GB2459215A - Reporting cell measurements in a wireless communications network - Google Patents

Abstract

A mobile telecommunications network has a plurality of base stations 3a for defining communications cells 100a; and first and second user equipment (UE) for communicating with the network. At least one home base station defines a home or private cell 102a for use by the first UE only and not by the second UE. The first UE makes a plurality of cell measurements and for each measurement, validates whether it is entitled to access the cell. The UE then decides whether to report the measurement depending on the validating step. Also disclosed is using coarse position measurement by the network and fine position on measurement by the UE to determine when the UE is close to its home cell and taking measurements of the home cell only when close to the home cell. Other embodiments relate to transfer of security or authorisation information to a target home base station to allow UE validation and transfer of home cell position information to a target base station on setting up or transfer of the UE to the target base station.

Description

I

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION

This invention relates to wireless communication methods and systems and components thereof. In particular, this invention is concerned with controlling the measuring and reporting of the quality of wireless links.

Such measurements are commonly a significant factor in determining whether or not a handover procedure should be performed.

At present, an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) scheme is being specified. Some details of E-UTRA have already been agreed, see for example specification 3GPP TS 36.300 "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Access Network (E-UTRAN); Overall description; Stage 2", Release 8.

The E-UTRA scheme, like other existing wireless telecommunications systems, consists of a network having a plurality of wireless base stations (referred to as enhanced node Bs, eNodeBs or eNBs) in wireless communication with a plurality of user equipment (typically, but not necessarily, mobile terminals such as mobile telephone handsets, PDAs, and so on). The base stations define cells, each available for communication over a limited geographical area in order to allow for channel re-use. Measurement -reporting in such a system is described in our earlier application number GB0700555.6, filed on 11 January 2007 (agents ref J49460GB), incorporated herein by reference. The network sends measurement control messages to the user equipment, specifying which cells to measure. Making the measurements uses up UE battery power, and requires gaps in transmission/reception.

It has recently been proposed to employ home or private network cells, forming part of or inter-working with the wireless communication system. The home or private cells are generated by home NodeBs or home eNodeBs. Whilst the details of such home eNodeBs have not yet been completely finalised, it is envisaged (for example in 3GPP document R4- 070339, "Home NodeB/eNodeB deployment scenarios and requirements") that they should be deployed in indoor home environments or small office environments such as home use in a single home, home use in a multi-floor house, small and large office use, use at fairs and so on. They thus generate low power, small cells (sometimes referred to as picocells, or femtocells) available over only a very small area.

The areas covered by such home cells typically overlap with those of other cells (referred to, by way of contrast, as "macrocells"). However, they are accessible only by limited sub-sets of user equipment. For example, if the home cell is deployed in a home, then only user equipment associated with residence of the home can use the home cell; if the home cell is on the premises of a business, only user equipment owned by the business can access LU tue uionie eel!, unu so on.

For those authorised users, use of the home cell may give improved reception in the indoor areas where the user is often present. There are also benefits for other network users, since the use of the home cell unloads traffic from the macrocells of the network. Thus, it is desirable for user equipment which can use a home cell to do so. Mechanisms are therefore desirable for causing such user equipment when idle to preferentially register with a home cell it can use, and for causing such user equipment when active to be handed over to such a home cell.

At the same time, it is desirable to make the home ENEs or NodeBs as compatible as possible with other network equipment. One possibility is to provide the home cells on a channel (e.g. frequency) or set of channels that are not otherwise used by the network.

Since home cells will be relatively small, user equipment may encounter significant numbers of home cells which it is not authorised to use.

Taking measurements of the signal strength available from such cells, and reporting such measurements to the network, are therefore pointless tasks which both reduce the availability of the user equipment for other purposes and generate unnecessary signalling overheads, using up network capacity.

Accordingly, it is proposed to restrict user equipment from taking signal measurements of home cells other than those with which it can communication, see 3GPP documents R3-070297 "Requirements for the home eNodeB deployment", 2.3.15 and 2.4.22 and R2-072071 "Discussion of 2u momlity requirements br nome elNocleti, z.. I ne latter Ot tnese documents proposes the following: (a) relying on the user equipment to only send measurement reports for cells which it knows it is allowed to access. Accordingly, the user equipment stores the location (tracking area, neighbourhood cell IDs, GPS, ...) of the home eNodeB which it can use, and uses this information to determine automatically whether to search for the home eNodeB; (b) alternatively, the user may be required to manually put the user equipment in a mode in which it searches for a home eNodeB; (c) the base station of the network can inform the user equipment that it may be at a home cell, to instruct the user equipment to take measurements of such a home cell; (d) a mobility management entity (MIME) forming part of the network may communicate directly with the user equipment to do the same.

