CN107454677B

CN107454677B - Communication method, user equipment and base station

Info

Publication number: CN107454677B
Application number: CN201610377333.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 温萍萍; 杨涛; 马雨出
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd
Current assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd
Priority date: 2016-05-31
Filing date: 2016-05-31
Publication date: 2021-07-16
Anticipated expiration: 2036-05-31
Also published as: CN107454677A; WO2017208078A1

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a communication method, a user equipment and a base station. An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a communication method implemented at a user equipment, including: establishing a first connection between the user equipment and a first base station for at least control plane transmission of the user equipment; establishing connection between user equipment and each base station in a base station cluster; and in response to a second base station in the cluster of base stations being selected as a serving base station for the user equipment, performing data plane transmission for the user equipment via a second connection between the user equipment and the second base station. According to the scheme of the embodiment of the disclosure, a flexible network system and a fast and reliable mobile mechanism can be provided by considering the characteristics of the MMW physical channel such as easy blocking and the MMW network utilizing the high-gain beam forming of multiple antennas.

Description

Communication method, user equipment and base station

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the field of wireless communications, and more particularly, to a communication method implemented at a user equipment and a base station, the user equipment and the base station.

Background

Currently, the fifth generation mobile communication (5G) technology is a research focus in the industry. In terms of wireless spectrum, the use of high frequency bands, such as the millimeter wave (MMW) band, for wireless communication is being actively promoted.

In particular, 5G wireless/mobile access is expected to provide a high data transmission rate using MMW frequency. The high frequency of MMW signals results in high path loss, while the small wavelength of these signals also enables a large number of antenna elements to be placed in the same physical area, thereby providing high beamforming gain. Also, due to the higher path loss of MMW links, it is possible that the density of MMW base stations is much higher than the density of Long Term Evolution (LTE) base stations in the low frequency band, and thus a mobile station will need more frequent handover procedures in a network of MMW band than in a network of LTE band. Furthermore, MMW links will be more susceptible to blockage by vehicle and user movement.

Due to the above-mentioned features of the MMW link and the MMW network, it is necessary to define a flexible network system and a fast and reliable mobility mechanism in consideration of the above-mentioned high beamforming gain and blocking-prone characteristics of the MMW physical channel, thereby providing services to MMW users.

Disclosure of Invention

In general, embodiments of the present disclosure provide communication methods, user equipment and base stations implemented at the user equipment and base stations.

In one aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a communication method implemented at a user equipment, including: establishing a first connection between the user equipment and a first base station for at least control plane transmission of the user equipment; establishing connection between user equipment and each base station in a base station cluster; and in response to a second base station in the cluster of base stations being selected as a serving base station for the user equipment, performing data plane transmission for the user equipment via a second connection between the user equipment and the second base station.

In this regard, embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a user equipment, including: a processor, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the user equipment to perform a method according to this aspect.

In another aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a communication method implemented at a first base station, including: establishing a first connection between a first base station and user equipment for at least control plane transmission of the user equipment; and transmitting configuration information for the base station cluster to the user equipment so that the user equipment establishes a connection with each base station in the base station cluster based on the configuration information and performs data plane transmission of the user equipment with a second connection with a second base station selected as a serving base station in the base station cluster.

In this regard, an embodiment of the present disclosure also provides a base station, including: a processor, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the base station to perform a method according to this aspect.

According to another aspect of the embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a communication method implemented at a second base station, the second base station belonging to a base station cluster, the method including: establishing connection between a second base station and user equipment; and in response to the second base station being selected as the serving base station for the user equipment, performing data plane transmission for the user equipment via the connection established by the second base station with the user equipment.

According to the scheme of the embodiment of the disclosure, a flexible network system and a fast and reliable mobile mechanism can be provided aiming at the characteristics of high beam forming gain, easy blocking and the like of MMW physical channels.

It should be understood that the statements herein reciting aspects are not intended to limit the critical or essential features of the embodiments of the present disclosure, nor are they intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description.

Drawings

The above and other features, advantages and aspects of various embodiments of the present disclosure will become more apparent by referring to the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like or similar reference characters designate like or similar elements, and wherein:

fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a network system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a communication process of a network system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a network system in case of a user equipment moving according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 shows a flow diagram of a communication method implemented at a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 shows a flow chart of a base station cluster determination procedure implemented at a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6 shows a flow diagram of a serving base station selection procedure implemented at a user equipment in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 7 shows a flow chart of a communication method implemented at a first base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 8 shows a flow chart of a communication method implemented at a second base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 shows a schematic diagram of information interaction and processing procedures, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 10 shows a block diagram of an apparatus implemented at a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 11 shows a block diagram of an apparatus implemented at a first base station, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 12 shows a block diagram of an apparatus implemented at a second base station, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

fig. 13 shows a block diagram of a device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While certain embodiments of the present disclosure have been illustrated in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the present disclosure may be embodied in various forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein, but rather are provided for a more thorough and complete understanding of the present disclosure. It should be understood that the drawings and embodiments of the disclosure are for illustration purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure.

The term "first base station" as used herein refers to a base station based on LTE transmissions, hereinafter referred to as LTE base station. By way of example, an LTE base station may include a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved node B (eNodeB or eNB), a Remote Radio Unit (RRU), a Radio Head (RH), a Remote Radio Head (RRH), a relay, or a low power node such as a pico base station, a femto base station, or the like.

The term "second base station" as used herein refers to a base station based on MMW transmission, hereinafter referred to as MMW base station for short. For example, the MMW base station may include any future developed MMW transmission based node or the like.

The term "User Equipment (UE)" as used herein refers to any terminal equipment capable of wireless communication with base stations or with each other. As an example, the UE may include a Mobile Terminal (MT), a Subscriber Station (SS), a Portable Subscriber Station (PSS), a Mobile Station (MS), or an Access Terminal (AT), and the above-described devices in a vehicle.

The terms "include" and variations thereof as used herein are inclusive and open-ended, i.e., "including but not limited to. The term "based on" is "based, at least in part, on". The term "one embodiment" means "at least one embodiment"; the term "another embodiment" means "at least one additional embodiment". Relevant definitions for other terms will be given in the following description.

As described above, MMW physical channels have the characteristic of being susceptible to blocking. In view of this, if MMW base stations are deployed separately and all links are running on MMW links, there will be problems such as the high density of MMW base stations (which will cause frequent handovers) and the susceptibility of MMW links to blocking described above. Therefore, a scheme supporting a plurality of connections with the LTE link and the MMW link should be used. The LTE link is used for control plane management and both the LTE link and the MMW link are used for data transmission. The dual connectivity concept has been defined in the third generation partnership project release 12 (3GPP R12), but is not applicable to dual connectivity for MMW links and LTE links. The reason for this is briefly analyzed below.

First, dual connectivity in 3GPP supports only two link connections, i.e. one connection with MeNB (master eNB, master evolved NodeB) which is responsible for control plane transmission and data transmission, and one connection with SeNB (secondary eNB, secondary evolved NodeB) which is responsible for data transmission.

Since MMW links are susceptible to blocking, multiple connections to MMW links may be established for data transmission, whereby when one MMW link is blocked, data may be transmitted over another MMW link. However, dual connectivity in 3GPP cannot support multiple connections and does not specify how to support multiple connections.

Secondly, in LTE specifications for dual connectivity, when a SeNB change is required, the MeNB will send a SeNB addition request to the destination SeNB, and the destination SeNB will feed back a SeNB addition request acknowledgement. If the destination SeNB addition request is successful, the MeNB initiates a command of releasing the source SeNB resources to the UE and the source SeNB.

