Optimized radio bearer configuration for voice over IP

• US 20050201353A1
• Filed: 01/06/2005
• Published: 09/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Chun, Sung Duck, Lee, Young Dae, Yi, Seung June
• Granted Patent: US 7,558,247 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/349
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0018 based on latency requirement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0096 Channel splitting in point-to-point links
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/02 Data link layer protocols

Abstract

A radio bearer (RB) configuration to process packets in a single radio bearer. The RB configuration comprising: a first entity to split a received single packet stream into at least two packet sub-streams; and at least two second entities having respectively different modes for a single RB, each second entity to process each packet sub-stream split by the first entity. A method of processing packets in a single RB, comprising: receiving a single packet stream from an upper protocol layer; determining a characteristic of each packet in the received single packet stream; and splitting the determined packets into two different sub-streams, each sub-stream having different delay and/or error rate requirements.

Claims

1. A method of processing packets in a single radio bearer, comprising:

receiving a single packet stream from an upper protocol layer;

determining a characteristic of each packet in the received single packet stream; and

splitting the determined packets into two different sub-streams, wherein each sub-stream has a different delay requirement and/or an error rate requirement.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the splitting is performed according to a quality of service requirement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic of each packet identifies a packet type.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one sub-stream is for RTP packets and the other sub-stream is for RTCP packets.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the RTP packets are transmitted through a first RLC entity and the RTCP packets are transmitted through a second RLC entity.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising a step of performing logical channel priority handling.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the logical channel priority handling minimizes any delays in transmitting the RTP packets by transmitting the RTP packets at a higher priority compared with the RTCP packets.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein header compression is performed for the packets in the received single packet stream, prior to the separating step.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving packets from two different sub-streams, wherein each sub-stream has a different delay requirement and/or an error rate requirement;

combining the received packets into a single packet stream; and

sending the single packet stream to an upper protocol layer.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein header decompression is performed for the packets in the single packet stream to be sent, after the combining step.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein logical channel multiplexing or transport channel multiplexing is performed.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps are for VoIP communications.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps are performed by a terminal.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps are performed by a network.

15. A radio bearer configuration, comprising:

a first packet handling entity to split a received single packet stream into at least two packet sub-streams; and

at least two second packet handling entities having respectively different modes for a single radio bearer, each second packet handling entity to process each packet sub-stream split by the first packet handling entity.

16. The radio bearer configuration of claim 15, wherein the first packet handling entity splits the single packet stream by checking a format field of a PDU such that packets of a first type are forwarded in a first packet sub-stream and packets of a second type are forwarded in a second packet sub-stream.

17. The radio bearer configuration of claim 16, wherein the checking of the format field involves checking a field in a header of the PDU.

18. The radio bearer configuration of claim 16, wherein the first type of packets are RTP packets and the second type of packets are RTCP packets.

19. The radio bearer configuration of claim 15, wherein each packet handling entity is part of a radio protocol layer.

20. The radio bearer configuration of claim 15, wherein the first packet handling entity is a PDCP entity.

21. The radio bearer configuration of claim 15, wherein the first packet handling entity comprises a header compressor that receives data packets and performs header compression thereon.

22. The radio bearer configuration of claim 21, wherein the first packet handling entity comprises a splitter that splits the single packet stream into one packet sub-stream for RTP packets and another packet sub-stream for RTCP packets.

23. The radio bearer configuration of claim 22, wherein the splitter is implemented in software, in hardware, or in a combination of software and hardware.

24. The radio bearer configuration of claim 15, wherein the first packet handling entity comprises a combiner that combines one packet sub-stream for RTP packets and another packet sub-stream for RTCP packets into a single packet stream.

25. The radio bearer configuration of claim 24, wherein the combiner is implemented in software, in hardware, or in a combination of software and hardware.

26. The radio bearer configuration of claim 24, wherein the first packet handling entity comprises a header decompressor that receives data packets and performs header decompression thereon.

27. The radio bearer configuration of claim 15, wherein the second packet handling entities are RLC entities.

28. The radio bearer configuration of claim 27, wherein one of the RLC entities is a UM RLC entity.

29. The radio bearer configuration of claim 27, wherein two of the RLC entities are UM RLC entities, a first UM RLC entity for data service in a first direction and a second UM RLC entity for data service in a second direction.

30. The radio bearer configuration of claim 29, wherein the UM RLC entities are implemented in software, in hardware, or in a combination of software and hardware.

31. The radio bearer configuration of claim 29, wherein a first UM RLC has a transmitter to transmit packet data, a second UM RLC has a receiver to receive packet data.

32. The radio bearer configuration of claim 29, wherein a third RLC entity is an AM RLC entity.

33. The radio bearer configuration of claim 32, wherein the AM RLC entity is implemented in software, in hardware, or in a combination of software and hardware.

34. The radio bearer configuration of claim 32, wherein an AM RLC has a transmitter to transmit packet data and a receiver to receive packet data.

35. The radio bearer configuration of claim 15, wherein one packet sub-stream is for real-time transport protocol packets and the other packet sub-stream is for RTP control protocol packets.

36. The radio bearer configuration of claim 35, wherein the RTP packets are forwarded to a UM RLC entity and the RTCP packets are forwarded to an AM RLC entity.

37. The radio bearer configuration of claim 36, wherein the RTP packets received by the UM RLC are processed at a higher priority than the RTCP packets received by the AM RLC entity.

38. The radio bearer configuration of claim 15, wherein the UM RLC entity outputs RTP packets and the AM RLC entity outputs RTCP packets to a lower protocol layer in the same packet stream, the RTP packets being output at a higher priority than the RTCP packets.

39. The radio bearer configuration of claim 38, wherein logical channel multiplexing is performed.

40. The radio bearer configuration of claim 15, wherein the UM RLC entity outputs RTP packets and the AM RLC entity outputs RTCP packets to a lower protocol layer in separate packet streams, the RTP packets having a higher priority than the RTCP packets.

41. The radio bearer configuration of claim 40, wherein transport channel multiplexing is performed.

42. The radio bearer configuration of claim 15, wherein the packet handling entities are for VoIP communications.

43. The radio bearer configuration of claim 15, wherein the packet handling entities are part of a radio protocol of a network that allows communication between two end users.

44. The radio bearer configuration of claim 43, wherein the network is a UTRAN.

45. The radio bearer configuration of claim 15, wherein the packet handling entities are part of a radio protocol of an end user.

46. The radio bearer configuration of claim 45, wherein the end user comprises user equipment.

47. The radio bearer configuration of claim 45, wherein the end user is a wireless communications device.