CN103476045A - Cell measuring method, equipment and system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to the field of communication technology, and discloses a cell measurement method, device and system. The method includes: determining the initial serving virtual cell of the UE in the serving physical cell to which the user equipment UE belongs; Obtain a list of virtual cells that the UE needs to measure; configure a measurement task for the UE, carry the virtual cell list in the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task, and carry the virtual cell list in the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task The measurement report parameters corresponding to the cell list; receive the measurement report reported by the UE according to the measurement report parameters, and the measurement report includes the measurement results of the UE on the virtual cells in the virtual cell list and the corresponding virtual cells . The invention can realize the measurement of the UE in the connected state in the virtual cell system, and improve the good communication performance and mobility performance of the UE in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell.

Description

Cell measurement method, device and system

technical field

The present invention relates to the field of communication technology, in particular to a cell measurement method, equipment and system.

Background technique

With the development of the mobile Internet, the capacity requirements for cellular communication are getting higher and higher. Generally, there are two simple expansion methods:

1. Perform physical cell splitting for macro stations

Specifically, the physical cell division of the macro station can be performed by using multiple narrow beam antennas or using a multi-beam technology. Among them, the multi-beam technology can use both static beams, such as generated by multi-beam antennas, and dynamic beams, such as generated by AAS (Active Antenna System, dynamic antenna system); it can be aimed at both horizontal planes and vertical planes.

2. Add a micro station next to the macro station

The above methods can all achieve the purpose of capacity expansion, but due to the increase in the number of physical cells, it may bring about a decrease in network KPI (Key Performance Indicators, key performance indicators), such as handover. For this reason, the added cell can be used as a virtual cell, and its cell ID is consistent with the original cell, so that the number of physical cells remains unchanged, and only the number of virtual cells is increased.

In the system that introduces virtual cells, in addition to the original UE (User Equipment, user equipment) mobility control between physical cells and ICIC (Inter-Cell Interference Coordination, Inter-Cell Interference Coordination) between physical cells, the network side requires , there are also requirements on how to perform UE mobility control and ICIC between virtual cells. For this reason, the network side needs to know the location of the UE so as to ensure good communication performance and mobility performance of the UE in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell. However, at present, the measurement object corresponding to the measurement report of the UE is based on the physical cell as the smallest unit, and there is no measurement reporting mechanism for the virtual cell. Usually, the network side can only use an approximate method to estimate the location of the UE. Each virtual cell in a single physical cell estimates the UE position according to the uplink signal quality received on the beam, which affects the communication performance and mobility performance of the UE in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell.

Contents of the invention

The embodiments of the present invention aim at the above-mentioned problems existing in the prior art, and provide a cell measurement method, device, and system to realize UE measurement in a virtual cell system and improve good communication performance of the UE in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell and mobile performance.

For this reason, the embodiment of the present invention provides following technical scheme:

A cell measurement method, comprising:

determining the initial serving virtual cell of the UE in the serving physical cell to which the UE belongs;

Obtaining a list of virtual cells that the UE needs to measure according to the initial serving virtual cell;

Configuring a measurement task for the UE, carrying the virtual cell list in the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task, and carrying measurement report parameters corresponding to the virtual cell list in the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task;

receiving a measurement report reported by the UE according to the measurement report parameter, where the measurement report includes a measurement result of the UE on a virtual cell in the virtual cell list and a corresponding virtual cell.

A cell measurement method, comprising:

Obtaining a measurement task configured on the network side, carrying a list of virtual cells to be measured in the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task, and carrying measurement report parameters corresponding to the list of virtual cells in a report configuration corresponding to the measurement task;

Measure the virtual cells in the virtual cell list, and report a measurement report to the network side according to the measurement report parameters, the measurement report includes the measurement results of the virtual cells in the virtual cell list and the corresponding virtual cells. district.

A network device comprising:

A determining unit, configured to determine an initial serving virtual cell of the UE in the serving physical cell to which the user equipment UE belongs;

an obtaining unit, configured to obtain a list of virtual cells that the UE needs to measure according to the initial serving virtual cell determined by the determining unit;

a measurement task configuration unit, configured to configure a measurement task for the UE, carry the virtual cell list obtained by the acquisition unit in the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task, and carry the virtual cell list in the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task Measurement report parameters corresponding to the cell list;

a receiving unit, configured to receive a measurement report reported by the UE according to the measurement report parameters configured by the measurement task configuration unit, where the measurement report includes the measurement results of the UE on the virtual cells in the virtual cell list and corresponding virtual community.

A user equipment, comprising:

A measurement task acquiring unit, configured to acquire a measurement task configured on the network side, the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task carries a list of virtual cells to be measured, and the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task carries the virtual cell The measurement report parameters corresponding to the list;

a measurement unit, configured to measure the virtual cells in the virtual cell list in the measurement task acquired by the measurement task acquisition unit;

A measurement reporting unit, configured to report a measurement report to the network side according to the measurement report parameters in the measurement task acquired by the measurement task acquisition unit, the measurement report including the measurement results and corresponding virtual community.

A cell measurement system, comprising: the aforementioned network side equipment and user equipment.

The cell measurement method, device, and system of the embodiments of the present invention are aimed at the virtual cell system. First, determine the initial serving virtual cell of the UE in the serving physical cell to which the UE belongs, and obtain the virtual cell that the UE needs to measure according to the initial serving virtual cell. A cell list; then, configure a measurement task for the UE, carry the virtual cell list in the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task, and carry the measurement report parameters corresponding to the virtual cell list in the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task; Receive the measurement report reported by the UE according to the measurement report parameters, and include the measurement result and the corresponding virtual cell in the measurement report, so as to realize the measurement of the UE in the connected state in the virtual cell system and improve the multi-function of the UE in a single physical cell. Good communication performance and mobility performance within a virtual cell.

