Methods and apparatus supporting adaptive decentralized traffic scheduling including a dynamic receiver yielding threshold

• US 8,582,492 B2
• Filed: 11/10/2008
• Issued: 11/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Wu, Xinzhou, Li, Junyi, Shakkottai, Sanjay, Laroia, Rajiv, Tavildar, Saurabh, Richardson, Thomas, Sundararajan, Jay Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Pan, Yuwen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wang, Fanghwa
• Application Number:
  US12/268,186
• Publication Number:
  US 20100118761A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,828 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/315
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/003 Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0037 Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0064 Rate requirement of the data, e.g. scalable bandwidth, data priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0091 Signaling for the administration of the divided path
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/543 based on requested quality, e.g. QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

Methods and apparatus relating to scheduling of air link resources, e.g., traffic segments, in a wireless communications system are described. Various described methods and apparatus are well suited to wireless peer to peer networks in which traffic scheduling is decentralized, e.g. an ad hoc peer to peer network. An individual wireless terminal corresponding to a peer to peer connection which desires to communicate traffic signals makes a receiver yielding decision. The receiver yielding decision, in some embodiments, includes comparing a link quality estimate corresponding to its own link, to a dynamically generated receiver yielding threshold. The dynamically generated receiver yielding threshold is determined based on at least one of: quality of service information corresponding to its own link and historical link quality information corresponding to its own link.

Claims

1. A method of operating a first wireless terminal in a system including a first wireless communications link from a second wireless terminal to a third wireless terminal, said first communications link having a higher priority than a second communications link from a fourth wireless terminal to said first wireless terminal, the method comprising:

receiving a signal from the second wireless terminal;

receiving a transmission request from the fourth wireless terminal, the transmission request indicating an intent of the fourth wireless terminal to transmit data to the first wireless terminal;

estimating the quality of the second communications link from the signal received from the second wireless terminal and the transmission request received from the fourth wireless terminal;

dynamically generating a yielding threshold based on at least one of;

i) historic link quality information corresponding to the second communications link;

or ii) quality of service information corresponding to the second communications link; and

yielding when the estimated quality of the second communications link does not exceed the dynamically generated yielding threshold, wherein the yielding comprises a decision to not have the fourth wireless terminal transmit the data to the first wireless terminal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received signal from the second wireless terminal is a transmission request signal sent from the second wireless terminal to the third wireless terminal.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the quality of service information corresponding to the second communications link from the fourth wireless terminal.

4. The method of claim 3,

wherein yielding comprises deciding to not transmit a transmission request response to the fourth wireless terminal.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

deciding to transmit said transmission request response to the fourth wireless terminal when the estimated quality of the second communications link exceeds the dynamically generated threshold.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the estimated quality of the second communications link is based on a current communications rate supported by the second communications link.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the estimated quality of the second communications link is based on a current signal to noise ratio of the second communications link.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein said quality of service information is based on the amount of data waiting to be transmitted by the fourth wireless terminal to the first wireless terminal.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the quality of service information indicates a quality of service level corresponding to a type of traffic waiting at said fourth wireless terminal to be transmitted.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein dynamically generating said threshold includes generating a lower threshold than a previous threshold when the quality of service information indicates an increase in a quality of service level corresponding to the second communications link.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein dynamically generating said threshold includes generating a higher threshold than a previous threshold when the quality of service information indicates a decrease in a quality of service level corresponding to the second communications link.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein the historic link quality information includes an average data rate supported by the second communications link during a previous time interval.

13. A first wireless terminal in a system including a first wireless communications link from a second wireless terminal to a third wireless terminal, said first communications link having a higher priority than a second communications link from a fourth wireless terminal to said first wireless terminal, the first wireless terminal comprising:

at least one processor configured to;

receive a signal from the second wireless terminal;

receive a transmission request from the fourth wireless terminal, the transmission request indicating an intent of the fourth wireless terminal to transmit data to the first wireless terminal;

estimate the quality of the second communications link from the signal received from the second wireless terminal and the transmission request received from the fourth wireless terminal;

dynamically generate a yielding threshold based on at least one of;

i) historic link quality information corresponding to the second communications link;

or ii) quality of service information corresponding to the second communications link; and

yield when the estimated quality of the second communications link does not exceed the dynamically generated yielding threshold, wherein the yielding comprises a decision to not have the fourth wireless terminal transmit the data to the first wireless terminal; and

a memory coupled to said at least one processor.

14. The first wireless terminal of claim 13, wherein the received signal from the second wireless terminal is a transmission request signal sent from the second wireless terminal to the third wireless terminal.

15. The first wireless terminal of claim 13, where said at least one processor is further configured to:

receive the quality of service information corresponding to the second communications link from the fourth wireless terminal.

16. The first wireless terminal of claim 15, wherein yielding comprises deciding to not transmit a transmission request response to the fourth wireless terminal.

