US 9,854,527 B2Granted

User equipment transmit duty cycle control

AssigneeApple Inc.

InventorsLi Su, Stephan V. Schell, Jianxiong Shi, Sami M. Almalfouh

Life of this patent

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Abstract

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (UE) implements improved communication methods which include radio resource time multiplexing, dynamic sub-frame allocation, and UE transmit duty cycle control. In some embodiments, the UE may communicate with base stations using radio frames that include multiple sub-frames, transmit information regarding allocation of a portion of the sub-frames of a respective radio frame for each of a plurality of the radio frames, and transmit and receive data using allocated sub-frames and not using unallocated sub-frames. In some embodiments, the UE may operate according to a sub-frame allocation based on its current power state. The UE may transmit information to the base station and receive the sub-frame allocation based on at least the information. In some embodiments, the UE may switch transmit duty cycles based on an occurrence of a condition at the UE. The UE may inform the network of the switch.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A user equipment device (UE), comprising:

at least one antenna;
at least one radio, wherein the at least one radio is configured to perform cellular communication using at least one radio access technology (RAT);
one or more processing elements coupled to the at least one radio, wherein the one or more processing elements and the at least one radio are configured to perform voice and/or data communications;
the one or more processing elements and the at least one radio are configured to:
operate according to a first transmit duty cycle, wherein the first transmit duty cycle specifies a first number of transmissions per time period;
monitor one or more metrics associated with transmission performance of the UE, wherein the one or more metrics include a thermal load on the UE;
determine that at least one metric of the one or more metrics indicates that the UE needs to reduce transmissions;
switch to a second transmit duty cycle, wherein the second transmit duty cycle specifies a second number of transmissions per time period, wherein the second number of transmissions is less than the first number of transmissions;
operate according to the second transmit duty cycle;
determine that at least one metric of the one or more metrics indicates that the UE can increase transmissions;
determine a third transmit duty cycle, wherein the third transmit duty cycle specifies a third number of transmissions per time period, wherein the third number of transmissions is greater than the second number of transmissions;
and
operate according to the third transmit duty cycle.

10 more elements

A non-transitory computer readable memory medium storing program instructions executable by a processing element to:

detect that a user equipment device (UE) is transmitting according to a first transmit duty cycle, wherein the first transmit duty cycle specifies a first number of transmissions per time period;
determine an occurrence of at least one condition, wherein the occurrence indicates that the UE needs to reduce transmissions per time period, wherein the at least one condition is associated with thermal load on the UE;
switch the UE to a second transmit duty cycle in response to said determining, wherein the second transmit duty cycle specifies a second number of transmissions per time period, wherein the second number of transmissions is less than the first number of transmissions;
detect that the UE is transmitting according to the second state;
determine an occurrence of at least one additional condition, wherein the occurrence indicates that the UE can increase transmissions per time period;
and
switch, based on said determining the occurrence of the at least one additional condition, to the first transmit duty cycle.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/834,533Filed 25 Aug 2015 · us provisional application
Priority: 28 Aug 2014
Published: US 2016/0066276 A13 Mar 2016
Granted: 26 Dec 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification11 codes

H04W 52/0251
In terminal devices: using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
H04J 3/1694
In which the time allocation to individual channels within a transmission cycle is variable, e.g. to accommodate varying complexity of signals,…
H04W 52/0261
In terminal devices: managing power supply demand, e.g. depending on battery level
H04W 52/0277
By switching on or off the equipment or parts thereof: according to available power supply, e.g. switching off when a low battery condition is…

Family

Application62/043,355Us provisional application · filed 28 Aug 2014
Application62/100,060Us provisional application · filed 5 Jan 2015
Application62/196,823Us provisional application · filed 24 Jul 2015
US 2016/0066276 A1Pre-grant publication · published 3 Mar 2016
US 9,854,527 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.