CN107623936B

CN107623936B - System information acquisition method, base station and user equipment

Info

Publication number: CN107623936B
Application number: CN201610555258.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 肖芳英; 刘仁茂; 山田升平
Original assignee: FG Innovation Co Ltd; Sharp Corp
Current assignee: Sharp Corp
Priority date: 2016-07-14
Filing date: 2016-07-14
Publication date: 2023-06-20
Anticipated expiration: 2036-07-14
Also published as: WO2018010661A1; CN107623936A

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a mechanism for UE to acquire system information of aperiodic broadcast, which can improve the utilization rate of system resources. According to the embodiment of the invention, the base station only transmits the relevant aperiodic broadcasted system information when receiving the UE request or when updating the system information. The method performed in the user equipment according to the first aspect of the present invention comprises: a system information acquisition request message is sent to request a base station to send the system information of aperiodic broadcast focused by the UE; and receiving a system information acquisition response message. The embodiment of the invention also provides a corresponding method executed in the base station, and a corresponding base station and user equipment.

Description

System information acquisition method, base station and user equipment

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communications technologies, and in particular, to a method for acquiring system information, and a corresponding base station and user equipment.

Background

In the third generation partnership project (3rd Generation Partnership Proiect:3GPP) RAN #71, 3 months in 2016, a new study item was proposed by NTT docoo on the 5G technical standard (see non-patent document: RP-160671:New SID Proposal:Study on New Radio Access Technology) and approved. The objective of the research project is to develop a New wireless (NR) access technology to meet all application scenarios, requirements and deployment environments of 5G. NR has three main application scenarios: enhanced mobile broadband communications (Enhanced mobile broadband: eMBB), large-scale machine-like communications (massive Machine type communication: mMTC), and ultra-reliable low-latency communications (Ultra reliable and low laency communications: URLLC). According to the project plan, the standardization of NR will proceed in two phases: the standardization work of the first stage is completed in 2018 middle period; the second stage of standardization will be completed at the end of 2019. The standard specification of the first stage is required to be forward compatible with the standard specification of the second stage, and the standard specification of the second stage is required to be built on top of the standard specification of the first stage and meet all requirements of the 5G NR technical standard.

In order to save energy and reduce emission better, it is proposed in the initial requirement of the project to avoid the network side from repeatedly transmitting unnecessary information. This requirement is based mainly on the following considerations:

in the existing LTE system, in order to ensure normal access of LTE User Equipment (UE), a base station (eNB) may periodically broadcast information of an access layer and a non-access layer, which are collectively referred to as system information. In the LTE system at present, the system information is divided into a main system information block MasterInformationBlock (MIB) and a plurality of system information blocks SystemInformationBlocks (SIBs), which are used to carry different contents. Up to 20 SIBs have been defined by LTE so far. The MIB carries the necessary and most frequently transmitted parameters for acquiring the basic information of the cell, and SIB1 contains parameters for judging whether a cell is suitable for cell selection and time domain scheduling information of other SIBs. MIB and SIB1 are transmitted within a predefined time period. Other SIBs with the same scheduling period are arranged in the same system information message (System Information Message, called SI message) and periodically transmitted within the system information window (SI-window) according to the time domain scheduling information carried in SIB 1. Not all SIBs, except MIB and SIB1, need to be broadcast. And the eNB selects a system information block related to the characteristics to broadcast according to the characteristics supported by the current access network equipment and the characteristics of the non-access layer. For example, the current access network supports enhanced access admission control (Enhanced Access Control), the eNB would broadcast SIB14 with EAB related information in it, and not otherwise; if the current access network supports MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service ), the eNB will broadcast SIB 13 etc., otherwise not. These broadcasted SIBs are reflected in the scheduling information carried by SIB1, and SIBs that are not scheduled in SIB1 are not broadcasted. Before initiating access, the UE needs to acquire other SIBs according to its own characteristics in addition to MIB and SIB1, and then initiate access. For example, if the UE supports multiple formats, SIB8 needs to be read to obtain cell reselection information related to different formats, otherwise, the UE does not need to read the cell reselection information; if the UE supports WLAN interoperability, SIB17 needs to be acquired as well, or vice versa, it is not necessary.

