Abstract: Proximity sensors are used in many user devices to detect a user's proximity to it. The proximity detection may be used to control the transmit power of a wireless device to ensure that the transmit power is in the allowed power range as per various regulatory agencies. A method and apparatus are disclosed that enable adaptive Specific Absorption Rate control according to the combination RF transmit power of the multiple modems.

Abstract: In wireless communications systems, a client terminal performs cell search procedure to find a suitable cell and camp on it to receive service from the network. In 3GPP LTE wireless communication system, the cell search involves the decoding of the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) which may take relatively long time to decode under poor channel conditions which in turn may affect the time it takes to receive service from a cell after cell reselection or handover. A method and apparatus are disclosed that perform the PBCH decoding across multiple instances that carry partly different and partly common PBCH information. This method enables a client terminal to receive service from a cell faster than conventional methods.

Abstract: Many new applications in a wireless client terminal rely on having internet connection available continuously to check the status and to do required download or upload of user data. The continuous internet connection increases power consumption of a client terminal and may also incurs additional costs due to internet usage fees. The power consumption, quality of service and cost of service from different networks such a Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWAN) and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) may be different. The coverage area of accessible WLANs may be quite limited compared to WWANs. A method and apparatus are disclosed that automatically enable and disable the WLAN access in a client terminal based on prevailing scenario and WLAN availability.

Abstract: Internet, voice calls, and messaging services have become ubiquitous and the means by which the services are accessed varies widely. The number and types of devices that may use these services have also proliferated. To serve a number and variety of client devices, a Service Distribution Device (SDD) may be used, which is a device that includes a modem for mobile broadband access and a short range wireless link to distribute the services to local devices which may have such connectivity. Power consumption of an SDD which may continuously broadcast signals is an important consideration. A method and apparatus are disclosed that enable adaptive and seamless selection of the best mode of operation for the SDD such that the power consumption may be reduced while providing uninterrupted service to the client devices.

Abstract: In wireless communications systems, a client terminal performs cell search procedure to find a suitable cell and camp on it to receive service from the network. In 3GPP LTE wireless communication system, the initial cell search involves the decoding of the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) which may take a long time to decode which affects the time it takes to camp on an appropriate cell. One of the reasons for this is that conventional methods perform PBCH decoding sequentially to find a suitable cell. A method and apparatus are disclosed that perform the PBCH decoding in parallel for multiple cells. This method enables the client terminal to camp on a cell and receive service faster than conventional methods.

Abstract: The 3GPP LTE wireless communication system employs dynamic scheduling and assignment of resources using the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) to support low latency requirements for many applications. To keep the payload overhead low on the control messages, the dynamic scheduling and assignment messages over the PDCCH need to be decoded by the User Equipment (UE) by searching a number of possible PDCCH candidates in a given control region of the 3GPP LTE wireless communication system. This is often referred to as blind decoding of PDCCH. The high number of blind decoding attempts may lead to increased power consumption in a UE. A method and apparatus are disclosed that enable a UE to reduce the total number of decoding attempts without missing any PDCCH candidates that may be addressed to the UE which in turn may reduce the power consumption and may reduce the probability of false DCI detection.

Abstract: In cellular communication systems, the success rate for incoming calls for a client terminal in idle mode is related to the successful reception of paging messages. The instances for paging message transmission, known as paging occasions, may be based on a client terminal's unique identity. The network transmits a paging message addressed to a specific client terminal in its specific paging occasion. In addition to the reception of paging messages, a client terminal may be required to search and monitor neighbor cells for cell reselection and handoffs. A method and apparatus are disclosed that improve the cell reselection by using the known a priori information to categorize the neighbor cells, to categorize the cell reselection types, and to perform cell reselection to an appropriate neighbor cell at the opportune time such that a paging message reception may be neither missed nor delayed during the cell reselection.

Abstract: Error detection and correction techniques are employed in many digital communication systems. There may be multiple error detection and correction stages in a single communication system to provide a good balance of latency and retransmissions for reliable communication. Despite multiple levels of error detection and correction, there may be some residual errors. Many applications may require completely error free communication. A method and apparatus are disclosed for a receiver that may use the already received erroneous versions of transmitted and retransmitted packet or file to perform error correction without requesting additional retransmissions.

Abstract: Modern mobile communication devices have a number of features that enable the users to stay connected with people, stay informed about various local and global events. While these features are useful, they can be intrusive or may cause distraction under some conditions. To reduce the disturbance and intrusion, the various notifications that inform the user about the new events on the mobile device may be temporarily disabled. However, the event notifications must be explicitly re-enabled by the user when it is acceptable to receive the notifications. The user may forget to re-enable the event notification which may lead to missed calls, missed event notifications, etc. A method and apparatus are disclosed that disable and enable the event notifications on the mobile device adaptively depending on the user's location and time to reduce the intrusiveness of the mobile device notification when not required while reducing any missed event notifications.

Abstract: In order to support low latency and bursty internet data traffic, the 3GPP LTE wireless communication system uses dynamic allocation. To keep the allocation overhead lower, the system is designed such that the client terminal must perform a number of decoding attempts to detect resource allocations. During course of the decoding attempts a false resource allocation may be decoded by the client terminal. The false detection may lead to multiple issues for the performance efficiency of the client terminal and the overall communication system. A method and apparatus are disclosed than enable the detection of false resource allocation. This in turn improves the performance and efficiency of the client terminal and the wireless communication system.

Abstract: In some applications, such as randomization and cryptography, remainder computation for a number is required. The remainder computation is also used in modulo arithmetic. The remainder computation can be simplified when the divisor belongs to a certain class of numbers. A method and apparatus are disclosed that enable low complexity implementation of remainder computation of any number when the divisor belongs to a type of numbers that can be represented as 2k+1.

Abstract: Forward Error Correction (FEC) is an essential component of most digital communication systems. The decoders for the FEC perform better when working in soft-decision mode using the Log Likelihood Ratios (LLRs) as the input. Spatial Multiplexing (SM) with Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) is used in many systems for providing high data rate. When SM-MIMO is used in conjunction with FEC, it is important for SM-MIMO decoders to provide soft channel bits to the FEC decoder. The complexity of the SM-MIMO decoders is generally very high, especially when LLRs need to be generated for each bit of the decoded symbol. Conventional methods for LLR generation in SM-MIMO decoders require the storage and sorting of partial and cumulative distance. A method and apparatus are disclosed that compute the LLRs on the fly without requiring extensive storage or sorting of partial and cumulative distance metrics.

Abstract: Sorting algorithms are generally used at different steps in data processing. In many situations, the efficiency of the sorting algorithm used determines the throughput/execution speed of the application. Methods for implementing high speed sorting in hardware are often based on Batcher's Odd/Even sort or Bitonic sort algorithms. These algorithms are computation intensive and involve high number of logic gates to implement and high power consumption. The higher the number of logic gates, the more silicon area may be required and may lead to higher cost. Insertion sort is a sorting algorithm that is relatively simpler and may require fewer logic gates to implement. However, throughput achieved using Insertion sort algorithm is much lower than the throughput achieved using high speed sorting algorithms. A method and apparatus enable an efficient hardware design capable of simultaneously sorting multiple data inputs for high throughput at reduced complexity.

Abstract: Turbo codes are used for high throughput and high performance communication systems. Turbo codes are a class of codes that can be decoded iteratively for high performance. The iterative decoding leads to increased processing requirements which in turn requires a higher clock speed. A turbo decoder that can support the worst case clock speed requirement may lead to high power consumption. A method and apparatus are disclosed that enable high performance turbo decoding while keeping the required clock speed and the power consumption low.

Abstract: To handle different Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, there may be a need for supporting multiple parallel data paths to exchange data between two or more peer entities of a data communication system. Each data path between the peer entities may be characterized by various QoS parameters such as priority, delay, jitter, data rate, etc. A communication system may allocate transmission resources for each data path based on the QoS parameters associated with them. Since the allocated transmission resources may not be always sufficient to send all the pending data from an application, the data packets may be segmented or packed depending on the available transmission resources. In such a case, doing segmentation may lead to inefficient usage of the transmission resources. A method and apparatus are disclosed that avoid such segmentation and allocates the transmission resources to the other active data paths which can better utilize the transmission resources.

Abstract: In a wireless communication system, a client terminal may first establish time and frequency synchronization with the network. While establishing the time and frequency synchronization, a client terminal may need to detect additional parameters about the network, such as physical cell identity, before it can initiate communication with the wireless communication system. Detecting the network parameters in presence of time and frequency offsets increases the complexity of the initial cell search procedure that includes time and frequency synchronization as well as detection of network parameters. A method and apparatus are disclosed that achieve frequency synchronization earlier in the cell search procedure, which in turn reduces the complexity and improves the performance of the latter stages of cell search procedure and the overall performance of the client terminal.

Abstract: In any cellular communication the network transmits broadcast information with some periodicity which is defined by the network parameters. The client terminal must acquire this system information in order to access the services from the network. The time required by the client terminal to acquire all the necessary system information to initiate network access may depend on the scheduling of the system information broadcast by the network. In some cases the scheduling information about some of the system information may be described in another system information message whose schedule may be fixed or known a priori. Conventional method of decoding the complete system information may involve sequential steps which may increase the time required for accessing the services from the network. A method and apparatus are disclosed that enable faster acquisition of the system information and reduce sequential dependency of system information message decoding.

Abstract: In wireless communications systems, a client terminal performs cell search procedure to find a suitable cell and camp on it to receive service from the network. In 3GPP LTE wireless communication system, the initial cell search involves the decoding of the Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH) which may take a long time to decode which affects the time it takes to camp on an appropriate cell. One of the reasons for this is that conventional methods perform PBCH decoding sequentially to find a suitable cell. A method and apparatus are disclosed that perform the PBCH decoding in parallel for multiple cells. This method enables the client terminal to camp on a cell and receive service faster than conventional methods.

Abstract: In a wireless communication system, a client terminal may first establish time and frequency synchronization with the network. While establishing the time and frequency synchronization, a client terminal may need to detect additional parameters about the network, such as physical cell identity, before it can initiate communication with the wireless communication system. Detecting the network parameters in presence of time and frequency offsets increases the complexity of the initial cell search procedure that includes time and frequency synchronization as well as detection of network parameters. A method and apparatus are disclosed that achieve joint time and frequency synchronization by utilizing the relationship between frequency offset and the apparent timing shift. The joint time and frequency synchronization enables faster and more reliable synchronization with the wireless communication system.

Abstract: The procedure of finding the remainder of a division is referred to as modulo operation. Modulo arithmetic is used in many applications. A method and apparatus are disclosed that enable faster and less complex implementation of modulo arithmetic for a certain class of numbers.