In MMW networks, since MMW links are susceptible to blocking, more frequent fast transmission point switching is required. If the same scheme as above is used in multiple connections for LTE and MMW links, first, the process will suffer from two rounds of X2 interface transmission resulting in large latency, especially when the X2 interface is not ideal; secondly, not only does SeNB change take a large delay, but also when the link transmission resumes, the need to establish a new connection through the SeNB addition procedure will take a larger delay, since the connection of the previous source SeNB has been released. Therefore, the previously defined procedure in LTE dual connectivity cannot be used in MMW networks, and a new scheme for fast handover and recovery is needed.

In addition, in the current specifications for dual connectivity in 3GPP, when the MeNB changes, the MeNB should first send a handover request to the destination MeNB, and the destination MeNB will send back a handover request acknowledgement; if the handover request for the destination MeNB is successful, the MeNB will send a release request to the source SeNB. The MeNB will also send a Radio Resource Control (RRC) reconfiguration message to the User Equipment (UE) to trigger the UE to apply the new configuration. Upon receiving the new configuration, the UE releases the entire SeNB configuration. Only when the handover is completed, the SeNB connection can be added again by the SeNB addition procedure.

However, in a network in which an LTE link and an MMW link coexist, the MMW link can provide a larger capacity than the LTE link due to a wider bandwidth and a larger number of antennas, and thus data transmission is mainly on the MMW link. Current MeNB change mechanisms require the release of the SeNB's transmissions, if MMW enbs are used as senbs, the data transmissions must be stopped until the SeNB is added again when MeNB handover is complete, thus introducing a long interruption time.

Therefore, the present invention proposes a network system and a mobility mechanism thereof in which a user has multiple connections of an LTE link and an MMW link. According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a UE may establish multiple connections with one LTE base station and multiple MMW base stations. The plurality of MMW base stations form a base station cluster, and the UE and each MMW base station in the base station cluster are respectively connected. At least one MMW base station in the cluster of base stations is selected as the serving base station responsible for sending and receiving data, while the other MMW base stations in the cluster of base stations are used as backup links for fast data transfer switching to avoid disconnection of the MMW link due to blocking. Thus, at least control plane transmission of the UE may be performed by the LTE base station, and data plane transmission of the UE may be performed by at least one MMW base station selected as a serving base station in the cluster of base stations.

Example embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail below with reference to fig. 1 and 3. Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a network system 100 according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The network system 100 is only a part of a communication network. Two UEs 110 are included in the network system 100₁And 110₂One LTE base station 120 and six MMW base stations 130₁-130₆。UE 110₁With the LTE base station 120 and by the MMW base station 130₁-130₃At least one MMW base station (in this case MMW base station 130) in the formed cluster of base stations₁) Communication is performed. Similarly, UE 110₂With the LTE base station 120 and by the MMW base station 130₄-130₆At least one MMW base station (not shown in the figure) in the formed base station cluster performs communication.

Here, the MMW base station used for current communication of the UE is hereinafter referred to as a serving base station or an MMW serving base station. Note that the number of LTE base stations, MMW base stations, and UEs shown here is for illustration purposes only and is not intended to be limiting. The network system 100 may include any suitable number of LTE base stations, MMW base stations, and UEs, a base station cluster including any suitable number of MMW base stations may be formed for a UE, and any suitable number of MMW base stations in the base station cluster may be selected as a serving base station for data plane transmission of the UE.

Communications in network system 100 may be implemented in accordance with any suitable communication protocol, including, but not limited to, first-generation (1G), second-generation (2G), third-generation (3G), fourth-generation (4G), and fifth-generation (5G) cellular communication protocols, wireless local area network communication protocols such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11, and/or any other protocol now known or later developed. Moreover, the communication may utilize any suitable wireless communication technique including, but not limited to, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), Time Division Duplex (TDD), Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDM), and/or any other technique now known or later developed.

In the following description, UE 110 will be mainly referred to₁The description is given in more detail for the purpose of example. It should be understood, however, that UE 110₂And others may be similar to UE 110₁To communicate.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a communication process 200 of the network system 100 according to an embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in FIG. 2, UE 110₁A connection is established with the LTE base station 120 (as shown at 210). UE 110₁Control plane transmissions or control plane transmissions and data plane transmissions are made via this connection (210) with the LTE base station 120. Then, UE 110₁With each MMW base station 130 in the corresponding base station cluster₁-130₃The connection is established (as shown by 220-240). UE 110₁Via a communication channel with each MMW base station 130₁-130₃As shown at 220, for data plane transmission.

Here, UE 110₁With each MMW base station 130 in the corresponding base station cluster₁-130₃The connections (220-240) are actually established, but data plane transmission is performed only through part of the connections (220) in the base station cluster, while the other connections are used as backup links. Thus, once the current channel quality is found to be degraded, a fast handover of the data link can be achieved to ensure the communication quality. As shown in FIG. 1, if the current MMW base station is used, for example, for UE 110₁MMW base station 130₁Is blocked, UE 110₁The transmission/reception can be quickly handed over to other MMW base stations (e.g., MMW base station 130) in the corresponding base station cluster₂-130₃At least one of).

On the other hand, with the UE (e.g., UE 110)₁) Can form a new cluster of base stations to support and ensure stable channel quality. Fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a network system 100 in case of UE movement according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 3, UE 110₁Moving from point a to point B in the coverage area of LTE base station 120. Accordingly, the MMW base station 130 is formed₁、130₂、130₄And will release with the MMW base station 130₃The connection of (2).

The basic communication mechanism of the novel network system according to the embodiment of the present disclosure has been described with reference to fig. 1 to 3. Based on such a communication mechanism, the embodiments of the present disclosure accordingly provide communication methods implemented at the UE, the LTE base station, and the MMW base station, respectively. Several example implementations are described in detail below in conjunction with fig. 4-6.

Fig. 4 illustrates a UE (e.g., UE 110 of fig. 1-3) according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure₁) A flow chart of a communication method 400 implemented. As shown in FIG. 4, in step 410, a UE (e.g., UE 110 of FIGS. 1-3) is established₁) A first connection (shown as 210 in fig. 2) with an LTE base station (e.g., LTE base station 120 in fig. 1-3) for at least control plane transmissions for the UE.

In one embodiment, the UE may send a random access procedure (RACH) to the LTE base station to establish a connection with the LTE base station, which may be a user responding to downlink paging information or triggered by uplink data transmission. This is well known to those skilled in the art and will not be described in further detail. The connection may be used at least for control plane transmission of the UE, i.e. for transmission of control information for control signaling and the like. In other cases, the connection may be used for data plane transmission of the UE, i.e., transmission of data information for traffic data and the like, in addition to control plane transmission.

Then, in step 420, a UE (e.g., UE 110 in fig. 1-3) is established₁) And each MMW base station in the base station cluster (e.g., MMW base station 130 in fig. 1 to 3)₁-130₃) As shown at 220-240 in fig. 2. To do this, it may first be necessary to determine a cluster of base stations for the UE.

In one embodiment, after the UE establishes a connection with the LTE base station at step 410, the UE may acquire information about the MMW base station from the LTE base station. The information about the MMW base station may include, for example, measurement configuration information about the MMW base station. For example, the measurement configuration information may include a list of MMW base stations that need to be measured, a measurement carrier, a measurement period, and the like. In other embodiments, the information about the MMW base station may also include report configuration information. This is in contrast to E-UTRAN (evolved UMTS (universal mobile telecommunications system) terrestrial radio access network) measurements for handover, and therefore in E-UTRAN, relying on the UE to detect neighboring base stations without the need to indicate neighboring base stations to the UE to enable the UE to search for and measure base stations.

