TECHNIQUES FOR ENABLING WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS USING SUBFRAME STRUCTURES HAVING DIFFERENT SUBFRAME DURATIONS

• US 20150098437A1
• Filed: 07/17/2014
• Published: 04/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Chen, Wanshi, Malladi, Durga Prasad, Gaal, Peter, Luo, Tao, Wei, Yongbin, Bhushan, Naga, Xu, Hao, Ji, Tingfang, Damnjanovic, Aleksandar, Yerramalli, Srinivas
• Granted Patent: US 9,648,500 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/330
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/0006 Assessment of spectral gaps suitable for allocating digitally modulated signals, e.g. for carrier allocation in cognitive radio for spectrum sharing between different networks H04W16/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0044 allocation of payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0073 Allocation arrangements that take into account other cell interferences for intercell interference mitigation or co-ordination in orthogonal multiplex systems H04J11/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA

Abstract

Techniques are described for wireless communications. A first subframe structure having a first subframe duration for communicating in a first carrier may be determined. A second subframe structure having a second subframe duration for communicating in a second carrier may also be determined. At least the second subframe structure having the second subframe duration may be used to communicate with at least one node.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communications, comprising:

determining a first subframe structure having a first subframe duration for communicating in a first carrier;

determining a second subframe structure having a second subframe duration for communicating in a second carrier; and

communicating with at least one node using at least the second subframe structure having the second subframe duration.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first carrier is in a licensed radio frequency spectrum band and the second carrier is in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a first channel in the first carrier using the first subframe duration; and

transmitting a second channel in the second carrier using the second subframe duration.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a first channel in the first carrier using the first subframe duration; and

receiving a second channel in the second carrier using the second subframe duration.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a channel in the second carrier, to at least one user equipment, using the second subframe duration, the second subframe duration being less than the first subframe duration.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

assigning at least one of downlink resources, downlink demodulation reference signals (DL DM-RS), or channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS) of the channel to the at least one user equipment based on two or more resource blocks (RBs) of the second subframe structure.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allocating resources using at least a pair of adjacent resource blocks (RBs) of the second subframe structure, the adjacent RBs of the second subframe structure functioning together as a single RB of the first subframe structure.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adjusting at least one of transport block size (TBS) determination, or a sub-band size for channel state information (CSI) feedback for the second subframe structure, with respect to the first subframe structure.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using a control channel to cross schedule component carriers (CCs) from subframes based on the first subframe structure to subframes based on the second subframe structure.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing scheduling of component carriers (CCs) of subframes having the second subframe structure using at least one of cross-subframe scheduling or multi-subframe scheduling.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, via an uplink subframe, acknowledgment/non-acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) feedback for one or more downlink subframes, the one or more downlink subframes being based on the second subframe structure.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein two or more downlink subframes based on the second subframe structure are mapped to a single uplink subframe based on the first subframe structure for ACK/NACK feedback.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

scheduling a plurality of subframes of the second subframe structure using a single subframe of the first subframe structure.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a type of channel to be transmitted; and

transmitting the type of channel in an uplink subframe using either the first subframe duration or the second subframe duration, the subframe duration being based at least in part on the identified channel type.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at least one indication of whether at least one downlink channel or at least one uplink channel will be based on the first subframe structure having the first subframe duration or the second subframe structure having the second subframe duration.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a subframe duration of a downlink control channel; and

determining a subframe duration of a downlink shared channel based at least in part on the subframe duration of the downlink control channel.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one node comprises a user equipment (UE) or an evolved Node B (eNB).

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the first carrier and the second carrier are part of a carrier aggregation operation.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the first carrier and the second carrier are part of a dual-connectivity operation.

20. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

a means for determining a first subframe structure having a first subframe duration for communicating in a first carrier;

a means for determining a second subframe structure having a second subframe duration for communicating in a second carrier; and

a means for communicating with at least one node using at least the second subframe structure having the second subframe duration.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the first carrier is in a licensed radio frequency spectrum band and the second carrier is in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band.

22. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:

a means for transmitting a channel in the second carrier, to at least one user equipment, using the second subframe duration, the second subframe duration being less than the first subframe duration.

23. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

a processor;

memory in electronic communication with the processor; and

instructions stored in the memory, the instructions being executable by the processor to;

determine a first subframe structure having a first subframe duration for communicating in a first carrier;

determine a second subframe structure having a second subframe duration for communicating in a second carrier; and

communicate with at least one node using at least the second subframe structure having the second subframe duration.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the first carrier is in a licensed radio frequency spectrum band and the second carrier is in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band.

25. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to:

transmit a first channel in the first carrier using the first subframe duration; and

transmit a second channel in the second carrier using the second subframe duration.

26. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to:

receive a first channel in the first carrier using the first subframe duration; and

receive a second channel in the second carrier using the second subframe duration.

27. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to:

transmit a channel in the second carrier, to at least one user equipment, using the second subframe duration, the second subframe duration being less than the first subframe duration.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to:

assign at least one of downlink resources, downlink demodulation reference signals (DL DM-RS), or channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS) of the channel to the at least one user equipment based on two or more resource blocks (RBs) of the second subframe structure.

29. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to:

allocate resources using at least a pair of adjacent resource blocks (RBs) of the second subframe structure, the adjacent RBs of the second subframe structure functioning together as a single RB of the first subframe structure.

30. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable code for wireless communications, the code executable by a processor to:

determine a first subframe structure having a first subframe duration for communicating in a first carrier;

determine a second subframe structure having a second subframe duration for communicating in a second carrier; and

communicate with at least one node using at least the second subframe structure having the second subframe duration.