CN102740230B

CN102740230B - Multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) transmission method and system thereof

Info

Publication number: CN102740230B
Application number: CN201110083442.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 赵君辉; 曾清海; 黄曲芳
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2011-04-02
Filing date: 2011-04-02
Publication date: 2015-01-28
Anticipated expiration: 2031-04-02
Also published as: CN102740230A

Abstract

The invention provides a multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) transmission method. The method comprises the following the steps that: at least one level area is arranged in a MBSFN (multimedia broadcast multicast service single frequency network) Area, and an original state of the each level area is an active state or an inactive state; each cell in the level area which is in the inactive state activates MBSFN transmission of the cell itself according to an activation message. The invention also provides a system used for the MBMS transmission. By using the method and the system of the invention, service continuity of UE can be guaranteed as much as possible under the condition that a system resource is saved.

Description

Multimedia broadcast multicast service transmission method and system

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and a system for transmitting a multimedia broadcast multicast service.

Background

Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) is one of the important contents of the third generation partnership project (3GPP) Service development. In the MBMS, the network side can simultaneously send the same multimedia data to a plurality of mobile terminals in the network in a broadcast or multicast manner, which greatly saves air interface resources of the system compared with a single-user transmission manner. In the recently established MBMS R9 version protocol of Long Term Evolution (LTE), MBMS services are transmitted through a Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency Network (MBSFN), which is a transmission method for performing synchronous transmission in multiple cells at the same time and at the same Frequency.

In the prior art, a Multi-cell/Multicast Coordination Entity (MCE) is a logical Entity, which can configure a plurality of MBSFN areas (MBSFN areas) for MBSFN transmission, and can allocate radio resources to all evolved Node bs (enbs) in the MBSFN areas for MBSFN transmission. Wherein, one MBSFN Area may include a plurality of enbs. The content broadcast by all enbs within the same MBSFN Area is identical and synchronized. At the same time, there may be multiple services (services) broadcast within the same MBSFN Area. The traffic broadcast within different MBSFN areas may be the same or different. For a cell, each cell may belong to only one MBSFN Area, or may belong to a plurality of MBSFN areas simultaneously.

When a User Equipment (UE) moves, if the UE is receiving a certain MBMS service, in order to improve the user experience, a cell (cell) broadcasting the MBMS service needs to be selected as much as possible for the UE to access, so that the UE can continue to receive the MBMS service being received. Even further, if a UE is interested in a certain MBMS service (the reception of the service is not started, the reason for not starting the reception may be that the current cell does not provide the service, or the current cell provides the service, but the user decides to start the reception later), it may try to select a cell broadcasting the MBMS service that the UE is interested in for the UE in motion to access, so that the UE can receive the MBMS service that the UE is interested in a new cell.

In the prior art, all cells are performing MBSFN transmission or maintain a state in which MBSFN transmission is possible in the entire MBSFN Area. At this time, the network side (e.g., MCE) will send the same MBMS service information to all cells in the same MBSFN Area, and each cell in the MBSFN Area is also performing MBSFN transmission, that is, each cell will receive all MBMS service information sent by the network side; even if a certain cell does not have the UE to receive the broadcasted MBMS service, the cell broadcasts the received MBMS service information in the cell. Therefore, in the MBSFN transmission mode in the prior art, there is a waste of available system resources, which occupies too many available system resources and greatly increases the signaling overhead and signaling transmission of the system.

In addition, in order for the network side to better provide the UE with the service continuity, the network side first needs to know the MBMS service being received by the UE and the MBMS service of interest (which may be referred to as the receiving service and the service of interest, respectively, the same below). In the prior art, a UE may report a service being received and/or a service of interest by using an MBMS status report (MBMS Counting Response) message, where the MBMS status report message includes a service identifier (which may be collectively referred to as an MBMS service ID) of the service being received and/or the service of interest by the UE. However, the MBMS status report message does not distinguish between the service being received by the UE and the service that the UE is interested in, that is, the UE reports the service identifier of the service to the network side as long as any one of the two conditions of receiving and being interested in is satisfied, but does not indicate which services are the service being received by the UE and which services are the services that the UE is interested in. When the network side provides the handover target cell or the cell reselection priority for the UE, the cell providing the UE with the service being received is not considered as the handover target cell preferentially, and the priority of the frequency of the cell providing the UE with the service being received is not increased, so that the network side is not favorable for providing better service continuity for the UE.

In summary, the MBSFN transmission method in the prior art will occupy a large amount of available system resources, and greatly increase the signaling overhead and signaling transmission of the system. On the other hand, the network side cannot provide better service continuity for the UE on the premise of saving system resources.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a method and a system for transmitting MBMS service, thereby effectively saving system resources and lightening the load of the system.

In order to achieve the purpose, the technical scheme of the invention is realized as follows:

a method for transmitting Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), the method comprising:

setting at least one grade Area in a multimedia broadcast multicast service single frequency network (MBSFN) Area, wherein each set grade Area at least comprises a cell; the initial state of each grade area is an activated state or an inactivated state;

activating the MBSFN transmission of each cell of the level area in the non-activated state according to the activation message;

all cells in the level area in the activated state can perform MBSFN transmission; and all the cells in the level area in the non-activated state can not carry out MBSFN transmission.

The invention also provides another multimedia broadcast multicast service transmission method, which comprises the following steps:

setting the initial state of each cell in one MBSFN Area to be a cell activation state or a non-cell activation state;

the cell in the non-cell activation state activates own MBSFN transmission according to the activation message;

the cell in the cell activation state can perform MBSFN transmission; the cell in the non-cell activation state is unable to perform MBSFN transmission.

The invention also provides a system for multimedia broadcast multicast service transmission, which comprises: at least one multimedia broadcast multicast service single frequency network area MBSFNArea;

the MBSFN Area is provided with at least one level Area, and each level Area at least comprises one cell; the initial state of each level area is an activated state or an inactivated state, and each cell of the level area in the inactivated state can activate the MBSFN transmission of the cell according to the activation message;

The present invention also provides another system for mbms transmission, comprising: at least one multimedia broadcast multicast service single frequency network Area MBSFN Area;

the MBSFN Area at least comprises one cell; the initial state of each cell is a cell activation state or a non-cell activation state, and the cell in the non-cell activation state activates own MBSFN transmission according to the activation message;

the cell in the cell activation state can perform MBSFN transmission; the cell in the non-cell activation state cannot perform MBSFN transmission.

In summary, the present invention provides a method and a system for MBMS service transmission. In the MBMS service transmission method, at least one grade Area is set in one MBSFN Area, and the initial state of each grade Area is an activated state or an inactivated state; and each cell of the level area in the non-activated state activates the MBSFN transmission of the cell according to the activation message. By using the method, the system resource can be effectively saved, the signaling overhead and signaling transmission of the system are reduced, and the load of the system is lightened.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a flowchart illustrating an MBMS service transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of rank regions provided in one embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an MBMS service transmission method according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an MBMS service transmission method according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for each cell in the rank region to stop MBSFN transmission according to a deactivation message in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an MBMS service transmission method according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an MBMS service transmission method according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a MBMS service transmission method according to another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method for a cell in an active state to stop MBSFN transmission according to a deactivation message in another embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is an exemplary diagram of a system for MBMS service transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system for MBMS service transmission according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, the present invention will be further described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

The invention provides a method and a system for transmitting MBMS service. In the MBMS service transmission method, at least one grade Area is set in one MBSFN Area, and the initial state of each grade Area is an activated state or an inactivated state; and each cell of the level area in the non-activated state activates the MBSFN transmission of the cell according to the activation message. By using the MBMS service transmission method and the system, system resources can be effectively saved, signaling overhead and signaling transmission of the system are reduced, and the load of the system is lightened.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart illustrating an MBMS service transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 1, the MBMS service transmission method mainly includes the following steps:

step 101, at least one Level (Level) Area is set in one MBSFN Area, and the initial state of each Level Area is an activated state or an inactivated state.

In this step, the setting of the rank region may be preset or may be dynamically set.

