HK1203021B - Method and apparatus for discontinuous reception in user equipment for power savings - Google Patents

Description

Method and apparatus for discontinuous reception in user equipment for power saving

background

field

Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to power management of wireless device receivers or modems.

background

Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephone, video, data, messaging, broadcasting, etc. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communication for multiple users by sharing available network resources. An example of such a network is the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). UTRAN is a radio access network (RAN) defined as a part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), which is a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). UMTS, the successor to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology, 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). UMTS also supports enhanced 3G data communication protocols (such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA)), which provide higher data transfer speeds and capacity to the associated UMTS network.

As the demand for mobile broadband access continues to grow, research and development continues to advance UMTS technologies to not only meet the growing demand for mobile broadband access, but also to improve and enhance the user experience with mobile communications.

Furthermore, battery life has become a major concern for consumers who wish to purchase mobile devices utilizing any of the above technology types. Consequently, it is imperative for designers to conserve power whenever possible to maximize the life of the mobile device battery. One component that can contribute significantly to battery life is the mobile device receiver and its corresponding circuitry. Currently, many mobile device receivers power all internal receiver components for the entire data reception time frame. For example, in UMTS, the complete reception interval for a frame may be 20ms. Typically, the modem receiver components are powered on throughout the entire 20ms interval to ensure that all received data can be decoded, regardless of when the data can be successfully received or decoded within that interval. Consequently, a typical mobile device may unnecessarily use battery power when receiving a frame.

Therefore, there is a need for methods and apparatus for providing battery conservation for mobile devices.

Overview

The following is a brief summary of one or more aspects to provide a basic understanding of these aspects. This summary is not an exhaustive overview of all conceivable aspects and is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of all aspects nor to define 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 will be presented later.

The present disclosure provides aspects of a method for saving power in a wireless device, the method comprising: receiving data within a frame at a user equipment (UE), determining whether all payload packet data has been correctly decoded before an end of the frame, and, in response to determining that all payload packet data has been correctly decoded and if a first time period to a next scheduled overhead bit transmission period of a time slot in the frame is greater than a second time period corresponding to a warm-up period of the receiver component, powering down the receiver component during a portion of a remainder of the frame.

In addition, the present disclosure describes an apparatus for wireless communication, comprising: means for receiving data within a frame at a user equipment (UE), means for determining whether all payload packet data has been correctly decoded before the end of the frame; and means for, in response to the means for determining, making a determination that all payload packet data has been correctly decoded and, if a first time period of a next scheduled overhead bit transmission period to a time slot in the frame is greater than a second time period corresponding to a warm-up period of the receiver component, powering down the receiver component during a portion of a remainder of the frame.

Furthermore, the present disclosure describes a computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium including code for receiving data within a frame at a user equipment, determining whether all payload packet data has been correctly decoded before an end of the frame, and, in response to determining that all payload packet data has been correctly decoded and if a first time period to a next scheduled overhead bit transmission period for a time slot in the frame is greater than a second time period corresponding to a warm-up period for the receiver component, powering down the receiver component during a portion of a remainder of the frame.

Furthermore, an apparatus for wireless communication is described herein that includes at least one processor and a memory coupled to the at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: receive data within a frame at a user equipment, determine whether all payload packet data has been correctly decoded before an end of the frame, and, in response to determining that all payload packet data has been correctly decoded and if a first time period to a next scheduled overhead bit transmission period to a timeslot in the frame is greater than a second time period corresponding to a warm-up period for the receiver component, power down the receiver component during a portion of a remainder of the frame.

To achieve the foregoing and related ends, one or more aspects comprise the features fully described hereinafter and particularly pointed out in the appended claims. The following description and accompanying drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative features of one or more aspects. However, these features are indicative of only a few of the various ways in which the principles of the various aspects may be employed, and this description is intended to encompass all such aspects and their equivalents. These and other aspects of the present invention will be more fully understood upon reading the following detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG1 is a block diagram illustrating a wireless environment according to aspects of the present disclosure;

2 is a flow chart illustrating aspects of a method for mobile device battery conservation according to the present disclosure;

3 is a flow chart illustrating aspects of a method for mobile device battery conservation in the event of a DCCH condition according to the present disclosure;

FIG4 is an example waveform of a first receiver component according to aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG5 is an example waveform of a first receiver component according to aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG6 is an example waveform of a first receiver component according to aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG7 is an example waveform of a first receiver component according to aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG8 is an example waveform of first and second receiver components according to aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG9 is an example waveform of first and second receiver components according to aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG10 is an example waveform of first and second receiver components according to aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG11 is an example waveform of first and second receiver components according to aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG12 is an example waveform of first and second receiver components according to aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG13 is a block diagram illustrating aspects of a UE device according to aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG14 is a component diagram illustrating logical groupings according to aspects of the present disclosure;

15 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation for an apparatus employing a processing system;

FIG16 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a telecommunications system;

FIG17 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of an access network;

FIG18 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a radio protocol architecture for the user plane and the control plane; and

19 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 conjunction with the accompanying 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. This detailed description includes specific details to provide a thorough understanding of the 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 to avoid overstating such concepts.

Various aspects of the present invention relate to methods and apparatus for powering down a modem receiver or components of a receiver at a time before the end of a frame (e.g., before the end of a voice frame (such as a 20ms frame)) based on data being received and correctly decoded before the end of the frame. Received data packets will typically include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC), which, if passed at the receiver, ensures that the data has been correctly received. Thus, in various aspects of the present invention, if the CRC passes "early" (e.g., 10ms or some other shortened interval before the end of the frame), meaning that all data from the entire frame (e.g., a 20ms transmission frame) has been correctly received at that "early" time, the receiver can shut down power to one or more receiver components during the remainder of the data transmission frame to conserve power in the receiver.

The receiver may also periodically wake up to receive signals related to power control maintenance (e.g., dedicated pilot (DP) data and transmit power control (TPC) data). Because the timing associated with receiving DP and TPC bits is cyclical and known to the receiver, the receiver may periodically wake up from a power-off state to receive these overhead control messages. Accordingly, aspects of the present disclosure further contemplate methods and apparatus for periodically waking a receiver from an off state to receive cyclical DP and TPC bits. Additionally, in a WCDMA system, information may be broadcast on a dedicated control channel (DCCH) during longer transmission intervals, such as 40ms intervals. Aspects of the described apparatus and methods may configure the receiver or components thereof to accommodate DCCH transmissions, such as by prohibiting earlier power-down.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an example wireless environment 1, which may include one or more network entities 11 and one or more user equipment (UE) 10, which may be communicatively connected via one or more communication links 12. In one aspect, UE 10 may receive, at a receiving component 14, a signal 17 including data 19 (such as packet data and/or control data) from network entity 11 via communication link 12. Receiving component 14 may be configured to receive signals (including signal 17) from network entity 11 and/or send signals to network entity 11. For example, receiving component 14 may be configured to receive one or more data or overhead messages from network entity 11. In a further aspect, receiving component 14 may be a component in a modem or other component in UE 10.

Furthermore, receiving component 14 may include a decoding component 16 that may be configured to decode one or more signals 17 from network entity 11. In one aspect, UE 10 and network entity 11 may communicate using one or more techniques that specify one or more frame lengths and one or more time slots within a frame during which control data is to be received and decoded by decoding component 16. For example, a 20ms frame may be divided into a plurality of time slots, which may be further divided into overhead data (e.g., control data) reception intervals and packet data reception intervals (e.g., packetized data unit (PDU) and/or service data unit (SDU) reception intervals). In one aspect, the overhead data may include dedicated pilot (DP) data and transmit power control (TPC) data. DP data may provide an energy estimate used to maintain downlink power control for UE 10 by network entity 11, while TPC data may include power control bits used to maintain uplink power control for network entity 11 by UE 10. In one aspect, DP data may be received in a first overhead data interval of each time slot, while TPC data may be received in a separate second overhead data interval. Thus, the decoding component 16 can obtain the signal 17 or a portion thereof (such as a frame) and execute a decoding algorithm (e.g., corresponding to the encoding algorithm by which the signal 17 was encoded) to obtain the data within the signal 17. In addition, the decoding component 16 can execute one or more integrity algorithms, such as, but not limited to, a cyclic redundancy check (CRC), to determine whether the data 19 (such as the entire payload packet data) has been correctly decoded. In some aspects, the decoding component 16 can complete execution of the one or more integrity algorithms before the end of the frame.

