Method and apparatus for relay facilitated communications
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method comprising:
- at a base site;
determining a need to receive a wireless transmission from a transmitter that is presently within wireless communications range of the base site;
automatically determining whether to selectively allocate a wireless relay resource intermediate between the base site and the transmitter to thereby at least attempt to increase a quality of service to support the wireless transmission from the transmitter, wherein the wireless relay resource comprises a demodulation processing relay resource;
providing a grant instruction to the transmitter and the wireless relay resource comprising channel identification information and transmit parameters that are used by the transmitter to transmit and by the wireless relay resource to receive;
providing an instruction to the wireless relay resource to cause the wireless relay resource to relay at least portions of the wireless transmission from the transmitter, wherein the instruction comprises providing at least identifying information regarding the transmitter and wherein knowledge of the wireless relay resource allocation is unnecessary for the transmitter;
combining received portions of relayed transmissions from the wireless relay resource with portions of redundant transmissions from the transmitter to reconstruct the transmission.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Communications sourced by a remote unit (14) that is already within reception range of a base site (10) can nevertheless be further facilitated through allocation of one or more relay resources (15, 16). Such relay resources, properly employed, then serve to effectively increase the quality of service for the facilitated communication. This, in turn, can permit the use of, for example, increased data rates for communications from a relatively low power remote unit.
69 Citations
40 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
at a base site; determining a need to receive a wireless transmission from a transmitter that is presently within wireless communications range of the base site; automatically determining whether to selectively allocate a wireless relay resource intermediate between the base site and the transmitter to thereby at least attempt to increase a quality of service to support the wireless transmission from the transmitter, wherein the wireless relay resource comprises a demodulation processing relay resource; providing a grant instruction to the transmitter and the wireless relay resource comprising channel identification information and transmit parameters that are used by the transmitter to transmit and by the wireless relay resource to receive; providing an instruction to the wireless relay resource to cause the wireless relay resource to relay at least portions of the wireless transmission from the transmitter, wherein the instruction comprises providing at least identifying information regarding the transmitter and wherein knowledge of the wireless relay resource allocation is unnecessary for the transmitter; combining received portions of relayed transmissions from the wireless relay resource with portions of redundant transmissions from the transmitter to reconstruct the transmission. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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2. A method comprising:
at a base site; determining a need to receive a wireless transmission from a transmitter that is presently within wireless communications range of the base site; automatically determining whether to selectively allocate a wireless relay resource intermediate between the base site and the transmitter to thereby at least attempt to increase a quality of service to support the wireless transmission from the transmitter, wherein the wireless relay resource comprises a demodulation processing relay resource; providing an instruction to the transmitter to convey a wireless transmission to the base site; providing an instruction to the wireless relay resource to cause the wireless relay resource to relay at least portions of the wireless transmission from the transmitter, wherein the instruction comprises providing at least identifying information regarding the transmitter; wherein knowledge of the wireless relay resource allocation is unnecessary for the transmitter; and wherein automatically determining whether to selectively allocate a wireless relay resource includes automatically determining whether to allocate a wireless relay resource that will; demodulate and decode the transmission from the transmitter to provide decoded information; determine whether the transmission has been likely correctly received; when the transmission is determined to have been likely correctly received, re-encode the decoded information to provide re-encoded information and transmit the re-encoded information to the base site; and not transmit to the base site any relayed transmissions that are determined to not have been likely correctly received. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 38, 39)
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18. A method comprising:
at a base site; determining a need to receive a wireless transmission from a transmitter that is presently within wireless communications range of the base site; automatically determining whether to selectively allocate a wireless relay resource intermediate between the base site and the transmitter to thereby at least attempt to increase a quality of service to support the wireless transmission from the transmitter, wherein the wireless relay resource comprises a demodulation processing relay resource; providing an instruction to the transmitter to convey a wireless transmission to the base site; providing an instruction to the wireless relay resource to cause the wireless relay resource to relay at least portions of the wireless transmission from the transmitter, wherein the instruction comprises providing at least identifying information regarding the transmitter; wherein knowledge of the wireless relay resource allocation is unnecessary for the transmitter; and at a wireless relay resource; combining received portions of relayed transmissions from the transmitter using hybrid automatic repeat request to reconstruct the transmission. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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33. A communications controller configured to operate at a base site and comprising:
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a wireless transmitter and receiver; a resource allocator that is operably coupled to the wireless transmitter and receiver and that is responsive to a wirelessly transmitted signal from a remote unit that is within wireless reception range of the receiver requesting allocation of a communication resource to facilitate transmission of information to the receiver; a relay resource activator that is operably coupled to the resource allocator, such that a wireless relay resource intermediate between the base site and the remote unit and having a demodulation processing relay resource can be selectively activated by the communications controller to improve quality of service for a wireless transmission from the remote unit when transmitting within reception range of the receiver and provides an instruction to the relay resource to cause the relay resource to relay at least portion of the wireless transmission from the remote unit, wherein the instruction comprises providing at least identifying information regarding the remote unit; a means for providing a grant instruction to the remote unit and the wireless relay resource comprising channel identification information and transmit parameters that are used by the remote unit to transmit and by the wireless relay resource to receive, wherein knowledge of the wireless relay resource allocation is unnecessary for the transmitter; and a means for combining received portions of relayed transmissions from the wireless relay resource with portions of redundant transmissions from the transmitter to reconstruct the transmission. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37)
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40. A wireless communication system comprising:
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a wireless relay resource that is configured to combine received portions of relayed transmissions from the transmitter using hybrid automatic repeat request to reconstruct the transmission a base site comprising;
a resource allocator that is configured to determine a need to receive a wireless transmission from the transmitter, wherein the transmitter is presently within wireless communications range of the base site, and automatically determine whether to selectively allocate the wireless relay resource intermediate between the base site and the transmitter to thereby at least attempt to increase a quality of service to support the wireless transmission from the transmitter, wherein the wireless relay resource comprises a demodulation processing relay resource; anda relay resource activator that is configured to provide an instruction to the transmitter to convey a wireless transmission to the base site, and provide an instruction to the wireless relay resource to cause the wireless relay resource to relay at least portions of the wireless transmission from the transmitter, wherein the instruction comprises providing at least identifying information regarding the transmitter, and wherein knowledge of the wireless relay resource allocation is unnecessary for the transmitter.
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Specification