IP Library Granted Patent US 9,031,044
Granted Patent B2
US 9,031,044 · App. 12/352,733 · Granted May 12, 2015

Power control for wireless LAN stations

Inventors: Hemanth Sampath (San Diego, CA); Richard van Nee (De Meern, NL); Santosh Abraham (San Diego, CA); Alok Aggarwal (Foster City, CA)
Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
H04W52/241H04W52/08H04W52/146Y02B60/50
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,031,044
App. No.
12/352,733
Granted
May 12, 2015
Kind
B2
Abstract

Techniques and apparatus for controlling the transmit power of an uplink (UL) signal from a user terminal in a wireless communications system in an effort to achieve some target characteristic, such as a target carrier-to-interference (C/I) ratio, at an access point (AP) are provided. In this manner, such a user terminal may help avoid or compensate for imbalances in received radio frequency (RF) power between UL signals received from multiple user terminals by the AP. For example, the transmit power at each user terminal may be controlled in an effort to achieve a target post-processing C/I ratio of 28 dB per spatial stream in an effort to reduce large power imbalances and optimize throughput per user terminal. The user terminal and the AP may compose part of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system utilizing spatial-division multiple access (SDMA) techniques.

Claims (102)

1. A method for power control of an uplink (UL) signal in a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising:

adjusting power of the UL signal to meet an access point (AP) target carrier-to-interference (C/I) metric using at least one of G OFDMA , G SDMA , or G CDMA , wherein G OFDMA is an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) processing gain, G SDMA is a spatial-division multiple access (SDMA) processing gain, and G CDMA is a code-division multiple access (CDMA) processing gain;

transmitting the power-adjusted UL signal to the AP; and

transmitting a value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal to the AP, wherein the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprises P client , wherein P client includes at least one of the G OFDMA or an RSSI client , wherein RSSI client is a received signal strength indication (RSSI) of a received downlink (DL) signal, and wherein transmitting the value indicative of the power comprises encoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a UL packet.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the power of the UL signal comprises adjusting the power of the UL signal to meet the AP target C/I metric and a client peak power constraint.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein encoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprises encoding the encoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal in an N-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 N −1 indicate representative values.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprises a back-off value from a peak transmit power.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein N=6 and the representative values range from about 0.0 to 31.5 dB below the peak transmit power with a resolution of 0.5 dB.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving adjustment information from the access point (AP) based on the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal and the target C/I metric; and

adjusting the power of the UL signal based on the adjustment information.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein receiving the adjustment information comprises decoding the adjustment information in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a downlink (DL) packet.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein decoding the adjustment information comprises decoding the adjustment information from an M-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 M −1 indicate representative values.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the adjustment information comprises a back-off value from a peak transmit power.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein M=6 and the representative values range from about 0.0 to 31.5 dB below the peak transmit power with a resolution of 0.5 dB.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising calculating the value indicative of the power-adjusted UL signal as

P client =SNR Target −G OFDMA −G SDMA −G CDMA +N TH +C+P AP −RSSI client ,

wherein P client is the power of the power-adjusted UL signal, SNR Target is the target C/I metric, N TH is a thermal noise floor, C represents parameters calibrated during association or other representative packet exchange protocols, and P AP is an AP transmit power.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the parameters calibrated during association or other representative packet exchange protocols comprise an AP noise figure (NF AP ) and an AP radio frequency (RF)/antenna gain (G AP,RF ).

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein a target C/I is about 28 dB.

14. A computer-program product for power control of an uplink (UL) signal in a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions being executable by one or more processors and the instructions comprising:

instructions for adjusting power of the UL signal to meet an access point (AP) target carrier-to-interference (C/I) metric using at least one of G OFDMA , G SDMA , or G CDMA , wherein G OFDMA is an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) processing gain, G SDMA is a spatial-division multiple access (SDMA) processing gain, and G CDMA is a code-division multiple access (CDMA) processing gain;

instructions for transmitting the power-adjusted UL signal to the AP; and

instructions for transmitting a value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal to the AP, wherein the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprises P client , wherein P client includes at least one of the G OFDMA or an RSSI client , wherein RSSI client is a received signal strength indication (RSSI) of a received downlink (DL) signal, and wherein the instructions for transmitting the value indicative of the power comprises instructions for encoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a UL packet.

