TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure is directed to wireless communication technology and, more particularly, to the mobility management in wireless communication.

BACKGROUND

In discussions for 3GPP (third generation partnership project) standards, efforts have been made to improve the connection performance and power consumption of mobile users. Mobility management is one of important issues in mobile applications. Recently, a new mobility management framework has been proposed in which a user equipment (UE) can be configured to enter into an inactive state, in addition to the existing connected state and the idle state. The inactive state may help the UE to get synchronized with the wireless network in a more efficient manner while keeping the power consumption to be comparable to the idle state.

Although the inactive state may provide benefits for mobile UEs, some issues remain to be solved. When a mobile UE stays in the inactive state, a periodic RAN (radio access network) notification update is required for such UE so that the current location of the inactive UE can be tracked by the wireless network. In some examples, the UE may not be covered by the wireless network signal and could be losing the signal temporally. Proposals are discussed that if a UE experiences signal losing when the timer for periodic RAN notification area update expires, the UE may be configured at the idle state. However, since the period of the timer for periodic RAN notification area update is relatively long, the user connection status may vary when the timer for periodic RAN notification area update is still running.

Thus, there is a need for providing a mobility management mechanism for inactive mobile UEs to reduce processing delays and control overhead.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

One objective of the disclosure is to provide a technical solution for mobility management with respect to the active state in a wireless network.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a method includes: receiving a configuration for setting a user equipment (UE) in an inactive state, and performing a non-periodic notification update to a network in response to determining a synchronization with the network as failed.

According to another embodiment of the disclosure, a method may include: transmitting a configuration to set a user equipment (UE) at an inactive state, and receiving one of a non-periodic notification update signal, before a first timer for a periodic notification update expires, and a registration update signal from the UE, before a second timer for a registration update expires.

Embodiments of the disclosure also provide apparatuses for performing the above methods.

For example, in an embodiment of the disclosure, an apparatus may include a processor that determines whether a user equipment (UE) performs synchronization with a network successfully, a transmitter coupled to the processor that transmits a non-periodic notification update signal to a network, and a receiver coupled to the processor that receives a configuration for setting the UE in an inactive state.

In another embodiment of the disclosure, an apparatus may include a processor that generates a configuration setting an inactive state for a user equipment (UE), a transmitter coupled to the processor that transmits the configuration and a synchronization signal to the UE, and a receiver coupled to the processor that receives one of a non-periodic notification update signal and a registration update signal from the UE.

Embodiments of the disclosure solve the technical problem concerning mobility management for inactive UEs, and thus can facilitate operations of inactive modes for mobile UEs.

