System and method for heterogeneous carrier aggregation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9629028-B2
Application number	US-201313773020-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 21, 2013
Priority date	Mar 16, 2012
Publication date	Apr 18, 2017
Grant date	Apr 18, 2017

Abstract

Techniques for aggregating heterogeneous carriers in a wireless communication system are disclosed. A mobile device may receive a configuration for aggregating a plurality of component carriers including one or more cellular carriers and a wireless local area network (WLAN) carrier. The one or more cellular carriers may include LTE carriers, and aggregation may be performed at a sub-IP protocol layer of operation. In one aspect, protocol entities may be modified to perform quality of service determinations, carrier selection, traffic mapping, or the like, in view of the different capabilities and characteristics of the heterogeneous carriers in the carrier aggregation configuration.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method operable by a mobile device, comprising:
receiving a configuration for aggregating a plurality of component carriers comprising at least one cellular carrier and a wireless local area network (WLAN) carrier, wherein aggregation is performed at a given protocol layer of the mobile device below an internet protocol (IP) layer;
determining, at the given protocol layer, a mapping of uplink traffic in relation to the at least one cellular carrier and the WLAN carrier, wherein the mapping is based on a traffic flow identifier;
determining, based on the mapping, one or more traffic restrictions associated with the traffic flow identifier;
selecting a carrier from the plurality of component carriers in accordance with the one or more traffic restrictions associated with the traffic flow identifier; and
sending an uplink transmission on the selected carrier.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the traffic flow identifier comprises one of:
a logical channel identifier (LCID) when the given protocol layer comprises a media access control (MAC) protocol layer; or
a bearer identifier when the given protocol layer comprises a protocol layer above the MAC protocol layer.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a logical channel identifier (LCID) associated with data for the uplink transmission, wherein the traffic flow identifier comprises the LCID.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a bearer identifier associated with data for the uplink transmission, wherein the traffic flow identifier comprises the bearer identifier.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining an association of traffic types with respective ones of the plurality of component carriers based on downlink traffic received by the mobile device;
wherein the mapping of uplink traffic corresponds to the association of traffic types determined based on the downlink traffic.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein a first traffic type is associated with the at least one cellular carrier and a second traffic type is associated with the WLAN carrier.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the given protocol layer comprises a media access control (MAC) protocol layer, and wherein determining the mapping comprises performing carrier selection at the MAC protocol layer based on the association and a type of the uplink traffic.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving an uplink grant indicating an allocation of uplink resources on a first cellular carrier in the plurality of component carriers;
identifying data for the uplink transmission on the first cellular carrier based on the mapping; and
sending the data on the first cellular carrier in accordance with the uplink grant.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining an availability of data for the uplink transmission;
determining that the data maps to the WLAN carrier; and
sending the data in the uplink transmission absent an uplink grant based on determining that the data maps to the WLAN carrier.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mapping excludes predetermined types of uplink traffic from transmission on the WLAN carrier.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein sending the uplink transmission further comprises, at a media access control (MAC) layer, multiplexing the uplink traffic based at least in part on the mapping.

12. The method of claim 11 ,
wherein the mapping is based at least in part on Quality of Service (QoS) information, and
wherein the multiplexing is based at least in part on the QoS information.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aggregation is performed at a media access control (MAC) layer, the method further comprising:
forming MAC protocol data units (PDUs) based on the mapping; and
sending the MAC PDUs based on an uplink grant or a MAC PDU size.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mapping includes information that identifies that the uplink traffic may use either the at least one cellular carrier or the WLAN carrier.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aggregation is performed at a media access control (MAC) layer, the method further comprising:
forming protocol data units (PDUs) at a radio link control (RLC) layer; and
transporting the PDUs via the at least one cellular carrier or the WLAN carrier.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising ceasing to apply the mapping based on deactivation of the selected carrier.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising ceasing applying a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) above the IP layer.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising determining an IP address for a cellular radio module of the mobile device, and assigning the IP address to a WLAN radio module of the mobile device.

19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising signaling a cellular-WLAN carrier aggregation capability of the mobile device to at least one network entity.

20. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a beacon or probe response from a WLAN access point (AP), the beacon or probe response advertising support for cellular-WLAN carrier aggregation by the WLAN AP.

21. The method of claim 1 , further comprising obtaining security credentials from a cellular base station, and providing the security credentials to a WLAN access point (AP).

22. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the mapping is based on receiving dynamic signaling from a network entity indicating which bearers are sent over which carriers.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein the dynamic signaling provides an indication, for a logical channel identifier (LCID) of a plurality of LCIDs, of which carrier in the plurality of component carriers to use for corresponding uplink traffic.

24. The method of claim 23 , wherein the indication is per bearer and per direction.

25. The method of claim 23 , wherein the LCID maps to the WLAN carrier for downlink traffic and to the at least one cellular carrier for the uplink traffic.

26. The method of claim 22 , wherein the dynamic signaling indicates a packet size threshold, a default carrier, and which carrier to use based on a packet size exceeding the packet size threshold.

27. The method of claim 22 , wherein the dynamic signaling comprises, for a logical channel identifier (LCID), a parameter indicating whether data traffic may be transmitted on the WLAN carrier in addition to the at least one cellular carrier.

28. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mapping comprises a static policy defined by a communications standard or configured by an operator of a base station.

29. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mapping is based on a Quality of Service (QoS) indicator for one or more of the plurality of component carriers.

30. An apparatus, comprising:
means for receiving a configuration for aggregating a plurality of component carriers comprising at least one cellular carrier and a wireless local area network (WLAN) carrier, wherein aggregation is performed at a given protocol layer of the apparatus below an internet protocol (IP) layer;
means for determining, at the given protocol layer, a mapping of uplink traffic in relation to the at least one cellular carrier and the WLAN carrier, wherein the mapping is based on a traffic flow identifier;
means for determining, based on the mapping, one

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Meylan Arnaud
• Griot Miguel
• Giaretta Gerardo

Classifications

• H04L5/0053 Primary

  Allocation of signalling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04L5/0087

  when data requirements change · CPC title

• H04L43/16

  Threshold monitoring · CPC title

• H04L5/0092 Primary

  Indication of how the channel is divided · CPC title