LTE operation in small cells using dynamic shared spectrum

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9294929-B2
Application number	US-201314380639-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 22, 2013
Priority date	Feb 24, 2012
Publication date	Mar 22, 2016
Grant date	Mar 22, 2016

Abstract

Systems, methods, and apparatus may be used to provide assistance for connection procedures in a hierarchical network where macro cells may be operating in licensed spectrum while small cells may be operating in dynamic and shared spectrums, such as TVWS. This may be done, for example, to allow an LTE system performing carrier aggregation (CA) to reconfigure itself to change from a supplementary cell (SuppCell) in one dynamic and shared spectrum channel to a SuppCell in another dynamic and shared spectrum channel.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A base station comprising: a processor, the processor being configured to: determine a layer capability of a small cell; determine a layer connectivity mode for the small cell operating in a dynamic and shared spectrum; generate a small cell information response that comprises the layer connectivity mode for the small cell and the layer capability of the small cell; and send the small cell information response to a macro base station to enable the macro base station to determine a layer connectivity mode for a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU).

2. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to receive a small cell information request from the macro base station.

3. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to send the small cell information response to the macro base station via an X2 interface.

4. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine an identification of a cluster of cells that includes the small cell, and wherein the small cell information response further comprises the identification of the cluster of cells.

5. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine a load level for the small cell that indicates an amount of data traffic at the small cell, and wherein the small cell information response further comprises the load level for the small cell.

6. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine a location for the small cell, and wherein the small cell information response further comprises the location for the small cell.

7. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine a location of an edge of the small cell, and wherein the small cell information response further comprises the location of the edge of the small cell.

8. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine a frequency allocation for the small cell, and wherein the small cell information response further comprises the frequency allocation for the small cell.

9. The base station of claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine a coexistence mode indicating an operating mode that is compatible with another base station.

10. The base station of claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to determine the frequency allocation for the small cell and the coexistence mode by receiving the frequency allocation and the coexistence mode from a shared spectrum manager.

11. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
determine a neighbor small cell; and
retrieve neighbor small cell information from the neighbor small cell.

12. The base station of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to send the neighbor small cell information to the WTRU.

13. The base station of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to receive neighbor small cell information from a neighbor small cell.

14. The base station of claim 13 , wherein the processor is further configured to send the neighbor small cell information to the WTRU.

15. A base station comprising: a processor, the processor being configured to: receive a small cell information response from a small cell operating in a dynamic and shared spectrum; determine a layer capability of the small cell using the small cell information response; and determine a layer connectivity mode for a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) using the layer capability of the small cell information response.

16. The base station of claim 15 , wherein the layer connectivity mode for the WTRU is one of a single layer with a macro cell mode, a single layer with the small cell mode, or a multi-layer mode.

17. The base station of claim 15 , wherein the processor is further configured to send the layer connectivity mode to the WTRU to instruct the WTRU to operate in a single layer mode with a macro base station.

18. The base station of claim 15 , wherein the processor is further configured to send the layer connectivity mode to the WTRU to instruct the WTRU to operate in a single layer mode with a small base station.

19. The base station of claim 15 , where the processor is further configured to send the layer connectivity mode to the WTRU to instruct WTRU to operate in a multi-layer mode.

20. The base station of claim 15 , wherein the processor is further configured to send the layer connectivity mode to the WTRU to instruct the WTRU to connect to a macro cell and to connect to the small cell.

21. The base station of claim 15 , wherein the processor is further configured to send a small information request to a small base station.

Assignees

• Interdigital Patent Holdings

Inventors

• Touag Athmane
• Gauvreau Jean-Louis
• Di Girolamo Rocco
• Freda Martino M
• Murray Joseph M
• Beluri Mihaela C
• Laughlin Scott
• Purkayastha Debashish
• Cuffaro Angelo A

Classifications

• H04W84/045

  using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B · CPC title

• H04W16/14 Primary

  Spectrum sharing arrangements {between different networks} · CPC title

• H04W72/27 Primary

  between access points · CPC title

• H04W16/32 Primary

  Hierarchical cell structures · CPC title

• H04W92/20

  between access points · CPC title