Common control deactivation in carrier aggregation

• US 9,603,126 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2010
• Issued: 03/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Solutions and Networks US LLC (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Yao, Chun Hai, Lin, Jie Zhen, Skov, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhao, Wei
• Assistant Examiner(s): Aung, Sai
• Application Number:
  US13/994,189
• Publication Number:
  US 20130258995A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,287 Days
• Field of Search: 370/252, 370/329, 455/450, 455/515
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0037 Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/00 Local resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management

Abstract

There are provided measures for common control deactivation in carrier aggregation, said measures exemplarily including a configuration of a secondary carrier for carrier aggregation with a primary carrier of a terminal, including a deactivation of a common control for the secondary carrier, an indication of the deactivation of the common control for the secondary carrier via the primary carrier, and a signaling of control information, substituting control information of the deactivated common control, for facilitating selection of or operation on the secondary carrier without the deactivated common control via the primary carrier from a base station to the terminal. Said measures may exemplarily be applied for common control deactivation in carrier aggregation in heterogeneous network environments based on LTE, LTE-Advanced, HSPA and/or UMTS radio access systems.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

configuring, by a network entity, a secondary carrier for carrier aggregation with a primary carrier of a terminal, including deactivating a physical common channel for the secondary carrier;

transmitting, by the network entity, an indication of the deactivation of the physical common channel for the secondary carrier via the primary carrier to the terminal; and

transmitting, by the network entity, a signaling of control information that is substituting other control information of the deactivated physical common channel, the control information facilitating selection of the secondary carrier and enabling the terminal to access and monitor a common reference signal of the secondary carrier without the deactivated physical common channel via the primary carrier to the terminal, wherein the control information comprises information for at least two of synchronization with the secondary carrier, radio resource management related measurements on the secondary carrier, demodulation of a shared data channel of the secondary carrier, and radio link failure recovery of the secondary carrier.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the deactivation of the physical common channel comprises

deactivating at least one of a physical broadcast channel, a primary signaling signal and a secondary signaling signal, wherein at least one of

the deactivated physical broadcast channel, primary signaling signal and secondary signaling signal is continued to be transmitted or disabled to be transmitted.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the indication of the deactivation comprises at least one of

an indication on secondary carrier selection,

re-selection procedure when a secondary carrier is already selected,

an indication on secondary carrier measurement configuration when a secondary carrier is not selected, and

an indication on secondary carrier configuration and/or re-configuration when after measurement the secondary carrier is selected with determination of common control un-usability.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the indication of the deactivation comprises at least one of

a terminal-specific deactivation being applicable for the said terminal, the indication of which is transmitted by an implicit coding or by an explicit indicator, and

a cell-specific deactivation being applicable for some or all terminals using the primary carrier, the indication of which is transmitted on a broadcast channel of the primary carrier.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising at least one of

receiving a report on a loss and inability of synchronization with the secondary carrier and a radio link failure on the secondary carrier from the terminal, wherein the report is effecting at least one of the configuration and the signaling for the secondary carrier based thereon;

and

receiving a report on measurements regarding the selection of the secondary carrier from the terminal, and activating the secondary carrier based thereon.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the signaling of the control information is implemented by at least one of added new bit/s or a modification on existing signaling comprising at least one of radio resource control signaling, and medium access control signaling.

6. A method comprising:

receiving, by a terminal device, an indication of a deactivation of a physical common channel control for a secondary carrier via a primary carrier from a base station being in charge of configuring the secondary carrier for carrier aggregation with the primary carrier;

receiving, by the terminal device, a signaling of control information that is substituting other control information of the deactivated physical common channel, the control information facilitating selection of the secondary carrier and enabling the terminal device to access and monitor a common reference signal of the secondary carrier without the deactivated physical common channel via the primary carrier from the base station; and

selecting or operating on the secondary carrier based on the received control information, wherein the control information comprises information for at least two of synchronization with the secondary carrier, radio resource management related measurements on the secondary carrier, demodulation of a shared data channel of the secondary carrier, and radio link failure recovery of the secondary carrier.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the selecting or operating on comprises at least one of accessing and monitoring the common reference signal of the secondary carrier.

