Service-driven air interface protocol architecture for wireless systems

• US 7,492,737 B1
• Filed: 05/08/2002
• Issued: 02/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Li, Jun, Fong, Mo-Han, Zhang, Hang, Wu, Geng
• Primary Examiner(s): Backer, Firmin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phuongchau B
• Application Number:
  US10/141,013
• Time in Patent Office: 2,477 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/331
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0016 Time-frequency-code
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/00 Local resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Disclosed is an air interface protocol architecture for a multi-carrier wireless communications network having a plurality of carriers. The protocol architecture comprises a common layer 2/3 protocol for each of the carriers. The common layer 2/3 protocol provides a common interface with wireline upper level protocols. In addition to the common layer 2/3 protocol, the architecture comprises a multimode physical layer for each of the carriers. The protocol architecture enables the physical layer of each carrier may have a different protocol configuration for each mobile station serviced by the carrier. Each air interface protocol instance includes one or more resource pools. The resource pools each includes: (1) a quality of service (QoS) supported; (2) a list of manageable resources; (3) a carrier identification; and (4) an air interface configuration. Additionally, the layer 2 protocol of the common layer 2/3 protocol includes one or more Radio Link Protocol (RLP) instances (or a QoS Link Protocol) and one or more Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer instances.

Claims

1. A base station system to implement an air interface protocol architecture for a multi-carrier wireless communications network having a plurality of carriers, said architecture comprising a common layer 2 and layer 3 protocol for the carriers, wherein the common layer 2 and layer 3 protocol provides a common interface with wireline upper level protocols;

and the base station system comprises a base station transceiver subsystem (BTS) that provides a multimode physical layer of the architecture for each of the carriers, wherein the physical layer of each carrier is configurable to a different protocol configuration for each mobile station serviced by the carrier,

wherein the physical layer includes one or more resource pools, and

wherein each resource pool includes a plurality of characteristics selected from among;

a quality of service (QoS) supported;

a list of manageable resources;

a carrier identification; and

an air interface configuration.

2. The base station system of claim 1, wherein said QoS includes characteristics from among data rate, packet loss rate, and service type.

3. The base station system of claim 1, wherein said list of manageable resources include time slots, spreading codes, power, modulation, and coding set.

4. The base station system of claim 1, wherein a layer 2 protocol of the common layer 2 and layer 3 protocol includes:

one or more Radio Link Protocols (RLP) instances; and

one or more Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer instances.

5. The base station system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said resource pools comprises multiple carriers.

6. The base station system of claim 1, further comprising a base station controller to provide the common layer 2 and layer 3 protocol.

7. The base station system of claim 1, wherein the base station system is according to a code division multiple access (CDMA) protocol.

8. A base station system to implement an air interface protocol architecture for a multi-carrier wireless communications network, said base station system comprising:

a base station controller to implement a centralized layer 2 and layer 3 protocol;

a base station transceiver subsystem to implement a distributed layer 2 and layer 3 protocol;

the base station transceiver subsystem having a modem to implement a plurality of physical layer configurations,

wherein said plurality of physical layer configurations include a plurality of resource pools; and

a control manager to perform call admission and quasi-static, time-of-day management of characteristics and boundaries of each resource pool,

wherein each resource pool includes a plurality of characteristics selected from among;

a quality of service (QoS) supported;

a list of manageable resources;

a carrier identification; and

an air interface configuration.

9. The base station system of claim 8, wherein said QoS includes characteristics from among data rate, packet loss rate, and service type.

10. The base station system of claim 8, wherein said list of manageable resources include time slots, spreading codes, power, modulation, and coding set.

11. The base station system of claim 8, wherein a layer 2 protocol of the common layer 2 and layer 3 protocol includes:

one or more Radio Link Protocols (RLP) instances; and

one or more Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer instances.

12. The base station system of claim 11, wherein the RLP is a QoS Link Protocol.

13. The base station system of claim 8, wherein at least one of said resource pools comprises multiple carriers.

14. A base station within a multi-carrier wireless communication network that has multiple carriers, said base station comprising:

an air interface protocol architecture that includes;

a common layer 2 and layer 3 protocol for each of the carriers, wherein the common layer 2 and layer 3 protocol provides a common interface with wireline upper level protocols;

a multimode physical layer for each of the carriers, wherein the physical layer of each carrier is configurable to a different protocol configuration for each mobile station serviced by the carrier and includes a plurality of resource pools, wherein each of the resource pools includes a quality of service (QoS) supported, wherein each resource pool further includes at least an additional characteristic from among;

a list of manageable resources;

a carrier identification; and

an air interface configuration; and

a control manager to perform call admission and quasi-static, time-of-day management of characteristics and boundaries of each resource pool.

15. The base station of claim 14, wherein a layer 2 protocol of the common layer 2 and layer 3 protocol includes:

one or more Radio Link Protocols (RLP) instances; and

one or more Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer instances.

16. The base station of claim 15, wherein the RLP is a QoS Link Protocol.

17. A system for providing flexible, service-driven carrier assignment and resource allocation in a multi-carrier wireless communications network, said system comprising:

a service driven air interface protocol architecture having a common layer 2 and 3 that supports different physical layer modes of operation at different time instants for different mobile device types; and

control means for implementing said protocol architecture to route packets over said network,

wherein said air interface protocol architecture comprises;

a common layer 2 and layer 3 protocol for each of the carriers, wherein the common layer 2 and layer 3 protocol provides a common interface with wireline upper level protocols; and

a multimode physical layer for each of the carriers, wherein the physical layer of each carrier is configurable to a different protocol configuration for each mobile station serviced by the carrier and include a plurality of resource pools, wherein each resource pool includes a plurality of characteristics selected from among;

a quality of service (QoS) supported;

a list of manageable resources;

a carrier identification; and

an air interface configuration.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein a layer 2 protocol of the common layer 2 and layer 3 protocol includes:

one or more Radio Link Protocols (RLP) instances; and

one or more Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer instances.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the RLP is a QoS Link Protocol.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein said control means includes a centralized resource control manager.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein said control means includes a MAC state machine for each terminal.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein said air interface protocol architecture is configured with MAC sub-layer having a data plane that provides dynamic multiplexing and de-multiplexing of layer 2 frames from one or more terminals to and from physical layer frames.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein said control means includes means for determining which packets to send out to the network, wherein a decision is made based on one or more factors from among:

time to live;

user'"'"'s relative priority;

guaranteed minimum average data rate;

channel condition feedback from the mobile station; and

capacity cost of each radio frequency channel.

24. The system of claim 17, further comprising means for selecting appropriate physical level resources, wherein said physical level resources are selected in both frequency and time domain to meet a Quality of Service (QoS) requirement.

25. A base station system to implement an air interface protocol architecture for a wireless communications network having a plurality of carriers, the architecture comprising a common layer 2 and layer 3 protocol for the carriers, wherein the common layer 2 and layer 3 protocol provides a common interface with an upper level protocol,

the base station system including a base station transceiver subsystem (B TS) that has a multimode physical layer including the plurality of carriers, wherein the carriers are configurable to different protocol configurations, wherein each of the protocol configurations includes a quality of service (QoS) supported, wherein the multimode physical layer has plural resource pools, wherein each of the plural resource pools is defined based on a plurality of parameters, one of the plurality of parameters being the corresponding QoS supported, and

wherein another one of the plurality of parameters is selected from among:

a list of manageable resources;

a carrier identification; and

an air-interface configuration.

26. The base station system of claim 25, wherein the base station system is according to a code division multiple access (CDMA) protocol.