Base station, communication system, mobile terminal, and relay device

• US 8,989,077 B2
• Filed: 06/10/2010
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pantech Corporation (Ideahub, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Takano, Hiroaki
• Primary Examiner(s): HALIYUR, VENKATESH N
• Application Number:
  US13/383,590
• Publication Number:
  US 20120113888A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,748 Days
• Field of Search: 370252-352
• US Class Current: 370/315
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/15 Active relay systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/155 Ground-based stations H04B7/204 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2606 Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/26 Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1268 of uplink data flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1273 of downlink data flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/535 based on resource usage policies
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations

Abstract

A base station including a communication unit for communicating with a mobile terminal via a relay link between the base station and a relay device and an access link between the relay device and the mobile terminal, and a selection unit for selecting an allocation pattern of an uplink of the relay link, a downlink of the relay link, an uplink of the access link, and a downlink of the access link to frequency-time blocks from a plurality of allocation patterns that are different in delay occurring between the base station and the mobile terminal.

Claims

1. A base station, comprising:

circuitry configured to

communicate with a mobile terminal via a relay link between the base station and a relay device and an access link between the relay device and the mobile terminal by orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing, and

select a predetermined allocation pattern of an uplink of the relay link, a downlink of the relay link, an uplink of the access link, and a downlink of the access link to frequency-time blocks from a plurality of predetermined allocation patterns, the plurality of predetermined allocation patterns including more than four predetermined allocation patterns,

wherein information that indicates said selected predetermined allocation pattern is transmitted from said base station to said relay device, and

the plurality of predetermined allocation patterns includes at least two types of predetermined allocation patterns;

a first type of predetermined allocation pattern where frequency-time blocks of the downlink of the relay link and the downlink of the access link are different in time, and frequency-time blocks of the uplink of the access link and the uplink of the relay link are different in time domain, and

a second type of predetermined allocation pattern where frequency-time blocks of the downlink of the relay link and the downlink of the access link are different in frequency, and frequency-time blocks of the uplink of the access link and the uplink of the relay link are different in frequency domain.

2. The base station according to claim 1, wherein the circuitry receives information indicating a predetermined allocation pattern that the relay device is compatible with, and selects the predetermined allocation pattern that the relay device is compatible with from the plurality of predetermined allocation patterns.

3. The base station according to claim 2, wherein the circuitry selects the predetermined allocation pattern according to delay characteristics required for communication between the base station and the mobile terminal.

4. The base station according to claim 3, wherein one radio frame is formed from a plurality of subframes, and a time slot of each of the frequency-time blocks corresponds to a time slot of a subframe.

5. The base station according to claim 3, wherein one radio frame is formed from a plurality of subframes formed from a plurality of slots, and a time slot of each of the frequency-time blocks corresponds to a time slot of a slot.

6. The base station according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of predetermined allocation patterns include a predetermined allocation pattern where frequency-time blocks of the uplink of the relay link, the downlink of the relay link, the uplink of the access link, and the downlink of the access link are same in time but different in frequency.

7. The base station according to claim 6, wherein the plurality of predetermined allocation patterns include a predetermined allocation pattern where frequency-time blocks of the uplink of the relay link, the downlink of the relay link, the uplink of the access link, and the downlink of the access link are same in frequency but different in time.

8. The base station according to claim 7, wherein the plurality of predetermined allocation patterns include a predetermined allocation pattern where frequency-time blocks of the downlink of the relay link and the downlink of the access link are different in time and frequency, and frequency-time blocks of the uplink of the access link and the uplink of the relay link are different in time and frequency.

12. The base station according to claim 1, wherein the subframes are units of allocation for the frequency-time blocks.

13. The base station according to claim 1, wherein a time slot is a unit of allocation for the frequency-time blocks.

9. A communication system comprising:

a mobile terminal;

a relay device; and

a base station including circuitry configured to

communicate with the mobile terminal via a relay link between the base station and the relay device and an access link between the relay device and the mobile terminal by orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing, and

select a predetermined allocation pattern of an uplink of the relay link, a downlink of the relay link, an uplink of the access link, and a downlink of the access link to frequency-time blocks from a plurality of predetermined allocation patterns, the plurality of predetermined allocation patterns including more than four predetermined allocation patterns,

wherein information that indicates said selected predetermined allocation pattern is transmitted from said base station to said relay device, and

the plurality of predetermined allocation patterns includes at least two types of predetermined allocation patterns;

a first type of predetermined allocation pattern where frequency-time blocks of the downlink of the relay link and the downlink of the access link are different in time, and frequency-time blocks of the uplink of the access link and the uplink of the relay link are different in time domain, and

a second type of predetermined allocation pattern where frequency-time blocks of the downlink of the relay link and the downlink of the access link are different in frequency, and frequency-time blocks of the uplink of the access link and the uplink of the relay link are different in frequency domain.

10. A mobile terminal, comprising:

circuitry configured to communicate with a base station via a relay device according to a predetermined allocation pattern selected by the base station, the base station including a communication unit for communicating with the mobile terminal via a relay link between the base station and the relay device and an access link between the relay device and the mobile terminal, and to select a predetermined allocation pattern of an uplink of the relay link, a downlink of the relay link, an uplink of the access link, and a downlink of the access link to frequency-time blocks from a plurality of predetermined allocation patterns, the plurality of predetermined allocation patterns including more than four predetermined allocation patterns,

wherein information that indicates said selected predetermined allocation pattern is transmitted from said base station to said relay device, and

the plurality of predetermined allocation patterns includes at least two types of predetermined allocation patterns;

a first type of predetermined allocation pattern where frequency-time blocks of the downlink of the relay link and the downlink of the access link are different in time, and frequency-time blocks of the uplink of the access link and the uplink of the relay link are different in time, and

a second type of predetermined allocation pattern where frequency-time blocks of the downlink of the relay link and the downlink of the access link are different in frequency, and frequency-time blocks of the uplink of the access link and the uplink of the relay link are different in frequency.

11. A relay device, comprising:

circuitry configured to

select an allocation pattern to relay communication between a base station and

a mobile terminal,

wherein the base station includes circuitry to communicate with the mobile terminal via a relay link between the base station and the relay device and an access link between the relay device and the mobile terminal by orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing,

the circuitry of the relay device selects a predetermined allocation pattern of an uplink of the relay link, a downlink of the relay link, an uplink of the access link, and a downlink of the access link to frequency-time blocks from a plurality of predetermined allocation patterns, and

the plurality of predetermined allocation patterns includes at least two types of predetermined allocation patterns;

a first type of allocation pattern where frequency-time blocks of the downlink of the relay link and the downlink of the access link are different in time, and frequency-time blocks of the uplink of the access link and the uplink of the relay link are different in time domain, and

a second type of allocation pattern where frequency-time blocks of the downlink of the relay link and the downlink of the access link are different in frequency, and frequency-time blocks of the uplink of the access link and the uplink of the relay link are different in frequency domain.