Radio Link Failure Reporting Across Multipath Connections

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Solution Overview

Problem

In multipath or multi-connectivity scenarios, reporting radio link failures (RLF) can lead to unnecessary signaling overhead, processing overhead, increased radio resource load, and power consumption, as well as ineffective path recovery due to the UE's inability to determine whether to report RLF via another available path.

Innovation Solution

The user equipment (UE) is configured to detect RLF and determine, based on specific measurement results and thresholds, whether to report the failure via another path, thereby optimizing reporting and reducing unnecessary procedures.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If the UE reports RLF via another path without measurement evaluation, then the reporting process is simple and fast, but it causes unnecessary signaling overhead, processing overhead, and power consumption

Engineering Contradiction:
ImproveRLF reporting speedVSAvoidpower consumption
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The network node pre-configures measurement configurations and thresholds to the UE before RLF detection. This preliminary setup enables the UE to quickly evaluate whether reporting is necessary by comparing current measurements against pre-set thresholds, avoiding unnecessary reporting while maintaining fast response capability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The UE performs measurement evaluations and compares results against configured thresholds to determine whether RLF reporting is necessary. This feedback mechanism prevents unnecessary reporting by only triggering reports when measurements indicate actual path failure, thereby reducing signaling overhead and power consumption while maintaining reporting effectiveness.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

2Loss of information

If the UE reports all RLF occurrences, then complete failure information is provided to the network, but signaling overhead and processing overhead increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvefailure information completenessVSAvoidsignaling overhead
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The UE evaluates current path measurements against pre-configured thresholds before reporting RLF. This feedback mechanism ensures that only genuine failures (where measurements actually exceed thresholds) are reported, maintaining complete failure information while filtering out false alarms that would increase signaling overhead.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The invention extracts and removes unnecessary RLF reports by evaluating measurements against thresholds before reporting. Only RLF events that meet the configured criteria are extracted for reporting, while false positives are filtered out, reducing signaling overhead without losing critical failure information.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

3Loss of energy

If the UE determines whether to report RLF based on measurement evaluation, then unnecessary reporting is reduced, but the UE needs to perform additional measurements and evaluations

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepower consumptionVSAvoidmeasurement processing complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of energyVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The network node provides pre-configured measurement configurations and thresholds to the UE before RLF detection. This preliminary action simplifies the UE's decision process by providing ready-made evaluation criteria, reducing the computational complexity of real-time decisions while enabling intelligent reporting suppression.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP4443947B1Reporting radio link failure in multipath or multi-connectivity scenario
Publication Date: 2026.01.14 NOKIA TECHNOLOGIES OY
  • EP4443947B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4443947B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4443947B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

There is provided an apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform: detecting radio link failure of a path among a plurality of paths, wherein the apparatus is configured to be connected to at least one network node via the plurality of paths; and determining, after detecting the radio link failure and based on at least one measurement result, whether to report the detected radio link failure of the path via another path among the plurality of paths.