Method and system for the control of discontinuous reception in a wireless network
View Patent ↗Methods and apparatus for controlling discontinuous reception on a mobile device and in particular to control a short discontinuous reception timer in response to receipt of a medium access control element. The methods and apparatus include stopping, restarting or maintaining the short discontinuous reception timer. Methods and apparatus for limiting or stopping a retransmission timer by providing user equipment with a maximum retry value for transmissions, by providing a maximum redundant version value, or by providing a medium access control element to stop or prevent the start of a retransmission timer.
1. A method for configuring a discontinuous reception (DRX) period for a user equipment from an evolved Node B (eNB) comprising:
determining whether a precondition has been met, wherein the precondition is at least one of a low traffic volume for the user equipment, a lack of uplink and downlink transmissions for the user equipment, or a likely transition of the user equipment to another cell;
when the precondition has been met, send a medium access control (MAC) control element for a long DRX period; and
when the precondition has not been met, maintaining a short DRX period.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the maintaining step utilizes a preconfigured DRX configuration on the user equipment.
3. An evolved Node B, comprising:
a communication system;
a memory; and
a processor configured to:
configure a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode for a user equipment;
determine whether a precondition has been met, wherein the precondition is at least one of a low traffic volume for the user equipment, a lack of uplink and downlink transmissions for the user equipment, or a likely transition of the user equipment to another cell;
when the precondition has been met, send, through the communications subsystem, a medium access control (MAC) control element for a long DRX period; and
when the precondition has not been met, maintain a short DRX period.
4. The evolved Node B of claim 3 , wherein the processor is configured to use a preconfigured DRX configuration on the user equipment to maintain the short DRX period.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the MAC control element is identified by a logical channel identifier (ID) value.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the evolved Node B operates in a long term evolution (LTE) infrastructure.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the short DRX period comprises a short DRX cycle.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the long DRX period comprises a long DRX cycle.
9. The evolved Node B of claim 3 , wherein the MAC control element is identified by a logical channel identifier (ID) value.
10. The evolved Node B of claim 3 , wherein evolved Node B operates in a long term evolution (LTE) infrastructure.
11. The evolved Node B of claim 3 , wherein the short DRX period comprises a short DRX cycle.
12. The evolved Node B of claim 3 , wherein the long DRX period comprises a long DRX cycle.
13. An apparatus comprising instructions embodied on a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium, the instructions operable when executed to cause a computing system to perform operations comprising:
determining whether a precondition has been met, wherein the precondition is at least one of a low traffic volume for the user equipment, a lack of uplink and downlink transmissions for the user equipment, or a likely transition of the user equipment to another cell;
when the precondition has been met, send a medium access control (MAC) control element for a long DRX period; and
when the precondition has not been met, maintaining a short DRX period.
14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the maintaining step utilizes a preconfigured DRX configuration on the user equipment.
15. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the MAC control element is identified by a logical channel identifier (ID) value.
16. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the short DRX period comprises a short DRX cycle.
17. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the long DRX period comprises a long DRX cycle.