Patent Application
20150334743
This application is directed to wireless communications systems, and more particularly to methods and apparatuses for PCI and physical random access channel (PRACH) offset joint planning.
A wireless network may be deployed over a defined geographical area to provide various types of services (e.g., voice, data, multimedia services, etc.) to users within that geographical area. The wireless communication network may include a number of base stations that can support communication for a number of user equipments (UEs). A UE may communicate with a base station via the downlink and uplink.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) advanced cellular technology is an evolution of Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The LTE physical layer (PHY) provides a highly efficient way to convey both data and control information between base stations, such as an evolved Node Bs (eNBs), and mobile entities, such as UEs. In prior applications, a method for facilitating high bandwidth communication for multimedia has been single frequency network (SFN) operation. SFNs utilize radio transmitters, such as, for example, eNBs, to communicate with subscriber UEs.
In addition to existing mobile phone networks, new smaller base stations have emerged, which may be installed in homes and offices and provide enhanced indoor wireless coverage to mobile units using broadband Internet connections. Such small base stations are generally known as small cells, picocells, microcells, access point base stations, Home Node Bs (HNB), or Home eNode Bs (HeNB). Often, such these small cell base stations are connected to the Internet and the mobile operator's network and provide connectivity to nearby authorized UEs.
In an LTE network, a Physical Layer Cell Identity (PCI or Cell ID) may be used for cell identification and channel synchronization. A PCI value may uniquely identify a base station within a wireless network. However, in a case of PCI confliction, significant radio interference can occur, which may result in complete loss of service in impacted coverage areas.
Base stations may maintain data including PCI values for neighboring base stations in a wireless network. Neighboring base stations may be those base stations geographically near a particular base station and may represent viable candidates to which to a mobile communication device being currently served by the particular base station might handed off to as the mobile communication changes location.
When a new base station is added or removed from a wireless network, conventional systems may use a network listen (NL) operation that sniffs for the PCI of neighboring base stations to avoid PCI confliction. NL operations may be resource intensive and may not be available to all base stations. In the absence of NL, a new base station may not be aware of which PCI are used in proximity, thus may unwittingly choose a PCI already in use by a neighboring base station. Therefore, it is beneficial to provide a new method of selecting a non-conflicting PCI without NL.
The following presents a simplified summary of one or more examples in order to provide a basic understanding of such examples. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated examples, and is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of all examples nor delineate the scope of any or all examples. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more examples in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.
In accordance with one or more aspects of the examples described herein, there is provided a system and method for physical cell identifier (PCI) and PRACH offset joint planning In one example, a network entity may determine an energy level for each of a plurality of non-overlapping PRACH frequency offsets and select a PRACH frequency offset from the plurality of PRACH frequency offsets, based at least in part on the determined energy levels. The network entity may determine a plurality of possible physical cell identifiers (PCIs) for the selected PRACH frequency offset and select a PCI from the plurality of possible PCIs.
These and other sample aspects of the disclosure will be described in the detailed description and the appended claims that follow, and in the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Techniques for PCI and physical random access channel (PRACH) offset joint planning are described herein. The subject disclosure provides a technique for improving the identification of neighboring cells by a serving cell. A new serving cell in a neighborhood may need to select a physical cell identifier (PCI) for identification. However, if the new serving cell does not know which PCI are used by neighboring cells, the new serving cell may unintentionally pick a PCI that is already used by one of the neighboring cells, leading to interference. Network listen (NL) is an operation commonly used by cells with NL functionality to discover PCIs of neighboring cells. However, NL operations may be resource intensive and may not be available to all cells.
The subject disclosure provides a new method of choosing a PCI least likely to conflict with a neighboring cell's PCI. A cell's PCI and PRACH frequency offset may be linked. Thus, a cell may determine PRACH frequency offset information to help determine PCI values.
In the subject disclosure, the word “exemplary” is used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects or designs. Rather, use of the word exemplary is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion.
