Method and poll control entity for controlling a polling procedure

• US 9,894,548 B2
• Filed: 12/03/2012
• Issued: 02/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Bergquist, Gunnar, Shah, Samir
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Thai
• Application Number:
  US14/648,333
• Publication Number:
  US 20150319635A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,898 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1685 the supervisory signal being transmitted in response to a specific request, e.g. to a polling signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1887 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0864 Round trip delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0065 using measurement of signal travel time
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/06 using polling

Abstract

A method and poll control entity (300) for controlling a polling procedure in a radio communication where a data transmitting node (302) transmits data (3:1) to a data receiving node (304) and sends polls to the data receiving node according to a default polling frequency. The polls require the data receiving node to send feedback (3:2) to the data transmitting node indicating whether said data has been received and decoded by the data receiving node or not. The poll control entity detects (3:3a-c) a trigger of the radio communication indicating a deviation of a feedback time which is a time period between a time of sending the poll and a time of receiving the feedback from an expected feedback time range. The poll control entity then adjusts (3:4) the polling frequency based on the detected trigger such that the deviation of the feedback time is reduced, and enforces (3:5) the adjusted polling frequency at the data transmitting node. In this way, the polling frequency can be dynamically and individually adapted to the current situation of traffic load and/or radio conditions which may influence the resulting feedback time in the radio communication, to achieve efficient communication of data and good throughput.

Claims

1. A method performed by a poll control entity for controlling a polling procedure where a data transmitting node transmits data to a data receiving node and sends polls to the data receiving node at a polling frequency set according to a default polling frequency, said polls requiring the data receiving node to send feedback to the data transmitting node indicating whether said data has been received and decoded by the data receiving node or not, the method comprising:

detecting a trigger indicating a deviation of a feedback time from an expected feedback time range within which the feedback time is expected to fall, wherein the feedback time comprises a time period between a time of sending the poll and a time of receiving the feedback whether the data has been received by the data receiving node or not, wherein the data is transmitted with or prior to a transmission of the poll,

adjusting the polling frequency from the default polling frequency to an adjusted polling frequency based on said trigger such that the deviation of the feedback time is reduced, and

enforcing the adjusted polling frequency at the data transmitting node.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detected trigger indicates that the feedback time is longer than an upper limit of the expected feedback time range, and adjusting the polling frequency comprises decreasing the polling frequency to the adjusted polling frequency.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detected trigger indicates that the feedback time is shorter than a lower limit of the expected feedback time range, and adjusting the polling frequency comprises increasing the polling frequency to the adjusted polling frequency.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein further comprising:

instructing the data transmitting node to revert to the default polling frequency in response to detecting that the feedback time has returned within the expected feedback time range.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the trigger comprises a first trigger indicating that a utilization of a resource exceeds an upper utilization limit or falls below a lower utilization limit.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the first trigger is received from a Monitored System Resources (MSR) entity.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the trigger comprises a second trigger indicating that a current Round Trip Time (RTT) between the data transmitting node and the data receiving node exceeds an upper RTT limit or falls below a lower RTT limit.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the feedback time is determined by measuring a part of the current RTT.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein said part of the current RTT depends on a delay of scheduling transmission of at least one of the data and the feedback.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the second trigger is received from a path proxy located in a transmit-receive path between the data transmitting node and the data receiving node.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the trigger comprises a third trigger received from the data transmitting node when the data transmitting node detects that an amount of pending data to be transmitted by the data transmitting node exceeds a data amount threshold.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the poll control entity is implemented in a scheduler of a base station or in said data transmitting node.

13. A poll control entity configured to control a polling procedure where a data transmitting node transmits data to a data receiving node and sends polls to the data receiving node at a polling frequency set according to a default polling frequency, said polls requiring the data receiving node to send feedback to the data transmitting node indicating whether said data has been received and decoded by the data receiving node or not, the poll control entity comprising:

a memory storing instructions; and

a processor operable to execute the instructions to cause the poll control entity to;

detect a trigger indicating a deviation of a feedback time from an expected feedback time range within which the feedback time is expected to fall, wherein the feedback time comprises a time period between a time of sending the poll and a time of receiving the feedback whether the data has been received by the data receiving node or not, wherein the data is transmitted with or prior to a transmission of the poll,

adjust the polling frequency from the default polling frequency to an adjusted polling frequency based on said trigger such that the deviation of the feedback time is reduced, and

enforce the adjusted polling frequency at the data transmitting node.

14. The poll control entity according to claim 13, wherein when the detected trigger indicates that the feedback time is longer than an upper limit of the expected feedback time range, the processor is further operable to execute the instructions to cause the poll control entity to decrease the polling frequency to the adjusted polling frequency.

15. The poll control entity according to claim 13, wherein when the detected trigger indicates that the feedback time is shorter than a lower limit of the expected feedback time range, the processor is further operable to execute the instructions to cause the poll control entity to increase the polling frequency to the adjusted polling frequency.

16. The poll control entity according to claim 13, wherein the processor is further operable to execute the instructions to cause the poll control entity to:

instruct the data transmitting node to revert to the default polling frequency in response to detecting that the feedback time has returned within the expected feedback time range.

17. The poll control entity according to claim 13, wherein the trigger comprises a first trigger indicating that a utilization of a resource exceeds an upper utilization limit or falls below a lower utilization limit.

18. The poll control entity according to claim 17, wherein the processor is further operable to execute the instructions to cause the poll control entity to:

receive the first trigger from a Monitored System Resources (MSR) entity.

19. The poll control entity according to claim 13, wherein the trigger comprises a second trigger indicating that a current Round Trip Time (RTT) between the data transmitting node and the data receiving node exceeds an upper RTT limit or falls below a lower RTT limit.

20. The poll control entity according to claim 19, wherein the processor is further operable to execute the instructions to cause the poll control entity to:

determine the feedback time by measuring a part of the current RTT.

21. The poll control entity according to claim 20, wherein said part of the current RTT depends on a delay of scheduling transmission of at least one of the data and the feedback.

22. The poll control entity according to claim 19, wherein the processor is further operable to execute the instructions to cause the poll control entity to:

receive the second trigger from a path proxy located in a transmit-receive path between the data transmitting node and the data receiving node.

23. The poll control entity according to claim 13, wherein the trigger comprises a third trigger and the processor is further operable to execute the instructions to cause the poll control entity to:

receive the third trigger from the data transmitting node when the data transmitting node detects that an amount of pending data to be transmitted by the data transmitting node exceeds a data amount threshold.

24. The poll control entity according to claim 13, wherein the poll control entity is implemented in a scheduler of a base station or in said data transmitting node.