Abstract: A method for initiating a codec rate change during a VoIP call by a wireless communication device is disclosed. The method can include the wireless communication device establishing a first codec rate for use in the VoIP call during a call establishment phase; using the first codec rate to encode voice data for transmission during a first portion of the VoIP call; determining a channel quality while using the first codec rate; determining that the channel quality satisfies a threshold for requesting a codec rate change; requesting a codec rate change from the first codec rate to a second codec rate in response to the channel quality satisfying the threshold; and using the second codec rate to encode voice data for transmission during a second portion of the VoIP call.

Abstract: A wireless user equipment (UE) device may include a receiver and transmitter. The UE device may dynamically vary the fidelity requirements imposed on the analog signal processing performed by the receiver and/or the transmitter in response factors such as: amount of signal interference (e.g., out-of-band signal power); modulation and coding scheme; number of spatial streams; extent of transmitter leakage; and size and/or frequency location of resources allocated to the UE device. Thus, the UE device may consume less power on average than a UE device that is designed to satisfy fixed fidelity requirements associated with a worst case reception scenario and/or a worst case transmission scenario.

Abstract: In at least some embodiments, a method, apparatus, and system for performing communication using a plurality of radio access technologies (RATs) including a cellular RAT and a short-range RAT. A mobile device may be configured to receive information regarding traffic steering, i.e., cellular/short-range RAT handover, from nearby short-range access points and/or from a cellular base station. The mobile device may generate or determine mobility information of the mobile device, which indicates an amount of movement of the mobile device. The mobile device may determine whether the mobile device should transition between the cellular RAT and the short-range RAT based at least in part on the traffic-steering information and the mobility information. The mobile device may selectively transition between the cellular RAT and the short-range RAT based on the determination.

Abstract: Apparatus and methods are disclosed for performing delayed hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) communications in the downlink (DL) to reduce power consumption for a user equipment (UE) during a connected mode discontinuous reception (C-DRX) cycle. An enhanced NodeB can be configured to monitor a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) for DL HARQ information to determine when the PUCCH contains a negative acknowledgement (NACK) message, and in response to determining that the PUCCH contains a NACK message, the eNodeB can wait until a next C-DRX ON duration to transmit a HARQ DL retransmission. The eNodeB can also determine whether or not to bundle the HARQ DL retransmission in consecutive transmission time intervals, based on a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) associated with the UE.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed relating to broadcasting and receiving system information in a radio access network (RAN). In one embodiment, a base station includes at least one antenna, at least one radio, configured to perform cellular communication using a radio access technology (RAT), and one or more processors coupled to the radio. In this embodiment, the base station is configured to broadcast first system information blocks (SIBs) encoded using a first coding rate and a first identifier. In this embodiment, the base station is also configured to broadcast second SIBs encoded using a second coding rate that is lower than the first coding rate and a second identifier. In this embodiment, the second SIBs include only a portion of the information included in the first SIBs and the second SIBs are usable by user equipment devices (UEs) having a limited link budget to determine access parameters for the base station.

Abstract: This disclosure relates to optimizing power consumption for cellular communication based on transport block size in combination with channel condition measurements via power amplifier biasing. According to one embodiment, an indication of a transport block size to be used for uplink communication with a base station may be received. It may be determined that the transport block size provides more robust communication characteristics than required for current channel conditions. A power amplifier (PA) bias current for uplink communication with the cellular base station may be selected based at least in part on determining that the transport block size provides more robust communication characteristics than required for the current channel conditions. In particular, PA bias current selection may be biased to reduce power consumption at a cost of greater non-linearity based on the transport block size providing more robust communication characteristics than required for the current channel conditions.

Abstract: Estimating loading and potential available throughput a serving cell of a wireless user equipment (UE) device. Physical layer metrics of a channel on which the UE communicates with the serving cell may be measured. Cell utilization of the serving cell may be calculated based at least in part on the measured physical layer metrics. A maximum available throughput of the serving cell may be calculated based on the cell utilization.

Abstract: A system and methods that are performed by a macro cell and a user equipment (UE) to implement a carrier aggregation mode in a network. The system includes a macrocell including a first coverage area and a plurality of small cells, each of the small cells including a second coverage area wherein the plurality of second coverage areas substantially cover the first coverage area. The macro cell operates a first component carrier as a primary component carrier in a carrier aggregation enabled network and one of the small cells operates a second component carrier as a secondary component carrier in the carrier aggregation enabled network.

Abstract: This disclosure relates to implementing an adaptive sleep schedule for PDCCH decoding. In some embodiments, prior to receiving PDCCH signaling, a user equipment device may schedule wireless communication circuitry to prepare for and decode the PDCCH signaling, which may include dynamically preparing a first interrupt for the wireless communication circuitry to perform the preparing for and the decoding. In response to the first interrupt, the UE may prepare for and decode the PDCCH signaling using the wireless communication circuitry. The UE may analyze the result of the decoding, which may include determining that the PDCCH signaling does not comprise information for the UE. In response to determining that the PDCCH signaling does not comprise information for the UE, the UE may schedule the wireless communication circuitry to shut down, which may include dynamically preparing a second interrupt to shut down the wireless communication circuitry.

Abstract: A user equipment (UE) implements improved communication methods which enable uplink (UL) transmissions consistent with an UL timeline. The UE may have a transmit duty cycle and may transmit acknowledge/negative acknowledge messages to a base station according to the transmit duty cycle. Additionally, the UE may be configured to determine signal-to-interference-plus noise ratio (SINR) between the UE and the base station and compare SINR to a threshold. The UE may transmit redundancy versions of data in consecutive sub-frames with a duty cycle of two transmissions per X+1 sub-frames if SINR is equal or above the threshold and redundancy versions using a duty cycle of one transmission per X sub-frames if SINR is below the threshold. Further, the UE may be configured to communicate a number of UL HARQ processes supported by the UE, receive first information in a first sub-frame, and send second information X sub-frames after the first sub-frame.

Abstract: Loading estimation of 3GPP networks. One or more metrics relating to a cell of a 3GPP network may be measured. Loading of the cell may be estimated based on the one or more metrics. The metrics may include metrics measured, estimated, or derived at multiple layers, possibly including one or more of physical layer, radio link control layer, radio resource control layer, or application layer metrics.

Abstract: Described is a user equipment (UE) that is connected to a network component, the user equipment and the network component configured with a carrier aggregation functionality. The UE performs a method that includes determining a primary component carrier and at least one secondary component carrier associated with the carrier aggregation functionality of the user equipment, determining a component carrier quality measurement (CQM) metric for each of the component carriers, when an uplink data packet is capable of being transmitted over the secondary component carrier, selecting one of the primary component carrier and the at least one secondary component carrier based on the CQM metrics, generating measurement data indicative of the selected component carrier to increase a probability to transmit the uplink data packet over the selected component carrier and transmitting the measurement data to the network component.

Abstract: A method for dynamically selecting an A-MPR value to apply for an uplink transmission is provided. The method can include a wireless communication device receiving an indication from a network that A-MPR should be applied for uplink transmissions within a frequency band used for communication between the wireless communication device and the network. The method can further include the wireless communication device receiving an RB allocation for a subset of RB's within the frequency band from the network. The method can additionally include the wireless communication device determining an allocation ratio and a distribution characteristic of the allocated subset of RB's within the frequency band. The method can also include the wireless communication device selecting an A-MPR value to apply based at least in part on the allocation ratio and the distribution characteristic. The method can further include the wireless communication device applying the selected A-MPR.

Abstract: This disclosure relates to techniques for scheduling radio resource control connections between a wireless device and a network element of a network in advance. According to some embodiments, a wireless device may provide an indication of one or more types of upcoming data traffic to the network element. The network element may schedule one or more radio resource control connections for the wireless device based at least in part on the indication of one or more types of upcoming data traffic. The network element may provide an indication of the scheduled radio resource control connection(s) to the wireless device. The wireless device and the network may establish the scheduled radio resource control connection at the scheduled time.

