Methods and apparatus for selecting and/or using a communications band for peer to peer signaling

• US 8,705,438 B2
• Filed: 07/10/2007
• Issued: 04/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Laroia, Rajiv, Li, Junyi
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Huy C
• Application Number:
  US11/775,778
• Publication Number:
  US 20090016261A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,478 Days
• Field of Search: 370/328, 370/338
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/00 Local resource management

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for supporting peer to peer communications are described. A plurality of wide area network communications bands in a wireless communications system are also available for use to communicate peer to peer signals. At different times it may be advantageous for a mobile peer to peer communications device to use a different communications band in order to efficiently share air link resources. A peer to peer communications device receives a signal transmitted by a WAN device, e.g., a base station or WAN wireless terminal, and selects a WAN communications band to use as a function of the received signal, e.g., a corresponding band. In some embodiments, the received signal strength measurements from WAN devices are used in the selection process. In other embodiments, recovered decoded information conveyed in a received WAN device signal is used in the selection process.

Claims

1. A method of operating a communications device, comprising:

receiving a reference signal from a wide area network (WAN) device, said reference signal having been transmitted by the WAN device in one of a plurality of WAN communications bands;

measuring a strength of the received reference signal from the WAN device; and

selecting one of said WAN communications bands for peer to peer communications as a function of the strength of the received reference signal from the WAN device

wherein the selecting comprises;

comparing the measured signal strength of the received reference signal from the WAN device to a threshold, and

selecting a communications band according to the comparison.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a peer to peer signal in the selected one of said WAN communications bands.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising, prior to selecting one of said WAN communications bands:

decoding said received reference signal to recover communicated information from said received reference signal; and

where said selecting includes using said information to select between said plurality of WAN communications bands.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said information indicates one of the plurality of communications bands which is one of i) unused by a sector of the WAN device from which said signal is received and ii) used by the sector of the WAN device from which the signal was received but at a reduced power level in said sector relative to the other ones of said plurality of WAN communications bands.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said WAN device is a single sector base station and wherein said sector is the single sector of said single sector base station.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein said selecting includes selecting the WAN communications band indicated by said information.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the selected communications band is different from the band from which the received reference signal was received.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the WAN communications bands are FDD communications bands;

and wherein the communications band from which the WAN signal is received is a WAN downlink communications band.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the selected communications band is a WAN uplink communications band.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein the WAN communications bands are TDD communications bands and wherein the WAN communications band from which said reference signal is received corresponds to a time slot within a downlink communications band.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the selected communications band is an uplink band and wherein said peer to peer signal is communicated in an uplink time slot within said uplink band, the uplink and downlink communications bands using the same frequency but at different times.

12. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

measuring received reference signal strength of WAN communications signals received from different WAN communications bands, and wherein selecting includes selecting the communications band as a function of the measured signal strength of at least two different received signals.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said selecting includes selecting the communications band corresponding to the band from which the weakest one of said measured received WAN signals was received.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

measuring peer to peer signals received from communications bands corresponding to the communications bands from which at least some of said measured WAN communications signals were received; and

wherein the said step of selecting a corresponding frequency band is performed as a function of the measured signal strength of said received WAN signals and the measured signal strength of at least some peer to peer signals.

15. The method of claim 2, wherein the device from which the WAN signal is received is a WAN communications device in a frequency division duplex multi-cell communications system wherein at least one band is not used by a sector of at least one cell at any given time.

16. The method of claim 2, wherein the device from which the WAN signal is received is a WAN communications device in a frequency division duplex multi-cell communications system wherein in at least one sector of a cell which uses multiple communications bands at the same time, one of the communications bands is used at a reduced power level relative to another one of the communications bands used in said sector.

17. The method of claim 2, wherein the device from which the WAN signal is received is a WAN communications device which uses only a subset of said WAN communications bands, said subset including less than the full plurality of WAN communications bands.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting includes:

selecting the communications band corresponding to the band from which said reference signal was received when said reference signal strength is below said threshold, said communications band corresponding to the band from which said signal was received being a different communications band from the band from which the reference signal was received.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the received reference signal is from a WAN base station and said communications band from which the signal is received is a downlink communications band, and

wherein the selected communications band is an uplink band corresponding to said downlink communications band.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting includes:

selecting the communications band from the plurality of WAN communications bands which does not correspond to the band from which said reference signal was received when said reference signal strength is above said threshold.

