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

• US 9,094,960 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2013
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: He, Hong, Han, Seunghee, Fwu, Jong-Kae, Chatterjee, Debdeep
• Primary Examiner(s): TOWFIGHI, AFSHAWN M
• Application Number:
  US13/853,404
• Publication Number:
  US 20130322358A1
• Time in Patent Office: 851 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 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 28/12 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 mapping for Hybrid Automatic Retransmission re-Quest (HARQ) for Carrier Aggregation (CA) is disclosed. One method can include a user equipment (UE) identifying, within a radio frame, a type 2 DownLink (DL) sub-frame within a virtual bundling window associated with a Secondary Component Carrier (SCC). The type 2 DL sub-frame can be virtually moved from a Primary Component Carrier (PCC) for HARQ-ACKnowledge (HARQ-ACK) multiplexing of the virtual bundling window. The UE can extract a Component Carrier Element (CCE) number for a first CCE used by a Physical Downlink Control CHannel (PDCCH) transmission corresponding to the type 2 DL sub-frame. The UE can determine a Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH) resource for carrying a HARQ-ACK multiplexing message based on the CCE number when a PCC window size of the PCC is greater than an SCC window size of the SCC.

Claims

1. A User Equipment (UE) to support explicit mapping for Hybrid Automatic Retransmission re-Quest (HARQ) for Carrier Aggregation (CA), comprising:

a type module configured to detect a type 2 set of DownLink (DL) sub-frames of a radio frame for a virtual HARQ-ACKnowledge (HARQ-ACK) bundling window, wherein the HARQ-ACK bundling window comprises a type 1 set of DL sub-frames transmitted from a first Component Carrier (CC) and the type 2 set of DL sub-frames transmitted from an additional CC, and the type 2 set is bundled with a HARQ-ACK bundling window for the first CC;

a selection module configured to select a set of Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH) resources from multiple sets of PUCCH resources configured by Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling depending on the Transmit Power Control (TPC) field value in the Downlink Control Information (DCI) format of a corresponding Physical Downlink Control CHannel (PDCCH), wherein each PUCCH resource in the set has a one-to-one relationship associated with a DL frame in the type 2 set; and

an index module configured to index a PUCCH resource to a channel value used in a legacy mapping table for HARQ-ACK multiplexing, wherein the PUCCH resource includes HARQ-ACK feedback for the type 2 set of the DL sub-frames.

2. The UE of claim 1, further comprising:

a read module configured to read a Downlink Assignment Index (DAI) value in a PDCCH transmission corresponding to the DL sub-frame in the one-to-one relationship;

a comparison module configured to determine a larger window size between a HARQ-ACK bundling window for a Primary CC (PCC) with a PCC window size M_p and a HARQ-ACK bundling window for a Secondary CC(SCC) with a SCC window size M_s, wherein each of the first CC and the additional CC being one of the PCC or the SCC to the exclusion of the other; and

the index module further configured, where the DAI value is equal to one of one and two, to index a PUCCH resource in the one-to-one relationship to one of;

a channel value equal to the DAI value minus one, where the SCC window size M_s is the larger window size;

or

a channel value equal to the DAI value plus one, where the PCC window size M_p is the larger window size.

3. The UE of claim 1, further comprising:

a read module configured to determine that a Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) DL sub-frame in the type 2 set carries a Physical Downlink Shared CHannel (PDSCH) transmission without a corresponding Physical Downlink Control CHannel (PDCCH) transmission;

a comparison module configured to determine a larger window size between a HARQ-ACK bundling window for a Primary CC (PCC) with a PCC window size M_p and a HARQ-ACK bundling window for a Secondary CC(SCC) with a SCC window size M_s, wherein each of the first CC or the additional CC being one of the PCC and the SCC to the exclusion of the other;

the selection module is further configured to select a set of Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH) resources from four sets of PUCCH resources with a PUCCH resource comprising a channel in a one-to-one relationship with the SPS DL sub-frame; and

the index module is further configured to index a PUCCH resources in the one-to-one relationship with the SPS DL sub-frame to a channel value for HARQ-ACK multiplexing according to the legacy mapping table for HARQ-ACK multiplexing when M_p≧

M_s+2.

