Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) mapping for carrier aggregation (CA)

• US 9,088,977 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2013
• Issued: 07/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: He, Hong, Fwu, Jong-Kae, Chatterjee, Debdeep, Huang, Rui
• Primary Examiner(s): TOWFIGHI, AFSHAWN M
• Application Number:
  US13/853,390
• Publication Number:
  US 20130322357A1
• Time in Patent Office: 844 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1607 Details of the supervisory signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/18 Automatic repetition systems, e.g. Van Duuren systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1854 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1861 Physical mapping arrangements for ACK signaling see also H04L5/0053
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1887 Scheduling and prioritising arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1896 ARQ related signaling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/27 Evaluation or update of window size, e.g. using information derived from acknowledged [ACK] packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/00 Arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/001 the frequencies being arranged in component carriers
• 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 5/1469 using time-sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/12 using signalling between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 40/60 Superconducting electric elements or equipment; Power systems integrating superconducting elements or equipment

Abstract

Technology to support Hybrid Automatic Retransmission re-Quest (HARQ) for Carrier Aggregation (CA) is disclosed. For example, a device, at a processor residing on a User Equipment (UE), includes a sizing module and a window module. The sizing module can be configured to determine a first size of a first bundling window for a first Component Carrier (CC) and a second size of a second bundling window for a second CC. The window module can be configured to: generate a first virtual window comprising a selected number of DownLink (DL) sub-frames in the first bundling window that are added to DL sub-frames in the second bundling window; and generate a second virtual window comprising remaining DL sub-frames from the first bundling window that are not added to the first virtual window. The selected number of DL sub-frames can be proportional to a difference between the first size and the second size.

Claims

1. A device, at a processor residing on a User Equipment (UE), to support Hybrid Automatic Retransmission re-Quest (HARQ) for Carrier Aggregation (CA), comprising:

a sizing module configured to determine a first size of a first bundling window for a first Component Carrier (CC) and a second size of a second bundling window for a second CC;

a window module configured to;

generate a first virtual window comprising a selected number of DownLink (DL) sub-frames in the first bundling window that are added to DL sub-frames in the second bundling window, wherein the selected number of DL sub-frames is proportional to a difference between the first size and the second size; and

generate a second virtual window comprising remaining DL sub-frames from the first bundling window that are not added to the first virtual window.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the window module is further configured to generate the first virtual window by adding the selected number of DL sub-frames from an end of the first bundling window to an end of DL sub-frames in the second bundling window.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the first bundling window and the second bundling window comprise multiple DL sub-frames sets associated with one UpLink (UL) sub-frame to carry the HARQ-ACKnowledge (ACK) feedback according to Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard Release 11 for cell-specific Physical Downlink Shared CHannel (PDSCH) HARQ timing.

4. The device of claim 1, further comprising a Downlink Assignment Index (DAI) module, at the processor, configured to:

decode a first instance of a type of DAI as indicating DL sub-frames assigned for Physical Downlink Shared CHannel (PDSCH) transmission across the first virtual window for purposes of error case handling; and

decode a second instance of the type of DAI as indicating DL sub-frames assigned for PDSCH transmission across the second virtual window also for purposes of error case handling.

5. The device of claim 4, further comprising a mapping table module, at the processor, configured to:

select at least one HARQ ACKnowledge (HARQ-ACK) mapping table based on window sizes of the first virtual window and the second virtual window;

map two Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH) resources corresponding to each virtual window associated with the first instance and the second instance of the type of DAI within each virtual window; and

select a first mapped state for the first virtual window and a second mapped state for the second virtual window from the at least one mapping table, the first mapped state corresponding to a first set of HARQ-ACK states and the second mapped state corresponding to a second set of HARQ-ACK states.

6. The device of claim 5, further comprising a message module, at the processor and in communication with a transceiver, configured to:

embed the first set of HARQ-ACK states and the second set of HARQ states in a Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH) format 1b message with channel selection.

7. The device of claim 6, further comprising a channel-selection module in communication with the message module, the channel-selection module at the processor in communication with a transceiver, configured to:

perform the channel selection according the first set of HARQ-ACK states for the first virtual window and the second set of HARQ-ACK states for the second virtual window.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein:

a Primary Cell (PCell) corresponds to one of the first CC and the second CC; and

a Secondary Cell (SCell) corresponds to the other of the first CC and the second CC.