In such an example, the UE may extract configuration information about the base station cluster from the information of the MMW base station and determine the base station cluster according to the configuration information in step 420. It is to be understood that in this case, the base station cluster may be pre-designated by the base station.

In one embodiment, the cluster of base stations may be pre-designated in association with the LTE base station. More specifically, each LTE base station may have associated with it a plurality of MMW base stations, which means that each LTE base station may have one cluster of MMW base stations. When the UE has a connection with the LTE base station, a corresponding MMW base station cluster will be determined.

In another embodiment, the cluster of base stations may be pre-designated in association with the MMW base stations. More specifically, one MMW base station has associated with it a plurality of MMW base stations, which means that each MMW base station may have one cluster of associated MMW base stations. Once the MMW serving base station determines (e.g., is the MMW base station with the largest Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP)), the corresponding MMW base station cluster also determines. Specifically, the UE may perform channel quality measurement on each relevant MMW base station based on the configuration information acquired from the LTE base station to select an MMW base station with the best channel quality (e.g., an MMW base station with the largest RSRP value), so as to determine an MMW base station cluster associated with the selected MMW base station as a corresponding base station cluster.

Alternatively or additionally, in another embodiment, the cluster of base stations may be pre-designated in association with the beam. More specifically, one beam may have multiple beams associated with one or more MMW base stations, meaning that each beam may have one cluster of associated MMW base stations. Once a beam is determined (e.g., the beam with the largest Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP)), a cluster of base stations (beams) of the plurality of beams of the corresponding one or more MMW base stations is also determined. Specifically, the UE may perform corresponding beam measurement on each relevant MMW base station based on the configuration information acquired from the LTE base station to select a beam with the best channel quality (e.g., a beam with the largest RSRP value), so as to determine the MMW base station cluster associated with the selected beam as the corresponding base station cluster.

In addition to or instead of pre-specifying a cluster of base stations by an LTE base station, in some embodiments, the cluster of base stations may be determined by the UE. In this case, the UE may also acquire configuration information about additional standards for base station cluster formation from the LTE base station for the UE to use to form the base station cluster. For example, additional criteria may include the number of clusters of base stations, the manner of selection, and so forth. For example, in one embodiment, the UE may itself select from multiple candidate base stations (e.g., MMW base station 130 of FIG. 1)₁-130₆) A number of base stations are selected to form a cluster of base stations. That is, the base station cluster is user-based. This is explained in detail below in connection with the embodiment of fig. 5. Fig. 5 shows a flow chart of a base station cluster determination procedure implemented at a UE in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 5, in step 510, the UE acquires configuration information about a plurality of candidate base stations from the LTE base station. Specifically, the UE may acquire information about the MMW base station from the LTE base station. In one embodiment, the information about the MMW base station may include measurement configuration information about the MMW base station. For example, the measurement configuration information may include a list of MMW base stations that need to be measured, a measurement carrier, a measurement period, and the like. In other embodiments, the information about the MMW base station may also include report configuration information. This is different from E-UTRAN (evolved UMTS (universal mobile telecommunications system) terrestrial radio access network) measurements for handover, because in E-UTRAN, the UE is relied upon to detect neighboring base stations without the need to indicate the neighboring base stations to the UE to enable the UE to search for and measure base stations.

In step 520, channel quality measurements are performed on a plurality of candidate base stations based on the configuration information. Specifically, the UE may perform channel quality measurements for a plurality of candidate base stations based on configuration information regarding the plurality of candidate base stations acquired from the LTE base station, such as the measurement configuration information described above. In one embodiment, channel quality measurements may be performed, for example, based on measurements of RSRP values of the candidate MMW base stations. Of course, the channel quality measurements may be performed in any other suitable manner known in the art or developed in the future.

In step 530, a cluster of base stations is determined from the plurality of candidate base stations based on the results of the channel quality measurements. In one embodiment, the UE may, for example, select a base station (or beam) with N maximum RSRP values to form a MMW cluster of base stations for data plane transmission by the UE, or a base station (or beam) with an RSRP value greater than a certain threshold to form a MMW cluster of base stations for data plane transmission by the UE.

In other embodiments, the UE may send the result of the channel quality measurement to the LTE base station, and receive information about a base station cluster from the LTE base station, where the base station cluster is determined by the LTE base station from a plurality of candidate base stations based on the result of the channel quality measurement, and the determination process is similar to the operations in

steps

520 and 530 performed at the UE side, and is not described herein again.

The determination of a cluster of base stations is exemplified above. After determining the base station cluster, the UE establishes a connection with each MMW base station in the base station cluster (as shown in 220-240 of fig. 2). For example, the UE may implement a connection with each MMW base station in the determined base station cluster through a random access procedure. In one embodiment, the LTE base station will request the serving gateway to establish a data path with each MMW base station in the base station cluster at this time.

Returning to fig. 4, at step 430, responding to the MMW base station in the base station cluster (e.g., MMW base station 130 in fig. 1-3)₁) Is selected as a UE (e.g., UE 110 in FIGS. 1-3)₁) Performs data plane transmission of the UE via a second connection (shown as 220 in fig. 2) between the UE and the MMW base station.

Specifically, as mentioned previously, although the UE establishes connections with all MMW base stations in the base station cluster in step 420, only one or more connections are selected therefrom for data plane transmission by the UE, while the remaining connections are used as backup links. Therefore, the problem of link connection failure caused by the easiness of blocking the MMW link can be overcome.

At this step 430, selection of the serving base station may be achieved based on channel quality measurements for each base station in the cluster of base stations. For example, at least one base station having the best channel may be selected as the serving base station. In one embodiment, the selection of the serving base station may be performed at the UE. This is explained in detail below with reference to the embodiment of fig. 6. Fig. 6 shows a flow diagram of a serving base station selection procedure implemented at a UE in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 6, in step 610, the UE acquires configuration information about a base station cluster from an LTE base station. In this case, the base station cluster is already determined, and the determination process can be as described above in connection with step 420 of fig. 4. For example, the UE may acquire measurement configuration information about each base station of the cluster of base stations from the LTE base station.

At step 620, channel quality measurements are performed on the cluster of base stations based on the configuration information. In particular, channel quality measurements may be performed based on, for example, RSRP or other values. Then, in step 630, an MMW base station, which is a serving base station, is determined from the base station cluster based on the result of the channel quality measurement. In one embodiment, the UE may select at least one base station with the best channel in the determined base station cluster as a serving base station to send a service request to the corresponding serving base station.

Returning to fig. 4, in another embodiment, the serving base station selection in step 430 may be performed at a predetermined base station (third base station). The predetermined base station is an LTE base station. In this case, in one embodiment, the selection of the serving base station may be performed at the LTE base station. In this case, the UE may transmit the result of the channel quality measurement to the LTE base station and receive information about the serving base station from the LTE base station. The serving base station is determined, for example, by the LTE base station from a cluster of base stations based on the results of the channel quality measurements.

Alternatively, in another embodiment, the selection of the serving base station may be performed at an MMW base station in the cluster of base stations. In this case, the UE may transmit the result of the channel quality measurement to the MMW base station and receive information about the serving base station from the MMW base station. The serving base station is determined from a cluster of base stations, e.g., by the MMW base station, based on the results of the channel quality measurements. In other embodiments, the UE may send the results of the channel quality measurements to the LTE base station for further forwarding by the LTE base station to the MMW base station and receive information from the MMW base station about the serving base station determined by the MMW base station from the cluster of base stations based on the results of the channel quality measurements.

