Wireless resource allocation methods and apparatus
First Claim
1. A method for assigning resources in a wireless communication system comprising:
- operating a control node to perform the steps of;
transmitting, on a control channel formed from a group of contiguous subcarriers in bandwidth including at least some discontinuous subcarriers, guard subcarrier information, said guard subcarrier information indicating both the number and location of guard subcarriers in a plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to a first carrier that may be assigned by said control node;
selecting a first wireless terminal to be assigned a communications resource;
assigning the first wireless terminal a resource including at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the first carrier for a period of time, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth being discontinuous portions of bandwidth from said plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth including a first portion of bandwidth and a second portion of bandwidth, said first and second portions of bandwidth being separated by a third portion of bandwidth corresponding to another carrier not included in said resource, said third portion of bandwidth being larger than either of said two discontinuous portions of bandwidth and being a portion of bandwidth which is not used by said control node; and
transmitting a single assignment message communicating the assignment of the resource including the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth to the first wireless terminal, said assignment message including a node identifier corresponding to a set of subcarriers including at least one guard subcarrier from each of the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the resource.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for assigning and using resources corresponding to discontinuous portions of bandwidth are described. A single assignment may be used to assign multiple disjoint portions of bandwidth to be used by a wireless terminal, e.g., at the same time, as an uplink or downlink band. Different portions of bandwidth allocated to a terminal may have different numbers and/or locations of guard subcarriers with relevant guard subcarrier information being communicated to the wireless terminal in a broadcast signal or being determined from stored information. The disjoint portions of bandwidth allocated for use to a terminal may be separated by a carrier band, e.g., 1.25 MHz or more, which is not available for use, e.g., because it is owned by another service provider. Some embodiments are implemented using OFDM signals wherein a wireless terminal may generate or receive an OFDM symbol including subcarriers, e.g., tones corresponding to the different discontinuous portions but not the bandwidth separating the discontinuous portions.
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Citations
74 Claims
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1. A method for assigning resources in a wireless communication system comprising:
operating a control node to perform the steps of; transmitting, on a control channel formed from a group of contiguous subcarriers in bandwidth including at least some discontinuous subcarriers, guard subcarrier information, said guard subcarrier information indicating both the number and location of guard subcarriers in a plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to a first carrier that may be assigned by said control node; selecting a first wireless terminal to be assigned a communications resource; assigning the first wireless terminal a resource including at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the first carrier for a period of time, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth being discontinuous portions of bandwidth from said plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth including a first portion of bandwidth and a second portion of bandwidth, said first and second portions of bandwidth being separated by a third portion of bandwidth corresponding to another carrier not included in said resource, said third portion of bandwidth being larger than either of said two discontinuous portions of bandwidth and being a portion of bandwidth which is not used by said control node; and transmitting a single assignment message communicating the assignment of the resource including the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth to the first wireless terminal, said assignment message including a node identifier corresponding to a set of subcarriers including at least one guard subcarrier from each of the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the resource. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74)
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13. A communications apparatus for assigning resources in a wireless communication system, the apparatus comprising:
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a wireless transmitter configured to transmit, on a control channel formed from a group of contiguous subcarriers in bandwidth including at least some discontinuous subcarriers, guard subcarrier information, said guard subcarrier information indicating both the number and location of guard subcarriers in a plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to a first carrier that may be assigned by said control node; a selection module for selecting a first wireless terminal to be assigned a communications resource; a resource assignment module for assigning the first wireless terminal selected by said selection module a resource including at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the first carrier for a period of time, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth being discontinuous portions of bandwidth from said plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth including a first portion of bandwidth and a second portion of bandwidth, said first and second portions of bandwidth being separated by a third portion of bandwidth corresponding to another carrier not included in said resource, said third portion of bandwidth being larger than either of said two discontinuous portions of bandwidth and being a portion of bandwidth which is not used by said communications apparatus; wherein said wireless transmitter is further configured to transmit a single assignment message communicating the assignment of the resource including the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth to the first wireless terminal, said assignment message including a node identifier corresponding to a set of subcarriers including at least one guard subcarrier from each of the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the resource; and memory for storing information. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A communications apparatus for assigning resources in a wireless communication system, the apparatus comprising:
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means for transmitting, on a control channel formed from a group of contiguous subcarriers in bandwidth including at least some discontinuous subcarriers, guard subcarrier information, said guard subcarrier information indicating both the number and location of guard subcarriers in a plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to a first carrier that may be assigned by said control node; selection means for selecting a first wireless terminal to be assigned a communications resource; means for assigning the first wireless terminal selected by said selection means a resource including at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the first carrier for a period of time, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth being discontinuous portions of bandwidth from said plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth including a first portion of bandwidth and a second portion of bandwidth, said first and second portions of bandwidth being separated by a third portion of bandwidth corresponding to another carrier not included in said resource, said third portion of bandwidth being larger than either of said two discontinuous portions of bandwidth and being a portion of bandwidth which is not used by said communications apparatus; wherein said means for transmitting are also for transmitting a single assignment message communicating the assignment of the resource including the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth to the first wireless terminal, said assignment message including a node identifier corresponding to a set of subcarriers including at least one guard subcarrier from each of the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the resource; and memory means for storing information. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25)
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26. An apparatus comprising:
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a processor configured to control said apparatus to; transmit, on a control channel formed from a group of contiguous subcarriers in bandwidth including at least some discontinuous subcarriers, guard subcarrier information, said guard subcarrier information indicating both the number and location of guard subcarriers in a plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to a first carrier that may be assigned by said control node; select a first wireless terminal to be assigned a communications resource; assign the first wireless terminal a resource including at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the first carrier for a period of time, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth being discontinuous portions of bandwidth from said plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth including a first portion of bandwidth and a second portion of bandwidth, said first and second portions of bandwidth being separated by a third portion of bandwidth corresponding to another carrier not included in said resource, said third portion of bandwidth being larger than either of said two discontinuous portions of bandwidth and being a portion of bandwidth which is not used by said apparatus; and transmit a single assignment message communicating the assignment of the resource including the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth to the first wireless terminal, said assignment message including a node identifier corresponding to a set of subcarriers including at least one guard subcarrier from each of the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the resource; and memory coupled to said processor. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying machine executable instructions for controlling a communications device to implement a method of assigning resources in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
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transmitting, on a control channel formed from a group of contiguous subcarriers in bandwidth including at least some discontinuous subcarriers, guard subcarrier information, said guard subcarrier information indicating both the number and location of guard subcarriers in a plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to a first carrier that may be assigned by said control node; selecting a first wireless terminal to be assigned a communications resource; and assigning the first wireless terminal a resource including at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the first carrier for a period of time, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth being discontinuous portions of bandwidth from said plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth including a first portion of bandwidth and a second portion of bandwidth, said first and second portions of bandwidth being separated by a third portion of bandwidth corresponding to another carrier not included in said resource, said third portion of bandwidth being larger than either of said two discontinuous portions of bandwidth and being a portion of bandwidth which is not used by said communications device; and transmitting a single assignment message communicating the assignment of the resource including the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth to the first wireless terminal, said assignment message including a node identifier corresponding to a set of subcarriers including at least one guard subcarrier from each of the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the resource. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A method of operating a wireless terminal comprising:
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receiving from a control node, on a control channel formed from a group of contiguous subcarriers in bandwidth including at least some discontinuous subcarriers, guard subcarrier information, said guard subcarrier information indicating both the number and location of guard subcarriers in a plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to a first carrier that may be assigned by said control node; receiving from the control node a resource assignment message indicating assignment, to said wireless terminal of a resource including at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the first carrier for a period of time, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth being discontinuous portions of bandwidth from said plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth, said assignment message including a node identifier corresponding to a set of subcarriers including at least one guard subcarrier from each of the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the resource, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth including a first portion of bandwidth and a second portion of bandwidth, said first and second portions of bandwidth being separated by a third portion of bandwidth corresponding to another carrier not included in said resource, said third portion of bandwidth being larger than either of said two discontinuous portions of bandwidth and being a portion of bandwidth which is not used by said control node; and using said assigned resource to communicate with said control node. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. A wireless terminal comprising:
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a receiver module configured to receive, from a control node, on a control channel formed from a group of contiguous subcarriers in bandwidth including at least some discontinuous subcarriers, guard subcarrier information, said guard subcarrier information indicating both the number and location of guard subcarriers in a plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to a first carrier that may be assigned by said control node, and receive a resource assignment message indicating assignment, to said wireless terminal, of a resource including at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the first carrier for a period of time, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth being discontinuous portions of bandwidth from said plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth, said assignment message including a node identifier corresponding to a set of subcarriers including at least one guard subcarrier from each of the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the resource, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth including a first portion of bandwidth and a second portion of bandwidth, said first and second portions of bandwidth being separated by a third portion of bandwidth corresponding to another carrier not included in said resource, said third portion of bandwidth being larger than either of said two discontinuous portions of bandwidth and being a portion of bandwidth which is not used by said control node; and at least one of; i) a symbol generation module for generating symbols corresponding to the allocated resource and ii) a symbol recovery module for recovering symbols corresponding to the allocated resource. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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54. A wireless terminal comprising:
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receiver means for receiving, from a control node on a control channel formed from a group of contiguous subcarriers in bandwidth including at least some discontinuous subcarriers, guard subcarrier information, said guard subcarrier information indicating both the number and location of guard subcarriers in a plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to a first carrier that may be assigned by said control node, and for receiving a resource assignment message indicating assignment, to said wireless terminal, of a resource including at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the first carrier for a period of time, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth being discontinuous portions of bandwidth from said plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth, said assignment message including a node identifier corresponding to a set of subcarriers including at least one guard subcarrier from each of the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the resource, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth including a first portion of bandwidth and a second portion of bandwidth, said first and second portions of bandwidth being separated by a third portion of bandwidth corresponding to another carrier not included in said resource, said third portion of bandwidth being larger than either of said two discontinuous portions of bandwidth and being a portion of bandwidth which is not used by said control node; and at least one of; i) means for generating symbols corresponding to the allocated resource and ii) means for recovering symbols corresponding to the allocated resource. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56, 57, 58)
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59. An apparatus comprising:
a processor for use in a wireless terminal, the processor configured to; receive, from a control node on a control channel formed from a group of contiguous subcarriers in bandwidth including at least some discontinuous subcarriers, guard subcarrier information, said guard subcarrier information indicating both the number and location of guard subcarriers in a plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to a first carrier that may be assigned by said control node; receive from said control node a resource assignment message indicating assignment, to said wireless terminal, of a resource including at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the first carrier for a period of time, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth being discontinuous portions of bandwidth from said plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth, said assignment message including a node identifier corresponding to a set of subcarriers including at least one guard subcarrier from each of the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the resource, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth including a first portion of bandwidth and a second portion of bandwidth, said first and second portions of bandwidth being separated by a third portion of bandwidth corresponding to another carrier not included in said resource, said third portion of bandwidth being larger than either of said two discontinuous portions of bandwidth and being a portion of bandwidth which is not used by said control node; and use said assigned resource to communicate with said control node. - View Dependent Claims (60, 61, 62, 63)
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64. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying machine executable instructions for controlling a wireless terminal to implement a method of communicating with another communications device, the method comprising:
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receiving from a control node, on a control channel formed from a group of contiguous subcarriers in bandwidth including at least some discontinuous subcarriers, guard subcarrier information, said guard subcarrier information indicating both the number and location of guard subcarriers in a plurality of discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to a first carrier that may be assigned by said control node; receiving, from said control node, a resource assignment message indicating assignment, to said wireless terminal, of a resource including at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the first carrier for a period of time, said assignment message including a node identifier corresponding to a set of subcarriers including at least one guard subcarrier from each of the at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth corresponding to the resource, said at least two discontinuous portions of bandwidth including a first portion of bandwidth and a second portion of bandwidth, said first and second portions of bandwidth being separated by a third portion of bandwidth corresponding to another carrier not included in said resource, said third portion of bandwidth being larger than either of said two discontinuous portions of bandwidth and being a portion of bandwidth which is not used by said control node; and using said assigned resource to communicate with said control node. - View Dependent Claims (65, 66, 67, 68)
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Specification