Method of supporting handover in a mobile communication system

METHOD OF SUPPORTING HANDOVER IN A MOBILE COMMUNICATION

SYSTEM [DESCRIPTION]

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a mobile communication system, more particularly, to a method of supporting to perform handover efficiently in a mobile communication system.

BACKGROUND ART A user equipment (UE) has to move according to a user's movement in a mobile communication system unlikely a wired communication system. Accordingly, mobility of the user equipment should be considered in the mobile communication system. In other words, in the mobile communication system, a network is supposed to support capabilities for providing with the user equipment services above certain levels even in case that the user equipment moves from an area to other area. More particularly, when the user equipment goes away from a first network entity with which the user equipment has a connection and moves into a new second network entity, the network should perform a procedure like handover, etc for shifting an access point of the user equipment from the first network entity to the second network entity. The first and second network entities may be base stations or other higher network nodes. When the first and second network entities are the base stations, the first network entity can be called a serving or center base station and the second network entity a target base station.

A WCDMA system in accordance with the 3^rd generation partnership project (3 GPP) technical specification supports three radio link control (RLC) modes to provide a variety of quality of services (QoS) for different kinds of services, which are a transparent mode (TM), an unacknowledged mode (UM), and an acknowledged mode (AM). Each RLC mode is carried out by a corresponding entity of an RLC layer. Since the quality of service (QoS) supported by each RLC mode is different each other, operating processes and detailed functions of each RLC mode also differs.

The acknowledged mode is different from the transparent mode and the unacknowledged mode in that a receiving side transmits a reception acknowledgement in response to data received from a transmitting side. Namely, the receiving side transmits status report to inform the transmitting side of whether data blocks transmitted from the transmitted side are received successfully. The transmitting side retransmits to the receiving side data blocks for which negative reception acknowledgement are received. An object of the acknowledged mode is to support error-free data transmission. The acknowledged mode is usually used for transmitting non-real time packet data like TCP/IP data, etc and radio resource control (RRC) messages for which reception acknowledgements are necessary.

An acknowledged mode (AM) entity of a radio link control (RLC) layer has a complicated structure due to the retransmission function described above. The AM entity performs a variety of functions such as flow control with transmitting and receiving windows, polling for a transmitting side to request status information to a peer RLC entity of a receiving side, status report for the receiving side to transmit status report to a peer RLC entity of the transmitting side, etc. For those functions, a status protocol data unit (PDU) for delivering status information and a piggyback function by which a status PDU is inserted into a data PDU are supported by the RLC AM entity. Further, the RLC AM entity supports a reset PDU for requesting re-establishment of all operations and parameters to a counterpart AM entity when the RLC AM entity finds an important error during operation and a reset ACK PDU for responding to the reset PDU. A plurality of protocol parameters, status variables and timers are necessary for the AM RLC entity to perform the above-described functions. A PDU like a status PDU or reset PDU, which is used for controlling data transmission in the AM RLC entity is called a control PDU and a PDU for delivering user data is called a data PDU.

In case that a user equipment changes a network entity like a base station with which a o

connection is established due to a reason such as handover, etc, data loss and unnecessary repeated data transmission should be limited within a minimum range during the changing procedure. For instance, when a user equipment acting in the acknowledged mode performs handover from a source base station to a target base station, the source base station is supposed to transmit data blocks to be transmitted to the user equipment to the target base station. In this case, a transmission buffer or a retransmission buffer in the AM RLC entity of the source base station is storing data blocks which has not been transmitted to the user equipment at all and data blocks which has been transmitted to the user equipment but has received negative reception acknowledgements from the user equipment. Accordingly, when the source base station delivers data blocks for the user equipment to the target base station, efficient methods are required to avoid data loss or unnecessary repeated data transmission. Further, a method of new status report for the user equipment is needed for supporting efficient data transfers from the source base station to the target base station.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a method of performing handover and supporting thereof.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for avoiding data loss and repeated data transmission during handover in a mobile communication system. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of supporting handover thereby a source base station efficiently transfers user data to a target base station during hanover in a mobile communication system.

