NZ577758A

NZ577758A - Method and arrangement for selecting an antenna mode in a mobile telecommunication network

Info

Publication number: NZ577758A
Application number: NZ577758A
Authority: NZ
Inventors: Muhammad Ali Kazmi; Jingyi Liao
Original assignee: Ericsson Telefon Ab L M
Priority date: 2006-12-20
Filing date: 2006-12-20
Publication date: 2012-06-29

Abstract

A method and an arrangement for a mobile telecommunication network for selecting an antenna mode to be used for communication between a radio network and a mobile terminal operating in discontinuous reception mode are disclosed. The apparatus (600) comprises a determiner (601) configured to determine a mode list comprising antenna modes both supported by the radio network and the mobile terminal; associating means (602) configured to associate each antenna mode in the mode list with a degree of a pre-defined performance measure; retrieving means (603) configured to retrieve information indicating a pre-defined performance measure for the mobile terminal; and a selector (604) configured to select an antenna mode from the mode list at least based on the retrieved information.

Description

<div class="application article clearfix" id="description"> WO 2008/076024 PCT/SE2006/050601 Method and arrangement for selecting an antenna mode in a mobile telecommunication network Technical field The present invention relates to a method and an arrangement in a mobile telecommunication network. In particular, the present invention 5 relates to a mechanism for selecting an antenna mode, e.g. a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) mode. Background Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) is expected to support several advanced antenna techniques. One advanced antenna technique 10 is referred to as multiple input multiple output (MIMO). MIMO implies that both the base station and the UE has multiple antennas. There exist a variety of MIMO modes. Currently a number of MIMO modes are being evaluated such as Per Antenna Rate Control (PARC), selective PARC (S-PARC), transmit diversity, receiver diversity, D-TxAA (Double Transmit 15 Antenna Array, an advanced version of Tx diversity). The above mentioned MIMO modes provides different spatial processing which has the potential to contribute significantly to improve spectral efficiency, diversity, coverage, interference mitigation, etc. Each MIMO mode has a certain benefit. For example, PARC in principle can achieve 20 high spectral efficiency by transmitting independent symbol streams; this means in a 2x2 PARC (2 transmit and 2 receive antennas), two independent data streams containing different information can be transmitted to the user equipment. On the other hand, receiver diversity (implying two receive antennas at the UE and one transmit antenna at 25 the base station) increases link reliability by introducing redundancy in multiple dimensions at the receiver, but do not provide the spectral efficiency as PARC. This means receiver diversity would lead to good coverage but at the expense of lower spectral efficiency compared to PARC. In particular, spatial domain link adaptation for multi-antennas 30 utilizes switching between different MIMO modes based on monitoring short-term characteristic of the radio channel. Provided that the channel characteristics are known, a suitable MIMO WO 2008/076024 2 PCT/SE2006/050601 mode may be selected. The selected criteria for selecting the MIMO mode may however differ. Based on measured transmission characteristic, different methods have been proposed to be used to determine the criteria for selecting the MIMO mode. In the prior art, the MIMI mode 5 switching is only performed during an active connection between the UE (User Equipment) and the network. It should be noted that the UE is also referred to as terminal or mobile terminal. During traffic inactivity the User Equipment (i.e. the mobile terminal) enters into a quasi-active state generally termed as idle state and utilizes 10 the discontinuous reception (DRX) in order to save the power consumption of the UE battery. In the DRX mode the UE only monitors the network paging requests or performs certain types of measurements periodically. Due to user's mobility it is also important that the UE remains camped on the right cell. Therefore, the UE also measures the 15 strength and/or quality of the downlink reference signals sent by the serving and target cells and re-selects the best cell. At cell reselection, the UE autonomously selects a new cell. However the reselection process can be partly influenced by the network, since the network can broadcast certain system parameters related to measurement thresholds, cell 20 ranking etc. The cell reselection procedure should allow the network to identify the location of the UE on cell level or at least on some registration area level comprising of several cells. Thus in idle mode the network maintains the UE context, thus allowing the network to be able to locate the UE when sending the paging request. In case a new cell is reselected, 25 the UE sends an update message to the network indicating the identity of the new cell. In addition the UE can also specify its capability, downlink measurement of serving and target cells etc. An appropriate cell reselection procedure is critically important for preventing new call blocking. 