Methods and apparatus for communicating transmission backlog information

• US 8,437,251 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2006
• Issued: 05/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Das, Arnab, Laroia, Rajiv, Li, Junyi
• Primary Examiner(s): Rinehart, Mark
• Assistant Examiner(s): ANWAR, MOHAMMAD S
• Application Number:
  US11/333,790
• Publication Number:
  US 20070159969A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,667 Days
• Field of Search: 370/229, 370/231, 370/294, 370/395.4, 455/554.5, 455/560
• US Class Current: 370/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 based on load

Abstract

An uplink dedicated control channel reporting structure includes a plurality of different bit size reports, e.g. 1 bit, 3 bit and 4 bit reports, for reporting a wireless terminal'"'"'s backlog information of uplink traffic request group queues. Smaller bit size reports are transmitted more frequently than larger reports. A 1 bit request report indicates whether or not there are any MAC frames of information to be communicated in a set of two request group queues. A 3 bit request report indicates an amount of backlog information corresponding to a first set of request group queues and a second set of request group queues. A 4 bit request report indicates an amount of backlog information corresponding to a set of request group queues. The 4 bit request report is capable of reporting information on any of a plurality of uplink traffic channel request group queues being maintained by the wireless terminal.

Claims

1. A method of reporting transmission backlog information, the method comprising:

operating a mobile node to generate transmission backlog information;

storing transmission backlog reporting schedule information indicating for at least some different times in a reporting schedule, different backlog information report sizes to be used;

operating the mobile node to transmit fixed size transmission backlog information of reports of different predetermined fixed sizes over a period of time in accordance with said reporting schedule; and

wherein one of said fixed sizes is three information bits and wherein operating the mobile node to transmit fixed size transmission backlog information reports includes transmitting a three bit report indicating zero backlog when there is nothing waiting to be transmitted.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein operating the mobile node to transmit fixed size transmission backlog information reports of different predetermined fixed sizes over a period of time includes:

transmitting a fixed size report including multiple bits and being able to communicate any one of at least three different values.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said fixed size transmission backlog information reports include reports of a first fixed size and a second fixed size, reports of said second fixed size being larger than reports of said first fixed size.

4. The method of claim 3,

wherein said fixed size transmission backlog information reports include reports of a third fixed size which is larger than said second fixed size;

and

wherein said first, second and third fixed sizes are each less than 10 information bits in size.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein operating the mobile node to transmit fixed size transmission backlog information reports includes transmitting more first size reports than said second size reports during said time period.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the smallest size report is used for highest priority traffic.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein highest priority traffic is voice or control traffic.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the first fixed size is one bit and wherein the one bit indicates the existence of information to be transmitted or lack thereof.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein said fixed size transmission backlog information reports report information on a plurality of queues, each report providing information on the backlog of one or more request groups.

10. The method claim 3, wherein the first fixed size is one bit and wherein the one bit report provides backlog information on a combined backlog corresponding to two different queues.

11. The method of claim 3, wherein the second fixed size is 3 bits and wherein the 3 bit report provides information on two sets of queues.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein at least two of said first, second and third fixed sizes each include less than 5 information bits.

13. The method of claim 4, wherein the second fixed size is 3 bits, wherein the third fixed size is 4 bits, and wherein the 3 bit report communicates a delta from a 4 bit report in at least some cases.

14. The method of claim 4, wherein the third fixed size is 4 bits, and wherein the 4 bit report provides information on one set of queues.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the one set of queues includes 1 request group queue, two request group queues, or three request group queues.

16. The method of claim 4, wherein the fixed size transmission backlog information reports are transmitted on a time shared basis.

17. The method of claim 4, wherein a dedicated control channel segment includes at most one of said first, second and third fixed size reports communicating transmit backlog information.

18. The method of claim 4, wherein each dedicated control channel segment dedicated to the mobile node provides an opportunity for the wireless terminal to communicate one of said first, second, and third fixed size reports used to communicate transmit backlog information.

