Methods and apparatus of implementing and/or using a dedicated control channel

• US 20070149227A1
• Filed: 01/17/2006
• Published: 06/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Das, Arnab, Laroia, Rajiv, Li, Junyi, Parizhsky, Vladimir, Uppala, Sathyadev
• Granted Patent: US 9,338,767 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/509
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0026 Transmission of channel quality indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2602 Signal structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/12 using signalling between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/24 Negotiating SLA [Service Level Agreement]; Negotiating QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1221 based on age of data to be sent
• 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 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/543 based on requested quality, e.g. QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/569 of the traffic information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0875 with assigned priorities based access

Abstract

Wireless terminals and base stations support multiple modes of dedicated control channel operation wherein wireless terminals are allocated different amounts of dedicated uplink resources for reporting control information. A set of dedicated control channel segments is utilized by a wireless terminal to communicate uplink control information reports to its serving base station attachment point. Full tone and split-tone modes of dedicated control channel operation are supported. In full tone mode, a single wireless terminal is allocated each of the dedicated control channel segments associated with a single logical tone. In split tone mode, dedicated control channel segments associated with a single logical tone are allocated between different wireless terminals, with each of the multiple wireless terminals receiving a different non-overlapping subset of the dedicated control channel segments. Logical dedicated control channel tones can be dynamically reallocated for full-tone mode use or split tone mode use.

Claims

1. A method of operating a wireless terminal comprising:

during a first mode of operation using a first set of dedicated control channel segments during a first time period, said first set including a first number of control channel segments; and

during a second mode of operation using a second set of dedicated control channel segments during a second time period having the same duration as said first time period, said second set of dedicated control channel segments including fewer segments than said first number of segments.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of said segments includes the same number of tone symbols.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said first number of segments divided by said second number of segments is an integer.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said integer is 3.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said second set of dedicated control channel segments is a subset of a larger set of dedicated control channel segments used during said first period of time by a single wireless terminal.

6. The wireless terminal of claim 4, wherein said first and second periods of time each include 39 segments.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein said single wireless terminal is said wireless terminal;

and

wherein said first set of dedicated control channel segments is said larger set of dedicated control channel segments.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said first and second sets of segments correspond to a single logical tone.

9. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving mode control signal from a base station; and

switching from said first mode of operation to said second mode of operation in response to said control signal.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a second mode control signal from said base station; and

switching from said second mode of operation to said first mode of operation in response to said second control signal.

11. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

operating said wireless terminal to transmit a mode control signal to the base station;

receiving a positive acknowledgement signal from the base station; and

switching from said first mode of operation to said second mode of operation in response to said received positive acknowledgement signal.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

operating said wireless terminal to transmit a second mode control signal to said base station;

receiving a second positive acknowledgement signal from the base station; and

switching from said second mode of operation to said first mode of operation in response to said received second positive acknowledgement signal.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein said wireless terminal uses different coding to communicate information transmitted in segments during said first and second modes of operation.

14. A wireless terminal comprising:

a first mode dedicated control channel communications control module for controlling dedicated control channel communication using a first set of dedicated control channel segments during a first mode of operation, said first set including a first number of control channel segments for a first period of time; and

a second mode dedicated control channel communications control module for controlling dedicated control channel communication using a second set of dedicated control channel segments during a second mode of operation, said second set of dedicated control channel segments corresponding to a time period having the same duration as said first period of time, said second set of dedicated control channel segments including fewer segments than said first number of segments.

15. The wireless terminal of claim 14, wherein each of said segments includes the same number of tone symbols.

16. The wireless terminal of claim 15, wherein said first number of segments divided by said second number of segments is an integer.

17. The wireless terminal of claim 16, wherein said integer is 3.

18. The wireless terminal of claim 17, wherein said first and second periods of time each include 39 segments.

19. The wireless terminal of claim 16, wherein said second set of dedicated control channel segments is a subset of a larger set of dedicated control channel segments used during said first period of time by a single wireless terminal.

20. The wireless terminal of claim 17, wherein said first set of dedicated control channel segments is said larger set of dedicated control channel segments.

21. The wireless terminal of claim 20, wherein said first and second sets of segments correspond to a single logical tone.

22. The wireless terminal of claim 15, further comprising:

a receiver for receiving a mode control signal from a base station; and

a DCCH mode control module for controlling switching into one of said first mode of operation and said second mode of operation in response to said control signal.

