CN102724688A - Method and apparatus for measuring carrier - Google Patents

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and a device for measuring a carrier. The method includes: receiving a control message from a base station, where the control message is used to indicate the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of a carrier that is not currently providing services; based on the control message, determining the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of a carrier that is not currently providing services; The uplink and downlink subframes are configured to measure the carrier. The device includes a receiving module, a determining module and a measuring module. Based on the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier that is not currently providing service can be obtained from the control message, so that more subframe information can be used to measure the carrier that is not currently providing service, so that More accurate measurement results can be obtained in a shorter time, and the efficiency of carrier measurement is improved, and since the measurement process is still based on subframes, there is no need to increase the hardware resources required for user equipment measurement, and will not cause user equipment chip costs rise.

Description

Method and device for measuring carrier wave

technical field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communication, and more particularly, to a method and device for measuring carrier in the field of wireless communication.

Background technique

LTE-A (Long Time Evolution-Advance, long-term evolution) R10 (version 10) is a further enhancement of LTE R8 technology, which has higher bandwidth requirements than the LTE system. In order to meet high bandwidth requirements and support a peak data rate up to 1 Gbits/s, a carrier aggregation (CarrierAggregation, CA) technology is introduced to expand system bandwidth. The main idea of carrier aggregation is to aggregate multiple component carriers (Component Carrier, CC) into a carrier with a larger bandwidth to support high-speed data rates. However, in the R10TDD (time division duplex) system, the system bandwidth can be aggregated by up to five component carriers, but the system can only support carrier aggregation with the same uplink and downlink subframe configuration.

In a TDD system, different uplink and downlink subframe configurations can be set for carriers, so that uplink subframes or downlink subframes are transmitted in different time slots. In the existing protocol, seven configurations of uplink and downlink subframe ratios as shown in Table 1 are supported, and the specific configuration of uplink and downlink subframes to be used is notified by the base station sending a message to the user equipment (User Equipment, UE) . Table 1 shows the uplink and downlink subframe configuration in TDD mode. Among them, the uplink-downlink configuration (Uplink-downlink configuration) represents the number of different uplink and downlink subframe configurations, D represents the downlink subframe, U represents the uplink subframe, S represents the special subframe, DL: UL represents the downlink subframe in one frame and the matching ratio of the uplink subframe.

Table 1

Since the existing R10TDD system can only support the aggregation of carriers with the same configuration, according to Table 1, for example, the R10TDD system can support the aggregation of two carriers in configuration 1, or the aggregation of two carriers in configuration 2, but Carrier aggregation where one carrier is configuration 1 and the other carrier is configuration 2 cannot be supported. In addition, in the R10TDD system, TDD in the network adopts the same configuration, that is, a base station (such as eNB, evolved Node B, and evolved base station) adopts configuration 1, then the base stations in neighboring cells around it also adopt configuration 1, Therefore, all carriers in the cell where the base station is located and its neighbor cells adopt configuration 1.

Although the LTE evolution version R10 can only support carrier aggregation with the same uplink and downlink subframe configuration, it cannot be ruled out that TDD carrier aggregation with different uplink and downlink subframe configurations can be supported in future LTE evolution versions (such as R11 and R12). Possibilities, for example, support aggregation of two carriers in configuration 1 and configuration 2 in future versions of LTE. At this time, the uplink and downlink subframe configurations of multiple carriers may be different: in the same cell, different carriers have different uplink and downlink subframe configurations, and between different cells, different carriers also have different uplink and downlink subframe configurations configuration.

When the uplink and downlink subframe configurations of the carriers are different, although the UE knows the uplink and downlink subframe configurations of the currently serving carrier (including the carrier on which the UE camps in idle mode and the carrier from which the UE receives services in connected mode), However, the UE does not know the uplink and downlink subframe configurations of the carriers that are not currently providing services, so the UE's measurement of these carriers that are not currently providing services will be affected. For example, in the DRX (Discontinuous reception, discontinuous reception) state, since the UE can only measure the carrier that is not currently providing services for the subframe No. 0 and subframe No. 5 in each configuration mode in Table 1, the UE measures all The required number of subframes is reduced, so that under the premise of obtaining the same measurement accuracy, it takes a longer time to perform measurement, which shortens the time for the UE to go to sleep, which is not conducive to UE power saving. On the other hand, if the UE wishes to obtain the same measurement accuracy, in order to shorten the measurement time, it is necessary to increase the measurement hardware resources of the UE, which leads to an increase in the chip cost of the UE.

