METHOD FOR OPERATING A TERMINAL
DEVICE
Technical Field
[0001] The present invention relates to a method for operating a terminal device, especially
to a method for reducing the amount of time in which a data communication modem of
a terminal device is active. The present invention relates furthermore to a method for
operating a base station of a telecommunication network which supports the method
for operating the terminal device. Finally, the present invention relates to a terminal
device, for example a cellular phone, and a base station.
Background Art
[0002] For operating a terminal device, for example a mobile cellular telephone, a
smartphone or a tablet PC, in a wireless communication system, for example a
telecommunication network comprising cellular data communication and telephony
communication, the total battery life can be a crucial factor and may be one of the
main performance indicators from a consumer's perspective. The time between
required battery charges significantly impacts the consumer behavior and use case po s
sibilities.
[0003] For telephony communication a transceiver unit of the terminal device, a so-called
modem, is activated for receiving or initiating a call and is deactivated when the call is
ended. However, when a data transfer occurs in a mobile communication network
between the network or a base station of the network and the terminal device, for
example for receiving or sending e-mails or uploading and downloading information to
the internet, this activity will impact the average modem power consumption, e s
pecially in case the terminal is otherwise in dormant state. The reason for this is not
only the power consumption during the data transfer itself, but also because usually the
modem is forced to stay in a power consuming state for a certain time after each data
activity, for example for avoiding frequent data communication setups which may
increase response times from a user's perspective. Fig. 1 shows the overall principle of
powering a modem or transceiver unit of a mobile terminal device in connection with a
data communication. From tO to t l the terminal device is in idle mode and consumes
idle mode power P0. At t l a data communication activity is started. The modem is
powered and the mobile device consumes a significantly higher amount of energy
indicated by P2. In the time from t l to t2 data is communicated via the modem. The
time between t l and t2 depends on the amount of data to be transferred and the data
rate. At t2 the data transfer is finalized. However, the modem remains in a powered
mode until t3. The time from t2 to t3 depends on a configuration of the mobile terminal
device and the network. At t3 the terminal device moves to a power-saving state within
a connected mode. In this power-saving state a reduced amount of power P I is
required which is still significantly higher than the power P0 required in idle mode. If
no further data communication is required until t4, the data communication connection
is closed and the terminal device enters the idle mode. Again, the time from t3 to t4
depends on configurations of the mobile terminal device and the network.
[0004] Many data transfer activities between the telecommunication network and the
terminal devices are of various background types, for example e-mail updates,
messages of social networks, data synchronizations, weather forecast updates,
operating system related data, application related data, or updates and so on. This data
communication traffic can be relatively frequent in devices performing a diversity of
data applications, especially for example smartphones and tablet PCs. A certain portion
of this data communication traffic will likely be initiated by servers or services of the
telecommunication network rather than the terminal device itself. This means for
example that an incoming e-mail could be notified by means of so-called push noti
fications rather than the terminal device polling for a new e-mail status. Also many
other kinds of update services can be push-based, that means that these services are
initiated by the telecommunication network and not by the terminal device itself.
[0005] In current telecommunication standards, a few features are available supporting
saving of battery energy of a terminal device, for example in the 3GPP standard (third
generation partnership project), WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access),
HSPA (high-speed packet access) and LTE (long-term evolution). For example, for
WCDMA/HSPA a fast dormancy signal is available, where a terminal device can
transmit a signal after finalizing a data communication session indicating its intention
to go into a dormant state. For LTE there is another possibility introduced in release 11
where the terminal device can signal that it wants the network configurations to be as
power consumption optimized as possible. This was e.g. studied and proposed in
section 6 of 3GPP document 36.822. Furthermore, an introduction of this functionality
was part of the "LTE Radio Access Network (RAN) enhancements for diverse data ap
plications".
[0006] However, there is still a need for an improved saving of a battery energy of a
terminal device.
Summary
[0007] According to the present invention, this object is achieved by a method for operating
a terminal device as defined in claim 1, a method for operating a base station of a
telecommunication network as defined in claim 8, a terminal device as defined in claim
10, and a base station of a telecommunication network as defined in claim 14. The
dependent claims define preferred and advantageous embodiments of the invention.
