DATA TRANSMISSION IN INACTIVE STATE

• US 20180227851A1
• Filed: 02/02/2018
• Published: 08/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: KUBOTA, Keiichi, LEE, Soo Bum, KITAZOE, Masato, HORN, Gavin Bernard
• Granted Patent: US 10,531,388 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0033 with transfer of context information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/44 in connection with interruption of transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/27 between access points
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/28 Discontinuous transmission [DTX]; Discontinuous reception [DRX]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to methods and apparatus for optimizing delivery of a data to and/or from a UE in a connected but inactive state.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication by a base station, comprising:

receiving an indication of downlink data for or uplink data from a user equipment (UE) that is in a state with no dedicated resources allocated to the UE in a network;

determining whether or not to transfer context of the UE to another base station based on one or more factors regarding the data or the network; and

processing the data in accordance with the determination.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the state comprises at least one of:

a radio resource control (RRC) state, a substate of an RRC state, or a configuration of an RRC state.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the context was established when the UE was connected to the base station.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the determination is based on an amount of downlink data to be sent to the UE; and

the determination is to transfer the UE context if the amount of downlink data is equal to or greater than a threshold amount.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the determination is based on an amount of uplink data to be sent from the UE; and

the determination is to transfer the UE context if the amount of uplink data is equal to or greater than a threshold amount.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination is based on at least one:

a type of the data, a quality of service (QoS) associated with the data, a slice associated with the data, a network policy, or network load.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the data in accordance with the determination comprises:

performing a UE context transfer to the other base station via a handover procedure if the determination is to transfer context.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

deriving one or more keys for the other base station;

transferring the one or more derived key to the other base station for use in deriving one or more new keys; and

processing the data in accordance with the determination comprises forwarding downlink data to the other base station without encryption and integrity protection.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein processing the data in accordance with the determination further comprises:

transferring downlink data without a UE context transfer to the other base station if the determination is not to transfer context;

encrypting and/or performing integrity protection of downlink data with stored encryption and integrity protection keys for the UE; and

providing the encrypted and/or integrity protected downlink data to the other base station.

10. A method for wireless communication by a base station, comprising:

receiving, from another base station, uplink data from a user equipment (UE) that is in a state with no dedicated resources allocated to the UE in a network;

decrypting the uplink data with a stored encryption key;

verifying the uplink data with a stored integrity key; and

providing the data to a core network if integrity of the data is verified.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the state comprises at least one of:

a radio resource control (RRC) state, a substate of an RRC state, or a configuration of an RRC state.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising providing an indication of the verification to the other base station.

13. A method for wireless communication by a base station, comprising:

receiving an indication of downlink data for a user equipment (UE) that is in a state with no dedicated resources allocated to the UE in a network;

identifying another base station currently serving the UE; and

providing the data to the identified serving base station.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the state comprises at least one of:

a radio resource control (RRC) state, a substate of an RRC state, or a configuration of an RRC state.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein identifying the serving base station comprises:

requesting paging for the UE, for one or a plurality of base stations in a notification area of the UE; and

identifying the serving base station based on a paging response from the UE.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein identifying the serving base station comprises:

identifying the serving base station based on previously received uplink data from the UE.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining the notification area based on a UE ID provided with the downlink data.

18. A method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), comprising:

receiving downlink data from a serving base station, while the UE is in a state with no dedicated resources allocated to the UE in a network;

determining whether to use a set of new security keys derived for the serving base station or a set of stored security keys derived for another base station to decrypt and verify integrity of the downlink data; and

processing the downlink data based on the determination.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the determination is based at least one of a logical channel identifier, a radio bearer identifier or type of associated radio bearer of the received downlink data.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein:

the determination is to use the new security keys if the data is received via a signaling radio bearer (SRB);

or

the determination is to use the stored security keys if the data is received via a data radio bearer (DRB).