Relay Operation in a Wireless Communication System

• US 20100238845A1
• Filed: 03/17/2009
• Published: 09/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Nory, Ravikiran, Zhuang, Xiangyang, Nimbalker, Ajit, Love, Robert T., Nangia, Vijay, Stewart, Kenneth A., Liu, Jialing
• Granted Patent: US 8,537,724 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/280
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/15528 Control of operation parameters of a relay station to exploit the physical medium
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1263 Mapping of traffic onto schedule, e.g. scheduled allocation or multiplexing of flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations

Abstract

A method in a relay node operating in a time division duplex system wherein the relay node transmits downlink pilot timeslot information to a user terminal in a first temporal region of a special sub-frame, communicates with a base station during a second temporal region of the special sub-frame, the second temporal region is configured as a guard period for communications between the relay node and the user terminal, and configures a third temporal region of the special sub-frame.

Claims

1. A method in a relay node operating in a time division duplex system, the method comprising:

transmitting downlink pilot timeslot information to a user terminal in a first temporal region of a special sub-frame,

communicating with a base station during a second temporal region of the special sub-frame,

the second temporal region is configured as a guard period for communications between the relay node and the user terminal.

2. The method of claim 1, configuring the special sub-frame to correspond to a sub-frame 1 in a radio frame comprising a plurality of sub-frames 0-9.

3. The method of claim 1, configuring the special sub-frame to correspond to a sub-frame 6 in a radio frame comprising a plurality of sub-frames 0-9.

4. The method of claim 1,

configuring a first duration of the second temporal region as first guard period,

communicating with the base station during a second duration of the second temporal region of the special sub-frame includes receiving from the base station,

configuring a third duration of the second temporal region as a second guard period.

5. The method of claim 4, configuring the special sub-frame as a portion of a radio frame that is configured as time division duplex uplink/downlink configuration 0.

6. The method of claim 5, configuring the special sub-frame as a portion of a radio frame that is configured as time division duplex uplink/downlink configuration 5.

7. The method of claim 1,

configuring a first duration of the second temporal region as first guard period,

communicating with the base station during a second duration of the second temporal region of the special sub-frame includes transmitting to the base station,

configuring a third duration of the second temporal region as a second guard period.

8. The method of claim 1,

configuring a first duration of the second temporal region as first guard period,

communicating with the base station during a second duration of the second temporal region of the special sub-frame,

configuring a third duration of the second temporal region as a second guard period;

communicating with the base station during a fourth duration of the second temporal region of the special sub-frame,

configuring a fifth duration of the second temporal region as a third guard period.

9. The method of claim 8,

communicating with the base station during the second duration of the second temporal region of the special sub-frame includes transmitting to the base station, and

communicating with the base station during the fourth duration of the second temporal region of the special sub-frame includes receiving from the base station.

10. The method of claim 8,

communicating with the base station during the second duration of the second temporal region of the special sub-frame includes receiving from the base station, and

communicating with the base station during the fourth duration of the second temporal region of the special sub-frame includes transmitting to the base station.

11. The method of claim 8, receiving an indication of the configuration of the second temporal region in a system configuration message.

12. The method of claim 1, transmitting an indication of the configuration of the special sub-frame in a system information broadcast message.

13. The method of claim 1, configuring a third temporal region of the special sub-frame as an uplink pilot timeslot for communications between the relay node and the user terminal.

14. The method of claim 1, configuring a third temporal region of the special sub-frame as a guard period.

15. The method of claim 1,

configuring a first duration of the second temporal region as first guard period,

communicating with the base station during a second duration of the second temporal region of the special sub-frame includes transmitting to the base station.

16. The method of claim 1, configuring the special sub-frame as a portion of a radio frame that includes at least one MBSFN sub-frame.

17. A relay node operating in a time division duplex system, the relay node comprising:

a transceiver configured to transmit downlink pilot timeslot information to a user terminal in a first temporal region of a special sub-frame,

the transceiver configured to communicate with a base station during a second temporal region of the special sub-frame,

the second temporal region is configured as a guard period for communications between the relay node and the user terminal; and

the special sub-frame having a third temporal region.

18. The relay node of claim 17,

a first duration of the second temporal region configured as first guard period,

the transceiver configured to communicate with the base station during a second duration of the second temporal region of the special sub-frame includes receiving from the base station,

a third duration of the second temporal region configured as a second guard period.

19. The relay node of claim 17,

a first duration of the second temporal region configured as first guard period,

the transceiver configured to communicate with the base station during a second duration of the second temporal region of the special sub-frame includes transmitting to the base station,

a third duration of the second temporal region configured as a second guard period.

20. The relay of claim 17,

a first duration of the second temporal region configured as a first guard period,

the transceiver configured to communicate with the base station during a second duration of the second temporal region of the special sub-frame,

a third duration of the second temporal region configured as a second guard period;

the transceiver configured to communicate with the base station during a fourth duration of the second temporal region of the special sub-frame,

a fifth duration of the second temporal region configured as a third guard period.