Patent Application
20150373687
The present invention relates generally to managing the allocation of resources in a network, and in particular embodiments, to methods and systems for software controlled devices.
Today's wireless devices typically include dedicated radio control processor hardware for managing a radio interface between the mobile device and a core network access point. Notably, the radio control processor hardware is normally pre-configured to recognize, and operate in accordance with, radio control signaling communicated directly from the access point, and as a consequence, the hardware configuration of the radio control processor is largely influenced by a particular version of a specific standard telecommunication protocol. As a result, legacy radio control processors may be unable to realize benefits from updated versions of the standard. For example, legacy radio control processors configured for Third Generation Partnership Project (3GGP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) Release 10 may be unable benefit from performance enhancements introduced by 3GGP LTE Release 11. Moreover, conventional mobile devices may require multiple dedicated radio control processors to obtain multi-protocol communications capability. For these and other reasons, more flexible techniques for managing over-the-air interfaces on the device-side of radio access network are desired.
Technical advantages are generally achieved, by embodiments of this disclosure which describe methods and systems for software controlled devices.
In accordance with an embodiment, a method for managing an over-the-air interface is provided. In this example, the method includes establishing a radio connection between a wireless interface of a mobile device and an access point, receiving radio control signaling from the access point over a network-side port of the radio control processor and receiving spoofed radio control signaling from a device-side component over a device-side port of a radio control processor. The device-side component is coupled to the device-side port of the radio control processor. The method further includes managing the radio connection between the mobile device and the access point in accordance with configuration instructions carried by both the radio control signaling and the spoofed radio control signaling. An apparatus for performing this method is also provided.
In accordance with another embodiment, a mobile device adapted for wireless communications is provided. In this example, the mobile device includes a wireless interface for establishing a radio connection between the mobile device and an access point of a core network, a device-side component, and a radio control processor for managing the radio connection between the mobile device and the core network. The radio control processor includes a network-side port communicatively coupled to the wireless interface and a device-side port communicatively coupled to the device-side component. The radio control processor is configured to receive a data channel transmission from the access point over the network-side port, and to receive control channel signaling from the device-side component over the device-side port. The radio control processor is further configured to perform an uplink transmission in accordance with configuration instructions carried by the control channel signaling received from the device-side component.
For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure, and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Corresponding numerals and symbols in the different figures generally refer to corresponding parts unless otherwise indicated. The figures are drawn to clearly illustrate the relevant aspects of the embodiments and are not necessarily drawn to scale.
The making and using of embodiments of this disclosure are discussed in detail below. It should be appreciated, however, that the concepts disclosed herein can be embodied in a wide variety of specific contexts, and that the specific embodiments discussed herein are merely illustrative and do not serve to limit the scope of the claims. Further, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure as defined by the appended claims. The term “radio interface” is used herein to refer to wireless connections in any frequency spectrum, including bands outside the traditional radio spectrum, e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.)
Radio control processors are positioned in-between a wireless interface and an operating system of the mobile device, and generally behave as an intermediary between the mobile device and the core network. More specifically, radio control processors may manage a radio connection (or air-interface) between the mobile device and the core network access point based on radio control signaling received from the core network. In conventional systems, radio control signaling is communicated directly from the core network access point to the radio control processor. Since there is no intermediary, the radio control processing hardware must generally be pre-configured to implement control signaling instructions in the manner specified by protocols of the corresponding telecommunication standard.
While this conventional approach leverages performance advantages of hardware to achieve faster radio interface convergence (e.g., swifter implementation of radio control instructions, etc.), it also restricts the ability of the radio control processors to adapt to new and/or updated telecommunication protocols. For example, while 3GGP LTE Release 11 may be backwards compatible, it may be impractical to update legacy mobile devices configured for 3GGP LTE Release 10 to utilize the new features (e.g., ePDCCH, etc.) provided by 3GGP LTE Release 11. As such, mechanisms for adapting radio control processors to operate in accordance with different wireless protocols are desired.
