JP2015173423A - User device, base station, information notification method, and information reception method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the amount of signals when a user device notifies a base station of the capability of CA band combination, in a mobile communication system that performs carrier aggregation.SOLUTION: A user device in a mobile communication system conforming to carrier aggregation includes: a communication control part that determines combination identification information for identifying the combination of a band on the uplink and a band on the downlink available in the carrier aggregation in the user device; and a transmission part that notifies a base station in the mobile communication system of band combination information including the combination identification information determined by the notification control part.

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique in which a user apparatus UE in a mobile communication system such as LTE notifies its own capability information to a base station eNB.

  In LTE-Advanced, in order to achieve a throughput that exceeds LTE while maintaining backward compatibility with LTE, a plurality of carriers are used simultaneously with a bandwidth (up to 20 MHz) supported by LTE as a basic unit. Carrier aggregation (CA) that performs communication is employed. A carrier that is a basic unit in carrier aggregation is called a component carrier (CC).

  Carrier aggregation is classified into three scenarios as shown in FIGS. 1A to 1C according to the frequency arrangement of CC. FIG. 1A is an intra-band contiguous CA, which is a scenario in which continuous CCs are arranged in a band. This scenario is applied, for example, when a broadband allocation such as a 3.5 GHz band is performed. FIG. 1B is an inter-band non-contiguous CA in which a plurality of CCs of different bands are arranged. This scenario is applied, for example, when communication is performed using a plurality of carriers such as a 2 GHz band and a 1.5 GHz band. FIG. 1C is an intra-band non-contiguous CA, which is a scenario in which discontinuous CCs are arranged in the same band. This scenario is applied, for example, when the allocation of frequency bands to operators is fragmented. In the present application, attention is particularly paid to a scenario in which a plurality of CCs of different bands shown in FIG.

  On the other hand, in the LTE (including LTE-Advanced) system, the user apparatus UE transmits its capability (Capability) to the base station eNB by a predetermined signaling message (UE-EUTRA-Capability), for example, when connecting to the network. (Non-Patent Document 1).

3GPP TS 36.331 V11.5.0 (2013-09)

  At present, in LTE-Advanced, a CA configuration (CA configuration) that defines a frequency bandwidth that can be used for an aggregate, a maximum aggregate bandwidth, and the like in a combination of frequency bands is defined. FIG. 2 shows an example of CA configuration (1A_3A) of band 1 and band 3. “A” in the figure is CA bandwidth class, which indicates the bandwidth that can be aggregated and the number of CCs. Hereinafter, for the sake of convenience, it is assumed that the CA bandwidth class in each band is “A”.

  Here, in the case where one band is used for the uplink (UL) and two bands are used for the downlink (DL), in the CA configuration of the band 1 and the band 3, regarding the combination of the UL band and the DL band, the following There are three options.

Option1: (UL, DL) = (1, 1 + 3), (3, 1 + 3)
Option2: (UL, DL) = (1, 1 + 3)
Option 3: (UL, DL) = (3, 1 + 3)
For example, “(UL, DL) = (1, 1 + 3)” means that band 1 can be used for UL and CA for band 1 and band 3 can be performed in DL.

  Here, when the user apparatus UE “supports the CA configuration of the band 1 and the band 3 of 1A_3A”, it is only necessary to support either Option 2 or 3, and support the Option 1 There are two ideas that are required.

  Here, FIG. 3A shows an arrangement example of the band (B) in (1, 1 + 3) existing in Option1 and Option2. As shown in FIG. 3A, in this case, transmission noise on the B1 side leaks into reception of B3. In Quadplexer, B1 TX needs to ensure sufficient isolation from B3 RX, but GAP is only 40 MHz, and it is difficult to sufficiently suppress such leakage. Furthermore, from the B3 DL perspective, B1 UL is a blocker, and in order to drop this signal, B3 RX needs to ensure sufficient isolation from B1 TX, but GAP is only 40 MHz. That is, the combination of (1, 1 + 3) has a high mounting difficulty.

  Next, FIG. 3B shows the band arrangement at (3, 1 + 3) existing in Option1 and Option3. In this case, the noise of the transmission signal on the B3 side is sufficiently reduced before reaching B3 RX. Furthermore, from the B1 DL perspective, B3 UL is a blocker, but GAP is less than 200 MHz. Therefore, the mounting difficulty of the combination of (3, 1 + 3) is low.

  From the above points, in particular, when Option 1: (UL, DL) = (1, 1 + 3), (3, 1 + 3), an implementation that simultaneously realizes the above two (FIGS. 3A and 3B) is required. Therefore, mounting difficulty from an analog viewpoint is high. In addition, the number of test steps increases.