23. The wireless terminal of claim 15, further comprising:

a mode request signal generation module for generating a mode request signal indicating a requested mode of DCCH operation;

a transmitter for transmitting the mode request signal to the base station, said transmitter also for transmitting DCCH segment signals during said first and second modes of operation;

a response detection module for detecting a response to said mode request signal from the base station; and

a DCCH mode control module for switching into the requested mode of operation in response to an affirmative request acknowledgement, said requested mode of operation is one of the first and second modes of DCCH operation.

24. The wireless terminal of claim 15, further comprising:

a first coding module for coding information to be transmitted in DCCH segments during said first mode of operation according to a first coding method; and

a second coding module for coding information to be transmitted in DCCH segments during said second mode of operation according to a second coding method.

25. A method of operating a base station comprising:

allocating a first dedicated control subchannel to a first wireless terminal, said first dedicated control subchannel including a first set of dedicated control channel segments during a first time period; and

allocating a second dedicated control subchannel to a second wireless terminal, said second dedicated control subchannel including a second set of dedicated control channel segments during said first time period, said second number of dedicated control channel segments being less than said first number and being a fraction of said first number of dedicated control channel segments.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein each of said segments includes the same number of tone symbols.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein said first number of segments divided by said second number of segments is an integer.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

allocating a third dedicated control subchannel to a third wireless terminal, said third dedicated control subchannel including a third set of dedicated control channel segments during said first time period, said third number of dedicated control channel segments being the same as said second number.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein said integer is 3, the method further comprising:

allocating a fourth dedicated control subchannel to a fourth wireless terminal, said fourth dedicated control subchannel including a fourth set of dedicated control channel segments during said first time period, said fourth number of dedicated control channel segments being the same as said second number.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein said second, third and fourth dedicated control subchannels each use a single logical tone.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein said first dedicated control subchannel uses a first single logical tone;

and

wherein said second, third and fourth dedicated control subchannels use a second logical tone which is the single logical tone used by each of the second, third and fourth dedicated control subchannels, said second logical tone being different from said first logical tone.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

subjecting said first and second logical tones to an uplink hopping operation to determine which physical tones said first and second logical tones correspond to for each of a plurality of symbol transmission time periods included said first time period.

33. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

operating said base station to receive control signals over said first set of dedicated control channel segments from said first wireless terminal; and

allocating a third dedicated control subchannel to a third wireless terminal, said third dedicated control subchannel including a third set of dedicated control channel segments during a second time period, said third number of dedicated control channel segments being the same as said second number.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the duration of said second time period is the same as the duration of said first time period;

wherein said third wireless terminal is the same or different from said first wireless terminal; and

wherein said first set of dedicated control channel segments and said third set of dedicated control channel segments correspond to the same single logical tone.

35. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

assigning an ON state identifier to each of said first, second, third and fourth wireless terminals; and

receiving control signals from said first, second, third and fourth dedicated control subchannels, said signals being from said first, second, third and fourth wireless terminals, respectively.

36. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

operating said base station to receive control signals over said second set of dedicated control channel segments from said second wireless terminal; and

allocating a third dedicated control subchannel to a third wireless terminal, said third dedicated control subchannel including a third set of dedicated control channel segments during a second time period, said third number of dedicated control channel segments being the same as said first number.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the duration of said second time period is the same as the duration of said first time period;

wherein said third wireless terminal is the same or different from said second wireless terminal; and

wherein said first set of dedicated control channel segments and said third set of dedicated control channel segments correspond to the same single logical tone.

38. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

transmitting a mode control signal to said first wireless terminal, said mode control signal commanding said first wireless terminal to switch from a first mode of operation to a second mode of operation, wherein during the second mode of operation, said first wireless terminal is allocated less dedicated control channel segments per unit time than during said first mode of operation.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising:

transmitting a second mode control signal to said first wireless terminal, said second mode control signal commanding said first wireless terminal to switch from said second mode of operation to said first mode of operation.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein said first mode of operation is a full-tone DCCH mode of operation and said second mode of operation is a split tone DCCH mode of operation.

41. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

receiving a mode control signal from the first wireless terminal; and

transmitting a positive acknowledgement signal to said first wireless terminal, said positive acknowledgement signal if successfully recovered by said first wireless terminal causing said first wireless terminal to switch from a first mode of operation to a second mode of operation, wherein during the second mode of operation, said first wireless terminal is allocated less dedicated control channel segments per unit time than during said first mode of operation.

42. The method of claim 41, further comprising:

receiving a second mode control signal from said first wireless terminal; and

transmitting a second positive acknowledgement signal to said first wireless terminal, said second positive acknowledgement signal if successfully recovered by said first wireless terminal causing said first wireless terminal to switch from the second mode of operation to the first mode of operation.

