Low power LTE (LP-LTE) paging monitoring

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10341952-B2
Application number	US-201615274970-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 23, 2016
Priority date	Mar 14, 2016
Publication date	Jul 2, 2019
Grant date	Jul 2, 2019

Abstract

A wireless communication device (UE) may include a paging subsystem that performs paging-monitoring as part of wireless communications of the wireless communication device. The UE may place wireless communication system resources not required during paging-monitoring into either a low-power state or a power-down state, and those system resources may remain in one of those respective states during paging-monitoring. The wireless communication system resources not required during the paging-monitoring may include at least a wireless communications protocol stack used during the wireless communications of the UE, and at least system resources used for performing uplink related tasks independently of wireless communication system resources used for performing downlink related tasks. The paging subsystem may include at least a control manager subsystem capable of decoding a physical downlink control channel, a downlink control subsystem capable of performing tasks related to a physical downlink data channel, and a message parser for parsing paging messages.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus for use in wireless communications, the apparatus comprising:
an uplink control subsystem configured to perform uplink related tasks of wireless communications conducted according to a given wireless communication technology;
a downlink control subsystem configured to perform tasks related to a physical downlink data channel; and
a control manager subsystem configured to decode a physical downlink control channel and route control information between the uplink control subsystem and the downlink control subsystem;
wherein the control manager subsystem and the downlink control subsystem are comprised in a paging subsystem configured in the apparatus to perform monitoring for paging according to the given wireless communication technology, wherein the apparatus is configured to place at least the uplink control subsystem into one of:
a low-power state during the monitoring for paging; or
a power-down state during the monitoring for paging;
wherein the uplink control subsystem, the downlink control subsystem and the control manager subsystem are used for conducting the wireless communications.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus further comprises:
a wireless communications protocol stack used for the wireless communications;
wherein the apparatus is further configured to place the wireless communication protocol stack into one of the low-power state or the power-down state during the monitoring for paging.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the downlink control subsystem comprises a message parser configured to parse paging messages.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the paging subsystem further comprises one or more of the following:
a respective portion of shared memory used for inter-processor communication;
a respective portion of scratch memory used for processing;
a respective portion of code and data memory used by processing core elements;
a respective portion of scratch memory used by hardware modules; or
a respective portion of registers and memory used by the hardware modules.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein to place the uplink control subsystem into the low-power state, the apparatus is configured to perform one or more of the following:
set memory voltages to levels below operating voltage levels for memories comprised in the uplink control subsystem; or
decrease a clock frequency of operating clocks of processing elements comprised in the uplink control subsystem.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein prior to placing the uplink control subsystem into the power-down state, the apparatus is configured to save into a non-volatile memory element a present state of the uplink control subsystem.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein in performing the monitoring for paging, subsequent to the uplink control subsystem having been placed into one of the low-power state or the power-down state, the control manager subsystem is further configured to:
process the physical downlink control channel and determine if the physical downlink control channel indicates paging.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein in response to determining that the physical downlink control channel indicates paging, the downlink control subsystem is configured to process the physical downlink data channel, and determine if the paging includes paging assigned to a wireless communication device that comprises the apparatus.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein in response to the downlink control subsystem determining that the paging includes paging assigned to the wireless communication device, the control manager subsystem is configured to perform one of:
place the uplink control subsystem into normal operating mode if the uplink control subsystem was previously placed into the low-power state; or
restore, to system memory, a previously stored system state of the uplink control subsystem, and restore, to system memory, code associated with the uplink control subsystem, if the uplink control subsystem was previously placed into the power-down state.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein in response to the downlink control subsystem determining that the paging does not include paging assigned to the wireless communication device, the control manager subsystem is configured to cause the wireless communication device to enter a discontinuous reception off-mode of operation.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein in response to the control manager subsystem determining that the physical downlink control channel does not indicate paging, the control manager subsystem is configured to cause the wireless communication device to enter a discontinuous reception off-mode of operation.

12. A wireless communication device, comprising:
radio frequency (RF) circuitry for configured to facilitate RF communications of the wireless communication device according to a given wireless communication technology;
an uplink control subsystem communicatively coupled to the RF circuitry and configured to perform uplink related tasks of the RF communications; and
a control module communicatively coupled to the RF circuitry and comprising:
a downlink control subsystem configured to perform tasks related to a physical downlink data channel; and
a control manager subsystem configured to decode a physical downlink control channel and route control information between the uplink control subsystem and the downlink control subsystem;
wherein the control module is configured to perform monitoring for paging according to the given wireless communication technology, and place at least the uplink control subsystem into one of:
a low-power state during the page monitoring; or
a power-down state during the page monitoring;

wherein the uplink control subsystem and the control module are used for conducting the RF communications of the wireless communication device according to the given communication technology.

13. The wireless communication device of claim 12 , further comprising:
a wireless communications protocol stack used for the RF communications;
wherein the control module is further
configured to place the wireless communications protocol stack into one of the low-power state or the power-down state during the monitoring for paging.

14. The wireless communication device of claim 12 , wherein the control module further comprises one or more of the following:
a respective portion of shared memory used for inter-processor communication;
a respective portion of scratch memory used for processing
a respective portion of code and data memory used by processing core elements;
a respective portion of scratch memory used by hardware modules; or
a respective portion of registers and memory used by the hardware modules.

15. The wireless communication device of claim 12 , wherein to place into the low-power state the uplink control subsystem, the control module is configured to perform one or more of the following:
set memory voltages to levels below operating voltage levels for memories comprised in the uplink control subsystem; or
decrease a clock frequency of operating clocks of processing elements comprised in the uplink control subsystem; and
wherein the control module is configured to save into a non-volatile memory element a present state of the uplink control subsystem, prior to placing the uplink control subsystem in the power-down state.

16. A non-transitory memory element storing programming instructions executable by a processing element to cause a wireless communication device to:
perform monitoring for paging according to a

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Elsayed Moustafa M
• Tabet Tarik

Classifications

• H04W76/28

  Discontinuous transmission [DTX]; Discontinuous reception [DRX] · CPC title

• H04W52/0229 Primary

  where the received signal is a wanted signal · CPC title

• H04W68/00

  User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like · CPC title

• Y02D70/146

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02D70/168

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic