A METHOD FOR ENHANCING COVERAGE OF USER EQUIPMENT AND AN APPARATUS USING THE SAME

• US 20160127918A1
• Filed: 06/23/2014
• Published: 05/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: YI, Yunjung, AHN, Joonkui, YOU, Hyangsun, KIM, Bonghoe, YANG, Suckchel
• Granted Patent: US 9,924,376 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/08 by repeating transmission, e.g. Verdan system H04L1/1858 and H04L1/189 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0093 Point-to-multipoint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/001 the frequencies being arranged in component carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/26 Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 based on terminal or device properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations

Abstract

The present invention related to a method and an apparatus for enhancing coverage of an UE. The method comprising receiving a signal, wherein a control signal is received on a downlink control channel with a repeated transmission based on the reception coverage of the UE, and transmitting a control signal on an uplink control channel.

Claims

1. A method for enhancing coverage of an user equipment (UE) of which reception coverage is limited, the method comprising:

receiving a signal, wherein a control signal is received on a downlink control channel with a repeated transmission based on the reception coverage of the UE; and

transmitting a control signal on an uplink control channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the step of receiving the signal, a data signal is received on a downlink data channel with a narrow bandwidth less than a whole downlink bandwidth, and

wherein the narrow bandwidth hops per a subframe or per a radio frame within the whole downlink bandwidth.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the step of receiving the signal, a data signal is received on a downlink data channel with a narrow bandwidth less than a whole downlink bandwidth, and

wherein the narrow bandwidth is changed based on a downlink control information (DCI) with a priority to a transmission on a cross-subframe scheduled downlink shared channel.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the step of receiving the signal, radio frames for downlink transmission are divided into radio frames for the UE of which reception coverage is limited and radio frames for a UE of which reception coverage is not limited, and

wherein the downlink control channel is transmitted repeatedly over the radio frames for the UE of which reception coverage is limited.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the control channel transmitted repeatedly is a broadcast channel.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein an indicator specifying whether the downlink control channel is transmitted in a radio frame in which the indicator is transmitted.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the indicator is transmitted as a sequence for a cell-specific reference signal (CRS) or a sounding reference signal (SRS).

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the UE of which reception coverage is limited, is a machine type communication (MTC) UE.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of the repeated transmission of the downlink control channel is classified based on a coverage level, and the coverage level is configured in a way that the higher the coverage level is, the more the control channel is transmitted,

wherein the method comprises increasing the coverage level when a confirmation signal corresponding to a signal notifying the coverage level selected by the UE is not received from a base station (BS).

10. An user equipment (UE) with a limited reception coverage, the UE comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) unit for transmitting and receiving a radio signal; and

a processor operatively coupled to the RF unit,

wherein a control signal is received on a downlink control channel with a repeated transmission based on the reception coverage of the UE.

11. A method for enhancing coverage of an user equipment (UE) of which reception coverage is limited, the method comprising:

transmitting a signal, wherein a control signal is transmitted on a downlink control channel with a repeated transmission based on the reception coverage of the UE; and

receiving a control signal on an uplink control channel.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein, in the step of transmitting the signal, a data signal is transmitted on a downlink data channel with a narrow bandwidth less than a whole downlink bandwidth, and

wherein the narrow bandwidth hops per a subframe or per a radio frame within the whole downlink bandwidth.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein, in the step of transmitting the signal, a data signal is transmitted on a downlink data channel with a narrow bandwidth less than a whole downlink bandwidth,

wherein the narrow bandwidth is changed with a priority to a transmission on a cross-subframe scheduled downlink shared channel, and

wherein the control signal includes a downlink control information (DCI) which have information on the changed narrow bandwidth.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein, the step of transmitting the signal includes dividing radio frames for downlink transmission into radio frames for the UE of which reception coverage is limited and radio frames for a UE of which reception coverage is not limited;

and

transmitting the downlink control channel repeatedly over the radio frames for the UE of which reception coverage is limited.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the control channel transmitted repeatedly is a broadcast channel.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of transmitting the signal includes transmitting an indicator which specifies whether the downlink control channel is transmitted in a radio frame in which the indicator is transmitted.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the indicator is transmitted as a sequence for a cell-specific reference signal (CRS) or a sounding reference signal (SRS).

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the UE of which reception coverage is limited, is a machine type communication (MTC) UE.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the number of the repeated transmission of the downlink control channel is classified based on a coverage level, and the coverage level is configured in a way that the higher the coverage level is, the more the control channel is transmitted, and

wherein the step of transmitting the signal includes transmitting the downlink control channel repeatedly as many as the number classified based on the coverage level;

and changing the number of the repeated transmission of the downlink control channel when a signal indicating that the coverage level is changed is received from the UE.

20. A base station (BS) communicating with limited reception coverage, the BS comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) unit for transmitting and receiving a radio signal; and

a processor operatively coupled to the RF unit, wherein the processor is configured for transmitting a control signal via the RF unit on a downlink control channel with a repeated transmission based on the reception coverage of the UE.