Group message based carrier aggregation control

• US 10,149,120 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2010
• Issued: 12/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Sachs, Joachim, Baldemair, Robert, Irnich, Tim, Kronander, Jonas
• Primary Examiner(s): Holland, Jenee
• Application Number:
  US13/884,327
• Publication Number:
  US 20130301444A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,945 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/001 the frequencies being arranged in component carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0041 Frequency-non-contiguous
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0064 Rate requirement of the data, e.g. scalable bandwidth, data priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0091 Signaling for the administration of the divided path
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/121 for groups of terminals or users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal

Abstract

A mobile communication system includes a network based aggregation controller for controlling aggregation of component carriers from a first spectrum and a second spectrum. In addition, the mobile communication system includes a group of mobile terminals. The network based aggregation controller is configured to send a group message on at least one component carrier of the first spectrum to the group of mobile terminals. The mobile terminals receive the group message. A terminal based aggregation controller in each of the mobile terminals is configured to control operation of the respective mobile terminal with respect to the at least one component carrier of the second spectrum. This control is accomplished in response to the received group message.

Claims

1. A method, by a node in a mobile communication network, of controlling aggregation of component carriers from a first spectrum that is assigned to the mobile communication network and a second spectrum that is not assigned to the mobile communication network, the method comprising:

allocating at least one component carrier from the second spectrum to a group of mobile terminals that are using component carriers from the first spectrum and that are allowed to use component carriers from the second spectrum; and

in response to detecting that a primary user of the second spectrum requires usage of the at least one component carrier from the second spectrum, transmitting a group message on at least one component carrier from the first spectrum to the group of mobile terminals that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum, wherein the at least one component carrier from the second spectrum is already allocated to the group of mobile terminals that are using the component carriers from the first spectrum and that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum, and

wherein said group message controls operation of the mobile terminals of the group of mobile terminals that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum to deactivate the usage of the at least one component carrier from the second spectrum.

2. The method according to claim 1, futher comprising:

determining a characteristic of a mobile terminal; and

on the basis of the characteristic of the mobile terminal, assigning the mobile terminal to the group of mobile terminals that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum.

3. The method according to claim 2,

wherein said characteristic of the mobile terminal comprises a capability to use the component carriers from the second spectrum.

4. The method according to claim 2,

wherein said characteristic of the mobile terminal comprises one or more of:

a location of the mobile terminal, a velocity of the mobile terminal, and a direction of movement of the mobile terminal.

5. The method according to claim 2,

wherein said characteristic of the mobile terminal comprises a traffic demand of the mobile terminal.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining a characteristic of the second spectrum; and

on the basis of the characteristic of the second spectrum, assigning a mobile terminal, not yet assigned to the group of mobile terminals that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum, to the group of mobile terminals that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum.

7. The method according to claim 6,

wherein said characteristic of the second spectrum comprises an availability of the second spectrum at a location of the mobile terminal.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a group identifier to the group of mobile terminals that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum.

9. The method according to claim 1,

wherein said group message further controls operation of the mobile terminals of the group of mobile terminals that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum with respect to the at least one component carrier from the first spectrum.

10. The method according to claim 1,

wherein the at least one component carrier from the first spectrum comprises a component carrier which is allocated to all mobile terminals of the group of mobile terminals that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum.

11. The method according to claim 1,

wherein the first spectrum is allocated to a radio access technology and the second spectrum is not allocated to said radio access technology.

12. The method according to claim 1,

wherein the second spectrum is allocated to a television technology, a satellite technology, or a radar technology.

13. A non-transitory computer program product comprising program code to be executed by a processor of a device, thereby causing the device to operate in accordance with a method as defined in claim 1.

