Relay Backhaul in Wireless Communication

• US 20110051654A1
• Filed: 08/23/2010
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Lu, Jianmin, Blankenship, Yufei
• Granted Patent: US 8,761,074 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/315
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2606 Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2656 for structure of frame, burst
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0005 Time-frequency
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0035 Resource allocation in a cooperative multipoint environment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0092 Indication of how the channel is divided
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/045 between access point and backbone network device

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method for wireless communication includes transmitting a first system information for a subframe structure from a controller to a relay node. The first system information includes radio resource configuration for a downlink backhaul link. The subframe structure includes a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) region for user equipments and a separate relay physical downlink control channel (R-PDCCH) region for relay nodes.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication comprising:

transmitting a first system information for a subframe structure from a controller to a relay node, the first system information comprising radio resource configuration for a downlink backhaul link, wherein the subframe structure comprises a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) region for user equipments and a separate relay physical downlink control channel (R-PDCCH) region for relay nodes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the subframe structure comprises a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for user equipments and a separate relay physical downlink shared channel (R-PDSCH) for relay nodes.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising using a subframe having the subframe structure for a downlink backhaul transmission.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the first system information at the relay node, wherein the relay node uses the first system information to set up the downlink backhaul link from the controller to the relay node.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the radio resource configuration comprises information indicating a number of OFDM symbols used for the R-PDSCH.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the radio resource configuration comprises information indicating a number of OFDM symbols used for the R-PDCCH.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the radio resource configuration comprises information indicating a number of resource blocks for the R-PDCCH.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the controller further transmits the timing information of the downlink backhaul link to the relay node.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the timing information comprises a duration of time during which the first system information is valid, and/or a period of the downlink backhaul link.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the timing information comprises a bitmap to indicate the subframes available for the downlink backhaul link.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first system information is transmitted using unicasting.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first system information is transmitted via radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a second system information from the controller to a second relay node.

14. A method for wireless communication comprising:

transmitting a first system information for a subframe structure from a controller to a first relay node, the first system information comprising radio resource configuration for a uplink backhaul link, wherein the subframe structure comprises a relay physical uplink shared channel (R-PUSCH) for relay nodes and a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) for user equipments, and wherein the R-PUSCH and the PUSCH are frequency division multiplexed within the subframe structure.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising using subframes having the subframe structure for an uplink backhaul transmission.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the radio resource configuration comprises information indicating a number of Discrete Fourier Transform Spread OFDM (DFT-SOFDM) symbols for the R-PUSCH.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the first system information is transmitted through unicasting.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first system information is transmitted by RRC signaling.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising transmitting a second system information from the controller to a second relay node, the second system information comprising radio resource configuration for a second uplink backhaul link.

20. A method for wireless communication comprising:

unicasting a first system information for a subframe structure from a donor base station to a relay node using radio resource control signaling, the first system information comprising radio resource configuration for a first downlink backhaul link, wherein the subframe structure comprises a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) region for user equipments and a separate relay physical downlink control channel (R-PDCCH) region for relay nodes.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the subframe structure further comprises a relay physical downlink shared channel (R-PDSCH) region, and wherein the R-PDCCH region and the R-PDSCH region follow a physical downlink control channel PDCCH region in the subframe structure.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

unicasting a second system information from the donor base station to the relay node using radio resource control signaling, the second system information comprising radio resource configuration for the same downlink backhaul link, wherein the second system information is transmitted after the first system information.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the relay node replaces the first system information with the second system information.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving the first system information at the relay node; and

using subframes having the subframe structure for the downlink backhaul link.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the first system information further comprises timing information for the downlink backhaul link.