Patent Application
20060007889
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to telecommunications, and more particularly, to wireless communications.
2. Description of the Related Art
In evolving wireless data systems, such as the well-known 1×EV-DO and 1×EV-DV standards, as well as the High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) specification in the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) standard, the Forward link (base station to mobile station) scheduling function has been moved from a radio network controller (RNC) to the base station (BS) to provide “fast” scheduling based on channel quality feedback from the users. Moreover, new technologies such as adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) and hybrid ARQ (HARQ) have also been introduced to improve the overall system capacity. In general, a scheduler selects a user for transmission at a given time and adaptive modulation and coding allows selection of the appropriate transport format (modulation and coding) for the current channel conditions seen by the user. Due to errors in channel quality estimates, a relatively high level of frame errors may occur in the transmissions performed at a given rate (transport format). Hybrid ARQ makes use of fast retransmissions and combines the newly received copy of the transmission with the previously received copy to recover from transmission errors without a significant loss in throughput.
In a CDMA cellular system, a mobile station can be in soft handoff with cells in the same cell site (softer handoff) or with cells in different cell sites (soft handoff). For voice or circuit switched data communication, a mobile station may be in soft/softer handoff both on the uplink (mobile to base) and downlink (base to mobile). However, for packet data services, it has been found that a higher capacity can be achieved if the mobile station communicates only with the best cell on the downlink. Such an approach called SSDT (Site Selection Diversity Transmit power control) is adopted in the Universal Mobile Telecommunication system (UMTS) standard. In the case of SSDT, the best cell is reported to the network using physical-layer (DPCCH) signaling with a maximum rate of 500 Hz. In SSDT, the mobile station selects one of the cells from an active set to be “primary;” all other cells are classed as “non-primary.” The main objective is to transmit on the downlink from the primary cell, thus reducing the interference caused by multiple transmissions in a soft handover mode. A second objective is to achieve fast site selection without network intervention, thus maintaining the advantage of the soft handoff. To select a primary cell, each cell is assigned a temporary identification (ID) and the mobile station periodically transmits a primary cell ID to the connecting cells. The non-primary cells selected by the mobile station switch off their transmission power, thereby avoiding interference from multiple transmissions. The primary cell ID is delivered by the mobile station to the active cells via an uplink Feedback Information (FBI) field. Moreover, SSDT activation, SSDT termination and Cell Identification (ID) assignment are all carried out by higher layer signaling.
Other wireless standards like 1×EV-DO and 1×EV-DV support Fast Cell Selection (FCS). The FCS approach is similar to the SSDT approach in UMTS. In the 1×EV-DO system, for example, a DRC (Data Rate Control) Channel is used by the mobile station to indicate to the access network the selected serving sector and the requested data rate on the Forward Traffic Channel. The requested Forward Traffic Channel data rate is mapped into a four-bit DRC value. An 8-ary Walsh function corresponding to the selected serving sector is used to spread the DRC Channel transmission. The 8-ary Walsh function ensures that only the selected sector (cell) can successfully decode the DRC. The successful decoding of the DRC indicates that the cell has been selected for transmission.
An example of the fast cell selection process in a 1×EV-DO system is depicted in
In general, a mobile station can select any of the cells in its active set for downlink transmission. The cells in the active set are added and deleted based on the downlink received signal quality. To reduce the delay, the data destined for the mobile station is forwarded to all the cells in the active set on the backhaul network from the Radio Network Controller (RNC). A cell can then transmit data to the mobile station as soon as the mobile station selects this cell. If the data is not forwarded to all the cells in the active set, there can be additional delay associated with forwarding data to the new cell before the new cell can start transmission to the mobile station.