Furthermore, receive component 14 may include a power management component 15, which may be configured to control power to one or more components within receive component 14. For example, power management component 15 may control the power level of a phase-locked loop (PLL) component and corresponding circuitry within receive component 14 based on the integrity status of a received and decoded signal, such as signal 17, or a portion thereof, such as a frame. For example, in some aspects, power management component 15 may perform and "early" power down one or more components of receive component 14, for example, during a portion of the remaining portion of a frame, in response to a determination that all payload packet data has been correctly decoded. In one aspect, power management component 15 may perform this "early" power down when a first time period of the next scheduled overhead bit transmission period leading to a timeslot in the frame is greater than a second time period corresponding to a warm-up period for the receiver component. Furthermore, power management component 15 may also consider the warm-up period in addition to the overhead data transmission period and the correct decoding determination when determining whether to power down and/or power up one or more components of receiver component 14.

Thus, the described apparatus and methods can provide power savings to the UE 10 by executing the power management component 15 to avoid unnecessary battery power usage when receiving the signal 17 or a portion thereof (such as a frame). Turning to FIG. 2 , aspects of a method 2 for maximizing battery power in a mobile device or UE provided in the present disclosure are illustrated. In one aspect, a UE (e.g., UE 10, FIG. 1 ) can receive data within a frame at block 21 , where the data can be received from a network entity (e.g., network entity 11, FIG. 1 ). Once the data has been received, at block 22 , the UE can determine whether all payload packet data has been correctly decoded. In some aspects, the frame packet data can include packet data unit (PDU) and/or service data unit (SDU) data, which can be distinguished from overhead bit data and/or control data. In a further aspect, the UE can determine whether all payload packet data has been correctly decoded by determining whether a CRC on the received data passes, although any form of data integrity or reliability testing can be used by the UE to determine whether all payload packet data has been correctly received. In the event that not all payload packet data is correctly decoded, the UE may maintain power to the receiving component to enable the UE to continue receiving data within the frame, for example, at block 21 .

Conversely, if the UE determines at block 22 that all payload packet data has been correctly decoded, the UE may further determine at block 23 whether a DCCH condition exists. In the event of a DCCH condition, the communication protocol and schedule may differ from those typically used for packet data transmission. For example, a DCCH frame may span 40 ms, where a conventional packet data transfer frame length is 20 ms. Thus, according to aspects of the present disclosure, early power-down of components may be avoided, as performing such an early power-down under a DCCH condition could result in a significant loss of overhead/control data. Further aspects of block 23 are described below in conjunction with FIG. 3 .

If the UE determines at block 23 that a DCCH condition exists, the UE may maintain power on the receiver components for receiving overhead data at block 24. Alternatively, if the UE determines at block 23 that a DCCH condition does not exist, the UE may determine at block 25 whether time is available for each receiver component to power down the component before the required power-up period. In one aspect, the UE may include one or more components that require a warm-up period before the component can properly receive signals, as well as one or more components that require a negligible warm-up period to properly receive signals. Therefore, at block 25, the UE may determine whether each receiver component can be powered down before properly receiving bits based on the warm-up period required by each receiver component. In other words, if a receiver component requires a warm-up period that is greater than or equal to the time before the next scheduled overhead bit transmission time, the UE may maintain the receiver component powered up at block 24 to receive overhead data. Alternatively, if the required warm-up time is less than the time before the next scheduled overhead bit transmission time, the UE may power down the component during a portion of the remainder of the frame at block 26.

Furthermore, at block 27, the UE may determine for each receiver component whether the required warm-up period for that receiver component (which may be substantially negligible or non-negligible) has expired. If the warm-up period for that receiver component has not yet expired, the UE may, for example, keep the receiver component powered off at block 26. Alternatively, if the warm-up time for that receiver component has expired at block 27, the UE may power on that receiver component at block 28, for example, to receive overhead bits. Furthermore, at block 28, the UE may continue to power on that receiver component for the remainder of the frame based on the scheduled overhead bit transmission period. In this manner, UE battery power may be conserved.

For example, one or more receiver components may require a warm-up period before the component can function properly. In one aspect, such a component may be a phase-locked loop component, but such a component may be any receiver component in the UE. Therefore, to allow a buffer period for such a component to warm up, at block 25, the UE may determine whether a first time period corresponding to a time period before the next scheduled overhead bit transmission period of a timeslot in a frame is greater than a second time period, which may correspond to a warm-up period for the receiver component. Alternatively, in some aspects, the second time period may correspond to substantially twice the length of the warm-up period for the receiver component, or any multiple of the warm-up period. By extending the second time period to substantially twice the length of the warm-up period for the receiver component, the UE can have a high degree of confidence that the receiver component is fully warmed up and functional before the time the next scheduled overhead bit transmission period arrives.

When the UE performing method 2 determines at block 25 that the second time period is greater than or equal to the first time period, the UE may, in this example, maintain power to one or more receiver components, depending on factors discussed below in the context of FIG4 , at block 26. For example, the UE performing this method may maintain power to avoid losing overhead bit data transmitted during the next scheduled overhead bit transmission period, e.g., if the UE would otherwise power down a receiver component that requires more warm-up time than is available prior to the next scheduled overhead bit transmission period.

When the UE performing method 2 determines in block 25 that the first time period is greater than or equal to the second time period, in block 27, the UE may power down one or more receiver components during a portion of the remainder of the frame. In one aspect, this portion of the remainder of the frame may persist until the start of a required warm-up period before the next scheduled overhead bit transmission period. Alternatively, in the event that one or more receiver components do not require a warm-up period, this portion of the remainder of the frame may persist until the start of the next scheduled overhead bit period. Thus, by powering down one or more receiver components until the next scheduled overhead bit period, the UE may conserve battery power while ensuring that required overhead bits are received during the scheduled overhead bit transmission period. Optionally, in block 28, method 2 may continue with additional methods, such as method 3 of FIG. 3 and/or method 5 of FIG. 5 .

FIG3 illustrates various aspects of the detailed explanation of block 23 used in various methods to determine whether a dedicated control channel (DCCH) condition exists. Turning to FIG3 , a scenario applicable to W-CDMA and other communication technologies is presented. In W-CDMA, there are multiple types of data frames: (1) traffic frames (DTCH) and (2) overhead signaling frames (DCCH). In WCDMA, there is no way to know whether a particular received transmission is traffic or overhead signaling data. The fact that the DCCH is transmitted on 40ms frames rather than 20ms frames adds further complexity. Therefore, if the receiver or one or more receiver components are powered down after a shortened interval (e.g., a 10ms interval) before the end of the frame, there is only a 25% reliability that all DCCH bits have been received.

Furthermore, DCCH signaling data does not have a packet indicator bit, unlike conventional data bits that may include cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits. However, in some instances, DTCH traffic bits may include CRC bits, and the DTCH bits may be broadcast, where they are treated as multicast traffic. In such scenarios, in some described aspects, a receiver may assume that if the DTCH CRC passes, the DCCH bits were correctly received. Therefore, under this assumption, an earlier receiver power-down may be performed.

Alternatively or additionally, the detection of DCCH traffic may be performed based on a threshold value. Using this approach, if a threshold energy value associated with the DCCH is not reached during an interval, it may be assumed that the DCCH is not present during the interval, and the receiver may be powered down during the remainder of the frame with a certain degree of confidence that the DCCH data has not been lost. For example, the receiver may use the accumulated DP and TPC energies within a shortened subframe (e.g., a 10ms subframe) as a reference energy level. In block 23 of FIG2 , if the accumulated DCCH energy level over the same time period is below a certain threshold value than the reference energy level, it may be declared that no DCCH data is present and the receiver may be powered down completely or some of its components may be powered down.

Specifically, proceeding to block 51, the UE may obtain a threshold DCCH energy value. In one aspect, the UE may obtain this threshold DCCH energy value from a network component during transmission or from a preconfigured memory on the UE. Alternatively or additionally, a user or network administrator may set this threshold DCCH value, for example, in a user interface on the UE. Furthermore, in one aspect, this threshold DCCH energy value may correspond to the cumulative energy of dedicated pilot (DP) data and transmit power control (TPC) data received within a reference frame sub-period (which may be, for example, a 10ms period). Furthermore, in block 52, the UE may calculate the cumulative DCCH energy value received by the UE over a sampling time interval in the frame. Next, in block 53, the UE may compare the cumulative DCCH energy value with a threshold DCCH energy value. If the cumulative DCCH energy value is lower than the threshold DCCH energy value, a DCCH absence may be declared at block 54. Alternatively or additionally, this comparison may take into account a buffer threshold value below the DCCH energy threshold. In such aspects, if the cumulative energy is lower than the threshold DCCH energy value by at least the buffer threshold value, a DCCH absence may be declared at block 54. Therefore, by implementing a buffer threshold, the UE can declare with greater confidence that a DCCH is not present.

