Sprint Spectrum L.p.

Sprint Communications Comapny L.p.

Luca Zappaterra

Muhammad Ahsan Naim

Yu Zhou

David Rosen

Hemanth Balaji Pawar

Krishna Sitaram

Chunmei Liu

Pratik Kothari

David Mcgrath

Disclosed are methods and systems to facilitate use of a single channel for voice communications and of multiple channels for non-voice communications. In particular, a transmitting node may determine that data is to be communicated from the transmitting node to a receiving node and may then make a determination of whether the data is to be communicated as part of a voice communication. If the determination is that the data is not to be communicated as part of a voice communication, then the transmitting node may responsively communicate the data to the receiving node over two or more channels. Whereas, if the determination is that the data is to be communicated as part of a voice communication, then the transmitting node may responsively communicate the data to the receiving node over just one channel rather than communicating the data to the receiving node over two or more channels.

Use of a single channel for voice communications and multiple channels for non-voice communications

Contention-based random access operations are enhanced by enabling wireless devices to transmit a plurality of orthogonal preambles simultaneously to an access node, thereby increasing the probability of at least one preamble being heard by the access node, and minimizing the risk of preamble collision with another wireless device. Different classes of devices may be configured to transmit different numbers of preambles, depending on a priority level for that class, for purposes such as emergency communications, real-time applications, etc. Parameters including relationships between specific priority levels, device classes, application classes, quality of service, and number of preambles permitted, may be broadcast or otherwise communicated to wireless devices by the wireless network.

Contention based random access

Disclosed is a method and apparatus to help manage communication on a wireless channel when transmitting and receiving nodes will engage in a sequence of data-ACK exchanges with each other on the channel. As disclosed, the transmitting node and/or receiving node may include in at least one of the data-ACK exchanges an indication of how many data-ACK exchanges remain in the sequence and may further include indicia of how often each data-ACK exchange will occur and how long each data-ACK exchange will last. A neighboring node that is observing the channel to determine whether the channel is available may thus determine, based at least in part on the indication in the data-ACK exchange how many times to refrain from transmitting on the channel, how often to so refrain, and how long to refrain in each instance.

Method and apparatus for managing sequential communication on a wireless channel

A method and system for assigning data packet transmission in a wireless communications network is provided. The method comprises receiving first and second user data packets having respective first and second packet sizes, one of the packet sizes being larger than the other, determining an uplink/downlink ratio based on network statistics, and assigning the first and second data packets to respective first and second signal carrier spectrums each having a different time interval between uplink transmissions with the network. A system is also provided comprising a network controller configured to receive data packets and assign individual data packets to one of a first and a second signal carrier spectrum based on the size of the data packets, the first and the second signal carrier spectrums having the same uplink/downlink ratio and different uplink intervals.

Method to transmit data packets on a network

Reducing latency in a wireless network includes initiating a sensing period for measuring signal indicators of a plurality of frequency channels of an unlicensed spectrum, determining that one of the plurality of frequency channels is able to sustain a traffic load, interrupting the sensing period, and scheduling one or more cellular subframes during the remainder of the sensing period using the one of the plurality of frequency channels.

Reducing latency in an unlicensed frequency spectrum

Systems and methods are described for implicit information transfer. Neighboring access nodes may coordinate an Almost Blank Subframe (ABS) pattern for ABS transmissions. Implicit transmit symbols may be assigned to ABS' of the ABS pattern. Traffic may be scheduled for a wireless device on at least one ABS of the ABS pattern. The neighboring access nodes may use the scheduled ABS to decode implicit information associated with the implicit transmit symbols.

Systems and methods for implicit information transfer

Minimizing interference in a heterogeneous wireless network includes determining a group of potentially interfering access nodes from among the plurality of neighboring access nodes, based on reference signals transmitted from each of the plurality of neighboring access nodes, and communicating additional signal information between each access node within the group of potentially interfering access nodes. The additional signal information is associated with signals transmitted from said each access node within the group. Each access node within the group performs interference minimization based on the additional signal information, thereby enabling full-duplex operation.

Minimizing interference in a heterogeneous wireless network

Disclosed is a method and system for offset decoding of resource elements in a resource block to compensate for propagation delay in uplink coordinated multipoint service. A determination may be made that the initial data symbol of a time-ordered sequence of N data symbols transmitted by a user equipment device (UE) to a base station (BS) will be received at an arrival time beyond an initial one of N equally-spaced tolerance windows for simultaneous decoding of data symbols received from UEs. If it is determined that the arrival time will be within a subsequent one of the N equally-spaced tolerance windows, then the BS may receive and decode those of the N data symbols with respective arrival times in one of the subsequent tolerance windows. Otherwise, the BS may refrain from decoding any of the N data symbols. The decode data symbols may be merged with those from another BS.

Offset decoding of resource elements within resource blocks to compensate for propagation delay

Transmitting downlink reference signals includes transmitting a first plurality of subframes comprising a first reference signal associated with a first antenna port, the first reference signal having a first format within the first plurality of subframes, transmitting a second plurality of subframes comprising a second reference signal associated with a second antenna port, the second reference signal having a second format within the second plurality of subframes, and switching a format of each of the first and second reference signals, such that a third plurality of subframes is transmitted with the first reference signal in the second format, and a fourth plurality of subframes is transmitted with the second reference signal in the first format.

Cell-specific reference signals

Backhaul data may be communicated between an access node and a relay wireless device, wherein the relay wireless device serves as backhaul for a plurality of end-user wireless devices and a set of the plurality of the end-user wireless devices comprise a quality of service metric that meets a quality of service criteria. Wireless resources may be scheduled for the relay wireless device using semi-persistent scheduling such that wireless resources are pre-allocated for the relay wireless device based on a periodicity. And data may be transmitted according to the semi-persistent scheduling from the access node to the relay wireless device based on the periodicity, wherein data for the set of end-user wireless devices that is received at the access node between transmissions for the semi-persistent scheduling is queued such that it is transmitted to the relay wireless device at a next transmission for the semi-persistent scheduling.

Systems and methods for configuring a scheduler

Transmitting data via frame reconfiguration comprises encoding, at a source node, the data into a plurality of frame configurations, each of the plurality of frame configurations comprising a sequence of uplink and downlink subframes, and communicating, via an antenna of the source node, using the plurality of frame configurations, wherein a target node is configured to identify the plurality of frame configurations and decode the data.

Data transmission via frame reconfiguration

Estimating uplink interference includes determining any wireless devices having available uplink resources, and instructing the wireless devices to estimate and report uplink interference. A method for estimating uplink interference in a wireless network includes determining that a wireless device attached to an access node has available resources within an uplink schedule of the wireless device, and instructing the wireless device to enter a listening mode during the available resources of the uplink schedule. In the listening mode, the wireless device determines a measurement of an uplink interference caused at the wireless device. The method further includes receiving the measurement of the uplink interference from the wireless device via an uplink channel.

Estimating uplink interference in a wireless network

Disclosed is a method and system for adjusting a transport block size used for uplink transmissions from a user equipment device (UE) when engaging in uplink coordinated multipoint service (UL CoMP), under conditions in which a propagation delay to a receiving CoMP base station (BS) exceeds a threshold. Based on predicted delay reported to a serving BS from the CoMP BS, the serving BS may compute a reduced transport block size such that uplink resource blocks transmitted from the UE to the CoMP base station will be temporally under-filled by an amount corresponding to the predicted delay. As received at the CoMP BS, the under-filled resource blocks will not overrun their assigned transmission time interval (TTI), and therefore will not be a source of potential interference.

Transport block size adjustment to accommodate delay-based reduction of data volume in resource blocks

When a UE is being served by a base station over a first air interface in a client-server relationship and the UE receives from the base station a HARQ NACK for a transmission over the first air interface, the UE will responsively engage in the HARQ re-transmission to the base station over a second, different air interface, such as through a peer-to-peer communication to the base station. The first air interface may be an OFDMA air interface such as LTE, and the second air interface may be a WLAN air interface such as WiFi. Engaging in re-transmission via the second air interface may enable the base station to complete receipt of the data from the UE and thereby provide the UE, via the first air interface, with a HARQ ACK. This arrangement may help reduce delay in re-transmission, which may be particularly useful for delay-sensitive communications such as VoIP communications.

Hybrid ARQ re-transmission over peer-to-peer air interface upon error in transmission over client-server air interface

A method and system for bit-level protection in concurrent downlink coordinated multipoint transmission of bit groups to multiple user equipment devices (UEs) from multiple base stations. Multiple base stations each serving a respective UE and each having a separate bit stream to communicate to its respective served UE will define bit groups across the bit streams, such that each bit group includes at least one bit from each base station's bit stream. Each bit group will be transmitted as a multi-bit data symbol modulated onto a subcarrier frequency. Susceptibility to pairwise confusion between different data symbols due to misidentification of particular bits will be used to determine bit-level protection for various bit positions of the data symbols. Assignment of particular bits of each bit group to particular UEs will include consideration of bit-level protection, such that UEs with lower quality downlink properties will be assigned bits providing higher bit-level protection, and vice versa.

Growing community of inventors

Arlington, VA, United States of America

Luca Zappaterra