Non-Macro Cell Search Integrated with Macro-Cellular RF Carrier Monitoring

• US 20100304741A1
• Filed: 05/29/2009
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Bhushan, Naga, Rick, Roland R., Gogic, Aleksandar M., Glazko, Serguei A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,838,096 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/434
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/32 Hierarchical cell structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like

Abstract

Embodiments include access terminals, computer readable media, and wireless communication systems. These sample a wireless spectrum portion that includes macro cell carrier and at least one other target carrier where non-macro cells are deployed, using a receive chain, a signal processor, and a controller. The wireless spectrum portion is processed to resolve portions corresponding to macro cell carrier and at least one additional carrier where target non-macro cells are deployed. The processed signal is searched for at least one target non-macro cell pilot and the macro carrier portion is used for a paging monitoring operation.

Claims

1. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

a receive chain comprising a signal source and configured to produce an output signal from a wireless spectrum portion when activated;

a signal processor coupled to the receive chain to receive the output signal and to produce a processed signal set; and

a controller coupled to the receive chain and the signal processor and that samples a wireless spectrum portion comprising a carrier being monitored and another carrier at which non-macro cells are deployed by activating the receive chain and by employing the signal processor to search the processed signal set for a target non-macro cell pilot.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller activates the receive chain and searches for the target non-macro cell pilot during a paging cycle wake slot.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a targeted search module causing the controller to sample the wireless spectrum portion and search the processed signal set at a time specified by a non-macro cell acquisition latency goal.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein:

the controller extracts a macro identifier from the carrier being monitored; and

the targeted search module triggers the sampling and search if the target non-macro cell pilot is associated with the macro identifier.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a data store for storing a set of target non-macro cell pilot identifiers associated with the apparatus.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the data store maintains data that correlates respective identifiers of the set with a macro cell identifier.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the data store maintains a set of permissible non-macro cell pilot identifiers for a serving wireless network.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a sampling module causing the controller to search the processed signal set for permissible non-macro cell pilot identifiers at a non-macro sampling time.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein:

the sampling module identifies a set of active non-macro cell pilot signals from the permissible non-macro cell pilot identifiers

correlates the set of active pilot signals with a set of target non-macro cell identifiers; and

updates a set of active target non-macro cells based on the correlation, wherein the target non-macro cell pilot is a member of the set of active target non-macro cells.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller searches a portion of the processed signal set that corresponds to the carrier at which non-macro cells are deployed.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to use a portion of the processed signal set that corresponds to the carrier being monitored for a paging analysis operation.

12. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

means for employing an antenna to convert a portion of a wireless signal to an electric signal;

means for employing a signal processor to transform the electric signal into a processed symbol set; and

means for employing a data processor to analyze the processed symbol set and extract macro cell paging information pertinent to the apparatus from one carrier of the wireless signal and to extract information indicating presence of a target non-macro cell from another carrier of the wireless signal.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the processed symbol set analyzed by the data processor corresponds to a common wireless signal frame.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein a low power access point operates at a given carrier frequency within a frequency block and macro cellular frequencies are distributed within a frequency range excluding the given carrier frequency.

15. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer-readable medium, comprising;

a first set of codes for causing a computer to sample a wireless spectrum portion comprising a macro cell carrier and at least one carrier where non-macro cells are deployed;

a second set of codes for causing the computer to process the sampled portion to produce a processed signal set from the wireless spectrum portion;

a third set of codes for causing the computer to search a portion of the processed signal set that corresponds to the non-macro cell carrier frequency of deployment for at least one target non-macro cell pilot; and

a fourth set of codes for causing the computer to employ a portion of the processed signal set that corresponds to the macro cell carrier for a paging monitoring operation.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the third set of codes are executed during a wake cycle paging slot.

17. A method of integrating non-macro cell search with macro cellular paging monitoring comprising:

employing a wireless receiver to produce an output signal from a wireless spectrum comprising a macro cell carrier and at least one carrier where non-macro cells are deployed;

employing a data processor to execute the following computer-executable instructions;

decode the output signal to produce a processed signal set;

search a portion of the processed signal set that corresponds to the non-macro carrier for a target non-macro cell pilot; and

evaluate a portion of the processed signal set that corresponds to the macro cell carrier for a paging monitoring operation.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein searching the non-macro carrier portion occurs during a wake cycle paging slot.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein searching the non-macro carrier portion occurs in a subset of wake cycle paging slots scheduled by a serving wireless network.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising storing a set of non-macro cell pilot identifiers operating within a particular macro coverage area.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising searching for active non-macro cells within the macro coverage area by correlating the set of non-macro cell pilot identifiers to the portion of the processed signal that corresponds to the non-macro carrier.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein searching for active non-macro cells comprises employing the wireless receiver to produce a current processed signal set, or utilizing a saved processed signal set.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising searching the saved processed signal set for distinct subsets of the active non-macro cells at different search periods.

24. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

aggregating a bandwidth of the macro carrier, non-macro carrier and carriers between the macro and non-macro band;

comparing the aggregated bandwidth to an analog to digital conversion rate of the wireless receiver or data processor.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising employing the wireless receiver to tune to the non-macro carrier to produce part of the processed signal set and re-tune to the macro cell carrier to produce another part of the processed signal set if the aggregated bandwidth is larger than the analog to digital conversion rate.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the wireless receiver is tuned to the non-macro carrier outside of a cycle paging slot for the macro carrier.