Patent Publication Number: US-2015065109-A1

Title: Enhanced idle mode mechanisms for power efficient devices

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119 to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/872,401 entitled “ENHANCED IDLE MODE MECHANISMS FOR POWER EFFICIENT DEVICE,” which was filed on Aug. 30, 2013, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     The following description relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly to providing multiple operational modes for a user equipment (UE) for improved power management. 
     Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. One example of such a network is the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). The UTRAN is the radio access network (RAN) defined as a part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The UMTS, which is the successor to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technologies, currently supports various air interface standards, such as Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), and Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA). The UMTS also supports enhanced 3G data communications protocols, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), which provides higher data transfer speeds and capacity to associated UMTS networks. 
     As the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, research and development continue to advance the UMTS technologies not only to meet the growing demand for mobile broadband access, but to advance and enhance the user experience with mobile communications. 
     Currently, in UMTS systems, a UE camps on an appropriate cell using methods of cell selection and/or reselection as specified, for example, in Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) publication TS25.304, which is hereby incorporated by reference. For example, when operating in idle mode, the UE may need to perform various intra-frequency, inter-frequency, and inter-radio access technology (RAT) measurements to aid in executing the appropriate cell selection and/or reselection algorithm. The types of measurements, the UE state, and the UE receiver capabilities determine when such measurements may be taken. For example, intra-frequency measurements may be taken while continuing to receive data from the serving cell. In addition, the UE may need to monitor the network for paging occasions according to a configured discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle length specified by the network. The paging occasions, at which the UE may have incoming paging messages on a paging channel (PCH), are indicated by paging indicators which are carried via a Paging Indicator Channel (PICH). 
     If the UE has only one receiver, inter-frequency and inter-RAT measurements, as well as monitoring the PICH for paging occasions, require the UE to retune its radio, and thus prevent the UE from receiving data from the serving cell while taking measurements of available cells or monitoring the PICH. While the UE remains in idle mode or PCH state, performing these measurements and monitoring paging occasions are major contributors to UE power consumption. 
     SUMMARY 
     The following presents a simplified summary of one or more aspects of the disclosure in-order to provide a basic understanding of such aspects. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated aspects, and is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of all aspects nor delineate the scope of any or all aspects. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later. 
     According to example aspects, a method for UE management is presented which may result in reduced UE power consumption due to the potential for the UE to effectively skip one or more paging or cell measurement iterations. In an aspect, such an example method may include detecting a first trigger event and transitioning an operational mode of the UE from a first mode to a second mode based on detecting the first trigger event, wherein a paging cycle rate and a cell measurement rate of the UE are based on the operational mode. In an additional aspect, such an example method may include monitoring a paging channel of a serving cell associated with the UE according to the paging cycle rate while the UE is operating according to the second mode and performing cell measurement of one or more available cells according to the cell measurement rate while the UE is operating according to the second mode. Likewise, the example method may include detecting a second trigger event while the UE is operating according to the second mode and transitioning the operational mode of the UE from the second mode to the first mode based on detecting the second trigger event. 
     In a further example aspect, the present disclosure presents an apparatus for mobile communication, which may include means for detecting a first trigger event and means for transitioning an operational mode of the UE from a first mode to a second mode based on detecting the first trigger event, wherein a paging cycle rate and a cell measurement rate of the UE are based on the operational mode of the UE. Such an example apparatus may further include means for monitoring a paging channel of a serving cell associated with the UE according to the paging cycle rate while the UE is operating according to the second mode and means for performing cell measurement of one or more available cells according to the cell measurement rate while the UE is operating according to the second mode. Furthermore, the example apparatus may include means for detecting a second trigger event while the UE is operating according to the second mode and means for transitioning the operational mode of the UE from the second mode to the first mode based on detecting the second trigger event. 
     Additionally, the present disclosure presents a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, comprising instructions, that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform detecting a first trigger event, transitioning an operational mode of the UE from a first mode to a second mode based on detecting the first trigger event, wherein a paging cycle rate and a cell measurement rate of the UE are based on the operational mode, monitoring a paging channel of a serving cell associated with the UE according to the paging cycle rate while the UE is operating according to the second mode, performing cell measurement of one or more available cells according to the cell measurement rate while the UE is operating according to the second mode, detecting a second trigger event while the UE is operating according to the second mode, and transitioning the operational mode of the UE from the second mode to the first mode based on detecting the second trigger event. 
     Moreover, the present disclosure presents an apparatus for management of a UE, which may include a trigger event detecting component configured to detect a first trigger event and a second trigger event and an operational mode transitioning component configured to transition an operational mode of the UE from a first mode to a second mode based on detecting the first trigger event and configured to transition the operational mode from the second mode to the first mode based on detecting the second trigger event, wherein a paging cycle rate and a cell measurement rate of the UE are based on the operational mode of the UE. In addition, the example apparatus may include a paging channel monitoring component configured to monitor a paging channel of a serving cell associated with the UE according to the paging cycle rate while the UE is operating according to the second mode and a cell measurement component configured to perform cell measurement of one or more available cells according to the cell measurement rate while the UE is operating according to the second mode; 
     To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the one or more embodiments comprise the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative aspects of the one or more embodiments. These aspects are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of various embodiments may be employed and the described embodiments are intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example wireless communications system according to the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example operational mode manager according to an example apparatus of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 3A  is a flow diagram comprising a plurality of functional blocks representing an example methodology of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 3B  is a flow diagram comprising a plurality of functional blocks representing another example methodology of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an apparatus employing a processing system; 
         FIG. 5  is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a telecommunications system; 
         FIG. 6  is a diagram conceptually illustrating an example of an access network; and 
         FIG. 7  is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a Node B in communication with a UE in a telecommunications system. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of various configurations and is not intended to represent the only configurations in which the concepts described herein may be practiced. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understanding of various concepts. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well known structures and components are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring such concepts. 
     The present disclosure presents methods and apparatuses for improved power management and performance in UEs. For example, according to example methods and apparatuses of the present disclosure, when a UE is operating in idle mode or PCH state, the UE may transition between operational modes, which may include a passive mode and an active mode. By utilizing these example methods and apparatuses, UE power consumption associated with monitoring the network for paging occasions and cell reselection opportunities can be decreased. 
     In an aspect of the present disclosure, a server may be configured to generate a message or command that moves the UE between operational modes, such as a first mode and a second mode, each of which may be an active mode or a passive mode. In the active mode, relatively high volume of communication activity may be expected between the UE and a network and/or server, such as, but not limited to, when a UE is conducting a voice call, streaming data session, or the like. During the active mode, to maintain call or session integrity, relatively few instances of cell measurement and paging occasion monitoring can be skipped in order to ensure reliable cell selection/reselection and page channel decoding processes. 
