U.S. patent number 9,271,174 [Application Number 11/835,192] was granted by the patent office on 2016-02-23 for communication device performing measurements using assigned time slots.
This patent grant is currently assigned to INTEL DEUTSCHLAND GMBH. The grantee listed for this patent is Hyung-Nam Choi. Invention is credited to Hyung-Nam Choi.
United States Patent |
9,271,174 |
Choi |
February 23, 2016 |
Communication device performing measurements using assigned time
slots
Abstract
A method for performing a measurement by a communication device
including selecting at least one measurement type of a plurality of
measurement types, wherein each measurement type is assigned to a
time slot, wherein the at least one measurement type is selected
for a time interval which is pre-defined as a transmission gap of a
receiver of the communication device for carrying out measurements
by the receiver corresponding to the time slot; and performing a
measurement of the at least one measurement type during the time
interval.
Inventors: |
Choi; Hyung-Nam (Hamburg,
DE) |
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Choi; Hyung-Nam |
Hamburg |
N/A |
DE |
|
|
Assignee: |
INTEL DEUTSCHLAND GMBH
(Neubiberg, DE)
|
Family
ID: |
39940584 |
Appl.
No.: |
11/835,192 |
Filed: |
August 7, 2007 |
Prior Publication Data
|
|
|
|
Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
|
US 20090042559 A1 |
Feb 12, 2009 |
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04W
24/08 (20130101); H04W 24/10 (20130101); H04W
72/0446 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H04W
24/10 (20090101) |
Field of
Search: |
;455/437,423-425 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
Other References
3GPP TS 25.215 V3.13.0 (Mar. 2005); Technical Specification; 3rd
Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio
Access Network; Physical layer--Measurements (FDD) (Release 1999).
cited by applicant .
3GPP TS 34.108 V6.5.0 (Dec. 2006); Technical Specification; 3rd
Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio
Access Network; Common test environments for User Equipment (UE);
Conformance testing (Release 6). cited by applicant.
|
Primary Examiner: Johnson; Gerald
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt,
P.C.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method for performing measurements by a communication device,
the method comprising: selecting, for a time interval, at least two
measurement types out of plurality of measurement types according
to which measurements are to be performed, wherein the time
interval is pre-defined as a transmission gap without signals being
transmitted between the communication device and a first base
station for carrying out measurements by communication device and
that comprises a plurality of time slots in which a measurement of
the selected measurement types may be performed; and performing a
plurality of measurements of the selected at least two measurement
types during the time interval.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the communication
device is a mobile terminal.
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the measurements are
selected from a measurement of the reception quality of a signal
sent by a base station in a radio cell and a measurement of the
reception field strength of a signal sent by a base station in a
radio cell.
4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving a
message specifying for each measurement type of the plurality of
measurement types at least one time interval in which a measurement
of the measurement type may be performed.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein each measurement type
is assigned a priority and the at least one measurement type is
selected based on the priorities of the measurement types.
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein each measurement type
is assigned a counter counting the number of measurements performed
according to the measurement type and the at least one measurement
type is selected based on the current values of the counters of the
measurement types.
7. A method for scheduling measurements, the method comprising:
assigning a plurality of measurement types to a time interval that
is defined as a transmission gap without signals being transmitted
between a communication device and a first base station for
carrying out measurements by the communication device; and
signaling the assignment to the communication device, wherein each
measurement type is assigned a priority and a counter counting the
number of measurements performed according to the measurement type,
and at least one measurement type is selected based on the
priorities of the measurement types and/or the current values of
the counters of the measurement types.
8. A communication network circuit comprising: an assigning circuit
configured to assign a plurality of measurement types to a time
interval that is defined as a transmission gap without signals
being transmitted between a communication device and a first base
station for carrying out measurements by the communication device;
and a signaling circuit configured to signal the assignment to the
communication device, wherein each measurement type is assigned a
priority and a counter counting the number of measurements
performed according to the measurement type, and at least one
measurement type is selected based on the priorities of the
measurement types and/or the current values of the counters of the
measurement types.