[0008] According to an aspect of the present invention, a method for operating a terminal
device, in particular a battery-powered terminal device, for example a mobile terminal
device, is provided. The terminal device is configured to establish a data commu
nication upon receiving a request for establishing the data communication from the
base station of a telecommunication network. According to the method, a usage state
of the terminal device is determined. The usage state indicates a current usage of at
least one function or application of the terminal device. For example, the usage state
may indicate, if the terminal device is currently in use, for example if a screen or
display of the terminal device is switched on or switched off, or if a proximity sensor
of the terminal device indicates that the terminal device is held in a user's hand. Fur
thermore, the usage state may indicate which applications are currently running, for
example a music playback, a video streaming, a web browsing or an e-mail transfer.
Depending on the determined usage state a data traffic inactivity signal is sent to the
base station of the telecommunication network. The data traffic inactivity signal
indicates or instructs the base station to avoid sending a request for establishing a data
communication to the terminal device for a predetermined amount of time. By
transmitting the data traffic inactivity signal to the base station, the terminal device can
propose that during the predetermined amount of time the telecommunication network
is advised not to initiate any background oriented traffic. In this manner, the terminal
device can ensure that the data modem can stay in a power efficient idle mode for as
long as possible, since it can ensure that not only data communications established by
the terminal device, but also network initiated data communications, for example push
notifications, can be limited or postponed to suitable time instance. Thus, the battery
life time of the terminal device may be increased.
[0009] The method may include modifications to existing standards in order to be used.
Changes may be required to for example in 3GPP standards for WCDMA/HSPA and
LTE, for example by modifying 3GPP TS (technical specification) 25.331 and 36.331
for WCDMA/HSPA and LTE, respectively. For example, in 25.331 an information
element may be added in addition to the fast dormancy release indicator signaling. In
36.331 an UE (user equipment) signaling may be added for this purpose into the RRC
(radio resource control) connection release procedure. However, alternative locations
for these modifications in the 3GPP specifications are possible, still resulting in the
same concept of an inactivity timer suggestion signaled by the terminal device.
[0010] According to an embodiment, the method comprises furthermore comparing the
usage state with a user defined setting. In this embodiment, the data traffic inactivity
signal is sent depending on the comparison. The user defined settings may comprise
for example an enabling or disabling of sending the data traffic inactivity signal at all,
and for example a configuration defining certain functions or applications of the
terminal device which, when they are running, inhibit sending the data traffic inactivity
signal. In other words, when certain applications or functions are running, for example
functions or applications which require a real-time data communication, the data traffic
inactivity signal is not sent to the base station. However, when no such application or
function is running, the data traffic inactivity signal is sent to the base station. Fur
thermore, the data traffic inactivity signal may be sent when a certain application or
function is running, for example when a music playback application is running and the
user is listening to the music. Furthermore, when the usage state indicates that the
terminal device is currently not used, for example because the screen is switched off or
proximity sensors of the terminal device indicate that the terminal device is not held in
the user's hand, the data traffic inactivity signal may be sent.
[001 1] According to a further embodiment, a configuration information comprising a data
traffic inactivity timer value is sent to the base station. The data traffic inactivity timer
value indicates the predetermined amount of time for avoiding sending a request for
establishing a data communication to the terminal device after the base station has
received the data traffic inactivity signal. By configuring the data traffic inactivity
timer value separately from activating the data traffic inactivity period, a commu
nication overhead can be reduced and the data traffic inactivity signal may be a single
bit which is sent to the base station in connection with another protocol data unit.
However, according to another embodiment, the data traffic inactivity signal may
comprise the data traffic inactivity timer value. This may facilitate a variable prede
termined amount of time for the data traffic inactivity which may be adapted to the
current usage state of the terminal device.
[0012] According to another embodiment the terminal device comprises a transceiver unit
for establishing the data communication. The transceiver unit is also known as modem.
According to this embodiment, the transceiver unit is powered down upon sending the
data traffic inactivity signal to the base station. Thus, battery power can be saved sig
nificantly. The transceiver unit may be powered up when a data communication is e s
tablished initiated by the terminal device or when the terminal device receives a paging
signal from the telecommunication network or base station. However, such a paging
signal indicating that a data communication shall be established, should be postponed
by the telecommunication network if possible for at least the predetermined amount of
time after having received the data traffic inactivity signal.