Disclosed herein are techniques for utilizing spoofed radio control signaling instructions to dynamically adapt management of the radio interface by radio control processors. Aspects of this disclosure communicate spoofed radio control signaling to an accelerator application instantiated on a device-side of a radio control processor, which pre-processes the spoofed radio control signaling before forwarding the instructions to a generic radio control processor. The generic radio control processor may have a universal configuration that is capable of being adapted to multiple standards and/or updated versions of a specific standard. The degree to which the generic radio control processor's configuration maps to a specific standard (or family of standards) may vary across different implementations. For example, an embodiment radio control processor may comprise hardware that is pre-configured to recognize relationships between a control channel and data channel (e.g., control channel carries scheduling information for data channel), but that is capable of being adapted (e.g., via spoofed control signaling) to recognize different locations of the control and channels within a frame. This may allow for the dynamic implementation of different frame configurations. As another example, the radio control processor may comprise hardware that is capable of being adapted for different handover protocols. In an embodiment, control channel signaling passes through the accelerator application of a device side component, where it is translated into control instructions for the radio control processor. The translated control instructions may govern processing of a downlink data channel transmission by the radio control processor, e.g., frame formats, assignments, etc. The translated control instructions may also specify parameters of an uplink transmission of the radio control processor, e.g., power control, assignments, feedback channel format, etc. These and other aspects are discussed in greater detail below.
Conventional mobile devices typically include a different standard-specific chip-set (e.g., radio control processor) for each telecommunications protocol with which they are capable of communicating.
Aspects of this disclosure dynamically adapt the operability of radio control processors via spoofed radio control signaling. The spoofed control signaling may be communicated to an accelerator application instantiated on a device-side component, which may pre-process the spoofed control signaling prior to forwarding it to the radio control processor.
In some embodiments, the spoofed radio control signaling 362 is carried in the data signaling 351, and is distributed to the accelerator application 342 when the data signaling 351 is communicated to the device side component 340. In this manner, spoofed radio control signaling 362 communicated by the AP 305 via downlink signaling is passed through the generic radio control processor 330 for further processing by the accelerator application 342. In other embodiments, the spoofed radio control signaling 362 is communicated to the wireless interface 320 from a device other than the AP 305, e.g., another mobile device via device-to-device (D2D) signaling, a relay, a WiFi router, a different AP using a different carrier, etc. In yet other embodiments, the spoofed radio control signaling 362 is communicated over a different interface, e.g., wireline interface, Bluetooth interface, WiFi, user input, etc.
Notably, the spoofed radio control signaling 362 is pre-processed by the accelerator application 342 prior to being communicated to the generic radio control processor. The generic radio control processor 330 may have a static hardware configuration, while the accelerator application 342 may have an upgradeable software configuration. As such, the accelerator application 342 can translate the signaling instructions carried in the spoofed radio control signaling 342 into a form that is understood by the generic radio control processor 330, thereby allowing the operability of the generic radio control processor 330 to be modified/updated through software updates to the accelerator application 342. In some embodiments, the accelerator application 342 independently generates some or all of the spoofed radio control signaling 342 with limited or no guidance from the core network.
Spoofed radio control signaling may be used in a variety of different ways to adapt the management of a radio interface by a radio control processor. For example, spoofed radio control signaling can be used to configure/re-configure the radio control processor to use different communication protocols/techniques, e.g., different cell-re-selection/handover protocols, different idle/paging techniques, etc. As another example, spoofed radio control signaling can be used to configure the radio control processor to recognize, and operate in accordance with, different over-the-air signaling parameters, e.g., parameters embedded within traditional radio control signaling received directly from the core network, etc. As yet another example, spoofed radio control signaling can be used to configure the radio control processor to recognize, and operate in accordance with, different over-the-air signaling channel/frame formats, e.g., orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), etc. As yet another example, spoofed radio control signaling can be used to communicate delay-tolerant control information, e.g., paging/cell associations, etc., in a more efficient manner.
