Supporting enhanced uplink transmission during soft handover

• US 20060215662A1
• Filed: 05/15/2006
• Published: 09/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pantech Wireless, LLC (Ideahub, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Interdigital Technology Corporation (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shin, Sung-Hyuk, Dick, Stephen G., Terry, Stephen E., Miller, James M., Zhang, Guodong
• Granted Patent: US 8,130,720 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/394
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/022 Site diversity; Macro-diversity using two or more spaced independent antennas H04B7/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1887 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1893 Physical mapping arrangements physical resource mapping in general H04L5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/18 for allowing seamless reselection, e.g. soft reselection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/304 due to measured or perceived resources with higher communication quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/004 in the uplink, i.e. towards network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/04 Scheduled access hybrid access H04W74/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

An enhanced uplink user equipment is in soft handover. A radio network controller selects a primary Node-B out of a plurality of Node-Bs supporting the soft handover. The radio network controller receiving successfully received enhanced uplink data packets from the plurality of Node-Bs. The radio network controller reordered the successfully received enhanced uplink data packets for in-sequence deliver. The primary Node-B sends specified scheduling information to the user equipment that the other Node-Bs does not transmit. At least the primary Node-B transmits acknowledgements and negative acknowledgements to the user equipment.

Claims

1. A wireless universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) frequency division duplex (FDD) communication system, the communication system comprising:

a radio network controller (RNC) configured to initiate soft handover of enhanced uplink communications by a user equipment (UE), the RNC configured to select a single primary Node-B out of a plurality of Node-Bs receiving enhanced uplink data packets from the UE during soft handover, the RNC comprising a medium access control (MAC) entity configured to receive successfully received enhanced uplink data packets from the plurality of soft handover Node-Bs, each successfully received enhanced uplink data packet having a transmission sequence number, the MAC entity configured to reorder the successfully received enhanced uplink packets based on the transmission sequence number for in-sequence deliver to a radio link control (RLC) entity;

the primary Node-B configured to transmit to the UE specified scheduling information, the specified scheduling information is not transmitted to the UE by any non-primary Node-Bs of the plurality of Node-B'"'"'s, the primary Node-B configured to receive the enhanced uplink packets from the UE and transmit an acknowledgement or a negative acknowledgment to the UE in response to the received enhanced uplink data packet, the primary Node-B configured to deliver successfully received enhanced uplink data packets to the RNC;

the non-primary Node-Bs configured to receive the enhanced uplink packets and to deliver successfully received enhanced uplink packets to the RNC; and

the UE configured to transmit enhanced uplink data packets to the plurality of Node-Bs, the UE configured to receive acknowledgments and negative acknowledgements from at least the non-primary Node-B, the UE configured in response to receiving a negative acknowledgement to retransmit an enhanced uplink data packet associated with the negative acknowledgment, the retransmission of the negative acknowledgment is given a higher priority for transmission than other non-negative acknowledgment enhanced uplink data packets for transmission.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of Node-Bs are configured to soft combine an initial transmission of an enhanced uplink data packet with a retransmission of the enhanced uplink data packet.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the UE is configured to change an MCS of an enhanced uplink data packet retransmission.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the UE is configured to change an MCS of an enhanced uplink data packet retransmission.

5. A method for universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) frequency division duplex (FDD) enhanced uplink communication during soft handover, the method comprising:

initiating soft handover of enhanced uplink communications by a radio network controller (RNC) for a user equipment (UE);

selecting by the RNC a single primary Node-B out of a plurality of Node-Bs receiving enhanced uplink data packets from the UE during soft handover;

receiving successfully received enhanced uplink data packets by a medium access control (MAC) entity of the RNC from the plurality of soft handover Node-Bs, each successfully received enhanced uplink data packet having a transmission sequence number;

reordering the received successfully received enhanced uplink data packets by the MAC entity based on the transmission sequence number for in-sequence deliver to a radio link control (RLC) entity;

transmitting to the UE specified scheduling information by the primary Node-B, the specified scheduling information is not transmitted to the UE by any non-primary Node-Bs of the plurality of Node-B'"'"'s;

receiving the enhanced uplink packets by the primary Node-B from the UE;

transmitting by the primary Node-B an acknowledgement or a negative acknowledgment to the UE in response to the received enhanced uplink data packet, the primary Node-B configured to deliver successfully received enhanced uplink data packets to the RNC;

receiving by the non-primary Node-Bs the enhanced uplink packets;

delivering by the non-primary Node-Bs successfully received enhanced uplink packets to the RNC;

transmitting enhanced uplink data packets by the UE to the plurality of Node-Bs;

receiving acknowledgments and negative acknowledgements by the UE from at least the non-primary Node-B;

in response to receiving a negative acknowledgement, the UE retransmitting an enhanced uplink data packet associated with the negative acknowledgment, the retransmission of the negative acknowledgment is given a higher priority for transmission than other non-negative acknowledgment enhanced uplink data packets for transmission.

6. The method of claim 5 comprising the plurality of Node-Bs soft combining an initial transmission of an enhanced uplink data packet with a retransmission of the enhanced uplink data packet.

7. The method of claim 5 comprising the UE changing an MCS of an enhanced uplink data packet retransmission.

8. The method of claim 6 comprising the UE changing an MCS of an enhanced uplink data packet retransmission.