COMMUNICATION TERMINALS, COMMUNICATION DEVICE, METHOD FOR ESTABLISHING A COMMUNICATION, FOR DETERMINING COMMUNICATION CONNECTIONS FOR A COMMUNICATION, AND FOR CARRYING OUT A COMMUNICATION

Abstract

Communication terminal, comprising a determination function configured to determine, for each of a plurality of communication networks, a media access control mode available to the communication terminal that provides the communication terminal with a maximum information throughput among a number of media access control modes available to the communication terminal, and a control device designed to to check for each of the plurality of communication networks whether an information throughput criterion is met when the communication terminal communicates with the communication network using a media access control mode that provides less than the maximum information throughput among the number of media access control modes available to the communication terminal, for the communication networks and, for each of the plurality of communication networks, for a number of available media access control modes for a communication connection to the communication network, to search for a communication configuration comprising a number of communication connections and, for each communication connection, a media access control mode, based on the result of the check, to select one or more communication connections and, for each of the communication connections, a media access control mode, wherein a found first communication configuration is excluded and the search is continued without the first communication configuration to identify a second communication configuration; and to create one or more selected communication connections using the selected media access control mode.

Description

Technical FieldThe embodiments described herein relate generally to communication terminals, communication devices, methods for establishing communication, determining communication links for communication, and performing communication.General State of the ArtModern communication terminals may operate in heterogeneous environments, i.e. scenarios where a plurality of base stations or access points provide radio access according to different radio access technologies. Since the selection of communication links used for a communication terminal has an influence not only on the information throughput but also on the power consumption of the communication terminal, effective methods for selecting communication configurations, including the number and type of radio links as well as the configuration to be established, are desirable.US 2013 / 0 083 678 A1 describes a media agnostic multi-radio access architecture having a media agnostic MAC that interfaces between TCP / IP and the physical layers of user devices so that the radio devices in the user devices can operate simultaneously, seamlessly and transparently to higher layers.US 2009 / 0 180 451 A1 describes an apparatus and a method for coordinated transmission and reception assignments of availability periods for use in a communication device.US 2013 / 0 028 069 A1 describes methods and apparatuses for performing wireless communication in a wireless transmitting / receiving unit configured for operation with multiple radio access technologies.US 2013 / 0 136 067 A1 describes communication devices that communicate via a plurality of data connections.SummaryA communication terminal device, a communication terminal device and a method according to the invention are specified in the independent claims. Additional features for advantageous embodiments are given in the dependent claims.Brief Description of the DrawingsIn the drawings, like reference numerals generally refer to the same parts throughout the several views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead generally being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. In the following description, various aspects are described with reference to the following drawings, in which: FIG. 1 shows a communication system according to LTE. FIG. 2 shows a communication arrangement in a heterogeneous connection scenario. FIG. 3 shows a diagram with respect to data transmission rate vs. transmission power, in which operating points are represented in a heterogeneous connection scenario. FIG. 4 shows a communication terminal. FIG. 5 shows a flow chart in which a method for establishing a communication is presented. FIG. 6 shows a flow chart illustrating a method for determining communication connections for communication. FIG. 7 shows a communication device. FIG. 8 shows a communication terminal. FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating a method of performing communication. FIG. 10 shows a communication arrangement in a heterogeneous connection scenario. FIG. 11 shows a flow diagram of a process for a connection in a mobile device. FIG. 12 shows resource blocks according to LTE. FIG. 13 shows the frame structures according to WiFi. FIG. 14 shows the frame sizes for IEEE.11b, IEEE.11a / g, IEEE.11n and IEEE.11ac. FIG. 15 illustrates communication between an LTE base station corresponding to, for example, one of the base stations and a mobile device corresponding to, for example, the mobile device. FIG. 16 shows a diagram of data transmission rate vs. transmission power. FIG. 17 illustrates communication between an LTE base station corresponding to, for example, one of the base stations and a mobile device corresponding to, for example, the mobile device. FIG. 18 shows a graphical diagram of information throughput for LTE. FIG. 19 shows a diagram of data transmission rate vs. transmission power. FIG. 20 shows plots of information throughput vs. output power for individual connections and plot of information throughput vs. output power with operating points, each operating point corresponding to a combination of one or more of the connections. FIG. 21 illustrates the removal of working points, resulting in multiple levels. FIG. 22 shows a diagram of data transmission rate vs. transmission power. FIG. 23 illustrates a division of the set of operating points into sub-blocks. FIG. 24 shows transmission diagrams illustrating splitting of a transmission into a first transmission and a second transmission. Figure 25 shows transmission diagrams illustrating splitting a transmission into multiple first transmissions and multiple second transmissions. FIG. 26 is a flowchart. Figure 27 shows a data transmission rate vs. transmit power diagram illustrating two pairs of operating points that can be used for time division. FIG. 28 shows a first graph of frequency power representing a working point without carrier composition and a second graph of frequency power representing a working point with carrier composition. FIG. 29 shows a first graph of frequency power representing a working point with a lower level of carrier composition and a second graph of frequency power representing a working point with a higher level of carrier composition. FIG. 30 shows a first graph of frequency power representing a working point with a lower level of carrier composition and a second graph of frequency power representing a working point with a higher level of carrier composition.DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTSThe following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings, which show specific details and aspects of this disclosure with which the invention may be practiced, for purposes of illustration. Other aspects may be applied and structural, logical, and electrical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. The various aspects of this disclosure are not necessarily mutually exclusive, as some aspects of this disclosure may be combined with one or more other aspects of this disclosure to form novel aspects.FIG. 1 shows a communication system 100.The communication system 100 may be composed of a cellular mobile communication system (hereinafter also referred to as a cellular radio communication network) including a radio access network (e.g., an E-UTRAN, evolved UMTS, Universal Mobile Communications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE) or advanced LTE (LTE-Advanced) 101 and a core network (e.g., an evolved packet core (EPC), according to LTE or advanced LTE) 102. The radio access network 101 may include base stations (e.g., base / transmit / receive stations, evolved node base transceiver stations (eNodeBs), eNBs, home base stations, home eNodeBs, HeNBs according to LTE or LTE-Advanced 103. Each base station 103 may provide radio coverage for one or more mobile radio cells 104 of the radio access network 101. In other words, the base stations 103 of the radio access network 101 may extend over different cell types 104 (e.g. macrocells, femtocells, picocells, small cells, open cells, closed subscriber group cells, hybrid cells, for example according to LTE or advanced LTE (LTE-Advanced).A mobile terminal (e.g., UE) 105 located in a mobile cell 104 may communicate with the core network 102 and with other mobile terminals 105 via the base station 103, which provides coverage in the mobile cell 104 (in other words, operates the mobile cell). In other words, the base station 103 operating the mobile radio cell 104 in which the mobile terminal 105 is located may provide the E-UTRA user plane terminations including the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, the radio link control (RLC) layer and the medium access control (MAC) layer and control plane terminations including the radio resource control (RRC) layer towards the mobile terminal 105.As used herein, a heterogeneous network may consist of a cellular network system (e.g., a 3GPP system) in which multiple different types of cells, such as macro, micro, femto, or pico cells, are used. Some or all of the cell types used may or may not overlap (partially or fully) in time, space, or frequency. A heterogeneous network may also be a cellular network combined with other non-cellular networks such as WiFi (IEEE 802.11a / b / g / n / ac / ad), WiFi for TV white spaces (TVWS) (IEEE 802.11af), millimeter wave systems (mmWave), or the like. Some or all of the coverage areas or cells of the technologies in the heterogeneous network may or may not overlap (partially or fully) in time, space, or frequency.Wired communications may include serial and parallel wired media such as the Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus (USB), FireWire, Digital Visual Interface (DVI), High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), etc. Wireless communications may include, for example, wireless media in closest proximity (e.g., radio frequency (RF) (RF), such as based on near field communications (NFC), infrared (IR), optical character recognition (OCR), magnetic character detection, or the like), short range wireless media (e.g., Bluetooth, WLAN, WiFi, etc.), long range wireless media (e.g., cellular long range wireless communication technology, which may include, for example, a wireless communication technology global system for mobile communications (GSM, Global System for mobile communications (GSM), Global System for Mobile Communications), a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) radio communications technology, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (EDGE) data rate enhancement radio communications technology, and / or a third generation Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) radio communications technology (e.g., Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Freedom for Mobile Media Access (FOMA), 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) radio communications technology, Long Term Evolution (LTE)), Long Term Evolution (3GPP)), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA2000), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Mobitex, Third Generation (3G), Circuit Switched Data (CSD), High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (HSCSD), Universal Third Generation Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS (3G), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (third generation)), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (W-CDMA UMTS), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), High Speed Packet Access (HSDPA), High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSUPA), High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Time-Division Duplex (UMTS-TDD), Time-Division Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), Time-Division Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), Third generation version 8 (prior to the 4th generation) partnership project (3GPP Rel. 8 (Pre-4G), 3rdGeneration Partnership Project Release 8 (Pre-4thGeneration)), third generation partnership project version 9 (3GPP Rel. 9, 3rdGeneration Partnership Project Release 9), third generation partnership project version 10 (3GPP Rel. 10, 3rdGeneration Partnership Project Release 10), third generation partnership project version 11 (3GPP Rel. 11, 3rdGeneration Partnership Project Release 11), third generation partnership project Version 12 (3GPP Rel. 12, 3rdGeneration Partnership Project Release 12), third generation partnership project Version 13 (3GPP Rel. 13, 3rdGeneration Partnership Project Release 13) and subsequent versions (such as Vers. 14, Vers. 15 etc.), UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA, UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access), Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), Advanced UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (LTE Advanced (4G), Long Term Evolution Advanced (4thGeneration)), CDMA Provisional Standard IS-95 (cdmaOne (2G)), third generation code division multiple access 2000 (CDMA2000 (3G), code division multiple access 2000 (third generation)), data optimized development or data-only development (EV-DO, etc, Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only), First Generation Modern Mobile Radio Standard (AMPS (1G), Advanced Mobile Phone System (is Generation)), Total Access Communication System / Extended Total Access Communication System (TACS / ETACS), Second Generation Digital Modern Mobile Radio Standard (D-AMPS (2G), Digital AMPS (2nd Generation)), PTT (Push-to-talk), Mobile Telephone System (MTS), Enhanced IMTS (IMTS), Modern mobile telephone system (AMTS), Advanced Mobile Telephone System (OLT), Public Land Mobile Telephony (OLT), Car Radio Telephony (ARP), Finnish for Car Radio Phonne), Mobile Telephone System (NMT), Swedish abbreviation for Mobile Telephone System D, or Mobile Telephony System D), Public Automated Land Mobile (Autotel / PALM), Car Automated Land Mobile (ARP), Finnish for Car Radio Phonne), Mobile Telephony (NMT, Nordian Mobile Telephony), High-capacity version of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (Hicap, High capacity version of NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone)), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Mobitex, DataTAC, Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN), Personal Digital Cellular (PDC), Circuit Switched Data (CSD), Personal Handy-phone System (PHS), Wideband Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (WiDEN), iBurst, Unlicensed mobile access (UMA (also referred to as 3GPP Generic Access Network (GAN), or GAN standard), electronic interaction over sound waves, IEEE 802.11a / b / g / n / ac / ad / af, WiFi, WiFi for TV White Spaces (TVWS), IEEE 802.16e / m, WiMAX, or the like.Control and user data may be transmitted between a base station 103 and a mobile terminal 105 located in the mobile radio cell 104 operated by the base station 103 via the air interface 106 on the basis of a multiple access method. Different duplex methods, such as frequency division duplex (FDD) or time division duplex (TDD), can be used on the LTE air interface 106.Modern communication terminals may have communication links simultaneously with a plurality of communication networks. For example, a communication terminal, e.g., a mobile device, may operate in a heterogeneous wireless context in which the mobile device is capable of maintaining one or more wireless communication links with a plurality of communication networks using different radio access technologies. In the following, it is assumed that a communication terminal can operate a plurality of heterogeneous radio communication links (e.g., communication links can be operated simultaneously according to different radio access technologies). This scenario is illustrated in FIG. 2.FIG. 2 shows a communication arrangement 200.The communication arrangement 200 comprises a plurality of base stations 201, 202, which comprise, for example, a first base station operating according to LTE, e.g. according to one of the base stations 103, and an N B th base station (or access point in this case) 202 operating according to WiFi.Each of the plurality of communication terminals (or mobile devices) 203, e.g., corresponding to the communication terminal 105, may have one or more communication links 204 with the base stations 201, 202.A given mobile device may typically