9. A communication device, comprising: a selecting circuit
configured to select, for a time interval, at least two measurement
types out of plurality of measurement types according to which
measurements are to be performed, wherein the time interval is
pre-defined as a transmission gap without signals being transmitted
between the communication device and a first base station for
carrying out measurements by the communication device and that
comprises a plurality of time slots in which a measurement of the
selected measurement types may be performed; and a measurement
circuit configured to perform a plurality of measurements of the
selected at least two measurement types during the time
interval.
10. The communication device according to claim 9, further
comprising: a receiving circuit configured to receive a message
specifying for each measurement type of the plurality of
measurement types at least one time interval in which a measurement
of the measurement type may be performed.
11. The communication device according to claim 9, wherein the
communication device is a mobile terminal.
12. The communication device according to claim 11, wherein the
mobile terminal is a mobile terminal according to UMTS.
13. The communication device according to claim 9, wherein the
measurements are selected from a measurement of the reception
quality of a signal sent by a base station in a radio cell and a
measurement of the reception field strength of a signal sent by a
base station in a radio cell.
14. The communication device according to claim 9, wherein each
measurement type is assigned a priority and the at least one
measurement type is selected based on the priorities of the
measurement types.
15. The communication device according to claim 9, wherein each
measurement type is assigned a counter counting the number of
measurements performed according to the measurement type and the at
least one measurement type is selected based on the current values
of the counters of the measurement types.
16. A method for configuring measurements by a communication
device, the method comprising: receiving a message that includes an
assignment of a plurality of measurement types according to which
measurements are to be performed to a time interval that is defined
as a transmission without signals being transmitted between a
communication device and a first base station for carrying out
measurements by the communication device; and selecting, for a time
interval, at least two measurement types out of plurality of
measurement types.
Description
BACKGROUND
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to a method for
performing a measurement by a communication device and a
communication device.
SUMMARY
A method for performing a measurement by a communication device
including selecting at least one measurement type of a plurality of
measurement types, wherein each measurement type is assigned to a
time slot, wherein the at least one measurement type is selected
for a time interval which is pre-defined as a transmission gap of a
receiver of the communication device for carrying out measurements
by the receiver corresponding to the time slot; and performing a
measurement of the at least one measurement type during the time
interval.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In the drawings, like reference characters generally refer to the
same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are not
necessarily to scale, emphasis instead generally being placed upon
illustrating the principles of the invention. In the following
description, various embodiments of the invention are described
with reference to the following drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 shows a communication system according to an embodiment of
the invention;
FIG. 2 shows transmission gap patterns for carrying out inter
frequency and inter RAT measurements;
FIG. 3 shows a radio frame structure according to an embodiment of
the invention;
FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram according to an embodiment of the
invention; and
FIG. 5 shows a transmission gap pattern according to an embodiment
of the invention.
DESCRIPTION
In the current UMTS mobile radio communication standard (Universal
Mobile Telecommunications Systems communications standard), also
called Release 7, a maximum net transmission rate of 28.8 Mbps is
supported in the downlink transmission direction and of 11.52 Mbps
is supported in the uplink transmission direction. The uplink
transmission direction, also called the uplink, denotes signal
transmission from the mobile radio communication terminal to the
respective UMTS base station. The downlink transmission direction
also called the downlink, denotes signal transmission from the
respective associated UMTS base station to the mobile radio
communication terminal. Radio transmission technologies currently
specified are Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division
Duplex (TDD). The multiple access method used is based on Code
Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology.
A current topic in the 3GPP standardization committees (3GPP:
3.sup.rd Generation Partnership Project) is the further development
of UMTS towards a mobile radio communication system optimized for
packet data transmission by improving the system capacity and by
improving the spectral efficiency. In 3GPP, the activities in this
regard are summarized under the general term LTE for Long Term
Evolution. The aim is amongst others to increase the maximum net
transmission rate significantly in future, namely to 100 Mbps in
the downlink transmission direction and to 50 Mbps in the uplink
transmission direction. To improve transmission via the air
interface, new multiple access methods have inter alia been
specified.