Aspects of this disclosure enable mobile devices to use accelerator applications (e.g., configurable software applications) to control radio interface management protocols implemented by radio control processors. Generally speaking, accelerator applications may translate spoofed radio control signaling received from the core network (or another source) into spoofed radio control signaling instructions, which are communicated to the radio control processor for the purpose of managing the radio interface. Since it is possible to modify existing accelerator applications and/or introduce new accelerator applications through software downloads/updates, the operability of radio control processors can be adapted without changing their hardware configurations (which may be difficult to reconfigure outside of a factory setting). Consequently, aspects of this disclosure enable the revolution of next-generation telecommunications protocols, which may adopt “hooks” for allowing the implementation/adaptation of different radio interface management protocols.
In some embodiments, aspects of this disclosure allow different vendors to provide proprietary solutions for use on different vendor's mobile devices and/or access points (e.g., eNBs, etc.). Aspects of this disclosure may relieve the standard from the obligation of defining the meanings of individual bits, thereby allowing next-generation standards to define general interactions/relationships between radio control signaling parameters.
In one embodiment, aspects of this disclosure modify mobility prediction and/or handover optimization protocols. More specifically, a generic radio control processor may be configured to perform cell re-selection based on a protocol defined by spoofed control signaling instructions. This may allow for different handover protocols to be utilized by in different network configurations. As an example, it may be possible to reduce battery consumption of mobile devices operating in an idle mode by triggering handovers based on the spatial location of the mobile device within a local radio access network (e.g., cluster of cells), rather than performing scanning frequency sub-bands to compare reference signal received power ratios (RSRPs) of neighboring cells. Aspects of this disclosure may enable implementation of this handover optimization protocol by communicating network mapping information (e.g., topology map) to the mobile device via spoofed radio control signaling.
To achieve this, a next-generation standard telecommunication protocols may define the following: (i) a ‘map’ format and style; (ii) an SI message to download the map; (iii) a protocol to check the map and perform measurements; (iv) a test suite to check the protocol; and (v) a test suite to check the map downloading. The standard may also adopt the following hooks: (i) the ability to turn off current measurement trigger methods; (ii) the ability to trigger measurements externally (e.g., via external messages); and (iii) the ability for an external message to trigger handover. Each of these definitions and/or hooks are optional, and may be excluded from the standard without disturbing the operability of the adaptable handover optimization protocol.
Aspects of this disclosure use spoofed radio control signaling to reconfigure the type and placement of control information in a radio frame. For example, spoofed radio signaling specifies information/parameters can be used to define information/parameters carried in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), thereby allowing the PDCCH to carry control parameters that are defined outside the standard. This signaling may be processed by a dedicated application running on the UE (e.g., an accelerator application) prior to being forwarded to the radio control processor. In an embodiment, the spoofed control signaling may specify TTI scheduling assignments, power control information, modulation and coding scheme information, pilot sequence information, and/or any other control signaling parameter. In another embodiment, the spoofed control signaling implicitly or explicitly signals a HARQ channel location. Features described herein may enable semi-static scheduling to be performed by an accelerator application outside the standard, thereby allowing the scheduling algorithm to be more intricate and specialized. Features described herein may also enable advanced power control schemes, where power control is decided on a per RB basis or is time dependent. While the descriptions above are in the context of a PDCCH in an LTE sub-frame, the underlying concepts are applicable to any control channel/region in any wireless transmission. As used herein, the term “spoofed control signaling” refers to any control signaling that passes through (or originates from) an accelerator application on a device side component of a mobile device.
Features described herein may also enable out of band device-to-device (D2D) co-ordination by giving the same control information to multiple users, thereby allowing UEs to listen to one another's data and co-ordinate outside of the standard. Implied parameters (e.g., UE ID, etc.) may also be added, as well as minor RLC layer changes. Embodiment provided herein may also enable asynchronous HARQ by sending zero assignment to override the synchronous transmission. Embodiments may also pass a received physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) through than accelerator agent, to determine the actual control channel. This would essentially take the control channel information format out of the standard. In order to work a backwards compatible sense the control channels for this type could be orthogonal to the control channels for R8-R10. Techniques for
Aspects of this disclosure use spoofed radio control signaling to reconfigure the type and placement of feedback information in wireless communication spectrums. Feedback schemes can be algorithmically complex. Because of this, standards tend to gravitate towards a lowest common denominator solution for feedback schemes, which has been a hurdle to standards' adoption of many advanced schemes, such as multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO), coordinate multipoint (CoMP) transmission, cluster based forwarding (CBF), and fractional frequency reuse (FFR) schemes. Standards also tend to adopt the solution which performs reasonably well in most scenarios, rather than adopting different solutions for different situations.
Aspects of this disclosure provide several techniques for re-configuring the feedback schemes outside the standard.
Aspects of this disclosure provide the following benefits: Faster turnover time for technologies, as standard changes become less and less necessary; Better performance as solutions can be tailored to specific cases; and Increased uniformity/predictability of UE behavior (e.g. what noise averaging window is used by the UE is now known, or at least override-able).
Aspects of this disclosure allow standards (e.g., LTE, etc.) to be broken down into a series of components, which serve a general purpose and form the building blocks of any communication standard. One embodiment component block corresponds to Rx Channels. This block converts over the air information into data. Examples of which are the PDSCH, PDCCH, PBCH and PHICH. Typically, these channels are communicated according to an active transmission scheme. The reception of one Rx channel may require other Rx channels to be configured correctly. For example, a radio controller may need to know resource assignments, MCS assignments, and transmission modes in order to correctly output information bits in the PDSCH. In an embodiment, the output of a channel is information bits. In another embodiment, the output of a channel is some other data structure, e.g., HARQ process, LLRs, etc.
Another embodiment component block corresponds to controllers, which are blocks that configure the other blocks. In the present LTE system, there is a controller that reads the PDCCH then configures the PDSCH to listen on the assigned resources. Controllers are broken down into two types, privileged controllers manage over-the-air resources, and passive controllers which manage Rx Channels.
Another embodiment component block corresponds to Tx Channels. These channels results in over the air resource expenditure, and consequently may be more tightly controlled than other blocks. They convert information bits into over the air information. Examples of controller blocks control the PUSCH, PUCCH, PRACH, and other physical layer channels. Another embodiment component block corresponds to monitors. These components are in charge of measuring information about the air, and providing that information to the controllers. Examples of monitors are channel estimation, RSRP estimation, etc.
Another embodiment component block corresponds to the information Plane. All of the various blocks (e.g., controllers, channels etc.) may rely on some shared information, such as cell ID, Tx mode, location, UE ID, feedback period, buffer size, transmission state, buffer data, HARQ info, etc. This information may or may not be shared completely between all channels. Shared data may be helpful for interoperability.
Another embodiment component block corresponds to information assessors. To prevent information from having to be shared (e.g., so UE co-operation controllers can have a different UE ID than regular controllers), blocks can be created and overwritten to interface other blocks with the information plane.
The following is a model based on the LTE standard (release eight), which illustrates how accelerator applications (along with spoofed control signaling) can be used to create adaptable wireless communication environments.
Embodiments of this disclosure allow for adaptive cell re-selection. In conventional networks, radio control processors may be configured perform cell selection by scanning all carrier frequencies to identify candidate carriers frequencies associated with acceptable public land mobile network (PLMN) identifiers (IDs), and then selecting the candidate carrier frequency having the highest reference signal received power level (RSRP). Aspects of this disclosure allow a generic radio control processor to use location information to skip poor-performing bands to significantly reduce power consumption.
