TELECOMMUNICATIONS APPARATUS AND METHODS

• US 20140146738A1
• Filed: 01/31/2014
• Published: 05/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SCA IPLA Holdings Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: MORIOKA, Yuichi, BARRETT, Steven John, YOUNG, Phil, BEALE, Martin
• Granted Patent: US 9,288,786 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/312
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/02 Diversity systems; Multi-antenna system, i.e. transmission or reception using multiple antennas RAKE receivers H04B1/7115
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1861 Physical mapping arrangements for ACK signaling see also H04L5/0053
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1887 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/40 for selective distribution or broadcast

Abstract

A method of communicating data between a base station and a plurality of terminal devices in a wireless telecommunications system is described. The method comprises transmitting data from the base station to the plurality of terminal devices in a multicast transmission and transmitting response signals from the terminal devices to the base station to indicate whether or not the respective terminal devices have successfully received the multicast transmission. The use of a multicast transmission provides an efficient mechanism for communicating the same data to a plurality of terminal device, for example as might be desired in a machine-type communication network. In combination with this, the use of individual response signals, such as ACK/NACK signalling, from the terminal devices allows the base station, or other entity, to track which terminal devices have indicated successful receipt of the multicast transmission, and to instigate an appropriate re-transmission protocol accordingly.

Claims

1. A method of operating a base station for communicating data in a wireless telecommunications system, the method comprising:

transmitting data to a plurality of terminal devices in a multicast transmission; and

receiving response signals from respective ones of the terminal devices transmitted in response to the multicast transmission to indicate whether the respective terminal devices have successfully received the multicast transmission.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising conveying to respective ones of the terminal devices an indication of an uplink transmission resource to be used for their response signal.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the indication of an uplink transmission resource is conveyed during a set-up procedure performed when the respective terminal devices initiate a connection to the base station.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the set-up procedure comprises a Radio Resource Connection request.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the indication of an uplink transmission resource is conveyed in association with the multicast transmission.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the indication of an uplink transmission resource is conveyed by explicit signalling.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the indication of an uplink transmission resource is conveyed by implicit signalling.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the indication of an uplink transmission resource is conveyed within a radio network identifier allocated by the base station.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the indication of an uplink transmission resource comprises at least one of an indication of a transmission resource within an uplink sub-frame, an indication of an uplink sub-frame, and an indication of an uplink carrier.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the response signals are received on a Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the response signals are received in an uplink sub-frame of the wireless telecommunications system occurring at a time derived from the time of a downlink sub-frame containing the multicast transmission.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein response signals for different ones of the terminal devices are received in different uplink sub-frames and/or carriers of the wireless telecommunications system.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining from the response signals received at the base station whether any terminal device has not received the multicast transmission, and if so, re-transmitting the data.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein response signals from different ones of the terminal devices are received using different uplink transmission resources.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless telecommunications system operates in downlink over a first frequency bandwidth and in uplink over a second frequency bandwidth, and wherein the multicast transmission is made using downlink transmission resources on frequencies selected from within a third frequency bandwidth which is smaller than and within the first frequency bandwidth;

and wherein the response signals from the terminal devices are received using uplink transmission resources on frequencies selected from within a fourth frequency bandwidth which is smaller than and within the second frequency bandwidth.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first and second frequency bandwidths are the same width and/or the third and fourth frequency bandwidths are the same width.

17. A base station for communicating data with a plurality of terminal devices in a wireless telecommunications system, wherein the base station is configured to transmit data to the plurality of terminal devices in a multicast transmission, and wherein the base station is further configured to receive response signals transmitted by respective ones of the terminal devices in response to the multicast transmission to indicate whether they have successfully received the multicast transmission.

18. The base station of claim 17, wherein the base station is configured to convey to respective ones of the terminal devices an indication of an uplink transmission resource to be used for their response signal.

19. The base station of claim 18, wherein the base station is configured to convey the indication of an uplink transmission resource during a set-up procedure performed when the respective terminal devices connect to the station.

20. The base station of claim 18, wherein the set-up procedure comprises a Radio Resource Connection request.

21. The base station of claim 18, wherein the base station is configured to convey the indication of an uplink transmission resource in association with the multicast transmission.

22. The base station of claim 18, wherein the base station is configured to convey the indication of an uplink transmission resource by explicit signalling.

23. The base station of claim 18, wherein the base station is configured to convey the indication of an uplink transmission resource by implicit signalling.

24. The base station of claim 23, wherein the base station is configured to convey the indication of an uplink transmission resource within a radio network identifier allocated to the respective terminal devices.

25. The base station of claim 18, wherein the indication of an uplink transmission resource comprises at least one of an indication of a transmission resource within an uplink sub-frame, an indication of an uplink sub-frame, and an indication of an uplink carrier.

26. The base station of claim 17, wherein the base station is configured to receive the response signals on a Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH.

27. The base station of claim 17, wherein the base station is configured to receive the response signals in an uplink sub-frame of the wireless telecommunications system occurring at a time derived from the time of a downlink sub-frame containing the multicast transmission.

28. The base station of claim 17, wherein the base station is configured to receive response signals from different ones of the terminal devices in different uplink sub-frames and/or carriers of the wireless telecommunications system.

29. The base station of claim 17, wherein the base station is configured to determine from the response signals whether any terminal device has not received a multicast transmission, and if so, to re-transmit the data.

30. The base station of claim 17, wherein the base station is configured to receive response signals from different ones of the terminal devices using different uplink transmission resources.

31. The base station of claim 17, wherein the wireless telecommunications system operates in downlink over a first frequency bandwidth and in uplink over a second frequency bandwidth, and the base station is configured to transmit the multicast transmission using downlink transmission resources on frequencies selected from within a third frequency bandwidth which is smaller than and within the first frequency bandwidth;

and to receive the response signals using uplink transmission resources on frequencies selected from within a fourth frequency bandwidth which is smaller than and within the second frequency bandwidth.

32. The base station of claim 31, wherein the first and second frequency bandwidths are the same width and/or the third and fourth frequency bandwidths are the same width.