APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MULTI-HOP RELAY COMMUNICATION IN BROADBAND WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20110069654A1
• Filed: 09/17/2010
• Published: 03/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: KANG, Hee-Won, XU, Mingxia, KANG, Hyun-Jeong, LEE, Ji-Cheol
• Granted Patent: US 9,253,818 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: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/12 Access point controller devices

Abstract

An apparatus and operating method of a Relay Station (RS) and a Base Station (BS) controller for a multi-hop relay communication in a broadband wireless communication system is provided. The method of the RS includes, when receiving at least one traffic Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) from a Mobile Station (MS) accessing the RS, extracting a Layer-3 (L3) packet from the at least one traffic MAC PDU, generating a relay MAC PDU including the L3 packet, and transmitting the MAC PDU to the BS through an RS Service Flow (SF) which supports Quality of Service (QoS) required by an MS SF carrying the L3 packet.

Claims

1. An operating method of a Relay Station (RS) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:

extracting a Layer-3 (L3) packet from at least one traffic Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) when receiving the at least one traffic MAC PDU from a Mobile Station (MS) accessing the RS;

generating a relay MAC PDU comprising the L3 packet; and

transmitting the MAC PDU to a Base Station (BS) through an RS Service Flow (SF) which supports Quality of Service (QoS) required by an MS SF carrying the L3 packet.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the relay MAC PDU comprises:

when extracting a plurality of L3 packets from a plurality of MAC PDUs received from a plurality of MSs, including L3 packets, received through an MS SF requiring the same QoS in one relay MAC PDU.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when receiving a downlink relay MAC PDU from the BS, extracting at least one L3 packet to transmit to the MS from the relay MAC PDU;

generating at least one MAC PDU comprising the at least one L3 packet; and

transmitting the at least one MAC PDU to at least one destination MS of the at least one L3 packet.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the generating of the at least one MAC PDU comprising the at least one L3 packet comprises:

dividing a payload of the relay MAC PDU into a plurality of L3 packets; and

generating a plurality of MAC PDUs for MS SFs corresponding to the L3 packets.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when receiving a signaling message from the MS accessing the RS, generating a relay MAC PDU comprising the signaling message; and

transmitting the relay MAC PDU to the BS through a relay SF for the signaling.

6. An operating method of a Base Station (BS) controller in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:

extracting at least one Layer-3 (L3) packet of at least one MS from a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) packet when receiving the GRE packet comprising an uplink L3 packet of a Mobile Station (MS) accessing a Relay Station (RS), from the BS; and

transmitting the at least one L3 packet to a destination of the at least one L3 packet.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

when receiving the at least one L3 packet destined for the MS accessing the RS, generating at least one GRE packet comprising the at least one L3 packet; and

transmitting the at least one GRE packet to the BS.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the generating of the at least one GRE packet comprises:

when receiving a plurality of L3 packets, confirming RS Service Flows (SFs) corresponding to MS SFs to carry the L3 packets; and

including L3 packets corresponding to the same RS SF, into one GRE packet.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

when receiving a GRE packet comprising uplink data carried by an RS SF for signaling forwarding, recognizing the uplink data as a signaling message; and

performing an operation corresponding to the signaling message.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

when requiring downlink signaling to the MS accessing the RS, generating a packet of the RS SF for the signaling forwarding; and

transmitting a GRE packet comprising the packet to the BS.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the extracting of the at least one L3 packet of the at least one MS from the GRE packet comprises:

determining whether a GRE packet is received from the RS, based on a GRE IDentifier (ID) of the RS included in the GRE packet;

when receiving the GRE packet identified with the GRE ID of the RS, removing a GRE header from the GRE packet; and

extracting at least one L3 packet from a payload of the GRE packet.

