METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INTEGRATING DIFFERENT RADIO ACCESS TECHNOLOGIES USING CARRIER AGGREGATION

• US 20130088983A1
• Filed: 10/05/2012
• Published: 04/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Inventors: Pragada, Ravikumar V., Castor, Douglas R., Pietraski, Philip J., Kaur, Samian, Roy, Arnab
• Granted Patent: US 9,294,926 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/003 Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0058 Transmission of hand-off measurement information, e.g. measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/14 Reselecting a network or an air interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/142 over the same radio air interface technology
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

A method and apparatus are described for integrating third generation partnership project (3GPP) radio access network and an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 radio access technologies (RATs). This may be done at a medium access control (MAC) layer or below the MAC layer. For example, a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) for multiple radio access technology (RAT) integration includes a 3GPP RAT including a radio resource control (RRC) entity, an IEEE 802.11 RAT including a medium access control (MAC) management entity, and a session management entity (SME) for mapping between the RRC entity and the MAC management entity. Combined, hybrid and split versions of logical channel prioritization (LCP) are described. The features of an LTE access stratum-service management entity (AS-SME) are also described.

Claims

1. A system for inter-radio access technology (RAT) integration, comprising:

a first base station configured to operate in a first RAT;

a second base station configured to operate in a second RAT; and

an interface configured to exchange control signals between the first base station and the second base station on a condition that the first base station and second base station are non co-located, wherein the control signals include management, co-ordination and configuration signals.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first base station includes a radio resource control (RRC) entity for exchanging the control signals.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the second base station is configured to transmit a RRC connection request message to the first base station that includes at least one of an indicator for data plane resources, capabilities, and configuration parameters.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the control signals exchanged are for at least one of authentication and security.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first RAT is a third generation partnership project (3GPP) radio access network and the second RAT is an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 radio access technology.

6. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) for multiple radio access technology (RAT) integration, comprising:

a first RAT including a radio resource control (RRC) entity;

a second RAT including a medium access control (MAC) management entity;

a session management entity (SME) configured to map between the RRC entity and the MAC management entity; and

the RRC entity configured to configure a second RAT physical entity and the MAC management entity.

7. The WTRU of claim 6, wherein the RRC entity configures a glue entity for interfacing between the first RAT and the second RAT.

8. The WTRU of claim 6, wherein the first RAT includes an access spectrum (AS) entity configured to at least act as the SME (AS-SME entity).

9. The WTRU of claim 8, wherein the RRC entity includes the AS-SME entity.

10. The WTRU of claim 8, wherein the first RAT is configured as a primary carrier and the second RAT is configured as a secondary carrier.

11. The WTRU of claim 10, wherein for the second RAT, the WTRU is configured to provide measurements for at least one different basic service sets (BSSs) that reside on a configured channel or identified BSSs on different channels.

12. The WTRU of claim 6, wherein a discontinuous receive (DRX) off duration is an integer multiple of a beacon interval.

13. The WTRU of claim 6, wherein quality of service (QoS) parameters are used to create a traffic specification (TSPEC) with an access point (AP) by sending an add traffic stream (ADDTS) frame.

14. The WTRU of claim 13, wherein a scheduled power save multi-poll (PSMP) stream is established with the AP for downlink transmission times (DTTs) and uplink transmission times (UTTs).

15. The WTRU of claim 13, wherein service periods and service intervals (SIs) are scheduled based on the QoS parameters and a predetermined long SI is used on a condition that a pre-configured number of consecutive Uplink Transmission Times (UTTs) and Downlink Transmission Times (DTTs) pass without any uplink or downlink frames for the WTRU.

16. The WTRU of claim 15, wherein the SI and long SI are assigned identical values as a short DRX and a long DRX for inter-RAT alignment of activity cycles.

17. The WTRU of claim 6, wherein combined logical channel prioritization (LCP) is performed across the first RAT and second RAT logical channels at a first RAT transmission time interval (TTI) rate.

18. The WTRU of claim 17, wherein maximum data packet rates are provided by the second RAT for performance of the combined LCP.

19. The WTRU of claim 6, further comprising:

the second RAT configured to receive a reconfiguration message from a base station on a condition of access point handover, the reconfiguration message including a challenge query;

the second RAT configured to receive the challenge query from an access point; and

the second RAT configured to respond with a challenge response to effect the access point handover.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein an abstraction entity manages time alignment between the first RAT and the second RAT.

20. A method for prioritizing logical channels at a medium access control (MAC) entity, comprising:

performing combined logical channel prioritization (LCP) across first RAT and second RAT logical channels at a first RAT transmission time interval (TTI) rate; and

receiving from the second RAT as input to the combined LCP, a maximum data packet based on channel feedback and data rate capabilities.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the maximum data packet is sent for each access category based on a transmission opportunity limit.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving from a radio resource control entity information on how to map different access categories to logical channel priorities.

24. A method for access point transfer, comprising:

transmitting a measurement configuration request to an attached wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU);

receiving a measurement report from the attached WTRU;

transmitting a selected target access point to the attached WTRU;

associating with the selected target access point; and

facilitating authentication between the WTRU and the selected target access point.