METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR COORDINATED MULTIPOINT (CoMP) COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20140036806A1
• Filed: 07/25/2013
• Published: 02/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Chen, Wanshi, Xu, Hao, Gaal, Peter, Luo, Tao, Geirhofer, Stefan, Damnjanovic, Aleksandar
• Granted Patent: US 9,686,772 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0035 Resource allocation in a cooperative multipoint environment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0091 Signaling for the administration of the divided path
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management

Abstract

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to methods and apparatus for Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) communications. Certain aspects relate to methods and apparatus for determining resource mapping and/or rate matching for CoMP operations.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), comprising:

receiving signaling indicating different reference signal (RS) configurations for a set of base stations participating in Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) operations to the user equipment (UE), each configuration identifying resources for use by one or more of the base stations in transmitting reference signals;

receiving a downlink transmission in a subframe; and

determining how to perform rate matching for the downlink transmission based on one or more of the RS configurations.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the signaling indicates a number of one or more antenna ports used for transmitting RS.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the signaling only indicates a number of antenna ports for a serving base station.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the actual number of antenna ports used by at least one of the base stations is different than the number of antenna ports for the serving base station.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of base stations are synchronized with a same subframe index and, within a period, a first subset of subframes are of a same subframe type.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving signaling indicating a subframe type of a subframe that is not in the first subset and in which the downlink transmission is received; and

performing the rate matching based on a RS configuration selected based on the indicated subframe type.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first set of subframes comprise subframes of a type other than Multicast-Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) subframes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the signaling comprises an indication of one or more frequency shift values.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the number of possible frequency shift values is dependent on a corresponding number of antenna ports.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the base stations transmit RS in a new carrier type in a limited number of subframes.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving an indication of whether or not a base station transmits using a new carrier type and rate matching is performed in a manner dependent, at least in part, on the indication.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the signaling is conveyed via one or more physical cell identities (PCIs) and the method further comprises deriving the RS configurations based on the PCIs.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the base stations in the set have different special subframe configurations.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein receiving signaling comprises receiving an indication of one or more special subframe configurations.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein joint transmissions are not allowed from base stations with different special subframe configurations.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein joint transmissions are allowed from base stations with different special subframe configurations using a common resource set.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein joint transmissions are allowed only from base stations with special subframe configurations with same Downlink Pilot Time Slot (DwPTS) lengths.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein:

different base stations in the set support different uplink/downlink (UL/DL) time division duplexed (TDD) subframe configurations; and

the number of base stations participating in CoMP operations for any given subframe is subframe configuration dependent.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein only base stations that have a same subframe uplink or downlink type in a given subframe participate in CoMP operations in that subframe.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising performing channel estimation filtering only among subframes in which a same number of base stations participate in CoMP operations.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein rate matching is performed in a manner dependent, at least in part, on a CoMP scheme.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein for a joint transmission (JT) CoMP scheme, rate matching is performed based on a combination of RS configurations for base stations involved in the joint transmission.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein for non-JT CoMP schemes, rate matching is performed based on individual RS configurations.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the signaling comprises an indication of the number of RS configurations.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein, in a given subframe, the rate matching is performed based on a single one of the RS configurations.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein, in a given subframe, the rate matching is performed based on a combination of RS configurations.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein:

different base stations in the set support different uplink/downlink (UL/DL) time division duplexed (TDD) subframe configurations;

a first RS configuration is defined for subframes where all base stations have DL subframes;

a second RS configuration is defined for subframes where some base stations have DL subframes and some base stations have UL subframes; and

the UE performs rate matching by employing the first or second RS configuration based on a current combination of DL and UL subframes for the subframe in which the downlink transmission is received.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein:

a first portion of the downlink transmission is received from a first base station;

a second portion of the downlink transmission is received from a second base station;

rate matching for the first portion of the downlink transmission is performed based on an RS configuration for the first base station; and

rate matching for the second portion of the downlink transmission is performed based on an RS configuration for the second base station.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein rate matching is performed in a manner dependent on whether or not the UE is interference cancellation (IC) capable.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein:

rate matching is performed based on a single base station RS configuration if the UE is IC capable; and

rate matching is performed based on a combination of base station RS configurations if the UE is not IC capable

31. The method of claim 29, wherein rate matching is performed in a manner also dependent on whether or not IC is enabled for the UE.

