Terminal DRX Indication Timing to Reduce Wake-Ups and Interference

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing discontinuous reception (DRX) mechanisms in wireless communication lead to unnecessary power consumption as terminal devices are frequently woken up during inactive periods, despite low service load, due to opportunistic scheduling and infrequent paging messages.

Innovation Solution

Terminal devices and network devices synchronize DRX cycles by detecting DRX indication signals at specific times using offset values based on UE-ID or Cell-ID, determining target DRX cycles to reduce unnecessary wake-ups and align detection times to minimize interference and power consumption.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the terminal device periodically detects the control channel during the active period of DRX cycles, then the terminal device can receive scheduled communications, but the terminal device consumes unnecessary power when not scheduled

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecommunication reception reliabilityVSAvoidterminal device power consumption
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The network device sends a DRX indication signal before the terminal device enters the active period to preliminarily indicate whether the terminal will be scheduled. The terminal device detects this signal in advance and adjusts its wake-up behavior accordingly, avoiding unnecessary activation of the receiver and control channel detection when no scheduling is intended.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The terminal device autonomously decides whether to wake up and detect the control channel based on the DRX indication signal received from the network. This self-service mechanism allows the terminal to independently optimize its power consumption by skipping active period monitoring when the indication signal suggests no scheduling is planned.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

2Productivity

If multiple terminal devices detect the DRX indication signal at the same time, then the network can efficiently manage multiple devices, but interference occurs among terminal devices during signal detection

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvenetwork management efficiencyVSAvoidinterference among terminal devices
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The network device divides multiple terminal devices into different groups and assigns different detection time points within the DRX cycle to each group. This segmentation of the detection process in the time domain allows simultaneous management of multiple devices while avoiding interference by ensuring that not all devices detect signals at the exact same moment.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Different terminal devices are configured with different periodic detection patterns within the DRX cycle. By staggering the detection times periodically across multiple devices, the system maintains efficient network management while reducing simultaneous detection interference through time-diversity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #19Periodic action

Data Source

PatentEP3634044B1Discontinuous reception method, terminal device and network device
Publication Date: 2025.08.20 GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP LTD
  • EP3634044B1 patent drawingFigure 1~2
  • EP3634044B1 patent drawingFigure 3~4
  • EP3634044B1 patent drawingFigure 5

AI summary

Disclosed by the present application are a discontinuous reception method, terminal device and network device, the method including: a first terminal device determining a target discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle used for the first terminal device to detect a DRX indication signal during a DRX indication cycle which is used for DRX indication signal detection, the DRX indication cycle comprising N DRX cycles, the DRX indication signal being used to indicate that the first terminal device wakes up or sleeps during an activation period of the N DRX cycles after the moment when the DRX indication signal is detected; a first terminal device detecting a DRX indication signal sent by a network device in the target DRX cycle; the first terminal device waking up or sleeping according to the DRX indication signal during the activation period of the N DRX cycles after the moment when the DRX indication signal is detected. Since different terminal devices detect the DRX indication signal at different times, the different terminal devices, when detecting the DRX indication signal, may reduce the interference between each other, further reducing power consumption.