WO2013168361A1 - Système de communication - Google Patents

Système de communication Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2013168361A1
WO2013168361A1 PCT/JP2013/002562 JP2013002562W WO2013168361A1 WO 2013168361 A1 WO2013168361 A1 WO 2013168361A1 JP 2013002562 W JP2013002562 W JP 2013002562W WO 2013168361 A1 WO2013168361 A1 WO 2013168361A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
mobile device
interference
radio technology
base station
radio
Prior art date
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PCT/JP2013/002562
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English (en)
Inventor
Caroline Jactat
Dorin Panaitopol
Lanto Rakotoharison
Abdoulaye Bagayoko
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Nec Corporation
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Publication date
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Publication of WO2013168361A1 publication Critical patent/WO2013168361A1/fr

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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W28/00—Network traffic management; Network resource management
    • H04W28/02—Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
    • H04W28/04—Error control
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W16/00—Network planning, e.g. coverage or traffic planning tools; Network deployment, e.g. resource partitioning or cells structures
    • H04W16/14—Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04B—TRANSMISSION
    • H04B1/00—Details of transmission systems, not covered by a single one of groups H04B3/00 - H04B13/00; Details of transmission systems not characterised by the medium used for transmission
    • H04B1/06—Receivers
    • H04B1/10—Means associated with receiver for limiting or suppressing noise or interference
    • H04B1/1027—Means associated with receiver for limiting or suppressing noise or interference assessing signal quality or detecting noise/interference for the received signal
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04B—TRANSMISSION
    • H04B1/00—Details of transmission systems, not covered by a single one of groups H04B3/00 - H04B13/00; Details of transmission systems not characterised by the medium used for transmission
    • H04B1/06—Receivers
    • H04B1/10—Means associated with receiver for limiting or suppressing noise or interference
    • H04B1/109—Means associated with receiver for limiting or suppressing noise or interference by improving strong signal performance of the receiver when strong unwanted signals are present at the receiver input
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W72/00—Local resource management
    • H04W72/12—Wireless traffic scheduling
    • H04W72/1215—Wireless traffic scheduling for collaboration of different radio technologies
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W72/00—Local resource management
    • H04W72/50—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources
    • H04W72/54—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources based on quality criteria
    • H04W72/541—Allocation or scheduling criteria for wireless resources based on quality criteria using the level of interference
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04B—TRANSMISSION
    • H04B1/00—Details of transmission systems, not covered by a single one of groups H04B3/00 - H04B13/00; Details of transmission systems not characterised by the medium used for transmission
    • H04B1/005—Details of transmission systems, not covered by a single one of groups H04B3/00 - H04B13/00; Details of transmission systems not characterised by the medium used for transmission adapting radio receivers, transmitters andtransceivers for operation on two or more bands, i.e. frequency ranges
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04B—TRANSMISSION
    • H04B1/00—Details of transmission systems, not covered by a single one of groups H04B3/00 - H04B13/00; Details of transmission systems not characterised by the medium used for transmission
    • H04B1/38—Transceivers, i.e. devices in which transmitter and receiver form a structural unit and in which at least one part is used for functions of transmitting and receiving
    • H04B1/40—Circuits
    • H04B1/403—Circuits using the same oscillator for generating both the transmitter frequency and the receiver local oscillator frequency
    • H04B1/406—Circuits using the same oscillator for generating both the transmitter frequency and the receiver local oscillator frequency with more than one transmission mode, e.g. analog and digital modes
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04B—TRANSMISSION
    • H04B1/00—Details of transmission systems, not covered by a single one of groups H04B3/00 - H04B13/00; Details of transmission systems not characterised by the medium used for transmission
    • H04B1/38—Transceivers, i.e. devices in which transmitter and receiver form a structural unit and in which at least one part is used for functions of transmitting and receiving
    • H04B1/40—Circuits
    • H04B1/50—Circuits using different frequencies for the two directions of communication
    • H04B1/52—Hybrid arrangements, i.e. arrangements for transition from single-path two-direction transmission to single-direction transmission on each of two paths or vice versa
    • H04B1/525—Hybrid arrangements, i.e. arrangements for transition from single-path two-direction transmission to single-direction transmission on each of two paths or vice versa with means for reducing leakage of transmitter signal into the receiver
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04B—TRANSMISSION
    • H04B15/00—Suppression or limitation of noise or interference
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04B—TRANSMISSION
    • H04B17/00—Monitoring; Testing
    • H04B17/30—Monitoring; Testing of propagation channels
    • H04B17/309—Measuring or estimating channel quality parameters
    • H04B17/345—Interference values
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W24/00—Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
    • H04W24/02—Arrangements for optimising operational condition
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W24/00—Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
    • H04W24/04—Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W36/00—Hand-off or reselection arrangements
    • H04W36/16—Performing reselection for specific purposes
    • H04W36/20—Performing reselection for specific purposes for optimising the interference level
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W52/00—Power management, e.g. TPC [Transmission Power Control], power saving or power classes
    • H04W52/04—TPC
    • H04W52/18—TPC being performed according to specific parameters
    • H04W52/24—TPC being performed according to specific parameters using SIR [Signal to Interference Ratio] or other wireless path parameters
    • H04W52/243—TPC being performed according to specific parameters using SIR [Signal to Interference Ratio] or other wireless path parameters taking into account interferences
    • H04W52/244—Interferences in heterogeneous networks, e.g. among macro and femto or pico cells or other sector / system interference [OSI]
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W76/00—Connection management
    • H04W76/30—Connection release
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W88/00—Devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations or access point devices
    • H04W88/02—Terminal devices
    • H04W88/06—Terminal devices adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to radio access networks in a cellular or wireless telecommunications network, and particularly but not exclusively to networks operating according to the 3GPP standards or equivalents or derivatives thereof.
  • the invention has particular although not exclusive relevance to the Long Term Evolution (LTE) of UTRAN (called Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN)) and to avoiding or reducing interference for mobile devices communicating with such networks; especially interference caused by, or to, non-LTE radio technologies used by the devices in addition to the LTE radio technology.
  • LTE Long Term Evolution
  • E-UTRAN Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network
  • mobile devices also known as User Equipment (UE) or mobile terminals, such as mobile telephones
  • UE User Equipment
  • base stations In their communication with each other, mobile devices and base stations use licensed radio frequencies, which are typically divided into frequency bands and/or time blocks.
  • each base station is responsible for controlling the transmission timings, frequencies, transmission powers, modulations, etc. employed by the mobile devices attached to the base station.
  • the base stations In order to minimise disruption to the service and to maximise utilisation of the available bandwidth, the base stations continuously adjust their own transmission power and also that of the mobile devices.