Specifically, one or more rank areas may be preset in the same MBSFN Area. For example, in the technical solution of the present invention, one or more rank regions may be preset in the MBSFNArea according to at least one of the geographical location of each cell in the MBSFN Area, the network load in the MBSFN Area, the neighboring cell interference, and the like.

In addition, one or more rank regions may also be dynamically set by the MCE. For example, the MCE may dynamically divide the MBSFN Area into one or more rank areas according to at least one of the geographical location of each cell in the MBSFNArea, the network load in the MBSFNArea, the neighboring cell interference, and the like; then, the MCE may send the classification of the rank region to each cell in the MBSFN Area through a rank region configuration message.

Wherein, the rank region configuration message may include: MBSFN Area identification information, and information of a rank Area to which each cell belongs (for example, an identifier of a rank Area and rank information of a rank Area). Therefore, each cell in the MBSFN Area can know the division condition of the rank Area in the MBSFN Area according to the rank Area configuration message.

In addition, the rank region configuration message may be a newly added rank region configuration message, or a rank region configuration message formed by modifying an existing message in the system.

In addition, the specific number of the set level regions can be preset according to actual conditions. Each set rank region may include one or more cells, and different rank regions are independent of each other, i.e. the rank regions do not overlap with each other. Thus, although each cell may belong to one or more MBSFN areas; however, in the same MBSFN Area, one cell only belongs to one of the rank areas.

For example, fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a rank region provided in one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 2, a total of 3 rank areas are set in the MBSFN Area in fig. 2: rank region 1, rank region 2, and rank region 3. In which the rank region 1, the rank region 2, and the rank region 3 are independent of each other, i.e., there is no overlapping portion between the 3 rank regions.

After the rank areas are set, the states of the rank areas may be set, for example, the initial state of each rank Area in the MBSFN Area may be set to an active state or an inactive state. All cells in the level area in the activated state can perform MBSFN transmission; and all the cells in the level area in the non-activated state can not carry out MBSFN transmission.

It should be noted that, since the MBMS service of the cell is provided by the MCE, if the MCE does not provide the corresponding MBMS service for a while, the cell in the rank region in the active state will not perform MBSFN transmission; however, the cell in the active level area will be ready for MBSFN transmission in order to broadcast the MBMS service from the MCE at any time. While the cells in the level area in the inactive state cannot perform MBSFN transmission and do not broadcast the MBMS service from the MCE.

In a specific embodiment of the present invention, the initial state of each rank region in the MBSFN Area may be set to an inactive state; or setting the initial state of the designated rank region in the MBSFN Area to be an activated state, and setting the initial state of the non-designated other rank region to be a non-activated state. For example, the initial state of at least one rank region in the MBSFNArea may be set to an inactive state.

After the initial state of the rank region is set, the initial state information of the rank region may be carried in the state information of the rank region and directly stored in each cell and MCE. The status information of the rank region may include: MBSFN Area identification information, and various information such as the status of the rank Area to which each cell belongs.

In addition, when the status of one rank region changes (e.g., the rank region is changed from being in an active state to being in an inactive state, or vice versa), the MCE may transmit the status information after the change of the rank region to a cell in a rank region adjacent to the rank region in the MBSFN Area through a rank region status change message; or the cell at the boundary in the level region with the changed state sends the level region state change message carrying the state information after the level region is changed to the adjacent cell in the adjacent level region. Each cell that receives the rank region state change message may update its stored state information of the rank region according to the rank region state change message. Wherein, the rank region status change message may include: MBSFNArea identification information, the state of the rank region after the state change, and at least one of various information such as a state information change instruction. Wherein the status information change indication may be used to indicate that the status of the rank region that sent the indication has changed.

In the technical solution of the present invention, the rank region state change message may be a newly added rank region state change message, or a rank region state change message formed by improving an existing message in a system.

In addition, in the specific embodiment of the present invention, each cell in the class area in the inactive state may receive the service information sent by the MCE, or may not receive the service information sent by the MCE. Wherein, the service information may include: at least one of a service identification, a service start/service stop message, service contents, and service data.

After the setting is completed, all the cells in the class Area in the inactive state do not perform the MBSFN transmission, so that when the MBSFN transmission is performed in the MBSFN Area, as long as one class Area in the MBSFNArea is in the inactive state, the available resources of the system can be greatly saved, the signaling overhead and the signaling transmission of the system are greatly reduced, and the overall load of the system is reduced.

Step 102, each cell in the level area in the inactive state may activate its own MBSFN transmission according to the activation message.

In the technical scheme of the invention, if one grade Area in a certain MBSFN Area is in an inactive state, each cell of the grade Area in the inactive state can activate the MBSFN transmission of the cell according to the corresponding activation message, so that the whole grade Area is converted into the active state from the inactive state.

Since each cell in the level region in the inactive state does not perform MBSFN transmission before being activated, a large amount of available system resources can be saved. When each cell in the above-mentioned rank region needs to be activated, each cell can activate its own MBSFN transmission according to the corresponding activation message, and transmit the corresponding MBMS service to the UEs in these cells, so that the service continuity of the UEs can be ensured as much as possible on the premise of saving the available resources of the system.

In the technical solution of the present invention, the step 102 can be implemented by using various methods. The technical solution of the present invention will be described in detail below by way of examples.

The first implementation mode,

When the UE is ready to be switched or reselected from a source cell in a grade area in an activated state to a target cell in a grade area in an inactivated state, and the grade area to which the source cell belongs broadcasts the service and/or the service of interest which the UE is receiving, each cell in the grade area to which the target cell belongs activates the MBSFN transmission of the cell according to an activation message.

Specifically, when the UE is in a moving state, the UE may move from one cell (a source cell, i.e., a cell in which the UE is currently located) in a certain hierarchical region to a cell (a target cell) in another hierarchical region in the same MBSFN Area, and cell handover or reselection is required. Before cell handover or reselection, if the rank region to which the source cell belongs is in an active state, and the rank region to which the source cell belongs broadcasts the service and/or the service of interest that the UE is receiving, and the rank region to which the target cell belongs is in an inactive state, the MBSFN transmission of each cell in the rank region to which the target cell belongs may be activated through a corresponding activation message (i.e., the rank region to which the target cell belongs is activated, so that the rank region to which the target cell belongs is converted from the inactive state to the active state).

The second implementation mode,

When the level area to which the cell where the UE currently belongs is in the inactive state and other level areas in the active state are broadcasting the service in which the UE is interested, each cell in the level area to which the cell where the UE currently belongs may activate its MBSFN transmission according to the activation message.

Specifically, when the UE does not move, but a rank area (which may be referred to as a current rank area, hereinafter the same) to which a cell in which the UE currently belongs is in an inactive state, all cells in the current rank area do not perform MBSFN transmission. However, if the service interested by the UE is being broadcast in other activated level areas in the MBSFN Area to which the current level Area belongs, the MBSFN transmission of each cell of the current level Area may be activated through the corresponding activation message (i.e. the current level Area is activated, so that the current level Area is converted from an inactive state to an active state), so that the cell in which the UE currently locates in the current level Area may perform the corresponding MBSFN transmission, thereby facilitating the UE to receive the service interested by the UE in the subsequent process, and thus, the service continuity of the UE may be ensured as much as possible while saving the available resources of the system.

In addition, in the technical solution of the present invention, a rank region to which the target cell belongs and/or a rank region to which the cell in which the UE currently belongs may be activated in a plurality of ways. For example, the MBSFN transmission of the cell may be activated by each cell of the rank region to which the target cell belongs according to an activation message sent by the cell (i.e., the source cell) in which the UE currently locates or the MCE; or, the MBSFN transmission of the cell may be activated by each cell of a rank area (that is, a current rank area) to which the cell where the UE currently locates belongs according to an activation message sent by the cell or the MCE where the UE currently locates.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an MBMS service transmission method according to another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 3, the method may include:

step 301, at least one level Area is set in one MBSFN Area, and the initial state of each level Area is an activated state or an inactivated state.

The specific implementation manner of this step may be substantially the same as that of step 101 shown in fig. 1, and is not described herein again.