Description of drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application or the prior art, the following will briefly introduce the accompanying drawings that are required in the embodiments. Obviously, the accompanying drawings in the following description are only described in the present invention For some embodiments of the present invention, those skilled in the art can also obtain other drawings according to these drawings.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of an embodiment of the present invention based on a network-side cell measurement method;

FIG. 2 is another flow chart of the network-side cell measurement method according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for measuring a cell based on a terminal side according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is another schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

In order to enable those skilled in the art to better understand the solutions of the embodiments of the present invention, the embodiments of the present invention will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the drawings and implementations.

In a mobile communication system, in order to ensure the quality of service, after the UE establishes a connection with the network in a certain cell, the UE still needs to measure the signal quality of the serving cell and neighboring cells in order to select a suitable cell for handover or to use Other RRM (Radio Resource Management, radio resource management) algorithms, such as ICIC (Inter-Cell Interference Coordination, inter-cell interference coordination). Taking the measurement of the LTE (Long Term Evolution, long-term evolution) system as an example, the specific process of the measurement in the connected state is: the network side carries the measurement control information in the RRC (Radio Resource Control, radio resource control) connection reconfiguration message. The control information mainly includes the MO (Measurement Object, measurement object) list, MO mainly includes the measured frequency points and the corresponding neighbor cells and blacklist cells and other information; RC (Report Configuration, measurement report configuration) list, RC is used to configure measurement The attributes of the report, such as event reporting or periodic reporting and the corresponding measurement reporting parameters; MID (Measurement ID, measurement identification) list, MID is the identification of each measurement task, each MID in the MID list is associated with an MO and an RC, Thus uniquely characterizing a measurement task. The measurement control information also includes other content, such as the signal quality threshold representing the cell where the cell resides. The UE can know the number of measurement tasks through the MID list, and can obtain the attributes of the measurement tasks through the MO and RC corresponding to each MID, for example, how to measure and how to report, etc.

In order to achieve UE mobility control, inter-cell ICIC and other requirements, the network side will send several measurement tasks to the UE as needed, requiring the UE to measure the serving cell and neighboring cells and report the measurement objects that meet the trigger conditions. Currently, LTE has defined Some measurement events, for example, A1 event, define the entry condition of the measurement event as the signal quality of the serving cell exceeds a predetermined threshold; A2 event, define the entry condition of the measurement event as the signal quality of the serving cell is lower than the predetermined threshold. For the measurement event of the adjacent cell, for example, A3 event, define the entry condition of the measurement event as the signal quality of the adjacent cell is higher than the signal quality of the current serving cell by a predetermined offset; A4 event, define the entry condition of the measurement event as the adjacent cell The signal quality of the signal exceeds the predetermined threshold; A5 event defines the entry condition of the measurement event as the signal quality of the serving cell is lower than the predetermined threshold 1 and the signal quality of the neighboring cell is higher than the predetermined threshold 2.

For the measurement of the above-mentioned event types, the UE will evaluate the measurement results of each measurement object according to the measurement configuration parameters sent by the network, save the cells that meet the event entry conditions into the cell list corresponding to the measurement identifier, and then use the signal quality by From strong to weak, several cells are obtained from the cell list corresponding to the measurement identifier to generate a measurement report and sent to the network side.

The LTE protocol stipulates that for the measurement control of the same frequency point, the same measurement object can be used, and the content of each measurement object includes information such as the frequency point to be measured and the corresponding neighboring cells and blacklisted cells. Each neighbor cell and blacklist cell is uniquely identified by PCI (Physical Cell Identity). In the prior art, the measurement object corresponding to the measurement report of the terminal takes the physical cell as the smallest unit, and there is no measurement reporting mechanism for the virtual cell.

To this end, the cell measurement method, device, and system in the embodiments of the present invention are aimed at the virtual cell system. First, the initial serving virtual cell of the UE is determined in the serving physical cell to which the UE belongs, and the UE needs to be obtained according to the initial serving virtual cell. The measured virtual cell list; then, configure a measurement task for the UE, carry the virtual cell list in the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task, and carry the measurement corresponding to the virtual cell list in the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task Report parameters; receive the measurement report reported by the UE, and include the measurement result and the corresponding virtual cell in the measurement report, so as to realize the measurement of the UE in the connected state in the virtual cell system and improve the number of virtual cells of the UE in a single physical cell Communication performance and mobility performance within.

Further, the network side may determine the target virtual cell to which the UE belongs according to the measurement result in the measurement report; if the target virtual cell is different from the initial serving virtual cell, handover the UE to the target virtual cell, and further Improve the communication performance and mobility performance of the UE in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell, thereby improving the performance of the virtual cell system.

As shown in Figure 1, it is a flow chart of the cell measurement method of the embodiment of the present invention, including the following steps:

Step 101: Determine an initial serving virtual cell of the UE in the serving physical cell to which the UE belongs.

Specifically, the serving base station may determine the initial serving virtual cell of the UE in the serving physical cell to which the UE belongs in various ways. For example, the initial serving virtual cell of the UE is determined in the serving physical cell to which the UE belongs through an estimation method such as uplink signal measurement, for example, measuring the uplink signals received on the corresponding beams of each virtual cell in the physical cell to which the UE belongs and then selecting the best signal The strong virtual cell serves as the initial serving virtual cell. Alternatively, a virtual cell in the serving physical cell to which the UE belongs is randomly selected as the initial serving virtual cell of the UE, for example, a virtual cell in the serving physical cell to which the UE belongs is randomly selected as the initial serving cell. Certainly, there may be other manners, which are not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

Step 102: Obtain a list of virtual cells that the UE needs to measure according to the initial serving virtual cell.

It should be noted that network parameters such as physical cells included in the system and virtual cells in each physical cell have been configured during the networking of the communication system. Therefore, the serving base station will save these configuration information, and , determine an initial serving virtual cell for the UE according to step 101, and then select a virtual cell to be measured by the UE according to the configuration information, and generate a list of virtual cells. For example, the adjacent virtual cell of the beam corresponding to the initial serving virtual cell can be selected, or all virtual cells under the physical cell to which the initial serving virtual cell belongs can be selected, which can be selected according to actual needs. Do limited.

The virtual cell list includes: virtual cell information to be measured and blacklist virtual cell information.

Step 103, configuring a measurement task for the UE, carrying the virtual cell list in the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task, and carrying measurement report parameters corresponding to the virtual cell list in the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task.

Specifically, a measurement task may be configured for the UE by carrying measurement control information in an RRC connection reconfiguration message, carrying the list of virtual cells in the RC reconfiguration message, and carrying all information in the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task. The measurement report parameters corresponding to the above virtual cell list.

In addition, the serving base station also needs to notify the UE of the initial serving virtual cell determined for the UE in step 101, so that the UE can measure the initial serving virtual cell and adjacent virtual cells and report the measurement objects that meet the trigger conditions. The method will be described in detail below.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the measurement object can be modified on the basis of an existing protocol (such as 3GPP TS 36.331), so that the modified protocol can support virtual cell-oriented measurement, which will be described in detail below with an example.

As mentioned above, a virtual cell list is carried in the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task configured for the UE, and the virtual cell list may include: virtual cell information to be measured and blacklist virtual cell information.

The virtual cell information to be measured may include: a virtual cell list VCellsToAddModList that needs to be added or modified, and a virtual cell list that needs to be deleted. in:

Each list element in the virtual cell list that needs to be added or modified may include the following information:

(1) Virtual cell index;

(2) Virtual cell ID, the virtual cell ID is the unique identifier of the virtual cell.

(3) Virtual cell offset, its meaning is similar to the cellIndividualOffset in the 3GPP TS 36.331 protocol.

As mentioned above, the serving base station also needs to notify the UE of the initial serving virtual cell determined for the UE. Specifically, the first virtual cell carried in the virtual cell list VCellsToAddModList that needs to be added or modified can be specified in advance through the agreement or the specified The virtual cell at the location is the current serving virtual cell of the UE (that is, the initial serving virtual cell). Of course, the UE may be notified of the initial The serving virtual cell is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

Each list element in the virtual cell list to be deleted includes a virtual cell index.

The blacklist virtual cell information may include: a blacklist virtual cell list that needs to be added or modified, and a blacklist virtual cell list that needs to be deleted. in:

Each list element in the blacklist virtual cell list that needs to be added or modified can include the following information:

(1) Virtual cell index;

(2) A set of virtual cell IDs, which can be used to indicate one or a series of virtual cell IDs with continuous values, similar to the physical cell ID range field in the prior art, which can be identified by an initial virtual cell ID value and a range information characterization. When the range information is not carried, it means only indicating the initial virtual cell ID; when the range information is carried and its corresponding range value is N, it represents N consecutive virtual cells including the initial virtual cell.

Each list element in the blacklist virtual cell list to be deleted may include a virtual cell index.

Similarly, in the embodiment of the present invention, the measurement reporting rules can be modified on the basis of existing protocols (such as 3GPP TS 36.331), and reporting rules for virtual cells are added in the RC list. For example, a series of trigger events eventAnforVCell for virtual cells is added in event measurement, and a period measurement type for virtual cells is added in periodic measurement. Regardless of the newly added rules in event measurement or periodic measurement, their reporting criteria are similar to the physical cell-oriented measurement defined in the original protocol. For ease of understanding, an example is given below, but it is not limited to this in practical application.

The eventAnforVCell in the event measurement can refer to the event rules defined in the existing protocol, and can also adopt other reporting rules, as long as it is for virtual cell-oriented measurement reporting. Add a series of trigger events eventAnforVCell for virtual cells in event measurement, for example, including but not limited to the following events:

●Virtual cell A1 event eventA1forVCell:

When the signal quality of the serving virtual cell satisfies the following condition within the entire trigger time timeToTrigger: Ms-Hys>Thresh, the virtual cell A1 event is reported. Among them, Ms is the signal quality of the serving virtual cell, Hys is the hysteresis information in the measurement report configuration, and Thresh is the event threshold v-a1-Threshold corresponding to the virtual cell A1 event in the measurement report configuration;

●Virtual cell A2 event eventA2forVCell:

The virtual cell A2 event is reported when the signal quality of the serving virtual cell satisfies the following condition within the entire trigger time timeToTrigger: Ms+Hys<Thresh. Among them, Ms is the signal quality of the serving virtual cell, Hys is the hysteresis information in the measurement report configuration, and Thresh is the event threshold v-a2-Threshold corresponding to the virtual cell A2 event in the measurement report configuration;

●Virtual cell A3 event eventA3forVCell:

Corresponding to the virtual cell A3 event is an offset v-a3-Offset and a parameter v-Report OnLeave. If the value of the v-Report On Leave parameter is true, the measurement report needs to be reported when the exit and entry conditions of the virtual cell A3 event are met. If the value of this parameter is false, the measurement report will be reported only when the entry condition is met.

The entry condition of the virtual cell A3 event is to continuously satisfy the formula (1) within the trigger time timeToTrigger:

Mn+Ocn-Hys>Ms+Ocs+Off （1）

That is, the quality of the adjacent virtual cell is greater than a threshold value than the quality of the serving virtual cell.

The exit condition of the virtual cell A3 event is to continue to satisfy the formula (2) within the trigger time timeToTrigger:

Mn+Ocn+Hys<Ms+Ocs+Off （2）

That is, the quality of the adjacent virtual cell is smaller than the quality of the serving virtual cell by a threshold value.

In the above formulas (1) and (2), Mn is the signal quality of the adjacent virtual cell, Ms is the signal quality of the serving virtual cell, Ocn is the cell offset of the adjacent virtual cell, Ocs is the cell offset of the serving cell; Hys is The hysteresis parameter of the event, Off is the event offset v-a3-Offset of the virtual cell A3.

●Virtual cell A4 event eventA4forVCell:

There is an A4 threshold corresponding to the virtual cell A4 event.

When the signal quality of the adjacent virtual cell satisfies the following condition within the entire trigger time timeToTrigger: Mn+Ocn-Hys>Thresh, the virtual cell A4 event is reported. Among them, Mn is the signal quality of the adjacent virtual cell, Ocn is the cell offset of the adjacent virtual cell, Ocs is the cell offset of the serving cell; Hys is the hysteresis parameter of the event, and Thresh is the virtual cell A4 event threshold v in the measurement report configuration -a4-Threshold.