     Conversely, in the passive mode, a relatively low volume of communication activity may be expected. Thus, while a UE operational mode is a passive mode, a number of cell measurement and/or paging channel (or paging indicator channel) monitoring instances can be skipped while maintaining proper UE functionality. By skipping one or more paging channel monitoring or cell measurement instances, the UE may save battery power that may have been consumed were the UE to perform every instance of page monitoring or cell measurement. Furthermore, where pages are tied to non-time-critical data (e.g., a magazine subscription, book download, etc.) rather than time-critical data (e.g., voice call, streaming audio or video), a UE can benefit from the power savings advantage of transitioning to the passive mode of the present disclosure without significant risk to call integrity because a delay in downloading the non-time-critical data resulting from skipped paging instances may be acceptable. 
     The generation and/or transmission of a command to transition between operational modes may be timer-based, event-based, or time-of-day based. For example, for time-of-day based triggering, the UE or server may generate the message or command to transition the UE from a first mode (e.g., passive mode) into a second mode (e.g., active mode) at a predetermined time of day during which a large amount of downlink traffic is normally present for a UE. For example, the server (e.g., a magazine subscription server or other non-critical data content server) may normally push data to subscribers during the middle of the night when network bandwidth cost is lowest. Thus, during these times (e.g., 1:00-2:00 AM or the like), the UE may transition into active mode to receive the content. 
     In another optional aspect, the UE or server may generate a message or command to transition the UE from the passive mode into the active mode based on an “event,” such as when the UE or server determines that data exists at the server which is ready to be transmitted, or “pushed,” to the UE. For example, using the magazine subscription example, the server, or an application executed on the server, may transmit a message to move the UE to active mode where the server determines that the magazine is ready to be pushed to the UE. Likewise, the UE can exit a current mode based on the expiration a pre-determined amount of time after entering the current mode. 
     In an additional aspect of the present disclosure, a UE may depart from existing cell selection protocol by reselecting, regardless of the mobility state of the UE, to the largest cell detected by the UE in a cell measurement procedure. For example, an Information Element (IE) exists in the radio resource control (RRC) layer called the “UE Mobility State Indicator,” which is generated and transmitted by the UE to indicate whether the UE is operating in a high mobility state or a low mobility state based on certain criteria defined by the network configuration. In an aspect, a high mobility state may indicate that a UE is rapidly transitioning between cells, while a medium, normal, or low mobility state may indicate that the UE is transitioning between cells relatively slowly vis-à-vis a high mobility state UE. This mobility state may be based, for example, on a number of cell reselections or handovers during a specified period of time. Furthermore, with Hierarchical Cell Structure (HCS) supported configurations, the UE knows the cells that belong to larger or smaller coverage areas based on HCS priority values given in System Information Block (SIB) messages transmitted by each cell of the network. According to the current standards, high mobility state UEs are expected to be served by a large cell while the low mobility UEs are expected to be served by a small cell. 
     In addition, the number of times that the UE can skip cell measurement or page monitoring occasions can be dependent on the size of the cell. For example, when camped on a large cell, UE is permitted to skip the measurements quite often compared to if the UE were camped on a medium cell or small cell. Thus, the number of times the UE is permitted to skip the cell measurements or page monitoring occasions can be dependent on the current status of the “UE Mobility State Indicator.” Specifically, if the UE is in a high mobility state, UE can camp on a large cell and thereby maximize the number of skipped cell measurements or page monitoring occasions compared to where the UE is in a low mobility state. 
     Thus, in an additional or alternative aspect of the present disclosure, even though a UE is a low mobility user, the UE can be configured to camp on the largest available cell detected during a cell measurement procedure. As such, because the UE is camped on the largest available cell, the UE can skip a larger number of paging occasions and cell measurements relative to small or medium cells, which helps to improve the battery performance. 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating a system  100  for wireless communication, according to an example configuration.  FIG. 1  includes an example network  108 , which may communicate wirelessly with a UE  102  over one or more wireless communication channels  114 , which may include, in a non-limiting aspect, data communication channels, paging channels, and/or control channels. In an aspect, communication channels  114  may include a paging channel (PCH) and/or a paging indicator channel (PICH). For purposes of the present disclosure, any reference to a paging channel may include a paging channel or a paging indicator channel. In other words, when UE  102  monitors a paging channel according to the present disclosure, the UE may likewise monitor a paging indicator channel. 
     In an additional aspect, communication channel  114  comprise any over-the-air (OTA) communication channel, including, but not limited to, one or more data or control communication channels operating according to specifications promulgated by 3GPP and/or 3GPP2, which may include first generation, second generation (2G), 3G, 4G, etc. wireless network communication protocols. In addition, one or more cells or network entities associated with the one or more cells of network  108  may be configured to broadcast or otherwise transmit system information  112  associated with the one or more cells. In an aspect, the system information  112  may include SIBs, connectivity or permission information, cell size or geographical information (e.g., HCS or other cell priority information), cell identification information, or any other cell-specific information. For purposes of the present disclosure, “cell size” may refer to a geographic or spatial area over which a cell is able to provide communication services to one or more UEs  102 . Likewise, “largest cell size” may refer to a cell size of a plurality of cell sizes that encompasses the largest geographic or spatial area over which the cell is able to provide communication services to one or more UEs  102 . 
     Furthermore, network  108  may communicate with a server  104  over one or more communication links  116 . Server  104  may be configured to transmit data, messages, or otherwise communicate with UE  102  via network  108 . In an aspect, server  104  may include a memory (not shown) that serves as a data repository for data, messages, subscription content (e.g., books, magazines, music, multimedia, or the like) that may be transmitted from the server  104  to UE  102  over network  108 . In addition, server  104  may be configured to transmit one or more messages  110  to UE  102  to indicate that a data stored on the server is to be transmitted, or “pushed,” to the UE  102 . In some examples, such messages  110  may be associated with upper layers of a communication layer model (e.g., the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model), which may include, but is not limited to, an application layer or layer  7 . In an additional aspect the one or more messages  110  may include one or more paging signals, which may be forwarded to UE  102  via network  108 . 
     Additionally, UE  102  may comprise any type of mobile device, such as, but not limited to, a smartphone, cellular telephone, mobile phone, laptop computer, tablet computer, e-reader, or other portable networked device. In addition, UE  102  may also be referred to by those skilled in the art as a mobile station, a subscriber station, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wireless communications device, a remote device, a mobile subscriber station, an access terminal, a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a terminal, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or some other suitable terminology. In general, UE  102  may be small and light enough to be considered portable and may be configured to communicate wirelessly via an over-the-air communication link using one or more OTA communication protocols described herein. Alternatively or additionally, UE  102  may comprise a relatively stationary device, such as, but not limited to, a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) device. In addition, UE  102  may include an operational mode manager  106 , which may be configured to transition the UE  102  between a plurality of available operational modes, each of which may define the paging cycle and cell monitoring behavior of UE  102  while UE  102  is operating according to a given operational mode. Operational mode manager  106  is discussed in greater detail below in reference to  FIG. 2 . Furthermore, though not shown in  FIG. 1 , server  104  may include the operational mode manager  106  and may be configured to perform methods disclosed herein. 
     Furthermore, network  108  of  FIG. 1  may include one or more of any type of network entity or module, such as an access point, a macro cell, including a base station (BS), node B, eNodeB (eNB), a relay, a peer-to-peer device, an authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) server, a mobile switching center (MSC), a radio network controller (RNC), or a small cell. As used herein, the term “small cell” may refer to an access point or to a corresponding coverage area of the access point, where the access point in this case has a relatively low transmit power or relatively small coverage as compared to, for example, the transmit power or coverage area of a macro network access point or macro cell. For instance, a macro cell may cover a relatively large geographic area, such as, but not limited to, several kilometers in radius. In contrast, a small cell may cover a relatively small geographic area, such as, but not limited to, a home, a building, or a floor of a building. As such, a small cell may include, but is not limited to, an apparatus such as a base station (BS), an access point, a femto node, a femtocell, a pico node, a micro node, a Node B, evolved Node B (eNB), home Node B (HNB) or home evolved Node B (HeNB). Therefore, the term “small cell,” as used herein, refers to a relatively low transmit power and/or a relatively small coverage area cell as compared to a macro cell. Additionally, network  108  may communicate with one or more other network entities of wireless and/or core networks. Furthermore, the one or more network entities of network  108  may transmit 
     Additionally, network  108  may include any network type, such as, but not limited to, wide-area networks (WAN), wireless networks (e.g. 802.11 or cellular network), the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) network, ad hoc networks, personal area networks (e.g. Bluetooth®) or other combinations or permutations of network protocols and network types. Such network(s) may include a single local area network (LAN) or wide-area network (WAN), or combinations of LANs or WANs, such as the Internet. Such networks may comprise a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) system, and may communicate with one or more UEs  102  according to this standard. As those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, various aspects described throughout this disclosure may be extended to other telecommunication systems, network architectures and communication standards. By way of example, various aspects may be extended to other Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) systems such as Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) and Time-Division CDMA (TD-CDMA). Various aspects may also be extended to systems employing Long Term Evolution (LTE) (in FDD, TDD, or both modes), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) (in FDD, TDD, or both modes), CDMA2000, Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX™), IEEE 802.20, Ultra-Wideband (UWB), Bluetooth, and/or other suitable systems. The actual telecommunication standard, network architecture, and/or communication standard employed will depend on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the system. The various devices coupled to the network(s) (e.g., UE  102 , server  104 ) may be coupled to a core network via one or more wired or wireless connections. 
     Turning to  FIG. 2 , an example operational mode manager  106  (of  FIG. 1 , for example) is presented as comprising a plurality of individual components for carrying out the one or more methods or processes described herein. For example, in an aspect, operational mode manager  106  may include a trigger event detecting component  200 , which may be configured to detect one or more trigger events that initiate transition between operational modes. For instance, trigger event detecting component  200  may be configured to detect a first trigger event  202  and/or a second trigger event  204 , each of which may initiate an operational mode transition for the UE. 
     Either or both of first trigger event  202  and second trigger event  204  may correspond to one of several trigger event types contemplated by the present disclosure. For example, in a non-limiting aspect, either trigger event may be event-based, timer-based, or time-of-day based trigger event. In event-based triggering, trigger event detecting component  200  may determine that a message has been received from a server that indicates that data on the server is to be transmitted to the UE. For instance, the server may be configured to periodically push data to the UE, and upon each instance of such a data push, the server may transmit a message to indicate that the data is to be transmitted. In event-based triggering, receipt of such a message may serve as a trigger for transitioning from a passive mode to an active mode such that a paging cycle rate  214  associated with the active mode does not skip, or skips relatively few, paging instances to ensure the data to be pushed is successfully received by the UE. For purposes of the present disclosure, paging cycle rate may refer to a rate at which a receiver  220  is tuned to one or more frequencies associated with a paging channel or paging indicator channel of one or more cells to be monitored for paging messages (or paging indicator messages) such that a UE (or operational mode manager  106  associated with a UE) may obtain an indication that a page exists for the UE. Such a page may indicate that a voice call, data session, messaging session, or any other communication session or call establishment request or indication is present on the network for the UE (e.g., UE  102  of  FIG. 1 ). 
     In timer-based triggering, the trigger event detecting component  200  may detect that a timer associated with an operational mode has expired, and as such, the operational mode should be transitioned from a first state to a second state or vice versa. For example, if a UE has operated according to the first mode for a predetermined time period, a trigger event may be detected upon expiration of the timer associated with the time period of the first mode. Furthermore, in time-of-day-based triggering, a trigger event detecting component  200  may be configured to detect a trigger event when a current time of day maintained by the UE is equal to a mode transition time of day associated with a mode transition. For instance, where a server is configured to push data to the UE at a certain time of day, the UE may be configured to transition to an active mode at that time of day to ensure that a paging signal associated with the data to be pushed is not skipped or otherwise goes undetected by the UE. 
     Additionally, operational mode manager  106  may include an operational mode transitioning component  206 , which may be configured to transition an operational mode of the UE between a first mode and a second mode, or vice versa, upon detection of a triggering event by triggering event detecting component  200 . In other words, operational mode transitioning component  206  may be configured to transition an operational mode of the UE from a first mode to a second mode based on the detection of a first trigger event, and may further configured to transition the operational mode from the second mode to the first mode based on detecting a second trigger event. In an aspect, the operational modes may include a first mode and a second mode, each of which may correspond to an active mode  208  or a passive mode  210 . In other words, for purposes of the present disclosure, the first mode may correspond to either the active mode  208  or the passive mode  210 . Likewise, the second mode may correspond to either of the active mode  208  or the passive mode  210 . 