  Comparing Option1 and Option2, both are common in terms of poorer radio characteristics than Option3, and are also common in terms of mounting difficulty, but since Option1 can be transmitted in B1 or B3 at the time of CA, it is more than Option2 Operational freedom is high. In addition, Option 3 can be transmitted only by B3, and its operational flexibility is low, but the radio characteristics are good. From the viewpoint of the mounting difficulty of such a carrier aggregation function, it is conceivable that the combination of the band of Option 1 or the combination of band of Option 3 is selected as the mounting of the user apparatus UE.

  At present, it is not clear for each business operator whether Option1 is a manufacturer. Assuming that Option 1 is “manual”, the degree of freedom of operation is somewhat reduced as in Option 3, but there is a possibility that mounting is easy and there is no option to maintain wireless characteristics. In addition, the present regulation prescribes a relaxed value of radio characteristics on the premise of Option1. That is, excessive relaxation is allowed when Option 3 is implemented.

  On the other hand, the user apparatus UE notifies the base station eNB of a combination of bands (CA band combination, CA band combination) that the user apparatus UE supports in UL and DL. When the user apparatus UE can support a plurality of types of CA band combinations, the user apparatus UE is currently regulated to notify the base station eNB of all corresponding CA band combination patterns for each UL / DL. .

  An example of the CA band combination to be notified when the user apparatus UE supports up to 3DL / 3UL CA is shown in FIG. A CA band combination lower than 3DL / 3UL, which is the maximum CA capability (the number of CCs in either DL or UL, or both) is called a subset of 3DL / 3UL (Subset). In the example of FIG. 4, the user apparatus UE supports all the subsets together with 3DL / 3UL, and therefore must notify the base station eNB of information corresponding to a total of 19 CA band combinations. Thus, in the prior art, since the user apparatus UE has to notify all the CA band combinations supported by itself, the number of CA band combinations to be notified increases as the number of CCs to be aggregated increases. However, there is a problem that the signal amount (information amount) for signaling increases.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for reducing a signal amount when notifying a base station of the capability of CA band combination in a mobile communication system that performs carrier aggregation. To do. In addition, in the embodiment related to the above-described mounting difficulty, the present invention considers the mounting difficulty of the carrier aggregation function in the user apparatus, and the signal amount when notifying the base station of the CA band combination capability. It aims to provide technology to reduce.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a user apparatus in a mobile communication system that supports carrier aggregation,
A notification control unit for determining combination identification information for identifying a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band that can be used in carrier aggregation in the user apparatus;
There is provided a user apparatus including a transmission unit that notifies band combination information including combination identification information determined by the notification control unit to a base station in the mobile communication system.

Further, according to the embodiment of the present invention, a base station in a mobile communication system corresponding to carrier aggregation,
A receiving unit that receives, from the user apparatus, band combination information including combination identification information that identifies a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band in carrier aggregation;
A storage unit that stores table information in which each combination identification information is associated with a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band;
The combination identification information is acquired from the band combination information received by the reception unit, and the combination of the uplink band and the downlink band corresponding to the combination identification information is determined by referring to the table information A base station including a determination unit is provided.

Moreover, according to the embodiment of the present invention, an information notification method executed by a user apparatus in a mobile communication system corresponding to carrier aggregation,
A notification control step for determining combination identification information for identifying a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band that can be used in carrier aggregation in the user apparatus;
There is provided an information notification method comprising a step of transmitting band combination information including combination identification information determined in the notification control step to a base station in the mobile communication system.

Further, according to the embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an information reception method executed by a base station in a mobile communication system supporting carrier aggregation,
A receiving step of receiving, from the user apparatus, band combination information including combination identification information for identifying a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band in carrier aggregation;
By obtaining the combination identification information from the band combination information received by the receiving step, by referring to the table information that associates each combination identification information with the combination of the uplink band and the downlink band, There is provided an information reception method comprising a determination step of determining a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band corresponding to the received combination identification information.

  According to the embodiment of the present invention, in a mobile communication system that performs carrier aggregation, it is possible to reduce the amount of signal when the user apparatus notifies the base station of the CA band combination capability.

  Further, in the embodiment of the present invention, the combination of the uplink band and the downlink band identified by the combination identification information is determined based on the mounting difficulty level of the carrier aggregation function in the user apparatus, so that the carrier in the user apparatus It is possible to provide a technique for reducing the signal amount when notifying the base station of the CA band combination capability while considering the mounting difficulty level of the aggregation function.

