WIRELESS COMMUNICATION METHODS AND APPARATUS SUPPORTING DIFFERENT TYPES OF WIRELESS COMMUNCIATION APPROACHES
First Claim
1. A method of operating a wireless terminal which supports both peer to peer communication and communication via a base station, the method comprising:
- receiving a first signal from a first communications band, the first signal being from a base station;
determining from said first signal link quality of a first link between said base station and said wireless terminal;
receiving a second signal from a second communications band which is different from said first communications band, said second signal being from a peer wireless terminal;
determining from said second signal link quality of a second link between said wireless terminal and said peer wireless terminal; and
selecting between said first and second links for a communications session based on the determined quality of said first and second links.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A wireless terminal supports both peer to peer communications and access node based communications. The wireless terminal considers and evaluates communications link alternatives and selects between (i) communication using a peer to peer link and (ii) communications using a link, with a base station serving as an access node, Received signals corresponding to each of the link alternatives are used in performing link quality determinations. In one example, a received user beacon sisal :from a peer wireless terminal is the received signal used for the peer to peer link evaluation and a: base station beacon signal is the received signal used for the access node link evaluation. A link is selected as a function of quality determination, predicted data throughput, link maintenance energy requirements, and/or least cost routing determination information.
175 Citations
38 Claims
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1. A method of operating a wireless terminal which supports both peer to peer communication and communication via a base station, the method comprising:
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receiving a first signal from a first communications band, the first signal being from a base station;
determining from said first signal link quality of a first link between said base station and said wireless terminal;
receiving a second signal from a second communications band which is different from said first communications band, said second signal being from a peer wireless terminal;
determining from said second signal link quality of a second link between said wireless terminal and said peer wireless terminal; and
selecting between said first and second links for a communications session based on the determined quality of said first and second links. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A wireless terminal which supports both peer to peer communication and communication via a base station, the wireless terminal comprising:
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a receiver module for receiving a first signal from a first communications band, the first signal being from a base station and for receiving a second signal from a second communications band which is different from said first communications band, said second signal being from a peer wireless terminal;
a base station link quality determination module for determining from said first signal link quality of a first link between said base station and said wireless terminal;
a peer to peer link quality determination module for determining from said second signal link quality of a second link between said wireless terminal and said peer wireless terminal; and
a link selection module for selecting between said first and second links for a communications session based on the determined quality of said first and second links. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A wireless terminal which supports both peer to peer communication and communication via a base station, the wireless terminal comprising:
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receiver means for receiving a first signal from a first communications band, the first signal being from a base station and for receiving a second signal from a second communications band which is different from said first communications band, said second signal being from a peer wireless terminal;
base station link quality determination means for determining from said first signal link quality of a first link between said base station and said wireless terminal;
peer to peer link quality determination means for determining from said second signal link quality of a second link between said wireless terminal and said peer wireless terminal; and
link selection means for selecting between said first and second links for a communications session based on the determined quality of said first and second links. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A computer readable medium embodying machine executable instructions for controlling a wireless terminal which supports both peer to peer communication and communication via a base station to implement a method of communicating with another communications device, the method comprising:
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receiving a first signal from a first communications band, the first signal being from a base station;
determining from said first signal link quality of a first link between said base station and said wireless terminal;
receive a first signal from a first communications band, the first signal being from a base station and for receiving a second signal from a second communications band which is different from said first communications band, said second signal being from a peer wireless terminal;
determine from said first signal link quality of a first link between said base station and the apparatus;
determine from said second signal link quality of a second link between said apparatus and said peer wireless terminal; and
select between said first and second links for a communications session based on the determined quality of said first and second links.
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33. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein said first and second signals each include at least one beacon signal burst;
- and wherein said wireless terminal processor is further configured to;
recover link information from a beacon signal burst; and
recover user data from non-beacon signals used to communicate user data as part of a communications session. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38)
- and wherein said wireless terminal processor is further configured to;
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34. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein said wireless terminal processor is further configured to:
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predict a first data throughput to the base station based on said first determined link quality;
predict a second data throughput to the peer wireless communications device based on said second determined link quality; and
wherein said selection between said first and second links is based on selecting the one of the first and second links having the higher data throughput.
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35. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein said wireless terminal processor is further configured to:
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estimate the amount of energy required to maintain the first and second links; and
wherein selecting between said first and second links for a communications session is also performed as a function of energy required to maintain said first and second links, said selecting including selecting the one of the first and second links satisfying a link quality requirement and also requiring the least amount of energy to maintain.
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36. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein said wireless terminal processor is further configured to:
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perform a routing cost determination that takes into consideration economic costs associated with using individual ones of the first and second links; and
wherein selecting between said first and second links is also performed as a function of a least cost routing determination that takes into consideration economic costs associated with using individual ones of the first and second links.
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Specification