MULTIPLEXING PUCCH INFORMATION

• US 20090196238A1
• Filed: 09/25/2008
• Published: 08/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Cheng, Fang-Chen, Song, Lei
• Granted Patent: US 9,319,195 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0027 Scheduling of signalling, e.g. occurrence thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1671 the supervisory signal being transmitted together with control information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1692 Physical properties of the supervisory signal, e.g. acknowledgement by energy bursts
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1893 Physical mapping arrangements physical resource mapping in general H04L5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals

Abstract

An exemplary method of communicating includes multiplexing control signaling in a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) onto a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) by puncturing PUSCH data with PUCCH control information using a uniform distribution of the PUCCH information within at least one resource block of the PUSCH data. One example includes using a first constant amplitude zero autocorrelation sequence (CAZAC) index on PUCCH for communicating CQI and ACK information together and using a second, different CAZAC sequence index for communicating CQI information alone or with NAK information or DTX. The used index provides an indication of whether ACK information is communicated. The used index also provides implicit DTX detection without additional processing.

Claims

1. A method of communicating, comprising

multiplexing control information in a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) onto a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) by

puncturing PUSCH data with PUCCH control information;

and

mapping the PUCCH control information uniformly within at least one resource block of the PUSCH data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one resource block comprises a plurality of symbols each comprising a plurality of subcarriers of the PUSCH and the method comprises distributing the PUCCH information within the at least one resource block based on a relationship between a location of a selected subcarrier of a selected one of the symbols and a location of the selected one of the symbols.

3. The method of claim 2, comprising

distributing the PUCCH control information within the at least one resource block by placing the PUCCH control information into selected subcarriers of selected symbols;

and

selecting the selected subcarriers of the selected symbols based on a position of each selected symbol relative to other symbols in the at least one resource block.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the selected subcarriers each has a position in the associated selected symbol corresponding directly to the position of the associated selected symbol in the at least one resource block.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the PUCCH control information in one symbol occupies a subcarrier in a different position than any other subcarrier in the at least one resource block that is occupied by PUCCH control information.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the symbols has a numbered position within the at least one resource block and each of the subcarriers of each of the symbols has a numbered position within the associated symbol and the method comprises

placing the PUCCH control information into the subcarrier of a selected symbol that has a numbered position having a selected relationship to the numbered position of the selected symbol.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the selected relationship comprises the numbered position of the selected subcarrier is equal to the numbered position of the associated symbol.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the selected relationship comprises the numbered position of the selected subcarrier being 1/N of the numbered position of the associated symbol and the PUCCH control information is distributed within N adjacent resource blocks.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein each selected symbol has only one sub-carrier occupied with PUCCH control information.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein each selected symbol has more than one sub-carrier occupied with PUCCH information.

11. A method of communicating at least channel quality indicator (CQI) information selectively multiplexed with acknowledgment (ACK) information, negative acknowledgment (NAK) information on a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), comprising the steps of:

using a first constant amplitude zero autocorrelation sequence (CAZAC) index for communicating CQI and ACK information together; and

using a second, different CAZAC sequence index for communicating CQI information alone or with NAK information

such that the used index provides an indication of whether ACK information is communicated through the PUCCH.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first sequence index and the second sequence index assigned to one user is distinct from the first sequence index and the second sequence index assigned to a different user on the PUCCH.

13. The method of claim 11, comprising

assigning one of six sets of CAZAC cyclic shifts on the PUCCH to one of six different users, respectively.

14. The method of claim 11, comprising

assigning one of four sets of CAZAC cyclic shifts on the PUCCH to one of four different users, respectively;

and

arranging the four sets to maintain at least one shift separation between each user and every other one of the four users.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein each user is assigned two indexes on the PUCCH and each user uses only one of the assigned indexes for communicating the CQI and ACK information and uses the other one of the assigned indexes for any other communication including CQI information.

16. The method of claim 11, comprising characterized by action of the reception of NAK information when the assigned indexes for communicating the CQI and ACK/NAK information.

17. The method of claim 11, comprising using the second CAZAC sequence index for a discontinuous transmission (DTX)

18. The method of claim 17, comprising

detecting a DTX based upon use of the second CAZAC sequence index.

19. The method of claim 18, comprising responding to a detected DTX in a manner that corresponds to receiving NAK information.