Decoupling radio resource management from an access gateway

• US 20070249334A1
• Filed: 02/16/2007
• Published: 10/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Iyer, Jayaraman, Oswal, Anand, Yegani, Parviz, Stammers, Timothy
• Granted Patent: US 8,391,153 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/422.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

Particular embodiments provide an access gateway that facilitates communication between a plurality of access technologies. The access gateway facilitates data communication with an access terminal through a bearer path. A radio resource manager is configured to provide radio resource management functions for the communications. The radio resource manager is decoupled from the bearer path and provides control of radio transmission characteristics for the bearer path to the gateway. Because the radio resource manager is not in the bearer path, the access gateway may be access technology agnostic. Thus, the access gateway does not need to have access-specific modules based on the radio technology for each bearer path.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a communicator configured to facilitate communications between a plurality of access technologies, wherein the communicator facilitates a communication with an access terminal through a bearer path, wherein a radio resource manager configured to provide radio resource management control for the communication is decoupled from the apparatus and bearer path and provides radio control for the bearer path.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communicator is configured to process data for the access terminal through the bearer path, the data being sent through an IP-based network.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the data does not include radio-specific characteristics.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus provides information sent from the radio resource manager to a base transceiver station to provide radio control for the access terminal.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communicator communicates with different access technologies using the radio resource manager without using access specific modules for specific access technologies.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the bearer path is decoupled from a control path.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communicator is not co-located with the radio resource manager.

8. A method comprising:

receiving, at an access gateway, a control message from a base transceiver station;

sending a request message to a radio resource manager to determine radio control characteristics;

receiving a response message from the radio resource manager including the radio control characteristics;

sending the radio control characteristics to the base transceiver station, wherein the base transceiver station is configured to use the radio control characteristics for a bearer path with an access terminal, wherein the radio resource manager is decoupled from the access gateway and bearer path.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the radio control characteristics are useable to set up a radio link for the access terminal.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the bearer path comprises an IP link with the base transceiver station.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving data packets from the base transceiver station through the IP link, wherein the data packets have radio specific information that is used to send data in the data packets from the access terminal to the base transceiver station removed.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the access gateway is configured to process data for the access terminal through the bearer path, the data being sent through an IP-based network.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the radio resource manager is configured to communicate with a base transceiver station to provide radio control for the access terminal.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the access gateway communicates with different access technologies without using access specific modules for specific access technologies.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the bearer path is decoupled from a control path.

19. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the radio resource manager is not co-located with the access gateway.

12. An apparatus comprising:

a radio resource manager configured to provide radio resource management functions for communications, wherein the radio resource manager is decoupled from an access gateway and bearer path and provides radio control for the bearer path, wherein the access gateway is configured to facilitate communications between a plurality of access technologies, wherein the access gateway facilitates a communication with an access terminal through the bearer path.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the radio resource manager and the access gateway is shared across the plurality of access technologies.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the radio resource manager is configured to communicate with the base transceiver station though a channel through the access gateway.

20. An apparatus comprising:

means for receiving, at an access gateway, a control message from a base transceiver station;

means for sending a request message to a radio resource manager to determine radio control characteristics;

means for receiving a response message from the radio resource manager including the radio control characteristics;

means for sending the radio control characteristics to the base transceiver station, wherein the base transceiver station is configured to use the radio control characteristics for a bearer path with an access terminal, wherein the radio resource manager is decoupled from the access gateway and bearer path.