9. The device of claim 8, further comprising a configuration module, at the processor, configured to:

extract an UpLink-DownLink (UL-DL) configuration from a System Information Block 1 (SIB1) transmitted on the PCell for Physical Downlink Shared CHannel (PDSCH) HARQ-ACK feedback;

extract a UL-DL configuration from a SIB1 transmitted on the SCell for PDSCH HARQ-ACK feedback; and

select a predefined UL-DL configuration for SCell HARQ-ACKnowledge (ACK) feedback according to the SIB1 UL-DL configuration on the PCell and a SIB1 UL-DL configuration on the SCell following a cell-specific HARQ-ACK timing relationship defined in Release 11 of Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the sizing module is further configured to:

determine the first size of the first bundling window based on one of the UL-DL configuration for the PCell and the UL-DL configuration for the SCell; and

determine the second size of the second bundling window based on one of the UL-DL configuration for the SCell and the UL-DL configuration for the PCell, which differs from the first bundling window.

11. A method, at a processor for an evolved Node B (eNodeB), for interpreting Hybrid Automatic Retransmission re-Quest-ACKnowledge (HARQ-ACK) responses, comprising:

deploying a first UL-DL configuration for a first Component Carrier (CC) and a differing second UL-DL configuration for a second CC;

receiving the HARQ-ACK responses for the first CC and the second CC;

decoding the HARQ-ACK responses as having been generated by a User Equipment (UE) based on two instances of a virtual type of Downlink Assignment Index (DAI) transmitted to the UE from the eNodeB for a first virtual window of the first CC and the second virtual window of the second CC respectively;

delineating the first virtual window as a combination of a selected number of DownLink (DL) sub-frames from a first bundling window together with a number of DL sub-frames from a second bundling window, wherein a first size of the first bundling window is smaller than a second size of the second bundling window, and wherein the selected number of DL sub-frames from the first bundling window is proportional to a difference between the first size and the second size; and

delineating the second virtual window as comprising DL sub-frames remaining in the second window not added to the first virtual window.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein a selected number of DL sub-frames from the second bundling window are selected from an end of the second bundling window and added to an end of DL sub-frames in the first bundling window.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the first bundling window and the second bundling window comprise multiple DL sub-frame sets associated with one UpLink (UL) sub-frame to carry the HARQ-ACK feedback according to Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard Release 11 for cell-specific Physical Downlink Shared CHannel (PDSCH) HARQ timing.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining the number of DL sub-frames added to the first virtual window from the second traditional bundling window as an absolute difference between the first size and the second size divided by two.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

selecting at least one DL sub-frame for at least one of the first CC and the second CC for re-transmission, wherein the at least one DL sub-frame selected for retransmission is based on the decoding of the HARQ-ACK response according to the two instances of the virtual type of DAI and delineations of the first virtual window and the second virtual window; and

retransmitting, on a transceiver, the at least one DL sub-frame to the UE.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the HARQ-ACK responses are embedded in a Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH) format 1b message with channel selection, comprising a PUCCH channel resource and a constellation point.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein decoding the HARQ-ACK responses further comprises de-mapping the channel resource and the constellation point of the format 1b message according to a legacy mapping table defined in Technical Specification (TS) 36.213 for any of Release 10 of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein delineating the first virtual window and the second virtual window further comprises:

delineating one of the first bundling window and the second bundling window according to a UL-DL configuration embedded in a System Information Block 1 (SIB1) for a Primary Cell (PCell) corresponding to one of the first CC and the second CC; and

delineating a remaining one of the first bundling window and the second bundling window according to a predefined UL-DL configuration indexed according the UL-DL configuration for the PCell and a UL-DL configuration embedded in an SIB1 for a Secondary Cell (SCell).

19. The method of claim 18, wherein:

the first UL-DL configuration corresponds to UL-DL configuration 1; and

the second UL-DL configuration corresponds to UL-DL configuration 2.

20. A processor in a User Equipment (UE) operable to provide Hybrid Automatic Retransmission re-Quest-ACKnowledge (HARQ-ACK) responses, having computer circuitry configured to:

determine a first size for a first bundling window for a first Component Carrier (CC) and a second size for a second bundling window for a second CC, wherein the second size is a maximum size for the first size and the second size;

generate a first set of HARQ-ACK states for the first bundling window and a second set of HARQ-ACK states for the second bundling window based on decoding statuses for at least one DownLink (DL) sub-frame in each bundling window;

correlate the first set of HARQ-ACK states to a mapped state characterized by a common index value in a look-up table shared by the first set of HARQ-ACK states and the second set of HARQ-ACK states, wherein the look-up table groups sets of HARQ-ACK states for smaller bundling window sizes subsumed by HARQ-ACK states for larger bundling window sizes with common index values; and

map the second set of HARQ-ACK states to an anchor mapped state corresponding to the second set of HARQ-ACK states in a mapping table defined in Release 10 of standards for Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE).