Thus, the user equipment can be instructed to take measurements for a home cell only when it is detected (by itself or the network) to be in a relevant position.

A first aspect of the invention, recited in claim 1 or claim 14, provides an improved method of determining when to take home cell measurements by the user equipment. The network makes a coarse position determination and when the user equipment is close to a home cell, the network sends a special measurement control message to user equipment: user equipment with accurate position measurement apparatus can then make a fine determination or wnen it is close enougn to tne nome cell to commence measurements.

Restricting measurements of home cells except when a user is in the vicinity of a home cell he is authorised to use enables the user equipment to prevent measuring large numbers of irrelevant home cells, which would require corresponding transmission and reception gaps to make the measurements.

Using the fine positioning greatly reduces the number of unneccessary measurements taken, but combining this with coarse positioning at the network allows battery and other resource conservation at the user equipment by avoiding the need to use the fine positioning all the time. Unlike known proposals, in which user equipment responds to a signal to initiate measurements, the action taken in response to the signalling in this embodiment is determined by the user equipment, allowing different types of user equipment with different (or no) fine positioning apparatus to be used.

In a second aspect of the invention, recited in claim 6 or claim 15, the network makes a coarse position determination and when the user equipment is close to a home cell, signals to the user equipment to commence home cell measurements, as in the first aspect above. In this aspect (which is usable either separately of or together with the first), when a user equipment is handed on to a base station, information on the position of one or more home cells local to that base station and usable by that user equipment is passed to the base station to enable it to make the position determination. Thus, there is no need for all base stations to store all position and access information for all home cells.

In a third aspect of the invention, recited in claim 7 or claim 16, a user equipment which is to be handed over to a home cell validates directly with the home cell whether it is authorised to access that home cell. To achieve this, it supplies security information to the the source network cell base station which passes it to the target home cell base station as a preliminary during the handover, allowing the target home cell to authenticate the user equipment and either accept or reject the handover.

It is noted that direct user equipment to home base station authentication as in this aspect is rejected in R2-072071 "Discussion of mobility requirements for home eNodeB" on the basis that it requires Home eNodeB to know subscription information and IMSIs of the UEs which are allowed to access the cell, which is regarded as not acceptable. However, the advantages and preferred features of this aspect were not there considered.

In a fourth aspect of the invention, recited in claim 9 or claim 17, improvements in the reporting of such home cell measurements are provided so as to reduce the number of cell measurement signals sent. The user equipment checks, for each measurement it takes, whether it relates to a home cell accessible to that user equipment. Useless measurements relating to inaccessible cells can thereby be suppressed. Particularly preferred signalling events are provided.

These and other aspects, preferred features and embodiments, together with their advantages, will become apparent from the following description, claims and drawings.

By way of example only, embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the attached drawings in which: Figure 1 schematically shows the main components of a wireless communication system according to the embodiments of the invention; Figure 2 schematically shows the main components of user equipment forming part of the wireless communication system illustrated in Figure 1; Figure 3 schematically shows the main components of an enhanced Node B forming part of the wireless communication system illustrated in Figure 1; Figure 4 is a diagram illustrating the overlap of cells and home/private cells; Figure 5a is a signalling diagram illustrating the signalling between a user equipment, a mobility management entity and an eNB base station forming part of the network of Figure 1 in a first embodiment; Figure 5b is a signalling diagram illustrating stages of the signalling between a user equipment and an eNB base station in the process of Figure 5a; Figure 6a is a flow diagram illustrating the process performed at the eNB; and Figure 6b is a flow diagram illustrating the process performed at the user equipment; Figure 7 is a signalling diagram illustrating stages of the signalling between a user equipment in idle mode and an eNB base station forming part of the network of Figure 1 in a second embodiment; Figure 8 is a signalling diagram illustrating the signalling between a user equipment in active mode, a mobility management entity and an eNB base station forming part of the network of Figure 1 in the second embodiment; Figure 9 is a signalling diagram illustrating stages of the signalling between a user equipment and an eNB base station forming part of the network of Figure 1 in a third embodiment; Figure 1 Oa is a flow diagram illustrating the process performed at the eNB in the third embodiment; and Figure 1 Oh is a flow diagram illustrating the process performed at the user equipment in the third embodiment.