30 In the existing network, the network performs MIMO mode switching during the on going session. However, in idle state or any other low activity state (e.g. low Radio Resource Control (RRC) state) the UE may change cell and within the cell it may even change location. Thus a situation may arise when the UE does not start with the best possible 35 MIMO mode and when it's RRC state changes from idle to active. This will Received by IPONZ on 22nd May 2012 lead to throughput loss until the network selects the correct MIMO mode. In some scenarios the connection can also be lost if the call is started with an inappropriate MIMO mode. It would therefore be advantageous to be able to exploit the benefits of mode switching also in idle state. However, the existing systems do not support a functionality whereby the UE and the network (e.g. associated Node B or RNC) are able to keep track of the best MIMO mode in idle state. Summary Embodiments of the present invention seek to provide a method and arrangements that makes it possible to select a suitable antenna mode such as a MIMO mode e.g. including beam forming (pre-coding) scheme when the UE is not involved in an ongoing session, or at least seek to provide the public with a useful choice . Embodiments determine a mode list comprising antenna modes whereby the modes are supported both by the radio network and the mobile terminal. Each antenna mode is associated with a degree of a pre-defined performance measure and information indicating the predefined performance measure for the mobile terminal is retrieved. An antenna mode is selected from the mode list based at least on the retrieved information. Thus according to a first aspect, the present invention provides an arrangement for a mobile telecommunication network for selecting an antenna mode to be used for communication between a radio network and a mobile terminal operating in discontinuous reception mode. The arrangement comprises a determiner configured to determine a mode list comprising antenna modes both supported by the radio network and the mobile terminal, associating means configured to associate each antenna mode in the mode list with a degree of a pre-defined performance measure, retrieving means configured to retrieve information indicating a pre-defined performance measure for the mobile terminal, and a selector configured to select an antenna mode from the mode list at least based on the retrieved information. 40062622 3 Received by IPONZ on 22nd May 2012 According to a second aspect of the present invention, a method for a mobile telecommunication network for selecting an antenna mode to be used for communication between a radio network and a mobile terminal operating in discontinuous reception mode is provided. The method comprises the steps of determining a mode list comprising antenna modes both supported by the radio network and the mobile terminal, associating each antenna mode in the mode list with a degree of a predefined performance measure, retrieving information indicating a predefined performance measure for the mobile terminal, and selecting an antenna mode from the mode list at least based on the retrieved information. An advantage of an embodiment of the present invention is that it makes it possible to exploit the benefit of mode selection in idle mode. Le it is possible to ensure that the UE operates in appropriate mode in low activity states (DRX mode) in order to be able to con ectly decode paging requests and initiate new calls. Hence, the UE is able to directly enter the best mode when, the UE returns to the active state from the idle state. A further advantage is that an embodiment of the present invention reduces call setup delay by utilizing mode switching instead of cell change in some scenarios. The embodiment makes it also possible to avoid frequent handover by replacing handover with mode selection based on the mode list, thereby prevent ping pong effect due to handovers. Brief description of the drawings. The present invention will now be described, by way of non-limiting example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1A is a graph illustrating capacity comparison of some MIMO modes. Figure IB is a graph illustrating coverage comparison of some MIMO modes. Figure 2 illustrates schematically a coverage based mode list. Figure 3 illustrates a distributed Radio Access Network (RAN) architecture wherein the present invention may be implemented in the serving Node B of the distributed RAN. 40062622 4 WO 2008/076024 5 PCT/SE2006/050601 Figure 4 illustrates a centralized Radio Access Network (RAN) architecture wherein the present invention may be implemented in a central node of the RAN such as an access gateway or a Radio Network Controller. 5 Figure 5 illustrates how the UE listens according to the DRX cycle in idle state. Figure 6 illustrates the arrangement according to one embodiment. Figure 7 is a flowchart of the method according to one embodiment. 