It can be seen that when carriers have different configurations of uplink and downlink subframes, only subframes 0 and 5 are used to measure carriers, making it difficult to perform fast and accurate measurements on carriers that are not currently providing services.

Contents of the invention

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and device for measuring carriers, which can accurately and quickly measure carriers that are not currently providing services when the carriers have different uplink and downlink subframe configurations, thereby improving the efficiency of carrier measurement.

On the one hand, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for measuring a carrier, including: receiving a control message from a base station, where the control message is used to indicate the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of a carrier that is not currently providing services; based on the control message, determining the non-current The uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that provides the service; based on the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that is not currently providing the service, the carrier that is not currently providing the service is measured.

On the other hand, an embodiment of the present invention provides a device for measuring a carrier, including: a receiving module, configured to receive a control message from a base station, and the control message is used to indicate the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of a carrier that is not currently providing services The determination module is used to determine the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that is not currently providing services based on the control message; the measurement module is used to determine the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that is not currently providing services. Take measurements.

Based on the above technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, according to the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier that is not currently providing services obtained from the control message, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that is not currently providing services can be determined, so that more Multiple downlink subframes (such as D in Table 1) are used to perform measurements on carriers that are not currently providing services. Compared with related technologies that only use subframes No. 0 and No. 5 for measurement, more subframe information can be used to obtain more accurate measurement results in a shorter time, thereby improving the efficiency of measuring carriers.

Description of drawings

In order to illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention more clearly, the accompanying drawings used in the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the accompanying drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention. Those skilled in the art can also obtain other drawings based on these drawings without any creative work.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a method for measuring a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart of another method for measuring a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart of still another method for measuring a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a structural block diagram of an apparatus for measuring a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a structural block diagram of another device for measuring a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

The following will clearly and completely describe the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of them. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

First, a method 100 for measuring a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention is described with reference to FIG. 1 .

As shown in FIG. 1, the method 100 includes: in S110, receiving a control message from the base station, the control message is used to indicate the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that is not currently providing services; in S120, based on the control message, determine the non-current The uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that provides the service; in S130, based on the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that is not currently providing the service, measure the carrier that is not currently providing the service.

The UE may receive a control message from the base station, and the control message may carry uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of carriers other than the carrier that provides current services for the UE, and is used to indicate the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the corresponding carrier. According to the control message, the UE can obtain the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier that is not currently providing services. The non-currently serving carrier is a carrier not currently serving the UE, and may include a carrier not serving the serving cell where the UE is located, or may include a carrier of a neighbor cell adjacent to the serving cell. The carrier that the UE camps on in the idle mode or the carrier that the UE uses in the connected mode belongs to the carrier that currently provides services, and other carriers belong to the carriers that are not currently providing services. The UE can determine the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the corresponding carrier according to the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier that is not currently providing services, so that more subframe information in the carrier can be used to measure the carrier. The UE may determine the downlink subframes of the carrier based on the configuration of the uplink and downlink subframes of the carrier, so as to perform measurements on the carrier on these downlink subframes.

According to the carrier measurement method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, according to the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the non-current serving carrier obtained from the control message, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the non-current serving carrier can be determined, so that more The downlink subframes used to measure the carriers that are not currently providing services. Optionally, in addition to the downlink subframe, a special subframe (such as S in Table 1) may also be used to measure a carrier that is not currently providing services. Compared with related technologies that only use subframes No. 0 and No. 5 for measurement, more subframe information can be used to obtain more accurate measurement results in a shorter time, thereby improving the efficiency of measuring carriers. And since the measurement process is still performed based on subframes, there is no need to increase the hardware resources required for UE measurement, which will not lead to an increase in UE chip costs.

Next, S110 to S130 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

In S110, a control message from the base station is received, where the control message is used to indicate the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of a carrier that is not currently providing services.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, user equipment may receive system information from a base station of a serving cell. In the system message, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the current serving carrier of the serving cell can be carried as in the related art, and can also be extended to carry carriers that are not currently providing services (including other carriers and/or neighbors of the current serving cell) The uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier of the cell).

The base station of the serving cell where the UE is located may send a system message to the UE through a broadcast channel, and make the system message carry information related to a carrier that is not currently providing services.

