Abstract:
This invention increases the communication efficiency between the network and the mobile device by eliminating repetitive contents within one communication message in a wireless communication system. Meantime, this invention provides improvements while maintains the existing message data structure intact.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE APPLICATION 
   This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/377,533 filed on May 3, 2002. 

   BACKGROUND 
   This invention relates to a wireless communication system, and more particularly, this invention modifies the communication message for a better system performance. 
   Besides transmitting data, a wireless communication network also transmits different messages. These messages have pre-defined structure and meanings that carry commands and feedback back and forth between the network and the mobile devices. For example, the network may request the mobile device to perform a measurement either by broadcasting a SYSTEM INFORMATIONM and/or by transmitting a MEASUREMENT CONTROL message to the intended mobile device.  FIGS. 1A–1E  illustrate the detail structure of several relevant messages. The  FIG. 1A  illustrates the IE fields of MEASUREMENT CONTROL message  2 . The  FIG. 1B  illustrates the detailed IE fields of IE “Traffic volume measurement” (TVM)  30 . The  FIG. 1C  illustrates the detailed IE fields of IE “Traffic volume measurement object” (TVMO)  50 . The  FIG. 1D  illustrates the detailed IE fields of IE “Traffic volume measurement reporting criteria” (TVMRC)  60 . The  FIG. 1E  illustrates the detailed IE fields of IE “Traffic volume measurement system information” (TVMSI)  80 . Refer to  FIG. 1A . The MEASUREMENT CONTROL message  2  contains a plurality of Information Element (IE) fields. The IE “measurement identity”  10  contains a reference number used between the network and the mobile device. The “measurement command”  12  may have three different command selections, namely setup, modify and release. The IE “CHOICE measurement type”  18  specifies what measurement the mobile device should conduct. The MEASUREMENT CONTROL message contains additional information depending on the IE “CHOICE measurement type”  18 . When the network wants to check the on-going uplink traffic volume of a particular mobile device, the network sends mobile device a MEASUREMENT CONTROL message containing the IE “Traffic Volume Measurement” (TVM)  30 , which includes several IE fields, such as the IE “traffic volume measurement object” (TVMO)  32 , the IE “traffic volume measurement quantity” (TVMQ)  34 , the IE “traffic volume reporting quantity” (TVRQ)  36 , the IE “measurement validity”  38 , and the IE “CHOICE report criteria”  40 . If the network wants to check out the uplink traffic volume of all its connecting mobile devices, it sends a System Information Block (SIB) message to all intended mobile devices. The SIB includes the IE “Traffic volume measurement system information” (TVMSI)  80 , which contains 7 IEs fields  82 – 94 , referring to  FIG. 1E , such as TVMO, TVMQ, TVRQ, the IE “CHOICE report criteria” and others. 
   The TVM and the TVMSI have several IE fields in common. The TVMO is one of them.  FIG. 1C  illustrates the detailed structure of a TVMO that includes 3 IE fields itself, the first field contains at least one TVMO  50 , the second field is the IE “uplink transport channel type”  54  and the last field is the IE “UL target support channel ID”  56 . Another IE field in common between the TVM and the TVMSI is the IE “Traffic volume measurement reporting criteria” (TVMRC)  60 . The detailed IE fields  62 – 78  structure of a TVMRC  60  is defined in  FIG. 1D  that includes a plurality of IE fields, such as the IE “Parameter sent for each transport channel”  62 , the IE “Uplink transport channel type”  64 , the IE “UL transport Channel ID”  66  etc. When the mobile device receives a TVM or a TVMSI, the mobile device shall take actions based on the selection passed in the IE “Choice report criteria”  40  in  FIG. 1B and 94  in  FIG. 1E . If the IE “Traffic volume measurement reporting criteria” is chosen, the mobile device shall send measurement report when the event-trigger criteria defined in TVMRC is fulfilled. The IE “CHOICE report criteria” indicates when and how the reporting method is requested to perform by the mobile device. If the IE “Periodical reporting criteria” is chosen, the mobile device shall send measurement report periodically per the parameters defined within the IE “Periodical reporting criteria”. Currently the network assigns a TVMRC either to each uplink transport channels individually, or to all uplink transport channels indicated in the IE “Traffic Volume Measurement Object” (TVMO). 
