UE Capability Reporting Signaling Overhead Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
As the number of component carriers in carrier aggregation increases, the size of user equipment (UE) capability reports grows significantly, overwhelming current network capabilities and making efficient signaling across the radio interface challenging, especially with the enhancement to support up to 32 component carriers in LTE Release 13.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of an enhanced network enquiry message that includes indications for the UE to exclude unsupported or unnecessary information, along with set-based MIMO/CSI process capability reporting and decoupling of signaling for uplink and downlink band combination parameters, reduces the reporting overhead while maintaining flexibility and relevance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If carrier aggregation supports up to 32 component carriers, then system capacity and bandwidth are improved, but signaling overhead and control complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and reports only the necessary capability information (e.g., band combination support, MIMO capabilities, CSI processes) rather than reporting all possible parameters. This selective extraction reduces signaling overhead while maintaining the ability to support up to 32 component carriers.
Solution Approach 2:
The capability reporting is segmented into multiple structured fields including band combination information, MIMO capabilities per band, and CSI process capabilities. This segmentation organizes the large amount of information into manageable units, reducing overall signaling complexity.
2Measurement precision
If detailed UE capability information is reported for all band combinations, then network configuration accuracy is improved, but reporting overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by providing detailed capability information only for specific band combinations that are actually supported by the UE. Each band combination entry contains localized, relevant capability data (MIMO layers, CSI processes) rather than uniform detailed reporting for all possible combinations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial action by reporting capability information for a subset of band combinations rather than all possible combinations. The UE indicates support for specific band combinations and their associated capabilities, providing sufficient information for network configuration without exhaustive reporting.
3Productivity
If MIMO and CSI process capabilities are reported for each band combination, then system performance optimization is improved, but signaling complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges MIMO capability reporting and CSI process capability reporting into a unified capability information structure. Both types of capabilities are reported within the same band combination framework, reducing overall signaling complexity while maintaining the ability to optimize system performance.
Data Source
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AI summary
Embodiments of the present disclosure describe methods and apparatuses for UE capability reporting in mobile communication systems. UE capability reporting in LTE with high number of CCs (32) creates a great signalling overhead. An enhanced network enquiry message (UECapabilityEnquiry) is proposed which includes indications (e.g. maximum aggregated CC number or bandwidth class, MIMO/CSI-process capabilities) that indicate to a UE that the UE is to exclude, from its capability report (UECapabilitylnformation), information related to functions that the network either does not support or is not interested in. The enhanced network enquiry message may include indications of a max. number of DL/UL CCs for which the UE is requested to provide supported CA band combinations and non-CA bands. The UE selects a subset of CA capabilities based on these indicatores and generates a UE capability response (UECapabilitylnformation) including information related to the selected subset of CA capabilities.