Peer to peer mobile user equipment communication with on-demand discovery signal transmission

• US 10,085,144 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2015
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Kim, Yuchul, Wang, Xiaowen, Tabet, Tarik, Zhang, Dawei, Mujtaba, Syed Aon
• Primary Examiner(s): Thier, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mensah, Prince Akwasi
• Application Number:
  US14/870,763
• Publication Number:
  US 20160100304A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,091 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0241 where no transmission is received, e.g. out of range of the transmitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (UE) implements a method for discovering the presence of neighboring UEs using an on-demand discovery signal transmission technique. This discovery process may be performed to enable the UEs to perform peer-to-peer communications with each other, wherein peer-to-peer communications is defined as direct communication between the UEs without involving a base station. The UE may be configured to transmit a discovery request signal when it has moved greater than a threshold amount since transmission of a prior discovery request signal. The discovery request signal causes one or more neighboring UEs to each transmit a discovery signal in response, and also causes the UE which generated the discovery request signal to transmit its own discovery signal. The received discovery signal from each of the neighboring UEs is useable to discover, or detect the presence of, these neighboring UEs.

Claims

1. A user equipment device (UE), comprising:

at least one antenna for performing wireless cellular communication;

at least one radio communicatively coupled to the at least one antenna, wherein the at least one radio is configured to perform cellular communication using at least one radio access technology (RAT);

one or more processors communicatively coupled to the at least one radio, wherein the one or more processors and the at least one radio are configured to perform wireless voice and/or data communications using the at least one antenna;

wherein the one or more processors and at least one radio are configured to;

receive one or more discovery channels from a base station;

transmit, in response to determining that the UE has moved greater than a threshold amount since transmission of a prior discovery request signal to neighboring UEs, a discovery request signal over a discovery request channel to the neighboring UEs, wherein the discovery request signal is configured to cause one or more of the neighboring UEs to transmit a discovery signal in response thereto, and wherein the threshold amount comprises a specified distance since the transmission of the prior discovery request signal; and

receive, over at least one of the one or more discovery channels, discovery signals from one or more of the neighboring UEs in response to transmission of the discovery request signal;

wherein the received discovery signals from one or more of the neighboring UEs are useable to discover one or more of the neighboring UEs.

2. The UE of claim 1,

wherein the one or more processors and at least one radio are further configured to:

perform peer-to-peer communication with at least one of the neighboring UEs after discovering one or more of the neighboring UEs using the received discovery signals.

3. The UE of claim 1,

wherein, in response to determining that the UE has not moved greater than the threshold amount since the transmission of the discovery request signal, the one or more processors and at least one radio are further configured to not transmit another discovery request signal.

4. The UE of claim 1,

wherein the discovery request channel occurs in a first sub-frame of a discovery resource set;

wherein the discovery signals from one or more of the neighboring UEs are received in subsequent sub-frames of the discovery resource set.

5. The UE of claim 4,

wherein the one or more processors and at least one radio are further configured to transmit the UE'"'"'s discovery signal in the discovery resource set in response to transmitting the discovery request signal over the discovery request channel;

wherein the one or more processors and at least one radio are configured to listen to received discovery signals from one or more of the neighboring UEs in the discovery resource set when it is not transmitting the UE'"'"'s discovery signal.

6. The UE of claim 1,

wherein the UE further comprises a memory which stores a software application that is executable by the one or more processors;

wherein transmission of the discovery request signal over the discovery request channel is performed by the software application; and

wherein the discovery signals received from one or more of the neighboring UEs are used by the software application for peer-to-peer communication between the UE and at least one of the neighboring UEs.

7. The UE of claim 6,

wherein the shared discovery request channel is a first shared discovery request channel of a plurality of possible shared discovery request channels;

wherein the first shared discovery request channel corresponds to an application type of the software application executing on the UE.

8. The UE of claim 6,

wherein the shared discovery request channel is a first shared discovery request channel of a plurality of possible shared discovery request channels;

wherein the one or more processors and at least one radio are further configured to select the first shared discovery request channel based on one or more of an application type, an application ID, or an application user ID.

