Method and system for efficient DRX operation during handover in LTE

1. A method for an efficient discontinuous reception (‘DRX’) operation during handover in a Long Term Evolution (‘LTE’) system in which a user equipment expects handover to occur from an enhanced Node B (‘eNB’), the method comprising:

deciding, at the eNB, whether a handover is to occur;

if the eNB decided that no handover is to occur,

receiving at the user equipment from the eNB a message indicating that no handover will occur, within a predetermined time period; and

maintaining a normal DRX cycle at the user equipment;

if the eNB decided that a handover is to occur, performing at the user equipment the steps of:

(1) ensuring the user equipment is not in a DRX sleep period during reception of a handover grant; and

(2) checking whether the handover grant is received, and

if the handover grant is received, performing a handover procedure; and

if the handover grant is not received, resuming the normal DRX cycle.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of ensuring the user equipment is not in the DRX sleep period utilizes an extended DRX awake period.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, at the eNB, signaling the handover decision to the user equipment.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising, after said resuming step, receiving updated measurement control information for the handover procedure.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending of a measurement report from the user equipment to the eNB.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising at the user equipment the step of, on the sending of the measurement report, entering a continuous channel monitoring.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the eNB decides the handover is to occur based on a parameter in a measurement report being above or below a predetermined threshold.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of receiving, at the user equipment from the eNB, a short DRX cycle.

9. The method of claim 4 , further comprising the steps of, at the user equipment: entering the short DRX cycle, wherein the short DRX cycle has a length set based on a value that is one of received from the eNB or pre-configured; and wherein the value is predetermined and stored on the eNB.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising at the user equipment, on the receiving of the message indicating that no handover will occur, the step of ending channel monitoring.

11. A system for an efficient discontinuous reception (‘DRX’) operation during handover in a Long Term Evolution (‘LTE’) system comprising a user equipment and an enhanced node B (‘eNB’), the system comprising at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:

decide at the eNB whether a handover is to occur;

if the eNB decided that no handover is to occur,

receive at the user equipment from the eNB a message indicating that no handover will occur, within a predetermined time period; and maintain a normal DRX cycle at the user equipment;

if the eNB decided that handover is to occur, the user equipment being configured to:

(1) ensure the user equipment is not in a DRX sleep period during reception of a handover grant; and

(2) check whether the handover grant is received, and

if the handover grant is received, perform a handover procedure; and if the handover grant is not received, resume the normal DRX cycle.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor at the user equipment is configured to ensure that the user equipment is not in the DRX sleep period by utilizing an extended DRX awake period.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the processor at the user equipment is further configured to receive updated measurement control information for the handover procedure.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor at the user equipment is further configured to send a measurement report to the eNB.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the processor at the user equipment is further configured, on the sending of the measurement report, to enter a continuous channel monitoring.

16. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor at the eNB is configured to decide whether the handover is to occur based on a parameter in a measurement report being above or below a predetermined threshold.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor at the user equipment is further configured to receive, at the user equipment from the eNB, a short DRX cycle.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein

the processor at the user equipment is further configured to enter the short DRX cycle, wherein the short DRX cycle has a length set based on a value that is one of received from the eNB or pre-configured;

wherein the value is predetermined and stored on the eNB.

19. The system of claim 11 , the processor at the user equipment is further configured, on the receiving of the message indicating that no handover will occur, to end channel monitoring.