32. The method of claim 1, wherein rate matching is performed in a manner dependent on one or more features of a channel type of the downlink transmission.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein a first RS configuration corresponding to a serving base station is used for rate matching if the downlink transmission comprises a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).

34. The method of claim 33, wherein a second RS configuration is used for rate matching if the downlink transmission comprises an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) transmitted using resources conventionally used for a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

35. The method of claim 33, wherein different RS configurations may be used for rate matching depending on whether the downlink transmission is unicast or non-unicast.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein different RS configurations may be used for rate matching depending on whether the downlink transmission comprises a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) or an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) transmitted using resources conventionally used for PDSCH.

37. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the RS configurations is maintained unchanged after a reconfiguration of the UE.

38. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the UE is configured with N RS configurations; and

a particular RS configuration used for rate matching is determined based, at least in part, on a virtual cell ID.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the particular RS configuration used for rate matching is also determined based, at least in part, on a DCI format.

40. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the UE is configured with N RS configurations; and

a particular RS configuration used for rate matching is determined based, at least in part, on dynamic signaling.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the particular RS configuration is determined based, at least in part, on a number of explicit bits.

42. The method of claim 40, wherein the particular RS configuration is determined based, at least in part, on a subframe index.

43. The method of claim 1, wherein a starting symbol of the downlink transmission is cell-dependent.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the starting symbol of the downlink transmission is dependent on a virtual cell ID.

45. The method of claim 1, wherein a starting symbol of the downlink transmission is based, at least in part, on a CoMP scheme.

46. The method of claim 1, wherein a starting symbol of the downlink transmission is based, at least in part, on a carrier type used for the downlink transmission.

47. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing channel state information (CSI) feedback, wherein the UE has at least two CSI feedback configurations based on one or more RS configurations used for rate matching.

48. The method of claim 1, wherein a starting symbol of the downlink transmission is based, at least in part, on a type of control channel associated with the downlink transmission.

49. The method of claim 1, wherein a starting symbol of the downlink transmission is based, at least in part, on an RS configuration state.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the particular RS configuration is determined based, at least in part, on a number of explicit bits.

51. The method of claim 49, wherein the particular RS configuration is determined based, at least in part, on a type of control channel associated with the downlink transmission.

52. The method of claim 49, wherein the particular RS configuration is determined based, at least in part, on a subframe index.

53. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the downlink transmission does not have a corresponding control channel; and

a starting symbol of the downlink transmission is based, at least in part, on a radio resource control (RRC) or Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) configuration.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the downlink transmission is semi-persistently scheduled.

55. The method of claim 54, wherein the downlink transmission is on a semi-persistently scheduled channel and the starting symbol of the downlink transmission is further based on a control channel that activates the semi-persistently scheduled channel.

56. The method of claim 54, wherein the downlink transmission is on a semi-persistently scheduled channel and a starting symbol of the downlink transmission is indicated on a control channel that activates the semi-persistently scheduled channel.

57. The method of claim 1, wherein the starting symbol of the downlink transmission is further based on a control channel the UE is configured to monitor.

58. The method of claim 1, wherein the RS configurations include at least one of non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS configurations or zero power (ZP) CSI-RS configurations.

59. The method of claim 58, wherein the determining includes rate matching around a fixed subset of NZP CSI-RS or ZP CSI-RS resources.

60. The method of claim 58, wherein an interference measurement resources (IMRs) configuration is associated with a ZP CSI-RS configuration.\

61. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining quasi-co-location of one or more resources in the subframe based on the one or more of the RS configurations.

62. The method of claim 61, further comprising assuming an RS configuration shares one or more paging-related configuration parameters based on the determined quasi-co-location.

63. A method for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), comprising:

receiving signaling indicating a configuration of one or more starting symbol indices for downlink transmissions from a set of base stations participating in coordinated multipoint (CoMP) operations;

receiving a downlink transmission in a subframe; and

determining a starting symbol index for the downlink transmission based on the configuration.

64. The method of claim 63, wherein the determining comprises determining a starting symbol of the downlink transmission based, at least in part, on a cell ID.

65. The method of claim 64, wherein the determining comprises determining a starting symbol of the downlink transmission based, at least in part, on a virtual cell ID.

66. The method of claim 64, wherein the determining comprises determining a starting symbol of the downlink transmission based, at least in part, on a CoMP scheme.

67. The method of claim 64, wherein the determining comprises determining a starting symbol of the downlink transmission based, at least in part, on a carrier type used for the downlink transmission.

68. The method of claim 64, wherein the determining comprises determining a starting symbol of the downlink transmission based, at least in part, on a type of control channel associated with the downlink transmission.

69. The method of claim 64, wherein:

the downlink transmission does not have a corresponding control channel; and

the determining comprises determining a starting symbol of the downlink transmission based, at least in part, on a radio resource control (RRC) or Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) configuration.

70. The method of claim 64, wherein the downlink transmission is semi-persistently scheduled.

71. The method of claim 70, wherein the downlink transmission is on a semi-persistently scheduled channel and the starting symbol of the downlink transmission is based, at least in part, on a control channel that activates the semi-persistently scheduled channel.

72. The method of claim 70, wherein the downlink transmission is on a semi-persistently scheduled channel and a starting symbol of the downlink transmission is indicated on a control channel that activates the semi-persistently scheduled channel.

73. The method of claim 64, the determining comprises determining a starting symbol of the downlink transmission based, at least in part, on a control channel the UE is configured to monitor.

74. An apparatus for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), comprising:

means for receiving signaling indicating different reference signal (RS) configurations for a set of base stations participating in Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) operations to the user equipment (UE), each configuration identifying resources for use by one or more of the base stations in transmitting reference signals;

means for receiving a downlink transmission in a subframe; and

means for determining how to perform rate matching for the downlink transmission based on one or more of the RS configurations.

75. The apparatus of claim 74, wherein the RS configurations include at least one of non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS configurations or zero power (ZP) CSI-RS configurations.

76. The apparatus of claim 74, wherein the means for determining includes means for rate matching around a fixed subset of NZP CSI-RS or ZP CSI-RS resources.

77. An apparatus for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), comprising:

means for receiving signaling indicating a configuration of one or more starting symbol indices for downlink transmissions from a set of base stations participating in coordinated multipoint (CoMP) operations;

means for receiving a downlink transmission in a subframe; and

means for determining a starting symbol index for the downlink transmission based on the configuration.

78. The apparatus of claim 77, wherein the means for determining comprises means for determining a starting symbol of the downlink transmission based, at least in part, on a cell ID.

79. An apparatus for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), comprising:

a receiver configured to receive signaling indicating different reference signal (RS) configurations for a set of base stations participating in Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) operations to the user equipment (UE), each configuration identifying resources for use by one or more of the base stations in transmitting reference signals and to receive a downlink transmission in a subframe; and

a processor configured to determine how to perform rate matching for the downlink transmission based on one or more of the RS configurations.

80. The apparatus of claim 79, wherein the RS configurations include at least one of non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS configurations or zero power (ZP) CSI-RS configurations.

81. The apparatus of claim 79, wherein the processing system is configured to rate match around a fixed subset of NZP CSI-RS or ZP CSI-RS resources.

82. An apparatus for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), comprising:

a receiver configured to receive signaling indicating a configuration of one or more starting symbol indices for downlink transmissions from a set of base stations participating in coordinated multipoint (CoMP) operations and to receive a downlink transmission in a subframe; and

a processor configured to determine a starting symbol index for the downlink transmission based on the configuration.

83. The apparatus of claim 82, wherein the processor is configured to determine a starting symbol of the downlink transmission based, at least in part, on a cell ID.

84. A program product for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), comprising a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon for:

receiving signaling indicating different reference signal (RS) configurations for a set of base stations participating in Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) operations to the user equipment (UE), each configuration identifying resources for use by one or more of the base stations in transmitting reference signals;

receiving a downlink transmission in a subframe; and

determining how to perform rate matching for the downlink transmission based on one or more of the RS configurations.

85. The program product of claim 84, wherein the RS configurations include at least one of non-zero power (NZP) CSI-RS configurations or zero power (ZP) CSI-RS configurations.

86. The program product of claim 84, wherein the determining includes rate matching around a fixed subset of NZP CSI-RS or ZP CSI-RS resources.

87. A program product for wireless communications by a user equipment (UE), comprising a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon for:

receiving signaling indicating a configuration of one or more starting symbol indices for downlink transmissions from a set of base stations participating in coordinated multipoint (CoMP) operations;

receiving a downlink transmission in a subframe; and

determining a starting symbol index for the downlink transmission based on the configuration.

88. The program product of claim 87, wherein the determining comprises determining a starting symbol of the downlink transmission based, at least in part, on a cell ID.