Communication System , F,or Sup»ortinj Carrier Ag re anon And
Method and apparatus For Updating System Information
Thereof
5 Field
[01] The disclosure relates to the field of carrier aggregation supporting communications, and
particularly, to a communication system supporting carrier aggregation and methods and
apparatuses for updating the system information thereof. More particularly, the disclosure relates
to methods and apparatuses for providing and receiving system information in a communication
to system supporting carrier aggregation and communication system including such apparatuses.
Background
[02] Future LTE-A (Long Term Evolution-Advanced) system can support a transmission
bandwidth up to 100MHz, while in LTE standard the largest supportable transmission bandwidth
15 is 20MHz. Therefore, it is desired to aggregate multiple component carriers to meet the higher
requirements for transmission bandwidth in LTE-A system. Carrier aggregation is a technique
proposed by 3GPP in which multiple component carriers are aggregated for transmission, in
order to support the higher requirements for transmission bandwidth in future mobile
communication system. The introduction of carrier aggregation brings about a new opportunity
20 and challenge in the development of communication technology.
Summary
[03] The following presents a simplified summary of the disclosure in order to provide a basic
understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. This summary is not an exhaustive overview of
25 the disclosure. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure or to
delineate the scope of the disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified
form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is discussed later.
[04] According to an aspect of the disclosure, a method of providing system information in a
communication system supporting carrier aggregation is provided, which includes: generating,
30 when there is a change in system information of the communication system, first information
which includes information indicating the change in system information; determining a first cell
of a user equipment involved in the change in system information, wherein the first cell is one of
cells to which the user equipment is connected and corresponds to a component carrier which is
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being used by the user equipment and is kept in connection with a base station of the
communication system; and transmitting the first information to the user equipment via the first
cell.
[05] According to another aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus of providing system
5 information in a communication system supporting carrier aggregation is provided, which
includes: an information generating device, configured to generate , when there is a change in
system information of the communication system, first information which includes information
indicating that there is a change in system information ; a cell determining device, configured to
determine a first cell of a user equipment involved in the change in system information, wherein
10 the first cell is one of cells to which the user equipment is connected and corresponds to a
component carrier which is being used by the user equipment and is kept in connection with a
base station of the communication system; and a transmitting device, configured to transmit the
first information to the user equipment via the first cell. ,
[06] According to another aspect of the disclosure, a method of receiving system information in
15 a communication system supporting carrier aggregation is provided, which includes: receiving
first information which includes information indicating that there is a change in system
information of the communication system via a first cell corresponding to a component carrier
which is being used by a user equipment of the communication system and is kept in connection
with a base station of the communication system; and parsing the first information, to obtain the
20 information indicating that there is the change in system information.
[07] According to another aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus of receiving system
information in a communication system supporting carrier aggregation is provided, which
includes: a receiving device, configured to receive first information which includes information
indicating that there is a change in system information of the communication system via a first
25 ` cell corresponding to a component carrier which is being used by the apparatus and is kept in
connection with a base station of the communication system; and a control device , configured to
parse the first information, to obtain the information indicating that there is the change in system
information.
[08] According to another aspect of the disclosure, a method of providing and receiving system
30 information in a communication system supporting carrier aggregation is provided, which
includes: generating, when there is a change in system information of the communication system,
first information which includes information indicating that there is the change in system
information; determining a first cell of a user equipment involved in the change in system
information, wherein the first cell is one of cells to which the user equipment is connected and
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corresponds to a component carrier which is being used by the user equipment and is kept in
connection with a base station of the communication system; transmitting the first information to
the user equipment via the first cell; receiving by the user equipment the first information via the
first cell; and parsing by the user equipment the first information, to obtain the information
5 indicating that there is the change in system information.
[09] According to another aspect of the disclosure, a communication system is provided, which
supports carrier aggregation and includes a first apparatus of providing system information and a
second apparatus of receiving the system information. The first apparatus includes: an
information generating device, configured to generate, when there is a change in system
10 information of the communication system, first information which comprises information
indicating that there is a change in system information; a cell determining device, configured to
determine a first cell of a user equipment involved in the change in system information, wherein
the first cell is one of cells to which the user equipment is connected and corresponds to a
component carrier which is being used by the user equipment and is kept in connection with a
is base station of the communication system; and a transmitting device, configured to transmit the
first information to the user equipment via the first cell. The second apparatus includes: a
receiving device, configured to receive first information which includes information indicating
that there is a change in system information of the communication system via a first cell
corresponding to a component carrier which is being used by the apparatus and is kept in
20 connection with a base station of the communication system; and a control device, configured to
parse the first information, to obtain the information indicating that there is a change in system
information.
[10] In addition, an embodiment of the invention provides computer program for realizing the
above method.
25 ` [111 Furthermore, an embodiment of the disclosure provides a computer program product in the
form of computer readable medium on which there are recorded computer program codes for the
above method.
Brief Description of Drawings
30 [12] The above and other objects, features and advantages of the embodiments of the disclosure
can be better understood with reference to the description given below in conjunction with the
accompanying drawings, throughout which identical or like components are denoted by identical
or like reference signs. In addition the components shown in the drawings are merely to illustrate
the principle of the disclosure. In the drawings:
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[13] Fig. I is a schematic diagram illustrating the structure of a communication system
supporting carrier aggregation;
[14] Fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method of updating system information by
providing information to a user equipment under the carrier aggregation (CA) supporting
scenario according to an embodiment of the disclosure;
[15] Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating special cells of some user equipment in the
communication system shown in Fig. 1;
[16] Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 are schematic flow charts illustrating the processes of transmitting first
information to a user equipment via a first cell, respectively;
10 [17] Fig. 6 shows an example of a method of updating system information by receiving
information by a user equipment in the carrier aggregation supporting (CA-S) communication
system according to the embodiment shown in Fig. 2;
[18] Fig. 7 shows an example of a receiving process corresponding the transmitting process as
shown in Fig. 4;
15 [19] Fig. 8 shows an example of a receiving process corresponding the transmitting process as
shown in Fig. 5;
[20] Fig. 9 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method of notifying update of system
information in a CA-S communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure;
[21] Fig. 10 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method of receiving the notification
20 indicating that system information changes in a CA-S communication system according to an
embodiment of the disclosure;
[22] Fig. 11 and Fig. 12 are schematic flow charts illustrating examples of transmitting
notification information to a UE via the first cell, respectively;
[23] Fig. 13 shows an example of a receiving process corresponding the transmitting process as
25 shown in Fig. 11;
[24] Fig. 14 shows an example of a receiving process corresponding the transmitting process as
shown in Fig. 12;
[25] Fig. 15 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method of providing updated system
information in a CA-S communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure;
30 [26] Fig. 16 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method of receiving updated system
information in a CA-S communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure;
[27] Fig. 17 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method of receiving updated system
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information according to another embodiment of the disclosure;
[28] Fig. 18 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method of receiving updated system
information according to yet another embodiment of the disclosure;
[29] Fig. 19 is a schematic diagram illustrating the process of notifying the change in system
5 information by using extended conventional signaling under a CA supporting scenario;
[30] Fig. 20 is a schematic diagram illustrating the process of notifying the change in system
information by using a dedicated signaling under a CA supporting scenario;
[31] Fig. 21 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method of providing updated system
information in a CA-S communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure;
10 [32] Fig. 22 and Fig. 23 are schematic flow charts illustrating examples of transmitting first
information containing updated system information via the first cell to a user equipment,
respectively;
[33] Fig. 24 to Fig. 26 are schematic flow charts illustrating examples of receiving updated
system information by a user equipment according to embodiments of the disclosure,
15 respectively;
[34] Fig. 27 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method of providing system information
when a component carrier is to be added according to an embodiment of the disclosure;
[35] Fig. 28 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method of receiving system information by
a user equipment corresponding to the providing method shown in Fig. 27;
20 [36] Fig. 29 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method of providing system information
related to a carrier segment when the carrier segment is to be added for a currently used
component carrier according to another embodiment of the disclosure;
[37] Fig. 3G is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method of receiving system information
related to a carrier segment when the carrier segment is to be added for a currently used
25 component carrier, corresponding to the providing method shown in Fig. 29;
[38] Fig. 31 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an apparatus of providing system
information in a CA-S communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure;
[39] Fig. 32 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an apparatus of receiving system
information in a CA-S communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure;
30 [40] Fig. 33 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an apparatus of notifying update of
system information in a CA-S communication system according to an embodiment of the
disclosure;
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[41] Fig. 34 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an apparatus of receiving the notification
of system information update in a CA-S communication system according to an embodiment of
the disclosure;
[42] Fig. 35 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an apparatus of providing system
5 information when a component carrier is to be added according to an embodiment of the
disclosure;
[43] Fig. 36 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an apparatus of receiving system
information when a component carrier is to be added according to an embodiment of the
disclosure;
to [44] Fig. 37 is a schematic diagram illustrating a user equipment obtaining updated system
information when a component carrier is to be added under a CA supporting scenario; and
[45] Fig. 38 is a schematic block diagram illustrating the structure of a computer for realizing
embodiment or example of the disclosure.
15 Detailed Description
[46] Some embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in conjunction with the
accompanying drawings hereinafter. It should be noted that the elements and/or features shown
in a drawing or disclosed in an embodiments may be combined with the elements and/or features
shown in one or more other drawing or embodiments. It should be further noted that some details
20 regarding some components and/or processes irrelevant to the disclosure or well known in the art
are omitted for the sake of clarity and conciseness.
[47] Some embodiments of the disclosure provide methods and apparatus of updating system
information in a CA-S communication system as well as a communication system including the
above apparatus.
25 [48] Fig. 1 shows an example of a CA-S communication system. As shown in Fig. 1, the
communication system includes a base station (e.g. e-NodeB) 101 and user equipments 102, 103,
and 104. In the example of Fig. 1, the component carriers supported by the communication
system include CC1, CC2 and CC3. The user equipment 102 can use the component carriers
CC1 and CC2, the user equipment 103 supports the component carriers CC2 and CC3, and the
30 user equipment 104 supports the component carriers CC1, CC2 and CC3. That is, the user
equipments 102, 103 and 104 each are a carrier aggregation supporting (CA-S) user equipment.
As an example, the communication system may further include a carrier aggregation
non-supporting (CA-NS) user equipment 105. As shown in Fig. 1, the user equipment 105 can
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use only a component carrier, i.e. CC1. Among the component carriers supported by the
communication system, the component carrier CCI is contiguous with the component carrier
CC2, while the component carrier CC3 is not contiguous with the component carriers CCI and
CC2. The communication system as shown in Fig. 1 not only includes CA-S user equipments,
5 but also includes CA-NS user equipments. It should be noted that this is merely an example and
the disclosure should not be limited to such communication system. For example, the disclosure
may be applied to a communication system including only a base station and a CA-S user
equipment; a communication system including a base station, a relay station and a user
equipment or other CA-S communication system, the description of which is not detailed herein.
10 [49] It should be noted that the so called "User Equipment (UE)" or "Equipment" in the
disclosure may include but not limited to a mobile device used by a user to access a
communication network, such as a mobile phone (e.g. 102 and 103 shown in Fig. 1), a personal
digital assistance or a portable personal computer, or the like.
[50] The system information of a communication system needs to be kept newest at all times.
1s When the system information changes, the main node (e.g. the base station) of the
communication system needs to notify the user equipments in some way. In a CA-S
communication system, a user equipment may communicate with the main node of the
communication system via multiple of component carriers. For example, the equipment 104
shown in Fig. I may communicate with the base station via 3 component carriers CC1, CC2, and
20 CC3. Different components may have different coverage due to their different propagation
characteristics. When a user equipment moves out of the coverage of a component carrier it
supported and just at this lime the system information needs to be updated if the updated
information is transmitted to this user equipment via the cell corresponding to this component
carrier, the user equipment can not receive the information. Thus, when the user equipment
25 - moves back to the coverage of this component carrier, this component carrier will be unusable
due to the incorrect system information.