In the communication method 400 implemented at the UE according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in order to ensure the communication channel quality, the UE will perform channel quality measurement and radio link monitoring. If the serving base station reselection criteria are met, then a serving base station reselection procedure will be triggered (e.g., UE 110 of FIG. 1)₁From the MMW base station 130₁Becomes the MMW base station 130₂)。

In one embodiment, a UE (e.g., UE 110 shown in FIG. 1)₁) The serving base station may be reselected and directed to a new serving base station (e.g., the MMW base station 130 shown in fig. 1) based on the channel quality measurements₂) A service request is sent for data transmission and reception. A previous serving base station (e.g., MMW base station 130 shown in fig. 1)₁) The serving base station may be informed of the change or the previous serving base station itself may detect the change of the serving base station by, for example, not receiving an acknowledgement/non-acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) of the data transmission and stop the data transmission and reception accordingly.

In another embodiment, reselection of the serving base station may be performed at an LTE base station (e.g., LTE base station 120 shown in fig. 1). In this case, the UE may report the result of the channel quality measurement to the LTE base station and receive information about the newly selected serving base station from the LTE base station.

In another embodiment, the base stations may be in a cluster of base stations (e.g., MMW base station 130 shown in FIG. 1)₁-130₃A certain base station) performs reselection of the serving base station. In this case, the MMW base station in the base station cluster may be referred to as a central node. In one embodiment, the UE may report the result of the channel quality measurement to the MMW base station, and perform reselection of the serving base station and notify the newly selected MMW base station and the UE and/or the previous serving base station by the MMW base station based on the result of the channel quality measurement. In another embodiment, the UE may report the result of the channel quality measurement to the LTE base station and forward the result of the channel quality measurement to the MMW base station by the LTE base station, and perform a service based on the result of the channel quality measurement by the MMW base stationReselection of a base station and notification of the newly selected MMW base station and UE and/or the previous serving base station.

The specific operation of serving base station reselection is similar to the serving base station selection described above, and details thereof are not repeated here. In general, in one embodiment, a serving base station may be reselected in a cluster of base stations based on at least one of: measuring the channel quality of the base station cluster; measuring channel quality of an LTE base station; and mobility information of the UE.

Specifically, the channel quality measurement for the base station cluster may include at least one of: measuring channel quality of a serving base station in a base station cluster; and channel quality measurements for other base stations in the cluster of base stations except the serving base station. For example, reselection of the serving base station may be performed when the channel quality of the serving base station is below a predetermined threshold. Alternatively or additionally, reselection of the serving base station may be performed when channel quality of one or more base stations of other base stations in the cluster of base stations than the serving base station is above a predetermined threshold. For example, reselection of the serving base station may be performed when the channel quality of the serving base station is below a predetermined threshold and one or more of the other base stations channel qualities are equal to or above the predetermined threshold. The predetermined threshold value may be predetermined empirically, for example.

Regarding channel quality measurement for the LTE base station, whether to perform reselection of the serving base station may be determined based on, for example, a change in channel quality of the LTE base station. Specifically, reselection of the serving base station may be performed when the channel quality variation of the LTE base station is greater than a first threshold and less than or equal to a second threshold (the second threshold is greater than the first threshold), and may not be performed when the channel quality variation of the LTE base station is less than the first threshold. The updating of the cluster of base stations may be performed when the channel quality variation of the LTE base station is above a second threshold. Regarding the movement information of the UE, whether to perform reselection of the serving base station may be determined based on a change in location information of the UE, for example. Specifically, for example, reselection of the serving base station may be performed when the location span of the UE is greater than or equal to a first threshold value and less than or equal to a second threshold value (the second threshold value is greater than the first threshold value), and reselection of the serving base station may not be performed when the location span of the UE is less than the first threshold value. The updating of the base station cluster may be performed when the location span of the UE is greater than a second threshold, which will be described later.

The specific criteria listed above for determining whether to perform reselection of the serving base station may be used individually or in any combination. Also, the criteria for determining whether to perform reselection of the serving base station are not limited to those listed above, but may be implemented in any other suitable manner.

In a communication method 400 implemented at a UE according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a base station cluster update procedure (e.g., for UE 110 in fig. 3) will be triggered if a base station cluster update criterion is met₁From the MMW base station 130₁-130₃Update to the MMW base station 130₁、130₂、 130₄)。

In one embodiment, for MMW base stations not in the new cluster of base stations (e.g., MMW base station 130 shown in fig. 3)₃) In one embodiment, a UE (e.g., UE 110 shown in FIG. 3)₁) The connection release request may be sent directly to the MMW base station. In another embodiment, the UE may send a connection release request to the LTE base station to forward the connection release request to the MMW base station by the LTE base station. At the same time, the data path for that MMW base station will be released. For a new MMW base station added in a base station cluster (e.g., MMW base station 130 shown in fig. 3)₄) In one embodiment, a UE (e.g., UE 110 shown in FIG. 3)₁) A connection with the MMW base station may be established and a request sent to the LTE base station for data path establishment between the newly added MMW base station and a serving gateway or base station as a central node.

In another embodiment, for MMW base stations not in the new cluster of base stations, the LTE base station will send a connection release command to the UE and the MMW base station. At the same time, the data path for that MMW base station will be released. For a new MMW base station added in the base station cluster, the LTE base station will send a command to the UE for new connection establishment with the newly added MMW base station in the base station cluster, and request data path establishment between the newly added MMW base station and the serving gateway or the base station as a central node.

Furthermore, if the MMW base station in the old base station cluster is still in the new base station cluster, the data transmission is not interrupted. This can be seen as a user-centric transmission mechanism. Since there are other MMW base stations in the cluster of base stations for data transmission, it may not be necessary to immediately establish a connection with the newly added MMW base station. To avoid interruption of data transmission, connection setup time may be coordinated between MMW base stations (newly added MMW base station and serving base station). In one embodiment, the UE may send a connection request to the newly added MMW base station to establish a connection with it when data is not transmitted through the serving base station.

In one embodiment, the cluster of base stations may be updated based on at least one of: measuring the channel quality of the base station cluster; measuring channel quality of an LTE base station; and mobility information of the UE, etc.

Specifically, the channel quality measurement for the base station cluster may include at least one of: measuring channel quality of a serving base station in a base station cluster; and channel quality measurements for other base stations in the cluster of base stations except the serving base station. For example, reselection of a cluster of base stations may be performed when the channel quality of the serving base station is below a predetermined threshold and one or more of the other base stations also have channel qualities below the predetermined threshold. The predetermined threshold value may be predetermined empirically, for example.

Based on the channel quality measurements for the LTE base station, for example, a change in the channel quality of the LTE base station may be determined, and whether to perform an update of the cluster of base stations may be determined according to the change. For example, the updating of the cluster of base stations may be performed when the channel quality of the LTE base station changes by more than a certain threshold. The updating of the cluster of base stations may be performed, for example, when the UE is handed over from one LTE base station to another LTE base station.

Based on the movement information of the UE, for example, a change in the location information of the UE may be determined, and whether to perform updating of the base station cluster may be determined according to the change. Specifically, for example, the update of the base station cluster may be performed when the location span of the UE is greater than a predetermined threshold (e.g., the second threshold mentioned above), and the update of the base station cluster may not be performed when the location span of the UE is less than or equal to the predetermined threshold.

The specific criteria listed above for determining whether to perform an update of a cluster of base stations may be used individually or in any combination. Also, the criteria for determining whether to perform an update of a cluster of base stations is not limited to the cases listed above, but may be implemented in any other suitable manner.