4. The UE of claim 3, further comprising:

a map module configured to select a mapped state from the legacy mapping table for HARQ-ACK multiplexing corresponding to HARQ-ACK states for DL sub-frames in the virtual window, wherein the map module is further configured to interpret a HARQ state for the SPS DL sub-frame as corresponding to a HARQ-ACK(0) position on the legacy mapping table for HARQ-ACK multiplexing.

5. The UE of claim 3, wherein the index module is further configured to index a PUCCH resource n_PUCCH,3⁽¹⁾ represented by n_PUCCH,3⁽¹⁾=n_PUCCH,i⁽²⁾ when a Downlink Assignment Index (DAI) value equals one is detected in the PDCCH of the type 2 sub-frame i where (0≦

i≦

M−

1).

6. The UE of claim 1, further comprising:

a decoding module configured to generate HARQ-ACK states from the DL sub-frames on the first CC and the additional CC;

a map module configured to;

select the legacy mapping table from HARQ-ACK multiplexing tables 10.1.3-2 to 10.1.3-7 specified in Technical Specification (TS) 36.213 of Release 10 of Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards based on a size of the virtual bundling window; and

select a first mapped state from the legacy mapping table corresponding to HARQ-ACK states for DL sub-frames in the virtual window for two CCs; and

a message module configured to embed a constellation point corresponding to the first mapped state in a PUCCH format 1b message on a PUCCH resource indexed to a PUCCH resource channel value corresponding to the first mapped state.

7. The UE of claim 1, further comprising:

a counting module configured to assign a unique number M to a DL sub-frame in the type 2 set represented by

8. The UE of claim 1, wherein the selection module selects a set of PUCCH resources with three PUCCH resources from four sets of PUCCH resources known to the UE, each set of PUCCH resources in the four sets of PUCCH resources comprising three PUCCH resources when M_p≧

M_s+2, where M_p represents the bundling window size for a HARQ-ACK bundling window for a Primary CC (PCC), and M_s represents the bundling window size for a HARQ-ACK bundling window for a Secondary CC(SCC), wherein each of the first CC and the additional CC being one of the PCC or the SCC to the exclusion of the other.

9. A method to support implicit mapping for Hybrid Automatic Retransmission re-Quest (HARQ) with Carrier Aggregation (CA) at a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

identifying, within a radio frame, a type 2 DownLink (DL) sub-frame within a virtual bundling window associated with a Secondary Component Carrier (SCC), wherein the type 2 DL sub-frame is virtually moved from a Primary Component Carrier (PCC) for HARQ-ACKnowledge (HARQ-ACK) multiplexing of the virtual bundling window;

extracting a Component Carrier Element (CCE) number for a first CCE used by a Physical Downlink Control CHannel (PDCCH) transmission corresponding to the type 2 DL sub-frame; and

determining a Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH) resource for carrying a HARQ-ACK multiplexing message based on the CCE number when a PCC window size of the PCC is greater than an SCC window size of the SCC.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

extracting a Downlink Assignment Index (DAI) value from the PDCCH transmission corresponding to the type 2 DL sub-frame; and

assigning the PUCCH resource to a channel value used in a legacy mapping table for HARQ-ACK multiplexing using the DAI value.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the PUCCH resource n_PUCCH,i⁽²⁾ associated with the type 2 DL sub-frame is represented by n_PUCCH,i⁽²⁾=(M−

m−

1)×

N_p+m×

N_p+1+n_CCE+N_PUCCH⁽¹⁾, for an integer i where (0≦

i≦

M−

1), N_PUCCH⁽¹⁾ is configured by a higher layer, N_p=max{0,└

[N_RB^DL×

(N_sc^RB×

p−

4)]/36┘

}, max{ } is a maximum function, N_RB^DL is a downlink bandwidth configuration, expressed in units of N_sc^RB, N_sc^RB is a resource block size in the frequency domain, expressed as a number of subcarriers, p is a value out of {0, 1, 2, 3} which makes N_p≦

n_CCE<

N_p+1, m is an index value of type 2 subframe within the bundling window on the PCC before removing the type 2 subframe to construct the virtual bundling window, n_CCE is a number of a first control channel element (CCE) used for transmission of a corresponding PDCCH in the type-2 subframe ‘

i’

