Apparatus, and an associated method, for reserving resources in a mobile communication system through the use of historical indicia

• US 6,957,074 B2
• Filed: 12/26/2002
• Issued: 10/18/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Bhattacharya, Amiya, Wang, Shu-Shaw
• Primary Examiner(s): BEAMER, TEMICA M
• Application Number:
  US10/331,181
• Publication Number:
  US 20040192341A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,027 Days
• Field of Search: 455/436, 455/437, 455/438, 455/444, 455/439, 455/440, 455/441, 455/456.1, 455/456.5, 455/456.6, 370/331, 370/330
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/26 Resource reservation

Abstract

Apparatus, and an associated method, for facilitating resource allocation in a mobile communication system. Historical indicia associated with a mobile station is monitored and maintained. A predictor forms a prediction of a subsequent path of travel of the mobile station responsive to the historical indicia that is collected and maintained at the memory element. The predicted path of travel of the mobile station is utilized in the allocation of communication resources to the mobile station. Updates are made to the predicted path of travel, and reallocation of the communication resources is correspondingly made, thereby to efficiently utilize the communication resources available in the communication system.

Claims

1. Apparatus for a radio communication system including a plurality of spaced-apart, fixed-site transceivers positioned throughout a geographic area, each fixed-site transceiver defining a coverage area within which communications with a mobile station are permitted pursuant to a communication session in which communication resources are allocated to effectuate the communication session, said apparatus for facilitating allocation of communication resources by at least one target, fixed-site transceiver, said apparatus comprising:

an encoder adapted to receive historical indicia associated with movement of the mobile station, said encoder for encoding the historical indicia into compressed form, encoding performed by said encoder forming a variable-to-fixed encoding scheme;

a memory element adapted to receive the historical indicia, once encoded by said encoder;

a decoder adapted to access said memory element to retrieve the historical indicia stored thereat, said decoder for decoding the historical indicia and for predicting a subsequent path of movement of the mobile station, the subsequent path formed of a first part and of a second part, the first part based upon the historical indicia and the second part based upon a current location update; and

a resource requestor adapted to receive indications of the subsequent path of movement predicted by said mobility path predictor, said resource requestor for selectably requesting reservation of the communication resources at the at least one target, fixed-site transceiver to permit effectuation of the communication session, the at least one target, fixed-site transceiver defining a coverage area containing at least a portion of the subsequent path of movement predicted by said decoder when the subsequent path of movement is of a prediction probability greater than a selected threshold.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said encoder is further adapted to receive, at selected intervals, the current location location updates that form part of the subsequent path of movement predicted by said decoder.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the historical indicia comprises positional indicia identifying positioning of the mobile station.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the radio communication system comprises a cellular communication station, wherein the coverage area defined by each fixed-site transceiver forms a cell, each cell identified by a cell identifier, and wherein the positional indicia forming the historical indicia includes values of the cell identifier of the cell in which the mobile station is positioned.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the historical indicia further comprises temporal indicia associated with the positional indicia that identifies the positioning of the mobile station, the temporal indicia identifying a time at which the mobile station is positioned at a location indicated by the positional indicia.

6. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the historical indicia further comprises durational indicia associated with the positional indicia that identifies the positioning of the mobile station, the durational indicia identifying a durational period at which the mobile station is positioned at a location indicated by the positional indicia.

7. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said decoder is further adapted to receive indications of hand-off of the mobile station, said decoder for again predicting the subsequent path of movement of the mobile station upon reception of the indications of the hand-off of the mobile station, the subsequent path again-predicted by said decoder forming an updated subsequent path of movement.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the indications of the hand-off of the mobile station to which said decoder is coupled to receive is embodied together with the positional indicia.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein said resource requestor is further adapted to receive indications of the updated subsequent path of movement, said resource requestor further for selectably requesting updated reservation of the communication resources at the at least one target, fixed-site transceiver.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the radio communication system defines a network part, of which the plurality of spaced-apart, fixed-site transceivers form a portion, wherein said encoder is embodied at the mobile station, and said apparatus further comprising a resource reserver embodied at the network part, said resource reserver for selectably reserving the communication resources responsive to request generated by said resource requester.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said decoder and said resource reserver are both embodied at the network part.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said encoder and said decoder together form a mobility path predictor formed of a Lempel-Ziv compression and decompression algorithm, executable by processing circuitry.

13. A method of communicating in a radio communication system having a plurality of spaced-apart fixed-site transceivers positioned throughout a geographic area, each fixed-site transceiver defining a coverage area within which communications with a mobile station are permitted pursuant to a communication session in which communication resources are allocated to effectuate the communication session, said method for facilitating allocation of communication resources by at least one target, fixed-site transceiver, said method comprising:

encoding, using a variable-to-fixed encoding scheme, historical indicia associated with movement of the mobile station into compressed form;

storing the historical indicia, once encoded during said operation of encoding;

accessing and decoding the historical indicia stored during said operation of storing;

predicting a subsequent path of movement of the mobile station the subsequent path formed of a first part and a second part, the first part based upon the historical indicia and the second part based upon a current locate update, associated with movement of the mobile station decoded during said operation of decoding; and

selectably reserving the communication resources at the at least one target, fixed-site transceiver to permit effectuation of the communication session, the at least one target, fixed-site transceiver defining a coverage area containing at least a portion of the subsequent path of movement predicted during said operation of predicting when the subsequent path of movement is of a prediction probability greater than a selected threshold.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the operation, prior to said operation of predicting,of creating and maintaining a database containing the historical indicia and wherein said operation of accessing and decoding further comprises accessing the database.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein said operations of predicting and selectably reserving are selectably repeated.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein said operations of predicting and selectably reserving are repeated upon hand-off of the mobile station.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein said operations of encoding and decoding are performed through execution of a Lempel Ziv compression and decompression algorithm.