GROUP CONTROL METHOD FOR MACHINE TYPE COMMUNICATION AND MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM USING THE METHOD

• US 20120064932A1
• Filed: 09/12/2011
• Published: 03/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: LIM, Soon Yong, YANG, Mi Jeong, PARK, Ae Soon
• Granted Patent: US 8,712,459 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/509
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 Processing of subscriber group data

Abstract

Provided are a group control method for providing a machine type communication (MTC) service, and a mobile communication system using the method. The group control method includes categorizing one or more MTC devices into one or more MTC groups, assigning MTC group identifiers to respective MTC groups, setting MTC radio network temporary identifiers (MTC RNTIs) according to the MTC group Identifiers, and using the MTC_RNTIs for addressing the MTC devices belonging to the respective MTC groups.

Claims

1. A group control method for providing a machine type communication (MTC) service in a mobile communication network including a mobility management entity (MME), a base station, and one or more MTC devices, the method comprising:

categorizing one or more MTC devices into one or more MTC groups, and assigning MTC group identifiers to respective MTC groups;

setting MTC radio network temporary identifiers (MTC_RNTIs) according to the MTC group identifiers; and

using the MTC_RNTIs for addressing the MTC devices belonging to the respective MTC groups.

2. The group control method of claim 1, wherein categorizing the one or more MTC devices into the one or more MTC groups, and assigning the MTC group identifiers to respective MTC groups includes:

determining, by the MME receiving an attach request from a mobile terminal, whether or not the terminal is an MTC device, and whether or not the terminal belongs to an MTC group; and

including, by the MME, an MTC group identifier in an attach accept message and transmitting the attach accept message to the base station when the terminal having requested the attachment is determined to be an MTC device.

3. The group control method of claim 1, wherein setting the MTC_RNTIs according to the MTC group identifiers includes:

receiving, by the base station, an attach accept message including the MTC group identifiers from the network;

allocating the MTC_RNTIs according to the MTC group identifiers; and

transmitting mapping information between the MTC group identifiers and the MTC_RNTIs to the MTC devices.

4. The group control method of claim 3, wherein the mapping information between the MTC group identifiers and the MTC_RNTIs is transmitted by a radio resource control (RRC) connection reconfiguration message.

5. The group control method of claim 3, wherein setting the MTC_RNTIs to according to the MTC group identifiers further includes:

registering, by the MTC devices receiving the MTC group identifiers and the MTC_RNTIs, the MTC group identifiers as their identifiers.

6. The group control method of claim 1, wherein using the MTC_RNTIs for addressing the MTC devices belonging to the respective MTC groups includes:

transmitting, by the base station, a paging message including the MTC group identifiers and paging record information;

obtaining, by one or more MTC devices in a corresponding MTC group receiving the paging message, record information corresponding to their MTC group identifiers;

transmitting, by the base station, downlink data addressed with an MTC_RNTI of the MTC group; and

receiving, by the one or more MTC devices in the MTC group, the downlink data addressed with the MTC_RNTI.

7. The group control method of claim 6, wherein the base station controls a transmission time and the MTC devices control a reception time so that the downlink data transmission can be performed in a reception window time period of the MTC_RNTI a predetermined time after transmission of the paging message.

8. A mobile communication system performing group control for a machine type communication (MTC) service, comprising:

a mobility management entity (MME) configured to categorize one or more MTC devices into one or more MTC groups, and assign MTC group identifiers to respective MTC groups; and

a base station configured to set MTC radio network temporary identifiers (MTC RNTIs) according to the MTC group identifiers, and use the MTC_RNTIs for addressing the MTC devices belonging to the respective MTC groups.

9. The mobile communication system of claim 8, wherein the MME receives an attach request from a terminal determines whether or not the terminal is an MTC device, and whether or not the terminal belongs to an MTC group, and

includes an MTC group identifiers in an attach accept message and transmits the attach accept message to the base station if the terminal having requested the attachment is determined to be an MTC device.

10. The mobile communication system of claim 8, wherein the base station receives the attach accept message including the MTC group identifiers from the MME,

allocates the MTC_RNTIs according to the MTC group identifiers, and

transmits mapping information between the MTC group identifiers and the MTC_RNTIs to the MTC devices.

11. The mobile communication system of claim 10, further comprising MTC devices configured to receive the MTC group identifiers and the MTC_RNTIs and register the MTC group identifiers as their identifiers.

12. The mobile communication system of claim 11, wherein the base station transmits a paging message including the MTC group identifiers and paging record information, and downlink data addressed with an MTC_RNTI of a corresponding MTC group, and

one or more MTC devices in the MTC group receive the paging message to obtain record information corresponding to their MTC group identifiers, and receive the downlink data addressed with the MTC_RNTI using the record information.

13. The mobile communication system of claim 12, wherein the base station controls a transmission time and the MTC devices control a reception time so that the downlink data transmission can be performed in a reception window time period of the MTC_RNTI a predetermined time after transmission of the paging message.

14. A base station communicating with a network and one or more machine type communication (MTC) devices, wherein MTC group identifiers are received from the network,

MTC radio network temporary identifiers (RNTIs) are set according to the MTC group identifiers, and

the MTC_RNTIs are used for addressing the MTC devices belonging to MTC groups.

15. The base station of claim 14, wherein an attach accept message including the MTC group identifiers is received from the network,

the MTC_RNTIs are allocated to respective MTC group identifiers, and

mapping information between the MTC group identifiers and the MTC_RNTIs is transmitted to the MTC devices.

16. The base station of claim 15, wherein the mapping information between the MTC group identifiers and the MTC_RNTIs is transmitted by a radio resource control (RRC) connection reconfiguration message.

17. The base station of claim 14, wherein a paging message including the MTC group identifiers and paging record information is transmitted to one or more MTC devices, and downlink data addressed with an MTC _RNTI of a corresponding MTC group is transmitted.

18. The base station of claim 14, wherein the addressing is performed using RNTIs distinguished according to the MTC devices when communication between the base station and the MTC devices is performed in a one-to-one mode, and using the MTC_RNTIs when the communication between the base station and the MTC devices is performed in an MTC group mode.