Apparatus and method for establishing feedback in a broadcast or multicast service

• US 7,363,047 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2004
• Issued: 04/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Lee, Young Dae, Yi, Seung June, Chun, Sung Duck
• Primary Examiner(s): Anderson; Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHARMA, SUJATHA R
• Application Number:
  US10/841,589
• Publication Number:
  US 20040224698A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,446 Days
• Field of Search: 455/509, 455/515, 455/435.1, 455/426.1, 455/450, 455/517, 455/422.1, 455/414.1, 455/412.2, 455/414.3, 455/518, 455/519, 370/230, 370/235, 370/252, 370/254, 370/400, 370/432, 370/464, 370/444, 725/132, 725/140, 725/50
• US Class Current: 455/515
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0219 where the power saving management affects multiple terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/18 Management of setup rejection or failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/04 Large scale networks; Deep hierarchical networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method and apparatus for establishing feedback channels in an MBMS (multimedia broadcast/multicast service) for UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) by selectively establishing RRC connections with terminals that are capable of transmitting uplink feedback information regarding the particular MBMS service. When requesting an RRC connection, a terminal sends an RRC connection message including information related to MBMS and the UTRAN selectively establishes an RRC connection with the terminal based on the information related to MBMS. The terminal indicates whether both a point-to-multipoint radio bearer and a point-to-point radio bearer can be received and, optionally, provides terminal class information in the RRC connection request message. The UTRAN gives higher priority to those terminals that indicate the capability to receive both a point-to-multipoint radio bearer and a point-to-point radio bearer when selecting terminals with which to establish an RRC connection, thereby maximizing feedback information regarding a particular MBMS service.

Claims

1. A method of communicating with a network in a wireless communication system, the method performed by a terminal and comprising the steps of:

receiving a first connection message by the terminal subscribing to a service while in an idle state;

transmitting a connection request message to the network to request a connection response message, wherein the connection request message is a first response to the first connection message and comprises feedback capability information indicating whether the terminal is capable of supporting reception of the service and transmission of feedback associated with the service; and

receiving the connection response message from the network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first connection message is associated with the service and requests feedback capability information associated with the terminal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first connection message is an MBMS notification message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the connection request message is associated with the service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the connection request message is an RRC connection request message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the connection request message further comprises terminal class information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein, the connection response message comprises one of connection setup information and connection reject information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein, the connection response message is one of an RRC connection setup message and an RRC connection reject message.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising one of entering a connected state and maintaining the idle state, wherein the connected state is entered if the connection response message comprises connection setup information and the idle state is maintained if the connection response message comprises connection reject information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the connected state comprises establishing a point-to-multipoint downlink channel and a bi-directional point-to-point feedback channel with the network.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein establishing a point-to-multipoint downlink channel and a bi-directional point-to-point feedback channel comprises an RRC connection.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the service is a point-to-multipoint service.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

initiating a control plane connection procedure by transmitting the connection request message to the network to request a connection response message, wherein the connection request message comprises terminal capability information indicating whether the terminal is capable of supporting reception of multiple channels.

14. A method of communicating with terminals in a wireless communication system, the method comprising the steps of:

transmitting a first connection message to a plurality of terminals subscribing to a service while the terminals are in an idle state;

receiving connection request messages from the plurality of terminals, the connection request message requesting a connection response message and comprising one of positive feedback capability information and negative feedback capability information, wherein positive feed back capability information indicates the terminal is capable of supporting reception of the service and transmission of feedback associated with the service and negative feedback capability information indicates the terminal is not capable of supporting reception of the service and transmission of feedback associated with the service;

selecting a predetermined number of the plurality of terminals to receive a connection response message comprising connection setup information, wherein each terminal that sent positive feedback capability information is selected if the number of terminals that sent positive feedback capability information is not greater than the predetermined number and no terminal that sent negative feedback capability information is selected if the number of terminals that sent positive feedback capability information is one of greater than and equal to the predetermined number; and

