APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROXIMITY-BASED SERVICE COMMUNICATION

• US 20180115873A1
• Filed: 11/30/2015
• Published: 04/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2015
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: AMINAKA, Hiroaki
• Application Number:
  US15/559,330
• Publication Number:
  US 20180115873A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking 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 72/02 Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1263 Mapping of traffic onto schedule, e.g. scheduled allocation or multiplexing of flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/18 between terminal devices

Abstract

A radio terminal apparatus (1) transmits, to a radio access network (3), resource information indicating a first radio resource to be used for sidelink communication (103), an effective period or effective number of times of the first radio resource, or both the first radio resource and the effective period or effective number of times. The sidelink communication (103) includes at least one of direct discovery and direct communication performed between the radio terminal apparatus (1) and another radio terminal (2). It is thus, for example, possible to contribute to avoidance of conflict between a radio resource for a sidelink communication and a radio resource for an intra-cell uplink transmission, intra-cell downlink transmission, or another sidelink communication.

Claims

1. A radio terminal apparatus comprising:

at least one radio transceiver; and

at least one processor coupled to the at least one radio transceiver, wherein

the at least one processor is configured to transmit resource information to a radio access network, the resource information indicating a first radio resource to be used for sidelink communication, an effective period or effective number of times of the first radio resource, or both the first radio resource and the effective period or effective number of times, and

the sidelink communication comprises at least one of direct discovery and direct communication performed between the radio terminal apparatus and another radio terminal using the at least one radio transceiver.

2. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

radio resources to be used for the sidelink communication is limited to a subset of a plurality of radio resources reserved for uplink transmissions or downlink transmissions between the radio access network and a plurality of radio terminals including the radio terminal apparatus, and

the first radio resource is contained in the subset.

3. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to select the first radio resource from a resource pool which is allocated by the radio access network or from a resource pool pre-configured in the radio terminal apparatus.

4. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the at least one processor is configured, when a predetermined condition is satisfied, to transmit the resource information to the radio access network, and

the predetermined condition comprises at least one of (a) a condition regarding whether the radio terminal apparatus is located in a vicinity of a coverage boundary of the radio access network, (b) a condition regarding whether the other radio terminal is out of coverage of the radio access network, (c) a condition regarding whether the other radio terminal can be connected to the radio access network, (d) a condition regarding whether the radio terminal apparatus is transmitting a synchronization signal to be detected by the other radio terminal, (e) a condition regarding whether the radio terminal apparatus has been instructed by the radio access network to transmit the resource information, and (f) a condition regarding whether the radio terminal apparatus performs the sidelink communication with the other radio terminal.

5. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first radio resource comprises at least one of a time slot, a carrier frequency, a time-frequency resource element, a subframe, and transmission power.

6. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to transmit, to the radio access network, information indicating whether the sidelink communication is performed with a radio terminal which is out of coverage of the radio access network or a radio terminal that cannot be connected to the radio access network.

7. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to transmit, to the radio access network, at least one of an identifier of the other radio terminal, an identifier of a cell to which the other radio terminal belongs, and an identifier of a base station that manages the cell.

8. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to transmit the resource information to a radio resource control node in the radio access network.

9. The radio terminal apparatus according to claim 1, herein the at least one processor is further configured to notify the other radio terminal of the resource information.

10. (canceled)

11. An entity that is located in a radio access network and controls radio resources in a cell, the entity comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory, wherein

the at least one processor is configured to receive resource information from a first radio terminal, the resource information indicating a first radio resource to be used for sidelink communication, an effective period or effective number of times of the first radio resource, or both the first radio resource and the effective period or effective number of times, and

the sidelink communication comprises at least one of direct discovery and direct communication performed between the first radio terminal and a second radio terminal.

12. The entity according to claim 11, wherein

radio resources to be used for the sidelink communication is limited to a subset of a plurality of radio resources reserved for uplink transmissions or downlink transmissions among the radio resources in the cell, and

the first radio resource is contained in the subset.

13. The entity a according to claim 11, wherein the first radio resource is selected from a resource pool which is allocated by the radio access network or from a resource pool pre-configured in the first radio terminal.

14. The entity according to claim 11, wherein the first radio resource comprises at least one of a time slot, a carrier frequency, a time-frequency resource element, a subframe, and transmission power.

15. The entity according to claim 11, wherein the at least one processor is configured to take into account the resource information when performing resource scheduling in the cell.

16. The entity according to claim 15, wherein the at least one processor is configured to avoid allocation of the first radio resource to an uplink transmission from the first radio terminal to the radio access network or a downlink transmission from the radio access network to the first radio terminal.

17. The entity according to claim 15, wherein the at least one processor is configured, when the second radio terminal is a radio terminal which is out of coverage of the radio access network or is a radio terminal that cannot be connected to the radio access network, to allocate a second radio resource, which is used in another sidelink communication, to an uplink transmission or a downlink transmission in the cell preferentially over the first radio resource.

18. The entity according to claim 11, wherein the at least one processor is configured to take into account the resource information when determining one or a plurality of radio resources to be allocated to another sidelink communication performed in the cell.

19. The entity according to claim 11, wherein the at least one processor is configured to provide the resource information to another entity that controls radio resources in a neighboring cell.

20. The entity according to claim 11, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to receive, from the first radio terminal, information indicating whether the sidelink communication is performed with a radio terminal which is out of coverage of the radio access network or a radio terminal that cannot be connected to the radio access network.

21-28. -28. (canceled)

29. A method performed by an entity that is located in a radio access network and controls radio resources in a cell, the method comprising:

receiving resource information from a first radio terminal, the resource information indicating a first radio resource to be used for sidelink communication, an effective period or effective number of times of the first radio resource, or both the first radio resource and the effective period or effective number of times, wherein

the sidelink communication comprises at least one of direct discovery and direct communication performed between the first radio terminal and a second radio terminal.

30-39. -39. (canceled)