Granted Patent B2

US 8,634,408 · App. 12/631,390 · Granted Jan 21, 2014

Abstract

Claims (102)

1. A transmitter configured to:

send circuit switched data over a traffic channel to a corresponding receiver, the traffic channel being segmented into a plurality of frames;

use a Fast Associated Control Channel frame for sending Fast Associated Control Channel data;

determine a vacant frame of the plurality of frames;

send packet switched data over the traffic channel using the vacant frame; and

set an identifier of the vacant frame to inform the corresponding receiver that the vacant frame comprises packet switched data,

wherein no circuit switched data is sent in the vacant frame due to discontinuous transmission,

wherein the set identifier makes the vacant frame appear to be a Fast Associated Control Channel frame,

wherein the vacant frame which is set to appear as a Fast Associated Control Channel frame does not comprise Fast Associated Control Channel data.

2. The transmitter of claim 1 , wherein

the vacant frame comprises a plurality of payload symbols; and

the identifier corresponds to a subset of the payload symbols.

3. The transmitter of claim 2 , wherein

the payload symbols comprise one or more stealing symbols; and

the identifier corresponds to the one or more stealing symbols.

4. The transmitter of claim 3 , wherein the one or more stealing symbols are set to “1” for the set identifier.

5. The transmitter of claim 1 , wherein the circuit switched data comprises at least one of audio data or a silence descriptor message.

6. The transmitter of claim 1 , wherein the traffic channel is one of:

a half rate traffic channel; or

a full rate traffic channel.

7. The transmitter of claim 1 , wherein the traffic channel is associated with a single time slot of a radio channel.

8. The transmitter of claim 7 , wherein the radio channel is modulated using one of the following modulation schemes:

GMSK; or

8PSK.

9. The transmitter of claim 7 , wherein

for a GMSK modulated radio channel, the traffic channel is encoded using one of the encoding schemes: CS-1, CS-2, CS-3, CS-4, MCS-1, MCS-2, MCS-3, MCS-4 or AMR encoding schemes; and

for a 8PSK modulated radio channel, the traffic channel is encoded using one of the encoding schemes: MCS-5, MCS-6, MCS-7, MSC-8 or MCS-9.

10. The transmitter of claim 7 , wherein the radio channel has the Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number C 0 .

11. A receiver configured to:

receive circuit switched data over a traffic channel from a corresponding transmitter, the traffic channel being segmented into a plurality of frames;

receive a frame of the plurality of frames over the traffic channel;

receive Fast Associated Control Channel data in a Fast Associated Control Channel frame of the plurality of frames;

extract an identifier comprised within the frame of the plurality of frames, wherein the identifier makes the frame appear to be a Fast Associated Control Channel frame;

determine that the frame comprises packet switched data by using the extracted identifier;

wherein the frame is a vacant frame associated with discontinuous transmission of the traffic channel,

wherein no circuit switched data is received in the vacant frame due to discontinuous transmission,

wherein the vacant frame which is set to appear as a Fast Associated Control Channel frame does not comprise Fast Associated Control Channel data.

12. The receiver of claim 11 , wherein the receiver is further configured to: perform a first cyclic redundancy check after making use of a first forward error correction code to verify if a second frame comprises FACCH data.

13. The receiver of claim 11 , wherein the receiver is further configured to: perform a second cyclic redundancy check after making use of a second forward error correction code to verify if a second frame comprises packet switched data.

14. A mobile station comprising:

a transmitter configured to:

send circuit switched data over a traffic channel to a corresponding receiver, the traffic channel is being segmented into a plurality of frames;

use a Fast Associated Control Channel frame for sending Fast Associated Control Channel data;

determine a vacant frame of the plurality of frames;

send packet switched data over the traffic channel using the vacant frame; and

set an identifier of the vacant frame to inform the corresponding receiver that the vacant frame comprises packet switched data,

wherein no circuit switched data is sent in the vacant frame due to discontinuous transmission,

wherein the set identifier makes the vacant frame appear to be a Fast Associated Control Channel frame,

wherein the vacant frame which is set to appear as a Fast Associated Control Channel frame does not comprise Fast Associated Control Channel data; and

a receiver configured to:

receive circuit switched data over a traffic channel from a corresponding transmitter, the traffic channel being segmented into a plurality of frames;

receive Fast Associated Control Channel data in a Fast Associated Control Channel frame;

receive a vacant frame over the traffic channel;

extract an identifier; and

determine that the frame comprises packet switched data by using the extracted identifier.