The carriers that are not currently providing services include the carriers that the UE does not camp on in the idle mode, and also include the carriers that the UE does not use in the connected mode. These carriers may include other carriers in the current serving cell except the carrier for receiving system messages, and may also include carriers in neighbor cells. These carriers may or may not have a carrier aggregation function, so these carriers that are not currently providing services may be constituent carriers or not. The non-currently serving carriers involved in the system message may be all carriers in the cell, or part of the carriers in the cell.

The uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier in the neighbor cell may be sent by the base station of the neighbor cell to the base station of the serving cell, and then sent to the user equipment by the base station of the serving cell.

There are various ways to carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier in the system message. For example, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information may be explicitly carried in the system message. For example, the information of whether the subframe with the specific subframe number is an uplink subframe (U) or a downlink subframe (D) is directly carried in the system message. The uplink and downlink subframe configuration information may also be carried through a specific identifier or number in the system message. For example, one of the numbers 0 to 6 in Table 1 is carried in the system message, and the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information is represented by the number. The uplink and downlink subframe configuration information can also be defined with an enumeration type, and each value in the enumeration type corresponds to an uplink and downlink subframe configuration method, and the uplink and downlink subframes are represented by carrying values belonging to the enumeration type in the system message Subframe configuration information. In addition, the "TDD-Config" defined by the protocol can also be directly used to describe the TDD uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the user equipment may receive signaling from the base station of the serving cell, where the signaling carries uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of a carrier that is not currently providing services.

For example, the user equipment can receive radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC) signaling from the base station of the serving cell, and the RRC signaling can carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier that is not currently providing services in the current serving cell and neighbor cells . During the establishment of the RRC connection or after the establishment of the RRC connection, the base station of the serving cell where the UE is located may send RRC signaling to the UE. In the RRC signaling, not only uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of carriers not currently providing services in the serving cell can be carried, but also uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of carriers in neighbor cells can be carried. The uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier of the neighbor cell can still be transmitted by the base station of the neighbor cell to the base station of the serving cell. At this time, it is necessary to extend the RRC signaling, add new fields to the RRC signaling or use the reserved fields in the RRC signaling to carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that is not currently providing services based on the new fields or reserved fields information. The way of carrying can refer to the above.

Of course, those skilled in the art can also easily imagine that in addition to using RRC signaling to carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier, other signaling or redefined new signaling can also be used to transmit the non-currently provided service Uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier, for example, using MAC (Media Access Control, medium access control) signaling or physical layer signaling.

As mentioned above, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carriers that are not currently providing services of the serving cell and the neighbor cell may be carried in the system message or in the signaling. However, according to the embodiments of the present invention, when some carriers in the same frequency band have the same uplink and downlink subframe configuration, it is not necessary to carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of all carriers in neighboring cells. For example, the system message or signaling may carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier that is not currently providing services in the serving cell; and when the carrier in the neighbor cell has the same uplink and downlink subframe configuration as the carrier in the same frequency band in the serving cell When , the system message or signaling may not carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier of the neighbor cell. At this time, for the carriers in the neighbor cell, the system message or signaling can only carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of those carriers whose uplink and downlink subframe configuration is unknown and whose uplink and downlink subframe configuration cannot be deduced from the carriers in the same frequency band .

Specifically, the system message or signaling needs to carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier that is not currently providing services in the serving cell, but whether it needs to carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier in the neighbor cell, it needs to be communicated with the neighbor cell It is related to the relationship between the carriers in the cell and the carriers in the serving cell. If the specific carrier of the neighbor cell and a certain carrier of the current serving cell are on the same frequency band and have the same uplink and downlink subframe configuration, it is not necessary to repeat the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the specific carrier; if the neighbor cell If a specific carrier and a carrier of the current serving cell are on the same frequency band but have different uplink and downlink subframe configurations, it is still necessary to carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the specific carrier in the system message; if the specific carrier of the neighbor cell If all carriers of the current serving cell are not in the same frequency band, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the specific carrier needs to be carried.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the system message or signaling may carry uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of a carrier that is not currently providing services in the serving cell. At this time, when the carrier that is not currently providing service in the neighbor cell has the same uplink and downlink subframe configuration as the carrier that is not currently providing service in the serving cell, it can be based on the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that is not currently providing service in the serving cell information to determine the uplink and downlink subframe configurations of carriers that are not currently providing services in neighboring cells.

