Selection of channel for radio resource control signaling in HSDPA

• US 20070049308A1
• Filed: 11/23/2005
• Published: 03/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Lindoff, Bengt, Nilsson, Johan
• Granted Patent: US 7,885,662 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/509
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 based on terminal or device properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/12 Access point controller devices

Abstract

A Radio Network Controller (RNC) is configured to send Radio Resource Control (RRC) messages to a mobile station using a selected downlink channel. Depending on the mobility rate of the mobile station, the RNC is configured to configure a signaling connection to use either a first downlink channel or a second downlink channel for transmitting the RRC messages. According to one embodiment, the RNC selects a dedicated channel when the mobile station has a high mobility rate, and selects a shared channel when the mobile station has a low mobility rate.

Claims

1. A signaling method implemented by a radio network controller, said method comprising:

determining a mobility rate of a mobile station;

selecting either a first downlink channel or a second downlink channel for a signaling connection with the mobile station based on the mobility rate of the mobile station; and

configuring the signaling connection with the mobile station to use the selected downlink channel.

2. The signaling method of claim 1 wherein the mobility rate of the mobile station is determined based on a signal characteristic of the received signal from the mobile station.

3. The signaling method of claim 2 wherein the signal characteristic comprises a Doppler spread of the received signal from the mobile station.

4. The signaling method of claim 3 wherein the radio network controller receives Doppler spread measurements from a serving base station.

5. The signaling method of claim 2 wherein the signal characteristic comprises a signal strength of a received signal from the mobile station.

6. The signaling method of claim 5 wherein the radio network controller receives measurements of the signal strength from a serving base station.

7. The signaling method of claim 1 wherein the mobility rate of the mobile station is determined based on a handover frequency of the mobile station.

8. The signaling method of claim 1 wherein the first downlink channel comprises a dedicated channel and the second downlink channel comprises a shared channel.

9. The signaling method of claim 8 wherein selecting either a first downlink channel or a second downlink channel for a signaling connection with the mobile station comprises:

selecting the dedicated channel when the mobile station has a high mobility rate; and

selecting the shared downlink channel when the mobile station has a low mobility rate.

10. The signaling method of claim 8 wherein the dedicated channel comprises a Dedicated Physical Channel and wherein the shared channel comprises a High Speed Physical Downlink Shared Channel in a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access system.

11. A radio network controller to control radio resources allocated to a mobile station, said radio network controller comprising:

a control unit configured to;

determine a mobility rate of the mobile station;

select either a first downlink channel or a second downlink channel for a signaling connection with the mobile station depending on the mobility rate;

configure the signaling connection with the mobile station to use the selected downlink channel; and

a signaling processor configured to exchange signaling messages with the mobile station over the signaling connection.

12. The radio network controller of claim of claim 11 wherein the mobility rate of the mobile station is determined based on signal characteristics of a received signal from the mobile station.

13. The radio network controller of claim 12 wherein the signal characteristics comprise a Doppler spread of the received signal.

14. The radio network controller of claim 12 wherein the signal characteristics comprise a signal strength of the received signal.

15. The radio network controller of claim 12 wherein the control unit is configured to receive measurements of the signal characteristics from a serving base station.

16. The radio network controller of claim 11 wherein the mobility rate of the mobile station is determined based on a handover frequency of the mobile station.

17. The radio network controller of claim 11 wherein the first downlink channel comprises a dedicated channel and the second downlink channel comprises a shared channel.

18. The radio network controller of claim 16 wherein the dedicated channel comprises a Dedicated Physical Channel and wherein the shared channel comprises a High Speed Physical Downlink Shared Channel in a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access system.

19. A computer readable medium storing code for controlling a radio network controller, said code including:

code for determining a mobility rate of a mobile station;

code for selecting either a first downlink channel or a second downlink channel for a signaling connection with the mobile station based on the mobility rate of the mobile station; and

code for configuring the signaling connection With the mobile station to use the selected downlink channel.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein the code for determining a mobility rate of a mobile station analyzes a signal characteristic of a received signal from the mobile station.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 20 wherein the code for determining a mobility rate of a mobile station determines the mobility rate based on the signal strength of the received signal.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 20 wherein the code for determining a mobility rate of a mobile station determines the mobility rate based on the Doppler spread of the received signal.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein the code for determining a mobility rate of a mobile station determines the mobility rate based on handover frequency.