Method and apparatus for allocating resources of a frequency band in a wireless system supporting at least two radio access technologies

In one embodiment, the method for allocating resources in a wireless system supporting a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second RAT operating in a narrower frequency band than the first RAT includes assigning at least one physical resource block (PRB) of a plurality of PRBs of the frequency band to the second RAT. The method further includes transmitting, in a first sector, over the at least one assigned PRB using the second RAT. The method further includes transmitting, in the first sector, control signals on unassigned PRBs using the first RAT.

BACKGROUND

General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is widely used for cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) devices. The cost of GPRS continues to decline over time, making GPRS more attractive to M2M providers. Furthermore, because GPRS is available worldwide, a single technology device based on GPRS can be used for applications deployed internationally. While GPRS may not allow a high level of data transmission, GPRS remains suitable for M2M because most M2M devices require very low data rates for communication.

Explosive data growth is resulting in a spectrum crunch and thus many mobile network operators (MNOs) are studying ways to refarm their 2G spectrum to the more efficient 3G/LTE. However, refarming is complicated in that MNOs must support numerous legacy M2M devices. M2M devices, for example smart meters, typically have long life cycles, and it is expensive to migrate these devices to 3G/LTE because such migration requires a service crew to be dispatched to the site where a device is deployed. Despite this, MNOs require that their 2G M2M customers migrate to 3G/LTE so that MNOs can refarm the spectrum.

SUMMARY

Embodiments relate to a method and/or apparatus for allocating resources in a wireless system supporting a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second RAT that operates over a narrower frequency band than the first RAT.

In one embodiment, the method for allocating resources in a wireless system supporting a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second RAT operating in a narrower frequency band than the first RAT includes assigning at least one physical resource block (PRB) of a plurality of PRBs of the frequency band to the second RAT. The method further includes transmitting, in a first sector, over the at least one assigned PRB using the second RAT. The method further includes transmitting, in the first sector, control signals on unassigned PRBs using the first RAT.

The method may further include reducing transmission power on the at least one of the unassigned PRBs using the first RAT if the unassigned PRB is close to an assigned PRB.

The method may further include determining that an assigned PRB is not being used for transmission using the second RAT. The method may further include transmitting over the assigned PRB using the first RAT based on the determining.

In one embodiment, the determining is based on traffic conditions of the network.

In one embodiment, the determining is based on the time of day.

In one embodiment, the assigning may further include determining at least one protected channel of the first RAT. The method may further include assigning the at least one PRB such that the at least one PRB does not include the at least one protected channel.

In one embodiment, the at least one protected channel is a synchronization channel.

In one embodiment, the at least one protected channel is a control channel.

In one embodiment, the assigned PRB in the first sector is not used for transmission in a second sector.

The method may further include transmitting at low power, in a second sector, over the at least one assigned PRB using the first RAT.

In one embodiment, the transmitting at low power transmits to a user equipment that is close to a base station of the second sector.

In one embodiment, the method for allocating resources of a frequency band in a wireless system support a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second RAT operating in a narrower frequency band than the first RAT includes assigning at least one physical resource block (PRB) of a plurality of PRBs of the frequency band to the second RAT, the at least one assigned PRB not including a control channel of the first RAT. The method further includes transmitting, in a first sector, over the at least one assigned PRB using the second RAT.

The method may further include transmitting, in the first sector, data signals on unassigned PRBs using the first RAT. The method may further include reducing transmission power of the control signals and the data signals on an unassigned PRB using the first RAT if the unassigned PRB is close to an assigned PRB.

The method may further include determining that the at least one assigned PRB is not used for transmission using the second RAT. The method may further include transmitting over the at least one assigned PRB using the first RAT based on the determining.

In one embodiment, the determining is based on a reduction in the number of devices using the second RAT.

In one embodiment, the assigned PRB in the first sector is not used for transmission in the second sector.

The method may further include transmitting at low power, in a second sector, over the at least one assigned PRB using the first RAT.

In one embodiment, the transmitting at low power transmits to a user equipment that is close to a base station of the second sector.

In one embodiment, an apparatus for allocating carrier frequencies of a frequency band in a wireless system supporting a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second RAT operating in a narrower frequency band than the first RAT includes a controller. The controller is configured to assign at least one physical resource block (PRB) of a plurality of PRBs of the frequency band. The controller is further configured to transmit, in a first sector, using only the second RAT in the at least one reserved PRB. The controller is further configured to transmit, in the first sector, control signals on unassigned PRBs using the first RAT.

