Frame structure for radio communications system

• US 20030169722A1
• Filed: 09/30/2002
• Published: 09/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Uhlik, Christopher R., Petrus, Paul, Trott, Mitchell D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,519,011 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/347
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0697 using spatial multiplexing
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2656 for structure of frame, burst
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2659 for data rate control

Abstract

In one embodiment, the present invention includes a repeating frame for a time division radio communications system with a sequence of uplink slots each having a predetermined duration, a sequence of downlink slots, each having a predetermined duration that is greater than the duration of the uplink slots, an interburst guard time between each uplink slot, an interburst guard time between each downlink slot, and an interframe guard time after the sequence of downlink slots.

Claims

1. A repeating frame for a time division radio communications system comprising:

a sequence of uplink slots each having a predetermined duration;

a sequence of downlink slots, each having a predetermined duration that is greater than the duration of the uplink slots;

an interburst guard time between each uplink slot;

an interburst guard time between each downlink slot; and

an interframe guard time after the sequence of downlink slots.

2. The frame of claim 1, wherein the sequence of uplink slots precedes the sequence of downlink slots.

3. The frame of claim 1, wherein the uplink slots of the sequence are adjacent.

4. The frame of claim 1, wherein the sequence of downlink slots follows the sequence of uplink slots

5. The frame of claim 1, wherein the downlink slots of the sequence are adjacent.

6. The frame of claim 1, wherein an interburst guard time follows each slot.

7. The frame of claim 1, wherein the interframe guard time precedes the sequence of uplink slots.

8. The frame of claim 1, wherein the sequence of uplink slots comprises three adjacent uplink slots.

9. The frame of claim 8, wherein the sequence of downlink slots comprises three adjacent downlink slots, the sequence of downlink slots following the sequence of uplink slots.

10. The frame of claim 9, further comprising a transition guard time between the sequence of uplink slots and the sequence of downlink slots.

11. The frame of claim 1, wherein the downlink slots are adapted to carry any one of traffic, control and broadcast channel traffic.

12. The frame of claim 1, wherein the control channel traffic comprises, paging, channel assignment and system configuration messages.

13. The frame of claim 1, wherein the uplink slots are adapted to contain any one of traffic, random access and control channel traffic.

14. The frame of claim 1, wherein each interburst guard time has a duration of less than two percent of the duration of an uplink slot.

15. The frame of claim 1, wherein the interframe guard time has a duration of less than sixteen percent of the duration of an uplink slot.

16. The frame of claim 1, wherein each interburst guard time has a duration of less than twelve percent of the interframe guard time.

17. The frame of claim 1, wherein the downlink slots have a duration that is at least twice the duration of the uplink slots.

18. The frame of claim 1, wherein the interframe guard time is at the end of the frame.

19. A method comprising:

receiving bursts in a sequence of uplink slots of a repeating frame, each uplink slot having a predetermined duration, the uplink bursts each being separated by an uplink interburst guard time;

transmitting bursts in a sequence of downlink slots of a repeating frame, each downlink slot having a predetermined duration that is greater than the duration of the uplink slots, the downlink bursts each being separated by a downlink interburst guard time;

waiting for an interframe guard time after the sequence of downlink bursts; and

repeating the frame.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein receiving precedes transmitting.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the uplink slots of the sequence are adjacent.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the sequence of downlink slots follows the sequence of uplink slots

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the downlink slots of the sequence are adjacent.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the interframe guard time precedes the sequence of uplink slots.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein the sequence of uplink slots comprises three adjacent uplink slots.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the sequence of downlink slots comprises three adjacent downlink slots, the sequence of downlink slots following the sequence of uplink slots.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising waiting for a transition guard time between the sequence of uplink slots and the sequence of downlink slots.

32. The medium of claim 26, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions which, when executed by the machine, cause the machine to perform further operations comprising waiting for a transition guard time between the sequence of uplink slots and the sequence of downlink slots.

28. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon data representing instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving bursts in a sequence of uplink slots of a repeating frame, each uplink slot having a predetermined duration, the uplink bursts each being separated by an uplink interburst guard time;

transmitting a sequence of downlink slots of a repeating frame, each downlink burst having a predetermined duration that is greater than the duration of the uplink slots,

the downlink bursts each being separated by a downlink interburst guard time;

waiting for an interframe guard time after the sequence of downlink bursts; and

repeating the frame.

29. The medium of claim 28, wherein the instructions for receiving are executed before the instructions for transmitting.

30. The medium of claim 28, wherein the uplink slots of the sequence are adjacent.

31. The medium of claim 28, wherein the downlink slots of the sequence are adjacent and follow the sequence of uplink slots.

33. A method comprising:

transmitting a burst in a predetermined one of a sequence of uplink slots of a repeating frame, each uplink slot having a predetermined duration, the uplink burst being separated from other uplink bursts by an uplink interburst guard time;

receiving a burst in a predetermined one of a sequence of downlink slots of a repeating frame, each downlink slot having a predetermined duration that is greater than the duration of the uplink slots, the downlink burst being separated from other downlink bursts by a downlink interburst guard time;

waiting for an interframe guard time after the sequence of downlink bursts; and

repeating the transmitting and receiving.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein transmitting precedes receiving.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the uplink slots of the sequence are adjacent.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein the sequence of downlink slots follows the sequence of uplink slots

37. The method of claim 33, wherein the downlink slots of the sequence are adjacent.

38. The method of claim 33, wherein the interframe guard time precedes the sequence of uplink slots.

39. The method of claim 33, wherein the sequence of uplink slots comprises three adjacent uplink slots.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the sequence of downlink slots comprises three adjacent downlink slots, the sequence of downlink slots following the sequence of uplink slots.

41. The method of claim 40, further comprising waiting for a transition guard time between the sequence of uplink slots and the sequence of downlink slots.

42. An apparatus comprising:

a receiver to receive bursts in a sequence of uplink slots of a repeating frame, each uplink slot having a predetermined duration, the uplink bursts each being separated by an uplink interburst guard time;

a transmitter to transmit bursts in a sequence of downlink slots of a repeating frame, each downlink slot having a predetermined duration that is greater than the duration of the uplink slots, the downlink bursts each being separated by a downlink interburst guard time; and

a processor to determine the duration of the interburst guard times and to suspend operation of the receiver and transmitter for an interframe guard time after the sequence of downlink bursts.

43. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein receiving precedes transmitting.

44. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the interframe guard time precedes the sequence of uplink slots.

45. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the sequence of uplink slots comprises three adjacent uplink slots, the sequence of downlink slots comprises three adjacent downlink slots, and the sequence of downlink slots follows the sequence of uplink slots.

46. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the processor further suspends operation of the receiver and transmitter for a transition guard time between the sequence of uplink slots and the sequence of downlink slots.

47. An apparatus comprising:

a transmitter to transmit a burst in a predetermined one of a sequence of uplink slots of a repeating frame, each uplink slot having a predetermined duration, the uplink bursts each being separated by an uplink interburst guard time;

a receiver to receive a burst in a predetermined one of a sequence of downlink slots of a repeating frame, each downlink slot having a predetermined duration that is greater than the duration of the uplink slots, the downlink bursts each being separated by a downlink interburst guard time; and

a processor to determine the duration of the interburst guard times and to suspend operation of the receiver and transmitter for an interframe guard time after the sequence of downlink bursts.

48. The apparatus of claim 47, wherein receiving precedes transmitting.

49. The apparatus of claim 47, wherein the interframe guard time precedes the sequence of uplink slots.

50. The apparatus of claim 47, wherein the sequence of uplink slots comprises three adjacent uplink slots, the sequence of downlink slots comprises three adjacent downlink slots, and the sequence of downlink slots follows the sequence of uplink slots.

