Terminal device and method, base station and method in carrier aggregation communication network

Abstract

The present application relates to a terminal device and method in a carrier aggregation communication network, a base station and method in a carrier aggregation communication network, and a computer-readable storage medium. The terminal device in the carrier aggregation communication network includes: a circuit configured to: communicate with a base station; obtain a radio resource control reconfiguration message from the base station, the radio resource control reconfiguration message including radio resource configuration information of a new second component carrier to be added at the terminal device; and use the radio resource control reconfiguration message to configure the second component carrier for carrier aggregation, the radio resource control reconfiguration message only including the radio resource configuration information of the second component carrier, wherein the second component carrier is configured by the terminal device using the radio resource configuration information of the second component carrier, and the configuration of the second component carrier does not require resetting the MAC layer, PDCP and RLC layer and updating the security key.

Description

[0001] The present invention application is a divisional application of the invention patent application No. 201010162513.4 with the application date of April 30, 2010 and the invention name of “Method, base station, terminal and communication system for updating component carrier”. Technical Field

[0002] The present application generally relates to the field of wireless communications, and in particular to the field of carrier aggregation communications. More specifically, the present application relates to a method for selecting a component carrier in a carrier aggregation communication network, and a method for updating a component carrier. The present application also relates to a device suitable for implementing the method, including a base station and a terminal, and a communication system including the base station and the terminal. Background Art

[0003] The future LTE-A (Long Term Evolution-Advanced) system will support a transmission bandwidth of up to 100MHz, while the maximum transmission bandwidth supported in the LTE (Long Term Evolution) standard is 20MHz, so it is necessary to aggregate multiple carriers to achieve a higher transmission bandwidth. Carrier aggregation is a technology proposed by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) to aggregate multiple carriers for joint transmission in order to support the higher transmission bandwidth requirements of future mobile communication systems. According to the position of the aggregated carriers on the spectrum, it can be divided into continuous carrier aggregation and non-continuous carrier aggregation. LTE-A will support both aggregation scenarios. While introducing carrier aggregation technology, 3GPP also took backward compatibility into consideration, which means that for a long period of time in the future, terminals that support carrier aggregation and those that do not support carrier aggregation will coexist for a long time. Terminals that support carrier aggregation can access multiple carriers at the same time, while terminals that do not support carrier aggregation can only access one carrier.

[0004] In order to simplify the radio resource management in the carrier aggregation scenario, the concept of primary component carrier (PCC) will be introduced in LTE-A. Therefore, the carrier management under carrier aggregation will develop from distributed management to centralized management. Therefore, the primary component carrier will have functions that ordinary carriers do not have and play an important role in radio resource management.

[0005] The carrier corresponding to the cell used for initial terminal access is naturally selected as the primary component carrier. However, as the user's service quality requirements increase, new carriers may need to be added to form carrier aggregation. As the terminal, base station and network conditions change, some carriers in use may also be replaced or deleted. Due to user mobility and different performance of the aggregated carriers, the primary component carrier may need to be re-assigned. Summary of the invention

[0006] A brief overview of the present invention is provided below in order to provide a basic understanding of certain aspects of the present invention. It should be understood that this overview is not an exhaustive overview of the present invention. It is not intended to identify key or important parts of the present invention, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Its purpose is merely to present certain concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed description discussed later.

[0007] One object of the present application is to provide a method and device for selecting a component carrier, including a base station and a terminal. A further object of the present application is to provide a method and device for updating a primary component carrier, including a base station and a terminal, and a method and device for adding a second component carrier, including a base station and a terminal. And a communication system including the base station and the terminal.

[0008] Therefore, according to the first aspect of the present application, a method for selecting a component carrier in a carrier aggregation communication network is provided, comprising: determining the coverage range of each available carrier that can be used by a terminal; determining whether the distribution of the coverage range of each available carrier conforms to a predetermined distribution pattern; and if conforming to the predetermined distribution pattern, determining the component carrier to be used at least according to the criteria determined by the distribution pattern.

[0009] According to another aspect of the present application, a method for updating a primary component carrier in a carrier aggregation communication network is provided, comprising: determining a new primary component carrier using the method of the first aspect above; and switching from the old primary component carrier to the new primary component carrier.

[0010] According to another aspect of the present application, a method for adding a second component carrier in a carrier aggregation communication network is provided, comprising: determining a new second component carrier using the method described in the first aspect above; and adding the new second component carrier.

[0011] According to another aspect of the present application, a device in a carrier aggregation communication network is provided, comprising: a terminal information acquisition unit, which acquires terminal location information and / or carrier distribution information corresponding to the terminal location; a carrier distribution pattern determination unit, which determines whether the distribution of coverage ranges of each available carrier corresponding to the terminal location conforms to a predetermined distribution pattern; a component carrier determination unit, which determines the component carrier to be used, if the coverage ranges of each available carrier corresponding to the terminal location conforms to the predetermined distribution pattern, at least according to the criteria determined by the distribution pattern; and a notification unit, which notifies the other party device of the determined component carrier to be used.

[0012] The component carrier may be a primary component carrier or a secondary component carrier.

[0013] The above-mentioned device may be a base station, wherein the counterpart device is a terminal communicating with the base station.

[0014] The above-mentioned device may also be a terminal, wherein the counterpart device is a base station communicating with the terminal.

[0015] According to yet another aspect of the present application, a communication system including the above-mentioned base station and / or terminal is also provided.

[0016] According to the above-described embodiments, a component carrier to be used can be appropriately selected.

[0017] Another object of the present application is to provide a method for updating a primary component carrier, and a corresponding base station and terminal, and a communication system.

[0018] Therefore, according to one aspect of the present application, a method for updating a main component carrier in a carrier aggregation communication network is provided, comprising: obtaining status information of a terminal, a base station and / or a main component carrier; determining whether the status information meets a predetermined condition; and replacing an old main component carrier with a new main component carrier when the predetermined condition is met.

[0019] According to another aspect of the present application, a base station in a carrier aggregation communication network is provided, comprising: a state acquisition unit, which acquires state information of a terminal, a base station and / or a main component carrier; a state determination unit, which determines whether the state information meets a predetermined condition; and a main component carrier update unit, which replaces an old main component carrier with a new main component carrier when the predetermined condition is met.

[0020] According to another aspect of the present application, a terminal suitable for a carrier aggregation communication network is provided, comprising: a reconfiguration information receiving unit for receiving "radio resource control" reconfiguration information from a base station; a radio resource configuration unit for configuring a new main component carrier according to the radio resource configuration information included in the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information; and a deactivation unit for deactivating the old main component carrier according to a pre-set deactivation command sent by the base station.

[0021] According to yet another aspect of the present application, a communication system including the above-mentioned base station and terminal is also provided.

[0022] Another object of the present application is to provide a method and device for updating a second component carrier, as well as a corresponding base station, terminal and communication system.

[0023] Therefore, according to one aspect of the present application, a method for updating a second component carrier in a carrier aggregation communication network is provided, including: obtaining status information of a terminal, a base station and / or a second component carrier; determining whether the status information meets a predetermined condition; and adding a new second component carrier or replacing an old second component carrier with a new second component carrier if the predetermined condition is met.

[0024] According to another aspect of the present application, a base station in a carrier aggregation communication network is provided, comprising: a status acquisition unit, which acquires status information of a terminal, a base station and / or a second component carrier; a status determination unit, which determines whether the status information meets a predetermined condition; and a second component carrier update unit, which adds a new second component carrier or replaces an old second component carrier with a new second component carrier when the predetermined condition is met.

[0025] According to another aspect of the present application, a terminal suitable for a carrier aggregation communication network is provided, comprising: a reconfiguration information receiving unit for receiving "radio resource control" reconfiguration information from a base station; and a radio resource configuration unit for configuring a new second component carrier according to the radio resource configuration information contained in the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information.

[0026] According to yet another aspect of the present application, a communication system including the above-mentioned base station and terminal is also provided.

[0027] According to one aspect of the present application, a terminal device in a carrier aggregation communication network is provided, comprising: a circuit configured to: communicate with a base station; obtain a wireless resource control reconfiguration message from the base station, the wireless resource control reconfiguration message including wireless resource configuration information of a new second component carrier to be added at the terminal device; and use the wireless resource control reconfiguration message to configure the second component carrier for carrier aggregation, the wireless resource control reconfiguration message only including the wireless resource configuration information of the second component carrier, wherein the second component carrier is configured by the terminal device using the wireless resource configuration information of the second component carrier, and the configuration of the second component carrier does not require resetting the MAC layer, PDCP and RLC layers and updating security keys.

[0028] According to another aspect of the present application, a method for a terminal device in a carrier aggregation communication network is provided, comprising: communicating with a base station; obtaining a wireless resource control reconfiguration message from the base station, the wireless resource control reconfiguration message including wireless resource configuration information of a new second component carrier to be added at the terminal device; and configuring the second component carrier for carrier aggregation using the wireless resource control reconfiguration message, the wireless resource control reconfiguration message only including the wireless resource configuration information of the second component carrier, wherein the second component carrier is configured by the terminal device using the wireless resource configuration information of the second component carrier, and the configuration of the second component carrier does not require resetting the MAC layer, PDCP and RLC layers and updating security keys.

[0029] According to one aspect of the present application, a base station in a carrier aggregation communication network is provided, comprising: a circuit configured to: communicate with a terminal device; generate a wireless resource control reconfiguration message, the wireless resource control reconfiguration message including wireless resource configuration information of a new second component carrier to be added at the terminal device; and provide the wireless resource control reconfiguration message to the terminal device for configuring the second component carrier for carrier aggregation using the wireless resource control reconfiguration message, the wireless resource control reconfiguration message only including the wireless resource configuration information of the second component carrier, so as to be used by the terminal device to configure the second component carrier, and the configuration of the second component carrier does not require resetting the MAC layer, PDCP and RLC layers and updating security keys.

[0030] According to another aspect of the present application, a method for a base station in a carrier aggregation communication network is provided, comprising: communicating with a terminal device; generating a wireless resource control reconfiguration message, the wireless resource control reconfiguration message including wireless resource configuration information of a new second component carrier to be added at the terminal device; and providing the wireless resource control reconfiguration message to the terminal device for configuring the second component carrier for carrier aggregation using the wireless resource control reconfiguration message, the wireless resource control reconfiguration message only including the wireless resource configuration information of the second component carrier, so as to be used by the terminal device to configure the second component carrier, and the configuration of the second component carrier does not require resetting the MAC layer, PDCP and RLC layers and updating security keys.

