Mobile communication method for adjusting transmission timing in device to device communication link

• US 9,357,512 B2
• Filed: 04/25/2012
• Issued: 05/31/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Iwamura, Mikio, Uchino, Tooru
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Dung B
• Application Number:
  US14/113,279
• Publication Number:
  US 20140050153A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,497 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/00 Synchronisation arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0015 one node acting as a reference for the others
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup

Abstract

A mobile communication method according to the present invention includes a step of transmitting, by the mobile station UE#1, a data signal to the mobile station UE#2 via a third radio link; a step of transmitting, by the mobile station UE#2, “Timing information” indicating the time, for which the reception timing of the data signal has been deviated from a desired timing, to the radio base station eNB via a second radio link when it is detected that the reception timing of the data signal has been deviated from the desired timing by a predetermined time or more; and a step of transmitting, by the radio base station eNB, a “Ud TA command” for adjusting the transmission timing of a data signal in the third radio link to the mobile station UE via the first radio link on the basis of the received “Timing information”.

Claims

1. A mobile communication method used in a case where a first radio link has been set in a radio base station interface between a first mobile station and a radio base station, a second radio link has been set in a radio base station interface between a second mobile station and the radio base station, a third radio link has been set in an inter-mobile station interface between the first mobile station and the second mobile station, and the first mobile station includes a timer for the first radio link and a timer for the third radio link, comprising:

a step of transmitting, by the first mobile station, a data signal to the second mobile station via the third radio link;

a step of transmitting, by the second mobile station, timing information indicating a time, for which the reception timing of the data signal has been deviated from a desired timing, to the radio base station via the second radio link when it is detected that the reception timing of the data signal has been deviated from the desired timing by a predetermined time or more;

a step of transmitting, by the radio base station, adjustment information for adjusting a transmission timing of a data signal in the third radio link to the first mobile station via the first radio link on the basis of the received timing information; and

a step of resetting the timer for the third radio link by reception of the adjustment information,

wherein the timer for the first radio link and the timer for the third radio link are the same timer.

3. The mobile communication method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of determining, by the first mobile station, that the third radio link is in a non-synchronization state when the timer for the third radio link is expired.

2. A mobile communication method used in a case where a first radio link has been set in a radio base station interface between a first mobile station and a radio base station, a second radio link has been set in a radio base station interface between a second mobile station and the radio base station, a third radio link has been set in an inter-mobile station interface between the first mobile station and the second mobile station, and the first mobile station includes a timer for the first radio link and a timer for the third radio link, comprising:

a step of notifying, by the radio base station, the first mobile station and the second mobile station of a radio resource for data signal transmission in the third radio link via the first radio link and the second radio link;

a step of transmitting, by the first mobile station, a data signal to the second mobile station by using the radio resource for data signal transmission; and

a step of transmitting, by the second mobile station, adjustment information for adjusting a transmission timing of a data signal in the third radio link to the first mobile station via the third radio link when it is detected that the reception timing of the data signal has been deviated from a desired timing by a predetermined time or more; and

a step of resetting the timer for the third radio link by reception of the adjustment information,

wherein the timer for the first radio link and the timer for the third radio link are the same timer.

4. The mobile communication method according to claim 2, further comprising a step of determining, by the first mobile station, that the third radio link is in a non-synchronization state when the timer for the third radio link is expired.