Techniques for traffic delivery to a group of devices

• US 9,232,498 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2012
• Issued: 01/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Mohanty, Shantidev, Li, Honggang, Huang, Rui
• Primary Examiner(s): Masur, Paul H
• Application Number:
  US13/976,986
• Publication Number:
  US 20130272186A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,378 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/024 Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0456 Selection of precoding matrices or codebooks, e.g. using matrices antenna weighting
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0626 Channel coefficients, e.g. channel state information [CSI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/00 Orthogonal multiplex systems, e.g. using WALSH codesH04J13/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/12 Arrangements providing for calling or supervisory signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0026 Transmission of channel quality indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0077 Cooperative coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2646 using feedback from receiver for adjusting OFDM transmission parameters, e.g. transmission timing or guard interval length
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2662 Symbol synchronisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2675 Pilot or known symbols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0035 Resource allocation in a cooperative multipoint environment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0078 Timing of allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0206 in access points, e.g. base stations access point devices per se H04W88/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/146 : Uplink power control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/242 : taking into account path loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/244 : Interferences in heterogeneous networks, e.g. among macro and femto or pico cells or other sector / system interference [OSI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/34 : TPC management, i.e. sharing limited amount of power among users or channels or data types, e.g. cell loading
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0015 : one node acting as a reference for the others
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/02 : Arrangements for increasing efficiency of notification or paging channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 : Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 : Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 : Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 : in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 : in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 : using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 : Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/40 : for selective distribution or broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/14 : WLL [Wireless Local Loop]; RLL [Radio Local Loop]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 : Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Techniques for managing traffic delivery to a group of devices are described. In some embodiments, a method for communicating in a wireless network may comprise receiving, at a base station, information intended for a group of devices identified by a device group identifier (DGID), mapping, at the base station, the DGID to a common identifier known by each device in the group of devices, and multicasting the information from the base station to the group of devices over one or more channels of the wireless network using the common identifier. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method for communicating in a wireless network, the method comprising:

receiving, at a base station, information intended for a group of devices identified by a device group identifier (DGID);

mapping, at the base station, the DGID to a common identifier known by each device in the group of devices, the common identifier communicated in a Generic MAC Header (GMH) to the group of devices to identify information intended for the group of the devices; and

multicasting the information from the base station to the group of devices over one or more channels of the wireless network using the common identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

assigning the DGID to the group of devices;

assigning the common identifier corresponding to the DGID to the group of devices; and

providing the common identifier and the DGID to each device in the group of devices.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receiving a request from a device to enter the wireless network;

assigning the device to a group of devices or receiving a request from the device to join a group of devices;

providing the device with an individual identifier for individual traffic; and

providing the device with a group identifier for group traffic and a DGID corresponding to the group identifier for the assigned or requested group of devices.

4. The method of claim 1, the common identifier comprising a group connection identifier (CID) corresponding to the DGID.

5. The method of claim 4, the group CID selected from an available list of CIDs that are not assigned to individual devices for individual traffic.

6. The method of claim 1, the common identifier comprising a flow identifier (FID) corresponding to the DGID.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising:

assigning two or more DGIDs to one common identifier; and

sending the DGID in a DL-MAP of the multicast information.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

assigning two or more devices to a group based on one or more common characteristics of the two or more devices, the one or more common characteristics comprising one or more of geography, subscriber profile, service type or device capabilities for the two or more devices.

9. The method of claim 1, the group of devices comprising a plurality of machine-to-machine (M2M) devices, the plurality of M2M devices comprising one or more sensors, meters, or mobile computing devices.

10. The method of claim 1, the wireless network operative to use protocols compatible with an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16p or 802.16.1b standard.

11. At least one non-transitory machine readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on a computing device cause the computing device to carry out a method according to claim 1.

12. An apparatus for communicating in a wireless network, the apparatus comprising:

a processor circuit; and

a group management module operative on the processor circuit to receive information intended for a group of devices identified by a device group identifier (DGID) and map the DGID to a common identifier known by each device in the group of devices, the common identifier communicated in a Generic MAC Header (GMH) to the group of devices to identify information intended for the group of the devices, the group management module operative on the processor circuit to multicast the information to the group of devices over one or more channels of the wireless network using the common identifier.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, the group management module operative to assign the DGID to the group of devices, assign the common identifier corresponding to the DGID to the group of devices, and provide the common identifier and the DGID to each device in the group of devices.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, the group management module operative to receive a request from a device to enter the wireless network, assign the device to a group of devices or receive a request from the device to join a group of devices, provide the device with an individual identifier for individual traffic, and provide the device with a group common identifier for group traffic and a DGID corresponding to the group common identifier for the assigned or requested group of devices.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, the common identifier comprising a group connection identifier (CID) or group flow identifier (FID) corresponding to the DGID.

16. A system for communicating in a wireless network, the system comprising:

an antenna array;

a transceiver coupled to the antenna array; and

an apparatus according to claim 12.

17. A method for communicating in a wireless network, the method comprising:

requesting, by a wireless device, access to the wireless network;

receiving, from a base station, an individual connection identifier (CID) assigned for individual traffic and a group CID assigned for group or multicast traffic; and

receiving, from the base station, multicast information intended for the wireless device and one or more other wireless devices assigned to a common group, the information identified by the group CID, the group CID comprised in a Generic MAC Header (GMH) of the received multicast information.

18. The method of claim 17, comprising

receiving, at the wireless device, a device group identifier (DGID) corresponding to the group CID, the DGID identifying network layer traffic intended for the wireless device and the group CID identifying link layer traffic intended for the wireless device.

19. The method of claim 17, comprising:

identifying the group CID in the GMH;

determining if the group CID corresponds to an assigned device group identifier (DGID) for a group of devices including the wireless device; and

accepting the information if the wireless device belongs to the group identified by the group CID and the DGID.

20. The method of claim 17, the wireless device comprising a machine-to-machine (M2M) device comprising a sensor, meters, or mobile computing device.

21. The method of claim 17, the wireless network operative to use protocols compatible with an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16p or 802.16.1b standard.

22. At least one non-transitory machine readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on a computing device cause the computing device to carry out a method according to claim 17.