●Virtual cell A5 event eventA5forVCell:

There are two thresholds v-a5-Threshold1 and v-a5-Threshold2 corresponding to the virtual cell A5 event.

When the signal quality of the serving virtual cell continues to satisfy the formula (3) within the trigger time timeToTrigger and the signal quality of the adjacent virtual cell continues to satisfy the formula (4) within the trigger time timeToTrigger, the virtual cell A5 event will be reported:

Ms+Hys<Thresh1 （3）

Mn+Ocn-Hys>Thresh2 （4）

In the above formulas (3) and (4), Mn is the signal quality of the adjacent virtual cell, Ms is the signal quality of the serving virtual cell, Hys is the hysteresis information in the measurement report configuration, Ocn is the cell offset of the adjacent virtual cell, Thresh1 is the virtual cell A5 event threshold 1 (ie v-a5-Threshold1) in the measurement report configuration, and Thresh2 is the virtual cell A5 event threshold 2 (ie v-a5-Threshold2) in the measurement report configuration.

In the periodical measurement, a periodical measurement type for virtual cells can be added in the following ways. For example, a measurement type reportStrongestVCells is added to instruct the terminal to report the virtual cell with the best signal quality. The meaning of reportStrongestVCells is similar to that of reportStrongestCells in the existing protocol. .

It should be noted that, in practical applications, the method provided by the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the 3GPPTS 36.331 protocol, nor is it limited to a specific protocol encoding format.

In addition, in practical applications, in order to enable the UE to know the physical resources used by each virtual cell, the mapping relationship between the virtual cell ID and the physical resource used for measurement by the virtual cell may be established in advance, and the mapping relationship may be sent to to the UE, so that the UE measures the virtual cell according to the mapping relationship.

Specifically, the mapping relationship may be a mapping relationship between a virtual cell ID and a CSI (Channel State Information, channel state information) reference signal configuration index; or a mapping relationship between a virtual cell ID and a virtual cell-level pilot; or a virtual cell ID and a The mapping relationship of the orthogonal sequence of the above-mentioned virtual cell. Regardless of the mapping relationship, it must be ensured that the mapping relationship is a one-to-one mapping within the same physical cell.

Of course, these information may be specified by the protocol. In this case, the serving base station does not need to send the mapping relationship to the UE; It is sent to the UE, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

It should be noted that the physical resource information of each virtual cell can be distinguished by any combination of time division, frequency division, and code division.

Step 104: Receive a measurement report reported by the UE according to the measurement report parameters, where the measurement report includes the measurement results of the UE on the virtual cells in the virtual cell list and the corresponding virtual cells.

Similarly, the measurement report reported by the UE needs to carry a virtual cell-oriented measurement result list, and each list element includes the following content: virtual cell ID, virtual cell measurement results, where the virtual cell measurement results include the virtual cell’s signal received power and signal Receive quality.

It should be noted that the received signal power and received signal quality of the above virtual cells are measured based on physical resources corresponding to each virtual cell.

It can be seen that, for the cell measurement method in the embodiment of the present invention, for the virtual cell system, first, an initial serving virtual cell in the serving physical cell is determined for the UE, and a list of virtual cells that the UE needs to measure is obtained according to the initial serving virtual cell; then, Configure a measurement task for the UE, carry the virtual cell list in the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task, and carry the measurement report parameters corresponding to the virtual cell list in the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task; receive the UE according to the The measurement report reported by the measurement report parameters includes the measurement result and the corresponding virtual cell, so as to realize the measurement of the UE in the connected state in the virtual cell system, and ensure that the UE is in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell. Good communication performance and mobility performance.

As shown in Figure 2, it is another flowchart of the cell measurement method of the embodiment of the present invention, including the following steps:

Step 201: Determine an initial serving virtual cell of the UE in the serving physical cell to which the UE belongs.

Step 202: Obtain a list of virtual cells that the UE needs to measure according to the initial serving virtual cell.

Step 203, configuring a measurement task for the UE, carrying the virtual cell list in the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task, and carrying measurement report parameters corresponding to the virtual cell list in the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task.

Step 204: Receive a measurement report reported by the UE according to the measurement report parameters, where the measurement report includes the measurement results of the UE on the virtual cells in the virtual cell list and the corresponding virtual cells.

In the above process, steps 201 to 204 are the same as steps 101 to 104 in the process shown in FIG. 1 , and will not be described in detail here.

Step 205: Determine the target virtual cell to which the UE belongs according to the measurement result in the measurement report.

Step 206, if the target virtual cell is different from the serving virtual cell, handover the UE to the target virtual cell.

After receiving the measurement report reported by the UE, the serving base station can know the virtual cell corresponding to each measurement result, and judge whether the target virtual cell to which the UE should belong is the same as the initial serving virtual cell determined for it. If not, it means that the UE It is necessary to switch to the target virtual cell, and after switching, the target virtual cell becomes the serving virtual cell to which the UE currently belongs. Certainly, the target virtual cell to which the UE belongs determined according to the measurement result in the measurement report may also be the same as the serving virtual cell, and in this case, no handover is required. It should be noted that specific judgment methods and conditions may be determined according to actual needs, which are not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

In addition, it should be noted that in practical applications, the serving base station of the UE can periodically or aperiodically repeat the above steps 202 to 206 according to its own needs, so as to ensure that the UE is in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell. Good communication performance and mobility performance. It can be understood that since the virtual serving cell has been determined in step 206, when repeating step 202, the list of virtual cells to be measured by the UE can be obtained directly according to the determined virtual serving cell. Specifically, the process of repeating the above steps 202 to 206 may be triggered by events or by time.

