WO2010105552A1 - Method and apparatus for discontinuously monitoring a control channel in a multi-carrier system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for discontinuously monitoring a control channel in a multi-carrier system, wherein the method includes that: according to a configuration signaling of a network side, when a first timer is initiated, a terminal starts to monitor a control channel on a preset first number of carriers corresponding to the first timer, when the first timer is expired, the terminal monitors the control channel on a preset second number of carriers, wherein the first number and the second number are natural numbers, greater than zero and equal to or less than the number of all carriers. With the present invention, DRX technology is applied to the multi-carrier system such as LTE-A, the effects of improving power saving performance of UE and reducing time delay of data scheduling can be achieved.

Description

 Method and device for non-continuous monitoring of control channel in multi-carrier system

 The present invention relates to the field of mobile communication technologies, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for discontinuous monitoring of a control channel in a multi-carrier system. Background technique

 In a mobile communication system based on a shared channel, uplink and downlink data transmission is generally performed by a base station.

The (eNB) scheduler is responsible for control. When the scheduler determines to schedule a user, it will notify the terminal on which resource to send or receive data through the control channel. The terminal (UE) listens to the control channel, and when it detects the scheduling information including itself, completes the transmission (uplink) or reception (downlink) of the data according to the indication on the control channel.

 In the active state, since the terminal is not sure when the eNB schedules it, a common mode of operation is that the terminal continuously monitors the control channel and parses each subframe including its downlink scheduling control channel to determine Whether it is scheduled. This mode of operation can achieve higher efficiency when the amount of data in the terminal is large and may be frequently scheduled. However, for some services, the frequency of data arrival is low, and the number of times the terminal is scheduled is also small. If the terminal continues to monitor the control channel continuously, it will undoubtedly increase its power consumption.

 LTE-A (LTE Advanced, Improved Long Term Evolution) requires up to 1 Gbps downstream and 500 Mbps upstream. This requirement cannot be met in the bandwidth of 20Mhz. Therefore, the LTE-A system introduces Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology, that is, multiple carriers that are continuous or discontinuous in the same 'J, zone. The component carriers are grouped together to serve the UE at the same time as needed to provide the required rate. In order to ensure that the UE of LTE-A can work under each aggregated component carrier, each component carrier does not exceed 20 Mhz at the maximum. The CA technology of LTE-A is shown in Figure 1. In the LTE-A cell shown in FIG. 1, four component carriers are aggregated. The base station can perform data transmission with the UE on four component carriers at the same time to improve system throughput.

In the present application, a mobile communication system to which CA technology is applied is simply referred to as a "multi-carrier system." At present, there is no definite feasible solution for how the multi-carrier system monitors the control channel. Summary of the invention

 The present invention provides a method and apparatus for non-continuously listening to a control channel in a multi-carrier system to solve the problem that the current multi-carrier system does not have an explicit scheme for monitoring the control channel, and at the same time achieves the effect of power saving.

 According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for non-continuously listening to a control channel in a multi-carrier system is provided. The method includes: the terminal starts to correspond to the first timing when the first timer is started according to the network side configuration signaling. The first number of carriers are pre-configured to listen to the control channel, and when the first timer expires, the control channel is monitored on the pre-configured second number of carriers, wherein the first quantity and the second quantity are natural numbers and greater than Zero and less than or equal to the number of all carriers.

 According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for controlling a non-continuous monitoring control channel in a multi-carrier system, the apparatus comprising: a configuration signaling generating unit, configured to generate configuration signaling, indicating that the terminal is started when the first timer is started Starting to listen to the control channel on the first number of carriers corresponding to the first timer pre-configuration, and at the end of the first timer timing, listening to the control channel on the pre-configured second number of carriers, where the first number And the second number is a natural number and is greater than zero and less than or equal to the number of all carriers.

 According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for non-continuously listening to a control channel in a multi-carrier system is provided, the method comprising: configuring a signaling receiving unit, configured to receive configuration signaling from a base station; and a control channel listening unit, configured to Configuring signaling, when the first timer is started, starting to monitor the control channel on the first number of carriers corresponding to the first timer pre-configuration, at the end of the first timer timing, in the second number of pre-configured The control channel is monitored on the carrier, wherein the first quantity and the second quantity are natural numbers and are greater than zero and less than or equal to the number of all carriers.