19. The method of claim 4, wherein the mobile node includes a predetermined number of request group queues for up link traffic and wherein the third fixed size report is capable of communicating backlog information corresponding to any of the request group queues.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein said first, second and third fixed sizes each include less than 5 information bits.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the size in bits of a fixed size report transmitted at a point in time does not depend on an amount of data waiting to be transmitted by said mobile node.

22. A wireless terminal, comprising:

a queue status monitoring module for monitoring an amount of information in at least one of a plurality of different queues used to store information to be transmitted;

stored transmission backlog reporting schedule information indicating for at least some different times in a reporting schedule, different backlog information report sizes to be used;

a transmission backlog report generation module for generating different fixed size transmission backlog information reports providing transmission backlog information over a period of time, one of said different fixed size transmission backlog information reports being a three bit report and; and

a transmission backlog report control module for controlling the wireless terminal to transmit the generated fixed size transmission backlog information reports in accordance with said reporting schedule, wherein controlling said wireless terminal to transmit the generated fixed size transmission backlog information reports includes transmitting a three bit report indicating zero backlog information when there is nothing waiting to be transmitted and said transmission backlog reporting schedule information indicates that a three bit report is to be transmitted.

23. The wireless terminal of claim 22,

wherein said transmission backlog report control module, in controlling the transmission of generated fixed size transmission backlog information reports, controls the transmission of a fixed size report including multiple bits and being able to communicate any one of at least three different values.

24. The wireless terminal of claim 23, further comprising:

an OFDM transmitter for transmitting at least some of said generated fixed size transmission backlog information reports.

25. The wireless terminal of claim 23, wherein said fixed size transmission backlog information reports include reports of a first fixed size and a second fixed size, reports of said second fixed size being larger than reports of said first fixed size;

and

wherein said reporting schedule information indicates more first size reports are to be transmitted than said second size reports for at least one iteration of a stored transmission report schedule.

26. The wireless terminal of claim 23, wherein said fixed size transmission backlog information reports report information on a plurality of queues, each report providing information on the backlog of one or more transmission request groups.

27. The wireless terminal claim 23, wherein said fixed size transmission backlog information reports include reports of a first fixed size and a second fixed size;

wherein the first fixed size is one bit; and

wherein backlog information reports of the first size provide backlog information on a combined backlog corresponding to a plurality of different transmission queues.

28. The wireless terminal of claim 22, further comprising:

a transmitter for transmitting fixed size transmission backlog information reports in uplink control channel segments dedicated to said wireless terminal.

29. The wireless terminal of claim 28, wherein each of said uplink control channel segments dedicated to said wireless terminal are of a uniform size;

and

wherein each segment includes at most one transmission backlog information report, each segment including additional bits not used for transmitting backlog information.

30. The wireless terminal of claim 29, further comprising:

a coding module for coding information to be transmitted in said dedicated uplink control channel segments, for at least some segments, said coding module coding a transmission backlog report with at least one additional report used to communicate non-backlog control information.

31. The wireless terminal of claim 30, wherein said at least one additional report is one of:

a signal to noise ratio report, a self noise report, an interference report, and a wireless terminal transmission power report.

32. The wireless terminal of claim 22, wherein said fixed size transmission backlog information reports include reports of a first fixed size and a second fixed size, reports of said second fixed size being larger than reports of said first fixed size.

33. The wireless terminal of claim 32, wherein said fixed size transmission backlog information reports include reports of a third fixed size which is larger than said second fixed size.

34. The wireless terminal of claim 33, wherein said first, second and third fixed sizes are each less than 10 information bits in size.

35. The wireless terminal of claim 33, wherein the second fixed size is 3 bits, wherein the third fixed size is 4 bits, and wherein the 3 bit report communicates a delta from a 4 bit report in at least some cases.

36. The wireless terminal of claim 34, further comprising:

stored report information indicating a mapping between queue status information and bit patterns that can be communicated using said reports of said first and second sizes.

