Timing synchronization for downlink (DL) transmissions in coordinated multipoint (CoMP) systems

• US 9,351,277 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2012
• Issued: 05/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Davydov, Alexei, Morozov, Gregory, Maltsev, Alexander, Sergeyev, Vadim, Bolotin, Ilya
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Warner
• Application Number:
  US13/997,232
• Publication Number:
  US 20140086221A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,449 Days
• Field of Search: 370/336, 370/350, 370/503
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/024 Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0456 Selection of precoding matrices or codebooks, e.g. using matrices antenna weighting
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0626 Channel coefficients, e.g. channel state information [CSI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/00 Orthogonal multiplex systems, e.g. using WALSH codesH04J13/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/12 Arrangements providing for calling or supervisory signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0026 Transmission of channel quality indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0077 Cooperative coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2646 using feedback from receiver for adjusting OFDM transmission parameters, e.g. transmission timing or guard interval length
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2662 Symbol synchronisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/2675 Pilot or known symbols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0035 Resource allocation in a cooperative multipoint environment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• 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 5/0078 Timing of allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0206 in access points, e.g. base stations access point devices per se H04W88/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/146 : Uplink power control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/242 : taking into account path loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/244 : Interferences in heterogeneous networks, e.g. among macro and femto or pico cells or other sector / system interference [OSI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/34 : TPC management, i.e. sharing limited amount of power among users or channels or data types, e.g. cell loading
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0015 : one node acting as a reference for the others
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/02 : Arrangements for increasing efficiency of notification or paging channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 : Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 : Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 : Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 : in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 : in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 : using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 : Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/40 : for selective distribution or broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/14 : WLL [Wireless Local Loop]; RLL [Radio Local Loop]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 : Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Technology for adjusting a receiver timing of a wireless device in a Coordinated MultiPoint (CoMP) system is disclosed. One method can include the wireless device receiving a plurality of node specific reference signals (RSs) from a plurality of cooperating nodes in a coordination set of the CoMP system. The coordination set includes at least two cooperating nodes. The wireless device can estimate a composite received RS timing from a plurality of received RS timings generated from the plurality of node specific RSs. The received RS timings represent timings from the at least two cooperating nodes. The wireless device can adjust the receiver timing based on the composite received RS timing. A node specific RS can include a channel-state information reference signal (CSI-RS).

Claims

1. A method for adjusting a receiver timing of a wireless device in a Coordinated MultiPoint (CoMP) system, comprising:

receiving a plurality of node specific reference signals (RSs) at a wireless device from a plurality of cooperating nodes in a coordination set of the CoMP system, wherein the coordination set includes at least two cooperating nodes; and

estimating a composite received RS timing from a plurality of received RS timings generated from the plurality of node specific RSs, wherein the received RS timings represent timings from the at least two cooperating nodes;

adjusting the receiver timing based at least in part on the composite received RS timing; and

selecting an earliest received RS timing of the composite received RS timing, wherein the composite received RS timing is represented by

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the node specific RS includes a channel-state information reference signal (CSI-RS).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjusted receiver timing is a time a receiver of the wireless device processes the fast Fourier transform (FFT) for a received signal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein estimating the composite received RS timing further comprises selecting a receiver RS timing substantially between a minimal received RS timing and a maximal received RS timing.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the composite received RS timing is determine by a combination of a reference signal received power (RSRP) for the cooperating nodes and the received RS timing generated from the node specific RSs of the cooperating nodes.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the composite received RS timing is represented by

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting from the wireless device to a cooperating node a timing feedback including the composite received RS timing or a cooperating node received RS timing generated from the node specific RSs from the cooperating node.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the node specific RS is selected from the group consisting of a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), a cell specific reference signal (CRS), and a channel-state information reference signal (CSI-RS), and combinations thereof.

9. A timing estimation device for estimating a receiver timing of a wireless device in a Coordinated MultiPoint (CoMP) system, comprising:

a downlink receiving module configured to receive a plurality of node specific reference signals (RSs) at a wireless device from a plurality of cooperating nodes in a coordination set of the CoMP system, wherein the coordination set includes at least two cooperating nodes;

a timing estimator configured to estimate a composite received RS timing from a plurality of received RS timings generated from the plurality of node specific RSs and select an earliest received RS timing for the composite received RS timing and the composite received RS timing is represented by

10. The timing estimation device of claim 9, wherein the node specific RS includes a channel-state information reference signal (CSI-RS).

