SIGNALING OF OTHER-CELL SIGNAL'S CONFIGURATION INFORMATION TO FACILITATE INTERFERENCE CANCELLATION AT A MOBILE TERMINAL

• US 20130077578A1
• Filed: 04/19/2012
• Published: 03/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corporation Limited
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: WANG, Yi-Pin Eric, Reial, Andres, Ramos, Edgar, Parkvall, Stefan, Grant, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 8,958,753 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/71075 Parallel interference cancellation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/712 Weighting of fingers for combining, e.g. amplitude control or phase rotation using an inner loop
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference

Abstract

In MU-MIMO scenarios, a target mobile terminal can be exposed to data streams intended for other mobile terminals. If the target mobile terminal is capable of interference cancellation, then a serving base station can provide the target mobile terminal with interference information so that the target mobile terminal can efficiently cancel interferences due to these interfering data streams. The interference information includes one or more configuration information, each of which characterizes a related interfering data stream. The serving base station provides the interference information over one or more radio resources that are exclusive allocated to the target mobile terminal or are allocated for common listening. The serving base station exchanges configuration information with neighboring base stations over inter-BS links. The inter-BS links use resources that are different from the radio resources used between the base stations and the mobile terminals.

Claims

1. A method performed in a serving base station of a wireless network providing communication services to a target mobile terminal, the method comprising:

receiving from one or more neighboring base stations over one or more inter-BS links one or more configuration information related to one or more interfering data streams, each interfering data stream being a data stream transmitted by a neighboring base station and intended for a mobile terminal other than the target mobile terminal, and each configuration information characterizing a related interfering data stream;

forming an interference information for the target mobile terminal based on the one or more configuration information received from the one or more neighboring base stations, the interference information comprising the configuration information related to at least one interfering data stream;

transmitting the interference information to the target mobile terminal over a radio resource set, the radio resource set comprising one or more radio resources used to carry data from the serving base station to the target mobile terminal; and

transmitting scheduled data to the target mobile terminal over the radio resource set, the scheduled data comprising one or more data streams intended for transmission from the serving base station to the target mobile terminal,

wherein the inter-BS links are communication links for communication among base stations, each inter-BS-link utilizing communication resources different from the radio resource(s) used between the base stations and mobile terminals in the network,

wherein the radio resource(s) used in the step of transmitting the scheduled data are exclusively allocated to the target mobile terminal, and

wherein the radio resource(s) used in the step of transmitting the interference information are either exclusively allocated to the target mobile terminal or are allocated for common listening by the target mobile terminal and a mobile terminal co-scheduled with the target mobile terminal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a radio resource is allocated for common listening when one or more of the following applies:

the radio resource is commonly allocated to the target mobile terminal and the co-scheduled mobile terminal,

the radio resource is allocated to the target mobile terminal but commonly listened to by the co-scheduled mobile terminal, and

the radio resource is allocated to the co-scheduled mobile terminal but commonly listened to by the target mobile terminal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the interference information enables the target mobile terminal to decode at least one interfering data stream.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration information for each interfering data stream comprises any one or more of a transport format, a modulation and coding scheme, a coding rate, an identification of other terminal to which that interfering data stream is intended, a scrambling code, a channelization code, downlink resource elements scheduled for the other terminal, a category of the other terminal, a MIMO rank, precoding information, antenna power allocation, and HARQ redundancy version.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein the radio resource set comprises first and second radio resource sets, the first radio resource set comprising the radio resource(s) used in the step of transmitting the interference information, and the second radio resource set comprising the radio resource(s) used in the step of transmitting the scheduled data, and

wherein the radio resource(s) of the first radio resource set are all different from the radio resource(s) of the second radio resource set.

6. The method of claim 5,

wherein the radio resource(s) of the first radio resource set are exclusively allocated to the target mobile terminal, and

wherein the step of forming the interference information for the target mobile terminal comprises:

determining, for each interfering data stream, whether a level of an interference to the target mobile terminal contributed by that interfering data stream will exceed a predetermined threshold interference level; and

including in the interference information the configuration information of those interfering data streams whose interference contribution level exceeds the predetermined threshold interference level.