have a minimum target data transfer rate (i.e., a minimum target information throughput). In the scenario depicted in FIG. 2, it is desirable to identify the optimal number of communication links 204 to operate simultaneously and the optimal media access control (MAC) mode of operation for each of the communication links 204 for a mobile device 203.The term "MAC mode", which may be an example of a component of a physical connection configuration, refers to, for example, a combination of constellation types (e.g., binary phase shift keying (BPSK), quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) 16 / 64 / 128 / 256 / 512 / 1024 / 848 / etc.) and a code transfer rate (code transfer rate R=1 / 2, 2 / 3, 3 / 4, etc., including punch-through) (i.e., removing some bits from the encoded bit stream), and possibly other mechanisms, which affect the whole code transmission rate) in combination with MAC mechanisms such as (hybrid) automatic repeat request (hybrid) ARQ) or the like.In other words, the definition of the MAC mode will hereinafter include, for example, a selected modulation and coding scheme (MCS) on the physical layer with MAC layer retransmission mechanisms and other schemes that introduce signaling / retransmission overheads and the like.The selection of communication links may be performed on the network side or within the mobile device, for example, based on the following assumptions:Network side selection: the network receives both a minimum destination data transfer rate from the mobile device and a property list indicating radio access technologies (RATs) which the mobile device can operate simultaneously and under what conditions it can do. The network recommends or forces a resulting communication configuration (possibly combining a plurality of connections for the mobile device, such as LTE, WiFi, WiFi for TV for white spaces (TVWS), etc.Selection on the mobile device side (terminal side): This may require the introduction of mechanisms into existing (cellular) standards (such as 3GPP LTE or the like). In particular, i) the mobile device in this context selects a target MAC mode (which is traditionally done by the radio resource management (RRM) entities on the network and ii) determines how many (time / frequency) resources (e.g., number of resource blocks associated with LTE or the like) are allocated to the mobile device when a particular communication connection is requested.If the mobile device can operate a plurality of radio links simultaneously, wherein for each communication link a MAC mode is possible among the plurality of available MAC modes, this results in a large number of operating points (e.g., corresponding to a single communication configuration comprising one or more communication links, each associated with a MAC mode). This is illustrated in FIG. 3.FIG. 3 shows a diagram 300 data transmission rate vs. transmission power. The data transmission rate (i.e., information throughput) of a communication configuration increases from left to right on a data transmission rate axis 301, and the required transmission power (which may be considered the cost of a communication configuration) increases from bottom to top on a power axis 302.A plurality of operating points 303 is shown in the diagram 300. Each operating point 303 corresponds to a communication configuration and represents the instantaneous power consumption versus the resulting data transmission rate. A communication configuration corresponds to any combination of communication links according to all available RATs, wherein for each link a single one of all available MAC modes is available for the corresponding RAT. An operating point corresponds to, for example, LTE-QPSK transmission rate-1 / 2 which is operated simultaneously with WiFi-QAM16 transmission rate-2 / 3, etc. The cost (required transmit power) of a communication configuration may change and may accordingly be constantly updated based on, for example, propagation conditions, distance between the mobile device and the associated base stations (including access points). It should be noted that the cost function may also include the battery state of the mobile device.Line 304 indicates an example of a minimum target information throughput that a mobile device requests. Selection of a communication configuration should thus correspond to a working point located on the right side of line 304. Curve 305 represents the convex envelope function 305 of the working points 303.Examples that address the selection of a communication configuration for a communication terminal (e.g., a mobile device) will be described below.FIG. 4 shows a communication terminal 400.The communication terminal comprises a determination function 401 configured to determine, for each of a plurality of communication networks, a physical connection configuration available for the communication terminal that provides a maximum information throughput to the communication terminal among a number of physical connection configurations available for the communication terminal.The communication terminal further comprises a controller 402 configured to check, for each of the plurality of communication networks, whether an information throughput criterion is met when the communication terminal communicates with the communication network with a physical connection configuration providing less than the maximum information throughput among the number of physical connection configurations available to the communication terminal, and establish a communication connection to one or more of the communication networks based on the result of the check.In other words, a communication terminal checks, for example, the maximum information throughput that would be available from each of a plurality of communication networks, but may decide to use less than the maximum information throughput for one or more communication networks (and, for example, rather a higher number of communication links, i.e., links to a larger number of networks), e.g., to save overall transmit power.Thus, the communication terminal uses a connection selection strategy that exploits knowledge of the resources that can be expected to be assigned to the communication terminal for each radio access technology considered (i.e., each network). For example, the communication terminal selects a series of radio links (with corresponding physical link configurations) such that its total output transmission power is minimized.For this purpose, interactions between a mobile device and network entities may be provided that enable decision making with respect to the communication configuration oriented at a mobile device.Such interactions (e.g. message flows) may consist, for example, of standardization, e.g. in 3GPP or the like.The communication terminal may possibly take into account the available network resources (e.g. the number of resource blocks, the number of time slots, bandwidth etc.) per radio link and / or possible procedures of the network, thereby limiting the space for the possible decisions within the mobile device.This may possibly result in better user experience for the user of a mobile device due to longer battery life, and less interference (for the base stations) for the network operator and other user devices because the overall transmit power level may be reduced.For example, a mobile device may select an optimal number of radio links to operate simultaneously (and selects the links among a heterogeneous set of available RATs, such as LTE, WiFi, etc.), and the optimal MAC modes for each radio link based on (accurate, approximate, or estimated) information as to how many spectral / temporal resources would be granted by the respective base station (or access point) of the mobile device. The optimization is performed, for example, within the mobile device, e.g., by a component of the mobile device.To this end, as described below, a computationally effective optimization algorithm may be used and mechanisms may be provided for obtaining information about the amount of spectral / temporal resources (or generally about the physical connection configurations) available to the mobile device. For example, based on corresponding estimates, the mobile device may select the optimal RATs to operate simultaneously and the corresponding MAC modes (or more generally, the physical connection configurations).Corresponding decision making on the network side typically cannot respond to rapid request changes in the mobile device and typically does not meet the precise requests from each mobile device. This may result in a lower operating point and higher power consumption and faster battery depletion of the mobile device.The communication terminal 400 performs, for example, a method as illustrated in FIG. 5.FIG. 5 shows a flow chart 500.The flowchart 500 illustrates a method of establishing communication, which is executed by, for example, a communication terminal.At 501, the communication terminal determines, for each of a plurality of communication networks, a physical connection configuration available to the communication terminal that provides maximum information throughput to the communication terminal among a number of physical connection configurations available to the communication terminal.At 502, the communication terminal checks for each of the plurality of communication networks whether an information throughput criterion is met when the communication terminal communicates with the communication network with a physical connection configuration that provides less than the maximum information throughput among the number of physical connection configurations available to the communication terminal.At 503, the communication terminal establishes communication links with one or more of the communication networks based on the result of the verification.Another example is shown in FIG. 6.FIG. 6 shows a flow chart 600.The flow diagram 600 illustrates a method for determining communication links for communication performed by, for example, a communication device (e.g., a communication terminal or a communication network component, such as a base station).At 601, for a set of communication links and for each communication link, the communication device searches for a set of available physical layer configurations, for a communication configuration having one or more communication links, and for each of the one or more communication links, based on a search criterion, for an available physical link configuration.At 602, the communication device establishes a communication according to a found communication configuration.In other words, a search for a communication configuration is performed, e.g. in a heterogeneous network scenario.For example, as described in more detail below, a communication configuration found in a search for communication configurations is not considered in a further search by excluding at least one component of the communication configuration, namely (at least) the physical layer configuration (e.g., including the MAC mode) of one of the communication links that has the communication configuration.Consequently, the search can be continued and a better communication configuration (in terms of cost such as transmission power) can possibly be found.For example, there are discrete convex optimization mechanisms in which the search space (or solution space) is constrained, such as a convex hull function for operating points, as represented by graph 305. This inherent sub-optimality can be overcome by not considering a found communication configuration (which is optimal for the restricted search space, for example) and continuing the search without this communication configuration. In other words, sub-optimalities of solutions found in convex hull search algorithms can be avoided by repeatedly disregarding found configurations and continuing the search algorithm. Thus, sub-optimumity of the search algorithm can be avoided while maintaining the effectiveness of the search algorithm.This allows for effective connection selection (including the number of radio links to be operated simultaneously and optimum MAC modes for each radio link).The selection of the target optimization technique and the selection of the number of repetitions may depend on the restrictions of the mobile device (such as the maximum number of radio links to operate simultaneously, etc.).Effective connection selection may potentially result in better user experience for the user of a mobile device through longer battery life, and less interference (for the base stations) for the network operator and other user devices because the overall transmit power level may be reduced.For example, the optimal connection configuration for the mobile device may be identified in a multi-connection context (i.e., multiple radio access technologies are maintained simultaneously and the mobile device is assumed to be capable of selecting the target MAC modes directly or indirectly). The optimization is performed, for example, within the mobile device.The method illustrated in FIG. 6 is performed by, for example, a communication device (e.g., a communication terminal or a network component) illustrated in FIG. 7.FIG. 7 shows a communication device 700.The communication device 700 comprises a processor 701 configured to search for an available physical connection configuration for a series of communication connections and for each communication connection for a series of available physical layer configurations, for a communication configuration comprising one or more communication connections and for each of the one or more communication connections based on a search criterion.The communication apparatus 700 furthermore has a transmitting / receiving device 702, which is designed to establish a communication in accordance with a communication configuration found.Another example is shown in FIG. 8.FIG. 8 shows a communication terminal 800.The communication terminal 800 includes a transmitting / receiving device 801 configured to perform communication using alternately a first communication configuration having a first information throughput and a second communication configuration having a second information throughput such that the average information throughput of the communication satisfies a predetermined information throughput criterion.In other words, a communication terminal switches between two (or more) combinations of communication links (including at least one communication link) with different information throughput such that the communication has a desired information throughput on average. For example, a time division approach can be used to combine different RAT selection entities, i.e., communication configurations that have communication links from different RATs. This allows a mobile device to accurately meet its minimum information throughput requirement while minimizing the overall output power of the mobile device.For example, to meet the minimum information throughput request by sharing the time between two communication configurations, the mobile terminal selects a first communication configuration with an information throughput above the minimum information throughput request and a second communication configuration with an information throughput below the minimum information throughput request.The communication configurations may also differ in terms of carrier agreement, e.g., using one carrier agreement or a stronger form of carrier agreement (and thus provides a higher information throughput) and the other not using a carrier agreement or a weaker form of carrier agreement (and thus provides a lower information throughput).The time sharing in communication configurations may result in better user experience for a mobile device user through longer battery life and less interference (for base stations) for the network operator and other user devices because the overall transmit power level may be reduced.For determining the communication configurations with appropriate information flow rates, a computationally effective optimization algorithm may be used, as described below and according to, for example, the approach described with reference to FIG. 6.The communication configurations consist, for example, of wireless link operating points, as shown in FIG. 3, where each operating point corresponds to a number of wireless links operating simultaneously with a given MAC mode, with a given number of spectral / temporal resources.The communication terminal performs, for example, a method as illustrated in FIG. 9.FIG. 9 shows a flow chart 900.The flowchart 900 illustrates a method of performing communication performed by, for example, a communication terminal.At 901, the communication terminal alternately uses a first communication configuration with a first information throughput and a second communication configuration with a second information throughput such that the average information throughput of the communication meets a predetermined information throughput criterion.It should be noted that the components of the various communication