Reduction of buffer overflow

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10164693-B2
Application number	US-201314782783-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2013
Priority date	May 9, 2013
Publication date	Dec 25, 2018
Grant date	Dec 25, 2018

Abstract

Technology for reducing buffer overflow at a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Serving Gateway (S-GW) is described. A buffer overflow message may be received, at an evolved node B (eNB) from the S-GW, indicating potential overflow of downlink information at an S-GW buffer. The downlink information may be stored at the S-GW buffer until a plurality of user equipments (UEs) awake from a low power mode during a discontinuous reception (DRX) sleep cycle. One or more UEs may be selected from the plurality of UEs according to predefined criteria, wherein the one or more UEs are in a connected mode. The DRX configurations of the one or more UEs may be modified in order to reduce the downlink information that is stored at the S-GW buffer, thereby reducing the potential for overflow at the S-GW buffer.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A node operable to control discontinuous reception (DRX) configurations for a plurality of user equipments (UEs), the node comprising:
one or more processors configured to:
receive a buffer overflow message, from a serving gateway (S-GW) via a mobility management entity (MME), indicating a potential overflow at an S-GW buffer when downlink information that is stored at the S-GW buffer exceeds a predetermined threshold of an S-GW buffer capacity;
select one or more UEs in idle mode or connected mode from the plurality of UEs according to predefined criteria;
modify the DRX configurations of the one or more UEs by reducing a DRX sleep cycle length of the one or more UEs in idle or connected mode in response to receiving multiple buffer overflow messages from the S-GW; and
modify the DRX configurations of the one or more UEs in idle mode or connected mode in order to reduce the downlink information that is stored at the S-GW buffer, thereby reducing the potential for overflow at the S-GW buffer; and

a memory interface configured to store in a memory the DRX configurations of the one or more UEs.

2. The node of claim 1 , wherein the downlink information is stored at the S-GW buffer until the UEs awake from a low power mode during a discontinuous reception (DRX) sleep cycle.

3. The node of claim 1 , further configured to select the one or more UEs based on the predefined criteria of a highest data rate or a longest DRX sleep cycle length in comparison to the plurality of UEs.

4. The node of claim 1 , further configured to modify the DRX configurations of the one or more UEs that are in a connected mode.

5. The node of claim 1 , further configured to modify a DRX sleep cycle length of the one or more UEs when the UEs transition from the idle mode to the connected mode.

6. The node of claim 1 , further configured to prevent the one or more UEs from entering a low power mode during a DRX sleep cycle in response to receiving the buffer overflow message from the S-GW.

7. The node of claim 1 , further configured to reconfigure DRX sleep cycle lengths of the one or more UEs to a previous DRX configuration in response to receiving an indication from the S-GW that the potential for overflow at the S-GW buffer has ended.

8. The node of claim 1 , wherein the node is selected from a group consisting of a base station (BS), a Node B (NB), an evolved Node B (eNB), a baseband unit (BBU), a remote radio head (RRH), a remote radio equipment (RRE), or a remote radio unit (RRU).

9. A Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Serving Gateway (S-GW) operable to buffer downlink information for a plurality of user equipments (UEs) in idle mode or connected mode, the S-GW comprising:
one or more processors configured to:
receive the downlink information for the plurality of UEs;
store the downlink information, at an S-GW buffer, when the plurality of UEs in idle mode or connected mode are in a low power mode during a discontinuous reception (DRX) sleep cycle;
detect an overflow potential at the S-GW buffer when the downlink information stored at the S-GW buffer exceeds a predetermined threshold of an S GW buffer capacity; and
communicate a buffer overflow message indicating the overflow potential at the S-GW buffer to an evolved node B (eNB) via a mobility management entity (MME), wherein the buffer overflow message instructs the eNB to modify DRX configurations associated with one or more UEs in idle mode or connected mode in the plurality of UEs in order to reduce overflow potential at the S-GW buffer and modify the DRX configurations of the one or more UEs by reducing a DRX sleep cycle length of the one or more UEs in idle or connected mode in response to receiving multiple buffer overflow messages from the S-GW; and

a memory interface configured to store in a memory the downlink information of the plurality of UEs.

10. The 3GPPS-GW of claim 9 , wherein the buffer overflow message instructs the eNB to modify a DRX sleep cycle length of the one or more UEs in order to reduce overflow potential at the S-GW buffer.

11. The 3GPPS-GW of claim 9 , wherein the one or more UEs are in a connected mode.

12. The 3GPPS-GW of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of UEs include machine type communication (MTC) devices.

13. The 3GPPS-GW of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of UEs include an antenna, a touch sensitive display screen, a speaker, a microphone, a graphics processor, an application processor, internal memory, or a non-volatile memory port.

14. A least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium having instructions embodied thereon for reducing buffer overflow at a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Serving Gateway (S-GW), the instructions that when executed by at least one processor perform the following:
receiving a buffer overflow message, at an evolved node B (eNB) from the S-GW via a mobility management entity (MME), indicating potential overflow of downlink information at a S-GW buffer, wherein the downlink information is stored at the S-GW buffer until a plurality of user equipments (UEs) awake from a low power mode during a discontinuous reception (DRX) sleep cycle;
selecting one or more UEs in idle or connected mode from the plurality of UEs according to predefined criteria, wherein the one or more UEs are in a connected mode;
modifying the DRX configurations of the one or more UEs by reducing a DRX sleep cycle length of the one or more UEs in idle or connected mode in response to receiving multiple buffer overflow messages from the S-GW; and
modifying the DRX configurations of the one or more UEs in idle mode or connected mode in order to reduce the downlink information that is stored at the S-GW buffer, thereby reducing the potential for overflow at the S-GW buffer.

15. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 14 , further comprising instructions that when executed by the at least one processor performs the following: receiving the buffer overflow message from the S-GW when the downlink information that is stored at the S-GW buffer exceeds a predetermined threshold.

16. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 14 , further comprising instructions that when executed by the at least one processor performs the following: selecting the one or more UEs based on the predefined criteria relating to a data rate or a DRX cycle length.

17. The at least one machine readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein modifying the DRX configurations of the one or more UEs comprises reducing a DRX sleep cycle length of the one or more UEs.

18. The at least one machine readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein modifying the DRX configurations of the one or more UEs comprises preventing the one or more UEs from entering a DRX sleep cycle.

Assignees

• Intel Ip Corp

Inventors

• Koc Ali
• Jha Satish
• Gupta Maruti
• Vannithamby Rath

Classifications

• H04W72/21

  in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network · CPC title

• H04W72/20

  Control channels or signalling for resource management · CPC title

• H04W72/56

  based on priority criteria · CPC title

• H04W52/0229

  where the received signal is a wanted signal · CPC title

• Y02D30/70

  in wireless communication networks · CPC title