Motorola Corporation

Motorola Mobility LLC

Qualcomm Incorporated

Luis Lopes

Eric Villier

Brendan Ludden

Gavin Bernard Horn

Masato Kitazoe

Keiichi Kubota

Gerard Terence Foster

Subramanian S Iyer

Walter Featherstone

Davood Molkdar

Ray Owen

Stephen Aftelak

Trevor T Hanna

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to methods and apparatus for cell DTX (Discontinuous Transmission) scheduling. A Base Station (BS) determines an operational schedule for the BS including at least one ON period and at least one OFF period, wherein the BS provides a reduced level of service during the at least one OFF period relative to the at least one ON period. The BS transmits the determined operational schedule. A User Equipment (UE) receives the BS's operational schedule and determines, based on the BS's operational schedule and its own operational schedule also including ON and OFF periods, whether to perform at least one service associated with the BS.

Methods and apparatus for cell discontinuous transmission (DTX) scheduling

A method and apparatus for radio frequency (RF) fingerprint distribution is provided herein. In particular, when a mobile node wishes to access a restricted-access base station, the mobile node will access a database containing RF fingerprint identification information for the RF environment surrounding the restricted-access base station. When the RF environment matches the RF fingerprint, the mobile node will know that it can access the restricted-access base station.

Method and apparatus for radio frequency fingerprint distribution

A cellular communication system comprises an access point () which supports an underlay cell of a first cell on an underlay frequency using another frequency. A proximity detector () detects user equipment () in response to a wireless transmission therefrom, which uses a different transmission technology from a transmission of the cellular communication system. In response to the proximity detection, the access point () temporarily transmits a pilot signal on the first cell frequency. The user equipment () is then switched to the access point () and the underlay frequency in response to a detection indication from the user equipment () indicating that the pilot signal has been detected. Following the switch the access point () terminates the transmission of the pilot signal.

Cellular communication system and method of operation therefor

A base station () for a cellular communication system comprises a user equipment store () which provides a user equipment subset which identifies at least one user equipment () associated with the base station. An access processor () restricts access to the base station () to the user equipments () that belong to the user equipment subset. A path loss processor () determines a path loss estimate indication from at least one neighboring base station () to a cell supported by the base station (). A parameter controller sets an operating parameter for the cell () in response to the path loss estimate indication. The invention may allow facilitated or improved introduction and/or configuration of restricted base stations supporting only specific user equipments. In many scenarios, a restricted base station may be configured depending on a path loss estimate such that improved performance may be achieved without any frequency planning for the base station.

Base station and a method of operation therefor

A cellular communication system comprises a Mobile Management Entity, MME,and a load characteristic processorthat determines an MME load characteristic for base stations-in response to a measured operating characteristic thereof. A selection processorselects a subset of base stations in response to the MME load characteristics, and a load monitordetermines an MME load level measure. A transmit controllertransmits a load reduction indication for the MME to the subset of base stations in response to the MME load level measure meeting a criterion. The base stations receiving the load reduction indication bias their operation towards a reduced load level of the MME.

Load management for a mobility management entity of a cellular communication system

A method and apparatus for transmitting data in a radio communication system includes a data segmenter () segmenting data into data segments that are fed to a transmission encoder () which encodes them into transmission blocks having different energy per information bit levels. The transmission blocks are transmitter and feedback information is received from the remote radio station (). An analysis processor () determines an analysis group that comprises at least two data segments having transmission blocks encoded with different energy per information bit levels. The analysis processor () further generates a performance distribution measure relating to the analysis group in response to the feedback information. A transmission controller () selects a transmission scheme to apply to subsequent data segments in response to the performance distribution measure.

Method and apparatus for transmitting data in a radio communication system

The amount of interference to communications in Time Division Duplexing (TDD) mode between a TDD mobile and a TDD base station from a mobile operating in Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) mode that is located near to the TDD base station can be reduced by passing information regarding the interfering FDD signal to the TDD base station, where it is processed and subtracted from the received TDD signal, which includes the interference, so as to obtain the pure TDD signal, as required. Either the FDD data (), or an FDD signal () regenerated from the FDD data or simply the received FDD signal () can be passed () to the TDD base station. The TDD base station can regenerate an FDD signal, if required, which is then filtered () using TDD filters and normalized by correlating () and scaling () the filtered FDD signal to a received TDD signal. The normalized FDD signal is then subtracted () from the received TDD signal to reduce the interference.

Method for reducing interference in a TDD system

The invention relates to a method for estimating time of arrival of radio signals in particular as used for location determination. A known method of determining the location of a subscriber unit ( ) calculates a number of ranges based on the distance from base stations ( ) with known location. The ranges are calculated from time of arrival estimates of the signals from the different base stations but a significant source of error is the multipath signal components typical in for example cellular mobile communication systems. According to the invention, the effect of multipath is mitigated by selecting a subset of signals based on a time of arrival estimate of each of the signals. An averaged time of arrival estimate with improved accuracy is then determined from the selected subset. A typical use of the invention is for location determination in a cellular mobile communication system.

Method of and system for estimating a time of arrival of a radio signal

This invention relates to an antenna array system. A problem with antenna array systems is that they provide rather inefficient use of hardware and have inflexible resource allocation. The invention provides a flexible antenna array system architecture, which has very flexible allocation of transceiver elements to beams. The invention comprise switching means ( ) which associate transceiver elements ( ) to beam ports of a beam former ( ) connected to a antenna array ( ). The association of transceiver elements ( ) to beam ports are rearranged regularly, typically for each time slot, and the association is optimized for overall performance for all subscriber units. The invention is applicable for example to cellular communication systems such as GSM.

Antenna array system

Apparatus for determining the location of a subscriber unit ( ) in a mobile telecommunications network, and particularly in a GSM cellular network, includes the provision of several receiver stations ( ) positioned at separate known locations within each cell. Each of the receiver stations ( ), which are synchronised by means of an on-board GPS receiver ( ), measures the time of arrival of a message transmitted from the subscriber unit ( ). The time of arrival measurements recorded by each receiver station ( ) are then transmitted to a base transceiver station ( ) for computation of the subscriber unit's location relative to the receiver stations. The apparatus can provide a reasonably accurate means for location with a low susceptibility to interference.

Growing community of inventors

Swindon, United Kingdom

Luis Lopes