[51] Fig. 2 shows a flow chart of a method of updating system information by providing
information to a user equipment under the CA scenario according to an embodiment of the
disclosure.
30 [52] As shown in Fig. 2, the method includes steps S202, S204 and S206.
[53] In step S202, when the system information of the communication system changes, the
information for indicating the change of the system information is generated. In the following the
information generated in this step is referred to as the first information for conciseness.
[54] The communication system herein is a CA-S communication system, such as the
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communication system shown in Fig. 1. Whether the system information of the communication
system changes or not may be judged by the main node (For example, the base station) in the
communication system. For example, related information may be obtained from the
corresponding configuration file of the main node (the base station), to determine whether the
5 system information changes.
[55] In step S204, the cell to be used for transmitting the first information to a user equipment
involved in the change of the system information is determined.
[56] As described above, in a CA -S communication system, a user equipment may
communicate with the main node via a plurality of component carriers . Each of the component
10 carriers correspond to a cell. Among the cells to which each user equipment is connected, there
exists a special cell which may be used to provide security input and non access stratum (NAS)
mobility information , etc. The special cell corresponds to a component carrier which is being
used by the user equipment for keeping connection with the main node (e.g. the base station) in
the communication system. As an example, only one special cell can be configured for each user
is equipment. In other words, the following definition may be made: each user equipment is
connected to one special cell which corresponds to a component carrier keeping connection with
the base station, while other component carriers supported by this user equipment can be used as
the uplink and/or downlink resources of this user equipment. In an example, the cells
corresponding to these other component carriers are also called as serving cells.
20 [57] Fig. 3 shows the special cells of some user equipments in the communication system
shown in Fig . 1. As shown in Fig. 3, the user equipment 102 (UE 102) supports component
carriers CCI and CC2, wherein the cell corresponding to CC1 is the special cell of the user
equipment 102. The user equipment 103 (UE 103) supports component carriers CC2 and CC3,
wherein the cell corresponding to CC2 is the special cell of the user equipment 103. The user
25 - equipment 104(UE 104) supports component carriers CC1, CC2 and CC3, wherein the cell
corresponding to CC3 is the special cell of the user equipment 104.
[58] When there is a change in the system information, the base station may judge to which
user equipment(s) (i.e. the user equipment(s) affected by the change) the change should be
notified based on corresponding configuration files, determines the special cell of each of the
30 user equipment(s) as the cell for transmitting the first information to the each of the user
equipment(s).
[59] As an example, the base station may select, among one or more cells to which a user
equipment is connected, one cell as the special cell of this user equipment. Particularly, the base
station may select the special cell of a user equipment according to the corresponding
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configuration file or according to the information fed back by the user equipment (e.g. the
channel quality, the signal strength, and the location of the user equipment, etc), based on a
criterion (e.g. this special cell always keeps connection to the base station). For example, before
transmitting the first information to a user equipment, the base station may select the special cell
5 of a user equipment and notify the result of selection to the user equipment. For another example,
the base station may perform the selecting step at a regular interval or as required, for example,
when the user equipment moves to the edge of the coverage of a cell or moves out of the
coverage of a cell, and may notify the result of selection to the user equipment and stores the
result of the corresponding configuration file of the base station, In this way, when the base
10 station needs to determine the special cell of the user equipment, it may query the corresponding
configuration file.
[60] As another example, the special cell may be selected y the user equipment and then notified
to the base station. For example, the user equipment may determine the connection states of the
cells supported by the user equipment based on its own configuration and select, among the cells
1s that are kept in connection with the base station, one cell as the special cell for transmitting
system information. For example, the user equipment may reconfigure or select its special cell at a
regular interval, or based on its mobility conditions (e.g. when it moves to the edge, or moves out,
of a cell) or other information (e.g. the channel quality, the signal strength, etc) and transmit the
information of the special cell to the base station. The base station may stores the information in
20 corresponding configuration file. Thus, when the base station needs to determine the special cell
of the user equipment, it may query the corresponding configuration file. Alternatively, when the
base station needs to determine the special cell of the user equipment, the base station may
transmit to the user equipment a request instructing the user equipment to feed back the
information of the special cell of the user equipment.
25 - [61] As described above, the special cell determined in step S204 is one of the cells to which
the user equipment is connected, and corresponds to a component carrier which is being used by
the user equipment and is kept in connection with the main node of the communication system.
In the following, the special cell is also called as the first cell.
[62] Then in step 5206, the first information is sent to the user equipment via the first cell.
30 [63] In the CA-S communication system, the first cell is always kept in connection with the
main node (e.g. the base station). Thus, by using the above method, the case that the user
equipment can not receive the updated system information can be avoided, so that the system
information can be updated or provided in time. In addition, the base station needs not to
transmit the system information or notify the update of the system information via each of the
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cells supported by the user equipment, thereby decreasing the signaling load of the whole
system.
[64] Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 each show an example of the process of transmitting the first information
to the user equipment via the first cell.
5 [65] In the example of Fig. 4, the process of transmitting the first information to the user
equipment via the first cell may include sub-steps 5406-1 and S406-2. In sub-step S406-1, the
first information generated in the preceding step is encapsulated in a dedicated signaling (also
referred to as the first dedicated signaling). Then in sub-step 5406-2, the first dedicated signaling
is sent to the user equipment via the first cell. In this example, the signaling generated in sub-step
10 S406-1 is a dedicated signaling, thus in sub-step 5406-2 this dedicated signaling is transmitted
via the dedicated channel of the first cell.
[66] In the disclosure, transmitting a dedicated signaling via a cell corresponding to a
component carrier means that the dedicated signaling is transmitted via the dedicated channel of
the cell, the description of which is not repeated hereinafter. The dedicated channel may be a
is Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH), such as the DCCH defined in LTE standard (e.g. ETSI TS
136 331 V8.5.0).
[67] When a communication system includes many CA-S user equipments and the number of
configured component carriers is relatively large, using dedicated signaling to transmit the first
information to the user equipments (i.e. transmitting the first information via the dedicated
20 channels of the first cells) will increase the signaling load of the system significantly. In such a
case, the example of Fig. 5 may be used. As shown in Fig. 5, the process of transmitting the first
information to the user equipment via the first cell may include sub-steps S506-1 and 5506-2. In
sub-step S506-1, the first information generated in the preceding step is encapsulated in a
broadcast signaling (also called as the first broadcast signaling). Then in sub-step S506-2, the first
25 broadcast signaling is sent to user equipment via the broadcast channel' of the first cell. The
broadcast channel may be a Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH), such as the BCCH defined in
LTE standard (e.g. ETSI TS 136 331 V8.5.0). Compared with the dedicated signaling in the
example of Fig. 4, using the broadcast signaling of Fig. 5 can decrease the signaling load of the
system effectively.
30 [68] The embodiment and examples shown in Fig. 2, Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 illustrate examples of
the processes of transmitting information from a main node (e.g. the base station) of the
communication system to a user equipment. Fig. 6 to Fig. 8 respectively show the corresponding
process of receiving the information by a user equipment.
[69] Particularly, Fig. 6 shows an example of a method of receiving information by a user
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equipment so as to update the system information in the CA-S communication system according
to the embodiment of Fig. 2.
[70] As shown in Fig. 6, the method may include steps S607 and S609.
[71] In step S607, the user equipment receives the first information transmitted by the base
5 station via the first cell, the first information includes information indicating that the system
information changes. In other words, the user equipment receives the first information by
listening to the component carrier (also called as the first component carrier) corresponding to
the first cell. The first cell has been described above, the description of which is not repeated.
[72] In step S609, the user equipment parses the received first information to obtain the
10 information indicating that the system information changes, so as to perform the update of the
system information.
[73] By using the above receiving method, the user equipment may get known of the change of
the system information in time. Since the user equipment keeps being connected with the base
station via the first cell (i.e. the special cell), the case that the user equipment can not receive the
15 updated system information can be avoided. In addition, by using the first cell, the user
equipment needs not to listen to all the cells corresponding to its supportable component carriers,
thereby reducing the power consumption of the user equipment significantly and lengthening the
lift time of the battery of the user equipment.
[74] The transmitting process shown in Fig. 2 and the receiving process shown in Fig. 6
20 constitute an example of updating system information in the CA-S communication system.
[75] Fig. 7 shows an example of receiving process corresponding to the trap: nitting process
shown in Fig. 4. As shown in Fig. 4, the first information is encapsulated in a dedicated signaling
(i.e. the first dedicated signaling) and is sent to the user equipment via the dedicated channel of
the first cell. Thus in step S707, the user equipment receives the first dedicated signaling which
25 contains the first information via the first cell thereof. In other words, the user equipment listens
to the dedicated channel of its first cell to receive the first dedicated signaling. Similar to step
S609, in step S709, the user equipment parses the first dedicated signaling, to obtain the
information indicating that the system information changes.
[76] Fig. 8 shows an example of receiving process corresponding to the transmitting process
30 shown in Fig. 5. As shown in Fig. 5, the first information is encapsulated in the broadcast
signaling (i.e. the first broadcast signaling) and is sent to the user equipment via the broadcast
channel of the first cell. Thus in step S807, the user equipment receives the first broadcast
signaling containing the first information via the broadcast channel of the first cell. In other
words, the user equipment listens to the broadcast channel of the first cell to receive the first
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broadcast signaling. Step S809 is similar to step S609 or S709, the description of which is not
repeated here.
[77] The transmitting process shown in Fig. 4 and the receiving process shown in Fig. 7, the
transmitting process shown in Fig. 5 and the receiving process shown in Fig. 8 respectively
5 constitute examples of updating the system information. Compared with the method of using
dedicated signaling as shown in Fig. 4 or Fig. 7, the examples shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 8 utilize
the broadcast signaling, by which the signaling load of the system may be decreased.
[78] In addition, by using the first cell (the dedicated channel or the broadcast channel thereof) ,
the user equipment needs not to listen to all the cells corresponding to all its supportable
10 component carriers, thereby reducing the power consumption of the user equipment significantly
and lengthening the lift time of the battery of the user equipment.
[79] As an embodiment, the first information may contain only the information indicating that
the system information changes, and in this case, the base station at the network side will
transmit the updated system information by subsequent transmitting processes and the user
15 equipment may receive the updated system information by subsequent receiving processes,
which will be described below.
[80] As another embodiment, the first information may further include the updated system
information. That is, at the network side the base station transmit the updated system
information to the user equipment directly via the first cell; and the user equipment may obtain
20 the updated system information by parsing the first information , which will be described below.
[81] As an example, the first information may further include the information (also referred to
as the third information) indicating whether the change of the system information affects the CA
transmission . For example , the third information may indicate the system information of which
part of the system changes and the user equipment may determine whether the change affects the
25 CA transmission based on this information.
[82] Fig. 9 shows an example of a method of notifying the update of system information in a
CA-S communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure. In the method, the
network side of the communication system (e.g. the base station) notifies the user equipment of
30 the change of the system information via the first cell. The first cell herein is the same as
described above.
[83] As shown in Fig. 9, the method includes steps S902, S904 and S906.
[84] In step S906, when the system information of the communication system changes, the
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notification information indicating that the system information changes is generated. The
notification information may include only the information indicating that the system information
changes. As described above, the notification information may be regarded as an example of the
first information.
5 [85] Similar to the above embodiments , the communication system herein is a CA-S
communication system, such as the communication system shown in Fig. 1. Whether the system
information of the communication system changes or not may be judged by the main node (e.g.
the base station) in the communication system. For example, related information may be
obtained from the corresponding configuration file of the main node (the base station), to
10 determine whether the system information changes.
[86] In step S904, the cell to be used for transmitting the notification information to a user
equipment which is involved in the change of the system information is determined.
