US 2020/0288535 A1Published application

Apparatus and method for providing communication based on device-to-device relay service in mobile communication system

AssigneeNEC Corporation

InventorsVivek SHARMA, Yassin Aden AWAD

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Abstract

A communication system is disclosed in which a ProSe Relay UE allows a remote UE to connect to a base station and core network through the Relay UE. The base station broadcasts that it is capable of supporting ProSe Relay UEs. UEs that are in poor coverage areas can identify that the base station supports ProSe Relaying and can search for a relay UE with which to connect prior to trying to establish a direct connection with the base station. The Relay UE and the base station maintain context information for the relayed UE so that messages can be properly routed through the network and through the Relay UE.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A base station configured to operate with a relay user equipment that can provide relay services to another user equipment, the base station comprising:

a transceiver circuit arranged to communicate over communication links using a plurality of communication resources;
and
a controller arranged to:
configure the relay user equipment for relay communication with the other user equipment over a side-link;
schedule communication resources for use in providing the relay user equipment downlink communications from the base station to the relay user equipment and uplink communications from the relay user equipment to the base station, and schedule communication resources to be used by the relay user equipment for communicating with the other user equipment over said side-link;
receive a message from the relay user equipment, the message containing a communications control message generated by the other user equipment;
and
maintain communication context information for the other user equipment that communicates with the base station via the relay user equipment, the communication context information allowing the base station to be able to route communications from the other user equipment through a core network and for allowing communications received over the core network for the other user equipment to be transmitted to the other user equipment via the relay user equipment over the side-link.

5 more elements

A relay user equipment configured to provide relay communication services for another user equipment, the relay user equipment comprising:

a transceiver circuit arranged to communicate over communication links using a plurality of communication resources;
and
a controller arranged to:
receive an allocation of communication resources from a base station to allow for reception of downlink communications from the base station and transmission of uplink communications to the base station, and to allow for communications with the other user equipment over a side-link;
receive a message from the other user equipment over the side-link, the message containing a communications control message generated by the other user equipment;
generate a new message containing the communications control message generated by the other user equipment for transmission to the base station using communication resources that have been allocated to the relay user equipment for said uplink communications;
wherein the new message includes communication context information for the other user equipment, the communication context information allowing the base station to be able to route communications from the other user equipment through a core network;
receive downlink communications from the base station that include messages for the other user equipment;
and
transmit the messages for the other user equipment to the other user equipment over the side-link.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/081,983Filed 7 Mar 2017
Priority: GB 1604445.516 Mar 2016
Published: 10 Sep 2020
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification11 codes

H04W 88/04
Terminal devices: adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user
H04W 8/005
Network data management: discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
H04W 12/037
Protecting confidentiality, e.g. by encryption: of the control plane, e.g. signalling traffic
H04W 36/0033
For data sessions of end-to-end connection: with transfer of context information

Family

US 11,337,271 B2Related patent
US 2020/0288535 A1This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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