CN107113781B

CN107113781B - Method, equipment and system for supporting multimedia broadcast multicast service transmission

Info

Publication number: CN107113781B
Application number: CN201580072128.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张屹; 李元杰; 唐臻飞; 王婷
Original assignee: Zhuji Yuanchang Information Technology Consulting Service Department
Current assignee: Zhuji Yuanchang information technology consulting service department
Priority date: 2014-12-31
Filing date: 2015-12-31
Publication date: 2020-08-04
Anticipated expiration: 2035-12-31
Also published as: CN107113575A; WO2016107600A1; CN107113575B; WO2016106755A1; CN107113781A

Abstract

The invention discloses a method, equipment and a system for supporting multimedia broadcast multicast service transmission. The method comprises the following steps: the wireless access equipment generates MIB, and the MIB contains at least one of the following information: SIB configuration indication information, SIB change indication information, and MCCH change indication information; the SIB comprises information for indicating the configuration of the MBSFN area MA, the configuration indication information of the SIB is used for indicating the configuration of the SIB, the change indication information of the SIB is used for indicating whether the SIB is changed, and the change indication information of the MCCH is used for indicating whether the MCCH is changed; the wireless access device scrambles the MIB with an MA identity and broadcasts the MIB scrambled by the MA identity. By adopting the technical scheme of the embodiment of the invention, the actual deployment is more convenient, and the transmission resources can be saved.

Description

Method, equipment and system for supporting multimedia broadcast multicast service transmission

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communication technologies, and in particular, to a method, a device, and a system for supporting multimedia broadcast multicast service transmission.

Background

In a wireless communication network, a user can enjoy communication services by accessing a wireless network based on an access function provided by a wireless access device. Taking a mobile communication network as an example, after a User Equipment (UE) establishes a connection with a Base Station (BS), the network usually establishes a point-to-point unicast bearer for the user to provide user-level communication services, such as voice call, video on demand, file download, and the like.

With the rapid popularization of smart phones and tablet computers, the demands of users on data services such as mobile video services and application program downloading are increasing day by day, and the data traffic borne by the network is also rising rapidly. At this time, if the unicast bearer manner is used, a large amount of unicast bearers will occupy a large amount of network resources, which easily causes a network congestion problem. In order to better adapt to these application scenarios, Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) is in the process of being delivered. MBMS can provide the same content to multiple users simultaneously by establishing a single-point to multipoint multicast bearer. Therefore, the method is particularly suitable for scenes with concentrated user interest, such as: live broadcast of major events, customized video push, application update, and the like.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a prior art mobile communication network, which includes one or more base stations. Each base station manages one or more cells (cells), and in fig. 1, one base station manages one cell as an example. Each cell is distributed with a plurality of user equipments, which can be connected with the base station through air interface, and can enjoy communication service after accessing the cell. Taking sports live as an example, assume that multiple user devices request a sports live service at the same time. As shown in the upper left of fig. 1, the base station may transmit live sports video content to a plurality of user equipments (UE 1, UE 2, UE 3) via a plurality of point-to-point unicast bearers, respectively. Because different unicast bearers occupy different network resources, if the number of user equipment is too large or the network resources are limited, video jamming or interruption easily occurs, which affects the service experience of the user. As shown in the lower left of fig. 1, the base station may also transmit the same video content to multiple user equipments (UE 1 ', UE 2 ', UE 3 ') simultaneously via one unicast-to-multicast bearer. Due to the occupied network resources of the multicast bearer, it hardly changes as the number of user equipments increases. Therefore, the service experience of the user can be effectively guaranteed, and the utilization rate of the network resources is higher when the number of the user equipment is larger.

In a long term evolution (L TE) system, MBMS transmission includes a single cell transmission mode and an MBMS single frequency network (MBSFN) transmission mode, MBSFN transmission refers to the same radio resource configuration in multiple cells and the same data content is transmitted at the same time, as shown in fig. 1, cell 2 and cell 3 may use the same radio resource configuration, and the same video content is transmitted at the same time by base station 1, base station 2 and base station 3, so that when a user equipment (UE4) receives video content, signals from multiple cells, like multipath signals from one cell, effectively overcome inter-cell interference.

In L TE, MBMS is also called evolved MBMS (eMBMS for short), and the concept of MBSFN synchronization area (MBSFN area for short: MA) is defined in L TE for supporting MBSFN transmission, base stations in MBSFN synchronization area can keep time synchronization and perform MBSFN transmission, all cells on a single carrier of one base station can only belong to one MBSFN synchronization area, MBSFN transmission takes MA as unit, MA is composed of some cells in MBSFN synchronization area, and all cells belonging to the MBSFN MA complete transmission cooperatively.

Fig. 2 is a diagram illustrating MBMS application in the prior art. As shown in fig. 2, one MBSFN synchronization area includes three MAs (MA 1, MA2, MA 3). Where MA1 includes three cells, MA2 includes seven cells, and MA 3 includes two cells. MA1 and MA2 partially overlap, and MA2 and MA 3 are adjacent. Here, cell 2 and cell 3 belong to both MA1 and MA 2.

In the currently deployed L TE system, MBMS transmission is usually implemented in the form of a hybrid carrier, a Cell participating in MBMS transmission configures radio resources in a time-division multiplexing manner, and the same carrier can support both MBMS transmission and Unicast transmission, this type of Cell is called an MBMS/Unicast-mixed Cell (MBMS/Unicast-mixed Cell), a user equipment needs to synchronize with the Cell before receiving MBMS data and then acquire control information related to MBMS data.

In addition, in the early L TE standard discussion, it is also considered that MBMS transmission is implemented in the form of dedicated carriers, and a cell can exclusively use one carrier for MBMS transmission, which may be referred to as an MBMS dedicated carrier.

In the prior art, synchronization schemes for MBMS dedicated carriers are also discussed. For example, by means of the existing downlink synchronization scheme of the cell, the MBMS dedicated carrier is added in the cell, and the MBMS dedicated carrier and the existing carrier of the cell are set to maintain downlink synchronization. After the user equipment is synchronized with the cell, the synchronization with the MBMS special carrier can be realized. However, this solution has more limitations in practical deployment, and requires that the range of the MBMS dedicated carrier is smaller than or equal to the coverage of the existing cell.

In addition, there is also a scheme that a MBMS dedicated carrier is configured as a carrier that only supports MBSFN transmission, and it is considered that the original cell concept needs to be discussed again at this time, and the method of configuring the synchronization channel and the broadcast channel in units of cells is not applicable. Instead, the scheme suggests configuring the synchronization channel and the broadcast channel in units of MAs. In other words, the same synchronization signal is transmitted within the same MA, the synchronization signal carries the unique identification of the MA, and different synchronization signals are transmitted between different MAs. For the case of MA overlap, e.g., a larger MA is composed of multiple smaller MAs, the coverage of the larger MA is accomplished by a combination of the coverage of the smaller MAs. This larger MA itself does not need to configure the synchronization channel or the broadcast channel separately. If the user equipment needs to access this larger MA, this can be done by detecting the broadcast channel and control channel of these smaller MAs.

However, in practical deployment, this scheme still has certain limitations. On the one hand, considering that the coverage of this larger MA needs to depend on the respective coverage of these smaller MAs, and that there is mutual interference between different MAs, the coverage of each MA should be considered to be worst case. For the coverage requirement of the broadcast channel, the solution proposes the same coverage requirement as for the MBMS/unicast hybrid cell. Therefore, in practical deployment, the coverage requirement of the network is high. On the other hand, this scheme may not be applicable for the case where MAs partially overlap. Taking fig. 2 as an example, MA1 and MA2 in fig. 2 partially overlap. Since MA2 is not composed of multiple other MAs, if this scheme is simply followed, with synchronization channels configured only in MA1 and MA 3, the coverage of MA2 may be compromised. To avoid this, the configuration of the MA may need to be planned in advance, which also causes certain limitations in actual deployment.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of this, embodiments of the present invention provide a method, device and system for supporting MBMS transmission, so as to facilitate the actual deployment of MBMS transmission.

Specifically, the embodiment of the invention can be realized by the following technical scheme:

in a first aspect, a wireless access device supporting MBMS transmission for a multimedia broadcast multicast service is provided, where the wireless access device manages a first cell, and the first cell belongs to a first MBMS single frequency network area MA, and the wireless access device includes:

a wireless interface, a transmitter connected with the wireless interface, and a processor connected with the transmitter; wherein the processor is configured to control the wireless access device to:

acquiring a MBMS synchronous identifier; generating an MBMS synchronization signal according to the MBMS synchronization identifier; and broadcasting the MBMS synchronization signal based on the preconfigured radio resource; wherein the MBMS synchronization identity, the preconfigured radio resource are also applicable to a second cell, the second cell belongs to a second MA, and the first MA is different from the second MA.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the MBMS synchronization identifier is a second MA identifier, and the first cell belongs to the second MA; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the second MA contains a greater number of cells than the first MA; alternatively, the second cell covers a larger geographical area than the first cell.

With reference to the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the MBMS synchronization identifier is a second MA identifier, and the first cell does not belong to the second MA.

With reference to the first aspect, the first possible implementation manner, or the second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the wireless access device is a base station, and the base station further includes a first receiver; the processor is configured to control the wireless access device to acquire an MBMS synchronization identifier, and includes:

the processor is configured to communicate with the first receiver to: and the base station receives a first configuration message sent by core network equipment, wherein the first configuration message comprises the MBMS synchronous identification.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first configuration message is an MBMS scheduling information message; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

when the MBMS synchronization identifier is a second MA identifier and the first cell does not belong to the second MA, the second MA identifier is an identifier which is added in addition to the existing first MA identifier in the MBMS scheduling information message and is used for generating an MBMS synchronization signal;

when the MBMS synchronization identifier is a second MA identifier and the first cell belongs to the second MA, the MBMS scheduling information message further includes: information for instructing the wireless access device to generate an MBMS synchronization signal according to the second MA identity.

