Dynamic point selection via a coordinating set of base stations

• US 9,008,018 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2012
• Issued: 04/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Sirotkin, Alexander, Davydov, Alexei
• Primary Examiner(s): ABELSON, RONALD B
• Application Number:
  US13/538,070
• Publication Number:
  US 20130114524A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,019 Days
• Field of Search: 370/328, 370/329
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/024 Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0626 Channel coefficients, e.g. channel state information [CSI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/063 Parameters other than those covered in groups H04B7/0623 - H04B7/0634, e.g. channel matrix rank or transmit mode selection
• 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: H04L 1/0026 Transmission of channel quality indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/324 in the data link layer [OSI layer 2], e.g. HDLC
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/27 between access points

Abstract

Examples are disclosed for coordinating transmission of one or more protocol data units to a wireless device from a coordinating set of base stations. In some examples, coordinating may include exchanging information via a backhaul communication channel coupling or interconnecting the base stations included in the coordinating set of base stations. For these examples, one or more protocol data units may be transmitted to the wireless device from the coordinating set of base stations via a plurality of separate communication links based on the exchanged information. Other examples are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a base station for a wireless network, measurement information from a wireless device that indicates an ability of the wireless device to receive data from a coordinating set of base stations via a plurality of separate communication links;

coordinating transmission of one or more protocol data units to the wireless device from the coordinating set of base stations, the coordinating to include exchanging information via one or more backhaul communication channels coupling base stations included in the coordinating set of base stations, the exchanged information including scheduling information for the one or more protocol data units, the scheduling information incorporated in a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) tunneling protocol user-plane (GTP-u) extension header, the exchanged information including at least one of a precoding matrix indicator associated with one of the plurality of separate communication links, a subframe index associated with the one or more protocol data units, a time of a beginning of transmission of the one or more protocol data units, or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information associated with the one or more protocol data units; and

causing the one or more protocol data units to be transmitted to the wireless device from the coordinating set of base stations via the plurality of separate communication links based, at least in part, on the exchanged information.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, the coordinating set of base stations to include the base station and one or more other base stations of the wireless network.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising coordinating transmission of the one or more protocol data units to balance transmission load of the one or more protocol data units between the base stations included in the coordinating set of base stations or mitigate downlink transmission interference between the base stations included in the coordinating set of base stations.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising coordinating transmission of the one or more protocol data units to mitigate downlink transmission interference between the base stations included in the coordinating set of base stations via resource blanking that includes at least one of transmission of one or more reduced power subframes or scheduling a set of blanked physical resource blocks.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, the measurement information including channel state information for each communication link from among the plurality of separate communication links, the channel state information for each communication link to include at least one of a precoding matrix indicator, a rank indicator or a channel quality indicator.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising causing the one or more protocol data units to be transmitted based on one of the exchanged scheduling information or the exchanged HARQ information.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising:

exchanging resource information periodically with the coordinating set of base stations and updating the scheduling information based, at least in part, on the exchanged resource information.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, the base station and the coordinating set of base stations being operated in compliance with one or more 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards to include LTE-Advanced (LTE-A).

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, the base station and the coordinating set of base stations being operate as Evolved Node Bs (eNBs).

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, the one or more backhaul communication channels coupling the eNBs included in the coordinating set of eNBs being an X2 communication channel and the information exchanged via the X2 communication channel including scheduling information formatted in a downlink control information (DCI) message format.

11. An apparatus for a base station comprising:

a processor circuit;

a receive component arranged for execution by the processor circuit to receive measurement information from a wireless device that indicates an ability of the wireless device to receive data from a coordinating set of base stations via a plurality of separate communication links;

a coordination component arranged for execution by the processor circuit to coordinate transmission of one or more protocol data units to the wireless device from the coordinating set of base stations, the coordination to include exchanging information via a backhaul communication channel configured to couple base stations included in the coordinating set of base stations, the exchanged information to include scheduling information to transmit the one or more protocol data units, the scheduling information incorporated in a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) tunneling protocol user-plane (GTP-u) extension header, the exchanged information to further include at least one of a precoding matrix indicator associated with one of the plurality of separate communication links, a subframe index associated with the one or more protocol data units, a time of a beginning of transmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wireless device, or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information associated with transmission of the one or more protocol data units; and

