Method and apparatus for multicasting in a wireless communication system

• US 7,245,933 B1
• Filed: 03/01/2000
• Issued: 07/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhang, Jinzhong, Meng, Chunyang, Pan, ShaoWei, Comroe, Richard A, Cai, Hechun
• Primary Examiner(s): Gesesse; Tilahun
• Application Number:
  US09/516,135
• Time in Patent Office: 2,694 Days
• Field of Search: 455/518, 455/519, 455/520, 455/521, 455/462, 455/463, 455/465, 455/500, 455/517, 455/416, 370/335, 370/328, 370/338, 370/401, 370/441, 370/266, 370/342, 370/331, 370/337
• US Class Current: 455/519
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services

Abstract

In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention all remote units (113–118) participating in a group call can actively transmit uplink communications to their respective base stations (101–102) via low-data rate traffic channels (103–108). The remote units having the highest transmit energies are summed and broadcast to all remote units (113–118) participating in the group call. Because only those remote units having the highest transmit energies are summed and broadcast, network congestion is greatly reduced.

Claims

1. A method for transmission within a wireless communication system, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of uplink transmissions from a plurality of remote units;

determining a subset of the plurality of remote units, wherein the subset is determined based on an energy of an uplink transmission of each remote from the plurality of remote units;

combining uplink transmissions of the plurality of uplink transmissions that are associated with the subset to produce a combined signal; and

transmitting the combined signal to a base station to be broadcast via a downlink communication signal to the plurality of remote units.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of receiving the plurality of uplink transmissions from the plurality of remote units comprises the step of receiving a plurality of traffic channel transmissions from the plurality of remote units.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining the subset of the plurality of remote units comprises the step of determining a second plurality of remote units from the first plurality of remote units, wherein the second plurality of remote units have uplink transmissions having a highest energy.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of combining the uplink transmissions for the subset comprises the steps of:

decoding uplink transmissions for the subset to produce a plurality of decoded transmissions;

summing the plurality of decoded transmissions to produce a summed decoded transmission; and

encoding the summed decoded transmission.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of transmitting the combined signal to the base station to be broadcast via the downlink communication signal comprises the step of transmitting the combined signal to the base station to be broadcast via a downlink traffic channel to the plurality of remote units.

6. A method for mission within a wireless communication system, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a first plurality of uplink voice transmissions from a plurality of remote units;

determining a second plurality of uplink voice transmissions from the first plurality of uplink voice transmissions, wherein the second plurality of uplink voice transmissions are associated with a subset of the plurality of remote units and are determined based on an energy of their transmission;

combining the second plurality of uplink voice transmissions; and

transmitting the combined uplink voice transmissions to a base station to be broadcast via a downlink voice channel to the plurality of remote units.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of determining the second plurality of uplink voice transmissions based on an energy of their transmissions comprises the step of determining a plurality of uplink voice transmissions having a highest energy.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of combining the second plurality of uplink voice transmissions comprises the steps of:

decoding each of the second plurality of uplink voice transmissions;

summing the decoded transmissions to produce a summed decoded transmission; and

encoding the summed decoded transmission.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a logic unit having a first plurality of uplink transmissions from a plurality of remote units as an input and outputting a second plurality of uplink transmissions taken from the first plurality of uplink transmissions, wherein the second plurality of uplink transmissions are associated with a subset of the plurality of remote units and are determined based on an energy of each uplink transmission of the first plurality of uplink transmissions; and

a transcoder having the second plurality of uplink transmissions as an input and outputting a signal equivalent to the combination of the second plurality of uplink transmissions.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the first plurality of uplink transmissions comprise a plurality of uplink traffic channel transmissions.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the second plurality of uplink transmissions comprise highest energy transmissions from the first plurality of uplink transmissions.

12. A method for channel assignment within a wireless communication system, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of uplink transmissions from a plurality of remote units;

determining a subset of the plurality of remote units, wherein the subset is determined based on an energy of an uplink transmission of the plurality of uplink transmissions received from each remote of the plurality of remote units; and

assigning an uplink high speed data channel to the subset of the plurality of remote units.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

assigning a traffic channel to each remote unit of the plurality of remote units; and

wherein the plurality of uplink transmissions received via the traffic channels assigned to each remote unit of the plurality of remote units.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of uplink transmissions comprises a plurality of uplink voice transmissions.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the uplink high speed data channel comprises an uplink supplemental channel.