Communication system
AssigneeNEC Corporation
InventorYassin Aden Awad
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A communication system is disclosed in which a base station communicates with machine-type-communication (MTC) devices by dividing the base station's cell bandwidth into (non-overlapping) narrowbands. The base station identifies, based on a communication received from a communication device, a capability of that communication device to retune between narrowbands, and provides, to that communication device, control information for controlling how that communication device retunes between different narrowbands, wherein the control information is based on the identified capability of that communication device to retune between narrowbands.
Claims9
A method for a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:
- communicating using any of a plurality of narrowbands;
- and
- sending, to a base station in radio resource control (RRC) signalling, a UE capability information element indicating a capability of retuning from a first narrowband to a second narrowband within a retuning period of a single symbol,
- wherein, when the UE capability information element indicates that the UE is capable of retuning within a single symbol, in accordance with a shortened physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) format, the UE does not transmit a last symbol in a first subframe.
A method for a base station, the method comprising:
- communicating with a user equipment (UE), using any of a plurality of narrowbands;
- receiving, from the UE, in radio resource control (RRC) signalling, a UE capability information element indicating a capability of retuning from a first narrowband to a second narrowband within a retuning period of a single symbol;
- wherein, when the UE capability information element indicates that the UE is capable of retuning within a single symbol, in accordance with a shortened physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) format, the base station does not receive transmissions from the UE in a last symbol in a first subframe.
A user equipment (UE) comprising:
- a controller and a transceiver wherein the controller is operable to:
- control the transceiver to communicate using any of a plurality of narrowbands;
- and
- control the transceiver to send, to a base station in radio resource control (RRC) signalling, a UE capability information element indicating a capability of retuning from a first narrowband to a second narrowband within a retuning period of a single symbol;
- wherein, when the UE capability information element indicates that the UE is capable of retuning within a single symbol, in accordance with a shortened physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) format, the UE does not transmit in a last symbol in a first subframe.
A base station comprising:
- a controller and a transceiver wherein the controller is operable to:
- control the transceiver to communicate with a user equipment (UE) using any of a plurality of narrowbands;
- and
- control the transceiver to receive, from the UE, in radio resource control (RRC) signalling, a UE capability information element indicating a capability of retuning from a first narrowband to a second narrowband within a retuning period of a single symbol;
- wherein, when the UE capability information element indicates that the UE is capable of retuning within a single symbol, in accordance with a shortened physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) format, the base station does not receive transmissions from the UE in a last symbol in a first subframe.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.