   In brief,  FIG. 2  shows how a mobile device in the prior art processes the received MEASUREMENT CONTROL message. Upon receiving a TVM  100 , the mobile device shall store the contents of the TVM in a variable  102 . Next, the mobile device checks whether the TVMO field of the MEASUREMENT CONTROL is present or not  104 , if it does not present, then the mobile device shall apply parameters sent in TVMRC to the mobile device&#39;s all uplink transport channels  106 . However, if the mobile device received a TVM within the MEASUREMENT CONTROL message, in addition to a TVMO  104 , where the message has a “setup” in the IE “measurement command”  108 , the receiver shall further check if the IE “traffic volume reporting quantity” is present, then the mobile device generates report according to the measured quantities specified in the IE “traffic volume reporting quantity”  110 ,  116 . If the IE “traffic volume reporting quantity” is not included in the message, then the mobile device shall clear all stored measurement control information associated to this measurement identity and set flag for configuration incomplete to be TRUE  112  and  114 . Meantime, if the parameter “Average of RLC Buffer Payload for each RB” or the parameter “variance of RLC Buffer for each RB” is set  118 , while the IE TVMQ is not included  120 , or the IE TVMQ is included but the parameter “time interval to take an average or a variance” is not included  120  and  124 , then the mobile device sets the flag for configuration incomplete to TRUE  122 . Otherwise, if the “time interval to take an average or a variance” parameter is included, the mobile device uses the time specified in the time interval parameter to calculate the average and/or variance of RLC Buffer Payload according to the TVRQ IE field  124  and  126 . 
   On the other hand,  FIG. 3  illustrates how the prior art process a Measurement Control with a TVMRC  130 , if the IE “parameters sent for each transport channel” of the TCMRC is absent, then the mobile device shall report such error  134  and  136 . Otherwise, the mobile device stores the TVMRC to a variable MEASUREMENT_IDENTITY  138 . If the IE “UL transport channel ID” is not included in the TVMRC  140 , the mobile device shall apply the parameters sent in TVMRC to the mobile device&#39;s all uplink transport channels indicated in the TVMO IE field  142 . If the network does not specified a TVMO for a given measurement identity, then the mobile device shall apply the parameters sent in TVMRC to all uplink transport channels that are configured for the current mobile device state  144 ,  146 . If the IE “Tx interruption after trigger” is included  148 , the mobile device shall block DTCH transmission on the random access channel (RACH) during the time specified in the IE after a measurement report is transmitted  150 . 
   According to the prior art, if the network sends a MEASUREMENT CONTROL message to ask the mobile device to perform uplink traffic volume measurement on the dedicated channel (DCH) transport channels and a RACH, and if the network would like to assign the same reporting criteria to all the DCH transport channels and a different reporting criteria to RACH. Then the network, in the TVMRC of the message, assign the same reporting criteria to each DCH transport channels individually and a different reporting criteria to RACH. It must send the same IE “Parameters required for each Event” for each DCH transport channels and a different IE “Parameters required for each Event” for RACH. For instance, when the network assigns the same event  4 A (Transport Channel Traffic Volume exceeds an absolute threshold) to all DCH  1 ˜ 4  transport channels and event  4 B (Transport Channel Traffic Volume becomes smaller than an absolute threshold) to RACH, it must send a message that includes a information structure like [DCH  1 +parameters required for event  4 A, DCH  2 +parameters required for event  4 A, DCH  3 +parameters required for event  4 A, DCH  4 +parameters required for event  4 A, RACH+parameters required for event  4 B]. In this case, apparently the system wastes valuable channel resources to transmit redundant parameters over the air. Under the current design, the parameters sent for event  4 A for DCH  1 ˜ 4  channels are all the same. By transmitting the same redundant information four times in a message wastes the valuable system resources. 
   SUMMARY 
   This invention improves the communication efficiency of the wireless communication system while keeps the current message data structure intact. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     Following drawings with reference numbers and exemplary embodiments are referenced for explanation purpose. 
       FIGS. 1A–1E  illustrate the detailed IE fields of MEASUREMENT CONTROL message; 
       FIG. 2  illustrates the brief logical flowchart of how the mobile device processes a MEASUREMENT CONTROL message which includes the IE “Traffic Volume Measurement”; 
       FIG. 3  illustrates the brief logical flowchart of how the mobile device processes a TVMRC. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates the brief logical flowchart of how the mobile device implemented with this invention processes a MEASUREMENT CONTROL message. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   Using the same basic structure of a MEASUREMENT CONTROL message in the network, by consolidating repetitive information, or by eliminating the redundancy of parameters inside of the message, or by modifying command interpretations, this invention increases system efficiency. Of course, the network still can assign each individual channel with its corresponding parameter(s) (i.e. IE “Parameters required for each Event”) by loading the selected channel type, channel ID and its corresponding event parameters into the message then transmits the message to the mobile device as the prior art does. In addition, whenever, the network wants to send the same parameter(s) to all the rest of unassigned uplink transport channels of the same channel type of an intended mobile device or all connected mobile devices, the network assigns a “DCH” or a “USCH” value to the IE “Uplink transport channel type” and not includes the IE “UL transport channel ID”. At the same time, the network will load just one set of parameter(s) into the message, which is different from the prior art of loading multi-copies the same parameters into the same message. Moreover, in the case that not all mobile device channels use the same parameters, but two or more channels share the same parameters. First, the network can assign the channel(s) with unique corresponding parameters as the prior art does by loading each uplink transport channel with one copy of its corresponding parameter(s) into the message. Second, for the channels sharing the same parameter(s), the network can omit the channel ID and/or channel type while loads only one set of corresponding parameters in the same message. Therefore, in this invention the network can send message without redundant parameters. 