It can be seen that the cell measurement method in the embodiment of the present invention can not only realize the measurement of the UE in the connected state in the virtual cell system, but also ensure good communication performance and mobility performance of the UE in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell. Moreover, further, the network side may determine the target virtual cell to which the UE belongs according to the measurement result in the measurement report; if the target virtual cell is different from the initial serving virtual cell, handover the UE to the target virtual cell , to further improve the communication performance and mobility performance of the UE in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell, thereby improving the performance of the virtual cell system.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 can be applied to network-side equipment, such as serving base stations of UEs in the LTE system, and of course, can also be applied to the network side of other standard systems using similar multi-beam technology. in the device.

Correspondingly, the embodiment of the present invention also provides a cell measurement method, the method is based on the terminal side, as shown in Figure 3, it is a flow chart of the method, including the following steps:

Step 301, obtain the measurement task configured on the network side, the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task carries a list of virtual cells to be measured, and the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task carries the measurement corresponding to the list of virtual cells Report parameters.

Step 302, measure the virtual cells in the virtual cell list, and report a measurement report to the network side according to the measurement report parameters, the measurement report includes the measurement results of the virtual cells in the virtual cell list and the corresponding virtual cell.

The above measurement report needs to carry a list of measurement results for virtual cells, and each list element includes the following content: virtual cell ID, virtual cell measurement results, where the virtual cell measurement results include RSRP (Reference Signal Receiving Power, reference signal receiving power) of the virtual cell Power) and RSRQ (Reference Signal Receiving Quality, reference signal receiving quality).

The virtual cell list above includes: virtual cell information to be measured and blacklist virtual cell information; the virtual cell information to be measured includes: a list of virtual cells that need to be added or modified, and a list of virtual cells that need to be deleted; the blacklist The virtual cell information may include: a blacklist virtual cell list that needs to be added or modified, and a blacklisted virtual cell list that needs to be deleted; each list element in the virtual cell list that needs to be added or modified includes: a virtual cell index, a virtual cell Cell ID, virtual cell offset; blacklist virtual cell information may include: a blacklist virtual cell list that needs to be added or modified, and a blacklist virtual cell list that needs to be deleted. For the carrying manner of the virtual cell list in the measurement object, reference may be made to the foregoing description, which will not be repeated here.

When measuring a virtual cell, the virtual cell in the virtual cell list may be measured according to a mapping relationship between a pre-acquired virtual cell ID and a physical resource for measurement of the virtual cell.

The mapping relationship may be a mapping relationship between a virtual cell ID and a CSI reference signal configuration index; or a mapping relationship between a virtual cell ID and a virtual cell-level pilot; or a mapping relationship between a virtual cell ID and the virtual cell orthogonal sequence. Regardless of the mapping relationship, it must be ensured that the mapping relationship is a one-to-one mapping within the same physical cell.

Of course, the mapping relationship may be specified by the protocol. In this case, the serving base station does not need to send the mapping relationship to the UE; The air interface message is sent to the UE, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

It should be noted that the physical resource information of each virtual cell can be distinguished by any combination of time division, frequency division, and code division.

It can be seen that, in the cell measurement method of the embodiment of the present invention, the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task obtained by the UE carries a list of virtual cells to be measured, so that the UE can perform measurement on the virtual cells in the virtual cell list, and the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task The report configuration carries the measurement report parameters corresponding to the virtual cell list, so that the UE can report a measurement report to the network side according to the measurement report parameters, and include the virtual cell in the virtual cell list in the measurement report The measurement results and the corresponding virtual cells, so as to realize the measurement of the UE in the connected state in the virtual cell system, and ensure the good communication performance and mobility performance of the UE in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell.

Correspondingly, an embodiment of the present invention also provides a network device, as shown in FIG. 4 , which is a schematic structural diagram of the network device.

In this embodiment, the network device 400 includes:

A determining unit 401, configured to determine an initial serving virtual cell of the UE in the serving physical cell to which the UE belongs;

An obtaining unit 402, configured to obtain a list of virtual cells that the UE needs to measure according to the initial serving virtual cell determined by the determining unit 401;

The measurement task configuration unit 403 is configured to configure a measurement task for the UE, carry the virtual cell list obtained by the acquisition unit 402 in the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task, and carry the list of virtual cells obtained by the acquisition unit 402 in the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task. The measurement report parameters corresponding to the virtual cell list;

The receiving unit 404 is configured to receive the measurement report reported by the UE according to the measurement report parameters configured by the measurement task configuration unit 403, where the measurement report includes the measurement results of the UE on the virtual cells in the virtual cell list and the corresponding virtual cell.

Wherein, the determining unit 401 may determine the initial serving virtual cell of the UE in the serving physical cell to which the UE belongs in various ways, for example, determine the initial serving virtual cell of the UE in the serving physical cell to which the UE belongs through uplink signal measurement. serving a virtual cell, or arbitrarily selecting a virtual cell in the serving physical cell to which the UE belongs as the initial serving virtual cell of the UE. Certainly, other manners may also be used, which are not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the virtual cell list includes: virtual cell information to be measured and blacklisted virtual cell information; the virtual cell information to be measured includes: a list of virtual cells that need to be added or modified, and a list of virtual cells that need to be deleted Virtual cell list; the blacklist virtual cell information may include: a blacklist virtual cell list that needs to be added or modified, and a blacklist virtual cell list that needs to be deleted; each list in the virtual cell list that needs to be added or modified Elements include: virtual cell index, virtual cell ID, virtual cell offset; each list element in the blacklist virtual cell list that needs to be added or modified may include: virtual cell index and virtual cell ID set.

The list of virtual cells that the above UE needs to measure can be carried in the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task configured for the UE. Specifically, the measurement object can be modified on the basis of existing protocols (such as 3GPP TS 36.331) so that it carries the virtual cell For the list, for details, refer to the description in the area measurement method in the embodiment of the present invention, and details are not repeated here.

