Use of decremental assignments

• US 7,715,847 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2005
• Issued: 05/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Teague, Edward Harrison
• Primary Examiner(s): Ly; Nghi H
• Application Number:
  US11/141,794
• Publication Number:
  US 20060205413A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,806 Days
• Field of Search: 455/452.1, 455/450, 455/453, 455/464, 370/329, 370/341
• US Class Current: 455/452.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0037 Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0087 when data requirements change
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0091 Signaling for the administration of the divided path
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/30 Connection release

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed that facilitate dynamically assigning system resources in a wireless network environment by detecting a resource conflict between an existing resource assignment to one or more existing user devices and a new resource assignment for a subsequent user device. Upon detection of a conflict, a decremental assignment can be provided to the one ore more existing user devices to decrement the existing resource assignment in order to resolve a detected resource conflict. Decremental assignments can be implicit or explicit, and can facilitate mitigating transmission overhead costs due to their relatively small size when compared to conventional complete deassignment/reassignment messages.

Claims

1. An apparatus that dynamically allocates wireless network resources, comprising:

an assignment component that generates a first standard resource assignment for a first user device connected to a wireless network and at least a second standard resource assignment for at least a second user device connected to the wireless network;

a transmitter that sends the first standard resource assignment to the first user device to give the first user control of resources defined in the first standard resource assignment;

the assignment component determines whether at least one resource is common to each of the first and second standard assignments prior to transmitting the second assignment to the second user device;

the assignment component directs the transmitter to transmit the second assignment to both the first and second user devices device, wherein the transmission of the second assignment is also readable by the first user device when at least one commonly assigned resource is determined to exist; and

when at least one commonly assigned resource is determined to exist, the first user device removes the commonly assigned resource from its assignment upon reading the second standard assignment.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the assignment component directs the transmitter to transmit the second assignment only to the second user device when no commonly assigned resource is determined to exist.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first user device automatically removes the commonly assigned resource from its assignment upon reading the second standard assignment, which acts as an implicit decremental assignment of the at least one commonly assigned resource for the first user device.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first user device automatically removes all resources from its resource assignment upon reading the second standard assignment and determining that at least one resource is commonly assigned.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a decremental assignment component that generates an explicit decremental assignment upon the determination that at least one commonly assigned resource is present in the first and second standard assignments.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the decremental assignment component provides a designation that distinguishes the explicit decremental assignment from a standard resource assignment.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the designation is an indicator bit that can be set to a “

1”

or a “

0” and

appended to an assignment message.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the indicator bit is set to a “

1”

by the decremental assignment component to designate the assignment message as an explicit decremental assignment, and set to a “

0”

by the assignment component to designate the assignment message as a standard resource assignment.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second user devices is a cellular telephone.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second user devices is a laptop.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second user devices is a personal digital assistant.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein an assignment is retained by a user device until a subsequent assignment message is received that alters the assignment.

13. A method of dynamically assigning system resources in a wireless network environment, comprising:

detecting a resource conflict between an existing resource assignment to a first user device and a new resource assignment for a second user device, wherein the detecting a resource conflict comprises comparing the new resource assignment to all existing resource assignments to determine at least one conflicting resource listed in both the new resource assignment and the existing resource assignment; and

providing a decremental assignment to the first user device to decrement the existing resource assignment to resolve a detected resource conflict by transmitting the new resource assignment to the second user device, wherein the transmission of the new resource assignment is also readable by the first user device, wherein the first user device relinquishes control over at least one conflicting resource to make the at least one conflicting resource available for the second user device.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing a decremental assignment to the first user comprises providing at least one of an implicit decremental assignment and an explicit decremental assignment.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing an implicit decremental assignment comprises transmitting the new resource assignment to the first user device and permitting the first user device to view the new resource assignment.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first user device reads the new assignment message to identify the at least one conflicting resource and relinquishes control over the at least one conflicting resource to decrement its existing resource assignment and make the at least one conflicting resource available.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising concurrently transmitting the new resource assignment message to the second user device, in addition to the first user device, the second user device is assigned all resources in the new assignment including at least resource relinquished by the first user device.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the first user device relinquishes control of all resources in its existing resource assignment to make the at least one conflicting resource available.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising generating and transmitting an explicit decremental assignment to the first user.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the explicit decremental assignment comprises an indicator bit that identifies itas a decremental assignment.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising identifying the at least one conflicting resource in the explicit decremental assignment.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the first user device decodes the explicit decremental assignment and relinquishes assignment of the at least one conflicting resource defined therein.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising transmitting the new assignment to the second user device.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising providing a verification message from the first user device as to successful reception of the decremental assignment.

25. A resource assignment system, comprising:

an assignment component that generates persistent resource assignments for user devices in a wireless network environment and detects conflicts between resource assignments;

a transmitter that transmits resource assignments to user devices; and

a decremental assignment component that generates decremental assignments for at least one user device to resolve conflicts between assignments detected by the assignment component, wherein the decremental assignment component identifies a first user device with an existing resource assignment that conflicts with a new resource assignment for a second user device, wherein the transmitter transmits the new resource assignment to the second user device, wherein the new resource assignment is also readable by the first user device, wherein the first user device relinquishes relinquiishes control over a least one conflicting resource to make the at least one conflicting resource available for the second user device.