10 Detailed description The present invention is adapted to be used for the UE and the network (e.g. associated Node B or radio network controller) to keep track of the best antenna mode even when UE is in idle state. This mechanism may also avoid unnecessary handover or cell change. Since UE can track its 15 best mode during idle state it is easier for UE to go directly into its best mode when the UE returns to the active state from idle state. The basic idea of the present invention is to create an antenna mode list, also referred to as a mode list comprising the antenna modes that are supported by both the mobile terminal and the network. The antenna 20 mode list is proposed to be used when selecting a suitable antenna mode in different scenarios such as low activity RRC states, call setup and at handovers when the UE is in idle mode and when no UE measurement reports are available. Thus the mode list comprises all the potential modes that can be jointly 25 supported by the mobile terminal and the corresponding access node, e.g. Node B. One mode list is created for each mobile terminal by the corresponding Node B or aGW (access gateway)/RNC (Radio Network Controller) depending upon the network architecture. The following notation is used in this description: Let Vml_s be the mode list for user t 30 i.e. modes supported by the i:th UE and the serving Node B and the Vue denotes the modes supported by the UE and VNOdeB denotes the nodes WO 2008/076024 6 PCT/SE2006/050601 supported by the serving Node B. Then VMl_s = Vue ^ Vnodeb = [ai, a<2 ,ocm], where, a4 is the MIMO mode identity. According to the present invention, the antenna mode is selected from the list whereby the selection is based on a pre-defined performance 5 measure. Examples of the pre-defined performance measure are capacity, coverage, peak bit rate, mean user bit rate, path loss etc. Capacity and coverage criteria are generally overall system performance measures, whereas user bit rate is user specific performance measure. On the other hand, measures like cell edge bit rate (e.g. 10th percentile) and peak bit 10 rate (90th percentile) don't provide very good picture of the overall system and are therefore mainly specific to user performance. In packet oriented system the capacity criteria can be based on average throughout (or average bit rate) per cell. Similarly the coverage can be expressed in terms of the bit rate of x% worst users in the cell, e.g. 10% worst users or 15 10th percentile. The x% worst users will be located in the outskirts (cell border region) of the cell. The peak rate criteria can be based on y% best users in the cell. E.g., the 5th percentile user throughput at cell edge versus served traffic load (average cell throughput) may be used to evaluate the system performance at the cell edge. Further a higher 5th 20 percentile user throughput at cell edge may correspond to a higher cell-edge data rate. The average user throughput and the 5th percentile user throughput may be used to illustrate the system capacity and coverage. Each of the antenna modes in the mode list is associated with a degree of the pre-defined performance measure. Hence the antenna mode list is 25 also referred to as criteria based mode list, where the criteria is the performance measure. Information indicating the pre-defined performance measure for the mobile terminal is retrieved and an antenna mode from the mode list at least based on the retrieved information. Figures 1A and IB illustrate the performance comparison of different 30 antenna modes in terms of capacity and coverage, respectively. More specifically the results compare the performance of receiver diversity (1x2) with that of 2x2 per antenna rate control (PARC) scheme for different types of scheduling algorithms including round robin (RR) and variants of proportionally fair PFT (Proportionally Fair in Time domain) 35 and PFTF (Proportionally Fair in Time Frequency domain). Figure 1A WO 2008/076024 7 PCT/SE2006/050601 depicts that irrespective of the scheduling policy, 2x2 per antenna rate control (PARC) scheme outperforms receiver diversity (1x2) in terms of capacity. On the other hand, figure IB depicts that irrespective of the scheduling policy, receiver diversity (1x2) is superior to PARC (2x2) in 5 terms of coverage. As an example, figure 2 depicts the principle of creating a mode list based on the performance measure coverage. In total there are N available MIMO modes, which are common to both UE and the serving base station. In order to create the criteria based mode list the available 10 N modes needs to be sorted in the decreasing order of coverage. The figure 2 shows the available modes ranging from pi to (3n where |3n is the most suited for the highest coverage. Hence, coverage based ML (Vml_cov) is the sorted list of modes in the order to increasing coverage, i.e. Vml_cov = Ipi, (32,...,Pn]. As stated before, vvml_covset should be jointly supported by 15 the UE and the corresponding Node B. The coverage based mode list can thus be used to switch to mode Pn when the UE is located close to the cell border in order to increase coverage to improve the conditions for the UE. Similarly other criteria such as capacity can be used to create a 20 corresponding mode list. In that case the N available modes shall be sorted according to the desired criteria. For instance in case of a peak bit rate based mode list, the first mode shall be the one that provides the maximum peak bit rate to the users. In case there is a mode that cannot fulfill the desired criteria at all that mode can be excluded from the mode 25 list. The main advantage of this approach is that it allows the network to fulfill the demand of user. This means a user desiring high bit rate can be served (i.e. mode switching) according to the capacity based mode list. This means after reaching the lowest mode in the capacity based mode 30 list, the network has to do handover to make sure that UE is able to achieve the desired data rate (i.e, maintain high data rate). The criteria based mode list may be created and maintained by the network element e.g. the Node B, the access Gateway or the Radio WO 2008/076024 8 PCT/SE2006/050601 Network Controller that performs the mode switching. Thus depending upon the architecture, the criteria based mode list shall be created by the Node B or RNC/aGW depending upon the radio access network architecture as described below. 