US 11,751,165 B2
Wireless communications network, infrastructure equipment, communications device and methods
Yuxin Wei, Basingstoke (GB); Vivek Sharma, Basingstoke (GB); Hideji Wakabayashi, Basingstoke (GB); Samuel Asangbeng Atungsiri, Basingstoke (GB); and Yassin Aden Awad, Basingstoke (GB)
Assigned to SONY GROUP CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP)
Appl. No. 17/421,738
Filed by Sony Group Corporation, Tokyo (JP)
PCT Filed Jan. 8, 2020, PCT No. PCT/EP2020/050303
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jul. 9, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/148123, PCT Pub. Date Jul. 23, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 19152668 (EP), filed on Jan. 18, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0104175 A1, Mar. 31, 2022
Int. Cl. H04W 68/02 (2009.01); H04B 7/185 (2006.01); H04W 16/28 (2009.01)
CPC H04W 68/02 (2013.01) [H04B 7/18508 (2013.01); H04W 16/28 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a radio access network part of a wireless communications network, the method comprising:
configuring a notification area of the radio access network part, the radio access network part comprising one or more base stations and one or more non-terrestrial network parts, the non-terrestrial network parts each transmitting one or more spot beams to provide a first type of wireless access interface and the base stations each forming a second type of wireless access interface, the first type of wireless access interface and the second type of wireless access interface each being for transmitting signals to and receiving signals representing data from a communications device within a coverage region of a cell of one of the base stations or a coverage region formed by one of the spot beams, wherein the communications device is operating in an RRC inactive state;
wherein configuring the notification area of the radio access network part includes determining one or more of the non-terrestrial network parts which form part of the notification area, the non-terrestrial network parts of the notification area being for use in transmitting signals to the communications device from the wireless communications network, wherein the non-terrestrial network parts of the notification area are determined by the infrastructure equipment based on one or more of a pre-planned journey to be made by the communications device, location information received from the communications device indicating a geographical area in which the communications device is located, and ephemeris information of the non-terrestrial network parts and/or the communications device;
determining, based on the notification area and on a present time, which one of the non-terrestrial network parts of the notification area is presently serving the communications device; and
transmitting a paging message to the serving non terrestrial network part for subsequent transmission to the communications device,
wherein the communications device is a non-terrestrial communications device,
wherein each of the non-terrestrial network parts is one of a satellite, an airborne vehicle or an airborne platform, and
wherein each of the spot beams is a different one of a set of Transmission Configuration Indication, TCI, states.