Claims:
CLAIMS
We claim:
1. A method for efficient voice bearer handling at Long Term Evolution (LTE) enabled devices, the method comprising:

receiving, by a Mobile Management Entity (MME), a UE capability information from a User Equipment (UE), wherein the UE capability information comprises of a radio bearer capability information associated with one or more radio bearers and a ROHC profile support enabled information associated with a ROHC profile;

transmitting, by the MME, the UE capability information to a Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW); and
enabling direct exchange of voice data packets between the UE and the PGW over the one or more radio bearers using the ROHC profile.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the bearer response comprises of a radio bearer capability information of the UE and ROHC profile support information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the MME stores one or more of radio capability information of the UE and ROHC profile support enabled information of the UE.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the ROHC profile information in at least one of the UE or the PGW.

5. A system for efficient bearer handling at Long Term Evolution (LTE) communication, the system comprising:
a user equipment (UE) operated by a user;
a radio network in wireless communication with the UE; wherein the radio network comprises a Mobile Management Entity (MME) adapted for:
receiving a setup message from an eNodeB (eNB) indicating termination of Robust Header Compression (ROHC) support feature at the eNodeB;
receiving a UE capability information from a User Equipment (UE), wherein the UE capability information comprises of a radio bearer capability information and an ROHC profile support enabled information; receiving, by the MME, a voice call bearer request from a Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW);
transmitting a bearer response indicating a transfer of UE capability to the PGW; and
enabling direct exchange of voice data packets between the UE and the PGW using the ROHC.

Dated this the 20th day of January 2016

Signature

KEERTHI J S
Patent agent
Agent for the applicant
, Description:FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
[39 of 1970]
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(Section 10; Rule 13)

METHOD FOR EFFICIENT VOICE BEARER HANDLING AT LONG TERM EVOLUTION (LTE) ENABLED USER EQUIPMENT (UE)

SAMSUNG R&D INSTITUTE INDIA – BANGALORE Pvt. Ltd.
# 2870, ORION Building, Bagmane Constellation Business Park,
Outer Ring Road, Doddanakundi Circle,
Marathahalli Post,
Bangalore -560037, Karnataka, India
Indian Company

The following Specification particularly describes the invention
and the method it is being performed

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to wireless communication and more particularly relates to a method for efficient voice bearer handling at long term evolution (LTE) enabled user equipment (UE).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Wireless communication systems are widely used to provide communication services of several data content like voice and data. Over the years, different communication systems have been realized to achieve the maximum efficiency possible. Systems like time division multiple access (TDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), long-term evolution (LTE), voice over LTE (VoLTE) share resources like bandwidth, transmit power and frequency among multiple users.

Prior to the realization of the LTE communication system, voice and data communication used circuit switching (CS) and packet switching (PS) technique respectively. The LTE system sent voice also in the form of packets, i.e., data packets. The inefficiency of considering voice as data surfaced in the form of large packet size and low size of the voice data. The large headers in the packets are generally larger than the voice information carried in the packet leading to low rate of information transfer. The available bandwidth being limited and hence should be used efficiently for maximum data transfer. Different compression techniques were formulated to tackle this issue. Robust Header Compression (ROHC) is one of a header compression algorithm, which is used for compressing the header of the data packets between user equipment (UE) and Evolved Node B (eNodeB or eNB). The ROHC algorithm avoids the resending of static information during data transfer. The complete data packet is sent once and the static information is stored at the other end. The redundant information is not included in the subsequent packets, hence, decreasing the packet size and increasing the rate of data transfer.

Voice continues to be the main service of LTE. It is estimated that 20% of the traffic is reserved for voice. Though, ROHC has led to optimum use of bandwidth between UE and eNB. But, optimization done on the handling of voice traffic in the LTE backhaul will yield better network utilization for the operator because backhaul capacity is still in the nascent stages in developing countries as the fiber optic deployment has not yet reached 100% levels. Many operations are still using Microwave or copper backhaul in their backhaul connectivity between core network and access network where data rates are around few hundred Mbps which is clearly not enough to match the data rates offered at LTE access sides. So the optimization in the backhaul traffic is more important to reap the full benefit of LTE technology.