15. The computer-program product of claim 14 , wherein the instructions for adjusting the power of the UL signal comprise instructions for adjusting the power of the UL signal to meet the AP target C/I metric and a client peak power constraint.

16. The computer-program product of claim 14 , wherein the instructions for encoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprise instructions for encoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal in an N-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 N −1 indicate representative values.

17. The computer-program product of claim 14 , further comprising:

instructions for receiving adjustment information from the access point (AP) based on the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal and the target C/I metric; and

instructions for adjusting the power of the UL signal based on the adjustment information.

18. The computer-program product of claim 17 , wherein the instructions for receiving the adjustment information comprise instructions for decoding the adjustment information in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a downlink (DL) packet.

19. The computer-program product of claim 18 , wherein the instructions for decoding the adjustment information comprise instructions for decoding the adjustment information from an M-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 M −1 indicate representative values.

20. The computer-program product of claim 14 , further comprising instructions for calculating the power-adjusted UL signal as

P client =SNR Target −G OFDMA −G SDMA −G CDMA +N TH +C+P AP −RSSI client ,

wherein P client is the power of the power-adjusted UL signal, SNR Target is the target C/I metric, N TH is a thermal noise floor, C represents parameters calibrated during association or other representative packet exchange protocols, and P AP is an AP transmit power.

21. The computer-program product of claim 20 , wherein the parameters calibrated during association or other representative packet exchange protocols comprise an AP noise figure (NF AP ) and an AP radio frequency (RF)/antenna gain (G AP,RF ).

22. The computer-program product of claim 14 , wherein a target C/I ratio is about 28 dB.

23. An apparatus for power control of an uplink (UL) signal in a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising:

means for adjusting power of the UL signal to meet an access point (AP) target carrier-to-interference (C/I) metric using at least one of G OFDMA , G SDMA , or G CDMA , wherein G OFDMA is an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) processing gain, G SDMA is a spatial-division multiple access (SDMA) processing gain, and G CDMA is a code-division multiple access (CDMA) processing gain;

means for transmitting the power-adjusted UL signal to the AP; and

means for transmitting a value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal to the AP, wherein the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprises P client , wherein P client includes at least one of the G OFDMA or an RSSI client , wherein RSSI client is a received signal strength indication (RSSI) of a received downlink (DL) signal, and wherein the means for transmitting the value indicative of the power comprises means for encoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a UL packet.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 , wherein the means for adjusting the power of the UL signal comprise means for adjusting the power of the UL signal to meet the AP target C/I metric and a client peak power constraint.

25. The apparatus of claim 23 , wherein the means for encoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprise means for encoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal in an N-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 N −1 indicate representative values.

26. The apparatus of claim 23 , further comprising:

means for receiving adjustment information from the access point (AP) based on the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal and the target C/I metric; and

means for adjusting the power of the UL signal based on the adjustment information.

27. The apparatus of claim 26 , wherein the means for receiving the adjustment information comprise means for decoding the adjustment information in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a downlink (DL) packet.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 , wherein the means for decoding the adjustment information comprise means for decoding the adjustment information from an M-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 M −1 indicate representative values.

29. The apparatus of claim 23 , further comprising means for calculating the power-adjusted UL signal as

P client =SNR Target −G OFDMA −G SDMA −G CDMA +N TH +C+P AP −RSSI client ,

wherein P client is the power of the power-adjusted UL signal, SNR Target is the target C/I metric, N TH is a thermal noise floor, C represents parameters calibrated during association or other representative packet exchange protocols, and P AP is an AP transmit power.

