METHOD FOR MANAGING SOFT BUFFER IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING SAME

• US 20170222763A1
• Filed: 10/02/2015
• Published: 08/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: HWANG, Daesung, LEE, Seungmin, YANG, Suckchel, AHN, Joonkui, YI, Yunjung
• Application Number:
  US15/515,106
• Publication Number:
  US 20170222763A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1835 Buffer management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/001 the frequencies being arranged in component carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems

Abstract

A method for managing a soft buffer by a terminal in which a plurality of cells are set, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, comprises the steps of: receiving, from a base station, at least one parameter for allocation of the soft buffer; and allocating the soft buffer to the plurality of cells on the basis of the at least one parameter, wherein the soft buffer is divided unequally on the basis of the received at least one parameter, and at least one of the divided areas of the unequally divided soft buffer is shared by at least two cells among the plurality of cells.

Claims

1. A method of managing a soft buffer by a user equipment configured with a plurality of cells, the method comprising:

receiving at least one parameter for allocating the soft buffer from a base station; and

allocating the soft buffer to the plurality of cells based on the at least one parameter,

wherein the soft buffer is unequally divided based on the at least one received parameter and

wherein at least one of partitions of the unequally divided soft buffer is shared by at least two cells among the plurality of cells.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a number of the partitions of the unequally divided soft buffer is configured in a manner of being different from the number of the plurality of cells.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least two cells sharing the partition are determined according to whether or not the at least two cells are positioned at an unlicensed band.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein if the at least two cells compete with each other in the at least one shared partition, a licensed band cell has priority over an unlicensed band cell among the at least two cells, a cell of a lower cell index has priority among the at least two cells, or a cell of a lower downlink hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process index has priority among the at least two cells.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein allocating the soft buffer to the plurality of cells comprises:

hierarchically performing division of the soft buffer for a plurality of cell groups and re-division of the soft buffer for individual cells in each of the plurality of cell groups.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein a part of the soft buffer allocated to a licensed band cell group is configured to be bigger than a remaining part of soft buffer allocated to an unlicensed band cell group among the plurality of cell groups.

7. The method of claim 5,

wherein in a licensed band cell group among the plurality of cell groups, the re-division of the soft buffer for the individual cells is performed based on a number of licensed band cells and

wherein in an unlicensed band cell group among the plurality of cell groups, the re-division of the soft buffer for the individual cells is performed based on at least one of a number of unlicensed band cells, a maximum value of downlink hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes for each of the unlicensed band cells, and a maximum value of a reserved resource period (RRP) for each of the unlicensed band cells.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one parameter comprises at least one of a number of virtual cells configured to be different from a number (N^DL_Cell) of the plurality of cells in dividing the soft buffer, a number (M_{DL_HARQ}) of cell-specifically configured maximum downlink hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes, a maximum number (Kc) of cells capable of being supported by the user equipment under a prescribed condition, a limit value (M_limit), which is cell-specifically configured for the number (M_{DL_HARQ}) of maximum downlink HARQ processes, and a cell-specific parameter (K_MIMO) supporting multiple transport blocks (TBs) in multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transmission mode.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a size of each of the partitions of the unequally divided soft buffer is configured based on at least one of a number of maximum downlink hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes for each of the plurality of cells, frequency bands at which the plurality of cells are positioned, a maximum value of an reserved resource period (RRP) in an unlicensed band cell, a maximum value of downlink subframes capable of being continuously scheduled in the unlicensed band cell, and a ratio between the unlicensed band cell and a licensed band cell among the plurality of cells.

10. A user equipment configured with a plurality of cells, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive at least one parameter for allocating a soft buffer from a base station; and

a processor configured to allocate the soft buffer to the plurality of cells based on the at least one parameter,

wherein the soft buffer is unequally divided based on the at least one received parameter and wherein at least one of partitions of the unequally divided soft buffer is shared by at least two cells among the plurality of cells.

11. The user equipment of claim 10, wherein a number of the partitions of the unequally divided soft buffer is configured in a manner of being different from the number of the plurality of cells.

12. The user equipment of claim 10, wherein the at least two cells sharing the partition are determined according to whether or not the at least two cells are positioned at an unlicensed band.

13. The user equipment of claim 10, wherein if the at least two cells compete with each other in the at least one shared partition, a licensed band cell has priority over an unlicensed band cell among the at least two cells, a cell of a lower cell index has priority among the at least two cells, or a cell of a lower downlink hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process index has priority among the at least two cells.

14. The user equipment of claim 10, wherein the processor allocating the soft buffer to the plurality of cells is configured to hierarchically perform division of the soft buffer for a plurality of cell groups and re-division of the soft buffer for individual cells in each of the plurality of cell groups.

15. The user equipment of claim 14, wherein a part of the soft buffer allocated to a licensed band cell group is configured to be bigger than a remaining part of soft buffer allocated to an unlicensed band cell group among the plurality of cell groups.