Method and apparatus for reporting state information

• US 20090325526A1
• Filed: 06/16/2009
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Liao, Ning, Chen, Jian Feng, Shi, Yun Tao, Li, Jun
• Granted Patent: US 8,437,717 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/226.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0029 Reduction of the amount of signalling, e.g. retention of useful signalling or differential signalling power control H04W52/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services

Abstract

A method for reporting state information is provided. The receiver device receives a service, which is encoded in at least two layers over a communication channel, through a subset of said at least two layers; it measures a channel quality parameter; and in response to the channel quality parameter reaching a predetermined threshold value, it receives the service through a modified subset of the at least two layers as a function of the measured channel quality parameter and transmitting state information of the receiver device. Thus, the signal overhead is reduced.

Claims

1. A method for reporting state information of a receiver device in a multicast or broadcast network, wherein, at the side of the receiver device,

Receiving a service, which is encoded in at least two layers over a communication channel, through a subset of said at least two layers;

Measuring a channel quality parameter;

In response to the channel quality parameter reaching a predetermined threshold value, receiving said service through a modified subset of said at least two layers as a function of said measured channel quality parameter and transmitting state information of the receiver device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, it further comprises the steps of:

Deriving reception condition information of said service comprising at least two predetermined threshold values indicating reception requirements for said at least two layers.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein that the step of deriving said reception condition information further comprises:

derived said reception condition information from a response message responsive to a message requesting for receiving said service by the receiver device during the establishment of the connection in the MAC layer.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein that the step of receiving said service through a modified subset further comprising,

if the measured channel quality reaches the predetermined threshold value, which indicates channel quality upgrades, receiving at least one more layer besides the layers of the original subset;

and

if the measured channel quality drops to the predetermined threshold value, which indicates channel quality degrades, stop receiving at least one layer among layers of the original subset.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein, said at least two layers comprising a base layer containing minimum information for intelligibility and at least one enhancement layer containing additional information that incrementally improves the overall quality of said service.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein, the decode of an enhancement layer is dependent on said base layer and its preceding enhancement layer, wherein, said subset of said at least two layers is chosen in a way that any layer in said subset has its necessary preceding layer in said subset.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein, said channel quality parameter is a parameter or a combination of at least two parameters that can reflect the channel condition.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein, said reception condition information comprises fields of threshold value of channel quality parameter and layer identifier uniquely identifying a layer.

9. A receiver device for reporting state information while receiving a service that is encoded into at least two layers in a multicast or broadcast network, wherein, it comprises:

a channel estimation module configured to measure the channel quality parameter of downlink channel, over which a service encoded in at least two layers is received through a subset of said at least two layers; and

a service management module configured to transmit state information of said receiver device when changing to receive said service through a modified subset of said at least two layers in response to the measured channel quality parameter reaching a predetermined threshold value.

10. The receiver device according to claim 9, wherein, it further comprises:

a reception condition providing module configured to providing reception condition information of said service, wherein, said reception condition information comprises at least two predetermined threshold values indicating reception requirements for said at least two layers.

11. The receiver device according to claim 9, wherein, said service management module further comprises the functions of deriving said reception condition information of said service from a response message responsive to a message requesting for receiving said service during the establishment of connection in MAC layer and storing said reception condition information in a storage media.

12. A device for resource allocation in a multicast or broadcast network, wherein, a service is encoded into at least two layers over a communication channel, the device comprises:

a first module configured to receive state information from at least one receiver device that is receiving said service through a subset of said at least two layers, wherein the state information is transmitted by the receiver device when changing to receive said service through a modified subset of said at least two layers in response to a channel quality parameter measured by the receiver device reaches a predetermined threshold value; and

a second module configured to adjust resource allocation of all services as a function of the received at least one receiver device'"'"'s state information.