It is a figure which shows the example of a frequency arrangement | positioning of a carrier aggregation. It is a figure which shows the example of CA configuration. It is a figure for demonstrating the mounting difficulty in CA configuration. It is a figure which shows the example of CA band combination which makes 3DL / 3UL the highest. It is a block diagram of the communication system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a sequence diagram which shows operation | movement of the communication system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the combination set in the case of 1UL / 2DL CA. It is a figure which shows the example of the combination set in the case of 1UL / 3DL CA. It is a figure which shows the example of the combination set in the case of 1UL / 2DL CA. It is a figure which shows the example of the information element which notifies UE capability. It is a function block diagram of the user apparatus UE which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the user apparatus UE. It is a function block diagram of the base station eNB which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the base station eNB. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the user apparatus UE in the modification 1. 10 is a flowchart showing an operation of a base station eNB in Modification 2. FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram in Modification 2.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The embodiment described below is only an example, and the embodiment to which the present invention is applied is not limited to the following embodiment. For example, it is assumed that the communication system according to the present embodiment is compatible with LTE including LTE-Advanced, but the present invention is not limited to LTE and can be applied to other systems that perform CA. . Hereinafter, unless otherwise specified, “LTE” is used to mean including LTE-Advanced. In the following, “CA band combination” is mainly used when a combination of bands is intended, and “CA band combination information”, “CA band combination information”, etc. are mainly used when information carried in a message is intended. Use.

(System overall configuration, operation example)
FIG. 5 shows a configuration diagram of a communication system according to the embodiment of the present invention. The communication system according to the present embodiment is an LTE communication system, and includes a user apparatus UE and a base station eNB as shown in FIG. The user apparatus UE and the base station eNB can perform CA. Although FIG. 5 shows one user apparatus UE and one base station eNB, this is an example, and there may be a plurality of each. Moreover, the user apparatus UE may be provided with the capability (Dual Connectivity) which communicates with the some base station eNB simultaneously.

  In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, the user apparatus UE transmits CA band combination information as CA capability information to the base station eNB using a predetermined message (information element).

  For example, the user apparatus UE receives the CA band combination No. shown in FIG. In the case of corresponding to all of 1 to 19, in the prior art, as the CA band combination information shown in FIG. 6, information of all combinations (No. 1 to 19) shown in FIG. In this embodiment, as described below, UL / DL band combinations are defined by grouping according to the transmission / reception function (the mounting difficulty level of the carrier gregation function) at the time of CA, and this group is indicated. Information is to be notified. In the present embodiment, the group is referred to as a CA configuration combination set or a CA configuration set. However, hereinafter, for convenience, this will be referred to as a “combination set”. Hereinafter, an example of a combination set will be described.

(Example of combination set)
FIG. 7 shows an example of a combination set in the case of 1UL / 2DL CA for CA configuration 1A_3A composed of band 1 and band 3.

  In FIG. 7, for example, if the Tx field of the band X is Yes, it indicates that UL transmission in the band X is supported. Therefore, in the example of FIG. 7, the combination set 0 means “(UL, DL) = (1, 1 + 3), (3, 1 + 3)”. The combination set 1 means “(UL, DL) = (3, 1 + 3)”.

  That is, the combination set 0 in FIG. 7 corresponds to the above-described Option 1, and the combination set 1 corresponds to the above-described Option 3.

  As shown in FIG. 7, when the combination sets 0 and 1 in the CA configuration 1A_3A are defined, the radio characteristic specifications are defined independently for the combination set 0 and the combination set 1 of 1A_3A. In the case of the combination set 0, the wireless characteristics at the time of CA take into account the transmission of the band 1 or the band 3, and it is assumed that the wireless characteristics are more relaxed than the combination set 1 due to the mounting difficulty described above. In addition, since the radio characteristics at the time of CA in the combination set 0 take into account the transmission of only the band 3, the mitigation amount is assumed to be smaller than the combination set 0.

  By defining a combination set for each CA configuration and notifying it to the base station eNB, for example, it can be referred to as “user apparatus UE supports combination 0 in the CA configuration of 1A_3A” It is possible to avoid the ambiguity that has occurred in the case of “user equipment UE supports 1A_3A CA configuration”.

  In general, as the number of CAs and CCs of the user apparatus UE increases, the radio characteristics generally deteriorate. However, by defining the combination set in the CA configuration as described above, the radio characteristics can be exchanged for some restrictions. Characteristics can be maintained and mounting can be facilitated. That is, by defining a combination set with good radio characteristics and easy implementation, and not forcing the implementation of other combination sets, the radio characteristics can be maintained in exchange for some restrictions, and the implementation can be facilitated.