[0031] According to the above-described embodiments, component carriers to be used can be updated efficiently. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0032] The above and other purposes, features and advantages of the present invention will be more easily understood by referring to the following description of the embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the accompanying drawings, the same or corresponding technical features or components will be represented by the same or corresponding reference numerals. The accompanying drawings together with the following detailed description are included in this specification and form a part of this specification, and are used to further illustrate the preferred embodiments of the present invention and explain the principles and advantages of the present invention. In the accompanying drawings:

[0033] Figure 1 is a flow chart of a method for selecting a component carrier according to a first embodiment of the present application;

[0034] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a first scenario applicable to the method according to the first embodiment of the present application;

[0035] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a second scenario applicable to the method according to the first embodiment of the present application;

[0036] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a third scenario applicable to the method according to the first embodiment of the present application;

[0037] Figure 5-7 for Figure 4 Schematic diagram of three situations of the terminal position and its motion state in the third scenario shown;

[0038] Figure 8 is a flow chart of a method for selecting a component carrier according to another embodiment of the present application;

[0039] Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of the structure of a terminal suitable for selecting a component carrier according to an implementation manner of the present application;

[0040] Fig.10 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal suitable for selecting a component carrier according to another implementation manner of the present application;

[0041] Fig.11 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal suitable for selecting a component carrier according to another implementation manner of the present application;

[0042] Fig.12 It is a structural schematic diagram of a base station suitable for selecting a component carrier according to an implementation manner of the present application;

[0043] Fig.13 is a schematic structural diagram of a base station suitable for selecting a component carrier according to another implementation manner of the present application;

[0044] Fig.14is a structural schematic diagram of a base station suitable for selecting a component carrier according to another implementation manner of the present application;

[0045] Fig.15 A flowchart of a method for updating a primary component carrier according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0046] Fig.16 A schematic diagram of a switching process in the method for updating a primary component carrier;

[0047] Fig.17 A flowchart of a method for updating a primary component carrier according to another embodiment of the present application;

[0048] Fig.18 A schematic diagram of a reconfiguration process in the method for updating a primary component carrier;

[0049] Fig.19 A schematic diagram of a variation of the reconfiguration process;

[0050] Fig. 20 , 21 , 22 respectively Fig.16 , 18 , a schematic diagram of a variation of the process shown in 19;

[0051] Fig.23 , 24 , 25 respectively Fig.16 , 18 , a schematic diagram of another variation of the process shown in 19;

[0052] Fig.26 A flowchart of a method for updating a second component carrier according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0053] Fig. 27 is a schematic diagram of a reconfiguration process in the method for updating the second component carrier;

[0054] Fig.28 A schematic diagram of a variation of the reconfiguration process;

[0055] Fig.29 It is a structural schematic diagram of a base station suitable for updating a primary component carrier according to an implementation manner of the present application;

[0056] Fig.30 It is a structural schematic diagram of a base station and a corresponding terminal suitable for updating a primary component carrier according to another implementation manner of the present application;

[0057] Fig.31 It is a structural schematic diagram of a base station and a corresponding terminal suitable for updating a primary component carrier according to another implementation manner of the present application;

[0058] Fig.32 It is a structural schematic diagram of a base station suitable for updating a second component carrier according to an implementation manner of the present application;

[0059] Fig.33 It is a structural diagram of a base station and a corresponding terminal suitable for updating a second component carrier according to another implementation manner of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0060] Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. For the sake of clarity and conciseness, not all features of actual implementations are described in the specification. However, it should be understood that many implementation-specific decisions must be made in the process of developing any such actual implementation in order to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as meeting those constraints related to the system and business, and these constraints may vary from implementation to implementation. In addition, it should be understood that although the development work may be very complex and time-consuming, it is only a routine task for those skilled in the art who benefit from the present disclosure.

[0061] It is also necessary to explain here that, in order to avoid obscuring the present invention due to unnecessary details, only the device structure and / or processing steps closely related to at least the solution according to the present invention are shown in the accompanying drawings, while other details that are not very relevant to the present invention are omitted.

[0062] In particular, when it comes to connection relationships and information flows, the illustrations in the drawings and the descriptions in the specification only involve parts closely related to the invention, and do not exhaustively illustrate or list all connections and all information flows.

[0063] Selection of component carriers

[0064] First embodiment

[0065] In this application, a carrier available for use by a terminal and a base station in a carrier aggregation communication network is referred to as an available carrier. A carrier already in use by a terminal is referred to as a component carrier, which is also an available carrier. The component carriers of a terminal operating in carrier aggregation mode include a primary component carrier (PCC) and at least one secondary component carrier (SCC).

[0066] In a carrier aggregation communication network, base stations and terminals can use carriers located in different frequency bands for communication. For carriers with different frequency bands, the coverage of base station antennas often varies. Taking this into account, the present application proposes to use different component carrier selection strategies for different coverage distribution modes.

[0067] Therefore, if Figure 1 As shown, a method for selecting a component carrier in a carrier aggregation communication network is provided, comprising: determining the coverage of each available carrier that can be used by a terminal (step 102); determining whether the distribution of the coverage of each available carrier conforms to a predetermined distribution pattern (step 104); and in the case of conforming to the predetermined distribution pattern, determining the component carrier to be used at least according to the criteria determined by the distribution pattern (step 106).

[0068] The coverage of all available carriers of the base station is known to the base station. Therefore, based on the location of the terminal, the coverage of each available carrier that the terminal can use can be obtained. Obviously, the terminal can use a certain available carrier, which means that the terminal is within the coverage of the available carrier. The location of the terminal can be jointly located by multiple base stations, or determined by the terminal with the help of a satellite positioning system such as GPS (Global Positioning System) and provided to the base station.

[0069] As mentioned above, the present application proposes to adjust the component carrier selection strategy according to the distribution pattern of the coverage area. The present application envisions three possible application scenarios, namely, Figure 2 As shown in Figure 4, different component carrier selection strategies can be adopted in each scenario. Of course, it is also entirely possible to consider only one or two application scenarios, or consider more application scenarios and set more selection strategies. For the sake of simplicity, in the example given in this application, there are only two available carriers, but in actual applications, there may be multiple available carriers.

[0070] The first application scenario, that is, the first available carrier coverage distribution mode is as follows Figure 2 As shown. In this distribution mode, each base station 210, 220, 230 uses two carriers F1 and F2 respectively, and the cell coverage ranges corresponding to F1 and F2 basically overlap, and can provide roughly the same coverage area. In this case, F1 and F2 may be located in the same carrier frequency band, which is a typical continuous carrier aggregation.

[0071] In this application scenario, as long as the terminal 250 is within the coverage of the cell, it is within the coverage of both carriers F1 and F2. Therefore, in this case, if other conditions are not considered, the two carriers F1 and F2 have equal status, and any one of the carriers F1 or F2 can be arbitrarily selected as a new component carrier, or a carrier can be selected from them by further considering other conditions.

[0072] For example, the signal quality, interference level, load status, and the number of uplink and downlink physical resources (such as PDCCH (physical downlink control channel)) of each carrier may be used as the basis for selecting the component carrier. Specifically, for a terminal, if the signal quality of the terminal on a carrier is high, the interference is small, the load of the carrier is relatively low, and the more uplink and downlink physical resources it has, the probability that the carrier is selected as the component carrier is relatively high.

[0073] The various factors considered above may have different priorities or different weights.

[0074] In the case of setting priorities for various factors, decisions are made based on factors with higher priorities. For example, priorities in any order may be set for signal quality, the number of physical resources for uplink and downlink, the size of interference, and the load condition, that is, based on the setting of priorities, candidate component carriers may be determined based on any one of the above factors. Alternatively, different priority groups may be set for the factors, for example, the priority of signal quality, the number of physical resources for uplink and downlink is higher than the priority of the size of interference and the load condition, or the opposite priority order may be set, or different priority groups containing different factors or different numbers of factors may be set. That is, based on the setting of priority groups and the priority order of priority groups, candidate component carriers may be determined based on any group of factors alone.

[0075] Within each of the above priority groups, for example, in the group consisting of signal quality and the number of uplink and downlink physical resources, weights may be set for various factors (which may be the same or different depending on the situation).

[0076] When different weights are set for various factors, the influence of various factors on the selection of component carriers is comprehensively considered. Any weight distribution can be set according to the needs of the actual application. Generally speaking, the weights of signal quality and the number of physical resources of uplink and downlink can be set higher than the weights of interference size and load condition.

[0077] In the second application scenario, that is, the second available carrier coverage distribution mode, such as Figure 3 As shown, each base station 310, 320, 330 uses two carriers F3 and F4 respectively, and the coverage of F4 is larger than and basically includes the coverage of F3, wherein the cell corresponding to F4 mainly guarantees coverage, and the cell corresponding to F3 is mainly used to improve throughput. In this case, F3 and F4 may be located in different carrier frequency bands, which belongs to non-continuous carrier aggregation.

[0078] In this application scenario, when the terminal 250 is only within the coverage of F4 but not within the coverage of F3, there is no problem of carrier selection because there is only one available carrier, F4. When the terminal 250 is simultaneously within the coverage of two carriers, F3 and F4, there is a problem of carrier selection. According to an implementation scheme proposed by the present application, in this case, if other conditions are not considered, a carrier with a larger coverage, that is, F4, can be selected as a new component carrier. If there are multiple carriers with larger coverage and the coverage is basically the same, a component carrier is further selected according to the selection strategy of the first scenario, which will be described in more detail below.

[0079] Of course, similar to the first scenario, a carrier may be selected from among them by further considering other conditions.

[0080] For example, the signal quality, interference level, load status, and the number of uplink and downlink physical resources (such as PDCCH, etc.) of each carrier can also be used as the basis for selecting the component carrier. Specifically, for a terminal, if the signal quality of the terminal on a carrier is high, the interference is small, the load of the carrier is relatively low, and the more uplink and downlink physical resources it has, the probability that the carrier is selected as the main component carrier is relatively high.

[0081] The various factors considered above, including the coverage of each available carrier, may have different priorities or different weights.

[0082] In the case of setting priorities for various factors, decisions are made based on factors with higher priorities. For example, any order of priorities can be set for available carrier coverage, signal quality, the number of physical resources for uplink and downlink, interference size, and load conditions, that is, based on the setting of priorities, candidate component carriers can be determined based on any of the above factors. Alternatively, different priority groups can be set for the factors, such as coverage having a higher priority than signal quality and the number of physical resources for uplink and downlink, signal quality and the number of physical resources for uplink and downlink having a higher priority than interference size and load conditions, or the opposite priority order can be set, or different priority groups containing different factors or different numbers of factors can be set. That is, based on the setting of priority groups and priority orders of priority groups, candidate component carriers can be determined based on any group of factors alone.

[0083] Within each of the above priority groups, for example, in the group consisting of signal quality and the number of uplink and downlink physical resources, weights may be set for various factors (which may be the same or different depending on the situation).

[0084] When different weights are set for various factors, the influence of various factors on the selection of component carriers is comprehensively considered. Any weight distribution can be set according to the needs of the actual application. Generally speaking, the weight of coverage can be set higher than the weight of signal quality and the number of physical resources of uplink and downlink, and the weight of signal quality and the number of physical resources of uplink and downlink can be set higher than the weight of interference size and load condition.

[0085] In the third application scenario, that is, the third available carrier coverage distribution mode, such as Figure 4 As shown, each base station 410, 420, and 430 uses two carriers F5 and F6 respectively. The coverage of the two available carriers basically does not overlap or include each other, but overlaps with each other. The cell corresponding to F5 mainly guarantees coverage, and the cell corresponding to F6 is mainly used to improve throughput (or vice versa). The characteristic of this application scenario is that the cell antenna corresponding to F6 points to the edge area of ​​the cell corresponding to F5, so that the application scenario can greatly improve the throughput of the edge area of ​​the F5 cell. In this case, F5 and F6 may be located in different carrier frequency bands, which belongs to non-continuous carrier aggregation.

[0086] In this application scenario, when the terminal 250 is only within the coverage of F5 or only within the coverage of F6, there is no problem of carrier selection because the available carrier is only F5 or F6. When the terminal 250 is simultaneously within the coverage of both carriers F5 and F6, that is, within the overlapping area of ​​the coverage areas of the two available carriers, there is a problem of carrier selection.

[0087] According to an implementation mode proposed in the present application, in this case, if other conditions are not considered, the candidate component carrier can be determined at least based on the location of the terminal and its moving direction and moving speed.

[0088] In this application, three modes of terminal positions and their movements are envisaged, such as Figures 5 to 7 However, it should be understood that the position and movement of the terminal can be divided in other ways, and the three modes here can also be changed, split or combined.

[0089] The first mode is Figure 5As shown, the terminal 250 is at the edge of an available carrier F5 and is moving away from the available carrier. In this case, if the terminal is moving away from the available carrier quickly, the available carrier corresponding to the moving away direction (here F6) is given a higher probability of becoming a candidate component carrier. Of course, the carrier corresponding to the moving away direction can also be directly selected as a candidate component carrier, that is, the probability is 100%. If there are multiple available carriers corresponding to the moving away direction (except F6 and other available carriers), the candidate component carrier is determined from the multiple available carriers at least according to the size of the coverage range, which is similar to the first or second application scenario described above.

[0090] "Fast" moving away is mentioned above. Here, "fast" means that based on its speed, the terminal is expected to leave the current carrier coverage soon, rather than just a small range of movement. For example, if the terminal user is just walking in a small range, he may not have the intention to leave the carrier range (for example, go to another place), and updating the carrier at this time will lead to unnecessary operations. In specific applications, what speed "fast" means can be set according to the actual application.

[0091] Figure 6 Another terminal position and movement pattern is shown, that is, the terminal 250 is located at the edge of a certain available carrier F5 and moves toward the inside of the available carrier F5. At this time, the candidate component carrier is determined at least according to the size of the coverage range of the available carriers F5 and F6, which is similar to the second application scenario. If the coverage ranges are exactly the same, the selection strategy in the first scenario is applied.

[0092] Figure 7 The diagram shows another terminal position and movement pattern, that is, the terminal 250 is in the overlapping area of ​​the available carriers F5 and F6, away from the edge of the overlapping area, that is, inside the overlapping area. In this case, the candidate component carrier is determined at least according to the size of the coverage range of the available carriers F5 and F6, which is similar to the second application scenario. If the coverage ranges are exactly the same, the selection strategy in the first scenario is applied.

[0093] Of course, similar to the first and second application scenarios, one carrier may be selected from among them by further considering other conditions.

[0094] For example, the signal quality, interference level, load status, and physical resource quantity (such as PDCCH, etc.) of each carrier can also be used as the basis for selecting the component carrier. These factors, including the location of the terminal, its moving direction and moving speed, and the coverage of each available carrier, can have different priorities or different weights.

[0095] In the case of setting the priorities of various factors, a decision is made based on the factors with higher priorities. For example, the priority of any order can be set for the terminal location, the terminal moving direction, the terminal moving speed, the available carrier coverage, the signal quality, the number of physical resources of the uplink and downlink, the interference size and the load condition, that is, based on the setting of the priority, the candidate component carrier can be determined based on any one of the above factors. Alternatively, different priority groups can be set for the factors, for example, the priority of the terminal location, the terminal moving direction, the terminal moving speed and the available carrier coverage is higher than the priority of the signal quality, the number of physical resources of the uplink and downlink, the signal quality, the number of physical resources of the uplink and downlink is higher than the priority of the interference size and the load condition, or the opposite priority order is set, or different priority groups containing different factors or different numbers of factors are set. That is to say, based on the setting of the priority group and the priority order of the priority group, the candidate component carrier can be determined based on any group of factors alone.

[0096] Within each of the above priority groups, for example, in the group consisting of signal quality and the number of uplink and downlink physical resources, weights may be set for various factors (which may be the same or different depending on the situation).

[0097] When different weights are set for various factors, the influence of various factors on the selection of component carriers is comprehensively considered. Any weight distribution can be set according to the needs of the actual application. Generally speaking, the weights of the terminal location, the terminal moving direction, the terminal moving speed and the available carrier coverage can be set higher than the weights of the signal quality and the number of physical resources of the uplink and downlink, and the weights of the signal quality and the number of physical resources of the uplink and downlink are higher than the weights of the interference size and the load condition.

[0098] Second embodiment

[0099] In the first embodiment, the selection of component carriers is described for different application scenarios. In actual applications, as mentioned above, various application scenarios may be mixed. For example, the coverage of each available carrier may be completely overlapped (the first application scenario), or may be included (the second application scenario) or partially overlapped (the third application scenario).

[0100] Therefore, if Figure 8As shown, according to an implementation mode proposed by the present application, selection strategies applicable to different application scenarios are successively used to select candidate component carriers, and the range of candidate component carriers is gradually narrowed down until the component carrier to be used is obtained. That is, on the basis of the first implementation mode, when the distribution of the coverage range of each available carrier includes at least two predetermined modes, the candidate component carrier is first determined according to the criterion corresponding to one of the modes, and then the second candidate component carrier is determined from the candidate component carriers according to the criterion corresponding to the other mode, until the only candidate component carrier is obtained.

[0101] Specifically, Figure 8 As shown, first determine the coverage of each available carrier that the terminal can use (step 102). Then determine whether the distribution of the coverage of each available carrier conforms to a predetermined distribution pattern (step 104). These two steps have been described in detail in the first embodiment and will not be repeated here.

[0102] In the case where it is determined that the coverage has multiple distribution modes, such as the first mode 806 and the second mode 910, the candidate component carrier can be determined according to the first criterion corresponding to the first mode (step 808). For example, if the first mode is the third application scenario mentioned above, the component carrier selection strategy of the third application scenario is used to determine the candidate component carrier. The determined candidate component carrier may be unique, and the process ends at this time, and the determined candidate component carrier is used. The determined candidate component carrier may also not be unique. For example, in the third application scenario, if there are multiple available carriers in the direction of terminal movement and other factors of each available carrier or factors considered according to the selection strategy are also roughly the same, there may be multiple available carriers that can be used as candidate component carriers. At this time, it is necessary to apply the second criterion corresponding to the second mode (such as the selection strategy corresponding to the first or second application scenario) to continue selecting from the multiple candidate component carriers (step 812) to obtain the component carrier to be used.

[0103] Figure 8 Only two distribution modes are illustrated. Obviously, there can be more distribution modes, and the order of application of the selection strategies of each distribution mode can be arbitrary.

[0104] Third embodiment

[0105] In addition, when the terminal operates in carrier aggregation mode, in addition to a primary component carrier, one or more secondary component carriers (SCCs) are also operating at the same time, and these carriers are all in an activated state. At the same time, one or more carriers may still be in a configured but inactive state, and one or more carriers may be in an unconfigured state.

[0106] When the primary component carrier needs to be changed, the new primary component carrier can be selected from the second component carrier in use, or from the available carrier that has not been configured or has been configured but not yet activated. When the second component carrier needs to be added, the new second component carrier can be selected from the available carrier that has not been configured, or from the available carrier that has been configured but not yet activated.

[0107] Obviously, the operation complexity of adding carriers in different states varies. Therefore, based on the first and second embodiments, the activation and configuration states of each available carrier can be obtained first when selecting a component carrier, so that the activation and configuration states of each available carrier are also considered when determining a candidate component carrier, wherein an available carrier in an activated state has a higher priority than an available carrier that has been configured but not activated, and an available carrier that has been configured but not activated has a higher priority than an available carrier that has not been configured.

[0108] Here, "higher priority" means having a greater weight, or, in some cases, such as when other conditions are the same or similar, playing a decisive role.

[0109] Fourth embodiment

[0110] The methods for selecting a component carrier described in the first to third embodiments may be used to select a primary component carrier.

[0111] The carrier corresponding to the cell used for initial access by the terminal, or the carrier used when the terminal reestablishes the connection, is naturally the primary component carrier by default. However, with the changes in the terminal, base station status and network environment, the primary component carrier may need to be updated. At this time, the method for selecting a component carrier described in the first to third embodiments can be used to determine a new primary component carrier, and then switch from the old primary component carrier to the new primary component carrier.

[0112] The conversion from the old primary component carrier to the new primary component carrier can be performed in various ways, and various ways already exist in the prior art. In this application, the applicant also proposes a new primary component carrier update process, see the description of the subsequent implementation methods for details.

[0113] The update of the primary component carrier can be performed multiple times. In the first primary component carrier update after the terminal initially accesses the cell or reestablishes the connection, the old primary component carrier is the initial primary component carrier, that is, the carrier used by the terminal for initial access or wireless resource connection reestablishment, and is the default primary component carrier.

[0114] Carrier aggregation may involve different frequency bands. That is, the various carriers available to the terminal may be in the same frequency band or in different frequency bands. Whether the main component carriers before and after the update are in the same frequency band will affect the overhead when the main component carrier is updated. Therefore, the update of the main component carrier can also consider the frequency relationship between the available carriers.

[0115] Specifically, when updating the main component carrier, the spectrum information of each available carrier can be obtained first, and then the relationship between the frequency of each available carrier and the old main component carrier is also considered when determining the candidate component carrier, wherein, among the available carriers with the same activation and configuration status, the available carriers located in the same frequency band as the old main component carrier have a higher priority. Similarly, "higher priority" means having a greater weight, or, in some cases, such as when other conditions are the same or similar, playing a decisive role.

[0116] Fifth embodiment

[0117] The methods for selecting a component carrier described in the first to third embodiments may be used to select a second component carrier.

[0118] The carrier corresponding to the cell used for initial terminal access, or the carrier used when the terminal reestablishes the connection, is naturally the primary component carrier by default. However, as the user's service quality requirements increase, it may be necessary to add new carriers to form carrier aggregation.

[0119] In this case, the method for selecting a component carrier described in the first to third embodiments may be used to determine a new second component carrier, and then the new second component carrier may be added. The second component carrier may be added in various ways, and various ways already exist in the prior art. In this application, the applicant also proposes a new second component carrier adding process, which is described in the subsequent embodiments for details.

[0120] Sixth Embodiment

[0121] The methods for selecting component carriers described in the first to fifth embodiments may be performed by a base station with the assistance of a terminal, or may be performed by a terminal with the assistance of a base station in a communication system.

[0122] Therefore, in this embodiment, a terminal capable of implementing the aforementioned various embodiments is first proposed.

[0123] In the description of the terminal and the base station in this embodiment and subsequent embodiments, unless necessary, the detailed description of the aforementioned embodiments will not be repeated, and reference can be made to the description of the aforementioned embodiments.

[0124] like Fig. 9As shown, a terminal 920 suitable for a carrier aggregation communication network communicates with a base station 960, determines a component carrier with the assistance of the base station 960, and notifies the base station 960. Specifically, the terminal includes: a terminal information acquisition unit 902, which acquires terminal location information and / or carrier distribution information corresponding to the terminal location; a carrier distribution pattern determination unit 904, which determines whether the distribution of the coverage range of each available carrier corresponding to the terminal location conforms to a predetermined distribution pattern; a component carrier determination unit 906, which determines the component carrier to be used at least according to the criterion determined by the distribution pattern when the coverage range of each available carrier corresponding to the terminal location conforms to the predetermined distribution pattern; and a notification unit 908, which notifies the base station of the determined component carrier to be used (process (4)).

[0125] The purpose of the terminal information acquisition unit 902 is to obtain information about the coverage of the carrier available to the terminal so that the carrier distribution mode determination unit can determine the available carrier coverage distribution mode. The available carrier coverage information needs to be determined based on the location of the terminal and the parameters of the base station carrier. The terminal location can be jointly located by multiple base stations 960, or determined by the terminal with the help of a satellite positioning system 940 such as GPS (Global Positioning System).

[0126] Therefore, in the case of satellite positioning, the terminal information acquisition unit 902 may include a positioning device built into the terminal that communicates with the satellite positioning system (process (1)), which transmits the terminal position to the base station 960 (process (2)), and the base station 960 transmits the information of the available carrier coverage range to the terminal information acquisition unit 902 based on the terminal position information (process (3)). In another embodiment, the terminal 902 may not obtain the available carrier coverage range information through the base station 960. For example, the terminal 902 can determine whether it is within the coverage range of a certain carrier by detecting the signal strength of each carrier. In this case, as far as the determination of the available carrier coverage range is concerned, process (2) and process (3) are not required.

[0127] In addition, in the case of base station positioning, since the terminal position itself is obtained by the base station, the base station can directly obtain the available carrier coverage information based on the position, so that the terminal information acquisition unit in the terminal can directly obtain the information from the base station 960 (process (3)).

[0128] When the carrier distribution pattern determining unit 904 determines that the predetermined distribution pattern is that the coverage ranges of the available carriers are substantially the same, the component carrier determining unit 906 uses each available carrier as a candidate component carrier.

[0129] When the carrier distribution pattern determining unit 904 determines that the predetermined distribution pattern is that the coverage of at least one available carrier is substantially contained within the coverage of at least another available carrier, the component carrier determining unit 906 determines the candidate component carriers at least according to the size of the coverage.

[0130] When the carrier distribution pattern determination unit 904 determines that the predetermined distribution pattern is that the coverage ranges of at least two available carriers basically do not overlap or include each other, but overlap with each other, the terminal information acquisition unit 902 acquires information about the moving direction and moving speed of the terminal, and the component carrier determination unit 906 is further configured to determine the candidate component carriers based at least on the location of the terminal and its moving direction and moving speed.

[0131] The moving direction and moving speed of the terminal are determined based on the position of the terminal at different times. As mentioned above, the terminal position can be determined by a built-in satellite positioning device or by the base station 960. In either case, the terminal information acquisition unit can calculate the moving direction and moving speed of the terminal based on the position information obtained from the satellite positioning device or the base station 960. In the case of obtaining the position information from the base station 960, the base station 960 can provide the terminal position information to the terminal information acquisition unit through process (3) (of course, it can also be provided through other processes).

[0132] In addition, when the base station 960 calculates the terminal position, the calculation of the terminal's moving direction and moving speed can of course also be completed by the base station. In this case, the base station 960 only needs to directly provide the terminal's position information and its moving direction and moving speed information to the terminal information acquisition unit through process (3) (of course, it can also be through other processes).

[0133] In this way, the component carrier determination unit 906 can be further configured as follows: if the information acquired by the terminal information acquisition unit 902 indicates that the terminal is located at the edge of an available carrier and is rapidly moving away from the available carrier, then the available carrier corresponding to the moving away direction is given a higher probability of becoming a candidate component carrier; if the information acquired by the terminal information acquisition unit 902 indicates that the terminal is located at the edge of an available carrier and is moving toward the available carrier, or if the terminal is located in the overlapping area away from the edge of the overlapping area, then the candidate component carrier is determined at least based on the size of the coverage area.

[0134] The component carrier determining unit 906 may be further configured to: if there are multiple available carriers corresponding to the moving away direction, determine a candidate component carrier from the multiple available carriers at least according to the size of the coverage.

[0135] The component carrier determination unit 906 may be further configured to determine the candidate component carrier according to at least one of the following factors: signal quality, the number of physical resources of uplink and downlink, interference size and load condition.

[0136] Here, signal quality is information that the terminal itself can obtain using traditional technology, and the interference of other base stations, carriers or terminals to the current terminal is also information that can be obtained based on signal quality using traditional technology. As for the physical resource quantity and load status of the uplink and downlink, they are information that can be obtained from the base station based on traditional technology (see Fig.10 When considering the interference of the current terminal to other terminals, the relevant information also needs to be obtained from the base station (the base station obtains information from reports of other terminals).

[0137] The component carrier determination unit 906 may be further configured to: when determining a candidate component carrier, the importance of coverage, the location of the terminal, its moving direction and moving speed is higher than the importance of signal quality, the number of physical resources in the uplink and downlink, and the importance of signal quality, the number of physical resources in the uplink and downlink is higher than the importance of interference size and load condition; or, any one or more of the coverage, the location of the terminal, its moving direction and moving speed, signal quality, the number of physical resources in the uplink and downlink, interference size and load condition are individually or collectively determined as a candidate component carrier.

[0138] The component carrier determination unit 906 may be further configured to: when the distribution of the coverage ranges of the available carriers includes at least two predetermined patterns, first determine the candidate component carrier according to the criteria corresponding to one of the patterns, and then determine the second candidate component carrier from the candidate component carriers according to the criteria corresponding to the other pattern, until a unique candidate component carrier is obtained.

[0139] The terminal may further include a carrier state acquisition unit 910 ( Fig.11 ), and obtain the activation and configuration status of each available carrier. The component carrier determination unit 906 may be further configured to: consider the activation and configuration status of each available carrier when determining the candidate component carrier, wherein the priority of an available carrier in an activated state is higher than that of an available carrier that has been configured but not activated, and the priority of an available carrier that has been configured but not activated is higher than that of an available carrier that has not been configured.

[0140] It should be noted that Fig.11 The embodiment shown in the figure does not Fig.10 However, from the above description, it can be seen that in another variation, there can also be Fig.10 process (5).

[0141] The component carrier determined by the terminal in this embodiment may be a primary component carrier or a secondary component carrier.

[0142] When used to determine the primary component carrier, the component carrier determination unit 906 may be further configured to also consider the relationship between the frequencies of each available carrier and the old primary component carrier when determining the candidate component carrier, wherein, among the available carriers with the same activation and configuration status, the available carrier located in the same frequency band as the old primary component carrier has a higher priority.

[0143] The above description of this embodiment discloses a terminal that interacts with a base station. Obviously, this also discloses a communication system composed of the above terminal and the base station that communicates with the terminal.

[0144] Seventh embodiment

[0145] The sixth embodiment describes a terminal that implements the method for selecting a component carrier described in the first to fifth embodiments. The seventh embodiment will describe a base station that implements the method for selecting a component carrier described in the first to fifth embodiments.

[0146] In the description of the terminal and the base station in this embodiment and subsequent embodiments, unless necessary, the detailed description of the aforementioned embodiments will not be repeated, and reference can be made to the description of the aforementioned embodiments.

[0147] like Fig.12 As shown, a base station 1220 in a carrier aggregation communication network communicates with a terminal 1260, determines a component carrier with the assistance of the terminal 1260, and notifies the terminal 1260. Specifically, the base station includes: a terminal information acquisition unit 1202, which acquires terminal location information and / or carrier distribution information corresponding to the terminal location; a carrier distribution pattern determination unit 1204, which determines whether the distribution of the coverage range of each available carrier corresponding to the terminal location conforms to a predetermined distribution pattern; a component carrier determination unit 1206, which determines the component carrier to be used at least according to the criterion determined by the distribution pattern when the coverage range of each available carrier corresponding to the terminal location conforms to the predetermined distribution pattern; and a notification unit 1208, which notifies the terminal of the determined component carrier to be used (process (4)).

[0148] The purpose of the terminal information acquisition unit 1202 is to obtain information about the coverage of the carrier available to the terminal so that the carrier distribution mode determination unit can determine the available carrier coverage distribution mode. The available carrier coverage information needs to be determined based on the location of the terminal and the parameters of the base station carrier. The terminal location can be measured by the base station 1220 itself or determined by the terminal 1260 with the help of a satellite positioning system 940 such as GPS (Global Positioning System) (process (1)).

[0149] Therefore, in the case of satellite positioning, the terminal information acquisition unit 1202 can obtain the positioning information of the terminal's built-in positioning device from the terminal 1260 (process (2)), and further obtain the coverage information of the carrier available to the terminal based on the available carrier information of the base station.

[0150] In addition, in the case of base station positioning, since the terminal position itself is obtained by the base station, the base station can directly obtain the available carrier coverage information based on the position.

[0151] When the carrier distribution pattern determining unit 1204 determines that the predetermined distribution pattern is that the coverage ranges of the available carriers are substantially the same, the component carrier determining unit 1206 uses each available carrier as a candidate component carrier.

[0152] When the carrier distribution pattern determining unit 1204 determines that the predetermined distribution pattern is that the coverage of at least one available carrier is substantially contained within the coverage of at least another available carrier, the component carrier determining unit 1206 determines the candidate component carriers at least according to the size of the coverage.

[0153] When the carrier distribution pattern determination unit 1204 determines that the predetermined distribution pattern is that the coverage ranges of at least two available carriers basically do not overlap or include each other, but overlap with each other, the terminal information acquisition unit 1202 acquires information about the moving direction and moving speed of the terminal, and the component carrier determination unit 1206 is further configured to determine the candidate component carriers based at least on the location of the terminal, its moving direction and moving speed.

[0154] The moving direction and moving speed of the terminal are determined based on the position of the terminal at different times. As mentioned above, the terminal position can be determined by a satellite positioning device built into the terminal, or by the base station 1220. In either case, the terminal information acquisition unit can calculate the moving direction and moving speed of the terminal based on the position information obtained from the terminal 1260 or the terminal position calculated by the base station.

[0155] In addition, when the terminal 1260 obtains the terminal position through a satellite positioning device, the calculation of the terminal's moving direction and moving speed can of course also be completed by the terminal itself. In this case, the terminal 1260 only needs to directly provide the terminal's position information and its moving direction and moving speed information to the terminal information acquisition unit through process (2) (of course, it can also be through other processes).

[0156] In this way, the component carrier determination unit 1206 can be further configured as follows: if the information acquired by the terminal information acquisition unit 1202 indicates that the terminal is located at the edge of an available carrier and is quickly moving away from the available carrier, then the available carrier corresponding to the moving away direction is given a higher probability of becoming a candidate component carrier; if the information acquired by the terminal information acquisition unit 1202 indicates that the terminal is located at the edge of an available carrier and is moving toward the available carrier, or if the terminal is located in the overlapping area away from the edge of the overlapping area, then the candidate component carrier is determined at least based on the size of the coverage area.

[0157] The component carrier determining unit 1206 may be further configured to: if there are multiple available carriers corresponding to the moving away direction, determine a candidate component carrier from the multiple available carriers at least according to the size of the coverage.

[0158] The component carrier determination unit 1206 may be further configured to determine the candidate component carrier according to at least one of the following factors: signal quality, the number of physical resources of uplink and downlink, interference size and load condition.

[0159] Here, signal quality is information that the terminal itself can obtain according to conventional technology, and interference from other base stations, carriers or terminals to the current terminal is also information that can be obtained by the terminal based on signal quality according to conventional technology. As for the physical resource quantity and load status of the uplink and downlink, it is information that can be mastered by the base station itself based on conventional technology. When considering the interference of the current terminal to other terminals, the relevant information is also obtained by the base station based on the information reported by other terminals. Therefore, the component carrier determination unit 1206 obtains relevant information from the terminal 1260 when necessary (see Fig.13 Process (5)

[0160] The component carrier determination unit 1206 may be further configured to: when determining a candidate component carrier, the importance of coverage, terminal location, moving direction and moving speed is higher than the importance of signal quality and the number of physical resources in the uplink and downlink, and the importance of signal quality and the number of physical resources in the uplink and downlink is higher than the importance of interference size and load condition; or, any one or more of coverage, terminal location, moving direction and moving speed, signal quality, the number of physical resources in the uplink and downlink, interference size and load condition are individually or collectively determined as a candidate component carrier.

[0161] The component carrier determination unit 1206 may be further configured to: when the distribution of the coverage ranges of the available carriers includes at least two predetermined patterns, first determine the candidate component carrier according to the criteria corresponding to one of the patterns, and then determine the second candidate component carrier from the candidate component carriers according to the criteria corresponding to the other pattern, until a unique candidate component carrier is obtained.

[0162] The base station may also include a carrier state acquisition unit 1210 to acquire the activation and configuration state of each available carrier. The component carrier determination unit 1206 may be further configured to: consider the activation and configuration state of each available carrier when determining the candidate component carrier, wherein the priority of the available carrier in the activated state is higher than that of the configured but not activated available carrier, and the priority of the configured but not activated available carrier is higher than that of the unconfigured available carrier. Here, since the activation and configuration state of the available carrier is the state of the terminal itself, the base station of this embodiment needs to go through process (6) ( Fig.14 ) to obtain the configuration and activation status information of the available carriers of the terminal from the terminal 1260.

[0163] It should be noted that Fig.14 The embodiment shown in the figure does not Fig.13 However, from the above description, it can be seen that in another variation, there can also be Fig.13 process (5).

[0164] The component carrier determined by the base station in this embodiment may be a primary component carrier or a secondary component carrier.

[0165] When used to determine the primary component carrier, the component carrier determination unit 1206 may be further configured to also consider the relationship between the frequencies of each available carrier and the old primary component carrier when determining the candidate component carrier, wherein, among the available carriers with the same activation and configuration status, the available carriers located in the same frequency band as the old primary component carrier have a higher priority.