In a further aspect, at block 55, if the accumulated DCCH energy value is greater than or equal to the DCCH energy threshold (or the threshold minus the buffer threshold, as described above), the UE may declare at block 55 the presence of a DCCH and/or communicate according to a DCCH standard (e.g., 40m frame length).

In another aspect of the present invention, data including frames of more than one type or class may be communicated to the UE 10, and the UE 10 may decide to power down one or more receiver components receiving all data classes based on the correct reception of one of these classes. For example, in a specific example of this aspect, the transmitted data includes voice data encoded in accordance with the Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) 12.2k coding standard. Voice data in AMR 12.2k is sent to the physical layer in three classes: A, B, and C, each with a specified required reliability level. Each data class is sent in a different stream because they may individually tolerate different error rates. In the case of AMR 12.2k voice data, for example, CRC data is only added to the Class A data. In this aspect, for example, in block 22 of FIG. 2 , the receiver may assume that the Class B and/or Class C data has been correctly received if the CRC associated with the Class A data of the frame passes. Thus, if a CRC or Class A CRC passes in an interval shorter than a typical 20ms frame (e.g., a shortened interval of 10ms), the receiver may choose to power down all or some of its components during the remainder of the frame to save power. Alternatively, AMR 12.2 data may include full rate, SID, and null rate frames. Also applicable are the AMR 7.9kbps and AMR 5.9kbps standards for UMTS.

To further illustrate various aspects of the present disclosure, Figures 4-12 provide waveform diagrams according to various aspects of various methods described herein, such as, but not limited to, the methods described with respect to Figures 2 and 3. Each of Figures 4-12 includes a frame schedule according to two example time slots in an example data transmission frame, the two example time slots being indicated above the frame schedule. The frame schedule delineates several sub-periods in each time slot. In the example time slots (Time Slot 1 and Time Slot 2), these sub-periods include a first overhead bit transmission sub-period OH 1, a first data transmission sub-period DATA 1, a second overhead bit transmission sub-period OH 2, and a second data transmission sub-period DATA 2. In one aspect, control data (such as dedicated pilot (DP) information and transmit power control (TPC) information) may be transmitted and/or received during one or both of OH 1 and OH 2 or may be scheduled to be transmitted and/or received during one or both of OH 1 and OH 2.

Also illustrated in FIG4-12 are power waveforms representing a powered-on state or a powered-off state of one or more receiver components, such as, but not limited to, a first receiver component (component 1) that may have a warm-up period and a second receiver component (component 2) that may have substantially no warm-up period (e.g., a warm-up period equal to zero or a substantially negligible value). In some aspects, the component requiring non-zero warm-up may correspond to a phase-locked loop component that may have one or more operational warm-up periods (denoted as WU) prior to an overhead bit transmission period. Additionally, in some aspects, the component requiring non-zero warm-up may be a receiver component that does not require a warm-up period. Further, in FIG4-12, time increases along the horizontal axis of each frame and each corresponding power waveform.

Furthermore, the operations corresponding to the power waveforms in Figures 4-12 are based on several key assumptions. For example, negligible convolutional decoder delay is assumed, as is negligible warm-up time for the automatic gain control (AGC) circuit or components and negligible group delay for the optional RAKE receiver. In some aspects, since the phase-locked loop components can remain on during the power-down interval, no warm-up time can be assumed during or after such intervals.

Turning to FIG4 , an example operational scenario 600 includes a power waveform 602 illustrating example operation of a first receiver component (component 1) relative to a frame 604 with a frame schedule 606. Furthermore, levels 608 and 610 represent voltage levels corresponding to on and off positions, respectively. Operational scenario 600 may include, but is not limited to, aspects of Method 2 ( FIG2 ). For example, at time 612 during sub-period DATA 1, the UE may determine that all payload packet data (which may include all PDU or SDU data, but may not include control or overhead data) has been correctly received and decoded (e.g., CRC passed) (as in block 22 ( FIG2 )) and that the frame has not yet been completed (as in block 23 ( FIG2 )). Additionally, because the time 618 before the next scheduled overhead bit transmission period (OH 2) is greater than the warm-up period 620 for component 1, the UE may power down the receiver component until the warm-up period begins at time 614 (e.g., FIG2 , block 27). Additionally, because the next warm-up period arrives at time 614, the UE may power up component 1 again. Thereafter, the UE may power down component 1 after each scheduled overhead bit transmission period, since all frame data has been correctly received after time 612. Such operations may continue in the same manner with respect to each OH period in this frame and/or subsequent frames.

Turning to FIG5 , another example of an operational scenario 700 includes a power waveform 702 illustrating example operation of a first receiver component (component 1) relative to a frame 704 with a frame schedule 706 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Furthermore, levels 708 and 710 represent voltage levels corresponding to on and off positions, respectively. Furthermore, optional scenario 700 includes a first time period 718 corresponding to a time before the next scheduled overhead bit transmission period, and a second time period 720 corresponding to a warm-up period for component 1. In some aspects, after correctly receiving and decoding all payload packet data, the UE may keep component 1 powered on from the start of the WU until all overhead data in the timeslot is received, and may subsequently power component 1 off. At time 712, for example, the UE may determine that all payload packet data has been correctly received and decoded, but may not power component 1 off at time 714 because, in this example, the UE will have received all overhead data in the timeslot before powering off. Thus, the UE may keep component 1 powered on until time 716, at which time the UE will power component 1 off until a warm-up period WU in anticipation of overhead data transmission in the new time slot (time slot 2). Thus, by maintaining power to component 1 until all overhead data has been received, the UE can minimize the potential for dropping overhead data necessary to properly control UE communications with the network. It is also understood that while the waveforms of Figures 4-12 illustrate the UE powering off component 1 at times when all payload packet data is correctly received (see, e.g., times 916, 1024, 1122, 1224, and/or 1424), the UE may alternatively control power to component 1 to conform to the waveforms of Figure 7 to ensure complete reception of all overhead bits in the time slot.

Turning to FIG6 , another example of an operational scenario 800 includes a power waveform 802 illustrating example operation of a first receiver component (component 1) with respect to a frame 804 having a frame schedule 806 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Furthermore, levels 808 and 810 represent voltage levels corresponding to on and off positions, respectively. Furthermore, optional scenario 800 includes a first time period 818 corresponding to the time until the next scheduled overhead bit transmission period and a second time period 820 corresponding to a warm-up period for component 1. FIG6 illustrates example operation of a component requiring non-zero warm-up in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, which may include, but is not limited to, aspects of Method 2 ( FIG2 ). For example, at time 812, the UE may determine that all payload packet data has been correctly received and decoded (e.g., CRC passed) (as in block 22 ( FIG2 )) and that the frame has not yet been completed (as in block 23 ( FIG2 )). Additionally, the UE may maintain power to component 1 for receiving overhead bits during OH 2. In addition, since all payload packet data has been received by time 812 , the UE can power off component 1 at time 814 without the risk of losing frame data.

7 , another example of an operational scenario 900 includes a power waveform 902 illustrating example operation of a first receiver component (component 1) relative to a frame 904 with a frame schedule 906 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Optionally, scenario 900 includes a first time period 918 corresponding to the time until the next scheduled overhead bit transmission period and a second time period 920 corresponding to twice the required component warm-up period. Levels 908 and 910 represent voltage levels corresponding to on and off positions, respectively. Waveform 902 is an example waveform for example operation in which the warm-up period for component 1 is optionally equal to twice the normal required warm-up period for the component. For example, the UE may determine at time 912 that all payload packet data has been correctly received and decoded (e.g., CRC passed), as in block 22 ( FIG. 2 ). Furthermore, the UE may determine that the time period 918 until the next scheduled overhead bit transmission (OH 2), which begins at time 914, is no greater than twice the warm-up period 920 (WU) for component 1. Therefore, there is no time to power down component 1. Furthermore, while FIG7 depicts an example waveform in which second time period 920 is equal to twice the typical warm-up period of component 1, any multiple of the typical warm-up period may be used as the warm-up period, including time periods that are not multiples of the conventional required warm-up period. In this manner, since the UE can maintain power to component 1 for receiving overhead bits during OH 2, and since all payload packet data has been received by time 912, the UE can power down component 1 after OH 2 in time slot 1 without risking lost frame data.

