Method and system for dynamic ACK/NACK repetition for robust downlink MAC PDU transmission in LTE

• US 8,665,796 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2012
• Issued: 03/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Suzuki, Takashi, Cai, Zhijun, Womack, James Earl
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Ayaz
• Assistant Examiner(s): HALIYUR, VENKATESH N
• Application Number:
  US13/476,713
• Publication Number:
  US 20120224532A1
• Time in Patent Office: 652 Days
• Field of Search: 370328-442, 714748-750
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1858 Transmission or retransmission of more than one copy of acknowledgement message
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/125 Arrangements for preventing errors in the return channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0005 Time-frequency
• 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 5/0064 Rate requirement of the data, e.g. scalable bandwidth, data priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0092 Indication of how the channel is divided
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/04 Error control

Abstract

A method and apparatus for dynamic acknowledgement repetition for a downlink medium access control packet data unit transmission ‘MAC PDU’ requiring multiple acknowledgements, the method having the steps of: receiving the downlink MAC PDU requiring multiple acknowledgements; and utilizing a differentiating factor and acknowledgement scheme, sending the multiple acknowledgements.

Claims

1. A method performed by a network apparatus, the method comprising:

obtaining acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledgement (HACK) feedback regarding a downlink transmission to a user equipment, said obtaining including

receiving a first ACK/NACK feedback response in a first subframe from the user equipment via a first uplink transmission resource, and

receiving a plurality of additional ACK/NACK feedback responses from the user equipment, each of the plurality of additional ACK/NACK feedback responses being received in a respective subframe of a second uplink transmission resource that is different from the first uplink transmission resource, wherein each respective subframe of the second uplink transmission resource is a different transmission subframe from the first subframe of the first trans ion resource.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising combining the first ACK/NACK feedback response with the plurality of additional ACK/NACK feedback responses.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of additional ACK/NACK feedback responses is a repetition of the first ACK/NACK feedback response.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a dedicated message to the user equipment configuring ACK/NACK feedback repetition.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first uplink transmission resource and the second uplink transmission resource utilize a different cyclic shift.

6. A network element comprising:

a communications system;

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

obtain acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledgement (NACK) feedback regarding a downlink transmission to a user equipment by

receiving a first ACK/NACK feedback response in a first subframe from the user equipment via a first uplink transmission resource and

receiving a plurality of additional ACK/NACK feedback responses from the user equipment, each of the plurality of additional ACK/NACK feedback responses being received in a respective subframe of a second uplink transmission resource that is different from the first uplink transmission resource, wherein each respective subframe of the second uplink transmission resource is a different transmission subframe from the first subframe of the first transmission resource.

7. The network element of claim 6 wherein the memory further stores instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to combine the first ACK/NACK feedback response with the plurality of additional ACK/NACK feedback responses.

8. The network element of claim 6, wherein each of the plurality of additional ACK/NACK feedback responses is a repetition of the first ACK/NACK feedback response.

9. The network element of claim 6, wherein the memory further stores instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to transmit a dedicated message to the user equipment configuring ACK/NACK feedback repetition.

10. The network element of claim 6, wherein the first uplink transmission resource and the second uplink transmission resource utilize a different cyclic shift.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

obtaining acknowledgement (ACK) or negative acknowledgement (NACK) feedback regarding a downlink transmission to user equipment, said obtaining including

receiving a first ACK/NACK feedback response in a first subframe from the user equipment via a first uplink transmission resource, and

receiving a plurality of additional ACK/NACK feedback responses from the user equipment, each of the plurality of additional ACK/NACK feedback responses being received in a respective subframe of a second uplink transmission resource that is different from the first uplink transmission resource, wherein each respective subframe of the second uplink transmission resource is a different transmission subframe from the first subframe of the first transmission resource.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor, further cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

combining the first ACK/NACK feedback response with the plurality of additional ACK/NACK feedback responses.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of additional ACK/NACK feedback responses is a repetition of the first ACK/NACK feedback response.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor, further cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

transmitting a dedicated message to the user equipment configuring ACK/NACK feedback repetition.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the first uplink transmission resource and the second uplink transmission resource utilize a different cyclic shift.