[0166] The above description of this embodiment discloses a base station interacting with a terminal, and obviously, also discloses a communication system composed of the above base station and the terminal communicating with the base station.

[0167] Component Carrier Update

[0168] Eighth Embodiment

[0169] The above embodiments describe how to select component carriers, including a primary component carrier and a secondary component carrier.

[0170] After the component carrier is selected, an appropriate process is used to switch from the old primary component carrier to the selected new primary component carrier, or to add the selected new secondary component carrier, or to replace an old secondary component carrier with the selected new secondary component carrier (in fact, it is a combination of adding and deleting actions). In addition, the timing of updating or adding a component carrier needs to be properly determined.

[0171] Therefore, if Fig.15 As shown, in this embodiment, a method for updating a main component carrier in a carrier aggregation communication network is proposed, including: obtaining status information of a terminal, a base station and / or a main component carrier (step 1502); determining whether the status information meets a predetermined condition (step 1504); and replacing an old main component carrier with a new main component carrier when the predetermined condition is met (step 1506).

[0172] In the prior art, there may be various parameters to characterize the performance, status, etc. of the terminal, base station, component carriers in use, and available carriers, and relevant information may be obtained through various measurement or communication means. For this information, various predetermined conditions may be set according to the needs of actual applications, and the main component carrier may be updated when the predetermined conditions are met.

[0173] As an illustrative example and not a limiting list, the conditions considered for updating the primary component carrier may include at least one of the following conditions:

[0174] 1. The terminal moves out of the coverage of the old primary component carrier;

[0175] 2. The quality of the old main component carrier signal has deteriorated;

[0176] 3. The old main component carrier has insufficient physical resources for uplink and downlink;

[0177] 4. The original base station requires updating the main component carrier due to the consideration of issues such as overall network load balance and interference between users;

[0178] 5. The terminal moves to the coverage area of ​​the new base station.

[0179] The update of the main component carrier can adopt the switching process or the reconfiguration process. Fig.16As shown, in the switching process, the base station to which the old primary component carrier belongs sends "Radio Resource Control" (RRC) reconfiguration information to the terminal, and the "Radio Resource Control" reconfiguration information includes mobility control information (MobilityControlInfo), and the mobility control information includes the radio resource configuration information (RadioResourceConfig) of the new primary component carrier. Then the terminal uses the mobility control information in the "Radio Resource Control" reconfiguration information to reconfigure the MAC (Media Access Control), PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol) and RLC (Radio Link Control) layers, update security keys, and use the radio resource configuration information of the new primary component carrier to configure the new primary component carrier.

[0180] Then initiate a random access process to access the new primary component carrier. The random access process can be initiated by the terminal or by the base station. When initiated by the terminal, it is a process in which the terminal makes an access request and the base station to which the new primary component carrier belongs allocates it according to the resources and the access requests of other terminals. It is competitive, that is, random access is a process in which each terminal seizes resources. When a random access is unsuccessful, it is necessary to retry, reconfigure the unlimited resource configuration information, or switch again depending on the situation. When the random access process is initiated by the base station to which the new primary component carrier belongs, the base station has reserved the corresponding resources for the terminal in advance, so the terminal only needs to respond unless the situation on the terminal side changes. This type of random access is called non-competitive random access.

[0181] After randomly accessing a new primary component carrier, the old primary component carrier can be deactivated. Deactivation can be done in two ways. One is that the base station to which the new primary component carrier belongs directly sends a deactivation command to the terminal (such as Fig.16 As shown in FIG. 1 , the terminal deactivates the old primary component carrier after receiving the deactivation command. Another method is to use an implicit deactivation method to deactivate the old primary component carrier ( Fig.16 (not shown), that is, the terminal does not need to receive a deactivation command from the base station, but deactivates the old primary component carrier by itself. This automatic action can be completed based on a timer, that is, the system predefines the deactivation time of the old primary component carrier, or predefines the triggering condition of the deactivation timer.

[0182] It should be noted that the reference here refers to the "base station to which the new primary component carrier belongs" and the "base station to which the old primary component carrier belongs". When the new and old primary component carriers belong to the same base station, the above two terms refer to the same base station.

[0183] As mentioned above, the update of the primary component carrier may also adopt the reconfiguration process. Fig.18As shown, compared with the switching process, the reconfiguration process may not have a random access process and a key update process. In addition, the content of the RRC reconfiguration information is also simplified, not including mobile control information but only including the wireless resource configuration information of the new main component carrier. Therefore, after receiving the RRC reconfiguration information, the terminal only needs to configure the new main component carrier without reconfiguring the MAC, PDCP, RLC layers and updating security keys. Therefore, it can reduce the additional system overhead caused by updating the main component carrier and avoid the problem of reduced user service quality caused by updating the main component carrier. At this time, the RRC message body does not need to include all relevant configuration information of the new main component carrier (for example, it does not include mobile control information), but only needs to include the configuration information updated compared with the original main component carrier, that is, the wireless resource configuration information, which can be called incremental signaling.

[0184] Ninth embodiment

[0185] Obviously, all primary component carriers can be updated by switching. However, not all primary component carriers can be updated by reconfiguration. This is because the reconfiguration process is only possible when the new and old primary component carriers have the same security keys and do not need to reset the MAC, PDCP and RLC layers.

[0186] Therefore, the present application further proposes to determine the update process according to the update scenario. If the main component carriers before and after the update belong to the same base station, the main component carrier is updated by the reconfiguration process. If the main component carriers before and after the update do not belong to the same base station, the main component carrier is updated by the switching process.

[0187] Specifically, if Fig.17 As shown, the process of updating the primary component carrier includes: determining whether the new primary component carrier and the old primary component carrier belong to the same base station (step 1702); if they belong to the same base station, the base station adopts a reconfiguration process to replace the old primary component carrier with the new primary component carrier (step 1704); otherwise, the base station to which the old primary component carrier belongs sends a switching request to the base station to which the new primary component carrier belongs, obtains relevant information from the base station to which the new primary component carrier belongs (step 1704), and then adopts a switching process to replace the old primary component carrier with the new primary component carrier (step 1706).

[0188] Specifically, in step 1704, the base station to which the old primary component carrier belongs (hereinafter referred to as the old base station) sends a switching request to the base station of the new primary component carrier (hereinafter referred to as the new base station), so that the new base station prepares the configuration information required for the terminal to switch to the new primary component carrier, so that the old base station can obtain the required configuration information from the new base station, so that the old base station prepares the RRC reconfiguration information to be sent to the terminal in the switching process.

[0189] The reconfiguration process 1704 and the switching process 1706 in this embodiment are combined with the above Fig.16 and Fig.18 The reconfiguration process is the same as the handover process. The slight difference is that since the new primary component carrier and the old primary component carrier do not belong to the same base station, although the RRC reconfiguration information is still sent by the old base station, the random access process after the configuration is completed is an interaction with the new base station (see below for details). Fig.31 As for the response (or confirmation) message after the terminal completes the configuration, it is also directly sent to the new base station.

[0190] Compared with the eighth embodiment and the ninth embodiment, since the MAC, PDCP and RLC layers need to be reset and the security keys need to be updated during the switching process, the system overhead will inevitably increase and communication interruption will occur. When the reconfiguration process is adopted, the system overhead will be greatly reduced and the communication interruption time will also be reduced. Therefore, the method proposed in the ninth embodiment of deciding whether to use the switching process or the reconfiguration process to update the main component carrier according to whether the main component carrier before and after the update belongs to the same base station can reduce the additional system overhead caused by updating the main component carrier and avoid the problems such as the decline in user service quality caused by updating the main component carrier.

[0191] In the above reconfiguration process, the new primary component carrier and the old primary component carrier should generally be located in the same frequency band, have the same time advance, and be synchronized with the base station. If these conditions are not met, then Fig.19 As shown, before the old primary component carrier is deactivated, random access to the new primary component carrier is initiated.

[0192] Tenth embodiment

[0193] In the eighth and ninth implementations, the implicit premise is that the new primary component carrier has been initially configured and activated. However, in actual applications, there are also scenarios where the new primary component carrier has not been initially configured, or has been initially configured but not yet activated.

[0194] In this scenario, it is undoubtedly necessary to perform initial configuration and activation on the carrier that has not been initially configured and is intended to be the new primary component carrier, and to activate the carrier that has been initially configured but not yet activated and is intended to be the new primary component carrier. The initial configuration (i.e., the addition of the carrier) should be performed at the beginning of the switching process or the reconfiguration process (not shown in the figure), but the activation process is more flexible in terms of time sequence. For example, Fig.16 , 18 , 19 Fig. 20As shown in FIG. 22, the activation process can be performed by the base station after the configuration is completed or the random access process is performed, or before the old primary component carrier is deactivated (the figure shows that the base station sends a deactivation command, but as mentioned above, the deactivation process can also be an implicit deactivation of the terminal itself). Or, as corresponding to Fig.16 , 18 , 19 Fig.23 As shown in FIG. 25 , the activation process may also be performed by the base station sending an activation command before sending the RRC reconfiguration information.

[0195] In addition, the activation command can be combined with other commands or sent at the same time. For example, if the new primary component carrier is not in the initial configuration state, the initial configuration and activation processes can be combined to define a new "configuration activation" process to complete the configuration and activation at the same time, that is, the base station sends a "configuration activation" command, and the terminal completes the configuration and activation at one time after receiving the command. In addition, the activation command can also be sent simultaneously with the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information.

[0196] In another embodiment, the initial configuration process and the subsequent switching process or reconfiguration process can be combined and included in one command without separation. That is, the initial configuration command can be combined with the RRC reconfiguration information.

[0197] Eleventh Embodiment

[0198] The update of the second component carrier is described below. As mentioned above, the update of the second component carrier includes adding a selected new second component carrier, or replacing an old second component carrier with the selected new second component carrier. The latter case is actually a combination of adding and deleting actions. Similar to the consideration of the eighth embodiment, in order to properly determine the timing of updating or adding a component carrier, this embodiment proposes a method for updating the second component carrier.

[0199] like Fig.26 As shown, the method of this embodiment includes: obtaining status information of the terminal, the base station and / or the second component carrier (step 2202); determining whether the status information meets a predetermined condition (step 2204); adding a new second component carrier or replacing the old second component carrier with a new second component carrier if the predetermined condition is met (step 2206).

[0200] In the prior art, there may be various parameters to characterize the performance, status, etc. of the terminal, base station, component carriers in use, and available carriers, and relevant information may be obtained through various measurement or communication means. For this information, various predetermined conditions may be set according to the needs of actual applications, and the second component carrier may be updated when the predetermined conditions are met.

[0201] As an illustrative example and not a limiting example, the conditions considered for updating the second component carrier may include at least one of the following conditions:

[0202] 1. More second component carriers are needed due to business needs;

[0203] 2. The terminal moves out of the coverage of the old second component carrier;

[0204] 3. The quality of the old second component carrier signal has deteriorated;

[0205] 4. The number of physical resources in the uplink and downlink of the old second component carrier is insufficient;

[0206] 5. The original base station requires updating the second component carrier due to the consideration of issues such as overall network load balance and interference between users;

[0207] 6. The terminal moves to within the coverage area of ​​the new base station.

[0208] The second component carrier is updated by a reconfiguration process. Fig.18 The reconfiguration process for the primary component carrier is similar, but the difference is that since the second component carrier is not unique, the essence of the update of the second component carrier is to add a new second component carrier as mentioned above, so the reconfiguration process used for the second component carrier update does not need to include a deactivation process.

[0209] Specifically, in the reconfiguration process, the base station sends "Radio Resource Control" (RRC) reconfiguration information to the terminal, and the "Radio Resource Control" reconfiguration information only includes the radio resource configuration information (RadioResourceConfig) of the new second component carrier. The terminal then uses the radio resource configuration information of the new main component carrier to configure the new second component carrier. Since there is no need to reconfigure the MAC, PDCP and RLC layers and update the security keys, the additional system overhead caused by the update of the second component carrier can be reduced, avoiding the problem of reduced user service quality. At this time, the RRC message body does not need to include all relevant configuration information of the new second component carrier (for example, it does not include mobile control information), but only needs to include the radio resource configuration information related to the second component carrier, which can be called incremental signaling.