  • Base stations also assign frequency bands and/or time slots to mobile devices, and also select and enforce the appropriate transmission technology to be used between the base stations and the attached mobile devices. By doing so, base stations also reduce or eliminate any harmful interference caused by mobile devices to each other or to the base stations.
  • LTE base stations receive periodic signal measurement reports from each served mobile device, which contain information about the perceived signal quality on a given frequency band used by (or being a candidate frequency band for) that mobile device. These signal measurement reports are then used by the base stations in their decision to allocate certain parts of their bandwidth to the served mobile devices and also to hand over mobile devices to other base stations (or other frequency bands / other radio access technologies (RATs)) when the signal quality does not meet the established criteria.
  • RATs radio access technologies
  • the handing over of a mobile device might be necessary, for example, when the mobile device has moved away from the given base station, and also when an interference problem has arisen.
  • the mobile devices typically support multiple radio technologies, not only LTE.
  • the mobile devices might include, for example, transceivers and/or receivers operating in the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) radio bands, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi transceivers.
  • ISM Industrial, Scientific and Medical
  • mobile devices might also include positioning functionality and associated circuitry, for example Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) transceivers and/or receivers.
  • GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System
  • Both ISM and GNSS (hereafter commonly referred to as non-LTE) radio technologies use frequency bands close to or partially overlapping with the LTE frequency bands. Some of these non-LTE frequency bands are licensed for a particular use (e.g.
  • GPS bands Global Positioning Systems (GPS) bands
  • radio technologies such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi standards using the same range of ISM frequency bands.
  • the manner in which these non-LTE frequency bands are used are, therefore, not covered by the LTE standards and are not controlled by the LTE base stations.
  • transmissions in the non-LTE frequency bands might, nevertheless, still cause undesired interference to (or suffer undesired interference resulting from) transmissions in the LTE bands, particularly in the overlapping or neighbouring frequency bands.
  • LTE and ISM i.e. Wi-Fi and BT
  • LTE and GNSS radio technologies the LTE radio receiver experiences co-channel interference from the non-LTE radio transmitter.
  • the base station will start to increase its transmission power to compensate for the weakened signal.
  • this approach is wasteful of the overall system resources, with respect to both power consumption and resource allocation.
  • the increase of transmission power impacts the neighbouring cells and may create inter-cell interference and can also have an impact on the operation of other RATs, e.g. Wi-Fi throughput.
  • Such non-LTE radio technologies might be used by the mobile device itself or by other mobile devices in their vicinity and, although these radio technologies conform to the relevant standards (i.e. other than LTE), might still cause undesired interference to (or suffer interference from) the LTE transmission of these mobile devices. This is especially true when the end user is operating an ISM transceiver in parallel with the LTE transceiver, for example when the user is making a voice over IP (VoIP) call using a Bluetooth headset. It will be appreciated that in this case the LTE and ISM transmissions will interfere with each other as the LTE voice data received from the base station is relayed to the headset using the ISM transceiver implemented in the same mobile device.
  • VoIP voice over IP
  • any signal quality measurements performed by this mobile device before the VoIP call would not correspond to the actual signal quality perceived during the call.
  • an LTE base station can control only the mobile device's (and its own) LTE transmissions, any corrective measures made by the base station would inevitably fail to improve the interference perceived by the mobile device because of the concurrently operated ISM transceiver.
  • the LTE transceiver of the mobile device can cause interference to the GNSS receiver (e.g. a GPS receiver) making it difficult to obtain a current location of the mobile device.
  • the GNSS receiver e.g. a GPS receiver
  • the LTE transmissions by the mobile device would hinder the GNSS functionality unusable because of the interference caused by the LTE transceiver to the GNSS receiver of the mobile device.
  • the typical in-device coexistence scenarios include: - LTE Band 40 radio transmitter causing interference to ISM radio receiver; - ISM radio transmitter causing interference to LTE Band 40 radio receiver; - LTE Band 7 radio transmitter causing interference to ISM radio receiver; - LTE Band 7/13/14 radio transmitter causing interference to GNSS radio receiver.
  • 3GPP has investigated the above issues and proposed three solutions, in which the network (i.e. an LTE base station) can provide assistance when the mobile device cannot solve the problem by itself.
  • the proposed solutions are: TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) solution, FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing) solution, and Power Control solution.
  • the TDM solution ensures that the transmission of a radio signal does not coincide with the reception of another radio signal.
  • the FDM solution consists of choosing another serving frequency for the mobile device than the one suffering from interference.
  • the Power Control solution aims to reduce radio transmission power to mitigate the effect of interference.
  • the above solutions only take into account the interference suffered in the LTE frequency bands and ignore any interference caused by LTE to other radio access technologies used concurrently by the mobile devices.
  • the known solutions are thus limited to improving the quality of the LTE transmissions and ignore the effect of LTE transmissions on other radio technologies implemented by these mobile devices.
  • Embodiments of the present invention aim to provide improved techniques for alleviating interference in a communications network and, in particular, for alleviating radio interference caused to, or by, transmissions between a mobile communication device and a base station of a mobile (cellular) communication.
  • the present invention provides a mobile device, comprising: means for communicating with a base station using a first radio technology; means for communicating with a wireless communications device using a second radio technology; means for estimating interference between the first and second radio technologies within the mobile device; means for providing, to said base station and responsive to estimating said interference, coexistence information identifying at least one parameter associated with communicating using the second radio technology concurrently with said first radio technology; and means for receiving, responsive to providing said co-existence information, control information for alleviating said interference; wherein said means for communicating with a base station is operable to control communication with the base station, based on said control information, whereby to alleviate the detected interference.
  • the coexistence information might comprise a current bit rate of the second radio technology and a target bit rate of the second radio technology.
  • the coexistence information might also comprise a ratio of a current bit rate and a target bit rate of the second radio technology.
  • the coexistence information might comprise a current mean interference of the second radio technology and a maximum allowed mean interference of the second radio technology.
  • the coexistence information might comprise an indication that communication with said base station uses a non-preferred communication technology for concurrent communication with said second radio technology.
  • the coexistence information comprises information relating to an interference spectrum mask.
  • the control information might comprise an instruction to release a connection or an instruction to modify an operating parameter of the first and/or the second radio technology.
  • the received control information might comprise an instruction to modify a time division multiplexing parameter of the first and/or the second radio technology.
  • the received control information might comprise an instruction to modify a frequency division multiplexing parameter of the first and/or the second radio technology.
  • the received control information might comprise a base station preference regarding a coexistence solution to be applied by the mobile device.
  • the mobile device might comprise means for indicating to the base station when interference is no longer detected.
  • the indication might comprise an indication of alleviation of interference due to deactivation of the second radio technology within the mobile device or due to completion of an interference alleviation procedure pertaining to the second radio technology within the mobile device.
