POWER SAVING SUPPORT FOR WIRELESS NETWORKS

• US 20100041445A1
• Filed: 08/15/2008
• Published: 02/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia Solutions and Networks US LLC (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Maheshwari, Shashikant, Qi, Xin
• Granted Patent: US 8,412,287 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/574
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0251 using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Various example embodiments are disclosed. According to an example embodiment, a technique may include transmitting a scheduling information to a mobile station in a wireless network during a listening window, determining whether an acknowledgement has been received within the listening window from the mobile station that acknowledges receipt of the scheduling information, resetting a size of a next sleep window for the mobile station to an initial sleep window size if the acknowledgement has been received from the mobile station, and increasing a size of the next sleep window for the mobile station if the acknowledgement has not been received from the mobile station within the listening window. In another example embodiment, techniques are disclosed for determining a starting location of a next listening window for a mobile station in a wireless network.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

transmitting a scheduling information to a mobile station in a wireless network during a listening window;

determining whether an acknowledgement has been received within the listening window from the mobile station that acknowledges receipt of the scheduling information;

resetting a size of a next sleep window for the mobile station to an initial sleep window size if the acknowledgement has been received from the mobile station; and

increasing a size of the next sleep window for the mobile station if the acknowledgement has not been received from the mobile station within the listening window.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the scheduling information comprises a scheduling assignment, a Map message or other resource allocation to assign or allocate resources to the mobile station for either uplink or downlink transmission.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting a scheduling assignment via a unicast service control channel to assign or allocate resources to the mobile station for either uplink or downlink data transmission.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting a scheduling information to a mobile station in a wireless network, the scheduling information including a scheduling information to allocate or schedule a downlink transmission to the mobile station and to allocate uplink resources for the mobile station to transmit the acknowledgement that acknowledges receipt of the scheduling information.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting a scheduling information to a mobile station in a wireless network, the scheduling information including a first scheduling information to allocate resources for a downlink transmission to the mobile station.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting comprises:

transmitting a scheduling information to a mobile station in a wireless network, the scheduling information including a scheduling information to allocate resources for a mobile station; and

repeating, one or more times, the transmitting of the scheduling information if an acknowledgement is not received from the mobile station within a timeout period, until either the end of the listening window is reached or an acknowledgement from the mobile station is received.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the increasing comprises doubling a size of the next sleep window for the mobile station if the acknowledgement has not been received from the mobile station within the listening window.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a wireless transceiver;

a controller coupled to the transceiver;

the wireless transceiver configured to transmit a scheduling information to a mobile station in a wireless network during a listening window;

the controller configured to;

determine whether an acknowledgement has been received within the listening window from the mobile station that acknowledges receipt of the scheduling information;

reset a size of a next sleep window for the mobile station to an initial sleep window size if the acknowledgement has been received from the mobile station; and

increase a size of the next sleep window for the mobile station if the acknowledgement has not been received from the mobile station within the listening window.

9. (canceled)

10. An apparatus comprising:

a wireless transceiver;

a controller coupled to the transceiver;

the wireless transceiver configured to transmit a scheduling information to a mobile station in a wireless network during a listening window;

the controller configured to;

determine that an acknowledgement has been received within the listening window from the mobile station that acknowledges receipt of the scheduling information; and

reset a size of a next sleep window for the mobile station to an initial sleep window size based on the receipt of the acknowledgement.

11. A method comprising:

receiving, at a mobile station from a base station in a wireless network during a listening window, a scheduling information that assigns or allocates resources to the mobile station for either uplink or downlink transmission;

transmitting, within the listening window, an acknowledgement from the mobile station that acknowledges receipt of the scheduling information; and

resetting a size of a next sleep window for the mobile station to an initial sleep window size based on the receipt of the scheduling information for the mobile station.

12. A method of determining a starting location of a next listening window for a mobile station in a wireless network comprising:

communicating traffic between the mobile station and a base station during a current listening window;

determining, based on the communicating, an extension (m) of the current listening window;

determining a length of a next sleep window based on the extension (m) of the current listening window and an initial sleep window size (t); and

determining a starting location of the next listening window based on the starting point (n) of the current listening window, a length (v) of an unextended listening window, the extension (m) of the current listening window and the initial sleep window size (t).

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the determining, based on the communicating, an extension (m) comprises determining, based on the communicating, an extension (m) of the current listening window, where the listening window extension (m) is greater than or equal to the initial sleep window size (t).

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the determining, based on the communicating, an extension (m) comprises determining, based on the communicating, an extension (m) of the current listening window, where the listening window extension (m) is less than the initial sleep window size (t).

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the communicating comprises transmitting and/or receiving either scheduling information and/or data during a current listening window.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein the communicating comprises transmitting, from the base station, scheduling information that assigns or schedules resources for the mobile station for at least one subframe of the current listening window.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein the communicating comprises receiving, at the mobile station from the base station, scheduling information that assigns or schedules resources for the mobile station for at least one subframe of the current listening window.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein the current listening window is flexibly extended by the extension (m) based on an amount of traffic communicated between the base station and mobile station during the current listening window.

19. The method of claim 12 wherein the determining a length of a next sleep window based on the extension (m) of the current listening window and the initial sleep window size (t) comprises determining the length of the next sleep window based approximately on the following:

Length of next sleep window=(k+1)*t−

m, where m is the extension of the current listening window, t is the initial sleep window size, and k is an integer based on the following;

k*t≦

m<

(k+1)*t.

20. The method of claim 12 wherein the determining a starting location of the next listening window based on the starting point (n) of the current listening window, a length (v) of an unextended listening window, the extension (m) of the current listening window and the initial sleep window size (t) comprises determining the starting location of the next listening window based approximately on the following:

Starting location of the next listening window=n+v+(k+1)*t, where n is the starting point of the current listening window, v is the length of an unextended listening window, m is an extension of the current listening window, and k is a positive integer provided by the following;

k*t≦

m<

(k+1)*t.

21-30. -30. (canceled)

31. An article comprising:

a storage medium;

said storage medium including stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a processor, result in;

receiving, from a base station, traffic at a mobile station during a current listening window;

determining, based on the receiving, an extension (m) of the current listening window; and

determining a starting location of the next listening window based on the starting point (n) of the current listening window, a length (v) of an unextended listening window, the extension (m) of the current listening window and the initial sleep window size (t).