FIRST EMBODIMENT

The first embodiment will be described in the context of a wireless conmiunication system incorporating the proposed Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN). As shown in Figure 1, in such a wireless communication system, a plurality of user equipment (UE) I a-lj communicate with respective enhanced Node B base stations (eNBs) 3 a-3j via radio links 5a-5j. In this embodiment, the UEs 1 are cellular phones.

Each eNB 3 is connected directly to the core network 7. The eNBs 3 are also connected to each other, and to at least one Mobility Management Entity (MIVIE) 8 tracking the location of the UEs 1 to localise their position to within a Tracking Area (TA), for example, in order to route incoming calls thereto.

In this embodiment, the UEs I are also able to communicate with other radio access technologies (RATs), for example the standard Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) and the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) network. In this way, during implementation of the E-UTRAN the IJEs can still work in areas without eNBs but with base stations of such other networks.

As shown in Figure 4, the network comprises a plurality of cells 1 OOa, lOOb, etc provided by the eNBs 3. These cells ("macro-cells") are shown conventionally as contiguous, but it will be understood that, in reality, their coverage overlaps so that shadowing and line-of-sight blockages do not result in interruption of cover. First and second Home/private cells 1 02a, 1 02b are provided in respective different buildings 90a, 90b corresponding to first and second small businesses, by respective home eNBs 9a, 9b (not shown). These home cells are provided on a dedicated frequency for Home/private cells. In other respects, the home eNIBs 9 are similar to eNIBs 3 but transmit at lower power levels.

Each eNB 3 communicates with liEs 1 in one or more cells it broadcasts. As a liE I in an active communications mode moves, communication is handed over between cells. In this embodiment, the E-UTRAN determines when a handover procedure takes place and to which cell the communication is handed over, taking into account radio link quality factors and data traffic management factors. All liEs 1 can communicate with any of the eNBs 3.

A first group of iJEs la-ic are owned by employees of the first business and a second group of UEs id-if are owned by employees of the second business. Although only home cells 1 02a, 1 02b are shown, the first business may have a further home cell I 02c (not shown) at another location, also usable by the first group of IJEs la-ic.

In order to measure radio link quality factors, the UE 1 performs various measurements. For some of these measurements, the UE I is unable to listen for data or to transmit data at the same time, for example because the measurement is being performed in a different frequency range (an inter-frequency measurement) or the measurement is for a different radio access technology (an inter-RAT measurement).

In order to allow such measurements to take place, a number of transmission and reception gaps are introduced into the existing radio link during which the UE 1 is free to perform measurements without having to monitor for or transmit data. When the UE 1 is connected to the E-UTRAN, the gap configuration is selected by the liE 1 from a set of candidate gap configurations provided by the E-UTRAN.

Figure 2 shows the main components of a UE 1 that are related to the present invention. Other components, such as an antenna, a microphone, a Lu Dattery, a speaKer, a wspiay anu a eypau, WfllCfl are ILUL [CIdICU LU LHC invention are not shown in Figure 2 for clarity of illustration.

As shown in Figure 2, the UE 1 has a controller 21, a transceiver 23 and memory 25. The controller 21 includes a measurement controller 27, which controls radio link quality measurements, and a transceiver controller 29, which controls operation of the transceiver 23. The transceiver 23 includes a control information transceiver 31, which handles the communication of control data with the eNB 3 and reception of control data from the eNB 3, and a data transceiver 33, which handles the communication of user data with the eNB 3 and the reception of user data from the eNB 3.

Also provided, in those tilEs la-ic, id-if which are for communication with respective Home/private cells I 02a, 1 02b, are position measurement devices 39 e.g. GPS satellite navigation position measurement devices.

Figure 3 shows the main components of an eNB 3 that are related to the invention. As shown, the eNB 3 has a controller 41, a transceiver 43 and memory 45. The controller 41 includes a measurement controller 47, which controls radio link quality measurements performed by the eNB 3, a transceiver controller 49, which controls operation of the transceiver 43, and a scheduler 51. These are provided by one or more computers, operating on data and programs in the memory 45. The transceiver 43 includes a control information transceiver 53, which handles the communication of control data with tilEs 1, and a data transceiver 55, which handles the communication of user data with tilEs i. Other components, such as antennas, power supplies and so on, are omitted for clarity.

Referring to Figures 5a and 6a, the process performed in this embodiment will now be described.

As part of the context transfer during connection establishment, the IvliMIE 8 provides the eNE 3 with information about the home cell location (step SI). This may be provided in different ways (for example, target area (TA) or regular/public/macro cell that overlaps the home cell, or geographical coordinates) The eNB 3 detects that the UE 1 is near the home cell location based on the transferred home cell location information (step S2).