Abstract: A user equipment (UE) operating in a communication system comprising a base station and one or more UEs. The UE may be configured to operate on or “camp” on two different networks with one radio. In this exemplary system, the radio may be normally connected to the first network (NW1) and may from time to time be “tuned away” from NW1 to a second network (NW2). The UE may inform NW1 that it has tuned away to another network, e.g., using start and end indicators. This information may prevent NW1 from wasting downlink capacity by unnecessarily allocating downlink resources to the UE during the tune-away. Alternatively, or in addition, this information may prevent NW1 from penalizing the UE, e.g., by reducing its future downlink allocations, since the UE does not respond to NW1 commands during the tune-away.

Abstract: This disclosure relates to a system and method for generating single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) transmissions using a high efficiency architecture. According to some embodiments, frequency resources allocated for a transmission may be determined. The allocated frequency resources may have a bandwidth less than a channel bandwidth of a frequency channel of the transmission, and may be centered around a particular frequency. The frequency may be offset from the center frequency of the channel. A baseband signal located around DC corresponding to the channel center frequency may be generated. The baseband signal may be up-converted to an RF signal using a local oscillator tuned to the frequency around which the allocated frequency resources are centered. The RF signal may be transmitted.

Abstract: Methods and devices are provided for processing a received communication signal by a UE using an analog complex filter and using a single analog-to-digital converter (ADC). A control channel of the communication signal may be decoded to determine the frequency range in which a payload channel is located. The UE may then demodulate only the frequency range containing the payload channel. A complex representation of the received payload channel may be provided to the analog complex filter, with the payload channel shifted to a non-zero frequency IF. The analog complex filter may attenuate any portion of the complex representation that falls near ?IF. The UE may then convert only one component path of the filtered complex representation to a digital signal. A complex representation of the digital signal may then be generated, with the payload channel shifted to DC.

Abstract: Enhanced random access procedures for link-budget-limited user equipment (UE) devices are disclosed. A user equipment device may transmit a first message containing a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH). The PRACH contains instances of a Zadoff-Chu sequence, and may be transmitted repeatedly as part of a single random attempt, to facilitate correlation data combining at the base station. The available Zadoff-Chu sequences may be partitioned among a plurality of sets, each set being associated with a respective Doppler shift range (or frequency hop pattern or time repetition pattern). A UE device may signal Doppler shift (or other information) to the base station by selection of one of the sets. The first PRACH transmission and the following PRACH transmission may occur in consecutive subframes. A UE device may select from a special set of Zadoff-Chu sequences (different from a conventional set of sequences), to signal its status as a link-budget-limited device.

Abstract: For paging user devices that are link budget limited (LBL), a base station transmits a special ID that is used by said devices to identify a paging frame and/or a paging occasion. When transmitting a paging message for an LBL device, the base station may use: (a) larger aggregation and larger CFI (than conventionally allowed) and (b) a larger number of resource blocks (than conventionally allowed) for paging payload. If paging messages for LBL devices saturate the paging frame capacity, the base station may allocate a plurality of special IDs. If paging messages for LBL devices and/or other data transfers saturate network capacity, at least a subset of the LBL devices may be directed to enter a connected-state discontinuous reception (DRX) mode, wherein those devices will remain in connected mode and periodically check for resource allocations. Paging payload information may be repeatedly transmitted in successive subframes, to support soft combining.

Abstract: A wireless communication device (UE) may monitor grants received from respective cells associated with one or more first (e.g. licensed) frequency band(s) and one or more second (e.g. unlicensed) frequency band(s). Based on the received grants the UE may determine if an imbalance exists in the radio resource allocation, whereby the UE communicates more than intended in the second frequency band(s). The imbalance may be specified with respect to the ratio or portion of the communications that are conducted in the second frequency band(s) with respect to all wireless communications of the UE. If the UE detects an imbalance, it may transmit a report to the network (e.g. to the base station serving the UE) indicating unfavorable conditions for the UE to be operating in the second frequency band(s). In response, the network may disable the respective cell(s) associated with the second frequency band(s) and/or it may disable carrier aggregation for the UE.