Compressed System Information for Link Budget Limited UEs in a Radio Access Network

• US 20160150506A1
• Filed: 09/25/2015
• Published: 05/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Tabet, Tarik, Hussain, Awais M., Khay-Ibbat, Samy, Vangala, Sarma V., Rivera-Barreto, Rafael L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,872,286 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed relating to broadcasting and receiving system information in a radio access network (RAN). In one embodiment, a base station includes at least one antenna, at least one radio, configured to perform cellular communication using a radio access technology (RAT), and one or more processors coupled to the radio. In this embodiment, the base station is configured to broadcast first system information blocks (SIBs) encoded using a first coding rate and a first identifier. In this embodiment, the base station is also configured to broadcast second SIBs encoded using a second coding rate that is lower than the first coding rate and a second identifier. In this embodiment, the second SIBs include only a portion of the information included in the first SIBs and the second SIBs are usable by user equipment devices (UEs) having a limited link budget to determine access parameters for the base station.

Claims

1. A base station, comprising:

at least one antenna;

at least one radio, wherein the at least one radio is configured to perform cellular communication using at least one radio access technology (RAT); and

one or more processors coupled to the at least one radio;

wherein the base station is configured to;

broadcast first system information blocks (SIBs) encoded using a first coding rate and a first identifier; and

broadcast second SIBs encoded using a second coding rate that is lower than the first coding rate and a second identifier, wherein the second SIBs include only a portion of the information included in the first SIBs and wherein the second SIBs are usable by a class of user equipment devices (UEs) having a limited link budget to determine access parameters for the base station.

2. The base station of claim 1, wherein the first SIBs include one or more SIB types that are not included in the second SIBs.

3. The base station of any of claim 1, wherein the first SIBs include cell selection information and cell reselection information that is not included in the second SIBs.

4. The base station of claim 1, wherein the first SIBs include maximum power information that is not included in the second SIBs.

5. The base station of claim 1, wherein the first SIBs include spectrum emission information that is not included in the second SIBs.

6. The base station of claim 1, wherein the first SIBs include radio resource configuration information that is not included in the second SIBs.

7. The base station of claim 1, wherein the first SIBs include speed information that is not included in the second SIBs.

8. The base station of claim 1, wherein information specified in an SIB of a first type in the first SIBs is specified by a SIB of a second type in the second SIBs.

9. The base station of any of claim 1, wherein the base station is further configured to:

communicate with first and second UEs, wherein the first UE initiates communication based on the first SIBs and wherein the second UE initiates communication based on the second SIBs.

10. The base station of claim 1, wherein the second identifier is a compressed system information radio network temporary identifier (SI-RNTI) indicating that the second SIBs are compressed SIBs.

11. The base station of claim 10, wherein the first SIBs are LTE SIBs, wherein the compressed SI-RNTI is a reserved RNTI, and wherein the compressed SI-RNTI specifies one or more time intervals corresponding to transmission of the compressed SIBs.

12. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more processing elements configured to;

decode compressed SIBs from a broadcast transmission, wherein the broadcast transmission is received from a base station that is configured to broadcast transmissions with both compressed system information and non-compressed SIBs; and

initiate communication with the base station, select a cell, or perform cell reselection based on access parameters specified by the decoded compressed system information.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the apparatus is a user equipment device (UE) that further comprises:

at least one antenna; and

at least one radio, wherein the at least one radio is configured to perform cellular communication using at least one radio access technology (RAT).

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein a first telecommunications standard specifies contents of non-compressed SIBs transmitted by the base station.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the compressed SIBs do not include one or more threshold values for cell selection or reselection that are specified by the telecommunications standard for non-compressed SIBs.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the compressed SIBs do not include at least a portion of the following information specified by the telecommunications standard:

maximum power information, spectrum emission information, radio resource configuration information, or speed information.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the compressed SIBs include information in a different SIB type than specified for non-compressed SIBs by the telecommunications standard.

18. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the one or more processing elements are configured to determine transmissions that include the compressed SIBs based on a compressed system information radio network temporary identifier (SI-RNTI) corresponding to the compressed SIBs.

19. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the compressed SIBs are transmitted at a coding rate that is lower than a coding rate for non-compressed SIBs transmitted by the base station.

20. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the apparatus is configured, in response to a change in link budget, to receive non-compressed SIBs, decode the non-compressed SIBs, and initiate communication with a base station based on the decoded non-compressed SIBs.

21. A method, comprising:

a base station broadcasting first system information blocks (SIBs) encoded using a first coding rate and a first identifier; and

the base station broadcasting second SIBs encoded using a second coding rate that is lower than the first coding rate and a second identifier, wherein the second SIBs include only a portion of the information included in the first SIBs and wherein the second SIBs are usable by a class of user equipment devices (UEs) having a limited link budget to determine access parameters for the base station.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the first SIBs include cell selection information and cell reselection information that is not included in the second SIBs.