In the communication method 400 implemented at the UE according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in order to quickly switch a service link between MMW base stations in a base station cluster, a data packet is expected to be available at all MMW base stations in the base station cluster in the downlink. In other cases, the data may be always available at the MMW serving base station and only available at other MMW base stations in the cluster of base stations when the quality of the MMW serving base station deteriorates. In one embodiment, the UE may request the fourth base station to route the stored downlink data to the base stations in the cluster of base stations in response to measuring the degradation of channel quality to the serving base station. In the case where downlink data is stored only in the LTE base station, the fourth base station is the LTE base station. In this case, the UE may request the LTE base station to route the stored downlink data to each base station in the cluster of base stations in response to measuring the channel quality degradation to the serving base station. In the case where downlink data is stored only in a certain base station in the base station cluster, the fourth base station is a base station in the base station cluster. In this case, the UE may request the base station to route the stored downlink data to other base stations in the cluster of base stations in response to measuring the degradation of channel quality to the serving base station.

In the communication method 400 implemented at the UE according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, since data is buffered in each MMW base station, data management is required to optimize the storage space. In one embodiment, information about the data reception status of the UE may be sent by the UE to each MMW base station in the cluster of base stations other than the MMW serving base station. Specifically, for example, the UE may send a status Protocol Data Unit (PDU) to each MMW base station in the cluster of base stations, except for the MMW serving base station, to indicate the data packets correctly received by the UE. Therefore, the MMW base stations in the base station cluster can process the downlink data buffered by the MMW base stations based on the information about the data packets correctly received by the UE. For example, deleting data packets that the UE has correctly received, saving data packets that the UE has not correctly received or has not received, and so on. Furthermore, data buffering and packet management requires sequential numbering between the central base station and the MMW base station (or serving gateway and MMW base station).

Fig. 7 shows a flowchart of a communication method 700 implemented at an LTE base station (e.g., LTE base station 120 in fig. 1-3) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 7, in step 710, an LTE base station (e.g., LTE base station 120 in FIG. 1) and a UE (e.g., UE 110 in FIG. 1) are established₁) As shown at 210 in fig. 2, for at least control plane transmission of the user equipment.

In step 720, configuration information for the base station cluster is sent to the UE, so that the UE can communicate with each base station (e.g., the MMW base station 130 in fig. 1) in the base station cluster based on the configuration information₁-130₃) Establish a connection (as shown in 220-240 of FIG. 2) and utilize the MMW base station (e.g., the MMW base station 130 of FIG. 1) selected as the serving base station in the cluster of base stations₁) A second connection therebetween (as shown at 220 in fig. 2) to perform data plane transmission of the user equipment.

In one embodiment, the cluster of base stations may be pre-designated in association with the LTE base station. In another embodiment, the cluster of base stations may be pre-designated in association with the MMW base stations. In another embodiment, clusters of base stations may be pre-designated in association with beams.

In one embodiment, the method 700 may also include one or more optional steps not shown. For example, in some embodiments, configuration information relating to a plurality of candidate base stations is transmitted to the UE. Then, results of channel quality measurements performed by the UE on a plurality of candidate base stations based on the configuration information may be received from the UE. Based on the results of the channel quality measurements, a cluster of base stations may be determined from a plurality of candidate base stations.

In one embodiment, the results of channel quality measurements performed by the UE on clusters of base stations based on the configuration information may also be received from the UE. Based on the result of the channel quality measurement, it may be determined from the base station cluster that the MMW base station as the serving base station can transmit information on the MMW base station to the UE, and inform the MMW base station that it is selected as the serving base station of the UE.

In one embodiment, results of channel quality measurements performed by the UE on the cluster of base stations based on the configuration information may be received from the UE and forwarded to base stations in the cluster of base stations. In this case, the LTE base station may specify to forward to a certain base station in the base station cluster, or may be predefined by the network to perform the determination operation of the base station cluster by the certain base station in the base station cluster.

In one embodiment, a serving base station may be reselected among a cluster of base stations based on at least one of: measuring the channel quality of the base station cluster; measuring channel quality of the first base station; and movement information of the user equipment. Alternatively or additionally, in one embodiment, the cluster of base stations may be updated based on at least one of: measuring the channel quality of the base station cluster; measuring channel quality of the first base station; and movement information of the user equipment. For details, reference may be made to the related parts previously described in connection with the method 400, and further description is omitted here.

In the communication method 700 implemented at the LTE base station according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, in order to quickly switch the service link between the MMW base stations in the base station cluster, it is also desirable that data is available in the downlink at all MMW base stations in the base station cluster. In this case, in one embodiment, the method 700 may further include: a data path establishment request is sent to the serving gateway to establish a data path from the serving gateway to each base station in the cluster of base stations. Specifically, when a plurality of connections are established with each MMW base station in the base station cluster, a data transmission path from the serving gateway to each MMW base station is also established. And, when the base station cluster is updated and the MMW base station is not in the base station cluster, the path will be released. This path will also be established for the newly added MMW base station in the cluster of base stations. In one embodiment, each MMW base station includes a corresponding buffer for storing downlink data. Thereby enabling downlink data to be stored in each base station in the cluster of base stations for fast switching of the serving link when needed.

In some cases, to further optimize system performance, downlink data may be stored at only one base station and routed by that base station to each base station in the cluster of base stations when needed. In this case, the base station may be referred to as a central base station (fifth base station). In one embodiment, the LTE base station may request the serving gateway to establish a data path with the central base station. In some embodiments, the central base station may be the first base station. In this case, the method 700 may further include: storing downlink data from the serving gateway via the data path; and routing the downlink data to each base station in the cluster of base stations in response to the determination of the cluster of base stations or a request from the UE.

In a communication method 700 implemented at an LTE base station according to an embodiment of the disclosure, a serving base station reselection procedure (e.g., UE 110 in fig. 1) will be triggered if a serving base station reselection criterion is met₁From the MMW base station 130₁Becomes the MMW base station 130₂). In one embodiment, a serving base station may be reselected among a cluster of base stations based on at least one of: measuring the channel quality of the base station cluster; channel quality measurements for the LTE base station; and mobility information of the UE. This is similar to the corresponding operation described above in connection with fig. 4 and will not be described in detail here. The specific operation of the reselection of the serving base station is similar to the specific operation of the selection of the serving base station described above, and details thereof may refer to the corresponding description above, which is not repeated herein.

In the communication method 700 implemented at the LTE base station according to an embodiment of the disclosure, a base station cluster update procedure (e.g., for the UE 110 in fig. 3) will be triggered if the base station cluster update criteria are met₁From the MMW base station 130₁-130₃Update to the MMW base station 130₁、 130₂、130₄). In one embodiment, the cluster of base stations may be updated based on at least one of: measuring the channel quality of the base station cluster; measuring channel quality of an LTE base station; and mobility information of the UE. This is similar to the corresponding operation described above in connection with fig. 4 and will not be described in detail here. Wherein the specific operation of the base station cluster update is similar toFor details of the foregoing specific operation for determining the base station cluster, reference may be made to the foregoing corresponding description, and details are not repeated here.

Fig. 8 illustrates a MMW base station (e.g., MMW base station 130 of fig. 1-3) in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure₁-130₆Any base station in (b) a flow diagram of a method 800 of communication implemented at the base station. It can be understood here that the MMW base station belongs to a cluster of base stations.

As shown in fig. 8, at step 810, a MMW base station (e.g., MMW base station 130 of fig. 1) is established₁-130₃) With a UE (e.g., UE 110 in FIG. 1)₁) As shown at 220-240 in fig. 2. In step 820, respond to the MMW base station (e.g., MMW base station 130 in fig. 1)₁) The serving base station selected as the UE performs data plane transmission of the UE via the connection (shown as 220 in fig. 2) established by the MMW base station with the UE.

In one embodiment, results of channel quality measurements performed by the UE on the cluster of base stations may be received from the LTE base station, and a serving base station for the UE is determined from the cluster of base stations based on the results of the channel quality measurements.