[0210] Similarly, similar to the tenth implementation mode, in actual applications, there are also scenarios where the new second component carrier has not been initially configured, or has been initially configured but has not been activated.

[0211] In this scenario, the carrier that has not been initially configured or the carrier that has been initially configured but not yet activated and is intended to be the new second component carrier must also be activated ( Fig. 27 , 28 ). For the second component carrier, the reconfiguration described in this application is completed, that is, its initial configuration (i.e., the addition of the carrier) is completed. For the activation process, the time sequence is also relatively flexible. Fig.28 As shown in FIG. 1 , the activation process may be performed by the base station issuing an activation command after the configuration based on the RRC reconfiguration information is completed. Fig. 27 As shown, the activation process may also be performed by the base station sending an activation command before sending the RRC reconfiguration information.

[0212] Likewise, the activation command may be combined with other commands or sent simultaneously. For example, the activation command may be sent simultaneously with the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information.

[0213] Twelfth Embodiment

[0214] The methods for updating component carriers described in the eighth to tenth embodiments are performed collaboratively by a base station and a terminal in a communication system.

[0215] Therefore, in this embodiment, a terminal, a base station, and a communication system that can respectively implement the aforementioned various embodiments are proposed.

[0216] In the description of the terminal, the base station, and the communication system in this embodiment and subsequent embodiments, unless necessary, the details already described in detail in the previous embodiments will not be repeated, and reference can be made to the description of the previous embodiments.

[0217] like Fig.29 As shown, a base station 2420 in a carrier aggregation communication network communicates with a terminal 2520 to complete the update of a primary component carrier. Specifically, the base station includes: a state acquisition unit 2402, which acquires the state information of the terminal, the base station and / or the primary component carrier; a state determination unit 2404, which determines whether the state information meets a predetermined condition; and a primary component carrier update unit 2406, which replaces the old primary component carrier with a new primary component carrier when the predetermined condition is met.

[0218] Specifically, the state acquisition unit 2402 is used to acquire information used by the state determination unit 2404 to determine whether the primary component carrier update condition is met. Which information needs to be acquired depends on the update condition, and the update condition can be arbitrarily set according to specific applications.

[0219] For example, the predetermined condition includes at least one of the following conditions:

[0220] 1. The terminal moves out of the coverage of the old primary component carrier;

[0221] 2. The quality of the old main component carrier signal has deteriorated;

[0222] 3. The old main component carrier has insufficient physical resources for uplink and downlink;

[0223] 4. The original base station requires updating the main component carrier due to the consideration of issues such as overall network load balance and interference between users;

[0224] 5. The terminal moves to the coverage area of ​​the new base station.

[0225] Then, for the first and fifth conditions, it is necessary to make a judgment based on the terminal location and the coverage of the main component carrier of the corresponding base station. For the second condition, it is necessary to obtain signal quality information from the terminal. For the third condition, it is necessary to obtain relevant information from the base station. The fourth condition is completely a command from the base station.

[0226] Therefore, depending on what the predetermined condition is, the state acquisition unit 2402 may only need to acquire relevant information from the base station itself without interacting with the terminal 2520, or may need to interact with the terminal 2520 to acquire relevant information. As for the specific way of acquiring the information, it has been described in the above description of the selection of the component carrier, which will not be repeated here.

[0227] The main component carrier updating unit 2406 interacts with the terminal 2502 to complete the update of the main component carrier. As mentioned above, all main component carrier updates can be completed through the switching process. Therefore, in one embodiment, Fig.30 As shown, the main component carrier update unit 2406 may include: a reconfiguration information sending unit 24062, which sends "radio resource control" reconfiguration information to the terminal, the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information including mobility control information, the mobility control information including information used by the terminal to reconfigure MAC, PDCP and RLC layers, update security keys, and radio resource configuration information used by the terminal to configure a new main component carrier; and a random access unit 24064, which is used to initiate non-competitive random access or respond to a random access request of the terminal.

[0228] As mentioned above, the handover process includes deactivating the old primary component carrier, but the deactivation command can be sent by the base station or implicitly by the terminal itself. When the former method is adopted, the primary component carrier updating unit 2406 can also include a deactivation command sending unit 24066, which is used to deactivate the old primary component carrier. Fig.30However, when the latter method is adopted, the primary component carrier updating unit 2406 may not include the deactivation command sending unit 24066.

[0229] Correspondingly, this embodiment also provides a corresponding terminal 2520, such as Fig.30 As shown, it includes: a reconfiguration information receiving unit 2502, used to receive "radio resource control" reconfiguration information from a base station; a mobile control configuration unit 2504, used to reconfigure MAC, PDCP and RLC layers according to the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information, and update security key information; a radio resource configuration unit 2506, used to configure a new main component carrier according to the radio resource configuration information included in the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information; a random access unit 2510, used to initiate a competitive random access or respond to a non-competitive random access initiated by the base station; and a deactivation unit 2508, used to deactivate the old main component carrier according to a pre-set deactivation command sent by the base station.

[0230] The base station 2420 and the terminal 2520 are suitable for completing the handover process. When the reconfiguration process as described above is completed, naturally, the reconfiguration information sending unit 24062 is configured to send the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information to the terminal only including the radio resource configuration information of the new primary component carrier, which is used for the terminal 2520 to configure the new primary component carrier. Accordingly, the function of the mobile control configuration unit 2504 is not required in the terminal 2520.

[0231] As mentioned above, the reconfiguration process generally does not have a random access process, so the base station 2420 and the terminal 2520 suitable for completing the reconfiguration process may not have a random access unit. However, as mentioned above, the base station 2420 and the terminal 2520 may also include corresponding random access units, so as to randomly access the new primary component carrier before deactivating the old primary component carrier when the new primary component carrier and the old primary component carrier do not meet the following conditions. These conditions are: the new and old primary component carriers are located in the same frequency band, have the same time advance, and are synchronized with the base station.

[0232] As mentioned above, for the update of the primary component carrier, the preferred method is to appropriately select the switching process or the reconfiguration process according to the application scenario. Therefore, the base station and the terminal are preferably capable of processing both the switching process and the reconfiguration process. For the terminal 2520, as can be seen from the above description, the switching process should use Fig.30 All illustrated components of the terminal 2520 are shown in FIG, while the reconfiguration process uses only some of the components. Therefore, it can be considered that a terminal that can implement the switching process can also implement the reconfiguration process.

[0233] However, since the RRC reconfiguration information is sent by the base station, whether to use the handover process or the reconfiguration process needs to be decided by the base station. Fig.31 As shown, in the base station 2420 that supports both the switching process and the reconfiguration process, the state determination unit 2404 can be further configured to: determine whether the new primary component carrier and the old primary component carrier belong to the same base station based on the information obtained by the state acquisition unit 2402. Of course, the judgment can also be made by any component in the base station 2420, and the result is notified to the primary component carrier update unit 2406. Generally speaking, for example, the base station itself knows the current primary component carrier of the terminal, and in the process of selecting the primary carrier, either the base station decides the new primary component carrier, or the terminal decides the new primary component carrier and informs the base station (for example, sends a request to update the primary component carrier to the base station), so the base station can determine whether the new and old primary component carriers belong to the same base station based on the above information. Since the terminal must request the current base station (that is, the base station to which the old primary component carrier belongs) to update the primary component carrier, the above judgment of the base station is to determine whether the new primary component carrier is the carrier of the base station itself.

[0234] Accordingly, the reconfiguration information sending unit 24062 can be configured to send different configuration information in different situations. That is, in the case where the new primary component carrier and the old primary component carrier belong to the same base station, the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information sent to the terminal only includes the radio resource configuration information of the new primary component carrier, which is used by the terminal to configure the new primary component carrier; in the case where the new primary component carrier and the old primary component carrier do not belong to the same base station, the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information includes mobile control information, which includes information used by the terminal to reconfigure the MAC, PDCP and RLC layers and update security keys, as well as radio resource configuration information used by the terminal to configure the new primary component carrier.

[0235] In addition, when the new and old main component carriers belong to different base stations and the handover process is adopted, as described above, the random access unit 2510 of the terminal 2520 will interact with the random access unit 24064' of the new base station 2420' instead of interacting with the random access unit 24064 in the old base station 2420, such as Fig.31 In this case, the random access unit 24064' of the new base station 2420' and the random access unit 24064 in the old base station 2420 can be the same component, but they belong to different base station entities; they can also be different components, and even the old base station 2420 and the new base station 2420' may not be exactly the same. However, in an ideal state, the old base station 2420 and the new base station 2420' should have the same structure. Fig.31For the sake of simplicity, only some components of the new base station 2420' are shown in the figure. The situation of the deactivation unit involved below is similar.

[0236] If the terminal does not implicitly deactivate the old primary component carrier, the base station needs to use a deactivation command sending unit. Similar to the case of the random access unit, when the new and old primary component carriers belong to different base stations and the handover process is adopted, the deactivation command should be sent by the new base station 2420', that is, the deactivation command sending unit 24066' of the new base station 2420' interacts with the deactivation unit 2508 of the terminal 2520, such as Fig.31 shown.

[0237] In addition, when the new and old main component carriers belong to different base stations and the handover process is adopted, since different base stations are involved, the handover between different base stations is also involved. Therefore, the base station may also include a handover request unit 3102, which is used to send a handover request to the base station to which the new main component carrier belongs when the new main component carrier and the old main component carrier do not belong to the same base station, and obtain relevant information from the base station to which the new main component carrier belongs, so that the reconfiguration information sending unit prepares the RRC reconfiguration information to be sent to the terminal. The details have been described in the method part and will not be repeated here.

[0238] In addition, the main component carrier update unit may also include an activation command sending unit (not shown) for sending an activation command to activate the new main component carrier before, at the same time as, or after the terminal uses the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information to send the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information when the new main component carrier has not been initially configured or activated. In addition, the base station may also include an initial configuration unit (not shown) for sending a command to initially configure (add) the main component carrier to the terminal when the new main component carrier has not been initially configured.

[0239] Accordingly, the terminal may further include a primary component carrier activation unit (not shown) for receiving an activation command sent by the base station to activate a new primary component carrier, and may further include an initial configuration unit (not shown) for adding a primary component carrier in response to a command from the base station.

[0240] Natural, such as Fig.29 , 30 As shown in FIG. 31 , the above description has also disclosed a communication system composed of various implementations of the above-mentioned terminal and various implementations of the above-mentioned base station.

[0241] Thirteenth Embodiment

[0242] The method for updating component carriers described in the eleventh implementation mode is performed collaboratively by a base station and a terminal in a communication system.

[0243] Therefore, in this embodiment, a terminal, a base station, and a communication system that can respectively implement the aforementioned various embodiments are proposed.

[0244] In the description of the terminal, the base station, and the communication system in this embodiment and subsequent embodiments, unless necessary, the details already described in detail in the previous embodiments will not be repeated, and reference can be made to the description of the previous embodiments.

[0245] like Fig.32 As shown, a base station 3000 in a carrier aggregation communication network communicates with a terminal 3020 to complete the update of a second component carrier. Specifically, the base station includes: a state acquisition unit 3002, which acquires state information of a terminal, a base station and / or a second component carrier; a state determination unit 3004, which determines whether the state information meets a predetermined condition; and a second component carrier update unit 3006, which adds a new second component carrier or replaces an old second component carrier with a new second component carrier if the predetermined condition is met.

[0246] Specifically, the state acquisition unit 3002 is used to acquire information used by the state determination unit 3004 to determine whether the second component carrier update condition is met. Which information needs to be acquired depends on the update condition, and the update condition can be arbitrarily set according to specific applications.