If a specific carrier in a neighbor cell has the same uplink and downlink subframe configuration as a carrier in a serving cell, the system information or signaling may not carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the specific carrier, but directly according to the The carrier with the same uplink and downlink subframe configuration is used to obtain the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the specific carrier.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the user equipment can receive a system message from the base station of the serving cell, the system message carries the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier that is not currently providing services in the serving cell; receive signaling from the base station of the serving cell , the signaling carries the configuration information of the uplink and downlink subframes of the carriers that are not currently providing services in the neighbor cell.

The sequence of receiving system messages and receiving signaling does not limit the protection scope of the present invention.

When the UE is in idle (IDLE) mode, the UE can receive a system message from the base station of the serving cell. The system message not only contains the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier where the UE is currently camped on, but also contains the information in the serving cell where the UE is located. Uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of other carriers. In this way, the UE can obtain the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier of the serving cell.

When the UE is in the connected mode (CONNECTED), the UE can obtain the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier in the neighbor cell through the signaling sent by the base station of the serving cell. The signaling may be RRC signaling or other signaling.

In this case, since the UE has acquired the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier of the serving cell in the idle mode, there is no need to obtain the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier of the serving cell through signaling. It only needs to obtain the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier of the neighbor cell. In the case of using signaling to obtain the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carriers of the serving cell and neighbor cells, since the system information may only contain the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the currently serving carrier, it is necessary to use signaling to obtain the configuration information related to the uplink and downlink subframes of the carrier. The current serving carrier has information about other carriers with different uplink and downlink subframe configurations.

In this embodiment, system information carries uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of carriers in the serving cell, while signaling may carry uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of all carriers in neighbor cells. However, in the case that some carriers in the same frequency band have the same uplink and downlink subframe configuration, the signaling may not carry information of some carriers in neighboring cells. According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the carrier in the neighbor cell has the same uplink and downlink subframe configuration as the carrier in the same frequency band in the serving cell, the signaling does not carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier in the neighbor cell. At this time, the signaling only needs to carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier whose uplink and downlink subframe configuration is unknown and whose uplink and downlink subframe configuration cannot be deduced from carriers in the same frequency band.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the user equipment may receive synchronization signals from base stations of serving cells and/or neighbor cells. The synchronization signal is sent by the base station on the synchronization channel, and information related to synchronization is transmitted through the synchronization signal. The synchronization signal is sent periodically and continuously on the synchronization channel, and each cycle can be regarded as constituting a control message. The UE extracts the Physical Cell Identification (PCI) in the synchronization signal by detecting the synchronization signal (that is, the control message) sent by the base station of the neighboring cell on the synchronization channel, and determines the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the corresponding carrier according to the PCI. This will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 2 .

In S120, based on the control message, determine the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that is not currently providing services.

Through the control message received in S110, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier that is not currently providing services can be obtained, so that the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the corresponding carrier can be determined. If the control message does not carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of one or some carriers that are not currently providing services, it means that the carrier has the same uplink and downlink subframe configuration as the carrier with the known uplink and downlink subframe configuration in the same frequency band, This is still a conclusion based on control messages.

When a system message is received from the base station of the serving cell, the uplink and downlink subframe configurations of carriers not currently providing services and carriers of neighboring cells in the serving cell can be directly determined through the system message. These non-currently serving carriers may be all non-currently serving carriers in the corresponding cell, or may be some non-currently serving carriers in the corresponding cell. Through the system message, it is also possible to only determine the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that is not currently providing services in the serving cell, and the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier in the neighbor cell is determined by means of signaling.

When receiving signaling such as RRC signaling from the base station of the serving cell, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that is not currently providing the serving carrier and the neighbor cell in the serving cell can be directly determined through the signaling. The uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier in the neighbor cell can also be determined only through signaling, while the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the non-currently serving carrier in the serving cell can be obtained by the UE through system messages in idle mode. For example, if RRC signaling carries uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of a component carrier, if the system information sent by the base station corresponding to the component carrier currently serving the UE does not include the uplink and downlink subframe information of other component carriers in the cell where the base station is located If the uplink subframe configuration information of other component carriers of the cell is not carried in the RRC signaling, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of other component carriers of the cell needs to be carried. Otherwise, the RRC signaling may not carry the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of other component carriers of the cell, but only carry Uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of carriers in the cell. Specifically, in the RRC signaling, it may indicate whether the uplink and downlink subframe configurations of other component carriers are the same as the uplink and downlink subframe configurations of the current serving carrier (that is, the carrier on which the UE resides), and if they are different, it may be directly given Its uplink and downlink subframe configuration information.

