Control channel monitoring in a wireless communication system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12471019-B2
Application number	US-202017600701-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 2, 2020
Priority date	Apr 2, 2019
Publication date	Nov 11, 2025
Grant date	Nov 11, 2025

Abstract

During a first portion ( 20 A) of an active time ( 20 ) of discontinuous reception (DRX) operation, a wireless device ( 14 ) monitors a control channel ( 18 ) using a first control channel monitoring configuration ( 22 - 1 ). During the active time ( 20 ), though, the wireless device ( 14 ) switches from the first control channel monitoring configuration ( 22 - 1 ) to a second control channel monitoring configuration ( 22 -N). This switching may be triggered by occurrence of an event. During a second portion ( 2 OB) of the active time ( 20 ) occurring subsequent to the first portion ( 20 A) and after this switching, then, the wireless device ( 14 ) monitors the control channel ( 18 ) using the second control channel monitoring configuration ( 22 -N). The first portion ( 20 A) of the active time ( 20 ) and the second portion ( 2 OB) of the active time ( 20 ) may be included in the same DRX cycle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method performed by a wireless device, the method comprising:
during a first portion of an active time of discontinuous reception (DRX) operation, monitoring a control channel using a first control channel monitoring configuration; during the active time, switching from the first control channel monitoring configuration to a second control channel monitoring configuration, wherein said switching is triggered by a non-scheduling downlink control information (DCI) message that does not schedule any transmission but indicates an index of the second control channel monitoring configuration to which the wireless device is to switch; and during a second portion of the active time occurring subsequent to the first portion and after said switching, monitoring the control channel using the second control channel monitoring configuration, wherein the first portion of the active time and the second portion of the active time are included in the same DRX cycle.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving, from a network node, radio resource control (RRC) signaling that indicates the second control channel monitoring configuration usable by the wireless device for monitoring the control channel during the active time and that further indicates the index of the second control channel monitoring configuration.

3 . A method performed by a network node, the method comprising:
transmitting, from the network node to a wireless device, signaling that configures the wireless device to, upon receiving a non-scheduling downlink control information (DCI) message that does not schedule any transmission but indicates an index of a second control channel monitoring configuration to which the wireless device is to switch, switch from monitoring a control channel during a first portion of an active time of discontinuous reception (DRX) operation using a first control channel monitoring configuration to monitoring the control channel during a second portion of the active time using the second control channel monitoring configuration, wherein the first portion of the active time and the second portion of the active time are included in the same DRX cycle.

4 . A wireless device comprising:
communication circuitry; and processing circuitry configured to:
during a first portion of an active time of discontinuous reception (DRX) operation, monitor a control channel using a first control channel monitoring configuration;
during the active time, switch from the first control channel monitoring configuration to a second control channel monitoring configuration, wherein said switching is triggered by a non-scheduling downlink control information (DCI) message that does not schedule any transmission but indicates an index of the second control channel monitoring configuration to which the wireless device is to switch; and
during a second portion of the active time occurring subsequent to the first portion and after said switching, monitor the control channel using the second control channel monitoring configuration, wherein the first portion of the active time and the second portion of the active time are included in the same DRX cycle.

5 . A network node comprising:
communication circuitry; and processing circuitry configured to transmit, from the network node to a wireless device, signaling that configures the wireless device to, upon receiving a non-scheduling downlink control information (DCI) message that does not schedule any transmission but indicates an index of a second control channel monitoring configuration to which the wireless device is to switch, switch from monitoring a control channel during a first portion of an active time of discontinuous reception (DRX) operation using a first control channel monitoring configuration to monitoring the control channel during a second portion of the active time using the second control channel monitoring configuration, wherein the first portion of the active time and the second portion of the active time are included in the same DRX cycle.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first portion of the active time and the second portion of the active time are contiguous in time.

7 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the first portion of the active time and the second portion of the active time are contiguous in time.

8 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the signaling indicates at least one of the first and the second control channel monitoring configurations.

9 . The wireless device of claim 4 , the processing circuitry further being configured to receive, from a network node, signaling that indicates at least one of the first and the second control channel monitoring configurations usable by the wireless device for monitoring the control channel during the active time.

10 . The network node of claim 5 , wherein the first portion of the active time and the second portion of the active time are contiguous in time.

11 . The network node of claim 5 , wherein the signaling indicates at least one of the first and the second control channel monitoring configurations.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-scheduling DCI message has a format with a field dedicated to indicating a monitoring configuration to which the wireless device is to switch.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second control channel monitoring configuration configures the wireless device to monitor the control channel more sparsely in time than the first control channel monitoring configuration.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second control channel monitoring configurations are first and second search space configurations that have first and second search space periodicities for monitoring the control channel.

15 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
during the active time, switching from the second control channel monitoring configuration to a third control channel monitoring configuration, wherein switching to the third control channel monitoring configuration is triggered by a scheduling DCI message that schedules a transmission for the wireless device; and during a third portion of the active time occurring subsequent to the second portion, monitoring the control channel using the third control channel monitoring configuration, wherein the first portion, the second portion, and the third portion of the active time are included in the same DRX cycle.

16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
during the active time, switching from the third control channel monitoring configuration to a fourth control channel monitoring configuration, wherein switching to the fourth control channel monitoring configuration is triggered by occurrence of an event, wherein the event is expiration of a timer; and during a fourth portion of the active time occurring subsequent to the third portion, monitoring the control channel using the third control channel monitoring configuration, wherein the first portion, the second portion, the third portion, and the fourth portion of the active time are included in the same DRX cycle.

17 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising transmitting, from the network node to the wireless device, signaling that configures the wireless device to, upon occurrence of an event, switch from monitoring the control channel during a third portion of the active time of DRX operation using a third control channel monitoring configuration to monitoring the control channel during a fourth portion of the active time using a fourth control channel monitoring configuration, wherein

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Reial Andres
• Maleki Sina
• Nader Ali
• Andgart Niklas
• Shubhi Ilmiawan

Classifications

• H04W52/0258

  controlling an operation mode according to history or models of usage information, e.g. activity schedule or time of day · CPC title

• H04W76/28

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

• H04B7/0626

  Channel coefficients, e.g. channel state information [CSI] · CPC title

• H04W72/0457

  Variable allocation of band or rate · CPC title

• Y02D30/70

  in wireless communication networks · CPC title