The techniques may be used for various wireless communication networks such as wireless wide area networks (WWANs) and wireless local area networks (WLANs). The terms “network” and “system” are often used interchangeably. The WWANs may be code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA), single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) and/or other networks. A CDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), cdma2000, etc. UTRA includes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. cdma2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). An OFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDM®, etc. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) are new releases of UMTS that use E-UTRA, which employs OFDMA on the downlink and SC-FDMA on the uplink. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A and GSM are described in documents from an organization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project” (3GPP). cdma2000 and UMB are described in documents from an organization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project 2” (3GPP2). A WLAN may implement a radio technology such as IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), Hiperlan, etc.
As used herein, the downlink (or forward link) refers to the communication link from the base station to the UE, and the uplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from the UE to the base station. A base station may be, or may include, a macrocell or microcell. Microcells (e.g., picocells, home nodeBs, small cells, small cell access points, and small cell base stations) are characterized by having generally much lower transmit power than macrocells, and may often be deployed without central planning. In contrast, macrocells are typically installed at fixed locations as part of a planned network infrastructure, and cover relatively large areas.
The techniques described herein may be used for the wireless networks and radio technologies mentioned above as well as other wireless networks and radio technologies. For clarity, certain aspects of the techniques are described below for 3GPP network and WLAN, and LTE and WLAN terminology is used in much of the description below.
An eNB may provide communication coverage for a macrocell, a picocell, a microcell, a small cell, and/or other types of cell. A macrocell may cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. A picocell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. A small cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and may allow restricted access by UEs having association with the small cell (e.g., UEs in a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG)). In the example shown in
Wireless network 10 may also include relays (not shown in
A network controller 50 may couple to a set of eNBs and may provide coordination and control for these eNBs. Network controller 50 may be a single network entity or a collection of network entities. Network controller 50 may communicate with the eNBs via a backhaul. The eNBs may also communicate with one another, e.g., directly or indirectly via a wireless or wireline backhaul.
UEs 40 may be dispersed throughout wireless network 10, and each UE may be stationary or mobile. A UE may also be referred to as a mobile station, a terminal, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a station, etc. A UE may be a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, a laptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a smart phone, a netbook, a smartbook, etc. A UE may be able to communicate with eNBs, relays, etc. A UE may also be able to communicate peer-to-peer (P2P) with other UEs.
Wireless network 10 may support operation on a single carrier or multiple carriers for each of the downlink (DL) and uplink (UL). A carrier may refer to a range of frequencies used for communication and may be associated with certain characteristics. Operation on multiple carriers may also be referred to as multi-carrier operation or carrier aggregation. A UE may operate on one or more carriers for the DL (or DL carriers) and one or more carriers for the UL (or UL carriers) for communication with an eNB. The eNB may send data and control information on one or more DL carriers to the UE. The UE may send data and control information on one or more UL carriers to the eNB. In one design, the DL carriers may be paired with the UL carriers. In this design, control information to support data transmission on a given DL carrier may be sent on that DL carrier and an associated UL carrier. Similarly, control information to support data transmission on a given UL carrier may be sent on that UL carrier and an associated DL carrier. In another design, cross-carrier control may be supported. In this design, control information to support data transmission on a given DL carrier may be sent on another DL carrier (e.g., a base carrier) instead of the DL carrier.
Carrier aggregation allows expansion of effective bandwidth delivered to a user terminal through concurrent use of radio resources across multiple carriers. When carriers are aggregated, each carrier is referred to as a component carrier. Multiple component carriers are aggregated to form a larger overall transmission bandwidth. Two or more component carriers can be aggregated to support wider transmission bandwidths.
