US 11,689,981 B2Granted

Technologies to reduce interruption for non-dual connectivity (DC) based handover (HO)

AssigneeIntel Corporation

InventorsJaemin Han, Yi Guo, Candy Yiu, Bharat Shrestha

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Abstract

An apparatus of a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a system, and a method. The apparatus includes one or more processors to, during a non-dual connectivity (non-DC) radio link control (RLC) acknowledged mode (AM) handover of a user equipment (UE) from a source RAN node to the RAN node: process a message including information on at least one of an uplink (UL) COUNT value, a downlink (DL) COUNT value, or a hyper frame number (HFN) corresponding to UL or DL packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data units (DUs) communicated between the UE and the source RAN node; determine the at least one of the UL COUNT value, the DL COUNT value or the HFN from the message; and process the PDCP DUs based on the at least one of the UL COUNT value, the DL COUNT value.

Claims24

Dependent claims

An apparatus of a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, the apparatus comprising:

a Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry interface to send and receive messages to and from a RF circuitry;
and
one or more processors coupled to the RF circuitry interface, the one or more processors to, during a non-dual connectivity (non-DC) radio link control (RLC) acknowledged mode (AM) handover of a user equipment (UE) from a source RAN node to the RAN node:
process, during a start of a simultaneous connection between the source RAN node and the RAN node, a message received through the RF circuitry interface, the message including information on at least one of:
an uplink (UL) COUNT value and a hyper frame number (HFN) corresponding to an UL packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data unit (DU) communicated from the UE to the source RAN node;
or
a downlink (DL) COUNT value and a HFN corresponding to a DL PDCP DU communicated to the UE from the source RAN node;
determine, from the message, the at least one of the UL COUNT value and the HFN corresponding to the UL PDCP DU, or the DL COUNT value and the HFN corresponding to the DL PDCP DU;
and
process, after processing the message, PDCP DUs during the handover and before a switch of the UE from the source RAN node to the RAN node as a result of the handover, the PDCP DUs forwarded to the RAN node by the source RAN node after the message, processing the PDCP DUs being based on the at least one of the UL COUNT value and the HFN corresponding to the UL PDCP DU, or the DL COUNT value and the HFN corresponding to the DL PDCP DU;
and
process, after processing the PDCP DUs, a Sequence Number (SN) status transfer message from the source RAN node.

9 more elements

One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an apparatus of a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the apparatus, to perform operations during a non-dual connectivity (non-DC) radio link control (RLC) acknowledged mode (AM) handover of a user equipment (UE) from the RAN node to a target RAN node, the operations including:

causing transmission to the target RAN node, at a start of a simultaneous connection between the RAN node and the target RAN node and while scheduling uplink (UL) transmissions to the UE, of a message including information on at least one of:
an uplink (UL) COUNT value and a hyper frame number (HFN) corresponding to an UL packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data unit (DU) communicated from the UE to the source RAN node;
or
a downlink (DL) COUNT value and a HFN corresponding to a DL PDCP DU communicated to the UE from the source RAN node;
after transmission of the message, causing a forwarding of PDCP DUs to the target RAN node to enable the target RAN node to process the PDCP DUs based on the at least one of the UL COUNT value and the HFN corresponding to the UL PDCP DU, or the DL COUNT value and the HFN corresponding to the DL PDCP DU;
and
after a forwarding of the PDCP DUs, cause transmission of a Sequence Number (SN) status transfer message to the target RAN node.

4 more elements

A method to be performed at a Radio Access Network (RAN) node during a non-dual connectivity (non-DC) radio link control (RLC) acknowledged mode (AM) handover of a user equipment (UE) from the RAN node to a target RAN node, the method comprising:

causing transmission to the target RAN node, at a start of a simultaneous connection between the RAN node and the target RAN node and while scheduling uplink (UL) transmissions to the UE, of a message including information on at least one of:
an uplink (UL) COUNT value and a hyper frame number (HFN) corresponding to an UL packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data unit (DU) communicated from the UE to the source RAN node;
or
a downlink (DL) COUNT value and a HFN corresponding to a DL PDCP DU communicated to the UE from the source RAN node;
after transmission of the message, causing a forwarding of PDCP DUs to the target RAN node to enable the target RAN node to process the PDCP DUs based on the at least one of the UL COUNT value and the HFN corresponding to the UL PDCP DU, or the DL COUNT value and the HFN corresponding to the DL PDCP DU;
and
after a forwarding of the PDCP DUs, cause transmission of a Sequence Number (SN) status transfer message to the target RAN node.

4 more elements

An apparatus of a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, the apparatus to execute handover functions for a non-dual connectivity (non-DC) radio link control (RLC) acknowledged mode (AM) handover of a user equipment (UE) from a source RAN node to the RAN node, the apparatus including:

means for processing, during a start of a simultaneous connection between the source RAN node and the RAN node, a message received through the RF circuitry interface, the message including information on at least one of:
an uplink (UL) COUNT value and a hyper frame number (HFN) corresponding to an UL packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) data unit (DU) communicated from the UE to the source RAN node;
or
a downlink (DL) COUNT value and a HFN corresponding to a DL PDCP DU communicated to the UE from the source RAN node;
means for determining, from the message, the at least one of the UL COUNT value and the HFN corresponding to the UL PDCP DU, or the DL COUNT value and the HFN corresponding to the DL PDCP DU;
means for processing, after processing the message, PDCP DUs during the handover and before a switch of the UE from the source RAN node to the RAN node as a result of the handover, the PDCP DUs forwarded to the RAN node by the source RAN node after the message, processing the PDCP DUs being based on the at least one of the UL COUNT value and the HFN corresponding to the UL PDCP DU, or the DL COUNT value and the HFN corresponding to the DL PDCP DU;
and
means for processing, after processing the PDCP DUs, a Sequence Number (SN) status transfer message from the source RAN node.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/993,237Filed 13 Aug 2020 · us provisional application
Priority: 14 Aug 2019
Published: US 2020/0374774 A126 Nov 2020
Granted: 27 Jun 2023
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification5 codes

H04W 36/0055
Control or signalling for completing the hand-off: transmission or use of information for re-establishing the radio link
H04W 36/00695
In case of dual connectivity, e.g. decoupled uplink/downlink: using split of the control plane or user plane
H04W 36/0072
Transmission or use of information for re-establishing the radio link: of resource information of target access point
H04W 36/0235
Buffering or recovering information during reselection: by transmitting sequence numbers, e.g. SN status transfer