Data service apparatus and method in heterogeneous wireless networks

• US 20070116012A1
• Filed: 10/16/2006
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Lim, Eun-Taek, Jang, Jae-Hyuk, Park, Dong-Seek, Chang, Young-Bin, Ro, Jung-Min, Cho, Young-Kwon, Choi, Joon-Young
• Granted Patent: US 8,279,876 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/395.520
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• 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 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]

Abstract

Provided are an apparatus and a method for providing a concurrent data service to an Mobile Station (MS) through a plurality of heterogeneous networks. In a method for providing a data service to an MS through different wireless networks, the MS measures channel qualities of at least one accessible wireless network and reports the measured channel qualities to an Internet Protocol (IP) packet controller. The IP packet controller selects wireless networks for data transmission on the basis of the reported channel qualities, distributes data destined for the MS, and transmits the distributed data to the selected wireless networks. The selected wireless networks receive the data from the IP packet controller and transmits the received data to the MS. The MS combines and interprets the data received from the selected wireless networks. Accordingly, it is possible to provide a seamless data service to the MS in service environments with a mixture of different wireless communication systems.

Claims

1. An apparatus for distributing packets to different wireless networks, comprising:

an Internet Protocol (IP) layer for processing IP packets received from an IP network; and

an IP sublayer for distributing IP packets received from the IP layer for transmission to at least one wireless network accessible by a Mobile Station (MS) and transferring each of the distributed IP packets to a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer of the corresponding wireless network.

2. The apparatus of-claim 1, further comprising:

MAC layers for communicating with the different wireless networks; and

physical layers corresponding respectively to the MAC layers.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the IP sublayer comprises:

a controller for determining at least one accessible wireless network;

a distributor for dividing the IP packet received from the IP layer for transmission to the accessible wireless networks; and

a header generator for adding a subheader containing a sequence number to each of packets received from the distributor and adding an IP header of the IP packet to the subheader to generate IP subpackets.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the controller determines the amount of data destined for each wireless network according to wireless channel conditions between the MS and the accessible wireless networks.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the IP sublayer comprises:

a header remover for removing an IP header and a subheader from each of IP subpackets received from the MS; and

a combiner for combining the IP subpackets into a IP packet on the basis of a sequence number recorded in the removed subheader and transmitting the resulting IP packet to the IP layer.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the IP sublayer comprises:

a controller for determining the accessible wireless networks; and

a distributor for distributing IP packets received from the IP layer according to service types and transmitting each of the distributed IP packets to a MAC layer of the wireless network corresponding to each of the service types.

7. A Mobile Station (MS), comprising:

Medium Access Control (MAC) layers for communicating with different wireless networks; and

an Internet Protocol (IP) sublayer for combining IP subpackets transferred from the MAC layers and received from the different wireless networks into an IP packet and transferring the resulting IP packet to an IP layer.

8. The Mobile Station of claim 7, wherein the IP sublayer comprises:

a header remover for removing an IP header and a subheader from each of the transferred IP subpackets; and

a combiner for combining the IP subpackets into a IP packet on the basis of a sequence number recorded in the removed subheader and transmitting the resulting IP packet to the IP layer.

9. The Mobile Station of claim 7, wherein the IP sublayer comprises:

a controller for determining accessible wireless networks;

a distributor for dividing the IP packet received from the IP layer for transmission to at least one accessible wireless networks; and

a header generator for adding a subheader containing a sequence number to each of packets received from the distributor, adding an IP header of the IP packet to the subheader to generate IP subpackets, and transmitting the IP subpackets to a MAC layer of the corresponding wireless network.

10. The Mobile Station of claim 7, wherein the IP sublayer comprises:

a controller for determining accessible wireless networks; and

a distributor for distributing IP packets received from the IP layer according to service types and transmitting each of the distributed IP packets to a MAC layer of the wireless network corresponding to each of the service types.

11. A method for providing a data service from an Internet Protocol (IP) packet controller to a Mobile Station (MS), comprising the steps of:

determining at least one accessible wireless networks accessible by the MS;

distributing IP packets destined for the MS for transmission to the accessible wireless networks; and

transmitting each of the distributed IP packets to the corresponding wireless network.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein distributing the IP packets comprises:

dividing the IP packet for transmission to the accessible wireless networks; and

adding a subheader containing a sequence number to each of the divided packets and adding an IP header of the IP packet to the subheader to generate IP subpackets.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein distributing the IP packets further comprises:

determining channel quality between the MS and the accessible wireless networks; and

if the channel quality satisfies a predetermined reference, repeating an IP packet destined for the MS for simultaneously transmission to the wireless networks.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein distributing the IP packets further comprises:

determining the amount of data to be transmitted to each of the wireless networks on the basis of the channel quality between the MS and the accessible wireless networks; and

distributing the IP packets destined for the MS on the basis of the determined data amount.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the IP packets destined for the MS are distributed according to service types.

16. A communication method for a Mobile Station (MS), comprising the steps of:

measuring channel qualities between the MS and at least one accessible wireless network and reporting the measured channel qualities to an upper-layer network device;

receiving Internet Protocol (IP) subpackets from the accessible wireless networks under the control of the upper-layer network device; and

combining the received IP subpackets into an IP packet and determining the corresponding application data .

17. The communication method of claim 16, further comprising:

reporting the amount of Transmission (TX) data to the upper-layer network device;

receiving channel allocation messages from the accessible wireless networks under the control of the upper-layer network device;

distributing the TX data for transmission to the accessible wireless networks; and

transmitting each of the distributed TX data to the corresponding accessible wireless network.

18. The communication method of claim 16, further comprising:

distributing TX packets according to the types of a plurality of services; and

transmitting each of the distributed TX packets to the accessible wireless network of the corresponding service type.

19. A method for providing a data service to a Mobile Station (MS) through different wireless networks, comprising the steps of:

measuring channel qualities of at least one accessible wireless network and reporting the measured channel qualities from the MS to an Internet Protocol (IP) packet controller;

selecting wireless networks for data transmission on the basis of the reported channel qualities, distributing data destined for the MS, and transmitting the distributed data from the IP packet controller to the selected wireless networks;

receiving the data from the IP packet controller and transmitting the received data from the selected wireless networks to the MS; and

combining and interpreting, at the MS, the data received from the selected wireless networks.

20. A method for providing a data service to a Mobile Station (MS) through different wireless networks, comprising the steps of:

reporting channel qualities of at least one accessible wireless network and the amount of Transmission (TX) data from the MS to an Internet Protocol (IP) packet controller;

transmitting an uplink scheduling control message from the IP packet controller to the accessible wireless networks on the basis of the reported channel qualities and data amount;

transmitting channel allocation messages from the accessible wireless networks to the MS on the basis of the uplink scheduling control message; and

distributing the TX data into packets on the basis of the channel allocation messages and transmitting each of the packets from the MS to the corresponding accessible wireless network.