Patent Application
20140369296
The instant invention relates to a radio device, in particular configured for an automated M2M access evaluation, comprising a communication unit, which is configured to communicate with an allocated access-cell node of an access cell of a cellular radio access network; and comprising a transmission scheduling unit. The invention also relates to an application server comprising a server application scheduling unit. The invention also relates to a Method for operating a radio device, in particular a radio device of an application device and/or an application server.
The invention is specifically advantageous in the field of machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. M2M communication is performed via communication networks of limited to capacity, such as radio access networks. A first machine performs a specific application function and transmits application exchange data related to this application function to a second machine. This second machine processes the received application exchange data in order to perform other functions, which may for instance be control or monitoring of the first machine. Without loss of generalization, the present specification will refer to the specific application function of the first machine, and thus to the first machine itself; which hereinafter may also be denoted simply as an application device or application. The data for exchange, i.e. upload and/or download transmission, by the application will be referred to as application data or application exchange data. The second machine will hereinafter also be referred to as an application server, without implying performance of other functions than receiving and processing the application exchange data.
An example of an application is an electrical meter that measures a consumption of energy in a consumer household. For enabling M2M communication, such an electrical meter may comprise a radio module for the transmission of the measured energy consumption data to an application server of a central system of an energy provider. In the art, this type of advanced metering infrastructure is often referred to as a “smart meter”. Smart meters may not only provide one type of application exchange data such as the mentioned example of energy consumption. Other types of application exchange data of a smart meter may comprise information on a status of the meter device, e.g. on a power outage, or other state information regarding the monitored physical quantity. Currently, the number of installed smart meters is low enough to be accommodated by the capacity of existing radio access network infrastructure. However, with an expected increase in the number of M2M applications that use communication via radio access networks, the transmission capacity provided by the radio access networks may become increasingly used by M2M devices, thus increasing the chances of insufficient capacity or decrease in quality of service delivered for transmissions other than M2M, such as speech and Internet traffic. For instance, mobile telephone users may not be able to access a radio access network in moments of peak usage by M2M applications. In summary, congestion is expected to become a major problem as the number of smart metering devices using data communication via radio access networks increases.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a radio device that helps avoiding congestion in a radio access network. It is another object of the present invention to provide a transmission scheduling unit in the radio device, which is further improved to help avoiding congestion in a radio access network. In particular, the radio device, preferably the radio device of an application device, is configured to relax a traffic congestion situation in radio access networks. In particular, relaxation shall be based on a particular easy but nevertheless effective concept which can be handled on an application side alone, without or at least with less requesting for radio access network support. Further objects of the present invention relate to a method for operating a radio device and an application server of a mentioned type that helps avoiding traffic congestion in a radio access network.
The object with regard to the device is achieved by the invention by means of a radio device as claimed in claim 1. In accordance with the invention it is proposed that the transmission scheduling unit is configured:
The invention also leads to an application server as claimed in instant claim 23. As regards the method the object is achieved by the invention by means of a method for operating a radio device as claimed in claim 24. The radio device is in particular a radio device of an application device and/or an application server. For operating a radio device the method comprises the steps of:
The present invention is based on a first item of recognition that M2M communication, in many application scenarios, is less time critical and thus in principle may be distributed in time. The application scheduling unit of the radio device is configured to control the initiation of a transmission of application exchange data on the basis of an application transmission schedule determining one or more allowed transmission times. An allowed transmission time, in accordance with the present invention is a time span or a point in time. As a time span, the allowed time is defined in terms of a week, a day or a time of day. The term time of day is to be understood as defining either at least one time span within a day or at least one point in time during a day. Only during the allowed time a transmission of the application exchange data is allowed by the application scheduling unit.
The transmission of application exchange data may comprise in particular an upload of data—thus output data of a radio device—It is noted that the transmission of application exchange data may comprise a download of data—thus input data of a radio device—, available for instance for download to the radio device from an application server, such as regular firmware update, content updates like maps, for instance for an assisted global position system (AGPS) etc. It is one of the advantages of the present invention to avoid congestion due to all radio devices accessing the application server at the same time to to download such data.