And the method of periodically broadcasting all system information supported by the eNB is beneficial to the UE to acquire corresponding information at any time. However, this does not consider the acquisition requirement of the UE (for example, only a small amount of partial system information needs to be acquired by the UE), but all the system information supported by the eNB is broadcast on specific downlink resources repeatedly, which results in low system resource utilization and high energy consumption. On the 3gpp ran2#94 conferences, some vendors propose to transmit system information by combining network autonomous broadcast with UE request transmission. These manufacturers propose to divide system information into two categories: one type of system information is sent by the eNB autonomously through a periodical broadcasting mode (the system information is called periodical broadcasting system information in the invention), and the system information contains the most important system information or the system information required by acquiring other system information or the system information required by most UE; another type of system information is transmitted under specific circumstances (such system information is referred to herein as aperiodic broadcasted system information), which may be transmitted in a broadcast or multicast or unicast manner. How the UE acquires the aperiodic broadcasted system information is a problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a mechanism for UE to acquire system information of aperiodic broadcast, which can improve the utilization rate of system resources. According to the embodiment of the invention, the base station only transmits the relevant aperiodic broadcasted system information when receiving the UE request or when updating the system information. The transmission here may be in broadcast or multicast or unicast mode.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a method performed in a user equipment, UE, is provided. The method may include: a system information acquisition request message is sent to request a base station to send the system information of aperiodic broadcast focused by the UE; and receiving a system information acquisition response message.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system information acquisition response message may include information indicating a type of system information to be broadcast by the base station.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system information acquisition response message may include information indicating a type of system information supported by the base station.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system information acquisition response message may be classified into a system information acquisition affirmative response message and a system information acquisition refusal message.

Alternatively, the system information acquisition reject message may contain information indicating the reject reason.

Alternatively, the system information acquisition rejection message may include a backoff indication. The backoff indication relates to the time that the UE needs to backoff before sending the subsequent system information acquisition request message.

In some embodiments, the system information acquisition affirmative response message is a system information message containing the system information requested by the UE. While in other embodiments the system information acquisition affirmative response message is a response message that does not contain the system information requested by the UE.

In some embodiments where the system information acquisition affirmative response message is a system information message containing the system information requested by the UE, the method may further include: after the system information acquisition request message is transmitted, a first timer is started. The method may further comprise: during operation of the first timer, system information requested by the UE is detected. The method may further comprise: after receiving the system information requested by the UE, the first timer is stopped. Only after the first timer has not run or expired, another system information acquisition request message may be transmitted.

In some embodiments where the system information acquisition affirmative response message is a response message that does not contain the system information requested by the UE, the method may further include: after receiving the system information acquisition response message, a second timer is started. The method may further comprise: during the second timer run, system information requested by the UE is detected. The method may further comprise: after receiving the system information requested by the UE, the second timer is stopped. Only after the second timer is not run or expired, another system information acquisition request message may be transmitted.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a user equipment for performing the above method.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method performed in a base station. The method comprises the following steps: receiving a system information acquisition request message containing information indicating system information of aperiodic broadcasting in which the UE is concerned; and transmitting a system information acquisition response message.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system information acquisition response message may include information indicating a type of system information to be broadcast by the base station, and/or information indicating a type of system information supported by the base station.

Optionally, the system information acquisition reject message may include information indicating a reject reason, and/or a backoff indication.

In some embodiments where the system information acquisition affirmative response message is a response message that does not contain the system information requested by the UE, the method further comprises: after the system information acquisition response message is transmitted, system information requested by the UE is transmitted.

According to some embodiments of the invention, the method may further comprise: and broadcasting the aperiodic broadcasted system information after the aperiodic broadcasted system information is updated.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention there is provided a base station for performing the above method.

Drawings

The foregoing and other features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

fig. 1 illustrates a flowchart of a method of acquiring system information of an aperiodic broadcast according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 illustrates a flowchart of another method of acquiring system information of an aperiodic broadcast according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart of yet another method of acquiring system information for aperiodic broadcasts according to an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 4 shows a block diagram of a base station according to an embodiment of the invention; and

fig. 5 shows a block diagram of a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the drawings, like reference numerals designate identical or similar elements.

