INTER-DEVICE COMMUNICATION IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

• US 20140086152A1
• Filed: 09/21/2012
• Published: 03/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Bontu, Chandra Sekhar, Song, Yi, Cai, Zhijun
• Granted Patent: US 8,982,895 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1816 with retransmission of the same, encoded, message
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

Systems, methods, and apparatuses for inter-device communication in wireless communication systems are provided. A user equipment (UE) may communicate directly with another UE over a direct inter-device communication link when they are located in proximity. The UE may simultaneously maintain an active communication link with its serving base station while communicating with other UEs over the inter-device communication link. Long term evolution (LTE) downlink or uplink radio resources may be used for communications over the inter-device communication link. Further, radio link parameters may be chosen specifically for the inter-device communication link.

Claims

1. A method at a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:

receiving a data packet from another UE over an inter-device communication link; and

transmitting a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) signal to a base station, the HARQ signal indicating whether the data packet received over the inter-device communication link has been successfully decoded.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a retransmission of the data packet from the other UE over the inter-device communication link.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the HARQ signal is an acknowledgement (ACK) or a non-acknowledgement (NACK) signal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the HARQ signal is transmitted using a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a channel quality indicator (CQI) of the inter-device communication link to the base station.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a device handshake procedure with the other UE prior to receiving the data packet over the inter-device communication link.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the data packet is received over the inter-device communication link using long term evolution (LTE) downlink radio resources.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the data packet is received on a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a guard time is used on the PDSCH for a transmission of the data packet.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the data packet is received over the inter-device communication link using long term evolution (LTE) uplink radio resources.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a buffer status report (BSR) or scheduling request (SR) of the inter-device communication link to the base station.

12. A method at a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:

transmitting a data packet to another UE over an inter-device communication link; and

receiving a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) signal from a base station, the HARQ signal indicating whether the data packet transmitted over the inter-device communication link has been successfully decoded at the other UE.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

retransmitting the data packet to the other UE over the inter-device communication link, responsive to receiving the HARQ signal from the base station.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the HARQ signal is an acknowledgement (ACK) or a non-acknowledgement (NACK) signal.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the HARQ signal is received on a physical HARQ indicator channel (PHICH).

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the HARQ signal is received after a predetermined time period after the data packet is transmitted from the UE.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a resource grant from the base station prior to transmitting the data packet over the inter-device communication link, wherein the resource grant includes resources for transmitting the data packet over the inter-device communication link.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the data packet is transmitted over the inter-device communication link using long term evolution (LTE) downlink radio resources.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the data packet is transmitted on a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

20. The method of claim 19, wherein a guard time is used on the PDSCH for transmitting the data packet.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein the data packet is transmitted over the inter-device communication link using long term evolution (LTE) uplink radio resources.

22-212. -212. (canceled)