METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PARTITIONING CONTENTION BASED RESOURCES IN A WIRELESS NETWORK

• US 20130301541A1
• Filed: 05/11/2012
• Published: 11/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Mukherjee, Biswaroop, Anderson, Nicholas William, Gage, William Anthony, Novak, Robert, Vutukuri, Eswar
• Granted Patent: US 8,989,113 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/006 in the downlink, i.e. towards the terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0833 Random access procedures, e.g. with 4-step access

Abstract

Methods and network elements partitioning at least a subset of contention based resources for random access attempts into a plurality of partitions, wherein each of said plurality of partitions is associated with at least one precondition governing selection of a partition, the precondition being derived from at least one of: source of causation for the random access attempt, a device state, a device event, a device group, a traffic event, a traffic class, or an application characteristic, and wherein each of said plurality of partitions is further associated with at least one configuration parameter; and communicating configuration parameters for the plurality of partitions and preconditions governing partition usage to at least one of a plurality of user equipments. Also, methods, devices and network elements for communicating on partitions.

Claims

1. A method at a network node in a wireless communications network, the method comprising:

partitioning at least a subset of contention based resources for random access attempts into a plurality of partitions, wherein each of said plurality of partitions is associated with at least one precondition governing selection of the partition, the precondition being derived from at least one of;

source of causation for the random access attempt, a device state, a device event, a device group, a traffic event, a traffic class, or an application characteristic, and wherein each of said plurality of partitions is further associated with at least one configuration parameter; and

communicating configuration parameters for the plurality of partitions and preconditions governing partition usage to at least one of a plurality of user equipments.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the contention based resources are random access preambles in a Long Term Evolution Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the partitioning dimensions partitions based on a target probability of collision and access latency.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration parameters for at least one of the plurality of partitions comprises at least one of:

a response window size, contention resolution timer values, maximum random access re-transmissions allowed value, or back off interval.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the device state comprises:

a Radio Resource Control (RRC) state, responding to page, in handover, in connected mode with or without uplink synchronization, a long or short discontinuous reception (DRX) state, a continuous reception state, an Evolved Packet System Connection Management (ECM) state, an Evolved Packet System Mobility Management (EMM) state, or a mobility state.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the traffic class is associated with a quality of service class identifier corresponding to the traffic in the uplink buffer.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the device event is associated with radio link failure.

3-5. -5. (canceled)

8-16. -16. (canceled)

20-38. -38. (canceled)

39. A method for operating a user equipment in a wireless communications network for selecting a contention based resource, from a plurality of contention based resources, the method comprising:

determining that the selecting of the contention based resource is associated with a configured precondition at the user equipment;

selecting a contention based resource within a partition associated with a precondition wherein the precondition comprises at least one of;

a user equipment state, a user equipment event, a user equipment group, a traffic event, a traffic class, or an application characteristic; and

transmitting using the selected contention based resource.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising receiving, at the user equipment, a set of resource partition configurations for at least a subset of the contention based resources from a network node, wherein the partitions are associated with a set of preconditions governing use of the partitions.

41. The method of claim 39, wherein the contention based resource is a Long Term Evolution random access preamble in a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH).

42. The method of claim 39, wherein the configured precondition is preconfigured on the user equipment.

43. The method of claim 40, wherein the configured precondition is received with the partition definitions.

53. The method of claim 39, further comprising, setting at least one timer value on the user equipment based on the selected contention resource.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the at least one timer value is received from the network node.

55. The method of claim 53, wherein the at least one timer value corresponds with a response window size, a contention resolution timer, or a back off timer.

44-52. -52. (canceled)

56-74. -74. (canceled)

75. A method at a network node, comprising:

receiving a transmission on a contention based resource in a partition, the partition being from a plurality of partitions configured by the network node; and

responding to the transmission on the contention based resource within a time and using a priority based on the partition over which the transmission was received.

76. The method of claim 75, wherein the contention based resource is a Long Term Evolution random access preamble.

77. The method of claim 75, wherein the priority is preconfigured.

78. The method of claim 75, wherein the priority is based on a number of transmissions received by the network node.

80. The method of claim 75, wherein the time is selected based on a priority associated with the partition over which the transmission was received.

81. The method of claim 75, wherein the responding includes an uplink grant size determined based on the partition over which the transmission was received.

79. (canceled)

82-88. -88. (canceled)

89. A method at a user equipment, comprising:

transmitting using a contention based resource from a partition, the partition being from a plurality of partitions; and

waiting for a configured period of time for a response from a network node to the transmission, wherein the configured period of time is chosen based on the selected partition.

90. The method of claim 89, further comprising, retransmitting a configured number of times if no response is received from the network node, wherein the configured number of times is based on the selected partition.

91. The method of claim 90, further comprising, transmitting on a different partition after the configured number of times.

92. The method of claim 90, wherein the retransmitting occurs after a back off timer has expired, a value of the back off timer being based on the selected partition.

93. The method of claim 89, further comprising:

receiving a grant of uplink transmission resources from the network node;

transmitting a message using the uplink transmission resources; and

setting a contention resolution timer value based on the selected partition.

94-98. -98. (canceled)