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, the present invention is embodied in a method of supporting handover at a first network entity in a mobile communication system, the method comprising transmitting a plurality of data blocks of a first layer to a user equipment, checking whether each of the plurality of data blocks is successfully transmitted to the user equipment, and transmitting to a second network entity at least one data block of the first layer excluding a data block which is successfully transmitted to the user equipment among the plurality of data blocks of the first layer, the second network entity being a target network entity for handover of the user equipment.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a method of supporting handover at a first network entity in a mobile communication system comprises transmitting a plurality of first data blocks of a first layer to a user equipment, each of the plurality of first data blocks including at least a part of a second data block transferred from an upper layer, checking whether each of the plurality of first data blocks is transmitted successfully to the user equipment, and transmitting to a second network entity at least one second data block included in a first data block of the first layer excluding a first data block which is successfully transmitted to the user equipment among the plurality of first data blocks, the second network entity being a target network entity for handover of the user equipment. In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a method of transmitting status report for supporting handover at a user equipment in a mobile communication system comprises checking whether a handover command is received from a first network entity, and transmitting status report for at least one data block transmitted from the first network entity to at least one of the first network entity and a second network entity if the handover command is received from the first network entity, the second network entity being a target network entity for handover of the user equipment. In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a method of supporting handover at a first network entity in a mobile communication system comprises transmitting a plurality of data blocks of a first layer to a user equipment, and transmitting to a second network entity at least one data block of the first layer excluding a data block which is successfully transmitted to the user equipment among the plurality of data blocks of the first layer, the second network entity being a target network entity for handover of the user equipment.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a method of supporting handover at a first network entity in a mobile communication system comprises transmitting a plurality of first data blocks of a first layer to a user equipment, each of the plurality of first data blocks including at least a part of a second data block transferred from an upper layer, and transmitting to a second network entity at least one second data block included in a first data block of the first layer excluding a first data block which is successfully transmitted to the user equipment among the plurality of first data blocks, the second network entity being a target network entity for handover of the user equipment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention. Features, elements, and aspects of the invention that are referenced by the same numerals in different figures represent the same, equivalent, or similar features, elements, or aspects in accordance with one or more embodiments.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network structure of E-UMTS (evolved universal mobile telecommunications system);

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a protocol architecture of an E-UTRAN. FIG. 3A and 3B are architectural diagrams of a control plane and a user plane, respectively of a radio interface protocol between UE (user equipment) and UTRAN (UMTS terrestrial radio access network) based on the 3GPP radio access network standard;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a structure of physical channels in the E-UMTS; FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a handover procedure in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating examples of transferring user data from a source base station to a target base station in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

Embodiments described below are examples whit which the technical features of the present invention are applied to an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (E-UMTS). FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network structure of an E-UMTS

(Evolved-Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) to which technical features of the present invention are applied. An E-UMTS is a system evolving from the conventional UMTS and its basic standardization is currently handled by the 3GPP (3^rd Generation Partnership

Project). The E-UMTS can also be called an LTE (Long Term Evolution) system. Release 7 and Release 8 of "3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio

Access Network" can be referred to for further technical matters associated with the UMTS and

E-UMTS which are not described in this document.

Referring to FIG. 1, an E-UMTS network includes a user equipment (hereinafter abbreviated 'UE'), a base station (eNode B or eNB) and an access gateway (hereinafter abbreviated 'aGW') connected to an external network by being located at an end of the E-UMTS network. The aGW may be classified into a part for handling user traffic and a part for handling control traffic. A first aGW for processing new user traffic may communicate with a second AG for processing control traffic via a new interface. An eNode B may include at least one cell. A first interface for transmitting user traffic or a second interface for transmitting control traffic may be located between several eNode Bs. The CN may include the aGW and a plurality of nodes for registering users of User Equipments (UEs). If required, another interface for discriminating between the E-UTRAN and the CN may also be used for the LTE network. The aGW manages mobility of a UE by unit of a tracking area (TA). A TA comprises a plurality of cells. When a UE moves into a TA from another TA, the UE informs the aGW of the change of the TAs. The eNode B includes at least one cell. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating protocol architecture of an E-UTRAN. In

FIG. 2, the hatching part represents functional entities of a control plane and the non-hatching part represents functional entities of a user plane.

Layers of a radio interface protocol between a UE and a network can be classified into a first layer Ll, a second layer L2 and a third layer L3 based on three lower layers of OSI (open system interconnection) reference model widely known in communication systems. A physical layer belonging to the first layer Ll provides an information transfer service using a physical channel. A radio resource control (hereinafter abbreviated 'RRC) located at the third layer plays a role in controlling radio resources between the UE and the network. For this, the RRC layer enables RRC messages to be exchanged between the UE and the network. The RRC layer can be distributively located at network nodes including an eNode B, an AG and the like or at either the Node B or the AG.

