The present disclosure is generally related to wireless communications and, more particularly, to ultrafast cell selection in a wireless device.
Unless otherwise indicated herein, approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims listed below and are not admitted as prior art by inclusion in this section.
In wireless communications, when a wireless device needs to associate with a wireless network having one or more cells, the device can use its stored information or initial carrier frequencies to detect the physical-layer cell identity (PCI), and this procedure is referred to as cell search. In case that a cell is detected, the device needs to perform master information block (MIB) and system information block (SIB) decoding for the cell. For a 5th Generation (5G) New Radio (NR) cell, the device decodes SIB1. For a 4th Generation (4G) Long-Term Evolution (LTE) cell, the device decodes SIB1 and SIB2. After successful decoding of the MIB and SIB, the device is to evaluate whether the cell meets a suitable condition for the device to associate with that cell and, in case of a positive determination, the device associated with that cell as a serving cell. At this point, the device can be referred to as being camped on the serving cell in the wireless network of cells. The aforementioned operations together may be referred to as a cell selection procedure.
However, when certain events occur frequently, the cell selection procedure could result in delay and thereby negatively impacting user experience. Such events can include, for example: (i) power cycle for device power saving, (ii) wireless interface switching on and off for device power saving, (iii) non-access stratum (NAS)-triggered search for device selection of a different network, and (iv) radio resource control (RRC) release to idle search as required by 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Technical Specification (TS) 36.331 and 38.331. Therefore, there is a need for a solution of ultrafast cell selection in a wireless device to address this issue.
The following summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be limiting in any way. That is, the following summary is provided to introduce concepts, highlights, benefits and advantages of the novel and non-obvious techniques described herein. Select implementations are further described below in the detailed description. Thus, the following summary is not intended to identify essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended for use in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
An objective of the present disclosure is to provide schemes, concepts, designs, techniques, methods and apparatuses pertaining to ultrafast cell selection in a wireless device. Under various proposed schemes in accordance with the present disclosure, it is believed that undesirable delay in cell selection due to frequent occurrence of certain events may be avoided or otherwise alleviated.
In one aspect, a method may involve a processor of an apparatus storing information related to at least one of: (a) one or more ever-camped cells having been camped on by the apparatus previously, and (b) one or more ever-detected cells having been detected by the apparatus previously. The method may also involve the processor performing a cell selection procedure using the stored information responsive to occurrence of an event.
In another aspect, an apparatus may include a wireless interface, a memory and a processor coupled to the wireless interface and the memory. The processor may store, in the memory, information related to at least one of: (a) one or more ever-camped cells having been camped on by the apparatus previously, and (b) one or more ever-detected cells having been detected by the apparatus previously. The processor may perform, via the wireless interface, a cell selection procedure using the stored information responsive to occurrence of an event.
It is noteworthy that, although description provided herein may be in the context of certain radio access technologies, networks and network topologies such as, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the proposed concepts, schemes and any variation(s)/derivative(s) thereof may be implemented in, for and by other types of radio access technologies, networks and network topologies such as, for example and without limitation, ZigBee, 5G NR, LTE, LTE-Advanced, LTE-Advanced Pro, Internet-of-Things (IoT), Industrial IoT (IIoT) and narrowband IoT (NB-IoT). Thus, the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the examples described herein.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of the present disclosure. The drawings illustrate implementations of the disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. It is appreciable that the drawings are not necessarily in scale as some components may be shown to be out of proportion than the size in actual implementation to clearly illustrate the concept of the present disclosure.
Detailed embodiments and implementations of the claimed subject matters are disclosed herein. However, it shall be understood that the disclosed embodiments and implementations are merely illustrative of the claimed subject matters which may be embodied in various forms. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the exemplary embodiments and implementations set forth herein. Rather, these exemplary embodiments and implementations are provided so that description of the present disclosure is thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art. In the description below, details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presented embodiments and implementations.