5 It should also be noted that the mode list of the present invention may be created and maintained in the UE, Figure 3 shows a first network 300 wherein the present invention may be implemented. The first network 300 has a distributed RAN architecture, where the access gateway (aGW) 301 performs only user plane switching. 10 However the Node B 302-Node B 303 interface (logical links) 304 allows the exchange of radio related information. The UE 306 reports its MIMO mode capabilities to the serving Node B 302. The serving Node B 302 is configured to create the mode list 305 based on its own capabilities, UE 306 capabilities and the given criteria. Depending upon the number of 15 criteria desired, there can be more than one criteria based mode lists built and maintained by the serving Node B 302 per UE. In some applications it may also be advantageous that the serving Node B 302 also is configured to create and maintain a criteria based mode list corresponding to a target Node B 303 of the UE 306. I.e. the target Node 20 B is a Node B that the UE is predicted to approach, which implies that a handover or cell re-selection to the target Node B likely will be performed. It should be noted that handover and cell reselection are in this description referred to as cell change. In that case the serving Node B is required to communicate with the target Node B over Node B-Node B 25 interface. Figure 4 shows a second network wherein the present invention may be implemented. The second network has a centralized RAN architecture, where the central node e.g. an access gateway (aGW) or a Radio Network Controller (RNC) is configured to receive and process the radio related 30 information. In this case the central node is configured to manage the criteria based mode list since it is aware of UE and Node B capabilities and the central node is also adapted to decide the suitable criteria. The multi-mode switching function in the network uses the criteria based WO 2008/076024 9 PCT/SE2006/050601 mode list to select the mode appropriate for the given scenario. The criteria based mode list can also be used in conjunction with UE reported measurements (performed during wakeup intervals) to select a suitable mode. However, as stated above, UE measurements are not always 5 available. In that case, the network will for mode switching rely either on its own measurements, which are done by the base station in the uplink on the received signal from the UE (exemplify!) or purely on the mode list in order to select an appropriate antenna mode. Antenna mode switching in low activity RRC states and antenna mode 10 switching during a call set up are discussed below. To perform antenna mode switching during a low activity RRC states implies that no UE measurement reports may be available. By low activity it is in this description referred to when the UE operates in discontinuous reception (DRX) mode. In UTRA this occurs when UE is in 15 idle state, cellJPCH state or URA_PCH state. The states are further described in 3GPP TS 25.304, "User Equipment (UE) procedures in idle mode and procedures for cell reselection in connected mode". As agreed for E-UTRA the UE can also operate in DRX mode when in RRC connected mode in addition to the existing idle mode as described in 20 3GPP TS 25.813, "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN); Radio interface protocol aspects". The aim of having DRX mode when in connected state is to save the UE batteiy consumption and at the same time the UE can remain synchronized with the network. This is 25 particularly useful in the packet oriented system where there can be inactivity periods between subsequent packets within the same session. Hence in this scenario it is not desirable to terminate the session and go into the idle state if no packets are received for short time. In low RRC activity states the network alone cannot keep track of the UE 30 location in the network. Therefore, irrespective of the access technology the UE in low activity state carries out cell update (in UTRA) or tracking area update (in E-UTRA) whenever it reselects a new cell or has entered in a new location area. As shown in figure 5 by using DRX the UE only listens to the network (paging, broadcast etc) at certain predefined times, WO 2008/076024 10 PCT/SE2006/050601 termed as the wakeup time in this description. Either network or UE can select the most appropriate mode from the criteria based mode list whenever necessary for example when the UE coverage is becoming worse. In the network this can be done when it 5 receives a UE update message (cell update, tracking area update etc) from the UE. On the UE side this can be done based on UE measurements, which are done in DRX mode (i.e. discontinuous reception mode). Hie UE listens to the network only at the wakeup instances but it can still perform measurements in between the