초록 ▼

One or more indications of signal quality as measured by a wireless communication device (WCD) served by a radio access network (RAN) may be transmitted from the WCD to the RAN. A determination may be made that the one or more indications of signal quality meet or exceed a threshold signal quality.

One or more indications of signal quality as measured by a wireless communication device (WCD) served by a radio access network (RAN) may be transmitted from the WCD to the RAN. A determination may be made that the one or more indications of signal quality meet or exceed a threshold signal quality. Possibly based on the one or more indications of signal quality meeting or exceeding the threshold signal quality, the WCD may bundle at least some hybrid automatic repeat request (HARD) acknowledgments that the WCD transmits to the RAN.

대표청구항 ▼

1. A method comprising: receiving, at a radio access network (RAN), at least one indication of signal quality as measured by a wireless communication device (WCD) served by the RAN;determining that each of the at least one indication of signal quality meets or exceeds a threshold signal quality, whe

1. A method comprising: receiving, at a radio access network (RAN), at least one indication of signal quality as measured by a wireless communication device (WCD) served by the RAN;determining that each of the at least one indication of signal quality meets or exceeds a threshold signal quality, wherein indications of signal quality that meet or exceed the threshold signal quality are associated with a greater extent of positive acknowledgment messages received by the RAN than indications of signal quality that do not meet or exceed the threshold signal quality;based on the at least one indication of signal quality meeting or exceeding the threshold signal quality, instructing the WCD to bundle at least one hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgment that the WCD transmits to the RAN; andreceiving, at the RAN, a single HARQ acknowledgement message from the WCD in response to a plurality of HARQ subpackets that the RAN transmits to the WCD, wherein, when the single HARQ acknowledgement message from the WCD is a negative acknowledgement message that indicates that at least one of the plurality of HARQ subpackets was not successfully received by the WCD, the RAN transmits a replacement HARQ subpacket to the WCD, wherein the first plurality of HARQ subpackets is derived from one or more full packets, and wherein a HARQ subpacket not successfully received by the WCD and the replacement HARQ subpacket are derived from a common full packet. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one indication of signal quality consists of two or more consecutively received indications of signal quality. 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: after instructing the WCD to bundle at least one HARQ acknowledgment that the WCD transmits to the RAN, receiving one or more further indications of signal quality as measured by the WCD;determining that at least one of the one or more further indications of signal quality do not meet or exceed the threshold signal quality; andbased on the one or more further indications of signal quality not meeting or exceeding the threshold signal quality, instructing the WCD to not bundle any HARQ acknowledgments that the WCD transmits to the RAN. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein not bundling any HARQ acknowledgments that the WCD transmits to the RAN comprises: in response to each HARQ subpacket of a plurality of HARQ subpackets that the RAN transmits to the WCD, the RAN receiving respective separate HARQ acknowledgment messages from the WCD. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the WCD and RAN communicate using a time-division duplex (TDD) wireless channel in which the forward-direction traffic is separated from reverse-direction traffic by allocation of different respective time slots in a particular frequency band. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one indication of signal quality includes at least one channel quality indication (CQI) report, wherein each CQI report includes a respective value in a range of 1 to 15 that represents signal quality,wherein a higher value in the range is associated with a higher number of positive acknowledgment messages received by the RAN than a lower value in the range,wherein the threshold signal quality is in the range from 1 to 15, andwherein determining that each of the at least one indication of signal quality meets or exceeds a threshold signal quality comprises, for each particular CQI report of the at least one CQI report: reading the at least one CQI report to determine the respective value of the particular CQI report; andcomparing the respective value of the particular CQI report to the threshold signal quality to determine that the respective value of the particular CQI report meets or exceeds the threshold value. 