8, another example of an operational scenario 1000 includes power waveforms 1002 and 1004 illustrating example operation of a first receiver component (component 1) and a second receiver component (component 2), respectively, with respect to a frame 1006 having a frame schedule 1008, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Furthermore, optional scenario 1000 includes a first time period 1026 corresponding to the time until the next scheduled overhead bit transmission period and a second time period 1028 corresponding to a warm-up period for component 1. Furthermore, levels 1010 and 1014 represent on voltage levels, while levels 1012 and 1016 represent off positions. According to aspects of FIG8, component 1 may require a non-negligible warm-up time (WU), while component 2 may have a substantially negligible warm-up time, and its operation may include, but is not limited to, aspects of FIG2 and/or 3 (FIGS. 2 and 3). For example, at time 1018 in sub-period DATA 1, the UE may determine that all payload packet data has been correctly received and decoded (e.g., CRC passed) (as in block 22 ( FIG. 2 )) and that the frame has not yet completed (as in block 23 ( FIG. 2 )). Additionally, because the time 1026 until the next scheduled overhead bit transmission period (OH 2) is greater than the warm-up period 1028 for component 1, the UE may power down components 1 and 2 at time 1018, as in block 27 ( FIG. 2 ). Furthermore, at time 1020, because the start of the warm-up period has arrived and the receiver has one or more components that require non-zero warm-up, the UE may power up component 1. However, component 2 may remain powered down until time 1022 at the start of OH 2, which is the next overhead bit transmission period.

9, another example of an operational scenario 1100 includes power waveforms 1102 and 1104 illustrating example operation of a first receiver component (component 1) and a second receiver component (component 2), respectively, with respect to a frame 1106 having a frame schedule 1108, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the optional scenario 1100 includes a first time period 1124 corresponding to the time until the next scheduled overhead bit transmission period and a second time period 1126 corresponding to a warm-up period for component 1. Additionally, levels 1110 and 1114 represent on voltage levels, while levels 1112 and 1116 represent off positions.

In one aspect, at time 1118 in sub-period DATA 1, the UE may determine that all payload packet data has been correctly received and decoded (e.g., CRC passed), as described in block 22 ( FIG. 2 ). Furthermore, because at time 1118, the time period 1126 corresponding to the warm-up period is longer than the time period 1124 until the start of the next scheduled overhead bit transmission period OH 2, the UE may maintain power to component 1 for receiving the overhead bits. Furthermore, because the next scheduled overhead bit period does not begin until time 1120, the UE may power down component 2 at time 1118. Furthermore, at time 1120, the UE may further power up component 2 at time 1120. Thus, the UE can save power by powering down component 2 from time 1118 to time 1120 without risking loss of required data, because all payload packet data has been correctly decoded prior to time 1118.

Turning to FIG10, another example of an operational scenario 1200 includes power waveforms 1202 and 1204 illustrating example operation of a first receiver component (component 1) and a second receiver component (component 2), respectively, relative to a frame 1206 having a frame schedule 1208, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Furthermore, optional scenario 1200 includes a first time period 1226 corresponding to the time until the next scheduled overhead bit transmission period and a second time period 1228 corresponding to a regular warm-up period for component 1. Furthermore, levels 1210 and 1214 represent on voltage levels, while levels 1212 and 1216 represent off positions. According to aspects of FIG10, component 1 may require a non-negligible warm-up time (WU), while component 2 may have a substantially negligible warm-up time. The waveforms of FIG10 illustrate an example method in which the UE maintains power to component 2 during the scheduled overhead bit transmission period of every nth time slot of a frame. For example, in FIG10 , the waveform illustrates an example waveform where n equals 2, meaning the UE powers up component 2 during OH 1 and OH 2 in every other time slot. In one example, such an approach may be implemented when channel, link, and/or network conditions are particularly reliable. Thus, maintaining power to one component every n time slots can conserve battery power with a relatively low risk of losing overhead data, as component 1 can continue to receive power during OH 1 and OH 2 in every time slot.

10 , at time 1218 in sub-period DATA 1, the UE may determine that all payload packet data has been correctly received and decoded (e.g., CRC passed) (as in block 22 ( FIG. 2 )) and that the frame has not yet completed (as in block 23 ( FIG. 2 )). Consequently, the UE may power down components 1 and 2 at time 1218 because there is time to power down the components before the warm-up or next scheduled overhead bit transmission period. Additionally, at time 1220, the UE may power down both components 1 and 2 because OH 2 has completed and all payload packet data has been received up to time 1218. However, after time 1220, while the waveform of component 1 may behave according to the previous aspects, component 2 may not be powered up during the remainder of timeslot 2. For example, while in other aspects the UE may power up component 2 at time 1222, in one aspect, the UE may detect relatively strong network conditions and not power up component 2 until, for example, timeslot 3 for n=2, timeslot 4 for n=3, and so on. In one aspect, n can be, for example, a positive integer and/or a fraction of a positive integer, or can be represented by a decimal. Furthermore, in another additional example, component 2 can behave according to the previous aspects, while the UE can power down component 1 during every n time slots. Thus, additional power savings can be achieved if the UE only powers up a component during every n time slots for overhead data reception.

Turning to FIG. 11 , another example operational scenario 1300 includes power waveforms 1302 and 1304 illustrating example operation of a first receiver component (component 1) and a second receiver component (component 2), respectively, relative to a frame 1306 with a frame schedule 1308, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Furthermore, levels 1310 and 1314 represent on voltage levels, while levels 1312 and 1316 represent off positions. According to aspects of FIG. 11 , component 1 may require a non-negligible warm-up time (WU), while component 2 may have a substantially negligible warm-up time. In one aspect, the UE may power up both component 1 and component 2 during every n time slots. For example, at time 1318, the UE may determine that all payload packet data has been correctly decoded and may power down both component 1 and component 2, respectively, until the start of the warm-up period and the scheduled overhead bit data period OH 2. However, after time 1320, the UE may power down both component 1 and component 2 for the remainder of time slot 1 and for the entirety of the subsequent time slot (time slot 2). In one aspect, the operations of Figure 11 may be utilized under relatively strong network conditions, where the UE determines that sufficient overhead data is available during every n frames to receive such overhead via components 1 and 2. Thus, under such conditions, additional power savings may be achieved by powering down multiple components every n time slots in a frame.

12 , another example of an operational scenario 1400 includes power waveforms 1402 and 1404 illustrating example operation of a first receiver component (component 1) and a second receiver component (component 2), respectively, relative to a frame 1406 having a frame schedule 1408, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Furthermore, levels 1410 and 1414 represent on voltage levels, while levels 1412 and 1416 represent off positions. According to aspects of FIG. 12 , component 1 may require a non-negligible warm-up time (WU), while component 2 may have a substantially negligible warm-up time. For example, in FIG. 12 , the UE may power up the second component prior to the start of one or more scheduled overhead bit transmission periods to ensure that the second component is powered up during the entirety of the scheduled overhead bit transmission period. Specifically, at time 1418 , for example, the UE may determine that all payload packet data has been correctly received and decoded, and may therefore power down both component 1 and component 2. Turning to component 2, while the UE may wait to power up component 2 at time 1422 corresponding to the start of OH 2 in the method described above, in the method of Figure 12, the UE may power up component 2 at an earlier time, such as time 1420. By doing so, the UE may further ensure that all overhead data is received during the OH 2 and subsequent overhead transmission periods in the frame, while saving power, for example, by powering down component 2 between time 1418 and time 1420.

13 , in one aspect, a UE 10 ( FIG. 1 ) is shown. The UE 10 includes a processor 1500 for performing processing functions associated with one or more of the components and functions described herein. The processor 1500 may include a single or multiple processors or a collection of multi-core processors. Furthermore, the processor 1500 may be implemented as an integrated processing system and/or a distributed processing system.

The UE 10 further includes memory 1502, such as for storing data used herein and/or local versions of applications being executed by the processor 1500. The memory 1502 may include any type of memory usable by a computer, such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), tape, magnetic disk, optical disk, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, and any combination thereof.

In addition, the UE 10 may further include a data store 1504, which may be any suitable combination of hardware and/or software and provides mass storage for information, databases, and programs employed in conjunction with the various aspects described herein. For example, the data store 1504 may be a data repository for applications not currently being executed by the processor 1500.

