Enhanced Common Downlink Control Channels

• US 20130242882A1
• Filed: 07/10/2012
• Published: 09/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Blankenship, Yufei Wu, Gao, Shiwei, Xu, Hua
• Granted Patent: US 9,198,181 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1861 Physical mapping arrangements for ACK signaling see also H04L5/0053
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/001 the frequencies being arranged in component carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0037 Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0039 Frequency-contiguous, i.e. with no allocation of frequencies for one user or terminal between the frequencies allocated to another
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0041 Frequency-non-contiguous
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0082 at predetermined intervals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0094 Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal

Abstract

A method is provided for communication in a wireless telecommunication system. The method comprises designating, by a network element, a first set of time-frequency resources for transmitting a first set of downlink control channels for a plurality of UEs, wherein the first set of time-frequency resources is known to the plurality of UEs, and wherein the first set of time-frequency resources varies from a first time interval to a second time interval. The method further comprises mapping, by the network element, a first downlink control channel to the first set of time-frequency resources. The method further comprises transmitting, by the network element, the first downlink control channel together with a downlink data channel in a frequency-division multiplexing manner.

Claims

1-80. -80. (canceled)

81. A method for communication in a wireless telecommunication system, the method comprising:

designating, by a network element, a first set of time-frequency resources for transmitting a first set of downlink control channels for a plurality of user equipment (UEs), wherein the first set of time-frequency resources is known to the plurality of UEs, and wherein the first set of time-frequency resources varies from a first time interval to a second time interval;

mapping, by the network element, a first downlink control channel to the first set of time-frequency resources; and

transmitting, by the network element, the first downlink control channel together with a downlink data channel in a frequency-division multiplexing manner.

82. The method of claim 81, wherein the first downlink control channel carries information common to a plurality of UEs.

83. The method of claim 82, wherein the first downlink control channel carries information associated with a system information radio network temporary identifier (SI-RNTI).

84. The method of claim 82, wherein the first downlink control channel carries information associated with a paging radio network temporary identifier (P-RNTI).

85. The method of claim 81, wherein the first downlink control channel carries information specific to a single UE.

86. The method of claim 85, wherein the first downlink control channel carries information associated with a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI).

87. The method of claim 81, further comprising:

mapping a second downlink control channel to the first set of time-frequency resources, wherein the first and the second downlink control channels are cross-interleaved and distributed over the first set of time-frequency resources.

88. The method of claim 81, further comprising:

designating a second set of time-frequency resources for a plurality of enhanced downlink control channels (E-PDCCH) each for a single UE, wherein the second set of time-frequency resources is a localized transmission region, and wherein consecutive available time-frequency resources are allocated for an E-PDCCH.

89. The method of claim 88, wherein the first and the second sets of time-frequency resources do not overlap.

95. The method of claim 83, wherein the first downlink control channel carries the same scheduling information that is carried on a legacy PDCCH in the same subframe for a plurality of UEs with its cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits scrambled by a system information radio network temporary identifier (SI-RNTI).

90-94. -94. (canceled)

96-97. -97. (canceled)

98. A network element comprising:

a processor configured such that the network element designates a first set of time-frequency resources for transmitting a first set of downlink control channels for a plurality of user equipment (UEs), wherein the first set of time-frequency resources is known to the plurality of UEs, and wherein the first set of time-frequency resources varies from a first time interval to a second time interval;

the processor further configured such that the network element maps a first downlink control channel to the first set of time-frequency resources; and

the processor further configured such that the network element transmits the first downlink control channel together with a downlink data channel in a frequency-division multiplexing manner.

107. The network element of claim 98, wherein resource allocation configuration of the first set of time-frequency resources is predefined as a function of an identifier of a wireless network element.

108. The network element of claim 98, wherein resource allocation configuration of the first set of time-frequency resources is signaled through an enhanced physical control format indicator channel (E-PCFICH).

109. The network element of claim 98, wherein resource allocation configuration of the first set of time-frequency resources is signaled via a radio resource control signal.

110. The network element of claim 98, wherein the first set of time-frequency resources occupies a known subset of the total resources in a subframe.

111. The network element of claim 98, wherein the first set of time-frequency resources is a distributed region which is used to transmit a first downlink control channel that carries information common to at least one UE.

113. The network element of claim 98, wherein the network element informs the UEs to detect the first downlink control channel in the first set of time-frequency resources.

114. The network element of claim 98, wherein the first set of time-frequency resources is present in every subframe in which an enhanced physical downlink control channel (E-PDCCH) is present.

99-106. -106. (canceled)

112. (canceled)

115-134. -134. (canceled)

135. A method for communication in a wireless telecommunication system, the method comprising:

mapping, by a network element, an enhanced physical downlink control channel (E-PDCCH) that carries downlink scheduling information to a user equipment (UE) to indicate a downlink data transmission over a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) to the UE, into a plurality of enhanced control channel elements (eCCEs), wherein an eCCE consists of a number of predefined resource elements (REs) in a resource block (RB) pair; and

linking, by the network element, a resource index of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) to an index of one of the plurality of eCCEs, wherein the PUCCH is provided for transmitting, by the UE, back to the network element, a positive acknowledgement (ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK) about a decoding status of the PDSCH.

136. The method of claim 135, wherein the eCCEs are a subset of a set of eCCEs which are consecutively indexed and configured for possible E-PDCCH transmission to the UE.

137. The method of claim 136, wherein the set of eCCEs is signaled to the UE semi-statically using radio resource control signaling.

138. The method of claim 136, wherein an offset value is associated with each set of eCCEs.

139. The method of claim 138, wherein the offset values are signaled to the UE semi-statically using higher layer signaling.

140. The method of claim 138, wherein the resource index of the PUCCH is obtained by adding the index of one of the eCCEs to the offset value.

141-142. -142. (canceled)

143. A network element comprising:

a processor configured such that the network element maps an enhanced physical downlink control channel (E-PDCCH) that carries downlink scheduling information to a user equipment (UE) to indicate a downlink data transmission over a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) to the UE, into a plurality of enhanced control channel elements (eCCEs), wherein an eCCE consists of a number of predefined resource elements (REs) in a resource block (RB) pair; and

the processor further configured such that the network element links a resource index of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) to an index of one of the plurality of eCCEs, wherein the PUCCH is provided for transmitting, by the UE, back to the network element, a positive acknowledgement (ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK) about a decoding status of the PDSCH.

149. The network element of claim 143, wherein one of the plurality of eCCEs is the eCCE with the smallest index value.

150. The network element of claim 143, wherein one of the plurality of eCCEs is the eCCE with the largest index value.

144-148. -148. (canceled)