     Furthermore, each of the active mode  208  and the passive mode  210  may have an associated paging cycle rate that determines a rate at which the UE monitors a paging channel or paging indicator channel of a cell. In addition, each of the active mode  208  and the passive mode  210  may have an associated cell measurement rate that determines a rate at which the UE performs cell measurement operations. Such cell measurement operations may include tuning receiver  220  to one or more frequencies associated with broadcast channels of one or more cells to be monitored such that cell measurement component  212  (or operational mode manager  106 , generally) may obtain control, timing, subscription, provisioning, or any other characteristic information associated with the monitored cell. In an additional aspect, the paging cycle rate  214  associated with the passive mode  210  may be less than a paging signal transmission rate of a paging channel associated with a serving cell that is to be monitored by the UE. For purposes of the present disclosure, a paging signal transmission rate may refer to a rate at which a cell (or base station, sector, or the like) broadcasts or otherwise transmits paging messages or paging indicators via a paging channel or paging indicator channel. In addition, the cell measurement rate  218  associated with the passive mode  210  may be less than a cell information transmission rate associated with the one or more available cells. For purposes of the present disclosure, “one or more available cells” may be defined according to the present disclosure as any cell or group of cells for which the UE can receive system information or are otherwise in communicative range of the UE. As such, when in passive mode, the UE can effectively “skip” one or more paging instances and/or cell measurement procedure instances by maintaining a relatively lower paging cycle rate and cell measurement rate vis-à-vis one or more serving cells and/or available cells. 
     Conversely, the paging cycle rate  214  associated with the active mode  208  may conform to the paging signal transmission rate associated with a paging channel of a serving cell of the UE. For example, for purposes of the present disclosure, to “conform to” the paging signal transmission rate associated with the paging channel, the paging cycle rate  214  may be the same or substantially the same as the paging signal transmission rate or otherwise consistent with specified paging signal transmission rate parameters provided by the network entity associated with the paging channel. As such, when in active mode, the UE may not skip any (or skip relatively few) paging iterations or DRX cycles associated with the paging channel. Likewise, the cell measurement rate  218  associated with the active mode  208  may conform to the cell information transmission rate associated with one or more available cells. For instance, each available cell may transmit pilots, beacons, or any other signal that may include system information (e.g., System Information Blocks (SIBs)), connectivity information, or control information according to a defined rate or schedule. These transmissions may individually or collectively be referred to as “cell information” and the rate or schedule according to which such cell information is transmitted (or broadcast) by a cell may be referred to as a “cell information transmission rate” for purposes of the present disclosure. When in active mode, the UE may be configured to perform cell measurement to receive and process such signals according to the defined rate or schedule (i.e., not skip any or skip relatively few cell measurement instances) such that cell selection or reselection procedures are optimized. 
     To perform the paging channel monitoring procedures, operational mode manager  106  may include a paging channel monitoring component  212 , which may be configured to monitor one or more paging channels (e.g., associated with a serving cell of the UE) according to the paging cycle rate  214 . As introduced above, the paging cycle rate  214  may correspond to a current operational mode of the UE. As such, where the operational mode is a passive mode  210 , the paging cycle rate  214  may be less than the paging signal transmission (or retransmission) rate of a paging channel so as to effectively skip one or more paging instances, which may in turn minimize power consumption of the UE. Alternatively, where the operational mode is an active mode  212 , the paging cycle rate  214  may conform to the paging signal transmission (or retransmission) rate of a paging signal such that no paging instances are skipped or relatively few paging instances are skipped vis-à-vis the passive mode  210 . 
     Furthermore, operational mode manager  106  may include a cell measurement component  216 , which may be configured to perform cell measurement procedures according to the cell measurement rate  218  associated with a current operational mode of the UE. In an aspect, when the current operational mode of the UE is a passive mode  210 , cell measurement rate  218  may be less than a cell information transmission rate associated with one or more available cells. Furthermore, when the current operational mode of the UE is an active mode  212 , cell measurement rate  218  may conform to a cell information transmission rate associated with one or more available cells. For purposes of the present disclosure, the one or more available cells may include a current serving cell, one or more neighbor cells, and/or any other cell transmitting cell information that is detectable by cell measurement component  216  or any other component of the UE. Furthermore, the cell information may include connectivity information, access permission information, SIBs, information regarding the size of the cell (e.g., HCS information) or any other related information broadcast by a cell or associated network entity. 
     Moreover, operational mode manager  106  may include a receiver  220 , which may be configured to receive one or more wireless signals transmitted by a server, network, network entity (e.g., base station, eNB, small cell), or one or more associated cells. For example, in an aspect, receiver  220  may be configured to receive a command or message from a server or network indicating that an operational mode is to be transitioned from a first mode to a second mode. In an additional aspect, receiver  220  may be configured to receive a message that indicates that data stored on the server is to be transmitted to the UE, such as a data push indication message or page. Likewise, receiver  220  may be configured to receive a message from the server or network that indicates a mode transition time of day at which a mode transition is to occur on a particular day or on a recurring basis. Additionally, receiver  220  may be configured to receive one or more messages from a server or network indicating a first mode time period and/or second mode time period defining a period during which the UE is to maintain a first mode and/or second mode before transitioning to the other mode. Furthermore, the receiver  220  may receive one or more paging signals or system information signals, such as, but not limited to SIBs, according to a paging cycle rate  214  and cell measurement rate  218 , respectively. In addition, receiver  220  may comprise a receiver, transceiver, and associated circuitry for receiving, decoding, queuing, decompressing, decrypting, or otherwise processing received signals. 
     Additionally, operational mode manager  106  may include a memory  222 , which may be configured to store information associated with mode transition, trigger events, paging cycle rate  214 , cell measurement rate  218 , mode-specific timer information, or any other information associated with operational mode manager  106 . For example, memory  222  may store a mode transition time of day associated with a first mode or second mode, such as passive mode  208  and/or active mode  210 , which may be read by trigger event detecting component  200  to determine a time of day at which a mode transition is to occur. Furthermore, memory  222  may be configured to store information related to cell size of available cells, the mobility state of the UE, or data pushed from a server. 
     In an additional aspect, operational mode manager  106  may include a mode timer component  224 , which may be configured to maintain and/or monitor a first mode timer  226  and second mode timer  228 , each of which may include a mode timer associated with an active mode  208  and a passive mode  210 . First mode timer  226  may define a first time period during which the UE is to remain in the first mode and second mode timer  228  may define a second time period during which the UE is to remain in the second mode. Additionally, mode timer component  224  may start and maintain the timers and determine when the timers expire, and may forward an indication of the timer expiration to trigger event detecting component  200  for potential trigger event detection. 
     Moreover, operational mode manager  106  may include a mobility state determining component  230 , which may be configured to determine a mobility state of the UE. For example, the mobility state determining component  230  may be configured to determine that the UE is in a low mobility state  232 , high mobility state  234 , and/or any other mobility state known in the art, such as, but not limited to, medium mobility state, normal mobility state, and the like. In an aspect, the mobility state may be determined according to historical cell information obtained during cell measurement procedures, cell reselection rate information, handover rate information, or any other information known in the art that is used to determine a UE mobility state. 