terminals and devices may be implemented by, for example, one or more circuits. A "circuit" may be understood to mean any type of logic implementing entity that may consist of a special purpose circuit or a processor executing software stored in a memory, firmware, or a combination thereof. Thus, a "circuit" may consist of a hardwired logic circuit or a programmable logic circuit, such as a programmable processor, e.g., a microprocessor. A "circuit" may also consist of a processor executing software, e.g. any type of computer program. Any other type of implementation of the respective functions, which will be described in more detail below, may also be understood as a "circuit.".The following examples relate to further embodiments.Example 1 is a communication terminal as shown in FIG. 4.In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1 can optionally include the controller configured to, for at least one of the communication networks, establish a communication connection to the communication network with a physical connection configuration that is less than the maximum information throughput among the number of physical connection configurations available to the communication terminal when the communication terminal meets the information throughput criterion when the communication terminal communicates with the communication network with the physical connection configuration.In Example 3, the subject matter of any of Examples 1-2 can optionally include the controller configured to select one or more communication links to one or more of the communication networks, and for each of the one or more communication links, a physical link configuration based on the result of the verification, and configured to establish the selected one or more communication links with the selected physical link configurations.In Example 4, the subject matter of Example 3 can optionally include the controller configured to request, for each of the one or more selected communication connections, the establishment of the communication connection with the selected physical connection configuration from the respective communication network.In Example 5, the subject matter of any of Examples 3-4 can optionally include the controller configured to select the one or more communication links based on a criterion for reducing the required transmit power at which the one or more communication links are operated.In Example 6, the subject matter of any of Examples 3-5 can optionally include the controller configured to select the one or more communication links based on a criterion to maximize the frequency spectrum provided by the one or more communication links.In Example 7, the subject matter of any of Examples 3-6 can optionally include the controller configured to select the one or more communication links based on a criterion to maximize transmission power effectiveness provided by the one or more communication links.In Example 8, the subject matter of any of Examples 1-7 can optionally include the controller configured to, for the communication networks and for each of the plurality of communication networks, search for a set of available physical layer configurations for a communication link to the communication network, for a communication configuration including a set of communication links, and, for each communication link, for a physical link configuration.In Example 9, the subject matter of Example 8 can optionally include the controller configured to determine information about available communication networks based on at least one of a search performed by the communication terminal, a database query, and information provided by another communication terminal.In Example 10, the subject matter of any of Examples 1-9 can optionally include the physical connection configuration of a communication connection, including an amount of communication resources used for the communication connection.In Example 11, the subject matter of any of Examples 1-10 can optionally include the physical connection configuration of a communication connection including a modulation and a coding scheme used for the communication connection.In Example 12, the subject matter of any of Examples 1-11 can optionally include the physical connection configuration of a communication connection having a code transmission rate used for the communication connection.In Example 13, the subject matter of any of Examples 1-12 can optionally include the physical connection configuration of a communication connection having a constellation type used for the communication connection.In Example 14, the subject matter of any of Examples 1-13 can optionally include the physical connection configuration of a communication connection having a MAC mode used for the communication connection.In Example 15, the subject matter of any of Examples 1-14 can optionally include the determination function configured to request, for at least one of the communication networks, information about the physical connection configuration that provides the maximum information throughput to the communication terminal from the communication network.In Example 16, the subject matter of any of Examples 1-15 can optionally include the determination function configured to request, for at least one of the communication networks, information about physical connection configurations available to the communication terminal.In Example 17, the subject matter of any of Examples 1-16 can optionally include the determination function configured to request, for at least one of the communication networks, information about all physical connection configurations available to the communication terminal.In Example 18, the subject matter of any of Examples 1-17 can optionally include the communication networks operating at least partially according to different radio access technologies.Example 19 consists of a method for establishing a communication as shown in FIG. 5.In Example 20, the subject matter of Example 19 can optionally include establishing, for at least one of the communication networks, a communication connection to the communication network having a physical connection configuration that is less than the maximum information throughput among the number of physical connection configurations available to the communication terminal when the communication terminal meets the information throughput criterion when the communication terminal communicates with the communication network having the physical connection configuration.In Example 21, the subject matter of any of Examples 19-20 can optionally include selecting one or more communication links to one or more of the communication networks and, for each of the one or more communication links, establishing a physical link configuration based on the result of the verification, establishing the selected one or more communication links with the selected physical link configurations.In Example 22, the subject matter of Example 21 can optionally include, for each of the one or more selected communication links, requesting the establishment of the communication link having the selected physical link configuration from the respective communication network.In Example 23, the subject matter of any of Examples 21-22 can optionally include selecting the one or more communication links based on a criterion to reduce the required transmit power at which the one or more communication links are operated.In Example 24, the subject matter of any of Examples 21-23 can optionally include selecting the one or more communication links based on a criterion to maximize the frequency spectrum provided by the one or more communication links.In Example 25, the subject matter of any of Examples 21-24 can optionally include selecting the one or more communication links based on a criterion to maximize transmission power effectiveness provided by the one or more communication links.In Example 26, the subject matter of any of Examples 19-25 can optionally include searching, for the communication networks and for each of the plurality of communication networks, for a set of available physical layer configurations for a communication link to the communication network, for a communication configuration including a set of communication links, and for each communication link, for a physical link configuration.In Example 27, the subject matter of Example 26 can optionally include determining information about available communication networks based on a search performed by the communication terminal, a database query, and / or information provided by another communication terminal.In Example 28, the subject matter of any of Examples 19-27 can optionally include the physical connection configuration of a communication connection including a set of communication resources used for the communication connection.In Example 29, the subject matter of any of Examples 19-28 can optionally include the physical connection configuration of a communication connection including modulation and coding scheme used for the communication connection.In Example 30, the subject matter of any of Examples 19-29 can optionally include the physical connection configuration of a communication connection including a code transmission rate used for the communication connection.In Example 31, the subject matter of any of Examples 19-30 can optionally include the physical connection configuration of a communication connection including a constellation type used for the communication connection.In Example 32, the subject matter of any of Examples 19-31 can optionally include the physical connection configuration of a communication connection including a MAC mode used for the communication connection.In Example 33, the subject matter of any of Examples 19-32 can optionally include, for at least one of the communication networks, requesting information about the physical connection configuration that provides the maximum information throughput to the communication terminal from the communication network.In Example 34, the subject matter of any of Examples 19-33 can optionally include, for at least one of the communication networks, requesting information about physical connection configurations available to the communication terminal.In Example 35, the subject matter of any of Examples 19-34 can optionally include, for at least one of the communication networks, requesting information about all physical connection configurations available to the communication terminal.In Example 36, the subject matter of any of Examples 19-35 can optionally include the communication networks operating at least partially according to different radio access technologies.Example 37 is a computer readable medium having instructions recorded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of performing radio communication according to any of Examples 19 to 36.Example 38 consists of a communication terminal comprising determining means for determining, for each of the plurality of communication networks, a physical connection configuration available to the communication terminal that provides the communication terminal with a maximum information throughput among a number of physical connection configurations available to the communication terminal, and control means for checking, for each of the plurality of communication networks, whether an information throughput criterion is met when the communication terminal communicates with the communication network with a physical connection configuration that provides less than the maximum information throughput among the number of physical connection configurations available to the communication terminal, and for establishing a communication connection to one or more communication networks based on the result of the check.In Example 39, the subject matter of Example 38 can optionally include the control means configured to establish, for at least one of the communication networks, a communication connection to the communication network having a physical connection configuration that is less than the maximum information throughput among the number of physical connection configurations available to the communication terminal when the communication terminal meets the information throughput criterion when the communication terminal communicates with the communication network having the physical connection configuration.In Example 40, the subject matter of any one of Examples 38-39 can optionally include the control means configured to select one or more communication links to one or more of the communication networks, and based on the result of the verification, for each of the one or more communication links of a physical link configuration, and configured to establish the selected one or more communication links with the selected physical link configurations.In Example 41, the subject matter of Example 40 can optionally include the control means configured to request, for each of the one or more selected communication connections, the establishment of the communication connection with the selected physical connection configuration from the respective communication network.In Example 42, the subject matter of any of Examples 40-41 can optionally include the control means configured to select the one or more communication links based on a criterion for reducing the required transmit power at which the one or more communication links are operated.In Example 43, the subject matter of any of Examples 40-42 can optionally include the control means provided for selecting the one or more communication links based on a criterion for maximizing the frequency spectrum provided by the one or more communication links.In Example 44, the subject matter of any of Examples 40-43 can optionally include the control means provided for selecting the one or more communication links based on a criterion for maximizing the transmission power effectiveness provided by the one or more communication links.In Example 45, the subject matter of any of Examples 38-44 can optionally include the control means configured to search for the communication networks and, for each of the plurality of communication networks, for a set of available physical layer configurations, for a communication link to the communication network, for a communication configuration including a set of communication links, and, for each communication link, for a physical link configuration.In Example 46, the subject matter of Example 45 can optionally include the control means configured to determine information about available communication networks based on a search performed by the communication terminal, a database query, and / or information provided by another communication terminal.In Example 47, the subject matter of any of Examples 38-46 can optionally include the physical connection configuration of a communication connection including a set of communication resources used for the communication connection.In Example 48, the subject matter of any of Examples 38-46 can optionally include the physical connection configuration of a communication connection including modulation and coding scheme used for the communication connection.In Example 49, the subject matter of any of Examples 38-48 can optionally include the physical connection configuration of a communication connection including a code transmission rate used for the communication connection.In Example 50, the subject matter of any of Examples 38-49 can optionally include the physical connection configuration of a communication connection including a constellation type used for the communication connection.In Example 51, the subject matter of any of Examples 38-50 can optionally include the physical connection configuration of a communication connection including a MAC mode used for the communication connection.In Example 52, the subject matter of any one of Examples 38-51 can optionally include the determining means, for at least one of the communication networks, for requesting information about the physical connection configuration that provides the maximum information throughput to the communication terminal from the communication network.In Example 53, the subject matter of any of Examples 38-52 can optionally include the determining means, for at least one of the communication networks, for requesting information about physical connection configurations available to the communication terminal.In Example 54, the subject matter of any of Examples 38-53 can optionally include the determining means, for at least one of the communication networks, for requesting information about all physical connection configurations available to the communication terminal.In Example 55, the subject matter of any of Examples 38-54 can optionally include the communication networks operating at least partially according to different radio access technologies.Example 56 consists of a method for determining communication links for communication as shown in FIG. 6.In Example 57, the subject matter of Example 56 is performed by a communication terminal.In Example 58, the subject matter of