[87] Particularly, the base station may judge to which user equipment(s) (i.e. the user
equipment(s) involved in the change) the change should be notified based on corresponding
Is configuration files, determines the special cell of each of the user equipment(s) as the cell for
transmitting the first information to the each of the user equipment(s). The special cell of a user
equipment may be determined by using the above described method, the description of which is
not repeated here
[88] Similar to the above embodiments, the cell determined in step 904 is one of the cells to
20 which the user equipment is connected and corresponds to the component carrier which is being
used by the user equipment and keeps in connection with the main node of the communication
system. This cell is also called as the first cell or the special cell.
[89] Then in step S906, the notification information is sent to the user equipment via the first
cell.
25 [90] Since the first cell always keeps in connection with the base station, the case that the user
equipment can not receive the notification information can be avoided by using the above
method. In this way the change of the system information can be notified to the user equipment
in time. In addition, the base station needs not to send the notification information to the user
equipment via each of a plurality of cells, by which the signaling load of the system may be
30 reduced.
[91] Fig. 10 shows an example of a method of receiving notification that the system
information changes in a CA- S communication system according to an embodiment of the
disclosure. In the method, the user equipment of the communication system receives the
notification information indicating that the system information changes from the base station by
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listening to the first cell. The first cell herein is the same as described above.
[92] As shown in Fig. 10, the method includes steps 51007 and 51009.
[93] In step 51007, the user equipment receives the notification information indicating that the
system information changes which is transmitted from the base station via the first cell. In other
5 words, the user equipment listens to the component carrier (also called as the first component
carrier) corresponding to the first cell to receive the notification information.
[94] In step S 1009, the user equipment parses the received notification information„so as to get
aware that the system information changes.
[95] By using the above method, the user equipment can know the change of the system
10 information in time, so as to update the system information subsequently. Since the user
equipment keeps in connection with the base station via the first cell (i.e. the special cell), the
case that it can not get the notification of the change can be avoided. In addition, by using the
first cell, the user equipment needs not to listen to all the cells corresponding to its supportable
component carriers, by which the power consumption of the user equipment can be reduced
15 significantly and the lift time of the battery of the user equipment can be lengthened.
[96] The transmitting process shown in Fig. 9'and the receiving process shown in Fig. 10
constitute an example of updating the system information in the CA-S communication system.
[97] Fig. 11 and Fig. 12 respectively show examples of transmitting notification information to
the user equipment via the first cell.
20 [98] In the example of Fig. 11, the step of transmitting the notification information via the first
cell to the user equipment may include sub-steps 51106-1 and 51106-2. In sub-step 51106-1, the
notification information generated in the preceding step is encapsulated in a dedicated signaling
(also called_as the first dedicated signaling). Then in sub-step 51106-2, the first dedicated
. signaling is sent to the user equipment via the first cell. The signaling generated in sub- step
25 S 1106-1 is a dedicated signaling, and in sub-step S 1106-2 the dedicated signaling is sent via the
dedicated channel of the first cell.
[99] When a communication system includes many CA-S user equipments and the number of
configured component carriers is relatively large, using dedicated signaling to transmit the first
information to the user equipments (i.e. transmitting the first information via the dedicated
30 channels of the first cells) will increase the signaling load of the system significantly. In such a
case, the example of Fig. 12 may be used. As shown in Fig. 12, the process of transmitting the
notification information to the user equipment via the first cell may include sub-steps S 1206-1 and
51206-2. In sub-step 51206-1, the notification information generated in the preceding step is
9 `1
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encapsulated in a broadcast signaling (also called as the first broadcast signaling). Then in
sub-step S 1206-2, the first broadcast signaling is sent to user equipment via the broadcast channel
of the first cell. Compared with the dedicated signaling in the example of Fig. 11, using the
broadcast signaling of Fig. 12 can decrease the signaling load of the system effectively.
5 [1001 Fig. 13 shows an example of a receiving process corresponding to the transmitting process
shown in Fig. 11. As shown in Fig. 11, the first information is encapsulated in a dedicated
signaling (the first dedicated signaling) and is sent to the user equipment via the first cell. Thus
in step S1307, the user equipment receives the first dedicated signaling containing the
notification information via the component carrier (also called as the first component carrier)
10 corresponding to its first cell. In other words, the user equipment listens to the dedicated channel
of the first cell to receive the first dedicated signaling. Similar to step S1009, in step S1309 the
user equipment parses the first dedicated signaling to obtain the notification information
indicating that the system information changes, so as to get aware of the change of the system
information.
15 [101] Fig. 14 shows an example of receiving process corresponding to the transmitting process
shown in Fig. 12. As shown in Fig. 12, the notification information is encapsulated in the
broadcast signaling (the first broadcast signaling) and is sent to the user equipment via the
broadcast channel of the first cell. Thus in step S 1407, the user equipment receives the first
broadcast signaling containing the notification information via the broadcast channel of the first
20 cell. In other words, the user equipment listens to the broadcast channel of the first cell to receive
the first dedicated signaling. Step S1409 is similar to step S1009 or S1309, the description of
which is not repeated here.
[102] The transmitting process shown in Fig. 11 and the receiving process shown in Fig. 13, the
transmitting process shown in Fig. 12 and the receiving process shown in Fig. 14 respectively
25 - constitute examples of updating the system information. Compared with the method of using
dedicated signaling as shown in Fig. 11 or Fig. 13, the examples shown in Fig. 12 and Fig. 14
utilize the broadcast signaling, by which the signaling load of the system may be decreased.
[103] In addition, by using the first cell (the dedicated channel or the broadcast channel) , the
user equipment needs not to listen to all the cells corresponding to its supportable component
30 carriers, by which the power consumption of the user equipment can be reduced and the life time
of the battery of the user equipment can be lengthened.
[104] It should be noted, the dedicated signaling and the broadcast signaling in this disclosure
each may be a newly defined signaling, or may be a signaling obtained by extending a known
signaling . The disclosure is not limited to any of the examples. r
)A
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[105] Fig. 15 shows a method of providing the updated system information in the CA-S
communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The method shown in Fig.
15 is based on the example shown in Fig. 9, or Fig. 11, or Fig. 12. The difference lies in that, the
method of Fig. 15 further includes a process of transmitting the updated system information.
5 [106] As shown in Fig. 15, the method includes steps 51502, S1504, 51506, 51512 and S1514.
[107] Steps S1502, 51504 andS1506 may be similar to the corresponding steps shown in Fig. 9,
Fig. 11 or Fig. 12, the description of which is not repeated here.
[108] In step S1512, the network side (e.g. the base station) of the communication system
encapsulated the updated system information in a broadcast signaling (also called as the second
10 broadcast signaling). Then in step S1514, the second broadcast signaling is transmitted to the
user equipment via the cell (also called as the second cell) corresponding to the component
carrier involved in the change of the system information.
[109] Fig. 16 shows a method of receiving the updated system information in the CA-S
communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The method shown in Fig.
15 16 is based on the method shown in Fig. 10, Fig. 13 or Fig. 14. The difference lies in that, the
method shown in Fig. 16 further includes a process of receiving the updated system information.
[110] As shown in Fig. 16, the method includes steps S1607, S1609 and 51611.
[111] Step S1607 and 51609 are similar to the corresponding: steps shown in Fig. 10, Fig. 13 or
Fig. 14, the description of which is not repeated here.
20 [112] As shown in Fig. 15, the network side (e.g. the base station) of the communication system
encapsulated the updated system information in the second broadcast signaling and transmits the
he second broadcast signaling via the broadcast channel of the second cell. Accordingly, since
the user equipment does not know on which cell's broadcast channel the base station will
transmit the updated system information, thus when the user equipment gets aware that. the
25 system information changes, it starts to perform the process shown in step 51611. That is, the
user equipment starts listening to the broadcast channels of all the cells corresponding to its
supportable component carriers, in order to receive the second broadcast signaling. After
receiving the second broadcast signaling, the user equipment parses it to obtain the updated
system information.
30 [113] The transmitting process shown in Fig. 15 and the receiving process shown in Fig. 16
constitute an example of updating the system information in the CA-S communication system.
[114] In the above embodiments, the network side (the base station) of the communication sends
the updated system information via the second cell corresponding to an involved component
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carrier, and the base station needs to listens to all the cells corresponding to all of its supportable
component carriers. With the method, no additional information is needed to be transmitted
during the process of providing the notification information (e.g. steps S 1502-S1506). Thus the
process of notifying the change of the system information can be simplified.
5 [115] Fig. 17 shows a method of receiving the updated system information in the CA-S
communication system according to another embodiment of the disclosure. In the embodiment,
the notification information may further include information (also called as the second
information) for identifying a component carrier involved in the change of the system
information. As shown in Fig. 17, after receives the notification information including the second
10 information and the information indicating that the system information changes in step S1707,
the user equipment parses the notification information to obtain the second information in step
S1709. Then in step S1711, the user equipment listens to the broadcast channel of the cell
corresponding to the component carrier involved in the, change of the system information based
on the second information, to obtain the updated system information. In the embodiment, the
15 user equipment needs not to listen to the broadcast channels of all the cells corresponding to all
of its supportable component carriers. Compared with the method shown in Fig. 16, with the
method of Fig. 17, the power consumption of the user equipment can be reduced significantly
and the life time of the battery of the user equipment can be lengthened.
[116] Fig. 18 shows a method of receiving the updated system information according to another
20 embodiment of the disclosure. In the embodiment, the notification information may further
include the information (also called as the third information) indicating whether the change of
the system information affects the CA transmission. For example, the third information may
indicate that change of the system information occurs in which part(s) of the communication
system and the user equipment can judge whether the change affects its CA transmission based
25 - on this information. Particularly, when the user equipment receives the notification information
containing the third information and the information indicating that the system information
changes in step 51807, it may parses the notification information to obtain the third information
in step 1809. Then in step S 1810, the user equipment decides whether to receive the updated
system information based on the third information. For example, if the user equipment supports
30 CA and the third information indicates that the change of the system information does not affect
the CA transmission, the user equipment may choose not to receive the updated system
information. On the other hand, if the user equipment does not support CA and the third
information indicates that the change of the system information affects the CA transmission, the
user equipment, the user equipment may also choose not to receive the updated system
35 information. If decides to receive the updated system information, the user equipment listens to
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the corresponding channel to receive the updated system information in step 51811. Step 51811
may be similar to step S 1611 or step S 1711, the description of which is not repeated here.
[117] In the transmitting and receiving processes shown in Fig. 15 and Fig. 16, the updated
system information is encapsulated in the second broadcast signaling and is transmitted and
5 received via the broadcast channel of the second cell. In another embodiment, the updated
system information may be encapsulated in a dedicated signaling (also called as the third
dedicated signaling) and is transmitted and received via the dedicated channel of the second cell.
In this embodiment, the notification information farther contains the information (the second
information) for identifying a component carrier involved in the change of the system
10 information. When the user equipment receives the notification information including the second
information, it parses the notification information to obtain the second information and based on
the second information, it listens to the dedicated channel of the cell corresponding to the
component carrier involved in the change, so as to obtain the updated system information. In the
embodiment, the user equipment needs not to listen to the broadcast channels of all the cells
is corresponding to all of its supportable component carriers. Thus, the power consumption of the
user equipment can be reduced significantly and the life time of the battery of the user equipment
can be lengthened.
[118] As described above, the broadcast signaling and the dedicated signaling each may be a
newly defined signaling, or may be an extension to a known signaling.
20 [119] As an example, the first broadcast signaling maybe an extension to the Paging message in
LTE Release 8, or may be an extension to the system information block (SIB1) message. For
example, the second information and/or the third information can be inserted in the Paging or
SIB1 message. Particularly, two indicators may be inserted in the Paging or SIBI message,
including a first indicator (e.g. SystemInfoUpdateCClndicator) and a second indicator (e.g.
