WO2013139043A1

WO2013139043A1 - Method and apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2013139043A1
Application number: PCT/CN2012/072979
Authority: WO
Inventors: Lei Du; Ioannis Maniatis; Wolfgang Payer; Woonhee Hwang
Original assignee: Nokia Siemens Networks Oy
Priority date: 2012-03-23
Filing date: 2012-03-23
Publication date: 2013-09-26

Abstract

A method comprises receiving information from a base station indicating that a determining is to be carried out; responsive to said information determining a time between two groups of data in a user equipment; and causing information on said time between two groups to be sent to a base station.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS

This disclosure relates to a method and apparatus and in particular but not exclusively to a method and apparatus which may be for information reporting.

A communication system can be seen as a facility that enables communication sessions between two or more nodes such as fixed or mobile devices, machine-type terminals, access nodes such as base stations, servers and so on. A communication system and compatible communicating entities typically operate in accordance with a given standard or specification which sets out what the various entities associated with the system are permitted to do and how that should be achieved. For example, the standards, specifications and related protocols can define the manner how devices shall communicate, how various aspects of communications shall be implemented and how devices for use in the system shall be configured.

A user can access the communication system by means of an appropriate communication device. A communication device of a user is often referred to as user equipment (UE) or terminal. A communication device is provided with an appropriate signal receiving and transmitting arrangement for enabling communications with other parties. Typically a device such as a user equipment is used for enabling receiving and transmission of communications such as speech and content data.

Communications can be carried on wireless carriers. Examples of wireless systems include public land mobile networks (PLMN) such as cellular networks, satellite based communication systems and different wireless local networks, for example wireless local area networks (WLAN). In wireless systems a communication device provides a transceiver station that can communicate with another communication device such as e.g. a base station of an access network and/or another user equipment.

According to an aspect, there is provided a method comprising: receiving information from a base station indicating that a determining is to be carried out; responsive to said information, determining a time between two groups of data in a user equipment; and causing information on said time between two groups to be sent to a base station.

In some embodiments, the two groups of data are consecutive groups of data.

The information received from the base station may indicate that the determining is to be activated.

The groups of data may comprise data packets.

The determining may comprise determining a time between two bursts. This may comprise determining a time between two packets in different bursts.

In some embodiments, a time between two packets within a burst may be determined.

The method may comprise determining an average time between bursts.

The method may comprise determine a time between two groups of data and comparing said time with a threshold to determine if said two groups are in different bursts.

The received information may comprise information for controlling said determining.

The information for controlling said determining may comprise one or more of: a threshold value for the user equipment to determine if a time between two groups of data is a time between two bursts; a time period over which the user equipment is to average times between two groups of data; number of samples to average; number of bursts to average; and a filtering method for the user equipment to use in relation to a time between two groups of data time calculation.

The causing information to be sent may be responsive to configuration information received from the base station.

The causing information to be sent may be responsive to a request from the base station.

The causing information to be sent may be responsive to a difference between a current time between two groups of data and a previous time between groups of data being greater than a given value, in some embodiments the comparison may be between an average current value and a previous time value. The causing information to be sent may be in response to a given number of times between two groups being determined.

The causing information to be sent may be carried out periodically.

The causing information to be sent may be responsive to an application being added or removed.

According to an aspect, there is provided a method comprising: determining a time between two bursts in a user equipment; and causing information on a time between two bursts to be sent to a base station.

The above discussed method(s) may be performed by a user equipment.

According to another embodiment, there is provided a user equipment configured to perform one or more of the above method steps.

According to another aspect, there is provided a method comprising: causing control information to be sent to a user equipment indicating that a time between two groups of data is to be determined in said user equipment; receiving time information in a base station about said time between two groups of data from said user equipment; and using said time information to at least one of control and configure a connection between the base station and the user equipment.

The control information may comprise information to control reporting of said time information.

The control information may comprise one or more of: a threshold value for the user equipment to determine if a time between two groups of data is a time between two bursts; a time period over which the user equipment is to average times between two groups of data; number of samples to average; number of bursts to average; and a filtering method for the user equipment to use in relation to a time between two groups of data time calculation

This method may be performed in a base station.

According to another aspect, there is provided a base station which is configured to perform the previous method (s).

