Managing Reselection in a Multi-SIM Device by Blocking Reselection to a Frequency of a Subscription that is Prone to Interference from Transmissions of Another Subscription

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016205605-A1
Application number	US-201514596254-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 14, 2015
Priority date	Jan 14, 2015
Publication date	Jul 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Various embodiments provide methods, devices, and non-transitory processor-readable storage media for reducing interference between subscriptions during cell reselection. Various embodiments enable blocking cell reselection by a subscription to a neighbor cell that may be prone to interference by the radio frequency (RF) resources of another subscription on a mobile communication device (e.g., a multi-active communication device).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method implemented on a multi-active communication device for reducing interference between subscriptions during cell reselection, comprising:
performing neighbor cell measurements for each neighbor cell in a neighbor cell list of a first subscription in response to meeting a reselection criteria for the first subscription; determining whether a second subscription is operating on the multi-active communication device; querying a frequency information data table stored in a memory of the multi-active communication device to retrieve frequency information of the second subscription in response to determining that the second subscription is operating on the multi-active communication device; and determining an interference estimate for each neighbor cell on the neighbor cell list based on the frequency information of the second subscription.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising sorting the neighbor cell list based on the interference estimate for each neighbor cell.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
removing neighbor cells with interference estimates above a degradation threshold to generate a revised neighbor cell list; sorting the revised neighbor cell list based on a signal strength of each neighbor cell; and conducting reselection for the first subscription using the revised neighbor cell list sorted based on the signal strength of each neighbor cell.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the degradation threshold is a maximum interference time per frame for the first subscription.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sorting the neighbor cell list based on the interference estimate for each neighbor cell and a signal strength of each neighbor cell; and conducting reselection for the first subscription based on the sorting.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a priority for each neighbor cell on the neighbor cell list; sorting the neighbor cell list based on the determined priority for each neighbor cell; and conducting reselection for the first subscription using the neighbor cell list sorted based on the determined priority for each neighbor cell.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the determined priority is based at least in part on the signal strength of and the interference estimate for that neighbor cell.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining an interference estimate for each neighbor cell on the neighbor cell list based on the frequency information of the second subscription comprises:
determining whether a frequency of a selected neighbor cell overlaps a frequency of the second subscription based on the frequency information of the second subscription; aligning frames of the first subscription and frames of the second subscription to a common time in response to determining that the frequency of the selected neighbor cell overlaps a frequency of the second subscription; determining whether one or more slots of the frames of the first subscription are impacted by transmissions of the second subscription based on an alignment of the frames of the first subscription and the frames of the second subscription to the common time; determining a time of disruption of reception estimate for the selected neighbor cell based on a number of slots of the frames of the first subscription impacted by transmissions of the second subscription in response to determining that one or more slots of the frames of the first subscription are impacted by transmissions of the second subscription; setting the interference estimate for the selected neighbor cell to the determined time of disruption of reception estimate in response to determining that one or more slots of the frames of the first subscription are impacted by transmissions of the second subscription; and setting the interference estimate for the selected neighbor cell to zero in response to determining that the frequency of the selected neighbor cell does not overlap a frequency of the second subscription or in response to determining that no slots of the frames of the first subscription are impacted by transmissions of the second subscription.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving frequency information from each subscription operating on the multi-active communication device; and generating the frequency information data table based on the received frequency information from each subscription.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the frequency information is one or more of a technology type indication, frequency indication, timing indication, and data rate indication.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein each subscription operating on the multi-active communication device is configured to send the subscription's frequency information in response to a change in subscription parameters or a request for frequency information.

12 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising sorting the neighbor cell list based on a signal strength of each neighbor cell.

13 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising conducting reselection for the first subscription using the neighbor cell list sorted based on the signal strength of each neighbor cell in response to determining that a second subscription is not operating on the multi-active communication device.

14 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining whether the reselection criteria have been met for the first subscription.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the reselection criteria is a serving cell quality measurement falling below a quality threshold.

16 . A multi-active communication device, comprising:
a first radio frequency (RF) resource; a second RF resource; a memory; and a processor coupled to the first and second RF resources and the memory and configured with processor-executable instructions to:
perform neighbor cell measurements for each neighbor cell in a neighbor cell list of a first subscription in response to meeting a reselection criteria for the first subscription;
determine whether a second subscription is operating on the multi-active communication device;
query a frequency information data table stored in the memory to retrieve frequency information of the second subscription in response to determining that the second subscription is operating on the multi-active communication device; and
determine an interference estimate for each neighbor cell on the neighbor cell list based on the frequency information of the second subscription.

17 . The multi-active communication device of claim 16 , wherein the processor is further configured with processor-executable instructions to sort the neighbor cell list based on the interference estimate for each neighbor cell.

18 . The multi-active communication device of claim 17 , wherein the processor is further configured with processor-executable instructions to:
remove neighbor cells with interference estimates above a degradation threshold to generate a revised neighbor cell list; sort the revised neighbor cell list based on a signal strength of each neighbor cell; and conduct reselection for the first subscription using the revised neighbor cell list sorted based on the signal strength of each neighbor cell.

19 . The multi-active communication device of claim 18 , wherein the degradation threshold is a maximum interference time per frame for the first subscription.

20 . The multi-active communication device of claim 16 , wherein the processor is further confi

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Krishnamurthy Saiprasad

Classifications

• H04W36/20 Primary

  for optimising the interference level · CPC title

• H04W36/36

  by user or terminal equipment · CPC title

• H04W88/06

  adapted for operation in multiple networks {or having at least two operational modes}, e.g. multi-mode terminals · CPC title

• H04W36/362

  Conditional handover · CPC title

• H04W48/18

  Selecting a network or a communication service · CPC title