[0247] For example, the predetermined condition includes at least one of the following conditions:

[0248] 1. More second component carriers are needed due to business needs;

[0249] 2. The terminal moves out of the coverage of the old second component carrier;

[0250] 3. The quality of the old second component carrier signal has deteriorated;

[0251] 4. The number of physical resources in the uplink and downlink of the old second component carrier is insufficient;

[0252] 5. The original base station requires updating the second component carrier due to the consideration of issues such as overall network load balance and interference between users;

[0253] 6. The terminal moves to within the coverage area of ​​the new base station.

[0254] Then, for the second and sixth conditions, it is necessary to make a judgment based on the terminal location and the coverage of the main component carrier of the corresponding base station. For the third condition, it is necessary to obtain signal quality information from the terminal. For the fourth condition, it is necessary to obtain relevant information from the base station. The first and fifth conditions are completely commands from the base station.

[0255] Therefore, depending on the specific predetermined condition, the state acquisition unit 3002 may only need to acquire relevant information from the base station itself without interacting with the terminal 3020, or may need to interact with the terminal 3020 to acquire relevant information. As for the specific way of acquiring the information, it has been described in the above description of the selection of the component carrier, which will not be repeated here.

[0256] The second component carrier updating unit 3006 interacts with the terminal 3002 to complete the update of the second component carrier. Fig.33 As shown, the second component carrier update unit 3006 may include: a reconfiguration information sending unit 30062, which sends "radio resource control" reconfiguration information to the terminal, and the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information only includes the radio resource configuration information of the new second component carrier, which is used by the terminal to configure the new second component carrier.

[0257] Correspondingly, this embodiment also provides a corresponding terminal 3020, such as Fig.33 As shown, it includes: a reconfiguration information receiving unit 3022, used to receive "radio resource control" reconfiguration information from a base station; a radio resource configuration unit 3024, used to configure a new second component carrier according to the radio resource configuration information included in the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information.

[0258] In addition, the second component carrier update unit may also include an activation command sending unit 30066, which is used to send an activation command to activate the new second component carrier after adding a new second component carrier or replacing an old second component carrier with a new second component carrier; or when the new second component carrier has not been initially configured or activated, before or simultaneously with the reconfiguration information sending unit sending the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information, send an activation command to activate the new second component carrier.

[0259] Correspondingly, the terminal may further include a second component carrier activating unit 3028, configured to receive an activation command sent by the base station, and activate the second component carrier.

[0260] Natural, such as Fig.32 , 33 As shown, the above description has also disclosed a communication system composed of various implementations of the above-mentioned terminal and various implementations of the above-mentioned base station.

[0261] Some embodiments of the present application are described in detail above. As can be understood by those skilled in the art, all or any steps or components of the method and apparatus of the present invention can be implemented in hardware, firmware, software or a combination thereof in any computing device (including communication device) including a processor, a storage medium, etc. or a network of computing devices (including communication network), which can be implemented by those skilled in the art using their basic programming skills after understanding the content of the present invention, and therefore, no specific description is required here.

[0262] In addition, it is obvious that when possible external operations are mentioned in the above description, any display device and any input device connected to any computing device, corresponding interfaces and control programs must be used. In summary, the relevant hardware and software in a computer, computer system or computer network and the hardware, firmware, software or their combination for implementing various operations in the aforementioned method of the present invention constitute the device of the present invention and its components.

[0263] Therefore, based on the above understanding, the purpose of the present invention can also be achieved by running a program or a group of programs on any information processing device. The information processing device can be a well-known general-purpose device. Therefore, the purpose of the present invention can also be achieved by simply providing a program product containing a program code that implements the method or device. In other words, such a program product also constitutes the present invention, and a storage medium storing such a program product also constitutes the present invention. Obviously, the storage medium can be any type of storage medium known to those skilled in the art or developed in the future, including but not limited to a floppy disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a memory card, a memory stick, and the like.

[0264] In the apparatus and method of the present invention, it is obvious that each component or each step can be decomposed, combined and / or recombined after decomposition. Such decomposition and / or recombination should be regarded as equivalent solutions of the present invention.

[0265] It should also be noted that the steps of executing the above series of processes can be naturally executed in chronological order according to the order of description, but do not necessarily need to be executed in chronological order. Some steps can be executed in parallel or independently of each other.

[0266] In addition, although the above is described one embodiment at a time, it should be understood that each embodiment is not isolated. After reading this application document, those skilled in the art will obviously understand that the various technical features included in each embodiment can be arbitrarily combined between various embodiments, as long as there is no conflict between them. Of course, all technical features mentioned in the same embodiment can also be arbitrarily combined with each other, as long as there is no conflict between them.

[0267] Finally, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof are intended to encompass non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that includes a list of elements includes not only those elements, but also other elements not explicitly listed, or elements inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. In addition, in the absence of more limitations, an element defined by the phrase "comprising a ..." does not exclude the presence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that includes the element.

[0268] Although the embodiments of the present invention and their advantages have been described in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, it should be understood that the embodiments described above are only used to illustrate the present invention and do not constitute a limitation of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, various modifications and changes can be made to the above embodiments without departing from the essence and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention is limited only by the attached claims and their equivalent meanings, and various changes, substitutions and conversions can be made without exceeding the spirit and scope of the present invention defined by the attached claims.

[0269] The present technology may also be configured as follows.

[0270] (1) A method for updating a primary component carrier in a carrier aggregation communication network, comprising:

[0271] Obtaining status information of a terminal, a base station and / or a primary component carrier;

[0272] Determining whether the status information meets a predetermined condition;

[0273] When a predetermined condition is met, the old main component carrier is replaced by a new main component carrier.

[0274] (2) The method as described in (1), wherein the predetermined condition includes at least one of the following conditions:

[0275] The terminal moves out of the coverage of the old primary component carrier;

[0276] The quality of the old main component carrier signal has degraded;

[0277] The old main component carrier has insufficient physical resources for uplink and downlink;

[0278] The original base station requires updating the main component carrier due to the consideration of issues such as overall network load balance and interference between users;

[0279] The terminal moves into the coverage area of ​​the new base station.

[0280] (3) The method as described in (1), wherein a switching process is used to replace the old primary component carrier with a new primary component carrier.

[0281] (4) The method as described in (3), wherein the switching process includes:

[0282] The base station to which the old primary component carrier belongs sends "radio resource control" reconfiguration information to the terminal, wherein the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information includes mobility control information, and the mobility control information includes the radio resource configuration information of the new primary component carrier;

[0283] The terminal reconfigures the MAC, PDCP and RLC layers using the mobility control information in the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information, updates the security key, and configures a new primary component carrier using the radio resource configuration information of the new primary component carrier;

[0284] Random access to a new primary component carrier;

[0285] The base station to which the new primary component carrier belongs sends a deactivation command or the terminal uses an implicit deactivation method to deactivate the old primary component carrier.

[0286] (5) The method as described in (1), wherein replacing the old primary component carrier with the new primary component carrier comprises:

[0287] determining whether the new primary component carrier belongs to the same base station as the old primary component carrier;

[0288] If they belong to the same base station, the base station adopts a reconfiguration process to replace the old main component carrier with a new main component carrier; otherwise, the base station to which the old main component carrier belongs sends a switching request to the base station to which the new main component carrier belongs, obtains relevant information from the base station to which the new main component carrier belongs, and then adopts a switching process to replace the old main component carrier with a new main component carrier.

[0289] (6) The method as described in (5), wherein:

[0290] The reconfiguration process includes:

[0291] The base station sends "radio resource control" reconfiguration information to the terminal, wherein the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information only includes the radio resource configuration information of the new primary component carrier;

[0292] The terminal uses the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information to configure a new primary component carrier; and

[0293] The base station sends a deactivation command or the terminal uses an implicit deactivation method to deactivate the old primary component carrier;

[0294] The switching process includes:

[0295] The base station to which the old primary component carrier belongs sends "radio resource control" reconfiguration information to the terminal, wherein the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information includes mobility control information, and the mobility control information includes the radio resource configuration information of the new primary component carrier;

[0296] The terminal reconfigures the MAC, PDCP and RLC layers using the mobility control information in the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information, updates the security key, and configures a new primary component carrier using the radio resource configuration information of the new primary component carrier;

[0297] Randomly accessing a new primary component carrier; and

[0298] The base station to which the new primary component carrier belongs sends a deactivation command or the terminal uses an implicit deactivation method to deactivate the old primary component carrier.

[0299] (7) As described in the method of (6), if the new primary component carrier and the old primary component carrier do not meet the following conditions, then in the reconfiguration process, the new primary component carrier is randomly accessed before the old primary component carrier is deactivated: they are located in the same frequency band, have the same timing advance, and are synchronized with the base station.

[0300] (8) In the method described in any one of (4), (6) and (7), when the new primary component carrier has not been initially configured, the terminal is first initially configured and the primary component carrier is activated; when the new primary component carrier has been initially configured but not yet activated, the primary component carrier is first activated.

[0301] (9) The method as described in (8), wherein the activation command and the "Radio Resource Control" reconfiguration information are sent simultaneously.

[0302] (10) As described in any one of (4), (6) and (7), if the new primary component carrier has not been initially configured, or the new primary component carrier has been initially configured but has not yet been activated, then before deactivating the old primary component carrier, the method also includes: sending an activation command to activate the primary component carrier.

[0303] (11) A method for updating a second component carrier in a carrier aggregation communication network, comprising:

[0304] Acquiring status information of a terminal, a base station and / or a second component carrier;

[0305] Determining whether the status information meets a predetermined condition;

[0306] If a predetermined condition is met, a new second component carrier is added or an old second component carrier is replaced by the new second component carrier.

[0307] (12) The method according to (11), wherein the predetermined condition includes at least one of the following conditions:

[0308] Due to business needs, more second component carriers are needed;

[0309] The terminal moves out of the coverage of the old second component carrier;

[0310] The quality of the old second component carrier signal is degraded;

[0311] The old second component carrier has insufficient physical resources for uplink and downlink;

[0312] The original base station requires updating the second component carrier in consideration of issues such as overall network load balance and interference between users;

[0313] The terminal moves into the coverage area of ​​the new base station.

[0314] (13) The method according to (11) or (12), wherein:

[0315] Adding a new second component carrier or replacing an old second component carrier with a new second component carrier includes:

[0316] The base station to which the new second component carrier belongs sends "radio resource control" reconfiguration information to the terminal, and the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information only includes the radio resource configuration information of the new second component carrier;

[0317] The terminal reconfigures a new second component carrier using the radio resource configuration information.

[0318] (14) A method as described in (13), wherein, when the new second component carrier has not been initially configured, or when the new second component carrier has been initially configured but has not been activated, the second component carrier is first activated.

[0319] (15) The method as described in (14), wherein the activation command and the "Radio Resource Control" reconfiguration information are sent simultaneously.

[0320] (16) The method of (13), wherein after a new second component carrier is added or an old second component carrier is replaced with a new second component carrier, the new second component carrier is activated.

[0321] (17) A base station in a carrier aggregation communication network, comprising:

[0322] A status acquisition unit, which acquires status information of a terminal, a base station and / or a primary component carrier;

[0323] a state determination unit, determining whether the state information meets a predetermined condition;

[0324] The main component carrier updating unit replaces the old main component carrier with a new main component carrier when a predetermined condition is met.

[0325] (18) The base station according to (17), wherein the predetermined condition includes at least one of the following conditions:

[0326] The terminal moves out of the coverage of the old primary component carrier;

[0327] The quality of the old main component carrier signal has degraded;

[0328] The old main component carrier has insufficient physical resources for uplink and downlink;

[0329] The original base station requires updating the main component carrier due to the consideration of issues such as overall network load balance and interference between users;

[0330] The terminal moves into the coverage area of ​​the new base station.

