Method and apparatus of handling a variable of a RLC reset procedure during receiver-side-only re-establishment in wireless communication system

0001This application claims the benefit of <patcit id="pcit0001" dnum="US74636006P"><text>U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/746,360, filed on May 03, 2006</text></patcit> and entitled "Method and Apparatus of Handling Variable of RLC Reset Procedure during Receiver-Side-only Re-establishment in Wireless Communications System," the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

0002The present invention relates to a method and related apparatus of handling a variable of a Radio Link Control reset procedure during receiver-side-only re-establishment in a wireless communications system according to the pre-characterizing clauses of claims 1 and 3.

0003The third generation (3G) mobile communications system has adopted a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) wireless air interface access method for a cellular network. WCDMA can provide high frequency spectrum utilization, universal coverage, and high quality, high speed multimedia data transmission. The WCDMA method also meets all kinds of QoS requirements simultaneously, providing diverse flexible two-way transmission services and better communication quality to reduce transmission interruption rates.

0004Taking a signal communications protocol standard set forth by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as an example, targeting the Access Stratum (AS), the 3G mobile communications system defines various protocol stacks, such as Radio Resource Control (RRC), Radio Link Control (RLC), Media Access Control (MAC), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), and Broadcast/Multicast Control (BMC). In addition, the 3G mobile communications system also provides different levels of transmission quality, and can operate in different corresponding modes according to different transmission quality requirements, such as: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). TM is appropriate for use in services with high requirements for real-time transmission, UM is appropriate for use in services with requirements for real-time transmission and packet sequencing, and AM is appropriate for use in services with low requirements for real-time transmission, but high requirements for data accuracy.

0005In AM, the RLC layer combines a transmitter side and a receiver side. The transmitter side and the receiver side each process transmission and reception through the RLC layer, and both sides can share system resources. In some circumstances, the RLC layer must be re-established, e.g. when changing a PDU size. The prior art re-establishes the RLC layer by re-establishing the transmitter side or the receiver side.

0006Directed at operations corresponding to re-establishing the RLC layer, a communications protocol specification established by the 3GPP (3GPP TS 25.322 V6.7.0 (2006-03), "Radio Link Control (RLC) protocol specification (Release 6)") is already described in detail. According to section 9.7.7 of the aforementioned RLC protocol specification, the prior art has disclosed operations of specified control PDUs and Timers when only the receiver side is re-established. However, the prior art does not teach how to handle a reset state variable, VT(RST).

0007According to the aforementioned RLC protocol specification, the reset state variable VT(RST) is used to count the number of times a RESET PDU is scheduled to be transmitted before a reset procedure is completed. The sender shall increment VT(RST) by 1 when a STATUS PDU or a piggybacked STATUS PDU reported from the receiver includes "erroneous Sequence Number". If the reset state variable VT(RST) equals its maximum value, the value of the protocol parameter MaxRST, the sender shall terminate the ongoing RLC reset procedure, stop the timer Timer_RST if it was started, and indicate unrecoverable error to the upper layer. Otherwise, if the reset state variable VT(RST) is smaller than the protocol parameter MaxRST, the sender shall output a RESET PDU to start RLC reset procedure. In addition, the initial value of the reset state variable VT(RST) is 0. The reset state variable VT(RST) is only reset upon the reception of a RESET ACK PDU, i.e. VT(RST) is not reset by the RLC reset procedure.

0008In the prior art, when only the receiver side of an RLC entity is re-established, the current RLC reset procedure is aborted, and then a new RLC reset procedure is started. Under such circumstance, the status variable VT(RST) of the aborted RLC reset procedure is not reset. If the status variable VT(RST) is near the maximum allowed value, say MaxRST-1, then there is only one chance for the sender to transmit the RESET PDU and to receive the RESET ACK PDU. If either one of them gets lost during radio transmission, the reset state variable VT(RST) is not reset but incremented by 1, meaning that VT(RST) = MaxRST. As a result, the sender terminates the ongoing RLC reset procedure, and indicates unrecoverable error to the upper layer. The RLC entity will be re-established again unnecessarily.

0009This in mind, the present invention aims at providing a method and related apparatus of handling a variable of an RLC reset procedure during receiver-side-only re-establishment in a wireless communications system that keeps chances for retransmission of RESET PDU after receiver-side-only re-establishment.

0010This is achieved by a method and apparatus of handling a variable of an RLC reset procedure during receiver-side-only re-establishment in a wireless communications system according to claims 1 and 3. The dependent claims pertain to corresponding further developments and improvements.