The network initiates a measurement control message when it wants to setup, modify or release the measurement of particular neighbouring cells to be performed by the UIE (step S3). More specifically, the network indicates the new coifiguration the UE shall apply for the measurement of frequency used for home/private cells.

The following measurement control message shown in Table 1 is transmitted as a shared message:

Information Element/Group Need Description

name ______ ____________________________ Message Type MP _______________________________ RRC transaction identifier MP ________________________________ Integrity check info CR ______________________________ Measurement identity MP Identifies the measurement Measurement command MP Indicates if the message is used to setup, modify or release a ______________________________ _______ measurement Measurement configuration CV Included in case the Measurement ___________________________ ______ command' is set to setup or modify >Inter frequency measurement OP ______________________________ >>Inter frequency OP measurement configuration parameters ________ ______________________________________ >> UE controlled restriction of OP Indicating f the UE is allowed to measurement area allowed activate the measurement in a restricted area i.e. when the UE knows it is in the close vicinity of an accessible home/private cell >Other type of measurement OP (s) _________ _____________________________________________ Additional parameters OP e.g. reporting mode Table 1 -Measurement Control Message The message is intended to be interpreted by the UE 1 as an instruction to begin measurement on the home cell. In this embodiment, the message includes an additional element (shown in italics in Table 1), indicating that the UE can further restrict the geographical area within which it measures the home cell.

Referring to Figures Sb and 6b, on receipt of the measurement control message (step S5) the UE 1 verifies the configuration included in the measurement control message (step S6) and if it accepts it, it returns a "measurement complete" message (step S8) shown in Table 2 to confirm successful set up, modification or release of a measurement. This message, like the measurement control message of Table 1, is transmitted on a shared channel.

Information ElementlGroup Need Description

name _______ __________________________________ Message Type MP ______________________________ RRC transaction identifier MIP __________________________________ Integrity check info CH _____________________________ Measurement identity MP Identifies the measurement Table 2-Meaurement Complete Response message In this embodiment, the memory 25 of the HE contains data defining a geographical area which corresponds to the location of each home cell 1 02a to which the user equipment 1 a can gain access. The data may, for example, correspond to the corners of the building 90a within which the home cell I 02a is located.

At the user equipment, on receipt of the message of Table 1 (S4), the TIE la starts position measurement using the GPS device 39. Position readings are periodically provided by the GPS unit 39. The periodicity is preferably determined and varied depending on factors such as how close to the home cell the last reading was, whether the last two readings indicate movement towards or away from the home cell, the rate of movement towards/away from the home cell and so on.

The position readings are compared with the home cell position data stored in the memory 25 and, if the reported position lies inside the home cell area defined in the memory (step S6) the LIE 1 a starts to make channel measurements on the home cell frequency, and reports the measurement to the eNB 3a with which it is communication.

In operation, therefore, a LIE 1 a which can communicate with a home cell 1 02a is informed by the eNB 3b that it is in the rough vicinity of the home cell 1 02a when it is in the macrocell 1 OOb. If, as shown in Figure 2, the user terminal I 02a has a GPS receiver 39, then it will function as described above to detect when it is in the precise vicinity of the home cell 102a, and commence taking and reporting measurements of that cell only at that time.

Thus, such a 1fF I a does not waste resources or bandwidth by measuring home cells 102b with which it cannot communicate, but does measure home cells with which it can communicate. Further, it does not need to interrupt transmission or reception with measurement gaps to make measurements of inaccessible home cells. On the other hand, the TJE conserves battery life by not using the GPS for fine position measurement until informed by the network that it is in the approximate position of a home cell 102a which it is authorised to use.

The combination of coarse position determination (by the network) to trigger fine position determination (by the LIE) therefore combines economy in measurement of the home cell with battery and other resource saving on the LIE la.

The arrangement is also interoperable with other UEs which lack fine positioning mechanisms 39. In the case of such a UE lb which is authorised to use the home cell 102a, home cell measurements may be initiated on receipt of the measurement control message of Table 1. Thus, in this embodiment, the action performed in response to the measurement control message is up to the UE, dependent upon its position measurement capacities.