In one embodiment, an apparatus for allocating carrier frequencies of a frequency band in a wireless system supporting a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second RAT operating in a narrower frequency band than the first RAT includes a controller. The controller is configured to assign at least one physical resource block (PRB) of a plurality of PRBs of the frequency band to the second RAT, the at least one assigned PRB not including a control channel of the first RAT. The controller is further configured to transmit in a first sector using only the second RAT in the at least one assigned PRB.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

Various embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Like elements on the drawings are labeled by like reference numerals.

A code segment may represent a procedure, function, subprogram, program, routine, subroutine, module, software package, class, or any combination of instructions, data structures or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.

Example embodiments may be utilized in conjunction with RANs such as: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Global System for Mobile communications (GSM); Advance Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) system; the Narrowband AMPS system (NAMPS); the Total Access Communications System (TACS); the Personal Digital Cellular (PDC) system; the United States Digital Cellular (USDC) system; the code division multiple access (CDMA) system described in EIA/TIA IS-95; a High Rate Packet Data (HRPD) system, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX); ultra mobile broadband (UMB); and 3rdGeneration Partnership Project Long Term Evolution (3GPP LTE).

Devices in a wireless network may communicate using different Radio Access Technologies (RATs). A first RAT may require relatively broad frequency bands for operation, when compared to other RATS. Other RATS may require relatively narrow frequency bands for operation. An example of a RAT that requires a relatively narrow frequency band for operations is GPRS. Hereinafter, in the interest of brevity, the second RAT may be referred to as RAT2, or the narrowband RAT.

In one embodiment, a base station reserves certain physical resource blocks (PRBs) within the 10 MHZ LTE deployment for GPRS. Sub-carriers corresponding to the reserved PRBs are not used by the base station for transmission of any LTE signal. Rather, only GPRS signals are transmitted on that sub-carrier from a given base station.

In example embodiments, a base station reserves PRBs for GPRS such that the LTE control or signaling PRBs, used for synchronization, control signaling and other signaling such as HARQ feedback, are not assigned to GPRS. Using this approach, LTE UEs are not impacted by GPRS transmissions.

The adjacent channel leakage ratio of GPRS generates interference such that the Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) of neighboring LTE PRBs will be limited to an average of about 10 dB. However, this limitation does not significantly impact overall LTE spectral efficiency because LTE UEs close to the cell edge have a SINR limited to less than 1 dB due to out-of-cell interference.

On the other hand, GPRS terminals that are far from the cell edge, or relatively closer to the eNodeB, will cause great interference to LTE UEs in adjacent PRBs. As is known, GPRS power control is relatively crude compared to LTE power control. Therefore, LTE closed-loop power control may be used to overcome GPRS interference.

To mitigate interference from LTE PRBs to GPRS, transmit power on the PRBs close to GPRS PRBs can be reduced and in addition interference mitigation through pre-coding can be used. Pre-coding means transmitting a linear combination of signals sent on the LTE PRBs on the GPRS PRBs so that the effects of LTE PRB transmissions are effectively nullified in the GPRS PRBs.

Further, GPRS employs frequency reuse. Spectral efficiency can be improved by allowing low-power LTE transmissions to LTE UEs close to the base station on the GPRS PRBs of the neighboring cells/sectors. With this fractional reuse approach between LTE and GPRS, the amount of spectrum needed to support GPRS can be minimized. With the above techniques an overlay can be supported efficiently.

FIG. 1illustrates a system in which example embodiments are implemented.

Referring toFIG. 1, the system100includes at least one base station110. The base station110may be an LTE eNodeB. The base station110may incorporate a controller supporting GPRS technologies. The controller may be a base station controller. A base station110according to one example embodiment is described in further detail with respect toFIG. 2below.

The base station110serves a geographical region. It should be understood that, while the system100depicts only one base station110, there may be additional, adjacent base stations serving adjacent geographic regions.

The system100may include one or more LTE devices130. The LTE devices130may operate using a RAT that requires a relatively broad frequency spectrum. The system may further include one or more legacy devices120that operate using a narrowband RAT.

It should be understood that at any point in time there may be no LTE devices130or legacy devices120served by the base station110. It should further be understood that at any given point in time all devices served by the base station110may be LTE devices130or alternatively all devices served by the base station110may be legacy devices120.

The legacy devices120may be machine-to-machine (M2M) devices. The M2M devices may be, for example, smart meters. The devices120may be in communication with each other or to an application running on, for example, the Internet. using the narrowband RAT. The narrowband RAT may be, for example, GPRS.