FIG. 3A and 3B are architectural diagrams of a control plane and a user plane, respectively of a radio interface protocol between UE (user equipment) and UTRAN (UMTS terrestrial radio access network) based on the 3GPP radio access network standard. Referring to FIG. 3 A, a radio interface protocol vertically includes a physical layer, a data link layer, and a network layer and horizontally includes a user plane for data information transfer and a control plane for signaling transfer. The protocol layers in FIG. 3A can be classified into Ll (first layer), L2 (second layer), and L3 (third layer) based on three lower layers of the open system interconnection (OSI) standard model widely known in the communications systems.

The respective layers of a radio protocol control plane shown in FIG. 3 A and a radio protocol user plane shown in FIG. 3B are explained as follows.

First of all, the physical layer as the first layer provides information transfer service to an upper layer using physical channels. The physical layer (PHY) is connected to a medium access control (hereinafter abbreviated 'MAC') layer above the physical layer via transport channels. Data are transferred between the medium access control layer and the physical layer via the transport channels. Moreover, data is transferred between different physical layers, and more particularly, between one physical layer of a transmitting side and the other physical layer of a receiving side via the physical channels. A downlink physical channel of the E-UMTS is modulated according to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme and time and frequency are used as radio resources. The medium access control (hereinafter abbreviated 'MAC') layer of the second layer provides a service to a radio link control (hereinafter abbreviated RLC) layer above the MAC layer via logical channels. The RLC layer of the second layer supports reliable data transfer. In order to effectively transmit IP packets (e.g., IPv4 or IPv6) within a radio-communication period having a narrow bandwidth, a PDCP layer of the second layer (L2) performs header compression to reduce the size of a relatively-large IP packet header containing unnecessary control information.

A radio resource control (hereinafter abbreviated 'RRC) layer located on a lowest part of the third layer is defined in the control plane only and is associated with configuration, reconfiguration and release of radio bearers (hereinafter abbreviated 'RBs') to be in charge of controlling the logical, transport and physical channels. In this case, the RB means a service provided by the second layer for the data transfer between the UE and the UTRAN. As a downlink transport channel carrying data to UEs from the network, there is a broadcast channel (BCH) carrying system information and a downlink shared channel (SCH) carrying user traffic or control messages. The traffic or control messages of a downlink multicast or broadcast service can be transmitted via the downlink SCH or an additional downlink multicast channel (MCH). Meanwhile, as an uplink transport channel carrying data to the network from UEs, there is a random access channel (RACH) carrying an initial control message and a uplink shared channel (UL-SCH) carrying user traffic or control message.

In the E-UMTS system, an OFDM is used on the downlink and a single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) on the uplink. The OFDM scheme using multiple carriers allocates resources by unit of multiple subcarriers including a group of carriers and utilizes an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) as an access scheme.

A physical layer of an OFDM or OFDMA scheme divides active carriers into a plurality of groups and transmits each group to a different receiving side. Radio resource allocated to each UE which is defined as a time-frequency region on a two-dimensional sphere comprises continuous subcarriers on a frequency axis and symbols on a time axis. A time-frequency region in the OFDM or OFDMA scheme is a rectangular form sectioned by time and frequency coordinates. One or more time-frequency region can be allocated to an uplink for a UE and an eNB can transmit one or more time-frequency region to a UE. In order to define a time-frequency region on the two-dimensional sphere, the number of OFDM symbols and subcarriers starting from a point having an offset from a reference point should be given.

The E-UMTS uses 10 ms radio frame comprising 20 sub-frames. Namely, a sub-frame is 0.5 ms length. A resource block comprises one sub-frame and twelve subcarriers, each of which is 15 kHz. One sub-frame comprises a plurality of OFDM symbols and a part of the plurality of OFDM symbols can be used for Ll /2 control information. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a structure of physical channels in the E-UMTS. In FIG.

4, a sub-frame comprises a Ll/2 control information transmission region (the hatching part) and a data transmission region (the non-hatching part).

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a handover procedure in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention in the 3GPP LTE system.