[0331] (19) In the base station described in (17), the primary component carrier updating unit comprises:

[0332] a reconfiguration information sending unit, sending "radio resource control" reconfiguration information to the terminal, wherein the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information includes mobility control information, wherein the mobility control information includes information used by the terminal to reconfigure MAC, PDCP and RLC layers, update security keys, and radio resource configuration information used by the terminal to configure a new primary component carrier;

[0333] The random access unit is used to initiate non-competitive random access or respond to the random access request of the terminal.

[0334] (20) The base station according to (19), wherein:

[0335] The state determination unit is further configured to: also determine whether the new primary component carrier belongs to the same base station as the old primary component carrier;

[0336] The reconfiguration information sending unit is configured to, when the new primary component carrier and the old primary component carrier belong to the same base station, send to the terminal the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information only including the radio resource configuration information of the new primary component carrier, which is used for the terminal to configure the new primary component carrier; when the new primary component carrier and the old primary component carrier do not belong to the same base station, the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information includes mobility control information, which includes information used by the terminal to reconfigure MAC, PDCP and RLC layers and update security keys, and the radio resource configuration information used by the terminal to configure the new primary component carrier;

[0337] Wherein, the base station further includes:

[0338] The handover request unit sends a handover request to the base station to which the new main component carrier belongs, and obtains relevant information from the base station to which the new main component carrier belongs, when the new main component carrier and the old main component carrier do not belong to the same base station.

[0339] (21) In the base station as described in (19) or (20), the primary component carrier updating unit further includes:

[0340] The activation command sending unit is used to send an activation command to activate the new primary component carrier before, simultaneously with, or after the terminal uses the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information to configure the new primary component carrier when the new primary component carrier has not been initially configured or activated.

[0341] (22) The base station according to (21), further comprising:

[0342] The initial configuration unit is used to send a command for initially configuring the new primary component carrier to the terminal when the new primary component carrier has not been initially configured.

[0343] (23) A base station as described in (19) or (20), wherein the primary component carrier updating unit further comprises: a deactivation command sending unit, which sends a deactivation command to deactivate the old primary component carrier. (24) A base station in a carrier aggregation communication network, comprising:

[0344] A status acquisition unit, which acquires status information of the terminal, the base station and / or the second component carrier;

[0345] a state determination unit, determining whether the state information meets a predetermined condition;

[0346] The second component carrier updating unit adds a new second component carrier or replaces an old second component carrier with a new second component carrier when a predetermined condition is met.

[0347] (25) The base station according to (24), wherein the predetermined condition includes at least one of the following conditions:

[0348] Due to business needs, more second component carriers are needed;

[0349] The terminal moves out of the coverage of the old second component carrier;

[0350] The quality of the old second component carrier signal is degraded;

[0351] The old second component carrier has insufficient physical resources for uplink and downlink;

[0352] The original base station requires updating the second component carrier in consideration of issues such as overall network load balance and interference between users;

[0353] The terminal moves into the coverage area of ​​the new base station.

[0354] (26) The base station according to (24) or (25), wherein the second component carrier updating unit comprises:

[0355] The reconfiguration information sending unit sends "radio resource control" reconfiguration information to the terminal, wherein the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information only includes the radio resource configuration information of the new second component carrier, and is used for the terminal to configure the new second component carrier.

[0356] (27) According to the base station described in (26), the second component carrier updating unit further includes:

[0357] The activation command sending unit is used to send an activation command to activate the new second component carrier after adding a new second component carrier or replacing an old second component carrier with a new second component carrier; or when the new second component carrier has not been initially configured or activated, before or simultaneously with the reconfiguration information sending unit sending the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information, send an activation command to activate the new second component carrier.

[0358] (28) A terminal suitable for a carrier aggregation communication network, comprising:

[0359] A reconfiguration information receiving unit, configured to receive "radio resource control" reconfiguration information from a base station;

[0360] A radio resource configuration unit, configured to configure a new primary component carrier according to the radio resource configuration information included in the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information;

[0361] The deactivation unit is used to deactivate the old main component carrier according to a pre-set or deactivation command sent by the base station.

[0362] (29) The terminal according to (28), further comprising:

[0363] A mobile control configuration unit, configured to reconfigure the MAC, PDCP and RLC layers according to the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information, and update the security key information;

[0364] The random access unit is used to initiate a competitive random access or respond to a non-competitive random access initiated by a base station.

[0365] (30) The terminal according to (28), further comprising:

[0366] The random access unit is used to initiate a competitive random access or respond to a non-competitive random access initiated by a base station.

[0367] (31) The terminal according to any one of (28) to (30), further comprising:

[0368] The primary component carrier activation unit is used to receive an activation command sent by a base station and activate a new primary component carrier.

[0369] (32) The terminal according to (31), further comprising:

[0370] The initial configuration unit is used to initially configure the main component carrier in response to a command from the base station.

[0371] (33) A terminal suitable for a carrier aggregation communication network, comprising:

[0372] A reconfiguration information receiving unit, configured to receive "radio resource control" reconfiguration information from a base station;

[0373] The radio resource configuration unit is used to configure a new second component carrier according to the radio resource configuration information included in the "radio resource control" reconfiguration information.

[0374] (34) The terminal according to (33), further comprising:

[0375] The second component carrier activation unit is used to receive an activation command sent by the base station and activate the second component carrier.

[0376] (35) A communication system comprising the base station described in any one of (17) to (23) and the terminal described in any one of (28) to (32).

[0377] (36) A communication system comprising the base station described in any one of (24) to (27) and the terminal described in (33) or (34).

Claims

1. A terminal device in a carrier aggregation communication network, comprising: The circuit is configured as: Communicate with a base station; acquiring a radio resource control reconfiguration message from the base station, the radio resource control reconfiguration message including radio resource configuration information of a new second component carrier to be added at the terminal device; and using the radio resource control reconfiguration message to configure the second component carrier for carrier aggregation, wherein the radio resource control reconfiguration message only includes radio resource configuration information of the second component carrier, The second component carrier is configured by the terminal device using the radio resource configuration information of the second component carrier, and the configuration of the second component carrier does not require resetting the MAC layer, PDCP and RLC layers and updating security keys.

2. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein: The second component carrier is in a deactivated state after configuration, and The circuit is further configured to receive an activation command from the base station, and activate the second component carrier according to the activation command.

3. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein: The second component carrier is used to replace the old second component carrier, and The circuit is configured to delete the old second component carrier and add the second component carrier.

4. The terminal device according to claim 3, wherein: The activation state of the old second component carrier is maintained during the reconfiguration process of updating the second component carrier.

5. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein: The circuit is further configured to determine the second component carrier with the assistance of the base station and notify the base station of the second component carrier.

6. The terminal device according to claim 5, wherein: The circuit is also configured to: Acquire coverage information of each available carrier from the base station, Determining that coverage of at least two available carriers overlaps with each other, determining the location, moving direction and moving speed of the terminal device, and The second component carrier is determined from the available carriers based on the position, the moving direction and the moving speed.

7. The terminal device according to claim 6, wherein: The circuit is also configured to: determining whether the terminal device is located at the edge of any available carrier and is moving away from the available carrier at a high speed, and When it is determined that the terminal device is located at the edge of an available carrier and is moving away from the available carrier at a high moving speed, the available carrier in the moving away direction is determined to have a higher probability of becoming the second component carrier than other available carriers.

8. A method for a terminal device in a carrier aggregation communication network, comprising: Communicate with a base station; acquiring a radio resource control reconfiguration message from the base station, the radio resource control reconfiguration message including radio resource configuration information of a new second component carrier to be added at the terminal device; and using the radio resource control reconfiguration message to configure the second component carrier for carrier aggregation, wherein the radio resource control reconfiguration message only includes radio resource configuration information of the second component carrier, The second component carrier is configured by the terminal device using the radio resource configuration information of the second component carrier, and the configuration of the second component carrier does not require resetting the MAC layer, PDCP and RLC layers and updating security keys.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein: The second component carrier is in a deactivated state after configuration, and the method further comprises: An activation command is received from the base station, and the second component carrier is activated according to the activation command.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein: The second component carrier is used to replace an old second component carrier, and the method includes deleting the old second component carrier and adding the second component carrier.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein: The activation state of the old second component carrier is maintained during the reconfiguration process of updating the second component carrier.

12. The method according to claim 8, wherein: The method includes determining the second component carrier with the assistance of the base station, and notifying the base station of the second component carrier.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein: The method comprises: Acquire coverage information of each available carrier from the base station, Determining that coverage of at least two available carriers overlaps with each other, determining the location, moving direction and moving speed of the terminal device, and The second component carrier is determined from the available carriers based on the position, the moving direction and the moving speed.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein: The method comprises: determining whether the terminal device is located at the edge of any available carrier and is moving away from the available carrier at a high speed, and When it is determined that the terminal device is located at the edge of an available carrier and is moving away from the available carrier at a high moving speed, the available carrier in the moving away direction is determined to have a higher probability of becoming the second component carrier than other available carriers.

15. A base station in a carrier aggregation communication network, comprising: The circuit is configured as: communicating with a terminal device; generating a radio resource control reconfiguration message, the radio resource control reconfiguration message comprising radio resource configuration information of a new second component carrier to be added at the terminal device; as well as The wireless resource control reconfiguration message is provided to the terminal device for configuring the second component carrier for carrier aggregation using the wireless resource control reconfiguration message, the wireless resource control reconfiguration message only includes wireless resource configuration information of the second component carrier, so as to be used by the terminal device to configure the second component carrier, and the configuration of the second component carrier does not require resetting the MAC layer, PDCP and RLC layers and updating security keys.

16. The base station according to claim 15, wherein: The second component carrier is in a deactivated state after configuration, and The circuit is further configured to send an activation command to the terminal device, so that the terminal device activates the second component carrier according to the activation command.

17. The base station according to claim 15, wherein: The second component carrier is used to replace the old second component carrier, and The terminal device deletes the old second component carrier and adds the second component carrier.

18. The base station according to claim 17, wherein: The activation state of the old second component carrier is maintained during the reconfiguration process of updating the second component carrier.

19. The base station according to claim 15, wherein: The circuitry is further configured to assist the terminal device in determining the second component carrier, and obtain notification of the second component carrier from the terminal device.

20. The base station according to claim 19, wherein: The circuit is further configured to provide coverage information of each available carrier to the terminal device.

21. A method for a base station in a carrier aggregation communication network, comprising: communicating with a terminal device; generating a radio resource control reconfiguration message, the radio resource control reconfiguration message comprising radio resource configuration information of a new second component carrier to be added at the terminal device; as well as The wireless resource control reconfiguration message is provided to the terminal device for configuring the second component carrier for carrier aggregation using the wireless resource control reconfiguration message, the wireless resource control reconfiguration message only includes wireless resource configuration information of the second component carrier, so as to be used by the terminal device to configure the second component carrier, and the configuration of the second component carrier does not require resetting the MAC layer, PDCP and RLC layers and updating security keys.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein: The second component carrier is in a deactivated state after configuration, and The method further comprises sending an activation command to the terminal device, so that the terminal device activates the second component carrier according to the activation command.

23. The method according to claim 21, wherein: The second component carrier is used to replace the old second component carrier, and The terminal device deletes the old second component carrier and adds the second component carrier.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein: The activation state of the old second component carrier is maintained during the reconfiguration process of updating the second component carrier.

25. The method according to claim 21, wherein: The method further comprises assisting the terminal device in determining the second component carrier, and obtaining notification of the second component carrier from the terminal device.

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein: The method also includes providing coverage information of each available carrier to the terminal device.

27. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, which, when executed, execute the method for a terminal device in a carrier aggregation communication network according to any one of claims 8 to 14 or the method for a base station in a carrier aggregation communication network according to any one of claims 21 to 26.

28. A computer program product comprising a computer program / instructions, wherein: When the computer program / instructions are executed by a processor, the steps of the method for a terminal device in a carrier aggregation communication network according to any one of claims 8 to 14 or the method for a base station in a carrier aggregation communication network according to any one of claims 21 to 26 are implemented.

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