The radio device of the present invention is distinguished from known radio devices by the application scheduling unit and the layout of the scheduling unit. The application scheduling unit operates on basis of a predetermined application transmission schedule, which is managed locally within the radio device. The application transmission schedule applies to application exchange data that, in operation of the radio device, are provided by an application unit. However, for clarification it is noted that the radio device in some embodiments can be provided without an application unit, but with the application scheduling unit. For instance, an application unit may be formed by a meter to be connected with the radio device. The radio device may in this case be delivered to a manufacturer of the meter, which combines the meter and the radio device to form an application device.
In a second item of recognition the invention considers that, as the population of M2M devices is continuously increasing, the insisting networks need to handle in future the existing population of mobiles and on the top the increasing population of end-to-end devices. However, also the invention recognized that the majority of the M2M devices is believed to generate little traffic only, which might nevertheless be bursty by nature i. e. every hour, half hour and fifty minutes increased activation can be expected. The reason for this is that usually an automated exchange of information in an M2M application is engineered on a periodic basis wherein for periodicity a week, a day or a time of day is used as starting points. M2M devices having a radio device implemented will be controlled by the connected application and hence very likely a situation occurs that during the same time a same access or context establishment are tried, especially at certain times staggered with a certain periodicity. Thus, activation of numerous radio devices in parallel will lead to a high signalling load in the network and cause even during setup the network to be blocked; thus leading to unsuccessful call attempts. While solutions based on a network control operator or service control demand for centralized and possibly insufficient measures the instant invention recognized that a radio device for implementation in an application device is suited to relax a congestion situation. A congestion relaxation according to the concept of the invention is achieved by selecting a point in time for initiating the transmission of the application data within the respective current allowed transmission time span and in dependence on a traffic condition to be fulfilled. Thus, the concept relies on access control of a radio device based on the knowledge of a traffic condition in the cellular network.
A knowledge based concept providing knowledge about a traffic condition as a function of time is suited as a basis to control interaction of a radio device with a radio network, namely a network node or the like network station for wireless contacting an application server. This basic concept may be further adapted as a first aspect of the instant invention.
The basic concept may be also further developed within a second aspect of the invention; namely providing statistical or randomized functionalities for further distribution of network access. Thus this further supports relaxation of a traffic dependent transmission in an allowed time span.
According to a third further developed aspect of the instant invention, the conditions for providing a traffic condition and/or randomization can be further adjusted according to certain conditions in a control mechanism. Proper conditions set such that data transmission scheduling is closely adapted to the actual load situation of a cell.
In summary, the instant concept of the invention has recognized that there is a need to prevent a mobile radio device from immediate or scheduled executing an access attempt to achieve a congestion relaxation. Because for mobiles considered so far the access driving instance is the person behind which cannot be controlled, thus, a natural relaxation for automatic applications has not been considered yet nor is available. Also concentrated data bursting has not been the case in persona applications apart from situations known from mammoth events or the like—therein a bunch of persons is concentrated in a certain location and thus leads to an overload access of radio devices in a network cell. Access attempt in time is rather not controllable for sure. But there are methods to prevent the network from damage in extreme situations for instance DSAC (domains specific access control and automatic calling repeat attempt restrictions) for such exceptional situations. However, these mechanisms for extreme situations and catastrophic scenarios are not considered to be suitable for normal operation. Consequently, in view of an increasing population of M2M devices, the instant aspects of the invention and preferred developments do not prevent from accessing the network but schedule allowed times and relax a congestion situation by means of distribution of access in dependence on a traffic condition. This leads to smoothing of access load versus time for non-critical operations according to the first aspect, and according to a second aspect a simulated randomization avoids bunching. According to a third aspect adapting conditions is possible wherever to necessary and developing the conditions according to the demands of a cell and its traffic.
The concept of the invention recognized that for executing these tasks a logical entity in a radio device can be used which bears the capability to apply such behaviour even autonomously from the network. Besides the radio devices autonomous activities being described hereinafter in detail, signalling based methods shall not be precluded; related basic ideas are also claimed where deemed appropriate.
These aspects of the invention and further developments thereof are further outlined in the dependent claims. Thereby the mentioned advantages of the proposed concept are even more improved.
Nevertheless the concept does not exclude, that a server application-scheduling unit is configured to receive a request from a radio device for provision of an updated application transmission schedule; e.g. the request containing transmission failure data. Then also a server application-scheduling unit can be configured to re-determine the application transmission schedule for the requesting allocated radio device using the previous application transmission schedule and the received transmission failure data and to initiate a response to the request via a transmission of the re-determined application transmission schedule to the respective radio device. E.g. the application unit can be configured to ascertain a number of failed attempts of initiating a scheduled transmission and to initiate a transmission of the number of failed attempts to the application server, in particular to request the updated application transmission schedule after the predetermined time span has elapsed.