25 - CriticalSysteinlafoIndicator). The first indicator may contain the second information, i.e. to
identify the system information of which component carrier changes. The second indicator
contains the third information, i.e. to identify whether the change of the system information
affects the CA transmission (e.g. it may indicate which part's system information changes, and
the user equipment may determine whether its CA transmission is affected based on this
30 information). Fig. 19 is a schematic diagram showing the notification of the change of system
information by using the Paging or SIBI message as the first broadcast signaling under a CA
scenario. As shown in Fig. 19, the extended Paging or SIB1 message is transmitted via the
broadcast channel of the first cell (corresponding to CC1) of the user equipment 102. Then, the
updated system information is transmitted via the cell corresponding to CC2. Of course, this is
35 only an example of using the first broadcast signaling, and the disclosure should not be regarded
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as being limited to this. As described above, the first broadcast signaling may be a newly defined
signaling.
[120] Similar to the first broadcast signaling, the first dedicated signaling may be a newly
defined signaling, or may be an extension to a Imown signaling. Also similar to the first
5 broadcast signaling, the first dedicated signaling may contain the second information and/or the
third information. For example, the first dedicated signaling may contain two indicators, such as
the first indicator (e.g. SystemInfoUpdateCClndicator) and the second indicator (e.g.
CriticalSystemlnfolndicator). The first indicator may contain the second information, i.e. to
identify the system information of which component carrier changes. The second indicator
10 contains the third information, i.e. to identify whether the change of the system information
affects the CA transmission (e.g. the information may indicate which part's system information
changes, and the user equipment may determine whether its CA transmission is affected based on
this information). Fig. 20 is a schematic diagram showing the notification of the change of
system information by using the first dedicated signaling under a CA scenario. As shown in Fig.
is 20, the first dedicated signaling (e.g. the SysteminfoUpdate message as shown) is transmitted via
the dedicated channel of the first cell (corresponding to CCI) of the user equipment 102. Then,
the updated system information is transmitted via the cell corresponding to CC2.
[121] Fig. 21 shows a method of providing the updated system information in the CA-S
communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure. In the method of Fig. 21,
20 the network side (the base station) of the communication system transmits the updated system
information to the user equipment via the first cell (the special cell) of the user equipment.
[122] As shown in Fig. 21, the method includes steps S2102, S2104 and S2106.
[123] In step S2102, when the system information of the communication system changes, the
first information is generated. Different from the embodiment shown in Fig. 2, in this
25 embodiment the first information further includes the updated system information, in addition to
the information indicating that the system information changes.
[124] Similar to the above embodiments, whether the system information of the communication
system changes or not may be judged by the main node (e.g. the base station) of the
communication system. For example, related information may be obtained from the
30 corresponding configuration file of the main node (the base station), to determine whether the
system information changes. The updated system information may also be obtained from the
corresponding configuration file of the base station.
[125] In step S2104, the cell, i.e. the first cell, to be used to transmit the first information to the
user equipment involved in the change of the system information is determined. The first cell
19
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here is the same as described above, the description of which is not repeated.
[126] When there is a change in the system information, the base station may judge to which
user equipment(s) (i.e. the user equipment(s) affected by the change) the change should be
notified based on corresponding configuration files, determines the special cell of each of the
5 user equipment(s) as the cell for transmitting the first information to the each of the user
equipment(s). The special cell of a user equipment can be determined by using the method as
described above, the description of which is not repeated here.
[127] Then in step S2106, the first information is sent to the user equipment via the first cell.
[128] Since the first cell is always kept in connection with the main node (e.g. the base station).
10 Thus, by using the above method, the case that the user equipment can not receive the updated
system information can be avoided.
[129] Fig. 22 and Fig. 23 respectively show the processes of transmitting the first information
containing the updated system information to the user equipment via the first cell.
[130] In the example of Fig. 22, the step of transmitting the first information to the user
is equipment via the first cell may include sub-steps 52206-1 and S2206-2. In sub-step 52206-1,
the first information containing the updated system information generated in step 52102 is
encapsulated in a dedicated signaling (also called as the first dedicated signaling). Then in
sub-step S2206-2, the first dedicated signaling is sent to the user equipment via the first cell.
That is, the first dedicated signaling is sent via the dedicated channel of the first cell.
20 [131] In the example of Fig. 23, the step of transmitting the first information to the user
equipment via the first cell may include sub-steps 52306-1 and S2306-2. In sub-step 52306-1,
the first information containing the updated system information generated in step S2102 is
encapsulated in a broadcast signaling (also called as the first broadcast signaling). Then in
sub-step 52306-2, the first broadcast signaling is sent to the user equipment via the broadcast
25 channel of the first cell. Compared with the method of using the dedicated signaling shown in
Fig. 22, using the broadcast signaling as shown in Fig. 23 can effectively reduce the signaling
load of the system.
[132] Fig. 24 to Fig. 26 show examples of receiving the updated system information by the user
equipment.
30 [133] Fig. 24 shows a method of receiving the updated system information by the user
equipment in the CA-S communication system based on the embodiment of Fig. 21.
[134] As shown in Fig. 24, the method includes steps S2407 and S2409.
[135] In step S2407, the user equipment receives the first information the transmitted by the base
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station via the first cell. The first information contains information indicating that the system
information changes and the updated system information. In other words, the user equipment
listens to the component carrier (also called as the first component carrier) corresponding to the
first cell to receive the first information.
5 [136] In step S2409, the user equipment pareses the first information to get aware of the change
of the system information and to obtain the updated system information.
[137] By using the method, the user equipment may get the updated system information in time.
Since the user equipment keeps being connected with the base station via the first cell (i.e. the
special cell), the case that the user equipment can not receive the updated system information can
10 be avoided. In addition, by using the first cell, the user equipment needs not to listen to all the
cells corresponding to its supportable component carriers, thereby reducing the power
consumption of the user equipment significantly and lengthening the lift time of the battery of
the user equipment.
[138] The transmitting process of Fig. 21 and the receiving process of Fig. 24 constitute an
15 example of updating the system information in the CA-S communication system.
[139] Fig. 25 shows a receiving process corresponding to the transmitting process of Fig. 22. As
shown in Fig. 22, the first information is encapsulated in a dedicated signaling (the first
dedicated signaling) and is sent to the user equipment via the dedicated channel of the first cell.
Thus in step S2507, the user equipment receives the first dedicated signaling containing the first
20 information via its first cell. In other words, the user equipment listens to the dedicated channel
of the first cell to receive the first dedicated signaling. Similar to step S2409, in step S2509 the
user equipment pareses the first dedicated signaling to obtain the updated system information.
[140] Fig. 26 shows a receiving process corresponding to the transmitting process of Fig. 23 As
shown in Fig. 23, the first information is encapsulated in a broadcast signaling (the first
25 broadcast signaling) and is sent to the user equipment via the broadcast channel of the first cell.
Thus in step S2607, the user equipment receives the first broadcast signaling containing the first
information via the broadcast channel of the first cell. In other words, the user equipment listens
to the broadcast channel of the first cell to receive the first broadcast signaling. Step S2609 is
similar to step S2409 or S2509, the description of which is not repeated here.
30 [141] The transmitting process of Fig. 22 and the receiving process of Fig. 25, the transmitting
process of Fig. 23 and the receiving process of Fig. 26 respectively constitute examples of
updating the system information of the disclosure. Compared with the methods of using the
dedicated signaling in Fig. 22 and Fig. 25, using the broadcast signaling as shown in Fig. 23 and
Fig. 26 can effectively reduce the signaling load of the system.
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[142] In addition, by using the first cell (the dedicated channel or the broadcast channel) , the
user equipment needs not to listen to all the cells corresponding to its supportable component
carriers, thereby reducing the power consumption of the user equipment significantly and
lengthening the lift time of the battery of the user equipment.
5 [143] In addition, the change of system information described in the disclosure may include any
change in the system information resulted from the change of the system configuration and
architecture. For example, the change may include but not limited to: adding a carrier segment to
an activated component carrier, adding an extension carrier, activating (adding) a new
component carrier, and the like. Thus, the updated system information may include any system
to information related to such changes. For example, when adding a carrier segment to an activated
component carrier, the updated system information may include configuration information
related to the carrier segment; when adding an extension carrier for a user equipment, the
updated system information may include configuration information related to the extension
carrier;, when adding an extension carrier, activating (adding) a new component carrier, the
15 updated system information may include configuration information related to the new
component carrier, the description of which is not detailed herein.
[144] Fig. 27 shows a method of providing the system information in the case a component
carrier is to be added according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
20 [145] As shown in Fig. 27, the method includes steps S2702, S2704, S2706 and S2708.
[146] In step S2702, when a component carrier is to be added, the first information is generated.
The first information may include the information indicating that a component carrier is to be
added and the system information related to the component carrier.
[147] In step 82704, the cell (the first cell) to be used to transmit the first information to the user
25 equipment for which component carrier is to be added is determined. The first cell herein has
been described above and will not be repeated here.
[148] Particularly, the base station determines the special cell of the user equipment based on
corresponding configuration file, as the cell for transmitting the first information to the user
equipment. The special cell of the user equipment can be determined by using the method
30 described above, the description of which is not repeated here.
[149] In step S2706, the first information is encapsulated in a dedicated signaling (also called as
the second dedicated signaling). Then in step S2708, the second dedicated signaling is sent to the
user equipment via the first cell. That is, the second dedicated signaling is transmitted via the
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dedicated channel of the first cell.
[150] Since the first cell is always kept in connection with the main node (e.g. the base station).
Thus, by using the above method, the system information related to the component carrier to be
added can be sent to the user equipment in time. And the case that the user equipment can not
5 receive the updated system information can be avoided.
[151] Fig. 28 shows an example of receiving the system information corresponding to the
transmitting process of Fig. 27.
[152] As shown in Fig. 28, the method includes steps S2807, S2809 and S2811.
[153] In step S2807, the user equipment receives the second dedicated signaling via the
10 dedicated channel of the first cell.
[154] In step S2809, the user equipment parses the second dedicated signaling, to obtain the
component carrier to be added and to obtain the system information related to the component
carrier.
[155] In step 52811, the user equipment configures the component carrier to be added based on
15 the system information so as to activate the component carrier.
[156] By using the method, the user equipment may obtain the updated system information in
time. Since it keeps in connection with the base station via the first cell (the special. cell), the
case that the system information can not be received is avoided. In addition, by using the
dedicated signaling, the CA-NS user equipment will not receive such information.
20 [157] The transmitting process of Fig. 27 and the receiving process of Fig. 28 constitute an
example of updating the system information in the CA-S communication system.
[158] In an example, the component carrier to be added maybe an extension carrier. And in such
a case, step $2706 may include encapsulating the configuration information related to the
extension carrier in the second dedicated signaling. Accordingly, after the user equipment
25 receives the second dedicated signaling containing the configuration information related to the
extension carrier, it parses the second dedicated signaling to obtain the configuration information
and configures the extension carrier based on configuration information.
[159] In another example, the component carrier to be added may include a carrier segment to be
attached to the component carrier. In this case, the network side (the base station) of the
30 communication system may transmit the configuration information related to carrier segment to
the user equipment via the first cell. As an example, the configuration information related to the
carrier segment and the system information related to the component carrier to be added both
may be encapsulated in the second dedicated signaling. Accordingly, the user equipment receives
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the system information related to the component carrier via the dedicated channel of the first cell
and configures the component carrier based on the information. If the configuration information
related to the carrier segment and the system information related to the component carrier to be
added both are encapsulated in the second dedicated signaling, the user equipment may further
5 obtain the configuration information related to the carrier segment by parsing the second
dedicated signaling and configure the carrier segment based on the configuration information.