The present invention applies the DRX technology to a multi-carrier system such as LTE-A, and not only simply applies the DRX scheme on all carriers, but gives a preferred scheme, specifically, on continuous monitoring (on duration) During the period, the control channel is only monitored on the configured carrier, and the control channel is monitored on some or all of the carriers during the start of the inactivity timer, retransmission timer or short-cycle timer, thereby improving the power-saving performance and lowering of the UE. The effect of data scheduling delay. DRAWINGS

 1 is a schematic diagram of a cell carrier of an LTE-A system using a CA technology in the prior art; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a DRX principle;

 FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the working process and relationship of each timer in the DRX;

 4 is a schematic diagram of a DRX process of a UE in a possible single carrier system;

 5 is a schematic diagram of a DRX process of a UE in a possible multi-carrier system;

 6 is a flowchart of a method for non-continuously listening to a control channel in a multi-carrier system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

 Figure 7 is a schematic view of a first embodiment of a method according to the present invention;

 Figure 8 is a schematic view of a second embodiment of the method according to the present invention;

 Figure 9 is a schematic view of a third embodiment of the method according to the present invention;

 10 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus for controlling a non-continuous listening control channel in a multi-carrier system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

 11 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus for non-continuously listening to a control channel in a multi-carrier system according to an embodiment of the present invention. detailed description

 In LTE-A, in order to enable the UE to achieve a higher transmission rate, the UE needs to be able to perform data transmission on multiple or even all component carriers in the cell at the same time. According to the current mechanism, the UE needs to monitor on all component carriers. Control channel. If the UE always listens to the control channel on all carriers, it will undoubtedly waste more energy.

 In order to fully understand the embodiments of the present invention, the Discontinuous Reception (DRX) technology is first introduced. In order to solve the power consumption problem, the mobile communication system adopts the DRX working mode. In this working mode, the terminal periodically monitors the control channel, thereby achieving the purpose of power saving.

The principle of DRX is shown in Figure 2. The On duration indicates the time period during which the UE listens to the control channel, during which the RF channel is turned on, and continuously monitors the control channel; except for the time other than the listening duration, the UE is in the Sleep state, and its RF chain The road will be closed and the control channel will no longer be monitored to save power. Monitor duration is periodic Cycle occurs, and the specific period is implemented by the eNB configuration. In order to implement the DRX operation, LTE has designed a variety of timers, and combined with the Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) process, the operation process in the DRX state is given. The related timers are described as follows.

 1 On Duration Timer: A number of consecutive subframes that can be counted from the beginning of the DRX cycle and can carry the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH). During this time, the UE needs to monitor the PDCCH to see if there is any resource allocation for the UE. If the terminal receives the uplink and downlink scheduling during continuous monitoring, other timers will be started to perform the subsequent scheduling process. However, if the terminal does not receive the uplink and downlink scheduling during the continuous listening period, it will enter the sleep state until the next DRX cycle, and continuously monitor. The data transfer can be re-received when the timer starts.

 If the UE receives the uplink and downlink scheduling during continuous listening, it may also start the following timer to instruct the UE to further monitor the PDCCH.

 2 DRX Inactivity Timer (DRX Inactivity Timer): Starts when the PDCCH that schedules new data is received. During the startup, the UE directly monitors the PDCCH. The termination condition is that the timer expires or the media access control is terminated. (Media Access Control , MAC) layer signaling.

 3 HARQ RTT Timer ( HARQ Round Trip Timer ): Starts only for the downlink transmission. When the PDCCH for scheduling downlink data is received, the fixed length is the shortest retransmission interval. During this period, the PDCCH does not need to be monitored unless it is covered by other timers. .

 4 DRX Retransmission Timer (DRX Retransmission Timer): For downlink transmission only, after the HRAQ RTT Timer expires, if the previous transmission still has not been successfully decoded, it is started. During the startup, the UE directly monitors the PDCCH; the termination condition is that the timer expires. Or receive the expected retransmission schedule.

