Managing handoff triggering between unicast and multicast services

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9826502-B2
Application number	US-201213557099-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 24, 2012
Priority date	Jul 25, 2011
Publication date	Nov 21, 2017
Grant date	Nov 21, 2017

Abstract

A wireless communication network may provide services, e.g., multimedia services, in unicast and broadcast modes, and the mode of providing a service may depend on a level of demand. In response to changing demand for a service the network may determine that service should transition from one mode to the other, and the network, may signal such a transition to one or more terminals subscribing to the service.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining a number of subscribers to a service in a wireless communication network;
comparing the number of subscribers to a predetermined threshold value;
determining that the service is being provided in a unicast mode and that the number of subscribers exceeds the predetermined threshold value; and
initiating, based on determining that the service is being provided in the unicast mode and that the number of subscribers exceeds the predetermined threshold value, a transition to a multicast mode by sending the modified content designator to one or more subscribers included in the number of subscribers, to trigger a service discovery procedure, wherein the modified content designator includes a header associated with a Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) content segment or a Real-Time Protocol (RTP) data packet.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein sending the modified content designator comprises sending at least one indication in one or more signals of a channel used to provide the service.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modified content designator comprises a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the DASH content segment.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein sending the modified content designator comprises adjusting at least one protocol element or at least one header of a signal carrying the service to the one or more subscribers.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the at least one protocol element is one of a hyper-text transport protocol (http) element or an RTP element.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the at least one protocol element is a hyper-text transport protocol (http) element, and wherein the method further comprises using an http-REDIRECT element to trigger the service discovery procedure.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the http-REDIRECT element includes the modified content designator including semantics designed to trigger a procedure to receive a service announcement.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the at least one protocol element is an http element, and wherein the method further comprises using an extended http element to trigger the service discovery procedure.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein sending the modified content designator comprises sending at least one indication to the one or more subscribers via a control channel that is distinct from a channel used to provide the service to the one or more subscribers.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the control channel comprises a multimedia control channel.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending a transition time instruction to at least one of the one or more subscribers.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the transition time instruction comprises a signal scheduling a time for the at least one of the one or more subscribers to transition from the multicast mode to the unicast mode.

13. An apparatus in a wireless communication network, the apparatus comprising one or more processors configured to:
determine a number of subscribers to a service in the wireless communication network;
compare the number of subscribers to a predetermined threshold value;
determine the service is being provided in a multicast mode and that the number of subscribers is below the predetermined threshold value;
determine that the service is being provided in a unicast mode and that the number of subscribers exceeds the predetermined threshold value; and
initiate, based on determining that the service is being provided in the unicast mode and that the number of subscribers exceeds the predetermined threshold value, a transition to a multicast mode by sending the modified content designator to one or more subscribers included in the number of subscribers, to trigger a service discovery procedure, wherein the modified content designator includes a header associated with a Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) content segment or a Real-Time Protocol (RTP) data packet;
and further comprising at least one memory configured to store data.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein, when sending the modified content designator, the one or more processors are configured to send at least one indication in one or more signals of a channel used to provide the service.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the modified content designator comprises a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the DASH content segment.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein, when sending the modified content designator, the one or more processors are configured to adjust at least one protocol element or at least one header of a signal carrying the service to the one or more subscribers.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the at least one protocol element is one of a hyper-text transport protocol (http) element or an RTP element.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the at least one protocol element is an http element, and wherein the one or more processors are further configured to use an http-REDIRECT element to trigger the service discovery procedure.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the http-REDIRECT element includes the modified content designator including semantics designed to trigger a procedure to receive a service announcement.

20. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the at least one protocol element is an http element, and wherein the one or more processors are further configured to use an extended http element to trigger the service discovery procedure.

21. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein, when sending the modified content designator, the one or more processors are configured to send at least one indication to the one or more subscribers via a control channel that is distinct from a channel used to provide the service to the one or more subscribers.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the control channel comprises a multimedia control channel.

23. An apparatus in a wireless communication network comprising:
means for determining a number of subscribers to a service in the wireless communication network;
means for comparing the number of subscribers to a predetermined threshold value;
means for determining that the service is being provided in the unicast mode and that the number of subscribers exceeds the predetermined threshold value; and
means for initiating, based on determining that the service is being provided in the unicast mode and that the number of subscribers exceeds the predetermined threshold value, a transition to a broadcast or multicast mode by sending the modified content designator, to trigger a service discovery procedure, via the unicast mode based on a request for content of the service from one or more subscribers included in the number of subscribers when the service is currently being provided in the unicast mode, and the number of subscribers exceeds the predetermined threshold value, wherein the modified content designator includes a header associated with a Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) content segment or a Real-Time Protocol (RTP) data packet.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 , further comprising means for sending at least one indication in one or more signals of a channel used to provide the service.

25. The apparatus of claim 23 , further comprising means for adjusting at least one protocol element of a signal carrying the service to the one or more subscribers, wherein the modified content designator is bas

Assignees

• Cherian George
• Ulupinar Fatih
• Wang Jun
• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Cherian George
• Ulupinar Fatih
• Wang Jun

Classifications

• H04W72/30 Primary

  Resource management for broadcast services · CPC title

• H04W76/40

  for selective distribution or broadcast · CPC title

• H04W4/06 Primary

  Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services · CPC title

• H04W80/06

  Transport layer protocols, e.g. TCP [Transport Control Protocol] over wireless {(transmission control protocol/Internet protocol [TCP/IP] or user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16)} · CPC title

• H04W72/005 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic