Dynamic activation and deactivation of packet duplication

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018367288-A1
Application number	US-201815947371-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 6, 2018
Priority date	Jun 16, 2017
Publication date	Dec 20, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method at a network node of a Radio Access network (RAN) for controlling packet duplication. The method includes: receiving, via at least one network interface of the network node, information indicative of a quality of each one of at least two radio channels including a first radio channel between a User Equipment and a master node and a second radio channel between the User Equipment and a secondary node; determining, based on the received information, a respective splitting flag value associated with each of the master and secondary nodes; and controlling packet duplication based on the respective splitting flag value associated with each of the master and secondary nodes.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A method at a User Equipment (UE) of a network, the method comprising:
receiving a packet duplication (PD) control element from one or more nodes of the network; and controlling activation and deactivation of PD in response to the control element.

2 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
PD is in respect of a PDCP Protocol Data Unit (PDU) associated with the UE.

3 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more nodes of the network comprises a master node (MgNB); and the control element is received from the MgNB.

4 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more nodes of the network comprises a secondary node (SgNB); and the control element is received from the SgNB.

5 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the control element is a Media Access Control-Control Element (MAC-CE) message.

6 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the PD is associated with a Data Radio Bearer (DRB).

7 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the PD is in dual connectivity (DC) architecture.

8 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the PD is in Carrier Aggregation (CA) architecture.

9 . The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the PD is on different carriers.

10 . The method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the one or more nodes of the network comprises a master node (MgNB) and a secondary node (SgNB).

11 . The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the master node (MgNB) and secondary node (SgNB) send independent control elements.

12 . The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the master node (MgNB) and secondary node (SgNB) send the same control elements.

13 . The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the master node (MgNB) and secondary node (SgNB) share PDCP functionality.

14 . The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the master node (MgNB) and secondary node (SgNB) each have PDCP functionality.

15 . The method as claimed in claim 7 , further comprising, on deactivation of PD, employing existing multiple channels as a split bearer.

16 . The method as claimed in claim 8 , further comprising, on deactivation of PD, employing normal CA operation.

17 . A User Equipment (UE) for connection to a network, the UE comprising:
at least one processor; a non-transitory storage medium including software instructions configured to receive a packet duplication (PD) control element from one or more nodes of the network; and control activation and deactivation of PD in response to the control element.

18 . The UE as claimed in claim 17 , wherein PD is in respect of a PDCP Protocol Data Unit (PDU) associated with the UE.

19 . The UE as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the one or more nodes of the network comprises a master node (MgNB); and the control element is received from the MgNB.

20 . The UE as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the one or more nodes of the network comprises a secondary node (SgNB); and the control element is received from the SgNB.

21 . The UE as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the control element is a Media Access Control-Control Element (MAC-CE) message.

22 . The UE as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the PD is in dual connectivity (DC) architecture.

23 . The UE as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the PD is in Carrier Aggregation (CA) architecture.

24 . The UE as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the PD is on different carriers.

25 . The method as claimed in claim 22 , wherein the one or more nodes of the network comprises a master node (MgNB) and a secondary node (SgNB).

26 . The UE as claimed in claim 25 , wherein the master node (MgNB) and secondary node (SgNB) send independent control elements.

27 . The UE as claimed in claim 25 , wherein the master node (MgNB) and secondary node (SgNB) send the same control elements.

28 . The UE as claimed in claim 25 , wherein the master node (MgNB) and secondary node (SgNB) share PDCP functionality.

29 . The method as claimed in claim 25 , wherein the master node (MgNB) and secondary node (SgNB) each have PDCP functionality.

30 . The method as claimed in claim 22 , further comprising, on deactivation of PD, employing existing multiple channels as a split bearer.

31 . The method as claimed in claim 23 , further comprising, on deactivation of PD, employing normal CA operation.

Assignees

• Vrzic Sophie
• Rao Jaya
• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Vrzic Sophie
• Rao Jaya

Classifications

• H04W36/22

  for handling the traffic · CPC title

• H04L5/0098 Primary

  Signalling of the activation or deactivation of component carriers, subcarriers or frequency bands · CPC title

• H04L12/4633

  Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling · CPC title

• H04L47/805

  QOS or priority aware · CPC title

• H04L1/189

  Transmission or retransmission of more than one copy of a message · CPC title