When a synchronization signal is received from the base station, the PCI of the corresponding carrier may be determined based on the synchronization signal. Since the specific uplink and downlink subframe configuration information can be set for different PCIs in advance, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier can be determined according to the carrier's PCI, as shown in FIG. 2 .

In S130, based on the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier not currently providing service, the carrier not currently providing service is measured.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, based on the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier not currently providing service, the carrier not currently providing service may be measured on the downlink subframe of the carrier not currently providing service.

After determining the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier that is not currently providing services, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier can be determined, so that the specific position of the downlink subframe can be determined. Therefore, in addition to using subframes 0 and 5 to configure the carrier In addition to performing measurements, other downlink subframes may also be used to measure carriers. Optionally, the carrier may also be measured by using a special subframe.

According to the carrier measurement method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, by obtaining system information and/or signaling from the base station of the serving cell, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that the user equipment does not receive service from can be determined. In this way, in a system where the carrier has different uplink and downlink subframe configurations, since the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier is determined, the UE can use more subframe information to help perform carrier measurement, thus compared with related technologies, only using 0 The measurement performed on the subframe No. 5 and the subframe No. 5 can obtain more accurate measurement results in a shorter time, thus improving the efficiency of carrier measurement. Moreover, the method of acquiring the configuration information of the uplink and downlink subframes of the carrier is simple, does not require much modification to the existing system, and has low implementation complexity.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart of a method 200 for measuring a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In S210, a synchronization signal from a base station is received.

The UE may receive the synchronization signal sent by the base station of the neighbor cell through the synchronization channel of the base station of the neighbor cell, and may also receive the synchronization signal sent by the base station of the serving cell through the synchronization channel of the base station of the serving cell. Through the synchronization signal sent by the base station, the UE can determine the synchronization information related to the carrier corresponding to the base station.

In S220, based on the synchronization signal, determine the physical cell identity of the carrier that is not currently providing services.

The synchronization signal sent by the base station through the synchronization channel carries the PCI information of the carrier used by the base station. Each carrier corresponds to a separate PCI. When the UE is still in the coverage of the base station of the serving cell, the UE may determine the PCI of the carrier in the serving cell according to the synchronization signal sent by the base station of the serving cell. When the UE is in the edge area between the serving cell and the neighbor cell, the UE can detect the carrier of the neighbor cell, so as to determine the PCI of the detected carrier according to the synchronization signal sent from the base station of the neighbor cell.

In S230, based on the physical cell identity, determine the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that is not currently providing services.

A corresponding uplink and downlink subframe configuration mode can be set for each PCI in advance. In this way, the UE can determine the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier corresponding to the PCI according to the PCI of the carrier.

It is also possible to group different PCIs in advance, and set an uplink and downlink subframe configuration mode for each group. In this way, after the UE determines the PCI of the carrier in S220, according to the group where the PCI is located, the corresponding uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the group where the PCI is located can be determined.

It is also possible for the base station to dynamically allocate different uplink and downlink subframe configuration modes for the carrier, so that the uplink and downlink subframe configuration corresponding to each PCI can be dynamically changed. In this case, the base station of the serving cell can not only tell the UE the relationship between the PCI of its own carrier and the configuration of the uplink and downlink subframes, but also tell the UE the relationship between the PCI and the configuration of the uplink and downlink subframes obtained from the base station of the neighboring cell. Configure a one-to-one correspondence relationship and tell the UE. According to the PCI determined in S220, the UE may determine the uplink and downlink subframe configuration corresponding to the PCI, thereby determining the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information corresponding to the carrier.

In S240, based on the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier not currently providing service, the carrier not currently providing service is measured. This step is basically the same as S130 in FIG. 1 .

Those skilled in the art can imagine that the method 200 can be used alone to obtain the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier in the serving cell and the neighbor cell, and then measure the carrier in the serving cell and the neighbor cell, and the method 200 and the method 100 can also be carried out combined to measure the carrier. For example, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier of the neighbor cell is obtained through the method 200, and then the carrier in the neighbor cell is measured, and the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier of the serving cell is obtained through the system message or signaling in the method 100, Carriers in the serving cell are then measured.

According to the method for measuring the carrier provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier can be determined based on the correspondence between the PCI in the synchronization signal and the uplink and downlink subframe configuration by obtaining the synchronization signal from the base station. In this way, the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier can be conveniently determined according to the PCI information, so that more subframe information can be used to help measure the carrier, compared with the related art that only uses subframes 0 and 5 Measurement, more accurate measurement results can be obtained in a shorter time, so the efficiency of measuring the carrier can be improved. Moreover, the method of acquiring the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier is simple, without modifying existing messages and signaling, and the implementation complexity is low.

