User Equipment Band Combination Reporting for Carrier Aggregation

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Solution Overview

Problem

In LTE radio communication systems, the existing methods for user equipment (UE) to report carrier aggregation (CA) band combinations to a base station result in a large signal amount due to the need to report all supported combinations, especially when the number of component carriers (CCs) exceeds 32, leading to increased signaling overhead.

Innovation Solution

The UE generates and transmits band combination information that includes only the highest CA band combination with the largest number of CCs, along with unsupported fallback band combinations and those with parameter differences, reducing the overall signaling burden by omitting unnecessary details.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the user equipment reports all supported CA band combinations to the base station, then the base station can determine the complete capability of the user equipment, but the signaling overhead increases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecapability reporting completenessVSAvoidsignaling overhead

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts only the essential information needed for capability determination by reporting the highest CA band combination and the maximum number of CCs supported. The base station can then infer all lower combinations from this extracted information, eliminating the need to report every possible combination and significantly reducing signaling overhead while maintaining complete capability knowledge.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The reported highest CA band combination and maximum CC number serve as universal indicators that imply multiple specific combinations. By reporting these universal parameters, the UE enables the base station to determine all specific supported combinations without explicit reporting of each one, achieving multi-functionality with minimal signaling.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Productivity

If the user equipment reports detailed parameters for each CA band combination, then the base station can optimize resource allocation, but the signal amount increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveresource allocation efficiencyVSAvoidsignal amount

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts only the critical parameters (highest CA band combination and maximum CC number) needed for effective resource allocation. The base station can derive optimization information from these extracted parameters without requiring detailed reporting of all parameters for every combination, thus maintaining allocation efficiency while reducing signal amount.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

3Productivity

If the user equipment supports a large number of component carriers (up to 32 CCs), then the throughput capacity increases, but the number of CA band combinations to report increases exponentially

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvethroughput capacityVSAvoidcapability reporting complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts the essential capability indicators (highest band combination and maximum CC number) that capture the throughput potential without requiring enumeration of all exponential combinations. This extraction approach maintains the ability to support up to 32 CCs while avoiding exponential growth in reporting complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent changes the reporting parameters from exhaustive combination lists to compact representations (highest combination identifier and maximum CC count). This parameter transformation reduces the complexity from exponential to linear or constant, enabling support for large numbers of CCs without proportional increase in reporting burden.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentEP3697156B1User equipment, base station, information reporting method, and information receiving method

Publication Date: 2023.11.29 NTT DOCOMO INC

Figure 1A~1C
Figure 2
Figure 3A~3B

AI summary

There is provided user equipment for communicating with a base station in a radio communication system supporting carrier aggregation, the user equipment including a generator that generates band combination information indicating one or more band combinations capable of being used for the carrier aggregation in the user equipment; and a transmitter that transmits the generated band combination information to the base station, wherein the generator generates the band combination information including highest band combination information indicating a highest band combination having a largest number of CCs to be combined, among the one or more band combinations capable of being used for the carrier aggregation in the user equipment.