METHODS AND APPARTUS FOR REPORTING AND/OR USING CONTROL INFORMATION

• US 20150334590A1
• Filed: 07/29/2015
• Published: 11/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Das, Arnab, Anigstein, Pablo, Srinivasan, Murari, Li, Junyi
• Granted Patent: US 10,159,006 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network

Abstract

A wireless communications system supports wireless connections between base station sector attachment points and wireless terminals. Individual wireless connections correspond to one of a downlink-macrodiversity mode of operation and a downlink non-macrodiversity mode of operation. A wireless terminal has, for each of its current connections, a base station assigned dedicated control channel for communicating uplink control information reports. The uplink control information reports include downlink signal-to-noise ratio reports based on measured received pilot channel signals. If a connection corresponds to a macrodiversity mode of operation, a reporting format for the SNR report is used which reports (i) an SNR value and (ii) an indication as to whether or not the connection is considered a preferred connection by the wireless terminal. If a connection corresponds to a non-macrodiversity mode of operation, a reporting format for the SNR report is used which reports an SNR value.

Claims

1. A method of operating a base station in a communications system including a wireless terminal that communicates control information reports, the method comprising:

receiving a first type report from a wireless terminal operating in a first mode of operation in which the wireless terminal communicates first type reports which have a first reporting format, said first reporting format communicating a signal-to-noise-ratio value; and

receiving an additional first type report from said wireless terminal, said additional report having been generated while said wireless terminal was operating in a second mode of operation during which said wireless terminal, communicates the first type of report using a second reporting format, said second reporting format being different than said first reporting format, said second reporting format communicating both a signal-to-noise ratio value and a preferred link indicator value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said first type of report is an absolute signal-to-noise ratio report.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first type of report is received in an uplink dedicated control channel segment, said uplink dedicated control channel segment being dedicated exclusively for said wireless terminal to use on a contention free basis for transmitting uplink control information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said uplink dedicated control channel segment is an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) segment.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said first mode of operation is a wireless terminal non-macrodiversity mode of operation and wherein said second mode of operation is a wireless terminal macrodiversity mode of operation.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

simultaneously receiving multiple first type reports, each of said multiple first type reports corresponding to a different wireless terminal.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein some of the simultaneously received first type reports are in accordance with the first report format and at least one of said simultaneously received first type reports are in accordance with the second report format.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

storing state information indicating whether individual wireless terminals from which first type reports may be received are operating in a macrodiversity mode of operation or a non-macrodiversity mode of operation.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein in the macrodiversity mode of operation a set of data intended for communication to the wireless terminal, is available to at least two different link layer controllers, which can be used in communicating the data over different wireless connections to the wireless terminal.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein at least one of the two different link layer controllers is in said base station.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein in the macrodiversity mode of operation the wireless terminal has simultaneous connections to two different base station attachment points, at least one of said two different attachment points corresponding to said base station, the two different base station attachment points being different from each other in at least one of:

base station, base station sector and tone block.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein said first reporting format and said second reporting format each encode information into the same number of information bits.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the highest SNR value that can be conveyed by the first reporting format is higher than the highest SNR value that can be reported by the second reporting format.

14. A base station in a communications system including a wireless terminal that communicates control information reports, the base station comprising:

a receiver module for receiving signals communicating first type reports; and

a first type report recovery module for recovering from received first type reports having a first reporting format a signal to noise ratio value;

a second first type report recovery module for recovering from received first type reports having a second reporting format a signal to noise ratio value and a preferred link indicator value.

15. The base station of claim 14, wherein said first type of report is an absolute signal-to-noise ratio report.

16. The base station of claim 15, wherein one of said first type of reports is received in an uplink dedicated control channel segment, said uplink dedicated control channel segment being dedicated exclusively for a wireless terminal to use on a contention free basis for transmitting uplink control information.

17. The base station of claim 16, wherein said uplink dedicated control channel segment is an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) segment.

18. The base station of claim 14, wherein said first type report recovery module processes first type reports generated by wireless terminals operating in a non-macrodiversity mode of operation and wherein said second first type report recovery module processes reports generated by wireless terminals operating is a wireless terminal macrodiversity mode of operation.

19. The base station of claim 18, further comprising:

a memory including stored state information indicating whether individual wireless terminals from which first type reports may be received are operating in a macrodiversity mode of operation or a non-macrodiversity mode of operation.

