WO2017028053A1

WO2017028053A1 - Communication method, processing apparatus, communication device, and communication system

Info

Publication number: WO2017028053A1
Application number: PCT/CN2015/087089
Authority: WO
Inventors: 王宏; 蔺波; 曹振臻
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2015-08-14
Filing date: 2015-08-14
Publication date: 2017-02-23
Also published as: CN107113682A

Abstract

Disclosed are a communication method, a processing apparatus, a communication device, and a communication system. The method comprises: a base station broadcasts a system message in a serving cell of a user equipment, the system message comprising distribution indication information, and the distribution indication information being used for triggering a user equipment in an idle state to start a distribution update process; and the user equipment monitors the system message broadcast by the serving cell, and when the user equipment detects that the system message comprises the distribution indication information, the user equipment starts the distribution update process. The distribution update process is used for updating the distribution of user equipments in an idle state among cells, or is used for updating the distribution of the user equipments in an idle state among carriers.

Description

Communication method, processing device, communication device, and communication system

Technical field

The present invention relates to the field of mobile communication technologies, and in particular, to a communication method, a processing device, a communication device, and a communication system.

Background technique

In the mobile communication system, load balancing can alleviate the load difference between cells, improve the access success rate of services, and ultimately improve the utilization of system resources. Generally, load balancing is performed by a base station (BS) to determine the load status of a cell (English: cell). When a cell is in a high load state, the user equipment in the high-load cell (English: user equipment) , UE) Transfer to other low load cells.

In the prior art, the UE that is transferred during the load balancing process is usually in a connected (English: connected, or connected) state. The UE in the connected state refers to that the UE is in a connected state with the mobile communication system, and the connection generally refers to a signaling connection. At this time, part of the information of the UE is stored in the mobile communication system, and thus the presence of the UE is known. When the number of UEs in the connected state exceeds a certain threshold, the base station managing the cell may consider that the load of the cell is too high, thereby triggering a load balancing process.

Corresponding to the UE in the connected state, the idle (English: idle) state UE may be that the UE is not in a connected state with the mobile communication system. At present, research on related load balancing schemes has just begun for UEs in idle state.

Summary of the invention

The present invention, in conjunction with the embodiments, provides a communication method, a processing device, a communication device, and a communication system, which can be used to adjust the distribution of UEs between multiple carriers or multiple cells to provide a solution that is different or better than the prior art. In one of the embodiments, the following is included:

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, which is suitable for use in a wireless communication system, and is particularly applicable to communication between a network device and a user device.

User equipment generally refers to equipment that provides communication services directly to users. The device is generally owned by the user and used directly by the user. It is also called terminal (English: terminal), mobile station (English: mobile station, MS), personal device (English: personal device). Users and user equipment are closely connected, especially when it comes to communication services. This article does not make a strict distinction between the two. Accordingly, network devices generally refer to other devices that indirectly provide communication services to users. Network equipment is generally attributed to wireless network owners, including telecommunications carriers (such as Vodafone, Verizon, NTT, China Mobile, etc.), telecommunications infrastructure providers (such as Towers). In a mobile communication network, a network device mainly includes a wireless access network device and a core network device. A typical radio access network device is a base station. The following uses a base station as an example for description.

The communication method may include: the base station broadcasts a system message in a serving cell of the user equipment, where the system message includes distribution indication information, where the distribution indication information is used to trigger the user equipment in the idle state to start. Distribution update process. From the perspective of the user equipment, the communication method may include: the user equipment monitors a system message broadcast by the serving cell, the user equipment is in an idle state; and when the user equipment detects that the system message includes distribution indication information, initiates a distribution update. Process. The distribution update process is used to update the distribution of user equipments in the idle state between cells, or to update the distribution of user equipments in the idle state between carriers.

In the communication method, in order to adjust the distribution of the UE between multiple carriers or multiple cells, the base station broadcasts the distribution indication information in the system message to trigger the user equipment in the idle state to start the distribution update process. The distribution update process may also be referred to as a redistribution process, and may be understood as a process of causing a user equipment in an idle state to select a new serving cell or carrier to implement distribution of user equipments in an idle state between multiple cells or multiple carriers. Compared with the prior art, the distribution update process can be used as a new independent process outside the cell selection process and the cell reselection process to avoid affecting existing processes; and can also be used as an enhancement of the cell selection process and the cell reselection process. Or optimized to work with existing cell selection processes and cell reselection processes.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the distribution indication information is indication information of a high priority cell, and the priority of the high priority cell is higher than a priority of the serving cell level. At this time, more specifically, the distribution update process may include: comparing a measurement result of the serving cell with a distribution trigger threshold of the distribution update; when the measurement result of the serving cell is worse than or equal to the distribution trigger threshold, selecting the The high priority cell is a new serving cell, or the high priority cell is used as a candidate for a new serving cell.

The indication information of the high-priority cell may include: information about the priority of the frequency point to which the cell belongs in the current LTE standard; or the cell-specific priority defined separately for the distribution update process. )Information. The information about the priority of the frequency of the cell and the information of the cell-specific priority may indicate the identity of the cell in addition to the priority of the frequency point or the cell, so that the user equipment can know which cell is the high priority cell as early as possible.

For different cells, if the priority of the frequency band or the cell-specific priority is different, the user equipment has different processing priorities when evaluating whether the cell is suitable as a new serving cell. The high priority cell should be evaluated first, then the same priority cell is evaluated, and the low priority cell is finally evaluated. The priority level may be determined by referring to the priority of the serving cell.