Consequently—most advantageously by autonomous scheduling of the radio device—a risk of correlation peaks and congestion of access attempts are spread, in particular equally spread over an allowed transmission time span, in particular in the closest time range around an allowed transmission time point and in particular are developed adapted for future or dynamic demands of a traffic load in the network.
The method and developed configurations thereof as outlined above may be implemented by digital circuits of any preferred kind, whereby the advantages associated with the digital circuits may be obtained. In particular, one or more method steps and/or features of the method can be implemented by one or more means for functionally executing to the method step. A single processor or other unit may fulfil the functions of several means recited in the claims—this in particular holds for user equipment according to the concept of the invention. In particular the application scheduling unit may be provided as a hardware unit with dedicated circuitry. In another embodiment, it is implemented by means of a programmable microprocessor and a corresponding executable software unit. The application scheduling unit may be for instance provided as a functional unit of an operating system that is installed on the radio device for control of its operation. In another embodiment, the application scheduling unit is a software unit that is separate from the operating system and installable on top of the operating system as a part of an application layer functionality of the radio device.
Preferably the transmission scheduling unit is configured to initiate transmissions of application data between the radio device and the access-cell node after a maximum time span in which the configured transmission criteria were not fulfilled. Thereby a data-loss or a no-transmission situation is avoided; after a maximum time span transmission of data is enforced. In particular the application unit is configured to ascertain a number of failed attempts of initiating a scheduled transmission and the transmission scheduling unit comprises a timer for measuring a predetermined time span after a trigger event, and wherein the transmission scheduling unit is configured to trigger the timer in the event of detecting a first failed attempt of a scheduled transmission of the application data. It is to be noted that a failed attempt does not necessary mean that a transmission literally failed but it was not initiated due to the given transmission traffic criteria.
Preferably the radio device comprises a measurement unit, which is connected with the transmission scheduling unit and which is configured to ascertain a current value of a quantity indicative of a current transmission traffic amount on a download channel, which is served by the access-cell node that is to receive the transmission of the application data. The development recognized that the current value is a measure of the traffic condition in either upload or download direction. Thus advantageously a threshold value of the quantity indicative of a current transmission traffic amount is forming the decision border whether transmission is initiated. Preferably a stored threshold value depends on the amount and/or priority of the data to be transmitted from the radio device. The application unit is preferably configured to provide updated scheduling information.
The transmission scheduling unit preferably has read access and write access to a device memory that stores a threshold value and/or traffic condition data related to at least one to prior allowed transmission time span. Thus update and in situ adaptation of the parameters stored can be accomplished. The device memory generally can be provided in various kinds; in particular is available as a device memory of the radio module and/or a subscriber identification module and/or of the application module.
In a particular preferred development a transmission scheduling unit is configured to ascertain, from the stored traffic condition data, a first traffic time span within a respective scheduled allowed transmission time span, the first traffic time span exhibiting a value of the measure of the upload traffic condition exceeding a predetermined threshold value, and to select the point in time for initiating the transmission of the application data from at least one second time span within the respective scheduled allowed transmission time span, the second time span having no overlap with the first time span. Thus the first and second time span can be used to separate in particular the times of a 24 h-day in (green light) times for initiating the transmission and in (red light) times for not initiating the transmission.
Also a (yellow light) time of a time span can be provided between the first traffic time span and the second traffic time span, wherein data of raised urgency or priority can be sent though a lower threshold is exceeded. In a preferred development a respective priority is preferably allocated to a respective transmission of application data, and wherein the point in time for initiating the transmission of the application data within an allowed transmission time span is determined in additional dependence from the allocated priority in that a smaller maximum delay is preset for a transmission of higher priority and a larger maximum delay is preset for a transmission of lower priority.
Effectively relaxation of a transmission congestion is achieved by a transmission scheduling unit, which is configured to select the point in time for initiating the transmission of the application data from a peak center region of the allowed transmission time span in the case the threshold is currently not exceeded. Further preferably the transmission scheduling unit is configured to select the point in time for initiating the transmission of the application data from a peak off-center region of the time span in the case the threshold is currently exceeded.