8. The method according to claim 6,

wherein the selecting or operating on comprises at least one of synchronizing with the secondary carrier by aligning with the primary carrier synchronization, performing measurements relating to radio resource management of the secondary carrier, demodulating the shared data channel of the secondary carrier, and performing radio link failure recovery of the secondary carrier.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein the deactivation of the physical common channel comprises

a deactivation of at least one of a physical broadcast channel, a primary signaling signal and a secondary signaling signal, wherein at least one of the deactivated physical broadcast channel, primary signaling signal and secondary signaling signal is received and ignored.

10. The method according to claim 6, wherein the indication of the deactivation comprises at least one of

an indication on secondary carrier selection or re-selection procedure when a secondary carrier is already selected,

an indication on secondary carrier measurement configuration when a secondary carrier is not selected, and

an indication on secondary carrier configuration and/or re-configuration when after measurement the secondary carrier is selected with determination of common control unusability.

11. The method according to claim 6, wherein the indication of the deactivation comprises at least one of

a terminal-specific deactivation, the indication of which is received by an implicit coding or by an explicit indicator, and

a cell-specific deactivation, the indication of which is received on a broadcast channel of the primary carrier.

12. The method according to claim 6, further comprising at least one of

transmitting a report on a loss and inability of synchronization with the secondary carrier and a radio link failure on the secondary carrier to the base station;

and

transmitting a report on measurements regarding the selection of the secondary carrier to the base station.

13. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code, where the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to at least;

configure a secondary carrier for carrier aggregation with a primary carrier of a terminal, including deactivating a physical common channel for the secondary carrier;

transmit an indication of the deactivation of the physical common channel for the secondary carrier via the primary carrier to the terminal, and transmit a signaling of control information that is substituting other control information of the deactivated physical common channel, the control information facilitating selection of the secondary carrier and enabling the terminal to access and monitor a common reference signal of the secondary carrier without the deactivated physical common channel via the primary carrier to the terminal, wherein the control information comprises information for at least two of synchronization with the secondary carrier, radio resource management related measurements on the secondary carrier, demodulation of a shared data channel of the secondary carrier, and radio link failure recovery of the secondary carrier.

14. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program code, where the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to at least;

receive an indication of a deactivation of a physical common channel for a secondary carrier via a primary carrier from a base station being in charge of configuring the secondary carrier for carrier aggregation with the primary carrier, and

receive a signaling of control information that is substituting other control information of the deactivated physical common channel, the control information facilitating selection of the secondary carrier and enabling the apparatus to access and monitor a common reference signal of the secondary carrier without the deactivated physical common channel via the primary carrier from the base station, wherein the control information comprises information for at least two of synchronization with the secondary carrier, radio resource management related measurements on the secondary carrier, demodulation of a shared data channel of the secondary carrier, and radio link failure recovery of the secondary carrier; and

select or operate on the secondary carrier based on the received control information.

15. A non-transitory memory comprising computer program code, the computer program code executed by a processor of an apparatus, to cause the apparatus to perform:

configuring a secondary carrier for carrier aggregation with a primary carrier of a terminal, including deactivating a physical common channel for the secondary carrier;

transmitting an indication of the deactivation of the physical common channel for the secondary carrier via the primary carrier to the terminal; and

transmitting a signaling of control information that is substituting control information of the deactivated physical common channel, the control information facilitating selection of the secondary carrier and enabling the terminal to access and monitor a common reference signal of the secondary carrier without the deactivated physical common channel via the primary carrier to the terminal, wherein the control information comprises information for at least two of synchronization with the secondary carrier, radio resource management related measurements on the secondary carrier, demodulation of a shared data channel of the secondary carrier, and radio link failure recovery of the secondary carrier.

16. A non-transitory memory comprising computer program code, the computer program code executed by a processor of an apparatus, to cause the apparatus to perform:

receiving an indication of a deactivation of a physical common channel for a secondary carrier via a primary carrier from a base station being in charge of configuring the secondary carrier for carrier aggregation with the primary carrier;

receiving a signaling of control information that is substituting other control information of the deactivated physical common channel, the control information facilitating selection of the secondary carrier and enabling the apparatus to access and monitor a common reference signal of the secondary carrier without the deactivated physical common channel via the primary carrier from the base station, wherein the control information comprises information for at least two of synchronization with the secondary carrier, radio resource management related measurements on the secondary carrier, demodulation of a shared data channel of the secondary carrier, and radio link failure recovery of the secondary carrier; and

selecting or operating on the secondary carrier based on the received control information.

17. The non-transitory memory comprising the computer program code according to claim 16, wherein the selecting or operating on comprises at least one of accessing and monitoring the common reference signal of the secondary carrier.