Wireless network 10 may support carrier extension for a given carrier. For carrier extension, different system bandwidths may be supported for different UEs on a carrier. For example, the wireless network may support (i) a first system bandwidth on a DL carrier for first UEs (e.g., UEs supporting LTE Release 8 or 9 or some other release) and (ii) a second system bandwidth on the DL carrier for second UEs (e.g., UEs supporting a later LTE release). The second system bandwidth may completely or partially overlap the first system bandwidth. For example, the second system bandwidth may include the first system bandwidth and additional bandwidth at one or both ends of the first system bandwidth. The additional system bandwidth may be used to send data and possibly control information to the second UEs.
Wireless network 10 may support data transmission via single-input single-output (SISO), single-input multiple-output (SIMO), multiple-input single-output (MISO), or MIMO. For MIMO, a transmitter (e.g., an eNB) may transmit data from multiple transmit antennas to multiple receive antennas at a receiver (e.g., a UE). MIMO may be used to improve reliability (e.g., by transmitting the same data from different antennas) and/or to improve throughput (e.g., by transmitting different data from different antennas).
Wireless network 10 may support single-user (SU) MIMO, multi-user (MU) MIMO, Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP), etc. For SU-MIMO, a cell may transmit multiple data streams to a single UE on a given time-frequency resource with or without precoding. For MU-MIMO, a cell may transmit multiple data streams to multiple UEs (e.g., one data stream to each UE) on the same time-frequency resource with or without precoding. CoMP may include cooperative transmission and/or joint processing. For cooperative transmission, multiple cells may transmit one or more data streams to a single UE on a given time-frequency resource such that the data transmission is steered toward the intended UE and/or away from one or more interfered UEs. For joint processing, multiple cells may transmit multiple data streams to multiple UEs (e.g., one data stream to each UE) on the same time-frequency resource with or without precoding.
Wireless network 10 may support hybrid automatic retransmission (HARQ) in order to improve reliability of data transmission. For HARQ, a transmitter (e.g., an eNB) may send a transmission of a data packet (or transport block) and may send one or more additional transmissions, if needed, until the packet is decoded correctly by a receiver (e.g., a UE), or the maximum number of transmissions has been sent, or some other termination condition is encountered. The transmitter may thus send a variable number of transmissions of the packet.
Wireless network 10 may support synchronous or asynchronous operation. For synchronous operation, the eNBs may have similar frame timing, and transmissions from different eNBs may be approximately aligned in time. For asynchronous operation, the eNBs may have different frame timing, and transmissions from different eNBs may not be aligned in time.
Wireless network 10 may utilize frequency division duplex (FDD) or time division duplex (TDD). For FDD, the DL and UL may be allocated separate frequency channels, and DL transmissions and UL transmissions may be sent concurrently on the two frequency channels. For TDD, the DL and UL may share the same frequency channel, and DL and UL transmissions may be sent on the same frequency channel in different time periods.
In an LTE air interface, PCIs are used for cell identification and channel synchronization. A PCI is an identification of a cell at the physical layer. Two cells with the same PCI may have interfering reference signals. In a case of PCI confliction, significant radio interference can occur, which may result in complete loss of service in impacted coverage areas.
Base stations may maintain data including PCI values for neighboring base stations in a wireless network. When a new base station is added or removed from a wireless network, conventional systems may use a NL operation that sniffs for the PCI of neighboring base stations to avoid PCI confliction. NL operations may be resource intensive and may not be available to all base stations. However, in the absence of NL, a new base station may not be aware of which PCI are used in proximity, thus may unwittingly choose a PCI already in use by a neighboring base station. Therefore, it is beneficial to provide a new method of selecting a non-conflicting PCI without NL.
In some embodiments, one or more components of an access point may select a non-conflicting PCI without using NL. A cell's PCI and PRACH frequency offset may be linked. Therefore, each PRACH frequency offset may allow a limited set of possible PCI values.
