Determining a cluster set of mobile devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9642122-B2
Application number	US-201615056582-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 29, 2016
Priority date	Dec 21, 2012
Publication date	May 2, 2017
Grant date	May 2, 2017

Abstract

Mechanisms for determining a cluster set of mobile devices are disclosed. A controller node identifies a primary mobile device that has a scheduled transmission for the controller node at a first time. The controller node identifies, from a plurality of mobile devices, a set of eligible assistant (EA) mobile devices. Each EA mobile device in the set is directed to determine a corresponding mobile device-to-mobile device (MD-MD) channel indicator that identifies a quality of a channel between the each EA mobile device and the primary mobile device. The controller node receives from at least one EA mobile device in the set the corresponding MD-MD channel indicator. The controller node then determines a cluster set that includes the primary mobile device and the at least one EA mobile device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for providing a channel indicator to a controller node comprising:
receiving, by an eligible assistant (EA) device from a controller node, a request to determine a device-to-device channel indicator that identifies a quality of a channel between the EA device and a primary device;
in response to the request, listening to a transmission from the primary device;
determining the device-to-device channel indicator based on the transmission; and
sending the device-to-device channel indicator to the controller node.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving, from the controller node, a request to retransmit a scheduled transmission from the primary device to the controller node.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:
receiving, from the primary device the scheduled transmission; and
transmitting the scheduled transmission to the controller node.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
determining that a link rate between the EA device and the primary device complies with a threshold channel indicator; and
based on the determination, determining the device-to-device channel indicator based on the transmission, and sending the device-to-device channel indicator to the controller node.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the threshold channel indicator is based on a link rate between the primary device and the controller node.

6. A method for determining a cluster set of devices, comprising:
receiving, from each controller node of a plurality of controller nodes, cluster determination information that identifies at least one primary device that has a scheduled transmission for each controller node at a scheduled time, and at least one eligible assistant (EA) device that is unscheduled for transmission at the scheduled time;
determining a system performance metric;
forming cluster sets based on the system performance metric, each cluster set identifying a primary device and at least one EA device; and
sending cluster information to the plurality of controller nodes that identifies the cluster sets.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the system performance metric comprises an average throughput of the identified at least one primary devices.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the system performance metric comprises a harmonic mean of the identified at least one primary devices.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the cluster determination information comprises device-to-controller node channel indicators identifying a quality of a channel between the each controller node and the at least one EA device and device-to-device channel indicators identifying a quality of a channel between the at least one EA device and the at least one primary device.

10. An eligible assistant (EA) device comprising:
a communications interface configured to communicate with a controller node; and
a controller comprising a processor and coupled to the communications interface, the controller configured to:
receive, from the controller node, a request to determine a device-to-device channel indicator that identifies a quality of a channel between the EA device and a primary device;
in response to the request, listen to a transmission from the primary device;
determine the device-to-device channel indicator based on the transmission; and
send the device-to-device channel indicator to the controller node.

11. The eligible assistant (EA) device of claim 10 , wherein the controller is further configured to receive, from the controller node, a request to retransmit a scheduled transmission from the primary device to the controller node.

12. The EA device of claim 11 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
receive, from the primary device, the scheduled transmission; and
transmit the scheduled transmission to the controller node.

13. The EA device of claim 10 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
determine that a link rate between the EA device and the primary device complies with a threshold channel indicator; and
based on the determination, determine the device-to-device channel indicator based on the transmission, and send the device-to-device channel indicator to the controller node.

14. The EA device of claim 13 , wherein the threshold channel indicator is based on a link rate between the primary device and the controller node.

15. The EA device of claim 10 , wherein the controller is further configured to receive, from the controller node, information that indicates that the primary device is scheduled to make a scheduled transmission.

16. The EA device of claim 10 , wherein the controller is further configured to receive, from the controller node, a modulating and coding scheme (MCS) index provided to the primary device.

17. The EA device of claim 16 , wherein the controller is further configured to decode, by the EA device, a scheduled transmission from the primary device using the MCS index.

18. The EA device of claim 10 , wherein the controller is further configured to receive, from the controller node, cluster information that indicates that the EA device is part of a cluster set of devices.

19. The EA device of claim 18 , wherein the controller is further configured to receive, from the controller node, information directing the EA device to retransmit a scheduled transmission at a lower power level than a power level previously used by the EA device.

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Seyedmehdi Seyed Hossein
• Boudreau Gary D

Classifications

• H04W72/20

  Control channels or signalling for resource management · CPC title

• H04W72/21

  in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network · CPC title

• H04W72/54

  based on quality criteria · CPC title

• H04W72/23

  in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal · CPC title

• H04W72/542 Primary

  using measured or perceived quality · CPC title