Next, a method 300 for measuring a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention is described with reference to FIG. 3 .

S310 , S320 and S330 in method 300 are basically the same as S110 , S120 and S130 in method 100 .

According to an embodiment of the present invention, after S330, the method 300 may further include S340. In the idle mode, when the carrier that the user equipment is currently camping on cannot camp on, according to the measurement result, select a carrier that is not currently providing services. Destination carrier on which to reside.

When the UE is in the idle mode, the UE can determine the target carrier on which it can camp according to the measurement of the carrier.

The UE may first measure the current serving carrier of the current serving cell, that is, measure the carrier on which the UE is currently camped. If the quality of the carrier currently camped on is lower than a specific threshold, it means that the carrier currently camped on cannot be camped on, so the measurement on other carriers of the serving cell is started. If other carriers in the serving cell are suitable for camping on, this carrier is selected as a target carrier that can camp on. If no suitable campable carrier is found among the other carriers of the serving cell, the measurement of the carrier of the neighbor cell is started. When a target carrier suitable for camping is found in a neighbor cell, the UE selects the carrier as a target carrier that can camp on, and determines to camp on the target carrier. If the target carrier suitable for camping selected by the UE is not in the same paging area as the carrier the UE is currently camping on, the UE needs to perform a paging location update (Tracking Area Update, TAU) process.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, after S330, the method 300 may further include S350, in the connected mode, report the measurement result to the base station of the serving cell.

When the UE is in the connected mode, the UE in communication (such as calling, receiving data services, etc.) reports the measured signal quality of the carrier to the base station of the current serving cell, so that the base station of the serving cell can determine it according to the carrier measurement result Whether to switch. The reported measurement result may include the measurement result of the carrier of the current serving cell and the measurement result of the carrier of the neighbor cell.

Although S350 is executed after S340 in FIG. 3 , S350 may also be executed before S340, depending on the current state of the UE.

According to the method for measuring the carrier provided by the embodiment of the present invention, after the carrier is measured more accurately and quickly, the measurement result can be used according to different modes of the UE, thereby facilitating the execution of paging location update or handover.

The method for measuring a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention has been described above, and the apparatus for measuring a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 .

Fig. 4 shows a structural block diagram of an apparatus 400 for measuring a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The device 400 includes a receiving module 410 , a determining module 420 and a measuring module 430 . The receiving module 410 may be an interface for receiving a control message from a base station, and the control message is used to indicate the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of a carrier that is not currently providing services. The determining module 420 may be configured to determine the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that is not currently providing services based on the control message. The measurement module 430 may be a processor, and may be configured to measure the carrier that is not currently providing the service based on the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that is not currently providing the service.

For the above and other operations and/or functions of the receiving module 410, the determining module 420, and the measuring module 430, reference may be made to S110 to S130 in the above-mentioned method 100 for measuring carrier waves, and details are not repeated here to avoid repetition.

The device for measuring carriers provided by the embodiments of the present invention can determine these carriers according to the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carriers that are not currently providing services obtained from the control message in a system where the carriers have different uplink and downlink subframe configurations Uplink and downlink subframe configurations, so that more downlink subframes can be used to measure carriers that are not currently providing services. Compared with related technologies that only use subframes No. 0 and No. 5 for measurement, more subframe information can be used to obtain more accurate measurement results in a shorter time, thereby improving the efficiency of measuring carriers. And since the measurement process is still performed based on subframes, there is no need to increase the hardware resources required for UE measurement, which will not lead to an increase in UE chip costs.

Fig. 5 shows a structural block diagram of another apparatus 500 for measuring a carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The receiving module 510 , the determining module 520 and the measuring module 530 of the device 500 are basically the same as the receiving module 410 , the determining module 420 and the measuring module 430 of the device 400 .

