SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CONTENTION MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY OF SERVICE ESTIMATION IN HETEROGENEOUS WIRELESS NETWORKS

• US 20150271848A1
• Filed: 12/23/2014
• Published: 09/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Shu-Ping Yeh
• Inventors: Himayat, Nageen, Yeh, Shu-Ping, Niu, Huaning, Jeon, Jeongho, Fong, Mo-Han, Gerasimenko, Mikhail, Andreev, Sergey, Koucheravy, Yevgeni
• Granted Patent: US 9,942,793 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/00 Arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received correcting synchronisation H04L7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2433 Allocation of priorities to traffic types
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/32 Hierarchical cell structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0247 based on conditions of the access network or the infrastructure network central resource management H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/006 in the downlink, i.e. towards the terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0841 with collision treatment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

A user equipment (UE) is configured to receive a maximum probability of accessing a wireless local area network (WLAN) for communication. The maximum probability is received via a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) communication link with an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (eNB). The UE is further configured to determine that there is a queued transmission for the UE and, in response to determining that there is a queued transmission, to determine whether the UE is authorized to access to the WLAN using a probability less than or equal to the maximum probability. The UE is further configured to delay contention for access to the WLAN for at least a pre-backoff duration in response to determining that the UE is not authorized.

Claims

1. A user equipment (UE) configured to:

receive a maximum probability of accessing a wireless local area network (WLAN) for communication, wherein the maximum probability is received via a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) communication link with an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (eNB);

determine that there is a queued transmission for the UE;

in response to determining that there is a queued transmission, determine whether the UE is authorized to access to the WLAN using a probability less than or equal to the maximum probability; and

delay contention for access to the WLAN for at least a pre-backoff duration in response to determining that the UE is not authorized.

2. The UE of claim 1, wherein the UE is further configured to receive an updated maximum probability and wherein determining whether the UE is authorized to access the WLAN comprises determining based on the updated maximum probability.

3. The UE of claim 1, wherein the pre-backoff duration comprises a time period corresponding to a maximum medium access control (MAC) transmission duration on the WLAN.

4. The UE of claim 1, wherein the UE is further configured to determine whether the UE is authorized to access the WLAN an additional time at the end of the pre-backoff duration.

5. The UE of claim 1, wherein the UE is configured to contend for access to the WLAN in response to determining that the UE is authorized.

6. The UE of claim 1, wherein the WLAN comprises a wireless access point and wherein the UE is further configured to establish a communication session with a small cell comprising the eNB and the wireless access point.

7. The UE of claim 1, wherein the UE is further configured to determine the probability based on one or more of congestion on the WLAN, a quality-of-service requirement of a data stream, and current communication needs of one or more applications on the UE, wherein the probability is less than or equal to the maximum probability.

8. A wireless communication device comprising:

a communication component configured to communicate with a small cell over a licensed wireless spectrum and an unlicensed wireless spectrum, wherein communicating with the small cell comprises communicating at least a portion of control layer data over the licensed wireless spectrum and communicating at least a portion of user layer data over the unlicensed spectrum;

a control layer component configured to receive, on the licensed spectrum, contention settings for communicating using the unlicensed spectrum, wherein the contention settings comprise a probability of communicating in an uplink (UL) direction over the unlicensed spectrum; and

a data layer component configured to manage communications on the unlicensed spectrum based on the contention settings.

9. The wireless communication device of claim 8, wherein the data layer component is configured to determine whether the wireless communication device is authorized to contend for UL access to the unlicensed spectrum based on the probability.

10. The wireless communication device of claim 9, wherein, in response to determining that the wireless communication device is not authorized to contend for UL access, the data layer component is further configured to determine whether the wireless communication device is authorized an additional time after waiting a pre-backoff duration.

11. The wireless communication device of claim 9, wherein, in response to determining that the wireless communication device is authorized to contend for UL access, the data layer component is further configured to contend for UL access.

12. The wireless communication device of claim 8, wherein the control layer component is further configured to receive, over the licensed spectrum, contention settings comprising a probability of communicating in a downlink (DL) direction over the unlicensed spectrum.

13. The wireless communication device of claim 8, wherein the data layer component is configured to contend for access for UL and DL communication based on probabilistic access during a shared time period.

14. An Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (eNB) comprising:

a communication session component configured to establish a communication session with a user equipment (UE) over a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) link;

a probability component configured to determine a maximum pre-backoff probability for the UE to communicate with a non-3GPP access point, wherein the maximum pre-backoff probability indicates a maximum probability at which the UE is allowed to transmit data in an uplink (UL) direction to the non-3GPP access point; and

a configuration component configured to send a radio resource control (RRC) message indicating the maximum pre-backoff probability for the UE, wherein the UE is configured to determine whether the UE should delay contention for transmission for at least a pre-backoff duration based on the maximum pre-backoff probability.

15. The eNB of claim 14, wherein the maximum pre-backoff probability comprises a first maximum pre-backoff probability, and wherein the communication session component is configured to establish additional communication sessions with one or more additional UEs and the configuration component is configured to send additional RRC messages comprising one or more additional maximum pre-backoff probabilities for the one or more additional UEs.

16. The eNB of claim 15, wherein the one or more additional maximum pre-backoff probabilities comprise a probability different from the maximum pre-backoff probability.

17. The eNB of claim 14, wherein the configuration component is configured to set the pre-backoff duration based on a load on the non-3GPP network.

18. The eNB of claim 14, further comprising a congestion component configured to detect congestion on a network corresponding to the non-3GPP access point.

19. The eNB of claim 18, wherein the congestion component is configured to detect the congestion based on a binary exponential backoff (BEB) window size exceeding a threshold value.

20. The eNB of claim 18, wherein the congestion component is configured to move traffic from the non-3GPP access point to the 3GPP network in response to the congestion component detecting the congestion.

21. The eNB of claim 18, wherein the congestion component is configured to determine whether any interference is caused by a neighboring cell, and wherein the eNB further comprises a coordination component configured to coordinate with the neighboring cell to reduce traffic in a collision domain of the eNB.