Radio terminal

• US 7,715,343 B2
• Filed: 08/07/2006
• Issued: 05/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Tomioka, Tazuko
• Primary Examiner(s): Harper; Vincent P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Irace; Michael
• Application Number:
  US11/499,669
• Publication Number:
  US 20070042733A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,373 Days
• Field of Search: 455/450, 455/452, 455/423, 370/328, 370/329, 370/450
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service

Abstract

There is provided with a radio terminal which carries out data transmission using frequency bands licensed to other licensed radio terminals, including: a judging section configured to carry out a modulation analysis on a radio signal for each frequency band to judge whether the radio signal is a radio signal from a licensed radio terminal or not; a selection section configured to select a plurality of frequency bands; a schedule generation section configured to generate a schedule for intermittent data transmission; a data transmission section configured to transmit data according to the schedule; a carrier sensing section configured to carry out carrier sensing on a frequency band in which data is transmitted before data transmission for each the intermittent data transmission; and a control section configured to stop, when a radio signal from a licensed radio terminal is detected in a certain frequency band, data transmission using at least the certain frequency band.

Claims

1. A radio terminal which carries out data transmission using a plurality of frequency bands including frequency bands licensed to other licensed radio terminals, comprising:

a detection section configured to detect a radio signal for each frequency band;

a judging section configured to carry out a modulation analysis by sampling the detected radio signal and calculating frequency and time statistical values of the detected radio signal;

to judge, based on a pattern recognition method, whether or not the calculated statistical values match statistical features of a modulation scheme of a licensed radio terminal; and

thereby to judge whether the detected radio signal is a radio signal from a licensed radio terminal or not;

a selection section configured to select frequency bands in which periods that no radio signal from licensed radio terminals are detected are equal to or exceed a first threshold and in which frequency band utilization rates by unlicensed radio terminals are equal to or lower than a second threshold, as a plurality of frequency bands to be used for data transmission based on the judgment result;

a schedule generation section configured to generate a schedule for intermittent data transmissions using the plurality of selected frequency bands by determining a continuous data transmission time in each intermittent data transmission such that the utilization rate falls to or below the second threshold for each of the selected frequency bands;

a data generation section configured to generate data for the intermittent data transmissions;

a data transmission section configured to transmit the generated data according to the schedule;

a carrier sensing section configured to carry out carrier sensing on a frequency band in which data is transmitted before data transmission for each of the intermittent data transmissions; and

a control section configured to stop, when the carrier sensing result shows that a radio signal from a licensed radio terminal is detected in a certain frequency band, data transmission using at least the certain frequency band.

2. The radio terminal according to claim 1, wherein the second threshold corresponding to the utilization rate is determined for each the frequency band.

3. The radio terminal according to claim 1, wherein the second threshold corresponding to the utilization rate is determined based on interference tolerance of the licensed radio terminals in the each frequency band.

4. The radio terminal according to claim 1, wherein the second threshold corresponding to the utilization rate is determined based on a frequency of usage of the frequency band by the licensed radio terminals in the each frequency band.

5. The radio terminal according to claim 1, wherein the schedule generation section determines a continuous data transmission time in the intermittent data transmissions according to interference tolerance of the licensed radio terminal for each the selected frequency band.

6. The radio terminal according to claim 1, wherein the schedule generation section generates a data transmission schedule in each frequency band so that periodical data transmission is carried out for each the selected frequency band.

7. The radio terminal according to claim 6, wherein the schedule generation section determines a data transmission period in the periodical data transmission for each the selected frequency band.

8. The radio terminal according to claim 1, wherein for a frequency band of the selected frequency bands for which the licensed radio terminals have carrier sensing functions, the schedule generation section generates a data transmission schedule of the frequency band so that data transmission is performed in a period longer than the carrier sensing time of the licensed radio terminals.

9. The radio terminal according to claim 1, wherein for a frequency band in which another unlicensed radio terminal is transmitting a radio signal with a period, the schedule generation section generates a data transmission schedule in the frequency band so that data transmission is performed in synchronization with the period.

10. The radio terminal according to claim 1, wherein the data transmission synchronized with the unlicensed radio terminal is performed after the transmission of the radio signal by the unlicensed radio terminal and before carrier sensing by the unlicensed radio terminal.

11. The radio terminal according to claim 1, wherein

the schedule generation section generates a data transmission schedule of each frequency band so as to perform intermittent data transmissions through frequency hopping using the plurality of selected frequency bands, and

the carrier sensing section carries out carrier sensing to be carried out before data transmission in each frequency band during data transmission scheduled for a time immediately preceding the data transmission in the frequency band.

12. The radio terminal according to claim 11, wherein the schedule generation section generates a data transmission schedule in each frequency band so that an interval between two frequency bands to be transmitted in succession temporally is wider than an input bandwidth of an analog/digital converter of the detection section for detecting the radio signal.

13. The radio terminal according to claim 12, wherein based on frequency differences between at least two predetermined frequencies and the plurality of selected frequency bands, the schedule generation section performs grouping by selecting frequency bands from the selected frequency bands for each of the at least two predetermined frequencies, and the two frequency bands to be transmitted in succession temporally are selected from frequency bands of different groups respectively.

14. The radio terminal according to claim 1, wherein

a judgment threshold is set in the judging section such that a probability that a licensed terminal is erroneously judged as a non-licensed terminal is smaller than a probability that a terminal other than a licensed terminal is erroneously judged as a licensed terminal.