Methodology for base station assisted channel selection for interference handling in mobile networks

• US 8,355,373 B2
• Filed: 08/24/2009
• Issued: 01/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Vislink Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: xG Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Gandham, Shashidhar R., Shukla, Amit
• Primary Examiner(s): Ferris, Derrick
• Assistant Examiner(s): ACOLATSE, KODZOVI
• Application Number:
  US12/583,644
• Publication Number:
  US 20100091738A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,240 Days
• Field of Search: 370/331
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0061 of neighbour cell information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel

Abstract

A mechanism is disclosed where a Base Station provides assistance to a mobile device in the channel-switch process because a mobile device might have to perform frequent channel switches to overcome adverse channel conditions due to interference in the 900 MHz ISM band. The Base Station broadcasts channel-specific information that will be used by all mobile devices to accurately select prospective channels for future channel-switches, thereby cutting down the latency that is experienced during an actual switch.

Claims

1. A method for base station assisted channel selection used to assist mobile node handset scanning and handoff between multiple base stations each having multiple channels and a medium access control protocol having timeslots for forwarding Internet Protocol packets between multiple base stations and mobile nodes in voice over the Internet protocol systems on a wireless network comprising:

multiple base stations in electrical communication with the Internet and each of said multiple base stations continuously measuring and calculating uplink channel conditions for every Internet Protocol packet received on each of said multiple channels by maintaining a running average of measured interference on each of said timeslots and if said running average of measured interference exceeds a set threshold said timeslot is categorized as unusable and said base station then calculating a percentage of unusable timeslots to total timeslots per channel;

one or more mobile nodes in wireless electrical communication with one of said multiple base stations using one of said multiple channels;

said multiple base stations and said one or more mobile nodes each having a medium access control protocol containing sequentially numbered periodically repeating hyperframes made up of a determined number of multiple sequentially numbered superframes equal to the number of channels on the wireless network wherein the position of one of each of said multiple superframes in each hyperframe identifies only one of each of said multiple channels;

each of said multiple base stations transmitting a beacon signal at the start of each said multiple superframes simultaneously on all of said multiple base stations'"'"' multiple channels;

said beacon signal containing a base station identifier, a channel identifier determined by a combination of the sequential number of said hyperframe and sequential number of said superframe containing the transmitted beacon signal, and channel information containing uplink channel interference information comprising the percentage of unusable timeslots to total timeslots, voice capacity, data capacity, and mobile node registration capacity percentage information; and

,

wherein each of said one or more mobile nodes within transmission range of each of said multiple base stations uses the base station identifier, the channel identifier, and channel information containing uplink channel interference information comprising the percentage of unusable timeslots to total timeslots, voice capacity, data capacity, and mobile node registration capacity percentage information contained in said beacon signal to continuously select and store a subset of said multiple channels such that said subset of said multiple channels is used by said mobile node to scan for downlink channel conditions prior to selecting a channel for handoff.