Roadside unit selection in an intelligent transport system

A cellular based intelligent transport system (intelligent transportation system ITS) comprises a cellular base station 12 and road side units RSU 14. Base station 12 transmits information including about itself and the RSUs within its coverage area, and further information is transmitted in paging messages from the RSUs. If the vehicle receives a paging from a RSU it selects that RSU for communication (data exchange) providing it is within range of the base station 12. The RSU may alternatively be selected on the basis of the vehicles location and direction of movement (velocity). Wither arrangement allows a vehicle to be passed from one RSU to another within a cell, or between RSUs in different cells. The arrangement may be a LTE (Long Term Evolution) system ...

Allocation of available television white space (TVWS) based on geographical position tracking

A method of controlling allocation of available television white space (TVWS) channels comprises: requesting data of available television white space channels in a geographical tracking area by a television band device 10, 12, 13, 15 (e.g. Mode 1 or Mode 2 personal, portable devices); identifying available television white space channels and base stations 11,14 of at least one cell within the area, including use of television band device location positioning; and defining and allocating at least one available television white space channel for the device in response to the request. The coexistence of cellular secondary systems in the geological tracking area may be checked. Available overlapping white space channels may be determined based on geo-location (positional) accuracy and a cell neighbour list. The request for available white space channels can be evaluated by filtering using the cell neighbor list. Base station 11, 14 network resources may be configured using base station location ...

A cellular based intelligent transportation system using a secondary cell carrier

A method, apparatus and computer program product arc therefore provided according to an example embodiment to provide a cellular based intelligent transportation system (ITS) environment. In this regard, a method includes causing a secondary cell carrier (SCC) to be configured for a mobile terminal located in a vehicular target area. The method of this embodiment may also include causing the SCC to be activated by signalling a vehicular fast activation block (VFAB). The method of this embodiment may also include causing the SCC to deactivate based on a signal strength measurement, received from a road side unit (RSU), in an instance in which the signal strength measurement does not satisfy a predetermined threshold over a measurement period based on a timer.

Extending Control Signalling in an LTE Network

A method for a wireless network node to support an extended control signalling is provided. The method comprises configuring a control signalling message over extended control symbols on a layer 1 (L1) downlink control channel, the control signalling message encoded over an increased aggregation of control channel elements (CCEs) in a time domain. The control signalling message is placed in a designated set of sub-frames on the L1 downlink control channel. Support for the extended control signalling is indicated to one or more UEs as well as indicating a position of the designated set of the sub-frames in a spare field of a Master Information Block (MIB). The control signalling message is then transmitted to the one or more UEs over the L1 downlink control channel. The indication to the UEs allows legacy devices to operate as currently. May be used in conjunction with Machine Type Communication (MTC) devices.

Swapping an actual channel on a secondary link with a shadow channel on a primary link with when the secondary link is no longer available

A method includes causing an actual channel and a shadow channel to be configured to carry information for a logical channel. The logical channel is configured for at least one QCI (Quality of Service (QoS) Class Identifier) class. The method also includes configuring an actual channel on a secondary link and a shadow channel on a primary link and causing the shadow channel and the actual channel to be swapped such that the actual channel is configured on the primary link and the shadow channel is configured on the secondary link in an instance in which it is determined that the secondary link is no longer available.Thus, the most favourable channel for a particular QCI may be re-allocated and/or swapped between a primary link and a secondary link. Thus, in instances in which the secondary link 404 is unavailable (e.g. a Road Side Unit (RSU) 14 is not in communication range with mobile terminal 10) network traffic and or network communications may be configured to be transmitted over the ...

Method and Apparatus for Handover Using Predicted Vehicular Locations

A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided to distribute and utilize location information received from one or more networks (such as an intelligent transport system ITS) to determine handover timing and target cell selection for a mobile terminal. A vehicle location control entity VLCE 26 receives location information and determines a predicted future mobile terminal location and at least one network entity (access point or relay node) with a serving area that encompasses the predicted future mobile terminal location. The VLCE causes handover instructions to be transmitted to the network entity for resource reservation and handover preparations to be conducted early enough so that they are available at the time of handover. The VLCE may also receive navigation system route information, roadside information, traffic information, speed of travel, speed limit predictions or vehicle information.

