Patent ID: 9560513
Date: 2017-01-31
CPC Classifications: H04W

Claim:
1. A method in a base station for handling a process of discovering a candidate user equipment for Device to Device, D2D, communication in a cell, which cell is served by the base station, the method comprising: receiving, from a first user equipment, an indication that the first user equipment has D2D capability; dividing a geographic area of the cell into a number of geographic regions; assigning to each one of the number of geographic regions, a D2D channel resource for D2D use in the geographic region for sending D2D beacon signals in the process of discovering the D2D candidate user equipment, wherein the assigning is performed such that: different D2D channel resources are assigned to colliding geographic regions out of the number of regions and same D2D channel resources are assigned to not colliding geographic regions out of the number of regions; sending, to the first user equipment, a first table comprising, for each geographic region of the number of geographic regions, the assigned D2D channel resource for D2D use in the geographic region; and sending, to the first user equipment, a second table comprising, for each geographic region of the number of geographic regions, an indication of a border line of the geographic region, wherein the first table identifies a first D2D channel resource to be used by the first user equipment for sending a D2D beacon signal when the first user equipment is associated with a geographical position in the first region, the D2D beacon signal to announce to a second user equipment that the first user equipment is a candidate user equipment for D2D communication, wherein the second table identifies a border line for a second geographic region to which the first user equipment has moved, and wherein the first table identifies a second D2D channel resource to be used by the first user equipment for sending the D2D beacon signal when the first user equipment has moved to a geographical position in the second region.