METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SCHEDULING TRANSMISSIONS IN SPATIAL DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS NETWORK SYSTEMS

• US 20100220601A1
• Filed: 02/25/2010
• Published: 09/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: VERMANI, SAMEER, Sridhara, Vinay, Abraham, Santosh P., Aggarwal, Alok
• Granted Patent: US 8,923,215 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/248
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0025 Transmission of mode-switching indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/04 Error control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/046 the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams

Abstract

An apparatus for communications including a processing system configured to generate a plurality of spatial streams for communicating with a plurality of nodes, the processing system being further capable of determining an allocation of the spatial streams to each of the nodes based on at least one metric for each of the nodes.

Claims

1. An apparatus for communications, comprising:

a processing system configured to generate a plurality of spatial streams for communicating with a plurality of nodes, the processing system being further capable of determining an allocation of the spatial streams to the nodes based on at least one metric for each of the nodes.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said at least one metric for each of the nodes comprises a rate requirement for each of the nodes.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the rate requirement for each of the nodes is based on a quantity of data to be transmitted to each of the nodes.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the rate requirement for each of the nodes is based on quality of service required by each of the nodes.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said at least one metric for each of the nodes comprises path loss to each of the nodes.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the processing system is further configured to determine the path loss to each of the nodes from a sounding sequence transmitted by each of the nodes to the apparatus.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the processing system is further configured to determine the path loss to each of the nodes from a packet preamble transmitted by each of the nodes to the apparatus.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processing system is further configured to determine which ones of the nodes require beam forming and which ones of the nodes can support spatial division multiplexing.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the processing system is further configured to determine timing for communicating with the nodes that can support spatial division multiplexing based on proximity of such nodes to the apparatus.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the processing system is further configured to determine timing for communicating with the nodes that can support spatial division multiplexing based on channel conditions.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the processing system is further configured to determine timing for communicating with the nodes that can support spatial division multiplexing based on power required for transmission to each of such nodes.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the processing system is further configured to determine timing for communicating with the nodes that can support spatial division multiplexing based on a number of antennas on each of such nodes.

13. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the processing system is further configured to determine timing for communicating with the nodes that can support spatial division multiplexing based on a number of antennas that can be supported by the apparatus.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processing system is further configured to precode each of the spatial streams.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the processing system is further configured to precode each of the spatial streams through an iterative process based on a per-tone target SINR for each of the spatial streams.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the processing system is further configured to determine the per-tone target SINR based on path loss, power amplifier distortion, and thermal noise.

17. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the processing system is further configured to compute post processing SINR for each of the spatial streams, the processing system being further configured to compute a modulation and coding scheme for each of the spatial streams based on the post processing SINRs.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processing system is further configured to determine the number of spatial streams to be transmitted to each of the nodes based on a number of antennas on each of such nodes.

19. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processing system is further configured to determine the number of spatial streams to be transmitted to each of the nodes based on a number of antennas that can be supported by the apparatus.

20. An apparatus for communications, comprising:

means for generating a plurality of spatial streams for communicating with a plurality of nodes; and

means for determining an allocation of the spatial streams to the nodes based on at least one metric for each of the nodes.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein said at least one metric for each of the nodes comprises a rate requirement for each of the nodes.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein said at least one metric for each of the nodes comprises path loss to each of the nodes.

23. The apparatus of claim 20 further comprising means for determining which ones of the nodes require beam forming and which ones of the nodes can support spatial division multiplexing.

24. The apparatus of claim 20 further comprising means for precoding each of the spatial streams.

25. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the means for determining the number of spatial streams to be transmitted to each of the nodes is configured to determine such number based on a number of antennas on each of such nodes.

26. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the means for determining the number of spatial streams to be transmitted to each of the nodes is configured to determine such number based on a number of antennas that can be supported by the apparatus.

27. A method for communications, comprising:

generating a plurality of spatial streams for communicating with a plurality of nodes; and

determining an allocation of the spatial streams to the nodes based on at least one metric for each of the nodes.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein said at least one metric for each of the nodes comprises a rate requirement for each of the nodes.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein the rate requirement for each of the nodes is based on a quantity of data to be transmitted to each of the nodes.

30. The method of claim 28 wherein the rate requirement for each of the nodes is based on quality of service required by each of the nodes.

31. The method of claim 27 wherein said at least one metric for each of the nodes comprises path loss to each of the nodes.

32. The method of claim 31 further comprising determining the path loss to each of the nodes from a training sequence transmitted by each of the nodes.

33. The method of claim 31 further comprising determining the path loss to each of the nodes from a packet preamble transmitted by each of the nodes.

34. The method of claim 31 further comprising determining which ones of the nodes require beam forming and which ones of the nodes can support spatial division multiplexing.

35. The method of claim 34 further comprising determining timing for communicating with the nodes that can support spatial division multiplexing based on proximity of such nodes.

36. The method of claim 34 further comprising determining timing for communicating with the nodes that can support spatial division multiplexing based on channel conditions.

37. The method of claim 34 further comprising determining timing for communicating with the nodes that can support spatial division multiplexing based on power required for transmission to each of such nodes.

38. The method of claim 34 further comprising determining timing for communicating with the nodes that can support spatial division multiplexing based on a number of antennas on each of such nodes.

39. The method of claim 34 further comprising communicating with the nodes by transmitting the spatial streams through a plurality of antennas and determining timing for communicating with the nodes that can support spatial division multiplexing based on the number of antennas.

40. The method of claim 27 further comprising precoding each of the spatial streams.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein each of the spatial streams is precoded through an iterative process based on a per-tone target SINR for each of the spatial streams.

42. The method of claim 41 further comprising determining the per-tone target SINR based on path loss, power amplifier distortion, and thermal noise.

43. The method of claim 41 further comprising compute post processing SINR for each of the spatial streams, and computing a modulation and coding scheme for each of the spatial streams based on the post processing SINRs.

44. The apparatus of claim 27 wherein the number of spatial streams to be transmitted to each of the nodes is based on a number of antennas on each of such nodes.

45. The method of claim 27 further comprising communicating with the nodes by transmitting the spatial streams through a plurality of antennas, and wherein the number of spatial streams to be transmitted to each of the nodes is based on a number of antennas that can be supported by the apparatus.

46. A computer-program product for communication, comprising:

a machine-readable medium encoded with instructions executable to;

generate a plurality of spatial streams for communicating with a plurality of nodes; and

determining an allocation of the spatial streams to the nodes based on at least one metric for each of the nodes.

47. An access point, comprising:

a plurality of antennas;

a processing system configured to generate a plurality of spatial streams for communicating with a plurality of nodes, the processing system being further capable of determining an allocation of the spatial streams to the nodes based on at least one metric for each of the nodes; and

a transceiver configured to communicate with the nodes through the antennas.