MULTI-HOP WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND RELAY METHOD AND RELAY STATION THEREIN

• US 20110189944A1
• Filed: 09/15/2009
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens AG
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Xue, Yi Sheng, Wang, Xinglin
• Granted Patent: US 8,798,528 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/7
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/155 Ground-based stations H04B7/204 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2606 Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/26 Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation

Abstract

A relay station, which is originally deployed in the multi-hop wireless communication system and used for relaying the communication between a base station and a mobile station, is referred to as an ordinary relay station, and a relay station is referred to as an aid relay station. The aid relay station can decide whether to provide aid to the ordinary relay station, and can be invisible to the base station and the mobile station, namely, the aid relay station will not generate signaling between itself and the base station or the mobile station, and therefore the aid relay station, when being implemented, will not generate extra signaling overheads in the multi-hop wireless communication system; and at the same time, when the relay quality of an aided relay station is poor, it can be improved by the aid relay station, thereby improving the system performance of the multi-hop wireless communication system.

Claims

1. A relay method in a multi-hop wireless communication system, wherein a base station communicates with a mobile station via a first relay station;

comprising;

at least one of;

acquiring by a relay station downlink wireless resource allocation information between said base station and said first relay station and between said first relay station and said mobile station, and uplinking wireless resource allocation information between said mobile station and said first relay station and between said relay station and said base station;

wherein at least one of;

when said relay station decides to aid the downlink relay of said relay station, according to the downlink wireless resource allocation information acquired by it, said relay station forwards the relay data received by it, and sent by said base station to said relay station, to said mobile station by using the downlink wireless resource allocated between said relay station and said mobile station; and

when said relay station decides to aid the uplink relay of said relay station, according to the uplink wireless resource allocation information acquired by it, said relay station forwards the relay data received by it, and sent by said mobile station to said relay station, to said base station by using the uplink wireless resource allocated between said relay station and said base station.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said relay station acquires at least one of said downlink wireless resource allocation information and said uplink wireless resource allocation information by receiving the broadcast messages of said base station.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said relay station acquires at least one of said downlink wireless resource allocation information and said uplink wireless resource allocation information by receiving a public control signaling sent by said base station.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said relay station acquires at least one of the downlink wireless resource allocation information between said base station and said relay station and the uplink wireless resource allocation information between said relay station and said base station by receiving the broadcast messages of said base station;

and, said second relay station acquires at least one of the downlink wireless resource allocation information between said first relay station and said mobile station and the uplink wireless resource allocation information between said mobile station and said first relay station by receiving the public control signaling sent by said first relay station.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of:

when said second relay station confirms that, at this moment, the downlink transmission rate configuration of said mobile station is lower than a first set threshold value by said downlink wireless resource allocation information between said first relay station and said mobile station acquired by it, said second relay station decides to aid the downlink relay of said first relay station; and

when said second relay station confirms that, at this moment, the uplink transmission rate configuration of said mobile station is lower than a second set threshold value by said uplink wireless resource allocation information between said mobile station and said first relay station acquired by it, said second relay station decides to aid the uplink relay of said first relay station.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein at least one of said first threshold value and said second threshold value are set by a system configuration, and can be dynamically adjusted according to the differences in time and geographical regions.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of:

when said second relay station confirms that the number of times a downlink automatic retransmission is requested between said first relay station and said mobile station exceeds a set first threshold, said second relay station decides to aid the downlink relay of said first relay station; and

when said second relay station confirms that the number of times an uplink automatic retransmission is requested between said mobile station and said first relay station exceeds a set second threshold, said second relay station decides to aid the uplink relay of said first relay station.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein at least one of:

said first threshold and said second threshold are set by the system configuration, and can be dynamically adjusted according to the differences in time and geographical regions.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein

when said second relay station decides to aid the downlink of said first relay station, said second relay station judges whether it correctly receives the relay data sent by said base station to said first relay station and whether said first relay station correctly receives the relay data sent by said base station to it, and if both of them receive correctly, said second relay station forwards the relay data, sent by said base station to said first relay station, to said mobile station;

and

when said second relay station decides to aid the uplink of said first relay station, said second relay station judges whether it correctly receives the relay data sent by said mobile station to said first relay station and whether said first relay station correctly receives the relay data sent by said mobile station to said first relay station, and if both of them receive correctly, said second relay station forwards the relay data, sent by said mobile station to said first relay station, to said base station.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of:

when said second relay station decides to aid the downlink relay of said first relay station, said second relay station judges whether it correctly receives the relay data sent by said base station to said first relay station, and if it receives correctly, said second relay station forwards the relay data, sent by said base station to said first relay station, to said mobile station; and

when said second relay station decides to aid the uplink relay of said first relay station, said second relay station judges whether it correctly receives the relay data sent by said mobile station to said first relay station, and if it receives rightly, said second relay station forwards the relay data, sent by said mobile station to said first relay station, to said base station.