21. A wireless terminal, comprising:

a receiver for receiving a reference signal from a wide area network (WAN) device, said reference signal having been transmitted by the WAN device in one of a plurality of WAN communications bands;

a signal strength measurement module for measuring a strength of the received reference signal from the WAN device; and

a peer to peer communications band selection module for selecting one of said WAN communications bands for peer to peer communications as a function of the strength of the received reference signal from the WAN device,

wherein the peer to peer communications band selection module is configured to;

compare the measured signal strength of the received reference signal from the WAN device to a threshold, and

select a communications band according to the comparison.

22. The wireless terminal of claim 21, further comprising:

a transmitter module for transmitting a peer to peer signal in the selected one of said WAN communications bands.

23. The wireless terminal of claim 22, further comprising,

a decoder module for decoding, prior to selecting one of said WAN communications bands, said received reference signal to recover communicated information from said received reference signal;

and

wherein said selection module uses said recovered communicated information to select between said plurality of WAN communications bands.

24. The wireless terminal of claim 23, wherein said information indicates one of the plurality of frequency bands which is one of i) unused by a sector of the WAN device from which said reference signal is received and ii) used by the sector of the WAN device from which the signal was received but at a reduced power level in said sector relative to the other ones of said plurality of WAN communications bands.

25. The wireless terminal of claim 24, wherein said WAN device is a single sector base station and wherein said sector is the single sector of said single sector base station.

26. The wireless terminal of claim 24, wherein said selecting includes selecting the WAN communications band indicated by said information.

27. The wireless terminal of claim 23, wherein the selected communications band is different from the band from which the received reference signal was received.

28. The wireless terminal of claim 22, wherein the WAN communications bands are FDD communications bands;

and wherein the communications band from which the WAN signal is received is a WAN downlink communications band.

29. The wireless terminal of claim 28, wherein the selected communications band is a WAN uplink communications band.

30. The wireless terminal of claim 22, wherein the WAN communications bands are TDD communications bands and wherein the WAN communications band from which said signal is received corresponds to a time slot within a downlink communications band.

31. The wireless terminal of claim 30, wherein the selected communications band is an uplink band and wherein said transmitter transmits said peer to peer signal in an uplink time slot within said uplink band, the uplink and downlink communications bands using the same frequency but at different times.

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

a signal strength measurement module for measuring received reference signal strength of WAN communications signals received from different WAN communications bands, and

wherein said selection module selects the communications band as a function of the measured signal strength of at least two different received signals.

33. The wireless terminal of claim 32, further comprising:

a weakest WAN signal band determination module for determining the WAN band having the weakest one of said measured received WAN signals; and

wherein said selection module selects the communications band corresponding to the band from which the weakest one of said measured received WAN signals was received.

34. The wireless terminal of claim 32, further comprising:

a peer to peer signal measurement module for measuring peer to peer signals received from communications bands corresponding to the communications bands from which at least some of said measured WAN communications signals were received; and

wherein said selection module selects a corresponding frequency band as a function of the measured signal strength of said received WAN signals and the measured signal strength of at least some peer to peer signals.

35. The wireless terminal of claim of claim 22, wherein the device from which the WAN signal is received is a WAN communications device in a frequency division duplex multi-cell communications system wherein at least one band is not used by a sector of at least one cell at any given time.

36. The wireless terminal of claim 22, wherein the device from which the WAN signal is received is a WAN communications device in a frequency division duplex multi-cell communications system wherein in at least one sector of a cell which uses multiple communications bands at the same time, one of the communications bands is used at a reduced power level relative to another one of the communications bands used in said sector.

37. The wireless terminal of claim 22, wherein the device from which the WAN signal is received is a WAN communications device which uses only a subset of said WAN communications bands, said subset including less than the full plurality of WAN communications bands.

