HANDOVER PROCESSING METHOD AND BASE STATION

• US 20150181470A1
• Filed: 02/05/2015
• Published: 06/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: CHAI, Li, LIN, Bo, SHI, Jie
• Granted Patent: US 9,596,624 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0005 Control or signalling for completing the hand-off
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0055 Transmission or use of information for re-establishing the radio link
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0069 in case of dual connectivity, e.g. decoupled uplink/downlink
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/08 Reselecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/18 for allowing seamless reselection, e.g. soft reselection

Abstract

The application provides a handover processing method and a base station. The method includes: receiving a handover request message sent by a source base station or a core network node; sending a first message, according to the handover request message, to a second target base station to notify the second target base station that a handover of part or all of a service of a user equipment to the second target base station is to be performed; and sending a handover request acknowledge message to the source base station or the core network node to notify the source base station or the core network node to hand over the user equipment to at least one target cell of the first target base station and/or at least one target cell of the second target base station. The present application realizes a multi-cell handover.

Claims

1. A handover processing method, comprising:

sending, by a first source base station, a handover request message to a target base station, to make a request for a handover of a user equipment from the first source base station and a second source base station to the target base station;

receiving, by the first source base station, a handover request acknowledge message sent by the target base station; and

sending, by the first source base station, a handover command message to the user equipment, to notify the user equipment to hand over from the first source base station and the second source base station to the target base station.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein after the receiving, by the first source base station, the handover request acknowledge message sent by the target base station, the method further comprises:

sending, by the first source base station, a handover execution notification message to the second source base station, for notifying the second source base station to start executing a handover operation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein after the sending, by the first source base station, the handover execution notification message to the second source base station, the method further comprises:

receiving, by the first source base station, a handover execution notification response message sent by the second source base station, wherein the handover execution notification response message comprises;

serial number (SN) status transfer information corresponding to at least one radio access bear (RAB) served by the second source base station, and/or a data packet, in need of forwarding, corresponding to at least one RAB served by the second source base station.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving, by the first source base station, the handover request acknowledge message sent by the target base station, comprises:

receiving, by the first source base station, the handover request acknowledge message sent by the target base station for triggering the first source base station and/or the second source base station to send data and/or signaling of the user equipment to the target base station.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the triggering the first source base station and/or the second source base station to send the data and/or signaling of the user equipment to the target base station comprises:

triggering the first source base station to send data and/or signaling of the user equipment in the first target base station and the second target base station to the target base station;

or

triggering the first source base station to send data and/or signaling of the user equipment in the first source base station to the target base station, and triggering the second source base station to send data and/or signaling of the user equipment in the second source base station to the target base station.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the data and/or signaling of the user equipment comprises at least one of followings:

data of a service corresponding to the user equipment, which has been sent without receiving a reply ACK, data of a service corresponding to the user equipment with a NACK received, service data unit (SDU) data, SN status transfer information and an end marker packet.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein before the sending, by the first source base station, the end marker packet to the target base station, the method further comprises:

receiving, by the first source base station, the end marker packet sent by a serving gateway (S-GW).

8. A base station, wherein the base station is a first source base station, and the source base station comprises:

a transmitter, configured to send a handover request message to a target base station, to make a request for a handover of a user equipment from the first source base station and a second source base station to the target base station; and

a receiver, configured to receive a handover request acknowledge message sent by the target base station, wherein

the transmitter is further configured to send a handover command message to the user equipment, to notify the user equipment to hand over from the first source base station and the second source base station to the target base station.

9. The base station of claim 8, wherein

the transmitter is further configured to send, after the first source base station receives the handover request acknowledge message sent by the target base station, a handover execution notification message to the second source base station, for notifying the second source base station to start executing a handover operation.

10. The base station of claim 9, wherein

the receiver is further configured to receive a handover execution notification response message sent by the second source base station, wherein the handover execution notification response message comprises:

serial number (SN) status transfer information corresponding to at least one radio access bear (RAB) served by the second source base station, and/or a data packet, in need of forwarding, corresponding to at least one RAB served by the second source base station.

11. The base station of claim 8, wherein

the receiver is further configured to receive the handover request acknowledge message sent by the target base station for triggering the first source base station and/or the second source base station to send data and/or signaling of the user equipment to the target base station.

12. The base station of claim 11, wherein the triggering the first source base station and/or the second source base station to send the data and/or signaling of the user equipment to the target base station comprises:

triggering the first source base station to send data and/or signaling of the user equipment in the first target base station and the second target base station to the target base station;

or

triggering the first source base station to send the data and/or signaling of the user equipment in the first source base station to the target base station, and triggering the second source base station to send the data and/or signaling of the user equipment in the second source base station to the target base station.

13. The base station of claim 11, wherein the data and/or signaling of the user equipment comprises at least one of followings:

data of a service corresponding to the user equipment which has been sent without receiving a reply ACK, data of the service corresponding to the user equipment with a NACK received, service data unit (SDU) data, serial number SN status transfer information and an end marker packet.

14. The base station of claim 13, wherein

the receiver is further configured to receive, before the first source base station sends the end marker packet to the target base station, the end marker packet sent by a serving gateway (S-GW).

15. A base station, wherein the base station is a target base station, and the target base station comprises:

a receiver, configured to receive a handover request message sent by a first source base station, wherein the handover request message is used for making a request for a handover of a user equipment from the first source base station and a second source base station to the target base station; and

a transmitter, configured to send a handover request acknowledge message to the first source base station, wherein the handover request acknowledge message is used for indicating that the handover of the user equipment from the first source base station and the second source base station to the target base station is accepted.

16. The base station of claim 15, wherein the transmitter is further configured to receive, after the target base station sends the handover request acknowledge message to the first source base station, data and/or signaling of the user equipment sent by the first source base station and/or the second source base station.

17. The base station of claim 16, wherein the receiver is configured to realize that the target base station to receives the data and/or signaling of the user equipment sent by the first source base station and/or the second source base station in a following manner:

receiving the data and/or signaling of the user equipment sent by the first source base station, and/or receiving the data and/or signaling of the user equipment sent by the second source base station;

or

receiving the data and/or signaling of the user equipment corresponding to the first source base station and/or the second source base station, sent by the first source base station.

18. The base station of claim 16, wherein the data and/or signaling of the user equipment comprise(s) at least one of followings:

data of a service corresponding to the user equipment which has been sent without receiving a reply ACK, data of a service corresponding to the user equipment with a NACK received, service data unit (SDU) data, serial number (SN) status transfer information and an end marker packet.

19. The base station of claim 15, wherein the receiver is configured to realize the receiving the handover request message sent by the first source base station in a following manner:

receiving the handover request message, which comes from the first source base station, forwarded by a local gateway.

20. The base station of claim 15, wherein the receiver is further configured to receive, after the target base station sends the handover request acknowledge message to the first source base station, a radio resource control (RRC) connection reconfiguration completion message sent by the user equipment, and control the target base station to establish connection with the user equipment.