  • the first radio technology can be a radio technology according to the long term evolution (LTE) standard and the means for providing coexistence information and the means for receiving control information can exchange radio resource control (RRC) messages with the base station.
  • LTE long term evolution
  • RRC radio resource control
  • the second radio technology can be a radio technology according to any one of the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS standards.
  • the at least one parameter associated with communicating using the second radio technology might comprise a measured value and information identifying a desired value.
  • the measured value might comprise a current bit rate of the second radio technology and the information identifying a desired value might comprise a target bit rate of the second radio technology.
  • the measured value might comprise a current mean interference of the second radio technology and the information identifying a desired value might comprise a maximum allowed mean interference of the second radio technology.
  • the present invention provides a base station for communicating with a plurality of mobile devices, the base station comprising: means for communicating with a mobile device using a first radio technology; means for receiving, from the mobile device, an indication that interference has occurred between said first radio technology and a second radio technology, said indication comprising coexistence information identifying at least one parameter associated with communicating using said second radio technology concurrently with said first radio technology; means for generating control information for alleviating said interference between said first and second radio technologies based on said coexistence information; and means for sending the generated control information to the mobile device to alleviate the interference.
  • the present invention provides a method performed by a mobile device operable to communicate with a base station using a first radio technology and operable to communicate with a wireless communications device using a second radio technology, the method comprising: estimating interference between the first and second radio technologies; providing, to said base station and responsive to said step of estimating said interference, coexistence information identifying at least one parameter associated with communicating using the second radio technology concurrently with said first radio technology; and receiving, responsive to providing said coexistence information, control information for alleviating said interference; wherein the mobile device is operable to control its communication with the base station based on said control information, whereby to alleviate the detected interference.
  • the present invention provides a method performed by a base station operable to communicate with a mobile device using a first radio technology, the method comprising: receiving, from the mobile device, an indication that interference has occurred between said first radio technology and a second radio technology, said indication comprising coexistence information identifying at least one parameter associated with communicating using said second radio technology concurrently with said first radio technology; generating control information for alleviating said interference between said first and second radio technologies based on said coexistence information; and sending the generated control information to the mobile device to alleviate the interference.
  • the present invention provides a mobile device, which is operable to communicate with a base station using a first radio technology and to communicate with a wireless communications device using a second radio technology; the mobile device being operable to estimate interference between the first and second radio technologies within the mobile device; to provide, to said base station and responsive to estimating said interference, coexistence information identifying at least one parameter associated with communicating using the second radio technology concurrently with said first radio technology; and to receive, responsive to providing said co-existence information, control information for alleviating said interference; wherein communication with said base station is controlled based on said control information, whereby to alleviate the detected interference.
  • the present invention provides a base station for communicating with a plurality of mobile devices, the base station being operable to communicate with a mobile device using a first radio technology; to receive, from the mobile device, an indication that interference has occurred between said first radio technology and a second radio technology, said indication comprising coexistence information identifying at least one parameter associated with communicating using said second radio technology concurrently with said first radio technology; to generate control information for alleviating said interference between said first and second radio technologies based on said coexistence information; and to send the generated control information to the mobile device to alleviate the interference.
  • aspects of the invention extend to computer program products such as computer readable storage media having instructions stored thereon which are operable to program a programmable processor to carry out a method as described in the aspects and possibilities set out above or recited in the claims and/or to program a suitably adapted computer to provide the apparatus recited in any of the claims.
  • FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a mobile telecommunication system of a type to which the invention is applicable
  • Fig. 2 schematically illustrates various radio transceiver circuits implemented on a mobile device of the mobile telecommunication system shown in Fig. 1
  • Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a mobile device forming part of the mobile telecommunication system shown in Fig. 1
  • Fig. 4 is a block diagram of a base station forming part of the mobile telecommunication system shown in Fig. 1
  • Fig. 5 is a timing diagram illustrating signalling messages exchanged between a mobile device and a base station in the mobile telecommunication system shown in Fig.
  • Fig. 6 is a timing diagram illustrating signalling messages exchanged between a mobile device and a base station in the mobile telecommunication system shown in Fig. 1 according to a second example
  • Fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the process for determining an appropriate TDM/FDM solution in the base station forming part of the mobile telecommunication system shown in Fig. 1
  • Fig. 8 is a timing diagram illustrating signalling messages exchanged between a mobile device and a base station in the mobile telecommunication system shown in Fig. 1 according to a third example
  • Fig. 9 is a timing diagram illustrating signalling messages exchanged between a mobile device and a base station in the mobile telecommunication system shown in Fig. 1 in a scenario in which existing interference ceases or is alleviated
  • Fig. 10 illustrates the relationship among the level of interference experienced by the LTE receiver and the power and frequency of the LTE transmissions.
  • Fig. 1 schematically illustrates a mobile (cellular) telecommunication system 1 in which users of mobile devices 3 (for example mobile telephones) can communicate with other users via each of a plurality of base stations 5-1, 5-2 and a respective core network 7-1, 7-2.
  • base station 5-1 is an E-UTRAN base station
  • base station 5-2 is a UTRAN base station.
  • Further base stations might operate according to different standards, such as the Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) or the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) Radio Access Network (GERAN) standards or the like.
  • W-CDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
  • GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
  • EDGE Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution
  • GERAN Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution
  • Each base station 5 operates at least one base station cells, each having a number of uplink and downlink communications resources (channels, sub-carriers, time slots, etc.) that are available for wireless communication between the mobile devices 3 and the corresponding base station 5.
  • uplink and downlink communications resources channels, sub-carriers, time slots, etc.
  • the mobile device 3 is in communication with only one base station 5 at a time, although, in deployed systems, a mobile device 3 might communicate with several base stations in parallel.
  • the Radio Access Technologies (RATs) employed by the base stations 5 operate according to either Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) or Time Division Duplexing (TDD).
  • FDD Frequency Division Duplexing
  • TDD Time Division Duplexing
  • TDD Time domain of a communication channel (of a base station 5) is divided into several recurrent time slots of fixed length in which communication to/from the base station 5 can be scheduled.
  • two or more data streams may be transferred between the base station 5 and the mobile device(s) 3, apparently simultaneously, in sub-channels of one communication channel, by scheduling each data stream in different time slots of the channel (effectively 'taking turns').
  • FDD the bandwidth available to the base station 5 is divided into a series of non-overlapping frequency sub-bands each comprising frequency resources that may be assigned to mobile devices 3 for communication via the base station 5.
  • the base stations 5 allocate downlink resources to each mobile device 3 depending on the amount of data to be sent to the device. Similarly, the base stations 5 allocate uplink resources to each mobile device 3 depending on the amount and type of data the mobile device 3 has to send to the base station 5.
