VARIABLE CONTROL CHANNEL FOR A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20080095106A1
• Filed: 07/23/2007
• Published: 04/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Willenegger, Serge, Malladi, Durga
• Granted Patent: US 9,143,288 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0057 Physical resource allocation for CQI
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0058 Allocation criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0092 Indication of how the channel is divided
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/563 of the wireless resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/002 Transmission of channel access control information

Abstract

Techniques for sending control information on a variable control channel are described. Different structures for mapping control information to control channel resources may be used depending on various factors such as operating configuration, the available resources for the control channel, the type(s) of control information being sent, the amount of control information being sent for each type, whether or not data is being sent, etc. In one design, at least one type of control information being sent may be determined and may comprise channel quality indicator (CQI) information, acknowledgement (ACK) information, and/or other types of control information. A structure of the control channel may be determined based on operating configuration (e.g., system configuration such as asymmetry of downlink and uplink allocations) and/or other factors. The at least one type of control information may be mapped to the resources for the control channel based on the structure.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor configured to determine at least one type of control information being sent, to determine a structure of a control channel based on operating configuration, and to map the at least one type of control information to resources for the control channel based on the structure; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the resources for the control channel comprise at least one of time resources, frequency resources, and code resources.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel from among a plurality of structures supported for the control channel.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operating configuration is determined based on at least one of system configuration and user equipment (UE) configuration.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the system configuration is indicative of allocations for downlink and uplink, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel based on asymmetry of the downlink and uplink allocations.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel based on number of subframes allocated for downlink and number of subframes allocated for uplink as indicated by the system configuration

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel further based on at least one of an amount of resources for the control channel, the at least one type of control information being sent, and an amount of control information for each type of control information being sent.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises acknowledgement (ACK) information, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel further based on number of hybrid automatic retransmission (HARQ) processes to be acknowledged by the ACK information.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to map each type of control information to a respective portion of the resources for the control channel based on the structure.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises only channel quality indicator (CQI) information, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to map the CQI information to all of the resources for the control channel.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises only acknowledgement (ACK) information, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to map the ACK information to all of the resources for the control channel.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises channel quality indicator (CQI) and acknowledgement (ACK) information, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to map the CQI and ACK information to the resources for the control channel based on the structure.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel further based on whether or not data is being sent.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the control channel comprises a fixed amount of resources when data is not sent and comprises a variable amount of resources when data is sent.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the resources for the control channel from a control segment if data is not being sent, and to determine the resources for the control channel from a data segment if data is being sent, and wherein the control segment and the data segment occupy different frequency locations.

16. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to process the at least one type of control information in accordance with a first processing scheme if data is not being sent, and to process the at least one type of control information in accordance with a second processing scheme if data is being sent.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein for the first processing scheme the at least one processor is configured to process the at least one type of control information to obtain modulation symbols, to modulate a CAZAC (constant amplitude zero auto-correlation) sequence with each of the modulation symbols to obtain a corresponding modulated CAZAC sequence, and to map modulated CAZAC sequences for the modulation symbols to the resources for the control channel.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein for the second processing scheme the at least one processor is configured to process the at least one type of control information to obtain modulation symbols, to combine the modulation symbols for the at least one type of control information with modulation symbols for data, and to map the combined modulation symbols to resources for a data segment, and wherein the resources for the control channel are a subset of the resources for the data segment.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein for the second processing scheme the at least one processor is configured to transform the combined modulation symbols from time domain to frequency domain to obtain frequency-domain symbols, and to map the frequency-domain symbols to the resources for the data segment.

20. A method comprising:

determining at least one type of control information being sent;

determining a structure of a control channel based on operating configuration; and

mapping the at least one type of control information to resources for the control channel based on the structure.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the operating configuration is determined based on at least one of system configuration and user equipment (UE) configuration, wherein the system configuration is indicative of allocations for downlink and uplink, and wherein the determining the structure of the control channel comprises determining the structure of the control channel based on asymmetry of the downlink and uplink allocations.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises acknowledgement (ACK) information, and wherein the determining the structure of the control channel comprises determining the structure of the control channel further based on number of hybrid automatic retransmission (HARQ) processes to be acknowledged by the ACK information.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the determining the structure of the control channel comprises determining the structure of the control channel further based on whether or not data is being sent, and wherein the control channel comprises a fixed amount of resources when data is not sent and comprises a variable amount of resources when data is sent.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

determining whether or not data is being sent;

determining the resources for the control channel from a control segment if data is not being sent; and

determining the resources for the control channel from a data segment if data is being sent, wherein the control segment and the data segment occupy different frequency locations.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises only channel quality indicator (CQI) information, or only acknowledgement (ACK) information, or both CQI and ACK information, and wherein the mapping the at least one type of control information comprises mapping the CQI information, or the ACK information, or both the CQI and ACK information to the resources for the control channel based on the structure.

26. An apparatus comprising:

means for determining at least one type of control information being sent;

means for determining a structure of a control channel based on operating configuration; and

means for mapping the at least one type of control information to resources for the control channel based on the structure.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the operating configuration is determined based on at least one of system configuration and user equipment (UE) configuration, wherein the system configuration is indicative of allocations for downlink and uplink, and wherein the means for determining the structure of the control channel comprises means for determining the structure of the control channel based on asymmetry of the downlink and uplink allocations.

28. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises acknowledgement (ACK) information, and wherein the means for determining the structure of the control channel comprises means for determining the structure of the control channel further based on number of hybrid automatic retransmission (HARQ) processes to be acknowledged by the ACK information.

29. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the means for determining the structure of the control channel comprises means for determining the structure of the control channel further based on whether or not data is being sent, and wherein the control channel comprises a fixed amount of resources when data is not sent and comprises a variable amount of resources when data is sent.

30. The apparatus of claim 26, further comprising:

means for determining whether or not data is being sent;

means for determining the resources for the control channel from a control segment if data is not being sent; and

means for determining the resources for the control channel from a data segment if data is being sent, wherein the control segment and the data segment occupy different frequency locations.

31. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises only channel quality indicator (CQI) information, or only acknowledgement (ACK) information, or both CQI and ACK information, and wherein the means for mapping the at least one type of control information comprises means for mapping the CQI information, or the ACK information, or both the CQI and ACK information to the resources for the control channel based on the structure.

32. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations including:

determining at least one type of control information being sent;

determining a structure of a control channel based on operating configuration; and

mapping the at least one type of control information to resources for the control channel based on the structure.

33. The machine-readable medium of claim 32, wherein the operating configuration is determined based on at least one of system configuration and user equipment (UE) configuration, and wherein the machine-readable medium further comprises instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations including:

determining the structure of the control channel based on asymmetry of allocations for downlink and uplink as indicated by the system configuration.

34. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor configured to determine at least one type of control information being received, to determine a structure of a control channel based on operating configuration, and to receive the at least one type of control information from resources for the control channel based on the structure; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor.

35. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the operating configuration is determined based on at least one of system configuration and user equipment (UE) configuration, wherein the system configuration is indicative of allocations for downlink and uplink, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel based on asymmetry of the downlink and uplink allocations.

36. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the at least one type of control information being received comprises acknowledgement (ACK) information, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel further based on number of hybrid automatic retransmission (HARQ) processes to be acknowledged by the ACK information.

37. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel further based on whether or not data is being received, and wherein the control channel comprises a fixed amount of resources when data is not received and comprises a variable amount of resources when data is received.

38. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the at least one processor is configured determine whether or not data is being received, determine the resources for the control channel from a control segment if data is not being received, and determine the resources for the control channel from a data segment if data is being received, and wherein the control segment and the data segment occupy different frequency locations.

39. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the at least one type of control information being received comprises only channel quality indicator (CQI) information, or only acknowledgement (ACK) information, or both CQI and ACK information, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive the CQI information, or the ACK information, or both the CQI and ACK information from the resources for the control channel based on the structure.

40. A method comprising:

determining at least one type of control information being received;

determining a structure of a control channel based on operating configuration; and

receiving the at least one type of control information from resources for the control channel based on the structure.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the operating configuration is determined based on at least one of system configuration and user equipment (UE) configuration, wherein the system configuration is indicative of allocations for downlink and uplink, and wherein the determining the structure of the control channel comprises determining the structure of the control channel based on asymmetry of the downlink and uplink allocations.

42. An apparatus comprising:

means for determining at least one type of control information being received;

means for determining a structure of a control channel based on operating configuration; and

means for receiving the at least one type of control information from resources for the control channel based on the structure.

43. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the operating configuration is determined based on at least one of system configuration and user equipment (UE) configuration, wherein the system configuration is indicative of allocations for downlink and uplink, and wherein the means for determining the structure of the control channel comprises means for determining the structure of the control channel based on asymmetry of the downlink and uplink allocations.