Apple patents phone settings that adjust how it talks to cell towers
Apple describes a method where a phone receives instructions from a cell tower about when the tower is active or sleeping. The phone then adjusts its own activity, such as sending or receiving data, based on which specific sleep mode the tower is currently using.
In the filing’s own words
A user equipment (UE) configured to decode, from signaling received from a base station, a configuration for a cell ON-OFF pattern for a serving cell and a plurality of different cell sleep modes for an OFF duration of the ON-OFF pattern, wherein a first one of the cell sleep modes is indicated as a default sleep mode and each cell sleep mode is associated with different uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) communications that are allowed during the OFF duration, decode, from signaling received from the base station, a message changing the first cell sleep mode to a second cell sleep mode and perform a UL transmission (Tx), a DL reception (Rx), both the UL Tx and DL Rx, or neither the UL Tx nor DL Rx during the OFF duration in accordance with the second cell sleep mode.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. An apparatus of a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: decode, from signaling received from a base station, a configuration for a cell ON-OFF pattern for a serving cell and a plurality of different cell sleep modes for an OFF duration of the ON-OFF pattern, wherein a first one of the cell sleep modes is indicated as a default sleep mode and each cell sleep mode is associated with different uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) communications that are allowed during the OFF duration; decode, from signaling received from the base station, a message changing the first cell sleep mode to a second cell sleep mode; and perform a UL transmission (Tx), a DL reception (Rx), both the UL Tx and DL Rx, or neither the UL Tx nor DL Rx during the OFF duration in accordance with the second cell sleep mode.
Facts
- Company
- Apple (Apple Inc.)
- Official title
- Signaling and Cell Sleep Mode Configuration in Cell DTX/DRX
- Publication number
- US20260333211A1
- Application number
- 19101493
- Filed
- Aug 8, 2023
- Published
- Oct 22, 2026
- Inventors
- 7
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
H04W 52/0206 Electricity & electronicsH04W 72/23 Electricity & electronicsMore from Apple in Networks & wireless
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.