11. A multi-hop wireless communication system, comprising a base station, a mobile station and a first relay station, with said base station communicating with said mobile station via said first relay station;

characterized in that, it further comprises a second relay station;

said second relay station is used for acquiring at least one of the downlink wireless resource allocation information between said base station and said first relay station and between said first relay station and said mobile station, and the uplink wireless resource allocation information between said mobile station and said first relay station and between said first relay station and said base station; and

at least one of;

when said second relay station decides to aid the downlink relay of said first relay station, according to the downlink wireless resource allocation information acquired by it, said second relay station forwards the relay data, received by it and sent by said base station to said first relay station, to said mobile station by using the downlink wireless resource allocated between said first relay station and said mobile station; and

when said second relay station decides to aid the uplink relay of said first relay station, according to the uplink wireless resource allocation information acquired by it, said second relay station forwards the relay data, received by it and sent by said mobile station to said first relay station, to said base station by using the uplink wireless resource allocated between said first relay station and said base station.

12. An aid relay station in a multi-hop wireless communication system, wherein said system comprises a base station, a mobile station and an ordinary relay station, and said base station communicates with said mobile station via said ordinary relay station;

wherein;

said aid relay station is used for acquiring at least one of the downlink wireless resource allocation information between said base station and said ordinary relay station and between said ordinary relay station and said mobile station, and the uplink wireless resource allocation information between said mobile station and said ordinary relay station and between said ordinary relay station and said base station; and

at least one of;

when said aid relay station decides to aid the downlink relay of said ordinary relay station, according to the downlink wireless resource allocation information acquired by it, said aid relay station forwards the relay data, received by it and sent by said base station to said ordinary relay station, to said mobile station by using the downlink wireless resource allocated between said ordinary relay station and said mobile station; and

when said aid relay station decides to aid the uplink relay of said ordinary relay station, according to the uplink wireless resource allocation information acquired by it, said aid relay station forwards the relay data, received by it and sent by said mobile station to said ordinary relay station, to said base station by using the uplink wireless resource allocated between said ordinary relay station and said base station.

13. The aid relay station according to claim 12, wherein said aid relay station acquires at least one of the downlink wireless resource allocation information and said uplink wireless resource allocation information by receiving the broadcast messages of said base station.

14. The aid relay station according to claim 12, wherein said aid relay station acquires at least one of the downlink wireless resource allocation information between said base station and said ordinary relay station and uplink wireless resource allocation information between said ordinary relay station and said base station by receiving the broadcast messages of said base station;

and said aid relay station acquires at least one of the downlink wireless resource allocation information between said ordinary relay station and said mobile station and uplink wireless resource allocation information between said mobile station and said ordinary relay station by receiving the public control signaling sent by said ordinary relay station.

15. The aid relay station according to claim 12, wherein at least one of:

when said aid relay station confirms that at this moment, said downlink transmission rate configuration is lower than a set first threshold value by said downlink wireless resource allocation information between said ordinary relay station and said mobile station acquired by it, said aid relay station decides to aid the downlink relay of said ordinary relay station; and

when said aid relay station confirms that at this moment, the uplink transmission rate configuration is lower than a set second threshold value by the uplink wireless resource allocation information between said mobile station and said ordinary relay station acquired by it, said aid relay station decides to aid the uplink relay of said ordinary relay station.

16. The aid relay station according to claim 12, wherein at least one of:

when said aid relay station confirms that when the number of times the downlink automatic retransmission requested between said ordinary relay station and said mobile station is greater than a set first threshold, said aid relay station decides to aid the downlink relay of said ordinary relay station; and

when said aid relay station confirms that the number of times the uplink automatic retransmission is requested between said mobile station and said ordinary relay station is greater than a set second threshold, said aid relay station decides to aid the uplink relay of said ordinary relay station.

17. The aid relay station according to claim 12, wherein at least one of:

when said aid relay station decides to aid the downlink relay of said ordinary relay station, said aid relay station judges whether it correctly receives the relay data sent by said base station to said ordinary relay station and whether said ordinary relay station correctly receives the relay data sent by said base station to it, and if both of them receive correctly, said aid relay station forwards the relay data, sent by said base station to said ordinary relay station, to said mobile station; and

when said aid relay station decides to aid the uplink of said ordinary relay station, said aid relay station judges whether it correctly receives the relay data sent by said mobile station to said ordinary relay station and whether said ordinary relay station correctly receives the relay data sent by said mobile station to it, and if both of them receive correctly, said aid relay station forwards the relay data, sent by said mobile station to said ordinary relay station, to said base station.

18. The aid relay station according to claim 12, wherein at least one of:

when said aid relay station decides to aid the downlink relay of said ordinary relay station, said aid relay station judges whether it correctly receives the relay data sent by said base station to said ordinary relay station, and if it receives correctly, said aid relay station forwards the relay data, sent by said base station to said ordinary relay station, to said mobile station; and

when said aid relay station decides to aid the uplink relay of said ordinary relay station, said aid relay station judges whether it correctly receives the relay data sent by said mobile station to said ordinary relay station, and if it receives correctly, said aid relay station forwards the relay data, sent by said mobile station to said ordinary relay station, to said base station.

19. The aid relay station according to claim 12, wherein said aid relay station and said ordinary relay station are located in the same cell.

20. The aid relay station according to claim 12, wherein said aid relay station and said ordinary relay station are located in different cells.