Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure, for example, relates to techniques for acquiring measurements of a shared spectrum and performing channel selection for access points using the shared spectrum.
Description of the Related Art
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time-division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.
By way of example, a wireless multiple-access communication system may include a number of access points (e.g., bases stations, eNBs, and/or Wi-Fi access points), each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple UEs. An access point may communicate with UEs on downlink channels (e.g., for transmissions from an access point to a UE) and uplink channels (e.g., for transmissions from a UE to an access point).
Some modes of communication may enable communications with a UE over different radio frequency spectrum (e.g., licensed spectrum and/or shared spectrum). With increasing data traffic in cellular networks, the offloading of at least some data traffic to a shared spectrum may provide a mobile network operator with opportunities for enhanced data transmission capacity. Prior to gaining access to and transmitting data over the shared spectrum, a transmitting apparatus may, in some examples, perform a listen before talk (LBT) procedure to gain access to the shared spectrum. An LBT procedure may include performing a clear channel assessment (CCA) to determine whether a channel of the shared spectrum is available. When it is determined that the channel of the shared spectrum is not available (e.g., because another device is already using the channel of the shared spectrum), a CCA may be performed for the channel again at a later time.
Before performing an LBT procedure to gain access to a channel of a shared spectrum, a transmitting device may need to select the channel from a plurality of channels for communicating over the shared spectrum.