In one embodiment, a serving base station may be reselected among a cluster of base stations based on at least one of: measuring the channel quality of the base station cluster; measuring channel quality of an LTE base station; and mobility information of the UE.

In one embodiment, downlink data may also be received and stored. In some embodiments, the downlink data may be received from a serving gateway. Alternatively or additionally, downlink data may be received from an LTE base station or other base stations in a cluster of base stations.

In one embodiment, the stored downlink data may also be routed to other base stations in the cluster of base stations in response to a request from the UE if the MMW base station is selected as the serving base station for the UE.

In one embodiment, the information about the data reception status of the UE may also be sent to other MMW base stations in the base station cluster in case the MMW base station is selected as the serving base station for the UE.

In one embodiment, information on a data reception status of the UE may also be received, and downlink data may be processed according to the received information. In this case, the MMW base station may receive information about the data reception status of the UE from the UE or the serving base station. E.g. information about data packets correctly received by the UE. Based on the information about the data packets correctly received by the UE, the MMW base stations in the base station cluster may process the downlink data buffered by themselves. For example, deleting data packets that the UE has correctly received, saving data packets that the UE has not correctly received or has not received, and so on. Furthermore, data buffering and packet management requires sequential numbering between the central base station and the MMW base station (or serving gateway and MMW base station).

The communication methods implemented at the UE, the LTE base station, and the MMW base station according to the embodiments of the present disclosure are described above with reference to fig. 4 to 8. For ease of understanding, a specific scenario is described below in conjunction with fig. 9, it being understood that this is by way of example only and is not intended to be limiting in any way.

Fig. 9 illustrates an example process 900 for a particular communication scenario in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In this example, a process in the scenario where a MMW base station cluster is determined at an LTE base station and a serving base station is selected at a UE is described. For example, in this example, the LTE base station may be implemented as, for example, LTE base station 120 in fig. 1, and the UE may be implemented as, for example, UE 110 in fig. 1₁The MMW base station may be implemented as, for example, the MMW base station 130 of fig. 1-3₁-130₃。

As shown in FIG. 9, UE 110₁A connection is established (902) with the LTE base station 120. LTE base station 120 towards UE 110₁Measurement configuration information is sent (904) about the MMW base station. UE 110₁The result of the channel quality measurements performed based on the configuration information is sent (906) to the LTE base station 120. The LTE base station 120 determines a base station cluster based on the result. LTE baseThe station 120 respectively transmits to each MMW base station 130 in the determined base station cluster₁-130₃A connection establishment request is sent (908, 910, 912). Each MMW base station 130₁-130₃A connection setup confirmation is sent (914, 916, 918) to the LTE base station 120, respectively.

In turn, LTE base station 120 sends UE 110₁Configuration information about a cluster of base stations is transmitted (920). UE 110₁Through random access with each MMW base station 130₁-130₃Connections are established (922, 924, 926), respectively. Also, UE 110₁By determining the MMW base station 130 from a cluster of base stations₁As a serving base station and toward the MMW base station 130₁A service request is sent (922). At this point, the LTE base station 120 will send a request to the MME to perform the data path establishment procedure at 928. The MME sends (930) bearer information to a serving gateway (S-GW). The serving gateway sends (932, 934, 936) the data packets to each MMW base station 130 separately₁-130₃For storage.

UE 110₁May be via the serving base station 130₁To transmit (938) the data. When UE 110₁The MMW base station 130 will be configured as needed₂When reselected as the serving base station, UE 110₁To the MMW base station 130₂A service request is sent (940). UE 110 in turn₁May be via the serving base station 130₂To transmit (942) data.

Corresponding to the

communication methods

400, 700, and 800 described above, embodiments of the present disclosure may also provide respective apparatuses implemented at the UE, the LTE base station, and the MMW base station. This is described in detail below with reference to fig. 10 to 12.

Fig. 10 shows a block diagram of an apparatus 1000 implemented at a UE according to an embodiment of the disclosure. It should be understood that apparatus 1000 may be implemented in, for example, UE 110 shown in fig. 1₁And UE 110₂The above. Alternatively, the apparatus 1000 may be the UE itself.

As shown in fig. 10, the apparatus 1000 may include a first connection establishing unit 1010, a second connection establishing unit 1020, and a transmitting unit 1030. The first connection establishing unit 1010 may be configured to establish a first connection of the UE with the LTE base station at least for control plane transmission of the UE. The second connection establishing unit 1020 may be configured to establish a connection of the UE with each base station in the base station cluster. The transmission unit 1030 may be configured to perform data plane transmission of the UE via a second connection between the UE and an MMW base station in the base station cluster in response to the MMW base station being selected as a serving base station for the UE.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1000 may further include: a first obtaining unit configured to obtain configuration information about a base station cluster from an LTE base station. In some embodiments, the cluster of base stations may be pre-designated in association with the LTE base station. In some embodiments, the cluster of base stations may be pre-designated in association with the MMW base stations. In some embodiments, clusters of base stations may be pre-designated in association with beams.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1000 may further include: a second acquisition unit configured to acquire configuration information on a plurality of candidate base stations from the LTE base station; a first measurement unit configured to perform channel quality measurement on a plurality of candidate base stations based on the configuration information; and a base station cluster determining unit configured to determine a base station cluster from the plurality of candidate base stations based on a result of the channel quality measurement.

In one embodiment, the base station cluster determining unit may further include: a first transmitting subunit configured to transmit a result of the channel quality measurement to the LTE base station; and a first receiving subunit configured to receive, from the LTE base station, information on a base station cluster determined by the LTE base station from among the plurality of candidate base stations based on a result of the channel quality measurement.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1000 may further include: a third acquisition unit configured to acquire configuration information about a base station cluster from an LTE base station; a second measurement unit configured to perform channel quality measurement on the base station cluster based on the configuration information; a serving base station determination unit configured to determine the MMW base station as a serving base station from the base station cluster based on a result of the channel quality measurement.

In one embodiment, the serving base station determining unit may further include: a second transmitting subunit configured to cause a result of the channel quality measurement to be transmitted to a third base station; and a second receiving subunit configured to receive information about the serving base station from a third base station, the second base station being determined by the third base station from the cluster of base stations based on a result of the channel quality measurement.

In one embodiment, the second transmitting subunit may further include: and the forwarding subunit is configured to send the result of the channel quality measurement to the LTE base station to trigger the LTE base station to forward the result of the channel quality measurement to the third base station.

In one embodiment, the third base station may be an LTE base station. In another embodiment, the third base station may be a base station in a cluster of base stations.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1000 may further include: a serving base station reselection unit configured to reselect a serving base station in the cluster of base stations based on at least one of: measuring the channel quality of the base station cluster; measuring channel quality of an LTE base station; and mobility information of the UE.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1000 may further include: a base station cluster updating unit configured to update a base station cluster based on at least one of: measuring the channel quality of the base station cluster; measuring channel quality of an LTE base station; and mobility information of the UE.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1000 may further include: a route request unit configured to request the fourth base station to route the stored downlink data to each base station in the base station cluster in response to measuring the channel quality degradation to the serving base station. In one embodiment, the fourth base station is an LTE base station. In another embodiment, the fourth base station is a base station in a cluster of base stations.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1000 may further include: a status transmitting unit configured to transmit information on a data reception status of the UE to each base station other than the serving base station in the base station cluster.

Fig. 11 shows a block diagram of an apparatus 1100 implemented at an LTE base station, according to an embodiment of the disclosure. It is to be understood that the apparatus 1100 may be implemented on, for example, the LTE base station 120 shown in fig. 1-3. Alternatively, apparatus 1100 may be an LTE base station itself.

