Predicting downlink throughput

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018317119-A1
Application number	US-201415527915-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 20, 2014
Priority date	Nov 20, 2014
Publication date	Nov 1, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

An apparatus comprising a buffer estimation module for estimating if a base station has data buffered for a mobile communication device is provided. The apparatus further comprises a scheduling estimation module for determining how frequently the mobile communication device has been scheduled to receive data from the base station, a radio quality module for determining a radio quality indication of a communication channel between the mobile communication device and the base station, and a throughput estimation module for predicting downlink throughput from the base station to the mobile communication device based on at least output from the buffer estimation module, the frequency estimation module and the radio quality module.

First claim

1 . An apparatus comprising:
a buffer estimation module for estimating if a base station has data buffered for a mobile communication device; a scheduling estimation module for determining how frequently the mobile communication device has been scheduled to receive data from the base station; a radio quality module for determining a radio quality indication of a communication channel between the mobile communication device and the base station; and a throughput estimation module for predicting downlink throughput from the base station to the mobile communication device based on at least output from the buffer estimation module, the frequency estimation module and the radio quality module.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the buffer estimation module for estimating if the base station has data buffered for the mobile communication device is for analyzing a radio link control protocol data unit RLC PDU.

3 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the buffer estimation module is for analyzing a bit of the RLC PDU which is indicative of an end of a packet data convergence protocol service data unit PDCP SDU.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the buffer estimation module is for estimating if the base station has data buffered for the mobile communication device by analyzing transmission control protocol TCP and/or user datagram protocol UDP flow from the base station to the mobile communication device.

5 . The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the buffer estimation module comprises a TCP sub-module and/or a UDP sub-module for detecting partially received transmission control protocol packets and user datagram protocol packets respectively.

6 . The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the buffer estimation module further comprises an aggregation sub-module for aggregating output from the TCP and UDP sub-modules to provide a probability of the base station having data in buffer for the mobile communication device.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the scheduling estimation module is for determining how frequently the base station has scheduled the mobile communication device to receive data from the base station by analyzing the previous downlink scheduling information and determining whether the mobile communication device has been scheduled.

8 . The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the scheduling estimation module is for determining a proportion of physical resource blocks assigned to the mobile communication device when it has been scheduled.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the radio quality indication comprises signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) and rank value.

10 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the throughput estimation module is for developing a prediction model for predicting downlink throughput from the base station to the mobile communication device.

11 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a load estimation module configured to estimate cell load information of the base station.

12 . The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the cell load information comprises a value indicative of available capacity of a cell of the base station.

13 . The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the load estimation module receives input from the buffer estimation module and the scheduling estimation module.

14 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the load estimation module is configured to develop a prediction model for estimating cell load information based on input from the buffer estimation module and the scheduling estimation module.

15 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the throughput estimation module is for predicting downlink throughput from the base station to the mobile communication device based on the cell load information.

16 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is a mobile communication device.

17 . A mobile communication device comprising the apparatus of claim 1 .

18 . An apparatus to predict downlink throughput in a mobile communication network comprising a processor, and a memory, said memory containing instructions executable by said processor, wherein the apparatus is adapted to:
determine a data buffer indication by estimating if a base station has data buffered for a mobile communication; determine a scheduling indication comprising how frequent the mobile communication device has been scheduled to receive data from the base station; estimate radio quality by determining radio quality information of a communication channel between the mobile communication device and the base station; and predict downlink throughput from the base station to the mobile communication device based on at least the data buffer indication, frequency of scheduling and radio quality information.

19 - 30 . (canceled)

31 . A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program comprising instructions which when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method comprising:
determining a data buffer indication by estimating if a base station has data buffered for a mobile communication; determining a scheduling indication comprising how frequent the mobile communication device has been scheduled to receive data from the base station; estimating radio quality by determining radio quality information of a communication channel between the mobile communication device and the base station; and predicting downlink throughput from the base station to the mobile communication device based on at least the data buffer indication, frequency of scheduling and radio quality information.

32 - 33 . (canceled)

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Fu Jing
• Corroy Steven
• Meng Liyi

Classifications

• H04W28/0252 Primary

  per individual bearer or channel (dynamic wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12) · CPC title

• H04W24/08

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic · CPC title

• H04W28/0273

  adapting protocols for flow control or congestion control to wireless environment, e.g. adapting transmission control protocol [TCP] (wireless network protocols or protocol adaptations to wireless operation, e.g. wireless application protocol H04W80/00) · CPC title

• H04L47/30

  in combination with information about buffer occupancy at either end or at transit nodes · CPC title

• H04L47/127

  by using congestion prediction · CPC title