9. The UE of claim 1,

wherein the UE further comprises a memory which stores a plurality of software applications that are each executable by the one or more processors, wherein each of the plurality of software applications comprises an identifier;

wherein the one or more processors and at least one radio are further configured to use a respective identifier of an executing software application of the plurality of software applications in selecting the discovery request channel for transmission of the discovery request signal.

10. The UE of claim 1,

wherein the one or more processors and the at least one radio are further configured to:

request one or more discovery channels from the base station.

11. The UE of claim 1,

wherein the discovery request channel is assigned to the UE by the base station.

12. A method for providing improved communication performance in a cellular communication system, the method comprising:

performing by a user equipment (UE),

receiving one or more discovery channels from a base station;

transmitting, in response to determining that the UE has moved greater than a threshold amount since transmission of a prior discovery request signal to neighboring UEs, a discovery request signal over a discovery request channel to the neighboring UEs, wherein the discovery request signal is configured to cause one or more of the neighboring UEs to transmit a discovery signal in response thereto, and wherein the threshold amount comprises a specified distance since the transmission of the prior discovery request signal; and

receiving, over at least one of the one or more discovery channels, discovery signals from one or more of the neighboring UEs in response to transmission of the discovery request signal;

discovering one or more of the neighboring UEs based on the received discovery signals from the one or more neighboring UEs; and

communicating with at least one of the neighboring UEs discovered in said discovering in a peer-to-peer manner.

13. The method of claim 12,

wherein said transmitting, said receiving, said discovering, and said communicating are performed while executing a software application on the UE;

wherein the software application uses peer-to-peer communication between UEs.

14. The method of claim 12,

at a time after said transmitting, said receiving, and said discovering, performing, by the UE,

listening on one or more discovery request channels for any discovery request signals from neighboring UEs;

determining if a discovery request signal is received that is relevant to the UE;

transmitting a discovery signal on its discovery channel in response to determining that a discovery request signal is received that is relevant to the UE; and

listening for discovery signals from other UEs when the UE is not transmitting.

15. The method of claim 14,

wherein said listening is performed in a discovery resource set;

the method further comprising performing, by the UE,

entering a sleep state during the discovery resource set in response to determining that, during the discovery resource set, a discovery request signal is not received that is relevant to the UE.

16. A user equipment (UE) device, comprising:

at least one antenna for performing wireless cellular communication;

at least one radio coupled to the at least one antenna, wherein the at least one radio is configured to perform cellular communication using at least one radio access technology (RAT);

one or more processors coupled to the at least one radio, wherein the one or more processors and the at least one radio are configured to perform wireless voice and/or data communications using the at least one antenna;

wherein the one or more processors and at least one radio are configured to;

monitor one or more discovery request channels in a discovery resource set, wherein the one or more discovery request channels are assigned to the UE by a base station;

determine that the UE has moved greater than a threshold amount since transmission of a prior discovery request signal to neighboring UEs, wherein the threshold amount comprises a specified distance since the transmission of the prior discovery request signal to the neighboring UEs;

determine whether a discovery request signal relevant to the UE is received from one or more of the neighboring UEs on the discovery request channels; and

transmit a discovery signal on a discovery channel in the discovery resource set in response to one of determining that the discovery request signal relevant to the UE is received and determining that the UE has moved greater than a threshold amount since transmission of the prior discovery request signal;

wherein the discovery signal is useable by the neighboring UEs in discovering a presence of the UE.

17. The UE of claim 16,

wherein the one or more processors and at least one radio are further configured to listen for discovery signals from one or more of the neighboring UEs during the discovery resource set when the UE is not transmitting.

18. The UE of claim 16,

wherein the one or more processors and at least one radio are further configured to sleep for a remainder of the discovery resource set in response to determining that no discovery request signals were received on the discovery request channels which are relevant to the UE.

19. The UE of claim 16,

wherein the UE further comprises a memory which stores a software application that is executable by the one or more processors;

wherein the one or more discovery request channels being monitored is based on one or more of an application type of the software application or a hash of an identifier of the software application, wherein the software application executing on the UE configures the one or more processors and at least one radio to monitor the one or more discovery channels.

20. The UE of claim 16,

wherein, in response to determining that the UE has not moved greater than the threshold amount since the transmission of the discovery request signal, the one or more processors and at least one radio are further configured to not transmit another discovery request signal.