wakeup 10 instances (especially if DRX cycle length is long, e.g. 2-5 seconds) to get sufficient measurement samples. But generally the measurements performed in DRX mode are less accurate compared to those in the connected mode since the former would contain fewer measurement samples. The following rules may be used during network based mode 15 selection without UE measurement reports. Network based mode selection implies that e.g. the Node B, aGW or RNC depending on the network architecture as discussed above performs the antenna mode selection: If the UE does not report measurements in the update message during its 20 wakeup intervals then there are following possibilities: If the network can fully decode the UE update message then it maintains the current mode. Situation may arise when network can decode UE identity but not the data part of the UE update message. Thus if the network cannot fully 25 decode the UE update message then it switches to a mode improving the performance measure e.g. the coverage and requests the UE to switch to the same mode, the antenna mode is according to the present invention is selected from the criteria based mode list. IF the network cannot fully decode the UE update message then it may 30 also determine the uplink coverage by measuring the strength or/and quality of the UL received message and thereby select the appropriate mode from the criteria based mode list based on the measurement. IF the network cannot fully decode the UE update message AND already WO 2008/076024 11 PCT/SE2006/050601 operating with the highest mode, i.e. the antenna mode providing the best performance measure On) then network will initiate handover. The following rules may be used during network based mode selection when UE measurement reports are available, i.e. the UE update message 5 comprises UE measurements performed during its wakeup time. If the network receives UE measurement reports then the network has an option to carry out the mode selection using the UE measurements. The network can also make a combined decision by considering both UE measurements and the uplink measurements done by the base station. 10 As a special case an appropriate antenna mode selected from the mode list can be solely based on the UE measurements. If the UE measurements indicate that an antenna mode providing a better performance measure should be selected and no antenna mode providing a better performance measure is available, then the network 15 will initiate handover. An example, is when the UE is far out in a cell and the measurement reports indicate that coverage is bad and the current antenna mode that is being used is the antenna mode of the mode list that provides the best. In addition to network based mode selection, the UE may also perform 20 the mode selection which is referred to as UE based mode selection. In this case UE can perform measurements since there are always some pilot signals sent by the network. The UE based mode selection may be used as described below. The UE may select an appropriate mode based on the downlink 25 measurements {performed by the UE) and/or the criteria based mode list. The downlink measurement value range will correspond to a certain best possible mode listed in the criteria based mode list. As before the criteria based mode list will be set by pre-defined rules or by negotiation between UE and the base station. As an example if the measured value is between 30 ai and ai then the best mode is pi. Hence the UE shall select the best possible mode as explained above and request the network to switch to that mode. If the performance measure such as the coverage of the existing cell is too WO 2008/076024 12 PCT/SE2006/050601 bad then UE selects a mode giving a better performance measure from the criteria based mode list and requests the network to switch to the corresponding mode. If the performance measure such as the downlink coverage is too bad and 5 the UE is already operating with the mode giving the best coverage then the UE either autonomously reselects the best cell or it requests the network to change the cell (requests handover). Autonomous cell change (or reselection) is generally done by the UE when operating in idle mode. On the other hand network controlled cell change (or handover) is used 10 when UE is in semi-connected mode (or semi-idle mode). In semi-idle mode on the one hand UE is able to save battery since UE listens to the network only at the DRX instances. On the other hand the UE remains well synchronized with the network. In this way the UE can quickly receive data without going through the formalities of the call setup. 15 It should be noted that in practice either network based or UE based or hybrid (combined UE and network based) mode selection in low activity RRC state are possible. Further, the mode switching of the present invention may also be used at call setup. 