Also randomization around a peak center region can be used to further improve relaxation. Preferably the transmission scheduling unit is configured to select an exact point in to time for initiating the transmission of the application data at random within the respective allowed transmission time span scheduled for the transmission, if a predetermined threshold value for the respective allowed transmission time span is fulfilled. In a preferred development a jitter range of time is defined around a balance point of time for initiating the transmission of the application data at random. E.g. the transmission scheduling unit is configured to select the exact point in time by either delaying or bringing forward the transmission within the respective allowed transmission time span in accordance with application of a jitter to a predetermined point in time.
Preferably the measurement unit is configured to ascertain, as the quantity indicative of a current transmission traffic amount, a number of failed transmission attempts of the application data between the radio device and the access-cell node in association with the respective allowed time span, in terms of time of the day, in which the failed attempts were made. In particular the transmission scheduling unit can be configured to select an exact point in time for the initiating the transmission of the application data at random within the respective allowed transmission time span scheduled for the transmission, whereas the duration of the transmission timespan depends on the amount of collisions detected during earlier attempts.
Preferably the measurement unit is configured to ascertain, the number of transmission attempts which are triggered after a maximum time has expired irrespective of the traffic condition. In a threshold adaptation unit within the radio device the measured number of timer triggered transmission is compared to a preconfigured value and should the number of timer triggered transmissions exceed the preconfigured values, the threshold adaptation unit notices that the transmission criteria are too tight. In response to such detection threshold adaptation unit adapts transmission criteria that way that the criteria are loosened.
In case the transmission criteria is only valid for a certain priority of data, the transmission criteria are adapted that are assigned to this priority class in the first place. However this has the advantage that it can happen that after said adaptation data of lower priority have tighter transmission criteria assigned than the current priority class. Therefore it is preferred that in that case transmission criteria assigned to at least one further priority class are adapted in response to the adaptation of the transmission criteria assigned to the first priority class.
Preferably—but not necessarily—the radio device further comprises an application unit, which comprises the transmission scheduling unit, and which transmission scheduling unit is configured to initiate an upload or download data communication between the radio device and an application server via the cellular radio access network. The communication unit is configured to forward scheduling information received from the application server to the transmission scheduling unit, and wherein the transmission scheduling unit is configured to initiate storage of the received scheduling information in a device memory, in particular wherein the device memory is a device memory of the radio module and/or a subscriber identification module and/or of the application module.
For a more complete understanding of the invention, the invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The detailed description will illustrate and describe what is considered as preferred embodiment of the invention. It should be of course be understood that whereas modifications and changes in form or detail could readily be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, it is therefore intended that the invention may not be limited to the exact form and detail shown and described herein nor to anything less than the whole of the invention disclosed herein and as claimed hereinafter. Further, the features described in the description, the drawing and the claims disclosing the invention may be essential for the invention considered alone or in combination. In particular, any reference signs in the claims shall not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention. The wording “comprising” does not exclude other elements or steps. The wording “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality. In the drawing:
The radio device 100 further comprises an application scheduling unit 106. The application scheduling unit 106 may be integrated into a radio module comprising the transmission and receiver units 102 and 104. In another embodiment the application scheduling unit 106 is provided on a separate piece of hardware, which comprises an application unit 108. The application scheduling unit 106 may be any type of signal or data processing device that generates application exchange data which are to be transmitted by way of the radio signals 140 to an external application server in the network 200 via the transmission unit 102.
The radio device 100 further comprises a device memory 110 that is connected via a first download line 131 with the receiver unit 104 and via bidirectional line 133 with the application scheduling unit 106. Further connections, like a first upload line 132 to the transmission unit 102, are of course possible in accordance with the technical requirements of the radio device. However, they are not shown in detail for reasons of simplicity of the block diagram and of the present description.
As depicted in
In the instant embodiment, the radio device 100 has a particular preferred way of evaluating a download data traffic, i. e. a data volume received from receiver unit 104 via download line 105 and download measurement unit DLM. In principle, such evaluation of download traffic is possible to be executed for any kind of radio device by means of the exemplifying scheduling unit 106, i. e. the presently exemplified embodiment for an UMTS radio device application will also hold in principle for a GSM based radio device application or an LTE radio device application.