For the downlink transmission direction OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiple Access) in combination with TDMA (Time Division
Multiple Access) has been specified. OFDMA in combination with
TDMA, subsequently also called OFDMA/TDMA, is a multicarrier
multiple access method in which a subscriber is provided with a
defined number of subcarriers in the frequency spectrum and a
defined transmission time for the purpose of data transmission.
Uplink data transmission is based on SC-FDMA (Single Carrier
Frequency Division Multiple Access) in combination with TDMA.
In the UMTS FDD mode according to Release 7, the so-called
compressed mode is specified to give a mobile terminal (also
denoted as user equipment, UE, in UMTS) which, e.g. for saving
costs, only includes one receiver, the opportunity to carry out
inter frequency measurements, i.e. measurements of the reception
quality of UMTS radio cells which are operated using a different
frequency band than the radio cell in which the mobile terminal is
currently located, and inter-RAT (radio access technology)
measurements, i.e. measurements of the reception quality of radio
cells of a mobile communication system operated according to a
different radio access technology, for example a GSM (Global System
for Mobile Communications) mobile communication system. According
to compressed mode, transmission gaps in the uplink transmission
and/or the downlink transmission are specified which can be used by
a mobile terminal to carry out such measurements.
In the case of downlink, for example, the base station (also
denoted by NodeB) temporarily suspends the data transmission to the
mobile terminal for the duration of the specified (downlink)
transmission gaps. In the case of uplink, the mobile terminal
temporarily suspends the data transmission to the base station for
the duration of the specified (uplink) transmission gaps.
This is explained in more detail in the following with reference to
FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 shows a communication system 100 according to an embodiment
of the invention.
The communication system 100 includes a first radio access network
101, a second radio access network 102 and a mobile terminal 103.
The first radio access network 101 is for example the radio access
network of a UMTS communication network, also denoted as UTRAN
(UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) and is coupled with a first
core network 104 of the UMTS communication network. The second
radio access network 102 is in this example a radio access network
according to another radio access technology than the one according
to UMTS, for example the radio access network of a mobile
communication network according to GSM, FOMA (Freedom of Mobile
Access) or CDMA2000 (CDMA: Code Division Multiple Access), which
includes a second core network 105 to which the second radio access
network 102 is coupled. It is assumed that the mobile terminal 103
is located in a radio cell operated by a first base station 106 of
the first radio access network 101. The mobile terminal 103 may
receive data sent by the first base station 106 (i.e. in downlink)
and may send data to the first base station 106 (i.e. in
uplink).
The mobile terminal 103 may carry out measurements of the reception
quality of other radio cells of the first radio access network 101,
for example of a radio cell neighboring the radio cell in which the
mobile terminal 103 is located and operated by a second base
station 107 of the first radio access network 101. The measurement
of the reception quality in the radio cell operated by the second
base station 107, i.e. the reception quality of data sent by the
second base station 107, is for example an inter frequency
measurement, i.e. the radio cell operated by the second base
station 107 is operated in another frequency band than the radio
cell in which the mobile terminal 103 is located, i.e. for data
transmission to and from the second base station 107 a different
frequency band is used than for data transmission to and from the
first base station 106.
The mobile terminal 103 may also carry out measurements of the
reception quality (e.g. the signal to noise ratio) of radio cells
operated by the second radio access network 102, for example in the
radio cell operated by a third base station 108 of the second radio
access network 102. Since in this example, the second radio access
network 102 uses a different radio access technology than the first
radio access network 101 the measurement of the reception quality
in the radio cell operated by the third base station 108 is an
inter RAT measurement.
Reception quality for example means the received power of one or
more predefined signals (Reference Signal Received Power, RSRP) or
a ratio of the received power of one or more predefined signals and
the received interfering power (or power of the noise) received in
the same frequency band as the predefined signals (Reference Signal
Received Quality, RSRQ).
