DISCONTINUOUS RECEPTION OPERATION WITH ADDITIONAL WAKE-UP OPPORTUNITIES

• US 20150003311A1
• Filed: 11/23/2012
• Published: 01/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Feuersaenger, Martin, Wengerter, Christian, Loehr, Joachim, Golitschek Edler von Elbwart, Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 9,386,524 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/311
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2602 Signal structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2647 Arrangements specific to the receiver only equalisation H04L27/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/001 the frequencies being arranged in component carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0225 using monitoring of external events, e.g. the presence of a signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/28 Discontinuous transmission [DTX]; Discontinuous reception [DRX]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

The invention relates to methods for improving the DRX operation of a UE by introducing an additional DRX wake-up cycle, which runs in parallel to the short and/or long DRX cycle. The DRX wake-up cycle defines time intervals after which the UE starts monitoring the PDCCH for a wake-up duration of time; the UE does not perform any other operation during the wake-up duration apart from monitoring the PDCCH. The time intervals of the wake-up cycle between the wake-up durations are preferably shorter than the one of the DRX long cycle, and may have the same or a shorter length than the ones of the DRX short cycle. The wake-up duration may be as long as the on-duration of the DRX short/long cycle, or may be preferably much shorter, such as only one or a few subframes.

Claims

1-24. -24. (canceled)

25. A method of discontinuous reception for a mobile terminal being in communication with a base station in a mobile communication system, the method comprising:

being configured by the base station with a short discontinuous reception cycle and a long discontinuous reception cycle,

starting the short discontinuous reception cycle upon reception of a DRX MAC control element, and

starting the long discontinuous reception cycle after the short discontinuous reception cycle expired,

wherein, in case the mobile terminal receives an indication of the long discontinuous reception cycle, the mobile terminal starts immediately the long discontinuous reception cycle.

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein the indication of the long discontinuous reception cycle is transmitted via a MAC control element message from the base station.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the mobile terminal stops the short discontinuous reception cycle upon reception of the MAC control element indicating the long discontinuous reception cycle.

28. The method according to claim 25, wherein the indication of the long discontinuous reception cycle is transmitted when the base station expects end of downlink data for the mobile terminal.

29. The method according to claim 28, wherein the mobile terminal indicates the expected end of the downlink data to the base station.

30. The method according to claim 25, wherein the mobile terminal is further configured with an additional discontinuous reception cycle by the base station,

starting the additional discontinuous reception cycle in parallel to performing the short or long discontinuous reception cycle,

wherein the mobile terminal monitors a downlink control channel for messages destined to the mobile terminal for a particular duration of time.

31. A mobile terminal for performing discontinuous reception and being in communication with a base station in a mobile communication system, the mobile terminal comprising:

a processor adapted to configure the mobile terminal with a short discontinuous reception cycle and a long discontinuous reception cycle based on a message from the base station,

a processor adapted to start the short discontinuous reception cycle upon reception of a DRX MAC control element,

the processor adapted to start the long discontinuous reception cycle after the short discontinuous reception cycle expired,

the processor adapted to start immediately the long discontinuous reception cycle, in case the mobile terminal receives an indication of the long discontinuous reception cycle.

32. The mobile terminal according to claim 31, wherein the indication of the long discontinuous reception cycle is received via a MAC control element message from the base station.

33. The mobile terminal according to claim 32, wherein the processor is adapted to stop the short discontinuous reception cycle upon reception of the MAC control element indicating the long discontinuous reception cycle.

34. The mobile terminal according to claim 31, wherein the indication of the long discontinuous reception cycle is transmitted from the base station when the base station expects end of downlink data for the mobile terminal, and

wherein a transmitter of the mobile terminal is adapted to indicate the expected end of the downlink data to the base station.

35. The mobile terminal according to claim 31, wherein the processor is adapted to configure the mobile terminal with an additional discontinuous reception cycle based on a message from the base station,

the processor being adapted to start the additional discontinuous reception cycle in parallel to performing the short or long discontinuous reception cycle,

wherein the mobile terminal monitors a downlink control channel for messages destined to the mobile terminal for a particular duration of time.