, M=M_p indicates a bundling window size before removing the type 2 subframe to construct the virtual bundling window, and M_p represents the bundling window size for the PCC before removing the type 2 subframe to construct the virtual bundling window.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving a type 2 Physical Downlink Shared CHannel (PDSCH) transmission indicated by a corresponding PDCCH;

or

receiving a DL Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) release indicated by a corresponding PDCCH.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

mapping the virtual bundling window to a legacy HARQ-ACK table from HARQ-ACK multiplexing tables 10.1.3-2 to 10.1.3-7 specified in Technical Specification (TS) 36.213 of Release 10 of Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard.

14. A user equipment (UE) operable to provide Hybrid Automatic Retransmission re-Quest-ACKnowledge (HARQ-ACK) responses, having computer circuitry configured to:

determine a maximum size and a minimum size of a first bundling window on a first Component Carrier (CC) and a second bundling window on a second CC within a same radio frame, the first CC and the second CC having differing UpLink (UL)-DownLink (DL) configurations within the same radio frame;

map decoded DL sub-frames in a smaller of the first bundling window and the second bundling window with the minimum size to a small ordered series of HARQ-ACK states provided in a first legacy HARQ-ACK table using the minimum size; and

re-map the small ordered series of HARQ-ACK states corresponding to the first legacy HARQ-ACK table to a padded ordered series of HARQ-ACK states provided in a second legacy HARQ-ACK table using the maximum size.

15. The computer circuitry of claim 14, wherein computer circuitry configured to re-map the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states is further configured to:

pad the small ordered series of HARQ-ACK states with a number of instances of a predetermined HARQ-ACK state to form the padded ordered series of HARQ-ACK states;

map the padded ordered series of HARQ-ACK states corresponding to the small ordered series of HARQ-ACK states using the second legacy HARQ-ACK table when the first ordered series does not include both an ACK state and a Negative ACK (NACK) state and the minimum is not two; and

re-map the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states to a predefined ordered series of HARQ-ACK states corresponding to the second legacy HARQ-ACK table when the minimum is two and the first ordered series includes both the ACK state and at least one of the NACK state and a Discontinuous Transmission (DTX) state.

16. The computer circuitry of claim 15, wherein computer circuitry configured to re-map the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states to the predefined ordered series of HARQ-ACK states for the minimum size of two and the maximum size of four is further configured to:

determine a case when the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states comprises HARQ-ACK(0), HARQ-ACK(1) equal to one of one of “

ACK, NACK”

, “

ACK, DTX”

, and “

NACK, ACK”

, as provided in the first legacy HARQ-ACK table;

re-map the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states to the predefined ordered series of HARQ-ACK states comprising HARQ-ACK(0), HARQ-ACK(1), HARQ-ACK(2), HARQ-ACK(3) equal to “

ACK, DTX, DTX, DTX”

, as provided by the second legacy HARQ-ACK table, when HARQ-ACK(0), HARQ-ACK(1) of the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states equals “

ACK, NACK”

or “

ACK, DTX”

; and

re-map the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states to the predefined ordered series of HARQ-ACK states comprising HARQ-ACK(0), HARQ-ACK(1), HARQ-ACK(2), HARQ-ACK(3) equal to one of “

ACK, ACK, ACK, NACK” and

“

ACK, ACK, ACK, DTX”

, as provided by the second legacy HARQ-ACK table, when HARQ-ACK(0), HARQ-ACK(1) of the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states equals “

NACK, ACK”

.