A computer program comprising program code means adapted to perform the method(s) may also be provided. The computer program may be stored and/or otherwise embodied by means of a carrier medium. According to another aspect, there is provided an apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer code for one or more programs, the at least one memory and the computer code configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus at least to: receive information from a base station indicating that a determining is to be carried out; responsive to said information determine a time between two groups of data in a user equipment; and cause information on said time between two groups to be sent to a base station.

In some embodiments, the two groups of data are consecutive groups of data.

The groups of data may comprise data packets.

The at least one memory and the computer code may be configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to determine a time between two bursts. This may comprise determining a time between two packets in different bursts.

The at least one memory and the computer code may be configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to determine an average time between bursts.

The at least one memory and the computer code may be configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to determine a time between two groups of data and compare said time with a threshold to determine if said two groups are in different bursts.

The at least one memory and the computer code may be configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to cause information to be responsive to configuration information received from the base station.

The at least one memory and the computer code may be configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to cause information to be sent responsive to a request from the base station.

The at least one memory and the computer code may be configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to cause information to be sent responsive to a difference between a current time between two groups of data and a previous time between groups of data being greater than a given value. In some embodiments the comparison may be between an average current value and a previous time value.

The at least one memory and the computer code may be configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to cause information to be sent in response to a given number of times between two groups being determined.

The at least one memory and the computer code may be configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to cause information to be sent periodically.

The at least one memory and the computer code may be configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to cause information to be sent responsive to an application being added or removed.

According to another aspect, there is provided an apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer code for one or more programs, the at least one memory and the computer code configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus at least to: cause control information to be sent to a user equipment indicating that a time between two groups of data is to be determined in said user equipment; receive time information in a base station about said time between two groups of data from said user equipment; and use said time information to at least one of control and configure a connection between the base station and the user equipment.

According to another aspect, there is provided an apparatus comprising: means for receiving information from a base station indicating that a determining is to be carried out; means, responsive to said information, for determining a time between two groups of data in a user equipment; and means for causing information on said time between two groups to be sent to a base station.

In some embodiments, the two groups of data are consecutive groups of data.

The group of data may comprise data packets.

The determining means may be for determining a time between two bursts. This determining may determine a time between two packets in different bursts.

The determining means may be for determining an average time between bursts.

The determining means may be for determining a time between two groups of data and comparing said time with a threshold to determine if said two groups are in different bursts.

The received information may comprise information for controlling said determining means. The information for controlling said determining may comprise one or more of: a threshold value for the user equipment to determine if a time between two groups of data is a time between two bursts; a time period over which the user equipment is to average times between two groups of data; number of samples to average; number of bursts to average; and a filtering method for the user equipment to use in relation to a time between two groups of data time calculation.

The means for causing information to be sent may be responsive to configuration information received from the base station.

The means for causing information to be sent may be responsive is responsive to a request from the base station.

The means for causing information to be sent may be responsive to a difference between a current time between two groups of data and a previous time between groups of data being greater than a given value. In some embodiments the comparison may be between an average current value and a previous time value.

The means for causing information to be sent may be responsive to a given number of times between two groups being determined.

The means for causing information to be sent may cause said information to be sent periodically.

The means for causing information to be sent may be responsive to an application being added or removed.

According to another aspect, there is provided a method comprising; means for causing control information to be sent to a user equipment indicating that a time between two groups of data is to be determined in said user equipment; means for receiving time information in a base station about said time between two groups of data from said user equipment; and means for using said time information to at least one of control and configure a connection between the base station and the user equipment.

A base station or a controller of a base station may comprise an apparatus as described above.

It should be appreciated that any feature of any aspect may be combined with any other feature of any other aspect.

Embodiments will now be described in further detail, by way of example only, with reference to the following examples and accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of a communication system comprising a base station and a plurality of communication devices;

Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of a mobile communication device; Figure 3 shows a schematic diagram of a control entity;

Figure 4 shows a graphic illustration of a packet arrival pattern;

Figure 5 shows schematically shows packet inter arrival time and burst inter arrival time;

Figure 6 shows a flow diagram

In the following certain exemplifying embodiments are explained with reference to a wireless or mobile communication system serving mobile communication devices. Before explaining in detail the exemplifying embodiments, certain general principles of a wireless communication system, access systems thereof, and mobile communication devices are briefly explained with reference to Figures 1 to 3 to assist in understanding the technology underlying the described examples.