[160] In an example, the system information related to the component carrier to be added may
include transmission bandwidth configuration information and frequency band indicator
information related to the component carrier to be added. If the component carrier to be added is
10 used for uplink transmission or if the component carrier to be added is used for downlink
transmission but uplink information needs to be configured for it, the system information related
to the component carrier to be added may further include the uplink carrier frequency, the uplink
transmission bandwidth and the configuration information of uplink channels of the component
carrier to be added. If the component carrier to be added is for downlink transmission, the system
15 information related to the component carrier to be added may further include the configuration
information of the downlink channels of the component carrier to be added.
[161] As an example, the system information may adopt the format of the system information
defined in LTE standard. The system information may include main information block (MIB)
and one or more system information block (SIB). The MIB contains some most important
20 information and related parameters for obtaining other important information from the cell, such
as the downlink bandwidth configuration, the physical hybrid automatic repeat request indicator
channel configuration, and the like. An SIB may include information such as whether the user
equipment is allowed to be connected to a cell, the radio resource configuration information of
the user equipment, the cell reselection information, and the like.
25 ` 1162] As described above, the second dedicated signaling may be newly defined signaling, or
may be an extension to a known signaling. As an example, the second dedicated signaling may
be an extension to the radio resource control connection reconfiguration message (e.g.
RRCConnectionReconfigurationmessage). In this case, step S2706 may include encapsulating
the first information in the radio resource control connection reconfiguration message. By using
30 the known signaling, the trouble of redefining a new message structure is avoided.
[163] As an example, the extension to the radio resource control connection reconfiguration
message (RRCConnectionReconfiguration) may include the system information, such as MIB,
SIB 1, and SIB2, etc. Particularly, MIB may include the following:
dl-Bandwidth: transmission bandwidth configuration information, i.e. the number of RBs
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in the downlinks.
phich-Config: PHICH (Physical hybrid-ARQ indicator channel) channel configuration
information.
[164] SIBI may include: fregBandlndicator: which is a frequency indicator flag.
5 [165] If the component carrier to be added is for uplink transmission or it needs to configure the
uplink information of a downlink component carrier, SIB2 may include the following:
ul-CarrierFreq: carrier frequency.
ui-Bandwidth: uplink transmission bandwidth, i.e. the number of RBs in the uplink.
rach-Config: RACH (Random Access Channel) channel configuration information.
10 prach-Config: PRACH (Physical Random Access Channel) channel configuration
information.
pusch-Config: PUSCH (Physical uplink shared channel) channel configuration
information.
pucch-Config : PUCCH (Physical uplink control channel) channel configuration
15 information.
soundingRS-UL-Config: SoundingRS uplink configuration information.
uplinkPowerControl: uplink power control
ul-CyclicPrefixLength: uplink cyclic prefix length.
[166] If the component carrier to be added is for downlink transmission, SIB2 may include:
20 mbsfn-SubframeConfigList: the subframe list reserved for MBSFN (Multimedia
Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency Network) of downlink.
bcch-Config: BCCH channel configuration information.
pcch-Config: PCCH (Paging Control Channel) channel configuration information.
pdsch-Config: PDSCH (Physical downlink shared channel) channel configuration
25 information.
[167] Of course, the above system information is merely an example, and the disclosure is not
limited to this. In addition, when using a dedicated signaling, the system information may be
transferred in the format of an increment signaling. For example, the related information of the
first cell may be used as default information, and in this case, the update of the related
30 information may be identified with an on flag "ON". For example, when the on flag "ON" is 1, it
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means that there is update in the related information; and when the flag "ON" is 0, it means that
there is no update in the related information. When receiving the system information transmitted
via an increment signaling, the user equipment may determine which part's the system
information is updated.
s [168] The second dedicated signaling and the third dedicated signaling both can be transmitted
in the format of an increment signaling. When the system information or the updated system
information is sent via a dedicated signaling, the signaling may also adopt the format of an
increment signaling. For example, when being transmitted by using a dedicated signaling, the
updated system information may include only the part of system information related to the
10 change, while the other information that is irrelevant to the change is excluded. For another
example, the second dedicated signaling may include only the system information that is related
to the component carrier to be added or to the carrier segment and that affects the CA
transmission.
[169] Fig. 37 is a schematic diagram showing the process of obtaining the updated system
15 information by the user equipment when a component carrier is added under carrier aggregation
scenario (i.e. obtaining the system information related to the component carrier to be added). As
shown in Fig. 37, it is supposed that the cell corresponding to the component carrier CC1 of the
user equipment UE is the first cell (the special cell) of the user equipment and that a component
carrier CC2 is to be added for the user equipment. Firstly, the user equipment establishes an RRC
20 (Radio Resource Control) connection with CC I (the special cell) (the RRC connection can be
established by using any appropriate method, the description of which is omitted). The system
information of the component carrier CC2 to be added may be carried by using the extension of
the RRCConnectionReconfiguration message. The user equipment may obtain the message via
the cell corresponding to CC 1. Then the user equipment may activate the component carrier CC2
25 , by using the system information contained in the message. By using this method, the CA
transmission may be facilitated. .
Extension Carrier
[170] An extension carrier is a carrier that can not be used independently; it belongs to a set of
30 component carriers which includes at least one carrier that can be used independently. The
extension carrier has to coexist with a carrier that can be used independently. Generally the
extension carrier is not used to transfer the system information. When an extension carrier is to
be added to a currently used component carrier, the related system information may be
transferred by using the transmitting and receiving methods as shown in Fig. 27 and Fig. 28. 14
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[171] Further, the channel configuration of the extension carrier may be different from that of
other types of carriers. For example, an extension carrier does not contain RACH, PDCCH, and
PUCCH channels, and the like. Thus, when transmitting the system information in SIB2, such
information can be omitted. In this way, the amount of transmitted information can be further
s reduced.
[172] By using the method as shown in Fig. 27 and Fig. 28 to transmit and receive the system
information related to the extension carrier by using the dedicated signaling of the first cell, the
overhead for listening to the broadcast channel can be avoided.
[173] As described above, the change of the system information may include the case of adding
10 an extension carrier. In other words, the methods shown in Figs. 2-26 and the apparatuses and
systems shown in Figs. 31-36 to be described below may also be applied to transmit and receive
the system information related to the extension carrier, the description of which is not repeated
here.
is Carrier Segment
[174] A carrier segment can be considered as a backward compatible data transmission
extension on component carrier, in which some consecutive resources blocks are attached to a
backward compatible component carrier so that the resulted component carrier can be used a
backward incompatible component carrier to be sued by the LTE-A user equipment.
20 [175] The methods of providing and receiving the system information shown in Figs. 27-28 may
be applied to the case that the component carrier to be added contains a carrier segment.
[176] The methods of providing and receiving the system information and the methods of
updating the system information shown in Fig. 2 to Fig. 26 each can be applied to the case of
attaching a carrier segment to a currently used (activated) component carrier. As an example, in
25 such case, the first information / the notification information may include information indicating
the carrier segment to be added. As another example , the carrier segment to be added to the
currently used component carrier may be expressed by an indicator (also referred to the third
indicator, e.g. CarrierSegmentlndicator). If a CA-NS user equipment receives the information
transmitted from the base station, it may judge whether to accept the system information based
30 on the third indicator. If the third indicator indicates that a carrier segment is to be added, the
CA-NS user equipment will not accept the system information. That is, the scenario of adding a
carrier segment will not affects the CA-NS user equipments.
[177] In an example, if the method shown in Fig. 11, Fig. 13, or Fig. 15 is used to add a carrier
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segment to a currently used component carrier (i.e. transmitting the first information /the
notification information via the first cell by using a dedicated signaling and transmitting
configuration information related to the carrier segment via the broadcast channel of the
corresponding cell, i.e. the cell corresponding to the component carrier to which the carrier
5 segment is to be added), the base station may encapsulate the first information or the notification
information containing the third indicator in the first dedicated signaling in which the third
indicator is set as valid. In the broadcast channel of the corresponding cell, the system
information related to the carrier segment is broadcast via the second broadcast signaling.
However, no update notification is added in the second broadcast signaling, so as to be
10 compatible with LTE Release 8. For a user equipment which does not support LTE-A, the change
of the system information is transparent. That is, if a user equipment does not support LTE-A, it
will not receive the first dedicated signaling and will not listen to the broadcast channel of the
corresponding cell on which the updated system information is transferred. After a user
equipment supporting LTE-A receives the first information or notification information and
15 determines that the third indicator is valid, it begins to listen to the broadcast channel of the
corresponding, to receive the updated system information.
[178] In another example, if the method shown in Fig. 12, Fig. 14, or Fig. 15 is used to add a
carrier segment to a currently used component carrier (i.e. transmitting the first information /the
notification information via the broadcast channel of the first cell and transmitting configuration
20 information related to the carrier segment via the broadcast channel of the corresponding cell, i.e.
the cell corresponding to the component carrier to which the carrier segment is to be added), the
base station may encapsulate the first information or the notification information containing the
third indicator in the first broadcast signaling in which the third indicator is set as valid. In the
broadcast channel of the corresponding cell, the updated system information, i.e. the system
25 information related to the carrier segment, is broadcast via the second broadcast signaling. If a
user equipment does not support LTE-A, it will not listen to the broadcast channel of the
corresponding cell on which the updated system information is transferred (or ignore the
broadcast updated system information ) after it receives the first information or the notification
information and determines that the third indicator is valid. After a user equipment supporting
30 LTE-A receives the first information or notification information and determines that the third
indicator is valid, it begins to listen to the broadcast channel of the corresponding, to receive the
updated system information
[179] Fig. 29 shows a method of providing the system information related to a carrier segment in
the case that the carrier segment is to be attached to a currently used component carrier
35 according to another embodiment of the disclosure. In the method of Fig. 29, the related system
194
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information is transmitted to the, user equipment directly via the cell corresponding to the
currently used component carrier.
[180] As shown in Fig. 29, in step S2902, when adding a carrier segment to the currently used
component carrier, the system information related to the carrier segment is generated, and the
5 information indicating that a carrier segment is to be added may also be generated. Particularly,
the system information may be obtained from corresponding configuration file by the base
station of the communication system. In step S2904, the generated information is sent via the cell
corresponding to the currently used component carrier. As an example, the system information
can be encapsulated in a dedicated signaling (also called as the fourth dedicated signaling), and
10 the fourth dedicated signaling is transmitted via the dedicated channel of the cell. As another
example, the system information can be encapsulated in a broadcast signaling (also called as the
third broadcast signaling), and the third broadcast signaling is transmitted via the broadcast
channel of the cell.
[181] Fig. 30 shows a method of receiving the system information related to the carrier segment
15 when adding the carrier segment to the currently used component carrier, which corresponds to
the transmitting process shown Fig. 29. As shown in Fig. 30, in step S3003 the user equipment
receives the system information related to the carrier segment and the information indicating that
the carrier segment is to be added via the cell corresponding to the currently used component
carrier. In step S3005 , the user equipment configures the carrier segment based on the system
20 information, to activate the carrier segment. In the case that the system information is
encapsulated in the fourth dedicated signaling, the user equipment receives the fourth dedicated
signaling via the dedicated channel of the cell, parses the fourth dedicated signaling to obtain the
system information , and configures the carrier segment based on the system information. In the
case that the system information is encapsulated in the third broadcast signaling , the user
25 , equipment receives the third broadcast signaling by listening to the broadcast channel of the cell,
parses the third broadcast signaling to obtain the system information, and configures the carrier
segment based on the system information.
[182] The transmitting method shown in Fig. 29 and the receiving method shown in Fig. 30 may
also be used to add an extension carrier to a currently used component carrier, the description of
30 which is not repeated here.
[183] Fig. 31 shows an apparatus of providing the system information in the CA-S
communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in Fig. 31, the
apparatus includes: an information generated device 3102 , a cell determining device 3104 and a
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transmitting device 3106.