5 DRX Short cycle Timer: To better match the arrival of data services, two DRX cycles are allowed: long cycle and short cycle. The two-period continuous listening timer is the same, but the sleep time is different. In the short cycle, the sleep time is relatively shorter, and the UE can listen to the control channel again more quickly. Long periods are mandatory and are the initial state of the DRX process; short periods are optional. The DRX short cycle timer sets the short cycle duration. After the short period timer expires, the UE will use the long period.

 Figure 3 shows the working process and relationship of the above timers. At the time t1 of the listening duration, the eNB schedules an initial transmission for process 1, and the UE then opens the inactive timer and the corresponding RTT timer 1. Since the initial transmission decoding of process 1 is unsuccessful, the UE turns on retransmission timer 1 after the RTT timer expires.

 At time t2, the eNB schedules the initial transmission for process 2, the inactivity timer is restarted, and the RTT timer 2 for process 2 is opened.

 At time t3 before the retransmission timer 1 times out, the UE receives a retransmission for process 1, then terminates retransmission timer 1 and turns on RTT timer 1.

 After the RTT timer 2 times out, since the initial transmission of process 2 is not successfully decoded, the UE turns on retransmission timer 2. At time t4 before the retransmission timer 2 times out, the eNB schedules retransmission of process 2, and then the UE terminates retransmission timer 2 and turns on RTT timer 2.

 At time t5 before the retransmission timer 1 expires, the eNB continues to schedule retransmission of process 1, and then retransmission timer 1 is terminated, and RTT timer 1 is started. Before the RTT timer 2 expires, the UE successfully decodes the data in the process 2, and then feeds back the ACK to the eNB, and after the RTT timer 2 times out, the retransmission timer 2 is not started. Similarly, before the RTT timer 1 times out, the UE successfully decodes the data in the process 1, and then feeds back an ACK to the eNB. After the RTT timer 1 times out, the retransmission timer 1 is not started.

 Through the above process, it can be seen that in the continuous listening timer, the retransmission timer and the inactive timer, any one of the timers is running, and the UE will listen to the control channel. The time at which the UE listens to the control channel is also called the Active Time. Due to the role of multiple timers, the time to listen to the PDCCH may be extended after the listening duration, even coincident with the next listening duration.

In addition, the DRX MAC CE (MAC control element) mechanism exists in the DRX mechanism. After receiving the DRX MAC CE, the UE will immediately resume the short DRX cycle (if configured) or the long DRX cycle. status. The function is that when the eNB does not need subsequent data to be scheduled, the UE is instructed to immediately stop the continuous listening timer and the inactive timer, and if there is an RTT timer, it will listen, otherwise it will enter a sleep state to further improve power saving. Performance.

 For a single carrier system, such as an LTE system, since one cell has only one carrier, a possible process for the UE in the DRX state to listen to the control channel is as shown in FIG.

 In Figure 4:

 Tl : the UE enters the next listening duration and starts to listen to the control channel;

 T2: The UE receives the control signaling of the new transmission during the listening period, and opens the inactivity timer and the RTT timer;

 T3: Inactivity timer expires; UE enters long period (assuming no short period is configured); t4: RTT timer expires, because the initial transmission is not successful, so the corresponding retransmission timer is turned on;

 T5: The retransmission schedule is received during the retransmission timer, and the RTT timer is turned on; the retransmission timer is terminated.

 T6: The RTT timer expires. Because the retransmission decoding is successful, the retransmission timer is not started.

 Tl : The UE enters the listening duration and continues to continuously monitor the control channel.

 In a multi-carrier system using CA, such as the LTE-A system, there is no clear solution on how to use DRX technology. However, if based on a principle: On the component carrier (CC) compatible with LTE UEs, the DRX process of LTE still needs to be supported, so a possible solution is to perform separate DRX processes on all CCs, as shown in FIG. 5.

