DEVICE BEACON FOR COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT FOR PEER TO PEER COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20140307705A1
• Filed: 06/25/2014
• Published: 10/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyocera Corporation
• Original Assignee: Kyocera Corporation
• Inventors: KALHAN, Amit
• Granted Patent: US 9,596,115 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/330
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2627 Modulators
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/001 Synchronization between nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

A wireless communication device transmits a device beacon in accordance with a system timing of a wireless wide area network (WWAN). For one example, the beacon is transmitted relative to WWAN uplink channels of the time-frequency space of the uplink WWAN channel assignment. In response to the reception of the device beacon by another wireless communication device, a peer to peer communication session is established.

Claims

1. A mobile wireless communication device comprising:

a wireless wide area network (WWAN) downlink receiver configured to receive a WWAN downlink signal from a WWAN base station, the WWAN downlink signal transmitted using a WWAN system timing;

a controller configured to derive the WWAN system timing from the WWAN downlink signal; and

a WWAN uplink transmitter configured to apply the WWAN system timing to transmit a device signal within a designated time and channel within a WWAN uplink time-frequency space.

2. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the WWAN uplink transmitter is configured to transmit the device signal within a WWAN Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) subcarrier time slot.

3. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 2, wherein the WWAN uplink transmitter is configured to transmit the device signal within a WWAN Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) subcarrier time slot.

4. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the WWAN uplink transmitter is configured to transmit the device signal periodically.

5. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the WWAN uplink transmitter is configured to synchronize the device signal with one or more downlink WWAN signals transmitted from the WWAN base station.

6. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the WWAN uplink transmitter generates a sequence that is mapped to a subcarrier channel of a WWAN uplink frequency-time space.

7. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the WWAN downlink receiver is configured to synchronize to time slot boundaries of the WWAN downlink signal.

8. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 7, wherein the WWAN downlink receiver is configured to decode information using frame-structure information of the WWAN downlink signals after achieving synchronization.

9. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein WWAN downlink signal is transmitted from the base station in accordance with a 3GPP LTE communication standard.

10. A wireless communication system comprising:

a wireless wide area network (WWAN) base station configured to transmit WWAN downlink signals in accordance with a WWAN system timing;

a first mobile wireless communication device comprising;

a WWAN downlink receiver configured to receive the WWAN downlink signal from the WWAN base station, the WWAN downlink signal providing WWAN system timing information;

a controller configured to derive the WWAN system timing information from the WWAN downlink signal; and

a WWAN uplink transmitter configured to apply the WWAN system timing to transmit a device signal within a designated time and channel within a WWAN uplink time-frequency space; and

a second mobile wireless communication device comprising a WWAN uplink receiver configured to receive the device signal.

11. The wireless communication system of claim 10, wherein the device signal invokes device to device (D2D) communication between the first mobile wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device.

12. The wireless communication system of claim 11, wherein D2D communication between the first mobile wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device is based on the WWAN system timing.

13. The wireless communication system of claim 10, wherein the WWAN uplink transmitter is configured to transmit the device signal within a WWAN Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) subcarrier time slot.

14. The wireless communication system of claim 13, wherein the WWAN uplink transmitter is configured to transmit the device signal within a WWAN Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) subcarrier time slot.

15. The wireless communication system of claim 10, wherein the WWAN uplink transmitter is configured to transmit the device signal periodically.

16. The wireless communication system of claim 10, wherein the WWAN uplink transmitter is configured to synchronize the device signal with one or more downlink WWAN signals transmitted from the WWAN base station.

17. The wireless communication system of claim 10, wherein the WWAN uplink transmitter generates a sequence that is mapped to a subcarrier channel of a WWAN uplink frequency-time space.

18. The wireless communication system of claim 10, wherein the WWAN downlink receiver is configured to synchronize to time slot boundaries of the WWAN downlink signal.

19. The wireless communication system of claim 18, wherein the WWAN downlink receiver is configured to decode information using frame-structure information of the WWAN downlink signals after achieving synchronization.

20. The wireless communication system of claim 10, wherein WWAN downlink signal is transmitted from the base station in accordance with a 3GPP LTE communication standard.