43. The method of claim 38, wherein said wireless terminal uses different coding to communicate information transmitted in segments during said first and second modes of operation.

44. The method of claim 37 wherein said first set of segments includes 39 segments, and wherein said second set of segments includes 13 segments.

45. The method of claim 34, wherein said first time period includes 882 OFDM symbol transmission time periods, some of said 882 OFDM symbol transmission time periods not being used for said dedicated control subchannels during said 882 OFDM symbol transmission time periods.

46. A method of operating a wireless terminal, the method comprising:

during a first period of time, operating said wireless terminal in a full tone dedicated control channel mode of operation wherein said wireless terminal is allocated a logical tone to be used for dedicated control channel signaling; and

during a second period of time operating the wireless terminal in a split tone dedicated control channel mode of operation during which said wireless terminal is allocated a logical tone to be used for dedicated control channel signaling on a time shared basis with at least one other wireless terminal to which said same logical tone is also assigned.

47. The method of claim 46, further comprising:

receiving a dedicated control channel tone assignment said assignment indicating a logical tone to be used and whether said logical tone is to be used in a full tone dedicated control channel mode of operation or a split tone dedicated control channel mode of operation.

48. The method of claim 47, further comprising:

determining the physical tone to which an assigned logical tone corresponds over time based on tone hopping information stored in said wireless terminal.

49. The method of claim 47, wherein said wireless terminal uses N times as many dedicated control channel segments corresponding to a single logical tone during said single tone mode of operation over a first time interval in said first time period, said first time interval including multiple symbol transmission time periods, as said wireless terminal uses during a second time interval having the same duration as said first time interval, said second time interval occurring during said second time period, wherein N is a positive integer greater than 1.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein N is 3.

51. A base station comprising:

a control channel resource allocation module for allocating dedicated control channel resources including logical tones corresponding to dedicated control channel segments in an uplink, said control channel resource allocation module including a full tone allocation sub-module for allocating at least one of said logical tones to a single wireless terminal and a split-tone allocation sub-module for allocating different sets of segments corresponding to one of said logical tones to a plurality of wireless terminals to be used on a time shared basis with each one of said plurality of wireless terminals being dedicated a different non-overlapping portion of time in which said logical tone is to be used on a time shared basis; and

a transmitter for transmitting dedicated control channel resource allocation information.

52. The base station of claim 51, wherein said base station further includes:

a receiver for receiving dedicated control channel signals communicated on dedicated control channel segments.

53. The base station of claim 51, further comprising a logical tone dedication module for controlling whether a logical tone is to be used to implement a full tone dedicated control channel or a split tone dedicated control channel.

54. The base station of claim 53, wherein said logical tone dedication module is responsive to wireless terminal loading to adjust the number of logical tones dedicated to full tone dedicated control channels and to split tone dedicated control channels.

55. The base station of claim 54, wherein said logical tone dedication module is further responsive to requests from a wireless terminal to operate in either a full tone mode or a split tone mode and adjusts said allocation of logical tones as a function of received wireless terminal requests.

56. The base station of claim 52, further comprising:

a wireless terminal dedicated control channel mode control module for generating control signals for indicating logical tone assignments and dedicated control channel mode assignments to wireless terminals.

57. The base station of claim 56, wherein said dedicated control channel mode assignments indicate that a wireless terminal corresponding to an assignment should operate in a full tone or split tone mode with respect to an assigned logical tone.

58. The base station of claim 57, wherein split tone mode assignments further indicate which of a plurality of segments corresponding to an assigned tone the wireless terminal corresponding the assignment should use.

59. The base station of claim 52, further comprising:

memory for storing dedicated control channel segment structure information, said information indicating the segment timing structure corresponding to both a full tone mode of operation and a split tone mode of operation.

60. The base station of claim 53, further comprising:

a decoder module including a first decoder submodule for decoding information received in dedicated control channel segments corresponding to logical tones used in said full tone mode of operation and a second decoder submodule for decoding information received in dedicated control channel segments corresponding to logical tones used in said split tone mode of operation, said first and second decoder submodules implementing different decoding methods.

61. The base station of claim 51, wherein each of said segments corresponding to a logical tone used in said full tone mode of operation or said split tone mode of operation includes the same number of tone symbols.

62. The base station of claim 51, wherein each single logical tone corresponds to a physical tone which is hopped in frequency with time.

63. The base station of claim 62, further comprising:

hopping information stored in memory, said hopping information indicating which physical tone corresponds to which logical tone at any given point in an uplink timing structure used to implement dedicated control channel segments.