Mobility indicator for UE transmission

• US 9,807,589 B2
• Filed: 02/29/2016
• Issued: 10/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Andrade, Dilip, Au, Kelvin Kar Kin
• Primary Examiner(s): MITCHELL, NATHAN A
• Application Number:
  US15/056,087
• Publication Number:
  US 20170251356A1
• Time in Patent Office: 610 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/08 Mobility data transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/24 Transfer of terminal data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

Methods and systems for determining a no-mobility status for a user equipment (UE) in a wireless network. The UE may receive an indicator related to mobility of the UE, and determine, from the received indicator, that the UE has a no-mobility status. The UE may transmit an indication of its no-mobility status to the wireless network. The no-mobility status may be used by the network to select a UE to serve as a UE-to-UE relay (UUR).

Claims

1. A method by a mobile node in a wireless network, the method comprising:

receiving an indicator related to mobility of the mobile node;

transmitting an indication of a no-mobility status of the mobile node to the wireless network, the no-mobility status being based on the indicator, the indication of the no-mobility status including indication of a charging status of the mobile node; and

receiving a notification, transmitted from a scheduler of the wireless network, that the mobile node has been selected to function as a relay, the selection being made by the scheduler based on a combination of the no-mobility status and the charging status of the mobile node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicator is received from one of:

a power interface of the mobile node, a location tracking subsystem of the mobile node, or an accelerometer of the mobile node.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the location tracking subsystem includes at least one of a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, a GLONASS receiver, a Galileo positioning system received and a BeiDou Navigation Satellite System receiver.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicator comprises an indication of a connection to an external power source.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the indicator comprises an indication of movement of the mobile node.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the mobile node is determined to have the no-mobility status when an indicator of a connection to a stationary external power source is received, and the indication of the charging status is set to indicate that the mobile node is currently charging.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an update of the received indicator;

determining, in accordance with the received update, that the no-mobility status is no longer valid; and

transmitting an indication of change in the mobile node'"'"'s no-mobility status to a node in the wireless network.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the update comprises an indicator that the mobile node is no longer connected to an external power source.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, after transmitting the indication of the mobile node'"'"'s no-mobility status to the wireless network, instructions from the wireless network that the mobile node can reduce signaling sent to the wireless network.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after receiving the notification, increasing frequency of monitoring of the mobility status and the charging status of the mobile node.

10. A method by a network entity managing a plurality of mobile nodes in a wireless network, the method comprising:

receiving, from at least one mobile node in the plurality, a no-mobility indication associated with the respective mobile node, the no-mobility indication including an indication of a charging status of the respective mobile node; and

transmitting a list of nodes to a scheduler for selecting a mobile node to function as a relay, the list identifying one or more mobile nodes of the plurality, each node identified in the list being associated with a no-mobility indication and an indication of charging status that, in combination, indicate suitability of the node to function as the relay.

19. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving, from the scheduler, a notification of a selected mobile node from the list of nodes to function as a relay; and

transmitting, to the selected mobile node, a notification that the no-mobility status of the selected mobile node is being used to select the selected mobile node to function as the relay.

20. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving, from at least one mobile node in the plurality, an update to the no-mobility indication associated with the respective mobile node; and

transmitting an update of the list of nodes to the scheduler, update of the list being made in accordance with the received update to the no-mobility indication.

11. A mobile device comprising:

a memory for storing instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the stored instructions to cause the mobile device to;

receive an indicator related to mobility of the mobile device;

transmit a no-mobility indication over an air interface towards a network node of a wireless network, the no-mobility indication being based on the received indicator, the no-mobility indication including indication of a no-mobility status and a charging status of the mobile device; and

receiving a notification, transmitted from a scheduler of the wireless network, that the no-mobility status of the mobile device has been selected to function as a relay, the selection being made by the scheduler based on a combination of the no-mobility status and the charging status of the mobile node.

12. The mobile device of claim 11, further comprising at least one of:

a power interface, a location tracking subsystem, and an accelerometer, from which the one or more indicators are received.

13. The mobile device of claim 11, wherein the indicator comprises at least one of:

an indicator of a connection to an external power source, or an indicator of movement of the mobile node.

14. The mobile device of claim 11 wherein the indicator is received from a second network node over the air interface.

15. The mobile device of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to execute instructions to determine the mobile device to have a no-mobility status when the received indicator indicates connection to a stationary external power source, and the indication of the charging status is set to indicate that the mobile device is currently charging.

16. The mobile device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to execute instructions to cause the mobile device to:

receive an update of the indicator;

determine, in accordance with the update, that the no-mobility status is no longer valid; and

transmit an indication of change in the mobile device'"'"'s no-mobility status towards the network node.

17. The mobile device of claim 16, wherein the update comprises an indicator that the mobile node is no longer connected to an external power source.