The embodiment starts from the consideration that a GSM or UMTS or LTE system basically is a duplex system with separated download lines 105, 131 and upload lines 103, 132. However, nevertheless the concept of the embodiment recognizes that via evaluation of a download traffic it will be possible to make a statement about an upload traffic in sufficient quality. This is because it can be assumed that a download traffic and an upload traffic will be statistically symmetrical and therefore they can be assumed to have the same mean value. This thesis is based on the experience that each traffic load in an upload line 103 will more or less naturally cause at least a signalling item or the like download traffic in the download line 105. This consideration also takes into account that not necessarily an exact statement is requested for the need of access evaluation. In a simple approach in terms of a more or less boolean statement it will be sufficient to e.g. roughly distinguish between a situation wherein congestion is very likely to occur and a situation where a relaxed traffic load can be assumed.
Basically the concept of the instant embodiment can be summarized in that a radio device is supplemented via an application scheduling unit 106 adapted to provide an application transmission schedule 120 which depicts a favourable point of time for affording a transmission of data and the point of time or time span can actively be selected by an application unit 108 or the application device 100. In particular, in an M2M device or in an apparatus connected to the M2M device an application is implemented with a logic function which gathers information from the end-to-end radio device by means of measurement of a cell load; namely due to measuring a physical parameter of a traffic in a download channel. Thus, triggering or periodical cycle can be implemented for data transmission supported by the gathered information and a favourable point of time can be selected for building up of a upload transmission or other transmission to the cell without endangering a congestion situation. In particular, also non favourable time spans or point of times can be disregarded as forbidden time spans for data transmission.
The application scheduling unit 106 may have one or more application transmission schedules 120 and parameters stored; the application transmission schedule 120 shown is merely exemplary and may differ from other embodiments used for implementation in the field. The application transmission schedule 120 may be stored in different ways. In one example, the application transmission schedule 120 is organized as a list 121 of allowed times. The allowed times of the list 121 may define a calendar week, a calendar day or at least one time of day, depending on the requirements of the specific application implemented. Some applications may require a transmission of application exchange data at a rather low rate in terms of weeks only, while others may require much more frequent transmissions of application exchange data, for instance on an hourly basis.
A basic schedule of allowed times of a list 121 is exemplified in
Examples of application transmission schedules 120 with a list 121 and further developments based on a dynamic adaptation functions—which are depicted as T1, T2, TMAX, UPDATE, and JITTER in FIG. 1—of the list 121 of allowed times will be given further below with regard to
A first general operation of the radio device 100 will be explained in the following with reference to
After the transmission has been performed, the radio device may either be shut down to stop the process flow in step S210, or return to the generation of application exchange data in step S202. It is noted that the generation of application exchange data may be performed independently and in parallel to the scheduling and transmission operations.
A more refined application transmission schedule 120 is shown in
Generally any application transmission schedule 120 of this or other kind can be stored as a calculation rule in the device memory 110 of the radio device 100 and used for determining the times of transmission by calculation, which can be performed by the application scheduling unit 106. In this embodiment the device memory 110 is implemented in the subscriber identity module 111 (SIM). A specific decision logic can be provided in the application scheduling unit 106 or the SIM card and a control for instance can be provided on basis of the SIM information. Thus, an update of application modules or other devices is easily affordable just by exchanging a SIM card without the necessity to amend a firmware. Thus, update of an application is easily possible.
By a calculation rule of this type, the radio load of the cell, to which the radio device 100 is attached, is distributed in time. This way, peaks of cell usage by M2M communication can be avoided and the capacity of the cell of the radio access network is more evenly used, allowing to serve a larger number of radio devices at a given point in time.
