ENABLING SUPPORT FOR TRANSPARENT RELAYS IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION

• US 20100265842A1
• Filed: 04/20/2010
• Published: 10/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Gorokhov, Alexei Yurievitch, Palanki, Ravi, Khandekar, Aamod Dinkar
• Granted Patent: US 9,432,991 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0632 Channel quality parameters, e.g. channel quality indicator [CQI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/14 Relay systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2606 Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 25/0202 Channel estimation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/005 of common pilots, i.e. pilots destined for multiple users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/146 Uplink power control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0466 the resource being a scrambling code
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/121 for groups of terminals or users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/29 between an access point and the access point controlling device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations

Abstract

Providing for improved implementation of supplemental wireless nodes in a wireless base station deployment is described herein. By way of example, a donor base station is configured to send a schedule of data transmission to and from a set of UEs served by the base station, and further can provide the schedule and identifiers for the set of UEs to one or more wireless nodes serving the base station. Respective access channel measurements between respective UEs and respective wireless nodes can be forwarded to the base station, which in turn can identify optimal access channels for the set of UEs. Additionally, the donor base station can schedule multiple data transmissions on these access channels in a common transmission time slot, to achieve cell-splitting gains for the data transmissions. Range boosting, differential coding, and supplemental channel quality mechanisms are also provided for various wireless communication arrangements described herein.

Claims

1. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

obtaining a set of user equipment identifiers (a set of UE IDs) for a set of UEs served by a base station;

utilizing the set of UE IDs and uplink scheduling information (UL scheduling information) for the set of UEs to obtain respective UE channel measurements; and

receiving an assignment to provide wireless service to a subset of the set of UEs based at least in part on one or more of the UE channel measurements.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein selection of the subset of the set of UEs for the assignment is based at least in part on differences in a characteristic of the respective UE channel measurements as a function of one or more wireless access points associated with the base station.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the UL scheduling information for the set of UEs further comprises receiving from the base station a schedule of sounding reference signal transmissions, or a schedule of UL demodulation reference signal transmissions for respective subsets of the set of UEs.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the set of UE IDs further comprises receiving from the base station a media access control identifier, an international mobility identifier, a radio temporary network identifier (RNTI), a control RNTI, or a mobile identifier for respective UEs of the set of UEs.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining respective UE channel measurements further comprises measuring a set of UL signals of a subset of the set of UEs that are transmitted in accordance with the UL scheduling information.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising forwarding results of the measuring the set of UL signals to the base station.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein receiving the assignment to provide wireless service to the subset of the set of UEs is based at least in part on the results of the measuring the set of UL signals.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the assignment is based on a plurality of independent measurements of the set of UL signals performed by respective relay nodes associated with the base station, and further wherein the assignment is based on which of a subset of the relay nodes provides preferred service for the one or more of the subset of the set of UEs.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the assignment comprises an instruction for a plurality of relay nodes to serve the one or more of the subset of the set of UEs utilizing an incremental redundancy policy.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the incremental redundancy policy includes a correlation of particular channels or particular traffic to respective ones of the plurality of relay nodes for decoding, signal conditioning, and retransmitting to the one or more of the subset of the set of UEs.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the assignment at least one of:

allocates one or more pico cells to serve the subset of the set of UEs;

allocates one or more remote radio heads to serve the subset of the set of UEs;

allocates one or more smart repeaters to serve the subset of the set of UEs;

allocates one or more incremental redundancy relays to serve the subset of the set of UEs;

or a combination thereof.

12. An apparatus configured for wireless communication, comprising:

a wireless communication interface configured for exchanging wireless signals with a user equipment (a UE) and with a set of access points associated with and located remotely from the apparatus;

memory for storing instructions configured to provide selective access point service for the UE based on relative access channel measurements; and

a data processor for executing modules to implement the instructions, the modules comprising;

a distribution module that shares an identifier (an ID) and a transmission schedule for the UE with the set of access points;

a mediation module that selects at least one of the set of access points to serve the UE based on respective UE signal measurements provided by a subset of the set of access points.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising an analysis module that identifies whether a characteristic of the UE signal measurements varies among the respective UE signal measurements.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the characteristic comprises a signal strength characteristic, signal quality characteristic or a signal noise characteristic of the UE signal measurements.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the characteristic comprises signal strength, signal to noise ratio, rise over thermal, path loss, relative signal interference, achievable bandwidth, or achievable data rate, or a combination thereof.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the mediation module selects one access point of the set of access points to serve the UE based on a value of the characteristic for a UE signal measurement provided by the one access point.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the mediation module employs a selection policy stored in the memory for analyzing the value of the characteristic relative to respective values of the characteristic pertaining to respective UE signal measurements provided by other access points of the subset of the set of access points.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the selection policy defines a preferred ranking of values of the characteristic or a target value of the characteristic.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the mediation module selects the one access point because the value of the characteristic is closest to the target value, or because the value of the characteristic is superior to the respective values of the characteristic based on the preferred ranking.

20. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the mediation module selects a plurality of the set of access points to serve the UE based on respective values of the characteristic associated with respective UE signal measurements of the plurality of the set of access points.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising an integration module that generates a redundancy policy that assigns respective traffic, channels or data streams associated with the UE to respective access points of the plurality of the set of access points, facilitating an incremental redundancy service for the UE.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the redundancy policy includes an assignment of the respective traffic, channels or data streams to respective ones of the plurality of the set of access points based on one or more characteristics of respective UE signal measurements provided by the plurality of the set of access points that are pertinent to the respective traffic, channels or data streams.

23. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

means for employing a communication interface to obtain a set of user equipment identifiers (a set of UE IDs) for a set of UEs served by a base station;

means for employing a signal processor that utilizes the set of UE IDs and uplink (UL) scheduling information for the set of UEs to obtain respective UE channel measurements; and

means for employing the communication interface for receiving an assignment to provide wireless service to a subset of the set of UEs based at least in part on one or more of the UE channel measurements.

24. At least one processor configured for wireless communication, comprising:

a module that obtains a set of user equipment identifiers (a set of UE IDs) for a set of UEs served by a base station;

a module that utilizes the set of UE IDs and uplink (UL) scheduling information for the set of UEs to obtain respective UE channel measurements; and

a module that receives an assignment to provide wireless service to a subset of the set of UEs based at least in part on one or more of the UE channel measurements.

25. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer-readable medium, comprising;

code that causes a computer to obtain a set of user equipment identifiers (a set of UE IDs) for a set of UEs served by a base station;

code that causes the computer to utilize the set of UE IDs and uplink (UL) scheduling information for the set of UEs to obtain respective UE channel measurements; and

code that causes the computer to receive an assignment to provide wireless service to a subset of the set of UEs based at least in part on one or more of the UE channel measurements.

26. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

sending a wireless signal comprising a resource assignment directly to a set of user equipments (a set of UEs), wherein the resource assignment schedules a transmission for each of the set of UEs on a common wireless resource; and

routing data transmissions to or from the set of UEs via one or more wireless nodes to achieve a cell-splitting gain at least on the common wireless resource for the data transmissions.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising employing a common uplink (UL) wireless resource for the common wireless resource, wherein the data transmissions are received from the set of UEs via the one or more wireless nodes and the cell-splitting gain is observed on the common UL wireless resource.

28. The method of claim 26, further comprising routing a downlink data transmission (a DL data transmission) on a common DL wireless resource from respective ones of the one or more wireless nodes to achieve a DL cell-splitting gain on the common DL wireless resource.

29. The method of claim 26, further comprising at least one of:

employing respective wireless relays for routing a DL and an UL data transmission for each UE of the set of UEs;

or

employing a plurality of wireless relays for routing the DL or the UL data transmission for at least one UE of the set of UEs.

30. The method of claim 26, further comprising increasing DL transmit range of the one or more wireless nodes by causing a base station to blank a set of DL wireless resources employed by the one or more wireless nodes.

31. The method of claim 26, further comprising increasing UL transmit range of at least one of the set of UEs by instructing at least one additional UE of the set of UEs to blank a set of UL wireless resources employed by the at least one of the set of UEs.

32. The method of claim 26, further comprising assigning respective scrambling codes to a subset of the set of UEs to facilitate distinguishing between respective ones of a plurality of the data transmissions sent concurrently on the common wireless resource.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising at least one of:

deriving the scrambling codes from a set of predetermined scrambling codes;

or

generating the scrambling codes as a function of an identifier unique to respective UEs of the subset of the set of UEs.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein assigning the scrambling codes further comprises at least one of:

sending a scrambling code seed or seeding function to respective UEs of the subset of the set of UEs to enable generation of one of the scrambling codes;

utilizing a physical layer or layer two control channel to transmit an assignment grant that comprises one or more of the scrambling codes;

or

employing layer three signaling to send the scrambling codes explicitly to one or more UEs of the subset of the set of UEs.