any of Examples 56-57 can optionally include the communication terminal requesting one or more communication networks to establish communication links according to the found communication configuration.In Example 59, the subject matter of any of Examples 56-58 can optionally include disregarding, for a communication configuration found in the search and for a communication link included in the communication configuration found in the search, the physical layer configuration of the communication link in the communication configuration found in the search in the set of available physical layer configurations of the communication link to form an updated set of physical layer configurations for the communication link, and repeating the search for a communication configuration based on the updated set of available physical layer configurations for the communication link.In Example 60, the subject matter of any of Examples 56-59 can optionally include searching, comprising searching for a communication configuration that is optimal according to the search criterion.In Example 61, the subject matter of Example 60 can optionally include the search criterion including the information throughput of the communication configuration being above a predetermined minimum information throughput.In Example 62, the subject matter of any of Examples 60-61 can optionally include the search criterion that includes that the required performance of the communication configuration is as low as possible.In Example 63, the subject matter of any one of Examples 56-62 can optionally include the search criterion comprising searching according to a search algorithm.In Example 64, the subject matter of Example 63 can optionally include the search algorithm with a constrained search space.In Example 65, the subject matter of Example 64 can optionally include the search algorithm limited to a hull function in a two-dimensional representation of the communication configurations.In Example 66, the subject matter of any of Examples 63-65 can optionally include the search algorithm limited to a convex hull function in a two-dimensional representation of the communication configurations.In Example 67, the subject matter of Example 66 can optionally include the two-dimensional representation representing each communication configuration as a point whose first coordinate corresponds to the information throughput of the communication configuration and whose second coordinate corresponds to the transmit power of the communication configuration.In Example 68, the subject matter of any of Examples 56-67 can optionally include, for each communication link included in the communication configuration found in the search, not considering the physical layer configuration of the communication link in the communication configuration found in the search in the series of available physical layer configurations of the communication link to form an updated series of physical layer configurations for the communication link, and repeating the search for a communication configuration based on the updated series of available physical layer configurations for the communication link.In Example 69, the subject matter of any of Examples 56-68 can optionally include disregarding available physical layer configurations and repeating the search for a communication configuration based on a domain cut process (domain cut process).Example 70 is a computer readable medium having instructions recorded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of performing radio communication according to any of Examples 56-69.Example 71 is a communication terminal as shown in FIG. 7.In Example 72, the subject matter of Example 71 optionally consists of a communication terminal.In Example 73, the subject matter of any of Examples 71-72 can optionally include the transmitting / receiving device configured to request one or more communication networks to establish communication links according to the communication configuration found.In Example 74, the subject matter of any of Examples 71-73 can optionally include the processor further configured to, for a communication configuration found in the search and for a communication link included in the communication configuration found in the search, not consider the physical layer configuration of the communication link in the communication configuration found in the search in the series of available physical layer configurations of the communication link to form an updated series of physical layer configurations for the communication link, and repeat the search for a communication configuration based on the updated series of available physical layer configurations for the communication link.In Example 75, the subject matter of any of Examples 71-74 can optionally include the processor configured to search for a communication configuration that is optimal according to the search criterion.In Example 76, the subject matter of Example 75 can optionally include the search criterion including the information throughput of the communication configuration being above a predetermined minimum information throughput.In Example 77, the subject matter of any of Examples 75-76 can optionally include the search criterion that includes that the required performance of the communication configuration is as low as possible.In Example 78, the subject matter of any of Examples 71-77 can optionally include the processor configured to search according to a search algorithm.In Example 79, the subject matter of Example 78 can optionally include the search algorithm with a constrained search space.In Example 80, the subject matter of Example 79 can optionally include the search algorithm limited to a hull function in a two-dimensional representation of the communication configurations.In Example 81, the subject matter of any of Examples 78-80 can optionally include the search algorithm limited to a convex hull function in a two-dimensional representation of the communication configurations.In Example 82, the subject matter of Example 81 can optionally include the two-dimensional representation representing each communication configuration as a point whose first coordinate corresponds to the information throughput of the communication configuration and whose second coordinate corresponds to the transmit power of the communication configuration.In Example 83, the subject matter of any of Examples 81-82 can optionally include the processor configured to, for each communication link included in the communication configuration found in the search, not consider the physical layer configuration of the communication link in the communication configuration found in the search in the series of available physical layer configurations of the communication link to form an updated series of physical layer configurations for the communication link, and repeat the search for a communication configuration based on the updated series of available physical layer configurations for the communication link.In Example 84, the subject matter of any of Examples 81-83 can optionally include the processor configured to disregard available physical layer configurations and repeat the search for a communication configuration based on a domain slice process.Example 85 consists of a communication device comprising search means for searching, for a series of communication links and for each communication link, for a series of available physical layer configurations, for a communication configuration having one or more communication links and based on a search criterion, for each of the one or more communication links, for an available physical link configuration, and creation means for creating a communication according to a found communication configuration.In Example 86, the subject matter of Example 85 optionally consists of a communication terminal.In Example 87, the subject matter of any of Examples 85-86 can optionally include the creation means configured to request one or more communication networks to establish communication connections according to the found communication configuration.In Example 88, the subject matter of any one of Examples 85-87 can optionally include the searching means further for disregarding, for a communication configuration found in the search and for a communication link included in the communication configuration found in the search, the physical layer configuration of the communication link in the communication configuration found in the search, in the set of available physical layer configurations of the communication link to form an updated set of physical layer configurations for the communication link, and for repeating the search for a communication configuration based on the updated set of available physical layer configurations for the communication link.In Example 89, the subject matter of any of Examples 85-88 can optionally include the searching means configured to search for a communication configuration that is optimal according to the search criterion.In Example 90, the subject matter of Example 89 can optionally include the search criterion including the information throughput of the communication configuration being above a predetermined minimum information throughput.In Example 91, the subject matter of any of Examples 89-90 can optionally include the search criterion that includes that the required performance of the communication configuration is as low as possible.In Example 92, the subject matter of any of Examples 85-91 can optionally include the searching means configured to search according to a search algorithm.In Example 93, the subject matter of Example 92 can optionally include the search algorithm with a constrained search space.In Example 94, the subject matter of Example 93 can optionally include the search algorithm limited to a hull function in a two-dimensional representation of the communication configurations.In Example 95, the subject matter of any of Examples 92-94 can optionally include the search algorithm limited to a convex hull function in a two-dimensional representation of the communication configurations.In Example 96, the subject matter of Example 95 can optionally include the two-dimensional representation representing each communication configuration as a point whose first coordinate corresponds to the information throughput of the communication configuration and whose second coordinate corresponds to the transmit power of the communication configuration.In Example 97, the subject matter of any one of Examples 95-96 can optionally include the searching means provided for each communication link included in the communication configuration found in the search to disregard the physical layer configuration of the communication link in the communication configuration found in the search in the series of available physical layer configurations of the communication link to form an updated series of physical layer configurations for the communication link, and to repeat the search for a communication configuration based on the updated series of available physical layer configurations for the communication link.In Example 98, the subject matter of any of Examples 96-97 can optionally include the searching means configured to disregard available physical layer configurations and repeat the search for a communication configuration based on a domain slice process.Example 99 is a communication terminal as shown in FIG. 8.In Example 100, the subject matter of Example 99 can optionally include a determination function configured to determine the information throughput of a first communication configuration and the information throughput of a second communication configuration, and a controller configured to control the switching of the communication between the first communication configuration and the second communication configuration based on the information throughput of the first communication configuration and the information throughput of the second communication configuration.In Example 101, the subject matter of Example 100 can optionally include the controller configured to determine the length of the communication durations using the first communication configuration and the length of the communication durations using the second communication configuration based on the information throughput criterion, based on the first information throughput, and based on the second information throughput.In Example 102, the subject matter of any of Examples 99-101 can optionally include the information throughput criterion consisting of a minimum information throughput and the transmitting / receiving device configured to perform the communication alternately using the first communication configuration and the second communication configuration such that the average information throughput of the communication is equal to or above the minimum information throughput.In Example 103, the subject matter of any of Examples 99-102 can optionally include the information throughput of the first communication configuration that corresponds to the information throughput criterion and the information throughput of the second communication configuration that does not correspond to the information throughput criterion.In Example 104, the subject matter of any of Examples 99-103 can optionally include a controller configured to determine a communication configuration at the first information throughput and a communication configuration at the second information throughput.In Example 105, the subject matter of any of Examples 99-104 can optionally include the first communication configuration and the second communication configuration including use of one or more communication links, and wherein the first communication configuration and the second communication configuration differ in the communication links used.In Example 106, the subject matter of any of Examples 99-105 can optionally include the first communication configuration and the second communication configuration that differ in the carrier context used.Example 107 is a method of performing communication as shown in FIG. 9.In Example 108, the subject matter of Example 107 can optionally include determining the information throughput of a first communication configuration and the information throughput of a second communication configuration, and controlling the switching of the communication between the first communication configuration and the second communication configuration based on the information throughput of the first communication configuration and the information throughput of the second communication configuration.In Example 109, the subject matter of Example 108 can optionally include determining the length of the communication durations using the first communication configuration and the length of the communication durations using the second communication configuration based on the information throughput criterion, based on the first information throughput, and based on the second information throughput.In Example 110, the subject matter of any of Examples 107-110 can optionally include the information throughput criterion consisting of a minimum information throughput and alternately using the first communication configuration and the second communication configuration such that the average information throughput of the communication is equal to or above the minimum information throughput.In Example 111, the subject matter of any of Examples 107-110 can optionally include the information throughput of the first communication configuration that corresponds to the information throughput criterion and the information throughput of the second communication configuration that does not correspond to the information throughput criterion.In Example 112, the subject matter of any of Examples 107-111 can optionally include determining a communication configuration with the first information throughput and a communication configuration with the second information throughput.In Example 113, the subject matter of any of Examples 107-112 can optionally include the first communication configuration and the second communication configuration including use of one or more communication links, and wherein the first communication configuration and the second communication configuration differ in the communication links used.In Example 114, the subject matter of any of Examples 107-113 can optionally include the first communication configuration and the second communication configuration that differ in the carrier context used.Example 115 is a computer readable medium having instructions recorded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of performing radio communication according to any of Examples 107-114.Example 116 is a communication terminal comprising communication means for performing communication using alternately a first communication configuration having a first information throughput and a second communication configuration having a second information throughput, such that the average information throughput of the communication corresponds to a