METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROCESSING OVERHEAD REDUCTION FOR CONTROL CHANNEL PACKETS

• US 20070297379A1
• Filed: 06/25/2007
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Gorokhov, Alexei, Khandekar, Aamod, Prakash, Rajat, Borran, Mohammad
• Granted Patent: US 8,374,200 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0045 Arrangements at the receiver end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0061 Error detection codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0072 Error control for data other than payload data, e.g. control data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0078 Avoidance of errors by organising the transmitted data in a format specifically designed to deal with errors, e.g. location forward error control, e.g. FEC, CRC H04L1/004; adaptive formatting H04L1/0006; mappings H04L27/00

Abstract

Various methods and systems receiving information from an access point over a wireless link in order to reduce processing and/or transmission overhead are disclosed. Such methods and systems may include the processing of a received packet using a descrambling operation on at least a portion of the packet'"'"'s information based on a MAC-ID associated with an access terminal to produce at least a first processed packet, and determining whether the received packet is targeted to the access terminal based on the first processed packet.

Claims

1. A method for receiving information from an access point over a wireless link, comprising:

wirelessly receiving a packet containing information;

processing the received packet using at least a descrambling operation on at least a portion of the information based on a first identifier associated with an access terminal to produce at least a first processed packet; and

determining whether the received packet is targeted to the access terminal based on the first processed packet.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of processing further includes a decoding operation on the received packet.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of processing includes first decoding the received packet to produce a decoded packet, then descrambling the decoded packet.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the packet information includes payload data and error detection data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the error detection data includes a checksum derived from the payload data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first identifier is a media access controller (MAC) identifier (MAC-ID) of the access terminal.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first identifier at least one of a broadcast MAC-ID and a MAC-ID assigned specifically to the access terminal.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first identifier is a MAC-ID assigned to the access terminal.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of processing causes at least a majority of the packet information to be descrambled.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein packet information is descrambled by performing a shift-register based operation based on the MAC-ID.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of processing causes the entire packet information to be descrambled.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein packet information is descrambled by performing a shift-register based operation based on the MAC-ID.

13. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of processing causes only the checksum to be descrambled.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the checksum is descrambled by performing a linear operation.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the checksum is descrambled by adding or subtracting the MAC-ID to or from the payload data.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the checksum is descrambled by performing a logical operation on a checksum of the payload data based on the MAC-ID.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the checksum is descrambled by performing a shift-register based operation based on the MAC-ID.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of processing includes:

performing a first descrambling operation based on a MAC-ID specifically associated with the access terminal to produce the first processed packet; and

performing a second descrambling operation based on a broadcast MAC-ID to produce a second processed packet.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of determining include determining whether the received packet is targeted to the access terminal based on both a MAC-ID specific to the access terminal and a broadcast MAC-ID.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the received packet contains channel control information.

21. An integrated circuit that performs the method of claim 1.

22. A Media Access Controller (MAC) that performs the method of claim 1.

23. A computer-readable memory containing a plurality of instructions that, when accessed by a computer, enables the computer to perform the steps of:

processing a received packet using at least a descrambling operation on at least a portion of the information based on a first identifier associated with an access terminal to produce at least a first processed packet; and

determining whether the received packet is targeted to the user based on the first processed packet.

24. The computer-readable memory of claim 23, wherein the processing instructions further includes a decoding operation on the received packet.

25. The computer-readable memory of claim 24, wherein the processing instructions include a first decoding operation on the received packet to produce a decoded packet, then a descrambling operation on the decoded packet.

26. The computer-readable memory of claim 25, wherein the information includes payload data for at least one wireless control channel and a checksum derived from the payload data.

27. The computer-readable memory of claim 25, wherein the first identifier is a media access controller (MAC) identifier (MAC-ID) assigned specifically to the access terminal.

28. The computer-readable memory of claim 25, wherein at least the checksum is descrambled by performing at least one of a linear operation, a shift-register based operation and a mapping operation.

29. The computer-readable memory of claim 28, wherein at least a portion of the payload data and the checksum are descrambled by performing a shift-register based operation.

30. A system for receiving information from an access point over a wireless link, comprising:

a media access controller (MAC) with a processing circuit and a memory in communication with the processing circuit, wherein the MAC is configured to process a wirelessly received packet to determine whether the wirelessly received packet is directed for use by the system by performing a descrambling operation on at least a portion of the received packet using a MAC identification (MAC-ID) associated with the MAC as a descrambling key.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the MAC is further configured to perform a decoding operation on the received packet to produce a decoded packet, then a descrambling operation on the decoded packet.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the step of processing uses at least one of a linear operation, a shift-register based operation and a mapping operation.

33. The method of claim 30, wherein the received packet information includes payload data and a data checksum derived from the payload data.

34. The system of claim 30, wherein the step of processing uses at a shift-register based operation.

35. A system for receiving information from an access point over a wireless link, comprising:

a computer-readable memory; and

a determining means in communication with the memory for determining whether a packet residing in the memory is intended for use with the system based on a descrambling operation on at least a portion of the packet using a specific Media Access Controller Identifier (MAC-ID).

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the determining means includes a decoding means for performing a decoding operation on the received packet to produce a decoded packet, and a descrambling means for performing the descrambling operation on the decoded packet.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the packet includes payload data with embedded wireless channel control information and a checksum derived from the payload data, and wherein at least a portion of the packet is scrambled using a key based on a MAC identification (MAC-ID).

38. The system of claim 35, wherein the determining means includes a decoding means for performing one or more decoding operations on at least a portion of received packets.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the system is designed to process control information imbedded in each descramble packet that has a checksum that complies with the descramble packet'"'"'s respective payload data.

40. A method for transmitting information to an access terminal over a wireless link, comprising:

processing a first packet containing information by applying at least a scrambling operation on at least a portion of the information using a logical address associated with an intended access terminal to produce at least a first processed packet; and

wirelessly transmitting the processed packet to a plurality of access terminals.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the step of processing further includes a coding operation after the scrambling operation.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the first packet'"'"'s information includes payload data and a data checksum derived from the payload data.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the logical address is a media access controller identifier (MAC-ID) of the intended access terminal.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the step of processing causes at least a majority of the packet information to be scrambled.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein the step of processing causes a minority of the packet information to be scrambled.

46. The method of claim 43, wherein the step of processing uses at least one of a linear operation, a shift-register based operation and a mapping operation.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the step of processing uses at least a shift-register based operation.

48. A system for transmitting information to an access terminal over a wireless link, comprising:

a media access control (MAC) circuit configured to scramble at least a portion of information in a packet using a specific Media Access Controller Identifier (MAC-ID); and

transmission circuitry for wirelessly transmitting the scrambled packet.

49. The system of claim 48, wherein the media access control (MAC) circuit is configured to scramble at least a portion of information in a packet using a specific Media Access Controller Identifier (MAC-ID), then perform a coding operation on the packet;

50. The system of claim 49, wherein the packet includes payload data and error detection data derived from the payload data.

51. The system of claim 50, wherein the error detection data is a checksum derived from the payload data.

52. The system of claim 50, wherein the MAC scrambles the entire payload and checksum.

53. The system of claim 50, wherein the MAC scrambles less than the entire packet information.

54. The system of claim 50, wherein media access control (MAC) circuit is configured to scramble using a shift-register based operation.