21. The computer circuitry of claim 20, further comprising computer circuitry configured to:

perform channel selection, by the UE, according to the anchor mapped state indicated by the Release 10 mapping table for the second set of HARQ-ACK states to create a HARQ-ACK response for the first CC and the second CC each with the second size corresponding to a Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH) for the first bundling window and the second bundling window.

22. The computer circuitry of claim 21, wherein the HARQ-ACK response is embedded in a Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH) format 1b message with channel selection.

23. The computer circuitry of claim 20, wherein the look-up table comprises at least five rows, wherein each row comprises:

a first element providing an index value;

a second element providing a set of HARQ-ACK states for a case where the first size for a first bundling window equals two;

a third element providing a set of HARQ-ACK states for a case where one of the first size for a first bundling window equals three or the second size for the second bundling window equals three; and

a fourth element providing a set of HARQ-ACK states for a case where the second size for the second bundling window equals four.

24. The computer circuitry of claim 23, wherein the look-up table comprises:

a first row providing;

an index value of zero in the first element;

an ordered set of HARQ-ACK states in the second element equal to ACKnowledge (ACK), and one of Negative ACK (NACK) and Discontinuous Transmission (DTX);

an ordered set of HARQ-ACK states in the third element equal to ACK, and one of NACK and DTX, and ANY, wherein the HARQ-ACK state of ANY can be one of ACK, NACK, and DTX; and

an ordered set of HARQ-ACK states in the fourth element equal to ACK, DTX, DTX, and DTX; and

a second row providing;

an index value of one in the first element;

an ordered set of HARQ-ACK states in the second element equal to one of ACK and DTX and ACK;

an ordered set of HARQ-ACK states in the third element equal to ACK, ACK, and one of NACK and DTX; and

an ordered set of HARQ-ACK states in the fourth element equal to ACK, ACK, one of NACK and DTX, and ANY.

25. The computer circuitry of claim 23, wherein the look-up table comprises:

a third row providing;

an index value of two in the first element;

an ordered set of HARQ-ACK states in the second element equal to ACK and ACK;

an ordered set of HARQ-ACK states in the third element equal to ACK, ACK, and ACK; and

an ordered set of HARQ-ACK states in the fourth element equal to ACK, ACK, ACK, and one of NACK and DTX;

a fourth row providing;

an index value of three in the first element;

an ordered set of HARQ-ACK states in the second element equal to DTX and DTX;

an ordered set of HARQ-ACK states in the third element equal to DTX, ANY, and ANY; and

an ordered set of HARQ-ACK states in the fourth element equal to DTX, ANY, ANY, and ANY; and

a fifth row providing;

an index value of four in the first element;

an ordered set of HARQ-ACK states in the second element equal to NACK and NACK;

an ordered set of HARQ-ACK states in the third element equal to one of NACK and DTX, ANY and ANY; and

an ordered set of HARQ-ACK states in the fourth element equal to NACK, ANY, ANY, and ANY.

26. The computer circuitry of claim 20, further comprising computer circuitry configured to select the legacy mapping table according to the second size for the second bundling window from:

Table 10.1.3.2-5, where the second size for the second bundling window is equal to three;

or

Table 10.1.3.2-6, where the second size for the second bundling window is equal to four, wherein Table 10.1.3.2-5 and Table 10.1.3.2-6 are defined in Technical Specification (TS) 36.213 for any of Release 8, Release 9, Release 10, and Release 11 of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards.

27. The computer circuitry of claim 20, wherein the computer circuitry configured to generate a first set of HARQ-ACK states for the first bundling window and a second set of HARQ-ACK states for the second bundling window further comprises computer circuitry configured to:

receive a first Downlink Assignment Index (DAI) and a second DAI for the first bundling window and the second bundling window, respectively; and

generate a first set of HARQ-ACK states for the first bundling window and a second set of HARQ-ACK states for the second bundling window commensurate with numbers of assigned DL sub-frames for Physical Data Shared CHannel (PDSCH) transmissions indicated by the first DAI and the second DAI, respectively.