  • the uplink and downlink resources typically comprise physical resource blocks (PRBs) which are blocks of frequency resources in the frequency range used by the base station 5.
  • PRBs physical resource blocks
  • the base station 5 During allocation of uplink and downlink resources, the base station 5 also takes into account the signal quality available on the given frequency used by (or allocated to) the mobile device 3. The base station 5 allocates PRBs to the mobile devices 3 dynamically, also taking into account the current transmission needs and signal conditions (as reported by each mobile device 3). Base stations 5 generally aim to maximise usage of the available bandwidth so that each mobile device 3 has sufficient transmission opportunity, communicates at its optimum transmission power, and does not cause interference to the other mobile devices 3 or to the base station 5.
  • the mobile device 3 shown in Fig. 1 is also capable of communicating using non-LTE radio technologies such as those which use resources of the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) frequency bands.
  • the mobile device 3 can communicate with a Wi-Fi access point 8 of a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) (not shown) operating according to one of the 802.11 family of standards defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
  • the mobile device 3 can also communicate with a wireless headset 9 operating according to e.g. the Bluetooth standard defined by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG).
  • the mobile device 3 also supports positioning technologies and thus communicates with, for example, a positioning satellite 10 using GPS signals.
  • Communications between the mobile device 3 and the access point 8, the wireless headset 9, and/or the positioning satellite 10 might occur substantially concurrently with the communication between the mobile device 3 and the base station(s) 5, which concurrent communication has the potential to cause undesirable interference.
  • interference such as this arises as a result of communication occurring concurrently in the same mobile device 3 (for example, concurrent use of LTE and non-LTE radio technologies) the interference is sometimes referred to as 'in-device coexistence (IDC) interference' which causes an 'in-device coexistence (IDC) situation'.
  • IDC 'in-device coexistence
  • Fig. 2 schematically illustrates, purely illustratively, the various radio transceiver circuits implemented on a mobile device 3 shown in Fig. 1.
  • the mobile device 3 comprises an LTE baseband circuit 300a, a GNSS baseband circuit 300b, and an ISM baseband circuit 300c.
  • Each baseband circuit 300a to 300c is coupled to a radio frequency (RF) transceiver (or receiver), i.e. LTE transceiver 301a, GNSS transceiver 301b, and ISM transceiver 301c, respectively.
  • RF radio frequency
  • Communications in the LTE band are carried out using an LTE antenna 303a.
  • communications in the non-LTE bands are carried out using the respective GNSS antenna 303b and/or the ISM antenna 303c.
  • any of the transceivers 301a to 301c might suffer interference from either one of the other transceivers operating in the same mobile device 3.
  • mobile device 3 and base station 5 are configured to co-operate to alleviate any such in-device coexistence (IDC) interference.
  • IDC in-device coexistence
  • the mobile device 3 detects the interference and, after establishing information about the nature of the interference the mobile device 3 initially attempts to deal with the interference itself, for example by modifying the timings of the non-LTE radio communication in a time-based solution. If this is not sufficiently successful, however, the mobile device 3 generates information (referred to herein as 'assistance' information) relating to the non-LTE technology that is contributing to the IDC interference, and communicates the generated assistance information to the base station 5, to assist the base station 5 to take appropriate corrective action to manage a reduction in the interference.
  • information referred to herein as 'assistance' information
  • the mobile device 3 is advantageously able to provide assistance information identifying the quality of the current non-LTE communication performance and the associated desired quality.
  • This assistance information can vary depending on requirements.
  • the assistance information may, for example, identify a current communication bit rate and an associated target communication bit rate, and hence may infer information about the available ISM quality of service.
  • the assistance information may, additionally or alternatively, identify a current interference level (e.g. a mean interference for current ISM communication) and a corresponding 'maximum allowed' interference level.
  • the IDC assistance information comprises information about the non-LTE transmission that would not normally be available to the base station 5. Further, this assistance information can be provided to the network automatically, e.g. in response to the mobile device 3 detecting interference.
  • the base station 5 Based on the assistance information communicated to it by the mobile device 3, the base station 5 is able to evaluate the severity of the corresponding IDC situation and to manage communication with the mobile device 3 in order to alleviate the situation accordingly.
  • FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a mobile device 3 forming part of the mobile telecommunication system 1 shown in Fig. 1.
  • the mobile device 3 includes transceiver circuits 301a to 301c which are operable to transmit signals to and to receive signals from the base station 5 via one or more antennas 303a to 303c.
  • the mobile device 3 also includes a user interface 305 that is controlled by a controller 307 and which allows a user to interact with the mobile device 3.
  • the controller 307 controls the operation of the transceiver circuits 301a to 301c in accordance with software and data stored in memory 309.
  • the software includes, among other things, an operating system 311, an LTE module 313, an ISM module 315, a GNSS module 317, a measurement module 319, and a reporting module 321.
  • the LTE module 313 is operable to control the communications of the mobile device 3 using the LTE radio technologies.
  • the LTE module 313 receives instructions from the base station 5 (via the LTE transceiver circuit 301a and the LTE antenna 303a) and stores them in the memory 309. Based on the received instructions, the LTE module 313 is operable to select the appropriate frequency band, transmission power, modulation mode etc. used in the LTE communications.
  • the LTE module 313 is also operable to update the base station 5 about the amount and type of uplink and/or downlink data scheduled for transmission in order to assist the base station 5 in allocating resources among the mobile devices it is serving.
  • the ISM module 315 is operable to control the ISM communications of the mobile device 3. In doing so, the ISM module 315 might, for example, use data received from the access point 8 and/or communicate with the wireless headset 9.
  • the GNSS module 317 is operable to obtain a current geographic location of the mobile device 3 and to control the GNSS communications of the mobile device 3. In doing so, the GNSS module 317 might, for example, use data received from the positioning satellite 10.
  • default control parameters are stored in the memory 309 and might be used by any of the LTE/ISM/GNSS modules 313 to 317 to control communications of the mobile device 3 as appropriate.
  • the measurement module 319 is operable to measure the current bit rate(s) via any of the transceiver circuits 301a to 301c, for example to establish a current bit rate for non-LTE communications, and to establish an associated average or mean bit rate, and/or to derive historical bit rate statistics.
  • the measured bit rate(s) might be established separately for uplink and downlink.
  • the measurement module 319 is also operable to determine communication interference levels, for example to establish an interference level being experienced for non-LTE communications.
  • the measurement module 319 in this embodiment, is also operable to count the amount of incorrectly transmitted data for deriving an "error bit rate".
