COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE, INFRASTRUCTURE EQUIPMENT AND METHOD

• US 20130272236A1
• Filed: 09/21/2011
• Published: 10/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SCA IPLA Holdings Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: SCA IPLA Holdings Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Beale, Martin Warwick
• Granted Patent: US 9,288,794 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/26 Resource reservation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal

Abstract

A communications system, including a mobile radio network including local base stations to communicate data to and from mobile communications devices via a wireless access interface. The mobile radio network is adapted to include a message processor and a message store, the message store arranged to store an indication of each of one or more message exchanges in a set of predetermined message exchanges between the base stations and one or more of the communications devices, each message exchange including a predetermined set of predetermined messages and requiring predetermined up-link and/or down-link communications resource for communicating the message exchange on the up-link and/or down-link, between a base station and the communications device.

Claims

1. A communications system, comprising

a mobile radio network, the mobile radio network including one or more base stations arranged to communicate data to and from mobile communications devices via a wireless access interface, wherein the mobile radio network is adapted to include a message processor and a message store, the message store being arranged to store an indication of each of one or more message exchanges in a set of predetermined message exchanges between the one or more base stations and one or more of the communications devices, each message exchange comprising a predetermined set of predetermined messages and requiring predetermined uplink and/or down-link communications resource for communicating the message exchange on the up-link and/or down-link, between a base station and the communications device, and the message processor is arranged in operation

to generate, using the indication of the message exchanges stored in the message store, a conversation allocation message for communication to the mobile communications device, the conversation allocation message providing an indication to the mobile communications device of an allocation of communications resource on the down-link and/or the up-link for communicating the one or more messages of the message exchange, and

to communicate the conversation allocation message to the mobile communications device, and

in response to the conversation allocation message, the communications device and a base station to which the communications device is attached are arranged to communicate the messages of the message exchange using the resources allocated by the conversation allocation message.

2. A communications system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the message processor is arranged in operation

to respond to an indication that a message exchange is to be communicated via the wireless access interface,

to recognise the message exchange as being one of the set of predetermined message exchanges and to generate the conversation allocation message from the recognised message exchange from the indication provided in the message store.

3. A communications system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the message store stores for each message exchange the conversation allocation message for allocating the up-link and/or down-link resources for communicating the message exchange.

4. A communications system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the message processor is arranged to receive from a higher layer server an indication of the message exchange and to generate the conversation allocation message from the indication of the message exchange, by retrieving the conversation allocation message using the indication of the message exchange.

5. A communications system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the message processor is arranged to recognise the message exchange, by identifying a signalling message which is received from the mobile communications devices or to be transmitted to the mobile communications device and to generate the conversation allocation message from the recognised message exchange.

6. A communications system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the signalling message provides an indication of a handover of the mobile communications device from one base station to another, communicated on the up-link or the down-link.

7. A communications system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the message exchange includes a data message for communication on the up-link or the down-link, and the indication of the message exchange is a length of the data message to be communicated to or from the mobile communications device.

8. A communications system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the conversation allocation message allocates resources on one or both of a down-link or up-link shared channel for the communication of the one or more associated signalling messages and the data message.

9. A communications system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the message processor forms part of the base station with which the communications device is attached.

10. A communications system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the message store which stores the set of message exchanges forms part of the base station with which the communications device is attached.

11. A communications system as claimed in claim 4, wherein each of the base stations is arranged to transmit a broadcast signal indicating the set of message exchanges which are available for communicating via the base station using corresponding conversation allocation messages.

12. A communications device for communicating data via a mobile radio network, the communications device comprising

a transmitter/receiver unit which is arranged to transmit data to and to receive data from one or more base stations of the mobile radio network, to which the communications device is attached, via a wireless access interface, the mobile radio network including a message processor and a message store, the message store being arranged to store an indication of each of one or more message exchanges in a set of predetermined message exchanges between the base stations and one or more of the communications devices, each message exchange comprising a predetermined set of predetermined messages and requiring predetermined up-link and/or down-link communications resource for communicating the message exchange on the up-link and/or down-link, and the message processor is arranged in operation to generate, using an indication of a message exchange stored in the message store, a conversation allocation message for communication to the mobile communications device, the conversation allocation message providing an indication to the mobile communications device of an allocation of communications resource on the down-link and/or the up-link for communicating the one or more messages of the message exchange, and to communicate the conversation allocation message to the mobile communications device, and