 In the process of Figure 5, both CC1 and CC2 are configured with DRX processes and are independent of each other. The data transmission on CC3 does not affect the DRX process of CC1 and CC2. The disadvantage of this scheme is that even if the data transmission only occurs on some of the CCs, the UE must listen to the control channel on all CCs, which is not conducive to the power saving performance of the UE.

Therefore, in LTE-A, based on the same traffic packet arrival rule as the LTE system, the following DRX mechanism can be designed: During continuous listening, the UE only listens for control signaling on one CC, and when there is transmission, the UE immediately Monitor control signaling on multiple CCs. This mechanism can expand the transmission bandwidth when the data packets arrive in batches to start the rest of the DRX timers, so that the arriving data can be transmitted faster. When no data arrives, the UE only needs to monitor one CC, which can be improved compared with FIG. Power saving performance. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method for monitoring a control channel in a multi-carrier system according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the method includes:

 S601: The base station sends the DRX configuration signaling to the terminal, and instructs the terminal to start monitoring the control channel on the first number of carriers corresponding to the first timer pre-configured when the first timer starts, ending at the first timer. While monitoring the control channel on the pre-configured second number of carriers, wherein the first quantity and the second quantity are natural numbers and greater than zero and less than or equal to the number of all carriers, the first quantity and the second quantity are generally different, But it can be the same. The pre-configuration may be configured by signaling or pre-defined in the specification.

 Specifically, when the first timer is a persistent listening timer, when the persistent listening timer is started, the control channel is only monitored on the configured carrier configured with the persistent listening timer; When the timer, the retransmission timer, or the short period timer is activated, when the inactivity timer, the retransmission timer, or the short period timer is started, the control channel is started to be monitored on some or all of the carriers;

 S602: The terminal receives the DRX configuration signaling, and monitors the control channel according to the indication of the configuration signaling. Specifically, when the first timer is started, starting to monitor the control channel on the first number of carriers corresponding to the first timer pre-configuration, when the first timer expires, changing to the second number in the pre-configuration The carrier is monitored on the carrier, wherein the first number and the second number are natural numbers and greater than zero and less than or equal to the number of all carriers.

 The configuration of the carrier refers to starting the carrier corresponding to the continuous listening timer.

 The preferred method embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below.

 Figure 7 is a schematic illustration of a first embodiment of a method in accordance with the present invention.

 In summary, in the first embodiment, when the continuous listening timer is started, the control channel is started to be monitored on the configured carrier; when the inactive timer is started, the UE starts to listen to the control channel on all CCs; when other timers are started, The UE becomes listening to the control channel only on the CC corresponding to the current timer.

 In Figure 7, the continuous listening timer is configured only on CC3. Therefore, CC3 is called a configuration carrier, and the UE only listens to the control channel on CC3 during continuous listening.

 Tl : enter a new listening duration;

T2: The UE receives the control signaling of the initial transmission 1 on CC3, and then starts on all CCs. Inactive timer, and open the corresponding RTT timer;

 T3: The UE receives the control signaling of the initial transmission 2 on CC2, and opens the corresponding RTT timer; the inactivity timers on all CCs are restarted;

 T4: The inactivity timer expires; on CC3, the DRX short cycle timer is started (assuming a short period is configured);

 T5: The RTT timer on CC3 times out. Because the initial transmission 1 has been successful, the corresponding retransmission timer will not be started.

 T6: The UE enters the next continuous listening timer on CC3.

 T7: The RTT timer on CC2 has timed out. Since the transmission 2 has not been successful, the corresponding retransmission timer will be started. During the start of the timer, the UE receives the retransmission of the initial transmission 2, the corresponding RTT timer is turned on, and the retransmission timer is terminated;

 T8: The RTT timer on CC2 times out. Because the retransmission has been successfully decoded, the retransmission timer is no longer started.

 T9: The DRX short cycle timer on CC3 times out; the UE enters the next listening duration on CC3 (using long period).

 Summarizing the first embodiment, the control channel that starts monitoring when the DRX timers are started is as shown in Table 1.

 Table 1

 Among them, during the short period timer, only the configuration carrier CC3 is valid, because the short period timer is generally only started for the configuration carrier configured with the continuous listening timer.