35. The method of claim 26, further comprising obtaining channel quality indicator (CQI) information pertaining to a set of relay channels between the one or more wireless nodes and the set of UEs by at least one of:

employing time division duplex (TDD) channel reciprocity for respective relay channels of the set of relay channels to estimate respective pathlosses to respective ones of the one or more wireless nodes;

or

analyzing a low reuse relay-specific CQI reference signal transmitted by a subset of the set of UEs to estimate achievable CQI for respective access channels associated with the subset of the set of UEs.

36. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

obtaining an UL signal measurement from at least one of the one or more wireless nodes via a wired or wireless backhaul link;

analyzing the UL signal measurement to derive a set of UL power controls for one or more UEs of the set of UEs served by the at least one of the one or more wireless nodes; and

issue UL power control commands to the one or more UEs via the at least one of the one or more wireless nodes based on the set of UL power controls.

37. An apparatus configured for wireless communication, comprising:

a communication interface configured for exchanging wireless signals with a base station and with a set of user equipments (a set of UEs);

a memory for storing instructions configured to provide remote node-assisted wireless service for one or more of the set of UEs; and

a data processor for executing modules that implement the instructions, the modules comprising;

a scheduling module that generates a resource schedule for the set of UEs that allocates a single set of wireless resources provided by multiple wireless nodes associated with the apparatus to a plurality of data streams involving the set of UEs;

a distribution module that employs the communication interface to send the resource schedule to respective ones of the multiple wireless nodes participating in the plurality of data streams.

38. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the scheduling module assigns respective ones of the plurality of data streams to respective ones of the multiple wireless nodes.

39. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the scheduling module assigns respective ones of the plurality of data streams to respective subsets of the multiple wireless nodes that each comprise one or more of the multiple wireless nodes.

40. The apparatus of claim 39, further comprising an integration module that establishes an incremental redundancy policy for one of the subsets of the multiple wireless nodes that comprises a plurality of the multiple wireless nodes.

41. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the incremental redundancy policy includes an assignment of portions of a data stream to respective wireless nodes of the one of the subsets of the multiple wireless nodes.

42. The apparatus of claim 37, further comprising an attenuation module that reduces power of transmissions of the apparatus that are concurrent with the single set of wireless resources.

43. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the scheduling module reschedules the transmissions of the apparatus that are concurrent with the single set of wireless resources, and the attenuation module reduces transmit power of the apparatus to zero during a transmission time slot that is concurrent with the single set of wireless resources.

44. The apparatus of claim 37, further comprising a coding module that facilitates orthogonal codes for one or more of the plurality of data streams to differentiate transmissions between the multiple wireless nodes and the set of UEs.

45. The apparatus of claim 37, further comprising an estimation module that employs time division duplex (TDD) channel reciprocity to estimate path loss in wireless channels established between the multiple wireless nodes and the set of UEs.

46. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein:

the scheduling module includes within the resource schedule a command for one of the set of UEs to transmit a low reuse node-specific channel quality indicator reference signal (a low reuse node-specific CQI-RS);

the communication interface receives the low reuse node-specific CQI-RS on an uplink channel from the one of the set of UEs; and

a measurement module analyzes the low reuse node-specific CQI-RS to estimate path loss for a wireless channel utilized by the one of the set of UEs.

47. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein one or more of the multiple wireless nodes comprises:

a transparent repeater;

a transparent wireless relay;

a transparent pico cell;

a remote radio head;

a smart repeater;

an incremental redundancy relay;

or

a combination thereof.

48. An apparatus configured for wireless communication, comprising:

means for employing a wireless transceiver to transmit a resource assignment directly to a set of user equipments (a set of UEs), wherein the resource assignment schedules a transmission for each of the set of UEs on a common wireless resource; and

means for employing the wireless transceiver to route respective data transmissions of the set of UEs via one or more wireless nodes to achieve a cell-splitting gain for at least one of the data transmissions at least on the common wireless resource.

49. At least one processor configured for wireless communication, comprising:

a module that transmits a resource assignment directly to a set of user equipments (a set of UEs), wherein the resource assignment schedules a transmission for each of the set of UEs on a common wireless resource; and

a module that routes respective data transmissions of the set of UEs via one or more wireless nodes to achieve a cell-splitting gain for at least one of the data transmissions at least on the common wireless resource.

50. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer-readable medium, comprising;

code for causing a computer to transmit a resource assignment directly to a set of user equipments (a set of UEs), wherein the resource assignment schedules a transmission for each of the set of UEs on a common wireless resource; and

code for causing the computer to route respective data transmissions of the set of UEs via one or more wireless nodes to achieve a cell-splitting gain for at least one of the data transmissions at least on the common wireless resource.