Method and Arrangement in a Telecommunication System

• US 20110096693A1
• Filed: 12/09/2008
• Published: 04/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Larsson, Daniel, Hu, Yang, Wan, Lei, Astely, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,867,384 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1635 Cumulative acknowledgement, i.e. the acknowledgement message applying to all previous messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1657 Implicit acknowledgement of correct or incorrect reception, e.g. with a moving window
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1692 Physical properties of the supervisory signal, e.g. acknowledgement by energy bursts
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1829 Arrangements specially adapted for the receiver end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/18 Phase-modulated carrier systems, i.e. using phase-shift keying H04L27/32 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/34 Amplitude- and phase-modulated carrier systems, e.g. quadrature-amplitude modulated carrier systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal

Abstract

A method in a terminal for providing an ACK/NAK message to a base station is provided. The terminal counts the number of assigned downlink subframes detected from the base station resulting in k. The terminal then establishes whether each of a number of transport blocks comprised in the counted k downlink subframes is correctly received or not. In the case when each one of the transport blocks, comprised in the k downlink subframes is estimated as correctly received the terminal provides to the base station an encoded ACK message for the k subframes, which comprises k, the number of subframes.

Claims

1-29. -29. (canceled)

30. A method in a terminal for providing an acknowledgement/not-acknowledgement (ACK/NAK) message to a base station, the base station and the terminal in a telecommunication system, the method comprising:

receiving downlink subframes from the base station;

counting a number of downlink assignments detected in received downlink subframes to k;

establishing whether each of a number of transport blocks in the downlink subframes in which a downlink assignment is detected is correctly received or not;

when each of the transport blocks in the downlink subframes in which a downlink assignment is detected is estimated as correctly received, providing to the base station an encoded ACK message for the k downlink assignments, which encoded ACK message comprises k, the number of number of detected downlink assignments;

obtaining in each subframe a downlink assignment index (DAI) from the base station, the DAI representing a number of previous downlink assignments;

establishing if any downlink assignment transmitted by the base station has been missed in any downlink subframe in which a downlink assignment has been detected, and comparing the number of received downlink assignments with the DAI to determine if any previous downlink assignment has been missed; and

when a downlink assignment transmitted by the base station has been established to have been missed, providing to the base station one encoded NAK message that is modulated into a constellation point different from a constellation point into which the encoded ACK message would have been modulated.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein further comprising:

when any transport block in the k downlink subframes is estimated as not correctly received, providing to the base station one encoded NAK message for the k downlink assignments bundled;

wherein the encoded ACK message is modulated such that a constellation point is selected depending on k, the number of downlink assignments being acknowledged, and the encoded NAK message is modulated into a constellation point that is different from the constellation point into which the ACK message would have been modulated.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein the terminal uses phase-shift keying (PSK) modulation having multiple PSK constellation points;

the terminal uses a first constellation point of the multiple PSK constellation points when transmitting the encoded NAK message and different second constellation points of the multiple PSK constellation points when transmitting the encoded ACK message for different values of k;

the different second constellation points are different from the first constellation point; and

selected constellation points depend on the number of received downlink assignments k.

33. The method of claim 30, wherein the terminal uses uniform phase-shift keying (PSK) for modulating, into a PSK constellation point, one of the encoded ACK message for k subframes, NAK message, and a discontinuous transmission (DTX) message.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the terminal uses quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) for transmission of a respective encoded ACK message for k subframes, NAK message, or DTX message.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the terminal uses QPSK comprising a first QPSK constellation point, a second QPSK constellation point, a third QPSK constellation point and a fourth QPSK constellation point;

the terminal uses the first constellation point when modulating the encoded NAK message;

the terminal uses the second constellation point when modulating the encoded ACK message for k downlink assignments when k=1 or k=4;

the terminal uses the third constellation point when modulating the encoded ACK message for k downlink assignments when k=2; and

the terminal uses the fourth constellation point when modulating the encoded ACK message for k downlink assignments when k=3.

