Wireless communication methods and apparatus supporting paging and peer to peer communications
First Claim
1. A communications method comprising:
- operating a first wireless terminal capable of supporting peer to peer mode operations and cellular network operations, said operating a first wireless terminal including;
monitoring for pages from a base station directed to said first wireless terminal during a first set of time intervals during which the first wireless terminal does not transmit peer to peer signals, said first set of time intervals being paging time intervals;
synchronizing with the base station;
while within communication range of said base station and synchronized with the base station, during a second set of time intervals, which do not overlap said first set of time intervals, participating in a peer to peer communications session;
receiving, in a time interval in said first set of time intervals which occurs during said peer to peer communications session, a page from said base station directed to said first wireless terminal; and
making a decision whether or not to terminate said peer to peer communications session based on said received page.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus supporting efficient paging in a wireless communications system supporting both access node based communications and peer to peer communications are described. Paging timing intervals are set aside in the timing structure such that multi-mode wireless terminals can monitor, e.g., in an infrastructure band, for pages from a base station whether the wireless terminal is operating in a base station attachment point mode or is operating in a peer to peer communications mode. Wireless terminals operating in a peer to peer mode, e.g., using a non-infrastructure band, suspends peer to peer communications during the paging intervals. The time periods, in which the wireless terminal checks pages are, in some embodiments, predetermined, so that both the wireless terminal and base station are synchronized on when a page should be delivered. This synchronization helps reduce the wastage of session time in the peer to peer sessions.
319 Citations
41 Claims
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1. A communications method comprising:
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operating a first wireless terminal capable of supporting peer to peer mode operations and cellular network operations, said operating a first wireless terminal including; monitoring for pages from a base station directed to said first wireless terminal during a first set of time intervals during which the first wireless terminal does not transmit peer to peer signals, said first set of time intervals being paging time intervals; synchronizing with the base station; while within communication range of said base station and synchronized with the base station, during a second set of time intervals, which do not overlap said first set of time intervals, participating in a peer to peer communications session; receiving, in a time interval in said first set of time intervals which occurs during said peer to peer communications session, a page from said base station directed to said first wireless terminal; and making a decision whether or not to terminate said peer to peer communications session based on said received page. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 40, 41)
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13. A wireless terminal comprising:
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a time interval determination module for determining first and second sets of time intervals, said first and second sets of time intervals being no overlapping sets, said first set of time intervals being paging time intervals; a cellular network communications module for supporting cellular network communications operations; a page signal monitoring module for monitoring for pages from a base station directed to said wireless terminal during the first set of time intervals during which the first wireless terminal does not transmit peer to peer signals; a synchronization module for time synchronization with the base station; a peer to peer communications module for supporting a peer to peer communications session, while within communication range of said base station and synchronized with the base station, during the second set of time intervals but not said first set of time intervals; a receiver for receiving, in a time interval in said first set of time intervals which occurs during said peer to peer communications session, a page from said base station directed to said wireless terminal; and a decision module for making a decision whether or not to terminate said peer to peer communications session based on said received page. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A wireless terminal comprising:
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time interval determination means for determining first and second sets of time intervals, said first and second sets of time intervals being no overlapping sets, said first set of time intervals being paging time intervals; cellular network communications means for supporting cellular network communications operations; page signal monitoring means for monitoring for pages from a base station directed to said wireless terminal during the first set of time intervals during which the first wireless terminal does not transmit peer to peer signals; synchronization means for synchronizing with the base station; peer to peer communications means for supporting a peer to peer communications session, while within communication range of said base station and synchronized with the base station, during the second set of time intervals but not said first set of time interval; means for receiving, in a time interval in said first set of time intervals which occurs during said peer to peer communications session, a page from said base station directed to said wireless terminal; and means for making a decision whether or not to terminate said peer to peer communications session based on said received page. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying machine executable instructions for controlling a wireless terminal capable of supporting peer to peer mode operations and cellular network operations, said non-transitory computer readable medium comprising machine executable instructions for:
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monitoring for pages from a base station directed to said wireless terminal during a first set of time intervals during which the first wireless terminal does not transmit peer to peer signals, said first set of time intervals being paging time intervals; synchronizing with the base station; while within communication range of said base station and synchronized with the base station, during a second set of time intervals, which do not overlap said first set time intervals, participating in a peer to peer communications session; receiving, in a time interval in said first set of time intervals which occurs during said peer to peer communications session, a page from said base station directed to said first wireless terminal; and making a decision whether or not to terminate said peer to peer communications session based on said received page. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. An apparatus comprising:
a wireless terminal processor configured to; determine first and second sets of time intervals, said first and second sets of time intervals being no overlapping sets, said first set of time intervals being paging time intervals; support cellular network communications operations; monitor for pages from a base station directed to said apparatus during the first set of time intervals, said processor being further configured to restrain from transmitting peer to peer signals during the first time intervals; synchronize with the base station; support a peer to peer communications session, while within communication range of said base station and synchronized with the base station, during the second set of time intervals but not said first set of time intervals; receive, in a time interval in said first set of time intervals which occurs during said peer to peer communications session, a page from said base station directed to said apparatus; and make a decision whether or not to terminate said peer to peer communications session based on said received page. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39)
Specification