If the PSS is one, then there may only be one hundred sixty eight different PCI available. As show in
The network may minimize interference on a PRACH channel by using different PRACH frequency offsets for adjacent cells. Each PRACH channel may use six resource blocks (RB), with a location of a first frequency determined by the PRACH frequency offset. Referring to
In an example implementation, a new access point with the intention of selecting a non-conflicting PCI may select a PRACH frequency offset with a lowest probability of use by neighboring access points. The access point may determine the PRACH frequency offset with the lowest probability of use by determining an energy level for each PRACH frequency offset and selecting the PRACH frequency offset with the lowest energy level. The access point may select a PCI from the set of possible PCIs values for the selected PRACH frequency offset.
The system 100 may include an access point 100 and at least one neighboring access point 120. It should also be appreciated that system 100, access point 110, and neighboring access points 120 can include additional components not shown in
The access point 100 in the system 100 may provide access to one or more services (e.g., network connectivity) for one or more wireless terminals (e.g., access terminal, UE, mobile entity, mobile device) 110. For example, an LTE access point may communicate with one or more network entities (not shown) to facilitate wide area network connectivity. Such network entities may take various forms such as, for example, one or more radio and/or core network entities.
In various examples, the network entities may be responsible for or otherwise be involved with handling: network management (e.g., via an operation, administration, management, and provisioning entity), call control, session management, mobility management, gateway functions, interworking functions, or some other suitable network functionality. In a related aspect, mobility management may relate to or involve: keeping track of the current location of access terminals through the use of tracking areas, location areas, routing areas, or some other suitable technique; controlling paging for access terminals; and providing access control for access terminals. Also, two of more of these network entities may be co-located and/or two or more of such network entities may be distributed throughout a network.
The access point 100 may include an energy level monitor 102. The energy level monitor 102 may detect for an energy level for each of a plurality of non-overlapping PRACH frequency offsets. In a related aspect, the energy level monitor 102 may further rank the plurality of PRACH offsets by energy level.
The access point 100 may include a PRACH frequency offset selector 104. The PRACH frequency offset selector 104 may determine a set of possible PCIs for the plurality of non-overlapping PRACH frequency offsets. The PRACH frequency offset selector 104 may select a PRACH frequency offset with a lowest energy level. The PRACH frequency offset with the lowest energy level may have a set of corresponding possible PCIs matching with the fewest PCI of neighboring access points 120. Therefore, the PCI for the PRACH frequency offset with the lowest energy level may provide a lowest probability of conflicting with existing PCI for the neighboring access points 120.
In an example aspect, the access point 100 may include a root sequence determination unit 106. The root sequence determination unit 106 may determine which root sequences are occupied by the neighboring access points 120. The root sequence determination unit 106 may determine whether a root sequence is occupied by a neighboring access point 120 by detecting a random access channel preamble for a neighboring access point 120. A PCI of a neighboring access point 120 may be indexed by a corresponding root sequence.
The access point 100 may include a PCI selector 108. The PCI selector 108 may select a PCI from the possible PCIs for the PRACH frequency offset selected by the PRACH frequency offset selector 104. The access point may attempt to select a PCI from the set of possible PCIs values with a lowest probability of use by a neighboring cell from the possible PCIs values. If root sequence information for neighboring access points 120 is available, then the PCI selector 108 may select a PCI corresponding to an unused (unoccupied) root sequence. However, if root sequence information for neighboring access points is not available, then the access point may randomly select a PCI from the set of possible PCIs for the selected PRACH frequency offset, or may select a PCI using other such methods.
In an example implementation, the access point 110 may repeat a process of monitoring for the energy level for each of the plurality of PRACH frequency offsets and selecting a PCI with the lowest probability of conflict at regular intervals. In related aspects, the process may be repeated for certain network events that may suggest a change in PCI used by access points in a neighborhood.
At the transmitter system 210, traffic data for a number of data streams is provided from a data source 212 to a transmit (TX) data processor 214. Each data stream is transmitted over a respective transmit antenna. TX data processor 214 formats, codes, and interleaves the traffic data for each data stream based on a particular coding scheme selected for that data stream to provide coded data.