Detailed Description

The disclosure is described in detail below with reference to the drawings and detailed description. It should be noted that the present disclosure should not be limited to the specific embodiments described below. In addition, for the sake of brevity, detailed descriptions of well-known techniques, which are not directly related to the present disclosure, are omitted to prevent confusion of an understanding of the present disclosure.

For ease of understanding, the terms used in this application are briefly described below, and unless specifically indicated otherwise, the terms referred to in this application are defined herein.

The system information of interest refers to a system information block SIB or a system information group of several system information blocks that the UE wants to acquire. For example, the system information blocks are grouped according to the scheduling period, and the system information blocks belonging to the same system information group have the same scheduling period.

The system information window refers to a time interval for transmitting system information. The system information of interest may be transmitted within a system information window. For periodically broadcasted system information, its corresponding system information window may occur periodically. Optionally, the periodically broadcasted system information carries the size of the system information window and/or related parameters for calculating the starting position of the system information window. For example, the system information of the periodic broadcast carries the size of the system information window, the time domain is divided into continuous system information windows according to the size of the system information window, different system information blocks or system information block groups determine the starting position of the corresponding system information window according to a specific sequence (for example, according to the sequence of the scheduling information of the system information of the periodic broadcast), and the starting position is sequentially distributed in different system information windows for transmission.

The following describes the aspects of the present invention in detail with reference to the drawings. It should be appreciated that for periodically broadcasted system information, the UE may be acquired in a conventional manner in LTE. In the following description, the system information focused/requested by the UE in question mainly refers to system information broadcast aperiodically.

Fig. 1 shows a flowchart of a method 100 of acquiring system information of aperiodic broadcasts according to an embodiment of the invention.

As shown in the figure, in step S110, the UE 20 transmits a system information acquisition request message. The system information acquisition request message is used to request the network (or base station, NR NB 10) for the system information of interest.

The UE 20 may acquire the periodically broadcasted system information and the aperiodic broadcasted system information list of the NR NB, which are typically included in the periodically broadcasted system information, before transmitting the system information acquisition request message to learn whether the system information of interest is broadcasted. If the system information of interest is broadcast, the UE 20 receives the system information of interest according to scheduling information of the system information of interest, which is generally included in the periodically broadcast system information. If the system information of interest is not broadcast by the network (NR NB 10), the UE 20 proceeds to step S110, where a system information acquisition request message is sent.

In step S120, the NR NB 10 receives the system information acquisition request message.

Then, in step S130, the NR NB 10 transmits a system information acquisition response message. The system information acquisition response message is a response message to the system information acquisition request message.

The system information acquisition response message may be classified into a system information acquisition affirmative response message and a system information acquisition refusal message.

When the NR NB 10 supports the system information requested by the UE 20, the NR RB 10 will transmit a system information acquisition affirmative response message in step S130.

In some embodiments, the system information acquisition affirmative response message may be a system information message containing system information of interest/request by the UE. In this case, in step S120, the NR NB 10 will transmit the system information of interest/request of the UE in a specific system information window. For example, the system information of interest/request is transmitted in one or several separate system information windows, which do not contain periodically broadcasted system information; or the requested system information is transmitted in an existing system information window, wherein the existing system information window contains the periodically broadcasted system information. That is, when the NR NB receives the system information acquisition request, the requested system information is taken as one or more separate SI messages and transmitted in separate system information windows, or the NR NB adds the requested system information to an existing SI message and transmits in a corresponding system information window.

Alternatively, in other embodiments, the system information acquisition positive response message may be a positive response message indicating that NR NB 10 is about to send system information of interest/request to the UE. Then, after transmitting the system information acquisition affirmative response message, the NR NB 10 transmits the system information of interest/request of the UE in a specific system information window. For example, the requested system information is transmitted in one or several separate system information windows, which do not contain periodically broadcasted system information; or the requested system information is transmitted in an existing system information window, wherein the existing system information window contains the periodically broadcasted system information.

When the NR NB 10 does not support the system information requested by the UE 20, the NR RB 10 will transmit a system information acquisition reject message in step S130. Preferably, the system information acquisition rejection message may include a reason, for example: the NR NB 10 has no system information of interest, network congestion occurs in the NR NB 10, or other reasons. Preferably, the backoff indication may be carried in the system information acquisition rejection message. The backoff indication relates to a time that the UE needs to backoff before sending a subsequent system information acquisition request message. For example, in some example embodiments, the UE, upon receiving the backoff indication, will randomly select a backoff indication time between 0 and the backoff indication value and delay sending a subsequent system information acquisition request message according to the selected backoff indication time.

