Allocating a control channel for carrier aggregation

• US 10,231,226 B2
• Filed: 01/12/2017
• Issued: 03/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Wang, Ping
• Primary Examiner(s): Safaipour, Bobbak
• Application Number:
  US15/405,050
• Publication Number:
  US 20170127391A1
• Time in Patent Office: 789 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1614 using bitmaps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/11 Identifying congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/283 in response to processing delays, e.g. caused by jitter or round trip time [RTT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/30 in combination with information about buffer occupancy at either end or at transit nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/001 the frequencies being arranged in component carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0016 Time-frequency-code
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/003 Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0032 Distributed allocation, i.e. involving a plurality of allocating devices, each making partial allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0051 of dedicated pilots, i.e. pilots destined for a single user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0064 Rate requirement of the data, e.g. scalable bandwidth, data priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0094 Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/12 using signalling between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/22 for handling the traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 : in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 : based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 : Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 : Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/00 : Reducing energy consumption in communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A user equipment (UE) is disclosed. The UE can monitor a set of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates defined in a search space S_k^(L) at an aggregation level L∈{1,2,4,8} for a subframe (k). The UE can decode a PDCCH of the set of PDCCH candidates according to a downlink control information (DCI) format.

Claims

1. An apparatus of a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising:

memory; and

one or more processors configured to;

monitor a set of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates defined in a search space S_k^(L) at an aggregation level L∈

{1,2,4,8} for a subframe (k), wherein the search space S_k^(L) is defined by S_k^(L)=L·

{(Y_k+m)mod └

N_CCE,k/L┘

}+i wherein N_CCE,k is a total number of control channel elements (CCEs) in a k^th subframe (k∈

{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}), i=0, . . . , L−

1 is a constant, m=0, . . . , M^(L)−

1, and M^(L) is a number of PDCCH candidates to monitor in a given search space; and

decode a PDCCH of the set of PDCCH candidates according to a downlink control information (DCI) format.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to determine PDCCH assignments of a cellular communication system.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the DCI format includes a carrier indicator field (CIF) value.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein Y_k is defined by Y_k=(A·

Y<sub>k−

1</sub>)mod D wherein, Y<sub>k−

1</sub>=n_RNTI≠

0, n_RNTI is a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) number assigned to the UE, A=39827, D=65537, k=└

n_s/2┘

, and n_s (n∈

{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19}) is a slot number within a radio frame.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

search for DCI associated with a selected component carrier (CC) in the search space S_k^(L) by identifying a starting control channel elements (CCE) location based on a selected CC'"'"'s carrier index and the aggregation level L until a validly decoded PDCCH candidate is decoded; and

obtain the DCI associated with the selected CC from the validly decoded PDCCH candidate.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a PDCCH candidate includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) which is masked by a Cell-Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI).

7. A user equipment (UE) comprising:

memory; and

one or more processors configured to;

monitor a set of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates defined in a search space S_k^(L) at an aggregation level L∈

{1,2,4,8} for a subframe (k), wherein the search space S_k^(L) is defined by S_k^(L)=L·

{(Y_k+m)mod └

N_CCE,k/L┘

}+i wherein N_CCE,k is a total number of control channel elements (CCEs) in a k^th subframe (k∈

{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}), i=0, . . . , L−

1 is a constant, m=0, . . . , M^(L)−

1, and M^(L) is a number of PDCCH candidates to monitor in a given search space; and

decode a PDCCH of the set of PDCCH candidates according to a downlink control information (DCI) format.

8. The UE of claim 7, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to determine PDCCH assignments of a cellular communication system.

9. The UE of claim 7, wherein the DCI format includes a carrier indicator field (CIF) value.

10. The UE of claim 7, wherein Y_k is defined by Y_k=(A·

Y<sub>k−

1</sub>)mod D wherein, Y<sub>k−

1</sub>=n_RNTI≠

0, n_RNTI is a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) number assigned to the UE, A=39827, D=65537, k=└

n_s/2┘

, and n_s (n∈

{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19}) is a slot number within a radio frame.

11. The UE of claim 7, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

search for DCI associated with a selected component carrier (CC) in the search space S_k^(L) by identifying a starting control channel elements (CCE) location based on a selected CC'"'"'s carrier index and the aggregation level L until a validly decoded PDCCH candidate is decoded; and

obtain the DCI associated with the selected CC from the validly decoded PDCCH candidate.

12. The UE of claim 7, wherein a PDCCH candidate includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) which is masked by a Cell-Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI).

13. At least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium having instructions embodied thereon, the instructions when executed by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE) perform the following:

monitoring, at the UE, a set of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates defined in a search space S_k^(L) at an aggregation level L∈

{1,2,4,8} for a subframe (k), wherein the search space S_k^(L) is defined by S_k^(L)=L·

{(Y_k+m)mod └

N_CCE,k/L┘

}+i wherein N_CCE,k is a total number of control channel elements (CCEs) in a k^th subframe (k∈

{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}), i=0, . . . , L−

1 is a constant, m=0, . . . , M^(L)−

1, and M^(L) is a number of PDCCH candidates to monitor in a given search space; and

decoding, at the UE, a PDCCH of the set of PDCCH candidates according to a downlink control information (DCI) format.

14. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions when executed perform the following:

determining PDCCH assignments of a cellular communication system.

15. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the DCI format includes a carrier indicator field (CIF) value.

16. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein Y_k is defined by Y_k=(A·

Y<sub>k−

1</sub>)mod D wherein, Y<sub>k−

1</sub>=n_RNTI≠

0, n_RNTI is a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) number assigned to the UE, A=39827, D=65537, k=└

n_s/2┘

, and n_s (n∈

{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19}) is a slot number within a radio frame.

17. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions when executed perform the following:

searching for DCI associated with a selected component carrier (CC) in the search space S_k^(L) by identifying a starting control channel elements (CCE) location based on a selected CC'"'"'s carrier index and the aggregation level L until a validly decoded PDCCH candidate is decoded; and

obtaining the DCI associated with the selected CC from the validly decoded PDCCH candidate.

18. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein a PDCCH candidate includes a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) which is masked by a Cell-Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI).