CONTROL SIGNALING TECHNIQUES FOR WIRELESS NETWORKS

• US 20090067362A1
• Filed: 11/05/2007
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Doppler, Klaus, Lindh, Lars
• Granted Patent: US 7,983,302 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/315
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1607 Details of the supervisory signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1854 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0097 Relays

Abstract

Various example embodiments are disclosed relating to wireless networks, such as relay networks or multi-hop networks, and also relating to control signaling techniques for wireless networks. In an example embodiment, a method or technique may include transmitting (e.g., data or control) frames in a downlink direction and control frames in an uplink direction during a first phase, and transmitting (e.g., data or control) frames in an uplink direction and control frames in a downlink direction during a second phase.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting data comprising:

transmitting a data frame to a first node and a control frame to a second node during a first phase of a multi-phase operation;

wherein the control frame is transmitted to the second node using a dedicated control channel.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the data frame and the control frame are transmitted on different channels during the first phase.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the different channels are provided based on different subcarriers and/or different time slots.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting a data frame to a first node via a first channel and a control frame to a second node via a second channel during a first phase of a multi-phase operation, the control frame including an acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledgement (NACK).

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting a data frame in a downlink direction and a control frame in an uplink direction during a first phase of a multi-phase operation.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting a data frame in an uplink direction via a first channel and a control frame in a downlink direction via a second channel during a first phase of a multi-phase operation.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting a data frame in a first direction via a first subcarrier during a first timeslot and an ACK/NAK frame in a second direction via a second subcarrier during the first timeslot.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting a data frame to a first node via a first subcarrier during a first time slot and transmitting a control frame to a second node during via a second subcarrier during the first time slot, the first time slot being provided within a first phase of a 4-phase operation.

9. A method of transmitting data using a multi-phase operation comprising:

transmitting frames in a downlink direction and control frames in an uplink direction during a first phase; and

transmitting frames in an uplink direction and control frames in a downlink direction during a second phase.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein:

the transmitting frames in a downlink direction comprises transmitting data frames in a downlink direction and control frames in an uplink direction during a first phase; and

the transmitting frames in an uplink direction comprises transmitting data frames in an uplink direction and control frames in a downlink direction during a second phase.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the control frames comprise an acknowledgement (ACK) and/or negative ACK (NACK).

12. The method of claim 9 wherein:

the transmitting frames in a downlink direction comprises transmitting data frames in a downlink direction and an acknowledgement (ACK) and/or negative ACK (NACK) in an uplink direction during a first phase; and

the transmitting frames in an uplink direction comprises transmitting data frames in an uplink direction and an acknowledgements (ACK) and/or negative ACK (NACK) in a downlink direction during a second phase, wherein each phase includes one or more time slots.

13. A method of transmitting and receiving data using a multi-phase operation comprising:

transmitting at least data frames in a downlink direction and control frames in an uplink direction during a first phase;

receiving frames in an uplink direction during a second phase;

receiving frames in a downlink direction during a third phase; and

transmitting at least data frames in an uplink direction and control frames in a downlink direction during a fourth phase.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein a phase comprises a time slot.

15. The method of claim 13 and further comprising receiving an uplink/downlink split message indicating a number or ratio of the length of or amount of subframes of uplink and downlink phases.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the method comprises:

performing the following by a first group of wireless nodes in a relay network;

transmitting at least data frames in a first direction and control frames in a second direction during a first phase; and

transmitting at least data frames in the second direction and control frames in the first direction during a fourth phase; and

performing the following by a second group of wireless nodes in a relay network;

transmitting at least data frames in the second direction and control frames in the first direction during a second phase; and

transmitting at least data frames in a first direction and control frames in a second direction during a third phase.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein the first direction comprises a downlink direction and the second direction comprises an uplink direction.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein the second direction comprises a downlink direction and the first direction comprises an uplink direction.

19. An apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus configured to:

transmit frames in a downlink direction and control frames in an uplink direction during a first phase; and

transmit frames in an uplink direction and control frames in a downlink direction during a second phase.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the apparatus comprises a relay node, the relay node further comprising a controller, a memory and a wireless transceiver.

21. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the apparatus comprises

a controller;

a memory coupled to the controller; and

a wireless transceiver coupled to the controller;

the apparatus configured to;

transmit at least data frames in a first direction and control frames in a second direction during a first phase;

receive frames in the second direction during a second phase;

receive frames in the first direction during a third phase; and

transmit at least data frames in the second direction and control frames in the first direction during a fourth phase.

22. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the apparatus comprises a first wireless transceiver for transmitting on subcarriers or frequencies in the downlink direction, and a second wireless transceiver for transmitting on subcarriers or frequencies in the uplink direction.

23. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the first direction comprises a downlink direction and the second direction comprises an uplink direction.

24. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the second direction comprises a downlink direction and the first direction comprises an uplink direction.

25. A relay node configured to operate in an access radio network for wireless media coupling one or more mobile nodes and the relay node, the relay node also configured to operate in a mesh radio network for wireless media coupling the relay node to an access node or one or more other relay nodes, the wireless media for the access radio network being substantially orthogonal to the wireless media for the mesh radio network, the relay node further configured to:

transmit frames in a downlink direction and control frames in an uplink direction during a first phase; and

transmit frames in an uplink direction and control frames in a downlink direction during a second phase.