The UE 10 may further include a user interface 1506 that is operable to receive input from a user of the UE 10 and further operable to generate output for presentation to the user. The user interface 1506 may include one or more input devices, including but not limited to a keyboard, a numeric keypad, a mouse, a touch-sensitive display, navigation keys, function keys, a microphone, a voice recognition component, any other mechanism capable of receiving input from a user, or any combination thereof. Further, the user interface 1506 may include one or more output devices, including but not limited to a display, a speaker, a tactile feedback mechanism, a printer, any other mechanism capable of presenting output to a user, or any combination thereof.

Furthermore, the UE 10 includes a communication component 1507 for establishing and maintaining communications with one or more parties using hardware, software, and services as described herein. The communication component 1507 can carry communications between components on the UE 10, as well as communications between the UE 10 and external devices (such as devices located across the communication network and/or devices connected to the UE 10 in series or locally, such as the network entity 11 ( FIG. 1 )). For example, the UE 10 may include one or more buses and may further include a transmit chain component and a receive chain component associated with a transmitter and a receiver, respectively, that are operable to interface with external devices.

Additionally, UE 10 may include a receiving component 14 that may receive one or more signals containing data (such as frame data and/or overhead or control data) from, for example, network entity 11. In some aspects, receiving component 14 may be configured to perform some or all of the method steps of the methods corresponding to Figures 2 and 3. In further aspects, receiving component 14 may be a receiver, a transceiver, or any other electrical component and/or circuitry capable of receiving and/or processing electromagnetic signals.

In addition, the receiving component 14 may include a power management component 15 configured to manage the power of one or more receiver components. The power management component may include a data class manager 1508, which may be configured to identify the reception of certain classes of data and make decisions to power up or down one or more receiver components based on the correct reception of one or more classes of data in a frame. In one aspect, such data classes may include class A, class B, and class C data of AMR 12.2k standard voice data.

In addition, the power management component 15 may include a warm-up period manager 1510, which may be configured to store information related to a required warm-up period for one or more receiver components in the UE 10. Furthermore, the power management component 15 may include a transmission schedule maintaining component 1512, which may be configured to receive and/or store a transmission schedule for a particular communication standard, such as the communication standard being used to communicate with one or more network entities 11. Furthermore, the power management component 15 may include a DCCH management component 1514, which may be configured to determine whether a DCCH condition exists. For example, in some aspects, the DCCH management component 1514 may determine a threshold DCCH energy value and/or a cumulative DCCH energy value. Furthermore, the DCCH management component 1514 may compare the threshold DCCH energy value to the cumulative DCCH energy value and make a determination regarding the presence of a DCCH therefrom. In additional aspects, the receiving component 14 may include a decoding component 16 for decoding received data, such as frame data (e.g., PDU and/or SDU data) and overhead or control data.

14 , an example system 1600 for selectively powering on and off one or more receiver components for UE power conservation is shown. For example, system 1600 may reside at least partially within a device, such as UE 10. It will be appreciated that system 1600 is represented as including functional blocks, which may be functional blocks representing functions implemented by a processor, software, or a combination thereof (e.g., firmware). System 1600 includes a logical grouping 1602 of electrical components that can act in conjunction. For example, logical grouping 1602 may include an electrical component 1604 for receiving data from a network entity. In one example, electrical component 1604 may be receiving component 14 ( FIGs. 1 and 15 ) and may be configured to receive frame data (e.g., PDU and/or SDU data) and overhead or control data. Additionally, logical grouping 1602 may include an electrical component 1606 for switching power on or off for one or more receiver components. In one example, electrical component 1606 may be power management component 15 ( FIGs. 1 and 15 ). Furthermore, logical grouping 1602 can include an electrical component 1608 for decoding received data. In one example, electrical component 1606 can be decoding component 16 (FIGS. 1 and 15). Optionally, in an additional aspect, logical grouping 1602 can include an electrical component 1610 for detecting and/or managing the presence of a DCCH. In one example, electrical component 1610 can be DCCH management component 1514 (FIG. 13). In a further optional aspect, in the presence of a DCCH, DCCH management component 1514 can cancel any potential early power down of receiver components.

Additionally, system 1600 can include a memory 1612 that retains instructions for executing functions associated with electrical components 1604, 1606, 1608, and 1610, stores data used or obtained by electrical components 1604, 1606, 1608, and 1610, and the like. Although depicted as being external to memory 1612, it is understood that one or more of electrical components 1604, 1606, 1608, and 1610 can reside within memory 1612. In one example, electrical components 1604, 1606, 1608, and 1610 can include at least one processor, or each electrical component 1604, 1606, 1608, and 1610 can be a respective module of at least one processor. Moreover, in an additional or alternative example, electrical components 1604, 1606, 1608, and 1610 can be a computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium, where each electrical component 1604, 1606, 1608, and 1610 can be corresponding code.

FIG15 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware implementation of device 100 employing processing system 114. In one aspect, device 100 and/or processing system 114 may include receiving component 14 (FIGS. 1 and 15) and/or power management component 15 (FIGS. 1 and 15). In this example, processing system 114 may be implemented using a bus architecture generally represented by bus 102. Depending on the specific application and overall design constraints of processing system 114, bus 102 may include any number of interconnecting buses and bridges. Bus 102 links together various circuits, including one or more processors (generally represented by processor 104) and computer-readable media (generally represented by computer-readable media 106). Bus 102 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 will not be described further. Bus interface 108 provides an interface between bus 102 and transceiver 110. Transceiver 110 provides a means for communicating with various other devices via a transmission medium. Depending on the nature of the apparatus, a user interface 112 (eg, keypad, display, speaker, microphone, joystick) may also be provided.

The processor 104 is responsible for managing the bus 102 and general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium 106. The software, when executed by the processor 104, causes the processing system 114 to perform the various functions described below for any particular device. The computer-readable medium 106 may also be used to store data that is manipulated by the processor 104 when executing the software.

The various concepts presented throughout this disclosure can be implemented across a wide variety of telecommunication systems, network architectures, and communication standards. By way of example and not limitation, the aspects of the disclosure illustrated in FIG16 are provided with reference to a UMTS system 200 employing a W-CDMA air interface. The UMTS system 200 can be, for example, the wireless environment 1 of FIG1 and can include one or more network entities 11 ( FIG1 ) and/or one or more UEs 10 ( FIG1 ) that can perform one or more of the methods for optimizing battery power as illustrated in FIG2 and 3. A UMTS network includes three interacting domains: a core network (CN) 204, a UMTS terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) 202, and user equipment (UE) 210. In this example, the UTRAN 202 provides various wireless services including telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasting, and/or other services. The UTRAN 202 may include multiple radio network subsystems (RNSs), such as RNS 207, each of which is controlled by a corresponding radio network controller (RNC), such as RNC 206. Here, the UTRAN 202 may include any number of RNCs 206 and RNSs 207 in addition to the RNCs 206 and RNSs 207 illustrated herein. The RNC 206 is a device responsible for, among other things, assigning, reconfiguring, and releasing radio resources within the RNS 207. The RNC 206 may be interconnected to other RNCs (not shown) in the UTRAN 202 via various types of interfaces, such as direct physical connections, virtual networks, or the like, using any suitable transport network.

Communication between UE 210 and Node B 208 can be considered to include a physical (PHY) layer and a medium access control (MAC) layer. Furthermore, communication between UE 210 and RNC 206 via the respective Node B 208 can be considered to include a radio resource control (RRC) layer. In this specification, the PHY layer can be considered to be layer 1; the MAC layer can be considered to be layer 2; and the RRC layer can be considered to be layer 3. The information below utilizes terminology introduced in the RRC protocol specification 3GPP TS 25.331 v9.1.0, which is incorporated herein by reference.

The geographic area covered by the RNS 207 can be divided into a number of cells, with a radio transceiver apparatus serving each cell. The radio transceiver apparatus is typically 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), base transceiver station (BTS), radio base station, radio transceiver, transceiver functionality, basic service set (BSS), extended service set (ESS), access point (AP), or some other suitable term. For clarity, three Node Bs 208 are shown in each RNS 207; however, the RNS 207 may include any number of wireless Node Bs. Node Bs 208 provide wireless access points to the CN 204 for any number of mobile devices. Examples of mobile devices include cellular phones, smartphones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, laptops, notebooks, netbooks, smartbooks, personal digital assistants (PDAs), satellite radios, Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, multimedia devices, video devices, digital audio players (e.g., MP3 players), cameras, game consoles, or any other similarly functional device. A mobile device is typically referred to as a UE in UMTS applications, but may also be referred to as a mobile station, subscriber station, mobile unit, subscriber unit, wireless unit, remote unit, mobile device, wireless device, wireless communication device, remote device, mobile subscriber station, access terminal, mobile terminal, wireless terminal, remote terminal, handset, terminal, user agent, mobile client, client, or some other suitable terminology by those skilled in the art. In a UMTS system, a UE 210 may further include a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) 211, which contains information about the user's subscription to the network. For illustrative purposes, one UE 210 is shown in communication with several Node Bs 208. The DL, also known as the forward link, refers to the communication link from the Node B 208 to the UE 210, while the UL, also known as the reverse link, refers to the communication link from the UE 210 to the Node B 208.