  • the reporting module 321 is operable to generate and send the assistance information to the base station 5. In order to do so, the reporting module 321 is operable to obtain data from the LTE module 313, the ISM module 315, the GNSS module 317, and/or the measurement module 319 as appropriate. The reporting module 321 is operable to estimate the value of the mean interference using the information obtained from the other modules and any other information that is available to it (such as e.g. the ISM spectrum mask, ISM band(s) in use, and the ISM duty cycle). The reporting module 321 indicates the occurrence of in-device interference by sending an associated message to the base station 5 via the LTE transceiver 301a. In this embodiment the message comprises a dedicated radio resource control (RRC) message (e.g. an RRC InDeviceCoexistence Indication message or the like) although any appropriate signalling may be used.
  • RRC radio resource control
  • the message indicating the occurrence of in-device interference also includes the details of the interference, such as the result(s) of the measurement(s) by the measurement module 319, and the data obtained from the other modules 313 to 319 or information derived from such data and/or measurement(s) and/or estimation(s).
  • the reporting module 321 is also operable to indicate to the base station 5 when a previously reported interference situation no longer exists.
  • FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a base station 5 forming part of the mobile telecommunication system 1 shown in Fig. 1.
  • the base station 5 includes a transceiver circuit 401 which is operable to transmit signals to and to receive signals from the mobile devices 3 via one or more antennas 403 and to transmit signals to and receive signals from the telephone core network 7 via the core network interface 405 (which may be a copper or optical fibre interface).
  • a controller 407 controls the operation of the transceiver circuit 401 in accordance with software and data stored in memory 409.
  • the software includes, among other things, an operating system 411, an interference management module 413, and a scheduler module 415.
  • the interference management module 413 receives and handles the assistance information from the mobile devices 3.
  • the interference management module 413 is also operable to determine, based on the obtained assistance information, appropriate action to be taken to reduce IDC interference at the mobile device 3 for example by managing the allocation of time and/or frequency resources to the mobile devices 3 served by this base station 5.
  • the scheduler module 415 is operable to receive and process requests from the mobile devices 3 for allocation of uplink and downlink resources.
  • the scheduler module 415 is also operable to obtain information from the interference management module 413 identifying any interference reduction actions and takes these into account when allocating resources to the affected mobile devices 3.
  • the mobile device 3 and the base station 5 are described for ease of understanding as having a number of discrete modules (such as the communications control modules and the LTE/ISM/GNSS modules). Whilst these modules may be provided in this way for certain applications, for example where an existing system has been modified to implement the invention, in other applications, for example in systems designed with the inventive features in mind from the outset, these modules may be built into the overall operating system or code and so these modules may not be discernible as discrete entities.
  • FIG. 5 is a timing diagram illustrating signalling messages exchanged between a mobile device 3 and a base station 5 according one example.
  • the base station determines whether a time or frequency based solution (TDM/FDM) would be the most suitable to address any radio interference issues experienced by the mobile device 3 as a result of the corresponding IDC situation (s500).
  • the base station 5 then notifies the IDC solution (TDM/FDM) preference to the mobile device 3 (in step s501).
  • step s501 the mobile device 3 receives the network preference from the base station 5 in an "InDeviceCoexistence" signalling message, which is formatted according to the Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol (e.g. as defined in 3GPP TS 36.331).
  • RRC Radio Resource Control
  • step s503 upon experiencing IDC issues, the mobile device 3 checks the network preference.
  • the mobile device 3 determines the values of the current and target ISM bit rates (or the ratio of these bit rates), and generates an "RRC InDeviceCoexistence Indication" message including assistance information comprising this bit rate information.
  • the mobile device 3 sends the generated RRC message to the base station 5 including the determined current and target bit rate values (or their ratio).
  • the network can use the current and target ISM bit rate to assess the ratio by which the LTE radio resources need to be decreased to accommodate the ISM communication in the mobile device 3.
  • the network i.e. base station 5 can reduce the duration or bandwidth of the LTE radio resources allocated to the mobile device 3.
  • the mobile device 3 determines the values of the current and maximum allowed mean interference for the ISM transmission, and generates a different "RRC InDeviceCoexistence Indication" message including assistance information comprising this interference information.
  • the mobile device 3 sends the generated RRC message to the base station 5 including the determined current mean interference and the maximum allowed mean interference values.
  • the network can use the current and maximum allowed mean interference for the ISM transmission information to infer the level of interference the ISM radio is causing to the LTE radio.
  • the target frequency for the FDM solution is chosen such that the new sub-carriers do not overlap with the sub-carriers currently experiencing interference above a certain threshold.
  • step s509 using the assistance information carried by the "RRC InDeviceCoexistence Indication" message received in either step s506 or step s508, the base station 5 processes the received assistance information and, based on the processing, determines an appropriate strategy to alleviate interference and generates updated control data for the mobile device 3.
  • step s511 the base station 5 generates and sends response message comprising, in this example, an "RRC InDeviceCoexistence Response" message back to the mobile device 3.
  • the response message includes updated control data for controlling communication by the mobile device 3 to alleviate the IDC interference.
  • step s513 the mobile device 3 modifies the resources used for communication in accordance with the updated control data thereby alleviating the IDC interference.
  • the base station 5 beneficially uses the received assistance information to adjust its operation and/or to send updated control information to the mobile device 3 (or to any other mobile devices that need to adjust their operations).
  • the updated control information effectively instructs the mobile device 3 how to change its LTE transmissions in order to reduce or eliminate the interference caused by (or caused to) the non-LTE transceiver. This will allow the mobile device 3 to operate simultaneously both its LTE and non-LTE radio transceivers.
  • the base station 5 might allocate the resources previously used by this mobile device 3 to another mobile device that is not affected by these non-LTE transmissions so that the overall system utilisation remains approximately the same, or even improves as both mobile devices 3 can operate near their optimum transmission power and without experiencing interference.
  • the benefit of using the bit rate assistance information or the interference level assistance information by the base station 5 is that it will be able to determine a recommended solution for the mobile device 3 promptly and with more confidence than if the determination was made by the mobile device 3 alone.
  • the base station 5 can also determine the best strategy and will not try to apply interference avoidance solutions that are less likely to work. For example, the base station 5 may determine that an FDM solution is likely to completely eliminate the existing interference and so will not try to modify the parameters of a TDM solution currently in use, which might only reduce but not eliminate the interference.
  • the base station 5 will recognise whether or not it is viable to request the mobile device 3 to perform measurements on a candidate carrier frequency (as per standard FDM solution). Due to the interference, the mobile device 3 may not be able to receive the measurement request anyway. Therefore, the base station 5 will recognise that a TDM solution will be more appropriate.
  • Fig. 6 is a timing diagram illustrating signalling messages exchanged between a mobile device 3 and a base station 5 according to another example.
  • a network preference for TDM or FDM IDC interference solutions has not been provided by the base station 5 for the mobile device 3 in question (or has expired or is not applicable to the IDC situation that the mobile device is experiencing). Accordingly when, at step s603, the mobile device 3 checks to establish if there is any TDM or FDM network preference it is unable to identify any network preference.
