Method and apparatus for dynamic vehicular communications
View Patent ↗A method, apparatus and computer program product are therefore provided according to an example embodiment to provide a cellular based 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 signaling 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.
1. A method comprising:
for a mobile terminal having a primary cell carrier (PCC) activated to communicate directly with a network access point, causing a secondary cell carrier (SCC) to be configured for the mobile terminal located in a vehicular target area to communicate with the access point via one or more road side units (RSUs) which share a security context within the vehicular target area;
while the PCC remains activated, causing the SCC to be activated by signaling a vehicular fast activation block (VFAB); and
de-activating the SCC by sending a signal strength measurement for the SCC from a given one or more RSUs that does not satisfy a predetermined threshold over a measurement period, wherein the SCC becomes de-activated upon expiry of a timer.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the signal strength measurement is a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) measurement for a signal between the mobile terminal and the one or more RSUs.
3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the SCC is caused to be configured using signaling on the PCC.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the VFAB comprises a RSU control format indication that is configured to provide a bitmap indicating a pre-defined configuration for the one or more RSUs.
5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the pre-defined configuration provides configuration information for the one or more RSUs and comprises at least one of system bandwidth, Physical Resource Blocks subsets, time-domain duty cycles, or RSU specific reference signals.
6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
causing the VFAB to be broadcast to all mobile terminals within a coverage area defined by the one or more RSUs.
7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising sending the predetermined threshold and the measurement period on the PCC.
8. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least:
for a mobile terminal having a primary cell carrier (PCC) activated to communicate directly with a network access point, cause a secondary cell carrier (SCC) to be configured for the mobile terminal located in a vehicular target area to communicate with the access point via one or more road side units (RSUs) which share a security context within the vehicular target area;
while the PCC remains activated, cause the SCC to be activated by signaling a vehicular fast activation block (VFAB); and
deactivate the SCC by sending a signal strength measurement for the SCC from a given one or more RSUs that does not satisfy a predetermined threshold over a measurement period, wherein the SCC becomes de-activated upon expiry of a timer.
9. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein
the signal strength measurement is a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) measurement for a signal between the mobile terminal and the one or more RSUs.
10. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the SCC is caused to be configured using signaling on a primary cell carrier (PCC).
11. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the VFAB comprises a RSU control format indication that is configured to provide a bitmap indicating a pre-defined configuration for the one or more RSUs.
12. The apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein the pre-defined configuration provides configuration information for the one or more RSUs and comprises at least one of system bandwidth, Physical Resource Blocks subsets, time-domain duty cycles, or RSU specific reference signals.
13. The apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the at least one memory including the computer program code is further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
cause the VFAB to be broadcast to all mobile terminals within a coverage area defined by the one or more RSUs.
14. A method comprising:
causing a mobile terminal to search for a vehicular fast activation block (VFAB) in an instance in which a message is received at the mobile terminal that indicates that at least one road side unit (RSU) is within communications range of the mobile terminal;
while maintaining as active a primary cell carrier (PCC) directly between the mobile terminal and a network access point, activating a secondary cell carrier (SCC) between the mobile terminal and the access point via a direct connection between the mobile terminal and a road side unit (RSU) based on a received VFAB; and
de-activating the SCC and thereby de-activating the direct connection with the RSU in an instance in which a signal strength measurement for the SCC, received at the mobile terminal from the RSU, does not satisfy a predetermined threshold over a measurement period based on a timer.
15. The method according to claim 14 , further comprising:
receiving an indication of a configured SCC in a vehicular target area.
16. The method according to claim 14 ,
wherein the signal strength measurement is a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) measurement.
17. The method according to claim 14 , further comprising:
causing the timer to be initiated in an instance in which the signal strength measurement for the SCC does not satisfy the predetermined threshold;
causing the signal strength measurement to be updated by sending a reference signal in response to the timer expiring; and
causing the connection with the RSU via the SCC to be de-activated in an instance in which the updated signal strength measurement for the SCC does not satisfy the predetermined threshold.
18. The method according to claim 14 , wherein the VFAB comprises a road side unit control format indication that is configured to provide a bitmap indicating a pre-defined configuration.
19. The method according to claim 18 , wherein the pre-defined configuration comprises at least one of system bandwidth, Physical Resource Blocks subsets, time-domain duty cycles, RSU specific reference signals.
20. The method according to claim 14 , wherein the predetermined threshold and the measurement period are received on the PCC.