7. A method comprising: measuring, at a wireless communication device (WCD) served by a radio access network (RAN), signal quality of a time-division duplex (TDD) wireless channel of the RAN, wherein the measured signal quality meets or exceeds a threshold signal quality, wherein signal quality measurements that meet or exceed the threshold signal quality are associated with a greater extent of positive acknowledgment messages received by the RAN than signal quality measurements that do not meet or exceed the threshold signal quality;transmitting, to the RAN, a representation of the measured signal quality;receiving, from the RAN, a first instruction to bundle at least one hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgment that the WCD transmits to the RAN, wherein the first instruction is received in response to the measured signal quality meeting or exceeding the threshold signal quality; andin response to a plurality of HARQ subpackets that the WCD receives from the RAN, transmitting a single HARQ acknowledgment message to the RAN,wherein, when the single HARQ acknowledgement message from the WCD is a negative acknowledgement message that indicates that at least one of the plurality of HARQ subpackets was not successfully received by the WCD, the WCD receives from the RAN a replacement HARQ subpacket, wherein the first plurality of HARQ subpackets is derived from one or more full packets, and wherein a HARQ subpacket not successfully received by the WCD and the replacement HARQ subpacket are derived from a common full packet. 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: after receiving the first instruction, measuring further signal quality of the TDD wireless channel of the RAN, wherein the measured further signal quality does not meet or exceed the threshold signal quality;transmitting, to the RAN, a representation of the measured further signal quality;receiving, from the RAN, a second instruction not to bundle any HARQ acknowledgments that the WCD transmits to the RAN, wherein the second instruction is received in response to the measured further signal quality not meeting or exceeding the threshold signal quality; andin response to each HARQ subpacket of a plurality of HARQ subpackets that the RAN transmits to the WCD, transmitting respective separate HARQ acknowledgment messages. 9. A radio access network (RAN) comprising: a base station configured to define one or more time-division duplex (TDD) wireless channels that serve wireless communication devices (WCDs);at least one processor;data storage; andprogram instructions stored in the data storage and executable by the at least one processor to cause the RAN to perform operations comprising: receiving at least one signal quality indication from a WCD served by the base station, wherein the RAN is configured to support a first mode and a second mode of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) communication between the base station and WCDs served by the base station, wherein operation in the first mode of HARQ communication involves the base station instructing the WCD to transmit a single HARQ acknowledgment message in response to a plurality of HARQ subpackets that the base station transmits to the WCD, and operation in the second mode of HARQ communication involves the base station instructing the WCD to not bundle any HARQ acknowledgments that the WCD transmits to the base station;making a determination of whether the received at least one signal quality indication meets or exceeds a signal quality threshold, wherein signal quality indications that meet or exceed the signal quality threshold are associated with a greater extent of positive acknowledgment messages received by the RAN than signal quality indications that do not meet or exceed the signal quality threshold;in response to the determination being that one or more of the received at least one signal quality indication meet or exceed the signal quality threshold, then operating the base station in the first mode of HARQ communication for the WCD; andin response to the determination being that one or more of the received at least one signal quality indications do not meet or exceed the signal quality threshold, then operating the base station in the second mode of HARQ communication for the WCD,wherein the base station is further configured to, when the single HARQ acknowledgement message from the WCD is a negative acknowledgement message that indicates that at least one of the plurality of HARQ subpackets was not successfully received by the WCD, transmit a replacement HARQ subpacket to the WCD, wherein the first plurality of HARQ subpackets is derived from one or more full packets, and wherein a HARQ subpacket not successfully received by the WCD and the replacement HARQ subpacket are derived from a common full packet. 10. The RAN of claim 9, wherein instructing the WCD to not bundle any HARQ acknowledgments that the WCD transmits to the base station comprises: instructing the WCD to transmit respective separate HARQ acknowledgment messages in response to each HARQ subpacket of a plurality of HARQ subpackets that the base station transmits to the WCD. 11. The RAN of claim 9, wherein the at least one indication of signal quality includes at least one channel quality indication (CQI) report, wherein each CQI report includes a respective value in a range of 1 to 15 that represents signal quality,wherein a higher value in the range is associated with a higher number of positive acknowledgment messages received by the RAN than a lower value in the range,wherein the threshold signal quality is in the range from 1 to 15, andwherein determining that each of the at least one indication of signal quality meets or exceeds a threshold signal quality comprises, for each particular CQI report of the at least one CQI report: reading the at least one CQI report to determine the respective value of the particular CQI report; andcomparing the respective value of the particular CQI report to the threshold signal quality to determine that the respective value of the particular CQI report meets or exceeds the threshold value.