Supporting flexible bandwidth operation in lte

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018288643-A1
Application number	US-201615762915-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 12, 2016
Priority date	Oct 12, 2015
Publication date	Oct 4, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

The invention provides a method for a user equipment, UE, operating in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed, OFDM, communication system to signal that it is capable of operating at a radio bandwidth other than one predefined according to an OFDM communication standard for the system, the method comprising: the UE sending a capability information message to a base station, the message including an information field which indicates whether the UE supports flexible bandwidth operation or not, wherein the flexible bandwidth operation is at least one of an increase and a decrease in a number of subcarriers to be used by the UE within a frequency band being used concurrently for communication with the base station by other UEs over the bandwidth defined according to the OFDM communication standard.

First claim

1 . A method for a user equipment, UE, operating in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed, OFDM, communication system to signal that it is capable of operating at a radio bandwidth other than one predefined according to an OFDM communication standard for the system, the method comprising:
the UE sending a capability information message to a base station, the message including an information field which indicates whether the UE supports flexible bandwidth operation or not, wherein the flexible bandwidth operation is at least one of an increase and a decrease in a number of subcarriers to be used by the UE within a frequency band being used concurrently for communication with the base station by other UEs over a radio bandwidth pre-defined according to the OFDM communication standard.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the message includes an information field which indicates whether the UE is able to support at least one of bandwidth compression and bandwidth expansion.

3 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the message includes an information field indicating a step size by which the UE is capable of changing the bandwidth.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the message includes an information field which indicates whether the UE is capable of changing the bandwidth in a symmetric or asymmetric manner.

5 . The method according to claim 4 , wherein the message includes an information field which indicates whether the UE is able to shift a DC carrier of a respective frequency band.

6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the message includes a set of flexible bandwidth parameters for each frequency band for which the UE is capable of operating with flexible bandwidth.

7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the OFDM communication standard is a long term evolution, LTE, communication standard.

8 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the flexible bandwidth operation is at least one of an increase and a decrease in a number of resource blocks.

9 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the capability information message is sent in response to a request from the base station.

10 . A user equipment, UE, adapted to transmit an information message to a base station, the information message indicating a capability of the UE to operate in a flexible bandwidth mode when operating in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed, OFDM, communication system at a bandwidth other than a radio bandwidth pre-defined according to an OFDM communication standard, wherein the flexible bandwidth mode is an operating mode implementing at least one of an increase and a decrease in a number of subcarriers to be used by the UE within a frequency band being used concurrently for communication with the base station by other UEs over the radio bandwidth pre-defined according to the OFDM communication standard.

11 . Base station equipment capable of operating according to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed, OFDM, communication standard, wherein the base station is capable of operating at a frequency band having a radio bandwidth other than a radio bandwidth pre-defined according to the OFDM communication standard and wherein the base station equipment is adapted to store information relating to a capability of connected user equipment, UE, devices to operate with a flexible bandwidth, wherein the flexible bandwidth operation is at least one of an increase and a decrease in a number of subcarriers to be used by the UEs within a frequency band being used concurrently for communication with the base station by other UEs over the radio bandwidth pre-defined according to the OFDM communication standard.

12 . A mobile communication system operating according to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed, OFDM, communication standard, wherein a connected user equipment, UE, device's capabilities pertaining to operation at a radio bandwidth other than one predefined according to the OFDM communication standard are at least partially taken into account for handover decisions.

Assignees

• Ipcom Gmbh & Co Kg

Inventors

• Schmidt Andreas
• Luft Achim
• Bienas Maik

Classifications

• H04W76/10

  Connection setup · CPC title

• H04W36/0005

  Control or signalling for completing the hand-off · CPC title

• H04W72/0453

  Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA · CPC title

• H04W8/24 Primary

  Transfer of terminal data · CPC title

• H04W24/10 Primary

  Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports} · CPC title