APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR TRANSMITTING FRAME INFORMATION IN MULTI-HOP RELAY BROADBAND WIRELESS ACCESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20080175215A1
• Filed: 01/08/2008
• Published: 07/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Cho, Jae-Weon, Chang, Young-Bin, Lee, Sung-Jin, Son, Yeong-Moon, Oh, Chang-Yoon, Kang, Hyun-Jeong, Lim, Hyoung-Kyu, Rakesh, Taori
• Granted Patent: US 8,233,398 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/155 Ground-based stations H04B7/204 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2606 Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels

Abstract

Provided is an apparatus and method for transmitting frame information in a wireless communication system using a relay scheme. In a method for transmitting frame information from an upper node in the wireless communication system, downlink section information for communication with the lower relay station for a relay service is transmitted to a lower relay station at the request of the lower relay station for an initial connection. After the initial connection, frame information for communication with the lower relay station for a relay service is transmitted to the lower relay station through the downlink section.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting frame information from an upper node in a wireless communication system using a relay scheme, the method comprising:

transmitting, at the request of a lower relay station for an initial connection, downlink section information for communication with the lower relay station for a relay service to the lower relay station; and

transmitting, after the initial connection with the lower relay station, frame information for communication with the lower relay station for a relay service to the lower relay station through the downlink section.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting of the downlink section information to the lower relay station further comprises:

generating a first control message including the downlink section information in the format of one of a Downlink Channel Descriptor (DCD), a Media Access Control (MAC) message, and a Media Access Protocol (MAP) message including the downlink section information in the format of an information element; and

transmitting the first control message to the lower relay station.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first control message further comprises at least one of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) symbol information for starting a downlink section for communication with the lower relay station for a relay service, OFDMA symbol length information of the downlink section, Transmission and Reception, (TX/RX) mode information for indicating in which one of a TX mode, an RX mode, and an idle mode the lower relay station operates in the downlink section, information for indicating whether a control message is included in the downlink section, information for indicating whether a synchronization channel is included in the downlink section, frame number information for the lower relay station to start communication through the downlink section, and position information of the synchronization channel included in the downlink section.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the upper node is a base station or an upper relay station.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting of the frame information to the lower relay station further comprises:

generating a second control message including uplink section information for communication with the lower relay station of a relay service, in the format of one of a Downlink Channel Descriptor (DCD), a Media Access Control (MAC) message, and a Media Access Protocol (MAP) message including uplink section information in the format of an information element; and

transmitting the second control message to the lower relay station.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the second control message comprises at least one of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) symbol information for starting an uplink section for communication with the lower relay station and an uplink section for the lower relay station to communicate with another lower relay station subordinate to the lower relay station, OFDMA symbol length information of the uplink sections, Transmission and Reception, (TX/RX) mode information for indicating in which one of a TX mode, an RX mode, and an idle mode the lower relay station operates in the uplink sections, information for indicating whether a control message is included in the uplink sections, information for indicating whether a synchronization channel is included in the uplink sections, frame number information for the lower relay station to start communication using the information of the uplink sections, and position information of the synchronization channel included in the uplink sections.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising generating a third control message containing downlink section information for the lower relay station to communicate with another lower relay station subordinate to the lower relay station for a relay service, in the format of one of a DCD, an MAC message, and an MAP message including the downlink section information in the format of an information element.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the third control message comprises at least one of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) symbol information for starting a downlink section for the lower relay station to communicate with another lower relay station subordinate to the lower relay station, OFDMA symbol length information of the downlink section, Transmission and Reception, (TX/RX) mode information for indicating in which one of a TX mode, an RX mode, and an idle mode the lower relay station operates in the downlink section, information for indicating whether a control message is included in the downlink section, information for indicating whether a synchronization channel is included in the downlink section, frame number information for the lower relay station to start communication using the downlink section information, and position information of the synchronization channel included in the downlink section.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

communicating with the lower relay station using the frame information transmitted to the lower relay station;

determining whether subframes of a frame for communication with the lower relay station are changed;

generating, if the subframes are changed, a fourth control message including the changed information of the structure of the subframes; and

transmitting the fourth control message to the lower relay station.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the fourth control message includes the changed information of the structure of the subframes in the format of one of a frame control header, a Media Access Protocol (MAP) message including downlink section information in the format of an information element, a Media Access Control (MAC) message, and a Downlink Channel Descriptor (DCD).

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the fourth control message includes the position information of the synchronization channel.

