US 8,509,821 B1Granted

Method for increasing the number of concurrent page records sent to mobile stations

AssigneeSprint Spectrum L.P.

InventorsHui Zang, Liang Cai, Hao Chen, Gabriel Maganis

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Abstract

Disclosed herein is a method that enables a radio access network (RAN) to page more mobile stations concurrently. By reducing the size of the individual page record, more page records can fit within a general page message (GPM), and thus more mobile stations can receive page messages. One method of reducing the size of an individual page record is to reduce the size of the terminal IDs that page records carry. Currently, terminal IDs are globally unique, but they can be shortened if replaced with locally unique IDs. These locally unique IDs are unique for only mobile stations in a given paging area, unique for only mobile stations assigned to a given paging channel time slot, and/or unique for only mobile stations in a subgroup of mobile stations assigned to a given paging channel time slot. The number of mobile stations in any of these groups is smaller than the number of mobile stations in the global network. Therefore, the length of a terminal ID that is unique for only mobile stations in one of these groups can be shorter than a globally unique identifier.

Claims9

Dependent claims

In a wireless communication system in which a radio access network (RAN) transmits page messages in paging channel time slots, wherein the RAN serves a plurality of wireless access terminals, each access terminal of the plurality of access terminals having an identifier, wherein each access terminal of a first proper subset of the plurality of access terminals is arranged to monitor a first paging channel time slot for page messages and each access terminal of a second proper subset of the plurality of access terminals is arranged to monitor a second paging channel time slot for page messages, a paging method comprising:

composing a first page message intended for a first access terminal of the first proper subset, the first page message including data specifying the first access terminal's identifier;
composing a second page message intended for a second access terminal of the second proper subset, the second page message including data specifying the second access terminal's identifier, wherein the first access terminal's identifier and the second access terminal's identifier are identical;
arranging the first page message and the second page message into one or more groups within one or more general page messages;
for a particular group of the one or more groups, arranging page messages within the particular group from first to last;
for the first-listed page message in the particular group, prepending a first identifier to the data of the first-listed page message, the first identifier having a first value;
for each page message in the particular group that is not the first-listed page message, prepending a second identifier to the data of the not-first-listed page message, the second identifier having a second value
transmitting the first page message to the first access terminal during the first paging channel time slot;
and
transmitting the second page message to the second access terminal during the second paging channel time slot.

6 more elements

At a particular wireless access terminal that receives a plurality of page messages from a radio access network (RAN) during a paging channel time slot, each page message of the plurality carrying data specifying a respective terminal identifier, wherein the terminal identifier specifies an intended wireless access terminal, a method comprising:

receiving a first page message intended for a first wireless access terminal during the paging channel time slot, the first page message carrying data specifying a first wireless terminal identifier;
receiving a second page message intended for a second wireless access terminal during the paging channel time slot, the second page message carrying data specifying a second wireless terminal identifier that is identical to the first wireless terminal identifier,
wherein the first page message is one of a first group of page records in a general page message (GPM), and wherein the second page message is one of a second group of page records in the GPM, the first and second groups of page records being ones of a plurality of groups of page records in GPM, wherein each page record of the plurality of page records includes data specifying a terminal identifier;
prior to receiving the first and second page messages, receiving a third message that includes a bit pattern;
making a determination of whether a binary state of a particular bit in the bit pattern is a first state;
if the determination is that the binary state is the first state, then determining a count of bits that are both (i) the first state, and (ii) are within a particular subgroup of bits in the bit pattern, wherein the particular subgroup of bits is (a) a group of bits that precede the particular bit in the bit pattern, or (b) a group of bits that follow the particular bit in the bit pattern;
making a paging determination of which one of the first and second page messages is intended for the particular wireless access terminal by:
using the determined count as a basis for determining which group of page records in the plurality of groups of page records to search in, and
searching in the determined group for a page record that carries data specifying a terminal identifier, the specified terminal identifier being an identifier assigned to the particular wireless access terminal;
and
processing as a page message for the particular access terminal one and only one of the first and second page messages based on the paging determination.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.