26. The system of claim 25, further comprising a verification component that receives a verification message from a user device that has received a resource assignment, the verification message indicates a successful receipt of the assignment message.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the decremental assignment component ensures that the new resource assignment is transmitted to the first user device and the second user device, the new resource assignment is read by the first user device, and the first user device excises from its existing assignment any resources common to the new resource assignment.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the decremental assignment component generates an explicit decremental assignment for the first user device.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the explicit decremental assignment comprises a list of at least one resource common to both the existing resource assignment of the first user device and the new resource assignment for the second user device, and an indicator bit that identifies the explicit decremental assignment as a decremental assignment.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the transmitter concurrently transmits the new resource assignment to the second user device and the explicit decremental assignment to the first user device.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the first user device relinquishes assignment of any resources identified in the explicit decremental assignment message.

32. The system of claim 25, wherein a user device is a cellular phone.

33. The system of claim 25, wherein a resource is at least one of a communication channel, a communication frequency, and a transmission time slot.

34. A wireless network resource allocation apparatus, comprising:

means for detecting conflicting standard resource assignments that define at least one common resource, wherein the resource conflict comprises an existing assignment to a first device that conflicts with a standard assignment to a second device;

means for generating a decremental assignment that resolves detected conflicts between resource assignments, wherein resolving the detected conflicts is based on decrementing resources from the existing assignment making the conflicting resources available for the standard assignment; and

means for distinguishing the decremental assignment from standard resource assignments; and

means for providing the decremental assignment to the second device and decrementing the existing assignment to the first device upon reading the decremental assignment transmitted to the second device.

35. The apparatus of claim 34, further comprising means for verifying receipt of an assignment message by a user device.

36. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the means for verifying receives an indication of receipt of a successful assignment decode over a reverse link to indicate successful receipt of a standard resource assignment.

37. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the means for verifying receives an acknowledgement of a successful assignment decode over a forward link to indicate successful receipt of a standard resource assignment.

38. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the means for distinguishing a decremental assignment appends an indicator bit to the decremental assignment.

39. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the means for generating a decremental assignment generates at least one of an implicit decremental assignment and an explicit decremental assignment.

40. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the implicit decremental assignment comprises the standard assignment for the second device that is concurrently transmitted to the first device and the second device when the existing assignment to the first device conflicts with the standard assignment for the second device.

41. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the first device reads the standard assignment for the second device and decrements any conflicting resources from its existing assignment, making them available for assignment to the second device.

42. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the explicit decremental assignment comprises an indication of resources to be decremented from the existing assignment to the first device.

43. The apparatus of claim 42, further comprising means for transmitting the explicit decremental assignment to the first device only, upon receipt of which the resources to be decremented are deassigned from the first device and made available for assignment to the second device.

44. A computer-readable medium that stores computer-executable instructions for:

assessing resources assignments to a plurality of devices communicating over a wireless network;

detecting a conflict between an existing resource assignment to a first device and an impending resource assignment to a second device; and

providing a decremental assignment to resolve the conflict in favor of the impending resource assignment to the second device by decrementing the existing resource assignment to the first device upon reading the decremental assignment transmitted to the second device.

45. The computer-readable medium of claim 44, further comprising computer-executable instructions for permitting the first device to receive an assignment of a conflicting resource to the second device, the assignment to the second device acts as an implicit decremental assignment of the conflicting resource from the resource assignment to the first device.

46. The computer-readable medium of claim 44, further comprising computer-executable instructions for generating and transmitting an explicit decremental assignment for the first device, the explicit decremental assignment instructs the first device to relinquish the conflicting resource for assignment to the second device, while the first device retains the remainder of the resources assigned to the first device.

47. The computer-readable medium of claim 44, further comprising computer-executable instructions for identifying an explicit decremental assignment as a decremental assignment to distinguish a decremental assignment from a standard assignment.

48. The computer-readable medium of claim 44, further comprising computer-executable instructions for verifying receipt of a decremental assignment by a device.

49. A microprocessor that executes instructions for providing decremental resource assignments, the instructions comprising:

determining whether a resource is subject to potentially conflicting assignments to devices in a wireless communication environment;

providing a decremental assignment to a less recent assignee of a conflicting resource assignment, the less recent assignee having an assigmuent set, the decremental assignment instructs the less recent assignee to decrement its assignment set by the conflicting resource assignment while retaining the remainder of its assignment set; and

assigning the conflicting resource to a more recent assignee of the conflicting resource upon reading the decremental assignment transmitted to the less recent assignee.

50. A mobile device that facilitates wireless communication over a network, comprising:

a receiving component that receives a standard resource assignment;

a processing component that exerts control over resources described in the standard resource assignment, identifies a subsequent decremental assignment received by the receiving component, and relinquishes control of at least one conflicting resource defined in the decremental assignment while retaining a remainder of resources assigned by the standard resource assignment upon reading the decremental assignment transmitted to another device.

51. The mobile device of claim 50, wherein the processing component relinquishes control over all resources assigned by the standard resource assignment upon identifying a decremental assignment received by the receiving component.