摘要:
Wireless terminal operation is coordinated to be responsive to dynamic communications frequency spectrum reallocation between infrastructure based communications usage and peer to peer communications usage. Methods and apparatus in which mobile nodes switch between cellular and peer to peer communication modes of operation are described. Broadcast signals, e.g., beacon signals, are monitored and detected by the mobile node to ascertain a current spectrum usage designation, and the mobile node switches operational modes in response to detected changes in the broadcast signals.
摘要:
Methods and apparatus supporting peer to peer communications are discussed. A base station, serving as an access node for wireless terminals also communicates information supporting peer to peer communications. A base station transmits a beacon signal conveying information about a peer to peer frequency band and also receives user data from a plurality of wireless terminals, using the base station as a current point of network attachment. In some embodiments, the beacon signal is transmitted into the same frequency band being used for access node based communications and identifies a different frequency band which is to be used as a peer to peer frequency band. Alternatively, or in addition, in support of peer to peer communications, a beacon signal transmission apparatus, a free standing device which doesn't transmit user data, transmits a sequence of beacon signal bursts, each beacon signal burst including at least one high power beacon symbol.
摘要:
A wireless terminal receives base station position over an airlink, determines its relative position with respect to the base station and determines a timing adjustment correction. The wireless terminal applies the determined timing correction to control uplink signaling timing and achieve synchronization at the base station's receiver. The wireless terminal determines its relative velocity with respect to the base station and determines a Doppler shift adjustment which it adds to the uplink carrier frequency or to its baseband signal. A wireless terminal determines the position of a moving base station and determines timing and/or frequency corrections. Base station position is determined from the current time and stored information correlating the base station position with time, e.g., for a geo-synchronous satellite. Base station position information is determined from broadcast information, e.g., GPS base station position, for an aircraft base station. Wireless terminals may be mobile and include a GPS receiver for WIRELESS TERMINAL position determination.
摘要:
Wireless terminals receive beacon signals from other communication devices and make transmission decisions based on priority information communicated by the beacon signals. Priority information communicated in a beacon signal includes, e.g., one of device priority, user priority and session priority. A wireless terminal compares priority information recovered from received beacon signals with its own current level of priority. A transmission decision based on received priority information includes deciding not to transmit user data when received priority information indicates a higher priority than its own priority level. Another transmission decision based on received priority information includes deciding to transmit user data when the received priority information indicates a lower priority than its own priority level. Other exemplary transmission decisions, performed as a function of priority information from beacon signals, include deciding to perform a transmission power level adjustment and deciding to terminate an ongoing communications session.
摘要:
Base stations transmit strip signals using strip signal segments and self supporting modulation scheme techniques facilitating rapid channel estimate. A strip segment occupies one OFDM symbol time interval and uses a set of downlink tones; some, e.g., half, of the tones are left unused facilitating SIR measurement. The strip segments are advantageously timed to correspond to uplink access intervals in which connected wireless terminals do not typically transmit uplink signals. Connected wireless terminals including: multiple antennas used in combination, an antenna duplex module, single RF receiver chain and single RF transmitter chain, switch antenna coefficient combinations based on strip signal segment timing. The wireless terminal determines an independent downlink channel quality measurement, e.g., SNR and/or SIR for each strip signal segment and for on-going non-strip signaling. The wireless terminal compares channel quality measurements and selects an antenna coefficient combination to be used during non-strip signaling intervals obtaining very good antenna gain.
摘要:
Transmit and/or receive diversity is achieved using multiple antennas. In some embodiments, a single transmitter chain within a wireless terminal is coupled over time to a plurality of transmit antennas. At any given time, a controllable switching module couples the single transmitter chain to one the plurality of transmit antennas. Over time, the switching module couples the output signals from the single transmitter chain to different transmit antennas. Switching decisions are based upon predetermined information, dwell information, and/or channel condition feedback information. Switching is performed on some dwell and/or channel estimation boundaries. In some OFDM embodiments, each of multiple transmitter chains is coupled respectively to a different transmit antenna. Information to be transmitted is mapped to a plurality of tones. Different subsets of tones are formed for and transmitted through different transmit chain/antenna sets simultaneously. The balance of tones allocated to the subsets for each antenna are changed as a function of predetermined information, dwell information, and/or channel condition feedback information.
摘要:
Power control methods and apparatus for use in a sectorized cell of an OFDM communications system are described. Each sector of a cell uses the same frequencies and transmission times and is synchronized with the other sectors in the cell in terms of tone frequencies used at any given time and symbol transmission times. Tones are allocated to channels in each cell in the same manner so that each channel in a sector has a corresponding channel in another sector. Power differences between channels in different sectors are maintained to be within a pre-selected power difference. Different channels in a cell are assigned different power levels. Wireless terminals are assigned to channels based on channel feedback information. Wireless terminals with poor channel conditions are allocated to higher power channels than wireless terminals with good channel conditions. Lower power channels often include more tones per symbol time than high power channels.
摘要:
Methods and apparatus for using high power narrow signals, e.g., tones, for communicating transmitter information without putting the full transmission power available into the transmitted tone or tones are described. User data is transmitted in parallel with transmitter information in many embodiments with the user data being allocated more than 20% of the transmitter's maximum output power in many cases. By using an amount of power on the tones used to communicate transmitter information while simultaneously transmitting user data with more than 20% of the available transmission power, efficient bandwidth utilization is achieved while still ensuring a high probability that that the transmitter information signals will be received and detectable using simple energy detection techniques and without the need for timing synchronization with the transmitter to be achieved for success interpretation of the transmitter information.
摘要:
A few high power tones used for synchronization and/or other purposes are transmitted in a FDM system during a period of time into a region, e.g., sector of a cell, e.g., a symbol transmission time period. During normal data transmission symbol periods signals are transmitted using at least 10 tones, e.g., per symbol time. Less than 5 high power signals are transmitted in a symbol time with at least 80% the maximum total transmitter power used for transmitting into said region being allocated to the high power signals where the maximum total transmitter power is determined from a period of time which may includes one or more data and/or high power tone transmission periods. When the high power tones are transmitted at most 20% of transmitter power used for transmitting into the region is available for transmitting other tones with the power normally being distributed among multiple tones. Often some tones which would be transmitted in a symbol time go unused during transmission of the high power signals.
摘要:
A mobile communications device initiates a handoff from its current base station (BS) sector network attachment point to a new BS sector. The mobile sends a handoff request over its current wireless link to the current BS sector, which forwards the request to the new BS sector, e.g., via a network link. The new BS sector processes the request assigning dedicated resources, e.g., an identifier and dedicated uplink segments. Information identifying the allocated resources is conveyed from the new BS sector via the current BS sector to the mobile. The mobile determines the time of the allocated dedicated segments based upon a received beacon signal from the new BS sector with known timing relationships to dedicated segments. The mobile breaks the original wireless link just prior to the time of the first assigned dedicated segment. The mobile communicates information on the assigned dedicated segments to perform registration operations, e.g., timing synchronization and power control, establishing a new wireless link.