With reference to the first aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the wireless access device is an MBMS broadcast device, the MBMS broadcast device is a broadcast device deployed for MBMS transmission, and the MBMS broadcast device includes a first memory, where a code for indicating the MBMS synchronization identifier is stored in the first memory; the processor is configured to control the wireless access device to acquire an MBMS synchronization identifier, and includes:

the processor is configured to read a code in the first memory for indicating the MBMS synchronization identity.

With reference to the first aspect, any one of the first to fifth possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the wireless access device includes:

a second memory having stored therein a code indicating the pre-configured radio resource; and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

a second receiver, configured to receive a second configuration message sent by a core network device, where the second configuration message is used to initialize or update the preconfigured radio resource;

wherein, when the wireless access equipment is MBMS broadcast equipment, the second memory is the same as or different from the first memory; when the wireless access device is a base station, the second receiver is the same as or different from the first receiver.

With reference to the first aspect, any one of the first to sixth possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of the first aspect,

the pre-configured radio resource is specified by a communication protocol, and a frame structure of the pre-configured radio resource is different from a frame structure of a radio resource for unicast transmission.

In a second aspect, a core network device supporting MBMS transmission is provided, where the core network device is connected to a first wireless access device and a second wireless access device, respectively, the first wireless access device manages a first cell, the second wireless access device manages a second cell, the first cell belongs to a first MBMS single frequency network area MA, the second cell belongs to a second MA, the first MA is different from the second MA, and the core network device includes:

a wired interface, a transmitter, and a processor; wherein the processor is to communicate with the transmitter and the wired interface to cause the core network device to:

sending a first MBMS synchronization identifier to the first radio access equipment; sending a second MBMS synchronization identifier to the second wireless access equipment; the first MBMS synchronization identifier and the second MBMS synchronization identifier are the same MBMS synchronization identifier, and the MBMS synchronization identifier is used for generating an MBMS synchronization signal.

With reference to the second aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the processor is configured to communicate with the transmitter and the wired interface to cause the core network device to:

when the first cell belongs to the second MA and the second MA contains more cells than or equal to the first MA; or, when the first cell belongs to the second MA and the geographic area covered by the second cell is greater than or equal to the first cell;

and determining that the second MA is a main MA, wherein the identification of the main MA is used as the MBMS synchronous identification.

With reference to the second aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the MBMS synchronization identifier is a second MA identifier; and, the first cell does not belong to the second MA.

With reference to the second aspect, the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, or the second possible implementation manner, in a third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the core network device is a multicast coordination entity, and the first MBMS synchronization identifier is sent through an MBMS scheduling information message; when the first cell does not belong to the second MA, the second MA identifier is an identifier which is added in addition to the existing first MA identifier in the MBMS scheduling information message and is used for generating an MBMS synchronous signal; when the first cell belongs to the second MA, the MBMS scheduling information message further includes: information for instructing the wireless access device to generate an MBMS synchronization signal according to the second MA identity.

With reference to the second aspect and any one of the first possible implementation manner to the third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the processor is configured to communicate with the transmitter and the wired interface, so that the core network device: and sending indication information to the first wireless access device and the second wireless access device so that the first wireless access device and the second wireless access device configure the same wireless resource for the MBMS synchronization signal.

In a third aspect, there is further provided a communication system, including: a radio access device as provided in any of the above first aspect and various possible implementations, and a core network device as provided in any of the above second aspect and various possible implementations.

In a fourth aspect, a communication system is further provided, where the communication system supports MBMS transmission, the communication system includes a first wireless access device and a second wireless access device, the first wireless access device manages a first cell, the second wireless access device manages a second cell, the first cell belongs to a first MBMS single frequency network area, MA, the second cell belongs to a second MA, the first MA is different from the second MA, and the first wireless access device is configured to: acquiring a first MBMS synchronous identifier; generating a first MBMS synchronization signal according to the first MBMS synchronization identifier; broadcasting the first MBMS synchronization signal based on a preconfigured first radio resource; the second wireless access device is configured to: acquiring a second MBMS synchronous identification; generating a second MBMS synchronization signal according to the second MBMS synchronization identifier; broadcasting the second MBMS synchronization signal based on a pre-configured second radio resource;

wherein the first MBMS synchronization identifier and the second MBMS synchronization identifier are the same MBMS synchronization identifier, and the preconfigured first radio resource and the preconfigured second radio resource are the same radio resource.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the communication system further includes:

a core network device respectively connected to the first radio access device and the second radio access device, configured to: sending the first MBMS synchronization identifier to the first radio access equipment; and sending the second MBMS synchronization identification to the second wireless access equipment.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the MBMS synchronization identifier is a second MA identifier; and, the first cell does not belong to the second MA.

With reference to the first possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the core network device is configured to:

when the second MA contains more or equal number of cells than the first MA; or, when the geographic area covered by the second cell is larger than or equal to the first cell;

With reference to the fourth aspect and any one of the first to third possible implementation manners, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the core network device is a multicast coordination entity, and the first MBMS synchronization identifier is sent through an MBMS scheduling information message;

when the first cell does not belong to the second MA, the second MA identifier is an identifier which is added in addition to the existing first MA identifier in the MBMS scheduling information message and is used for generating an MBMS synchronous signal;

when the first cell belongs to the second MA, the MBMS scheduling information message further includes: information for instructing the wireless access device to generate an MBMS synchronization signal according to the second MA identity.

With reference to the fourth aspect and any one of the first to the fourth possible implementation manners, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the fourth aspect, the core network device is configured to:

and sending indication information to the first wireless access device and the second wireless access device so that the first wireless access device and the second wireless access device configure the same wireless resource for the MBMS synchronization signal.

In a fifth aspect, a method for supporting Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) transmission is further provided, including:

a wireless access device acquires an MBMS synchronous identifier, manages a first cell, and belongs to a first MBMS single frequency network area MA;

the wireless access equipment generates an MBMS synchronous signal according to the MBMS synchronous identification;

the wireless access equipment broadcasts the MBMS synchronization signal based on the pre-configured wireless resource;

wherein the MBMS synchronization identity, the preconfigured radio resource are also applicable to a second cell, the second cell belongs to a second MA, and the first MA is different from the second MA.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the MBMS synchronization identifier is a second MA identifier, and the first cell belongs to the second MA; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the MBMS synchronization identifier is a second MA identifier, and the first cell does not belong to the second MA.

With reference to the fifth aspect, the first possible implementation manner or the second possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, if the wireless access device is a base station, the acquiring, by the wireless access device, an MBMS synchronization identifier includes:

and the base station receives a first configuration message sent by core network equipment, wherein the first configuration message comprises the MBMS synchronous identification.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the first configuration message is an MBMS scheduling information message; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

With reference to the fifth aspect, the first possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, or the second possible implementation manner, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the wireless access device is an MBMS broadcast device, the MBMS broadcast device is a broadcast device deployed for MBMS transmission, and a code used for indicating the MBMS synchronization identifier is stored in the MBMS broadcast device; the acquiring, by the wireless access device, the MBMS synchronization identifier includes:

and the MBMS broadcasting equipment reads an internally stored code for indicating the MBMS synchronous identification.

With reference to the fifth aspect and any one of the first to fifth possible implementation manners of the fifth aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the method further includes: the MBMS broadcasting apparatus reads a code stored internally for indicating the preconfigured radio resource; and/or receiving a second configuration message sent by a core network device, wherein the second configuration message is used for initializing or updating the preconfigured radio resources.

In a sixth aspect, a method for supporting MBMS transmission of a multimedia broadcast multicast service is further provided, where the method is applied to a core network device, the core network device is connected to a first radio access device and a second radio access device, the first radio access device manages a first cell, the second radio access device manages a second cell, the first cell belongs to a first MBMS single frequency network area MA, the second cell belongs to a second MA, and the first MA is different from the second MA, and the method includes: sending a first MBMS synchronization identifier to the first radio access equipment; sending a second MBMS synchronization identifier to the second wireless access equipment; the first MBMS synchronization identifier and the second MBMS synchronization identifier are the same MBMS synchronization identifier, and the MBMS synchronization identifier is used for generating an MBMS synchronization signal.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect, the method further includes: the core network device is used for determining whether the first cell belongs to the second MA or not, and if the first cell belongs to the second MA, the second MA contains more cells than or equal to the first MA; or, when the first cell belongs to the second MA and the geographic area covered by the second cell is greater than or equal to the first cell; and determining that the second MA is a main MA, wherein the identification of the main MA is used as the MBMS synchronous identification.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect, the MBMS synchronization identifier is a second MA identifier; and, the first cell does not belong to the second MA.

With reference to the sixth aspect, the first possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect, or the sixth possible implementation manner, in a third possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect, the core network device is a multicast coordination entity, and the first MBMS synchronization identifier is sent through an MBMS scheduling information message; when the first cell does not belong to the second MA, the second MA identifier is an identifier which is added in addition to the existing first MA identifier in the MBMS scheduling information message and is used for generating an MBMS synchronous signal; when the first cell belongs to the second MA, the MBMS scheduling information message further includes: information for instructing the wireless access device to generate an MBMS synchronization signal according to the second MA identity.

With reference to the sixth aspect and any one of the first possible implementation manner to the third possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the core network device sends indication information to the first radio access device and the second radio access device, so that the first radio access device and the second radio access device configure the same radio resources for the MBMS synchronization signal.

In a seventh aspect, a user equipment supporting MBMS transmission of a multimedia broadcast multicast service is further provided, where the user equipment includes:

a memory, a receiver, and a processor connected to the memory and the receiver, respectively; wherein the memory stores code for indicating an MBMS synchronization signal and code for indicating radio resources occupied by the MBMS synchronization signal, and the processor is configured to communicate with the memory and the receiver to cause the user equipment to:

searching for the MBMS synchronization signal based on the MBMS synchronization channel; and analyzing the MBMS synchronization signal to obtain an MBMS synchronization identifier carried by the MBMS synchronization signal, wherein the MBMS synchronization identifier is an identifier of an MBMS single frequency network (MA).