An example of wireless communication systems are architectures standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). A latest 3GPP based development is often referred to as the long-term evolution (LTE) of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) radio-access technology. The various development stages of the 3GPP LTE specifications are referred to as releases. More recent developments of the LTE are often referred to as LTE Advanced (LTE-A). The LTE employs a mobile architecture known as the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN). Base stations of such systems are known as evolved or enhanced Node Bs (eNBs) and may provide E-UTRAN features such as user plane Radio Link Control/Medium Access Control/Physical layer protocol (RLC/M AC/PHY) and control plane Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol terminations towards the communication devices. Other examples of radio access system include those provided by base stations of systems that are based on technologies such as wireless local area network (WLAN) and/or Wi Max (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access).

A device capable of wireless communications can communicate via at least one base station or similar wireless transmitter and/or receiver node. In figure 1 a base station 10 is shown to be serving various mobile devices 20 and a machine-like terminal 22. Base stations are typically controlled by at least one appropriate controller apparatus so as to enable operation thereof and management of mobile communication devices in communication with the base stations. The base station can be connected further to a broader communications system 12. It shall be understood that a number of neighbouring and/or overlapping access systems or radio service areas provided by a number of base stations may exist. A base station site can provide one or more cells or sectors, each sector providing a cell or a subarea of a cell.

A possible mobile communication device for transmitting in uplink and receiving in downlink will now be described in more detail with reference to Figure 2 showing a schematic, partially sectioned view of a communication device 20. Such a communication device is often referred to as user equipment (UE) or terminal. An appropriate communication device may be provided by any device capable of sending radio signals to and/or receiving radio signals. Non-limiting examples include a mobile station (MS) such as a mobile phone or what is known as a 'smart phone', a portable computer provided with a wireless interface card or other wireless interface facility, personal data assistant (PDA) provided with wireless communication capabilities, or any combinations of these or the like. A mobile communication device may provide, for example, communication of data for carrying communications such as voice, electronic mail (email), text message, and multimedia and so on. Users may thus be offered and provided numerous services via their communication devices. Non-limiting examples of these services include two-way or multi-way calls, data communication or multimedia services or simply an access to a data communications network system, such as the Internet. Non-limiting examples of content data include downloads, television and radio programs, videos, advertisements, various alerts and other information.

The device 20 is configured to receive signals in the downlink 29 over an air interface via appropriate apparatus for receiving and to transmit signals in the uplink 28 via appropriate apparatus for transmitting radio signals. In Figure 2 the transceiver apparatus is designated schematically by block 26. The transceiver apparatus 26 may be provided for example by means of a radio part and associated antenna arrangement. The antenna arrangement may be arranged internally or externally to the mobile device.

The device is also provided with at least one data processing entity 21 , at (east one memory 22 and other possible components 23 for use in software and hardware aided execution of tasks it is designed to perform, including control of access to and communications with base stations and/or other communication devices. The data processing, storage and other relevant apparatus can be provided on an appropriate circuit board and/or in chipsets. This apparatus is denoted by reference 24.

The user may control the operation of the device by means of a suitable user interface such as key pad 25, voice commands, touch sensitive screen or pad, combinations thereof or the like. A display 27, a speaker and a microphone can be also provided. Furthermore, a communication device may comprise appropriate connectors (either wired or wireless) to other devices and/or for connecting external accessories, for example hands-free equipment, thereto.

Figure 3 shows an example of a control apparatus 30 for a communication system. The control apparatus may be part of, coupled to and/or for controlling a base station. In some embodiments a base station may comprise an integrated control apparatus and some other embodiments the control apparatus can be provided by a separate network element. The control apparatus can be interconnected with other control entities. The control apparatus and functions may be distributed between a plurality of control units. In some embodiments each base station can comprise a control apparatus. In alternative embodiments, two or more base stations may share a control apparatus. The arrangement of the control depends on the standard, and for example in accordance with the current LTE specifications no separate radio network controller is provided. Regardless of the location, the control apparatus 30 can be understood as providing control on communications in the service area of at least one base station.

The control apparatus 30 can comprise at least one memory 31 , at least one data processing unit 32, 33 and an input/output interface 34. Via the interface the control apparatus can be coupled to a base station to cause operation of the base station in accordance with the below described embodiments. The control apparatus can be configured to execute an appropriate software code to provide the control functions.

It has been proposed to look for LTE RAN (radio access network) enhancements for diverse data applications. In order to provide always on connectivity, mechanisms are identified and specified at the RAN level to enhance the ability of LTE to handle diverse traffic profiles. With such traffic loads, the identified mechanisms may permit better trade-offs to be achieved when balancing the needs of network efficiency, UE battery life, signalling overheads, user experience and/or system performance.

In some embodiments user equipment applications are known where traffic traces, i.e. data traffic or packets captured from live systems or apparatus running one or more applications of interest, are captured from networks and analysed. It should be appreciated that the user equipment applications may have very different characteristics. Background and instant messaging IM traffic scenarios require a relatively high signalling overhead to keep the applications always on. Background traffic refers to the traffic from an unattended phone with applications not in an "active phase" (i.e. not including email retrieval, no IM sending etc.). A large number of applications may generate such background traffic e.g. Skype, Facebook, Gtalk etc. IM traffic includes IM background traffic, for example by Mobile QQ, MSN etc.

Background data may be characterised by long periods, perhaps several minutes, of inactivity followed by relatively short bursts, for example a few seconds, of activity.

Some simulations to show the performance in terms of power consumption and signalling overhead of a user equipment have been carried out. The user equipment performance may depend on the user equipment mobility and/or data activity. It has been suggested that the user equipment provide information about data activity to, for example, the base station. This information may comprise inter-arrival time (IAT) between packets of data. This information may be used by the base station to control parameter setting. For example, this information may be used to control an RRC radio resource control release timer and/or discontinuous DRX configuration.

Some traffic profiles associated with a user equipment are shown in figure 4 and figure 5. These two figures show some typical background applications where traffic is associated with a user equipment where an application is not in an active phase. For example, there is no e-mail retrieval, no instant message sending or the like. As can be seen from figure 4 which shows a time data distribution, the packets may be distributed in a bursty way. The time period between two consecutive bursts may be relatively long, of the order of seconds or even minutes. The time between two consecutive packets within one burst is relatively short and may be the order of for example 100 ms.

In more detail, figure 4 shows an illustration of packet arrival time for a Gtalk background application. Several packets are received in one burst with a relatively short inter arrival time of less than 100 ms are detected. Likewise, longer inter arrival time periods of up to for example 26 minutes is detected between two bursts. It should be appreciated that the inter arrival times set out are by way of example only.

Different trace analysis may be used in different embodiments. In some embodiments, a CDF (cumulative distribution function) of the inter-arrival time and the CDF of packet size may be used to represent a trace. In some proposals, the inter arrival time refers simply to the time period between two consecutive packet arrivals, without taking into account the bursts.

In figure 5, three bursts 200 are shown. Each burst is made up of a number of packets 206. The time between bursts is referred to as the burst inter arrival time BIAT and is referenced 204. The time between two consecutive packets within one burst is referred to as the packet inter arrival time PIAT and is referenced 202. Some proposals concerning the reporting of the ⁽AT had not made any distinction between a BIAT and a PIAT. If an IAT is to be reported from a user equipment, this may be done by averaging all the lATs during a period and then reporting the value to the base station. For example, if it is assumed that there were three packets within every burst shown in figure 4 the average IAT of four samples will be around

(100ms*2+26min)/3 = 520s = 8.6 mins.

The base station will use the received IAT to make assumptions about the data activity and on the basis of this information will assume that the RRC connection should be established once every 8.6 min, In the scenario set out in figure 4, the three packets within one burst may be handled by keeping the user equipment in a connected mode for a very short time period. The base station would have been able to keep the user equipment in the idle mode for up to 26 min to avoid handover signalling and/or providing power saving.

By including both the BIAT and the PIAT in the inter-arrival time, information about the pattern of packet arrival may be lost. This may lead to a misleading setting of the parameters of the base station. In some embodiments, the user equipment may determine the BIAT and report the value to the base station. Some embodiments may additionally or alternatively report the PIAT.

Reference is now made to figure 6 which shows a method.

In step S1 , the base station determines if reporting is to be activated or deactivated. For example, if a guaranteed bit rate GBR bearer is setup, a base station will deactivate the BIAT reporting. When the reporting is activated, then the next step is step S2. In step S2, the base station provides configuration information to the user equipment. This configuration information may comprise one or more of the following.

