System and Method for Signaling and Transmitting Uplink Reference Signals

• US 20130039387A1
• Filed: 08/10/2011
• Published: 02/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Futurewei Technologies Incorporated (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Qu, Bingyu
• Granted Patent: US 8,693,420 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/141
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2613 Structure of the reference signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0012 Hopping in multicarrier systems for frequency hopping in spread spectrum systems H04B1/713
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0026 Division using four or more dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0037 Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0051 of dedicated pilots, i.e. pilots destined for a single user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0073 Allocation arrangements that take into account other cell interferences for intercell interference mitigation or co-ordination in orthogonal multiplex systems H04J11/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0094 Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated

Abstract

A system and method for signaling and transmitting uplink reference signals are provided. A method for communications controller operations includes signaling information about a set of sequence groups to a first communications device, where the first communications device uses a sequence in the set of sequence groups to modulate a reference signal. The method also includes selecting a sequence group from the set of sequence groups and signaling information about the selected sequence group to the first communications device.

Claims

1. A method for communications controller operations, the method comprising:

signaling information related to a set of sequence groups to a first communications device, wherein the first communications device uses a sequence in the set of sequence groups to modulate a reference signal;

selecting a sequence group from the set of sequence groups; and

signaling information related to the selected sequence group to the first communications device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the signaling information related to the set of sequence groups comprises signaling the information related to the set of sequence groups using higher layer signaling.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the higher layer signaling comprises radio resource control signaling or media access control signaling.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information related to the set of sequence groups comprises a sequence shift pattern and a sequence group hopping pattern for each sequence group in a subset of sequence groups in the set of sequence groups.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the information related to the set of sequence groups further comprises a number of sequence groups in the set of sequence groups.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the information related to the subset of sequence groups further comprises a hopping disable indicator.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein there is a hopping disable indicator for each sequence group in the subset of sequence groups.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising scheduling a first resource allocation for the first communications device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the selecting a sequence group is based on the first resource allocation.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first communications device is served by a first communications controller, and wherein selecting the sequence group is further based on a second resource allocation for a second communications device served by the first communications controller.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the first communications device is served by a first communications controller, and wherein the selecting the sequence group is further based on a third resource allocation for a third communications device served by a second communications controller.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the first resource allocation overlaps at least in part with a fourth resource allocation for a fourth communications device, and wherein the selected sequence group is equal to a sequence group selected the fourth communications device.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the signaling information related to the selected sequence group comprises signaling the information about the selected sequence group using Layer One and/or Layer Two signaling.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the information related to the selected sequence group comprises an m bit long bit sequence, where m is an integer value.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the set of sequence groups comprises n sequence groups, and wherein a k-th subset of states of the bit sequence is mapped to sequences in a k-th sequence group, where k is an integer value and ranges from 1 to n.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein a p-th sequence group comprises a cell identifier specific sequence group, and wherein a p-th subset of states of the bit sequence is mapped to sequences in the cell identifier specific sequence group and is further mapped to ACK/NACK offsets for a downlink ACK/NACK channel, where a corresponding relationship between sequences in the cell identifier specific sequence group and the ACK/NACK offsets is the same as a relationship for legacy communications devices, and p is a predefined integer value.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the states of the k-th subset of states are mapped to sequences in the k-th sequence group that are a largest distance away from other sequences in the k-th sequence group in terms of cyclic shifts.

48. The method of claim 1, where the information related to the set of sequence groups comprise a single hopping disable indicator for the set of sequence groups.