FIG. 2illustrates a base station110according to an example embodiment. It should be understood that the base station110may include other components not illustrated inFIG. 2. In an example embodiment, the base station110is an LTE eNodeB. The LTE eNodeB incorporates a GPRS base station controller (BSC)220. The LTE eNodeB includes a Backhaul for connecting to a core network (CN). The Backhaul feeds data to an LTE Layer 3 and LTE Modem and Scheduler230. As is known, the LTE Layer 3 handles service connection protocols such as Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP). As LTE Layer 3 is a known element of an LTE eNodeB, further description is omitted in the interest of brevity.

In example embodiments, the LTE Scheduler and Modem230is in communication240with GPRS BSC220. The LTE Scheduler and Modem230coordinates with GPRS BSC220for scheduling PRBs.

FIG. 3illustrates a method of allocating resources of a frequency band in a wireless system supporting a first radio access technology and a second RAT. For example, the first RAT may be 3G/LTE and the second RAT may be GPRS. As described above, the second RAT may operate using a narrower frequency band than the first RAT.

In step S210, the base station110assigns at least one physical resource block (PRB) of the LTE spectrum to the second RAT. It should be understood that the base station110may assign one or several PRBs to the second RAT. It will be understood that some RATS require a minimum of two PRBs. It should further be understood that GPRS transmission requires at least one Signaling/Broadcast Control /Channel(BCCH) carrier and at least one traffic carrier in each sector.

In step S220, base station110transmits on the downlink to legacy devices120, over the PRBs that have been assigned to the second RAT. It should be understood that uplink transmissions may also occur over assigned PRBs in a separate frequency band, as is known with Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) technologies. The PRBs assigned to the second RAT for downlink communications may be in the same or different locations within a frequency band as the PRBs assigned to the second RAT for uplink communications. The uplink transmissions may be transmissions from legacy devices120. Legacy devices120may be, for example, M2M devices.

In step S230, the base station110transmits on the downlink over the non-assigned PRBs. The non-assigned PRBs include control and/or synchronization channels of LTE.

In example embodiments, transmission power may be reduced on the PRBs that have not been reserved for second RAT use. The base station110may reduce transmission power when the PRB is relatively close to a PRB that has been reserved for GPRS. For example, the base station110may reduce transmission power when the PRB is within one to three PRBs from a PRB that has been reserved for GPRS. The base station110may achieve transmission power reduction through power shaping of LTE transmissions, or through pre-coding algorithms. The transmission power reduction by the base station110is capable of meeting interference requirements for GPRS, downlink LTE transmissions.

FIGS. 4-5illustrate that LTE downlink communications remain unaffected by frequency allocations described in example embodiments.

With reference toFIG. 4, no impact is seen on broadcast and synchronization channels when GPRS is transmitted outside of the central 1.08 MHz of the LTE band. The base station110transmits using GPRS on the lower three PRBs of the portion of the frequency band depicted inFIG. 4. LTE broadcast and synchronization channels, for example, Secondary Synchronization Channel (S-SCH), Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), and Primary Synchronization Channel (P-SCH), remain unaffected.

FIG. 5illustrates that GPRS impact on protected LTE channels may be avoided by not using certain 75 kHz chunks of the frequency spectrum. The Physical Control Format Indicator Channels (PCFICH) illustrated as the darker squares inFIG. 5, occur at fixed positions in the LTE frequency band. Because the PCFICH occurs at fixed positions, the base station110may avoid affecting these channels by avoiding assigning PRBs in these chunks of the frequency spectrum.

The base station110may determine these fixed positions of PCFICH channels based on periodically-transmitted reference signals, as shown inFIG. 5. Reference signals, as known in the art, are periodically transmitted signals used for calculating channel impulse response. The base station110may calculate the next 75 kHz chunk, based on its transmissions of reference signals interspersed with nulled resource elements as shown inFIG. 5, to avoid assigning GPRS PRBs during those chunks.

FIGS. 6-7illustrate that LTE uplink communications remain unaffected by frequency allocations described in example embodiments.

With reference toFIG. 6, uplink control channels are sent on the band edges and can therefore avoid GPRS PRBs. For example, Physical Uplink Control Channels (PUCCH) are sent at the band edges.

With reference toFIG. 7, Physical Random Access Channels (PRACH) are restricted to contiguous bands of 1.08 MHz, which can be assigned to avoid overlapping with GPRS PRBs.