CN 204 interfaces with one or more access networks, such as UTRAN 202. As shown, CN 204 is a GSM core network. However, as those skilled in the art will appreciate, the various concepts presented throughout this disclosure can be implemented in a RAN, or other suitable access network, to provide UEs with access to types of CNs other than GSM networks.

CN 204 includes a circuit-switched (CS) domain and a packet-switched (PS) domain. Some circuit-switched elements are a mobile services switching center (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 (such as EIR, HLR, VLR, and AuC) can be shared by both the circuit-switched and packet-switched domains. In the illustrated example, CN 204 supports circuit-switched services with an MSC 212 and a GMSC 214. In some applications, the GMSC 214 can be referred to as a media gateway (MGW). One or more RNCs (such as RNC 206) can be connected to the MSC 212. The MSC 212 is a device that controls call setup, call routing, and UE mobility functions. The MSC 212 also includes a VLR, which contains information related to the subscriber while the UE is within the coverage area of the MSC 212. The GMSC 214 provides a gateway through the MSC 212 for UEs to access the circuit-switched network 216. The GMSC 214 includes a Home Location Register (HLR) 215, which contains subscriber data, such as 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 214 queries the HLR 215 to determine the UE's location and forwards the call to the specific MSC serving that location.

The CN 204 also supports packet data services using a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) 218 and a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) 220. 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 220 provides connectivity for the UTRAN 202 to a packet-based network 222. The packet-based network 222 can be the Internet, a proprietary data network, or some other suitable packet-based network. The primary function of the GGSN 220 is to provide packet-based network connectivity to the UE 210. Data packets can be transferred between the GGSN 220 and the UE 210 via the SGSN 218, which performs substantially the same functions in the packet-based domain as the MSC 212 performs in the circuit-switched domain.

The air interface for UMTS may utilize a spread spectrum direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) system. Spread spectrum DS-CDMA spreads user data by multiplying it by a sequence of pseudo-random bits called chips. The "wideband" W-CDMA air interface for UMTS is based on this type of direct sequence spread spectrum technology and also requires frequency division duplexing (FDD). FDD uses different carrier frequencies for the UL and DL between the Node B 208 and the UE 210. Another air interface for UMTS that utilizes DS-CDMA and uses time division duplexing (TDD) is the TD-SCDMA air interface. Those skilled in the art will recognize that although various examples described herein may refer to a W-CDMA air interface, the underlying principles are equally applicable to a TD-SCDMA air interface.

The HSPA air interface includes a series of enhancements to the 3G/W-CDMA air interface, resulting in greater throughput and reduced latency. Among other modifications to previous versions, HSPA utilizes hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), shared channel transmission, and adaptive modulation and coding. The standards that define HSPA include HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) and HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access, also known as Enhanced Uplink or EUL).

HSDPA utilizes the High-Speed Downlink Shared Channel (HS-DSCH) as its transport channel. HS-DSCH is implemented by three physical channels: the High-Speed Physical Downlink Shared Channel (HS-PDSCH), the High-Speed Shared Control Channel (HS-SCCH), and the High-Speed Dedicated Physical Control Channel (HS-DPCCH).

Among these physical channels, the HS-DPCCH carries HARQ ACK/NACK signaling on the uplink to indicate whether the corresponding packet transmission was successfully decoded. That is, on the downlink, the UE 210 provides feedback to the Node B 208 on the HS-DPCCH to indicate whether it correctly decoded the packet on the downlink.

The HS-DPCCH further includes feedback signaling from the UE 210 to assist the Node B 208 in making correct decisions on the modulation and coding scheme and precoding weight selection. This feedback signaling includes CQI and PCI.

"Evolved HSPA," or HSPA+, is an evolution of the HSPA standard that includes MIMO and 64-QAM, enabling increased throughput and higher performance. That is, in one aspect of the present disclosure, the Node B 208 and/or UE 210 may have multiple antennas that support MIMO technology. The use of MIMO technology enables the Node B 208 to exploit the spatial domain to support spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and transmit diversity.

Multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) is a term generally used to refer to multiple-antenna technology—that is, multiple transmit antennas (multiple inputs to the channel) and multiple receive antennas (multiple outputs from the channel). MIMO systems generally enhance data transmission performance, achieving diversity gain to reduce multipath fading and improve transmission quality, as well as spatial multiplexing gain to increase data throughput.

Spatial multiplexing can be used to transmit different data streams simultaneously on the same frequency. These data streams can be transmitted to a single UE 210 to increase the data rate or to multiple UEs 210 to increase the total system capacity. This is achieved by spatially precoding each data stream and then transmitting each spatially precoded stream on the downlink through a different transmit antenna. The spatially precoded data streams arrive at the UE(s) 210 with different spatial signatures, which enables each UE 210 to recover the one or more data streams destined for that UE 210. On the uplink, each UE 210 can transmit one or more spatially precoded data streams, which enables the Node B 208 to identify the source of each spatially precoded data stream.

Spatial multiplexing can be used when channel conditions are good. When channel conditions are poor, beamforming can be used to focus transmit energy in one or more directions or to improve transmission based on channel characteristics. This can be achieved by spatially precoding the data stream for transmission through multiple antennas. To achieve good coverage at the cell edge, single-stream beamforming transmission can be combined with transmit diversity.

Generally speaking, for a MIMO system using n transmit antennas, n transport blocks can be transmitted simultaneously on the same carrier using the same channelization code. Note that different transport blocks sent on these n transmit antennas can have the same or different modulation and coding schemes.

On the other hand, single-input multiple-output (SIMO) generally refers to a system that utilizes a single transmit antenna (single input to the channel) and multiple receive antennas (multiple outputs from the channel). Therefore, in a SIMO system, a single transport block is sent on the corresponding carrier.

Referring to FIG. 17 , an access network 300 in a UTRAN architecture is illustrated. In one aspect, access network 300 may be, for example, wireless environment 1 of FIG. 1 and may include one or more network entities 11 ( FIG. 1 ) and/or one or more UEs 10 ( FIG. 1 ), which may perform one or more of the methods for optimizing battery power illustrated in FIG. 2 and 3 . A multiple-access wireless communication system includes multiple cellular regions (cells), including cells 302, 304, and 306, each of which may include one or more sectors. These multiple sectors may be formed by antenna groups, each responsible for communicating with UEs in a portion of the cell. For example, in cell 302, antenna groups 312, 314, and 316 may each correspond to a different sector. In cell 304, antenna groups 318, 320, and 322 may each correspond to a different sector. In cell 306, antenna groups 324, 326, and 328 may each correspond to a different sector. The cells 302, 304, and 306 may include a number of wireless communication devices, e.g., user equipment, or UEs, that may be in communication with one or more sectors of each cell 302, 304, or 306. For example, UEs 330 and 332 may be in communication with a Node B 342, UEs 334 and 336 may be in communication with a Node B 344, and UEs 338 and 340 may be in communication with a Node B 346. Here, each Node B 342, 344, 346 is configured to provide an access point to the CN 204 (see FIG. 2 ) for all UEs 330, 332, 334, 336, 338, 340 in the respective cell 302, 304, and 306.

When UE 334 moves from the illustrated location in cell 304 to cell 306, a serving cell change (SCC), or handover, may occur, wherein communications with UE 334 are transferred from cell 304 (which may be referred to as a source cell) to cell 306 (which may be referred to as a target cell). The management of the handover procedure may be performed at UE 334, at the Node B corresponding to each respective cell, at radio network controller 206 (see FIG. 13 ), or at another suitable node in the wireless network. For example, during a call with source cell 304, or at any other time, UE 334 may monitor various parameters of source cell 304 and various parameters of neighboring cells (such as cells 306 and 302). Furthermore, depending on the quality of these parameters, UE 334 may maintain communications with one or more neighboring cells. During this time, UE 334 may maintain an active set, i.e., a list of cells to which UE 334 is concurrently connected (i.e., those UTRA cells that are currently assigning a downlink dedicated physical channel DPCH or a partial downlink dedicated physical channel F-DPCH to UE 334 may constitute the active set).