Step 302, when the UE is ready to switch or reselect from a source cell in a rank region in an active state to a target cell in a rank region in an inactive state, and a service and/or a service of interest being received by the UE is being broadcast in the rank region to which the source cell belongs, each cell in the rank region to which the target cell belongs activates its own MBSFN transmission according to an activation message.

In the technical solution of the present invention, the source cell stores the state information of the level region, so that the source cell can acquire the related information in the level region to which the source cell belongs, for example, which MBMS services are being broadcast in the level region. In addition, when the UE is still in the source cell, the UE reports the service being received by the UE and/or the service in which the UE is interested to the source cell through the MBMS status report message or other newly defined status report messages, so that the source cell can know whether the service being received by the UE and/or the service in which the UE is interested is being broadcast in the rank region to which the source cell belongs according to the message reported by the UE.

In addition, in the technical solution of the present invention, a plurality of methods may be used to activate the rank region to which the target cell belongs. The following will take two specific implementations thereof as examples to describe the technical solution of the present invention in detail.

For example, each cell in the rank region to which the target cell belongs in the step 302 above activates its MBSFN transmission according to the activation message, which may be implemented by the following steps (not shown in fig. 3):

step 3011, the source cell sends an activation message to each cell in the rank region to which the target cell belongs.

In this step, since each cell in the MBSFN Area stores the status information of the rank region, the source cell may send an activation message to each cell in the rank region to which the target cell belongs according to the status information of the rank region. Preferably, since the same cell may belong to different MBSFN areas, in order to make each cell in the rank Area to which the target cell belongs know to which MBSFN Area the rank Area to which the source cell belongs, the activation message may carry MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area in which the rank Area to which the source cell belongs.

Step 3012, each cell in the rank region to which the target cell belongs activates its own MBSFN transmission according to the activation message sent by the source cell.

In this step, each cell in the rank region to which the target cell belongs activates its own MBSFN transmission according to the activation message sent by the source cell, so that after each cell in the rank region to which the target cell belongs activates its own MBSFN transmission, the rank region to which the target cell belongs is also in an activated state, so that the rank region to which the target cell belongs is converted from an inactivated state to an activated state.

As can be seen from the above, the rank region to which the target cell belongs can be activated through the above steps 3011 to 3012.

In addition, each cell in the rank region to which the target cell belongs in the step 302 above activates MBSFN transmission of itself according to the activation message, which may also be implemented by the following steps (not shown in fig. 3):

step 3021, the source cell sends a notification message to the MCE.

In this step, the notification message may include: at least one of an identifier of a rank region to which the target cell belongs, a service identifier being received by the UE, and a service identifier of interest to the UE.

The source cell stores the state information of the rank region, so that the source cell can know the identifier of the rank region to which the target cell belongs. In addition, when the UE is still in the source cell, the UE may report the service being received by the UE and/or the service in which the UE is interested to the source cell through an MBMS status report message or other newly defined status report messages.

Step 3022, the MCE sends an activation message to each cell of the rank region to which the target cell belongs according to the received notification message.

Preferably, in this step, the activation message may carry MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area of the rank Area to which the source cell belongs.

Step 3023, activating MBSFN transmission by each cell of the rank area to which the target cell belongs according to the activation message sent by the MCE.

In this step, after each cell in the rank region to which the target cell belongs receives the activation message sent by the MCE, the MBSFN transmission of the cell can be activated according to the activation message. Therefore, after each cell in the rank region to which the target cell belongs activates its own MBSFN transmission, the rank region to which the target cell belongs will also be in an activated state.

As described above, the rank region to which the target cell belongs can be activated in steps 3021 to 3023.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an MBMS service transmission method according to another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 4, the method may include:

step 401, at least one level Area is set in one MBSFN Area, and the initial state of each level Area is an activated state or an inactivated state.

Step 402, when the class area to which the cell where the UE currently belongs is in the inactive state and other class areas in the active state are broadcasting the service that the UE is interested in, each cell in the class area to which the cell where the UE currently belongs can activate its MBSFN transmission according to the activation message.

In the technical solution of the present invention, there may be a plurality of specific implementation manners for activating the rank region to which the cell where the UE currently belongs. The following will describe the technical solution of the present invention by taking two specific implementation manners as examples.

For example, each cell in the rank region to which the UE currently belongs in step 402 may activate its MBSFN transmission according to the activation message, and may be implemented by the following steps (not shown in fig. 4):

step 4011, the cell where the UE currently locates sends an activation message to each cell in the level region to which the UE belongs.

In this step, since each cell in the MBSFN Area stores the status information of the rank Area, the cell in which the UE currently exists may send an activation message to each cell in the rank Area to which the cell in which the UE currently exists belongs according to the status information of the rank Area. Preferably, since the same cell may belong to different MBSFN areas, in order to enable each cell in the class Area to which the cell currently located by the UE belongs to know to which MBSFN Area the class Area to which the cell currently located by the UE belongs, the activation message may carry MBSFN Area identification information for indicating the MBSFN Area to which the class Area to which the cell currently located by the UE belongs.

Step 4012, each cell in the rank area to which the cell where the UE currently locates belongs activates MBSFN transmission of itself according to the activation message sent by the cell where the UE currently locates.

In this step, since each cell in the rank region to which the cell to which the UE currently belongs activates its own MBSFN transmission according to the activation message sent by the cell to which the UE currently belongs, after each cell in the rank region to which the cell to which the UE currently belongs activates its own MBSFN transmission, the rank region to which the cell to which the UE currently belongs also is in an activated state.

In view of the above, through the steps 4011 to 4012, the rank region to which the cell where the UE currently belongs can be activated.

In addition, in the technical solution of the present invention, if there is only one cell in the class region to which the cell where the UE currently locates belongs, that is, the cell where the UE currently locates, at this time, the above steps 4011 and 4012 may not be executed, and the cell where the UE currently locates directly activates its own MBSFN transmission; the MBSFN transmission of the UE itself may also be activated by executing the above steps 4011 and 4012, that is, the cell where the UE is currently located may send an activation message to the UE itself, and activate the MBSFN transmission of the UE itself according to the activation message.

In addition, each cell in the rank region to which the cell where the UE currently locates belongs in step 402 may activate its MBSFN transmission according to the activation message, and may also be implemented by the following steps (not shown in fig. 4):

step 4021, the cell where the UE currently locates sends a notification message to the MCE.

In this step, the notification message may include: at least one of an identifier of a rank region to which the cell in which the UE currently belongs, a service identifier being received by the UE, and a service identifier in which the UE is interested.

The cell where the UE currently locates stores state information of the rank region, so that the cell where the UE currently locates can acquire the identifier of the rank region to which the UE currently locates. In addition, the UE may report the service being received by the UE and/or the service in which the UE is interested to the cell in which the UE is currently located through the MBMS status report message or other newly defined status report messages. Wherein, the MBMS status report message or other newly defined status report messages includes: and the MBMS service identification of the UE.

In addition, since the MCE generally stores the state information of the rank region, the MCE can know which cell the notification message is sent from according to the received notification message, and directly know the rank region to which the cell belongs from the stored state information of the rank region. Therefore, the notification message may not include the identifier of the rank region to which the cell in which the UE is currently located belongs.

Step 4022, the MCE sends an activation message to each cell of the rank area to which the cell where the UE currently locates belongs according to the received notification message.

Preferably, in this step, the activation message may carry MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area of the rank Area to which the cell where the UE currently belongs.

Step 4023, activating MBSFN transmission by each cell of the level area to which the cell where the UE currently belongs according to the activation message sent by the MCE.

In this step, after each cell in the rank region to which the cell where the UE currently locates belongs receives the activation message sent by the MCE, the MBSFN transmission of the UE can be activated according to the activation message. Therefore, after each cell in the rank region to which the cell currently located by the UE belongs activates its MBSFN transmission, the rank region to which the cell currently located by the UE belongs will also be in an activated state.

As can be seen from the above, through the steps 4021 to 4023, the rank region to which the cell where the UE currently belongs can also be activated.