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the receiving module 510 may be configured to receive system information or signaling from a base station of a serving cell, where the system information or signaling carries uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of a carrier that is not currently providing services.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the receiving module 510 may be configured to receive system information or signaling from the base station of the serving cell, where the system information or signaling carries uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of carriers not currently providing services in the serving cell. At this time, the determining module 520 can also be used to: when the carrier not currently providing service in the neighbor cell and the carrier not currently providing service in the serving cell have the same uplink and downlink subframe configuration, based on the carrier not currently providing service in the serving cell The uplink and downlink subframe configuration information determines the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier that is not currently providing services in the neighbor cell.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the receiving module 510 may include a first receiving unit 512 and a second receiving unit 514, which may be different interfaces respectively. The first receiving unit 512 may be configured to receive a system message from a base station of a serving cell, where the system message carries uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of a carrier that is not currently providing services in the serving cell. The second receiving unit 514 may be configured to receive signaling from a base station of a serving cell, where the signaling carries configuration information of uplink and downlink subframes of a carrier that is not currently providing services in a neighbor cell.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the receiving module 510 may be used to receive a synchronization signal from a base station. At this time, the control message is a synchronization signal, and the determining module 520 may include a first determining unit 522 and a second determining unit 524 . The first determining unit 522 may be configured to determine the physical cell identity of the carrier based on the synchronization signal. The second determining unit 524 may be configured to determine the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier based on the physical cell identity.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus 500 may further include at least one of a selection module 540 and a reporting module 550, and these two modules may be processors. The selection module 540 may be configured to select a target carrier that can camp on from carriers that are not currently providing services according to the measurement results when the carrier that the user equipment is currently camping on cannot camp on in the idle mode. The reporting module 550 can be used to report the measurement result to the base station of the serving cell in the connected mode.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the measurement module 530 may be configured to measure the carrier not currently providing service on the downlink subframe of the carrier not currently providing service based on the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier not currently providing service.

The above and other operations of the receiving module 510, the first receiving unit 512, the second receiving unit 514, the determining module 520, the first determining unit 522, the second determining unit 524, the selecting module 540, the reporting module 550 and the measuring module 530 and/or Or functions can refer to S110 to S130 in the method 100 for measuring carrier waves, S210 to S230 in the method 200, and S340 and S350 in the method 300, and will not be repeated here to avoid repetition.

The apparatus for measuring carriers provided by the embodiments of the present invention can determine the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier from which the user equipment does not receive service by obtaining system information and/or signaling from the base station of the serving cell. The uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the corresponding carrier may also be determined based on the correspondence between the PCI in the synchronization signal and the uplink and downlink subframe configuration by acquiring synchronization signals from the base stations of the serving cell and/or neighbor cells.

In this way, in a system where the carrier has different uplink and downlink subframe configurations, since the uplink and downlink subframe configuration of the carrier is determined, the UE can use more subframe information to help perform carrier measurement, thus compared with related technologies, only using 0 The measurement performed on the subframe No. 5 and the subframe No. 5 can obtain more accurate measurement results in a shorter time, thus improving the efficiency of carrier measurement. Moreover, the way to obtain the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the carrier is simple, and there is little change to the existing system, especially in the case of using PCI to obtain the uplink and downlink subframe configuration information of the corresponding carrier, there is no need to modify the existing messages and The order is modified to achieve low complexity.

In addition, after the carrier is measured more accurately and quickly, the measurement result can be used according to different modes of the device provided by the embodiment of the present invention, so as to facilitate the execution of paging location update or handover.

Those skilled in the art can realize that, in combination with the method steps and units described in the embodiments disclosed herein, they can be realized by electronic hardware, computer software or a combination of the two. In order to clearly illustrate the interchangeability of hardware and software Alternatively, in the above description, the steps and components of each embodiment have been generally described in terms of functions. Whether these functions are executed by hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Those skilled in the art may implement the described functionality using different methods for each particular application, but such implementation should not be considered as exceeding the scope of the present invention.

The method steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented by hardware, software programs executed by a processor, or a combination of both. The software program may reside in random access memory (RAM), internal memory, read-only memory (ROM), electrically programmable ROM, electrically erasable programmable ROM, registers, hard disk, removable disk, CD-ROM, or technical field Any other known storage medium.

Although some embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, and such modifications shall fall within into the scope of the present invention.

Claims (13)

1. a method of measuring carrier wave is characterized in that, comprising:

Reception is from the control messages of base station, and said control messages is used to indicate the non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration that the carrier wave of service is provided;

Based on said control messages, confirm the said non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration that the carrier wave of service is provided;

Based on the said non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration that the carrier wave of service is provided, the said non-current carrier wave of service that provides is measured.

2. method according to claim 1 is characterized in that, said reception comprises from the control messages of base station:

Reception is from the system message or the signaling of the base station of Serving cell, and said system message or said signaling are carried the said non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration information that the carrier wave of service is provided.

