Methods and apparatus for communicating transmission backlog information

• US 20070149129A1
• Filed: 07/14/2006
• Published: 06/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Das, Arnab, Rangan, Sundeep, Anigstein, Pablo, Srinivasan, Murari
• Granted Patent: US 9,572,179 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/67.110
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/24 with feedback of measurements to the transmitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/24 Transfer of terminal data

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for communicating transmission backlog information are described. Reporting control factors are utilized to expand reporting possibilities for a fixed bit size request report. At least one report control factor is determined as a function of channel quality information, power information, device capability information, and/or quality of service information. A transmission backlog report value is interpreted as a function of a reporting control factor. A wide range of quantization schemes for reporting transmission backlog information are facilitated corresponding to a small bit size report. A communications device can adaptively select a quantization request level closely matched to its current needs such as to provide an accurate representation of its current traffic channel resource needs. A communications device may request a number of frames in a request report and the same report may be indirectly requesting a number of communications segments needed to clear its transmission backlog.

Claims

1. A method of reporting transmission backlog information, comprising:

generating at least one reporting control factor as a function of at least one of channel quality information, available transmission power information, device capability information and quality of service information; and

mapping a number of frames to be communicated to a report value as a function of said generated at least one reporting control factor.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of channel quality information;

and

wherein said channel quality information includes at least one of uplink interference information, downlink interference information, uplink signal to noise information, downlink signal to noise information, uplink signal to interference information, and downlink signal to interference information.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of channel quality information;

and

wherein said channel quality information includes uplink interference information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the uplink interference information includes beacon ratio information.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of available transmission power information;

and

wherein said available transmission power information includes information indicating the amount of transmission power available for transmission of information including at least said frames.

6. The method of claim 1,

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of a maximum number of frames of information that can be communicated in a segment.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the maximum number of frames of information that can be communicated in a segment is a function of the highest rate option that the wireless terminal can support.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein generating control factor includes determining an expected rate of transmission.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said mapping includes quantizing differently depending on the expected rate of transmission.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing information mapping at least one of an interference report and a transmission power report to at least one reporting control factor as a function of stored values.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said interference report is a beacon ration report and said transmission power report is a transmission power backoff report, and said stored values includes conditional limit values.

12. The method of claim 2,

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of another factor, said another factor being received from a base station.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said another factor is an interference report gain adjustment value.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein said interference report gain adjustment factor is an uplink traffic channel rate flash assignment offset.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said mapping a number of frames to be communicated to a report value as a function of said generated at least one reporting control factor includes:

selecting a reporting control factor type to use from a plurality of reporting control factor types as a function of an amount of backlog.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said mapping a number of frames to be communicated to a report value as a function of said generated at least one reporting control factor includes:

selecting a reporting control factor type to use from a plurality of reporting control factor types as a function of the type of information the wireless terminal wants to report.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

mapping another number of frames to be communicated to another report value, said mapping another number of frames including selecting not to apply a reporting control factor.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said selecting not to apply a reporting control factor is performed as a function of at least one of the type of information to be reported and the amount of backlog.

19. A wireless terminal, comprising:

a first control factor generation module for generating a first control factor as a function of at least one of channel quality information, available transmission power information, device capability information and quality of service information; and

a mapping module for mapping a number of frames to be communicated to a report value as a function of said generated at least one reporting control factor.

20. The wireless terminal of claim 19, further comprising:

a channel quality determination module for generating information including at least one of uplink interference information, downlink interference information, uplink signal to noise information, downlink signal to noise information, uplink signal to interference information, and downlink signal to interference information; and

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of channel quality information generated by said channel quality determination module.

21. The wireless terminal of claim 20, wherein the uplink interference information generated by said channel quality determination module includes beacon ratio information.

22. The wireless terminal of claim 19, further comprising:

a transmission power information generation module for generating available transmission power information; and

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of generated available transmission power information.

23. The wireless terminal of claim 19, further comprising:

a transmission rate determination module for determining a current highest rate option supported by the wireless terminal; and

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of a maximum number of frames of information that can be communicated in a segment given the current highest rate option determined to be supported by the wireless terminal.

