Simultaneous communications over licensed and unlicensed spectrum

• US 8,965,390 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2013
• Issued: 02/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Morrison, Andrew R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hu, Jinsong
• Assistant Examiner(s): GLOMAH, TABLA K
• Application Number:
  US13/753,357
• Publication Number:
  US 20130196653A1
• Time in Patent Office: 756 Days
• Field of Search: 370328-338, 455/426.1, 455/436, 455442-446, 4554521-453
• US Class Current: 455/452.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0231 based on communication conditions dynamic wireless traffic scheduling definition based on channel quality criteria H04W72/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0967 Quality of Service [QoS] parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network

Abstract

Techniques to perform simultaneous communications over licensed and unlicensed spectrum are disclosed. A bandwidth monitor measures the amount of bandwidth available from a first communications connection over licensed spectrum, and the amount of bandwidth available from a second communications connection over unlicensed spectrum. Upon receiving a bandwidth request, an optimizer generates a recommendation on how to allocate bandwidth from the first and second communications connections. A load balancer then executes the allocation over the first and second communications requests based at least on the generated recommendation. Various optimization embodiments are further disclosed. Variations on bandwidth monitoring, including polling and notifications are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A mobile device system to load balance communications connections, comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor and operable to store processor readable instructions;

a first radio configured to communicate over a wireless communications connection using bandwidth available over licensed spectrum;

a second radio configured to communicate over a wireless communications connection using bandwidth available over unlicensed spectrum, and having access to substantially similar endpoints as the wireless communications connection of the first radio;

a bandwidth monitor component, coupled to the processor, memory, first radio, and second radio, operable to monitor the available bandwidth over licensed spectrum from the first radio, and the available bandwidth over unlicensed spectrum from the second radio;

an optimizer component, coupled to the processor, memory, and bandwidth monitor, configured

to receive a bandwidth request from an application resident in the memory and running on the processor,

to receive an indicator of the available bandwidth over licensed spectrum from the first radio and the available bandwidth over unlicensed spectrum from the second radio from the bandwidth monitor, and

to generate a load balancing recommendation based on at least the bandwidth request, the available bandwidth over licensed spectrum from the first radio and the available bandwidth over unlicensed spectrum from the second radio; and

a load balancer component, coupled to the processor, memory, and optimizer component, and configured to receive a load balancing recommendation from the optimizer component and configured to satisfy the bandwidth request from the application with at least some available bandwidth over licensed spectrum from the first radio, and at least some available bandwidth over unlicensed spectrum from the second radio, based at least on the load balancing recommendation,

wherein the bandwidth request includes an application originated load balancing recommendation of how to balance available bandwidth over licensed spectrum from the first radio and the available bandwidth over unlicensed spectrum from the second radio, and

wherein the load balancing recommendation generated by the optimizer component is further based at least on the application originated load balancing recommendation.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the bandwidth monitor is further configured to receive a quality of service measurement of the licensed spectrum utilized by the first radio, and configured to send the quality of service measurement to the optimizer;

and

wherein the load balancing recommendation generated by the optimizer component is further based at least on the quality of service measurement received from the bandwidth monitor.

3. A method to load balance communications connections, comprising:

receiving, on a mobile device, a bandwidth request from an application running on the mobile device, the bandwidth request comprising an amount of bandwidth;

allocating to the application at least a portion of licensed bandwidth of a first wireless connection, the first wireless connection utilizing licensed spectrum;

allocating to the application at least a portion of unlicensed bandwidth of a second wireless connection, the second wireless connection utilizing unlicensed spectrum, and having access to substantially similar endpoints as the first wireless communications; and

simultaneously communicating over the licensed bandwidth of the first wireless connection and over the unlicensed bandwidth of the second wireless connection, such that the allocated licensed bandwidth and the allocated unlicensed bandwidth equals or exceeds the amount of bandwidth for the bandwidth request,

wherein the allocations are performed at the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 3, the method further comprising:

determining that the amount of bandwidth for the bandwidth request exceeds a predetermined threshold;

responsive to the determining that the amount of bandwidth for the bandwidth request exceeds the predetermined threshold, maximizing both the allocation of the licensed bandwidth and the allocation of the unlicensed bandwidth to the application.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the predetermined threshold is a function of upload bandwidth, of download bandwidth, or of both.

6. The method of claim 3, the method further comprising:

measuring a first quality of service measure of the first wireless connection;

measuring a second quality of service measure of the second wireless connection;

determining which of the first quality of service measure or the second quality of service measure is greater;

when determining that the first quality of service measure is greater than the second quality of service measure, increasing the allocation of the unlicensed bandwidth; and

when determining that the second quality of service measure is greater than the first quality of service measure, increasing the allocation of the licensed bandwidth.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first quality of service measure is a latency measure of the first wireless connection and the second quality of service measure is a latency measure of the second wireless connection.

