Methods and apparatus for power efficient broadcasting and communication systems

• US 8,155,098 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2006
• Issued: 04/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Neo Wireless LLC (f/k/a CFIP NCF LLC) (FIG LLC (d/b/a Fortress Investment Group LLC))
• Original Assignee: Neocific Incorporated
• Inventors: Huang, Haiming, Li, Xiaodong, Lo, Titus, Li, Kemin
• Primary Examiner(s): Hu, Jinsong
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shen, Qun
• Application Number:
  US11/571,469
• Publication Number:
  US 20090028109A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,135 Days
• Field of Search: 370/337, 370/343, 370332-334, 455/3.01, 455/179.1
• US Class Current: 370/343
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0003 by switching between different modulation schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0061 Error detection codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/18 Automatic repetition systems, e.g. Van Duuren systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1881 with schedule organisation, e.g. priority, sequence management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0093 Point-to-multipoint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/005 of common pilots, i.e. pilots destined for multiple users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2385 Channel allocation H04N21/266 takes precedence; Bandwidth allocation H04N21/24 takes precedence ; allocation of channels according to the instantaneous demands of the users in time-division multiplex systems H04J3/1682; admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896; negotiating bandwidth in wireless networks H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26208 the scheduling operation being performed under constraints
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/10 between terminal device and access point, i.e. wireless air interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for resource configuration in a cellular broadcasting and communication network, where a video stream can be transmitted from a base station to a mobile station as bursts of video and data frames in a particular sequential manner. Special scheduling signals announce video burst information to the subscribing mobile stations, allowing the mobile stations to turn on their transceiver circuitry only when video bursts arrive. In a video burst, the available data resources, in addition to video resources, transmit data application packets and/or special control information to the subscribing mobile stations. Methods and processes are also disclosed for a mobile station to use a single RF tuner within a system with multiple frequency bands.

Claims

1. A method of communication and broadcasting in a cellular communication network of base stations and mobile stations, the method comprising:

forming a plurality of frames of fixed time length, wherein each frame contains a plurality of time slots, and wherein each time slot contains a plurality of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols;

forming a plurality of video frames and data frames in the plurality of frames, wherein;

a video frame is a frame that contains air link resources used for broadcasting or multicasting content via a single frequency network (SFN), wherein the same broadcasting or multicasting content is transmitted by multiple base stations in multiple cells using OFDM and employing a same time and frequency resource; and

a data frame is a frame that contains air link resources used for data unicasting without the use of a SFN;

transmitting a video broadcasting stream in video bursts from a base station to a mobile station, wherein a video burst contains video frames carrying the content of the video broadcasting stream and data frames carrying unicasting data, and a video burst duration is substantially shorter than a time between two consecutive video bursts associated with the video broadcasting stream; and

intermixing video frames and data frames within a video burst and configuring the video burst in accordance with a desired throughput or latency, wherein;

the video burst configuration includes a number of video frames within the video burst, a number of data frames within the video burst, and an intermixing pattern of video frames and data frames;

the video burst configuration is predetermined or reconfigurable in real-time; and

the video burst configuration and scheduling information are announced to receiving mobile stations through a scheduling signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a mobile station uses:

a same frequency band for both receiving video broadcasting and transmitting/receiving data, and when switching from receiving a video broadcasting in one frequency band to receiving another video broadcasting in a different frequency band, the mobile station triggers an inter-frequency handoff process for data communication;

or

a frequency band for receiving video broadcasting and a different frequency band for transmitting/receiving data, and when switching from receiving a video broadcasting in one frequency band to receiving another video broadcasting in a different frequency band, the mobile station continues to use the same frequency band for data communication.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

a data frame in a video burst is used to transmit data application packets, perform special control functions, or both, including security key update, establishing network connection, paging, location update, resynchronization, power control, notification of data packet arrival, sending uplink data packets, channel quality information, statistics on the video stream including packet error rate, or any combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a scheduling signal, wherein a temporal location and a configuration of at least one video burst is specified in the scheduling signal, and wherein the scheduling signal is transmitted periodically, as needed, according to a predetermined plan, or any combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the scheduling signal comprises:

a frame number where a video burst starts;

a time length of a video burst;

the intermixing pattern of a video burst;

a video resource region in a video frame of a video burst;

a coding and modulation scheme for a video burst;

or

any combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the scheduling signal contains scheduling information, and some scheduling information is reduced, omitted or is broadcasted less frequently when the scheduling information is already known, implied, inferred, or redundant.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the scheduling signal contains scheduling information that is compressed using a predetermined technique or represented by a certain format, and wherein a mapping between video burst patterns and corresponding pattern indices is broadcast, with each pattern index indicating a pattern for each video burst.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the scheduling signal uses bitmap format, where a “

1”

stands for a video frame and a “

0”

stands for a data frame or vice versa.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a single RF tuner is employed in a mobile station for receiving video broadcasting and for transmitting/receiving data in a multiple frequency band system, wherein the mobile station switches to a data frequency band when a data frame arrives or to a video frequency band when a video frame arrives.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising tracking reception of video broadcasting for each mobile station and making data resource allocations to avoid simultaneous delivery of video and data in different frequencies to a mobile station.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein each frame is associated with a frame sequence number, known to all control servers, that represents a synchronized network time by being associated with a common time reference.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating an auxiliary video burst (AVB) to deliver additional information to enhance video broadcast signals when additional transmission capacity in either the time or the frequency domain is available, wherein an AVB is a replica of the video burst, carries incremental redundancy information of the video burst, carries additional video information to improve the video quality, or any combination thereof.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein:

data transmitted in a video frame is selected from the group consisting of video data, audio data, music data, and downloading data; and

data transmitted in a data frame is selected from the group consisting of web access data, voice over IP data, and FTP data.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein the frame sequence number is a modular number for reducing the frame number overhead.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein a video burst is configured to contain consecutive video frames to increase broadcasting or multicasting throughput.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein a video burst is configured to contain evenly intermixed video frames and data frames to reduce unicasting latency.

13. A mobile station in a cellular network used for communication and broadcasting, the mobile station comprising:

a receiver having a receiver circuit for receiving transmissions from a base station, the receiver configured to;

receive a video broadcasting stream in video bursts transmitted from the base station, wherein;

a video burst contains a plurality of intermixed video frames and data frames and is configured in accordance with a desired throughput or latency;

a video frame or a data frame has a fixed time length and contains a plurality of time slots, and wherein each time slot contains a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols;

a video frame contains air link resources used for broadcasting or multicasting content via a single frequency network (SFN), wherein the same broadcasting or multicasting content is transmitted by multiple base stations in multiple cells in the network, using OFDM and employing a same time and frequency resource;

a data frame contains air link resources used for data unicasting without the use of a SFN;

a video burst duration is substantially shorter than a time between two consecutive video bursts associated with the video broadcasting stream;

the video burst configuration includes a number of video frames within the video burst, a number of data frames within the video burst, and an intermixing pattern of video frames and data frames;

the video burst configuration is predetermined or reconfigurable in real-time; and

the video burst configuration is announced from the base station to the mobile station through a scheduling signal; and

enable the receiving circuit during a video burst and disable the receiving circuit between video bursts; and

a transmitter configured to transmit data packets using time and frequency data transmission resources during a video burst or in between video bursts.

14. The mobile station of claim 13, wherein the mobile station uses:

a frequency band for both receiving video broadcasting and transmitting/receiving data, and when switching from receiving a video broadcasting in one frequency band to receiving another video broadcasting in a different frequency band, the mobile station triggers an inter-frequency handoff process for data communication;

or

a frequency band for receiving video broadcasting and a different frequency band for transmitting/receiving data, and when switching from receiving a video broadcasting in one frequency band to receiving another video broadcasting in a different frequency band, the mobile station continues to use the same frequency band for data communication.

15. The mobile station of claim 13, wherein the mobile station receiver stores, in a memory, synthesizer and previous channel information for a video frequency band associated with broadcasting or multicasting or a data frequency band associated with other data applications.

