Multi-sector broadcast paging channel

• US 8,543,138 B2
• Filed: 07/05/2005
• Issued: 09/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Teauge, Edward Harrison, Agrawal, Avneesh, Khandekar, Aamod
• Primary Examiner(s): CAI, WAYNE HUU
• Application Number:
  US11/175,788
• Publication Number:
  US 20060199596A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,003 Days
• Field of Search: 455/458, 455/466, 455/515
• US Class Current: 455/458
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0491 using two or more sectors, i.e. sector diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/24 Cell structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/10 using simulcast notification

Abstract

Systems and methods are described that facilitate improving paging signal strength at or near sector perimeters in a wireless network region by transmitted identical paging waveforms simultaneously from all sectors in the region and permitting over-the-air signal aggregation to combine signal energy near sector perimeters. Waveforms can be modulated using an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing technique and can be simultaneously transmitted according to predefined transmission resources over a multi-sector broadcast paging channel reserved for such identical waveforms. Cyclic prefix can be added to the identical waveforms to mitigate problems associated with delay spread and/or time-of-arrival differences at or near sector perimeters.

Claims

1. A method of providing pages to subscriber stations over a wireless network within a transmission region, and near sector boundaries using a multi-sector broadcast channel, comprising:

receiving data related to a list of all pages to be transmitted to subscriber stations in a paging region that has a plurality of sectors;

generating a substantially identical waveform at a base station in each of the plurality of sectors;

transmitting the substantially identical waveform concurrently from a subset of the sectors in the region to permit signal aggregation of waveforms over the air to page subscriber stations identified in the list of pages to be transmitted;

providing an aggregate waveform to one or more subscriber stations,

wherein the aggregate waveform comprises combined signal energy from at least two substantially identical waveform transmissions from at least two different sectors to improve spectral efficiency within the transmission region and near sector boundaries; and

further comprising providing time slots synchronized across all sectors in the paging region during which individuals sectors in the region simultaneously transmit the substantially identical waveform.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining a paging channel over which the waveform is transmitted and modulating the waveform with an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing technique.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising dynamically redefining a paging region between time slots by employing a unique identical scrambling code in all sectors included in the region.

4. The method of claim 3, redefining a paging region comprising modifying at least one of a number and identity of sectors comprised by the region.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising prepending a cyclic prefix to at least one instance of the substantially identical waveform.

6. A method of providing pages to subscriber stations over a wireless network using a multi-sector broadcast channel, comprising:

receiving data related to a list of all pages to be transmitted to subscriber stations in a paging region that has a plurality of sectors;

generating a substantially identical waveform at a base station in each of the plurality of sectors;

prepending a cyclic prefix to at least one instance of the substantially identical waveform;

determining a guard time within which at least two instances of the substantially identical waveform can arrive at a common boundary of respective sectors from which the at least two instances of the identical waveform are simultaneously transmitted; and

transmitting the substantially identical waveform concurrently from a subset of the sectors in the region to page subscriber stations identified in the list of pages to be transmitted.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising designing the cyclic prefix to mitigate time-of-arrival differences of the at least two instances of the substantially identical waveform at the common boundary of respective sectors from which the at least two instances of the substantially identical waveform are simultaneously transmitted to provide the at least two instances of the substantially identical waveform within the guard time for waveform aggregation.

8. A system that facilitates simultaneously transmitting pages to all subscriber stations of a wireless network and improving paging signal spectral efficiency within a transmission region and near sector boundaries, comprising:

a plurality of transmitters, each of which is located in one of a plurality of sectors of the paging region; and

a waveform generation component associated with each transmitter, each of the waveform generation components being configured to receive information related to a list of all incoming pages for the paging region and to generate a waveform comprising all pages for the region;

wherein the waveform generation components generate substantially identical waveforms and each of the transmitters concurrently transmits the substantially identical waveforms to permit signal aggregation of wave forms over the air;

wherein each waveform generation component comprises an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing component that modulates one of the substantially identical waveforms; and

further comprising a synchronization component that defines time slots during which the plurality of transmitters simultaneously transmit the substantially identical waveforms from each sector in the region.

