Communicating a broadcast message to change data rates of mobile stations

• US 20040246930A1
• Filed: 03/12/2004
• Published: 12/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ericsson AB (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Li, Jun, Fong, Mo-Han, Vrzic, Sophie S., Iraqi, Ali
• Granted Patent: US 8,254,358 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/335
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/263 Rate modification at the source after receiving feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0205 at the air interface dynamic wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1268 of uplink data flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal

Abstract

A wireless communications network includes a base station to communicate with plural mobile stations over a wireless link. A broadcast message is sent to the plural mobile stations, with the broadcast message containing an indication for indicating to the plural mobile stations that the mobile stations are to change data rates for transmissions over a reverse wireless link.

Claims

1. A method for use in a wireless communications network, comprising:

communicating data with plural mobile stations over a wireless link; and

sending a broadcast message to the plural mobile stations, the broadcast message containing an indication for indicating to the plural mobile stations that the mobile stations are to change data rates for transmissions over a reverse wireless link.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the broadcast message comprises sending a grant message on a channel that is monitored by the plural mobile stations.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein sending the grant message on the channel comprises sending the grant message on a forward grant channel according to code-division multiple access (CDMA) 2000.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein sending the grant message comprises sending a grant message containing an identifier, the identifier settable to a first value to uniquely identify one of the plural mobile stations, and the identifier settable to a predetermined value to provide a broadcast indication for indicating to the plural mobile stations that the mobile stations are to change data rates for transmissions over the reverse wireless link.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the identifier comprises a medium access control (MAC) identifier (MAC ID), the method further comprising:

setting the MAC ID of the grant message to the first value to target a first one of the plural mobile stations; and

setting the MAC ID of the grant message to the predetermined value to provide the broadcast indication to the plural mobile stations.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein setting the MAC ID to the predetermined value comprises setting the MAC ID to a binary value 00000000.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein sending the grant message comprises sending a grant message containing a data rate assignment field and an identifier field, wherein the data rate assignment field contains an assigned data rate for a mobile station identified by the identifier field.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the channel is a shared channel monitored by each of the plural mobile stations, the method further comprising setting a value of the identifier to uniquely identify one of the mobile stations such that the one mobile station is able to receive an assigned data rate in the data rate assignment field.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising setting the identifier field to a predetermined value to provide a broadcast indication for indicating to the plural mobile stations that the mobile stations are to change data rates for transmissions over the reverse wireless link.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the broadcast message to the plural mobile stations comprises sending the broadcast message to cause the plural mobile stations to set respective data rates to a value less than or equal to an autonomous data rate of the corresponding mobile station.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising a mobile station transmitting data on a reverse wireless link in autonomous mode in response to receiving the broadcast message, wherein transmitting in autonomous mode comprises transmitting the data at a rate that is less than or equal to the autonomous data rate.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the broadcast message to the plural mobile stations comprises sending a broadcast message containing an indication for indicating to the plural mobile stations that the mobile stations are to change data rates for transmissions of packet data over respective reverse packet data channels.

13. An article comprising at least one storage medium containing instructions that when executed cause a system in a wireless communications network to:

communicate data with plural mobile stations over a wireless link; and

send a broadcast message to the plural mobile stations, the broadcast message containing a broadcast indication to the plural mobile stations to cause the plural mobile stations to change data rates for transmissions over a reverse wireless link.

14. The article of claim 13, wherein sending the broadcast message comprises sending a layer 2 message.

15. The article of claim 14, wherein sending the broadcast message comprises sending a grant message on a forward grant channel (F-GCH) in a code-division multiple access (CDMA) 2000 wireless communications network.

16. The article of claim 13, wherein sending the broadcast message comprises sending a grant message containing an identifier, the identifier settable to a first value to uniquely identify one of the plural mobile stations, and the identifier settable to a predetermined value to provide the broadcast indication to the plural mobile stations.

17. The article of claim 13, wherein sending the broadcast message containing the broadcast indication is for indicating to the plural mobile stations that the mobile stations are to change data rates for transmissions of packet data over respective reverse channels.

18. The article of claim 13, wherein sending the broadcast message containing the broadcast indication is for assigning a data rate to each of the plural mobile stations, the data rate relating to transmissions of packet data over respective reverse channels.

19. The article of claim 13, wherein sending the broadcast message containing the broadcast indication is for incrementing or decrementing data rates of the plural mobile stations for transmissions of packet data over respective reverse channels.

20. A mobile station comprising:

an interface to receive messages from a base station, the messages comprising a broadcast message targeted to plural mobile stations; and

a controller to change a data rate of transmission over a reverse wireless link in response to the broadcast message.

21. The mobile station of claim 20, wherein the broadcast message indicates that the mobile station is to transmit at a data rate that is less than or equal to an autonomous data rate,

wherein the controller is adapted to transmit autonomously over the reverse wireless link without scheduling from the base station, the controller to transmit at a data rate that is less than or equal to the autonomous data rate.

22. The mobile station of claim 21, wherein the interface is adapted to receive another message from the base station that sets the autonomous data rate.

23. The mobile station of claim 20, wherein the controller is adapted to change the data rate of transmission over a reverse packet data channel.

24. The mobile station of claim 23, wherein the reverse packet data channel is a code-division multiple access (CDMA) 2000 reverse packet data channel (R-PDCH).

25. The mobile station of claim 20, wherein the interface is adapted to receive the broadcast message on a forward grant channel, the forward grant channel being a shared channel for monitoring by plural mobile stations.