The configuration information may comprise a threshold for the user equipment to decide whether an IAT is a BIAT.

The configuration information may comprise a time period during which the user equipment should average the BIAT.

Alternatively or additionally, the configuration information may comprise the number of samples that the user equipment should use for averaging. Alternatively or additionally, the configuration information may comprise the number of bursts that the user equipment should use for averaging.

The configuration information may comprise the filtering method to be used. BIAT(new) = a^*BIAT(old) + b*BIAT(new sample).

The configuration information may comprise the conditions for the user equipment to report the BIAT. For example, the BIAT may be reported periodically. Information on the periodicity for the reporting may be in the configuration information.

The configuration information may define that that user equipment may report the BIAT when the difference between the new BIAT average and the old BIAT exceeds a given value. That given value may be provided by the configuration information. It should be appreciated that the conditions for reporting may be used in the alternative, be both used independently or maybe configured together so that only when all the conditions are met is the user equipment to send the updated BIAT. This may be controlled by the configuration information.

In step S3, the user equipment receives and stores the configuration information from the base station.

In step S4, the user equipment determines for each new packet the IAT. That is, the amount of time between the currently received packet and a previously received packet. This time will be compared to the threshold information which may be provided in the configuration information.

In step S5, if the IAT value is greater than the threshold, then the IAT value is considered to be a BIAT value. Thus PIAT values will not be used for this particular average. That new BIAT value is used to update the BIAT average. The updated BIAT average is stored. The BIAT average may be computed in any suitable manner. The stored BIAT average may be the mean BIAT value. Alternatively, the BIAT values may be accumulated and the base station may determine the average value. The base station may receive information on the number of samples from the UE or if the UE only reports after x samples and the base station has knowledge of x (for example from the configuration information), then the BIAT average may be determined.

In step S6, the conditions for reporting are checked to see if they are satisfied.

In step S7, if the conditions for reporting are satisfied, the user equipment will send the BIAT information to the base station. This BIAT information may be the BIAT average.

In step S8, the base station uses the BIAT information to control the mode of the user equipment and to configure user equipment properly.

In some embodiments, at least some of the configuration information may be provided in an RRC message. For example, the RRC message may be an RRC connection reconfiguration message or any other suitable message.

In some embodiments, the configuration information may all be provided in one message. In alternative embodiments, the configuration information may be provided in two or more messages. In some embodiments, the or at least some of the configuration information may be fixed. That fixed configuration information may be stored in the user equipment and accordingly may not need to be provided by a base station or at least may only need to be provided by a base station once.

In some embodiments, the BIAT may be reported by the user equipment when receiving an indication from an upper layer that there is a new application added or removed. Alternatively or additionally, the user equipment may send the BIAT value when receiving an explicit indication from the base station. This may be for example a request from the base station for the BIAT value immediately or at a later time. These may be an alternative or in addition to one or more of the previous conditions for reporting discussed earlier.

It should be appreciated that some embodiments may be used to alternatively or additionally report the PIAT. This may provide a different threshold for determining whether an IAT is a PIAT.

Some embodiments may be used for IAT reporting (where no differentiation is made between PIAT and BIAT). In those embodiments, no comparison is made with the threshold values discussed previously.

In some embodiments, the rules as to when the user equipment reports that the IAT to the network, how to calculate the BIAT and/or how often the user equipment is to report the BIAT may be predefined such that the base station does not need to signal the BIAT reporting configuration.

Some embodiments may allow the reporting of the PIAT by the user equipment. This may be more effectively used by the base station, in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, the BIAT value may be reported to the base station which may determine an average BIAT value. The BIAT averaging in the user equipment may reduce the signalling load in the air interface in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, where the configuration is preset, the base station may send a message to the UE indicating that the reporting is activated. In other embodiments, where the configuration is preset, the UE may have an ongoing process for determining the BIAT or the like. When the base station activates the reporting, the base station may send a request for data to UE which responds with the requested information.

The base station may use information from the user equipment relating to BIAT to provide better DRX configuration and/or to set an appropriate release timer.

The time between packets may be determined in any suitable way. In some embodiments, the time between the end of one packet and the beginning of the next packet may be determined as the IAT. In other embodiments, the time between the beginning of one packet and the beginning of the next packet may be determined to be an IAT. In other embodiments, the IAT may be determined from the end of one packet to the end of the next packet. Other embodiments may use different points in relation to two consecutive packets in order to determine the IAT.