17. The computer circuitry of claim 15, wherein computer circuitry configured to re-map the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states to the predefined ordered series of HARQ-ACK states for the minimum size of two and the maximum size of four is further configured to:

determine a case when the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states comprises HARQ-ACK(0), HARQ-ACK(1) equal to one of one of “

ACK, NACK”

, “

ACK, DTX”

, and “

NACK, ACK”

, as provided in the first legacy HARQ-ACK table;

re-map the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states to the predefined ordered series of HARQ-ACK states comprising HARQ-ACK(0), HARQ-ACK(1), HARQ-ACK(2), HARQ-ACK(3) equal to one of “

ACK, ACK, ACK, NACK” and

“

ACK, ACK, ACK, DTX”

, as provided by the second legacy HARQ-ACK table, when HARQ-ACK(0), HARQ-ACK(1) of the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states equals “

ACK, NACK”

or “

ACK, DTX”

; and

re-map the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states to the predefined ordered series of HARQ-ACK states comprising HARQ-ACK(0), HARQ-ACK(1), HARQ-ACK(2), HARQ-ACK(3) equal to “

ACK, DTX, DTX, DTX”

, as provided by the second legacy HARQ-ACK table, when HARQ-ACK(0), HARQ-ACK(1) of the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states equals “

NACK, ACK”

.

18. The computer circuitry of claim 15, wherein computer circuitry configured to re-map the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states to the predefined ordered series of HARQ-ACK states for the minimum size of two and the maximum size of three is further configured to:

determine a case when the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states comprises HARQ-ACK(0), HARQ-ACK(1) equal to “

NACK, ACK”

, as provided in the first legacy HARQ-ACK table; and

re-map the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states to the predefined ordered series of HARQ-ACK states comprising HARQ-ACK(0), HARQ-ACK(1), HARQ-ACK(2), equal to “

ACK, ACK, ACK”

, as provided by the second legacy HARQ-ACK table, when HARQ-ACK(0), HARQ-ACK(1) of the first ordered series of HARQ-ACK states equals “

NACK, ACK”

.

19. The computer circuitry of claim 15, further comprising computer circuitry configured to:

perform spatial HARQ-ACK bundling across multiple codewords within DL sub-frames in the radio frame, when a corresponding Transmission Mode (TM) on at least one of the first CC and the second CC supports up to two Transmission Blocks (TBs) per sub-frame, and the minimum size does not equal zero and the maximum size does not equal one on a CC with a TM supporting up to two TBs.

20. The computer circuitry of claim 15, further comprising computer circuitry configured to:

perform channel selection using a channel value corresponding to the padded or predefined ordered series of HARQ-ACK states provided in the second legacy HARQ-ACK table; and

prepare a Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH) format 1b message with a constellation point consistent with the padded or predefined ordered series of HARQ-ACK states provided in the second legacy HARQ-ACK table for transmission on a channel consistent with the channel selection.

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

select the first legacy HARQ-ACK table and the second legacy HARQ-ACK table from HARQ-ACK multiplexing tables 10.1.3-2 to 10.1.3-7 specified in Technical Specification (TS) 36.213 of Release 10 of Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards based on the minimum size for the first legacy HARQ-ACK table and the maximum size for the second legacy HARQ-ACK table.

22. The computer circuitry of claim 15, further comprising computer circuitry configured to:

determine the number of instances of the predetermined HARQ-ACK state by which to pad the first series of ordered HARQ-ACK states as equal to the maximum size less the minimum size when spatial bundling is performed or one of the first CC and the second CC with the minimum size is configured for a single Transmission Block (TB) per DL sub-frame within the radio frame.

23. The computer circuitry of claim 15, further comprising computer circuitry configured to:

determine the number of instances of the predetermined HARQ-ACK state by which to pad the first series of ordered HARQ-ACK states as equal to twice the maximum size less twice the minimum size where one of the first CC and the second CC with the minimum size is configured for two Transmission Blocks (TBs) per DL sub-frame within the radio frame and spatial bundling has not been performed.

24. The computer circuitry of claim 15, wherein the predetermined HARQ-ACK state is Discontinuous Transmission (DTX).