When the user equipment resides in the serving cell, the serving cell is periodically measured to determine the signal quality of the serving cell. At the same time, in order to select a cell with better signal quality or higher priority, cells outside the serving cell are selectively measured. For example, when the user equipment discovers a high priority cell, the measurement of the high priority cell may be started by default, and then the high priority cell is evaluated as a new serving cell. For the same priority cell or low priority cell, whether to start measurement of these cells is determined according to the quality of the signal of the serving cell.

In this paper, these information reflecting the signal quality of the cell are collectively referred to as the measurement result of the cell. The measurement result may be a relevant parameter defined by a standard protocol of the mobile communication system. Of course, the measurement result may also be related to the parameters defined by these standard protocols (such as RSRP, RSRQ, SINR), mathematical processing (such as statistical average, normalization), and/or, and other parameter values (such as thresholds). Value, The compensation value and the offset value are combined and processed. The term “comparative” refers to the process of assessing the quality of a cell's measurement. It can be narrowly understood as a simple numerical comparison, or broadly understood to include other mathematical processes (such as statistical average, normalization). And/or, a process that is integrated with other parameter values such as threshold values, compensation values, offset values, and time.

Taking the LTE system as an example, the measurement result may be: reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), or signal interference noise ratio (English: signal) To interference plus noise ratio, SINR). It should be understood that the measurement result of the cell may also be a parameter that reflects the quality of the cell signal in the evolution of the LTE system.

For ease of understanding, the following is a schematic illustration of the comparison between the cell measurement result and the threshold value. When the value of the cell measurement result is equal to the value that represents the distribution trigger threshold, the measurement result of the cell is considered to be equal to the distribution trigger threshold, and this is a critical condition. If the value of the cell measurement result is larger, the signal quality of the characterizing cell is better. When the value of the cell measurement result is greater than the value indicating the distribution trigger threshold, the measurement result of the cell is considered to be better than the distribution trigger threshold; when the value of the cell measurement result is smaller than the value indicating the distribution trigger threshold, the measurement result of the cell is considered to be poor. The threshold is triggered at this distribution. Conversely, if the value of the cell measurement is smaller, the signal quality of the characterizing cell is better. When the value of the cell measurement result is greater than the value indicating the distribution trigger threshold, the measurement result of the cell is considered to be worse than the distribution trigger threshold; when the value of the cell measurement result is smaller than the value indicating the distribution trigger threshold, the measurement result of the cell is considered to be excellent. The threshold is triggered at this distribution.

The distribution trigger threshold is a parameter for evaluating the measurement result of the serving cell, and can be used to trigger the user equipment in the idle state to select a new serving cell. The distribution trigger threshold can be a specific value and has the same unit of measure as the measurement result. If the measurement result is multiple, for example, RSRP and RSRQ are simultaneously evaluated, there may be more than one distribution trigger threshold.

Comparing the measurement result of the serving cell with the distribution trigger threshold refers to the process of evaluating the measurement result of the serving cell. If the measurement result of the serving cell is worse than the distribution trigger threshold, it can be considered as a service. If the cell signal quality of the cell is not good and the distribution trigger condition is met, the user equipment in the idle state performs a distributed update (also called a re-distribution) operation, that is, re-selects a new serving cell (a preferred high priority cell). If the measurement result of the serving cell is better than the distribution triggering threshold, the cell signal quality of the serving cell is considered to be good, and the distribution triggering condition is not satisfied, and the user equipment in the idle state may not perform the distributed update operation. If the measurement result of the serving cell is equal to the distribution trigger threshold, and the critical condition is present, the user equipment in the idle state may also perform the distribution update operation, or may not perform the distribution update operation.

In the cell reselection rule for the high priority cell, the measurement result of the serving cell is not considered, which may cause the number of user equipments that select the high priority cell as the new serving cell to be excessive, when the user equipment initiates the service connection. It is easy to cause the cell load to be too high. Compared with the prior art, in this implementation, for a high priority cell, the measurement result of the serving cell will be considered. Therefore, it is possible to control the number of user equipments that select the high priority cell as a candidate for the new serving cell or the new serving cell, thereby alleviating the problem of excessive cell load.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the distribution triggering threshold of the distribution update is a measurement result of the high priority cell; When the measurement result of the cell is worse than or equal to the measurement result of the high priority cell, the high priority cell is selected as a new serving cell.

In this implementation manner, the distribution trigger threshold defaults to the measurement result of the high priority cell, and the default rule may be preset in the user equipment, or may be stored by the user equipment after being notified by the network. Thus, the overhead of the network configuration can be saved. Meanwhile, since the measurement result of the serving cell is worse than or equal to the measurement result of the high priority cell, the high priority cell is selected as the user equipment of the new serving cell. Therefore, the signal quality of the new serving cell is better, and the quality of service of the user can be better guaranteed.

In conjunction with the first possible implementation of the first aspect, a third possible aspect in the first aspect In an implementation manner, the distribution triggering threshold of the distribution update is a sum of a measurement result of the high priority cell and a distribution offset, where a measurement result of the serving cell is worse than or equal to a measurement result of the high priority cell. When the sum of the distribution offsets is selected, the high priority cell is selected as a new serving cell.