Implementations in accordance with the present disclosure relate to various techniques, methods, schemes and/or solutions pertaining to ultrafast cell selection in a wireless device. According to the present disclosure, a number of possible solutions may be implemented separately or jointly. That is, although these possible solutions may be described below separately, two or more of these possible solutions may be implemented in one combination or another.
Under various proposed schemes in accordance with the present disclosure, to improve the cell selection procedure, a novel ultrafast cell selection method may be utilized. It is believed that the ultrafast cell selection method may reduce cell search time, MIB decoding time and SIB decoding time. For instance, under a first proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure, when a wireless device (e.g., a user equipment (UE) such as a smartphone) needs to perform a cell selection procedure under an event (e.g., (i) device power-on, (ii) wireless interface switching on, (iii) NAS-triggered search, and (iv) RRC release to idle search), the device may use the frequency/frequencies and PCI(s) of one of one or more ever-camped and ever-detected cells to directly select the cell, and the device may use related stored MIB (excluding the system frame number (SFN)) and SIB. The device may also calculate the timing synchronization information such as, for example, the primary synchronization signal (PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (SSS) frame location and the SFN based on stored time information and synchronization signal block (SSB)-based radio resource management (RRM) Measurement Timing Configuration (SMTC) information. The device may then proceed to evaluate whether the cell meets a suitable condition for the device to associate with and camp on that cell. Under a second proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure, when the wireless device needs to perform a cell selection procedure under a certain event (e.g., (i) device power-on, (ii) wireless interface switching on, (iii) NAS-triggered search, and (iv) RRC release to idle search), the device may use a frequency and PCI of one of one or more ever-camped and ever-detected cells to directly select the cell, and the device may perform timing synchronization with the cell and decode MIB. The device may also copy stored SIB. Moreover, the device may then proceed to evaluate whether the cell meets a suitable condition for the device to associate with and camp on that cell.
Device 110 may need to perform a cell selection procedure under a certain event (e.g., (i) device power-on, (ii) wireless interface switching on, (iii) NAS-triggered search, and (iv) RRC release to idle search). Under the first proposed scheme, device 110 may use the frequency/frequencies and PCI(s) of one of one or more ever-camped and ever-detected cells to directly select the cell. Device 110 may also use related stored MIB (excluding SFN) and SIB (e.g., SIB1 for a NR cell, SIB1 and SIB2 for an LTE cell) to perform serving cell measurement. For instance, device 110 may copy the MIB excluding SFN by the related MIB information. Alternatively, or additionally, device 110 may calculate the SFN by the related time information. Alternatively, or additionally, device 110 may calculate the SFN by the related SMTC information. Alternatively, or additionally, device 110 may copy the SIB by the related SIB information. Moreover, device 110 may calculate the timing synchronization information such as, for example and without limitation, PSS and SSS frame location and the SFN, by the stored time information and SMTC information. For instance, device 110 may perform the downlink synchronization to obtain the frame timing of the selected cell by related time information. Additionally, device 110 may proceed to evaluate whether the cell meets a suitable condition for the device to associate with and camp on the selected cell. Referring to part (B) of
Device 110 may need to perform a cell selection procedure under a certain event (e.g., (i) device power-on, (ii) wireless interface switching on, (iii) NAS-triggered search, and (iv) RRC release to idle search). Under the second proposed scheme, device 110 may use the frequency/frequencies and PCI(s) of one of one or more ever-camped and ever-detected cells to directly select the cell. Device 110 may perform timing synchronization with the selected cell and then decode MIB to perform serving cell measurement. For instance, device 110 may perform the downlink synchronization to obtain the frame timing of the selected cell by related time information. Additionally, device 110 may copy the stored SIB. For instance, device 110 may copy the SIB (e.g., SIB1 for a NR cell, SIB1 and SIB2 for an LTE cell) by the related SIB information. Moreover, device 110 may proceed to evaluate whether the cell meets a suitable condition for the device to associate with and camp on the selected cell. Referring to part (B) of
In the context of Wi-Fi, apparatus 300 may be a part of an electronic apparatus, which may be an access point (AP) STA or a non-AP STA, such as a portable or mobile apparatus, a wearable apparatus, a wireless communication apparatus or a computing apparatus. When implemented in a STA, apparatus 300 may be implemented in a smartphone, a smart watch, a personal digital assistant, a digital camera, or a computing equipment such as a tablet computer, a laptop computer or a notebook computer. Apparatus 300 may also be a part of a machine type apparatus, which may be an IoT apparatus such as an immobile or a stationary apparatus, a home apparatus, a wire communication apparatus or a computing apparatus. For instance, apparatus 300 may be implemented in a smart thermostat, a smart fridge, a smart door lock, a wireless speaker or a home control center.
