Methods and nodes in a communication system

• US 8,892,142 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2010
• Issued: 11/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Synnergren, Per, Hannu, Hans
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Fayyaz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rachedine, Mohammed
• Application Number:
  US12/960,945
• Publication Number:
  US 20110201267A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,443 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 455/509
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0289 Congestion control load shedding arrangements in network planning H04W16/08; performing reselection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/26 Resource reservation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 based on load

Abstract

Embodiments herein include a method in a server for scheduling of an information transmission from an information providing device to a subscriber equipment in a communication system. The method comprises determining a moment in time at which the subscriber equipment desires information. Also, an estimation of the communication intensity in the communication system at the determined moment in time is obtained. If the estimated communication intensity exceeds a certain threshold value, an appropriate period in time for the information providing device to send desired information to the subscriber equipment is calculated, based on the communication intensity in the communication system. Furthermore, a trigger signal is sent to the information providing device, requesting the information providing device at what moment in time to provide information to the subscriber equipment. A method in an information providing device is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method in a server for scheduling information from a plurality of machine-to-machine (M2M) devices to be provided to a subscriber equipment, wherein the server, the M2M devices, and the subscriber equipment are comprised in a communication system, the method comprising:

determining a desired moment in time at which the subscriber equipment desires to receive information from the M2M devices, the information from any given one of the M2M devices pertaining to measurement data collected by that M2M device,

estimating the communication intensity in the communication system at the desired moment in time,

scheduling information from different ones of the M2M devices to be provided to the subscriber equipment at different moments distributed in time, based on the desired moment in time and the estimated communication intensity at the desired moment in time, as needed to avoid load spikes within the communication system, and

requesting the M2M devices to provide the information to the subscriber equipment.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the scheduling is further based on an obtained priority value of the M2M devices, the subscriber equipment, or the information from the M2M devices.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising obtaining registration information related to the M2M devices, wherein the registration information related to any given one of the M2M devices comprises at least one of a location of the M2M device, the communication technology used by the M2M device, and information data related to the M2M device, and wherein the scheduling is further based on said registration information.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising obtaining registration information related to the subscriber equipment, said registration information comprising at least one of a location of the subscriber equipment, the communication technology used by the subscriber equipment, a traffic load in the part of the communication system that the subscriber equipment has access to, and information data related to the subscriber equipment, and wherein the scheduling is further based on said registration information.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the scheduling is further based on an estimation of a data size of information to be provided from different ones of the M2M devices.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein estimating the communication intensity comprises estimating a number of transmissions within the communication system, measuring or estimating a traffic load within the communication system, or both.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said scheduling comprises comparing the estimated communication intensity at the desired moment in time with a threshold value and calculating at least one of the different moments distributed in time to be different than the desired moment in time, if the estimated communication intensity exceeds the threshold value.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said scheduling comprises applying a distribution algorithm that distributes the different moments in time, to thereby avoid load spikes within the communication system.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein said requesting comprises requesting the M2M devices to provide the information to the subscriber equipment via the server, and wherein the method further comprises:

formatting the information received from each of the M2M devices into a format appropriate for further transmission to the subscriber equipment, and

sending the formatted information to the subscriber equipment.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein said scheduling comprises scheduling the different ones of the M2M devices to transmit the information from those M2M devices at the different moments distributed in time, and wherein said requesting comprises requesting the different ones of the M2M devices to transmit the information at respective ones of the different moments distributed in time.

19. The method according to claim 1, further comprising receiving the information from the different ones of the M2M devices, and wherein said scheduling comprises scheduling the information received from the different ones of the M2M devices to be transmitted from the server to the subscriber equipment at the different moments distributed in time.

11. A server configured to schedule information from a plurality of machine-to-machine (M2M) devices to be provided to a subscriber equipment, wherein the server, the M2M devices, and the subscriber equipment are comprised in a communication system, the server comprising:

a processing circuit configured to determine a desired moment in time at which the subscriber equipment desires to receive information from the M2M devices, the information from any given one of the M2M devices pertaining to measurement data collected by that M2M device, estimate the communication intensity in the communication system at the desired moment in time, and schedule information from different ones of the M2M devices to be provided to the subscriber equipment at moments distributed in time, based on the desired moment in time and the estimated communication intensity at the desired moment in time, as needed to avoid load spikes within the communication system, and

a sender configured to send a request to the M2M devices, requesting the M2M devices to provide the information to the subscriber equipment.

12. The server according to claim 11, wherein the processing circuit is configured to schedule the information providing device further based on an obtained priority value of the M2M devices, the subscriber equipment, or the information to be transmitted.

13. The server according to claim 11, wherein the processing circuit is configured to schedule the M2M devices by comparing the estimated communication intensity at the desired moment in time with a threshold value and calculating at least one of the different moments distributed in time to be different than the desired moment in time, if the estimated communication intensity exceeds the threshold value.

14. The server according to claim 11, wherein the processing circuit is configured to schedule the M2M devices by applying a distribution algorithm that distributes the different moments in time, to thereby avoid load spikes within the communication system.

15. The server according to claim 11, wherein the processing circuit is configured to schedule the different ones of the M2M devices to transmit the information from those M2M devices at the different moments distributed in time, and wherein the sender is configured to request the different ones of the M2M devices to transmit the information at respective ones of the different moments distributed in time.

20. The server according to claim 11, further comprising a receiver configured to receive the information from the different ones of the M2M devices, and wherein the processing circuit is configured to schedule the information received from the different ones of the M2M devices to be transmitted from the server to the subscriber equipment at the different moments distributed in time.

16. A method in a machine-to-machine (M2M) device for enabling a server to schedule the transmission of information from the M2M device to a subscriber equipment, the M2M device, the server and the subscriber equipment comprised in a communication system, the method comprising

receiving a request from the server requesting the M2M device to transmit information to the subscriber equipment at a particular moment in time, said information pertaining to measurement data collected by that M2M device,

obtaining the information according to the received request, and

transmitting the obtained information to the subscriber equipment at said particular moment in time according to the received request.

17. The method according to claim 16, further comprising providing registration information to the server, said registration information comprising at least one of the type of information to be sent, the radio access technology used by the M2M device, the type of the M2M device, a priority level of the information, and a priority level of the M2M device.

21. The method according to claim 16, wherein the request explicitly indicates the particular moment in time at which the M2M device is to transmit the information to the subscriber equipment, and wherein said transmitting comprises, after receiving the request, waiting to transmit the obtained information to the subscriber equipment until said particular moment in time.

18. A machine-to-machine (M2M) device for enabling a server to schedule the transmission of information from the M2M device to a subscriber equipment, the M2M device, the server and the subscriber equipment comprised in a communication system, the M2M device comprising

a receiver configured to receive a request from the server requesting the M2M device to transmit information to the subscriber equipment at a particular moment in time, said information pertaining to measurement data collected by that M2M device,

a processing circuit configured to obtain information according to the received request, and

a transmitter configured to transmit the obtained information to the subscriber equipment at said particular moment in time according to the received request.

22. The M2M device according to claim 18, wherein the request explicitly indicates the particular moment in time at which the M2M device is to transmit the information to the subscriber equipment, and wherein the M2M device is configured to after receiving the request, wait to transmit the obtained information to the subscriber equipment until said particular moment in time.