Identification of UE Counting Results in eMBMS

A method of reporting Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) counting results, comprising a base station configured for MBMS:

• receiving a base station counting request from a Multi-cell/Multicast Coordination Entity (MCE), the base station counting request including an update time and an identifier for each of one or more MBMS services;
• transmitting corresponding user equipment (UE) counting requests to UEs supported by the base station, to determine if the UEs are either receiving or want to receive the one or more MBMS services;
• transmitting an empty list of service identifiers to the MCE if no counting results are received from the supported UEs within a defined reporting window for the one or more identified MBMS services;
• and
• transmitting, if counting results are received from the supported UEs for the one or more identified MBMS services within the defined reporting window, a report to the MCE, the report including:
• a determined quantity of UEs for each of the one or more identified services;
• the update time from the received request.

A base station operative to support Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS), the base station comprising:

• a transceiver and one or more processing circuits that are jointly configured to:
• receive a base station counting request from a Multi-cell/Multicast Coordination Entity (MCE), the base station counting request including an update time and an identifier for each of one or more MBMS services;
• transmit corresponding user equipment (UE) counting requests to UEs supported by the base station, to determine if the UEs are either receiving or want to receive the one or more MBMS services;
• transmit an empty list of service identifiers to the MCE if no counting results are received within a defined reporting window for the one or more identified MBMS services;
• transmit, if counting results are received from the supported UEs for the one or more identified MBMS services within the defined reporting window, a report to the MCE, the report including:
• a determined quantity of UEs for each of the one or more identified services;
• the update time from the received request.

A method of processing Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) counting results for individual MBMS services, the method comprising a Multi-cell/Multicast Coordination Entity (MCE):

• transmitting a base station counting request to a base station in a MBMS service area, the base station counting request including an update time and one or more MBMS service identifiers, the base station counting request requesting, for each of the identified MBMS services, a quantity of user equipment (UEs) that are either receiving or want to receive the identified MBMS service;
• receiving a counting report from the base station, the counting report including the update time;
• determining that the counting report corresponds to the base station counting request based on the update time in the counting report matching the update time in the base station counting request;
• ignoring any counting data included in the report that corresponds to services not identified in the transmitted request;
• determining that the base station did not receive counting results within a defined reporting window from its UEs for at least one of the one or more identified MBMS services if the report includes an empty list of service identifiers.

A Multi-cell/Multicast Coordination Entity (MCE) operative to support Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS), the MCE comprising

• a transceiver and one or more processing circuits jointly configured to:
• transmit a base station counting request to a base station in a MBMS service area, the request including an update time and one or more MBMS service identifiers, the base station counting request requesting, for each of the identified MBMS services, a quantity of user equipment (UEs) that are either receiving or want to receive the identified MBMS service;
• receive a counting report from the base station, the counting report including the update time;
• determine that the counting report corresponds to the base station counting request based on the update time in the counting report matching the update time in the base station counting request;
• ignore any counting data included in the report that corresponds to services not identified in the transmitted request;
• determine that the base station did not receive counting results within a defined reporting window from its UEs for at least one of the one or more identified MBMS services if the report includes an empty list of service identifiers.