METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR COOPERATING BETWEEN WIRELESS WIDE AREA NETWORK RADIOS AND WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK RADIOS

• US 20140146732A1
• Filed: 01/07/2014
• Published: 05/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Das, Soumya, Song, Bongyong, Lee, Yong Sang, Stone, Martin, Soliman, Samir Salib, Olufunmilola, Awoniyi-Oteri Omolade
• Granted Patent: US 9,985,771 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/311
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0044 allocation of payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0073 Allocation arrangements that take into account other cell interferences for intercell interference mitigation or co-ordination in orthogonal multiplex systems H04J11/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0212 managed by the network, e.g. network or access point is master and terminal is slave
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/005 Transmission of information for alerting of incoming communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method of wireless communication includes communicating using a first radio based on a first radio technology; configuring a second radio based on a second radio technology different from the first radio technology to assist the first radio with a first-radio operation; and performing at least a portion of the first-radio operation at the second radio. The first-radio operation includes at least one of multiple subscriber identity module (SIM) page monitoring and page/data processing, higher order diversity data acquisition and processing, interference measurement and management, E-UTRAN cell global identifier (ECGI) determination and reporting, a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement, beacon detection for small cell identification, a minimization of drive test (MDT) measurement, and a speed estimation measurement. The first radio technology is a wireless wide area network (WWAN) technology and the second radio technology is a wireless local area network (WLAN) technology.

Claims

1. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

communicating using a first radio based on a first radio technology;

configuring a second radio based on a second radio technology different from the first radio technology to assist the first radio with a first-radio operation; and

performing at least a portion of the first-radio operation at the second radio.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the first radio technology is a wireless wide area network (WWAN) technology;

and

wherein the second radio technology is a wireless local area network (WLAN) technology.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing comprises:

receiving, at the second radio, a signal related to the first-radio operation, the signal transmitted based on the first radio technology; and

processing the received signal.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the received signal is processed by the second radio.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the received signal is processed by the first radio.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the received signal is processed at least partially by the first radio and the second radio.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first-radio operation comprises a measurement of the interference affecting a signal in the first radio.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first-radio operation comprises at least one of an inter-frequency measurement, intra-frequency measurement, and an inter-RAT measurement of a neighboring cell.

9. The method of claim 1,

wherein the mobile device comprises at least two subscriber identity modules (SIMs) associated with the first radio;

and

wherein the first-radio operation comprises page and data acquisition and processing associated with one of the at least two SIMs.

10. The method of claim 1,

wherein the first radio comprises at least a first antenna;

wherein the second radio comprises at least an antenna; and

wherein the performing comprises;

receiving, at the antenna of the second radio, a signal related to the first-radio operation, the signal transmitted based on the first radio technology; and

processing the received signal as a diversity signal along with signals received by the first antenna of the first radio.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the received signal is processed by the first radio.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first-radio operation is a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first-radio operation comprises beacon detection for small cell identification.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the first-radio operation is a minimization of drive test (MDT) measurement.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the first-radio operation is a speed estimation measurement.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining availability of the second radio for assisting the first radio with the first-radio operation;

wherein the performing is done based on the availability of the second radio.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the determining comprises:

requesting, by the first radio, the availability of the second radio for assisting the first radio with the first-radio operation; and

receiving the availability of the second radio based on the requesting.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the determining comprises:

receiving the availability of the second radio for assisting the first radio with the first-radio operation.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the second radio is determined to be available when the second radio is in a sleep mode or idle mode.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the second radio is determined to be available when the second radio is performing a first type of task and the second radio is determined to not be available when the second radio is performing a second type of task.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the second radio is configured to stop performing the first type of task in response to the request of the availability of the second radio.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein if the second radio is determined to not be available, the performing is done once the second radio is available.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the first-radio operation comprises at least one of multiple subscriber identity module (SIM) page monitoring and page/data processing, higher order diversity data acquisition and processing, interference measurement and management, E-UTRAN cell global identifier (ECGI) determination and reporting, a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement, beacon detection for small cell identification, a minimization of drive test (MDT) measurement, and a speed estimation measurement.

24. A system of wireless communication, comprising:

a first radio using a first radio for communicating based on a first radio technology; and

a second radio configured based on a second radio technology different from the first radio technology to assist the first radio with a first-radio operation; and

the second radio configured to perform at least a portion of the first-radio operation.

25. A method of wireless communication for a mobile device having at least a first radio and a second radio, comprising determining availability of the second radio;

and

performing, by the second radio, at least a portion of a first-radio operation otherwise performed by the first radio based on the availability of the second radio.

26. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

communicating using a first radio based on a first radio technology;

configuring a second radio based on a second radio technology different from the first radio technology to assist the first radio with a first-radio operation; and

receiving, at the second radio, a signal related to the first-radio operation, the signal transmitted based on the first radio technology; and

processing the received signal;

wherein the first-radio operation comprises at least one of multiple subscriber identity module (SIM) page monitoring and page/data processing, higher order diversity data acquisition and processing, interference measurement and management, E-UTRAN cell global identifier (ECGI) determination and reporting, a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement, beacon detection for small cell identification, a minimization of drive test (MDT) measurement, and a speed estimation measurement.