7. The method of claim 5,

wherein the radio resource(s) of the first radio resource set are allocated for common listening, and

wherein the step of forming the interference information to the target mobile terminal comprises:

determining, for each interfering data stream, whether a level of an interference to any co-scheduled mobile terminal contributed by that interfering data stream will exceed a predetermined threshold interference level; and

including in the interference information the configuration information of those interfering data streams whose interference contribution level exceeds the predetermined threshold interference level to any commonly scheduled mobile terminal.

8. The method of claim 5,

wherein the step of transmitting the interference information to the target mobile terminal comprises:

setting a first modulation and coding scheme;

encoding and modulating and the interference information based on the first modulation and coding scheme to generate a first stream of modulation symbols; and

transmitting the first stream over the radio resource(s) of the first radio resource set,

wherein the step of transmitting the scheduled data to the target mobile terminal comprises;

setting a second modulation and coding scheme;

encoding and modulating the scheduled data based on the second modulation and coding scheme to generate a second stream of modulation symbols; and

transmitting the second stream over radio resource(s) of the second radio resource set,

wherein the first and second modulation and coding schemes are independently set.

9. The method of claim 1,

wherein all radio resources of the radio resource set are exclusively allocated to the target mobile terminal, and

wherein the steps of forming the interference information, the step of transmitting the interference information and the step of transmitting the scheduled data to the target mobile terminal comprise:

forming an interference block comprising the configuration information of the interfering data streams;

forming a transport block comprising the scheduled data;

extending the transport block to include the interference block to form an extended transport block;

setting a modulation and coding scheme for the extended transport block;

encoding and modulating the extended transport based on the modulation and coding scheme to generate an extended stream of modulation symbols; and

transmitting the extended stream over all radio resources of the radio resource set.

10. The method of claim 9,

wherein the radio resource set comprises a plurality of radio resources, and

wherein the step of transmitting the extended stream comprises:

mapping each modulation symbol of the extended stream to one or more radio resources of the radio resource set such that each radio resource is mapped to at least one modulation symbol of the extended stream; and

transmitting the extended stream in accordance to the mapping.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of forming the interference block comprises:

forming a base block comprising the configuration information of the interfering data streams; and

forming the interference configuration block by one or both of;

repeating the base block a predetermined number of times greater than one, and

encoding the base block with a predetermined error correction code.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending configuration information related to the scheduled data from the base station to the one or more neighboring base stations over the one or more inter-BS links.

13. A method performed in a target mobile terminal capable of performing interference cancellation, the method comprising:

receiving interference information transmitted from a serving base station over a radio resource set, the interference information comprising one or more configuration information related to one or more interfering data streams, each interfering data stream being a data stream transmitted by a neighboring base station and intended for a mobile terminal other than the target mobile terminal, and each configuration information characterizing a related interfering data stream;

receiving scheduled data transmitted from the serving base station over the radio resource set, the scheduled data comprising one or more data streams intended for transmission from the serving base station to the target mobile terminal; and

canceling interferences from the scheduled data based on the interference information,

wherein the radio resource set comprises one or more radio resources used to carry data from the serving base station to the target mobile terminal,

wherein the radio resource(s) used in the step of receiving the scheduled data are exclusively allocated to the target mobile terminal, and

wherein the radio resource(s) used in the step of receiving the interference information are either exclusively allocated to the target mobile terminal or are allocated for common listening by the target mobile terminal and a mobile terminal co-scheduled with the target mobile terminal.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein a radio resource is allocated for common listening when one or more of the following applies:

the radio resource is commonly allocated to the target mobile terminal and the co-scheduled mobile terminal,

the radio resource is allocated to the target mobile terminal but commonly listened to by the co-scheduled mobile terminal, and

the radio resource is allocated to the co-scheduled mobile terminal but commonly listened to by the target mobile terminal.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the interference information enables the target mobile terminal to decode at least one interfering data stream.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the configuration information for each interfering data stream comprises any one or more of a transport format, a modulation and coding scheme, a coding rate, an identification of other terminal to which that interfering data stream is intended, a scrambling code, a channelization code, downlink resource elements scheduled for the other terminal, a category of the other terminal, a MIMO rank, precoding information, antenna power allocation, and HARQ redundancy version.