  • the mobile device 3 determines that there is no network preference available, and then obtains both the values of the current and target ISM bit rates (or the ratio of these bit rates) and the values of the current mean interference and the maximum allowed mean interference for the ISM transmission.
  • the mobile device 3 generates an "RRC InDeviceCoexistence Indication" message including assistance information comprising the bit rate information and the interference information.
  • the mobile device 3 sends the generated RRC message to the base station 5 including the determined bit rate values (or their ratio) and the determined current mean interference and the maximum allowed mean interference values.
  • step s609 the base station 5 processes the received assistance information and, based on the processing, determines an appropriate strategy to alleviate interference and generates updated control data for the mobile device 3 (e.g. as described previously for Fig. 5).
  • step s611 the base station 5 generates and sends response message comprising, in this example, an "RRC InDeviceCoexistence Response" message back to the mobile device 3.
  • the response message includes updated control data for controlling communication by the mobile device 3 to alleviate the IDC interference.
  • step s613 the mobile device 3 modifies the resources used for communication in accordance with the updated control data thereby alleviating the IDC interference.
  • Fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process in which a base station 5 determines an appropriate TDM/FDM solution.
  • the process starts at step s701, after the base station 5 has received an indication, from the mobile device 3, that an IDC situation has arisen (e.g. such as an RRC InDeviceCoexistence message as described previously or the like).
  • an IDC situation e.g. such as an RRC InDeviceCoexistence message as described previously or the like.
  • step s703 the base station 5 determines if bit rate assistance information is available (e.g. in the received indication). If bit rate assistance information is available, then the base station 5 compares the mobile device's current ISM bit rate to the target ISM bit rate (or checks their ratio). If the result of this comparison indicates that the current bit rate is smaller than the target bit rate, the base station 5 proceeds to step s704.
  • step s704 the base station 5 works out the appropriate TDM solution for the mobile device 3 to alleviate the interference situation, and generates corresponding control data for sending it to the mobile device 3 as described previously.
  • step s703 if the comparison in step s703 indicates that the current bit ISM rate is not smaller than the target ISM bit rate (or because bit rate assistance information is not available), then the base station 5 proceeds to step s705.
  • step s705 the base station 5 determines if mean interference assistance information is available. If mean interference assistance information is available, then the base station 5 compares the mobile device's current mean interference to the maximum mean interference that is allowed for the ISM communication according to the mean interference information communicated to the base station 5 by the mobile device 3. If the result of this comparison indicates that the current mean interference has reached or exceeded the maximum allowed mean interference, the base station 5 proceeds to step s706.
  • step s706 the base station 5 works out an appropriate FDM solution for the mobile device 3 to alleviate the interference situation, and generates corresponding control data for sending it to the mobile device 3 as described previously.
  • step s705 if the comparison in step s705 indicates that the current mean interference is smaller than the maximum allowed mean interference (or because mean interference assistance information is not available), the base station 5 proceeds to step s707.
  • the base station 5 If the base station 5 is not able to work out a suitable TDM/FDM solution based on assistance information communicated to the base station 5 by the mobile communication device, then it falls back to using legacy LTE procedures, as indicated in step s707. In this case, for example, the base station 5 might release the LTE radio connection as described in section 5.3.8 of the 3GPP TS 36.331 standard.
  • the base station 5 attempts to find a TDM solution first, before an FDM solution. This helps to minimise the impact on base station operation because a TDM solution can be executed by the mobile device 3, e.g. by adjusting its own scheduling, without having an impact on the E-UTRAN resource allocation.
  • the TDM solution advantageously allows the mobile device 3 to use transmission gaps between two consecutive LTE receptions for its non-LTE (e.g. ISM) transmissions.
  • Fig. 8 is a timing diagram illustrating signalling messages exchanged between a mobile device 3 and a base station 5 according to another example.
  • step s800 when the mobile device 3 is communicating using communication techniques (modulation and/or RAT) that are not preferred in the event of an IDC situation arising the mobile device 3 stores an indicator (or sets a flag) to in indicate that a technology that is currently being used is non-preferred e.g. by the end user of the mobile device.
  • communication techniques modulation and/or RAT
  • the mobile device 3 stores an indicator (or sets a flag) to in indicate that a technology that is currently being used is non-preferred e.g. by the end user of the mobile device.
  • step s801 when the mobile device 3 detects interference due to an IDC situation, the mobile device 3 generates and sends the base station 5, at step s803, a message (e.g. an RRC InDeviceCoexistence Indication message) including, as assistance information, a "non-preferred LTE radio indication" information element (e.g. a flag) set to indicate that a non-preferred technology is being used.
  • a message e.g. an RRC InDeviceCoexistence Indication message
  • a "non-preferred LTE radio indication" information element e.g. a flag
  • the base station 5 performs re-allocation of resources by taking into account the received assistance information comprising the non-preferred LTE radio indication.
  • the base station 5 instructs the mobile device 3 to release the allocated resources so that new resources may be allocated appropriately (e.g. using a preferred communication technology) by sending an "RRC Connection Release" message.
  • the base station 5 might allocate new resources for the mobile device 3 in a subsequent RRC message.
  • the base station might also allocate the released resources to other mobile devices 3, which do not suffer from this interference.
  • the mobile device 3 can continue its ISM communication without interference from the LTE connection. If the mobile device 3 needs to communicate via LTE again, it requests the base station 5 to set-up a new (e.g. interference free) connection.
  • Fig. 9 is a timing diagram illustrating signalling messages exchanged between a mobile device and a base station in case an interference situation has been alleviated, in this example due to deactivation of the non-LTE radio. This scenario can happen, for example, after the procedures illustrated in Fig. 5 or Fig. 6.
  • the IDC interference situation ceases due to the deactivation of the non-LTE radio.
  • the mobile device 3 detects that non-LTE communication has ceased and updates its TDM/FDM parameters appropriately in step s903 before generating and sending an "RRC InDeviceCoexistence Indication" message including as 'assistance' information the updated TDM/FDM parameters and an indication that non-LTE radio has been deactivated at s905.
  • step s907 now aware of the changed operating parameters of the mobile device 3, the base station 5 uses the provided assistance information to determine whether or not to maintain the currently allocated resources for this mobile device 3. Using the assistance information, the base station 5 also updates its TDM/FDM solution (or network preference) and generates control data for the mobile device 3 appropriately.
  • step s909 the base station 5 sends the generated control data, including the updated TDM/FDM solution (or network preference) to the mobile device 3.
  • the mobile device 3 can either apply the received control data straight away, as shown in step s911, or store it for later use, and apply it only e.g. when the next IDC situation arises.