12. A method for acquiring frame information at a relay station in a wireless communication system using a relay scheme, the method comprising:

acquiring, at the initial connection with an upper node, downlink section information for communication with the upper node for a relay service from the upper node; and

acquiring, after the initial connection with the upper node, frame information for communication with the upper node for a relay service through the downlink section information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the upper node is a base station or an upper relay station.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the acquiring of the downlink section information further comprises:

detecting, by the upper node, whether a first control message is received, the first control message including the downlink section information in the format of one of a Downlink Channel Descriptor (DCD), a Media Access Control (MAC) message, and a Media Access Protocol (MAP) message including the downlink section information in the format of an information element; and

acquiring, if the first control message is received, downlink section information for communication with the upper node for a relay service from the first control message.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first control message further comprises at least one of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) symbol information for starting a downlink section for communication with the upper node for a relay service, OFDMA symbol length information of the downlink section, Transmission and Reception, (TX/RX) mode information for indicating in which one of a TX mode, an RX mode, and an idle mode the relay station operates in the downlink section, information for indicating whether a control message is included in the downlink section, information for indicating whether a synchronization channel is included in the downlink section, frame number information for the lower relay station to start communication through the downlink section, and position information of the synchronization channel included in the downlink section.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the acquiring of the frame information further comprises:

determining whether a control message is received through a downlink section for communication with the upper node for a relay service; and

if a second control message containing the uplink section information in the format of at least one of a Downlink Channel Descriptor (DCD), a Media Access Control (MAC) message, and a Media Access Protocol (MAP) message containing the uplink section information in the format of an information element is received through the downlink section, detecting at least one of uplink section information for communication with the upper node and uplink section information for communication with a lower relay station from the second control message.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the second control message further comprises at least one of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) symbol information for starting an uplink section for communication with the upper node and an uplink section for communication with the lower relay station, OFDMA symbol length information of the uplink sections, Transmission and Reception, (TX/RX) mode information for indicating in which one of a TX mode, an RX mode, and an idle mode the relay station operates in the uplink sections, information for indicating whether a control message is included in the uplink sections, information for indicating whether a synchronization channel is included in the uplink sections, frame number information for the lower relay station to start communication using the information of the uplink sections, and position information of the synchronization channel included in the uplink sections.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising detecting, if a third control message including downlink section information in the format of one of a Downlink Channel Descriptor (DCD), a Media Access Control (MAC) message, and a Media Access Protocol (MAP) message including the downlink section information in the format of an information element, detecting the downlink section information for communication with the lower relay station from the third control message.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the third control message further comprises at least one of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) symbol information for starting a downlink section for communication with the lower relay station, OFDMA symbol length information of the downlink section, Transmission and Reception, (TX/RX) mode information for indicating in which one of a TX mode, an RX mode, and an idle mode the lower relay station operates in the downlink section, information for indicating whether a control message is included in the downlink section, information for indicating whether a synchronization channel is included in the downlink section, frame number information for the lower relay station to start communication using the downlink section information, and position information of the synchronization channel included in the downlink section.

20. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

communicating with the upper node using the frame information acquired from the upper node;

determining whether a fourth control message including at least one of a frame control header, a Media Access Protocol (MAP) message including downlink section information in the format of an information element, a Media Access Control (MAC) message, and a Downlink Channel Descriptor (DCD) is received from the upper node; and

detecting, if the fourth control message is received, the changed information of the structure of subframes of a frame for communication with the upper node from the fourth control message.

21. An apparatus of a relay station in a wireless communication system using a relay scheme, the apparatus comprising:

a receiver for receiving a signal from an upper node;

a message processor for acquiring frame information from a control message contained in the received signal;

a message generator for generating a control message for transmitting the frame information to a lower node; and

a transmitter for transmitting the control message to the lower relay station.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the message processor acquires, at the initial connection with the upper node, frame information of a downlink section for communication with the upper node for a relay service from a control message received from the upper node through the receiver;

and acquires, after the initial connection with the upper node, frame information for communication with the upper node for a relay service and frame information for communication with a lower relay station from a control message received through the downlink section.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the control message includes the frame information for a relay service in the format of one of a Downlink Channel Descriptor (DCD), a Media Access Control (MAC) message, and a Media Access Protocol (MAP) message including the downlink section information in the format of an information element.

24. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the message generator generates, at the initial connection with the lower relay station, a control message including downlink frame information for communication with the lower relay station for a relay service;

and

generates, after the initial connection with the lower relay station, a control message including frame information for communication with the lower relay station for a relay service and frame information for the lower relay station to communicate with another lower relay station subordinate to the lower relay station.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the control message includes the frame information for a relay service in the format of one of a Downlink Channel Descriptor (DCD), a Media Access Control (MAC) message, and a Media Access Protocol (MAP) message including the downlink section information in the format of an information element.