If a management or operation entity determines that PRBs assigned for GPRS use are under-utilized and a smaller number of PRBs is sufficient for GPRS transmissions, then the base station110may instead use LTE for transmissions over the unused PRBs. In this way, spectrum sharing and allocation can be dynamic and adaptable to changing needs. An operations or management entity makes the determination of under-utilization, outside the base station110, in order that uniformity of assignment policies can be enforced over multiple base stations110. The operations or management entity may provide signals to the base station110concerning policies as to which PRBs may be used for the second RAT. For example, the operations or management entity may determine that an assigned PRB is not being used for transmission using the second RAT. Based on this determination, the base station110may transmit over the assigned PRB using the first RAT.

The management or operation entity may make this determination by studying traffic conditions in the region and particularly on PRBs assigned for GPRS use. The determination may be made based on the time of day. For example, it may be desirable to have more PRBs assigned to LTEs, during time periods in which human users demand greater bandwidth for their operations. For example, users may perform more web-browsing and video watching during the evening hours, and require greater bandwidth using LTE devices. In addition, during these times, M2M devices may be less active because these devices may typically operate only during regular business hours, or M2M devices may postpone their transmissions to a later time when less bandwidth is required for LTE devices.

Finally, as M2M devices evolve and as more M2M devices migrate to 3G/LTE, there may be less need for PRBs reserved for GPRS, and the PRBs may be dynamically allocated to LTE use to allow for more efficient frequency spectrum use.

In example embodiments, base stations110assign PRBs to the second RAT subsequent to determining which channels of the frequency spectrum are protected LTE channels. In this context, protected channels are, for example, LTE control channels or synchronization channels. The base station110therefore assigns PRBs to the second RAT such that the PRBs do not include protected LTE channels.

In example embodiments, frequency reuse may be implemented. As described above, frequency reuse means that a base station110may assign a PRB for GPRS use in one sector that is not used for transmissions in an adjacent sector. Alternatively, the base station110may schedule low-power LTE transmissions in a second sector, on a PRB that was assigned to GPRS in the first sector. Frequency reuse is depicted inFIG. 8.

InFIG. 8, two base stations1010and1020are depicted. Base station1010schedules LTE transmissions in PRBs A, and base station1020schedules LTE transmissions in PRBs D. Base station1010may transmit to one or more LTE devices1030on PRBs A, and base station1020may transmit to one or more LTE devices1040on PRBs D.

With further reference toFIG. 8, base station1010may schedule GPRS transmissions in PRBs B and base station1020may schedule GPRS transmissions in PRBs E. Base station1010may transmit to one or more legacy devices1050over PRBs B and base station1020may transmit to one or more legacy devices1060over PRBs E.

Base station1010may schedule low-power transmissions to LTE devices1070using PRBs C. PRBs C, in the sector served by base station1010, are the same PRBs as PRBs E in sector served by base station1020. Similarly, base station1020may schedule low-power transmissions to LTE devices1080using PRBs F. PRBs F, in the sector served by base station1020, are the same PRBs as PRBs B in the sector served by base station1010. The base stations1010and1020may use low-power LTE transmissions for LTE devices1070and1080that are physically close to the base stations in their respective cells or sectors.

FIG. 9shows an example allocation of GPRS spectrum with LTE. Each block in the figure represents 200 Khz, the width of a GPRS carrier. A total of 12 200 KHz blocks or about 2.4 MHZ of spectrum can assigned as default GPRS spectrum. This represents about 25% of the LTE spectrum. Each sector can have a BCCH carrier and a traffic carrier. A frequency reuse of 3/9 can be supported for BCCH and ⅓ for traffic channel. As an alternative to frequency hopping, antenna selection diversity can be employed where the signal is transmitted on different antennas in alternate slots to provide diversity transmission.FIG. 5shows that some of the GPRS blocks meant for use in other cells can be used in this cell for LTE with low power so that they do not cause interference to other cells. The grey blocks cannot be assigned to GPRS since they are protected for LTE control signaling.

In example embodiments, MNOs may continue to offer global M2M service using low cost GPRS modules. MNOs can refarm spectrums from 2G to LTE without requiring that M2M devices migrate to LTE because example embodiments allow M2M devices to transmit on the LTE spectrum using reserved PRBs, without adverse effects to LTE transmissions.

While example embodiments have been described with reference to LTE and GPRS as the first or second RAT, it should be understood that other example embodiments may utilize other RATS as the first or second RAT.

Variations of the example embodiments are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the example embodiments, and all such variations as would be apparent to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of this disclosure.