OPPORTUNISTIC CARRIER AGGREGATION USING SHORT RANGE EXTENSION CARRIERS

• US 20140010086A1
• Filed: 12/16/2011
• Published: 01/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Etemad, Kamran, Mucke, Christian
• Granted Patent: US 9,288,742 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0456 Selection of precoding matrices or codebooks, e.g. using matrices antenna weighting
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0486 taking channel rank into account
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0632 Channel quality parameters, e.g. channel quality indicator [CQI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0639 Using selective indices, e.g. of a codebook, e.g. pre-distortion matrix index [PMI] or for beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/70 Routing based on monitoring results
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/001 the frequencies being arranged in component carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/003 Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0032 Distributed allocation, i.e. involving a plurality of allocating devices, each making partial allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0037 Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0094 Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/32 Hierarchical cell structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/10 using broadcasted information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 : using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/146 : Uplink power control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/18 : TPC being performed according to specific parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 : Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 : in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 : in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/56 : based on priority criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/15 : Setup of multiple wireless link connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/34 : Selective release of ongoing connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 : using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/10 : adapted for operation in multiple networks, e.g. multi-mode access points
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/20 : between access points
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing opportunistic carrier aggregation to short range or low power extension carriers are generally disclosed herein. One embodiment includes data traffic offload techniques to offload data communicated in a Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) from a primary cell to a secondary cell. For example, the primary cell may be provided by a LTE/LTE-A base station operating in licensed spectrum, and the secondary cell may be provided by a low-power extension carrier operating in unlicensed spectrum using a LTE/LTE-A standard. The low-power extension carrier may be activated as needed to off-load data transfers from the primary cell, in download-only, upload-only, and time-division LTE (TD-LTE) modes. Configurations involving multimode base stations, multimode user equipment (UE), relay extension carriers, and remote radio equipment are also described herein, in conjunction with deployment of opportunistic carrier aggregation using extension carriers.

Claims

1. A dual-mode base station, comprising:

an enhanced NodeB (eNodeB), the eNodeB arranged to provide a primary cell (PCell) network; and

a short range extension carrier operably coupled to the eNodeB, the short range extension carrier arranged to provide a secondary cell (SCell) network;

wherein a same network protocol is used for wireless network transmissions in each of the PCell and the SCell; and

wherein data communications are opportunistically offloaded from the PCell to the SCell.

2. The base station of claim 1, wherein the short range extension carrier and the eNodeB each provide radio transmissions, the short range extension carrier arranged to broadcast radio transmissions from the dual-mode base station at a lower power than the eNodeB radio transmissions.

3. The base station of claim 1, wherein wireless network communications in the PCell are transmitted with the eNodeB in a licensed band, and wherein wireless network communications in the SCell are transmitted with the short range extension carrier in an unlicensed band.

4. The base station of claim 1, wherein the same network protocol used in each of the PCell and the SCell operates according to a 3GPP Long Tenn Evolution (LTE) standard, a Long Tenn Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) standard, or a WiMAX standard from the 802.16 standards family.

5. The base station of claim 1, wherein the eNodeB and the short range extension carrier are operably coupled to one or more transceivers arranged to perform multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) beamforming.

6. The base station of claim 1, wherein the data communications are offloaded from the PCell to the SCell based on one or both of Radio Resource Management (RRM) and Quality of Experience (QoE) measurements in either or both of the PCell and SCell.

7. The base station of claim 1, wherein the short range extension carrier operates in a mode selected from the group consisting of:

a download only mode, an upload only mode, and a time-division mode.

8. A method for opportunistic carrier aggregation between a primary cell (PCell) wireless network and a secondary cell (SCell) wireless network, comprising:

configuring a low power extension carrier (LPEC) to communicate one or more wireless transmissions via the SCell;

activating the LPEC for the one or more wireless transmissions via the SCell; and

offloading data communications from the PCell to the SCell using the one or more wireless transmissions;

wherein a same network protocol is used to conduct the wireless transmissions in each of the PCell and the SCell.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the wireless transmissions in the PCell are transmitted in a licensed band, and wherein the wireless transmissions in the SCell are transmitted in an unlicensed band.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

powering on a radio of the LPEC before configuring the LPEC to communicate the one or more wireless transmissions; and

powering off the radio of the LPEC after completion of offloading the data communications from the PCell to the SCell using the one or more wireless transmissions.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising processing radio resource management (RRM) and Quality of Experience (QoE) measurements in either or both of the PCell and SCell, wherein offloading the data communications from the PCell to the SCell is based on the processed RRM and QoE measurements.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the wireless transmissions are performed using multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) beamforming, and wherein each of the PCell and the SCell implement orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) modulation.

13. User equipment comprising physical-layer circuitry arranged to implement opportunistic carrier aggregation, the physical-layer circuitry comprising:

a primary network interface arranged to communicate with a PCell wireless network, the PCell provided by a primary carrier;

a secondary network interface arranged to communicate with a SCell wireless network, the SCell provided on demand by a short range extension carrier;

wherein a same network protocol is used by the user equipment for wireless network communications with each of the PCell wireless network and SCell wireless network; and

wherein data communications are opportunistically offloaded from the PCell to the SCell.

14. The user equipment of claim 13, wherein wireless network communications with the PCell are transmitted in a licensed band, and wherein wireless network communications with the SCell are transmitted in an unlicensed band.

15. The user equipment of claim 13, wherein the same network protocol used by the user equipment for wireless network communications with each of the PCell and the SCell operates according to a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard, a Long Tenn Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) standard, or a WiMAX standard from the 802.16 standards family.

16. The user equipment of claim 13, wherein the data communications are offloaded from the PCell to the SCell based on one or both of Radio Resource Management (RRM) and Quality of Experience (QoE) measurements in either or both of the PCell and SCell.

17. The user equipment of claim 13, wherein the SCell is used to perform wireless network transmissions with the user equipment using a mode selected from the group consisting of:

a download only mode, an upload only mode, and a time-division mode.

18. A system, comprising:

a primary cell (PCell) network for communications with a plurality of wireless devices, the PCell provided by a base station; and

a secondary cell (SCell) network for on-demand communications with the plurality of wireless devices, the SCell provided by a short range extension carrier controlled by the base station;

wherein a same network protocol is used for wireless network transmissions in each of the PCell and SCell; and

wherein data communications are opportunistically offloaded from the PCell to the SCell.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the wireless network transmissions in the PCell are transmitted in a licensed band, and wherein wireless network transmissions in the SCell are transmitted in an unlicensed band.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the same network protocol used in each of the PCell and the SCell operates according to a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard, a Long Tenn Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) standard, or a WiMAX standard from the 802.16 standards family.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the data communications are offloaded from the PCell to the SCell based on one or both of Radio Resource Management (RRM) or Quality of Experience (QoE) measurements.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the base station is a dual-mode base station comprising a NodeB and the short range extension carrier.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the base station is a dual-mode relay node comprising a relay node and the short range extension carrier, wherein the relay node is in communication with a NodeB.

24. The system of claim 18, wherein the short range extension carrier is provided by a remote radio element in communication with the base station.

25. The system of claim 18, wherein the short range extension carrier operates in a mode selected from the group consisting of:

a download only mode, an upload only mode, and a time-division mode.