24. The wireless terminal of claim 19, further comprising:

an expected transmission rate determination module; and

wherein generating control factor includes determining an expected rate of transmission.

25. The wireless terminal of claim 19, further comprising:

stored mapping information mapping at least one of an interference report value and a transmission power report value to a reporting control factor value.

26. A wireless terminal, comprising:

control factor generation means for generating a first control factor as a function of at least one of channel quality information, available transmission power information, device capability information and quality of service information; and

mapping means for mapping a number of frames to be communicated to a report value as a function of said generated at least one reporting control factor.

27. The wireless terminal of claim 26, further comprising:

channel quality determination means for generating information including at least one of uplink interference information, downlink interference information, uplink signal to noise information, downlink signal to noise information, uplink signal to interference information, and downlink signal to interference information; and

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of channel quality information generated by said channel quality determination module.

28. The wireless terminal of claim 27, wherein the uplink interference information generated by said channel quality determination module includes beacon ratio information.

29. The wireless terminal of claim 26, further comprising:

transmission power information generation means for generating available transmission power information; and

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of generated available transmission power information.

30. The wireless terminal of claim 26, further comprising:

transmission rate determination means for determining a current highest rate option supported by the wireless terminal; and

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of a maximum number of frames of information that can be communicated in a segment given the current highest rate option determined to be supported by the wireless terminal.

31. The wireless terminal of claim 26, further comprising:

expected transmission rate determination means for determining an expected rate of data transmission; and

wherein generating control factor includes determining an expected rate of data transmission.

32. The wireless terminal of claim 26, further comprising:

means for storing mapping information mapping at least one of an interference report value and a transmission power report value to a reporting control factor value.

33. A computer readable medium embodying machine executable instructions for controlling a wireless terminal to perform a method of reporting transmission backlog information, the comprising:

generating at least one reporting control factor as a function of at least one of channel quality information, available transmission power information, device capability information and quality of service information; and

mapping a number of frames to be communicated to a report value as a function of said generated at least one reporting control factor.

34. The computer readable medium of claim 33,

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of channel quality information;

and wherein said channel quality information includes at least one of uplink interference information, downlink interference information, uplink signal to noise information, downlink signal to noise information, uplink signal to interference information, and downlink signal to interference information.

35. The computer readable medium of claim 33,

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of channel quality information;

and

wherein said channel quality information includes uplink interference information.

36. The computer readable medium of claim 35, wherein the uplink interference information includes beacon ratio information.

37. The computer readable medium of claim 33,

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of available transmission power information;

and

wherein said available transmission power information includes information indicating the amount of transmission power available for transmission of information including at least said frames.

38. The computer readable medium of claim 33,

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of a maximum number of frames of information that can be communicated in a segment.

39. The computer readable medium of claim 38, wherein the maximum number of frames of information that can be communicated in a segment is a function of the highest rate option that the wireless terminal can support.

40. The computer readable medium of claim 34 further embodying machine executable instructions for quantizing differently depending on an expected rate of transmission as part of said step of mapping.

41. An apparatus operable in a communication system, the apparatus comprising:

a processor configured to;

generate at least one reporting control factor as a function of at least one of channel quality information, available transmission power information, device capability information and quality of service information; and

map a number of frames to be communicated to a report value as a function of said generated at least one reporting control factor.

42. The apparatus of claim 41,

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of channel quality information;

and

wherein said channel quality information includes at least one of uplink interference information, downlink interference information, uplink signal to noise information, downlink signal to noise information, uplink signal to interference information, and downlink signal to interference information.

43. The apparatus of claim 41,

wherein said reporting control factor is a function of channel quality information;

and

wherein said channel quality information includes uplink interference information.

44. A method of operating a base station, the method comprising:

receiving a transmission backlog report from a wireless terminal, said transmission backlog report communicating a report value; and

determining a reporting control factor corresponding to said received report, said reporting control factor being a function of at least one of channel quality information, wireless terminal available transmission power information, wireless terminal device capability information and quality of service information.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein said report value is a multi-bit report value.

