Master-Slave UE Offloading for Low-Power Network Attachment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Slave UEs with low processing capacity or battery conditions face high power consumption due to cellular communications, necessitating a more efficient method to maintain network attachment while reducing power usage.
Innovation Solution
Offload cellular communication functions, including control plane signaling and data transport, from the slave UE to a master UE via a device-to-device connection, utilizing the master UE's cellular modem for maintaining network attachment and data exchange.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If slave UE performs cellular communication functions independently, then network attachment is maintained, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts cellular communication functions from the slave UE and transfers them to the master UE. The master UE performs attachment procedures, paging monitoring, and data transmission on behalf of the slave UE, allowing the slave UE to turn off its cellular radio and baseband circuitry, thereby reducing power consumption while maintaining network attachment.
Solution Approach 2:
The master UE acts as an intermediary between the cellular network and the slave UE. It performs communication functions with the core network on behalf of the slave UE, relays data traffic, and enables the slave UE to access network services without directly interacting with the cellular network, thus reducing the slave UE's power consumption.
2Reliability
If slave UE uses cellular communication for data exchange, then connectivity is maintained, but processing capacity is consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts communication processing tasks from the slave UE and relocates them to the master UE. The master UE handles attachment procedures, paging monitoring, and data transmission, freeing the slave UE's processing capacity for other applications while maintaining connectivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The master UE serves as an intermediary that handles all cellular network interactions on behalf of the slave UE. This allows the slave UE to maintain connectivity without consuming its own processing capacity for cellular communication functions.
3Device complexity
If slave UE operates with low processing capacity, then device simplicity is maintained, but communication function reliability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts complex cellular communication functions from the slave UE and transfers them to the master UE. This allows the slave UE to maintain device simplicity with minimal processing capacity while the master UE handles all communication functions, ensuring communication reliability is maintained through the master UE's capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The master UE acts as an intermediary that provides reliable communication functions for the slave UE without requiring the slave UE to have high processing capacity. The master UE handles attachment, paging, and data transmission, ensuring communication reliability while keeping the slave UE simple.
Data Source
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AI summary
In an aspect, a slave UE and a master UE each establish an attachment to a core network of a cellular communications system. The slave UE obtains security credentials configured to encrypt and decrypt traffic between the slave UE and the core network. A D2D connection is established between the slave UE and the master UE (e.g., tethering). One or more communication functions are offloaded from the slave UE to the master UE, including at least one communication function with the core network for maintaining the attachment of the slave UE to the core network. Application-layer data is relayed to/from the slave UE over the D2D connection. In an aspect, either the slave UE or the master UE may perform encryption and decryption of control plane signaling using the slave UEs security credentials.