Cognitive use of multiple regulatory domains

• US 8,923,770 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2010
• Issued: 12/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hassan, Amer A., Reed, Danny Allen, Griffin, Trenholme J.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TUAN HOANG
• Application Number:
  US12/964,492
• Publication Number:
  US 20120147274A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,482 Days
• Field of Search: 455/62, 455/120, 455/450, 455/452.1, 455/454, 370/329, 370/341, 348/729, 348/E5.114
• US Class Current: 455/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/005 adapting radio receivers, transmitters andtransceivers for operation on two or more bands, i.e. frequency ranges
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 15/00 Suppression or limitation of noise or interference by means associated with receiver H04B1/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/12 Frequency diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0023 characterised by the signalling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0033 arrangements specific to the transmitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0034 where the transmitter decides based on inferences, e.g. use of implicit signalling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0096 Channel splitting in point-to-point links
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

A wireless communication system that concurrently communicates information in multiple regulatory domains to facilitate audio/video media streaming and other high bandwidth operations. One domain may be licensed and the other may be unlicensed. Transmission in the licensed domain may occur in white space in the domain, and the amount of information transmitted in that domain may be limited by regulations. The amount of information conveyed in the licensed domain may also depend on channel conditions in either or both of the domains. As a result, the relative amount of information transmitted in each domain may vary dynamically. The system includes a transmitter that dynamically determines weighting coefficients applied to each of a plurality of channels to set power levels in both domains to achieve a desired metric for the overall communication. A corresponding receiver assembles the substreams into a stream that can then be displayed or otherwise processed.

Claims

1. A method of operating a wireless computing device having at least one radio, the method comprising:

dynamically determining at least one frequency in a first regulatory domain and at least one frequency in a second regulatory domain, wherein the second domain is a licensed domain, and wherein dynamically determining at least one frequency in the licensed domain comprises;

obtaining information from a source external to the computing device indicating unused channels within the licensed domain; and

repeatedly accessing the source external to the computing device to determine whether the at least one frequency in the licensed domain remains available;

decomposing data for transmission into at least a first portion and a second portion;

with the at least one radio, concurrently transmitting at least the first portion using the at least one frequency in the first regulatory domain and the second portion using the at least one frequency in the second regulatory domain; and

when the at least one frequency in the licensed domain does not remain available, subsequently transmitting data using the at least one frequency in the first regulatory domain without concurrently using the at least one frequency in the second regulatory domain.

2. A method of operating a wireless computing device having at least one radio, the method comprising:

dynamically determining at least one frequency in a first regulatory domain and at least one frequency in a second regulatory domain, wherein the second domain is a licensed domain, and wherein dynamically determining at least one frequency in the licensed domain comprises;

obtaining information from a source external to the computing device indicating unused channels within the licensed domain; and

repeatedly accessing the source external to the computing device to determine whether the at least one frequency in the licensed domain remains available;

decomposing data for transmission into at least a first portion and a second portion;

with the at least one radio, concurrently transmitting at least the first portion using the at least one frequency in the first regulatory domain and the second portion using the at least one frequency in the second regulatory domain; and

when the at least one frequency in the licensed domain does not remain available, subsequently concurrently transmitting a third portion of the data using the at least one frequency in the first regulatory domain and a fourth portion of the data using a frequency in the second regulatory domain different than the at least one frequency in the second regulatory domain.

3. A method of operating a wireless computing device having at least one radio, the method comprising:

dynamically determining at least one frequency in a first regulatory domain and at least one frequency in a second regulatory domain;

decomposing data for transmission into at least a first portion and a second portion; and

with the at least one radio, concurrently transmitting at least the first portion using the at least one frequency in the first regulatory domain and the second portion using the at least one frequency in the second regulatory domain, including;

determining a transmit power level for each of the at least one frequencies in the second regulatory domain, wherein the transmit power level is determined at least in part based on regulatory constraints within the second regulatory domain.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining an error control coding rate for transmission of the second portion of the data based at least in part on transmission characteristics of the at least one frequency in the second regulatory domain and the determined transmit power level.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

determining an error control coding rate for transmission of the second portion comprises applying a Shannon water-filling approach.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein:

the first regulatory domain is a UNII domain or an ISM domain; and

the second regulatory domain is a digital TV domain.

