Method and system for the control of discontinuous reception in a wireless network
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 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 control element to stop or prevent the start of a retransmission timer.
1. A method for discontinuous reception (DRX) operations, comprising:
transmitting, from a network element to a user equipment, a medium access control (MAC) control element, wherein the MAC control element includes a Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier that identifies a particular HARQ process, and the MAC control element instructs the user equipment to stop a retransmission timer of the particular HARQ process or prevent the retransmission timer of the particular HARQ process from starting.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the MAC control element is transmitted in response to determining that a preset condition has been met.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the preset condition comprises a maximum number of retries having occurred.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the MAC control element instructs the user equipment to stop the retransmission timer of the particular HARQ process.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the MAC control element instructs the user equipment to prevent the retransmission timer of the particular HARQ process from starting.
6. A network element, comprising:
a processor configured to:
determine to transmit a medium access control (MAC) control element to a user equipment; and
a communications subsystem adapted to communicate with the user equipment and to further transmit the MAC control element to the user equipment, wherein the MAC control element includes a Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier that identifies a particular HARQ process, and the MAC control element instructs the user equipment to stop a retransmission timer of the particular HARQ process or prevent the retransmission timer of the particular HARQ process from starting.
7. The network element of claim 6 , wherein the MAC control element is transmitted in response to determining that a preset condition has been met.
8. The network element of claim 7 , wherein the preset condition comprises a maximum number of retries having occurred.
9. The network element of claim 6 , wherein the MAC control element instructs the user equipment to stop the retransmission timer of the particular HARQ process.
10. The network element of claim 6 , wherein the MAC control element instructs the user equipment to prevent the retransmission timer of the particular HARQ process from starting.
11. An apparatus comprising instructions embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the instructions operable when executed to cause a computing system to perform operations comprising:
transmitting, from a network element to a user equipment, a medium access control (MAC) control element, wherein the MAC control element includes a Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier that identifies a particular HARQ process, and the MAC control element instructs the user equipment to stop a retransmission timer of the particular HARQ process or prevent the retransmission timer of the particular HARQ process from starting.
12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the MAC control element is transmitted in response to determining that a preset condition has been met.
13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the preset condition comprises a maximum number of retries having occurred.
14. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the MAC control element instructs the user equipment to stop the retransmission timer of the particular HARQ process.
15. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the MAC control element instructs the user equipment to prevent the retransmission timer of the particular HARQ process from starting.