In addition, in the above step 3022 or 4022, after receiving a notification message, the MCE may send an activation message to each cell in the rank region to which the target cell belongs or each cell in the rank region to which the UE currently belongs according to the notification message; or, the activation message may not be sent immediately, and when the number of notification messages received by the MCE to activate the same rank region exceeds a preset threshold, the MCE sends the activation message to each cell of the rank region.

In the latter case, a threshold value needs to be set in advance. After setting the threshold value, the MCE does not immediately send the activation message according to the notification message after receiving a notification message, but sends the corresponding activation message after receiving a certain number of notification messages for activating the same rank region, so that the rank region can be reactivated when the request for activating a rank region reaches a certain number, thereby avoiding prematurely activating the rank region, ensuring the continuity of the service as much as possible on the premise of saving the system resources, and achieving a certain balance between saving the system resources and maintaining the continuity of the service.

Therefore, in the technical solution of the present invention, the threshold value is an integer greater than 1, and the specific value may be preset according to the actual application condition, which is not limited herein.

Furthermore, in the technical solution of the present invention, each cell in the activated rank region may also stop its MBSFN transmission according to the deactivation message.

Specifically, in the technical solution of the present invention, the initial state of each rank region may be set to an active state or an inactive state. According to the technical scheme, each cell in the level area in the non-activated state can activate the MBSFN transmission of the cell according to the activation message, so that the level area is converted from the non-activated state to the activated state, and the service continuity of the UE is guaranteed as much as possible.

However, in the technical solution of the present invention, in some cases, some rank areas already in an active state may be deactivated through a deactivation message, so that the rank areas are converted from the active state to an inactive state, thereby further saving available resources of the system.

For example, when there is no service being received by the UE and no service interested by the UE in each cell in a rank area in an active state, each cell in the rank area may stop its MBSFN transmission according to the deactivation message (i.e., deactivate its MBSFN transmission), so that the rank area is switched from the active state to the inactive state, thereby implementing deactivation of the rank area.

In the technical solution of the present invention, a plurality of methods can be used to realize the deactivation of the rank region in the activated state. Fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for each cell in the rank region to stop its own MBSFN transmission according to a deactivation message. As shown in fig. 5, the method may be implemented by:

step 501, when there is no service being received by the UE and no service interested by the UE in the cell in the activated hierarchical area, the cell sends a deactivation notification message to the MCE.

In the technical solution of the present invention, since the UE reports the service being received by the UE and/or the service interested by the UE to the cell where the UE is currently located through the MBMS status report message or the newly defined other status report message, each cell in the level area in the active state can know whether the service being received by the UE and the service interested by the UE exist in the cell according to the MBMS status report message reported by the UE or the newly defined other status report message. If no UE in a certain cell is receiving the service and the service interested by the UE, the cell sends a deactivation notification message to the MCE. The MCE may learn that there is no service being received by the UE and no service interested by the UE in the cell according to the received deactivation notification message.

Preferably, since the same cell may belong to different MBSFN areas, the deactivation notification message may carry MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area in which the activated rank Area is located.

Step 502, when the number of notification messages received by the MCE to deactivate the same activated level area reaches a preset threshold, the MCE sends a deactivation message to all cells in the activated level area.

The value of the threshold is an integer greater than 0, and the maximum value is the total number of cells in the rank region in the active state. The specific numerical value can be preset according to the actual application condition, and the invention is not limited herein.

Preferably, since the same cell may belong to different MBSFN areas, the deactivation message may carry MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area in which the activated rank Area is located.

Step 503, each cell in the activated rank region stops its own MBSFN transmission according to the received deactivation message.

In this step, each cell of the activated rank region stops its own MBSFN transmission according to the received activation message, so that after each cell of the activated rank region stops its own MBSFN transmission, the activated rank region is also in an inactivated state, thereby implementing the deactivation of the activated rank region.

In addition, in the technical scheme of the invention, the activation and/or deactivation of the cell can be directly realized without setting a level Area in the MBSFN Area. This will be illustrated by way of example below.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an MBMS service transmission method according to another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 6, a second MBMS service transmission method in the present invention includes the following steps:

step 601, setting the initial state of each cell in one MBSFN Area to be a cell activation state or a non-cell activation state.

It should be noted that, since the MBMS service of the cell is provided by the MCE, if the MCE does not provide the corresponding MBMS service for a while, the cell in the cell active state will not perform MBSFN transmission; however, the cell in the cell activation state will be ready for MBSFN transmission, so as to broadcast the MBMS service from the MCE at any time. While the cell in the non-cell activated state cannot perform MBSFN transmission and does not broadcast the MBMS service from the MCE.

In the specific embodiment of the present invention, the initial state of each cell in the MBSFN Area may be set to a non-cell activated state; or setting the initial state of the cell designated in the MBSFN Area to be the cell activation state, and setting the initial state of other non-designated cells to be the non-cell activation state. For example, the initial state of at least one cell in the MBSFN Area may be set to a non-cell activated state.

After the initial state of the cell is set, the initial state information of the cell may be carried in the state information of the cell and directly stored in each cell and MCE. The state information of the cell may include: MBSFN Area identification information and various information such as the state of each cell. In addition, each cell may store the state information of all cells in the MBSFN Area, or may store only the state information of itself and the state information of the neighboring cell.

In addition, when the state of a cell changes (e.g., the cell is in a cell active state to a non-cell active state, or vice versa), the MCE may send the state information after the cell change to a cell adjacent to the cell in the MBSFN Area through a cell state change message; or sending a cell state change message carrying the state information after the cell change to the adjacent cell by the cell with the changed state. Each cell that receives the cell state change message may update its stored state information of the cell according to the cell state change message. Wherein, the cell state change message may include: the MBSFN Area identifier information, the state of the cell after the state change, and at least one of various information such as a state information change instruction.

In the technical solution of the present invention, the cell state change message may be a newly added cell state change message, or a cell state change message formed by improving an existing message in a system.

In addition, in the specific embodiment of the present invention, each cell in the non-cell activated state may receive the service information sent by the MCE, or may not receive the service information sent by the MCE. Wherein, the service information may include: at least one of a service identification, a service start/service stop message, service contents, and service data.

After the setting is completed, because the cell in the non-cell activated state does not perform the MBSFN transmission, when the MBSFN transmission is performed in the MBSFN Area, as long as one cell in the MBSFN Area is in the non-cell activated state, the available resources of the system can be saved, the signaling overhead and the signaling transmission of the system can be reduced, and the overall load of the system can be reduced.

Step 602, the cell in the non-cell activated state may activate its own MBSFN transmission according to the activation message.

In this step, if a cell in a certain MBSFN Area is in a non-cell activated state, the cell in the non-cell activated state may activate its MBSFN transmission according to the corresponding activation message, so that the cell is converted from the non-cell activated state to a cell activated state.

The cell in the non-cell activation state does not carry out MBSFN transmission before being activated, so that the available resources of the system are saved. When the cell needs to be activated, the cell can activate the own MBSFN transmission according to the activation message, and transmits the corresponding MBMS for the UE in the cell, so that the service continuity of the UE can be ensured as much as possible on the premise of saving the available resources of the system.

In the technical solution of the present invention, the above step 602 may be implemented by using various methods. The technical solution of the present invention will be described in detail below by way of examples.

The first implementation mode,

When a UE is ready to be switched or reselected from a source cell in a cell activation state to a target cell in a non-cell activation state, and the service being received by the UE and/or the service of interest are broadcasted in the source cell, the target cell activates own MBSFN transmission according to an activation message.

In the first implementation manner, before the UE performs cell handover or reselection, if the source cell is in a cell active state, and the source cell is broadcasting a service and/or a service of interest that the UE is receiving, and the target cell is in a non-cell active state, the MBSFN transmission of the target cell may be activated through a corresponding activation message, so that the target cell is converted from the non-cell active state to the cell active state).

The second implementation mode,

When the cell where the UE is currently located is in a non-cell activated state and a service that the UE is interested in is being broadcast in a cell activated state in an MBSFN Area to which the cell belongs, the cell where the UE is currently located may automatically activate or activate its own MBSFN transmission according to an activation message.

