Patent Application
20080026750
The accompanying figures, where like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally similar elements throughout the separate views, and which, together with the detailed description below, are incorporated in and form part of the specification, serve to further illustrate various embodiments, and to explain various principles and advantages, all in accordance with the present invention.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements, to help in improving an understanding of the embodiments of the present invention.
Before describing in detail the particular method and system for managing allocation of connection identifiers (CIDs) to a wireless device in a network in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention, it should be observed that the present invention resides primarily in combinations of a method for managing allocation of connection identifiers (CIDs) to a wireless device in a network. Accordingly, the method steps have been represented, where appropriate, by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent for an understanding of the present invention, so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those with ordinary skill in the art, having the benefit of the description herein.
In this document, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements that are not expressly listed or inherent in such a process, method, article or apparatus. An element proceeded by “comprises . . . a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article or apparatus that comprises the element. The term “another,” as used in this document, is defined as at least a second or more. The terms “includes” and/or “having”, as used herein, are defined as comprising.
Generally, an embodiment of the present invention encompasses a method for managing allocation of connection identifiers (CIDs) to a wireless device in a network. The network provides a plurality of services to the wireless devices. The method includes allocating a CID to at least one wireless device in the network based on predefined criteria. The CID is allocated for at least one service accessed by the at least one wireless device. The method also includes instructing the wireless devices to be responsive to messages that contain predetermined bit locations from the CID allocated to the wireless device.
Another embodiment of the present invention encompasses a wireless device capable of operating a network. The wireless device includes a receiver and a processor. The wireless device sends a request to the network to access a service provided by the network. The receiver is capable of receiving a set of instructions from the network. Thereafter, the processor enables the wireless device to respond to messages containing predetermined bit locations of the CID based on the set of instructions received from the network.
Yet another embodiment of the present invention encompasses a Base Transceiver System (BTS) capable of operating in a network and providing services to wireless devices in the network. The BTS includes a processor capable of allocating a connection identifier (CID) to a wireless device or a group of wireless devices in the network. The CID is allocated for at least one service accessed by the wireless device. A transmitter then instructs the wireless device or a group of wireless devices to be responsive to all messages containing predetermined bit locations in the destination field. The predetermined bit locations include first predetermined bit locations and second predetermined bit locations.
In various embodiments of the present invention, the above-described can be applied to a group of one or more than one wireless devices. In one such embodiment of the present invention, the wireless devices within a same Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) resource assignment group can form the group. In another such embodiment of the present invention, the wireless devices accessing a same service can form the group. For example, the set of wireless devices accessing an internet service can be grouped and the set of wireless devices accessing a voice service can be grouped. In yet another such embodiment of the present invention, the wireless devices located within a given radius from the BTS 110 can be grouped together. For example, the wireless devices that are within a range of 100 meters from the BTS 110 can be grouped together. In still another such embodiment of the present invention, the wireless devices that are geographically close to each other can form the group. In yet another such embodiment of the present invention, the wireless devices that receive signal below pre-specified signal strength can be grouped together to form a group. For example, wireless devices that are located at the edge of a service area of the BTS 110 may receive signals below certain strength and these wireless devices can be grouped together.
The CID is allocated to the wireless devices in the group such that the first predetermined bit locations of the CID of each wireless device is same but the second predetermined bit locations of the CIDs are different. Further, it is ensured that the first predetermined bit locations are different from that of any other wireless device (other that the group). Thus, the group can be identified by the first predetermined bit locations in the CID and the second predetermined bit locations are not required to identify the group. The second predetermined bit locations may then identify individual wireless devices in the group. In an embodiment of the present invention, the group of wireless devices may be identified by the MSBs of the CID, whereas the individual wireless devices in the group of wireless devices may be identified by the LSBs of the CID. Thereafter, the method terminates at step 408. In another embodiment of the present invention, the BTS 110 instructs individual wireless devices in the group of wireless devices to be responsive messages that contain the complete CID.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the predefined criteria includes a current frame offset for the service at the wireless device 102 being equal to a pre-specified packet offset. For example, the wireless device 102 can receive audio packets at a regular interval of 40 milliseconds (ms). If the current frame offset is 40 ms, the predefined criteria is satisfied. If the current frame offset is equal to the pre-specified packet offset, the CID is allocated by setting the first predetermined locations of the CID same as the first predetermined bit locations of CIDs allocated to other wireless that have the same current packet offsets. The second predetermined locations are different from the second predetermined bit locations of the CIDs allocated to the other wireless devices. The wireless device 102 can be uniquely identified by the second predetermined bit locations, and the first predetermined bit locations are not required to identify the wireless device 102. For example, the CID allocated to the wireless device 102 may have MSBs same as the MSBs of the wireless devices that have the same packet offset, but the LSBs of the CID for the wireless device 102 are different from the LSBs of the wireless devices that have the same packet offset. Thus, the wireless device 102 can be uniquely identified by the LSBs. In such an embodiment of the present invention, the predefined criteria may include the current frame offset for the service at the wireless device 102 being equal to a packet offset of a set of wireless devices.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the predefined criteria includes the rate of data traffic at the wireless device 102 being greater than a pre-specified rate of data traffic. For example, the rate of data traffic may be 250 kilobits per second (kbps) and the pre-specified rate of data traffic may be 200 kbps. If the rate of data traffic at the wireless device 102 is greater than the pre-specified rate of data traffic, the BTS 110 configures the wireless device 102 to be identified by the second predetermined bit locations by themselves. The wireless device 102 then can ignore all other bits from the CID. In such an embodiment of the present invention, the second predetermined bit locations of the CID may be the LSBs of the CID. In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the wireless device 102 may cease to be identified by the second predetermined bit locations of the CID when the rate of data traffic at the wireless device 102 falls below the pre-specified rate of data traffic.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the predefined criteria includes a mobility of the wireless device 102 being greater than a pre-specified threshold. In other words, the wireless device 102 may change locations very frequently. This would require the CID to be allocated more frequently. If the wireless device 102 has higher mobility than the pre-specified threshold, then the wireless device 102 may be instructed to be responsive to messages that contain the predetermined bit locations of the CID.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the predefined criteria includes a signal strength at the at least first wireless device being less than a pre-specified signal strength. For example, the wireless device 108 may receive weak signals because of it being located far from the BTS 110. If the signal strength is less than the pre-specified signal strength, the BTS 110 configures the wireless device 108 to be identified by the predetermined bit locations of the CID. In such an embodiment, only the predetermined bit locations may be mentioned in an address field of the data packets that are required to be delivered to the wireless device 108. In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the wireless device 108 may cease to be identified by the second predetermined bit locations of the CID when the signal strength at the wireless device 108 becomes greater than the pre-specified signal strength.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the predefined criteria includes a number of users with within a group being greater than a pre-specified number of users.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the CID allocated to other services accessed by the wireless device 102 are checked and a new CID is allocated by keeping the first predetermined bit locations same as CIDs for other services and by allocating different second predetermined bit locations. The first predetermined bit locations are then used to identify the wireless device 102 and the second predetermined bit locations are used to identify the service to which the data packets are related. For example, the wireless device 102 may send a request to the BTS 110 to access a service. The BTS 110 allocates a CID to the wireless device 102. The CIDs allocated for other services accessed by the wireless device 102 are checked and the CID is allocated such that it has same MSBs but different LSBs. Further, the LSBs can be in sequential order. The wireless device 102 is then identified by using the MSBs of the CIDs and each service is identified by the LSBs of the CID.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the wireless devices in the network 100 may cease to be identified by the predetermined bit locations when the predefined criteria are not satisfied.
Various embodiments of the present invention reduce the number of bits of the CID required to identify the wireless devices in the network where doing so creates a disproportionately large system performance benefit. The use of predetermined bit locations to enable a wireless device to receive data packets reduces the use of the whole multi-bit CID. The overall channel overhead in a network is increased. Further, various embodiments of the present invention allocate unambiguous CIDs to wireless devices in the network such that the wireless devices can be identified by a fewer number of bits from the CID. Further, the embodiments of the present invention are also applicable to a group of wireless devices, for example, support the 3GPP2 technology. Moreover, the method as described in the present invention can be applied to all services including Push-to-Talk (PTT), data services, paging services, broadcast services and so forth. Moreover, the embodiments of the present invention enable wireless devices that are located at places with weak signal strength to be identified by a lesser number of bits from the CID, consuming lesser power. Furthermore, the present invention grants a special status, being identified by lesser number of bits from the CID, to wireless devices with higher rate of data traffic or a greater mobility.
It will be appreciated that the method and system for a method and system for managing allocation of connection identifiers (CIDs) to a wireless device in a network described herein may comprise one or more conventional processors and unique stored program instructions that control the one or more processors, to implement, in conjunction with certain non-processor circuits, some, most, or all of the functions of the system described herein. The non-processor circuits may include, but are not limited to, signal drivers, clock circuits, power source circuits, and user input devices. As such, these functions may be interpreted as steps of a method for managing allocation of CIDs to a wireless device in a network. Alternatively, some or all the functions could be implemented by a state machine that has no stored program instructions, or in one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), in which each function, or some combinations of certain of the functions, are implemented as custom logic. Of course, a combination of the two approaches could also be used. Thus, methods and means for these functions have been described herein.
It is expected that one with ordinary skill, notwithstanding possibly significant effort and many design choices motivated by, for example, available time, current technology and economic considerations, when guided by the concepts and principles disclosed herein, will be readily capable of generating such software instructions, programs and ICs with minimal experimentation.
In the foregoing specification, the invention and its benefits and advantages have been described with reference to specific embodiments. However, one with ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention, as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly, the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention. The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as critical, required or essential features or elements of any or all the claims. The invention is defined solely by the appended claims, including any amendments made during the pendency of this application, and all equivalents of those claims, as issued.