11. The timing estimation device of claim 9, wherein the adjusted receiver timing is a time a receiver of the wireless device processes the fast Fourier transform (FFT) for a received signal.

12. The timing estimation device of claim 9, wherein the timing estimator is configured to select a receiver RS timing substantially between a minimal received RS timing and a maximal received RS timing.

13. The timing estimation device of claim 12, wherein the composite received RS timing is represented by

14. The timing estimation device of claim 9, further comprising:

a uplink transmitting module configured to transmit to a cooperating node a timing feedback including the composite received RS timing.

15. The timing estimation device of claim 9, wherein the wireless device includes the timing estimation device and the wireless device is selected from the group consisting of a user equipment (UE) and a mobile station (MS), wherein the wireless device is configured to connect to at least one of a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN), and a wireless wide area network (WWAN), wherein the wireless device includes an antenna, a touch sensitive display screen, a speaker, a microphone, a graphics processor, an application processor, internal memory, a non-volatile memory port, or combinations thereof.

16. A method for synchronizing a timing of a downlink (DL) transmission of a first cooperating node relative to a downlink transmission of a second cooperating node in a Coordinated MultiPoint (CoMP) system, comprising:

receiving at the first cooperating node from a wireless device a timing feedback, wherein timing feedback includes at least one received reference signal (RS) timing generated from a node specific RS of at least one cooperating node, wherein prior to receiving the timing feedback;

selecting, at the first cooperating node, a second cooperating node from a plurality of cooperating nodes, wherein a node specific RS from the second cooperating node is used by the wireless device to generate a synchronization RS timing, and the synchronization RS timing is used for timing synchronization for received data or a received physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH),

transmitting a selection of the selected cooperating nodes to the wireless device, wherein the synchronization RS timing is used to adjust a receiver timing of the wireless device for received data or the received PDSCH;

modifying a downlink transmission timing at the first cooperating node by an adjustment timing using the timing feedback; and

transmitting a node specific RS from the first cooperating node to the wireless device.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the timing feedback includes a composite received RS timing or the first cooperating node received RS timing, wherein the composite received RS timing is estimated from a plurality of received RS timings representing timings from at least two cooperating nodes or a first cooperating node received RS timing generated from node specific RSs from the first cooperating node, and the received RS timings are generated from the plurality of node specific RSs.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the node specific reference signal includes a channel-state information reference signal (CSI-RS), and the downlink transmission includes data or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

19. The method of claim 16, wherein modifying a downlink transmission timing further comprises:

shifting an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) timing of a downlink signal used for the downlink transmission by the composite received RS timing or the first cooperating node received RS timing.

20. A timing synchronization device for synchronizing a timing of a downlink (DL) transmission of a first cooperating node relative to a downlink transmission of a second cooperating node in a Coordinated MultiPoint (CoMP) system, comprising:

a uplink receiving module configured to receive from a wireless device a timing feedback, wherein timing feedback includes at least one received reference signal (RS) timing generated from a node specific RS of at least one cooperating node;

a timing modification module configured to modify a downlink transmission timing by an adjustment timing using the timing feedback;

a downlink transmitting module configured to transmit a node specific RS to the wireless device to adjust a receiver device timing based at least in part on the node specific RS for received data or a received physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); and

transmitting a node specific RS from the at least one cooperating node to a wireless device.

21. The timing synchronization device of claim 20, wherein the node specific reference signal includes a channel-state information reference signal (CSI-RS), and the timing feedback includes a composite received reference signal (RS) timing or the first cooperating node received RS timing, wherein the composite received RS timing is estimated from a plurality of received RS timings representing timings from at least two cooperating nodes, the first cooperating node received RS timing is generated from the node specific RSs from the first cooperating node, and the received RS timings are generated from the plurality of node specific RSs.

22. The timing synchronization device of claim 20, wherein the timing modification module is further configured to shift a fast inverse Fourier transform (IFFT) timing of a downlink signal used for the downlink transmission by the adjustment timing using the timing feedback.