36. The method of claim 30, wherein X quadrature amplitude modulation (X-QAM) is used for modulating the encoded ACK message for k

downlink assignments, NAK message, or a discontinuous transmission message into a X-QAM constellation point, where X is any of 2², 2³, 2⁴, . . . , 2^N.

37. The method of claim 30, wherein non-uniform phase-shift keying (PSK) is used for modulating the encoded ACK message for k downlink assignments, NAK message, or a discontinuous transmission (DTX) message into a PSK constellation point.

38. A method in a base station for handling an acknowledgement/not-acknowledgement (ACK/NAK) message from a terminal, the base station and terminal in a telecommunication system, the method comprising:

sending a number of downlink subframes comprising transport blocks to the terminal;

signaling to the terminal in each subframe a downlink assignment index (DAI) that represents a number of previous assigned downlink subframes and that is for use by the terminal for establishing if any downlink subframe transmitted by the base station has been missed by comparing a number of received downlink assignments with the signaled DAI;

receiving from the terminal for a number k of downlink assignments detected by the terminal one encoded ACK message that includes k when each of the transport blocks included in the downlink subframes in which the terminal has detected a downlink assignment is estimated as correctly received by the terminal; and

receiving from the terminal one encoded NAK message that is modulated into a constellation point that is different from a constellation point into which the encoded ACK message would have been modulated when a downlink assignment transmitted by the base station to the terminal has been established to be missed by the terminal.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising:

receiving from the terminal one encoded NAK message for the k downlink assignments bundled, when any transport block in the downlink subframes is estimated by the terminal as not correctly received;

wherein the received encoded ACK message is modulated into a constellation point that is selected depending on the k downlink assignments being acknowledged, and the received encoded NAK message is modulated into a constellation point that is different from the constellation point into which the ACK message would have been modulated.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein multiple phase-shift keying (PSK) constellation points are used for PSK modulation in the received ACK/NAK message;

a first PSK constellation point is used for the encoded NAK message;

different second PSK constellation points are used for the encoded ACK message for respective different values of k;

the different second PSK constellation points are all different from the first PSK constellation point; and

selected constellation points depend on k.

41. The method of claim 38, wherein uniform phase-shift keying (PSK) modulation is used for the encoded ACK message for k subframes, or NAK message, or a discontinuous (DTX) message.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) modulation is used for the respective encoded ACK message for k downlink assignments, or NAK message, or DTX message transmitted from the terminal.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the QPSK modulation includes a first QPSK constellation point, a second QPSK constellation point, a third QPSK constellation point, and a fourth QPSK constellation point;

the first constellation point is used for modulation of the encoded NAK message;

the second constellation point is used for modulation of the encoded ACK message for k downlink assignments when k=1 or k=4;

the third constellation point is used for modulation of the encoded ACK message for k downlink assignment when k=2; and

the fourth constellation point is used for modulation of the encoded ACK message for k downlink assignments when k=3.

44. The method of claim 38, wherein X quadrature amplitude modulation (X-QAM) is used for modulating the encoded ACK message for k downlink assignments, or NAK message, or a discontinuous transmission message into a X-QAM constellation point, t, where X is any of 2², 2³, 2⁴, . . . , 2^N.

45. The method of claim 38, wherein non-uniform phase-shift keying (PSK) modulation is used for the encoded ACK message for k downlink assignments, or NAK message, or a discontinuous transmission message.

46. An arrangement in a terminal for providing an acknowledgement/not-acknowledgement (ACK/NAK) message to a base station, the base station and the terminal in a telecommunication system, the arrangement comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive downlink subframes from the base station and to obtain in each received subframe a downlink assignment index (DAI) that represents a number of previous assigned downlink subframes;

a counting unit configured to count a number k of downlink assignments detected in received downlink subframes;

an establishing unit configured to establish whether each of a number of transport blocks included in a downlink subframe in which a downlink assignment is detected is correctly received;

a sending unit configured to provide to the base station for the k downlink assignments an encoded ACK message that includes k when each of the transport blocks in the downlink subframes in which a downlink assignment is detected is estimated as correctly received, wherein the sending unit is further configured to provide to the base station one encoded NAK message that is modulated into a constellation point that is different from a constellation point into which the encoded ACK message would be modulated when a downlink assignment transmitted by the base station is established to be missed; and

an establishing unit configured to establish if any downlink assignment transmitted by the base station has been missed in any downlink subframe in which a downlink assignment has been detected, and to compare the number of received downlink assignments with the DAI to determine if any previous downlink subframe has been missed.

