VEHICLE-BASED SMALL CELL BASE STATIONS

• US 20150031372A1
• Filed: 07/26/2013
• Published: 01/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Jeffrey R. Foerster, Omesh Tickoo, Yang Xue
• Inventors: FOERSTER, JEFFREY R., YANG, XUE, TICKOO, OMESH
• Granted Patent: US 9,554,328 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/444
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/00 Network planning, e.g. coverage or traffic planning tools; Network deployment, e.g. resource partitioning or cells structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/005 Moving wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B

Abstract

Certain embodiments herein are directed to vehicle-based small cell base stations. A vehicle-based base station may include at least one antenna; at least one transceiver coupled to the at least one antenna; at least one memory that stores computer-executable instructions; and at least one processor in communication with the transceiver and configured to access the at least one memory. The processor may be configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to receive data associated with a user device from a base station; receive data from the base station; establish connection with the user device based at least in part on the data received from the macrocell base station; and transmit the data received from the base station to the user device.

Claims

1. A vehicle-based base station, comprising:

at least one antenna;

at least one transceiver coupled to the at least one antenna;

at least one memory that stores computer-executable instructions; and

at least one processor in communication with the transceiver and configured to access the at least one memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to;

receive data associated with a user device from a base station;

receive content from the base station;

establish a connection with the user device based at least in part on the data received from the base station; and

transmit the content received from the base station to the user device.

2. The vehicle-based base station of claim 1, wherein the data associated with the user device further comprises location information of the user device, type of content requested by the user device, or user preferences associated with the user device.

3. The vehicle-based base station of claim 1, wherein the data associated with the user device further comprises authentication credentials associated with the user device, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

authenticate the user device based at least in part on the authentication credentials.

4. The vehicle-based base station of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

determine to establish the connection with the user device based at least in part on the data received from the base station.

5. The vehicle-based base station of claim 1, wherein the content received from the base station is received and pre-cached prior to establishing the connection with the user device.

6. The vehicle-based base station of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

receive location data associated with the user device from the user device or the base station;

identify a second vehicle-based base station; and

facilitate a handoff of the connection to the second vehicle-based base station based at least in part the location data associated with the user device.

7. A computer program product residing on a computer readable medium having a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

transmitting a request for content to a macrocell base station;

receiving data from the macrocell base station identifying a vehicle-based base station;

establishing a connection with the vehicle-based base station based at least in part on the data from the macrocell base station; and

receiving at least a portion of the content from the vehicle-based base station.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the data from the macrocell base station further comprises data indicating a pre-association of the vehicle-based base station and the user device determined by the macrocell base station;

and instructions for the user device to establish a connection with the vehicle-based base station.

9. The computer program product of claim 7, the operations further comprising:

receiving data from the macrocell base station identifying a plurality of vehicle-based base stations, wherein the plurality of vehicle-based base stations comprise the vehicle-based base station; and

determining, based at least in part on the plurality of vehicle-based base stations, that the vehicle-based base station comprises a channel with the highest throughput.

10. The computer program product of claim 7, the operations further comprising:

receiving data from the macrocell base station identifying a second vehicle-based base station;

establishing a second connection with the second vehicle-based base station; and

receiving at least a portion of the content from the second vehicle-based base station.

11. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the request to the macrocell base station further comprises at least one of user preferences associated with a user of the user device or a user profile associated with the user of the user device.

12. The computer program product of claim 7, the operations further comprising:

transmitting authentication credentials to at least one of the macrocell base station or the vehicle-based base station.

13. A macrocell base station, comprising:

at least one memory that stores computer-executable instructions; and

at least one processor configured to access the at least one memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to;

receive data from one or more user devices;

receive data from one or more vehicle-based base stations;

receive a request from a user device of the one or more user devices to establish a connection;

identify a vehicle-based base station of the one or more vehicle-based base stations based at least in part on the data received from at least one of the one or more vehicle-based base stations or the one or more user devices; and

transmit data associated with the identified vehicle-based base station to the user device.

14. The macrocell base station of claim 13, wherein the request from the user device further comprises user preferences associated with the user device or a user profile associated with the user device.

15. The macrocell base station of claim 14, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

obtain content based at least in part on the user preferences or the user profile; and

transmit the content to the identified vehicle-based base station for the vehicle-based base station to pre-cache.

16. The macrocell base station of claim 13, wherein the data received from the one or more vehicle-based base stations comprises location data associated with each of the one or more vehicle-based base stations, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

identify a second vehicle-based base station of the one or more vehicle-based base stations based at least in part on location data associated with each of the one or more vehicle-based base stations; and

transmit instructions to the second vehicle-based base station to establish a connection with the at least one vehicle-based base station of the one or more vehicle-based base stations.

17. The macrocell base station of claim 13, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

associate the user device with at least one vehicle-based base station of the one or more vehicle-based base stations; and

transmit instructions to the user device to establish a connection with the associated at least one vehicle-based base station.

18. The macrocell base station of claim 13, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

receive from the user device an indication that a connection has been established with the identified vehicle-based base station.

19. The macrocell base station of claim 18, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

determine that the connection of the user device with the identified vehicle-based base station is diminished;

identify a second vehicle-based base station near the user device;

associate the user device with the identified second vehicle-based base station; and

transmit instructions to the user device to establish a second connection with the identified second vehicle-based base station.

20. The macrocell base station of claim 13, wherein the data from the one or more user devices further comprises a current location of each of the one or more user devices, type of data requested by each of the one or more user devices, or user preferences associated with each of the one or more user devices.