Optionally, the system information type list may also be carried in the system information acquisition response message, whether as a system information acquisition rejection message or as a system information acquisition affirmative response message. The system information type list lists the system information types that NR NB 10 will broadcast. The system information type may be a system information block SIB or a system information block group consisting of a plurality of system information blocks SIBs. The type of system information to be broadcast may or may not include periodically broadcast system information.

Alternatively, whether as a system information acquisition reject message or as a system information acquisition affirmative response message, the system information acquisition response message may carry indication information indicating the type of system information supported by NR NB 10, for example, a list of the types of system information supported by NR NB 10. The system information type is a system information block SIB or a system information block group consisting of a plurality of system information blocks SIBs. The types of system information supported by the NR NB 10 may include (or not include) periodically broadcasted system information.

In the case where the system information acquisition response message carries a list of system information types to be broadcast and/or indication information indicating the system information types supported by the NR NB 10, it is possible to reduce the UE 20 from transmitting unnecessary system information acquisition request messages. For example, in this case, the UE 20 does not transmit the system information acquisition request message for the system information type to be broadcast by the NR NB 10 or the system information type not supported by the NR NB 10.

In step S140, the UE 20 receives a system information acquisition response message transmitted by the NR NB 10.

The method 100 ends when the received system information acquisition response message is a system information acquisition reject message.

When the received system information acquisition response message is a system information acquisition affirmative response message, the processing method will be different depending on whether the system information acquisition affirmative response message is a system information message containing system information of interest/request of the UE or an affirmative response message indicating that the NR NB 10 is to transmit the system information of interest/request of the UE.

If the system setting system information acquisition affirmative response message is a system information message containing system information of interest/request of the UE, the UE 20 detects a downlink channel (e.g., downlink shared channel DL-SCH) transmitting system information from a system information RNTI (SI-RNTI) within a prescribed time (predetermined or broadcasted by the NR NB) to acquire the system information of interest in step S140. For example, the NR NB 10 may schedule system information in an existing LTE system information scheduling manner, i.e. the SIB is divided into different SI messages according to different scheduling periods, where each SI message corresponds to one system information window. The UE 20 will receive the corresponding SI message in the corresponding system information window. In the NR NB 10, the UE 20 detects whether there is system information of interest at the beginning of the system information window until the system information of interest is received or until the end of the system information window is reached. If the UE has not received the system information of interest at the end of the system information window and the prescribed time has not expired, the UE continues to detect the next system information window and repeats this process until the system information of interest is received or the prescribed time expires. This situation will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 2.

If the system setting system information acquisition affirmative response message is an affirmative response message indicating that the NR NB 10 is to transmit the system information of interest/request of the UE 20, in step S140, after the UE receives the system information acquisition affirmative response message transmitted by the NR NB 10, it will enter the subsequent step to detect a downlink channel (e.g., downlink shared channel DL-SCH) transmitting the system information according to the system information RNTI (SI-RNTI) within a prescribed time (predetermined or broadcasted by the NR NB) to acquire the system information of interest. This situation will be described in detail below with reference to fig. 3

It should be understood that the methods shown above are merely exemplary. The method of the present invention is not limited to the steps and sequences shown above. For example, the method 100 may optionally include other steps.

As an example, a preliminary step may be included before step S110, in which the UE 20 acquires the system information periodically broadcast by the NR NB and the system information list non-periodically broadcast to learn whether the system information of interest is broadcast.

As another example, NR NB 10 can broadcast the aperiodic broadcasted system information for a certain time after the update of the aperiodic broadcasted system information occurs. For example, like the LTE system, when the system information is updated, the NR NB 10 first transmits a paging message to the UE in a system information update period and starts transmitting updated system information in the next system information update period.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a method 200 of acquiring aperiodically broadcasted system information according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which a system information acquisition affirmative response message is set to be a system information message including system information requested by a UE in a system to which the method 200 is applied.