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram 100 illustrating protocol architecture for transfer of voice data packets over RoHC between the UE and the packet data network gateway (PGW), according to an existing art. The schematic diagram 100 comprises of a UE 102, which is LTE enabled, an eNodeB 104, a LTE enabled serving gateway (LTE-SGW) 106, and a LTE enabled packet data network gateway (PGW) 108. According to the figure 1, when the UE 102 wishes to transfer voice data packets to the LTE-PGW 108, the UE 102 applies the ROHC function on the data packets, wherein the data packets can comprise of one or more of, but not limited to, Internet Protocol (IP), user datagram protocol (UDP), real-time transport protocol/RTP control protocol (RTP/RTCP) Header, Voice data, and the like. The RoHC comprising one or more data packets can be compressed and the complete packet is sent to the eNodeB 104. Upon receiving the compressed packets, the eNodeB 104 saves the static information related to the received RoHC. The header of the subsequent packets is compressed by not sending the static information. Upon receiving the RoHC, the eNodeB 104 decompresses the RoHC to obtain the data packets along with voice data packets in their actual size. The eNodeB 104 further transmits the decompressed data packets to the LTE PGW 108 via LTE SGW 106. Though this process reduces the bandwidth used, but it does so only between UE 102 and eNodeB 104. The bandwidth used by the packet from ENB 104 to PGW 108 is still very large and needs to be used more efficiently.

In view of the foregoing, there is a need of a efficient bearer handling mechanism at long term evolution (LTE) enabled user equipment (UE), and thereby efficiently using ROHC and extending the ROHC implementation to EPC nodes to optimize the VoLTE traffic.

The above mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein and which will be understood by reading and studying the following specification.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The various embodiments of the present invention disclose a method for efficient voice bearer handling at long term evolution (LTE) enabled user equipment (UE). The embodiments of the present invention provide ...

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for efficient voice bearer handling at Long Term Evolution (LTE) enabled devices, the method comprising steps of receiving, by a mobile management entity (MME), a UE capability information from a User Equipment (UE), wherein the UE capability information comprises of a radio bearer capability information and a ROHC profile support enabled information, transmitting, by the MME, a bearer response indicating a transfer of UE capability to a packet data network gateway (PGW), and enabling direct exchange of voice data packets between the UE and the PGW using the ROHC.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the bearer response comprises of radio bearer capability information of the UE and ROHC profile support information. According to another embodiment of the present invention, the MME stores one or more of radio capability information of the UE and ROHC profile support enabled information of the UE. According to another embodiment of the present invention, the method further comprises of storing the ROHC profile information in at least one of the UE or the PGW.

According an embodiment of the present invention, a system for efficient bearer handling at Long Term Evolution (LTE) communication, the system comprising a user equipment (UE) operated by a user, a radio network in wireless communication with the UE, wherein the radio network comprises a Mobile Management Entity (MME) adapted for receiving a setup message from an eNodeB (eNB) indicating termination of Robust Header Compression (ROHC) support feature at the eNodeB, receiving a UE capability information from a User Equipment (UE), wherein the UE capability information comprises of a radio bearer capability information and an ROHC profile support enabled information; receiving, by the MME, a voice call bearer request from a Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW), transmitting a bearer response indicating a transfer of UE capability to the PGW, and enabling direct exchange of voice data packets between the UE and the PGW using the ROHC.

The foregoing has outlined, in general, the various aspects of the invention and is to serve as an aid to better understand the more complete detailed description which is to follow. In reference to such, there is to be a clear understanding that the present invention is not limited to the method or application of use described and illustrated herein. It is intended that any other advantages and objects of the present invention that become apparent or obvious from the detailed description or illustrations contained herein are within the scope of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The other objects, features and advantages will occur to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiment and the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating protocol architecture for transfer of voice data packets over RoHC between the UE and the packet data network gateway (PGW), according to an existing art.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating protocol architecture for transfer of voice data packets over RoHC between the UE and the packet data network gateway (PGW), according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a schematic flow diagram illustrating switching of RoHC function at eNodeB, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a schematic flow diagram illustrating transfer of voice traffic RoHC function from UE to PGW, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 5 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method for efficient voice bearer handling at Long Term Evolution (LTE) enabled devices, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Although specific features of the present invention are shown in some drawings and not in others, this is done for convenience only as each feature may be combined with any or all of the other features in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method for efficient voice bearer handling at Long Term Evolution (LTE) enabled devices. In the following detailed description of the embodiments of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims.

The specification may refer to “an”, “one” or “some” embodiment(s) in several locations. This does not necessarily imply that each such reference is to the same embodiment(s), or that the feature only applies to a single embodiment. Single features of different embodiments may also be combined to provide other embodiments.

As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless expressly stated otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “includes”, “comprises”, “including” and/or “comprising” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations and arrangements of one or more of the associated listed items.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

The present invention provides a method for efficient voice bearer handling at Long Term Evolution (LTE) enabled devices. Various embodiments are described in the present disclosure to describe the working of the method, but not limiting to the scope of the present invention.