In some implementations, apparatus 300 may be implemented in the form of one or more integrated-circuit (IC) chips such as, for example and without limitation, one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, one or more reduced-instruction set computing (RISC) processors, or one or more complex-instruction-set-computing (CISC) processors. Apparatus 300 may include at least some of those components shown in
In one aspect, processor 312 may be implemented in the form of one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, one or more RISC processors or one or more CISC processors. That is, even though a singular term “a processor” is used herein to refer to processor 312, processor 312 may include multiple processors in some implementations and a single processor in other implementations in accordance with the present disclosure. In another aspect, processor 312 may be implemented in the form of hardware (and, optionally, firmware) with electronic components including, for example and without limitation, one or more transistors, one or more diodes, one or more capacitors, one or more resistors, one or more inductors, one or more memristors and/or one or more varactors that are configured and arranged to achieve specific purposes in accordance with the present disclosure. In other words, in at least some implementations, processor 312 is a special-purpose machine specifically designed, arranged and configured to perform specific tasks including those pertaining to ultrafast cell selection in a wireless device in accordance with various implementations of the present disclosure.
In some implementations, apparatus 300 may also include a wireless interface (e.g., transceiver) 316 coupled to processor 312. Wireless interface 316 may include a transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting and a receiver capable of wirelessly receiving data. It is noteworthy that, although wireless interface 316 is illustrated as being external to and separate from processor 312, in some implementations, wireless interface 816 may be an integral part of processor 312 as a system on chip (SoC).
In some implementations, apparatus 300 may further include a memory or storage device 314 coupled to processor 312 and capable of being accessed by processor 312 and storing data therein. In some implementations, memory or storage device 314 may include a type of random-access memory (RAM) such as dynamic RAM (DRAM), static RAM (SRAM), thyristor RAM (T-RAM) and/or zero-capacitor RAM (Z-RAM). Alternatively, or additionally, memory or storage device 314 may include a type of read-only memory (ROM) such as mask ROM, programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM) and/or electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM). Alternatively, or additionally, memory or storage device 314 may include a type of non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM) such as flash memory, solid-state memory, ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM), magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) and/or phase-change memory.
Under various proposed schemes pertaining to ultrafast cell selection in a wireless device in accordance with the present disclosure, processor 312 of apparatus 300, implemented in or as wireless device 110, may store, in memory or storage device 314, information related to at least one of: (a) one or more ever-camped cells having been camped on by apparatus 300 previously, and (b) one or more ever-detected cells having been detected by apparatus 300 previously. Moreover, processor 312 may perform, via wireless interface 316, a cell selection procedure using the stored information responsive to occurrence of an event.
In some implementations, the event may include one of the following: (i) power-on of apparatus 300; (ii) wireless interface of apparatus 300 switching on; (iii) NAS-triggered search; and (iv) RRC release to idle search.
In some implementations, the stored information may include some or all of the following: (i) a frequency and a PCI of each of the one or more ever-camped cells and the one or more ever-detected cells; (ii) a subcarrier spacing (in case of a NR cell); (iii) MIB and SIB information; (iv) SMTC information; and (v) time information.
