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AssigneeQUALCOMM Incorporated
InventorsLorenzo Casaccia, Junyi Li, Thomas Joseph Richardson, Aleksandar Jovicic
Estimating the term…
Various exemplary methods and apparatus are directed to using Visible Light Communication (VLC) in a downlink, e.g., a supplemental downlink, in combination with a wireless radio downlink/ uplink pair. A gateway is coupled, via a wireline link, to a VLC access point. In some embodiments, the gateway includes a wireless radio base station. A user equipment device detects a visible light signal from the VLC access point, and transmits a radio signal to a communications device, e.g., a gateway including a base station or a macro base station, indicating that the UE device is in a VLC coverage area. The gateway configures the VLC access point to serve as a supplemental wireless cell which supports downlink communications. The gateway sends traffic signals to the VLC access point, via the wireline, which are converted by the VLC access point into VLC signals which are transmitted. The UE device receives VLC downlink traffic signals and transmits a corresponding acknowledgment signal via an uplink radio channel.
A method of operating a gateway comprising:
A gateway comprising:
A computer program product for use in a gateway, the computer program product comprising:
A gateway comprising:
A method of operating user equipment (UE) device comprising:
A user equipment (UE) device comprising:
A computer program product for use in a user equipment (UE) device, the computer program product comprising:
A user equipment (UE) device comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.