Terminal apparatus, base station apparatus, and control methods for secondary cells

• US 9,913,287 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2014
• Issued: 03/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corporation Limited
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Uemura, Katsunari, Kato, Yasuyuki, Tsuboi, Hidekazu
• Primary Examiner(s): Ghowrwal, Omar
• Application Number:
  US14/905,210
• Publication Number:
  US 20160165627A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,344 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/001 the frequencies being arranged in component carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0098 Signalling of the activation or deactivation of component carriers, subcarriers or frequency bands
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0069 in case of dual connectivity, e.g. decoupled uplink/downlink
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1268 of uplink data flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/15 Setup of multiple wireless link connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/38 triggered by timers

Abstract

Provided is a technique related to a terminal apparatus, a base station apparatus, a communication system, a control method, and an integrated circuit, which efficiently controls a state of a cell for a plurality of cells. In the terminal apparatus using a plurality of cells, configuration information which disables change in a state of a cell is received from the base station apparatus, and control is performed based on the received configuration information so that a state of a part of cells among the plurality of cells is not changed.

Claims

1. A terminal apparatus configured and/or programmed to communicate with a first base station apparatus and a second base station apparatus, the terminal apparatus comprising:

first circuitry configured and/or programmed to

add cells associated with dual connectivity based on a radio resource control (RRC) message transmitted from the first base station apparatus,

the cells including a first cell and a plurality of secondary cells, the first cell being designated by a cell identifier included in the RRC message and is not deactivatable, and the plurality of secondary cells being other than the first cell and is deactivatable, and

second circuitry configured and/or programmed to

apply a deactivation timer to each of the plurality of secondary cells, not to the first cell, the deactivation timer being used to deactivate a cell, wherein

the first cell and the plurality of secondary cells are designated as being activated or deactivated by a MAC control element (MAC CE) including at least one bit and when a secondary cell of the plurality of secondary cells corresponding to an index representing a bit value of the MAC CE is not configured to the terminal apparatus, the terminal apparatus ignores the bit value of the index.

2. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second circuitry is configured and/or programmed to deactivate each of the plurality of secondary cells for which the deactivation timer expires.

3. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the first circuitry configured and/or programmed to receive the RRC message from the first base station apparatus, and

add the cells as cells of the second base station apparatus, based on the RRC message.

4. A base station apparatus configured and/or programmed to communicate with a terminal apparatus, the base station apparatus comprising:

first circuitry configured and/or programmed to

notify the terminal apparatus of addition of cells associated with dual connectivity, by a radio resource control (RRC) message,

the cells including a first cell and a plurality of secondary cells, the first cell being designated by a cell identifier included in the RRC message and is not deactivatable, and the plurality of secondary cells being other than the first cell and is deactivatable,

second circuitry configured and/or programmed to

notify the terminal apparatus of a deactivation timer, in a case of notifying the terminal apparatus of the addition of the cells, the deactivation timer being applied to each of the plurality of secondary cells, not to the first cell and

deactivate each of the plurality of secondary cells, which has been activated, in a case of expiration of the deactivation timer, wherein

the first cell and the plurality of secondary cells are designated as being activated or deactivated by a MAC control element (MAC CE) including at least one bit and when a secondary cell of the plurality of secondary cells corresponding to an index representing a bit value of the MAC CE is not configured to the terminal apparatus, the terminal apparatus ignores the bit value of the index.

5. A control method of a terminal apparatus configured and/or programmed to communicate with a first base station apparatus and a second base station apparatus, the control method comprising:

adding cells associated with dual connectivity based on a radio resource control (RRC) message transmitted from the first base station apparatus;

the cells including a first cell and a plurality of secondary cells, the first cell being designated by a cell identifier included in the RRC message and is not deactivatable, and the plurality of secondary cells other than the first cell is deactivatable, and

performing applying a deactivation timer to each of the plurality of secondary cells, not to the first cell, the deactivation timer being used to deactivate a cell, wherein

the first cell and the plurality of secondary cells are designated as being activated or deactivated by a MAC control element (MAC CE) including at least one bit and when a secondary cell of the plurality of secondary cells corresponding to an index representing a bit value of the MAC CE is not configured to the terminal apparatus, the terminal apparatus ignores the bit value of the index.

6. A control method of a base station apparatus configured and/or programmed to communicate with a terminal apparatus, the control method comprising:

notifying the terminal apparatus of addition of cells associated with dual connectivity, by a radio resource control (RRC) message;

the cells including a first cell and a plurality of secondary cells, the first cell being designated by a cell identifier included in the RRC message and is not deactivatable, and the plurality of a secondary cells being other than the first cell is deactivatable, and

notifying the terminal apparatus of a deactivation timer, in a case of notifying the terminal apparatus of the addition of the cells, the deactivation timer being applied to each of the plurality of secondary cells, not to the first cell, and

deactivating each of the plurality of secondary cells, which has been activated, in a case of expiration of the deactivation timer, wherein

the first cell and the plurality of secondary cells are designated as being activated or deactivated by a MAC control element (MAC CE) including at least one bit and when a secondary cell of the plurality of secondary cells corresponding to an index representing a bit value of the MAC CE is not configured to the terminal apparatus, the terminal apparatus ignores the bit value of the index.