Base Station Handover for Carrier Aggregation Service Recovery

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current technologies face challenges in quickly handing over user equipment (UE) using carrier aggregation technology, leading to slow service recovery and inability to hand over UE to multiple stations, affecting user experience.

Innovation Solution

A method where a second base station obtains bearer context information from a first base station and sends a handover request to a target base station, including both sets of information to determine acceptance, and after agreement, sends a handover command to the UE, allowing for quick handover and service recovery, even if UE needs to use carrier aggregation post-handover.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Power

If the UE is served by multiple stations based on carrier aggregation technology, then the system bandwidth is extended and peak data rate is increased, but the handover process becomes complex and service recovery time increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepeak data rateVSAvoidhandover time
Core Design Contradiction:
PowerVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The target base station is pre-configured with bearer context information of the UE from both source base stations before handover occurs. This preliminary provision of information enables the target base station to immediately resume service without waiting for information transfer during handover, thus reducing handover time while maintaining carrier aggregation functionality

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces a signaling mechanism where the source base stations send handover request information to the target base station, which acts as an intermediary to coordinate the reception of bearer context information from multiple sources. This intermediary role enables efficient information aggregation and reduces handover complexity

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Reliability

If the UE maintains multiple RRC connections with multiple base stations for carrier aggregation, then service continuity is improved, but the device complexity and information management burden increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveservice continuityVSAvoidconnection management complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts and separates the bearer context information from each source base station into distinct information sets. The target base station receives and manages these separate information sets independently, simplifying the management of multiple connections by treating each source's information as a separate entity rather than managing all connections uniformly

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The bearer context information is segmented into distinct portions from each source base station (first bearer context information and second bearer context information). This segmentation allows the target base station to process and manage information from each source independently, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining service continuity

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

3Ease of operation

If traditional handover procedures are used for carrier aggregation scenarios, then the handover process is simple, but the service recovery is slow and user experience deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvehandover procedure simplicityVSAvoidservice recovery speed
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The target base station receives bearer context information from both source base stations before the handover command is executed. This preliminary action ensures that all necessary information is prepared in advance, allowing the target base station to immediately resume service without complex information exchange during handover, thus maintaining procedural simplicity while accelerating service recovery

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent combines the information reception process from multiple source base stations into a single coordinated procedure at the target base station. By merging the information gathering step before handover, the system maintains operational simplicity while enabling fast service recovery through having all necessary information readily available

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Data Source

PatentEP2704485B1Handover method and base station
Publication Date: 2016.09.07 HUAWEI TECH CO LTD
  • EP2704485B1 patent drawingFigure 1~2
  • EP2704485B1 patent drawingFigure 3
  • EP2704485B1 patent drawingFigure 4

AI summary

A handover method and a base station are provided. The handover method may include: when a UE needs to be handed over, obtaining bearer context information of the UE in a first base station; sending a handover request to a target base station, where the handover request carries the bearer context information; and after receiving a handover response that is returned by the target base station and indicates that the handover is agreed to, sending a handover command to the UE so that the UE is handed over to the target base station. The handover method may further include: when a UE needs to be handed over, sending a handover request to a target base station; after receiving a handover response that is returned by the target base station and indicates that the handover is agreed to, sending a handover indication to a first base station serving the UE, so that the first base station forwards data to the target base station; and sending a handover command to the UE so that the UE is handed over to the target base station. Based on the above technical solutions, the UE handover can be implemented quickly in the case of using multiple carriers and the current service of the UE can be recovered quickly, which can improve communication experience of a user.