 In the first embodiment, it is assumed that the HARQ retransmission must be the same as the initially transmitted CC. However, in the current LTE-A discussion, whether HARQ retransmission can occur on a different carrier than the initial transmission has not been determined.

In the second embodiment, the fixed HARQ retransmission may occur on any CC, and the corresponding DRX process is as shown in FIG. 8. In Figure 8, the persistent listening timer is only configured on CC3, and the UE only listens for control signaling on CC3 during continuous listening. Tl : enter a new listening duration;

 T2: The UE receives the control signaling of the initial transmission 1 on CC3, and then starts the inactivity timer on all CCs, and opens the corresponding RTT timer;

 T3: The UE receives the control signaling of the initial transmission 2 on CC2, and opens the corresponding RTT timer; the inactivity timers on all CCs are restarted;

 T4: The inactivity timer expires; on CC3, the DRX short cycle timer is started (using a short period);

 T5: The RTT timer on CC3 times out. Because the transmission 1 has been successful, the corresponding retransmission timer will not be started.

 T6: The UE enters the next continuous listening timer on CC3.

 Tl : The RTT timer on CC2 times out. Since transmission 2 has not been successful, the retransmission timer will be started on all CCs. During the start of the timer, the UE receives the retransmission schedule on CC3, and starts the corresponding RTT timer, and stops the corresponding retransmission timer on all CCs;

 T8: The RTT timer on CC3 times out. Because the retransmission has succeeded, the retransmission timer is no longer started.

 T9: The DRX short cycle timer on CC3 times out; the UE enters the next listening duration on CC3 (using long period).

 Summarize the second embodiment, as shown in Table 2, the control channel that starts monitoring when the DRX timers are started.

 Table 2

 It can be seen that the difference between Table 2 and Table 1 is mainly in the fourth column for the processing during the start of the retransmission timer.

 FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of Embodiment 3 of a method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 9, the persistent listening timer is configured only on CC2, so CC2 is referred to as a configuration carrier. In the initial state, the UE listens to the control channel only on CC2 during continuous listening. Tl : enter a new listening duration on CC2;

 T2: The UE receives the control signaling of the initial transmission 1 on CC2, and then starts the inactivity timer on all CCs, and opens the corresponding RTT timer;

 T3: inactivity timer expires; start DRX short-cycle timer (assuming a short period is configured); run the continuous listening timer during the DRX short-cycle timer, the UE will listen to the control channel on all CCs;

 T4: The RTT timer on CC2 times out, because the initial transmission 1 is not decoded successfully, so the corresponding retransmission timer will be started; during the retransmission timer, the corresponding retransmission is received, the retransmission timer will be terminated, and it will be turned on. Corresponding RTT timer;

 T5: The RTT timer on CC2 times out. Because the decoding is successful, the corresponding retransmission timer will not be started.

 T6: The DRX short-cycle timer expires, and the UE enters the next listening duration on CC2 (using a long period and listening only on CC2).

 Summarizing the third embodiment, the monitoring control channel during the start of the DRX timers is shown in Table 3.

 table 3

 It can be seen that in the third embodiment, in the continuous listening timer during the operation of the short cycle timer

The UE will listen to the control channel on all CCs.

 In addition to the three embodiments described above, the following application scenarios and implementations are also contemplated. During the DRX process of LTE, the UE receives a new transmission schedule during activation (such as during the retransmission timer start), and will start the inactivity timer again. This process is also possible in LTE-A.

 At this point, you can have the following possible solutions:

 It is specified in the standard that the inactivity/retransmission timer is started on all CCs;

The UE is flexibly configured by the eNB to initiate the inactive/retransmission timer/short cycle by means of signaling. For the CC that is monitored by the timer, the possible monitoring signaling methods include:

 Physical layer signaling: boost. A new DCI (Dedicated Control Information) format; MAC layer signaling: Add a new MAC CE (Control element) format;

 RRC signaling: Add CC indication information in RRC signaling of LTE DRX.