15. The mobile station of claim 14 , wherein the mobile station is configured to inform a corresponding base station about its capability regarding the communication of packet switched data during discontinuous transmission of circuit switched data.

16. The mobile station of claim 15 , wherein the mobile station is configured to inform the corresponding base station using a field in a Mobile Station Classmark 3 message.

17. The mobile station of claim 15 , wherein the mobile station is configured to inform the corresponding base station by means of a Channel Request Description 2 information element.

18. A base station comprising:

a transmitter configured to:

send circuit switched data over a traffic channel to a corresponding receiver, the traffic channel being segmented into a plurality of frames;

use a Fast Associated Control Channel frame for sending Fast Associated Control Channel data;

determine a vacant frame of the plurality of frames;

send packet switched data over the traffic channel using the vacant frame; and

set an identifier of the vacant frame to inform the corresponding receiver that the vacant frame comprises packet switched data,

wherein no circuit switched data is sent in the vacant frame due to discontinuous transmission; and

a receiver configured to:

receive circuit switched data over a traffic channel from a corresponding transmitter, the traffic channel being segmented into a plurality of frames;

extract an identifier comprised within a frame of the plurality of frames, wherein the identifier makes the frame appear to be a Fast Associated Control Channel frame;

determine that the frame comprises packet switched data by using the extracted identifier;

wherein the vacant frame which is set to appear as a Fast Associated Control Channel frame does not comprise Fast Associated Control Channel data.

19. The base station of claim 18 , wherein the base station is configured to inform a corresponding mobile station about its capability regarding the communication of packet switched data during discontinuous transmission of circuit switched data.

20. The base station of claim 19 , wherein the base station is configured to inform the corresponding mobile station using a DTM Assignment Command message.

21. The base station of claim 19 , wherein the base station is configured to inform the corresponding mobile station by signaling a combination of a full-rate circuit switched data traffic channel and a single-slot packet switched data traffic channel assignment.

22. The base station of claim 18 , further comprising

a PS processing unit configured to process packet switched data; and

a CS processing unit configured to process circuit switched data and configured to pass a frame comprising packet switched data to the PS processing unit.

23. The base station of claim 18 , wherein the base station is configured to

inspect a plurality of frames received from another network element; and

identify a vacant frame within the plurality of frames, wherein the vacant frame is associated with discontinuous transmission.

24. A radio interface specifying a traffic channel for the communication of circuit switched data; wherein:

the traffic channel is segmented into a plurality of frames;

a Fast Associated Control Channel frame is used to send Fast Associated Control Channel data;

a vacant frame, in which no circuit switched data is sent due to discontinuous transmission, is used for the communication of packet switched data; and

an identifier of the vacant frame makes the vacant frame appear to be a Fast Associated Control Channel frame, wherein the vacant frame which is set to appear as a Fast Associated Control Channel frame does not comprise Fast Associated Control Channel data.

25. A method for transmitting circuit switched data and packet switched data over a traffic channel, the method comprising:

transmitting circuit switched data over the traffic channel, the traffic channel being segmented into a plurality of frames;

using a Fast Associated Control Channel frame for sending Fast Associated Control Channel data;

determining a vacant frame of the plurality of frames;

sending packet switched data over the traffic channel using the vacant frame; and

setting an identifier of the vacant frame to inform the corresponding receiver that the vacant frame comprises packet switched data,

wherein no circuit switched data is sent in the vacant frame due to discontinuous transmission,

wherein the set identifier makes the vacant frame appear to be a Fast Associated Control Channel frame,

wherein the vacant frame which is set to appear as a Fast Associated Control Channel frame does not comprise Fast Associated Control Channel data.

26. A method for receiving circuit switched data and packet switched data over a traffic channel, the method comprising:

receiving circuit switched data over the traffic channel; wherein the traffic channel is segmented into a plurality of frames;

receiving a frame of the plurality of frames over the traffic channel;

receiving Fast Associated Control Channel data in a Fast Associated Control Channel frame of the plurality of frames;

extracting an identifier comprised within the second frame of the plurality of frames, wherein the identifier makes the frame appear to be a Fast Associated Control Channel frame; and

determining that the frame comprises packet switched data by using the extracted identifier; wherein the frame is a vacant frame associated with discontinuous transmission of the traffic channel,

wherein no circuit switched data is received in the vacant frame due to discontinuous transmission,

wherein the vacant frame which is set to appear as a Fast Associated Control Channel frame does not comprise Fast Associated Control Channel data.

Assignments (8)