0011As will be seen more clearly from the detailed description following below, the claimed method of handling a variable of a Radio Link Control reset procedure during receiver-side-only re-establishment in a wireless communications system comprises resetting a reset state variable, used for counting the number of times a RESET protocol data unit is scheduled to be transmitted, during receiver-side-only re-establishment.

0012In the following, the invention is further illustrated by way of example, taking reference to the accompanying drawings. Thereof <ul id="ul0001" list-style="none" compact="compact"><li>Fig. 1 is a function block diagram of a wireless communications device.</li><li>Fig. 2 is a diagram of program code of Fig. 1.</li><li>Fig. 3 is a flowchart of a process according to the embodiment of the present invention.</li></ul>

0013Please refer to Fig. 1, which is a functional block diagram of a communications device 100. For the sake of brevity, Fig. 1 only shows an input device 102, an output device 104, a control circuit 106, a central processing unit (CPU) 108, a memory 110, a program code 112, and a transceiver 114 of the communications device 100. In the communications device 100, the control circuit 106 executes the program code 112 in the memory 110 through the CPU 108, thereby controlling an operation of the communications device 100. The communications device 100 can receive signals input by a user through the input device 102, such as a keyboard, and can output images and sounds through the output device 104, such as a monitor or speakers. The transceiver 114 is used to receive and transmit wireless signals, delivering received signals to the control circuit 106, and outputting signals generated by the control circuit 106 wirelessly. From a perspective of a communications protocol framework, the transceiver 114 can be seen as a portion of Layer 1, and the control circuit 106 can be utilized to realize functions of Layer 2 and Layer 3.

0014Please continue to refer to Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a diagram of the program code 112 shown in Fig. 1. The program code 112 comprises an application layer 200, a Layer 3 interface 202, and a Layer 2 interface 206, and is coupled to a Layer 1 interface 218. When a signal is transmitted, the Layer 2 interface 206 forms a plurality of SDUs 208 according to data submitted by the Layer 3 interface 202, and stores the plurality of SDUs 208 in a buffer 212. Then, based on the SDUs 208 stored in the buffer 212, the Layer 2 interface 206 generates a plurality of PDUs 214, and sends the plurality of PDUs 214 to a destination terminal through the Layer 1 interface 218. In contrast, when a wireless signal is received, the signal is received through the Layer 1 interface 218, then delivered as PDUs 214 to the Layer 2 interface 206. The Layer 2 interface 206 restores the PDUs 214 to SDUs 208 and stores the SDUs 208 in the buffer 212. Last, the Layer 2 interface 206 delivers the SDUs 208 stored in the buffer 212 to the Layer 3 interface 202.

0015When the communications device 100 operates in AM, the Layer 2 interface 206 can count the number of times a RESET PDU is scheduled to be transmitted with the reset state variable VT(RST), so as to prevent waste of wireless resources. In such situation, the embodiment of the present invention provides a reset-state-variable reset program code 220 to timely reset the reset state variable VT(RST), to enhance system efficiency, and to prevent unnecessary re-establishment of the RLC entity.

0016Please refer to Fig. 3, which illustrates a flowchart of a process 30 according to the embodiment of the present invention. The process 30 is utilized for handling a variable of an RLC reset procedure during receiver-side-only re-establishment in a wireless communications system, and can be complied into the reset-state-variable reset program code 220. The process 30 comprises steps of: <ul id="ul0002" list-style="none" compact="compact"><li>Step 300: Start.</li><li>Step 302: Reset a reset state variable, used for counting the number of times a RESET PDU is scheduled to be transmitted, during receiver-side-only re-establishment..</li><li>Step 304: End.</li></ul>

0017According to the process 30, when the RLC entity only re-establishes the receiver side, the embodiment of the present invention resets the reset state variable VT(RST). Therefore, when a new RLC reset procedure starts, the reset state variable VT(RST) starts from 0, and the RESET PDU can be retransmitted as many times as allowed by configuration, such as the protocol parameter MaxRST.

0018In the prior art, when only the receiver side of an RLC entity is re-established, the status variable VT(RST) is not reset, so that the sender indicates unrecoverable error to the upper layer, and the RLC entity will be re-established again unnecessarily. In comparison, when only the receiver side of an RLC entity is re-established, the embodiment of the present invention resets the status variable VT(RST), so that the sender has chances to retransmit the RESET PDU.

0019In summary, the present invention can timely reset the reset state variable, so as to maintain transmission efficiency, and decrease transmission time.