ENHANCED CAPABILITIES AND EFFICIENT BANDWIDTH UTILIZATION FOR ISSI-BASED PUSH-TO-TALK OVER LTE

• US 20130021965A1
• Filed: 07/22/2011
• Published: 01/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Chu, Thomas P., Doumi, Tewfik
• Granted Patent: US 8,976,730 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4061 Push-to services, e.g. push-to-talk or push-to-video
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/065 using assembly or disassembly of packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation

Abstract

For voice traffic over-the-air in LTE, persistent schedule (PS) or semi-persistent (SPS) scheduling would be the preferred method as they minimize signaling messages. In PS or SPS, resources are pre-allocated to the UE 402 at regular intervals (e.g., every 20 milliseconds). At each time slot, the UE will generally transmit an IMBE frames which are encoded in ISSI packet. In ISSI, other data streams are multiplexed with the IMBE frame and thus the packet size varies depending on its position within a super-frame. For PS or SPS, eNodeB must allocated sufficient resources to support the largest packet that. Therefore, there is spare capacity when the packet is not of the largest size. The exemplary embodiments specify ways to use spare capacity to transfer data.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of transmitting supplemental information in IMBE blocks in a transport network, the method comprising:

identifying an IMBE voice block requiring fewer than a full allocation of octets and therefore having unused octets;

revising a frame type identifier associated with the identified block to identify the block as an enhanced IMBE block;

selecting some of the unused octets to act as a control field

assigning values to some of the control field to identify a parameter type;

assigning values to some of the control field to indicate that appended data is one of;

the first data segment of the parameter, the last data segment of the parameter, or an intermediate data segment of the parameter;

assigning values to other octets of the unused octets according to the parameter value and metadata describing aspects of the parameter value, thereby completing the assembly of an enhanced IMBE block; and

transmitting the enhanced IMBE block.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transport network comprises a wireless network.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the wireless network comprises an LTE network.

4. A computer-implemented method of enhancing voice packets using an ISSI-based protocol in a transport network, the method comprising:

identifying a voice packet requiring fewer than a full allocation of fields and therefore having unused fields; and

multiplexing additional information within one or more fields of the voice packet.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the ISSI-based protocol is implemented between two push-to-talk servers, a push-to-talk server and an end-user device, or two end-user devices.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the transport network comprises a wireless network.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the wireless network comprises an LTE network.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein a new message within a packet is decomposed into a plurality of segments.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein each segment contains a control field which includes the following information:

a parameter that indicates a message type;

one or more indicators that facilitate re-assembling the segments back to the original message.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the indicators indicate whether the segment is a first segment of a message, a last segment of a message, a middle of a message, or only in message.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the segments are appended to voice frames in a voice block of the ISSI-based protocol.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the voice block comprises an IMBE or AMBE voice block.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein each segment transmitted is encoded as a new type of ISSI block.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein each segment contains a control field which includes the following information:

a parameter that indicates a message type;

one or more indicators that facilitate re-assembling the segments back to the original message.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the indicators indicate whether the segment is a first segment of a message, a last segment of a message, a middle of a message, or only in a message.

16. A non-transitory computer-usable data carrier storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of enhancing voice packets using an ISSI-based protocol in a transport network, the method comprising:

identifying a voice packet requiring fewer than a full allocation of fields and therefore having unused fields; and

multiplexing additional information within one or more fields of the voice packet.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein a new message within a packet is decomposed into a plurality of segments.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein each segment contains a control field which includes the following information:

a parameter that indicates a message type;

one or more indicators that facilitate re-assembling the segments back to the original message.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the indicators indicate whether the segment is a first segment of a message, a last segment of a message, a middle of a message, or only in message.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the segments are appended to voice frames in a voice block of the ISSI-based protocol.