30. The apparatus of claim 29 , wherein the parameters calibrated during association or other representative packet exchange protocols comprise an AP noise figure (NF AP ) and an AP radio frequency (RF)/antenna gain (G AP,RF ).

31. The apparatus of claim 23 , wherein a target C/I ratio is about 28 dB.

32. A mobile device capable of power control of an uplink (UL) signal in a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising:

logic for adjusting power of the UL signal to meet an access point (AP) target carrier-to-interference (C/I) metric using at least one of G OFDMA , G SDMA , or G CDMA , wherein G OFDMA is an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) processing gain, G SDMA is a spatial-division multiple access (SDMA) processing gain, and G CDMA is code-division multiple access (CDMA) processing gain; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the power-adjusted UL signal to the AP and configured to transmit a value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal to the AP, wherein the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprises P client , wherein P client includes at least one of the G OFDMA or an RSSI client , wherein RSSI client is a received signal strength indication (RSSI) of a received downlink (DL) signal, and wherein the value indicative of the power is encoded in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a UL packet.

33. The mobile device of claim 32 , wherein the logic for adjusting the power of the UL signal is configured to adjust the power of the UL signal to meet the AP target C/I metric and a client peak power constraint.

34. The mobile device of claim 32 , wherein the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal is encoded in an N-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 N −1 indicate representative values.

35. The mobile device of claim 32 , further comprising:

a receiver configured to receive adjustment information from the access point (AP) based on the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal and the target C/I metric, wherein the logic for adjusting is configured to adjust the power of the UL signal based on the received adjustment information.

36. The mobile device of claim 35 , further comprising logic for decoding the adjustment information in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a downlink (DL) packet.

37. The mobile device of claim 36 , wherein the logic for decoding the adjustment information is configured to decode the adjustment information from an M-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 M −1 indicate representative values.

38. The mobile device of claim 32 , further comprising logic configured to calculate the power-adjusted UL signal as

P client =SNR Target −G OFDMA −G SDMA −G CDMA +N TH +C+P AP −RSSI client ,

wherein P client is the power of the power-adjusted UL signal, SNR Target is the target C/I metric, N TH is a thermal noise floor, C represents parameters calibrated during association or other representative packet exchange protocols, and P AP is an AP transmit power.

39. The mobile device of claim 38 , wherein the parameters calibrated during association or other representative packet exchange protocols comprise an AP noise figure (NF AP ) and an AP radio frequency (RF)/antenna gain (G AP,RF ).

40. The mobile device of claim 32 , wherein a target C/I ratio is about 28 dB.

41. A method for closed loop power control of an uplink (UL) signal in a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising:

receiving, at an access point (AP) from a user terminal, a value indicative of a power of a power-adjusted UL signal, wherein the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprises P client , wherein P client includes at least one of a G OFDMA or an RSSI client , wherein G OFDMA is an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) processing gain, wherein RSSI client is a received signal strength indication (RSSI) of a received downlink (DL) signal, and wherein receiving the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprises decoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a UL packet;

determining adjustment information based on at least the received value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal and a target carrier-to-interference (C/I) metric; and

transmitting the adjustment information.

42. The method of claim 41 , wherein decoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprises decoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal from an N-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 N −1 indicate representative values.

43. The method of claim 42 , wherein the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprises a back-off value from a peak transmit power.

44. The method of claim 43 , wherein N=6 and the representative values range from about 0.0 to 31.5 dB below the peak transmit power with a resolution of 0.5 dB.

45. The method of claim 41 , wherein transmitting the adjustment information comprises encoding the adjustment information in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a downlink (DL) packet.

46. The method of claim 41 , wherein encoding the adjustment information comprises encoding the adjustment information in an M-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 M −1 indicate representative values.

47. The method of claim 46 , wherein the adjustment information comprises a back-off value from a peak transmit power.

48. The method of claim 47 , wherein M=6 and the representative values range from about 0.0 to 31.5 dB below the peak transmit power with a resolution of 0.5 dB.