For carrying out inter frequency measurements or inter RAT
measurements there may be specified transmission gaps based on the
CDMA multiple access method according to the feature compressed
mode. Compressed mode is a special feature of the UMTS FDD mode for
generation of transmission gaps of uplink data transmission and
downlink data transmission in the RRC (radio resource control)
state CELL_DCH. When the mobile terminal 103 is in the state
CELL_DCH dedicated radio resources are allocated by the first radio
access network 101 for the mobile terminal 103 for data
transmission between the first base station 106 and the mobile
terminal 103.
When measurements need to be carried out using the compressed mode
the first radio access network 101 may define corresponding
compressed mode parameters which are signaled by the first base
station 106 to the mobile terminal 103. The compressed mode
parameters for example specify the length of each transmission gap
TGL (transmission gap length), the time difference between the
beginnings of two transmission gaps TGD (transmission gap start
distance) and the duration of the usage of the transmission gaps
TGPL (transmission gap pattern length).
Measurements of a multiplicity of inter frequency measurement types
and inter RAT measurement types may by carried out by the mobile
terminal 103. For each measurement type individual compressed mode
parameters may be defined. This means that for each measurement
type, an individual transmission gap pattern may be defined. A
measurement of a certain measurement type may only be carried out
in a transmission gap defined for this measurement type. The
transmission gap patterns such that transmission gaps defined for
different measurement types do not overlap. As an example, in table
1 the configuration of compressed mode parameters for one inter
frequency measurement type and three inter RAT measurement types
are shown.
TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Inter- GSM GSM Initial Frequency Carrier
BSIC GSM BSIC re- Parameter FDD RSSI identification confirmation
TGSN (Transmission Gap Starting 8 8 8 8 Slot Number) TGL1
(Transmission Gap Length 1) 14 14 14 14 TGL2 (Transmission Gap
Length 2) 14 14 14 14 TGD (Transmission Gap Distance) 0 60 45 0
TGPL1 (Transmission Gap Pattern 12 24 24 24 Length) TGPL2
(Transmission Gap Pattern -- -- -- -- Length) TGCFN (Transmission
Gap (Current CFN + (238 - (Current (Current CFN + (256 - (Current
CFN + (253 - Connection Frame Number): TTI/10 msec)) CFN + (242 -
TTI/10 msec)) TTI/10 msec))mod 256 mod 256 TTI/10 msec)) mod 256
mod 256 UL/DL compressed mode selection DL, UL or DL DL, UL or DL,
UL or DL DL, UL or DL & UL & UL DL & UL & UL UL
compressed mode method SF/2 SF/2 SF/2 SF/2 DL compressed mode
method SF/2 SF/2 SF/2 SF/2
Note that herein, the term measurement refers to an individual
measurement which is carried out at some measurement time. A
measurement is of a certain measurement type. For example,
performing out a measurement according to a measurement type at a
measurement time, e.g. during a measurement time interval, means
that the reception power is measured in a radio cell at the
measurement time. In this case the measurement type would for
example be "measurement of the reception power in the radio cell".
A measurement type may be an inter frequency measurement type, i.e.
measurements of the measurement type are inter frequency
measurements, or it may be an inter RAT measurement type, i.e.
measurements of the measurement type are inter RAT
measurements.
In FIG. 2, transmission gap patterns for the four measurement types
referred to in table 1 are shown.
FIG. 2 shows transmission gap patterns for carrying out inter
frequency and inter RAT measurements.
A first transmission gap pattern 201 is the transmission gap
pattern of an inter frequency measurement type. A second
transmission gap pattern 202 is the transmission gap pattern of an
inter RAT measurement type. In this example the received signal
strength indicator (RSSI) of a GSM frequency carrier is
measured.
A third transmission gap pattern 203 is the transmission gap
pattern of an inter RAT measurement type. In this example, the
reception quality of a frequency channel and a synchronization
channel of GSM radio cells is measured.
A fourth transmission gap pattern 204 is the transmission gap
pattern for carrying out measurements of an inter RAT measurement
type, in this example the reception quality of the synchronization
channel of GSM radio cells is measured.