16. The mobile station of claim 13, wherein a controller at the receiver controls switching between configurations for a video frequency band associated with broadcasting or multicasting and a data frequency band associated with other data applications based on the scheduling information.

17. The mobile station of claim 13, wherein the receiver has a single RF tuner in a multiple frequency band system and stores synthesizer and previous channel information for a video frequency band associated with broadcasting or multicasting and a data frequency band associated with other data applications, and wherein, based on scheduling information, a controller determines a switch point between data and video frequency band configurations and, at the switch point, applies the stored synthesizer and previous channel information to a mixer and a base-band processor.

18. The mobile station of claim 13, wherein the receiver has a single RF tuner in a multiple frequency band system and, after RF and base-band processing, packets associated with a video broadcasting application are processed along a first path by a video processing unit and packets associated with a data application are processed along a second path by a data processing unit.

19. A communication and broadcasting apparatus in a cellular communication network of base stations and mobile stations, the apparatus comprising:

means for forming a plurality of frames of fixed time length, wherein each frame contains a plurality of time slots, and wherein each time slot contains a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols;

means for forming a plurality of video frames and data frames in the plurality of frames, wherein;

a video frame is a frame that contains air link resources used for broadcasting or multicasting content via a single frequency network (SFN), wherein the same broadcasting or multicasting content is transmitted by multiple base stations in multiple cells using OFDM and employing a same time and frequency resource; and

a data frame is a frame that contains resources used for data unicasting without the use of a SFN;

means for transmitting a video broadcasting stream in video bursts from a base station to a mobile station, wherein a video burst contains video frames carrying the content of the video broadcasting stream and data frames carrying unicasting data and a video burst duration is substantially shorter than a time between two consecutive video bursts associated with the video broadcasting stream;

means for intermixing video frames and data frames within a video burst and configuring the video burst in accordance with a desired throughput or latency, wherein;

the video burst configuration includes a number of video frames within the video burst, a number of data frames within the video burst, and an intermixing pattern of video frames and data frames;

the video burst configuration is predetermined or reconfigurable in real-time; and

means for generating and transmitting scheduling signals containing scheduling information, configuration information, or scheduling information and configuration information of video bursts to receiving mobile stations, wherein configuration information is selected from a group consisting of frame numbers, burst lengths, burst patterns, resources in a video frame, or coding and modulation schemes.

22. A cellular broadcasting and communication base station for use with mobile stations performing as user terminals, the base station comprising:

a signal generator configured to;

form a plurality of frames of fixed time length, wherein each frame contains a plurality of time slots, and wherein each time slot contains a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols;

form a plurality of video frames and data frames in the plurality of frames, wherein;

a video frame is a frame that contains air link resources used for broadcasting or multicasting content via a single frequency network (SFN), wherein the same broadcasting or multicasting content is transmitted by multiple base stations in multiple cells using OFDM and employing a same time and frequency resource; and

a data frame is a frame that contains resources used for data unicasting without the use of a SFN; and

intermix video frames and data frames within a video burst and configure the video burst in accordance with a desired throughput or latency, wherein;

the video burst configuration includes a number of video frames within the video burst, a number of data frames within the video burst, and an intermixing pattern of video frames and data frames;

the video burst configuration is predetermined or a reconfigurable in real-time; and

the video burst configuration is announced to receiving mobile stations through a scheduling signal; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the scheduling signal and interleaved video frames and data frames in video bursts to mobile stations.

23. The base station of claim 22, wherein the signal generator is further configured to generate a Forward Error Correction (FEC) coding block which comprises information bits from multiple video frames, and wherein the FEC coding block is added to a video burst.

24. The base station of claim 22, wherein the signal generator is further configured to generate a mapping between indices associated with different video streams and associated video burst scheduling information when multiple video streams are being transmitted by the base station, and wherein the transmitter is further configured to transmit the mapping to mobile stations.

27. The base station of claim 22, wherein a video burst is configured to contain consecutive video frames to increase broadcasting or multicasting throughput.

28. The base station of claim 22, wherein a video burst is configured to contain evenly intermixed video frames and data frames to reduce unicasting latency.