Control channel signaling using a common signaling field for transport format and redundancy version

• US 8,385,284 B2
• Filed: 12/18/2008
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Optis Wireless Technology, LLC (Brevet Capital)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Suzuki, Hidetoshi, Loehr, Joachim, Hiramatsu, Katsuhiko, Wengerter, Christian, Nishio, Akihiko
• Primary Examiner(s): ABELSON, RONALD B
• Application Number:
  US12/809,423
• Publication Number:
  US 20100309870A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,531 Days
• Field of Search: 370/328, 370/329, 714/748, 714/750
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0079 Formats for control data H04L1/16 takes precedence; training sequences H04L25/00 and H04L27/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1607 Details of the supervisory signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1893 Physical mapping arrangements physical resource mapping in general H04L5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1896 ARQ related signaling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for providing control signalling associated to a protocol data unit conveying user data in a mobile communication system and to the control channel signal itself. Furthermore, the invention also provides a mobile station and a base station and their respective operation in view of the newly defined control channel signals defined herein. In order to reduce the control channel overhead, the invention suggests defining a common field for the transport format and redundancy version in the control channel information format. According to one approach, the common field is used to jointly encode transport format and redundancy version therein. According to another aspect, one shared field is provided on the control channel signal that indicates either a transport format or a redundancy version depending of whether the control channel signal relates to an initial transmission or a retransmission. In another embodiment, further enhancements to a HARQ protocol are suggested for addressing certain error cases.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal for use in a mobile communication system, the mobile terminal comprising:

a receiver unit for receiving a sub-frame of physical radio resources comprising a control channel signal destined to the mobile terminal,

a processing unit for determining based on the received control channel signal a transport format of and a redundancy version for an initial transmission or a retransmission of a protocol data unit conveying user data, and

a transmitter unit for transmitting the protocol data unit on at least one physical radio resource using the transport format and the redundancy version of the protocol data unit indicated in the received control channel signal,

wherein the control channel signal received within said sub-frame comprises a control information field, in which the transport format and the redundancy version of the protocol data unit are jointly encoded,

wherein the processing unit is further configured for the determination of the control information field, which consists of a number of bits representing a range of values that can be represented in the control information field, wherein a first subset of the values is reserved for indicating the transport format of the protocol data unit and a second subset of the values, different from the first subset of the values, is reserved for indicating the redundancy version for transmitting the user data, and

wherein the first subset of the values contains more values than the second subset of the values.

2. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein every value of the first subset of the values indicates a transport format and every value of the second subset of the values indicates a redundancy version.

3. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the redundancy version of the protocol data unit is implicit in the transport format indicated by a corresponding value of the first subset.

4. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the value of the encoded information bits in the control information field is representing a value of the first subset of the values, in case the transmission of the protocol data unit is an initial transmission of the user data.

5. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the value of the encoded information bits in the control information field is representing a value of the first subset or the second subset of the values, in case the transmission of the protocol data unit is a retransmission of the user data.

6. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the value of the encoded information bits in the control information field is representing a value of the second subset of the values, in case the transmission of the protocol data unit is a retransmission of the user data.

7. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the bits of the control information field jointly encode the transport format, the redundancy version used for transmitting the protocol data unit, and a new data indicator for indicating whether the transmission of the protocol data unit is an initial transmission of the user data, and

wherein use of one of the values of the first subset also indicates the transmission of the protocol data unit to be an initial transmission.

8. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the redundancy version to be used for the initial transmission of the user data in the protocol data unit is fixed or preconfigured.

9. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control channel signal is further comprising a sequence number field indicating a sequence number of the protocol data unit.

10. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control channel signal is further comprising a new data indicator field indicating whether the transmission of the protocol data unit is an initial transmission or a retransmission of the user data.

11. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control channel signal further comprises a mobile terminal identifier field for indicating the mobile terminal or a group of mobile terminals that are to receive the control channel signal.

12. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the control channel signal is a L1/L2 control channel signal.

13. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein in case the transmission of the protocol data unit is a retransmission of the user data, the bits of the control information field include a flag indicating a type of information indicated by the remaining bits of the control information field.

14. A method for use in a mobile communication system, the method comprising the following steps performed by a mobile terminal:

receiving a sub-frame of physical radio resources comprising a control channel signal destined to the mobile terminal,

determining based on the received control channel signal a transport format of and a redundancy version for an initial transmission or a retransmission a protocol data unit conveying user data, and

transmitting the protocol data unit on at least one physical radio resource using the transport format and the redundancy version of the protocol data unit indicated in the received control channel signal,

wherein the control channel signal received within said sub-frame comprises a control information field, in which the transport format and the redundancy version of the protocol data unit are jointly encoded,

wherein the control information field consists of a number of bits representing a range of values that can be represented in the control information field, wherein a first subset of the values is reserved for indicating the transport format of the protocol data unit and a second subset of the values, different from the first subset of the values, is reserved for indicating the redundancy version for transmitting the user data, and

wherein the first subset of the values contains more values than the second subset of the values.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein every value of the first subset of the values indicates a transport format and every value of the second subset of the values indicates a redundancy version.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein the redundancy version of the protocol data unit is implicit in the transport format indicated by a corresponding value of the first subset.

