User Equipment Autonomous Secondary Cell Addition

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Solution Overview

Problem

The current mobile communications system faces overload issues due to increased system signaling as the number of cells grows, leading to processing burdens on base stations, especially in scenarios where centralized management of secondary cells is required.

Innovation Solution

User equipment autonomously determines and adds secondary cells as serving cells, reducing the need for centralized management by the base station through the exchange of indication messages and authentication information between the user equipment and base stations, thereby alleviating the processing load and signaling overhead.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Extent of automation

If the master eNodeB performs centralized management control on cells, then the control function is centralized and coordinated, but the base station becomes overloaded and cannot process a large quantity of signaling

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecentralized management controlVSAvoidbase station processing load
Core Design Contradiction:
Extent of automationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The user equipment autonomously determines whether to add a secondary cell and autonomously sends the secondary cell addition request to the secondary eNodeB, eliminating the need for the master eNodeB to process these signaling messages. This self-service approach resolves the technical contradiction by transferring the decision-making authority to the user equipment, thereby reducing the base station's processing load while maintaining coordinated control through the master eNodeB's configuration of the user equipment's autonomous functionality.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

2Productivity

If the number of cells increases to meet user traffic requirements, then the system capacity and user throughput improve, but the system signaling increases and causes base station overload

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveuser throughputVSAvoidsystem signaling
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts the secondary cell addition decision-making function from the base station and assigns it to the user equipment. The user equipment autonomously determines whether to add a secondary cell based on its own measurements and criteria, and directly communicates with the secondary eNodeB to add the cell. This extraction of the decision-making function reduces the signaling overhead between the master eNodeB and user equipment, thereby reducing system signaling while maintaining the ability to support multiple cells for high user throughput.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

3Measurement precision

If the master eNodeB delivers measurement configuration and determines secondary cell addition, then the control accuracy and coordination are maintained, but the signaling overhead increases and slows down the cell addition process

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecell selection accuracyVSAvoidcell addition time
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The master eNodeB pre-configures the user equipment with autonomous cell addition functionality and measurement criteria before the user equipment needs to add a secondary cell. The user equipment then uses these pre-configured parameters to autonomously determine whether to add a secondary cell and directly communicates with the secondary eNodeB. This preliminary configuration approach maintains control accuracy by ensuring the user equipment uses appropriate selection criteria while significantly reducing the time required for cell addition by eliminating the need for real-time master eNodeB intervention in the decision-making process.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP3267758B1Communication method and user equipment
Publication Date: 2020.09.02 HUAWEI TECH CO LTD
  • EP3267758B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3267758B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3267758B1 patent drawingFigure 3~5

AI summary

The present invention discloses a communication method, user equipment, and a base station. The method includes: obtaining, by user equipment, first indication information; when the user equipment is in a radio resource control connected mode, determining, by the user equipment based on the first indication information, to add a second cell as a serving cell; sending, by the user equipment to a second base station to which the second cell belongs, a first message used to request to add the second cell as a serving cell of the user equipment; receiving, by the user equipment, a second message used to indicate that the serving cell of the user equipment is successfully added; and communicating, by the user equipment, with a first base station and the second base station by using the first cell and the second cell. According to the communication method, the user equipment, and the base station in embodiments of the present invention, the user equipment autonomously adds a cell as a serving cell according to first indication information, and the base station is prevented from performing centralized management on the serving cell of the user equipment, so that processing load of the base station can be alleviated, and system signaling overheads can be reduced.