In the second implementation manner, when the UE does not move but the current cell of the UE is in a non-cell activated state, the current cell of the UE does not perform MBSFN transmission, thereby saving available resources of the system. However, if the service interested by the UE is being broadcast in other cells in the cell activated state in the MBSFN Area to which the current cell of the UE belongs, the MBSFN transmission of the current cell of the UE may be activated through a corresponding activation message, or the current cell of the UE automatically activates its own MBSFN transmission, so that the current cell of the UE is converted from a non-cell activated state to a cell activated state, thereby facilitating the UE to receive the service interested by the UE in a subsequent process, and thus, the service continuity of the UE may be ensured as much as possible while saving available resources of the system.

In addition, in the technical solution of the present invention, various manners may be used to activate the target cell and/or the cell in which the UE is currently located. For example, the target cell may activate its MBSFN transmission according to an activation message sent by a cell (i.e., a source cell) in which the UE is currently located or an MCE; or, the UE may automatically activate the MBSFN transmission of itself according to an activation message sent by the MCE or the cell in which the UE is currently located.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an MBMS service transmission method according to another embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated in fig. 7, the method may include:

step 701, setting the initial state of each cell in one MBSFN Area to a cell activation state or a non-cell activation state.

The specific implementation manner of this step may be substantially the same as step 601 shown in fig. 6, and is not described herein again.

Step 702, when the UE is ready to switch or reselect from a source cell in a cell activation state to a target cell in a non-cell activation state, and the source cell is broadcasting a service and/or a service of interest being received by the UE, the target cell activates its MBSFN transmission according to an activation message.

In the technical solution of the present invention, a plurality of methods may be used to activate the target cell. The following will take two specific implementations thereof as examples to describe the technical solution of the present invention in detail.

For example, the target cell activating its MBSFN transmission according to the activation message in step 702 above may be implemented by the following steps (not shown in fig. 7):

step 7011, the source cell sends an activation message to the target cell.

In this step, since each cell in the MBSFN Area stores the cell status information of each cell in the MBSFN Area, the source cell may send an activation message to the target cell according to the cell status information. Preferably, since the same cell may belong to different MBSFN areas, in order to let the target cell know to which MBSFN Area the source cell belongs, the activation message may carry MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area of the source cell.

Step 7012, the target cell activates its own MBSFN transmission according to the activation message.

In this step, since the target cell activates its own MBSFN transmission according to the activation message, the target cell is in a cell activation state after the target cell activates its own MBSFN transmission.

As can be seen from the above, the target cell can be activated through the above steps 7011 to 7012.

In addition, the target cell in step 702 activates its MBSFN transmission according to the activation message, which may also be implemented by the following steps (not shown in fig. 7):

step 7021, the source cell sends a notification message to the MCE.

In this step, the notification message may include: at least one of an identity of the target cell, a service identity being received by the UE, and a service identity of interest to the UE.

The source cell stores the state information of each cell or only stores the state information of the source cell and the state information of the neighboring cells, so that the source cell can acquire the state information of the target cell. In addition, when the UE is still in the source cell, the UE may report the service being received by the UE and/or the service in which the UE is interested to the source cell through an MBMS status report message or other newly defined status report messages. Wherein, the MBMS status report message or other newly defined status report messages includes: and the MBMS service identification of the UE.

Step 7022, the MCE sends an activation message to the target cell according to the received notification message.

Preferably, in this step, the activation message may carry MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area in which the source cell is located.

Step 7023, the target cell activates MBSFN transmission according to the received activation message.

In this step, after receiving the activation message, the target cell may activate its MBSFN transmission according to the activation message. Therefore, after the target cell activates its own MBSFN transmission, the target cell will also be in a cell activation state.

As can be seen from the above, the target cell can also be activated through the above steps 7021 to 7023.

Fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an MBMS service transmission method according to another embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated in fig. 8, the method may include:

step 801, setting the initial state of each cell in one MBSFN Area to be a cell activation state or a non-cell activation state.

The specific implementation manner of this step may be the same as step 601 shown in fig. 6, and is not described herein again.

Step 802, when the cell where the UE is currently located is in a non-cell activated state, and a cell in a cell activated state in an MBSFN Area to which the cell belongs is broadcasting a service that the UE is interested in, the cell where the UE is currently located is automatically activated or activates its own MBSFN transmission according to an activation message.

In the technical solution of the present invention, there may be a plurality of specific implementation manners for activating the cell in which the UE is currently located. The following will describe the technical solution of the present invention by taking two specific implementation manners as examples.

For example, the MBSFN transmission automatically activated by the cell in which the UE is currently located in step 802 may be (not shown in fig. 8):

8011, the cell in which the UE is currently located automatically activates its MBSFN transmission according to the service being received and/or the service in which the UE is interested, which are reported by the UE in the cell.

In this step, the UE may report the service being received by the UE and/or the service in which the UE is interested to the cell in which the UE is currently located through a message such as an MBMS status report message or other newly defined status report messages. Wherein, the MBMS status report message or other newly defined status report messages includes: and the MBMS service identification of the UE. Therefore, after receiving the service being received and/or the service that the UE is interested in, which are reported by the UE in the cell, the cell where the UE is currently located may automatically activate its own MBSFN transmission, so as to provide MBSFN transmission for the UE in the cell, where the cell where the UE is currently located will be converted from a non-cell activated state to a cell activated state.

As can be seen from the above, in step 8011, the cell in which the UE is currently located may be activated.

In addition, the cell where the UE currently locates in step 802 activates its MBSFN transmission according to the activation message, which may also be implemented by the following steps (not shown in fig. 8):

step 8021, the cell where the UE is currently located sends a notification message to the MCE.

In this step, the notification message may include: at least one of the identity of the cell where the UE is currently located, the service identity which the UE is receiving and the service identity which the UE is interested in.

The UE in the cell where the UE is currently located may report, to the cell where the UE is currently located, an MBMS service identifier including a service that the UE is receiving and/or a service that the UE is interested in through an MBMS status report message or other newly defined status report messages.

Step 8022, the MCE sends an activation message to the cell where the UE is currently located according to the received notification message.

Preferably, in this step, the activation message may carry MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area of the cell where the UE is currently located.

Step 8023, the cell where the UE is currently located activates MBSFN transmission according to the received activation message.

In this step, after receiving the activation message, the cell in which the UE is currently located may activate its MBSFN transmission according to the activation message, so that the cell in which the UE is currently located is converted from the cell activation state to the cell activation state.

In view of the above, through the steps 8021 to 8023, the cell in which the UE is currently located may also be activated.

Furthermore, in the technical solution of the present invention, the cell in the cell activation state may also automatically stop or stop the MBSFN transmission of itself according to the received deactivation message.

Specifically, in the technical solution of the present invention, the initial state of each cell may be set to a cell active state or a non-cell active state. According to the technical scheme, the cell in the non-cell activation state can activate the MBSFN transmission of the cell according to the activation message, so that the cell is converted from the non-cell activation state to the cell activation state, and the service continuity of the UE is guaranteed as much as possible.

However, in the technical solution of the present invention, in some cases, the cell in the cell activation state may also perform the deactivation operation automatically, or perform the deactivation operation according to the deactivation message, so that the cell is switched from the cell activation state to the non-cell activation state, thereby further saving the available resources of the system.

For example, when there is no service being received by the UE and no service interested by the UE in a cell in the cell activation state, the cell may automatically stop or stop its own MBSFN transmission according to the deactivation message (i.e., deactivate its own MBSFN transmission), so that the cell is converted from the cell activation state to the non-cell activation state, thereby implementing deactivation of the cell.

In the technical solution of the present invention, various methods may be used to deactivate the cell in the cell activation state.

For example, fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method for a cell in an active state to stop MBSFN transmission according to a deactivation message in another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 9, the method may include:

in step 901, when there is no service being received by the UE and no service interested by the UE in the cell activation state, the cell sends a deactivation notification message to the MCE.

In the technical solution of the present invention, since the UE reports the service being received by the UE and/or the service interested by the UE to the cell where the UE is currently located through the MBMS status report message or the newly defined other status report message, the cell in the cell activation state can know whether the service being received by the UE and the service interested by the UE exist in the cell according to the MBMS status report message reported by the UE or the newly defined other status report message. If there is no service being received by any UE and no service of interest to the UE in the cell, the cell will send a deactivation notification message to the MCE. The MCE may learn that there is no service being received by the UE and no service interested by the UE in the cell according to the received deactivation notification message.

