Apparatus and method for dynamic load balancing in a multi-carrier wireless communication system

摘要

An apparatus and method enables a dynamic change from one carrier to another in a wireless telecommunication system. In one example, user equipment receives a preconfiguration message adapted to enable the user equipment to be preconfigured for an initial carrier and a subsequent carrier. Here, the user equipment initially communicates over an air interface utilizing the initial carrier frequency. Upon the satisfaction of certain conditions, such as one of the initial carriers being heavily loaded or nearing its capacity, a Node B provides an order to the user equipment to switch from its initial carrier to the secondary carrier, which was preconfigured. In this way, relatively rapid carrier switching provides for enhanced load balancing largely controlled by the Node B.

主权项

1. A method of wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising:
communicating over an anchor carrier and at least one initial secondary carrier; receiving an order to change the at least one initial secondary carrier; and deactivating the at least one initial secondary carrier and activating at least one subsequent secondary carrier, in response to the order, wherein pre-configuration information of the at least one subsequent secondary carrier is received at the UE from a radio network controller (RNC) via a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message prior to the receiving of the order, and wherein an active set is maintained for the subsequent secondary carrier at the UE prior to the receiving of the order, and wherein the at least one initial secondary carrier and the at least one subsequent secondary carrier are adjacent to each other, and wherein the order to change is received from a base station in the form of a High Speed-Shared Control Channel (HS-SCCH) order and is at least based on load imbalance on secondary carriers determined by the base station.