a controller for controlling the communication of data via the transmitter/receiver unit, wherein in response to receiving the conversation allocation message from the message processor providing the indication of the allocation of communications resources on the down-link and/or the up-link for communicating the message exchange, the controller in combination with the transmitter/receiver unit is arranged to communicate the predetermined message of the message exchange using the up-link and/or down-link communications resources allocated by the conversation allocation message.

13. A communications device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the message exchange includes communicating a message on the up-link from the transmitter/receiver unit to the base station, and the conversation allocation message is sent from the message processor in response to a request for communications resource to communicate the message, which is sent by the communications device to the base station.

14. A communications device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the conversation allocation message allocates resources on one or both of a down-link or up-link shared channel for the communication of the message exchange.

15. A communications device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the controller in combination with the transmitter/receiver unit is arranged to receive a broadcast signal, which includes data indicating the set of message exchanges which are available for communicating via the base station using corresponding conversation allocation messages.

16. An infrastructure equipment forming part of a mobile radio network, the infrastructure equipment being arranged to communicate data to and from one or more mobile communications devices via a wireless access interface, the infrastructure equipment comprising

a transmitter/receiver unit which is arranged to communicate data to and from one or more of the mobile communications devices which are attached to the infrastructure equipment,

a message processor and a message store, the message store being arranged to store an indication of each of one or more message exchanges in a set of predetermined message exchanges between the base stations and one or more of the communications devices, each message exchange comprising a predetermined set of predetermined messages and requiring predetermined up-link and/or down-link communications resource for communicating the message exchange on the up-link and/or down-link, between a base station and the communications device, and the message processor is arranged in operation

to generate, using the indication of the message exchanges stored in the message store, a conversation allocation message for communication to the mobile communications device, the conversation allocation message providing an indication to the mobile communications device of an allocation of communications resource on the down-link and/or the up-link for communicating the one or more messages of the message exchange, and

to communicate the conversation allocation message to the mobile communications device, and

to communicate using the transmitter/receiver unit the message exchange with the mobile communications device.

17. An infrastructure equipment as claimed in claim 16, wherein the message exchange includes communicating a message on the up-link from the communications device to the base station, and the conversation allocation message is generated by the message processor in response to a request for communications resource to communicate the message, which is received from the communications device.

18. An infrastructure equipment as claimed in claim 16, wherein the conversation allocation message allocates resources on one or both of a down-link or up-link shared channel for the communication of the one or more associated signalling messages and the data message.

19. An infrastructure equipment as claimed in claim 16, wherein the infrastructure equipment is a base station, NodeB or an eNodeB.

20. An infrastructure equipment as claimed in claim 16, wherein the transmitter/receiver unit is arranged to transmit a broadcast signal indicating the set of predetermined messages which are available for communicating via the infrastructure equipment using corresponding conversation allocation messages.

21. A method of communicating a message exchange via a mobile radio network, the mobile radio network including one or more base stations arranged to communicate data to and from mobile communications devices via a wireless access interface, the method comprising

storing an indication of each of one or more message exchanges in a set of predetermined message exchanges between the base stations and one or more of the communications devices, each message exchange comprising a predetermined set of predetermined messages and requiring predetermined up-link and/or down-link communications resource for communicating the message exchange on the up-link and/or down-link, between a base station and the communications device, and the message processor is arranged in operation to

generate, using the indication of the message exchanges stored in the message store, a conversation allocation message for communication to the mobile communications device, the conversation allocation message providing an indication to the mobile communications device of an allocation of communications resource on the down-link and/or the up-link for communicating the one or more messages of the message exchange, and

communicating the conversation allocation message to the mobile communications device, and

in response to the conversation allocation message, communicating the associated signalling messages and the data message between the communications device and the base station using the up-link and/or down-link communications resources allocated by the conversation message.

22-23. -23. (canceled)