CHANNEL QUALITY MEASUREMENT AND TRANSMIT POWER ALLOCATION IN A DYNAMIC SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20140086081A1
• Filed: 09/24/2013
• Published: 03/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Inventors: Periard, Francois, Schreider, Fred M., Chincholi, Amith V., Demir, Alpaslan, Lin, Zinan, Mack, Jane, Cartmell, John
• Granted Patent: US 10,050,762 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/001 the frequencies being arranged in component carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/34 TPC management, i.e. sharing limited amount of power among users or channels or data types, e.g. cell loading

Abstract

A dynamic spectrum management (DSM) engine may determine the channel quality of one or more channels associated with the DSM engine when packets are not being transmitted over the channels. For example, the DSM engine may trigger a channel quality measurement on a non-primary channel on a condition that a predetermined period of time has lapsed since the last activity associated with the non-primary channel. Channel quality measurement may be triggered via a data sending event on the non-primary channel such as sending a data frame on the non-primary channel. The DSM engine may perform respective quality measurements on multiple channels and store the respective quality values in a database. Time-averaged channel qualities for the channels may be computed based on the stored quality values for computing transmit power distribution of across the channels.

Claims

1. A method of performing a channel quality measurement in a dynamic spectrum management (DSM) system, the method comprising:

determining whether to trigger a channel quality measurement on a non-primary channel based on a previous activity associated with the non-primary channel, wherein the non-primary channel is part of a set of aggregated active channels comprising a primary channel and at least one non-primary channel; and

upon determining to trigger the channel quality measurement, triggering a data sending event on the non-primary channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether to trigger the channel quality measurement on the non-primary channel comprises:

determining to trigger the channel quality measurement on the non-primary channel on a condition that a predetermined period of time has lapsed since the previous activity associated with the non-primary channel.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data sending event comprises at least one of:

sending Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) downlink data to a DSM client on the non-primary channel;

sending a channel quality measurement request message to the DSM client on the non-primary channel;

or

requesting a data frame to be sent on the non-primary channel.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data sending event comprises at least one of:

sending a NULL frame on the non-primary channel to an associated access point;

sending a management frame on the non-primary channel to the associated access point;

or

sending a control frame on the non-primary channel to the associated access point.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a data frame via the non-primary channel, wherein the data frame is sent in response to the data sending event; and

determining the channel quality for the non-primary channel based on the received data frame.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing channel quality information associated with a reference active channel in the set of aggregated active channels; and

determine a channel quality associated with a candidate channel based on the channel quality information associated with the reference active channel and a calibration offset associated with the candidate channel, wherein the candidate channel is a channel of the DSM system that is not part of the set of aggregated active channels.

7. A Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM) client for supporting a channel quality measurement, the DSM client comprising:

a processor configured to;

determine whether to trigger a channel quality measurement on a non-primary channel based on a previous activity associated with the non-primary channel, wherein the non-primary channel is part of a set of aggregated active channels comprising a primary channel and at least one non-primary channel; and

upon determining to trigger the channel quality measurement, trigger a data sending event on the non-primary channel.

8. The DSM client of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to:

start a timer upon the previous activity associated with the non-primary channel occurring; and

upon an expiration of the timer, determine that the channel quality measurement on the non-primary channel is to be triggered.

9. The DSM client of claim 8, wherein the timer is reset upon the DSM client sending a data frame on the non-primary channel.

10. The DSM client of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to:

send a data frame on the non-primary channel, wherein the sending of the data frame allows the channel quality measurement pertaining to the non-primary channel to be performed, wherein the data frame comprises at least one of a NULL data frame, a management data frame or a control data frame.

11. A Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM) engine for selecting channels for carrier aggregation, the DSM engine comprises:

a processor configured to;

determine a channel quality of an available channel associated with a DSM client, wherein the DSM client is associated with a plurality of available channels comprising a primary channel;

compare the channel quality of the available channel to a low channel quality threshold; and

determine whether to add the available channel to a candidate list associated with the DSM client based on the comparing.

12. The DSM engine of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to determine that the channel is excluded from the candidate list when the channel quality is below the low channel quality threshold.

13. The DSM engine of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to select, from the plurality of available channels, at least one channel for an active set associated with the DSM client, based on a range extension threshold.

14. The DSM engine of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to exclude a channel from the active set when a difference between the channel quality of the channel and the channel quality of the primary channel exceeds a delta threshold.

15. The DSM engine of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to select the at least one channel for the active set associated with the DSM client from the candidate set associated with the DSM client.

16. The DSM engine of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to select the available channel as an active channel in an active set associated with the DSM client based on a determination that the channel quality of the available channel reaches or exceeds the low channel quality threshold, that a difference between the channel quality of the available channel and the channel quality of the primary channel is less than a delta threshold, and that the channel quality of the available channel reaches or exceeds a range extension threshold.

17. A channel management function (CMF) for allocating transmit power for carrier aggregation for a Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM) client, the CMF comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive a link quality report comprising information indicative of channel quality for a plurality of channels associated with the DSM client;

compute transmit power distribution across the plurality of channels associated with the DSM client based on the received link quality report; and

send a transmit power allocation message comprising information indicative of the transmit power distribution across the plurality of channels for the DSM client.

18. The CMF of claim 17, wherein the information indicative of channel quality comprises at least one of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) associated with the respective channel or a signal-to-interference noise ratio (SINR) associated with the respective channel.

19. The CMF of claim 17, wherein the processor is configured to:

compute a time-averaged channel quality for each of the plurality of channels associated with the DSM client; and

compute the transmit power distribution across the channels based on the respective time-averaged channel qualities for the respective channels.

20. The CMF of claim 17, wherein the DSM client is associated with a plurality of qualities of service, and the processor configured to:

compute a time-averaged channel quality for each of the plurality of channels and each of the qualities of service associated with the DSM client; and

compute the transmit power distribution of across the channels for a given quality service based on the respective time-averaged channel qualities for the respective channels for the given quality of service.