Referring to FIG. 5, a user equipment (UE) initially has a connection with a source base station (a source eNB) and receives user data from an upper network entity like aGW via the source base station [S51, S52]. The source base station allocates uplink (UL) resources for the user equipment to transmit a message for measurement reports [S53]. The uplink resources means a time-frequency region through which the user equipment can transmit uplink data. The user equipment transmits a measurement report message to the source base station through the allocated uplink resources, i.e. the time-frequency region [S54]. The measurement report message includes information associated with channel qualities between the user equipment and the source base station and at least one neighboring base station. The channel quality information can be represented by a variety of parameters such as a carrier to interference and noise ratio (CINR), a signal to noise ratio (SNR), a bit error rate (BER) or a frame error rate (FER), etc. The source base station determines whether the user equipment performs handover or not based on the contents of the measurement report message [S55]. For example, if a channel quality between the user equipment and a neighboring base station is equal to or higher than a pre-determined threshold value from a channel quality between the user equipment and the source base station, the source base station determines that the user equipment should perform handover to the neighboring base station. In this case, the neighboring base station can be a target base station.

After making a handover decision, the source base station transmits a handover preparation message including UE RAN context to the target base station [S56]. The UE RAN context contains information associated with the user equipment, such as a UE identity, security information, and the number of established radio bearer (RB). The target base station stores the UE RAN context received from the source base station [S57]. The target base station secures resources such as radio resources and hardware resources like memory for establishing a connection with the user equipment and then transmits resource establishment information for the user equipment to the source base station [S58]. The resource establishment information includes a new C-RNTI (Cell-Radio Network Temporary Identity) for the user equipment. The source base station allocates downlink (DL) resources to the user equipment [S59] and transmits a handover command message to the user equipment through the allocation downlink resources [S60]. The handover command message includes the new C-RNTI. After transmitting the handover command message to the user equipment, the source base station allocates to the user equipment uplink resources necessary for status reports [S61]. The user equipment transmits status report through the allocated uplink resources to the source base station [S62]. The status report includes reception acknowledgement information for a plurality of data blocks transmitted from the source base station to the user equipment during a pre-defined time period. Preferably, the status report may include reception acknowledgement information for data blocks which are successfully received from the source base station only. Alternatively, the status report may include acknowledgement information for data blocks which are unsuccessfully received from the source base station only. Here, a data block may be an RLC PDU or an RLC SDU. Generally, a reception acknowledgement by the user equipment is performed by unit of an RLC PDU, but can be performed by unit of an RLC SDU. For example, the user equipment may transmit a reception acknowledgement for each RLC PDU before receiving the handover command message from the source base station but may transmit a reception acknowledgement for each RLC SDU after receiving the handover command message. The reception acknowledgement information can be included in at least one of status PDU or piggyback status PDU to be transmitted.

The status report by the user equipment after receiving the handover command message is needed in order for the user equipment to exactly report, to the source base station, information whether the user equipment successfully receives data blocks transmitted from the source base station. As described above, in general, the user equipment reports, to the source base station, reception acknowledgements for RLC PDUs transmitted from the source base station. However, since an interval between status reports is long, the reception acknowledgement information which the source base station has at the time of handover can be inaccurate. In this case, it is necessary for the user equipment to report exact reception acknowledgement information to the source base station, so that the source base station does not transfer repeated user data to the target base station.

The source base station having received the status report from the user equipment transfers user data to be transmitted to the user equipment to the target base station based on the reception acknowledgement information included in the status report [S63]. The user data to be transferred to the target base station includes data blocks stored in a transmission buffer or a retransmission buffer of the source base station other than a data block which has been successfully transmitted to the user equipment. A data block can be at least one of RLC PDU and RLC SDU. Whether a data block is successfully transmitted to the user equipment can be judged by a reception acknowledgement for the data block. Namely, when receiving a positive reception acknowledgement for a data block, the source base station can determine that the data block has been successfully transmitted to the user equipment.

