Dedicated Acknowledgement and Delivery of Management Messages in Wireless Communication Systems

• US 20110069668A1
• Filed: 04/28/2010
• Published: 03/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Original Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Inventors: Qu, Hongyun, Chion, Hua Mary, Chow, Jerry Pak Lup
• Granted Patent: US 8,300,663 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1829 Arrangements specially adapted for the receiver end

Abstract

Techniques and systems for acknowledging management message reception in a wireless communication system can include operating a first radio station to generate a management message that contains a sequence number unique to the management message and to direct the management message to a second radio station; and operating the second radio station, after receiving the management message from the transmitter, to generate and transmit, before decoding the content of the received the management message, an acknowledgement to the transmitter identifying the received manage message by the sequence number unique to the management message.

Claims

1. A method for acknowledging management message reception in a wireless communication system, comprising:

operating a transmitter within the system to generate a management message that contains a sequence number unique to the management message and to direct the management message to a receiver in the system; and

operating the receiver, after receiving the management message from the transmitter, to generate and transmit, without decoding the content of the received the management message, an acknowledgement (ACK) signal to the transmitter identifying the received manage message by the sequence number unique to the management message.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

operating the transmitter to start a retransmission timer based on sending the management message to the receiver and to wait for the ACK signal from the receiver during a duration of the retransmission timer.

3. The method of claim 2, comprising:

operating, based on an expiration of the retransmission timer, the transmitter to (1) retransmit the management message with the same sequence number when a retransmission counter is less than or equal to a maximum retransmission number and (2) remove the management message from a retransmission queue of the transmitter when the retransmission counter exceeds the maximum retransmission number.

4. The method of claim 2, comprising:

when the ACK signal from the receiver is received before an expiration of the retransmission timer, operating the transmitter to remove the management message from a retransmission queue of the transmitter.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising:

prior to transmitting the management message, assigning an over-the-air resource for transmitting the management message from the transmitter to the receiver.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

synchronizing the transmitter and the receiver for assigning sequence numbers for management messages.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising:

operating the receiver, based on a lack of receiving a management message, to allocate an over-the-air resource, and to send a negative acknowledgement to the transmitter, wherein the negative acknowledgement includes an indication of the allocated over-the-air resource.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitter resides at a mobile station.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitter resides at a base station.

10. A method for acknowledging management message reception in a wireless communication system, comprising:

assigning a sequence number to a management message to be delivered to a mobile station;

generating a packet that includes the sequence number and at least a portion of the management message, wherein the packet includes an indicator that signals an acknowledgement to the packet is required; and

causing the mobile station to send an acknowledgement based on receiving the packet, wherein the acknowledgement includes the sequence number of the received packet, wherein the mobile station sends the acknowledgement before decoding management message content in the received packet.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein generating the packet comprises generating multiple packets that include different fragments of the management message, respectively, wherein assigning the sequence number comprises assigning the sequence numbers to the fragments, the method comprising:

causing the mobile station to send an acknowledgement for each received fragment of the management message.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the packet is a first packet, comprising:

starting a retransmission timer based on transmitting the first packet to the mobile station; and

transmitting, based on an expiration of the retransmission timer, a second packet to the mobile station, wherein the second packet is based on the first packet, wherein the second packet includes the sequence number and an indication that the second packet is a retransmission.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the packet includes multiple management messages, and wherein the packet includes a unique sequence number for each of the included management messages.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

causing the mobile station to (1) maintain a list of received sequence numbers associated with one or more management messages, (2) use the list to check for duplicate messages, and (3) update the list based on one or more message life time parameters.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the packet includes a message life time parameter.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the packet includes a message retransmission timer parameter.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

allocating an over-the-air resource for a transmission of the acknowledgement, wherein the packet includes information about the allocated over-the-air resource.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein assigning the sequence number comprises using a set of sequence numbers of a management connection associated with the management message.

19. A wireless communication system, comprising:

multiple base stations configured to (1) assign a sequence number to a management message to be delivered to a mobile station, (2) generate a packet that includes the sequence number and at least a portion of the management message, the packet including an indicator that signals an acknowledgement to the packet is required, and (3) cause the mobile station to send an acknowledgement based on receiving the packet, wherein the acknowledgement includes the sequence number of the received packet, wherein the mobile station sends the acknowledgement before decoding management message content in the received packet.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the base stations are configured to generate multiple packets that include different fragments of the management message, respectively, wherein the multiple packets each include a unique sequence number that is associated with a respective fragment of the management message, wherein the mobile station sends an acknowledgement for each received fragment of the management message.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the acknowledgement is sent as a separate signaling message.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the acknowledgement is included in a header of a packet data unit that contains a communication that is separate from the acknowledgement.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the packet is a first packet, wherein the base stations are configured to start a retransmission timer based on transmitting the first packet to the mobile station and transmit, based on an expiration of the retransmission timer, a second packet to the mobile station, wherein the second packet is based on the first packet, wherein the second packet includes the sequence number and an indication that the second packet is a retransmission.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the packet includes multiple management messages, and wherein the packet includes a unique sequence number for each of the included management messages.

25. The system of claim 19, wherein the packet includes an indication that signals an acknowledgement to the packet is required.

26. The system of claim 19, wherein the base stations are configured to cause the mobile station to (1) maintain a list of received sequence numbers associated with one or more management messages, (2) use the list to check for duplicate messages, and (3) update the list based on one or more message life time parameters.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the packet includes a message life time parameter.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein the packet includes a message retransmission timer parameter.

29. The system of claim 19, wherein the base stations are configured to allocate an over-the-air resource for a transmission of the acknowledgement, wherein the packet includes information about the allocated over-the-air resource.

30. The system of claim 19, wherein the base stations are configured to selected the assigned sequence number from a set of sequence numbers of a management connection associated with the management message.

31. An apparatus, comprising:

transceiver circuitry to transmit and receive wireless radio signals; and

processor electronics, communicatively coupled with the transceiver circuitry, configured to (1) receive a packet that includes management message content, the packet including a sequence number unique to the management message content, and (2) send, before decoding the management message content, an acknowledgement to the management message content based on an acknowledgement requirement indication in the packet.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the processor electronics are configured to receive multiple packets that respectively include different fragments of the management message, wherein the multiple packets each include a sequence number that is unique to a fragment.

33. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the acknowledgement is sent as a separate signaling message.

34. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the acknowledgement is included in a header of a packet data unit that contains a communication that is separate from the acknowledgement.

35. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the packet includes multiple management messages, and wherein the packet includes a unique sequence number for each of the included management messages.

36. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the processor electronics are configured to (1) maintain a list of received sequence numbers associated with one or more management messages, (2) use the list to check for duplicate messages, and (3) update the list based on one or more message life time parameters.

37. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the packet includes a message life time parameter.

38. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the packet includes a message retransmission timer parameter.

39. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the packet includes information about an allocated over-the-air resource for a transmission of the acknowledgement.