Timing Advance Value Sharing in Carrier Aggregation
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Solution Overview
Problem
In communication systems with carrier aggregation, base stations face challenges in determining which uplink component carriers of a user equipment can share a common timing advance value due to varying offset statuses across different carriers, leading to incomplete synchronization and impaired carrier aggregation services.
Innovation Solution
The method involves calculating time offsets between downlink and uplink component carriers, with user equipment sending indication information to the base station about which carriers can share a timing advance value, allowing the base station to cancel or record configurations accordingly, ensuring only synchronized carriers are used for aggregation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If all uplink CCs share one TA value, then device complexity is reduced, but synchronization reliability deteriorates when offset statuses differ across carriers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the uplink component carriers into different groups based on their offset statuses relative to the downlink carrier. Carriers with offsets within a threshold are grouped together and share one TA value, while carriers with offsets beyond the threshold form separate groups with dedicated TA values. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by maintaining simplicity within each group while ensuring synchronization reliability across all groups.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by allowing different TA value sharing arrangements for different uplink CCs based on their specific offset characteristics. Instead of a uniform approach, each CC is evaluated individually against the threshold criterion, enabling carriers with similar timing characteristics to share TA values while isolating carriers with significant timing differences. This localized adaptation resolves the contradiction between overall simplicity and local synchronization accuracy.
2Reliability
If TA values are determined individually for each uplink CC, then synchronization reliability is improved, but device complexity and signaling overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent establishes a universal threshold criterion that can be applied to evaluate any uplink CC's suitability for TA value sharing. This universal rule enables the system to dynamically determine TA sharing arrangements without complex individual configurations for each carrier pair. The base station and UE can autonomously apply this universal threshold to make consistent decisions, reducing signaling overhead while maintaining synchronization reliability.
3Adaptability or versatility
If frequency selection repeaters or RRHs are deployed to enhance coverage, then service availability is improved, but TA value sharing reliability deteriorates due to varying signal paths
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a dynamic threshold-based mechanism that adapts to varying signal path conditions caused by frequency selection repeaters and RRHs. The threshold criterion allows the system to flexibly determine TA sharing suitability based on actual offset measurements, accommodating the dynamic and heterogeneous network topology introduced by these coverage enhancement devices. This dynamic approach maintains TA sharing reliability despite the complexity introduced by repeaters and RRHs.
Data Source
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AI summary
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, user equipment, base station, and system for detecting sharing of a timing advance value, relate to the field of communications technologies, and solve a problem in the prior art that a normal service cannot be provided because a TA value cannot be shared between different uplink CCs. According to the embodiments of the present invention, the user equipment may determine, through a time offset between synchronization of downlink component carriers corresponding to uplink component carriers, that a too large time offset indicates that a same TA value cannot be shared; the base station may calculate a TA value directly through a dedicated preamble sequence, and then compares the TA value with a TA value of one of the component carriers, where a too large difference between the TA values indicates that a same TA value cannot be shared. The embodiments of the present invention are mainly used in various wireless communications systems.