In this implementation manner, the distribution offset may be a specific value, and the size of the value may control the number of user equipments that select the high priority cell as the new serving cell, that is, the probability of user equipment redistribution. If there are multiple distribution offsets, there may be more than one distribution trigger threshold. The distribution offset can be set by the default configuration of the user device, such as the default value. In addition, the user equipment can also adjust the distribution offset according to a predetermined rule. Alternatively, the distribution offset may be configured by the base station, for example, included in a system message broadcast by the serving cell, and the distribution offset and distribution indication information may be included in the same or different system messages. The user equipment adjusts the distribution offset, or through system message configuration, the following rules can be considered: when a new serving cell is not selected for a certain period of time, the probability of redistribution of the user equipment is increased; on the contrary, if a new service has been selected The cell reduces the probability of user equipment redistribution within a certain period of time. Therefore, with this implementation, the network or user's ability to control the redistribution can be enhanced.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the distribution trigger threshold of the distribution update is included in a system message broadcast by the serving cell; When the measurement result of the serving cell is worse than or equal to the distribution trigger threshold, the high priority cell is used as a candidate for the new serving cell.

With reference to the fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, when the measurement result of the serving cell is worse than or equal to the distribution trigger threshold, Measurement of high priority cells. When the measurement result of the serving cell is better than the distribution trigger threshold, the measurement of the high priority cell is not started. With this implementation, the computing overhead and power consumption of the user equipment can be saved, thereby improving the user experience.

With reference to the first aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the distribution indication information is indication information of a recommended distribution cell, where the indication information is different from priority information of a cell reselection process. The recommended distribution cell, which is different from the concept of the high priority cell, does not depend on the priority of the cell reselection, and refers to the candidate distribution cell recommended by the serving cell to the user equipment in the idle state. Since it is a newly defined concept outside the cell reselection process, there is no need to change the definition of priority information (such as the concept of cell-specific priority), so as to avoid affecting existing processes.

At this time, the distribution update process may include: the user equipment detects the indication information of the recommended distribution cell in the system message, that is, after the recommended distribution cell is found, the recommended distribution cell may be used as a candidate for the new serving cell by default.

Alternatively, the distribution update process may include: starting measurement of the recommended distribution cell; comparing a measurement recommendation result of the recommended distribution cell with a distribution update recommendation threshold; when the measurement result of the recommended distribution cell is better than the When the recommended threshold is distributed, the recommended distribution cell is selected as a new serving cell, or the recommended distribution cell is used as a candidate for a new serving cell.

The distribution recommendation threshold is a parameter for evaluating the measurement result of the recommended distribution cell, and the user equipment in the idle state can determine whether to select a new serving cell of the recommended distribution cell according to the signal quality of the cell. The distribution recommendation threshold can be a specific value and has the same unit of measure as the measurement result. If the measurement result is multiple, for example, RSRP and RSRQ are simultaneously evaluated, there may be more than one distribution recommendation threshold.

Comparing the measurement results of the recommended distribution cells with the distribution recommendation thresholds refers to the process of evaluating the measurement results of the recommended distribution cells. If the measurement result of the recommended distribution cell is better than the distribution recommendation threshold, the cell signal quality of the recommended distribution cell is considered to be good, and the distribution recommendation condition is satisfied, and the user equipment in the idle state performs a distribution update (also called a distribution) operation, that is, reselection. New serving cell (preferred distribution recommended cell). If the measurement result of the recommended distribution cell is worse than the distribution recommendation threshold, it may be considered that the cell signal quality of the recommended distribution cell is not good, and the distribution recommendation condition is not satisfied, and the user equipment in the idle state may not perform the distribution update operation. If the measurement of the distribution cell is recommended If it is equal to the distribution recommendation threshold, this is a critical condition. The user equipment in the idle state can also perform the distribution update operation or the distribution update operation.

Optionally, compared with the condition of camping the cell when cell selection and cell reselection, if the value of the measurement result is larger, indicating that the signal quality of the cell is better (such as RSRP, RSRQ, and SINR), the recommended threshold of the distribution may be set to If the value of the measurement result is smaller, the signal quality of the cell is better, and the recommended threshold of the distribution may be set to a larger value to improve the probability that the user equipment selects the recommended distribution cell as a new serving cell.

The distribution recommendation threshold can be the default value or can be configured through system messages. If the distribution recommendation threshold is included in the system message broadcasted by the serving cell; when the user equipment detects that the system message includes the distribution recommendation threshold, the measurement result of the recommended distribution cell and the distribution recommendation threshold in the system message are compared.

With reference to any one of the first to the sixth possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in the seventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect, when the high priority cell or the recommended distribution cell is used as When the candidates of the new serving cell are candidates, the distribution update process further includes:

And selecting, according to the cell reselection rule, the high priority cell as a new serving cell; wherein the cell reselection rule is determined based on a system message broadcast by the serving cell.

With reference to any one of the first to the sixth possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in the eighth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, when the high priority cell or the recommended distribution cell is used as When the candidates of the new serving cell are candidates, the distribution update process further includes:

The high priority cell is selected as a new serving cell according to the value of the remainder of the modulo operation of a positive integer according to the access level, the international mobile subscriber identity code or the international mobile equipment identity.

With reference to the first aspect, in a ninth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the distribution indication information is indication information of a high priority cell, and the reselection priority of the high priority cell is higher than The distribution update process includes: comparing the measurement result of the high priority cell with the distribution candidate threshold of the distribution update; when the measurement result of the high priority cell is better than the distribution candidate threshold, according to The access level, the international mobile subscriber identity or the international mobile equipment identifier is a value of a remainder of a positive integer modulo operation, and the high priority cell is selected as a new serving cell.

The distribution candidate threshold may be configured by referring to the camping condition of the high priority cell when the cell is reselected. Taking the LTE system as an example, the camping conditions of the high priority cell include threshX-HighQ and threshX-High. If the measurement result is multiple, for example, RSRP and RSRQ are simultaneously evaluated, there may be more than one distribution candidate threshold.

