Techniques and apparatuses for control channel monitoring using a wakeup signal

• US 10,542,491 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2017
• Issued: 01/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Bhattad, Kapil, Dhanda, Mungal Singh, Rico Alvarino, Alberto, Xu, Hao, Chen, Wanshi, Wang, Xiao feng
• Primary Examiner(s): Renner, Brandon M
• Application Number:
  US15/714,149
• Publication Number:
  US 20180270756A1
• Time in Patent Office: 848 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0091 Signaling for the administration of the divided path
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0225 using monitoring of external events, e.g. the presence of a signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0235 where the received signal is a power saving command
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/006 in the downlink, i.e. towards the terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/28 Discontinuous transmission [DTX]; Discontinuous reception [DRX]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Techniques described herein use a wakeup signal to indicate to a user equipment (UE) whether an upcoming control channel signal resource includes information relevant to the UE. In this way, the UE can wake up to perform complex control channel signal processing only when the control channel includes signals relevant to the UE, thereby conserving battery power and resources of the UE. Such techniques are particularly suited to MTC UEs, NB-IoT UEs, and/or the like, which may communicate with a network only occasionally, and which may be located in remote locations where changing or recharging a battery is difficult.

Claims

1. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

identifying, by a user equipment (UE), a wakeup signal resource associated with the UE based at least in part on a control channel search space resource associated with the UE, wherein the wakeup signal resource maps to the control channel search space resource and precedes the control channel search space resource;

monitoring, by the UE, the wakeup signal resource for an indication of whether to monitor the control channel search space resource; and

monitoring, by the UE, the control channel search space resource when the monitoring of the wakeup signal resource indicates that the control channel search space resource is to be monitored.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the UE is configured to sleep during a different control channel search space resource when a monitoring of a different wakeup signal resource indicates that the different control channel search space resource is not to be monitored.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the wakeup signal resource maps to a plurality of control channel search space resources.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of control channel search space resources are associated with the UE.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of control channel search space resources are associated with a plurality of UEs.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the wakeup signal resource is identified based at least in part on a periodicity or a time offset associated with the wakeup signal resource.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the wakeup signal resource is identified based at least in part on at least one of:

a UE identifier associated with the UE,

a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) associated with control channel communications monitored by the UE,

a signal-to-noise ratio associated with the UE,

a maximum repetition level associated with the UE,

an actual repetition level associated with control channel communications for the UE,

a carrier index associated with the control channel search space resource, or

some combination thereof.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the wakeup signal resource occurs before the control channel search space resource with no intervening wakeup signal resources associated with the UE.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the wakeup signal resource occurs a number of subframes before the control channel search space resource.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the number of subframes is identified based at least in part on at least one of:

a signal-to-noise ratio associated with the UE,

a maximum repetition level associated with the UE,

an actual repetition level associated with control channel communications for the UE, or

some combination thereof.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE is configured to monitor the control channel search space resource when a wakeup signal is present in the wakeup signal resource, or wherein the UE is configured to skip monitoring of the control channel search space resource when the wakeup signal is absent from the wakeup signal resource.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the wakeup signal resource corresponds to a number of resource elements associated with a wakeup signal that is transmitted over a plurality of resource elements;

and

wherein the number of resource elements over which the UE is configured to monitor for the wakeup signal is determined based at least in part on a maximum repetition level of control channel communications or a signal-to-noise ratio associated with the UE.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein a length of the wakeup signal is configured based at least in part on at least one of:

a maximum repetition level associated with a control channel that includes the control channel search space resource,

an actual repetition level associated with the control channel,

a determination of whether the wakeup signal is transmitted using transmit diversity,

a determination of whether the wakeup signal is transmitted using frequency hopping,

a discontinuous reception cycle length associated with the UE,

a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message, or

some combination thereof.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE is configured to identify or monitor the wakeup signal resource based at least in part on a determination that the UE is associated with a repetition level or a signal-to-noise ratio that satisfies a condition.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein a payload size of a wakeup signal in the wakeup signal resource is less than a payload size used for legacy downlink control information in a control channel that includes the control channel search space resource, wherein the wakeup signal is also carried on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).

