SMALL CELL EDGE COMPUTING PLATFORM

• US 20170064037A1
• Filed: 08/28/2015
• Published: 03/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Das, Soumya, Park, Edwin Chongwoo
• Granted Patent: US 10,587,721 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B

Abstract

A small cell may include a base station that may be co-located with an edge computing device. The edge computing device may be integrated within a small cell base station or be a physically separate module communicatively coupled to and in close proximity with the small cell base station that provides edge computing resources at the small cell. The processing responsibilities associated with received data may be split or divided between the edge computing device and a target mobile device. For example, a portion of data processing may be performed by the edge computing device and the remaining portion of data processing may be performed by the target mobile device. The distribution of processing responsibilities may be based on radio link conditions or conditions (e.g., power state or processing capabilities) associated with the target mobile device.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication, comprising:

receiving data for a mobile device in a first small cell; and

distributing processing of the received data between computing resources of the mobile device and computing resources of an edge computing device, wherein the edge computing device is co-located with a first base station of the first small cell or a second base station of a neighboring second small cell that is in communication with the first small cell.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a quality of a radio link between the mobile device and the first base station;

decompressing the received data at the edge computing device based at least in part on the quality of the radio link; and

transmitting the decompressed data to the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

downloading a plurality of versions of the data; and

selecting a first version of the plurality of versions of the data to transmit to the mobile device based at least in part on a condition of a radio link used for communication between the mobile device and the first base station or an operating context of the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the operating context comprises at least one of a user preference, a power state of the mobile device, a processing headroom of the mobile device, a processing capability of the mobile device, or a time of day.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

observing a condition of a radio link used for communication between the mobile device and the first base station; and

allocating a processing distribution between the computing resources of the mobile device and the computing resources of the edge computing device based at least in part on the condition of the radio link.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the edge computing device, an indication of an operating context of the mobile device; and

allocating a processing distribution between the computing resources of the mobile device and the computing resources of the edge computing device based at least in part on the indication.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

comparing the indication against a threshold associated with the operating context of the mobile device, wherein the threshold is a processing availability threshold, a power availability threshold, or a temperature threshold.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a processing capability report from the mobile device; and

processing the data based at least in part on the processing capability report.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the received data comprises video data, the method further comprising:

determining a quality of a radio link between the mobile device and the first base station

rendering the video data based at least in part on the quality of the radio link; and

transmitting the rendered video data to the mobile device for display on the mobile device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the received data comprises audio data, the method further comprising:

determining a quality of a radio link between the mobile device and the first base station;

decompressing audio data for transmission to the mobile device, the decompressing based at least in part on the quality of the radio link; and

transmitting the decompressed audio data to the mobile device for playback on the mobile device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein

wireless communication resources of the first base station are housed in a first module;

and

the edge computing device is housed in a second module in communication with and co-located with the first module.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first small cell is one of a first picocell, a first femtocell, a first microcell, or a first Wi-Fi access point; and

the second small cell is one of a second picocell, a second femtocell, a second microcell, or a second Wi-Fi access point.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first small cell comprises a wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceiver and a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver.

14. An apparatus for wireless communication at a wireless device, comprising:

means for receiving data for a mobile device in a first small cell; and

means for distributing processing of the received data between computing resources of the mobile device and computing resources of an edge computing device, wherein the edge computing device is co-located with a first base station of the first small cell or a second base station of a neighboring second small cell that is in communication with the first small cell.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

means for determining a quality of a radio link between the mobile device and the first base station;

means for decompressing the received data at the edge computing device based at least in part on the quality of the radio link; and

means for transmitting the decompressed data to the mobile device.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

means for downloading a plurality of versions of the data; and

means for selecting a first version of the plurality of versions of the data to transmit to the mobile device based at least in part on a condition of a radio link used for communication between the mobile device and the first base station or an operating context of the mobile device.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the operating context comprises at least one of a user preference, a power state of the mobile device, a processing headroom of the mobile device, a processing capability of the mobile device, or a time of day.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

means for observing a condition of a radio link used for communication between the mobile device and the first base station; and

means for allocating a processing distribution between the computing resources of the mobile device and the computing resources of the edge computing device based at least in part on the condition of the radio link.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

means for receiving, at the edge computing device, an indication of an operating context of the mobile device; and

means for allocating a processing distribution between the computing resources of the mobile device and the computing resources of the edge computing device based at least in part on the indication.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

means for comparing the indication against a threshold associated with the operating context of the mobile device, wherein the threshold is a processing availability threshold, a power availability threshold, or a temperature threshold.

21. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

means for receiving a processing capability report from the mobile device; and

means for processing the data based at least in part on the processing capability report.

22. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

means for determining a quality of a radio link between the mobile device and the first base station;

means for rendering video data based at least in part on the quality of the radio link; and

means for transmitting the rendered video data to the mobile device for display on the mobile device.

23. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

means for determining a quality of a radio link between the mobile device and the first base station;

means for decompressing audio data for transmission to the mobile device, the decompressing based at least in part on the quality of the radio link; and

means for transmitting the decompressed audio data to the mobile device for playback on the mobile device.

24. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein

wireless communication resources of the first base station are housed in a first module;

and

the edge computing device is housed in a second module in communication with and co-located with the first module.

25. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein:

the first small cell is one of a first picocell, a first femtocell, a first microcell, or a first Wi-Fi access point; and

the second small cell is one of a second picocell, a second femtocell, a second microcell, or a second Wi-Fi access point.

26. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first small cell comprises a wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceiver and a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver.

27. An apparatus for communication at a wireless device, comprising:

a processor;

memory in electronic communication with the processor; and

instructions stored in the memory;

wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to;

receive data for a mobile device in a first small cell; and

distribute processing of the received data between computing resources of the mobile device and computing resources of an edge computing device, wherein the edge computing device is co-located with a first base station of the first small cell or a second base station of a neighboring second small cell that is in communication with the first small cell.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to:

determine a quality of a radio link between the mobile device and the first base station;

decompress the received data at the edge computing device based at least in part on the quality of the radio link; and

transmit the decompressed data to the mobile device.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to:

observe a condition of a radio link used for communication between the mobile device and the first base station; and

allocate a processing distribution between the computing resources of the mobile device and the computing resources of the edge computing device based at least in part on the condition of the radio link.

30. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for communication at a wireless device, the code comprising instructions executable to:

receive data for a mobile device in a first small cell; and

distribute processing of the received data between computing resources of the mobile device and computing resources of an edge computing device, wherein the edge computing device is co-located with a first base station of the first small cell or a second base station of a neighboring second small cell that is in communication with the first small cell.