In conjunction with the first aspect, in a tenth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the distribution indication information is indication information of a user signature. The user signature code can be: access class (AC), international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) or international mobile equipment identity (IMEI). . Alternatively, the user signature may be a result of mathematically processing the AC/IMSI/IMEI, for example, a remainder after a modulo operation with a positive integer.

In this implementation manner, as an alternative, the distribution update process includes:

When the user equipment finds that the user signature is consistent with the user signature included in the system message, performing a distribution update operation, that is, selecting a new serving cell, and specifically distributing the update operation, may refer to other possible implementation manners of the first aspect. The distribution update operation can also follow the cell reselection process in the prior art.

Since the user feature code can be considered to be not distributed, the user equipments with different user feature codes can be distributed to different cells in the alternative.

In this implementation manner, as another alternative, the information that the user feature code indicates the priority of the cell is associated, and may be used to indirectly indicate the priority of the cell. For example, the same cell, right For user equipments with different user signatures, the priorities may be different.

Taking the AC as an example, the two celles, Cell 1 and Cell 2, have a cell value of 2, and the cell priority of the cell 1 is higher than that of the cell 2, and the cell 1 is preferentially selected as the new camping cell; At the same time, the user equipment with the AC value of 1 detects that the cell priority of Cell 2 is higher, and the Cell 2 is preferentially selected as the new camping cell.

Alternatively, the user equipment of the AC value is modulo a positive integer (such as 2), and the remainder is 0, and the cell priority of Cell 1 is detected to be higher than the cell priority of Cell 2, and Cell 1 is preferentially selected as the new camping cell; At the same time, the AC value is modulo for a positive integer (such as 2), and the user equipment with the remainder of 1 may detect that the cell priority of Cell 2 is higher, and Cell 2 is preferentially selected as the new camping cell.

In the implementation, the association between the user signature and the cell priority may be represented by various forms such as a table, a formula, a logic rule, and the like, and may be pre-stored in the user equipment or configured through a system message. That is, for the same cell, different user signatures are configured with different cell priorities. Therefore, the user equipments with different user feature codes indirectly indicate the priorities of the cells according to the user feature codes, and are distributed to different cells.

At this time, the distribution update process includes:

The user equipment detects a cell priority indirectly indicated by the user feature code;

Performing the distribution update operation according to the cell priority, that is, selecting a new serving cell, and specifically distributing the update operation, may refer to the distributed update operation in other possible implementation manners of the first aspect, or may also use the cell reselection in the prior art. Process.

In the eighth to tenth possible implementation manners of the foregoing first aspect, if the AC/IMSI/IMEI value and a positive integer modulo scheme are considered, an implicit indication may be used, such as taking the neighboring cell of the serving cell. Number and so on. It is also possible to display an indication that the positive integer can be configured via a system message. The value of the positive integer is positively correlated with the degree of dispersion in which the UEs in the idle state are distributed to different cells. Different remainders, rules that characterize different meanings, can be configured by system messages or pre-stored in the user equipment.

With reference to the first aspect, in an eleventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the distribution update process includes: comparing a measurement result of the serving cell with a measurement trigger threshold of the distribution update; when the measurement result of the serving cell is poor When the measurement trigger threshold is equal to or equal to, the measurement of the cell outside the serving cell is started to select a new serving cell. In a specific implementation, the process of selecting a new serving cell may use an existing cell reselection process, or may refer to an existing cell reselection process to update some parameters.

The measurement trigger threshold is a parameter used to trigger the user equipment to initiate measurement of a cell outside the serving cell. The measurement trigger threshold can be a specific value and has the same unit of measurement as the measurement result. If the measurement result is multiple, for example, RSRP and RSRQ are simultaneously evaluated, there may be more than one distribution recommendation threshold. The cell outside the serving cell may be a neighbor cell of the serving cell or a cell of a coverage area overlapping the serving cell.

Comparing the measurement result of the serving cell with the measurement trigger threshold also refers to the process of evaluating the measurement result of the serving cell. If the measurement result of the serving cell is worse than the measurement trigger threshold, the cell signal quality of the serving cell may be considered to be poor, and the measurement trigger condition is met, and the user equipment in the idle state performs a distributed update (also called a distribution) operation to start the service. Measurement of cells outside the cell to select a new serving cell. If the measurement result of the serving cell is better than the measurement trigger threshold, the cell signal quality of the serving cell is considered to be good, and the measurement trigger condition is not met, and the user equipment in the idle state may not perform the distribution update operation. If the measurement result of the serving cell is equal to the measurement trigger threshold, and the critical condition is present, the user equipment in the idle state may also perform the distribution update operation, or may not perform the distribution update operation.

Optionally, if the value of the measurement result is larger, indicating that the signal quality of the cell is better (such as RSRP, RSRQ, and SINR), the measurement trigger threshold of the distribution update may be configured to be a larger value, for example, greater than cell reselection. The same frequency search threshold, and/or, is greater than the cell reselection non-same frequency (including: different system and inter-frequency) search threshold. Taking the LTE system as an example, the _intra- frequency search threshold may include S _IntraSearchP and S _IntraSearchQ , and the non- _co -frequency search threshold may include S _{nonIntraSearchP} and S _{nonIntraSearchQ} . Conversely, if the value of the measurement result is larger, indicating that the signal quality of the cell is better, the measurement trigger threshold of the distribution update may be configured to be a smaller value.

