CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This Application is based on and claims priority Under 35 U.S.C. 119 to Greece Patent Application No. 20190100071 filed on Feb. 13, 2019 and United Kingdom Patent Application No. 2000653.2 filed on Jan. 16, 2020, the disclosures of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The present disclosure relates to improvements in a Random Access (RA) process in a cellular telecommunication system or network. It is particularly useful in a Fifth Generation (5G) or New Radio (NR) system, but may be utilized in any suitable telecommunication system.

2. Description of Related Art

To meet the demand for wireless data traffic having increased since deployment of 4th generation (4G) communication systems, efforts have been made to develop an improved 5th generation (5G) or pre-5G communication system. The 5G or pre-5G communication system is also called a ‘beyond 4G network’ or a ‘post long term evolution (LTE) system’. The 5G communication system is considered to be implemented in higher frequency (mmWave) bands, e.g., 60 GHz bands, so as to accomplish higher data rates. To decrease propagation loss of the radio waves and increase the transmission distance, the beamforming, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), full dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna, an analog beamforming, and large scale antenna techniques are discussed with respect to 5G communication systems. In addition, in 5G communication systems, development for system network improvement is under way based on advanced small cells, cloud radio access networks (RANs), ultra-dense networks, device-to-device (D2D) communication, wireless backhaul, moving network, cooperative communication, coordinated multi-points (CoMP), reception-end interference cancellation and the like.

In the 5G system, hybrid frequency shift keying (FSK) and Feher's quadrature amplitude modulation (FOAM) and sliding window superposition coding (SWSC) as an advanced coding modulation (ACM), and filter bank multi carrier (FBMC), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) as an advanced access technology have been developed.

The Internet, which is a human centered connectivity network where humans generate and consume information, is now evolving to the Internet of things (IoT) where distributed entities, such as things, exchange and process information without human intervention. The Internet of everything (IoE), which is a combination of the IoT technology and the big data processing technology through connection with a cloud server, has emerged. As technology elements, such as “sensing technology”, “wired/wireless communication and network infrastructure”, “service interface technology”, and “security technology” have been demanded for IoT implementation, a sensor network, a machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, machine type communication (MTC), and so forth have been recently researched. Such an IoT environment may provide intelligent Internet technology services that create a new value to human life by collecting and analyzing data generated among connected things. IoT may be applied to a variety of fields including smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car or connected cars, smart grid, health care, smart appliances and advanced medical services through convergence and combination between existing information technology (IT) and various industrial applications.

In line with this, various attempts have been made to apply 5G communication systems to IoT networks. For example, technologies such as a sensor network, MTC, and M2M communication may be implemented by beamforming, MIMO, and array antennas. Application of a cloud RAN as the above-described big data processing technology may also be considered to be as an example of convergence between the 5G technology and the IoT technology.

As described above, various services can be provided according to the development of a wireless communication system, and thus a method for easily providing such services is required.

SUMMARY

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure Random Access method in a telecommunication system, comprising the steps of: a base station receiving two or more identical preambles transmitted from two or more User Equipments; the base station determining a minimum difference between the two or more preambles in a given domain; the base station transmitting a response message to each of the two or more UE which transmitted the identical preambles; and each of the two or more UEs transmitting a connection setup message to the base station using information included in the respective response message from the base station.

In an embodiment, there is a further step of the base station continuously updating the minimum difference on the basis of the determined minimum difference.

In an embodiment, the given domain is one or more of time, power, frequency or code,

In an embodiment, the determined minimum difference is used to define a plurality of logical zones within a coverage area of a cell of the telecommunication system.

In an embodiment, the plurality of logical zones are defined such that preambles from one of plurality of logical zones in the cell coverage area may be reused in another of the plurality of logical zones in the cell coverage area.

In an embodiment, the plurality of logical zones are defined on the basis of a Non Orthogonal Multiple Access, NOMA, scheme utilizing Successive Interference Cancellation, SIC.

In an embodiment, each of the two or more UEs selects a preamble to transmit on the basis of a preamble usage report which is transmitted from the base station periodically.

In an embodiment, the preamble usage report is transmitted in a System Information Block, SIB.

In an embodiment, the preamble usage report is determined based on the number of times that a given preamble has been used in an observing time window.

In an embodiment, a duration of the observing window is adjusted dynamically on the basis of a reinforcement learning algorithm.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided apparatus arranged to perform the method of any preceding aspect.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a telecommunication system comprising the apparatus of the second aspect.

According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method of preamble selection in a Random Access process in a telecommunication system, comprising the steps of: a base station defining an observing window having a duration of a number of frames and recording preamble usage within the observing window; the base station preparing a preamble usage report comprising information regarding a number of times each possible preamble is used within the observing window; the base station transmitting the preamble usage report and a UE selecting a preamble based on a selected random number and the preamble usage report.

In an embodiment, the duration of the observing window is dynamically updated by means of a reinforcement learning algorithm.

Although various embodiments of the present disclosure have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications might be made without departing from the scope of the disclosure, as defined in the appended claims.

Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document: the terms “include” and “comprise,” as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation; the term “or,” is inclusive, meaning and/or; the phrases “associated with” and “associated therewith,” as well as derivatives thereof, may mean to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, or the like; and the term “controller” means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least one operation, such a device may be implemented in hardware, firmware or software, or some combination of at least two of the same. It should be noted that the functionality associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely.

Moreover, various functions described below can be implemented or supported by one or more computer programs, each of which is formed from computer readable program code and embodied in a computer readable medium. The terms “application” and “program” refer to one or more computer programs, software components, sets of instructions, procedures, functions, objects, classes, instances, related data, or a portion thereof adapted for implementation in a suitable computer readable program code. The phrase “computer readable program code” includes any type of computer code, including source code, object code, and executable code. The phrase “computer readable medium” includes any type of medium capable of being accessed by a computer, such as read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), a hard disk drive, a compact disc (CD), a digital video disc (DVD), or any other type of memory. A “non-transitory” computer readable medium excludes wired, wireless, optical, or other communication links that transport transitory electrical or other signals. A non-transitory computer readable medium includes media where data can be permanently stored and media where data can be stored and later overwritten, such as a rewritable optical disc or an erasable memory device.

Definitions for certain words and phrases are provided throughout this patent document. Those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many, if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior, as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.