With reference to the first aspect to the seventh aspect and any one of various possible implementation manners, the MBMS synchronization signal and the synchronization signal supporting unicast transmission have the same structure but different values; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the frame structure of the wireless resource occupied by the MBMS synchronization signal is different from the frame structure of the wireless resource occupied by the synchronization signal supporting unicast transmission.

In an eighth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, which stores computer program code, which, when executed by a processor or a processing unit, may cause a wireless access device to perform the method provided by the fifth aspect and any of various possible implementations, or cause a core network device to perform the method provided by the sixth aspect and any of various possible implementations. The computer program code may further cause a wireless access device or a user equipment to perform the method as provided in the ninth aspect below and any of its various possible implementations when executed by a processor or processing unit.

It should be noted that, for the method provided by any one of the fifth aspect and various possible implementation manners, or the method provided by any one of the sixth aspect and various possible implementation manners, an implementation manner based on a hardware module, a software module, or a module combining software and hardware may also be provided. For example, the transmitter may be replaced by a transmitting module or a transmitting unit, the receiver may be replaced by a receiving module or a receiving unit, the processor may be replaced by a processing module or a processing unit, and the memory may be replaced by a storage module or a storage unit.

By adopting the technical scheme provided by the embodiments of the invention, compared with the existing MBSFN transmission, the method and the device are more convenient in actual deployment, can realize that multiple MAs cooperatively transmit the same MBMS synchronous signal, can improve the coverage of the synchronous signal and can save transmission resources. In some optional embodiments, when the MBMS identifier is the second MA identifier, for a cell in the second MA, the second MA identifier does not need to be transmitted in the system message, which may further save resource overhead. In other optional embodiments, the MBMS synchronization identifier is transmitted through a configuration message, and the preconfigured radio resources are initialized or updated, which is more flexible and convenient, but needs to occupy certain network resources. In comparison, in some other alternative embodiments, the MBMS synchronization identifier and the radio resource are pre-agreed by a protocol or pre-configured by a built-in memory, so that certain network resources can be saved, but if the configuration needs to be changed, the configuration is relatively cumbersome.

Furthermore, for the dedicated carrier MBMS, there is also no clear way in the 3GPP protocol how to inform the user equipment about the configuration of the dedicated carrier MBMS. In view of the above, the present invention also considers the configuration of MBMS transmission by Master Information Block (MIB) and System Information Block (SIB), and provides the following technical solutions:

in a ninth aspect, a method for supporting Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) transmission is also provided, which may be applied to interaction between a wireless access device and a user equipment. From the perspective of the wireless access device, the method comprises the following steps: the wireless access equipment generates a master information block MIB, and broadcasts the MIB. From the perspective of user equipment, the method comprises the following steps: the user equipment carries out downlink synchronization and receives the MIB broadcast by the wireless access equipment.

Wherein the MIB comprises at least one of the following information: the method comprises the following steps that configuration indication information of a System Information Block (SIB), change indication information of the SIB and change indication information of an MBMS Control Channel (MCCH) are included, the SIB comprises information used for indicating configuration of an MBMS single frequency network (MBSFN) area (MA), the configuration indication information of the SIB is used for indicating the configuration of the SIB, the change indication information of the SIB is used for indicating whether the SIB is changed, and the change indication information of the MCCH is used for indicating whether the MCCH is changed. Whether the SIB is changed may include whether the content of the SIB bearer is changed or not, and may also include whether the configuration of the SIB is changed or not. Similarly, whether the MCCH is changed may include whether the content of the MCCH is changed or may also include whether the configuration of the MCCH is changed.

For example, the MIB may only include configuration indication information of SIBs; or, the configuration indication information of the SIB, the change indication information of the SIB, may be included at the same time; alternatively, the SIB configuration indication information, SIB change indication information, and MCCH change indication information may be included at the same time.

In the implementation, 1bit can be used for indicating whether SIB is changed or not, and 1bit can be used for indicating whether MCCH is changed or not. For example, if the SIB changes, the bit is set to 1, otherwise it is set to 0. And if the UE receives the indication of the SIB information change, re-receiving new SIB information. If the MCCH is changed, the bit is set to 1, otherwise, the bit is set to 0. If the MCCH is changed, the UE needs to re-receive the MCCH.

As an optional implementation manner, the change indication information of the SIB and/or the change indication information of the MCCH may also be carried in the MIB in preference to the configuration indication information of the SIB. The "priority" herein may refer to whether or not to carry or may refer to the order of the carrying positions. The former, for example, the MIB carries the change indication information of the SIB, and if the configuration of the SIB has not changed from the previous period, the MIB capacity is limited, or other considerations may be taken into consideration, the SIB configuration indication information may not need to be carried. For example, after receiving the MIB, the UE firstly obtains the change indication information of the SIB through analysis, and then obtains the configuration indication information of the SIB through analysis.

Correspondingly, for User Equipment (UE), after receiving the MIB, the UE can determine the configuration of the SIB through the configuration indication information of the SIB, further receive the SIB, and obtain the configuration information about MA carried in the SIB, thereby successfully completing the subsequent MBMS transmission; through the change indication information of the SIB in the MIB, the UE can determine whether the SIB is changed; through the change indication information of the MCCH in the MIB, the UE may determine whether the MCCH is changed. In cooperation with the scheme in the previous paragraph, if the UE determines that the SIB is not changed through the change indication information of the SIB, since the MIB and the SIB can be configured to be periodically transmitted, the UE may not need to continuously analyze the configuration indication information of the SIB or even receive the SIB, thereby saving the calculation overhead of the UE and also saving power consumption.

In the prior art, for the mixed carrier MBMS, the MIB message broadcast by the base station usually only contains the system bandwidth and the system frame number information. The configuration information of the SIB is transmitted through a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), and the PDCCH occupies certain transmission resources, which are usually the first several symbols of a subframe. In contrast, in the technical solutions provided in the ninth aspect and possible implementation manners, the configuration information of the SIB may be transmitted through the MIB. Because MIB is difficult to replace and there are a few reserved bits not yet used in current MIB. Therefore, by adopting the technical scheme, for MBMS transmission, particularly special carrier MBMS transmission, PDCCH does not need to be designed or occupied, and certain transmission resources are saved.

With reference to the ninth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the broadcasting, by the wireless access device, the MIB includes: the wireless access device scrambles the MIB with an MA identity and broadcasts the MIB scrambled by the MA identity. Accordingly, the user equipment descrambles the MIB with the same MA identity (MIB scrambled by the MA identity).

With reference to the ninth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the ninth aspect, in another possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the wireless access device scrambles the SIBs with MA identities and broadcasts SIBs scrambled with the MA identities. Accordingly, the user equipment descrambles the SIB with the same MA identification (SIB scrambled by the MA identification).

Generally, in a mobile communication system, a ue needs to complete downlink synchronization before receiving an MIB and an SIB.

In one possible implementation manner, the user equipment receives an MBMS synchronization signal broadcasted by the wireless access device to acquire an MBMS synchronization identifier, where the MBMS synchronization identifier may be an identifier of an MBMS single frequency network area MA.

Regarding the synchronization process and its related concept (such as MBMS synchronization identifier or MA identifier), the behavior of the wireless access device, the behavior of the implicit or explicit user equipment, can combine the aforementioned aspects and possible implementations thereof to form a more sophisticated solution. As an example, the receiving, by the user equipment, an MBMS synchronization signal broadcasted by the wireless access device to acquire an identity of an MA may include:

the user equipment monitors an MBMS synchronization channel and detects an MBMS synchronization signal based on sequence correlation so as to determine an MBMS synchronization identifier used for generating the MBMS synchronization signal, wherein the MBMS synchronization identifier is an MA identifier; wherein information indicating the MBMS synchronization channel and information indicating a sequence employed in the sequence correlation detection are stored in the user equipment in advance.

In an implementation, the MBMS synchronization channel and the sequence used in the sequence correlation detection may be agreed by a communication standard protocol.

For example, the user equipment respectively performs correlation operation with a received signal by using a local group of ZC sequences, when the correlation of certain ZC sequences meets a synchronization condition (for example, a correlation value exceeds a threshold), downlink synchronization can be realized, and the MBMS synchronous identifier or the MA identifier is determined based on the ZC sequences.

In the above two possible implementations, the MA identities used for scrambling the MIB and for scrambling the SIBs may be the same or different. The MA identity used by the wireless access device to scramble the MIB and/or SIB may be obtained with reference to any of the first, fourth, and fifth aspects described above and various possible implementations thereof. Of course, if MA identities are not used, the wireless access device may also scramble using MBMS synchronization identities in any of the foregoing cases, which may be used for multiple wireless access devices, especially neighboring wireless access devices, at the same time. Accordingly, the user equipment descrambles with the same MBMS synchronization identity.

For example, in one possible implementation, the wireless access device receives a configuration message sent by a core network device, where the configuration message includes the MA identifier. Optionally, the method further comprises: and the wireless access equipment generates and broadcasts an MBMS synchronous signal according to the MA identification.

As an implementation, the wireless access device may be an eNB, the core network device may be an MCE, and the two devices communicate through an M2 interface, and the configuration message may be an M2 setup response (M2 setup response), and an eNB configuration update acknowledgement (eNB configuration update acknowledgement).

Further, optionally, the MA indicated by the MA identifier is one of all MAs in which the wireless access device participates, and the configuration message further includes: information for instructing the wireless access device to generate an MBMS synchronization signal according to the MA identity; alternatively, the MA indicated by the MA identifier is a MA other than all MAs in which the wireless access device participates.

