METHOD FOR SEARCHING FOR A RADIO CELL AND MOBILE TERMINAL

• US 20140038587A1
• Filed: 08/01/2012
• Published: 02/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Mobile Communications GmbH (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Herzinger, Stefan, Drewes, Christian, Canonici, Jean-Xavier, Gunzelmann, Bertram, Murgan, Tudor, Wu, Kai
• Granted Patent: US 9,113,399 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/422.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information

Abstract

A method for searching for a radio cell is provided comprising determining, for each of a plurality of frequencies, a reception strength value indicating the reception strength within a first bandwidth around the frequency, wherein the first bandwidth is smaller than a second bandwidth with which a radio cell to be searched is operated; determining, based on the determined reception strength values, a spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be carried out; and carrying out a cell search at the determined spectral position.

Claims

1. A method for searching for a radio cell comprising:

determining, for each of a plurality of frequencies, a reception strength value indicating the reception strength within a first bandwidth around the frequency, wherein the first bandwidth is smaller than a second bandwidth with which a radio cell to be searched is operated;

determining, based on the determined reception strength values, a spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be carried out; and

carrying out a cell search at the determined spectral position.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the reception strength value indicates the reception strength within the first bandwidth centered around the frequency.

3. The method according to claim 1, comprising determining, based on the determined reception strength values, a plurality of spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be carried out.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising determining, for each spectral position, a priority value for carrying out cell search.

5. The method according to claim 4, comprising carrying out a cell search at the determined spectral positions according to the priority values.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the cell search is carried out for the determined spectral positions in an order given by the priority values.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be carried out comprises correlating the determined reception strength values with reception strength values to be expected for an operated radio cell;

and determining the spectral position based on the result of the correlation.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein determining the spectral position based on the result of the correlation comprises determining a spectral position of the plurality of spectral positions for which the correlation is above a predetermined threshold as the spectral position.

9. The method according to claim 8, comprising determining each spectral position of the plurality of spectral positions for which the correlation is above a predetermined threshold as a spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be carried out;

and

carrying out a cell search at the determined spectral positions.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein determining the spectral position based on the result of the correlation comprises determining the spectral position of the plurality of spectral positions for which the correlation is maximum as the spectral position.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be carried out comprises searching, within the determined reception strength values, for a spectral reception strength value pattern be expected for an operated radio cell.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be carried out comprises statistically analyzing the determined reception strength values.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be carried out comprises eliminating outliers of the determined reception strength values.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second bandwidth is a radio cell bandwidth according to a communication standard and wherein the cell search is a search for a radio cell operated according to the communication standard.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of frequencies comprises all frequencies of a predetermined frequency range at which, according to the communication standard, a radio cell may be operated.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of frequencies comprises all frequencies of a predetermined frequency range at which, according to the communication standard and according to the applicable frequency licensing regulations, a radio cell may be operated.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of frequencies is a set of frequencies such that when the frequencies are ordered by increasing or decreasing size to a sequence of frequencies, the difference between two consecutive frequencies in the sequence of frequencies is smaller than the second bandwidth.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first bandwidth is equal to or smaller than the minimum difference between the frequencies of the plurality of frequencies.

19. A mobile terminal comprising:

a first determiner, configured to determine, for each of a plurality of frequencies, a reception strength value indicating the reception strength within a first bandwidth around the frequency, wherein the first bandwidth is smaller than a second bandwidth with which a radio cell to be searched is operated;

a second determiner, configured to determine, based on the determined reception strength values, a spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be carried out; and

a cell searcher, configured to carry out a cell search at the determined spectral position.