SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND APPARTATUSES FOR BEARER SPLITTING IN MULTI-RADIO HETNET

• US 20160119939A1
• Filed: 05/06/2015
• Published: 04/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: HIMAYAT, NAGEEN, ZHU, JING, YEH, SHU-PING, SIROTKIN, ALEXANDER, FONG, MO-HAN, EFRAIM-SAGI, PENNY, PARRON, JEROME, KOLDE, MARTIN
• Granted Patent: US 9,699,800 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0278 using buffer status reports dynamic wireless traffic scheduling definition H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0865 of different Radio Access Technologies [RATs], e.g. LTE or WiFi
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1215 for collaboration of different radio technologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Systems and methods for bearer splitting among multiple radio links are disclosed herein. User equipment (UE) may be communicatively coupled to an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (eNB) by multiple radio links (e.g., an LTE link and a WLAN link). A transmitter may dynamically determine a splitting policy for how to split traffic among each link (e.g., what proportion to send over each link). In some embodiments, the transmitter may determine the splitting policy explicitly based on lower layer metrics. Alternatively, or in addition, each radio access interface may request data when a transmission opportunity becomes available, and the splitting policy may be determined implicitly from the data requests. For a UE, the splitting policy may be determined with network assistance, which may include a resource allocation for an LTE link, a probability of successful transmission over a WLAN link, and/or the like.

Claims

1. An evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) Node B (eNB) operating in a radio access network (RAN) anchored multi-radio heterogeneous network, the eNB comprising:

a link aggregation transmitter configured to;

receive data traffic transmitted over a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) bearer;

determine a proportion of the data traffic to be transmitted over an LTE link and a proportion of the data traffic to be transmitted over a wireless local area network (WLAN) link; and

split the data traffic among between the LTE link and the WLAN link based on the determined proportions.

2. The eNB of claim 1, wherein the link aggregation transmitter splits the data traffic at a layer selected from the group consisting of above a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, at the PDCP layer, below the PDCP layer, and below a radio link control (RLC) layer.

3. The eNB of claim 1, further comprising a link aggregation scheduler configured to calculate the proportions of the data traffic to be transmitted over the LTE and WLAN links based on lower layer metrics, wherein the link aggregation transmitter determines the proportions by receiving an indication of the proportions from the link aggregation scheduler.

4. The eNB of claim 3, wherein the lower layer metrics include a metric selected from the group consisting of link quality, link congestion, and buffer status.

5. The eNB of claim 1, wherein the link aggregation transmitter determines the proportions by receiving requests for data from each of a WLAN radio access interface and an LTE radio access interface when transmission opportunities become available.

6. The eNB of claim 5, wherein the link aggregation transmitter determines how to respond to the requests for data based on lower layer metrics.

7. The eNB of claim 1, wherein the link aggregation transmitter determines the proportion to be transmitted over the LTE link by receiving requests for data from an LTE radio access interface and determines the proportion to be transmitted over the WLAN link based on lower layer metrics.

8. The eNB of claim 1, wherein a WLAN radio access interface is non-collocated with the eNB.

9. A method for communicating using multiple radios, the method comprising:

calculating, at a base station, a data split between a first radio interface and a second radio interface for downlink traffic; and

providing data to the first and second radio interfaces according to the calculated data split for transmission to a wireless communication device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein calculating the data split comprises calculating the data split based on lower layer measurements for each radio interface.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein calculating the data split comprises implicitly determining the data split based on requests for data from each radio interface.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising calculating a data split for uplink traffic received from the wireless communication device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein calculating the data split for uplink traffic comprises calculating the data split based on buffer status reports received from the wireless communication device and lower layer metrics.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising informing the wireless communication device of a resource allocation for each radio.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein informing the wireless communication device of the resource allocation comprises providing a probability of transmission over the second radio interface.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein informing the wireless communication device of the resource allocation comprises assigning time slots for the first radio interface and the second radio interface, and wherein the assigned time slots for each radio interface are loosely synchronized.

17. A user equipment (UE) for communicating with a base station over multiple radio links, the UE comprising:

a scheduler configured to;

determine a division of data between a first radio link and a second radio link, and

divide the data into a first portion for the first radio link and a second portion for the second radio link according to the determined division;

a first transceiver configured to transmit the first portion of data over the first radio link; and

a second transceiver configured to transmit the second portion of data over the second radio link.

18. The UE of claim 17, wherein the scheduler is configured to determine the division locally based on lower layer measurements.

19. The UE of claim 18, wherein the lower layer metrics include a metric selected from the group consisting of link quality, link congestion, and buffer status.

20. The UE of claim 18, wherein the scheduler assigns the first portion of data to the first transceiver and the second portion of data to the second transceiver according to the determined division.

21. The UE of claim 17, wherein the scheduler is configured determine the division based on transmission opportunities available for each of the first transceiver and the second transceiver.

22. The UE of claim 17, wherein the scheduler is configured to determine the division based on a base station indication of the division.

23. The UE of claim 22, wherein the scheduler is configured to receive an indication of an allocation of resources from the base station.

24. The UE of claim 23, wherein the scheduler is configured to push data to the first and second transceivers based on the allocation of resources.

25. The UE of claim 23, wherein the scheduler is configured to receive requests for data from the first and second transceiver when transmission opportunities are available, and wherein the scheduler is configured to fulfill the requests based on the allocation of resources.