SIGNALING AND PROCEDURE DESIGN FOR CELLULAR CLUSTER CONTENDING ON LICENSE-EXEMPT BANDS

• US 20140313949A1
• Filed: 07/28/2011
• Published: 10/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Avago Technologies General IP PTE Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lilleberg, Jorma, Wang, Haifeng, Zhou, Ting, Li, Zhenhong, Xu, Jing
• Granted Patent: US 9,461,792 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/280
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0037 Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/1469 using time-sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/065 using assembly or disassembly of packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup

Abstract

The specification and drawings present a new method, apparatus and software related product (e.g., computer readable memory) for implementing a device-to-device communication of cellular, e.g., LTE, wireless devices on a shared band (e.g., ISM 2.4 GHz band), including the signaling and procedure design for contending or coordinating with the already existing radio systems (e.g., WLAN systems).

Claims

1. A method comprising:

for a plurality of user equipments in a cluster;

selecting a channel in a license-exempt frequency band;

determining which user equipment is to send a request message on the channel;

determining which user equipment is to reply to the request message with a clear message; and

compiling a contend-prepare message comprising an indication of the selected channel and indications of the user equipments to send request and clear messages for transmission of the contend-prepare message on a cellular band.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the license-exempt frequency band is an industrial-scientific-medical band used by a wireless local area network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said cluster is in a cellular system which is a long term evolution cellular system, a long term evolution advanced cellular system or a time division duplex long term evolution cellular system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein before said selecting, the method comprises:

receiving a request from a Node B to establish a wireless communication within the cluster in the license-exempt frequency band.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting the channel is based on a lack of any signal or a minimum signal interference compared to other channels in the license-exempt frequency band.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a wireless communication on the channel is a unicast communication between two user equipments in the cluster.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the contend-prepare message is sent on the cellular band by a cluster head of the cluster at least to the two user equipments in the cluster indicating that a first user equipment of the two user equipments is selected to send said request message and a second user equipment of the two user equipments is selected to reply with said clear message, the contend-prepare message comprises an indication whether the first user equipment has a medium access control address of the second user equipment,

wherein, in response to the contend-prepare message, the medium access control address of the second user equipment is recovered from a memory of the first user equipment or provided to the first user equipment by the second user equipment.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said unicast communication between the two user equipments of the cluster is ready to start on said channel after:

sensing the channel by the first user equipment,

sending the request message comprising the medium access control address of the second user equipment by the first user equipment to the second user equipment, and

receiving the clear message by the first user equipment from the second user equipment.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, by the cluster head, a contending success indication from the first user equipment;

scheduling and assigning, by the cluster head, a resource in the cluster; and

sending, by the cluster head, a confirmation of successful contending including a transmission time duration on the channel in the license-exempt frequency band.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a wireless communication on the channel is a multicast communication between the cluster head and one or more user equipments of the cluster.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the contend-prepare message is sent on the cellular band by a cluster head of the cluster to other user equipments of the cluster indicating that the cluster head is selected to send said request message and the other user equipments of the cluster are selected to reply with said clear message, the contend-prepare message comprises indication whether the other user equipments have a medium access control address of the cluster head,

wherein, in response to the contend-prepare message, the medium access control address of the cluster head is recovered from memories of the other user equipments or provided to the other user equipments by the cluster head.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said multicast communication between the cluster head and at least two user equipments of the cluster is ready to start on the channel after:

sensing the channel by the cluster head,

sending, by the cluster head, the request message comprising the medium access control address of the cluster head to the other user equipments of the cluster, and

receiving the clear message by the cluster head from the one or more user equipments of said other user equipments.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises:

scheduling and assigning, by the cluster head, a resource in the cluster; and

sending, by the cluster head, a confirmation of successful contending including a transmission time duration on the channel in the license-exempt frequency band.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said contend-prepare message comprises an indication of a transmission time duration on the selected channel, the transmission time duration being determined according to traffic requirements.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a processing system comprising at least one processor and a memory storing a set of computer instructions, in which the processing system is arranged to;

select a channel in a license-exempt frequency band;

determine which user equipment is to send a request message on the channel;

determine which user equipment is to reply to the request message with a clear message; and

compile a contend-prepare message comprising an indication of the selected channel and indications of the user equipments to send request and clear messages for transmission of the contend-prepare message on a cellular band.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising a memory configured to store said shared channel application.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said apparatus is configured to receive a request from a Node B to establish a wireless communication within the cluster in the license-exempt frequency band.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the license-exempt frequency band is an industrial-scientific-medical band used by a wireless local area network.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein selecting the channel by the apparatus is based on a lack of any signal or a minimum signal interference compared to other channels in the license-exempt frequency band.

20. A computer readable memory encoded with a computer program comprising computer readable instructions recorded thereon which when executed results in actions comprising:

for a plurality of user equipments in a cluster;

selecting a channel in a license-exempt frequency band;

determining which user equipment is to send a request message on the channel;

determining which user equipment is to reply to the request message with a clear message; and

compiling a contend-prepare message comprising an indication of the selected channel and indications of the user equipments to send request and clear messages for transmission of the contend-prepare message on a cellular band.