In some implementations, in performing the cell selection procedure, processor 312 may perform certain operations. For instance, processor 312 may select a cell using the frequency and the PCI of one of the one or more ever-camped cells or one of the one or more ever-detected cells. Additionally, processor 312 may select the cell using either of: (a) the MIB and SIB information from the stored information, or (b) the SIB information from the stored information. The SIB information may include SIB1 for a NR cell or SIB1+SIB2 for a LTE cell. Moreover, processor 312 may estimate and select one of the one or more ever-camped cells and the one or more ever-detected cells as the selected cell. Furthermore, processor 312 may perform downlink synchronization to obtain a frame timing of the selected cell using the stored information.
In some implementations, in using the MIB information, processor 312 may copy a MIB excluding a SFN. In some implementations, in performing the cell selection procedure, processor 312 may calculate the SFN using the SMTC information or the time information from the stored information.
At 410, process 400 may involve processor 312 of apparatus 300, implemented in or as wireless device 110, storing, in memory or storage device 314, information related to at least one of: (a) one or more ever-camped cells having been camped on by apparatus 300 previously, and (b) one or more ever-detected cells having been detected by apparatus 300 previously. Process 400 may proceed from 410 to 420.
At 420, process 400 may involve processor 312 performing, via wireless interface 316, a cell selection procedure using the stored information responsive to occurrence of an event.
In some implementations, the event may include one of the following: (i) power-on of apparatus 300; (ii) wireless interface of apparatus 300 switching on; (iii) NAS-triggered search; and (iv) RRC release to idle search.
In some implementations, the stored information may include some or all of the following: (i) a frequency and a PCI of each of the one or more ever-camped cells and the one or more ever-detected cells; (ii) a subcarrier spacing (in case of a NR cell); (iii) MIB and SIB information; (iv) SMTC information; and (v) time information.
In some implementations, in performing the cell selection procedure, process 400 may involve processor 312 performing certain operations. For instance, process 400 may involve processor 312 selecting a cell using the frequency and the PCI of one of the one or more ever-camped cells or one of the one or more ever-detected cells. Additionally, process 400 may involve processor 312 selecting the cell using either of: (a) the MIB and SIB information from the stored information, or (b) the SIB information from the stored information. The SIB information may include SIB1 for a NR cell or SIB1+SIB2 for a LTE cell. Moreover, process 400 may involve processor 312 estimating and selecting one of the one or more ever-camped cells and the one or more ever-detected cells as the selected cell. Furthermore, process 400 may involve processor 312 performing downlink synchronization to obtain a frame timing of the selected cell using the stored information.
In some implementations, in using the MIB information, process 400 may involve processor 312 copying a MIB excluding a SFN. In some implementations, in performing the cell selection procedure, process 400 may also involve processor 312 calculating the SFN using the SMTC information or the time information from the stored information.
The herein-described subject matter sometimes illustrates different components contained within, or connected with, different other components. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures are merely examples, and that in fact many other architectures can be implemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality is effectively “associated” such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve a particular functionality can be seen as “associated with” each other such that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components. Likewise, any two components so associated can also be viewed as being “operably connected”, or “operably coupled”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality, and any two components capable of being so associated can also be viewed as being “operably couplable”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of operably couplable include but are not limited to physically mateable and/or physically interacting components and/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interacting components and/or logically interacting and/or logically interactable components.
Further, with respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. The various singular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.
Moreover, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims, e.g., bodies of the appended claims, are generally intended as “open” terms, e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc. It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to implementations containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an,” e.g., “a” and/or “an” should be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more;” the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should be interpreted to mean at least the recited number, e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations. Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention, e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc. In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention, e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc. It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”
From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that various implementations of the present disclosure have been described herein for purposes of illustration, and that various modifications may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the various implementations disclosed herein are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.
The present disclosure is part of a non-provisional patent application claiming the priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/322,248, filed 22 Mar. 2022, the content of which herein being incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63322248 | Mar 2022 | US |