METHOD FOR HANDLING PROXIMITY-BASED SERVICE DISCOVERY AND COMMUNICATION IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

• US 20140348081A1
• Filed: 05/21/2014
• Published: 11/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HTC Corporation
• Original Assignee: HTC Corporation
• Inventors: LIAO, Ching-Yu
• Granted Patent: US 9,585,178 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

A method for handling Proximity-based Service (ProSe) discovery, comprising: performing a ProSe communication preparation procedure, in response to a received ProSe discovery request message, with a first UE and a second UE, for guiding ProSe discovery between the first UE and the second UE, wherein the received ProSe discovery request message indicates ProSe identifiers of the first UE and the second UE for ProSe communication and the ProSe communication preparation procedure comprises transmitting a first request message including scheduled information for the first UE and a second request message including scheduled information for the second UE, to the first UE and to the second UE respectively, and receiving response messages from the first and second UE; determining if a direct radio link between the first UE and the second UE is feasible for ProSe communication based on the received response messages from the first and second UE.

Claims

1. A method for handling Proximity-based Service (ProSe) discovery and communication for a base station in a wireless communications system, comprising:

performing a ProSe communication preparation procedure, in response to a received ProSe discovery request message, with a first user equipment (UE) and a second UE in the wireless communications system which are served by the base station, for guiding ProSe discovery between the first UE and the second UE among which one is an announcing UE and the other is a monitoring UE, wherein the received ProSe discovery request message indicates ProSe identifiers of the first UE and the second UE for ProSe communication and the ProSe communication preparation procedure comprises transmitting a first request message including scheduled information for the first UE and a second request message including scheduled information for the second UE, to the first UE and to the second UE respectively, and receiving response messages from the first UE and the second UE;

determining if a direct radio link between the first UE and the second UE is feasible for ProSe communication based on the received response messages from the first UE and the second UE.

2. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 1, wherein the base station generates the scheduled information for the first UE and for the second UE based on radio frequency, transmission power, uplink radio resources for the announcing UE, and downlink radio resources for the monitoring UE.

3. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 1, wherein the ProSe discovery request message is received from a Mobility Management Entity (MME) in the wireless communications system for initiating the ProSe communication preparation procedure, or is received from the first UE or the second UE, before performing the ProSe communication preparation procedure.

4. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a ProSe discovery response message to the MME, after the base station determines the result of the ProSe discovery based on the response messages from the first UE and the second UE, wherein the ProSe discovery response message includes a positive result notifying a successful ProSe discovery when determining that the direct radio link between the first UE and the second UE is feasible for ProSe communication, or includes a failure cause when determining that the direct radio link between the first UE and the second UE is infeasible for ProSe communication.

5. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 4, further comprising:

establishing a locally-routed data path via the base station for ProSe communication between the first UE and the second UE, after the base station determines that the direct radio link between the first UE and the second UE is infeasible for ProSe communication.

6. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 4, wherein the MME transmits a ProSe communication response message to a ProSe server after the MME receives the ProSe discovery response message from the base station.

7. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 3, wherein the MME receives a ProSe communication request message from a ProSe server before the MME transmits the ProSe discovery request message to the base station for initiating the ProSe communication preparation procedure.

8. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 7, wherein the ProSe server performs following steps before transmitting the ProSe communication request to the MME:

receiving a location information report including location information of one of the first UE and the second UE identified by the ProSe identifiers of the first UE and the second UE from the MME;

determining that the first UE and the second UE are located in a proximity area according to user discovery preference settings of the first UE and the second UE and a proximity criterion associated with location information of the first UE and the second UE; and

authorizing ProSe discovery and ProSe communication between the first UE and the second UE.

9. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 8, wherein the location information includes at least one of an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) cell global identity and a tracking area identity.

10. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 8, wherein the base station further comprising:

transmitting the location information report including the location information of the reporting UE which is the first UE or the second UE, to the MME, when the base station detects a cell change of the reporting UE or responds to a request from the MME which is for requesting a current location information of the reporting UE, wherein the location information includes at least one of an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) cell global identity and a tracking area identity.

11. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 8, wherein the ProSe server further performs following steps after determining that the first UE and the second UE are located in the proximity area:

transmitting a proximity notification message to an application server to notify that the first UE and the second UE are located in the proximity area; and

receiving the ProSe communication request message from the application server, wherein the ProSe communication request message includes information of the users'"'"' profile for performing the ProSe communication.

12. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 8, wherein the ProSe server further performs following steps after determining that the first UE and the second UE are located in the proximity area:

transmitting a first proximity notification message and a second proximity notification message respectively to the first UE and to the second UE to notify that the first UE and the second UE are located in the proximity area; and

receiving a first ProSe communication request message from the first UE and a second ProSe communication request message from the second UE for requesting the ProSe server to perform the ProSe communication between the first UE and the second UE, so as to transmit the ProSe communication request message to the MME.

13. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 1, where the MME performs following steps after the base station performs the ProSe communication preparation procedure:

performing a ProSe communication setup procedure with the base station, for establishing an Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer for a ProSe communication between the first UE and the second UE, wherein the ProSe communication setup procedure comprises following steps;

generating and storing a correlation identification that correlates EPS bearer identifier of the first UE and the EPS bearer identifier of the second UE for the ProSe communication; and

transmitting bearer setup request messages respectively for the first UE and the second UE including the correlation identification to the base station, to request the base station to establish an EPS bearer for the first UE and an EPS bearer for the second UE, respectively.

14. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 13, wherein the MME further performs following step before the MME performs the ProSe communication setup procedure:

receiving a ProSe discovery response message including a positive result for notifying a successful ProSe discovery, from the base station, wherein the MME performs the ProSe communication setup procedure in response to the ProSe discovery response message.

15. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 13, wherein the MME further performs following step before the MME performs the ProSe communication setup procedure:

receiving a Nom Access Stratum (NAS) message for requesting the ProSe communication setup procedure from one of the first UE and the second UE, wherein the NAS message is sent by the first UE or the second UE in response to a proximity notification message from a ProSe server or an application server.

16. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 13, wherein the base station further performs following steps after receiving the bearer setup request message:

storing the correlation identification in a mapping table, wherein the base station uses the correlation identification to identify the EPS bearers of the first UE and the second UE for the ProSe communication between the first UE and the second UE when the base station schedules data radio bearers; and

transmitting the bearer setup request messages to the first UE and the second UE respectively, for the ProSe communication, wherein each bearer setup request message further contains the correlation identification and the EPS bearer identifier of the EPS bearer for one UE created for the ProSe communication with the other UE.

17. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 12, wherein each of the first UE and the second UE further performs following steps after receiving the bearer setup request message:

storing the correlation identification in a mapping table, wherein the mapping table includes the correlation identification and corresponding EPS bearer identifier; and

transmitting and receiving packets for the ProSe communication via the EPS bearer according to the correlation identification.

18. A method for handling Proximity-based Service (ProSe) discovery and communication for a Mobility Management Entity (MME) in a wireless communications system, comprising:

performing a ProSe communication setup procedure with a base station in the wireless communications system, for establishing an Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer for a ProSe communication between the first UE and the second UE, wherein the ProSe communication setup procedure comprises following steps;

generating and storing a correlation identification that correlates EPS bearer identifier of the first UE and the EPS bearer identifier of the second UE for the ProSe communication; and

transmitting bearer setup request messages respectively for the first UE and the second UE including the correlation identification to the base station, to request the base station to establish an EPS bearer for the first UE and an EPS bearer for the second UE, respectively.

19. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 18, wherein the MME further performs following steps before the MME performs the ProSe communication setup procedure:

transmitting a ProSe discovery request message to the base station; and

receiving a ProSe discovery response message including a positive result for notifying a successful ProSe discovery, from the base station, wherein the MME performs the ProSe communication setup procedure in response to the ProSe discovery response message.

20. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 18, wherein the MME further performs following step before the MME performs the ProSe communication setup procedure:

receiving a Nom Access Stratum (NAS) message for requesting the ProSe communication setup procedure from one of the first UE and the second UE, wherein the NAS message is sent by the first UE or the second UE in response to a proximity notification message from a ProSe server or an application server.

21. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 18, wherein the base station further performs following steps after receiving the bearer setup request message:

storing the correlation identification in a mapping table, wherein the base station uses the correlation identification to identify the EPS bearers of the first UE and the second UE for the ProSe communication between the first UE and the second UE when the base station schedules data radio bearers; and

transmitting the bearer setup request messages to the first UE and the second UE respectively, for the ProSe communication, wherein each bearer setup request message further contains the correlation identification and the EPS bearer identifier of the EPS bearer for one UE created for the ProSe communication with the other UE.

22. The method for handling ProSe discovery and communication as claimed in claim 18, wherein each of the first UE and the second UE further performs following steps after receiving the bearer setup request message:

storing the correlation identification in a mapping table, wherein the mapping table includes the correlation identification and corresponding EPS bearer identifier; and

transmitting and receiving packets for the ProSe communication via the EPS bearer according to the correlation identification.