[0013] According to an embodiment, the predetermined amount of time is within a range of
1 to 60 minutes. Furthermore, the predetermined amount of time may be configurable
by a user of the terminal device or may be derived and adapted from historical in
formation concerning a usage of data communications in connection with applications
and functions of the terminal device in the past.
[0014] According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for operating a base
station of a telecommunication network or a server of a telecommunication network is
provided. The base station is configured to send a request for establishing a data com
munication to a terminal device. The telecommunication network may comprise a
cellular data and telephony communication network. According to the method, a data
traffic inactivity signal is received from the terminal device. The data traffic inactivity
signal indicates and instructs the base station to avoid requesting to establish a data
communication to the terminal device for a predetermined amount of time. Upon
receiving the data traffic inactivity signal, the base station inhibits sending the request
for establishing the data communication to the terminal device for the predetermined
amount of time.
[0015] Although there may be a good knowledge within the network about when data traffic
may be initiated in order to utilize the modem of the terminal device in a most powerefficient
manner and to ensure as long continuous periods of dormant modem states as
possible, there may be many aspects within the terminal device and due to an in
teraction between the end user and the terminal device that may impact how the data
communication between the network and the terminal device is handled in the most
power-efficient manner and when dormant periods should occur. Such aspects may
comprise for example whether the terminal device is currently actively used, for
example whether the user has the terminal in their hands or not, the screen is switched
on or off, or in which way the terminal is used, for example music playback, video
streaming, web browsing, e-mail transfer and so on. These aspects are typically
unknown for the network but can be taken into consideration when they are indicated
via the data traffic inactivity signal received from the terminal device. Thus, by in
hibiting sending the request for establishing the data communication to the terminal
device for the predetermined amount of time after having received the data traffic in
activity signal, the base station may contribute to a power-efficient operation of the
terminal device thus prolonging a battery life of the terminal device.
[0016] According to an embodiment, a request for establishing a data communication is
received from the terminal device during the predetermined amount of time after
receiving the data traffic inactivity signal from the terminal device. In other words,
while the base station in inhibiting sending the request for establishing the data com
munication, the base station receives a request for establishing a data communication
from the terminal device. In this case, upon receiving the request for establishing a data
communication from the terminal device, inhibiting sending the request for e s
tablishing the data communication is aborted and hence the data communication is e s
tablished. Thus, when for example during the predetermined amount of time of data
traffic inactivity, a request for establishing a data communication is issued by the
terminal device, the data communication is nevertheless established. The request for
establishing the data communication sent by the terminal device may be based on a
user interaction, for example a user starting a web browser on the terminal device.
[0017] According to a further aspect of the present invention, a terminal device is provided.
The terminal device comprises a transceiver unit, a processing unit and a transceiver
activity control unit. The transceiver unit is configured to establish a data commu
nication between the terminal device and a base station of a telecommunication
network. The processing unit is configured to execute at least one function or ap
plication of the terminal device. The transceiver activity control unit is configured to
determine a usage state of the terminal device. The usage state indicates a current
usage of the at least one function or application executed by the processing unit. The
transceiver activity control unit is furthermore configured to send a data traffic in
activity signal to the base station depending on the determined usage state. The data
traffic inactivity signal instructs the base station to avoid sending a request for e s
tablishing a data communication to the terminal device for a predetermined amount of
time.
[0018] According to an embodiment, the terminal device is configured to perform the
above-described method. Furthermore, the terminal device comprises a portable
battery-powered device, for example a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a
mobile music player, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, or a
navigation system.
[0019] According to another aspect of the present invention, a base station of a telecommu
nication network is provided. The base station comprises a transceiver unit for e s
tablishing a data communication between a terminal device and a base station, and a
processing unit. The processing unit is configured to receive a data traffic inactivity
signal from the terminal device. The data traffic inactivity signal instructs the base
station to avoid to send a request for establishing a data communication to the terminal
device for a predetermined amount of time. Upon receiving the data traffic inactivity
signal, the processing unit inhibits sending a request for establishing a data commu
nication to the terminal device for the predetermined amount of time.
[0020] According to an embodiment, the base station is configured to perform the abovedescribed
method for operating a base station.
