Method, apparatus and computer program for signaling channel quality information in a network that employs relay nodes

• US 20090191882A1
• Filed: 01/25/2008
• Published: 07/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Solutions and Networks US LLC (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Raaf, Bernhard, Teyeb, Oumer, Phan, Vinh V., Kovacs, Istvan Z.
• Granted Patent: US 8,462,743 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/450
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2606 Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0026 Transmission of channel quality indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0027 Scheduling of signalling, e.g. occurrence thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/20 using signal quality detector
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0097 Relays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/722 at the destination endpoint, e.g. reservation of terminal resources or buffer space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/724 at intermediate nodes, e.g. resource reservation protocol [RSVP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/824 Applicable to portable or mobile terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/83 based on usage prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations

Abstract

A relay node receives from user equipments UE CQI reports which give a CQI value per radio band resource RBR, from which are aggregated across the RBRs and/or aggregated per UE across that UE'"'"'s RBR values. The relay node reports an indication of the average to its controlling access node (eNodeB), either explicitly or implicitly (e.g., a gain applied to the CQI of the downlink between the relay and access nodes). The relay node also checks the UEs'"'"' buffer status (actual or predicted) and reports either periodically or based on an underflow/overflow occurrence. For periodic reports, each UE buffer experiencing the overrun/underrun is reported.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving from a plurality of user equipments indications of channel quality experienced by the user equipments;

aggregating the received indications into a compound signal quality metric; and

sending an indication of the compound signal quality metric to an access node controlling a cell in which the user equipments operate.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising prior to the receiving:

receiving at a relay node a grant from the access node of radio band resources that are available for allocation to the user equipments; and

allocating by the relay node to the user equipments at least some of the radio band resources;

wherein the indications are received at the relay node and are specific for a radio band resource allocated to the respective user equipment.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein each received indication is a channel quality indication for a unique radio band resource.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein aggregating comprises averaging all of the channel quality indications that are received from a single one of the user equipments, and the compound signal quality metric is specific to the single one of the user equipments.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein aggregating comprises averaging the channel quality indications that are received from multiple ones of the user equipments for a single radio band resource.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining a buffer overload or a buffer underload state for an individual one of the user equipments and sending to the access node an indication of the determined buffer underload or buffer overload state.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the determining comprises predicting the buffer underload or buffer overload state and sending to the access node the indication of the predicted buffer underload or buffer overload state when the state is predicted.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein sending to the access node the indication of the predicted buffer underload or buffer overload state is on a periodic basis and the indication of the predicted buffer underload or buffer overload state informs of every one of the user equipments whose buffer state is determined as underloaded or overloaded.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the indication of the buffer underload or buffer overload state is a percentage.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein for a first instance aggregating comprises averaging all of the channel quality indications that are received from a single one of the user equipments;

and for a second later instance aggregating comprises averaging all of the channel quality indications that are received from multiple ones of the user equipments for a single radio band resource, wherein sending comprises sending an indication of the respective compound signal quality metric to the access node at different times.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of the compound signal quality metric is the compound signal quality metric itself.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of the compound signal quality metric comprises a gain applied to a downlink channel quality parameter that is measured by a relay node that receives the indications of channel quality experienced by the user equipments.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a receiver configured to receive from a plurality of user equipments indications of channel quality experienced by the user equipments;

a processor configured to aggregate the received indications into a compound signal quality metric; and

a transmitter configured to send an indication of the compound signal quality metric to an access node controlling a cell in which the user equipments operate.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein:

the receiver is configured to receive a grant from the access node of radio band resources that are available for allocation to the user equipments; and

the processor is configured to allocate to the user equipments at least some of the radio band resources;

wherein the received indications are specific for a radio band resource allocated to the respective user equipment.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein each received indication is a channel quality indication for a unique radio band resource.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor is configured to aggregate by averaging all of the channel quality indications that are received from a single one of the user equipments, and the compound signal quality metric is specific to the single one of the user equipments.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processor is configured to aggregate by averaging the channel quality indications that are received from multiple ones of the user equipments for a single frequency band.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising a plurality of user-equipment specific buffers, and wherein the processor is configured to determining a buffer overload or a buffer underload state for an individual one of the user equipment specific buffers and the transmitter is configured to send to the access node an indication of the determined buffer underload or buffer overload state.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the processor is configured to determine by predicting the buffer underload or buffer overload state and the transmitter is configured to send to the access node the indication of the predicted buffer underload or buffer overload state when the state is predicted.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the transmitter is configured to send to the access node the indication of the predicted buffer underload or buffer overload state on a periodic basis, and the indication of the predicted buffer underload or buffer overload state informs of every one of the user equipment specific buffers that the processor determines is underloaded or overloaded.

21. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the indication of the buffer underload or buffer overload state is a percentage.

22. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein for a first instance the processor aggregates by averaging all of the channel quality indications that are received from a single one of the user equipments;

and for a second later instance the processor aggregates by averaging all of the channel quality indications that are received from multiple ones of the user equipments for a single radio band resource, wherein the transmitter is configured to send an indication of the respective compound signal quality metric to the access node at different times.

23. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the indication of the compound signal quality metric is the compound signal quality metric itself.

24. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the indication of the compound signal quality metric comprises a gain applied to a downlink channel quality parameter that the apparatus measures.

25. A computer readable memory embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital data processor to perform actions directed toward sending quality indications, the actions comprising:

responsive to receiving from a plurality of user equipments indications of channel quality experienced by the user equipments, aggregating the received indications into a compound signal quality metric; and

sending an indication of the compound signal quality metric to an access node controlling a cell in which the user equipments operate.

26. The computer readable memory of claim 25, wherein each received indication is a channel quality indication for a unique radio band resource, and wherein aggregating comprises at least one of:

aggregating all of the channel quality indications that are received from a single one of the user equipments, and the compound signal quality metric is specific to the single one of the user equipments;

or

aggregating the channel quality indications that are received from multiple ones of the user equipments for a single radio band resource.

27. The computer readable memory of claim 26, the actions further comprising determining a buffer overload or a buffer underload state for an individual one of the user equipments and sending to the access node an indication of the determined buffer underload or buffer overload state with the indication of the compound signal quality metric.

28. The computer readable memory of claim 27, wherein the determining comprises predicting the buffer underload or buffer overload state and sending to the access node the indication of the predicted buffer underload or buffer overload state with the indication of the compound signal quality metric when the state is predicted.

29. The computer readable memory of claim 27, wherein sending to the access node the indication of the predicted buffer underload or buffer overload state with the indication of the compound signal quality metric is on a periodic basis and the indication of the predicted buffer underload or buffer overload state informs of every one of the user equipments whose buffer state is determined as underloaded or overloaded.

30. The computer readable memory of claim 27, wherein the indication of the buffer underload or buffer overload state is a percentage.

31. The computer readable memory of claim 25, wherein the indication of the compound signal quality metric comprises a gain applied to a downlink channel quality parameter measured by a relay node that receives the indications of channel quality experienced by the user equipments.

32. An apparatus comprising:

receiving means for receiving from a plurality of user equipments indications of channel quality experienced by the user equipments;

processing means for aggregating the received indications into a compound signal quality metric; and

transmit means for sending an indication of the compound signal quality metric to an access node that controls a cell in which the user equipments operate.

33. A method comprising:

allocating in a first instance radio resources to a relay node for use by user equipments under control of the relay node;

receiving from the relay node a compound signal quality metric that aggregates channel quality experienced on links between the user equipments and the relay node;

deciding a new allocation of radio resources based at least in part on the compound channel quality metric; and

allocating in a second instance the new allocation of radio resources to the relay node.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising receiving an indication of buffer occupancy of the relay node, and wherein the new allocation is decided so as to manage flow control from the user equipments, the flow control being a function of the compound signal quality metric and the received buffer occupancy.

35. An apparatus comprising:

a transmitter configured to send to a relay node in a first instance radio resources for use by user equipments under control of the relay node;

a receiver configured to receive from the relay node a compound signal quality metric that aggregates channel quality experienced on links between the user equipments and the relay node;

a processor configured to decide a new allocation of radio resources based at least in part on the received compound channel quality metric; and

the transmitter is further to send to the relay node in a second instance the new allocation of radio resources.