     In addition, operational mode manager  106  may include a largest cell size determining component  236 , which may be configured to determine a largest cell available and/or detected by the network having a largest cell size. In an aspect, receiver  220  may receive one or SIBs transmitted by one or more cells, where the SIBs each may indicate a cell size associated with the transmitting cell. For example, such cell size information may include HCS information, which may indicate a cell size of the cell, geographical information associated with the cell from which cell size can be determined, or relative priority information associated with the cell (e.g., priority level of 0-7, or the like). The largest cell size determining component  236  may then compare the cell size information received from the one or more cells and determine the largest cell size based on the comparison. Furthermore, operational mode manager  106  may include a reselection component  238 , which may be configured to reselect to the largest cell determined by largest cell size determining component. Therefore, because a UE having an associated low mobility state would traditionally not reselect to a large cell where smaller cells are available, but may do according to functional aspects of operational mode manager  106 , paging channel monitoring instances and cell measurement instances can be more frequently skipped relative to traditional UE operation, which can result in improved power conservation at the UE. 
     Through exemplary components of  FIG. 2  are presented in reference to operational mode manager  106 , they are not exclusive. Instead, operational mode manager  106  may include additional or alternative components configured to perform aspects of the present disclosure and the claims recited below. 
       FIGS. 3A and 3B  present exemplary methodologies  300  and  314 , each comprising a non-limiting set of steps represented as blocks that may be performed by an apparatus described herein (e.g. UE  102  of  FIG. 1 , operational mode manager  106  of  FIGS. 1 and 2 , and/or server  104 ). In an aspect, methodology  300  may comprise a method of user equipment management, and may include, at block  302 , detecting a first trigger event. In some examples, block  302  may be performed by trigger event detecting component  200  of  FIG. 2 . As introduced above, such a trigger event may include a timer-based trigger, time-of-day-based trigger, or an event-based trigger. Furthermore, at the time that first trigger event  302  is detected, a UE may be operating according to a first mode, which may comprise an active mode or passive mode, as described herein. 
     In addition, at block  304 , methodology  300  may include transitioning an operational mode of the UE from a first mode to a second mode based on the detection of the first trigger event. In an aspect, block  304  may be performed by operational mode transitioning component  206  of  FIG. 2 . In an aspect, the first mode and/or second mode may comprise an active mode or a passive mode, wherein each of the active mode and passive mode have an associated paging cycle rate and cell measurement rate that govern a rate at which the UE monitors a paging channel and a rate at which the UE performs cell measurement procedures, respectively. Furthermore, at block  306 , methodology  300  may include monitoring a paging channel of a serving cell associated with the UE according to the paging cycle rate. In some examples, block  306  may be performed by paging channel monitoring component  212  of  FIG. 2 . In an aspect, where the operational mode is a passive mode, the paging cycle rate may be less than a DRX cycle rate, paging transmission rate, or retransmission rate of a serving cell defining the rate at which the serving cell transmits pages over the paging channel. As such, when in passive mode, the UE may effectively skip one or more paging transmission or retransmission instances and thereby save power associated with performing paging channel monitoring. 
     In addition, at block  308 , methodology  300  may include performing cell measurement of one or more available cells according to the cell measurement rate associated with the current operational mode (e.g. a second mode). In some examples, block  308  may be performed by cell measurement component  216  of  FIG. 2 . As with the paging cycle rate associated with the passive mode, the cell measurement rate associated with the passive mode may be less than a cell information transmission rate associated with the one or more available cells detected during cell measurement operations. 
     Moreover, at block  310 , methodology  300  may include detecting a second trigger event, for example, while the UE is operating according to a second mode. In some examples, block  310  may be performed by trigger event detecting component  200  of  FIG. 2 . As with the first trigger event associated with block  302 , second trigger event may comprise a timer-based trigger, time-of-day-based trigger, or an event-based trigger. Furthermore, first trigger event of block  302  and second trigger event  310  may include the same type of trigger event or may be different trigger event types. For example, both of the first trigger event and second trigger event may be an event-based trigger, such as receiving a message from a server indicating that data is to be pushed to the UE and/or that data push procedures have completed. In some alternative examples, first trigger event may be an event-based trigger, such as receiving a message from the server, whereas second trigger event may be a timer-based trigger. In such examples, when the UE transitions to the second operational mode at block  304  based on the message from the server, a timer having a time period associated with the operational mode (the timer optionally being stored in memory or received in the message from the server) may be started and may monitor an amount of time that the UE is in the second mode. Absent any intervening information or commands to the contrary, when the timer expires, the second trigger event may be detected at block  310 . 
     Furthermore, at block  312 , based on detecting the second trigger event at block  310 , methodology  300  may include transitioning the operational mode of the UE from the second mode to the first mode. In some examples, block  312  may be performed by operational mode transitioning component  206  of  FIG. 2 . Like the second mode, the first mode may comprise an active mode or passive mode as described throughout the present disclosure. 
     Turning to  FIG. 3B , an additional or alternative methodology  314  of the present disclosure is presented for UE management and related power conservation. For purposes of the present disclosure, it is to be understood that methodology  314  may be performed independent of methodology  300 , in conjunction with methodology  300 , or before, during, or subsequent to methodology  300 . In other words, methodology  314  may serve to supplement the power saving aspects of methodology  300  or may serve as a stand-alone method of UE management and power conservation vis-à-vis methodology  300 . 
     In an aspect, methodology  314  may include, at block  316 , determining a mobility state associated with a UE. In some examples, block  316  may be performed by mobility state determining component  230  of  FIG. 2 . As introduced above, such a mobility state may comprise a low mobility state, high mobility state, and/or any other mobility state known in the art, such as, but not limited to, medium mobility state, normal mobility state, and the like. In an aspect, the mobility state may be determined at block  316  according to historical cell information obtained during cell measurement procedures, cell reselection rate information, handover rate information, or any other information known in the art that is used to determine a UE mobility state. 
     In addition, at block  318 , methodology  314  may include receiving at least one SIB associated with one or more available cells, where each of the received SIBs contains a cell size of one of each available cell. In some examples, block  318  may be performed by receiver  220  of  FIG. 2 . In an aspect, such a cell size may comprise HCS information, which may indicate a cell size of the cell, geographical information associated with the cell from which cell size can be determined, or relative priority information associated with the cell (e.g., priority level of 0-7, or the like). Furthermore, methodology  314  may include, at block  320 , determining the largest cell size of the one or more available cells. In some examples, block  320  may be performed by largest cell size determining component  236  of  FIG. 2 . In an aspect, determining the largest cell size may include comparing the cell size information received from the one or more cells and determine the largest cell size based on the comparison. In addition, methodology  314  may include, at block  322 , performing a reselection procedure to establish a largest available cell as the serving cell of the UE regardless of the mobility state of the UE. In some examples, block  322  may be performed by reselection component  238  of  FIG. 2 . As such, because a UE having an associated low mobility state would traditionally not reselect to a large cell where smaller cells are available, but may do so according to methodology  314 , paging channel monitoring instances and cell measurement instances can be more frequently skipped relative to traditional methodologies, which can result in improved power conservation at the UE. 