9. The system of claim 8, the network dynamically remaps the paging region based at least in part on a number of pages to be transmitted in the waveform, wherein sectors to be included in the paging region employ a unique scrambling code when generating the substantially identical waveforms.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein sectors not included in the paging region employ one or more scrambling codes that are at least one of orthogonal and pseudo-orthogonal to the unique scrambling code employed by sectors included in the paging region.

11. The system of claim 8, further comprising an encoder that encodes all pages for the region as a single paging data packet.

12. The system of claim 11, each waveform generator generates an identical waveform comprising the encoded paging data packet.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein each waveform generation component comprises an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing component that modulates one of the substantially identical waveforms comprising the encoded paging data packet.

14. An apparatus that facilitates providing improved paging signal spectral efficiency in a multi-sector broadcast channel for transmission of pages in a wireless network region, comprising:

a controller that receives a list of pages to be transmitted to access terminals in the wireless network region and generates and transmits an instruction related to the list of pages; and

a waveform generation component that receives the instruction and generates a waveform comprising all pages to be transmitted to access terminals in the region, wherein the waveform is substantially identical to a second waveform transmitted to the access terminals, the waveform being sufficiently identical to the second waveform to aggregate and to combine signal energy with the second waveform after transmission over the air near sector perimeters.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a plurality of base stations, each base station in the region comprises a respective waveform generation component that receives the instruction from the base station controller, and each waveform generation component generates a substantially identical waveform comprising all pages to be transmitted, in response to the instruction.

16. The system of claim 15, each base station further comprises a synchronizer component that synchronizes transmission of the substantially identical waveform from the respective base station, such that the substantially identical waveforms are concurrently transmitted across the region.

17. The system of claim 14, the waveform comprises paging information without sector identity information.

18. The system of claim 14, the base station controller is housed in one of a plurality of base stations in the region.

19. An apparatus that facilitates providing improved paging spectral efficiency within a transmission region and near sector boundaries in paging all intended subscriber stations in a wireless network region using simultaneous multi-sector broadcast transmissions, comprising:

means for receiving a complete list of pages to be transmitted to subscriber stations in a region;

means for transmitting an instruction to a plurality of base stations in respective sectors in the region;

means for generating an identical waveform based on the instruction at each of the plurality of transmission base stations, the identical waveform comprising all pages to be transmitted in the region; and

means for transmitting the identical waveform simultaneously from all base stations in the region, signal energy of at least two identical waveforms aggregated over the air and near sector perimeters.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising means for modulating identical waveforms prior to transmission.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, the means for modulating comprises means for employing an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing technique.

22. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising means for assigning time slots for simultaneous transmission of identical waveforms from all sectors in the region over a multi-sector broadcast channel.

23. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising means for dynamically reassigning sectors to the region between transmission timeslots.

24. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions in a non-transitory storage medium for improving paging signal spectral efficiency to subscriber stations, comprising:

receiving a list of devices to be paged in a region of a wireless network;

generating a waveform comprising paging signals for each device identified in the list;

transmitting the waveform simultaneously over a multi-sector broadcast channel with at least one other identical waveform to permit signal aggregation of waveforms over the air; and

further comprising providing time slots synchronized across all sectors in the paging region during which individuals sectors in the region simultaneously transmit the substantially identical waveform.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 24, further comprising computer executable instructions for performing orthogonal frequency division multiplexing modulation on identical waveforms.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 24, further comprising computer executable instructions for assigning transmission time slots to the multi-sector broadcast channel to transmit identical waveforms simultaneously.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 24, employed in a base station in each of a plurality of sectors in the region, each base station transmits an identical waveform that aggregates with other identical waveforms over the air.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 24, further comprising computer executable instructions for prepending a cyclic prefix to at least one instance of the identical waveform to mitigate time-of-arrival differences at a common sector border for identical waveforms transmitted from adjacent sectors and aggregating signal strength at the sector border.