20. A base station in a communications system including a wireless terminal that communicates control information reports, the base station comprising:

receiver means for receiving signals communicating first type reports; and

first type report recovery means for recovering from received first type reports having a first reporting format a signal to noise ratio value;

second first type report recovery means for recovering from received first type reports having a second reporting format a signal to noise ratio value and a preferred link indicator value.

21. The base station of claim 20, wherein said first type of report is an absolute signal-to-noise ratio report.

22. The base station of claim 21, wherein one of said first type of reports are received in an uplink dedicated control channel segment, said uplink dedicated control channel segment being dedicated exclusively for a wireless terminal to use on a contention free basis for transmitting uplink control information.

23. The base station of claim 22, wherein said uplink dedicated control channel segment is an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) segment.

24. The base station of claim 20,

wherein said first type report recovery means processes first type reports generated by wireless terminals operating in a non-macrodiversity mode of operation and

wherein said second first type report recovery means processes reports generated by wireless terminals operating is a wireless terminal macrodiversity mode of operation.

25. The base station of claim 20, further comprising:

memory means for storing state information indicating whether individual wireless terminals from which first type reports may be received are operating in a macrodiversity mode of operation or a non-macrodiversity mode of operation.

26. A computer readable medium embodying machine executable instructions for controlling a base station to implement a method comprising:

receiving a first type report from a wireless terminal operating in a first mode of operation in which the wireless terminal communicates first type reports which have a first reporting format, said first reporting format communicating a signal-to-noise-ratio value; and

receiving an additional first type report from said wireless terminal, said additional report having been generated while said wireless terminal was operating in a second mode of operation during which said wireless terminal, communicates the first type of report using a second reporting format, said second reporting format being different than said first reporting format, said second reporting format communicating both a signal-to-noise ratio value and a preferred link indicator value.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein said first type of report is an absolute signal-to-noise ratio report.

28. The computer readable medium of claim 27, wherein the first type of report are received in an uplink dedicated control channel segment, said uplink dedicated control channel segment being dedicated exclusively for said wireless terminal to use on a contention free basis for transmitting uplink control information.

29. The computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein said uplink dedicated control channel segment is an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) segment.

30. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein said first mode of operation is a wireless terminal non-macrodiversity mode of operation and wherein said second mode of operation is a wireless terminal macrodiversity mode of operation.

31. The computer readable medium of claim 26, further comprising machine executable instructions for:

simultaneously receiving multiple first type reports, each of said multiple first type reports corresponding to a different wireless terminal.

32. The computer readable medium of claim 31, wherein some of the simultaneously received first type reports are in accordance with the first report format and at least one of said simultaneously received first type reports are in accordance with the second report format.

33. The computer readable medium of claim 32, further comprising machine executable instructions for:

storing state information indicating whether individual wireless terminals from which first type reports may be received are operating in a macrodiversity mode of operation or a non-macrodiversity mode of operation.

34. The computer readable medium of claim 30, wherein in the macrodiversity mode of operation a set of data intended for communication to the wireless terminal, is available to at least two different link layer controllers, which can be used in communicating the data over different wireless connections to the wireless terminal.

35. The computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein at least one of the two different link layer controllers is in said base station.

36. The computer readable medium of claim 30, wherein in the macrodiversity mode of operation the wireless terminal has simultaneous connections to two different base station attachment points, at least one of said two different attachment points corresponding to said base station, the two different base station attachment points being different from each other in at least one of:

base station, base station sector and tone block.

37. The computer readable medium of claim 30, wherein said first reporting format and said second reporting format each encode information into the same number of information bits.

38. The computer readable medium of claim 37, wherein the highest SNR value that can be conveyed by the first reporting format is higher than the highest SNR value that can be reported by the second reporting format.

39. An apparatus operable in a communications system including a wireless terminal that communicates control information reports, the apparatus comprising:

a processor configure to;

receive a first type report from a wireless terminal operating in a first mode of operation in which the wireless terminal communicates first type reports which have a first reporting format, said first reporting format communicating a signal-to-noise-ratio value;

and

receive an additional first type report from said wireless terminal, said additional report having been generated while said wireless terminal was operating in a second mode of operation during which said wireless terminal, communicates the first type of report using a second reporting format, said second reporting format being different than said first reporting format, said second reporting format communicating both a signal-to-noise ratio value and a preferred link indicator value.

40. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein said first type of report is an absolute signal-to-noise ratio report.

41. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the processor is configured to:

receive the first type of report from an uplink dedicated control channel segment, said uplink dedicated control channel segment being dedicated exclusively for said wireless terminal to use on a contention free basis for transmitting uplink control information.