PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-12015994-B2
Application Number: US-202017593678-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Paging false alarm mitigation at a user equipment

Abstract:
A user equipment (UE) operates in a network. The UE receives, from the network, a paging area comprising a plurality of cells of the network. When the UE is in one of a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or RRC idle state with respect to the network, the UE transmits a message to a first cell of the paging area based on the UE moving into a first coverage area of the first cell from a second coverage area of a second cell of the paging area. The UE then monitors the first cell for a page from the network.

Claims:
What is claimed: 
     
       1. A method, comprising:
 at a user equipment (UE) operating in a network:
 receiving, from the network, a paging area comprising a plurality of cells of the network; 
 when the UE is in one of a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or RRC idle state with respect to the network, transmitting a message to a first cell of the paging area based on the UE moving into a first coverage area of the first cell from a second coverage area of a second cell of the paging area, wherein the message is transmitted by the UE for every predetermined number of cell coverage area changes; and 
 monitoring the first cell for a page from the network. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the message is transmitted by the UE each time the UE moves to a coverage area of a different cell. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the predetermined number is configured by the network. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the message comprises one of a UE-specific scheduling request (SR) or a UE-triggered random access channel (RACH) procedure. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving an RRC message comprising the predetermined number of cell coverage area changes. 
 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving a non-access stratum (NAS) message comprising the predetermined number of cell coverage area changes. 
 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the predetermined number of cell coverage area changes is 2. 
     
     
       8. A user equipment (UE), comprising:
 a transceiver; and 
 a processor configured to: 
 receive, from a network, a paging area comprising a plurality of cells of the network; 
 when the UE is in one of a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or RRC idle state with respect to the network, generate a message to be transmitted a first cell of the paging area based on the UE moving into a first coverage area of the first cell from a second coverage area of a second cell of the paging area, wherein the message is transmitted by the UE for every predetermined number of cell coverage area changes, 
 wherein the transceiver transmits the message to the first cell. 
 
     
     
       9. The UE of  claim 8 , wherein the message is transmitted by the UE each time the UE moves to a coverage area of a different cell. 
     
     
       10. The UE of  claim 8 , wherein the predetermined number is configured by the network. 
     
     
       11. The UE of  claim 8 , wherein the message comprises one of a UE-specific scheduling request (SR) or a UE-triggered random access channel (RACH) procedure. 
     
     
       12. The UE of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 receiving an RRC message comprising the predetermined number of cell coverage area changes. 
 
     
     
       13. The UE of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 receiving a non-access stratum (NAS) message comprising the predetermined number of cell coverage area changes. 
 
     
     
       14. The UE of  claim 8 , wherein the predetermined number of cell coverage area changes is 2. 
     
     
       15. A user equipment (UE), comprising:
 a transceiver configured to connect to one or more cells of a network; and 
 a processor configured to:
 generate, when the UE is in a radio resource control (RRC) connected state with the network, a message including a mobility state of the UE, wherein the mobility state comprises one of a moving state or a stationary state; 
 when the mobility state comprises the moving state, generate movement information for the UE that is transmitted to the network, wherein the movement information comprises a projected path of the UE; 
 transition the UE to one of a RRC Inactive state or an RRC Idle state with respect to the network; and 
 monitoring one or more cells of the network for a page. 
 
 
     
