METHOD FOR ASSOCIATING MOBILE STATIONS WITH REPEATERS IN CONTROLLING BASE STATION

• US 20110110261A1
• Filed: 09/15/2008
• Published: 05/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: FRENGER, Pal
• Granted Patent: US 8,867,383 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/15542 Selecting at relay station its transmit and receive resources selection of wireless resources by user or terminal H04W72/02; arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path by two-dimensional division of the resources H04L5/0003, or by allocating sub-channels H04L5/003
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2606 Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/26 Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations

Abstract

A method may include determining an association between repeaters and mobile stations in a controlling eNodeB of a multi-hop wireless environment. The method may include receiving channel estimations based on reference signals transmitted by said mobile stations. The method may be implemented a wireless environment when legacy LTE UEs are present.

Claims

1. A method performed in a multi-hop wireless network (400) by a device (405) that is communicatively coupled to one or more intermediate devices (410) and another device (415), characterized by:

assigning (805) a resource to the other device to be utilized by the other device for a transmission;

informing (810) the one or more intermediate devices of the assignment;

measuring (815) the transmission received from the other device (415);

receiving (820) one or more measurements of the transmission from the one or more intermediate devices; and

determining (825) whether one or more of the one or more intermediate devices are to be associated with the other device based on the measured transmission and the received measurements.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning one or more dedicated resources to the one or more intermediate devices, and where the receiving comprises;

receiving the one or more measurements of the transmission from the one or more intermediate devices on the one or more dedicated resources.

3. The method of claim 1, where the transmission includes a sounding reference signal that can be utilized for channel estimation.

4. The method of claim 1, where the determining comprises:

comparing the one or more measurements to a threshold;

selecting which of the one or more intermediate devices are to be associated with the other device based on the comparison; and

associating the selected one or more intermediate devices with the other device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

utilizing the measured transmission from the other device as a reference measurement, and where the determining comprises;

determining whether the one or more of the one or more intermediate devices are to be associated with the other device based on the reference measurement.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

controlling the one or more intermediate devices based on the determined association.

7. The method of claim 6, where the controlling comprises:

managing a frequency spectrum over which the at least one of the one or more intermediate devices operate with respect to the other device.

8. The method of claim 1, where the device includes a base station, the other device includes a user equipment, and the one or more intermediate devices include repeaters.

9. A method performed by an intermediate device (410) in a multi-hop wireless network (400), characterized by:

receiving (905) a request to measure a signal included in a resource granted to a device;

measuring (910) the signal; and

reporting (915) the measurement to another device to determine whether the intermediate device is to be associated with the device.

10. The method of claim 9, where the reporting comprises:

reporting the measurement on a dedicated resource assigned from the other device.

11. A device (405) capable of operating in a wireless environment (400) characterized by:

one or more antennas (510); and

a processing system (500) to;

assign a resource to another device to be utilized by the other device for a transmission to the device,

inform one or more intermediate devices of the assignment of the resource,

receive a signal in the assigned resource of the transmission,

measure the signal,

receive one or more measurements of the signal from the one or more intermediate devices, and

determine whether to associate one or more of the one or more intermediate devices with the other device based on the measured signal and the one or more measurements.

12. The device of claim 11, where the other device includes at least one of user equipment, a mobile station, a wireless telephone, a personal digital assistant, a web browsing device, or a subscriber station.

13. The device of claim 12, where the user equipment, the mobile station, the wireless telephone, the personal digital assistant, the web browsing device, and the subscriber station operate according to the long term evolution (LTE) release (8) and below communication standard.

14. The device of claim 11, where the device includes a base station.

15. The device of claim 11, where the one or more intermediate devices include a layer one or a layer two repeater.

16. The device of claim 11, where the processor is further configured to:

utilize the measured signal as a reference with respect to the one or more measurements, and

associate one or more of the one or more intermediate devices with the other device when the one or more measurements corresponding to the one or more intermediate devices each have a value that is above a threshold or within a range of values.

17. The device of claim 11, where the signal includes an uplink reference signal.

18. An intermediate device (410) capable of operating in a multi-hop wireless environment (400) characterized by:

one or more antennas (610); and

a processing system (600) to;

receive a request to measure a signal included in a resource granted to another device for transmitting the signal,

measure the signal, and

report a result of the signal measured to a device to which the request originated so that the device can determine whether to associate the intermediate device with the other device.

19. The intermediate device of claim 18, where the intermediate device includes a repeater.

20. The intermediate device of claim 18, where the intermediate device operates according to a long term evolution (LTE) communication standard.

21. A computer program including instructions to control the operation of one or more intermediate devices in a multi-hop wireless environment (400), where the instructions include:

instructions for assigning to a user equipment an uplink resource for transmitting a reference signal;

instructions for analyzing one or more measurements of the reference signal from the one or more intermediate devices;

instructions for determining whether to associate one or more of the one or more intermediate devices with the user equipment based on the analyzing of the one or more measurements; and

instructions for controlling an operation performed by the one or more of the one or more intermediate devices when it is determined that the one or more of the one or more intermediate devices are to be associated with the user equipment.

22. The computer program of claim 21, where the computer program is stored on a computer-readable medium of a base station.

23. The computer program of claim 21, where the instructions further include:

instructions for measuring the reference signal when it is received, and where the instructions for determining whether to associate include utilizing the measured reference signal for comparison to determine whether to associate the one or more of the one or more intermediate devices with the user equipment.

24. The computer program of claim 21, where the one or more intermediate devices include one or more frequency selective repeaters, and the instructions to control the operation include controlling the frequency spectrum in which the one or more frequency selective repeaters operate in relation to communication with the user station.