Multi-carrier incremental redundancy for packet-based wireless communications

• US 8,009,752 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2005
• Issued: 08/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Casaccia, Lorenzo, Malladi, Durga Prasad
• Primary Examiner(s): Ha; Dac
• Assistant Examiner(s): PANWALKAR, VINEETA S
• Application Number:
  US11/238,791
• Publication Number:
  US 20060203924A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,162 Days
• Field of Search: 375/299, 375/295, 375/296, 375/259, 375/260, 375/267, 375/354, 375/358, 375/285, 370/479, 370/480, 370/481, 370/482, 455/101, 455/103, 455/114.2, 455/39, 455/68, 455/69, 398/1, 398/2, 398/5, 398/31, 714/699, 714746-756, 714/786, 714/790
• US Class Current: 375/267
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0045 Arrangements at the receiver end
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/04 using frequency diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/08 by repeating transmission, e.g. Verdan system H04L1/1858 and H04L1/189 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1819 with retransmission of additional or different redundancy
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1845 Combining techniques, e.g. code combining
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1893 Physical mapping arrangements physical resource mapping in general H04L5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/18 Phase-modulated carrier systems, i.e. using phase-shift keying H04L27/32 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• 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 5/06 the signals being represented by different frequencies combined with time-division multiplexing H04L5/26

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are disclosed herein for providing incremental redundancy in a wireless communication system to aid in error recovery. One or more redundancy versions are sent on different carriers than the primary version of information to be transmitted. At the receiver end the redundancy versions may be combined using hard or soft combining techniques, including selection combining, selective soft combining or soft combining.

Claims

1. A method of providing redundancy for error recovery in multi-carrier wireless communications, the method comprising:

selecting a transmission strategy at least partially based on a data reception condition indication of a transmission, the data reception condition indication received from a mobile device;

encoding a primary version of information to be transmitted with a first encoding scheme;

encoding a redundancy version of the information to be transmitted with a second encoding scheme;

transmitting the primary version of the information encoded with the first encoding scheme, the primary version being transmitted on a first carrier; and

transmitting the redundancy version of the information encoded with the second encoding scheme, at least part of the redundancy version being transmitted on a second carrier;

wherein encoding and transmitting the primary version and the redundancy version are performed in accordance with the selected transmission strategy and wherein selecting the transmission strategy includes determining whether the first carrier has a first frequency that is prone to fading and in response to determining that the first frequency is prone to fading, selecting the second carrier to have a second frequency that is different from the first frequency and selecting the second encoding scheme to match the first encoding scheme.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmission strategy specifies at least one of a predetermined number of redundancy versions to be transmitted, timing information for sending the redundancy version relative to the primary version, and coding schemes for encoding the primary version and the redundancy version.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the timing information constrains the redundancy version to be transmitted prior to an earliest possible reception of an automatic retransmission request signal from the mobile device responsive to the primary version.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first encoding scheme is selected from a group consisting of MCS-9, MCS-6 and MCS-3.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the redundancy version is transmitted in two or more transmissions, one of the two or more transmissions being transmitted on a third carrier within the same transmission time period as the primary version.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the redundancy version is a first redundancy version, the method further comprising:

encoding a second redundancy version of the information with a third encoding scheme; and

wirelessly transmitting to a receiver, on a third carrier, the second redundancy version of the information encoded with the third encoding scheme.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising bit stuffing at least one redundancy version, wherein the bit stuffing offsets differing block sizesof the encoding schemes.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the first encoding scheme and the third encoding scheme belong to the same encoding scheme family.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the primary version is transmitted via a base station to the mobile device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a period from the transmission of the primary version to the transmission of a next primary version comprises a frame, wherein each frame comprises a plurality of slots.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile device receives the primary version and the redundancy version.

