Access point resource negotiation and allocation over a wireless interface

• US 8,693,316 B2
• Filed: 02/05/2010
• Issued: 04/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Palanki, Ravi, Agashe, Parag A., Khandekar, Aamod D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Chi
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOM, SHICK C
• Application Number:
  US12/701,028
• Publication Number:
  US 20100202391A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,523 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/225
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/27 between access points
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/18 Management of setup rejection or failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/20 between access points

Abstract

Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate communicating between access points using the same air interface as for serving wireless devices. Access points can communicate with one another over the air interface to exchange interference management messages related to negotiating and/or allocating resources among the access points or other messages. In addition, access points can prepare served wireless devices for time periods where the access points communicate with disparate access points over the air interface to mitigate confusion or radio link failure detection by the served wireless devices.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

communicating with one or more wireless terminals over an air interface;

communicating with one or more base stations over a link allocated for communications between base stations; and

communicating blanking information with the one or more base stations over the air interface when the link is unreliable for communicating with the one or more base stations, wherein the blanking information is used to establish a distributed resource allocation for communicating with the one or more wireless terminals.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating with the one or more base stations over the air interface comprises exchanging one or more interference management messages with the one or more base stations over the air interface.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the exchanging the one or more interference management messages includes requesting blanking from the one or more base stations over the air interface for communicating with the one or more wireless terminals or receiving an indication of a set of resources blanked by the one or more base stations over the air interface.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining to exchange the one or more interference management messages with the one or more base stations based at least in part on one or more parameters related to the one or more base stations.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more parameters include an identifier of the one or more base stations, an assigned priority of the one or more base stations, a type of the one or more base stations, or a communications load on the one or more base stations.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the exchanging the one or more interference management messages includes receiving a blanking request from the one or more base stations over the air interface.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising blanking transmission over a set of blanked resources based at least in part on the one or more interference management messages.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising providing an indication of the set of blanked resources to the one or more base stations over the air interface in response to exchanging the one or more interference management messages with the one or more base stations over the air interface.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining the set of blanked resources based at least in part on a buffer level of a disparate wireless terminal, wherein the exchanging the one or more interference management messages with the one or more base stations over the air interface further comprises receiving the buffer level of the disparate wireless terminal from the one or more base stations over the air interface.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining the set of blanked resources and a disparate set of resources for blanking for one or more disparate base stations based at least in part on an assigned priority of the one or more base stations, wherein the exchanging the one or more interference management messages with the one or more base stations over the air interface further comprises receiving the assigned priority of the one or more base stations from the one or more base stations over the air interface.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining the set of blanked resources based at least in part on one or more parameters regarding interference of one or more disparate base stations to the one or more base stations over the air interface, wherein the exchanging the one or more interference management messages with the one or more base stations over the air interface further comprises receiving the one or more parameters regarding the interference.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein the exchanging the one or more interference management messages with the one or more base stations over the air interface includes providing an identifier, a type, or a communications load to the one or more base stations over the air interface.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating with the one or more base stations includes communicating with a co-located wireless terminal of the one or more base stations.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the communicating with the one or more base stations includes receiving a resource allocation request from the co-located wireless terminal.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating with the one or more base stations over the air interface includes communicating with the one or more base stations using a co-located wireless terminal.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the communicating with the one or more base stations using the co-located wireless terminal includes requesting a resource allocation from the one or more base stations using the co-located wireless terminal.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating with the one or more base stations over the air interface further comprises transmitting a buffer level related to communicating with the one or more wireless terminals to the one or more base stations over the air interface.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating with the one or more base stations over the air interface comprises providing one or more parameters relating to interference from one or more disparate base stations to the one or more base stations over the air interface.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating with the one or more base stations over the air interface comprises providing an assigned priority to the one or more base stations over the air interface.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating with the one or more wireless terminals over the air interface comprises indicating a measurement gap to the one or more wireless terminals related to communicating with the one or more base stations.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating with the one or more wireless terminals over the air interface comprises signaling the one or more wireless terminals to enter a discontinuous receive mode when communicating with the one or more base stations.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising fading transmission power to the one or more wireless terminals prior to communicating with the one or more base stations.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating with the one or more wireless terminals over the air interface comprises providing one or more radio link failure timers to the one or more wireless terminals prior to communicating with the one or more base stations.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating with the one or more wireless terminals over the air interface comprises indicating one or more parameters regarding time periods or time intervals related to communicating with the one or more base stations.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the link allocated for communications between base stations includes a wired backhaul link.

