Electronic device and coordination device and method for implementing coordinated transmission between the same

• US 9,894,179 B2
• Filed: 12/02/2014
• Issued: 02/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Sun, Chen, Guo, Xin, Wei, Yuxin, Qin, Zhongbin
• Primary Examiner(s): Higa, Brendan
• Application Number:
  US14/558,000
• Publication Number:
  US 20150189042A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,169 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/15 Setup of multiple wireless link connections

Abstract

The invention discloses an electronic device and a method and device for implementing coordinated transmission between electronic devices. The electronic device comprises a coordination establishment module configured to send a coordination request signal to candidate coordination devices as well as determine coordination devices in accordance with a response of the candidate coordination device and establish coordination connection with the determined coordination device, and a data transmission module configured to transmit target data by a plurality of communication links, the plurality of communication links comprising communication links between the electronic device and the coordination device. The present invention can establish the coordination connection reasonably by initiating the coordination through the request and transmitting the data through the plurality of communication links by the coordination device, thereby effectively improving the data transmission speed through the plurality of the communication links.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

processing circuitry programmed to;

send a coordination request signal to at least one candidate coordination device;

determine at least one coordination device in accordance with a response from the at least one candidate coordination device;

establish a coordination connection with the at least one determined coordination device;

communicate target data through a plurality of communication links, the plurality of communication links comprising communication links between the electronic device and the at least one determined coordination device;

send device parameter information to an external coordination control device;

receive a candidate coordination device instruction determined by the external coordination control device; and

send information of the at least one determined coordination device to the external coordination control device,

wherein the device parameter information includes a position of the electronic device and/or information of the target data.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is programmed to:

merge data received by the plurality of communication links to facilitate a download of the target data, and/or

partition the target data to facilitate an upload of the target data through the plurality of the communication links.

3. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein

the device parameter information includes at least one of an external network rate for transmitting data between the electronic device and an external communication network including infrastructures, an internal network rate for transmitting data between the electronic device and the at least one determined coordination device, and mode information on whether multi-frequency simultaneous transmission is available,

the processing circuitry is programmed to receive transmission parameters from the external coordination control device and transmit data in accordance with the transmission parameters, and

the transmission parameters include transmission task information of the electronic device.

4. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is programmed to:

determine transmission parameters for coordinated transmission performed by the electronic device and each candidate coordination device,

inform a corresponding candidate coordination device of the transmission parameters which comprise transmission task information borne by the corresponding candidate coordination device.

5. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein the response from the at least one candidate coordination device comprises an external network rate for transmitting data between the at least one candidate coordination device and an external communication network including infrastructures.

6. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein a of the response from the at least one candidate coordination device comprises available memory space for the at least one candidate coordination device and/or an internal network speed for data transmission between the at least one candidate coordination device and the electronic device.

7. The electronic device of claim 6, wherein processing circuitry is programmed to partition the target data to be uploaded/downloaded in accordance with an internal network speed between the at least one determined coordination device and the electronic device and/or memory space of the at least one determined coordination device for data transmission.

8. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein

the processing circuitry is programmed to allocate transmission tasks to the at least one determined coordination device for a plurality of allocation operations, and

each allocation operation is carried out based on partial data in the target data not transmitted and ordered in front of other data.

9. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is programmed to:

a change of the at least one determined coordination device at a predetermined period;

re-determine a coordination device if the change of the at least one determined coordination device is detected; and

reallocate transmission tasks based on data in the target data not transmitted.

10. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein

data received through the plurality of communication links and partitioned data have identifications, and

the identifications are used to combine the data so as to obtain the target data.

11. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the response from the at least one candidate coordination device further comprises at least one of mode information representing whether multi-frequency simultaneous transmission is available for the at least one candidate coordination device, a geographical location, a motion range, a motion speed, available electric quantity and available data traffic.

12. A coordination device, including:

processing circuitry programmed to;

receive the coordination request signal sent by the electronic device of claim 1;

send a coordinated response to the electronic device for establishing the coordination connection; and

transmit data based on a data transmission task received for assisting a transmission of the electronic device.

15. A coordination control device, including:

processing circuitry programmed to;

receive a coordinated transmission control request, containing the device parameter information, sent by the electronic device of claim 1; and

determine transmission parameters for coordinated transmission performed by the electronic device and each determined coordination device in accordance with the coordinated transmission control request.

16. The coordination control device of claim 15, wherein

the device parameter information includes a position of the electronic device and/or information of target data to be transmitted, and

the processing circuitry is programmed to:

determine a candidate coordination device in accordance with the device parameter information;

generate a candidate coordination device instruction in accordance with the determined candidate coordination device;

send an instruction of the determined candidate coordination device to the electronic device; and

receive the information of the at least one determined coordination device from the electronic device.

17. The coordination control device of claim 15, wherein

the device parameter information contains information on target data to be transmitted, external network rates for data transmission between the electronic device and the at least one determined coordination device and an external communication network including infrastructures, an internal network rate for data transmission between the electronic device and the at least one determined coordination device, and mode information on whether multi-frequency simultaneous transmission is available,

the processing circuitry is programmed to send transmission parameters to a corresponding candidate coordination device, and

the transmission parameters include transmission task information corresponding to the target data borne by the corresponding candidate coordination device for coordinated transmission.

18. The coordination control device of claim 17, wherein

the transmission parameters further comprise time sequences for coordinated transmission by each candidate coordination device through an external network and an internal network, respectively;

and

the processing circuitry is programmed to determine a time sequence for each candidate coordination device for coordinated transmission in combination with whether multi-frequency simultaneous transmission is available for the electronic device and the candidate coordination device.

13. A method performed by an electronic device for implementing coordinated transmission between electronic devices, comprising:

sending a coordination request signal to at least one candidate coordination device;

determining at least one coordination device in accordance with a response from the at least one candidate coordination device;

establishing a coordination connection with the at least one determined coordination device;

communicating target data through a plurality of communication links, the plurality of communication links comprising communication links between the electronic device and the at least one determined coordination device;

sending device parameter information to an external coordination control device;

receiving a candidate coordination device instruction determined by the external coordination control device; and

sending information of the at least one determined coordination device to the external coordination control device,

wherein the device parameter information includes a position of the electronic device and/or information of the target data.

14. A method performed by a coordination device for implementing coordinated transmission between electronic devices, comprising:

receiving the coordination request signal sent by the method of claim 13;

sending a coordinated response to the electronic device so as to establish the coordination connection; and

transmitting data based on a data transmission task received for assisting a transmission of the electronic device.

19. A coordination control method, comprising:

receiving a coordinated transmission control request, containing the device parameter information, sent by the electronic device of claim 13; and

determining transmission parameters for coordinated transmission performed by the electronic device and each determined coordination device in accordance with the coordinated transmission control request.