Preferably, since the same cell may belong to different MBSFN areas, the deactivation notification message may carry MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area of the cell in the cell activation state.

Step 902, when the MCE receives the deactivation notification message, the MCE sends a deactivation message to the cell in the cell activation state.

Preferably, since the same cell may belong to different MBSFN areas, the deactivation message may carry MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area of the activated cell.

Step 903, the cell in the cell activation state stops the MBSFN transmission of the cell according to the received deactivation message.

In this step, the cell in the cell activation state stops its MBSFN transmission according to the received activation message, so that the cell is switched from the cell activation state to a non-cell activation state, thereby implementing the deactivation of the cell in the cell activation state.

The above-mentioned cell automatically stops its own MBSFN transmission, which can be implemented by the following steps (not shown in fig. 9):

step 9021, when there is no service being received by the UE and no service interested by the UE in the cell activation state, the cell automatically stops its MBSFN transmission.

In this step, since the UE reports the service being received by the UE and/or the service interested by the UE to the cell where the UE is currently located through the MBMS status report message or the newly defined other status report message, the cell in the cell activation state can know whether there is the service being received by the UE and the service interested by the UE in the cell according to the MBMS status report message reported by the UE or the newly defined other status report message. If there is no service being received by any UE and no service interested by the UE in the cell, the cell will automatically stop its MBSFN transmission, thereby implementing the deactivation of the cell in the cell activation state.

In addition, in order to enable the network side to better provide service continuity for the UE, the UE may report the service being received by the UE and/or the service of interest to the network side (for example, a cell in which the UE is currently located) through an MBMS status report message or other newly defined status report messages, so that the network side may know the service being received by the UE and the service of interest. Wherein, the MBMS status report message or other newly defined status report messages includes: and the MBMS service identification of the UE. And the MBMS service identification comprises: the service identity the UE is receiving and/or the service identity the UE is interested in. The specific reporting method can be in various forms, for example, periodic reporting, event-triggered reporting (for example, reporting when a service is received at the beginning and/or the end), reporting according to a reporting command of the network side, and the like.

Further, in the technical solution of the present invention, services being received by the UE and services that the UE is interested in are further distinguished, so that a network side can know which services are services being received by the UE and which are services that the UE is interested in, thereby providing a more appropriate cell reselection priority for the UE in an idle state, or selecting a more appropriate handover target cell for the UE in a connected state, so as to provide better service continuity for the UE.

Therefore, in the technical solution of the present invention, when the UE reports the service being received and/or the service of interest, the service being received and the service of interest reported by the UE can be distinguished by the service type flag.

In the technical scheme of the invention, a plurality of methods can be used for setting the service type identification bit so as to distinguish the service which is being received and the service which is interested and reported by the UE. The method for distinguishing the service being received and the service of interest reported by the UE through the service type identification bit will be described in detail below by taking two specific setting methods thereof as examples.

The first method for setting the service type identification bit comprises the following steps:

setting a service type identification bit with the length of 1bit in a service reporting message, wherein the service type identification bit is used for indicating whether a service which is received by UE exists in the service reported by the UE; if the message reported by the UE has the service which is being received by the UE, setting the service Identification (ID) of the service which is being received at the first position of the service identification list reported by the UE in the service reporting message.

The service reporting message may be a message formed by improving an existing message of the system. Specifically, the existing message of the system can be improved, and a service type identification bit with the length of 1bit is set in the existing message of the system and used for indicating whether a service which is received by the UE exists in the service reported by the UE; if the service ID exists, the service ID of the service being received is set at the first position of a service identification list reported by the UE.

For example, the existing message may be an MBMS status report message. The UE may report the service and/or the service of interest it is receiving by reporting the MBMS status report message to the cell in which the UE is currently located. The MBMS status report message includes a service identifier list consisting of service IDs of various services reported by the UE, and is used to record a service identifier being received by the UE and/or a service identifier that the UE is interested in.

Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, the existing MBMS status report message may be improved, and a service type identifier bit with a length of 1bit is added to the MBMS status report message to indicate whether a service being received exists in the services reported by the UE; and when there is a service being received by the UE, setting the service ID of the service being received at the head of the service identification list, thereby forming an improved MBMS status report message.

When the UE needs to report the service and/or the service of interest that the UE is receiving to the network side (for example, the cell in which the UE is currently located), the UE reports the improved MBMS status report message to the network side; the network side can know whether the service being received exists in the services reported by the UE according to the value of the service type identification bit in the improved MBMS status report message, and can know which services are the services being received by the UE.

The value and corresponding meaning of the service type identification bit can be preset according to the actual application condition. For example, the value of the service type identifier bit may be set as: when the value of the service type identification bit is 0, the service type identification bit indicates that no service which is being received exists in the services reported by the UE; when the value of the service type identification bit is 1, it indicates that there is a service being received in the services reported by the UE, and the service corresponding to the first service ID in the service identification list is the service being received by the UE.

In addition, other similar setting methods may also be used to set the value of the service type flag bit, and the specific setting manner is not described herein again.

In addition, besides the MBMS status report message, the existing message may be: an RRC connection setup request (RRCConnectionSetupRequest) message or an RRC connection setup complete (RRCConnectionSetupComplete) message, among other existing messages. If the existing message does not include the service identification list, a corresponding service identification list can be added to the existing message. When setting the service type flag in the existing message, the setting method used is the same as the method for setting the service type flag in the MBMS status report message. And will not be described in detail herein.

In addition, in the technical solution of the present invention, a new service reporting message may also be set, which is used for the UE to report the service being received and/or the service of interest. For example, a new MBMS service reporting message may be set, in which a service identifier list composed of service IDs of various services reported by the UE is set for recording a service identifier being received by the UE and/or a service identifier in which the UE is interested; setting a service type identification bit with the length of 1bit for indicating whether the service which is received by the UE exists in the service reported by the UE; and if the service reported by the UE has the service which is being received by the UE, setting the service identifier of the service which is being received by the UE at the head of the service identifier list. The specific setting method of the service identifier list and the service type identifier bit is the same as the method of setting the service identifier list and the service type identifier bit in the existing message, and is not described herein again.

As can be seen from the above description, the method for setting the service type flag is applicable to the case where the UE has only one service being received.

The setting method of the service type identification bit comprises the following steps:

in a service reporting message, a service type identification bit with a length of 1bit is set for each service identification in a service identification list, and is used for indicating whether the service corresponding to the service identification is the service being received by the UE.

Preferably, the setting of a corresponding service type identifier bit with a length of 1bit for each service identifier may be: before or after each service identification, a service type identification bit with the length of 1bit is set.

The service reporting message may be a service reporting message formed by improving an existing message of the system. Specifically, an existing message may be modified, and a service type identifier bit with a length of 1bit is set in the existing message for each service identifier in the service identifier list, so as to indicate whether the service corresponding to the service identifier is the service being received by the UE.

For example, in the embodiment of the present invention, an existing MBMS status report message may be improved, and a corresponding service type identifier bit with a length of 1bit is set for each service identifier in a service identifier list in the MBMS status report message, so as to indicate whether a service corresponding to the service identifier is a service being received by the UE, thereby forming an improved MBMS status report message.

The value and corresponding meaning of the service type identification bit can be preset according to the actual application condition. For example, the value of the service type identifier bit may be set as: when the value of the service type identification bit is 0, the service corresponding to the service identification corresponding to the service type identification bit is not the service being received by the UE; when the value of the service type identifier bit is 1, it indicates that the service corresponding to the service identifier corresponding to the service type identifier bit is the service being received by the UE.

