METHOD FOR TRANSMITTING DATA IN A CELLULAR COMMUNICATION NETWORK

Abstract

A terminal device comprises a plurality of transmitting antennas, a combination of which is selected to perform data transmission to a base station in a cellular communication network. During the test phase, for each possible combination of transmitting antennas, the terminal device transmits (402) test data and monitors (403) the impact of each possible transmitting antenna combination on parameters set by the base station with respect to the terminal device in the cellular communication network. The terminal device deduces an uplink quality metric obtained with each transmitting antenna combination. Then, during the nominal transmission phase, data transmission is performed by activating (405) the transmitting antenna combination that obtained the best uplink quality metric during the test phase. Figure to be published with the abbreviation: Fig. 4

Claims

Claims

1. A method of transmitting data from a terminal device (102) over an uplink to a base station (101) of a cellular communication network (103), the terminal device (102) comprising a plurality of transmitting antennas (ANT1, ANT2, ANT3, ANT4) a combination of which is selected to effect the transmission of data from the terminal device (102) to the base station (101), the method being executed by the terminal device (102), characterized in that the method comprises, in the test phase (400, 501), for each possible transmitting antenna combination: - transmitting (402) test data to the base station (101) by activating (401) the transmitting antenna combination in question, and;- monitoring (403) what impact the transmitting antenna combination in question has on parameterizations made by the base station (101) with respect to the terminal device (102) in the cellular communication network (103), and deducing therefrom an uplink quality metric obtained with the transmitting antenna combination in question, and in that the method further comprises, in the nominal transmission phase (502): - carrying out the data transmission by activating (405) the transmitting antenna combination which obtained the best uplink quality metric in the test phase.;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the impact on the parameterizations performed by the base station (101) is monitored by collecting at regular intervals an instantaneous value of transfer block size from a physical layer of a communication interface (121) of the terminal device (102) with the cellular communication network (103), and wherein the metric is such that the larger the transfer block size, the better the uplink quality.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the impact on the parameterizations performed by the base station (101) is monitored (403) using the modulation and coding scheme defined by the base station (101) for the terminal device (102), and wherein the metric is such that the more robust the modulation and coding scheme, the poorer the uplink quality.

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the impact on the parameterizations performed by the base station (101) is monitored (403) using a number of MIMO layers allowed by the base station (101), and wherein the metric is such that the higher the number of MIMO layers, the better the uplink quality.

5. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the impact on the parameterizations performed by the base station (101) is monitored (403) using a transmit power control value sent by the base station (101) to the terminal device (102), and wherein the metric is such that the lower the transmit power, the better the quality of the uplink.

6. Method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, comprising: - retaining only the best uplink quality metric obtained by test phase iteration for each combination of transmitting antennas tested.

7. Method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, comprising: - carrying out several test phase iterations, and calculating an average metric over said iterations, for each combination of transmitting antennas tested.

8. Method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, comprising: - accumulating (511) statistics over a period T greater than or equal to a predefined threshold of duration TH1, in the form of a history of at least one uplink quality metric obtained during successive iterations of the test phase; - removing from the history the metric values ​​which deviate from their average beyond a predefined threshold of distance TH2.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the predefined distance threshold TH2 is equal to twice the standard deviation.

10. Method according to claim 8 or 9, in which the predefined duration threshold TH1 is equal to a few sliding days.

11. Method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, in which the test phase is triggered upon detection of a movement of the terminal device (102) using measurements from an accelerometer mounted integrally with the terminal device (102).

12. The method of any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the terminal device (102) is a residential gateway.

13. Terminal device (102) configured to perform transmission of data over an uplink to a base station (101) of a cellular communication network (103), the terminal device (102) comprising a plurality of transmitting antennas (ANT1, ANT2, ANT3, ANT4) a combination of which is selected to carry out the transmission of data from the terminal device (102) to the base station (101), characterized in that the terminal device (102) comprises electronic circuitry configured to, in the test phase, for each possible combination of transmitting antennas: - transmitting (402) test data to the base station by activating (401) the transmit antenna combination in question, and; - monitoring (403) what impact the transmit antenna combination in question has on parameterizations made by the base station (101) with respect to the terminal device (102) in the cellular communication network (103), and deducing therefrom an uplink quality metric obtained with the transmit antenna combination in question, and in that the electronic circuitry is further configured to, in the nominal transmission phase: - perform data transmission by activating (405) the combination of transmitting antennas which obtained the best uplink quality metric in the test phase.

14. A computer program product comprising program code instructions causing an implementation of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, when said instructions are executed by a terminal device processor according to claim 13.

15. An information storage medium storing program code instructions causing an implementation of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, when said instructions are read and executed by a terminal device processor according to claim 13.

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