  • the network can allocate to the mobile device 3 resource blocks that were not usable because of the earlier provided TDM/FDM parameters or the earlier interference situation.
  • the base station 5 can also determine whether the current radio resources are adequate for the mobile device 3 or alternative/additional frequencies with better signal quality can be allocated from a set of radio frequencies that was previously unavailable because of the interference.
  • a mobile telephone based telecommunications system was described.
  • the reporting and interference avoidance techniques described in the present application can be employed in other communications system.
  • Other communications nodes or devices may include user devices such as, for example, personal digital assistants, smartphones, laptop computers, web browsers, etc.
  • the software modules may be provided in compiled or un-compiled form and may be supplied to the base station or to the mobile device as a signal over a computer network, or on a recording medium. Further, the functionality performed by part or all of this software may be performed using one or more dedicated hardware circuits. However, the use of software modules is preferred as it facilitates the updating of base station 5 and the mobile device 3 in order to update their functionalities.
  • the Radio Access Technologies employed by the base stations 5 operate according to either Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) mode or Time Division Duplexing (TDD) mode.
  • FDD Frequency Division Duplexing
  • TDD Time Division Duplexing
  • the base stations 5 might also operate according to any other suitable technique.
  • the concurrent LTE and non-LTE communications are carried out by the same mobile device 3.
  • the above embodiments have particular benefit for alleviating in device coexistence interference issues, it will be appreciated that some aspects of the invention may be employed to alleviate interference in situations where one mobile device communicates using the LTE RAT and another but separate device in the vicinity communicates using a non-LTE radio technology.
  • the mobile device 3 comprises separate LTE, GNSS, and ISM baseband circuits 300a to 300c.
  • Each baseband circuit 300a to 300c is coupled to its own radio frequency transceiver 301a to 301c and uses its dedicated antenna 303a to 303c.
  • the baseband circuits 300a to 300c, some or all of the transceivers 301a to 301c, and some or all of the antennas 303a to 303c might be combined in one component.
  • the mobile device 3 might employ separate circuits and/or separate transceivers and/or separate antennas for each type of RAT that it supports.
  • Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are ISM radio access technologies
  • some mobile devices implement these standards using separate circuits and/or separate transceivers and/or separate antennas. It is also possible that a given RAT requires more than one antenna or uses a separate transmitter and/or receiver part. It is also possible that in addition to the LTE functionality, some mobile devices implement GNSS functionality only, whilst other mobile devices might implement ISM functionality only.
  • the above embodiments highlight the situation when the mobile device is transmitting in an ISM frequency band and is receiving in an LTE frequency band.
  • the same solution can be applied when the mobile device is transmitting in an LTE frequency band and is receiving in the ISM/GNSS frequency band(s).
  • ISM transceivers as an example of non-LTE radio technologies.
  • the mechanisms described herein can be applied to other non-LTE radio technologies (e.g. GNSS).
  • ISM ISM
  • Bluetooth devices - Cordless phones; - Near field communication (NFC) devices; - Wireless computer networks, such as HIPERLAN, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11); - Wireless technologies based on IEEE 802.15.4, such as ZigBee, ISA100.11a, WirelessHART, and MiWi.
  • NFC Near field communication
  • Wireless computer networks such as HIPERLAN, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11)
  • - Wireless technologies based on IEEE 802.15.4 such as ZigBee, ISA100.11a, WirelessHART, and MiWi.
  • GNSS Global or regional satellite navigation systems, such as GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Compass, Beidou, DORIS, IRNSS, and QZSS; - Global or regional Satellite Based Augmentation Systems, such as Omnistar, StarFire, WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS, and GAGAN; - Ground based augmentation systems, such as GRAS, DGPS, CORS, and GPS reference stations operating Real Time Kinematic (RTK) corrections.
  • the IDC assistance information have been described as comprising either one of a current ISM bit rate, a target ISM bit rate, a ratio of current and target ISM bit rates, a current interference level, a maximum allowed interference level, an indication of a non-preferred RAT mode, and an indication related to the deactivation of an interfering ISM transmitter.
  • the assistance information might include, or be obtained from, any of the following information types or any combination of these as well: - mean interference level - indication of a type of non-LTE RAT being used - indication of a type of non-LTE RAT suffering interference - indication of a preferred RAT mode - ISM duty cycle - current ISM received power - current ISM transmitted power - maximum ISM transmitted power - ISM channels being used - ISM transmission spectrum mask - indication of a re-activation of a non-LTE RAT - indication of a change in the operation of a non-LTE RAT - LTE carrier frequency band(s) and/or sub-carrier(s) suffering interference - LTE carrier frequency band(s) and/or sub-carrier(s) not suffering interference - level of interference across a number of LTE carrier frequency band(s) and/or sub-carrier(s)
  • the interference issues have been described with respect to one device operating both the LTE and the ISM/GNSS transceivers.
  • the embodiments are applicable to interference issues involving multiple devices, e.g. one device operating an LTE transceiver and another device operating an ISM or a GNSS transceiver.
  • the embodiments are also applicable to mobile devices which do not have any ongoing LTE transmissions (but e.g. their ISM or GNSS transmission suffers from interference) and which employ LTE signalling only for the duration of sending assistance information to a serving base station which is able to manage the interference.
  • the network preference was embedded in an "InDeviceCoexistence" RRC signalling message.
  • the network preference might be sent using a different signalling message.
  • the network preference may be provided in any suitable way.
  • TDM/FDM may be provided in any suitable way.
  • it may be embedded in the network System Information (which is broadcast by the base station) or sent in dedicated control signalling addressed to a single mobile device or to a group of mobile devices.
  • the preferred time/frequency based solution is provided by the network in order to reduce the need for the mobile device to send back unnecessary assistance information (e.g. both TDM and FDM solution parameters when only one of them is in use) and to ensure that the mobile device always provides assistance information that is relevant to the base station.
  • the provided network preference might depend on the network operator or the network manufacturer.
  • the information can be provided in case the network knows that its deployed frequency bands for LTE are nearby those deployed for ISM.
  • the preference indication may contain additional parameters which allow the mobile device to determine when to send the assistance information.
  • the assistance information that the mobile device provides to the network may thus depend on the network preference.
  • the mobile device may provide just the bit rate assistance information, such as information on the current ISM bit rate (obtained from ISM measurements or by monitoring the ACK/NACK procedures) and/or the target ISM bit rate (i.e. minimum acceptable throughput as indicated by the ISM application).
  • the mobile device may provide the ratio of a current and a target ISM bit rate as an alternative or addition to the current and target ISM bit rate.
