On-demand system information broadcasting system

Abstract

A communication system is disclosed in which a base station manages the transmission of on-demand system information to optimise the trade-off between the additional signalling overhead associated with on-demand transmission and the resource usage inefficiencies associated with the sometimes unnecessary transmission of system information on a periodic basis. The base station manages switching from on-demand transmission to periodic transmission, and vice versa, based on one or more utilisation thresholds.

1 . A user equipment (UE) comprising:
 a controller; and a transceiver, wherein the controller is configured to: 
 control the transceiver to receive, from a communication apparatus, minimum system information including at least a master information block (MIB) and a system information block type 1 (SIB1); 
 control the transceiver to receive, from the communication apparatus, other system information (SI), wherein the other SI is broadcast using one of: 
 a periodic transmission mode in which the other SI is being broadcast on a periodic basis; and 
 an on-demand transmission mode in which the other SI is transmitted on-demand, after requesting for the other SI from the UE, and wherein the SIB1 includes an indication explicitly indicates whether the other SI is being broadcast or not per type of the other SI and, in a case where the indication explicitly indicates that a respective type of the other SI is not being broadcast, the SIB1 includes configuration information for the UE to request for the respective type of the other SI; and 
 
 control the transceiver to transmit a request for the respective type of the other SI by initiating a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure using the configuration information. 
   
     
     
         2 . The UE according to  claim 1 , wherein 
 the controller is configured to control the transceiver to transmit the request per type of other SI for requesting.   
     
     
         3 . The UE according to  claim 1 , wherein 
 the configuration information includes information indicating at least one resource per type of other SI for requesting.   
     
     
         4 . A communication apparatus comprising: 
 a controller; and a transceiver, wherein the controller is configured to: 
 control the transceiver to transmit minimum system information including at least a master information block (MIB) and a system information block type 1 (SIB1); and 
 control the transceiver to broadcast other system information (SI) using one of: 
 a periodic transmission mode in which the other SI is being broadcast on a periodic basis; and 
 
 an on-demand transmission mode in which the other SI is transmitted on-demand, after requesting for the other SI from a user equipment (UE), and wherein the SIB1 includes an indication explicitly indicating whether the other SI is being broadcast or not per type of the other SI and, in a case where the indication explicitly indicates that a respective type of the other SI is not being broadcast, the SIB1 includes configuration information for the UE to request for the respective type of the other SI; and 
 
 control the transceiver to receive a request for the respective type of the other SI by the UE initiating a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure, using the configuration information. 
   
     
     
         5 . The communication apparatus according to  claim 4 , wherein 
 the controller is configured to control the transceiver to receive the request per type of other SI for requesting.   
     
     
         6 . The communication apparatus according to  claim 4 , wherein 
 the configuration information includes information indicating at least one resource per type of other SI for requesting.   
     
     
         7 . A method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: 
 receiving, from a communication apparatus, minimum system information including at least a master information block (MIB) and a system information block type 1 (SIB1);   receiving, from the communication apparatus, other system information (SI), wherein the other SI is broadcast using one of: 
 a periodic transmission mode in which the other SI is being broadcast on a periodic basis; and 
 an on-demand transmission mode in which the other SI is transmitted on-demand, after requesting for the other SI from the UE, and wherein the SIB1 includes an indication explicitly indicating whether the other SI is being broadcast or not per type of the other SI and, in a case where the indication explicitly indicates that a respective type of the other SI is not being broadcast, the SIB1 includes configuration information for the UE to request for the respective type of the other SI; and 
   transmitting a request for the respective type of the other SI by initiating a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure using the configuration information.   
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 7 , wherein 
 the transmitting includes transmitting the request per type of other SI for requesting.   
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 7 , wherein 
 the configuration information includes information indicating at least one resource per type of other SI for requesting.   
     
     
         10 . A method performed by a communication apparatus, the method comprising: 
 transmitting minimum system information including at least a master information block (MIB) and a system information block type 1 (SIB1); and   broadcasting other system information (SI) using one of: 
 a periodic transmission mode in which the other SI is being broadcast on a periodic basis; and 
 an on-demand transmission mode in which the other SI is transmitted on-demand, after requesting for the other SI from a user equipment (UE), wherein the SIB1 includes an indication explicitly indicating whether the other SI is being broadcast or not per type of the other SI and, in a case where the indication explicitly indicates that a respective type of the other SI is not being broadcast, the SIB1 includes configuration information for the UE to request for the respective type of the other SI; and 
   receiving a request for the respective type of the other SI by the UE initiating a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure, using the configuration information.   
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 10 , wherein 
 the receiving includes receiving the request per type of other SI for requesting.   
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 10 , wherein 
 the configuration information includes information indicating at least one resource per type of other SI for requesting.