 The signaling method needs to specify the CC that the UE needs to monitor in the signaling. For example, the principle of the bitmap can be used. Each CC corresponds to one bit, and the corresponding bit is set to 1 to indicate that the UE needs to listen to the corresponding CC. Setting the corresponding bit to 0 means that the UE does not need to listen to the corresponding CC.

 In LTE-A, the DRX MAC CE mechanism similar to LTE can also be used. A reasonable solution is: after receiving the data packet including the DRX MAC CE, the UE stops the persistent listening timer and the inactive timer, and starts to enter the short DRX cycle (if configured) or the long DRX cycle on the configured CC. Status, and stop listening to the control channels on all other CCs.

 Corresponding to the above method, an embodiment of the present invention also provides an apparatus for controlling a listening control channel in a multi-carrier system. Specifically, the device may refer to the base station device itself, or may be a functional entity located inside the base station device, and may be implemented by software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware.

 FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing the internal structure of the apparatus on the base station side according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 10, the device includes:

 The configuration signaling generating unit 1001 is configured to generate configuration signaling. The configuration signaling is used to instruct the terminal to start monitoring the control channel on the first number of carriers corresponding to the first timer pre-configured when the first timer starts, when the first timer expires, in the pre-configured A second number of carriers are listening to the control channel, wherein the first number and the second number are natural numbers and greater than zero and less than or equal to the number of all carriers. The pre-configuration may be configured by signaling or pre-defined in the specification.

 When the first timer is a persistent listening timer, when the persistent listening timer is started, the control channel is only monitored on the configured carrier configured with the persistent listening timer, and the inactive timer and the retransmission timer are started. Or short-cycle timer, starting to monitor the control channel on part or all of the carrier corresponding to the inactive timer, retransmission timer, or short-cycle timer pre-configuration;

The configuration signaling sending unit 1002 is configured to generate the configuration generated by the signaling generating unit 1001. Signaling is sent to the terminal.

 Preferably, the apparatus further includes: a data packet sending unit 1003, configured to send a data packet including the DRX MAC CE to the terminal, stop the persistent listening timer and the inactivity timer, and instruct the terminal to start a short cycle timer of configuring the carrier or The long period timer, and becomes the monitor channel only on the configured carrier.

 The DRX configuration signaling generated by the configuration signaling generating unit 1001 indicates that when the initiating inactivity timer, retransmission timer or short period timer is started, the terminal starts to monitor the control channel on part or all of the carriers, including:

 Initiating a listening period of the short-cycle timer, instructing the terminal to listen to the control channel on the configured carrier, or

 When the inactivity timer or the retransmission timer is started, or during the continuous listening period of the short-cycle timer, the terminal is instructed to listen to the control channel on the carrier corresponding to the timer, listen to the control channel on all carriers, or configure The interception signaling indicates that the terminal is listening on the control channel on one or more carriers.

 Moreover, embodiments of the present invention also provide an apparatus for listening to a control channel in a multi-carrier system. Specifically, the device may refer to the terminal device itself, or may be a functional entity located inside the terminal device, and may be implemented by software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware.

 Figure 11 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the apparatus on the terminal side according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 11, the device includes:

 The configuration signaling receiving unit 1101 is configured to receive configuration signaling from the base station;

 The control channel monitoring unit 1102 is configured to: according to the configuration signaling, start monitoring the control channel on the first number of carriers corresponding to the first timer pre-configuration when the first timer starts, when the first timer expires And listening to the control channel on the pre-configured second number of carriers, wherein the first quantity and the second quantity are natural numbers and greater than zero and less than or equal to the number of all carriers. The pre-configuration can be either configured by signaling or pre-defined in the specification.

When the first timer is a persistent listening timer, when the persistent listening timer is started, the control channel is only monitored on the configured carrier configured with the persistent listening timer, and the inactive timer and the retransmission timer are started. Or a short cycle timer, starting to listen to the control channel on some or all of the carriers corresponding to the inactivity timer, retransmission timer, or short cycle timer pre-configuration. Preferably, the apparatus further includes: a data packet receiving unit 1103, configured to receive a data packet including a discontinuous reception medium access control unit DRX MAC CE;

 At this time, the control channel monitoring unit 1102 stops the continuous listening timer and the inactive timer when the data packet receiving unit 1103 receives the data packet including the DRX MAC CE, and starts the short cycle timer or long period timing of configuring the carrier. And becomes to listen to the control channel only on the configured carrier.