[0021] Although specific features described in the above summary and the following
detailed description are described in connection with specific embodiments and aspects
of the present invention, it is to be understood that the features of the embodiments and
aspects may be combined with each other unless specifically noted otherwise.
Brief Description of Drawings
[0022] The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the ac
companying drawings.
[fig.l]Fig. 1 shows a power consumption of terminal device as a function of time when
a data communication is established and closed.
[fig.2]Fig. 2 shows schematically a terminal device according to an embodiment of the
present invention in connection with a base station of a telecommunication network.
[fig.3]Fig. 3 shows a transceiver activity of a terminal device as a function of time.
[fig.4]Fig. 4 shows a transceiver activity of a terminal device according to an em
bodiment of the present invention as a function of time.
[fig.5]Fig. 5 shows a further transceiver activity of a terminal device according to an
embodiment of a present invention as a function of time.
[fig.6]Fig. 6 shows a flowchart comprising steps of a method for operating a terminal
device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[fig.7]Fig. 7 shows a flowchart comprising steps of a method for operating a base
station according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Description of Embodiments
[0023] In the following, exemplary embodiments of the invention will be described in more
detail. It has to be understood that the features of the various exemplary embodiments
described herein may be combined with each other unless specifically noted otherwise.
[0024] Fig. 2 shows a terminal device 10 connected to a base station 12 of a telecommu
nication network via a wireless interface or air interface 11. The terminal 10 comprises
an application unit 13, for example a processing unit executing an operating system
comprising several functions as well as applications or so-called apps executed by the
processing unit. The terminal device comprises furthermore a modem activity control
unit 14 for controlling a transceiver or modem 15. The transceiver 15 is configured to
establish a data communication between the terminal device 10 and the base station 12.
The transceiver unit 15 may furthermore be adapted to establish a connection to the
base station 12 for a telephony communication and for receiving paging signals from
the base station 12 as it is known in the art. The modem activity control unit 14, which
may be called also transceiver activity control unit, is configured to determine a usage
state of the terminal device 10. The usage state indicates a current state of the functions
or applications 13 being presently executed on the terminal device 10.
[0025] As typical for mobile communication systems, the data communication between the
transceiver 15 and the base station 12 does not mean that the transceiver 15 is con
tinuously active, but only that the terminal device 10 is belonging to a certain mobile
communication system and regularly listens to control signals, for example paging
signals, transmitted from the base station 12. The terminal device 10 may include more
than one modem units or transceiver units 15 responsible for handling the commu
nication with one or more base stations 12 according to a standardized terminal-base
station interface. Based on the current usage state of the terminal device 10, the modem
activity control unit 14 may send a data traffic inactivity signal via the transceiver 15
to the base station 12. The data traffic inactivity signal instructs the base station to
avoid sending a request for establishing a data communication to the terminal device
for a predetermined amount of time. Thus, the transceiver unit 15 can be powered
down into an idle state thus reducing the amount of power consumed by the terminal
device 10. The transceiver unit 15 may be powered up into an active mode upon
receiving a request for establishing a data communication from the application unit 13.
Furthermore, the transceiver unit 15 may be powered up into the active state upon
receiving a request for establishing a data communication from the base station 12.
However, due to the data traffic inactivity signal, sending requests for establishing a
data communication to the terminal device 10 should be postponed in the base station
or telecommunication network.
[0026] The telecommunication network may comprise, as shown in Fig. 2, for example an
operator core network 16 comprising a data service access control unit 17. The data
service access control unit 17 may receive the data traffic inactivity signal via the base
station 12 and may postpone requests for establishing the data communication to the
terminal device 10 for the predetermined amount of time. The operator core network
16 may be connected to the internet 18 which may comprise or which may be coupled
to a push server 19. The push server 19 may comprise for example an e-mail server
pushing new incoming e-mails via the internet 18 and the operator core network to the
terminal device 10. However, during the predetermined amount of time after receiving
the data traffic inactivity signal, the data service access control unit 17 may postpone
such push services until the predetermined amount of time has expired. Nevertheless,
the data service access control unit 17 may establish a data communication to the
terminal device 10 within the predetermined amount of time, when a real-time data
traffic session is requested.