[184] The information generated device 3102 may generate the first information when the
system information of the communication system changes. The first information contains
information that the system information changes. The related information can be obtained from
5 the corresponding configuration file in the base station of the communication system, to
determine whether the system information changes or not.
[185] The cell determining device 3104 may determines the first cell of a user equipment
involved in the change of the system information. The first cell is one of the cells to which the
user equipment is connected, and corresponds to a component carrier which is being used by the
10 user equipment and is kept in connection with the base station of the communication system. The
first cell (the special cell) is the same as described above, the description of which is not repeated
here. The cell determining device 3104 may determine the special cell of the user equipment by
using the above method, the description of which is not repeated here.
[186] The transmitting device 3106 may transmit the first information to the user equipment via
15 the first cell.
[187] The above apparatus maybe configured at the network side of the communication system,
for example may be configured in the base station of the communication system. In the CA-S
communication system, the first cell always keeps in connection with the main node (e.g. the
base station) of the communication system. Thus, by using the above apparatus, the case that the
20 user equipment can not receive the updated system information can be avoided, so that the
system information can be updated or provided in time. In addition, the base station needs not to
transmit the system information or notify the update of the system information via each of the
cells supported by the user equipment, thereby decreasing the signaling load of the whole
system.
25 [188] In an example, the information generated device 3102 may be further configured to
encapsulate the first information in a dedicated signaling (the first dedicated signaling), and the
transmitting device 3106 may transmit the first dedicated signaling to the user equipment via the
first cell, i.e. via the dedicated channel of the first cell.
[189] In another example, the information generated device 3102 may be further configured to
30 encapsulate the first information in a broadcast signaling (the first broadcast signaling) and the
transmitting device 3106 may transmit the first broadcast signaling to the user equipment via the
broadcast channel of the first cell.
[190] Fig. 32 shows an apparatus of receiving the system information in the CA-S
communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in Fig. 32, the Sir
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apparatus includes: a receiving device 3203 and a control device 3205.
[191] The receiving device 3203 may receive the first information containing the information
indicating that the system information changes via the first cell.
[192] The control device 3205 parses the first information to obtain the information indicating
5 that the system information changes.
[193] The apparatus of receiving the system information may be configured in the user
equipment of the communication system. With apparatus of receiving the system information,
the user equipment can know the change of the system information in time. Since the first cell
(the special cell) is always connected to the base station, the case that the information can not be
10 received is avoided. In addition, the user equipment needs not to listen to all the cells
corresponding to all of its supportable component carriers, by which the power consumption of
the user equipment can be reduced significantly and the life time of the battery of the user
equipment can be lengthened.
[194] In the case that the first information is encapsulated in the first dedicated signaling, the
15 receiving device 3203 may be configured to: receive the first dedicated signaling containing the
first information via the first cell, i.e. via the dedicated channel of the first cell.
[195] In the case that the first information is encapsulated in the first broadcast signaling, the
receiving device 3203 may receive the first broadcast signaling containing the first information
via the broadcast channel of the first cell, e.g. by listening to the broadcast channel of the first
20 cell.
[196] According to an embodiment, a CA-S communication system may include the above
apparatus of providing the system information and the apparatus of receiving the system
information, for transferring and updating the system information.
[197] Similartothe methods shown in Fig. 2 to Fig. 8, the first information may include only the
25 information indicating that the system information changes (also called as the notification
information). The apparatuses of transmitting and receiving the same are described below with
reference to Fig. 33 and Fig. 34.
[198] As another embodiment, the first information generated by the information generated
device 3102 may also include the updated system information, and the transmitting device 3106
30 may transmit the first information containing the updated system information to the user
equipment via the first cell (e.g. by the first broadcast signaling or the first dedicated signaling).
And at the si& of the user equipment, the control device 3205 parses the first information to
obtain the updated system information. As an example, the first information may also include the
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information indicating whether the change of the system information affects the CA transmission
(also called as the third information). For example, the third information may indicate the system
information of which part(s) of the communication system changes and the user equipment (the
control device) may determine whether the CA transmission is affected by this information.
5 [199] As another embodiment, the change of the system information may include the case of
adding a carrier segment and/or an extension carrier to a currently used component carrier. In
this case, the first information may include the system information related to the carrier segment
and/or the extension carrier. When the receiving device 3203 receives the first information via
the first cell (e.g. by the first broadcast signaling or the first dedicated signaling), the control
10 device 3205 parses the first information to know that the carrier segment and/or the extension
carrier is to be added and to obtain the system information related to the carrier segment and/or
the extension carrier, and then configure the carrier segment and/or the extension carrier based
on the system information.
15 [200] Fig. 33 shows an apparatus of notifying update of the system information in a CA-S
communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in Fig. 33, the
apparatus includes: a notification generating device 3302, a cell determining device 3304 and a
transmitting device 3306.
[201] The notification generating device 3302 may generate the notification information
20 indicating that the system information changes when the system information of the
communication system changes. The notification information is an example of the first
information.
[202] The cell determining device 3304 determines the first cell of a user equipment involved in
the change of the system information. The first cell is one of the cells to which the user
25 equipment is connected, and corresponds to a component carrier which is being used by the user
equipment and is kept in connection with the base station of the communication system. The first
cell (the special cell) is the same as described above, the description of which is not repeated
here. The cell determining device 3104 may determine the special cell of the user equipment by
using the above method, the description of which is not repeated here. The cell determining
3o device 3304 may determine the special cell of the user equipment by using any of the above
described method, the description of which is not repeated here.
[203] The transmitting device 3306 may transmit to the user equipment the notification
information via the first cell.
[2041 In an example, the notification generating device 3302 may encapsulate the notification
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information in a dedicated signaling (the first dedicated signaling), and the transmitting device
3306 transmits the first dedicated signaling to the user equipment via the first cell, via the
dedicated channel of the first cell. In another example, the notification generating device 3302
may encapsulate the notification information in a broadcast signaling (the first broadcast
5 signaling), and the transmitting device 3306 transmits the first broadcast signaling to the user
equipment via the broadcast channel of the first cell.
[205] Fig. 34 shows an apparatus of receiving the notification of update of the system
information in a CA-S communication system according to an embodiment of the disclosure. As
shown in Fig. 34, the apparatus includes: a notification receiving device 340 and a control device
10 3405.
[206] The notification receiving device 3403 receives via the first cell the notification
information transmitted from the network side of the communication system (the base station).
The notification information contains information indicating that the system information
changes.
15 [207] The control device 3405 parses the notification information to get aware that the system
information of the communication system changes.
[208] The apparatus of receiving the notification may be configured in the user equipment of the
communication system. With the apparatus, the user equipment can get the notification of the
change of the system information in time. Since the first cell (the special cell) is always
20 connected to the base station, the case that the information can not be received is avoided. In
addition, the user equipment needs not to listen to all the cells corresponding to all of its
supportable component carriers, by which the power consumption of the user equipment can be
reduced significantly and the life time of the battery of the user equipment can be lengthened.
[209] If the notification information is encapsulated in the first dedicated signaling, the receiving
25 device 3403 may be configured to: receive the first dedicated signaling containing the notification
information via the first cell, i.e. via the dedicated channel of the first cell.
[210] In the case that the notificationinformation is encapsulated in the first broadcast signaling,
the receiving device 3403 may receive the first broadcast signaling containing the notification
information via the broadcast channel of the first cell, e.g. by listening to the broadcast channel
30 of the first cell.
[211] In an example, the notification generating device 3302 may encapsulate the updated
system information in a broadcast signaling (the second broadcast signaling), and the
transmitting device 3306 may transmit the second broadcast signaling to the user equipment via
the broadcast channel of the cell (the second cell) corresponding to the component carrier
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involved in the change of the system information. In this case, at the side of the user equipment,
the control device 3405 parses the notification information to know the change of the system
information, and indicates the receiving device 3403 to listen to the broadcast channels of all the
cells corresponding to all of the component carriers supported by the user equipment, to receive
5 the updated system information transmitted from the network side (the base station) of the
communication system.
[212] As another example, the notification information generated by the notification generating
device 3302 may further include the information for identifying a component carrier involved in
the change of the system information (the second information). When the receiving device 3403
10 of the user equipment receives the notification information containing the second information,
the control device 3405 parses the notification information to obtain the second information to
know the component carrier involved in the change of the system information based on the
second information, and then instructs the receiving device 3403 to listen to the broadcast
channel of the cell corresponding to this component carrier to receive the updated system
15 information. Thus the user equipment needs not to listen to all the cells, by which the power
consumption of the user equipment can be reduced and the life time of the battery of the user
equipment can be lengthened.
[213] As another example, the notification information generated by the notification generating
device 3302 may further include information (the third information) for identifying whether the
20 change of the system information affects the CA transmission. When the receiving device 3403
of the user equipment receives the notification information containing the third information, the
control device 3405 parses the notification information to obtain the third information, and based
on the third information, decides whether to receive the updated system information. For
example, if the user equipment supports CA and the third information indicates that the change
25 , of the system-information does not affect CA transmission, the control device 3405 may choose
to not receive the updated system information, and i.e. it does not instruct the receiving device
3403 to receive the updated system information. If the user equipment does not support CA and
the third information indicates that the change of the system information affects the CA
transmission, the user equipment chooses to not receive the updated system information. If the
30 control device 3405 determines that the change of the system information affects the CA
transmission based on the third information and decides to receive the updated system
information, it instructs the receiving device 3403 to listen to the corresponding cell to receive
the updated system information.
[214] As another example, the notification generating device 3302 may encapsulate the updated
35 system information in a dedicated signaling (also called as the third dedicated signaling) and the `9 (4
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signaling may be transmitted and received via the dedicated channel of the second cell. In the
embodiment, the notification information includes the information (the second information) for
identifying the component carrier involved in the change of the system information. When the
receiving device 3403 of the user equipment receives the notification information containing the
5 second information, the control device 3405 parses the notification information to obtain the
second information, and based on the second information, instructs the receiving device 3403 to
listen to the dedicated channel of the cell corresponding to this component carrier, so as to
receive the updated system information. In the embodiment, the user equipment needs not to
listen to other cells corresponding to the other component carriers supported by it, by which the
10 power consumption of the user equipment can be reduced and the life time of the battery of the
user equipment can be lengthened.
[215] Similar to the above method embodiments, the broadcast signaling and/or the dedicated
signaling may be newly defined signaling, or may be extension to known signaling, the
description of which are omitted herein.
1s [216] According to an embodiment, a CA-S communication system may include the above
apparatus of notifying the update of the system information and the apparatus of receiving the
notification of the update of the system information, for notifying the update of the system
information.
20 [217] Fig. 35 shows an apparatus of transmitting the system information when adding a
component carrier according to an embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in Fig. 35, the
apparatus includes: a dedicated signaling generating device 3502, a cell determining device 3504
and a transmitting device 3506.
[218] The dedicated signaling generating device 3502 may generate the first information when a
25 component carrier is to added, the first information includes the information indicating that the
component carrier is to be added and the system information related to the component carrier to
be added. The dedicated signaling generating device 3502 may be configured to encapsulate the
first information in the second dedicated signaling.
[219] The cell determining device 3504 may determine the first cell of the user equipment
30 involved in the change of the system information. The first cell (the special cell) is the same as
described above, the description of which is not repeated here. The cell determining device 3104
may determine the special cell of the user equipment by using the above method, the description
of which is not repeated here. The cell determining device 3304 may determine the special cell
of the user equipment by using any of the above described method, the description of which is
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not repeated here. The cell determining device 3504 may determine the special cell of the user
equipment by using any of the above described methods, the description of which is not repeated
here.
[220] The transmitting device 3506 transmits the second dedicated signaling to the user
5 equipment via the first cell, via the dedicated channel of the first cell.
