APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING RELAY BACKHAUL COMMUNICATIONS IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20110103295A1
• Filed: 10/29/2010
• Published: 05/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Farajidana, Amir, Gorokhov, Alexei Yurievich, Palanki, Ravi, Montojo, Juan, Chen, Wanshi, Khandekar, Aamod Dinkar, Ji, Tingfang
• Granted Patent: US 9,014,080 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/315
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/15542 Selecting at relay station its transmit and receive resources selection of wireless resources by user or terminal H04W72/02; arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path by two-dimensional division of the resources H04L5/0003, or by allocating sub-channels H04L5/003
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2606 Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations

Abstract

An apparatus and method for designing a relay backhaul channel in a wireless communication system are provided. At least one relay node utilized for communication with respective user devices and at least one relay backhaul channel for conducting in-band half-duplex communication with the at least one relay node are identified. The relay backhaul channel may be an FDM channel, a TDM/FDM channel, or a joint R-PDCCH/R-PDSCH channel. The relay channel is used for communicating with the at least one relay node. The supportable ranks of the R-PDSCH channel may depend on the number of resources reserved for demodulation reference signals in the R-PDCCH region.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating relay backhaul communication in a wireless communication system using at least one relay node, the method comprising:

identifying at least one relay node utilized for communication with respective user devices;

identifying at least one relay backhaul control channel for conducting communication with the at least one relay node, wherein the at least one relay backhaul control channel comprises a control portion of a first set of resource blocks (RBs);

identifying, in the control portion of the first set of RBs, a first set of resources providing reference signals configured for demodulation of the at least one relay backhaul control channel;

identifying, in the control portion of the first set of RBs, a second set of resources providing reference signals configured for demodulation of at least one relay backhaul data channel, the second set of resources including at least the first set of resources; and

communicating with the at least one relay node using the at least one relay backhaul control channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one relay backhaul data channel comprises a non-control portion of a second set of RBs.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first set of RBs and the second set of RBs are not overlapped.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the non-control portion comprises all set of resources of the second set of RBs.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the first set of RBs and the second set of RBs are at least partially overlapped.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the non-control portion of the second set of RBs is free of resources belonging to the control portion of the first second of RBs.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the first set of resources comprises the second set of resources.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a rank of transmission associated with the relay backhaul data channel is limited by the first set of resources.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the second set of resources is larger than the first set of resources.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein a rank of transmission associated with the relay backhaul data channel is limited by the second set of resources.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference signals are common reference signals.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference signals are relay node specific reference signals.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the control portion comprises all the resources of the first set of RBs.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the control portion comprises only a fraction of the resources of the first set of RBs.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one relay backhaul channel comprises one or more of R-PDCCH, R-PHICH, or R-PCFICH.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying at least one relay backhaul channel comprises identifying a R-PDCCH occupying respective RBs in the frequency domain.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising interleaving multiple relay nodes on the respective RBs.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the interleaving is performed based on a resource element group (REG).

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the REG comprises four resource elements (REs).

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the four REs comprise four REs substantially adjacent to each other in the frequency domain within one OFDM symbol.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein each relay backhaul control channel comprises a granularity of 9 REGs.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying at least one relay backhaul control channel comprises identifying a R-PDCCH occupying time-domain fractions of respective RBs in the frequency domain.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying at least one relay backhaul channel comprises identifying at least one RB containing resources for R-PDCCH transmission and PDSCH transmission.

24. An apparatus for facilitating relay backhaul communication in a wireless communication system, the apparatus comprising:

at least one relay node utilized for communication with respective user devices;

at least one relay backhaul control channel for conducting communication with the at least one relay node, wherein the at least one relay backhaul control channel comprises a control portion of a first set of resource blocks (RBs);

a first set of resources in the control portion of the first set of RBs, the first set of resources providing reference signals configured for demodulation of the at least one relay backhaul control channel; and

a second set of resources in the control portion of the first set of RBs, the second set of resources providing reference signals configured for demodulation of at least one relay backhaul data channel and including at least the first set of resources.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the at least one relay backhaul data channel comprises a non-control portion of a second set of RBs.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the first set of RBs and the second set of RBs are not overlapped.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the non-control portion comprises all set of resources of the second set of RBs.

28. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the first set of RBs and the second set of RBs are at least partially overlapped.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the non-control portion of the second set of RBs is free of resources belonging to the control portion of the first second of RBs.

30. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the first set of resources comprises the second set of resources.

31. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein a rank of transmission associated with the relay backhaul data channel is limited by the first set of resources.

32. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the second set of resources is larger than the first set of resources.

33. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein a rank of transmission associated with the relay backhaul data channel is limited by the second set of resources.

34. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the reference signals are common reference signals.

35. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the reference signals are relay node specific reference signals.

36. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the control portion comprises all the resources of the first set of RBs.

37. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the control portion comprises only a fraction of the resources of the first set of RBs.

38. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the at least one relay backhaul channel comprises one or more of R-PDCCH, R-PHICH, or R-PCFICH.

39. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the at least one relay backhaul channel comprises a R-PDCCH occupying respective RBs in the frequency domain.

40. A computer program product for facilitating relay backhaul communication in a wireless communication system using at least one relay node, the computer program product comprising:

a computer-readable medium comprising code for;

identifying at least one relay node utilized for communication with respective user devices;

identifying at least one relay backhaul control channel for conducting communication with the at least one relay node, wherein the at least one relay backhaul control channel comprises a control portion of a first set of resource blocks (RBs);

identifying, in the control portion of the first set of RBs, a first set of resources providing reference signals configured for demodulation of the at least one relay backhaul control channel;

identifying, in the control portion of the first set of RBs, a second set of resources providing reference signals configured for demodulation of at least one relay backhaul data channel, the second set of resources including at least the first set of resources; and

communicating with the at least one relay node using the at least one relay backhaul control channel.

41. The computer program product of claim 40, wherein the at least one relay backhaul data channel comprises a non-control portion of a second set of RBs.

42. The computer program product of claim 41, wherein the first set of RBs and the second set of RBs are not overlapped.

43. The computer program product of claim 41, wherein the non-control portion comprises all set of resources of the second set of RBs.

44. The computer program product of claim 41, wherein the first set of RBs and the second set of RBs are at least partially overlapped.

45. The computer program product of claim 41, wherein the non-control portion of the second set of RBs is free of resources belonging to the control portion of the first second of RBs.

46. The computer program product of claim 41, wherein the first set of resources comprises the second set of resources.

47. The computer program product of claim 46, wherein a rank of transmission associated with the relay backhaul data channel is limited by the first set of resources.

48. The computer program product of claim 40, wherein the second set of resources is larger than the first set of resources.

49. The computer program product of claim 40, wherein a rank of transmission associated with the relay backhaul data channel is limited by the second set of resources.

50. The computer program product of claim 40, wherein the reference signals are common reference signals.

51. The computer program product of claim 40, wherein the reference signals are relay node specific reference signals.

52. The computer program product of claim 40, wherein the control portion comprises all the resources of the first set of RBs.

53. The computer program product of claim 40, wherein the control portion comprises only a fraction of the resources of the first set of RBs.

54. The computer program product of claim 40, wherein the at least one relay backhaul channel comprises one or more of R-PDCCH, R-PHICH, or R-PCFICH.

55. The computer program product of claim 40, wherein identifying at least one relay backhaul channel comprises identifying a R-PDCCH occupying respective RBs in the frequency domain.

56. The computer program product of claim 55, further comprising interleaving multiple relay nodes on the respective RBs.

57. The computer program product of claim 56, wherein the interleaving is performed based on a resource element group (REG).

58. The computer program product of claim 57, wherein the REG comprises four resource elements (REs).

59. The computer program product of claim 58, wherein the four REs comprise four REs substantially adjacent to each other in the frequency domain within one OFDM symbol.

60. The computer program product of claim 57, wherein each relay backhaul control channel comprises a granularity of 9 REGs.

61. The computer program product of claim 40, wherein identifying at least one relay backhaul control channel comprises identifying a R-PDCCH occupying time-domain fractions of respective RBs in the frequency domain.

62. The computer program product of claim 40, wherein identifying at least one relay backhaul channel comprises identifying at least one RB containing resources for R-PDCCH transmission and PDSCH transmission.

63. An apparatus for facilitating relay backhaul communication in a wireless communication system using at least one relay node, the apparatus comprising:

means for identifying at least one relay node utilized for communication with respective user devices;

means for identifying at least one relay backhaul control channel for conducting communication with the at least one relay node, wherein the at least one relay backhaul control channel comprises a control portion of a first set of resource blocks (RBs);

means for identifying, in the control portion of the first set of RBs, a first set of resources providing reference signals configured for demodulation of the at least one relay backhaul control channel;

means for identifying, in the control portion of the first set of RBs, a second set of resources providing reference signals configured for demodulation of at least one relay backhaul data channel, the second set of resources including at least the first set of resources; and

means for communicating with the at least one relay node using the at least one relay backhaul control channel.