COOPERATIVE COMMUNICATIONS TECHNIQUES

• US 20090262678A1
• Filed: 04/22/2008
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Oyman, Ozgur, Sydir, Jaroslaw J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,634,763 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/315
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/024 Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/15592 Adapting at the relay station communication parameters for supporting cooperative relaying, i.e. transmission of the same data via direct - and relayed path cooperative diversity H04B7/024
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/06 using space diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1867 Arrangements specially adapted for the transmitter end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0097 Relays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0035 Resource allocation in a cooperative multipoint environment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0091 Signaling for the administration of the divided path

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed involving communications between source and destination devices. Such communications may involve multiple cooperating devices that retransmit (e.g., simultaneously retransmit) transmissions sent by a source device. Thus, the delivery of transmissions from source devices to destination devices may involve two or more “hops” (e.g., a first “hop” comprising an initial transmission, and a second “hop” comprising two or more relay transmissions).

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

selecting a set of two or more cooperating devices; and

determining one or more characteristics for two or more retransmissions, each of the two or more retransmissions from a corresponding one of the two or more cooperating devices;

wherein each of the two or more retransmissions is of an initial transmission sent by a source device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the two or more cooperating devices includes one or more cooperating devices that have acknowledged receipt of the initial transmission from the source device.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising modifying the set of cooperating devices and retransmission characteristics for different retransmissions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining the one or more characteristics comprises allocating one or more resources for the two or more retransmissions.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining the one or more characteristics comprises selecting a distributed space-time coding technique for the one or more retransmissions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining the one or more characteristics comprises selecting a distributed beamforming technique for the one or more retransmissions.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the one or more characteristics to the two or more cooperating devices in a portion of a subframe.

8. An apparatus, comprising:

a selection module to select two or more cooperating devices;

a determination module to determine one or more characteristics for two or more retransmissions, each of the two or more retransmissions from a corresponding one of the two or more cooperating devices;

wherein each of the two or more retransmissions is of an initial transmission sent by a source device.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising a transceiver to send to the two or more cooperating devices an indication of their selection.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the transceiver is to send the indication in at least one of a DL-MAP and a UL-MAP and/or using MAC management messages.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the transceiver is to send an indication of the one or more characteristics to the two or more cooperating devices.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the transceiver is to send the indication in at least one of a DL-MAP and a UL-MAP and/or using MAC management messages.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the initial transmission and each of the retransmissions are uplink data burst transmissions.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the initial transmission and each of the retransmissions are downlink data burst transmissions.

15. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the retransmissions employ a distributed space-time coding transmission technique.

16. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the retransmissions employ a distributed beamforming technique.

17. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the selection module may change the set of cooperating devices and the determination module may change the retransmission characteristics across different retransmissions.

18. A system, comprising:

a source device to send an initial transmission; and

two or more cooperating devices to each simultaneously send a retransmission of the initial transmission to a destination device when they each receive the initial transmission.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the source device or the destination device is to select the two or more cooperating devices and determine one or more characteristics for each of the retransmissions.

20. The system of claim 18,

wherein two or more cooperating devices includes the source device;

and

wherein the source device is to resend the initial transmission when the two or more cooperating devices fail to acknowledge receipt of the initial transmission.