       FIG. 4  is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an apparatus  400  employing a processing system  414 . In some examples, the processing system  414  may comprise a UE or a component of a UE (e.g., UE  102  of  FIG. 1 ), or server  104  of  FIG. 1 . In this example, the processing system  414  may be implemented with a bus architecture, represented generally by the bus  402 . The bus  402  may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specific application of the processing system  414  and the overall design constraints. The bus  402  links together various circuits including one or more processors, represented generally by the processor  404 , computer-readable media, represented generally by the computer-readable medium  406 , and an operational mode manager  106  (see  FIGS. 1 and 2 ), which may be configured to carry out one or more methods or procedures described herein. 
     The bus  402  may also link various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further. Depending upon the nature of the apparatus, a user interface  412  (e.g., keypad, display, speaker, microphone, joystick) may also be provided. 
     The processor  404  is responsible for managing the bus  402  and general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium  406  and/or a memory (e.g., memory  222  of  FIG. 2 ) of operational mode manager  106 . The software, when executed by the processor  404 , causes the processing system  414  to perform the various functions described infra for any particular apparatus. The computer-readable medium  406  may also be used for storing data that is manipulated by the processor  404  when executing software. 
     In addition, operational mode manager  106  may be implemented by processor  404  executing software stored on the computer-readable medium  406  and/or a memory (e.g., memory  222  of  FIG. 2 ) of operational mode manager  106 . In other words, in some examples, the operational mode manager  106  may be implemented by software executed by processor  404  in conjunction with computer-readable medium  106 . Moreover, operational mode manager  106  may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software. For example, operational mode manager  106  may be partially or wholly implemented by processor  404  or partially or wholly implemented by hardware other than processor  404 . 
     The various concepts presented throughout this disclosure may be implemented across a broad variety of telecommunication systems, network architectures, and communication standards. By way of example and without limitation, the aspects of the present disclosure illustrated in  FIG. 5  are presented with reference to a UMTS system  500  employing a W-CDMA air interface. A UMTS network includes three interacting domains: a Core Network (CN)  504 , a UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN)  502 , and User Equipment (UE)  510 . In an aspect, UE  510  may represent UE  102  of  FIG. 1  and can include operational mode manager  106  of  FIGS. 1 and 2 . In this example, the UTRAN  502  provides various wireless services including telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and/or other services. The UTRAN  502  may include a plurality of Radio Network Subsystems (RNSs) such as an RNS  507 , each controlled by a respective Radio Network Controller (RNC) such as an RNC  506 . Here, the UTRAN  502  may include any number of RNCs  506  and RNSs  507  in addition to the RNCs  506  and RNSs  507  illustrated herein. The RNC  506  is an apparatus responsible for, among other things, assigning, reconfiguring and releasing radio resources within the RNS  507 . The RNC  506  may be interconnected to other RNCs (not shown) in the UTRAN  502  through various types of interfaces such as a direct physical connection, a virtual network, or the like, using any suitable transport network. 
     Communication between a UE  510  and a Node B  508  may be considered as including a physical (PHY) layer and a medium access control (MAC) layer. Further, communication between a UE  510  and an RNC  506  by way of a respective Node B  508  may be considered as including a radio resource control (RRC) layer. In the instant specification, the PHY layer may be considered layer  1 ; the MAC layer may be considered layer  2 ; and the RRC layer may be considered layer  3 . Information hereinbelow utilizes terminology introduced in Radio Resource Control (RRC) Protocol Specification, 3GPP TS 25.331 v9.1.0, incorporated herein by reference. 
     The geographic region covered by the SRNS  507  may be divided into a number of cells, with a radio transceiver apparatus serving each cell. A radio transceiver apparatus is commonly referred to as a Node B in UMTS applications, but may also be referred to by those skilled in the art as a base station (BS), a base transceiver station (BTS), a radio base station, a radio transceiver, a transceiver function, a basic service set (BSS), an extended service set (ESS), an access point (AP), or some other suitable terminology. For clarity, three Node Bs  508  are shown in each SRNS  507 ; however, the SRNSs  507  may include any number of wireless Node Bs. The Node Bs  508  provide wireless access points to a core network (CN)  504  for any number of mobile apparatuses. Examples of a mobile apparatus include a cellular phone, a smart phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a laptop, a notebook, a netbook, a smartbook, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a satellite radio, a global positioning system (GPS) device, a multimedia device, a video device, a digital audio player (e.g., MP3 player), a camera, a game console, or any other similar functioning device. The mobile apparatus is commonly referred to as user equipment (UE) in UMTS applications, but may also be referred to by those skilled in the art as a mobile station (MS), a subscriber station, a mobile unit, a subscriber unit, a wireless unit, a remote unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, a wireless communications device, a remote device, a mobile subscriber station, an access terminal (AT), a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, a remote terminal, a handset, a terminal, a user agent, a mobile client, a client, or some other suitable terminology. In a UMTS system, the UE  510  may further include a universal subscriber identity module (USIM)  511 , which contains a user&#39;s subscription information to a network. For illustrative purposes, one UE  510  is shown in communication with a number of the Node Bs  508 . The downlink (DL), also called the forward link, refers to the communication link from a Node B  508  to a UE  510 , and the uplink (UL), also called the reverse link, refers to the communication link from a UE  510  to a Node B  508 . 
     The core network  504  interfaces with one or more access networks, such as the UTRAN  502 . As shown, the core network  504  is a GSM core network. However, as those skilled in the art will recognize, the various concepts presented throughout this disclosure may be implemented in a RAN, or other suitable access network, to provide UEs with access to types of core networks other than GSM networks. 