12. An apparatus for providing redundancy for error recovery in multi-carrier wireless communications, the apparatus comprising:

means for selecting a transmission strategy at least partially based on a data reception condition indication of a transmission, the data reception condition indication received from a mobile device;

means for encoding a primary version of information to be transmitted with a first encoding scheme;

means for encoding a redundancy version of the information to be transmitted with a second encoding scheme;

means for transmitting the primary version of the information encoded with the first encoding scheme, the primary version being transmitted on a first carrier; and

means for transmitting the redundancy version of the information encoded with the second encoding scheme, at least part of the redundancy version being transmitted on a second carrier;

wherein encoding and transmitting the primary version and the redundancy version are performed in accordance with the selected transmission strategy and wherein selecting the transmission strategy includes determining whether the first carrier has a first frequency that is prone to fading and in response to determining that the first frequency is prone to fading, selecting the second carrier to have a second frequency that is different from the first frequency and selecting the second encoding scheme to match the first encoding scheme.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the transmission strategy specifies a predetermined number of redundancy versions to be transmitted.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the transmission strategy specifies timing information for sending the redundancy version relative to the primary version.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the transmission strategy specifies coding schemes for encoding the primary version and the redundancy version.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the redundancy version is a first redundancy version, the apparatus further comprising:

means for encoding a second redundancy version of the information with a third encoding scheme; and

means for wirelessly transmitting to a receiver, on a third carrier, the second redundancy version of the information encoded with the third encoding scheme.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the receiver is a mobile unit and the primary version is transmitted via a base station to the mobile unit.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the first encoding scheme and the third encoding scheme belong to the same encoding scheme family.

19. The apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising bit stuffing at least one redundancy version, wherein the bit stuffing offsets differing block sizes of the encoding schemes.

20. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein a period from the transmission of the primary version to the transmission of a next primary version comprises a frame.

21. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the redundancy version is transmitted in two or more transmissions, one of the two or more transmissions being transmitted on a third carrier within the same transmission time period as the primary version.

22. A communication device for providing redundancy for error recovery in multi-carrier wireless communications, the device comprising:

logic to select a transmission strategy at least partially based on a data reception condition indication of a transmission, the data reception condition indication received from a mobile device;

an encoder for encoding a primary version of information to be transmitted with a first encoding scheme, and encoding a redundancy version of the information to be transmitted with a second encoding scheme; and

a transmitter for transmitting the primary version of the information encoded with the first encoding scheme, the primary version being transmitted on a first carrier, and transmitting the redundancy version of the information encoded with the second encoding scheme, at least part of the redundancy version being transmitted on a second carrier;

wherein encoding and transmitting the primary version and the redundancy version are performed in accordance with the selected transmission strategy, wherein selecting the transmission strategy includes determining whether the first carrier has a first frequency that is prone to fading, and wherein in response to determining that the first frequency is prone to fading, the second carrier is selected to have a second frequency that is different from the first frequency and the second encoding scheme is selected to match the first encoding scheme.

23. The device of claim 22, wherein the transmission strategy specifies a predetermined number of redundancy versions to be transmitted.

24. The device of claim 22, wherein the transmission strategy specifies timing information for sending the redundancy version relative to the primary version.

25. The device of claim 22, wherein the transmission strategy specifies coding schemes for encoding the primary version and the redundancy version.

26. The device of claim 22, wherein the redundancy version is transmitted in two or more transmissions, one of the two or more transmissions to be transmitted on a third carrier within the same transmission time period as the primary version.

27. The device of claim 22, wherein a period from the transmission of the primary version to the transmission of a next primary version comprises a frame, wherein each frame comprises a plurality of slots.

28. A computer program product for error recovery in multi-carrier wireless communications, comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising;

code for causing a computer to select a transmission strategy at least partially based on a data reception condition indication of a transmission, the data reception condition indication received from a mobile device;

code for causing the computer to encode a primary version of information to be transmitted with a first encoding scheme;

code for causing the computer to encode a redundancy version of the information to be transmitted with a second encoding scheme;

code for causing the computer to transmit the primary version of the information encoded with the first encoding scheme, the primary version being transmitted on a first carrier; and

code for causing the computer to transmit the redundancy version of the information encoded with the second encoding scheme, at least part of the redundancy version being transmitted on a second carrier;

wherein encoding and transmitting the primary version and the redundancy version are performed in accordance with the selected transmission strategy, wherein selecting the transmission strategy includes determining whether the first carrier has a first frequency that is prone to fading, and wherein in response to determining that the first frequency is prone to fading, the code for causing the computer to select a transmission strategy to select the second carrier to have a second frequency that is different from the first frequency and to select the second encoding scheme to match the first encoding scheme.