The modulation and multiple access scheme employed by access network 300 may vary depending on the specific telecommunications standard being deployed. As examples, 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 Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) as part of the CDMA2000 family of standards, and employ CDMA to provide broadband Internet access to mobile stations. Alternatively, the standard may be Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), which employs Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) and other CDMA variants such as TD-SCDMA; Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), which employs 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, which employ OFDMA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, Advanced LTE, and GSM are described in documents from the 3GPP organization. CDMA2000 and UMB are described in documents from the 3GPP2 organization. The actual wireless communication standard and multiple access technology employed will depend on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the system.

The radio protocol architecture may take various forms depending on the specific application. An example of an HSPA system will now be given with reference to Figure 18. Figure 18 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a radio protocol architecture for the user plane and the control plane.

Turning to FIG18 , a radio protocol architecture for a UE and a Node B is shown having three layers: Layer 1, Layer 2, and Layer 3. This radio protocol architecture can be used, for example, in wireless environment 1 of FIG1 and can include communications between one or more network entities 11 ( FIG1 ) and one or more UEs 10 ( FIG1 ), which can be used as the protocol architecture presented in communication 12 ( FIG1 ) to perform one or more of the methods for optimizing battery power as illustrated in FIG2 and 3 . Layer 1 is the lowest layer and implements various physical layer signal processing functions. Layer 1 will be referred to herein as the physical layer 406. Layer 2 (L2 layer) 408 is above the physical layer 406 and is responsible for the link between the UE and the Node B over the physical layer 406.

In the user plane, the L2 layer 408 includes a medium access control (MAC) sublayer 410, a radio link control (RLC) sublayer 412, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) 414 sublayer, which terminate on the network side at the Node B. Although not shown, the UE may have several upper layers above the L2 layer 408, including a network layer (e.g., an IP layer) that terminates on the network side at a PDN gateway, and an application layer that terminates at the other end of the connection (e.g., a remote UE, a server, etc.).

The PDCP sublayer 414 provides multiplexing between different radio bearers and logical channels. The PDCP sublayer 414 also provides header compression for upper layer data packets to reduce radio transmission overhead, provides security by encrypting data packets, and provides support for UE handover between Node Bs. The RLC sublayer 412 provides segmentation and reassembly of upper layer data packets, retransmission of lost data packets, and reordering of data packets to compensate for out-of-sequence reception due to hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ). The MAC sublayer 410 provides multiplexing between logical channels and transport channels. The MAC sublayer 410 is also responsible for allocating various radio resources (e.g., resource blocks) in a cellular cell among the UEs. The MAC sublayer 410 is also responsible for HARQ operations.

FIG19 is a block diagram of a communication environment 500, which may include a Node B 510 in communication with a UE 550, where Node B 510 may be Node B 208 in FIG16 and/or network entity 11 in FIG1, and UE 550 may be UE 10 in FIG1 and/or 13. Communication environment 500 may be, for example, wireless environment 1 of FIG1 and may include one or more network entities 11 (FIG. 1) and/or one or more UEs 10 (FIG. 1), which may perform one or more of the methods for optimizing battery power as illustrated in FIG2 and 3. In downlink communications, a transmit processor 520 may receive data from a data source 512 and control signals from a controller/processor 540. The transmit processor 520 provides various signal processing functions for data and control signals, as well as reference signals (e.g., pilot signals). For example, the transmit processor 520 may provide cyclic redundancy check (CRC) codes for error detection, encoding and interleaving to facilitate forward error correction (FEC), mapping to a signal constellation 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 an orthogonal variable spreading factor (OVSF), and multiplication with a scrambling code to produce a series of symbols. Channel estimates from the channel processor 544 may be used by the controller/processor 540 to determine the coding, modulation, spreading, and/or scrambling scheme for the transmit processor 520. These channel estimates may be derived from a reference signal transmitted by the UE 550 or from feedback from the UE 550. The symbols generated by the transmit processor 520 are provided to the transmit frame processor 530 to create a frame structure. The transmit frame processor 530 creates this frame structure by multiplexing the symbols with information from the controller/processor 540, resulting in a series of frames. The frames are then provided to a transmitter 532, which provides various signal conditioning functions, including amplifying, filtering, and modulating the frames onto a carrier for downlink transmission over the wireless medium via antenna 534. Antenna 534 may include one or more antennas, for example, including a beam-steering bidirectional adaptive antenna array or other similar beamforming technology.

At UE 550, receiver 554 receives downlink transmissions via antenna 552 and processes them to recover the information modulated onto the carrier. The information recovered by receiver 554 is provided to receive frame processor 560, which parses each frame and provides information from the frames to channel processor 594, as well as data, control, and reference signals to receive processor 570. Receive processor 570 then performs the inverse of the processing performed by transmit processor 520 in Node B 510. More specifically, receive processor 570 descrambles and despreads the symbols and then determines the signal constellation points most likely transmitted by Node B 510 based on the modulation scheme. These soft decisions can be based on channel estimates calculated by channel processor 594. The soft decisions are then decoded and deinterleaved to recover the data, control, and reference signals. A CRC code is then checked to determine whether the frames have been successfully decoded. The data carried by successfully decoded frames is then provided to data sink 572, which represents applications and/or various user interfaces (e.g., a display) running in UE 550. Control signals carried by successfully decoded frames are provided to the controller/processor 590. When frames are not successfully decoded by the receive processor 570, the controller/processor 590 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 578 and control signals from a controller/processor 590 are provided to a transmit processor 580. The data source 578 may represent applications running in the UE 550 and various user interfaces (e.g., a keyboard). Similar to the functionality described in conjunction with downlink transmissions by the Node B 510, the transmit processor 580 provides various signal processing functions, including CRC codes, encoding and interleaving to facilitate FEC, mapping to a signal constellation, spreading using OVSF, and scrambling to produce a series of symbols. Channel estimates derived by a channel processor 594 from a reference signal transmitted by the Node B 510 or from feedback contained in a midamble transmitted by the Node B 510 may be used to select the appropriate coding, modulation, spreading, and/or scrambling scheme. The symbols generated by the transmit processor 580 are provided to a transmit frame processor 582 to create a frame structure. The transmit frame processor 582 creates this frame structure by multiplexing the symbols with information from the controller/processor 590, resulting in a series of frames. The frames are then provided to a transmitter 556 , which provides various signal conditioning functions including amplifying, filtering, and modulating the frames onto a carrier for uplink transmission over the wireless medium through the antenna 552 .

Uplink transmissions are processed at Node B 510 in a manner similar to that described with respect to the receiver functionality at UE 550. Receiver 535 receives the uplink transmissions via antenna 534 and processes them to recover the information modulated onto the carrier. The information recovered by receiver 535 is provided to receive frame processor 536, which parses each frame and provides information from those frames to channel processor 544, as well as data, control, and reference signals to receive processor 538. Receive processor 538 performs the inverse of the processing performed by transmit processor 580 in UE 550. The data and control signals carried by successfully decoded frames may then be provided to data sink 539 and controller/processor, respectively. If the receive processor unsuccessfully decodes some of the frames, controller/processor 540 may also support retransmission requests for those frames using an acknowledgment (ACK) and/or negative acknowledgment (NACK) protocol.

Controllers/processors 540 and 590 may be used to direct operations at Node B 510 and UE 550, respectively. For example, controllers/processors 540 and 590 may provide various functions, including timing, peripheral interfaces, voltage regulation, power management, and other control functions. Computer-readable media such as memories 542 and 592 may store data and software for Node B 510 and UE 550, respectively. Scheduler/processor 546 at Node B 510 may be used to allocate resources to UEs and schedule downlink and/or uplink transmissions for the UEs.

Several aspects of telecommunication systems have been presented with reference to a W-CDMA 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 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.

According to various aspects of the present disclosure, an element, or any part of an element, or any combination of elements can be implemented with a "processing system" comprising 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, gating logic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardware configured to perform the various functionalities described throughout this disclosure. One or more processors in a processing system can execute software. Software should be broadly interpreted to mean instructions, instruction sets, codes, code segments, program codes, programs, subroutines, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether described in software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or other terms. Software can reside on a computer-readable medium. A computer-readable medium can be a non-transient computer-readable medium. By way of example, non-transitory computer-readable media include: magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disks, floppy disks, magnetic strips), optical disks (e.g., compact disks (CDs), digital versatile disks (DVDs)), smart cards, flash memory devices (e.g., memory cards, memory sticks, key drives), random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), registers, removable disks, and any other suitable medium for storing software and/or instructions that can be accessed and read by a computer. By way of example, computer-readable media may also include carrier waves, transmission lines, and any other suitable medium for transmitting software and/or instructions that can be accessed and read by a computer. The computer-readable medium may reside in the processing system, be external to the processing system, or be 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 the computer-readable medium in packaging material. Those skilled in the art will recognize how to best implement the described functionality presented throughout this disclosure depending on the specific application and the overall design constraints imposed on the overall system.

