TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to the field of wireless communications, and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to methods and apparatus useful for communications among emergency service providers or public safety personnel.

BACKGROUND

This section introduces aspects that may be helpful to facilitate a better understanding of the inventions. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art. Any techniques or schemes described herein as existing or possible are presented as background for the present invention, but no admission is made thereby that these techniques and schemes were heretofore commercialized, or known to others besides the inventors.

In wireless networks (for example LTE), there are many instances where a particular UE may be out of the coverage area of base station (eNB), may not have the appropriate radio to communicate with the eNB, or may lack sufficient power to establish a direct connection with the eNB, and may thus be considered “remote” to the eNB or the network served by the eNB. In such situations the remote UE may be unable to directly communicate with the eNB. However, there may be another UE in proximity to the remote UE that happens to be within the coverage of the eNB and has appropriate radio resources and power to communicate with the network. Such a scenario may be critical, e.g. for public safety personnel for whom direct wireless coverage may be unavailable in a disaster situation. This scenario may also be encountered for many wireless devices such as “wearables” coming to market, e.g. smart watches and health monitors, which may have limited radio and power resources, but may be able to use another regular UE, such as a smart phone, to establish communication with the network. To provide wireless coverage for such remote UEs which are out of the coverage area, or wearables with limited radio capability, relays are typically used to extend connectivity to these devices.

SUMMARY

The inventor discloses various apparatus and methods that may be beneficially applied to relaying data to and from a communications device, e.g. a UE device, outside of network coverage. While such embodiments may be expected to provide improvements in performance and/or reduction of cost relative to conventional approaches, no particular result is a requirement of the present invention unless explicitly recited in a particular claim.

One embodiment provides a mobile communications device, e.g. a User Equipment device such as a smart phone or tablet computer. The mobile device includes a processor communicatively coupled to a transceiver and a memory. The transceiver is configured to exchange control signals with a network node, e.g. an eNB. The memory contains instructions that when executed by the processor configure the processor to operate the transceiver to exchange the control signals. The instructions further configure the processor to pass a first proper subset of the control signals to a remote device without operating according to the control signals, and to operate according to control signals in a second proper subset of the control signals. The processor is thereby configured to operate on behalf of a remote communication device to support communication between the remote communication device and the network node.

In some embodiments the processor is further configured by the instructions to support two radio links with the network node, with each radio link being identified by a unique identifier.

In some embodiments the first proper subset includes RRC and PDCP control signals. In some embodiments the second proper subset includes LTE RLC, MAC and PHY control signals.

In some embodiments the instructions further configure the processor to implement an E-UTRAN protocol stack divided between the mobile device and the remote device.

In some embodiments the instructions further configure the processor to direct to the remote device an RRC connection setup message that includes a CRNTI identity of the remote device provided by the network node.

Some embodiments provide a non-transitory computer-readable data storage device comprising instructions that when executed configure the processor according to any of the embodiments described above.

Various embodiments provide methods, e.g. methods of manufacturing a mobile communications device according to any of the embodiments described above.

Another embodiment provides a remote wireless communications device, e.g. a wearable wireless device. The remote device includes a process communicatively coupled to a transceiver and a memory. The transceiver is configured to receive communications protocol control signals via a radio link. The memory contains instructions that when executed configure the processor to receive the protocol control signals from the transceiver. The processor is further configured by the instructions to derive from the control signals first access stratum security credentials that match second access stratum security credentials derived by a network node of a wireless telecommunications network, and to exchange data with a relay communications device via an air interface, the data encoded using the access stratum security credentials.

In various embodiments the processor is further configured by the instructions to operate the transceiver to direct a PC5authentication response to the relay communications device in response to receiving a PC5authentication request.

In various embodiments the processor is further configured by the instructions to establish an RRC connection with a network node in response to receiving from the relay communications device an RRC connection setup message that includes a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (CRNTI) assigned by the network node to the remote wireless communications device.

In various embodiments the processor is further configured by the instructions to direct an access stratum (AS) security mode command complete message to the relay communications device via a PC5radio link in response to receiving an AS security mode command request from the relay communications device via the PC5radio link.

In various embodiments the processor, memory and transceiver are components of a wearable device.

Various embodiments provide a non-transitory computer-readable data storage device comprising instructions that when executed configure the processor according to any of the preceding embodiments of a remote wireless communications device.

Various embodiments provide methods, e.g. methods of manufacturing a remote wireless communications device according to any of the embodiments described above.