A data block to be transferred from the source base station to the target base station can be classified into three types. The first type is a data block which the source base station has transmitted to the user equipment and a negative reception acknowledgement has been received from the user equipment. The UE may transmit a reception acknowledgement for each RLC PDU or RLC SDU. Each RLC PDU contains at least a part of an RLC SDU. The data block can be at least one of RLC PDU or RLC SDU. The second type is an RLC PDU or an RLC SDU included in a MAC PDU which is unsuccessfully transmitted to the user equipment. Namely, in case that a MAC layer fails to o

transmit a MAC PDU to the user equipment, RLC PDUs or RLC SDUs associated with the failed MAC PDU should be transferred to the target base station. More particularly, an RLC PDU is transferred from an RLC layer to an MAC layer in a network. The MAC layer forms at least one MAC PDU by using the transferred RLC PDU and then transfers the at least one MAC PDU to a physical layer. The hybrid automatic repeat and request (HARQ) scheme is applied to each MAC PDU to be transmitted to the user equipment. If the MAC layer fails to receive ACK for a MAC PDU within a pre-determined retransmission times, the MAC layer informs the RLC layer of the fact so that the RLC layer can retransmit at least one RLC PDU associated with the MAC PDU. The third type is a data block which the source base station has received from an upper network entity but has not transmitted to the user equipment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating examples of transferring user data from the source base station to the target base station in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Namely, FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating embodiments of S63 in FIG. 5. FIG. 6(a) represents an example for transferring data blocks based on RLC SDUs and FIG. 6(b) represents an example for transferring data blocks based on RLC PDUs.

In FIG. 6, the source base station receives RLC SDUs 1, 2, 3, and 4 from an upper network entity (e.g. aGW). The RLC layer of the source base station configures RLC PDUs 1, 2, 3, and 4 by segmenting and/or concatenating the RLC SDUs 1, 2, and 3 and transmits RLC PDUs 1, 2, 3, and 4 to the user equipment. The source base station receives positive reception acknowledgements (hereinafter, 'ACK) for the RLC PDUs 1, 3, and 4 and a negative reception acknowledgement (hereinafter, 'NACK) for the RLC PDU 2. Here, the numbers following RLC SDUs or RLC PDUs represent sequence numbers of the RLC SDUs or the RLC PDUs.

From the mapping relationship between the RLC SDUs and the RLC PDUs which is known to the source base station, the source base station can obtain the fact that the user equipment has received the RLC SDU 3 successfully but has not received the RLC SDUs 1, 2, and 4 successfully. In order for the user equipment to correctly recover the RLC SDUs 1, 2, 3, and 4, all RLC PDUs associated with the RLC SDU 1, 2, 3, and 4 should be successfully transmitted to the user equipment. However, in FIG. 6, the RLC PDU 1, 3, and 4 has been successfully transmitted to the user equipment. The user equipment can recover the RLC SDU 3 by using the successfully transmitted RLC PDU 4. As described above, however, the RLC SDU 1, 2, and 4 cannot be successfully recovered in the user equipment since the RLC PDU 2 fails to be successfully transmitted.

In the embodiment of FIG 6(a), the source base station transfers, to the target base station, RLC SDUs which are transmitted unsuccessfully and are not transmitted to the user equipment yet other than an RLC SDU which is successfully transmitted to the user equipment. Namely, in FIG. 6(a), the source base station transfers the RLC SDU 1, 2, and 4 to the target base station. The target base station configures RLC PDUs by using the transferred RLC SDUs and transfers the configured RLC PDUs to the user equipment after the handover is completed. In FIG 6(a), the source base station does not transfer an RLC SDU which is successfully transmitted to the user equipment.

In the embodiment of FIG 6(b), the source base station transfers, to the target base station, an RLC PDU for which NACK is received from the user equipment and an RLC SDU which has not been transmitted to the user equipment yet other than an RLC PDU which is successfully transmitted to the user equipment. Namely, the RLC PDU 2 and the RLC SDU 4 are transferred from the source base station to the target base station. The target base station configures the RLC PDUs 5 and 6 by using the transferred RLC SDU 4 and transmits the RLC PDU 2 transferred from the source base station and the configured RLC PDUs 5 and 6 to the user equipment.

In the embodiment of FIG. 6(b), as described above, the source base station transfers to the target base station an RLC PDU which is unsuccessfully transmitted to the user equipment and an RLC SDU which has not been transmitted to the user equipment yet. Accordingly, the source base station does not transfer an RLC SDU and an RLC PDU which are successfully transmitted to the user equipment. The user equipment can recover the RLC SDUs 1, 2, and 3 by combining the RLC PDUs 1, 3, and 4 which are successfully received from the source base station and the RLC PDU 2 which is successfully received from the target base station. In other words, the RLC SDUs 1 and 2 can be recovered by the user equipment based on the RLC PDUs 1 and 3 received from the source base station and the RLC PDU 2 received from the target base station. And, the RLC SDU 3 can be recovered from the RLC PDU 4.