     
       16. The UE of  claim 15 , wherein the message is transmitted as part of one of an access stratum (AS) procedure or a non-access stratum (NAS) procedure.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     In 5G new radio (NR) wireless communications, a user equipment (UE) may enter a radio resource control (RRC) Idle mode or an RRC Inactive mode at various times to optimize power consumption at the UE. When the UE is in the RRC Idle mode, the UE does not exchange any data with the 5G NR network. The UE switches to an RRC connected mode by establishing a connection with a next generation NodeB (gNB) of the 5G NR network to exchange data with the network. If there is no activity at the UE for a period of time, the UE can suspend its RRC session by moving to the RRC Inactive mode, during which a minimal amount of data is exchanged with the 5G NR network. 
     One type of information that a UE may receive while in an RRC Idle or Inactive mode is paging transmissions. Paging transmissions may notify the UE that the network has data or messages (e.g., short messages) for the UE (e.g., voice call, system information changes, earthquake and tsunami warning system (ETWS), commercial mobile alert service (CMAS) indications, etc.). Paging messages may be sent to the UE over a paging control channel (PCCH) and short messages may be sent to the UE over a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). To receive a paging message, the UE may monitor one or more paging occasion (PO) on the PDCCH for each paging discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle. 
     There are two types of paging areas: a core network (CN) initiated paging area and a radio access network (RAN) initiated paging area. In the CN-initiated paging area, an access and mobility management function (AMF) of the 5G network may assign each UE a registration area during a non-access stratum (NAS) registration procedure when the UE is initially in an RRC Idle state. The registration area may be defined as a set of non-overlapping tracking areas, each of which includes one or more cells (gNBs) that cover a geographical area. In the RAN-initiated paging area, a UE in the RRC Inactive state may be configured by the last serving gNB with a RAN-based notification area (RNA). The RNA can cover one or more cells and may be contained within the CN registration area discussed above. 
     For a UE to receive a paging message, the UE receives and demodulate the PDCCH, blindly decodes the PDCCH, receives and demodulates the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), decodes the PDSCH, and processes the paging message. The power consumption of the UE increases with an increased number of received false alarm paging messages. Such false alarms may occur due to the fact that multiple UEs share the same PO in a given area and, as such, a given UE may receive a paging message not intended for it. The larger the paging area, the more of a chance that false alarms will occur since the number of UEs increase as the paging area increases. The network may attempt a paging transmission multiple times to reduce the paging signaling overhead. This procedure may include the network beginning with a small paging area and increasing the size of the paging area with each subsequent paging attempt if no paging response is received for a given attempt. 
     SUMMARY 
     Some exemplary embodiments are related to a method performed by a user equipment (UE) operating in a network. The method includes receiving, from the network, a paging area comprising a plurality of cells of the network, when the UE is in one of a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or RRC idle state with respect to the network, transmitting a message to a first cell of the paging area based on the UE moving into a first coverage area of the first cell from a second coverage area of a second cell of the paging area and monitoring the first cell for a page from the network. 
     Other exemplary embodiments are related to a user equipment (UE) having a transceiver and a processor. The processor is configured to receive, from a network, a paging area comprising a plurality of cells of the network and, when the UE is in one of a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state or RRC idle state with respect to the network, generate a message to be transmitted a first cell of the paging area based on the UE moving into a first coverage area of the first cell from a second coverage area of a second cell of the paging area. The transceiver is configured to transmit the message to the first cell. 
     Still further exemplary embodiments are related to a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a radio resource control (RRC) connected state with a cell of a network. The method includes transmitting a message including a mobility state of the UE to the cell, wherein the mobility state comprises one of a moving state or a stationary state, transitioning to one of a RRC Inactive state or an RRC Idle state with respect to the network and monitoring one or more cells of the network for a page. 
     Additional exemplary embodiments are related to a user equipment (UE) having a transceiver and a processor. The transceiver is configured to connect to one or more cells of a network. The processor is configured to generate, when the UE is in a radio resource control connected state with the network, a message including a mobility state of the UE, wherein the mobility state comprises one of a moving state or a stationary state, transition the UE to one of a RRC Inactive state or an RRC Idle state with respect to the network and monitoring one or more cells of the network for a page. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    shows an exemplary network arrangement according to various exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG.  2    shows an exemplary UE according to various exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG.  3    shows a signaling diagram illustrating a first paging procedure according to various exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG.  4    shows a signaling diagram illustrating a second paging procedure according to various exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG.  5    shows a signaling diagram illustrating a third paging procedure according to various exemplary embodiments. 