3. method according to claim 1 is characterized in that, said reception comprises from the control messages of base station:

Reception is from the system message or the signaling of the base station of Serving cell, and said system message or said signaling are carried the non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration information that the carrier wave of service is provided in the Serving cell;

Said method also comprises:

When the non-current carrier wave that service is provided has identical ascending-descending subframes configuration in the non-current carrier wave that service is provided in the neighbor cell and the said Serving cell; Based on the non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration information that the carrier wave of service is provided in the said Serving cell, confirm the non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration that the carrier wave of service is provided in the said neighbor cell.

4. method according to claim 1 is characterized in that, said reception comprises from the control messages of base station:

Reception is from the system message of the base station of Serving cell, and said system message is carried the non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration information that the carrier wave of service is provided in the said Serving cell;

Reception is from the signaling of the base station of said Serving cell, and said signaling is carried the non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration information that the carrier wave of service is provided in the neighbor cell.

5. method according to claim 1 is characterized in that, said control messages is a synchronizing signal;

Wherein, said based on said control messages, confirm that the ascending-descending subframes configuration of the said non-current carrier wave that service is provided comprises:

Based on said synchronizing signal, confirm the said non-current Physical Cell Identifier that the carrier wave of service is provided;

Based on said Physical Cell Identifier, confirm the said non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration that the carrier wave of service is provided.

6. method according to claim 1 is characterized in that, said the said non-current carrier wave that service is provided is measured after, at least one in also comprising the steps:

In idle pulley, when the current resident carrier wave of subscriber equipment can not be resident, according to measurement result, in the said non-current carrier wave that service is provided, select can be resident target carrier;

In connection mode, reporting measuring result is given the base station of Serving cell.

7. according to arbitrary described method in the claim 1 to 6, it is characterized in that said ascending-descending subframes configuration based on the said non-current carrier wave that service is provided non-ly currently provides the carrier wave measurement of service to comprise to said:

Based on the ascending-descending subframes configuration of the said non-current carrier wave that service is provided, on the descending sub frame of the said non-current carrier wave that service is provided, the said non-current carrier wave of service that provides is measured.

8. a device that is used to measure carrier wave is characterized in that, comprising:

Receiver module is used to receive the control messages from the base station, and said control messages is used to indicate the non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration that the carrier wave of service is provided;

Determination module is used for based on said control messages, confirms the said non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration that the carrier wave of service is provided;

Measurement module is used for based on the said non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration that the carrier wave of service is provided the said non-current carrier wave of service that provides being measured.

9. device according to claim 8; It is characterized in that; Said receiver module is used to receive system message or the signaling from the base station of Serving cell, and said system message or said signaling are carried the said non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration information that the carrier wave of service is provided.

10. device according to claim 8; It is characterized in that; Said receiver module is used to receive system message or the signaling from the base station of Serving cell, and said system message or said signaling are carried the non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration information that the carrier wave of service is provided in the Serving cell

Wherein, Said determination module also is used for when the non-current carrier wave that service is provided has identical ascending-descending subframes configuration in the non-current carrier wave that service is provided of neighbor cell and the said Serving cell; Based on the non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration information that the carrier wave of service is provided in the said Serving cell, confirm the non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration that the carrier wave of service is provided in the said neighbor cell.

11. device according to claim 8 is characterized in that, said receiver module comprises:

First receiving element is used to receive the system message from the base station of Serving cell, and said system message is carried the non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration information that the carrier wave of service is provided in the said Serving cell;

Second receiving element is used to receive the signaling from the base station of said Serving cell, and said signaling is carried the non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration information that the carrier wave of service is provided in the neighbor cell.

12. device according to claim 8 is characterized in that, said control messages is a synchronizing signal;

Said determination module comprises:

First confirms the unit, is used for based on said synchronizing signal, confirms the said non-current Physical Cell Identifier that the carrier wave of service is provided;

Second confirms the unit, is used for based on said Physical Cell Identifier, confirms the said non-current ascending-descending subframes configuration that the carrier wave of service is provided.

13. device according to claim 8 is characterized in that, also comprise following at least one:

Select module, be used at idle pulley, when the current resident carrier wave of subscriber equipment can not be resident, according to measurement result, in the said non-current carrier wave that service is provided, select can be resident target carrier;

Reporting module is used at connection mode, reporting measuring result is given the base station of Serving cell.

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