12. An apparatus of a Relay Station (RS) in a wireless communication system, the apparatus comprising:

a traffic processor for extracting a Layer-3 (L3) packet from at least one traffic Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) when the at least one traffic MAC PDU is received from a Mobile Station (MS) accessing the RS and for generating a relay Media Access Control (MAC) comprising the L3 packet; and

a transmitter for transmitting the MAC PDU to a Base Station (BS) through an RS Service Flow (SF) which supports Quality of Service (QoS) required by an MS SF carrying the L3 packet.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein, when extracting a plurality of L3 packets from a plurality of MAC PDUs received from a plurality of MSs, the traffic processor includes L3 packets received through an MS SF requiring the same QoS in one relay MAC PDU.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein, when a downlink relay MAC PDU is received from the BS, the traffic processor extracts at least one L3 packet to transmit to the MS from the relay MAC PDU and generates at least one MAC PDU comprising the at least one L3 packet, and

the transmitter transmits the at least one MAC PDU to at least one destination MS of the at least one L3 packet.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the traffic processor divides a payload of the downlink relay MAC PDU into a plurality of L3 packets and generates a plurality of MAC PDUs for MS SFs corresponding to the L3 packets.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

a signaling processor for, when a signaling message is received from the MS accessing the RS, generating a relay MAC PDU comprising the signaling message,

wherein the transmitter transmits the relay MAC PDU to the BS through an RS SF for the signaling.

17. An apparatus of a Base Station (BS) controller in a wireless communication system, the apparatus comprising:

a traffic processor for extracting at least one Layer-3 (L3) packet of at least one MS from a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) packet when the GRE packet comprising an uplink L3 packet of a Mobile Station (MS) accessing a Relay Station (RS) is received from the BS; and

a communicator for transmitting the at least one L3 packet to a destination of the at least one L3 packet.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein, when at least one L3 packet destined for the MS accessing the RS is received, the traffic processor generates at least one GRE packet comprising the at least one L3 packet, and

a communicator transmits the at least one GRE packet to the BS.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein, when a plurality of L3 packets is received, the traffic processor confirms RS Service Flows (SFs) corresponding to MS SFs to carry the L3 packets, and includes L3 packets corresponding to the same RS SF, into one GRE packet.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

a signaling processor for, when a GRE packet comprising uplink data carried by an RS SF for signaling forwarding is received, recognizing the uplink data as a signaling message and performing an operation corresponding to the signaling message.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein, when requiring downlink signaling to the MS accessing the RS, the signaling processor generates a packet of the RS SF for the signaling forwarding, and

the communicator transmits a GRE packet comprising the packet to the BS.

22. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the traffic processor determines whether a GRE packet is received from the RS, based on a GRE IDentifier (ID) of the RS included in the GRE packet, removes a GRE header from the GRE packet, and extracts at least one L3 packet from a payload of the GRE packet.

23. An operation method for a multi-hop communication in a wireless communication system comprising a Relay Station (RS), a Base Station (BS) controller and a Mobile Station (MS), the method comprising:

extracting, by the RS, a Layer-3 (L3) packet from at least one traffic Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) when receiving the at least one traffic MAC PDU from the MS assessing the RS;

generating, by the RS, a relay MAC PDU comprising the L3 packet and transmitting the MAC PDU to the BS through an RS Service Flow (SF) which supports Quality of Service (QoS) required by an MS SF carrying the L3 packet;

extracting, by the BS controller, a L3 packet of the MS from a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) packet when receiving the GRE packet comprising an uplink L3 packet of the MS accessing the RS, from the BS; and

transmitting, by the BS controller, the L3 packet from the MS to a destination of the L3 packet and transmitting the MAC PDU to a destination MS of the L3 packet.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

when receiving a signaling message from the MS accessing the RS, generating, by the RS, a relay MAC PDU comprising the signaling message; and

transmitting, by the RS, the relay MAC PDU to the BS through a relay SF for the signaling.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

when receiving a GRE packet comprising uplink data carried by an RS SF for signaling forwarding, recognizing, by the BS controller, the uplink data as a signaling message; and

performing, by the BS controller, an operation corresponding to the signaling message.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

when requiring downlink signaling to the MS accessing the RS, generating, by the BS controller, a packet of the RS SF for the signaling forwarding; and

transmitting, by the BS controller, a GRE packet comprising the packet to the BS.

25. The method of 23, further comprising:

when receiving the one L3 packet destined for the MS accessing the RS, generating, by the BS controller, at least one GRE packet comprising the L3 packet; and

transmitting, by the BS controller, the at least one GRE packet to the BS.