User equipments (UES), cellular stations, and access control methods thereof

1. A User Equipment (UE), comprising:

a wireless transceiver, configured to perform wireless transmission and reception to and from a cell; and

a controller, configured to receive first barring information and second barring information from the cell via the wireless transceiver, ignore the first barring information in response to the UE supporting network-based Cell-specific Reference Signal (CRS) interference mitigation, and allow the UE to access the cell in response to the UE supporting network-based CRS interference mitigation and the second barring information indicating that the cell is not barred.

2. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to not allow the UE to access the cell in response to the UE supporting network-based CRS interference mitigation and the second barring information indicating that the cell is barred.

3. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to ignore the second barring information in response to the UE not supporting network-based CRS interference mitigation, not allow the UE to access the cell in response to the UE not supporting network-based CRS interference mitigation and the first barring information indicating that the cell is barred, and allow the UE to access the cell in response to the UE not supporting network-based CRS interference mitigation and the first barring information indicating that the cell is not barred.

4. The UE of claim 3 , wherein the controller is further configured to receive reselection information from the cell via the wireless transceiver, and not allow the UE to reselect to other cells on the same frequency that the cell is on in response to the UE not supporting network-based CRS interference mitigation, the first barring information indicating that the cell is barred, and the reselection information indicating that intra-frequency reselection is not allowed.

5. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the first barring information and the second barring information are received in a broadcast message.

6. The UE of claim 5 , wherein the broadcast message is a System Information Block (SIB) type 1 message.

7. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the cell is a 4G cell utilizing a Long Term Evolution (LTE)-based technology.

8. An access control method, executed by a User Equipment (UE) communicatively connected to a cell, the access control method comprising:

receiving first barring information and second barring information from the cell;

ignoring the first barring information in response to the UE supporting network-based Cell-specific Reference Signal (CRS) interference mitigation; and

allowing the UE to access the cell in response to the UE supporting network-based CRS interference mitigation and the second barring information indicating that the cell is not barred.

9. The access control method of claim 8 , further comprising:

not allowing the UE to access the cell in response to the UE supporting network-based CRS interference mitigation and the second barring information indicating that the cell is barred.

10. The access control method of claim 8 , further comprising:

ignoring the second barring information in response to the UE not supporting network-based CRS interference mitigation;

not allowing the UE to access the cell in response to the UE not supporting network-based CRS interference mitigation and the first barring information indicating that the cell is barred; and

allowing the UE to access the cell in response to the UE not supporting network-based CRS interference mitigation and the first barring information indicating that the cell is not barred.

11. The access control method of claim 10 , further comprising:

receiving reselection information from the cell; and

not allowing the UE to reselect to other cells on the same frequency that the cell is on in response to the UE not supporting network-based CRS interference mitigation, the first barring information indicating that the cell is barred, and the reselection information indicating that intra-frequency reselection is not allowed.

12. The access control method of claim 8 , wherein the first barring information and the second barring information are received in a broadcast message.

13. The access control method of claim 12 , wherein the broadcast message is a System Information Block (SIB) type 1 message.

14. The access control method of claim 8 , wherein the cell is a 4G cell utilizing a Long Term Evolution (LTE)-based technology.

15. An access control method, executed by a cellular station forming a cell to serve a User Equipment (UE), the access control method comprising:

setting first barring information to indicate that the cell is barred for UEs not supporting network-based Cell-specific Reference Signal (CRS) interference mitigation and setting second barring information to indicate whether the cell is barred for UEs supporting network-based CRS interference mitigation, in response to the cellular station enabling network-based CRS interference mitigation; and

sending the first barring information and the second barring information to the UE.

16. The access control method of claim 15 , wherein the first barring information and the second barring information are sent in a broadcast message.

17. The access control method of claim 16 , wherein the broadcast message is a System Information Block (SIB) type 1 message.

18. The access control method of claim 15 , wherein the cell is a 4G cell utilizing a Long Term Evolution (LTE)-based technology.