26. A wireless communications apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor configured to;

transmit one or more data signals to one or more wireless terminals over an air interface;

communicate with one or more base stations over a link allocated for communications between base stations; and

communicate blanking information with the one or more base stations over the air interface when the link is unreliable for communicating with the one or more base stations, wherein the blanking information is used to establish a distributed resource allocation for communicating with the one or more wireless terminals; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor.

27. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 26, wherein the at least one processor communicates with the one or more base stations at least in part by communicating one or more interference management messages with the one or more base stations over the air interface.

28. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 27, wherein the one or more interference management messages includes a blanking request.

29. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 27, wherein the one or more interference management messages includes an indication of a set of resources blanked by the one or more base stations.

30. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 27, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine to exchange the one or more interference management messages with the one or more base stations based at least in part on one or more parameters related to the one or more base stations.

31. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 27, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to blank transmission over a set of blanked resources based at least in part on the one or more interference management messages.

32. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 31, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to communicate an indication of the set of blanked resources to the one or more base stations.

33. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 32, wherein the one or more interference management messages includes a buffer level of a disparate wireless terminal, an assigned priority of the one or more base stations, or one or more interference parameters, and the at least one processor is further configured to determine the set of blanked resources based at least in part on the buffer level of the disparate wireless terminal, the assigned priority of the one or more base stations, or the one or more interference parameters.

34. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 33, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine a disparate set of blanked resources for blanking for one or more disparate base stations based at least in part on the buffer level of the disparate wireless terminal, the assigned priority of the one or more base stations, or the one or more interference parameters.

35. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 26, wherein the at least one processor communicates with the one or more base stations by communicating with a co-located wireless terminal of the one or more base stations.

36. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 35, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to receive a resource allocation request from the co-located wireless terminal.

37. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 26, wherein the at least one processor communicates with the one or more base stations using a wireless terminal that is co-located with the wireless communications apparatus.

38. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 37, wherein the at least one processor communicates a resource allocation request to the one or more base stations using the wireless terminal that is co-located with the wireless communications apparatus.

39. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 26, wherein the at least one processor communicates with the one or more base stations at least in part by communicating a buffer level related to the one or more wireless terminals, an assigned priority related to the wireless communications apparatus, or one or more parameters relating to interference from one or more disparate base stations to the one or more base stations over the air interface.

40. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 26, wherein the one or more data signals includes a measurement gap related to communicating with the one or more base stations, a command to enter a discontinuous receive mode over one or more time periods during which the at least one processor communicates with the one or more base stations, or one or more parameters regarding time periods or time intervals during which the at least one processor communicates with the one or more base stations.

41. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 26, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to fade transmission power for transmitting the one or more data signals to the one or more wireless terminals over a period of time before communicating with the one or more base stations.

42. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 26, wherein the one or more data signals includes one or more radio link failure timers, and the at least one processor transmits the one or more radio link failure timers to the one or more wireless terminals before communicating with the one or more base stations.

43. The wireless communications apparatus of claim 26, wherein the link allocated for communications between base stations includes a wired backhaul link.

44. An apparatus, comprising:

means for communicating with one or more base stations over a link allocated for communications between base stations;

means for generating a message comprising blanking information for the one or more base stations, wherein the blanking information is used to establish a distributed resource allocation for communicating with one or more wireless terminals;

means for communicating the message to the one or more base stations over an air interface when the link is unreliable for communicating with the one or more base stations; and

means for communicating one or more disparate messages to the one or more wireless terminals over the air interface.

45. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein the message includes one or more interference management messages.

46. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the one or more interference management messages comprise a request for blanking or an indication of a set of resources blanked by the one or more base stations.

47. The apparatus of claim 45, further comprising means for determining to communicate the one or more interference management messages to the one or more base stations based at least in part on one or more parameters related to the one or more base stations.

48. The apparatus of claim 47, wherein the one or more parameters related to the one or more base stations include an identifier of the one or more base stations, an assigned priority of the one or more base stations, a type of the one or more base stations, or a communications load on the one or more base stations, and the one or more interference management messages include a request for a resource allocation.

49. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the means for communicating the message to the one or more base stations further receives a blanking request from the one or more base stations over the air interface.

50. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the means for communicating the message to the one or more base stations blanks transmission over a set of blanked resources based at least in part on one or more disparate interference management messages received from the one or more base stations.

51. The apparatus of claim 50, further comprising means for creating an indication of the set of blanked resources in response to the one or more disparate interference management messages, wherein the one or more interference management messages includes the indication of the set of blanked resources.