As shown in the figure, in step S210, the UE 20 transmits a system information acquisition request message. The system information acquisition request message is used to request the network (or base station, NR NB 10) for the system information of interest.

Similar to the method 100, the UE 20 may acquire the system information periodically broadcast by the NR NB and the list of system information non-periodically broadcast before transmitting the system information acquisition request message to know whether the system information of interest is broadcast. If the system information of interest is broadcast, the UE 20 receives the system information of interest according to scheduling information of the system information of interest. If the system message of interest is not broadcast by the network (NR NB 10), the UE 20 proceeds to step S210 to transmit a system information acquisition request message.

After the system information acquisition request message is transmitted in step S210, the UE 20 proceeds to step S212 to start the first timer. The value of the first timer may be predefined or broadcast by the NR NB (e.g., carried in periodically broadcasted system information) or sent to the UE by specific signaling.

In step S220, the NR NB 10 receives the system information acquisition request message.

In step S230, the NR NB 10 transmits a system information acquisition response message. When the NR NB 10 supports the system information requested by the UE 20 indicated in the received system information acquisition request message, the NR NB 10 transmits a system information acquisition affirmative response message, i.e., a system information message containing the system information of interest/request of the UE in step S230. Specifically, in step S230, the NR NB 10 will transmit the system information of interest/request of the UE in a specific system information window. For example, the requested system information is transmitted in one or several separate system information windows, which do not contain periodically broadcasted system information; or the requested system information is transmitted in an existing system information window, wherein the existing system information window contains the periodically broadcasted system information. That is, when the NR NB receives the system information acquisition request, the requested system information is taken as one or more separate SI messages and transmitted in separate system information windows, or the NR NB adds the requested system information to an existing SI message and transmits in a corresponding system information window.

In step S240, during the first timer run, the UE detects system information focused/requested by the UE. Specifically, if the first timer is running, the UE detects a downlink channel (e.g., downlink shared channel DL-SCH) transmitting system information according to system information RNTI (SI-RNTI) to acquire the system information of interest. For example, the NR NB 10 adopts the existing LTE system information scheduling method to schedule system information, i.e. the SIB is divided into different SI messages according to different scheduling periods, each SI message corresponds to one system information window, and the UE 20 receives the corresponding SI message in the corresponding system information window. In the NR NB 10, the UE 20 detects whether there is system information of interest at the beginning of the system information window until the system information of interest is received or until the end of the system information window is reached. If the UE 20 has not received the system information of interest at the end of the system information window and the first timer has not expired, the UE continues to detect the next system information window and repeats this process until the system information of interest is received or the first timer expires. Alternatively, if the system information of interest is received in step S240, the UE may stop the first timer that is running.

The method 200 is not particularly limited as to the processing when the NR NB 10 does not support the system information requested by the UE 20 indicated in the system information acquisition request message received in step S220, and any suitable manner may be employed. For example, when the NR NB 10 does not support the system information requested by the UE 20, the NR RB 10 may not make any response to the received system information acquisition request message. In this way, the UE will not detect the system information the UE is interested in/requested until the first timer expires in step S240. Alternatively, when the NR NB 10 does not support the system information requested by the UE 20, the NR RB 10 may transmit a system information acquisition reject message in step S230. In this way, the UE 20 upon receiving the system information acquisition reject message may directly end the method 200 without waiting for the first timer to expire.

Optionally, in the method 200, the system information acquisition request message can be sent only after the first timer is not running or expired.

Alternatively, the NR NB 10 may broadcast the aperiodic broadcasted system information for a certain time after the update of the aperiodic broadcasted system information. For example, like the LTE system, when the system information is updated, the NR NB 10 first transmits a paging message to the UE in a system information update period and starts transmitting updated system information in the next system information update period.

It should be understood that steps S210, S220, S230 in the method 200 are similar to steps S110, S120, S130 in the method 100, and are not described herein.

Fig. 3 shows a flowchart of a method 300 of acquiring aperiodically broadcasted system information, in which a system information acquisition affirmative response message is set to be an affirmative response message indicating that NR NB 10 is to transmit system information of interest/request of UE 20 in a system to which method 300 is applied, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, in step S310, the UE 20 transmits a system information acquisition request message. The system information acquisition request message is used to request the network (or base station, NR NB 10) for the system information of interest.