[221] Fig. 36 shows an apparatus of receiving the system information when a component carrier
is to be added, which corresponds to the apparatus of providing the system information shown in
Fig. 35. As shown in Fig. 36, the apparatus includes: a dedicated signaling receiving device 3603
and a control device 3605.
10 [222] The signaling receiving device 3603 may be configured to receive the second dedicated
signaling containing the first information which includes the system information related to the
component carrier to be added via the first cell. The control device 3605 is configured to parse
the second dedicated signaling to know that the component carrier is to be added and to obtain
the system information related to the component carrier, and then configure the component
15 carrier based on the system information related to this component carrier.
[223] Since the system information is transmitted via the first cell by using the dedicated
signaling, the user equipment needs not to listen to the broadcast channels of all the cells. In
addition, by using the dedicated signaling, such information becomes transparent to those
CA-NS user equipments.
20 [224] In an example, the component carrier to be added may be an extension carrier, and the first
information generated by the dedicated signaling generating device 3502 may further include the
system information related to the extension carrier. Accordingly, when the signaling receiving
device 3603 receives the second dedicated signaling containing the first information, the control
device 3605 parses the second dedicated signaling to know the extension carrier to be added and
25 to obtain the system information related to the extension carrier, and configures the extension
carrier based on the information.
[225] In another example, the component carrier to be added may include a carrier segment to be
attached to the component carrier. The dedicated signaling generating device 3502 is further
configured to generate the system information related to the carrier segment, and the transmitting
30 device 3506 is further configured to transmit the system information related to the carrier
segment to the user equipment via the first cell. For example, the system information related to
the carrier segment may be capsulated in the second dedicated signaling. Accordingly, when the
signaling receiving device 3603 receives the second dedicated signaling containing the first
information, the control device 3605 parses the signaling to obtain the first information to know
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the carrier segment is to be added and to obtain the system information related to the carrier
segment, and configures the carrier segment based on the information.
[226] According to an embodiment, a CA-S communication system may include the above
apparatuses of providing and receiving the system information, to transmit the system
5 information in the case a component carrier is added.
[227] The system information and the second dedicated signaling may have similar formats and
transmission mariners as described above with reference to Fig. 27 and Fig. 28, the description of
which is not repeated here.
[228] In some embodiments or examples, dedicated signaling is used during transmission of the
10 system information, and only important system information (e.g. the updated system information
or important information related to carrier aggregation, or the like) is transmitted, by which the
starting of the CA transmission is accelerated.
[229] In some embodiments or examples, during transmission of the system information, system
information update notification message is transmitted by using a cell (e.g. the special cell)
15 corresponding to a certain component carrier, by which the receipt accuracy of the system update
notification message is improved, the energy consumption of the user equipment and monitoring
load is lowered, and the life time of the battery of the user equipment is lengthened.
[230] It should be understood that the above embodiments and examples are illustrative, rather
than exhaustive. The present disclosure should not be regarded as being limited to any particular
20 embodiments or examples stated above.
[231] In the above embodiments and examples, the expressions, such as "the first", "the second",
and "the third" (e.g. the first dedicated signaling, and the second dedicated signaling, and the
like), are used. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that such expressions are used merely to
differentiate the terms in literal, and should not be considered as defining the sequence or the like
25 of the terms.
[232] As an example, the components, units or steps in the above apparatuses and methods can
be configured with software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof in the main node
(e.g. the base station) of the communication network, as part of the radio resource control
apparatus of the base station. The components, units or steps in the above resource allocating
30 apparatuses and methods can be configured with software, hardware, firmware or any
combination thereof by using any appropriate means or manners known in the art, the description
of which is not detailed herein.
[233] As an example, the above apparatuses and methods can be realized in an existing radio
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resource control apparatus of the base station by modifying the components of the existing radio
resource control apparatus.
[234] As an example, in the case of using software or firmware, programs constituting the
software for realizing the above method or apparatus can be installed to a computer with a
specialized hardware structure (e.g. the general purposed computer 3800 as shown in Figure 38)
from a storage medium or a network. The computer, when installed with various programs, is
capable of carrying out various functions.
[235] In Figure 38, a central processing unit (CPU) 3801 executes various types of processing in
accordance with programs stored in a read-only memory (ROM) 3802, or programs loaded from
10 a storage unit 3808 into a random access memory (RAM) 3803. The RAM 3803 also stores the
data required for the CPU 3801 to execute various types of processing, as required. The CPU
3801, the ROM 3802, and the RAM 3803 are connected to one another through a bus 3804. The
bus 3804 is also connected to an input/output interface 3-805.
[236] The input/output interface 3805 is connected to an input unit 3806 composed of a
15 keyboard, a mouse, etc., an output unit 3807 composed of a cathode ray tube or a liquid crystal
display, a speaker, etc., the storage unit 3808, which includes a hard disk, and a communication
unit 3809 composed of a modem, a terminal adapter, etc. The communication unit 3809 performs
corranunicating processing. A drive 3810 is connected to the input/output interface 3805, if
needed. In the drive 3810, for example, removable media 3811 is loaded as a recording medium
20 containing a program of the present invention. The program is read from the removable media
3811 and is installed into the storage unit 3808, as required.
[237] In the case of using software to realize the above consecutive processing, the programs
constituting the software may be installed from a network such as Internet or a storage medium
such as the removable media 3811.
25 [238] Those skilled in the art should understand the storage medium is not limited to the
removable media 3811, such as, a magnetic disk (including flexible disc), an optical disc
(including compact-disc ROM (CD-ROM) and digital versatile disk (DVD)), an magneto-optical
disc (including an MD (Mini-Disc) (registered trademark)), or a semiconductor memory, in
which the program is recorded and which are distributed to deliver the program to the user aside
30 from a main body of a device, or the ROM 3802 or the hard disc involved in the storage unit
3808, where the program is recorded and which are previously mounted on the main body of the
device and delivered to the user.
[239] The present disclosure further provides a program product having machine-readable
instruction codes which, when being executed, may carry out the methods according to the
t? 1^
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embodiments.
[240] Accordingly, the storage medium for bearing the program product having the
machine-readable instruction codes is also included in the disclosure. The storage medium
includes but not limited to a flexible disk, an optical disc, a magneto-optical disc, a storage card,
5 or a memory stick, or the like.
[241] In the above description of the embodiments, features described or shown with respect to
one embodiment may be used in one or more other embodiments in a similar or same manner, or
may be combined with the features of the other embodiments, or may be used to replace the
features of the other embodiments.
10 [242] As used herein, the terms the terms "comprise," "include," "have" and any variations
thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or
apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to those elements, but may
include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or
apparatus.
is [243] Further, in the disclosure the methods are not limited to a process performed in temporal
sequence according to the order described therein, instead, they can be executed in other
temporal sequence, or be executed in parallel or separatively. For example, in some
embodiments the step of determining the first cell may be performed before the step of
generating the first information or the notification information. That is, the executing orders
20 described above should not be regarded as limiting the method thereto.
[244] While some embodiments and examples have been disclosed above, it should be noted
that these embodiments and examples are only used to illustrate the present disclosure but not to
limit the present disclosure. Various modifications, improvements and equivalents can be made
by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Such
25 modifications, improvements and equivalents should also be regarded as being covered by the
protection scope of the present disclosure.
29
Sony China Ref: CNPA090321NOO
Sony Ref.: SP262367IN00
Claims
1. A method of providing system information in a communication system supporting carrier
aggregation, comprising:
5 generating, when there is a change in system information of the communication system,
first information which comprises information indicating that there is a change in system
information;
determining a first cell of a user equipment involved in the change in system information,
wherein the first cell is one of cells to which the user equipment is connected and corresponds to
10 a component carrier which is being used by the user equipment and is kept in connection with a
base station of the communication system; and
transmitting the first information to the user equipment via the first cell.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein transmitting the first information to the user
15 equipment via the first cell comprises:
encapsulating the first information in a first dedicated signaling; and
transmitting the first dedicated signaling to the user equipment via the first cell.
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein transmitting the first information to the user
20 equipment via the first cell comprises:
encapsulating the first information in a first broadcast signaling; and
transmitting the first broadcast signaling to the user equipment via a broadcast channel of
the first cell.
25 4. The method according to claim 2 or 3, further comprising:
encapsulating updated system information in a second broadcast signaling; and
transmitting the second broadcast signaling to the user equipment via a broadcast channel of
a second cell corresponding to a component carrier involved in the change in system
information.
30
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Sony China Ref.: CNPA09032FN00
Sony Ref.: SP2623671N00
5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the first information further comprises second
information identifying the component carrier involved in the change in system information.
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first information further comprises third
5 information indicating whether the change in system information affects carrier aggregation
transmission.
7. The method according to claim 1, wherein when the change in system information
comprises attaching a carrier segment to a component carrier involved in the change, the first
10 information further comprises configuration information associated with the carrier segment.
8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first information further comprises updated
system information.
is 9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the change in system information comprises
adding a component carrier for the user equipment, the first information further comprises
system information associated with the component carrier to be added, and transmitting the first
information to the user equipment via the first cell comprises:
encapsulating the first information in a second dedicated signaling; and
20 transmitting the second dedicated signaling to the user equipment via the first cell.
10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the component carrier to be added is an
extension carrier, and
wherein encapsulating the first information in the second dedicated signaling comprises:
25 encapsulating configuration information associated with the extension carrier in the second
dedicated signaling.
11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the component carrier to be added comprises
a carrier segment to be attached to the component carrier to be added, and the method further
30 comprises:
Sony China Ref.: CNPA09032IN00
Sony Ref: SP2623671N00
transmitting configuration information associated with the carrier segment to the user
equipment via the first cell.
12. The method according to claim 9, wherein the system information comprises
5 configuration information on transmission bandwidth and information indicating frequency
bands associated with the component carrier to be added.
13. The method according to claim 12, wherein:
when the component carrier to be added is for uplink transmission or when the component
to carrier to be added is for downlink transmission but needs uplink information to be configured,
the system information further comprises uplink carrier frequency, uplink transmission
bandwidth, configuration information for uplink channels of the component carrier to be added;
and
when the component carrier to be added is for downlink transmission, the system
15 information further comprises configuration information for downlink channels of the
component carrier to be added.
14. The method according to claim 9, wherein the second dedicated signaling is an
extension to an existing radio source control connection reconfiguration message, and
20 wherein encapsulating the first information in the second dedicated signaling comprises:
encapsulating the first information in the existing radio source control connection
reconfiguration message.
15. The method according to claim 9, wherein the second dedicated signaling comprises
25 only system information that is associated with the component carrier to be added and affects
carrier aggregation transmission.
16. An apparatus of providing system information in a communication system supporting
carrier aggregation, comprising:
30 an information generating device, configured to generate, when there is a change in system
information of the communication system, first information which comprises information
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Sony China Ref.: CNPA09032IN00
Sony Ref.: SP2623671N00
indicating that there is a change in system information;
a cell determining device, configured to determine a first cell of a user equipment involved
in the change in system information, wherein the first cell is one of cells to which the user
equipment is connected and corresponds to a component carrier which is being used by the user
5 equipment and is kept in connection with a base station of the communication system; and
a transmitting device, configured to transmit the first information to the user equipment via
the first cell.
17. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein:
10 the information generating device is further configured to encapsulate the first information
in a first dedicated signaling; and
the transmitting device is further configured to transmit the first dedicated signaling to the
user equipment via the first cell.
15 18. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein:
the information generating device is further configured to encapsulate the first information
in a first broadcast signaling; and
the transmitting device is further configured to transmit the first broadcast signaling to the
user equipment via a broadcast channel of the first cell.
20
19. The apparatus according to claim 17 or 18, wherein:
the information generating device is further configured to encapsulate updated system
information in a second broadcast signaling; and
the transmitting device is further configured to transmit the second broadcast signaling to
25 the user equipment via a broadcast channel of a second cell corresponding to a component carrier
involved in the change in system information.
