APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR UPLINK TRANSMISSION IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20090279495A1
• Filed: 05/05/2009
• Published: 11/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Yoo, Hee Chul
• Granted Patent: US 8,274,936 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0078 Timing of allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0045 compensating for timing error by altering transmission time
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/20 Manipulation of established connections

Abstract

An apparatus and method for uplink transmission in a wireless communication system are provided. The method comprises detecting an expiry of a time alignment timer in a MAC (Medium Access Control) layer, the time alignment timer being used to control how long the UE is considered uplink time aligned, notifying a release of PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) resources from the MAC layer to a RRC (Radio Resource Control) layer when the expiry of the time alignment timer is detected and keeping a part of the PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) resources in the RRC layer.

Claims

1. A method for uplink transmission in a wireless communication system, carried by an user equipment, the method comprising:

detecting an expiry of a time alignment timer in a MAC (Medium Access Control) layer, the time alignment timer being used to control how long the UE is considered uplink time aligned;

notifying a release of PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) resources from the MAC layer to a RRC (Radio Resource Control) layer when the expiry of the time alignment timer is detected; and

keeping a part of the PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) resources in the RRC layer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing a random access for restarting the time alignment timer.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising resuming the part of PUCCH resource after the time alignment timer is restarted.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the part of PUCCH resources are one for transmitting a ACK/NACK (Acknowledgement/Negative-acknowledgement) signal after the time alignment timer is restarted.

5. A method for uplink transmission in a wireless communication system, carried by an user equipment, the method comprising:

starting a time alignment timer which is used to control how long the user equipment is considered uplink time aligned;

keeping a part of PUCCH resources when the time alignment timer is expired;

performing a random access between the user equipment and a base station for restarting the time alignment timer; and

receiving a message which is used to determine a contention resolution for the random access from the base station.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising transmitting an ACK/NACK signal for the message, wherein the ACK/NACK signal is transmitted via the part of PUCCH resources.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein performing the random access comprises transmitting a random access preamble to the base station after the time alignment timer is expired;

and

restarting the time alignment timer upon receipt of a random access response for the random access preamble, wherein the random access response comprises a timing advance to be applied for restarting the time alignment timer.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the random access response further comprises an uplink grant, a random access preamble identifier corresponding to the transmitted random access preamble and a temporary C-RNTI (Cell-Radio Network Temporary Identity).

9. The method of claim 8, wherein performing the random access further comprises transmitting a scheduled message indicated by the temporary C-RNTI via the uplink grant to the base station.

10. The method of claim 6, the part of the PUCCH resource is released if the user equipment does not receive the random access response including the time alignment value within a certain time.

11. An user equipment comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) unit; and

a processor operatively connected with the RF unit and configured to;

detect an expiry of a time alignment timer in a MAC (Medium Access Control) layer, the time alignment timer being used to control how long the UE is considered uplink time aligned;

notify a release of PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) resources from the MAC layer to a RRC (Radio Resource Control) layer when the expiry of the time alignment timer is detected; and

keep a part of the PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) resources in the RRC layer.