Method and Poll Control Entity for Controlling a Polling Procedure

• US 20150319635A1
• Filed: 12/03/2012
• Published: 11/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: BERGQUIST, Gunnar, SHAH, Samir
• Granted Patent: US 9,894,548 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1685 the supervisory signal being transmitted in response to a specific request, e.g. to a polling signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1887 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0864 Round trip delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0065 using measurement of signal travel time
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/06 using polling

Abstract

A method and poll control entity (300) for controlling a polling procedure in a radio communication where a data transmitting node (302) transmits data (3:1) to a data receiving node (304) and sends polls to the data receiving node according to a default polling frequency. The polls require the data receiving node to send feedback (3:2) to the data transmitting node indicating whether said data has been received and decoded by the data receiving node or not. The poll control entity detects (3:3a-c) a trigger of the radio communication indicating a deviation of a feedback time which is a time period between a time of sending the poll and a time of receiving the feedback from an expected feedback time range. The poll control entity then adjusts (3:4) the polling frequency based on the detected trigger such that the deviation of the feedback time is reduced, and enforces (3:5) the adjusted polling frequency at the data transmitting node. In this way, the polling frequency can be dynamically and individually adapted to the current situation of traffic load and/or radio conditions which may influence the resulting feedback time in the radio communication, to achieve efficient communication of data and good throughput.

Claims

1. A method performed by a poll control entity for controlling a polling procedure in a radio communication where a data transmitting node transmits data to a data receiving node and sends polls to the data receiving node according to a default polling frequency, said polls requiring the data receiving node to send feedback to the data transmitting node indicating whether said data has been received and decoded by the data receiving node or not, the method comprising:

detecting a trigger of the radio communication indicating a deviation of a feedback time which is a time period between a time of sending the poll and a time of receiving the feedback from an expected feedback time range,

adjusting the polling frequency based on said trigger of the radio communication such that the deviation of the feedback time is reduced, and

enforcing the adjusted polling frequency at the data transmitting node.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the detected trigger of the radio communication indicates that the feedback time is longer than an upper limit of the expected feedback time range, and the polling frequency is adjusted by decreasing the polling frequency.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the detected trigger of the radio communication indicates that the feedback time is shorter than a lower limit of the expected feedback time range, and the polling frequency is adjusted by increasing the polling frequency.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the data transmitting node is instructed to revert to the default polling frequency when it is detected that the feedback time is within the expected feedback time range.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the trigger of the radio communication comprises a first trigger indicating that the utilization of a resource used for said radio communication exceeds an upper utilization limit or falls below a lower utilization limit.

6. A method according to claim 5, wherein the first trigger is received from a Monitored System Resources (MSR) entity.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the trigger of the radio communication comprises a second trigger indicating that a current Round Trip Time (RTT) of the radio communication between the data transmitting and receiving nodes exceeds an upper RTT limit or falls below a lower RTT limit.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein the feedback time is determined by measuring a part of the current RTT.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein said part of the current RTT depends on a delay of scheduling transmission of at least one of the data and the feedback.

10. A method according to claim 7, wherein the second trigger is received from a path proxy located in a transmit-receive path between the data transmitting and receiving nodes.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein the trigger of the radio communication comprises a third trigger received from the data transmitting node when the data transmitting node detects that the amount of pending data to be transmitted exceeds a data amount threshold.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein the poll control entity is implemented in a scheduler of a base station or in said data transmitting node.

13. A poll control entity configured to control a polling procedure in a radio communication where a data transmitting node transmits data to a data receiving node and sends polls to the data receiving node according to a default polling frequency, said polls requiring the data receiving node to send feedback to the data transmitting node indicating whether said data has been received and decoded by the data receiving node or not, the poll control entity comprising:

a detecting unit adapted to detect a trigger of the radio communication indicating a deviation of a feedback time which is a time period between a time of sending the poll and a time of receiving the feedback from an expected feedback time range,

a logic unit adapted to adjust the polling frequency based on said trigger of the radio communication such that the deviation of the feedback time is reduced, and

an enforcing unit adapted to enforce the adjusted polling frequency (PF) at the data transmitting node.

14. A poll control entity according to claim 13, wherein when the detected trigger of the radio communication indicates that the feedback time is longer than an upper limit of the expected feedback time range, the logic unit is adapted to adjust the polling frequency by decreasing the polling frequency.

15. A poll control entity according to claim 13, wherein when the detected trigger of the radio communication indicates that the feedback time is shorter than a lower limit of the expected feedback time range, the logic unit is adapted to adjust the polling frequency by increasing the polling frequency.

16. A poll control entity according to claim 13, wherein the enforcing unit is further adapted to instruct the data transmitting node to revert to the default polling frequency when it is detected that the feedback time is within the expected feedback time range.

17. A poll control entity according to claim 13, wherein the trigger of the radio communication comprises a first trigger indicating that the utilization of a resource used for said radio communication exceeds an upper utilization limit or falls below a lower utilization limit.

18. A poll control entity according to claim 17, wherein the detecting unit is further adapted to receive the first trigger from a Monitored System Resources (MSR) entity.

19. A poll control entity according to claim 13, wherein the trigger of the radio communication comprises a second trigger indicating that a current Round Trip Time (RTT) of the radio communication between the data transmitting and receiving nodes exceeds an upper RTT limit or falls below a lower RTT limit.

20. A poll control entity according to claim 19, wherein the logic unit is adapted to determine the feedback time by measuring a part of the current RTT.

21. A poll control entity according to claim 20, wherein said part of the current RTT depends on a delay of scheduling transmission of at least one of the data and the feedback.

22. A poll control entity according to claim 19, wherein the detecting unit is further adapted to receive the second trigger from a path proxy located in a transmit-receive path between the data transmitting and receiving nodes.

23. A poll control entity according to claim 13, wherein the trigger of the radio communication comprises a third trigger and the detecting unit is further adapted to receive the third trigger from the data transmitting node when the data transmitting node detects that the amount of pending data to be transmitted exceeds a data amount threshold.

24. A poll control entity according to claim 13, wherein the poll control entity is implemented in a scheduler of a base station or in said data transmitting node.