Method and apparatus for improving a mobile station cell change operation in the general packet radio system (GPRS)

• US 8,982,839 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2012
• Issued: 03/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Conversant Wireless Licensing S.à.r.l. (f/k/a Core Wireless Licensing S.a.r.l.) (MOSAID Technologies Inc. (f/k/a Conversant Intellectual Property Management))
• Original Assignee: Conversant Wireless Licensing S.à.r.l. (f/k/a Core Wireless Licensing S.a.r.l.) (MOSAID Technologies Inc. (f/k/a Conversant Intellectual Property Management))
• Inventors: Forssell, Mika
• Primary Examiner(s): PARK, JUNG H
• Application Number:
  US13/554,809
• Publication Number:
  US 20130016697A1
• Time in Patent Office: 970 Days
• US Class Current: 370/331
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/90 Buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8033 location-dependent, e.g. business or home
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8038 Roaming or handoff
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/81 Dynamic pricing, e.g. change of tariff during call
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0112 Dynamic pricing, e.g. change of tariff during call
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/22 Bandwidth or usage-sensitve billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/32 Involving wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/34 Roaming
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7435 Location dependent, e.g. Bussiness or home
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7442 Roaming
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0016 Hand-off preparation specially adapted for end-to-end data sessions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/02 Buffering or recovering information during reselection ; Modification of the traffic flow during hand-off
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A mobile station executed method, wherein upon changing from a current cell to a new cell in a wireless packet data network the mobile station enters the new cell; generates a cell change packet data unit (PDU) message for informing the network of the location of the mobile station in the new cell; buffers the cell change PDU message into a PDU transmit queue before any buffered PDUs that were present before the mobile station entered the new cell; and transmits the buffered cell change PDU before any of the buffered PDUs that were present before the mobile station entered the new cell.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

generating a cell change logical link control (“

LLC”

) packet data unit (“

PDU”

) for informing a network of a location of a mobile station in a new cell;

buffering the cell change LLC PDU into a LLC PDU transmit queue such that the cell change LLC PDU is selected for transmission prior to any other buffered packet data units that are present in the LLC PDU transmit queue when the cell change LLC PDU is buffered; and

transmitting the buffered cell change LLC PDU before any of the other buffered packet data units that are present in the LLC PDU transmit queue when the cell change LLC PDU is buffered.

2. A method as in claim 1, further comprising requesting an uplink resource for transmitting prior to transmitting the cell change LLC PDU

3. A method as in claim 1, further comprising requesting an uplink temporary block flow for transmitting prior to transmitting the cell change LLC PDU.

4. A method as in claim 1, wherein the generated cell change LLC PDU is transmitted only if a first packet data unit in the transmit queue exceeds a predetermined length, otherwise the cell change LLC PDU is discarded and the first packet data unit in the transmit queue is transmitted instead.

5. A method as in claim 1, where the cell change LLC PDU has a length that fits within one radio link control (“

RLC”

) data block.

6. A method as in claim 5, wherein the generating operates a logical link control unit to use a service access point of a general purpose radio service (“

GPRS”

) mobility management unit to form an empty GPRS mobility management packet data unit, and where a mobile station location update procedure is triggered by a serving GPRS support node when the GPRS mobility management packet data unit is received.

7. A method as in claim 5, wherein a radio link control/medium access control (“

RLC/MAC”

) unit initiates an uplink temporary block flow in the new cell, and indicates to a RLC/MAC of the network if an ACK or an UNACK radio link control mode is to be used when transmitting the cell change LLC PDU.

8. A method as in claim 7, wherein the RLC/MAC unit of the mobile station selects either the ACK or the UNACK RLC mode based on the UNACK RLC mode of a next queued packet data unit in the LLC PDU transmit queue.

9. A method as in claim 1, wherein the generating includes setting a priority level of the cell change LLC PDU such that buffering the cell change LLC PDU into the LLC PDU transmit queue causes the cell change LLC PDU to be transmitted before any lower priority packet data units.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a packet data buffer;

a controller for generating a cell change logical link control (“

LLC”

) packet data unit (“

PDU”

) for informing the wireless packet data network of the presence of the apparatus in a new cell, and for buffering the cell change LLC PDU into the packet data buffer such that it is selected for transmission prior to any other buffered packet data units that are present in the packet data buffer when the cell change LLC PDU is buffered a transmitter for transmitting the buffered cell change LLC PDU prior to the other buffered packet data units that are present in the packet data buffer when the cell change LLC PDU is buffered, for informing the wireless packet data network of the cell in which the apparatus is currently located so that packet data intended for the apparatus is not transmitted into the previous cell by the wireless packet data network.

11. An apparatus as in claim 10 wherein the controller, prior to operating said transmitter for transmitting the buffered cell change LLC PDU, requests an uplink resource for transmitting the cell change LLC PDU.

12. An apparatus as in claim 10 wherein the controller, prior to operating said transmitter for transmitting the buffered cell change LLC PDU, requests an uplink temporary block flow for transmitting the cell change LLC PDU.

13. An apparatus as in claim 10, wherein the generated cell change LLC PDU is transmitted only if a first packet data unit in the transmit buffer exceeds a predetermined length, otherwise the cell change LLC PDU is discarded and the first packet data unit in the packet data buffer is transmitted instead.

14. An apparatus as in claim 10, where the cell change LLC PDU has a length that fits within one RLC data block.

15. An apparatus as in claim 14, wherein said controller, when generating the cell change LLC PDU, operates a logical link control unit to use a service access point indicator (“

SAPI”

) of a GPRS management unit to form an empty GPRS mobility management packet data unit, and where an apparatus location update procedure is triggered by a serving GPRS support node when the GPRS mobility management packet data unit is received.