transmitting a connection response message comprising connection setup information to the selected terminals.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein, if the number of terminals that sent positive feedback capability information is less than the predetermined value, the step of selecting a predetermined number of the plurality of terminals further comprises selecting at least one terminal that sent negative feedback capability information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one terminal that sent negative feedback capability information is selected at random.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one terminal that sent negative feedback capability information is selected sequentially.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein selecting at least one terminal that sent negative feedback capability information further comprises the steps of:

ranking the terminals that sent negative feedback capability information according to terminal class information; and

selecting at least one terminal that sent negative feedback capability information, wherein the rank of the lowest-ranked terminal that sent negative feedback capability information which is selected is one of higher than and equal to the rank of the highest-ranked terminal that sent negative feedback capability information which is not selected.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein, if the number of terminals that sent positive feedback capability information is greater than the predetermined value, the step of selecting a predetermined number of the plurality of terminals further comprises selecting only terminals that sent positive feedback capability information.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the terminals that sent positive feedback capability information are selected at random.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the terminals that sent positive feed back capability information are selected sequentially.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein selecting only terminals that sent positive feedback capability information further comprises the steps of:

ranking the terminals that sent positive feedback capability information according to terminal class information; and

selecting terminals that sent positive feedback capability information, wherein the rank of the lowest-ranked terminal selected is one of higher than and equal to the rank of the highest-ranked terminal that sent positive feedback capability information which is not selected.

23. The method of claim 14, wherein the connection request message further comprises terminal class information.

24. The method of claim 14, further comprising receiving terminal class information from a core network.

25. The method of claim 14, further comprising transmitting a connection response message comprising connection reject information to each non-selected terminal.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein, the connection response message comprising connection reject information is an RRC connection reject message.

27. The method of claim 14, further comprising establishing a point-to-multipoint downlink channel and a bi-directional point-to-point feedback channel with at least one selected terminal.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein establishing a point-to-multipoint downlink channel and a bi-directional point-to-point feedback channel comprises an RRC connection.

29. The method of claim 14, wherein each connection request message is associated with the service.

30. The method of claim 14, wherein each connection request message is an RRC connection request message.

31. The method of claim 14, wherein the service is a point-to-multipoint service.

32. The method of claim 14, wherein the first connection message is associated with the service and requests feedback capability information associated with the terminal.

33. The method of claim 14, wherein the first connection message is an MBMS notification message.

34. The method of claim 14, wherein, the connection response message comprising connection setup information is an RRC connection setup message.

35. A terminal for communicating with a network in a mobile communication system, the terminal comprising:

a transmitter adapted to initiate a network connection process associated with a user service by transmitting a connection request message to the network;

a display adapted to convey information to a user;

a memory unit adapted to store information related to feedback capability, the user service and network connections;

a receiver adapted to receive a first connection message while the terminal is in an idle state and connection response messages comprising one of connection setup information and connection reject information; and

a processing unit adapted to generate the connection request message as a first response to the first connection message, the connection request message requesting a connection response message and comprising feedback capability information indicating whether the terminal is capable of supporting reception of the service and transmission of feedback associated with the service.

36. A network for radio communication with a plurality of terminals in a mobile communication system, the network comprising:

a receiver adapted to receive connection request messages from a plurality of terminals subscribing to a service, the connection request messages requesting a connection response message and comprising one of positive feed back capability information and negative feedback capability information, wherein positive feedback capability information indicates the terminal is capable of supporting reception of the service and transmission of feedback associated with the service and negative feedback capability information indicates the terminal is not capable of supporting reception of the service and transmission of feedback associated with the service;

a transmitter adapted to transmit a first connection message to a plurality of terminals subscribing to the service while the terminals are in an idle state;

a storage unit adapted to store information related to feedback capability, the user service and network connections; and

a controller adapted to evaluate the positive feedback capability information and negative feedback capability information in the connection request messages to select a predetermined number of terminals with which to establish a communication connection, wherein each terminal that sent positive feedback capability information is selected if the number of terminals that sent positive feedback capability information is not greater than the predetermined number and no terminal that sent negative feedback capability information is selected if the number of terminals that sent positive feedback capability information is one of greater than and equal to the predetermined number.