Whilst it is preferred to use both coarse positioning (by the network) and fine positioning (by the HE) in combination as described above, aspects of the above described embodiment can be used without fine positioning by the HE. For example, the feature that the home cell location information is provided to the target eNB during the context transfer which occurs on establishing a connection or handing over a connection to that eNB (typically through the MME but possibly from the previous eNB) is advantageous, since each eNB only needs to retain information required to service those mobiles in its area. Position and authorisation information on all home cells can be retained and updated centrally, or local to each user, and provided as needed to the eNBs. In this case, the location in which the positioning takes place is less relevant; for example, the eNB could instruct the HE to commence position measurement, get a report of position from the HE indicating that it is near the home cell, and then send the HE the measurement control message to measure the home cell frequency.

SECOND EMBODIMENT

In this embodiment, provision is made for determining whether a liE is authorised to access a give home cell when it attempts to move towards it.

To minimise the signalling load on the network, the validation is performed directly between the HE 1 a and the home eNB (although other base stations 3 may provide limited support such as the transparent transfer of information).

Operation of this embodiment in idle mode and connected mode of the HE will now be discussed.

Idle Mode Referring to Figure 7, the home/private eNB validates the HE upon connection establishment e.g. as follows: When initiating connection establishment on a home/private cell, the UE 1 a provides security information, based on information exchanged during initialisation! authorisation, to the home eNB 9a within the connection request, in step S2 1; The home eNB 9a uses the security information to verify if the HE 1 a is authorized to access the home/ private cell in step S22; If the liE is authorized the eNB accepts the connection establishment and signals back to the HE to indicate the connection (step S24). Otherwise, if the validation fails, the home eNB 9a rejects the connection establishment, signals back accordingly to the liE, and discards the non-access layer (NAS) information provided (step S25).

Connected Mode When the UF 1 is connected to an eNB 3a and is intended to handover to a home eNB 9a, the process is illustrated in Figure 8.

The UE provides security information within the measurement report, constituting the connection request triggering the handover to a home/ private cell, to the eNB 3a to which it is currently connected (the source eNB) in step S3 1; The network transparently transfers the security information received from the UE la and needed to validate the UE, from source eNB 3a towards the target home eNB 9a (either directly, or indirectly through another node) in the handover request during handover preparation (step S32). The information is in a message on which the intermediate nodes act, but included in a container' such that the intermediate nodes only have to forward this container to the next node. Thus this use of the container acheives transparency, avoiding impact on the intermediate nodes which don't need to act on the message.

The home eNB 9a verifies whether the UE is authorized to access the home! private cell using the security data (step S33) by signaling with the HE; If the HE is authorized, the home eNB 9a accepts the connection establishment (step S34) and signals back accordingly to the source eNB 3a.

Otherwise, if the validation fails, the target home eNB 9a rejects the handover connection establishment (step S35) and signals back accordingly to the source eNB 3a. The handover is then completed conventionally.

THIRD EMBODIMENT

In this embodiment, a mechanism is provided for limiting the measurement reporting so that the UE I reports only measurements of home cells 102 which it is allowed to access. Thus, resources are not wasted when a UE 1 a is in the vicinity of a home cell (e.g. 1 02b) which it is not authorised to use. This embodiment may be used together with the earlier embodiments, but may also be used separately thereof, so that, even if the UE 1 has taken unnecessary measurements of such cells, network capacity is not wasted by reporting them.

GSM cellular communications systems employ periodic reporting of cell measurements by the TiE but, to reduce the measurement signalling load, in E-UTRA systems, measurement reporting is event-driven so that measurements are only reported on the occurrence of certain events detected by the TiE. The following is a list of such event driven messages: * Event la -A Primary Common Pilot Channel (CPICH) associated with a cell enters the Reporting Range; * Event lb -A Primary CPICH leaves the Reporting Range; * Event 1 c -A Non-active Primary CPICH becomes better than an active Primary CPICH; * Event Id -Change of best cell; * Event le -A Primary CPICH becomes better than an absolute threshold; * Event If -A Primary CPJCH becomes worse than an absolute threshold.

Even when the TIE 1 performs the measurements only when close to an accessible home! private cell as in the above embodiments, it may trigger measurement reports frequently due to the high number of other inaccessible home! private cells (e.g. 1 02b) in the vicinity of the accessible home! private cell (e.g. 1 02a). Most of these reports are useless -the network is not interested to know that the TIE changes from one inaccessible cell to another.

Accordingly, the present embodiment defines new measurement events which include reference to the fact that the TIE has checked the accessibility of the cell. The tilE stores data indicating which home cells it can access. Each home cell transmits, as is known, a Tracking Area ID (TA-ID). By checking the transmitted TA-ID against those it stores for accessible home cells, the tiE can check whether the measurement relates to an accessible home cell.

New measurement events are defined for this purpose, comprising particularly: * Best cell on the frequency is accessible * Best cell on the frequency is inaccessible.