     The core network  504  includes a circuit-switched (CS) domain and a packet-switched (PS) domain. Some of the circuit-switched elements are a Mobile services Switching Centre (MSC), a Visitor location register (VLR) and a Gateway MSC. Packet-switched elements include a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) and a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN). Some network elements, like EIR, HLR, VLR and AuC may be shared by both of the circuit-switched and packet-switched domains. In the illustrated example, the core network  504  supports circuit-switched services with a MSC  512  and a GMSC  514 . In some applications, the GMSC  514  may be referred to as a media gateway (MGW). One or more RNCs, such as the RNC  506 , may be connected to the MSC  512 . The MSC  512  is an apparatus that controls call setup, call routing, and UE mobility functions. The MSC  512  also includes a visitor location register (VLR) that contains subscriber-related information for the duration that a UE is in the coverage area of the MSC  512 . The GMSC  514  provides a gateway through the MSC  512  for the UE to access a circuit-switched network  516 . The core network  504  includes a home location register (HLR)  515  containing subscriber data, such as the data reflecting the details of the services to which a particular user has subscribed. The HLR is also associated with an authentication center (AuC) that contains subscriber-specific authentication data. When a call is received for a particular UE, the GMSC  514  queries the HLR  515  to determine the UE&#39;s location and forwards the call to the particular MSC serving that location. 
     The core network  504  also supports packet-data services with a serving GPRS support node (SGSN)  518  and a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN)  520 . GPRS, which stands for General Packet Radio Service, is designed to provide packet-data services at speeds higher than those available with standard circuit-switched data services. The GGSN  520  provides a connection for the UTRAN  502  to a packet-based network  522 . The packet-based network  522  may be the Internet, a private data network, or some other suitable packet-based network. The primary function of the GGSN  520  is to provide the UEs  510  with packet-based network connectivity. Data packets may be transferred between the GGSN  520  and the UEs  510  through the SGSN  518 , which performs primarily the same functions in the packet-based domain as the MSC  512  performs in the circuit-switched domain. 
     The UMTS air interface is a spread spectrum Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA) system. The spread spectrum DS-CDMA spreads user data through multiplication by a sequence of pseudorandom bits called chips. The W-CDMA air interface for UMTS is based on such direct sequence spread spectrum technology and additionally calls for a frequency division duplexing (FDD). FDD uses a different carrier frequency for the uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) between a Node B  508  and a UE  510 . Another air interface for UMTS that utilizes DS-CDMA, and uses time division duplexing, is the TD-SCDMA air interface. Those skilled in the art will recognize that although various examples described herein may refer to a WCDMA air interface, the underlying principles are equally applicable to a TD-SCDMA air interface. 
     Referring to  FIG. 6 , an access network  600  in a UTRAN architecture is illustrated. In an aspect, access network  600  which may correspond to network  108  of  FIG. 1  or a portion thereof. In other words, the UTRAN architecture may be associated with a network configured to serve UE  102  of  FIG. 1 . The multiple access wireless communication system includes multiple cellular regions (cells), including cells  602 ,  604 , and  606 , each of which may include one or more sectors. The multiple sectors can be formed by groups of antennas with each antenna responsible for communication with UEs in a portion of the cell. For example, in cell  602 , antenna groups  612 ,  614 , and  616  may each correspond to a different sector. In cell  604 , antenna groups  618 ,  620 , and  622  each correspond to a different sector. In cell  606 , antenna groups  624 ,  626 , and  628  each correspond to a different sector. The cells  602 ,  604  and  606  may include several wireless communication devices, e.g., User Equipment or UEs, which may be in communication with one or more sectors of each cell  602 ,  604  or  606 , which may represent UE  102  of  FIG. 1  having a operational mode manager  106 . For example, UEs  630  and  632  may be in communication with Node B  642 , UEs  634  and  636  may be in communication with Node B  644 , and UEs  638  and  640  (which may represent UE  102  of  FIG. 1 ) can be in communication with Node B  646 . Here, each Node B  642 ,  644 ,  646  is configured to provide an access point to a core network  204  (see  FIG. 2 ) for all the UEs  630 ,  632 ,  634 ,  636 ,  638 ,  640  in the respective cells  602 ,  604 , and  606 . 
     As the UE  634  moves from the illustrated location in cell  604  into cell  606 , a serving cell change (SCC) or handover may occur in which communication with the UE  634  transitions from the cell  604 , which may be referred to as the source cell, to cell  606 , which may be referred to as the target cell. Management of the handover procedure may take place at the UE  634 , at the Node Bs corresponding to the respective cells, at a radio network controller  506  (see  FIG. 5 ), or at another suitable node in the wireless network. For example, during a call with the source cell  604 , or at any other time, the UE  634  may monitor various parameters of the source cell  604  as well as various parameters of neighboring cells such as cells  606  and  602 . Further, depending on the quality of these parameters, the UE  634  may maintain communication with one or more of the neighboring cells. During this time, the UE  634  may maintain an Active Set, that is, a list of cells that the UE  634  is simultaneously connected to (i.e., the UTRA cells that are currently assigning a downlink dedicated physical channel DPCH or fractional downlink dedicated physical channel F-DPCH to the UE  634  may constitute the Active Set). 
     The modulation and multiple access scheme employed by the access network  600  may vary depending on the particular telecommunications standard being deployed. By way of example, the standard may include Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) or Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB). EV-DO and UMB are air interface standards promulgated by the 6rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) as part of the CDMA2000 family of standards and employs CDMA to provide broadband Internet access to mobile stations. The standard may alternately be Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) employing Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) and other variants of CDMA, such as TD-SCDMA; Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) employing TDMA; and Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, and Flash-OFDM employing OFDMA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE Advanced, and GSM are described in documents from the 6GPP organization. CDMA2000 and UMB are described in documents from the 6GPP2 organization. The actual wireless communication standard and the multiple access technology employed will depend on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the system. 
       FIG. 7  is a block diagram of a Node B  710  in communication with a UE  750 , where the Node B  710  may be associated with network  108  in  FIG. 1 , and the UE  750  may be the UE  102  of  FIG. 1 . Accordingly, UE  750  may include an operational mode manager  106 , for example, as described in reference to  FIGS. 1 and 2 . In the downlink communication, a transmit processor  720  may receive data from a data source  712  and control signals from a controller/processor  740 . The transmit processor  720  provides various signal processing functions for the data and control signals, as well as reference signals (e.g., pilot signals). For example, the transmit processor  720  may provide cyclic redundancy check (CRC) codes for error detection, coding and interleaving to facilitate forward error correction (FEC), mapping to signal constellations based on various modulation schemes (e.g., binary phase-shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK), M-phase-shift keying (M-PSK), M-quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM), and the like), spreading with orthogonal variable spreading factors (OVSF), and multiplying with scrambling codes to produce a series of symbols. Channel estimates from a channel processor  744  may be used by a controller/processor  740  to determine the coding, modulation, spreading, and/or scrambling schemes for the transmit processor  720 . These channel estimates may be derived from a reference signal transmitted by the UE  750  or from feedback from the UE  750 . The symbols generated by the transmit processor  720  are provided to a transmit frame processor  730  to create a frame structure. The transmit frame processor  730  creates this frame structure by multiplexing the symbols with information from the controller/processor  740 , resulting in a series of frames. The frames are then provided to a transmitter  732 , which provides various signal conditioning functions including amplifying, filtering, and modulating the frames onto a carrier for downlink transmission over the wireless medium through antenna  734 . The antenna  734  may include one or more antennas, for example, including beam steering bidirectional adaptive antenna arrays or other similar beam technologies. 
