Radio communication system

• US 20020159431A1
• Filed: 04/23/2002
• Published: 10/31/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Baker, Matthew P.J., Moulsley, Timothy J., Hunt, Bernard
• Granted Patent: US 9,178,577 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/347
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/04 using two or more spaced independent antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0413 MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0632 Channel quality parameters, e.g. channel quality indicator [CQI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0003 by switching between different modulation schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/24 Multipath
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/125 using a measured number of retransmissions as a link metric
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/48 during retransmission after error or non-acknowledgment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/004 in the uplink, i.e. towards network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A radio communication system comprises a communication channel for the transmission of data packets (302) from a primary station having a plurality of antennas to a secondary station having at least one antenna. The channel comprises a plurality of paths, and the primary station transmits a plurality of packets substantially simultaneously. Each of the plurality of packets is transmitted via a different subset of the plurality of paths, for example by arranging for each packet to be transmitted via a different antenna or antenna beam.

The secondary station receives the plurality of data packets, determines whether each packet is received correctly and signals this determination (typically as an acknowledgement (304) or a negative acknowledgement (306)) to the primary station for each of the plurality of packets. The signalling may be by any convenient means, for example transmitting each acknowledgement or negative acknowledgement via a different subset of available uplink paths.

Claims

1. A radio communication system having a communication channel comprising a plurality of paths between a primary station having a plurality of antennas and a secondary station having at least one antenna, wherein the primary station has means for transmitting substantially simultaneously a plurality of data packets to the secondary station, each packet being transmitted via a different subset of the plurality of paths, and the secondary station has means for receiving the plurality of data packets, for determining whether each packet is received correctly and for signalling this determination to the primary station for each of the plurality of packets.

2. A primary station having a plurality of antennas for use in a radio communication system having a communication channel comprising a plurality of paths between the primary station and a secondary station having at least one antenna, wherein means are provided for transmitting substantially simultaneously a plurality of data packets to the secondary station, each packet being transmitted via a different subset of the plurality of paths, and for receiving from the secondary station a determination of whether each packet is received correctly.

3. A primary station as claimed in claim 2, characterised in that means are provided for mapping each data packet to one of the plurality of antennas.

4. A primary station as claimed in claim 2, characterised in that weighting means are provided for mapping each data packet to a respective antenna beam.

5. A primary station as claimed in claim 2, characterised in that means are provided for varying transmission parameters relating to a data packet depending on the subset of paths over which the packet is transmitted.

6. A primary station as claimed in claim 5, characterised in that the varied transmission parameters are selected from modulation scheme, coding scheme and transmit power level.

7. A primary station as claimed in claim 5, characterised in that closed loop power control means are provided for adjusting independently the transmit power of each subset of paths.

8. A primary station as claimed in claim 2, characterised in that means are provided for retransmitting a data packet which was not received correctly by the secondary station via a different subset of the plurality of paths from that used for initial transmission of the data packet.

9. A secondary station having at least one antenna for use in a radio communication system having a communication channel comprising a plurality of paths between a primary station having a plurality of antennas and the secondary station, wherein means are provided for receiving a plurality of data packets transmitted substantially simultaneously by the primary station, each packet being transmitted via a different subset of the plurality of paths, for determining whether each packet is received correctly and for signalling this determination to the primary station for each of the plurality of packets.

10. A secondary station as claimed in claim 9, characterised in that a communication channel between the secondary station and the primary station comprises a plurality of paths and in that the means for signalling the determination of correct reception to the primary station comprises means for transmitting substantially simultaneously acknowledgements corresponding to each of the simultaneously transmitted data packets, each acknowledgement being transmitted via a different subset of the plurality of paths.

11. A secondary station as claimed in claim 9, characterised in that means are provided for signalling channel quality feedback information to the primary station, the information relating to each of the subset of paths used to transmit data packets.

12. A secondary station as claimed in claim 9, characterised in that means are provided for signalling to the primary station the number of simultaneous data streams, transmitted via subsets of the plurality of paths using the same air interface resources, that the secondary station can receive or process simultaneously.

13. A secondary station as claimed in claim 12, characterised in that the system operates according to a code division multiple access protocol and in that the air interface resources comprise channelisation and spreading codes.

14. A method of operating a radio communication system having a communication channel comprising a plurality of paths between a primary station having a plurality of antennas and a secondary station having at least one antenna, wherein the primary station transmits substantially simultaneously a plurality of data packets to the secondary station, each packet being transmitted via a different subset of the plurality of paths, and the secondary station receives the plurality of data packets, determines whether each packet is received correctly and signals this determination to the primary station for each of the plurality of packets.