Similar to the method 100, the UE 20 may acquire the system information periodically broadcast by the NR NB and the list of system information non-periodically broadcast before transmitting the system information acquisition request message to know whether the system information of interest is broadcast. If the system information of interest is broadcast, the UE 20 receives the system information of interest according to scheduling information of the system information of interest. If the system message of interest is not broadcast by the network (NR NB 10), the UE 20 proceeds to step S310 to transmit a system information acquisition request message.

In step S320, the NR NB 10 receives the system information acquisition request message.

In step S330, the NR NB 10 transmits a system information acquisition response message.

When the NR NB 10 supports the system information requested by the UE 20, in step S330, the NR NB 10 transmits a system information acquisition affirmative response message, i.e., an affirmative response message indicating that the NR NB 10 is to transmit the system information of interest/request by the UE.

Then, in step S350, the NR NB 10 transmits system information focused/requested by the UE. Specifically, in step S350, the NR NB 10 will transmit the system information of interest/request of the UE in a specific system information window. For example, the requested system information is transmitted in one or several separate system information windows, which do not contain periodically broadcasted system information; or the requested system information is transmitted in an existing system information window, wherein the existing system information window contains the periodically broadcasted system information. That is, when the NR NB receives the system information acquisition request, the requested system information is taken as one or more separate SI messages and transmitted in separate system information windows, or the NR NB adds the requested system information to an existing SI message and transmits in a corresponding system information window.

In step S340, the UE 20 receives the system information acquisition response message transmitted by the NR NB 10.

If the system information acquisition response message received in step S340 is a positive response message indicating that the NR NB 10 is to transmit the system information of interest/request of the UE, it proceeds to step S342. In step S342, the UE 20 starts a second timer. The value of the second timer may be predefined or broadcast by the NR NB (e.g., carried in system information) or sent to the UE by specific signaling.

Then, in step S360, system information focused/requested by the UE is detected during the second timer running. Specifically, if the second timer is running, the UE 20 detects the DL-SCH from the system information RNTI at the beginning of the system information window until the system information of interest is received or the end of the system information window is reached. If the system information of interest is not received until the end of the system information window, the next system information window is detected and the process is repeated until the information of interest is received or until the second timer expires. Alternatively, if the system information of interest is received, the UE 20 may stop the second timer that is running.

The method 300 is not particularly limited as to the processing when the NR NB 10 does not support the system information requested by the UE 20 indicated in the system information acquisition request message received in step S320, and any suitable manner may be employed. For example, when the NR NB 10 does not support the system information requested by the UE 20, the NR RB 10 may transmit a system information acquisition reject message in step S330. In this way, upon receiving the system information acquisition rejection message in step S340, the UE 20 may directly end the method 300.

Optionally, in the method 300, a subsequent system information acquisition request message can be sent only after the second timer has not run or expired.

It should be understood that steps S310, S320, S330 and S340 in method 300 are similar to steps S110, S120, S130 and S140 in method 100, and are not described here again.

The method of the present invention has been described above in connection with the preferred embodiments. Although the above method embodiments are described in terms of two-sided interactions, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the methods performed on a single side (e.g., the methods performed by the user equipment and the methods performed by the base station) are relatively independent with respect to the device.

Fig. 4 shows a block diagram of a NR-enabled base station (NR RB 10) according to an embodiment of the present invention. It should be appreciated that the base station NR RB 10 could be a new standalone device, or could be implemented by retrofitting an existing LTE base station. As shown, NR RB 10 may include: a receiving unit 11, a transmitting unit 12, and a processing unit 13.

The receiving unit 11 may be configured to receive a system information acquisition request message transmitted by the UE. The system information acquisition request message contains system information indicating aperiodic broadcasts of interest to the UE.

The transmitting unit 12 may be configured to transmit a system information acquisition response message. The transmission may be broadcast, multicast, or unicast.

The processing unit 13 may be configured to process the received system information acquisition request message, generate a system information acquisition response message to be transmitted, and the like.

The specific operation of NR RB 10 has been described in detail above with reference to FIGS. 1-3, and is not repeated here.

Fig. 5 shows a block diagram of a NR-enabled user equipment (UE 20) according to an embodiment of the present invention. It should be appreciated that the UE 20 may be a new standalone device or implemented by retrofitting an existing LTE UE. As shown, the UE 20 may include: a transmitting unit 21, a receiving unit 22 and a processing unit 23.

The transmitting unit 21 may be configured to transmit a system information acquisition request message to request the base station to transmit system information of aperiodic broadcast of interest to the UE.

The receiving unit 22 may be configured to receive a system information acquisition response message from the base station.

The processing unit 23 may be configured to generate a system information acquisition request message to be transmitted, and process the received system information acquisition response message, and the like.

The specific operation of the UE 20 has been described in detail above with reference to fig. 1 to 3, and will not be described again here.

The method and the apparatus involved of the present invention have been described above in connection with preferred embodiments. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the methods shown above are merely exemplary. The method of the present invention is not limited to the steps and sequences shown above. The base station and the user equipment shown above may comprise further modules, e.g. may also comprise modules that may be developed or developed in the future that may be used for the base station or the UE, etc. The various identifiers shown above are merely exemplary and are not intended to be limiting, and the present invention is not limited to the specific cells that are examples of such identifiers. Many variations and modifications may be made by one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the teachings of the illustrated embodiments.

It should be understood that the above-described embodiments of the present invention may be implemented by software, hardware, or a combination of both software and hardware. For example, the various components within the base station and user equipment in the above embodiments may be implemented by a variety of means including, but not limited to: analog circuit devices, digital Signal Processing (DSP) circuits, programmable processors, application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (CPLDs), and the like.

In the present application, the "base station" refers to a mobile communication data and control switching center with larger transmitting power and wider coverage area, and includes functions of resource allocation scheduling, data receiving and transmitting, and the like. "user equipment" refers to a user mobile terminal, including, for example, a mobile phone, a notebook, etc., that can communicate wirelessly with a base station or a micro base station.

Furthermore, embodiments of the invention disclosed herein may be implemented on a computer program product. More specifically, the computer program product is one of the following: has a computer readable medium encoded thereon with computer program logic that, when executed on a computing device, provides relevant operations to implement the above-described aspects of the invention. The computer program logic, when executed on at least one processor of a computing system, causes the processor to perform the operations (methods) described in embodiments of the invention. Such an arrangement of the present invention is typically provided as software, code and/or other data structures arranged or encoded on a computer readable medium, such as an optical medium (e.g., CD-ROM), floppy disk or hard disk, or other a medium such as firmware or microcode on one or more ROM or RAM or PROM chips, or as downloadable software images in one or more modules, shared databases, etc. The software or firmware or such configuration may be installed on a computing device to cause one or more processors in the computing device to perform the techniques described by embodiments of the present invention.

Furthermore, each functional module or each feature of the base station apparatus and the terminal apparatus used in each of the above embodiments may be implemented or performed by a circuit, which is typically one or more integrated circuits. Circuits designed to perform the functions described in this specification may include a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) or a general purpose integrated circuit, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, or discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, or the processor may be an existing processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The or each circuit may be configured by digital circuitry or may be configured by logic circuitry. In addition, when advanced technologies capable of replacing the current integrated circuits are presented due to advances in semiconductor technology, the present invention can also use integrated circuits obtained using the advanced technologies.

While the invention has been shown above in connection with the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications, substitutions and changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention should not be limited by the above-described embodiments, but by the following claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A method performed in a user equipment, UE, comprising:

receiving specific signaling including a configuration of a value for a first timer, the UE being prohibited from transmitting a system information acquisition message if the first timer is running;

transmitting the system information acquisition message to request system information indicated as not being broadcast in case the first timer is not running; and

and starting the first timer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: after the requested system information is acquired, the first timer is stopped.

3. A user equipment, UE, comprising:

processor and method for controlling the same

A memory having instructions stored thereon; and

a first timer that prohibits the UE from transmitting a system information acquisition message if the first timer is running,

wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to be configured to:

receiving specific signaling, the specific signaling including a configuration of values for the first timer;

transmitting a system information acquisition message to request system information indicated as not being broadcast in case the first timer is not running; and

and starting the first timer.

4. The UE of claim 3, wherein the processor is further configured to: after the requested system information is acquired, the first timer is stopped.