Alternative embodiment may use any other suitable method in order to determine the time between two bursts. The bursts are consecutive bursts in some embodiments.

It is noted that whilst embodiments have been described in relation to LTE, similar principles can be applied to any other communication system or to further developments with LTE. Therefore, although certain embodiments were described above by way of example with reference to certain exemplifying architectures for wireless networks, technologies and standards, embodiments may be applied to any other suitable forms of communication systems than those illustrated and described herein.

The required data processing apparatus and functions of a base station apparatus, a communication device and any other appropriate apparatus may be provided by means of one or more data processors. The described functions at each end may be provided by separate processors or by an integrated processor. The data processors may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), gate level circuits and processors based on multi core processor architecture, as non limiting examples. The data processing may be distributed across several data processing modules. A data processor may be provided by means of, for example, at least one chip. Appropriate memory capacity can also be provided in the relevant devices. The memory or memories may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory.

In general, the various embodiments may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some embodiments may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device, although the invention is not limited thereto. While various aspects may be illustrated and described as block diagrams, flow charts, or using some other pictorial representation, it is well understood that these blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof. The software may be stored on such physical media as memory chips, or memory blocks implemented within the processor, magnetic media such as hard disk or floppy disks, and optical media such as for example DVD and the data variants thereof, CD.

The foregoing description has provided by way of exemplary and non- limiting examples a full and informative description of some embodiments. However, various modifications and adaptations may become apparent to those skilled in the relevant arts in view of the foregoing description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the appended claims. However, all such and similar modifications of the teachings of this invention will still fall within the scope of this invention as defined in the appended claims. Indeed there is a further embodiment comprising a combination of one or more of any of the other embodiments previously discussed.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:

receiving information from a base station indicating that a determining is to be carried out;

responsive to said information determining a time between two groups of data in a user equipment; and

causing information on said time between two groups to be sent to a base station.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said groups of data comprise data packets.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said determining determines a time between two bursts.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3, comprising determining an average time between bursts.

5. A method as claimed in claim 3 or 4, comprising determining a time between two groups of data and comparing said time with a threshold to determine if said two groups are in different bursts.

6. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said received information comprises information for controlling said determining.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein said information for controlling said determining comprises one or more of: a threshold value for the user equipment to determine if a time between two groups of data is a time between two bursts; a time period over which the user equipment is to average times between two groups of data; number of samples to average; number of bursts to average; and a filtering method for the user equipment to use in relation to a time between two groups of data time calculation.

8. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said causing information to be sent is responsive to configuration information received from the base station.

9. A method as claimed in any preceding ciaim, wherein said causing information to be sent is responsive to a request from the base station.

10. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said causing information to be sent is in response to a difference between a current time between two groups of data and a previous time between groups of data being greater than a given value.

11. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said causing information to be sent is in response to a given number of times between two groups being determined.

12. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said causing information to be sent is carried out periodically.

13. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said causing information to be sent is responsive to an application being added or removed.

14. A method comprising

causing control information to be sent to a user equipment indicating that a time between two groups of data is to be determined in said user equipment;

receiving time information in a base station about said time between two groups of data from said user equipment; and

using said time information to at least one of control and configure a connection between the base station and the user equipment.

15. A method as claimed in claim 14, wherein said control information comprises information to control reporting of said time information.

16. A method as claimed in claim 14 or 15, wherein said control information comprises one or more of:

a threshold value for the user equipment to determine if a time between two groups of data is a time between two bursts; a time period over which the user equipment is to average times between two groups of data; number of samples to average; number of bursts to average; and a filtering method for the user equipment to use in relation to a time between two groups of data time calculation.

17. A computer program comprising computer executable instructions which when run cause the method of any one of the preceding claims to be performed.

18. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer code for one or more programs, the at least one memory and the computer code configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus at least to: receive information from a base station indicating that a determining is to be carried out; responsive to said information determine a time between two groups of data in a user equipment; and cause information on said time between two groups to be sent to a base station.

19. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer code for one or more programs, the at least one memory and the computer code configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus at least to: cause control information to be sent to a user equipment indicating that a time between two groups of data is to be determined in said user equipment; receive time information in a base station about said time between two groups of data from said user equipment; and use said time information to at least one of control and configure a connection between the base station and the user equipment.