predetermined information throughput criterion.In Example 117, the subject matter of Example 116 can optionally include a determination means for determining the information throughput of a first communication configuration and the information throughput of a second communication configuration, and a control means for controlling the switching of the communication between the first communication configuration and the second communication configuration based on the information throughput of the first communication configuration and the information throughput of the second communication configuration.In Example 118, the subject matter of Example 117 can optionally include the control means configured to determine the length of the communication time periods using the first communication configuration and the length of the communication time periods using the second communication configuration based on the information throughput criterion, based on the first information throughput, and based on the second information throughput.In Example 119, the subject matter of any of Examples 117-118 can optionally include the information throughput criterion consisting of a minimum information throughput and the communication means provided to perform the communication alternately using the first communication configuration and the second communication configuration such that the average information throughput of the communication is equal to or above the minimum information throughput.In Example 120, the subject matter of any of Examples 116-119 can optionally include the information throughput of the first communication configuration that corresponds to the information throughput criterion and the information throughput of the second communication configuration that does not correspond to the information throughput criterion.In Example 121, the subject matter of any of Examples 116-120 can optionally include a controller to determine a communication configuration with the first information throughput and a communication configuration with the second information throughput.In Example 122, the subject matter of any of Examples 116-121 can optionally include the first communication configuration and the second communication configuration including use of one or more communication links, and wherein the first communication configuration and the second communication configuration differ in the communication links used.In Example 123, the subject matter of any of Examples 116-122 can optionally include the first communication configuration and the second communication configuration that differ in the carrier context used.It should be noted that one or more of the characteristics of any of the above examples may be combined with any of the other examples.The examples are described in more detail below. The following examples will be described with reference to a mobile device in a heterogeneous multiple radio link context as illustrated in FIG. 10.FIG. 10 shows a communication arrangement 1000.The communication arrangement 1000 comprises a plurality of base stations 1001 operating according to different radio access technologies (RATs, radio access technologies, e.g. UMTS, LTE, WiFi, GSM, etc.). The term base station is used herein to include access points, such as if the RAT is WiFi, for example. It should be noted that one or more of the base stations 1001 may also use the same RAT, e.g. it may be the same type of communication network (e.g. LTE communication networks) from different operators.The communication arrangement 1000 further comprises a mobile device 1002 for which it is decided for each base station 1001 whether a communication connection 1003 to the base station 1001 is established and, if so, which physical connection configuration (including the MAC mode) is used for the communication connection 1003. Finally, a communication configuration is selected for the mobile device 1002, having one or more communication links to one or more of the base stations 1001 and, for each communication link, a linked physical link configuration.FIG. 11 shows a flow chart 1100 illustrating a process for connection selection (i.e., selection of a communication configuration) in the mobile device 1002.At 1101, mobile device 1002 detects available radio communication links, identifies the link characteristics and corresponding MAC modes that may be operated for the links. For example, given path loss and other propagation constraints, it identifies a maximum supported MAC mode that has a maximum possible constellation type (e.g., BPSK, QPSK, QAM, etc.) combined with the highest possible code transfer rate (e.g., R=2 / 3, etc.).At 1102, mobile device 1002 detects, measures, estimates, and / or requests information about the available capacity to be provided by base stations 1001 for a relevant radio link, e.g., a radio link that may be considered. For example, in LTE, the expected number of resource blocks to be allocated to a specific user (i.e., mobile device) typically depends on the load of the base station.At 1103, mobile device 1002 takes into account all possible combinations of how a single or heterogeneous multiple radio links 1003 may be combined and makes a decision on the best combination of radio links and the best choice of MAC modes. Typically, for a given mobile device, the best solution is to obtain as much spectrum as possible and operate very low MAC modes such as BPSK, R = 1 / 2. This, however, is in contrast to the realistic constraints that a base station allocates only a limited number of time / frequency / space resources to a single user.At 1104, mobile device 1002 initiates connections to the selected target RATs and forces selection of a specific MAC mode by appropriate communication with the base station.It should be noted that the highest possible MAC mode (e.g., the MAC mode with the highest spectral efficiency) is derived based on available feedback information (such as channel quality indicator(s) (CQI (Channel Quality Indicator(s)), the multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channel matrix rank, the available operating modes supported by the mobile device, etc.).The mobile device may estimate the cell load, for example, as follows:i) the number of addresses of a base station can be observed by analysing the transmitted packets and consequently the load of the base station can be estimated, i.e. a high number of addressed users points to a high cell load, a low number of addressed users points to a low cell load,ii) the number of resources used for data services may possibly be estimated. A small number of resources per user (e.g., resource blocks allocated to users, etc.) indicates a high load level, a large number of allocated resources per user indicates a low load level, etc. From this, available resources may be predicted (i.e., in the case of a high cell load, it may be estimated that the available resources are low, and in the case of a low cell load, it may be estimated that the available resources are high, etc.).It should be further noted that typically the lowest possible MAC mode (i.e., lowest in spectral efficiency) is typically desirable to be used by the mobile device 1002 for uplink transmission because it is typically associated with the lowest possible power consumption. Indeed, from the point of view of mobile device 1002, it is typically desirable that the spectral bandwidth required for the uplink operating modes applied be as low as possible (e.g., BPSK, R=1 / 2, etc.), rather than operating modes that are most effective in the spectrum (e.g., QAM256, R=3 / 4, etc.). The reason for this is the fact that the SINR requirements grow approximately exponentially with the spectral efficiency of the MAC modes, while the resulting information throughput does not.Further examples of how mobile device 1002 may execute 1101- 1104 are presented below.Referring to 1101, mobile device 1002 detects available radio communication links, identifies the link characteristics and corresponding MAC modes that may be operated. The mobile device also receives call selection procedures from the mobile operator concerned, if desired.The detection of available radio connections can be achieved by various means. For example, mobile device 1002 may receive such information through Access Network Discovery and Selection Function (ANDSF) defined in 3GPP when the operator chooses to distribute the information and / or Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP) in IEEE 802.11 or the like. Alternatively (or in addition to the information provided by the ANDSF), the mobile device 1002 may exchange related information with neighboring devices through peer-to-peer communication links (e.g., through device-to-device communication mechanisms). Alternatively (or in addition to the above), mobile device 1002 may perform the capturing of the available radio links. If there are a plurality of users, such detection tasks can also be distributed by distributed detection mechanisms, i.e. each mobile device scans only a small portion of the frequency band in question and thereafter the information is exchanged among neighbouring mobile devices or collapsed at a central point and thereafter redistributed to the mobile devices.A mobile network operator may have the ability to provide connection selection policies to mobile device 1002. These consist of, for example, restrictions to be taken into account in the connection selection process in the mobile device. For example, the operator may give preference to a given RAT (e.g., LTE) over other RATs (e.g., WiFi).Referring to 1102, the mobile device detects, measures, estimates, and / or requests information about the available capacity to be provided by the base station for a radio link between the base station and the mobile device.In order for a decision making oriented on the mobile device to be made about the most optimal connections to be selected, the mobile device must acquire knowledge about the actual capacity (i.e. the number of resource blocks for LTE, data packet size for WiFi, etc.) that can eventually be allocated to the user by the base station for a specific radio connection.For example, in LTE, a number of resource blocks per user is allocated as illustrated in FIG. 12.Fig. 12 shows resource blocks according to LTE.According to LTE, OFDM symbols are grouped into resource blocks. The resource blocks have a total size of 180 kHz in the frequency domain and 0.5 ms in the time domain. Each 1 ms transmission time interval (TTI) consists of two time slots (Tslot).FIG. 13 shows the frame structures according to WiFi.Fig. 13 shows from top to bottom the frame structures according to IEEE 11a / g, IEEE 11n and IEEE 11ac.Figure 14 indicates the frame sizes for IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a / g, IEEE 802.11n, and IEEE 802.11ac.Other resource management mechanisms may apply to other systems.For example, at 1102, the mobile device contacts base station 1101 and requests information about the possible assignment of resources. For example, an LTE base station may respond with a scheduled number of resource blocks that may be allocated to the mobile device. Such a mechanism can be introduced, for example, in standardization. An example of information exchange between mobile device 1102 and base station 1101 is shown in Figure 15.FIG. 15 shows communication between an LTE base station 1501 corresponding to, for example, one of the base stations 1001 and a mobile device 1502 corresponding to, for example, the mobile device 1002.At 1503, mobile device 1502 requests information about the number of resource blocks (or capacity in general) that can be allocated to mobile device 1502 from base station 1501.At 1504, base station 1501 indicates the number of resource blocks (or capacity in general) that may be allocated to mobile device 1502 when it establishes a connection to base station 1501. Further, the base station 1501 can provide information on the validity period of the scheduled number of resource blocks (i.e., until when this number remains constant), information on the current load, information on the load fluctuation, information on the past assignments of resources, etc.For example, if base station 1001 is unable or not willing to provide the requested information, mobile device 1002 in question may attempt to estimate the current loading state of base station 1001. A rough classification of the load condition may be sufficient, such as:• Low load▪ high load or▪ Low Load▪ Average Load▪ High Loador the like. Mobile device 1002 may identify this loading state by scanning the air time of the given RAT (e.g., WiFi), scanning how many resource blocks are allocated to users and how many (e.g., for LTE), etc.For example, according to LTE, reference signal received quality (RSRQ) is defined as the ratio of received reference signal power (RSRP) and received signal strength indication (RSSI) that mobile device 1002 may use as a baseline for cell loading. Based on the estimated stress level, mobile device 1002 may derive a typical expected number of resource blocks that may be allocated to mobile device 1002. At a high load, the number is small and at a low load, the number of resource blocks to be expected is high.The mobile device 1002 may refine the estimate based on a development score. For example, depending on the load estimates, mobile device 1002 checks how many resource blocks have been allocated in similar situations in the past and averages out the previous observations. In addition, it may take into account any type of context information (such as its location, time of day, user preferences, adjacent users, particular events such as Ferry, etc.).Thus, using the different channel conditions for each radio link, the mobile device may define operating points for that link in addition to the known MAC modes.FIG. 16 shows a diagram 1600 data transmission rate vs. transmission power.The data transmission rate (i.e., information throughput) increases from left to right on a data transmission rate axis 1601, and the required transmission power increases from bottom to top on a power axis 1602.The diagram 1600 illustrates estimated operating points of an LTE channel in the uplink. It can be seen that the operating points have a convex behavior which justifies the use of a search algorithm on a convex hull for searching for an optimum operating point. It should be noted that a combining point, such as in FIG. 16, for a plurality of communication links results in operating points each corresponding to a communication configuration, as shown in FIG. 3.It should be noted that the more reliable the values that the mobile device 1002 acquires, the more accurate it can make at 1103. Accordingly, it is desirable to generate good inputs for proper optimization.Referring to 1103, mobile device 1002 considers all possible combinations of how a single or heterogeneous multiple radio links may be combined and makes a decision on the best combination of radio links and the best choice of MAC modes. An effective optimization approach may be based on a discrete optimization approach of a convex hull, for example.For final selection, mobile device 1002 may take into account operator policies when any of the operators choose to impose such policies. Such approaches typically limit the decision space for the mobile device-oriented decision-making process and ensure that the optimization results in a result compatible with the user requirements. Indeed, the operator's policies may sometimes conflict with the users' preferences because the network and mobile device destinations typically conflict with each other in resource allocation. Namely, the network is typically interested in achieving overall operation effective for all users, while a specific mobile device is only interested in its own effective operation. However, there may still be a compromise identified by the network by imposing rules that limit the decision space of the mobile device, e.g. "prefer LTE over WiFi if the signal quality of LTE is higher" or the like.Referring to 1104, the mobile device 1002 initiates connections to the selected base stations 1001 and forces selection of a specific MAC mode by appropriate communication with the respective base stations 1001.Mobile device 1002 performs initialization of the selected communication links and forces use of the MAC modes selected for the communication links. Forcing the MAC modes may require the introduction of an information exchange between mobile device 1002 and base station 1001, which may be, for example, as shown in FIG. 17.FIG. 17 shows communication between an LTE base station 1701 corresponding to, e.g., one of the base stations 1001 and a mobile device 1702 corresponding to, e.g., the mobile device 1002.At 1703, mobile device 1702 requests initialization of a connection using a specific MAC mode (i.e., a specific modulation type such as BPSK / QPSK / QAM or the like and a specific code transfer rate such as R=1 / 2, R=2 / 3, R= 374, etc.).In some RATs, such as LTE or the like, the base station 1001 