Reverse link control to reduce forward link latency

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9900799-B2
Application number	US-201113210519-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 16, 2011
Priority date	Aug 16, 2011
Publication date	Feb 20, 2018
Grant date	Feb 20, 2018

Abstract

Some implementations provide a method for prioritizing reverse link packets so that particular reverse link packets are transmitted with a reduced latency in order to improve spectral efficiency of the forward link. The method also optionally includes weighting packets according to their determined lengths, and transmitting packets based on the determined weights. In one implementation, the method includes sorting packets at least according to one of size, type and nature of the data in the packets. Accordingly, sorting of the packets includes at least one of determining the size and the type of each packet. In one implementation, sorting the packets includes deep-packet inspection to determine a respective priority value for each packet.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining, at a mobile user equipment, an estimated impact on a wireless forward link packet to be received by the user equipment from an access point caused by a delay in sending at least one wireless reverse link packet to the access point, the estimated impact including at least one of an estimate of an amount of time that the wireless forward link will be idle as a result of the delay in sending the at least one wireless reverse link packet to the access point or an estimate of an amount of forward link traffic that will be generated in response to the at least one wireless reverse link packet, wherein the estimated impact is based on a size of the at least one wireless reverse link packet, a type of the at least one wireless reverse link packet, a nature of data included in the at least one wireless reverse link packet, or any combination thereof;
determining, at the user equipment, a priority for the at least one wireless reverse link packet for transmission from the user equipment to the access point when an indicator relating to the estimated impact breaches a corresponding threshold value;
refraining from assigning a priority to the at least one wireless reverse link packet when the indicator does not breach the corresponding threshold value,
wherein the priority for the at least one wireless reverse link packet is based on at least the estimated impact on a forward link packet to be received by the user equipment from the access point caused by a delay in sending the at least one reverse link packet to the access point; and
transmitting the at least one reverse link packet from the UE to the access point based on at least the determined priority for the at least one reverse link packet.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicator comprises an indicator of a reverse link data rate, the method further comprising:
receiving the indicator of the reverse link data rate associated with a reverse link from the user equipment to the access point, wherein the determining the priority for the at least one reverse link packet is based at least in part on the indicator of the reverse link data rate.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising comparing the indicator of the reverse link data rate to a threshold value.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the threshold value includes a lower bound, below which the user equipment can expect lower than nominal data rates on the reverse link to the access point.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the threshold value is an upper bound, above which the user equipment can expect lower than nominal data rates on the reverse link to the access point.

6. The method of claim 3 , further comprising sorting the at least one reverse link packet when the indicator of the reverse link data rate meets the threshold value such that the user equipment expects lower than nominal data rate on the reverse link.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a size of the at least one wireless reverse link packet and a type of data included in the at least one wireless reverse link packet.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the priority for the at least one wireless reverse link packet includes:
determining a length of the at least one wireless reverse link packet; and
prioritizing the at least one wireless reverse link packet based at least on the determined length of the at least one wireless reverse link packet.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the prioritizing the at least one wireless reverse link packet based at least on the determined length of the at least one wireless reverse link packet includes weighting the at least one wireless reverse link packet that is below a particular length threshold.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the priority for the at least one wireless reverse link packet includes:
determining a type of the at least one wireless reverse link packet; and
prioritizing the at least one wireless reverse link packet based at least on the determined type of the at least one reverse link packet.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the prioritizing the at least one wireless reverse link packet based at least on the determined type of the at least one wireless reverse link packet includes weighting particular types of the at least one wireless reverse link packet.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the priority for the at least one wireless reverse link packet includes:
performing deep packet inspection of data included in the at least one wireless reverse link packet; and
prioritizing the at least one wireless reverse link packet based at least on the deep packet inspection of the data included in the at least one wireless reverse link packet.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the prioritizing the at least one wireless reverse link packet based at least on the deep packet inspection of the data included in the at least one wireless reverse link packet includes weighting particular types of data.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the at least one wireless reverse link packet associated with a GET message for requesting advertising information in the wireless forward link packet is given a low priority.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein ACK messages for acknowledging a forward link transmission are given a higher priority than GET messages.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the at least one wireless reverse link packet associated with a domain name system (DNS) query packet is given a relatively high priority.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the priority for the at least one wireless reverse link packet includes:
determining whether the at least one wireless reverse link packet is related to a foreground application or a background application; and
prioritizing the at least one wireless reverse link packet based at least on whether the at least one wireless reverse link packet is related to the foreground application or the background application.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the determining whether the at least one wireless reverse link packet is related to the foreground application or the background application is based at least in part on information from an operating system managing applications on the user equipment.

19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sorting the at least one wireless reverse link packet into respective queues for corresponding priority levels;
setting at least one frequency of service value for each priority level; and
servicing the respective queues based at least on the corresponding frequency of service value for the respective priority level.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the at least one frequency of service value is based on a particular priority level and an indicator of a reverse link data rate.

21. The method of claim 19 , wherein the priority levels are ranked based at least on one of the estimated amount of time that the forward link will be idle or the estimated likelihood that the forward link will be idle.

22. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one wireless reverse link packet comprises a transmission control protocol (TCP) ACK message, and wherein the wireless forward link packet comprises a TCP message generated in response to receiving the TCP ACK message.

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicator comprises a reverse link data rate.

24. The method o

Assignees

• Cherian George
• He Linhai
• Ghosh Donna
• Lott Christopher Gerard
• Attar Rashid Ahmed Akbar
• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Cherian George
• He Linhai
• Ghosh Donna
• Lott Christopher Gerard
• Attar Rashid Ahmed Akbar

Classifications

• H04W28/0205 Primary

  at the air interface (dynamic wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12) · CPC title

• H04W72/569

  of the traffic information · CPC title

• H04L47/2433

  Allocation of priorities to traffic types · CPC title

• H04W72/542

  using measured or perceived quality · CPC title

• H04W72/56

  based on priority criteria · CPC title