Methods and apparatus for H-ARQ process memory management

• US 9,160,496 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Issued: 10/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Sidi, Jonathan, Jim, Samson
• Primary Examiner(s): BILGRAMI, ASGHAR H
• Application Number:
  US11/771,254
• Publication Number:
  US 20090006778A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,028 Days
• Field of Search: 709/240, 714/748
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1835 Buffer management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1845 Combining techniques, e.g. code combining

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are presented for H-ARQ process dynamic memory management. A method for dynamically managing memory for storing data associated with H-ARQ processes is presented, which includes receiving a packet associated with a H-ARQ process, determining if a free memory location is available in a H-ARQ buffer, assigning the packet to the free memory location, determining if the packet was successfully decoded, and retaining the packet in the assigned memory location for combination with a subsequent packet retransmission if the packet was not successfully decoded. Also presented are apparatus having logic configured to perform the presented methods.

Claims

1. A method for dynamically managing memory for storing data associated with hybrid automatic repeat request (H-ARQ) processes, comprising:

receiving a packet associated with a H-ARQ process;

determining if a free memory location is available in a H-ARQ buffer;

sending a discontinuous transmission (DTX) signal to a Node B if there is no free memory location available in the H-ARQ buffer;

assigning the packet to the free memory location;

determining if the packet was successfully decoded; and

retaining the packet in the assigned memory location for combination with a subsequent packet retransmission if the packet was not successfully decoded.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if a threshold associated with a number of sent DTX signals has been exceeded; and

modifying the H-ARQ buffer memory size base when the predetermined number of sent DTX signals is exceeded.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein modifying the H-ARQ buffer memory size further comprises:

reducing the amount of memory space assigned to non-High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) services, and increasing the amount of memory assigned to the H-ARQ buffer.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if the received packet is a new packet; and

determining if a previous packet associated with the H-ARQ process decoded successfully if the received packet is not a new packet.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein if it is determined the previous packet associated with the H-ARQ process was not decoded successfully, the method further comprising:

storing the received packet in a corresponding memory location in the H-ARQ buffer if it is determined the previous packet associated with the H-ARQ process was not decoded successfully; and

decoding the received packet.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

sending a Negative Acknowledgement (NACK) signal if the received packet was not decoded successfully.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein if the received packet was decoded successfully, the method further comprising:

discarding the received packet from the assigned memory location;

freeing the assigned memory location in the H-ARQ buffer; and

sending an Acknowledgement (ACK) signal to a Node B.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the packet is assigned to the free memory location which is distal from the memory space associated with non-high speed (HS) services.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing the method of claim 1 for subsequently received packets, wherein each packet is associated with a H-ARQ ID.

18. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

means for performing the method of claim 1 for subsequently received packets, wherein each packet is associated with a H-ARQ ID.

10. An apparatus for dynamically managing memory for storing data associated with hybrid automatic repeat request (H-ARQ) processes, comprising:

means for receiving a packet associated with a H-ARQ process;

means for determining if a free memory location is available in a H-ARQ buffer;

means for sending a discontinuous transmission (DTX) signal to a Node B if there is no free memory location available in the H-ARQ buffer;

means for assigning the packet to the free memory location;

means for determining if the packet was successfully decoded; and

means for retaining the packet in the assigned memory location for combination with a subsequent packet retransmission if the packet was not successfully decoded.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

means for determining if a predetermined number of sent DTX signals has been exceeded; and

means for modifying the H-ARQ buffer memory size base when the predetermined number of sent DTX signals is exceeded.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the means for modifying the H-ARQ buffer memory size further comprises:

means for reducing the amount of memory space assigned to non-High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) services, and increasing the amount of memory assigned to the H-ARQ buffer.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

means for determining if the received packet is a new packet; and

means for determining if the previous packet associated with the H-ARQ process decoded successfully if the received packet is not a new packet.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

means for storing the received packet in a corresponding memory location in the H-ARQ buffer; and

means for decoding the received packet.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

means for sending a Negative Acknowledgement (NACK) signal if the received packet was not decoded successfully.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

means for discarding the received packet from the assigned memory location;

means for freeing the assigned memory location in the H-ARQ buffer; and

means for sending an acknowledgement (ACK) signal to a Node B.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the packet is assigned to the free memory location which is distal from the memory space associated with non-high speed (HS) services.

19. An apparatus comprising:

logic configured to receive a packet associated with a hybrid automatic repeat request (H-ARQ) process;

logic configured to determine if a free memory location is available in a H-ARQ buffer;

logic configured to send a discontinuous transmission (DTX) signal to a Node B if there is no free memory location available in the H-ARQ buffer;

logic configured to assign the packet to the free memory location;

logic configured to determine if the packet was successfully decoded; and

logic configured to retain the packet in the assigned memory location for combination with a subsequent packet retransmission if the packet was not successfully decoded.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

logic configured to determine if a threshold associated with a number of sent DTX signals has been exceeded; and

logic configured to modify the H-ARQ buffer memory size base when the predetermined number of sent DTX signals is exceeded.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including program code stored thereon for dynamically managing memory for storing data associated with hybrid automatic repeat request (H-ARQ) processes, comprising:

program code to receive a packet associated with a H-ARQ process;

program code to determine if a free memory location is available in a H-ARQ buffer;

program code to send a discontinuous transmission (DTX) signal to a Node B if there is no free memory location available in the H-ARQ buffer;

program code to assign the packet to the free memory location;

program code to determine if the packet was successfully decoded; and

program code to retain the packet in the assigned memory location for combination with a subsequent packet retransmission if the packet was not successfully decoded.