  Although the above example is a 2CC CA, when the number of CCs is increased to 3 CC, for example, there is room for greatly improving the radio characteristics by providing operation restrictions while realizing 3DL CA. This is particularly effective for businesses that have a low frequency and a high frequency.

  Here, CA_1A_3A_19A is considered as a specific example. In the user apparatus UE, a diplexer that complements isolation is generally mounted at low (less than 1 GHz) / high (1.7-2.7 GHz). Therefore, if the implementation of CA_1A_3A is not compulsory, the following CA can be realized without deteriorating the radio characteristics as compared with the existing Inter band CA (high / low).

  That is, in CA — 1A — 3A — 19A, “(UL, DL) = (1, 1 + 3), (3, 1 + 3), (1, 1 + 3 + 19), (3, 1 + 3 + 19)” is not forced. 19, 1 + 19), (19, 3 + 19), (19, 1 + 3 + 19), (1, 1 + 19), (3, 3 + 19) ”can be realized without degrading the wireless characteristics. As the number of CAs and CCs corresponding increases, restrictions increase, but choices increase reliably, while implementation remains easy.

  In the case of 3CCs or 3 or more CCs, the idea of the combination set is the same as in the case of 2 CCs, and if the combination of UL / DL bands is defined as a combination set in consideration of mounting difficulty Good.

(Notification of CA band combination information)
As described above, in the prior art, in order to notify the base station eNB of all UL / DL band combinations supported by the user apparatus UE, there is a problem that the signal amount of capability notification increases as the number of bands increases. there were. In the present embodiment, the signal amount is reduced by transmitting the combination set defined as described above as bit information.

  That is, considering the example of the combination set shown in FIG. 7, for example, the user apparatus UE uses “1UL / 2DL of bands 1 and 3” and “combination set 0” (or “combination set”) as its CA band combination information. It holds information indicating that it corresponds to set 1 "). In addition, the base station eNB holds the table shown in FIG.

  Then, the user apparatus UE has information indicating that 1UL / 2DL of bands 1 and 3 is supported as a combination of bands (information indicating a combination of the highest band), and combination set 0 (or combination set 1). Is transmitted to the base station eNB as CA band combination information. Here, the “information indicating the combination of the highest bands” may be information that supports bands 1 and 3 and that UL is one band, or may be other information.

  When the user apparatus UE transmits “combination set 0”, the base station eNB refers to the table corresponding to 1A_3A (FIG. 7), based on the “combination set 0” received from the user apparatus UE. The UE determines that (UL, DL) = (1, 1 + 3), (3, 1 + 3) is supported. In this example, since bands 1 and 3 correspond to UL and DL, in the base station eNB, the user apparatus UE can determine that both band 1 and band 3 can be operated as a primary cell. .

  Further, when the user apparatus UE transmits “combination set 1”, the base station eNB refers to the table corresponding to 1A_3A (FIG. 7), based on “combination set 1” received from the user apparatus UE, The user apparatus UE determines that (UL, DL) = (3, 1 + 3) is supported. In this case, in the base station eNB, the user apparatus UE can determine that it is possible to operate only the band 3 as a primary cell.

  In the above-mentioned example of “combination set 0”, the user apparatus UE has information (UL, DL) = (1, 1 + 3) and (UL, DL) = (3, 1 + 3) in the conventional case. Information indicating the contents needs to be notified as CA band combination information. However, in this embodiment, it is only necessary to transmit a bit indicating “combination set 0”, so that the amount of signaling signal can be reduced. In particular, the signal reduction effect increases as the number of combinations (UL, DL) included in one combination set increases.

  In the example of FIG. 7, the combination set is only 0 and 1. However, a combination may be provided by defining further combinations.

  Next, an example of 1UL / 3DL CA using three bands will be described as an example when the number of CCs is larger than the above case. In this case, it is assumed that the highest band combination supported by the user apparatus UE is 1UL / 3DL.

  In this example, bands 19, 21, and 28 are used. In this example, the CA band combination information to be notified includes information indicating the content of the highest band combination (1UL / 3DL). That is, the user apparatus UE first notifies the base station eNB of information indicating the highest CA band combination (1UL / 3DL). The information indicating the highest CA band combination is, for example, information corresponding to (UL, DL) = (19, 19 + 21 + 28) when only the band 19 is used for UL.