may not allow the device-oriented decision about the MAC modes to be used. However, the radio resource management algorithms of those RATs typically rely on device oriented link quality measurements. Mobile device 1002 may thus use the link quality feedback to base station 1001 to allow base station 1001 to believe that a particular link quality is being observed. Mobile device 1002 may select the quality feedback (e.g., a quality value) in such a way that the radio resource management (RRM) entity of base station 1001 selects the MAC mode desired by mobile device 1002. This process may require multiple repetitions because the first feedback of a link quality measurement may not accurately result in the desired MAC mode. In this case, mobile device 1002 may modify (e.g., increase or decrease) the link quality feedback accordingly to ultimately achieve the desired MAC mode.Multiple connection optimization may be very useful for power consumption of a mobile device. The same mechanisms can be applied for power consumption by base stations. For such general optimization, feedback and negotiations between base stations and user terminals may be similarly used.For example, a master or similar base station may acquire or estimate knowledge of the amount of assigned spectral / temporal resources from other base stations and impose MAC modes on different heterogeneous connections. Alternatively, a common controller may be introduced which performs the configuration and interaction with all respective heterogeneous base stations. Therefore, it may be economical for base stations to include mobile devices in the decision making. The destinations of a mobile device (e.g., UE) may still be different from the destinations of the network. Sometimes, lawless behavior may be useful for mobile devices. As long as the networks do not suffer from it, it should be acceptable for them (such as selecting private WiFi hotspots that are outside the operator's control).The selection of the communication configuration (e.g., the selection of uplink operating mode) at 1103 includes, for example, an optimization process in which an attempt is made to find a working point (i.e., an appropriate number of connections to operate simultaneously and the associated MAC modes) corresponding to the minimum information throughput requirement of the mobile device 1002. For this optimization, there are typically a large number of possible combinations of all communication links and all MAC modes (or generally physical layer configurations), making the use of highly effective search algorithms desirable. It turns out that the working points that result in a minimum combined transmission power level (TX, transmission) lie (approximately) on a convex envelope function, such as the envelope function 305 in the example of FIG. 3.The convex structure arises from the fact that MAC information throughput curves typically require increasing output power levels for more powerful constellation types. This effect is shown in Fig. 18.FIG. 18 shows a graphical diagram 1800 of information throughput for LTE.Graphs 1800 depict the relationship between the signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR), which may be viewed as a representation of output power, and information throughput for various MAC modes. It can be seen that the higher the information throughput, the higher the additional transmit power required for increasing information throughput.Consequently, a discrete optimization algorithm may possibly be used which takes advantage of this behavior. As already mentioned, a search algorithm on a convex hull can be used, i.e. an optimization algorithm which searches on a convex hull for the possible working points, i.e. which has a search set restricted to the convex hull. The Shoham and Gersho convex optimization approach for effective bit allocation for a random set of quantizers can be used, for example, which is suitable because it is optimized for such problem setting. It should be noted that the Shoham-Gersho optimization algorithm has been developed for a theoretical optimization problem concerning very specific information. Nevertheless, it fits the optimization need for connection selection of a mobile device (i.e., selection of a communication configuration).The Shoham-Gersho algorithm can be seen to be based on the idea of the Lagrange function, rather than waiting for the Lagrange multiplier λ to slowly reach a significant value for a new solution; it is possible to cause λ to assume only significant values for each repetition.In particular, the Shoham-Gersho algorithm minimizes the Lagrange function for a given Lagrange multiplier vector lambda: where X is the search space, h(x)=(h 1( x),...,h 2( x)) is the vector of the condition functions, b is the vector of boundaries of the conditions (i.e., the conditions are h i( x) ≤ b i) and f (x) is the cost function.For each repetition k, the conditional function (e.g., representing information throughput) is calculated.• If Rk = Rmin (minimum value of the conditional function, e.g. minimum information throughput), the optimum mapping is found. The algorithm stops.• If Rk>Rmin, λ is updated to obtain a closest possible value which is closer to the smaller reduction condition.• If Rk<Rmin, λ is updated to obtain a closest possible value which comes closer to the condition - smaller increase.• If (Rk - Rmin) (Rk-1 - Rmin)<0, the best mapping is found on the convex hull and corresponds to that satisfying the condition. The algorithm stops.The state here represents the fact that the algorithm on the convex hull has gone from the unrealizable to the realizable domain (or vice versa). λ can simply be initialized to zero, but more effective initial values can be determined.However, there is sub-optimality in the method of the search method on a convex hull because it only identifies solutions that lie on the convex hull function, e.g., the hull function 305 of the example of FIG. 3. In the example of FIG. 3, the search method on a convex hull would thus find a sub-optimal solution as shown in FIG. 19.FIG. 19 shows a diagram 1900 of data transmission rate vs. transmission power.The data transmission rate (i.e., information throughput) of a communication configuration as in FIG. 3 increases from left to right on a data transmission rate axis 1901, and the required transmission power (which may be considered as the cost of a communication configuration) increases from bottom to top on a power axis 1902, and a plurality of operating points 1903 are shown in the diagram 1900. Line 1904 indicates an example of a minimum target information throughput that a mobile device, e.g., mobile device 1002, requests.A first operating point 1906 is the solution found in the search method on a convex hull corresponding to the minimum data transfer rate condition and on the convex hull function.However, a second operating point 1907 would be the optimal solution: it has a lower output power than the first operating point 1906 and is still on the right side of the line 1904, i.e. corresponds to the information throughput requirement. The second operating point is near, but not exactly on, the convex envelope function 1905. Thus, the search method on a convex hull may not be able to find the optimal operating point due to the inherent sub-optimality due to the constraint of the search space on the convex hull function 1905.It should be noted that optimization techniques that only optimize the configuration for the connections individually are much more ineffective.An approach is described below as an example for the selection of a communication configuration, e.g., executed by the mobile device 1002 at 1103, which may be considered an extension of a search method on a convex hull, namely an iterative extension that enables to effectively identify optimal or near optimal operating points with respect to the required transmit power, each operating point having the heterogeneous radio links to be operated simultaneously and the MAC mode (or generally the physical layer configuration) for each radio link (including constellation type per carrier, code transmission rate, etc.).A search method on a convex hull works such that the MAC modes are considered independently for each connection. The algorithm does not perform the search taking into account the entirety of all possible combinations, but instead performs the search on the convex hull by operating on the original independent MAC mode curves. This ensures high effectiveness. This is illustrated in FIG. 20FIG. 20 shows plots 2001 information throughput vs. output power for individual links and plot 2002 information throughput vs. output power with operating points, each operating point corresponding to a combination of one or more links with associated MAC modes.This means that the graph 2002 information throughput vs. output power corresponds to the graph 300 information throughput vs. output power shown in FIG. 3, and the result of combining the graph 2001 information throughput vs. output power for the individual connections.A search method on a convex hull finds a working point 2003 corresponding to a connection working point 2004 for each individual connection (provided that the connection is present in the communication configuration corresponding to the working point 2004, otherwise the working point selected for the connection may be considered the "unprepared" connection working point). Consequently, the selection of the operating point 2004 corresponds to the selection of a connection operating point for each individual communication connection, e.g. for each of the communication connections 1003.In the iterative extension of the search method on a convex hull according to the present example, in a 0 ten iteration, the search method on a convex hull is used to find the best solution 1906, 2003 on the convex hull 1905, 2005 (which can be considered an example of 601). If this solution 1906, 2003 is not the optimal solution, this means that the true solution 1907 is anywhere above the convex hull 1905, 2005. To arrive at the true solution on the convex hull 1905, 2005, which allows effective use of the search method on a convex hull, at least one point of the convex hull 1905, 2005 is not taken into account (which can be regarded as an example of 602), so that the convex hull is moved. This is done by not considering only the previous solution, because all other working points are possible candidates for the true optimal solution.As shown in FIG. 20, a working point consists of the combination of different operating modes on the connections, i.e. connection working points. If a single link operating point is removed from the link, this will not take into account many possible combinations (i.e., 2002 operating points), and not just one. In order that only a single working point of 2002 is not taken into account for each connection, the connection working point of the connection at the working point of 2002 is not taken into account and the search is continued separately for the sub-set of working points resulting therefrom.In other words, if there are N connections with T j( the set of possible working points) and m j( the selected operating mode corresponding to the solution) for each connection j, this means that the first considered set is simple in the 0 ten iteration. In other words, in order to remove only the solution corresponding to [m 1... m N] the set is taken into account separately for each i=1...N, and the solution is searched on the convex hull of this set. This allows for disregarding the specific point found in the first iteration and changing the convex hull.Now, since there are N connections, the first iteration requires N separate search passes and results in N points being found. For the second iteration for each of these N points, the same process is performed so that the point is not considered. Now, if the single point found in the 0 ten iteration is the 0 te plane, then at the first level (corresponding to the first iteration) there are N working points and then N z working points at the second level. In general, there are N p operating points at the p ten level.It should be noted that there is no guarantee at which level the true solution is possibly found: it may be the first operating point found without any iterations, or it may be found after 4 or 5 iterations. Since it is typically not practical to perform a large number of iterations, for example, a limited number of levels (i.e., iterations) is chosen. A larger number means better chances of finding the true solution, but also means greater complexity and more computational complexity.FIG. 21 illustrates the removal of operating points resulting in multiple levels as described above.Plots 2101 represent the (e.g., N) connection operating points of the various possible connections.The 0 ten level plots 2102 represent the link operating points corresponding to the operating point found in the 0 ten iteration.In the first iteration, there are N sets 2103 of plots 2104. Each set 2013 includes a diagram 2104 in which a single link operating point (of one of the N links) is not considered.For each set 2103, a search is performed that results in a working point corresponding to link working points in the plots 2104. This is illustrated by the diagrams 2105.This process continues until, for example, a predefined maximum number of iterations (e.g., 2 iterations, 3 iterations, or 4 iterations) has been reached.An example will now be described which aims to find the true solution and only ends when all possible working points have been separated out. This example may be considered to be based on a combination of a search method on a convex hull with no consideration of unnecessary points by dividing the set of operating points into sub-blocks, either one sub-block being not considered or a search being performed for the sub-block. The search within a single sub-block takes place in the same way as for the entire set of operating points using a search method on a convex hull, but the division into sub-blocks and the non-consideration of sub-blocks takes place using a domain intersection variant of a branching algorithm.An example of not considering unnecessary blocks in a two-dimensional case (i.e., involving two radio links) will be given below. A convex optimization algorithm may be used to determine the first realizable operating point (i.e., the operating point that satisfies the demand for information throughput and has the lowest cost in terms of transmission power) and the first non-realizable point (i.e., the operating point that does not satisfy the demand for information throughput but has the highest information throughput) on the convex hull, as shown in FIG. 22.FIG. 22 shows a diagram 2200 data transmission rate vs. transmission power.As in FIG. 3, the data transmission rate (i.e., information throughput) of a communication configuration increases from left to right on a data transmission rate axis 2201, and the required transmission power (which may be considered the cost of a communication configuration) increases from bottom to top on a power axis 2202, and a plurality of operating points 2203 are shown in the diagram 2200. Line 2204 indicates an example of a minimum target information throughput that a mobile device, e.g., mobile device 1002, requests.A first operating point 2206 is the first non-realizable point (on the convex envelope 2005), likewise referred to as point A.A second operating point 2207 on the convex hull 2205 is the solution found by the search method on a convex hull. This is the first realizable working point (on the convex envelope 2005), likewise referred to as point B.Each of the operating points 2206, 2207 corresponds to a specific combination of selected connections with associated selected MAC modes. These MAC modes allow the entire set of combinations (i.e., the entire set of operating points 2203) to be split into known and unknown ranges. This is illustrated in Fig. 23 for the present two-dimensional case.Figure 23 illustrates a division of the set of operating points into sub-blocks.In FIG. 23, the horizontal direction corresponds to the operation modes of a first one of the two links, and the vertical direction corresponds to the operation modes of a second one of the two links.Each box 2301 in FIG. 23 corresponds to an operating point, with the effectiveness of the first link MAC mode increasing from left to right and the effectiveness of the second link MAC mode increasing from bottom to top.Consequently, with the first non-realizable point A, a first sub-block 2302 of non-realizable points is defined, since any working point in this sub-block has a MAC mode in at least one of the connections that is less effective than the MAC modes of point A and therefore the information throughput of this working point is lower than that of point A and consequently it does not allow the minimum information throughput condition to be met.Similarly, a second sub-block 2303 of poorly promising points is defined by the first realizable