         FIG.  6    shows a signaling diagram illustrating a fourth paging procedure according to various exemplary embodiments. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The exemplary embodiments may be further understood with reference to the following description and the related appended drawings, wherein like elements are provided with the same reference numerals. The exemplary embodiments describe a device, system and method to reduce or eliminate false alarm paging messages received by a user equipment (UE). 
     The exemplary embodiments are described with regard to a UE. However, the use of a UE is merely for illustrative purposes. The exemplary embodiments may be utilized with any electronic component that may establish a connection with a network and is configured with the hardware, software, and/or firmware to exchange information and data with the network. Therefore, the UE as described herein is used to represent any electronic component. 
     The exemplary embodiments are also described with regard to a network that includes 5G new radio NR radio access technology (RAT). However, in some embodiments, the network may also include other cellular access networks (e.g., a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) RAT, a legacy RAT, etc.) and/or non-cellular access networks (e.g., 802.XX networks, WiFi, etc.), even though the following description will focus primarily on a 5G NR RAT. 
     As noted above, an increase in the number of false alarm paging messages received by a UE will increase power consumption at the UE. The paging area optimization described above where the paging area is increased if a response is not received is inefficient for various reasons. Firstly, paging latency is increased due to the various transmission attempts of the same paging message. Additionally, the smaller paging areas are not driven by any meaningful information regarding a UE moving route. 
     According to exemplary embodiments, the UE may provide information to the 5G NR network regarding the UE&#39;s movement to improve the accuracy of the reduced paging area described above. In some exemplary embodiments, this information may include the latest cell (gNB) on which the UE is camped prior to switching to an RRC Inactive or Idle state. In some exemplary embodiments, the UE may provide moving route information to the 5G NR network. Based on the information provided by the UE, the network may select which cell or cells should be used to forward the paging message to the UE. 
     Another issue that increases the number of false alarm paging messages received by a UE is the numerous UEs monitoring the same paging occasion (PO) in a given area. As noted above, the more UEs monitoring the PO, the greater the chance that one or more of those UEs process a paging message not intended for that UE. 
     According to some exemplary embodiments, the 5G NR network may configure the discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle during which a UE actively monitors for a paging message. As such, different UEs may be configured with different DRX cycles during which the UEs should monitor the PDCCH for a paging signal. The number of UEs monitoring the same PO is, therefore, reduced. 
       FIG.  1    shows an exemplary network arrangement  100  according to various exemplary embodiments. The exemplary network arrangement  100  includes a UE  110 . It should be noted that any number of UE may be used in the network arrangement  100 . Those skilled in the art will understand that the UE  110  may alternatively be any type of electronic component that is configured to communicate via a network, e.g., mobile phones, tablet computers, desktop computers, smartphones, phablets, embedded devices, wearables, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, etc. It should also be understood that an actual network arrangement may include any number of UEs being used by any number of users. Thus, the example of a single UE  110  is merely provided for illustrative purposes. 
     The UE  110  may be configured to communicate with one or more networks. In the example of the network configuration  100 , the networks with which the UE  110  may wirelessly communicate are a 5G New Radio (NR) radio access network (5G NR-RAN)  120 , an LTE radio access network (LTE-RAN)  122  and a wireless local access network (WLAN)  124 . However, it should be understood that the UE  110  may also communicate with other types of networks and the UE  110  may also communicate with networks over a wired connection. Therefore, the UE  110  may include a 5G NR chipset to communicate with the 5G NR-RAN  120 , an LTE chipset to communicate with the LTE-RAN  122  and an ISM chipset to communicate with the WLAN  124 . 
     The 5G NR-RAN  120  and the LTE-RAN  122  may be portions of cellular networks that may be deployed by cellular providers (e.g., Verizon, AT&amp;T, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc.). These networks  120 ,  122  may include, for example, cells or base stations (Node Bs, eNodeBs, HeNBs, eNBS, gNBs, gNodeBs, macrocells, microcells, small cells, femtocells, etc.) that are configured to send and receive traffic from UE that are equipped with the appropriate cellular chip set. The WLAN  124  may include any type of wireless local area network (WiFi, Hot Spot, IEEE 802.11x networks, etc.). 
