Apparatus and Method For Handling Control Channel Reception/Decoding Failure In A Wireless VoIP Communication System

• US 20080025337A1
• Filed: 07/28/2006
• Published: 01/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: O'Connor, James M., Bi, Hao, Reed, John D., McBeath, Sean M., Smith, Jack A., Pinckley, Danny T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,923,321 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/439
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/04 Error control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services

Abstract

A base station (103) assigns a set of mobile stations (101) to a group wherein the group will share a set of radio resources (710). A shared control channel information element (501) is sent to the group of mobile stations (101) and provides a bitmap having fields for group ordering (511), resource allocations (530), failure handling resources (540), and an ordering pattern (513). If a mobile station fails to decode the shared control channel information element (501) it will access the failure handling resources in order to receive data. The failure handling channel may be persistent in some embodiments, or may be released after the mobile station is once again able to decode the shared control channel information element (501) and thereby share in the shared resource pool allocated to its mobile station group.

Claims

1. A method of operating a communication network comprising:

defining a set of mobile stations as a group;

defining a set of resources for allocation to said group;

reserving at least one resource as a failure handling resource;

sending control information to said group including indication of said set of resources and said failure handling resource;

sending common control information to the group indicating resource assignments;

determining that a specific mobile station of said group cannot reliably decode said common control information;

assigning said failure handling resource to said specific mobile station; and

sending data to said specific mobile station using said failure handling resource.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that a specific mobile station of said group cannot reliably decode said common control information, further comprises:

receiving a notification message from said specific mobile station.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that a specific mobile station of said group cannot reliably decode said common control information, further comprises:

receiving a message from said specific mobile station comprising channel quality condition information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning said failure handling resource to said specific mobile station, further comprises:

including identification information of said specific mobile station and said failure handling resource in a message sent via a control channel.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an ordering pattern for said failure handling resource; and

including an indication of said ordering pattern in said common control information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein sending data to said specific mobile station using said failure handling resource, further comprises:

scrambling or encoding said data in a manner unique to said specific mobile station.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein sending common control information to the group indicating resource assignments, further comprises:

sending a bitmap having a bit position corresponding to said failure handling resource wherein said bit position provides an indication that said failure handling resource is allocated.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein sending common control information to the group indicating resource assignments, further comprises:

sending a bitmap comprising at least one of a mobile station resource allocation field, a failure handling resource allocation field, a mobile station group order field, or an ordering pattern field.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said mobile station group order indicates an order of mobile station resource assignments.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein at least two mobile stations are assigned an identical group position via said group order field.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said group position indicates the presence of one of a broadcast/multicast message and a group call.

12. A method of operating a mobile station comprising:

storing a set failure handling channel identifiers;

communicating in a Voice-over-Internet-Protocol session using a common control channel received from a base station;

determining that said common control channel cannot be reliably decoded; and

performing blind detection of said set of failure handling channel identifiers sequentially until a channel is detected.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein determining that said common control channel has not been received, further comprises:

sending an negative acknowledged message after a predetermined time period; and

determining that an internal timer has timed out prior to performing said blind detection.

14. A method of operating a mobile station comprising:

storing a set failure handling channel identifiers;

communicating in a Voice-over-Internet-Protocol session using a shared control channel received from a base station;

determining that a common control channel cannot be reliably decoded;

receiving identification information of an assigned failure handling resource in a message sent via a control channel

receiving data on said assigned failure handling resource.

15. A base station comprising:

a transceiver;

a processor coupled to said transceiver, said processor configured to;

define a set of mobile stations as a group;

define a set of radio resources for allocation to said group;

reserve a subset of said radio resources as a failure handling set;

send control information to said group including indication of said failure handling set;

send a common control channel to the group indicating resource assignments;

determine that a specific mobile station of said group cannot reliably decode said common control information;

assign one radio resource of said failure handling set to said specific mobile station; and

send data to said specific mobile station using said radio resource.

16. The base station of claim 15, wherein said processor is further configured to determine that a specific mobile station of said group cannot reliably decode said common control information by receiving a notification message from said specific mobile station.

17. The base station of claim 15, wherein said processor is further configured to:

determine that a specific mobile station of said group cannot reliably decode said common control information by receiving a message from said specific mobile station comprising channel quality condition information.

18. The base station of claim 15, wherein said processor is further configured to assign said failure handling resource to said specific mobile station by including identification information of said specific mobile station in a message sent via a control channel.

19. The base station of claim 15, wherein said processor is further configured to determine an ordering pattern for said failure handling set and include an indication of said ordering pattern in said control information.

20. The base station of claim 15, wherein said processor is further configured to scramble or encode said data prior to sending said data to said specific mobile station using said failure handling channel.

21. The base station of claim 15, wherein said processor is further configured to send a bitmap having a bit position corresponding to said failure handling channel set wherein said bit position provides an indication that a channel of said failure handling channel set is allocated.

22. The base station of claim 15, wherein said processor is further configured to send a bitmap comprising at least one of a mobile station resource allocation field, a failure handling resource allocation field, a mobile station group order field, or an ordering pattern field.