Method of reducing advertised RF band

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12464436-B2
Application number	US-202018012223-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2020
Priority date	Jun 26, 2020
Publication date	Nov 4, 2025
Grant date	Nov 4, 2025

Abstract

A User Equipment (UE) ( 102 ) supports a plurality of RF bands ( 132 ) associated with a plurality of country codes. The UE ( 102 ) reduces the entirety of the set of UE-supported RF bands ( 132 ) based on a current, physical location ( 115 ) of the UE ( 102 ), and the UE ( 102 ) advertises only the reduced set of UE-supported RF bands to a network or wireless communication system ( 100 ), e.g., for attachment purposes. For example, the UE ( 102 ) may reduce the entirety of the set of RF bands that it supports ( 132 ) based on a country code provided by a base station ( 105, 108 ) of a network ( 100 ) and the physical location ( 115 ) of the UE ( 102 ), thereby generating a reduced set of UE-supported RF bands. Subsequently, the UE ( 102 ) may advertise only the reduced set of RF bands supported by the UE ( 102 ), and refrain from advertising one or more RF bands excluded from the reduced set, e.g., by omitting any indication of the excluded RF bands from advertisements.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method in a user equipment device (UE) supporting a set of radio frequency (RF) bands, the method comprising:
receiving, at the UE from a base station of a network, a country code with which the network is associated; obtaining, by the UE, an indication of a physical location of the UE; reducing, by the UE, the set of RF bands supported by the UE based on the country code and the physical location of the UE to generate a reduced set of RF bands supported by the UE; and transmitting, by the UE, an advertisement of only the reduced set of RF bands supported by the UE.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the reducing of the set of UE-supported RF bands includes accessing, by the UE, a list of the set of UE-supported RF bands stored at the UE, and determining, based on the list, the reduced set of UE-supported RF bands to be a subset of the set of UE-supported RF bands, the subset corresponding to the country code and the physical location of the UE.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining, based on the list, of the reduced set of UE-supported RF bands includes at least one of:
matching the country code and the physical location of the UE to one or more entries of the list; filtering the list based on the country code and the physical location of the UE to determine the one or more entries of the list; or determining the reduced set of RF bands to include one or more UE-supported RF bands included in an intersection of the one or more entries of the list and an entirety of the list.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitting of the advertisement of only the reduced set of RF bands supported by the UE includes transmitting a UE Capability Information Element (IE).

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the reducing of the set of UE-supported RF bands includes:
accessing, by the UE, a band database storing an indication of RF bands that are available for each country code of a plurality of country codes; and determining, based on the accessing of the band database, a set of RF bands that are available for the country code received by the UE.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the determining, based on the accessing, of the set of RF bands that are available for the country code received by the UE includes determining, based on the accessing, a set of RF bands that are available for both the country code received by the UE and the physical location obtained by the UE to be the reduced set of UE-supported RF bands.

7 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the accessing of the band database includes least one of:
accessing a first instance of the band database stored at the UE; or transmitting, by the UE, a query to one or more computing devices storing a second instance of the band database.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
receiving, by the UE from the one or more computing devices storing the second instance of the band database, an indication of an update to the band database stored at the one or more computing devices; and applying the update to the first instance of the band database stored at the UE.

9 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining, based on the list, of the reduced set of UE-supported RF bands to be the subset of the set of UE-supported RF bands includes determining the reduced set of UE-supported RF bands to include one or more UE-supported RF bands included in an intersection of one or more entries of the list of the set of UE-supported RF bands that correspond to the country code obtained by the UE and a set of RF bands that are available for the country code obtained by the UE.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the reducing of the set of UE-supported RF bands is further based on at least one of: an identification of a carrier corresponding to the network, or an indication of a set of RF bands that are utilized by the base station, and wherein the base station provides the at least one of the identification of the carrier or the indication of the set of RF bands utilized by the base station to the UE.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining of the indication of the physical location of the UE includes obtaining location information from a geo-spatial positioning component of the UE.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining of the indication of the physical location of the UE includes obtaining location information from the base station or from another base station of the network.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining of the indication of the physical location of the UE includes obtaining at least one of:
an indication of geographic or geospatial coordinates corresponding to the physical location of the UE; an indication of a zone in which the physical location of the UE is disposed; an indication of a city in which the UE is disposed; or an indication of an allocated region in which the UE is disposed.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitting of the advertisement of only the reduced set of UE-supported RF bands includes transmitting an advertisement of a band of spectrum supporting millimeter wave (mmWave) signals.

15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitting of the advertisement of only the reduced set of UE-supported RF bands includes transmitting an advertisement of a band of unlicensed spectrum.

16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the base station is a first base station, the network is a first network, the physical location of the UE is a first physical location of the UE, and the reduced set of UE-supported RF bands is a first reduced set of UE-supported RF bands; and the method further comprises, upon the UE moving to a second physical location:
obtaining, by the UE, an indication of the second physical location of the UE;
reducing, by the UE, the set of UE-supported RF bands based on at least one of a second country code or the second physical location of the UE to generate a second reduced set of UE-supported RF bands; and
transmitting, by the UE, an advertisement of only the second reduced set of UE-supported RF bands.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the first network and the network associated with the second physical location of the UE are respectively associated with different country codes.

18 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the first network and the network associated with the second physical location of the UE are respectively associated with different carriers.

19 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the first network and the network associated with the second physical location of the UE are an integral network.

20 . The UE of claim 1 .

Assignees

• Google Llc

Inventors

• Mao Rukun
• Zhang Qin
• Nayak Shivank

Classifications

• H04W24/02

  Arrangements for optimising operational condition · CPC title

• H04W64/00

  Locating users or terminals {or network equipment} for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management · CPC title

• H04W48/18

  Selecting a network or a communication service · CPC title

• H04W48/16

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title

• H04W48/12 Primary

  using downlink control channel · CPC title