The coded data for each data stream may be multiplexed with pilot data using OFDM techniques. The pilot data is typically a known data pattern that is processed in a known manner and may be used at the receiver system to estimate the channel response. The multiplexed pilot and coded data for each data stream is then modulated (i.e., symbol mapped) based on a particular modulation scheme (e.g., BPSK, QSPK, M-PSK, or M-QAM) selected for that data stream to provide modulation symbols. The data rate, coding, and modulation for each data stream may be determined by instructions performed by processor 230.
The modulation symbols for all data streams are then provided to a TX MIMO processor 220, which may further process the modulation symbols (e.g., for OFDM). TX MIMO processor 220 then provides NT modulation symbol streams to NT transmitters (TMTR) 222a through 222t. In certain examples, TX MIMO processor 220 applies beam-forming weights to the symbols of the data streams and to the antenna from which the symbol is being transmitted.
Each transmitter 222 receives and processes a respective symbol stream to provide one or more analog signals, and further conditions (e.g., amplifies, filters, and up-converts) the analog signals to provide a modulated signal suitable for transmission over the MIMO channel. NT modulated signals from transmitters 222a through 222t are then transmitted from NT antennas 224a through 224t, respectively.
At receiver system 250, the transmitted modulated signals are received by NR antennas 252a through 252r and the received signal from each antenna 252 is provided to a respective receiver (RCVR) 254a through 254r. Each receiver 254 conditions (e.g., filters, amplifies, and down-converts) a respective received signal, digitizes the conditioned signal to provide samples, and further processes the samples to provide a corresponding “received” symbol stream.
An RX data processor 260 then receives and processes the NR received symbol streams from NR receivers 254 based on a particular receiver processing technique to provide NT “detected” symbol streams. The RX data processor 260 then demodulates, de-interleaves, and decodes each detected symbol stream to recover the traffic data for the data stream. The processing by RX data processor 260 is complementary to that performed by TX MIMO processor 220 and TX data processor 214 at transmitter system 210.
A processor 270 periodically determines which pre-coding matrix to use (discussed below). Processor 270 formulates a reverse link message comprising a matrix index portion and a rank value portion. The reverse link message may comprise various types of information regarding the communication link and/or the received data stream. The reverse link message is then processed by a TX data processor 238, which also receives traffic data for a number of data streams from a data source 236, modulated by a modulator 280, conditioned by transmitters 254a through 254r, and transmitted back to transmitter system 210.
At transmitter system 210, the modulated signals from receiver system 250 are received by antennas 224, conditioned by receivers 222, demodulated by a demodulator 240, and processed by a RX data processor 242 to extract the reserve link message transmitted by the receiver system 250. Processor 230 then determines which pre-coding matrix to use for determining the beam-forming weights then processes the extracted message.
As used herein, an access point may comprise, be implemented as, or known as a NodeB, an eNodeB, a radio network controller (RNC), a base station (BS), a radio base station (RBS), a base station controller (BSC), a base transceiver station (BTS), a transceiver function (TF), a radio transceiver, a radio access point, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), a macrocell, a macro node, a microcell, a Home eNB (HeNB), a small cell, a small cell node, a pico node, or some other similar terminology.
