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:
receiving, at a user equipment (UE) and from a network element, a medium access control (MAC) control element;
determining whether the MAC control element includes a Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier; and
stopping a retransmission timer or preventing the retransmission timer from starting based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier.
2. A user equipment for discontinuous reception (DRX) operations, comprising:
a communications subsystem adapted to communicate with a network element and to further receive a medium access control (MAC) control element from the network element; and
a processor configured to
determine that the MAC control element is received,
determine whether the MAC control element includes a Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier, and
stop a retransmission timer or preventing the retransmission timer from starting based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier.
3. 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:
receiving, at a user equipment (UE) and from a network element, a medium access control (MAC) control element;
determining whether the MAC control element includes a Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process identifier; and
stopping a retransmission timer or preventing the retransmission timer from starting based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier; and
wherein the retransmission timer corresponds to the identified HARQ process.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier comprises:
determining that the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier; and
identifying the HARQ process based on the HARQ process identifier.
6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier comprises:
determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier; and
in response to determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier, identifying the HARQ process based on a number of transmissions associated with the HARQ process.
7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier comprises:
determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier; and
in response to determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier, identifying the HARQ process based on a value of the retransmission timer associated with the HARQ process.
8. The user equipment of claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured to:
identify a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier; and
wherein the retransmission timer corresponds to the identified HARQ process.
9. The user equipment of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to:
determine that the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier; and
identify the HARQ process based on the HARQ process identifier.
10. The user equipment of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to:
determine that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier; and
in response to determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier, identify the HARQ process based on a number of transmissions associated with the HARQ process.
11. The user equipment of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to:
determine that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier; and
in response to determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier, identify the HARQ process based on a value of the retransmission timer associated with the HARQ process.
12. The apparatus of claim 3 , the operations further comprising:
identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier; and
wherein the retransmission timer corresponds to the identified HARQ process.
13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier comprises:
determining that the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier; and
identifying the HARQ process based on the HARQ process identifier.
14. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier comprises:
determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier; and
in response to determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier, identifying the HARQ process based on a number of transmissions associated with the HARQ process.
15. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the identifying a HARQ process based on the determining whether the MAC control element includes the HARQ process identifier comprises:
determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier; and
in response to determining that the MAC control element does not includes the HARQ process identifier, identifying the HARQ process based on a value of the retransmission timer associated with the HARQ process.