17. The method of claim 13,

wherein the radio resource set comprises first and second radio resource sets, the first radio resource set comprising the radio resource(s) used in the step of receiving the interference information, and the second radio resource set comprising the radio resource(s) used in the step of receiving the scheduled data, and

wherein the radio resource(s) of the first radio resource set are all different from the radio resource(s) of the second radio resource set.

18. The method of claim 17,

wherein the step of receiving the interference information from the serving base station comprises:

determining a first modulation and coding scheme used to encode and modulate the interference information; and

demodulating and decoding the interference information based on the first modulation and coding scheme, and

wherein the step of receiving the scheduled data from the serving base station comprises;

determining a second modulation and coding scheme encode and modulate the scheduled data; and

demodulating and decoding the scheduled data based on the second modulation and coding scheme, and

wherein the first and second modulation and coding schemes are independently determined.

19. The method of claim 17,

wherein all radio resources of the radio resource set are exclusively allocated to the target mobile terminal, and

wherein the step of receiving the interference information and the step of receiving the scheduled data from the serving base station comprise:

receiving an extended stream transmitted from the serving base station over the radio resource set, the extended stream comprising one or more modulation symbols;

determining a modulation and coding scheme used to form the modulation symbols of the extended stream;

demodulating and decoding the extended stream based on the modulation and coding scheme to recover an extended transport block;

obtaining the interference information by processing an interference block of the extended transport block; and

obtaining the scheduled data by processing a transport block of the extended transport block.

20. The method of claim 19,

wherein when the interference block comprises a base block repeated a predetermined number of times greater than one, each base block comprising the configuration information of the interfering data streams, the step of obtaining the interference information comprises processing at least one of the base blocks, and

wherein when the interference block comprises the base block encoded with a predetermined error correction code, the step of obtaining the interference information comprises decoding the encoded base block based on the predetermined error correction code.

21. A base station of a wireless network structured to provide communication services to a target mobile terminal, the base station comprising:

a network communicator, an interference information generator, and a transmission controller,

wherein the network communicator is structured to receive from one or more neighboring base stations over one or more inter-BS links one or more configuration information related to one or more interfering data streams, each interfering data stream being a data stream transmitted by a neighboring base station and intended for a mobile terminal other than the target mobile terminal, and each configuration information characterizing a related interfering data stream,

wherein the interference information generator is structured to form an interference information for the target mobile terminal based on the one or more configuration information received from the one or more neighboring base stations, the interference information comprising the configuration information related to at least one interfering data stream,

wherein the transmission controller is structured to transmit the interference information and scheduled data, via a transceiver, to the target mobile terminal over a radio resource set, the scheduled data comprising one or more data streams intended for transmission from the serving base station to the target mobile terminal, and

wherein the inter-BS links are communication links for communication among base stations, each inter-BS-link utilizing communication resources different from the radio resources used between the base stations and mobile terminals in the network,

wherein the radio resource set comprises one or more radio resources used to carry data from the serving base station to the target mobile terminal,

wherein the radio resource(s) used to transmit the scheduled data are exclusively allocated to the target mobile terminal, and

wherein the radio resource(s) used to transmit the interference information are either exclusively allocated to the target mobile terminal or are allocated for common listening by the target mobile terminal and a mobile terminal co-scheduled with the target mobile terminal.

22. The base station of claim 21, wherein a radio resource is allocated for common listening when one or more of the following applies:

the radio resource is commonly allocated to the target mobile terminal and the co-scheduled mobile terminal,

the radio resource is allocated to the target mobile terminal but commonly listened to by the co-scheduled mobile terminal, and

the radio resource is allocated to the co-scheduled mobile terminal but commonly listened to by the target mobile terminal.

23. The base station of claim 21,

wherein the radio resource set comprises first and second radio resource sets, the first radio resource set comprising the radio resource(s) used to transmit the interference information, and the second radio resource set comprising the radio resource(s) used to transmit the scheduled data,

wherein the radio resource(s) of the first radio resource set are all different from the radio resource(s) of the second radio resource set,

wherein the transmission controller is structured to:

independently set first and second modulation and coding schemes,

encode and modulate the interference information based on the first modulation and coding scheme to generate a first stream of modulation symbols, and modulate and code the interference information based on the second modulation and coding scheme to generate a second stream of modulation symbols, and

transmit the first stream over the radio resource(s) of the first radio resource set, and transmit the second stream over radio resource(s) of the second radio resource set.