As shown in fig. 11, the apparatus 1100 may include: a connection establishing unit 1110 configured to establish a first connection between the LTE base station and the UE for at least control plane transmission of the UE; and a first transmitting unit 1120 configured to transmit configuration information for the base station cluster to the UE, so that the UE establishes a connection with each base station in the base station cluster based on the configuration information and performs data plane transmission of the UE with a second connection with an MMW base station selected as a serving base station in the base station cluster.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1100 may further include: a second transmitting unit configured to transmit configuration information about a plurality of candidate base stations to the UE; a first receiving unit configured to receive, from the UE, results of channel quality measurements performed by the UE on a plurality of candidate base stations based on the configuration information; and a base station cluster determining unit configured to determine a base station cluster from the plurality of candidate base stations based on a result of the channel quality measurement.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1100 may further include: a second receiving unit configured to receive, from the UE, a result of channel quality measurement performed by the UE on the base station cluster based on the configuration information; a serving base station determining unit configured to determine an MMW base station as a serving base station from the base station cluster based on a result of the channel quality measurement; and a notification unit configured to transmit information on the serving base station to the UE and notify the MMW base station that it is selected as the serving base station of the UE.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1100 may further include: a forwarding unit configured to forward a result of the channel quality measurement to base stations in the base station cluster.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1100 may further include: a serving base station reselection unit configured to reselect a serving base station in the cluster of base stations based on at least one of: measuring the channel quality of the base station cluster; measuring channel quality of an LTE base station; and mobility information of the UE.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1100 may further include: a base station cluster updating unit configured to update the base station cluster based on at least one of: measuring the channel quality of the base station cluster; measuring channel quality of an LTE base station; and mobility information of the UE.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1100 may further include: and a third sending unit configured to send a data path establishment request to the serving gateway to establish a data path from the serving gateway to each base station in the base station cluster. In one embodiment, the third sending unit may further include: and the request subunit is configured to request the service gateway to establish a data path between the service gateway and the fifth base station. In some embodiments, the fifth base station may be an LTE base station. In some embodiments, the fifth base station may be a base station in a cluster of base stations.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1100 may further include: a storage unit configured to store downlink data from a serving gateway via a data path; and a routing unit configured to route the downlink data to each base station in the cluster of base stations in response to a determination of the cluster of base stations or a request from the UE.

Fig. 12 shows a block diagram of an apparatus 1200 implemented at a MMW base station according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The apparatus 1200 may be implemented on a MMW base station, such as the MMW base station 130 shown in fig. 1-3₁-130₃. Alternatively, the apparatus 1200 may be the MMW base station itself. It should be understood that the MMW base station belongs to one base station cluster.

As shown in fig. 10, the apparatus 1200 may include: a connection establishing unit 1210 configured to establish a connection between the MMW base station and the UE; a transmitting unit 1220 configured to perform data plane transmission of the UE via the connection established by the MMW base station with the UE, in response to the MMW base station being selected as a serving base station of the UE.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1200 may further include: a first receiving unit configured to receive, from an LTE base station, a result of channel quality measurement performed on a cluster of base stations by a UE; and a serving base station determining unit configured to determine a serving base station of the UE from the base station cluster based on a result of the channel quality measurement.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1200 may further include: a serving base station reselection unit configured to reselect a serving base station in the cluster of base stations based on at least one of: measuring the channel quality of the base station cluster; measuring channel quality of an LTE base station; and mobility information of the UE.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1200 may further include: a second receiving unit configured to receive downlink data; and a storage unit configured to store the downlink data.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1200 may further include: a routing unit configured to route the stored downlink data to other base stations in the cluster of base stations in response to a request from the UE, in case the second base station is selected as a serving base station for the UE.

In one embodiment, the apparatus 1200 may further include: a third receiving unit configured to receive information on a data reception state of the UE; and a data processing unit configured to process the downlink data according to the received information.

It should be understood that each unit recited in the apparatus 1000, the apparatus 1100, and the apparatus 1200 corresponds to each step in the

methods

400, 700, and 800 described with reference to fig. 4, 7, and 8, respectively. Moreover, the operations and features of the apparatus 1000, the apparatus 1100 and the apparatus 1200 and the units included therein all correspond to the operations and features described above in connection with fig. 4 to 8 and have the same effects, and detailed details are not repeated.

The units included in the

apparatus

1000, 1100 and 1200 may be implemented using various means including software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, one or more of the units may be implemented using software and/or firmware, such as machine executable instructions stored on a storage medium. In addition to, or in the alternative to, machine-executable instructions, some or all of the elements of

apparatus

1000, 1100, and 1200 may be implemented, at least in part, by one or more hardware logic components. By way of example, and not limitation, exemplary types of hardware logic components that may be used include Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Application Specific Standards (ASSPs), systems on a chip (SOCs), Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs), and so forth.

The elements shown in fig. 10-12 may be implemented partially or wholly as hardware modules, software modules, firmware modules, or any combination thereof. In particular, in certain embodiments, the procedures, methods, or processes described above may be implemented by hardware in a base station or UE. For example, a base station or UE may implement

methods

400, 700, and 800 with its transmitter, receiver, transceiver, and/or processor or controller.

Fig. 13 illustrates a block diagram of a device 1300 suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 1300 may be used to implement a base station, such as the LTE base station 120 or the MMW base station 130 shown in fig. 1-3₁-130₃(ii) a Apparatus 1300 may also be used to implement a UE, such as UE 110 shown in FIGS. 1-3₁And UE 110₂。

As shown, the device 1300 includes a processor 1310 and a memory 1320 coupled to the processor 1310. The memory 1320 stores instructions 1330 that can be executed by the processor 1310. The memory 1320 may be of any suitable type suitable to the local technical environment and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, including but not limited to semiconductor-based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems. Although only a single memory unit is illustrated in FIG. 13, there may be multiple physically distinct memory units within the device 1300.

The processor 1310 may be of any suitable type suitable to the local technical environment, and may include, but is not limited to, one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) and processor-based multi-core processor architectures. The device 1300 may also include multiple processors 1310. The processor 1310 is configured to perform the

implementation methods

400, 700, and 800 as shown in fig. 4, 7, and 8.

It should be understood that the apparatus 1300 may also include any other desired devices/elements, such as a transmitter, receiver, transceiver, antenna, etc., for performing corresponding actions. Here, for the sake of clarity, they are not shown in the figures.

In general, the various example embodiments of this disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Certain aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. While aspects of embodiments of the disclosure have been illustrated or described as block diagrams, flow charts, or using some other pictorial representation, it is well understood that the blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

By way of example, embodiments of the disclosure may be described in the context of machine-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. In various embodiments, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or divided between program modules as described. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within local or distributed devices. In a distributed facility, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage media.

Computer program code for implementing the methods of the present disclosure may be written in one or more programming languages. These computer program codes may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program codes, when executed by the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, cause the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks to be performed. The program code may execute entirely on the computer, partly on the computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server.

In the context of this disclosure, a machine-readable medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The machine-readable medium may be a machine-readable signal medium or a machine-readable storage medium. A machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination thereof. More detailed examples of a machine-readable storage medium include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination thereof.