Referring to Figures 9, 1 Oa and 1 Ob, the method according to this embodiment is as follows: Initially, the network performs step S2 as described above in relation to the first embodiment. When the EU1a is detected to be near a home cell, in step S41, the network decides whether to cause the UE to verify the accessibility of the home cell.

In step S4 1, the network initiates a measurement control message when it wants to setup, modify or release the measurement of neighbouring cells to be performed by the UE. The measurement control message is as shown in Table 3. It is transmitted from the eNB with which the EU is currently registered.

Information Need Description

Element/Group name ______ ____________________________ Message Type MP _____________________________ RRC transaction identifier MIP _____________________________ Integrity check info CH ____________________________ Measurement identity IvIP identifies the measurement Measurement command MP Indicates if the message is used to setup, modify or release a __________________________ _______ measurement Measurement CV Included in case the Measurement configuration ______ command' is set to setup or modify >Inter frequency OP measurement _______ ________________________________ >>Inter frequency OP E.g. event configuration measurement configuration parameters _______ ________________________________ >> Verij5 accessibility OP Indicating f the UE should ver/j if the cell is accessible before __________________________ _______ reporting it >Other type of OP measurement (s) _______ _________________________________ Additional parameters OP Additional parameters not relevant for this invention e.g. reporting ________________________ ______ mode Table 3 -Measurement Control Message More specifically, the measurement control message: Indicates the new configuration the TIE shall apply for the measurement of frequency used for home/private cells; and Includes an indication (shown in italics in Table 3) that the UE shall verify the accessibility of the cell before reporting an event related to it.

The UE receives the measurement control message (step S43), verifies the configuration included in the measurement control message, and if it accepts this it returns a measurement complete message (step S44). The response message may have the same format as shown in Table 2 above. The messages shown in the figures may be transferred via shared channels and do not require any specific use of the associated control channels Where the message does not include a requirement to verify the cell, the UE performs as a conventional UE, reporting the measurement messages currently defined for (E-)UTRA networks.

Where the message does include a requirement to verify the accessibility of the cell before reporting an event related to it, the TIE modifies its behaviour to use additional events.

For most events, the resulting behaviour is straightforward as is illustrated by an example.

Reporting event 1A: A Primary CPICH enters the reporting range. Before reporting a cell on the concerned frequency the TIE verifies if the cell is accessible. If not, then the event is not reported.

In other words, the event becomes: Reporting event 1A *: A Primary CPICH of an accessible cell enters the reporting range.

Reporting event 1B: A primary CPICH leaves the reporting range. Again, the UE should report lB only for an accessible cell.

Normally (though not universally), this would correspond with a cell for which it has previously reported event 1A. So, alternatively one could specify that the TJE should report this only for cells that previously triggered event 1A*. However, the first option may be a little more flexible.

Reporting event lB *: A primary CP[CH of an accessible cell leaves the reporting range Reporting event 1D: Change of best cell. For this event there are two cases of interest, as mentioned before Event JD*: An accessible cell becomes best cell on the frequency Event 1D* An inaccessible cell becomes best cell on the frequency The first of these may trigger a handover, whereas the second should not.

Thus, in this embodiment, the UE monitors a plurality of cells by taking measurements. When a cell of which it has made a rieasurement triggers one of the events defined for (E-)UTRA networks (step S44), in in each case the UE determines whether that cell is accessible to it (step S45) for communication and is thus able in many cases to avoid reporting the event corresponding to the cell measurement (step S46). Where the cell measurement meets one of the modified criteria above, it is reported (step S47)totheeNB 3.

The above example shows that in this case, it is not just that the UE 1 needs to do an accessibility check, some specific rules are also needed. For example, in case of event ID** the UE 1 has to consider inaccessible cells, to report the change of best cell from an accessible one to an inaccessible one, although there seems no need to report the identity of the inaccessible cell that becomes best, or to report any subsequent changes of best cell from one inaccessible home cell to another.

MODIFICATIONS AND FURTHER EMBODIMENTS

Various modifications, variations and substitutions will be apparent to the skilled person. For example, it will be appreciated that the term user equipment (liE) could encompass any type of mobile station including cellular phones, cordless phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), or a fixed station. The term base station likewise could encompass any terrestrial, aerial or orbiting cellular repeater.

For exemplary purposes, the embodiments of the invention have been described in the context of, and using terminology associated with, the UTRA scheme (i.e. HSPA scheme). It will be appreciated that the invention can also be implemented in other types of wireless (e.g. radio) communication scheme.