With this arrangement, the user equipment can be triggered to initiate cell measurement outside the serving cell earlier; and/or increase the probability that the user equipment measures the cell outside the serving cell. Therefore, the number of user equipments selected to the new serving cell can be effectively increased.

The measurement trigger threshold can be the default value or can be configured through system messages. If the measurement trigger threshold is included in the system message broadcasted by the serving cell; when the user equipment detects that the system message includes the measurement trigger threshold, the measurement result of the serving cell and the measurement trigger threshold in the system message are compared. At this time, the measurement trigger threshold can also be used as the distribution indication information to save system overhead.

In a second aspect, a user equipment or network device or communication system is provided, the user equipment or network device being configured to perform any one of the above-described first aspect or all possible implementations of the first aspect. The communication system includes the user equipment and the network equipment.

In a third aspect, a processing apparatus is provided, the processing apparatus being applied to a user equipment. The processing device can be one or more processors or chips in a user equipment. In other possible cases, the processing device may also be the user equipment itself.

The processing device includes: a control unit, and a receiving unit and a storage unit connected to the control unit; the control unit is configured to control the user equipment to perform any of the above first aspect or all possible implementation manners of the first aspect Communication method.

For example, the control unit is configured to control a user equipment to listen to a system message broadcast by the serving cell, the user equipment is in an idle state; and when it is detected that the system message includes distribution indication information, start a distributed update procedure. For the distribution indication information and the distribution update process, reference may be made to the introduction of any one of the foregoing first aspects or all possible implementation manners of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, a processing apparatus is provided, the processing apparatus being applied to a network device, such as Base station or BBU. The processing device can be one or more processors or chips in a network device. In other possible cases, the processing device may also be the network device itself.

The processing device includes: a control unit, and a transmitting unit and a storage unit connected to the control unit; the control unit is configured to control the network device to perform any of the above first aspect or all possible implementation manners of the first aspect Communication method.

For example, the control unit is configured to control a network device to broadcast a system message in a serving cell of the user equipment, where the system message includes distribution indication information, where the distribution indication information is used to trigger an idle state user equipment to initiate a distribution update. Process. For the distribution indication information and the distribution update process, reference may be made to the introduction of any one of the foregoing first aspects or all possible implementation manners of the first aspect.

In a fifth aspect, a computer program product is provided, the computer program product comprising: computer program code, when the computer program code is run by a computing unit, a processing unit or a processor in a user device or a network device, The user equipment or network device performs any one of the above-described first aspects or all possible implementations of the first aspect.

In a sixth aspect, a computer readable storage medium is provided, the computer readable storage medium storing a program that causes a user equipment or network device to perform the first aspect or all possible implementations of the first aspect Any communication method.

In a seventh aspect, a program is provided for causing a user equipment or a network device to perform any one of the above-described first aspects or all possible implementations of the first aspect.

DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

2 is a schematic structural diagram of a processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a schematic structural diagram of another processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

detailed description

The technical solutions provided by the present invention are further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

In conjunction with context, the terms "network" and "system" are sometimes interchangeable. The term "and/or" is used to describe the association of associated objects, indicating that there may be three relationships. For example, A and/or B may indicate that A exists separately, and A and B exist simultaneously, and B cases exist alone. The character "/" in this article generally indicates that the contextual object is an "or" relationship.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention, which shows a network architecture of a communication system 100, which can support the deployment of the technical solution of the present invention, and particularly the first aspect of the invention or Any of the possible implementations of the first aspect. As shown in the figure, the communication system 100 includes one or more user equipments (English: user equipment, UE), a radio access network (RAN) that provides wireless access functions for user equipments, and wireless The core network connected to the access network (English: core network, CN). For the sake of brevity, not all network entities can be shown in FIG. It should be understood that other network entities not shown in FIG. 1 may also be included in the communication system 100.

A UE generally refers to a device that provides communication services directly to users. Specifically, the UE may be a mobile phone or a cellular phone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, or other wireless communication support. Functional devices, such as IoT devices, including wearable devices, smart home devices (smart meters, smart appliances, etc.),

Accordingly, other devices that provide communication services indirectly to users are often referred to as network devices, including RAN devices and CN devices. A typical RAN device is a base station, a typical CN The device includes a mobility management device, a gateway device, and the like. CN is responsible for the overall control of communication services, such as the establishment of bearers, security management and other functions. In actual deployment, the RAN usually consists of multiple base stations and is responsible for the management of radio resources.

The base station provides communication coverage for a specific geographic area through integrated or external antenna devices. In the embodiment of the present invention, the base station may be a macro base station (English: macro base station) or a micro base station (English: micro base station). Sometimes, a micro base station is also called a small cell (English: small cell). Specifically, the base station may be a Node B (English: Node B, NB) in a UMTS (English: universal mobile telecommunication system) system, or may be an evolved node in an LTE or LTE-A (English: LTE-advanced) system. B (English: evolutional Node B, eNB or eNodeB) may also be other RAN devices introduced in future RAN evolution.

Functionally, a cell (English: cell) is a basic unit that constitutes a RAN, and a plurality of cells together form a coverage area of the RAN (English: coverage area). Each cell has an identity certificate (English: identification), which is also called cell identity (cell identity). The concept of a cell can include two meanings, one is to characterize the radio resources that make up the cell. The second is to characterize the coverage area of the cell. Generally, the available radio resources of a mobile communication system are predetermined and divided into a plurality of specific frequency intervals. These specific frequency intervals are also referred to as carriers, carrier frequencies, frequency bands, or frequency points. Each cell includes one or more specific frequency intervals. In a mobile communication system, a coverage area is often defined as an area in which wireless communication services are provided to the level required by the system.