  And in this Embodiment, in addition to the information of said highest CA band combination, the user apparatus UE uses the information (bit) of the combination set defined in the tables shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 as the base station eNB. Notify

  FIG. 8 defines a combination set in the CA configuration (19A_21A_28A) using the band 19, the band 21, and the band 28. As illustrated in FIG. 8, when the combination set is 0, it indicates that the user apparatus UE supports any combination of two lower bands (subsets). That is, as described in “Yes” in FIG. 8, when the combination set is 0, any of the set of bands 19 and 21, the set of bands 19 and 28, and the set of bands 21 and 28 is supported. Indicates that Further, in the example of FIG. 8, when the combination set is 1, it indicates that the set of bands 19 and 21 and the set of bands 21 and 28 are supported, but the set of bands 19 and 28 are not supported.

  The combination set (set) for each set in FIG. 8 is defined in the table of FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 9, for example, the combination set 0 in the pair of bands 19 and 21 means that “(UL, DL) = (19, 19 + 21), (21, 19 + 21)” is supported. The same applies to the other sets.

  That is, when the user apparatus UE transmits information (bits) corresponding to the combination set 0 to the base station eNB in addition to the information indicating “1UL / 3DL” as the highest CA band combination, the base station eNB 8 and FIG. 9, it is determined that the user apparatus UE corresponds to the CA configuration A_B, A_C, and B_C set0 of 1UL / 2DL CA, respectively.

  When the user apparatus UE transmits information (bits) corresponding to the combination set 1 to the base station eNB in addition to the information indicating “1UL / 3DL” as the highest CA band combination, the base station eNB 8 and FIG. 9, it is determined that the user apparatus UE corresponds to the CA configuration A_B of 1UL / 2DL CA and the set0 of B_C, respectively, but does not correspond to A_C of 1UL / 2DL CA. To do.

  Specific contents of the message notified by the user apparatus UE to the base station eNB include, for example, a predetermined bit length (example) for each CA band combination (example: (UL, DL) = (19, 19 + 21 + 28) above) : 32-bit length) information element, and the information of the combination set is included in the information element.

  It may be arbitrarily defined which bit has which information meaning. For example, in the example in which the highest CA band combination is 1UL / 2DL as shown in FIG. 7, the leftmost of 32 bits Can be defined such that the bit (0 (none) or 1 (present)) indicates the presence or absence of the combination set 0, and the next bit indicates the presence or absence of the combination set 1.

  Also, for example, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, in the example in which the highest CA band combination is 1UL / 3DL, the leftmost bit (0or1) of 32 bits is the presence / absence of combination set 0. And the next bit indicates the presence or absence of combination set 1. More generally, for example, when the bit positions are defined as 0, 1, 2, 3,... From the left, the bit N represents the presence or absence of the combination set N.

  FIG. 10 shows an example of a message for notifying information on the CA band combination. In FIG. 10, “BandCombinationParameters” notifies the highest CA band combination, and also notifies “supportedCA-ConfigurationSet” which is the 32-bit information.

  Note that the base station eNB that has received the CA band combination information then applies which CA combination from among the CA combinations supported by the user apparatus UE based on, for example, the communication quality for each CC of the user apparatus UE. And the user apparatus UE is notified (configured) of the determined CA combination.

  In the above example, the example of the definition of the combination set as shown in FIGS. 7 to 9 is shown, but these are only examples. In addition to these, for example, as shown in FIG. It is also possible to adopt a definition method in which 11, 12, and 13 are assigned to one combination set.

  However, in the definition of the combination set in the present embodiment, as described above, in consideration of the difficulty of mounting the carrier aggregation function in the user apparatus UE, for example, the band that can be used is largely limited, but the radio characteristics are good. A combination set that is easy to mount and a combination set that can be used with fewer restrictions are provided.

(Device configuration, processing flow)
<User device UE>
FIG. 11 shows a functional configuration diagram of the user apparatus UE in the present embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 11, the user apparatus UE includes a DL signal reception unit 101, a UL signal transmission unit 102, a UE capability information storage unit 103, a UE capability information notification control unit 104, and a CA control unit 105. In addition, FIG. 11 shows only the function unit particularly related to the present invention in the user apparatus UE, and also has a function (not shown) for performing an operation based on at least LTE.

  The DL signal receiving unit 101 includes a function of receiving various downlink signals from the base station eNB and acquiring higher layer information from the received physical layer signal, and the UL signal transmitting unit 102 receives from the user apparatus UE It includes a function of generating various signals of the physical layer from information of higher layers to be transmitted and transmitting the signals to the base station eNB.

  The UE capability information storage unit 103 stores UE capability information including information on the CA band combination supported by the user apparatus UE itself. Further, the UE capability information storage unit 103 may store a table related to the combination set as shown in FIGS.

