The disclosure relates to wireless communications equipment, systems, and related networks, such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTSs), its offspring Long Term Evolution (LTE) and 5th Generation New Radio (5G-NR) described and being developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), and more particularly to supporting carrier aggregation and selective distributed routing of secondary cell component carriers based on capacity demand.
Wireless customers are increasingly demanding wireless communications services, including in areas that are poorly serviced by conventional cellular networks, such as inside certain buildings or indoor and outdoor areas where there is little cellular coverage. In this regard, wireless communications systems, such as distributed antenna systems (DASs) or cloud radio access networks (C-RANs), are being deployed to provide voice and data services to poorly serviced areas. A wireless communications system, such as a DAS, generally includes remote antenna units (RAUs) configured to receive and transmit communications signals to mobile devices within the antenna range of the RAUs. A wireless communications system can be particularly useful when deployed inside a building or other indoor/outdoor environment where the wireless communications devices may not otherwise be able to effectively receive radio frequency (RF) signals from a source.
In this regard,
With continuing reference to
The capacity of wireless communications systems, including distributed wireless communications systems such as the DAS 100 in
Using carrier aggregation, a wireless communications system may recurrently perform activation/deactivation of the secondary cell(s) while trying to provide the necessary throughput required by the user equipment and keeping the user equipment power consumption low whenever possible. The activation/deactivation of the secondary cells is performed by the network independently for each of the secondary cells serving the user equipment, according to internal algorithms of the network (aiming, for example, to meet the user equipment's current traffic demand). Thus, a handover is not required for moving between secondary cells while a primary cell is active for user equipment.
In this regard,
Under this conventional approach, the additional wireless capacity provided by the secondary cell component carrier CC2 is uniformly distributed to all remote coverage areas 102(1)-102(N). The additional capacity is not localized, and a remote coverage area 102(1) with higher wireless traffic needs does not receive an allocation of additional capacity different from the other remote coverage areas 102(2)-102(N). In addition, each RAU 104(1)-104(N) broadcasts all component carriers CC1-CCm, requiring the RAU 104(1)-104(N) to use the same amount of power to have similar size remote coverage areas 102(1)-102(N).
No admission is made that any reference cited herein constitutes prior art. Applicant reserves the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of any cited documents.
Embodiments disclosed herein include wireless communications systems supporting carrier aggregation and selective distributed routing of secondary cell component carriers based on capacity demand. Capacity demand is a predicted or measured amount of data needed to be transferred over the wireless communications system, or a portion thereof, to support user equipment served by the wireless communications system. An example of a wireless communications system that can be configured to support carrier aggregation and selective distributed routing of secondary cell component carriers can include a wireless communications system, such as a distributed antenna system (DAS) or a cloud radio access network (C-RAN). In an exemplary aspect disclosed herein, the wireless communications system includes a signal router circuit communicatively coupled to one or more signal sources. The signal router circuit is configured to receive component carriers (e.g., communication channels used for data transmission) from the signal source(s) and distribute the component carriers to remote units communicatively coupled to the signal router circuit. In one example, the component carriers received and distributed by the signal router circuit are in baseband. The signal router circuit distributes a primary cell component carrier, which provides control information, and one or more secondary cell component carriers, which provide additional data bandwidth, among multiple remote units, to increase downlink and/or uplink capacity of communications services that can be provided through the remote unit. The signal router circuit can route the primary cell component carrier received from the signal source to each of the remote units so that the primary cell component carrier is distributed to any user equipment in a respective coverage area of any remote unit to avoid the need to support handovers. In addition, the signal router circuit is configured to selectively distribute secondary cell component carrier(s) to any set or subset of the remote units based on capacity demand associated with the remote units. In this regard, wireless capacity provided by the secondary cell component carriers can be directed where needed or desired to enhance or meet capacity demands, while conserving power and/or increasing the wireless coverage area of remote units with fewer secondary cell component carriers.
For example, the signal router circuit can route a secondary cell component carrier only to remote units that have a need to support a larger number of mobile devices to increase capacity over other remote units with fewer mobile devices. As another example, the signal router circuit can route a first secondary cell component carrier to a first set of remote units having a first capacity need and a second secondary cell component carrier to another set of remote units (which may be a subset of the first set of remote units) having a second, higher capacity need. In some examples, a capacity monitoring circuit is provided to detect changes in capacity demand and/or usage associated with remote units and cause secondary cell component carrier(s) to be rerouted according to capacity demand.