7. A method of operating a wireless computing device having at least one radio, the method comprising:

dynamically determining at least one frequency in a first regulatory domain and at least one frequency in a second regulatory domain;

decomposing data for transmission into at least a first portion and a second portion;

with the at least one radio, concurrently transmitting at least the first portion using the at least one frequency in the first regulatory domain and the second portion using the at least one frequency in the second regulatory domain, including;

modulating the bits representing the first portion and the second portion to determine frequency coefficients for transmission;

weighting frequency coefficients representing the first portion of the data by a first time variant function; and

weighting frequency coefficients representing the second portion of the data by a second time variant function; and

computing the first or second time variant functions to allocate a total transmit power for the data across the at least one frequency in the first regulatory domain and the at least one frequency in the second regulatory domain based on;

permissibility of use of the at least one frequency in the second regulatory domain in accordance with regulations in the second regulatory domain, and

channel quality of the at least one frequency in the second regulatory domain.

8. A method of operating a wireless device having at least one radio, the method comprising:

with the at least one radio, receiving data, the receiving comprising;

receiving a first portion of the data over at least one frequency in a first regulatory domain and at least a second portion of the data over at least one frequency in a second regulatory domain; and

generating the data by combining at least the first portion and the second portion; and

adapting to a change in the at least one frequency in the second regulatory domain, wherein;

receiving the second portion of the data over the at least one frequency in the second regulatory domain comprises receiving the second portion over a first set of subchannels in the second regulatory domain; and

adapting to the change in the at least one frequency comprises subsequently receiving a third portion of the data over a second set of subchannels different than the first set of subchannels.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the first domain is an unlicensed domain; and

the second domain is a licensed domain.

10. The method claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

adapting to another change in the at least one frequency in the second regulatory domain; and

subsequently receiving the data over subchannels in the first regulatory domain without concurrently receiving data over subchannels in the second regulatory domain.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the wireless device is a wireless computing device executing an application component; and

the method further comprises providing the received data to the application component.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the wireless device is a wireless display device;

the received data comprises audio/video content; and

the method further comprises displaying the audio/video content on the display device.

13. A wireless computing device, comprising:

an application providing a stream representing audio/video content;

a radio subsystem configured for communicating in a first wireless domain and a second wireless domain, the first wireless domain being an unlicensed domain and the second wireless domain being a licensed domain;

a network adapter configured to accept the stream for transmission by applying the stream to the radio subsystem for transmission in the first wireless domain and the second wireless domain, the network adapter comprising;

a multiplexer to separate the stream into a first sub-stream and a second sub-stream;

a modulation component to generate coefficients from the first substream and the second substream, the coefficients being coefficients for transmission of frequency components in the first domain and the second domain to transmit the first substream and the second substream; and

a weighting component to dynamically determine at least one weight based on regulatory conditions applicable to the second domain and to apply the at least one weight to the coefficients of the first substream and/or the second substream;

a first error control encoder between the multiplexer and the modulation component, the first error control encoder configured to receive the first substream from the multiplexer, to encode the first substream with a first error control rate and to supply the encoded first substream to the modulation component; and

a second error control encoder between the multiplexer and the modulation component, the second error control encoder configured to receive the second substream from the multiplexer, to encode the second substream with a second error control rate and to supply the encoded second substream to the modulation component.

14. The wireless computing device of claim 13, wherein:

the weighting component dynamically determines the at least one weight based on information from an external source having access to a regulatory database and the presence or absence of repeated indications that channels within the licensed wireless domain are available for use.

15. The wireless computing device of claim 13, in combination with a television, the television comprising:

a radio system for wireless reception of the first substream transmitted in the first domain and the second substream transmitted in the second domain; and

a controller for combining the first substream and the second substream to generate and display an audio/video stream from the first substream and the second substream.