In addition, in the technical solution of the present invention, a new service reporting message may also be set, which is used for the UE to report the service being received and/or the service of interest. For example, a new MBMS service reporting message may be set, where the MBMS service reporting message includes a service identifier list composed of service IDs of various services reported by the UE, and is used to record a service identifier being received by the UE and/or a service identifier that the UE is interested in; meanwhile, in the MBMS service report message, a corresponding service type identifier bit with a length of 1bit is also set for each service identifier in the service identifier list, and is used to indicate whether the service corresponding to the service identifier is the service being received by the UE. The specific setting method of the service identifier list and the service type identifier bit is the same as the setting method in the existing message, and is not described herein again.

As can be seen from the above description, the method for setting the service type identifier is applicable to the case where the UE has one or more services being received.

When the UE reports the service and/or the service of interest being received by the UE and distinguishes the service being received and the service of interest being reported by the UE through the set service type flag, the network side may preferentially consider a cell providing the service being received for the UE as a handover target cell when providing the handover target cell for the UE according to the service and/or the service of interest being received reported by the UE; alternatively, when providing the UE with the cell reselection priority, the priority of the frequency of the cell providing the UE with the service being received may be raised, for example, the priority of the frequency of the cell providing the UE with the service being received may be raised by one or more priorities, or the priority of the frequency of the cell providing the UE with the service being received may be raised by the highest priority.

In the above technical solution, because the service being received and the service of interest reported by the UE can be distinguished by the set service type identifier, the network side can provide better service continuity for the UE.

In addition, in the technical solution of the present invention, a system for multimedia broadcast multicast service transmission may also be provided. The system comprises: at least one MBSFN Area.

Further, the system may further include: MCE.

And the MCE is used for sending an activation message to each cell in the level region in the non-activation state corresponding to the notification message according to the notification message sent by the cell in the level region.

Fig. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system for MBMS service transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention. In fig. 10, there are two MBSFN areas in the system for MBMS service transmission, each MBSFN Area includes at least one rank Area, and each rank Area includes at least one cell. In addition, in the system shown in fig. 10, an MCE is further included.

In the technical solution of the present invention, another system for multimedia broadcast multicast service transmission may also be provided. The system comprises: at least one MBSFN Area.

Further, the system may further include: MCE.

And the MCE is used for sending an activation message to the cell in the non-activation state corresponding to the notification message according to the notification message sent by the cell.

Fig. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system for MBMS service transmission according to another embodiment of the present invention. In fig. 11, there are two MBSFN areas in the system for MBMS service transmission, each MBSFN Area includes at least one cell. In addition, in the system shown in fig. 10, an MCE is further included.

In summary, the embodiment of the present invention provides the MBMS service transmission method and system. In the MBMS transmission method and system, because at least one grade Area is set in a multimedia broadcast multicast service single frequency network Area MBSFN Area, the initial state of each grade Area is an activated state or a non-activated state; and each cell of the level area in the non-activated state activates the MBSFN transmission of the cell according to the activation message. In addition, the service being received and the service of interest reported by the UE can be distinguished through the set service type identification bit identifier, so that a network side can provide better service continuity for the UE. Therefore, by using the method and the system provided by the invention, the system resource can be effectively saved, the signaling overhead and the signaling transmission of the system can be reduced, and the load of the system can be lightened; meanwhile, the service continuity of the UE can be ensured as much as possible on the premise of saving system resources.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the implementation of the method and system for transmitting mbms service in the above embodiments may be implemented by hardware associated with program instructions, where the program may be stored in a readable storage medium of a communication system, and when executed, the program performs corresponding steps in the above method. The storage medium may be as follows: ROM/RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk, etc.

The above description is only for the purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting the invention, and any modifications, equivalents, improvements and the like made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting a multimedia broadcast multicast service, the method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the setting at least one rank region in an MBSFNArea comprises:

and setting one or more rank areas in the MBSFNArea according to at least one of the geographical position of each cell in the MBSFN Area, the network load in the MBSFNArea and the interference of the adjacent cells.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the setting at least one rank region in one MBSFN Area comprises:

a multi-cell/Multicast Coordination Entity (MCE) divides an MBSFN Area into one or more hierarchical regions according to at least one of the geographical position of each cell in the MBSFN Area, the network load in the MBSFN Area and the interference of adjacent cells;

and the MCE sends the division of the grade Area to each cell in the MBSFN Area through a grade Area configuration message.

4. The method of claim 3,

the rank region configuration message includes: MBSFNArea identification information and information of the rank region to which each cell belongs.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the initial state of each rank region being an active state or an inactive state comprises:

setting the initial state of each level region in the MBSFNArea to be an inactive state; or,

the initial state of the rank region designated in the MBSFN Area is set to an activated state, and the initial state of the non-designated other rank region is set to a non-activated state.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing state information of the rank region in each cell and MCE;

wherein the status information of the level region includes: MBSFNArea identification information and the status of the rank region to which each cell belongs.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein when the status of a rank region changes, the method further comprises:

the MCE sends the state information after the grade Area is changed to a cell in a grade Area adjacent to the grade Area in the MBSFN Area through a grade Area state change message; or,

sending a grade region state change message carrying the state information of the changed grade region to the adjacent cell in the adjacent grade region of the cell at the boundary in the grade region with the changed state;

wherein the rank region state change message includes: the MBSFNArea identification information, the state of the rank region after the state is changed, and the state information change indication.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein activating the MBSFN transmission of each cell of the rank region in the inactive state according to the activation message comprises:

when User Equipment (UE) is ready to be switched or reselected from a source cell in a level area in an activated state to a target cell in a level area in an inactivated state, and the service and/or the interesting service which the UE is receiving is broadcasted in the level area to which the source cell belongs, each cell in the level area to which the target cell belongs activates own MBSFN transmission according to an activation message.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein activating the own MBSFN transmission according to the activation message for each cell in the rank region to which the target cell belongs comprises:

the source cell sends an activation message to each cell in the level region to which the target cell belongs;

and each cell in the level region to which the target cell belongs activates the MBSFN transmission of the cell according to the activation message sent by the source cell.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein activating the own MBSFN transmission according to the activation message for each cell in the rank region to which the target cell belongs comprises:

the source cell sends a notification message to the MCE;

the MCE sends an activation message to each cell of a level region to which the target cell belongs according to the received notification message;

and each cell of the level area to which the target cell belongs activates MBSFN transmission according to the activation message sent by the MCE.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the MCE sending an activation message to each cell of the rank region to which the target cell belongs according to the received notification message comprises:

and when the MCE receives that the number of the notification messages activating the same grade region exceeds a preset threshold value, the MCE sends an activation message to each cell of the grade region to which the target cell belongs.

12. The method of claim 8,

the activation message carries MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area of the rank Area to which the source cell belongs.

13. The method of claim 10,

the notification message includes: at least one of an identifier of a rank region to which the target cell belongs, a service identifier being received by the UE, and a service identifier of interest to the UE.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein activating, by each cell of the rank region in the inactive state, its own MBSFN transmission according to an activation message comprises:

when the grade area to which the cell where the UE currently belongs is in an inactive state and other grade areas in an active state are broadcasting the service interested by the UE, each cell in the grade area to which the cell where the UE currently belongs activates MBSFN transmission of the cell according to an activation message.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein activating own MBSFN transmission according to an activation message by each cell in a hierarchical region to which the cell in which the UE currently belongs comprises:

the cell where the UE is located sends an activation message to each cell in the level region to which the UE belongs;

and activating the MBSFN transmission of each cell in the level area to which the cell where the UE currently belongs according to the activation message sent by the cell where the UE currently belongs.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein activating own MBSFN transmission according to the activation message by each cell in a hierarchical region to which the cell in which the UE currently belongs comprises:

the cell where the UE is currently located sends a notification message to an MCE;

the MCE sends an activation message to each cell of a level region to which the cell where the UE is located belongs according to the received notification message;

and activating MBSFN transmission by each cell of the grade area to which the cell where the UE currently belongs according to the activation message sent by the MCE.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the MCE sending the activation message to each cell of the rank region to which the cell where the UE currently belongs according to the received notification message comprises:

and when the MCE receives that the number of notification messages for activating the same grade region exceeds a preset threshold value, the MCE sends an activation message to each cell of the grade region to which the cell where the UE is currently located belongs.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the activation message carries MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area of the level Area to which the cell to which the UE currently belongs.

