HANDHELD COMPUTING UNIT COORDINATION OF FEMTOCELL AP FUNCTIONS

• US 20090264125A1
• Filed: 06/30/2009
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: ROFOUGARAN, AHMADREZA (REZA)
• Granted Patent: US 8,717,974 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/434
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/12 Access point controller devices

Abstract

A handheld computing unit includes a processing module and a plurality of PHY units. The processing module determines whether a femtocell access point (AP) mode is active. When the femtocell AP mode is active, the processing module determines whether at least one other handheld computing unit is supporting femtocell AP operations. When another handheld computing unit is not supporting the femtocell AP operations, the processing module enables the femtocell AP operations. A PHY unit of the plurality of PHY units converts a downstream PHY signal into a downstream radio frequency (RF) signal and converts an upstream RF signal into an upstream PHY signal.

Claims

1. A handheld computing unit comprises:

a processing module operably coupled to;

determine whether a femtocell access point (AP) mode is active;

when the femtocell AP mode is active, determine whether at least one other handheld computing unit is supporting femtocell AP operations;

when the at least one other handheld computing unit is not supporting the femtocell AP operations, enable the femtocell AP operations, wherein at least one of the femtocell AP operations includes;

converting a downstream control network (CN) signal into at least one downstream physical layer (PHY) signal; and

convert at least one upstream PHY signal into an upstream CN signal; and

a plurality of physical layer (PHY) units, wherein a PHY unit of the plurality of PHY units is operably coupled to;

convert one of the at least one downstream PHY signal into a downstream radio frequency (RF) signal; and

convert an upstream RF signal into one of the at least one upstream PHY signal.

2. The handheld computing unit of claim 1, wherein the processing module is further operably coupled to determine whether the femtocell AP mode is active by at least one of:

detecting an absent or a weak signal from a base station in a geographic area designated for cellular service;

receiving a signal indicated that the femtocell AP mode is active for the geographic area designated for cellular service, wherein the base station transmitted a radio frequency (RF) signal that included the signal;

receiving a second signal indicated that the femtocell AP mode is active for the geographic area designated for cellular service, wherein a core network transmitted, via a network, a network signal that included the second signal; and

automatically determining that the femtocell AP mode is active when the handheld computing unit is coupled to an extended computing unit.

3. The handheld computing unit of claim 1, wherein the femtocell AP operations comprises at least one of:

a core network (CN) interface;

radio resource controller (RRC);

a radio network controller (RNC); and

a plurality of radio interface medium access control (MAC) units.

4. The handheld computing unit of claim 1, wherein the PHY unit comprises:

a baseband processing module operably coupled to;

convert the one of the at least one downstream PHY signal into a downstream symbol stream; and

convert an upstream symbol stream into the one of the at least one upstream PHY signal; and

a radio frequency (RF) section operably coupled to;

convert the downstream symbol stream into the downstream RF signal; and

convert the upstream RF signal into the upstream symbol stream.

5. The handheld computing unit of claim 1 further comprises:

a local wireless interface module operably coupled to;

convert a downstream local network radio frequency (RF) signal into the downstream CN signal; and

convert the upstream CN signal into an upstream local network RF signal.

6. The handheld computing unit of claim 1 further comprises:

a docking interface coupled to at least the processing module, wherein the docking interface provides coupling of the handheld computing unit to an extended computing unit, wherein the extended computing unit includes a network interface module that;

convert an upstream local network signal into the upstream CN signal; and

convert the downstream CN signal into a downstream local network signal.

7. The handheld computing unit of claim 1, wherein the processing module is further operably coupled to:

when the at least one other handheld computing unit is supporting the femtocell AP operations;

determine a femtocell AP operations implementation mode for multiple handheld computing units; and

when the femtocell AP operations implementation mode is distributed, enable at least one femtocell AP function in accordance with the femtocell AP operations implementation mode.

8. The handheld computing unit of claim 7, wherein the processing module is further operably coupled to:

when the femtocell AP operations implementation mode is master/slave, determine whether the handheld computing unit is master; and

when the handheld computing unit is the master, enable the femtocell AP operations.

9. The handheld computing unit of claim 7, wherein the processing module is further operably coupled to:

when the handheld computing unit is not the master, receive a request from the master to provide at least one femtocell AP function; and

enable the at least one femtocell AP function.

10. A handheld computing unit comprises:

a processing module operably coupled to;

detect femtocell access point (AP) operation based on a femtocell AP signal;

determine femtocell AP operations implementation mode;

when the femtocell AP operations implementation mode is distributed, enable at least one femtocell AP function in accordance with the femtocell AP operations implementation mode;

generate a femtocell control signal in accordance with the at least one femtocell AP function; and

a plurality of physical layer (PHY) units operably coupled to the processing module; and

a local wireless interface module, wherein the local wireless interface module or one of the plurality of PHY units is operably coupled to;

convert a upstream radio frequency (RF) femtocell AP signal into the femtocell AP signal; and

convert the femtocell control signal into a downstream RF femtocell control signal.