8. The method of claim 4, the method further comprising:

measuring a first power draw measure of the first wireless connection;

measuring a second power draw measure of the second wireless connection;

determining which of the first power draw measure or the second power draw measure is greater;

when determining that the first power draw measure is greater than the second power draw measure, increasing the allocation of the unlicensed bandwidth and decreasing the allocation of the licensed bandwidth; and

when determining that the second power draw measure is greater than the first power draw measure, increasing the allocation of the licensed bandwidth and decreasing the allocation of the unlicensed bandwidth.

9. The method of claim 3, the method further comprising:

storing a first monetary cost of the data rate of the first wireless connection;

storing a second monetary cost of the data rate of the second wireless connection;

determining which of the first monetary cost or the second monetary cost is greater;

when determining that the first monetary cost is greater than the second monetary cost, increasing the allocation of the unlicensed bandwidth and decreasing the allocation of the licensed bandwidth; and

when determining that the second monetary cost is greater than the first monetary cost, increasing the allocation of the unlicensed bandwidth and decreasing the allocation of the licensed bandwidth.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein the bandwidth request includes an application originated load balancing recommendation of how to balance available bandwidth over licensed spectrum from the first wireless connection, and the available bandwidth over unlicensed spectrum from the second wireless connection;

and

wherein the allocation of the licensed bandwidth and the allocation of the unlicensed bandwidth is based at least on the application originated load balancing recommendation.

11. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving over the first wireless connection, a server originated quality of service measurement; and

wherein the allocation of the licensed bandwidth and the allocation of the unlicensed bandwidth is based at least on the server originated quality of service measurement.

12. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving, on the mobile device, a second bandwidth request from a second application running on the mobile device, the second bandwidth request comprising a second amount of bandwidth; and

wherein the simultaneously communicating over the licensed bandwidth of the first wireless connection and over the unlicensed bandwidth of the second wireless connection, is such that the allocated licensed bandwidth and the allocated unlicensed bandwidth equals or exceeds the amount of bandwidth for the second bandwidth request in addition to the amount of bandwidth for the first bandwidth request.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining that the first amount of bandwidth from the first bandwidth request in addition to the amount of bandwidth for the second bandwidth request, is less than the allocation of bandwidth from the second wireless connection; and

responsive to the determination, turning off a radio corresponding to the first wireless connection, in order to conserve power.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein, the determining that the first amount of bandwidth from the first bandwidth request in addition to the amount of bandwidth for the second bandwidth request, is less than the allocation of bandwidth from the second wireless connection is based at least on determining a number of tethered devices corresponding to the first bandwidth request and the second bandwidth request.

15. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

measuring a first quality of service measure of the first wireless connection;

measuring a second quality of service measure of the second wireless connection;

determining which of the first quality of service measure or the second quality of service measure is greater;

when determining that the first quality of service measure exceeds the second quality of service measure by a predetermined threshold, turning off a radio corresponding to the second wireless connection; and

when determining that the second quality of service measure exceeds the first quality of service measure by a predetermined threshold, turning off a radio corresponding to the first wireless connection.

16. A method for monitoring bandwidth, comprising:

receiving a bandwidth request;

measuring a first bandwidth for a first wireless connection, via a communications with a radio interface layer;

measuring a second bandwidth for a second wireless connection, via a communications with a radio interface layer;

receiving a message from a load balancer of a first bandwidth allocation on the first wireless connection and a second bandwidth allocation on the second wireless connection; and

reducing queries to the radio interface layers by estimating the bandwidth remaining from the first bandwidth and the bandwidth remaining from the second bandwidth, based at least on the first bandwidth allocation and the second bandwidth allocation,

wherein the load balancer is located at a mobile device,

wherein measuring the first and second bandwidths, receiving the message and estimating the bandwidth are performed at the mobile device,

wherein receiving a bandwidth request from an application resident in the memory and running on a processor of the mobile device,

wherein measuring the first bandwidth or the measuring the second bandwidth is based on the received bandwidth request.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein either the measuring the first bandwidth or the measuring the second bandwidth is via a query.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein either the measuring the first bandwidth or the measuring the second bandwidth is via a notification from the radio interface layer.

19. A method to load balance communications connections, comprising:

receiving, on a mobile device, a bandwidth request from an application running on the mobile device, the bandwidth request comprising an amount of bandwidth;

allocating to the application at least some licensed bandwidth over a cellular communications connection;

allocating to the application at least some unlicensed bandwidth of a Wi-Fi communications connection, and having access to substantially the same endpoints as the cellular communications connection; and

simultaneously communicating over the licensed bandwidth of the cellular communications connection and over the unlicensed bandwidth of the Wi-Fi communications connection, such that the allocated licensed bandwidth and the allocated unlicensed bandwidth equals or exceeds the amount of bandwidth for the bandwidth request,

wherein the allocations are performed at the mobile device.