METHOD, DEVICE AND SYSTEM FOR TEMPORARILY SELECTING A TIME SLOT

• US 20100157958A1
• Filed: 12/18/2008
• Published: 06/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ch'ng, Hooi Hoon, Wong, Kin Wei, Lim, Lip Hong, Tan, Chun Yee
• Granted Patent: US 8,116,284 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/337
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 Processing of subscriber group data

Abstract

Temporarily selecting a TDMA timeslot by a radio communication device to thereby allow the radio communication device to communicate, through at least one repeater station, with a talkgroup of other radio communication devices is disclosed. The radio communication device has an assigned default timeslot for communicating with the talkgroup. The radio communication device determines if the default timeslot is available for the radio communication device to communicate with the talkgroup and searches for an available timeslot, when the default timeslot is unavailable. The radio communication device temporarily selects the available timeslot as a temporary selected group timeslot for the talkgroup.

Claims

1. A method for temporarily selecting a time division multiple access (TDMA) timeslot by a radio communication device to thereby allow the radio communication device to communicate, through at least one repeater station, with a talkgroup of other radio communication devices, the method being performed by the radio communication device comprising:

having an assigned default timeslot for communicating with the talkgroup;

determining if the default timeslot is available for the radio communication device to communicate with the talkgroup;

searching for an available timeslot when the default timeslot is unavailable; and

temporarily selecting the available timeslot as a temporary selected group timeslot for the talkgroup.

2. The method, as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the subsequent step of communicating with the talkgroup using the temporary group timeslot.

3. The method, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the searching is performed in a predefined slot order.

4. The method, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the temporary selected group timeslot is one of only two available timeslots.

5. The method, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the determining is performed by processing information sent from the repeater station.

6. The method, as claimed in claim 5, wherein the information sent from the repeater station is provided in a common announcement channel sent from the repeater station.

7. The method, as claimed in claim 1, wherein the searching is performed by processing information sent from the repeater station.

8. The method, as claimed in claim 7, wherein the information sent from the repeater station is provided in a common announcement channel sent from the repeater station.

9. The method, as claimed in claim 1, further comprising re-selecting the default timeslot for communicating with the talkgroup when the default timeslot becomes available.

10. A radio communication device having an assigned default timeslot for communicating with a talkgroup of other radio communication devices, the radio communication device comprising:

radio communication circuitry; and

a processor coupled to the radio communication circuitry, wherein in operation the processor determines, from a signal provided by the radio communication circuitry, if the default timeslot is available for the radio communication device to communicate with the talkgroup and when the default timeslot is unavailable the processor instructs the radio communication circuitry to search for an available timeslot and temporarily select the available timeslot as a temporary selected group timeslot for the talkgroup.

11. The radio communication device, as claimed in claim 10, wherein radio communication circuitry performs communicating with the talkgroup using the temporary group timeslot.

12. The radio communication device, as claimed in claim 10, wherein the search for an available timeslot is performed in a predefined slot order.

13. The radio communication device, as claimed in claim 10, wherein the temporary selected group timeslot is one of only two available timeslots.

14. The radio communication device, as claimed in claim 10, wherein the signal provided by the radio communication circuitry is generated from information sent from a repeater station.

15. The radio communication device, as claimed in claim 14, wherein the information sent from the repeater station is provided in a common announcement channel.

16. A wireless communication system comprising:

a plurality of radio communication devices forming a talkgroup; and

at least one repeater station through which the radio communication devices communicate, wherein each of the radio communication devices have a common assigned default timeslot for communicating with the talkgroup, and wherein each one of the radio communication devices determines if the default timeslot is available to communicate with the talkgroup, and when the default timeslot is unavailable each of the radio communication devices searches for an available timeslot and temporarily selects the available timeslot as a temporary selected group timeslot for the talkgroup.

17. The wireless communication system, as claimed in claim 16, wherein each of the radio communication devices communicate with the talkgroup using the temporary group timeslot.

18. The wireless communication system, as claimed in claim 16, wherein each of the radio communication devices concurrently searches for an available timeslot in a predefined slot order.

19. The wireless communication system, as claimed in claim 16, wherein the temporary selected group timeslot is one of only two available timeslots.

20. The wireless communication system, as claimed in claim 16, wherein each one of the radio communication devices determines if the default timeslot is available from information sent from a repeater station.