In the prior art, for a mixed carrier MBMS, MIB and SIB are both sent at cell granularity. The MIB and SIB information of each cell are scrambled by a cell identifier (cell ID) of the cell, so for a UE accessing a certain cell, when receiving the MIB of the current cell, the MIB information of other cells is interference, which may cause a reduction in the signal-to-interference-noise ratio of the UE and poor reception performance.

In contrast, in the above possible implementation of the present invention, it is considered that the contents of MIB and SIB information transmitted by each cell are actually the same in one MBSFN area. Therefore, the wireless access device scrambles the MIB and/or SIB using the MA identity (or MBMS synchronization identity) to transmit the same MIB and/or SIB. For the UE, the MIB and the SIB transmitted by multiple wireless access devices may be combined, thereby improving the received signal quality.

When a wireless access device participates in multiple MBSFN Areas (MAs), each MA may have a different configuration for transmitting different content. To inform the user equipment about the configuration of these MAs, two implementations can be considered: one SIB is used to indicate the configuration of one MA; alternatively, one SIB is used to indicate the configuration of multiple MAs, which may be all or part of the MAs in which the wireless access device participates.

The above-described wireless access device "participates in" multiple MAs, and may be understood to refer to multiple MAs in/on "," to "or" supported by "the wireless access device. The specific meaning of the method can be that the existing cell concept is adopted, and one or more cells managed by the wireless access equipment belong to a plurality of MBSFN areas; alternatively, the existing cell concept may be replaced with the concept of MA, in which case the wireless access device itself participates in multiple MAs.

With reference to the ninth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the ninth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the MIB includes configuration indication information of an SIB, where one SIB is used to indicate a configuration of an MA, and the configuration indication information of the SIB includes: information indicating the number of SIBs, or information indicating the number of MAs the wireless access device participates in. In this implementation, the size of each SIB may be fixed, and the wireless access device may participate in several MAs, and then send several SIBs, and accordingly indicate the number of SIBs or MAs in the MIB.

With reference to the ninth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the ninth aspect, in another possible implementation manner, the MIB includes configuration indication information of an SIB, where one SIB is used to indicate configurations of at least two MAs, and the configuration indication information of the SIB includes: information indicating the size of the SIB or information indicating the number of MAs included in the SIB; wherein the at least two MAs indicated by the SIB are all MAs that the wireless access device participates in. In this implementation, the size of the SIB and the number of MAs included in the SIB may correspond to each other, and the larger the number of MAs is, the larger the size of the corresponding SIB is.

With reference to the ninth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the ninth aspect, in other possible implementation manners, the other configuration of the SIB includes one or more of the following information: information indicating a modulation and coding scheme of the SIB, information indicating a transmission resource location of the SIB, and information indicating a transmission mode of the SIB.

The other configurations of the SIB may be default to fixed configurations or managed with MIB configurations, so as to reduce transmission overhead in the MIB for indicating the configuration of the SIB. Or, one or more of the above information is added to the MIB to improve flexibility of SIB configuration. Or, the corresponding relationship between the configuration indication information of the SIB and other configurations of the SIB is stored in the radio access device and the user equipment at the same time, so that certain flexibility can be provided while transmission overhead is saved. The correspondence may be determined based on a communication standard protocol, or determined by negotiation in other ways.

For example, the corresponding relationship may be one or more predefined tables, the configuration indication information of the SIB in the tables corresponds to other configurations of the SIB in a one-to-one manner, and the user equipment may confirm the other configurations of the SIB through table lookup according to the received configuration indication information of the SIB.

Assuming that the number of MAs in which the radio access device participates is 8, the configuration indication information of the SIB may be represented by information of 3 bits, where the 3 bits correspond to 8 cases. The value of the 3-bit information can indicate the number of SIB, the number of MA (MA access point) participated by the wireless access device, the size of SIB or the number of MA (MA access point) contained in SIB.

The Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS) of the SIB may use a 1bit or more bit indication. To reduce the number of bits required, the MCS that the SIB can use may be limited. If the restriction SIB can only use 2 possible MCSs, only 1bit is needed to indicate, otherwise more bits are needed to indicate. The MCS of the SIB may also be fixed if reduced overhead is considered.

The transmission resources of the SIB may include frequency domain resources and time domain resources. For example, for frequency domain resources, one may use

Or

The bit indicates the number and the position of RBs occupied by the SIB information; wherein

The operation of rounding up is shown as,

the total number of the available RB resources in the downlink is represented, the value and the bandwidth of P are related, and the specific implementation can be kept consistent with the current L TE protocolSIB information is received. For the time domain resource, the radio frame number and subframe number of SIB transmission may be specifically indicated. For example, the subframe number may be indicated in the form of bitmap or a specific numerical value (taking a value of 0 to 9).

The transmission mode of the SIB may include single antenna transmission or 2 antenna, 4 antenna transmit diversity. The UE may determine the SIB transmission mode from the received MIB and the above correspondence. Or may also require that the transmission mode of SIB information be the same as the MIB.

The specific implementation manner of the other configurations of the SIB may default to one of them, or the wireless access device and the user equipment may reach an agreement through interaction. After determining the configuration of the SIB in one of the manners, the wireless access device transmits the SIB, and the user equipment also determines the configuration of the SIB in the same manner and receives the SIB according to the determined configuration.

With reference to the ninth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the ninth aspect, in other possible implementation manners, the broadcasting, by the wireless access device, the MIB may include:

the radio access equipment follows the broadcast period of the MIB defined by the current standard, i.e. with 4 radio frames (40ms) as the broadcast period. For example, MIB is transmitted periodically on Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) every first subframe of 4 consecutive radio frames.

Similarly, with reference to the ninth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the ninth aspect, in other possible implementation manners, the broadcasting, by the wireless access device, the SIB may include:

the wireless access device follows the broadcasting period of the SIB defined by the current standard, i.e. 8 radio frames (80ms) are used as the broadcasting period. For example, on the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), MIB is transmitted periodically every first subframe of consecutive 8 radio frames. Optionally, the radio access device may further use an MCCH repetition period (MCCH repetition period) as a broadcast period of the SIB.

Optionally, the radio access device may further use an MCCH repetition period (MCCH repetition period) as a broadcast period of the MIB and/or the SIB.

In a specific implementation, the broadcast period of the MIB or SIB may be agreed by a communication standard protocol, and the UE receives the MIB or SIB based on the broadcast period.

For example, the radio access equipment transmits the MIB in the first subframe of the last one or more (e.g., 2, 4, etc.) radio frames of the MCCH repetition period. The MIB may be a MIB scrambled via MA identification or MBMS synchronization identification. In a specific transmission, if some subframes or symbols within the MCCH repetition period have been used for transmitting contents such as MCCH or Multicast Channel (MCH) scheduling information (MSI), the MIB or SIB generally needs to avoid these positions.

Because the MCCH repetition period is generally 32 wireless frames at minimum, the resource overhead for transmitting MIB can be saved by adopting a lower repetition period. In addition, the UE can also indirectly determine the MCCH repetition period by detecting the broadcast period of the MIB or SIB, so the system does not need to consume additional resources to notify the UE of the MCCH repetition period.

In a tenth aspect, a user equipment or a wireless access device or a communication system is provided, the user equipment or the network device being configured to perform any one of the methods of the aspects and any corresponding possible implementation manners. The communication system comprises the user equipment and/or the wireless access equipment.

In an eleventh aspect, a communication system is further provided, where the communication system includes a wireless access device, and/or a user equipment. Wherein the radio access equipment and the user equipment may be adapted to perform any of the methods of the ninth aspect and any of its possible implementations, and reference may be made to the above description for related concepts and implementations.

The wireless access device includes: a wireless interface, a transmitter connected with the wireless interface, and a processor connected with the transmitter; wherein the processor is configured to generate a master information block, MIB, and broadcast the MIB. Optionally, the processor may be further configured to scramble the MIB with an identification of an MBMS single frequency network area, MA, and the transmitter configured to broadcast the MIB scrambled with the MA identification.

The user equipment includes: a memory, a receiver, and a processor connected to the memory and the receiver, respectively; the memory is configured to store MBMS synchronization configuration information, the receiver is configured to receive signals transmitted by a wireless access device, and the processor is configured to control the receiver to receive MBMS synchronization signals and MIB broadcast by the wireless access device. Optionally, the processor may be configured to control the receiver to receive an MBMS synchronization signal broadcast by a wireless access device to acquire an identity of an MBMS single frequency network area, MA; and controlling the receiver to receive the MIB broadcast by the wireless access equipment based on the MA identification.

The MIB contains at least one of the following information: configuration indication information of a system information block SIB, change indication information of the SIB, and change indication information of an MBMS control channel MCCH; the SIB includes information for indicating a configuration of an MBMS single frequency network area (MA), the configuration indication information of the SIB is used for indicating the configuration of the SIB, the change indication information of the SIB is used for indicating whether the SIB is changed, and the change indication information of the MCCH is used for indicating whether the MCCH is changed.

With reference to the eleventh aspect, various possible implementations of the ninth aspect can be referred to as other possible implementations of the wireless access device and the user equipment. As an example, reference may also be made to the contents of the dependent claims of the claims, which are not repeated here.

In a twelfth aspect, a processing apparatus is also provided, which may be applied to a network device or a user equipment as in the above aspects and possible implementations thereof. In an implementation, the processing device may be one or more baseband processors or baseband chips, or a processing chip or chipset integrated with a baseband processing function, such as a system on chip (SoC). The processing means may also be a complete user equipment or a complete network device, where possible.

When applied to the user equipment in the foregoing aspects and possible implementations thereof, the processing apparatus may include the following logic unit structure:

the device comprises a storage unit, a receiving unit and a control unit which is respectively communicated with the storage unit and the receiving unit.

If the processing apparatus is applied to the network device in the foregoing aspects and possible implementations thereof, the processing apparatus may include the following logic unit structure:

the device comprises a storage unit, a sending unit and a control unit which is respectively communicated with the storage unit and the sending unit.

