Method For Signaling the Status of a Subcarrier in a Mc Network and a Method For Adaptively Allocating the Subcarrieres in a Mc Network

• US 20080273606A1
• Filed: 06/15/2005
• Published: 11/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: May, Klaus Peter, Dalmases, Francesc, Habetha, Joerg, Otal, Begonya, Orfanos, Georgios
• Granted Patent: US 8,406,331 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/003 Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0098 Signalling of the activation or deactivation of component carriers, subcarriers or frequency bands
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/26 Resource reservation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management

Abstract

A fast method for allocating those channels or subcarriers of a multicarrier network to an ahead lying transmission is to let a transmitting terminal and a receiving terminal which intend to access the medium determine the status of the channels or subcarriers that are within their reception range and send a signal indicating the determined status to the corresponding terminal which will select those channels or subcarriers for the eventual transmission which fit best. Other terminals within the transmission range of the transmitting or the receiving terminal respect the reservation and wait for the current transmission to find out which channels or subcarriers are actually used.

Claims

1. A method for signalling the status of a subcarrier in a medium such as a Multi Carrier network working with a certain bandwidth which is divided into a certain amount of channels or subcarriers, characterized in that for signalling the status a terminal sends a status signal indicating the current status of each channel or subcarrier of the bandwidth.

2. The method of claim 1, characterized in that the status signal is transmitted on the medium alternatively

as a dedicated packet,

as part of or following a signalling packet (RTS, CTS, ACK) or

as part of or following a data packet (DATA)

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the status signal is a binary sequence.

12. A method of claim 3, characterized in that the length of the binary sequence in bits equals the total amount of channels or subcarriers in the medium.

4. A method for adaptively allocating to a transmitter terminal and to a receiver terminal which attempt to exchange data certain channels or subcarriers of a network whose bandwidth is divided into several channels or subcarriers, characterized by the steps of

the transmitting terminal sending a proposal signal (s1, s4) indicating which subcarriers are available;

the receiving terminal sending a determination signal (s2, s5) indicating which channels or subcarriers can be selected and

the transmitting terminal allocating based on the information of the determination signal (s2, s5) channels or subcarriers to the ahead lying data transmission.

5. The method of claim 4, characterized in that the proposal signal (s1, s4) is transmitted alternatively

as a dedicated packet,

as part of or following a signalling packet (RTS) or

as part of or following a data packet (DATA).

6. The method of claim 4, characterized in that the determination signal (s2, s5) is transmitted alternatively

as a dedicated packet or

as part of or following a signalling packet (CTS, ACK).

7. A method of claim 4, characterized in that both the proposal signal (s1, s4) and the determination signal (s2, s5) are binary sequences.

14. A method of adaptively allocating according to claim 4, characterized in that the subcarriers or channels adaptively allocated according to the situation on the medium alternatively

are constantly kept for a certain duration

are re-allocated after every data transmission

15. A method of adaptively allocating certain channels or subcarriers to both a transmitting terminal and a receiving terminal which attempt to exchange data according to claim 4, characterized in, after finishing the negotiation, the transmitting terminal sending an announcement signal indicating which channels or subcarriers are finally chosen

16. The method of claim 15, characterized in that, after receiving the announcement signal, the receiving terminal sends a similar announcement signal indicating which channels or subcarriers are finally chosen

8. A method for adaptively allocating certain channels or subcarriers of a network whose bandwidth is divided into several channels or subcarriers to both a transmitter and a receiver which attempt to exchange data, characterized by the steps of

the transmitting terminal sending a first Management Frame (s6) indicating a fixed channel or subcarrier allocation;

the receiving terminal sending a second Management Frame (s7) and

the transmitting terminal allocating based on the information of the second Management Frame (s7) channels or subcarriers to one or several ahead lying DATA transmissions.

9. The method of claim 8, characterized in that the first and the second Management Frames (s6, s7) are binary sequences.

10. A method for adaptively allocating certain channels or subcarriers of a network whose bandwidth is divided into several channels or subcarriers to both a transmitter and to a receiver which attempt to exchange data, characterized by the steps of

the transmitting terminal sending a first Availability Signal (s9) on those channels or subcarriers that are fitting its requirements from its point of view;

the receiving terminal sending a second Availability Signal (s10) on those channels or subcarriers that are fitting its requirements from its point of view;

the transmitting terminal allocating based on the information of the first and the second Availability Signal (s9, s10) subcarriers to one or more ahead lying data transmissions.

11. The method of claim 10, characterized in that the first and the second Availability Signals (s9, s10) are binary sequences.

13. A method of any of claim 10, characterized in that the first and the second Availability Signals (s9, s10) are energy tone pulses.

17. A device that is able to access a multicarrier network working with a certain bandwidth which is divided into several channels or subcarriers characterized in that the device comprises

a means for determining the status of the channels or subcarriers;

a means for generating a status signal and

a means for sending the status signal on the network.

18. A device as claimed in claim 17, characterized in that it comprises a means for producing a binary sequence in accordance with the predetermined status of the channels or subcarriers of the network.

23. The device of claim 17, characterized in that at least two of said means are combined in a unit.

19. A device that is able to access a multicarrier network working with a certain bandwidth which is divided into several channels or subcarriers, characterized in that the device comprises

a means for determining the status of every channel or subcarrier of the bandwidth;

a means for generating a proposal signal (s1, s4);

a means for sending the proposal signal (s1, s4) on the multicarrier network;

a means for receiving a determination signal (s2, s5) generated and sent by a receiving terminal and

a means for allocating based on the determination signal (s2, s5) channels or subcarriers to an ahead lying data transmission.

20. A device that is able to access a multicarrier network working with a network whose bandwidth is divided into several channels or subcarriers, characterized in that the device comprises

a means for determining the status of the channels or subcarriers in the network;

a means for generating a first Management Frame (s6) indicating a fixed channel or subcarrier allocation according to the predetermined status;

a means for sending the first Management Frame (s6) on the network and

a means for receiving a second Management Frame (s7) generated and transmitted by a further terminal.

21. A device able to access a multicarrier network whose bandwidth is divided into several channels or subcarriers, characterized in that the device comprises

a means for determining the states of the channels or subcarriers,

a means for sending a first Availability Signal (s9) in parallel on those channels or subcarriers belonging to the bandwidth;

a means for receiving a second Availability Signal (s10) transmitted in parallel on those channels or subcarriers that belong to the bandwidth and

a means for allocating certain channels or subcarriers to an ahead lying transmission.

22. A device as claimed in claim 21, characterized in that the device comprises a means for generating an energy tone pulse.

24. A system for allocating in a network whose bandwidth is divided into several channels or subcarriers a certain number of those channels or subcarriers to an ahead lying transmission with the system comprising

a first device comprising a means for determining the status of the channels or subcarriers of the bandwidth and a means for generating a signal (s1, s2, s6, s9) according to the determined status and

a second device comprising a means for determining the status of the channels or subcarriers and a means for generating a signal (s2, s5, s7, s10) according to the status.

25. Use of any of the foregoing methods, devices or system in a telecommunications network, or in a Wireless Local Area Network.