47. The arrangement of claim 46, wherein the sending unit is further configured to modulate the encoded ACK message such that a constellation point is selected depending on k, the number of downlink assignments being acknowledged;

and the sending unit is further configured to modulate the encoded NAK message using a constellation point that is different from the constellation point that would have been used for modulating the ACK message.

48. The arrangement of claim 46, wherein the terminal is adapted to use phase-shift keying (PSK) modulation having multiple PSK constellation points;

the terminal is adapted to use a first PSK constellation point when transmitting the encoded NAK message;

the terminal is adapted to use different second PSK constellation points when transmitting the encoded ACK message for different values of k;

the different second PSK constellation points are all different from the first PSK constellation point; and

PSK constellation points are selected based on the number of received downlink assignments.

49. The arrangement of claim 48, wherein the terminal is adapted to use quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation having a first QPSK constellation point, a second QPSK constellation point, a third QPSK constellation point, and a fourth QPSK constellation point;

the terminal is adapted to use the first constellation point when modulating the encoded NAK message;

the terminal is adapted to use the second constellation point when modulating the encoded ACK message for k downlink assignments when k=1 or k=4;

the terminal is adapted to use the third constellation point when modulating the encoded ACK message for k downlink assignments when k=2; and

the terminal is adapted to use the fourth constellation point when modulating the encoded ACK message for k downlink assignments when k=3.

50. An arrangement in a base station for handling an acknowledgement/not-acknowledgement (ACK/NAK) message from a terminal, the base station and the terminal in a telecommunication system, the arrangement comprising:

a sending unit configured to send a number of downlink subframes including transport blocks to the terminal and to signal to the terminal in each downlink subframe a downlink assignment index (DAI) that represents a number of previous assigned downlink subframes and that enables the terminal to establish if any downlink subframe transmitted by the base station has been missed by comparing a number k of received downlink assignments with a DAI; and

a receiving unit configured to receive from the terminal for the k downlink assignments one encoded ACK message that includes k, the number of downlink assignments detected by the terminal, when each transport block in the downlink subframes in which the terminal has detected a downlink assignment is estimated as correctly received by the terminal;

wherein the receiving unit is further being configured to receive from the terminal one encoded NAK message that is modulated into a constellation point that is different from a constellation point into which the ACK message would have been modulated when a downlink assignment transmitted by the base station to the terminal has been established to be missed by the terminal.

51. The arrangement of claim 50, wherein the receiving unit is further configured to receive the encoded ACK message modulated such that the constellation point depends on k, the number of subframes being acknowledged, and to receive the encoded NAK message modulated using a constellation point different from the constellation point that would have been used for modulating the ACK message.

52. The arrangement of claim 51, wherein a received ACK/NAK message uses phase-shift keying (PSK) modulation including multiple PSK constellation points;

a first PSK constellation point is used for the encoded NAK message;

different second PSK constellation points are used for the encoded ACK message for respective different values of k;

the second PSK constellation points are all different from the first PSK constellation point; and

PSK constellation points are selected based on k.

53. The arrangement of claim 50, wherein a received ACK/NAK message uses quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) modulation including a first QPSK constellation point, a second QPSK constellation point, a third QPSK constellation point, and a fourth QPSK constellation point;

the first QPSK constellation point is used for the encoded NAK message;

the second QPSK constellation point is used for the encoded ACK message for k downlink assignments when k=1 or k=4;

the third QPSK constellation point is used for the encoded ACK message for k downlink assignments when k=2; and

the fourth QPSK constellation point is used for the encoded ACK message for k downlink assignments when k=3.