In practical applications, in order for the UE to know the physical resources used by each virtual cell, the mapping relationship between the virtual cell ID and the physical resource used for measurement by the virtual cell can be established in advance, and the mapping relationship can be sent to the UE , so that the UE measures the virtual cell according to the mapping relationship. To this end, in another embodiment, the network device may further include: a mapping relationship establishment unit and a mapping relationship configuration unit (not shown), wherein the mapping relationship establishment unit is used to pre-establish the virtual cell The mapping relationship between the ID and the physical resource used for measurement by the virtual cell; the mapping relationship configuration unit is used to send the mapping relationship established by the mapping relationship establishing unit to the UE, so that the UE can perform the mapping according to the mapping relationship The virtual cell performs measurements.

It should be noted that, in practical applications, the above-mentioned mapping relationship may have various forms. For example, the mapping relationship establishment unit may establish a mapping relationship between the virtual cell ID and a CSI reference signal configuration index, and the mapping relationship is in the same There is one-to-one mapping in the physical cell; or the mapping relationship between the virtual cell ID and the virtual cell-level pilot is established, and the mapping relationship is one-to-one mapping in the same physical cell; or the virtual cell ID is established A mapping relationship with the orthogonal sequence of the virtual cell, the mapping relationship is a one-to-one mapping within the same physical cell.

Of course, these information may be specified by the protocol. In this case, the serving base station does not need to send the mapping relationship to the UE; It is sent to the UE, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

The physical resource information of each virtual cell can be distinguished through any combination of time division, frequency division, and code division.

It can be seen that, for the virtual cell system, the network device in the embodiment of the present invention first determines an initial serving virtual cell in the serving physical cell for the UE, and obtains a list of virtual cells that the UE needs to measure according to the initial serving virtual cell; then, for The UE configures a measurement task, carries the virtual cell list in the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task, and carries the measurement report parameters corresponding to the virtual cell list in the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task; receiving the UE according to the measurement The measurement report reported by the report parameter includes the measurement result and the corresponding virtual cell, so as to realize the measurement of the UE in the connected state in the virtual cell system, and ensure the good performance of the UE in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell. Communication performance and mobility performance.

As shown in FIG. 5 , it is another schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The difference from the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 is that in this embodiment, the network device 500 not only includes: a determining unit 401, an obtaining unit 402, a measurement task configuration unit 403, and a receiving unit 404, but also further includes: a judging unit 501 and switching unit 502, wherein:

The judging unit 501 is configured to determine the target virtual cell to which the UE belongs according to the measurement result in the measurement report received by the receiving unit 404;

The switching unit 502 is configured to switch the UE to the target virtual cell when the target virtual cell to which the UE is determined by the judging unit 501 is different from the initial serving virtual cell.

It should be noted that, the judging manner and conditions for the judging unit 501 to determine the target virtual cell to which the UE belongs may be determined according to actual needs, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

It can be seen that using the network device of the embodiment of the present invention can not only realize the measurement of the UE in the connected state in the virtual cell system, but also ensure the good communication performance and mobility performance of the UE in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell. Moreover, further, the network side may determine the target virtual cell to which the UE belongs according to the measurement result in the measurement report; if the target virtual cell is different from the initial serving virtual cell, handover the UE to the target virtual cell , to further improve the communication performance and mobility performance of the UE in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell, thereby improving the performance of the virtual cell system.

Correspondingly, an embodiment of the present invention also provides a user equipment, as shown in FIG. 6 , which is a schematic structural diagram of the user equipment.

In this embodiment, the user equipment includes:

The measurement task acquisition unit 601 is configured to acquire a measurement task configured on the network side, the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task carries a list of virtual cells to be measured, and the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task carries the virtual cell list. Measurement report parameters corresponding to the cell list. For the information included in the virtual cell list and the manner of carrying it, reference may be made to the foregoing description, and details are not repeated here.

A measurement unit 602, configured to measure the virtual cells in the virtual cell list in the measurement task acquired by the measurement task acquisition unit 601;

A measurement reporting unit 603, configured to report a measurement report to the network side according to the measurement report parameters in the measurement task acquired by the measurement task acquisition unit 601, the measurement report including the measurement results of the virtual cells in the virtual cell list and the corresponding virtual cell.

When measuring a virtual cell, the virtual cell in the virtual cell list may be measured according to a mapping relationship between a pre-acquired virtual cell ID and a physical resource for measurement of the virtual cell. To this end, in another embodiment of the user equipment, it may further include: a mapping relationship acquisition unit (not shown), configured to acquire the virtual cell ID established by the network side and the physical ID of the virtual cell used for measurement. Resource mapping relationship. Correspondingly, the measuring unit 602 measures the virtual cells in the virtual cell list according to the mapping relationship.

The above mapping relationship may be a mapping relationship between a virtual cell ID and a CSI reference signal configuration index; or a mapping relationship between a virtual cell ID and a virtual cell-level pilot; or a mapping relationship between a virtual cell ID and the virtual cell orthogonal sequence. Regardless of the mapping relationship, it must be ensured that the mapping relationship is a one-to-one mapping within the same physical cell.

Of course, these information may be specified by the protocol. In this case, the serving base station does not need to send the mapping relationship to the UE; It is sent to the UE, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

It should be noted that the physical resource information of each virtual cell can be distinguished by any combination of time division, frequency division, and code division.

It can be seen that in the user equipment according to the embodiment of the present invention, the obtained measurement object corresponding to the measurement task carries a list of virtual cells to be measured, so that the virtual cells in the virtual cell list can be measured. In the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task carrying the measurement report parameters corresponding to the virtual cell list, so that the UE can report a measurement report to the network side according to the measurement report parameters, and include the measurement results of the virtual cells in the virtual cell list in the measurement report And the corresponding virtual cell, so as to realize the measurement in the virtual cell system, and ensure the good communication performance and mobility performance of the user equipment in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell.