point B because those points have a higher cost than point B.Thus, the working points of the first sub-block 2302 and the working points of the second sub-block 2303 may be discarded (i.e., excluded from the further search).The remaining operating points still have to be analyzed (i.e. included in the further search). They are grouped into a third sub-block 2304 and a fourth sub-block 2305, and for each of these sub-blocks (rectangles for the case with two connections, boxes for the case with three connections), a search is performed similarly to the original whole set of operating points 2203.The first realizable point B (initial solution) is determined using the initial solution based on the search method on a convex hull, for example. The solution corresponds to a specific MAC mode for each connection. As already explained, the solution may be suboptimal and the partitioning and non-considering process allows to check whether there is a better working point that is not present on the convex hull. The difference from the approach shown in Fig. 21 is seen in the fact that in the partitioning and blocking process as shown in Fig. 23, all the poorly promising points, and not just the solution found, are not taken into account.For a multi-dimensional domain (e.g., a box in 3D, etc.) as an input for convex optimization, there are three possible results: 1) all working points are feasible and the minimum can be taken and compared to the current solution to update the solution; 2) all working points are not feasible and can be discarded; 3) the usual case with feasible and non-feasible points, so that as shown in Figure 23, some working points can be discarded and others can be retained.Only case 3) is suitable for the domain slice process as explained with reference to Fig. 23. The input of the process has the operating modes for the connections of the first realizable point and the first non-realizable point. This input allows to define the set of unknown (or unprocessed) points which are retained for the further search. Moreover, this input allows it to be presented in a suitable manner as clear subdomains (e.g. rectangles for 2D as shown in Fig. 23 and boxes for 3D, etc.), which is necessary for the next application of the search method on a convex hull, for example. For this purpose, the previous point found in the search is stored, for example, because both realizable and non-realizable (near condition) operating points should be maintained.If the number of connections is greater than three, it is generally not inconsiderable how the remaining regions are divided into suitable sub-blocks, but this can be done using a domain intersection algorithm. The results of this domain intersection algorithm are remaining subdomains (e.g., sub-blocks in the two-dimensional case) of unprocessed points. They are added to the list of unprocessed domains. The domain intersection algorithm applied to the example in Figure 23 generates, for example, two subdomains: the first is [1...4]x[6...8] (North West) and the second is [5...8]x[1...4] (South East) with a numbering of MAC modes from 1 to 8 both horizontal and vertical.In the results 1) and 3) of the possible results of the domain intersection algorithm as stated above, there is one possible solution (i.e. a realizable operating point). This is compared to the current solution for potential update of the current solution (the initial solution resulting from application of the convex search algorithm to the entire set of operating points).As a result 3), the sub-blocks of operating points that are maintained may be associated with some lower limit (as shown as operating point 2208 in FIG. 22), which indicates how promising these sub-blocks are.In managing the remaining sub-blocks (i.e. the sub-blocks still to be searched), a processed sub-block is not considered and new ones (coming from the domain intersection algorithm in case of result 3) are added. For each added sub-block or updated solution, it is possible to separate sub-blocks whose corresponding lower limits are higher than the current solution, which means that they are no longer promising. Moreover, it is possible to start with sub-blocks with lower lower limits because they are very likely to produce better solutions.The search process is ended when there are no more sub-blocks left for processing, i.e. the list of sub-blocks to be processed is empty.Table 1 illustrates a comparison of a selection of the communication configuration according to a search method on a convex hull (the values have been generated using the Shoham-Gersho algorithm as described above), a selection of the communication configuration according to the approach illustrated in FIG. 21 going to level 2, a selection of the communication configuration according to the approach illustrated in FIG. 21 going to level 3, and a selection of the communication configuration according to the approach illustrated in FIG. 23. Table 1 Table 1Convex Optimization+74,3 %-76 %-97,1 %-99,65 %-99,96 %+2,1 %+2 %+2,7 %+ 2,2 %+2,7 %Projection of 21 (plane 2)+246 %-44 %-92,4 %-99,04 %-99,89 %+0,7 %+0,87 %+1,1 %+0,49 %+0,6 %Projection of 21 (plane 3)+668 %+44 %-74,7 %-96,12 %-99,46 %+0,5 %+0,23 %0,2 %+0,1 %+0,2 %Batch of 23+247 %-12,5 %-82,4 %-96,96 %-99,58 %+0 %+0 %+0 %+0 %+0 %The numbers in Table 1 are based on the following complexity metric: The number of comparisons, multiplications, divisions, additions and subtractions is added. Additional complexity metrics may possibly be used, for example, using a stronger weight for multiplications as compared to additions, etc.Table 1 presents a performance comparison of the various approaches to the extensive search performance (in percentages). For each approach, the values below evaluate the difference in computational cost and the upper values show the gap between real solutions and solutions given by the corresponding approach. It can be seen that solutions given by configuration selection according to the approach illustrated in Figure 23 (based on the modified domain slice algorithm) are accurate solutions as expected. However, according to the approach illustrated in FIG. 21, the configuration selection provides suboptimal solutions (based on the modified search approach on a convex hull, the level indicating the number of iterations, suppressing in each iteration a connection configuration for a selected RAT that results in a new convex hull function that typically results in a more optimal solution in the case of being present). Moreover, the convex algorithms are quite effective for a large number of connections.An example of a time division approach between two operating points (i.e., two communication configurations) will be described below.For this, a first optimal operating point (in the sense that it lies on the convex hull function) just below the minimum information throughput requirements and a second optimal operating point (in the sense that it lies on the convex hull function) just above the minimum information throughput requirements are identified, e.g., points A and B in FIG. 22.Identifying these two operating points does not result in higher complexity because search algorithms on a convex hull typically automatically identify all operating points on the convex hull function starting at the lowest (information throughput) value to the highest (information throughput) value. Consequently, by finding the second operating point, the first operating point is also found in the search process without higher cost.In operation of mobile device 1002 according to the present approach, the mobile device may use the minimum output transmit power levels required to maintain the target radio link selections for the uplink. The present approach may be used for any two operating points among the plurality of available communication configurations. It is not necessary that those two lie on the convex envelope function.Mobile device 1002 applies time sharing between the two identified operating points, i.e., switches between the communication configurations of the two operating points.To this end, in this example, mobile device 1002 identifies the time sharing approach to be used to accurately meet (e.g., user specified) the minimum information throughput requirements indicated by line 2204 in FIG. 22.The mobile device 1002 may derive the time-division relationship from the following variables: average information throughput achieved for the first operating point R1 (can be derived from the optimization), average information throughput achieved for the second operating point R2 (can be derived from the optimization),◯ Minimum Request for Data Transfer Rate (e.g., user specified) Rmin.From this, the mobile device may derive the time division factor for the first operating point cfwhen 0<=cf<=1 where 0% corresponds to the division of time applied to the first operating point and 100% corresponds to the division of time applied to the second operating point, where 0.5 corresponds to 50% of the division of time applied to the first operating point and 50% corresponds to the division of time applied to the second operating point, and so on. The actual derivative is determined by the condition with the solutionBased on this result, the mobile device performs time division between the series of radio links corresponding to the first operating point and the second operating point. The percentage of time allocated to the two working points is indicated by the value cf, which is between 0 and 1.The actual time division can be applied in various ways.A first way is to split an entire transmission, e.g. an FTP transmission of a file divided into two parts - one applying the first working point (i.e. the target mobile device which initiates radio links and forces the MAC mode configuration corresponding to the first working point) and one applying the second working point (i.e. the target mobile device which initiates radio links and forces the MAC mode configuration corresponding to the second working point). The splitting ratio between the two transmissions is given by cf, i.e. if the total provided transmission time is Ttot, then the duration of the first transmission (which applies the first operating point) is cf*Ttot and the duration of the second transmission (which applies the second operating point) is (1-cf)*Ttot. Such a division eventually leads to the intended transmission of an amount of data corresponding to Rmin*Tot. This approach is illustrated in Figure 24.FIG. 24 shows transmission diagrams 2403, 2404 illustrating splitting a transmission into a first transmission 2401 and a second transmission 2402.In the upper transmission diagram 2403, the first transmission 2401 uses the first operating point and the second transmission 2402 uses the second operating point, while in the lower transmission diagram 2404, the first transmission 2401 uses the second operating point and the second transmission 2402 uses the first operating point.In the case that the designated transmission time does not exactly correspond to the real transmission time (for example, due to unexpected changes in the radio link characteristics, etc.), the second transmission 2402 can be easily extended or shortened as required. A short transmission pause can likewise be inserted when switching from the first operating point to the second operating point, or vice versa. This may be necessary, for example, because typically the creation of new radio links and / or the termination of active radio links requires some time to elapse between the end of the first transmission 2401 and the beginning of the second transmission 2402. If the total transmission time should be below a maximum threshold, this switching time may possibly be taken into account by the mobile device when determining the minimum required data transmission rate. For example, if the mobile device increases the required data transmission rate used to determine cf, the mobile device may consume some switching time between the first transmission 2401 and the second transmission 2402 while maintaining an entire transmission time target.Another way of time sharing is to split the total transmission time into multiple time fractions, e.g., n time fractions with lengths DeltaT such that n*ΔT=Ttot. The division according to cfmay be applied as shown in FIG. 25 for each of the time fractions.FIG. 25 shows transmission diagrams 2503, 2504, 2505, 2506 illustrating splitting a transmission into multiple first transmissions 2501 and multiple second transmissions 2502.In the first (upper) transmission diagram 2503, there are two time fractions, each with a first transmission 2501 using the second operating point and a second transmission 2502 using the first operating point.In the second transmission diagram 2504, there are two time fractions, each with a first transmission 2501 using the first operating point and a second transmission 2502 using the second operating point.The approaches according to the first transmission diagram 2503 and the second transmission diagram 2504 may be improved by, for example, the approach represented by the third transmission diagram 2505, in which after the first transmission 2501 using the second operating point, two consecutive second transmissions 2502 are performed using the first operating point. This approach minimizes the number of times the communication configuration is switched and thus the time switching effort.Similarly, in the fourth transmission diagram 2506, after a first transmission 2501 using the first operating point, two consecutive transmissions 2502 are performed using the second operating point.In case the scheduled transmission time does not correspond exactly to the real transmission time (e.g. due to unexpected changes in the radio link characteristics etc.), the last transmission in the examples of Fig. 25 may be extended or shortened as required and / or further time fractions applying the first or the second working point may be added, wherein it may be desirable to add time fractions using the more effective working point, i.e. in this example the second working point.As mentioned above in connection with Figure 24, transmission pauses for switching may also be inserted and the mobile device may take into account the switching time when determining the minimum required data transmission rate.The mobile device may minimize the number of connections that change (e.g., from WiFi to LTE or the like) when switching operating points because such a disconnection of a single connection of a single technology and the establishment of another connection according to another technology typically requires power. Variation between adjacent points on the convex hull as shown in Figure 22 typically corresponds to variation of only a single joint. This is a characteristic of convex optimization schemes which allow to jump from one working point to another working point on the convex hull by changing the operating mode of only a single connection of a working point for the jump.This means that the two working points A and B use the same operating modes for almost all connections except one. This also means that the switching mechanism and time only relate to a single connection. It is also possible to use two operating points for which a plurality of connections are different. However, this may not be desirable unless there are some additional conditions from the user or operator (imposing appropriate policies).As an example, a particular target information throughput (e.g., 30 Mbit / s) is assumed and two operating points are to be identified, one just below the target information throughput and one just above it. The first simultaneously operates LTE with MAC mode QPSK, R=2 / 3 and WiFi with MAC mode 64Q, R=2 / 5 (thus achieving 37.604 Mbit / s) and the second operating point has an LTE connection with MAC mode QPSK, R=2 / 3 and a WiFi connection with MAC mode 16Q, R=2 / 3 (thus achieving 28.375 Mbit / s). Note here that the LTE operation mode is the same, but the WiFi operation mode is different. Now, in order to achieve the target information throughput while minimizing power consumption, the mobile device configures itself for the first operating points for 17.61% of the total time. Thereafter, the mobile device switches to the corresponding second operating point for the remaining total transmission time duration (82.39% of the total transmission time). But due to the difference in only a single link between the working points, the LTE link would be operated in the QPSK, R=2 / 3 mode of operation for the entire time, while the switch would only be related to the WiFi link: 64Q, R=2 / 5 for 17.61% of the entire time and 16Q, R=2 / 3 mode of operation for 82.39% of the entire transmission time.In summary, for example, the mobile device 1002 for the time division approach executes the flow as illustrated in FIG. 26.FIG. 26 shows a flow chart 2600.At 2601, mobile device 1002 detects available radio communication links, identifies the link characteristics and corresponding MAC modes that may be operated for the links. Given