     The UE  110  may connect to the 5G NR-RAN  120  via the gNB  120 A and/or the gNB  120 B. Those skilled in the art will understand that any association procedure may be performed for the UE  110  to connect to the 5G NR-RAN  120 . For example, as discussed above, the 5G NR-RAN  120  may be associated with a particular cellular provider where the UE  110  and/or the user thereof has a contract and credential information (e.g., stored on a SIM card). Upon detecting the presence of the 5G NR-RAN  120 , the UE  110  may transmit the corresponding credential information to associate with the 5G NR-RAN  120 . More specifically, the UE  110  may associate with a specific base station (e.g., the gNB  120 A of the 5G NR-RAN  120 ). 
     In addition to the networks  120 ,  122  and  124  the network arrangement  100  also includes a cellular core network  130 , the Internet  140 , an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)  150 , and a network services backbone  160 . The cellular core network  130  may be considered to be the interconnected set of components that manages the operation and traffic of the cellular network. The cellular core network  130  also manages the traffic that flows between the cellular network and the Internet  140 . The IMS  150  may be generally described as an architecture for delivering multimedia services to the UE  110  using the IP protocol. The IMS  150  may communicate with the cellular core network  130  and the Internet  140  to provide the multimedia services to the UE  110 . The network services backbone  160  is in communication either directly or indirectly with the Internet  140  and the cellular core network  130 . The network services backbone  160  may be generally described as a set of components (e.g., servers, network storage arrangements, etc.) that implement a suite of services that may be used to extend the functionalities of the UE  110  in communication with the various networks. 
       FIG.  2    shows an exemplary UE  110  according to various exemplary embodiments. The UE  110  will be described with regard to the network arrangement  100  of  FIG.  1   . The UE  110  may represent any electronic device and may include a processor  205 , a memory arrangement  210 , a display device  215 , an input/output (I/O) device  220 , a transceiver  225  and other components  230 . The other components  230  may include, for example, an audio input device, an audio output device, a battery that provides a limited power supply, a data acquisition device, ports to electrically connect the UE  110  to other electronic devices, one or more antenna panels, etc. For example, the UE  110  may be coupled to an industrial device via one or more ports. 
     The processor  205  may be configured to execute a plurality of engines of the UE  110 . For example, the engines may include a paging management engine  235 . The paging management engine  235  may perform various operations related to paging reception such as, for example, processing a paging message, notifying the network  100  of the UE&#39;s mobility, etc. 
     The above referenced engine being an application (e.g., a program) executed by the processor  205  is only exemplary. The functionality associated with the engine may also be represented as a separate incorporated component of the UE  110  or may be a modular component coupled to the UE  110 , e.g., an integrated circuit with or without firmware. For example, the integrated circuit may include input circuitry to receive signals and processing circuitry to process the signals and other information. The engines may also be embodied as one application or separate applications. In addition, in some UE, the functionality described for the processor  205  is split among two or more processors such as a baseband processor and an applications processor. The exemplary embodiments may be implemented in any of these or other configurations of a UE. 
     The memory arrangement  210  may be a hardware component configured to store data related to operations performed by the UE  110 . The display device  215  may be a hardware component configured to show data to a user while the I/O device  220  may be a hardware component that enables the user to enter inputs. The display device  215  and the I/O device  220  may be separate components or integrated together such as a touchscreen. The transceiver  225  may be a hardware component configured to establish a connection with the 5G NR-RAN  120 , the LTE-RAN  122 , the WLAN  124 , etc. Accordingly, the transceiver  225  may operate on a variety of different frequencies or channels (e.g., set of consecutive frequencies). 
       FIG.  3    shows a signaling diagram  300  illustrating a first paging procedure according to various exemplary embodiments. In the exemplary embodiment of  FIG.  3   , the network uses information about which cell the UE  110  was last camped on to target paging transmissions and reduce paging false alarms. The components represented in  FIG.  3    include the UE  110 , network cells  301 - 303  and access and mobility management function (AMF)  304 . It should be understood that UE  110  may represent any UE. The network cells  301 - 303  may be, for example, gNB  122 A, gNB  122 B and another gNB associated with the 5G NR RAN  120 . The AMF  304  may be considered a functionality implemented by the core network  130 . Generally, the AMF  304  is responsible for connection and mobility management tasks (e.g., UE handovers between gNBs). In addition, the AMF  304  may be responsible for providing paging information to the appropriate gNBs for the gNBs to transmit the pages over the air (OTA). 