There is further shown a fifth transmission gap pattern 205 which
includes all the transmission gaps defined according to the first
transmission gap pattern 201, the second transmission gap pattern
202, the third transmission gap pattern 203, and the fourth
transmission gap pattern 204.
The transmission gap patterns 201 to 205 are illustrated in the
form of a plurality of a radio frame 206, in this example 24 radio
frames (numbered from 0 to 23). The transmission gaps 207 defined
for the respective transmission gap patterns include at least parts
of the radio frames 206. The structure of the radio frame 206 is
shown in more detail in FIG. 3.
FIG. 3 shows a radio frame structure according to an embodiment of
the invention.
According to the radio frame structure shown, a radio frame 300 has
a length of 10 ms and includes 20 time slots 301 each of length 0.5
ms. Every two times slots 301 may be grouped to one sub frame 302
such that the radio frame 300 includes 10 sub frames of length 1
ms.
The lengths of time slots 301, radio frames 300 and sub frames may
be different from those given above in other embodiments. Further,
in other embodiments, a radio frame includes not 20 time slots 301
but for example 15 time slots 301.
In the example of transmission gap patterns shown in FIG. 2, each
transmission gap includes 14 time slots 301.
It can be seen that when transmission gap patterns are specified
for a plurality of measurement types a lot of transmission gaps are
generated altogether, such as in the combined transmission gap
pattern 205, the transmission gaps defined for the various
measurement types do not overlap. This means that there are
relatively many transmission gaps which can not be used for data
transmission between the first base station 106 and the mobile
terminal 103. This effect is intensified with a high number of
possible measurement types such as it is the case according to LTE
because according to LTE there is a high number of inter RAT
measurements due to the fact that a UMTS communication network
according to LTE shall support not only inter working with GSM
communication networks, i.e. the possibility for mobile terminals
to use radio access networks according to GSM, but also with UMTS
radio access networks based on CDMA, radio access networks based on
mobile WiMAX and radio access networks according to 3GPP 2 (i.e.
CDMA 2000).
Therefore, according to one embodiment of the invention, a method
for performing a measurement by a communication device is provided,
for example to be applied to the communication system described
with reference to FIG. 1, in which case the communication device
may correspond to the mobile terminal 103, which is for example a
UMTS mobile terminal according to LTE.
FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram 400 according to an embodiment of the
invention.
The flow diagram 400 illustrates a method for performing a
measurement by a communication device according to an embodiment of
the invention.
In 401, at least one measurement type of a plurality of measurement
types is selected, wherein each measurement type is assigned to a
time slot, wherein the at least one measurement type is selected
for a time interval which is pre-defined as a transmission gap of a
receiver of the communication device for carrying out measurements
by the receiver corresponding to the time slot.
In 402, a measurement of the at least one measurement type is
performed during the time interval.
The time slot does not need to correspond to a time slot of a frame
structure as shown in FIG. 3, but may include more than one time
slots of a frame or more than one subframe. It may also include
time slots of adjacent radio frames.
Illustratively, according to one embodiment, one transmission gap
may be specified for a plurality of measurement types and a
communication device may select the measurement type of the
plurality of measurement types according to which a measurement is
actually performed. In other words, the transmission gaps for
different measurement types may overlap, fully or partly. In this
way, especially if there are a lot of measurement types, the number
of transmission gaps defined may be reduced and the impact on the
radio resources can be reduced, i.e. radio resources can be used
for actual (useful) data transmission for a larger time period.
Thus, for example, the delay of (useful) data transmissions may be
reduced. In one embodiment, illustratively, a mobile device is
provided with means to carry out measurements efficiently.
In one embodiment, the method illustrated in FIG. 4 further
includes receiving a message specifying the assignment of the
measurements types to the time slot.
Each measurement type may be assigned a priority and the at least
one measurement type is for example selected based on the
priorities of the measurement types.
In one embodiment, each measurement type is assigned a counter
counting the number of measurements performed according to the
measurement type and the at least one measurement type is selected
based on the current values of the counters of the measurement
types.