path loss and other propagation constraints, it identifies, for example, a maximum supported MAC mode that has a maximum possible constellation type (e.g., BPSK, QPSK, QAM, etc.) combined with the highest possible code transfer rate (e.g., R=2 / 3, etc.).At 2602, mobile device 1002 detects, measures, estimates, and / or requests information about the available capacity to be provided by base stations 1001 for a relevant radio link, e.g., a radio link that may be considered. For LTE, for example, the expected number of resource blocks to be allocated to a specific user (i.e., mobile device) typically depends on the load of the base station.At 2603, mobile device 1002 takes into account all possible combinations of how a single or heterogeneous multiple radio links 1003 may be combined and makes a decision about the best combination of radio links and the best choice of MAC modes for a first operating point just below the required minimum information throughput requirement and for a second operating point just above the required minimum information throughput requirement. Typically, for a given mobile device, the best solution is to obtain as much spectrum as possible and to operate very low MAC modes such as BPSK, R=1 / 2. This, however, is in contrast to the realistic constraints that a base station allocates only a limited number of time / frequency / space resources to a single user.At 2604, mobile device 1002 initiates connections to the selected target RATs and forces selection of a specific MAC mode by appropriate communication with the base station. Mobile device 1002 applies time sharing to the two identified operating points to accurately match the required minimum information throughput specified by the user, and thus the output transmit power levels are minimized while still matching the information throughput request.It should be further noted that the selection of working points with time division can take into account the number of different radio connections which must be established for the different working points.FIG. 27 shows a diagram 2700 data transmission rate vs. transmit power, illustrating two pairs of operating points that may be used for time sharing.As in FIG. 3, the data transmission rate (i.e., information throughput) of a communication configuration increases from left to right on a data transmission rate axis 2701, and the required transmission power (which may be considered the cost of a communication configuration) increases from bottom to top on a power axis 2702, and a plurality of operating points 2703 are shown in the diagram 2700. A line 2704 shows the minimum target information throughput.A first operating point 2706 and a second operating point 2707 form a first pair of operating points, and a third operating point 2708 and a fourth operating point 2709 form a second pair of operating points.The different pairs of time division operating points may require a different number of separate connections. For example, assuming that a number of connections are operated simultaneously for all operating points, some pairs may require the switching of only a single RAT (i.e., one connection is terminated while a new connection is being established), whereas some pairs may require the switching of two RATs (i.e., two connections are terminated while two new connections are being established) when switching between the operating points of the respective pair. Typically, the switching of RATs results in a power / energy cost that is not considered in the diagram 2700. Depending on the inherent power / power cost for a specific modem implementation, a mobile device may therefore choose to take a working point pair that requires the least (or a smaller) number of connection changes from one working point to the other, even if the total power cost during the working period is higher compared to alternative working point pairs. It should be noted that different pairs of working points for time division need not necessarily consist of completely separate pairs, i.e. it is possible that a single pair has a single working point of another pair.It should be further noted that time sharing may also be performed on a slot basis, i.e. assuming that the air interface has fixed time duration slots Tslot. The integer R 1 of time slots using the first operating point and the number R 2 of time slots using the second operating point may be calculated based on the cfparameter. This approach may be desirable for RATs where a MAC mode transition occurs anyway at slot boundaries.In addition to applying time sharing to operating points according to combinations of radio links and MAC modes for the radio links, mobile device 1002 may possibly alternatively or additionally apply a time sharing approach to carrier aggregation scenarios.In such a case, a first operating point (i.e., communication configuration) corresponds to, for example, a low information throughput configuration (no application of carrier contention or application of a low level of carrier contention), whereas a second operating point corresponds to a high information throughput configuration that applies in carrier contention in either the downlink, the uplink, or both. This is illustrated in Fig. 28.FIG. 28 shows a first frequency power diagram 2801 representing a work point without carrier composition and a second frequency power diagram 2802 representing a work point with carrier composition.In the diagrams 2801, 2802, the frequency increases from left to right according to the frequency axis 2803, and the power increases from bottom to top on a power axis 2804. The positive power blocks 2805 indicate frequencies used for the uplink and the downlink, respectively, according to the operating points.Alternatively, the first operating point uses carrier aggregation and the second operating point uses a higher level of carrier aggregation, i.e., adds further frequency channels, as shown in Figure 29.FIG. 29 shows a first frequency power plot 2901 illustrating a working point with a lower level of carrier composition and a second frequency power plot 2902 illustrating a working point with a higher level of carrier composition.As in FIG. 28, the frequency in the diagrams 2901, 2902 increases from left to right according to the frequency axis 2903, and the power increases from bottom to top on a power axis 2904. The positive power blocks 2905 indicate frequencies used for the uplink or the downlink according to the operating points, respectively.Furthermore, the operating points may have an asymmetric configuration for carrier merging, i.e. the number of merged channels of the uplink and the downlink is different for the operating points, as illustrated in Fig. 30.FIG. 30 shows a first frequency power diagram 3001 representing a work point without carrier composition and a second frequency power diagram 3002 representing a work point with carrier composition.As in FIG. 28, the frequency in the diagrams 3001, 3002 increases from left to right according to the frequency axis 3003, and the power increases from bottom to top on a power axis 3004. The positive power blocks 3005 indicate frequencies used for the uplink and the downlink, respectively, according to the operating points.Based on any of these operating point configurations, and assuming that the target information throughput is between the final information throughput provided by the first operating point and the second operating point (i.e., the information throughput of the first operating point is lower compared to the required final information throughput and the information throughput of the second operating point is higher compared to the required final information throughput), the time division approaches as described above with reference to FIGS. 24 and 25 may be used. Also, the same time division derivatives and determination techniques may be used for cf.It should be noted that the selection of MAC mode is typically due to the responsibility of the base station (e.g., eNB). Accordingly, the described selection procedures can also be carried out by the base station or, more generally, on the network side. Alternatively, the responsibility for selection of the MAC mode (or more generally, physical layer configuration) may be moved to the mobile device.While specific aspects have been described, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the aspects of this disclosure as defined in the appended claims. The scope of protection is thus indicated by the appended claims, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced.

Claims

A communication terminal comprising a determination function configured to determine, for each of a plurality of communication networks, a mode of media access control available to the communication terminal that provides a maximum information throughput to the communication terminal among a number of modes of media access control available to the communication terminal, and a controller configured to check, for each of the plurality of communication networks, whether an information throughput criterion is met when the communication terminal communicates with the communication network with a mode of media access control that provides less than the maximum information throughput among the number of modes of media access control available to the communication terminal for the communication networks and, for each of the plurality of communication networks, for a set of available modes of media access control for a communication link to the communication network, for a communication configuration comprising a set of communication links and, for each communication link, a mode of media access control based on the result of the check to select one or more communication links and, for each of the communication links, a mode of media access control excluding a found first communication configuration and continuing the search without the first communication configuration to identify a second communication configuration; and establishing the one or more selected communication links with the respectively selected mode of media access control.The communication terminal according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to establish, for at least one of the communication networks, a communication link to the communication network with a mode of the media access control that is less than the maximum information throughput among the number of modes of the media access control available to the communication terminal when the communication terminal meets the information throughput criterion when the communication terminal communicates with the communication network with the mode of the media access control.The communication terminal according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the controller is configured to select one or more communication links to one or more of the communication networks, and, for each of the one or more communication links, a mode of the media access control based on the result of the check, and is configured to establish the selected one or more communication links with the selected modes of the media access control.The communication terminal of claim 3, wherein the controller is configured to request, for each of the one or more selected communication links, establishment of the communication link with the selected mode of media access control from the respective communication network.The communication terminal according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the controller is configured to select the one or more communication links based on a criterion for reducing required transmission power with which the one or more communication links are operated.The communication terminal according to any one of claims 3 to 5, wherein the controller is configured to select the one or more communication links based on a criterion for maximizing the frequency spectrum provided by the one or more communication links.A communication terminal according to any one of claims 3 to 6, wherein the controller is configured to select the one or more communication links on the basis of a criterion for maximizing the transmission power efficiency provided by the one or more communication links.A method of establishing communication, comprising determining, for each of a plurality of communication networks, a mode of media access control available to a communication terminal providing a maximum information throughput to the communication terminal among a number of modes of media access control available to the communication terminal; checking, for each of the plurality of communication networks, whether to meet an information throughput criterion when the communication terminal communicates with the communication network with a mode of media access control providing less than the maximum information throughput among the number of modes of media access control available to the communication terminal; searching, for the communication networks and, for each of the plurality of communication networks, for a set of available modes of media access control for a communication link to the communication network, for a communication configuration comprising a set of communication links and, for each communication link, a mode of media access control based on the result of the check to select one or more communication links and, for each of the communication links, a mode of media access control excluding a found first communication configuration and continuing the search without the first communication configuration to identify a second communication configuration; and establishing the one or more selected communication links with the respectively selected mode of media access control.A computer readable medium having instructions recorded thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of performing radio communication according to claim 8.A method for determining communication links for communication, comprising: searching, for a set of communication links and, for each communication link, for a set of available modes of media access control, for a communication configuration comprising one or more communication links and, for each of the one or more communication links, an available mode of media access control based on a search criterion to select one or more communication links and, for each of the communication links, a mode of media access control, wherein a found first communication configuration is excluded and the search is continued without the first communication configuration to identify a second communication configuration; and establishing the one or more selected communication links with the respectively selected mode of media access control.Method according to claim 10, carried out by a communication terminal.A method according to claim 10 or 11, comprising the communication terminal requesting one or more communication networks to establish communication connections according to the communication configuration found.The method of any of claims 10 to 12, further comprising disregarding, for a communication configuration found in the search and for a communication link included in the communication configuration found in the search, the mode of media access control of the communication link in the communication configuration found in the search in the series of available modes of media access control of the communication link to form an updated series of modes of media access control for the communication link; and repeating the search for a communication configuration based on the updated series of available modes of media access control for the communication link.The method of any of claims 10 to 13, wherein the searching comprises searching for a communication configuration that is optimal according to the search criterion.The method of claim 14, wherein the search criterion comprises the communication configuration information throughput that is above a predetermined minimum information throughput.A computer readable medium having instructions recorded thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of performing radio communication according to claim 10.A communication terminal device comprising: a processor configured to search for a set of communication links and, for each communication link, for a set of available modes of the media access controller, for a communication configuration comprising one or more communication links and, for each of the one or more communication links, an available mode of the media access controller based on a search criterion to select one or more communication links and, for each of the communication links, a mode of the media access controller, excluding a found first communication configuration and continuing the search without the first communication configuration to identify a second communication configuration; and a transmitting / receiving device configured to establish the one or more selected communication links with the respectively selected mode of the media access controller.

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