Communication system including a femtocell and communication method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9380611-B2
Application number	US-201213461440-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 1, 2012
Priority date	Mar 14, 2012
Publication date	Jun 28, 2016
Grant date	Jun 28, 2016

Abstract

The communication system comprises a base station (BS), a femtocell and a core network. The femtocell deployed within the signal coverage of the BS establishes a first wired connection with an internet service provider (ISP) network and a first wireless connection with a user equipment (UE). The core network establishes a second wired connection with the ISP network and a third wired connection with the BS. The core network is configured to determine that a voice data transmission service is about to be provided to the UE, and transmit a first radio access bearer (RAB) setup request message to the BS to enable the BS to establish a second wireless connection with the femtocell according to the first RAB setup request message so that the UE performs a voice data transmission with the core network via the first wireless connection, the second wireless connection and the third wired connection.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A communication system, comprising:
a base station (BS), having a signal coverage;
a femtocell, being deployed within the signal coverage, establishing a first wired connection with an internet service provider (ISP) network, and establishing a first wireless connection with a user equipment (UE); and
a core network, establishing a second wired connection with the ISP network, establishing a third wired connection with the BS, and being configured to determine that a voice data transmission service is about to be provided to the UE, and transmit a first radio access bearer (RAB) setup request message to the BS when the voice data transmission service is about to be provided to the UE to enable the BS to establish a second wireless connection with the femtocell according to the first RAB setup request message so that the UE performs a voice data transmission with the core network over the BS and the femtocell via the first wireless connection, the second wireless connection and the third wired connection;
wherein the core network further performs a non-voice data transmission with the UE over the ISP network and the femtocell via the first wireless connection, the first wired connection and the second wired connection.

2. The communication system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the core network further receives a non access stratum (NAS) control message from the UE via the first wireless connection, the first wired connection and the second wired connection, and the core network determines that the voice data transmission service is about to be provided to the UE according to the NAS control message.

3. The communication system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the core network comprises a femtocell gateway and a mobility management entity (MME), the femtocell gateway establishes the second wired connection with the ISP network, and the MME establishes the third wired connection with the BS.

4. The communication system as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the core network further comprises a serving gateway (S-GW) and a packet data gateway (P-GW), wherein:
the P-GW transmits a create bearer request message to the S-GW;
the S-GW relays the create bearer request message to the MME;
the MME transmits the first RAB setup request message to the BS according to the create bearer request message;
the BS transmits a first radio resource control (RRC) connection reconfiguration message to the femtocell according to the first RAB setup request message;
the femtocell transmits a first RRC connection reconfiguration complete message to the BS according to the first RRC connection reconfiguration message;
the BS transmits a first RAB setup response message to the MME according to the first RRC connection reconfiguration complete message;
the MME transmits a second RAB setup request message to the femtocell gateway according to the first RAB setup response message;
the femtocell gateway relays the second RAB setup request message to the femtocell;
the femtocell transmits a second RRC connection reconfiguration message to the UE according to the second RAB setup request message;
the UE transmits a second RRC connection reconfiguration complete message to the femtocell according to the second RRC connection reconfiguration message;
the femtocell transmits a second RAB setup response message to the femtocell gateway according to the second RRC connection reconfiguration complete message;
the femtocell gateway relays the second RAB setup response message to the MME;
the MME transmits a create bearer response message to the S-GW according to the second RAB setup response message; and
the S-GW relays the create bearer response message to the P-GW.

5. The communication system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the create bearer request message comprises an identification and a piece of quality of service (QoS) information of the UE, the MME determines that the voice data transmission service is about to be provided to the UE according to the identification and the QoS information of the UE.

6. The communication system as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the femtocell gateway further receives an NAS control message from the UE via the first wireless connection, the first wired connection and the second wired connection and relays the NAS control message to the MME, and the NAS control message includes the QoS information.

7. The communication system as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the MME transmits a bearer resource command message to the S-GW according to the NAS control message, the S-GW relays the bearer resource command message to the P-GW, and the P-GW generates the create bearer request message according to the bearer resource command message.

8. The communication system as claimed in the claim 1 , wherein the femtocell has a first antenna module and a second antenna module, the first antenna module is configured to establish the first wireless connection with the UE, and the second antenna module is configured to establish the second wireless connection with the BS.

9. A communication method for use in a communication system, the communication system comprising a femtocell, a base station (BS) and a core network, the BS having a signal coverage, the femtocell being deployed within the signal coverage, establishing a first wired connection with an internet service provider (ISP) network, and establishing a first wireless connection with a user equipment (UE), and the core network establishing a second wired connection with the ISP network and establishing a third wired connection with the BS, the communication method comprising the following steps:
enabling the core network to determine that a voice data transmission service is about to be provided to the UE;
enabling the core network to transmit a first radio access bearer (RAB) setup request message to the BS when the voice data transmission service is about to be provided to the UE to enable the BS to establish a second wireless connection with the femtocell according to the first RAB setup request message so that the UE performs a voice data transmission with the core network over the BS and the femtocell via the first wireless connection, the second wireless connection and the third wired connection; and
enabling the core network to perform a non-voice data transmission with the UE over the ISP network and the femtocell via the first wireless connection, the first wired connection and the second wired connection.

10. The communication method as claimed in claim 9 , further comprising the following steps:
enabling the core network to receive a non access stratum (NAS) control message from the UE via the first wireless connection, the first wired connection and the second wired connection so as to determine that the voice data transmission service is about to be provided to the UE according to the NAS control message.

11. The communication method as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the core network comprises a femtocell gateway and a mobility management entity (MME), the femtocell gateway establishes the second wired connection with the ISP network, and the MME establishes the third wired connection with the BS.

12. The communication method as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the core network further comprises a serving gateway (S-GW) and a packet data gateway (P-GW), the communication method further comprising the following steps:
enabling the P-GW to transmit a create bearer request message to the S-GW;
enabling the S-GW to relay the create bearer request message to the MME;
enabling the MME to transmit the first RAB setup request message to the BS according to the create bearer request message;
enabling the BS to

Assignees

• Lin Yu-Hsiang
• Jan Rong-Hong
• Inst Information Industry

Inventors

• Lin Yu-Hsiang
• Jan Rong-Hong

Classifications

• H04W76/025

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W88/16

  Gateway arrangements · CPC title

• H04W76/02 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W84/045

  using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B · CPC title

• H04W76/10 Primary

  Connection setup · CPC title