Method and apparatus for allocating uplink resources in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system

• US 7,184,743 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2005
• Issued: 02/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Howard, Steven J., Wallace, Mark S., Walton, Jay Rod
• Primary Examiner(s): Anderson; Matthew D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRINH, TAN H
• Application Number:
  US11/301,790
• Publication Number:
  US 20060105761A1
• Time in Patent Office: 442 Days
• Field of Search: 455/343.4, 455/132, 455/185.1, 455/512, 455/166.2, 455/423, 455/67.11, 455/452.1, 455/450, 455/452.2, 370/335, 375/267
• US Class Current: 455/343.4
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0417 Feedback systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0626 Channel coefficients, e.g. channel state information [CSI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0697 using spatial multiplexing
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0891 Space-time diversity rake receivers H04B1/7115; space-time decoding H04L1/0631
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/121 for groups of terminals or users

Abstract

Techniques to schedule uplink data transmission for a number of terminals in a wireless communication system. In one method, a number of sets of terminals are formed for possible data transmission, with each set including a unique combination of terminals and corresponds to a hypothesis to be evaluated. The performance of each hypothesis is evaluated (e.g., based on channel response estimates for each terminal) and one of the evaluated hypotheses is selected based on the performance. The terminals in the selected hypothesis are scheduled for data transmission. A successive cancellation receiver processing scheme may be used to process the signals transmitted by the scheduled terminals. In this case, one or more orderings of the terminals in each set may be formed, with each terminal ordering corresponding to a sub-hypothesis to be evaluated. The performance of each sub-hypothesis is then evaluated and one of the sub-hypotheses is selected.

Claims

1. A multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system, comprising:

a base station comprising

a plurality of front-end processors configured to process a plurality of signals received from a plurality of terminals to provide a plurality of symbol streams,

at least one receive processor coupled to the front-end processors and configured to process the symbol streams in accordance with a successive cancellation receiver processing scheme to provide a plurality of decoded data streams, and to further derive channel state information (CSI) indicative of channel estimates for the plurality of terminals,

a scheduler configured to receive the CSI, select a set of one or more terminals for data transmission on an uplink, assign a particular order of processing for the one or more selected terminals, and provide a schedule for the one or more selected terminals and their transmission parameters, and

a transmit data processor operatively coupled to the receive processor and configured to process the schedule for transmission to the one or more selected terminals; and

one or more terminals, each terminal comprising

at least one demodulator configured to receive and process one or more signals from the base station to recover the transmitted schedule, and

a transmit data processor configured to adaptively process data for transmission to the base station based on the transmission parameters for the terminal included in the recovered schedule.

2. The base station of claim 1, wherein the set of one or more transmission parameters for each selected terminal includes a coding and modulation scheme to be used for each data stream to be transmitted by the selected terminal.

3. A base station in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system, comprising:

a plurality of front-end processors configured to process a plurality of signals received from a plurality of terminals to provide a plurality of received symbol streams;

at least one receive processor coupled to the front-end processors and configured to process the received symbol streams to provide a plurality of decoded data streams and to derive channel state information (CSI) associated with the decoded data stream;

a scheduler configured to receive the CSI, select a set of one or more terminals for data transmission on the uplink and provide a schedule for the one or more selected terminals and a set of one or more transmission parameters for each selected terminal; and

a transmit processor configured to receive and process the schedule for transmission to the plurality of terminals, and

wherein the one or more data streams from each scheduled terminal are adaptively processed prior to transmission based in part on the transmission parameters for the terminal included in the schedule.

4. The base station of claim 3, wherein the at least one receive processor is further operative to perform linear spatial processing on the received symbol streams.

5. The base station of claim 3, wherein the at least one receive processor is further operative to perform space-time processing on the received symbol streams.

6. The base station of claim 3, wherein the at least one receive processor is further operative to estimate a quality of each received symbol stream to derive the CSI for the associated decoded data stream.

7. The base station of claim 3, wherein the quality estimate is the signal-to-noise-plus-interference ratio (SNR) for the received symbol stream after spatial or space-time processing.

8. The base station of claim 3, wherein the set of one or more transmission parameters for each selected terminal includes a date rate for each data stream to be transmitted by the selected terminal.

9. The base station of claim 3, wherein each processing stage except a last stage includes

a channel processor configured to process the input symbol streams to provide a decoded data stream, and

an interference canceller configured to derive the modified symbol streams based on the decoded data stream and the input symbol streams.

10. The base station of claim 9, wherein each processing stage includes a channel quality estimator operative to estimate a quality of the recovered symbol stream to derive the CSI for the associated decoded data stream.

11. The base station of claim 9, wherein the channel quality estimator is operative to estimate the signal-to-noise-plus-interference ratio (SNR) for the recovered symbol stream.

12. A terminal in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system, comprising:

at least one front-end processor configured to process at least one received signal to provide at least one received symbol stream;

at least one receive processor coupled to the at least one front-end processor and configured to process the at least one received symbol stream to recover a schedule for the terminal, wherein the schedule include an indication of a particular time interval in which the terminal is scheduled for data transmission and a set of one or more transmission parameters to be used by the terminal for the data transmission;

a transmit processor configured to receive and adaptively process data for transmission in accordance with the set of one or more transmission parameters, and

wherein the terminal is one of one or more terminals included in a set scheduled for data transmission in the particular time interval, and wherein the set of one or more terminals scheduled for data transmission is selected from among one or more sets of terminals based on performance evaluated for each set.