Method, system and device for uplink synchronization

• US 8,811,433 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2010
• Issued: 08/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Company Limited (China Information Communication Technology Group Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: China Academy of Telecom Technology (China Information Communication Technology Group Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Zhao, Yali, Xu, Fangli, Qin, Fei, Li, Guoqing
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, PHUC H
• Application Number:
  US13/501,062
• Publication Number:
  US 20120218987A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,419 Days
• Field of Search: 370/510
• US Class Current: 370/510
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2657 Carrier synchronisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 7/0083 taking measures against momentary loss of synchronisation, e.g. inhibiting the synchronisation, using idle words or using redundant clocks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/00 Synchronisation arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0005 synchronizing of arrival of multiple uplinks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0045 compensating for timing error by altering transmission time
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/10 between terminal device and access point, i.e. wireless air interface

Abstract

A method for uplink synchronization in a multi-carrier system includes the following steps: a base station selects one or more first component carriers, which do not establish the uplink synchronization with the base station, from multiple component carriers supported by a terminal; then the base station obtains Timing Advance (TA) needed by the terminal to perform the uplink transmission on the first component carriers, and sends the TA information to the terminal; the terminal performs the uplink transmission on said first component carriers according to said TA. The application of the present invention enables the establishment of uplink synchronization between the base station and the user equipment in multi-carrier system.

Claims

1. An uplink synchronization method in a multi-carrier system, comprising:

selecting, by an eNodeB, one or more first component carriers which have not acquired uplink synchronization with the eNodeB from a plurality of component carriers supported by a user equipment;

acquiring, by the eNodeB, a Timing Advance, TA, of the first component carrier; and

transmitting, by the eNodeB, the TA of the first component carrier to the user equipment to instruct the user equipment to perform uplink transmission over the first component carrier according to the TA,

wherein acquiring by the eNodeB the TA of the first component carrier in the following first approach or second approach;

in the first approach, the eNodeB transmits random access related instruction signaling which includes an identifier of the first component carrier to the user equipment, and the eNodeB calculates the TA for the user equipment to perform uplink transmission over the first component carrier upon reception of a random access preamble transmitted from the user equipment to the eNodeB over the first component carrier; and

in the second approach, the eNodeB determines a second component carrier among the plurality of component carriers which has acquired uplink synchronization with the eNodeB and determines a TA used to perform uplink transmission over the second component carrier as the TA used to perform uplink transmission over the first component carrier.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

before the eNodeB transmits the random access related instruction signaling to the user equipment,

including, by the eNodeB, in the random access related instruction signaling an index of the random access preamble, ra-PreambleIndex, used over each first component carrier and a mask index of a physical random access channel resource for a random access, ra-PRACH-MaskIndex; and

the random access preamble is a random access preamble corresponding to the ra-PreambleIndex transmitted from the user equipment to the eNodeB over the first component carrier identified by the identifier of the first component carrier over the PRACH resource indicated by the ra-PRACH-MaskIndex.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the random access related instruction signaling comprises:

Radio Resource Control, RRC, signaling, or signaling conveyed by a Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH, or signaling conveyed by the Media Access Control Element, MAC CE.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the MAC CE comprises:

a Logical Channel Identifier, LCID, field and a component carrier identifier field, wherein the LCID field carries information indicating that the MAC CE is an MAC CE instructing the user equipment to perform uplink synchronization, and the component carrier identifier field carries the identifier of the first component carrier.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

before the eNodeB acquires the TA of the first component carrier,

determining, by the eNodeB, the first approach or the second approach for use in determining the TA of the first component carrier according to one or any combination of network configuration of the multi-carrier system, the capability of the user equipment and statistic information of TAs used to perform uplink transmission over the component carriers supported by the user equipment.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

after the user equipment performs uplink transmission over the first component carrier according to the TA,

for each first component carrier;

transmitting, by the eNodeB, a Timing Advance, TA, command to the user equipment and starting an uplink synchronization timer, TAT, maintained by the eNodeB, corresponding to the first component carrier at a preset interval of time which is shorter than a length of timing of the TAT;