17. The first wireless terminal of claim 16, wherein said at least one processor is configured to:

decide to transmit said transmission request response to the fourth wireless terminal when the estimated quality of the second communications link exceeds the dynamically generated threshold.

18. The first wireless terminal of claim 16, wherein the estimated quality of the second communications link is based on a current communications rate supported by the second communications link.

19. The first wireless terminal of claim 16, wherein the estimated quality of the second communications link is based on a current signal to noise ratio of the second communications link.

20. The first wireless terminal of claim 16, wherein said quality of service information is based on the amount of data waiting to be transmitted by the fourth wireless terminal to the first wireless terminal.

21. The first wireless terminal of claim 16, wherein the quality of service information indicates a quality of service level corresponding to a type of traffic waiting at said fourth wireless terminal to be transmitted.

22. The first wireless terminal of claim 16, wherein said at least one processor is configured to generate a lower threshold than a previous threshold when the quality of service information indicates an increase in a quality of service level corresponding to the second communications link, as part of being configured to dynamically generate said threshold.

23. The first wireless terminal of claim 16, wherein said at least one processor is configured to generate a higher threshold than a previous threshold when the quality of service information indicates a decrease in a quality of service level corresponding to the second communications link, as part of being configured to dynamically generate said threshold.

24. The first wireless terminal of claim 16, wherein the historic link quality information includes an average data rate supported by the second communications link during a previous time interval.

25. A first wireless terminal in a system including a first wireless communications link from a second wireless terminal to a third wireless terminal, said first communications link having a higher priority than a second communications link from a fourth wireless terminal to said first wireless terminal, the first wireless terminal comprising:

means for receiving a signal from the second wireless terminal;

means for receiving a transmission request from the fourth wireless terminal, the transmission request indicating an intent of the fourth wireless terminal to transmit data to the first wireless terminal;

means for estimating the quality of the second communications link from the signal received from the second wireless terminal and the transmission request received from the fourth wireless terminal;

means for dynamically generating a yielding threshold based on at least one of;

i) historic link quality information corresponding to the second communications link;

or ii) quality of service information corresponding to the second communications link; and

means for yielding when the estimated quality of the second communications link does not exceed the dynamically generated yielding threshold, wherein the yielding comprises a decision to not have the fourth wireless terminal transmit the data to the first wireless terminal.

26. The first wireless terminal of claim 25, wherein the received signal from the second wireless terminal is a transmission request signal sent from the second wireless terminal to the third wireless terminal.

27. The first wireless terminal of claim 25, further comprising:

means for receiving the quality of service information corresponding to the second communications link from the fourth wireless terminal.

28. The first wireless terminal of claim 27, wherein yielding comprises deciding to not transmit a transmission request response to the fourth wireless terminal.

29. The first wireless terminal of claim 28, further comprising:

means for deciding to transmit said transmission request response to the fourth wireless terminal when the estimated quality of the second communications link exceeds the dynamically generated threshold.

30. The first wireless terminal of claim 28, wherein the estimated quality of the second communications link is based on a current communications rate supported by the second communications link.

31. The first wireless terminal of claim 28, wherein the estimated quality of the second communications link is based on a current signal to noise ratio of the second communications link.

32. The first wireless terminal of claim 28, wherein said quality of service information is based on the amount of data waiting to be transmitted by the fourth wireless terminal to the first wireless terminal.

33. The first wireless terminal of claim 28, wherein the quality of service information indicates a quality of service level corresponding to a type of traffic waiting at said fourth wireless terminal to be transmitted.

34. The first wireless terminal of claim 28, wherein said means for dynamically generating said threshold includes means for generating a lower threshold than a previous threshold when the quality of service information indicates an increase in a quality of service level corresponding to the second communications link.

35. The first wireless terminal of claim 28, wherein said means for dynamically generating said threshold includes means for generating a higher threshold than a previous threshold when the quality of service information indicates a decrease in a quality of service level corresponding to the second communications link.

36. The first wireless terminal of claim 28, wherein the historic link quality information includes an average data rate supported by the second communications link during a previous time interval.

37. A computer program product for use in a first wireless terminal in a system including a first wireless communications link from a second wireless terminal to a third wireless terminal, said first communications link having a higher priority than a second communications link from a fourth wireless terminal to said first wireless terminal, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising;

code for causing at least one computer to receive a signal from the second wireless terminal;

code for causing the at least one computer to receive a transmission request from the fourth wireless terminal, the transmission request indicating an intent of the fourth wireless terminal to transmit data to the first wireless terminal;

code for causing the at least one computer to estimate the quality of the second communications link from the signal received from the second wireless terminal and the transmission request received from the fourth wireless terminal;

code for causing the at least one computer to dynamically generate a yielding threshold based on at least one of;

i) historic link quality information corresponding to the second communications link;

or ii) quality of service information corresponding to the second communications link; and

code for causing the at least one computer to yield when the estimated quality of the second communications link does not exceed the dynamically generated yielding threshold, wherein the yielding comprises a decision to not have the fourth wireless terminal transmit the data to the first wireless terminal.