Terminal and base station for controlling a connection state

Abstract

A method and apparatus for controlling the connection state of the UE is provided to minimize battery power consumption. A connection state control method of a terminal in a wireless communication system according to the present invention includes monitoring traffic transmission/reception condition associated with at least one application running on the terminal, determining whether traffic transmission/reception for the terminal is likely to occur based on the monitoring result, and transmitting, when no traffic transmission/reception for the terminal occurs, a Signaling Connection Release Indication (SCRI) message to a base station.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A terminal for controlling a state of the terminal in a wireless communication system, the terminal comprising:
 a transceiver configured to transmit and receive signals to and from a base station; and   at least one processor electrically connected to the transceiver and configured to:
 monitor a plurality of traffic transmissions/receptions associated with a plurality of applications executed on the terminal, 
 identify information indicating an inactivity level of the terminal and a traffic transmission/reception pattern based on the monitored plurality of traffic transmissions/receptions associated with the plurality of applications, the traffic transmission/reception pattern being identified based on periods associated with the plurality of traffic transmissions/receptions corresponding to the plurality of applications, 
 determine whether a traffic is predicted to not occur for a predetermined duration based on the traffic transmission/reception pattern, 
 evaluate, if the traffic is predicted to not occur for the predetermined duration, at least one of conditions for determining whether it is possible to transmit a signaling connection release indication (SCRI) message, 
 transmit the SCRI message including the information indicating the inactivity level of the terminal based on the evaluated conditions to the base station, and 
 receive a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message for transitioning the RRC connection state of the terminal, 
 wherein the RRC connection state of the terminal is determined, if the information indicating the inactivity level of the terminal is:
 equal to or greater than a first threshold value, to transition the state of the terminal to UE idle mode, or 
 less than the first threshold value, to transition the state of the terminal to one of CELL_PCH and CELL_FACH, and 
 wherein the conditions are based on at least one of current operating state, connection to a circuit switched (CS) domain, discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration parameter, timer for use in RRC connection control and variable for use in the RRC connection control.