Communication system with improved medium access control sub-layer

Abstract

A communication system which has a plurality of mobile terminals and a base station, each of the mobile terminals and/or base station comprising a medium access control sub-layer, upper layers of the medium access control sub-layer, and a lower layer of the medium access control sub-layer, wherein the medium access control sub-layer is configured to perform self-basic functions in response to basic function execution requests or functions associated with the upper layers or lower layer in response to requests therefrom. According to the present invention, the communication system can provide a compatible multimedia communication service even if an originating terminal and a terminating terminal employ different communication manners, they are available from different manufacturers or they are operated by different communication service operators.

1 . A method for obtaining a condition of a channel or a cell by an upper layer from a medium access control sub-layer of a communication device, comprising: 
 sending a measurement request from the upper layer to the medium access control sub-layer;    obtaining a measurement indicative of the condition of the channel or the cell by the medium access sub-layer; and    providing a result of the measurement to the upper layer from the medium access control sub-layer, wherein the upper layer includes a radio resource control (RRC) which sends the measurement request and receives the result of the measurement.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the channel is a logical channel.  
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1  or  2 , wherein the channel is at least one of a synchronization channel, broadcast channel, a common control channel, a dedicated control channel, a paging channel, a channel for packet data service, a random access channel, a forward access channel, or a traffic channel.  
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the communication device is a mobile terminal.  
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the RRC is an entity of the upper layer.  
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the upper layer controls modification of a communication path.  
   
   
       7 . A method for performing a ciphering operation, comprising: 
 providing information from an upper layer to a medium access control sub-layer for protection of data;    performing ciphering of the data using at least one of the medium access control sub-layer or a physical layer; and    providing a status of the ciphering operation to the upper layer.    
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the ciphering operation is performed by a mobile terminal.  
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the ciphering operation is performed by a communication network.  
   
   
       10 . A communication system having a plurality of mobile terminals and a communication network, each of said mobile terminals and the communication network comprising: 
 a physical layer for receiving and sending information;    a medium access control sub-layer receiving services from the physical layer; and    an upper layer to the medium access control sub-layer for receiving services from the medium access control sub-layer, wherein    said medium access control sub-layer performing a pluality of functions or providing a plurality of services and having a plurality of separate entities, each entity performing at least one corresponding different function, and    said plurality of separate entities of said medium access control sub-layer includes: 
 a broadcast entity for handling a broadcast channel,  
 a common entity for handling a common channel, and  
 a dedicated entity for handling a dedicated channel, wherein said plurality of functions includes ciphering and channel condition.  
   
   
   
       11 . The communication system of  claim 10 , wherein the common channel comprises at least one of a random access channel, a forward access channel, or a paging channel.  
   
   
       12 . The communication system of  claim 10  or  11 , wherein any one of the channels is a logical channel.  
   
   
       13 . The communication system of  claim 10 , wherein said plurality of separate entities of said medium access control sub-layer further comprises a data entity for handling packet data transfer.