14. A method of controlling aggregation of component carriers from a first spectrum and a second spectrum, the method comprising:

transmitting a group message on at least one component carrier from the first spectrum to a group of mobile terminals, wherein said group message controls operation of the mobile terminals of the group of mobile terminals with respect to at least one component carrier from the second spectrum;

determining if a mobile terminal, not yet assigned to the group of mobile terminals, is at an edge of a coverage region of the second spectrum and further determining one or more of;

if the mobile terminal is moving at a velocity above a threshold and if the mobile terminal is moving in a direction towards outside the edge of the coverage region of the second spectrum; and

not assigning the mobile terminal to the group of mobile terminals in response to;

determining that the mobile terminal is at the edge of the coverage region of the second spectrum,

and further determining one or more of;

that the mobile terminal is moving at the velocity above the threshold and that the mobile terminal is moving in the direction towards outside the edge of the coverage region of the second spectrum.

15. A network device in a mobile communication network, the network device comprising:

a processor;

a memory, coupled to the processor, the memory storing program code configured to be executed by the processor, the memory comprising an aggregation controller, the aggregation controller configured to control aggregation of component carriers from a first spectrum that is assigned to the mobile communication network and a second spectrum that is not assigned to the mobile communication network;

an access node configured to allocate at least one component carrier from the second spectrum to a group of mobile terminals that use component carriers from the first spectrum and are allowed to use component carriers from the second spectrum; and

a control interface coupled to the processor, the control interface configured to transmit, in response to detecting that a primary user of the second spectrum requires usage of the at least one component carrier from the second spectrum, a group message on at least one component carrier from the first spectrum to the group of mobile terminals that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum, wherein the at least one component carrier from the second spectrum is already allocated to the group of mobile terminals that use the component carriers from the first spectrum and that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum, and

wherein said group message controls operation of the mobile terminals of the group of mobile terminals that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum to deactivate the usage of the at least one component carrier from the second spectrum.

16. The network device according to claim 15,

wherein said group message controls the mobile terminals of the group of mobile terminals that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum, to deactivate the usage of the at least one component carrier from the second spectrum.

17. A mobile terminal in a mobile communication network, the mobile terminal comprising:

an aggregation controller configured to control aggregation of component carriers from a first spectrum that is assigned to the mobile communication network and a second spectrum that is not assigned to the mobile communication network; and

a radio interface configured to receive a group message on at least one component carrier from the first spectrum, the group message being addressed to a group of mobile terminals that are using component carriers from the first spectrum and that are allowed to use component carriers from the second spectrum, the group of mobile terminals including said mobile terminal,

wherein the aggregation controller is configured to control operation of the mobile terminal with respect to at least one component carrier from the second spectrum to deactivate usage of the at least one component carrier from the second spectrum and to activate usage of the at least one component carrier from the first spectrum in place of the deactivated at least one component carrier from the second spectrum, in response to the received group message.

18. The mobile terminal according to claim 17,

wherein said group message controls the mobile terminals of the group of mobile terminals that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum to deactivate the usage of the at least one component carrier from the second spectrum.

19. A mobile communication system, comprising:

a network based aggregation controller configured to control aggregation of component carriers from a first spectrum that is assigned to a mobile communication network and a second spectrum that is not assigned to the mobile communication network;

a group of mobile terminals; and

an access node configured to allocate at least one component carrier from the second spectrum to the group of mobile terminals, wherein the mobile terminals of the group of mobile terminals use component carriers from the first spectrum and are allowed to use component carriers from the second spectrum,

wherein the network based aggregation controller comprises a control interface configured to send, in response to detecting that a primary user of the second spectrum requires usage of the at least one component carrier from the second spectrum, a group message on at least one component carrier from the first spectrum to the group of mobile terminals that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum, wherein the at least one component carrier from the second spectrum is already allocated to the group of mobile terminals that use the component carriers from the first spectrum and that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum, and

wherein each of the mobile terminals of the group of mobile terminals comprises a radio interface configured to receive the group message and a terminal based aggregation controller configured to control operation of the respective mobile terminal to deactivate the usage of the at least one component carrier of the second spectrum in response to the received group message.

20. The mobile communication system according to claim 19,

wherein said group message controls the mobile terminals of the group of mobile terminals that are allowed to use the component carriers from the second spectrum to deactivate the usage of the at least one component carrier from the second spectrum, and

wherein the terminal based aggregation controller is configured to deactivate the usage of the at least one component carrier from the second spectrum responsive to the group message.