52. The apparatus of claim 51, further comprising means for determining the set of blanked resources based at least in part on a buffer level of a disparate wireless terminal, wherein the one or more disparate interference management messages received from the one or more base stations includes the buffer level of the disparate wireless terminal.

53. The apparatus of claim 51, further comprising means for determining the set of blanked resources based at least in part on an assigned priority of the one or more base stations, wherein the one or more disparate interference management messages received from the one or more base stations includes the assigned priority of the one or more base stations.

54. The apparatus of claim 51, further comprising means for determining the set of blanked resources based at least in part on one or more parameters regarding interference at the one or more base stations from one or more disparate base stations, wherein the one or more disparate interference management messages received from the one or more base stations includes the one or more parameters regarding the interference.

55. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the one or more interference management messages comprises an identifier, a type, or a communications load of the one or more base stations.

56. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein the means for communicating the message to the one or more base stations further receives a disparate message from a wireless terminal co-located at the one or more base stations.

57. The apparatus of claim 56, wherein the disparate message is a resource allocation request.

58. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein the means for communicating the message to the one or more base stations includes a wireless terminal co-located at the apparatus.

59. The apparatus of claim 58, wherein the one or more interference management messages is a resource allocation request.

60. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein the message comprises a buffer level related to communicating with the one or more wireless terminals.

61. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein the message comprises one or more parameters related to interference from one or more disparate base stations to the apparatus.

62. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein the message comprises a priority assigned to the apparatus.

63. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein the one or more disparate messages comprise a measurement gap indication corresponding to communicating with the one or more base stations, a command to enter a discontinuous receive mode, one or more radio link failure timers, or one or more parameters regarding a time period or time interval when the means for communicating communicates the message to the one or more base stations.

64. The apparatus of claim 44, further comprising means for fading transmission power to the one or more wireless terminals before the means for communicating communicates the message the one or more base stations.

65. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein the link allocated for communications between base stations includes a wired backhaul link.

66. A computer program product, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising;

code for causing at least one computer to transmit one or more data signals to one or more wireless terminals over an air interface;

code for causing the at least one computer to communicate with one or more base stations over a link allocated for communications between base stations; and

code for causing the at least one computer to communicate a message comprising blanking information with the one or more base stations over the air interface when the link is unreliable for communicating with the one or more base stations, wherein the blanking information is used to establish a distributed resource allocation for communicating with the one or more wireless terminals.

67. The computer program product of claim 66, wherein the message comprises one or more interference management messages.

68. The computer program product of claim 67, wherein the one or more interference management messages includes a blanking request.

69. The computer program product of claim 67, wherein the one or more interference management messages includes an indication of a set of resources blanked by the one or more base stations.

70. The computer program product of claim 67, wherein the nontransitory computer-readable medium further comprises code for causing the at least one computer to determine to exchange the one or more interference management messages with the one or more base stations based at least in part on one or more parameters related to the one or more base stations.

71. The computer program product of claim 67, wherein the nontransitory computer-readable medium further comprises code for causing the at least one computer to blank transmission over a set of blanked resources based at least in part on the one or more interference management messages.

72. The computer program product of claim 71, wherein the nontransitory computer-readable medium further comprises code for causing the at least one computer to communicate an indication of the set of blanked resources to the one or more base stations.

73. The computer program product of claim 72, wherein the one or more interference management messages includes a buffer level of a disparate wireless terminal communicating with the one or more base stations, an assigned priority of the one or more base stations, or one or more interference parameters related to the one or more base stations, and the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises code for causing the at least one computer to determine the set of blanked resources based at least in part on the buffer level of the disparate wireless terminal, the assigned priority of the one or more base stations, or the one or more interference parameters.

74. The computer program product of claim 73, wherein the nontransitory computer-readable medium further comprises code for causing the at least one computer to determine a disparate set of blanked resources for blanking for one or more disparate base stations based at least in part on the buffer level of the disparate wireless terminal, the assigned priority of the one or more base stations, or the one or more interference parameters.

75. The computer program product of claim 66, wherein the code for causing the at least one computer to communicate with the one or more base stations communicates with a co-located wireless terminal of the one or more base stations.

76. The computer program product of claim 75, wherein the nontransitory computer-readable medium further comprises code for causing the at least one computer to receive a resource allocation request from the co-located wireless terminal.

