BASE STATION, AND BUFFER PARTITIONING METHOD

• US 20170332367A1
• Filed: 08/01/2017
• Published: 11/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sun Patent Trust
• Original Assignee: Sun Patent Trust
• Inventors: Oizumi, Toru, Nishio, Akihiko
• Granted Patent: US 10,159,063 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/00 Arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received correcting synchronisation H04L7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1657 Implicit acknowledgement of correct or incorrect reception, e.g. with a moving window
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1816 with retransmission of the same, encoded, message
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1819 with retransmission of additional or different redundancy
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1822 involving configuration of automatic repeat request [ARQ] with parallel processes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1835 Buffer management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1854 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/001 the frequencies being arranged in component carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0041 Frequency-non-contiguous
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0073 Allocation arrangements that take into account other cell interferences for intercell interference mitigation or co-ordination in orthogonal multiplex systems H04J11/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0094 Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/1469 using time-sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0206 in access points, e.g. base stations access point devices per se H04W88/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/535 based on resource usage policies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Disclosed is a base station which transmits and retransmits to a terminal first and second downlink data in first and second component carriers, respectively, wherein a first configuration pattern of UL (uplink) and DL (downlink) subframes is set for the first component carrier and a second configuration pattern of UL and DL subframes is set for the second component carrier. The base station receives from the terminal in the first component carrier an ACK/NACK for the first and second downlink data received by the terminal, which stores retransmission data of the first and second downlink data in a soft buffer, wherein the soft buffer for the second downlink data is sized according to a maximum number of downlink HARQ retransmission processes executable in a reference configuration pattern of UL and DL subframes, and the reference configuration pattern is determined according to the first and second configuration patterns.

Claims

1. A base station comprising:

a transmitter which, in operation, transmits and retransmits to a terminal first and second downlink data in first and second component carriers, respectively, wherein a first configuration pattern of UL (uplink) and DL (downlink) subframes is set for the first component carrier and a second configuration pattern of UL and DL subframes is set for the second component carrier; and

a receiver which, in operation, receives from the terminal in the first component carrier an ACK/NACK (acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement) for the first and second downlink data received by the terminal, which stores retransmission data of the first and second downlink data in a soft buffer, wherein the soft buffer for the second downlink data is sized according to a maximum number of downlink HARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request) retransmission processes executable in a reference configuration pattern of UL and DL subframes, the maximum number of downlink HARQ retransmission processes is determined according to the reference configuration pattern, and the reference configuration pattern is determined according to the first and second configuration patterns.

2. The base station according to claim 1, wherein the receiver receives the ACK/NACK at a timing of an UL subframe of the reference configuration pattern.

3. The base station according to claim 1, wherein, when the first configuration pattern and the second configuration pattern are different, the receiver receives the ACK/NACK at a timing of an UL subframe of the reference configuration pattern.

4. The base station according to claim 1, wherein the first component carrier is a primary cell (PCell) and the second component carrier is a secondary cell (SCell).

5. The base station according to claim 4, wherein when a set of DL subframes of PCell included in one frame includes a set of DL subframes of SCell, the reference configuration pattern is the same as the first configuration pattern.

6. The base station according to claim 4, wherein when a set of DL subframes of SCell included in one frame includes a set of DL subframes of PCell, the reference configuration pattern is the same as the second configuration pattern.

7. The base station according to claim 4, wherein when a set of DL subframes of SCell is not included in a set of DL subframes of PCell included in one frame and the set of DL subframes of PCell is not included in the set of DL subframes of SCell, the reference configuration pattern is a UL-DL configuration pattern which is DL heavy with respect to both PCell and SCell.

8. The base station according to claim 1, wherein the soft buffer stores an LLR (Log Likelihood Ratio) of the second downlink data when error is detected by the terminal, to be combined with an LLR of the second downlink data that is retransmitted.

9. A method implemented in a base station configured to communicate with a terminal, the method comprising:

transmitting and retransmitting first and second downlink data in first and second component carriers, respectively, wherein a first configuration pattern of UL (uplink) and DL (downlink) subframes is set for the first component carrier and a second configuration pattern of UL and DL subframes is set for the second component carrier; and

receiving from the terminal in the first component carrier an ACK/NACK (acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement) for the first and second downlink data received by the terminal, which stores retransmission data of the first and second downlink data in a soft buffer, wherein the soft buffer for the second downlink data is sized according to a maximum number of downlink HARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request) retransmission processes executable in a reference configuration pattern of UL and DL subframes, the maximum number of downlink HARQ retransmission processes is determined according to the reference configuration pattern, and the reference configuration pattern is determined according to the first and second configuration patterns.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the receiving step includes receiving the ACK/NACK at a timing of an UL subframe of the reference configuration pattern.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein, when the first configuration pattern and the second configuration pattern are different, the receiving step includes receiving the ACK/NACK at a timing of an UL subframe of the reference configuration pattern.

12. The method according to claim 9, wherein the first component carrier is a primary cell (PCell) and the second component carrier is a secondary cell (SCell).

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein when a set of DL subframes of PCell included in one frame includes a set of DL subframes of SCell, the reference configuration pattern is the same as the first configuration pattern.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein when a set of DL subframes of SCell included in one frame includes a set of DL subframes of PCell, the reference configuration pattern is the same as the second configuration pattern.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein when a set of DL subframes of SCell is not included in a set of DL subframes of PCell included in one frame and the set of DL subframes of PCell is not included in the set of DL subframes of SCell, the reference configuration pattern is a UL-DL configuration pattern which is DL heavy with respect to both PCell and SCell.

16. The method according to claim 9, wherein the soft buffer stores an LLR (Log Likelihood Ratio) of the second downlink data when error is detected by the terminal, to be combined with an LLR of the second downlink data that is retransmitted.