ALTERNATE CHANNEL FOR CARRYING SELECTED MESSAGE TYPES

• US 20090175249A1
• Filed: 03/10/2009
• Published: 07/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: IPR Licensing Incorporated (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Inventors: Proctor, James A. JR., Farley, Kevin L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,274,954 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/336
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1854 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/10 adapted for application session management, e.g. SIP [Session Initiation Protocol] connection management H04W76/00; arrangements for session management H04L67/14

Abstract

A method for communicating information in a base station is disclosed. A reverse link channel is allocated to be a shared acknowledgement channel for receiving acknowledgement information. Acknowledgement information associated with data payload from a field unit is then received over the shared acknowledgement channel by the base station.

Claims

1. A method for communicating information in a base station comprising:

allocating at least one reverse link channel to be a shared acknowledgement channel for receiving acknowledgement information;

assigning at least one forward link channel for communicating data payload to a corresponding field unit; and

receiving acknowledgement information associated with the data payload from the corresponding field unit over the shared acknowledgement channel.

2. A method as in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

dividing the acknowledgement channel into multiple time slots.

3. A method as in claim 2, further comprising the step of:

assigning a time slot of the acknowledgement channel for use by a field unit to transmit acknowledgement information.

4. A method as in claim 2, wherein the data payload includes at least one network message transmitted between processing devices using a network protocol.

5. A method as in claim 2, wherein the time slots of the acknowledgement channel repeat on a periodic basis.

6. A method as in claim 2, further comprising the step of:

synchronizing the acknowledgement channel with another channel in a forward channel so that acknowledgement information is received in a corresponding time slot.

7. A method as in claim 1, wherein the acknowledgement information indicates that a data payload was properly received.

8. A method as in claim 1, wherein the acknowledgement information indicates that a data payload was not properly received.

9. A method as in claim 2, wherein the time slot includes CRC (Cyclical Redundancy Check) check bits.

10. A method as in claim 2, wherein acknowledgement information is received in at least two time slots from at least two different field units.

11. A method as in claim 2, wherein a time slot is implicitly assigned for use by a field unit acknowledgment channel based upon an assignment of a corresponding channel assigned to the field unit in the forward link channel.

12. A method as in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

assigning a portion of the acknowledgement channel for use by a field unit to transmit acknowledgement information.

13. A method as in claim 1, wherein the acknowledgement channel is structured to carry generic payload data.

14. A method as in claim 13, wherein the generic payload data is a maintenance message supporting a link between a field unit and the base station.

15. A method as in claim 13, wherein the generic payload data would otherwise be received over a traffic channel.

16. A method as in claim 3, further comprising the steps of:

allocating additional bandwidth to a field unit for receiving acknowledgement information when throughput capacity afforded by a single time slot is exceeded.

17. A method as in claim 16, wherein the additional bandwidth is at least part of a traffic channel.