19. The method of claim 16,

the notification message includes: at least one of an identifier of a rank region to which a cell in which the UE currently belongs, a service identifier being received by the UE, and a service identifier in which the UE is interested.

20. The method according to claim 11 or 17, characterized in that:

the threshold value is an integer greater than 1.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

and each cell of the level area in the activated state stops the MBSFN transmission of the cell according to the deactivation message.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the stopping of MBSFN transmission for each cell of the rank region in the activated state according to the deactivation message comprises:

and when each cell in a level area in an activated state does not have the service which is received by the UE and the service which is interested by the UE, stopping the MBSFN transmission of each cell in the level area according to the deactivation message.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the stopping of MBSFN transmission by each cell in the rank region according to the deactivation message comprises:

when the cell in the activated level area has no service which is received by the UE and no service which is interested by the UE, the cell sends a deactivation notification message to the MCE;

when the number of notification messages for deactivating the same activated level area reaches a preset threshold value, the MCE sends deactivation messages to all cells in the activated level area;

and each cell of the level area in the activated state stops the MBSFN transmission of the cell according to the received deactivation message.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein:

the preset threshold value is an integer greater than 0, and the maximum value is the total number of cells in the level region in the activated state.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein:

the deactivation notification message carries the MBSFN Area identification information.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein:

the deactivation message carries the MBSFN Area identification information.

27. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when the UE reports the service and/or the interesting service which the UE is receiving, the service and the interesting service which the UE is reporting are distinguished through the service type identification bit.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the distinguishing between the receiving traffic and the interested traffic reported by the UE through the traffic type identifier comprises:

setting a service type identification bit with the length of 1bit in a service reporting message, wherein the service type identification bit is used for indicating whether a service which is received by UE exists in the service reported by the UE;

if the message reported by the UE has the service which is being received by the UE, setting the service identification of the service which is being received at the first position of the service identification list reported by the UE in the service reporting message.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

when the value of the service type identification bit is 0, the service type identification bit indicates that no service which is being received exists in the services reported by the UE; when the value of the service type identification bit is 1, it indicates that there is a service being received in the services reported by the UE.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the distinguishing between the receiving traffic and the interested traffic reported by the UE through the traffic type identifier comprises:

31. The method according to claim 28 or 30, wherein the service reporting message is:

an MBMS status report message, an RRC connection setup request message, or an RRC connection setup complete message.

32. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

when the value of the service type identification bit is 0, indicating that the service corresponding to the service identification corresponding to the service type identification bit is not the service being received by the UE;

and when the value of the service type identification bit is 1, indicating that the service corresponding to the service identification corresponding to the service type identification bit is the service being received by the UE.

33. The method of claim 30, wherein the setting a corresponding service type identifier bit with a length of 1bit for each service identifier in the service identifier list is:

and setting a service type identification bit with the length of 1bit before or after each service identification in the service identification list.

34. A method for transmitting a multimedia broadcast multicast service, the method comprising:

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the setting the initial state of each cell in one MBSFN Area to a cell active state or a non-cell active state comprises:

setting the initial state of each cell in the MBSFN Area to be a non-cell activation state; or,

setting the initial state of the cell designated in the MBSFN Area to be a cell activation state, and setting the initial state of other non-designated cells to be a non-cell activation state.

36. The method of claim 34,

storing state information of the cells in the respective cells and the MCE; wherein,

the state information of the cell includes: MBSFN Area identification information and the status of each cell.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein when the status of a cell changes, the method further comprises:

the MCE sends the state information after the cell change to a cell adjacent to the cell in the MBSFNArea through a cell state change message; or,

the cell with the changed state sends a cell state change message carrying the state information after the cell change to the adjacent cell;

wherein the cell state change message includes: at least one of MBSFN Area identification information, a state of the cell after the state change, and a state information change indication.

38. The method of claim 34, wherein the cell in the non-cell active state activating its own MBSFN transmission according to the activation message comprises:

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the target cell activating its MBSFN transmission according to the activation message comprises:

the source cell sends an activation message to the target cell;

and the target cell activates the MBSFN transmission of the target cell according to the activation message.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein the target cell activating its MBSFN transmission according to the activation message comprises:

the source cell sends a notification message to the MCE;

the MCE sends an activation message to the target cell according to the received notification message;

and the target cell activates MBSFN transmission according to the received activation message.

41. The method of claim 38,

the activation message carries the MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area where the source cell is located.

42. The method of claim 40,

the notification message includes: at least one of an identity of the target cell, a service identity being received by the UE, and a service identity of interest to the UE.

43. The method of claim 34, wherein the cell in the non-cell active state activating its own MBSFN transmission according to the activation message comprises:

when the cell where the UE is currently located is in a non-cell activated state and the service which the UE is interested in is being broadcasted in the cell activated state in the MBSFN Area to which the cell belongs, the cell where the UE is currently located is automatically activated or the own MBSFN transmission is activated according to the activation message.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein automatically activating the MBSFN transmission of the UE itself in the current cell comprises:

and the cell where the UE is currently located automatically activates the MBSFN transmission of the cell according to the service which is reported by the UE in the cell and is being received and/or the service which the UE is interested in.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein activating the own MBSFN transmission by the cell in which the UE is currently located according to the activation message comprises:

the MCE sends an activation message to a cell where the UE is located currently according to the received notification message;

and the cell where the UE is currently located activates MBSFN transmission according to the received activation message.

46. The method of claim 45,

the notification message includes: the identification of the cell where the UE is currently located and/or the MBMS identification of the UE;

wherein, the MBMS service identifier includes: the service identity the UE is receiving and/or the service identity the UE is interested in.

47. The method of claim 45,

the activation message carries the MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area of the cell where the UE is currently located.

48. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

and the cell in the cell activation state automatically stops or stops the MBSFN transmission of the cell according to the deactivation message.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein the cell in the cell active state automatically stopping or stopping its MBSFN transmission according to a deactivation message comprises:

when a cell in a cell activation state has no service which is being received by the UE and no service which is interested by the UE, the cell automatically stops or stops the MBSFN transmission per se according to the deactivation message.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the cell automatically ceasing its MBSFN transmissions comprises:

when the cell in the cell activation state has no service being received by the UE and no service interested by the UE, the cell automatically stops the MBSFN transmission of the cell.

51. The method of claim 49, wherein the cell ceasing its MBSFN transmissions according to the received deactivation message comprises:

when the cell in the cell activation state has no service which is received by the UE and no service which is interested by the UE, the cell sends a deactivation notification message to the MCE;

when the MCE receives a deactivation notification message, the MCE sends a deactivation message to the cell in the cell activation state;

and the cell in the cell activation state stops the MBSFN transmission of the cell according to the received deactivation message.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein:

the deactivation notification message carries MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area of the cell in the cell activation state.

53. The method of claim 51, wherein:

the deactivation message carries the MBSFN Area identification information to indicate the MBSFN Area of the activated cell.

54. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

55. The method of claim 54, wherein the distinguishing between the receiving service and the service of interest reported by the UE via the service type identifier comprises:

56. The method of claim 55, further comprising:

57. The method of claim 54, wherein the distinguishing between the receiving service and the service of interest reported by the UE via the service type identifier comprises:

58. The method of claim 55 or 57, wherein the service reporting message is:

59. The method of claim 57, further comprising:

60. The method of claim 57, wherein the setting a corresponding service type identifier bit with a length of 1bit for each service identifier in the service identifier list is:

61. A system for mbms transmission, the system comprising: at least one multimedia broadcast multicast service single frequency network Area MBSFN Area;

62. The system of claim 61, further comprising:

and the multi-cell/multicast coordination entity MCE is used for sending an activation message to each cell in the level region in the non-activation state corresponding to the notification message according to the notification message sent by the cell in the level region.

63. A system for mbms transmission, the system comprising: at least one multimedia broadcast multicast service single frequency network Area MBSFN Area;

64. The system of claim 63, further comprising:

and the multi-cell/multicast coordination entity MCE is used for sending an activation message to the cell in the non-activation state corresponding to the notification message according to the notification message sent by the cell.