Techniques for supporting relay operation in wireless communication systems

• US 9,294,219 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2009
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Palanki, Ravi, Bhattad, Kapil, Bhushan, Naga, Khandekar, Aamod D., Ji, Tingfang, Montojo, Juan
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Dung B
• Application Number:
  US12/568,255
• Publication Number:
  US 20100080166A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,367 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/15557 Selecting relay station operation mode, e.g. between amplify and forward mode, decode and forward mode or FDD - and TDD mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2606 Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/08 Intermediate station arrangements, e.g. for branching, for tapping-off
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0001 Systems modifying transmission characteristics according to link quality, e.g. power backoff adaptive data allocation for multicarrier modulation H04L5/0044; controlling transmission power for radio systems H04W52/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0023 characterised by the signalling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0037 Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/00 Network traffic management; Network resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services

Abstract

Techniques for supporting operation of relay stations in wireless communication systems are described. In an aspect, a base station may transmit data to a relay station in a portion of a subframe instead of the entire subframe. The relay station may transmit control information during part of the subframe. The base station may transmit data to the relay station during the remaining part of the subframe. In another aspect, a target termination for a packet may be selected based on data and/or ACK transmission opportunities available for the packet. One or more transmissions of the packet may be sent with HARQ, and ACK information may be sent for the packet. The packet may be transmitted such that it can be terminated prior to the first subframe (i) not available for sending the packet or (ii) available for sending ACK information.

Claims

1. A method of wireless communication by a relay station, the method comprising:

communicating with a base station on backhaul subframes and with a user equipment (UE) on access subframes;

selecting an initial access subframe for a packet;

finding a subframe, corresponding to the initial access subframe, for an acknowledge (ACK) of the packet, according to a predefined hybrid automatic retransmission (HARM) time line;

determining whether the corresponding ACK subframe is a backhaul subframe;

incrementing a value of a target termination for the packet if the corresponding ACK subframe is not a backhaul subframe;

selecting a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for the packet based on the target termination for the packet; and

scheduling a transmission of the packet on the initial access subframe according to the selected MCS.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

incrementing the value of the target termination if the corresponding ACK subframe is a backhaul subframe, wherein ACK for the packet is delayed until a next ACK subframe which is an access subframe.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the initial access subframe is a downlink subframe from the relay station to the UE, and the corresponding ACK subframe is an uplink subframe from the UE to the relay station.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined HARQ time line comprises an interlace within which a data subframe is separated from its corresponding ACK subframe by a fixed number of subframes.

5. A relay station, comprising:

a transmitter and a receiver, configured to communicate with a base station on backhaul subframes and with a user equipment (UE) on access subframes;

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to;

select an initial access subframe for a packet;

find a subframe, corresponding to the initial access subframe, for an acknowledge (ACK) of the packet, according to a predefined hybrid automatic retransmission (HARQ) time line;

determine whether the corresponding ACK subframe is a backhaul subframe;

increment a value of a target termination for the packet if the corresponding ACK subframe is not a backhaul subframe;

select a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for the packet based on the target termination for the packet; and

schedule a transmission of the packet on the initial access subframe according to the selected MCS.

6. The relay station of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

increment the value of the target termination if the corresponding ACK subframe is a backhaul subframe, wherein ACK for the packet is delayed until a next ACK subframe which is an access subframe.

7. The relay station of claim 5, wherein the initial access subframe is a downlink subframe from the relay station to the UE, and the corresponding ACK subframe is an uplink subframe from the UE to the relay station.

8. The relay station of claim 5, wherein the predefined HARQ time line comprises an interlace within which a data subframe is separated from its corresponding ACK subframe by a fixed number of subframes.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

means for communicating with a base station on backhaul subframes and with a user equipment (UE) on access subframes;

means for selecting an initial access subframe for a packet;

means for finding a subframe, corresponding to the initial access subframe, for acknowledge (ACK) of the packet, according to a predefined hybrid automatic retransmission (HARQ) time line;

means for determining whether the corresponding ACK subframe is a backhaul subframe;

means for incrementing a value of a target termination for the packet if the corresponding ACK subframe is not a backhaul subframe;

means for selecting a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for the packet based on the target termination for the packet; and

means for scheduling a transmission of the packet on the initial access subframe according to the selected MCS.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:

means for incrementing the value of the target termination if the corresponding ACK subframe is a backhaul subframe, wherein ACK for the packet is delayed until a next ACK subframe which is an access subframe.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising codes executable to cause an apparatus to:

communicate with the base station on backhaul subframes and with a user equipment (UE) on access subframes;

select an initial access subframe for a packet;

find a subframe, corresponding to the initial access subframe, for acknowledge (ACK) of the packet, according to a predefined hybrid automatic retransmission (HARM) time line;

determine whether the corresponding ACK subframe is a backhaul subframe;

increment a value of a target termination for the packet if the corresponding ACK subframe is not a backhaul subframe;

select a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for the packet based on the target termination for the packet; and

schedule a transmission of the packet on the initial access subframe according to the selected MCS.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising codes to:

increment the value of the target termination if the corresponding ACK subframe is a backhaul subframe, wherein ACK for the packet is delayed until a next ACK subframe which is an access subframe.