Method for searching for a radio cell and mobile terminal

• US 9,113,399 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2012
• Issued: 08/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Deutschland GmbH (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Murgan, Tudor, Wu, Kai, Herzinger, Stefan, Drewes, Christian, Canonici, Jean-Xavier, Gunzelmann, Bertram
• Primary Examiner(s): MIZRAHI, DIANE D
• Application Number:
  US13/563,855
• Publication Number:
  US 20140038587A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,112 Days
• Field of Search: 455/422.1, 455/450, 701/31.4, 701/36
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information

Abstract

A method for searching for a radio cell is provided comprising determining, for each of a plurality of frequencies, a reception strength value indicating the reception strength within a first bandwidth around the frequency, wherein the first bandwidth is smaller than a second bandwidth with which a radio cell to be searched is operated; determining, based on the determined reception strength values, a spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be carried out; and carrying out a cell search at the determined spectral position.

Claims

1. A method for searching for a radio cell comprising:

determining, for each of a plurality of frequencies, a reception strength value indicating the reception strength within a first bandwidth around the frequency, wherein the first bandwidth is smaller than a second bandwidth with which a radio cell to be searched is operated;

determining, based on the determined reception strength values, a spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be executed; and

executing a cell search at the determined spectral position;

wherein determining the spectral position for the radio cell comprises statistically analyzing the determined reception strength values.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the reception strength value indicates the reception strength within the first bandwidth centered around the frequency.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be executed comprises correlating the determined reception strength values with reception strength values to be expected for an operated radio cell;

and determining the spectral position based on the result of the correlation.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein determining the spectral position based on the result of the correlation comprises determining a spectral position of a plurality of spectral positions for which the correlation is above a predetermined threshold as the spectral position.

5. The method according to claim 4, comprising determining each spectral position of the plurality of spectral positions for which the correlation is above a predetermined threshold as a spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be executed;

and

executing a cell search at the determined spectral positions.

6. The method according to claim 3, wherein determining the spectral position based on the result of the correlation comprises determining the spectral position of the plurality of spectral positions for which the correlation is maximum as the spectral position.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be executed comprises searching, within the determined reception strength values, for a spectral reception strength value pattern Dell expected for an operated radio cell.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be executed comprises eliminating outliers of the determined reception strength values.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second bandwidth is a radio cell bandwidth according to a communication standard and wherein the cell search is a search for a radio cell operated according to the communication standard.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of frequencies comprises all frequencies of a predetermined frequency range at which, according to the communication standard, a radio cell may be operated.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of frequencies is a set of frequencies such that when the frequencies are ordered by increasing or decreasing size to a sequence of frequencies, the difference between two consecutive frequencies in the sequence of frequencies is smaller than the second bandwidth.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first bandwidth is equal to or smaller than the minimum difference between the frequencies of the plurality of frequencies.

13. A method for searching for a radio cell comprising:

determining, for each of a plurality of frequencies, a reception strength value indicating the reception strength within a first bandwidth around the frequency, wherein the first bandwidth is smaller than a second bandwidth with which a radio cell is operated;

determining, based on the determined reception strength values, a plurality of spectral positions for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be executed;

determining, for each spectral position, a priority value for executing a cell search; and

executing a cell search at the determined spectral positions.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein each cell search at the determined spectral positions is executed according to the priority values.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the cell search is executed for the determined spectral positions in an order given by the priority values.

16. A method for searching for a radio cell comprising:

determining, for each of a plurality of frequencies, a reception strength value indicating the reception strength within a first bandwidth around the frequency, wherein the first bandwidth is smaller than a second bandwidth with which a radio cell is operated;

determining, based on the determined reception strength values, a spectral positing for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be executed; and

executing a cell search at the determined spectral position;

wherein the plurality of frequencies comprises all frequencies of a predetermined frequency range at which, according to the communication standard and according to the applicable frequency licensing regulations, a radio cell may be operated.

17. A mobile terminal comprising:

a first determiner, configured to determine, for each of a plurality of frequencies, a reception strength value indicating the reception strength within a first bandwidth around the frequency, wherein the first bandwidth is smaller than a second bandwidth with which a radio cell to be searched is operated;

a second determiner, configured to determine, based on the determined reception strength values, a spectral position for a radio cell at which a cell search is to be executed; and

a cell searcher, configured to execute a cell search at the determined spectral position

wherein the second determiner is configured to statistically analyze the determined reception strength values.