   Next, at the mobile device side, refer to  FIG. 4 , once the mobile device receives a message, it checks the IE “Uplink transport channel type” and the IE “UL transport channel ID” of the message first. The mobile device checks if there is any event parameter(s) individually assigned for a particular channel  160 , if it does (i.e. both the IE “Uplink transport channel type” and the IE “UL transport channel ID” are included in same message to specify this particular channel), the mobile device assigns the parameter(s) to the individual channel  162 . Then, the mobile device checks if the IE “Uplink transport channel type” has a specified value as “DCH” or “USCH” and the IE “UL transport channel ID” is not included  164 , if both conditions are true, then the mobile device will automatically assign the channel parameters to all its existing uplink transport channels which have the same channel type specified in IE “Uplink Transport Channel Type”  166 . Next, if there are event parameters included in the same message while there is no assignment to the IE “Uplink transport channel type” nor the IE “UL transport channel ID”  168 , then the mobile device assigns the particular channel parameters to all yet unassigned transport channels  172 , irrespective of the channel type. The invention reduces the contents, eventually the size, of such message to be transmitted. 
   Using the previous example while the network sends the same parameters for event  4 A to DCH  1 – 4  transport channels and event  4 B to RACH, a network implemented with this invention, instead of sending the same parameters required for event  4 A four times for DCH  1 – 4  four channels, the network will assign one copy of the IE “Parameters required for each Event” to all uplink DCH transport channels of the intended mobile device(s) by setting the IE “Uplink transport channel type” to “DCH” and not including the IE “UL Transport Channel ID”. Compare to the current prior art design, the new network will not need to put four individual IE “UL Transport Channel ID” nor four copies of the same parameter(s) of DCH  1 – 4  within a message in this case. The modified network sends a new message such as [DCH+parameters required for event  4 A, RACH+parameters required for event  4 B]. When a mobile device receives the message, the mobile device will apply the same parameter(s) required for the event  4 A to all uplink transport channels that the “Uplink transport channel type” is “DCH”, which are DCH  1 – 4  channels in this case. The system trims at least three sets of redundant parameters from the content of an old message, therefore, saves network resources. 
   For another example, if the network would like to assign event  4 A to DCH  1 , event  4 B to RACH and same events  4 A&amp; 4 B to DCH  2 – 4 , with this invention the network could send a new message with contents such as [DCH  1 +parameters required for event  4 A, RACH + parameters required for event  4 B, DCH+parameters required for event  4 A&amp; 4 B]. The new modified mobile device receives this message, it will assign all unassigned DCH channels, which are DCH channels  2 – 4  automatically to the parameters required for event  4 A&amp; 4 B. In this particular example, this invention trims at least two redundant parameters required for event  4 A&amp; 4 B from the content of the new message. 
   In addition, when IE “Uplink transport channel type” and “UL Transport Channel ID” both are absent from the message, the mobile device implemented with this invention will automatically assign the attached IE “Parameters required for each Event” to all the rest of unassigned uplink transport channels, irrespective of the channel type. For example, if the network assigns event  4 A to DCH  1 , event  4 B to DCH  2  and same events  4 A&amp; 4 B to DCH  3 ,  4  and USCH  1 , it could send a message with the new structure as [DCH  1 +parameters required for event  4 A, DCH  2 +parameters required for event  4 B, IE “Uplink transport channel type” and “UL Transport Channel ID” are absent + parameters required for event  4 A&amp; 4 B]. By comparison, the old message has the contents of [DCH  1 +parameters required for event  4 A, DCH  2 +parameters required for event  4 B, DCH  3  parameters required for event  4 A&amp; 4 B, DCH  4 +parameters required for event  4 A&amp; 4 B, USCH  1 +parameters required for event  4 A&amp; 4 B]. The new message is smaller than the old message, therefore, the network saves the system resources. 
   The above inventions provide a flexible scheme for configuring the IE TVMRC without changing the current message structure, i.e. based on the current defined message. And with these modifications, the network could reduce the unnecessary message size since it could configure the IE “Traffic volume measurement reporting criteria” to the mobile device with a more flexible way.