METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CROSS-SUBFRAME SCHEDULING DURING CARRIER AGGREGATION

• US 20140003356A1
• Filed: 06/29/2012
• Published: 01/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Jianfeng Weng
• Inventors: Wang, Yiping, Li, Jun, Weng, Jianfeng
• Granted Patent: US 10,111,248 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: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal

Abstract

A method and user equipment for cross-subframe scheduling at a user equipment, the method receiving an indication for scheduling a subframe; mapping the indication to the subframe; and detecting the subframe on a frequency at a time associated with the subframe. Further, a method and apparatus of cross-carrier scheduling, the method obtaining an indication that at least one downlink subframe on at least one secondary carrier is not scheduled by a primary carrier; and scanning the at least one secondary carrier for scheduling information for the at least one downlink subframe.

Claims

1. A method for cross-subframe scheduling at a user equipment comprising:

receiving, at the user equipment, an indication for scheduling a subframe;

mapping the indication to the subframe; and

detecting the subframe on a frequency at a time associated with the subframe.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication is a cross-subframe scheduling index.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein mapping includes using the cross-subframe scheduling index to determine a number of subframes after a current subframe during which the user equipment should detect the subframe.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the index is included in a downlink control information payload.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the index is represented by two bits.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the index is represented by one bit, thereby allowing two separate subframes to be scheduled.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising restricting a number of subframes capable of being scheduled to one.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving an indication for scheduling a subframe further comprises expanding a search space.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein expanding the search space is used to support cross-subframe scheduling.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication comprises a carrier indication field.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the carrier indication field is partitioned to use a first subset of bits for carrier identification and a second subset of bits for cross-subframe location identification.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein mapping includes using the second subset of bits to determine a number of subframes after a current subframe during which the user equipment should detect the subframe on the frequency.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising restricting a number of locations for subframes capable of being scheduled to a number of bit values in the second subset of bits.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising expanding a search space to include a downlink subframe index used in the cross-subframe scheduling.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising encoding the carrier indication field to indicate both a carrier and cross-subframe location identification.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein mapping includes using a table stored on the user equipment to determine the subframe from the encoded carrier indication field.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the table is signaled to the user equipment using higher layer signalling.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising restricting a number of locations for subframe scheduling to a number of subframes capable of being scheduled in the table.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising listening to a control channel for the subframe at a restricted location for subframe scheduling.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication is an index of a search space for downlink cross-subframe assignment.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the index differs from indices of search spaces for current subframe assignments.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein mapping includes determining an offset of the index of the search space from an index for a search space for current subframe assignments.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the index of the search space for downlink cross-subframe assignment is restricted to an odd number when an aggregation level is two, four or eight.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the subframe is an inter-carrier subframe.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein mapping includes associating the indication with the time for the subframe.

26-50. -50. (canceled)

51. A method of cross-carrier scheduling at a user equipment comprising:

obtaining, at the user equipment, an indication that at least one downlink subframe on at least one secondary carrier is not scheduled by a scheduling carrier; and

scanning, from the user equipment, the at least one secondary carrier for scheduling information for the at least one downlink subframe.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein the obtaining includes determining, using an configuration of the scheduling carrier and a configuration of the at least one secondary carrier, any downlink subframes on the at least one secondary carrier not scheduled by the scheduling carrier.

53. The method of claim 51, wherein the obtaining comprises receiving a higher layer message identifying subframes of the at least one secondary carrier not scheduled by the scheduling carrier.

54-56. -56. (canceled)