Apparatus, and an associated method, for reserving resources in a mobile communication system through the use of historical indicia

• US 20040192341A1
• Filed: 12/26/2002
• Published: 09/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Wang, Shu-Shaw, Bhattacharya, Amiya
• Granted Patent: US 6,957,074 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/26 Resource reservation

Abstract

Apparatus, and an associated method, for facilitating resource allocation in a mobile communication system. Historical indicia associated with a mobile station is monitored and maintained. A predictor forms a prediction of a subsequent path of travel of the mobile station responsive to the historical indicia that is collected and maintained at the memory element. The predicted path of travel of the mobile station is utilized in the allocation of communication resources to the mobile station. Updates are made to the predicted path of travel, and reallocation of the communication resources is correspondingly made, thereby to efficiently utilize the communication resources available in the communication system.

Claims

1. In a radio communication system including a plurality of spaced-apart, fixed-site transceivers positioned throughout a geographic area, each fixed-site transceiver defining a coverage area within which communications with a mobile station are permitted pursuant to a communication session in which communication resources are allocated to effectuate the communication session, an improvement of apparatus for facilitating allocation of communication resources by at least one target, fixed-site transceiver, said apparatus comprising:

a mobility path predictor adapted at least to receive historical indicia associated with movement of the mobile station, said mobility path predictor for predicting a subsequent path of movement of the mobile station based upon the historical indicia; and

comprising;

a resource requester adapted to receive indications of the subsequent path of movement predicted by said mobility path predictor, said resource requester for selectably requesting reservation of the communication resources at the at least one target, fixed-site transceiver to permit effectuation of the communication session, the at least one target, fixed-site transceiver defining a coverage area containing at least a portion of the subsequent path of movement predicted by said mobility path predictor.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said mobility path predictor is further adapted to receive, at selected intervals, updates to the historical indicia associated with the movement of the mobile station and wherein the subsequent path of the movement of the mobile station predicted by said mobility path predictor is further responsive to the updates to the historical routing indicia.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the historical indicia comprises positional indicia identifying positioning of the mobile station.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the radio communication system comprises a cellular communication station, wherein the coverage area defined by each fixed-site transceiver forms a cell, each cell identified by a cell identifier, and wherein the positional indicia forming the historical indicia includes values of the cell identifier of the cell in which the mobile station is positioned.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the historical indicia further comprises temporal indicia associated with the positional indicia that identifies the positioning of the mobile station, the temporal indicia identifying a time at which the mobile station is positioned at a location indicated by the positional indicia.

6. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the historical indicia further comprises durational indicia associated with the positional indicia that identifies the positioning of the mobile station, the durational indicia identifying a durational period at which the mobile station is positioned at a location indicated by the positional indicia.

7. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said mobility path predictor is further adapted to receive indications of hand-off of the mobile station, said mobility path predictor for again predicting the subsequent path of movement of the mobile station upon reception of the indications of the hand-off of the mobile station, the subsequent path again-predicted by said mobility path predictor forming an updated subsequent path of movement.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the indications of the hand-off of the mobile station to which said mobility path predictor is coupled to receive is embodied together with the positional indicia.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein said resource requestor is further adapted to receive indications of the updated subsequent path of movement, said resource requestor further for selectably requesting updated reservation of the communication resources at the at least one target, fixed-site transceiver.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a memory element adapted to receive, and to store thereat, historical indicia associated with the movement of the mobile station, the historical indicia, once stored thereat, forming the historical indicia used by said mobility path predictor to predict the subsequent path.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the radio communication system defines a network part, of which the plurality of spaced-apart, fixed-site transceivers form a portion, wherein said mobility path predictor is embodied at the mobile station, and said apparatus further comprising a resource reserver embodied at the network part, said resource reserver for selectably reserving the communication resources responsive to request generated by said resource requester.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said mobility path predictor and said resource reserver are both embodied at the network part.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said mobility path predictor comprises an encoder.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said mobility path predictor further comprises a decoder.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said encoder and said decoder that form said mobility path predictor comprise a Lempel-Ziv compression and decompression algorithm, executable by processing circuitry.

16. In a method of communicating in a radio communication system having a plurality of spaced-apart fixed-site transceivers positioned throughout a geographic area, each fixed-site transceiver defining a coverage area within which communications with a mobile station are permitted pursuant to a communication session in which communication resources are allocated to effectuate the communication session, an improvement of a method for facilitating allocation of communication resources by at least one target, fixed-site transceiver, said method comprising:

predicting a subsequent path of movement of the mobile station based upon historical indicia associated with movement of the mobile station; and

selectably reserving the communication resources at the at least one target, fixed-site transceiver to permit effectuation of the communication session, the at least one target, fixed-site transceiver defining a coverage area containing at least a portion of the subsequent path of movement predicted during said operation of predicting.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising the operation, prior to said operation of predicting, of creating and maintaining a database containing the historical indicia and wherein said operation of predicting further comprises accessing the database.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein said operations of predicting and selectably reserving are selectably repeated.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein said operations of predicting and selectably reserving are repeated upon hand-off of the mobile station.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein said operation of predicting is performed through execution of a Lempel Ziv compression and decompression algorithm.