if the eNodeB receives a Negative Acknowledgement, NACK, message transmitted from the user equipment due to incorrect reception of the TA command, the eNodeB retransmitting a TA command to the user equipment and restarting the TAT, maintained by the eNodeB, corresponding to the first component carrier;

or if the eNodeB receives an Acknowledgement, ACK, message transmitted from the user equipment due to correct reception of the TA command, the eNodeB restarting the TAT, maintained by the eNodeB, corresponding to the first component carrier; and

if the TAT, maintained by the eNodeB, corresponding to the first component carrier is time out, the eNodeB determining that the first component carrier is out of synchronization.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

after the user equipment performs uplink transmission over the first component carrier according to the TA,

when the user equipment classifies the respective first component carriers into groups and TA differences of the first component carriers in one group do not exceed a preset threshold;

transmitting, by the eNodeB, a TA command to the user equipment and starting a TAT, maintained by the eNodeB, corresponding to the group at a preset interval of time which is shorter than a length of timing of the TAT;

if the eNodeB receives an NACK message transmitted from the user equipment due to incorrect reception of the TA command, the eNodeB retransmitting a TA command to the user equipment and restarting the TAT, maintained by the eNodeB, corresponding to the group;

or if the eNodeB receives an ACK message transmitted from the user equipment due to correct reception of the TA command, the eNodeB restarting the TAT, maintained by the eNodeB, corresponding to the group; and

if the TAT, maintained by the eNodeB, corresponding to the group is time out, the eNodeB determining that the respective first component carriers in the group are out of synchronization.

8. An eNodeB, comprising:

a synchronized carrier selecting unit configured to select one or more first component carriers which have not acquired uplink synchronization with the eNodeB from a plurality of component carriers supported by a user equipment; and

an instructing unit configured to acquire a TA of the first component carrier, and transmit the TA of the first component carrier to the user equipment to instruct the user equipment to perform uplink transmission over the first component carrier according to the TA,

wherein the instructing unit is further configured to acquire the TA of the first component carrier by transmitting random access related instruction signaling including an identifier of the first component carrier to the user equipment and calculating the TA used for the user equipment to perform uplink transmission over the first component carrier upon reception of a random access preamble transmitted from the user equipment to the eNodeB over the first component carrier, or by determining a second component carrier among the plurality of component carriers which has acquired uplink synchronization with the eNodeB and determining a TA used to perform uplink transmission over the second component carrier as the TA used to perform uplink transmission over the first component carrier.

9. The eNodeB according to claim 8, wherein the instruction unit is further configured to include ra-PreambleIndex used over each first component carrier and ra-PRACH-MaskIndex for a random access in the random access related instruction signaling before transmitting the random access related instruction signaling to the user equipment;

and

the random access preamble is a random access preamble corresponding to the ra-PreambleIndex transmitted from the user equipment to the eNodeB over the first component carrier identified by the identifier of the first component carrier over a PRACH resource indicated by the ra-PRACH-MaskIndex.

10. The eNodeB according to claim 9, wherein the instructing unit is further configured to transmit RRC signaling or signaling conveyed by a PDCCH or MAC CE as the random access related instruction signaling to the user equipment.

11. The eNodeB according to claim 8, wherein the instructing unit is further configured to determine the first component carrier or the second component carrier for use in determining the TA of the first component carrier according to one or any combination of network configuration of the multi-carrier system, the capability of the user equipment and statistic information of TAs used to perform uplink transmission over the component carriers supported by the user equipment.