16. The method of claim 1, wherein a wakeup signal in the wakeup signal resource indicates one or more UEs that are to monitor the control channel search space resource.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the wakeup signal resource is different for different UEs monitoring the same paging resource.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the wakeup signal resource is identified or monitored based at least in part on a wakeup signal mode determined based at least in part on whether a wakeup signal is being used for connected mode discontinuous reception (CDRX).

19. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

identifying, by a base station, a wakeup signal resource associated with a user equipment (UE) based at least in part on a control channel search space resource associated with the UE, wherein the wakeup signal resource maps to the control channel search space resource and precedes the control channel search space resource;

determining, by the base station, that a control channel search space, associated with the control channel search space resource, is to include control information associated with the UE; and

transmitting, by the base station, a wakeup signal in the wakeup signal resource based at least in part on determining that the control channel search space is to include control information associated with the UE, wherein the wakeup signal indicates whether the UE is to initiate a wakeup procedure to monitor the control channel search space resource of sleep during the control channel search space resource.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the wakeup signal resource maps to a plurality of control channel search space resources.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the plurality of control channel search space resources are associated with the UE.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the plurality of control channel search space resources are associated with a plurality of UEs.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the wakeup signal resource is identified based at least in part on a periodicity or a time offset associated with the wakeup signal resource and indicated to the UE.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the wakeup signal resource is identified based at least in part on at least one of:

a UE identifier associated with the UE,

a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) associated with control channel communications monitored by the UE,

a signal-to-noise ratio associated with the UE,

a maximum repetition level associated with the UE,

an actual repetition level associated with control channel communications for the UE,

a carrier index associated with the control channel search space resource, or

some combination thereof.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein the wakeup signal resource occurs before the control channel search space resource with no intervening wakeup signal resources associated with the UE.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein the wakeup signal resource occurs a number of subframes before the control channel search space resource.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the number of subframes is identified based at least in part on at least one of:

a signal-to-noise ratio associated with the UE,

a maximum repetition level associated with the UE,

an actual repetition level associated with control channel communications for the UE, or

some combination thereof.

28. The method of claim 19, wherein the base station is configured to skip transmission of a different wakeup signal when a different control channel search space is not to include control information associated with the UE.

29. The method of claim 19, wherein a length of the wakeup signal is configured based at least in part on at least one of:

a maximum repetition level associated with a control channel that includes the control channel search space resource,

a determination of whether the wakeup signal is transmitted using transmit diversity,

a determination of whether the wakeup signal is transmitted using frequency hopping,

a discontinuous reception cycle length associated with the UE,

a radio resource control (RRC) configuration message, or

some combination thereof.

30. The method of claim 19, wherein a payload size of the wakeup signal is less than a payload size used for legacy downlink control information in a control channel that includes the control channel search space resource.

31. The method of claim 19, wherein the wakeup signal indicates one or more UEs that are to monitor the control channel search space resource.

32. A user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:

memory; and

one or more processors coupled to the memory, the memory and the one or more processors configured to;

identify a wakeup signal resource associated with the UE based at least in part on a control channel search space resource associated with the UE, wherein the wakeup signal resource maps to the control channel search space resource and precedes the control channel search space resource;

monitor the wakeup signal resource for an indication of whether to monitor the control channel search space resource; and

monitor the control channel search space resource when the monitoring of the wakeup signal resource indicates that the control channel search space resource is to be monitored.

33. A base station for wireless communication, comprising:

memory; and

one or more processors coupled to the memory, the memory and the one or more processors configured to;

identify a wakeup signal resource associated with a user equipment (UE) based at least in part on a control channel search space resource associated with the UE, wherein the wakeup signal resource maps to the control channel search space resource and precedes the control channel search space resource;

determine that a control channel search space, associated with the control channel search space resource, is to include control information associated with the UE; and

transmit a wakeup signal in the wakeup signal resource based at least in part on determining that the control channel search space is to include control information associated with the UE, wherein the wakeup signal indicates whether the UE is to initiate a wakeup procedure to monitor the control channel search space resource of sleep during the control channel search space resource.

34. The base station of claim 33, wherein the wakeup signal resource maps to a plurality of control channel search space resources.