Control Channel Provisioning and Signaling

• US 20100279628A1
• Filed: 05/04/2009
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Nory, Ravikiran, Nangia, Vijay, Liu, Jialing, Love, Robert Tristan
• Granted Patent: US 9,344,259 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/003 Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0091 Signaling for the administration of the divided path

Abstract

There is provided a communication device and a base unit, and methods thereof, for determining control information. The communication device receives a control channel message associated with the communication device in a control region on a first carrier from a base unit. The communication device also determines a set of resources in a search space within the control region, attempts to decode the set of resources in the search space for the control channel message, and determines control information from the decoded control channel message. The base unit generates a control channel message comprising control information associated with the communication device, determines a set of resources in a search space within a control region, selects a subset of resources within the determined set of resources for transmitting the control channel message, and transmits the control channel message on the selected resources in the control region on a first carrier.

Claims

1. A method in a base unit for transmitting control information for a communication device, the method comprising the steps of:

generating a control channel message comprising control information associated with the communication device;

determining a set of resources in a search space within a control region, wherein the set of resources in the search space is at least partially based on a control channel message type of the control channel message and an identifier associated with the communication device;

selecting a subset of resources within the determined set of resources for transmitting the control channel message; and

transmitting the control channel message on the selected resources in the control region on a first carrier.

2. The method of claim 1, the control channel message type of the control channel message indicates that the control channel message is for at least one additional carrier, the at least one additional carrier not including the first carrier.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a set of resources in a search space comprises:

determining a location of the set of resources in a search space based on an offset associated with the control channel message type of the control channel message.

4. A method in a communication device for determining control information, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a control channel message associated with the communication device in a control region on a first carrier from a base unit;

determining a set of resources in a search space within the control region, wherein the set of resources in the search space is at least partially based on a control channel message type of the control channel message and an identifier associated with the communication device;

attempting to decode the set of resources in the search space for the control channel message; and

determining control information from the decoded control channel message.

5. The method of claim 4, where the control channel message type of the control channel message indicates that the control channel message is for at least one additional carrier, the at least one additional carrier not including the first carrier.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the control channel message type of the control channel message indicates an identifier associated with at least one additional carrier, the at least one additional carrier not including the first carrier.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the control channel message type of the control channel message is a Downlink Control Information (DCI) format.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein determining a set of resources in a search space comprises:

determining a location of the set of resources in a search space based on an offset associated with the control channel message type of the control channel message.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the control channel message type of the control channel message is a Downlink Control Information (DCI) format.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the offset corresponds to a first offset when the control information in the control channel message schedules resources for the first carrier; and

the offset corresponds to a second offset when the control information in the control channel message schedules resources for a second carrier.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the set of resources in the search space includes determining a set of candidate Control Channel Elements (CCEs) corresponding to a set of candidate Physical Downlink Control Channels (PDCCH) in the search space.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein the control channel message is a Physical Downlink Control Channels (PDCCH) message.

13. The method of claim 4, wherein the search space within the control region is associated with a Control Channel Element (CCE) aggregation level.

14. The method of claim 4, further comprising determining the set of resources in the search space based on one or more of a subframe index, a Control Channel Element (CCE) aggregation level, a total number of CCEs in the control region, or a maximum number of blind decoding attempts.

15. The method of claim 4, wherein the identifier of the communication device is a radio network temporary identifier.

16. The method of claim 4, further comprising, receiving from the base unit, a configuration message indicating a number of carriers to be monitored by the communication device.

17. A communication device for determining control information comprising:

a transceiver for receiving a control channel message associated with the communication device in a control region on a first carrier from a base unit; and

at least one processor for determining a set of resources in a search space within the control region, attempting to decode the set of resources in the search space for the control channel message, and determining control information from the decoded control channel message,

wherein the set of resources in the search space is at least partially based on a control channel message type of the control channel message and an identifier associated with the communication device.

18. The communication device of claim 17, wherein the control channel message type of the control channel message indicates that the control channel message is for at least one additional carrier, the at least one additional carrier not including the first carrier.

19. The communication device of claim 17, wherein the at least one processor determines a location of the set of resources in a search space based on an offset associated with the control channel message type of the control channel message.

20. The communication device of claim 19, wherein:

the offset corresponds to a first offset when the control information in the control channel message schedules resources for the first carrier; and

the offset corresponds to a second offset when the control information in the control channel message schedules resources for a second carrier.

21. The communication device of claim 17, wherein the control channel message is a Physical Downlink Control Channels (PDCCH) message.

22. The communication device of claim 17, wherein the search space within the control region is associated with a Control Channel Element (CCE) aggregation level.

23. The communication device of claim 17, wherein the at least one processor determines the set of resources in the search space based on one or more of a subframe index, a Control Channel Element (CCE) aggregation level, a total number of CCEs in the control region, or a maximum number of blind decoding attempts.

24. The communication device of claim 17, wherein the identifier of the communication device is a radio network temporary identifier.

25. The communication device of claim 17, wherein the transceiver receives from the base unit, a configuration message indicating a number of carriers to be monitored by the communication device.