METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR CONTROLLING AND SCHEDULING DEVICE-TO-DEVICE COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20140044024A1
• Filed: 08/10/2012
• Published: 02/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: ZOU, Jialin, VASUDEVAN, Subramanian
• Granted Patent: US 9,398,630 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/280
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/23 Manipulation of direct-mode connections

Abstract

At least one example embodiment discloses a method of controlling direct user equipment communications. The method includes receiving reports from a first user equipment (UE) and a second UE, respectively, the first and second UEs communicating with a serving base station, determining at least one control channel and at least one data channel for a direct communication between the first UE and the second UE, allocating at least one resource block for the direct communication link between the first UE and the second UE based on the determining and transmitting a configuration message to the first UE and the second UE, the configuration message indicating the allocated resource block and permitting at least one of the first UE and the second UE to determine parameters of the direct communication link.

Claims

1. A method of controlling direct user equipment communications, the method comprising:

receiving reports from a first user equipment (UE) and a second UE, respectively, the first and second UEs communicating with a serving base station;

determining at least one control channel and at least one data channel for a direct communication between the first UE and the second UE;

allocating at least one resource block for the direct communication link between the first UE and the second UE based on the determining; and

transmitting a configuration message to the first UE and the second UE, the configuration message indicating the allocated resource block and permitting at least one of the first UE and the second UE to determine parameters of the direct communication link.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving requests for direct communication from the first and second UEs, respectively;

determining that the first UE and the second UE are candidates for direct communication; and

notifying the first UE and the second UE that the first UE and the second UE are candidates for direction communication based on the determining that the first UE and the second UE are candidates for direct communication, the receiving reports being based on the notifying.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocating at least one resource block allocates at least one of a physical downlink control channel and a physical downlink data channel of the direct communication link.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each report includes at least one of a buffer status report (BSR), a power headroom report (PHR), a buffered waiting time report (BWTR), a common reference signal report (CRSR) and a sounding reference signal report (SRSR) for the respective first or second UE.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining a time-division duplex (TDD) transmission duty cycle for the direct communication link based on the received reports.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining a hybrid automatic repeat request configuration for the direct communication link based on the received reports.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining an initial transmitting power for at least one of the first and second UEs on the direct communication link based on the received reports.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining a maximum transmitting power for at least one of the first and second UEs on the direct communication link based on the received reports.

9. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining a time period for the first UE and the second UE to communicate using the at least one resource block.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the determining a time period determines the time period based on the BSR, a bandwidth available over the direct communication link, a transmission power and transmission rate over the direct communication link.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocating allocates the at least one resource block based on other UEs communicating with the first base station and locations of the other UEs.

12. A first user equipment (UE) comprising:

an uplink transmitter configured to transmit communications to a base station;

a downlink transmitter configured to communicate with a second UE over an allocated downlink block; and

a downlink receiver configured to receive communications from the base station.

13. The first UE of claim 12, wherein the downlink receiver is further configured to receive communications from the second UE.

14. The first UE of claim 12, wherein the first UE is configured to determine a transmitting power for communicating with the second UE.

15. The first UE of claim 12, wherein the downlink receiver is configured to

receive synchronization reference signals from the base station to maintain synchronization.

16. A method of controlling direct user equipment communications, the method comprising:

receiving, by a first user equipment (UE), a configuration message, the configuration message indicating at least one allocated resource block for a direct communication link between the first UE and the second UE and permitting at least one of the first UE and the second UE to determine parameters of the direct communication link; and

communicating with the second UE using the at least one resource block.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the communicating includes,

transmitting receive control information to the second UE.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

transmitting data to the second UE with the receive control information.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving an acknowledgement indicating whether the data was transmitted successfully.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the communicating includes,

determining a transmission power over the direct communication link, and

transmitting data to the second UE at the determined transmission power.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the communicating includes,

transmitting a pilot signal to the second UE,

receiving a response from the second UE, the response indicating a link condition, the determining the transmission power being based on the link condition.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

transmitting a request to the second UE and at least another UE, the request requesting statuses of the second UE and the at least another UE, respectively;

receiving status reports from the second UE and the at least another UE, respectively; and

determining parameters for communicating with the second UE and the at least another UE based on the received status reports.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the status reports include a buffer status report (BSR), a buffered waiting time (BWT), a power headroom report (PHR) and a common reference signal report for the second UE and the at least another UE, respectively.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the determining parameters schedules transmission time slots for each of the second UE and the at least another UE based on the received status reports.