In general, the wireless communication system will include a wireless access network which includes a number of base stations which communicate with mobile stations using wireless links.

Although a separate frequency for home cells is preferred, aspects of the invention will operate irrespective of the frequency or channels allocated to home cells.

Instead of GPS, the TIE may be equipped with other fine positioning measurement systems, such as those based on cell triangulation from signals broadcast by eNBs, or any other suitable positioning system.

A measurement control message could include multiple measurement commands' i.e. the setup of one measurement, the release of another and! or the modification of a third. Likewise, the measurement configuration could include several other types of measurements e.g. intra frequency measurements, liE internal measurements.

Although the third embodiment above employs event based reporting, similar principle may be applied for periodic measurement reporting as in GSM. Although the third embodiment above employs Tracking Areas for accessibility checking, any other broadcast signal or signal characteristic of a home cell could be used. A list of non-accesible home cells could be stored by the UE instead of a list of accessible home cells.

The present invention may be implemented by changing the software routines implemented by existing hardware. As such, the invention also extends to computer programs, particularly computer programs on or in a carrier, adapted for putting the invention into practice. The program may be in the form of source code, object code, a code intermediate to source code and object code such as in partially compiled form, or in any other form suitable for using in the implementation of the processes according to the invention.

The carrier may be any entity or device capable of carrying the program. For example, the carrier may comprise a storage medium, such as a ROM, for example a CD-ROM or a semiconductor ROM, or a magnetic recording medium, for example a floppy disc or a hard disc, or an optical recording medium. Further, the carrier may be a transmissible carrier such as an electronic or optical signal which may be conveyed to the UE or a network component via electrical or optical cable or by radio or other means.

The carrier may be an integrated circuit in which the program is embedded, the integrated circuit being adapted for performing, or for use in the performance of, the relevant processes.

The invention therefore extends not only to the above-described embodiments but to all such modifications, variations and substitutions which would be apparent to the skilled person in the light of the foregoing. For the

I

avoidance of doubt, protection is hereby sought for any and all novel subject-matter and combination thereof disclosed herein.

Claims (24)

