TECHNIQUES AND APPARATUSES FOR DETERMINING CHANNELS FOR FREQUENCY HOPPING IN AN UNLICENSED RADIO FREQUENCY SPECTRUM BAND

• US 20190007946A1
• Filed: 05/15/2018
• Published: 01/03/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: YERRAMALLI, Srinivas, KADOUS, Tamer, LIU, Chih-Hao, KHOSHNEVISAN, Mostafa
• Granted Patent: US 10,856,296 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/713 using frequency hopping
• 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: H04L 5/0098 Signalling of the activation or deactivation of component carriers, subcarriers or frequency bands
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/32 Hierarchical cell structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/02 Arrangements for increasing efficiency of notification or paging channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Some techniques described herein assist a user equipment with acquiring and/or reacquiring, from a base station, a dynamic list of channels to be used for frequency hopping when communicating over an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, thereby increasing communication reliability and promoting coexistence in the unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band. Some techniques described herein also assist the user equipment in obtaining the list of channels with low latency (e.g., shortly after the list has changed) and with low power consumption. Numerous other aspects are provided.

Claims

1. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

receiving, by a user equipment (UE), a master information block (MIB) that indicates a location of one or more system information blocks (SIBs);

receiving, by the UE, the one or more SIBs based at least in part on the MIB, wherein the one or more SIBs indicate a list of channels for frequency hopping in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band; and

communicating, by the UE, by frequency hopping on a plurality of channels, included in the list of channels, based at least in part on the indication in the one or more SIBs.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the MIB or the one or more SIBs are obtained based at least in part on receiving a page triggered by a change to the list of channels.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the MIB or a SIB, of the one or more SIBs, indicates whether the list of channels has changed from a previously indicated list.

4. , The method of claim 3, wherein the list of channels is obtained based at least in part on determining that the list of channels has changed from the previously indicated list.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the UE reads a value from the MIB or the SIB and compares the value to a previously received value to determine whether the list of channels has changed from the previously indicated list.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of channels corresponds to a base station serving the UE.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of channels is associated with a neighbor base station.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the MIB or the one or more SIBs indicate one or more fixed channels, for communication in the unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, that are semi-static or permanent.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more fixed channels are used for at least one of:

transmission of at least one SIB of the one or more SIBs,

transmission of one or more pages,

one or more positioning signals, or

some combination thereof.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the MIB or the one or more SIBs indicate a number of channels for frequency hopping in the unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the number of channels is cell-specific.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the MIB or the one or more SIBs are obtained based at least in part on:

performing a radio resource control (RRC) configuration procedure,

receiving an indication, in a common physical downlink control channel, that the list of channels has changed or will change,

expiration of a modification period associated with the list of channels, or

some combination thereof.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more pages are searched for on a plurality of fixed channels using a paging window defined over a combination of discontinuous time intervals determined based at least in part on a frequency hopping pattern associated with the plurality of fixed channels.

14. A method of wireless communication, comprising:

transmitting, by a base station, a master information block (MIB) that indicates a location of one or more system information blocks (SIBs);

transmitting, by the base station, the one or more SIBs, wherein the one or more SIBs indicate a list of channels permitted for use by a user equipment (UE) for frequency hopping in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band; and

communicating, by the base station, with the UE using a plurality of channels included in the list of channels.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein an indication of the list of channels is transmitted based at least in part on a change to the list of channels.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the list of channels corresponds to the base station and is indicated to one or more neighbor base stations.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the list of channels is modified by adding to the list, removing from the list, or adding and removing from the list.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein a number of channels, included in the list of channels, is fixed and a first channel is added to the list of channels when a second channel is removed from the list of channels.

19. A user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:

memory; and

one or more processors operatively coupled to the memory, the memory and the one or more processors configured to;

receive a master information block (MIB) that indicates a location of one or more system information blocks (SIBs);

receive the one or more SIBs based at least in part on the MIB, wherein the one or more SIBs indicate a list of channels for frequency hopping in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band; and

communicate by frequency hopping on a plurality of channels, included in the list of channels, based at least in part on the indication in the one or more SIBs.

20. The UE of claim 19, wherein the MIB or the one or more SIBs are obtained based at least in part on receiving a page triggered by a change to the list of channels.

21. The UE of claim 19, wherein the MIB or a SIB, of the one or more SIBs, indicates whether the list of channels has changed from a previously indicated list.

22. The UE of claim 21, wherein the list of channels is obtained based at least in part on determining that the list of channels has changed from the previously indicated list.

23. The UE of claim 21, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to read a value from the MIB or the SIB and compare the value to a previously received value to determine whether the list of channels has changed from the previously indicated list.

24. The UE of claim 19, wherein the list of channels corresponds to a base station serving the UE or is associated with a neighbor base station.

25. The UE of claim 19, wherein the MIB or the one or more SIBs indicate one or more fixed channels, for communication in the unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band, that are semi-static or permanent.

26. The UE of claim 19, wherein the MIB or the one or more SIBs indicate a number of channels for frequency hopping in the unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band.

27. The UE of claim 19, wherein the MIB or the one or more SIBs are obtained based at least in part on:

performing a radio resource control (RRC) configuration procedure,

receiving an indication, in a common physical downlink control channel, that the list of channels has changed or will change,

expiration of a modification period associated with the list of channels, or

some combination thereof.

28. The UE of claim 19, wherein one or more pages are searched for on a plurality of fixed channels using a paging window defined over a combination of discontinuous time intervals determined based at least in part on a frequency hopping pattern associated with the plurality of fixed channels.

29. A base station for wireless communication, comprising:

memory; and

one or more processors operatively coupled to the memory, the memory and the one or more processors configured to;

transmit a master information block (MIB) that indicates a location of one or more system information blocks (SIBs);

transmit the one or more SIBs, wherein the one or more SIBs indicate a list of channels permitted for use by a user equipment (UE) for frequency hopping in an unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band; and

communicate with the UE using a plurality of channels included in the list of channels.

30. The base station of claim 29, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to transmit an indication that the list of channels has changed based at least in part on a determination that the list of channels has changed.