     In the example of  FIG.  3   , it may be considered that the paging area for the UE  110  includes the cells  301 - 303 . This means that when there is a page for UE  110 , the AMF  304  will forward the page to each of the cells in the paging area, e.g., cells  301 - 303 . As will be described in greater detail below, the UE  110  may send notifications as the UE  110  moves from coverage area to coverage area of the cells  301 - 303  of the paging area. The UE  110  may be made aware of the cells in the paging area to which the UE  110  is to send notifications based on configuration information provided to the UE via RRC signaling or NAS signaling. 
     Further, it should be considered that in the scenario of  FIG.  3   , the UE  110  is not in a connected state with the network (e.g., the UE  110  is in an RRC Idle state or an RRC Inactive state) when the pages are transmitted. For example, when the page is transmitted by the corresponding cell  301 - 303  at  320 ,  340  or  360 , the UE  110  will not be in a connected state. Those skilled in the art will understand that, for example, if the UE  110  receives the page from cell  301  at  320 , the UE  110  will likely transition to a connected state to receive the data that is associated with the page. However, for the purposes of the signaling diagram  300 , it should be considered that the UE  110  is not in a connected state when the pages are to be transmitted by the network. 
     As illustrated in  FIG.  3   , at  305  the UE  110  receives an RRC release signal from the cell  301  on which the UE  110  is currently camped. This will cause the UE  110  to switch to an RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state at  310 . At  315 , the AMF  304  of the core network  130  has a page for the UE  110  and sends a paging transmission to all of the cells  301 - 303  in the paging area for the UE  110 . However, in this exemplary embodiment, at  320 , only the cell on which the UE was last camped (e.g., cell  301 ) will transmit the page. 
     It should be understood that when the page is only transmitted by cell  301 , the UEs that are camped on cells  302  and  303  will not receive the page that is not intended for those other UEs (e.g., because it is intended for UE  110 ), thereby preventing the other UEs from a receiving a paging false alarm. Thus, by intelligently selecting which cell should transmit the page for the UE  110 , multiple paging false alarms are avoided. 
     At  325 , the UE  110  moves to the coverage area of another cell (e.g., cell  302 ). To ensure that the network is aware of the movement of the UE to a different cell, the UE  110 , at  330 , may transmit a UE-specific scheduling request (SR) to or initiate a random access channel (RACH) procedure with the cell  302 . As a result, the network is now aware that the UE  110  is in the coverage area of cell  302 . Thus, when the AMF  304  sends a paging transmission at  335  to the cells  301 - 303  of the paging area for the UE  110 , only the cell  302  will transmit the page at  440 . Similar to the scenario discussed above, the UEs that are monitoring POs of cells  301  and  303  will not receive a paging false alarm related to a page for UE  110  because those cells  301  and  303  will not transmit the page. 
     Similarly, at  345  the UE  110  moves to the coverage area of another cell (e.g., cell  303 ). Again, to ensure that the network is aware of the movement of the UE  110 , at  350 , the UE  110  transmits a UE-specific SR to or initiates a RACH procedure with the cell  303 . As a result, the network is now aware that the UE  110  has moved to cell  303 . Thus, when the AMF  304  sends a paging transmission at  355  to all of the cells  301 - 303  of the paging area for the UE  110 , only the cell  303  transmits the page at  360 . Again, this will reduce the number UEs that erroneously receive the paging transmission intended for the UE  110  because the network is aware of the cell on which the UE  110  is camped and targets the transmission of the paging message to the UE  110  via that cell. 
       FIG.  4    shows a signaling diagram  400  illustrating a second paging procedure according to various exemplary embodiments. The process depicted in  FIG.  4    is similar to that of  FIG.  3   . However, in the example of  FIG.  4   , the UE  110  does not inform the network of every move to a new cell. Instead, the UE  110  reports movement for every N cell changes. In the example of signaling diagram  400 , instead of reporting every cell change to the network, the UE  110  may report movement every N=2 cell changes. Given this information, the network will forward a paging message to the UE  110  via the last cell on which the UE  110  was camped as well as neighboring cell(s) as will be described in greater detail below. The network may configure the value of N for the UE  110 , e.g., via RRC signaling or NAS signaling. 
     In signaling diagram  400 , the components may be considered to be similar to the components as described above with respect to signaling diagram  300 , including UE  110 , cells  401 - 403  and AMF  404 . In addition, it may be considered that cell  401  has cell  402  as a neighbor, cell  402  has cells  401  and  403  as neighbors and cell  403  has cell  402  as a neighbor. 
     As illustrated in  FIG.  4   , at  405  the UE  110  receives an RRC release signal from the cell  401  on which the UE  110  is currently camped. This causes the UE  110  to switch to an RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state at  410 . At  415 , the AMF  404  of the core network  130  sends a paging transmission to all of the cells  401 - 403  of the paging area for the UE  110 . In this example, since the UE  110  was last camped on cell  401 , the page is transmitted, at  420 , by the cell  401  and its neighbor cell  402 . 
