APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ALLOCATING A DEDICATED ACCESS ZONE TO RELAY STATION (RS) IN BROADBAND WIRELESS ACCESS (BWA) COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20090068944A1
• Filed: 09/03/2008
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: KANG, Hyun-Jeong, SON, Jung-Je, OH, Chang-Yoon
• Granted Patent: US 8,626,181 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/8
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0094 Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/26 Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/20 Negotiating bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations

Abstract

An apparatus and a method for allocating a dedicated access zone to a Relay Station (RS) in a multihop relay Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) communication system are provided. A communicating method of the RS includes relaying communications between a Base Station (BS) and a Mobile Station (MS), determining whether a dedicated resource is necessary for the communications with the MS, when the dedicated resource is necessary, generating a dedicated access zone request message which comprises necessary bandwidth information and transmitting the dedicated access zone request message to the BS.

Claims

1. A communicating method of a Relay Station (RS) in a multihop relay wireless communication system, the method comprising:

relaying communications between a Base Station (BS) and a Mobile Station (MS);

determining whether a dedicated resource is necessary for the communications with the MS;

when the dedicated resource is necessary, generating a dedicated access zone request message which comprises necessary bandwidth information; and

transmitting the dedicated access zone request message to the BS.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the dedicated access zone request message comprises at least one of an indicator indicating that the requested dedicated resource is a downlink, information of a bandwidth requested for the downlink, an indicator indicating that the requested dedicated resource is an uplink, information of a bandwidth requested for the uplink, and an RS Connection IDentifier (CID).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of whether the dedicated resource is necessary comprises determining whether interference which affects the communications of the MS exceeds a threshold.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining of whether the interference exceeds a threshold comprises comparing at least one of a Carrier to Interference and Noise Ratio (CINR), a Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR), a Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) and an interference level to the threshold.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a dedicated access zone allocation message from the BS.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

analyzing the received dedicated access zone allocation message;

determining whether a dedicated resource, designated by the allocation message, is allocated to the RS; and

when the dedicated resource is allocated to the RS, scheduling the dedicated resource.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

when the dedicated resource is allocated to another RS, excluding the dedicated resource from the scheduling.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the dedicated access zone allocation message comprises at least one of an indicator indicating that the allocated dedicated resource is an uplink, information of the resource allocated for the uplink, an indicator indicating that the allocated dedicated resource is a downlink, information of the resource allocated for the downlink, start time information for activating the allocated dedicated resource, and information of a duration for which the allocated dedicated resource is effective.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the dedicated access zone allocation message comprises one of a relay zone (R)-MAP message, an RS-Channel Descriptor (CD) message sent to the RS, a separate broadcast message, and a separate multicast message.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after transmitting the dedicated access request message, analyzing a message received from the BS;

when the received message comprises a dedicated access zone allocation message, providing a relay service to the MS over the dedicated access zone; and

when the received message comprises a dedicated access zone non-allocation message, recognizing that allocation of the dedicated access zone is infeasible.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

scheduling the communications relayed between the BS and the MS.

12. A communicating method of a Base Station (BS) in a multihop relay wireless communication system, the method comprising:

determining whether dedicated resource allocation is necessary for an access link in which a Relay Station (RS) and a Mobile Station (MS) communicate with each other;

when the dedicated resource is necessary, determining a resource to be allocated to the RS;

generating a dedicated access zone allocation message which comprises the determined dedicated resource information; and

transmitting the dedicated access zone allocation message to the RS.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the dedicated access zone allocation message comprises at least one of an indicator indicating that the allocated dedicated resource is an uplink, information of the resource allocated for the uplink, an indicator indicating that the allocated dedicated resource is a downlink, information of the resource allocated for the downlink, start time information for activating the allocated dedicated resource, and information of a duration for which the allocated dedicated resource is effective.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining of whether the dedicated resource is necessary comprises determining whether interference which affects the communications of the MS exceeds a threshold.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining of whether the interference exceeds a threshold comprises comparing at least one of a Carrier to Interference and Noise Ratio (CINR), a Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR), a Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) and an interference level to the threshold.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a dedicated access zone request message which requests the dedicated resource, from the RS.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

when it is infeasible to allocate the dedicated access zone to the RS, transmitting a dedicated access zone non-allocation message to the RS.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the dedicated access zone request message comprises at least one of an indicator indicating that the requested dedicated resource is a downlink, information of a bandwidth requested for the downlink, an indicator indicating that the requested dedicated resource is an uplink, information of a bandwidth requested for the uplink, and an RS Connection IDentifier (CID).

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the dedicated access zone allocation message comprises one of a relay zone (R)-MAP message, an RS-Channel Descriptor (CD) message sent to the RS, a separate broadcast message, and a separate multicast message.

20. An apparatus for a Relay Station (RS) in a multihop relay wireless communication system, comprising:

a controller for controlling a relay service between a Base Station (BS) and a Mobile Station (MS) and for determining whether a dedicated resource is necessary for the communications with the MS;

a message generator for, when the dedicated resource is necessary, generating a dedicated access zone request message which comprises necessary bandwidth information; and

a transmitter for transmitting the dedicated access zone request message to the BS.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the dedicated access zone request message comprises at least one of an indicator indicating that the requested dedicated resource is a downlink, information of a bandwidth requested for the downlink, an indicator indicating that the requested dedicated resource is an uplink, information of a bandwidth requested for the uplink, and an RS Connection IDentifier (CID).

22. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:

a receiver for receiving a dedicated access zone allocation message from the BS.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the dedicated access zone allocation message comprises at least one of an indicator indicating that the allocated dedicated resource is an uplink, information of the resource allocated for the uplink, an indicator indicating that the allocated dedicated resource is a downlink, information of the resource allocated for the downlink, start time information for activating the allocated dedicated resource, and information of a duration for which the allocated dedicated resource is effective.

24. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the controller analyzes the received dedicated access zone allocation message, determines whether a dedicated resource designated by the allocation message is allocated to the RS, and schedules the dedicated resource when the dedicated resource is allocated to the RS.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the controller excludes the dedicated resource from the scheduling when the dedicated resource is allocated to another RS.

26. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:

a message processor for, after transmitting the dedicated access request message, analyzing a message received from the BS,

wherein, when the received message comprises a dedicated access zone non-allocation message, the controller recognizes that the allocation of the dedicated access zone is infeasible.

27. An apparatus for a Base Station (BS) in a multihop relay wireless communication system, comprising:

a controller for determining whether dedicated resource allocation is necessary for an access link in which a Relay Station (RS) and a Mobile Station (MS) communicate with each other, and for determining a dedicated resource to be allocated to the RS when the dedicated resource is necessary;

a message generator for generating a dedicated access zone allocation message which comprises the determined dedicated resource information; and

a transmitter for transmitting the dedicated access zone allocation message to the RS.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, further comprising:

a receiver for receiving a dedicated access zone allocation message, which requests the dedicated resource, from the RS.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the message generator, when the dedicated access zone is not allocated to the RS, generates a dedicated access zone non-allocation message.

30. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the dedicated access zone request message comprises at least one of an indicator indicating that the requested dedicated resource is a downlink, information of a bandwidth requested for the downlink, an indicator indicating that the requested dedicated resource is an uplink, information of a bandwidth requested for the uplink, and an RS Connection IDentifier (CID).

31. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the dedicated access zone allocation message comprises at least one of an indicator indicating that the allocated dedicated resource is an uplink, information of the resource allocated for the uplink, an indicator indicating that the allocated dedicated resource is a downlink, information of the resource allocated for a downlink, start time information for activating the allocated dedicated resource, and information of a duration for which the allocated dedicated resource is effective.