12. The eNodeB according to claim 8, wherein the eNodeB further comprises a first synchronization maintaining unit and/or a second synchronization maintaining unit, wherein:

the first synchronization maintaining unit is configured, for each first component carrier, to transmit a TA command to the user equipment and start a maintained uplink synchronization timer, TAT, corresponding to the first component carrier at a preset interval of time which is shorter than a length of timing of the TAT;

to retransmit, upon reception of an NACK message transmitted from the user equipment due to incorrect reception of the TA command, a TA command to the user equipment and restart the maintained TAT corresponding to the first component carrier, or to restart, upon reception of an ACK message transmitted from the user equipment due to correct reception of the TA command, the maintained TAT corresponding to the first component carrier; and

to determine that the first component carrier is out of synchronization when the maintained TAT corresponding to the first component carrier is time out; and

the second synchronization maintaining unit is configured, when the user equipment classifies the respective first component carriers into groups so that TA differences of the first component carriers in one group do not exceed a preset threshold, and for each group, to transmit a TA command to the user equipment and start a maintained TAT corresponding to the group at a preset interval of time which is shorter than a length of timing of the TAT;

to retransmit, upon reception of an NACK message transmitted from the user equipment due to incorrect reception of the TA command, a TA command to the user equipment and restart the maintained TAT corresponding to the group, or to restart, upon reception of an ACK message transmitted from the user equipment due to correct reception of the TA command, the maintained TAT corresponding to the group; and

to determine that the respective first component carriers in the group are out of synchronization when the maintained TAT corresponding to the group is time out.

13. A user equipment, comprising:

a command receiving unit configured to receive a TA of one or more first component carriers transmitted from an eNodeB, wherein the first component carrier is such a component carrier among a plurality of component carriers supported by the user equipment that has no uplink synchronization established with the eNodeB;

an uplink transmitting unit configured to perform uplink transmission over the first component carrier according to the TA; and

a random access unit configured to transmit a random access preamble to the eNodeB over the first component carrier upon reception of random access related instruction signaling, transmitted from the eNodeB, including an identifier of the first component carrier,

and wherein the command receiving unit is further configured to read the TA used to perform uplink transmission over the first component carrier from a random access response transmitted from the eNodeB upon reception of the random access response.

14. The user equipment according to claim 13, wherein the random access unit is further configured to receive the random access related instruction signaling, transmitted from the eNodeB, including ra-PreambleIndex used over each first component carrier and ra-PRACH-MaskIndex for a random access, wherein the random access preamble is a random access preamble corresponding to the ra-PreambleIndex transmitted to the eNodeB over the first component carrier identified by the identifier of the first component carrier over a PRACH resource indicated by the ra-PRACH-MaskIndex;

or to select a random access preamble and a PRACH resource for a random access and transmit the selected random access preamble to the eNodeB over the first component carrier over the selected PRACH resource.

15. The user equipment according to claim 14, wherein the command receiving unit is further configured to receive the random access related instruction signaling comprising RRC signaling or signaling conveyed by a PDCCH or MAC CE.

16. The user equipment according to claim 15, wherein the command receiving unit is further configured to receive the MAC CE, wherein information carried in an LCID field in the MAC CE indicates that the MAC CE is an MAC CE instructing the user equipment to perform uplink synchronization, and the identifier of the first component carrier is carried in a component carrier identifier field in the MAC CE.

17. The user equipment according to claim 13, wherein the user equipment further comprises a first synchronization maintaining unit and/or a second synchronization maintaining unit, wherein:

the first synchronization maintaining unit is configured to transmit an NACK message to the eNodeB upon incorrect reception of a TA command transmitted from the eNodeB, or to start a maintained TAT corresponding to the first component carrier and transmit an ACK message to the eNodeB upon correct reception of a TA command transmitted from the eNodeB; and

to determine that the first component carrier is out of synchronization when the maintained TAT corresponding to the first component carrier is time out, after uplink transmission is performed over the first component carrier according to the TA; and

the second synchronization maintaining unit is configured to classify the respective first component carriers into groups after uplink transmission is performed over the first component carrier according to the TA;

to transmit an NACK message to the eNodeB upon incorrect reception of a TA command transmitted from the eNodeB, or to start a maintained TAT corresponding to the group and transmit an ACK message to the eNodeB upon correct reception of a TA command transmitted from the eNodeB; and

to determine that the respective first component carriers in the group are out of synchronization when the maintained TAT corresponding to the group is time out.