20 At the time of call setup the UE will enter into RRC connected or active state from an idle state. Situation can arise that at the time of call setup the UE is not camped on to the best cell thus the serving cell may not be able to provide adequate coverage using the current mode. In addition channel measurements may not be available at the call setup. Poor cell 25 reselection can occur typically if UE is moving with a faster speed and using long DRX cycle, thereby preventing UE from doing appropriate measurements. As a consequence the UE may be far out in the cell. Admitting the UE to a new cell may lead to call setup delay and may also result in call blocking. Thus the network may use the same rules as 30 described above in conjunction with the network based mode selection without and with UE measurement reports and the UE based mode selection. In addition, an embodiment of the present invention allows trade-off WO 2008/076024 13 PCT/SE2006/050601 between mode switching and change in idle mode. I.e. a cell change may be avoided by changing to an antenna mode giving a better performance measure. E.g. if the UE is far out in the cell, an antenna mode providing a better coverage may be selected instead of performing a ell reselection 5 to another cell. Handover in idle mode is generally termed as cell reselection. Handover in general should be executed only if it is absolutely necessary. The same is true for cell reselection. Secondly, the ping pong effect arising due to too frequent handovers/cell reselection referred to as cell change should 10 be avoided as much as possible. Thirdly, the handover may not be successfully completed due to lack of radio or other network resources in the target Node B. For these reasons, multi-mode switching can be exploited to prevent unnecessary cell changes and thereby maintaining the on going connection with an acceptable quality of service. Following 15 rules may be used: If only mode switching is indicated to be required (i.e. no cell change is indicated to be required) then the network performs mode switching. If cell change is required and the current mode is pi (i < N), the network first attempts to switch to higher mode [3j (j>t) (i.e. a mode giving a better 20 performance measure) if possible, otherwise perform cell change. Then the network is configured to indicate to the UE that mode switching instead of cell-change will occur. Then, if possible, the UE may report measurements adapted to assist the mode selection. If cell change is required and current mode is the mode (fy giving the 25 best performance measure, then the network directly performs cell change. Thus the arrangement 600 according to the invention is illustrated in figure 6. The arrangement 600 comprises a determiner 601 configured to determine a mode list 606 comprising antenna modes 607 both 30 supported by the radio network and the mobile terminal, associating means 602 configured to associate each antenna mode in the mode list with a degree of a pre-defined performance measure, retrieving means 603 configured to retrieve information indicating the pre-defined WO 2008/076024 14 PCT/SE2006/050601 performance measure for the mobile terminal, and a selector 604 configured to select an antenna mode from the mode list at least based on the retrieved information. The arrangement may by implemented in a node in the radio network or 5 in the UE, wherein the node may be a Node B, RNC or aGW. When the arrangement is implemented in the network, the selector 604 may be further configured to maintain a current antenna mode when the retrieved information is information that the network is able to fully decode a received message such as a UE update message from the 10 terminal. Further, the selector 604 may be further configured to switch to an antenna mode from the mode list giving a higher performance measure than the current antenna mode when it is indicated that the current antenna mode does not give a performance measure that is not good 15 enough as described above. Moreover, the arrangement may also comprise an initiator 605 configured to initiate a cell change when the retrieved information comprises information that a higher antenna mode is required and selection to a higher mode selection is not possible. 20 It should also be noted that the retrieved information comprises measurement reports performed by the terminal also referred to as the UE. Further, the present invention also relates to a method illustrated in a flowchart in figure 7. 25 The method comprises the steps of: 701: Determine a mode list comprising antenna modes supported by both the UE and the network. Received by IPONZ on 22nd May 2012 702: Associate each antenna mode in the mode list with a degree of a pre-defined performance measure, e.g. sorting the modes in an order determined by the performance measure that the respective antenna mode provides. 703; Retrieve information indicating the pre-defined performance measure for the mobile terminal in the current situation. E.g. an information indicating the current coverage situation of the terminal. 704; Select an antenna mode from the mode list at least based on the retrieved information. According to embodiments of the invention, the selecting step 704 is replaced by a step of initiate 705 a cell change if the retrieved info' lliation indicates that a higher mode is required but no higher mode is available, i.e. the current antenna mode is the antenna mode in the mode list that provides the best performance measure. The term 'comprising' as used in this specification and claims means 'consisting at least in part of. When interpreting statements in this specification and claims which include the term 'comprising', other features besides the features prefaced by this term in each statement can also be present. Related terms such as 'comprise' and 'comprised' are to be interpreted in similar manner. 40062622 15 </div>

