Methods and apparatus related to peer to peer device
First Claim
1. A method of operating a wireless communication terminal, the method comprising:
- scanning an uplink bandwidth to detect a signal from a base station, wherein the signal from the base station is a beacon signal;
evaluating the signal from the base station; and
transmitting a peer-to-peer signal, responsive to the evaluating the signal from the base station, wherein the peer-to-peer signal is transmitted on the same uplink bandwidth as the detected beacon signal.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus related to the sharing of wide area network (WAN) uplink bandwidth with peer to peer communication signaling usage are described. Typically, a base station uses its WAN uplink band to receive uplink signals from wireless terminals using the base station as a point of network attachment. In accordance with a feature, a base station injects a signal, e.g., a beacon signal, into its WAN uplink bandwidth, e.g., its WAN frequency division duplex (FDD) uplink band. A peer to peer wireless terminal scans the uplink bandwidth, detects the base station signal, evaluates the received base station signal, and controls peer to peer transmission as a function of the evaluation. Control of peer to peer transmission includes adjusting peer to peer transmission power as a function of the evaluated base station signal. The communications band used for peer to peer communications is, in some embodiments, the same uplink band.
169 Citations
62 Claims
-
1. A method of operating a wireless communication terminal, the method comprising:
-
scanning an uplink bandwidth to detect a signal from a base station, wherein the signal from the base station is a beacon signal; evaluating the signal from the base station; and transmitting a peer-to-peer signal, responsive to the evaluating the signal from the base station, wherein the peer-to-peer signal is transmitted on the same uplink bandwidth as the detected beacon signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A wireless communications terminal comprising:
-
a scanning module for scanning an uplink bandwidth to detect a signal from a base station, wherein the signal from the base station is a beacon signal; a signal evaluation module for evaluating the signal from the base station; and a wireless transmitter for transmitting a peer-to-peer signal, responsive to the evaluating of the signal from the base station, wherein the peer-to-peer signal is transmitted on the same uplink bandwidth as the detected beacon signal. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. A wireless communications device, comprising:
-
scanning means for scanning an uplink bandwidth to detect a signal from a base station, wherein the signal from the base station is a beacon signal; means for evaluating the signal from the base station; and means for transmitting a peer-to-peer signal, responsive to the evaluating of the signal from the base station, wherein the peer-to-peer signal is transmitted on the same uplink bandwidth as the detected beacon signal. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
-
-
26. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying machine executable instructions for controlling a wireless communication terminal to implement a method, the method comprising:
-
scanning an uplink bandwidth to detect a signal from a base station, wherein the signal from the base station is a beacon signal; evaluating the signal from the base station; and transmitting a peer-to-peer signal, responsive to the evaluating the signal from the base station, wherein the peer-to-peer signal is transmitted on the same uplink bandwidth as the detected beacon signal. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30)
-
-
31. An apparatus comprising:
a processor configured to; scan an uplink bandwidth to detect a signal from a base station, wherein the signal from the base station is a beacon signal; evaluate the signal from the base station; and transmit a peer-to-peer signal, responsive to the evaluating the signal from the base station, wherein the peer-to-peer signal is transmitted on the same uplink bandwidth as the detected beacon signal. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35)
-
36. A method of operating a base station, comprising:
-
receiving, during a first period of time, uplink signals from cellular communications devices transmitting to said base station in an uplink frequency band, said uplink frequency band is used for communicating peer-to-peer signals; transmitting to at least some of said cellular communications devices using a second frequency band which is different from said uplink frequency band, said second frequency band being a downlink frequency band; and transmitting a peer-to-peer broadcast signal during a second period of time, in said uplink frequency band, wherein said peer-to-peer broadcast signal is a beacon signal and the same uplink frequency band used to transmit the beacon signal is used for peer-to-peer signals. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39)
-
-
40. A base station, comprising:
-
a wireless receiver module for receiving, during a first period of time, uplink signals from cellular communications devices transmitting to said base station in an uplink frequency band, said uplink frequency band is used for communicating peer-to-peer signals; a wireless transmitter module for transmitting to at least some of said cellular communications devices using a downlink frequency band and for transmitting a peer-to-peer broadcast signal during a second period of time, in said uplink frequency band, wherein said uplink frequency band and said downlink frequency band are different, and wherein said peer-to-peer broadcast signal is a beacon signal and the same uplink frequency band used to transmit the beacon signal is used for peer-to-peer signals. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48)
-
-
49. A base station, comprising:
-
wireless receiver means for receiving, during a first period of time, uplink signals from cellular communications devices transmitting to said base station in an uplink frequency band, said uplink frequency band is used for communicating peer-to-peer signals; means for transmitting to at least some of said cellular communications devices using a downlink frequency band and for transmitting a peer-to-peer broadcast signal during a second period of time, in said uplink frequency band, wherein said uplink frequency band and said downlink frequency band are different, and wherein said peer-to-peer broadcast signal is a beacon signal and the same uplink frequency band used to transmit the beacon signal is used for peer-to-peer signals. - View Dependent Claims (50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
-
-
55. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying machine executable instructions for controlling a base station to implement a method, the method comprising:
-
receiving, during a first period of time, uplink signals from cellular communications devices transmitting to said base station in an uplink frequency band, said uplink frequency band is used for communicating peer-to-peer signals; transmitting to at least some of said cellular communications devices using a second frequency band which is different from said uplink frequency band, said second frequency band being a downlink frequency band; and transmitting a peer-to-peer broadcast signal during a second period of time, in said uplink frequency band, wherein said peer-to-peer broadcast signal is a beacon signal and the same uplink frequency band used to transmit the beacon signal is used for peer-to-peer signals. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58)
-
-
59. An apparatus comprising:
a processor configured to; receive, during a first period of time, uplink signals from cellular communications devices transmitting to a base station including the base station processor, in an uplink frequency band, said uplink frequency band is used for communicating peer-to-peer signals; transmit to at least some of said cellular communications devices using a second frequency band which is different from said uplink frequency band, said second frequency band being a downlink frequency band; and transmit a peer-to-peer broadcast signal during a second period of time, in said uplink frequency band, wherein said peer-to-peer broadcast signal is a beacon signal and the same uplink frequency band used to transmit the beacon signal is used for peer-to-peer signals. - View Dependent Claims (60, 61, 62)
Specification