Sleep-mode wireless cell reselection apparatus, systems, and methods

• US 7,693,555 B2
• Filed: 10/20/2006
• Issued: 04/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Venkatachalam, Muthaiah, Pareek, Sameer, Srinivasan, Roshni
• Primary Examiner(s): Harper; Vincent P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Patel; Mahendra R
• Application Number:
  US11/551,421
• Publication Number:
  US 20070104179A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,264 Days
• Field of Search: 370/349, 370/402, 455/410, 455/436, 455/446, 455/441, 455/466, 455/461, 704/228, 709/223
• US Class Current: 455/574
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/02 Buffering or recovering information during reselection ; Modification of the traffic flow during hand-off
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0219 where the power saving management affects multiple terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Embodiments herein may receive a ranging request message with a sleep-mode indication from a mobile node at a destination base station in a wireless packet-switched network. System paging information may be accessed to determine a base station identifier associated with an originating base station that last served the mobile node. The originating base station may be contacted to retrieve a service context associated with the mobile node and any downlink packets buffered for the mobile node by the originating base station. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method, including:

receiving a ranging request message with a sleep-mode indication from a mobile node at a destination base station in a wireless packet-switched network (WPSN), wherein no service context associated with the mobile node exists at the destination base station at a time of receiving the ranging request message, the sleep-mode indication is to indicate to the destination base station that the mobile node is in a sleep mode;

determining a base station identifier (BSID) associated with an originating base station from an access service network (ASN), wherein the originating base station last served the mobile node; and

contacting the originating base station to retrieve an original service context associated with the mobile node and to retrieve any downlink packets buffered for the mobile node by the originating base station,

wherein the original service context is stored at the originating base station, and wherein the downlink packets were buffered at the originating base station in an originating packet buffer after the mobile node entered the sleep mode, and

wherein the destination base station having no service context indicates that the mobile node moved into a destination of area of coverage associated with the destination base station while the mobile node was in the sleep mode.

2. The method of claim 1, further including:

communicating between the destination base station and the originating base station across the ASN.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the BSID associated with the originating base station from the (ASN) further including:

configuring the WPSN such that the system paging information is contained in a paging table accessible by a plurality of base stations.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the paging table comprises a plurality of mobile station identifiers (MSIDs), each MSID related by the paging table to a corresponding BSID.

5. The method of claim 3, further including:

configuring the WPSN such that the paging table is associated with an ASN gateway server coupled to the ASN.

6. The method of claim 5, further including:

querying the ASN gateway server to index the BSID from the paging table using an MSID associated with the mobile node.

7. The method of claim 6, further including:

receiving a response to the query, the response containing the MSID and the BSID associated with the originating base station.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the service context comprises at least one of a class of traffic or a quality of service associated with a connection maintained by the WPSN on behalf of the mobile node.

9. The method of claim 1, further including:

responding to the ranging request message with a ranging response message including a sleep indication associated with the destination base station; and

updating the mobile node with the sleep identification associated with the destination base station.

10. The method of claim 1, further including:

receiving the original service context associated with the mobile node and the downlink packets at the destination base station from the originating base station.

11. The method of claim 10, further including:

generating a broadcast message including an MSID associated with the mobile node to advise the mobile node of the downlink packets pending at the destination base station.

12. The method of claim 11, further including:

transferring the downlink packets to the mobile node.

13. A computer-readable medium having instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed, result in at least one processor performing:

receiving a ranging request message with a sleep-mode indication from a mobile node at a destination base station in a wireless packet-switched network (WPSN), wherein no service context associated with the mobile node exists at the destination base station at a time of receiving the ranging request message;

determining a base station identifier (BSID) associated with an originating base station from system paging information, wherein the originating base station last served the mobile node; and

contacting the originating base station to retrieve an original service context associated with the mobile node and to retrieve any downlink packets buffered for the mobile node by the originating base station,

wherein the original service context is stored at the originating base station, and the downlink packets were buffered at the originating base station in an originating packet buffer after the mobile node entered the sleep mode, and

wherein the destination base station having no service context indicates that the mobile node moved into a destination of area of coverage associated with the destination base station while the mobile node was in the sleep mode.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions, when executed, result in the at least one processor performing:

generating a broadcast message including a mobile station identifier associated with the mobile node to advise the mobile node of any downlink packets pending at the destination base station.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, further including:

configuring the broadcast message to include a traffic indicator formatted according to an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers 802.16e specification.

16. An apparatus, including:

ranging logic associated with a destination base station in a wireless packet-switched network (WPSN), the ranging logic coupled to a receiver associated with the destination base station to receive a ranging request with a sleep-mode indication from a mobile node, wherein the mobile node moved into a destination area of coverage associated with the destination base station resulting in no service context associated with the mobile node currently stored at the destination base station;

paging query logic coupled to the ranging logic and to a network interface to query a network entity to determine a base station identifier (BSID) associated with an originating base station, wherein the originating base station last served the mobile node; and

service context retrieval logic coupled to the paging query logic and to the network interface to contact the originating base station to retrieve a service context associated with the mobile node and to retrieve any downlink packets pending for the mobile node at the originating base station,

wherein the service context is stored at the originating base station, and wherein the downlink packets were buffered at the originating base station in an originating packet buffer after the mobile node entered the sleep mode.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, further including:

pending packet transfer logic coupled to the service context retrieval logic and to a base station transmitter to broadcast a message including a mobile station identifier (MSID) associated with the mobile node to advise the mobile node of the downlink packets pending for the mobile node at the destination base station and to cause the downlink packets to be transferred to the mobile node.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the service context comprises at least one of a class of traffic or a quality of service associated with a connection maintained by the WPSN on behalf of the mobile node.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the connection comprises an Internet connection with the mobile node.

20. A system, including:

ranging logic associated with a destination base station in a wireless packet-switched network (WPSN), the ranging logic coupled to a receiver associated with the destination base station to receive a ranging request with a sleep-mode indication from a mobile node, wherein the mobile node moved into a destination area of coverage associated with the destination base station resulting in no service context associated with the mobile node currently stored at the destination base station;

paging query logic coupled to the ranging logic and to a network interface to query a network entity to determine a base station identifier (BSID) associated with an originating base station, wherein the originating base station last served the mobile node;

service context retrieval logic coupled to the paging query logic and to the network interface to contact the originating base station to retrieve a service context associated with the mobile node and to retrieve any downlink packets pending for the mobile node at the originating base station; and

an omni-directional antenna coupled to the receiver to facilitate communication with the mobile node,

wherein the service context is stored at the originating base station, and wherein the downlink packets were buffered at the originating base station after the mobile node entered the sleep mode.

21. The system of claim 20, further including:

an access service network (ASN) coupled to the destination base station and to the originating base station to enable packet communications between the destination base station and the originating base station.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the network entity comprises an ASN gateway server coupled to the ASN to host a paging table and to respond to the query by providing the BSID associated with the originating base station.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the paging table comprises a plurality of mobile station identifiers (MSIDs), each MSID related by the paging table to a corresponding BSID.

24. The system of claim 20, further including:

a destination packet buffer associated with the destination base station and an originating packet buffer associated with the originating base station, the destination packet buffer to store downlink packets retrieved by the destination base station from the originating packet buffer when the mobile node moves to a destination radio-frequency (RF) coverage area associated with the destination base station from an originating RF coverage area associated with the originating base station.