The control unit, the storage unit, the sending unit and the receiving unit can be implemented by software or hardware, or by a combination of the two. For example, in one or more combinations of virtual program modules, hardware circuits, or devices. For example a processor, a memory, a transmitter and a receiver, respectively, corresponding to the eleventh aspect. For another example, the control unit may be a core processing module (e.g., CPU) of a processor or a chip, or may be a control circuit or a controller. The storage unit may be a storage module or a memory, the transmission unit may be a transmission module, a transmission circuit or a transmitter, and the reception unit may be a reception module, a reception circuit or a receiver. The receiver and transmitter may be input/output interface circuits or pins or ports of the processor, or may be transceivers of user equipment or network equipment, or receiving circuits/channels and transmitting circuits/channels.

In the above technical solutions provided in the present disclosure, the user equipment generally refers to an equipment that directly provides a communication service for a user. The device is generally attributed to the user and is used directly by the user, also called terminal (terminal), Mobile Station (MS), personal device (personal device). The user and user equipment are in close contact, and particularly when communication services are involved, the two are not strictly distinguished herein. Accordingly, network devices generally refer to other devices that indirectly provide communication services to users. Network devices are typically owned by wireless network owners, including telecom operators (e.g., Vodafone, Verizon, NTT, and mobile in china, etc.), telecom infrastructure providers (e.g., tower companies), and so on. In a mobile communication network, network devices mainly include a radio access device and a core network device.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a prior art mobile communication network deployment;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an MBMS application in the prior art;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture supporting MBMS transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a diagram illustrating a communication system supporting MBMS transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a wireless access device supporting MBMS transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a core network device supporting MBMS transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a diagram illustrating a method for supporting MBMS transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating a communication system supporting MBMS transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of another processing apparatus provided in the embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail and clearly with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood that the embodiments described are only a few embodiments of the present invention, and not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be obtained by a person skilled in the art without any inventive step based on the embodiments of the present invention, shall fall within the scope of protection of the present invention.

It should be understood that the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention can be applied to various communication systems, such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), long term evolution (long term evolution, L TE) system, long term evolution advanced (L TE-a) system, and future evolved system.

It should be further understood that, in the embodiments of the present invention, a user equipment may be referred to as a Terminal (Terminal), a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Terminal (Mobile Terminal), or the like, the user equipment may communicate with one or more Core Networks (CN) via a Radio Access Network (RAN), for example, the user equipment may be a Mobile phone (or a "cellular" phone), a portable computer, a tablet computer, or the like, and may also be an internet of things device such as a vehicle-mounted communication module, the radio access network may be composed of radio access devices, which generally refer to a base Station, and may also refer to other access network devices for providing radio access services, for example, in a UMTS system, the base Station may be referred to as a Node B (Node B, NodeB or NB), in a L TE or L TE-a system, the base Station may be referred to as a Node B (evolved Node B, eNodeB, or eNB, or a multi-core network, such as a gateway, or a gateway, and so on-Mobility Management Entity (MME) which may be responsible for establishing a data bearer management entity (GW, e.g., a public network-Mobile network — GW, or a public network — Mobile network — capable of establishing a public network — Mobile network — 3, such as a public network — Mobile network (e.g. including a public network — Mobile network — 2).

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture supporting MBMS transmission suitable for use in an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 3, the network architecture 300 includes user equipment (301, 302), access network equipment (311, 312, 313) and core network equipment (320, 330, 340). it should be understood that, in an actual deployment, not limited to the form of fig. 3, the types and numbers of the above-mentioned devices may be adaptively increased or decreased, for example, other necessary core network equipment may be added, some basic concepts related to MBMS transmission in the present invention, such as MBSFN, MA identification, synchronization process, scrambling, descrambling, etc., and some background knowledge implemented by the present invention, for example, descriptions related to relevant sections in the current L TE protocol, such as 3GPP TS 36.300, 36.321, 36.331, 36.211, 36.213, 36.443, 36.444, etc.

Hereinafter, the present application will take L TE system as an example to describe various embodiments of the present invention.

In the L TE system, these access network devices are all base stations, specifically, enb, core network device 320 is an MME, core network device 330 is a multi-cell/Multicast Coordination Entity (MCE), core network device 340 is an MBMS gateway (MBMS-GW), which is convenient for expression.

In order to support MBMS transmission, in particular MBSFN transmission, the functions of the MCE mainly include: receiving and transmitting an MBMS session control signaling (session control signaling) to the eNB, supporting session management functions (such as session start, session stop, etc.), and being responsible for scheduling the eNB to manage radio resources of cells, thereby ensuring consistency of radio resource configuration of each cell within a single MA. The MBMS-GW supports the forwarding of MBMS service data to the eNB, and can be co-deployed with the P-GW.

As shown in fig. 3, an interface between the MBMS-GW and the eNB is referred to as an M1 interface, and is a user plane interface, and the MBMS-GW transmits MBMS service data to the eNB in an IP multicast manner. An interface between the MCE and the eNB is referred to as an M2 interface, and for a control plane interface, an M2 interface signaling is transmitted based on a Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP), which complies with a protocol specification of an M2 interface. The interface between the MCE and the MME is called M3 interface, and the SCTP-based transfer of M3 interface signaling is a control plane interface and conforms to the M3 interface protocol specification.

In connection with fig. 3, the partially overlapping MA scenario as shown in fig. 2 is reconsidered. Suppose that a base station manages one cell, the cell managed by the base station 311 belongs to MA1, the cell managed by the base station 312 belongs to both MA1 and MA2, and the cell managed by the base station 313 belongs to MA 2. As described in the background, the prior art is not applicable in this MA configuration. In order to ensure coverage of MA2, the embodiment of the present invention may consider that a synchronization channel is additionally configured for MA2 to ensure coverage of MA 2. For the cell managed by the base station 312, since it belongs to MA1 and MA2, two sets of synchronization channels need to be configured separately. The two sets of synchronization channels may be transmitted by the base station 312 in a staggered manner, but this may cause a certain waste of resources, and for a UE located at an edge of an MA, the UE may be interfered by a neighboring MA more. Also, when there is a partial overlap of multiple MAs, the solution will be more complex and may not be an optimal solution.

In view of the limitation of the scheme, the embodiment of the invention also provides another better solution. Fig. 4 is a diagram of a communication system supporting MBMS transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 4, the communication system 400 includes a first wireless access device and a second wireless access device. The first wireless access equipment manages a first cell, the second wireless access equipment manages a second cell, the first cell belongs to a first MBMS single frequency network area (MA), the second cell belongs to a second MA, and the first MA is different from the second MA.

Specifically, the first radio access device is configured to: acquiring a first MBMS synchronous identifier; generating a first MBMS synchronization signal according to the first MBMS synchronization identifier; broadcasting the first MBMS synchronization signal based on a pre-configured first radio resource.

The second wireless access device is configured to: acquiring a second MBMS synchronous identification; generating a second MBMS synchronization signal according to the second MBMS synchronization identifier; broadcasting the second MBMS synchronization signal based on a pre-configured second radio resource.

And the first MBMS synchronization identifier and the second MBMS synchronization identifier are the same MBMS synchronization identifier, and the preconfigured first radio resource and the preconfigured second radio resource are the same radio resource.

Optionally, the communication system 400 further includes: a core network device respectively connected to the first radio access device and the second radio access device, configured to: sending the first MBMS synchronization identifier to the first radio access equipment; and sending the second MBMS synchronization identification to the second wireless access equipment.

Therefore, the first radio access device and the second radio access device broadcast the same MBMS synchronization signal on the same radio resource. For the user equipment, the MBMS synchronization signals transmitted in different cells belonging to different MAs are equivalent to the synchronization signals from the same cell, and can not only obtain the reception combining gain, but also avoid the interference generated by the transmission of different synchronization signals between different MAs. Therefore, compared with the existing MBSFN transmission, the technical scheme in the embodiment of the invention is more convenient in actual deployment, can realize that multiple MAs cooperatively transmit the same MBMS synchronous signal, can improve the coverage of the synchronous signal and can save transmission resources.

To describe the above communication system 400 in more detail, the wireless access device will be described with reference to fig. 5. Fig. 5 is a diagram of a wireless access device supporting MBMS transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention. The radio access device 500 may be the first radio access device or the second radio access device in the communication system 400 shown in fig. 4. The wireless access device 500 manages a first cell, which belongs to a first MA.

As shown in fig. 5, the wireless access device 500 includes a communication interface 510, a transmitter 520, and a processor 530. The communication interface 510 may include: a wireless interface and a wired interface. The wireless interface may refer to an antenna, or may refer to a logical or physical interface connecting the antenna. Further, wireless access device 500 may also include a receiver 540, a memory 550, and the like. Memory 550 may include both read-only memory and random-access memory, and provides instructions and data to processor 530. Processor 530 controls the operation of wireless access device 500, and processor 530 may also be referred to as a Central Processing Unit (CPU). In particular applications, transmitter 520 and receiver 540 may be coupled to communication interface 510. The various components of wireless access device 500 are coupled together by a bus system 50, where bus system 50 may include a power bus, a control bus, a status signal bus, and the like, in addition to a data bus. For clarity of illustration, however, the various buses are labeled as bus system 50 in the figures.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the wireless access device 500 may include:

a wireless interface 510, a transmitter 520 coupled to the wireless interface 510, and a processor 530 coupled to the transmitter. The processor 530 is configured to control the wireless access device 500 to: acquiring a MBMS synchronous identifier; generating an MBMS synchronization signal according to the MBMS synchronization identifier; and broadcasting the MBMS synchronization signal based on the preconfigured radio resource. Wherein the MBMS synchronization identity, the preconfigured radio resource are also applicable to a second cell, the second cell belongs to a second MA, and the first MA is different from the second MA.

