Methods and apparatus for identifying subscriber station mobility
View Patent ↗Methods and apparatus for identifying a subscriber station which is in motion, determining a mobility metric indicative of a level of mobility of the subscriber station and varying or updating one or more operating parameters based on the mobility metric. An apparatus can determine a measure of mobility based on one or a combination of a plurality of factors, such as variations in signal strength, variations in a channel estimate, or variations in phase or frequency of a particular signal or signal component. The one or more measures of mobility can be combined to form a single measure of mobility, the measure of mobility can be quantized to a predetermined number of mobility levels and one or more operating parameters can be varied or adjusted based on the mobility level.
1. A method of providing at least one mobility factor by a mobile device, the method comprising:
the mobile device receiving a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) symbols over a plurality of channels from at least one base station;
the mobile device determining a plurality of mobility metrics for each of the plurality of channels based at least in part on a signal quality associated with the plurality of OFDM symbols received over a respective one of the plurality of channels; and
the mobile device combining the plurality of mobility metrics for each channel to generate a plurality of composite mobility metrics, each of the plurality of composite mobility metrics being associated with a respective one of the plurality of channels.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
the mobile device communicating a selected at least one of the plurality of composite mobility metrics to one of the at least one base station.
3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
the mobile device receiving an indication to communicate with at least one base station in a licensed frequency spectrum or an unlicensed frequency spectrum.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
quantizing the plurality of composite mobility metrics to produce a plurality of mobility factors.
5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
the mobile device communicating a selected at least one of the plurality of mobility factors to at least one base station.
6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
the mobile device receiving an indication to communicate with at least one base station in a licensed frequency spectrum or an unlicensed frequency spectrum.
7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the mobile device determines to communicate with at least one base station in a licensed frequency spectrum on a condition that the at least one of the mobility factors is above a threshold, and wherein the mobile device determines to communicate with the at least one base station in an unlicensed frequency spectrum on a condition that the at least one of the plurality of mobility factors is below the threshold.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
the mobile device determining whether to communicate with at least one base station in a licensed frequency spectrum or a unlicensed frequency spectrum based on at least one of the plurality of composite mobility metrics.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the mobile device determines to communicate with at least one base station in a licensed frequency band on a condition that the at least one of the plurality of composite mobility metrics is above a threshold, and wherein the mobile device determines to communicate with the at least one base station in an unlicensed frequency band on a condition that the at least one of the plurality of composite mobility metrics is below the threshold.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of mobility metrics is a power based mobility metric, an extracted correlated signal based mobility metric, or a frequency offset based mobility metric.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mobile device combining the plurality of mobility metrics for each channel to generate a plurality of composite mobility metrics further includes combining a global positioning system (GPS) based mobility metric with the plurality of mobility metrics, wherein the GPS based mobility metric is based at least on GPS location information.
12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
the mobile device weighting the plurality of mobility metrics.
13. A mobile device comprising:
a transceiver configured to receive a plurality of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) symbols over a plurality of channels from at least one base station; and
a processor configured to determine a plurality of mobility metrics for each of the plurality of channels based at least in part on a signal quality associated with the plurality of OFDM symbols received over a respective on of the plurality of channels, and to combine the plurality of mobility metrics for each channel to generate a plurality of composite mobility metrics, each of the plurality of composite mobility metrics being associated with a respective one of the plurality of channels.
14. The mobile device of claim 13 , wherein the transceiver is configured to communicate a selected at least one of the plurality of composite mobility metrics to one of the at least one base station.
15. The mobile device of claim 14 , wherein the transceiver is configured to receive an indication to communicate with at least one base station in a licensed frequency spectrum or an unlicensed frequency spectrum.
16. The mobile device of claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured to quantize the plurality of composite mobility metrics to produce a plurality of mobility factors.
17. The mobile device of claim 16 , wherein the transceiver is configured to communicate a selected at least one of the plurality of mobility factors to at least one base station.
18. The mobile device of claim 17 , wherein the transceiver is further configured to receive an indication to communicate with at least one base station in a licensed frequency spectrum or an unlicensed frequency spectrum.
19. The mobile device of claim 16 , wherein the processor is configured to determine to communicate with at least one base station in a licensed frequency spectrum on a condition that the at least one of the mobility factors is above a threshold, and to determine to communicate with the at least one base station in an unlicensed frequency spectrum on a condition that the at least one of the plurality of mobility factors is below the threshold.
20. The mobile device of claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured to determine whether to communicate with at least one base station in a licensed frequency spectrum or a non-licensed frequency spectrum based on at least one of the plurality of composite mobility metrics.
21. The mobile device of claim 20 , wherein the processor is configured to determine to communicate with at least one base station in a licensed frequency spectrum on a condition that the at least one of the plurality of composite mobility metrics is above a threshold, and to determine to communicate with the at least one base station in an unlicensed frequency spectrum on a condition that the at least one of the plurality of composite mobility metrics is below the threshold.
22. The mobile device of claim 13 , wherein at least one of the plurality of mobility metrics is a power based mobility metric, an extracted correlated signal based mobility metric, or a frequency offset based mobility metric.
23. The mobile device of claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured to combine a global positioning system (GPS) based mobility metric with the plurality of mobility metrics, wherein the GPS based mobility metric is based at least on GPS location information, with the plurality of mobility metrics for each channel to generate the plurality of composite mobility metrics.
24. The mobile device of claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured to weight the plurality of mobility metrics.