The embodiments herein and the various features and advantages details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein can be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method of efficient bearer handling at Long Term Evolution (LTE) enabled devices is described herein. The present invention can be used for enabling efficient bearer handling of various types of user equipment’s (UE) which are LTE enable devices. The person having ordinarily skilled in the art can understand that the present method can be used for any of the known user equipment (UE) which is the LTE enable device such as, but not limited to, mobile phone, tablet, laptop, PDA and the like, without departing from the scope of the invention.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for efficient voice bearer handling at Long Term Evolution (LTE) enabled devices, the method comprising step of receiving, by a Mobile Management Entity (MME), a setup message from an eNodeB (eNB) indicating termination of Robust Header Compression (ROHC) support feature at the eNodeB. The mobile management entity (MME) handles all the settings and data exchange between source and the destination. The MME receives the set up message from the eNodeB indicating that the eNodeB is terminating RoHC support feature, and thus informing the MME that the eNodeB will not be handling receiving of RoHC packets, and decrypting the RoHC packet. In an embodiment of the present invention, the MME can transmit a response back to the eNodeB acknowledging that the MME has received the setup message from the eNodeB.

Further, the method comprises step of receiving, by a Mobile Management Entity (MME), a UE capability information from a User Equipment (UE), wherein the UE capability information comprises of a radio bearer capability information associated with one or more radio bearers and a ROHC profile support enabled information associated with a ROHC profile. Upon acknowledging to the eNodeB about receiving of setup message regarding termination of RoHC support feature, the MME maintains the status that there will be no RoHC support from the eNodeB. At particular instance of time, the UE transmits UE capability information to the MME, which is transmitted via eNodeB, wherein the UE capability information comprises of information such as, but not limited to, radio bearer capability information associated with one or more radio bearers and a ROHC profile support enabled information associated with a ROHC profile, and the like. The MME receives the UE capability information and based on the radio bearer capability information associated with one or more radio bearers, the ROHC profile support enabled information associated with a ROHC profile, and the like, it identifies that the UE wishes to provide RoHC profile support to the data packets. In an embodiment of the present invention, the MME transmits a response to the received UE capability information as an acknowledgement, without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Further, the method comprises step of receiving, by the MME, a voice call bearer request from a Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW). The PGW can periodically transmit the voice call bearer request message to the MME to understand if any of the UEs present within the coverage area wishes to transmit voice data packets to the other UEs. To obtain information of such UEs and to establish connection with such UEs for transfer of voice data packets, the PGW can transmit the voice call bearer request message to the MME. The MME can receive the voice call bearer request message from the PGW, and thus understands that the PGW is ready to receive voice data packets.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the PGW can be LTE enabled PGW, without departing from the scope of the invention. In an embodiment of the present invention, the PGW can transmit the voice bearer request to a serving gateway (SGW), and the SGW forwards the voice bearer request to the MME, without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Further, the method comprises step of transmitting, by the MME, the UE capability information to the Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW). Upon receiving the voice bearer request message from the PGW, the MME identifies that the PGW is ready to receive the voice data packets, and one the other side, UE is ready to transmit the voice data packets. Therefore, the MME transmits the UE capability information along with a bearer response message to the PGW.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the bearer response transmitted from the MME to the PGW can be transmitted via the SGW, without departing from the scope of the invention. In an embodiment of the present invention, the bearer response transmitted from the MME to the PGW comprises of information such as, but not limited to, radio bearer capability information of the UE, ROHC profile support information, and the like. In another embodiment of the present invention, the MME can store one or more of radio capability information of the UE and ROHC profile support enabled information of the UE. In another embodiment of the present invention, ROHC profile information comprising one or more of radio capability information of the UE and ROHC profile support enabled information of the UE can be stored at at least one of UE, and PGW. In another embodiment of the present invention, the ROHC profile information can be stored at one or more different locations along with MME, and the person having ordinarily skilled in the art can understand that the ROHC profile information can be stored at one or more locations, without departing from the scope of the invention.

Further, the method comprises step of enabling direct exchange of voice data packets between the UE and the PGW over the one or more radio bearers using the ROHC profile. Upon receiving the bearer response message from the MME, the PGW identifies that the UE has enabled the RoHC support feature and wishes to transfer RoHC packets comprising the voice data packets directly with the PGW. Thus based on the received the bearer response message, the PGW allows receiving of RoHC packets from the UE, and thereby establishing communication for direct receiving of the voice data packets from the UE in RoHC.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram 200 illustrating protocol architecture for transfer of voice data packets over RoHC between the UE and the packet data network gateway (PGW), according to an embodiment of the present invention. The schematic diagram 200 comprises of a UE 202, which is LTE enabled, an eNodeB 204, a LTE enabled serving gateway (LTE-SGW) 206, and a LTE enabled packet data network gateway (PGW) 208. According to the figure 2, when the UE 202 wishes to transfer voice data packets to the LTE-PGW 208, the UE 202 applies the ROHC function on the data packets, wherein the data packets can comprise of one or more of, but not limited to, Internet Protocol (IP), user datagram protocol (UDP), real-time transport protocol/RTP control protocol (RTP/RTCP) Header, Voice data, and the like.

