METHOD OF CONFIGURING TIMING ADVANCE GROUP AND/OR VALUE OF TIME ALIGNMENT TIMER

• US 20140228013A1
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Published: 08/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Yang, Tao, Lim, Seau Sian
• Granted Patent: US 10,764,854 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/418
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0045 compensating for timing error by altering transmission time
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/009 Closed loop measurements

Abstract

The invention proposes a method, of configuring a timing advance group for a secondary cell, in a base station, a method, of configuring a value of a time alignment timer for a secondary cell, in a base station, a method of configuring a value of a time alignment timer in a user equipment, and a method of configuring a timing advance group in a user equipment.

Claims

1. A method, of configuring a timing advance group for a secondary cell, in a base station, the method comprising:

triggering a random access procedure of a user equipment over the secondary cell;

obtaining a timing advance value of the user equipment over the secondary cell according to a result of the random access procedure of the user equipment over the secondary cell; and

determining a final timing advance group to which the secondary cell belongs according to the timing advance value.

2. The method according to claim 1, after the determining, the method further comprises:

providing the user equipment with an identifier of the final timing advance group.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein before the triggering, the method further comprises:

transmitting an initial timing advance group identifier to the secondary cell of the user equipment via a radio link control message or a media access control protocol data unit; and

determining whether the timing advance group identifier is valid for the secondary cell; and

If it is invalid for the secondary cell, then performing the triggering and the obtaining; and

the determining further comprises;

comparing obtained timing advance value with timing advance values pre-stored in the base station; and

taking a timing advance group corresponding to the pre-stored timing advance value as the final timing advance group of the secondary cell, when a difference between the obtained timing advance value and any one of timing advance values pre-stored in the base station is within a predetermined range;

or

taking a timing advance group corresponding to the obtained timing advance value as the final timing advance group of the secondary cell, when a difference between the obtained timing advance value and any one of the timing advance values pre-stored in the base station exceeds the predetermined range.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the providing transmits by any one of the followings:

including the identifier of the final timing advance group in a message 2 for transmission to the user equipment, for the user equipment with a contention-free random access; and

including the identifier of the final timing advance group in a message 4 for transmission to the user equipment, for the user equipment with a contention-based random access.

5. A method, of configuring a timing advance group for a secondary cell, in a base station, the method comprising:

determining whether a timing advance value is valid for a primary cell and the secondary cell; and

creating a new timing advance group for the secondary cell, if the timing advance value is invalid for the primary cell and valid for the secondary cell.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the secondary cell belongs to an activated secondary cell.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein creating a new timing advance group for the secondary cell further comprises:

assigning a new timing advance group identifier for the new timing advance group, and using the timing advance value still valid for the secondary cell as a timing advance value corresponding to the timing advance group,

or newly performing a random access procedure for the secondary cell.

8. A method, of configuring a value of a time alignment timer for a secondary cell, in a base station, the method comprising:

transmitting the value of the time alignment timer to a user equipment via a radio link control message;

including and transmitting to the use equipment the value of the time alignment timer in a physical random access procedure; and

including and transmitting to the use equipment the value of the time alignment timer in media access control layer control signaling.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether the secondary cell is a first secondary cell for which the base station configures a timing advance group; and

configuring the value of the time alignment timer for the secondary cell, if the secondary cell is the first secondary cell for which the base station configures the timing advance group.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether all of secondary cells in the timing advance group of the secondary cell are released; and

releasing a configuration of the time alignment timer, if all of the secondary cells are released.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

transmitting an instruction to the user equipment to instruct the user equipment to release the configuration of the time alignment timer.

12. The method according to claim 8, wherein when the value of the time alignment timer is transmitted in the media access control layer control signaling, the method further comprises:

identifying, by using a logical channel identifier, a media access control layer control element for assigning the time alignment timer.

13. A method, of configuring a value of a time alignment timer in a user equipment, the method comprising:

receiving a value of a new time alignment timer from a base station;

determining whether there is a currently operating time alignment timer; and

if there is the currently operating time alignment timer, then disabling the currently operating time alignment timer and operating the new time alignment timer;

or

waiting for the termination of the operation of the currently operating time alignment timer and operating the new time alignment timer after the termination.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the method further comprises:

determining whether all of secondary cells in a timing advance group are released; and

releasing a configuration of the time alignment timer, if all of the secondary cells are released.

15. A method of configuring a timing advance group in a user equipment, the method comprising:

receiving a new timing advance group identifier from a base station;

determining whether an identifier of a timing advance group to which the user equipment currently belongs is consistent with the new timing advance group identifier; and

replacing the identifier of the timing advance group currently belonging to with the new timing advance group identifier, if not consistent.