Mobility management for inter-gNB (next generation node-b) handover in new radio (NR) systems

US11190989B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Apple Inc. · US

Inventors

• Alexander Sirotkin · Nahf, IL
• Xu Zhang · Dongying, CN
• Jaemin Han · Hillsboro, US
• Feng Yang · Tangxia, CN
• Honglei Miao · Nuremberg, DE
• Jerome Parron · Ergolding, DE
• Markus Dominik Mueck · Unterhaching, DE
• Jing Zhu · Portland, US
• Ellen Liao · Portland, US
• Jeongho Jeon · San Jose, US
• Youn Hyoung Heo · Seoul, KR
• Anthony Lee · San Diego, US
• Seau S. Lim · Swindon, GB
• Marta Martinez Tarradell · Munich, DE
• Meghashree Dattatri Kedalagudde · Cupertino, US
• Puneet Jain · Hillsboro, US
• Bharat Shrestha · San Diego, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 22, 2019
• Grant date: Nov 30, 2021
• Expiry date: May 22, 2039

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04W92/12
• WIPO field: Digital communication
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A Next Generation Node-B (gNB) and methods of communication are generally described herein. The gNB is configurable to operate as a source gNB. The gNB is configured with logical nodes including a gNB central unit (gNB-CU) and a gNB distributed unit (gNB-DU). The gNB-CU comprises a gNB-CU control plane (gNB-CU-CP) for control-plane functionality, and a gNB-CU user plane (gNB-CU-UP) for user-plane functionality. When a handover of a User Equipment (UE) from the source gNB to a target gNB is performed, the gNB transfers, from the gNB-DU to the gNB-CU-UP, a downlink data delivery status (DDDS) message to indicate that the gNB-CU-UP is to stop transfer, to the gNB-DU, of downlink data intended for the UE.