Network-assisted LTE channel acquisition

• US 9,807,743 B2
• Filed: 12/24/2013
• Issued: 10/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Chou, Joey, Stephens, Adrian P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wei, Siren
• Application Number:
  US14/771,853
• Publication Number:
  US 20160021593A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,407 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/38 Transceivers, i.e. devices in which transmitter and receiver form a structural unit and in which at least one part is used for functions of transmitting and receiving
• 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 7/0639 Using selective indices, e.g. of a codebook, e.g. pre-distortion matrix index [PMI] or for beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1854 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0823 Errors, e.g. transmission errors
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• 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 5/0094 Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1045 Proxies, e.g. for session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1076 Resource dissemination mechanisms or network resource keeping policies for optimal resource availability in the overlay network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 : Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0088 : Scheduling hand-off measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0094 : Definition of hand-off measurement parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/14 : Reselecting a network or an air interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/30 : by measured or perceived connection quality data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/36 : by user or terminal equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/38 : by fixed network equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 : Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/001 : Synchronization between nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/02 : Arrangements for increasing efficiency of notification or paging channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 : Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1215 : for collaboration of different radio technologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1263 : Mapping of traffic onto schedule, e.g. scheduled allocation or multiplexing of flows
• 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 72/51 : based on terminal or device properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 : based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0808 : using carrier sensing, e.g. carrier sense multiple access [CSMA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/00 : Connection management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 : Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 : Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 : Setup of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/15 : Setup of multiple wireless link connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/20 : Manipulation of established connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/22 : Manipulation of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 : Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/28 : Discontinuous transmission [DTX]; Discontinuous reception [DRX]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/30 : Connection release
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/38 : triggered by timers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 : Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 : using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 : adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 : Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/20 : between access points
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

In one embodiment, the present disclosure provides an IRP manager configured to query at least one eNB to determine physical layer cell identification and/or LTE band information associated with one or more cell coverage areas associated with the at least one eNB and determine an optimal physical layer cell identification and LTE band for at least one cell associated with the at least one eNB. The optimal physical layer cell identification and/or LTE band may be based on, for example, network topology statistics (e.g., current cell coverage area, etc.), traffic load, etc. The optimal physical layer cell identification and/or LTE band information may be utilized by at least one UE within a coverage area of a WLAN AP to provide cell connection in the event the at least one UE falls outside the coverage area of a WLAN AP.

Claims

1. An integration reference point (IRP) manager, comprising:

query circuitry configured to query at least one eNodeB (eNB) in communication with the IRP manager to retrieve physical layer cell identification and/or Long Term Evolution (LTE) band information associated with the at least one eNB;

the query circuitry is also configured to determine an optimal physical layer cell identification and/or LTE band information for a cell associated with the at least one eNB; and

wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) control circuitry configured to generate a control frame to control a WLAN AP in communication with the IRP manager to cause the WLAN AP to transmit a wireless frame based on the control frame to user equipment (UE) within communication range of the cell, the wireless frame includes the optimal physical layer cell identification and/or LTE band information for the cell associated with the at least one eNB to allow the UE to changeover wireless communication from the WLAN AP to the cell without having to scan for available LTE channels.

2. The IRP manager of claim 1, further comprising eNB/WLAN AP relationship circuitry configured to determine the coverage relationship between the at least one eNB and at least one WLAN AP, and further configured to indicate traffic offloading from the at least one eNB to at least one WLAN AP.

3. The IRP manager of claim 1, wherein the optimal physical layer cell identification and/or LTE band is based on at least one of the following parameters:

load balancing between a plurality of eNBs, network topology statistics, current cell coverage area, coverage area of one or more neighboring cells, cell network traffic load, cell outage, degraded quality of cell service, quality of service (QoS) class associated with the UE and/or eNB, and/or a user priority class.

4. The IRP manager of claim 1, wherein the optimal physical layer cell identification and/or LTE band information is configured to be utilized by at least one UE within a coverage area of the WLAN AP in the event the at least one UE falls outside the coverage area of the WLAN AP.

5. The IRP manager of claim 1, wherein the query circuitry and/or the WLAN AP control circuitry are associated with a network manager (NM) in communication with the at least one eNB.

6. The IRP manager of claim 1, wherein the physical layer cell identification for the cell associated with the at least one eNB includes information pertaining to at least one unique physical layer cell identity, and wherein a physical layer cell identity corresponds to a download reference signal that is used for slot and frame timing synchronization with the eNB.

7. The IRP manager of claim 1, wherein the LTE band information for the cell associated with the at least one eNB includes information pertaining to a frequency and bandwidth associated with an uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) channel for a frequency division multiplex (FDD) operational state of the cell, and/or a frequency and bandwidth for a time division multiplex (TDD) operational state of the cell.

8. A method, comprising:

querying at least one eNodeB (eNB) to retrieve physical layer cell identification and/or Long Term Evolution (LTE) band information associated with the at least one eNB;

determining an optimal physical layer cell identification and/or LTE band information for a cell associated with the at least one eNB; and

generating a control frame to control a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) to cause the WLAN AP to transmit a wireless frame based on the control frame to user equipment (UE) within communication range of the cell, the wireless frame includes the optimal physical layer cell identification and/or LTE band information for a cell associated with the at least one eNB to allow the UE to changeover wireless communication from the WLAN AP to the cell without having to scan for available LTE channels.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the optimal physical layer cell identification and/or LTE band is based on at least one of the following parameters:

load balancing between a plurality of eNBs, network topology statistics, current cell coverage area, coverage area of one or more neighboring cells, cell network traffic load, cell outage, degraded quality of cell service, quality of service (QoS) class associated with the UE and/or eNB, and/or a user priority class.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the optimal physical layer cell identification and/or LTE band information is configured to be utilized by at least one UE within a coverage area of the WLAN AP in the event the at least one UE falls outside the coverage area of the WLAN AP.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the physical layer cell identification for the cell associated with the at least one eNB includes information pertaining to at least one unique physical layer cell identity, and wherein a physical layer cell identity corresponds to a download reference signal that is used for slot and frame timing synchronization with the eNB.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the LTE band information for the cell associated with the at least one eNB includes information pertaining to a frequency and bandwidth associated with an uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) channel for a frequency division multiplex (FDD) operational state of the cell, and/or a frequency and bandwidth for a time division multiplex (TDD) operational state of the cell.