[0027] In other words, when the network receives the data traffic inactivity signal from the
terminal device 10, the network is instructed to not initiate any non-real-time data
traffic sessions with the terminal device 10 until the timer expires. This could typically
be realized by the data services access control unit 17 within the core network 16 that
ensures that the network is not initiating any data sessions except for specific quality of
service (QoS) classes. In this manner, a packet- switched voice call or other real-time
services would not be limited, while for example e-mail or other background traffic
requiring a data communication can be limited. Once the timer is timed out, the
network-initiated services, such as push notifications and other network-initiated
traffic, will be triggered for traffic to the terminal device 10.
In the context of this description and the appended claims the term "base station"
represents a base station of a telecommunication network and further processing parts
of the telecommunication network. Therefore, the functions or method steps described
herein performed by the base station may be performed by the base station 12 itself or
any other equipment of the telecommunication network, for example by the operator
core network 16 or the data service access control 17 as shown in Fig. 2.
[0028] A few examples of the changes in data traffic behavior for realizing the abovedescribed
method are illustrated in Figs. 3-5. Fig. 3 shows a conventional behavior
without the above-described method, Fig. 4 shows the behavior in connection with the
above-described method with a relatively short predetermined amount of time for the
inactivity time, and Fig. 5 shows a data traffic behavior in connection with the abovedescribed
method with a relatively long predetermined amount of time. The prede
termined amount of time may be used to initialize an inactivity timer in the network.
[0029] Fig. 3 shows data traffic activity as a function of time. The data traffic may be in the
connected state or in the idle state. Data traffic activities may be initiated either by the
terminal device 10 or by the network via the base station 12. Data traffic activities
initiated by the terminal device 10 are indicated by the striped blocks 3 1 to 33. Data
traffic activities initiated by the network are indicated by blocks 4 1 to 45. In Fig. 3, the
data communications are established whenever a corresponding request for transferring
data occurs. In connection with the typical power-down behavior of the transceiver
unit 15, the frequent data communication activities shown in Fig. 3 lead to a large
power consumption of the transceiver unit 15.
[0030] In Fig. 4, the above-described method using a data traffic inactivity signal to
postpone requests for establishing a data communication to the terminal device 10 for a
predetermined amount of time is used. After the traffic activity 31 the inactivity timer
having a duration indicated by the bracket 50 is started. Thus, the traffic activities 4 1
and 42 are postponed and combined in order to reduce the power consumed by the
transceiver unit 15. After the data traffic 42 the inactivity timer is started again due to
sending a further data traffic inactivity signal from the terminal device 10 to the base
station 12. The duration of the inactivity timer is indicated by bracket 51. Thus, the
data traffic 43 is postponed. However, due to an urgent or real-time data traffic request
from the terminal device 10, the inactivity timer is aborted and the data traffic blocks
32 and 43 are inserted. At the end of data traffic block 43 a next inactivity time 52 is
started postponing the data traffic requests 44, 45 and 33. These data traffic commu
nications are performed after the inactivity time 52 is elapsed.
[0031] Fig. 5 shows traffic activity according to the above-described method with a much
longer inactivity timer compared to the one used in Fig. 4. After the data traffic com
munication 3 1 the data traffic inactivity signal is sent from the terminal device 10 to
the base station 12 with the intention to postpone data traffic for the predetermined
amount of time of an inactivity time 53. However, the inactivity time 53 is aborted due
to an urgent or real-time data request initiated by the terminal device 10 and thus data
traffic 42 is transferred before the inactivity timer has expired. Nevertheless, the data
traffic blocks 4 1 to 43 have been postponed and are executed together with data traffic
block 44 in connection with the data traffic block 32.
