METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EFFICIENT SCHEDULING IN BROADBAND WIRELESS ACCESS NETWORKS

• US 20090257389A1
• Filed: 04/06/2009
• Published: 10/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Roshni M., Vannithamby, Rath, Mohanty, Shantidev, Etemad, Kamran
• Granted Patent: US 8,570,958 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0003 by switching between different modulation schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0009 by adapting the channel coding H04L1/1812 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0025 Transmission of mode-switching indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1861 Physical mapping arrangements for ACK signaling see also H04L5/0053
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1864 ARQ related signaling H04L1/1607 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/003 Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management

Abstract

The various inventive embodiments relate to arrangement of information elements (IEs) for persistent and/or dynamic allocations in a wireless broadband network and include optimization techniques to eliminate the repetitive information fields from the downlink (DL)-Persistent-IEs, uplink (UL)-Persistent-IEs, DL-IEs, and UL-IEs. Elimination of repetitive information fields reduces MAP overhead. In addition embodiments relate to methods to use the same hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) region to contain persistent as well as non-persistent allocations. The use of the same HARQ region for persistent as well as non-persistent allocations further reduces the MAP overhead as it requires a single header to define the HARQ region instead of the two headers that are required to define two different HARQ regions: one for persistent allocation and the second one for non-persistent allocations.

Claims

1. (canceled)

2. A method for communicating in a wireless network, the method comprising:

generating a downlink (DL) or uplink (UL) subframe comprising a plurality of sub-bursts, each sub-burst including a plurality of respective DL or UL information elements (IEs) associated therewith, the respective IEs comprising a plurality of fields including a resource shift indicator field, a persistence flag field, an allocation flag field, a slot offset field, a duration field, a downlink or uplink interval usage code (DUIC/UUIC) field, a repetition coding field and an allocation period (ap) field, the respective IEs further including at least one of a one-bit slot offset indicator flag, a one-bit duration indicator flag, a one-bit modulation and coding scheme (MCS) indicator flag or a one-bit allocation periodicity indicator flag; and

transmitting the DL or UL subframe over a wireless medium.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein generating the DL or UL subframe includes including both persistent allocation sub-bursts and dynamic allocation sub-bursts within a single hybrid automatic request (HARQ) region.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the one-bit slot offset indicator flag is included and set equal to 1 to indicate that an offset value present in the slot offset field should be used or set equal to 0 to indicate that an offset value from a previous sub-burst should be used.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the one-bit duration indicator flag is included and set equal to 1 to indicate that a duration value is present in the duration field for the respective sub-burst or set equal to 0 to indicate that a duration value is a same value as a previous sub-burst.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein when the one bit MCS indicator flag is included and set equal to 1 to indicate that DIUC/UUIC and repetition coding values are assigned in the DUIC/UUIC and repetition coding fields for the respective sub-burst or set equal to 0 to indicate that DIUC/UUIC and repetition coding values are same values as a previous sub-burst.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein when the one bit allocation periodicity indicator flag is included and set equal to 1 to indicate that allocation periodicity for the respective sub-burst is assigned in the ap field, or set equal to 0 to indicate that an allocation periodicity is a same value as a previous sub-burst.

8. A method of communicating in a wireless network, the method comprising:

receiving an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) frame over a wireless communication channel, the frame comprising a downlink (DL) or uplink (UL) subframe having a plurality of sub-bursts and a plurality of information elements (IEs) associated with each sub-burst,

evaluating one or more one-bit indicator flags present in the IEs associated with a selected one of the sub-bursts; and

when a one-bit indicator flag is set to zero, processing the selected sub-burst using a same value from a previous sub-burst;

or

when a one-bit indicator flag is set to one, processing the selected sub-burst using a specified value in one or more additional IEs associated with the sub-burst.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the one or more one-bit indicator flags comprise at least one of, a slot offset indicator flag, a duration field indicator flag, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) indicator flag or an allocation periodicity indictor flag.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein both persistent allocation sub-bursts and dynamic allocation sub-bursts are present in the DL or UL subframe within a single hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) region.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the received frame comprises a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) retransmission and wherein the previous sub-burst is an initial HARQ transmission.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the one or more additional IEs associated with each sub-burst include, a resource shift indicator field, a persistence flag field, an allocation flag field, a slot offset field, a duration field, a downlink or uplink interval usage code (DUIC/UUIC) field, a repetition coding field and an allocation period (ap) field.

13. A device for communicating in a wireless network, the device comprising:

a processing circuit including logic to generate a downlink (DL) or uplink (UL) subframe having a plurality of sub-bursts and a plurality of information elements (IEs) associated with each sub-burst including a resource shift indicator field, a persistence flag field, an allocation flag field, a slot offset field, a duration field, a downlink or uplink interval usage code (DUIC/UUIC) field, a repetition coding field and an allocation period (ap) field, the plurality of associated IEs further including at least one of a one-bit slot offset indicator flag, a one-bit duration indicator flag, a one-bit modulation and coding scheme (MCS) indicator flag or a one-bit allocation periodicity indicator flag; and

a radio frequency (RF) interface circuit in communication with the processing circuit to transmit the DL or UL subframe over a wireless medium.

14. The device of claim 13 wherein the processing circuit further includes logic to include both persistent allocation sub-bursts and dynamic allocation sub-bursts in the DL or UL subframe within a single hybrid automatic request (HARQ) region.

15. The device of claim 13 wherein the one-bit slot offset indicator flag is included and set equal to 1 to denote to a receiving device that an offset value present in the slot offset field should be used and or set equal to 0 to denote to the receiving device that an offset value from a previous sub-burst should be used.

16. The device of claim 13 wherein the one-bit duration indicator flag is included and set equal to 1 to denote to a receiving device that a duration value is present in the duration field and should be used for the associated sub-burst or set equal to 0 to denote to the receiving device that a duration value is a same value as from a previous sub-burst.

17. The device of claim 13 wherein the one bit MCS indicator flag is included and set equal to 1 to denote to a receiving device that DIUC/UUIC and repetition coding values are assigned in the DUIC/UUIC and repetition coding fields for the associated sub-burst or set equal to 0 to denote to the receiving device that DIUC/UUIC and repetition coding values are same values as a previous sub-burst.

18. The device of claim 13 wherein the one bit allocation periodicity indicator flag is included and set equal to 1 to denote to a receiving device that allocation periodicity for the associated sub-burst is assigned in the ap field or set equal to 0 to denote to the receiving device that allocation periodicity is a same value as a previous sub-burst.

19. The device of claim 13 wherein the device comprises at least a portion of a wireless broadband access base station.

20. A device for communicating in a wireless network, the device comprising:

a receiver to receive an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) frame over a wireless communication channel, the frame comprising a downlink (DL) or uplink (UL) subframe having a plurality of sub-bursts and a plurality of information elements (IEs) associated with each sub-burst; and

a processing circuit including logic to evaluate one or more one-bit indicator flags present in the IEs associated with a selected one of the sub-bursts in the received frame; and

when any one-bit indicator flag is set to zero, to process the selected sub-burst using a same value from a previous sub-burst;

or when any one-bit indicator flag is set to one, to process the selected sub-burst using a specified value in one or more additional IEs associated with the sub-burst.

21. The device of claim 20 wherein the one or more one-bit indicator flags comprise at least one of, a slot offset indicator flag, a duration field indicator flag, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) indicator flag or an allocation periodicity indictor flag.

22. The device of claim 20 wherein the received frame comprises a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) retransmission and wherein the previous sub-burst is from an initial HARQ transmission.