The second cell may be managed by wireless access device 500, when compatibility with the current L TE protocol is not considered.

In practical deployment, the MBMS synchronization identifier may be a synchronization identifier separately designed for supporting MBMS transmission, and the number of MBMS synchronization identifiers may be multiple, and each synchronization identifier uniquely indicates an MBMS synchronization signal, the number, sequence type, sequence length, and sequence value of the MBMS synchronization signals, and the corresponding relationship between the MBMS synchronization identifier and the MBMS synchronization signal may be agreed by a communication protocol.

The user equipment supporting the communication protocol may search for the broadcasted MBMS synchronization signal on a pre-configured radio resource. For example, the user equipment may perform time domain correlation on the received signal using the MBMS synchronization signal previously agreed by the communication protocol based on the sequence correlation detection method. When the peak value of the time domain correlation exceeds a certain threshold value, the MBMS synchronous signal can be determined to be received, and the downlink timing and the MBMS synchronous identification can be obtained according to the MBMS synchronous signal.

Optionally, in an optional implementation, the MBMS synchronization identifier is a second MA identifier, and the second MA identifier is obtained when the user equipment receives the MBMS synchronization signal. The second MA identification indicates that the MA is the second MA. In the current standard protocol, in order to distinguish different MAs, different MAs have different identities, which are called as MA identities (MBSFN identities). The MA identity cannot be provided to the user equipment by a synchronization signal, but is carried in a system message (system information), and the user equipment needs to synchronize first, then receive the system message, and then obtain the MA identity. In different MA, the MA identification is used for scrambling MBMS service data, and the user equipment can perform descrambling operation based on the MA identification to obtain the MBMS service data. Therefore, when the MBMS synchronization identifier is the second MA identifier, for a cell in the second MA, such as the second cell, the second MA identifier does not need to be transmitted in the system message, and resource overhead can be saved. For the first cell, the home relationship of the first cell and the second MA needs to be considered.

Generally, the first cell does not belong to the second MA. At this time, the first cell belongs to the first MA, and the first MA identity may be obtained. In the embodiment of the present invention, the first cell still needs to generate and transmit the MBMS synchronization signal according to the second MA identifier, where the MBMS synchronization signal carries the second MA identifier. At first sight, there appears to be no particular gain for the first cell itself. However, considering that the same MBMS synchronization signal is transmitted between different MAs, interference caused by transmission of different synchronization signals between different MAs is avoided for the user equipment, and especially when the first cell and the second cell (or the first MA and the second MA) are adjacent, the gain is still objective.

Of course, the first cell may also belong to the second MA, i.e. the first cell belongs to both the first MA and the second MA. In the embodiment shown in fig. 3, the scenario has been considered, and in the embodiment of the present invention, two sets of synchronization channels do not need to be configured in the first cell. In theory, both the first MA identity and the second MA identity may be used to generate the MBMS synchronization signal. However, when the first cell belongs to the second MA and the second MA includes a greater number of cells than or equal to the first MA; or, when the first cell belongs to the second MA and the geographic area covered by the second cell is greater than or equal to the first cell; and the second MA identification is appointed to generate the MBMS synchronous signal, so that the coverage can be better improved, and the resource overhead is saved. This is in contrast to the concept of the solution mentioned in the background, which can even be considered to be somewhat contrary. In that scenario, for the MA overlap scenario, it is proposed to complete coverage of a larger MA with coverage of multiple smaller MAs.

Optionally, in an optional implementation manner, the wireless access device 500 further includes: a receiver 540; the processor 530 is configured to control the wireless access device 500 to acquire the MBMS synchronization identifier, and includes: the processor 530 is configured to communicate with the receiver 540 to: the wireless access device 500 receives a configuration message sent by a core network device, where the configuration message includes the MBMS synchronization identifier.

Optionally, in another optional embodiment, the wireless access device 500 further includes a memory 550, and the memory 550 stores a code for indicating the MBMS synchronization identifier; the processor 530 is configured to control the wireless access device 500 to acquire the MBMS synchronization identifier, and includes: the processor 530 is configured to read a code in the memory 550 for indicating the MBMS synchronization identity.

Optionally, on the basis of the embodiment and each optional implementation manner of the present invention, the wireless access device 500 may further include:

a memory 560, the memory 560 having stored therein a code indicating the pre-configured radio resource; and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

a receiver 570, configured to receive a second configuration message sent by a core network device, where the second configuration message is used to initialize or update the preconfigured radio resources.

Wherein the memory 560 and the memory 550 can be the same or different memories; the receiver 570 may be the same or different receiver as the receiver 540. For simplicity, the memory 560 and the receiver 570 are not shown separately in FIG. 5.

In actual deployment, the wireless access device 500 may be a base station, or may be an MBMS broadcast device, where the MBMS broadcast device is a broadcast device deployed for MBMS transmission. The MBMS broadcasting device can be understood as a broadcasting device deployed separately, dedicated to MBMS transmission, compared to the base station. It should be understood that the dedication to MBMS transmission is not limited to the MBMS broadcasting device being only used for MBMS transmission, but the MBMS broadcasting device may obviously also have other functions, but supporting MBMS transmission is its main function. In comparison, the base station may be used to support unicast transmission in addition to MBMS transmission, and may be more important for the base station to support unicast transmission.

The above alternative embodiments are all applicable to the case where the wireless access device 500 is a base station and an MBMS broadcast device. When the wireless access device 500 is an MBMS broadcast device, since the MBMS broadcast device is a broadcast device that is separately deployed and dedicated to MBMS transmission, the memory 550 or 560 may be relatively easily built in when the device is shipped from a factory, initially installed, or debugged, or a code for indicating the MBMS synchronization flag may be copied to the memory 550 or 560 in the broadcast device for MBMS transmission through an external interface.

In the above optional embodiment, the MBMS synchronization identifier is transmitted through the configuration message, and the preconfigured radio resource is initialized or updated, which is more flexible and convenient, but needs to occupy a certain network resource. In comparison, a certain network resource can be saved by pre-agreeing a protocol or pre-configuring the MBMS synchronization identifier and the radio resource by using a built-in memory, but it is relatively cumbersome if the configuration needs to be changed.

The MBMS broadcast equipment can be configured or integrated with the capability units supporting MBMS transmission, preferably with high power radio frequency units and antennas, so that the coverage area of one MBMS broadcast equipment can be much larger than the coverage area that one base station can provide in the current L TE system.

In particular, for a scenario of hybrid networking of an MBMS broadcast device and a base station, in the communication system 400 provided in the embodiment shown in fig. 4, it is preferable that the first radio access device is the base station, and the second radio access device is the MBMS broadcast device. Also, the concept of cells in existing cellular communication systems may change in view of the use of MBMS dedicated carriers. The cell concept in this application can be further extended to be applicable to MBMS broadcast devices.

In L TE, each Cell has an identification (Identity) which may also be referred to as a Cell Identity, which is broadcasted by an access device of the radio access network, such as a base station, within a certain geographical area.

In the present application, since the wireless access device does not broadcast the cell id any more, only the MBMS synchronization id, such as the second MA id, is broadcast. If the concept of a cell is cancelled for the MBMS dedicated carrier in the future, the cell in this application is also understood to mean the geographical area that can be covered by the broadcast signal using the MBMS dedicated carrier for the wireless access device. Specifically considering MBMS transmission, for MBMS services, MBSFN transmission can still be performed in units of MA. And the cells in different MA scramble MBMS service data by using different MA identifiers. For the MBMS synchronous signal, multiple MA can be used for cooperative transmission, so that the coverage is further ensured, and the resource overhead is reduced. The MA identifier is similar to the original cell identifier concept, but the difference is that the MA identifier parsed by the ue is not necessarily the MA identifier used to scramble the MBMS service data. The user equipment may also obtain other MA identities through further system messages or MBMS control information.

To describe the above communication system 400 in more detail, a core network device will be described below in conjunction with fig. 6. Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a core network device supporting MBMS transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention. The core network device 600 may be the core network device of the communication system 400 introduced in the embodiment shown in fig. 4. The core network device 600 may be connected to a first wireless access device and a second wireless access device respectively, where the first wireless access device manages a first cell, the second wireless access device manages a second cell, the first cell belongs to a first MA, the second cell belongs to a second MA, and the first MA is different from the second MA. In addition, the core network device 600 may cooperate with the radio access device in the embodiment and various alternative embodiments shown in fig. 5 to support MBMS transmission together, and reference may be made to the descriptions of the embodiments and various alternative embodiments for related term definition, implementation, and technical effects.

As shown in fig. 6, the core network device 600 includes a communication interface 610, a transmitter 620, and a processor 630. The communication interface 510 is generally a wired interface, and there may be one or more interfaces for connecting with the wireless access device and other core network devices. Further, the core network device 600 may further include a receiver 640, a memory 650, and the like. Memory 650 may include both read-only memory and random-access memory, and provides instructions and data to processor 630. Processor 630 controls the operation of core network device 600 and may also be referred to as a Central Processing Unit (CPU). The various components of the core network device 600 are coupled together by a bus system 50.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the core network device 600 includes: a wired interface 610, a transmitter 620, and a processor 630; wherein the processor is configured 630 to communicate with the transmitter and the wired interface to cause the core network device 600 to:

sending a first MBMS synchronization identifier to the first radio access equipment;

sending a second MBMS synchronization identifier to the second wireless access equipment;

the first MBMS synchronization identifier and the second MBMS synchronization identifier are the same MBMS synchronization identifier, and the MBMS synchronization identifier is used for generating an MBMS synchronization signal.