24. The base station of claim 21,

wherein all radio resources of the radio resource set are exclusively allocated to the target mobile terminal,

wherein the interference information generator is structured to form an interference block comprising the configuration information of the interfering data streams,

wherein the transmission controller is structured to:

form a transport block comprising the scheduled data,

extend the transport block to include the interference block to form an extended transport block,

set a modulation and coding scheme for the extended transport block,

encode and modulate the extended transport based on the modulation and coding scheme to generate an extended stream of modulation symbols, and

transmit the extended stream over all radio resources of the radio resource set.

25. The base station of claim 24, wherein the interference information generator is structured to:

form a base block comprising the configuration information of the interfering data streams, and

form the interference block by one or both of;

repeating the base block a predetermined number of times greater than one, and

encoding the base block with a predetermined error correction code.

26. A target mobile terminal structured to cancel interferences, the target mobile terminal comprising:

an interference canceller and an information receiver,

wherein the information receiver is structured to;

receive interference information, via a transceiver, transmitted from a serving base station over a radio resource set, the interference information comprising one or more configuration information related to one or more interfering data streams, each interfering data stream being a data stream transmitted by a neighboring base station and intended for a mobile terminal other than the target mobile terminal, and each configuration information characterizing a related interfering data stream, and

receive scheduled data, via the transceiver, transmitted from the serving base station over the radio resource set, the scheduled data comprising one or more data streams intended for transmission from the serving base station to the target mobile terminal,

wherein the interference canceller is structured to cancel interferences from the scheduled data based on the interference information,

wherein the radio resource set comprises one or more radio resources used to carry data from the serving base station to the target mobile terminal,

wherein the radio resource(s) used to receive the scheduled data are exclusively allocated to the target mobile terminal, and

wherein the radio resource(s) used to receive the interference information are either exclusively allocated to the target mobile terminal or are allocated for common listening by the target mobile terminal and a mobile terminal co-scheduled with the target mobile terminal.

27. The target mobile terminal of claim 26, wherein a radio resource is allocated for common listening when one or more of the following applies:

the radio resource is commonly allocated to the target mobile terminal and the co-scheduled mobile terminal,

the radio resource is allocated to the target mobile terminal but commonly listened to by the co-scheduled mobile terminal, and

the radio resource is allocated to the co-scheduled mobile terminal but commonly listened to by the target mobile terminal.

28. The target mobile terminal of claim 26,

wherein the radio resource set comprises first and second radio resource sets, the first radio resource set comprising the radio resource(s) used in the step of receiving the interference information, and the second radio resource set comprising the radio resource(s) used in the step of receiving the scheduled data,

wherein the radio resource(s) of the first radio resource set are all different from the radio resource(s) of the second radio resource set, and

wherein the information receiver is structured to:

independently determine first and second modulation and coding schemes, and

demodulate and decode the interference information based on the first modulation and coding scheme, and demodulate and decode the scheduled data based on the second modulation and coding scheme.

29. The target mobile terminal of claim 26,

wherein all radio resources of the radio resource set are exclusively allocated to the target mobile terminal,

wherein the information receiver is structured to:

receive an extended stream transmitted from the serving base station over the radio resource set, the extended stream comprising one or more modulation symbols,

determine a modulation and coding scheme used to form the modulation symbols of the extended stream,

demodulate and decode the extended stream based on the modulation and coding scheme to recover an extended transport block;

process an interference block of the extended transport block to obtain the interference information, and

process a transport block of the extended transport block to obtain the scheduled data.

30. The target mobile terminal of claim 29,

wherein when the interference block comprises a base block repeated a predetermined number of times greater than one, each base block comprising the configuration information of the interfering data streams, the information receiver is structured to process at least one of the base blocks to obtain the interference information, and

wherein when the interference block comprises the base block encoded with a predetermined error correction code, the information receiver is structured to decode the encoded base block based on the predetermined error correction code to obtain the interference information.