In
The essential assumption for this concept is that on the download side each node B power can be judged basically on basis of the code staple system shown in
Namely, as shown in view (B) of
As will be clear from
Examples of an independent dynamic adaptation function application—which are depicted as icons T1, T2, TMAX, UPDATE, and JITTER in
For this purpose,
In the case the CPICH_Ec/Io power parameter exceeds the load threshold TR1—namely between clock time 6:30 am to 19:45 pm—no transmission is initiated. However, in the time between 19:45 pm and 6:30 am the Ec/Io power parameter is below the TR1 load threshold. Thus, the delayed transmissions and actual transmissions within the latter time span can be executed without causing the congestion problem. Of course, the T1 function can be restricted to application data of only limited importance thus low priority. The load threshold value TR1 of the T1 function in the transmission schedule 120 can be provided by the application and can be stored in device memory 110 which in this embodiment is part of a SIM 111. In its simple embodiment the radio device 100 by means of the download measurement unit DLM is adapted to measure a download traffic load over a day and fixes the TR1 load threshold for instance by means of an certain XdB value which is above a minimum measured value; namely in the mean the basic power 540 as depicted in
In a further preferred embodiment the download measurement unit DLM is adapted to indicate an empty cell for instance by indicating a minimum data load as shown in
The instant example of a T1 functionality of FIG. 6A—in combination with
However, this may not be the case for a partially mobile application based on at least partially mobile radio devices as the surroundings in a cell are changing with moving location of the radio device 100. Even at least partially mobile applications can be handled within the instant concept of embodiment which however will be even better achieved as exemplified within
Here, as a first example, for instance a traveller may be in the situation to receive actual newspaper information in the morning at 7 o'clock on a handheld or tablet PC. Such information is available usually at 22:00 pm of editorial office closing time and thus in principle is available as a download between 22:00 pm until 7:00 am. However, due to a unknown local area and cell, an ideal point of time cannot be determined exactly in advance for download. Nevertheless, for each system of mobile communication a typical indication can be provided to distinguish between a very busy cell and a rather empty cell. Thus, the access evaluation and access control for the download can be regulated within the above mentioned scheme of a T1 functionality. For instance the TR1 load threshold, of course, may be statistically re-defined via AT or on basis of other knowledge which can be provided in a SIM card 111 for instance. In a very simple case, for each cell in a radio network a specific fixed localized cell has a specific load threshold.
Thus, in summary for specific radio devices and at least non critical data load a measurement of a download traffic can be used to provide a T1 functionality as described above, i. e. the load threshold TR1 to discriminate between a favourable and a non-favourable point of time or time span for data transmission in an M2M application. The load threshold can be defined respective to a physical quantity which is measurable for a cell; here a CPICH-Ec/Io parameter.
Basically, such functionality can also be provided in the net, which however is not so advantageous as a functionality in a radio device. A T1 functionality in the radio device is more reliable and more specific to the actual localization of the radio device. Also, a network based solution would possibly provide a hysteresis mechanism for numerous M2M applications at the same time which is inferior to the possibilities achievable with an individual solution. Thus an individual solution of a radio device as described above will participate from natural relaxation due to hysteresis and differences between a receiver unit, subscribers point of time and localization as well measurement time for a specific radio device in a cell.
As a second example,
The power load depicted as a function of time of
As will be clear from the more elaborated “traffic light” system of
Also in
In a more advanced schematic besides the behaviour in case of failed attempts also the future behaviour in case of “Pass” and “Fail” attempts may influence the access behaviour. In the M2M devices or in the connected application a statistic is maintained collecting the information related to “Passed” and “Fail” attempts. Based on that statistic the M2M device decides which would be a good access time; which usually means in the next access the same time as during previous access could be used. However, in case of “Fail” next best occasion is used and if that fails or already after first failing attempt the module returns to the previously described jitter method. Above mentioned methods are based on randomization and/or jittering the access to avoid peaks and collecting knowledge based on attempts made with trial and error to smoothen the access distribution. Acknowledging the fact that many M2M devices do not have a need for instantaneous transmission but rather communication set-up within a certain time period a method for randomization and distribution is applied to the access including a statistical component.
Further it turns out that coupling an execution of a task to a certain boundary may be suitable for 95% or even 97% of the cases, however, in other rare scenario on depending on the circumstances such boundary may never be reached. Hence to prevent from blocking the activity a circumvention mechanism is installed. The task will be executed after a timer has elapsed, during task execution information will be exchanged indicating a timer expiry driven execution so that the threshold values for the task can be adapted. Hosting of the thresholds in the SIM and also localization of the algorithm there seems to be most promising.
In an even more improved embodiment with one or a predetermined amount of timeouts of the timer execution of a data transmission from a radio device 100 to an application server will be an indication for defining a new load threshold TR′ which lies above the old load threshold. Thus, for future data load or traffic load the “green traffic light” phase can be achieved and thus a later data transmission is possible, which is not necessarily triggered by a timeout of a timer. Generally a timer can be provided for measuring a predetermined time span after a trigger event and wherein the transmission scheduling unit is configured to trigger the timer in the event of detecting a first failed attempt of scheduling transmission of application data. Generally therefore the application unit is configured to ascertain a number of failed attempts of initiating a scheduled transmission and the transmission scheduling unit comprises a threshold adaptation unit, wherein the threshold adaptation unit is configured to adapt a traffic condition threshold in response to to a measured number of failed attempts of initiating a scheduled transmission.