Additionally, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In some cases, multitasking or parallel processing may be beneficial. Likewise, while the above discussion contains certain specific implementation details, this should not be construed as limiting the scope of any invention or claims, but rather as describing particular embodiments that may be directed to particular inventions. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method implemented at a user equipment, comprising:

establishing a first connection of the user equipment with a first base station for at least control plane transmission of the user equipment;

establishing connection between the user equipment and each base station in a base station cluster;

in response to a second base station in the cluster of base stations being selected as a serving base station for the user equipment, performing data plane transmission for the user equipment via a second connection between the user equipment and the second base station; and

transmitting information on a data reception state of the user equipment to each base station except the second base station in the base station cluster.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining configuration information about the cluster of base stations from the first base station, the cluster of base stations being pre-designated in association with the first base station.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining configuration information about the cluster of base stations from the first base station, the cluster of base stations being pre-designated in association with the second base station.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

obtaining configuration information related to a plurality of candidate base stations from the first base station;

performing channel quality measurements for the plurality of candidate base stations based on the configuration information;

determining the second base station in the cluster of base stations from the plurality of candidate base stations based on the results of the channel quality measurements; and

determining the base station cluster corresponding to the second base station based on configuration information about the base station cluster.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining configuration information from the first base station regarding the cluster of base stations, the cluster of base stations being pre-designated in association with a beam.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

performing channel quality measurements on beams of the plurality of candidate base stations based on the configuration information;

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing channel quality measurements for the plurality of candidate base stations based on the configuration information; and

determining the cluster of base stations from the plurality of candidate base stations based on the results of the channel quality measurements.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining the cluster of base stations from the plurality of candidate base stations based on the results of the channel quality measurements comprises:

sending the result of the channel quality measurement to the first base station; and

receiving information about the cluster of base stations from the first base station, the cluster of base stations being determined by the first base station from the plurality of candidate base stations based on the result of the channel quality measurement.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining configuration information related to the base station cluster from the first base station;

performing channel quality measurements on the cluster of base stations based on the configuration information;

determining the second base station as the serving base station from the cluster of base stations based on a result of the channel quality measurement.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining the second base station from the cluster of base stations as the serving base station based on the result of the channel quality measurement comprises:

causing the result of the channel quality measurement to be sent to a third base station; and

receiving information about the second base station from the third base station, the second base station being determined by the third base station from the cluster of base stations based on the result of the channel quality measurement.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the third base station is the first base station.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the third base station is a base station in the cluster of base stations.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein causing the result of the channel quality measurement to be sent to a third base station comprises:

sending the result of the channel quality measurement to the first base station to trigger the first base station to forward the result of the channel quality measurement to the third base station.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reselecting the serving base station in the cluster of base stations based on at least one of: measuring the channel quality of the base station cluster; channel quality measurements for the first base station; and movement information of the user equipment.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating the cluster of base stations based on at least one of: measuring the channel quality of the base station cluster; channel quality measurements for the first base station; and movement information of the user equipment.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

releasing the connection of the user equipment with the base station to be removed from the base station cluster; and

establishing a connection of the user equipment with a base station to be added to the cluster of base stations.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requesting a fourth base station to route the stored downlink data to each base station in the cluster of base stations in response to measuring the channel quality degradation of the second base station.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the fourth base station is the first base station.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the fourth base station is a base station in the cluster of base stations.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the first base station is a long term evolution transmission based base station and each base station in the cluster of base stations is a millimeter wave transmission based base station.

21. A method of communication implemented at a first base station, comprising:

establishing a first connection between the first base station and user equipment for at least control plane transmission of the user equipment; and

transmitting configuration information for a base station cluster to the user equipment, so that the user equipment establishes a connection with each base station in the base station cluster based on the configuration information and performs data plane transmission of the user equipment with a second connection with a second base station selected as a serving base station in the base station cluster, so that the user equipment transmits information on a data reception state of the user equipment to each base station in the base station cluster except the second base station.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the cluster of base stations is pre-designated in association with the first base station.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the cluster of base stations is pre-designated in association with the second base station.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

transmitting configuration information about a plurality of candidate base stations to the user equipment;

receiving, from the user equipment, results of channel quality measurements performed by the user equipment on the plurality of candidate base stations based on the configuration information;

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the cluster of base stations is pre-designated in association with a beam.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

receiving, from the user equipment, results of channel quality measurements performed by the user equipment on beams of the plurality of candidate base stations based on the configuration information;

27. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving, from the user equipment, results of channel quality measurements performed by the user equipment on the plurality of candidate base stations based on the configuration information; and

28. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving, from the user equipment, a result of channel quality measurement performed by the user equipment on the base station cluster based on the configuration information;

determining the second base station as the serving base station from the cluster of base stations based on a result of the channel quality measurement;

transmitting information about the second base station to the user equipment; and

notifying the second base station that it is selected as a serving base station for the user equipment.

29. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving, from the user equipment, a result of channel quality measurement performed by the user equipment on the base station cluster based on the configuration information; and

and forwarding the result of the channel quality measurement to the base stations in the base station cluster.

30. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

31. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

32. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

sending a data path establishment request to a serving gateway to establish a data path from the serving gateway to each base station in the cluster of base stations.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein sending a data path setup request to a serving gateway to setup a data path from the serving gateway to each base station in the cluster of base stations further comprises:

requesting the service gateway to establish a data path between the service gateway and a fifth base station.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the fifth base station is the first base station.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

storing downlink data from the serving gateway via the data path; and

routing the downlink data to base stations in the cluster of base stations in response to a determination of the cluster of base stations or a request from the user equipment.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein the fifth base station is a base station in the cluster of base stations.

37. The method of claim 21, wherein the first base station is a long term evolution transmission based base station and each base station in the cluster of base stations is a millimeter wave transmission based base station.

38. A communication method implemented at a second base station, the second base station belonging to a cluster of base stations, the method comprising:

establishing the connection between the second base station and user equipment; and

in response to the second base station being selected as a serving base station of the user equipment, performing data plane transmission of the user equipment via a connection established by the second base station with the user equipment, so that the user equipment sends information about a data reception state of the user equipment to base stations in the base station cluster other than the second base station.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the cluster of base stations is pre-designated in association with the second base station.

40. The method of claim 38, further comprising:

receiving, from a first base station, results of channel quality measurements performed by the user equipment on a plurality of candidate base stations; and

determining a serving base station of the user equipment from the plurality of candidate base stations based on the result of the channel quality measurement.

41. The method of claim 38, wherein the cluster of base stations is pre-designated in association with a beam.

42. The method of claim 41, further comprising:

receiving, from a first base station, results of channel quality measurements performed by the user equipment on beams of a plurality of candidate base stations; and

43. The method of claim 38, further comprising:

receiving, from a first base station, a result of channel quality measurement performed by the user equipment on the cluster of base stations; and

determining a serving base station of the user equipment from the cluster of base stations based on a result of the channel quality measurement.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the cluster of base stations is pre-designated in association with the first base station.

45. The method of claim 38, further comprising:

reselecting the serving base station in the cluster of base stations based on at least one of: measuring the channel quality of the base station cluster; measuring channel quality of the first base station; and movement information of the user equipment.

46. The method of claim 38, further comprising:

receiving downlink data; and

storing the downlink data.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein receiving downlink data comprises:

downlink data is received from the serving gateway.

48. The method of claim 46, wherein receiving downlink data comprises:

receiving downlink data from the first base station or other base stations in the cluster of base stations.

49. The method of claim 46, further comprising:

in case the second base station is selected as a serving base station for the user equipment, routing the stored downlink data to other base stations in the cluster of base stations in response to a request from the user equipment.

50. The method of claim 46, further comprising:

receiving information on a data reception state of the user equipment; and

and processing the downlink data according to the received information.

51. The method of any one of claims 40, 42-45, and 48, wherein the first base station is a base station based on long term evolution transmissions and the second base station is a base station based on millimeter wave transmissions.

52. A user equipment, comprising:

a processor, and

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the user equipment to perform the method of any of claims 1-20.

53. A base station, comprising:

a processor, and

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the base station to perform the method of any of claims 21-37.

54. A base station, comprising:

a processor, and

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the base station to perform the method of any of claims 38-51.