  When transmitting the CA band combination information to the base station eNB, the UE capability information notification control unit 104 refers to the UE capability information storage unit 103, and information related to the highest CA band combination as its own CA band combination information The combination set information (bit information described above) is determined, and the UL signal transmission unit 102 is caused to transmit the determined CA band combination information. The UL signal transmission unit 102 carries CA band combination information in a predetermined message and transmits the CA band combination information to the base station eNB through a channel such as PUSCH or PUCCH.

  The UE capability information storage unit 103 stores CA band combination information and combination set information to be transmitted to the base station eNB, and the UE capability information notification control unit 104 reads the information to transmit information. Alternatively, the UE capability information storage unit 103 stores CA band combination combination information and a table supported by the user apparatus UE, and the UE capability information notification control unit 104 stores the combination information. A combination set may be derived from the information and the table, and CA band combination information including information on the derived combination set may be transmitted to the base station eNB.

  CA control section 105 relates to CA in user apparatus UE such as management of PCell (PCC) and SCell (SCC) constituting CA, addition / deletion of SCell based on instructions from base station eNB, and activation / deactivation. Take control.

  Next, an operation example of the user apparatus UE will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. The example of FIG. 12 is an example in the case of transmitting capability information based on a request.

  The user apparatus UE receives a UE capability information request from the base station eNB (step 101). The UE capability information notification control unit 104 of the user apparatus UE refers to the UE capability information storage unit 103 to determine (including obtaining) CA band combination information (including a combination set) to be transmitted to the base station eNB. Then, the CA band combination information is notified to the base station eNB by the UL signal transmitting / receiving unit 102 (step 102).

  Note that the functional configuration of the user apparatus UE is not limited to the above, and any configuration that can realize the processing described in the present embodiment (including the modified example) may be adopted. For example, a user apparatus that can be used as the user apparatus UE is a user apparatus in a mobile communication system that supports carrier aggregation, and identifies a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band that can be used for carrier aggregation in the user apparatus. A user control device comprising: a notification control unit that determines combination identification information to be performed; and a transmission unit that reports band combination information including the combination identification information determined by the notification control unit to a base station in the mobile communication system. be able to.

  The combination of the uplink band and the downlink band identified by the combination identification information is a combination determined based on the mounting difficulty of the carrier aggregation function in the user apparatus. With such a configuration, it is possible to reduce the signal amount when notifying the base station of the capability of the CA band combination by using combination identification information that reduces the mounting difficulty of the carrier aggregation function in the user apparatus. It becomes like this.

  The presence / absence of the combination identification information is represented, for example, by the value of a bit at a predetermined bit position as a bit position corresponding to the combination identification information in a bit string of a predetermined length. By using such information representation, information can be notified with a small amount of information, and the amount of signal can be reduced.

  The transmission unit transmits, as the band combination information, the combination of the highest band among the combinations of bands that can be used for carrier aggregation in the user apparatus and the combination identification information to the base station. With such a configuration, it is possible to reduce the signal amount for notification of the CA band combination.

<Base station eNB>
FIG. 13 shows a functional configuration diagram of the base station eNB in the present embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 13, the base station eNB includes a DL signal transmission unit 201, a UL signal reception unit 202, a CA band combination information storage unit 203, and a UE capability determination unit 204. FIG. 13 shows only functional units that are particularly related to the embodiment of the present invention in the base station eNB, and has at least a function (not shown) for performing an operation in conformity with the LTE scheme.

  The DL signal transmission unit 201 includes a function of generating various types of physical layer signals from information on higher layers to be transmitted from the base station eNB and transmitting the signals to the user apparatus UE. The UL signal receiving unit 202 includes a function of receiving various uplink signals from the user apparatus UE and acquiring higher layer information from the received physical layer signals.

  The CA band combination information storage unit 203 stores a table showing the definition of the combination set as shown in FIGS. 7 to 9 for each CA band combination. “CA band combination” in “for each CA band combination” means, for example, No. 1 shown in FIG. A specific CA band combination of UL / DL as indicated by each number such as 1, 2 or the like may be used. Information on CA configuration (using band 19, band 21, and band 28, etc.), UL, Information on the number of bands of each DL (eg, 1 UL / 3DL) may be used.

  As an example, the combination set table shown in FIG. 8 can be considered as a table defined for a CA band combination of “1UL / 3DL in CA configuration 19A_21_28A”.

  The UE capability determination unit 204 determines (determines) the CA band combination supported by the user apparatus UE based on the information on the highest CA band combination and the information on the combination set in the CA band combination information received from the user apparatus UE. To do.