The communication device is for example a mobile terminal, e.g. a
mobile terminal according to UMTS.
In one embodiment, the measurement is the measurement of the
reception quality of a signal sent by a base station in a radio
cell. For example, the measurement is the measurement of the
reception field strength of a signal sent by a base station in a
radio cell, e.g. a radio cell of a UMTS mobile communication
system.
A memory used in the embodiments of the invention may be a volatile
memory, for example a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) or a
non-volatile memory, for example a PROM (Programmable Read Only
Memory), an EPROM (Erasable PROM), EEPROM (Electrically Erasable
PROM), or a flash memory, e.g., a floating gate memory, a charge
trapping memory, an MRAM (Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory) or
a PCRAM (Phase Change Random Access Memory).
A circuit can be a hardware circuit, e.g. an integrated circuit,
designed for the respective functionality or also a programmable
unit, such as a processor, programmed for the respective
functionality.
In one embodiment of the invention, to reduce the transmission time
lost due to transmission gaps, i.e. to increase the time which can
be used for data transmission between the first base station 106
and the mobile terminal 103, transmission gap patterns for
different measurement types are defined in such a way that the
transmission gaps of different measurements overlap. Further,
according to an embodiment of the invention, for each measurement
type the following parameters are specified:
a counter counting the number of measurements according to the
measurement type that have been performed;
a parameter specifying the minimum number of measurements of the
measurement type to be performed before reporting them to the base
station;
a parameter specifying the relative priority of the measurement
type, for example in the range of 1 to 8, in which the priority 1
specifies the highest priority and the priority 8 specifies the
lowest priority.
The mobile terminal 103 carries out measurements of the measurement
types using these parameters according to the following rules:
After each measurement of a measurement type the counter counting
the number of measurements according to the measurement type that
have been carried out, i.e. performed, is increased by the integer
value 1. When the results of the measurements (e.g. performed since
the previous reporting) of the measurement type are reported to the
base station 103, the counter is reset to a default value, for
example 0.
When a transmission gap is specified for more than one measurement
type, the mobile terminal 103 selects the measurement type of which
a measurement is carried out during the transmission gap based on
the counter counting the number of measurements according to the
measurement type carried out, the minimum number of measurements
according to the measurement type to be carried out before
reporting and the relative priority of the measurement type. For
example, this is done according to the following rule: A
measurement of the measurement type which has the highest relative
priority is selected to be carried out, or, in the case that more
than one measurement type for which the transmission gap is
specified have the highest priority, a measurement type is selected
for which the counter counting the number of measurements carried
out is smaller than the minimum number of measurements to be
carried out before reporting.
The mobile terminal 103 only reports the measurements of that
measurement type, i.e. the results of measurements of that
measurement type, to the first base station 106, for which the
counter counting the number of the measurements carried out is
equal or higher than the minimum number of measurements to be
carried out before reporting.
The parameter specifying the minimum number of measurements to be
carried out before reporting and the relative priority of the
measurement type are for example signaled by the first radio access
network 101 to the mobile terminal 103, for example via a system
information broadcast, or is signaled in course of the
establishment of a dedicated communication connection between the
mobile terminal 103 and the first base station 106.
An example for the performing of measurements according to an
embodiment of the invention is explained in the following with
reference to FIG. 5.
FIG. 5 shows a transmission gap pattern 500 according to an
embodiment of the invention.
As above, the transmission gap pattern 500 is illustrated in the
form of a plurality of radio frames 501, in this example in the
form of a periodic frame cycle consisting of 12 radio frames 501
numbered from 0 to 11. For example, a radio frame 501 has the
structure as shown in FIG. 3 according to the LTE radio frame
structure. Other frame structures are possible.
In this embodiment, the first radio access network 101, for example
an UMTS radio access network according to LTE, has configured
parameters for the mobile terminal 103 for six types of
measurements including inter frequency measurements as well as
inter RAT measurements:
Type 1: Inter frequency LTE FDD: According to this measurement
type, the reception power and/or reception quality of reference
signals of different radio cells operated by the first radio access
network 101 than the one operated by the first base station 106 is
measured, for example the reference signals transmitted by the
second base station 107.
