transceiver for executing the steps of claim 1.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is an electronic device comprising wireless D2D capability.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the second device is one of an enhanced Node B (eNB), a base station (BS), a Serving Gateway (S-GW), a Gateway General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) Support Node (GGSN), a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), or an Access Service Network (ASN-GW).

16. A device to device (D2D) communication method, for use by a callee (UE), and the method comprising:

receiving from a first device a Msg1 comprising a request for a direct communication with the first device;

transmitting to the first device a Msg2 comprising a first decision to either accept or reject the request for the direct communication with the first device;

when the first decision is to accept the direct communication with the first device, establishing the direct communication with the first device when the direction communication is granted by a second device.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein after transmitting the Msg2, claim 17 further comprises:

transmitting to the second device a Msg3 comprising the request for the direct communication with the first device when the first decision is to accept the request for the direct communication with the first device.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein before the step of establishing the direct communication with the first device when the direction communication is granted by the second device, claim 18 further comprises:

receiving from the second device a Msg4 comprising a second decision to either accept or reject the direction communication between the callee UE and the first device.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the callee UE and the first device synchronize with each other when the callee UE receives the Msg1 from the first device and then the first device receives a Msg2 from the callee UE.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the caller UE and the second device synchronized with each other when the caller UE transmits the Msg2 to the first device and then the caller UE receives the Msg4 from the second device.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the Msg2 further comprises a preamble code of the callee UE.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the Msg4 is encoded by the second device based on the preamble code of the callee UE.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein the Msg1 further comprises a predefined signaling sequence or a predefined code.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein the Msg1 further comprises a dynamically selected signaling sequence or a dynamically selected code from a set of signaling sequences or from a set of codes.

25. The method of claim 16, wherein the Msg1 further comprises indicating a D2D service or a non-D2D service and a caller UE or a callee UE.

26. The method of claim 16, wherein the Msg3 further comprises a request for radio resources from the second device.

27. The method of claim 16, wherein the Msg3 further comprises:

a device identification, authorization information, D2D configuration or policy, type of D2D service request, reception quality of the Msg1 and/or the Msg2, expiration time, and the RNTI of the caller UE or the first device or both.

28. The method of claim 16, wherein the Msg4 further comprises:

a device identification, authorization information, D2D connection configuration or policy, type of D2D service grant, expiration time, resource allocation, QoS configuration, Security credential, authorization code, configuration for D2D data transmission, and method of starting the actual D2D data session.

29. The method of claim 16, wherein the steps of claim 16 are executed by a user equipment comprising a transceiver for transmitting and receiving wireless data and a processing circuit coupled to the transceiver for executing the steps of claim 16.

30. The method of claim 16, wherein the first device is an electronic device comprising wireless D2D capability.

31. The method of claim 16, wherein the second device is one of an enhanced Node B (eNB), a base station (BS), a Serving Gateway (S-GW), a Gateway General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) Support Node (GGSN), a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), or an Access Service Network (ASN-GW).

32. A device to device (D2D) communication method, for use by a control node, and the method comprising:

receiving a Msg3 from a first device comprising a request for a direct communication between the first device and a second device after the first device and the second device have communicated directly and agreed to the direct communication;

determining whether to grant the request for the direct communication between the first device and the second device;

transmitting to either the first device or the second device a Msg4 comprising a grant or a rejection for the request for the direct communication between the first device and the second device.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the control node is one of an enhanced Node B (eNB), a base station (BS), a Serving Gateway (S-GW), a Gateway General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) Support Node (GGSN), a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), or an Access Service Network (ASN-GW).

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the first device and the second device are electronic devices comprising wireless D2D capability.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein the Msg3 comprises a request for radio resources from the control node.

36. The method of claim 32, wherein the Msg3 comprises:

a device identification, authorization information, D2D configuration or policy, type of D2D service request, reception quality of the Msg1 and/or the Msg2, expiration time, and the RNTI of the caller UE or the first device or both.

37. The method of claim 32, wherein the Msg4 comprises notification to at least one of the first device and the second device whether a network entry has been successful or not.

38. The method of claim 32, wherein the Msg4 further comprises:

a device identification, authorization information, D2D connection configuration or policy, type of D2D service grant, expiration time, resource allocation, QoS configuration, Security credential, authorization code, configuration for D2D data transmission, and method of starting the actual D2D data session.

39. The method of claim 32, wherein the step of determining whether to grant the request for the direct communication between the first device and the second device further comprises:

determining whether to grant the request based on a network management and configuration policy, pricing, radio resources allocation, and notification of a network or other control nodes.

40. The method of claim 32, wherein before the step of receiving the Msg3 from the first device, claim 40 further comprises:

receiving from the first device a Msg1 which encoded based on a preamble code of the first device.

41. The method of claim 40 further comprising:

Transmitting to the first device a Msg2′

which comprises downlink control information (DCI) to indicate radio resources for the Msg3 and the Msg4.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the Msg2′

comprises a preamble code of the second device.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the Msg4 is encoded based on the preamble code of the second device.

44. The method of claim 41, wherein the first device and the control node are synchronized by exchanging the Msg1 and Msg2′

between the first device and the control node.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the second device and the control node are synchronized by the second device transmitting Msg2 to the first device and by the control node transmitting the Msg4 to the second device.

46. The method of claim 32, wherein the control node comprises a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals and a processing circuit coupled to the transceiver and is configured to execute the method of claim 32.