Method for communicating and radio station therefor

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for communicating between a primary station and a secondary station comprising (a) at the secondary station, upon arrival of a data packet to be transmitted to the primary station, buffering said data packet in a buffer, (b) at the secondary station, after the expiration of a time period starting at arrival of the data packet, transmitting to the primary station a request for an uplink transmission resource if a grant of uplink transmission resource is not received during the said time period, (c) at the primary station, granting to the secondary station an uplink transmission resource.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for communicating between a primary station and a secondary station comprising:
 (a) at the secondary station, upon arrival of a data packet to be transmitted to the primary station, buffering said data packet in a buffer, 
 (b) at the secondary station, after the expiration of a time period, said time period starting at arrival of the data packet and having a duration based on at least one characteristic of data in the data packet, wherein said time period is adjusted by the secondary station in consideration of data transmission requirements, transmitting to the primary station a request for an uplink transmission resource if in response to the secondary station determining that a grant of uplink transmission resource is not received by the secondary station during said time period, 
 (c) at the secondary station, receiving an uplink transmission resource from the primary station in response to said request. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein said data transmission requirements represent a Quality of Service. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one characteristic of data comprises one or more of an indication of data priority, a Quality of Service parameters, an identity of a logical channel or group of logical channels to which the data packets are assigned, an amount of data in the buffer, an amount of data which arrived, a rate of arrival of data, or a time elapsed since a previous arrival of data. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the secondary station operates in a radio cell, and wherein the time period is based on a time elapsed since the secondary station has started to operate in said radio cell. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the time period is based at least on a time elapsed since the secondary station last transmitted a request for an uplink transmission resource. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1  wherein the time period is based at least on a time elapsed since the secondary station last transmitted a request for an uplink transmission resource corresponding to a specific amount of data and did not receive a corresponding grant of resource. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the time period is based at least on a set of uplink channel characteristics. 
     
     
       8. The method of claim  6  7, wherein the set of uplink channel characteristic comprises one or more of an uplink channel quality, a transmission rate corresponding to the uplink channel quality, or an uplink transmission power. 
     
     
       9. The method of claim  6  7, wherein the set of uplink channel characteristics is estimated based on characteristics related to a downlink channel. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the time period is predetermined. 
     
     
       11. A secondary station comprising
 means for transmittinga transceiver configured to transmit data to a primary station on an uplink channel, 
 a microprocessor configured to:  
 means for bufferingbuffer data packets to be transmitted to the primary station upon arrival of said data packets, 
 means for requestingrequest, after the expiration of a time period, the primary station to grant an uplink transmission resource ifin response to the secondary station determining that a grant of uplink transmission resource is not received by the secondary station during said time period, said time period starting at arrival of the data packet and having a duration based at least on a characteristic of data in the data packet, wherein said time period is adjusted by the secondary station in consideration of data transmission requirements. 
 
     
     
       12. The secondary station of  claim 11 , wherein said data transmission requirements represent a Quality of Service. 
     
     
       13. A secondary station comprising:
 a transceiver; and 
 a microprocessor configured to:
 buffer a data packet received from said that is to be transmitted utilizing the transceiver; 
 transmit a request, through said transceiver and after the expiration of a time period, for a grant of uplink transmission resource if in response to the secondary station determining that a grant of uplink transmission resource is not received by the secondary station during the time period, said time period starting at arrival of the data packet and having a duration based at least on a characteristic of data in the data packet, wherein said time period is adjusted by the microprocessor in consideration of data transmission requirements. 
 
 
     
     
       14. The secondary station of  claim 13 , wherein the characteristic of data comprises one or more of an indication of data priority, a Quality of Service parameters, an identity of a logical channel or group of logical channels to which the data packets are assigned, an amount of data in the buffer, an amount of data which arrived, a rate of arrival of data, or a time elapsed since a previous arrival of data. 
     
     
       15. The secondary station of  claim 13 , wherein the secondary station operates in a radio cell, and wherein the time period is based on a time elapsed since the secondary station has started to operate in said radio cell. 
     
     
       16. The secondary station of  claim 13 , wherein the time period is based at least on a time elapsed since the secondary station last transmitted a request for an uplink transmission resource. 
     
     
       17. The secondary station of  claim 13 , wherein the time period is based at least on a time elapsed since the secondary station last transmitted a request for an uplink transmission resource corresponding to a specific amount of data and did not receive a corresponding grant of resource. 
     
     
       18. The secondary station of  claim 13 , wherein the time period is based at least on a set of uplink channel characteristics. 
     
     
       19. The secondary station of  claim 18 , wherein the set of uplink channel characteristic comprises one or more of an uplink channel quality, a transmission rate corresponding to the uplink channel quality, or an uplink transmission power. 
     
     
       20. The secondary station of  claim 18 , wherein the set of uplink channel characteristics is estimated based on characteristics related to a downlink channel. 
     
     
       21. The secondary station of  claim 13 , wherein the time period is received by the secondary station. 
     
     
       22. The secondary station of  claim 21 , wherein the characteristic of data comprises one or more of an indication of data priority, a Quality of Service parameters, an identity of a logical channel or group of logical channels to which the data packets are assigned, an amount of data in the buffer, an amount of data which arrived, a rate of arrival of data, or a time elapsed since a previous arrival of data. 
     
     
       23. The secondary station of  claim 13 , wherein said data transmission requirements represent a Quality of Service. 
     
     
       24. A system comprising:
 at least one secondary station comprising:
 means for transmittinga transceiver configured to transmit data to a primary station on an uplink channel, 
 a microprocessor configured to:  
 means for bufferingbuffer data packets to be transmitted to the primary station upon arrival of said data packets, 
 means for requestingrequest, after the expiration of a time period, the primary station to grant an uplink transmission resource ifin response to the secondary station determining that that a grant of uplink transmission resource is not received by the secondary station during said time period, said time period starting at arrival of the data packet and having a duration based at least on a characteristic of data in the data packet, wherein said time period is adjusted by the microprocessor in consideration of data transmission requirements and 
 
 a primary station comprising:
 means for grantinga microprocessor configured to grant to the secondary station an uplink transmission resource. 
 
 
     
     
       25. The system of  claim 24 , wherein said data transmission requirements represent a Quality of Service. 
     
     
       26. A secondary station comprising:
 a transceiver; and 
 a microprocessor in communication with said transceiver, said microprocessor configured to:
 receive a data packet from said that is to be transmitted utilizing the transceiver, 
 initiate a timer upon receipt of said data packet; 
 determine a time period in consideration of data transmission requirements, said time period being based at least on a characteristic of data in the data packet, wherein said timer is configured to elapse after said time period; 
 determine whether a grant of uplink transmission resources has been received during said time period; and 
 transmit, through said transceiver, a request for an uplink transmission resource if in response to the secondary station determining that a grant of uplink transmission resource is not received by the secondary station during said time period. 
 
 
     
     
       27. The secondary station of  claim 26 , wherein said data transmission requirements represent a Quality of Service.