[0032] Fig. 6 shows a diagram 60 comprising method steps performed by the terminal
device 10. In step 6 1 a data traffic inactivity timer value is sent via the transceiver unit
15 to the network, for example to the base station 12. The data traffic inactivity timer
value specifies the predetermined amount of time for which the base station 12 shall
avoid sending a request for establishing a data communication to the terminal device
10 after the terminal device 10 has sent a data traffic inactivity signal to the base
station 12. In step 62 a data communication initiated either by the terminal device 10
itself or by the network, is established, and in step 63 data is transferred between the
terminal device 10 and the base station 12. In step 64 the data communication is
finalized. In step 65, the modem activity control unit 14 determines the usage state of
the terminal device 10. For example, the modem activity control unit 14 may check if
applications or functions requiring real-time communication are running. If such ap
plications or functions are running the method is continued in step 62 waiting for e s
tablishing a further data communication. If no such application or function is running,
the method is continued in step 66, in which the terminal device 10 sends a data traffic
inactivity signal to the base station 12. Furthermore, in step 67, requests for e s
tablishing a data communication initiated by applications or functions 13 of the
terminal device 10 may be postponed until the inactivity timer has timed out. Then, the
method is continued in step 62.
[0033] Fig. 7 shows a diagram 70 comprising method steps performed by the base station
12. In step 7 1 the base station 12 receives a data traffic inactivity timer value from the
terminal device 10. This data traffic inactivity timer value may be forwarded by the
base station 12 to the operator core network 16 and/or the data service access control
unit 17. When a request for establishing a data communication is received from the
terminal device 10 or from the push server 19 or from any other source, in step 72 a
data communication is established. In step 73 data is transferred via the established
data communication until in step 74 the data communication is closed. When the base
station 12 receives a data traffic inactivity signal from the terminal device 10 in step
75, this data traffic inactivity signal may be forwarded to the data service access
control unit 17. Either the data service access control unit 17 or the base station 12 may
then postpone in step 76 requests for establishing a data communication until the in
activity timer has timed out. Such requests may come from a push server 19 or any
other server of the internet 18. As long as no request for establishing a data commu
nication is received from the push server 19 or the internet 18 in step 77, the method is
continued in step 76 waiting for the inactivity timer to time out. However, when it is
detected in step 77 that the timer has timed out or a request for establishing a data com
munication is received from the terminal device 10 or a request from the internet 18 is
received for establishing a data communication due to a real-time application, the
method is continued in step 78, in which the postponing of requests for establishing a
data communication is aborted and a data communication is established in step 72.
[0034] To sum up, the above-described method synchronizes network requested data ap
plication traffic activities. The synchronization of such traffic is handled by in
troducing a traffic time out indicator, e.g. the data traffic inactivity signal, into for
example 3GPP specifications, suggesting push services and other network-initiated
traffic to be halted during a predetermined amount of time. Together with similar own
control of terminal device initiated traffic activities within the terminal device, the
transceiver can stay in dormant states, especially when a majority of traffic is pushbased
or network-initiated. This will thereby prolong the total battery lifetime of the
terminal device.
[0035] As the data traffic inactivity signal is initiated by the terminal device, there are large
possibilities within the terminal device to easily interact with the user for triggering the
data traffic inactivity signal. For example, the data traffic inactivity signal may be
initiated when a screen is switched of or local music playback is initiated or a game is
started or any other use case of choice. Further, the selection of the inactivity timer
value can be subject to a user input. The meaning of the data traffic inactivity signal is
intended as guidance to the telecommunication network while any data activation is
still possible to be initiated by the telecommunication network and left to network im
plementations. In other words, it will be up to the network implementation and
operator network tuning what kind of data traffic is limited or postponed by the data
traffic inactivity signal, for example based on quality of service classes. As described
above, the telecommunication network may discard the inactivity timer when the
terminal device itself initiates a data transfer before the inactivity timer expires. At that
point all waiting push services or the like data may be delivered to the terminal device.
[0036] In order to limit the amount of control signal overhead in the radio interface a default
timer value of choice may be transmitted by the terminal device during a radio
resource control (RRC) connection establishment. Thereafter, the terminal device can
signal one single additional bit during connection release as the data traffic inactivity
signal that it would like to restart or activate the connectivity timer. The connection establishment
is described in 3GPP 25.331/36.331 for WCDMA/LTE, respectively, and
here an additional parameter for the data traffic inactivity timer value could be in
troduced. As described above, the activation signal, i.e. the data traffic inactivity
signal, could also be included in other sections of 3GPP specifications 25.331 and
36.331.
While exemplary embodiments have been described above, various modifications
may be implemented in other embodiments. For example, the above-described method
may be applied to all types of terminal devices using data traffic, for example smart
phones as well as specific machine-type communication devices. Furthermore, within
3GPP the above-described method may be introduced either as a general radio
interface improvement or as a continuation of the improvements planned for specific
machine-type communication.