Accelerator applications may be used to adapt various functions, including: Paging/Cell association; Buffer status Update/RACH use; Fragmentation; Prioritization (e.g., which data is given priority); ARQ; FEC (e.g., new FEC codes, unequal error protection, FEC for SIC, etc.); SIC (temporal and otherwise); Channel Estimation (e.g., second order statistics can be communicated through many side channels, including location based or perhaps based on channel id, etc. This feature may allow sharing of external software); RAN2; SI compression (e.g., passing the data in the SI messages through one or more translator translators may improve compression); Active/idol/DRX/DTX state optimization; RACH procedure; and Timing update procedures (e.g., location based timing updates could be performed based on maps);
Embodiments of this disclosure can be implemented in various ways. In an embodiment, control channel adaptation can be achieved through a ‘virtual PDCCH’ which does not correspond to any over the air transmission. In another embodiment, control channel adaptation can be achieved through a ‘translated PDCCH’ in which the information contained in the over-the-air PDCCH is pre-processed by an accelerator application to determine the actual information contained. From a high level, these two embodiments may be primarily differentiated by their input parameters.
In regards to the virtual PDCCH embodiment: The contents of the channel are outside the scope standard. The UE PHY receives a message from outside the standard which proscribes all fields associated with configuring PDSCH/PUSCH. As this message does not use over the air resources, it can conceivable be quite large, and essentially all options on a per RB/RE basis. Different channels (PDSCH etc.) are in fact defined by these configuration messages. To reduce messaging, default and dependent parameters can be configurable. Advantageously, this embodiment may place fewer restrictions on the standard than other approaches.
In regards to the translated PDCCH embodiment: This embodiment may offer significant flexibility without completely isolating PDCCH processing operations from the standard. This embodiment may create a set of meta-functions which can be configured to process this data. These meta-functions would be received by the LTE-PHY and used to generate the configuration of the channels from that data. The simplest and most versatile is a simple table lookup converting the 2x possibilities from the PDCCH to the y bits required to configure the PDSCH. The memory requirements for this scheme can be quite large, thus simplifications may be helpful. The language of these instructions could be specified, along with a complexity limitation. It could be a high level language like JAVA (e.g., open source gateway initiative (OSGi)), C++, Very High Speed Integrated Circuit (VHL) Hardware Description Language (VHDL), or low level languages such as assembly.
The bus may be one or more of any type of several bus architectures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, video bus, or the like. The CPU may comprise any type of electronic data processor. The memory may comprise any type of system memory such as static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), read-only memory (ROM), a combination thereof, or the like. In an embodiment, the memory may include ROM for use at boot-up, and DRAM for program and data storage for use while executing programs.
The mass storage device may comprise any type of storage device configured to store data, programs, and other information and to make the data, programs, and other information accessible via the bus. The mass storage device may comprise, for example, one or more of a solid state drive, hard disk drive, a magnetic disk drive, an optical disk drive, or the like.
The video adapter and the I/O interface provide interfaces to couple external input and output devices to the processing unit. As illustrated, examples of input and output devices include the display coupled to the video adapter and the mouse/keyboard/printer coupled to the I/O interface. Other devices may be coupled to the processing unit, and additional or fewer interface cards may be utilized. For example, a serial interface such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) (not shown) may be used to provide an interface for a printer.
The processing unit also includes one or more network interfaces, which may comprise wired links, such as an Ethernet cable or the like, and/or wireless links to access nodes or different networks. The network interface allows the processing unit to communicate with remote units via the networks. For example, the network interface may provide wireless communication via one or more transmitters/transmit antennas and one or more receivers/receive antennas. In an embodiment, the processing unit is coupled to a local-area network or a wide-area network for data processing and communications with remote devices, such as other processing units, the Internet, remote storage facilities, or the like.
Although the description has been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope of the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments described herein, as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from this disclosure that processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed, may perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.