 The control channel monitoring unit 1102 starts to listen to the control channel on part or all of the carriers when the inactive timer, the retransmission timer, or the short period timer is started, and specifically includes:

 Starting to monitor the control channel on the configured carrier during the continuous listening period of the short-cycle timer; or

 When the inactivity timer or the retransmission timer is started, or during the continuous listening period of the short-cycle timer, the control channel is monitored on the carrier corresponding to the timer, the control channel is monitored on all carriers, or according to the received Configure listener signaling to listen to the control channel on one or more carriers.

 It can be seen that the present invention applies the DRX technology to a multi-carrier system such as LTE-A, and not only simply applies the DRX scheme on all carriers, but gives a preferred scheme, specifically, during continuous listening. The control channel is only monitored on the configured carrier. When the inactive timer, the retransmission timer, or the short-cycle timer is started, the control channel is started to be monitored on some or all of the carriers, thereby improving the power saving performance and reducing the data of the UE. The effect of scheduling delays.

 The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and it should be noted that those skilled in the art can also make several improvements and retouchings without departing from the principles of the present invention. It should be considered as the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

Claim A method for non-continuously monitoring a control channel in a multi-carrier system, comprising: the terminal starting to be pre-configured corresponding to the first timer when the first timer is started according to the network side configuration signaling Listening to the control channel on the first number of carriers, monitoring the control channel on the pre-configured second number of carriers when the first timer expires, wherein the first quantity and the second quantity are Natural number and greater than zero and less than or equal to the number of all carriers.  2. The method according to claim 1, comprising:  When the first timer is a continuous listening timer, when the continuous listening timer is started, the control channel is monitored only on the configured carrier configured with the continuous listening timer; In the case of an inactive timer, a retransmission timer, or a short period timer, when the inactivity timer, the retransmission timer, or the short period timer is started, it becomes corresponding to The inactive timer, the retransmission timer, or some or all of the carriers preconfigured by the short period timer are listening to the control channel.  3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:  Receiving, by the terminal, a data packet that is sent by the base station and includes a discontinuous reception medium access control unit DRX MAC CE;  After receiving the data packet, the terminal stops the continuous listening timer and the inactivity timer and starts a short period timer or a long period timer of the configured carrier, and becomes monitored only on the configured carrier. Control channel.  The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that, when the inactivity timer, the retransmission timer or the short cycle timer is started, corresponding to the inactive timer, The retransmission timer, or some or all of the pre-configured pilot control channels on the short-period timer are:  When the inactivity timer is started, the control channel is started to be monitored on all carriers; or, when the retransmission timer is started, the control channel is started to be monitored on the carrier corresponding to the retransmission timer, or During the continuous listening period during the start of the short period timer, it becomes monitored on the configured carrier Control channel.  The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein, when the inactivity timer, the retransmission timer or the short cycle timer is started, it becomes corresponding to the inactive The timer, the retransmission timer, or some or all of the pre-configured pilot control channels on the short-cycle timer include:  When the inactivity timer or retransmission timer is started, the control channel is started to be monitored on all carriers; or,  During the continuous listening period during the start of the short period timer, the control channel is monitored on the configured carrier.  The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein, when the inactivity timer, the retransmission timer or the short cycle timer is started, it becomes corresponding to the inactive The timer, the retransmission timer, or some or all of the pre-configured pilot control channels on the short-cycle timer include:  When the inactivity timer is started, the control channel is started to be monitored on all the carriers; or, when the retransmission timer is started, the control channel is started to be monitored on the carrier corresponding to the retransmission timer; or  During the continuous listening period during the start of the short cycle timer, the control channel is monitored on all carriers.  The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein, when the inactivity timer, the retransmission timer or the short cycle timer is started, it becomes corresponding to the inactivation. The timer, the retransmission timer, or some or all of the pre-configured pilot control channels on the short-cycle timer include:  When the inactivity timer or retransmission timer is started, or during the continuous listening period of the short-cycle timer, the monitoring signaling is configured to indicate that the control channel is monitored on one or more carriers.  