Predictive transmission power control for back-off

• US 9,785,174 B2
• Filed: 10/03/2014
• Issued: 10/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Khawand, Charbel, Mercer, Sean
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Tuan A
• Application Number:
  US14/506,478
• Publication Number:
  US 20160098053A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,103 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G05F 3/02 Regulating voltage or current
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/281 taking into account user or data type priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/283 Power depending on the position of the mobile
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/362 Aspects of the step size
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/367 Power values between minimum and maximum limits, e.g. dynamic range

Abstract

An electronic device disclosed herein includes mechanisms for modeling and dynamically controlling transmission power of an electronic device. The electronic device determines a back-off function defining at least one transmission power adjustment that is effective to adjust a predicted average energy emanating from an electronic device over the future time interval to satisfy a power condition. Power of the electronic device is adjusted according to the back-off function responsive to satisfaction of a proximity condition.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining a back-off function defining a sequence of transmission power adjustments for a future time interval based on at least one detected channel condition that quantifies signal quality between an electronic device and a transmitting entity, the sequence of transmission power adjustments being effective to adjust a predicted average transmission energy of the electronic device over the future time interval to satisfy a power condition defining a permissible average energy for the future interval; and

adjusting transmission power of the electronic device according to the back-off function responsive to satisfaction of a proximity condition.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the back-off function is a step function.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the back-off function prioritizes critical transmissions over non-critical transmissions.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the back-off function maximizes a total average energy emanating from the electronic device while controlling the predicted average energy to satisfy the power condition.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

defining the power condition based on a type of object triggering the proximity event.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

defining the power condition based on a geographical location of the electronic device provided by a global positioning system (GPS).

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

predicting the average energy based on at least one of a current channel activity and a scheduled channel activity.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the sequence of adjustments of the back-off function provide for an increase in the predicted energy to a value above the permissible average energy before decreasing the predicted energy to a value below the permissible average energy within the future time interval.

9. An apparatus including:

a back-off module that determines a back-off function defining a sequence of transmission power adjustments for a future time interval based on at least one detected channel condition that quantifies signal quality between an electronic device and a transmitting entity, the sequence of transmission power adjustments being effective to adjust a predicted average transmission energy of the electronic device over the future time interval to satisfy a power condition defining a permissible average energy for the future interval; and

a power controller that adjusts power of at least one transmitter of the electronic device according to the back-off function.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the back-off function has a variable step size.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the back-off module dynamically adjusts the back-off function throughout the future time interval.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the back-off function prioritizes critical transmissions over non-critical transmissions.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the non-linear back-off function maximizes a total energy emanating from the electronic device while adjusting the predicted average energy to satisfy the power condition.

14. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the back-off module predicts the average energy based on at least one of a current channel activity and a scheduled channel activity.

15. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the back-off module defines the power condition based on a type of object triggering the proximity event.

16. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the back-off module defines the power condition based on a geographical location of the electronic device provided by a global positioning system (GPS).

17. A method comprising:

determining a back-off step function with a variable step size, the back-off step function defining a sequence of transmission power adjustments for a future time interval based on at least one detected channel condition that quantifies signal quality between an electronic device and a transmitting entity, the sequence of transmission power adjustments being effective to adjust a predicted average transmission energy of the electronic device over the future time interval to satisfy a power condition defining a permissible average energy for the future interval while maximizing total transmission power of the electronic device over the future time interval; and

adjusting the transmission power according to the back-off step function responsive to detection of a proximity event.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the back-off step function minimizes transmission power reductions that occur during critical transmissions.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein determining the back-off step function further comprises:

determining the back-off step function based on at least one of channel conditions and channel activities.