     At  425 , it may be considered that the UE  110  moves to the coverage area of another cell (e.g., cell  402 ). However, in contrast to the signaling diagram  300  of  FIG.  3   , the UE  110  does not notify the network of this movement. As described above, in this example, the UE  110  has been configured to report a cell change to the network for every N=2 cell changes. Since the change at  425  is a first cell change (e.g., N=1), the UE  110  will not report the cell change. At  430 , the AMF  304  sends a paging transmission to all of the cells  401 - 403  of the paging area of the UE  110 . Since no movement information has been relayed to the network, at  435 , the cells  401  and  402  will transmit the page. Since the UE  110  has been configured to report its movement for every N cell change, the network is aware that the UE  110  is within N cells of the last known cell on which the UE  110  was camped. As such, forwarding the paging transmission via cell  401  (the last camped cell) and cell  402  (the neighbor cell) achieves a reduction in the paging area (cell  403  does not transmit the page) while also reducing power consumption associated with reporting the movement of the UE  110 . 
     At  440 , the UE moves to the coverage area of another cell (e.g., cell  403 ). As noted above, in this example, the UE  110  is configured report its movement every N=2 cell changes. Since this is the second cell change, at  445 , the UE  110  transmits a UE-specific SR to or initiates a RACH procedure with the cell  403  to indicate the cell change to the network. As a result, the network is now aware that the UE  110  has moved to the coverage area of cell  403 . Thus, when the AMF  404  sends a paging transmission at  450  to all of the cells  401 - 403  of the paging area for UE  110 , only cell  403  and the neighbor cell  402  transmit the page at  455 . 
       FIG.  5    shows a signaling diagram  500  illustrating a third paging procedure according to various exemplary embodiments. In this example, it may be considered that the current paging area for the UE  110  includes five (5) cells  501 - 505 . In this exemplary embodiment, the UE  110  will provide the network with information regarding movement of the UE  110 . The network may then use this movement information to select one or more cells on which to transmit the page. The movement information may be, for example, a route that the UE  110  is going to travel, e.g., a route of a train from point A to point B, a driving route from a user&#39;s home to the user&#39;s office, etc. The movement information may include any information suitable to inform the network of possible cells for which the UE  110  may enter a coverage area. To provide a further example, if, while in the connected state, the UE  110  is moving east from one cell to the next, the movement information may allow the network to eliminate cells further west or remote from a projected path of the UE  110  when determining which cells should be used to forward the paging transmission to the UE  110 . 
     It should be understood that there may be many manners for the UE  110  to determine movement or potential movement information and the manner in which the UE  110  determines the movement information is outside the scope of this disclosure. For the purposes of signaling diagram  500 , it may be considered that the UE  110  has determined the movement information and is reporting that movement information to the network. 
     In the signaling diagram  500 , the UE  110  is initially in an RRC Connected state. Prior to switching to an RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state, the UE  110 , at  510 , transmits the movement information to the currently camped cell, e.g., cell  501 , via, for example AS or NAS signaling. At  515 , the cell  501  forwards the movement information to the AMF  506 . At  520 , the UE  110  receives an RRC release signal from the cell  501  and switches to an RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state at  525 . 
     At a later time, the AMF  506  has a page for the UE  110 . As described above, the AMF  506  has previously received the movement information for the UE  110 . The AMF  506  (or another component of the core network  130 ) may use this movement information to select a set of cells that matches the likely route of the UE  110 . In the example of signaling diagram  500 , the AMF  506  may determine that the subset of cells of the paging area for the UE  110  based on the movement information includes cells  501 - 503 . However, cells  504  and  505  of the paging area are excluded from this subset. At  530 , the AMF  506  of the core network  130  sends a paging transmission to the cells of the subset, e.g., cells  501 - 503 . At  535 , the cells  501 - 503  that received the paging information from the AMF  506  may transmit the page. 
     In other exemplary embodiments, the determination of the subset of cells may be transmitted to the individual cells such that each cell understands whether the cell should transmit a page for a particular UE. In these exemplary embodiments, at  530  the AMF  506  may send the paging transmission to all the cells of the paging area for the UE  110 , e.g., cells  501 - 505 . Then, at  535 , only the cells  501 - 503  of the subset as determined by the information received by the cells for the UE  110  may transmit the page. 
       FIG.  6    shows a signaling diagram  600  illustrating a fourth paging procedure according to various exemplary embodiments. Again, the signaling diagram  600  includes the UE  110 , network cells  601 - 603  and AMF  604 . In the example of signaling diagram  600 , the UE  110  provides a mobility state to the network and the network may then use this mobility state to select the cells of the paging area with which to page the UE  110 . 