A base station can manage one or more cells. The cell identity is broadcast by the base station managing the cell, and the UE receiving the cell identity thereby identifies the cell. Different cells, especially a plurality of neighboring cells (English: neighboring cells or neighboring cells), are often configured with different cell identifiers to distinguish each other. Three adjacent cells are shown in Fig. 1, and the coverage area of each cell is indicated by a hexagon, which is denoted as Cell 1, Cell 2 and Cell 3, respectively. It should be understood that in actual deployment, small The footprint of the zone can have a variety of shapes, such as circles, ellipses, sectors, or other regular or irregular polygons, and can vary dynamically. Therefore, there are often overlapping coverage areas between cells, such as a border zone of adjacent cells, a multi-carrier deployment area, or a capacity-enhanced cell of a heterogeneous network (Hetnet).

After the UE is powered on or enters the coverage area from the uncovered area, the UE needs to detect or search for the cell of the mobile communication system and perform cell selection (English: cell selection). When the UE performs cell selection, it is required to determine whether the cell satisfies the cell selection rule (English: criteria or criteria) to determine whether the signal quality of the cell can meet the system requirements. Through the cell selection process, the UE may select a cell to provide services for it, and then listen to system messages broadcast by the cell. This choice is also referred to as "camp on" or "resident in the cell." The cell in which the UE resides is referred to as the serving cell of the UE.

When the UE camps on the cell, if there is a service demand, it may try to access the cell to establish a connection with the mobile communication system. When the connection is established successfully, the UE can be said to be in a connected mode. Conversely, if the connection establishment fails or the connection is released, the UE may be said to be in an idle mode. Taking the LTE system as an example, the RRC (English: radio resource control) connection state between the UE and the RAN can be divided into an RRC connected state and an RRC idle state. When the UE has a service demand, random access can be initiated. After the random access is successful, the UE may send an RRC connection request to the eNB (English: RRC connection request). If the RRC connection is successfully established, the UE is said to be in an RRC connected state. If the RRC connection setup fails, or the RRC connection has been released, the UE is said to be in the RRC idle state.

After the UE camps on the cell, it also performs cell reselection (English: cell reselection) to select a cell with better signal quality or higher priority to camp. As shown in FIG. 1, there are three cells in the location where the UE in the overlapping coverage area is located. Assuming that the UE is initially camped on Cell 1 through cell selection, and later through cell reselection, the UE may also camp on Cell 2 or Cell 3.

By listening to the system message broadcast by the cell, the UE can obtain basic configuration information of the mobile communication system, in particular, parameters related to cell selection and cell reselection. For example, cell reselection is common Cell reselection parameters, intra-frequency (also referred to as: intra-frequency) cell list and reselection parameters of each cell, inter-frequency (also called: inter-frequency) frequency point list and reselection parameters of each frequency point , the list of different frequency cells and the reselection parameters of each frequency point, the list of frequency points of different systems (also called: inter-RAT, radio access technology) and the reselection parameters of each frequency point.

The cell reselection mainly includes two processes. First, the cell (the serving cell and other cells) is measured for the signal quality level, and then the cell measurement result is evaluated according to the cell reselection rule. In addition, in the cell reselection process, the priority of the cell is also considered (in English: (priority) information, where the priority is usually the frequency priority, including: the priority of the frequency of the serving cell, the different frequency Frequency priority, frequency priority of different systems. The same frequency points have the same priority.

Wherein, the LTE system is taken as an example, and the different systems include UTRAN, GERAN, and CDMA2000. Cell selection and cell reselection are detailed in the standard protocol. For some implementations of some embodiments of the present invention, reference may be made to these standard protocols, such as 3GPP TS 36.304 V12.5.0, especially the related content of Section 5.2 (Cell selection and reselection), which is not further developed here.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the priority may also be extended to a cell-specific priority (English: cell specific priority). In addition, the priority may also be the priority indicated by the user signature indirectly. The cell-specific priority may be a separate extended priority based on the original frequency priority. If the frequency priorities are equal, continue to look at the extended priority.

For example, the cell priority is expressed as a two-digit decimal number XY, where ten bits X represent frequency priorities, and one bit Y represents extended priority. When the frequency priorities are equal, for example, if the priorities of the two cells are 23 and 25, then The frequency priorities of the two cells are equal, and the priority of the bit is extended. If the cell with the higher priority is extended, the cell priority is higher. If the frequency priorities are not equal, the cell with the highest frequency priority is the cell priority. High, no longer look at the extended priority.

It should be understood that the user equipment and base station in the communication system 100 can be configured to perform any of the first aspect of the inventive content or all possible implementations of the first aspect.

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of another processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, which shows a logical unit structure of a processing apparatus 20. The processing device 20 is applicable to a user equipment, such as the UE in the communication system 100 shown in FIG. 1, supporting any one of the first aspects of the inventive content or all possible implementations of the first aspect. The processing device 20 can be one or more baseband processors or baseband chips, or a processing chip or chipset integrated with baseband processing functions, such as a system on chip (SoC). The processing device 20 can also be a complete user device, where possible.

As shown in FIG. 2, the processing device 20 includes a receiving unit 201 and a control unit 202, which are connected to each other to implement information transmission. Optionally, the processing device may further include a storage unit 203, which is connected to the control unit 202 for storing necessary data (such as a program, an operating parameter, and a calculation result).