77. The computer program product of claim 66, wherein the code for causing the at least one computer to communicate with the one or more base stations communicates with the one or more base stations using a wireless terminal co-located.

78. The computer program product of claim 77, wherein the message is a resource allocation request.

79. The computer program product of claim 66, wherein the message includes a buffer level related to the one or more wireless terminals, an assigned priority relative to the one or more base stations, or one or more parameters relating to interference from one or more disparate base stations.

80. The computer program product of claim 66, wherein the one or more data signals includes a measurement gap related to communicating with the one or more base stations, a command to enter a discontinuous receive mode over one or more time periods during which the code for causing the at least one computer to communicate communicates the message with the one or more base stations, one or more radio link failure timers, or one or more parameters regarding a time period or time interval during which the code for causing the at least one computer to communicate communicates the message with the one or more base stations.

81. The computer program product of claim 66, wherein the nontransitory computer-readable medium further comprises code for causing the at least one computer to fade transmission power for transmitting the one or more data signals to the one or more wireless terminals over a period of time before communicating with the one or more base stations.

82. The computer program product of claim 66, wherein the link allocated for communications between base stations includes a wired backhaul link.

83. An apparatus, comprising:

a communicating component that communicates with one or more base stations over a link allocated for communications between base stations;

an inter-access point message generating component that creates a message comprising blanking information for one or more base stations, wherein the blanking information is used to establish a distributed resource allocation for communicating with one or more wireless terminals; and

an air interface communicating component that communicates the message to the one or more base stations over an air interface when the link is unreliable for communicating with the one or more base stations and communicates one or more disparate messages to the one or more wireless terminals over the air interface.

84. The apparatus of claim 83, wherein the message includes one or more interference management messages.

85. The apparatus of claim 84, wherein the one or more interference management messages comprise a request for blanking or an indication of a set of resources blanked by the one or more base stations.

86. The apparatus of claim 84, further comprising a parameter measuring component that determines to communicate the one or more interference management messages to the one or more base stations based at least in part on one or more parameters related to the one or more base stations and one or more similar parameters related to the apparatus.

87. The apparatus of claim 86, wherein the one or more parameters related to the one or more base stations include an identifier of the one or more base stations, an assigned priority of the one or more base stations, a type of the one or more base stations, or a communications load on the one or more base stations, and the one or more interference management messages include a request for a resource allocation.

88. The apparatus of claim 84, wherein the air interface communicating component further receives a blanking request from the one or more base stations over the air interface.

89. The apparatus of claim 84, wherein the air interface communicating component blanks transmission over a set of blanked resources based at least in part on one or more disparate interference management messages received from the one or more base stations.

90. The apparatus of claim 89, further comprising a resource scheduling component that generates an indication of the set of blanked resources in response to the one or more disparate interference management messages, wherein the one or more interference management messages includes the indication of the set of blanked resources.

91. The apparatus of claim 90, further comprising a resource allocating component that determines the set of blanked resources based at least in part on a buffer level of a disparate wireless terminal, an assigned priority of the one or more base stations, or one or more parameters related to interference at the one or more base stations, wherein the one or more disparate interference management messages received from the one or more base stations includes the buffer level of the disparate wireless terminal, the assigned priority of the one or more base stations, or the one or more parameters related to the interference at the one or more base stations.

92. The apparatus of claim 84, wherein the one or more interference management messages comprises an identifier, a type, an assigned priority, or a communications load of the one or more base stations.

93. The apparatus of claim 83, wherein the au interface communicating component further receives a disparate message from a wireless terminal co located at the one or more base stations.

94. The apparatus of claim 83, wherein the air interface communicating component is included within a wireless terminal co-located at the apparatus.

95. The apparatus of claim 83, wherein the message comprises a buffer level related to communicating with the one or more wireless terminals.

96. The apparatus of claim 83, wherein the message comprises one or more parameters related to interference from one or more disparate base stations to the apparatus.

97. The apparatus of claim 83, wherein the message comprises a priority assigned to the apparatus.

98. The apparatus of claim 83, wherein the one or more disparate messages comprise a measurement gap indication corresponding to communicating with the one or more base stations, a command to enter a discontinuous receive mode, one or more radio link failure timers, or one or more parameters regarding a time period or time interval when the air interface communicating component communicates the message to the one or more base stations.

99. The apparatus of claim 83, further comprising a power fading component that decreases transmission power to the one or more wireless terminals over a period of time before the air interface communicating component communicates the message the one or more base stations.

100. The apparatus of claim 83, wherein the link allocated for communications between base stations includes a wired backhaul link.