The embodiment of FIG. 6(b) has an advantage, when compared with the embodiment of FIG. 6(a), in that less resources of the target base station are needed for processing user data transferred from the source base station. However, if the target base station has sufficient resources for data processing for the user equipment, the embodiment of FIG. 6(a) may be preferable since implementation in the user equipment can be easily obtained and the user equipment does not have to memorize communication situations with the source base station before the handover. In other words, one of the embodiments of FIG. 6(a) and FIG. 6(b) can be selected depending on resources which the target base station can use for the user equipment. Since the target base station has an idea of how much resources can be used for the user equipment, the target base station can select one of the embodiments of FIG. 6(a) and FIG. 6(b) and inform the target base station of information associated with the selected one. The source base station may give the user equipment the information through, e.g. the handover command message.

The source base station may perform the handover procedure in accordance with the information from the target base station. In case that the embodiment of FIG 6(a) is selected, the user equipment may discard all RLC PDUs which are successfully received from the source base station after the handover to the target base station is completed. In case that the embodiment of FIG 6(b) is selected, it is preferable for the user equipment not to discard all RLC PDUs which are successfully received from the source base station Refening to FIG. 5 again, the target base station which has received, from the source base station, data blocks excluding a data block successfully transmitted to the user equipment among all data blocks for the user equipment stores the received data blocks in a buffer [S64]. The data blocks may include at least one of RLC SDU and RLC PDU. The user equipment establishes a connection for data communication with the target base station [S65]. The connection establishment procedure may include a synchronization process and a process of establishing necessary radio bearers (RBs). After completing the connection establishment procedure, the target base station allocates uplink radio resources to the user equipment [S66]. The user equipment transmits a handover confirm message through the allocated uplink resources to the target base station [S67]. Preferably, after completing the connection establishment procedure the user equipment transmits to the target base station reception acknowledgement information for data blocks received from the source base station before the handover. In other words, the user equipment informs the target base station of whether a data block is successfully received from the source base station, thereby the target base station can correctly obtain information associated with data blocks to be transmitted to the user equipment after the handover is completed. Preferably, the user equipment may transmit to the target base station reception acknowledgement information for data blocks which are successfully received from the source base station only. Alternatively, the user equipment may transmit to the target base station reception acknowledgement information for data blocks which are unsuccessfully received from the source base station only. The data blocks may include at least one of RLC PDU and RLC SDU. The reception acknowledgement information can be included in the handover confirm message. Alternatively, the reception acknowledgement information can be included in an RLC message, an RRC message or a PDCP message, etc to be transmitted from the user equipment to the target base station.

When receiving user data for the user equipment from the aGW [S68] during the handover, the source base station transfers the received user data to the target base station [S72]. The target base station informs the source base station that the handover is completed [S69] and requests the aGW to update the location of the user equipment [S70]. The aGW performs path switching for the user equipment [S71] and transmits user data to the user equipment via the target base station [S73, S74] .

In the embodiments of the present invention, a softer handover by which a user equipment moves between two cells within a coverage of a base station and a soft handover by which a user equipment moves from a cell within a coverage of a base station to other cell within a coverage of other base station should be treated differently. A couple of cells within a coverage of a base station share establishment information for a user equipment. Reception acknowledgement information received from the user equipment is valid for all cells with the coverage of the base station. In case that the user equipment moves betweens cells within the coverage of the base station, it is unnecessary for the base station to transfer user data to other base station. Accordingly, the base station can transmit data blocks which have been unsuccessfully transmitted to the user equipment before handover to the user equipment located in a new cell after handover.

On the other hand, in case that the user equipment moves into a new base station, the new base station preferably transmits data blocks which has been unsuccessfully transmitted to the user equipment by the source base station to the user equipment. Meanwhile, the user equipment has no idea of whether the user equipment moves into a new cell of a new base station or a cell within the coverage of the source base station. Accordingly, when the source base station preferably informs the user equipment of information on whether the cell into which the user equipment moves is within the coverage of the source base station. For example, the information may include an indicator indicating that the user equipment moves into a cell within the coverage of the source base station or a cell within the coverage of new base station. The information can be included in a handover command o

message to be transmitted to the user equipment.