  • the mobile device may provide just the mean interference assistance information, such as information on the current mean interference between the ISM radio transmitter and the LTE radio receiver. This may be obtained in any suitable manner, for example, from the ISM duty cycle, the maximum ISM transmitted power, the ISM channels in use, and the ISM transmitter spectrum mask, and might be provided per frequency band or per sub-carrier or per group of sub-carriers.
  • the current mean interference value is not an instantaneous value but is derived by averaging the measured values over the ISM duty cycle. Providing a mean interference value mitigates the effect of fluctuations in interference over time and results in a more accurate indication of the real interference between the LTE and non-LTE transmissions as opposed to providing the result of a single interference measurement.
  • Fig. 10 illustrates the relationship among the level of interference experienced by the LTE receiver and the power and frequency of the LTE transmissions. It also illustrates the so-called ISM transmitter spectrum mask, which exemplifies how the ISM transmission may affect the LTE reception.
  • the mobile device may compute the current mean interference per LTE subcarrier or a group of subcarriers. The interference is not constant in all frequency bands and it depends on LTE frequency channel in use and ISM transmit power and of course ISM channels being used.
  • This maximum allowed interference may be derived from, for example, the LTE received power and a minimum required Signal to Interference Ratio (SIR), which can be defined as LTE Rx power divided by the maximum allowed interference.
  • SIR Signal to Interference Ratio
  • the current mean interference may be given per frequency band or per LTE subcarrier or per group of subcarriers, thus allowing the E-UTRAN (e.g. the base station) to select the carrier for the frequency based solution more efficiently/effectively.
  • the interference is not constant in all frequency bands but depends on the LTE frequency channel in use and the ISM transmission power (and of course the ISM channels being used). The further away from an ISM frequency band, the smaller the caused interference to the LTE transmissions. Similarly, the further away from the LTE frequency band, the smaller the caused interference to the ISM transmissions. If the interference is too high compared to the LTE Rx power, then LTE communication will not be possible on the sub-carriers adjacent to the interfering ISM band(s). However, it might be still possible to use sub-carriers further away from a given interfering ISM band.
  • assistance information may be provided (e.g. from the mobile device or elsewhere as appropriate) in the form of a so-called interference spectrum mask which identifies which frequency bands are most likely to cause interference.
  • the interference spectrum mask may be determined using the ISM or GNSS Tx Power (PTx) and ISM/GNSS channel(s).
  • PTx GNSS Tx Power
  • ISM/GNSS channel(s) ISM/GNSS channel(s).
  • an example interference spectrum mask is shown as a substantially triangular area where LTE reception and ISM transmission overlap (i.e. area marked as "LTE Rx Power & ISM Interference").
  • the interference spectrum mask comprises information relating to the interference level in the LTE frequency bands that arise due to an ongoing non-LTE transmission.
  • the ISM interference spectrum mask might also be defined in the form of a table or a matrix.
  • the base station may therefore use an interference spectrum mask to work out which frequency bands are less likely to experience interference and thus to re-allocate resources for the mobile device accordingly.
  • the base station can work out the minimum frequency difference (between the interfering ISM band and the allocated LTE band) needed to avoid or to limit interference below a given threshold value.
  • the base station may thus use the reported bit rate or mean interference assistance information together with the interference spectrum mask.
  • BT Bluetooth DRX Discontinuous Reception eNB Evolved NodeB - base station
  • E-UTRA Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access
  • E-UTRAN Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network
  • FDM Frequency Division Multiplexing GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System GPS Global Positioning System IDC interference avoidance for In Device Coexistence ISM Industrial, Scientific and Medical (radio bands)
  • RRM Radio Resource Management
  • Receiver SIR Signal to Interference Ratio STA STAtion (a device compliant with the IEEE 802.11 standards family) TDM Time Division Multiplexing
  • Tx Transmitter UE User Equipment DL Downlink - link from base station to mobile device UL Uplink - link from mobile device to base station
  • the present invention can be materialized by a program for causing a computer such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) to execute the processes shown in Figs. 5 to 9.
  • a computer such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) to execute the processes shown in Figs. 5 to 9.
  • CPU Central Processing Unit
  • Non-transitory computer readable media include any type of tangible storage media.
  • Examples of non-transitory computer readable media include magnetic storage media (such as floppy disks, magnetic tapes, hard disk drives, etc.), optical magnetic storage media (e.g. magneto-optical disks), CD-ROM, CD-R (compact disc recordable), CD-R/W (compact disc rewritable), and semiconductor memories (such as mask ROM, PROM (programmable ROM), EPROM (erasable PROM), flash ROM, RAM (random access memory), etc.).
  • the program may be provided to a computer using any type of transitory computer readable media. Examples of transitory computer readable media include electric signals, optical signals, and electromagnetic waves. Transitory computer readable media can provide the program to a computer via a wired communication line (e.g. electric wires, and optical fibers) or a wireless communication line.
  • TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEM 3 MOBILE DEVICE 5 (5-1, 5-2) BASE STATION 7 (7-1, 7-2) CORE NETWORK 8 ACCESS POINT 9 WIRELESS HEADSET 10 POSITIONING SATELLITE 300a LTE BASEBAND CIRCUIT 300b GNSS BASEBAND CIRCUIT 300c ISM BASEBAND CIRCUIT 301a LTE TRANSCEIVER 301b GNSS TRANSCEIVER 301c ISM TRANSCEIVER 303a to 303c ANTENNA 305 USER INTERFACE 307 CONTROLLER 309 MEMORY 311 OPERATING SYSTEM 313 LTE MODULE 315 ISM MODULE 317 GNSS MODULE 319 MEASUREMENT MODULE 321 REPORTING MODULE 401 TRANSCEIVER CIRCUIT 403 ANTENNA 405 CORE NETWORK INTERFACE 407 CONTROLLER 409 MEMORY 411 OPERATING SYSTEM 4

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Abstract

L'invention porte sur un système de communication mobile (1) dans lequel un dispositif mobile (3) est utilisable pour communiquer avec une station de base (5) en utilisant une première technologie radio et avec d'autres dispositifs en utilisant une seconde technologie radio. Dans le cas où un brouillage est détecté en raison d'une utilisation simultanée des première et seconde technologies radio, le dispositif mobile (3) fournit des informations d'assistance à la station de base (5), sur la base desquelles la station de base (5) génère des données de commande. La station de base (5) envoie les données de commande générées au dispositif mobile (3), qui les utilise pour atténuer les effets du brouillage détecté.
PCT/JP2013/002562 2012-05-09 2013-04-16 Système de communication WO2013168361A1 (fr)

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GB1208119.6A GB2501902A (en) 2012-05-09 2012-05-09 In-device coexistence interference avoidance
GB1208119.6 2012-05-09

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GB2517911B (en) * 2013-08-29 2016-06-22 Nec Corp Radio measurement reporting
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