Separate reporting of RF and BB capabilities of a mobile user equipment in a wireless communications system supporting carrier aggregation
An inventive UE carrier aggregation (CA) capability reporting signalling model allows UEs ( 30 ) aggregating large numbers of component carriers to transmit CA-relevant capabilities to the network more efficiently than the current (legacy) signalling model. Rather than reporting CA/MIMO/CSI/NAICS capabilities separately for each supported band combination, including fallback configurations, embodiments of the present invention either report UE Radio Frequency (RF) and Baseband (BB) related capabilities separately, or report them disassociated from CA band configurations. This approach avoids the need to signal the full UE ( 30 ) set of capabilities for each of (possibly many) supported band combinations. Furthermore, fallback capabilities are signalled implicitly, eliminating the need to transmit this data.
1. A method of communicating carrier aggregation (CA) capabilities from User Equipment (UE) to a node in a wireless communication network, the method comprising:
separately transmitting, to the node, CA capabilities relating to the UE radio frequency (RF) operation and CA capabilities relating to the UE baseband (BB) operation;
wherein the RF capabilities comprise a number of supported frequency bands and a number of MIMO layers supported; and
wherein the BB capabilities comprise an indication of the aggregated bandwidth supported and an indication of the Channel State Information (CSI) process complexity supported.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, prior to the separately transmitting RF and BB capabilities:
transmitting, to the node, an indication that separate RF and BB capability transmission is supported by the UE;
receiving, in response to the indication that separate RF and BB capability transmission is supported, an indication from the node that reception of separate RF and BB capability transmission is supported by the node.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the RF capabilities comprise information on either the maximum or minimum number of supported MIMO layers for at least one of:
each supported frequency band;
each supported frequency band combination;
each supported frequency band combination set; and
for each supported frequency band, indicated per bandwidthclass.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the RF capabilities further comprise an indication of supported inter-band combinations comprising a SupportedInterbandCombinations list indicating, for each supported frequency band, properties related to inter-band combinations.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the RF capabilities further comprise an indication of supported intra-band combinations, including at least one of: a number of sub-blocks supported, an indication of a bandwidthclass in the sub-blocks supported, and supported bandwidth combination sets.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the supported bandwidth combination sets are indicated by a SupportedIntrabandCombinations list indicating, for each supported frequency band, the supported non-CA carrier bandwidths, the supported intra-band contiguous CA carriers, and the supported intra-band non-contiguous CA carriers.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication of the aggregated bandwidth supported comprises the maximum number of component carriers supported.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication of the aggregated bandwidth supported comprises the aggregated bandwidth, comprising sums of the full bandwidth for each component carrier, supporting each number of MIMO layers supported.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication of the aggregated bandwidth supported comprises the aggregated bandwidth, comprising sums of the full bandwidth for each component carrier, supporting each number of CSI processes supported.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the BB capabilities transmitted to the node comprise one or more of: the relative complexity of each supported MIMO and bandwidth configuration to a predetermined basic configuration, information on the predetermined basic configuration, and the aggregated relative complexity for the UE.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the BB capabilities transmitted to the node comprise the relative complexity of each supported number of CSI processes and bandwidth configuration to a predetermined basic configuration.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the BB capabilities transmitted to the node comprise the relative complexity of each supported number of network assisted interference cancellation processes and bandwidth configuration to a predetermined basic configuration.
13. The method of claim 1 :
wherein CA capabilities reported to the node represent the maximum capability supported by the UE;
wherein the UE fully supports any lesser CA capability included in the reported CA capabilities; and
wherein the UE does not explicitly signal fallback capabilities.
14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising requesting measurement gaps for inter-frequency or inter-RAT measurements for a list of frequency bands that are requested by the network as part of a network requested band combination procedure.
15. A method, by a node in a wireless communication network, of obtaining carrier aggregation (CA) capabilities from User Equipment (UE), the method comprising:
receiving separately transmitted CA capabilities relating to the UE radio frequency (RF) operation and CA capabilities relating to the UE baseband (BB) operation;
wherein the RF capabilities comprise the number of supported frequency bands and number of MIMO layers supported; and
wherein the BB capabilities comprise an indication of the aggregated bandwidth supported and an indication of the Channel State Information (CSI) process complexity supported; and
utilizing the received CA capabilities relating to RF or BB operation of a UE to configure or execute one or more radio operational or radio resource management tasks.
16. A User Equipment (UE) operative in a wireless communication network comprising a plurality of network nodes, the UE comprising:
one or more antennas;
a transceiver operatively connected to the one or more antennas; and
baseband processing circuitry operatively connected to the transceiver and operative to cause the transceiver to separately transmit, to a network node, carrier aggregation (CA) capabilities relating to the UE radio frequency (RF) operation and CA capabilities relating to the UE baseband (BB) operation;
wherein the RF capabilities comprise the number of supported frequency bands and number of MIMO layers supported; and
wherein the BB capabilities comprise an indication of the aggregated bandwidth supported and an indication of the Channel State Information (CSI) process complexity supported.
17. A node operative in a wireless communication network providing carrier aggregation (CA) service to one or more User Equipment (UE), the node comprising:
one or more antennas;
a transceiver operatively connected to the one or more antennas; and
processing circuitry operatively connected to the transceiver and operative to:
cause the transceiver to receive, from a UE, separately transmitted CA capabilities relating to the UE radio frequency (RF) operation and CA capabilities relating to the UE baseband (BB) operation; and
utilize the received CA capabilities relating to RF or BB operation of the UE to configure or execute one or more radio operational or radio resource management tasks;
wherein the RF capabilities comprise the number of supported frequency bands and number of MIMO layers supported; and
wherein the BB capabilities comprise an indication of the aggregated bandwidth supported and an indication of the Channel State Information (CSI) process complexity supported.