TECHNIQUES FOR CONFIGURING AN ADAPTIVE FRAME STRUCTURE FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS USING UNLICENSED RADIO FREQUENCY SPECTRUM

• US 20150092703A1
• Filed: 09/24/2014
• Published: 04/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: XU, Hao, GAAL, Peter, CHEN, Wanshi, JI, Tingfang, MALLADI, Durga Prasad, WEI, Yongbin, BHUSHAN, Naga, DAMNJANOVIC, Aleksandar, LUO, Tao
• Granted Patent: US 9,924,509 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/003 Arrangements for allocating sub-channels of the transmission path
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1268 of uplink data flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal

Abstract

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to techniques for configuring an adaptive frame structure for wireless communications systems using unlicensed radio frequency spectrum. A base station (BS) may determine whether another device is transmitting on a channel in the unlicensed radio frequency spectrum or one or more other network conditions pertaining to the channel, determine a frame structure from a plurality of frame structures used for data communications based at least in part on the one or more network conditions, wherein each of the plurality of frame structures has a different frame duration, and communicate with a user equipment (UE) using the determined frame structure. A UE may determine a frame structure from a plurality of frame structures used for data communications, wherein each of the plurality of frame structures has a different frame duration, and communicate with a BS using the determined frame structure.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communications, comprising:

determining a frame structure used for communications, wherein the determined frame structure is one of a plurality of frame structures that can be used for communications and wherein each of the plurality of frame structures has a different frame duration; and

communicating with an apparatus using the determined frame structure.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining one or more network conditions; and

wherein the frame structure is determined based at least in part on the one or more network conditions.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising configuring a subframe configuration of the frame structure based at least in part on the one or more network conditions.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more network conditions comprise at least one of network traffic conditions, interference conditions, and radar detection.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising performing a clear channel assessment prior to communicating with the apparatus in one or more subframes of the frame structure.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising determining a clear channel assessment (CCA) periodicity based at least in part on a shortest length frame structure of the plurality of frame structures.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining a clear channel assessment (CCA) periodicity, wherein the determined CCA periodicity is different from a CCA periodicity of the apparatus.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining a transmission permission prior to communicating with the apparatus in one or more subframes of the frame structure.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the clear channel assessment is performed based on an offset value from a frame boundary and different offset values are assigned to give different priorities to different transmitting entities.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating an indication of the determined frame structure to the apparatus.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the indication is communicated via at least one of:

a clear channel assessment exempt transmission, a common control signal, and a primary component carrier.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving feedback from or transmitting feedback to the apparatus in one or more subframes of the frame structure.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more subframes comprise at least one of:

subframes having a same uplink or downlink direction as subframes in a reference subframe configuration; and

subframes that are designated as uplink subframes in each of multiple available subframe configurations.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of frame structures has either all subframes are uplink subframes or all subframes are downlink subframes, and the frame structure is determined based on a clear channel assessment (CCA) contention process.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the apparatus comprises a base station (BS); and

the determination is based on signaling received from the base station.

16. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

a processor configured to;

determine a frame structure for communications, wherein the determined frame structure is one of a plurality of frame structures that can be used for communications and wherein each of the plurality of frame structures has a different frame duration; and

communicate with another apparatus using the determined frame structure; and

a memory coupled to the processor.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine one or more network conditions; and

determine the frame structure based at least in part on the one or more network conditions.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to configure a subframe configuration of the frame structure based at least in part on the one or more network conditions.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the one or more network conditions comprise at least one of network traffic conditions, interference conditions, and radar detection.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) prior to communicating with the other apparatus in one or more subframes of the frame structure.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the processor is further configured to determine a clear channel assessment (CCA) periodicity based at least in part on a shortest length frame structure of the plurality of frame structures.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the processor is further configured to determine a clear channel assessment (CCA) periodicity, wherein the determined CCA periodicity is different from a CCA periodicity of the other apparatus.

23. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the processor is further configured to determine a transmission permission prior to communicating with the other apparatus in one or more subframes of the frame structure.

24. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the clear channel assessment is performed based on an offset value from a frame boundary and different offset values are assigned to give different priorities to different transmitting entities.

25. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to communicate an indication of the determined frame structure to the other apparatus.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the indication is communicated via at least one of:

a clear channel assessment exempt transmission, a common control signal, and a primary component carrier.

27. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to receive feedback from or transmit feedback to the other apparatus in one or more subframes of the frame structure.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the one or more subframes comprise at least one of:

subframes having a same uplink or downlink direction as subframes in a reference subframe configuration; and

subframes that are designated as anchor subframes in each of multiple available subframe configurations.

29. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

means for determining a frame structure from a plurality of frame structures used for data communications, wherein each of the plurality of frame structures has a different frame duration; and

means for communicating with an apparatus using the determined frame structure.

30. A computer readable medium storing computer executable code for wireless communications, comprising:

code for determining a frame structure from a plurality of frame structures used for data communications, wherein each of the plurality of frame structures has a different frame duration; and

code for communicating with an apparatus using the determined frame structure.