     At the UE  750 , a receiver  754  receives the downlink transmission through an antenna  752  and processes the transmission to recover the information modulated onto the carrier. The information recovered by the receiver  754  is provided to a receive frame processor  760 , which parses each frame, and provides information from the frames to a channel processor  794  and the data, control, and reference signals to a receive processor  770 . The receive processor  770  then performs the inverse of the processing performed by the transmit processor  720  in the Node B  710 . More specifically, the receive processor  770  descrambles and despreads the symbols, and then determines the most likely signal constellation points transmitted by the Node B  710  based on the modulation scheme. These soft decisions may be based on channel estimates computed by the channel processor  794 . The soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data, control, and reference signals. The CRC codes are then checked to determine whether the frames were successfully decoded. The data carried by the successfully decoded frames will then be provided to a data sink  772 , which represents applications running in the UE  750  and/or various user interfaces (e.g., display). Control signals carried by successfully decoded frames will be provided to a controller/processor  790 . When frames are unsuccessfully decoded by the receiver processor  770 , the controller/processor  790  may also use an acknowledgement (ACK) and/or negative acknowledgement (NACK) protocol to support retransmission requests for those frames. 
     In the uplink, data from a data source  778  and control signals from the controller/processor  790  are provided to a transmit processor  780 . The data source  778  may represent applications running in the UE  750  and various user interfaces (e.g., keyboard). Similar to the functionality described in connection with the downlink transmission by the Node B  710 , the transmit processor  780  provides various signal processing functions including CRC codes, coding and interleaving to facilitate FEC, mapping to signal constellations, spreading with OVSFs, and scrambling to produce a series of symbols. Channel estimates, derived by the channel processor  794  from a reference signal transmitted by the Node B  710  or from feedback contained in the midamble transmitted by the Node B  710 , may be used to select the appropriate coding, modulation, spreading, and/or scrambling schemes. The symbols produced by the transmit processor  780  will be provided to a transmit frame processor  782  to create a frame structure. The transmit frame processor  782  creates this frame structure by multiplexing the symbols with information from the controller/processor  790 , resulting in a series of frames. The frames are then provided to a transmitter  756 , which provides various signal conditioning functions including amplification, filtering, and modulating the frames onto a carrier for uplink transmission over the wireless medium through the antenna  752 . 
     The uplink transmission is processed at the Node B  710  in a manner similar to that described in connection with the receiver function at the UE  750 . A receiver  735  receives the uplink transmission through the antenna  734  and processes the transmission to recover the information modulated onto the carrier. The information recovered by the receiver  735  is provided to a receive frame processor  736 , which parses each frame, and provides information from the frames to the channel processor  744  and the data, control, and reference signals to a receive processor  738 . The receive processor  738  performs the inverse of the processing performed by the transmit processor  780  in the UE  750 . The data and control signals carried by the successfully decoded frames may then be provided to a data sink  739  and the controller/processor, respectively. If some of the frames were unsuccessfully decoded by the receive processor, the controller/processor  740  may also use an acknowledgement (ACK) and/or negative acknowledgement (NACK) protocol to support retransmission requests for those frames. 
     The controller/processors  740  and  790  may be used to direct the operation at the Node B  710  and the UE  750 , respectively. For example, the controller/processors  740  and  790  may provide various functions including timing, peripheral interfaces, voltage regulation, power management, and other control functions. The computer readable media of memories  742  and  792  may store data and software for the Node B  710  and the UE  750 , respectively. A scheduler/processor  746  at the Node B  710  may be used to allocate resources to the UEs and schedule downlink and/or uplink transmissions for the UEs. 
     Several aspects of a telecommunications system have been presented with reference to an HSPA system. As those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, various aspects described throughout this disclosure may be extended to other telecommunication systems, network architectures and communication standards. 
     By way of example, various aspects may be extended to other UMTS systems such as W-CDMA, TD-SCDMA, High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) and TD-CDMA. Various aspects may also be extended to systems employing Long Term Evolution (LTE) (in FDD, TDD, or both modes), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) (in FDD, TDD, or both modes), CDMA2000, Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Ultra-Wideband (UWB), Bluetooth, and/or other suitable systems. The actual telecommunication standard, network architecture, and/or communication standard employed will depend on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the system. 
     In accordance with various aspects of the disclosure, an element, or any portion of an element, or any combination of elements may be implemented with a “processing system” or “component” that includes or is configured to communicate with one or more processors. Examples of processors include microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), state machines, gated logic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardware configured to perform the various functionality described throughout this disclosure. One or more components herein or processors in the processing system may include hardware and may be configured to execute software. Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subprograms, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise. The software may reside on a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium may be a non-transitory computer-readable medium. A non-transitory computer-readable medium includes, by way of example, a magnetic storage device (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strip), an optical disk (e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD)), a smart card, a flash memory device (e.g., card, stick, key drive), random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), a register, a removable disk, and any other suitable medium for storing software and/or instructions that may be accessed and read by a computer. The computer-readable medium may also include, by way of example, a carrier wave, a transmission line, and any other suitable medium for transmitting software and/or instructions that may be accessed and read by a computer. The computer-readable medium may be resident in the processing system, external to the processing system, or distributed across multiple entities including the processing system. The computer-readable medium may be embodied in a computer-program product. By way of example, a computer-program product may include a computer-readable medium in packaging materials. Those skilled in the art will recognize how best to implement the described functionality presented throughout this disclosure depending on the particular application and the overall design constraints imposed on the overall system. 
     It is to be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods disclosed is an illustration of exemplary processes. Based upon design preferences, it is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods or methodologies described herein may be rearranged. The accompanying method claims present elements of the various steps in a sample order, and are not meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented unless specifically recited therein. 
     The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but is to be accorded the full scope consistent with the language of the claims, wherein reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specifically so stated, but rather “one or more.” Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more. A phrase referring to “at least one of” a list of items refers to any combination of those items, including single members. As an example, “at least one of: a, b, or c” is intended to cover: a; b; c; a and b; a and c; b and c; and a, b and c. All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the various aspects described throughout this disclosure that are known or later come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed by the claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element is to be construed under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph, or 35 U.S.C. §112(f), whichever is appropriate, unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for” or, in the case of a method claim, the element is recited using the phrase “step for.”