Method and apparatus for controlling data volume of secondary GNB

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10873671-B2
Application number	US-201916373808-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 3, 2019
Priority date	Apr 5, 2018
Publication date	Dec 22, 2020
Grant date	Dec 22, 2020

Abstract

Provided are a method and an apparatus for controlling NR data volume based on an interface between an NR base station and an LTE base station and an interface between an EPC and the LTE base station in a 5G non-standalone (NSA) network structure using an LTE EPC as a core network. The method includes receiving information about the volume of data that the secondary base station transmits to and receives from a terminal using a radio resource of the secondary base station from the secondary base station, and transmitting a secondary RAT data usage report message including the information about the volume of data the secondary base station transmits to and receives from the terminal using the radio resource of the secondary base station from the secondary base station to a mobility management entity (MME) using an S1-C interface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for transmitting, by a master base station, data volume information of a secondary base station in a dual-connectivity situation, the method comprising:
receiving information about a volume of data transmitted to and received from a terminal using a radio resource of the secondary base station from the secondary base station; and
transmitting a secondary radio access technology (RAT) data usage report message comprising the information about the volume of data transmitted to and received from the terminal using the radio resource of the secondary base station from the secondary base station to a mobility management entity (MME) using an S1-C interface,
wherein the master base station and the secondary base station use different radio access technologies,
wherein the information about the volume of data that the secondary base station transmits to and receives from the terminal using the radio resource of the secondary base station is information about a volume of data transmitted to and received from the terminal in association with an E-RAB terminating at the secondary base station where the E-RAB stands for an E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer or an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Terrestrial Radio Access Network Radio Access Bearer, and
wherein the information about the volume of data that the secondary base station transmits to and receives from the terminal using the radio resource of the secondary base station excludes a volume of data of a packet forwarded when a PDCP entity is reconfigured, and comprises a duplicated packet which is counted only once when PDCP duplication is activated.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the secondary RAT data usage report message comprises information about a volume of data transmitted to and received from the terminal using the radio resource of the secondary base station for each EPS bearer.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information about the volume of data that the secondary base station transmits to and receives from the terminal using the radio resource of the secondary base station is counted by a node that hosts a PDCP (Packet Date Convergence Protocol) and comprises both information about a downlink data volume and information about an uplink data volume,
the downlink data volume is counted in bytes of a PDCP SDU (Packet Date Convergence Protocol Service Data Unit) successfully delivered to the terminal through the secondary base station or bytes of a PDCP SDU transmitted to the terminal, and
the uplink data volume is counted in bytes of a PDCP SDU received by the node that hosts the PDCP using the radio resource of the secondary base station.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the node that hosts the PDCP generates the information about the downlink data volume by counting the bytes of the PDCP SDU successfully delivered to the terminal through the secondary base station when an RLC entity associated with the PDCP is in an acknowledged mode (AM), and generates the information about the downlink data volume by counting the bytes of the PDCP SDU transmitted to the terminal through the secondary base station when the RLC entity associated with the PDCP is in an unacknowledged mode (UM).

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information about the volume of data that the secondary base station transmits to and receives from the terminal using the radio resource of the secondary base station is comprised in a report message transmitted from the secondary base station to the master base station, and the report message comprises a message type information element, an MeNB UE X2AP ID information element, an SgNB UE X2AP ID information element, and a secondary RAT usage report list information element.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the secondary RAT usage report list information element comprises E-RAB identification information, secondary base station type information, E-RAB usage report list information, usage count UL (Uplink) information, and usage count DL (Downlink) information.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the secondary RAT data usage report message further comprises information about a volume of data transmitted to and received from the terminal using the radio resource of the secondary base station in association with a bearer terminating at the master base station.

8. A method for transmitting, by a secondary base station, data volume information of the secondary base station in a dual-connectivity situation, the method comprising:
counting and generating information about a volume of data that the secondary base station transmits to and receives from a terminal using a radio resource of the secondary base station; and
transmitting the information about the volume of data that the secondary base station transmits to and receives from the terminal using the radio resource of the secondary base station to a master base station using an X2 interface, wherein the information about the volume of data that the secondary base station transmits to and receives from the terminal using the radio resource of the secondary base station is comprised in a secondary RAT data usage report message transmitted by the master base station to a mobility management entity (MME), and
the master base station and the secondary base station use different radio access technologies,
wherein the information about the volume of data that the secondary base station transmits to and receives from the terminal using the radio resource of the secondary base station is information about a volume of data transmitted to and received from the terminal in association with an E-RAB terminating at the secondary base station where the E-RAB stands for an E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer or an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Terrestrial Radio Access Network Radio Access Bearer,
wherein the information about the volume of data that the secondary base station transmits to and receives from the terminal using the radio resource of the secondary base station excludes a volume of data of a packet forwarded when a PDCP entity is reconfigured, and comprises a duplicated packet which is counted only once when PDCP duplication is activated.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the counting includes:
counting a downlink data volume in bytes of a PDCP SDU (Packet Date Convergence Protocol Service Data Unit) successfully delivered to the terminal through the secondary base station or bytes of a PDCP SDU transmitted to the terminal; and
counting an uplink data volume is counted in bytes of a PDCP SDU received by a node that hosts a PDCP using the radio resource of the secondary base station.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the counting includes:
generating information about the downlink data volume by counting the bytes of the PDCP SDU (Packet Date Convergence Protocol Service Data Unit) successfully delivered to the terminal through the secondary base station when an RLC entity associated with the PDCP is in an acknowledged mode (AM); and
generating information about the downlink data volume by counting the bytes of the PDCP SDU transmitted to the terminal through the secondary base station when the RLC entity associated with the PDCP is in an unacknowledged mode (UM).

11. A master base station for transmitting data volume information of a secondary base station in a dual-connectivity situation, the master base station comprising:
a receiver configured to receive information about a volume of data transmitted to and received from a terminal using a radio resource of the secondary base station from the secondary base station; and
a transmitter configured to transmit a secondary radio access technology (RAT) data usa

Assignees

• Kt Corp

Inventors

• Kim Ha Sung
• Hyun Jai-Sop

Classifications

• H04W4/24 Primary

  Accounting or billing · CPC title

• H04M15/88 Primary

  Provision for limiting connection, or expenditure · CPC title

• H04M15/60

  based on actual use of network resources · CPC title

• H04M15/8214

  Data or packet based · CPC title

• H04M15/00

  Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication {; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP} · CPC title