11. The handheld computing device of claim 10, wherein the femtocell AP signal comprises at least one of:

a second femtocell control signal;

an assignment message;

a beacon signal indicating the femtocell AP operation;

an upstream physical layer (PHY) signal; and

a downstream PHY signal.

12. The handheld computing device of claim 10, wherein the processing module determines femtocell AP operations implementation mode by at least one of:

the femtocell AP signal;

by receiving a mode indication signal, wherein the PHY unit converts an RF mode signal into the mode indication signal and provides the mode indication signal to the processing module; and

receiving a response to a query message, wherein the PHY unit converts the query message into an RF query message, converts an RF response message into the response, provides the response to the processing module.

13. The handheld computing unit of claim 10, wherein the at least one femtocell AP function comprises:

one or more functions of one of a plurality of femtocell AP operations, which includes;

a core network (CN) interface;

radio resource controller (RRC);

a radio network controller (RNC); and

a plurality of radio interface medium access control (MAC) units.

14. The handheld computing unit of claim 10, wherein the processing module enables the at least one femtocell AP function in accordance with the femtocell AP operations implementation mode comprises by at least one of:

accessing a predetermine distributing mapping of femtocell AP functions for a given number of handheld computing units;

utilizing a coordinated communication protocol for the given number of handheld computing units to determine a distribution of the femtocell functions; and

interpreting the femtocell AP signal to determine the at least one femtocell AP function.

15. The handheld computing unit of claim 10 further comprises:

the processing module operably coupled to;

detect when another handheld computing unit that is configured to perform at least one other femtocell AP function is unable to perform the at least one other femtocell AP function; and

enable the at least one other femtocell AP function in accordance with a femtocell AP functions reallocation protocol.

16. The handheld computing unit of claim 10 further comprises:

the processing module operably coupled to;

detect when another handheld computing unit is able to perform a femtocell AP function, wherein the at least one femtocell AP functions includes the femtocell AP function; and

disable the at least one other femtocell AP function in accordance with a femtocell AP functions reallocation protocol.

17. A handheld computing unit comprises:

a processing module operably coupled to;

detect femtocell access point (AP) operation based on a femtocell AP signal;

determine femtocell AP operations implementation mode;

when the femtocell AP operations implementation mode is master/slave, determine whether the handheld computing unit is of a higher master priority than a current master;

when the handheld computing unit is of a higher master priority, determine which femtocell AP functions to perform locally and which femtocell AP functions to have performed by at least one other handheld computing unit;

enable the femtocell AP functions to perform locally;

generate an assignment message indicating the femtocell AP functions to be performed by the at least one other handheld computing unit; and

a plurality of physical layer (PHY) units operably coupled to the processing module; and

a local wireless interface module, wherein the local wireless interface module or one of the plurality of PHY units is operably coupled to;

convert the assignment message into a downstream radio frequency (RF) assignment signal.

18. The handheld computing unit of claim 17, wherein a femtocell AP function of the femtocell AP functions comprises:

a function of one of a plurality of femtocell AP operations, which includes;

a core network (CN) interface;

radio resource controller (RRC);

a radio network controller (RNC); and

a plurality of radio interface medium access control (MAC) units.

19. The handheld computing unit of claim 17, wherein the processing module determines the femtocell AP functions to perform locally and the femtocell AP functions to have performed by at least one other handheld computing unit by at least one of:

accessing a predetermined mapping of femtocell AP functions;

querying the at least one other handheld computing unit regarding one or more user devices;

querying the at least one other handheld computing unit regarding available resources; and

querying the at least one other handheld computing unit regarding available power.

20. The handheld computing unit of claim 17, wherein the processing module is further operably coupled to:

when the handheld computing unit is not of a higher master priority, receive the assignment message, wherein the PHY unit converted an inbound RF assignment signal into the assignment message; and

interpret the assignment message to identify at least one of the femtocell AP functions to perform; and

enable the at least one of the femtocell AP functions.

21. The handheld computing unit of claim 17, wherein the processing module is further operably coupled to determine which femtocell AP functions to perform locally and which femtocell AP functions to have performed by at least one other handheld computing unit by:

determining that the handheld computing unit will perform the femtocell AP functions to support a first set of user devices; and

determining that the at least one other handheld computing unit will perform the femtocell AP functions to support a second set of user devices, wherein a number of user devices in the second set is greater than or equal to zero.