System and method to conduct idle mode paging channel monitoring within a cellular wireless network

• US 20080161022A1
• Filed: 03/14/2008
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sollenberger, Nelson, Patel, Ronish
• Granted Patent: US 8,014,834 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/458
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0041 Arrangements at the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0045 Arrangements at the receiver end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0065 Serial concatenated codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0219 where the power saving management affects multiple terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/025 Indirect paging
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method and system to determine when a wireless terminal has been paged by a servicing base station. An encoded paging burst is received on a paging channel and then decoded to produce a decoded paging burst. The decoded paging burst is processed to determine if it is a null page. When the encoded paging burst is a null page, it is processed to produce a null page pattern. The wireless terminal may then enter a sleep mode or reduced functionality mode for a predetermined period of time. The wireless terminal awakes from the sleep mode to receive additional encoded paging bursts. Processing the additional encoded paging bursts produces a processed encoded paging burst, which is compared to the null page pattern. When compared favorably, the encoded paging burst is considered a null page, allowing the wireless terminal to re-enter the sleep mode without fully decoding the paging burst.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an encoded paging burst on a paging channel for a wireless device;

processing the encoded paging burst to obtain a plurality of soft symbols;

comparing the plurality of soft symbols to previously stored soft decisions of a null page pattern to determine if the wireless device is to enter a predetermined mode.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined mode is a sleep mode.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined mode is a sleep mode and if the comparing of the plurality of soft symbols to the previously stored soft decisions results in a threshold certainty, then the wireless device enters the sleep mode without further decoding the soft symbols.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined mode is a sleep mode and if the comparing of the plurality of soft symbols to the previously stored soft decisions results in a threshold certainty, then the wireless device re-enters the sleep mode without further decoding the soft symbols.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an earlier encoded null page paging burst, decoding the null page paging burst to identify a null page, obtaining soft decisions of the null page and storing soft decisions as the null page pattern.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising awakening from an initial sleep mode to receive the encoded paging burst.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein if the comparing of the plurality of soft symbols to the previously stored soft decisions does not result in a threshold certainty, then the wireless device remains in an awake mode to decode the encoded paging burst.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the encoded paging burst includes at least equalizing the encoded paging burst to produce the plurality of soft symbols.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) front end of a wireless device to receive an encoded paging burst on a paging channel; and

digital processing components coupled to the RF front end to digitally process the encoded paging burst, in which the digital processing components obtain a plurality of soft symbols from the encoded paging burst and compares the plurality of soft symbols to previously stored soft decisions of a null page pattern to determine if the wireless device is to enter a predetermined mode.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the predetermined mode is a sleep mode.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the predetermined mode is a sleep mode and if the comparison of the plurality of soft symbols to the previously stored soft decisions results in a threshold certainty, then the wireless device enters the sleep mode without further decoding the soft symbols.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the predetermined mode is a sleep mode and if the comparison of the plurality of soft symbols to the previously stored soft decisions results in a threshold certainty, then the wireless device re-enters the sleep mode without further decoding the soft symbols.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the RF front end receives an earlier encoded null page paging burst and the digital processing components decode the null page paging burst to identify a null page, obtain soft decisions of the null page and store soft decisions as the null page pattern.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the RF front end and the digital processing components awaken from an initial sleep mode to receive the encoded paging burst.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein if the comparison of the plurality of soft symbols to the previously stored soft decisions does not result in a threshold certainty, then the wireless device remains in an awake mode to decode the encoded paging burst.

16. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the digital processing components equalize the encoded paging burst to produce the plurality of soft symbols.