20. The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the first information further comprises
second information identifying the component carrier involved in the change in system
30 information.
Sony China Ref: CNPA09032IN00
Sony Ref.: SP2623671N00
21. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the first information further comprises
third information indicating whether the change in system information affects carrier aggregation
transmission.
5
22. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein when the change in system information
comprises attaching a carrier segment to a component carrier involved in the change, the first
information further comprises configuration information associated with the carrier segment.
10 23. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the first information further comprises
updated system information.
24. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the change in system information
comprises adding a component carrier for the user equipment, the first information further
1s comprises system information associated with the component carrier to be added, and
wherein the information generating device is further configured to encapsulate the first
information in a second dedicated signaling; and the transmitting device is further configured to
transmit the second dedicated signaling to the user equipment via the first cell.
20 25. The apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the component carrier to be added is an
extension carrier, and the first information further comprises configuration information
associated with the extension carrier.
26. The apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the component carrier to be added
25 comprises a carrier segment to be attached to the component carrier to be added, and
wherein the transmitting device is further configured to transmit configuration information
associated with the carrier segment to the user equipment via the first cell.
27. The apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the system information comprises
30 configuration information on transmission bandwidth and information indicating frequency
bands associated with the component carrier to be added.
Sony China Ref.: CNPA09032IN00
Sony Ref.: SP2623671N00
28. The apparatus according to claim 27, wherein:
when the component carrier to be added is for uplink transmission or when the component
carrier to be added is for downlink transmission but needs uplink information to be configured,
5 the system information further comprises uplink carrier frequency, uplink transmission
bandwidth, configuration information for uplink channels of the component carrier to be added;
and
when the component carrier to be added is for downlink transmission, the system
information further comprises configuration information for downlink channels of the
10 component carrier to be added.
29. The apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the second dedicated signaling is an
extension to an existing radio source control connection reconfiguration message, and
wherein the information generating device is configured to encapsulate the first information
15 in the existing radio source control connection reconfiguration message.
30. The apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the second dedicated signaling comprises
only system information that is associated with the component carrier to be added and affects
carrier aggregation transmission.
20
31. A method of receiving system information in a communication system supporting
carrier aggregation, comprising:
receiving first information which comprises information indicating that there is a change in
system information of the communication system via a first cell corresponding to a component
25 carrier which is being used by a user equipment of the communication system and is kept in
connection with a base station of the communication system; and
parsing the first information, to obtain the information indicating that there is a change in
system information.
30 32. The method according to claim 31, wherein receiving the first information via the first
cell comprises:
45_
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receiving a first dedicated signaling in which the first information is encapsulated via the
first cell.
33. The method according to claim 31, wherein receiving the first information via the first
5 cell comprises:
receiving a first broadcast signaling in which the first information is encapsulated via a
broadcast channel of the first cell.
34. The method according to claim 32 or 33, wherein the first information further comprises
10 second information identifying a component carrier involved in the change in system
information, and the method further comprise:
obtaining the second information identifying the component carrier involved in the change
in system information from the first information; and
receiving a second broadcasting signaling in which updated system information is
is encapsulated via a broadcast channel of a second cell corresponding to the component carrier
involved.
35. The method according to claim 32 or 33, further comprising:
receiving a second broadcasting signaling in which updated system information is
20 encapsulated by listening to a broadcast channel of each cell corresponding to each component
carrier that is being used by the user equipment.
36. The method according to claim 31, wherein the first information further comprises third
information indicating whether the change in system information affects carrier aggregation
25 transmission, and the method further comprises:
judging whether to receive updated system information based on the third information.
37. The method according to claim 31 , wherein the change in system information comprises
attaching a carrier segment to a component carrier involved in the change, the first information
30 further comprises configuration information associated with the carrier segment, and
Sony China Ref.: CNPA090321N00
Sony Ref.: SP262367TN00
wherein the method further comprises:
obtaining the configuration information associated with the carrier segment from the first
information; and
configuring the carrier segment according to the configuration information associated with
5 the carrier segment.
38. The method according to claim 31, wherein the first information further comprises
updated system information, and the method further comprises:
obtaining the updated system information from the first information.
10
39. The method according to claim 31, wherein the change in system information comprises
adding a component carrier for the user equipment, the first information further comprises
system information associated with the component carrier to be added, and
wherein receiving the first information via the first cell comprises: receiving a second
is dedicated signaling in which the first information is encapsulated via the first cell, and
parsing the first information comprises: parsing the second dedicated signaling, to obtain
the system information associated with the component carrier to be added from the first
information, and
wherein the method further, comprises: configuring the component carrier to be added based
20 on the system information associated with the component carrier to be added.
40. The method according to claim 39, wherein the component carrier to be added is an
extension carrier, and
wherein receiving the second dedicated signaling in which the first information is
25 encapsulated via the first cell comprises: receiving the second dedicated signaling in which
configuration information associated with the extension carrier is encapsulated via the first cell.
41. The method according to claim 39, wherein the component carrier to be added
comprises a carrier segment to be attached to the component carrier to be added, and the method
30 further comprises:
Sony China Ref: CNPA090321N00
Sony Ref.: SP2623671N00
receiving configuration information associated with the carrier segment via the first cell;
and
configuring the carrier segment based on the configuration information associated with the
carrier segment.
5
42. The method according to claim 39, wherein the system information comprises
configuration information on transmission bandwidth and information indicating frequency
bands associated with the component carrier to be added.
10 43. The method according to claim 42, wherein:
when the component carrier to be added is for uplink transmission or when the component
carrier to be added is for downlink transmission but needs uplink information to be configured,
the system information further comprises uplink carrier frequency, uplink transmission
bandwidth, configuration information for uplink channels of the component carrier to be added;
is and
when the component carrier to be added is for downlink transmission, the system
information further comprises configuration information for downlink channels of the
component carrier to be added.
20 44. The method according to claim 39, wherein the second dedicated signaling is an
extension to an existing radio source control connection reconfiguration message.
45. The method according to claim 39 , wherein the second dedicated signaling comprises
only system information that is associated with the component carrier to be added and affects
25 carrier aggregation transmission.
46. An apparatus of receiving system information in a communication system supporting
carrier aggregation, comprising:
a receiving device, configured to receive first information which comprises information
30 indicating that there is a change in system information of the communication system via a first
cell corresponding to a component carrier which is being used by the apparatus and is kept in
-AsSony
China Ref.: CNPA09032IN00
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connection with a base station of the communication system; and
a control device, configured to parse the first information, to obtain the information
indicating that there is a change in system information.
5 47. The apparatus according to claim 46, wherein the receiving device is further configured
to receive a first dedicated signaling in which the first information is encapsulated via the first
cell.
48. The apparatus according to claim 46, wherein the receiving device is further configured
10 to receive a first broadcast signaling in which the first information is encapsulated via a
broadcast channel of the first cell.
49. The apparatus according to claim 47 or 48, wherein the first information further
comprises second information identifying a component carrier involved in the change in system
15 information, and the control device is further configured to:
obtain the second information identifying the component carrier involved in the change in
system information from the first information; and
control the receiving device to receive a second broadcasting signaling in which updated
system information is encapsulated via a broadcast channel of a second cell corresponding to the
20 component carrier involved.
50. The apparatus according to claim 47 or 48, wherein the receiving device is further
configured to receive a second broadcasting signaling in which updated system information is
encapsulated by listening to a broadcast channel of each cell corresponding to each component
25 carrier that is being used by the user equipment.
51. The apparatus according to claim 46, wherein the first information further comprises
third information indicating whether the change in system information affects carrier aggregation
transmission, and the control device is further configured to judge whether to receive updated
30 system information based on the third information.
Sony China Ref: CNPA09032INOO
Sony Ref.: SP262367TN00
52. The apparatus according to claim 46, wherein the change in system information
comprises attaching a cannier segment to a component carrier involved in the change, the first
information further comprises configuration information associated with the carrier segment, and
wherein the control device is further configured to obtain the configuration information
associated with the carrier segment from the first information, and configure the carrier segment
according to the configuration information associated with the carrier segment.
53. The apparatus according to claim 46, wherein the first information further comprises
updated system information, and the control device is further configured to obtain the updated
10 system information from the first information.
54. The apparatus according to claim 46, wherein the change in system information
comprises adding a component carrier for the apparatus, the first information further comprises
system information associated with the component carrier to be added, and
15 wherein the receiving device is further configured to receive a second dedicated signaling in
which the first information is encapsulated via the first cell, and
the control device is further configured to parse the second dedicated signaling to obtain the
system information associated with the component carrier to be added from the first information,
and configure the component carrier to be added the system information associated with the
20 component carrier to be added.
55. The apparatus according to claim 54, wherein the component carrier to be added is an
extension carrier, and
wherein the receiving device is further configured to receive the second dedicated signaling
25 in which configuration information associated with the extension carrier is encapsulated via the
first cell.
56. The apparatus according to claim 54, wherein the component carrier to be added
comprises a carrier segment to be attached to the component carrier to be added, and
30 wherein the receiving device is further configured to receive configuration information
associated with the carrier segment via the first cell; and the control device is further configured
_50-
Sony China Rer: CNPA09032rN00
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to configure the carrier segment based on the configuration information associated with the
carrier segment.
57. The apparatus according to claim 54, wherein the system information comprises
s configuration information on transmission bandwidth and information indicating frequency
bands associated with the component carrier to be added.
58. The apparatus according to claim 57, wherein:
when the component carrier to be added is for uplink transmission or when the component
to carrier to be added is for downlink transmission but needs uplink information to be configured,
the system information further comprises uplink carrier frequency, uplink transmission
bandwidth, configuration information for uplink channels of the component carrier to be added;
and
when the component carrier to be added is for downlink transmission, the system
rs information further comprises configuration information for downlink channels of the
component carrier to be added.
59. The apparatus according to claim 54, wherein the second dedicated signaling is an
extension to an existing radio source control connection reconfiguration message.
20
60. The apparatus according to claim 54, wherein the second dedicated signaling comprises
only system information that is associated with the component carrier to be added and affects
-
carrier aggregation transmission.
25 61. A method of providing and receiving system information in a communication system
supporting carrier aggregation , comprising:
generating, when there is a change in system information of the communication system,
first information which comprises information indicating that there is a change in system
information;
30 determining a first cell of a user equipment involved in the change in system information,
wherein the first cell is one of cells to which the user equipment is connected and corresponds to
51-
Sony China Ref.: CJPA09032IN00
Sony Ref.:SP262367IN00
a component carrier which is being used by the user equipment and is kept in connection with a
base station of the communication system;
transmitting the first information to the user equipment via the first cell;
receiving by the user equipment the first information via the first cell; and
s parsing by the user equipment the first infonnation, to obtain the information
there is a change in system information.
ndicating that
62. A communication system, supporting carrier aggregation, and cortiprising a first
pa idt^o ..; pCOT/1 Lag (^4tC'm LuJililatlen and tl L3 < i(.C;^Pvang CL1P. L }.+^:.i i1
1 0 information,
wherein the first apparatus comprises:
an information generating device, configured to generate, when there is a change in system
information of the communication system, first information which comprises information
indicating that there is a change in system information;
15 a cell determining device, configured to determine a first cell of a user equipment involved
in the change in system information, wherein the first cell is one of cells to which the user
equipment is connected and corresponds to a component carrier which is being used by the user
equipment and is kept in connection with a base station of the communication system; and
a transmitting device, configured to transmit the first information to the user equipment via
20 the first cell, and
wherein the second apparatus comprises:
a receiving device, configured to receive first information which comprises information
indicating that there is a change in system information of the communication system via a first
cell corresponding to a component carrier which is being used by the apparatus and is kept in
25 connection with a base station of the communication system; and
a control device, configured to parse the first information, to obtain the information
indicating that there is a change in system infonnation.