Correspondingly, an embodiment of the present invention also provides a cell measurement system, which may be a virtual cell system, including the network side device and user equipment in the above embodiments, wherein the network side device may be the user equipment The serving base station of the user equipment first determines the initial serving virtual cell of the UE in the serving physical cell to which the UE belongs, and obtains a list of virtual cells that the UE needs to measure according to the initial serving virtual cell; then, configures the UE for the user equipment A measurement task, carrying the virtual cell list in the measurement object corresponding to the measurement task, and carrying measurement report parameters corresponding to the virtual cell list in the report configuration corresponding to the measurement task; Perform measurement on the virtual cells in the cell list, and report a measurement report to the network side according to the measurement report parameters, the measurement report includes the measurement results of the virtual cells in the virtual cell list and the corresponding virtual cells, so as to realize the virtual cell The measurement in the system ensures good communication performance and mobility performance of user equipment in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell. Moreover, further, the network side device may determine the target virtual cell to which the user equipment belongs according to the measurement result in the measurement report; if the target virtual cell is different from the initial serving virtual cell, the The user equipment is handed over to the target virtual cell to further improve the communication performance and mobility performance of the UE in multiple virtual cells in a single physical cell, thereby improving the performance of the virtual cell system.

It should be noted that the virtual cell-oriented measurement method, device, and system of the embodiments of the present invention can be applied to the LTE system, and can also be applied to other standard systems using similar multi-beam technology.

Each embodiment in this specification is described in a progressive manner, the same and similar parts of each embodiment can be referred to each other, and each embodiment focuses on the differences from other embodiments. In particular, for the device and system embodiments, since they are basically similar to the method embodiments, the description is relatively simple, and for relevant parts, please refer to part of the description of the method embodiments. The device and system embodiments described above are only illustrative, and the units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is It can be located in one place, or it can be distributed to multiple network elements. Part or all of the modules can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment. It can be understood and implemented by those skilled in the art without creative effort.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, and the present invention has been described using specific implementation methods herein. The descriptions of the above embodiments are only used to help understand the method and equipment of the present invention; meanwhile, for those of ordinary skill in the art, According to the idea of the present invention, there will be changes in the specific implementation and scope of application. To sum up, the contents of this specification should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

Claims (20)

1. a cell measuring method, is characterized in that, comprising:

Determine the initial service virtual subdistrict of described UE in service physical area under user equipment (UE);

Obtain according to described initial service virtual subdistrict the virtual subdistrict list that described UE need to measure;

For described UE allocating and measuring task, carry described virtual subdistrict list in described measurement task in corresponding measuring object, carry measurement report parameter corresponding to described virtual subdistrict list in described measurement task in corresponding report configuration;

Receive the measurement report of described UE according to described measurement report reporting parameters, described measurement report comprises that described UE is to the measurement result of the virtual subdistrict in described virtual subdistrict list and corresponding virtual subdistrict.

2. method according to claim 1, is characterized in that, determines in described service physical area under UE that the initial service virtual subdistrict of described UE comprises:

Measure the initial service virtual subdistrict of determining described UE in the service physical area under UE by upward signal; Perhaps

Select arbitrarily the initial service virtual subdistrict of a virtual subdistrict as described UE in service physical area under UE.

3. method according to claim 1, is characterized in that, described virtual subdistrict list comprises: virtual subdistrict information to be measured and blacklist virtual subdistrict information; Described virtual subdistrict information to be measured comprises: needs increase or the virtual subdistrict list of modification and the virtual subdistrict list that needs are deleted; Described blacklist virtual subdistrict information can comprise: needs increase or the blacklist virtual subdistrict list of modification and the blacklist virtual subdistrict list that needs are deleted; Each list element in the described virtual subdistrict list that needs increase or revise comprises: virtual subdistrict index, virtual subdistrict ID, virtual subdistrict biasing; Described method also comprises:

Set up in advance described virtual subdistrict ID and the described virtual subdistrict mapping relations for the physical resource of measurement, and described mapping relations are sent to UE, so that described UE is measured described virtual subdistrict according to described mapping relations.

4. method according to claim 3, is characterized in that, described described virtual subdistrict ID and the described virtual subdistrict set up comprises for the mapping relations of the physical resource measured:

Set up the mapping relations of described virtual subdistrict ID and channel state information reference signals configuration index, described mapping relations are man-to-man mappings in the Same Physical community; Perhaps

Set up the mapping relations of described virtual subdistrict ID and virtual subdistrict level pilot tone, described mapping relations are man-to-man mappings in the Same Physical community; Perhaps

Set up the mapping relations of described virtual subdistrict ID and described virtual subdistrict orthogonal sequence, described mapping relations are man-to-man mappings in the Same Physical community.

5. method according to claim 3, is characterized in that, first virtual subdistrict in the described virtual subdistrict list that needs increase or revise or the virtual subdistrict of assigned address are described initial service virtual subdistrict.

6. method according to claim 1, is characterized in that, the measurement result of described virtual subdistrict comprises: signal received power and the signal receiving quality of virtual subdistrict.

7. according to the described method of claim 1 to 6 any one, it is characterized in that, described method also comprises:

Determine the target virtual subdistrict under described UE according to the measurement result in described measurement report;

If the target virtual subdistrict under described UE is different from described initial service virtual subdistrict, described UE is switched to the target virtual subdistrict.

8. a cell measuring method, is characterized in that, comprising:

Obtain the measurement task of network side configuration, in described measurement task, in corresponding measuring object, carried and needed the virtual subdistrict list of measuring, in described measurement task, in corresponding report configuration, carried measurement report parameter corresponding to described virtual subdistrict list;

Virtual subdistrict in described virtual subdistrict list is measured, and according to described measurement report parameter to the network side reporting measurement reports, described measurement report comprises the measurement result of the virtual subdistrict in described virtual subdistrict list and corresponding virtual subdistrict.

9. method according to claim 8, is characterized in that, described virtual subdistrict list comprises: virtual subdistrict information to be measured and blacklist virtual subdistrict information; Described virtual subdistrict information to be measured comprises: needs increase or the virtual subdistrict list of modification and the virtual subdistrict list that needs are deleted; Described blacklist virtual subdistrict information can comprise: needs increase or the blacklist virtual subdistrict list of modification and the blacklist virtual subdistrict list that needs are deleted; Each list element in the described virtual subdistrict list that needs increase or revise comprises: virtual subdistrict index, virtual subdistrict ID, virtual subdistrict biasing;

Described method also comprises:

Obtain virtual subdistrict ID and the mapping relations of described virtual subdistrict for the physical resource of measurement that network side is set up;

Described virtual subdistrict measurement in described virtual subdistrict list is comprised:

According to described mapping relations, the virtual subdistrict in described virtual subdistrict list is measured.

