FLEXIBLE FRAME STRUCTURE IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20090092067A1
• Filed: 10/07/2007
• Published: 04/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: SUDARSHAN, PALLAV, ZHUANG, XIANGYANG, STEWART, KENNETH A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,422,411 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/281
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2656 for structure of frame, burst

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a frame structure that can be flexibly configured to serve to half-duplex users or a mixture of half- and full-duplex users based upon the grouping of user terminals according to one or more criteria. The disclosure also relates to the switching of users from one group to another. The signaling mechanisms to reconfigure a frame and to switch users are provided.

Claims

1. A method in a wireless communication base station that serves user terminals, the method comprising:

serving a plurality of user terminals in a series of downlink radio frames, the plurality of user terminals assigned to first and second groups, at least two user terminals assigned to one of the groups;

each downlink radio frame having a first temporal region and a second temporal region, the user terminals in the first group served in the first temporal region of the downlink radio frame and the user terminals in the second group served in the second temporal region of the downlink radio frame;

changing a duration of either of the first and second temporal regions of at least one downlink radio frame in the series of downlink radio frames.

2. The method of claim 1, changing the duration of either of the first and second temporal regions of at least one downlink radio frame based upon the changes to the assignment of user terminals to the first and second groups.

3. The method of claim 1,

providing a temporal gap in each downlink radio frame during which there is no downlink transmission;

changing a duration of the temporal gap in one downlink radio frame from one value to another value in a subsequent downlink radio frame.

4. The method of claim 1,

providing temporal gap in each downlink radio frame during which there is no downlink transmission;

wherein the duration of the temporal gap is a multiple of a symbol duration.

5. The method of claim 1, indicating locations and durations of the first and second temporal regions of each downlink radio frame.

6. The method of claim 1, indicating locations and durations of the first and second temporal regions of each downlink radio frame, the indication is located within both the first and the second temporal regions of at least one downlink radio frame.

7. The method of claim 1,

indicating locations and durations of the first and second temporal regions of each downlink radio frame with an information element message containing parameters that define the locations and durations of the first and second temporal regions;

the information element message located in both the first and the second temporal regions of at least one downlink radio frame.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the information element message contains an offset value parameter specifying an end of the first temporal region from a reference point of the downlink radio frame and an offset value parameter specifying a start of the second temporal region.

9. The method of claim 1,

serving the first and second groups in a series of uplink radio frames, each downlink radio frame having a corresponding uplink radio frame;

each uplink radio frame having a first temporal region and a second temporal region, the user terminals in the first group served in the first temporal region of the uplink radio frame and the user terminals in the second group served in the second temporal region of the uplink radio frame; and

wherein the first temporal region of a downlink radio frame does not overlap temporally with the first temporal region of a corresponding uplink radio frame and the second temporal region of the downlink radio frame does not overlap temporally with the second temporal region of the corresponding uplink radio frame.

10. The method of claim 9,

providing a temporal gap in a series of radio frames, wherein there is no transmission in the temporal gaps;

changing a configuration of the temporal gap in one radio frame from one value to another value in a subsequent radio frame; and

wherein each radio frame is an uplink radio frame or a corresponding downlink radio frame.

11. The method of claim 10, changing the configuration of the temporal gap includes changing a duration of the temporal gap.

12. The method of claim 10, changing the configuration of the temporal gap includes changing whether the temporal gap is located in the uplink radio frame or in the downlink radio frame.

13. The method of claim 1, changing a duration of the first and second temporal regions includes configuring the downlink radio frame such that only half-duplex user terminals in the first group are served by the downlink radio frame and only half-duplex user terminals in the second group are served by a next downlink radio frame.

14. The method of claim 9,

changing a duration of the first and second temporal regions from one uplink radio frame to a subsequent uplink radio frame by configuring the uplink radio frame such that only half-duplex user terminals in the first group are served by the uplink radio frame and only half-duplex user terminals in the second group are served by the next uplink radio frame;

and

the uplink radio frame corresponds temporally to the next downlink radio frame and the next uplink radio frame corresponds temporally to the downlink radio frame.

15. The method of claim 1,

serving full-duplex user terminals in a single group in a series of downlink radio frames;

changing the duration of the first and second temporal regions includes configuring the downlink radio frame such that a downlink radio frame serves only the group of full-duplex users and such that the corresponding uplink radio frame serves only the group of full-duplex users.

16. A method in a wireless communication base station that serves user terminals, the method comprising:

serving a plurality of user terminals in a series of downlink and uplink radio frames, the user terminals assigned to a plurality of groups, at least two user terminals assigned to one of the groups;

each downlink radio frame having first and a second temporal regions, each temporal region in the downlink radio frame serving a group;

each uplink radio frame having first and second non-overlapping temporal regions, each uplink radio frame having a third temporal region; and

the third temporal region at least partially overlapping with the first and second temporal regions.

17. The method of claim 16, the third temporal region fully overlaps the first and second temporal regions, serving a group with the third temporal region of every other uplink radio frame.

18. The method of claim 17, serving the group served by the third temporal region in downlink radio frames that do not temporally overlap the uplink radio frames having the third temporal region.

19. The method of claim 16, changing a duration of either of the first, second and third temporal regions of at least one uplink radio frames in the series of uplink radio frames.

20. A method in a wireless communication base station that serves half-duplex frequency division duplex user terminals, the method comprising:

assigning user terminals to first and second groups;

serving user terminals in the first and second groups in a series of downlink radio frames,

each downlink radio frame having a first temporal region and a second temporal region, user terminals in the first group served in the first temporal region of the downlink radio frame and user terminals in the second group served in the second temporal region of the downlink radio frame,

switching a user terminal from the first group to the second group after assigning the user terminal to the first group.

21. The method of claim 20, switching the user terminal from the first group to the second group by signaling the user terminal in the first temporal region of the downlink radio frame.

22. The method of claim 21, signaling the user terminal by indicating that the user terminal is served in the second temporal region.

23. The method of claim 20,

serving the first and second groups in a series of uplink radio frames, each uplink radio frame having a first temporal region and a second temporal region, the first group served in the first temporal region of the uplink radio frame and the second group served in the second temporal region of the uplink radio frame,

wherein the first temporal region of the downlink radio frame does not overlap temporally with the first temporal region of the uplink radio frame and the second temporal region of the downlink radio frame does not overlap temporally with the second temporal region of the uplink radio frame,

scheduling the user terminal to transmit in the second temporal region of the uplink radio frame or to receive in the downlink radio frame.

24. A method in a wireless communication base station that serves user terminals, the method comprising:

serving a plurality of user terminals groups in a series of uplink and downlink radio frames, the plurality of user terminals assigned to first and second groups,

each radio frame having a first temporal region and a second temporal region, the user terminals in the first group served in the first temporal region of the radio frame and the user terminals in the second group served in the second temporal region of the radio frame,

each radio frame having a utilized time duration and a unutilized time duration, the utilized time duration bearing user terminal traffic and the unutilized time duration not bearing user terminal traffic,

the unutilized time divided into a switching time and a residual time, the switching time assigned for user terminals to switch from transmit mode to receive mode and from receive mode to transmit mode, the residual time is the duration of the switch time and the utilized time subtracted from the frame duration,

the residual time in the downlink radio frame located between the first temporal region and the second temporal region,

the residual time in the uplink radio frame divided into two equal halves, the first half located before the first temporal region of the uplink radio frame and the second half located after the second temporal region of the uplink radio frame.