In accordance with one or more aspects of the examples described herein, with reference to
The method 300 may involve, at 310 determining an energy level for each of a plurality of physical random access channel (PRACH) frequency offsets. In an example implementation, the energy level monitor 102 may determine the energy level, as shown in
The method 300 may involve, at 320, selecting a PRACH frequency offset from the plurality of PRACH frequency offsets, based at least in part on the determined energy levels. In an example implementation, the PRACH frequency offset selector 104 may select the PRACH frequency offset, as shown in
The method 300 may involve, at 330, determining a plurality of possible physical cell identifiers (PCIs) for the selected PRACH frequency offset. In an example implementation, the PRACH frequency offset selector 104 may determine the plurality of possible PCIs, as shown in
The method 300 may involve, at 340, selecting a PCI from the plurality of possible PCIs. In an example implementation, the PCI selector 108 may select the PCI, as shown in
The method 300 may optionally involve, at 410, ranking the plurality of PRACH frequency offsets by the determined energy level. In an example implementation, the PRACH frequency offset selector 104 may rank the plurality of PRACH frequency offsets, as shown in
The method 300 may optionally involve, at 420, receiving PCI information for at least one neighboring access point from another network entity, wherein selecting the PCI is based at least in part on the PCI information.
The method 300 may optionally involve, at 430, monitoring, at regular intervals, the energy level for each of the plurality of PRACH frequency offsets. In an example implementation, the energy level monitor 102 may perform the monitoring, as shown in
The method 300 may optionally involve, at 440, reselecting the PRACH frequency offset based at least in part on the monitored energy level for each of the plurality of PRACH frequency offsets. In an example implementation, the PRACH frequency offset selector may perform the reselecting, as shown in
In accordance with one or more aspects of the examples described herein,
In one example, apparatus 500 may include an electrical component or module 510 for determining an energy level for each of a plurality of physical random access channel (PRACH) frequency offsets.
The apparatus 500 may include an electrical component 520 for selecting a PRACH frequency offset from the plurality of PRACH frequency offsets, based at least in part on the determined energy levels.
The apparatus 500 may include an electrical component 530 for determining a plurality of possible physical cell identifiers (PCIs) for the selected PRACH frequency offset.
The apparatus 500 may include an electrical component 540 for selecting a PCI from the plurality of possible PCIs.
In further related aspects, the apparatus 500 may optionally include a processor component 502. The processor 502 may be in operative communication with the components 510-540 via a bus 501 or similar communication coupling. The processor 502 may effect initiation and scheduling of the processes or functions performed by electrical components 510-540.
In yet further related aspects, the apparatus 500 may include a radio transceiver component 503. A standalone receiver and/or standalone transmitter may be used in lieu of or in conjunction with the transceiver 503. The apparatus 500 may also include a network interface 505 for connecting to one or more other communication devices or the like. The apparatus 500 may optionally include a component for storing information, such as, for example, a memory device/component 504. The computer readable medium or the memory component 504 may be operatively coupled to the other components of the apparatus 500 via the bus 501 or the like. The memory component 504 may be adapted to store computer readable instructions and data for affecting the processes and behavior of the components 510-540, and subcomponents thereof, or the processor 502, or the methods disclosed herein. The memory component 504 may retain instructions for executing functions associated with the components 510-540. While shown as being external to the memory 504, it is to be understood that the components 510-540 can exist within the memory 504. It is further noted that the components in
In accordance with one or more aspects of the examples described herein,
The apparatus 600 may include an electrical component 620 for receiving PCI information for at least one neighboring access point from another network entity, wherein selecting the PCI is based at least in part on the PCI information.
The apparatus 600 may include an electrical component 630 for monitoring, at regular intervals, the energy level for each of the plurality of PRACH frequency offsets.
The apparatus 600 may include an electrical component 640 for reselecting the PRACH frequency offset based at least in part on the monitored energy level for each of the plurality of PRACH frequency offsets.
For the sake of conciseness, the rest of the details regarding apparatus 600 are not further elaborated on; however, it is to be understood that the remaining features and aspects of the apparatus 600 are substantially similar to those described above with respect to apparatus 500 of
The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented or performed with a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.
The operations of a method or algorithm described in connection with the disclosure herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.
In one or more exemplary designs, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a non-transitory computer-readable medium. Non-transitory computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer, or a general-purpose or special-purpose processor. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and blue ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of non-transitory computer-readable media.
The previous description of the disclosure is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples and designs described herein, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.
