Method and system for transmitting content in a wireless communication network

• US 8,134,970 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2007
• Issued: 03/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WiChorus, Inc. (Infinera Corp.)
• Original Assignee: WiChorus, Inc. (Infinera Corp.)
• Inventors: Jalil, Rehan, Ergen, Mustafa
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwu, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): MUSA, ABDELNABI O
• Application Number:
  US11/951,342
• Publication Number:
  US 20080273498A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,559 Days
• Field of Search: 370/331, 370/332, 370/333
• US Class Current: 370/331
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/02 Buffering or recovering information during reselection ; Modification of the traffic flow during hand-off
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/08 Reselecting an access point

Abstract

The present invention provides methods and systems for transmitting content in a wireless communication network. The method includes caching a content in each base station of a set of base stations in the wireless communication network. The content includes a plurality of packets. In response to caching the content, a first base station belonging to the set of base stations transmits a first group of packets of the content to a mobile station. The method further includes handing over the mobile station to a second base station. The second base station belongs to the set of the base stations. The second base station resumes transmission of a second group of packets of the content to the mobile station.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting content in a wireless communication network, the method comprising:

caching a content in each base station of a set of base stations in the wireless communication network, the content comprising a plurality of packets;

transmitting a first group of packets of the content from a first base station to a mobile station, the first base station belonging to the set of base stations, the first group of packets belonging to the plurality of packets;

handing over the mobile station to a second base station, the second base station belonging to the set of base stations;

based upon handing over the mobile station to the second base station, tagging the first group of packets transmitted to the mobile station and conveying a tag index to at least the second base station, the tag index corresponding to an index of a last packet of the first group of packets transmitted to the mobile station; and

resuming transmission of a second group of packets of the content from the second base station to the mobile station, the second group of packets belonging to the plurality of packets.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein caching the content comprises assigning a plurality of indices to the plurality of packets of the content, wherein an index of a packet corresponds to a sequence number of the packet in the plurality of packets.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein conveying the tag index includes sending the tag index to a central controller;

and forwarding the tag index from the central controller to at least the second base station.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying the group of second packets subsequent to the group of first packets based on the tag index.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving the content from at least one of the first base station, a central controller and a content server, if the content is absent at the second base station.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying the set of base stations based on at least one of an estimated trajectory of the mobile station and a historical data of at least one of the mobile station, the first base station and the second base station.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the content belongs to a set of popular content on the Internet.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the content includes at least one of a media file, a text file, a binary file, an ASCII file, an HTML file and a web content.

9. A method of transmitting a content to a mobile station in response to a handover of the mobile station from a first base station to a second base station, the method comprising:

receiving a tag index corresponding to a last packet transmitted to the mobile station from the first base station, the last packet belonging to a first group of packets of the content transmitted to the mobile station from the first base station;

identifying a second group of packets of content based on the tag index, wherein the second group of packets being subsequent to the first group of packets in the content; and

transmitting the second group of packets of the content from the second base station to the mobile station.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein receiving the tag index includes receiving the tag index from at least one of the first base station and a central controller.

11. A system for transmitting a content in a wireless communication network, the system comprising:

a caching module, the caching module configured to cache the content in a first base station of a set of base stations in the wireless communication network, the content including a plurality of packets;

a first transmitting module, the transmitting module transmitting a first group of packets of the content from the first base station to a mobile station, the first group of packets belonging to the plurality of packets of the content;

a handover module, the handover module configured to handover the mobile station to a second base station, the second base station belonging to the set of base stations, to tag the first group of packets transmitted to the mobile station, and to convey a tag index to at least the second base station, the tag index corresponding to an index of a last packet of the first group of packets transmitted to the mobile station; and

a second transmitting module, the second transmitting module configured to resume transmission of a second group of packets of the content from the second base station to the mobile station, the second group of packets belonging to the plurality of packets.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the caching module is further configured to assign a plurality of indices to the plurality of packets of the content, wherein an index of a packet corresponds to a sequence number of the packet in the plurality of packets.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the handover module is further configured to:

send the tag index to a central controller; and

forward the tag index from the central controller to at least the second base station.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the second transmitting module is configured to identify the group of second packets subsequent to the group of first packets based on the tag index.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the content is retrieved from at least one of the first base station, a central controller and a content server, if the content is absent at the second base station.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the system further comprises an identifying module, the identifying module configured to identify the set of base stations based on at least one of an estimated trajectory of the mobile station and a historical data of at least one of the mobile station, the first base station and the second base station.