In the cell selection approaches used in the prior art, a mobile station is communicating with only a single base station at a given time. This limited ability to communicate with only a single base station at a given time results in interrupted communications during cell switching. The interruption in communication may result in loss of data or additional delays that affect the performance of delay sensitive applications such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and wireless multi-party gaming.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing, the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a method is provided. The method comprises switching from communicating with a first cell to communicating with a second cell, and receiving information from both the first and second cells for a preselected period during the switching.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a method is provided. The method comprises receiving information only from a first cell; switching from communicating with the first cell to communicating with a second cell; receiving information from both the first and second cells for a preselected period during the switching; and receiving information only from the second cell after the switching.
In still another embodiment of the present invention, a method is provided. The method comprises switching from communicating with a mobile station via a first cell to communicating with the mobile station via a second cell, and transmitting information from both the first and second cells for a preselected period during the switching.
The invention may be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals identify like elements, and in which:
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the invention to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
Illustrative embodiments of the invention are described below. In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. It will of course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiment, numerous implementation-specific decisions may be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
The present invention discloses an approach where a mobile station can be in communication with more than one cell for a relatively brief period of time while performing a cell selection operation. Further, during a period of time in which cell switching occurs, Hybrid ARQ combining across cells may be used to improve performance.
While the instant invention is described in the context of an HSDPA system in the embodiments disclosed herein, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the principles of the instant invention apply to other wireless systems, such as 1xEV-DO, 1xEV-DV, IEEE 802.16, etc. An exemplary embodiment of the instant invention in which a mobile station 200 or User Equipment (UE) communicates with two cells 202, 204 simultaneously is shown in
A timing relationship between the HS-SCCH and HS-PDSCH channels is shown in
A stylized representation of the cell switching operation in one embodiment of the invention is shown in
In another embodiment of the present invention, the new cell 204 sends a signal to the old cell 202 via the backhaul network that the new cell 204 has been selected by the mobile station 200 as the serving cell. The old cell 202 can then stop sending data to the mobile station 200. The parameters J, K and L are, of course, configurable based on the characteristics of the system. The values for these parameters can be chosen based on, for example, a desired level of cell selection reliability. For example, a small value for the parameter K (consecutive CQI failures before the old cell 202 stops sending data to the mobile station 200) may result in less wasted resources in some cases, but in some applications, the mobile station 200 may not receive data from either cell if there are some occasional errors on the CQI channel. Conversely, a large value for the K parameter may raise the probability that the cell selection operation is reliable, but may waste resources in some applications.
In one embodiment of the instant invention, the channel quality feedback in HSDPA consists of 5 information bits. This 5-bit channel quality indicator is coded using a (20,5) code and transmitted over two slots 500, 502 in an HS-DPCCH TTI as shown in
An example of CQI coding and scrambling is shown in
A stylized representation of one embodiment of HS-DPCCH power control is shown in
An example of combining frames from the old cell 202 and the new cell 204 is shown in
Another embodiment of the invention where the mobile station 200 receives sub-blocks with different STSNs is shown in
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various system layers, routines, or modules illustrated in the various embodiments herein may be executable control units. The control units may include a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a digital signal processor, a processor card (including one or more microprocessors or controllers), or other control or computing devices as well as executable instructions contained within one or more storage devices. The storage devices may include one or more machine-readable storage media for storing data and instructions. The storage media may include different forms of memory including semiconductor memory devices such as dynamic or static random access memories (DRAMs or SRAMs), erasable and programmable read-only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasable and programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs) and flash memories; magnetic disks such as fixed, floppy, removable disks; other magnetic media including tape; and optical media such as compact disks (CDs) or digital video disks (DVDs). Instructions that make up the various software layers, routines, or modules in the various systems may be stored in respective storage devices. The instructions, when executed by a respective control unit, cause the corresponding system to perform programmed acts.
The particular embodiments disclosed above are illustrative only, as the invention may be modified and practiced in different but equivalent manners apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings herein. Furthermore, no limitations are intended to the details of construction or design herein shown, other than as described in the claims below. It is therefore evident that the particular embodiments disclosed above may be altered or modified and all such variations are considered within the scope and spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the protection sought herein is as set forth in the claims below.