     In the signaling diagram  600 , the UE  110  is initially in an RRC Connected state. Prior to switching to an RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state, the UE  110 , at  605 , transmits an indication of a mobility state of the UE  110  to the currently camped cell (e.g., cell  601 ). The indication may be transmitted, for example, via NAS or AS signaling. The mobility state may include any number of states, for example, stationary, moving, etc. At  610 , the cell  601  forwards the mobility information the AMF  604 . At  615 , the UE  110  receives an RRC release signal from the currently camped cell  601  and the UE  110  switches to an RRC Idle or RRC Inactive state at  620 . 
     When the UE  110  reports the mobility state in  605 , the UE  110  may also report the movement information as described above with respect to signaling diagram  500 . The movement information may be sent when the mobility state is moving. The procedure for paging the UE  110  when it is in the moving mobility state may be the same as described above with reference to any of signaling diagrams  300 - 500 . 
     However, the signaling diagram  600  focuses on the scenario where the UE  110  has reported a stationary mobility state. At  625 , the AMF  504  of the core network  130  sends a paging transmission to all of the cells of the paging area for the UE  110 . However, because the UE  110  has reported that the mobility state is stationary, only the last cell to which the UE  110  was connected will transmit the page. In the example of signaling diagram  600 , the last connected cell is cell  601 . Thus, at  630 , the cell  601  transmits the page. 
     The above exemplary embodiments may reduce the number of false alarm paging transmissions received and processed by UEs by reducing the size of the paging area. In some embodiments, the network  100  may alternatively reduce the number of UEs monitoring the same PO by modifying the DRX cycles of the UEs. As a result of the modifications, the number of UEs monitoring a given PO is reduced due to the different times that the UEs are monitoring the PDCCH. 
     In some embodiments, the network  100  may configure the UEs  110  such that different UEs use one of three different types of paging DRX cycles: 1.) a default DRX cycle configured by RRC; 2.) a UE-specific DRX cycle configured by the non-access stratum (NAS) signaling; or 3.) a RAN DRX cycle configured by RRC. 
     In some embodiments, the network  100  may alternatively configure a UE-specific offset to determine a UE-specific paging frame (PF) and PO. The PO may be based on the network configuration and the UE ID. To reduce the number of UEs monitoring a PO, the network  100  may configure an offset for each UE so that when the UE calculates its PF and PO, the UE adds the network configured offset specific to that UE. This results in a distribution of a plurality of UEs among the POs. 
     In some embodiments, the network  100  may alternatively directly configure where each UE will receive the paging. That is, the network  100  may configure an entirely new paging DRX configuration via NAS or access stratum (AS) signaling. In some embodiments, the new paging DRX configuration would no longer based on the UE ID, but instead on the network configuration. For example, the network  100  can base this new paging DRX configuration on the number of registered UEs to achieve a better distribution of UEs among the POs. 
     Although this application described various embodiments each having different features in various combinations, those skilled in the art will understand that any of the features of one embodiment may be combined with the features of the other embodiments in any manner not specifically disclaimed or which is not functionally or logically inconsistent with the operation of the device or the stated functions of the disclosed embodiments. 
     It is well understood that the use of personally identifiable information should follow privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining the privacy of users. In particular, personally identifiable information data should be managed and handled so as to minimize risks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use should be clearly indicated to users. 
     Those skilled in the art will understand that the above-described exemplary embodiments may be implemented in any suitable software or hardware configuration or combination thereof. An exemplary hardware platform for implementing the exemplary embodiments may include, for example, an Intel x86 based platform with compatible operating system, a Windows OS, a Mac platform and MAC OS, a mobile device having an operating system such as iOS, Android, etc. In a further example, the exemplary embodiments of the above described method may be embodied as a program containing lines of code stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium that, when compiled, may be executed on a processor or microprocessor. 
     It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made in the present disclosure, without departing from the spirit or the scope of the disclosure. Thus, it is intended that the present disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalent.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20200721
Publication Date: 20240618
Grant Date: 20240618
Priority Date: 20200721
Inventors: XU, FANGLI
ZHANG, DAWEI
HU, HAIJING
SHIKARI, MURTAZA A.
VANGALA, SARMA V.
Gurumoorthy, Sethuraman
LOVLEKAR, SRIRANG A.
ZENG, WEI
KIM, YUCHUL
CHEN, YUQIN
WU, ZHIBIN
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "H04W68/06", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W76/27", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "Y02D30/70", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W76/27", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W68/02", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W68/06", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W68/02", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W68/06", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W76/27", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 79729032