51. The apparatus of claim 47, wherein the processor further suspends operation of the receiver and transmitter for a transition guard time between the sequence of uplink slots and the sequence of downlink slots.

52. A repeating frame for a time division radio communications system comprising:

a sequence of uplink slots each having a predetermined duration, the uplink slots supporting a plurality of transmission modes;

a sequence of downlink slots, each having a predetermined duration that is greater than twice the duration of the uplink slots, the downlink slots supporting a plurality of transmission modes, so that the ratio of the downlink data rate to the uplink data rate can be set at a variety of different values including values that are greater than two to one.

53. The frame of claim 52, wherein the date rate for each uplink slot can be different from the data rate for each other uplink slot.

54. The frame of claim 52, wherein each uplink slot is associated with a unique downlink slot, the date rate for each uplink slot being independent of the data rate for the associated downlink slot.

55. The frame of claim 52, wherein a downlink slot transmission mode can be set to have a higher data rate than a corresponding uplink slot transmission modes, so that the downlink data rate is greater than the uplink data rate by more than the difference in duration between the downlink slot and the uplink slot.

56. The frame of claim 52, wherein the plurality of transmission modes each comprise a plurality of different modulation formats.

57. The frame of claim 52, wherein the plurality of transmission modes each comprise a plurality of different encoding formats.

58. The frame of claim 52, wherein the sequence of uplink slots precedes the sequence of downlink slots.

59. An apparatus comprising:

means for receiving data in a sequence of uplink slots each slot having a predetermined duration, and the data in each slot being received in any one of a plurality of different predetermined transmission modes;

means for transmitting data in a sequence of downlink slots, each slot having a predetermined duration that is greater than twice the duration of the uplink slots, the data in each downlink slots being transmitted in any one of a plurality of transmission modes; and

means for selecting the transmission modes so that the ratio of the downlink data rate to the uplink data rate can be set at a variety of different values including values that are greater than two to one.

60. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the means for selecting can select the date rate for each uplink slot to be different from the data rate for each other uplink slot.

61. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein each uplink slot is associated with a unique downlink slot, and wherein the means for selecting can set the date rate for each uplink slot independently of the data rate for the associated downlink slot.

62. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the means for selecting can select a downlink slot transmission mode to have a higher data rate than a corresponding uplink slot transmission mode, so that the downlink data rate is greater than the uplink data rate by more than the difference in duration between the downlink slot and the uplink slot.

63. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the plurality of transmission modes each comprise a plurality of different modulation formats.

64. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the plurality of transmission modes each comprise a plurality of different encoding formats.

65. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein the sequence of uplink slots precedes the sequence of downlink slots.

66. A method comprising:

receiving data in a sequence of uplink slots each slot having a predetermined duration, and the data in each slot being received in any one of a plurality of different predetermined transmission modes;

transmitting data in a sequence of downlink slots, each slot having a predetermined duration that is greater than twice the duration of the uplink slots, the data in each downlink slots being transmitted in any one of a plurality of transmission modes; and

selecting the transmission modes so that the ratio of the downlink data rate to the uplink data rate can be set at a variety of different values including values that are greater than two to one.

67. The method of claim 66, wherein selecting includes selecting the date rate for each uplink slot to be different from the data rate for each other uplink slot.

68. The method of claim 66, wherein each uplink slot is associated with a unique downlink slot, and wherein selecting includes setting the date rate for each uplink slot independently of the data rate for the associated downlink slot.

69. The method of claim 66, wherein selecting includes selecting a downlink slot transmission mode to have a higher data rate than a corresponding uplink slot transmission mode, so that the downlink data rate is greater than the uplink data rate by more than the difference in duration between the downlink slot and the uplink slot.

70. The method of claim 66, wherein the plurality of transmission modes each comprise a plurality of different modulation formats.

71. The method of claim 66, wherein the plurality of transmission modes each comprise a plurality of different encoding formats.

72. The method of claim 66, wherein the sequence of uplink slots precedes the sequence of downlink slots.