Variable control channel for a wireless communication system

• US 9,143,288 B2
• Filed: 07/23/2007
• Issued: 09/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Malladi, Durga Prasad, Willenegger, Serge
• Primary Examiner(s): Georgewill, Opiribo
• Application Number:
  US11/781,925
• Publication Number:
  US 20080095106A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,983 Days
• Field of Search: 370/329, 370/310, 370/335, 370/330
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• 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 5/0058 Allocation criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0092 Indication of how the channel is divided
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/563 of the wireless resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/002 Transmission of channel access control information

Abstract

Techniques for sending control information on a variable control channel are described. Different structures for mapping control information to control channel resources may be used depending on various factors such as operating configuration, the available resources for the control channel, the type(s) of control information being sent, the amount of control information being sent for each type, whether or not data is being sent, etc. In one design, at least one type of control information being sent may be determined and may comprise channel quality indicator (CQI) information, acknowledgement (ACK) information, and/or other types of control information. A structure of the control channel may be determined based on operating configuration (e.g., system configuration such as asymmetry of downlink and uplink allocations) and/or other factors. The at least one type of control information may be mapped to the resources for the control channel based on the structure.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor configured to;

determine at least one type of control information being sent for a subframe of a plurality of subframes, to determine a structure of a control channel for the subframe, the structure defining how each type of control information is mapped to a set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe,

wherein the set of virtual frequency resources spans a predetermined number M of contiguous subcarriers of an uplink carrier comprising N total subcarriers, where M is less than N,

wherein the structure is selected from a plurality of structures according to the at least one type of control information, and

wherein each of the plurality of structures maps one or more types of control information to the set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe;

map each of the at least one type of control information to a designated portion of the set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe for the control channel based on the structure; and

map the set of virtual frequency resources of the control channel to physical resources of an uplink carrier for the subframe, wherein the mapping the set of virtual frequency resources to the physical resources of the uplink carrier comprises mapping the set of virtual frequency resources to a control segment formed at an edge of a system bandwidth of the uplink carrier; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel further based on system configuration, or user equipment (UE) configuration, or both.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the system configuration is indicative of allocations for downlink and uplink, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel based on asymmetry of the downlink and uplink allocations.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel based on number of subframes allocated for downlink and number of subframes allocated for uplink as indicated by the system configuration.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel further based on an amount of control information for each type of control information being sent.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises acknowledgement (ACK) information, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel further based on number of hybrid automatic retransmission (HARQ) processes to be acknowledged by the ACK information.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises channel quality indicator (CQI) and acknowledgement (ACK) information, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to map CQI information to a first portion of the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel and to map ACK information to a second portion of the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises only channel quality indicator (CQI) information, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to map the CQI information to all of the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises only acknowledgement (ACK) information, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to map the ACK information to all of the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises channel quality indicator (CQI) and acknowledgement (ACK) information, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to map the CQI and ACK information to the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel based on the structure.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to process the at least one type of control information to obtain modulation symbols, to modulate a CAZAC (constant amplitude zero auto-correlation) sequence with each of the modulation symbols to obtain a corresponding modulated CAZAC sequence, and to map modulated CAZAC sequences for the modulation symbols to the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel.

30. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel are mapped to at least one set of contiguous subcarriers in at least one slot of the physical resources.

31. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to map the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel to a first set of contiguous subcarriers in a first slot and a second set of contiguous subcarriers in a second slot of the physical resources.

32. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to map the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel to all subcarriers within a control segment in at least one slot of the physical resources.

37. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a modulation order for a modulation symbol mapped to the set of virtual frequency resources is determined based on a number of bits of the control information.

38. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to repeat the modulation symbol for each of L symbol periods of the control channel for the subframe.

39. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises channel quality indicator (CQI) information, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to:

encode the CQI information using a block code to obtain code bits; and

map the code bits to L modulation symbols; and

map each of the L modulation symbols to the set of virtual frequency resources for one symbol period of the subframe.

12. A method implemented in an apparatus, comprising:

determining at least one type of control information being sent for a subframe of a plurality of subframes;

determining a structure of a control channel for the subframe, the structure defining how each type of control information is mapped to a set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe,

wherein the set of virtual frequency resources spans a predetermined number M of contiguous subcarriers of an uplink carrier comprising N total subcarriers, where M is less than N,

wherein the structure is selected from a plurality of structures according to the at least one type of control information, and

wherein each of the plurality of structures maps one or more types of control information to the set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe;

mapping each of the at least one type of control information to a designated portion of the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel for the subframe based on the structure; and

mapping the set of virtual frequency resources of the control channel to physical resources of an uplink carrier for the subframe, wherein the mapping the set of virtual frequency resources to the physical resources of the uplink carrier comprises mapping the set of virtual frequency resources to a control segment formed at an edge of a system bandwidth of the uplink carrier.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the determining the structure of the control channel is further based on system configuration, or user equipment (UE) configuration, or both, wherein the system configuration is indicative of allocations for downlink and uplink, and wherein the determining the structure of the control channel comprises determining the structure of the control channel based on asymmetry of the downlink and uplink allocations.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises acknowledgement (ACK) information, and wherein the determining the structure of the control channel comprises determining the structure of the control channel further based on number of hybrid automatic retransmission (HARQ) processes to be acknowledged by the ACK information.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises only channel quality indicator (CQI) information, or only acknowledgement (ACK) information, or both CQI and ACK information, and wherein the mapping the at least one type of control information comprises mapping the CQI information, or the ACK information, or both the CQI and ACK information to the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel based on the structure.

33. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor is configured to map the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel to at least one set of contiguous subcarriers in at least one slot of the physical resources.

34. The method of claim 12, wherein the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel are mapped to a first set of contiguous subcarriers in a first slot and a second set of contiguous subcarriers in a second slot of the physical resources.

35. The method of claim 12, wherein the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel are mapped to all subcarriers within a control segment in at least one slot of the physical resources.

40. The method of claim 12, wherein a modulation order for a modulation symbol mapped to the set of virtual frequency resources is determined based on a number of bits of the control information.

41. The method of claim 40, further comprising:

repeating the modulation symbol for each of L symbol periods of the control channel for the subframe.

42. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises channel quality indicator (CQI) information, the method further comprising:

encoding the CQI information using a block code to obtain code bits; and

mapping the code bits to L modulation symbols; and

mapping each of the L modulation symbols to the set of virtual frequency resources for one symbol period of the subframe.

16. An apparatus comprising:

means for determining at least one type of control information being sent for a subframe of a plurality of subframes;

means for determining a structure of a control channel for the subframe, the structure defining how each type of control information is mapped to a set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe,

wherein the set of virtual frequency resources spans a predetermined number M of contiguous subcarriers of an uplink carrier comprising N total subcarriers, where M is less than N,

wherein the structure is selected from a plurality of structures according to the at least one type of control information, and

wherein each of the plurality of structures maps one or more types of control information to the set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe;

means for mapping each of the at least one type of control information to a designated portion of the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel for the subframe based on the structure; and

means for mapping the set of virtual frequency resources of the control channel to physical resources of an uplink carrier for the subframe, wherein the mapping the set of virtual frequency resources to the physical resources of the uplink carrier comprises mapping the set of virtual frequency resources to a control segment formed at an edge of a system bandwidth of the uplink carrier.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the means for determining the structure of the control channel determines the structure of the control channel further based on system configuration, or user equipment (UE) configuration, or both, wherein the system configuration is indicative of allocations for downlink and uplink, and wherein the means for determining the structure of the control channel comprises means for determining the structure of the control channel based on asymmetry of the downlink and uplink allocations.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises acknowledgement (ACK) information, and wherein the means for determining the structure of the control channel comprises means for determining the structure of the control channel further based on number of hybrid automatic retransmission (HARQ) processes to be acknowledged by the ACK information.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the at least one type of control information being sent comprises only channel quality indicator (CQI) information, or only acknowledgement (ACK) information, or both CQI and ACK information, and wherein the means for mapping the at least one type of control information comprises means for mapping the CQI information, or the ACK information, or both the CQI and ACK information to the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel based on the structure.

20. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations including:

determining at least one type of control information being sent for a subframe of a plurality of subframes;

determining a structure of a control channel for the subframe, the structure defining how each type of control information is mapped to a set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe,

wherein the set of virtual frequency resources spans a predetermined number M of contiguous subcarriers of an uplink carrier comprising N total subcarriers, where M is less than N,

wherein the structure is selected from a plurality of structures according to the at least one type of control information, and

wherein each of the plurality of structures maps one or more types of control information to the set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe;

mapping each of the at least one type of control information to a designated portion of the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel for the subframe based on the structure; and

mapping the set of virtual frequency resources of the control channel to physical resources of an uplink carrier for the subframe, wherein the mapping the set of virtual frequency resources to the physical resources of the uplink carrier comprises mapping the set of virtual frequency resources to a control segment formed at an edge of a system bandwidth of the uplink carrier.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the machine-readable medium further comprises instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations including:

determining the structure of the control channel further based on system configuration, or user equipment (UE) configuration, or both, wherein asymmetry of allocations for downlink and uplink is indicated by the system configuration.

22. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor configured to;

determine at least one type of control information being received for a subframe of a plurality of subframes,

determine a structure of a control channel of a plurality of subframes, the structure defining how each type of control information is mapped to a set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe,

wherein the set of virtual frequency resources spans a predetermined number M of contiguous subcarriers of an uplink carrier comprising N total subcarriers, where M is less than N,

wherein the structure is selected from a plurality of structures according to the at least one type of control information, and

wherein each of the plurality of structures maps one or more types of control information to the set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe;

receive the set of virtual frequency resources of the control channel by de-mapping received physical resources of an uplink carrier for the subframe, wherein the de-mapping the received physical resources of the uplink carrier comprises de-mapping a control segment formed at an edge of a system bandwidth of the uplink carrier; and

receive each of the at least one type of control information from a designated portion of the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel for the subframe based on the structure; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel further based on system configuration, or user equipment (UE) configuration, or both, wherein the system configuration is indicative of allocations for downlink and uplink.

24. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the at least one type of control information being received comprises acknowledgement (ACK) information, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the structure of the control channel further based on number of hybrid automatic retransmission (HARQ) processes to be acknowledged by the ACK information.

25. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the at least one type of control information being received comprises only channel quality indicator (CQI) information, or only acknowledgement (ACK) information, or both CQI and ACK information, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive the CQI information, or the ACK information, or both the CQI and ACK information from the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel based on the structure.

26. A method implemented in an apparatus, comprising:

determining at least one type of control information being received for a subframe of a plurality of subframes;

determining a structure of a control channel for the subframe, the structure defining how each type of control information is mapped to a set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe,

wherein the set of virtual frequency resources spans a predetermined number M of contiguous subcarriers of an uplink carrier comprising N total subcarriers, where M is less than N,

wherein the structure is selected from a plurality of structures according to the at least one type of control information, and

wherein each of the plurality of structures maps one or more types of control information to the set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe;

receiving the set of virtual frequency resources of the control channel by de-mapping received physical resources of an uplink carrier for the subframe, wherein the de-mapping the received physical resources of the uplink carrier comprises de-mapping the set of virtual frequency resources from a control segment formed at an edge of a system bandwidth of the uplink carrier; and

receiving each of the at least one type of control information from a designated portion of the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel for the subframe based on the structure.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the determining the structure of the control channel comprises determining the structure of the control channel further based on system configuration, or user equipment (UE) configuration, or both, wherein the system configuration is indicative of allocations for downlink and uplink.

28. An apparatus comprising:

means for determining at least one type of control information being received for a subframe of a plurality of subframes;

means for determining a structure of a control channel for the subframe, the structure defining how each type of control information is mapped to a set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe,

wherein the set of virtual frequency resources spans a predetermined number M of contiguous subcarriers of an uplink carrier comprising N total subcarriers, where M is less than N,

wherein the structure is selected from a plurality of structures according to the at least one type of control information, and

wherein each of the plurality of structures maps one or more types of control information to the set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe;

means for receiving the set of virtual frequency resources of the control channel by de-mapping received physical resources of an uplink carrier for the subframe, wherein the de-mapping the received physical resources of the uplink carrier comprises de-mapping the set of virtual frequency resources from a control segment formed at an edge of a system bandwidth of the uplink carrier; and

means for receiving each of the at least one type of control information from a designated portion of the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel for the subframe based on the structure.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the means for determining the structure of the control channel determines the structure of the control channel further based on system configuration, or user equipment (UE) configuration, or both, wherein the system configuration is indicative of allocations for downlink and uplink.

36. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations including:

determining at least one type of control information being received for a subframe of a plurality of subframes;

determining a structure of a control channel for the subframe, the structure defining how each type of control information is mapped to a set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe,

wherein the set of virtual frequency resources spans a predetermined number M of contiguous subcarriers of an uplink carrier comprising N total subcarriers, where M is less than N,

wherein the structure is selected from a plurality of structures according to the at least one type of control information, and

wherein each of the plurality of structures maps one or more types of control information to the set of virtual frequency resources for the subframe;

receiving the set of virtual frequency resources of the control channel by de-mapping received physical resources of an uplink carrier for the subframe, wherein the de-mapping the received physical resources of the uplink carrier comprises de-mapping the set of virtual frequency resources from a control segment formed at an edge of a system bandwidth of the uplink carrier; and

receiving each of the at least one type of control information from a designated portion of the set of virtual frequency resources for the control channel for the subframe based on the structure.