16. An apparatus as in claim 14, wherein said controller operates a RLC/MAC unit to initiate an uplink temporary block flow in the new cell, and to indicate to a RLC/MAC of the network if an ACK or an UNACK radio link control mode is to be used when transmitting the cell change LLC PDU.

17. An apparatus as in claim 16, wherein the RLC/MAC unit of the apparatus selects either the ACK or the UNACK RLC mode based on the RLC mode of a next queued logical link control packet data unit in the packet data buffer.

18. An apparatus as in claim 10, wherein controller sets a priority level of the cell change LLC PDU such that when buffering the cell change LLC PDU into the packet data buffer the cell change LLC PDU is caused to be transmitted before any lower priority packet data units.

19. A method comprising:

passing a cell change logical link control (“

LLC”

) packet data unit (“

PDU”

) to a (“

RLC”

) unit for informing a network of a location of a mobile station in a new cell, the cell change LLC PDU having a flag for indicating a priority of the LLC PDU relative to other packet data units;

storing the cell change LLC PDU into a logical link control packet data unit transmit queue in accordance with the indicated priority, wherein the cell change LLC PDU comprises an empty GPRS mobility management packet data unit to notify the network to update mobile station location information; and

transmitting the stored cell change LLC PDU to a radio channel before any stored packet data units having a lower priority that are present in the transmit queue when the cell change LLC PDU is buffered into the transmit queue.

20. A method as in claim 19, where the cell change LLC PDU is assigned a highest priority.

21. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodied with a computer program the execution of which in association with a device cell change operation performs operations of:

generating a cell change logical link control (“

LLC”

) packet data unit (“

PDU”

) for informing a wireless network of the location of a device, wherein generating includes forming an empty GPRS mobility management packet data unit to notify the network to update mobile station location information; and

buffering the cell change LLC PDU into a LLC PDU unit transmit queue such that it is transmitted to the network before any already buffered packet data units that are present in the LLC PDU transmit queue when the cell change LLC PDU is buffered into the LLC PDU transmit queue; and

transmitting the buffered cell change LLC PDU before the buffered packet data units that are present when the cell change LLC PDU is buffered into the LLC PDU transmit queue.

22. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodied with a computer program as in claim 21, further comprising requesting from the wireless network an uplink resource for transmitting prior to transmitting the cell change LLC PDU.

23. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodied with a computer program as in claim 21, further comprising requesting from the wireless network an uplink temporary block flow prior to transmitting the cell change LLC PDU.

24. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodied with a computer program as in claim 21, where the cell change LLC PDU has a length that fits within one radio link control (“

RLC”

) data block, and where the generating operation operates a logical link control unit to use a service access point indicator (“

SAPI”

) of a general packet radio service (“

GPRS”

) mobility management unit to form an empty GPRS mobility management packet data unit, and where a device location update procedure is triggered by a serving GPRS support node when the GPRS mobility management packet data unit is received.

25. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodied with a computer program as in claim 21, where the cell change LLC PDU has a length that fits within one radio link control data block, and where a RLC/MAC unit initiates an uplink temporary block flow in the new cell.

26. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodied with a computer program as in claim 25, where a device RLC/MAC unit selects either the ACK or the UNACK RLC mode based on the RLC mode of a next queued logical link control packet data unit in the transmit queue.

27. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodied with a computer program as in claim 21, where the generating operation comprises setting a priority level of the cell change LLC PDU such that buffering the cell change LLC PDU into the packet data unit transmit queue causes the cell change LLC PDU to be transmitted before any lower priority packet data units.

28. A device, comprising:

means for generating a cell change logical link control (“

LLC”

) packet data unit (“

PDU”

) for informing a wireless network of a location of the device, the means for generating being arranged to form an empty general packet radio service mobility (“

GPRS”

) management packet data unit to notify the network to update mobile station location information; and

means for buffering the cell change LLC PDU into a logical link control packet data unit transmit queue such that it is transmitted to the wireless network before any already buffered packet data units that were present in the transmit queue before buffering the cell change LLC PDU in the transmit queue; and

means for transmitting the buffered cell change LLC PDU before any of the buffered packet data units that were present in the transmit queue before buffering the cell change LLC PDU in the transmit queue.

29. A device as in claim 28, further comprising means for requesting from the wireless network an uplink resource prior to transmitting the cell change LLC PDU.

30. A device as in claim 28, further comprising means for requesting from the wireless network an uplink temporary block flow prior to transmitting the cell change LLC PDU.

31. A device as in claim 28, where the cell change LLC PDU has a length that fits within one (“

RLC”

) data block, and where the generating means operates a logical link control unit to use a service access point indicator (“

SAPI”

) of a general packet radio service (“

GPRS”

) mobility management unit to form an empty GPRS mobility management packet data unit, and where a device location update procedure is triggered by a serving GPRS support node when the GPRS mobility management packet data unit is received.

32. A device as in claim 28, where the cell change LLC PDU has a length that fits within one radio link control data block, and where a (“

RLC/MAC”

) unit initiates an uplink temporary block flow in the new cell.

33. A device as in claim 32, where a device RLC/MAC unit selects either the ACK or the UNACK RLC mode based on the RLC mode of a next queued LLC PDU in the transmit queue.

34. A device as in claim 28, where the generating means sets a priority level of the cell change LLC PDU such that buffering the cell change LLC PDU into the LLC PDU transmit queue causes the cell change LLC PDU to be transmitted before any lower priority packet data units that were present in the LLC PDU transmit queue before buffering the cell change LLC PDU in the LLC PDU transmit queue.