Use of control information to manage selection of serving coverage system

摘要

A UE gauges how many UEs are currently served in each of various coverage systems, by evaluating downlink control channel signaling in each coverage system to determine from the control signaling an extent to which the signaling provides for UE scheduling and to establish a corresponding relative measure of an extent to which the coverage system is serving UEs. In an example implementation, this evaluation may involve eliminating from consideration any control channel signaling that is not associated with UE scheduling, so as to determine by exclusion an extent to which the downlink control channel signaling is associated with UE scheduling. The UE then compares such relative measures of the various coverage systems as a basis to select a coverage system in which to operate, such as by favoring operation in the coverage that thereby seems to be serving the fewest number of UEs.

主权项

1. A method operable by a user equipment device (UE) in a wireless communication network, wherein the wireless communication network defines a plurality of coverage systems, the method comprising:
respectively for each of the coverage systems, establishing by the UE a relative measure of how many UEs are served by the coverage system, wherein establishing the relative measure comprises (a) receiving from the coverage system a downlink control channel transmission having a total number of resource elements, (b) evaluating the resource elements of the received downlink control channel transmission to identify resource elements that are not associated with UE scheduling and to determine a quantity of the identified resource elements that are not associated with UE scheduling, and (c) establishing the relative measure based at least on a difference between the total number and the determined quantity; selecting by the UE one of the coverage systems based at least on a comparison of the established relative measures of the coverage systems; and operating by the UE in the selected coverage system.