UE Capability Suppression for Cellular Network Interoperability
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Solution Overview
Problem
In cellular communications, network nodes and user equipment (UEs) with differing capabilities face interoperability challenges, particularly when UEs with reduced capabilities attempt to attach to cells not configured to support them.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves a UE determining, based on system information from a cell, whether it supports UEs of a certain type. If not, the UE suppresses indicating its reduced capability type and provides an indication of its radio access capabilities, allowing it to camp on and access the cell.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a UE of a first type indicates its reduced capability type to a cell not configured to support it, then the cell can identify the UE type, but the UE cannot successfully attach to the cell due to incompatibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent dynamically changes the capability indication parameter based on cell compatibility. When a UE determines that a cell does not support UEs of its type (first type), it suppresses the capability indication that would identify it as a first type UE. This parameter change allows the attachment procedure to succeed by presenting compatible capability information to incompatible cells.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of always indicating reduced capabilities (the conventional approach), the patent inverts the approach by suppressing the capability indication when the cell is determined to be incompatible. This inversion allows first type UEs to attach to both first type cells (by indicating capability) and second type cells (by suppressing indication), resolving the attachment failure problem.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a UE suppresses its reduced capability indication to access a cell, then coverage is extended, but the cell cannot optimize resource allocation for reduced capability UEs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by making the capability indication behavior context-dependent on the specific cell being accessed. The UE evaluates cell-specific system information to determine compatibility and adjusts its capability indication accordingly. This local adaptation allows successful attachment to incompatible cells while maintaining proper capability indication for compatible cells, enabling network nodes to optimize resources when capability information is available.
3Reliability
If all UEs indicate their full capabilities to all cells, then cells can make informed decisions, but UEs with reduced capabilities face rejection from cells not configured to support them
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces dynamic behavior to the capability indication process. Instead of a static always-indicate approach, the UE dynamically adjusts whether to indicate its first type capability based on real-time evaluation of cell system information. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction by providing capability information when it helps (to first type cells) and suppressing it when it harms (to second type cells).
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus configured to perform as a user equipment of a first type, determine, based on system information of a cell, whether the cell supports user equipments of the first type, and responsive to determining that the cell does not support the user equipments of the first type, suppress indicating to the cell that the user equipment is of the first type, and provide to the cell an indication of radio access capabilities of the user equipment.