Providing identities of secondary cells to apparatus for discovery in a physical discovery channel

A primary cell (PCell) configures 40 a physical discovery channel (PDCH) for a plurality of secondary cells (SCells). The configuring may include interference management among the SCells and coordinating transmission periodicity of the PDCH transmitted by the configured SCells. The primary cell (PCell) provides 42 individual identities of the secondary cells (SCells) to user equipment (UE) for discovery in the PDCH of at least one secondary cell (SCell) using at least one of the provided individual identities. The primary cell (PCell) may receive 44 from the user equipment (UE) a report of discovery of the at least one secondary cell (SCell). The primary cell (PCell) may configure 46 the at least one secondary cell (SCell) for transmitting additional data to the user equipment (UE) on a secondary carrier to provide carrier aggregation (CA) of the secondary carrier with a primary carrier of the primary cell (PCell).

Transmission power selection in a carrier aggregation system within a shared band

There is provided, for example, an apparatus, which is caused to select a transmission power configuration for a communication with at least one user terminal taking place on component carriers of a carrier aggregation configuration within a shared band, wherein the selection is between a low transmission power configuration applying a transmission power below a predetermined power threshold without a listen-before-­talk (LBT) approach and a high transmission power configuration applying a transmission power of at least the predetermined power threshold; and upon detecting that the selected transmission power configuration needs to be informed, cause an indication of the selected transmission power configuration to the at least one user terminal and at least one secondary cell.

Common search space configuration for an enhanced physical downlink control channel

Configuring a common search space (CSS) for an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) of a carrier, and scheduling a master information block of common control signaling on a physical broadcast channel (BCH) of the carrier, wherein said master information block indicates a configuration of the common search space which defines a set of pairs of physical resource blocks in the common search space.

Method and apparatus for dynamic vehicular communications

Frequency hopping in license-exempt/shared bands

Communications systems

Frequency hopping in license-exempt / shared bands

Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling is used to configure 202 a user device for N secondary cells SCells on license-exempt channels wi in a Frequency Hopping (FH) channel set W={wi} where i=1,2,...N. Then cross-carrier scheduling 204 is sent on a primary cell PCell to schedule a frequency hopping resource block hi on the ith license-exempt channel wi. Based on measurements of at least some of the license-exempt channels wi received from at least the user device, parameters for the frequency hopping are adapted 206. The FH resource block contains M physical resource blocks, scheduled for the SCell during a FH time interval by a resource grant sent on a PDCCH of the PCell. In an embodiment the RRC signaling is sent by a micro access node/ Home Base Stations (HeNB) on the PCell, the cross carrier scheduling is sent also by the micro access node/HeNB on the PCell, and the PCell lies within an LTE licensed frequency band. Can be employed for off loading cellular based traffic from licensed ...

Configuring a broadcast channel of a carrier in a subset of physical resource blocks distributed to cover the system bandwidth

A broadcast channel (BCH) of a carrier is configured 110 in one of a predetermined number of subsets of physical resource blocks (PRBs) in a system bandwidth on the basis of a cell configuration. Each subset comprises the same prescribed number of PRBs and the predetermined number of subsets is distributed in the frequency domain to cover the system bandwidth with the centre of the system bandwidth being located in the centre of a middle subset. Common control signalling (broadcast information) is scheduled 120 in the one subset of PRBs in accordance with the configured BCH of the carrier. User equipment (UE) detects 140 the BCH of the carrier in the one subset of PRBs in the system bandwidth and listens 150 for common control signalling (broadcast information) in the one subset of PRBs in accordance with the detected BCH of the carrier. Accordingly, the BCH may be a PRB subset other than the middle PRB subset, as specified for legacy carriers, and the BCH of multiple (neighbouring) cells ...

ACTIVATION OF DORMANT CELLS IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

A base station causes a dormant cell to transition to an activated state when it receives an indication of a discovery of the cell from a communications device. A measurement report relating to a cell may also cause a transition of the cell to an activated state. Furthermore an indication of scheduled data provided by a base station may cause transition of a dormant cell to an activated state. Cell cycle configuration may also be transmitted between base stations via an X2 interface or to a communications device which uses the cycle for cell discovery. Upon discovery the device may send a cell activation report to a base station during, in some examples, the short active period of the identified cell. The cell may be a new carrier type (NCT) cell, femtocell, secondary cell (Scell), home eNB, CSG cell or remote radio head (RRH).