According to the present invention, the eNodeB 204 informs MME (not shown in the Figure) that eNodeB 204 terminates RoHC support feature. The UE 202 informs that the UE 202 wishes to handle the RoHC support feature, thereby enabling the RoHC support feature. Upon receiving the voice bearer request from the LTE-PGW 208, the MME informs the LTE-PGW 208 that the UE 202 wishes to transmit the voice data packets. Based on the received information from the MME, the UE 202 can transmit RoHC directly to the LTE-PGW 208. As the voice data packets are directly transferred in the RoHC, the voice data packets can be transmitted from the UE 202 to the LTE-PGW 208 efficiently, consuming less resources of the LTE-PGW 208.

Figure 3 is a schematic flow diagram 300 illustrating switching of RoHC function at eNodeB, according to an embodiment of the present invention. According to the Figure 3, the flow diagram 300 illustrates communication between eNodeB 304 and mobile management entity (MME) 306. The flow diagram 300 also comprises of UE 302, serving gateway (SGW) 308 and a packet data network gateway (PGW) 310. According to the diagram 300, the eNodeB 304 transmits a setup message to the MME 306, wherein the setup message comprises of switching off of RoHC support feature information.

Upon receiving the setup message along with RoHC switch off support feature information related to the eNodeB 304, the MME 306 can store the support feature information of the eNodeB 304 for future references. Based on the received and stored information, the MME 306 can transmit setup response message to the eNodeB 304 indicating that the RoHC support feature of the eNodeB 304 has been switched off. Thus, the setup response message further confirms that eNodeB 304 will not be providing RoHC support to any of the fore coming voice data packets from UE 302 and forwarding the same to PGW 310 via SGW 308.

Figure 4 is a schematic flow diagram 400 illustrating transfer of voice traffic RoHC function from UE to PGW, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The flow diagram 400 illustrates communication between user equipment (UE) 402 and a packet data network (PGW) 410 for transfer of voice data packets without receiving RoHC feature support at eNodeB 404 via mobile management entity (MME) 406 and serving gateway (SGW) 408. According to the diagram 400, the UE 402 transmits UE capability information to the eNodeB 404, wherein the UE capability information comprises of information such as, but not limited to, UE radio capability information and RoHC profile support information, and the like. Upon receiving the UE capability information, the eNodeB 404 transmits the UE capability information to the MME 406. The MME 406 receives the UE capability information from the eNodeB 404 and stores radio capability information and RoHC support information related to the UE 402.

Further, the PGW 410 transmits create bearer request message to the SGW 408, which in turn will be forwarded by the SGW 408 to the MME 406. Upon receiving the create bearer request message from the PGW 410, the MME 406 can transmit create bearer response message to the SGW 408, wherein the create bearer response message comprises of private extension of UE radio capability information and RoHC support information of the UE 402. The SGW 408 transmits the create bearer response message comprising private extension of UE radio capability information and RoHC support information of the UE 402 to the PGW 410.

Upon receiving the create bearer response message, the PGW 410 identifies that the UE can handle RoHC support feature and ready to transmit voice data packets directly, and thus the voice traffic over RoHC support feature can be exchanged between the UE 402 and the PGW 410 directly. As the compressed voice data packets can be transmitted directly between the UE 402 and the PGW 410, and the voice data packets can be decrypted at the PGW 410 directly, the amount of resources required for transmitting the voice data packets can be reduced, and thereby increasing efficiency of voice data transfer.

Figure 5 is a schematic flow chart 500 illustrating a method for efficient voice bearer handling at Long Term Evolution (LTE) enabled devices, according to an embodiment of the present invention. According to the flow chart 500, at step 502, the method comprises receiving, by a Mobile Management Entity (MME), a UE capability information from a User Equipment (UE), wherein the UE capability information comprises of a radio bearer capability information associated with one or more radio bearers and a ROHC profile support enabled information associated with a ROHC profile. Further, at step 504, the method comprises step of transmitting, by the MME, the UE capability information to a Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW). Further, at step 506, the method comprises step of enabling direct exchange of voice data packets between the UE and the PGW over the one or more radio bearers using the ROHC profile, and thereby allowing direct exchange of voice data packets between the UE and the PGW.

In the following detailed description of the embodiments of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims.