Deterministic RRC Connections

• US 20150304955A1
• Filed: 04/13/2015
• Published: 10/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Tabet, Tarik, Chaudhary, Madhusudan, Manepalli, Venkateswara Rao
• Granted Patent: US 10,375,646 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0274 by switching on or off the equipment or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/28 Discontinuous transmission [DTX]; Discontinuous reception [DRX]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

This disclosure relates to techniques for scheduling radio resource control connections between a wireless device and a network element of a network in advance. According to some embodiments, a wireless device may provide an indication of one or more types of upcoming data traffic to the network element. The network element may schedule one or more radio resource control connections for the wireless device based at least in part on the indication of one or more types of upcoming data traffic. The network element may provide an indication of the scheduled radio resource control connection(s) to the wireless device. The wireless device and the network may establish the scheduled radio resource control connection at the scheduled time.

Claims

1. A wireless user equipment (UE) device, comprising:

a radio;

a baseband processor (BB) operatively coupled to the radio; and

an application processor (AP) operatively coupled to the BB;

wherein the UE is configured to;

determine, by the AP, an amount of time until next uplink and/or downlink application data is expected;

provide, by the AP, an indication of the determined amount of time to the BB;

modify, by the BB, timing of one or more of a transmit operation or a receive operation based at least in part on the indication of the determined amount of time.

2. The UE of claim 1,

wherein modifying timing of one or more of a transmit operation or a receive operation comprises skipping one or more DRX cycle on-durations based on the indication of the determined amount of time.

3. The UE of claim 1, wherein the UE is further configured to:

determine, by the BB, a next wakeup time of the BB;

provide, by the BB, an indication of the determined next wakeup time to the AP;

modify, by the AP, timing of sending application data to the BB based at least in part on the indication of the determined next wakeup time.

4. The UE of claim 1, wherein the UE is further configured to:

provide a request to a cellular base station (BS) for early short or long DRX entry, wherein the request is provided prior to expiration of a DRX inactivity timer for the UE;

enter a short or long DRX mode prior to expiration of the DRX inactivity timer based at least in part on the request for early short or long DRX entry.

5. The UE of claim 4, wherein the UE is further configured to:

receive, by the BB, a response to the request for early short or long DRX entry from the BS, wherein the response indicates to the UE to enter the short or long DRX mode,

wherein entering the short or long DRX mode prior to expiration of the DRX inactivity timer is also based at least in part on the response to the request for early short or long DRX entry.

6. The UE of claim 1, wherein the UE is further configured to:

provide a request to a cellular base station (BS) to transition from a DRX short cycle to a DRX long cycle, wherein the request is provided prior to expiration of a DRX short cycle timer for the UE;

transition from the DRX short cycle to the DRX long cycle prior to expiration of the DRX short cycle timer based at least in part on the request to transition from the DRX short cycle to the DRX long cycle.

7. The UE of claim 1, wherein the UE is further configured to:

receive a set of possible configurations from a base station (BS), wherein the each possible configuration of the set of possible configurations comprises configuration settings for each of a plurality of configuration parameters, wherein the plurality of configuration parameters comprise one or more of;

physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) configuration parameters;

sounding reference symbol (SRS) configuration parameters;

scheduling request (SR) configuration parameters;

RRC inactivity timer settings;

DRX inactivity timer settings;

short DRX cycle timer settings;

DRX OnDuration settings;

other DRX settings;

provide an indication of a selected configuration from the set of possible configurations to the BS;

perform cellular communication with the BS according to the selected configuration.

8. The UE of claim 1, wherein the UE is further configured to:

receive, by the BB, first application data from a cellular base station (BS) in a wireless manner;

provide, by the BB, the first application data to the AP;

generate, by the BB, control information in response to receiving the application data from the BS;

initiate, at the BB, a timer based at least in part on receiving the application data from the BS;

provide, by the BB, the control information to the BS bundled with second application data prior to expiration of the timer if the second application data is received from the AP prior to expiration of the timer;

provide, by the BB, the control information to the BS upon expiration of the timer if no application data is received from the AP prior to expiration of the timer.

9. The UE of claim 1, wherein the UE is further configured to:

establish a default low-power configuration with a cellular network, wherein the default low-power configuration specifies default configuration settings if a low-power indicator is enabled for the UE for one or more configuration parameters;

provide a low-power indicator to the cellular network; and

perform cellular communication with the cellular network according to the default low power configuration based on providing the low-power indicator to the cellular network.

10. A method, comprising:

by an application layer of a wireless user equipment (UE) device;

receiving an indication of a determined next wakeup time of a baseband layer of the UE; and

selecting timing of sending application data to the baseband layer of the UE for network communication based at least in part on the indication of the determined next wakeup time of the baseband layer of the UE,

wherein timing of sending application data to the baseband layer of the UE is selected to coordinate sending application data to the baseband layer of the UE with the determined next wakeup time of the baseband layer of the UE.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining an amount of time until a next expected network communication of application data; and

providing an indication of the determined amount of time to the baseband layer of the UE.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

providing an indication of one or more application data types currently active at the application layer of the UE to the baseband layer of the UE.

13. A method, comprising:

by a baseband layer of a wireless user equipment (UE) device;

receiving an indication of an amount of time until next uplink and/or downlink application data is expected by an application layer of the UE from the application layer of the UE;

selecting timing of one or more of a next transmit operation or a next receive operation based at least in part on the indication of the determined amount of time.

14. The method of claim 13,

wherein selecting timing of one or more of a next transmit operation or a next receive operation based at least in part on the indication of the determined amount of time further comprises:

skipping one or more DRX cycle on-durations based on the indication of the determined amount of time if the determined amount of time is greater than an amount of time until a next DRX cycle on-duration.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining a next wakeup time of the baseband layer of the UE; and

providing an indication of the determined next wakeup time of the baseband layer of the UE to the application layer of the UE.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

providing a request for early short or long DRX entry to a cellular base station (BS) based at least in part on information received from the application layer of the UE, wherein the request is provided prior to expiration of a DRX inactivity timer for the UE;

entering a short or long DRX mode prior to expiration of the DRX inactivity timer based at least in part on the request for early short or long DRX entry.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

providing a request to transition from a DRX short cycle to a DRX long cycle to a cellular base station (BS) based at least in part on information received from the application layer of the UE, wherein the request is provided prior to expiration of a DRX short cycle timer for the UE;

transitioning from the DRX short cycle to the DRX long cycle prior to expiration of the DRX short cycle timer based at least in part on the request to transition from the DRX short cycle to the DRX long cycle.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the request is provided to the BS using one of:

a media access control (MAC) control element (CE);

a power preference indicator (PPI) bit;

or

a radio resource control (RRC) information element (IE).

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a set of possible configurations from a base station (BS), wherein the each possible configuration of the set of possible configurations comprises configuration settings for each of a plurality of configuration parameters;

providing an indication of a selected configuration from the set of possible configurations to the BS;

performing cellular communication with the BS according to the selected configuration.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

receiving an indication of one or more application data types currently active at the application layer of the UE; and

selecting a configuration from the set of possible configurations based at least in part on the one or more application data types currently active at the application layer of the UE.