Methods and system for communicating control information using carrier aggregation

• US 8,817,755 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2011
• Issued: 08/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Fwu, Jong-Kae, Etemad, Kamran, Wang, Ping
• Primary Examiner(s): Nooristany, Sulaiman
• Application Number:
  US13/976,005
• Publication Number:
  US 20130294423A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,063 Days
• US Class Current: 370/336
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0413 MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0417 Feedback systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0465 taking power constraints at power amplifier or emission constraints, e.g. constant modulus, into account
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0478 Special codebook structures directed to feedback optimisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0482 Adaptive codebooks
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0486 taking channel rank into account
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0632 Channel quality parameters, e.g. channel quality indicator [CQI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0639 Using selective indices, e.g. of a codebook, e.g. pre-distortion matrix index [PMI] or for beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/0046 using joint detection algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0032 Without explicit signalling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1861 Physical mapping arrangements for ACK signaling see also H04L5/0053
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2602 Signal structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2613 Structure of the reference signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/26132 using repetition
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0025 Spatial division following the spatial signature of the channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0026 Division using four or more dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0035 Resource allocation in a cooperative multipoint environment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 : Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0051 : of dedicated pilots, i.e. pilots destined for a single user or terminal
• 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 5/0057 : Physical resource allocation for CQI
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0092 : Indication of how the channel is divided
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0094 : Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 : for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 : for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2365 : Multiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 : IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 : Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 : Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0231 : based on communication conditions dynamic wireless traffic scheduling definition based on channel quality criteria H04W72/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0268 : using specific QoS parameters for wireless networks, e.g. QoS class identifier [QCI] or guaranteed bit rate [GBR] negotiating SLA or negotiating QoS H04W28/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/14 : Reselecting a network or an air interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 : Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/06 : based on traffic conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0203 : in the radio access network or backbone network of wireless communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0219 : where the power saving management affects multiple terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/005 : Transmission of information for alerting of incoming communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 : Control channels or signalling for resource management
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/566 : of the information or information source or recipient
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 : Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 : adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/10 : adapted for operation in multiple networks, e.g. multi-mode access points
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

An apparatus may include a radio frequency (RF) transceiver to receive a first message over a first carrier in a first band in a downlink sub-frame of a first radio frame in a communications link, where the communications link comprises interband carriers aggregated over primary and secondary cells. The apparatus may also include a processor and a reply message assignment module operable on the processor to determine a downlink sub-frame in which the downlink transmission is received and to adjust timing of a reply/acknowledge message to be sent by the RF transceiver in response to the first message so as to coincide with a predetermined uplink sub-frame of a radio frame. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) transceiver to receive a first message over a first carrier in a first band in a downlink sub-frame of a first radio frame in a communications link, the communications link comprising interband carriers aggregated over a primary and a secondary cell;

a processor; and

a reply message assignment module operable on the processor to;

determine a first time division duplex uplink-downlink (UL-DL) configuration in which transmission is received;

map the first UL-DL configuration to a first UL-DL group of a multiplicity of UL-DL groups, the first UL-DL group comprising a set of UL-DL configurations sharing a common uplink sub-frame set of each radio frame; and

adjust timing of a reply/acknowledge message to be sent by the transceiver in response to the first message so as to coincide with a predetermined uplink sub-frame of a radio frame.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, the RF transceiver arranged to receive the first message over the secondary cell and to send the reply message over the primary cell.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, the reply message assignment module comprising an adapted downlink association set index, the adapted downlink association set index mapping, for each of a multiplicity of uplink-downlink configurations, one or more downlink sub-frames for carrying the first message to a common uplink sub-frame of a radio frame for carrying the reply message.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, the adapted downlink association set index comprising a single sub-frame of a radio frame for carrying the reply message in all uplink-downlink configurations.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, the radio frame comprising a time division duplex radio frame having ten sub-frames, each uplink-downlink configuration comprising an arrangement of uplink subframes and downlink subframes that is different from each other uplink-downlink configuration.

6. A system, comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) transceiver to receive a first message over a first carrier in a first band in a downlink sub-frame of a first radio frame in a communications link, the communications link comprising interband carriers distributed over a primary and secondary cell;

a processor;

a reply message assignment module operable on the processor to;

determine a first time division duplex uplink-downlink (UL-DL) configuration employed by the system;

map the first UL-DL configuration to a first UL-DL group of a multiplicity of UL-DL groups, the first UL-DL group comprising a set of UL-DL configurations sharing a common uplink sub-frame set of each radio frame; and

adjust timing of a reply message to be sent by the RF transceiver in response to the first message so as to coincide with a common uplink sub-frame of the common uplink sub-frame set of each radio frame; and

a digital display to present information received by the RF transceiver over the interband carriers.

7. The system of claim 6, the RF transceiver arranged to receive the first message over the secondary cell and to send the reply message over the primary cell.

8. The system of claim 6, the common uplink sub-frame set comprising a multiplicity of sub-frames in each radio frame.

9. The system of claim 6, the reply message assignment module comprising an adapted downlink association set index, the adapted downlink association set index mapping each UL-DL configuration to a given UL-DL group of the multiplicity of UL-DL groups, each UL-DL group comprising a set of UL-DL configurations sharing a common uplink sub-frame set of each radio frame.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for receiving a first message over a first carrier in a first band in a downlink sub-frame of a first radio frame in a communications link, the communications link comprising interband carriers aggregated over a primary and a secondary cell, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processor enable a system to:

determine a first time division duplex uplink-downlink (UL-DL) configuration employed by the system;

map the first UL-DL configuration to a first UL-DL group of a multiplicity of UL-DL groups, the first UL-DL group comprising a set of UL-DL configurations sharing a common uplink sub-frame set of each radio frame; and

adjust timing of a reply message to be sent by the RF transceiver in response to the first message so as to coincide with a common uplink sub-frame of the common uplink sub-frame set of each radio frame.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, comprising instructions that when executed by a processor enable a system to map each UL-DL configuration to a given UL-DL group of the multiplicity of UL-DL groups, each UL-DL group comprising a set of UL-DL configurations sharing a common uplink sub-frame set of each radio frame.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, comprising instructions that when executed by a processor enable a system to map a first downlink subframe to a first uplink subframe in a first radio frame and to map a second downlink subframe to a second uplink subframe in a second radio frame.