Methods and apparatus for power consumption management during discontinuous reception

• US 9,686,750 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2012
• Issued: 06/20/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Shi, Jason, Su, Li, Sebini, Johnson, Ji, Zhu, Damji, Navid
• Primary Examiner(s): Chriss, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): KIRILLOVA, ELLEN A
• Application Number:
  US13/623,807
• Publication Number:
  US 20130176873A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,734 Days
• Field of Search: 370252
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0283 with sequential power up or power down of successive circuit blocks, e.g. switching on the local oscillator before RF or mixer stages
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/28 Discontinuous transmission [DTX]; Discontinuous reception [DRX]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for adaptively adjusting temporal parameters such as e.g., wake-up times of digital tracking algorithms (such as timing, frequency and power control). In one exemplary embodiment, wake-up times for tracking loops are based on success/error metrics (e.g., Block Error Rate (BLER), Bit Error Rate (BER), Packet Error Rate (PER), Cyclic Redundancy Checks (CRC), etc.) of one or more previous discontinuous reception (DRX) cycles. In a second embodiment, wake-up times for tracking loops are based on residual frequency and timing errors, etc.

Claims

1. A long term evolution (LTE)-enabled wireless network user equipment (UE) mobile radio communications apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a wireless interface; and

power management logic in communication with the processor and the wireless interface and configured to;

initialize a tracking loop runtime, the initialization characterized by a wake-up time length of the tracking loop runtime, wherein the tracking loop runtime is associated with one or more of a frequency tracking loop (FTL), a time tracking loop (TTL), or a power tracking loop, and wherein the wake-up time length specifies a length of time to allow the associated one or more tracking loops to settle into a usable state;

decode a logical channel associated with the network;

determine an error measure associated with the decode of the logical channel; and

based on the error measure being less than a target value, reduce the wake-up time length of the tracking loop runtime.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the power management logic is further configured to, when the error measure is greater than a target value, increase the wake-up time length.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the logical channel comprises one of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), or physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the error measure comprises any of block error rate (BLER), bit error rate (BER), packet error rate (PER), and Cyclic Redundancy Checks (CRC).

5. A method of operating a base station in a long term evolution (LTE) cellular wireless communications network, the method comprising:

configuring one or more mobile devices operable within the network to conserve energy associated with a plurality of discontinuous reception cycles, the configuration causing the one or more mobile devices to;

access historic performance information associated with communication of the respective mobile device with the LTE cellular wireless communications network;

reduce one or more parameters of a tracking loop at least in part on the historic performance information, wherein reducing one or more parameters of the tracking loop comprises at least reducing a wake-up time length of the tracking loop, wherein the tracking loop comprises one or more of a frequency tracking loop (FTL), a time tracking loop (TTL), or a power tracking loop, wherein the wake-up time length specifies a length of time to allow the tracking loop to settle into a usable state;

operate the tracking loop according to the one or more reduced parameters; and

update the historic performance information based at least in part on the reduction.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the configuring the one or more mobile devices enables the one or more mobile devices to operate in radio resource connection (RRC) idle mode within one or more of the plurality of discontinuous reception cycles, the operation in RRC idle mode comprising:

entry into a low power state characterized by powering-off the tracking loop;

based on an event, power-up of the tracking loop and configuration of a tracking loop wake-up time length;

decode of a paging packet, the decode of the paging packet characterized by an error measure;

comparison of the error measure to another error measure of the historic performance information; and

based on the error measure being less than the another error measure, reduction of the wake-up time length.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein configuring the one or more mobile devices enables the one or more mobile devices to communicate with the base station in radio resource connection (RRC) connected mode using one or more of the plurality of discontinuous reception cycles, the communication comprising:

decoding a downlink (DL) packet, the decoding characterized by an error measure;

entering a low power state characterized by powering-off the tracking loop;

based on an event, powering-up the tracking loop and configuring tracking loop wake-up time length;

decoding another DL packet, the decode another DL packet characterized by another error measure; and

based on the another error measure being less than the error measure, reducing the wake-up time length;

wherein the historic performance information comprises at least one of the error measure and the another error measure.

8. A wireless base station apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors;

at least one wireless cellular interface in data communication with the one or more processors; and

power management logic in data communication with the one or more processors and the wireless interface, and configured to reduce energy use associated with operation of user equipment (UE) apparatus under discontinuous reception, by at least;

initialization of a tracking loop runtime, the initialization characterized by a wake-up time length of the tracking loop runtime, wherein the tracking loop runtime is associated with one or more of a frequency tracking loop (FTL), a time tracking loop (TTL), or a power tracking loop, and wherein the wake-up time length specifies a length of time to allow the associated one or more tracking loops to settle into a usable state;

decode of a logical channel associated with the network;

determination of an error measure associated with the decode of the logical channel; and

based on the error measure being less than a target value, reduction of the wake-up time length of the tracking loop runtime.

9. A non-transitory, computer readable apparatus comprising a plurality of computer readable instructions configured to, when executed by a processor in a base station device in a long term evolution (LTE) cellular wireless communications network, cause the base station device to:

configure one or more mobile devices operable within the network to conserve energy associated with a plurality of discontinuous reception cycles, the configuration causing the one or more mobile devices to;

access historic performance information associated with communication of the respective mobile device with the LTE cellular wireless communications network;

reduce one or more parameters of a tracking loop at least in part on the historic performance information, wherein reducing one or more parameters of the tracking loop comprises at least reducing a wake-up time length of the tracking loop, wherein the tracking loop comprises one or more of a frequency tracking loop (FTL), a time tracking loop (TTL), or a power tracking loop, and wherein the wake-up time length specifies a length of time to allow the tracking loop to settle into a usable state;

operate the tracking loop according to the one or more reduced parameters; and

update the historic performance information based at least in part on the reduction.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the one or more parameters comprises an initialization time of the tracking loop.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein configuring the one or more mobile devices enables the one or more mobile devices to operate in radio resource connection (RRC) idle mode within one or more of the plurality of discontinuous reception cycles, the operation in RRC idle mode comprising:

entry into a low power state characterized by powering-off the tracking loop;

based on an event, power-up of the tracking loop and configuration of tracking loop wake-up time length;

decode of a paging packet, the decode of the paging packet characterized by an error measure;

comparison of the error measure to another error measure of the historic performance information; and

based on the error measure being less than the another error measure, reduction of the wake-up time length.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein configuring the one or more mobile devices enables the one or more mobile devices to communicate with the base station in radio resource connection (RRC) connected mode using one or more of the plurality of discontinuous reception cycles, the communication comprising:

decoding a downlink (DL) packet, the decoding characterized by an error measure;

entering a low power state characterized by powering-off the tracking loop;

based on an event, powering-up the tracking loop and configuring tracking loop wake-up time length;

decoding another DL packet, the decode another DL packet characterized by another error measure; and

based on the another error measure being less than the error measure, reducing the wake-up time length;

wherein the historic performance information comprises at least one of the error measure and the another error measure.