One embodiment of the disclosure relates to a wireless communications system. The wireless communications system includes a signal router circuit which comprises a plurality of signal source inputs each configured to receive a component carrier among a plurality of component carriers. The plurality of component carriers includes a primary cell component carrier and a secondary cell component carrier. The signal router circuit also comprises a plurality of signal outputs each configured to couple to a remote unit among a plurality of remote units. The signal router circuit also comprises a routing control input configured to receive a routing control signal indicating a routing configuration for routing the primary cell component carrier and the secondary cell component carrier to the plurality of signal outputs. The wireless communications system further includes a controller circuit comprising a routing control output coupled to the routing control input. The controller circuit is configured to communicate the routing control signal indicating the routing configuration for routing the primary cell component carrier to each of the plurality of signal outputs and routing the secondary cell component carrier to a subset of the plurality of signal outputs less than all of the plurality of signal outputs.
An additional embodiment of the disclosure relates to a method for selectively routing a primary cell component carrier and a secondary cell component carrier from one or more signal source circuits to a plurality of remote units in a wireless communications system. The method includes the steps of receiving the primary cell component carrier and receiving the secondary cell component carrier. The method further includes the steps of routing the primary cell component carrier to each of the plurality of remote units and routing the secondary cell component carrier to a first remote unit and not to a second remote unit of the plurality of remote units.
Additional features and advantages will be set forth in the detailed description which follows, and in part will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from that description or recognized by practicing the embodiments as described herein, including the detailed description which follows, the claims, as well as the appended drawings.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are merely exemplary, and are intended to provide an overview or framework to understanding the nature and character of the claims. The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate one or more embodiment(s), and together with the description serve to explain principles and operation of the various embodiments.
Embodiments disclosed herein include wireless communications systems supporting carrier aggregation and selective distributed routing of secondary cell component carriers based on capacity demand. Capacity demand is a predicted or measured amount of data needed to be transferred over the wireless communications system, or a portion thereof, to support user equipment served by the wireless communications system. An example of a wireless communications system that can be configured to support carrier aggregation and selective distributed routing of secondary cell component carriers can include a wireless communications system, such as a distributed antenna system (DAS) or a cloud radio access network (C-RAN). In an exemplary aspect disclosed herein, the wireless communications system includes a signal router circuit communicatively coupled to one or more signal sources. The signal router circuit is configured to receive component carriers (e.g., communication channels used for data transmission) from the signal source(s) and distribute the component carriers to remote units communicatively coupled to the signal router circuit. In one example, the component carriers received and distributed by the signal router circuit are in baseband. The signal router circuit distributes a primary cell component carrier, which provides control information, and one or more secondary cell component carriers, which provide additional data bandwidth, among multiple remote units, to increase downlink and/or uplink capacity of communications services that can be provided through the remote unit. The signal router circuit can route the primary cell component carrier received from the signal source to each of the remote units so that the primary cell component carrier is distributed to any user equipment in a respective coverage area of any remote unit to avoid the need to support handovers. In addition, the signal router circuit is configured to selectively distribute secondary cell component carrier(s) to any set or subset of the remote units based on capacity demand associated with the remote units. In this regard, wireless capacity provided by the secondary cell component carriers can be directed where needed or desired to enhance or meet capacity demands, while conserving power and/or increasing the wireless coverage area of remote units with fewer secondary cell component carriers.
For example, the signal router circuit can route a secondary cell component carrier only to remote units that have a need to support a larger number of mobile devices to increase capacity over other remote units with fewer mobile devices. As another example, the signal router circuit can route a first secondary cell component carrier to a first set of remote units having a first capacity need and a second secondary cell component carrier to another set of remote units (which may be a subset of the first set of remote units) having a second, higher capacity need. In some examples, a capacity monitoring circuit is provided to detect changes in capacity demand and/or usage associated with remote units and cause secondary cell component carrier(s) to be rerouted according to capacity demand.
