Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at separate stations – Plural transmitters or receivers
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-17
2004-08-24
Nguyen, Simon (Department: 2685)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at separate stations
Plural transmitters or receivers
C455S510000, C455S517000, C455S452100, C370S335000, C370S442000, C370S468000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06782269
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of wireless communications. More particularly, the present invention relates to uplink enhancements in the air interface between a terminal and a base station in a wireless communications network.
2. Description of the Related Art
The air interface between a terminal and a base station in a wireless communications network relates directly to the achievable level of performance of the network. It is essential to have a low signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) requirement for sufficient link performance with various coding and diversity solutions in the physical layer, since the physical layer defines the fundamental capacity limits of the air interface.
In 3
rd
generation wireless communications systems, such as that specified by Release '99 or subsequent releases of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project joint standardization project (www.3gpp.org), the physical layer is not designed around a single service, such as voice; more flexibility is necessary to enable dynamic scheduling of multimedia services. In Release '99, 3GPP TS 25.211-25.215 describes the physical layer, 3GPP TS 25.331 describes the radio resource control protocol, and 3GPP TS 25.133 describes requirements for radio resource management, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
FIG. 1
illustrates the architecture of the radio access network that handles all radio-related functionality in Release '99. User Equipment (UE)
11
is connected via the radio interface to a respective first Node B
21
-
1
. First Node B
21
-
1
converts the data flow between the lub and radio interface and also participates to a limited extent in radio resource management. First Node B
21
-
1
and second Node B
21
-
2
are both connected to the same Radio Network Controller (RNC)
31
-
1
via the lub interface and share the same radio resource management. RNC
31
-
1
is responsible for the control of the radio resources in its domain, i.e. first node B
21
-
1
and second node B
21
-
2
. Although only two are shown in
FIG. 1
, there will normally be more than two Node B's connected to a single RNC. Each group of Node B's and single RNC constitute a radio network subsystem (RNS) and although only two are shown in
FIG. 1
, there will normally be a large number of RNS's in a radio access network. Collectively, the RNCs are the service access points for all services (including, for example, management of connections to UE
11
) that the radio access network provides to a core network (not shown) via the lu interface. The elements shown in
FIG. 1
are defined at the logical level, but may have a similar physical implementation as well.
In Release '99, there is little flexibility in scheduling the transmissions on the uplink from UE
11
to Node B
21
. The physical layer rate signaling terminates at Node B
21
. The RRC limits the TFCS using various signaling formats and UE
11
can only use the allowed TFCS. This has the disadvantage that various measurements and UE RRC reports taken to SRNC, processed and sent to UE
11
, all over a frame structure measured in milliseconds.
In Release '99, scheduling changes can be made in the uplink using the unacknowledged signaling mode in Radio Resource Control (RRC) with a specified activation time. Alternatively, the RRC includes the ability to control and limit the Transport Format Combination Control using various signaling formats. The transport format combination control can be sent in transparent mode on its own transport channel in every TTI. Transport format combinations can be indexed, with a list of allowed
on-allowed combinations or an full open set of combinations. For an example of the specifications, including the maximum of time that should pass after a signaling message is received due to processing in the UE before the new combination is assumed, see 3GPP TS 25.331 v 3.8.0, Section 13.5.
This method of using the RRC ability to limit the TFCS can be slow to adapt to changes in the network, such as in the amount of data to be transmitted between network elements. Also, since the method is dependent on RRC controlled by the RNC, it susceptible to processing bottlenecks and other factors affecting the performance of the RNC.
BRIEF SUMMARY
In a first aspect of the preferred embodiment of the invention, a wireless communications network comprises a plurality of terminals and at least one base station which transmits data to each one of said plurality of terminals on a wireless downlink and receives data from each one of said plurality of terminals on a wireless uplink. At least one of said plurality of terminals sends a rate request to said base station, said rate request requesting that the data rate on the wireless uplink be changed. Said base station, in response to said rate request from said at least one of said plurality of terminals, sends a rate grant to said at least one of said plurality of terminals, said rate grant indicating whether or not said at least one of said plurality of terminals may change the data rate on the wireless uplink.
In a second aspect of the preferred embodiments, the present invention provides a reliable data rate control method and wireless communications network including a radio access network which transmits data from a base station to a terminal in a wireless downlink and receives data from the terminal to the base station in a wireless uplink. In this aspect of the preferred embodiments of the invention, the terminal is adapted to receive two thresholds specifying the limits on the data rate on said wireless uplink, a first one of said two thresholds specifying a limit for said data rate that may be requested by said terminal and a second one of said two thresholds specifying a limit for said data rate that may be requested by said base station. The terminal sends a rate request on the wireless uplink from the terminal to the base station, said rate request requesting that the data rate on said wireless uplink be increased or decreased within the limits of said first one of said two thresholds. The terminal increases or decreases the data rate on said wireless uplink in accordance with said rate grant in response to a rate grant received from said base station, said rate grant indicating whether or not said data rate on said wireless uplink may be increased or decreased as requested in said rate request.
In another aspect of the preferred embodiments of the invention, the wireless communications network including a base station which transmits data to a terminal on a wireless downlink and receives data from a terminal on a wireless uplink carries out a method. The method comprises sending a rate request from said terminal to said base station, said rate request requesting that the data rate on the wireless uplink be increased or decreased; and in response to said rate request from said terminal, sending a rate grant to said terminal, said rate grant indicating whether or not said terminal may increase or decrease the data rate on the wireless uplink.
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patent: 5963548 (1999-10-01), Virtanen
patent: 6088335 (2000-07-01), I et al.
patent: 6356767 (2002-03-01), Froula
patent: 6374112 (2002-04-01), Widegren et al.
patent: 6400954 (2002-06-01), Khan et al.
patent: 6418148 (2002-07-01), Kumar et al.
patent: 6522666 (2003-02-01), Tzannes et al.
patent: 6542736 (2003-04-01), Parkvall et al.
patent: 6560211 (2003-05-01), Esteves et al.
patent: 6574211 (2003-06-01), Padovani et al.
Written Opinion in International Application No. PCT/IB03/01965, dated Apr. 13, 2004, 5 pages.
Derryberry R. Thomas
Hao Guan
Malkamäki Esa
Rinne Mikko J.
Toskala Antti
Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner
Nguyen Simon
Nokia Corporation
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