METHOD FOR RELAYING COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN A BASE STATION AND ONE OR MORE MOBILE TERMINALS AND A RELAY NODE AND BASE STATION EMPLOYING SUCH A METHOD

摘要

Teachings herein include a base station and a relay node for propagating system information changes from the base station to the relay node. Upon receiving changes from the base station, the relay node advantageously determines whether to apply the changes immediately or to defer application until a set time period. The relay node then applies the changes at a time in accordance with that determination. In some embodiments, the relay node employs deferred application for fundamental changes (those changes that would fatally disrupt ongoing communications if applied before the set time period), but employs immediate application for non-fundamental changes in order to minimize relay node complexity. Regardless, the relay node may make the determination based on preconfigured rules, or on control indicators received from the base station. Correspondingly, the base station may generate the control indicators to explicitly direct the relay node to employ immediate application or deferred application.