Method and apparatus for integrating different radio access technologies using carrier aggregation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9294926-B2
Application number	US-201213646160-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 5, 2012
Priority date	Oct 7, 2011
Publication date	Mar 22, 2016
Grant date	Mar 22, 2016

Abstract

A method and apparatus are described for integrating third generation partnership project (3GPP) radio access network and an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 radio access technologies (RATs). This may be done at a medium access control (MAC) layer or below the MAC layer. For example, a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) for multiple radio access technology (RAT) integration includes a 3GPP RAT including a radio resource control (RRC) entity, an IEEE 802.11 RAT including a medium access control (MAC) management entity, and a session management entity (SME) for mapping between the RRC entity and the MAC management entity. Combined, hybrid and split versions of logical channel prioritization (LCP) are described. The features of an LTE access stratum-service management entity (AS-SME) are also described.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A base station for inter-radio access technology (RAT) integration configured to operate in a first RAT, comprising:
a transceiver;
a processor configured to control the transceiver to transmit control signals to another base station that is not co-located with the base station and is configured to operate in a second RAT, wherein the control signals include management, co-ordination and configuration signals; and
circuitry configured to establish a link with the other base station that is not co-located with the base station whereby a medium access control (MAC) entity associated with the second RAT is abstracted from Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer associated with the first RAT to enable transmission of data packets originating from the first RAT via the other base station over the second RAT and the established link.

2. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the base station includes a radio resource control (RRC) entity for exchanging the control signals.

3. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the base station is configured to receive a RRC connection request message from the other base station that includes at least one of an indicator for data plane resources, capabilities, and configuration parameters.

4. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the control signals exchanged are for at least one of authentication and security.

5. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the first RAT is a third generation partnership project (3GPP) radio access network and the second RAT is an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 radio access technology.

6. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) for multiple radio access technology (RAT) integration, comprising:
a processor;
a radio resource control (RRC) entity associated with a first RAT;
a medium access control (MAC) management entity associated with a second RAT;
a WLAN abstraction entity or a session management entity (SME) configured to map between the RRC entity associated with the first RAT and the MAC management entity associated with the second RAT, wherein:
the RRC entity is configured to configure and control a physical entity associated with the second RAT and the MAC management entity, and
the WLAN abstraction entity or the SME is further configured to provide an abstraction of the MAC management entity associated with the second RAT from the RRC entity associated with the first RAT to enable transmission of data packets originating from the RRC entity associated with the first RAT via the second RAT.

7. The WTRU of claim 6 , wherein the RRC entity configures the WLAN abstraction entity for interfacing between the first RAT and the second RAT.

8. The WTRU of claim 6 , wherein an access spectrum (AS) entity associated with the first RAT is configured to at least act as the WLAN abstraction entity or the SME (AS-SME entity).

9. The WTRU of claim 8 , wherein the RRC entity includes the WLAN abstraction entity or the AS-SME entity.

10. The WTRU of claim 8 , wherein the first RAT is configured to operate as a primary carrier and the second RAT is configured to operate as a secondary carrier.

11. The WTRU of claim 10 , wherein for the second RAT, the WTRU is configured to provide measurements for at least one different basic service sets (BSSs) that reside on a configured channel or identified BSSs on different channels.

12. The WTRU of claim 6 , wherein a discontinuous receive (DRX) off duration is an integer multiple of a beacon interval.

13. The WTRU of claim 6 , wherein quality of service (QoS) parameters are used to create a traffic specification (TSPEC) with an access point (AP) by sending an add traffic stream (ADDTS) frame.

14. The WTRU of claim 13 , wherein a scheduled power save multi-poll (PSMP) stream is established with the AP for downlink transmission times (DTTs) and uplink transmission times (UTTs).

15. The WTRU of claim 13 , wherein service periods and service intervals (SIs) are scheduled based on the QoS parameters and a predetermined long SI is used on a condition that a pre-configured number of consecutive Uplink Transmission Times (UTTs) and Downlink Transmission Times (DTTs) pass without any uplink or downlink frames for the WTRU.

16. The WTRU of claim 15 , wherein the SI and long SI are assigned identical values as a short DRX and a long DRX for inter-RAT alignment of activity cycles.

17. The WTRU of claim 6 , wherein combined logical channel prioritization (LCP) is performed across the first RAT and second RAT logical channels at a first RAT transmission time interval (TTI) rate.

18. The WTRU of claim 17 , wherein maximum data packet rates are provided by the second RAT for performance of the combined LCP.

19. The WTRU of claim 6 , wherein the WLAN abstraction entity is further configured to:
receive a reconfiguration message from a base station on a condition of access point handover, the reconfiguration message including a challenge query, and
respond with a challenge response to effect the access point handover.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the WLAN abstraction entity manages time alignment, data buffering and flow control between the first RAT and the second RAT.

21. A method for access point transfer, comprising:
transmitting a measurement configuration request to an attached wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) that is configured to operate in a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second RAT, wherein the measurement configuration request includes measurement gaps, objects or pilots to make measurements of access points configured to operate in the second RAT;
receiving a measurement report from the attached WTRU;
transmitting a selected target access point to the attached WTRU;
associating with the selected target access point; and
facilitating authentication between the WTRU and the selected target access point; and
establishing a link with the AP whereby a medium access control (MAC) entity associated with the second RAT is abstracted from the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) entity of the first RAT to enable transmission of data packets originating from the first RAT over the second RAT and the established link.

Assignees

• Interdigital Patent Holdings

Inventors

• Pragada Ravikumar V
• Kaur Samian
• Castor Douglas R
• Pietraski Philip J
• Roy Arnab

Classifications

• H04W16/14 Primary

  Spectrum sharing arrangements {between different networks} · CPC title

• H04W48/16

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title

• H04L5/003

  Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path · CPC title

• H04W36/0083

  Determination of parameters used for hand-off, e.g. generation or modification of neighbour cell lists · CPC title

• H04W48/12

  using downlink control channel · CPC title