INACTIVITY-BASED MULTI-CARRIER ALLOCATION IN WIRELESS NETWORKS

• US 20090092091A1
• Filed: 10/02/2008
• Published: 04/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Balasubramanian, Srinivasan
• Granted Patent: US 8,681,711 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0044 allocation of payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0064 Rate requirement of the data, e.g. scalable bandwidth, data priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0087 when data requirements change
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0096 Indication of changes in allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0238 where the received signal is an unwanted signal, e.g. interference or idle signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/38 triggered by timers
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate adjusting allocation of carriers based on inactivity in wireless communications. An inactivity and dormancy timer are provided to allow carrier deallocation in periods of communicative inactivity (after expiration of the inactivity timer) without terminating the connection until expiration of the dormancy timer. Upon expiration of the inactivity timer, carriers can be deallocated from communication to conserve resources and reduce interference while still allowing requests to be made over the connection. If such requests are made, carriers can be reallocated to efficiently transmit a response. The timers are reset when communications are active. In addition, the timers can have expiration times related to aspects of connection, such as a protocol utilized thereover, connection quality, and/or the like.

Claims

1. A method for allocating multi-carrier resources in wireless communication networks, comprising:

allocating multiple carriers to a connection with a mobile device facilitating communication therewith; and

reducing the connection with the mobile device to a single allocated carrier based at least in part on an inactivity timer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising terminating the connection with the mobile device based at least in part on a dormancy timer.

3. The method of claim 2, the inactivity timer is set to a time less than the dormancy timer based at least in part on a type of the connection with the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request for data over the single allocated carrier of the connection.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising allocating one or more additional carriers to the connection based at least in part on the request for data.

6. The method of claim 5, the request for data is a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) or file transfer protocol (FTP) request.

7. The method of claim 5, a response for the request for data is received following the allocating one or more additional carriers.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising transmitting the response to the mobile device over the connection.

9. The method of claim 1, the multiple carriers are allocated to the connection in an evolution data optimized (EV-DO) network.

10. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor configured to;

allocate a plurality of carriers to a connection with a mobile device to facilitate communication therewith;

determine expiration of an inactivity timer related to the connection; and

reduce the connection to a single allocated carrier based at least in part on expiration of the inactivity timer; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor.

11. A wireless communications apparatus that facilitates adjusting a number of carriers utilized in wireless communications, comprising:

means for allocating a plurality of carriers to a connection with a mobile device to facilitate communication therewith; and

means for deallocating a portion of the plurality of carriers to a minimum number of carriers based at least in part on expiration of an inactivity timer.

12. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer-readable medium comprising;

code for causing at least one computer to allocate multiple carriers to a connection with a mobile device facilitating communication therewith; and

code for causing the at least one computer to reduce the connection with the mobile device to a single allocated carrier based at least in part on an inactivity timer.

13. An apparatus, comprising:

a carrier allocator that allocates a plurality of carriers for a connection established with a mobile device;

a transceiver that facilitates communicating with a mobile device over the plurality of allocated frequency carriers; and

a carrier deallocator that deallocates one or more of the assigned frequency carriers from the connection based at least in part on expiration of an inactivity timer.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, the carrier deallocator deallocates remaining assigned carriers to terminate the connection with the mobile device based at least in part on expiration of a dormancy timer.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, the inactivity timer is set to a time less than the dormancy timer based at least in part on a type of the connection with the mobile device.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, the transceiver receives a request for data over the single allocated carrier of the connection.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, the carrier allocator allocates one or more additional carriers to the connection based at least in part on the request for data.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, the request for data is a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) or file transfer protocol (FTP) request.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising a response receiver that receives a response for the request for data following allocating the one or more additional carriers by the carrier allocator.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, the transceiver transmits the response to the mobile device over the connection.

21. A method for allocating multi-carrier resources in wireless communication networks, comprising:

receiving multiple allocated carriers upon establishing a connection with an access point facilitating communication therewith; and

dropping one or more of the multiple allocated carriers leaving a minimum number of carriers based at least in part on expiration of an inactivity timer.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising terminating the connection with the access point based at least in part on expiration of a dormancy timer.

23. The method of claim 22, the inactivity timer is set to a time less than the dormancy timer based at least in part on a protocol utilized in the connection with the access point.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising transmitting a request for data over the minimum number of carriers of the connection.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising requesting allocation of one or more additional carriers from the access point based at least in part on the transmitted request.

26. The method of claim 25, the request for data is a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) or file transfer protocol (FTP) request.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising receiving the requested additional carriers from the access point.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising receiving a response for the request over the additional carriers from the access point.

29. The method of claim 21, the carriers are allocated to the connection in an evolution data optimized (EV-DO) network.

30. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor configured to;

receive a plurality of allocated carriers for connection with an access point to facilitate communication therewith;

determine expiration of an inactivity timer related to the connection; and

drop one or more of the plurality of allocated carriers leaving a single allocated carrier based at least in part on expiration of the inactivity timer; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor.

31. A wireless communications apparatus that facilitates adjusting a number of carriers utilized in wireless communications, comprising:

means for receiving a plurality of allocated carriers for connection with an access point to facilitate communication therewith; and

means for deallocating a portion of the plurality of carriers to a minimum number of carriers based at least in part on expiration of an inactivity timer.

32. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer-readable medium comprising;

code for causing at least one computer to receive multiple allocated carriers upon establishing a connection with an access point facilitating communication therewith; and

code for causing the at least one computer to drop one or more of the multiple allocated carriers leaving a minimum number of carriers based at least in part on expiration of an inactivity timer.

33. An apparatus, comprising:

a carrier requester that receives a plurality of requested carriers for connection to an access point;

an inactivity timer utilized to detect a period of communicative inactivity; and

a carrier dropper that drops one or more of the assigned frequency carriers leaving a minimum number of carriers for requesting data based at least in part on expiration of an inactivity timer.

34. The apparatus of claim 33, the carrier dropper drops remaining assigned carriers to terminate the connection with the access point based at least in part on expiration of a dormancy timer.

35. The apparatus of claim 34, the inactivity timer is set to a time less than the dormancy timer based at least in part on a protocol utilized in communicating with the access point.

36. The apparatus of claim 33, the apparatus requests data over the minimum number of carriers.

37. The apparatus of claim 36, the carrier requester requests one or more additional carriers to the connection from the access point based at least in part on the request.

38. The apparatus of claim 37, the request is transmitted as a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) or file transfer protocol (FTP) request.

39. The apparatus of claim 37, the carrier requester receives the one or more additional carriers from the access point.

40. The apparatus of claim 39, the apparatus receives a response to the request over the one or more additional carriers.