Method and system for utilizing plurality of physical layers to retain quality of service in a wireless device during a communication session

• US 8,345,591 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: MacInnis, Alexander G., Quigley, Thomas, Behzad, Arya, Karaoguz, Jeyhan, Walley, John, Buer, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Ayaz
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEE, ANDREW CHUNG CHEUNG
• Application Number:
  US11/864,269
• Publication Number:
  US 20090023454A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,922 Days
• Field of Search: 370/318, 370/347, 370/389, 370/401, 370/441, 370/442, 370/443, 370/444, 370/447, 370/461, 370/450, 455/460, 455/524, 455/525, 455/464
• US Class Current: 370/318
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/805 QOS or priority aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/824 Applicable to portable or mobile terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/829 Topology based
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/24 Negotiating SLA [Service Level Agreement]; Negotiating QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/36 with a discrete range or set of values, e.g. step size, ramping or offsets
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/54 based on quality criteria

Abstract

A wireless mobile communication (WMC) device may be determine a quality of service (QOS) required to communicate data. The WMC device may utilize a plurality of physical layers available in the WMC device to retain the QOS throughout the data communication. The physical layers may comprise a plurality of wireless technologies and/or a plurality of transmission power levels within each wireless technology. Selection of physical layers that may be utilized may comprise determination of available QOS through the physical layers, available power in the WMC device, and/or power requirement for communicating data via the physical layers. Data encoding may also be utilized to alter size of communicated data while retaining the required QOS. Data encoding may comprise utilizing encoding schemes, data compression, and/or redundancy bits. A set of deadlines may be utilized to enable switching between available physical layers to ensure maintaining and/or achieving required QOS.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processing subsystem, comprising a power management processor for managing power-related operations in the system;

a plurality of transceivers, comprising a personal area network (PAN) transceiver, a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver, a cellular transceiver, and an Ethernet transceiver; and

a quality of service (QOS) manager that is operable to manage QOS during data transmission in the system, wherein said QOS management comprises;

determining QOS criteria associated with said data transmission;

determining QOS related parameters associated with each of said plurality of transceivers;

selecting one of said plurality of transceivers for said data transmission based on evaluation of;

said determined QOS criteria for said data transmission;

said determination of QOS related parameters associated with use of each of said plurality of transceivers for said data transmission; and

power related parameters associated with use of each of said plurality of transceivers for said data transmission, wherein said power related parameters are determined by said power management processor.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said QOS manager is operable to determine a deadline for said data transmission, wherein expiry of said deadline prior to completion of said data transmission allows for reselecting another one of said plurality of transceivers and/or modifying use of previously selected one of said plurality of transceivers.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of transceivers utilizes a plurality of transmission power levels.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein said power-related parameters comprise power availability in said plurality of transceivers.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein said QOS manager further comprises dynamically reselecting at least one of said plurality of transceivers during said data transmission to obtain a required quality of service.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein said QOS manager further comprises selecting a plurality of deadlines that enable switching among said plurality transceivers to obtain a quality of service during said data transmission.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the QOS manager further comprises switching, after expiration of one of said deadlines, from a first transmission power level to a second transmission power level that is higher than the first transmission power level.

8. The system according to claim 6, wherein the QOS manager further comprises switching, after expiration of one of said deadlines, from a first transceiver to a second transceiver that enables improved reliability or performance compared to the first transceiver.

9. A system, comprising:

a power management processor operable to manage power-related operations in the system and to determine power-related parameters associated with use of each of a plurality of transceivers in data transmission;

a plurality of transceivers, comprising at least two transceivers selected from a personal area network (PAN) transceiver, a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver, and a cellular transceiver; and

a quality of service (QOS) manager that is operable to;

determine QOS criteria associated with data transmission by the system;

determine QOS related parameters associated with each of said plurality of transceivers; and

select one of said plurality of transceivers for said data transmission based on evaluation of;

said determined QOS criteria;

said determined QOS related parameters; and

power-related parameters associated with use of each of said plurality of transceivers for said data transmission.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein said plurality of transceivers utilizes a plurality of transmission power levels.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein said power-related parameters comprise power availability in said plurality of transceivers.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the QOS manager is further operable to switch, after expiration of one of a plurality of deadlines, from a first transmission power level to a second transmission power level that is higher than the first transmission power level.

13. The system according to claim 9, wherein said power-related parameters comprise a plurality of power resources available to said power management processor.

14. The system according to claim 9, wherein said power-related parameters comprise a power requirement of transmission and reception of data by the system.

15. A system, comprising:

a power management processor operable to manage power-related operations in the system;

a plurality of transceivers, comprising at least two transceivers selected from a personal area network (PAN) transceiver, a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver, and a cellular transceiver; and

a quality of service (QOS) manager operable to;

determine QOS criteria associated with data transmission by the system;

determine QOS related parameters associated with each of said plurality of transceivers; and

select one of said plurality of transceivers for said data transmission based on evaluation of;

said determined QOS criteria; and

said determination of QOS related parameters.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the QOS manager is further operable to alter a size of said data prior to said data transmission to achieve said required quality of service.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the QOS manager is further operable to utilize one or more encoding schemes to achieve said altering of said size of said data prior to said data transmission.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the QOS manager is further operable to dynamically re-encode, with a new encoding scheme, said data that utilized said one or more encoding schemes to achieve said altering of said size of said data prior to said data transmission.

19. The system according to claim 15, wherein the QOS manager is further operable to select at least one of said plurality of transceivers based on content of said data or type of said data.

20. The system according to claim 15, wherein the QOS manager is further operable to reselect at least one of said plurality of transceivers during said data transmission to obtain a required quality of service.

21. The system according to claim 15, wherein the QOS manager is further operable to select deadlines that enable switching among said plurality transceivers to obtain a quality of service during said data transmission.

22. The system according to claim 15, wherein the QOS manager is further operable to select deadlines that enable switching among said plurality transceivers to obtain a quality of service during said data transmission.

23. The system according to claim 15, wherein the QOS manager is further operable to switch between said transceivers after expiration of one of a plurality of deadlines, wherein the transceiver utilized after the expiration of said one of said deadlines enables improved reliability or performance as compared to the transceiver that was utilized prior to the expiration of said one of said deadlines.

24. The system according to claim 15, wherein said QOS criteria comprise at least one of a maximum value for a number of dropped packets, a packet latency, a minimum bandwidth, and whether out-of-order delivery is acceptable.