Unified Flexible Radio Access Technology (RAT) For 5G Mobile Communication Systems

• US 20170290013A1
• Filed: 09/20/2016
• Published: 10/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: McCoy, James Wesley, Kundargi, Nikhil U., Nieman, Karl F.
• Granted Patent: US 10,243,715 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/26 Systems using multi-frequency codes H04L27/32 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/26025 Numerology, i.e. varying one or more of symbol duration, subcarrier spacing, Fourier transform size, sampling rate or down-clocking allocating sub-channels of the transmission path H04L5/003
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/005 of common pilots, i.e. pilots destined for multiple users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0051 of dedicated pilots, i.e. pilots destined for a single user or terminal
• 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 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal

Abstract

Embodiments are disclosed for a new unified and flexible frame structure for 5G (5^th generation) mobile telecommunications standard and related radio access technology (RAT). The disclosed embodiments use communication frames with multiple partition types and are able to span a wide range of 5G deployment scenarios in a flexible and scalable manner.

Claims

1. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

one or more antennas;

one or more radios coupled to the one or more antennas; and

one or more processors coupled to the one or more radios and programmed to;

receive communication frames including OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplex) symbols from a plurality of wireless devices through the one or more radios and the one or more antennas; and

transmit communication frames including OFDM symbols to the plurality of wireless devices through the one or more radios and the one or more antennas;

wherein each communication frame comprises a plurality of partition types having a common baseline sampling rate;

wherein the plurality of partition types comprise partition parameters including one or more of the following;

size of the time slots, number of symbols per time slot, number of subcarriers, number of occupied subcarriers, cyclic prefix length, pilot spacing, and uplink and downlink periodicity; and

wherein each partition type has a unique set of configuration parameters.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to communicate control messages with the plurality of wireless devices through the one or more radios and the one or more antennas, the control messages comprising configuration parameters for the plurality of partition types.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the control messages are communicated through a control channel.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the control messages comprise frame scheduling messages to determine time slots for communications with the plurality of wireless devices.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the frame scheduling messages comprise reconfiguration messages to reconfigure time slots for communications with the plurality of wireless devices.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each partition type comprises a plurality of time slots, and wherein each time slot includes a plurality of OFDM symbols.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein each OFDM symbol has a symbol type, the symbol type comprising at least one of an uplink pilot, a downlink pilot, uplink data, downlink data, sync, or guard.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the time slots for each partition type have a predetermined time length, and wherein the predetermined time lengths are different for different partition types.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the partition type having the shortest predetermined time length for its time slots represents the shortest partition type, wherein the partition type having the longest predetermined time length for its time slots represents the longest partition type, and wherein an integer number of time slots for the shortest partition type fits within one time slot for the longest partition type.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the plurality of partition types comprises two or more partition types including a first partition type having times slot with a predetermined time length of 0.1 milliseconds and a second partition type having times slot with a predetermined time length of 0.5 milliseconds.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the longest time slot for the plurality of partition types is 0.5 milliseconds.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of partition types comprises two or more partition types including a first partition type and a second partition type, the first partition type being shorter in time than the second partition type, and wherein different types of communications use different partition types.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein transmit and acknowledge messages communicated with the plurality of wireless devices are configured to use the first partition type.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein sounding pilot communications with the plurality of wireless devices are configured to use the first partition type and wherein data communications with the plurality of wireless devices are configured to use the second partition type.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the plurality of wireless devices comprise one or more first wireless devices having a first cyclic prefix (CP) length and one or more second wireless devices having a second cyclic prefix (CP) length, the first CP length being shorter than the second CP length, and wherein communications with the one or more first wireless devices are configured to use the first partition type and wherein communications with the one or more second wireless devices are configured to use the second partition type.

16. A method for wireless communications, comprising:

receiving communication frames including OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplex) symbols from a plurality of wireless devices through one or more radios coupled to one or more antennas; and

transmitting communication frames including OFDM symbols to the plurality of wireless devices through the one or more radios and the one or more antennas;

wherein each communication frame comprises a plurality of partition types having a common baseline sampling rate;

wherein the plurality of partition types comprise partition parameters including one or more of the following;

size of the time slots, number of symbols per time slot, number of subcarriers, number of occupied subcarriers, cyclic prefix length, pilot spacing, and uplink and downlink periodicity; and

wherein each partition type has a unique set of configuration parameters.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising communicating control messages with the plurality of wireless devices through the one or more radios and the one or more antennas, the control messages comprising configuration parameters for the plurality of partition types.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising communicating the control messages through a control channel.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the control messages comprise frame scheduling messages to determine time slots for communications with the plurality of wireless devices.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the frame scheduling messages comprise reconfiguration messages to reconfigure time slots for communications with the plurality of wireless devices.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein each partition type comprises a plurality of time slots, and wherein each time slot includes a plurality of OFDM symbols.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein each OFDM symbol has a symbol type, the symbol type comprising at least one of an uplink pilot, a downlink pilot, uplink data, downlink data, sync, or guard.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the time slots for each partition type have a predetermined time length, and wherein the predetermined time lengths are different for different partition types.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the partition type having the shortest predetermined time length for its time slots represents the shortest partition type, wherein the partition type having the longest predetermined time length for its time slots represents the longest partition type, and wherein an integer number of time slots for the shortest partition type fits within one time slot for the longest partition type.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the plurality of partition types comprises two or more partition types including a first partition type having times slot with a predetermined time length of 0.1 milliseconds and a second partition type having times slot with a predetermined time length of 0.5 milliseconds.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the longest time slot for the plurality of partition types is 0.5 milliseconds.

27. The method of claim 16, wherein the plurality of partition types comprises two or more partition types including a first partition type and a second partition type, the first partition type being shorter in time than the second partition type, and wherein different types of communications use different partition types.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising communicating transmit and acknowledge messages using the first partition type.

29. The method of claim 27, further comprising communicating sounding pilots using the first partition type and communicating data using the second partition type.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the plurality of wireless devices comprise one or more first wireless devices having a first cyclic prefix (CP) length and one or more second wireless devices having a second cyclic prefix (CP) length, the first CP length being shorter than the second CP length, and further comprising using the first partition type to communicate with the one or more first wireless devices and using the second partition type to communicate with the one or more second wireless devices.