Claims
A method for operating a terminal device, the terminal device (10)
being configured to establish a data communication upon receiving a
request for establishing the data communication from a base station
(12) of a telecommunication network, the method comprising the steps
of:
- determining a usage state of the terminal device (10), the usage state
indicating a current usage of at least one function or application (13) of
the terminal device (10), and
- sending a data traffic inactivity signal to the base station (12)
depending on the determined usage state, the data traffic inactivity
signal instructing the base station (12) to avoid sending the request for
establishing the data communication to the terminal device (10) for a
predetermined amount of time.
The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
- comparing the usage state with a user defined setting,
wherein the step of sending the data inactivity signal comprises sending
the data traffic inactivity signal depending on the comparison.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the step of determining
the usage state of the terminal device (10) comprises determining, if at
least one running function or application (13) of the terminal device
(10) requires a real time data communication.
The method according to any one of the preceding claims, further
comprising:
- sending a configuration information comprising a data traffic in
activity timer value to the base station (12), the data traffic inactivity
timer value indicating the predetermined amount of time for avoiding
sending the request for establishing the data communication to the
terminal device (10).
The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the
data traffic inactivity signal comprises a data traffic inactivity timer
value indicating the predetermined amount of time for avoiding sending
the request for establishing the data communication to the terminal
device (10).
The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the
terminal device (10) comprises a transceiver unit (15) for establishing
the data communication, wherein the method comprises:
- powering down the transceiver unit (15) upon sending the data traffic
inactivity signal to the base station (12).
[Claim 7] The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the
predetermined amount of time is within the range of 1 to 60 minutes.
[Claim 8] A method for operating a base station of a telecommunication network,
the base station (12) being configured to send a request for establishing
a data communication to a terminal device (10), the method comprising
the steps of:
- receiving from the terminal device (10) a data traffic inactivity signal,
the data traffic inactivity signal instructing the base station (12) to
avoid sending the request for establishing the data communication to
the terminal device (10) for a predetermined amount of time, and
upon receiving the data traffic inactivity signal, inhibiting sending the
request for establishing the data communication to the terminal device
(10) for the predetermined amount of time.
[Claim 9] The method according to claim 8, further comprising:
- receiving a request for establishing a data communication from the
terminal device (10) during the predetermined amount of time after
receiving the data traffic inactivity signal from the terminal device (10),
and
- upon receiving the request for establishing a data communication
from the terminal device (10), aborting the step of inhibiting sending
the request for establishing the data communication.
[Claim 10] A terminal device, comprising:
- a transceiver unit (15) for establishing a data communication between
the terminal device (10) and a base station (12) of a telecommunication
network, and
- a processing unit configured to execute at least one function or ap
plication (13), and
- a transceiver activity control unit (14) configured to determine a usage
state of the terminal device (10), the usage state indicating a current
usage of the at least one function or application (13), and to send a data
traffic inactivity signal to the base station (12) depending on the de
termined usage state, the data traffic inactivity signal instructing the
base station (12) to avoid sending a request for establishing the data
communication to the terminal device (10) for a predetermined amount
of time.
[Claim 11] The terminal device according to claim 10, wherein the terminal device
(10) is configured to perform the method according to any one of
claims 1-7.
The terminal device according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the terminal
device (10) comprises a portable battery powered device.
The terminal device according to any one of claims 10 to 12, wherein
the terminal device (10) comprises at least one device of a group
consisting of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a mobile
music player, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a notebook
computer, and a navigation system.
A base station of a telecommunication network, comprising:
- a transceiver unit for establishing a data communication between a
terminal device (10) and the base station (12), and
- a processing unit (17) configured to receive from the terminal device
(10) a data traffic inactivity signal, the data traffic inactivity signal in
structing the base station (12) to avoid sending a request for e s
tablishing the data communication to the terminal device (10) for a pre
determined amount of time, and, upon receiving the data traffic in
activity signal, to inhibit sending the request for establishing the data
communication to the terminal device (10) for the predetermined
amount of time.
The base station according to claim 14, wherein the base station (12) is
configured to perform the method according to claim 8 or 9.