46. The method of claim 44, further comprising:

interpreting said received report value as a function of said determined reporting control factor.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein interpreting said received report value as a function of said determined reporting control factor includes determining backlog information relating to frames to be transmitted by said wireless terminal.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein said reporting control factor is a function of channel quality information;

and

wherein said channel quality information includes at least one of uplink interference information, downlink interference information, uplink signal to noise information, downlink signal to noise information, uplink signal to interference information, and downlink signal to interference information.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein said channel quality information includes uplink interference information, and wherein said uplink interference information includes beacon ratio report information, the method further comprising:

prior to said step of determining the reporting control factor, receiving a beacon ratio report from said wireless terminal.

50. The method of claim 47, wherein said reporting control factor is a function of wireless terminal transmission power information, the method further comprising:

prior to said step of determining the reporting control factor, receiving a transmission power information report from said wireless.

51. The method of claim 47, wherein said step of determining a reporting control factor includes estimating the maximum number of frames of information that the wireless terminal will be able to communicate in a segment if said segment is allocated to the wireless terminal.

52. The method of claim 48, wherein said reporting control factor is a function of another factor, the method further comprising:

prior to receiving said transmission backlog report broadcast a value representing said another factor.

53. The method of claim 47, further comprising:

receiving a second transmission backlog report from said wireless terminal, said second transmission backlog report communicating a second report value said second transmission backlog report being of the same type as the transmission backlog report;

determining a reporting control factor corresponding to said second received report, said reporting control factor corresponding to said second received report being a function of at least one of channel quality information, wireless terminal available transmission power information, wireless terminal device capability information and quality of service information; and

interpreting said received second report value as a function of said determined second reporting control factor.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein said report value and said second report value are the same, wherein said corresponding control factor values are different, and wherein interpreting said received second report value determines different backlog information relating to frames to be transmitted by said wireless terminal than interpreting said received report value.

55. The method of claim 47, wherein determining a reporting control factor includes determining a reporting control factor type from among a plurality of reporting control factor types as a function of a bit pattern of at least a portion of the received report value.

56. The method of claim 47, further comprising:

receiving an additional transmission backlog report from a wireless terminal, said additional transmission backlog report communicating another report value; and

determining to interpret said received another report value without using a reporting control factor, said decision to interpret without using a reporting control factor being performed as a function of a bit pattern of at least a portion of said received another report value.

57. A base station comprising:

a receiver module for receiving reports from wireless terminals said reports including transmission backlog reports wherein a transmission backlog report communicates a report value; and

a reporting control factor determination module for determining a value of a reporting control factor, said reporting control factor being a function of at least one of channel quality information, wireless terminal available transmission power information, wireless terminal device capability information and quality of service information.

58. The base station of claim 57, wherein said report value is a multi-bit report value.

59. The base station of claim 57, further comprising:

an report interpretation module for interpreting said received report value as a function of a determined reporting control factor.

60. The base station of claim 59, wherein said report interpretation module determines backlog information relating to frames to be communicated by a wireless terminal which transmitted the received backlog report.

61. The base station of claim 60, wherein said reporting control factor determination module determines said reporting control factor as a function of channel quality information;

and wherein said channel quality information includes at least one of uplink interference information, downlink interference information, uplink signal to noise information, downlink signal to noise information, uplink signal to interference information, and downlink signal to interference information.

62. The base station of claim 61, wherein said channel quality information includes uplink interference information, wherein said uplink interference information includes beacon ratio report information, and wherein said receiver also receives beacon ratio reports, the base station further comprising:

a beacon ratio report module for recovering a beacon ratio report value communicated from a wireless terminal.

63. The base station of claim 60, wherein said reporting control factor is a function of wireless terminal transmission power information and wherein said receiver also receives wireless terminal transmission power reports, the base station further comprising:

a wireless terminal transmission power report recovery module for determining wireless terminal transmission power availability information.

64. The base station of claim 60, wherein at least some reporting control factors are determined as a function of a current maximum wireless terminal rate option, the base station further comprising:

a wireless terminal maximum rate determination module for determining the maximum rate option that said wireless terminal is to use for an uplink traffic channel segment.

65. The base station of claim 60, wherein at least some reporting control factors are determined as a function of an adjustment parameter which is broadcast over a broadcast communications channel, the base station further comprising:

a transmitter for transmitting said adjustment parameter.