In this regard,
A component carrier CC1-CCm refers to a communication channel used for data transmission, which may include uplink and/or downlink components. Accordingly, while the signal router circuit 302 is described as “receiving” component carriers CC1-CCm which are “distributed” to the remote units 306(1)-306(N), for each component carrier CC1-CCm an uplink (transmitting information from a mobile device to a telecommunications network) and/or a downlink (transmitting information from the telecommunications network to the mobile device) may be formed between the signal router circuit 302 and the signal source circuit 304, as well as between the signal router circuit 302 and a remote unit 306(1)-306(N). For each mobile device supported by carrier aggregation in a communications system that supports carrier aggregation, there is one component carrier used as a primary cell that provides control information and functions, such as Non-Access Stratum (NAS) mobility information, Radio Resource Control (RRC), and connection maintenance. In the example depicted in
The signal router circuit 302 routes the primary cell component carrier CC1 received from the signal source circuit 304 to each of the remote units 306(1)-306(N) so that the primary cell component carrier CC1 is distributed to any mobile device in a respective coverage area of any remote unit 306(1)-306(N). Because the control information in the primary cell component carrier CC1 is thus distributed to each remote unit 306(1)-306(N), if a mobile device moves between different coverage areas provided by different remote units, no handover procedure is required. In addition, the signal router circuit 302 is configured to selectively distribute secondary cell component carrier(s) CC2-CCm to the remote units 306(1)-306(N) according to capacity demand. With the primary cell component carrier CC1 and its control information distributed to each remote unit 306(1)-306(N), the secondary cell component carrier(s) CC2-CCm do not need to be indiscriminately distributed to each remote unit 306(1)-306(N). Secondary cell component carrier(s) CC2-CCm can instead be routed to only one or a subset of the remote units 306(1)-306(N), such as described further below with respect to
The wireless communications system 300 can be configured to support cellular communications services. In some embodiments, the signal source circuit 304 in the wireless communications system 300 may include some or all functions of an Evolved Node B (eNB) base transceiver station implementing carrier aggregation functionality. For example, the signal source circuit 304 may transmit and receive communications, such as packetized data, from a telecommunications network. The signal source circuit 304 includes one or more physical layer (PHY) processing circuits 308(1)-308(M). The notation “1-M” indicates that any number of the PHY processing circuits, 1-M, may be provided. A PHY processing circuit 308(1)-308(M) generates baseband modulated signals representing a downlink baseband signal of a corresponding component carrier CC1-CCm. As an example, a first PHY processing circuit 308(1) generates the primary cell component carrier CC1, and the other PHY processing circuits 308(2)-308(M) generate the secondary cell component carrier signals CC2-CCm. It should be understood that generation of the baseband modulated signals by the PHY processing circuits 308(1)-308(M) can be implemented in other components of the wireless communications system 300, such as in the remote units 306(1)-306(N).
The PHY processing circuits 308(1)-308(M) may receive data to be transmitted from higher layer processing circuit(s) 310 of the signal source circuit 304. The higher layer processing circuits 310 may perform some or all signal processing functions of layers other than PHY of a transmitting and/or receiving device under the open systems interconnection (OSI) model or a similar communication model. In some examples, the higher layer processing circuits 310 include scheduling the data for each component carrier CC1-CCm to be transmitted to the signal router circuit 302 by the corresponding PHY processing circuit 308(1)-308(M). Each PHY processing circuit 308(1)-308(M) and/or the higher layer processing circuits 310 may further process uplink baseband signals received from the signal router circuit 302. It should be understood that in some embodiments, some of the functions and/or circuitry of the signal source circuit 304 may reside at the remote units 306(1)-306(N). For example, the PHY processing circuits 308(1)-308(M) may be split between the signal source circuit 304 and the remote units 306(1)-306(N) where higher level portions of the PHY processing circuits 308(1)-308(M) reside at the signal source circuit 304 and lower level portions of the PHY processing circuits 308(1)-308(M) reside at the remote units 306(1)-306(N). In other embodiments, the complete PHY processing circuits 308(1)-308(M) may reside at the remote units 306(1)-306(N).
With continuing reference to
A controller circuit 316 communicates a routing control signal 318 (e.g., to a routing control input 320 of the signal router circuit 302) to the signal router circuit 302 indicating the routing configuration for the component carriers CC1-CCm from the signal source inputs 312(1)-312(M) to the signal outputs 314(1)-314(P). The controller circuit 316 may be a processor, such as a microprocessor, digital controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The controller circuit 316 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 routing configuration communicated by the controller circuit 316 may be based on input from a capacity monitoring circuit 322, inputs received from the signal source circuit 304, and/or additional inputs 324, which may be manual inputs (e.g., a manual configuration provided by a network designer) or communications received from a building control device or other network management systems. Exemplary routing configurations are described further below with respect to
The capacity monitoring circuit 322 monitors wireless capacity demand and/or usage of the remote units 306(1)-306(N) and/or mobile devices served by the remote units 306(1)-306(N). The capacity monitoring circuit 322 is capable of monitoring wireless capacity demand and/or usage associated with the signal outputs 314(1)-314(P), associated with the remote units 306(1)-306(N), within coverage areas of the remote units 306(1)-306(N), and/or at the signal source circuit 304. The capacity monitoring circuit 322 may monitor wireless capacity demand and/or usage through monitoring wireless traffic directly or indirectly, through sensors, or other techniques. As an example, the capacity monitoring circuit 322 may monitor a number of mobile devices served by each remote unit 306(1)-306(N), a throughput per mobile device, a throughput of the remote unit 306(1)-306(N), a signal to noise ratio (SNR) measurement, similar parameters, and combinations thereof. The capacity monitoring circuit 322 can provide the controller circuit 316 an indication of the capacity demand for each remote unit 306(1)-306(N) and/or its respective coverage area. The controller circuit 316 can process these capacity demand indications from the capacity monitoring circuit 322 to determine the routing configuration to be communicated to the signal router circuit 302. The controller circuit 316 determines the routing configuration for the component carriers CC1-CCm at least in part based on the indication of the wireless capacity demand. It should be understood that the controller circuit 316 and/or the capacity monitoring circuit 322 can be implemented using multiple hardware types and schemes. For example, the controller circuit 316 and/or the capacity monitoring circuit 322 can be included in the signal router circuit 302 or another component of the wireless communications system 300, or as a logical and/or physical portion of a self-optimized network (SON) server.
With continuing reference to
In this exemplary embodiment, the wireless communications system 300 has been described to “distribute” component carriers CC1-CCm. As previously discussed, it should be understood that each component carrier CC1-CCm may include uplink and/or downlink components. Accordingly, each E-O converter 328(1)-328(P) of the signal router circuit 302 may convert a downlink for the routed component carriers CC1-CCm from electrical to optical and an uplink for each component carrier CC1-CCm from optical to electrical. Similarly, the O-E converter 330(1)-330(N) of each remote unit 306(1)-306(N) may convert a downlink for each component carrier CC1-CCm from optical to electrical and an uplink for each component carrier CC1-CCm from electrical to optical. In addition, each optical fiber communications link may have a separate uplink and downlink medium, or may be a common optical fiber communications link. For example, wave division multiplexing (WDM) may be employed to carry the downlink optical communications signals and the uplink optical communications signals on the same optical fiber communications link.
Turning to
The signal router circuit 302 routes the primary cell component carrier CC1 received from the signal source circuit 304 to each of the remote units 306(1)-306(N) so that the primary cell component carrier CC1 is distributed to any mobile device 402 in a respective coverage area 400(1)-400(N) of any remote unit 306(1)-306(N). In addition, the signal router circuit 302 is configured to selectively distribute secondary cell component carrier(s) CC2-CCm to the remote units 306(1)-306(N) according to a routing configuration received from the controller circuit 316.
In this regard, a first remote unit 306(1) receives the primary cell component carrier CC1 from the signal router circuit 302. An Nth remote unit 306(N) also receives the primary cell component carrier CC1 from the signal router circuit 302. In this example, a first coverage area 400(1) of the first remote unit 306(1) and an Nth coverage area 400(N) of the Nth remote unit 306(N) are relatively low wireless traffic areas (e.g., areas which experience a low demand on wireless capacity), and a secondary cell component carrier CC2 is not routed to the first remote unit 306(1) or the Nth remote unit 306(N). However, a second coverage area 400(2) of a second remote unit 306(2) and a third coverage area 400(3) of a third remote unit 306(3) can be relatively high wireless traffic areas which experience or are predicted to experience a high demand on wireless capacity (e.g., a higher capacity demand than the first coverage area 400(1) and the Nth coverage area 400(N)). Accordingly, the second remote unit 306(3) and the third remote unit 306(3) receive the primary cell component carrier CC1 and a secondary cell component carrier CC2 from the signal router circuit 302.
In this manner, selective routing of the secondary cell component carrier(s) CC2-CCm enables the signal router circuit 302 to route secondary cell component carrier(s) CC2-CCm to remote units 306(1)-306(N) (e.g., to a first subset of the signal outputs 314(1)-314(P) of the signal router circuit 302) that may have a need to support a larger number of mobile devices 402 to increase capacity over other remote units 306(1)-306(N) with fewer mobile devices 402. For example, the secondary cell component carrier CC2 (which may be a first secondary cell component carrier) can be routed to the second remote unit 306(3) and the third remote unit 306(3) according to a measured or predicted capacity demand. In a first aspect, the second remote unit 306(3) and the third remote unit 306(3) can be located in areas with an expectation of high wireless traffic and/or capacity demand, a “hot spot” such as a cafeteria or near an airport gate, in which large numbers of mobile devices 402 are likely to access the wireless communications system 300 within the respective coverage areas 400(2), 400(3). In another aspect, the capacity monitoring circuit 322 can measure and/or predict an amount of wireless capacity demand in the second coverage area 400(2) and the third coverage area 400(3) which exceeds a threshold (e.g., a first threshold), and the signal router circuit 302 can route the secondary cell component carrier CC2 (e.g., a first secondary cell component carrier) to each of the second remote unit 306(3) and the third remote unit 306(3) accordingly. In some cases, the third remote unit 306(3) may support an even larger number of mobile devices 402 than the second remote unit 306(2) and/or the capacity monitoring circuit 322 can measure and/or predict an amount of wireless capacity demand in the third coverage area 400(3) which exceeds another threshold (e.g., a second threshold). As illustrated, this may cause the signal router circuit 302 to route another secondary cell component carrier CC3 (e.g., a second secondary cell component carrier) to the third remote unit 306(3) (e.g., to a second subset of the signal outputs 314(1)-314(P) of the signal router circuit 302). As additional mobile devices 402 establish connections with the wireless communications system 300 through the third remote unit 306(3) (or the wireless capacity demand in the third coverage area 400(3) otherwise increases), the signal router circuit 302 can route additional secondary cell component carriers (e.g., a third secondary cell component carrier CC4) to the third remote unit 306(3).
In this regard, wireless capacity of the wireless communications system 300 can be directed where it is needed or desired. The remote units 306(2)-306(3) which experience or are expected to experience higher capacity demands can have a substantially dedicated portion of the capacity of one or more secondary cell component carriers CC2-CCm, where non-selective routing of secondary cell component carriers CC2-CCm could allow, for example, a reduced capacity in the high demand second coverage area 400(2) due to a temporary increase in demand in the normally low traffic first coverage area 400(1). In addition, remote units 306(1), 306(N) which experience lower capacity demands can conserve and/or reuse power due to the need to transmit fewer component carriers CC1-CCm.
In an exemplary aspect, each component carrier CC1-CCm received by a remote unit 306(1)-306(N) is transmitted and/or received by the remote unit 306(1)-306(N) on a separate wireless channel (e.g., RF carrier frequency). For example, the primary cell component carrier CC1 is transmitted and received by the second remote unit 306(2) on a first wireless channel (e.g., RF carrier frequency) f1, which may be a common wireless channel for the primary cell component carrier CC1 on all remote units 306(1)-306(N). The secondary cell component carrier CC2 (e.g., the first secondary cell component carrier CC2) is transmitted and received by the second remote unit 306(2) on a second wireless channel (e.g., RF carrier frequency) f2. In the illustrated example, other remote units 306(1)-306(N) which receive the secondary cell component carrier CC2, such as the third remote unit 306(3), can route the secondary cell component carrier CC2 over the second wireless channel f2. The remote units 306(1)-306(N) may support additional component carriers according to capacity demand, with each being transmitted and/or received over an additional RF carrier frequency—for example, the signal router circuit 302 may route the second secondary cell component carrier CC3 and third secondary cell component carrier CC4 to the third remote unit 306(3), which transmits and receives these additional component carriers CC3 and CC4, over additional wireless channels (e.g., RF carrier frequencies) f3 and f4, respectively.
With continued reference to
Because the primary cell component carrier CC1 is distributed to each remote unit 306(1)-306(N) in this manner, the control information in the primary cell component carrier CC1 appears at each remote unit 306(1)-306(N). Accordingly, if a mobile device 402 moves between different coverage areas 400(1)-400(N) provided by different remote units 306(1)-306(N), no handover procedure is required. In addition, the secondary cell component carrier(s) CC2-CCm do not need to be indiscriminately distributed to each remote unit 306(1)-306(N), but can instead be routed to only one or a subset of the remote units 306(1)-306(N) with the primary cell component carrier CC1 being used for control signaling to establish connections with the secondary cell component carrier(s) CC2-CCm. For example, the mobile device 402 depicted in
In the example depicted in
In some embodiments, the signal router circuit 302 may receive more than one primary cell component carrier, with the different primary cell component carriers being routed to groups of the remote units 306(1)-306(N). For example, a first primary cell component carrier CC1 may be routed to a first subset of the remote units 306(1)-306(3) (e.g., over a first set of signal outputs 314(1)-314(3) of the signal router circuit 302), which may be located within a first region. A second primary cell component carrier CC2 may be routed to a second subset of the remote units 306(4)-306(N) (e.g., over a second set of signal outputs 314(4)-314(P) of the signal router circuit 302), which may be located within a second region. In this regard, each primary cell component carrier CC1, CC2 may be associated with a group of secondary cell component carriers CC3-CCm to expand the capacity of the wireless communications system 300 within each region. Thus, the signal router circuit 302 in such embodiments selectively routes a first set of secondary cell component carriers CC1-CCi to the first subset of the remote units 306(1)-306(3), and selectively routes a second set of secondary cell component carriers CCi+1-CCm to the second subset of the remote units 306(4)-306(N) in a similar manner as described above.
In this regard, the routing configuration 500 is based on an actual or expected wireless capacity demand associated with each remote unit 306(1)-306(9) and/or its respective coverage area 400(1)-400(9). The routing configuration 500 can be received from a controller circuit (e.g., controller circuit 316 in
However, a second coverage area 400(2) of a second remote unit 306(2) is a relatively high wireless traffic area (e.g., an area which experiences or is predicted to experience a high demand on wireless capacity). Similarly, a fifth coverage area 400(5), a seventh coverage area 400(7), and an eighth coverage area 400(8) experience or are predicted to experience high wireless capacity demands. Thus, the routing configuration 500 directs the signal router circuit 302 to route the primary cell component carrier CC1 and the secondary cell component carrier CC2 from the signal router circuit 302 to each of the high demand remote units 306(2), 306(5), 306(7), and 306(8).
According to the routing configuration 600, the signal router circuit 302 routes the primary cell component carrier CC1 and not the secondary cell component carrier CC2 from the signal router circuit 302 to a first set of remote units 306(1)-306(4), which may have low demands on wireless capacity within their respective coverage areas 400(1)-400(4). The routing configuration 600 directs the signal router circuit 302 to route the primary cell component carrier CC1 and one or more secondary cell component carriers CC2-CCm from the signal router circuit 302 to a second set of remote units 306(5)-306(N), which may have high demands on wireless capacity within their respective coverage areas 400(5)-400(N). As described above, the routing configuration 600 can be based on capacity measurements and/or estimations, which may be determined by a capacity monitoring circuit (e.g., capacity monitoring circuit 322 in
As illustrated in
With continued reference to
In some exemplary embodiments, selective routing of the secondary cell component carriers CC2-CCm can further enable the wireless communications system 300 to conserve and reuse wireless spectrum for secondary cells and/or enable further dedication of the secondary cell component carriers CC2-CCm among the remote units 306(1)-306(N). For example, the first subset of the remote units 306(5)-306(7) may receive a secondary cell component carrier CC2 from the signal router circuit 302 (which is transmitted and/or received on a selected RF carrier frequency). A second subset of the remote units 306(N) may receive a different secondary cell component carrier CCm from the signal router circuit 302 (which is transmitted and/or received on the same or a different selected RF carrier frequency). In this manner, the first subset of the remote units 306(5)-306(7) can use the additional capacity of the secondary cell component carrier CC2, while the second subset of the remote units 306(N) can use the additional capacity of the different secondary cell component carrier CCm without the need to share the additional capacity between the first subset of the remote units 306(5)-306(7) and the second subset of the remote units 306(N).
With continuing reference to
The signal router circuit 302 is communicatively coupled to the remote units 306(1)-306(N) and routes the component carriers CC1-CCm to the remote units 306(1)-306(N) according to a routing configuration of the signal router circuit 302 as described above with respect to
The component carriers CC1-CCm are distributed between the signal router circuit 302 and the remote units 306(1)-306(N) over a riser cable 806 in this example. The riser cable 806 may be routed through interconnect units (ICUs) 808(1)-808(F) dedicated to each floor 802(1)-802(F) for routing the component carriers CC1-CCm to the remote units 306(1)-306(N). In addition, array cables 810(1)-810(F) may be provided and coupled between the ICUs 808(1)-808(F) that contain optical fibers to distribute the component carriers CC1-CCm to the remote units 306(1)-306(N).
In this regard, the computer system 900 in
The exemplary computer system 900 in this embodiment includes a processing device or processor 902, a main memory 904 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), etc.), and a static memory 906 (e.g., flash memory, static random access memory (SRAM), etc.), which may communicate with each other via a data bus 908. Alternatively, the processor 902 may be connected to the main memory 904 and/or static memory 906 directly or via some other connectivity means. The processor 902 may be a controller circuit such as the controller circuit 316 of
The processor 902 represents one or more general-purpose processing devices, such as a microprocessor, central processing unit, or the like. More particularly, the processor 902 may be a complex instruction set computing (CISC) microprocessor, a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor, a very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, a processor implementing other instruction sets, or other processors implementing a combination of instruction sets. The processor 902 is configured to execute processing logic in instructions for performing the operations and steps discussed herein.
The computer system 900 may further include a network interface device 910. The computer system 900 also may or may not include an input 912, configured to receive input and selections to be communicated to the computer system 900 when executing instructions. The computer system 900 also may or may not include an output 914, including but not limited to a display, a video display unit (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT)), an alphanumeric input device (e.g., a keyboard), and/or a cursor control device (e.g., a mouse).
The computer system 900 may or may not include a data storage device that includes instructions 916 stored in a computer-readable medium 918. The instructions 916 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 904 and/or within the processor 902 during execution thereof by the computer system 900, the main memory 904, and the processor 902 also constituting computer-readable medium. The instructions 916 may further be transmitted or received over a network 920 via the network interface device 910.
While the computer-readable medium 918 is shown in an exemplary embodiment to be a single medium, the term “computer-readable medium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term “computer-readable medium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying a set of instructions for execution by the processing device and that cause the processing device to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the embodiments disclosed herein. The term “computer-readable medium” shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, optical medium, and magnetic medium.
With reference to
Generally, the interface between the MAC 1014 and PHY processing circuit 308(1)-308(M) is also separate for each component carrier CC1-CCm. The transport blocks sent on different component carriers CC1-CCm can be transmitted with independent modulation and coding schemes, as well as different multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) coding schemes. As a consequence, data on one component carrier CC1-CCm can be transmitted with open loop transmit diversity, while data on another component carrier CC1-CCm can be transmitted with dual stream closed loop precoding. Thus, there is independent link adaptation per component carrier CC1-CCm to benefit from optimally matching the transmission on different component carriers CC1-CCm according to the experienced radio conditions (e.g., corresponding to frequency domain link adaptation on a component carrier CC1-CCm resolution).
Turning to the RRM functionalities 1002, admission control 1020 is performed at the signal source circuit 304 prior to establishment of new radio bearers 1004(1)-1004(J), and the corresponding quality of service (QoS) parameters are configured by a QoS manager 1022. Component carrier configuration 1024 configures a set of component carriers CC1-CCm for each mobile device 402 to be distributed by the signal router circuit 302. The mobile device 402 may afterward be scheduled to communicate via the configured set of component carriers CC1-CCm. The set of component carriers CC1-CCm is configured to the mobile device(s) 402 with RRC signaling. A layer 2 packet scheduler (PS) 1026 is coupled with an additional functionality for dynamically activating and deactivating component carriers CC2-CCm configured as secondary cells for different mobile devices 402. Secondary cell component carriers CC2-CCm are activated and deactivated independently via MAC signaling 1014, while the primary cell component carrier CC1 is not subject to deactivation. In some examples, the PS 1026 may activate and deactivate secondary cell component carriers CC2-CCm as a mobile device 402 moves between coverage areas 400(1)-400(N) of different remote units 306(1)-306(N).
The dynamic PS 1026 at layer 2 is responsible for scheduling eligible mobile devices 402 on their configured and activated component carriers CC1-CCm. The PS 1026 can schedule mobile devices 402 across multiple component carriers CC1-CCm through independent transport blocks, link adaptation, and HARQ 1028 per component carrier CC1-CCm. In some examples, the signal source circuit 304 can send a scheduling grant on one component carrier CC1-CCm for scheduling the mobile device 402 on another component carrier CC1-CCm, referred to as cross-CC scheduling. The cross-CC scheduling functionality is incorporated by appending a so-called carrier indicator field (CIF) to the downlink control information (DCI). The DCI is used to indicate the mobile device 402 allocations for uplink and downlink traffic, and the CIF is used to address on which component carrier CC1-CCm the mobile device 402 data is transmitted. In some examples, cross-CC scheduling may be used through the primary cell component carrier CC1 to activate/deactivate and schedule the secondary cell component carriers CC1-CCm.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.
The embodiments disclosed herein include various steps. The steps of the embodiments disclosed herein may be formed by hardware components or may be embodied in machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause a general-purpose or special-purpose processor programmed with the instructions to perform the steps. Alternatively, the steps may be performed by a combination of hardware and software.
The embodiments disclosed herein may be provided as a computer program product, or software, that may include a machine-readable medium (or computer-readable medium) having stored thereon instructions, which may be used to program a computer system (or other electronic devices) to perform a process according to the embodiments disclosed herein. A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable medium includes: a machine-readable storage medium (e.g., ROM, random access memory (“RAM”), a magnetic disk storage medium, an optical storage medium, flash memory devices, etc.); and the like.
Unless specifically stated otherwise and as apparent from the previous discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing,” “computing,” “determining,” “displaying,” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data and memories represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission, or display devices.
The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatuses to perform the required method steps. The required structure for a variety of these systems will appear from the description above. In addition, the embodiments described herein are not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the embodiments as described herein.
Those of skill in the art will further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithms described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, instructions stored in memory or in another computer-readable medium and executed by a processor or other processing device, or combinations of both. The components of the wireless communications systems described herein may be employed in any circuit, hardware component, integrated circuit (IC), or IC chip, as examples. Memory disclosed herein may be any type and size of memory and may be configured to store any type of information desired. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. How such functionality is implemented depends on the particular application, design choices, and/or design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present embodiments.
The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. Furthermore, a controller circuit may be a processor. A 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 embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied in hardware and in instructions that are stored in hardware, and may reside, for example, in RAM, flash memory, ROM, Electrically Programmable ROM (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), registers, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of computer-readable 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 remote station. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a remote station, base station, or server.
It is also noted that the operational steps described in any of the exemplary embodiments herein are described to provide examples and discussion. The operations described may be performed in numerous different sequences other than the illustrated sequences. Furthermore, operations described in a single operational step may actually be performed in a number of different steps. Additionally, one or more operational steps discussed in the exemplary embodiments may be combined. Those of skill in the art will also understand that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips, that may be references throughout the above description, may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields, or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.
Unless otherwise expressly stated, it is in no way intended that any method set forth herein be construed as requiring that its steps be performed in a specific order. Accordingly, where a method claim does not actually recite an order to be followed by its steps, or it is not otherwise specifically stated in the claims or descriptions that the steps are to be limited to a specific order, it is in no way intended that any particular order be inferred.