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of another processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, which shows a logical unit structure of a processing apparatus 30. The processing device 30 can be applied to a network device, which can be a RAN device (such as a base station or a BBU) in the communication system 100 as shown in FIG. 1, supporting the first aspect of the invention or all possible implementations of the first aspect. Any of the methods of communication. The processing device 30 can be one or more baseband processors or baseband chips, or a processing chip or chipset integrated with baseband processing functions, such as a system on chip (SoC). Where possible, the processing device 30 can also be a complete network device.

As shown in FIG. 3, the processing device 30 includes a transmitting unit 301 and a control unit 302, which are connected to each other to implement information transmission. Optionally, the processing device may further include a storage unit 303 connected to the control unit 302 for storing necessary data (such as a program, an operating parameter, and a calculation result).

In a specific implementation manner, the control unit, the storage unit, the sending unit, and the receiving unit in the processing apparatus shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 may be implemented by software or hardware, or a combination of the two. E.g, It is implemented by a combination of one or more of a virtual program module, a hardware circuit, or a device. Specifically, the control unit may be a core processing module (such as a CPU) of a processor or a chip, or may be a control circuit or a controller. The storage unit may be a storage module or a memory, and the sending unit may be a transmitting module, a transmitting circuit or a transmitter, and the receiving unit may be a receiving module, a receiving circuit or a receiver. The receiver and transmitter may be input/output interface circuits or pins or ports of the processor, or transceivers of user equipment or network equipment, or receiving circuits/channels and transmitting circuits/channels.

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention, which shows a hardware implementation architecture of a communication device 40. The communication device 40 may be a user equipment or a network device, which may be a UE or a RAN device (such as a base station or a BBU) in the communication system 100 as shown in FIG. 1, supporting the deployment of the first aspect of the inventive content or Any of the possible implementations of the first aspect.

As shown in FIG. 4, the communication device 40 includes a processor 401, a memory 402 coupled to the processor, in which is stored an instruction or code, when the instruction or code is run in the processor, the communication Apparatus 40 performs any one of the communication methods of the first aspect or all possible implementations of the first aspect.

A processor is a device or circuit that has computational processing power and can be called a chip or a central processing unit (CPU). The above processor may be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component. A general purpose processor, a microprocessor, or the processor can be any conventional processor or the like.

Memory refers to a device or circuit that has data or information storage capabilities and provides instructions and data to the processor. The memory includes Read-Only Memory (ROM), Random Access Memory (RAM), Non-Volatile Random Access Memory (NVRAM), programmable read-only memory or electrically erasable programmable Memory, registers, etc.

In a specific implementation, the communication device 40 may further include: a connection line 400, a transmitting circuit 403, a receiving circuit 404, an antenna 405, and an input/output (I/O) interface 406.

The transmit and receive circuits can be coupled to an antenna and wirelessly coupled to other communication devices. The transmitting circuit and the receiving circuit can also be integrated into one transceiver, and the antenna can be an RF antenna supporting multiple frequencies. The I/O interface provides the possibility to interact with other communication devices or users. For example, for a base station, the I/O interface may be a common public radio interface (CPRI) interface, an Ethernet interface, a USB interface, or the like. For user equipment, the I/O interface can be a screen, a keyboard, a microphone, a speaker, a USB interface, and the like. The various components within the communication device can be coupled together by various connection lines (such as a bus system). The bus system can include a power bus, a control bus, and a status signal bus in addition to the data bus. However, for the sake of clarity, various buses are collectively referred to herein as bus systems.

FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The communication method can be applied to the communication system 100 shown in FIG. 1, and is particularly applicable to communication between a RAN and a UE. The RAN device and the UE in the communication system can be configured to perform the communication method. As shown, the communication method includes an S50 system message flow and an S52 distribution update process.

From the RAN side, taking the base station as an example, the system message flow S50 includes: the base station broadcasts a system message in the serving cell of the UE, where the system message includes distribution indication information; wherein the distribution indication information is used to trigger an idle state. The user device initiates the distribution update process. The serving cell is managed by the base station, and the base station adds the distribution indication information to the system message of the serving cell to trigger the user equipment in the idle state to start the distributed update process.

From the perspective of the UE, the system message flow S50 includes: the UE listens to the system message broadcast by the serving cell, and the user equipment is in an idle state. When the user equipment detects that the system message includes distribution indication information, the distribution update process is initiated.

The distribution update process S52 is used to update the distribution of user equipments in the idle state between cells, or The distribution of user equipment used to update the idle state between carriers.

Currently, for a load balancing scheme of a connected UE, a UE in a connected state is transferred from a high load cell to a low load cell mainly through a cell handover or an RRC connection release procedure. In the embodiment of the present invention, a distributed update process (also referred to as a redistribution process) is introduced for an idle state UE, thereby providing a solution different from or better than the prior art. If there are many UEs in the idle state that are camped on in one cell, when these UEs initiate service connections, it is easy to cause the cell load to be too high. The scheme can be used to adjust the allocation of idle UEs in multiple carriers or multiple cells. It can also be used as a load balancing scheme, and is particularly applicable to UEs in an idle state, such as UEs in an RRC idle state.

In various embodiments of the present invention, the size of each method step or unit number does not necessarily mean the order of execution order, and the actual execution order should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not be directed to the embodiment of the present invention. The implementation process constitutes any limitation. The steps of the method may be performed by integrated logic of hardware in the processor or by instructions in software. The steps of the method in combination with the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by the hardware decoding processor, or may be performed by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor.