66. A base station comprising:

means for receiving reports from wireless terminals said reports including transmission backlog reports wherein a transmission backlog report communicates a report value; and

determination means for determining a value of a reporting control factor, said reporting control factor being a function of at least one of channel quality information, wireless terminal available transmission power information, wireless terminal device capability information and quality of service information.

67. The base station of claim 66, wherein said report value is a multi-bit report value.

68. The base station of claim 66, further comprising:

means for interpreting said received report value as a function of a determined reporting control factor.

69. The base station of claim 68, wherein said means for interpreting said received report value determines backlog information relating to frames to be communicated by a wireless terminal which transmitted the received backlog report.

70. The base station of claim 69, wherein said determination means determines said reporting control factor as a function of channel quality information;

and wherein said channel quality information includes at least one of uplink interference information, downlink interference information, uplink signal to noise information, downlink signal to noise information, uplink signal to interference information, and downlink signal to interference information.

71. The base station of claim 70, wherein said channel quality information includes uplink interference information, wherein said uplink interference information includes beacon ratio report information, and wherein said receiver also receives beacon ratio reports, the base station further comprising:

a beacon ratio report means for recovering a beacon ratio report value communicated from a wireless terminal.

72. The base station of claim 69, wherein said reporting control factor is a function of wireless terminal transmission power information and wherein said receiver also receives wireless terminal transmission power reports, the base station further comprising:

transmission power information recovery means for determining wireless terminal transmission power availability information from a received wireless terminal transmission power report.

73. The base station of claim 69, wherein at least some reporting control factors are determined as a function of a current maximum wireless terminal rate option, the wireless terminal further comprising:

wireless terminal transmission rate determination means for determining the maximum rate option that said wireless terminal is to use for an uplink traffic channel segment.

74. The base station of claim 69, wherein at least some reporting control factors are determined as a function of an adjustment parameter which is broadcast over a broadcast communications channel, the base station further comprising:

means for transmitting for transmitting said adjustment parameter.

75. A computer readable medium embodying machine executable instructions for controlling a base station to implement a method, the method comprising:

receiving a transmission backlog report from a wireless terminal, said transmission backlog report communicating a report value; and

determining a reporting control factor corresponding to said received report, said reporting control factor being a function of at least one of channel quality information, wireless terminal available transmission power information, wireless terminal device capability information and quality of service information.

76. The computer readable medium of claim 75, wherein said report value is a multi-bit report value.

77. The computer readable medium of claim 75, further embodying machine executable instructions for:

interpreting said received report value as a function of said determined reporting control factor.

78. The computer readable medium of claim 77 further embodying machine executable instructions for:

determining backlog information relating to frames to be transmitted by said wireless terminal as part of said step of interpreting said received report value as a function of said determined reporting control factor includes.

79. The computer readable medium of claim 78, wherein said reporting control factor is a function of channel quality information;

and

wherein said channel quality information includes at least one of uplink interference information, downlink interference information, uplink signal to noise information, downlink signal to noise information, uplink signal to interference information, and downlink signal to interference information.

80. The method of claim 79, wherein said channel quality information includes uplink interference information, and wherein said uplink interference information includes beacon ratio report information, the method further comprising:

prior to said step of determining the reporting control factor, receiving a beacon ratio report from said wireless terminal.

81. The computer readable medium of claim 78, wherein said reporting control factor is a function of wireless terminal transmission power information, the computer readable medium further embodying machine executable instructions for:

receiving a transmission power information report from said wireless prior to said step of determining the reporting control factor.

82. An apparatus operable in a communication system, the apparatus comprising:

a processor configured to;

;

receive a transmission backlog report from a wireless terminal, said transmission backlog report communicating a report value; and

determine a reporting control factor corresponding to said received report, said reporting control factor being a function of at least one of channel quality information, wireless terminal available transmission power information, wireless terminal device capability information and quality of service information.

83. The apparatus of claim 82, wherein said report value is a multi-bit report value.

84. The apparatus of claim 82, wherein the processor is configured to:

interpret said received report value as a function of said determined reporting control factor.