10. method according to claim 9, is characterized in that, described virtual subdistrict ID and described virtual subdistrict comprise for the mapping relations of the physical resource of measurement:

The mapping relations of described virtual subdistrict ID and channel state information reference signals configuration index, described mapping relations are man-to-man mappings in the Same Physical community;

The mapping relations of described virtual subdistrict ID and virtual subdistrict level pilot tone, described mapping relations are man-to-man mappings in the Same Physical community; Perhaps

The mapping relations of described virtual subdistrict ID and described virtual subdistrict orthogonal sequence, described mapping relations are man-to-man mappings in the Same Physical community.

11. according to the described method of claim 9 or 10, it is characterized in that, the measurement result of described virtual subdistrict comprises: the Reference Signal Received Power of virtual subdistrict and Reference Signal Received Quality.

12. a network equipment, is characterized in that, comprising:

Determining unit, for determining the initial service virtual subdistrict of described UE in the service physical area under user equipment (UE);

Acquiring unit, obtain for the described initial service virtual subdistrict of determining according to described determining unit the virtual subdistrict list that described UE need to measure;

Measurement task dispensing unit, be used to described UE allocating and measuring task, carry the virtual subdistrict list that described acquiring unit obtains in described measurement task in corresponding measuring object, in described measurement task, in corresponding report configuration, carry measurement report parameter corresponding to described virtual subdistrict list;

Receiving element, for receiving the measurement report of described UE according to the measurement report reporting parameters of described measurement task dispensing unit configuration, described measurement report comprises that described UE is to the measurement result of the virtual subdistrict in described virtual subdistrict list and corresponding virtual subdistrict.

13. the network equipment according to claim 12, is characterized in that,

Described determining unit, specifically for measure the initial service virtual subdistrict of determining described UE in the service physical area under UE by upward signal, or select arbitrarily the initial service virtual subdistrict of a virtual subdistrict as described UE in the service physical area under described UE.

14. the network equipment according to claim 12, is characterized in that, described virtual subdistrict list comprises: virtual subdistrict information to be measured and blacklist virtual subdistrict information; Described virtual subdistrict information to be measured comprises: needs increase or the virtual subdistrict list of modification and the virtual subdistrict list that needs are deleted; Described blacklist virtual subdistrict information can comprise: needs increase or the blacklist virtual subdistrict list of modification and the blacklist virtual subdistrict list that needs are deleted; Each list element in the described virtual subdistrict list that needs increase or revise comprises: virtual subdistrict index, virtual subdistrict ID, virtual subdistrict biasing; Described device also comprises:

Mapping relations are set up unit, for setting up in advance described virtual subdistrict ID and the described virtual subdistrict mapping relations for the physical resource of measurement;

The mapping relations dispensing unit, send to UE for described mapping relations being set up to the mapping relations of setting up unit, so that described UE is measured described virtual subdistrict according to described mapping relations.

15. the network equipment according to claim 14, is characterized in that,

Described mapping relations are set up unit, and specifically for setting up the mapping relations of described virtual subdistrict ID and channel state information reference signals configuration index, described mapping relations are man-to-man mappings in the Same Physical community; Perhaps set up the mapping relations of described virtual subdistrict ID and virtual subdistrict level pilot tone, described mapping relations are man-to-man mappings in the Same Physical community; Perhaps set up the mapping relations of described virtual subdistrict ID and described virtual subdistrict orthogonal sequence, described mapping relations are man-to-man mappings in the Same Physical community.

16. according to claim 12 to the described network equipment of 15 any one, it is characterized in that, the described network equipment also comprises:

Decision unit, determine the target virtual subdistrict under UE for the measurement result according to described measurement report;

Switch unit, when different from described initial service virtual subdistrict for the target virtual subdistrict under the UE definite at described judging unit, switch to the target virtual subdistrict by described UE.

17. a subscriber equipment, is characterized in that, comprising:

Measurement task acquiring unit, for obtaining the measurement task of network side configuration, carried in corresponding measuring object and needed the virtual subdistrict list of measuring in described measurement task, in described measurement task, in corresponding report configuration, carried measurement report parameter corresponding to described virtual subdistrict list;

Measuring unit, measured for the virtual subdistrict in the measurement task virtual subdistrict list that described measurement task acquiring unit is obtained;

Measurement report element, the measurement report parameter of the measurement task of obtaining for the described measurement task acquiring unit of foundation is to the network side reporting measurement reports, and described measurement report comprises the measurement result of the virtual subdistrict in described virtual subdistrict list and corresponding virtual subdistrict.

18. subscriber equipment according to claim 17, is characterized in that, described virtual subdistrict list comprises: virtual subdistrict information to be measured and blacklist virtual subdistrict information; Described virtual subdistrict information to be measured comprises: needs increase or the virtual subdistrict list of modification and the virtual subdistrict list that needs are deleted; Described blacklist virtual subdistrict information can comprise: needs increase or the blacklist virtual subdistrict list of modification and the blacklist virtual subdistrict list that needs are deleted; Each list element in the described virtual subdistrict list that needs increase or revise comprises: virtual subdistrict index, virtual subdistrict ID, virtual subdistrict biasing;

Described subscriber equipment also comprises:

The mapping relations acquiring unit, the virtual subdistrict ID and the mapping relations of described virtual subdistrict for the physical resource of measurement that for obtaining network side, set up;

Described measuring unit, measured the virtual subdistrict in described virtual subdistrict list specifically for the mapping relations of obtaining according to described mapping relations acquiring unit.

19. the measuring system of a Virtual community, is characterized in that, comprising: network equipment and subscriber equipment, described network equipment is the described network equipment of claim 12 to 16 any one.

20. system according to claim 19, is characterized in that, described subscriber equipment is the described subscriber equipment of claim 17 or 18.

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