38. The wireless terminal of claim 21,

wherein said selection module selects the communications band corresponding to the band from which said signal was received when said reference signal strength is below said threshold, said communications band corresponding to the band from which said reference signal was received being a different communications band from the band from which the signal was received.

39. The wireless terminal of claim 21, further comprising:

memory including stored communications band structure information indicating a correspondence between at least one uplink and downlink WAN communications band;

wherein the receiver module receives a signal from a WAN base station and said communications band from which the signal is received is a downlink communications band, and

wherein the selection module uses said stored communication band structure information to select an uplink band corresponding to said downlink communications band to be used as said selected communications band.

40. The wireless terminal of claim 21,

wherein said selection module selects the communications band from the plurality of WAN communications bands which does not correspond to the band from which said reference signal was received when said signal strength is above said threshold.

41. A wireless terminal, comprising:

receiver means for receiving a reference signal from a wide area network (WAN) device, said reference signal having been transmitted by the WAN device in one of a plurality of WAN communications bands;

means for measuring a strength of the received reference signal from the WAN device; and

means for selecting one of said WAN communications bands for peer to peer communications as a function of the strength of the received reference signal from the WAN device;

wherein the means for selecting is configured to;

compare the measured signal strength of the received reference signal from the WAN device to a threshold, and

select a communications band according to the comparison.

42. The wireless terminal of claim 41, further comprising:

means for transmitting a peer to peer signal in the selected one of said WAN communications bands.

43. The wireless terminal of claim 42, further comprising,

means for decoding, prior to selecting one of said WAN communications bands, said received reference signal to recover communicated information from said received reference signal;

and

wherein said means for selecting uses said recovered communicated information to select between said plurality of WAN communications bands.

44. The wireless terminal of claim 42, further comprising:

means for measuring received signal strength of WAN communications signals received from different WAN communications bands, and

wherein said means for selecting selects the communications band as a function of the measured signal strength of at least two different received signals.

45. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying machine executable instructions for controlling a communications device to implement a method of communicating with another device, the method comprising:

receiving a reference signal from a wide area network (WAN) device, said reference signal having been transmitted by the WAN device in one of a plurality of WAN communications bands;

measuring a strength of the received reference signal from the WAN device; and

selecting one of said WAN communications bands for peer to peer communications as a function of the strength of the received reference signal from the WAN device;

wherein the selecting comprises;

comparing the measured signal strength of the received reference signal from the WAN device to a threshold, and

selecting a communications band according to the comparison.

46. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 45, further embodying machine executable instructions for:

transmitting a peer to peer signal in the selected one of said WAN communications bands.

47. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 46, further embodying machine executable instructions for, prior to selecting one of said WAN communications bands:

decoding said received reference signal to recover communicated information from said reference received signal; and

where said selecting includes using said information to select between said plurality of WAN communications bands.

48. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 46, further embodying machine executable instructions for:

measuring received signal strength of WAN communications signals received from different WAN communications bands, and wherein selecting includes selecting the communications band as a function of the measured signal strength of at least two different received signals.

49. An apparatus comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive a reference signal from a wide area network (WAN) device, said reference signal having been transmitted by the WAN device in one of a plurality of WAN communications bands;

measuring a strength of the received reference signal from the WAN device; and

select one of said WAN communications bands for peer to peer communications as a function of the strength of the received reference signal from the WAN device;

wherein the processor configured to select is further configured to;

compare the measured signal strength of the received reference signal from the WAN device to a threshold, and

select a communications band according to the comparison.

50. The apparatus of claim 49, wherein said processor is further configured to:

transmit a peer to peer signal in the selected one of said WAN communications bands.

51. The apparatus of claim 50, wherein said processor is further configured to, prior to selecting one of said WAN communications bands:

decode said received reference signal to recover communicated information from said received reference signal; and

where said selecting includes using said information to select between said plurality of WAN communications bands.

52. The apparatus of claim 50, wherein said processor is further configured to:

measure received signal strength of WAN communications signals received from different WAN communications bands, and wherein selecting includes selecting the communications band as a function of the measured signal strength of at least two different received signals.