Narrow-band Paging Resource Allocation for MTC Coverage Enhancement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Low-cost Machine Type Communication (MTC) User Equipment (UEs) experience high overhead in signaling processes, such as paging, due to repeated transmissions, which degrades battery life and increases system overhead, necessitating enhancements in paging messages and procedures for LTE networks.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves determining if a UE is in Coverage Enhancement (CE) mode and obtaining a set of reserved narrow-band resource blocks for paging messages, using a higher-layer message to configure paging occasions, and employing the MPDCCH for scheduling, allowing for efficient decoding of paging messages without control information, and optionally enabling frequency hopping to optimize resource usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If repeated transmission is used for LC-MTC UEs to ensure coverage enhancement, then reliability is improved, but signaling overhead increases and battery life decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The paging process is segmented into two distinct parts: a compact MPDCCH control message that provides scheduling information, and a separate PDSCH paging message that carries the actual paging content. This segmentation allows the UE to quickly decode the small MPDCCH message to determine if further paging reception is needed, thereby avoiding unnecessary repeated transmission and energy consumption while maintaining reliability for UEs that do require coverage enhancement.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention implements partial action by requiring UEs to fully decode only the essential MPDCCH control message rather than the complete paging message. The MPDCCH contains sufficient information for the UE to determine whether a paging message is intended for it and whether further reception is required. This partial decoding approach significantly reduces the energy consumption associated with repeated transmission while maintaining the reliability needed for coverage enhancement.
2Reliability
If repeated transmission is used for paging messages, then reliability is improved, but system overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The paging transmission is segmented into a control portion (MPDCCH) and a data portion (PDSCH). The MPDCCH is transmitted with repetition for reliable decoding by UEs, while the actual paging message content is carried in the PDSCH. This segmentation allows the system to maintain high reliability for paging delivery through repeated control channel transmission while reducing overall system overhead by avoiding repetition of the entire paging message.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts the essential control information from the complete paging message and places it in the MPDCCH control channel. This extracted control information includes scheduling details and indicators that enable UEs to determine whether they need to receive the full paging message. By taking out only the critical control elements and transmitting them with repetition, the system maintains reliable paging delivery while significantly reducing the overhead associated with repeated transmission of the entire paging message.
3Productivity
If narrow-band resource blocks are reserved for paging messages, then paging efficiency is improved, but resource allocation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The resource allocation is segmented into narrow-band resource blocks specifically reserved for MPDCCH paging control messages and separate resources for PDSCH paging data. This segmentation improves paging efficiency by confining control signaling to specific narrow bands, reducing interference and simplifying UE resource monitoring. The standardized mapping rules for these narrow-band resources reduce allocation complexity by providing deterministic resource locations that UEs can easily identify and decode.
Data Source
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AI summary
Methods and apparatus are provided for paging enhancement for the UE in the LC-MTC mode. In one novel aspect, the UE determines if the UE is in CE mode, obtains a set of narrow-band resource blocks reserved for LC-MTC paging messages and decodes a paging message based on the obtained narrow-band resource blocks. In one embodiment, the paging message occupies a predefined narrow band resource blocks without control information. In another embodiment, MPDCCH is used as control message to schedule narrow-band paging messages. In one embodiment, the MPDCCH searching space comprises a paging narrow-band selected from the set of narrow bands based on a UE ID. In another novel aspect, methods for PO detection are provided. The UE obtains a set of common paging narrow-bands from a higher layer configuration, determines a paging occasion to monitor paging message, decodes paging messages within the obtained common paging narrow-band, and performs combination.