After receiving the handover command message, the user equipment performs a soft handover or a softer handover in accordance with the information included in the handover command message. Alternatively, the user equipment may determine what kind of handover should be performed according to a base station identifier included in the handover command message. For example, when the base station identifier in the handover command message is a new base station identifier different from an identifier of the source base station, the user equipment performs a soft handover.

During a soft handover procedure, it is preferable for the user equipment to transfer, to an upper layer, an RLC SDU which is successfully received from the source base station but is not transferred yet to the upper layer since other RLC SDU having a lower sequence number than the RLC SDU is unsuccessfully received. Meanwhile, the user equipment may discard an RLC PDU which is successfully received from the source base station.

During a softer handover procedure, it is preferable for the user equipment not to transfer, to an upper layer, an RLC SDU which is successfully received from the source base station but is not transferred yet to the upper layer since other RLC SDU having a lower sequence number than the RLC SDU is unsuccessfully received until the other RLC SDU having a lower sequence number is unsuccessfully received or other events occurs. Meanwhile, the user equipment may not discard an RLC PDU which is successfully received from an old cell within the coverage of the source base station. The user equipment may receive an RLC PDU from a new cell within the coverage of the source base station. In this case, the user equipment can recover RLC SDUs by combining the RLC PDU received from the old cell and the RLC PDU received from the new cell.

Meanwhile, the source base station preferably includes in the handover command message an indicator indicating an operation which the user equipment should perform during handover. The user equipment may perform the following operations in accordance with the indicator.

First, the user equipment transfers, to an upper layer, an RLC SDU which is successfully received from an old cell but which is not transferred yet to the upper layer since other RLC SDU having a lower sequence number than the RLC SDU is unsuccessfully received. Further, the user equipment may discard an RLC PDU which is successfully received from the old cell. In this case, a source base station transfers to a target base station all RLC SDUs which are unsuccessfully received to the user equipment.

Second, the user equipment does not transfer, to an upper layer, an RLC SDU which is successfully received from the source base station but is not transferred yet to the upper layer since other RLC SDU having a lower sequence number than the RLC SDU is unsuccessfully received until the other RLC SDU having a lower sequence number is unsuccessfully received or other events occurs. Further, the user equipment may not discard an RLC PDU which is successfully received from an old cell within the coverage of the source base station. The user equipment may receive an RLC PDU from a new cell within the coverage of the source base station. In this case, the user equipment can recover RLC SDUs by combining the RLC PDU received from the old cell and the RLC PDU received from the new cell.

In other words, the source base station can transmit to the user equipment an indicator indicating whether the user equipment discards an RLC PDU received from the old cell or whether the user equipment delivers an RLC SDU which is successfully received from the old cell to the upper layer. The user equipment can operate in accordance with the indicator.

In the embodiments of the present invention, when the source base station transfers user data to the target base station (S63 in FIG. 5), it is preferable for a virtual data block to be transferred to the target base station, so that the source base station can check whether the target base station receives the user data successfully. For example, in case that the source base station transfers the RLC SDUs 1 , 2, and 4 to the target base station, as in the embodiment of FIG. 6(a), it is not preferable for the target base station to wait for the RLC SDU 3 without a time limit. To avoid this, the source base station may form an RLC SDU having a sequence number of 3' and transfer to the target base station. The RLC SDU formed by the source base station is the virtual data block. The target base station receiving the virtual data block can realize that a data block corresponding to the sequence number of '3' is not transferred from the source base station.

In this case, it is preferable for the target base station to transmit data blocks transferred from the source base station other than the virtual data block to the user equipment. The virtual data block can be transferred on a channel together with other user data. The virtual data block can inform the target base station that the reception of the virtual data block is unnecessary or that a data block corresponding to the virtual data block will not be transferred.

Some technical terms used in this document can be changed into other terms. For example, a base station and eNode B (or eNB) can be reciprocally exchanged and the base station, eNode B, or eNB can be called a fixed station. Further, a user equipment (UE) can be called a mobile terminal, a terminal, or a user device, etc. The foregoing embodiments and advantages are merely exemplary and are not to be construed as limiting the present invention. The present teaching can be readily applied to other types of apparatuses. The description of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, and not to limit the scope of the claims. Many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. In the claims, means-plus-function clauses are intended to cover the structure described herein as performing the recited function and not only structural equivalents but also equivalent structures.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present invention is applicable to a wireless communication system like a mobile internet system or a mobile communication system, etc.