PROVIDING A DOWNLINK CONTROL STRUCTURE IN A FIRST CARRIER TO INDICATE CONTROL INFORMATION IN A SECOND, DIFFERENT CARRIER

• US 20110274066A1
• Filed: 11/04/2009
• Published: 11/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Tee, Lai-King, Wang, Neng, Li, Jun, Song, Yi, Tang, Yuqiang
• Granted Patent: US 8,520,621 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/001 the frequencies being arranged in component carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0094 Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A mobile station receives a downlink control structure in a first carrier, where the downlink control structure indicates that control information for the mobile station is on a second, different carrier. The mobile station decodes the control information in the second carrier, where the control information specifies resource allocation of a wireless link for the mobile station. More specifically, according to some implementations, the control channel in the first carrier specifies the resource allocation for an extended control channel in the second carrier, where the extended control channel specifies the resource allocation for traffic data of a wireless link for the mobile station.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication, comprising:

receiving, by a mobile station, a downlink control structure in a first carrier, wherein the downlink control structure indicates that control information for the mobile station is on a second, different carrier; and

decoding, by the mobile station, the control information in the second carrier, wherein the control information specifies resource allocation of a wireless link for the mobile station.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the control information is in an extended physical downlink control channel (E-PDCCH) region of the second carrier, and wherein decoding the control information comprises decoding the control information in the extended PDCCH region.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising monitoring, by the mobile station, a legacy PDCCH region in the first carrier, wherein the downlink control structure is in the legacy PDCCH region in the first carrier.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the mobile station determining a location and size of the control information in the second carrier based on the downlink control structure.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the downlink control structure comprises receiving the downlink control structure that identifies locations of control information for resource allocation on plural carriers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the downlink control structure comprises receiving the downlink structure that identifies just the second carrier by specifying an identifier of the second carrier.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the downlink control structure comprises receiving a carrier pointer message in a downlink control channel.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the downlink control structure comprises receiving the downlink control structure that has been scrambled using a special radio network temporary identifier (RNTI) for a group of mobile stations with Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (EUTRA)-advanced multi-carrier capability.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the control information is part of a downlink control channel implemented with resource blocks, and wherein the resource blocks are partitioned into resource element groups or control channel elements to be used for signaling to corresponding plural mobile stations.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the downlink control structure comprises receiving the downlink control structure in an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (EUTRA) control channel.

11. A mobile station comprising:

an interface to communicate wirelessly with a base station; and

a processor configured to;

receive a downlink control structure in a first carrier, wherein the downlink control structure indicates that control information for the mobile station is on a second, different carrier; and

decode the control information in the second carrier, wherein the control information specifies resource allocation of a wireless link for the mobile station.

12. The mobile station of claim 11, wherein the control information further specifies one or more of information indicating a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), information relating to a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process, information relating to a redundancy version (RV), and power control information.

13. The mobile station of claim 11, wherein the downlink control structure is in a legacy physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) region in the first carrier, and wherein the control information is in an extended PDCCH region in the second carrier.

14. The mobile station of claim 11, wherein the downlink control structure identifies the control information in plural carriers other than the first carrier, wherein the plural carriers and first carrier are aggregated to provide a larger bandwidth.

15. The mobile station of claim 11, wherein the downlink control structure identifies the control information in just the second carrier, wherein the control information specifies resource allocation for plural carriers that are aggregated to provide a larger bandwidth.

16. The mobile station of claim 11, wherein the downlink control structure specifies a starting location and size of the control information.

17. The mobile station of claim 11, wherein the downlink control structure specifies a size but not a starting location of the control information, wherein the processor is configured to determine the starting location of the control information using a predefined frequency hopping pattern.

18. A base station comprising:

an interface to communicate wirelessly with a mobile station; and

a processor configured to;

provide for wireless communications with the mobile station using an aggregation of plural carriers;

send a downlink control structure on a first of the plural carriers to the mobile station, wherein the downlink control structure identifies control information in at least a second carrier different from the first carrier; and

send the control information to be decoded by the mobile station in a downlink control channel of the second carrier.

19. The base station of claim 18, wherein the downlink control structure is in a primary physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in the first carrier, and the control information is in an extended PDCCH in the second carrier.

20. The base station of claim 19, wherein the PDCCH is according to a Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (EUTRA) standard.