  An example of the operation of the base station eNB will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The base station eNB receives the CA band combination information from the user apparatus UE by the UL signal receiving unit 202 (step 201). Next, the UE capability determination unit 204 of the base station eNB grasps the highest CA band combination from the CA band combination information and acquires information on the combination set (step 202). Then, the UE capability determining unit 204 determines each CA band combination corresponding to the combination set by referring to the table corresponding to the highest CA band combination (step 203).

  Note that the functional configuration of the base station eNB is not limited to the above, and any configuration that can realize the processing described in the present embodiment (including the modified example) may be adopted. For example, a base station that can be used as the base station eNB is a base station in a mobile communication system that supports carrier aggregation, and a combination identification that identifies a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band in carrier aggregation from a user apparatus A reception unit that receives band combination information including information, a storage unit that stores table information in which each combination identification information is associated with a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band, and is received by the reception unit. A base comprising: a determination unit that acquires the combination identification information from the band combination information and refers to the table information to determine a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band corresponding to the combination identification information As a station Can.

  The combination of the uplink band and the downlink band identified by the combination identification information is a combination determined based on the mounting difficulty of the carrier aggregation function in the user apparatus. With such a configuration, it is possible to reduce the signal amount when notifying the base station of the capability of the CA band combination by using combination identification information that reduces the mounting difficulty of the carrier aggregation function in the user apparatus. It becomes like this.

  The presence / absence of the combination identification information is represented, for example, by the value of a bit at a predetermined bit position as a bit position corresponding to the combination identification information in a bit string of a predetermined length. By using such information representation, information can be notified with a small amount of information, and the amount of signal can be reduced.

  The reception unit receives, as the band combination information, the combination of the highest band among the band combinations usable in carrier aggregation in the user apparatus and the combination identification information from the user apparatus. With such a configuration, it is possible to reduce the signal amount for notification of the CA band combination.

(Modification 1)
In the example described so far, the user apparatus UE transmits the information of the combination set even when the user apparatus UE supports a certain highest CA band combination and all the subsets thereof.

  In addition to such processing, when a certain highest-level CA band combination and all subsets thereof are supported, only the highest-level CA band combination information is sent, and no combination set information is sent. Also good.

  An operation example of the user apparatus UE in this case will be described with reference to a flowchart of FIG. For example, the UE capability information notification control unit 104 of the user device UE refers to the UE capability information storage unit 103 at the timing when the user device UE connects to the base station eNB (timing to set an RRC connection), It is determined whether or not the capability of the combination corresponds to the highest CA band combination and all the CA band combinations of the subset (step 301).

  When the determination in step 301 is Yes (corresponding), the UE capability information notification control unit 104 of the user apparatus UE determines to notify only the information on the highest CA band combination to the base station eNB. Only the information of the upper CA band combination is notified (step 302).

  When the determination in step 301 is No (not all supported), the UE capability information notification control unit 104 of the user apparatus UE sends the highest CA band combination information and combination set information to the base station eNB. It is decided to notify, and such information is notified (step 303).

  With reference to the flowchart of FIG. 16, the operation example of the base station eNB in the modification 1 is demonstrated. The base station eNB receives CA band combination information from the user apparatus UE by the UL signal receiving unit 202 (step 401). Next, the UE capability determination unit 204 of the base station eNB determines whether or not CA band combination information not including the combination set information has been received (step 402). That is, it is determined whether only the highest CA band combination information is received.

  When the determination in step 402 is Yes (only the highest level is received), the UE capability determination unit 204 of the base station eNB determines that the user apparatus UE has notified the notified CA band combination and the CA band combination to the highest CA. It is determined that all the CA band combinations of the subset to be a band combination are supported (step 403). For example, the UE capability determination unit 204 notifies the DL signal transmission unit 201 and the UL signal reception unit 202 of such a determination result, and the DL signal transmission unit 201 and the UL signal reception unit 202 perform the CA band combination as necessary. By referring to the information storage unit 203, specific CA combination information is acquired and used for setting.

  When the determination in step 402 is No (including the combination set), the UE capability determination unit 204 of the base station eNB determines that the user apparatus UE selects the highest CA combination and each CA band combination corresponding to the combination set. It is determined that it is supported (step 404).

(Modification 2)
It is also conceivable that the user apparatus UE connects to a base station eNB that does not interpret the combination set described so far. Therefore, the base station eNB may notify the user apparatus UE of information indicating whether or not the user apparatus UE has the CA band combination information interpretation function according to the present embodiment.

  FIG. 17 shows an operation example in the second modification. The user apparatus UE located in the cell of the base station eNB receives broadcast information (system information) indicating whether or not it has a function of interpreting the CA band combination information according to the present embodiment from the base station eNB (step) 501).

