Infrastructure equipment, wireless communications system, communications device and methods
An infrastructure equipment for use in a wireless communications system comprising the infrastructure equipment and one or more communications devices is provided. The infrastructure equipment comprises controller circuitry and transceiver circuitry which are configured in combination to broadcast one or more synchronisation signals for use by the one or more communications devices to achieve synchronisation with a cell provided by the infrastructure equipment, and to broadcast an additional synchronisation signal, the additional synchronisation signal including an indication of a status of a first communications parameter selected from a plurality of communications parameters in accordance with conditions determined by the controller circuitry.
1. An infrastructure equipment for use in a wireless communications system comprising the infrastructure equipment and one or more communications devices, wherein the infrastructure equipment comprises controller circuitry and transceiver circuitry which are configured in combination
to broadcast one or more synchronisation signals for use by the one or more communications devices to achieve synchronisation with a cell provided by the infrastructure equipment, and
to broadcast an additional synchronisation signal, the additional synchronisation signal including an indication of a status of a first communications parameter selected from a plurality of communications parameters in accordance with conditions determined by the controller circuitry,
wherein the additional synchronisation signal comprises a plurality of bits, wherein a first portion of the plurality of bits is fixed to indicate the status of the first of the communication parameters, and a second portion of the plurality of bits is configurable by the infrastructure equipment to indicate the status of one or more others of the plurality of communication parameters.
2. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 1 , wherein the controller circuitry and transceiver circuitry are configured in combination
to broadcast one or more other additional synchronisation signals providing an indication of the status of one or more other communications parameters selected from the plurality of communications parameters in accordance with conditions determined by the controller circuitry.
3. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 2 , wherein the additional synchronisation signal comprises a different number of bits than the one or more other additional synchronisation signals.
4. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 2 , wherein the additional synchronisation signal is broadcast for a different amount of time than the one or more other additional synchronisation signals.
5. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 2 , wherein the additional synchronisation signal is broadcast in a different narrowband of a wireless access interface provided by the infrastructure equipment to a narrowband in which the one or more other additional synchronisation signals are broadcast.
6. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 1 , wherein the status of the first or the others of the plurality of the communications parameters includes one or more of an indication of a change in system information for the cell provided by the infrastructure equipment, an indication of whether a paging time window comprising a one or more paging occasions during which the one or more communications devices may be paged by the infrastructure equipment is active, and an indication of whether access for the one or more communications is currently barred for the cell.
7. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 1 , wherein the additional synchronisation signal comprises one or more bits, wherein the one or more bits are fewer than a number of bits required to indicate the status of all of the plurality of communications parameters.
8. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 1 , wherein the additional synchronisation signal is for monitoring by a subset of the one or more communications devices.
9. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 1 , wherein the additional synchronisation signal is configured to provide the indication of the status of the first communications parameter by default, and the controller circuitry is configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry
to reconfigure the additional synchronisation signal to provide an indication of the status of one or more others of the plurality of communications parameters, and
to provide an indication to the one or more communications devices that the additional synchronisation signal has been reconfigured.
10. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 9 , wherein the controller circuitry is configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry
to signal the indication that the additional synchronisation signal has been reconfigured to the one or more communications devices via system information.
11. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 9 , wherein the controller circuitry is configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry
to signal the indication that the additional synchronisation signal has been reconfigured to the one or more communications devices via Radio Resource Control configurations specific to each of the one or more communications devices.
12. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 11 , wherein the additional synchronisation signal indicates the status of a different communications parameter to different ones of the communications devices.
13. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 9 , wherein the controller circuitry is configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry
to signal a first indication that a first portion of the additional synchronisation signal has been reconfigured to the one or more communications devices via system information, and
to signal a second indication that a second portion of the additional synchronisation signal has been reconfigured to the one or more communications devices via Radio Resource Control configurations specific to each of the one or more communications devices.
14. The infrastructure equipment according to claim 1 , wherein the additional synchronisation signal is a wake-up signal, the wake-up signal providing an indication that one of the communications devices will receive a downlink message from the infrastructure equipment for the one of the communications devices to decode.
15. A method of operating an infrastructure equipment in a wireless communications system comprising the infrastructure equipment and one or more communications devices, the method comprising
broadcasting one or more synchronisation signals for use by the one or more communications devices to achieve synchronisation with a cell provided by the infrastructure equipment, and
broadcasting an additional synchronisation signal, the additional synchronisation signal including an indication of a status of a first communications parameter selected from a plurality of communications parameters in accordance with conditions determined by the infrastructure equipment,
wherein the additional synchronisation signal comprises a plurality of bits, wherein a first portion of the plurality of bits is fixed to indicate the status of the first of the communication parameters, and a second portion of the plurality of bits is configurable by the infrastructure equipment to indicate the status of one or more others of the plurality of communication parameters.
16. A communications device for use in a wireless communications system comprising an infrastructure equipment and the communications device, wherein the communications device comprises controller circuitry and transceiver circuitry which are configured in combination
to receive a first broadcast from the infrastructure equipment comprising one or more synchronisation signals for use by the communications device to achieve synchronisation with a cell provided by the infrastructure equipment,
to receive a second broadcast from the infrastructure equipment comprising an additional synchronisation signal, the additional synchronisation signal including an indication of a status of a first communications parameter selected from a plurality of communications para cars in accordance with conditions determined by the infrastructure equipment, wherein the additional synchronisation signal comprises a plurality of bits, wherein a first portion of the plurality of bits is fixed to indicate the status of the first of the communication parameters, and a second portion of the plurality of bits is configurable by the infrastructure equipment to indicate the status of one or more others of the plurality of communication parameters, and
to determine, based on the received additional synchronisation signal, the status of the communications parameter.