METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MEASURING A PACKET THROUGHPUT IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20150201339A1
• Filed: 07/17/2013
• Published: 07/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Yi, Seungjune, Lee, Youngdae, Park, Sungjun, Jung, Sunghoon
• Granted Patent: US 9,559,930 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0278 using buffer status reports dynamic wireless traffic scheduling definition H04W72/12

Abstract

A method and apparatus of measuring a packet throughput using a timer in a wireless communication system are provided. When determining a reference time for estimating packet throughput, a receiver determines the time that a data burst starts or ends using a timer in order to estimate the packet throughput considering a change in the data burst of the transmitter buffer. A measurement period is defined through the determined start time and end time of the data burst by the timer, and packet throughput is measured considering the total amount of the received data burst. The throughput of packet data may be estimated by each base station based on the same standard rule, so that the measured packet throughput values may be reliable, thus allowing the operator to make use of it as a parameter for MDT.

Claims

1. A method of measuring a packet throughput in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:

determining, by a receiver, a start point at which a data burst begins using a timer;

determining, by the receiver, an end point at which the data burst ends using the timer;

measuring, by the receiver, a throughput of the data burst based on the start point and the end point;

wherein the start point is a point in time when the timer starts to run by checking that a first data block for the data burst is received from a transmitter, and

wherein the end point is a point in time when the timer expires after the timer runs with a predetermined value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the start point is a point in time when the timer starts to run after receiving the first data block to indicate that a transmitter'"'"'s buffer size becomes greater than zero for at least one radio bearer of the transmitter.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the end point is a point in time when the timer expires after receiving a last data block to indicate that the transmitter'"'"'s buffer size becomes zero for all radio bearers of the transmitter.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the throughput of the data burst is measured by following equation;

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the timer restarts to run, not to expire when a data block for the data burst is needed to be received by checking a sequence of data block in a reception buffer.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiver is a base station and the transmitter is a user equipment.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the data block includes one of MAC(medium access control) PDU(packet data unit), MAC SDU(service data unit), RLC(radio link control) PDU, RLC SDU, PDCP(packet data convergence protocol) PDU, or PDCP SDU.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a value of the timer is signaled from a base station to a user equipment with one of RRC(Radio Resource Control) message, MAC Control PDU, RLC Control PDU, or PDCP Control PDU.

9. An apparatus of measuring a packet throughput in a wireless communication system, the apparatus comprising:

a radio frequency(RF) unit for receiving a radio signal; and

a processor, operatively coupled with the RF unit, configured to;

determine a start point at which a data burst begins and an end point at which the data burst ends; and

,

measure a throughput of the data burst based on the start point and the end point;

wherein the start point is a point in time when the timer starts to run by checking that a first data block for the data burst is received from a transmitter, and the end point is a point in time when the timer expires after the timer runs with a predetermined value, and;

wherein the start point is a point in time when the timer starts to run after receiving the first data block to indicate that a transmitter'"'"'s buffer size becomes greater than zero for at least one radio bearer of the transmitter, and the end point is a point in time when the timer expires after receiving a last data block to indicate that the transmitter'"'"'s buffer size becomes zero for all radio bearers of the transmitter.

10. An user equipment (UE) for measuring a packet throughput in a wireless communication system, the UE comprising:

a radio frequency(RF) unit for transmitting a radio signal; and

a processor, operatively coupled with the RF unit, configured to;

generate data blocks for a data burst to determine a start at which a data burst begins and an end point at which the data burst ends using a timer by a receiver.

11. The UE of claim 10, wherein the data blocks include one of MAC(medium access control) PDU(packet data unit), MAC SDU(service data unit), RLC(radio link control) PDU, RLC SDU, PDCP(packet data convergence protocol) PDU, or PDCP SDU.

12. The UE of claim 11, wherein the data blocks include transmission of the MAC(medium access control) PDU(packet data unit), or MAC SDU(service data unit) per UE.

13. The UE of claim 11, wherein the data blocks include transmission of RLC(radio link control) PDU, RLC SDU, PDCP(packet data convergence protocol) PDU, or PDCP SDU per each radio bearer.

14. The UE of claim 10, wherein the start point is a point in time when the timer starts to run after receiving a first data block of the data blocks to indicate that a transmitter'"'"'s buffer size becomes greater than zero for at least one radio bearer, and the end point is a point in time when the timer expires after receiving a last data block of the data blocks to indicate that the transmitter'"'"'s buffer size becomes zero for all radio bearers.

15. The UE of claim 10, the processor further determines a value of the timer by receiving one of RRC(Radio Resource Control) message, MAC Control PDU, RLC Control PDU, or PDCP Control PDU signaled from a base station.