Handling interruptions during DRX on durations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10420028-B2
Application number	US-201515537277-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2015
Priority date	Dec 17, 2014
Publication date	Sep 17, 2019
Grant date	Sep 17, 2019

Abstract

In some embodiments, a method of multi-connectivity operation of a wireless device in Discontinuous Reception (DRX) comprises determining whether a first DRX ON duration in a first DRX cycle configured for use by the wireless device in a first Cell Group (CG) for multi-connectivity operation and a second DRX ON duration in a second DRX cycle configured for use by the wireless device in a second CG for multi-connectivity operation partially overlap in time with one another. The method further comprises, upon determining that the first DRX ON duration and the second DRX ON duration partially overlap, taking one or more actions that mitigate the partial overlap between the first DRX ON duration in the first DRX cycle and the second ON duration in the second DRX cycle. By avoiding partial overlap, interruptions at the wireless device as a result of transitioning between DRX states can be mitigated or avoided.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of multi-connectivity operation of a wireless device in Discontinuous Reception, DRX, comprising:
determining whether a first DRX ON duration in a first DRX cycle configured for use by the wireless device in a first cell group for multi-connectivity operation and a second DRX ON duration in a second DRX cycle configured for use by the wireless device in a second cell group for multi-connectivity operation partially overlap in time with one another;
upon determining that the first DRX ON duration and the second DRX ON duration partially overlap in time with one another, taking one or more actions that mitigate the partial overlap between the first DRX ON duration in the first DRX cycle configured for use by the wireless device in the first cell group and the second DRX ON duration in the second DRX cycle configured for use by the wireless device;
deciding to use only non-successive DRX ON durations in at least one of the first cell group and the second cell group such that partially overlapping DRX ON durations between the first and second DRX cycles of the first and second cell groups are avoided; and
changing between DRX states in at least one of the first DRX cycle and the second DRX cycle according to the decided use of only the non-successive DRX ON durations in the at least one of the first cell group and the second cell group.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein taking the one or more actions comprises taking the one or more actions such that a transition between a DRX ON state and a DRX OFF state with respect to the first DRX ON duration is avoided during the second DRX ON duration.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein taking the one or more actions comprises taking the one or more actions such that a transition between a DRX ON state and a DRX OFF state with respect to the second DRX ON duration is avoided during the first DRX ON duration.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein taking the one or more actions comprises taking the one or more actions such that:
a transition between a DRX ON state and a DRX OFF state with respect to the first DRX ON duration is avoided during the second DRX ON duration; and
a transition between the DRX ON state and the DRX OFF state with respect to the second DRX ON duration is avoided during the first DRX ON duration.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether the first DRX ON duration and the second DRX ON duration partially overlap in time with one another comprises determining whether the first DRX ON duration and the second DRX ON duration partially overlap in time with one another based on a comparison of one or more DRX parameters for the first DRX cycle and the second DRX cycle, the one or more DRX parameters comprising at least one of: DRX duration and DRX cycle length.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether the first DRX ON duration and the second DRX ON duration partially overlap in time with one another comprises determining whether the first DRX ON duration and the second DRX ON duration partially overlap in time with one another based on a comparison of a system frame number and one or more subframe numbers within a frame in which the first DRX ON duration will be implemented and a system frame number and one or more subframe numbers within a frame in which the second DRX ON duration will be implemented.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether the first DRX ON duration and the second DRX ON duration partially overlap in time with one another comprises determining whether the first DRX ON duration and the second DRX ON duration partially overlap in time with one another taking into consideration whether the first cell group and the second cell group are synchronized or unsynchronized with respect to a received time difference of signals between subframe boundaries of the first cell group and the second cell group at the wireless device in multi-connectivity operation.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein taking the one or more actions comprises:
adapting one or more time instances at which a DRX state transitions between a DRX ON state and a DRX OFF state for at least one of the first DRX ON duration of the first DRX cycle and the second DRX ON duration of the second DRX cycle such that: (a) one or more transitions between the DRX ON state and the DRX OFF state with respect to the first DRX ON duration in the first DRX cycle are avoided during the second DRX ON duration in the second DRX cycle and/or (b) one or more transitions between the DRX ON state and the DRX OFF state with respect to the second DRX ON duration in the second DRX cycle are avoided during the first DRX ON duration in the first DRX cycle; and
changing between the DRX ON state and the DRX OFF state in the at least one of the first DRX cycle and the second DRX cycle at the one or more time instances.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein adapting the one or more time instances comprises adapting the one or more time instances such that: (a) start times of the first DRX ON duration and the second DRX ON duration are time-aligned and/or (b) end times of the first DRX ON duration and the second DRX ON duration are time-aligned.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein taking the one or more actions comprises:
deciding to use only non-successive DRX ON durations in at least one of the first cell group and the second cell group such that partially overlapping DRX ON durations between the first and second DRX cycles of the first and second cell groups are avoided; and
changing between DRX states in at least one of the first DRX cycle and the second DRX cycle according to the decided use of only the non-successive DRX ON durations in the at least one of the first cell group and the second cell group.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the first cell group and the second cell group are non-synchronized with respect to the received time difference of signals between subframe boundaries of the first cell group and the second cell group at the wireless device in multi-connectivity operation.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the first cell group and the second cell group are synchronized with respect to the received time difference of signals between subframe boundaries of the first cell group and the second cell group at the wireless device in multi-connectivity operation.

13. A wireless device enabled to provide multi-connectivity operation in Discontinuous Reception, DRX, comprising:
a transceiver;
a processor; and
memory containing instructions that are executable by the processor whereby the wireless device is operable to:
determine whether a first DRX ON duration in a first DRX cycle configured for use by the wireless device in a first cell group for multi-connectivity operation and a second DRX ON duration in a second DRX cycle configured for use by the wireless device in a second cell group for multi-connectivity operation partially overlap in time with one another;
upon determining that the first DRX ON duration and the second DRX ON duration partially overlap in time with one another, take one or more actions that mitigate the partial overlap between the first DRX ON duration in the first DRX cycle configured for use by the wireless device in the first cell group and the second DRX ON duration in the second DRX cycle configured for use by the wireless device;
deciding to use only non-successive DRX ON durations in at least one of the first cell group and the second cell group such that partially overlapping DRX ON durations between the first and second DRX cycles of the first and second cell groups are avoided; and
changing between DRX states in at least one of the first DRX cycle and th

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Rahman Imadur
• Kazmi Muhammad
• Callender Christopher

Classifications

• H04W76/15

  Setup of multiple wireless link connections · CPC title

• H04W76/28

  Discontinuous transmission [DTX]; Discontinuous reception [DRX] · CPC title

• H04W52/0216 Primary

  using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame · CPC title

• Y02D70/25

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02D70/20

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic