The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 12, 2017
Filed:
Feb. 10, 2014
Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy, Espoo, FI;
Xingqin Lin, Austin, TX (US);
Rapeepat Ratasuk, Hoffman Estates, IL (US);
Amitabha Ghosh, Buffalo Grove, IL (US);
Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy, Espoo, FI;
Abstract
Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for providing uniform user equipment initialization procedure for both in-coverage and out-of-coverage device-to device communications are disclosed herein, incorporating a novel tri-timer design: an initial timer, a search timer, and an active timer. In a method a determination is made regarding a user equipment as being a clusterhead candidate which can act as a clusterhead of a cluster. The user equipment searches for a suitable cell or cluster to join. If a suitable cell or a cluster is not found, the user equipment is selected to be a clusterhead which will act as the clusterhead of its own cluster. After selecting the user equipment to be a clusterhead and establishing its cluster, the user equipment transmits a discovery signal which alerting other user equipment to the clusterhead, to which the other user equipment can join. The user equipment as clusterhead then maintains the cluster.