1. CLAIMS1. In a mobile telecommunications system comprising: a network including a plurality of base stations (3) for defining communications cells (100); and first and second user equipment (1) for communicating with the network; said plurality of base stations including at least one home base station (9a) defining a home cell (102a) associated with said first user equipment (Ia) for use thereby and not with said second user equipment (1 d); said home cell (1 02a) overlapping in coverage with a communications cell (lOOb) usable by both said first and second user equipment (1); a method of restricting reporting of cell measurements of said home cells (102a, 102b) from said user equipment to said network comprising: making a plurality of cell measurements at said user equipment (1 a); for each said measurement, validating whether said user equipment (la) is entitled to access the cell; and deciding whether to report said measurement depending on said validating step.
2. 2. A method of operating a telecommunications network, comprising signalling a measurement control message from the network to user equipment (1), said message including a field instructing said user equipment to enter a restricted reporting mode in which it performs the method of claim 1.
3. 3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, in which said step of deciding further includes determining whether to report said measurement depending on whether it represents a change event.
4. 4. A method according to claim 3, in which said event comprises a cell which the user equipment is not entitled to access becoming the best cell.
5. 5. A method of restricting reporting of home cell measurements in a cellular network comprising sending user equipment a signal indicating that it should, for any measurements of a given channel corresponding to a said home cell, determine whether it is entitled to use said home cell and to use said determination in deciding whether to report said measurement.
6. 6. In a mobile telecommunications system comprising: a network including a plurality of base stations (3) for defining communications cells (100); and first and second user equipment (1) for communicating with the network; said plurality of base stations including at least one home base station (9a) defining a home cell (102a) associated with said first user equipment (la) for use thereby and not with said second user equipment (id); said home cell (102a) overlapping in coverage with a communications cell (lOOb) usable by both said first and second user equipment (1); a method of transferring a user equipment (la) from a communications cells (100) operated by a source base station (3a) to a said home cell (102a) operated by a target home base station (9a) comprising: transferring, from said user equipment (I a) via said source base station (3a) to said target home base station (9a), security information to allow said target home base station (9a) to validate whether said user equipment (I a) is authorised to communicate with it; and signalling between said target home base station (9a) and said user equipment (la) to validate said user equipment (la) using said security information.
7. 7; A method according to claim 6, in which said transferring comprises transparent transfer of said security information.
8. 8. A method of operating a cellular network comprising allowing validation of a user equipment directly with a said home cell on handover thereto from a network cell, using security information associated with that user equipment which is transferred from said cellular network to said home cell from said network cell on handover.
9. 9. In a mobile telecommunications system comprising: a network including a plurality of base stations (3) for defining communications cells (100); and first and second user equipment (1) for communicating with the network; said plurality of base stations including at least one home baseIstation (9a) defining a home cell (102a) associated with said first user equipment (Ia) for use thereby and not with said second user equipment (Id); said home cell (102a) overlapping in coverage with a communications cell (lOOb) usable by both said first and second user equipment (1); a method of taking only a restricted set of cell measurements comprising; deriving, at the network, coarse position data indicative of the position of the first user equipment (la); determining whether the first user equipment (1 a) is close to the home cell characterised by, in response to said determining, sending a cell measurement control message from the network to the first user equipment (la) via a base station (3) specifring that it may begin taking taking measurements of said home cell (1 02a); performing, at the first user equipment (1 a), a fine position measurement; determining at the first user equipment (1 a) whether the first user equipment is close to the home cell (102a) based on said fine position measurement; and, if so, taking measurements of said home cell (1 02a) at the first user equipment (la).
10. 10. A method according to claim 9, in which the coarse position data by the network comprises the first user equipment being in contact with a cell that overlaps the home cell.I
11. 11. A method according to claim 9, in which the coarse position data by the network comprises the first user equipment being registered in a tracking area that overlaps the home cell.
12. 12. A method according to claim 9, in which the coarse position data by the network comprises the first user equipment being within a geographical area that overlaps the home cell.
13. 13. A method according to claim 9, in which the fine position measurement comprises a satellite navigation measurement.
14. 14. Tn a mobile telecommunications system comprising: a network including a plurality of base stations (3) for defining communications cells (100); and first and second user equipment (1) for communicating with the network; said plurality of base stations including at least one home base station (9a) defining a plurality of home cells (1 02a, I 02b), at least one (1 02a) associated with said first user equipment (Ia) for use thereby and not with said second user equipment (ld); said home cell (102a) overlapping in coverage with a communications cell (1 OOb) usable by both said first and second user equipment (1); a method of restricting cell measurements of said home cells (102a, 102b) comprising; deriving position data indicative of the position of the first user equipment (I a); detennining whether the first user equipment (la) is close to the home cell (1 02a) and, if so, in response to said determining, sending a measurement control message from the network to the first user equipment (1 a) via a base station (3) relating to said cell; and taking measurements of said home cell (102a) at the first user equipment (1 a) in dependence on a received said measurement control message; characterised by, on setting up or transferring to a base station (3a) a session involving a user equipment (Ia), sending information to that base station (3a) position information on the position of a said home cell (lO2a) within the area of the cell (lOOa) generated by that base station (3a).
15. 15. A method of restricting measurement of home cells in a cellular network comprising sending to a user equipment a signal to indicate that it may measure and report a home cell channel, providing first user equipment which, on receipt of such a signal, will measure and report said home cell channel, and providing second user equipment capable of making fine position measurements which, on receipt of such a signal, will make said fine position measurements and only measure and report said home cell channel when detected to be close thereto.
16. 16. A method of restricting measurement of home cells in a cellular network comprising sending to a user equipment a control message to indicate that it may measure and report a home cell channel, and providing user equipment which, on receipt of a control message, can measure and report said home cell channel, in which the network is arranged to forward position information on the position of a said home cell which the user equipment is entitled to use to each base station with which the user equipment is registered, to allow detection of when said user terminal is close to said home cell and to restricting measurement of home cells based on said detection.
17. 17. A method according to any of claims 9 to 13 in which the control message is a message specifying frequencies to measure, and in which it contains an indication that a home cell frequency may, depending on the user equipment, be measured.
18. 18. A method according to any preceding claim in which said home cells operate on a frequency not used by other network cells.
19. 19. User equipment which is operable to communicate with a wireless access network of a communication system to perform all or part of the method of any preceding claim.
20. 20. A wireless access network of a communication system, the wireless access network being operable to communicate with user equipment via a wireless link and to perform all or part of the method of any of c'aims ito 18.
21. 21. A computer program comprising computer implementable instructions for programming a mobile station to perform as a user equipment according to claim 19.
22. 22. A computer program comprising computer-implementable instructions for programming a wireless network to perform as a wireless access network as claimed in claim 20.
23. 23. A storage medium storing a computer program as claimed in claim 21 or claim 22.
24. 24. A signal conveying a computer program as claimed in claim 21 or claim 22.