  The user apparatus UE that has received the broadcast information determines whether or not the base station eNB has a function of interpreting the CA band combination information according to the present embodiment from the broadcast information (step 502). And when the base station eNB is provided with the said interpretation function, as demonstrated until now, the user apparatus UE notifies CA band combination information. That is, for example, notification of CA band combination information including the highest CA combination and combination set is performed (step 503).

  On the other hand, when the base station eNB does not have the interpretation function, the user apparatus UE performs notification using an existing method. That is, information notification about all the supported CA band combinations is performed (step 504).

  Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the disclosed invention is not limited to such embodiments, and those skilled in the art will understand various variations, modifications, alternatives, substitutions, and the like. I will. Although specific numerical examples have been described in order to facilitate understanding of the invention, these numerical values are merely examples and any appropriate values may be used unless otherwise specified. The classification of items in the above description is not essential to the present invention, and the items described in two or more items may be used in combination as necessary, or the items described in one item may be used in different items. It may be applied to the matters described in (if not inconsistent). The boundaries between functional units or processing units in the functional block diagram do not necessarily correspond to physical component boundaries. The operations of a plurality of functional units may be physically performed by one component, or the operations of one functional unit may be physically performed by a plurality of components. For convenience of explanation, the user apparatus and the base station have been described using functional block diagrams, but such an apparatus may be realized in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. Software operated by a processor included in a user apparatus and software operated by a processor included in a base station according to the embodiment of the present invention are random access memory (RAM), flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), EPROM, and EEPROM. , A register, a hard disk (HDD), a removable disk, a CD-ROM, a database, a server, or any other suitable storage medium. The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications, modifications, alternatives, substitutions, and the like are included in the present invention without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

UE user apparatus eNB base station 101 DL signal receiving unit 102 UL signal transmitting unit 103 UE capability information storage unit 104 UE capability information notification control unit 105 CA control unit 201 DL signal transmitting unit 202 UL signal receiving unit 203 CA band combination information storage unit 204 UE capability determination unit

Claims (10)

A user apparatus in a mobile communication system supporting carrier aggregation,
A notification control unit for determining combination identification information for identifying a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band that can be used in carrier aggregation in the user apparatus;
A user apparatus comprising: a transmitter that notifies band combination information including combination identification information determined by the notification controller to a base station in the mobile communication system. The combination of the uplink band and the downlink band identified by the combination identification information is a combination determined based on the degree of difficulty of implementing the carrier gregation function in the user apparatus. User device. 3. The user according to claim 1, wherein the presence / absence of the combination identification information is represented by a bit value at a predetermined bit position as a bit position corresponding to the combination identification information in a bit string of a predetermined length. apparatus. The transmission unit transmits, as the band combination information, a combination of the highest band among combinations of bands that can be used for carrier aggregation in the user apparatus and the combination identification information to the base station. The user apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3. A base station in a mobile communication system that supports carrier aggregation,
A receiving unit that receives, from the user apparatus, band combination information including combination identification information that identifies a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band in carrier aggregation;
A storage unit that stores table information in which each combination identification information is associated with a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band;
The combination identification information is acquired from the band combination information received by the reception unit, and the combination of the uplink band and the downlink band corresponding to the combination identification information is determined by referring to the table information A base station comprising: a determination unit. The combination of the uplink band and the downlink band identified by the combination identification information is a combination determined based on the mounting difficulty level of the carrier gregation function in the user apparatus. base station. The base according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the presence or absence of the combination identification information is represented by a bit value at a predetermined bit position as a bit position corresponding to the combination identification information in a bit string of a predetermined length. Bureau. The reception unit receives, as the band combination information, the combination of the highest band among the combinations of bands that can be used for carrier aggregation in the user apparatus and the combination identification information from the user apparatus. The base station according to any one of claims 5 to 7. An information notification method executed by a user apparatus in a mobile communication system compatible with carrier aggregation,
A notification control step for determining combination identification information for identifying a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band that can be used in carrier aggregation in the user apparatus;
An information notification method comprising: transmitting a band combination information including the combination identification information determined in the notification control step to a base station in the mobile communication system. An information reception method executed by a base station in a mobile communication system supporting carrier aggregation,
A receiving step of receiving, from the user apparatus, band combination information including combination identification information for identifying a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band in carrier aggregation;
By obtaining the combination identification information from the band combination information received by the receiving step, by referring to the table information that associates each combination identification information with the combination of the uplink band and the downlink band, A determination step of determining a combination of an uplink band and a downlink band corresponding to the received combination identification information.

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