Transmitter, Receiver and Methods for Downlink Control Signalling

• US 20130039348A1
• Filed: 09/21/2010
• Published: 02/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Hu, Yang, Astely, David, Song, Xinghua, Jngren, George
• Application Number:
  US13/643,238
• Publication Number:
  US 20130039348A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/335
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0613 using simultaneous transmission H04B7/0686 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0665 Feed forward of transmit weights to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0862 receiver computing weights based on information from the transmitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0091 Signaling for the administration of the divided path

Abstract

Downlink control information (DCI) extensions to support 3GPP Rel-10 functionalities comprise minimal extensions of DCI format 2B. In some embodiments, only two extra bits (20) are introduced to signal rank up to eight, by reusing the Scrambling Identity bit (16) while at the same time supporting different MU-MIMO dimensioning for the important cases of rank-1 and rank-2. This new DCI format can potentially support not only single cell downlink transmission but also some other Rel-10 functionalities, e.g. CoMP or relaying/HetNet.

Claims

1-28. -28. (canceled)

29. A method in a transmitter for indicating to a receiver a transmission rank value used in a downlink transmission from the transmitter, the method comprising:

jointly encoding two additional bits with a 1-bit Scrambling Identity (SI) bit to implicitly indicate a transmission rank value in the range of 3 to 8; and

transmitting a message in a downlink control information (DCI) format, wherein the DCI format comprises a 1-bit New Data Indicator (NDI), the 1-bit SI and disabled or enabled Transport Blocks (TBs) and the two additional bits that are jointly encoded with the 1-bit SI to implicitly indicate the transmission rank values of 3-8.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the DCI format is based on DCI format 2B, as defined in 3GPP TS 36.212 v9.0.0, modified to support 8×

8 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) transmission, and wherein the modification comprises the addition of the two additional bits to DCI format 2B.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the SI is used for different Multi User MIMO (MU-MIMO) dimensioning.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein four demodulation reference signal ports in two code division multiplexing groups are signaled with one scrambling sequence.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein ports 7 and 8 in one code division multiplexing group and ports 9 and 10 in another code division multiplexing group are used.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the ports are signaled using the SI for rank-1 and rank-2 messages.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the ports are signaled using either or both of the two additional bits.

36. The method of claim 30, wherein four demodulation reference signal ports in one code division multiplexing group are signaled with one scrambling sequence.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein ports 7, 8, 11, and 13 in one code division multiplexing group are used, and wherein a length-4 orthogonal cover code is applied.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the orthogonal cover code length is signaled using the SI for rank-1 and rank-2 messages

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the orthogonal cover code length is signaled using either or both of the two additional bits.

40. The method of claim 29, wherein the two additional bits are used for signaling other transmission scenarios.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the other transmission scenarios are selected from the group consisting of single cell Multi-user Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO), Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP), and relaying/Heterogeneous Network.

42. A method in a receiver for enabling the receiver to determine a transmission rank value used in downlink transmission, the method comprising:

receiving a message in a downlink control information (DCI) format, the message comprising a 1-bit New Data Indicator (NDI), a 1-bit Scrambling Identity (SI), disabled or enabled Transport Blocks (TBs), and two bits that are jointly encoded with the 1-bit SI to implicitly indicate the transmission rank values of 3-8; and

configuring the receiver to receive data according to the DCI format and the indicated transmission rank value.

43. A transmitter operative to indicate to a receiver a transmission rank value used in a downlink transmission from the transmitter, comprising:

a processing circuit operative to direct a transmitting circuit to transmit a message in a downlink control information (DCI) format, wherein the DCI format comprises a 1-bit New Data Indicator (NDI), a 1-bit Scrambling Identity (SI), and disabled or enabled Transport Blocks (TBs), which DCI format comprises two additional bits, and the 1-bit SI and the two additional bits are jointly encoded to implicitly indicate the transmission rank values of 3-8.

44. The transmitter of claim 43, wherein the DCI format is based on DCI format 2B, as defined in 3GPP TS 36.212 v9.0.0, modified to support 8×

8 Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO) transmission, and wherein the modification comprises the addition of the two additional bits to DCI format 2B.

45. The transmitter of claim 44, wherein the transmitter is configured to use the SI for different Multi-User-MIMO dimensioning.

46. The transmitter of claim 44, wherein the transmitter is configured to signal four demodulation reference signal ports in two code division multiplexing groups with one scrambling sequence.

47. The transmitter of claim 46, wherein the transmitter is configured to use ports 7 and 8 in one code division multiplexing group and ports 9 and 10 in another code division multiplexing group.

48. The transmitter of claim 47, wherein the transmitter is configured to signal the ports using the SI for rank-1 and rank-2 messages.

49. The transmitter of claim 47, wherein the transmitter is configured to signal the ports using either or both of the two additional bits.

50. The transmitter of claim 44, wherein the transmitter is configured to signal four demodulation reference signal ports in one code division multiplexing group with one scrambling sequence.

51. The transmitter of claim 50, wherein the transmitter is configured to use ports 7, 8, 11, and 13 in one code division multiplexing group, and to apply a length-4 orthogonal cover code.

52. The transmitter of claim 51, wherein the transmitter is configured to signal the orthogonal cover code length using the SI for rank-1 and rank-2 messages

53. The transmitter of claim 51, wherein the transmitter is configured to signal the orthogonal cover code length using either or both of the two additional bits.

54. The transmitter of claim 43, wherein the transmitter is configured to also use the two additional bits for signaling other transmission scenarios.

55. The transmitter of claim 54, wherein the other transmission scenarios are selected from the group consisting of single cell Multiuser Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO), Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP), and relaying/Heterogeneous Network.

56. A receiver operative to determine a transmission rank value used in a downlink transmission, the receiver comprising:

a receiving circuit operative to receive a message in a downlink control information (DCI) format that comprises a 1-bit new data indicator (NDI), a 1-bit Scrambling Identity (SI), disabled or enabled Transport Blocks (TBs), and two additional bits that are jointly encoded with the 1-bit SI to implicitly indicate a transmission rank value in the range of 3-8; and

a processing circuit operative to configure the receiver to receive data according to the DCI format and the indicated transmission rank value.