The communication method in the embodiment of the present invention, the part that contributes in essence or to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution can be implemented by software code in a program language. At this time, the computer program, computer program product or computer software thus obtained may be sold or used as an independent product (online download or update), or may be stored or used in a computer readable storage medium. These computer readable storage media may be referred to as mature storage media such as optical disks, magnetic disks, USB flash drives, and mobile hard disks. The storage medium can be used as part of the memory, and the processor reads the information in the memory, and performs the steps of the above method in combination with other general hardware.

It should be understood that the above description is only specific embodiments of the present invention, but the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited thereto. The above communication system, processing device, communication device, and communication method can also be implemented in other equivalent manners. For example, a schematic flow diagram of a communication method, or a processing device The schematic diagram of the structure is only divided into one logical function, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation. Multiple steps are combined into one step, or multiple units are integrated into one unit. It will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that various equivalent modifications and substitutions are possible within the scope of the present disclosure.

Claims

A communication method, comprising:

The user equipment monitors a system message broadcast by the serving cell, where the user equipment is in an idle state;

And when the user equipment detects that the system message includes distribution indication information, starting a distribution update process, where the distribution update process is used to update the distribution of user equipments in an idle state between cells.
The method of claim 1 wherein:

The distribution indication information is indication information of a high priority cell, and the reselection priority of the high priority cell is higher than the serving cell;

The distribution update process includes:

Comparing the measurement result of the serving cell with the distribution trigger threshold of the distribution update;

When the measurement result of the serving cell is worse than or equal to the distribution trigger threshold, the high priority cell is selected as a new serving cell, or the high priority cell is used as a candidate for a new serving cell.
The method of claim 2 wherein:

The distribution trigger threshold of the distribution update is a measurement result of the high priority cell;

When the measurement result of the serving cell is worse than or equal to the measurement result of the high priority cell, the high priority cell is selected as a new serving cell.
The method of claim 2 wherein:

The distribution triggering threshold of the distribution update is a sum of a measurement result of the high priority cell and a distribution offset, where the distribution offset is included in a system message broadcast by the serving cell;

When the measurement result of the serving cell is worse than or equal to the sum of the measurement result of the high priority cell and the distribution offset, the high priority cell is selected as a new serving cell.
The method of claim 2 wherein:

The distribution trigger threshold of the distribution update is included in a system message broadcast by the serving cell;

When the measurement result of the serving cell is worse than or equal to the distribution trigger threshold, the high priority cell is used as a candidate for a new serving cell.
The method of claim 5, further comprising:

When the measurement result of the serving cell is worse than or equal to the distribution trigger threshold, the measurement of the high priority cell is started.
The method of claim 1 wherein:

The distribution indication information is the indication information of the recommended distribution cell, and the indication information is different from the priority information of the cell reselection process, where the recommended distribution cell is a candidate distribution cell recommended by the serving cell to the user equipment in the idle state;

The distribution update process includes:

Initiating measurement of the recommended distribution cell;

Comparing the measurement result of the recommended distribution cell with the distribution recommendation threshold of the distribution update;

When the measurement result of the recommended distribution cell is better than the distribution recommendation threshold, the recommended distribution cell is selected as a new serving cell, or the recommended distribution cell is used as a candidate for a new serving cell.
A method according to any one of claims 2 to 7, wherein:

When the high priority cell or the recommended distribution cell is used as a candidate for a new serving cell, the distribution update process further includes:

Selecting the high priority cell as a new serving cell according to a cell reselection rule;

The cell reselection rule is determined based on a system message broadcast by the serving cell.
A method according to any one of claims 2 to 7, wherein:

When the high priority cell or the recommended distribution cell is used as a candidate for a new serving cell, the distribution update process further includes:

The high priority cell is selected as a new serving cell according to the value of the remainder of the modulo operation of a positive integer according to the access level, the international mobile subscriber identity code or the international mobile equipment identity.
The method of claim 1 wherein:

The distribution indication information is indication information of a high priority cell, and the reselection priority of the high priority cell is higher than the serving cell;

The distribution update process includes:

Comparing the measurement result of the high priority cell with the distribution candidate threshold of the distribution update;

When the measurement result of the high priority cell is better than the distribution candidate threshold, according to the access level, the international mobile subscriber identity code or the international mobile device identifier, the value of the remainder of the modulo operation of a positive integer is selected. The high priority cell is a new serving cell.
The method of claim 1 wherein:

The distribution update process includes:

Comparing the measurement result of the serving cell with the measurement trigger threshold of the distribution update;

When the measurement result of the serving cell is worse than or equal to the measurement trigger threshold, starting measurement of a cell other than the serving cell to select a new serving cell;

The measurement trigger threshold of the distribution update is greater than the intra-frequency search threshold of the cell reselection, and the measurement trigger threshold of the distribution update is greater than the non-co-frequency search threshold of the cell reselection.
A user equipment, comprising:

a processor, a receiver and a memory respectively connected to the processor;

The processor is configured to control a user equipment:

Listening to a system message broadcast by the serving cell, where the user equipment is in an idle state;

When it is detected that the system message includes distribution indication information, a distribution update process is started, where the distribution update process is used to update the distribution of user equipments in an idle state between cells.
A processing device, the processing device being applied to a user equipment, wherein the processing device comprises:

a control unit, and a receiving unit and a storage unit connected to the control unit;

The control unit is configured to control the user equipment:

Listening to a system message broadcast by the serving cell, where the user equipment is in an idle state;

When it is detected that the system message includes distribution indication information, a distribution update process is started, where the distribution update process is used to update the distribution of user equipments in an idle state between cells.