a schedule component arranged for execution by the processor circuit to cause the one or more protocol data units to be transmitted to the wireless device from the coordinating set of base stations via the plurality of separate communication links based, at least in part, on the exchanged information.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, the coordinating set of base stations to include the base station and one or more other base stations of the wireless network.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, the coordination of the transmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wireless device to balance transmission load of the one or more protocol data units between the base stations included in the coordinating set of base stations or mitigate downlink transmission interference between the base stations included in the coordinating set of base stations.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, the coordination of the transmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wireless device to mitigate downlink transmission interference via resource blanking that includes at least one of transmission of one or more reduced power subframes or scheduling a set of blanked physical resource blocks.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, comprising a radio interface coupled to the processor circuit to establish a communication link with the wireless device.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, the measurement information including channel state information for each communication link from among the plurality of separate communication links, the channel state information for each communication link to include at least one of a precoding matrix indicator, a rank indicator or a channel quality indicator.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, the schedule component also arranged to cause the one or more protocol data units to be transmitted based on one of the exchanged scheduling information or the exchanged HARQ information.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, the coordination component also arranged to exchange resource information periodically with the coordinating set of base stations and the schedule component also arranged to update the scheduling information based, at least in part, on the exchanged resource information.

19. The apparatus of claim 11, the base station and the coordinating set of base stations arranged to operate as Evolved Node Bs (eNBs) in compliance with one or more 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards to include LTE-Advanced (LTE-A).

20. The apparatus of claim 19, comprising an X2 interface coupled to the processor circuit to enable the coordination component to coordinate transmission of one or more protocol data units to the wireless device from the coordinating set of base stations.

21. The apparatus of claim 11, comprising a digital display coupled to the processor circuit to present a user interface view.

22. At least one non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on a system cause the system to:

transmit, from a first base station, scheduling information via a backhaul communication channel to a second base station, the scheduling information for transmitting one or more protocol data units to a wireless device having an ability to receive data from the first base station, the scheduling information incorporated in a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) tunneling protocol user-plane (GTP-u) extension header;

transmit, from the first base station to the second base station via the backhaul communication channel, at least one of a precoding matrix indicator associated with a communication link via which the one or more protocol data units are to be transmitted to the wireless device, a subframe index associated with the one or more protocol data units, a time of a beginning of transmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wireless device, or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information associated with transmission of the one or more protocol data units; and

coordinate with the second base station via the backhaul communication channel transmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wireless device based on the scheduling information or based on the information associated with the transmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wireless device.

23. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 22, comprising instructions that in response to being executed on the system cause the system to coordinate transmission of the one or more protocol data units to balance transmission load of the one or more protocol data units between the first and the second base stations or mitigate downlink transmission interference between the first and the second base stations.

24. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 22, comprising instructions that in response to being executed on the system cause the system to coordinate transmission of the one or more protocol data units to mitigate downlink transmission interference between the first and the second base stations via resource blanking that includes at least one of transmission of one or more reduced power subframes or scheduling a set of blanked physical resource blocks.

25. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 22, the first and second base stations to be operated as Evolved Node Bs (eNBs) in compliance with one or more 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards to include LTE-Advanced (LTE-A).

26. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 25, the backhaul communication channel comprising an X2 communication channel.

27. At least one non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on a system cause the system to:

receive, at a first base station, scheduling information via a backhaul communication channel from a second base station, the scheduling information associated with transmitting one or more protocol data units to a wireless device having an ability to receive data from both the first base station and the second base station, the scheduling information incorporated in a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) tunneling protocol user-plane (GTP-u) extension header;

transmit via the backhaul communication channel to the second base station at least one of a precoding matrix indicator associated with a communication link via which the one or more protocol data units are to be transmitted to the wireless device, a subframe index associated with the one or more protocol data units, a time of a beginning of transmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wireless device, or hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information associated with transmission of the one or more protocol data units;

coordinate with the second base station via the backhaul communication channel transmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wireless device based on the scheduling information;

receive resource information from the second base station via the backhaul communication channel, the resource information to indicate additional or less resources available to the second base station for transmitting the one or more protocol data units to the wireless device; and

adjust transmission of the one or more protocol data units to the wireless device based on the resource information.

28. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 27, comprising instructions that in response to being executed on the system cause the system to coordinate transmission of the one or more protocol data units to balance transmission load of the one or more protocol data units between the first and the second base stations or mitigate downlink transmission interference between the first and the second base stations.

29. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 27, comprising instructions that in response to being executed on the system cause the system to coordinate transmission of the one or more protocol data units to mitigate downlink transmission interference between the first and the second base stations via resource blanking that includes at least one of transmission of one or more reduced power subframes or scheduling a set of blanked physical resource blocks.

30. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 27, the first and second base stations to be operated as Evolved Node Bs (eNBs) in compliance with one or more 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards to include LTE-Advanced (LTE-A).

31. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 30, the backhaul communication channel comprising an X2 communication channel.