Signal strength indicator for multicast broadcasting in a wireless network

• US 9,277,345 B2
• Filed: 09/17/2013
• Issued: 03/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.), Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.), Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Lui, Danny Chick-Leung, Gu, John, Aguirre, Sergio, Guven, Musa Kazim, Chandwani, Rakesh H
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Chandrahas
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRUONG, LAN-HUONG
• Application Number:
  US14/029,314
• Publication Number:
  US 20150078179A1
• Time in Patent Office: 896 Days
• Field of Search: 370/235, 370/316, 370/338, 455/418
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/00 Substation equipment, e.g. for use by subscribers subscriber services or facilities provided at exchanges H04M3/00; prepayment telephone coin boxes H04M17/00; current supply arrangements H04M19/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• 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 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information

Abstract

The quality of a multicast broadcast that is being received by a mobile device may be determined. In one implementation, a method may include receiving a radio signal corresponding to a multicast broadcast of content; measuring a strength of the received signal; determining a minimum signal strength to receive the content associated with the multicast broadcast; determining a signal quality metric, associated with the multicast broadcast, the signal quality metric being based on a difference between the measured strength of the signal and the determined minimum signal strength; and providing a visual indication of the signal quality metric.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a mobile device, a radio signal corresponding to a multicast broadcast of content;

measuring, by the mobile device, a strength of the received radio signal;

determining, by the mobile device, a minimum signal strength to receive the content associated with the multicast broadcast based on a particular modulation coding scheme (MCS) being used to broadcast the content, a particular symbol rate being used to broadcast the content, and an identification of a particular Multicast Service Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) coverage area associated with the received signal;

determining, by the mobile device, a signal quality metric, associated with the multicast broadcast, the signal quality metric being based on a difference between the measured strength of the radio signal and the determined minimum signal strength; and

wherein the determining of the minimum signal strength includes;

determining, by the mobile device, a theoretical signal strength required to receive the content from an MBSFN of the particular MBSFN coverage area, based on the particular MCS and a particular symbol rate used to broadcast the content,

determining, by the mobile device, an offset value based on the particular MCS, the particular symbol rate, and the particular MBSFN coverage area, of a plurality of MBSFN coverage areas, of the particular MBSFN, the plurality of MBSFN coverage areas corresponding to different offset values representing current transmission conditions of the plurality of MBSFN coverage areas; and

providing, by the mobile device, a visual indication of the signal quality metric.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the minimum signal strength further includes:

querying a table, stored by the mobile device, based on the particular modulation coding scheme (MCS) being used to broadcast the content, the particular symbol rate being used to broadcast the content, and the identification of a Multicast Service Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) area associated with the received signal.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a quantization of the signal quality metric to obtain a value associated with the visual indication.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the value associated with the visual indication includes a binary value.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the minimum signal strength further comprises:

querying a first data structure to initially determine the minimum signal strength;

querying a second data structure to determine an offset value; and

modifying the initially determined minimum signal strength by the offset value.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first data structure and the second data structure include tables that are pre-stored at the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the first and second data structures are received from a network associated with the multicast broadcast.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the signal quality metric is determined on a per-multicast signal basis.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the strength of the received radio signal is measured as a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the radio signal.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the minimum signal strength to receive the content associated with the multicast broadcast comprises:

determining the MBSFN coverage area associated with the received signal,

determining an MCS that is associated with the MBSFN coverage area and used to broadcast the content,

determining a symbol rate that is associated with the MBSFN coverage area and used to broadcast the content, and

determining the minimum signal strength to receive the content associated with the multicast broadcast based on a combination of the MCS and the symbol rate.

10. A mobile device comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor to execute instructions in the memory to;

receive a radio signal corresponding to a multicast broadcast of content, measure a strength of the received radio signal, determine a minimum signal strength to receive the content associated with the multicast broadcast based on a particular modulation coding scheme (MCS) being used to broadcast the content, a particular symbol rate being used to broadcast the content, and an identification of a particular Multicast Service Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) coverage area associated with the received signal, determine a signal quality metric, associated with the multicast broadcast, the signal quality metric being based on a difference between the measured strength of the signal and the determined minimum signal strength, and

wherein the determining of the minimum signal strength includes;

determining, by the mobile device, a theoretical signal strength required to receive the content from an MBSFN of the particular MBSFN coverage area, based on the particular MCS and a particular symbol rate used to broadcast the content,

determining, by the mobile device, an offset value based on the particular MCS, the particular symbol rate, and the particular MBSFN coverage area, of a plurality of MBSFN coverage areas, of the particular MBSFN, the plurality of MBSFN coverage areas corresponding to different offset values representing current transmission conditions of the plurality of MBSFN coverage areas, and

provide a visual indication of the signal quality metric.

11. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein, when determining the minimum signal strength, the at least one processor is to further execute instructions in the memory to:

query a table, stored by the mobile device, based on the particular MCS being used to broadcast the content, the particular symbol rate being used to broadcast the content, and the identification of a MBSFN area associated with the received signal.

12. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein the at least one processor is to further execute instructions in the memory to:

perform a quantization of the signal quality metric to obtain a value associated with the visual indication.

13. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the value associated with the visual indication includes a binary value.

14. The mobile device of claim 12, wherein the value associated with the visual indication includes a number representing a number of bars to provide to a user of the mobile device.

15. The device of claim 10, wherein, determining the minimum signal strength, the at least one processor is to further execute instructions in the memory to:

query a first data structure to initially determine the minimum signal strength;

query a second data structure to determine an offset value; and

modify the initially determined minimum signal strength by the offset value.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the first and second data structures are received from a network associated with the multicast broadcast.

17. The device of claim 15, wherein the first data structure and the second data structure include tables that are pre-stored at the mobile device.

18. A method comprising:

receiving, by a mobile device, a radio signal corresponding to a multicast broadcast of content;

measuring, by the mobile device, a strength of the received radio signal;

determining, by the mobile device, a first value corresponding to a theoretical minimum signal strength needed to receive the content associated with the multicast broadcast based on a particular modulation coding scheme (MCS) being used to broadcast the content, a particular symbol rate being used to broadcast the content, and an identification of a particular Multicast Service Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) coverage area associated with the received signal; and

wherein the determining of the minimum signal strength includes;

determining, by the mobile device, a theoretical signal strength required to receive the content from an MBSFN of the particular MBSFN coverage area, based on the particular MCS and a particular symbol rate used to broadcast the content,

determining, by the mobile device, an offset value based on the particular MCS, the particular symbol rate, and the particular MBSFN coverage area, of a plurality of MBSFN coverage areas, of the particular MBSFN, the plurality of MBSFN coverage areas corresponding to different offset values representing current transmission conditions of the plurality of MBSFN coverage areas, and

determining, by the mobile device, a second value, corresponding to an adjustment amount, to the first value, the adjustment amount being determined based on experimentation;

determining, by the mobile device, a signal quality metric, associated with the multicast broadcast, based on the measured strength of the received radio signal, the first value, and the second value; and

providing, by the mobile device, a visual indication of the signal quality metric.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein determining the second value includes:

querying a table, stored by the mobile device, based on a particular modulation coding scheme (MCS) being used to broadcast the content, a particular symbol rate being used to broadcast the content, and an identification of a Multicast Service Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) area associated with the received signal.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein values in the table are received over a control channel associated with the multicast broadcast.