TRANSMISSION OF CONTROL INFORMATION TO REDUCED BANDWIDTH TERMINALS

• US 20160295568A1
• Filed: 12/02/2013
• Published: 10/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: WEBB, Matthew, WAKABAYASHI, Hideji, MORIOKA, Yuichi
• Granted Patent: US 10,178,677 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2601 Multicarrier modulation systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0037 Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0064 Rate requirement of the data, e.g. scalable bandwidth, data priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0094 Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0212 managed by the network, e.g. network or access point is master and terminal is slave
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 based on terminal or device properties
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method receiving data at a communications terminal from an OFDM wireless communications network including a wireless access interface communicating the data using plural OFDM sub-carriers includes: receiving from a first control channel having a bandwidth corresponding to a first frequency band providing first plural OFDM sub-carriers a resource allocation message allocating communications resources of a second group of OFDM sub-carriers; and receiving from a second control channel within the second frequency band within the second group of OFDM sub-carriers control information specific to the communications terminal operating to receive the data via the second group of OFDM sub-carriers. The communications terminal receives resource allocation messages from the first control channel to allocate resources within the second frequency band forming a virtual carrier and to receive control information specific to the communications terminal, which receives data from the second frequency band of the virtual carrier via a second control channel.

Claims

1. A communications terminal comprising

a transceiver unit configured to receive data from a wireless communications network transmitted via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network using a plurality of OFDM sub-carriers, and

a controller configured to receive a resource allocation message, which allocates resources to the communications terminal for receiving the data from the wireless communications network, wherein the controller is configured to control the transceiver unit

to receive from a first control channel the resource allocation message, the first control channel having a bandwidth corresponding to a first frequency band, the resource allocation message allocating the communications resources within a second frequency band, the first frequency band providing a first group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers within the first frequency band, and the second frequency band being formed from a second group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers within a second frequency band, the second group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers being smaller than the first group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers and the second frequency band being selected from within the first frequency band to form a virtual carrier,

to receive control information from a second control channel within the second frequency band from the second group of OFDM sub-carriers, wherein the control information is specific to receiving the data by the communications terminal from the second group of OFDM sub-carriers.

2. A communications terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control information includes an indication of the location of the second frequency bandwidth providing the second group of OFDM sub-carriers for one or more of the sub-frames.

3. A communications terminal according to claim 1, wherein the resource allocation message is transmitted from the first control channel to allocate resources to the communications terminal, and the control information transmitted via the second control channel provides a second resource allocation message to the communications terminal to allocate resources from the second bandwidth of the second group of OFDM sub-carriers.

4. A communications terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control information includes an indication that the data is to be transmitted more than once, and the controller is configured in combination with the transceiver unit to receive the data more than once from the second frequency bandwidth using the second group of OFDM sub-carriers.

5. A communications terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control information includes an indication that the communications terminal can sleep for a predetermined time, and the controller is configured in combination with the transceiver unit to respond to the sleep indication to enter a state of a reduced power consumption.

6. A communications terminal according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured in combination with the transceiver unit to receive the resource allocation message from the first control channel, the resource allocation message allocating resources to the communications terminal within the second frequency band of the virtual carrier and to receive the control information from the second control channel, the control information providing a second resource allocation message to allocate resources from the second bandwidth of the second group of OFDM sub-carriers.

7. A communications terminal according to claim 6, wherein the controller is configured in combination with the transceiver unit to receive the resource allocation message from the first control channel, the resource allocation message allocating resources to the communications terminal as a member of a group of the communications terminals and to receive the second resource allocation message from the second channel providing an allocation of the resources of the second group of OFDM sub-carriers within the second frequency bandwidth to the communications terminals as a member of the group of communications terminals.

8. A communications terminal according to claim 1, wherein the wireless access interface provides a third group of OFDM sub-carriers within a third frequency band, the third group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers being smaller than the first group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers and the third frequency band being selected from within the first frequency band and mutually exclusive from the second group of OFDM sub-carriers of the second frequency band to form a second virtual carrier, and the controller is configured in combination with the transceiver unit to receive the control information from the second control channel, which includes a second resource allocation message providing an indication of a system information which is common to other communications terminals which are allocated communications resources of the second group of OFDM sub-carriers and the third group of OFDM sub-carriers of the first and second virtual carriers.

9. A communications terminal according to claim 1, wherein the first control channel has a bandwidth which corresponds to the first frequency band of the first group of OFDM sub-carriers and the second control channel within the second frequency band is formed from a plurality of the OFDM sub-carriers of the second group of OFDM sub-carriers and has a duration which exceeds the duration of the first control channel.

10. A communications terminal according to claim 1, wherein the first control channel having a bandwidth corresponding to the first frequency band is at a first temporal position within a sub-frame, and the second control channel in the second frequency band of the second group of OFDM sub-carriers is in a second temporal position within a sub-frame.

11. A communications terminals according to claim 1, wherein

the OFDM wireless communications network is arranged in accordance with 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) specifications.

12. A method of receiving data at a communications terminal from a mobile communications network transmitted via a wireless access interface provided by the wireless communications network using a plurality of OFDM sub-carriers, the method comprising

receiving a resource allocation message, which allocates resources to the communications terminal for receiving the data from the wireless communications network, the receiving the resource allocation message including

receiving from a first control channel the resource allocation message, the first control channel having a bandwidth corresponding to a first frequency band, the resource allocation message allocating the communications resources within a second frequency band, the first frequency band providing a first group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers within the first frequency band, and the second frequency band being formed from a second group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers within a second frequency band, the second group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers being smaller than the first group of the plurality of OFDM sub-carriers and the second frequency band being selected from within the first frequency band to form a virtual carrier, and the method includes

receiving control information from a second control channel within the second frequency band from the second group of OFDM sub-carriers, wherein the control information is specific to receiving the data by the communications terminal from the second group of OFDM sub-carriers.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the control information includes an indication of the location of the second frequency bandwidth providing the second group of OFDM sub-carriers for one or more of the sub-frames.

14. A method according to claim 12, wherein the receiving the resource allocation message includes receiving the resource allocation message from the first control channel to allocate resources to the communications terminal, and the receiving the control information from the second control channel includes receiving a second resource allocation message to allocate resources to the communications terminal from the second bandwidth of the second group of OFDM sub-carriers.

15. A method according to claim 12, wherein the first control channel having a bandwidth corresponding to the first frequency band is at a first temporal position within a sub-frame, and the second control channel in the second frequency band of the second group of OFDM sub-carriers is in a second temporal position within a sub-frame.

16-17. -17. (canceled)