Apparatus and method for mobile search based on search triggers

• US 9,100,899 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2011
• Issued: 08/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Meshkati, Farhad, Horn, Gavin Bernard, Yavuz, Mehmet, Nanda, Sanjiv, Rauber, Peter Hans, Chen, Jen Mei
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen, Rehana
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hoffler, Raheem
• Application Number:
  US13/107,646
• Publication Number:
  US 20120124088A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,544 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service

Abstract

An apparatus and method for mobile search using search triggers including establishing a search state for a mobile search; defining a search scheduler based on the search state; determining to collect a search trigger for the search scheduler based on the search state; updating the search state using the collected search trigger and in accordance with the search scheduler; and performing a search for a search type based on the updated search state and in accordance with the search scheduler.

Claims

1. A method for a mobile device based cell search using search triggers comprising:

establishing a search state for the mobile device to search for a new cell, wherein the search state defines how often each of a plurality of search types is performed;

defining a search scheduler based on the search state, the search scheduler mapping the search state to a time to search for the new cell using a first search type from the plurality of search types;

determining to collect a search trigger for the search scheduler based on the search state;

collecting the search trigger at a time different from the time to search for the new cell using the first search type;

updating the search state and the search scheduler using the collected search trigger when the collected search trigger indicates that the search state has changed;

selecting a second search type from the plurality of search types for an updated time to search based on the updated search state and the updated search scheduler; and

performing, by the mobile device, at the updated time to search, a search for the new cell based on the second search type.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining to collect the search trigger is also based on a corresponding state determination function.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the search trigger is based on one or more of the following:

a Global Positioning System (GPS) information, a fingerprint, a mobility information, an accelerometer input, a VCO input, a cell identifier, a channel quality metric, a battery level of the mobile device, and a charging state of a battery of the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the state determination function is used to define a mapping from the search state into a search trigger collection time to determine when to collect the search trigger.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the search state is an n-tuple of search indicators.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the n-tuple of search indicators comprise:

location, immobility state, high mobility state and handset state.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein each search indicator indicates the probability of occurrence of a set of predefined events.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the search scheduler is defined as a mapping of the search state into a search scheduler function fS(t) expressed as a search frequency or as a function of time.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the function of time is expressed as an exponential backoff.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of search types comprise:

Type I search, Type II search or Type III search, wherein each search type is defined as;

Type I search;

searches/measures PSC whose timing is known;

Type II search;

searches for a specific PSC or set of PSCs whose timing may or may not be known; and

Type III search;

searches for all PSCs.

11. An apparatus comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing program code executable by the processor for performing the following:

establishing a search state for a mobile device to search for a new cell, wherein the search state defines how often each of a plurality of search types is performed;

defining a search scheduler based on the search state, the search scheduler mapping the search state to a time to search for the new cell using a first search type from the plurality of search types;

determining to collect a search trigger for the search scheduler based on the search state;

collecting the search trigger at a time different from the time to search for the new cell using the first search type;

updating the search state and the search scheduler using the collected search trigger when the collected search trigger indicates that the search state has changed;

selecting a second search type from the plurality of search types for an updated time to search based on the updated search state and the updated search scheduler; and

performing, by the mobile device, at the updated time to search, a search for the new cell based on the second search type.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the determining to collect the search trigger is also based on a corresponding state determination function.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the search trigger is based on one or more of the following:

a Global Positioning System (GPS) information, a fingerprint, a mobility information, an accelerometer input, a VCO input, a cell identifier, a channel quality metric, a battery level of the mobile device, and a charging state of a battery of the mobile device.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the state determination function is used to define a mapping from the search state into a search trigger collection time to determine when to collect the search trigger.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the search state is an n-tuple of search indicators.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the search indicators comprise:

location, immobility state, high mobility state and handset state.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein each search indicator indicates the probability of occurrence of a set of predefined events.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the search scheduler is defined as a mapping of the search state into a search scheduler function fS(t) expressed as a search frequency or as a function of time.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the function of time is expressed as an exponential backoff.

20. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the plurality of search types comprise:

Type I search, Type II search or Type III search, wherein each search type is defined as;

Type I search;

searches/measures PSC whose timing is known;

Type II search;

searches for a specific PSC or set of PSCs whose timing may or may not be known; and

Type III search;

searches for all PSCs.

21. An apparatus for a mobile device based cell search using search triggers comprising:

means for establishing a search state for the mobile device to search for a new cell, wherein the search state defines how often each of a plurality of search types is performed;

means for defining a search scheduler based on the search state, the search scheduler mapping the search state to a first time to search for the new cell using a first search type from the plurality of search types;

means for determining to collect a search trigger for the search scheduler based on the search state;

means for collecting the search trigger at a time different from the time to search for the new cell using the first search type;

means for updating the search state and the search scheduler using the collected search trigger when the collected search trigger indicates that the search state has changed;

means for selecting a second search type from the plurality of search types for an updated time to search based on the updated search state and the updated search scheduler; and

means for performing, by the mobile device, at the updated time to search, a search for the new cell based on the second search type.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the determining to collect the search trigger is also based on a corresponding state determination function.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the search trigger is based on one or more of the following:

a Global Positioning System (GPS) information, a fingerprint, a mobility information, an accelerometer input, a VCO input, a cell identifier, a channel quality metric, a battery level of the mobile device, and a charging state of a battery of the mobile device.

24. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the state determination function is used to define a mapping from the search state into a search trigger collection time to determine when to collect the search trigger.

25. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the search state is an n-tuple of search indicators.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the search indicators comprise:

location, immobility state, high mobility state or handset state.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein each search indicator indicates the probability of occurrence of a set of predefined events.

28. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the search scheduler is defined as a mapping of the search state into a search scheduler function fS(t) expressed as a search frequency or as a function of time.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the function of time is expressed as an exponential backoff.

30. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the plurality of search types comprise:

Type I search, Type II search or Type III search, wherein each search type is defined as;

Type I search;

searches/measures PSC whose timing is known;

Type II search;

searches for a specific PSC or set of PSCs whose timing may or may not be known; and

Type III search;

searches for all PSCs.

31. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable code wherein execution of the computer-executable code by a processor is for:

establishing a search state for a mobile device to search for a new cell, wherein the search state defines how often each of a plurality of search types is performed;

defining a search scheduler based on the search state, the search scheduler mapping the search state to a time to search for the new cell using a first search type from the plurality of search types;

determining to collect a search trigger for the search scheduler based on the search state;

collecting the search trigger at a time different from the time to search for the new cell using the first search type;

updating the search state and the search scheduler using the collected search trigger when the collected search trigger indicates that the search state has changed;

selecting a second search type from the plurality of search types for an updated time to search based on the updated search state and the updated search scheduler; and

performing, by the mobile device, at the updated time to search, a search for the new cell based on the second search type.

32. A method for a mobile device based cell search using search triggers comprising:

establishing a search state for a cell search for the mobile device to search for a new cell, wherein the search state defines, for a set of search indicators, how often each of a plurality of search types is performed;

updating the search state based on at least one of a plurality of search triggers defined by the search state, wherein the at least one search trigger indicates a change of at least one search indicator of the set of search indicators;

selecting a search type from the plurality of search types based on the updated search state; and

performing, by the mobile device, a search for the new cell based on the search type.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the at least one of the plurality of search triggers is based on a Global Positioning System (GPS) information.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the at least one of the plurality of search triggers is based on a fingerprint.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein the at least one of the plurality of search triggers is based on mobility information.

36. The method of claim 32, wherein the at least one of the plurality of search triggers is based on an accelerometer input.

37. The method of claim 32, wherein the at least one of the plurality of search triggers is based on a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) input.

38. The method of claim 32, wherein the at least one of the plurality of search triggers is based on a cell identifier.

39. The method of claim 32, wherein the at least one of the plurality of search triggers is based on a channel quality metric.

40. The method of claim 32, wherein the at least one of the plurality of search triggers is based on a battery level of the mobile device.

41. The method of claim 32, wherein the at least one of the plurality of search triggers is based on a charging state of a battery of the mobile device.