Type 2: Inter RAT UMTS CDMA FDD: The reception power and/or
reception energy of the common pilot channel of the radio cells
operated by a radio access network according to UMTS CDMA FDD are
measured.
Type 3: Inter RAT GSM carrier RSSI: The received signal strength
indicator (RSSI) of a GSM frequency carrier in a radio cell
operated by a GSM radio access network, for example operated by the
third base station 108 is measured.
Type 4: Inter RAT GSM initial BSIC identification: The reception
power and/or reception quality of the frequency channel and the
synchronization channel of radio cells operated by a GSM radio
access network, for example operated by the third base station 108,
are measured.
Type 5: Inter RAT GSM BSIC re-confirmation: The reception power
and/or reception quality of the synchronization channel of a radio
cell operated by a GSM radio access network, for example operated
by the third base station 108, are measured.
Type 6: Inter RAT mobile WiMAX: The reception power and/or
reception quality of the reference signal of radio cells operated
according to a mobile WiMAX radio access network are measured.
In this example, it is assumed that the first radio access network
101 is operated in UMTS LTE FDD mode.
For each of the configured measurements the following parameters
are specified the number of single measurements carried out
(N.sub.mess);
transmission gap length (TGL);
the minimum number of single measurements to be carried out before
reporting (N.sub.mess.sub.--.sub.min);
the relative priority of the measurement.
Examples for the values of the parameters TGL,
N.sub.mess.sub.--.sub.min and the (relative) priority are shown for
the six measurement types in table 2.
TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Inter- UMTS GSM GSM Initial GSM BSIC
Frequency CDMA Carrier BSIC re- Mobile Parameter FDD FDD RSSI
identification confirmation WiMAX TGL (slots) 14 8 14 14 14 10
N.sub.Mess Min 4 4 4 4 4 4 Priority 1 2 3 3 3 4
The transmission gap pattern includes a first transmission gap 502,
a second transmission gap 503 and a third transmission gap 504. The
first transmission gap 502 is specified for carrying out
measurements of measurement types 1, 2 and 6, the second
transmission gap 503 is specified for carrying out measurements
according to measurement types 3 and 4 and the third transmission
gap 504 is specified for carrying out measurements according to
measurement type 5.
The first transmission gap 502 includes time slots of radio frames
with numbers 0 and 1, the second transmission gap 503 includes time
slots of radio frames with numbers 4 and 5 and the third
transmission gap 504 includes time slots of radio frames with
numbers 8 and 9. Illustratively, the transmission gaps for
measurements of measurement types 1, 2 and 6 overlap and the
transmission gaps for measurements of types 3 and 4 overlap.
For example, let at the beginning of the first transmission gap 502
the status of the measurements according to types 1, 2, 6 be:
Type 1: N.sub.mess=6
Type 2: N.sub.mess=2
Type 6: N.sub.mess=3.
It is assumed that the mobile terminal 103 has only one receiver
and that the measurement of each of the measurement types 1, 2 and
6 takes so much time that only one measurement of the types 1, 2
and 6 can be performed during the first transmission gap 502. In
this example, according to table 2, the priority of the measurement
type 1 is the highest priority among the measurement types 1, 2,
and 6 such that the mobile terminal 103 would, for example, choose
to perform a measurement of measurement type 1. However, the mobile
terminal 103 may take into account that for measurement type 1 the
minimum number of measurement to be performed until reporting has
already been reached and may choose to carry out a measurement
according to measurement type 2 for which the minimum number of
measurements to be carried out until reporting has not been reached
and which has a higher priority than measurement type 6.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with
reference to specific embodiments, it should be understood by those
skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be
made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the
invention as defined by the appended claims. The scope of the
invention is thus indicated by the appended claims and all changes
which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the
claims are therefore intended to be embraced.
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