Interface aggregation for heterogeneous wireless communication systems

#This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/606,366, entitled “Aggregated Wireline Backhaul for Wireless Modems” and filed on even date herewith, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.

#The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communication systems and, more particularly, to heterogeneous wireless communication systems.

#Heterogeneous wireless communication systems implement a variety of macrocells and small cells to provide wireless connectivity to user equipment. The macrocells may also be referred to as base stations, base station routers, access points, and the like. The small cells may also be referred to as microcells, metrocells, picocells, femtocells, home base station routers, and the like. The coverage areas of small cells typically overlap with the coverage areas of the macrocells. The small cells can share the same channels as the overlaying macrocells, but in this case the small cells must be deployed outside of an exclusion zone around the macrocell to prevent excessive intercellular interference. The total traffic capacity and traffic offloaded to the small cells may therefore be limited. Future deployments may dedicate a portion of the spectrum to carrier channels for the small cells to reduce or eliminate constraints on deployments and capacity scaling. For example, reducing or eliminating deployment constraints such as those imposed by the exclusion zone can increase the number of deployed small cells and reduce the cell size served by each small cell, which correspondingly increases the area spectral efficiency (measured in bits per second per hertz per square meter) of the heterogeneous wireless communication system.

#The present disclosure may be better understood, and its numerous features and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art by referencing the accompanying drawings. The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless communication system according to some embodiments.

#FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an aggregation proxy according to some embodiments.

#The aggregate bandwidth of a heterogeneous wireless communication system may be increased by instructing a user equipment to aggregate a subset of a plurality of interfaces based on channel capacities of the plurality of interfaces and one or more channel capacities of one or more other interfaces implemented by other user equipment. The subset of the plurality of interfaces may be selected for the user equipment at the network layer (Layer 3) or transport layer (Layer 4) by a network-resident policy server using registration information provided by the user equipment. Some embodiments of the policy server may select a subset of the plurality of interfaces that have relative delays or latencies that are less than a threshold value. The policy server may determine the delays or latencies for each path based on performance measurements and conveyed to the network by the user equipment. The subset of the plurality of interfaces may also be selected based upon user equipment subscription, location, priority, class, or other user equipment performance measurements such as instantaneous or time-averaged values of the received signal strength, transmission rates, or loss rates. User input may be used to negotiate or confirm aggregation of the subset, e.g., in the event that one or more of the plurality of interfaces requires additional payment.

#A dedicated bidirectional signaling channel may be established between the policy server and a policy agent in the user equipment. The dedicated bidirectional signaling channel may be used to indicate the subset of the plurality of interfaces to the user equipment, applications that are allowed to use the aggregated subset, prices or costs associated with the subset, or to request periodic performance measurements from the user equipment. The dedicated bidirectional signaling channel may also be used to convey a registration message including descriptions of capabilities of the plurality of interfaces or results of performance measurements performed by the user equipment.

#As used herein, the term “aggregate” is understood to refer to the concurrent use of multiple interfaces to support sub-flows of a flow associated with the aggregated interfaces. The bandwidth available to the flow may be substantially equal to the sum of the bandwidths of the sub-flows supported by the aggregated interfaces. Service providers or applications may therefore provide flows using the increased bandwidth provided by the sub-flows of the aggregated interfaces. For example, user equipment that accesses a flow provided by a multimedia service provider such as Netflix or Hulu through a single Wi-Fi interface may be limited to a bandwidth such as the 20 MHz bandwidth of a standard Wi-Fi carrier channel, or in some cases an enhanced 80 MHz or 160 MHz channel. In contrast, the bandwidth available to user equipment that accesses a flow formed of the sub-flows of several aggregated interfaces may be equal to or greater than 1000 MHz. Aggregating the sub-flows of multiple interfaces may therefore provide multi-gigabit per second wireless access capacity or user throughputs of hundreds of megabits per second. Aggregation of interfaces may include adding or removing interfaces from the subset of aggregated interfaces.