In the case, an application is not executed as the condition of the load threshold is not achieved, a timer t starts to run. A timer t can be coupled to a certain class of priority. However, when the execution of a data transmission is affected due to a timeout value of the timer t and not due to achieving the traffic load condition for a certain priority class, then an update mechanism can be effected in the case the scenario of a run out timer and not achieving the condition of a priority class occurs once or for a number of times. Thus, the update mechanism can be bound to a certain consolidation of a repeated same situation. While the communication with an application center is indicated that an action timer and not a trigger has been effected, the service center can prescribe new load threshold values TR′. These new load threshold values TR′ can be transmitted by the service center directly to the SIM and can be stored in an update functionality of the application transmission schedule 120. In principle, priority load thresholds and priority control can be accomplished over the SIM card. In particular the threshold adaptation unit adapts a first threshold assigned to a first priority and a second threshold assigned to a second priority such that an order, distance, ratio or the like relation of first and second threshold before adaptation remains. E.g. criteria hold which adapt a first and second threshold such that a “yellow light traffic light” phase still has sufficient space upon raising a lower threshold—by also raising an upper threshold—or a “yellow light traffic light” phase has a sufficiently limited upper extent upon lowering a lower threshold—by also lowering an upper threshold—. Also a lower threshold can be adapted upon amending of an upper threshold in relation to the lower threshold. The detailed method will be further described with regard to
In addition services or tasks related to receive or transmit activities which have different priorities related to their execution or the execution are bound to certain thresholds which may be fulfilled in special times. One further approach is not to load the network with additional communication to execute on proper conditions. However, as there may be scenarios where the pre-defined conditions may never be fulfilled and not relaxing the defined boundaries so far that their definition works in all scenarios under all circumstances it is advantageous that that for a task of a certain priority a maximum delay time is specified; in particular in further developing the above described procedure. This means a task coupled to a certain threshold in a receive level trying to indicate an empty cell may be executed after a certain time has elapsed. This time can depend on the priority of the task. Furthermore a mechanism exists for updating such values.
The saving of thresholds for execution of certain tasks is beneficially done on the SIM card in a special field. The service provider can negotiate with the network provider that for certain tasks as updates which cause heavy load in the net he will only use the low traffic hours of a cell by setting and/or agreeing on a certain boundary for the execution. As in the field there are certain areas where this condition is not reached it will be executed after a certain time anyway.
Furthermore—when execution happens because of timer expiry—this will be indicated by the radio device as described above. And hence there are two possibilities for proceeding depending on the desired logic.
If the field is on the SIM card it has the special advantage that the information on that card can be pre-configured and automatically maintained by the service provider. In case the UE supports the distinguishing of more than priority calls where the execution is coupled to a threshold or specific values, these different priorities may have the same or different timer value for their execution.
In addition if one service is executed because of timer expiry this may also imply a threshold change for the other service priority classes. The priority class may be defined in terms of threshold for their execution by X-dB difference from one class to the next class. I.e. a priority X class task not executed within a certain time may be executed because of timer expiry. In case of the next task of that priority the threshold of the task being one step higher in priority X+1 may be used as new threshold which would be an automatic adaption of the execution threshold.
Besides nesting threshold on the SIM it may also host the execution logic or even be the application itself. The module itself may be used as storage for threshold values, in many scenarios for various purposes hence also the functionality could be nested but would need to be flexibly configurable hence makes it less attractive for tariffing issues. In addition the application would need to be informed that the execution may be done the latest when timer expiry is reached. Also the application may be used which causes the issue that the threshold would be need to be hosted there, being potential subject for manipulation and the application needs to get the information while the module has the information available. Hence, also many locations are possible for hosting of such information on the SIM and even having it SIM controlled is most attractive.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12153940.7 | Feb 2012 | EP | regional |
| 12156974.3 | Feb 2012 | EP | regional |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2013/052148 | 2/4/2013 | WO | 00 | 8/1/2014 |