Claims

<div class="application article clearfix printTableText" id="claims"> Received by IPONZ on 22nd May 2012 WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A method for a mobile telecommunication network for selecting an antenna mode to be used for communication between a radio network and a mobile terminal operating in discontinuous reception mode, comprising the steps of: determining a mode list comprising antenna modes both supported by the radio network and the mobile terminal; associating each antenna mode in the mode list with a degree of a pre-defined performance measure; retrieving information indicating a pre-defined performance measure for the mobile terminal; and selecting an antenna mode from the mode list at least based on the retrieved information.

2. The method according to the previous claim, wherein the selecting step is replaced with the step of initiating a cell change if the retrieved information indicates that an antenna mode is required that provides a better performance measure but no such antenna mode is available.

3. The method according to any one of the previous claims, wherein the method is implemented in a node in the radio network.

4. The method according to the previous claim, wherein the node is a Node B.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the node is a Radio Network Controller or an access Gateway.

6. The method according to any one of claims 3-5, wherein when the retrieved information is information that the network is able to fully decode a received message from the terminal then the selecting step comprises the step of maintaining a current antenna mode. 40062622 16 Received by IPONZ on 22nd May 2012

7. The method according to any one of claims 3-5, wherein when the retrieved information comprises information that the network is not able to fully decode a received message from the terminal then the selecting step comprises the step of switching to an antenna mode from the mode list giving a higher performance measure than the current antenna mode.

8. The method according to any one of claims 3-5, wherein when the retrieved information comprises information that the network cannot fully decode a received message from the terminal and the terminal is operating with the antenna mode giving the best performance measure then the selecting step is replaced by the step of initiating a cell change.

9. The method according to any one of claims 6-8, wherein the received message is a UE update message.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1-5, wherein the retrieved information comprises measurement reports performed by the terminal.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein when the retrieved information comprises information indicated by UE reports that an antenna mode is required that provides a higher performance measure whereby selection to a higher antenna mode is not possible, then the selecting step is replaced by the step of initiating a cell change.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1-2, wherein the method is implemented in the mobile terminal.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the retrieved information comprises downlink measurements performed by the terminal. 40062622 17 Received by IPONZ on 22nd May 2012

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein when the downlink measurements indicating that the performance measure is below a pre -determined threshold, then the selecting step comprises the step of switching to antenna mode giving a higher performance measure than the current mode.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein when the downlink measurements indicating that the performance measure is below a pre -determined threshold and the terminal is operating with the antenna mode giving the highest performance measure, the selecting step is replaced by the step of initiating cell change.