Optionally, the processor 630 is configured to communicate with the transmitter 620 and the wired interface 610 to cause the core network device 600 to:

When the core network device 600 is a multicast coordination entity, the first MBMS synchronization identifier is sent through an MBMS scheduling information (MBMS scheduling information) message; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

when the first cell does not belong to the second MA, the second MA mark is a mark which is added in addition to the existing first MA mark in the MBMS scheduling information message and is used for generating the MBMS synchronous signal;

In practical implementation, the foregoing embodiments and optional implementations relate to signaling interaction between a core network device and a wireless access device, for example, the core network device sends a configuration message to the wireless access device to the core network device to transmit an MBMS synchronization identifier, such as a second MA identifier, or initialize or update a preconfigured radio resource for transmitting an MBMS synchronization signal; or the core network equipment sends the indication information to the plurality of wireless access equipment so that the plurality of wireless access equipment configure the same wireless resource for the MBMS synchronous signal; new messages can be redesigned to carry, and the new messages can be combined into one message or divided into several message carriers.

If it is considered to improve based on the current standard, it may be considered to modify a message delivered by the existing M2 interface, for example, an MBMS session start request (MBMS session start request) message, or MBMS scheduling information. Specifically, on the basis of these existing messages, newly added fields or modified original fields may be used to carry newly introduced information. For example, when the first cell does not belong to the second MA, the existing MBMS scheduling information message only carries the first MA identifier, but does not carry the second MA identifier. Therefore, for the MBMS scheduling information message, the second MA identifier is an additional identifier for generating the MBMS synchronization signal. For another example, when the first cell belongs to the second MA, the existing MBMS scheduling information message may carry both the first MA identity and the second MA identity. Therefore, the wireless access device needs to be additionally instructed to generate an MBMS synchronization signal according to the second MA identifier, for example, to modify the field name and then define, or directly add additional indication information.

The operation flow of the communication system 400 is described below by taking L TE system as an example, where the base station is an eNB and the core network device is an MCE, it is to be understood that the MCE may be other core network devices and the eNB may be other wireless access devices, and fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a method for supporting MBMS transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 7, the method includes:

step S701, the MCE sends a configuration message 1 to the eNB1, wherein the configuration message 1 carries a first MBMS synchronous identification.

Step S703, the MCE sends a configuration message 2 to the eNB2, where the configuration message 2 carries the second MBMS synchronization identifier.

The first MBMS synchronization identifier and the second MBMS synchronization identifier are the same MBMS synchronization identifier, and the MBMS synchronization identifier is used for generating an MBMS synchronization signal. Optionally, the MBMS synchronization identity may be a second MA identity. Optionally, the configuration message 1 and the configuration message 2 may both be MBMS scheduling information messages. Optionally, the eNB may also be replaced with an MBMS broadcast device. And, when the eNB or the MBMS broadcasting device supports reading the internally stored MBMS synchronization identifier, at least one of the above steps S701 or S702 may be replaced with: and the eNB or the MBMS broadcasting equipment reads the MBMS synchronous identification stored in the eNB or the MBMS broadcasting equipment. The related concepts can be referred to the foregoing embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

Step S705, the MCE sends a configuration message 3 to the eNB1, where the configuration message 3 carries information for instructing the eNB1 to schedule radio resources for the MBMS synchronization signal.

Step S707, the MCE sends a configuration message 4 to the eNB2, where the configuration message 4 carries information for instructing the eNB2 to schedule radio resources for the MBMS synchronization signal.

The configuration message 3 and the configuration message 4 are used to make the radio resources scheduled by the eNB1 and the eNB2 for the MBMS synchronization signal be the same radio resource. Steps S705 and S707 may also be omitted if the eNB1 and eNB2 have pre-configured radio resources for transmitting the MBMS synchronization signal, for example, if the radio resources have been agreed by the communication protocol in advance. Alternatively, step S705 and step S707 herein may also be used to initialize or update the preconfigured radio resources. The execution sequence of steps S701, S703, S705, and S705 is not limited to the above. Also, steps S701 and S705 may be combined into one step, i.e. configuration message 1 and configuration message 3 are the same message. Steps S703 and S707 may also be combined into one step, i.e. the configuration message 2 and the configuration message 4 are the same message.

Step S709, eNB1 generates and broadcasts an MBMS synchronization signal according to the MBMS synchronization identifier.

Step S709', eNB2 generates and broadcasts an MBMS synchronization signal according to the MBMS synchronization identifier.

The step S709 and the step S709' are executed in parallel. eNB1 and eNB2 broadcast the same MBMS synchronization signal on the same radio resource. Therefore, the same MBMS synchronous signal can be transmitted by multiple MAs in a coordinated mode, the coverage range of the synchronous signal can be improved, and transmission resources can be saved.

In addition, the technical solutions provided in the summary of the invention, particularly in the ninth aspect to the twelfth aspect and various possible implementation manners thereof, will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings. For convenience of description, reference may be made to the summary of the invention and the description of the embodiments above for the same or related concepts and content.

Fig. 8 is a diagram of a communication system 800 supporting MBMS transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention. The communication system includes a user device 82 and a network device 84 that communicate in a wireless manner. The network device may include one or more wireless access devices, for example, the first wireless access device and the second wireless access device may be provided in fig. 4 and its related embodiments. The network device may also include a core network device. The hardware architecture of the wireless access device can refer to fig. 5 and its related description of the embodiment. The core network device may refer to fig. 6 and its description of related embodiments.

As another possible embodiment, the hardware implementation structure of the user equipment and the network equipment may also refer to fig. 9. Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a communication device structure, which shows a hardware implementation architecture of the communication device 90. The communication device 90 may be a user equipment or a wireless access device, which may be a UE or a RAN device (e.g., a base station or a BBU) in the communication system 800 shown in fig. 8, supporting any of various aspects and possible implementations of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 9, the communication device 90 includes: a processor 901, a memory 902 coupled to the processor, the memory having stored therein instructions or code which, when executed in the processor, the communication device 90 performs any of the various aspects and possible implementations of the inventive concept.

A processor, which refers to a device or a circuit with computing and processing capabilities, may be referred to as a chip or a Central Processing Unit (CPU). The processor described above may be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an off-the-shelf programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, a general purpose processor, a microprocessor, or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

Memory, refers to a device or circuit having data or information storage capabilities and may provide instructions and data to a processor. The Memory includes a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a non-volatile random access Memory (NVRAM), a programmable Read-Only Memory (prom) or an electrically erasable programmable Memory, a register, and the like.

In a specific implementation, the communication device 90 may further include: a connection 900 (sometimes referred to as a bus), a transmitter 903, a receiver 904, an antenna 905, and an input/output (I/O) interface 906.

The transmit circuitry and receive circuitry may be coupled to an antenna for wireless connection with other communication devices. The transmit circuitry and receive circuitry may also be integrated into a transceiver and the antenna may be a radio frequency antenna supporting multiple frequencies. The I/O interface provides the possibility of interaction with other communication devices or users. For example, for the base station, the I/O interface may be a Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) interface, an ethernet interface, a USB interface, or the like. For user equipment, the I/O interface may be a screen, a keyboard, a microphone, a speaker, a USB interface, etc. The various components within the communications device may be coupled together by various connections, such as a bus system that may include a power bus, a control bus, a status signal bus, etc., in addition to a data bus. But for the sake of clarity the various buses are collectively referred to herein as a bus system.

In addition, regarding the processing apparatus provided in the twelfth aspect of the present disclosure, the embodiments of the present disclosure will be further described with reference to fig. 10 and 11.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, which shows a logical unit structure of the processing device 20. The processing device 20 may be applied to a user equipment, such as the user equipment in the communication system 800 shown in fig. 8, supporting any of various aspects of deploying the inventive content and various possible implementations of a communication method.

The processing device 20 may be one or more baseband processors or baseband chips, or a processing chip or chipset integrated with baseband processing functions, such as a system on chip (SoC). The processing means 20 may also be a complete user equipment, where possible.

As shown in fig. 2, the processing apparatus 20 includes: the receiving unit 201 and the control unit 202 are connected with each other to realize information transmission. Optionally, the processing device may further include a storage unit 203, and the storage unit 203 is connected to the control unit 202 for storing necessary data (e.g., programs, operating parameters, and calculation results).

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of another processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, which shows a logical unit structure of a processing apparatus 30. The processing apparatus 30 is applicable to a network device, which may be a network device, particularly a RAN device (such as a base station or BBU), in the communication system 800 shown in fig. 8, and supports any one of various communication methods for deploying various aspects and possible implementations of the inventive concept. The processing device 30 may be one or more baseband processors or baseband chips, or a processing chip or chipset integrated with baseband processing functions, such as a system on chip (SoC). The processing means 30 may also be a complete network device, where possible.

As shown in fig. 3, the processing device 30 includes: a sending unit 301 and a control unit 302, which are connected to each other to realize information transmission. Optionally, the processing device may further include a storage unit 303, and the storage unit 303 is connected to the control unit 302 for storing necessary data (e.g., programs, operating parameters, and calculation results).

In a specific implementation manner, the control unit, the storage unit, the sending unit, and the receiving unit in the processing apparatus shown in fig. 10 and 11 may be implemented by software or hardware, or a combination of the two. For example, in one or more combinations of virtual program modules, hardware circuits, or devices. Specifically, the control unit may be a core processing module (e.g., CPU) of a processor or a chip, or may be a control circuit or a controller. The storage unit may be a storage module or a memory, the transmission unit may be a transmission module, a transmission circuit or a transmitter, and the reception unit may be a reception module, a reception circuit or a receiver. The receiver and transmitter may be input/output interface circuits or pins or ports of the processor, or may be transceivers of user equipment or network equipment, or receiving circuits/channels and transmitting circuits/channels.

In various embodiments of the present invention, the sequence numbers of the method steps or units do not necessarily mean the execution sequence, and the actual execution sequence should be determined by the functions and the inherent logic, but should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present invention. The steps of the method may be performed by integrated logic circuits in hardware or instructions in the form of software in a processor. The steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present invention may be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor.