18. A method for communications device operations, the method comprising:

decoding a first signaling from a communications controller to retrieve information related to a set of sequence groups or to a sub-set of sequence groups in the set of sequence groups;

decoding a second signaling from the communications controller to retrieve information related to a selected sequence group within the set of sequence groups;

modulating a reference signal with a sequence from the selected sequence group; and

transmitting the modulated reference signal.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the first signaling is transmitted by higher layer signaling.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the higher layer signaling comprises radio resource control signaling or media access control signaling.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the second signaling comprises Layer One and/or Layer Two signaling.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the information related to the set of sequence groups comprises a sequence shift pattern and a sequence group hopping pattern for each sequence group in a subset of sequence groups in the set of sequence groups.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the information related to the subset of sequence groups further comprises a hopping disable indicator.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein the information related to the selected sequence group comprises an m bit long bit sequence, where m is an integer value.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the bit sequence corresponds to a sequence in the selected sequence group.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the set of sequence groups comprises n sequence groups, and wherein a k-th subset of states of the bit sequence is mapped to sequences in a k-th sequence group, where k is an integer value and ranges from 1 to n.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein a p-th sequence group comprises a cell identifier specific sequence group, and wherein a p-th subset of states of bit sequence is mapped to sequences in the cell identifier specific sequence group and is further mapped to ACK/NACK offsets for a downlink ACK/NACK channel, where a corresponding relationship between sequences in the cell identifier specific sequence group and the ACK/NACK offsets is the same as a relationship for legacy communications devices, and p is a predefined integer.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the states of the k-th subset of states are mapped to sequences in the k-th sequence group that are a largest distance away from other sequences in the k-th sequence group in terms of cyclic shifts.

46. The method of claim 18, wherein decoding a first signaling from a communications controller to retrieve information related to the subset of sequence groups comprises:

obtaining a sequence group hopping pattern information for the PUSCH in accordance with the formula;

n_hop=└

x/30┘

, where n_hop is the sequence group hopping pattern information, and x is a value configured by higher layer signaling; and

obtaining a sequence shift pattern for the PUSCH in accordance with the formula;

f_ss^PUSCH=x mod 30, where f_ss^PUSCH is the sequence-shift pattern for the PUSCH.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein x is a received version of n_hop×

30+f_ss^PUSCH, where n_hop is an integer between zero and sixteen, and f_ss^PUSCH is an integer between zero and twenty-nine.

29. A device comprising:

a scheduler configured to select a sequence group from a set of sequence groups; and

a signaling unit configured to signal information related to the set of sequence groups to a first communications device, wherein the first communications device uses a sequence in the set of sequence groups to modulate a reference signal, and to signal information related to the selected sequence group to the first communications device.

30. The device of claim 29, wherein the information related to the set of sequence groups is signaled using higher layer signaling.

31. The device of claim 29, wherein the information related to the set of sequence groups comprises a sequence shift pattern and a sequence group hopping pattern for each sequence group in a subset of sequence groups in the set of sequence groups.

32. The device of claim 29, wherein the scheduler is further configured to schedule a first resource allocation for the first communications device, and wherein the scheduler selects the sequence group based on the first resource allocation.

33. The device of claim 29, wherein the first communications device is served by the device, and wherein the scheduler selects the sequence group based on a second resource allocation for a second communications device served by the device.

34. The device of claim 29, wherein the information related to the selected sequence group is signaled using Layer One and/or Layer Two signaling.

35. The device of claim 29, wherein the information related to the selected sequence group comprises an m bit long bit sequence, where m is an integer value.

36. The device of claim 35, wherein the set of sequence groups comprises n sequence groups, wherein a k-th subset of states of the bit sequence is mapped to sequences in a k-th sequence group, where k is an integer value and ranges from 1 to n, and wherein a p-th sequence group comprises a cell identifier specific sequence group, and p is a predefined integer value.

37. A communications device comprising:

a first signaling decoding unit configured to decode a first signaling from a communication controller to retrieve information related to a set of sequence groups;

a second signaling decoding unit configured to decode a second signaling from the communications controller to retrieve information related to a selected sequence group;

a transmission prepare unit configured to modulate a reference signal with a sequence from the selected sequence group; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the modulated reference signal.

38. The device of claim 37, wherein the information related to the set of sequence groups comprises a sequence shift pattern and a sequence group hopping pattern for each sequence group in a subset of sequence groups in the set of sequence groups.