17. The method according to claim 14, wherein the value of the encoded information bits in the control information field is representing a value of the first subset of the values, in case the transmission of the protocol data unit is an initial transmission of the user data.

18. The method according to claim 14, wherein the value of the encoded information bits in the control information field is representing a value of the first subset or the second subset of the values, in case the transmission of the protocol data unit is a retransmission of the user data.

19. The method according to claim 14, wherein the value of the encoded information bits in the control information field is representing a value of the second subset of the values, in case the transmission of the protocol data unit is a retransmission of the user data.

20. The method according to claim 14, wherein the bits of the control information field jointly encode the transport format, the redundancy version used for transmitting the protocol data unit, and a new data indicator for indicating whether the transmission of the protocol data unit is an initial transmission of the user data, and

wherein use of one of the values of the first subset also indicates the transmission of the protocol data unit to be an initial transmission.

21. The method according to claim 14, wherein the redundancy version to be used for the initial transmission of the user data in the protocol data unit is fixed or preconfigured.

22. The method according to claim 14, wherein the control channel signal is further comprising a sequence number field indicating a sequence number of the protocol data unit.

23. The method according to claim 14, wherein the control channel signal is further comprising a new data indicator field indicating whether the transmission of the protocol data unit is an initial transmission or a retransmission of the user data.

24. The method according to claim 14, wherein the control channel signal further comprises a mobile terminal identifier field for indicating the mobile terminal or a group of mobile terminals that are to receive the control channel signal.

25. The method according to claim 14, wherein the control channel signal is a L1/L2 control channel signal.

26. The method according to claim 14, wherein in case the transmission of the protocol data unit is a retransmission of the user data, the bits of the control information field include a flag indicating a type of information indicated by the remaining bits of the control information field.

27. The method according to claim 14, wherein the transport format is transport block size information of the protocol data unit, and wherein the received control channel signal further comprises a resource allocation field indicating the physical radio resource or resources allocated to the mobile terminal,

and said determining depends on the information comprised in the resource allocation field and the control information field.

28. The method according to claim 14, further comprising reusing the transport format of the protocol data unit indicated in the control channel signal for the initial transmission, for the retransmission of the protocol data unit.

29. The method according to claim 14, wherein the bits of the control information field are associated with single reference information indicating a transport format and a redundancy version used for transmitting the protocol data unit, the single reference information being associated with respective values represented by the bits of the control information field for an initial transmission and a retransmission of the protocol data unit.

30. A base station for use in a mobile communication system, the base station comprising:

a transmitter unit for transmitting a sub-frame of physical radio resources comprising a control channel signal to a mobile terminal, the control channel signal indicating a transport format of and a redundancy version for an initial transmission or a retransmission of a protocol data unit conveying user data for use in an uplink transmission from the mobile terminal, and

a receiver unit for receiving the uplink transmission of the protocol data unit from the mobile terminal on at least one physical radio resource using the transport format and the redundancy version indicated in the control channel signal,

wherein the control channel signal transmitted within said sub-frame comprises a control information field, in which the transport format and the redundancy version of the protocol data unit are jointly encoded,

wherein the control information field consists of a number of bits representing a range of values that can be represented in the control information field, wherein a first subset of the values is reserved for indicating the transport format used for the uplink transmission of the protocol data unit and a second subset of the values, different from the first subset of the values, is reserved for indicating the redundancy version used for the uplink transmission of the protocol data unit, and

wherein the first subset of the values contains more values than the second subset of the values.

31. The base station according to claim 30, wherein every value of the first subset of the values indicates a transport format and every value of the second subset of the values indicates a redundancy version.

32. The base station according to claim 30, wherein the redundancy version for the uplink transmission of the protocol data unit is implicit in the transport format indicated by a corresponding value of the first subset.

33. The base station according to claim 30, wherein the value of the encoded information bits in the control information field is representing a value of the first subset of the values, in case the transmission of the protocol data unit is an initial transmission of the user data.

34. The base station according to claim 30, wherein the value of the encoded information bits in the control information field is representing a value of the first subset or the second subset of the values, in case the transmission of the protocol data unit is a retransmission of the user data.

35. The base station according to claim 30, wherein the value of the encoded information bits in the control information field is representing a value of the second subset of the values, in case the transmission of the protocol data unit is a retransmission of the user data.