It should be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the disclosed methods is an illustration of exemplary processes. Based on design preferences, it should be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in these methods 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 herein.

The foregoing description is provided to enable anyone 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 universal principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Therefore, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but rather to be granted the full scope consistent with the language of the claims, wherein singular references to elements are not intended to mean "one and only one" (unless specifically stated otherwise) but rather "one or more." Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term "some" refers to one or more. A phrase citing "at least one" of a list of items refers to any combination of these items, including individual members. As an example, "at least one of a, b, or c" is intended to encompass: a; b; c; a and b; a and c; b and c; and a, b, and c. All structural and functional equivalents of the elements of the various aspects described throughout this disclosure that are currently or hereafter known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be covered by the claims. In addition, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be contributed to the public, regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly stated in the claims. No element of a claim shall be construed under 35 U.S.C. § 112, sixth paragraph, 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.”

Claims (28)

1. A method for saving power in a wireless device, comprising: Receive intraframe data at the user equipment (UE); Determine whether all payload packet data has been correctly decoded before the end of the frame; and In response to determining that all payload packet data has been correctly decoded and that the first time period of the transmission of the next scheduling overhead bit to the time slot in the frame is longer than the second time period corresponding to the warm-up period of the receiver component, the receiver component is powered down during a portion of the remaining portion of the frame. 2. The method as described in claim 1, further comprising maintaining power supply to the receiver component when the first time period is not greater than the second time period. 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising powering on the receiver component at a first moment prior to the overhead bit transmission period of the time slot in the frame, wherein the first moment prior to the overhead bit transmission period corresponds to the warm-up time of the receiver component. 4. The method as described in claim 3, wherein the power-on occurs once every n time slots, and where n is a positive integer. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE comprises a plurality of receiver components, and the method further comprises: The first receiver component among the plurality of receiver components is powered on at a first moment before the overhead bit transmission period of the time slot in the frame, wherein the first moment before the overhead bit transmission period corresponds to the start of the warm-up time of the first receiver component among the plurality of receiver components; and Essentially, the second receiver component of the plurality of receiver components is powered on at the beginning of the next scheduling overhead bit transmission period. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein powering on the first receiver component among the plurality of receiver components at the first moment further comprises powering on the phase-locked loop receiver component. 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE comprises a plurality of receiver components, and the method further comprises: If the first time period of the next scheduling overhead bit transmission period to the time slot in the frame is not greater than the second time period corresponding to the warm-up period of the first receiver component among the plurality of receiver components, the first receiver component is kept powered. If the next scheduling overhead bit transmission period has not yet arrived, power down the second receiver component among the plurality of receiver components; and Essentially, the second receiver component of the plurality of receiver components is powered on at the beginning of the next scheduling overhead bit transmission period. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein maintaining power supply to the first receiver component among the plurality of receiver components further comprises: maintaining power supply to the phase-locked loop receiver component. 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: Obtain the threshold DCCH energy value corresponding to the presence of the dedicated control channel (DCCH), wherein determining whether all payload packet data has been correctly decoded occurs within the time interval prior to the end of the frame; Calculate the cumulative DCCH energy value in the frame over the time interval; and If the accumulated DCCH energy value is greater than or equal to the threshold DCCH energy value, the power-down of the receiver component is cancelled. 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: The data is defined to include a first type of data with an error detection mechanism and a second type of data without an error detection mechanism; Determining whether all payload group data has been correctly decoded further includes: determining that the first type of data has been correctly decoded based on the error detection mechanism; Based on the determination that the first type of data has been correctly decoded, it is assumed that the second type of data has been correctly decoded; and During this portion of the remaining part of the frame, the receiver component is powered down in response to determining that the first type of data has been correctly decoded. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the data comprises data encoded using an adaptive multi-rate (AMR) codec, and wherein the first type of data comprises class A data, and the second type of data comprises class B or class C data. 12. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether all payload group data has been correctly decoded further comprises: determining that empty data or SID data has been correctly decoded. 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination includes cyclic redundancy check. 14. A device for wireless communication, comprising: A means for receiving data within a frame at a user equipment (UE); A means for determining whether all payload packet data has been correctly decoded before the end of the frame; and A means for powering down the receiver component during a portion of the remaining part of the frame in response to the determination made by the means for determining that all payload packet data has been correctly decoded and in the case that a first time period of the transmission of the next scheduling overhead bit to the time slot in the frame is greater than a second time period corresponding to the warm-up period of the receiver component. 15. A computer-readable medium for power saving in a wireless device, wherein the instructions are executed by a processor to perform the following operations: Receive intraframe data at the user equipment (UE); Before the end of the frame, determine whether all payload packet data has been correctly decoded; and In response to determining that all payload packet data has been correctly decoded and that the first time period of the transmission of the next scheduling overhead bit to the time slot in the frame is longer than the second time period corresponding to the warm-up period of the receiver component, the receiver component is powered down during a portion of the remaining portion of the frame. 16. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising: At least one processor; and A memory coupled to the at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: Receive intraframe data at the user equipment (UE); Before the end of the frame, determine whether all payload packet data has been correctly decoded; and In response to determining that all payload packet data has been correctly decoded and that the first time period of the transmission of the next scheduling overhead bit to the time slot in the frame is longer than the second time period corresponding to the warm-up period of the receiver component, the receiver component is powered down during a portion of the remaining portion of the frame. 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is configured to maintain power supply to the receiver component when the first time period is not greater than the second time period. 18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is configured to power on the receiver component at a first moment prior to the overhead bit transmission period of a time slot in the frame, wherein the first moment prior to the overhead bit transmission period corresponds to the warm-up time of the receiver component. 19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the at least one processor is configured to power on the receiver assembly once every n time slots. 20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the UE comprises a plurality of receiver components, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: The first receiver component among the plurality of receiver components is powered on at a first moment before the overhead bit transmission period of the time slot in the frame, wherein the first moment before the overhead bit transmission period corresponds to the start of the warm-up time of the first receiver component among the plurality of receiver components; and Essentially, the second receiver component of the plurality of receiver components is powered on at the beginning of the next scheduling overhead bit transmission period. 21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein powering on the first receiver component of the plurality of receiver components at the first moment further comprises powering on the phase-locked loop receiver component. 22. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the UE comprises a plurality of receiver components, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: If the first time period of the next scheduling overhead bit transmission period to the time slot in the frame is not greater than the second time period corresponding to the warm-up period of the first receiver component among the plurality of receiver components, the first receiver component is kept powered. If the next scheduling overhead bit transmission period has not yet arrived, power down the second receiver component among the plurality of receiver components; and Essentially, the second receiver component of the plurality of receiver components is powered on at the beginning of the next scheduling overhead bit transmission period. 23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein maintaining power supply to the first receiver component of the plurality of receiver components further comprises: maintaining power supply to the phase-locked loop receiver component. 24. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: Obtain the threshold DCCH energy value corresponding to the presence of the dedicated control channel (DCCH), wherein determining whether all payload packet data has been correctly decoded occurs within the time interval prior to the end of the frame; Calculate the cumulative DCCH energy value in the frame over the time interval; and If the accumulated DCCH energy value is greater than or equal to the threshold DCCH energy value, the power-down of the receiver component is cancelled. 25. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: The data is defined to include a first type of data with an error detection mechanism and a second type of data without an error detection mechanism; Determining whether all payload group data has been correctly decoded further includes: determining that the first type of data has been correctly decoded based on the error detection mechanism; Based on the assumption that the second type of data has been correctly decoded, it is determined that the first type of data has been correctly decoded; and During this portion of the remaining part of the frame, the receiver component is powered down in response to determining that the first type of data has been correctly decoded. 26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the data comprises data encoded using an adaptive multi-rate (AMR) codec, and wherein the first type of data comprises class A data, and the second type of data comprises class B or class C data. 27. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein determining whether all payload group data has been correctly decoded further comprises: determining that empty data or SID data has been correctly decoded. 28. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the determination includes cyclic redundancy check.