The method according to claim 7, wherein the interception signaling comprises physical layer signaling, medium access control MAC layer signaling, or radio resource control RRC signaling. A device for non-continuously monitoring a control channel in a multi-carrier system, comprising: a configuration signaling generating unit, configured to generate configuration signaling, where the configuration signaling indicates that when the first timer is started, Starting with a first number of carriers preconfigured corresponding to the first timer Up monitoring the control channel, when the first timer expires, listening to the control channel on the pre-configured second number of carriers, wherein the first quantity and the second quantity are natural numbers and greater than zero and less than Equal to the number of all carriers.  The configuration signaling sending unit is configured to send the configuration signaling to the terminal.  10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein:  When the first timer is a persistent listening timer, when the persistent listening timer is started, the monitoring channel is changed only on the configured carrier configuring the persistent listening timer; In the case of an inactivity timer, a retransmission timer, or a short period timer, when the inactivity timer, the retransmission timer, or the short period timer is started, it becomes corresponding to The inactive timer, the retransmission timer, or some or all of the carriers preconfigured by the short period timer are monitored on the control channel.  The device according to claim 10, further comprising:  a data packet sending unit, configured to send, to the terminal, a data packet including the discontinuous reception medium access control unit DRX MAC CE, stop the continuous listening timer and the inactivity timer, and instruct the terminal to start the short cycle timer of the configured carrier or A long period timer, and becomes to listen to the control channel only on the configured carrier.  The device according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein the configuration signaling comprises:  Initiating a listening period during the short period timer, instructing the terminal to start listening to the control channel on the configured carrier; or  When the inactivity timer or the retransmission timer is started, instructing the terminal to listen to the control channel on the carrier corresponding to the timer;  During the continuous listening period when the short cycle timer starts, the terminal is instructed to listen to the control channel on all carriers; or  By configuring the interception signaling, the terminal is instructed to listen to the control channel on one or more carriers when the inactivity timer or retransmission timer is started or during the continuous listening period during the start of the short period timer. A device for non-continuously monitoring a control channel in a multi-carrier system, comprising: And configuring a signaling receiving unit, configured to receive configuration signaling from the base station;  a control channel monitoring unit, configured to: according to the configuration signaling, start monitoring a control channel on a first number of carriers corresponding to the first timer pre-configuration, when the first timer is started, in the first When the timer expires, the control channel is monitored on the pre-configured second number of carriers, wherein the first number and the second number are natural numbers and greater than zero and less than or equal to the number of all carriers.  14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein:  When the first timer is a persistent listening timer, when the persistent listening timer is started, the control channel is only monitored on the configured carrier that configures the persistent listening timer;  When the first timer is an inactive timer, a retransmission timer, or a short period timer, when the inactivity timer, the retransmission timer, or the short period timer is started, it starts to correspond to the The inactive timer, the retransmission timer, or some or all of the carriers preconfigured by the short period timer are monitored on the control channel.  The device according to claim 14, further comprising:  a data packet receiving unit, configured to receive a data packet including a discontinuous receiving medium access control unit DRX MAC CE;  The control channel listening unit stops the continuous listening timer and the inactive timer and starts a short cycle timer or a long period of the configured carrier when the data packet receiving unit receives the data packet including the DRX MAC CE Timer, and becomes to listen to the control channel only on the configured carrier.  The apparatus according to any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein: the control channel listening unit becomes monitored on the configured carrier during a continuous listening period during a start of the short period timer Control channel; or,  When the inactivity timer or the retransmission timer is started, the control channel listening unit changes to listen to the control channel on the carrier corresponding to the timer;  The control channel listening unit becomes to listen to the control channel on all carriers during the continuous listening period of the short-cycle timer; or  The control channel listening unit becomes a listening control channel on one or more carriers according to the received configuration monitoring signaling when the inactivity timer or the retransmission timer is started or during the continuous listening period in which the short period timer is started.