Systems and methods for controlling scell on/off durations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016119792-A1
Application number	US-201514754220-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 29, 2015
Priority date	Oct 27, 2014
Publication date	Apr 28, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for controlling ON/OFF operation of a Secondary Cell (SCell) in a cellular communications network. In some embodiments, the SCell is a License Assisted Access (LAA) SCell that operates in an unlicensed frequency band. In some embodiments, a method of operation of a network node in the cellular communications network to dynamically control ON/OFF operation of a SCell of the cellular communications network comprises measuring activity of other wireless systems on a channel utilized by a SCell while the SCell is in an OFF state, determining whether to transition the SCell to an ON state based on the activity of the other wireless systems measured on the channel, turning the SCell ON upon determining that the SCell is to be transitioned to the ON state, and keeping the SCell in the OFF state upon determining that the SCell is not to be transitioned to the ON state.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of operation of a network node in a cellular communications network to dynamically control ON/OFF operation of a Secondary Cell, SCell, of the cellular communications network, comprising:
measuring activity of other wireless systems on a channel utilized by a SCell while the SCell is in an OFF state; determining whether to transition the SCell to an ON state based on the activity of the other wireless systems measured on the channel; turning the SCell ON upon determining that the SCell is to be transitioned to the ON state; and keeping the SCell in the OFF state upon determining that the SCell is not to be transitioned to the ON state.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the SCell is a License Assisted Access, LAA, SCell that operates in an unlicensed frequency band.

3 . The method of claim 2 wherein measuring the activity of the other wireless systems on the channel comprises measuring an average received energy for the channel.

4 . The method of claim 2 wherein measuring the activity of the other wireless systems on the channel comprises measuring a channel occupancy ratio for the channel.

5 . The method of claim 2 wherein determining whether to transition the SCell to the ON state comprises determining whether to transition the SCell to the ON state based on the activity of the other wireless systems measured on the channel and an amount of data buffered for the SCell.

6 . The method of claim 5 wherein determining whether to transition the SCell to the ON state based on the activity of the other wireless systems measured on the channel and the amount of data buffered for the SCell is such that a determination is made to transition the SCell to the ON state if the amount of data buffered for the SCell is greater than or equal to a predefined buffered data threshold and the activity of the other wireless systems measured on the channel is less than a predefined channel activity threshold.

7 . The method of claim 2 wherein determining whether to transition the SCell to the ON state comprises determining whether to transition the SCell to the ON state based on the activity of the other wireless systems measured on the channel, an amount of data buffered for the SCell, and a static maximum OFF duration.

8 . The method of claim 2 wherein determining whether to transition the SCell to the ON state comprises determining whether to transition the SCell to the ON state based on the activity of the other wireless systems measured on the channel, an amount of data buffered for the SCell, and a dynamic maximum OFF duration.

9 . The method of claim 8 wherein the dynamic maximum OFF duration is a function of whether an immediately preceding ON duration of the SCell was ended prior to a maximum ON duration.

10 . The method of claim 2 further comprising, while the SCell is in the ON state:
determining whether an accumulated ON duration for the SCell is less than a maximum ON duration; and
turning the SCell OFF upon determining that the accumulated ON duration for the SCell is not less than the maximum ON duration.

11 . The method of claim 2 further comprising, while the SCell is in the ON state:
determining whether to transition the SCell to the OFF state based on an amount of data buffered for the SCell and an accumulated ON duration of the SCell;
turning the SCell OFF upon determining that that SCell is to be transitioned to the OFF state; and
keeping the SCell in the ON state upon determining that the SCell is not to be transitioned to the OFF state.

12 . The method of claim 2 wherein:
measuring the activity of the other wireless systems on the channel comprises measuring the activity of the other wireless systems on the channel during an OFF duration increment, the OFF duration increment being less than a maximum OFF duration;
determining whether to transition the SCell to the ON state comprises:
determining whether an amount of data buffered for the SCell is greater than or equal to a predefined buffered data threshold;
determining whether an accumulated OFF duration for the SCell is greater than or equal to the maximum OFF duration; and
determining whether the activity of the other wireless systems on the channel is less than a predefined channel activity threshold; and

turning the SCell ON comprises turning the SCell ON upon determining that: (i) the amount of data buffered for the SCell is greater than or equal to the predefined buffered data threshold and (ii) either the accumulated OFF duration for the SCell is greater than or equal to the maximum OFF duration or the activity of the other wireless systems on the channel is less than the predefined channel activity threshold.

13 . The method of claim 12 wherein keeping the SCell in the OFF state comprises keeping the SCell in the OFF state for an additional OFF duration increment upon determining that: (i) the amount of data buffered for the SCell is not greater than or equal to the predefined buffered data threshold or (ii) the accumulated OFF duration for the SCell is not greater than or equal to the maximum OFF duration and the activity of the other wireless systems on the channel is not less than the predefined channel activity threshold.

14 . The method of claim 13 further comprising repeating the steps of measuring the activity of the other wireless systems on the channel and determining whether to transition the SCell to the ON state for the additional OFF duration increment.

15 . The method of claim 12 wherein the maximum OFF duration is static.

16 . The method of claim 12 further comprising, while the SCell is in the ON state:
determining whether an accumulated ON duration for the SCell is less than a maximum ON duration; and
turning the SCell OFF upon determining that the accumulated ON duration for the SCell is not less than the maximum ON duration.

17 . The method of claim 12 further comprising, while the SCell is in the ON state:
determining whether an amount of data buffered for the SCell is greater than or equal to a predefined ON state buffered data threshold;
upon determining that the amount of data buffered for the SCell is greater than or equal to the predefined ON state buffered data threshold, determining whether an accumulated ON duration for the SCell is less than a maximum ON duration;
turning the SCell OFF upon determining that either: (i) the amount of data buffered for the SCell is not greater than or equal to the predefined ON state buffered data threshold or (ii) the accumulated ON duration for the SCell is not less than the maximum ON duration; and
keeping the SCell in the ON state upon determining that the amount of data buffered for the SCell is greater than or equal to the predefined ON state buffered data threshold and the accumulated ON duration for the SCell is less than the maximum ON duration.

18 . The method of claim 12 further comprising, while the SCell is in the ON state:
determining whether an amount of data buffered for the SCell is greater than or equal to a predefined ON state buffered data threshold;
upon determining that the amount of data buffered for the SCell is greater than or equal to the predefined ON state buffered data threshold, determining whether an accumulated ON duration for the SCell is less than a maximum ON duration;
turning the SCell OFF and calculating the maximum OFF duration for the SCell upon determining that either: (i) the amount of data buffered for the SCell is not greater than or equal to the predefined ON state buffered data thres

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Cheng Jung-Fu
• Ansari Junaid
• Falconetti Laetitia
• Furuskär Anders
• Godana Bruhtesfa
• Kang Du Ho
• Koorapaty Havish

Classifications

• H04W72/1221

  based on age of data to be sent · CPC title

• H04W72/1215

  for collaboration of different radio technologies · CPC title

• H04W76/15

  Setup of multiple wireless link connections · CPC title

• H04W16/14 Primary

  Spectrum sharing arrangements {between different networks} · CPC title

• H04W72/0453

  Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA · CPC title