39. The device of claim 38, wherein the information related to the subset of sequence groups further comprises a hopping disable indicator.

40. The device of claim 37, wherein the information related to the selected sequence group comprises an m bit long bit sequence, where m is an integer value.

41. The device of claim 40, wherein the bit sequence corresponds to a sequence in the selected sequence group.

42. A method for communications controller operations, the method comprising:

signaling information related to a first set of sequence groups to a first communications device served by a communications controller;

signaling information related to a second set of sequence groups to a second communications device served by the communications controller;

selecting a first sequence group from the first set of sequence groups for the first communications device;

selecting a second sequence group from the second set of sequence groups for the second communications device, wherein the first sequence group differs from the second sequence group;

signaling information related to the first sequence group to the first communications device; and

signaling information related to the second sequence group to the second communications device.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein either the first sequence group or the second sequence group is different from a cell identifier specific sequence group associated with the communications controller.

44. The method of claim 42, wherein the first sequence group is the same as a sequence group associated with a third communications device served by a second communications controller, wherein a first resource allocation for the first communications device and a second resource allocation for the third communications device overlap by at least one resource, and wherein a first transmission of the first communications device and a second transmission of the third communications device have substantially equal receive signal strength at the second communications controller.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the first transmission of the first communications device and the second transmission of the third communications device are differentiable in a spatial domain at the second communications controller.

49. A method for determining a sequence for a reference signal of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), the method comprising:

if a value “

x”

for determining a sequence group of the PUSCH has been provided by higher layer signaling, then;

determining a sequence shift pattern for the PUSCH in accordance with the formula;

f_ss^PUSCH=x mod 30, where f_ss^PUSCH is the sequence-shift pattern for the PUSCH; and

determining a sequence group hopping pattern information for the PUSCH in accordance with the formula;

n_hop=└

x/30┘

where n^hop is the sequence group hopping pattern information; and

if the value “

x”

for determining a sequence group of the PUSCH has not been provided by higher layer signaling, then;

determining the sequence shift pattern for a sequence group of PUSCH in accordance with the formula;

f_ss^PUSCH=(N_ICD^cell+Δ

_ss)mod 30, where f_ss^PUSCH is the sequence-shift pattern for the PUSCH, Δ

_ss is a PUSCH sequence group delta value that is configured by higher layer signaling, and N_ID^cell is a physical-layer cell identity; and

determining a sequence group hopping pattern information for the PUSCH in accordance with the formula;

n_hop=└

N_ID^cell/30┘

, where n_hop is the sequence group hopping pattern information.

50. The method of claim 49 further comprising:

determining an initial value for the sequence hopping pattern or shift hopping pattern, wherein the initial value is determined to be equal to └

x/30┘

·

2⁵+(x mod

     30).

51. The method of claim 49, where the value “

x”

is a received version of n_hop·

30+f_ss^PUSCH, wherein n_hop is an integer between zero and sixteen, and wherein f_ss^PUSCH is an integer between zero and twenty-nine.

52. A method for signaling a sequence for a reference signal of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), the method comprising:

signal a value “

x”

for a sequence group of the PUSCH by higher layer signaling,

wherein the value “

x”

is used to determine a sequence shift pattern for the PUSCH in accordance with the formula;

f_ss^PUSCH=x mod 30, where f_ss^PUSCH is the sequence-shift pattern for the PUSCH, and

wherein the value “

x”

is used to determine a sequence group hopping pattern information for the PUSCH in accordance with the formula;

n_hop=└

x/30┘

where n^hop is the sequence group hopping pattern information.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein the value “

x”

is used to determine an initial value for the sequence hopping pattern or shift hopping pattern, and wherein the initial value is determined to be equal to └

x/30┘

·

2⁵+(x mod

     30).

54. The method of claim 52, wherein the value “

x”

is equal to n_hop·

30+f_ss^PUSCH, wherein n_hop is an integer between zero and sixteen, and wherein f_ss^PUSCH is an integer between zero and twenty-nine.