System and method for reusing radio resources

• US 8,392,783 B2
• Filed: 11/07/2008
• Issued: 03/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Kang, Yeon Su, Kang, Kun Seok, Ahn, Do-Seob, Lee, Ho Jin
• Primary Examiner(s): Wilson, Yolanda L
• Application Number:
  US12/746,306
• Publication Number:
  US 20100251053A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,579 Days
• Field of Search: 714/748, 455/7, 455/9
• US Class Current: 714/748
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18539 Arrangements for managing radio, resources, i.e. for establishing or releasing a connection
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2606 Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method of reusing radio resources capable of improving radio resource efficiency. According to an embodiment of the present invention, in a communication system including a repeater that retransmits signals transmitted from a satellite to user terminals, it is possible to reuse some of the radio resources used in a wide area coverage, such as the satellite, in a repeater coverage. Therefore, it is possible to ensure radio resources such that repeater data can be transmitted to user terminals without additional radio resources.

Claims

1. A method of reusing radio resources, comprising:

measuring intensities of a plurality of radio signals that are transmitted from a first terminal group including a plurality of terminals positioned in a first communication area to a wide area transmitting/receiving apparatus;

determining whether there is repeater data to be transmitted to a second terminal group including a plurality of terminals positioned in a second communication area;

based on determining that there is repeater data to be transmitted, setting a priority of reuse for respective ones of a plurality of radio resources that transmit the plurality of radio signals on the basis of the measured intensities of the plurality of radio signals; and

selecting a reusable radio resource on the basis of the set priority, and transmitting the repeater data to the plurality of terminals included in the second terminal group using the selected reusable radio resource.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

before the measuring of the intensities of the radio signals, setting a radio resource used by the first terminal group in the first communication area as a first radio resource, and setting a radio resource used by the second terminal group in the second communication area as a second radio resource.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first communication area is a communication area in which the wide area transmitting/receiving apparatus can directly communicate with a plurality of terminals included in the first terminal group, and the second communication area is a communication area in which signals transmitted from the wide area transmitting/receiving apparatus are transmitted to a plurality of terminals included in the second terminal group through a repeater.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the setting of the priority includes setting respective priorities of resources used by a plurality of terminals using the plurality of radio signals as reusable radio resource candidates so as to be inversely proportional to the measured intensities of the plurality of radio signals.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the measured intensities of the plurality of radio signals are intensities of signals that are transmitted from a plurality of terminals included in the first terminal group to the wide area transmitting/receiving apparatus through uplinks.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the respective priorities of the reusable radio resource candidates are determined on the basis of information on resource numbers allocated to the plurality of radio resources, a measured radio signal intensity, and priority for reuse.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein, based on the measured radio signal intensity being lower than a predetermined radio signal intensity, a corresponding radio resource is set as a reusable radio resource candidate.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the repeater data is any one of local broadcasting data for the second communication area, an ARQ or H-ARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request) packet requested by the second terminal group, and transmission scheme information including information on a data modulation scheme and a coding scheme.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein, based on an arbitrary terminal of the second terminal group requesting the ARQ or H-ARQ, among buffered packets to be retransmitted to the second terminal group, the ARQ or H-ARQ packet is retransmitted to the terminal.

10. A system for reusing radio resources comprising:

a signal receiving unit that receives a plurality of radio signals transmitted from a first terminal group including a plurality of terminals positioned in a first communication area to a wide area transmitting/receiving apparatus;

a radio resource reuse unit that calculates intensities of the plurality of received radio signals, and determines a priority of reusable radio resources that will be reused in the second communication area among the plurality of radio signals, on the basis of the calculated intensities of the plurality of radio signals;

a repeater data management unit that manages repeater data to be transmitted to a second terminal group including a plurality of terminals positioned in a second communication area; and

a signal transmitting unit that transmits the determined reusable radio resources and the repeater data to the terminals included in the second terminal group.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the first communication area is a communication area in which the wide area transmitting/receiving apparatus can directly communicate with the plurality of terminals included in the first terminal group, and the reusable radio resources are used in only the first communication area.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the repeater data is transmitted to the second terminal group through a repeater.