Method, system and apparatus for notifying network standard time information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9549294-B2
Application number	US-200913140738-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2009
Priority date	Dec 18, 2008
Publication date	Jan 17, 2017
Grant date	Jan 17, 2017

Abstract

A method, system and apparatus for notifying the Network Standard Time Information are provided by the present invention. The present invention is used to notify the Network Standard Time Information to a User Equipment (UE) in the Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) mechanism, thus ensuring that the local time of the UE is consistent with the Network Standard Time Information of the network side, and enabling the UE to achieve the MBMS at a prescribed time. The said method comprises the following steps: the network side adds the Network Standard Time Information into the MBMS point-to-multipoint Control CHannel (MCCH) message; the network side notifies the Network Standard Time Information to the UE by transmitting the said MCCH message to the UE.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for notifying network standard time information, comprising:
adding, at a network side, network standard time information to a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) Multipoint Control CHannel (MCCH) message;
notifying, from the network side, the network standard time information to a user equipment by transmitting the MCCH message to the user equipment, so that the user equipment calibrates the local time according to the network standard time information and acquires an MBMS service according to the local time;
wherein the user equipment acquiring the MBMS service according to the local time comprises:
comparing, by the user equipment, a current System Frame Number (SFN) with a relevant SFN to derive a time difference thereof, wherein the current SFN refers to an SFN upon reception at the user equipment of a retransmitted message of the MCCH message comprising the network standard time information, and the relevant SFN refers to an SFN upon initial transmission from the network side of the MCCH message comprising the network standard time information in an MCCH modification cycle;
deriving, by the user equipment, the local time by adding network standard time indicated in the network standard time information to the time difference;
determining, by the user equipment, whether the local time coincides with a time to listen to an MBMS control channel, wherein the time to listen to an MBMS control channel is determined from an arrival time of the MBMS service; and
listening, by the user equipment, to the MBMS control channel upon arrival of the time to listen to the MBMS control channel; and
acquiring the MBMS service through listening to the MBMS control channel.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network standard time information is added at the network side to MBMS modified services information, MBMS unmodified services information and/or MBMS general information in the MCCH message.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network standard time information is absolute time or relative time.

4. A method for acquiring a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), comprising:
determining, by a user equipment, local time, wherein, the local time is determined from network standard time information carried in a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) Multipoint Control CHannel (MCCH) message transmitted from a network side, wherein determining by the user equipment the local time comprises:
comparing by the user equipment a current System Frame Number (SFN) with a relevant SFN to derive the time difference thereof, wherein the current SFN refers to an SFN upon reception at the user equipment of a retransmitted message of the MCCH message comprising the network standard time information, and the relevant SFN refers to an SFN upon initial transmission from the network side of the MCCH message comprising the network standard time information in an MCCH modification cycle; and
deriving, by the user equipment, the local time by adding network standard time indicated in the network standard time information to the time difference; and
acquiring, by the user equipment, an MBMS service from the network side according to the local time;
wherein acquiring, by the user equipment, an MBMS service from the network side according to the local time comprises:
determining, by the user equipment, whether the local time comes to time to listen to an MBMS control channel, wherein the time to listen to an MBMS control channel is determined from the arrival time of the MBMS service; and
listening, by the user equipment, to the MBMS control channel upon arrival of the time to listen to the MBMS control channel and acquiring the MBMS service through listening to the MBMS control channel.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the user equipment retrieves the network standard time information from MBMS modified services information, MBMS unmodified services information and/or MBMS general information in the MCCH message.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein determining by the user equipment the local time comprises:
comparing by the user equipment, a current System Frame Number (SFN) with a relevant SFN to derive the time difference thereof, wherein the current SFN refers to an SFN upon reception at the user equipment of a retransmitted message of the MCCH message comprising the network standard time information, and the relevant SFN refers to an SFN upon initial transmission from the network side of the MCCH message comprising the network standard time information in an MCCH modification cycle; and
deriving, by the user equipment, the local time by adding network standard time indicated in the network standard time information to the time difference.

7. An entity at a network side, comprising:
a system time adding unit configured to add network standard time information to a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) Multipoint Control CHannel (MCCH) message; and
a transmission unit configured to transmit the MCCH message carrying the network standard time information to a user equipment, so that the user equipment:
calibrates a local time according to the network standard time information, wherein the local time is based at least in part on a comparison of a current System Frame Number (SFN) with a relevant SFN to derive a time difference thereof, wherein the current SFN refers to an SFN upon reception at the user equipment of a retransmitted message of the MCCH message comprising the network standard time information, and the relevant SFN refers to an SFN upon initial transmission from the network side of the MCCH message comprising the network standard time information in an MCCH modification cycle, and further based at least in part on addition of the network standard time indicated in the network standard time information to the time difference,
determines whether the local time coincides with a time to listen to an MBMS control channel, wherein the time to listen to an MBMS control channel is determined from an arrival time of the MBMS service; and
listens to the MBMS control channel upon arrival of the time to listen to the MBMS control channel and the user equipment acquires the MBMS service through listening to the MBMS control channel.

8. The entity of claim 7 , wherein the system time adding unit adds the network standard time information to MBMS modified services information, MBMS unmodified services information and/or MBMS general information in the MCCH message.

9. A user equipment, comprising:
a reception unit configured to receive a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) Multipoint Control CHannel (MCCH) message transmitted from a network side;
a system time retrieval unit configured to retrieve network standard time information from the MCCH message;
a local time calibration unit configured to calibrate local time of the user equipment against the network standard time information, wherein the local time is based at least in part on comparing a current System Frame Number (SFN) with a relevant SFN to derive a time difference thereof, wherein the current SFN refers to an SFN upon reception at the user equipment of a retransmitted message of the MCCH message comprising the network standard time information, and the relevant SFN refers to an SFN upon initial transmission from the network side of the MCCH message comprising the network standard time information in an MCCH modification cycle, and on deriving the local time by adding network standard time indicated in the network standard time information to the time difference; and
an MBMS service acquisition unit configured to acquire an MBMS service from the network side according to the local time, wherein the local tim

Assignees

• Yang Xiaodong
• Quan Haiyang
• China Academy Telecommunications Technology

Inventors

• Yang Xiaodong
• Quan Haiyang

Classifications

• H04W48/12

  using downlink control channel · CPC title

• H04W4/06 Primary

  Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services · CPC title