Adaptive scheme for lowering uplink control overhead

• US 20080080423A1
• Filed: 10/01/2007
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Conversant Wireless Licensing S.à.r.l. (f/k/a Core Wireless Licensing S.a.r.l.) (MOSAID Technologies Inc. (f/k/a Conversant Intellectual Property Management))
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Frederiksen, Frank, Kolding, Troels
• Granted Patent: US 8,169,964 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1664 the supervisory signal being transmitted together with payload signals; piggybacking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1854 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1858 Transmission or retransmission of more than one copy of acknowledgement message
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0093 Point-to-multipoint
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1263 Mapping of traffic onto schedule, e.g. scheduled allocation or multiplexing of flows
• 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

Abstract

The present invention is related to methods, apparatuses, systems and computer software for determining an amount of physical resources for downlink transmission, and allocating uplink physical resources for transmission of data-non-associated control signaling based at least on the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission. The amount of physical resources for downlink transmission comprises an amount of downlink control signaling. The present invention further relates to a framework for mapping the dedicated uplink control channels directly to single physical resource blocks. The framework is able to efficiently shift physical resources to and from the uplink control channel for ACK/NACK reports, in a data-non-associated control signaling scheme and on a per subframe basis. The present invention is also concerned with scheduler, for example an eNodeB scheduler, which uses its scheduling history and knowledge of user equipment capabilities to increase utilization of uplink resources.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining an amount of physical resources for downlink transmission; and

allocating uplink physical resources for transmission of data-non-associated control signaling based at least on the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission;

wherein the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission comprises an amount of downlink control signaling.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission is at least partly based on number of user equipment terminals multiplexed within a downlink subframe in a physical resource block.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission is at least partly based on a number of packets multiplexed within a downlink subframe in a physical resource block.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allocating uplink physical resources for data transmission based at least on the amount of uplink physical resources allocated for transmission of data-non-associated control signaling.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission is based on whether the data-non-associated control signaling is at least partly incorporated into uplink data transmission.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission comprises physical resources allocated for current transmission.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission comprises physical resources allocated for past transmission.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the user equipment terminals include user equipment terminals in semi-static locations.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein uplink control channel boundaries for each of the user equipment terminals are allocated within boundaries of a single physical resource block.

25. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage structure embodying computer program code thereon for execution by a computer processor, wherein said computer program code comprises instructions for performing a method according to claim 1.

10. An apparatus, comprising:

a determiner for determining an amount of physical resources for downlink transmission; and

an allocation unit for allocating uplink physical resources for transmission of data-non-associated control signaling based at least on the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission;

wherein the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission comprises an amount of downlink control signaling.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising a recorder for recording a number of user equipment terminals multiplexed within a downlink subframe in a physical resource block, and wherein the determiner is responsive to the number of multiplexed user equipment terminals for determining the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising a recorder for recording a number of packets multiplexed within a downlink subframe in a physical resource block, and wherein the determiner is responsive to the number of multiplexed packets for determining the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the allocation unit is configured to allocate uplink physical resources for data transmission based at least on the amount of uplink physical resources allocated for transmission of data-non-associated control signaling.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the determiner is configured to determine the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission based on whether the data-non-associated control signaling is at least partly incorporated into uplink data transmission.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission comprises physical resources allocated for current transmission.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission comprises physical resources allocated for past transmission.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the user equipment terminals include user equipment terminals in semi-static locations.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein uplink control channel boundaries for each of the user equipment terminals are allocated within boundaries of a single physical resource block.

19. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the apparatus comprises a network element.

20. The apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising a scheduler for scheduling downlink packets, and a prediction module for predicting a number of expected reports based at least on the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission.

21. An apparatus, comprising:

means for determining an amount of physical resources for downlink transmission; and

means for allocating uplink physical resources for transmission of data-non-associated control signaling based at least on the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission;

wherein the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission comprises an amount of downlink control signaling.

22. The apparatus according to claim 21, further comprising means for scheduling downlink packets, and means for predicting a number of expected reports based at least on the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission.

23. A system, comprising:

a determiner for determining an amount of physical resources for downlink transmission;

an allocation unit for allocating uplink physical resources for transmission of data-non-associated control signaling based at least on the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission; and

at least one user equipment terminal responsive to the allocation of uplink physical resources for transmission of data non-associated control signaling for providing control signaling according to the allocation;

wherein the amount of physical resources for downlink transmission comprises an amount of downlink control signaling.

24. The system according to claim 23, wherein the system further comprises a network element comprising the determiner and the allocation unit.