TERMINAL AND A METHOD FOR ESTABLISHING A CELLULAR NETWORK CONNECTION BETWEEN A TERMINAL AND A BASE STATION

• US 20140126460A1
• Filed: 11/02/2012
• Published: 05/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corporation Limited
• Original Assignee: Intel Deutschland GmbH (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Bienas, Maik, Schmidt, Andreas, Hans, Martin
• Granted Patent: US 9,100,929 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/315
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/002 Transmission of channel access control information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations

Abstract

A terminal may include a generator configured to generate a request for radio network resources from a cellular network; a transmitter configured to transmit the request for radio network resources to a relay device, wherein the request for radio network resources may be configured to be forwarded by the relay device to a base station of the cellular network; and a controller configured to establish a cellular network connection between the terminal and the base station of the cellular network using radio network resources assigned to the terminal by the cellular network.

Claims

1. A terminal, comprising:

a generator configured to generate a request for radio network resources from a cellular network;

a transmitter configured to transmit the request for radio network resources to a relay device,

wherein the request for radio network resources is configured to be forwarded by the relay device to a base station of the cellular network; and

a controller configured to establish a cellular network connection between the terminal and the base station of the cellular network using radio network resources assigned to the terminal by the cellular network.

2. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the request for radio network resources comprises a request for a time slot for a transmission from the terminal to the base station of the cellular network.

3. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the request for radio network resources comprises a request for a frequency sub-band for a transmission from the terminal to the base station of the cellular network.

4. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the request for radio network resources comprises a request for an access code for a channel between the terminal and the base station of the cellular network.

5. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the request for radio network resources comprises a request for a random access preamble from the cellular network.

6. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the request for radio network resources comprises:

an identity of the terminal; and

an identity of the cellular network.

7. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the request for radio network resources comprises:

an identity of the relay device.

8. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the request for radio network resources comprises:

a forwarding flag for indicating to the relay device that the request for radio network resources is to be forwarded to the base station of the cellular network.

9. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the request for radio network resources comprises:

a radio resource control (RRC) connection request.

10. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the request for radio network resources comprises:

a request for a dedicated random access channel (RACH) preamble.

11. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit the request for radio network resources to the relay device according to a short-range communications technology.

12. The terminal of claim 11, wherein the short-range communications technology comprises at least one of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ultra-Wideband, and ZigBee.

13. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the request for radio network resources is configured to be forwarded by the relay device to the base station using a cellular radio communications technology.

14. The terminal of claim 13, wherein the cellular radio communications technology comprises at least one of LTE, UMTS, GSM, and CDMA2000.

15. The terminal of claim 1, further comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a message from at least one of the base station and the relay device.

16. The terminal of claim 15, wherein the message from the relay device comprises:

information about radio network resources assigned to the terminal by the cellular network.

17. The terminal of claim 15, wherein the message from the relay device comprises:

a timing advance value for an uplink transmission from the terminal to the base station.

18. The terminal of claim 15, wherein the message from the base station comprises:

information about radio network resources assigned to the terminal by the cellular network.

19. The terminal of claim 15, wherein the message from the base station comprises:

an instruction to use at least one potential relaying device as the relay device.

20. The terminal of claim 15, wherein the message from the base station comprises:

information for selecting the relay device from at least one potential relaying device.

21. The terminal of claim 20, wherein the information for selecting the relay device from the at least one potential relaying device comprises:

a position of the at least one potential relaying device; and

an identity of at least one radio access technology supported by the at least one potential relaying device.

22. The terminal of claim 21, wherein the identity of at least one radio access technology comprises:

a service set identifier (SSID) of at least one short-range communications technology supported by the at least one potential relaying device.

23. The terminal of claim 21, wherein the identity of at least one radio access technology comprises:

at least one of a Mobile Country Code (MCC), Mobile Network Code (MNC), and Location Area Code (LAC) of at least one cellular radio communications technology supported by the at least one potential relaying device.

24. The terminal of claim 20, wherein the information for selecting the relay device from the at least one potential relaying device comprises:

an indication of a redirection service offered by the at least one potential relaying device.

25. A relay device, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive, from a terminal, a request for radio network resources from a cellular network; and

a transmitter configured to forward the request for radio network resources to a base station of the cellular network.

26. The relay device of claim 25, wherein the transmitter is further configured to transmit a message indicating an availability of the relay device to forward the request for radio network resources from the cellular network to the base station of the cellular network.

27. The relay device of claim 26, wherein the message indicating the availability of the relay device is transmitted to the base station.

28. The relay device of claim 26, wherein the message indicating the availability of the relay device is transmitted to the terminal.

29. The relay device of claim 25, wherein the receiver is further configured to receive a control message from the base station of the cellular network, wherein the control message is used by the relay device to set up a redirection service.

30. A base station, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive, from a relay device, a request by a terminal for radio network resources from a cellular network;

an allocation circuit configured to allocate radio network resources to the terminal based on the request for radio network resources; and

a transmitter configured to transmit information about the allocated radio network resources to at least one of the terminal and the relay device.

31. The base station of claim 30, further comprising:

a detection circuit configured to detect an opportunity to use the relay device to forward the request by the terminal for radio network resources from the cellular network to the base station;

a generator configured to generate a service setup instruction for configuring the relay device to forward the request; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the service setup instruction to the relay device.

32. A method for establishing a cellular network connection between a terminal and a base station, comprising:

generating a request for radio network resources from a cellular network;

transmitting the request for radio network resources to a relay device,

wherein the request for radio network resources is configured to be forwarded by the relay device to the base station of the cellular network; and

establishing a cellular network connection between the terminal and the base station of the cellular network using radio network resources assigned to the terminal by the cellular network.