Base station handover method and system for communications system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9615301-B2
Application number	US-201314439337-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 21, 2013
Priority date	Oct 29, 2012
Publication date	Apr 4, 2017
Grant date	Apr 4, 2017

Abstract

A base station handover method and system for a communication system are provided. The method includes: a serving base station triggering a bi-casting operation according to information reported by a user equipment, adding a communication context of a target base station into a Mobile Management Entity (MME), and the MME notifying a Serving GateWay (SGW) to store two communication routes; the SGW communicating with the serving base station and the target base station after the triggering of bi-casting is completed; and the serving base station interacting with the user equipment, and handing over the user equipment from the serving base station to the target base station. By means of the technical scheme according to the embodiments of the present document, the complexity of base station handover can be reduced, the efficiency of base station handover can be increased, and at the same time the practicability is enhanced.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A base station handover method for a communication system of a long term evolution network, comprising:
a serving base station triggering a Coordinated Multi-Point, CoMP, operation according to information reported by a user equipment, and the serving base station adding context information of the user equipment to a target base station through an interface between base stations;
the target base station requesting a Mobility Management Entity, MME, to update a coordinated set, and adding context information of the target base station into the MME;
the MME triggering a bi-casting operation to a Serving GateWay, SGW, and notifying the SGW to store two communication routes;
the SGW communicating with the serving base station and the target base station after the triggering of the CoMP operation and the bi-casting operation are completed; and
the serving base station interacting with the user equipment, to hand over the user equipment from the serving base station to the target base station.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein, the serving base station interacting with the user equipment, to hand over the user equipment from the serving base station to the target base station comprises:
when it is determined that it needs to perform base station handover, handing over the user equipment from the serving base station to the target base station by updating the context information of the user equipment; and
after the handover is completed, the method further comprises: releasing the bi-casting operation.

3. The method according to claim 1 , after the SGW communicates with the serving base station and the target base station, the method further comprising:
in a downlink, after receiving data transmitted by the SGW through bi-casting, the serving base station and the target base station transmitting the data to the user equipment on a same time-frequency resource through CoMP; and in an uplink, the serving base station and the target base station receiving the data of the user equipment in coordination; and
after the handover is completed and before the bi-casting operation is released, releasing the CoMP operation.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein, the CoMP operation is a CoMP-Joint Transmission (JT) operation.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein, triggering the CoMP operation and the bi-casting operation comprises:
the user equipment performing physical layer measurements in real time, and reporting a measurement result to a RRC layer of the serving base station;
the RRC layer of the serving base station analyzing the measurement result, and if a difference between signal quality of the target base station and signal quality of the serving base station is larger than a preset first threshold, initiating a CoMP-JT request to the target base station;
the target base station reserving corresponding resources and storing corresponding context information of the user equipment, and transmitting to the MME a CoMP-JT coordinated set update request to request for triggering the CoMP-JT operation, wherein, the context information of the user equipment stored by the target base station is communication context information from the user equipment to the target base station;
the MME storing corresponding two sets of context information of the user equipment, and triggering bi-casting to the SGW, wherein, the two sets of context information of the user equipment stored by the MME are communication context information from the user equipment to the target base station and communication context information from the user equipment to the serving base station; and
the SGW storing corresponding two sets of context information of the user equipment, wherein, the two sets of context information of the user equipment stored by the SGW comprise communication route information from the SGW to the target base station and communication route information from the SGW to the serving base station.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein, after receiving data transmitted by the SGW through bi-casting, the serving base station and the target base station transmitting the data to the user equipment on the same time-frequency resource through CoMP-JT comprises:
the SGW performing bi-casting through interfaces between base stations and a MME/SGW, and transmitting same data to the serving base station and the target base station at the same time; and
the serving base station and the target base station buffering the data respectively, interacting signaling messages necessarily required for the CoMP-JT operation on an interface between the base stations, and after the CoMP-JT process is performed on the data according to the signaling messages, transmitting the data to the user equipment on a same time-frequency resource through CoMP-JT;
wherein, after the serving base station and the target base station buffer the data respectively, the method further comprises:
the serving base station and the target base station interacting information through the interface between the base stations, selecting a received signal of a base station with better quality as a reception signal, and discarding a signal of a base station with worse quality.

7. The method according to claim 5 , wherein, handing over the user equipment from the serving base station to the target base station comprises:
the RRC layer of the serving base station analyzing a measurement result reported by the user equipment, and if a difference between signal quality of the target base station and signal quality of the serving base station is larger than a preset second threshold, determining to perform base station handover, wherein, the second threshold is larger than the first threshold;
the serving base station transmitting a handover request to the target base station;
the target base station updating the context information of the user equipment according to the handover request;
the serving base station transmitting RRC link reconfiguration information to the user equipment; and
the user equipment transmitting RRC link reconfiguration complete information to the target base station, to complete handover from the serving base station to the target base station.

8. The method according to claim 3 , wherein, after the handover is completed and before the bi-casting operation is released, releasing the CoMP operation comprises:
a RRC layer of a new serving base station of the user equipment analyzing a measurement result reported by the user equipment, and when it is determined that the signal quality of the original serving base station is lower than a preset third threshold, transmitting to the MME a CoMP-JT coordinated set update request to request for releasing the CoMP-JT operation, and transmitting a CoMP-JT coordination exit request to the original serving base station;
the original serving base station deleting the communication context information from the user equipment to the original serving base station, and transmitting a response to the CoMP-JT coordination exit request to the new serving base station;
the MME exiting the CoMP-JT operation, storing only the communication context information from the user equipment to the new serving base station, and transmitting a bi-casting exit request to the SGW; and
the SGW exiting the bi-casting operation, storing only communication route information from the SGW to the new serving base station, and transmitting a response to the bi-casting exit request to the MME.

9. A base station handover system for a communication system of a long term evolution network, comprising: a user equipment, a serving base station, a target base station, a Mobility Management Entity (MME), and a Serving

Assignees

• Zte Corp

Inventors

• Xia Yingying
• Zhao Yajun
• Fang Xuming
• Geng Peng
• Jiang Hai

Classifications

• H04W36/0033

  with transfer of context information · CPC title

• H04W36/30 Primary

  by measured or perceived connection quality data · CPC title

• H04W36/08 Primary

  Reselecting an access point · CPC title

• H04W36/302

  due to low signal strength · CPC title