49. The method of claim 41 , wherein a target C/I ratio is about 28 dB.

50. A computer-program product for closed loop power control of an uplink (UL) signal in a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions being executable by one or more processors and the instructions comprising:

instructions for receiving, at an access point (AP) from a user terminal, a value indicative of a power of a power-adjusted UL signal, wherein the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprises P client , wherein P client includes at least one of a G OFDMA or an RSSI client , wherein G OFDMA is an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) processing gain, wherein RSSI client is a received signal strength indication (RSSI) of a received downlink (DL) signal, and wherein the instructions for receiving the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprise instructions for decoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a UL packet;

instructions for determining adjustment information based on at least the received value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal and a target carrier-to-interference (C/I) metric; and

instructions for transmitting the adjustment information.

51. The computer-program product of claim 50 , wherein the instructions for decoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprise instructions for decoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal from an N-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 N −1 indicate representative values.

52. The computer-program product of claim 50 , wherein the instructions for transmitting the adjustment information comprise instructions for encoding the adjustment information in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a downlink (DL) packet.

53. The computer-program product of claim 52 , wherein the instructions for encoding the adjustment information comprise instructions for encoding the adjustment information in an M-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 M −1 indicate representative values.

54. The computer-program product of claim 50 , wherein a target C/I ratio is about 28 dB.

55. An apparatus for closed loop power control of an uplink (UL) signal in a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising:

means for receiving, at an access point (AP) from a user terminal, a value indicative of a power of a power-adjusted UL signal, wherein the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprises P client , wherein P client includes at least one of a G OFDMA or an RSSI client , wherein G OFDMA is an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) processing gain, wherein RSSI client is a received signal strength indication (RSSI) of a received downlink (DL) signal, and wherein the means for receiving the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprise means for decoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a UL packet;

means for determining adjustment information based on at least the received value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal and a target carrier-to-interference (C/I) metric; and

means for transmitting the adjustment information.

56. The apparatus of claim 55 , wherein the means for decoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprise means for decoding the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal from an N-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 N −1 indicate representative values.

57. The apparatus of claim 55 , wherein the means for transmitting the adjustment information comprise means for encoding the adjustment information in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a downlink (DL) packet.

58. The apparatus of claim 57 , wherein the means for encoding the adjustment information comprise means for encoding the adjustment information in an M-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 M −1 indicate representative values.

59. The apparatus of claim 55 , wherein a target C/I ratio is about 28 dB.

60. An access point (AP) capable of closed loop power control of an uplink (UL) signal in a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising:

a receiver configured to receive, at the AP from a user terminal, a value indicative of a power of a power-adjusted UL signal, wherein the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal comprises P client , wherein P client includes at least one of the G OFDMA or an RSSI client , wherein G OFDMA is an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) processing gain, wherein RSSI client is a received signal strength indication (RSSI) of a received downlink (DL) signal, and wherein the receiver is configured to decode the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a UL packet;

logic for determining adjustment information based on at least the received value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal and a target carrier-to-interference (C/I) metric; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the adjustment information.

61. The access point of claim 60 , wherein the receiver is configured to decode the value indicative of the power of the power-adjusted UL signal from an N-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 N −1 indicate representative values.

62. The access point of claim 60 , wherein the transmitter is configured to encode the adjustment information in a Media Access Control (MAC) header of a downlink (DL) packet.

63. The access point of claim 62 , wherein the transmitter is configured to encode the adjustment information in an M-bit field of the MAC header, wherein bit values ranging from 0 to 2 M −1 indicate representative values.

64. The access point of claim 60 , wherein a target C/I ratio is about 28 dB.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jan 13, 2009
From: SAMPATH, HEMANTH; VAN NEE, RICHARD; ABRAHAM, SANTOSH; AGGARWAL, ALOK
To: QUALCOMM INCORPORATED
Reel/Frame 022098/0136 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 61090365 · Aug 20, 2008
Related Publication 20100046479A1 · Feb 25, 2010