Method and System for Mobile Relay Enablement

• US 20140135006A1
• Filed: 11/09/2012
• Published: 05/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Yu, Yi, Cai, Zhijun, Song, Yi, Blankenship, Yufei Wu, Bontu, Chandra Sekhar
• Granted Patent: US 9,467,872 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/436
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0058 Transmission of hand-off measurement information, e.g. measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0079 in case of hand-off failure or rejection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/005 Moving wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations

Abstract

A method and network node for managing a relay node that is moving relative to a source network node, the method ensuring a target network node is capable of supporting the relay node; sending a handover request of a relay node from the source network node to the target network node; and establishing an interface between the relay node and the target network node.

Claims

1. A method for managing a relay node that is moving relative to a source network node, the method comprising:

ensuring a target network node is capable of supporting the relay node;

sending a handover request of a relay node from the source network node to the target network node; and

establishing an interface between the relay node and the target network node.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a handover request of a user equipment attached to the relay node.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the ensuring the target network node is capable of supporting the relay node uses at least one of an information element indicating that the relay node is being handed over and backhaul communications between network nodes to exchange relay node support capability.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the ensuring the target network node is capable of supporting the relay node uses at least one of a broadcast signaling of a capability of neighboring network nodes to support the relay node and communications between a mobility management entity and network nodes to exchange a capability of the target network node to support the relay node.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the handover request of the relay node further includes at least one of radio bearer information for the relay node and radio access bearer information for a user equipment served by the relay node.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the handover request of the relay node uses at least one of an X2 interface between the target network node and the source network node and an S1 interface with a mobility management entity for communications between the source network node and the target network node.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the sending the handover request of the user equipments is performed without receiving a measurement report from the user equipment.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending the handover message from the source node is performed after a message had been sent by the relay node to the target network node.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the handover request of the relay node includes context information for user equipments served by the relay node, the method further comprising performing a group path switch with a serving gateway for the user equipments.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the relay node receives a handover command from the source network node prior to the source network node receiving a handover request acknowledgment from the target network node.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a reconfiguration message from the source network node to the relay node prior to receiving a handover request acknowledgement from the target network node.

12. A source network node configured for managing a relay node that is moving relative to the source network node, the source network node comprising:

a processor; and

a communications subsystem,

wherein the processor and communications subsystem cooperate to;

ensure a target network node is capable of supporting the relay node;

send a handover request of a relay node from the source network node to the target network node; and

establish an interface between the relay node and the target network node.

13. The source network node of claim 12, wherein the processor and communications subsystem further cooperate to send a handover request of a user equipment attached to the relay node.

14. The source network node of claim 12, wherein the source network node is configured to ensure the target network node is capable of supporting the relay node by at least one of using an information element indicating that the relay node is being handed over and using backhaul communications between network nodes to exchange relay node support capability.

15. The source network node of claim 12, wherein the source network node is configured to ensure the target network node is capable of supporting the relay node by at least one of using a broadcast signaling of a capability of a neighboring network node to support the relay node and using communications between a mobility management entity and network nodes to exchange a capability of the target network node to support the relay node.

16. The source network node of claim 12, wherein the handover request of the relay node further includes at least one of radio bearer information for the relay node and radio access bearer information for user equipments served by the relay node.

17. The source network node of claim 12, wherein the handover request of the relay node uses at least one of an X2 interface between the target network node and the source network node and an S1 interface with a mobility management entity for communications between the source network node and the target network node.

18. The source network node of claim 13, wherein the source network node is configured to send the handover request of the user equipments without receiving a measurement report from the user equipment.

19. The source network node of claim 12, wherein the source network node is configured to send the handover message from the source node after a reconfiguration complete message had been sent by the relay node to the target network node.

20. The source network node of claim 12, wherein the handover request of the relay node includes context information for user equipments served by the relay node, and wherein the processor and communications subsystem further cooperate to perform a group path switch with a serving gateway for the user equipments.

21. The source network node of claim 12, wherein the relay node receives a handover message from the source network node prior to the source network node receiving a handover request acknowledgment from the target network node.

22. The source network node of claim 12, wherein the processor and communications subsystem further cooperate to send a reconfiguration message from the source network node to the relay node prior to receiving a handover request acknowledgement from the target network node.