Hopping hardware resources during paging in a wireless communications system

• US 7,907,956 B2
• Filed: 11/02/2006
• Issued: 03/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Braemar Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Uhlik, Christopher R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cumming; William D
• Application Number:
  US11/592,937
• Publication Number:
  US 20070049299A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,594 Days
• Field of Search: 455/561, 455/458, 370/343.M, 370/131, 370/350, 370/343, 375/131
• US Class Current: 455/458
• 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: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

A hardware resource is selected from a plurality of distributed and independent hardware resources based on a hopping sequence that indicates a sequence of hardware resources over periods of time. A page is transmitted to a user terminal using the selected hardware resource.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting a page from a base station comprising:

selecting a hardware resource from a plurality of distributed and independent hardware resources based on a hopping sequence that indicates a sequence of hardware resources over periods of time, wherein the distributed and independent hardware resources comprise at least a plurality of digital signal processors (DSPs), each of which is coupled to at least a radio frequency (RF) module and the hardware resource is selected based on a mapping of a paging identifier (PID) of a user terminal; and

transmitting the page to the user terminal using the selected hardware resource.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the page is transmitted via the RF module.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein a period of time comprises a frame divided into timeslots, and the RF module comprises one timeslot of the frame on a carrier frequency, the timeslot and the carrier frequency comprising a communications channel.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising transmitting a second burst to a second user terminal in the timeslot on the carrier frequency associated with the selected hardware resource using a spatial channel.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the selected hardware resource is uniquely associated with the communications channel.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the communications channel hops carrier frequencies over time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of hardware resources comprises a plurality of distributed and independent digital signal processors (DSPs).

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of hardware resources comprises a plurality of portions of a processor, each portion assigned to process signals on one conventional channel.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein if the hopping sequence collides with a second hopping sequence used for paging a second user terminal in an initial period of time, then the hopping sequence does not collide with the second hopping sequence in a subsequent period of time.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the subsequent period of time is the next consecutive period of time with a sufficient statistical probability.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the page comprises a prompt to the user terminal to request access to the base station.

12. A communications device comprising:

a plurality of distributed and independent hardware resources comprising at least a plurality of digital signal processors (DSPs), each of which is coupled to at least a radio frequency (RF) module;

a central processor coupled to the plurality of hardware resources to select one of the hardware resources based on a hopping sequence indicating a sequence of hardware resources over periods of time, wherein the hardware resource is selected based on a mapping of a paging identifier (PID) of a user terminal; and

an antenna array coupled to the plurality of hardware resources to transmit a page to a user terminal using the selected hardware resource.

13. The communications device of claim 12, wherein the page is transmitted from the antenna array via the RF module.

14. The communications device of claim 13, wherein the communications device is a base station or a user terminal.

15. The communications device of claim 12, wherein the plurality of hardware resources comprises a plurality of portions of a processor, each portion assigned to process signals on one conventional channel.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium containing executable instructions, which when executed by a base station processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

selecting a hardware resource from a plurality of distributed and independent hardware resources based on a hopping sequence that indicates a sequence of hardware resources over periods of time, wherein the distributed and independent hardware resources comprise at least a plurality of digital signal processors (DSPs), each of which is coupled to at least a radio frequency (RF) module and the hardware resource is selected based on a mapping of a paging identifier (PID) of a user terminal; and

transmitting the page to the user terminal using the selected hardware resource.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the page is transmitted via the RF module.