The method in the embodiment of the present invention is essentially or partially contributed to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution may be implemented by a program language in a software code. In this case, the computer program product, or the computer software obtained by the above-described method may be sold or used as a stand-alone product (downloaded or updated online), or may be sold or used by being stored in a computer-readable storage medium. The computer readable storage medium may refer to optical disc, magnetic disk, U-disk, mobile hard disk and other storage media that are well known in the art. The storage medium may be implemented as a portion of a memory, where the processor reads the information from the memory and performs the steps of the method in conjunction with other general purpose hardware.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks and steps (step) set forth in embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate the interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design requirements of the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present embodiments.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and modules described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a digital signal processor core, or any other similar configuration.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may be stored in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. For example, a storage medium may be coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC, which may be located in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside in different components in a user terminal.

In one or more exemplary designs, the functions described in the embodiments of this invention may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof, if implemented in software, these functions may be stored on a computer-readable medium or transmitted as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium including a computer storage medium and a communications medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another.

The foregoing description of the invention is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the invention, and any modifications based on the disclosed content should be considered obvious to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined by the present invention may be applied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the embodiments and designs described, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles of the invention and novel features disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for supporting MBMS transmission of Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), comprising:

the wireless access equipment generates a master information block MIB, wherein the MIB comprises at least one of the following information: configuration indication information of a system information block SIB, change indication information of the SIB, and change indication information of an MBMS control channel MCCH;

the SIB comprises information used for indicating the configuration of an MBMS single frequency network area (MA), the configuration indication information of the SIB is used for indicating the configuration of the SIB, the change indication information of the SIB is used for indicating whether the SIB is changed, and the change indication information of the MCCH is used for indicating whether the MCCH is changed;

the wireless access device scrambles the MIB with an MA identity and broadcasts the MIB scrambled by the MA identity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the MIB contains configuration indication information of SIBs, and wherein a SIB is used to indicate a configuration of an MA, and wherein the configuration indication information of the SIB includes:

information indicating the number of SIBs, or information indicating the number of MAs the wireless access device participates in.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the MIB contains configuration indication information of a SIB, and wherein a SIB is used to indicate configurations of at least two MAs, and wherein the configuration indication information of the SIB includes:

information indicating the size of the SIB or information indicating the number of MAs included in the SIB; wherein the at least two MAs indicated by the SIB are all MAs that the wireless access device participates in.

4. The method of claim 2 or 3, further comprising:

the wireless access equipment stores the corresponding relation between the configuration indication information of the SIB and other configurations of the SIB; wherein the other configuration of the SIBs includes one or more of the following information:

information indicating a modulation and coding scheme of the SIB, information indicating a transmission resource location of the SIB, and information indicating a transmission mode of the SIB.

5. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, further comprising:

the wireless access equipment receives a configuration message sent by core network equipment, wherein the configuration message contains the MA identification;

and the wireless access equipment generates and broadcasts an MBMS synchronous signal according to the MA identification.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the MA indicated by the MA identifier is one of all MAs in which the wireless access device participates, and the configuration message further includes: information for instructing the wireless access device to generate an MBMS synchronization signal according to the MA identity; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

the MA identification indicates that the MA is a MA other than all MAs in which the wireless access device participates.

7. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the wireless access device broadcasting the MIB scrambled by the MA identity comprises:

and the wireless access equipment broadcasts the MIB scrambled by the MA identifier on a first subframe of the last wireless frame of the MCCH repetition period.

8. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, further comprising:

the wireless access device scrambles the SIBs with the MA identification and broadcasts SIBs scrambled with the MA identification.

9. A method for supporting MBMS transmission of Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS), comprising:

user equipment receives an MBMS synchronous signal broadcasted by wireless access equipment to acquire an identifier of an MBMS single frequency network area MA;

the user equipment receives a master information block MIB broadcast by the wireless access equipment based on the MA identification, wherein the MIB comprises at least one of the following information: configuration indication information of a system information block SIB, change indication information of the SIB, and change indication information of an MBMS control channel MCCH;

the SIB includes information for indicating a configuration of an MBMS single frequency network area (MA), the configuration indication information of the SIB is used for indicating the configuration of the SIB, the change indication information of the SIB is used for indicating whether the SIB is changed, and the change indication information of the MCCH is used for indicating whether the MCCH is changed.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the MIB contains configuration indication information of SIBs, and wherein one SIB is used for indicating a configuration of one MA, and wherein the configuration indication information of the SIB includes:

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the MIB contains configuration indication information of a SIB, and wherein a SIB is used to indicate configurations of at least two MAs, and wherein the configuration indication information of the SIB includes:

12. The method of claim 10 or 11, further comprising:

the user equipment prestores the corresponding relation between the configuration indication information of the SIB and other configurations of the SIB;

the user equipment determines the configuration of the SIB according to the configuration indication information of the SIB and the corresponding relation;

wherein the other configuration of the SIBs includes one or more of the following information:

13. The method of any of claims 9 to 11, wherein the receiving, by the ue, the MBMS synchronization signal broadcasted by the radio access equipment to obtain the identity of the MA comprises:

14. The method of any of claims 9 to 11, further comprising:

the user equipment receives SIB broadcasted by the wireless access equipment based on the MA identification and the MIB;

wherein the user equipment descrambles SIBs broadcasted by the wireless access equipment and scrambled by the MA identification by utilizing the MA identification.

15. A wireless access device supporting MBMS transmission, the wireless access device comprising:

a wireless interface, a transmitter connected with the wireless interface, and a processor connected with the transmitter; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the processor is configured to generate a master information block, MIB, containing at least one of the following information: configuration indication information of a system information block SIB, change indication information of the SIB, and change indication information of an MBMS control channel MCCH; the SIB comprises information used for indicating the configuration of an MBMS single frequency network area (MA), the configuration indication information of the SIB is used for indicating the configuration of the SIB, the change indication information of the SIB is used for indicating whether the SIB is changed, and the change indication information of the MCCH is used for indicating whether the MCCH is changed;

the processor is further configured to scramble the MIB with an identification of an MBMS single frequency network area, MA;

the transmitter configured to broadcast the MIB scrambled by the MA identification.

16. The wireless access device of claim 15, wherein the MIB contains configuration indication information of SIBs, and wherein one SIB is used to indicate a configuration of one MA, and the configuration indication information of the SIB includes:

17. The wireless access device of claim 15, wherein the MIB contains configuration indication information of SIBs, and wherein one SIB is used to indicate configurations of at least two MAs, and wherein the configuration indication information of the SIB includes:

18. The wireless access device according to claim 16 or 17, further comprising:

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to store a correspondence of the configuration indication information of the SIB with other configurations of the SIB; wherein the other configuration of the SIBs includes one or more of the following information:

19. The wireless access device according to any one of claims 15 to 17, further comprising:

a receiver connected to the processor, configured to receive a configuration message sent by a core network device, where the configuration message includes the MA identifier;

the processor is further configured to generate an MBMS synchronization signal based on the MA identification;

the transmitter is further configured to broadcast the MBMS synchronization signal.

20. The wireless access device of claim 19, wherein:

21. The wireless access device of any of claims 15-17, wherein the transmitter is configured to broadcast the MIB scrambled by the MA identification, comprising:

the transmitter is configured to broadcast the MIB scrambled with the MA identification on a first subframe of a last radio frame of an MCCH repetition period.

22. The wireless access device according to any one of claims 15 to 17, wherein:

the processor is further configured for scrambling the SIB with the MA identification;

the transmitter is also configured to broadcast SIBs scrambled with the MA identification.

23. A user equipment supporting MBMS transmission, the user equipment comprising:

a memory, a receiver, and a processor connected to the memory and the receiver, respectively; the memory is configured to store MBMS synchronization configuration information, the receiver is configured to receive signals transmitted by a wireless access device, and the processor is configured to:

controlling the receiver to receive an MBMS synchronous signal broadcasted by wireless access equipment so as to acquire an identifier of an MBMS single frequency network area MA; and based on the MA identification, controlling the receiver to receive a master information block MIB broadcasted by the wireless access equipment, wherein the MIB comprises at least one of the following information: configuration indication information of a system information block SIB, change indication information of the SIB, and change indication information of an MBMS control channel MCCH;

24. The UE of claim 23, wherein the MIB includes SIB configuration indication information, and wherein one SIB is used to indicate a configuration of one MA, and wherein the SIB configuration indication information includes:

25. The UE of claim 23, wherein the MIB includes SIB configuration indication information, and wherein one SIB is used to indicate configurations of at least two MAs, and wherein the SIB configuration indication information includes:

26. The user equipment according to claim 24 or 25, characterized by:

the memory is further configured to store a correspondence of the configuration indication information of the SIB with other configurations of the SIB;

the processor is further configured to determine a configuration of the SIB according to the configuration indication information of the SIB and the correspondence;

27. The ue of any one of claims 23 to 25, wherein the processor is configured to control the receiver to receive an MBMS synchronization signal broadcasted by a wireless access device to obtain an identity of an MBMS single frequency network area, MA, comprising:

the processor is configured to control the receiver to listen to an MBMS synchronization channel and detect an MBMS synchronization signal based on sequence correlation to determine an MBMS synchronization identity used to generate the MBMS synchronization signal, wherein the MBMS synchronization identity is an MA identity;

the MBMS synchronization configuration information stored in the memory includes information indicating the MBMS synchronization channel and a sequence employed in the sequence correlation detection.

28. The user equipment according to any of claims 23 to 25, wherein:

the processor is further configured to control the receiver to receive the wireless access device broadcast SIBs;

wherein the processor is configured to descramble SIBs broadcast by the wireless access device scrambled by the MA identification using the MA identification.

29. A system for supporting MBMS transmission in a multimedia broadcast multicast service, comprising:

the wireless access device of any one of claims 15 to 22; and/or the presence of a gas in the gas,

the user equipment of any of claims 23 to 28.