Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail
Reexamination Certificate
2001-10-23
2004-09-07
Maung, Nay (Department: 2684)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at same station
Radiotelephone equipment detail
C455S436000, C455S432100, C455S561000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06788959
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of cellular telephony, and more particularly to the transmission of information from a cellular network to a mobile station concerning handover between cells using different radio access technologies, such as from a cell using a radio access technology according to the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) to a cell using radio access technology according to the Universal Mobile Telephone System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN).
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In a cellular network including different cellular systems, such as GSM and UMTS, which uses so-called wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) and for which access is provided by UTRAN, to make a GSM to UTRAN handover/cell re-selection for a mobile station fast enough, i.e. to make a suitably fast handover from GSM, the current radio access technology (RAT), to UTRAN, the target RAT, it is necessary to transfer various items of information including so-called channel preconfiguration parameters from the target cellular network to the mobile station. For what are called hardcoded or static preconfigurations, standards specify the preconfiguration parameters, i.e. standards provide a certain number of sets of values of the preconfiguration parameters, each set of values defining a configuration. Examples of preconfiguration parameters are parameters indicating transport block size, transport block set size, spreading factor, CRC, and TTI (transmission time interval) value. Because the static preconfiguration parameters are specified in the standards, a mobile station can be expected to know the parameters (i.e. their values) for each static preconfiguration, usually maintaining the static configurations in memory. In addition to static preconfigurations, however, there are what are called dynamic configurations. These are usually information about the operation of the target RAT in addition to what is provided in any of the static preconfigurations. However, a dynamic configuration can also be complete in and of itself, i.e. it can specify all of the configuration parameters of the target RAT by itself, instead of supplementing the information provided by a static preconfiguration, and so by itself completely specify the configuration of the target RAT.
Unlike for static preconfigurations, the sets of preconfiguration parameters making up a dynamic configuration (whether it supplements a static preconfiguration or is intended to be complete by itself) must be provided to the mobile station dynamically, i.e. at or near the time of handover of the mobile station from GSM to UTRAN.
Section 13.7 of TS25.331 v.3.7.0, entitled
Parameter Values for Default Radio Configurations
, defines (static or hardcoded) preconfigurations, referring to them as default configurations. In section 13.7, the required parameter values are specified for each (hardcoded) preconfiguration. The UE maintains these (hardcoded) preconfigurations in memory.
System Information Block (SIB) type 16 defines dynamic configurations, which are referred to as predefined configurations in section 13.7 of TS25.331. SIB type 16 contains radio bearer, transport channel, and physical channel parameters to be held in memory by the UE. System information is specified to contain a preconfiguration identity and a value tag to identify a certain dynamic configuration as well as updates to dynamic configurations, if needed.
WCDMA is the most widely adopted air interface for so-called third generation wireless communication systems, where GSM is the corresponding interface for so-called second generation (i.e. digital) wireless communication systems. (First generation systems are analog.) In the context of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (a joint standardization project of the standardization bodies from Europe, Japan, Korea, China and the United States of America), WCDMA is referred to as UTRA (Universal Terrestrial Radio Access), and can be either WCDMA FDD (frequency division duplex) or WCDMA TDD (time division duplex).
In UTRA the data generated at higher layers is carried over the air interface through transport channels, which are mapped to different physical channels in the physical layer. Two types of transport channels exist: dedicated channels (each identified by a certain code on a certain frequency and so reserved for a single user) and common channels (a resource divided between all or a group of users in a cell). There are a number (currently six) of different common transport channel types defined for UTRA, one of which is the so-called broadcast channel (BCH), which is used to transmit information specific to the UTRA network for a given cell. Associated with the BCH (a physical transport channel) is a logical channel, referred to as the broadcast channel (logical channel) and designated as BCCH. For clarity, the corresponding transport channel, designated as BCH, is referred to as the broadcast channel (transport channel).
The Primary Common Control Physical Channel (Primary CCPCH) is the physical channel carrying the Broadcast Channel (BCH). It needs to be demodulated by all the mobile stations in the system. As a result, the parameters with respect to (for example) the channel coding and spreading code contain no flexibility, as they need to be known by all terminals made since the publication of what are called the Release-99 specifications. The contents of the signaling messages have room for flexibility as long as the new message structures are such that they do not cause unwanted or unpredictable behavior in the mobile stations deployed in the network.
The logical channels are mapped to the physical channels in what is called the media access control (MAC) layer. A set of logical channel types is defined for the different kinds of data transfer services offered by the MAC layer. Each logical channel type is defined by the type of information transferred. There are two general categories: logical control channels, used to transfer control information, and logical traffic channels, used to transfer user information. The BCCH is a logical downlink (from base station to mobile station) channel used for broadcasting system control information. The BCCH is mapped to (connected to) the BCH (physical channel) in the MAC layer. (It may also be mapped to what is called the FACH, i.e. the forward access (physical) channel.)
It should be noted that the terms UMTS BCCH and UMTS BCH represent the same channel in UMTS. The term BCCH is used to point to the logical channel, while the term BCH is used to point to the actual transport channel being carried on the Primary CCPCH as described in 3
GPP TS
25.211,
v.
3.4.0, sections/chapters 4-6.
GSM BCCH capacity is limited, and is not a suitable means for transferring additional (dynamic) preconfiguration parameters to a mobile station. However the transfer might be done, it is advantageous to keep the mobile station power consumption as low as possible. Therefore, when dynamic configurations are transmitted on the UTRA BCCH, it is necessary for example that these dynamic configurations be repeated in the system information of the UTRA BCCH often enough so that the UE need not continue to decode the UTRA BCCH for too long a time. In other words, the UE should not have to wait too long for the dynamic configurations to appear again. On the other hand, the UE should not attempt to decode the UTRA BCCH when UTRAN quality (coverage) is poor or if dynamic configurations are not used in the network. Unnecessary decoding of UTRA BCCH increases the idle mode activity of the UE and so increases power consumption.
The standard set out in the specification entitled, 3
GPP
25.302,
v.
3.60, chapter 7, describes certain channel transport format combinations (TFCs) (which are supported by at least some mobile stations). In addition, there is a proposal from Vodafone (R2-002015) in which additional (dynamic) preconfiguration parameters are transferred from a cellular network (i.e. a base station) to a mobile station, but the propos
Jokinen Harri
Korpela Sari
Numminen Jussi
Toskala Antti
Maung Nay
Nokia Corporation
Sobutka Philip J.
Ware Fressola Van Der Sluys & Adolphson LLP
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