16. The method according to any one of claims 1-15, wherein the performance measure is a capacity measure.

17. The method according to any one of claims 1-15, wherein the performance measure is a coverage measure.

18. An arrangement for a mobile telecommunication network for selecting an antenna mode to be used for communication between a radio network and a mobile terminal operating in discontinuous reception mode, comprising: a determiner configured to determine a mode list comprising antenna modes both supported by the radio network and the mobile terminal; associating means configured to associate each antenna mode in the mode list with a degree of a pre-defined performance measure; retrieving means configured to retrieve information indicating a pre-defined performance measure for the mobile terminal; and a selector configured to select an antenna mode from the mode list at least based on the retrieved information.

19. The arrangement according to the previous claim, further comprising an initiator configured to initiate a cell change when the retrieved information indicates that an antenna mode is required that 40062622 18 Received by IPONZ on 22nd May 2012 provides a better performance measure but no such antenna mode is available.

20. The arrangement according to claim 18 or claim 19, wherein the arrangement is implemented in a node in the radio network.

21. The arrangement according to the previous claim, wherein the node is a Node B.

22. The arrangement according to claim 20, wherein the node is a Radio Network Controller or an access Gateway.

23. The arrangement according to any one of claims 20-22, wherein the selector is further configured to maintain a current antenna mode when the retrieved information is information that the network is able to fully decode a received message from the terminal.

24. The arrangement according to any one of claims 20-22, wherein the selector is further configured to switch to an antenna mode from the mode list giving a higher performance measure than the current antenna mode when the retrieved information comprises information that the network is not able to fully decode a received message from the terminal.

25. The arrangement according to any one of claims 20-22, wherein the arrangement further comprises an initiator configured to initiate a cell change when the retrieved information comprises information that the network cannot fully decode a received message from the terminal and the terminal is operating with the antenna mode giving the best performance measure.

26. The arrangement according to any one of claims 23-25, wherein the received message is a UE update message. 40062622 19 Received by IPONZ on 22nd May 2012

27. The arrangement according to any one of claims 19-22, wherein the retrieved information comprises measurement reports performed by the terminal.

28. The arrangement according to claim 27, wherein the arrangement further comprises an initiator configured to initiate a cell change when the retrieved information comprises information indicated by UE reports that an antenna mode is required that provides a higher performance measure whereby selection to a higher antenna mode is not possible.

29. The arrangement according to claim 19, wherein the arrangement is implemented in the mobile terminal.

30. The arrangement according to claim 29, wherein the retrieved information comprises downlink measurements performed by the terminal.

31. The arrangement according to claim 30, wherein the selector is further adapted to switch to an antenna mode giving a higher performance measure than the current mode when the downlink measurements indicating that the performance measure is below a pre-determined threshold.

32. The arrangement according to claim 30, wherein the arrangement further comprises an initiator configured to initiate a cell change when the downlink measurements indicating that the performance measure is below a pre-determined threshold and the terminal is operating with the antenna mode giving the highest performance measure.

33. The arrangement according to any one of claims 18-32, wherein the performance measure is a capacity measure.

34. The arrangement according to any one of claims 18-33, wherein the performance measure is a coverage measure. 40062622 20 Received by IPONZ on 22nd May 2012

35. A method for a mobile telecommunication network for selecting an antenna mode to be used for communication between a radio network and a mobile terminal operating in discontinuous reception mode, the method being substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

36. An arrangement for a mobile telecommunication network for selecting an antenna mode to be used for communication between a radio network and a mobile terminal operating in discontinuous reception mode, the arrangement being substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON (PUBL) AJ PARK Per: 40062622 21 </div>