37. The wireless terminal of claim 34, wherein at least two of said first, second and third fixed sizes each include less than 5 information bits.

38. The wireless terminal of claim 33, wherein said first, second and third fixed sizes each include less than 5 information bits.

39. The wireless terminal of claim 38, wherein at least one of said first, second and third fixed sized is a size of one information bit.

40. The wireless terminal of claim 39, wherein said second size is 3 information bits and said third size is 4 information bits.

43. The wireless terminal of claim 22, wherein said fixed size transmission backlog information reports include reports of a first fixed size and a second fixed size, reports of said second fixed size being larger than reports of said first fixed size wherein the smallest size report is used for highest priority traffic.

44. The wireless terminal of claim 43, wherein the first fixed size is one bit and wherein the one bit indicates the existence of information to be transmitted or lack thereof.

45. The wireless terminal of claim 44 wherein highest priority traffic is voice or control traffic.

41. The wireless terminal 36, wherein said report generation module includes an information grouping module for grouping status information corresponding to different sets of queues.

42. The wireless terminal of claim 41, wherein said grouping module supports different information groupings for reports of different bit sizes.

46. A wireless terminal, comprising:

means for monitoring an amount of information in at least one of a plurality of different queues used to store information to be transmitted;

means for storing transmission backlog reporting schedule information, said transmission backlog reporting schedule information indicating for at least some different times in a reporting schedule, different backlog information report sizes to be used;

means for generating different fixed size transmission backlog information reports providing transmission backlog information over a period of time, one of said different fixed size transmission backlog information reports being a three bit report;

means for controlling the transmission of generated fixed size transmission backlog information reports in accordance with said reporting schedule; and

means for transmitting the generated transmission fixed size transmission backlog information reports over the air, said transmitting including transmitting a three bit report indicating zero backlog information when there is nothing waiting to be transmitted and said transmission backlog reporting schedule information indicates that a three bit report is to be transmitted.

47. The wireless terminal of claim 46,

wherein said means for controlling the transmission of generated fixed size transmission backlog information reports controls the transmission of a fixed size report including multiple bits and being able to communicate any one of at least three different values.

48. The wireless terminal of claim 47,

wherein said means for transmitting the generated fixed size transmission backlog information reports over the air is also for transmitting at least some of said generated fixed size transmission backlog information reports using OFDM signals.

49. The wireless terminal of claim 46, further comprising:

means for transmitting fixed size transmission backlog information reports in uplink control channel segments dedicated to said wireless terminal.

50. A communications device comprising:

a processor configured to control the communications device to;

monitor an amount of information in at least one of a plurality of different queues used to store information to be transmitted;

store transmission backlog reporting schedule information indicating for at least some different times in a reporting schedule, different backlog information report sizes to be used;

generate different fixed size transmission backlog information reports providing transmission backlog information over a period of time, one of said different fixed size transmission backlog information reports being a three bit report;

transmit said fixed size transmission backlog information reports in accordance with said reporting schedule over a wireless communications link, said processor being configured to control said communications device to transmit a three bit report indicating zero backlog information when there is nothing waiting to be transmitted and said transmission backlog reporting schedule information indicates that a three bit report is to be transmitted; and

a memory coupled to said processor.

51. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising:

computer executable instructions which when executed by a processor cause a communications device to;

monitor an amount of information in at least one of a plurality of different queues used to store information to be transmitted;

store transmission backlog reporting schedule information indicating for at least some different times in a reporting schedule, different backlog information report sizes to be used;

generate different fixed size transmission backlog information reports providing transmission backlog information over a period of time, one of said different fixed size transmission backlog information reports being a three bit report; and

transmit said fixed size transmission backlog information reports in accordance with said reporting schedule over a wireless communications link, wherein transmitting said fixed size transmission backlog information reports includes transmitting a three bit report indicating zero backlog information when there is nothing waiting to be transmitted and said transmission backlog reporting schedule information indicates that a three bit report is to be transmitted.